001Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Christmas. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hello. [Music] feel. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] I [Music] think hey [Music] Hey, hey, [Music] hey. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] feel me. Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] feel. [Music] Okay, we'll call the meeting to order. We'll start with roll call. Morgan Brown here. Dave Wrunner here, Becky Engel here, Brian Jones here, Jeremy Weller here, Jan Week here, and Christina Shark is here. Um, next item is adoption of agenda
002and declaration of a quorum. Motion to adopt. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Next up is citizen speak. And I do not have any green cards tonight. So the next is employee recognition with Kate. Good evening. As we prepare to announce our final employee of the month selections for the school year, I just want to take a moment to reflect on what this recognition truly represents. While we can only highlight a few individuals every month, each nomination we receive is a powerful reminder of the real and lasting impact our staff make is making throughout schools. Thank you to all of our employees for the energy, care, and commitment you bring to work every day. Your efforts do not go unnoticed, and we are truly grateful
003to have each of you on our team. First up, we have Elizabeth Ridge. [Applause] Ms. Ridge is an associate at Pwick Early Childhood Center and has been employed by the district for one year. She was nominated by a couple of her colleagues. As a relatively new associate, this being her first year working full-time in a classroom, Liz is a wonderful role model to our three-year-old classroom of students. She is friendly, engaging, kind, compassionate, and responsible. Liz always helps out in any way she can and she follows anything and everything asked of her. She can go with the flow. She helps me brainstorm, find solutions. She's a complete team player. She handles technology like a pro and is helpful and uplifting to her co-workers. She embodies all of the Bulldog beliefs. She is the best. Next
004we have Betty Piltchure. [Applause] Miss Piltchure is a custodian at Liberty Intermediate School and has been employed by the district for nine years. She was nominated by a colleague. When I first met Betty, she immediately greeted me with a smile and it was from that point on I knew she was an amazing individual. While setting up my classroom, she always made sure I had what I needed. Anytime I would see her, she would ask if I had everything to prepare for the school year or if I needed anything. I have worked in several schools and have never had a custodian pay that much attention to my needs or wants. Betty is an amazing individual who takes pride in her job, which makes a teacher's job easier because we know she cares. Thank you, Betty, for
005being amazing. [Applause] Next we have Miranda [Applause] Johnson. Mrs. Johnson is a teacher at Atomo High School and has been by employed by the district for two years. She was nominated by several parents. If anyone has met Miranda, you know her energy is unmatched. You cannot help but get a boost just by being in her presence. She directs this energy toward her students on a daily basis in her outstanding contributions to Atma's agricultural education program and the Atma FFA chapter. Miranda has fully immersed herself in her role, bringing initiative ideas and work ethic that is second to none. Her passion and energy truly make her the best. Her efforts have not only raised the profile of the Agg program, but have also provided our students with meaningful opportunities to explore and develop their leadership, teamwork,
006and agricultural skills. [Applause] Congratulations. Next we have Tanya [Music] [Applause] Dam. Miss Dam is a a teacher at Pwick Early Childhood Center and has been employed by the district for 12 years. Parents of her students have nominated her. Mrs. Dam has always been an amazing person. Her sparkling personality is very refreshing. She continues to show up and support her students in the ways they need to be supported. Mrs. Dam has shown great patience and support to help my student and meet his exceed his intellectual goals in the time he's been in her class. He comes home every day telling us something new he has learned in her class. One day her son says, "Mom, you know what? Mrs. Dam is one of my best friends because she teaches me new things, shows me love, and
007makes us cinnamon rolls." atom schools is blessed to have her. Congratulations. [Applause] Next, we have Alan [Applause] Brown. Mr. Brown is a behavior strat at Liberty Intermediate School and has been employed by the district for 20 years. He was nominated by a few of his colleagues. Allan consistently demonstrates an exceptional level of dedication and commitment to everyone in our building that extends beyond assisting teachers. He actively supports students, counselors, and our administrative team. Moreover, Allen's office serves as a safe space for those needing feedback, which often provides new perspectives through his calm, motivating advice is invaluable. We are fortunate to have someone of Allen's caliber on our team here at Liberty. Thank you for all you do. [Applause] Next. Next up is the consent agenda. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion, a second.
008Is there any other discussion? All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next. Board priority. We will promote and monitor growth in student achievement. All students will be challenged with high expectations that meet or exceed measurable targets. There's oneformational item here. A Wilson Elementary update. Good evening. We have a few um little ones with us that are a little nervous. So, the adults are going to introduce themselves first and then we'll let our little friends share. I'm Megan Verste. I'm the behavior strat at Wilson. Carmel Vandenberg, building principal. Ashlin Cook, counselor. Malaya, third grade student. And it's my turn. and Miss Kick's class. Olive, first grade student. All right. So, we wanted to start off with some behavior data. Um we have some access in Power School to some new analytics um tab
009that's available. And so, this kind of shows you some data from last year's um office discipline referrals to this year. So the bright orange is from last school year. Um I put all the information up through April just because it gave a good connection to where we were at last year to where we are this year. Um and it's a difference of 518 office referrals to this year we're at 109. Um so the green shows this year which is a tremendous um change. Some of the things that we've done um we've implemented a minor infraction form. So, we noticed that there were some things that were getting documented that maybe didn't have to be as extreme as what we were putting them. And so, we really have kind of like a a three strike system
010where you get three things. Teachers are making contact with parents and a lot of times that is enough to handle that behavior. Um, if it gets past the three minors, then it gets to the office which then Mrs. Versteagger myself will then have conversations with the students and the discipline is then a little bit more intense than what the teacher would have provided. Um some other things that we're doing this year um we have implemented Wilson way lessons in the hallways, cafeteria, um the bus line, everywhere where kids are at commonly and put scales with that so that it reflects very much like what they're doing on the academic side of things. So kids know what the expectations are and make sure that they're following those things. Um we also do some retach lessons. So
011um teachers sometimes don't have time to pull those three or four kids aside to retach them expectations if they're still having challenges. And so Mrs. Versteag tackles most of that and sets up time. Teachers um put kids on a list when we meet during PLC's and then Mrs. Verse schedules times to pull those students and then retaches them in a smaller setting. Um I was wanted to also share some I Ready data. The first visual shows where our students were at the beginning of the school year when they took their diagnostic and it showed that we had tested 300 students and of those students you can see the breakdown of who was below grade level and who's on grade level. And when they take that assessment, it's it's grading them based off where they should
012be by the end of the school year. So in one of the trainings I got to attend for I Ready, they said you should see more of that red yellow at the beginning of the year, but at the end of the year, we should see that shift. And you can see that as you look at the second visual, which is just our midyear data point. Um our teachers are getting ready to start do um doing their final assessments in May. Um, so we're looking forward to seeing what that end ofear data looks like. Okay. So, one of the roles that I get to serve as a behavior strategist is completing a benchmark of quality walkthrough um, three times a school year. Um, so our building has a building plan and within that building plan, we've
013identified some areas that we know that we want to make growth. Um, a lot of that aligns to our district goals and that's why you see scales and rubrics first. Um, scales and rubrics are is an area that all teachers are required to be putting in the effort and the work to put those scales in front of students that aligns with our Marzano work um, and our NASA work. And so you can see at the beginning of the year that was a newer concept for teachers, something that they weren't as comfortable with even though um that wasn't the first year of implementation, but just that comfortability of utilizing skills and rubrics. What we want to see teachers doing is making sure that they're putting skills and rubrics in front of students and that students have
014a clear understanding of how they use those skills and rubrics and how that matches their progression as they learn. And so you can just see over trimester 1 to trimester 2 and three, we had a large jump between trimester 1 and two. Um, and we stayed about the same for trimester 3 with goals of we just really need to continue to hone in our focus and challenge ourselves of how do we get make sure that those are in the hands of kids all of the time. Um, the next one are lessons for teaching rules and expectations. So that was an area that we felt like as a building we needed to really improve upon and really kind of do a revamp when we looked at our um rules and expectations though those expectations haven't changed
015as far as like the common areas that we would expect what we would expect students to be doing but our lessons were really outdated and so that was not serving our students well and I think that also was part of the reason we had a higher um level of ODRs in the previous school year. So, we knew that was something that we wanted to address. And so, what we did as a tier one team, which incorporated building leaders um throughout the building, was revamp those those lessons. We were looking for examples of what it should look like in the hallway or the bathroom, cafeteria, bus, office. Um, and then we aligned those to the scales. We felt like it was really important if we're expecting scales in the classroom, we need to have scales in
016the building. And so if kids are seeing them in the classroom, then let's have them in all of our commons common areas so students are very aware of them and they're seeing the same thing throughout the day. So we're proud of that movement and we really feel like that's made a huge difference in the behavior that we're seeing. Um, next one is it very much aligns with the previous is expectation and rules policy develop. So that still was revamping those but really changing the signage that you would see throughout our building. Um and that students were familiar and those looked the same throughout their classroom, the same throughout the hallway, same throughout the cafeteria, etc. And so making sure that we were making growth throughout the year by the end of the year having something
017that we felt really solid with. Um and I feel like as a building we're there. Um the tier one retaching is something that it definitely has supported that and making sure that we're meeting the needs of all of our learners, especially those that are struggling with the basic expectations and need more time to retach it and understand what the expectation is. Um so this last slide is just the benchmark of quality a total overall. So it's it's a 113 points. So it's quite it's a very exhaustive list. We're looking at a lot of different things. We only highlighted three as a building, but there's lots of sections. And so we are really proud of the growth that we made. We ended our school year right now when we uh wrapped that up last week at
01885% from 55% at the beginning of the year. And so proud of the work that we've done in building those systems, maintaining those systems, and then looking forward as growth of what can we continue to do to improve within our building. So I'm learning about fractions and I explain why fractions are equal equivalent, greater than or less Then I can use pictures or number lines. Write whole numbers as fractions. Find fractions that are equivalent to whole numbers. Compare two fractions with the same numerator or the same denominator. use symbols greater than, equal, or less than. And that shows that you're what? That I'm a three. the reading part. So, how I use the scales in reading is if you're a one, that means that you need a little bit that you need a lot of
019help with reading and you can do a little bit by yourself. And if you're a two, then that means that you can do a little bit more by yourself, but you still need help. And three means you have you can read very good. And four means you can read very good and teach it to somebody else. So we have a couple of examples of the scales that they've used. There's also an example in the top corner there of how we utilize scales with school counseling. So that is one of our SEAL scales that we have created and that's the visual part and students also have like a packet with their scales in it also. And then down below is one of those examples of the Wilson way hallway scales that we have created this year.
020checklist. So, we use a checklist for new students to show them around the room like the office or the nurse and we show them around the building. So when the teacher tells us to go to the office or the nurse, they will know where to go. So each trimester our students get to nominate um a student for student advisory who they come see me once a week. Um something we have done is our attendance slime challenge. So, we started tracking the building attendance in different classroom attendance back in December, and there's a display you can see with some of our student advisory uh kids up there where in the hallway we show what each classroom has for their percentage that week. And then the slime challenge is whoever has the best percent that week and
021also the most growth that week with their attendance gets slimed, which is a little splat on their door. And the kids get really excited about it. Um, so I come in and announce who the winners are each week. And some of our student advisory kids have also created a video that we share on our Facebook page just to kind of get parents involved with attendance also. Uh we also have our Wilson way classroom expectations up there as well. So that way all of our teachers were using the same uh format for that. Student advisory kids have also made some Wilson way expectation videos. So that way they're modeling for others what the expectations are throughout the building. So that way if students need a little reminder, they have that video to go back to. All
022right. So, on our um challenges, I I put obstacles because I feel like we're a landlock location and so there's just only so many things that we can try to do um with pickup and drop off, but we have trial a few different things. Um it's very busy for about 10 minutes and then it's not. And so we just try to make sure that everyone's safely traveling. So some of the different things that we've done is just trying to encourage our parents to drop their students off and go just because there's not a lot of places for them to park and wait. Um after about Labor Day, we've asked parents to stay off the playground because they do like to stay and wait till their kids are coming in. And so it's kind of helped
023with that as well. Um, we've also had one of our associates that helps direct traffic to try to keep parents from pulling into um, our little smaller staff lot because it's kind of hard to turn back around in there. And if you get a bunch of people trying to do that at one time, it can be messy. And then, um, we did request to make Plum Street a one-way street this year. Um, so that during drop off and pickup time, everybody's going one direction. It's also the street that our bus has to go on because it can't go on the next street. And um so it just helps us kind of double our traffic on that road for the time frame that we need it to be there. Um so part of that obstacle is
024just not only do we have our staff or our parents from our Wilson students, but students that have maybe left and they're at Liberty and then they have parents coming and picking them up or um Pwick students that may or may not have siblings as well at Wilson. And so it just adds to a little bit more of that. um nothing too terrible, but something that our B our BLT um consistently is trying to come up with ways to try to help combat that. So, some of our goals for moving forward, um we really want to focus in on some literacy. Um we want to try to promote some higher rates and growth in that area. um and try to kind of re figure out how we want to do some interventions a little bit
025differently. Um and more so to help our kids grow, but also to help make sure that the teachers are supporting each other in that work. Um, we're also looking at doing some buildingwide SEAL time um, in the next school year, whether that's redesigning what our schedule looks like or just like a monthly lesson where we get to mix up kids and kids can get to know each other from different grade levels. Um, again, still continuing to work on our arrival dismissal procedures and then looking to update some signage for our staff parking lots to try and help with that. Um, the parents getting into the lots because they're kind of small and green and they've just been there for a little while. So, we'd like to do something updated. And that is all we have
026for you. Do you guys have any questions? Well, I want to just thank our two students that were very brave. I showed them what the setup looked like today. Um, and then they got here and our nerves were going, but I think they did a really good job. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you, Carl. Okay, up next, um, board priority to be the best. We will create a positive learning and working culture for stakeholders and embrace our community partners through communication and transparency. We have a couple action items here. The first one is the A.E.A. service agreement for the 2526 school year with Brad. Yeah, you should have a copy of the proposed service agreement uh with the A.E.A. uh and what those services will look like. Uh we had several meetings with leadership from the
027A.EA and our leadership team to go through um what those services were and then we like Landon and I for instance would go back and talk to our librarians and our head librarians to make sure we weren't missing any services. Uh we were able to pull data from um their catalog to see what were some of the highest usage areas for us in their physical media and digital media. Uh and we have plans to purchase some physical media. Um, I I think a couple things we want to highlight is to make sure that our board and our our staff uh that may be listening know that we we know that um there's probably a lot of discussion about like oh what this what's the services going to look like from the AEA. Uh what if
028we miss something? We're pretty confident that we've captured most of everything but we know we may be missing a couple things and they do have an allocart model. Uh so the services that we're receiving as a district in special education and regular education should look um almost identical to what we have this year but if we miss something we can always purchase those services all cart um to make sure that we provide the services that our staff and our students need um comprehensively. So uh we still have some things to iron out with special education just exactly what services will be provided by um what staff members from the Aea. Uh but again in special education we don't expect any change in services or supports from them. It's just ironing out exactly who from their
029staff will be providing what services, but we know what those services should look like. Uh we just have to work out who's going to be providing those from the A.E.A. but. But I just want to reaffirm with everybody that we should see um nearly identical service from the A.E.A. and we think we've um honed it in and pretty well, but if not, we'll purchase some of those services all cart as this model continues to change. And with that, I'll uh open it up for any questions. So looking at this Brad the uh it has some pre-filled things for the alle cart now at least what we're looking at is that correct and that's what we're asking to approve is what we currently have. So on the on the very far right of the copy you
030should have on the official copy that we sent to the AEA um has the services that we're going to be purchasing from them. This lists all the different services that they can provide us but uh we're not going to purchase much right now. All cart because they have packaged and bundled deals like in digital. If you go to the digital item on your um list under media services, you can see we're buying the the larger package there at $32,263. Is that what you show on your service agreement? Yeah. So that that because that was one of the largest usage areas by our our district and it just made more sense to purchase the larger package because we weren't exactly sure who was using what. We'll kind of hone in on that, but for now, we're
031leaving the digital services the same. Um, we can go back and purchase all cart items if we miss something or if there was somebody using um a specific piece of media that we didn't have in our records from the A.E.A., we could always go purchase that at a reduced cost. Um, they call it all our cart model. I don't know if that answers your question, Dave. And I think the nice part about uh what you're talking about too, Brad, is that we can uh purchase those services from anywhere now. We can use the money that we have and purchase uh if if the RAA doesn't provide that, we can purchase it from another uh service area. So I got a question, Brad, actually probably two. So would you kind of like on where it says
032literacy consultant on the first line there? Can you just run across that and explain because I don't totally understand all that. So if we were to um that the daily price is like $922 per day. Um if we were going to contract with them all year long, it would be a lot more expensive than that. So when I talked with our our literacy and dyslexia specialist Bambi, she wanted to just purchase her services all a cart as opposed to locking her in like once a week for the entire year, which would be really expensive. So for right now, um since we hired some additional reading interventionists as a district and then we have Bambi uh Bogs continuing to support our district, we're we'll just purchase any additional literacy consultant there all cart, but there's no
033cost there right now because I don't know how many times Bambi will purchase her throughout the year. We just listed that as zero. Okay. So, no no cost there right now that we are anticipating, but we we may purchase their literacy person a day or two over the next school year. That should be pretty minimal. So, when it said the standard price 922, but then over there it says the new price per day 738. Gotcha. But that's for if we contracted with her all year long, the price comes down to 738 per day. But we didn't do that in that in that case. But if you go down to like the social sbh which is social emotional behavioral healthsworker you can see that uh we do get the reduced cost there. There's a 20% reduction
034in cost. Their rate comes down to 738. So we're going to purchase their services one day a week and that comes out to be about $25,000. Okay. So if that's 738 per day, that that's that's one of their let's say literacy consultant working for us every day that that we pay them. That I mean if we were going to contract with them, if we were going to contract with them for the entire school year, the rate comes down to $738. If we don't, like in the case of the literacy consultant, if we use her a day or two, it'll be $922 a day. Okay? So that you don't get the discount unless you buy it unless you buy buy that service and lock in one day a week over the entire school year. Correct. You're
035reading that correctly. Okay. And we can jump down to like the uh another example um the workbased learning coordinator is listed somewhere in here. And that would be the same like when we lock in with them for one day a week over 34 weeks of a school year, the price comes down. So Brad, you're saying if we needed a literacy consultant for a full year, we would be much better off just hiring a literacy, which is what we consultant. Okay. We hired we we hired my math that's like $133,000 a year. You are correct. Discounted rate. So that doesn't make any sense. Right. So when we looked at their um service model, we we recognized pretty quickly that they had expensive employees and we were better off in some cases purchasing those employees ourselves. Okay.
036Yep. And that's what we did. Now again we may have missed a few things like in the media or uh physical media or digital media and if we do we'll purchase those in an allocart model through the money that we're now uh retaining from the Aea service model and that's kind of what I was going so the 85,000 that you have in here is for lack of a better words what you're really expecting to be other than a day here day there on something. I mean, that's not going to be one of those where we get to the end of the school year, it's like, okay, we need to tack another 200,000 on the end of that. No. And that's the price tag up front. What's actually interesting is a couple of these positions are
037eligible for the operational sharing agreement. So, we generate additional student FTEEs out of sharing like the workbased learning coordinator and that social emotional behavioral health. Since we share that position with the AEA, we're actually generating some additional revenue through student count, which will bring the overall price tag down quite a bit. At least that's my sales pitch to Mike when we were going through this. Um, so for IEP meetings, you know, there's usually people there from the Aea. Are those people still there? What are they list? You won't see them on this because this is just the um education and media package. Okay. There's the 90% that still flow 90% of funds still flow through to us to the A.E.A. in special education. Um, that's a different that's a different agreement that this is just
038the education and media services package. So, so Becky to answer your question is we we'll have right now we have contracted for special ed, it comes to about 1.5 million to 90% and that equates to about 16 and a half people from uh the EA will be coming to our district uh next year. So they definitely will be doing it. Like Brad said, our our goal was to make sure our our staff didn't feel like any services diminished. Um so what we have in special ed right now is the the 10% because 10% went to the district and that equates to about $150,000 that we haven't spent yet. So we've spent 1.5 million. So yeah, we we will have almost again identical services and special education. It's just now we have a much clearer picture
039on the cost by person and by service. Um, and there's going to be improved communications with us in the AE because now we know what each person costs and what those services are. Um, so that if we're not happy with those services, then we can help boost those up or go purchase them ourselves. So Brad, when you look down through this this model, how many how many people throughout this model have we hired out of here? I guess what I would say is what does what does it look like money difference compared to last year as far as what like our total 85,000 what does that compare to or how many people on this list like have we hired to basically take this out of the equation for now? Well, like I said, we hired
040a literacy uh specialist to support our literacy program as opposed to purchasing them through here. um that social emotional uh that social worker, even though that's the listed price, they're generating about eight uh $16,000 in additional student revenue. So, that price will come down essentially from 25,000 um down, you know, minus 16,000. Same thing with that workbased learning coordinator. So, we're getting the workbased learning coordinator at least one day a week. We're going to get that social emotional u behavioral health worker to help support our therapeutic classrooms at least one day a week. Um, and then on the other page you can see the the most expensive piece because it was hard to really hone in again on exactly what our usage was and we didn't want to miss anything was that uh digital services
041and that's not really a person that's just services that they provide through digital and media uh through their online. Uh we we have a lot of staff using AEA learning online access to stay up on their certifications etc. And then there's just a couple little miscellaneous pieces. So, um, your social worker that 25,000 covers that's just one day a week, right? Yep. It's one day a week, but again, it it the benefit is it generates some two student FTEEs for us. Okay. Then we'll get an additional 16,000ish for that. Okay. Thank you, Brad. So, those digital services, is that like when the kids log in and do math work on the computer when they're at school? There's a lot of different services they even more than I think I realized that our teachers were accessing
042and then some of them were reaching out to Landon I know and and his tech team and saying hey we really want to make sure we see this continue please this is you know vital to the supplementary programs that we do and and they provided us a nice report that showed us that the usage rates and then we what we saw was the cost of allocart for like the top six almost equated to what this was within a couple thousand dollar okay to just purchase the big package package at least for this upcoming year to make sure we didn't miss something. Okay. Yeah, I should know this, but how long does the special education money just flow through automatically? Is that in there permanently or is that phase out over the next couple of years?
043I'd actually have to defer to Mike or John on that one. That that actually um Christina for a special ed is uh that will continue to flow through 90% and we'll keep the 10%. Now that could change, but right now that's the how it's moving forward. It didn't have an end date in it in the legislation last year. Not that and and then uh the educational uh resources and media sources now we we get 100%. And then we buy services back for that. Yeah. Okay. And and that's what we're going to pay for this out of is the money that was flowing to the AA that we now get to keep. We'll pay for that out of here. And that was like 135 or something. You said uh we get to keep I think it's
044almost 700,000 isn't it Mike? The the total that we get into both those funds is about 700,000. I think what we're spending there is close to what uh close to 100,000. So and this about 85. Yeah. 85. Yeah. So with that I would ask the board to approve our service agreement with the Aea for the upcoming school year. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion, a second. Any other questions for Brad? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next is the Iowa Local Government Risk Pool Natural Gas with John. Thank you. Uh this is a renewal. So, just a a quick reminder about what this is is we uh participate in the local government risk pool. So, we purchase our natural gas at the start of the school year.
045Um, by doing it this way, we're allowed to use the management levy to fund it. So, it frees up a little general fund dollars. And the best way to compare it is it's kind of like, uh, for those of you in the country maybe that have to buy LP once a year, you get a letter from the elevator that says, "Hey, here's how much we think you'll use. Here's how much." And you can pay it all in one shot. It's very similar to that. We get an invoice or that shows um how much the expect expected usage of natural gases at all our facilities through the year. um we review it. If it goes uh if we use uh 10% less than that, they actually adjust it and give us a credit back. Um and
046I think there's a a high side to a 10 or 20% if we're over that they might ask us to look at it. For an example or a scenario, this year we're actually using more than we contracted for last year and they haven't sent me a bill and they won't. So we'll actually come out money ahead. So some years we win, some years we lose. Um I'm always happy with those. This year it goes up quite a bit. uh most of that uh there was some increase in natural gas prices and then we also added two new facilities. We have Farney Elementary and then the OHS athletic complex will go live but they've got some some usage estimates on that. So uh what we're looking for is just to renew this for 2526. It's 200
047a little under $214,000 and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Motion to approve if no questions. Second. All right, we have a motion a second. Any other discussion? All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Um I think we can do the next three together. We have the um certified employee settlement, the maintenance and custodian settlement, and the food service group settlement. Yeah. And I think you have in your packet there what we settled with each group at in the percent. Uh do you need want me to go through those individually or any questions on either three of those settlements? I guess my only question is when it says like food service for example, it has the hourly rate there and then it says generating a total package settlement of 2.6. So
048did they I'm assuming negotiated other benefits. This um is a 2.68% increase to returning employees. So they they wanted to keep the hourly rate for new employees the same and that is about 40 cents per hour and when we look at the entire pool it's about a 2.68%. 68% increase to the um to to that bargaining group. Okay, there's no other questions. I'll make a motion to approve item CD and E. Second. We have a motion, a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. All right. Thank you, Brad. Um next board priority through the board's financial stewardship. will provide operations, technical and curricular resources to staff, teachers, and administrators so all students have consistent and sustained achievement. We have one action item here, the real estate
049exchange and easement with the city of Atmo. So, this is for some uh land down by the tennis courts. There's a small little like triangular sliver uh when you pull into the parking lot there, and we've asked the city to uh to have that basically, I think, to help with the entrance in there. Um, and in in exchange, we're granting them some easements on part of the tennis courts. It's not where the tennis courts are, obviously. It's uh some vacant land there for them to get at their sewer uh pipes underneath. So, uh we thought this would be quick and easy. It's not. It's taken us several months and a lot of emails back and forth. So, what we have today is there's a real estate agreement uh just talking about the exchange and then
050there's also the document that talks about the easements that we're granting the city of Atmo. So, we have to we'll do this and approve these two tonight. We actually have to have a public hearing in the future and I think we're going to schedule that for the June meeting and and probably be another document that somebody's got to view review and sign and at the end of it uh we will have a small sliver of land by the entrance to the tennis courts and the city will be able to have an easement to get to their sewer pipes uh on our property. So happy to answer any questions. When this project is done, is the plan still to add more tennis courts right there or is that kind of on hold for now? Well, it
051the the way I'd best answer is um we don't know. Yeah. Okay. Any other question? I guess specifically about the exchange easement with the city of the tunnel. There's no questions. I'll make a motion to approve the real estate exchange and easement agreement. Second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Thank you, John. Thank you. Next, superintendent report. Thanks, Christina. First thing I have is um just a reminder to the board that our next board meeting will be at the high school. That's May 19th. Uh and it will be a work session. Right now, we're planning on um uh part of that work session focusing on curriculum um professional development and also giving our board a tour of the high school as well. Um and right now
052we're planning on having that in the guidance office uh new conference room. So, uh we'll make sure you find that room. So, um next I have for the board a preschool committee update and Jan Jan's on that committee too. So, if you want to add anything, Jan, feel free to. Um, the preschool committee, uh, I think that we've met several times and they've been productive meetings. Uh, the variable that we don't have is we don't have a lot of information from the state still about shared visions and the and that in our grant. And what's disappointing, I guess, is that um I didn't see that they were going to have an extended session. We thought for sure at least we'd find out by um the end of April, but it sounds like they may go
053well into May as far as the session. So, we may not find out still about the grant for another couple weeks. And the downside of that is just uh it obviously causes causes me anxiety, but causes uh Pwick staff a lot of anxiety and I feel bad about that. Um the discussions I think have been really good uh of how we can we're seeing it as an opportunity to uh improve our programming as well. Uh so I think I think what's coming out will come out of it is some really good ideas but um until we know shared the shared vision monies uh we really can't make any decisions on the committee. So um that's that's probably been the most disheartening part of it. But uh any questions from the board or Jan did you
054want to add anything? No question. But I think Mike So the deal is is that nobody has gotten to go on the shared vision. It's not just not just us, right? It's everybody's not Yeah. No, nobody knows, Brian. And um uh I think the one thing that we do know now is it's gotten so late that nobody nobody knew is going to start a program. Yeah. So the people that are going to probably get the funding would be schools that already have the three-year-old free three-year-old. Okay. Uh, next I have for the board. Uh, as the board knows, we recognized our retirees. Um, it would have been a week ago, Friday I guess. And, um, I again I want to thank our retirees. We we had 19 retirees. Um, unbelievable. 373 combined years. Um, and
055we appreciate their service and what they've done for our district. Um, as we're hiring, uh, right now we're in really good shape. I'm I think it's the best shape we've been in for several years. Uh, we don't have a lot of open positions. I will say that uh the one factor that's kind of held up some of our movement is is knowing the shared visions. Until we know that, we don't know uh some of the moves we'll we'll make with hiring. So that that has prevented us from but uh we're in great shape hiring wise um going into the summer. So we're really pleased by that. And then the last thing I have is as everybody knows uh this is school board appreciation month. In recognition of school board appreciation month, I I want to
056express our heartfelt gratitude that outstanding school board for their vision, leadership, and unwavering commitment to making our district the best it can be. The board, this board is truly one of the most impactful I've ever worked with. Their dedication to our students, staff, and family is unparalleled, and their focus on continuous improvement is helping to shape a stronger future for our schools. This legacy will obviously benefit our students for generations to come. Serving on a school board is an unpaid and often underappreciated role. Yet each of you have embraced it with passion, integrity, and purpose. Thank you for your countless hours you invest, the tough decisions you make, and your steadfast belief in our mission. I hope you do take great pride in the difference you are making. Um here's an example and just coming
057from a senior night for boys tennis and girls tennis was also and the number of people that thanked me and it's not me that made that happen is it's the board is um is phenomenal. So many people are appreciative of what we're doing as a district and um and you should take great pride in that. It's it's really it's really nice to hear. So on behalf of the entire district, we want to thank you for your service and for helping us move closer every day to being one of the best school districts in the state. So I want to thank the board members for that. Maria and Kate have uh some special words for the board. Um they're going to provide each insights to each of you that you may not even know. Yes. Okay.
058Thank you, Mr. McGory. We'd like to take a moment to introduce each of our board members and thank them for their service. And we'll start with Christina Shark, our board president. Christina has proudly served on the Atumbla School Board for six years. A passionate advocate for belonging and excellence. She believes in creating modern, welcoming spaces that help every student and staff member be the best. Thank you, Christina. [Applause] Oh. Okay. Becky Engel, board vice president. Now in her fourth year of service, Becky brings 38 years of teaching experience in Atumba schools. She is especially committed to supporting staff through meaningful professional development and is proud of the impact of Gateway High School. Thank you, Becky. [Applause] Morgan Brown serving in his sixth year on the board. Morgan is focused on restoring pride and identity to
059the district. He envisions Atom as a statewide leader in innovation and excellence with bold improvements like grade realignment and facility upgrades. Thank you, Morgan. [Applause] Brian Jones. Brian has served for six years and brings a parent and grandparents perspective to the board. He is passionate about supporting staff and students and is especially proud of the district's cell phone policy and the growing success of the FFA program. Thank you, Brian. David Welbrurner. With 10 years of dedicated board service, Dave values collaboration and community voice. He is proud of his role in projects like Gateway High School and the Pwick Early Childhood Center, helping foster a culture of support and empowerment. Thank you, Dave. And Jeremy Weller. Jeremy in his sixth year on the board ran to be part of the change he believed the district needed.
060He's proud of the transformative initiatives like Gateway High School and believes in creating a safe, supported learning environment for all students. Thank you, Jeremy and Jan Weedrick. Jan has served for 3.5 years, drawing on her experience as a teacher and lifelong ATM. She's committed to the well-being of students and staff and takes pride in the board's work to improve building safety throughout the district. Thank you, Jan. To all of our board members, thank you for your time, your heart, and your commitment to Atumba students, staff, and schools. We appreciate you. We'd like to get a picture. Yes. If you guys could get in for a picture. Act like you're cohesive. Ready? One, two, three. I thought that was supposed to be the second picture. Thank you. Well, that was fun. We'll give that picture to
061you. I know how apparently you are. That's all I have, Christina. And that's probably enough. Um, board is next up is board member topics. Does anybody have anything else to add? Christine, I just got one. All of you have an FFA appreciation in front of you. Um, I was fortunate enough to go out there the other night when they had their uh, banquet and uh, Miranda, I just want to say Miranda and Becky do a a a great job on with these uh, high school and middle school kids and the the collaboration and and the what they have with the parents and stuff. It was really, it was actually full out there, but it was really a neat thing to say to see and our program out there is just just phenomenal. So, I just
062wanted to say thank you to them. Yeah. Thanks for the attention. Uhhuh. First there's Sprite in my face, then there's a cannon. Okay. If there's nothing else, I'll accept the motion to adjurnn. So, I'll move. Second. We have a first and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Okay, we're ajourned. Oh, that pork