001alignment tell your market needs and then we list equipment that >> sure >> we need to be able to line yeah right huh >> everybody coming said she might be on >> schedule so she was going to join virtually no one else said anything hit this. I already go to the >> Yeah. Tommy, >> thank you. Mhm. >> You know, not really. Yeah. Don't just Hope you don't have to repeat. >> Are you checking YouTube? >> Started out. >> That's fine. like the most terrifying part. >> Yeah, I do pretty well memorizing once I get on stage. Jenny. >> Oh, yeah. No. Where's that initial We have 5:30. >> I do. >> You ready? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I'd like to call the special uh board of director special meeting to order. Uh would I
002have appro approval to approve the agenda or a motion to approve the agenda? >> Make a motion to approve the agenda. >> I'll second. >> All right. It's been moved and second to approve the agenda of the special meeting as presented. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. All right. You want >> Yep. All right. So, um for the special meeting is what we're approving. when we came to a settlement the civil sheet and education association I want to thank them first before I get into the specifics of working with them and the relationship they were really easy and um simple to work with she'll join in a second was Jennifer um they were great to work with and I want to thank the finance committee um for
003their work they spent a lot of extra hours and looked at a lot of data for Jamie and Arthur appreciate that after some of our meetings some extended sessions so both sides apprei appreciate that. So overall with the civil student education association with the um the teachers the overall package is at roughly um 4.91% increase not including FIC and when you factor everything at um with insurance being a little bit lower um than some of the other things it came to about a 4.549% increase um we would also as a part of that increase the supplemental base for our coaching and advisor contracts from 345 to 355. Um, in the agreement, that's not what I wanted. Excuse me. the agreement here um raises our starting pay from 50,000 to 50,500 and um working with the
004finance committee some things but in short just to start it's not going to fully answer but to address some of our compaction that we work through um doing a few steps for this year not that it's a permanent salary schedule but just some steps here to separate those teachers that have under 12 years >> is it on Sunday under 12 years experience to kind of separate that out and then likewise did that kind of for those that were experienced above that to get them above 62 because we had two groups. We had a lot of people with under 12 years all kind of compacted right at 50,000 and then we had a lot of people at that 13 up to 24 25 years all at that veteran minimum of 62. So taking some time this
005year to kind of look through that and trying to address that as um best we can right now. So that's kind of the summary ever the biggest change than just a normal typical increase. Um so the schedule B when I said the base increases um schedule B is what we pay with our adviserss and our coaches and that's all it's a percentage that's based off the base right up here and the percentages are on the side. So then it kind of shows the amounts in the attachment here but that's how that's calculated. So coaching or advisor salaries don't go up unless you increase the the base the supplemental base that it that's called. So we're increasing that by a,000 bucks. So want to thank both sides. Appreciate their work on that. So that's kind of
006the summary of the overall agreement without going in line item with every attachment here. But any questions that I can answer on that? All righty. >> Then it's back to you all. We need >> Okay. So, no questions at all on All right. would have a motion to approve the the negotiated settlement with the Sylvio Chaden Education Education Association. >> I make a motion to approve the negotiation settlement with SOEA. >> I'll second. >> Okay. So, it's been moved and seconded to approve the negotiated settlement. Uh any other questions? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. All those opposed? Motion passes. >> Okay. So, since that passed the agreement, then we would need to approve the issuance of teaching contracts for the next school year, the 2627 school year. >> Make
007a motion to uh issue the 26 27 teacher contracts. >> I'll second. >> Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve the 20 26 and 2027 teacher contracts as presented. All those in favor say I. I >> those opposed. Motion passes. >> And then likewise, we would need to approve the issuance of the the coaching, advisers, directors, sponsors, all those things on schedule B issue those contracts as well. >> I'll take a mo I'll make a motion to um get the contracts for supplemental coaching contracts. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and second to authorize issuance of 2026 2027 supplemental coaching contracts as presented. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. >> Okay. And now to some of our positions outside of that, our administrative assistance,
008kind of the office staff, the the people that kind of run our buildings here. It's proposed to do a 6% increase to their hourly um pay. I'll make a motion to approve the administrative assistance staff wages and insurance uh for contracts. >> I'll second. >> Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve the administration assistant staff wages and issue of contracts. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. >> And then for um our non-certified staff wages, hourly staff, um it would be a 5% increase and then raising our starting pay up to $15 an hour. >> I'll make the motion to approve the non-certified staff wage contracts. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved in a second to approve the non-certified staff wages
009and issuance of contracts. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. Say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. >> Motion passes. >> The bus driver um contracts current we paid them per route. There she is on there. Can you hear me, Jennifer? >> Yep, I can. >> Perfect. All right. All right, for the bus driver contracts, the routes are currently paid um at $55.50. We have seven routes. Um increasing the pay and trying to get to a a round amount, it just works out better for calculation wise. So going to 58.50 was a 5.4% increase roughly on the routes. And then the activity routes that we pay for um our drivers for the activity routes, shuttles, things like that. going from per route from 2275 to 2375 is that a 4.4% raise.
010Make a motion to approve the bus driver wages and insurance contracts. Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve uh the bus driver wages and issuance of contracts. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed. I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. >> And then food service is similar to hourly, but we just approve that separately because that's paid out of a different fund, the nutrition fund. But that would be like our other hourly staff to um recommend increasing that their hourly wage by 5% and increasing the starting pay to $15 an hour. >> I'll make a motion to approve the food staff wage insurance and contracts. Second. >> All right, it's been moved and second to approve the food service staff wages and issuance
011of contracts as presented. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. >> I motion passes. And then um sorry my go there for second. Food service. All right. administrator had salaries. This one the average came to 681. This would be those that are in salary have year round or salary contracts, excuse me, where that's coming from. Some some of the ones to explain, we have some that are paid per DM and um I'll use um Kendra and Tony as example with year- round contracts and recommendations and looking at their experience. their PDM was actually less than what we're currently doing to our veteran teachers at their minimum at 62,000. So, this was to raise them up to get them to that level. And then um in
012looking at data with the finance committee as well and just seeing where some of our other administrative positions were at relatively compared to their peers and different increases, that's where these recommendations have um come from overall. All right. Any discussion on that? Make a motion to approve the administrator and department head salaries of insurance contracts. >> I'll second. >> Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve the administrator and department head salaries and issuance of contracts. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. Think that's the last one. >> Yep. >> All right. Would there be a >> I'll make a motion to adjourn the special meeting. >> All right. Second. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved
013and second to adjourn this special meeting. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. All right. We are journed. >> All right. Start the regular meeting. Okay. We'll jump right into the regular board meeting. All right. I'd like to call uh the regular March uh board meeting to order. Would have approval of the agenda. Make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda as presented. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. All right. Go around read the the five school board basics. Put students first. Follow the law and your own policy. >> Uh let's see. Respect the chain of command >> base decisions on shared objective information >> and operate in the
014public eye. All right. Visitors. Is there anybody? >> Not for public forum. All right. Okay. Moving on to the consent items. Um, there was a few extra bills that were part of that that came in today. Most of them were all pretty normal things. >> I don't really have anything else to add. >> Okay. >> For the report. Any other questions to on the consent items? >> Make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda items as presented. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed. All right. Consent agenda consent agenda items pass. All right. Administrative reports. Mr. Dale. Yeah. So, um, excited to be able to connect with our families last week at
015parent teacher conferences. Uh, we had a very good turnout as you can see by some of our statistics. A couple things I'd like to point out. um we were unable to contact 7% of our families, just 20 students. Um we didn't have any contact with um and I would say it's not for a lack of trying. Um super proud of the staff and their efforts to try and connect with all of them and unfortunately weren't able to get them all, but we were able to connect with about 92%. Um of those, well 88% of those was completely in person. And so the face-to-face communication and the connections that were made and the relationships that continued to be built was a a great thing. And so um yeah, just very very proud of the staff and
016and the parents that made the effort to come and and connect in regards to their children's education. So um also continue to implement um community service opportunities for our high school kiddos. um supervising students and siblings in the lunchroom while we do conferences. I think that's a great service. We see a lot of kids that go in there for a little bit and so um we have some activities for them to do and the high school kids supervise and and kind of participate in those activities with them. Um not real structured but um opportunities for parents and teachers then to just have open and honest communication um a little less interrupted sometimes. And so it's been a good service. So thanks to Mr. Herz and the the high school students that were willing to to
017volunteer in there. It's a it's a good service, I think, for our families. Um uh a couple weeks ago, March 2nd, um special thanks to Katherine Nazers with the Cibic Public Library, Sibly Public Library, excuse me, for coordinating our ReadAcross America day. um where we had community readers come into each of our classrooms to uh take a little bit of time out of the the class's day and also their own day to to just simply read to our students and emphasize the importance of reading. Um we had a fun week of dressup days as well to kind of celebrate that that read across America in conjunction with Dr. Seuss's birthday, but um more broadly just that read across America event. And so, um, yeah, real fun to do and and continue to, um, emphasize the
018importance of reading and and, um, the enjoyment that it can bring. So, um, we're looking forward to giving our ISASP assessments. Um, here in the middle of April, um, we'll take a couple weeks. Third grade is going to take one week and then fourth grade will take the following week or the other way around. I think fourth grade will go first the week of April 13 and then third grade will go the week of April 20. Um kind of trying to make sure that we set aside the appropriate amount of time and um prepare for those tests adequately go through some goal setting with those kiddos and um yeah kind of especially with the third grade is their introduction to these tests and so um getting them assimilated to the testing environment the online tests
019and some of those kind of things. It will be interesting to kind of see uh scores this year as this is the first year that that we are taking an a leveling test. And so it kind of adapts and adjusts based on um how you answer questions whether you get them right or wrong and kind of um guides students and and the assessment really is based off of the correct and incorrect natures of the students answers. So, it will be interesting to see kind of how that affects our proficiency scores and some of those kind of things. So, um and then we're working through transitions, planning for next year, um staffing and um preparing staff for next year students and talking through schedules and handbooks and all those kind of things as we get ready
020to wrap up this year and and look forward to next year. It seems crazy to mention some of that, but trying to lay the groundwork in place to continue um some of the successes that we've seen. So, and then PD time um a lot of our MTSS processes, our mentor mentee program, even some curriculum time. um very thankful that we were able to um get the math curriculum purchase on the books and not on the books officially financially, but check that box and and um thankful for again for that team's involvement there and look we're starting to work on it starting to try and schedule out um trainings and what that looks like and how we can effectively implement that for next year. So that's been part of our PD time and then um our
021staff attendance, daily attendance and PD attendance is also listed in there. So any questions? All right. Thank you, uh Mr. Herz. >> Yeah, hard to believe one quarter to go. The year has kind of flown by. I don't have hard numbers for conference attendance. We've tried a lot of different things. Just trying to get more people in, but still struggling, especially at the high school. I'd say probably the lowest attendance we've had since I've been here for this spring conference. I don't have the hard numbers yet, but it, you know, a few handfuls of parents came through. So, um, we did have really good turnout at an eighth grade like registration meeting that Teresa Wrangles put on. So grateful that she organized that and communicated with those parents and we had a good turnout. Grateful
022for those parents for coming in. Um so we'll keep, you know, brainstorming different ways to get people in, but I think it's just uh several factors contributing to it. You can check grades online, high school students more independent. Yeah. So if we figure it out, I'd be glad to share it. But right now I I don't know if we have >> because we had been kind of trending the right way on that up until we >> Yeah, I think our fall attendance was better and maybe that's some of it too. More came in the fall and so now fewer in the spring. I'm not sure. Um we tried unscheduled and in the commons which we had done before CO and that didn't seem to get more people out. So I don't know if we'll continue
023that or not. That'll be a discussion I'll have with the high school BLT and Mrs. Schuler with the middle school BLT. >> It was nice from a parents perspective like the open forum is so much nicer. >> You liked the open? >> Yeah, because you're trying to when you have kids in >> two different schools, trying to schedule them is >> difficult. So, it's nice to just be able to walk through and >> you know, you could be up in the high school, go down to the middle school, come back to the high. You're not >> Yep. waiting 15 minutes because that's your time and you don't want to miss it. And >> yeah, I think that's some of the feedback we've gotten in the past. >> Yeah. And that's why we made that switch
024to go unscheduled and have commons format and we just didn't see a big increase in attendance. So, we'll see if if we continue that route or not or if there's other things we want to try. But yeah, envious of the elementaryaries attendance and the connections they make because I think it it just goes a long way for school morale and just getting community support and it's it's definitely good for student outcomes and for students to have parents in for conferences. So that's something we want to do better. It's just I'm not quite sure how to do that yet. >> Other So can I from a parents perspective? Do you have a lot of kids like you know when you're in the elementary school it's the beginning stages you want to make sure you're building that
025foundation as you get to high school you're right they're more independent. Do we have you know a lot more kids in high school that are just succeeding in general so the parents don't feel the need to check in. >> I think that's some of it. Like I said you can check grades online. You see your students doing okay passing classes. It does work the other way. We do have some who definitely are struggling and trying to connect with parents and >> yeah, just not having success. So, >> okay. >> But we like to have those positive conversations too. You know, the straight A student and their parents coming in and it's good to build that positive connection as well. So, even if kids aren't struggling, it'd still be good to have have that. So, yep.
026something we'll keep working on, but definitely if you have thoughts or have talked to other parents and they have suggestions, send them my way. I'd love to hear them. Um, final adjustments to the decap are happening. That's due April 1st. Um, had a lot of success the last couple weeks filling positions and there's uh several that are going to be approved, you know, hopefully tonight. So, very excited about that. Um, we have some we had some really good candidates interview and had several that we would have felt really good about hiring. So, we kind of got to pick, you know, the best of the best out of that group and just just happy with how interviews went and the candidates that we had apply. So, >> thankful for that. >> We're smirking because that doesn't
027happen every multiple candidates the last few years. Well, >> yeah, very much so. Activities, spring practices are underway. It' be interesting to see this week you have blizzard Sunday and 75 degrees Monday. So, it'll be or Friday. So, be quite the change here. Band and vocal just had concerts recently. group, large group speech is wrapped up and then individual uh speech had 25 performances and 18 of those were uh ones rated ones which is good. Um so yeah, just excited for those activities happening now and definitely a busy time of year for our high school and middle school students with middle school spring sports getting started here soon. A lot of planning for next year happening. Uh BLT recommended with success that teachers rotate with their kids at the high school. So if you're a
028teacher now that has freshman students, you're going to have those kids again as sophomores and then the next year as juniors, seniors, and then you would start back at freshman. So we'll keep that rotation. Part of the logic behind it is just building relationships with those kids. It's pretty small groups and a lot of the things they're working on are those Dcap, IAP, what are you going to do after high school? What's what's your life looking like? And just feel like good for them to have one contact point for that throughout high school. Definitely a lot of planning for scheduling course offerings. Mrs. Schuler has been working very hard on the middle school master schedule. systematicwise how it works. We have to have the middle school master basically done before we can build the high
029school master because there's so much sharing. The middle school master is is built and then kids are added to that master. It's works the opposite way. Kids register in the high school and then based on registrations we build the master. So I I don't know how many sections or what electives we will or won't offer necessarily based on we don't have kids registered yet. So that's starting that process is starting throughout March here and finalizing middle school master and then midappril we should have a high school master completed and yeah just it's a complicated process but it's coming together takes a lot of planning. ISAS testing and ELPA testing currently underway. ISAS will be in April. Um, ALPA testing mostly done by our ESL teachers at the middle school, high school, and elementary. >> So,
030I know they're working through that, but that's a a very lengthy testing process because there's multiple areas that are assessed. So, and then staff attendance at the bottom. Any questions? All right. Thank you, >> Mr. Dazelle. Um, without reading everything, some of what we've been working on or I've even been spending on time time on these guys have hit on with some of the district and math scores, lots of planning, um, kind of wrapping up the math. Yeah, it's not in the books like like Mr. Dale here said, but in terms of just ordering it, maybe we don't have the check paid for, but doing that and I actually emailed him about thinking for next year already because that's kind of once you're through step one where you got to go to, you know, think
031about what we're going to do next year with our curriculum review cycle. So, just spending time on that. Um, the administrative team, these guys have spent a lot of time with making PD plans for next year and finalizing that and coordinating things and and um using time with the instructional coaches to do that as well, meeting with the AA. So a lot of talks even though we want to finish this year strong when you're kind of in our position you kind of got to be looking that far out ahead. So really there's a lot of things that are going into planning next year ready or at least those discussions are starting to happen and then along with that in terms of staff and we'll touch a little bit more on that specifically later at the
032end with new hires. But I do want to um appreciate the time the admin team has put in to filling our open positions because they've done a great job with that. They've done a lot of interviews already and I think we're at this point right now. You never know how things will change but they're really ahead of the game on that. So I wanted to thank them for that. Um and then just in the last month a lot of work going into um the voted ple and just thank you guys. I know each of the board members have done some advocating for that as well and we had community members and staff members doing that. So it was a team effort and I just wanted to thank all those were involved and there's many people
033that are unsung that were um vital to the effort as well. So thank you for that. Um then outside of that that flipped me and Kendra instantly that went through not that we weren't planning but in terms of the budget and and do and so forth. So just as a reminder on the 30th so two weeks from today we'll do the our first budget hearing and talk more about that then. Um other than that I don't have a lot extra ad at this point that I won't talk about later in the meeting. >> Okay. Any questions? Uh, I want to say thank you to you cuz I think uh the way you got out in front of this last round I I think you did a tremendous job with the bevel. So >> I want
034to say thank you to you for that. >> No, there's a lot of people that helped. So I appreciate it. There were >> But >> it didn't go unnoticed. >> All right. Board committees, policy, finance, and facilities. >> Finance. We've met a fair amount recently after a couple board meetings, some long nights and doing that to prepare for and I think the fruits of their labor were paid off that we got settled here and really are going to issue contracts about as soon as we can. So, I wanted to thank them for that policy. We didn't have anything new. I didn't haven't had anything presented. Facilities. Um, I'll probably just email you and Jennifer to see if and it's not pressing but sometime before the April meeting just to go over a few things. Does
035that work? >> Yep. we need to meet. But I was going to say stick around at the end, but I'll email Tom and Jennifer about that. Um, and we'll set something up. There's a few things we probably should go over now that have passed. So, that's all I have for that. >> All right. Recognition of excellence. >> Yeah, with it being a snow day today. I'm going to read that for our senior representatives. Soul Iowa vocal jazz championships high school jazz choir night sounds has once again been selected as one of the top eight 2A jazz choirs in Iowa. The Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships is how they recognize those. They will perform and compete on April 1st at Dallas Center Grimes High School in De Moine. This year's competition includes over 60 groups across Iowa,
036making it one of the most competitive years yet. and we are honored to be among the top eight uh ensembles for 2A. Uh incredible achievement for our kids. I know they've been putting in a lot of extra time to achieve that. So good for them. Middle school, the Gazette Trabune ran an ad for using newspapers in school. On February 24th, 2026, fifth grade students created the artwork for businesses who sponsored the page. The students whose artwork was chosen are Rachel Sto Pana, uh, Brinley Abless, Jennifer Ramos Martinez, Penelopey Gamer, Aurora Alfaro Barreris, uh, London Lessons, Liliana Cummins, and Abigail Wilson. All conference for boys basketball, first team Alex Krueger, second team Tate Marco. Honorable mention Gavin Stanton. Girls basketball first team Lucy Hitrider. Second team Haley Gakei. Honorable mention Hadley Kraton. Girls wrestling first team
037Cheyenne Williams, Lily Marco, Grace Syler, Jordan Julius. And girls wrestling honorable mention Sophia Salsman, Kylie Wulmouth, Jasine Oavdo. Boys wrestling first team Aiden Byer and Tommy Wheatzma. Honorable mention Jackson Vanderloop. All academic senior GPA uh 3.75 or above. For girls basketball, that was Becca Wubler and Hadley Kraton. Boys basketball, Dawson Krakus, Tate Marco Carter Voss, and Gavin Stanton. Girls wrestling was Grace Syler. boys wrestling was Tiffany Torres, the girls wrestling manager. And our February generals of the week on February 6th, elementary, Jada Johnson, middle school, Colby Black, high school, Trexton Parsons. Staff Janelle Jensen, Katie Calling, and Terresa Rugles. February 13th, elementary Bennett Treeweiler. Middle school, Kinley Egga. High School Austo Alfaro Baris and staff Judy Haken. February 20th, Elementary, Abigail Lemon, Middle School, Molly Voss, High School, Brendan Witham. Staff, Caitlyn Espie. And the
03827th, Elementary, Josie Glade, Middle School, Presley Marco, High School, Alex Krueger, and Staff, Ryan Wearsma. That's our recognition of excellence. All righty. Thank you. All right. Moving on to discussion items. So, um, tonight for our curriculum department heads, we have Daryl and Brenda Tucci, and I will let them go for from there. They've kind of done a co- head thing. Is that how you'd word it? Coad. >> Yeah. >> On the screen there. Use this table where >> let's just do it right here. So you're not blocking. >> Which one is it? >> High school ITV. High school IT TV cart one. wondering pictures just quick. >> Okay. Well, uh we already introduced and I'm sure you know who we are. Um we uh we are the co-leaders of the science curriculum this year and
039the way that we we've done this is that she Brenda has does the K through four and then I kind of go through the the 5 through 12 um to make sure that we could probably better cover everything. And I don't know how much time I have. I'm used to 46 minute increments. I told him we're not going that long. >> So, uh just going to very quickly uh go over uh some of the objectives that we're going to do tonight. Uh provide an overview of the key aspects of our science program. >> Share successes and challenges in our science program at both the elementary and the secondary level. >> Know where our science standards come from and how we implement them. >> Understand how we prepare students for standardized tests. >> Get some insight
040into the STEM program. look at our as ISAPS data from 2025. >> Okay. Um little bit about our science program. Historically, uh we've been a kind of ahead of the curve maintaining our scope and sequence, adopting changing standards, you know, going way back into the the Dave Keel, Stan Gwick, uh many of these names are familiar to many of you. Henry Eekoff, Nancy Wat. Um, we've really, I think, done a pretty good job of of keeping up with this over time. And as things change, of course, we have to keep changing with them. Um, science instruction say use a variety of strategies in order to touch all different learning styles. the key components of science in instruction. We have adopted the NGSS, the new generation science standards as our core science curriculum. Okay. Uh STEM.
041Uh with the STEM, we have at the elementary STEM carts that have been added to elementary level. Brenda is going to talk about them in a little bit. And we have what we call for 512 a teacher geek STEM activities. We have a large cart of materials and tools and each grade level 5 through 12 have different activities that we the that we use this for um for some different STEM activities. It really um puts all of our STEM activities in more of an organized place and uh we get all our materials from the same location for that. standardized test preparation. So, we write claims um and present evidence. And we also do what we call snail questions, which are multiple choice questions that require extra reading and interpretation. Um you know, back in the
042day, back when I started and when many of you were in school, it was wrote memorization, A B C D, short answer. But, you know, the standardized tests aren't that way. you have to be able to read and interpret in your multiple choice questions. So, we we try to adapt that to to what we do in our um system here. >> I will go over some highlights for the elementary science program. The science committee is Nicole Rockman, which teaches fourth grade, and myself. It's a smaller group because of the teachers. The core teachers need to be on the math and then the reading, and we just kind of share the other part. Um, elementary we are fortunate to be able to teach across the curriculum. We may have a science unit but also obviously teach
043in science, but then we could hit it in writing. We could do some activities in math. We could do something in the area of art. A first grade highlight obviously is the monarch butterfly unit, which I do. Students are able to collect the caterpillar themselves and then we bring them into the classroom. We're able to um give them milkweed. They learn real fast that those little things eat a lot of milkweed and we have to replenish daily. Um, and then my class has been fortunate to actually see them make the crysis and then about 10 days later see them emerge from the crystallis. So, I think that's really cool for them to do. Um, we're also lucky to have Matt Jurgens, he's our Oello County naturalist, come in and do a mini lesson and then
044he will um talk about migration a little bit more and then help them tag the butterflies on the last cycle which would be in the fall and then they release them. That's that's pretty neat. Um then the culmination project for that would be an art project where they go ahead and do the details that they can for the different cycles and then make it into a butterfly. Another highlight I'm going to share is Jackie Glade which is second grade and in second grade we're still on the other page. Um Jackie in second grade, Carly Ward covers the sciences, but the neat thing about elementary, we can cover different things ourselves, even if it's not science. And so she did a unit on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and did many mini balloons and then students
045programmed robots on wheels and then they did a little mini parade in our classroom in the first grade classrooms. So there's a lot of different things going on in the elementary. Um, the big highlight is the STEM carts, which the foundation awarded me two grants. Typically, you don't award two grants, but it's for K4. And so, I was able to buy five of those carts. They're pretty heavy duty carts. We want them to be long lasting on the rotation. If we have inclement weather and need to stay inside, one group may be in the lunchroom. And so, we provided these carts to give them not necessarily organized activity. they can be creative and do different things, but it's not just another avenue to be on the computer or to have screen time. And I think
046those have gone over really well. So, that was a thousand project itself. Um, some of the ideas that we got or different different activities. We got magnetic blocks, a variety of those, Lincoln locks, magnetiles, brain flake building kits, and magnetic people, just to name a few. Looking at that for $1,000. $1,000 doesn't go far. We're hoping to add more, but the cards themselves were about $450, but we have ideas to add more things and it's been very positive. Um, other than that, I'll let you go on with the next part. >> Okay, just going to go over the 512 science program. Um, up on the board there are the are all of the instructors that we that we have 5 through 12. Um so emphasis of instruction is not wrote learning like I mentioned before
047like memorizing things you know when I started 30 some years ago that's what we did made kids memorize things but that's really not a lot of learning going on when you do that so what we do is we are processing data and information in order to make claims and back claims based on evidence. So, our standards uh emphasize being able to explain, being able to use evidence to uh to to learn and explain what's going on because on the standardized test, that's what they do. It may be something that they haven't learned, but it might be a graph. It might be a chart, and they have to be able to look at that and be able to explain it. So, we try to do as much of that as we can. um be able to
048descriptively write and explain science information effectively. Again, that's an important part of the ISAFS and um you know, when do they get into college? Being able to not just say A, B, C, or D, but be able to explain. So, um you know, we really emphasize that as well. Be able to read statements and determine which best explain claims based on evidence. So, not the oneword multiple choice questions, but something that they have to read and it might not be one answer. Um, pick all the ones that apply. Again, that kind of um is what our standardized tests are doing as well. Um, and be able to solve problems in STEM projects, which I'm going to get into here in a little bit. Um, STEM challenges. This is what uh what the kids really like
049to do. um they're being done at each grade level to encourage higher level thinking skills and problem solving with hands-on activities. And the great thing I think about the STEM um programs is that sometimes it's the students that aren't as successful maybe in a in a traditional um um educational setting really excel in these types of things and that's what what makes it fun. So, uh, at the middle school this year, what we did was, um, we used our our class time to do our STEM projects and then during success, we had our competitions. Um, this year, uh, the kind of the finals of each grade level. I know that the high school is kind of in the process of doing this right now. Uh, we've completed ours. So during success we had um we
050had our competitions and uh the fifth grade right the rubber band racers um they used the the teacher geek materials to do that. Sixth grade project launchers right and those are winners for that. Um in the seventh grade we build sail cars. This wasn't necessarily with the teacher geek materials but those were our winners there. And then mousetrap cars. Uh being able to get mousetrap car to go far as they can across the gym using um the power of a mousetrap. So um you know we generally take about a week to do these within class but uh very well received kids are are are very engaged in that. Um, so, uh, ISAF's data, you can, we can go on and on about this, but I tried to to simplify it as much as I possibly
051could. Try to pick the one, uh, thing that that summarizes it the quickest. So, um, we test at at fifth grade, 8th grade, and sophomore. Um, they do not test every year. Um so what this graphic is showing us is um all the students that were tested in the spring um our average was 73.28. The state average there is 67.14. So um so we are ahead of the rest of the state. um the low socioeconomic status, it was closer, right? But we were we were still ahead of the state average and students on IEPs. Um we were significantly ahead of the state average there with 26 and the state average is 35. Um so >> you said that backwards. >> What did I >> You said it backwards. >> Okay. All right. You know what
052I meant. Okay. Uh uh the high school scores were very good. Um our high school was um 11 points above the state average for all students. Um socioeconomic low socioeconomic status we were ahead by uh almost nine percentage points. The middle school we were a little bit closer. Um for all students we were still ahead by four percentage points. and the low socioeconomic status. We were right at the state average slightly below. And I know that um all the curriculara areas are taking a look at this because um we had kind of similar data um across the board there. So, that's something that that I know that they're going to be looking at, especially for next year to try to get that bottom one, get that green farther to the right than than the state
053average. Um, so those are some things that that we we feel that we are are doing pretty well as far as our our scores go, but there are some things that we definitely uh can do better and work on. I think our emphasis on on a um on the claims on on the snail questions I think really have helped us preparing these kids for um for standardized tests. So conclusion, >> we want to say thank you to the SLO Education Foundation, our school board and admin administration for supporting science education >> and kind of our goals for the future is improve the ISAS scores for all students and um refine and solidify our scope and sequence in our K through2 science. And I know that that is something that some of the other curricular areas
054are going to be working on as well just to we haven't uh really looked at it that real closely for the last few years. So um next year an emphasis is going to be to try to make sure that we are hitting everything where we're supposed to be and there's not any gaps. >> Okay. We appreciate your time. Do you have any questions? >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Anxiety have your computer in the I just moved it. Thank you. Ready? Okay. So, moving on to now FY25 audit report. This part's really exciting. >> Normally, we would have a copy of the audit to hand out, but it they just got it to us on Friday. So, um next time we we will hand out your copy in case you're
055really waiting to read it. Um so, we finished our FY um 25 audits and it really went very well. Um, do you want to go to page seven? They just include some financial highlights um on there for our total revenues that increase 63% and it's kind of in that second bullet there. I'm not going to read through all of it because it's you you can do that later. Um, and total expenditures increased from last year 5.69%. 69%. Um, page 58. This just goes over and shows all of the activity fund, the different clubs and um, sports that we have. Um, this is just an overview of the money that came in and was spent and then the balance at the end of the year. Um, page 59 is really just an overview of all of
056our funds, revenues, and the different areas that it comes from, property tax, um, other local things, state sources, federal sources, and then all of the expenditures. They're split out between instruction, support services, um, capital projects, and long-term debt. Um so this is just a overview over the last 10 years. And then page 67 is um the findings of our audit. Really we only have two segregation of duties which is always on there. Um we're a small office and don't have the um staff to be able to split out everything, you know, where where there's more separation. Um but we're working on trying to just have Stan approve some things or, you know, trying trying to work with our auditors on ways that we can do that with the small office. For the most part, they
057tell us that it'll stay on there because we just don't have enough people. And then, um, page 69 has the other, um, finding that was on there. I got to scroll up a little bit. >> Yep, there we go. Um, it's the 2025G. Um there were no transactions requiring board approval that had not been approved. Um and we had approved the listing of the district depositories and the respective limits. However, the June 30, 2025 balance of deposits on hand at one approved depository exceeded the maximum amount amount specified. This was um because of our save fun bond that we received in June and we hadn't spent any of the money yet. So we just didn't up the maximum that we we are allowed to have at the bank that it was at. So that was
058a oversight on our part. So we just didn't do that. It it really was because of the timing that we received the funds. But that is those are the only two findings that they had. So any questions? I know you didn't get to look at this really ahead of time. If you have questions, you can always ask at another time. So this is on our website and then it's also on the um state auditor's website, too, in case someone's really excited to read it. This is the first time in I don't know how many years a few years that we've that we've gotten it done. We haven't had to do an extension. So, I'm very very thankful. >> We've gotten our work in, but you're kind of at the mercy when the auditors finish and
059it's supposed to be done by March 31st. So, that's why we put it on here without the printout yet because otherwise you have to apply for an extension. >> So, we don't need to. Last year, we went over this in July just as a comparison point. >> Yeah. >> That's when we received it. So, and some of that's because when we get stuff in in time, they try and do yours first. And Kendra and Chrissy have done a good job of keeping things turned in right away. So, >> yeah, our field work was back in October. So, which went well and they it just takes them time to get through everything. >> All right. Any other questions on that? All right. Moving on to two-minute board policy and finance moment. >> So, I knew we
060had some other things discussed tonight, so I thought I'd just make one thing um simple. I know at the beginning of the year when we were talking about certified enrollment and being down, and I didn't have hard data to show, but just said, you know, this is the conversation happening all over. Well, in the last two weeks here, the review ran an article. The graph looks much better in the paper than it does online, unfortunately. It's kind of hard to read, but um it's in this box on the side, but if you looked at it, pretty much all of the public schools in the sorry, I'm p private one. The public schools in their um membership area, service area, whatever you want to call it, are are are down in enrollment by varying degrees um
061and conversations. I know that the entire Suland, every school was down this year. War Eagle. I think we had all of us down except for one. So my point with that is bringing this up is yes, we we're having our own discussions about this, but it's also when I say it's not just a simply cheating problem. What I mean is it's occurring all over kind of something. It's easy to take Stan at his word, but here's data to kind of back that up that schools are having this conversation all over. Um it's hard just to compare raw numbers because you got to remember um a 24 at I'm just looking here at Central Lion looks different than the 24 at um George Little Rock because they have a different population base, right? So they don't
062show pen, you know, percentages. It's just raw numbers. But if you look through here, there's, you know, we were concerned about being 47 down with our certified enrollment, but there's other schools in Okaboji was down almost 62 students. Sheldon was down 35. Just pointing out a few random ones here, right? Sous center was down 32. Um, MOC was down 39. So that's what I mean. This is a conversation happening all over. And I don't have any words of wisdom with this other than just kind of showing like backing up like this is something that's happening all over, right? Especially in northwest Iowa right now. And that's really my only point with that. So >> questions or discussion points or thoughts? >> Yeah, you cheered once uh how many school districts in Iowa are will be
063on that uh >> yes so with what they settled so there's 325 school districts in Iowa. So, I'm doing this for memory here. With the 2% SSA, there's 199 on the budget guarantee. So, that means with a decrease in enrollment, even getting 2% more money, you have less than, you know, that we've been on before. To me, that says that that's at least 199 that are down in enrollment. But there's more than that because there's some that could be down in enrollment, >> but the 2%'s enough to make them break even, >> you know. So, and I don't know that number, but you know, you're going to at least throw in another 20 or 30 is my guess with that. So, when you're looking across the state right now, we're talking well over 200 schools
064were down in enrollment this past year from the year before. Statewide, it's been a little bit since I looked at this number, but if I remember right, statewide in public schools, the enrollment was down 7,400 students because I think private schools it was up 1,500. So the net statewide was 5,900 if I remember right, but in public schools the enrollment was down 7,400. And that's why they pointed that out. It's not just as simple as saying, "Oh, we have ESAs and these kids left public schools and went to private schools." Because that's not their enrollment didn't go up the same, right? Um their enrollment went up some, but that's not where everyone's leaving. Some of it's just we're not we don't have as many kindergarters coming in, right? You know, the the birth rates, things
065like that. and then people leaving the state for whatever reason. That's some of it as well. >> Is there any stateby-state data? >> Like I mean, is that nationally what's going on? Like you said, is it >> probably is that that I not that I've seen at that level, but does it mean there isn't any? >> Just curious. Is it an Iowa thing or is it >> I don't know that answer. South Dakota, you know, everybody's just >> smaller family, less kids. But I don't know. >> It's a little question. If I see it, I'll try and remember to >> stretch as far as it used to. >> Well, I know. I mean, it just >> Yeah. I think >> all the above probably, right? >> Because it doesn't necessarily mean that 5900 left the
066state. It's just graduate class of 100, incoming class of 50. >> Correct. That that's some of it, too. Absolutely. It is. >> Yep. >> I mean, we've seen that >> even locally at times. >> Yeah. Right. >> Right. >> Mhm. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for sharing that. So, moving on to new business. um acceptance of abstract of election. So it was official the voted pepo but we do have to officially approve the um abstract from background of things how this goes um the attachment it just shows the certified vote um how many yay how many nay and what the ballot measure was um the board of supervisors that was there and Michelle and Tilberg sign off of it we have to approve that and accept it and then we send it on to the
067um department of management to verify or to verify would be the word to to approve and then we're we get the funding. >> All right. Well, I'll make a motion to approve the abstract of the election for the vepple. >> One second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to accept the acceptance of abstract of election as presented. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed? >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. Consider approval of new contracts. So Kane, obviously a name we're familiar with to fill some coaching positions. The others would be new teaching positions for us. And after this meeting, as of tonight, we would currently have two open positions. Right. Correct. at the at the elementary doesn't mean we don't have candidates or
068um things set up for that but just at the present time. So um I don't know if you had anything you wanted to add on any new candidates other than being excited. >> Yeah, super excited. Great people uh all with ties locally. So you know that speaks to the stickiness of them being here long term. That's always our hope when we hire people, but we know life happens. Uh so yeah, just just really excited about the group of people, high quality people that are going to do good things. >> First year teaching jobs >> um for Hunter and Jace. Yes. So they're both coming out of school. Jace is doing graduated at semester. He's doing a long-term subbing role right now and then moving up to Northwest Iowa. Hunter is a student teacher for us
069right now in the middle school and has done a great job. >> Payton uh taught for a semester in Warthingington and then ended up moving out to Wyoming, just life changing event type things and then is now moving back to the area. Actually coached with her dad in in Warthingington. So know the family and yeah, >> good good people. Excited about all of our candidates. Kane High School graduate. Great guy. >> Yeah. Well, >> just graduated. >> That's great. >> Well, I'll make a motion to approve the new contracts. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve the new contracts as presented. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. All those opposed? Motion passes. Consider approval of summer school program. >> So, we annually approve
070this. Um, I will let Mr. Dale here speak. >> It's pretty straightforward. >> It is pretty straightforward. Uh we made a change last year to go to consolidate our jump start program from um 3 weeks to two weeks in an effort to stay off of the activities dead week um for families to be able to take vacations and not have to worry about being back. Um so that's going to continue. Um we've had a lot of success in terms of attendance and those kind of things. um offering our summer school program as a prechool preschool year option as opposed to continuing the school year. Um talking to area principles, there's a lot of um burnout's not the right word, but just they they struggle to get the attendance that we've had um when they continue
071it, you know, beginning of June, some of those kind of things. So, um we feel like this has really uh benefited us. Um, I know specifically last year we had a few students that were new to our district and um, uh, one of them came to our summer school program and really helped the transition into our, um, school year and now is flourishing pretty well. Um, when previously at the previous school they had recommended retention and now we're seeing often at grade level most of the time at grade level that specific student. So, um it's been a good a good program for us and so that's why we're proposing to keep it the same. Um one change that we did talk about uh Stan and Kendra and I talked about was upping our rate of
072pay. It hasn't been changed. I think we talked for about 5 years and so upping that a little bit for our hour or for our um certified and classified staff that is willing to come in for those uh couple of weeks in the summer. So, we're proposing to make it $35 an hour for teachers and $25 an hour for the support staff that comes in and helps. So, previously it was 30 and 20. So, and then we list a lot of the services that we use there and and um kind of how we assess and we try and take into account missing skills and gaps in um learning from before and try and address those as best we can. But yeah, it's been a good program for us. So, all right. Any other questions on
073that? Would there be a motion to >> I'll make a motion to approve the summer school program. It's presented. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to to approve the summer school program as presented. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. Consider approval of fireworks at baseball game. >> Um, speaking with Mrs. Ster on this. They're they they're interested in doing this again. They don't have a date. kind of hard to think about when we just had a a blizzard and and how many mile an hour winds that we're going to do fireworks coming up here for the but looking at doing that again on a date to be determined but in order to move forward they do need permission >>
074um from the school to do that >> is just looking for us to approve it >> us to approve it yep >> yep no funds or anything >> correct yes they take care of the friends of so take care of that but for policy Low fireworks on the school grounds. They need permission. >> Make a motion to approve the fireworks at the baseball game. >> I'll second. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve the fireworks at the baseball game at a date to be determined. All right. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed motion motion passes. Consider approval of forgiving miss time for seniors. So this is on here and put it on here before we knew we wouldn't have school today. But at
075this at this point in the year usually if if we've missed more days kind of have a plan for what the seniors have to don't have to make up just so that they know going into it as they start you know graduation and things like that. So, at this point, if we'd have any, no determination from today, but if we'd have any days that we have to tack on at the end of the year, um I would recommend that we um approve excusing the seniors from those and keep their last day as currently presented because there's nothing for them to make up as of right now. >> And that's typically we've >> Yeah. If it was a year where we had already missed like 10 days, you know, we knew we were going to make
076up a handful. You could say, "Hey, we're going to have the seniors make up five more even though the great, you know, like you can do that." At this point, we don't >> need to, right? You try to do it far enough so people can make plans and things like that. >> I'll make a motion to approve uh approve the forgiving miss time for seniors. >> Second. >> All right. All right, it's been moved and seconded to approve the forgiving miss time for seniors. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion carries. I >> think that should be approved. All but Tate. >> Consider approval of sharing agreement for librarian. So this is does not come with operational sharing dollars. Librarian is not one of those
077positions. Um and with Lisa taking on um for this current school year, she's librarian and took on the tag responsibilities. She's been here most often, but then she's been the librarian of record to oversee and do what's required from like state reporting side of things with HLP. So looking to continue it. This is the agreement we had placed in this year. Um this was the big change before. They had we had had her there um a day or two a week and shared, but now she's here basically full-time and then they pay us a stipen and then she oversees things and is their um librarian of record for Aris Lake Park. So, we look to continue that. >> So, it's nothing new. This is something she's been doing. >> Yep. She did it this past
078year. Yep. This was the first we shared before, but this is the first year we've done it in that in this excuse me, in this format. Okay, I'll make motion to approve the sharing agreement for our librarian. >> Second. >> All right, it's been moved and seconded to approve the sharing agreement with librarian with HLP as presented. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed? I >> motion carries. Uh consider approval of AEA purchasing agreement. >> We've done this for years, but in order to partake in that, we have to have board approval. Um and some of the things that if it comes through EA, they're able to deliver their their products. We get that through the EA purchasing agreement. Um and it talks about what the case
079per delivery, but anything not spent on that is rebated to the school. So, this is something we approve annually. We can't partake in it without having board approval. All right. Any questions on that? >> Make a motion to approve the AA purchasing agreement. >> I'll second. All right, it's been moved and seconded to approve the A.E.A. purchasing agreement as presented. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed. Motion passes. Consider approval of Visser Brothers Plumbing and Heating pay application number one for the middle school ERV project. So, Visser Brothers, if you remember, is the one who we accepted the bid for to do the middle school ERV, the energy recovery and ventilators um project this summer. And this would be to get started to order supplies and things
080like that. John Buuter is who our contact is through EDA, the ARC, uh engineering firm that oversees this, and he said they've been very responsive and good to start. And so, he recommended making pay one to start in preparation. And really 2 months from now, we're going to be pretty close to getting rolling on this >> project anyway. It's right around the corner. >> Is there a timeline on this? >> So, we they are we are hoping to start almost right after students and staff are done. >> Mhm. >> And then they have it completed by I don't remember the actual date, July, whatever that was off the top of my head. And John said he thought that was conservative in terms of long. Does that make sense that they could have it done ahead
081of time? Ideally, might even have everything done the end of June just depending on how >> everything lines up perfectly. You know what I mean? >> But I assume this is heating cooling, right? >> It it helps. Yeah, we'll be able to run some cooling capacities, but it helps with like recirculating the air, taking the humidity, the humidity out of that um and providing some efficiencies to the existing um system >> right out front straight out like behind that chain link fence. That's the one machine. And then the other one's kind of right next to the greenhouse behind the um they're going to pull it up anyway, but the FFA, the garden plot there, it's right behind there. A lot of people don't realize it's there because you just don't see it, but they're the
082exact same units to run the middle school. That's what's getting replaced. >> You're talking about the belt squeaker is going to get replaced, huh? >> Correct. That's where that comes from. So hopefully shouldn't hear that anymore. >> One thing I just I just popped in my head. Is there a service agreement with this or will there be one >> to service it after if it's in place? Yes, we'll do that through that'll be part of the agreement with um climate systems. >> Yes, they have they do have filters on here. We've already >> asked that question. It's a little different filter system than what we currently have and it's more accessible and so that would be part of their rotation as well when climate comes to replace and clean the screens and things like that.
083>> Yep. Do they put uh so like just say they don't get it done by the time school starts next year. Is there a any effect to the school if this isn't done? >> Well, ideally then we that's they wouldn't get full payment for it until the work's done. >> I'm just saying like is how like you say it doesn't necessarily affect the cooling like >> oh that one does it. um >> you know we're going to have students and and then if that's the case is there like like you say not full payment or de marriage or anything like that in this or not? >> Yeah, they would they would there would be like that's what we're talking about the next one for a completely different project but paying >> um uh retainage. Thank
084you. I couldn't think of the word. So there there would be retainage if they don't finish it. They don't get that unless they get it done ahead of time. So there would be a retainage piece. >> Gotcha. Okay. All right. Any other questions? >> That's what you're asking, right? >> Yep. Yeah. >> All right. Would there be a motion to approve? >> Make a motion to approve the Visser's Brothers plumbing and heating pay application number one for the middle school ERP project. >> I'll second. >> All right. has been moved and seconded to approve the Visser plumbing heating pay application number one for the middle school ERB project in the amount of $10,670. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. Consider approval of LNL
085builder pay oops. >> Yep. pay application middle school high school project 2025. >> So this is just for the middle school high school portion the retainage as they have everything signed up that they have done and signed off in site logics approved on. So it's their final pay request for the middle school excuse me middle school high school portion not the elementary portion. We're still waiting for a little work and finetuning on um some parts of the HVAC over there but this is for the high school to middle school part. kind of getting at what you're asking for the previous one. >> Yep. >> And you're all good with the middle school high school >> with this. Yeah, with the middle school high school portion we are. Yep. >> All right. >> I'll make a
086motion to uh approve the LNO builder pay application for middle school high school project 2025. >> All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve uh approval of the LNL builder pay application middle school high school project 2025 in the amount of $72,354.50. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion passes. All right. Uh the next item is a go into close session for superintendent evaluation. >> Does anyone want to use the restroom first? >> Yeah, I do. >> Before we go into that.