001Any opposed? Okay. Sorry. We approve the agenda as posted. Mine wasn't in. Okay. Okay. We have a few public comments tonight. Um, so when I call your name, if you come up to the microphone in the front, please. And you'll each have three minutes to speak. If you have not made public comment before, um, just so you know, we don't respond here at the public meeting, but we will be in touch at a later time. So, the first public comment is me Greenberg. Good evening. And I just have a minute to say I really appreciate Misha your leadership um over the last month. I know this has been a difficult month and the whole board in general. So wanted to also acknowledge that. Um I'm I have a public comment myself and then I have
002a public comment that I'm reading from someone. This is on behalf of Katie Kovac and David Levy. Our son just completed kindergarten at Marramac and our daughter completed her second year at the family center. While we are unable to be here in person tonight, we appreciate the opportunity to share this message with you. We urge the school district of Clayton to prioritize the development of thoughtful, transparent, forward-looking, and researchinformed policies around the use of technology in our classrooms. Technology is now deeply embedded in how we teach, how students learn, and how families stay connected to schools. But with that integration comes a responsibility to be intentional and reflective about its use. When used well, technology can enhance student engagement, support differentiated instruction, and prepare our children for a digital future. It can bridge gaps in
003access, foster collaboration, and open doors to new learning experiences. But without clear policies and shared expectations, it can also create confusion, inequity, and unintended consequences for students, staff, and families alike. We need policies that address not just what tools are used, but how they are used. policies that protect student privacy, support teacher training, and ensure equitable access for all learners. We need guidelines that help families understand how technology is shaping their children's education and how they can partner with schools in meaningful ways. Specifically, we're asking for the board to consider the following actions. Create clear guidelines on the appropriate times and uses of video and screenbased content in classrooms, especially for younger students. Monitor and evaluate which uses of technology are truly beneficial for learning and which may be detrimental to students academic or social,
004emotional or physical development. Provide guidance to families, including parent-f facing resources that explain how technology is used in school and how families can support healthy screen habits at home. and establish expectations around the quantity of time students of all ages spend on devices during the school day and for homework, ensuring that screen time is purposeful and developmentally appropriate. This is not about resisting innovation. It's about being intentional. It's a call to use technology wisely, with care, and with the whole child in mind. It's about ensuring our use of technology aligns with our district's values and educational goals. And it's about making sure that every student in Clayton benefits from a learning environment that is safe, inclusive, and future ready. Our students deserve an educational experience that is not only innovative, but also grounded in what
005we know about healthy development and effective teaching. Thank you for your time and your commitment to making Clayton a district that leads with both vision and responsibility. We hope you will take this call to action seriously and begin the important work of crafting policies that reflect the realities and the possibilities of technology and education. So, I'm sorry. I should have done mine first. That's okay. Okay. Th This is mine. Um, good evening. My name is Me Greenberg. I'm a parent of a rising first grader and an four-year-old at the family center. I'm very pleased to hear that the district will be conducting a new technology self-study in the coming months and years. The last tech study completed in 2017 led to a major initiative expanding edtech use and ensuring one-to-one device access. That was appropriate
006at the time and I appreciate the effort to stay current. But today we have nearly a decade more of experience including insights from the pandemic that should inform a more balanced approach. This upcoming study is an opportunity to evaluate not just the benefits of edtech but also its risks and costs. EdTE has essentially been a large-scale experiment. Many programs still lack independent research proving their effectiveness. And there is growing concern among educators, researchers, and parents about overuse and the impact of screen time, especially for young children. As a kindergarten parent, I was surprised by the amount of screen use in my daughter's classroom, especially videos. I began asking questions in the fall to better understand what edte use looked like across grade levels. Some of those questions include, how much time do students spend on
007devices at school, and how does that change as they age? What programs and apps are used in each grade and what research supports them? Are video resources vetted? Why are video readalouds or phonics lessons sometimes used instead of live instruction? Why do students see ads sometimes before YouTube videos in class? And why is there so much variation in edtech use between teachers, grades, and schools? I believe some of these questions could be answered by more transparency, but I also believe that the district may not have a complete picture of what is happening in classrooms. That is why I believe that the first step in this self-study should be a comprehensive inventory of how edtech is being used across all grade levels. This includes measuring average daily screen time at school and at home, especially in
008elementary and middle school, and making this information publicly available. The district also needs a clear picture of the type of content students engage with, instructional apps, videos, and TV shows used as curriculum. And the district should gather parent input on the effects of schoolisssued devices at home. Many parents are frustrated having to battle with their elementary age kids to shut down devices in the evenings. Students are able to use proxies to bypass restrictions on their Chromebooks. The bottom line is we are all struggling with balancing screen time at home and we want to know that if these devices come home with elementary age kids, it is an academic necessity and there is a clear pedagogical reason for it. The second step should be forming a representative committee including teachers, administrators, parents, and edtech experts to
009analyze this data and recommend revisions. Ultimately, the district needs a clear researchinformed vision for education technology, one that is transparent, developmentally appropriate, and consistent across schools. This vision should include guidelines for both inschool and atome device use, and should align with our values and our profile of the graduate. I very much appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Um Evan Greenberg, good evening. I also have a statement from uh somebody else to read tonight uh from Micah and Tanya Rose. Okay. Uh we are grateful for the board's hard work on behalf of our students, teachers, parents, and administrators. And we appreciate the district's decision to take a deeper dive into use of education technology. We are parents of three children in our district, a rising senior, one in middle school, and one who's just
010starting kindergarten. For over a decade, we've watched the evolution of education technology and have watched technology become more of a distraction outside of the classroom. We are concerned. Tools that are aimed at educating too often seem designed to promote superficial engagement rather than challenge kids to wrestle with complex ideas or build critical thinking skills. As adults looking back on our own experiences, we know that meaningful learning is rarely easy or instantly gratifying must be demanding to be truly rewarding. Unfortunately, many quick response and gamified applications often fall short of promoting the kind of deep reflective thinking our children need to grow and thrive. We also want to highlight that schools are essential environments for children's developing social emotional skills, skills that cannot be taught through a screen. Empathy, cooperation, and self-regulation are cultivated through face-to-face
011interaction, navigating peer conflict, and forming real relationships with teachers and classmates, not by clicking through online lessons. In closing, we urge the board to prioritize policies that recognize the serious risks these technologies offer along with their benefits and to deliberately limit screen time and promote human- centered learning environments. Sincerely, Micah and Tanya Rose. Thank you. And then for my statement, I'd like to say I support the self-study into the use of technology in the district. I think it's extremely important to actually have a firm understanding of what is actually going on in the different schools, in the different classrooms, how each teacher is deciding to use technology and when. And I think that in order to really focus on the best most effective uses of technology, understanding how they're being used right now is necessary
012so that we can ensure that the uses are all advocating the educational goals and the social emotional goals that we want for the students. So I support this very much. Uh, I'm also the father of a rising first grader and a four-year-old in the family center. And I had never really given much thought to education technology until the first week of kindergarten. My daughter came home. How's kindergarten? What'd you do in school today? Was great. We got to watch TV. And I know that's not all they're doing, but it was the first thing she mentioned. And that was reason for concern. And kindergarten on a whole went very well. I'm pleased with her teacher. I'm pleased with everything she learned. Uh but there were concern concerning development throughout the year about the way they're using
013screens and honestly how frequently they're using screens for things that seem unnecessary. And there are good, valuable uses of technology that can help kids learn, that can make teachers more effective and efficient at their jobs, and can help kids understand how to use technology, which they need to know to grow up and become uh well-rounded graduates. They need to know how to do that. And I think that again, absent guidelines from the district down to each school in each classroom, we're maybe not using technology in a way that is accomplishing the goals that the district wants for the students. So what I would like or what I recommend is that the goal for the self-study be to identify some best practices that are actually going to advance the educational goals of the students, the emotional
014goals and help teachers and the administrators achieve the best outcomes. Uh I think we should limit the use of technology to the extent possible and prioritize face-to-face interaction with other students and teachers over technology use. Uh I think that technology use more than anything should really be deliberate and the result of a reasoned decision-making process that's based on information that is reliable. Uh I think deliberate use of technology is important and you know we have these wonderful teachers. We should prioritize for the students to be learning and engaging more with their teachers than any kind of character they can get on screen or characters in a show or in whatever application they can get. So, thank you all for taking this on. Thank you. Okay, before we move to the action items, um we don't
015have a superintendent update or a student rep update tonight because this last meeting of the year is uh we always keep shorter and more modified and the kids are out of school, so there's not much uh to report on now. But um I did want to first wish everyone a happy pride month and just to show the entire community, our students, staff, faculty, board members, community members that we as a district and as a board recognize and support um our LGBTQ plus community and are celebrating PI pride month along with you. And um we also usually at our meetings um have an agenda item that is called recognizing our own. we more often recognize students but also sometimes faculty members and staff that do something that deserves public recognition in front of the community. Um,
016we don't have that on the agenda tonight, but I would like to on behalf of the board create a recognizing our own to recognize our administrators, faculty, and staff. And um, to explain why, I would like to just read a letter that the board sent to the faculty and staff recently because I think it explains best why we want to recognize and um, everyone and why we appreciate them. It read, "Dear faculty and staff, the board of education extends our deepest appreciation for all that you have done and are doing to support our students since the May 16th tornado. Starting with the storm itself, we are extremely grateful to each of you for remaining calm and comforting our students. Your efforts helped ensure their physical and emotional safety. In that spirit, we hope that you
017are safe and receiving any assistance you may need." We have heard remarkable stories about teachers roaming our neighborhoods after the tornado, offering help and hugs to our students and their families. We recognize that our administrators have worked hard to develop contingency plans to allow school to continue for our students. We acknowledge our teachers who are opening their classrooms to welcome additional teachers and students and those who are working in a new unfamiliar space. We appreciate our counselors and social workers for their efforts to address students social emotional well-being as well as connect them with vital resources to help. We also know our facilities and maintenance team have been working through challenging conditions along with our support staff who have have had to adapt to new routi routines. We have seen the strength in our community
018in countless ways, including the teamwork shown by a large group of fifth graders from all three elementary schools who got together to assemble care packages for first responders and utility workers. These stories affirm what we already know, that the school district of Clayton is full of incredibly caring, dedicated, and kind-hearted people. We are definitely stronger together. We are not only members of the board of education. We are also parents of your students and residents of the Clayton community. From our schoolboard perspective as well as from our parent perspective, we have seen firsthand your incredible flexibility, kindness, and collaboration during this unexpected challenge. And we are extremely thankful for your efforts and contributions with gratitude from each of us on the board. So, I just thought reading that publicly to the community would be an easy
019way for us to recognize our administrators, faculty, and staff who have been outstanding in the aftermath of this tornado. So, we recognize you and thank you. And now we will move to our action items. Um first one is John Brazil proposed 2025 2026 budget Good evening everyone. Tonight I'm presenting the proposed budget for the upcoming 2526 fiscal year. Um last meeting I presented a preliminary budget and uh we went through that with some uh fairly quickly. Um and I indicated that there was possibilities of some changes and indeed we have made change both to uh revenue and expenditures in this budget. Uh but at this point uh I do believe it is ready for board approval. Um it does not vary significantly in strategy from the past year or two. Um it is intended to
020uh acknowledge the revenue and project the revenues that we expect to come in and then uh have a spending plan that meets the district's objectives. And I believe that this plan does that. As I mentioned last month, uh the pro the process is a year- round process and uh these are some of those steps. Um the highlights are is that it is budgeted. The budget is balanced. Um we believe the revenue has been projected reasonably. Um we do expect some growth in property tax revenues. Uh interest earnings continue to be strong. Um, our expenditures have been estimated and programmed in accordance with both our strategic plan and with the uh requests from the buildings. Our debt continues to pay down and we have a series of capital purchases and projects that are programmed into fund
021for. We also connect our spending to a strategic plan. And these are just some examples of of some expenditures that will fit into the various goals. In the goal one, you can see a variety of expenditures that will uh help ensure that learners are safe and valued. In our goal two, uh you see expenditures that are investments in curriculum and technology to support the educational growth of our learners. And in goal three, uh, we have funding to support and enable the well-being of our learners. These are all just examples. There are many more throughout the document. Revenues are projected at 80.4 million was first time we've topped 80 million. Um, we're seeing some, as this being a reassessment year, we expect to see some nice growth in property tax revenue. and we'll be dealing with
022the rate setting process in September. Our revenue history uh is here and you can see that we expect our growth to be 4%. Now that's based off of this budget, off of last budget. Expect last year's budget to come in a little greater than the number that's here, the actual to be greater than that. So if that's true, our growth is be slightly less than 4% this next year. Our expenditures are uh set at 78.7 million. Uh so we expect our fund balances to grow from that. Um in this particular example, we've divided the expendit expenditures by compensation, benefits, services, supplies, debt, service, and capital outlay across the four funds. And our growth in revenues, our expenditures is about 3%. Our fund balances are expected to grow to about 50.7 million. And when I say
023that, that is that is a June 30 uh number. Um our cash flow rises and falls throughout the year. its low point being in November. So November uh expenditures will be November fund balances will be less than half of this number. A high point coming in January or February. This is our fund balance history. The blue bars representing total fund balance and the orange bars representing funds one and two being the operating fund balance. These are some of highlights from our capital purchase plan. Um $675,000 for technology improvements. Uh 500,000 in security camera upgrades. Um you earlier in the past couple months approved that purchase and part of it is occurring in the current year. The balance in next year. We put some money aside for school bus replacements. This may or may not happen
024as we continue to evaluate the best purchase on that. If it doesn't happen in this school year, we'll roll those funds forward to the subsequent year. We do have money set aside for architectural services uh as we continue to evaluate our facilities and develop a plan for improvements. Um we are making some a secure booth or a secure vestibule over in the Greyhound entrance at high school. We have a number of pavement man maintenance and repairs to make some roofing repairs. Some old switch gear at the high school that needs to be switched out and a refresh of furniture at the middle school. There are smaller these are the larger of the capital purchases. The full list is in the budget document itself around pages 37 and 38 I believe. Uh in closing thoughts, I
025believe uh we are meeting the objectives of the district with intentionality. Our financial position remains strong and uh that's evidenced by our bond ratings. I'm happy to take any questions that you may have. Anyone can start. Did you guys switch seats again? No, we haven't switched yet, but we I thought one time over here. I just go right. You had some regrets. I knew my name and that's about it. Okay. Okay. Go ahead, Kim. Sorry. Okay. So, um, so John, I have some questions that I have already asked you, but I wanted to ask kind of on behalf of the board so that they could all get the same answers that you and I kind of talk through as we talk through the budget for this year. I just think it's helpful um for everybody's
026financial literacy as well as uh so the public hears kind of what we're doing with respect to school finances. So um as everybody here is well aware, budgeting is an ongoing process. It's not something where we just check a box once a year, especially in a school district. Um as you saw from John's overview here, Clayton's budget begins with a comprehensive planning um process and then there's continued maintenance and monitoring that we go through throughout the year. Right? you see the monthly financial statements uh variance to actuals that we review um at least monthly through our board meetings. Um flexibility in the budget process is key whether you're in a school district, whether you're in a business because there's always unforeseen events, opportunities, unforeseen events like the tornado we just had um which require adjustment
027and fund allocation as you go through the school year. Um, so John, the first question I had for you was, are there any meaningful changes year-over-year based on last year's budget performance actuals to variance? Um, at the conclusion of each fiscal year, we do analyze our budget to actual results. Uh, for the year ended June of 24, which was the last complete year, uh, our spending had a variance of one point about one and a half%. uh from budget to actual. Uh that compares to prior years, the year before about 3.9% and the year before that of around 6 and a half%. So we're honing in on hopefully getting tighter and tighter with our budget process. My personal goal is to be inside 3%. But be on the good side of that, not the negative
028side of that. Um for the upcoming school year, our spending plan is similar to recent years. Our enrollment is stable. Our staffing levels are stable and consequently our budget is fairly stable. Um there are we're experiencing normal rates of staff turnover which keep a moderate pace of growth in the personnel costs. Uh we are experiencing some stronger inflationary cost adjustments especially in our utilities and our insurance premiums that relate to property and casualty coverages. Those are pushing towards 9% this next year. Yeah. So, thanks, John. So, what I'd like everybody to kind of take away there are a couple key things. Like 2002, the budget variance is over 6%. John's personal goal is to keep it below 3%. We're inside of that this past previous this past year. Um, it's a big budget, right? I
029mean, north of 75, close to $80 million this next year. to be within 3% of that is is an excellent goal. To come actually within 3% of that is something that um you know just uh really kind of points to sound financial fiscal management of John and his team within our district. So everybody should feel very good about that. Um and then John, you said, you know, uh an increase in property casualty in insurance. We're kind of self-insured there through a pool of insurers. Um, and I was wondering how the recent tornado in terms of property and casualty insurance, you know, damage claims that we might have. How does that look for the district? How much damage did the district sustain with the recent tornado? What's our deductible look like? Can you just give the
030board a little insight into that? So, we're insured with a self- insurance pool that ensures a lot of school districts in Missouri. It's called music for short or the Missouri United School Insurance Council. Um they have had a history they've been in existence since the early 1980s. They've had a great history and track record of of uh success. The last two or three years they've hit taken some pretty hit hard hits due to tornadoes and other weather related events across the state. Um and that's partly what's driving the increases we're seeing today. Um, as far as the recent tornado here in our town, in our district, um, we were highly fortunate. Uh, our buildings have some damage. It's fairly minor. We have some roof damage at Captain. There's some window damage at Glen Ridge, uh,
031and some other minor damages at White Down and, uh, Marramac. The roof, a lot of people wouldn't even see the damage that's there. Um, so we'll be working through our insurance and submitting those claims and getting those repairs facilitated. Uh, fortunately our, as you mentioned, our, um, our deductible, it's very low. It's only $2,500 per incident. It's lower than my personal on the house. We feel pretty good about that. So, I don't per incident, by the way. Yeah. Uh anyway, we'll be throughout the summer, we'll be finishing those repairs and and getting the buildings ready for this the fall, but um our insurance serves us well. That is for sure. Um and even with the higher incidence of property claims because kind of uh these property casualty and insurance increases that we're seeing um it's
032because we're in this pool where you know prior to us even having this incident here, there have been incidents in other school districts uh where we are part of the pool. Um, the year-over-year increase is 9% which I feel is still pretty reasonable, but John said has kind of come as a shock to other school districts. Obviously, with, you know, the way our fund balances are, we have the ability to absorb those shocks. Um, John, just one other thing while we think about self- insurance pools, the other large self- insurance pool that we have is for employee health care expenses. Can you just tell the board a little bit about that? Uh we've been self-insured uh on our medical care for about seven years. Um and that has turned out to be a good decision
033by this organization. Uh we've had some good years where people are well and claims are well within premium. Um and so we've built up around four months of claim reserves. Uh which is uh I'd like to be at least three three months or better. And so we're around four months at the moment. Um the premiums to that program are around a little over six million a year. And uh claims are are running very well this year. Last year was uh slightly in the negative. Uh it's two years that we have had negative the second year of the program and last year. Um but uh we're having a very good year this year and expect fund balances to grow nicely over there. When they grow like that and we have good claim years, we're able to
034manage keep our benefit cost steady in our budget. Great. Okay. Will any of our schools see a larger or smaller financial impact based on this budget compared to past years? So, the things that I could think of is in past years we've seen things like um you know uh Glenn or Marramac had a larger budget than uh the other elementary than Captain because they had playground improvements. Is there anything like that in this upcoming budget for this this coming school year? Not so much in the proposed budget. Um, from an operational standpoint, each of the schools uh is properly funded in regards to its staff, its services, its supplies. Um, additionally across the elementary schools, we get measured by the federal the federal department of education on uh whether those schools are funded equitably since
035we have multiple schools in that K5 space. Um, from a capital uh investment standpoint, you often see some variations. And last year, Glenidge had a playground installed that was a expense that didn't apply to the other school buildings. Uh, this year there's nothing dramatic like that. I mean, you saw some of the uh expenses we're having in commercial, I mean, in capital improvements. Um, but none of them I think are so uh large that they they tip the scales uh this year. They're all pretty much lower level things as we develop our plan for major capital investments through the facility improvement plans we're working on. Great. So nothing beyond maintenance cap maintenance cavax in the budget for this year. Um so this one's kind of for both you and Nisha. So, I know is the
036part of the comprehensive budgeting process when you consider our students with the highest amount of needs. Um, does this budget that you've put in front of the board specifically address any of the resources that they need to successfully progress through the district? So, I think about things like um we think about uh our you know our our special ed is kind of provided through a separate resource but sometimes they don't have all the resources that our students need or um John I think you'd mentioned that sometimes we get students that come um from outside of the county where those special ed resources aren't available and we have um you know we have things within the budget so that we can help to supplement those needs. Is that true? That's true. I mean, student needs come
037in many forms, whether it be physical, uh, mental, emotional, or other disabilities. Uh, and we seek to, uh, fund all of those resources for all of those needs. Um, to the best of my knowledge, this budget adequately addresses all of those needs. And as you mentioned, we have the partnership with SSD. the students are ours, but they serve them uh their through their IEPs uh for their specific disability issues. Great. If you want and John's been really good about even, you know, whenever we need to pivot or anything during the school year and we need resources to for specific needs that's student based, we always work around that. So, and that's part of the flexibility that we built into the budget. Yeah. Great. Um, and then I know you had a list on one of
038your slides of the things that are directly tied to our strategic plan and to the outcomes of students, but have any recent investments that we've made in the past few budget cycles either in staffing or new programs delivered measurable improvements for our students and can you kind of just name a few? I had to consult with Molina on this one or Dr. Good. I figured you would have. Hi, Melina. Dr. G. Um and our educ effectively supports our MTSS uh program. Can you tell what everybody what Edu climber kind of and MTSS is? Educ Climber tracks all of our academic and other data we have on students uh to help focus need of our teachers and staff and programs. Um MTSS is our multi-tered system of supports and um they rely on the software data
039to deliver the MTSS supports. Um we hired a mass specialist this last year at at White Out and that has demonstrated some good success. Um, and another one would be our letters training that we have for elementary that is a literacy program that helps teachers teach phonics and other literacy mechanisms. Thank you. And I know you've already answered this, but I'm going to ask it again because it's probably our most important question as board members as part of our fiduciary responsibility. Um, in your opinion, what's the financial outlook for the district for the next few years? Do we have sufficient reserves for difficult times? I think we all know the answers though, but I'm going to ask it anyway. And do any new spending decisions we're making today come with future obligations we might not
040be able to afford? Um, based on the information available to me today anyway, the financial outlook of the district over the next few years should be very stable. Um, that said, there are potential threats that could adversely impact the district's financial position. Most of that risk relates to potential legislative actions that could reduce or affect revenue streams. For example, during the recent legislative session in Jeff City, various legislation was introduced that would either reduce or limit personal property taxes or assessed valuations. Um, in regards to spending though, I believe the district has a significant flexibility to control our spending and offset any revenue losses. So, and then kind of related to that, we often get asked the question of, well, what about a roll back then for our uh for our residents in future years
041based on the fact that we have a fund balance that yes, given a snapshot of time is in the let's call it 62 to 65% range right now. So, um do you want to comment on kind of your thoughts there? And I know you and I have uh we have discussions about this kind of throughout the year, but so the current calendar year or tax year 2025 is going to be the first year of the senior property owner tax freeze. Eligible property owners will be granted a credit for any increase in the real estate taxes on their personal residents. that is that occurs over the last year over from 2024 which was the base year that was set by the uh ordinance. In other words, any increase in real estate taxes due to a change
042in operating levy or a change in assessed valuation will be offset by a credit such that 2025 real estate taxes will be the same as 2024 real estate taxes for those eligible taxpayers. This first year has a minor impact on our budget. Uh, as future years go by, the tax credits granted to eligible seniors will grow. So, it's kind of like waiting into a pool starts out shallow and the farther a person waits, the the greater that increase gets. Over time, as properties turn over, that that freeze may go to may fall off the books because a different property owner may not be eligible for it. So, at some point, I think it may reach some level of stability, but over the next decade, we're our projections are that it'll cost the district about route
043about $6 million in revenue loss. Okay. And my last but not least question, I want to say upfront that we're very thankful for all of the grants and donations that we receive, but just for order of magnitude, one of the things that you don't see in the budget are the grants and the donations we receive from outside sources that help to supplement some of the activities we have at the district. So that includes um you know PTO contributions. It also includes um money that the district receives um from supplemental funding sources like the Clayton Education Foundation. Um can you let me know and let the rest of the board know how much the Clayton Education Foundation Foundation typically provides the school district on any given year? And the reason I'm asking that question is as
044we've engaged more with the community particularly um you know the condo association and the board associations and we've talked about um as we develop plans for um for uh long range facilities and that type of thing. Well, why don't you go to a foundation or why don't you go to um uh to uh a large uh benefactor that may be able to give you a giant hug in the form of you know a million dollars or more. So, can you just uh let us know what on an annual basis CF typically contributes to the the good of the order? I'm going to start by saying we greatly appreciate the support of the Clayton Education Foundation and the PTO. They are our partners and we appreciate their efforts on our part. Uh Clayton Education Foundation typically
045provides between 30 and $50,000 a year in teacher grants. Um the PTO supports the district in a variety of ways. I don't have an exact number for that service. And we pull in a few other miscellaneous grants that may are often small, $1,000, 2,000 here or there. And they don't dramatically change our financial status, but we certainly appreciate when we're able to get those extra dollars into the into the till. Okay, so that's it for me. I'll let you guys let the rest of your questions fly. Um, but John, I just want to say again, thank you. Thank you for the hard work of you and your staff this past year. Thank you for managing our budget very tightly in this past year within a well within the 3% variance. And um, I think that
046the budget you put together is very reasonable for uh, this upcoming school year. Thank you. Thanks. You actually answered my questions. So, who else has other ones? Anyone? Well, Kim asked nearly all my questions. end to that. I just want to say today is Kim Hurst's birthday and I think we should all celebrate that. So, thanks Kim. So, I should have said that birthday. I knew she liked that comment. No, my only my only remaining question is um we had talked in the past about the collections on property tax and the timing of collections on property taxes to St. Louis County when people contest their new new assessment valuation, all that stuff. like any concerns about that or how does that what's your what's your crystal ball say over the next year or two for
047that? My crystal ball's cloudy. But um what we have tracked over time is that um the the rate of protest has been rising more so on the commercial properties than the residential properties, but it's rising on both accounts and that the refund rate has typically been rising. Um the two years there's a two-year cycle. There's reassessment occurs in oddnumbered years. So, in that two-year cycle, we typically see um a significant number of refunds that the last cycle uh generated about 3.6 million in refunds. Um so, we're, you know, it's not immaterial. Um and we're trying to factor that into the budget. If you look at our revenue budget, you will see some negative numbers in the re in what we call the delinquency uh category of of property tax revenue. and it's to account for
048some of those uh refunds that are going to take place as we see them come out of the state tax commission. So I'm cautiously optimistic that that uh we will not see continued growth in that. Yeah. But it just I mean just to make this abundantly clear reflection of the last question I think that Kim asked that's we we have more than enough in our operating reserve right now to cover any sort of collections issues. Yes sir. Yeah. All right. That's it. Anyone go ahead. Um, John, I just had a couple of uh questions on some some of the specific line items just for kind of for my education um and perhaps others education as well. Um, so I know we talked a lot about facilities um you know over the last uh year. Um
049it's a large piece of the budget. I'm just curious if you give like high level what are some of the major areas of spending in the facilities upkeep and I know there's a capital component I would assume things like HVAC things that we have planned would be in that part of it. Um uh but just I'm just curious what are some of the bigger things we spend on in the facilities realm? These these are the big ones here. They're the big ones. Okay. Um from they're they're sorted by uh size top down large to small. Um, and there's more that are than these that are less than six figures. Um, but I wanted to highlight these larger ones. Um, in the technology space, we regularly allocate funds to our technology department for maintaining uh both
050replacing devices as well as maintaining the network uh the Wi-Fi systems etc. Um, that's what that funding is for. Um, in the security camera upgrades, um, we we have an outdated system that needs replacement. A lot of it's still running on co-axle and etc. So, in this first round of improvements, we're upgrading the systems both at the middle school and high school um to be uh much more user friendly. uh historically those systems were really only available to the SRO's and only really in a rears of something happened. They didn't really have uh active real-time observations. The new systems uh will provide authorized administrators uh and other security personnel to have real time observations and remotely to their phones etc. Um, our school buses, um, the state recommends a 12-year life to those. Um, ours
051are reaching that age. We only have three. Um, and, uh, we've had some issues with them. They're all diesel powered vehicles currently. Um, we're evaluating other sources of energy, whether it be gasoline, natural gas, uh, electric, uh, even hydrogen vehicles that are being produced, and just trying to understand what would serve this district best in this community. We understand the interest in sustainable technologies and the interest in electric vehicles. Um, our buses don't always stay local and we let them typically travel up to two hours away for sporting events or field trips and the ability to charge those in a quick manner from it when they're out of town is going to be rather challenging. So, we're really being careful about how we analyze those those vehicles. Um this past year we've had a lot
052of uh investment in time towards our our facilities and our facility plan, our long range plan. Uh and we're ready to move into the actual development of some projects from that plan and with the anticipating going to the voters in April of 26 for a bond issue. So, we've got funding here. Uh, and later tonight, we're going to be awarding some uh some uh selections for architectural services. Uh, over at the high school, the Greyhound entrance has been a weak point in our our security over in that building. Um, and we're going to make that vestibule secure. Um, and there's a funding and it it's going to happen this summer. The plans are already done and that project should be started soon. Um, pavement. Pavement has a cycle. Asphalt and concrete. We've got to make
053some replacement there. Marramac's got some roofing repairs. The high school has some really old switch gear that's original to the building that's needing upgrading. That's great. So, we're going to replace that. And then Main Street Furniture. It's the furniture that's been in the building since it was new. And uh we're finding the building administrators are finding that um students don't use it the way they would intend. And so we're looking at replacing that furniture. There's many more than these, but these are the big ones. Um great. Thank you so much. That's helpful. Um I noticed that there's some lease purchase and lease interest items. What What kinds of things do we do we lease? Um those are those are just straight financings, okay, of some improvements that happened a few years back. Um they were
054really 20-year improvements that were done uh and they're just being uh we pay paid down over they're paid down like that. I see. In the world of governmental financing um stuff, we have general obligation bonds which we record in fund three and are secured by a uh vote of the people and a debt rate on the le tax property tax levy. Then we have fund for debt which is not voter approved uh and is not secured in that same way. Okay. So, we typically have to post real estate to secure or collaterize that debt. And then it's even though we call it lease purchase, it's strictly a financing arrangement. Okay. Awesome. Gotcha. Oh, that makes sense. Um, uh, I just have one more question. Um, I noticed that under the state revenues, um, the classroom
055trust fund, um, and I read a little bit up on on this, and I think it it's proceeds from, uh, the gambling, uh, gambling that that we that's legalized gambling. Uh, how does that, um, and it's a it's a pretty I think it's the largest piece of our of our state funding from what I read um, on the balance book. um how is that how is that trust fund I'm just curious how that trust fund is um allocated and how we utilize it. So in the state formula there are districts that are formula supported and it's really the fact that the state has established a state adequacy target or a minimum level of funding that they believe schools can be successful with. And then when that's multiplied out and determined, they subtract a local effort.
056And if your adequacy target, unless your local effort is such that there's dollars to be remaining, then the state will fund those dollars. Um, and that's your state support. Then there are hold and we're not in that group. Then there are hold armless groups and we're in the hold armless team group of people or districts and the dollars that we get are the same dollars basically that we got in 2006 and they deliver those dollars to us in two categories. So the dollars are first determined how much we're going to get and then a portion of it is is called the formula and a portion of it is called this the the uh the classroom fund and the classroom fund has to be spent really on salaries more than anything else. So it goes we
057post that all into fund to to support certified salaries. Okay, that's it's it's not a it's not separate in the sense that it has its own revenue. I mean, it has kind of its own revenue stream, but it's just a subp part of the overall allocation that we get from the state. Gotcha. Thank you. That's that's it for me, please. Thank go ahead. Okay. Hi. Hi. Um, so you you my one my first question was the the revenue your anticipated revenue is going to go up by about 3.1 million and I was going to ask the question of how this will change with the senior tax freeze. I really appreciate your swimming pool metaphor. I like that one. Um, so you said in about over a decade it would be about a $6 million loss.
058Did I hear that correctly? That's correct. Okay. That's and that's an estimate based on a series of assumptions that we have today. It could be more or less. Okay. Um any idea of what you anticipate it being just in this first year? A shallow end of a pool. It's probably less than a quarter of a million. Okay. Thank you. Um on this, you talk about the technology improvements. You mentioned a few a few minutes ago and I'm wondering if that was general or is that specific to what is being anticipated next year in the 675. This is an allocation that we make annually. Okay. Uh in dollars and uh the exact way it will be spent is largely still to be determined. Part of it will be a refresh of student devices. I know that
059there's discussion about expanding the Wi-Fi capability. um as you probably hear some complaints about that and we're looking at addressing that and other needs that they have. I know we're also uh expanding some of our switches in the network. Okay. Thank you. The architectural services, does this include an estimation for the CM that we're going to be talking about later or do should we anticipate that there will be more? Yes, it does. Okay, fantastic. Oh, question. Um, V view five on your budget page 19. I'll just explain it and so you don't have to go to it. Um, it's the one the revenue budget with prior year comparisons. The local revenue which came in as gifts. Is that like what you were speaking about earlier from PTO and Clayton Education Foundation? The budgeted is about
06055K and sometimes from individuals. Okay. We've we've had very generous individuals. Somebody a couple years ago gave like six figures. I see that. Yeah. But I think we have a new policy, right, that says that can't. Um and then Visa rebates. We speak to that. We use uh Visa cards uh to make a lot of purchases and uh we do get rebates for those. Fantastic. Okay. There was a point in time where we could use them to pay our utility bills and they've put it into that. We used to generate a lot of rebate for that. Okay. Um I think that's it for now. Thank you. Thank you. I asked my questions two weeks ago. Thanks. Okay. Um first of all, thank you so much for doing the amazing job that you're doing, John. We
061and your team. We we appreciate you so much and the idea that we're sitting here with this balanced budget and feeling so confident going into this year and the years to come is such a gift to our district and you work very hard. So, um we really appreciate you um being that um that consistent force for our for our district. Um I have two related very simple questions um about grants. What all is grant funded is is my general question. I know specifically one thing and it's all in coalition if I'm correct. Correct. Um so can you please give me an update on that particular grant because obviously it has a lifespan and so can you tell me where that is and what we intend to do in terms of continuing to have that um
062as part of our um work we do around health and wellness you know and whether we're going to go out for another grant grant etc. And then again back to the in general, what else is grant funded? Um the all-in grant uh I think has a fiveyear cycle. Uh so it got approved once for five years and then a second time for five years and we just finished the first year of the second five-year allocation. So we should have that for another four. it generally goes to support the salary of the person foil filling that role. I'll just say publicly that whether I'm on this board again in four years or not, I would love for this board to continue to support that effort. It's such an incredibly important part of our seal, you know,
063as it's related to mental health, etc. And we value that so much as a district. and um having a very specific program like that. We really don't have, you know, we address substance abuse, we all those things in health class, but that's not the same as having a a program like this where we have a dedicated person that is going out and doing all this education and outreach and is in the schools um so often. So, I I really value that program and I hope that um our board continues to to make sure that that's something specific like that is available to our students. Um, what else is grant funded? Some people would think some of our title money from the federal government is grants. Uh, I don't. I just consider it federal dollars. Um,
064you know, but that supports a variety of professional development uh and um um other educational initiatives. Um, most of our other grants are sporadic and and can be very small. It might be, like I said, a,000 or $2,000 and they might support a a small initiative um that someone has applied for, right? So teachers can look at things and sort of make sort of, hey, this is something that I'm interested in and that we've been able to, you know, support them in that effort towards getting grants when they are interested. Correct. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Okay. If there are no other questions, will you read the motion to approve the budget, please? I move that the board of education approve the budget for 2025 2026, including expenditures sourced from federal grants as presented. Second.
065All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? No. Okay. Motion passes. Um, the next action item is architectural services for facility projects. Um, I think we should have read the motion first before we ask all those questions. Isn't that what we It's a long motion. No, no. I'm It's my fault. So, will you read this motion and then we'll see if we have any questions? I think we have to do it all over again. Oh, we No, we don't. We don't. I'm positive. I just looked up the rules and we don't have to do it over. Okay. Anyway, go ahead and read this. Okay, you guys ready? 3.2. This is a long one. I move that the board of education approve the selection and collaboration of Paragon Architecture and Perkins and Will for project package
066number one relating to the proposed addition of an academic wing at CHS and for project PA package number three relating to renovation or reconstruction of the three elementary school buildings and authorize the administration to negotiate a contract for the desired services to include a clear scope of work, reasonable fees and otherceptcept acceptable terms and further approved the selection of BLDD architects for project package number two relating to proposed improvements of athletic facilities at CHS and WMS and authorize the administration to negotiate a contract for the desired services to include a clear scope of work, reasonable fees, and other acceptable terms. Second. Okay. Now, does anyone have any questions? That might be the longest motion we've ever read. How do you tell? I just Go ahead, Leo. I just want to comment in case anybody's watching.
067You know, we have three We have Who is interested in this? We have three different packages in here. We're keeping different balls in the air through this process. There's some decision- making that still has to happen, some focusing down that still needs to happen. It hasn't happened yet. That's okay. But that's that's what's going on here. In other words, it's not we're authorizing going forward on all of this. We're keeping options open for our consideration down the road. That's it. And that's for the next three agenda items. Uh that's the comment I wanted to make. Correct. Correct. These contracts that we negotiate will be back in front of you for approval. Great. Any other questions or comments? Okay. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes. Um 3.3. Will you read that motion,
068please? I move that the board of education authorize issuance of a request for qualifications RFQ for a construction manager at risk C in accordance with policy feed. Second. Okay. Any questions or comments on this? No. Okay. All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes. Um 3.4. Please read that motion. I move that the board of education authorize issuance of a request for proposals RFP for a consultant for public engagement services in regards to facility improvements. Second. Any questions or comments about this pamp? Um I'm wondering if you could This is 3.4. you could speak about how a public engagement consultant would support us differently and in conjunction with CM a CMR. the CM their participation they will um primarily evaluate the constructability of the buildings uh and recommend ways to improve upon
069that as well as manage the budgets for these projects. That's going to be their role. this team member, I'll call them a team member, um their role will be to uh develop the communications plan for the public in anticipation of a bond issue election in April of 26. So that includes that'll have to be anformational campaign that it's a story that we want to drive and get out in front of um and keep the public fully informed about what they will be voting on. We're prohibited from in having a vote yes campaign, but we're not prohibited from informing voters about what our proposals are. But I do think um to your point Pam I think a CM a construction management firm also um or most of them also provide community engagement piece. Yes we question
070our architects and our CM are going to be engaged in public engagements as well towards the development of their designs of the facilities themselves. This person can be part of that and observe it, but their ultimate objective is to inform voters about what they are going to be voting on. Got it. Okay. Any other questions or comments on this one? Okay. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes. 3.5. I move that the board of education approve the resolution adopting the 2025 2030 St. Louis regional hazard mitigation plan as presented. Second. Any questions or comments on this? Yes, Chris. Um, okay. My question um there was in in this document there is um this this is a tiny little small thing when it it it there's a the word um in one of
071the first lines that is the very the smaller section not the ones that have a bunch of words in them. It's about winter storms. Sorry I'm not looking at it so I'm like trying to help you look at it. Yeah. See the one where it says winter storm? That's a good way of saying it. Um, in that one it also says district has procedures in place to access the severity of a severe thunderstorm and take appropriate actions to protect the welfare of this student. So, this was changed since I last looked at this. I hope not. No. No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't. I'm This is This is what I saw. So, is a winter storm the same as a thunderstorm? No, it would be snow and ice. So, should we change
072that to wintertorm? That was my point. What does it say right now? Severe thunderstorm. You can laugh. That's okay. What does it say right now? It says thunderstorm instead of winter storm. You guys, we just had a major disaster, so I'm being very specific about this. Tornado. Oh, I know it does, but I'm going to make sure every single one of these is properly assessed. Does you see what I'm saying? Why does it say thunderstorm instead of winter storm? Is does it not matter? John, tell me it doesn't matter. I don't know. Well, it says wintertorm. That's a wintertorm. Define winter storm sentence after it says thunderstorm. See that? It's just confusing. Thank you. It just seems inconsistent. Should we change that tiny little word from thunder to winter to make sure we are covering
073all of our bases? I I I want to resist. Or does it not matter? Are you talking about this tiny little line under the That's why I kept saying tiny little line. But that's not on the actual resolution, is it? Okay. Or I don't know. That's I It's just inconsistent. Do That's the plan, but it's not actions. The actions. Okay. But I want the tiniest little detail that I am No, but it's a I know it's little, but I want to resist a change because this has already been through uh East West Gateway Council and the State Emergency Management Agency. Oh, it's not ours. And they've approved that. We do. This happens. Yeah. Yeah. So to be clear, it's not a plan that we wrote. It is a plan that we are required to adopt.
074I mean, okay, thank you. I totally agree with that. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. My other questions are actually maybe more important. Um, what I'll say them one at a time. The first one is what it and what's meant by structural what does it say? Um, besides the elementary school structural retrofits, can you tell me besides that what does that mean? Well, it means bringing a building up to code or up to so a few years ago this this district had a bond issue where we retrofitted buildings for earthquake resistance. Yes. Okay. So that that would be an example of a retrofit, right? which going forward when we if we have new facilities, we'll be on that and there won't be, you know, retrofits needed because we'll do it. Okay. Thank you. At the cost
075of $1,000 per square foot. Yeah. Yeah. For a tornado shelter just so everybody and as we know, well worth it, right? Yeah. Absolutely. You want to be very like choiceful. They're very important, but yes, they're they're very costly. Costly. Yeah. But as this document says basically it says benefit of protecting lives outweighs cost of action which is absolutely the case but of of course we're also going to be fiduciarily responsible. Um okay do we have this says in under extreme t temps we have an an emergency water supply. Is that accurate for us? If that means water bottles yes. Wow. There you go. See, I mean, nothing was coming to mind, but that is brilliant. It's not right. Yeah. No, that's that's what that typically means. Oh, okay. Beautiful. Perfect. Typically means a supply of
076modern water. We have a couple right here. Okay. Thank you. My last one. No, two two more. Sorry guys, I'm super into this disaster preparedness. Um when um people are using gay field which happens all the time, we need to have a place for them to go in an event of tornado which actually happens as we know. So can they go to the family center? Uh they can or there's a fieldhouse that happened recently where we had a pretty pretty strong thunderstorm over there and we had to put people in the shelter but right on buses. Remember time when they had buses? Tell me though, why are first of all that warehouse is just a warehouse, so it's not nearly as secure as the family center would be. Why wouldn't we use the family? What
077is going on that that's not a building? There's the fieldhouse is back there as well. Oh, it's more than just it's a act. Oh, it is a building and there's some other Okay. So, it's smaller than the family center, but it is a structural. It's not just the wear, right? It's a very durable building. Okay. So, what's been happening? Has anybody ever used the family center? And why isn't that the case? Why couldn't all those fans? I think I think if the family center is occupied, we're probably going to direct people into the fieldhouse even though it's smaller just because it's right there. It's there and we'd prefer to keep the the children of the family center separate. Think about when the tornado sirens went off two weeks ago, almost three weeks ago now. They
078went off and seven minutes later the tornado hit, right? there's not enough time to get everybody from the field to the family center that you're probably right. So, but so it's it's an alternative for when it's not a tornado. I mean, it is an alternative. I guess what I'm just saying is you're bringing up a good point and what happened at that track meet, which is why people sheltered in buses, is there were hundreds and hundreds of athletes and families and coaches here. There wasn't room for them all in. Correct. So, that's the point I'm making is we do have that building. Yes, it's not the ideal, but the fieldhouse is only so big. Well, as part of our uh architectural work that we're going to be doing, we'll be evaluating storm shelters. There you
079go. districtwide, including Gayfield. Okay. Because that's a that's a weak point. Yeah, it's a safety it's a safety issue. We really need to think about that. So, be nice if the fields were that would be a very, you know, useful, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Practical. Um, so, okay, thank you for that. The last thing I'll say is I'll give you a chance to just tell me as briefly or as long as you want, you know, I'm not looking for anything specific, John, but what we learned from this last, you know, um, tornado, what what do we know now about whether or not our planning um that this plan that we have in place is solid and are there holes or you you see what I'm saying? Well, regarding this resol resolution that's before you and
080the plan that's there that's really uh being pushed by state legislation. Yeah. Uh and SEMA and there's an expectation that public schools uh make modifications their facilities to be more durable in storm events. And so that's really what this is about. Yep. As far as this last tornado, I mean, it it it reminds us that tornadoes can hit Clayton and that we should be prepared. We're not we're not immune from uh that kind of storm. And we're very fortunate that our buildings didn't suffer more damage than they did, but it pays to be prepared. And I think as we go through the uh process with our architects in this next phase, uh this will certainly be a conversation that we have as we seek to make our buildings more durable and safe. Yeah. And I
081would say just we did we obviously have buildings that we knew we thought we were safe and this you know example is that it was quite you know we I feel really good about how our buildings came out. The power of a tornado is incredible. And you know the if you look back at the Japan tornado that took out the hospital down there and some school buildings just flatten them. I mean it's it has incredible power and and uh so it pays for us to consider these kind of improvements as we go forward. When I remember one of the things that uh Paragon suggested in the study Yeah. was I think um that the elementary gymnasiums be FEMA. correct? Ready or FEMA approved or whatever that meant, which they currently are not the right size
082for that, right? And so a lot of schools will do a gymnasium and make it a tornado safe room. Other schools will make a whole series of classrooms uh tornado safe. Some of that tends to be less costly. Oh, yes. It's spy mean. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions or comments on 3.5 Pam? Um I know you nor I were here in 2020 the last time this came before the board. Do you know if there are any significant changes from five years ago to now since this is a I don't believe so. Okay. I mean it it goes through a protracted review every five years. Um and this is quite similar to the last time. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay, no other questions. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, motion
083passes. And one more. 3.6. I move that the board of education approves the use of services of the Supplemental Health Care Agency. Second. Okay. Any questions or comments about this one? Yes. No. Sorry. [Laughter] It's like we're playing the game. Um um I couldn't quite tell if this agency is like a recruiter or a temp agency or a combo of the two. And so then if so, um I can't read my notes here to myself. um they have a placement fee and are we required to hire through them if we have an open position for an RN? No, we're not required. And actually, this contract would be non-exclusive. That's in the first part, too. So, one of the questions that I had had earlier um was, you know, why didn't we look at other options
084that might be a little bit um less of a price or something like that, we still have the opportunity to use those other um staffing agencies if we wanted to. This is really just a proactive measure. if we would ever find ourselves in a place where we don't have a nurse, we can't find, we have sub nurses, our own sub nurses, too. But if we would end up in a place where we aren't able to staff with one of our nurses or our sub nurses, we wanted because we were able to reach some favorable terms in this contract, we wanted to go ahead and move forward with it just as a proactive measure so we would have something should we ever need that because we did have a little bit of trouble finding a nurse
085for uh summer academy, which we have now. Thank you so much for doing that work and for creating this contract for us. Absolutely. Any others? Jason? No, I'm just You looked like you had a question. Well, now I put the press the button. So, now I got to ask it. So, you don't have to I don't know if you figure this out yet or not, but at some point I'd just be curious to know like at the school level, why an RN versus an LPN? Yes. So, I did do a little bit of research on that, so I can speak to that. So, I asked um our nurse um coordinator that we have is Heather Chrisman. And so, she had originally when I asked her and we were looking at staffing agencies, could we use
086an LPN versus an RN? And she said really we they need to be RNs. So some of the data is like this year our RNs managed nine diabetics, 256 students with asthma, 230 students who have life change or life-threatening food allergies, three students with BP shunts, 26 students that have um seizure disorders and the difference is that the RNs are actually trained to perform those advanced procedures, deliver um condition specific education and administer a wider variety of medications. So based on our student needs that we have here, um she really does believe that that that would be our our preference is would be to staff with an RN. I So in this contract, we could use either if we it's about a $10 difference an hour from is if we were ever to need to
087use a staffing agency. But well, the reason if you hired full-time, you know, if you hired a full-time LPN versus an RN, you do that a number of times over a number of years, that's significant savings. It would be a significant. So, and I I just don't know what's being done at the school that is outside the scope of an LPN, right? And but I trust Heather on that and that's that's fine. Thanks. Okay. Any other questions or concerns about the healthcare agency contract? Okay. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. So, we are moving on to the consent agenda items. Will you read that motion, please, Chris? 4.1 at the top. I move that the board of education approve consent agenda items 4.1 through 4.10. Second. Um, I would like to
088publicly acknowledge and thank um the following individuals for donations. On behalf of the district, the board of education would like to thank the Optimus Club of Clayton for their generous donation of $1,000 for the robotics championships. Uh, we would like to thank Clayco for their generous donation of $5,000 for their robotics championships. And we would like to thank Wo Chen, a parent, for his generous donation of $1,000 to the Clayton High School Math Club. Any other questions or comments on any consent agenda items? Okay. All those in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes. Um we are moving on to board communications. Um, I'd like to start actually and um I just want to acknowledge and thank our chief technology officer, Jeff Polls, congratulate him on his retirement if he's listening at home
089and thank him for 10 years with our district where he demonstrated incredible leadership. He is very well respected among everyone who works on his team and all the faculty and staff in the district. He is very helpful, very thoughtful. I'm I think probably most students, parents, and even maybe many staff and faculty members don't really fully appreciate what a chief technology officer does every day behind the scenes to make sure this district is up and running at all times. And I'm thinking even especially back to um COVID Jeff was you know obviously the technology department with his leadership was critical in those times and um and and all other times too. So I just want to thank Jeff for his time with us. Congratulate him on his retirement and just on a personal note um
090many of you know this but Jeff and I taught high school together. Uh, oh, okay. Um, we taught at Marquette High School together in the Rockwood School District 25 20 to 30 years ago, probably. Um, about 25 years ago. So, it's been fun for me personally to work with him again and see him and, you know, reminisce about our old teaching days together. So, I wish him well um, personally and also on behalf of the board and the district. So, thank you, Jeff, for dedicating the past 10 years to the district. Um any other board communications? Uh the teaching and learning was cancelled. Um you had a governing council meeting. Do you want to talk about that? Sure. Um just last night we had the um last governing council um meeting for SSD and we
091did what we did tonight with John. We went over the fiscal year um 2026 budget and approved it. Um you know we are very lucky to be in this district that has a balanced budget. I think you know I mentioned at the beginning of the year the struggle that SSD has been trying to get themselves out of they were in you know very big deficit and um just in one year's time they are making great strides. Um their goal is to get to a 35% you know fund balance and they're well on their way. Um and they can even project that by 2029 potentially they're having they're going to have their budget balanced. So I'm very impressed by what Dr. Mlin and his new CFO have done there. they have really they call it riding
092the ship and they are doing it they're doing everything they can to de decrease expenditures etc without impacting student need um in the classroom. So um kudos to them for doing so well with that um already and then the other thing we did was elect new officers within the council and that was it. Great. Um did any other was our parks and wreck meeting again? Yeah, there was parks and wreck um Monday night. Trying to think. I mean, a lot of it had to do with, you know, the city and resources with regard to the storm. Yeah. You know, um and also, you know, the the field use this spring has been among the worst um ever. There have been more cancellations than games played. So, uh, but you know, but aside from that, um,
093I'm trying to think if there's anything else that's I do think the the ice rink once again, the former ice rink, uh, space is on hold. No way. For now, come on. Come on. As the city evaluates their fiscal situation relative to the tornado, I mean, I think Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Uh but you know, but there's there'll be some um some interesting like there's going to they're going forward with some lighting projects. So there's this dark skies initiative in multiple parks including Oaknola and Shaw Park. Uh the tennis center is going to get a big uh nice u improvement in their lighting which has been a long time kind of thing. So some I guess you'd say adjacent facilities for our our kids. Well, tennis courts we tennis courts especially. Yeah. So that's
094it. Thank you. On actually on that note, I'd like to publicly thank the city when you're talking about the city, the board of alderman, the mayor, and the city manager, David Gibson, for their partnership through this tornado aftermath, they their partnership and clear and constant communication with us was critical to um to our order of you know to what we were trying to do with the school district. So, I I would like to publicly thank them as well as you're talking about the city. So, thank you. Did you have something else, J? Any other um board communications? Okay, then we can read uh read the motion to adjurnn. I move that the board of education adjourn on Kim's birthday. Second. All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? Okay. Meeting is adjourned. When he said
095he said, Sorry, I died.