001Okay, we'll go ahead and call this meeting to order on September 8th at 6 o' start with roll call. >> Hower >> here, Kent >> here. >> Me >> here. Mankey >> here. >> And Right. >> Williams >> here. Young >> here. >> You have quum. >> Thank you. >> I would move to approve the agenda. motion. Do I have a second? >> So all those in favor I >> I opposed. Motion passes. Miss Williams. >> District mission is teach all and reach all. The district vision Urbandale will be a school district that brings learning to life for everyone. And the UCSD school board mission is to partner with stakeholders to teach all and reach all through governance of board policy and operating protocol. >> Thank you. >> Next is facilities planning update. >> Um
002I wanted to introduce this item. Um I felt like it was prudent to put on the agenda so we don't lose the conversation. So, every agenda moving forward will have uh before the superintendent report a facilities planning update. The first thing that I put in this um is some information for the public. I believe the board had asked me to Steve and I to come up with a comparison of what does it cost to run the district office? What does it cost to run rolling green? And what would it estimate? What would we estimate the cost to be running rolling green as a district office? So, and for the community, um, if you look at the cost comparisons, we used the information from, uh, fiscal year, sorry, let me close this. They changed >> 23.
003>> Um, fiscal year 25 for rolling green because it was it was a storage empty building that year. And then the middle one is what it costs to run AO which includes the uh this building as well as the one on the other side and our storage place. And then the last one is if we we estimated what it would be to run Rolling Green as a district office. So I wanted to make sure the community also had that information and that was attached. We also linked, and I'll leave this in every um one of these agenda items so that it's easy for the community. Um stay updated and read the FAQs. As we get questions, they go into the FAQs. They come from any community member and anyone who goes on to our web
004page and asks a question. That's something that Dena works with us to make sure we get answers. And then the uh master planning update is in there. So there's no these are all discussion. there no financial impact. There's no action being taken. This is just a chance to keep the conversation flowing. You know that um on the 22nd, Tim Osweld from Piper Sandler will be here again and he's going to update you on our go bond, the general obligation bond capacity. Last time he spoke to the board about um some opportunities that we could use with existing PPE and existing SAVE funds to be able to accomplish what we needed to. So you're at the stage as a board I feel right now is you're digesting what you heard on the 18th. You're going to
005hear more on the 22nd. You'll digest that information and figure out what do you want from Steve and I to be able to give you more information to move forward. Um so that's where this agenda item will help keep that conversation at the top. So any questions on so far? >> Could I ask two quick questions? I think are simple ones. Um, with what with what's in storage that will all easily fit into like we wouldn't need to continue having storage. >> Nope. If we do the if we do the AO and the maintenance component to it. Yes, it would fit. It will fit within our our >> because it's partly the maintenance thing. Is that what's in storage? Okay. And then at one point you had said that would free up some space at
006the high school to move maintenance out of there. >> Do you how like is it one classroom? Is it two classrooms? Or is it just extra space back behind? Do we have >> It's extra space back behind. How many square feet would you guess that is back there? I know I'm putting you on the spot. >> There's um there's two small garage areas is what I would say. a little bigger than the other that are just jam-packed right now with with stuff. Um, and then there's there's offices that are occupied as well as a small area where multiple people office and where there's a printer and such. So, um, it's not so much classroom space as it is probably offices and a couple of small areas that currently house all kinds of different maintenance, >>
007okay, >> things. >> Okay. Okay, thank you. >> Is my memory serving me right? One of those areas is back behind the um IT classroom, right? >> Um both of the areas that I'm talking about are on the east side of the building by the loading dock area. Um, one is just east of the loan dock where you can you can get into there. And then there's another uh garage opening that's on the very east side of that building um a little further to the north. >> And the offices are kind of in the cafeteria like area >> outside there. >> So there's a hallway that goes down that center. So those are over there. So that's where that would be. And we also right now, you know, one of the things Jared is working
008on, if you look under the bleachers, >> there's >> everything is under the bleachers and it's kind of like that one closet or that one shelf in your garage, you just keep putting stuff on. So we we're trying he's in the process of trying to clean that up and make it more organized and finding better places. And one one area that we're trying to utilize that's just a little cleaner and and more uh enclosed is just across from the bleachers. There's actually an area that we're looking to put a better surface down so that we can organize the things that we can keep outside yet in a way that it separates the activities um things uh you know like uh >> equipment >> things for track all that uh separate from maintenance um things materials
009whatever >> okay >> we'll talk more about rolling ing coming up. So that like there's some things we have to look at and then what are we going to do and but we'll get to that after Tim gives us the next set of financials. >> Thank you. >> Do the rest of your report. >> So in my report I'm going to kind of combine the more you know with the the start of the year um update. I just wanted to give a report out. The first two weeks, we're in day nine right now. Feels like we've been in school for a long time, but it's only day nine. Um, but I attribute that to the fact that I believe the schools opened very smoothly and each of my team went to a school to support
010the school's opening and they just have it down so pat that everything runs very smoothly. Um, I know the student reps are going to talk about cell phones. Um, I want to just I've been over at the high school a lot with the third period algebra class that I've been working with Janine and walking to class, being in class, leaving class. I was over serving lunch last Wednesday. I just kind of stuck my head out in between the lunches. I'm personally very impressed by the high school kids because the kids in our algebra class come in, they either put their phones up in the chart or I don't see them. I don't see them pulling them out. Now, I'm only there on Tuesday, but I'm pretty sure it's the same. Um, it's not a problem.
011We had one student had his ear pods in, and Janine said, "Do you have your ear pods in?" He said, "Yes." She said, "Did you take them out?" He took them out and we never saw them again. And I think that's the stuff that we appreciate as the adults because we're not fighting the kids. They they've been doing this. The other thing I I thought was really interesting, I kind of and I don't mean this to characterize teenagers, but I kind of felt like, okay, when they leave class, they're all going to be like, you know, and you're not. There's there are kids on their phones in the hallways. There were kids on their phone at lunches, but I had kids with their phone kind of set up on a, you know, however they stand
012them, and you can see that they're playing a game, but they're really talking to the people that were at the table with them. So, I personally in that time don't see an issue and I hope it stays that way, but I'm really proud of the high school kids who have done this and the class I'm in is freshmen. So, that tells me that they learned something at the middle school level and they carried that on to the high school. So, I I know we appreciate that. So, um also wanted to talk about enrollment numbers for, you know, like I said, nine days. We don't do the certified enrollment count until October 15th. Um, but right now what I can tell you is our total enrollment, I had Alec pull it for me today, right now
013is 4,67. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that we have 4,67 kids sitting in our school. That means we have 4,67 kids on the rosters. There's going to be kids in there who have never showed up or who have um come one day and made another decision maybe. and it's all about who's there on the 15th. So, that's a good number to start with knowing that it might go down. Um, the area that we're the lowest in, I will say, is a considerable drop in kindergarten. I think my calculations were 31 students. I know some of the other districts um are down 100 or more. So, I don't know if that is a birth rate thing. This is our COVID year kids. I don't know if that's a voucher thing. We wouldn't know unless we hold
014all of the kindergarten kids in the non-publiclix. I mean, I will get I will have access to that once our certified enrollment comes in. So, I will look deeper at it, but it's still really hard to predict. The good thing about it is our elementary principles were very clear last year in multiple formats to let us know that they really wanted us to try to keep kindergarten low because developmentally the fewer number of kids in class they felt was easier to manage and better able enables them to prepare the kids. So our kindergarten numbers are low. I think our biggest ratio is 21 at uh Valyrias and Mstead and Webster and Karen's ratio is a lot smaller. So, that's a positive that we're going to be able to really narrow in with our kindergarten, but
015when I get the final numbers, I will let you know. Um, I took a look last week at middle school and high school schedules to see where we were. We know that we're doing an elective review at the middle school, so we knew that not making changes last year, we were going to see higher elective classes or higher core classes, and it's really not as bad as I thought it was. Eighth grade is where our numbers are pretty they're they're pretty high in some areas. Um, high school, I looked at their schedule. The only place that I found numbers that I felt were a little bit high, I'm working with Tim. Um, and that's some of the PE classes and maybe one or two of the learning centers. So, we're working to see if they
016can't make some adjustments on those, but it's much better than I think what we've seen in years past. So, it's encouraging. And those are the only ones that I had unless you guys have questions. >> Okay. >> Welcome. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't >> university parent university. Um, sorry guys. Um, you might remember a couple of years ago we had a parent university where parents could sign up to take sessions and the inerson at the high school. We got away from that the last couple years because it frankly was not well attended. Um, this year I want to try to at least engage with parents as a superintendent and do listening sessions. And I have the first one scheduled and I put all the information in the agenda. On October 14th from 5:30 to
0176:30, we have reserved Mstead for parents to come in and just they can submit questions ahead of time or they can submit questions while they're there. And I will um do my best to listen to what they have to say and bring any concerns back to my team that we might need to address. But I wanted to let you know that we were going to be starting that up again. I think um when Julie and I first looked at the calendar this summer, we had four >> sessions that we tenatively put on the calendar and we've already moved one. Um so there should be three others. I just haven't put those final dates on yet, but the first one is in October. And then the last thing I'm going to invite Stephanie Davis up to
018talk to you about the at risk programming and fill you in on where we are. Well, good evening. Um, normally at this time of the year, I'd be bringing you the update to our at risk handbook. Um, but as you may have noticed from the agenda this evening, the one that, um, I presented is the one that you approved last year. Thank you very much. Um, we are in the process of going through a program review for our at risk program. So it felt more important to take some time and really review the work that we're doing before bringing that handbook to you. Um so as a reminder to you, our at risk program provides different levels of support for students and families who are in need of it. Um when we look at students
019who qualify as at risk under Iowa law, we're looking at students who um may have two or more of these characteristics. whether they have a high rate of absenteeism, limited or no extracurricular participation, or feelings of belonging with the school. Um, in K8, they may be lacking their typical progress in academics in grades 9 and 12, 9 through 12, looking at students who may be behind on credits and or low achievement scores in reading and math. So, those are those are the characteristics that we're looking to help support our students. We have um a variety of staff who serve our program. We have teachers at the middle school and high school. We also have our Metro West program um to help our students uh who may have alternative educational needs um in their graduation pro
020progress as well as our facilitators of family outreach at from elementary, middle, and high school and our district-wide um student family and community services specialists. So looking at the different programs and providing um providing me for the needs of our families and students. Um so in the course of the program review we are about at the point where we are going to be seeking feedback from families. Um many of our families will receive a survey coming up soon having some focus groups to get more information and then we'll um have a team get together in order to create long-term goals, strategic actions and priorities. um in addition to some annual improvement goals for for the team. So, we're very excited to take a deeper dive into the work that we're doing. We know there's a
021lot of great things going on. So, really capitalizing on those and making improvements from there. Any questions? >> Thank you. Now it's so we want to welcome our student reps for the first meeting. If you guys want to introduce yourself and just a little bit of uh you and then you can move into your report. >> My name is Sam Beer. I'm a senior um at the high school and I just enjoy the performing arts and all sorts of stuff like that including music and um band and chorus. And I'm excited to be here. I'm Kate Shoemaker. I'm also a senior here at the high school. We're both involved in the same choir, band, studio, show choir. Um, and we're also both involved with um, student senate and um, I'm one I just got named
022one of our co-presidents this year. Um, and I'm also very excited to be here. >> Well, we're glad to have you guys here. >> Um, regarding the phone policy, I will say it's been very it's it's super similar to how it was last year. Um, so in terms of like people obeying it, it hasn't I haven't seen it be much of a problem except in stuff like connections, people trying to especially with the upper classmen who are used to having access when they were younger and now not. Um, because I know you said that the class you're in as freshman. So I feel like it's a little bit different for the upper classmen that at least that I've seen in my classes. Um, but the one thing that is different that me personally, I know
023Sam has too, and a lot of other students that I've talked to is with all the new blocks on our Chromebooks, we no longer have access to music privileges. So, Spotify, Apple Music, all YouTubetubes blocked, which we get why, but the problem is like I personally rely on that when it comes to like reading. I have, you know, plug in headphones. I would plug in headphones to my Chromebook last year and zone out on Spotify and it helps me focus. And there's a lot of people who are in that similar position who are really struggling this year. And like yes, a teacher could play music um but it's not the same if that makes sense than having your own music with your own headphones. Um I actually emailed it um to Mr. Carver a couple
024weeks ago. Um just kind of concerns and he said he was working on it. Um but he said that we should talk about that here. So I wanted to make sure that you guys were aware of that. Um and like I said, it's not just me and it's not just Sam, it's everybody. So and you want to talk about a year or so? >> Yeah. Um the beginning of the year has just been an excellent start. I've just felt like the energy from the first week um with activities like the pep assembly and everything. I just feel like the school year is off to a great start. Everyone's seeming to enjoy their classes a lot and just be really acclimated to the environment at the high school at least. So, >> I think Mr. McConnell
025told me he's taken 15 phones which one time. So, they got them back and when you look at 1340 kids that's pretty good. I mean, it's kind of the way they take your phone. They give you like a teacher comes and says, "I need this person's phone." And so I feel like a lot of people don't they don't want to get embarrassed by it. I had someone in my class get their phone taken today. And it like Yeah. So we're not trying to embarrass you. >> Um I feel like somebody here needs to ask about the elephant in the community. Um I've heard good things have progressed about Aurora at the middle school. I'd be curious to know what your perspective is on the shifting of the lanes at Aurora for high school arrival and
026departure. >> Initially, um I was a little wary, especially when they were doing construction over the late summer, but after the plans were finished, I believe that it has slowed people's uh traffic speed down. Now that there's only one lane and the bike lane, it feels a lot safer and a lot more streamlined in the way that people drive down it. And overall, a positive change. I remember I was I don't know if you were in that meeting. I was in a meeting where they talked to us about it and got student opinion. It was last spring sometime I think. Um and I remember initially thinking like oh my gosh this is a good idea. But then after talking to my parents like they were concerned about kids being on biking on that road. Like
027my mom was like I would never let you bike down that road to middle school or something because I'm just concerned about all the drivers. Um, but like seeing I agree with Sam like it was tough at first with the construction. I also avoid Aurora um a lot of the time because I just don't like to deal with all the stop signs and school stuff but um I mean I think it's been fine. The only thing I've seen is like and it's not really avoidable when you're coming out of school traffic has slowed a little bit turning on to Aurora and like with the four-way stop um that's on Aurora as well. It's been slower, but there's nothing you can really do to avoid that. So, I don't know how drop off at like the
028middle school has been. I know that was also a big worry, but I have no idea how like with how long the lines get. So, I don't know about that, but >> thank you. Thank you. >> Okay, Miss Davis, you are up to the loud. Well, since the pep assembly was mentioned, it would be really important for me to note that the the winner of the staff game was Mr. Davis, and he did an excellent job. Fell on the floor, rolled over. It was really well done. So, it was very funny. On that note, I think we can go ahead and move forward with the LAR plan presentation. Um, so looking at our e program, we can go ahead to the next. Um, looking at some of our staffing, we do have eight full-time employees,
029full-time teachers at our elementary, three at middle and four at the high school with one position being shared between St. Pas um and the high school. Um, the thing that we are most excited about is having our elementary and secondary e lead, our elementary e lead started this August and it has been a wonderful experience. I think our teachers are starting to see how that is um that position is able to support them and support the the teachers with whom they work. Um we also have these are our most common languages within within the district. We have 11 um EL associates interpreters within the district um to help with our communication between our families um and the school district. So, our program focus um is to increase proficiency with the English language, increase access to
030core content, whether through scaffolding supported by our EL teachers, and educating our multilingual learners to the same rigorous standards as all students in the district. Um, normally this is the point at which I would share um the the data regarding how many of E how many EL students um are in each building. But with our late start this year and some snafuss with some of the state systems, um we're not finished with our um screening yet at this point in time, but about 12% of our students in Urbanddale schools are part of the English learner program. This year, sharing with you some achievement da d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d
031d d d d d d d d da for our um students in the English learner program. Um you'll notice that there was a change this year, a shift in what we were monitoring. We chose to look at our um reading scores with our fast bridge. So whether our early reading or a reading depending on the grade level so we could monitor over time um where students were making making growth. What? So for the students who participated in the testing from fall to winter, of our students in the EL uh program, 52% demonstrated that they made growth. Of the students who took the assessments both winter and spring, we had 75% of our students um make growth. So we are continuing to look at ways um to get to 100% growth for all of our
032students. We're increasing our percentage this coming year. um 10.4% of our students exited the program at the end of last year, which is a little bit down from what we've seen. However, 62% of our students within the program demonstrated growth in um plus one or better. So, in the four different domains of the assessment, they showed that they made growth in at least one area. Um they earned one additional point. It's on a scale one to four. So, improving or one to five rather. So moving at least one um one better than the previous year. Um with this uh the Lao plan is submitted to you this evening. Um we are required by federal law to submit a plan. Um it refers to Lao versus Nichols and last year was the 50th anniversary of this
033ruling which meant that um we have been submitting the the plans as to how we're going to identify and serve the educational needs of students who are in the process of learning English. Um some of the adjustments you'll see in the Lao plan this evening, we've updated our goals for the um for the language instruction educational program. Um, we added our elementary EL lead responsibilities, updated some outdated language. Um, ESL is used in many state and federal documents, but it's not a commonly used term in in English learner programs. And so that was some of the language that we updated as well as some of our professional learning over profession professional development. updated our resources um at the elementary level to um accompany amplify CKLA we have the language studio so that has been added
034to um some of the program model and just some general formatting changes. So moving forward, um we had our very first uh structured team collaboration time on Wednesday of last week with our elementary e teachers and that has been such a benefit from the very first time. They are um such a collaborative group and that I've really seen the strength of the facilitation both of our um continuous improvement lead and our elementary e lead working with that team as they collaborate around the goals especially looking at the new language studio program. Um we will continue to provide support and professional learning on providing equitable access to core instruction for our English learners and multilingual learners outside of the program. use data to guide decision making. And one thing we are very much looking forward to
035um in January is a PK12 professional learning opportunity on EL strategies for all staff. What questions might you have? >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Okay. >> School improvement advisory committee for 256 school year. >> Yeah. You are asked annually to approve the members of this committee. I think um Julie uh got solicitations in June, July. Um I believe they were due at the beginning of September. And the people that you see on here um we have quite a few new people. Um, we also took anyone off who indicated that they wanted to cease membership. We didn't take anyone off for any other reason. Um, this year, I'm excited. We have two student representatives that will be there. You'll see at the bottom. Um, the meetings, I also listed that in
036here so that you knew what the meeting dates were and the times uh at the media center. Um, I don't know what questions we have. the two board members. We if that is something that the board wants to change then um >> I don't my only question is I mean only one of these meetings I will be a board member so I don't know if if somebody else that is planning to continue wants to take my place and I can just be a parent citizen or if that if we just finish out the year. I don't know if it matters to the group but how we do that. So that's what happened two years ago. Um I was already on >> you were already on and Ashley was outgoing and I was Yeah. So we
037kind of readjusted after the election >> and went from there unless we do that then somebody else >> there may be a new board member who would be interested in sitting on that committee as well. So I think in November that might be a good time to visit >> revisit >> membership for for board members. >> Yeah. And then you can stay on as whatever you want. >> Yep. It's helpful to have, you know, that kind of knowledge sitting at the table with other community members. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> And teaching all reaching all recognition. >> So are you gonna do that one? >> Thank you. >> So this year we rolled out an updated teacher leadership and and compensation plan. Uh and one of the roles related to that plan is the continuous
038improvement lead which is a full-time classroom teacher that also supports team collaboration. And so they went through a day of learning around how to facilitate and lead their colleagues. Uh and then weekly collaboration is something that happens across our system where um teams are looking at where they want students to learn, how they'll know if they're learning it, and then most importantly how they'll respond if they've got it or if they're still um working to learn it. And so through that process, one of the ways uh you might remember a year ago, I believe on the strategic plan, we were really looking at how to relaunch that professional learning community process. And so that teacher teacher leadership role was part of that. In addition, we want to continue to celebrate teams as they're making progress
039with that process. And so this um is an opportunity one to recognize teams across the system that are having an impact on student learning. Um and so through this recognition uh principles will be recognizing teams and bringing them here uh to be recognized by you. Um and then as part of that uh the hope is is that we could also provide the team lunch um following that uh to celebrate their progress and the impact they're having. So the financial impact is related to their lunch. It's not much, but it's a gesture I think they will appreciate having to not bring a lunch one day and be able to eat with their teens. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> It's good to see you. It's been a while. >> Okay, we have no public comment tonight.
040So, we'll move on into um approving the resolution approving revenue purpose statement for the election. >> And this is something I think you might remember Tim on the 18th in August um that we renew our revenue purpose statement. And just for the public who's listening and any board member that isn't familiar with this, this is not money. We are not asking for money on this. We are simply saying this is a statement how we're spending the money that we collect from ple or from save or if we did go bonds whatever our debt is. We're just reiterating to the public here's what we're going to do with it because you have to have a purpose for collecting that money. And if you if you look in the detail section, this comes straight from the actual
041resolution that is attached that if approved would be signed by both the president and the secretary. So for it'll go on to the ballot in November if approved for the community to accept that this is how we would spend the money. And this comes straight from state law. This was um drafted for us by Beth Gro at ers who is the um attorney who does the bond work with us. So again, it's just hey, this is what we're going to this is what we're going to spend it on. We're collecting it. We just want to be transparent. So >> new taxes, >> no new taxes. Nope. And there's already a revenue purpose statement in place. But if you're looking at anything to do with future expenses or future um revenue from a debt, then you
042have to say again what you're going to do with it. That has to extend past whatever deadline you would be collecting the debt. So that's why we're renewing this at this time and it will go on our website. It'll be accessible for the community to see as well. I would move to approve the resolution approving a revenue purpose statement, ordering an election on a revenue purpose statement to authorize expenditures from revenue received from the state secure and advanced vision for education fund that is save and ordering the publication of a notice of election. >> Made well second. need. Okay, >> thank you. >> Okay, hower? >> Yes. >> Kent, >> yes. >> Me, >> yes. >> Mankey, >> yes. >> Williams, >> yes. >> Young, >> yes. >> Motion passes 6. >> Thank you. >>
043And the judges for the band invitational. >> This item um I wanted to leave on the agenda. There was a change after the agenda was posted, but I didn't we didn't want to repost the agenda. This is a good time to um thank our PABC, our performing arts booster club, who is going to cover these costs for us. So, this is not an item that I need the board to act on at this time. Um I appreciate the booster club taking the initiative to do this because this is a unusual request to do in such a short time. So, anyone out there that's in that organization except this as a district, thank you. I don't know what what do they do with the item if I'm asking not to act on it. >> No action
044needed. So, we should move on to 11. >> So, thank you boosters. >> Yeah, thanks. >> I would move to bring the consent agenda forward. >> Thank you. I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> Thank you. We'll second. Okay. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any questions or discussion? Okay. Call for a roll call. Okay. >> Start with Kent. >> Yes. >> Me? >> Yes. >> Mankey? >> Yes. >> Williams? >> Yes. >> Young? >> Yes. >> Hower? >> Yes. >> Motion passes 6. >> Thank you. >> Before we have the next motion, I feel like we should shout out to our very own Todd Pettit, citizen of the >> today. Yes. Yes. Very exciting. >> Shout out to you, Todd. He was recognized. We're going to be asking him to come
045before the board. There was a little confusion on whether or not we could actually post it or not because they were waiting for some dates, but Dina confirmed that it was okay. It was a nice assembly. Margaret happened to be there. I was we had our um monthly meeting and we moved it there so that we could slip into that celebration. And I while we're shouting out would say to um the Mstead staff that it was incredibly impressive to see how they move 600 kids in and out of the commons area so orderly, so quickly and so quietly. So nice job for the ninth day school. That was very impressive. So >> motion to second. Thank you. All those in favor? >> I >> oppose. Motion passes. [Music]