Urbandale CSD School Board Meeting 05.04.26

001[clears throat] [snorts] [laughter] [clears throat] >> I think we have a section today for celebrations and recognitions and we want to start with the most important part of our district, which is you our staff and our teachers. So, as this week begins, we on the board just want to take a moment to recognize and thank you [snorts] for your extraordinary work that you do each day on behalf of our students. Our teachers and staff are thoughtful, innovative, and deeply dedicated to our students' success and well-being. You bring patience, professionalism, and care to your work and your commitment is evident in how you support our students, our families, and each other. And you're learners yourselves. You're always growing, reflecting, and refining your practice so you can better serve the students that are in your care. And

002that dedication to growth really strengthens not only our individual classrooms and school buildings, but the culture in our district as a whole. And every day you, as our teachers and staff, you encourage, you challenge, and you nurture our students in ways that we see and in ways that we don't always see. And you create environments where our students feel supported, where they feel valued, and they're inspired. And your impact extends way beyond the school day. So, during staff appreciation week, we as the board extend our sincere gratitude for all that you do. Our schools are stronger because of your dedication and our community is better because of the care and the commitment that you bring to its children every day. So, from all of us, thank you. So, also in May is the um recognition

003of our school board. And you guys are the ones that are here till 9:00 or 10:00 at night sometimes, depending on the night. And you do all this out of volunteerism. And as the superintendent who is your employee, I want to thank you for all of the hours that you guys put into this. I know it's not just sitting at this table. You're also putting these [clears throat] hours in as you're reading the agendas and you're preparing your questions and reading all the things that I send to you. So, I do want to give each of you a certificate and I left a little note on your um seat as well. I would like to pass these out and recognize all of you. Thank you very much. Anna, Catherine Hauser, Margaret Young, Josh Joshua and

004Rachel. >> [laughter] >> That's what they put on the certificate, so you're going with it. Rachel Rodriguez Santizo [clears throat] and Teresa White. We have a separate recognition for students coming up, so I did not forget you. Thank you. Thank you. We also have some really significant milestones to celebrate in our staff. This is new this year. If you guys want to come up, this is something new that our HR department is um very happy to celebrate, so I'll turn it over to them at this point. Alongside [clears throat] of all of the uh these other recognitions, we have, as Margaret said, some great milestones. If you uh reference the the board packet, you'll find recognitions for employees that have been here 5 years, 10 years, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35. Tonight specifically, we're

005recognizing uh beyond those that are all in the board packet, those that have been here 25 years or more, uh which is just a significant, obviously a significant contribution to the school district as a whole and to all of the kids that have come through here, which I'm sure uh number in the thousands for uh all of these teachers that have been here for this long. So, we are going to recognize a few tonight that uh are able to join us and then Pace can also read those that aren't able to join us tonight, too. I have Jeremy Santizo [clears throat] and Dottie Abrahamson. I'm going to call on Dottie. There you go. Um and then Lindsay Baker. Oh, thank you, Lindsay. Thank you, Lindsay. Um and then we'd also like to recognize Rachel Cicero

006um for 25 years, Becky Larson for 25 years, and Nick Teen for 25 years, and Cynthia Wilford for 35 years, and Jen Ferlic for 25 years as well. So. AND THEN MYSELF. >> [applause] >> OKAY, HERE WE GO. THANK YOU. NEED UP? SO, NOT to forget our students, but this is our fourth year? Is that fourth year I think that we've had student reps, maybe third. Um so, we have we asked all of you to come to tonight's meeting cuz we have a a gift for you. We know that this is the time of the year you start disappearing cuz school is coming to an end and you have things that you want to do. So, if each of you would come up, I have a little note for you and we have these um

007kind of become a tradition. They uh you belong and it has a um nameplate in here with the years of service, so we want to come and present each of you guys with one of these. So, come up, please. Reese, yours is first. So, if you guys want to go over there, I think Dina can do another photo. So, you just hold you'll hold yours up. Adriana. Make sure I have these in the right order. Kate. And Sam. And there's our students. We'll take a picture WITH ME. THOSE WILL LOOK GOOD IN YOUR DORM ROOMS. >> [laughter] >> THEY GLOW IN THE black light, so they'll be cool. Okay, so just two quick things on the more you know. Um one is my monthly reminder the other week for parents who have not registered their

008families, so please register. Um you're going to hear a report of where we are right now with registration, so remember that the registration determines our staffing. So if you know people who have not registered, ask them to do so quickly. We've got help here at the district office. Returning students can also go to their schools to register. The other thing um Brandon shared with us the DECAP feedback review. Um this is the first year with no points, right? Um you might remember we talked about when his team presented that to you earlier that we had so many points. They're not doing it by that measurement anymore. Now you're going to get a rating of proficient advanced. Um not sure what the other two are cuz we didn't get any of those. So far we have

009received advanced on all of the categories for annual school board review, self-understanding, career information, and career exploration. The initial um annual school board review is something that they said we had strong comprehensive review and it aligns very well with district initiatives. I'm not going to read every single piece of the comment, just kind of the highlights. Um the EC essential component one of self-understanding, some of the comment talked about our connection to course planning and a clearly defined scaffolded approach. And number two, which is career information, talked about our clear standards outlined for grades 8 to 12, grade specific, and components that empower students to make decisions. And then finally number three, uh career exploration, that said that we provided clear meaningful student outcomes. So this is very exciting to have. We rated ourself as

010two of them advanced, two proficient, but the rater, which is from another school district, rated us in advanced in all of these. So I think that's a testament to the work that's being done on the DECAP. You'll You'll get a more formal report later, but I wanted to share that good news at the beginning. And that's all I have on the more you know. Next up we have an update on our district technology plan. Yeah, good evening. Brandon Schou, director of teaching and learning. I'm Elizabeth Whipper, PK-12 digital learning um facilitator. Yes, so tonight we're going to provide the annual district technology plan update. And just as a reminder, we had a group of teachers come together a couple of years ago now and they identified the vision of the district we wanted to become

011in relation to our use of technology. And the gist of that is really making sure that we're optimizing our technology resources in order to lift up teaching and learning across the system. Um so we utilize GoGuardian as our filtering service. Um and that has different levels to it that allow us to be very customizable to needs that we have to support safe and responsible use of data. And then we meet as a teaching and learning and IT team quarterly to go over the data and make informed decisions um each time. So and then that same group that came together 2 years ago also reviewed literature on just screen time in general. >> [clears throat] >> Um and that was when we our task was really to try to find that balance. We'd come back from

012kind of COVID and we'd become a one-to-one district and really trying to recalibrate what are our guide guidelines related to screen time within the school day. And so that team after reviewing um a series of resources identified this guidance related to screen time. Um I think that first starts with that encouragement to shift to more of an active use where students are collaborating and still engaging with each other while using [clears throat] technology um versus more passive use where they're sitting on the screen and they're one-to-one uh just kind of passively engaging. Uh so that's kind of the frame around that and then um the the general minute range uh related to each grade band was identified. Uh this does align with the recently passed legislation of House File 2676, and so we feel like

013we're in a good place related uh to kind of what went through the legislature um and where we identified 2 years ago. Are you tracking it? Yeah. So that's we that's one thing we layered on this year is we um worked with IT and our student data management specialist um to figure out how we can pull accurate screen time data. Um and then we began um honing like what that looked like so we could get an accurate picture. So this is uh one snapshot um of a month. Um so kindergarten is grade zero. So the House File says under 660 or fewer minutes um grades K through five. And on average um fifth grade gets around 45 minutes um a day. Um and then as we get up into sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, their

014our minutes get a little bit higher, but still within our guidance for the day. Um and then we had to um work on figuring out how to find accurate numbers for ninth through 12th grade because at that part of our system um students take their Chromebooks home. And so we were figuring out how we could get a representation of time during their academic day, but we do have numbers for their all screen time usage, so we can also kind of monitor um that healthy balance. And so we have data on that that we can then provide um the building administrator. And I'm we started this year meeting with building adminis- administrators um quarterly. So Yeah, and those meetings are an opportunity for us to one uh provide data related to uh just what their buildings'

015dashboard looks like related to screen time, as well as um kind of sites or places that are getting high usage versus lower usage. Uh a few months ago or a month or so ago you approved a new um kind of cybersecurity kind of uh drill uh program, which is called Cyber Nut, which uh is one way that we continue to build uh staff's awareness of uh cybersecurity kind of uh do's and don'ts. Um and so staff get emails uh that may be questionable. And when they report that, they earn uh walnuts. Um so there's like instant reward. Uh and then there's usually a little lesson that prepares or that kind of coincides with that. Um so they get that instant feedback um when they report an email that looks suspicious. Um and so this is

016just some da- early data of uh some of those I'm going to call them drills or exercises uh to make sure that we're continuing to build staff awareness around making sure that our infrastructure stays secure. Um next steps is adding a beginning-of-the-year Vector training specific to cybersecurity. And then uh restricting Google single sign-on for unapproved attacks. So currently um a staff member could visit a site and then use their Google account to kind of log in and set up an account. And um it's hard to make sure that what they are saying yes to actually coincides with board policy or just good practices. Uh cuz a lot of times it'll even warn them that they're going to access their Google Drive as a um opportunity to continue to learn more about them. So Um >>

017[sighs] >> this year we also continue to um help students better understand what digital citizenship is in relation to the work that they do within their classroom spaces and then their everyday lives. Um so you might recall earlier this year we and the board helped us recognize um competition winners for the desktop background. We also worked to um make some moves in standardizing the user experience. So, uh um the U image in the corner um and next year again we um thank the board for the celebrations this year, but the digital learning teacher librarian team already is talking about next year's competition and what that will look like for them. And then most recently we had digital literacy night. So, we partnered with Learn to Soar um to host digital literacy night. Um and that

018was another layer that we added on to bring students into this collaborative experience. So, alongside that uh we do or we are working with students on a daily basis around some unexpected behaviors related uh to student use of technology. And so, [cough] this just provides [clears throat] you with uh the four primary um kind of code of conduct violations how they're defined system and then uh current data. I think this was pulled uh April-ish um of where we were in terms of those unexpected behaviors related to technology. We continue our work with artificial intelligence which is like never-ending and always evolving. So, it's really hard to stay on top of things. So, I continue to engage in professional learning around AI in education um and collaborate with my peers. Um this year we had um

019artificial intelligence AI literacy um sessions with joint principals every month. So, at that meeting um we led um some learning around AI literacy that lifted their understanding and then also went back into our system to continue to improve AI literacy. Um we continue to support teachers with their use of AI in the classroom. And we also celebrated AI week this year. That was a first for us. So, um I drafted and sent out communication to parents and teachers and even 9-12 students because we could harness the power of parents wear um to communicate directly to them. So, they also got AI week communication. And then teachers received a daily kind of like AI nugget throughout the week. So, that was another um AI artificial intelligence thing that we added on this year. And then we

020continue um to exclusively use Magic School um as our adopted AI platform with students. Um and teachers also still have access to Gemini as well. Um but we work on the safe and responsible use of AI and Magic School it gives us a platform that we can do that with students while also teaching them AI literacy um alongside their their adopted instructional materials. So, that same group that came together 2 years ago uh one of the calls to action that they had identified is making sure that we had a systematic way in which we were identifying uh educational technology that um kind of met the mark for our system as well as uh making sure that what we're bringing into the system is supported through our single sign-on, it can be rostered. Um so, there's

021more automation within um kind of getting it set up and integrated into the system. And so, a process was developed. Uh we ran that process last year. We did some revisions uh to it. Um and so, this is the current state of that process. So, essentially any additional or new edtech um into the system goes through that process. The first part of the process is uh making sure that it meets the data privacy uh requirements for our students and staff and making sure that um information is not being sold or harvested um and used in ways that um would not align with the goals of our system. So, when we pulled the data for this slide, there had been 29 submissions um thus far and um like uh Brandon [clears throat] said it gets kicked

022off with IT. So, once a teacher uh submits places a submission um Jeremy Mead begins to evaluate that for data and privacy. Um and then if it makes it past that stage, then it's reviewed by teaching and learning and we meet quarterly. Um so, you can see throughout the year we have um had two approved and supported. Um those are ones that generally like we take to the board. Like I believe [clears throat] those two um might be music um ones that we have. Um but ones that we pay for and we roster. [clears throat] And then we have um two supplemental layers. And then blocked and not approved. Um we um common reasons for not approving a lot is data privacy um and security because we do take that seriously um among the edtech

023that we want to use within the district. If it duplicates functionality of things that we already have adopted within the system or that we pay for, um we want to focus our attention and efforts on lifting [clears throat] that up. Or it might just not have clear educational values or in line um with our instructional beliefs within Urbandale. So, those are common reasons why it might not pass make make approval. Yeah, and so all of those are cataloged on a platform called 1 EdTech and that's also visible for parents as well um when they visit our district website um and they want to learn more about technology, they can access everything that we um have on any of those lists. So, next up we're going to continue to um work on AI literacy understanding and

024lifting up um safe and responsible use of AI with our staff and our students. Um for SAMR um it says they're using EduProtocols and I was like, I wonder if they know what EduProtocols are. So, EduProtocols are research-based instructional lesson framework that um really speak to student engagement and critical thinking and they work for all subject areas and all grade levels. Um and in the use of EduProtocols with edtech, it can really help us um meet like lift up the higher implementation like that deeper level of edtech use um which we want to see. So, we're going to continue to um do learning around that and bring that within the system. And then for substitutes and technology, we're always trying to improve the educational experience for our substitutes and our students when um they have

025a substitute and also the teachers who are absent. So, we continue to hone um that process um within the district. And that's your update of technology. What questions do you have for I don't have a question, a comment. Um at the Metro board [clears throat] workshop that we had this week um Hannah and I were at a table talking about screen time with people board members from other districts. And I think everyone was really impressed with your screen time guidance and the fact that we had that in place. At that time we were like, we haven't seen the data to know like if it's working. Um but I think that um we told them how to find it on our website. Hopefully people will look to you for some guidance. So, thank you for having

026that. Yeah, and I would applaud our staff uh because we did open up the year with a real larger push on screen time guidance. Um the first year it was more kind of softly shared and then this year we've really tried to kind of re- uh kind of align ourselves to what is the purpose of technology in our system um so that it doesn't replace uh high-quality teaching cuz that's not the purpose. >> [snorts] >> I also like to highlight like when I work with my peers and they ask about screen time guidance, it's not just the guidance, it's these other moves that we shared with you, too that work in tandem. That's what gives us the data that we have. It's what makes it work because it's this multi-layered approach. That's why we are

027successful. Did you include I know the bill I don't know where it ended up, but talked about excluding testing time. Does this data exclude that same testing? >> [clears throat] >> This was a snapshot that I think was what month was it? A recent month, but it was outside of testing. Uh I think we did look at a more recent snapshot and it made sense that our kids had more screen time because ISASP was going on and so >> [clears throat] >> that increased the overall um amount of time, but you're correct that that is exempt from uh the screen time guidance. I think it also fluctuates based off of units of study that they're in. So, like if they're in more of a research-based unit, they might be spending a little bit more time

028on the screen. Um but because of the other things they we stay really close if not under the new Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> [snorts] >> Good evening. Idina Claire, communications. Uh Stephanie Davis, director of student services. And we will be providing an enrollment update for this meeting. Um so I'm going to be sharing about what we're doing with marketing for our enrollment and Stephanie will be providing a little bit more in terms of actual enrollment data. So uh current state of enrollment, this is something that we are all well aware of at this point, but I think it um is important just to mention this for um everyone who might be listening who might not be quite aware of where we are with um our current state. So we know that

029there is a trend of declining uh public school enrollment [clears throat] throughout Iowa. Um we also have seen declining birth rates in Iowa. We know that this year uh UCSD is down 117 students, which is resulting in that $1.5 million uh deficit. We also know that unfortunately declining enrollment may continue into future years. Um and what this means is really that public school districts are really competing for enrollments. So in order to help stabilize enrollments, um we're implementing an enrollment campaign over the next 12 months. So we are looking at March of 2026 to February of 2027. And our benchmark uh in terms of enrollment figures is really where we are at right now in order to stabilize enrollment. Um we need to try to keep us steady where we are. Of course, if we

030can increase enrollment, all the better, but we certainly don't want to go below if we can help it. Um so our goals for our enrollment marketing, um we want to retain our in-district families. Um we really want to reduce that attrition and reinforce confidence in UCSD. Um we do want to compete for enrollments. Um we want to reach families who may be considering uh relocating or maybe considering open enrolling. Uh we want to elevate our reputation. We really want to be seen as the school of choice for families. And we want to build that year-round enrollment funnel. So we know that enrollment decision-making can be a long-term process, and we want to nurture families no matter where they are in their enrollment decision-making cycle, so we stay top of mind. Uh we want to protect

031our long-term revenue. Again, trying to recover and offset that $1.5 million. And we certainly don't want to be faced with um adding to that deficit in future years. So here is one slide that is trying to capture everything we're doing with enrollment marketing. Um we certainly cannot capture it all in one slide, but I did want to highlight a few things. So we are implementing an integrated online and offline marketing campaign. We are intentionally reaching beyond our school district boundaries, so we can reach prospective families. Um we're also trying to uh maintain connection with our current families in order to encourage enrollments. So some of our tactics that are all kind of splattered around up there. Um so our schools are doing really an amazing job of keeping this um ongoing promotion of school enrollment

032in their newsletters. We're also doing that with our district newsletters. Um we know we [clears throat] have our digital ad strategy um that is going with our online ads. In April, we've started streaming TV ads. We also have yard signs that are in front of all of our schools. Um we have flyers that we send home with our three and four-year-old preschool students. We also deliver flyers to child care centers throughout our area, and that's been a practice we've been doing for years. Um we scrolled back our radio a little bit, dialed that back a little bit um based on feedback from parents last year in terms of what prompts them to register. However, we did keep one radio, and that's our La Ley radio station. That is an all-Spanish radio station, so we have

033ads going there. Um our registration office is doing an amazing job of continuing to nurture families um and help move them through the registration cycle by reaching out and asking them to complete registration, asking what questions they have, and just kind of holding hands wherever is needed to help our families register. Um we have lots going on on social media. Um Katie Knoll is doing an amazing job of continuing to highlight really great things going on in our schools just to keep all the great things um happening top of mind for people. Um we also have a partnership with Hearst KCCI that has um some a boost of our Facebook presence going on as well. Um let's see. In January, we [clears throat] had a sticky note on the cover of Urbandale Living Magazine. This

034is a publication that's delivered to over 20,000 households. Um and that was promoting our preschool pre-registration that started in uh January. Um we also included print ads in the February issue of Urbandale Living Magazine, and that was promoting just discover your Jayhawk spirit registration kind of in general, as well as Karen Acres. Um we know that Karen Acres is a school of choice, meaning that parents have to choose to go there. They are not assigned there based on their residence. Um so Karen Acres is always a school that um we are continuing to help get the word out about. Um and then we also filmed a preschool promotional video this year, as well as 25 over 25 elementary parent testimonial videos to again just keep getting that word out there. So we uh we have

035lots of different marketing tactics that are really working in concert together to really achieve our collective goals. Okay. So let's dive in specifically to the Hearst KCCI partnership in terms of those digital ads, and we can look at how some of those items are performing. So this first one is called Story Studio. And this is a long-form uh promotional ad. So this ad appears as um a headline ad. And it gets served up to um our target audience in different places that they go online. So this ad in particular is served up to households with children under 12 years of age who live within 40 miles of Urbandale and who have shown some type of interest in education, and they've shown behaviors that are indicating that they're researching education. Um so you may have also

036seen this ad. It lives on the KCCI homepage within the sponsored content section. Um so if you go up there right now, you're going to see this long-form story ad that really does a nice job of highlighting some of our key selling points as a district. Um so when uh users go up to the KCCI homepage though, those impressions are not ones that we are paying for. Those are just value add impressions. The only um impressions that we are paying for are the ones that meet our target audience where the ad is actually going out. So in March and April, we had over 1 million impressions to our target audience. Um we had over 2,000 clicks. So this means they clicked on that headline ad depending on whatever website they were on that has an

037education type interest. Our top readership, so this is um where in the 40-mile-ish radius are people uh reading this ad the most. Um and you can see this is Des Moines, Urbandale, West Des Moines, Ankeny, Ames, and Waukee. Those were our top locations. And then the average time on the Story Studio ad is about 3 minutes and 33 seconds. And this is really above the benchmark for this ad. The benchmark is about 1 to 2 minutes. If you think of anyone's attention span online, 3 minutes uh feels like eternity. Um so really what that is saying to us is that we have uh the right content going to the right people. Okay, next up is our premium boost on Facebook. So what this is is once a month KCCI sends out um a Facebook ad

038and it's stated as KCCI with Urbandale Community School District. Um this ad is going to our target audience, users who are on Facebook. Um so it's going to households with children 3 to 12 years old within a 20-mile radius. Now this ad is getting pushed out to our target audience, but it does not live on the KCCI feed. It also does not live on the UCSD Facebook feed. So it really is getting pushed out. Um in March and April, we had over 232,000 impressions. So that again, that just means how many times the ad was served up. And then we had over 19,000 clicks to the ad. Um which means a click-through rate of over 8% and really in terms of benchmarks for Facebook ads, that far exceeds uh those benchmarks. And again, what this

039is telling us is that our content is meaningful um and really as it should be. We're using um the 30-seconds clips of our testimonials of several of our parents. Um the next clip that's going to be going out for May, actually it might have already started, is one of our preschool parents. Uh so that'll be the next uh push that goes out. So exciting things there. >> [clears throat and cough] >> And then our next tactic is called search retargeting. And so this happens to uh deal with users who are within 20-mile radius of Urbandale who have searched for one of our keywords. Um and what happens is once they search for one of our keywords and they're within 20 miles, then wherever they go online, we start serving up our ads to them. And

040so um the ads that we're focusing on, the the areas that we are highlighting for our district and encouraging registration, are three main areas. So we're focusing on kindergarten, preschool, as well as Caring Acres. And um we're running all these sets of ads with equal weighting. Um and each of these ads contains all different sizes. So lots of different sizes to meet lots of different um platforms. And these ads are dynamic in that some of the ads, if you've seen them, they'll have um photos moving through or they'll have text movement. Um so they they just look really nice and they um are grabbing the attention of our audience. Um so in March and April, we had over 593,000 impressions. Our clicks were about 270, which is about a .05 uh click-through rate, which is

041pretty much average for this type of medium. Um our top search terms, I think it's interesting to see uh what people are searching for the most. Um so you can see what those are up there. I would highlight some of them as being, you know, local schools, family community, uh school choice, relocating Iowa, best schools, Urbandale, Iowa, school transfer. So these are some of the things that are um top of mind for our families and prospective families. And then in terms of where our ads are getting placed the most, um the three main areas are on Fox News, on Channel 13, as well as on Channel 5's website. So then the next tactic along these lines and in terms of retargeting ads, um has to do with site retargeting. So when someone comes and visits

042our UCSD site, they have shown some level of interest. If they're within 20 miles of UCSD, then wherever they go next um throughout um a little bit of time, we want to stay top of mind. So that means our ads are getting served up to them. Um so again, we are running um kindergarten, preschool, Caring Acres ads. Um we are running them with equal weighting. Um so they're all getting the same amount of it um attention up there. And for our site retargeting for March and April, we had over 313,000 impressions. We had 444 clicks. Our click-through rate was about .14%, which is in that benchmark typical range for site retargeting. And then the placements that our ads are getting placed the most for this particular tactic are on Yahoo, KCCI, Des Moines Register, USA

043Today, and the Food Network. Um and our ads really appeared on over 634 different websites. >> [clears throat] >> So another tactic that we are doing is uh streaming TV ads. Um so these are 30-second ads that are getting served up on streaming platforms. And uh these are the 30-second uh parent testimonials, the clips of those testimonials that we have running. Um so the uh the ad is a 30-second ad. It's on streaming platforms and again, they are rotating evenly. So we make sure that we have that equal exposure for all of them. Um we had about 77,000 impressions and this was just in April. We started streaming TV ads in April. So 77,000 impressions in April April. And again, this is going to households with children 2 to 7 years old within a 20-mile

044radius. And this actually reached then 12,736 households. Our video completion rate was at 98.21%. Uh 98% is the typical highest benchmark for streaming ads. So the fact that we only not only met it, but we're exceeding it by a bit, again says to us that [clears throat] um the messages that we are sharing are parent messages are meaningful and impactful um for the folks that we're trying to reach. And our top streaming platforms for the ads were Paramount Network, Samsung TV Plus, and the Roku Channel. Okay, so then it gets a little more interesting with our streaming retargeting ads. So essentially what is happening is say you are at home and you are our target audience and you are watching HDTV and one of our 30-second ads pops up. Um what we can do at

045that point is be able to collect device IDs that are connected to the home Wi-Fi in order to serve up ads to you later when you go on your mobile device. So you've watched uh an ad on your streaming TV uh platform and then you hop on your phone a day later, two days later, and this is when you're going to start seeing our ads again. Um again, we're using that same focused kindergarten, preschool, Caring Acres, you know, repetition creates behavior. Um so that is continuing to take place. Um our impressions for our retargeting ads for streaming were just over 82,000 in April. We had 230 clicks. And our click-through rate on that is about .28%, which is pretty decent. Um our top retargeting placements, so again, where these ads are getting served up based

046on this tactic, Yahoo, Fox News, and SmartNews, which is a news aggregator app. So some other data I just wanted to provide you all tonight is looking at um our district Facebook data, um as well as our district [clears throat] website enrollment page data. Um so for our Facebook, I feel like we are seeing steady growth in terms of kind of the more meaningful um data points, which is really just those content interactions, so likes, comments, shares, um links that are clicked, as well as how many people are starting to follow us on a monthly basis. So you can kind of see what that progression has been from January to April. Um our overall engagement rate is holding pretty steady around 2.17% to 2.2% on Facebook, which kind of lives within that good average to

047good range in terms of Facebook engagements. Um and then all of our tactics are driving traffic to our enrollment pages on the website. So we also want to look at how many page views and things are happening on our website. And we can see that um you know, starting in March when our digital ad campaign really uh got underway, there was a huge jump in our page views. Um and then you can also see in April um really exciting, the Karen Acres School of Choice page, which is learn more about our year-round program. Uh you can see a really significant jump between January to April in terms of page views. So we know that with this um enrollment decision-making really is that long-term process that does involve research and evaluation. So we really are feeling

048like this increase in page views um could potentially be indicative of families who are researching and considering um our district. So what prompted you to register? [clears throat] This is a question that we include in our online student registration. And um the data from this is as of May 1st. And um what we ask families is what prompted you to register, and then we include all of these tactics. Um the way that we use this data then is really to inform our decision-making for what tactics we're going to invest in for coming school years, right? So um when you look at this data, one way that you can read this is to say I put a couple examples here. Um so you can look at this and say parents of 31 students selected social media

049as one of the tactics that prompted them to register. Because each parent completes one registration form, and then we want them to select as many tactics that caught their attention as as um possible. So we know uh what we need to do next. Do you know what's not listed on here is the board meeting notes. The board [laughter] meeting notes should be added on here. I will make changes to that >> [laughter] >> in the e-newsletter. Yeah, could be considered that as well. Um but that's very true. Uh the one thing too I also really want to point out in here um are some of those tactics that are toward the bottom, which is um other parents, right? So parents are saying other parents are what prompted them. Um school staff is prompting parents to

050register. Um our newsletters are. And then the registrar's office, um that team is doing really great work again of just nurturing parents and helping them along. Um so it's really all about all of our relationships and all of our connections that are um part of this puzzle of encouraging families to register. Okay. Um taking a look at some of our enrollment data, um we've had a lot of changes this year. We opened our registration on March 2nd, but the biggest change is that we have updated the PowerSchool form that is used for registration. This is the second year that we're using the online registration and really worked to streamline some of the registration processes. We spent quite a bit of time on permissions this year to make sure that that was much improved. Um but

051one thing that works very well for our families is this year we have one form for both returning and new students. It's often very confusing for parents um to think about whether their student is a new student or a returning student. For example, often our kindergarten parents think, well, my student was in pre-K last year, so they must be a returning student, when in fact all of our kindergarten students are considered new. So the way the form is set up is it interprets which school building the student is in. If for a returning student, it would say um which which elementary, which the middle, the high school. But for our new students, they're in what we call our enrollment school. And based on the school that you're in, based on the grade that you are

052registering for, it gives you a different set of questions. So parents don't have to think in advance about, oh, which form do I fill out, which do I need? The form will provide parents the questions that are necessary. Um the grade level matters often when we think about the immunizations that are um required of each grade level. So it's very intuitive and um our team has done a very great job of updating those for our families. We do have the pre-registration forms available in multiple languages, so many of our families are able to engage with that directly. Um and then another area that has been extremely helpful to us is the expert website redesign that um our communications department put forth this year. I have the enroll button on the bottom, but when you go

053to our website, every single page has it um clear at the upper right-hand corner, you have the opportunity to click directly to our enrollment. Um it above and beyond that, every visitor to our homepage is greeted with um a reminder to register for the upcoming school year uh is one of the ongoing stories um that greets everyone and is very friendly and engaging. This year we uh tried something new. Over the past couple of years, we have had a pre-K registration evening um to help provide support. So this year for the first time on April 21st, we had our very first um registration support evening um for K-12 for for anyone returning pre-K 12. Um so we had computers available, we had enrollment support, we had interpreters available to help families as they um engaged

054with the technology. Um Dina was there to help families who may not have been signed up for Parent Square previously. And so a lot of different supports. That night was very successful. We had 49 students registered that evening. [clears throat] But above and beyond that those 49 students, the week of the registration event, we had our highest week yet of registration. We had 280 students registered um in that entire week. A lot of that had to do with the messaging um that went out to our families, the outreach from our interpreters, our schools, the FFOs. Um and so because of that, we have decided that we are going to have additional in-person events for our families on May 26th at Karen Acres. That is a no school day. Um we will have a in in-person

055registration event from 8:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon. On June 26th from noon to 6:00 p.m., we'll have another event at Webster Elementary. Um we're still determining a a location for a possible July event, um but we are very excited to offer that opportunity. Families are certainly welcome to register from the comfort of their own home um on the internet, but we of course provide registration support here at the AO. Families can walk in, families can make appointments. Um we also arrange for interpretation and the translate live devices that you all approved recently, those have been very helpful for making our families feel very much part of our community. It's been super helpful. Um when we look at our certified enrollment, this is the last 5 years. We know that our certified

056enrollment was lower this last year. But as we look at trends over time, we have 5 years of data, we have more than 5 years of data. But [clears throat] we can see the trends that we have with our enrollment. Um when we look at um some of our updates this year, we do not have trends over time. As I mentioned, we have done online enrollment for 2 years. The data tracking um from last year to this year, some of it has impacts to um needs that we have this year. So we took a check at the very beginning of May both this year and last year. We have ongoing checks throughout the year. Last year um the 5th of May, this year we took it on the 1st of May. So it's possible over

057the weekend there could have been um a few more. So thinking about how our certified enrollment is a little lower this year, it is not a surprise that our current registrations are a little bit lower than where we were last year. Kindergarten is very similar to where we were last year at this exact same time. But the thing that's absolutely striking in this conversation is looking at our new pre-K 12 students. We know that our returning students are likely going to return. When we think about registration progress, it's really important to take a look at those new students and see who's entering the district. That starts to make the biggest impact. And when you think about yourselves and people you know who have returning students, it's probably not I mean, for you you get to

058hear it weekly, thank you for registering. Um but it might not be I remember having a conversation with a staff member last year whose daughter um was going to be a senior this year. We're in the middle of May, and all of a sudden she says, "Oh, that's right. I do need to register." So, if they will get registered, but it's that new students that really becomes the the piece that we want to pay attention to. So, when we look at the new preK-12 student registration, we are far ahead of where we were last year at this exact same time. When we look at it as the percentage overall, last year at this time, 6.6% of students were new students who had registered. At this time this year, of the students who have registered, 11%

059are new students. So, that's very telling that we we are making an impact on reaching our community. Um new students could be men Looking at this data, um this is including preK-12. So, um any new preK student, this number would include any student who didn't attend preK with us, but is attending kindergarten. Um and any new to district um student in grades 1 through 12. So, uh like I said, families often find that line between am I a new student or am I a returning student, but for us, this is anyone who is new to the system, and sometimes thinking of being new to PowerSchool. So, when we really drill that [clears throat] down, we know we have students who are new both in preK, we have students who are new in kindergarten. When we're

060really looking at the data, any student in kindergarten is going to be a new student. So, if we think about those 107 new students as of right now, um and we think about the new to preK students as of right now, as we're what we really want to take a look at are who are our new students grades 1 through 12. That's where we're going to see the biggest impact. Additionally, who are those new students to kindergarten who have open enrolled in. So, when we uh drill it down to that, we're looking at um 24 students grades 1 through 22 and eight additional students new open enrollees in kindergarten. So, when we think of those 32 students who are new to the district, new uh new open enrollees in kindergarten, any new student grades 1

061through 12, and we estimate at about $8,000 a student. We know that's lower, but frankly, the math is easier. That is $256,000 with just those new students at this time. The cost-benefit analysis of that, thinking of our marketing and the multifaceted campaign that we've been um using and all of the different outreach, it really makes an impact on the work that we're doing. If we track those same 32 students, some who will be in the system for 13 years, some who may be in the system for one or two, it's over $2 million um as we think about student enrollment over time. So, this is where we are right now. There's still months ahead with registration, um which of course we'd like to have it sooner rather than later. Don't know if we mentioned that.

062Um but as we think about our students who are enrolling, we're seeing some positive impacts especially with our new to district students. Um as a reminder, um urbandaleschools.com/learn, you can register your own students. Returning students, please join us. Um but it's really important to remember that um once [clears throat] students are part of our community, we want them to know they belong here, and we're very excited um to work with families and the students going forward. With that in mind, we wonder what questions might you have? Of the new enrollments, uh what were there do we kind of ask what their reason for coming registering enrolling to our district were? I don't believe we don't have that as part of our register. We have a lot of questions on registration, that is not one of

063them. For many of our students, it's that they've either moved to the district, um they might be a new open enrollee, um and we also have students who enroll in the district who may have been at a private school or part of home instruction, and this is the first time they're enrolling in the district. But as far as their particular reason, that's not something that we track. I have a data question. I don't expect you to know it, but if you know it, it'd be really cool to know. Can you go back to the table that shows um 25-26 versus Go back one more. Um the Is this the one I wanted? Let me think. Yeah, the new preK to preK to 12 students, 146. Um That's Is this the one that's as of May

0641st, or was there a different slide for that? That as of May 1st for this year. It's the first check in May. It's not >> many we ended up with for the 25-26 year? Is that that was the data on May 1st last year? >> the data on May 1st. We're trying to compare apples to apples. >> just curious how much it went up from the 146 to our total enrollment to kind of project out what the 187 could potentially be. Good question. [snorts] You don't have to know right now. I didn't think you would, but I'm curious. I have a lot of pieces of information. I'm sure Ashley could answer that, but I certainly wouldn't ask. >> Will you look it up and send it to me? My my data brain is curious. I'd

065like to see that, too. Just send it to everybody. Yes. >> [laughter] >> I did [clears throat] say the new preK to 12, does that include the kindergarten number? It does It includes um when we're looking at this number, that includes new open enrollees in kindergarten, because those would be students that we might not have otherwise. We're assuming resident students, um we we know that kindergarten students are new. So, we chose to count only the kindergarten open enrollees who have registered. >> And by open enrollee, you mean outside of our district? >> Correct. Yes. And do we have a feel for the number of kindergarten families, perhaps within our district, who are choosing to stay or choosing another school as their destination? Right now, we >> There's no way to know. There's not a way

066to know. Um we don't track data on on families that move or or live within, because that would be That's a little creepy. a little creepy. We I I I tend to be the creepiest creepster with data, but that is one step too far. Um So, no, we we don't yet have that information. But just like we don't know if there's are they going to register just because they had the open enrollment [clears throat] going the other direction, we also don't know do they end up coming and not going out somewhere. So, it's hard to You you can't really forecast that. >> Mhm. And if they're we talked about the today a little bit. If you look at open enrollment, it's not as easy to say we have this many going out and this many

067coming in, because sometimes the stack I get to sign that are going out are a lot of continuations. Like they were never our kids to start with. They lived in another city, happened to move here, and they want to continue where they were. If if they have younger brothers and sisters, that could affect it, too, cuz they don't automatically get to be part of that. So, there's a lot of factors, and it works the other way, too. So, it's a little more I feel like it's a little more complex than just simply looking at ins and outs. Piggybacking off of Rod's question, I kind of had the same question. Um is it possible when we do get open enrolled students, that there's some way we can gauge what brought them to us? Like is Did

068you come here for, you know, we heard last week people that open enrolled here for our music program. Did you come here for that? Did you come here because of what you saw on TV? Did you come here because you heard we have safe schools? Like what specifically brought you here? I'm just wondering if there's any way that we can There would have to be a registration question, because open enrollment goes through the state. They have a specific form, and it's not a field on that form. But couldn't we reach out to those families? Because Yeah, throughout the school I I have reached out to and I got some information, but I think [clears throat] I hesitate to put more questions on the registration. >> Yeah, I don't think so. I don't think we do

069that. I think we just send do a survey to open enroll families. Just ask. Yeah, okay. I mean, we I think it'd be beneficial to know what's drawn them in to really >> Yeah, especially if we're spending the money for like the marketing to know where we need what we need to focus on. If people are coming here for air hockey, we don't need to be showing you up about table top golf. I will note that. >> [laughter] >> I can share what just came in from I don't know, it was about month and a half ago with uh Dina and Stephanie. Sorry. I didn't know who you were talking about, either, to be fair. >> [laughter] >> So, I mean, it's something that we could do again when the school year starts, so we

070know who's actually here. Cuz you might, just because they filled it out, right, may not come. So, I'd rather survey them when they do. That's No, I don't think it's like a rush we wanted it right now, but I think that just something that we should have just keep track of in each year and just see is it evolving? Is it staying the same? Why why are students coming here? And you know, you're right, most people won't fill it out, because we all get 10,000 surveys to fill out in our emails, but I think we can at least Three asterisks. Can I ask that question? We can't proceed [clears throat] until it's been answered. >> [laughter] >> I don't Yeah, I I don't think I want to make it more difficult for people to register,

071but yes, I I see your point. Yeah, I think we're all thinking outside of registration, just so we have a conversation. And then I have a question for Dina. Could you ask KCCI like the the time where the redirects, what is the possible households that fall into those numbers? So we know if we're getting 1% of them or 10% of them, because they're just telling us that, you know, this was served to 12,000 households. Well, we don't know how many households are in in the in that group. In that group. So I can I can follow up with KCCI. I um One of my notes here. So I I didn't ask KCCI that question, but I will, but I did ask Gemini that question. Uh so in terms of households in Urbandale with children 12

072years and younger, it's approximately 17,000 >> [clears throat] >> 547 is what Gemini has shared. Now granted that's That seems like a super That's a really high penetration. That's a lot. I'm going to follow up on what that is, but um that's just one one data point that has been out there, and then we can dig in a little bit further though with the the data sources that Burst has. So Yeah, I will follow up on that. Thank you. Can we also get this presentation digitally so we can refer back to it? Yeah, I think that's Yes. Yeah, we have portions of it if you're comfortable. Oh yeah, no. We just wanted to get the most updated data. That's really I just know I'll look back at it in like 6 months and what not.

073It was neat to hear how all of You have such a wide reach with those impressions. Do you have a feel for how many of those are overlapping? Like I see it on my phone, I see it on the TV, I might look at a webpage like Yeah. I don't have an idea necessarily in terms of how much is overlapping other than the fact that we hope that they are overlapping because we just know that recognition is is what drives behavior. And really, I mean, if we think of kind of that rule of thumb, seven uh impressions of something uh is what it takes for someone to take some type of action. And really, I would even say that number is probably higher these days cuz I think we're getting hit by so many different

074things. Um so I would say that number is probably at least more like 10 to 12 in terms of the number of times you have to see a message before you think, I'm going to do something about that. Um so yeah, I can find out a little bit more about that um if there is a way to tell like what that overlap is for >> [snorts] >> for those um impressions. Not critical. I was just curious. Okay. Yeah. Because they're comfortable adding all of it, I just went ahead and loaded that into Simply. So if you refresh your pages, it's going to be available for you. >> Thank you. Who has the next question? Go on. All right. On the I'm sorry, I have one more on the >> [laughter] >> Sorry, I I I

075was going through slides trying to figure out where my question is. So on the retargeting where like the the uh click-through rate, CTR Yeah. is a little bit lower, is it Are we going to make adjustments to certain parts that may not be performing as well um versus those that are? So um we can always make some adjustments in terms of what our messaging is for them. The click-through rates, I was just finding kind of the benchmark rates um cuz that's what I was doing some research on as well. So search retargeting click-through rate benchmark is the .04 to .08 is is kind of the typical range for that type of um online ad, and we're at .05. So we're we're within that reasonable range of what's expected. Site retargeting is .08 to about .15

076and we're at .14, so we're we're at the higher end of that typical range. Um and then just standard display, nothing to do with retargeting at all, is a little bit lower. So we feel like we are within the allowable ranges of what we would consider um to be expected um with these types of ads. I think the areas where we are standing out though is really in our Facebook our premium boosts there um having an eight over 8% click-through rates um is really strong, and then with that Story Studio, the fact that the average amount of time that someone is on there is over 3 minutes. Um just again helps us get a sense that we're hitting the right people with the right message at the right time. So but we definitely will always

077try to optimize anything that we can do with any of these tactics to increase that engagement. So This was wonderfully presented. I really appreciate your time to articulate it so well and take all of our questions. It was very well done. Well, thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> [clears throat] [snorts] >> The last student representative report. Yeah. Um so this past weekend we had prom and after prom. It was a really fun and successful event for all upperclassmen. I want to thank our parent volunteers for after prom. It was up very late and many fun prizes for the seniors. Tonight [snorts] the boys have their Kick for Hope tonight versus Ottumwa and you wear all black and it just brings awareness to the American Cancer Society. So they're playing

078tonight at 7:30. Um the ARL is teaming with the UHS service learning class for a pet adoption this Saturday from 9:00 to 12:00 at the Charles Tree Park south of the Urbandale Public Library. So that'll be a fun event if you're looking to adopt. And this week is also Teacher Appreciation Week and I believe the newsletter said they were looking for more support for our staff. So yeah. Um so I also have some important upcoming senior dates. So May 21st is the last day for seniors to attend regular schooling. It's also the last day for them to turn in their Chromebooks. May 26th is the required graduation rehearsal and cap and gown distribution at UHS in the north gym at 9:00 a.m. May 27th is senior awards at the PAC, and finally May 28th is

079the commencement at Drake University at at the Knapp Center at 7:00 p.m. All right. Here for Brandon and his team I'm Brandon. I currently have an after prom Okay, so tonight we want to provide you an update and then at the next board meeting we'll seek your approval for digital citizenship uh learning expectations for pre-K through 12. Um this was part of our strategic plan this year and coincides with the work we've been doing around technology within our system. And so in regards to digital citizenship, the gist of this is to really help our students to learn and be able to navigate, create, communicate responsibly uh on in the digital world. And so to begin this process, we did some info seeking uh to area districts and just what are they doing in regards to

080digital citizenship. We also spent time to review the ISTE uh standards related to digital digital citizenship. Um and ISTE is kind of the recognized uh organization that supports instructional technology. Uh and then we also um developed digital citizenship learning requirements for K-5 and 6 through 12 um that align to our common expectations across our system related to behavior um because much of what students do on a computer uh coincides with what they do when they're not on the computer in regards to behavior. And so making sure that we're continuing to build their capacity around that. We also uh sought feedback from the SIAC committee, the School Improvement Advisory Committee, uh related to the draft of those um and got their feedback related to each uh those sets of learning requirements. Yeah, so here you can

081see the finalized learning requirements. Um so we have learning requirements K-5 and then 6-8 and 9-12 all um have roots in those SD [clears throat] standards. Um Um and they also are organized along the Jayhawk way. Um we then are went in and we looked for where um these learning requirements already show up in our adopted instructional materials. So, where does it already already live that we can make those connections to so we're not adding more to plates, but we're really uh being able to highlight and strengthen that connection um that's already happening within our adopted instructional materials. And then where it didn't live, where these holes were, uh we then went in and constructed lessons and then figured out where best they fit. Um so, looking first at like courses, like if there was

082a health unit that then we could continue to add another lesson to to strengthen around and go deeper around a learning requirement. Um we went there. Um some of the lessons ended up at like the beginning of the year, um like first week, first 2 weeks of school, PBIS um Jayhawk way lessons. Um so, they kind of just naturally um fell in there um for our students. That's digital citizenship. What questions do you have? Great. Thank you. Thank you. Don't go too far, Brandon. All right. Next uh we're going to bring to you uh 6-12 business. And joining me at the table are >> [clears throat] >> Candy Britton. >> [laughter] >> Candy Britton, curriculum facilitator. >> Hauser, curriculum facilitator. So, these teacher leaders were working alongside uh business teachers this school year um related

083to current courses we offer at the high school. Um and then we also began conversations uh later this spring um with the additional courses that we're bringing to the middle school. Uh similar process that we use with all content areas where we first seek to understand what's currently happening. Uh we get that and begin to identify what others are offering around us as well as what is interest been in the last year in course requests, especially at the high school. Uh and then we begin to work with the instructors to prototype and begin to think through what could improvements um look like in courses. And so, these were Sorry. These were the courses that we took a look at. >> [laughter] >> The courses reviewed at the middle school consist of those new uh middle

084school electives that we are in the process of developing and those are listed there. And then at the high school, uh we only have one new course and that's the real estate principles, uh which will allow for licensure by the by the end of the course for um the students that engage with that. The others were just updating the already existing courses. So, the learning requirements that we really focused on um come from the Iowa CTE or career and technical education um in the [clears throat] business, marketing, and finance standards. And then we also included um standards from the employability skills and made sure that the employability skills are present and noted in all of these courses. Um we also have the area of career connected learning where we try to bring what's outside of

085school into school so students experience uh real-life applications of what it is they're studying and those are some of the the ways that uh we are trying to embed those experiences for the students. So, within these courses, the instructional materials that we're seeking approval of in computer skills or computer exploration at 6th grade, it's Type to Learn. And the 6th grade course Business Explorations, eDynamic [snorts] Learning. Uh for Smart Money or Financial Literacy in 7th grade, we're planning or wanting to use Junior Achievement Finance Park and then the Junior Achievement um pack that goes with that to prep them for Finance Park. >> [snorts] >> For Business and Market Systems, uh we're creating those in-house, those lessons and that those units. And then for the Entrepreneurship course at in 8th grade, Kid Inno- Kid Innovator,

086which comes from the University of Iowa. Um it's great uh program that helps support students in thinking about entrepreneurship. And then at the 9-12 level, for Personal Finance, NextGen Personal Finance is the recommended material uh from the teachers as they worked through that. And then for marketing, again a Junior Achievement um program uh to lift that course up. And then Intro to Business, eDynamic Learning was identified, which is the sibling course to the um middle school course. Uh and then Biz Innovator, which also comes from the University of Iowa, which is the sibling course uh to the Kid Innovator Entrepreneurship course. And then for Real Estate Principles, uh it was identified through a thorough review that Dearborn uh was the best option. Um and so, those are the instructional materials that are being recommended. What

087questions do you have about the business review? It's very thorough work on that. Thank you. All right. Next, we're going to walk through the K-12 [clears throat] music curriculum review. This was an opportunity for the entire music program to work through the review process. [snorts] And to do that, uh began with a similar process where we began with empathy interviews, speaking with the instructors to talk through what's working, what might be opportunities to grow. And then we set dates for the team to come together. And then began to identify what the current state is and the desired state and clarify beliefs and vision. Um [snorts] so, courses reviewed, we looked at um all music courses, including K through 5 general music. Um which also includes 5th grade band. Then we have 6th grade music exploration.

0886th through 8th grade band, 6th through 8th grade chorus. And then our various high school ensembles in both band [snorts] and choir. >> [clears throat] >> For the learning requirements, um we really leaned into the Iowa fine arts standards, which actually come from the National Core Arts Coalition. And we looked at um the general music grouping of standards in addition to the traditional and emerging ensemble grouping for those standards. Um for career connected learning, when we're looking at music and fine arts, we really look at those leadership opportunities in small groups. That especially comes in to play at the middle school and high school level with small group and and sectionals. And then through all grade levels, um they're continually working with goal setting and time management in practicing and giving feedback to each other

089and then also self-reflecting. So, the recommendation for instructional materials, as this group came together, uh currently our K-5 general music courses um use Game Plan and they want to continue the use of that um instructional material. And then Music Play Online is another material that they're currently using and they want to continue using that. And then for 6-12 band and chorus, uh MuseScore, MusicFirst, and IPA Source um are all uh resources that they would like to begin using or continue using. Any questions for the K-12 music? Great. Thank you. >> you. >> [laughter] >> You stay. Don't go anywhere. Sorry. 15 more. Just two. Yeah. So, uh >> [laughter] >> finishing up uh the remainder of the social studies electives, we brought the science electives, the few that we weren't able to finish last year,

090and we have just a few uh left for social studies and we're bringing those to tonight. Again, we began this process in 2024. Uh but as we started with core social studies and then we had two phases of the electives. Started with those empty empathy interviews, [snorts] set dates for the team to come together and talk through, identified the desired state. I do want to note that the standards uh were recently approved new social studies standards were recently approved, so uh [snorts] there are updates that are in process for the courses that were done in 2024. Um but hopefully what was recently approved will stay put for a little bit now. Yeah. So we reviewed psychology and sociology. And we were able to um use the new newly approved March 2026 standards for those social

091studies classes. Looking at the career connected learning um and talking with the instructors for these classes, we really tied in to some of those um career opportunities that students would have in both psychology and sociology and pulling in um speakers and similar experiences and then also providing opportunities for student leadership and collaboration. Um both courses have a project-based um format. And so the recommendation for these two courses is the BFW Thinking About [snorts] Psychology textbook uh and then OpenStax Sociology. Any questions that you have about remaining electives for social studies? Do you have any insight into how the new March 2026 standards compare to prior? Yeah, they're significantly different um in that there was legislation passed where there are um must includes and may include uh related to the content of the standards, which is

092a little different than previous iterations of social studies um standards um and there's more of an emphasis on civics across all grade levels and financial literacy. Uh which dovetails really well with the new requirement for the civics test to graduate. Um and so we're preparing to have our current juniors engage with that assessment yet this spring um to kind of do a trial run of what that will look like with those 128 questions um to just see what we need to know as we roll that out in the future. Yeah, so uh the K-5 social studies review actually we met for the first time right before this meeting um and so we have a group of teachers working through that process with those new standards um to bring that online uh fall of 2027. So.

093Does the civics exam come from the Department of Ed? Uh it's the national citizenship test uh though they worked with Iowa testing um to create multiple choice questions related to each of those with uh distractors within the questions. Any clue on time period? Um How long is that test going to take? >> I haven't taken it myself uh but uh when I took a section of it um I was able to like go through it in 10-minute pace maybe. So are we foreseeing that that exam will come through a history class or Um well we're going to offer it every year. Um and so we're kind of >> Just for fun. Well >> [laughter] >> the guidance from the Department uh kind of encourages a yearly administration. Um once you pass it, you've completed the

094requirement. >> Oh. Um if you don't get the 60% or better um you do start over um on the question all the questions. Um but we are working through some other ways to get information in kids' hands um such as you know signs with the speaker of the house on it uh throughout the building. >> [laughter] >> And Now is there accommodation for people on an IEP for example? There are. We're still um getting guidance related to what that looks like uh more specifically for students that maybe have more significant learning differences uh and just >> And is it in different languages? Um it is not. Um Though there are accommodations for students that are English learners that can be provided. Yeah. So we're working through what that could look like as we uh begin

095to start that process. And just the inter like when students leave the district, come to the district, making sure we have accurate information about if they've completed that requirement. Yeah, so is that a state registry? Uh right now they're leaving it up to the >> [laughter] >> the district uh but maybe more guidance will come to that. Greetings with Brandon. Yeah. My question's [snorts] gathered. Of the portion of the test you took, how confident were you in your answers? I was pretty confident. I think I think I got not everyone right. [laughter] And they were the harder section I would argue. It was like um I think No, no. The more recent uh legislation that I do want to point out is that a bill was passed very recently where they're adding social studies to

096ISASP. Um and so our eighth graders and uh 11th graders will engage in I am a test in ISASP uh for social studies, but that is um at least a couple years out because next year will be test development. Um they did simultaneously move science to 11th grade, so now our 11th graders will have a pretty big year of a testing along with the civics test if they haven't passed that, so um pretty significant change I would say. All right. Busy team tonight. All right, uh so the 6-12 manufacturing, [clears throat] this will include our 9-12 manufacturing courses. You'll note that in the fall we brought a new course to you that would kind of round out our offerings and also meet um kind of CTE requirements for state reporting. Uh we also are bringing

097online a host of options for our middle schoolers uh to get them um in that explore stage of manufacturing. Okay, um in our process we looked at our current state and reviewed what courses we are offering and based on some surveys what courses showed uh an increase in interest by the students and then how could we meet those interests from them? Um we I think we did this one. >> Yeah, we did this one. >> [laughter] >> I think last slide. >> This is journalism. This is actually journalism and I did this one. >> [laughter] >> So I will take it. >> I'll do it. So far it's the same. Great. We are similar. >> So uh so yes, uh had the opportunity to work with the journalism instructor uh the journalism instructor uh this

098school year. Um we have two courses in journalism at the high school, but one is a repeatable course. Uh and then we're adding sixth grade uh we're adding a journalism course um so that'll be a great opportunity for our students to learn more about journalism, but also writing um as they enter sixth grade. So engaged in a process with the instructor to talk [clears throat] about current state and then also what would be a dream state and um some exciting things came of this review um as I said, the sixth grade journalism course, we're excited for that course coming online. But then the foundations of journalism course, which was previously called journalism one um was reworked uh but built off of current state, which is they produce a magazine um at the end of the

099semester and we're excited to lift that up in both print and digital moving forward. Um and it will really be a synopsis of the events of that first semester and that course will actually run twice during the school year, so both semesters get that um summative uh piece to be able to showcase across the high school. Uh but then we had a course called journalism 2 3 4 and it was named that because it was repeatable. Uh this course is still repeatable, but we're moving away from that title to a more um student interest-focused title uh which is called newsroom and media production. And this course I'm super excited about because it will partner with our communications team within the district and those students will actually be student writers for our system um and do

100stories um that will get lifted up in social media and also uh newsletters and our webpage. The standards [snorts] we used to develop these courses' learning requirements are the sixth grade English language arts standards. Uh the news literacy standards, which is a nonprofit organization that is mission is to really build news literacy and to be able to decipher bias and reliability and lateral reading across sources to make sure that you're getting a complete picture. And then we utilize the Journalism Education Association and the employability skills for each of those bands. And talked through with the course instructor different ways that we can bring career connected learning and this is important because it ties back to the D-cap which is why we've really been intentional in our work with teams to make sure that we're working

101with the instructors on how will we lift up career-based learning but virtual and in-person journalism professionals interviews and listening and speaking. So each of the courses have a how to interview somebody. Um and then kind of the logistics of doing that and doing that in a way that is supportive of that experience for the student and the person being interviewed. And then in newsroom and media production excited to kind of bring forward project management through the use of agile. We use that in other project-based courses at the high school to really walk through what does it look like to run a project from beginning to end. And so the recommendation for these courses as an instructional resource beyond what is instructor-made is the News Literacy Project for specific lessons around the First Amendment bias and

102kind of strategies to read across sources. What questions do you have about 6-12 journalism? Does this fit in one of the strands fulfilling the English requirement? >> Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't generate English [snorts] credit for graduation. It's considered [clears throat] interdisciplinary or yeah. Like social yeah. >> [clears throat] >> I have a question about manufacturing though. >> [laughter] >> All right, we have no public comments tonight. So next step is the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to move that forward or So moved. And can we separate out on the personnel report and take that as a separate vote? So do you have a motion for all of 10 except for item E? I'll second. Yeah, and I would move to approve the entire agenda except for personnel. I have a motion to

103second. >> Sure. I can always second it before she said it. >> [laughter] >> It's all good. That's what I have down. All right, ready for a roll call. Okay, no questions or anything. >> Oh, no questions. I just want to make sure. Okay, I put a question in but it's more for a for later thing. So I had just asked if we could get like a running total of our curriculum contracts that we could compare year over year just as we look forward at more and more budget constraints but I don't need that now nor do I need it soon. Just if we could keep an eye on >> I did connect with Brandon today. So I have something I was going to put in your weekly update this week. So we'll start with

104Horton. Yes. Hauser? Yes. Kent? Yes. Santizo? Yes. Ben Rice-Swiggett? Yes. Williams? Yes. Young? Yes. Motion passes 7-0 and then on to the personnel report. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report? So moved. I'll second. Santizo? Santizo. And we'll do a roll call. We will start [clears throat] with Hauser. Yes. Kent? Yes. Santizo? Yes. Ben Rice-Swiggett? Yes. Williams? Abstain. Young? Yes. And Horton? Yes. Motion passes 6-0 with one abstention. All right. Perhaps the most exciting event of the year to approve the graduates for the class of 2026. There are 347 students graduating. Wow, that's amazing. It's a lot of kids. Yeah. When you consider the other end. Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> I would move to approve the 26 graduates 2026. Second. I'll second. Who Horton. Horton. All those in favor please say

105I. I. Opposed? All right, motion carries. But you guys can tell the other guys that they left early that we didn't approve those two. >> [laughter] >> Just them. >> [clears throat] >> All right, the next order of business is to approve the 2026-27 administrative contracts. >> [snorts] >> What questions might you have before a motion? I would move to approve the 26-27 administrative contracts. I'll second. All right, this is a roll call. We'll start with Kent. Yes. Santizo? Yes. Ben Rice-Swiggett? Yes. Williams? Yes. Young? Yes. >> Horton? Yes. Hauser? Yes. Motion passes 7-0. Okay, I apologize for texting during the meeting. I just wanted to let you know Eric Barron is going to join us through Zoom and I said I would text you so you can pull off and not do this coming

106down the highway. Anna, I don't know if you and Ashley do you want to come up and maybe drive the presentation? Can they do that really? Yep, sure. That'll save you the That's fine. And I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to turn him around so you guys can see him but first I Or did they see her? Is she going to be on screen? He's going No, he's going to be here. I just have to Cuz I can move the computer over. We didn't We didn't even see each other today. >> [laughter] >> Eric, are you there? Yep, I'm just going to What did I hit Julie? Hide self view? Are you coming on? I'm going to [clears throat] turn you to the board. You are Are you stable? I'm stable. >> [laughter]

107>> Oh, no. I'm moving out of the Oh, okay. Oh, you get to sit at the little table in the middle Eric. Feels like you're really here. There you go. Eric, um Anna's going to drive the presentation. So if you just want to say should she just click through as she can listening to you? Yeah, that's perfect. Okay, you can go ahead and start. >> We are 13 miles from picking up my son in Florida. So glad to join you. >> [laughter] >> We're almost there but tonight we got to work on some playground stuff for Webster Elementary and so [clears throat] click through the slide here slideshow. A lot of images but as I shared before this is the the overall site plan that that's currently there on the western side. You guys share

108that park Jeff Harmon Park with the city and as part of this project we're we're definitely making some changes to not only enhance the city's portion but also the school district's portion. So next slide. [clears throat] So as you can see here again most of the playground is on the left hand side. The areas in red are the new development areas. The area that's highlighted in green is the current pre-K area and one of the things that through discussions with not only administration but also surveying parents and staff and not so much the students but in this scenario but moving that area closer to the building. Two reasons. One there's a there has been some vandalism and things that have happened at the at the park area and then number two you know it's better

109situated closer for the students that are coming out of the basically the circular drive that the door area there. That's a much safer and quicker route for them to get to the the play area during the school day. So that green area would become just just grass in the in the future here. Next slide. So this is just a a detailed plan that shows the the grading and the topographic area. The one thing that I want to highlight is the reason for the shape of the pre-K area that's up against the building is we do have an existing water and storm line that are buried on the ground and we we should not cross those when building new above ground structures. So we are avoiding that but still allocating uh the amount of square that

110we need to to host that area. Um so this is just a a detailed layout. Um a lot of the uh just to show you the equipment and the uh the fall protection areas that are required and how that was all situated. So on the right-hand side you can see um the main uh the main components is a a large play structure in the center. Um and then we do have we we had a lot of discussions with the um Webster administration um about swings and types of swings also being inclusive. Um we want to make sure that this is inclusive for uh students of all ages and all abilities. And so um there was an option to replace the traditional swings with a more inclusive um uh swing area uh that's been located to

111the north. And then on the south area there um there are a couple of items that are in storage uh for the district. And so uh we will be in implementing those items that you currently have but also allowing some some uh just open run area. That entire area will be fenced um as required by uh the um education DHS. Um then over on the left-hand side you'll see uh the replacement of the um the 5-12 and and Jeff Park Park area. So again a large play structure in the uh south end. And then we have uh swings. A new element will be a a glider. So I don't know if you've been to the um Northview Park uh which is the baseball diamonds. Uh they do have kind of a glider system out there

112which is another kind of inclusive play uh item. So that'll be a new enhancement to the um to the park here. And then a couple of individual items there um in the in the center. I do want to note that the existing climbing structure that is um just to the east of that uh of that new 5-12 area, that is staying. Um that is in good condition and the the uh surface area that's below there is also in good condition at this point. >> It's the it's the one that's turf help manage some of the costs here in the redevelopment. Next slide. So here you can see um just a generalized rendering. Um please don't pay so much attention to the perimeter of the building components. Those are just there for um just for context.

113Uh and the relationship to each other again is not exact uh as you as you saw in the last one. This is again just a rendering purposes. But what I do want to show you there is we did talk about interactive and imaginative play. And part of that is creating that through the surfacing. So we are proposing a a rubber surfacing that's uh level with the surrounding grade. You currently have a raised rubber uh condition which is uh can be a tripping hazard and has been uh you know experiencing settling um above and you know uh below with weather conditions. So what we have here is a kind of a river runs through it. Um uh uh imaginative play so that there are elements that can be used in conjunction with that um that are

114in the uh that you'll see in the renderings. Um and just it is two uh three tone so the outer band is kind of a uh tan. And then the inner uh one is two two shades of blue. Okay, next slide. Um here you you can see a rendering of the 5-12 5-12 area. So you can see the large structure in the middle. That's a a an all-inclusive uh play area. It does create opportunities again for um for those with varying abilities. Um and then right in the front you can see that uh that climbing uh uh I'll say trapezoid um area. That's a that's a new piece to enhance the climbing abilities. Um and then in the background there you can see the the glider and the traditional swings. Okay, next slide. Um the

115the the remainder of the slides here just show you different varying um aspects of the or renderings of the of the area. Uh one thing to note is that we have included some shade structures in both this area and in the in the pre-K-12 which are um required for educational environments. Um and then the other thing that that um has been upgraded here is generally the the uh the shade structures are fabric. Um but what we did include on that large structure in the center you can see some of those uh um you know angled caps. Those are permanent. Um they are not fabric so that will uh contribute to the longevity of that of that space um and that equipment. Next slide. Sure. So again you can just see here uh varying that kind

116of circling around. There are slides. Um I do want to note that um Ashley and um Anna uh were very uh thorough in contacting parents and students and um and their administration their their staff members um in doing surveying. So all the equipment that you're seeing here is a direct result of of their input and the survey input that was received. Signed. So again just some closer up images there. You can see that climbing structure on the left. Um the large structure in the middle with um slides and and varying climbing uh aspects. Do you want to talk about the ramps? The ramps. Can you hear me? Next slide. Eric, you know I want to know if you want to talk about the ramps. Uh yes, there are some ramps uh included within there to

117um to again help with the inclusivity of um allowing students to do parallel play. So you have older students that can be um uh like on monkey bars and then there are some uh areas right next to it where they can uh they can ramp up onto that. Um and that's uh that's a unique feature. So I think this is a picture of that >> you can you can see that right in the center there. >> and then there's monkey bars right here so they could technically be playing with each other. That's cool. Yeah, there's that ramp and and that you can see that. So this component here is some of the imaginative play structures that were included. Um again direct result of feedback from the staff, students, and parents. Um so allowing them to

118um you know interact and trying to create their their own play um and not being restricted by uh the equipment that's there. So then if you'll remember we have all that imaginative play equipment at Webster. And so we wanted a space for them to be able to use that that's not on the grass, that's not um and so I would let him keep talking but we're excited about that part. Okay. So these are some of the individualized components there um that again provide opportunity for uh students of all ages to either imaginative play um not only with the equipment but also the surfacing um and then um just you know climbing and different levels of agility. Um you can see the log over on the right-hand side. Uh so you know again imaginative that crosses

119the the uh the river. And then here's one of the shade shade structures to provide again some uh some different opportunities uh under there. We have a lot of like kitchen type things so we wanted it to and we wanted it to look a little bit like a stage too. Um so students could be use their imagination and play in that area. Eric, is the surface flat because in the rendering it is. Okay, the renderings looked like they were different heights. Okay. Yeah, all all of the surfacing is flat. It's a rubber surfacing so um it is varied in thickness um and in softness uh with respect to the fall protection areas. So every every piece has a fall protection. Um it's a little bit squishier in there but then all the other perimeter areas

120uh do provide um uh hard uh soft surfacing and again it's ADA compliant so you can have children of all all ages and abilities to to be able to use that. And that's that glider system there that you see. Just some traditional swings. And again more images of that uh kind of a bird's eye view there looking from up on on one of those canopy pieces. Um you can see here uh that inclusive swing. That's that's also um located in the pre-care pre-care area. And um uh and allows for up to five five students to be on there at one time. And this is an inclusive seesaw. And behind it is like an inclusive world like they have at Caring Acres where they just get onto it even if they're in a wheelchair. Right. And

121just a few images here of the pre-K area. So they have uh one main structure that's there um and uh with slides. Um we tried to limit you know areas of um of what I'll call hiding. So there is a tube there but um for for visibility and supervision um we tried to limit how long those things are so the students don't either get claustrophobic or feel trapped in there or there's low visibility. Um we are providing the straight shade structure there as part of that um that requirement. And then you can see here uh that that inclusive swing uh where up to up to five students can play. Again, that was an option um versus doing traditional swings, which would limit, you know, the amount of students that are um being able to use

122it at any one time um and and also inclusive for D. And so uh just a quick schedule there to show you kind of where we're at in the in the overall grand scheme of things. Um we are um generally on schedule. Um obviously weather will always play a a component or factor as we move into the summer. Uh but uh in talking with um the administration and Uh hold on a second here. Sorry about that. >> [laughter] >> All right. Um so you can see there um uh with the uh the pre-K uh when they start, um we have denoted in the documents to um have that area completed first. So that area can continue on um uh with education and then the uh secondary piece um if necessary can uh can trail just

123behind that. Uh so looking at about Labor Day, but there's uh again weather dependent, there's plenty of open area for students to participate um and even uh still be part of the um the basketball hard surfaces areas. And then um just in relation to the overall cost, I know I provided a summary to all of you. Um we did uh um procure this on the um state of Iowa buying contract um uh clause. So that prevent What that does is provides you the opportunity to select um equipment and things of your choosing and make sure that you get the products that you're looking for, but at the same time uh receiving a discount because [clears throat] you are a uh a governmental entity, a public entity. Um and so you did receive a savings based

124on that. Um I also did some comparative analysis. Um I always like to kind of look back in the history just to see where things are comparing to um to other projects. Um so since 2021 when we uh first started Homestead, um our group has completed um over eight uh playground projects and looking at the overall inflationary costs and things, um you're we're actually projecting um this this project to be in the $62 to $65 per square foot range. Um but we actually came in at about $60 a square foot. So um when you look um historically from 2021 up to this point, um I think you're receiving a very good value for um uh for the product that you're getting. Um the other component of this and I'll I'll let uh uh Dr. Daka

125or or um financial uh speak to this, but I I do believe the city is contributing uh some funds towards this because it is a city park and it's a school use. So Yeah, um sorry. Um the city has they have committed to me that they would be taking it to city council. I don't know if it's been approved at city council or not. Um but they're providing a very nice amount that I don't want to commit out loud when council hasn't approved it yet, but between the money that I have set aside over the last few years in the Pearl account, the tax that we um put to the part of our property taxes, um that will pay for that That will more than pay for this. So we're within the the guideline that

126I imagined. I just didn't tell anybody what that was cuz I wanted to see the design versus hey, you've got this much money, so that I can do this with it. And Eric did a very nice job meeting the needs of Ashley and Anna. And I think there's also for preschool, there's a fence that will be there that was not shown in the video. So anybody that knows preschool, you know that that has to have certain state guidelines around the fencing and that has been included. Has there been any discussion about a fence? Uh one of the other factors um in the in the overall cost, um you know, looking historically, um this is a larger uh project than uh what we saw at the Karen Acres, the Homestead, and Valerius projects. And that is

127again uh a combination of being a a city park and a school uh playground uh combined. So um we're looking the your other playgrounds were about uh 12,000 square feet in all told here. We're just about a little over 16,000 square feet. Um and the other component about this is that we are moving the uh the pre-K area closer to the building. So we have a little bit more earthwork um and things to do that we otherwise wouldn't have done um at the other facilities uh being so close to the building. So um I I you know, I never take the cost lightly and you know, I understand that it it may seem uh like a large expenditure, but in looking at all the factors that uh that are playing into it, um I I

128have evaluated them and I do think you're you're getting a good value for uh uh for your dollars. So Eric, is there is there a fence going around the upper playground as well that wasn't pictured? Uh no, it is only going around the the lower the the pre-K area. Um you you you're not required to have one um around the the larger area. And being that it is a public park, most of the parks within Urbandale do not have um any fencing around those. Um I will say that the fencing has been a um a a main a problem area um in relation to vandalism. Um if you go out there now, you will see a lot of damage and destruction to the to the gates and to those components. So that's another hope here

129is that uh moving that closer to the building, you do have cameras um on the building and I know uh working with um Josh and and company um looking at how we can get maybe some additional video coverage of not only that that uh pre-K area, but maybe even also the um the the 512 area out there. Just again um number one deterrence is always a good thing um and number two is um if you are able to at least narrow her down times, um then we can uh we can address that with uh with the police department. So Well, and I I I do have Josh um looking into cameras that are I think they're called infrared. Is so they can see at night because there are things going on out there that we

130can't see, but it's also important to know that this is being paid for from uh tax money, so we can't close it off to the public. All of our playgrounds that have been created using Pearl money or any other tax-based funding has to be open to the community. So I if I wanted to put a fence up there, I wouldn't be able to lock it. So that's that's kind of the balance that we have to make. I do plan to move So soccer right now, it's close to Aurora. Um I do plan to move that up and not utilize that space for So it gets super muddy, but it's Aurora is just getting busier and busier right now, especially with construction. So at the start of next school year, we'll have football and soccer and

131kickball all up in the grass in between the preschool. And I think that's something that we need to explore because living over there, the amount of construction that you see is getting worse. You have the Carmel Denton housing going in, you have Des Moines Christian going in. There's going to be construction should the board approve this, there's going to be construction there. And I think that road is also on the city's plan to widen at some point. I don't know how much of it, but there is a portion of it going to go to a four lane or five five lane, wasn't it? Um so that's something I think we have to revisit once we get better direction from the city. Putting a fence across that uh on the Aurora side is going to make

132sense for safety purposes. So we just we're not there yet cuz I don't know >> don't know what Des Moines Christian too will do on their side either. >> Once they start building the middle school, I don't know. I've connected with their um leadership and I have to reconnect with them to get more detail on that, but that was one of the questions that I had too for the kids that like to explore off campus. We want to make sure that they're not falling into the lake or anything like that. [laughter] I would think that it would be to their advantage also. Now, of course now it's like a pond there. I would share uh a deep concern about the ongoing traffic on that on that road. >> [snorts] >> And it's not just cars,

133it's semis, it's construction equipment, and it's non-stop. And I I would share a deep concern about student safety. No, we just haven't gotten that far to No, but I think the the city needs to, you know, also consider that. So Okay, so I I have some concerns about this. Um I wholeheartedly support moving the preschool playground and a new playground for all of Webster. My concern is that we had sticker shock at what I remember, and I haven't had a chance to go back and look and verify a $600,000 playground at Karen Acres, which I understand is smaller um >> [snorts] >> area-wise, but I feel like the district at this point has an obligation to provide a playground for our students and in the same type of use that all of our other playgrounds

134have for their neighboring communities because even though Valerius isn't a community public park, people use it the same way that they do at Webster. Um so, I have concerns about the inequity that we're portraying by building something that is the Taj Mahal in comparison to our other big beautiful playgrounds in the district. And I thought that the board was kind of previously interested in creating good quality playgrounds for the community and our schools that would be comparable. Um Valerius and Olmsted both have bigger student body populations, you know, and so it's really hard to think that we're going about 67% above and beyond what Karen Acres had um price tag-wise. And I I I understand inflation. Um I'm just really hopeful that the city is going to supplement to a point that it does make

135our piece financially, not make neighborhoods, students, staff feel like we're building bigger and better for one community and not everybody. It's a It's a big concern of mine. So, without knowing all the numbers, it's really hard to vote yes on a million-dollar playground. I just don't feel like I can supersede the city when >> No, and and I respect that 100% and I also understand the timeline. And we know that there will be weather issues or manufacturing issues and we're on a tight [snorts] timeline to begin with, so we can't really delay at the same time. It's It's a tough space to be. And I would share that concern and you know, it's been in before we built new buildings. That was embedded in the entire community. Um I would also point out that some

136of our constraints were set up by previous generations of people and agreements that we weren't part of that um we have to try to figure out how to maneuver around. I share the dismay at a million-dollar playground. Um But again, there are some things that we we need to try to control what we can control. And I'm I So, I kind of agree, but I kind of feel like we're constrained by things that we we weren't part of, but they still exist. I agree. What else can pearl money be spent for besides Let me say that What [clears throat] What are the rules with how you spend pearl money? Playgrounds pretty much. Okay. Right. Well, [clears throat] we have to remember we've got a diminishing, [snorts] really poor quality playground on the Jensen property site

137and at the Rolling Green site and neighborhood residents are asking for something better there and at Jensen especially where there isn't a park that they can walk to. And I I prioritized Webster because they do have 400 kids in the building that is sitting with a playground that I know Eric called it sun fatigue, but it it's starting to We've had to close sections of it off. And Rolling Green, the plan was to if the board's requested, build it in the cost of whatever new or remodeled building. Jensen, I don't have any kids there. So, I feel bad that it's way it is, but I have to prioritize where there are actually students going to school. So, >> Well, and and and I agree with the priorities there. I'm just saying that I I think

138when we're listening to the community, which this board has made very clear that we want to listen to and do right by what everybody in the community is saying, they're saying there are other needs, too. So, Webster, yes, in my mind, top priority out of definitely those three. Um Now, part of the problem is that Webster seems like a new building, but it really isn't. Turns 20 next year. >> [laughter] >> And and you know, from from being in that environment, there are people there all the time, all hours of the day and night. Um But to Rachel's point, that's true. Uh I'm so worried about that. >> Yes. And I you know, should that be predominantly our responsibility? Probably not, but again, some of those agreements were made without Right. But if you're using

139pearl money, Yeah. you have to allow them on your you know, to use the property. Um And I'm encouraged by the camera piece, the potential there, but we have to remember that's another price tag on top of the security. >> and their outdoor cameras are in are old. They're They're something that would need to be replaced anyway. And now with the vandalism happening, it's even more important to make them something that The only other alternative Well, it's even not that great an alternative is to put lighting around it. And I I'm pretty confident the city doesn't have that in their budget and I don't know I I don't know if that would actually be a deterrent. You'd have Then you've got an issue of light shining in people's houses that are on the end of

140the um trail there. So, I I think you know, I don't [clears throat] I understand what you're saying, but I would also look at Olmsted and as happy as I am that they have three huge lots that they can play on. I mean, you guys have a nice green space on the other side, but that's even a busier road, you know? So, there's going to be disparities in any of the planning. So, I >> [snorts] >> I do understand what you're saying though. It'd be interesting if Des Moines Christian allows the public on their property. But if they're Yeah, that might be a different Did we Did I miss what What was I know that Karen Acres one was more recent. What was the cost of Valerius and Olmsted? I know how many years it

141was and inflation and all that, too. >> Eric, do you have that? I wasn't here when those prices were created. Uh you said for the cost of the um Valerius? Yeah, Valerius is probably the most current, but Olmsted, too. Yeah, so Olmsted was approximately $387,000. Um Valerius was um I need to do just real quick math here. I need to get you. What is Uh that was uh two years later and that was $560,000. Um Did we reuse for Karen Acres? Now, Karen Acres was a little bit different because there was a there was a lot of um hard surface. So, we we did mostly concrete there. The actual play structure area that we did was only about 5,000 square feet. So, when you look at the overall cost of of the Karen Acres project,

142it was um So, I told you the this Webster one was $60 a square foot. We spent $96 uh a square foot at Karen Acres because we uh we introduced so much uh we we replaced so much hard surface area and we increased the green space area. If you remember, Karen Acres is very tight um from a counting green space. So, we converted some concrete area into synthetic turf. And uh the actual play area was uh the the older group, the 5-12. The existing um pre-K area stayed just as it was. So, that's a I I just want to remind people that's a little bit of an anomaly there. Um the other thing that Karen Acres and Webster have included in them is demolition. Both the Olmsted and Valerius were brand new uh you know,

143clean build sites. So, the Webster component, when you look at that, um just just briefly, when I when I do some calculations, we're probably looking about 450 to um $5 a square foot in demolition cost. So, your overall equipment costs are in the in the 50 I'm just going to say $55 a square foot range. Um and so, when you look at um Olmsted, Valerius, and then going uh Karen Acres, when I when I just do the equipment portion, we're about 52. And now Webster, we're 55. So, that puts everything very you know, um in line with in inflationary costs of where of where we we see where we see the market happening. Um they're not the costs are not exorbitant when you look at the overall picture from 2021 to to today. What is

144what is the status on Valerius' play field because originally that was built as grass with sprinklers because there was a 2080 with the city which the city we let bow out of the 2080 but I know from when my child was at Valerius the play field was not playable a lot of the time because it was mud. It got reseeded. Do you I haven't heard any issues with the play field over the last 2 years and do you have >> [snorts] >> anything that came to you Lauren? Other than that we have worked hard to reseed and build the turf back. Um I don't know I haven't I haven't been over there for a bit to look exactly what it looks like right now but I do know that we we made some inroads on

145it. Um in the last off season to make it better. We closed it so that it could actually grow. >> the same at Olmsted actually because we had similar issues there with how beaten down it gets. Obviously the adding of the square footage of the the where we were able to add green space at Olmsted is really helped the other turf area because we have more we're spreading the kids out. There are there are rotating play surfaces at Olmsted where they don't have that option [clears throat] at Valerius at all so. Yeah. What's everyone thinking? I feel a lot better thinking about the demolition price piece being included in Karen Acres and Webster. Yeah that adds a lot of cost. Would you say that the playground you picked is like if you're comparing it to

146cars did you go for a Toyota are we talking a Jaguar like where are we? Just for perspective. So yeah so if that's a good question. In the Roma playground equipment it's more about quantity of equipment than it is in quality and you know you know low mid mid high. So all of the equipment that you have at all all of your schools is the same quality right? What we have here is more quantity which is equating to some of the some of the higher dollar you know dollar amounts. Um and I would say that there are some higher quality products that are imported from overseas from Europe and we don't we don't have those or not using those things. Those are some specialized climbing structures and netting systems and things of that nature. So

147what you're seeing here is run of the mill. It's it's the average it's what you know school districts across the state from small rural districts to you know the large metro district districts. It's the it's the same type of equipment same quality. So what we have here is really a quantity you know item. Again going to surfacing let let me just put it in in relation or in retro in perspective the 4000 the 4500 square feet additional because of the because of the size and and the the situation where it's a it's a shared park here just in the surfacing cost there's about a hundred thousand dollars there. Okay that's that rubber surfacing component. So >> [clears throat] >> um So again we have a we have a a size comparative issue that I'm trying

148to and I analyze and you know balance out for you in relation to the other to the other sites and that's why I did the cost per when you look at the cost per square foot that negates all of the all of the incremental size components. It tells me are we paying a fair price for the small and the large at the same at the same time and based on the numbers here I'll go through them just real quickly again 2021 where 32 29 2021 2022 for Valerius we were at 4668. Remember that was pandemic pricing that went almost went up almost 40% believe 5% okay. And 2024 Karen Acres was in that 50 is it 52 dollar a square foot range and in 2026 so 2 years later we're at about 56 dollars [snorts]

149a square foot. Um so when you look at the later years going from 2022 to 2024 then 2026 the inflationary values there have come down to that 4 5% range which is historically across all building projects whether you're doing a building or whether you're doing some kind of play component we've averaged that out to be about 6% over the last 20 years taking out those COVID years right there's about 3 4 years there where things were just bananas. Um but we are >> [snorts] >> we are actually on on the equipment here on the playground equipment side we're below that 6% average. We're ranging in that 4 5 6 you know percent. So that was that's my my base comparison and when I look at two other districts that we just did playgrounds for you're

150actually falling below the average cost per square foot for both of them and they were done in 2024 2023. So that makes me feel even better about the value that you're getting in the in the pricing here. When I had originally estimated this and I talked to Dr. Dhaka about 2 weeks ago we were sitting in the 1.2 to 1.3 million dollar range and so going back looking at the at the the discount structure of the of the price of the contract buying and looking at the quantities and tightening up some of those components we were able to get you below the million dollar mark which in general was kind of our our target of what we're what we're shooting for so um I I never like to say it you know we're same thing

151in my life you know it'll never be cheaper than it is today. Um but but when I do the historical pricing um and the quantity and the quality of what you're looking at um this is a this is this is a good deal. Dr. Dhaka if the city came through with [clears throat] let's just say some something fell apart and they can't help us. Would we have the pro money to cover this? If the state >> If the city the city for some reason it fell apart and they decided they didn't want they could they were not going to help us. >> The council The council says no. I I would probably have to take there's out of Pebble but I I have the money. Okay. I'd have to work with business to move but

152I can do a part of it cuz we had some money set aside for the AO move but if we're going to use go in a different direction with that financing wise which we haven't even gotten to yet I I have that yes. Okay. And we don't have an indication when council is debating. Well one of the council members told me they thought that it had already come across so I I did some searching and by terms and I did not >> either. I spoke with the council member this week about it and they said the agenda they haven't heard anything about that. It hasn't gotten to the level of the council yet. I could check tomorrow but I I yes can do it. If they didn't Can we >> [snorts] >> approve pending city

153involvement? Or is that too much of a change from It would still delay cuz I think the idea on the timeline would be to order Did you hear the did you hear the question? I did yeah a motion pending approval from the city. So and I would agree with what Dr. Dhaka has mentioned based on the timeline there everything was built or based upon um in the space game time Cunningham Rock receiving a purchase order by the end of this week which would allow them to to place it into their system. They do this every Tuesday. So placing that their order by next Tuesday in their system would allow the equipment to be on its way and and getting here for installation in in late July and then wrapping up as you see there in

154in August. So depending [clears throat] on when the city would approve their their funds or you know their their portion of it we'll certainly push that back by just I would say just as many weeks. >> [snorts] >> So if they if they were to you know act tomorrow then every you know everything could kind of stay on track. If they if they approve it next week everything just kind of slides from there. And then they wouldn't be able to start preschool. Right. >> So we're really just going out on a limb here that the city is going to approve it. That's the board's I would hope that it would be >> struggle. I can share that when Dr. Daka and I met with the city, I felt they were very earnest and collaborative. I

155had no indication that they were reneging on the matter of it anyway. They were very supportive. Jeff Harms is a personal friend to Mayor Bob. And they were very open and generous. I would agree with that. >> [snorts] >> Sometimes elected officials make different decisions than That's [laughter] what I was just thinking. You weren't talking to council and I I have trouble putting the district on the line to build a city park. That I mean just plain and simple, I really do. I understand our 2080 agreement. Um But that's true for But I also feel terrible like I mean I I know the position that we're in at Webster. So it's But that would be true no matter where it was if the money's being paid and Pebble is also a taxable But we wouldn't

156be building 16,000 square feet instead of 12,000 square feet. Just because you have the space doesn't mean you have to fill it. Eric, is it possible to do the preschool order first and like approve it in partial? Because we don't want to delay the start of preschool while these other loose ends are tied together. Uh yes, we we could do that. Um I don't have that that number for you tonight. Um I can I can work that out and I [snorts] can get that number for you uh but I I don't have that uh cuz it was bid as as one complete package. So But would that would that cause a problem with our package price? Uh I would I would Yes, I would probably say yes. Increase cost to all the details behind that

157I I think there could be a a challenge there. I don't know how you would approve it without the number either. [clears throat] I mean I like that idea but I don't like that So the the one thing with your motion to to motion pending city uh you know, approval there's nothing wrong with that other than timeline. And so um you know, that that's a fair motion um but then just understand that you know, we would be looking at some time after Labor Day. Uh I'm just I'm making an assumption here because I do not know if, when, how the the city is processes is uh moving through. Um but I'm just I'm hypothesizing that that would just mean a probably sometime in September completion. And so the question then becomes um how long does

158the the current equipment stay in place uh prior to demolition? So that we just work into sequencing and logistics um uh when they would tear the tear that equipment out um and uh prepare the area for the new equipment and then in relation to them moving forward. Um so in general, each one of those like the the pre-K area would take approximately um so the surfacing takes 7 days to cure after placement and then the the equipment [clears throat] itself takes about a week um to install and then the the earthwork that happens prior to that roughly a week. So that that area is about a 3-week install from start to finish playability and the larger area I would just say roughly um 4 weeks. Now they can do some things in conjunction, right? They

159there are some sequencing [snorts] that can happen together while those crews are on site. Um so it's not a you know, it's not a a 2-month process all told because uh but we are looking for them to complete one area first and that does take them out of sequence over there. >> [clears throat and cough] [snorts] >> So I just pulled up the city council agenda meeting for tomorrow and I don't see it on there. So then we're we won't have an answer from them for a minimum of 2 more weeks. Which makes the closeout connected even then >> [cough and laughter] >> the next order from [clears throat] the playground company. Correct, yeah. If you go back one more time, if we >> [laughter] >> if the city does not come through with and

160we don't have enough for all funding, we use Pebble funding, that's what you said. What are the implications of that ish dollar amount that you would need? Because of like what in terms of what I have to what other things we might have to wait on or funding we might not have through Pebble first. >> The the amount that I have set aside for the AO, it it's not allocated for anything else. And it's Pebble and save, so I'd have to work with finance to see which one would be better. I think [clears throat] would be better. But that's just me sitting here off the top of my head. >> worst case scenario finance wise versus the worst case scenario of not being ready by September 4th, which it may still not be depending on

161weather and construction. Yeah, I'm not taking it from [snorts] uh another project. >> committed project, no. I don't know if I I don't know. I kind of share Rachel's hesitancy in >> [clears throat] >> committing to something when we don't know the we don't have a firm commitment from the city and we're committing We're committing a million >> potentially committing a million dollars um you know, we've discussed the importance of having an AO that we own and that we're not >> [snorts] >> throwing rent money into and potentially doing something with the Karen Acres property. And I I don't know that it feels good to me to be taking money from that. You know, >> [clears throat] >> there's a lot of unknowns. Well, that that was money that was set aside started to be

162set aside before I came here. It it wouldn't we've kind of dipped into that to pay for unexpected roofs and unexpected maintenance that had to happen. But the way that we are looking to to possibly finance the AO wouldn't even use that money. We would be looking at our save and borrowing against our save money. So you wouldn't need that money for the AO. Not not if we go through save, that money would not it wouldn't cover it anyway. But it it would not be the money. I'm not that would not be taking money away from the AO change. It's just been sitting in there labeled that. So every year it's cuz you know, we haven't built an AO, it just keeps moving down the But we have you dipped into that for other like

163H-back and leaky roofs and like quality of our building and buildings and environments for our students. So the idea of spending that down and not having that safety net. I don't I don't know. At the same time, I fully acknowledge that the playground needs to be replaced and the the um preschool especially, but I share in the sentiment that >> [clears throat] >> A million dollars seems like a lot. I would also say that Webster hasn't really gotten anything. I mean that the attention, yes, their H-back is being fixed, but I don't count that cuz everybody has to have that sometime. But there hasn't been money spent at Webster. You know, I do a annual opportunity for principals to request Pebble money cuz we have a certain amount set aside that they're kind of like

164little grants that we give out so that the things that are the extra stuff can be used. One thing, I think it was your uh library furniture. But other than that, there hasn't really been a lot of money spent on Webster. What are the other schools getting for those kind of projects? >> Um they've put a lot of them have put it in for furniture, for murals, for painting. I know that's one of the things that Anna's put in for this year. We evaluate those next week, but they shouldn't have to put that in for painting. That should be on a regular schedule, which is something that we're also working on. But I just say that because Webster's really been they're not getting things. Other schools have all of these state-of-the-art things and like we

165said, what it's not it's not a brand new school. There there's a lot that could and should be done in that school. And if the playground is the the thing that we start with, I think that's a positive thing. And I I mean yeah, you you could go do something smaller and less expensive, but this is really I think a fitting project for the building. And I just the equipment that's out there is in a lot worse shape than I anticipated. The black underlayment that is there, they don't even make anymore. So it's not like we can even just go and say, "Hey, let's let's buy a bunch of that and put that in." It's not even available. >> Yeah. It's the same kind of thing that's out at Jensen and it's it's [clears throat]

166already it I don't know who thought of that material, but what they're going to be putting in is going to be far better. If you've been to Caren Acres or Olmsted or Valerius, you've seen and you walk on it, you can see it's a much safer. And that is a very expensive component of the playgrounds, too. I haven't walked through the playgrounds cuz now that my daughter's old enough to go with her friends, I don't have to take her, but I know she's talked about there her holes in the slides and I think you guys mentioned parts have been closed off and patched up. I'm assuming It got taken off completely. But we've had bolts recently falling out of things. And I remember seeing certain holes in the slides and cracks and all that. You

167see the wear and tear on the plastic. >> In the pre-K, there's a um on the swings, yeah, you have like the A thing that's on the ends. Four-year-old kids aren't going to dent that 6 ft in the air and there's dents. It's not it's not like it's collapsing under itself. It's thicker than that, but it's still an example of what I'm assuming neighborhood kids have decided and I know we can have the police patrol back there, but they're not going to go sit at a playground and, you know, try [clears throat] to determine what [snorts] teenage kids are trying to do. I think taking into consideration, too, that we're bringing back thankfully the dynamic learning program to Webster next year and we do not have any inclusive playground equipment at all at Webster right

168now. That a student in a wheelchair or needing any sort of assistance can access. So, if we do approve the playground, can we put this on Gina's list of amazing things to highlight in your Oh, of course. There'll be a ribbon cutting and a video and a It'll help the enrollment at Webster. Neighborhood will come and they'll be like, "Oh, there's a school here. We need to enroll in kindergarten." I mean, Anna said it early on in the project and I think the there's probably people in the community [snorts] saying Webster's Webster's enrollment is not what it used to be. Is the district giving up on that school? This kind of gives you a really positive confirmation that we're not giving up on on that [clears throat] building. That that building should still be getting

169students and I don't know what that's going to look like. We just heard the whole enrollment. That's to be seen, but I think if we didn't put some money into this and we let that playground I think the community's going to say, "Well, they really don't we don't want to do anything out there." The community and your students have put a lot of time and effort and feedback into providing for this, too, and then I think about outdoor play is good for kids and outdoor play is good for attention in school and safe outdoor play is important and what we provide, too, gross motor development. So, I think it sounds like a million-dollar playground, but there's a lot more component that we all know that's important. Yeah. [snorts] I will move that we approve Webster

170addition or the Webster playground project. I will second. It'll be a roll call. We'll start with Santizo. Yes. Van Reiswyk? Yes. Williams? Yes. Young? Yes. Burton? Yes. Hauser? Yes. Kent? Yes. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Really, thank you. And thank you, Eric. Can you hand me that so I can let Eric go home? Can we Can we put a clause in for every day that this doesn't fall on time that we can get like 10,000 off? >> [laughter] >> He got frozen for like a couple minutes. Thank you, guys, so much. >> [laughter] >> Do I what? >> [clears throat] >> Final stretch. I don't know, Max. I apologize. I can cover we're on the last item, the public hearing. So, I can cover that. Every year, you you may remember, we

171bring new board members, we bring a budget amendment to the table. Every district I don't know of a district that doesn't do that and basically right now they're setting the budget for the 26-27 school year and we're saying we need this much in this bucket, this much in this bucket. So, all of those buckets combined are budget. What this amendment is is coming back and saying, "Oh, shoot. We put $3 million in curriculum, but we should have put $4 million in curriculum cuz we didn't spend that over here." So, I just wanted to be clear, we're not asking for any additional money. We're just asking to slide it between buckets because we didn't estimate correctly and it's it's an annual thing that we've done. If you want to go back and look at any of

172the other hearings [snorts] or years. So, what we're proposing is we're asking the board to set the budget amendment hearing for May 18th. So, that would be the beginning of the next meeting. So moved. Second. Williams will second. Okay. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed, nay. All right, motion carried. And now, would you read this one, Matt? I've time for a recess. We'll We'll go ahead and take a recess. This week Um just so you guys know, we're not going to be moving Mhm. tonight. So, what we'll do is we'll go into closed session and then I need to confirm that everything is off with the live stream and all of that. So, we'll have a few minutes for everybody to get situated. You guys are dismissed. Yeah, thank you, guys. Thank you.

173We'll see you guys on graduation day, hopefully. >> [laughter] >> I wish we were going to see them Did you make sure your name was on that list? Yeah. Yeah, I did. >> [laughter] >> Have a good night, guys. Thank you, guys, for all your service this year. And I'll I'll grab the snacks out of there. We're going to go ahead and do a motion. We're going to do the first closed session. Oh, I thought we were going to go recess. So, just We're going to just need to read this. Let's go ahead and motion so we can start our closed session. Okay. So, I'm going to move that we have a I'm making a motion to go into closed session private code 21.5 1A to review or discuss records which are required or authorized

174by state or federal law to be kept confidential or be kept confidential as a condition for that governmental body's possession or continued receipt of federal funds. I will second. I'll second. Van Reiswyk, okay. All right. So, this is going to start with Van Reiswyk. Yes. Williams? Yes. Young? Yes. Burton? Yes. Hauser? Yes. Kent? Yes. Santizo? Yes. Motion passes 7-0. It's 8:43 and we will move into a closed session. >> Mhm. >> It's stuffy in here. I think it feels good. I think so, too. Still stuffy. Because it bumped up to 78 on its own. It's probably just It's probably set up on a certain time schedule. All right, we are are moving back in the open session. All right, and it is 9:05. And then we have action from closed session. Are we on? Mhm.

175Well, yes, I I'm sorry. I put the clicker away. I'm it's you. Okay. >> doing I'm sorry. Several things. So, if it's okay, I don't click. >> like to make a motion to accept this retirement agreement. Santizo seconds. We have to use names and words like we do other times. Okay. Thank you for asking those very good question. Um Williams. Yes. Young? Yes. Horton? Yes. Hauser? Yes. Kent? Yes. Santizo? Yes. Van Wyk? Yes. Motion passes. 7-0. Number 15 is motion to go into a closed session. I will move to go into closed session per Iowa Code 21.5 I to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual's reputation and that individual requests Favored 7. Second. Horton? Okay.

176And we're up to Young. Yes. Horton? Yes. Hauser? Yes. Kent? Yes. Santizo? Yes. Van Wyk? Yes. Williams? Yes. Motion passes 7-0 and it is 9:07. >> Mhm. >> I think it was you. No, you didn't. You just need to Here, I'll I'll forward it this way. Okay. I'll get This one too many strings on my hand. Okay. Or my hands. Okay. So, it is 9:53. You okay, Blake? Yeah. All right. We're back in open session at 9:53. All right, we have a a final agenda item, and that is to vote on the contract for a superintendent of schools. Um this is to give her the a pay raise. We gave all of our staff this year um a 3% raise, and we are extending the same 3% raise for her as well. I would entertain

177a motion to do that. I move that we approve Dr. Dockery's contract with the 3% raise. Kent will second. Kent, okay. And we're back to Horton. Yes. Howser? Yes. Kent? Yes. Santizo? Yes. Ben Resnick? Yes. Williams? >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That motion passes 7-0. Thank you very much. Appreciate your support. >> I've moved to adjourn. Howser? I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Two. The time is 9:45. >> I don't know what time it is. I don't know what time it is. I don't know what time it is. I can't tell the time of day.