Urbandale CSD School Board Meeting 06.09.25

001meeting to order. We're going to do a couple Oh, yes. Sorry. Or public hearing on the middle school boiler replacement project. Anybody have anything to say? Questions? Hearing? None. We'll go ahead and move to Hower here. Kent here. Me here. Mankey here. Ben Rice here. Williams Young here. You have a qu. Thank you. I move to approve the agenda. Second. Many. All those in favor? I oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. The district mission is to Teach all, reach all. Our vision is Urbanale will be a school district that brings learning to life for everyone. And the board mission is to partner with stakeholders to teach all and reach all through governance of board policy and operating protocol. And Jared is up first. Remember Jared's gonna probably run out of here. I'm sure he'll wait until

002we cover why these gentlemen are here. But you want me to start with this or with this? Um, well, why don't we start with this because I know these guys are excited. I brought a few friends with me tonight in case you didn't hear. Our soccer team won the state championship on Friday. So, hello, Coach Mullen. You can come on up. And this has not been done since 2002 and none of you were born when that happened. So that's a pretty big feat that um I am very proud of you as a superintendent and I will apologize that I was not able to make it to games and family emergency last week, but that was my intention. So you have to do this again next year so that I can see this. Well, that's the

003goal. I I want to say while I here is thank you for all the support. You know, these guys all understand that we couldn't have done what we did without on our own. The community, it's just it was very just we blew it away as far as fans and support. It was just it was very tremendous. So very we're very fortunate and uh thank you everybody. I was going to look for the camera. It's on the TV. Um, I think one thing that needs to be said too is because I and because I've already heard it and people are trying to downplay the state title by saying, "Oh, they were in 3A. Of course, they should win the state title." If you look at the state championship for the 4A game, it was Valley and

004Johnston. Our boys beat Johnston. They lost to Valley one to nothing. So, like, this is a good team. This is a well coached team. This is a team that could have competed in any class this year. So, um, if you hear people out in the community saying things like that, please shut it down because this is just a really good team and they did a nice job this year and, um, competed all the way to the end. So, really proud of them. I did get to see you guys play on that really, really hot Saturday that happened and I was impressed myself. I mean, a game I don't know a lot about. Very exciting. You tend to do that. Too exciting sometimes. So, that's a pretty big trophy. I think we can get a picture

005of all of you guys under the Urbandale U. I know you've been photo oped quite a bit, but what's a few more? And we do plan to bring them officially back in August so we can formally recognize them. We didn't want this to go by the wayside. They've done this a few times. You guys have done this a few times. Okay, here we go. Ready? Congratulations, [Applause] Um, I'd also like to point out, uh, tomorrow night, 7 o'clock at Ferris Field, we'll be doing a celebration for the team, open to the public. Um, we'll have speeches and some refreshments and just kind of get together to have some fun and celebrate the state championship. So, hope to see everybody there. Thank you guys. Stay for the meeting if you want. It's like Stanley Cup. Nobody

006wants to stay. And now top that. I think I can. All right. So, activities update. Um, this will be this will cover winter and spring sports. Um, obviously spring sports just concluded. Um, and now we're into the summer. There'll be a little bit of a summer preview there. Um, kind of catch you up with where they're at. Um, first off though, um, our athletics and activities office. Um, so we've gone through a pretty big shakeup this year. Um, everybody you see on the screen was not here to start the year. So, um, I want to bring Connor up real quick. Uh, this is Con Conor Lrron. Um, he's currently the assistant at DCG. Um, so he'll be the assistant director here at Urbanddale starting July 1. So, we've been working with him a little bit

007already and excited for him to get started full-time. Glad you could be here tonight. And then, um, Stacy John, she's another new hire. Um she started back in April right before the pick of the track season. So um a lot of you I think have met Stacy already. She used to work at the middle school and she's been a really great addition to our team as well. Um so let's get started. I'm going to try to keep each one of these short and sweet. I'm read everything off the screen to you. But uh performing arts review u starting with vocal music. Um they wrapped up auditions for show choir for next year. They're getting ready to start camp. um preparations um so they can get ready for the new school year. Um had our kind

008of typical slate of concerts, the pops concerts um and then um show choir went on their usual excursions in and out of state and won lots of awards this year. Um they're really fun to watch if you haven't ever seen them. Um biggest thing here, new directors for next year with Ted and John leaving. We've got Adam Brown coming in as the new director and then Rachel Stravagen um coming in as the assistant director. Um, Adam's currently up in Ankenany and Rachel's coming to us from Wisconsin. So, uh, we're excited to have two really high level replacements on deck for, uh, for show choir. Um, Mama Mia, they got done with their show. Um, I think it was late April. Um, they won a lot of awards. I'm not going to read every single one

009of those awards out, but they did really well. um they had judges come in to three of the performances and um give reviews and that's how the um the awards were determined. So um they did really well there. Um and then they're getting ready getting getting ready for uh the fall play servant of two masters. Instrumental music 33rd consecutive division one rating at state. Um the Perry band Olympics, you can see giant list of kids that did really well at the Perry Band Olympics. Um, and then they went to South Dakota for a jazz trip and placed second out of 11 jazz bands and did really well up there. All right, then getting into winter sports, uh, boys basketball 11 and 12 overall, finished uh, six and 10 in the CIL, made it to the

010substate semi semi-final and lost to Ames, um, who eventually went on state. uh played five different levels this year. Had two ninth grade teams. Girls basketball 4 and8 overall 116 in CML. They played two levels this year. Varsity and JB they lost to Valley in the in substate boys wrestling. Eight state qualifiers including Kane Tiggas who lost in the championship to a kid from Carlile. Um Caleb Roy who got eighth place so both of them ended up on the podium. Um, another big news story here, Mike Marino retiring after lots and lots of years as wrestling coach. Leaving quite a legacy behind. Uh, girls wrestling program. Um, they're growing 16 letter winners this year. Um, they've been with Dalling as a co-op for the last three years. Um, this year that partnership is splitting. Valley

011and Ding are going to go together and we're going to go with Johnston for the upcoming school year. boys bowling. Uh Damen Tim won the conference championship. I believe he came out for a board meeting a little while back. Um also play state at state. Um we had three other place winners at the conference meet and Timmy Deng who was just up here for soccer and then Sam Plowski also qualified for the state meet this year. As a team they they got third state qualifying meet the cut to actually make the state tournament. Um, girls bowling conference meet had three place winners as well and then finished fifth state qualifying meet. Boy swimming co-op with Johnston. Uh we had three varsity swimmers this year. Preston Mullis, Pax Mari, and uh Matthew Nelson. And then Preston

012made the uh regional team for um for Johnston to compete in the postseason. Boys track and field. um three Drake relays qualifiers and then we had eight state qualifying events um including several students who qualified in more than one event um including Dominic Bildo and Gino Sharada who qualified in three events a piece girls we had two state qualifiers for or two qualifiers for the Drake relays and then 10 state qualifying events. Uh Fiona Mulligan qualifying in four events which is the max. Um pretty awesome. Then we had three girls that also they qualified in three events which is really good. Boy soccer, I don't know if I'm just kidding. Boy soccer obviously had a good season. Uh 12 and four overall, five and three in the CIL, tied for second. Um I was looking

013through Valley's record earlier because like I said, they lost to Valley one to nothing. Um Ames beat Valley like the second game of the year by I think it was one nothing. Um, and then I think they had one other game where they beat somebody one- nothing. So, like we played Valley pretty much the toughest that any other team did outside of Ames who who beat them. So, um, like I said, they they would have competed for a state title regardless of class this year. That that was just a good team. Um, one thing we got an email today, but I've also been telling other people this. Um, if you look at youth programming, because I think that's one of the big themes that's come up from the CIL conversation is what are we doing

014to develop our youth. Um, few slides ago looking at wrestling, we've got a strong youth wrestling program. We've got eight state qualifiers this year. We've got a strong uh we've got well two community groups for soccer um including the Jay-Hawk soccer club um that's really developing kids and this is one of the results of that. So um there should be more coming with with youth development here in the coming months. I've been talking to some people that lead some of those groups and we're trying to get on the same page to see how we can all help each other out and grow everybody's programs. Um, girls soccer 512 and one overall 0 and8 in the CIL played two levels this year. RC JV, boys tennis, uh, 4-2 overall, 1 and seven in the CML, lost

015in the substate semi-final. Earl tennis eight and six overall four and four in the CML. Um should note that uh four and four in the CIL is really good. Those four teams they lost to are all like I think they're the top four teams in the state. Um the CML in tennis is really hard for girls. Um and then we kind of got a rough draw in the postseason where we lost in the regional final but um probably could have gotten a better draw from the state um based on the competition that we played and how well we did in the CIMO. Uh, we did have state doubles qualifiers. Danny Peterson and Olivia Cannon made it. So, congrats to those girls. Girls golf. Um, their program that they're working on building the program up. Numbers

016are pretty low right now, but we're going to work on some ways to get those numbers up. 4 and 74 overall, 0 and 12 in the CIL. Uh, Brooklyn Harman though was CML place winner at the conference meet. And that brings us to summer. Uh summer uh softball, they uh finished third in state last year. Um they're young, but they're returning 12 players from last year's roster, so they still should be pretty tough. Um CIL is going to be tough again, so their record might not be great at the end of the season, but they're going to compete in the postseason again. I I just have a feeling that they've got enough experience that um they're going to win games, they're going to lose games, but when push comes to shove, I think they're going

017to compete. Um and then baseball 18 returning from last year's roster and new head coach Troy Tronson. Um they've got a lot of good pieces um to work with this year too. Um they really have potential to make a run as well. So hopefully we're back here in a couple months talking about a couple other teams that made it to state. So didn't we have a softball girl who broke a home run record today or uh Tatum Johnson? She uh broke the school softball or home run record. Um it was actually uh it's actually last week against Tankeny. Um and then she's hit I think four more since then. So she just keeps building on set. So she's by the time she graduates the the record is going to be tough to to beat at

018that point. Um made some new head coaching hires this spring. Um Jeff Sand is our varsity wrestling coach. Uh Jamie Reynolds is the Jay Walker coach. Pete Trainer is the football coach. and Payton Mars as our head cross country coach. And last, thank you guys for working with us. Um, we've uh we got Connor on board, we got Stacy on board. I feel real positive about the direction things are heading. Um, when I retire, I'll write a book about this whole transition. Um, but I'll keep a lot of that to myself for now. But it's been uh it's been a challenge and I know that we're not doing as well as we will be soon. So, um, thank you for your patience and I appreciate your support with all this. Thanks for your work. Thank

019you, Jerry. Nice to meet you, Conor. Good to meet you. You already have a Rubenale shirt. I do. Looks good on you. I have to get more. Don't take that to Dallas Center with you. Okay. Um, so I wanted to point out some highlights for the DMAC credits that were earned by our students. We had a total of 31 credentials earned by seniors districtwide. We had seven advanced nurse aids for blueprint reading, one C developer, two emergency medical technicians, three liberal arts with an AA, two liberal arts with an AS, eight nurses aids, and four thermal cutting welding. So, we've had quite a success with our students that are earning credits from DMAC and that's every credit that they earn through us is a one less check that the parents have to write. So, it's

020really nice to be able to send them off having those credits. Um, our registration continues and I think our regular announcements are helping. We're well over 3,000 students registered. So, that is a very positive sign and we still have a little bit of time this summer. Um, and the next literacy event is read around the bases. And this is going to be on June 17th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at uh both the baseball and the softball field. And there's a I know this flyer was put out on social media as well as on our website. But again, this is an opportunity for parents to bring their little ones out so they can hear a story as they go around the bases. Um they can throw some pitches and they will get a free ticket

021to the next game which is on June 18th. Parking is at the high school. There should be plenty of parking there, but we hope that we can have more people come out and join us with this literacy event. I know Jenny, one of our own, is on the committee, so there's a lot of hard work that goes into this. And I know they enjoyed the read around the pond, so this is just another event that we can showcase. Our students are read, the baseball and softball team are doing the reading. They're doing the reading. Yep. So, we invite everybody to come out for that. So now I will ask Mike Cllingan Smith to come up. He has a um buildings and grounds summer projects update. He's our new uh coordinator for buildings and grounds. I

022didn't have a bunch of pictures like Jared did slide. Um first of all at the high school we got quite a few things going on. Um the first phase of woodland controls, HVAC uh updates, which is critical to the heating and cooling in the building. Also, I'd like to note, didn't have on here, we rebuilt the chiller as well. So, we rebuilt the chiller in place um and have a 10year warranty with that. So, it's it's big like like a train engine. So they really they just everything inside of it's new. Later this season we'll we'll basically shut it down and we have some other sensors and things that are going to go on around it. But good updates there with the HVAC controls and the chiller. And then also we've got rooftop exhaust fans.

023Got quite a few of those ready to go. Uh bath bathroom bathroom fans, things like that that Uh quite a few of those need to be um updated. Bearings, motors, some of them leak. So, we've got that in the works. And then one of my projects I want to get cleaned up around the stadium under the bleachers and different things that um we can either sell and the things that need to go away just need to go away. So, some housekeeping there. I've got lined up to um rebuild some can lights and chandeliers there. We have fluorescent lights that uh we can't get bulbs for. It's not very easy to get the bulbs for. I do have parts for those and have a new assistant coming in soon that's a licensed electrician. So, he'll be

024able to help with that. Have some talented guys on our team. So, um, keeping our older buildings that aren't really that old looking good and in good shape and then also good preventative maintenance on our, uh, new buildings. And then, excuse me, we have uh, grant money that we used u to install classroom locks. So, inside the interior side of the classroom doors, the middle school, Webster, and High School all have um thumb latches so it's easy access for anyone in case of an emergency they're able to lock the doors easily without a key. Um, so we're doing that. Most of that's done. Yeah, I would say about 90% done there. And then, uh, still at the high school, the I had fuel cabinets that were rusting out, leaking I see is a safety issue,

025some gas cylinders around the concession stands, getting those organized and locked up. And then, uh, just recently installed a new clock system, keeping all the clocks in in place. So when they're not synced up, it's an issue. You get a lot of a lot of calls about that. So who knew? Uh keeping everybody on time. So we got a new system with that. It's it's more complex than I thought. But uh high schools on time. So moving on to the middle school. Uh we have boiler replacements kind of come to our attention where we lost pressure on two of three condensing boilers. Um so we had to shut it down and kind of in an emergency. there to get those updated. They're right around well, they're over 20 years old, so um contractors would say

026we got good service life out of those, but they're they're ready to be replaced. So, we're in the middle of working on that this summer, getting that ready to go. More rooftop exhaust fans there. Some of those were real old, I think, from the 70s and hadn't run in years. Um, which brings me to the roof improvements. We we re- roof about 50% of that building with great results. So 99% of the building doesn't leak anymore and it's really not a roof problem. So it's it's good good situation there with that. Uh also the classroom locks there. Um the uh band practice rooms they got that cleared out ready to put um new practice pods in soundproof rooms. So, that's a pretty cool project that I've I saw the plans to that. They have some

027nice stuff going in there. That'll be a nice area. I'm going to get that going. And then at Mstead, we've had some ongoing issues with the elevator. Um, we have the contractor that installed it and that services it has agreed under warranty to replace the power plant. So those parts are due into June, he said today. So that would be the hydraulic pump, its motor, and its controls. So we should really be in good shape once they get that done. We're hoping to have good service life out of that. Um various painting projects we wanted to do there. If we can find hands to do that, have some teachers helpers come in and do that. Um, but overall, Homestead's really performed well. I think, uh, it's a 5-year-old building now. Keep our preventative maintenance in

028place and keep it in good shape. Malarius, uh, it's pretty new, doing pretty well, pretty ordinary stuff there. I think neighbors want a fence along the south side. That's really all I've got there. It's kind of in limbo whether we're going to do that or not. It's in a storm ement, so it's not great place for it. Um, kind of depends on how we decide to go with that. U Karen Acres Karen Acres got a washer and dryer. I think a lot of people were excited about that. Um, all the other schools uh new schools had combined over the years of these last few years. Um, everybody has a way to wash their rags and stuff except for Karen Acres. We were able to find a spot for that and get that done with rebates

029from Menard's. So, got a screaming deal over Memorial Day. Did some did some hot shopping. So, yeah, people are excited about kind of excited myself. Got a good deal on that. So, uh it was it was good for Karen Acres for that. Um also, I've got like I said, I got a couple good talented guys on the team, HVAC guys that are looking to work with another contractor. calibrate valves and try to get some control under Karen acres. It it really needs HVAC control updates as well. It's very expensive, but we're going to do what we can to um make the system work right with what we have if we can do that for as little as possible. Uh just try to get it dialed in. So, we're going to try to work on that

030when kids get out uh here mid June. U the city has some improvements planned for a detention drain area there south side of the property. Um it's not really our project, but it will be happening there. Um hopefully that serves us all well in the area with the new playground. And then um we've cleared a line from the parking lot. Parking lot's kind of a situation. It holds water when it rains quite a bit. But we've got that cleared out and cleaned up. I think once all this is done, hopefully we can storm water there a little better. So, moving on to Webster is where got a lot of work going on there with Woodman controls and their HVAC overhaul. Um, we kind of lost control of HVAC there as well. Everything had just out

031outdated really. So, um, once the overhaul controls, we're going to have some HVAC valves and other electrical motors subsequently that will probably need repaired or replaced to commission the system, but that's exciting to get control over Webster again. Uh, the HVAC situation. Um, also we're looking at the loading dock in the back of Webster. Nobody probably cares about that, but there is a space there. The loading dock, the concrete has heaved for whatever reason over the years. It's it's the bullards around the dumpster area and uh on the loading dock started to crumble pretty bad. I'm actually looking at with a contractor tomorrow to see kind of what we're looking at costwise, but it is it is crumbling. So, we're looking to upgrade the playground potentially there. It's getting towards it end of its life

032as well. And we share that property with the city or it's the city's property with our playground. Um it's really kind of unclear how we're going to move forward with that. if we can agree to go in on a new playground with the city or if we built it on our property or I don't know how deep I get into this. It's a million dollar question. It's a it's a unique situation that we're, you know, we have a playground on city property that, you know, the school uses. So, how do we pay for that? gets to the point where some things are needing repaired or replaced. So, we're looking into that. That's really all I've got. Just cut it off. Nice summary and welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Might have pictures next time. I want

033to see all the spoiler pictures. Yeah. So, I don't know if anybody's interested in seeing of fans and boilers and different equipment, but maybe wires and whatnot. Thanks. I appreciate it, Tom. Thank you. Okay, now the strategic plan update. So, I'm going to have my team come up and somebody move the arrows. We're going to go ahead and start out with Denise. This is your quarterly review of our strategic plan. So, we've got some great data for you. All right. So, this is your June update, which mostly we're going to focus on those end of year data um results, especially those tied to our annual goals from this past year. Um so this is just the graphic reminder that our work tonight is really focusing on that outer circle districtwide data. Um we do have

034all of our data by all of these other levels. Um those analyses happen in various places all over the system with different groups of people um to make decisions um throughout our system. So this is just reminding you that you will approve the next strategic plan. So this strategic plan is from last June was when you approved it. Um and so this is just kind of that final update about how everything has gone. And then throughout the presentation you'll see the components um that make up our culture of dignity and belonging. Um, I will just share with you that for our new strategic plan, we did have a lot of conversation about how the culture of dignity and belonging fits with um our strategic goals and that overall strategic plan. Um, and where we really

035landed was that this is the framework within which we execute all of those strategic actions. So thinking about how does the strategic action what do I need to think about with gleam and theme and dream right like all of those elements. Um but you will see the graphic um throughout our presentation on each pillar tonight. So I get to um give you some high points on the student achievement pillar. And um this is probably the one I'm the most excited about because we don't always get to talk about student achievement and we have some really good data that's come out of our um recent assessments. Um starting off a celebration with our ELA which is English language arts in ISAS. We um did increase from 72.9 to 7717. didn't meet our 79% goal, but that's

036a a very nice improvement and it's very close. In our math isasp, we had a goal of 75%. We didn't meet that goal, but we did go from 668 to 71%. So, that's another one in definitely the positive direction. And science, which always seems to be a hard one to to tick up, we increased from 588 to 70% in the current year. So, I feel like that's a really big accomplishment and I know our elementary teachers are working really hard on science as our content teachers in the secondary level. So, also will remind everyone that the data that that makes up where these comments come from is also in to um in Simly. So, I'm sure if any of you read that, you might have questions later. So, we we will happy to answer those.

037um four areas that we believe we could improve. And although again the each these three areas showed improvement, the 80% proficient is what we're looking at to see that we we call it a healthy tier, healthy core. And that's your tier one. That's where all that everyday instruction comes from. So we're close, but we didn't quite hit that. So that would be um the next thing that we would really like to see is being able to hit that 80%. I'm going to speak uh to the last pillar which we're transitioning to having a separate pillar for equity and inclusion and this area will focus in on the schoolwide system structures along with teaching and learning. So in this area our goal around third grade literacy proficiency um while we didn't meet the 100% goal uh

038we did move 78% 83% gradey results districtwide and then we need our 42% proficiency for algebra one year assessment we did Then our opportunity for improvement is in the area of absentism. We still chronically absent students continue demonstrating that first trend. Turn around for our service pillar. Um this relates very closely to our caregiver and community partnerships which are based on trust and honesty and a shared responsibility for student success are the foundation. So some of our celebrations we met the goals for barriers for engagement on the family and school relationship survey and we saw an increase on the school climate topic from the 30th percentile to the 40th percentile. In both of these areas we saw a growth of 10 percentile which was very exciting. Um opportunity that we have for improvement is in

039the area of school safety which did not change from previous administrations of the survey. The people pillar uh connects to the culture of dignity and belonging specifically in the area of schoolwide systems and structures. Uh there's much to celebrate in the people uh pillar. The teacher survey annual goals uh were met in the areas of teaching efficacy, school climate and feedback and coaching. There was also growth on the teacher survey from last spring to this spring uh in the areas of school leadership and professional learning. The staff survey is what's given to anyone who's not a teacher within the district. Um and the staff survey also had several goals that were met including school climate, school leadership, and professional learning. And then the evaluation topic um on the staff survey remained um at the 40th

040percentile and has it been identified as an opportunity for improvement. And our last one is safety and well-being uh connected to schoolwide system structures as well as teaching and learning. And we have a celebration here which is that all social emotional data uh prek strategies gold sabers and my savers uh all indicate a healthy tier one instruction by demonstrating 80% proficiency or higher. So, as um we look further down the agenda um and ask you to improve the 2526 strategic plan, my hope is that you are noticing some of those connections between our opportunities for improvement um that you're seeing here and what we've highlighted for strategic actions across all of those areas um in this upcoming year. questions one. Um, with the chronic abs absenteeism is is part of the struggle because that like

041the rules and guidelines around it are changing or is that not an impact on the current numbers? One of the things to notice with the with the numbers that are presented here is that there's actually two different ways to determine chronic there's a chronic absenteeism compliance which is um some of the new laws and legislation with the certified mail but then there's also the way that the state looks at um the chronic absenteeism where there are no exemptions. So any absences at all are figured into that number whereas the compliance piece there are different exemptions of different absences that don't count towards chronic absenteeism which is not the case with what we're seeing here. Um there is like a lot of work being done with our building teams and um planning for next year as

042some of the ways to increase that engagement for students and looking at the multiple facets of of of students wanting to be in the building. How are we providing instructions that are meeting their needs? How are we making them feel as though they are safe and welcome and belong in our spaces as well? and carres is still in session so we don't have the full final number. I think the bottom line is come to school. I mean there's there's things that happen when a student is suspended in school or out of school those different things but ultimately kids need to be in school and we hope that we can help parents understand the need to send them to school every day. So whether the law changes again or not, we still expect our kids to

043be in school. So I think looking at the data and being able to break it down and say which grade level, which population, where do we need to look to see what is going on? I've seen a lot of stories and um strategies in some of my professional magazines that that people are different districts are looking at. So there's a lot of work that needs to be done there. Um, so that's part of what we need to do and there you'll see a strategic action on our our updated strategic plan for next year that's specific about implementing multi-tered system of support for attendance. Stephanie led a team this winter um particularly looking at those tier one tier 2 um ways that we're supporting our students and families um in getting students to school. And then

044there's also just that messaging part. Um, doesn't matter if it's exempt or not. Bottom line, we want your child in school. Thank you. So now we would like to invite Eric Fair enough who um we recently presented uh kind of a overview of our facility committee thinking to the city to get their initial response. No official applications, no just hey what here's what we're thinking. Just to see was there anything that threw up a red flag that maybe we needed to rethink. And of course we didn't get any confirmation of anything because we didn't any formals, but we did have a nice conversation. I think I it was a successful meeting. I don't know if some of the people that were here was here. So, we have people that were on the committee that um

045are here as well, but I will let Eric go ahead and lead us through what what we presented. And again, this is no formal final anything. This is just where our thoughts are. Sorry, I don't have trophy tonight. You have to be a pretty big one to beat that one. Great opening act. I appreciate that. I'll let you drive the presentation. Just where you're comfortable. So, good evening everybody. Thank you for having me here again. Um so, just to give you a little bit of background. Um again, this is uh in addition to myself, uh some of my team members. Um there's many more people behind the behind the scenes, but um each of these had an instrumental part in uh in uh leading the exercises. So, short agenda here um just for everybody's purpose,

046the the why, the how, the what. Um, and then just kind of what what we propose as as the next steps. Um, so why district planning? So, um, much like anything in life, um, you know, in order to make steps forward, you have to you have to plan. And so, um, I think all of you are aware here, but for the purpose of the public and everything, you know, some of the past improvements there on the lefth hand side, um, those are all developed through a plan, whether it be short, long-term, you name it. Um, all those things had had a plan in place and were executed, um, you know, successfully. And so then um some of the things that we asked the the master planning committee um you know future considerations and this is

047just a short list of of the things that um the big ideas that that came from that. There's many more things um and this is albeit uh u focused on facility development. Um but there's also other things um just as you went through a strategic plan here uh with your group about academics and athletics and all the other things that are encompassed with that. So that's a good first step. Um so how do we do it? Um so in in this process that you see here um there's actually more than four workshops but um but we kind of take we we take the guiding factor there of these four workshops with involvement from not only committee but also staff and students and things. So we kind of roll that up into um into what you

048would ultimately see as the test and evaluate and kind of at the finalize. We're we're really at the finalized stage where we're refining the plan. Um we're trying to create consensus. That's why we met with the city um in order to you know see where where we can define the direction of the district and the community. Um steps five and six are really uh you know the the next pieces. It's about financing. How do you do that? Is it through? Is it through save cash on hands? Those kinds of things. and then ultimately the implementation which is probably our most public and visible uh piece when you're actually breaking ground on something. So um just a quick overview of the process here. We we've been meeting um uh uh through those four workshops. You'll see

049um and then uh and then obviously in independently with administration and things um at different phases and time um but then you see there the city engagement meeting that we had on on April 16th. Um and it was a it was a good meeting. Um you know, we've always endeavored to to create and foster a collaborative environment with them and within the district. Um, and so, uh, not to shortcut this group here or whatever, but we wanted to get some feedback so that we could bring you back more information and reactions, um, uh, to to the plan that was, um, that was brought forward by the committee. Um, and then you'll just see here I put up for um, I don't think I'm I'm not tipping my hand of anything, but it's in the capital

050improvement plan of the city of Urbanddale. There's a five-year plan that gets revised annually every year. Um they are planning um at least right now a bond refer November 26 for new police headquarters um and maybe some other projects get tied to that. Um I'll let the city talk about those things. Um but then also of interest is um your AO lease um in this space here um has been I believe extended from one um it's actually January 31st January 31st that of 26 that it's out. Okay. Um so uh that um so but that that just calls into into um point um some of the information I'm going to share with you here in just a little bit. Um one of the things that we did with the committee was ask them to develop

051some guiding principles. Um and the reason why we do that is um just like any plan that you have um when you hit a fork in the road um you have to come back to a principle. What what is why are we here? What are we doing? Um and what are the things that we want to um to and and uh hopefully these guiding principles will help um you know help you when you get to those uh those critical decision points. Um so on workshop one we led the um we led the committee through three different um activities. One was a SWAT analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Um the second one was a red dot, green dot which really talks about um the positives and um and less positives of of of each of

052the facilities, things that are working well that we want to preserve um and things that maybe could be improved or enhanced um at at all of your campuses there. And then the third was a wish, want, need. Um so we start on the on the outer ring and work our way to the center of what do we actually need? Um and that helps create a priority listing and building consensus amongst that group. Uh because again sometimes the things that we that we wish we had um in some people's minds become wants and vice versa. And we want to narrow that down to what what makes the district operate, what makes a community uh uh function um and then we can build from there uh to uh either expand programming or whatever it may be. And

053so in workshop two, we took those um those activities and then began kind of a a project prioritization or common themes. Um even though it it seems like you may have consensus um you know even amongst a small group of we had about what 25 to 30 people at varying stages um you you still have to build consensus within that group in order to get out to a larger audience. And so um you can see here the work on the right hand side of of each of those groups u beginning to prioritize amongst themselves and then bringing it back to the common themes. And what what rose to the top there is kind of the tier one um of softball field administrative offices um CTE program which is career technical education um and maintenance uh

054facility. Um tier 2 uh was then looking at modernizing updating core learning spaces uh specifically at the high school and middle school and you see some of the things that were highlighted there HVAC lighting finishes and some of those things are already happening HVAC um we're already taking baby steps towards that with u controls or boilers and and things um finishes uh and spaces like at the middle school the um uh the music uh area renovation. So um so while this is an evolution and it doesn't mean that we just deliver a master plan and say well here it is um this should evolve and be executed over time and you're already already doing that. Um the other things to look at in in the tier 2 category were you know how do we address

055um prek at uh at Karen Acres. Um, and then also looking at some some things that have been on the list for a long time, uh, such as middle school track and field. Um, that's always kind of been in the back of the mind even as we were developing the, um, the high school program and reconstructing uh, that property. So, um, so then in in committee three, uh, or workshop three, um, we took those tiers and we started to kind of put some, uh, pen to paper. Um and what you can see on the on the right side there are some scenarios that were developed. Um we uh in-house DLR group uh prepared some of these scenarios in order to get feedback. Sometimes when you just show up with a blank piece of paper, it's

056hard to respond to something. So um we understand that and we we took this to um to get committee feedback and talked about what we felt was a softball immediiacy. Um where this really all started from was the um the city announcing that they were in redevelopment stages at Lions Park. So if you have not been by Lions Park recently um they are believe I believe in uh phase two uh boarding uh phase three of a complete redevelopment of that and part of that is is uh a redeveloping the area that the current softball field sits on. And so that's really what the catalyst for a lot of this um uh was. um administration office um which is um you know wanting to be central to the district. We talked about kind of how you

057know Urbell is very elongated in the east west direction and even um talking to the point of of um of where existing facilities currently reside. Um you have a property that sits across the street from the um from Webster on 128th that has not been developed. You still own that. um and talking about well, you know, but the core really to Urbanale has been, you know, um east of of 86th Street with the high school, the elementary schools um and and the middle school. Um Webster is kind of that the outlier, but also looking at at at the administration office being here in this facility and paying rent um you leasing this space and how could those dollars maybe be better spent um if you own the property. Um, same thing for for maintenance facility.

058That is something that has gone back to even the high school development that was talked about. Um, and just because of again timing, funds, property location, and everything that's never really come to fruition. Um, you have a you have a maintenance department over there, but uh, for the size and operations that you're that you're doing and using, um, it could be it could be better structured. Um, and then, you know, a focus on sometimes these these master plans always focus on the here and the now and what you have. And so we challenge the group to say, you know, what are some of the things that you wish you could do? How can we make Urbandale a better place, a better community, a better school district, um, and expand programming? um you have a you

059have a career in technical department right now, you know, offering um some things like culinary arts um and uh uh you know, wood shop, but how could you make that how could you make that better? How could you be a magnet to other um that other school districts are not doing in the metro and and bring that to to Urbanale? So, that was talking about leveraging business partnerships and uh you know, what kind of opportunities do you have through the campuses that you currently um own? and then um long-term, you know, capacity expansion at the middle school. Um and so then uh getting to workshop 4 really culminating in here trying to truly build consensus amongst that group. Um and we had some really good conversations with the uh with the committee um and in

060how we proceed. Again, there's no one right way or wrong way to to to go about these things, but um ultimately to to get the consensus of that 25 to 30 people as a representative of what you ultimately may want to go to the community with and how you describe things. Um so you can see kind of some matrix charts and some um some polling that we had done in order to uh uh to get to that decision about how and what do we prior prioritize and what those tiers were that we talked about previously which leads us to the what right what are the solutions how did what what did the committee kind of come forward with and so what I'm going to show you here is again preliminary nothing is written in stone

061Nothing has been voted on, acted on, funded. Um so uh everything can be subject to change but this is what the committee had had brought forward and again the media um talking about um the softball program was you know utilizing um existing uh uh land acreage that you have and how that might how that might look. And so we we did some studies um and brought uh forward a proposal here to to place the softball field um on the north end of the middle school property. Townson runs east west along the along the north part there and then um you can see the middle school right in front and and then Aurora and it's always been a challenge. You know when you when you look at that property you have a large green space and

062all those little lines that are on the uh squiggly lines around there show the grade. So that means that um the north half of that property where the softball field there sits um is fairly level but it does have a lot of fall to it um uh you know as you come to the south. And so that's one been one issue of you know how do you how do you work through that and at this point um again talking about the central location of all the dis of most of your district facilities specifically the high school and what this would serve. it didn't seem right to to place the softball field at the at that West property across from Webster, right? You have the space out there. We can do that, but logistics, how do

063we get there? Um how do we service that and how does it how do we make that feel part of the the urban community? Okay, so these are uh test fits and one of the reasons why we had our meeting with the city was again looking at towns and there's a lot of uh traffic along there a lot of parking that happens uh specifically because of all the what I'll uh call the PeeWee sports right all the the inter mural soccer football things that happen there um and then you have the apartment complex just to the north um also in the tier one priority was talking about um you have two properties and again one of the one of the um uh evolutions was taking down the Jensen property um and uh that has that

064has already been resolved um to the point of the building issue. Um you still own the property. There's still um playground uh space there that uh that is being used by the by the neighboring comm uh neighborhood. Um and then rolling green um you know being uh empty not wanting that to kind of fall into the same uh same ramifications of Jensen, right? How do we deal with a property that you already own um of a building facility infrastructure that you already have without having to recreate that and spend additional dollars? And so um that was a discussion about um you know can we can we put the um AO in into that building? uh can we also pair uh maintenance into that facility? Um and I think we can. We have not done any

065any um uh robust test fits or anything that I'll get into that here in a moment. Um but you have the space, you have, you know, um you have the the wherewithal to to do that. Um and then looking at the high school, you know, what does that mean as as you look at a tier 2 priority? again so that people don't mistake or you know see this and like oh my god what's happening um uh we are showing and illustrating the potential that um there could be a new CTE wing program expansion at the high school property um and we know that the high school is already landlocked and it you know it it's uh um there's not many places to grow on there. So, what happens if we have that space uh to

066the west where current currently Barton Field is um and and put a program there? We know that we'll have to expand some things with storm water management. We know that parking and things will still have to be addressed um in that. So, what does that mean? If we're expanding programming uh for your students um at this at this uh at this location, it means that we probably have to move the baseball field. These are all phased things. It does not all have to happen at once. This can happen over time, right? And time is is just resources and and uh of that nature. Um so we we did a test fit here to show that the baseball field can be uh paired now and have a joint facility um at the at that property north

067that you own north of the middle school. Um, again, the encroachment along the center uh wooded area, you know, that's all to be determined, but at least we're showing you how how that could work. Um, the gray spot up there is for um is for parking presumably that as you have um you know, as you have events and things, the city code does require that you have event space parking. Um, and then the other thing that that has again has been on the docket and discussion uh board for a long time is uh middle school uh track, middle school football um and soccer and and all the things that go into that. And so currently over on the east side there um they are using that upper level portion. Uh if you been to the

068middle school lately on the lower portion you see the bus turn around. Uh there's a very significant um grade differential with a retaining wall there. Um and but on the upper level there, that is where the the high school plays their um their JB uh football games and and they um they don't really run. There's a lot of running that goes around this property just in general. Um but looking at how we is a very very narrow area. Um and we're showing that we can put a reduced track. You would not need this to be an eight-lane track like you have at your high school because you would host competition and everything at your high school track, but providing an area for them um uh with a a paved a paved track um and then

069fitting what would be um soccer and football spaces inside their natural turf uh synthetic turf. But you have those options of things. Okay. And so that gets us then to the discussion and next steps of um you know where we're where we're headed here. Um we did have a a good meeting, a collaboration meeting with the with the city um on uh on April 16th um the the three entities that you see there. Um and we had some good discussions. Nothing was uh you know approved again at that meeting. Um nothing was set in stone. Um and and the the best outcome was nobody said no. Um and we again we are just testing the waters to see what you know what could come of of the of the plan that we've illustrated and the

070city has um has indicated their willingness to work with the district um you know in in proceeding forward with if this were the plan um to to move forward with that. So, one of the I I mentioned earlier that the catalyst for this master plan was not only, you know, the the culmination of um of uh finishing your other planning work related to elementary consolidations um and other other facility improvements, but it was really about the the the softball field. Um and so, one of the one of the biggest questions in all of our minds was the timeline. What is the timeline for that? um you know for the city making that move and having us vacate um the uh uh the softball field. And so again, this is um part this is from the

071city excerpt from the the community uh improvement plan um that was issued or revised in January of this year. And you can see on the left hand side um the the phases that they have um that they've illustrated. And so everything, if you haven't been by there, it looks nice. But they've kind of done everything on the south side. Um they've done the the new pickle ball courts and um and the schoolyard games area. The playground is um is um yet to be uh fully uh completed because the the shelter house is still there. Um but they have made some other um improvements with a detention area and and stuff. Um and so what you'll notice and I highlighted here is that phase five unprogrammed um and they just listed out a dollar amount which

072is of not consequence here but um it is not programmed yet um and that uh the area of the um you can see on the upper right hand corner the I don't know if I can show y over here this is where the softball field currently sits and this is where the proposed shelter is to be Um so right now the shelter house sits like right right here. Um so you can see here the construction I'm doing closed shelter and new open area open air shelters um that work does not have a timeline to it. Okay you can see everything else is 2024 25 phase 4 is um which is not yet um done. That'd be the reconstruction of the gazebo that sits in the in the northwest corner there. So the good news here

073is that we have a little bit of time. there was a there was kind of a sense of urgency that oh man they're going to vacate this in like a year and we're going to be left you know hanging. Um that at least in in the capital improvements plan from a few months ago that's not the case. So that leads us kind of to the next to the next you know where where do we go with this? And so this is kind of a proposal that that we have uh that I'm bringing forward. Um we've talked just in generalities with the administration um to uh to work through some timelines and things that we don't uh number one compete with each other meaning compete with the city uh but also uh works to what I'll

074say maximize support uh when you're looking at potential bond referendums. And I say that just because I think for the the planning and everything to do all of the things that you need to do probably results in in some kind of bond referendum at some point in time. Um uh otherwise we're you know we're we're um extending this through just you know kind of pay as you go and that'll be that'll be a long drawn out process. Um looking at bolstering support um for for these types of things. Um it there's no secret to this. Um we I' I've participated in a lot of bond referendums, a lot of bond campaigns across the state. Um and our group across the country. Um the community wants to pay for they want to support new programming. They

075want to, you know, everything for students and I know that the AO and maintenance exists for the students, right? You can't operate a school district without it, but it's not really that, you know, that fun and exciting to pay for those kinds of things through bond referendums. So, uh, if you were to use, um, cash on hand, you know, I'd recommend, um, you know, looking at some kind of financing strategy. Um, you know, talk to Piper Sandler, your financial consultant, and Steve, um, and look at how we can, uh, relocate uh, the district office um, and and not pay the lease dollars that we're paying here and put those convert those back into into uh, district funds. um have to revise the the uh the December 26th there just re relocation um you know based

076on the on the leasing time but I still think this is doable that we can get you into that space um in some way shape or form um and again doing this through a phased approach potentially um and uh and get you to where you need to be so that again you're not paying those lease lease dollars because you could leave the December if we could if we went that way and get a ask for a year's extension correct on this lease. But correct. Yeah. This was predicated on on that year that year extension of your current lease in this in this location so that we don't have to rush things. We want to do things right. Um and so that gives you uh you know that gives you kind of the timeline there that

077we would that we would look at. Um I put the next piece on there again just looking again at the overall structure. Um while a city and a school do have a good partnership in a lot of things uh and you've done that over the years um you are two competing entities when it comes to financing right and so um things that we've learned things that are just kind of um out there is that if the city is going to run a bond referendum again to be determined I'm not speaking on behalf of the city in any way shape or form it's talked about in their capital improvements plan but if that is something that they would go to bond for November 26 um that is November 2025 this year is your next opportunity for

078district financing at that point. I don't think you're ready, right? I don't think the community is ready for that. Um so the next opportunity would be November 26. That would be in direct competition with the city. I don't think that would be a that's like running a two question vote, two ballot uh vote. Um which we have also seen historically does not run well even when it's for the same entity. people usually support the first one and the the the support trails off in that second one. So, what does that mean looking at um the district long-term capital improvements? Again, uh the district has done great a great job with kind of a a 10-year um master plan of looking at those those uh things that you need to accomplish like boiler replacements, like roof

079replacements, like uh you know, music um uh revitalization. So, let's take the time uh you know while we while we do something with the relocation of this of of these offices, work with Piper Sandler on what a what a financing plan could look like. Get your consensus and and everything in order and potentially you could run something in 27. Um and and whether it's knocking out one, two, five, all of it yet to be determined. we, you know, we don't have to decide anything tonight, but there's a large chunk of of of dollars and things that have been proposed in that tier one, tier 2 master plan that I just illustrated for you. Um, and I think a lot of things could be um, you know, could be uh, taken care of in a comprehensive

080bond. And those are things that a community would support, right? expanded programming, relocation of your athletic facilities, um enhancement of your athletic facilities, um and other things that may come about even through academics. This is not all about athletics. Again, we talked about um CTE programming um and and anything else that may, you know, may come down the pike. So, with that, that is a short synopsis of the uh master plan and the and the committee's work. And I don't know, Drew, is there anything that you want to add to that or anybody else that's here, too? Yeah. Yeah, we great participation um by by all the committee members. I I I thank them, but I want to thank them again publicly for their time and their efforts and their work because it's kind of

081a thankless job and uh and they had some very thoughtful conversations. So, and I just want to say for anybody that's listening too when we get to the point if we get to the point that we're going to take anything to the community for a vote where there will be, you know, I call them kind of traveling traveling shows where we can explain it, they can ask questions, offer input. It's that's where we want to hear those, you know, if it's clear that the community won't support a component of this, then that's work that we have to go back and do. So, I don't want anybody who's listening to think this is it. There's no alterations at all. Um, this needs to be what's right for the community, the school district, our students, and our

082families. So, that's just a piece I wanted to make sure was clear. Um Eric on the um new AO proposal as we're thinking about this um and your recommendation would be for us to take this out of cash on hand and figure out a way to finance this internally without a bond issue. Mike, is is it feasible to do that if we get into that building that hasn't been heated and cooled for three years that we may decide, you know what, this is we're going to have to just level this and start over. I mean, I'm assuming you've taken into account a a remodel versus actual brand new construction. So, what would that look like if we get into that situation? Correct. So, um I would say we would go back to the the way

083we We've had a lot of quick start projects here, right? We we come, we got to do boiler replacement, we design it and we get it done. Um what I would we have not gone through detailed design with the administration um with you know the district itself. So same process that we've done with Homestead and Verarius and High School and Webster is let's go through a design process. Let's program what you need and how you how that would fit into that space. And there's uh there's design phases, pre-esign, schematic design, design development, construction documents, and then bidding, right? Uh for all these small projects, we've kind of done construction documents, bidding, and then we're we're doing it. Um um even even uh Metro West was let's go through the design process. Let's get cost evaluated

084at each one of those phases and then um and if we find we get to a point where oh man, this is this is not going to work. I think um for Jensen I can honestly safely uh without a doubt say that was not the right facility and knowing the conditions of the mechanicals on electrical that was a good decision which you made. Um I think there is a a real potential for rolling green. We have not gone in and done, you know, room by room, nut by nut, you know, kind of um um evaluation, but I think there's enough that there that we can salvage and look at making this a reasonable cost proposal uh to move into that space. Um and again the the the beauty and of that is that owning that

085space and um and doing it even in a phased approach manner um it g it buys you time and it allows you to to bank the dollars that you're again spending here on a regular basis. Um put those dollars into the renovation of that facility and make it what it needs to be. Um and do that again if uh depending on the district financing um do that in a based approach. We want to get you as much as we can, you know, on every everything. We don't want you to to band-aid anything. Um, but we want you to do it right and look at that facility is large enough that I think it can it can incorporate and house both of your programs because one of them you you've just got a couple of offices

086at the at the high school and you got a lot of equipment sitting outside and things like that. Um, I think there's ways so we can we can make that work. um you don't have a lot of uh uh noisy operations. So when people say oh maintenance facility going to the neighborhood, no it's you know it's not we're not welding and you know rebuilding engines and all that kind of stuff there. It's commodity storage, right? I mean places that you can put uh you know just paper supplies, all that kind of stuff. Um and uh and then what does that mean for the school as they if they vacate that space? Do you have automatic expansion space for any kind of programming that you would need um early on before you even get to talking

087about baseball fields and large CT centers and things like that? So, so yes, to answer your question, I think it is feasible in a in a in a more economical way than than starting from the ground up, but if that is necessary, you have that you have that ability. Now, one thing that we did run into with the city is that that is not zoned for um I believe business occupancy, which is what your admin when you look at city codes and things, you're an education entity, but the building that you're in is is a business, right? So, um there probably would have to be some reasonzoning of things that would have to go to council and get their buy in uh for that. But the good news is that um if anything you have

088less traffic, less noise, no buses, no buses, you don't have 200, you know, kindergarteners screaming, uh things of that nature. So I I think it's doable. I think it's feasible. There will just be some steps and some some hoops to go through. And there was a question on the um basically how long do we have? I mean the what you've outlined here is really a year, year and a half. that building isn't going to sit there for real long, right? And the longer we wait, I mean, what what do you think, Mike? Uh, with the the boilers there, we have one that that we may be able to fire up, but we have to protect that building from fire. So, we have live sprinkler system in there. So, we got to keep it heated. It

089hasn't been air conditioned um since quite a few years, but I'm not we'll be able to fire that boiler up again. One boiler. Uh so it gets cold in areas there. Um there is one significant leak in the roof. But walking around the building, I think that the structure overall does have good integrity still u as as far as like brick and you know heaving and different things in the walls. So I think there is potential for that building. Uh just it needs a track overhaul and a good roof soon. I think from uh historical reference when we built high school on the existing site, which you know ages me obviously, Eric and Lauren. Um and I think that was appealing to the community. I think it was appealing to restructure Mstead on the existing

090site. um and Valarious. And so I think there's some appeal that we have this existing property for the community to actually see that occupied in a useful way. And I would continue. I mean, I love Webster. I live out by there. But the bottom line is the majority of our population is on the east side. And and I think um one of the challenging things about this facility is that it's not easily accessible for most of our personnel and most of our parents and it's hard to find. And so I think you know we could make compelling arguments for repurposing that property. The other thing that I would bring up having attended some of these meetings is we do have these two properties that have some value. um they're they're just sitting right now. And

091so, you know, we we could examine that possibility too of selling those or and using that for our purposes that would serve more purpose than the ramp we get from the farm ground. Um so I really appreciated the insights and the varied group that you put together and I would say if we were able to go together that um that moving forward we could continue that kind of input from a broad base of the community I think would be I mean that's what we did with the high school and that was a key to its success I think um and so and you know the good thing is that you and your firm have been around to watch us go through all of this um I would hope that the city on both all these

092projects would see the benefit to real estate and the services they're providing and the attractiveness of the community to see their way to assisting with this because I share a big concern about towns and and the ability to have enough lanes for the traffic that would happen, you know, with baseball and softball. I also, you know, some of the things that did come out, this baseball field is not in great shape either. uh it has come to our attention. And so um the ability to have both those facilities next door to each other and allow people to go to both share concessions, share new uh restrooms um and eliminate some of the well you you're you like them better um or you're treating them better. um we could start out with an even you know

093tablet and everyone can see that there's equity there between those sports and um so I can see a lot of really neat possibilities. The other thing that I would bring up is I was in on the beginning at the high school and the you know it was 20 years ago and we didn't necessarily uh envision the movement toward technical and career education that has happened. I mean that was you know no child left behind and you know a nation at risk and so there was this completely different emphasis than there is right now and um we don't have the facilities to keep up with that um and I think it's a big disadvantage to our students to not fulfill some of those things and so I think that is another easy cell to say no

094this might draw open enroll kids from DCG G or you know depending on the programming or Johnson um because they could access it. It's very difficult to access Central Academy or campus from here with our alternate day schedule. It's also a challenge to get out to DMAC and still take classes. U you know we have a schedule at the high school and at the middle school that really serves our staff and our students well but it doesn't always jive with other educational entities. So, um I think the more centralized that we can be with those opportunities, the better it is for our students, whether or not that happens in the next few years. Um and again, I just want to thank the people that were on the committee. You guys, even though we didn't all

095agree on the possibilities and what we should be doing. Um, and there's always more that we could be doing, but it's encouraging to me that the high school came up 20 years ago and we are continuing to examine, you know, how we could do it better instead of saying, "Oh, we got all new buildings. It doesn't matter." It does matter. So, I appreciate your patience with all of us and um running interference with the city who doesn't like our zoning. It's all good. Okay. So, I just want to I know there was a question on the softball lease and that lease uh the last one that we had in place expires on October 31st of this year. So, that would be coming to the board in the fall to be redone and they gave uh

096two seasons. So, this current one was for the 2024 season and the 2025 season. So, what we would be asking them for is the 2026 and the 2027 season. I think um after that it would be the 2028. So, I think we'd have to look at the timeline and see if the city would if that fits in their timeline. I I tried to get a hold of them today to see if there was any change or any confirmation of a date. I don't have that. So I think we would be looking for that as well. And then the other thing uh that was asked was what is the cost that we're paying now for AO1 and AO2 and the storage unit which comes up for renewal in August. So we'll have to bring that back

097to the board for um contract renew. But we're paying for AO1 and AO2 together $13,67 and some change every month. The storage unit, we're paying $1,100 a month. And so every month we're paying to somebody else $14,77 which amounts to uh round it off $176,488 a year. So that's money that we're just sending out that we would hope to not be sending out anymore for having space that we actually own. Multiply that out by the number of years we've been here. We did that. Yes. Well, and then if you multiply it too, if we waited on the AO piece, if the bond referendum went through in 2027, that's you know, two and a half more years of that. So, and I the other question was what's our alternative? Um, uh, we also are not I

098don't believe we're not charging the city to use Rolling Green for their PD and fire assessments. That's a real life situation that we partner with them so that they can come in and do those assessments. They used to do them at Jensen until it got too bad. Then they said, "No thanks." um which I don't disagree with, but we don't I would have to look for one. I don't have an alternative right now for the softball field. Like if they came to us and said, "Nope, we're not going to renew it in October." I I don't I don't know what I would do. I would say that's my biggest concern without having some sort of a timeline from the city on the softball field because softball is one season a year, but it means the

099world to those players and their families and a large portion of our community. So, it feels very risky to me to put them off. um very risky because to be determined we're not in a hurry doesn't give us uh this is it. So, like if we have two years, a new two-year contract, assuming that they right allow us to assuming they allow us to if we go for bond November 27, that doesn't give us time to have it approved, and that's assuming it gets approved the first time. It doesn't always happen. Um, yeah, but if they approved it in November, can you build it by May? I'm going to guess that's a no. They start practicing and scrimmaging end of March, beginning of April. So, it's Yeah. And that was one of the com conversations

100and comments, you know, is you you do take a lot of risk putting that component into a long reference res. And that's where I I do recommend um you know with with Steve's input and meeting with Piper Sandler to really truly understand what all your financing capabilities and components are um as to whether that can be moved up right instead of the AO. Does that get moved up? I know that means you're here longer or can both happen simultaneously. Um those are bigger questions and we we haven't gotten to an up point yet and um we want to give you some information so that you all can make an informed decision um knowing where you know all the all the kind of the balls that are in the air and I and I don't want

101to forget that the baseball field needs work. So the longer it's kind of like look at the baseball field like rolling green. How long can we leave it before we're really going to have to put some money in? And we don't want to put money into something that we might be moving because that doesn't make any sense. So, it's it's setting up these kind of dominoes in a way that we're not ignoring the work that has to happen at the baseball field. We're not ignoring the fact that Rolling Green is closed up. It's just how do how do we put all this together? And I I think that's, you know, what the board wants us to do from here. I don't know. Do you want us to start pricing some of these things out? Do

102you want me to have somebody take a look at the baseball field? If we didn't move it, what would it cost? Those those are all the kind of things that we need a little My thought immediately goes to the question or the concern that was raised earlier about Townsent and its ability to handle that traffic. Related to that is the stress that a phased approach for that property would put on that neighborhood. I mean, that construction is going to be difficult for the neighborhood to put the softball field in. And then to go back in two years and say, "Oh, guess what? We're going to do a baseball field." Oh, go back in two years. We're going to do a middle school track and football field. I don't really like I mean, nobody wants to

103go to the community and say, "Hey, give us, I don't know, 1820 million for, you know, middle school redesigns." But if we're going to do this, I think doing it once because as we discovered when we tried to build almost in Valyriius, things don't necessarily get cheaper five years from now, six years from now. So I think if we're if if if we're going to really take a look at this, give us the sun, moon, stars, okay, what would it cost us to put all three facilities in the middle school over the course of a year, a year and a half, whatever that would look like? I think um a key variable and Eric was around when suddenly when we worked with Piper Jaffrey we could move up Valarious three years. Yeah. Um I don't

104understand the bonds at all but that was kind of magical and um we saved a lot of money that way and we got a generation of kids in a new building. So I think that's a key variable. It is possible that we've got bonds now that we could do I mean some magic with in order to do that. But all those things, you know, play in. So I think the finance thing is is pretty key on what those things would cost and and then I think Piper Jaffrey examining that and thinking about you know I mean you were in on that too. I mean, we find we refinance some pretty creative things from from the high school. Uhu without a bond issue. Um, so again, that's a variable that we've utilized historically. Do we own

105the rolling green property and the building? And there's no debt in that. And soon, just as a side note, we're going to own the pool property. It was um the city's been really good about working with the PK County Assessor that property actually there's a 1974 warranty deed that said when that property if that property ever ceased to be a public pool that that would revert back to the district. So the city's filed the paperwork to have that happen and then we have a document that is accepting that possession of that property. So that whole space is officially going to be ours soon. Okay. just to it. It's not enough to build a softball field on. Um, but it's it's our it's going to be our property. So, then it could assist if you put

106a CTE there and some additional parking possibly. I I wonder. I doubtful, but I wonder. Yeah. Can we get a website or some sort of landing page for the public just to get a snapshot of what's happening with facilities and some FAQs because we I'm sure you all get questions about pool property, the Jensen property, the rolling green property, um, and all of this other stuff too. If there there could be something that's easy for people to get to and a living document that it might not have a lot of information at any given time, but just I know this is something a lot of the community is really interested in. Dana still back. So maybe Dana and I can get together in the next week or two and talk about what that looks like.

107As you know, we're also um changing our website later this summer. So I'd be happy to get with her and talk about how that could look and what we could do now versus waiting till then. We still have our construction website up. That's just waiting for additional information on things. So here it is. We have a good place to put it. It's a good idea. So, kind of what I'm hearing is cost estimates and maybe more public access to information. And what else? Maybe even just like some starting point conversations with Piper Jaffrey to see whether we have any existing bonds that we could somehow what what can we make work financially without while we're waiting for our turn to request bond. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Shall we take a

108short recess? Yeah. Okay, we'll take a five minute recess so we can stretch our legs and [Music] All right. Update. So, each year since we've uh the board gave approval for our full-time subs, we bring this back just to see if there's any if the board has any uh wants to make any changes to what we've done. Uh we currently in the last few years we've uh we've had 15 full-time substitutes that we've um we've had go through the whole approval process. Uh this year we we were filled at about 14 and a half of those positions for most of the year. Uh our fill rates this year and we're not obviously quite done with Karen acres but have hovered right around 90% overall which is which is really good uh data. Um the uh

109the couple of areas that has really been critical for us and this has been the case for a few years now. Uh and probably one of these wasn't one that we were thinking a lot about when we started this was the ability to fill long-term positions where we were unable to get others from the outside to be able to place in those positions. So, uh, this past year we've had numerous, um, long-term positions, and by that I mean basically anything where we've needed more than two weeks, uh, whether it be a maternity leave or some other type of situation. Um, many of our full-time subs have played uh, really critical roles there in um, filling those spots for uh, periods of time. Obviously, we still use them as our our last resort on many days

110uh, to fill positions that are unfilled yet. um and that remains very beneficial. The other thing that they've been very helpful with is when we have been u close to or at 100% for a particular day, they have filled in in some of our associate roles that uh we are often unable to completely fill uh where they support one or one student in particular or small groups of students u for those unfilled positions or positions where um somebody just happens to be gone that day. So um uh it it remains very beneficial but like we had said at the very start we wanted to bring that back to this group just to reaffirm uh or if any if there's a desire by the board to make any changes in terms of total numbers or anything

111around that that we wanted to get your input on that. Does anybody have any questions about um the roles of our long-term subs or or full-time subs or anything around that? Are you feeling good at 15 or we need to adjust. What's your We do feel good at 15 this year. Um uh we we have felt like that number has been uh appropriate and um where uh we we haven't felt strapped honestly on on most days. When you combine our full-time subs alongside of our other uh substitute pool over the past few years, our our regular substitute pool has increased. That's been very beneficial. Um, but we still have, you know, we we don't have 100% fill um, by just using them. And that's where these full-time subs have been just essential to to our

112overall functioning. Um, and like I said, in some of these cases, we we have folks that have subbed for a semester or more in rooms and been able to keep our system going uh where it would have been much more choppy and where there's a lot of uh different people. You know, the one thing that's really helpful for kids is to see consistent faces and uh and I would also really give kudos to our staff, our regular staff who works with our full-time subs on a regular basis and welcome them into our buildings. They become like our regular staff members. Uh but they also support them a lot in in collaboration and helping them with lesson planning and areas maybe where it's not their area of expertise. So, um I would just longwinded there, but

113um I would say that we feel pretty good about that number, but we also know it's a big financial commitment that the district is making as well to have 15 total. Do you find that there are many days where you don't have teaching assignments for them? We have Yeah, we have some uh early in the year. uh overall attendance is pretty solid, for instance, in the first six weeks of the school year and and they've done as much filling in in some of our um classified needs as they have in classrooms. But we also have many more weeks of the year where they're all placed in regular teaching positions where it's harder to get to 100%. And even when we're doing that, we still aren't at 100%. So, um, it just varies based on the

114time of year a lot. Uh, which hasn't changed much, you know, even through COVID up through now. Quite honestly, I think 90% fill rate sounds amazing when I think about um, keeping our teachers happy, right? Because them having to fill in was not best for them or for students. So, I I love to hear that the rate is that high and That's I'm glad you mentioned that. That's another major positive is, you know, pulling our teachers a lot less Yeah. U from the plan times that they have to get ready for their instruction. So, it's that's also a big part of it, too. Yeah. Huge. Thank you. So, what I hear is that you are all good with where we're at and we can continue on. We have lost uh some of our full-time subs

115to other positions, which is awesome because it is a really nice stepping stone into the teaching field. uh and uh we we've been taking applications knowing that we would have this discussion. So, we'll be moving forward soon and and we've got a really nice pool of applications as well for this upcoming for this upcoming school year. And then the last thing, this is probably my longest section, um is the first reading of updates to policy 638. These are graduation requirements and um you have a link to the policy on that agenda item. So again, anything crossed out is being removed and anything in green is what uh is being added. I have not received any feedback on these from the public, but I will of course like usual send it to you. Okay, we're on

116to public comment. Mr. Sam, you'll be on. Thanks for coming tonight. Board policy limits comments to three minutes. The first speaker, the conf confidentiality reasons. The board cannot discuss personnel matters. We appreciate your comments. The board has a significant interest in maintaining the decorum of its meetings and expects that members of the public and board will address each other with civility. The orderly process of the board meeting will not be interfered with or disrupted by public comment. Only individuals recognized by the board president will be allowed to speak. Comments by others are out of order. If disruptive, the individual causing disruption may be asked to leave the board meeting. Defamatory comments may be subject to legal action. [Music] Steve, do you have the timer? I do. Mark Salman, 9442 Hammetry Drive. When parents like myself

117got involved with the movement to join a new athletic conference over a year ago, I was certain that common sense would prevail. While I had never been to a school board meeting, the data and parental support were overwhelming. Then I came to a board meeting and quickly quickly realized that this will be an uphill battle. There is a culture that's been established here to cover up problems and protect administrators above all else. Despite holding meetings every two to four weeks, parents like me were never once granted an open form to discuss the issue. Instead, we were told that state law doesn't require it and we were relegated to these three minute sessions. Are we frustrated with the school board? Yeah, we are. But we understand that you're part-time, unpaid volunteers and can't possibly grasp every

118issue. Like any board, you rely on the full-time leader of the organization. Four years ago, Urbanell School District hired Rosalie Dhaka as its superintendent. Under her leadership, Urbanell residents have seen the following happen, all much more important than who we play in sports. Record high teacher turnover with teacher benefits that apparently aren't keeping pace with surrounding schools. record high truency rates at the middle school and the high school, declining enrollment within our boundaries with near record low kindergarten enrollment and record high numbers enrolling out of Urbandale. sexual assault and child abuse lawsuits at the elementary and middle schools and record high spending here at the district, including all of this lease space, Metro West on 100 Street, along with six figure salaries for newly created district positions. All while we struggle to attract and retain

119teachers. What's the common thread here? policies and culture that encourage the status quo at the district while covering up and dismissing the concerns of students, parents, residents, and teachers. We need all the good parents and students we can get at Urbanddale and can't afford to keep doing this. 77% of parents wanted to leave the CIL. By election standards, that's a landslide. But I suspect it would pale in comparison to the percentage of parents, teachers, and residents who want new new leadership here. I challenged the board to put out a survey asking if they approve of the superintendent's work these past four years. As elected representatives, some of whom will be seeking re-election in 5 months, you should want this information. She does, after all, report to you. Thanks. On to the consent agenda. I would

120move to bring the consent agenda forward. Then we'll second. Questions, discussions, clarifications. I move to approve the consent agenda. We already have a motion. Oh, to approve. Okay. Roll call. Sorry, my bad. Are we ready for the roll call? Okay. Hower? Yes. Kent, yes. Me? Yes. Ny, yes. Ricewike, yes. Williams. Yes. Yes. Back to 70. Thank you. And action items. The contract for Hello again. All right. So, uh the first item there is for the uh replacement. Um Mike had given you just a a brief synopsis um there earlier. Um and just to continue on from uh when I was at the board last month, um we did take uh receive bids. Um we're replacing two of the three boilers. Um and then uh um in addition to that, doing a complete system flush. Um

121and then one of the other things and a uh uh water heater replacement. Um, one of the things that we did, um, during the design, uh, process there and kind of evaluating the overall structure of what was going on was, um, again, those boilers are 20 years old. Um, how we did things 20 years ago, improve, change over time. So, we did look at and evaluate a way that we can um, make those uh, boilers operate a little bit more efficiently um, and then hopefully provide some additional comfort to the to the overall building um, as a whole. And so that we we price that separately. You can do either option uh base bid there or uh do uh do that the bid alternate to enhance that. Um and so we wanted to give you

122that choice that option um you know be fiscally responsible. So um so before you uh we had two two biders um excited for that uh knowing that we have an aggressive timeline here um to go to get this done before the um before the next uh heating season. Um, so our our schedule has has the work being completed by the end of September. Um, that gives us about a 30-day buffer. Um, when we know that we'll probably start to need uh need some things. Um, and it's all dependent on equipment availability. We continue to be played by just different things at different times in the in the construction market. So, um, so with that, uh, LA Fulton Suns, they have done work with the district before. But then um I would move to approve this

123contract for the boiler replacement minus schools will second. Kent, yes. Nate, yes. Many yes. Nice. Yes. Williams, yes. Young, yes. Hower, yes. Motion passes 70. And next is the DL DLR contract for work under. So So again, we recognized the the uh uh the fastpaced nature of of what what was going on. So we went ahead proceeded with the work and got everything uh you know squared away for the district here. So what you're seeing there is a is the services for uh for our engineering team to to put all that the bidding document together. I will note um uh because of one of the as we were evaluating things um I district parent and tax figure all those kinds of things um I did have the opportunity to to donate some services to the

124district um in looking at that upgrade uh for that that bid alternate um we're not charging you for those services so look at that and evaluate the system. So, um, that's our contribution to the district and we're happy to do so, but um, but that's that's our contract for the work that we did. Feel free to make more of those contributions to approve contract boiler project. Okay. And we'll second. Okay. Young another roll call. Yep. Me? Yes. Yes. I swipe. Yes. William, yes. Young, yes. Hower, yes. Kent, yes. Motion passes 70. Thank you. Thank you very strategic plan for 2526. We're going to let Denise come up and let her uh kind of give a summary. Uh she referred to the new strategic plan. So there's a a link in there of the process that

125we use. So, they're gonna look all right. Denise Wood, director of district leadership and improvement. I didn't do that before. I apologize. Um, I did attach our process. I'm going to try to do that when I remember to. I think it's helpful for you all to get to see like strategic plan doesn't just magically appear here. Um those inputs are gathered throughout the year and then you can see how we um kind of identify those strategic um advantages and challenges move that forward into identifying root causes and then prioritizing our solutions. Um I wrote up in the summary but just big kind of key changes um that switch from pillar conversation to four big goals. Um and we're just making that shift in an attempt to make sure that everybody really knows what it is

126that we're all about. Um and so the I have we did do some work with leaders around that idea um here in the spring and then it was fun to see as they worked with their leadership teams um here over the last couple of weeks that shift in their language. Um it's going to take all of us a little bit of time to move away from talking about the pillar to talking about the goal. Um, but we do think that that emphasis change um is going to be helpful. Underneath that, while they are still written as annual goals, we're trying to make it um that shift to here's the strategic goal, here's how we're measuring it. Um, and so just little switches in our language. um you can see redistribution of a few of those

127measures um across the different areas. Um and then hopefully you can see the ways that we're taking like we had those really great employee results and so ways that we're building on those strengths that have been identified um like especially around feedback and coaching uh for our teachers in particular. and then thinking about how that process is working so well there in evaluation. How do we roll some of those practices forward with our classified evaluation which you're going to hear about um here in a few minutes. But thinking then how does that help in particular um that staff survey item around evaluation where we just haven't been getting movement. Um we've shifted some of our work around school safety from the family school relationship survey to considering some of the um digital citizenship online safety.

128Those are some areas that we're hearing a little bit more about from families. Um so switching to see what it is that we could be doing a little more proactively. So, those are kind of the big big shifts and and hopefully those lines um are fairly clear for you between our data and what we've prioritized for strategic actions. Any questions for us? All right, guess we'll entertain a motion. I will move to approve the strategic plan for the 2526. No. Yeah. 2526 school year. I'll second that. All right. Okay. Okay. So, all those in favor? I I opposed. Thank you. Thanks, Miss Sadler. You're up next. all the nutrition services annual agreements. Good evening. Okay. The first action item I am bringing is just the normal renewal agreements for the upcoming school year for nutrition

129department. Um, with the new contract for milk and dairy, we went out for a bit part of the CBC co-op. Uh, Urban Nail is part of a CDC co-op which is a co-op for food and um produce as well as um um supplies and Anderson Ericson were the one of the vendors that uh bid and based on quality customer service as well as pricing uh we would like to award them for the upcoming school year one-year contract with up to four year renewal just like the rest of the purchasing. The rest of the items are just renewal. We are part still within either the second or third year agreements. So any questions on any of the vendors? A motion. I'll move to approve the services nutrition annual agreements. Mankey will second. Okay. Mankey. Yes. And

130rice. Yes. Williams. Yes. Young. Yes. Hower? Yes. Kent. Yes. Me? Yes. Motion passes 70. Perfect. The second item is the student meal prices for school year 2526. Um looking at food cost and labor cost for the upcoming school year. Um the meal prices I believe will need to increase by 15 cents for breakfast and 10 cents for lunch. Breakfast has not been increased in the last three years. So, we've held it steady. Um, I thought it was fine for the last couple of years, but just with prices uh increasing, I think it's time to increase it by 10 cents. With that, um, based on the savings that we have from from the last couple of years, um, I would like to ask the board for approval in regards to the nutrition department um, absorbing the

131cost for reduced price breakfast and lunch for only reduced eligible students for the upcoming school year. uh based on the April 14th data. So just pulling those numbers, we had 287 students. Now that number does fluctuate month by month, so I will not be able to give you an exact number, but that was one of the highest numbers that we've had in the month of April. So 287 students and doing the math, that would be about $36,162 that we would uh absorb, the nutrition department would absorb. So, we would like to give that a try for the upcoming school year. However, I just want to make sure everyone's on the same page that we will have to revisit it in December just to make sure that we are still um in the positive because we

132have to be in the positive and then we'll of course revisit it for the upcoming school year as well. I'll move to approve it and really appreciate that gesture. It's awesome. We still will get the uh reimbursement, the federal reimbursement. It's just the parents will not have to pay for the 30 cents for breakfast or the 40 cents for second. So, we have a motion. Do we have a second? We'll second. Yes. Williams, yes. Young, yes. Hower, yes. Kent, yes. Me, yes. Mankey, yes. Motion passes 70. Perfect. And then lastly is the adult meal prices for next school year. Um the federal government sets the meal prices nationally. Um however, being at $4.97, um I would like to round it up to $5. We cannot round it down. We can keep it as is or

133we can round it up. I just figured it's easier for an adult to pay with $5 bill than $4.97. You don't keep those pennies. come by. I would move to approve the adult meal prices for the next school year. Okay. Thank you. We'll second. Okay. We are at Williams. Yes. Young. Yes. Hower? Yes. Kent, yes. Me? Yes. Ny, yes. Swank, yes. 70. Thank you. Okay. And the new classified evaluation process. [Music] Lauren correct, director of HR and operations. Uh Kate Johnson, HR specialist. All right. So, we are um presenting um our new classified evaluation process that we would like approval for. Um we'd like to start off by just giving some background and rationale for why we started this process. Um so our current classified evaluation process has been in place for several years now

134without a review. Um and then we also have our current class evaluations are based on previously created performance areas um and job specific employee performance expectations. So looking for u more specifications um last year obviously we did the review for the teachers wanted to make sure we're providing the same review for our classified employees too. Um, we have had employees request more refined ratings on the summit of evaluations. Um, they've also indicated that the performance responsibilities that are listed um, we're not always accurate for the position. Um, positions have changed obviously in the last few years. So, there might have been things on those evaluations that aren't being done anymore, but they're still being um, rated on those of those evaluations. Um, for the refined ratings, right now they just have satisfactory and unsatisfactory. Um,

135we had quite a few employees who also requested maybe something a little higher than satisfactory, just something a little bit more refined ratings for them. Um, we also have had supervisors over the years request additional clarity on the evaluation ratings. Um, we supported that just having more consistency across the district, making sure um, for the supervisors it's easier for them to do it on the evaluations as well. Um, and then like I said, we did the revision of the professional growth handbook last year for our teachers. Um, that provided some really positive ways for our supervisors and and employees. Um, have been doing more observations and reflections um and feedback together. Um, and we wanted to try to provide that with our classified employees as well. So, we made a committee um for to review

136this process. Um the committee consisted of about 15 people um to review the process. Um classified employees were included from each of every building um and from a wide range of classifications. We um put it out to the district to ask for volunteers and then if there were classifications that were not represented, we reached out to individual employees to see if they would join us as well. Um we also had two administrators who were part of the team um and a teacher as well to help provide some feedback. Um the committee met three times over the years. Um this is just a brief overview of the meetings. Um but the first meeting we just really did a big overview of the current evaluation process. Um the meeting number two and between the two meetings we

137gathered information from other districts in the metro um about what they do for their classified employees. So for the second meeting we um reviewed those processes and then discussed the possible changes for our evaluation process. Um and then in the third meeting, Lauren and I brought um updated processes as drafts um and asked for feedback and went through those processes with the committee. All right. So, some aspects of what we're bringing to you today that are updates or changes or improvements, uh one would be uh having everybody giving more thought to how they want to grow. uh that is truly built into our teacher and administrator uh processes. It hasn't been as built into classified evaluations. So, uh, as a way to encourage reflection and the setting of goals. And I think what we're planning

138to do is to start fairly small, uh, and just utilize our, um, our new documents to have people think about what might be an area that they want to continue to grow in. Um, and to utilize that and then hopefully provide feedback around that and other things as well. but to have uh our employees thinking about what professional growth looks like because it's not just uh careers that our teachers and administrators have, it's careers for our classified employees too. And honestly, I think this is a really really good step um um to think about it in that way as well. uh we're building in uh observations uh while still brief um as a way to number one um have everybody seen the work and I know that's happening right now but building into the system

139uh hopefully will be a really good thing uh but then also providing some feedback uh as a part of uh the digital tool that we're using is hopefully a way that will make it efficient uh and streamlined but also giving valuable feedback to our employees who have been craving it. Our teachers craved it. Our classified employees uh really uh seek good feedback as well because they have a desire to grow. Uh and then performance improvement plan uh just building that aspect in we have used performance improvement plans at different times. uh but building that in uh connected to job performance that needs improvement. Uh and really it's designed also to grow uh but it might be growing into something where we feel like then there is more proficiency happening or that it's that the performance

140has grown to a point where we are happy um with where somebody is at and then continue to grow from there. So performance improvement plan is built into this. Uh we have utilized our actions of excellence wi-i which were uh worked on and developed years ago but still are pertinent today um as a as a great connection quite honestly to what makes for a great employee at Urbanale schools. Um we also then uh continue to use the language that was in our pre especially around the the bigger areas. Uh the performance indicators from previous evaluations was also really still pertinent. uh and we found a way to kind of meld those things together uh within this new rubric which has as Kate was alluding to um has more refined categories and four instead of three

141categories but also descriptions about what good work looks like in those areas. Um and then also a section that gives our supervisors the opportunity to provide job job specific feedback uh because there are the nuts and bolts of every job that need to be done well uh as well. So uh giving that opportunity within the the tool. Um, our hope, like I said, is to, um, to utilize this, uh, going forward as a great connection to what we're already, uh, now doing with teachers, but in ways that are meaningful for our classified staff. Um, and of course, we'll we'll be looking at uh, at it as we go through it, but also at the end of of a year when we when the formal document is produced. One of the the other things I wanted

142to mention is that um the rubric includes an area that's stays distinguished like for our teachers um which is uh really what does high performance look like not just middle of the road performance uh and uh and spelling that out so that for many of our employees who really strive to to go to the next level um having that opportunity to see what that looks like and then having those conversations uh with their direct supervisors could be a very very bicial ial thing as well in terms of our overall uh employee performance. Um just as a reminder that the about half of all of our employees are classified employees. So this includes literally hundreds of different employees uh as their evaluation tool. What questions does anybody have for us about this? Appreciate your work. I

143I would move to approve the new classified evaluation process. How's a second? So all those in favor I I opposed. Thank you. Hi, I'm Mary Clark. I'm the prek through 12th grade um special ed curriculum facilitator. I'm Melanie Hatch. I'm the director of special education. Uh I am really excited um to talk about dynamic learners this evening. Uh I come from the dynamic learner world. Um and it was really exciting to work on this uh this year. Um and dynamic learners are are students within special education that have the most significant um learning needs. So uh we really see this falling under that ensuring high achievement for all students. Uh as I started in this role last fall, um I spent time in um in classrooms and with teachers and it was really apparent really

144early on that our dynamic learners um needed to be at the top of the priority list. Uh the curriculum that we've used in that space um has been around I've been in the district, this is my sixth year and it was around for for at least a few years before I joined the district. So, it hasn't really been looked at in um in a while. Uh our process, I would say, um really uh I mean, it's something that I had thought about before I was in this position and certainly uh the dynamic learner teachers had been thinking about it earlier than May of 2024, but when real work started was at that point. So talking with teachers that um teach our dynamic learners started doing some re research and then we began developing uh the

145essential elements which are the uh core standards for our students with significant learning disabilities uh and created um aligned proficiency skills just like we have in our gened settings uh and what is used for our gened students. So that is those guidelines that help determine uh what score is earned for each learning requirement which is based off of the standards within our dynamic learner program. Those standards come from the essential elements. Um we attended a virtual summit on uh on encore from from teach town. Encore is underneath the teach town umbrella. uh and we included um our our team members, our dynamic learner teachers were a part of that. Um we engaged in some professional learning, completed those essential element learning requirements and proficiency scales. I'm proud uh our goal was to have third through

14612th grade done for the year by the end of the school year because that's the third through 12th graders take uh the alternate assessment. Um but we got K through 12 done. So that was um exciting. uh and then uh did some training for our dynamic learner teachers on those proficiency skills and learning requirements and how to utilize them to provide scores to really reflect uh what our dynamic learners are are learning. Uh they take their classes past fail u and they've never in the time that I've been in the district um they've never received a score uh that's attached to a learning requirement. uh and so they it's just always been past fail. So it was exciting work to engage in to again really create uh a picture of the student and you know

147we have many students that um may I'm maybe I'm I'm a 10th grader and I'm reading at a first grade level but I'm doing math off the charts. We've never really had a way to truly reflect that. So that was exciting. Um and then uh we did spent a lot of time researching the alignment of Iowa's essential elements to encore which is that curriculum within teach town. This was the team of teachers uh that worked with us um and clearly representative uh from across the um the age uh all all of our grade levels. Uh our department vision is to help all students achieve at high levels while also increasing educators sense of fulfillment for their profession. As we looked at the current tool that we've been using um with our dynamic learners, we found

148that we were um really lacking in science and social studies. Uh they did not uh it it just the current curriculum doesn't provide enough resources to teach to the essential elements which were required by the state of Iowa to do. Um and then I I think the increasing educator sense of fulfillment for their profession. I loved getting feedback from our teachers this spring after we piloted it and the excitement um in teachers voices and being able to actually uh you know I had a teacher say I I feel like I'm actually doing what I've been like supposed to be doing all along but I haven't had the tools to do or I've had to go and search and try and find something that uh will will meet those those requirements. And it was so wonderful

149to just have have that those those tools in my hand. Uh the review of those instructional materials, we again we evaluated our current materials, identified those areas of concern and the uh places that we felt we needed improvement. Uh I would add that the uh while it there was very few resources for science and social studies, the math was um very repetitive was the feedback that we got from our teachers is that it really just kind of addressed the same skill over and over again and it didn't um really embrace all of the um that that big spectrum of the essential elements for each uh for each grade. Uh evaluated options for improved materials. We looked at um some other resources and to be honest with you, there's not a lot out there. Um some

150other options would have been really peacemealing. Um from from kind of a a menu of things and uh and I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but one of the things we really appreciated about Encore was the differentiation within uh the curriculum. So if I have sixth grade social studies in front of me, there is three different levels. um within that sixth grade social studies. Uh so even within our dynamic learner program, we have very varied uh student needs and abilities. And then we evaluated feedback from our dynamic learner teachers. Uh and we did spend some some significant time ensuring that alignment to the essential elements and to our uh our proficiency scales. Um, this kind of sums up the things I already covered. Our current resource is not a full core curriculum. While Encore um

151provides u materials that cover math, ELA, science and social studies as well as some supplemental interventions for um social skills and uh transition and live life skills um and language. There are uh within uh our current materials, it's a significant repetition of materials. Uh Encore offers 13 years of non-re repeating lesson plans. Uh there are approximately 55 benchmark assessments built into our current tool and there are 270 benchmark assessments within Encore. Uh and then the current events curriculum uh that we currently use is a part of the the same company. we have to purchase that separately. Uh the current events curriculum is included with encore. So um and that is that uh every week uh a weekly focus that's based on what's happening within our world. Can I interrupt please? Um so I think our

152current situation as well is um there's a lot of uh supplementing we have to do. So we've had to purchase other things to supplement because we're just not getting enough with um what we are getting through um the current program. So, and then we can uh we did a virtual interview with uh Glenwood. Uh I wasn't want to call it Glendale. I don't know why. I'm not from Iowa originally. Um but we did a virtual interview with uh Glenwood Community School District. They've been using it for a few years. uh they started with one teacher and then over the past few years it has um spread throughout their entire district because that the initial teacher um enjoyed it so much and their previous uh curriculum was the curriculum that we are currently using. And so

153it was nice to be able to have that um conversation with their special ed director about um how she just answered so many of the questions that that we had. Does it does it are does it offer 13 unique years uh 13 lessons of or 13 years of unique lessons? Does it do you find that it aligns with the with the Iowa essential elements? Uh do your teachers feel like they are searching for other things and the answer to all those questions were um the right kind of answer that it it is it does align. They're not searching for other things. Teachers really enjoy it. it's decreased their workload um significantly. So our recommendation for K12 and 4 plus would be teach towns encore. Um again because it provides core instruction in all four of

154those areas. Uh we have transition 4 plus instructional materials are included social skills and then they also have uh extended school year uh materials that can be utilized for our students that engage in learning over the summer. I missed. I think you covered it. Do you have any questions? Is there any additional costs like updates annually? I mean, is this just coming as a package and that's it? So, this is a fiveyear um okay, fiveyear quote. Um and actually, if you break it down, it ends up being about $500 a student. um which is if you think about the amount that we we spend for other um areas and trying to get our general education core curriculum materials um it does it was much more than that. So um I do think um the one

155thing that might be a re re uh reoccurring cost would be the consumables. Um however there is an online component. Um we also have some students that are not going to be able to necessarily interact with those workbooks. um in a way that you know it's intended and so um you know they've even told us that we can make copies and I'm like and that's but that that would be the one cost that may possibly be there would be those um work for consumables um but everything else would be included. there is an online component um and that includes that as well um and we have to sign up for so many seats um however there's not a discount uh if you reserve but but if you say I need 40 seats then you pay

156for 40 seats whether you need 20 or whether you need 40 uh so we we actually um estimated a little bit low and then we would add individual seats which is I think it's a couple hundred dollars per student um we also have some students that may not be able to participate or, you know, interact with the online compon component. Um, but we shot, you know, we we estimated low on that and then we would add additional seats so we're not paying for seats we don't need. Sure. And and does this um extend to the 4 plus program? It does. So there's like additional pieces of the Encore program. Um so one is transition um and life like life skills types of things. um for secondary. So transition should be taught throughout high school. So

157we're working on transition and then obviously we will be able to use those materials in our four plus program as well. Um we have social skills materials um that also come along with it. There's also one on about language um which would be like for students who are working on building that vocabulary and things which is more of a SLP type of situation but oftent times we share goals uh with a speech language pathologist and maybe an academic goal and so teachers need resources um to try to increase students communication and so it has some of those materials I can't remember I feel like there's more than maybe any missing ones Well, I'm encouraged that you you're doing this and have it found it and put the work in. Yep. So, our pre our current

158program has actually been sold to another company and it just seems like it's sort of falling apart quickly. Um, and we really haven't seen any updates to it. It does have an online component. Um, and like I said, we've just had a supplement so much that we started looking into like what else is out there. Uh because I do feel like our our dynamic learner teachers are constantly like, "Hey, what about buying this and what about buying this, you know, and I'm thinking, okay, well, if they're bringing all of this, there's obviously a need." And so Mary started working on it and we're pretty excited about it. It sounds like we have some pretty uh close neighbors that are also going to be um adopting it this year. So, uh there's also a training component

159that comes with it. Um so not only like some sessions with everyone but also some individualized sessions to work directly with each teacher and um we have four five six nine uh dynamic learner teachers within the entire district. Um so you know it's not a ton of teachers but giving giving everybody what they need is going to be awesome. When I asked for feedback, uh the only not positive feedback I got was I wish that I had been trained on it. Well, training would be a component. I wish that I had the all of the materials. They sent us the we had access to the online component and then um a sampling a kind of random sampling of of um hard copies. Uh and uh so I wish I had training. Oh, and I wish

160I had had more time. So, we had uh four weeks with it and um I wish I had more time. I just I just want to like dig in and and I'm so excited and I want to like look at all the different things. And so, that was encouraging to me too. The the negative feedback wasn't negative feedback. It was all things that would be addressed um with, you know, if we purchase and move forward with Encore. That was really encouraging to me. I wish you guys were more excited about this. I really struggle to hide my excitement. I would make a motion to approve the use of the K12 Encore instructional materials under the 5-year contract. Williams second at Young. Yes. Noer. Yes. Kent, yes. Me, yes. Mankey, yes. Swipe, yes. Williams, yes. Motion

161passes 70. Thank you. Okay. Concurrent enrollment courses. So these were presented in May uh at the 19th meeting. Um this is the point that we're asking these to be approved. I don't know. I think Brandon was uh delayed at that meeting and at the time there were no questions, but I didn't know if there were any questions now that you might want to ask. This is an annual requirement that we get these approved. I would move to approve the concurrent enrollment courses. Do a second. Okay. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. And now we're on to the student parent. Denise, director of district leadership improvement. Um, I can I back us up real quick to strategic plan? It's getting close to my bedtime, so things are are getting lost. I did want to

162just mention that we cascade the plan to our building and um department um plan on a page. they they each have a strategic plan that's aligned and Dr. Dhaka and I are working on doing a couple of nights um September and October where we get you all set up with those individuals and do kind of a round rob and I believe you guys somebody may have learned about this um at a conference or or in a board sharing um opportunity. So I just wanted you to know that that is going to look a little bit different um this year. Uh but I'm pretty excited about it. I think that you'll enjoy getting to um interact and understand better what's in each of those individual things. So now handbook um again I attached the process. This

163is um very involved process. You can see that we have opportunities um for feedback revision um and then another round of feedback after some revisions are made. That second round of feedback also involves SCAK um and then final revisions made. Um, as as we get board approval, um, tomorrow, the editing and formatting of the English version will begin. The, um, changes will be sent to our district translators. Um, and we do have one that we're going to have to use an external agency for. Um, and then those translations will happen over the next few weeks. formatting hopefully to be on the website um by the time that Karen Acres starts. Um in the handbook there's really not a lot of earthshattering changes. They're pretty boring this year. Um if um there are some places where

164we aren't quite sure, we don't have full guidance on um some recently passed legislation. And so there are some adjustments that may need to happen. Um I think most of those are also going to involve changes to policy. Um and of course law always is going to trump policy and policy is always going to trump the handbook. So um I just want to make sure you know that there are some pieces that are a little um either under construction or we made adjustments based on what we interpreted um that still might need some adjustment at some point. Um, and if you discover anything, um, I know that Chrissa had caught a place where we still had late start. Um, I think sometimes of, you know, all the different leaders that are inside of that document,

165um, sometimes we just get so used to something being there that we don't see it anymore. So, if you spot something else like that, uh, make sure that you shoot you can just shoot me an email and and we'll get that updated. Um, we really are trying, but there there are just still a few of those little and then that formatting piece. Um, not sure why blank pages showed up, but all those kinds of things. Uh, send them to us because there are just some things that some of us don't don't see. Any questions? We'll entertain a motion. Williams will move approval of the 2526 student handbook. Give it to Hower. All right. Well, we're back to Hower. Yes. Kent, yes. Yes. Ny, yes. And Ricewe, yes. Williams, yes. Young, yes. Motion passes 70. Thank

166you. Thanks, Denise. Okay. The reconsideration committee for 126 school year. So, this was a piece that the board um requested that we review annually for membership on this committee. And I know Brandon posted uh solicitation for people who might be interested in serving on this committee. Um this year we didn't have to use the committee thankfully. Um but we felt like having the committee in place was more um proactive. so that it was defined who was going to make these decisions. Um he received 26 responses of individuals. We took the answers that they provided on why they wanted to be on the committee and blindly sent those to the board and the board ranked them for us. And the names that you see uh for community members in here um came from those rankings. These

167are not in any particular order. These are just the top uh four individuals. Um, I just so you know, I did share with the whole committee that the individuals that were going to be going to the board would receive a second email that particular day. I think it was Monday that I sent that out. Um, so they are aware that their names are in here and uh I did give them an opportunity if they changed their mind and didn't want to participate any longer, but I didn't receive anything um back from them. Um the three employees that are recommended in here are appointed by the superintendent um from administration, a teacher librarian and a licensed employee. So if we receive an objection that the committee needs to hear, then pending this board approval, that would

168be the group that came to go through that formal process with Brandon and I. I I would move to approve these. Okay, I'll give it to Jo. I'll second it. It is 8:31. I'll second it. Ricew gets a second. Okay. Okay. So, all those in favor? I I I opposed. Okay. Motion passes. Next up is the legislative priorities. So, this is something that you do annually. I tried to include the the last two legislative sessions for the priorities that the board came to. Um I also included for you the um what do they call it? The legislative uh action the booklet that comes with it. Um so at this point platform thank you. It's close to my bedtime too. Um the board just needs to determine uh what the priorities they want for the 2026

169season and then um I can work with Rachel. I don't know if you have the link. I can give you the link so that they can be entered or I can enter them. It's up to you. Whatever you guys want to do. This is also something if the board doesn't feel that they're prepared enough. I don't know how much reading everyone had a chance to do but they are not. We have time. we can move this to July if you would feel more comfortable. Um, but I wanted to get it in early, so we were thinking about it. So, if you're ready, we can do it. I think we knock it out tonight. I agree. I mean, I think the number one should be funding. Yeah. I mean, I mean, unfortunately, that's what it is

170every year, but that's why, you know, nothing else can fall into place without that, right? And the increase this year was $162 per student. The what? The increase per student was $162. We can do a lot with that. We could have done a lot more with 175. Yes. Or 500, right? Yeah. How many did you How many did we want? Um, last year we had four. Um, who entered it last year, Jason? Was that did you Yes. Do you remember four was the total because we had five and we weren't sure if the four So I mean we can take five. I think it was Yeah, I I think I was limited to four. Okay. That's my recollection. Well, I'm going to propose uh repeating the student mental health. that would be on my list

171as well. Yeah, I agree. I'm sorry. Did you say student mental health? Um, I'm going to say property taxes as a landlocked district. I think the ability to control our own financial destiny is rather important. I was going to suggest something about local control and I think ties primarily to that issue. We know what's coming. Property tax reform. I think we still push preschool, too, because we all know that the research shows that preschool makes a big difference. I And you know, I think every year we put universal preschool in there, but I think we need every year to put universal preschool in there. Yeah, I would agree. Research shows that's key. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and I'd really like to special education funded more fully. Yeah. For the entire state, right? And I think

172that's so I don't know if we can tie school funding into property taxes or somehow incorporate all those into a local control initiative. I don't know. Well, can we can we kind of cheat and say funding slash preschool sped? Is it a drop down menu that you're selecting from or do you actually Yes, it's a drop down. Yeah. So, they're looking at the different Yeah. And unfortunately, new legislature is not a choice. We have funding, mental health, property taxes, local control, preschool, and special ed funding. So, however, those pull downs will lead to those priorities. I think you can make a judgment on that, you can use, we trust you, whoever does it. Yeah. Don't want to be cynical about this, but sure. If I have the link, we'll look. I can send it to

173you. If you're not, you're not paying attention. So that is an action item. So somebody will need to make the You must get a lot sent to you a lot of times. Is that what you're referring? So I would propose that our priorities are school funding. I'm just going to list them all. Property tax, uh, early childhood, preschool, um, mental health. Okay. and proper funding for special education. All right. For the 25, no 26 legislative session. So all those in favor I call second. Yeah. Now all those in favor I I opposed. Motion passes. Motion to adjurnn. Little quick on the All those in favor? Yeah. Okay.