001ok we're going to get going here I want to state that adequate notice has been given and we're going to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you very much so just as a reminder this is a little bit of a different meeting because it's really two meanings of that are smushed together the first is really we're going to discuss our tax rate and then we're gonna move to our regular meeting so do we have any public comment on the tax rate no okay all right so then we're gonna move from no public comment on to the actual tax rate hearing so Mary Jo please thank you I am was asking Joe because normally what we do is we wanted to since we have some people that were gonna be recognized we were thought
002without taking a few minutes before the tax break hearing so that way we can recognize them and then they can choose to stay if they want to stay our thinking head home so I wanted to see if we could do that first all right so we're gonna abridge actually marry Joe we're gonna pause for a second and we're gonna do the public recognition first so people can decide if they wanna stay or leave and then we'll go to the tax rate so again one of our practices is that we want to make sure that we're taking time to recognize our students in the district and having opportunities to recognize their different strengths and their abilities and things that they're doing within the district and so what we did tonight was brought forth to athletes and
003there's two reasons I wanted to bring them forward one because they're accomplished athletes and then two I wanted just to recognize that as a district we are having a stronger focus in our academic excuse me our athletic program and thinking about ways that we could build spirit across the district and also to recognize our athletes and so our new athletic director has done a new work around creating what they call the Clayton the Greyhound insider which is communication about our athletic program but it's also an opportunity for us to recognize athletes and so I asked two athletes who are first athletes who are have been recognized through the athlete of the week and we're gonna be doing this on an ongoing basis but I thought since this is that kind of the inaugural way of
004we're gonna how we're gonna do things to recognize students I'd bring those two students forward to be recognized and so we have Charlie huddie who is a he plays helped lead the freshman soccer team to a to know start the season by scoring three goals in the home opener against Oakville and then four goals by the next day against Tim Berlin he's also plays on the varsity soccer team every once in a while as well so we want to recognize Charlie and and I think it's really important to note that these athletes are being recognized not only by their coaches but the athletic director and our coordinator of activities and it shows that you are really dedicated to athletics and also making sure that you're keeping your academics as high as high as well so
005and then we have a Lamech Donald and Ella led the junior varsity field hockey team to a 300 win over Parkway south by scoring all three goals and completed our first hat-trick as a greyhound and so we're excited about Ella's accomplishment as well and I know there's been some other games since that time then since you've been athletes but I want to just recognize both of you because we know that we we expect high expectations in our in our school and and there's a lot of work that you have to do and then to also be an athlete on top of that we just think that's really amazing how you balance that and also dedicate and dedicate a lot of time to practice and making sure that you're growing yourself as an athlete so I
006want to say thank you and recognize you as athletes within our district so we are gonna take a picture of the athletes with the Board of Education also thank the athletes and Charlie I don't know if you played club soccer too but if you do I want to thank you for also choosing to play for Clayton because I know a lot of kids or plate just play Galaga or Luke Hughes or they do that and then they choose not to play for Clayton so it's awesome that you guys are both playing for Clayton and we thank you for that thank you thank you guys awesome yep [Applause] okay Mary Jo now we're gonna go to the tax here thank you for suggesting that Sean and suggestion all righty good evening tonight we're holding the public
007hearing on the tax rate so the purpose of a public hearing is to provide an opportunity to have discussion on the rate set as well as allow public comment prior to approval so notices were posted as required by law and as we just heard there were no verbal comments received nor did we receive any written comments so each year rates are calculated using forms provided by the state auditor next once we receive the forms then we submit them to be reviewed and approved by the state auditor and the state auditor found no errors in our submission so typically we always start out discussing assessment in Missouri and this year 2019 was a reassessment year so I'll review the actual changes in assessed value on a later slide but I will say we did see significant
008changes this year an increases in assessed value and because of the Hancock amendment typically the operating rate is inversely affected by the property value so when the values increase our rate rolls back or it decreases and then the value decreases our rate rolls up or it increases but for this year basically since we successfully passed Proposition II back in the in April the Hancock Amendment doesn't apply to us this year we adjust our ceiling as stated in the ballot language so in a ballot language we had a specific rate and that is what becomes our ceiling this year so because the assessed values increased so much we ended up receiving more than we had anticipated so we are recommending a voluntary rollback of 15 cents which is approximately two million dollars to only collect what
009was projected during the tax levy campaign which was approximately seven point four million dollars so that is one of things that we had talked about in the spring when we got the preliminary assessed value numbers and so we are moving forward with making that recommendation for this year only it is a one-year recommendation so the debt service rate has a separate calculation and is not also not impacted by the Hancock amendment it's basically set by calculating the amount of funds that are necessary to pay current year debt as well as an adequate reserve so during the 2009 2010 bond levy campaign we stated a rate of sixty two point three cents so again we're gonna stay with that rate it's adequate in order to fund it the way we need to which was actually calculated
010as sixty three point four eight cents so we're right just a little bit rolling it back in order to keep the rate that we promised so both instances when we went to the taxpayers we're retaining a rate that we had promised them to past so the next I'm going to talk about is recoupment and I kind of talk about this every year a lot since 2005 we've seen an exponential number of residential as well as commercial appeals to assess values and I'll talk a little bit of why that year is the important year in a little bit but the following table represents the changes in assessed valuation and the actual revenues recouped so on the left-hand side those are the changes in assessed value beginning in 2012 and then on the right-hand side is what
011that correlates in revenue received for each year so as you can see in 2019 it's approximately 1.3 million dollars is what we're receiving and there's really not a huge correlation as to what the assessed value changes to what the revenue can be and you can see in there so those numbers from 2012 all of them include multiple years so it's not just settlements in that year some of them go ten years back so prior to 2012 the district had only recoup twice once in 2000 and before due to a large settlement by the PAR group and part is called the property assessment review so 2004 was when they did their first settlement and then they just started coming after that but they didn't settle until 2012 so from appeals from 2000 I've all the way
012up to 2012 it took that many years to get him settled and that's when we started seeing him so the second recoupment wasn't in 2009 due and due to a timing issue related to Senate bill 287 so they set a new law and didn't inform st. Louis County timely enough so they couldn't get us our rates in time to change the date we had to post the tax levy so so then once those two appeals happen then we got into this recoupment of every year so as you can see there's not any consistency as values as I said so therefore it's not included in any projections so we basically look at what we can recoup in that year and we put it in that year's revenue so it normally comes in over budget if we
013can recoup so we don't always get information timely enough in order to include it in the information when we need it so and then this recoupment is also added to the tax calculation just like debt service so we come up with our ceiling and then we add additional numbers on top of it so if a resident might say well doesn't match what was in the that's because it's still changed by other numbers so as I mentioned it's still important to look at the changes in assessed valuation because it'll also predict how many appeals will occur that we'll see where we'll be recouping in the future so this year st. Louis County had so many appeals the Board of Equalization could not hear all of them the my other statutory deadline so as a result the
014assessed value numbers that we were given and all st. Louis County taxing jurisdictions what they received were not final and therefore they will be adjusted as we move forward basically until the hearings are complete and they are anticipated to be completed by the time of billing so that means the rates will still change but they will still bill based on our current rate which means we'll be able to recoup on what it's adjusted because most likely the rates will go down and therefore we'll lose revenue again because we were estimating a certain rate but it isn't what the assessed values are so what we're projecting right now might not be received so so in looking at that you can see that the res residential changed 104 million which is 17.4% commercial was 73 million which
015is 16 and a half percent and personal property was a three percent increase and that's actually unusual we don't see a personal property increase we normally see personal property decreases so that's a first and probably the last couple years overall is almost a 16 percent increase our preliminary assessed value numbers that we got back in February or I'm sorry March showed 20% for residential and 36% for commercial so we have seen some substantial changes since February or I'm sorry March but I'm not quite sure they said they're about 85% complete on the hearings and they can't tell us what the other 15% is so we don't know if it's Clayton maybe if it's just across the board we do know it's mostly residential but as you know Clayton has a lot of residential high-rises so
016we could still have some large value changes when you look at that 180 million it breaks down into 43 million is construction that's also a substantial increase over prior year that includes a portion of Centene has come on the books as well as a hundred percent of the Barton and also the Bellevue Senior Living Center in Richmond Heights so we continue to track the new construction to make sure it's put on correctly personal property as I mentioned did have an increase and appeals and reassessments was our largest so as you can see that the change in assessed value was primarily due to appeals of 134 million so we do expect a very large amount of protests so the last recess meant cycle over 60% of our parcels were protested and we did not receive a
017majority of our funding until the end of the school year because it was held in protest I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on the proposed class rates they kind of are what they are but you will see that residential only went up point four six cents which we had told taxpayers 64 cents so it is a little less because of that increase in assessed value and then that also includes a point zero zero five eccentric Koopman in there and then the commercial that includes a point 2 2 5 6 that recoupment so that's why there's kind of went up a little higher and these are rates by funds which is required by deci basically we're building up our general and special revenue the special revenue fund is what we pay our
018teachers not if we break down the amount of revenue that's received if we would have just not passed the tax levy and based it on the Hancock amendment it would have been 39 million 465 but because of property we got about another 7.4 million and then there's 1.3 in recoupment and the 1.9 million in new construction broken down into the different categories that service and there's an estimate uncollectible it doesn't really change our projections much because it was based on what we had predicted ejected back in May actually since this is an action item let's go ahead and read the action and then we'll see if anybody has any questions please I move that the Board of Education adopt the tax rates by category as presented with the blended tax rate for the School District
019of Clayton for 2019 2020 in the amount of $4 for 4.4 990 dollars to be distributed with a special revenue fund rate of two point five zero three zero general fund rate at one point two seven three to capital projects rate of 0.01 zero zero zero and debt service fund rate of zero point six two three zero okay it's been moved and seconded are there any questions I just want to say for my part this is um I think this is great Mary Jo we committed to the voters right then when we did proppy that if indeed there was a big reassessment that we would roll it back so I'm proud of us for following through on that I think that's great all in favor aye any opposed passes unanimously thank you so we actually
020need an action to adjourn the tax rate hearing I move that the Board of Education adjourn the tax all in favor aye so then we're gonna skip over recognizing our own because we already did that and we are going to do we have any public comment I don't think so no okay all right so we don't have any public comment so we're gonna move to superintendent communication okay thank you well good evening and I went a second Joe said first of all I want to really thank Mary Jo and recognizing Mary Jo for the time that you took to plan this and to communicate this this is complicated and I know that she really works to make it to write it in a very pragmatic and very simple way so that way we could all
021understand it and I also think it's really important to recognize that there are things that we have to get that are not in within our control in terms of information from other entities and Mary Jo is an advocate for the district making sure that we get the right information and so that way we can make the best decision so I just want to publicly recognize you for that I know that takes a long time this is definitely a busy week in the district we have sixth-grade camp going right now we had stem night at captain last night there was a soccer game on Monday night with against Ladue the boys won and this week we're also heading to MSBA and and I think that what an MSBA is the conference for the national school board
022excuse me the Missouri School Board Association and and all of the members of the Board of Education are gonna be attending that and starting tomorrow and I just think it says sets a tone that again learning is a priority from the very top of the school district and really appreciate the board is giving that time to be a part of that and also we're gonna have a retreat during that time as well and so that's gonna be on Friday night so it's it's a it's a great opportunity for our own personal learning and collective learning some other things that are happening in the district right now is that we and actually I went on two tours this week and went with two walkthroughs went with Lilly today went with Amy yes are two days ago
023and as we were walking through some of the things I pointed out were just different innovations like for example we went and saw an outdoor classroom at captain and there are things that are funded by the Clayton Education Foundation that are additional revenue sources that are additional revenue basically are opportunities for us to fund innovative projects and so we are gonna we just had those grants completed we have a group from the Clayton Education Foundation next week that are gonna look at each of those grants and I think that's about sixty thousand possibly that we are looking at sixty-five thousand dollars worth of grants to our teachers and I think that's amazing thinking about alternative revenue and a ways that really impact our students so tonight is an important evening because we are setting the
024tax rate and I do appreciate the support of the community around supporting property last year and moving us now we're now taking steps and moving towards the projects that we said that we were going to do as part of that and I also want to just say thank you to the board for recommending the rollback and that voluntary rollback because it does say a lot to our community where we made this commitment if we saw an increase that we would do that rollback and I really appreciate that because it does take up a little bit of the burden off of our taxpayers in the past one of the things we've done is had a long-term financial planning committee that gave us input and and was an opportunity for us to hear from different stakeholders throughout
025the district to give us input and oversight of our district finances and I think that type of structure helped get us to the point where we are right now and with our district finances and we are going to continue to think about ways that we can have that type of structure and as I shared with you with my goals a few weeks ago so we had our executive session we were going to continue to think about fiscal responsibility just because proposition e passed we still have our commitment to the district to make sure that we have fiscal responsibility and when we think about our strategic plan that we're launching on October 5th one of the things we're gonna do is make sure that we're very conscientious about aligning our resources with our goals and when
026I think about our resources that doesn't necessarily just mean the finances that are attached to also want to look at our human capital do we have the right human capital aligned to our goals and so we are we have been looking at other districts and looking at other some other exemplars in terms of way strategic plans are designed and really the some of the best the districts that are doing the right way are the ones that are not making fiscal responsibilities separate goal but it's making sure that our resources are aligned to our goals so I will say that we are going to wait until after we finish our strategic plan to determine what that advisory or committee is going to look like it'll probably be similar to long term financial planning but we're gonna
027have an opportunity to discuss what we want from that committee the other thing tonight is I'm asking the board to approve my goals and those goals are centered around leadership development strategic planning and the fiscal health of the district and I appreciated the input that the board provided in helping shape those goals and also providing some input around the action steps we had a few weeks ago and I think it's just important that as I shared those with you I heard those as being the current priorities that we need to focus on like our strategic plan is a current priority that I need to have oversight over and I need to make sure that we're giving that the time it needs and as I shared with the board at that meeting is that I am
028gonna come back to you after that me after we're finished with our strategic plan and say I want to make sure my goals are aligned to the direction of the strategic plan so that way all of our arrows are going in the right direction and so I want to just to make sure that I reminded you about that and I also said that at that time these are the goals that I feel like are the priorities that we need to focus on that doesn't represent everything it doesn't necessarily represent all the other things were happening and I shared with you that chart that had all the different topics that we had going on still and so for example we are going to continue working on educational equity and I and although it's not one of
029the formal goals that's like it has been the past it is a thread in all of the goals that I have shared with you and it will continue to be a goal it's a passion of mine it's a passion of of many people in this district and we are going to continue making sure that we're we want to be leaders of that and so I just want to reiterate is that since that goal has changed one of the things is that I'm always working to build capacity of others and not just that those goals are just simply mine it's like how do we have shared leadership around our goals and so we have central office administrators who are Center focused on this building principals and people who are working directly with our students and I
030really think that evidence of that goal in the past has been changes in our school goals all of our school goals have a focus around equity we have changes in structures in terms of what have been barriers in the past we're trying to remove and also continued focus on those dimensions that we established around H our sense of belonging culture and cultural responsive to cultural responsive teaching so I just want to make sure that I reiterate that to you and shared that with you before we we start the meeting because that is going to be something that is going to continue to be a focus but also those priorities that I stated in those goals a few weeks ago are gonna be the ones that are most immediate right now and the other work is
031going to be work is still moving forward and with the rest of leadership in the district tonight Adam is at sixth-grade camp he's being counseled Elena went down to thought this was funny Milana texted me today a picture she went to sixth-grade camp and actually Robyn went yesterday to check on 6th grade camp and she texted me a picture and there was Adam leading part of the mobile initiatives with the students and she wrote this kid's gonna lead the world one day and so I thought that was kind of funny so Adams not here to give a report from high school okay thank you very much so we'll move actually then next to our study items so the study items tonight are really around two policies well two policies to study and then rescinding two
032policies so the first policy is a policy G B okay so just as a reminder this is a first reading of these policies and asked Tony to take a look at those and he wrote an executive summary for that and just as a reminder you can use that worksheet that we have provided you in terms of looking at what questions we might ask about the policies looking at at it through an equitable lens and so Tony's here to give an overview of what the policies are about this is an opportunity for you to see if there's it give suggestions for revisions and then also any questions that you might want to have clarified don't want to give an overview sure good evening so first one up is G BAC and if approved this policy would
033replace policies G CPC and GDP see which MSBA recommends the districts rescind the new policy being reviewed tonight is in response to region recent changes to retirement laws impacting a retirees ability to be employed while collecting retirement benefits so that goes with Senate bill 892 with PSRs retirees some changes that would allow them to work up to sixty percent of the minimum teacher's salary which would be around $15,000 and then also with Senate bill 62 with making working the maximum amount of hours of 550 hours a year which is what's been pretty standard it's basically so does anybody have any questions or comments on GBE bc okay move on to G B yeah that one was G B AC and then G B for some reason I don't know why okay gve BC is the
034second one okay okay so for GBE BC this policy was amended to incorporate changes based on Senate bill 62 which requires public employers such as school districts to notify the relevant retirement systems when an employee or former employee is charged or convicted of certain offenses when committed in relation to the employee or former employees position with the district so these persons would then have to forfeit their retirement benefits if they use their positions for criminal purposes MSBA also revised this policy to comply with House bill 1350 which changed SCOTUS reporting requirements relating to the employment screenings and how that screening information is shared between state and federal governments one of the one of the revisions that we did add to this was more based on a recent law that happened the past few weeks with
035Missouri House plus 604 which calls for a more rigorous fingerprinting and background check to be done on any volunteers who may be alone with students at any time in a school district so we went ahead and updated the verbage for volunteers in addition to the verbage for the reporting that we need to do for background checks and criminal reports that we get on employees former employees so any questions [Music] g/b EBC correct okay first of all it's nice to see you up here this is I think the first time appreciate it so I I do not thought the parts that have been edited or changed all make sense to me so what I am wondering so I have no concerns about that but rather I'm thinking about we've talked about as we're going back through
036policies that this is kind of our opportunity to do checks on the policies in general and so I'm thinking about kind of the equity audit opportunity maybe on this one and what I am wondering is if we could kind of revisit the policy as a whole and think about what what I'm wondering about in terms of racial equity is whether there are some districts or some communities that are really thinking about if this kind of policy is hindering some opportunity some opportunities for people of color to either come into the educational system or volunteer in the educational system especially around sub you know drug offenses and and so that's the question I would have I don't know if you need me to be a little more clear about that but but I am one about
037that I'm not questioning about any offenses related to sexual abuse or misuse of funds or you know child abuse obviously but if this in some way limits and Ann would there be I think specifically I was wondering about like on page seven with the consequences that part stood out for me is you know is there a way that we could address I don't know some it sounds like it's at the discretion of the superintendent or a designee to figure out if you know the BACtrack background check reveals something that we have to decide do we want this person working or volunteering in our district and is there was some way within that or that other districts have been doing this that are on the forefront of looking at this issue that are thinking about you
038know making sure that those who are using that subjective element are also you know aware of issues around you know how do exactly I guess it's that we you know there's a lot of questions about inequities in our justice system are you thinking more for the employment for new me my mentor for volunteers I think I wonder about for both is this in some way making it so that we aren't letting people move forward and either those capacities because they have some history of drug offense or you know in our criminal justice system that's kind of making it harder for them to move I I know I didn't look into it myself so I'm just kind of throwing it out there as looking at it through an equity lens yeah we can take a look
039at that I think that we just so you're aware if something does come up on a it sounded automatics you know we look at the each situation individually so so we will you know discuss situations with if something comes up in a background check so I wonder if there's some way of putting it in the policy that you do that you know they're just making it explicit that we make sure when we're doing the subjective element to consider issues around we can take a look and see if there's other exemplars or something that we can look at your question is what it's okay if I okay what I'm saying is there's a lot of evidence that our criminal justice system has been has unfairly at various points from arrest to the time in prison has
040been unfair to African Americans and so what I'm saying is that not that we will discriminate I'm saying that when we have somebody that then we get a red flag in some way that we make sure to pay particular attention if this happens to be a situation where it's a drug offense or something where we just need to know a little deeper other questions or comments on this one yeah kristan fingerprinting and I just don't remember do we do we print all the volunteers or is it just employees so yeah right now it's currently it's just the employees so new employees that get hired go to the fingerprinting background check volunteers what we've been doing what has been practice is going through a different background check so they go through the children's division and the
041sex registry and it's more of like a name search so the fingerprint team would then go for volunteers who would be alone with children not all volunteers so when they're not around a staff member okay and I guess my question run that really was about access like how accessible is to feel like I've heard about that it's kind of difficult to get to where you need to go for the background checks and just with accessibility about that that we're not impeding people from either hopefully it's not employees but volunteers right and we're exploring different options where maybe we could look at making it more convenient for our parents and our volunteers in the community where we can maybe do some things on-site so we're kind of exploring what that might look like and developing a
042procedure to roll that out so it can be pretty smooth and seamless for everyone so what I heard the board say is that we'll look into seeing if there's anything that we can do for the language especially around the consequences for policy GBE BC and seeing if there's anything out there that we could look at or getting some and get some legal advice on and then the other thing too is that just that question around accessibility for volunteers especially those are left alone so like I think that's a good question too because we that means our our Oasis volunteers in thinking about what we need to do for them and so I just had one person asked me today about that so we're thinking about Tony's been already brainstorming ways that we can make that
043easy for everyone so we're gonna move to our first action item which is 11.0 one read that for scary yes I moved at the Board of Education approved the carrier recommendations and respective rates representing an overall increase as 7.7 percent for the 2020 calendar year as presented okay it's been moved and seconded do does anybody have any questions about this one all in favor hi you pose okay passes unanimously thank you so the next one is eleven point oh two it's the approval of policies DG and DFA I move that the Board of Education approve the policy updates as presented okay it's been moved and seconded is there any comment or questions all in favor aye can you post okay this one also passes unanimously next I'm ready eleven point of three and move that
044the Board of Education approved the part-time temporary employment as submitted any discussion all in favor Kristen was asking earlier about whether or not she needed to be recused first and there's no need for you to be recused so I just wanted you to we are moving to 11 point o4 which is the superintendent's goals for 2019 and 2020 11.04 I write I've moved at the Board of Education approved the superintendent's goals as presented okay it's been moved and seconded is are there any questions or comments yes thank you for in your introduction speaking to I thought it was really important that we we address the know it in a public way that the past three years equity the equity initiative has been part of your goals and and you've decided that that will and we
045are voting on that that is no longer one of your three big goals so I think you you have addressed I think it's really important for people to understand that that is something that as a district we know we haven't met the mark yet and that we're going to continue to work on and I would also like to maybe request at some point that we get an update you know so that the public can hear and we can all hear where we are how you envision it being structured the work moving forward the progress we've made the kind of the priority in terms of this work and what is actually the goals within the school and hearing that in some fashion I think that would be a really great follow-up to it moving from great
046and we're planning to do that any other questions or comments all in favor hi any opposed passes unanimously okay we're now moving to our consent agenda 12.01 I move that the Board of Education approved the consent agenda any questions or comments all in favor aye any opposed also passes unanimously okay we are moving down to the financials for first for july 2019 financials thirteen point zero one I move that the Board of Education improved payment of current expenditures and investments for life for july 2019 as submitted any questions or comments all in favor aye any opposed passes unanimously so we're moving on then to the August 2019 financials thirteen point zero two I move that the Board of Education approved payment of current expenditures and investments for August 2019 has submitted second so it's been
047motion is seconded any comments or questions all in favor aye any opposed passes also unanimously okay we are moving on now to abhorred communications does anybody have anything that they would like to report fully things SSD met the governing board met on September 15 and as you guys may recall there's a new superintendent and what's nice is she is doing kind of like what you do each meeting she plans to talk to us and give us some updates on what's happening in SSD and what she's she's doing in this meeting she talked about two goals that they're focusing on in SSD one is that she is going to basically do an audit and looking into student performance and academic integrity within each of the school districts that SSD serves just to say kind of where
048are we adding each of the district's expecting that there's gonna be some differences but just kind of get a sense of what's happening within each of the schools and then the second goal is that they really want to look at the workforce that they lose a lot paraprofessionals so they're looking at ways to retain pair of professionals and whether that's gonna be around pay you know their pay or other you know professional learning or some other ways to keep pair of professionals my opportunity to walk through Merrimack yesterday was Sean and it was great and I don't know if anybody's been there lately but it seems like Patrick's really done a phenomenal job turning and turning that school around culturally and he's made it very warm and welcoming and inviting when you walk in the
049doors everybody's smiling the kids are smiling everybody seems very happy in the classrooms there's a lot of the kids working in small groups and collaborating which was fun to see cuz it's so different than how when we grow up and we just had the teacher at the time at the front of the room when we all listen so that was fun to see yeah I was great it was it was seems like they're doing a tremendous job over there okay so I have two other things one is I went to the board of older people last night for Clayton and you may know that they passed an ordinance establishing the community equity Commission of the city of Clayton Missouri and it's really exciting so they're gonna be focusing also looking at you know equity and
050its widest sense because it is the city and where ours came from looking at our achievement gap with our african-american students there's there's as you know they're really thinking of it in a wider way of inclusivity and equity and discrimination issues and and yeah and I think I hope and I imagine it will and they said this is that it's gonna be opportunities for us to work with the city and for them to learn from some of what we've learned some of the things that have gone well some of the things that we've learned lessons learned and really to share that as they embark on working on equity and a more targeted if you get a chance to look at their they're setting up a commission that's gonna be focusing on this and if you
051get a chance to see that you can see that it I think it gives them a lot of latitude as far as areas to work on but it's also really focused you know on things about inclusivity and discrimination and some areas where everyone can get better and it's really great to see in Clayton and then I also just wanted to mention mention I guess these things are all kind of fall on the equity stuff that there was a meeting at John burrows that I you may have seen last Thursday where it was talking about kind of how we as a community are doing with our children it was the question how are we doing and looking at the superintendent from the city of st. Louis Calvin Adams was there one of the panelists and somebody
052from forward through Ferguson was there Starsky and it was really and they mentioned us a few times you know they were talking about kind of the resources and burrows and Clayton and in the city and really talking about kind of differences in terms of financial resources and the health of students and all the differences just you know we talked about depending on zip code and answering that kind of going back to that question of how are our children really saying that it depends where you are there were a lot of people well there was probably about like with our forums maybe about a hundred and twenty or thirty people that showed up from around the area and they were energized you know it's like what do we need to do talk about equity I just
053sitting here listening like what is it what is equity again I mean it's not a rhetorical question it's like everything what is it again I don't know the definition equity I don't think so what's the definition equity what is the comment swimming sure okay but I really wanna know what's an evidence of equity what is the definition equity what is the definition of any not necessarily the same it's not equality equity is giving a student what they need regardless of what those needs are those so so what is so this bra look like for example last night you went to this meeting anyone ask like what's the and where they hope to achieve from this broad this meeting last night that they had at the aldermen alderwoman all their persons meeting and what's this what
054do they hope to achieve with this equity commission we would want them to answer the question so I'm reading but what they passed it's a beginning it's a it's a setting up a commission of I think it's gonna be two people from each of the wards and then seventh person that I don't know any they wanted to have they want there to be diversity within that group and I think together they're gonna work on a lot of education and awareness a lot of times it's starting with just knowing you know overt by it overt discrimination and bias and then the more implicit and unconscious ways in which people are treated differently so I think there's an education and awareness piece there's going to be a piece where people are able to have if they have
055grievances that have occurred within the city to to let them know in a process for that and those are the true that stand out for me and I think they really recognized it as a start on you know addressing some of the issues from the 20th 21st century report they had what I will just say real quickly Jason is that Kirkwood has had a similar commission for a while so st. Louis County and so actually this came up from those two and it was really former mayor Ben you should tell who was driving it for a while and then it kind of you know caught hold and it's now coming to fruition I think my question is and I don't know a little frustrated understand what is all this stuff mean at the end of
056the day like I mean I'm sure if someone's asked the same question before I'm like what does all this mean we're gonna do equity work we're gonna start like subsidizing like my burger when I go to my restaurant cuz I'm black I get like a cheaper price I mean I'm just sailing what is all this me people say these changes I just I think that one of the things that we've had a good relationship with the city and they have asked to you know be a part of what we're doing in the district but I think that one of the things I heard at the Alderman I mean did the joint meeting is how do we set up a time for us just to have discussion but the city that's not just not necessarily something
057so formal so we may think about I know we have our breakfast 'iz but maybe we need to think about ways that we could possibly do that more of a more of a formal structure to ask those types of questions so that might be something I'm meeting with the mayor in a couple weeks so I'd be happy to mention her to her but I think that would be a great way for us to have kind of a conversation and have some put those questions out there at home but I think my other thing is just like I guess do we have like a defined idea of what the outlook looks like like what the outcome looks like right what does this look like this idea of this equity working were thing where do we want
058to get to does anyone anyone have any idea like more than what that looks like to them it was really mentioned it about last night it's also having in our district and so we're just making me think and have a conversation before we move on I just want to know it what does that look like and what is your idea of equity you look like there's anyone so I guess the question is does anyone have an idea what equity looks like to them so yeah I mean I think what Joe said was really what our definition is is that it's not necessarily everything's the same for everyone it's about getting students what they need and so when when we're thinking about outcomes within the district one we're looking at our achievement data and looking at
059where we're seeing some discrepancies and so narrowing that achievement data but also looking beyond just that because I think that there's things that there's structures and systems in place that are holding students from having opportunities and so that's when we've been having conversations around its the structures or barriers that are maybe keeping students from opportunities like AP and honors courses and so we have been very targeted in terms of some areas like AP and honors courses AP and honors courses discipline looking at like the gifted program thinking about ways what are the barriers that were inadvertently putting in place and so so it's beyond just a score and I think the other thing too is that we've been very cognizant of looking at growth over a period of time versus like where student starts and
060where we're taking them and the other conversation is around literacy and so like when students are coming into our school making sure students are reading at grade level by a certain point and so that way because there's lots of research out there that shows that if you don't have that reading level then there's implications down the road so we have had I mean equity looks at all and I think the other thing too is that I think Lily mentioned is that there's been so much conversation in the years passed around like what we need to get the students to do what the students need to do what the students need to do and the paradigm shift has been like we have to start looking at the adults in terms of the the bias or the
061inadvertent things that are happening within our schools that are actually causing inequities like students missing out on opportunities and so that's just a really broad picture but that's that's correct me if I'm wrong but to kind of answer your question I think as a district we tend to use the word equity when we're most often when we're talking about racial equity but it's broader than that right it's like so that every every student has the same access to success no matter advantages or disadvantages they have right and I mean and I think that you know even tonight we're reading a proclamation about students with disabilities and so making sure that we're looking at but I think the other thing is we have to be really cognizant of like what is the data showing us over
062a period of time for seeing a pattern where we might have to put some additional energy then that's where we have to be targeted you can't I think your your questions Jason to me kind of go back to what you were saying you you agreed with Shawn that we probably need to have a real discussion around this I mean it's that it's on the agenda and we kind of talk about what does this mean to us and kind of where we're at and where we see it going and what how important is it I mean all those really hard questions because for me I often think about and guys no I worry about our declining numbers of african-american students so how relevant is this going to feel to people over time if we only have
063one or two african-american students in our classrooms you know I worry about I worry about that that's not best for kids and I also worry about how what's gonna happen to the urgency and the importance of it over time so I think these are all really just hard discussions that we need to revisit any other reports Stacy go ahead Kristen so two things one is that we had the homecoming this last weekend and some of us were able to be there most out of town so unfortunately most didn't get to be at it but it was really great it was just was wonderful to see kids out and the community out supporting the district and and Sean and I had the opportunity to volunteer and and it was great to see all of our alumni
064coming back and the class of I think it was the button seventy-nine classes we had had buttons with their pictures from the yearbook and and it was it was really awesome so I really enjoyed that opportunity to give back and the opportunity participate in that experience that was really great then I'm actual more formal reporters from the PTO Council and they've had some shifting people so they've got Celestra is now president along with Amory Kerr I think Jenny a Blees is new to the group and then Kim Whittle was just voted in at the last meeting to be the treasurer and they really were talking just around their support system that they have for all the different PTO s and again it was another reminder of the amount of commitment we have from our parents
065being involved in our schools and giving back and and oh and that the PTO is also sponsoring different things including the speaker series which I'm forgetting who the person is that's coming but Buono from washee-washee so that's something to be the homecoming it was great to be in the high school on Friday and around on Saturday and I felt like there was just a lot of participation by kids not just it wasn't an athletic thing just seemed like a really good I mean I just thought kids they were just into it everywhere and that was that was nice to see that and it's it's kind of one including we had some schools in the parade this year yeah right the elementary and why down be involved in that I think seems like there's a lot
066of people out at the parade watching in South that's great I have a couple of things just real quick so I will also echo home coming home coming with a blast I always have fun at homecoming and actually got to hand out things to some of you which was fun but it just two reports one is we are we have solidified a date for our next st. Louis County School Board PLC I think I've talked about it before but it's November the 9th from 9 to noon and Kirkwood it's actually at so we have kind of a flier that we can give to you but we also have a topic so top of the topic will be trauma-informed schools so I think that's very you know kind of a very apropos and appropriate for kind
067of what's going on in our district in other so I think that'll be good I hope you all can make it but you know more information to come but when you have a flier and then the second thing I do want to say that it's you might have noticed as part of the consent agenda we did approve a proclamation around disability history and awareness month which is October so I actually do want to read that because I think that's appropriate so the month of October has been designated as disabilities history and awareness month in the state of Missouri a resolution designates the 3rd week of October of every year as disability history and Awareness Week and encouraging our schools to provide instruction on disability history people with disabilities and the disability rights movement whereas there
068are approximately 126 thousand students with disabilities educated by Missouri Public Schools and whereas the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 is founded on four principles inclusion full participation economic self-sufficiency and equality of opportunity for all people with disabilities and whereas a key method of promoting these four principles in our schools is to recognize the contributions by people with disabilities to our society and provide instruction in disability history people with disabilities and the disability rights movement through school curriculum school assemblies and other school activities and now therefore be it resolved by the school board of Clayton Missouri that the board urges our schools to provide intensive instruction on disability history people with disabilities and the disability rights movement especially during the third week of October and periodically throughout the school year and encourages other institutions to
069conduct and promote educational activities on those subjects so approved by our Board of Education on this date of September 25th 2019 so I just want to make sure that we put that in there right and we'll sign it obviously say 1 thank you into that end we will moving forward will be really clear on we the administration will always respond to anybody who makes a public comment so nobody did today but anybody that does and they have we just haven't been as haven't we stated that so will state that moving forward okay does anybody have anything else can we have a motion to adjourn I move that the board of education and journey all in favor any opposed we are adjourned