Urbandale CSD School Board Meeting 02.24.25

001e okay we'll go ahead and call this meeting to order with roll call Hower here Kent here here miy here rice here Williams here I would move to agenda n n will second all those in favor I I opposed okay our district mission is to teach all reach all Urban uh the district vision is urb will be a school district that brings learning to life for everyone and the school board mission is to partner with stakeholders to teach all and reach all through governance a board policy and operating protocol and first up is board recognition Okay so I'd like to um recognize Carrie beard or stall um just going to read a little bit of detail here Carrie has completed her work to become a national board certified teacher she's one of Less in less

002than 200 in Iowa that hold an active license at this time national board certification is developed and revised by practicing Educators based on research and practitioner expertise the national board five core propositions and standards describe what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do to have a positive impact on student learning national board certification identifies teachers who meet those standards through a performance-based peer review series of assessment components those five propositions teachers are committed to students in their learning they know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students they're responsible for managing and monitoring student learning they think systematically about their practice and learn from experience and they are members of learning communities if anyone's ever known anyone that's gone for national board certification this is a very lengthy process

003that takes more than a year to do I believe there's still videos that you have to take and you have to submit and this is a pretty extensive process and it is a a very big deal to be nationally recognized so we'd like to have Carrie come [Applause] up har is the only UCSD national board certified teacher at this time soig accomplishment let's go ahead and memorialize this I know she came here for an agenda item but okay one two three of course I got get a picture too be let's go let's go to get a shout out thanks congratulations thank you thank you thank you item number five is for development on ntss R sh director of teaching and learning Deputy Davis director of student services and equity and tonight we want to provide

004you with some learning around our multi-tiered system of support uh this work has been going on in our system for some time uh but the last three years we've really been hyperfocused on clarifying and building that coherence within our system related to our tiers of support uh for students and part of that process is annually each building goes through the self assessment for the multi-tier system of support implementation or Sammy uh and we want to walk you through just the different elements of our tiers of support indeed um so our multi- system of support is one of the many schoolwide systems and structures that fits into supporting our students and letting them know that they belong here and building our culture of dignity and belonging and so when we think about a multi-tier system of

005support uh it kind of really calls to if anyone's everever read the book Upstream which is this idea that we can spend years responding to problems uh but the focus is really uh the fact that we want to work to prevent them and that that's really what a multi- system of support is about it is not about labeling students and putting them into boxes or categories uh it is really about a system that is responsive enough to meet the needs of students uh within it and so a good analogy to kind of consider when thinking about a multi-tier system of support is Dental Care uh and so tier one response or support is really kind of that daily care of teeth so brushing your teeth two times a day flossing that's really that Universal support

006and it's all about prevention of future need of specialized Dental Care uh tier two is that supplemental support uh and really thinking about sometimes uh you need to get cavity filled or um Special Care uh given and that short term you you go and you get it and then hopefully you can resume with your tier one or Universal supports and that doesn't require future need but there's also sometimes the need for more intensive supports and so that's comparable to kind of orthodontic here that uh more specialized uh more intensive multi uh months of support to really meet the need uh to resolve kind of those Dental needs so when we think about our multi-tier system of support you can see that we have core Universal struction at the center and then um each uh orientation

007that you move uh you're either moving towards uh intervention or supplemental extension and enrichment so we'll start by talking about tier one and really our focus is that idea of making sure our Universal instruction uh is aligned to the io academic standards and those career Readiness and postsecondary success indicators and those essential grade level skills are the focus of tier one and we've really done a lot of work over the last couple of years of making sure our teachers have access to high quality instructional materials and in addition to that making sure that students have access uh to core instruction so making sure every student has access to that core instruction with the idea or goal that that core instruction is being differentiated to meet the needs of students related to those essential grade level

008skills and that when doing that uh at least 80% of students will be proficient or reach Mastery the first time they receive that instruction so with that we've been talking uh in previous board development sessions about this idea of universal screeners or kind of how we work to detect students that may need additional supports uh and we compare that to kind of a temperature check but then those Diagnostics that follow um are really important to identify students uh who really need a tier 2 or tier three supports and making sure that we're tailoring those supports to meet that diagnostic need and then continuing to monitor the um the data related to the progress monitor to make decisions and so with that we currently use edge of climber uh our teams within buildings use educ climber

009which is our data management system to help organize their data and to make those data- based decisions I think it's excuse me really important to note that we have the ability then to see the entire grade level and so instead of looking at students individually it gives us the um ability to really see where students needs lie in comparison with their grade level PE so as I said earlier when we look uh to either orientation really thinking about how do we intensify the supports that students have access to that those supports become more targeted on either end uh and that the people that are working with those students become more highly trained and that there's progress monitor monitoring going on uh related to those supports to see um are we getting the response that we're

010intending to have and then making the adjustments accordingly um when we begin to look at tier two this G this is a fewer number of students from our initial tier one we're providing that differentiation within the tier one to meet students learning needs but we know that for some students they need more intensive um supplemental interventions or perhaps um extension and intervention um what this might look like is um especially on the extension end perhaps more in-depth questioning more um not more but different work that aligns with the student learning needs along with the grade level of learning requirements and then on that intervention end it's really those immediate prerequisites skills so um grade level teams as they're teaching something recognizing if a student isn't responding and they need additional besides core identifying what are

011the immediate prerequisite skills and supporting um their needs uh in all of our buildings we have a block of time dedicated to respond uh to tier 2 needs um that are data informed uh so at the elementary we call that when time what I need time uh at the middle school it's called um you time sorry I and then at the high school there's both intervention the intervention block and then also in math and literacy and those departments there's Labs so so when um students can get um kind of drafted into those uh to make sure that they're getting additional supports may ask a question uh what is the less than 15% and the 15% me yeah that's great sorry uh so we say 10 to 15% of students in a healthy mtss system may

012require uh tier 2 supports in addition to U that Universal tier okay thank you so as each tier progresses and we have fewer and fewer students we're also looking at the difference in student learning need so when we're looking at tier three these are the most intensive interventions or intensive enrichments that we might provide for students these are students who are outliers from their grade level peers academically um and need more um more indepth and ularly targeted supports that are building on again on those grade level learning requirements and in tier three for the Intensive intervention side again this idea of in a healthy multi-tier system of support one to 5% of students may need um this intensive support and really those supports are wrapped around those foundational skills so they're really usually Beyond uh

013grade level they're pre prerequisite skills um and really building those foundational skills um kind of simultaneously as students are learning uh Universal instruction to try to close the gap um as quickly as possible so kind of putting it all together uh really in an ideal space students flow through this fluidly uh based on uh the level of need at any given time um and the content being taught thought uh and really that's informed by the data both from the universal screeners the Diagnostics but then that ongoing progress monitoring so some celebrations uh related to our work over the last three years is really this idea that we've um gotten clear uh on what that Universal tier of instruction looks like so beyond the high quality instructional materials that we frequently bring to you we're also

014we've mapped out what those blocks of time across grade levels look like um everything from you know just the uh amount of time spent in each area to what does the teacher do prior during the lesson and then post lesson to get really clear um as a system on what that highquality Universal instruction looks like we've also implemented common processes to detect so it's one thing to screen but then how do we use that data as a system consistently across our system to detect students that may benefit from additional support and then common processes to support um and review uh progress regularly uh and then the overall health of the system we've been um buildings have been engaging in that self assessment annually we've also created more clarity uh regarding the tiers uh of support

015in literacy math and social emotional Behavior so we've created standard treatments um that are kind of the go-to things to try initially um and then when those maybe aren't getting the response we would expect we have some alternate uh responses uh and then we've provided specific training to support um those intensive interventions so for example our interventionists have had both Orton Gillingham training to really support literacy instruction and then um some additional Math training has been provided to the interventionist um to support our response excuse me for our Extended Learning Program one of the things that we've been able to do over the past couple of years is to expand our Personnel so that we have an ELP teacher in every building um the ELP teacher is able to um work with students who have

016an identified learning need and also to work with teachers to help provide differentiation support um we have also updated our identification practices to better reflect our student learning needs and building the data literacy um with with our ELP teachers and to ensure that we're identifying the students who have outlined learning needs from the great level years and then opportunities for improvement so uh really continuing to work on the execution and the fluency of the implementation of that systemwide uh support across the system so so just continuing to coach and support uh buildings related to kind of their use because we've implemented um or initiated um Pro new processes related to this work and then deepening the Knowledge and Skills to support the most intensive behavior supports that's still an area uh that we're continuing to

017grow in so when tier 2 responses and sometimes our more intensive responses aren't getting the response we would anticipate uh making sure that we have a deep tool kit to kind of go to so continuing to work through that um and then continuing to deepen the differentiation practices at tier one instruction with ELP we had completed a program review um a couple of years ago and then used that information to guide our learning as far as how we wanted to update the programming um one of the things that we continue to work on is that alignment between identification um and the programming to make sure that th those um that alignment exists between the student learning needs and what they're receiving as an intensive enrichment and intervention um and then continue to educate across the

018system um about the changes in programming as part of the multi-tiered systems of support what questions do you have thank you for explaining the dental analogy I saw that slide I'm like there's more of this story there thank you thank you appreciate all that this brings to our our district okay are we on the more you know now okay so I just have a couple topics tonight um first one is pretty timely uh calling school on an inclement weather day how does that happen um if you look on our website you'll see all the information you can go to our main website and put weather in the search uh box and it'll take you right to the page and basically we try to make these decisions by 5:45 in the morning I try to do

019them even earlier than that because I know parents are walking out the door and you've got to get kids to Adventure Time at 6 and there's all different factors that are going this last time we were lucky because it was a little bit easier because the temperatures being so severe are a lot easier to track than snow snow may or may not come you know there's been times that we've called snow days that we didn't get the snow that was predicted I will give a shout out to the Metro superintendence we have a group chat that we start talking usually 4 o'clock in the morning 4:30 in the morning depending on the weather front that's coming in this particular time like I said we started chatting around lunch Lun time so that we were able

020to try to make a decision before the end of the day so that you could go home and make whatever Arrangements that you needed to make um we do look at specific temperatures I believe it's minus 25 temperature minus 30 windchill we don't want kids standing out at bus stops in those temperatures we also coordinate with other districts because we know that there are families that go to school here but their parents might work in another District or vice versa so we're sharing a lot of the same um individuals we want to make sure that I'm not calling off so somebody who works here has to take a day or work somewhere else has to take a day because our kids aren't going to be in school so it's a kind of a juggling act

021but it is very methodically done there are information channels that go through KCCI who13 and um Channel 5 but we also encourage parents to make sure you have parent Square app because that's where the best information going to come from so we also have to coordinate with the transportation the buses last week for example some of the diesel was guming up we had a bus breakdown at one of the evening events in southeast pul that bus had to be towed back those are factors that we also need to consider so I just wanted everybody to kind of know there is a defined process and if you look on our website you will see that information so you know and it always seems like some people are happy some people aren't happy this particular one I

022think most people we're happy I didn't get any negative notes but we will make sure that we follow our process um the next item is parent conferences I believe they started last week this week they're go also going on um we just want parents to remember our teachers are working really hard and there might be some challenging conversations to have we just want to make sure that we're all staying in a good place to have those conversations because these are really opportunities for our teachers to share with you how your students are doing and we want to approach that from a positive uh standpoint a very big important one open enrollment applications are due March first for students entering grades 1 to 12 so that's next um this Saturday already is March 1st our kindergarteners

023if you're entering kindergarten next year your application's not due until September 1st so pay attention to those dates um and the last thing is Insurance our employee insurance is is going to expect to have about a 4 and a half% increase we are working to not pass that on to the employees we believe that it's in our budget to be able to cover that we're also working on an option for those individuals who use the Iowa clinic to lower your deductibles and co-pays um and at a pocket maximum and at a pocket maximum so we're finalizing that right now but 4.5% is much better than what we originally were quoted I think we were up to 6.9 or something which is still better than what some had last year but we're trying really hard not

024to pass that on to any employees so I think that's good news but um we'll have another insurance contract to sign for the next series so we'll bring that to the board for the signature other than that that is all I have the annual review of the district career and academic plan Char director Dar Wagner work based learning facilitator at high school right okay great all right so we're gonna talk through uh just the work that's been underway uh over the last uh year really uh related to our district career and academic plan the district career and academic plan is a comprehensive plan uh that really addresses uh 8th grade through 12th grade uh and we're working to actually expand that to preschool uh to 12th grade uh but what is required uh related to

025Iowa code is 8th grade to 12th grade and that district career and academic plan covers a whole host of things uh related to one making sure we have an assembled team uh to support that process and we're going to walk you through what that looked like uh in the the preparation of that this year that we're really considered comprehensive uh course planning and that we're taking a student centered approach that students um are kind of the drivers of their planning uh and they're at the center of that and then engaging our stakeholders in that process and then really thinking about that holistic pathway exploration so if you remember last month we shared kind of uh the work that's been underway at the high school related to those services series and career Pathways um and that

026definitely fits into our district career and academic plan so um what we did do um we did a lot of work um around our three areas um life ready career career ready and college ready and so what from that we did um we did split um into three groups um and we had um individuals from prek through 12 on each of the Committees and we used the D dat that um things like attendance we used um like our concurrent enrollment we used um gpas BSA completion all those different thing indicators that we've identified that show data for each of those three areas um and so we took that data to those groups and then used that to um go on to the next one here um but we used that to look at the we

027reviewed that data um and then we Ed use the data to find um to determine simar causes of why why things were happening the way they were and then use that um use those identifications to figure out some possible solutions to those things and then um from that we're taking that back in as far as implementing some of those ideas into our Decap plan to address those concerns um we had uh 35 people that were a part of those three three teams um it was teachers from each level from um elementary middle school high school we had administrators from each of the three levels and then um we also identified um specific areas um we had special ed teachers we had um counselors of course and then also um some teachers that were all a

028part of all the different um committees and then our district career and academic uh plan leadership team was made made up of individuals from each of those work groups and then we also had Community Partners uh both in the Urbandale Community with then also industry uh Partners uh from different Industries to provide input and they were able to look at a draft of our plan um different portions of it and provide feedback we also took a a specific portion to the school Improvement advisory committee for additional feedback um with the idea that we're creating a plan uh that's inclusive meaning that it really involves all students uh that it's scaffolded so across the years um that it's building up and building upon each other that it provides students a opportunity to be reflective and then

029it integrates with all the other pieces that are happening within our system um and then an update on the prior year your goals um okay um so we had a number of goals that we had um looked at from our previous year's plan um we had some room for improvement and um looking at looking at the know eight 10 um goals we had um from those goals we were able to either attain or we're in the process of attaining um so things like let's see um just give you a couple examples um about the only one that we have that is still in progress is using um Z to incorporate um in other programs classrooms advisory as part of the support of the IAP um that was the only one that we still in progress

030and that's just because we haven't um implemented in all classrooms yet but it has been implemented in all of our connections for all students um we have um a career our career con has been um been successful we've got um special ed e LP and atrisk teachers that will receive um receive Z training um connections teachers have been more involved with scheduling that pretty much took place in connections this year which was a huge set um uh teachers are reviewing grades with students and attendance um and then um fouryear plans were uh signed digitally by parents so that's a majority of the the goals that we've accomplished this year so there's uh five essential components to the district career and academic plan and that is self-standing so what intentional activities and experiences do we provide

031over time 8th grade through 12th grade for students to better understand uh their own goals and aspirations and what they want to do uh post High School uh that we're providing Career Information across those grades so that students understand different careers uh the skills that you might need for those careers uh and then what you get as a result of choosing that career so both monetary but then also the you know the self uh part of that and then making sure that we're providing career exploration experiences and that postsecondary exploration is really about what are your options what are the train what's the training that goes along uh with that selected career or career choices and then uh supporting students when they make that postsecondary in career decision what supports are in place related to

032that when looking at our feedback that we got last year with our submission uh with our district career and academic plan uh we really ranged from developing to Advanced to proficient and then we had a few areas that we were novice or just beginning and so what we did is we took a look at those areas that maybe we scored a novice or just beginning uh and that really led us to our district career um and academic plan leadership team and those were the specific areas they looked at drafts in order to provide us with feedback so we had six groups that we broke into that day that we met um with all of our stakeholders and those were um the six groups that we wanted to focus on based on our Decap were career-based

033learning and and exploration work-based learning IAP Career Information IAP postsecondary exploration career and postsecondary ision and then the district integration plan so improvements uh that that team identified was really working to create a clear progression of outcomes across those grade levels in each of those activities uh deliberate integration so working to really integrate uh each of the areas identifying those measurable outcomes a stronger connection to business and internships the cross subject integration and then more visibility of reflection within our plan and making sure each component had clear reflection in each grade level and so the draft of the plan that you see there's still areas that we're still working through we have till March uh before it's uh due uh but you'll see that those that feedback that was given on that day is showing

034up uh in our plan there was also lots of feedback that isn't uh captured here related to the formatting of the document and so what we did is we took the state's document and created an auxiliary document where we had more space uh to include all this information because uh the pages were kind of everywhere it was like 167 pages and it was crazy so um we worked to really streamline that and so uh We've set goals for the upcoming uh school year which is really to improve the scaffolding within our plan strengthen career connected learning enhance that inclusivity and diversity of experiences that our students have so making sure that our students aren't just getting the same experiences over and over again and then improving um the fasta advisement uh within our district career

035and academic plan students also have an individual career and academic plan and so really the district plan facilitates that individual plan so every student in eth grade initiates uh their academic plan uh which is typically called their four-year plan that plan is revisit Ed annually and revised related to you know any changes in their interests or career aspirations um and really that is really set up to support them in that graduation planning as you know we've switched over to a new Career Information System uh which is z we moved away from Naviance into zel and that's where their four-year plans are that's also a tool used for lessons related to our district career and academic plan and then students Reflections and portfolios are housed in there and we've invited parents 8th grade through 12th grade

036right now uh to join Z so that they can view their students work and sign all right so um the next piece was just kind of a review of the individual plan so each year there are different pieces that students in each grade level have to um complete in order to me all the different pieces of their C plan and so part of that is identifying those areas um in the past it was in Nance now it will be in z um and then finding making sure that all students are completing each part of their IAP plan each year um I know the last time when we talked about the numbers for this that that uh part of it was part of it was the the system we were using part of it was just

037how we had um tried to incorporate some of the the um activities into into um how it hadn't been it hadn't been connected to connections at that point and so some of the numbers especially like the older students the seniors I believe it was that um we had a number of um students that we didn't get all the different pieces of the IAP completed and so um I that piece of uh Z being a part of that now is already we can already see that has made a huge difference um as far as students getting on the getting on the platform and and starting doing some of the activities so um I'm very happy about the fact that just in a few months we've seen such a huge huge um difference in as far as

038participation in students completing activities um the next piece is about District integration so we have um you know the Discover you discover your path um we've had our Decap we've had at one point we had postsecondary Readiness we had all these different pieces um the counseling department had you know their piece as far as career exploration we had connections that had some so this um this year has been a huge transformation as far as making sure that the students Decap the IAP the what we're doing in Z what we're doing in connections all um the postsecondary success um all of those things are connected now um things that we're doing in one group relate to another group and it isn't just all these different pieces kind of living on their own somewhere so um that

039that has definitely been a a huge a huge shift that questions have any questions all right okay uh well just want to start off last week on Friday we had a pep assembly um so that was very fun we had a Roan bow tournament wrap up I had 50 beads and I lost them all the day before the assembly so I unfortunately know it was a good success it was fun uh we had some jhawk way recognition which was very cool and we had a wrap up for winter sports which was nice nice uh and recently we had Southeast pan ding student council exchange so we had their student council members come to our school and see how it worked a little bit and then tomorrow we're going to go to Dowling um and see

040how their school Works a little bit just to get that perspective uh State wrestling wrapped up uh recently they did a very good job from what I heard uh Kan tias got second so Props to him State B started today which is very exciting I have person my connections in that uh we hosted usci for sh choire h a little bit ago and that was very fun I went for all of finals um very cool to see how those shirs come together uh very awesome that we hosted uh and lastly snow days and late start days those were much appreciated by students if you want to give us some more of those we'll take the fall though I think are hold out um yeah that's all I've got for today great thank you Sean okay

041public comment is next um we are going to start with Josh Heen while you make your way up here thanks for coming tonight board policy limits comments to three minutes per speaker for confidentiality reasons the board cannot discuss specific 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 the board meeting and also defamatory comments may be subject to legal action I give you a 10c warning

042okay perfect thank you uh good evening board members and staff my name is Josh Hagen and I live at 4114 124 Street here in male I'm here hopefully this one last time to advocate for leaving the ciml to join the little Hawkeye I've been advocating for this change for a long time years not months and excited for the potential change the idea of leaving the ciml for a new conference was not something I thought of on my own when the ciml first fell apart with 10 schools leaving the conference to form a different conference in 2021 was an Urbandale head coach who asked me to do what is happening now he wanted to leave the C IML at the time and join the little Hawkeye I still remember being in the high school gym with

043him naming the remaining teams in the ciml and saying the future holds few of any wins if Urbandale stays in the conference he wanted me to leave in an effort to advocate for a change he said a change would only happen if parents were leading the effort and he was right I didn't fully understand what would happen or how things would play out I never imagined the girls basketball team would go winless and Conference play over four years I never thought nearly every girl sport would have have a new coach some multiple coaches over the last four years but that all happen a person just needs to look at the numbers to see that endale is the outlier in the ciml we are not like the others the enrollment numbers the percentage of students getting

044free and reduced lunch the wind loss record the numbers do not lie the ciml hands down is the most difficult Sports conference to be a member of we play the best of the best we play the hardest basketball schedules in the state and we get punished for it when the girls basketball playoff seeds got released we got punished for our record but our girls team is so much better than their record teams Urbandale beat teams that lost to teams that Urbandale beat all got better seeds because they had overall better records while making to the State basketball was always going to be a long shot Urbandale had to win three games to make it to the state while teams like Indianola and ases teams we beat only had to win two games they essentially got

045first round buys Urbandale did not but we were the better team with the worst record we got punished for being a ciml not rewarded while I've never said much about boy Sports because they only have girlss it should be noted that the soccer season starts right after spring break and the Urbandale boys team will move down a class the 3A soccer this season all other ciml teams will be in 4A for boys soccer the top 36 teams are in the 4A division and the Urbandale and Urbandale will be just below that line and for girls soccer the top 40 teams will be in the largest class and Urbandale will be 38 just a few places away from moving down a class also I try to do what it's always best to help the schools I

046work in session stands at football games basketball games soccer games track meets wrestling meets I've worked scoreboard and books at JB basketball games I volunteered during show choir events ushering schools between judges critiques and home rooms we've hosted team dinners in our home I've served on Elementary School boundary change committee for the school coach my girls in soccer and basketball I do what I can when available to help I want my kids to see me involved in school and in my community so that they feel that they should also do that when they get older thank you I appreciate it look forward to the vote miss all you guys 914 Tanglewood Drive first of all I do want to thank you all for the time and effort you have put into this decision tonight I

047know this isn't easy it's a very complex topic and it affects every family and Sport differently with that said the feedback from this community on the recent survey was again clearly in favor of leaving the ciml and joining the little Hawkeye conference with 62% of the overall community and resounding 77% of all the parents once again similar to the survey in October you asked those you were elected by an urban for their input and they have spoken the message is clear it is time for change I do want to touch on the concern that was brought up that if we change conferences what does this mean to our competitive nature and to be the best we have to beat the best again this is not about chasing winds this is high school sports it's not

048game seven of the World Series it's supposed to be as much about the experience and the lessons you learn while working hard battling alongside your friends and teammates as it is about winning state titles if the opportunity for sport is lost there is not a productive environment then what are we doing while everybody loves a Cinderella Story there's a reason that Drake and you and I don't claim the same conference as Iowa and Iowa State even though they are the closest division one schools there are two to three times their size this last weekend State wrestling tournament was another great year for our school eight wrestlers qualifying one making it all the way to the State title now wrestling only has three classes unlike the other sports with four or five the top 64 schools

049are competing against each other so we already compete against little Hawkeye schools and changing conferences would have no effect on their postseason even with our success we finished 23rd behind guess who ases Norwalk any nor dcg all teams we would join with the little Hawkeye Conference boys basketball playing tonight first round of substate again boys basketball only four conferences top 48 schools we'd also be competing against ases Norwalk Anya BCG so playing them in conference only sets us up for postseason play really we were talking about the impact of four Sports volleyball girls basketball girls soccer and softball that are restricted to the largest 40 schools and no one is saying we can't continue to play CML CML schools as each sport has an entire non-conference schedule to play every year so if the baseball

050coach or the basketball coach wants to play CML schools every year schedule those games all we're is asking is that you make it so they don't have to play them every year and twice in most sports that is the real change give each sport the ability to play against schools their own size and better control their schedule at the end of the day this is a numbers game we are a landlock district with an aging population and no new development to support growth in young families I have a sixth grade son I have coached every single sport he's involved with and he would benefit from this change in a couple years so let me read you the stats from his class size in comparison to the two conference options you tell me where we belong

051sixth grade enrollment in CML school districts 934 students 550 563 1,091 680 Urbandale 294 the little hawy 341 280 295 280 Urbandale 294 you tell me where we belong please listen to those thank you the consent agenda I would um motion to bring forward the consent agenda you a little second you this is a roll call or actually first we do some discussion anybody have questions comments okay we're good Hower yes Kent yes me yes nkey yes and rice yes Williams yes y yes motion passes 70 thank you I would like to complement the financial services for the continuing Improvement of solvy isue nicely done lot of hard work me and everybody around here yep okay on to action items and the second reading for the updates of the 800 series yes I um attached

052the one one piece of feedback that I received um I put it into assmbly last Friday as I also shared it with you guys in your weekly update so that you could read that feedback this particular one wanted to know why the policy was being deleted should there be a policy established by the board regarding the disposal of District property um the process that we go through for this the experts who kind of own that Series this 800 series was um largely in Steve's area his team comes up with the recommendation for edits we send that to our attorney and our attorney gives us feedback on that this is one that the attorney recommended to delete and it's important to also remember policies are are broad they're not the how to step by step how

053to do things and there is legal work around how to dispose of District property so it was redundant in that sense so that's the reason that that policy is being delete it questions discussion minky would move to approve the updates to the 800 series of District policies need second all those in favor I I oppos motion passes on the 900 series similar to the 800 series the process is the same and when it came back from the attorney's office the recommendation to eliminate 99 was because it was a duplicate of an existing policy 926 and it may not be word for word the exact same policy but the information was covered in the existing policy and then 923 we have an emergency operation plan that we don't publish all the detail of because we want

054to protect how we respond to certain emergencies and that's something that does exist and that was also considered to be redundant so that's why that policy was recommended to be resented questions so all those in favor I we need a motion I move to approve the uh 900 series me Hower will second okay now all those in favor I I opposed motion passes and I a recommendation for transportation contract and this is uh what we brought to you last week I did not ask Ashley and Jen to attend again so if there's any additional questions I'll do my best to cover those I'll move to approve oh wait that's cool but we still need a motion oh yeah move to approve the interation contract I think we probably have to read it exactly how the

055motion because it's pending a contract a successful contract it should be right in here sorry Jos right at the top okay uh I motion that we approve the administration's recommendation to award a three-year Transportation contract to Duram School Services right that but and then keep going subject to an agreement and agreed upon contract yes okay Williams will second okay this one is a roll call yes Kent yes me yes Niki yes and rwi yes Williams yes young yes Hower yes motion passes 70 okay so this is a culmination of many many months of conversations questions I want to I don't have a vote so I want to take a second if it's okay to thank the community the students the board and the staff and the coaches for providing input on this it's been multiple

056times that we've requested it um I also want to remind on the the survey there's been some quot quoting of what this the numbers mean I heard somebody say that we surveyed 41 coaches for example we did not survey 41 coaches we surveyed 129 coaches 41 are the ones that chose to answer we had 500 something parents answer but we have way more than 500 parents in our district so I just want that to be in perspective um still valuable information and I know Rachel will reiterate that no matter what happens tonight there's going to be people who aren't happy I don't know what's going to happen tonight but I ask as the superintendent as we can move forward no matter what happens the board is in a very challenging position and I don't know

057this is a very difficult thing so I appreciate the work that you guys have done and the decision that you have to make so it's yours now Rachel thank you um I just want to issue some reminders here state law allows the board to write a policy on the decorum of our board meeting meetings um you can find that in policy 217 board meetings are held in the public but they are not of the public so while there's been some requests to have some dialogue back and forth between the board and community members that's not a possibility uh the only people who will be participating in our discussion are those sitting at the table um and people that are called upon from uh previous presentations things that continue to be suggested and questioned by numerous

058people in the community um and in the district our athletic class size is not going to change regardless of what we do here tonight um we are one of the largest schools in the state that puts us in a predicament um we will always be that top class at this point in time also conference affiliation affects Sports differently each one of our Sports um and we touched on that already um through public comment something football has been brought up over and over again we do not as a district have the ability to change that scheduling it is what it is it's it's scheduled by the state uh the city of Urbandale sends resident students to six different school districts um because of that we get a lot more open enrollment that can't be changed at

059this point in time district lines are where they are throughout our city um open enrollment we do not have the ability to tell kids and people that they can't attend our school district because we want to keep our class size down it's not not a legal option uh students who are open and enrolled into our district are our students they bring their own unique sets of skills and qualities they are 100% ours they are no different than resident students and if we do accept the little Hawkeye invitation uh the cont contract with the ciml still requires a one-year notice so we're not going to be moving conferences until the 26 27 school year if that is the decision the board comes to um so with that in mind who wants to start questions continue to

060exist I have something written up that I wouldn't mind reading um and I apologize I came back from a lovely two weeks in Cabo with a a visitor it starts with Co and ends with Co so you may not be able to understand me I'm sorry I'm the only one on the board who has been here for 10 years through a lot of divisive times um including whether we would have Virtual School whether we would have masks whether we would ban books none of those were easy decisions and there are still resentments in the community about how those decisions were made I would beg the people in the community to appreciate the very difficult position that my six colleagues and I are in no matter what decision is made we don't get paid for this

061in fact we get to pay and I've been paying for 10 years I probably shouldn't still be doing it but I feel like I can still bring something to the table if you you remember when we started Co we were still Clorox in our groceries in the garage because we didn't know any better there was no guarantee in this decision either so I'm going to list some of the things that I have been considering at least half the people in the community will be angry no matter what we decide I've worked or lived in Urbandale for 31 years most people don't know that I have watched the activ ities EB and flow over 31 years the class size has changed very little over those 31 years we are fortunate enough I would say blessed to

062have open enrolled students come into our system and we have asked for 30 years 31 years I've asked why do people do that why do we have 20% open enrollment in and I would contend that it is what we offer students I have worked in high schools for 600 to 2500 and I can tell you that 2500 isn't a terribly friendly environment but you could get that if you choose to open and roll here I have worked in Pella nor Scott Lewis Central Millard North in Omaha uh here I've had experiences with West Andoid Valley so I have had um a lot of Bleacher time so it isn't like I don't know what I'm talking about um and my whole family was I'm probably the only person in this room maybe even in the town

063who played six Line 6 basketball so yeah it goes back a long ways um the considerations that I have uh watched evolve over the years and these suggestions came up repeatedly in the survey no matter what is decided the district needs to make a more concerted effort for unified youth programming that is productive but fun and focused and we have not seemed to be able to do that um I would contend that we need a little more cooperation with the city we've got Grimes tiny Grimes build in beautiful replex our city is telling us to build a new softball field so there there appears to be a need for some cooperation there I'm just putting it out there I'm going to be 74 there are advantages to age um I would also I've been very

064concerned that a a year-long message has been conveyed to parts of our student body that they're just not really good enough I I have I haven't been able to comment on that I've got an opportunity now I think we can be much more empowering and I think some of those things will be scarring every all of these steps take Buy in and time they are not going to happen tomorrow we don't seem to have agreement on hardening anything and so I I think there's a lot of levels to this and a deeper concern than flipping to a smaller conference again there's no win on this um I deeply appreciated watching the meeting and Jenny's comment at the last board meeting I think that is a sentiment that we need to abide by um I'd like

065everyone in the community to keep in mind that we're all doing the best that we can I can tell you that during Co I learned new names that people can call you if they don't agree with you we cannot go back to that reflected badly on the community and didn't make anybody feel good was bad enough I believe that this issue hits mostly on the students and the coaches and while parents may want different things I think we need to pay attention to the part of the community that it impacts the most and with that I'm done and I'm sorry if I gave you co no problem just don't keep passing it down this um I I also wrote up some things um and I just want to share not everybody knows again but I'm

066looking through this lens as somebody who's sitting here and um I've been a j-hawk fan for 47 years I've um been a student here I was a jaywalker I was a teacher here I was a coach in the district um and then I've been a parent of three kids and through my kids activities I have watched um for all those 47 years I can say I've been to going going to jhawk games and and been a fan but I um strongly watched bowling golf tennis basketball volleyball cross country softball and show choire and I've seen our district go from being you know back in the day we were the big school right our only rivalry was Ankeny because Johnston was 2A and and Wy was 2A and I've I've watched us changed and we have

067changed over time who we play and I'm not afraid of change I I think that you know we have to realistically look at who we are to con to consider that there's lots of pieces and and Katherine you touched on you know one that um is important to think about you know one thing that comes through all the way through is our youth programming and that's something that the community and our coaches and everyone needs to be a part of of working towards a solution for that um there's pros and cons to to both of these I also um would Echo that another theme that I saw was we need to you know be self-reflective as as parents too and what are you know a lot of talk has been about Coach turnover and but

068I think we need to think what are we doing that may be contributing to that as well um so we we have to keep those things in mind um the survey was very interesting to me and and and the survey to me is one piece of the puzzle because the survey is simply an opinion right we asked parents for their opinion we ask students for their opinion we ask coaches and teachers so we have to take it for what it is is is just that as opinions um when you look at the survey um you know we have to look at you know I I love I love these things I dive into the numbers that's um you know clearly it you look at this and 76% of parents say that we want to go

069but you look at the total number of parents and we certainly have more parents than that um the same with students we have we clearly have more than 194 and the students were frankly quite divided they were pretty much down the middle staff um again 65% say they want to leave the ciml but we only heard from 23 and we certainly have more than 23 and coaches are the ones that are really interesting because they're the one in the trenches of this um and so on the surface of looking at it it says six you know 65% or 65.8% want to remain in the ciml but when you really factor in that there were 129 coaches and you know the parents that don't respond there's they may not have a student athlete they may not

070be interested but twoth thirds of our coaches didn't respond and that's 60 six% so the largest thing I take away from that is that 66% of the coaches weren't impacted not enough to take the survey so to me that means they either don't care either way or they're not going to be impacted for their sport because we know that it's going to affect every sport differently so if you factor in 129 students I factor in 120 I didn't know it was 129 but that's the 22% of coaches want to stay in the ciml and that looks very different and so I think we have to keep that in mind when we're looking at those numbers there's a lot of you know themes that that I that you could see you know within the coaches surveys

071so I the survey is one piece of the puzzle it's opinion so I was diving into the material deeper and I was looking at what what I consider more facts in in this situation the facts I and I'm referencing this page that we were given at our last meeting talking about the ciml conference and the little Hawkeye expansion and here's what we know about the ciml the ciml all last fall was in conversations trying to make changes right they wanted to make changes and I think we all can agree that if those four schools would have joined the ciml that were invited that would have been the best case scenario I think we wouldn't be sitting here if that were if that's what would have happened but that's not what happened and two of those

072four schools that were invited used to be part of the ciml and now they're not and they chose again not to join the ciml and I think that speaks volumes um and so I don't see any change coming forward in the ciml that's what was reported that the ciml is what it is and that's that's what we have to look at when I hear about the little Hawkeye conference and their goal is to expand as well and they want to have their goal is to have 10 or 12 school schools so that they can have two divisions they can have a big School Division and a small School Division and to me this is a conference that's looking at what what is best for all of their schools because we would benefit from being a

073part of that larger School of that but those smaller schools are going to benefit from being the smaller School Division so that's a conference that's open-minded and looking at what's going to be best for all of our schools and not just some um and so I that's exciting to me to think about what the little Hawkeye conference is looking at and and they're inviting us in they one they want us to join them two they're um you know asking us for input and they're asking for us to be a part of the conversation to make decisions about what that would be and that you know feels really good when when we're the new kid on the Block so then um you know I'm I'm looking at numbers and you know I think when we talk

074about travel that that that has come up in conversation and I think there's no doubt that the current ciml which is only three years old yeah that's the least amount of travel least amount of time away from class there's there's no disputing that um but I don't think there's that big of a difference so then I come to just where do we fit in where where where are our numbers where do we look and so in the beds numbers that we have if you look at the ciml Urbandale and I'm I'm kind of discluding anony because or ding because their uniqueness of their building I I think their numbers don't really count um Urbandale to Ankeny which is the next um smallest school there's a difference of 363 students Urbandale to West Mo Valley the

075largest school there's a difference of 1,321 students that's pretty significant and then the opposite of that is if we look at the little Hawkeye conference and if I know it's an if there's the five big schools the difference between us and Ames is that we are 137 school students less and the difference between us we are 91 students bigger than Indianola 180 bigger than Norwalk and 190 bigger than Dallas Center Grimes the difference between the smallest School in that conference in this big Division and the largest is 327 and that difference between all five schools is less than the difference between urban and anony that's kind of clear to me that that's a good fit and then I look at projections five years and and we can't predict the future but if you look at

076Trends and you look at the beds numbers from five years ago to today when you compare all of the ciml schools with the exception of diing again which I I don't really factor that in we are the only school that had a negative change we're 14 every other school in the ciml has increased iny Centennial increasing by 248 um walki I know you know it says 770 but if you divide divide that between the two schools it's about you know over 300 for each school we can all look at what those districts look like and that's not changing they're going to continue to grow where we can't you look at the beds numbers from 5 years ago to now in the little Hawkeye conference and it's the same we're the only school that has decreased

077in size Ames is up by 80 Indianola up by 29 Norwalk 148 Dallas Center Grimes 108 again looking at those districts they all still have room to grow they're going to continue to grow so when I look at these numbers it's hard to think that looking forward how is that not going to impact us in the future right so that weighs heavy on me um I think the thing that brings me hesitation is that we're sitting at the table today having to make a decision about a conference that we don't really know what it's going to look like and that's a little scary right and um I think there's other schools that are waiting for us to make a decision and and then things might start happening but but that's the hard part um but

078based on the those numbers when I ask myself the question where do we fit in where does it make the most sense for Urbandale to be um where does it feel like we can be an active invited part included um it's exciting for me to think about what could be so what I would like to propose is that we accept the invit ation to the little Hawkeye conference with a condition that there's schools um leaving that door open saying we we'd like to be a part of this but we want to make sure that it's it gets the 10 schs and we have the Divide because I think that's what's best for the five potential bigger schools in the little Hawkeye and I think that's what's best for the five smaller schools in the little

079Hawkeye and I think everyone would benefit from that so leaving the door open to continue the conversation and I trust our Administration to continue those conversations and I think within a matter of you know I don't think it's going to take that long to know whether we're going to have 10 schools or not and long before we'd have to let the ciml know that we would want to leave I think we'd have time to solidify that we would have the 10 schools and I think we could be a part of of the great change that could happen with the little Hawkeye Conference next okay you know this is one of those times and they are frequent where I honestly don't know what the board is going to decide to do um this is a very

080difficult decision um we may out of this vote with changes to our future we may not what I have been growingly concerned about over the last several months is the attitude and behavior of a handful of adults in the district over the past year we've received feedback from parents grandparents students and coaches about this very complex topic most of it has been productive positive and well reasoned but I would be remiss not to acknowledge that we have a number of instances both in public comment and email that have been the polar opposite of that we've had comments that have been at best unkind and unhelpful and at worst borderline defamatory of District employees we've heard concerns about coaching consistency over the last several years now I personally don't know an educator or a coach at

081this level who thinks solely about wins and losses when deciding whether or not they're going to come back for next season this profession and the these roles at the high school level are about so much more they're about relationships with students about teaching building and growing now I haven't had discussions with any of these former coaches or our former activities director but I don't think it's a win loss record that's causing people to leave and I don't think it's the students we live in an area where it's easy to keep your family rooted in one community and work teach and coach in another we discussed this frequently that's always going to be the case for Urbandale and the districts around us from that standpoint we're all in the same boat but it is incumbent on

082us as a community not just the school board not just the superintendent or the activities office but it is incumbent on each of us to recognize how our own behavior as families and fans can create an environment that strives not only for competitive competitiveness but for kindness and support support support for our teachers our students our coaches and administrators if the hav if the behavior of a few that has that has been exhibited by a few over the last few months trickles down from the board to paid staff we will continue to have problems recruiting and retaining qualified individuals to lead our programs it's incumbent on all of us regardless of tonight's decision whether we join the little Hawkeye or we stay to bring forth that Spirit of kindness and Community as we navigate what's

083next this is not an easy decision and I fully recognize that people are immediately going to frame the outcome in the context of winners and losers should the board decide to accept the little Hawkeye invitation many of you will celebrate a few of you might wish to take credit for pushing the board in that direction don't the behavior that we saw periodically through this process is nothing to be proud of instead I challenge you and every Urban dale parent and every booster to reflect on what we can do as a community to make this a program we're proud of regardless of the record at the end of each season it's a pride that doesn't come from competitive performance but from kindness and supportive behaviors wow that was that's a tough act to follow um I

084guess my thoughts on this are this has been an unbelievably difficult decision I'm pretty sure I've changed my opinion my I thought I knew what I was going to vote three days ago but it's changed pretty much every day and I think it might have changed five times during this meeting already um but what it comes down to for me is what is the reason we have these Sports and extracurricular activities in school and in my in my opinion is it's a reason to teach the kids these soft skills that you don't get out of a book the teamwork the camaraderie and things like that so for me deciding this it was what is g to give us the best chance for the most kids to play or not even to play just to participate

085in these activities um and like I said I've Chang I've gone back and forth three or four times but I do really like idea of the pending the pending five because you know in reality I think what everybody has is wanting is for us to play with these five schools you know be it in the ciml or be in the little Hawkeye we wanted to play we want to play with these five schools that are similar to us you know unfortunately we're we're kind of in that strange situation where there aren't many schools like us um both socio economically and enrollment wise so we're going to have to reach out to try to find that life competition um but I really like J's idea and that's kind of where I am um I just wanted

086to say thank you to everyone who provided feedback to us both formal and informal um the comments um the surveys the conversations that we have are all really helpful in how we view this through multiple lenses um we've reviewed a lot of information um and um I think we all know this impacts different sports different grade levels different um or just the whole system it impacts it differently no matter what we um settle on um and I think everyone knows that there's multifaceted issues here um that reach far beyond conference and I think there's a lot of agreement even among those of us who disagree on what those issues are and how we can start improving those so I hope that no matter where we land today um that we move forward with the positive

087attitude and the um full force of the community behind our programming um I think I would say that in the absence of having a recommendation from Administration which no fault to them you've indicated you can see pros and cons on both side too um and I agree with that too I think in the absence of the recommendation I feel that we should listen to those that are closest to it and know it best which is our coaching staff um we have strong survey results from both times that we did the survey um indicating a very cohesive answer on that I know like you pointed out it's not everyone um but it was a pretty unified voice and after we saw um one round of surveys then we saw the second um there was strong reinforcement

088for that um my biggest concern I I I don't think there's a perfect answer here I think we all agree there's not a perfect answer my biggest concern with little Hawkeye conference this whole time has been the if we end up in an 8 to nine team situation um playing Round Rob and um and playing against schools of 200 and 300 and 400 students um so I think there's room for discussion there I I like the idea um I do have concerns about how we know when when is that date when is that date of where we say this is the point where there's a number um and then how do we prevent another team from deciding to leave the little Hawkeye conference which could very well happen based on who accepts to so I

089think we continue to look at an unknown we don't know we have to choose what we think is best I think all of us have our own perspectives we have the perspectives of the hundreds of people who provided Insight in different formats um I think to the point of um our open enrollment numbers and our um numbers decrease say there have been decisions in recent years that have led to some of those decreases um that the board could look at in terms of class sizes and things like that too that um might impact that obviously it's not going to make us grow by 100 students but there are factors that play um that tie in there um ultimately I guess um where where I land is just that I think that our students and our

090athletes can be successful in either conference and um I agree with the sentiment that's been expressed that this is a community project no matter where we I would say that Urbandale is a special place and we are a small school but I don't think that size determines our competitiveness uh growing up in a small town we were matched with other small towns and we are not the best at the time I was there um but those small schools can develop strong programs that build strong athletes that really Drive success and I think one of the reasons that people come to Urbandale is because it has such a culture of excellence and it can be a place to live in a smaller community and still compete at that high level uh one of the resounding things

091we heard from these passionate coaches across three different surveys was that they believe in our youth that they believe in the talent their perseverance their resilience and we saw a great need to look into our youth programming and like you all have mentioned that it takes the whole Community to really develop the youth we've heard from coaches talking about the pipeline of students coming up and these eighth graders that are doing well these um like aaou teams and Club teams that have great athletes and so I I believe in our students and I think that we can compete and so I kind of echo what Christa says it's like these coaches who work with our students day in and day out and see their potential believe in these kids and I think whichever decision we

092make it's not simply choosing between ciml and the little Hawkeye it's and and investing in our youth programming developing these solutions that continually build our community build our our entire student body and create opportunity um so my biggest struggle here um is the impact that our decision is going to have um the divide that it's created in our community which we've always struggled to bridge to begin with um we're just seeing more of that behavior going on um I understand that feeling defeated all the time before your games um and also not feeling the respect for all your hard work and determination when you're out there pouring your heart out on the court or the field or whatever is really hard and has a huge impact on um not just your mental health but your

093entire social life and life in general um since this discussion began a spotlight has been really bright on all the negative aspects of our programming um we're not seeing any of the bright positives all all the success that our kiddos are having um we're also not focusing at all on the life lessons that come with winning and losing um and all the individual success that comes regardless of the team's success I'm really worried about the messaging of all of this um I'm concerned about the statement that little Hawkeye or even implied statement that the little Hawkeye is a step down from the ciml um I really whole heart ly see the little Hawkeye being um a quite lateral move if that's the way that we choose to go both conferences are packed with Talent hard

094work and dedication um really the differences that I see between the two are the sizes of the class size the 5A 4 a 3A Etc um and this could change in the future um it's not changing immediately there's been a lot of talk about how our kindergarten classes are small that's appears to be a district or not a district at Metro um Trend it's not an Urbandale thing like it's been uh painted um we also see certified enrollment of other metro schools going down um I realize that's not necessarily at our high schools at this point but it's not just Urbandale that is um experiencing kind of the downward Trend um again uh can't stop um reinforcing open enrollment it's it's not an option here it's not up for debate um all those open enrolled

095students that we have in our district they are ours um and and I take great offense to people in playing otherwise um we're seeing and hearing a whole lot of we're too small we're not big enough we don't have a big enough pool to draw Talent from I find that really hard to believe at this point in time we've got three huge show choir program pram at the high school two big programs at the middle school they're competing they're showing up their parents support and pride is strong um we also have all sorts of programming um and clubs for kids in other Arenas um Academic Decathlon is a small group um that serves kids across the board they're very strong year after year making it to State making it to National several times in the

096last couple years um and they're competing against all the schools all the big schools in the state um so I don't know how we can have too small of a pool to pull from for talented athletes but not for our other um activities people have opinions and your opinions are are important and valuable and they provide us a lot of Direction and on places to start I really think that we need to do a lot of investigating why are our numbers low it's probably not just a simple easy one cause um kind of issue going on here I think we need to really you know do a lot more exploration um we need to work on our youth programming um I have five children who have been through the district too here through the ups

097and downs of the youth programming as well um I know that we can can get it back um as far as a conditional acceptance um I'm going to address that myself I think our students our coaches our families all of our staff we deserve to have an answer um other schools are likely waiting on us to make this decision um it it doesn't feel right to me to say if um we get our way here also a conditional acceptance we little Hawkeye could get up to 10 or 12 schools right I think 10 at this point um that does not mean that another school that's currently in little Hawkeye isn't going to drop out there's it again it's it's going to move it's going to be fluid um so that makes me um uneasy about

098a conditional acceptance um the big small proposal from Little Hawkeye if and that's a big if there are enough schools is one thing um but again it it's it's going to be fluid we don't know for sure um that we're going to be able to get and or maintain enough to do that um I that wraps up my ideas I would agree on the demographics one thing I did forget to put in here uh the demographics are shifting all over the state and there are all these variables that have been thrown into the mix between the vouchers I mean that's part of why the kindergarten classes are down and we know that um Johnson and West de Mo are both in declining enrollment they have a budget guarantee for next year so you know as

099far as radical growth they're reaching the edges of their boundaries too I also know because I grew up Southeast Iowa that some of these places they're not going to be a hot bed of growth I mean osala is not going to increase dramatically so your point about changing demographics they may decide you know we we don't like this anymore because for whatever reason so I think putting a lot of emphasis on size with all the variables in the state in education a might be a bit shortsighted you know it's going to change I mean 20 years ago Wy wasn't walki and now it is so I made a proposal so I'm going to make a motion I move that we would join the little Hawkeye conference um I hear what you were saying about the

100condition but I I guess I I'd like to put a timeline till the end of the school year I think that um I think the reason that the little Hawkeye conference has the desire to have two divisions is to meet the needs of the small and the bigger schools in their conference so I think if we can have if if if if we make this decision and if Ames makes their decision I think another small school will make their decision and we'll know if we're going to get those divisions we still would have a year to tell the C AML so we wouldn't be breaking contract with them but I think this is too big and too difficult of a decision not to see where it could go and not to see what the potential

101could be um because I just in in my core and when I think about Urbandale is a small town in the Metro and when I think of Indianola and when I think of Norwalk and some of these other schools they are too and I think that um Community feel that they can bring I think that's similar to who we are as a district so my my motion is to join the little Hawkeye conference with the condition that they have 10 schools by the end of the school year that you're completing the motion I want to make sure I get the wording correct sorry all right so we have a motion and a second yes so I will go ahead and do a roll call vote me yes mkey I'm concerned about unintended consequences with this

102one in terms of well intended Urbandale parents then now exerting opinion on other districts I'm gonna say no Ben rwi um first off I want to say I forgot to say earlier thank you for the community for all of your input you know let's keep that up with support for our youth programs because that's going to be ultimately if wins and losses are your concerned that's ultimately going to be what drives this and I'm going to vote Yes Williams um I think I still set at a place I I like the idea I'm uncomfortable with um the unknown situation that we could find ourself in it which is my biggest concern so I vote no young I'm also concerned with the unknowns my vote is no Hower um I wanted to go a completely different

103direction so I'm going to have to vote now can't no so the motion to leave and join the little Hawkeye with condition they have 10 schools by the end of the school year did not pass 5 to two or two to five I guess I should say so we need another motion if you'd like to vote on the item that's on the agenda yes I'd make a motion that we join the little Hawkeye conference to accept the invitation to accept the invitation of the little Hawkeye conference I will second me y so we're up to minky oh really it's alphabetical sorry H and K come before M um already been there down yes Ben rwi I guess I made yes since I made the motion Williams no Young no Hower no Kent no meet yes

104motion does not pass it is three to four now we'll move on to our new action items you're up um sorry where are we okay new action new action so Eric he has the next couple is here and I will turn over all three of these to you you're not going to stay for the Construction contract Updates this the best part sorry they don't like er I'm used to it ask for better to follow thank you all for your service and and uh um I don't you so uh couple of things on on the agenda tonight um so first item there is a Dr contract but really to talk about that we need to talk about the other other two items so um the first one is at the urb down middle school so the

105band uh band practice room uh currently you have um four um sound uh sound boots that are in there those are manufactured units that were purchased um many many many years ago I think they been donate West Deo very very possible yes um and and they show uh they're they're they're put into there they're they fit in there but um there's a there is a better solution that the um that the staff has for as for per rooms that can be used for practice that can us as office that can use asud for the for the students and so um we have prepared plans to uh to do that um the second item is for excuse me for the urban now high school and Webster Elementary HBC controls um so again I think we've talked

106about this before but um sometimes we uh Weiss when we say well Webster still building right the Webster is 20 20 21 years old depending on how you how you count that I think old because I think the high school came up in 2008 yeah you're right yeah so um so that that building has not seen significant HVAC controls upgrades um and so the technology has changed um and much like um much like your your car uh things need to be tuned up things need to be kind of readdressed um same thing at the high school uh the high school is in that 20-year uh time frame um we have been making improvements as we make additions and things like the fitness and such um but again uh holistically uh that control system has not

107not seen um kind of a tuneup and and upgrad uh in it in its history so um it's time for those so for both of those um the the D amendment is to uh to U issue those uh contract documents tomorrow for bidding on March 13th um and then weing that those those bits to you at your following board meeting which be March 24 which would be after spring break and then um the the band uh practice rooms are scheduled to be done this summer so that will be for the for the next school year um Webster Elementary uh those controls would be done uh this summer um in time for for next school year the the high school however because of the size and that the funding mechanisms I'm talking with Steve um that

108would happen over essentially three fiscal years for you so we've broken that project down into three phases that can be accomplished um during the during the summer time frames and then split your um uh your financial uh Financial year fiscal years uh for for cost control so um but bidding it all now so that you get the benefit of of today's price rather than three or four years so so that's uh any questions I can answer for the I had a quick one sure how come the commissioning for Webster is higher than the high school isn't the high school bigger square footage uh it is bigger square footage but um as I mentioned we've been doing uh work at the high school for the last few years and so we've been kind of encing some

109of that as we go along Webster has been virtually untouched since uh since its Inception the elite that we've made there um was changing the uh there was kind of a business classroom uh right near the main entry um to a more standard classroom uh the tears out of there but that really didn't affect the mechanical system at all so okay anyone else questions so I would just ask whoever does the not it motion um so please read um the recommendation exactly how it's written especially the middle school because it's an end so we want to make sure I would move to approve the contract Amendment with drr group to provide design bidding and construction phase services in relation to the capital Improvement projects for the middle school band room Music Room improvements and the

110Urbandale HVAC controls upgrades I'll second all right Josh you're up Van rice yes Williams yes young yes bser yes Kent yes me yes minky yes motion passes 7 Z right I would make a motion to establish a bid date of March 13 18th of 2025 at 2: p.m. to receive bids for the middle school music room Improvement project and establish a public hearing date of March 24th 2025 for the Urbandale Middle School Music Room improvements project second this is this is a y so all those in favor say I opposed and motion passes for Webster and the high school HB control upgrade okay fine I would make a motion to establish a quote date of March 13 2025 at 2m to receive bids for the Urbandale CSD HB controls upgrade project a second and all

111those in favor I I opposed pass again you put all that in the paper right you do all the newspaper notification yes okay just want to make sure you I figured you did here's the last one I'm joking now will'll move to set a public hearing date of 32425 for the required proposed property tax levy for fiscal year July 1st 2025 through June 30th to the date of March 24th 2025 thank you will second with the observation that there is one Community member here listening to this about an issue that will impact every homeowner in this District John's gonna take it back to everybody so conference affiliation is more important than property taex levies apparently okay sorry so again was that a second Jason yes there was a second that was a second I I

112I wrot you downstairs okay I assumed I'm sorry okay so all those in favor I I I opposed something different approval of an additional Administrative Assistant for the Athletics and activities office so over the last Almost year I have gotten a very very good education about how the activities and athletics department works and I knew when I came here that the way that bless his heart Bill ran things it was not a sustainable way to do it when Josh came I learned even how more unsustainable it was when Jared took over we've had a number of conversations about just how unsustainable having three individuals work all day long and then come and work all evening long and on Saturday and on Sunday and the great amount of work that's happening during the day and you

113saw the job description that's what they're doing right now and so to make this something that they can can stay married see their kids and continue to remain in the in the positions that's why this recommendation is coming to you this person would be the person who is taking the physicals this setting schedules doing the um website updates doing the parent Square notifications working with donon Communications etc etc where the gentlemen that are in the department could Flex their days for example somebody could come in at noon somebody could come in at 2 somebody could come in at 4: depending on what the activities are that work would be taken care of there's not usually a lot going on on Wednesdays so for example Wednesday maybe that's the day all three of them do their

114department meetings and they're in the office that day students that come down to drop off paperwork that Administrative Assistant would be there to take that paperwork so we're taking that burden off of them and I know somebody had asked about could we change the hours of this position to be more in the evening the the time that stuff needs to be doing happening is happening during the day because in the evening the the the department the guys that are running the department are out running the department we wanted them that's a key message they came up is that we want that department to be Visionary we want that department to do more than manage we want them to actually lead and I don't feel like having all of this also their responsibility gives them that

115opportunity to truly lead the department now we know that the department of three is now down to a department of two effective um tonight's um Personnel report so we'll be coming back to you with a possible restructure of that position to be more like in line with all of the other surrounding districts where they have a athletic director an assistant athletic director a coordinator and an admin assistant right now for example Jared has has to do 169 coaches evaluations I know I said there's 129 coaches but some of them coach multiple Sports so that's impossible to have one person doing that but we couldn't do it any other way because of the way that the positions were structured so that will be something that we work on to bring back to you but I feel

116strongly that this particular position is necessary to help bring some sustainability to the other positions where they're not working in 80 to 100 hours a week this week for example that's why Jared's not here tonight because he's at an event tomorrow he had to cancel our meeting because he has to go to bowling to the state bowling there's always events and meetings and things that have to happen and this is a lot to ask of somebody to have to do this a hundred hours a week so that's why this recommendation is in place as far as financing it that's another question I know that was asked in both this one and the next one um I always try to bring you neutral cost neutral additions so that we're not exceeding our budget and cabinet for

117example met today and we're working on a number of areas that we have cost savings that are going to be coming I can't point to each of those right now but I will have cost savings for this so that's why I'm here now because I wanted to get somebody in there while the year was still going we've had a number of movements in administrative assistance already this year and the longer we wait the the pool doesn't always stay the same and I want to be able to hire a quality person we had quite a few admin assistants for HR we have quite a few or applications quite a few for the um student services uh admin assistant that works with registration and Stephanie so I'm confident there are people out there and I feel like

118Now's the Time to make sure we get somebody but I'll take questions wherever have them there's no questions it would be my honor to jump start the process of making more improvements for athletics and activities department and I would recommend we approve the addition of an administrative assistant second okay we're up to Williams yes young yes Hower yes Kent yes me yes manke yes van ricei yes motion passes 7 Z thank you thank you Jared we'll be very excited um the next item is the addition of an SRO at the middle school this is something that um I think my second year here where we had some unfortunate incidents that happened at the middle school I think you remember Katherine when you were president getting those emails asking how much money we have to donate

119to get an SRO at the middle school um I talk with Chief Johansson we've been in communication for the last couple of weeks and and uh Saturday um the city also confirmed in the chat with the officials that it is tentatively in their budget and is going expected to be approved when the budget is approved so the way that the agreement works is the district pays 75% of that cost and that's salary and benefits and they get pretty good benefits you can see um so my request is so that we add an SRO I'm saying to the district a hous at the middle school because that's the primary place however um in talking with Chief Johansson I asked what if there were some Elementary responsibilities because we can't afford to put an SRO at every

120Elementary nor can he afford to release an officer off the road for another um assignment but there could be a a way that we have some random check-ins at elementary where there might be a problem at an elementary where they they could go over and assist with that so that still has to be worked out through the 28e agreement I know it's not going to satisfy exactly what some people are looking at but I feel like we can make something work where we can give a little bit of attention at the elementary level prepping them to come through the middle school and I'm asking for approval based on the successfully executed 28e agreement and the city's final um budget approval that includes that position and I think um Steve and I have talked there should

121be some money in our at risk account which is where our other SRO comes from so the any money that's not in that at risk that's not available in that account that's a categorical account that we have would come from general fund but until we shake out some of that risk we won't know exactly how much that is I would motion to approve quick question do it says 25% um from the police department salary and benefits do they have benefits from both because from us yeah no they're not our employee employ they'd be solely the arale police employee they get the city's so they get the city's benefits not ours cor so because it says it says we cover 75% of the salary and benefits because we cover because the cost of their I'm with

122so they just tell me here's what your share would be sheet it shows a salary and all their clothing and things like that and we Bill quarterly is that right I know we don't just hand over a check I know it comes in and there's not usually I don't expect overtime for that position unless I had some kind of Crisis that they needed to stay at the middle school so the overtime is more at the high school level that individual may choose to accept working a football game or something like that but we'd pay them anyway okay as an extra officer okay thank you then can I ask my clarifying abstention question too just to be clear um we can approve this the board and then this the city's um process approves it separately and

123so by me approving I'm not requiring any of this anything yep and once the city approves it then we still have to draw up and have both the city and us do the8 you're only a seventh of 25% Y which is I don't know thank you will second we're up to Young yes Hower yes Kent yes me yes miy yes and rice yes Williams yes motion passes Z all right the last one here is on my plate we discussed this a little bit bit um at the last board meeting um our vote to extend the superintendent's contract superintendent can carry up to three years on their contract and so um by contract language in that contract we need to notify her by March 1st the calendar year if we're going to extend her contract so

124she maintains three years or if we're going to let that deplete down to two um so brought it here we did do um a little bit of discussion couple weeks ago on our close session minky would make the motion to extend the superintendent's contract by one year I'll second Hower okay Hower yes Kent yes me yes miy yes with pleasure F rice yes Williams yes yeah yes motion passes 7 Z I would move to adjourn I would second that motion all those in favor IJ thank you everyone