001everybody. Welcome to the April board meeting of the Francis Howell School District. >> [clears throat] >> Before we get started, I'd like to begin with a moment of silence for several members of the Francis Howell community who recently passed away. And so I invite you all to take a moment of silence for Liesl Emery, first grade teacher at John Weldon Elementary. Clara Keller, a special education paraprofessional at Central Elementary. Gary Ansel, most recently serving as a custodian at the Hackmann Road Early Childhood Center, Parents as Teachers, and the Transportation Headquarters. And finally, we will observe a moment of silence for Melissa Olkies, Francis Howell Central graduate, daughter of Board Director Sarah Olkies, who passed away unexpectedly on March 27th. Will you please join with me for a moment of silence. May we all cherish these
002people in our hearts, and may we keep them alive through the stories that we tell and the lives that we live. Thank you all very much. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order with a pledge of allegiance. Our pledge leaders for tonight's meeting are from Warren Elementary School. We are proud to welcome Xavier, Emily, Braden, Maya, Lavina and Jace, who will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Will you all please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. They'll be joining us in a few minutes for our spotlight today. Board, I have a motion to approve the agenda for Excuse me. Before we get
003to the approval of the agenda, we want to just reiterate what our plan is for the next few years. Our plan for the next few years up until 2030 is then found on our website. You use the QR code and scan it, look for it online. But we want to reiterate that by the year 2030, the Francis Howell School District will be recognized as one of the top 5% high-performing districts in the state. The employer choice for talented educators, leaders, and staff. Fiscally sound with a track record of smart, long-term planning. Known for graduating well-rounded students who are equipped with the skills and experiences they need to be successful in the world. Celebrated for the work we've done on culture, morale, and ensuring all members of our community feel safe and welcome. Trusted by families
004and the community to make good decisions and do what's best for students. We have created an agenda that will bring us together and towards that future ever so slightly month after month after month. And today we have an agenda that's going to make us more of the school district that we want to be. So board, I have a motion to approve the agenda for April 16th, 2026 as presented. So moved. Second. Grider second, McGuire. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. And next up we have a check presentation. Mr. Sutzer. I know this is rare, board. There There we go. Good evening, board. So this evening we have a change in pace. I'm not here asking you to approve funding for a bid package. That'll come next month. But
005instead I'm here I'm I'm pleased to celebrate a a success with a check presentation to the board in the amount of $191,072 for energy efficiency improvements completed at Harvest Ridge and Henderson this past summer. The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning improvements at these two sites qualified the district for rebates from our utility provider Ameren by reducing our overall energy consumption. Ameren's able to reduce the amount of power generation or purchased power required to meet our operational needs. Furthermore, this rebate reflects the district's commitment to sound operational practices and directly supports pillar number three of our strategic plan, reinforcing our ongoing focus on fiscal responsibility and effective resource allocation. I especially want to thank several members of my team, Dan Allison, our maintenance manager, Chris Jones, our HVAC foreman, and our partners behind me who are
006with Automatic Control Equipment Systems. They're our controls vendor. TRC Companies, and then last but not least the Ameren BizSaver team for their collaboration on making all this possible. So we'd love to present this check to you. You guys want to take a photo op? Sure do. Have you step back that way the shorter folks on the board can stand on the risers there. >> [laughter] >> Have you actually It's all right. Stand on the side. You are very tall. >> [laughter] >> I'll have you there. Let's see. Just real quick. Sorry. All right. Sorry. I'm going to need you to scoot in. You guys are going to have to get a little close. If I squeeze you in there. You stay there. Try to make sure I get everybody's face. Thank you guys. >> [applause]
007>> Thank you very much. All right. Next we are excited to introduce our student board representative for the month of April. And as you know, the purpose of the student board rep program is to honor and recognize talented students, elevate student voice, and provide growth opportunities in the areas of public speaking, leadership, and governance. Students are selected for this honor by their principal with input from the student body. They have an opportunity to prepare and deliver a short speech to the board and public that is focused on their school or the district. And with that, I'll invite Mr. John Schultz to the podium to introduce our student board rep from Francis Howell North High School. Good evening. It is my pleasure to introduce a fantastic night to you this evening. Ishan Patel is a deeply
008committed Francis Howell North student. He is a proud alum of Henderson Elementary School and Holman Middle School. He is the senior class president at Francis Howell North currently this year, and he works diligently to make sure that school is special for his classmates. He is a I'm sorry. Ishan is the first student that I met at Francis Howell North High School. He interviewed me in his role as editor-in-chief of student life photography, and it was the most organized and well-put-together interview that I've ever been a part of. Ishan loves highlighting the amazing accomplishments of the Francis Howell North students and staff in our school and in our community. Ishan is deeply committed to journalism, his class, the district, serving on the district curriculum and advisory committee, uh and to the volleyball team, all while maintaining
009a 4.58 GPA and earning recognition as an AP Scholar with distinction. Eshan is so thoughtful and kind, and I've enjoyed working with him this year. I can't wait to see the great things he does as an mechanical engineering student at the University of Missouri, St. or the University of Missouri, Columbia, Mizzou. >> [applause] >> C O U >> [clears throat] >> GOOD EVENING, BOARD MEMBERS AND PARENTS. LAST WEEK I celebrated my 18th birthday, and for my family, that means 18 years since they've moved into this district with my two older sisters and one very cute baby boy. Each of us experienced the wonderful educators across all three FHS schools, and we've kept great relationships with many of the kind-hearted teachers at Henderson and Holubek along the way. At North, all three of us went through
010the journalism program under Mrs. Jordan Keel and Mr. Aaron Manfull, who served as excellent mentors. The program gave both my sisters their career path and gave me a sense of leadership and passion as I go on to pursue a career becoming a mechanical aerospace engineer. The greatest impact in the district comes from its teachers. Mr. Sean Fowler is a perfect example. Despite the fact I turned in nearly every AP psychology assignment in late, he became someone I turned to for guidance well beyond the classroom. My government class fostered a space where I could openly talk about current issues and have our questions taken seriously. I was welcomed back to the volleyball team after taking a year off, providing me with a relationship with the guys and extremely valuable lessons in motivation and grit taught by
011coaches Robin Udy and Megan Mogle. Mrs. White taught me to slow down and think decisions through and consider angles that I wouldn't have otherwise. I don't think that level support is rare in this district. I've I've come across it often. That kind of personal investment is what it makes an educator truly exceptional, and that is what this district is fortunate enough to have. That's not something that is taken for granted, either. Students notice when their teachers show up for them, and it shapes how they show up for everything else. I'm glad to see the board moving away from pushing political agendas and towards what matters most, their students' education and the support of and supporting the teachers who make it possible. I hope that continues. Though I am counting down the days until last day
012of school, it's 21. It's going to be a bittersweet end. Saying goodbye to the teachers and administrators who have been such a guiding light won't be easy, but I leave feeling prepared for what comes next. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] [laughter] [applause] [laughter] >> Welcome, Eshan. I know this is your first time up here. This is my first time that I got to introduce a student. And I've been asking to do that for 2 years. Um I just want to thank you for that inspiring speech. And thank you for setting a great example in your school and your community. I think someday you may run for something. What do you think? Maybe? Well, when you're 24, you can run for school board. And we'll be glad to have you. I won't be here then, but
013thank you so much. Thanks for all you're doing. Oh, wait, and you can Oh, wait. You can ask questions, and you can make comments, but you cannot vote. Here, okay? Here. >> [laughter] >> Yes, but we would like you to vote elsewhere. Thank you very much. Uh Mrs. Jewels with our spotlight. Yes. For our spotlight presentation this evening, we will learn how Warren Elementary School is teaching students about goal setting and how it helps students make the connection between their effort and achievement. And here to tell us more is Warren Principal Megan Beckham and some of the Warren student leaders. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right. Good evening, board. Uh my name is Megan Beckham, and it's my distinct honor to serve as the principal of Warren Elementary. Tonight I have the privilege of introducing
014these incredible student leaders. I have Xavier, who's in second grade, Emily in third grade, Braden, and Maya from fourth grade, and Navina and Jace, who are in fifth grade. >> [applause] >> Each day our students inspire us through their commitment to growth, their ownership of their own learning, and their leadership that they demonstrate throughout our school community. You would be blown away by what elementary students can do when given the opportunity to lead. They truly amaze us every single day. Before they begin, I'd like to take a moment to highlight the impact of this work over time. This past year, 75% of our students scored advanced or proficient on the MAP test in ELA, which was the highest in our district. Since becoming a Leader in Me Lighthouse School in 2018 and beginning our Leader
015in Me journey in 2014, we have continuously refined our WIG systems and practices to better support student growth. We attribute a great deal of our success to students taking ownership of their learning through their WIGs, paired with a strong instructional focus. We have prioritized systematic explicit ELA instruction to ensure all students build a strong literacy foundation, and this year we have further enhanced our ELA instruction through the implementation of HMH Into Reading curriculum, which is strongly aligned to the science of reading. Through their WIGs, our students have learned how to set meaningful goals, stay focused on their big rocks, and track their progress with purpose. They understand that growth doesn't happen by chance, but through intentional effort and reflection. Tonight we are excited to teach I'm sorry, we're excited that they're going to teach us
016about how we set and track WIGs and what that process looks like from the student perspective. Without [clears throat] further ado, I turn it over to our speaker leaders. What is Leader in Me? Leader in Me teaches us how to be leaders of our own learning and own lives. We practice habits like Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, and Put First Things First. We learn that our choices and effort help us grow. At Warren, student leaders run the show. Students lead our afternoon and morning announcements. On Mondays, we say our student mantra to help us with our mindset for the week. Every student at Warren has a leadership role. We also have student light house. Big rocks. We identify our big rocks first so that they guide us guide students to use their
017time wisely throughout the week. Students plan their week around the these around their big rocks to help us stay focused, organized, and successful throughout the week. All fifth graders have a big rocks organizer that help us map out the week and stay organized. What are WIGs? WIG stands for Wildly Important Goal. It helps us stay focused on what matters most. Example, increase reading scores or improve math facts. Both are written in the in the format I will improve from X to Y by what. Example, I will increase my diagnostic score from 230 to 330 by May 2026. Lead measures and lag measures. We use two ways to track our progress. Lead measures are our actions. These help These are the things we do every day to get better. For example, practicing on ixl. Lag measures
018are our results. These show us how we are doing. For example, our growth on ixl. When we focus on our actions, our results improve. For an example for lead measures is I will practice and study for my test. And a lag measure would be the test scores of the test. Tracking our progress. At Warren, we track our progress so we know how we are doing on our goals. Every student, every class, every grade, whole school. We use a scoreboard to make our progress visible. Our scoreboard quickly helps us see if we are winning, making progress towards our goal, or if we are losing, not making enough progress yet. It's simple and easy for everyone to understand. We update our trackers in our leadership binders every week. When we are winning, we celebrate with something fun.
019When we are losing, we make a plan and adjust. If we are not winning yet, it's okay. Push through. We don't quit. We change what we are doing. Tracking WIGs. At the beginning of the year, we set a goal to grow 90 to 100 points on the ELA diagnostic. That's because we aim to grow 10 or more points each month during the school year. Every week we track our progress by recording the two skills we practice, our smarts our smart score, also if we stepped into the arena. This helps us stay focused on our goal and our action steps. At the end of each month, we look at our growth. Did we grow 10 or more points? If yes, we are winning. If not, we make a plan to improve. Tracking every week helps us
020see that effort leads to growth. By doing IXL skills, it helps us meet our own goals, also our class goals, and our whole school goals. So, right here we Right here we have a picture of our tracker. So, we fill out what we did, which skill we did on each day. And then the second column, we fill out our skill that we practice and our smart our smart score. And then if we um grew 10 or more points. Classroom scoreboards. Displayed in every classroom, every student contributes to the class success. We vote for each month with how we will celebrate. In March, our class met their goal and we celebrated with something fun today. Grade level scoreboards. Displayed in every hallway for every grade level. You can quickly see if we're winning or losing. Both
021lead and lag measures are tracked. Every class contributes to the grade's level success. Building scoreboard. Displayed in our main hallway, every grade level contributes to the school's overall success. Action plans. We use IXL to help us grow in specific specific skills. First, we look at our action plan to find the lowest strand on our scoreboard. For example, you can see here that the writing strategies column is 760 and everything else is 780 and above. So, I'm going to practice two skills per week in that strand. The more we practice, the more our diagnostic score improves. We also spend time in the diagnostic every week. This helps us stay pinpointed so we know exactly what we need to work on next. With my IXL plan, I've been able to grow in a lot in specific skills
022that I need to work on. Measuring growth. I check my score each time I take the diagnostic to see if my score went up from last time. I notice patterns in my growth over time. I [clears throat] know that practicing my score helps my score improve. The more I work, the more I grow. I know that I can check my diagnostic score at any time in the analytics section on IXL. When we practice the right skills, we all grow faster. March WIG results. In March, 93% of students met their lead measures or met their goal by completing their skills. 80% of students grew 10 points or more. We know the better score we earn on IXL, the more likely we are to score well on the math test. What WIGs want. WIGs give us a
023clear target and help us stay focused in growing every week. The harder we work, the better we get. Growth doesn't happen overnight. For an example, at the beginning of the year, I was at 360, which is equivalent to third grade 6 months. And now I'm at 450, which is fourth grade 5 months. Practice and effort lead to success. We are in charge of our own learning. Because after all, at Warren Elementary, we are learners and leaders for life. >> [applause] >> Thank you, board members, for listening to our presentation. Do you have any questions for us? Can each of you say what house you're in at Warren? I'm in Meraki, which is results. I'm in Meraki, also. I'm in Zimadari. I'm in Meraki. I'm in Zimadari. I have one question for those of us that
024haven't heard it, would you guys mind reciting your mantra? Um >> [laughter] >> Please. Will you start us off? What if we're too rough? What if it's too rough? That's not true. How [laughter] do we start? Do you guys remember how we started? What if it's too hard? I can push through. What if it's too tough? I can push through. What if you're not good enough? That's not true. What if you're just too young? That's not true. Why? Because? I can do anything I put my mind to. Because at Warren Elementary, we are? Learners and leaders for life. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU. Thank you very much. Thank you to Warren Elementary. Up next, we move towards patron comments. During patron comments, residents of the district and staff members are invited to address the Board
025of Education on issues related to the school district. Speakers are called forward in the order of sign up, and each speaker has 3 minutes to make their remarks. Please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time, and combining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted. The board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this evening, and we value both your input and perspective. I would like to remind everyone that we expect that speakers will remain civil and respectful when giving remarks. We also ask that patrons in the audience remain quiet in order to be respectful of the speaker's allotted time. At this point, we welcome Grayson Justice step forward. Good evening. My name is Grayson Justice. My pronouns is he/she, and I'm an alumni
026of Francis Howell, class of 2013. I want to congratulate to our newest board members who won fairly in this month's election, and finally have some nor normalcy in the board meetings. But, our fight's not over cuz our state government wants to change school board elections from our area from April to November. And the newly revised Prop RT will be introduced in the future. So, contact or email and show up to the bill bill hearings for these ridiculous changes to our school board elections and Prop RT 2.0. I have a few proposals for the board to reconsider. First, to bring back the resolution of racism and discrimination back to our schools. A recent former board member promised to bring it back or have a revised version of it, but he broke his promise. Second is to
027focus and focus on fixing the problems that we have in our district and things like our playgrounds in our school district and whatnot, everything to be up to date. And then finally speaking up to date stuff is my third proposal is to have updated of our history books that are is age and grade of level appropriate. A lot has happened in these crazy times in the world, and updating history books could help our students to learn our history, both the good and the bad. I know I've been mentioned in social media by from a certain board member who targeted me during due to a misinformation about my shirt I was wearing the last two meetings. And all I have to say is this, Ms. Puskar, you sent sunshine requests me on where I live and
028said I was a threat to you for all these years, and you wanted to ban me from attending board member board meetings, have a restraining order, and then do a police report on me. But, you could have have had the courage to be a big person to come up to me in person and talk to me about those things. And but, you decided to hide behind the screen and run away. Do better. Be better. I am proud of the candidates that I voted for, and I can't wait to see what they'll do in this district. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Up next is John Hyberger. >> Good evening. Uh I'm going to keep this short cuz I think we ran out of time the last several times that I addressed the
029board. Uh I started looking at things after Charlie Kirk's assassination and addressed the this group a couple times. Um and I became involved 3 years ago with the overruns at Howell North to look at what happened there and saw the uh disunity at times. And I I just heard the prior gentleman mention the uh missions or not the plaques uh relative to um uh I guess I'll call it racism or whatever it might be. I I think I addressed that briefly in my first letter 2 and 1/2 years ago. I've not had a response. But I would certainly think that we would consider that we're all colored. Nobody's black. Nobody's white. And to put an imposition on a young child when they walk into kindergarten to try to determine somebody's skin color, I think it's
030inappropriate. So, what I think I'll do is gather some things I've put together over the last 3 years and and and I'll send a letter, a third letter, to the board uh President Blair, to your attention. I've not had a response to my last two letters. Um I'll be careful and I I do note in doing some more research that that we can form a tier one committee for Francis Howell School District section, I guess it's four zeros, strategic committees code 0360 to provide a uh the mission there would be to provide a unified mission statement reflecting the standards of the Francis Howell community. So, that would be my closing thought. President Blair and uh Superintendent Delaney, uh I mentioned last month trying to get catch up with you. I haven't done that. But if
031a committee is in order uh to pursue some of these thoughts I've gathered over the last 3 years, I would uh appreciate the opportunity to participate and or chair that committee. Thank you. Up next is Chris Bedwell. Uh good evening. My name [clears throat] is Chris Bedwell and I'm here tonight with my wife, Sarah. We're parents of three children in the district attending Central Elementary, Bryan Middle School, and Francis Howell North. I stand before you today not just as a parent, but as an advocate for my children and for every student in this district. I'm asking [snorts] this board to take a hard look at its current bullying and discipline protocols and to make meaningful changes. Unfortunately, our family's experience with bullying spans all three schools and while I share just one example from each,
032I want to emphasize that these are not isolated isolated incidents as there are many for each child. At Francis Howell North, our oldest son is attending on a boundary exception due to severe bullying and harassment during his freshman year. He was threatened with gun violence by another student. We provided the school with all available evidence and it was our understanding that the student responsible would be permanently removed from the district. However, that same student is now enrolled at FHN and attending school alongside our son. While the administration acted quickly to establish a no contact agreement, which we appreciate, the larger concern remains. The student has already been involved in further disciplinary incidents incidents including a physical altercation. This raises a serious question. How was a student who made a credible threat of gun violence deemed
033ready to return to a traditional school environment? At Bryan Middle School, our son has faced repeated bullying related to his size. Each time we report it, the response has been a no contact contract. Yet those agreements are repeatedly broken followed by temporary suspensions that fail to address the root issue. Most recently, his earbuds were stolen and shortly after reporting it, the same student student retaliated by dumping water on him. This pattern shows a lack of effective intervention. At Central Elementary, our youngest child was physically attacked by another student. When she reported the incident, she was told that some people's brains don't work like ours and no disciplinary action was taken. This is especially troubling given that we tried contact contacting the school principal to discuss this on Tuesday, April 14th and still haven't gotten an
034explanation or even a returned phone call. These inconsistencies send a dangerous message that accountability is unclear and consequences are unpredictable. The district appears to struggle with defining bullying and more importantly, enforcing its own policies consistently. That is why I urge the board to adopt a clear, consistent, and truly zero tolerance approach, one rooted in common sense and student safety. I also ask that you ensure all schools take parent concerns seriously. When a parent reaches out, it should trigger meaningful action, not temporary fixes. I'll close with this. There was a moment when we feared for our child's life after repeated reports of bullying at Central Elementary went unaddressed. Our son became so overwhelmed after he had to defend himself from a bully that he ran off school property. He traveled over a mile and a half
035away crossing busy roads and intersections. We were fortunate. It could have ended very differently and I ask you, what would the district's response be if it hadn't? Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Uh up next is Harry Harris. Um >> [clears throat] >> I want to say uh sometimes, you know, you come up here to to say something and and something happens, right? Like what that gentleman is going through it. Um and I want to say it it it saddens me that um your children are going through that. >> [clears throat] >> I do want to celebrate our new board members um as well as our continuing board members. Um I think we have a lot of good that can be done in our district now. Uh and I think it's it's something that
036we all want to see. And as horrible as it was to to hear that, um these are real issues that can be addressed. They're not made up things. They're not book lists of things that we don't even have. Um so, I'm truly hoping that we can address some of these issues. Um I asked online uh what are some things that people want to see and I made a list. It said uh some of them were providing breaks for kids during the day, especially when they're leaving elementary school and heading up to middle school. There's that loss of recess. Um People wanted to maybe look at grants. Um these bond issues have not been successful. So, maybe we can go a different route, but we know that there is funding that that could possibly be used
037out there. They're concerned about teacher retention. I'll say it again. They are concerned about teacher retention. I've heard a number of stories in this last couple weeks. Um where there's a high turnover. I even noticed that my son's school going in this year how many early on in their career folks he had. Um They're concerned about student behaviors, just like what we heard, and they're concerned about staff satisfaction overall, which I think we heard at the last meeting um through some of our own survey results. They're concerned about vaping in the restrooms and how can we control that? How can we end that? And I kid you not, on here it says they're concerned about guidelines for bullying. >> [clears throat] >> And on top of what he's said, there's bullying in our community. There
038are people who are saying things online out of this election, some people who have even run for board, who are taking potshots at people, who are just really not acting in their best manner. >> [clears throat] >> So, I don't know if there's anything that we can actually do, but I hope that as a community we can commit to doing better than we have been. And I think this board can lead it. Congratulations to you, sir. North rocks. Love that you're here. Uh and thank you, guys. I hope you'll do your best. >> [applause] >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> Up next are the comments from FHEA. Short list tonight. Sorry. Good evening. My name is Francine Hill and I'm the FHEA president. I would like to welcome the new members to our Board of
039Education. FHEA appreciates you stepping up to this difficult role in our district and we look forward to working collaboratively with all of you. We also want to thank Harry Harris for bringing cake on Tuesday. What's a celebration without cake? We would also like to thank all the voters that came out to support our district by voting down prop RT. Our students, schools, and teachers need continued continued funding increases to keep up with rising costs. We want the best resources and education for all our students. Please stay educated on how other funding changes will impact our community and schools. MAP testing time is fast approaching for many of our students. We want all our students to be able to do their best and know we are all supporting them. FETEA wants to thank district administration for
040working with us to create the calendar that has been voted on tonight. Creating a calendar is no small task and has many moving parts. There was a great deal of thought and discussion put into the changes made during the negotiations and even a detailed chart by Mr. Hancock. Thank you. Our students and staff safety is extremely important to us, so we appreciate when we receive updates on how the district is working to ensure our buildings are safe for everyone. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Uh up next is a FISPA. Good evening and thank you, President Blair. My name is Heidi Nixon. I am the FISPA Vice President of Technicians. FISPA would like to thank our former board members for their service and to congratulate and welcome our new board members. Board Treasurer Kevin
041McGuire, Director Sarah Dillard, and Director Jason Adams. We look forward to working with you towards a brighter future for all of FHSD. FISPA would also like to thank our FHSD community for working hard to defeat proposition RT. The future of FHSD is now healthier because of all of your hard work. Thank you all. As FISPA continues new salary negotiations with the district, we would like to remind everyone that our support staff carries out the mission of the district every day. Throughout the district, they keep our buildings clean, maintained, and our grounds trimmed. They keep the lights on, the water running, and the environment comfortable and safe. They maintain our staff and students' technology, keep our students healthy, and our clerical staff are some of the first faces that parents and students interact with. Our parents
042and interpreters help the students learn and guide them through their day safely. A good number of support staff work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. If we truly want to make FHSD a destination district and an employer of choice by 2030 as stated in pillar two of the strategic plan, then compensation that helps retain and support our staff in their mission at FHSD needs to change. We look forward to continuing our conversation with the district and working towards an equitable solution that reflects the value of our staff. Thank you for your time. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Board, I have a motion to approve the consent agenda for April 16th, 2026 as presented. So moved. President Blair. Um can I make a motion to amend at this time? Uh are you referring to having
043an item pulled from consent, Brett? Um Mr. Tabala, has it already been removed? >> been removed. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. Um so the motion is to approve the consent agenda. Um Vice President Grider with the motion, do you have a second? Second. Seconded by Treasurer McGuire. Uh any conversation? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Motion carries. Board, I have a motion to approve the AP checks as presented. So moved. Uh Vice President Grider with the motion, second? Second. Uh Director Dillard with a second. Uh Excuse me, Director Adams will be abstaining from this vote as his wife has been listed as receiving a reimbursement and we follow a rule when it comes to when a board member for any reason needs to abstain from a vote, and
044so we are applying that same rule tonight as we have been for years and years. It's just impacting this particular vote and Director Adams. So, Director Adams will be abstaining from this vote as it has a as it relates to his wife. So. Any conversation? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. Board, I have a motion to approve the finance and operations report as presented. So moved. Director Adams followed by Vice President Grider. Uh Dr. Amy St. John, Deputy Superintendent of Finance and Operations, will present. Good evening, Board. [clears throat] Thank you for the opportunity to share an update for the 25-26 school year budget related to strategic pillar three. In effort to keep both the Board of Education and the community informed in a timely manner, each
045month we share an update in the areas of the operating budget, including amendments necessary, bond financials, the self-insurance revenues and expenditures, as well as a legislative update. I bring to you this month amendment. It is a small amendment. It's just the normal process that we go through this time of year as we start to recognize that numbers budget to actual are looking a little different than what we had planned for. So, on the revenue side, we'll be decreasing by 194,000, and on the expenditure side, we'll be increasing by 363,000, and I'll get into the details in just a moment. But you'll notice with this change, it is a very minor decrease to our overall fund balance, which is a 27.18, which is a 0.16% decrease from the last time you saw it. As we talk
046about the revenues, what we have received are M&M surtax, adjusting that revenue has been received, and the interest adjusting to a less we have a received less interest than what we had expected. Interest rates were lower, so that adjustment is being made as well. For our expenditures, we have a few adjustments to the area of salary and benefits as the year has gone on, and then for purchase instructional services, adjustment for virtual learning, and then finally repairs and maintenance for other purchased services as related to food service expenditures. This brings to you the trajectory chart as stated for March and ending of March 2026. And again, as a reminder, the green column in the middle is the year in which we are living, and then the two to the left are our history and the
047three to the right are the projections. The box that's called out to the right are the assumptions that I am making in that projected area, and I want to make note that next month I'll be bringing an update as after this had gone to the board, we received information from the state that our state adequacy target will not be fully funded through the remainder of the year, so we do expect to receive less funds than were budgeted, and we also have seen the budget the governor's budget into the FY27 underfunded by 308 million. So, instead of the projected $7,145 SAT, we are expecting 6,600, which I'll break that down next month. That's what I'm saying. I'm just giving you that late-breaking news, sad news that we are receiving less state funding than expected, and also
048our state funding for transportation has a shortfall at the state level of $32 million. I And I will bring you information next month as to what we think that will do in effect of the trajectory. [clears throat] The reason for the losses they are attributing these to are due to weakened lower than expected collections and a downward revision on their budget. One contributing factor is the new gambling revenue, mostly sports betting has come in below expectations. Overall gambling, lottery have been down for the what they had projected. >> [cough and clears throat] >> This is the same information in a different format, but again, the box indicates the year for which we are are living. There's no change to the bond financials for this month. This is just a continued view of where we set
049in terms of finishing out prop S. As you might remember, we'll be finishing that with six more HVAC systems that will happen over the summer. I won't spend too much time on the self-insurance information because I'm going to come back to you shortly with a full view of what we're going to do in the FY27 budget, so I'll go into greater detail. But I would share with you and remind you that we are working under pillar three to be fiscally responsible for the employee insurance committee, and the levers that we are looking at are plan design changes, including our co-insurance, our max out-of-pocket, short-term disability. A second area is to reduce or eliminate the dependent contributions by the district. And the final is the HSA contribution by the district, reduce or eliminate and or close
050the gap. For the legislative update, I have new information for the district report card A to F timeline. We have received information that this April-May, that is when the they are developing it with stakeholders and performing the data simulations. And then over the summer, they will present those to the governor's office and that they will provide feedback. That feedback will be taken and in August, it will be presented to the state school board. And we expect in the winter of 2026 that we will see pilots of this state report card and we'll start to see what our data looks like. That data in the pilot will be using FY26 data, so as we end this year. And then the fall of 2027 is what they expect it to be for go live with using it
051would be using our FY27 data. Unfortunately, the 2026 watch list for legislation that is tax reform or school finance has not received good news. They are actually really progressing through the the legislature and we I have some estimated losses to the district for each one of those. The first one being moving the debt service and new construction under the Hancock amendment would be approximately $2.9 million loss to the district. Changes to residential property calculations would be a loss of 2.1 million. A different version of residential property changes would be just over half a million. And then there's another with a multi-tier tax calculation that would estimate a loss of the district to about 800,000. In addition to that, I do keep you reminding you of the enrollment enrollment curriculum or instruction legislative pieces that are
052out there that at this time none have shown any revenue streams to support. They would be considered unfunded mandates if any of those were to go through. This information is the same as it was last month. There's not a new update in terms of the work of this committee. The again, just as a reminder, this state funding formula will be delivered December 1st of 2026 with a new way that we will calculate state funding. And then finally, just a look ahead mentioning that about the first look at our employee insurance. The budget that I have on the trajectory is at a 8% increase. We currently are being forecasted at 12.5%. Monday is when our committee meets again and we'll really be looking in at ways that we can maintain and physically responsible to this to
053the district and being able to look at that and hold it to the 8%. And then as a reminder for the insurance, there will be a board work session for a full evaluation and we'll actually step you through the whole year's worth of information, show you how we've made some decisions along the way and then present you with some recommendations. With that, do you have any questions? Important. Everyone, did I hear you say that the state transportation reimbursement is not as high, so we're not going to get the reimbursement that we expected? Correct. We just received information that they will not be fully funding that formula. So how are we projecting? Are we doing anything for the increased diesel prices for our other buses? I I haven't That's I'll be bringing next month to you
054a a review of how what that's going to do to our budget and the projections for this year as well as what it'll look like for next year. You mentioned the very beginning that the late-breaking news and because we hadn't had this conversation at all that there's a change about whether or not they're going to fully fund the formula this year. Um when will we feel for them to not fully fund the formula? This year, the way the budget was set up, they had increased the state adequacy target to 7145, but the our budget was not built with the full realization of that increase. It was built with half of that. That's what I remind you time on that trajectory map. So we won't feel it maybe as hard as a district that would have
055used that higher number. But more importantly, as we go into next year, it will they are expecting that we will start the year at 6600. So that's significantly lower than what we expect. My first guess estimates would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million that we would get in less state funding for next year. Just from the formula not having looked at really the transportation component because as I mentioned, we really just received this information. I just wanted you to be aware of it. We've had these conversations in previous months where they would say the state would say that 7145 was the state adequacy number, right? And you and others shared optimism that that might actually happen, but also caution. So we have not budgeted based upon an optimistic view. We budgeted more realistically.
056>> Conservatively, correct. Conservatively. And even the number that we have been wisely pulling it back down, that number is higher than they're sharing that they're going to provide, right? That's and that's the full update I'll provide you next month, correct. I'll show you where we where we've collected and what we expect to collect and end the year June 30th. If you could and maybe this is going to show up later on tonight, if that's the case, but can you tell us the debt service levy idea about what it is, what are some of the levers that we do have a chance to pull? I think in general, I guess at the school board level the assumption is that we have all these, you know, power, all these things that we can do, but there's only
057so many levers that we can pull. And so this might be one of them. Can you share what that lever is and how we might be able to at least be aware of that as an option going forward? Certainly. And I will be coming back to you just shortly with a full debt service review of our current state. But in short, there are pennies that go into a very specific area called debt service. And so if it's in my right pocket and my left pocket is all the rest of the pennies that come in from the levy, you can move some of those pennies over from one pocket to the other to spend that in your general operating budget. So when they're in the debt service, they're in a special bank account. They can only
058be used to pay off the debt that you've already received. But if I put them in the other pocket, I can do salaries, I can do purchase services and I can do supplies. And so in order to do that, it still requires a vote of the people. And so you would want to look into and the again, I'll bring some information here in just a second, but where we set would be about $5.5 million that we could move from the debt service into the general operating fund by doing that. And again, that is a non-tax increase. It is no tax increase, but it requires a vote simple majority of the people because it's still moving the levy the levy pennies. And so you would just be asking the voters to approve the ability to collect
059that and use that in your general operating fund rather than your debt service. Just moving it from right pocket to left pocket. >> Correct. Any other questions, board? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. Board, I have a motion to approve the new Central County Fire Protection Land Transfer Agreement as presented. Vice President Greider, motion. Do you have a second? Second. Treasurer Maguire. Mr. Seltzer. Yeah, thank you, board. So the district leaders have been working with Central County Fire Protection on the land transfer on Barnwell's campus probably for over the last year, potentially a year and a half. And it's finally coming to fruition. We worked with our legal counsel to draft an agreement to transfer a portion of property. If you're familiar with Barnwell, there's an existing fire
060station that they want to build a larger one to the left of it. So over to the left, there is basically it's our property. And so the idea is to build a new firehouse and then they're going to realign where the existing firehouse with the traffic signal to give that whole campus better flow. So we have reviewed this. We believe it's in the best interest for the district. It's mutually beneficial to improve fire services and also traffic circulation for buses as well as our car riders there. So we would this evening recommend that you approve the agreement. Board, any questions? Building the firehouse is no cost for us. We would just be spending traffic improvements that we were going to do anyway at the edge of the lot. That is correct. And and there are
061two components to this. We also would like to do some improvements just for our own traffic flow purposes for Barnwell's campus. I think those in the community that have students that go to Becky David and Barnwell understand that that campus is just not oriented the way it needs to for bus traffic as well as car rider traffic. And so we would come back potentially in the summer 27 with a capital recommendation to rework the rest of that campus to alleviate any additional concerns. Any other questions? So again, this is the value of this for Francis Howell School District is to have a working fire department right there next to schools, which is a value. And also improves the traffic flow for all things Barnwell and Becky David. Yes. And I I would also offer not
062while it's a big benefit for the district, it's really a benefit for the overall educational community including the homes around Barnwell and Becky David. All right. So, the motion is to approve the new Central County Fire Protection Land Transfer Agreement. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Board, I have a motion to approve entering into a 3-year renewal with Care ATC starting October 1st, 2026 through September 30th, 2029 as presented. So, Director Adams, Vice President Greiner. Any conversation? I just want to say one thing. Care, I'm really really happy that we're able to renew the service. Anyone that is who uses Care ATC, I believe would agree with me that this is how medicine should be delivered. So, any staff that have yet to
063experience Care ATC, I hope you take advantage of it. It is amazing service, so thank you for being willing to renew the service. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. Board, I have a motion to approve replacement of heating, ventilation, air conditioning systems at Meadows Parkway Early Childhood Center as presented. Vice President Greiner with the motion. Second. Treasurer McGuire with the second. Any conversation to the board? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. Board, I have a motion to approve the purchases as presented. So moved. Vice President Greiner with the motion. Second. Director Dillard with the second. Any conversation? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. Next, we have a presentation on the uh school year 27
064budget development, debt and insurance. Dr. Amy St. John, welcome back. Yeah. We'll kind of continue our conversation. So, this is for our new board members, this is a series of for several months where we're building toward the full budget. So, tonight we're just focusing on two areas, our debt service and our self-insurance fund. And so, I'll go through and give a little bit of background information and then just kind of present where we are with these two, and then each month I'll come back and add a little bit more to the story, and then there'll be a full a full budget presentation on June 4th at that board meeting. So, this will provide a little bit more detail along the way. So, this is our budget development process. It's pretty standard in each school district
065as each school district has the requirement of having their budget be approved by their school board by June 30th of the school year. And so, we work at that sort of 18-month cycle of living the one we're in and building the next one. The fund requirements for the Missouri statute 165011 is that we must keep our funds in certain locations. So, as they that levy that I just talked about, as that money comes in, a portion of it pennies of it go into each one of these buckets. And then the things that you can spend out of those buckets are listed. So, our general our fund one, they're one in the same in how we call them, are our salaries and benefits or for our non-certified staff, and non-certified staff are those who are not
066educators or don't have a cert certification. And those that do have a certification are in fund two, or also known as the teacher fund. And then tuition comes out of there. If we send students to for instance Lewis and Clark, we are paying another school district's teacher, so that comes out of that same bucket, and that's called tuition. Under capital projects, that's what Mr. Setzer's been talking about in terms of those are things that cost over $5,000 per item or in a bundle, and then also things considering construction, building, lease purchase, and other capital projects. And then the one that sits to the side is on purpose like that because it's in its own checking account as I mentioned, its own location, and that's the one that's called debt service, and it is structured based
067upon our long-term debt payments, principal, interest, and fees in order for us to pay that back. This is where we sit tonight being the budget development presentation for debt service and the health fund. And I'll start with debt service. This picture it does a nice job depicting how we go from a bond initiative to that debt service that I just mentioned. So, in the upper right-hand corner, a voter would approve the bond. That bond is authorized for sale. Then investors decide to buy those bonds, and then that loan is given to the school district. And then the loan proceeds get deposited into a specific fund, and then all of the construction bills that come in get paid directly out of that and must be tied perfectly to that loan. And then the debt levy as
068it comes in and generates revenue each year, we then calculate how much we have to pay in principal and interest that year, and then that levy comes in to pay for that. The debt service, the sources and the purpose. The fund is used to account for accumulating for the payment of long-term debt. Amounts of that debt service fund are generated from the debt service levy like I mentioned, and certain revenue types may directly be received and funded in that area for such as interest income. As that money makes money, it can be used within that. And then the resources are used solely to retire that bond debt and associated fees. Our current levy is 67.13 cents. That levy is consistently calculated at a higher rate and has to be rolled back each year. So, in
069the each year the school board sets the levy for the next school year, and you look to see how much money you are bringing in, and then that number in ours last September calculated to 77.22 cents, 77.22, and had to roll that back by 10 cents to get it to the 67.13 because that's the way it is written into our bonds. Senate Bill 190, the senior tax property freeze, does not apply to the calculation of debt service. You did hear me mention earlier under the legislative update that there are some legislative pieces that are coming through trying to put Hancock amendment caps in this area. So, the primary source for this fund is that tax revenue that you've heard me talk about in multiple ways. A tax rate hearing must be conducted in September, and
070for St. Charles County specifically, it is to be set by October 1st each year. Other counties are September 1st. They have to have it so we're a month different than that. This is the way the a fund expenditure overview by year has looked, and so you can see some years look to be a very look higher and some to be lower, and there's some years that larger principal payments are having to be made, or a bond may be callable, and that means that you have to pay it back or refinance it at that point. These are our four outstanding bonds as they are on the books today with our principal outstanding as 240 million. A typical life cycle of a bond is 20 years, and as I mentioned, at 10-year mark often times you will
071refinance or they're called refunded at that time. And you also have the option to do a defeasance, which we did last May, which is if you have extra money in that account, you can pay down debt early without penalty. This is just a good snapshot for you to see how much of our debt will be paid off in the next 10 years. There's a good amount, about 124 million, 150,000. This is the same information in a different format, and we work with Piper Sandler as our bond counsel, so all of the things that we the charts that you see, those come from them as they calculate that information for us. And this is where I'll wrap back to where your question was, President Blair. So, our debt service fund revenue estimate currently for 27 is
07227,989,688 with an expenditure next year of only 14 million, 27,400, which leaves us with 16,752,417. It would be my recommendation to begin to have conversations with Piper Sandler sooner than later for us to look at options because at this point we now hear that the state funding will be lower, so we have an opportunity where we could do as you just mentioned earlier, what's called a debt service levy transfer, so taking those pennies from one place and putting in another. And I had them run a quick estimate to move 12 and 1/2 cents, that would be $5.3 million that would be moving from debt service that we could use in our operating. If you are interested in that type of thinking and that type of work, that would be something for an August ballot. That
073would have to be decided by the May board meeting. So, more information if you need would be we would need to have available to you. Even by doing so, we still have enough bonding capacity to we had talked about with the facility master plan, that first bonding capacity of about 150 million, and that would still be available. And here's why. You calculate the bonding capacity of the school district, it cannot be more than 15% of your assessed valuation plus any outstanding debt that you have. And so, when you look at our assessed valuation as of December 31st, 2025, and then you calculate 15% of that, and then you back out any of that debt service that is owed and outstanding obligations, we still have a bonding capacity of $403 million, which is which is really,
074really good for a school district. There are times that school districts run out of bonding capacity because, for instance, a school district that may grow too quickly, they have to build a new building, new elementary as new places come in, and we're not in that space. We're in a very comfortable space with our debt burden. Before moving on to the health insurance, I'd see if you had any questions particular to the debt service. Um this is actually a question for Mrs. Jewels, and I apologize for putting you on the spot. Um Dr. St. John has mentioned a lot of things happening at the state level that could decrease our revenue. So, for any concerned citizens out there that want to maybe share their concerns with our state representatives, is it appropriate and possible for a
075link of some kind to be put on our website that would direct people of who their representatives are, how to get hold of them, and to be clear, not to tell them what to say, but just merely an avenue how to contact those representatives? I'm sure. I'll defer to the superintendent. We currently engage with our house members and our senators already on current legislation. We've shared some previous updates with the board as well regarding some current legislation. There are current websites that you can look up the direct email addresses for those legislators. I don't know if we can link that directly to our website or not. We'd have to do some research around that, but certainly any member of the public has the opportunity to write their legislator regarding some of the legislation that's currently
076out there and being proposed, and that may impact public school funding. Thank you. Any further questions? Oh, sorry. Yeah. So, if we want it on the ballot by August, we have to approve it by May or be on the May agenda to discuss. Uh it's May 26th of 26 is the final deadline, so by our May we have a May 21st board meeting, so the board would need to have resolution considered by then and one or in ballot language, and we would work with Piper Sandler, the bond counsel, if that's something we would want to pursue. If and there's always that time frame to the next if it's November or if it's the following April or or which one, but yes. I just wanted to give you that as a guidance. Aren't there benefits to
077doing it in August versus April? It's a simple majority in August. I think there's probably pros and cons to every one of them. It's a short time frame to tell the story, but it's it's also very timely because of the state cuts that we know are coming, and so it that would definitely give reason to look at it that way, but there's also that Senate Bill 1002 that potentially Mark, if you want to answer, you know that's one you talked about. Yes. >> [clears throat] >> There's some current legislation out there that has worked its way through the Senate. It's now at the house level. Several people may be aware of Senate Bill 1002. It is a bill that is being proposed only for St. Charles County public school districts, and it limits our ability
078to take a tax referendum or a bond issue referendum to the community, and currently the way that we understand it's being proposed is we could only take those types of referendums in November of even number years. So, if we were originally planning something in April of 2027 per se, and this legislation were to pass, that would limit our ability to do that moving forward. This is also the same piece of legislation that I think many people in the community are aware that limits board elections to November election cycles as well, and potentially increases the duration that board members currently sit on the board. So, this is certainly some piece of legislation that could have some impact, which I think to Dr. St. John's point may make us think about some things that maybe we were
079thinking a little further off, potentially for August or even November, and that would be at the board's direction. So, before we move on to the self-insurance fund, just for gathering and in summary, what you've shared is there is this action called a debt service levy transfer. It's really just moving money from one pocket to another that could be used by the district to offset any losses considering possible ballot and Jefferson City decisions. This again is not a tax increase, and also any action regarding a debt service levy transfer would not box us in or eliminate our ability from pursuing anything that was presented in the facility master plan that was shared with us just a few months ago. Correct. So, it could potentially help the present without boxing us in with any future negatives. And
080certainly that would be a second ballot measure should we want to talk about that, but yes, I want to confirm you are correct. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And so, so you were saying that if we needed to do this, we would need to talk about it in the May meeting in order to make it as a possibility for the August Right. We have to decide then. We'd have to have a resolution decided that night. So, just in general, or we're not going to do a vote, but unless I hear otherwise, I think we'd like to have the opportunity to pursue that option. Okay. Any questions? And now for the self-insurance fund. Yes. So, for self-insurance for our new board members, it's a little unique for a school district, but we do have several in our area
081that are self-insured, so that simply stated is the the self-insurance is we are our own administer of our own plan, and that brings both pros and cons. So, we lower that lowers the overhead cost of it, and we have more control over it, but that also means we absorb all of the claims. And so, we have just come through a very high claim [clears throat] year, and so I'm going to share some information on that as we go on. And I again mention it's a separate bank account, and I say that, and it sounds probably funny that I keep bringing that up, but it's important because a lot of times people think, "Well, how can they do this, but they can't do that?" And there are certain rules that go with the money, and so
082I just wanted to explain that this also sets by itself and can only take care of the cost involved with self-insurance. So again, as I mentioned, the benefits are to reduce the cost and reduce the overall plan, gives you more flexibility, and the downside is that we do assume all of the financial risk. So, the revenues are generated by employer and employee paid premiums, full pay from the retirees or Cobra premiums, and any interest that is earned on that money in that account. These revenues are consistent throughout the year. The expenditures, however, are a little more inconsistent. There are the health claims, the prescription claims, that here ATC we pay a fee for that. We have administration costs over the system. We work with a broker, MMA. We have stop-loss insurance so that we do
083cap those at $150,000, and then we have the cost associated with wellness, and we do receive rebates and stop-loss reimbursements, and we do receive $150,000 from Cigna specifically for staff wellness. The spikes in those expenditures can really be scary at times because it is a bank account, and you're checking it, and you're making sure you have enough money because when that claim comes in, it has to be paid. And so, that's some of the things that we've experienced over the last year. As we look over the last year of the self-insurance information, you can guide your eye to the top box here with the medical revenue, and the employee premiums. Employee premiums over the last 3 years have been fairly consistent. They have had a 2.9% increase to our employee contribution. The employer contribution, however,
084has had a 10% steady increase during that same time frame. In last school year, the school district operating funds had to move $11 million into the self-insurance account to cover the claims. If I add that in to that change in premium or that change in contribution, the district has increased by 67%. And in frame of reference for the $11 million is to service the entire teacher salary schedule for 1 year for a 3% salary increase is $2.7 million. So, you can imagine $11 million expenditure out of the operating budget to take care of this gave pause to the committee. So, we started this year off thinking how can we mitigate any of these expenditures? What can we do? What can we look at? And so, that's what I do applaud the committee that has worked
085on that and as well as Director Greider. She serves on that committee with me and it's really been difficult to look at this because it feels very emotional and you want to be able to take care of your your friends and your family and your co-workers. However, it's it's something that's also decision. And so, those are the things that we're looking at in this word. We also provide dental and vision for all employees. So, an employee in the school district employee only everything is paid for medical, dental and vision. And then there are additional cost involved for family or spouse. The expenditures over this time frame have also steadily increased as I mentioned from the claims alone 19 million to 24 million. Prescription costs alone are nearly $10 million. We currently have enrolled 2085 active
086employees and 216 retirees. As part of Missouri teacher education the district that you retire from is really the district that you continue to have insurance capabilities with. And then we have 2061 active members in our dental program and we cover 4156 or we call those belly buttons. So, that's how many people are really covered by the plan with those 2000 employees. The third parties that we work with as I mentioned are Marsh McLennan Agency MMA is what we refer to them as and they are benefits consultant broker. We have Cigna as our medical claim administrator, Express Scripts as our pharmacy claim administrator, Delta Dental, National Vision Administrator and then Tokio Marine for our stop loss insurance. Our current plan we run as an October 1 through September 30 is our plan year. So, it doesn't
087coincide with the fiscal year and that can be a challenge at times. But the plan that we're living under now we currently have a base play gosh base plan that's $849.14 per month. And we have a high deductible plan as well and that's $773.22 per month. And at the current process that our employees have they can do sort of a mix and match of that and so, it's not really equitable across all of the people groups in terms of what the district contribution is. It's a variable cost for the district side and it's a fixed cost on the on the employee side. And that's another thing we're trying to look to change because that really should be a fixed cost on the district side so that we would know exactly how much it's going to
088cost per year. For families employees that are in the HSA program they receive $1000 as an employee or $2000 as a family. And that currently is a lump sum figure that is given to them on October 1st. That portion alone is $1.6 million. And it is not currently in the in the self-insurance fund. It is actually out of the operating fund cuz it goes directly to the employee. We must follow our board regulation 4540 GE which states that the district shall provide at least the full annual single employee premium for the base option medical, low dental and low vision coverage. The employee may use the amount to purchase any combination of any additional premium beyond that contribution is responsibility of the employee and shall have payroll deducted. So, we're going to take a look at
089just how to put that together more in a chart format of what I was just explaining. So, the district contribution for each of these is varied and that's really the the takeaway here. So, if you look at the far right side and you look at the annual you have the two kinds of plans you have the base plan and you have the high deductible plan. And depending on what that employee chooses the district contributes differently. So, we're contributing 10,776 767.36 on the base plan but we're for a person that was in the high deductible the district would be contributing 98.56. And then you can just see how that changes as that goes on. >> [snorts] >> The rates are shown on monthly and annual basis and they are highlighted really in that annual area that
090I was talking about so that you can see the distinct difference in each of those that the district is contributing. So, in the family medical elected the district for high deductible is contributing 21,962.16. >> [snorts] >> When you look at how that calculates out based upon the March census which is in the middle columns you can see how many people are in each one of those categories by each one of those. Then you can see that grand total the total is 26,131,000 assuming all employees are in. So, that's what the district budget has to hold is that 26 million. The district is currently contributing approximately 4.6 million of that for dependent coverage. What we have seen in the committee work is that is very much an outlier. Francis Howell is an outlier where most employers
091and other school districts even don't really cover that high of a percentage for dependent coverage. When you look at this slide the total estimated premiums you'll notice the portions that are paid by the district and those that are paid by the employee. If you look at the employee only coverage >> [snorts] >> and the district paid dependent coverage you can see under that area 60% is paid district paid employee only coverage. And 13% of that is being covered by the district for dependent coverage. Then you have another piece that is based upon the total contribution when you add that all up. So, the 27 million is 77% district contribution. And these are the things that we're starting to look at and notice when we're benchmarked against our area districts even here in St. Charles County
092we don't see that the districts are paying that much in that piece. Where there is no legal requirement to have a fund balance minimum that I talk about that for like the general budget overall it's always a good rule of thumb to use three months in terms of those high claims that are going to come in. And so, our general number for us for three months is $7.5 million. Our current balance is 6 million. So, we do expect that we'll probably have to move money over again this school year in order to bring that back up to the three-month balance. This is what the fund balance has looked like over the um last year year and a half and you'll notice that large spike is from that $11 million transfer that went in in last
093June. And I mentioned this just a moment ago we do expect that we'll need to put another and we're watching our claims come in but what we can see is what what's on the books and it's it's like a rolling number because we see the next couple of months out and when those pending claims are going to get paid and we just have to make sure there's enough money in there to pay those. And I'll leave off here because in the May 7th board meeting I'll really kind of pick up from here and then tell you the story of what we've worked on this year. So, this is where we are at right now. They've come to us and said you have a 12 and a half percent increase in your premium and our budget
094is really built for 8%. So, we're really trying to find ways to to move some levers and change some things so that we can control the budget overall and it really not just be writing checks throughout the year trying to cover that balance. So, you can see last year that it had spiked quite a bit and that's really why we have experienced what we have that the last several years the claims have just been the blue line represents Francis Howell which has in this case not good outperformed the norm in terms of those high claims. And so, those are the things that we'll be talking about when we come together on May the 7th. What questions do you have about that? Questions board of I have a question. So, on the new Francis Howell's benefits
095on the family benefits if a spouse is on a family plan and they turn down benefits from their employer do we get any cost back on that or charge them in any way whatsoever? No, we if they have coverage available to them we would ask that they not take our coverage. >> not required. It's part of the process of enrolling. We go through and talk about if your spouse has coverage available to them. And the kids could be with you still on the plan and you may calculate to see which is a better your work or my work. Yeah, I'm not asking I'm not asking about the dependents just the family plan. Okay. Do you want to say anything since you've helped me on this? Yeah, well, I was just going to add for the
096the new directors here too. There's so much information in previous board docs too that you can look back with us um next month I think to Amy's point she'll make it very clear. Um but I've learned a lot and it's very complex. Um the whole self-funded concept was very new to me and so just learning how we have to like pay all the claims. We don't get the benefit of a lot of other things, but there are, you know, pros and cons like Amy said. So, um some tough decisions I think again this year that we have to make, but you can see on that last slide where there was the trend, you know, for everybody else just general medical costs that have gone up and ours due to our specific claims for our the
097people who are enrolled in our plans are just substantially higher. So, that's causing um a lot of flux in how we budget for that and and just in our budget in general and transferring $11 million last year was was a hit that we weren't prepared for. So, [clears throat] I just really appreciate all the work that you and your team have done and the committee also to really review what's going on around us and you know, make some tough decisions I think here coming up. And uh I just want to add I appreciate during your presentation when you made a comment, this is emotional. Like this is referring to real people who we care about and love and want to make sure we retain and then make sure we recruit and I appreciate you bringing
098that into the conversation and so we look forward to talking more about this at the May um special meeting. Thank you. Thank you for that. Our next agenda item is the strategic plan quarterly report provided by Ms. Jennifer Jolls. Thank you, President Blair. And I actually have the easy part because I really just get to introduce it and then turn it over to my friends. So, you don't get to hear me too long tonight. But [clears throat] we are excited to present this is now our third quarterly progress report on the strategic plan and so we'll highlight just some of the exciting work that's been happening to further the goals in the plan. Um similar to last time I will just briefly review the planning timeline and the foundational plan components and then turn it
099over to the pillar leaders to talk about their specific areas. And then once they've all presented, we would be happy to answer any questions that you have. So, here is the uh reminder of the planning timeline or maybe new for some of our new board members. So, we kicked off the planning process a little over 2 years ago now in January of 2024. That spring we held a series of community roundtables and surveys to better understand the district strengths and opportunities. In the fall of 2024, a strategic planning team came together to develop goals and the key performance indicators. The board approved the 5-year strategic plan that November and then pillar teams convened in the spring to build up the specific action plans to accomplish the lofty goals that we've established in the plan. We
100spent the summer uh before the school year started just making sure our staff were familiar with the plan and our priorities and then as staff returned in August this last fall, that's really when the pillar teams got to work. We provide you this um high-level progress report every 90 days. So, again this is the third one in the series and then this fall, I think it's on the agenda for our September meeting, we'll present that annual KPI dashboard where we'll look at those uh more hard data metrics so we know um sort of the results of our efforts and how we're doing. So, I'll again remind you that this is a 5-year strategic plan and we are currently in year one of implementation. So, we still have lots of work to do ahead of us.
101The full strategic plan can be found on the district website. You can just search strategic plan or you can go to about and drop down to there's a section there called strategic plan. You can download a print-friendly copy for anyone who wants to have a copy of their own. Uh I'll remind you of our mission is really about empowering students to be lifelong learners prepared for the future. And our vision as you recite at every board meeting is up here, so I won't go through that, but obviously that drives really all of the work that we do. We also established a set of five core values as part of the planning process. I'll highlight them here. It's we pursue growth and learning, we focus on what matters, we spend time and money wisely, we are
102kind and safe, and we embody one Howell. And so with that, I'm going to invite pillar one leader, Mr. Hancock, to the podium to share a little bit about what's going on in teaching and learning. And when he's done, he'll kick it off to pillar two, Lisa Simpkins. All right, thank you, Ms. Jolls. Good evening. How excited to provide an update related to the work with teaching and learning, pillar one of the strategic plan. Uh our pillar has three main buckets uh with it, student achievement, student support, and college and career readiness. This evening, I'd like to highlight a few updates related to our work uh starting with uh student achievement, our first bucket. Uh this year we launched a new reading curriculum across the district transitioning to a new uh new resources is a
103massive undertaking and our staff has shown incredible teamwork to make it happen. While you're still in the learning phase of using some of our tools, our winter STAR assessment shows that we are headed in the right direction. We saw a measurable increase in the number of students reading at or above grade level from fall to winter. And while this is a great start towards hitting our key performance indicators, our KPIs, uh we aren't finished uh into aren't to the finish line yet. Uh we are already building our strategy uh for the 26-27 school year uh to keep that momentum going. Over the summer, uh we began revising our classroom uh we were I'm sorry, we were began revising our classroom to make sure that they were our classroom assessments to make sure they're actually matching
104the rigor of our course standards. Uh one example is from our first grade assessments. This year we removed our audio support, uh the read-aloud feature that is, from our first grade assessments at the beginning of our third quarter. This is to truly know if students are meeting the reading standard and making sure they're able to decode words uh on their own. And we're showing good results from those third quarter assessments that we're able to do. Within the area of student support, we recently conducted a health check on our multi-tiered systems of support. For those unfamiliar with MTSS or multi-tiered systems of support, uh this is the framework we're working to formalize to ensure students are getting supports they need at the right time. It's built on four main components, universal screening, this is a check-in
105to see where students are at related to our learning standards, tiers of support, providing extra help or advanced challenges based on the individual needs, progress monitoring, regularly checking to see that extra help is actually working, and data-based decisions, using information and scores to help decide our next steps. After taking an inventory of our current practices, we identified several areas we're doing exceptionally well, but also found some gaps. Areas where we need to be more consistent to ensure each child gets the same high-level support they need. Also within our area of student support, we are nearly completed with the majority of our school data visits. Think of these as collaborative visits where district leadership meets with each school's leadership team to review school improvement plans. These visits allow us to celebrate wins, identify specific strategies that
106are working in one building so we can share them with others, problem solve, discuss challenges being faced by the school, adjust plans and look ahead, and use the reflections to adjust the in the moment uh and begin building on next year's plans. In the area of college and career readiness, we mentioned in January in our January update that we're working towards an expansion with St. Charles Community College. We have finalized that partnership and have six students enrolled in our pharmacy technician program. We have projected three more students enrolled next school year and we also have projected four students enrolled in next year's St. Charles Community College's certified nursing assistant program as well as two in the St. Charles Community College's welding program. As we look ahead for pillar one, we will continue our work in
107each of our focus areas. Coming up this May, we will implement our consistent finals at the high school level for exams that have I'm sorry, for final exams that have come through the curriculum cycle in 24-25 or in 25-26. Within student support, based on the work we did with our MTSS leadership team, we will uh with assessing our current practices and reality, we'll increase our membership to help tackle areas we found opportunities for growth. By increasing our membership, we will get additional perspectives and experiences to draw from to design our system to support students. Support our to support our team, we'll have an opportunity to do some additional learning together this June. And within the area of college and career readiness, we have completed the feedback gathering steps and are in the final stages of
108using the input from our stakeholders to design our portrait of a graduate. This portrait will help us identify the skills, competencies, experiences we want students to graduate with from Francis Howell. And additionally, we will be supporting the St. Charles Build My Build My Future event. The Build My Future uh 2026 takes place April 22nd to 23rd in the St. Charles Family Arena featuring hands-on construction and career experiences, virtual reality simulations, and heavy equipment operation for students. The event showcases skilled trades like welding, plumbing, and electrical work to students to address work first workforce shortages. And I'll pass it over to Ms. Simpkins to share an update with pillar two. Good evening, board. In pillar [clears throat] two, we focus on people and workforce. We do divide our work into three major areas or buckets. Workforce
109planning, staff retention, and staff recruitment. All in an effort to be a destination district and employer of choice. Work we have done in the last few months. We have completed negotiations, ratified, and approved a two-year closure agreement with FHEA. We worked very hard to collaborate with this group of very intelligent and highly qualified educators to really try to improve our workforce and some of the benefits that we can offer to our staff. We have completed negotiations with Teamsters, our dedicated folks that are driving our students to school and supporting our students in their transportation every day. We hope to bring that closure agreement to you next month. We've attended five certified career fairs at local colleges and universities just in the past few months to do some recruiting and share our openings here at Francis
110Howell with educators that are just finishing their teaching pathway programs and becoming certified teachers. We have posted 140 certified teaching positions for the 2026-2027 school year since March 9th. Now, not all of those are brand new positions. We might see a fifth-grade teacher from one building transfer to a third-grade position in another. But, 140 individual postings where we are our team is working to transfer people and move people to different positions, maybe classroom to special area, just supporting their growth within Francis Howell. Of those, 101 of our new positions and positions that have been posted have already been filled. So, we're at about a 72% fill rate so far for our 2026-2027 school year. If you know any great educators that are looking for an amazing place to work, please have them come to our
111website to apply for the positions we still have open. We did present a 2027-2028 school year calendar to the board and that was approved tonight. So, that'll give our families and our educators an opportunity to plan for vacations and days off and things of that nature in hopes of approving that attendance for everyone. We've shared our workplace culture survey results with our stakeholders. And we are continuing to be excited and proud that 95% of our support staff positions are filled to date, including over 90% of our school bus driver positions. So, attracting and retaining those employees has been a big goal and a focus for us. What's next? We will develop with the next steps to implement all the agreements in the FHEA closure agreement. So, together as two groups, we committed to some committees
112and some work that will happen over the next school year. And so, we'll design those meetings and and work with Francine to get those on the books. We'll complete our negotiations with FEASTPA and FHEA ESEs, our educational support counselors, with the focus on improving their work conditions. We are excited to recommend some policy changes that will be related to parental leave for all staff. Those policies will go to the committee in April, first read to you in May, second read in June for implementation next year if approved. We'll continue to recruit and hire highly qualified certified staff and hopefully fill the other 25% of those positions here soon. We're also working very hard to streamline the process that we have for approving our outside service vendors when it comes to our background checks and things
113of that nature just to try to find efficiencies within our department. And then lastly, we'll be starting the work to gather a work group to just review our service awards and our ways to improve staff ignition over the next few years of our strategic plan. And I will turn it over to Dr. St. John for pillar three. Thank you. Hello. I will go over finance and operations for pillar three. We have those three areas, resource allocation, where we are making sure that we're checking for any money that we can find. The process improvements, things that we can do better, more efficiently. And then finally, in our service and compliance area for high-quality service to all stakeholders while maintaining the compliance in that area. What we've done since we last spoke is we've really prioritized those
114expenditures and collaborated with our district leaders as we're our finishing this school year and starting the next one. And really just making sure that they have everything that they need and then really just making sure that we're leveraging anything that we can um that we already have that we can reuse. We looked at the just already spoke to the engaging employee insurance committee and monitoring the increases in those health care costs. Mr. Mr. Gallon and I delivered the five-year technology plan, which brought the district a cost savings of $300,000. Also working with Lisa in regards to finalizing the FHEA um negotiations. I'm very excited to say that we were able to provide a 3% raise. And then monitoring legislation, which I do bring that to you each month. And then leading the educational sessions with
115the public, which I also paired up with many of you to do that. And then conducting utilization and efficiency studies for stipends and co-curricular working with Mr. Hancock on that. And then looking at what's ahead. Again, finalizing that budget that I just mentioned a moment ago and continuing to monitor as the legislator session will close in May. And we'll see what what lands and what we'll have to deal with. And then documenting our operating procedures as we're going in perpetual calendars to ensure that we're meeting those deadlines and making sure that things are being able to be replicated. And then finally, as we go through and develop and plan out any of the audits of third parties, which help us with internal controls. Creating a priority list of other departments that we should review efficiencies
116and effectiveness for as we move into the next school year and looking for ways that we can Our examples would be the things that we did this year with early childhood and looking for additional revenue streams and making that more efficient. That's a district savings of about 500,000. And then as I mentioned with technology, that's a savings of about 300,000. And then continuing any of our comprehensive communication efforts regarding finance and operations for both the board, the public, and teachers. Turn it over to Good evening, board. I'm excited to be here tonight to give you some updates on pillar four. We're focused on the safety and security aspects of the strategic plan and we've got that divided into three major areas. Physical security, culture, climate, and communication, and data privacy and protection. What we've done,
117we've worked to create more consistency with our threat assessment process by establishing a district team primarily made up of several directors so that we can support our buildings in a more meaningful way. We are implement We've implemented the visitor Raptor management system that you've probably seen if you've been in any of our buildings lately and been able to scan your ID and use it. In culture, climate, and communication, we've had the safe schools curriculum approved, which will give us a launching pad to work directly with our kids and help give them some valuable lessons and be good citizens. We're combining the new state requirements from Senate Bill 68. That's been on our our task list throughout the year because it connects so much of our work. So, you'll start to see that blended in more
118and more as we go throughout the next few months specifically. We hosted the second PTO presidents forum, announced the newly revamped citizens on our schools program, and established baseline KPA data for staff who received safe at work. And then in data privacy and protection, this is an area that we really excel. And Scott's always celebrating that things are going great in his area right now. And so, he's working on e-rate program projects to update the network. You'll also see that on the next slide. I'm jumping to data privacy and protection, looking at considerations for the next school year. So, we're really in a good place there and we continue to monitor threats with data privacy. But, what do we see coming next? This was the first quarter I got real excited because I kept seeing
119more and more things that we were going to be doing and and kind of getting to that critical point where some of our KPI data was going to be coming in. We're going to be able to start to create plans that have a lot more meat to them over the next six months. And so, under physical safety, you'll see something called the cardiac emergency response teams. Those are going to be teams that'll be rolled out in every building in our district. That's something that's that's part of the new state requirements. Our nurses will be will be leading that out, but we'll have teams of five or six people in every building that are trained in life-saving measures. And we're going to be starting to get those folks identified over the next few months, trained over
120the summer, and they'll be in place for the start of the school year. We're developing a train plan to additional training for CPR across the district, both training and certification. We've gotten several of our nurses trained as CPR trainers so that we can provide that to staff. Just kind of enhancing that the security blanket around the district. Implementing a plan for staff to bleed kits and staff training. We've started talking about where those kits may go. That's another state requirement. We have some of them available in the district, but as we started looking at what the state requirement is and what best practice is and what we're doing now, we we saw a lot of holes and things that we can do a little better. So, working with our nurse coordinator, we've been able to
121figure out where those kits will go, who we need to have trained, and we'll start to roll that out over the summer and at the beginning of the school year. We're auditing compliance with school safety incident reports. And again, another new state requirement, loading any kind of threat issues that that that happened. And And there's some other things that it seems like every year that we find that we need to do at the end of the the session that that pops up related to safety student safety. So, we're just going to we're going to do more to monitor and make sure that that's happening across the district and then our schools. Those are Those are things that are a little out of the ordinary and there's been many of them that have come up over
122the past 2 or 3 years that are just new for staff. Conducting a comprehensive school safety audits. Every year the district's gone through the buildings with our safety manager. They looked at what the buildings have in place. They're looking for prop doors, making sure that, you know, we're following the drill schedule appropriately. The state is or was expected to give us some basic expectations for that. I think we're still kind of waiting for those. So, we're going to make sure that we have something in place by the end of this year knowing exactly where our buildings are. We'll revise that if the state provides us some clearer guidance between now and then. And then transitioning transitioning to Raptor's automated drill management system so that next year we'll have a really clear picture of when all
123those fire drills and intruder drills are happening across the district. Culture, climate, communication. Developing lessons and identifying resources for the safe schools curriculum. That'll start this summer and then really that work will continue throughout next year. Reviewing data from our student climate surveys. I think this is the one thing I'm the most excited about. I believe it was 90% of our students identified as feeling safe at school. That means one in one in 10 feel like that there's something happening that that makes them feel so they don't. And so, but we never know what that is. So, this year we've revamped that survey and we asked kids if they say they don't feel safe, we ask them why. And we think that data will really be valuable at the building level to help us determine
124what can we do specifically in those buildings to to help kids and support their needs. Recruiting our next citizens in our schools cohort and then our large pillar group will be meeting next Thursday so that we can really get some ideas from them about what we can do for next year. We'll make sure that we're not missing anything. All right. I always get to do the last one. It's always the best. Thank you very much for allowing us to provide you the update. Fantastic. You just hold on one second. Board, do you have any questions? No, I was going to say I look forward to these. I know these are longer presentations and make for longer meetings, but to have a quarterly report let the whole district know how all of you are stacking hands
125on big picture items and it's exciting. It gives me again more fleshed reasons to believe that the best days are ahead of us for Francis Howell. At the same time we're holding on to the reality that there's some things we're working on that aren't where we want to be yet. I do want to ask last month there was a safety and security like a survey that was shared and it would it was a regarding staff. The staff survey would probably have to do with it. Safety and security, right? Is that being grafted into the information that we're doing for safety and security here? Yeah, that's Is that that's the Is that the culture uh climate workplace? >> Yeah, I apologize. That's the Yeah, I misnamed it. And that is one of the KPIs. So, do
126students feel safe at school? Do staff feel safe at work? Those are the two KPIs we're looking at. And so, we've got the staff data and I believe it was 75%. And so, we'll be looking at that and digging in a little bit more after our meeting next week with our with our larger pillar group and over the summer to we'll have some action steps that are targeted to what our staff are saying that they're not feeling safe about and what our students [clears throat] are feeling not safe about. One thing that's helpful is just always being able to know like what does the board do? What's our job and what's your job and how do we make sure we know all that? When you are doing this, if you stumble upon anything that is
127something the board can do to better partner with you, you know, whether it's policies that need to be looked at or adjusted or budget issues when it comes to you know, whether it's debt service levy transfer, whether it's anything like that, right? If you can just keep gathering those so that whenever you stumble upon anything that the board can do to help you accomplish these goals, that we have the opportunity to do so. And so, I just want to offer that as well. This Thank you for the work that you're all doing on this. Appreciate it. Anything else, board members? Thank you very much. Board, we now have policies for a first reading. This is item 12 on the agenda. These policies and regulations are being brought forward for a first reading. We'll be brought
128back to the May 21st, 2026 meeting for a second reading and a vote. And so, board, I now have a motion to approve the regulations. This is item number 13 on the agenda. Um I have a motion to approve the regulations as presented. These regulations were brought forward for a first reading at the March 19th board meeting. They're being brought back to this meeting for a second reading and a vote. So, do I have a first and a second? So moved. Vice President Grider We're in the first reading right now, right? This is item 13. This will be the second reading and vote. Second. Vice President Grider with the motion, Director Adams with the second. Any conversation regarding item 13 on the agenda? Yeah, I have some questions about the leave I have on the
129agenda. That I would like to be changed. Under bereavement, it is the only section that instead of saying spouse as the rest, it refers to wife and husband for relatives. I don't think that could be updated to spouse. Which number is this? This is the 4320 GE leave of absences. So, 4320 GE. Let's all look at that together. >> Under bereavement So, under bereavement leave What page is this? Here we go. So, page four. So, walk me through it. Currently it reads employees may use bereavement leave if death occurs in family. A husband is related by marriage to his wife's relatives in the same way she's related to them. them and she to his. I would think that should be updated to a spouse is related to their spouses. I hear you. And the corrections
130following on the other sentences. So, so is your motion to replace every reference to husband and wife with spouse instead? And every reference to uh sexual identity to they or them. Okay. Yes, I do. So, that is being presented. That is it's more than Yeah, it's more than just a typographical change, right? There's there's meaning behind what he's advocating for. Because of that, is this something that is a friendly amendment just changing the words or is it a substantial amendment that requires a formalized motion? I would I think I would offer the board to remove this from a vote tonight and allow us to work on that. Take it back to the policy committee. This was reviewed by the entire policy committee and sent to the board for a first read last month. This was
131for a second and final read. So, I think if there's structural and significant changes that potentially are going to be there in order to meet what the board's request is, we should take this back to policy committee. Do we have I just question. Do we have the option to accept the changes that the policy committee already went through and that you know, legal has reviewed and everything to accept that for now and then add another Here's what I'm getting at. I understand the request here, but that that that change then would probably need to be across the board. We have a lot of policies and so then that would leave this policy uniquely identifying What's odd is later on in the same policy uses the word spouse. So, for uh functional reasons, one option is
132a person can make a motion to remove regulation 4320 GE, get second, voted, and remove that for tonight's conversation to be sent to policy. Is that That's our options. Right. And so, can you speak Vice President Grider, is that something that you're uh in support of or give a different version that we can take? Well, if he's moving if he I don't know if he's moving right now to make the change, then we have to vote on that first, I think. Yes, right? >> there's no official motion until we vote. No, I Sorry, I wasn't here last month. Is there anything you want to share in terms of a different motion or do you want him to >> No, I want to just approve this and then we can look at making, you know, more
133sweeping changes to the policies in general. Like I hear the I hear the concern. I think it's a good practice, you know, to consider, but I think we should have legal review on that and I think we would want to look at that as a sweeping change, not just to this one policy sub piece of policy. Okay. That the policy committee has already reviewed and passed and that's the work that they do. I appreciate that. So, if you would like to make a motion, you can say I make a motion to table regulation 4320 GE um until it can be sent to policy committee to have them look at that language and bring it back to Make a motion to table until it can be reviewed and updated. Your motion is to table 4320 GE
134for tonight. Correct. Until it can be reviewed. Correct. So, there's a motion. Is there a second? Second. There's a second. So, now that is the main motion in front of us. Um any conversation on that? If we were to table this fit tonight, what negative ramifications would there be until the policy committee had a chance to look through this and get back to you? And what would be that timeline given the average amount of time the policy committee takes? [clears throat] The intention of the change in this policy was really to um direct our employees and provide some guidance to our employees when they were retiring that we were in need of the verification letter from our retirement system to verify their employment and how we are paying out our sick leave. Um that what
135we were hoping for that to go um live and and be a an approved policy because I do think that really helps everyone, our benefits teams, our payroll teams. We were uh struggling because we weren't getting those letters and then months later we were uh getting requested to pay sick leave when we had already terminated an employee or removed them from our system. And so, that was just costing a significant amount of work within our team. So, and and partly because we um did not have a policy that indicated that that letter needed to accompany their request to resign or retire. Um So, that is why the policy is coming forward. If we table it, that means that we'll take uh any of our changes. Uh we will uh we're I guess we have those
136due by tomorrow for the April policy committee. Um we'll try to get those done. It might not go till the May policy committee and then it would come back for first reading and second reading in the following months to you. Um but I do think if you can approve this language, we would be happy to take a look and bring it back with any additional changes as Mr. McGuire has asked us to look at. Thank you. Um with that in mind, I I agree with um Vice President Grider that we should approve this policy, give the policy committee an opportunity to review it, and thank them for their service, but say that this is something that the board, if we're all in agreement, is very interested in their input on. Yes. Any other discussion on
137this um this motion? Okay. The motion in front of us is there any other comments? The motion in front of us is to table 4320 GE. So, now I is to table. A a nay is to return back to the main motion with all three combined. Ready? Take this by roll call. Director Adams. Nay. Director Dillard. Nay. Vice President Grider. Nay. President Blair. Nay. Treasurer McGuire. Nay. >> [laughter] >> Director Owens. Nay. Good. I I just wouldn't I I appreciate the the thoughts to to get into the the the purpose behind it and also to understand the both purpose and practicality, put them all put them all together. So, All right. So, now again we have the motion in front of us that is to approve um all of the three uh regulations listed as
138um denied item number 13. It's been first second and any other conversation. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed say nay. Nay. Motion passes. Um and it passes with the expectation that you guys will still um look at the information, look at the uh the language and find whatever improvements are possible. Thank you. Okay. Now we are at item number 14, curriculum first reading. Uh 13 curriculum documents are being presented for a first reading. They will be brought back to the May 21st, 2026 Board of Education meeting for a second reading and vote. Any comments about those? Okay. Uh this time we move to the superintendent comments. Thank you, President Blair. I do want [clears throat] to start out with a housekeeping issue. On May 7th, we have a scheduled work
139session with the board. Uh we will more than likely be requesting to go into open session to also have an agenda item on there. Uh we were made aware of an opportunity for participation with a grant um that would help uh the district in a financial way. That grant has a specific timeline that uh needs to be approved uh prior to our next full board meeting. So, I just wanted the board to be aware that um at that work session, we will also go into an open session. Um I'd like to take a moment to welcome our three new board members, Treasurer McGuire, uh Director Adams, and Director Dillard. Um we appreciate your commitment to the Francis Howell School District, and we welcome you to your positions uh as servant leaders with the district. I
140also first want to thank uh voters who participated in the April 7th uh municipal election. Obviously, there were some important initiatives to the district um that uh were uh voted on by the people of Francis Howell. I want to give a big shout-out to our students who attended Lewis and Clark Career Center. These students deserve a special shout-out for the way they showed up at the SkillsUSA State Conference. A special congratulations to Jonathan Arens and Samuel Fishback from Francis Howell High School for earning gold and qualifying for Nationals in Atlanta this June. Altogether, Lewis and Clark students brought home 26 medals, including 11 from our district, which says a lot about the work happening in these programs. We are proud of each of you and the way you represented your schools and the community. Last
141Friday, we hosted a Senior Pals event at Francis Howell North High School. I'd like to take a moment to thank the district's food service provider, Sodexo, for donating all of the supplies for a very special event. They had a special themed meal for the Mamma Mia show. I also want to thank the entire group of students that were a part of that Mamma Mia production, and also Miss Taylor Doverspike, the theater director. Finally, I also want to thank several staff members. If you saw the performance, you would know that we had several staff members from Francis Howell North that volunteered to be a part of that production. Um I was thoroughly impressed with not only the students in the production, not only Miss Doverspike, but also our other staff members. They did an amazing job.
142So, I I definitely wanted to thank them. Another way for community members to get involved. This year, we are launching a more flexible Citizens in Our Schools program with three full-day program sessions and the others in the evening over the course of 9 months. Topics will include school finance, facilities, operations, transportation, curriculum, hiring, and other uh excuse me. And other operational aspects of running a large school district such as ours. Those interested can submit the application on our website by midnight on June 15th to be considered for Citizens in Our Schools. I wanted to share uh that I was fortunate enough to participate in this year's SOAR Awards at Henderson Elementary School, where eight amazing students were recognized. All of them were identified as great students. However, I want to celebrate that their teachers all
143described them as kind, compassionate, caring, empathetic, and thoughtful to the adults around them, as well as their peers. We can use a little more of those characteristics in our world. I also hope that students realize what a profound impact they have on the adults they work with. I was so moved and impressed that teachers were so moved by the recommendations and the nominations of the kiddos that they were recommending. I have to tell you, it was an emotional ceremony. I sat next to Mr. Jemerson, and for those of you that know Mr. Jemerson, he's a pretty tough guy. And I think Mr. Jemerson was pretty moved to shed a little slight tear there, too. So, it was definitely a profound event. Um it is pretty awesome to watch parents there celebrating their kids and here
144and having teachers share such amazing things about kids. Uh again, an overall great event, and I want to compliment that Henderson staff and those Henderson students. The St. Charles Symphony Orchestra will highlight music education during a community concert April 24th at 7:00 p.m., led by conductor Samuel Hollister. Francis Howell School District educators, John Evans, Ginger Herring, and Shannon Crepps will perform alongside SLSO musicians, bringing classroom music to the stage through a K-12 educator collaboration. The 1-hour concert opens doors at 6:00 p.m. with pay-what-you-wish for tickets available. We will have a link on our website for those who are interested in supporting this event. Once again, you will recognize those names of some outstanding music teachers that we've recognized before. One of our 10 elementary schools, Warne Elementary, will celebrate 25 years of excellence this month.
145They are hosting an event on Saturday, April 25th from 1:00 to 5:00 that is open to the public. If you are interested in joining, just reach out to the school for more information or find the RSVP link in the District Digest newsletter that was just sent out via email. And finally, I will just acknowledge what a busy time of year this is for our students, our staff, and our families. We are entering testing season, whether that be MAP testing at the elementary and middle school or end-of-course testing and AP testing at the secondary level. There's a lot of time and energy being spent to prepare and do well on these tests. We are also preparing for many end-of-year celebrations, plays, concerts, award ceremonies, field days, field trips, state competitions, an upcoming 4.0 luncheon, prom, all
146leading up to what we all hope all kids get to, which is graduation. I want to thank all the staff and administrators who are busy planning these celebrations and to the students and families who are preparing and participating as well. Thank you. Board members. Thank you, President Blewett. I've got a couple of things. I'll try to be brief because it's past my bedtime and we still have closed sessions to get to. The first thing that I I want to address is during patron comments, the board typically doesn't respond to patrons, but for the one gentleman that came up and gave a a very passionate speech about his experience, I just want to let that gentleman know, even though I know that he and his family have called that the board heard you. And while I
147know the administration is likely working on a response, I hope that you you guys expedite the communication back to the gentleman about his concerns. I also want to echo what Superintendent DeLaney mentioned. I got to see the Frontier North Mask Players play Mamma Mia on Friday. Um every kid was fantastic. Brian Santos words could not describe. Um but I I do want to make a special call out to the Thespian that played Donna. I do not believe that she missed a note. She was fantastic. And I'm looking forward to seeing the Spotlight Players tomorrow in Into the Woods. Um one request I have is I know that the Policy Committee is hard at work reviewing policies for our approval. I do have a request that any policies that are currently being worked on um that
148pertain to that have been changed in the last few years that pertain to student education, student safety and well-being, and especially teacher harassment are brought back for a a presentation or at least a an update to the board at a future meeting, hopefully not too too long. And if that's not currently in the works, if we could please get a um what am I trying to say? If we could please get a recommendation on what policies could be looked at that have been updated in previous years, again that pertains to student safety, well-being, and teacher harassment. And the final thing I just want to say is we all know that the last few years have been very difficult. There's been a lot of negative attention brought upon our district. And while simply moving past this
149would be easier, I believe that it's more important for us to take that bad and turn change narrative into something positive. So, what I would like to propose is something that I'm calling Project Turnaround or Operation Turnaround. This isn't a board mandate, this isn't a district mandate. It's simply an invitation for all of our staff, our students, our committee to reflect on the last few years and make an effort to take hold of something and turn it into a positive. So, as an example, I would like to start it off by talking about book challenges. I would like to challenge each of our students to find a book that is of a different genre that they're used to reading. So, if you're used to reading fiction, find a non-fiction book. If you're used to reading
150futuristic dystopia books like my kid, um try reading a classic novel. And then share book share the the experience you have with your friends, your teachers, your principals, and ideally email the board with your book recommendations and why you like that book. So, I'd like to take the negative, turn it into a positive, and I welcome everyone to do the same. And with that, I'm done. >> [laughter] >> And before we move to other board members, um just to make sure I get a feel for the whole board. So, he made a comment of just being interested in any kind of policies that might relate to student education, um teacher safety, um are you guys all in favor of whatever they come up with to present to us? We don't have to vote, but if
151you are it's a general feel for the board, um whatever you find, um share with us. We'd love to have that conversation versus it being one board member mandating. Just the the general feel for the board is we're interested in it. Okay, yeah. I apologize. Obviously, if this is a board discussion, we're all just we can talk about what that might look like. >> I think we'll we'll need a little more direction. I I don't know if the request was to review policies that have previously been changed within the last couple of years or it's just to review every policy that pertains to student education and student safety. I can restate. Um if we can look at policies that have been changed in the last few years that have negatively impacted student education, student well-being
152and safety, and teacher harassment for us to take a look at those policies. But in general, any policy, whether it's been changed in the last few years or not, anything to do with teacher harassment and how we would respond to that as a district, I I would like to or I would like to suggest that all take a look at that. So, what I'm hearing you say is you'd like to prioritize something that may have been changed in the last few years, but you're not closed off to other things they might find. Correct. Those Those would be my personal opinions, but no, if there's other policies that you think should be taken a look at that I may have missed, then yes, I believe that that'd be important to see. So, board, are you generally
153okay with looking at things that may have We're uh open-minded to see what you guys might find in the last few years first that might help out. Anything specially associated with each strategic plan. Yeah, I I would just ask for the board's consideration of time as we're heading towards the end of the year. As you as you know, there's a lot of major events happening throughout the district, and so obviously we will begin to to look into this as you all have kind of given the nod that that's the direction of the board. Um and so, you know, we'll bring back some information and hopefully we'll be on track with what the board is looking for. And I'm definitely respectful of the amount of effort and work that you guys put in on a daily
154basis, and I don't want to give you any more work. So, to maybe make it a little bit easier, let's concentrate on teacher harassment because there are situations going on that I believe that that needs the most attention. And let's make that the focus and then pivot it back to the other two items I mentioned if the board is in agreement. Yeah, that's one of the topics that are open for. Other board comments? Um I would just like to say that I'm grateful to you all for the evening of calm, collaboration, and respect. I've been needing that. And I really appreciate it. And I might add that reading books makes you smarter and it opens your mind. It shows you how other people live and love and and helps us all care about each other
155a little bit more. And I want to commend Ishaan for giving of his time this evening to learn about how school boards operate. I know it was exciting. Did you have anything you'd like to say? >> love to hear what your experience was here today. Um I think I saw a lot of big numbers and I got a little scared. >> [laughter] >> Um I think yeah, no, this was really good. I've always I've come to a few board meetings. Usually I'm in the back corner with a camera in my hand, hiding behind the camera, but it was nice to sit in. Um yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah. Thank you, Ishaan. Other board comments? I have I just want to say I'm super excited to be here on this side of the table
156after being way back there for so many months and years. Uh when I went for school board, most people like they didn't understand what school boards do, and it's we're oversight. And for anyone watching this, it just needs to be reiterated that the people at these desks right here are the ones running the district. And after a week of knowing them and working with them, I'm so impressed with their professionalism. They're passionate. They care about the district, and I look forward many years of working with all of you, except for you, Ishaan. >> [laughter] >> I'll remind every family by our next real board meeting. We have the working meeting, but after that, the seniors are already having their last day. Celebrations will be done. Kids grow up fast. Enjoy every moment of this school
157year as it ends over the next few weeks. Go to every celebration, every school event you can. They go by quickly. So, enjoy these little yearly celebrations of achievement. And then we did defeat Prop RT, which is great, but that still does not reduce the challenges ahead for our district. We are fairly right in the sweet spot for student-teacher ratios. We still have increased costs as presented tonight. We still have decreased funding from our state. We still have increased mandates unfunded from our state. We all need to work together. I look forward to solutions from anyone. It doesn't have to be one of us. It doesn't have to be one of them. The only way we succeed if we do it as a community. I look forward to every parent, every teacher, every staff, every
158administrator, every PTO member, every volunteer. That's the only way this district succeeds, and I hope it stays that way for very long time. Thank you. Other board comments? Okay, well, I don't want to feel left out. Um I'm just so proud of this district, and I'm so happy to be here tonight. Um and I'm always looking for new books to read. So, please, my inbox and my comment sections will always be open. Please feel free. Seriously, I need new books. Um okay, I'll go. Um I just wanted again say welcome to all the new board members, and then I guess um two of you stole two of my comments. So, um plus [snorts] one to uh Superintendent Delaney's comments uh about the busyness of this next month and a half or so. I know it's
159There's so many people that put so much energy into making all of these celebrations and tying all of the the business up and everything. So, just hang in there, and thank you. Um and then plus one also to uh Director uh Maguire on please stay engaged. I know we defeated Prop RT, and that's amazing. It shows that the community does care about public schools and all of our community services, but as Dr. St. John talked about in our finance report, we have a lot of legis- I don't understand why the There's so many attacks on public education right now, but they're happening. So, we need everyone to plug in. Do not get exhausted by it yet. Just We got to keep showing up. Um House Bill 1002 is a like the next direct threat. So,
160please consider contacting your local legislators. Um We just have to keep at this cuz there's a lot um threatening our continued success here from that aspect. And lastly, I just want to also reiterate um I think uh my commitment I think I can speak for everybody up here right now to improving the climate and culture across the district. Um Dr. Vanderpool did a great job of talking about, you know, that's a huge part It's a big part of our pillars. Um We know we have a lot of work to do. 25% of our teachers not feeling safe in this district is atrocious, appalling. And I know we can do better because we are a great district, but we've got some work to do. So, um I know we'll continue to commit to that. We want
161all of our students to feel safe, and it's great that 90% of them do, but that 10% that doesn't also is appalling, and we know we have to focus on that. Needs consistent uh consistent implementation across the district and really enforced disrespect, dangerous behaviors, you know, raising the bar on our behavior expectations and lowering our tolerance for those um dangerous and and disrespectful behaviors. Like We got to come together on that. So, thanks. Thank you, and I will end with I'm just calling out one of the things I'm more most excited about happening is the safe schools curriculum. Uh I think that has a really opportunity uh really strong opportunity to uh have have meaningful work on culture um that would impact not only student safety, but also uh teacher safety, staff safety, everything like
162that. Just create a culture that uh just grows more and more into the One How uh vision that we've lifted up for a few years. On the uh strategic plan, uh I appreciate the work going into it. Um one part I forgot to call out was that one of our goals is to make sure that the scores um especially for students who are our black students, Hispanic students, free/reduced lunch students, the the gap um in terms of the experience they're having versus others. Uh we've identified that as a gap we want to address, and so I appreciate that uh that focus, and also just want to say continue to watch it all together. Um we know that's a a goal for the administration. It's a It's a goal uh for myself and the rest of
163the board as well. Um I went to the uh Francis Howell Central performance of Into the Woods. It's fantastic. Uh the puppeteer for the cow is uniquely qualified as a puppeteer. Uh even when it when one of the cow's legs broke off, and everybody just paused. Hey, hey, spoiler alert. I'm seeing it tomorrow. It was an accident. It was It was an It was an accidental um broken leg. Um but and this is just for everybody. Uh support all the things at schools. Support uh all the sports. Um support all the activities, art um everything else. Give Give the kids a chance to to know that there's a full auditorium there cheering them on. Um that's really meaningful to all of them. And uh lastly, uh for the last 6 months, I have been uh
164thankful to be in a district where uh the district was raising their hand about Prop RT. And it wasn't happening all the school districts the same as was happening here. Just raising their hand and saying, "Here's information." That's what they should do. "Here's information." And it lost. Uh 59 to 41. Lost. And I just want to say thank you to everybody who was part of it. I want to share this again. This is not a red thing or a blue thing. It's a green thing, and it was a threat to schools, libraries, fire EMS, and the Developmental Disabilities Resource Board. Um I want to say thank you to all of you who are part of defeating Prop RT. Uh we don't know what's next, um but if whatever is next comes down the pipe, and
165it threatens the education that we are elected to protect, we will oppose it. And um you can count on that. The best days Francis Howell are ahead of us. We are committed to providing the best education for all students. And we're so glad to have the teachers, the staff, the administration to be part of this. Uh what a good team we can all make together. And so, right now, board, I have a motion to adjourn open session and return to closed session. So moved. Dr. Adams. Second. Director Owens. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes.