001Everybody, uh thank you for joining us here and those of you joining us online um tonight. Um the people leading our pledge of allegiance um are coming from Central Elementary. Uh they are Melody, Minnie, Bella, Kingsley, Aiden, and Jasmine. I will turn it over to our pledge leaders. Go ahead, come forward. [Music] I pledge algiance 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. Thank you very much to all of you from Central Elementary. We're glad that you are here to lead us. Um and now before move to the agenda uh board we'll just restate that uh we have a vision we have a strategic plan of what we want to
002aim to do aim to be by the year 2030. By the year 2030 Francis school district will be recognized as one of the top 5% high performing districts in the state. >> The employer of 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 and the community to make good decisions and do what's best for students. >> Thank you, board. Uh board, we have a motion to approve the agenda, which brings us closer to this goal uh for October 16th, 2025. as
003presented. So, >> director Harmon >> second. >> Vice President Grder. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All any opposed to say no. >> Motion passes. Um, next we have Mr. Delaney, our uh, interim superintendent who will address a recent event at Francis How High School and how our district is supporting students, staff, and community. >> Board and community. Before we start this business meeting, I want to take just a few moments to talk about the recent incident involving racist and violent graffiti at Francis Hall High School. Um, to begin, racism, hate, and violence have no place in our schools and in our school community and is not tolerated here in Francis Hall. The individual responsible for the gre graffiti has been terminated by the board of education, arrested by St. Charles County
004police, and charged with a felony hate crime. The behavior of this individual does not reflect the values of Francis Hall nor represent who we are as a community at large. I want to thank the Francis Hall administrative team, our school resource officer, Officer Bell, the director of safety and security, Mr. Randy Jefferson, and multiple law enforcement officials who worked tirelessly to bring this case to a close. I also want to personally apologize to students and staff who witnessed the graffiti before it could be removed and acknowledged that hurt came across our district and our entire community. It is our firm belief that all students and staff deserve to feel safe and welcome in all of our schools. This work has been prioritized in our strategic plan and we are committed to the necessary dialogue and
005problem solving that will help us create the communities we desire for all students and staff. Working in partnership with the district's inspire team, we have organized focus groups for families impacted by those recent events, invited local leaders to the table for collaborative problem solving and communication, and are currently working with B district leaders across the district to better understand the climate in each one of our schools. These listening sessions will help inform our work in regards to our strategic initiatives. I want to remind parents, students, and community members that the district offers mental health supports for all students. Licensed school counselors are available in every school building, and the district's inspire team provides additional mental health support, staff training, and opportunities for parents to learn about a variety of mental health topics. Finally, I want
006to make sure everyone knows how to report concerns so that they can be thoroughly investigated. Harassment, bullying, and safety concerns can be anonymously reported using the online harassment and bullying reporting form. This form is linked on the homepage of the district website and on the Infinite Campus and Canvas student portals for urgent safety concerns such as schools threats. Um, students and families are urged to contact the courage to report tipline. This system is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and provides a confidential means to report school violence. Again, our our focus, our goal is to create learning environments where 100% of our students and staff feel safe, welcome, and supported. You will continue to hear more about our efforts in this area as we move forward with our strategic plan and our
007conversations later today in our board session. Thank you for the time board. >> Thank you very much uh Mr. Delaney. And just to reiterate what is public information, um the vote was unanimous to terminate this particular person. Um every board member here as well as director Ponder uh agrees with you and uh stacked hands and acted decisively in this matter as well. Thank you very much. Um tonight we also have a student board representative from Francis How Union. Uh Miss Joles. Can you introduce? >> I'm just going to remind everyone about the student board rep program and then Dr. Thompson's actually going to introduce. Um, so our board representative this month is from Francis Hal Union High School. And as you know, the purpose of the student board rep program is to honor and recognize
008talented 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 the public that is focused on their school or the district. And with that, I'll invite principal Dr. Brian Thompson to the podium to introduce our board rep from Francis How Union. >> Thank you. I'm very pleased to announce that Henley von Alman is the representative of Francis How Union High School. She is a perfect example of a student of our school coming from a a little bit of struggle previously to now blossoming into something really special and exciting. She is a tremendously dedicated and talented young lady. Has
009passions in the areas of photography and is hoping to do something with people in the future helping them because it's a big passion of hers. So, Kinley, are you ready to come up? >> All right, come on up. [Music] [Applause] >> Thank you. Um, hello. My name is Kenyolman and I a junior at Francis Hall Union High School. At my home school, I never really felt like I belonged anywhere. It was hard to be myself and even harder to communicate with people. I often found myself holding back, avoiding conversations and people, and wanting to stay in the background. When I came to Union, everything had changed. I found a place I can succeed here. A place where I have built meaningful relationships with both teachers and students for the first time. Sorry. I feel like
010I can be something and truly succeed. I don't feel the need to hide and not express my thoughts. Here at Union, it's different. I don't fear the judgment of others so much, and I'm so much more confident in myself at school. The smaller classes have made it easier for me, and I've had the chance to receive the assistance and encouragement I need. That support has given me confidence, not only in school, but in myself and my work. Looking ahead, I want to find a career where I can help people in ways I wanted to be helped before it's too late for them to realize there is a path for them. I want to be able to encourage others to show them that they are capable and to remind them that they matter. Last and certainly
011not least, I want to thank Dr. Brian Thompson and Miss Licia Yuing for showing me that there are people in schools that care. I wouldn't have had this chance without Dr. Thompson and I wouldn't feel as comfortable as I do here without Miss Yuing. They have helped me tremendously in such a short amount of time and I can't thank them enough or be more excited for the time we have upcoming. Um, also thank you Dan Officer Dan Skunover for coming to support me. Uh, thank you. [Applause] >> Okay. Have you sorry [Applause] >> welcome Kimmy. Welcome, Henley. Um, you can use this microphone if you have to ask any questions. So, just hit the button, it'll turn green, and then you'll be able to ask your question. Um, you wouldn't be eligible to vote, but
012you're definitely welcome to communicate and let us know what you're thinking. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. And now for our spotlight, Miss Trolls. [Music] I really just have the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Thompson back to the podium. He's going to tell us more about the magic of the Francis Hell Union program tonight. >> Thank you, Miss Jules. And thank you, Board of Education, for giving me a few minutes tonight to share a glimpse of what it makes Francis Hall Union special and to highlight some of our focus for this year. >> That last five seconds. Every day I walk through the halls and see our students who carry more than many of the adults can bear. For some it's instability at home. Others it's years of frustration, anxiety, depression, or that slow
013loss of feeling hopelessness at school that you can't succeed. And for many of our students, it's several of those combined. And yet, they come. They come every day. They walk through our doors each morning with a quiet courage. They show up trying to try again. I believe that this time it can be different. And it takes that kind of strength that many adults will never truly understand. And then if you sat in our classrooms, listened to their stories, truly listened, I promise you, nobody in this room would leave without a tear in their eyes. However, what makes How extraordinary isn't the stories of our students, but it's what happens next. Our staff, a team of veteran, dedicated, deeply compassionate educators, meet every student exactly where they are. They see the potential where others have only
014solved problems. They rebuild trust where it's been broken. They help parents believe in schools again. And they remind our students day after day, that they're not defined by their past, but they're going to be a product of their future. And that's what it means to be a fi Phoenix. Out of these ashes of struggle, our students rise stronger, wiser, and more resilient than ever before. At Francis Howell Union, we just don't help students get diplomas. We help them rediscover who they are and who they were always meant to become. To help everyone understand how this happens, I'm going to ask you to pause for just a minute and I want you to think about your favorite teacher that made a difference for you. And I'd bet my paycheck that none of you thought about their
015lesson plans, their ability to make tests, or their teaching strategies. While those are important, I guarantee all of you thought about the relationship that they made with you and how they helped you push through in the times that were difficult, to have the courage to persevere even when it might have been hard. The belief that they had that confidence to keep going. That's what this team is all about. They're able to meet our students where they are, provide them the support they need, and guide them on their way back on their track of education. They represent some of the most talented staff around reaching students where while others have tried, they were unable to. It's that foundation in place that leads us to our next steps with Francis How Union and that it's more than
016graduation. As a building, we've created a focus on helping every child have a plan after high school. Our staff is working with every single student to identify and explore and refine their career goals, personalize a course sequence to provide exploration and learning opportunities to help them along that path. To support that work, we want to provide as much individualized support as possible. One way that we're able to provide that support is the guidance program that Miss Yuing has put in place. She matches students in our building with staff here at district office. You'll see many of them pictured here. They volunteer their time to listen, to guide, and connect. So, it's not just the union staff that support the students, but so many in this building and many that are here tonight. Together, they remind
017our students that they are seen, valued, and that they're not walking this journey alone. To help students identify their career choices, Miss Brown organized our manufacturing day where she designed specific lessons to ensure our students got everything they needed to out of that day, ensuring that when they met our local representatives, they would gain valuable insights in their careers and the next steps for them in their path. We also developed our very own career day that we housed upstairs just last week or this week. We brought in local industry representatives to speak to our students individually, making sure the decisions they had made were the best informed for their future, their careers. After identifying that goal, we wanted to make a plan of how to get there. In many cases, it's education after high school.
018So, our students use their U science, ASVAB, and ACUPPLACER assessments to guide their post-secary choices. Our staff work with each of them individually to ensure they fully understand what those assessment means and what options face their futures. An example of this is our students attended the college fair. Each one had a plan in place of specifically who are they going to talk to and why. Making sure they got that essential information they needed from the event to help them with their path forward. But we didn't stop there. One of the biggest barriers for kids who struggle for post-secary options is funding. And we knew that helping our students identified their plan and goals wasn't enough if we couldn't get it for them. Francis How Union has not had an A+ graduate since the school started.
019and we're going to change that. This won't be an easy task, but we our staff and students are working hard to ensure that our students will meet the GPA requirement, complete their tutoring hours, and be prepared for the algebra intercourse assessment, which will provide them with opportunity to attend a community college or trade school free of tuition. You see it pictured here, Alice and Mackenzie, our first two students earning their 50 hours of tutoring with our adult life prep program that's housed on the second floor. I want to thank all of you for continuing the great things that our students and community deserve and appreciate the support that you have for our school and our program. Without that, none of this would be possible. And one final more happy celebrate. Well, this was happy too,
020but the staff and students all really wanted to thank all of you, the board and Mr. Delaney for Officer Skunover. He has been a tremendous addition to our school. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you so much. >> Look like who else is here from Franchesial Union tonight? >> Who else is here from Franchesaw Union? >> Just want to say thank you to the three of you. I just want to make sure thank you to the three of you for being here, too. >> Right. We're moving towards uh patron comments. Uh during patron comments, residents of the district and staff members are invited to address the board of education on issues related to the school district. Speakers are called forward in the order of signup and each speaker has three minutes to make their remarks. Uh please
021remember 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 your perspective. I would like to remind everyone that we expect the speakers will remain civil and respectful when giving remarks. If anyone fails to comply with board policies, regulations, and rules, we reserve the right to cut those three minutes short. We also ask that patrons in the audience remain quiet in order to be respectful of the speakers allotted time. And now I'd like to invite um Grayson Justice uh to be our first speaker. [Music] Good evening. My name is Grayson Justice. My pronouns is he and she and I'm a
022alumni of Francis Health Central, class of 2013. Um, so a lot has happened this month, so I'll just give you a few. Uh, first, this month is LGBTQ history month and today is spirit day. Um, a day against bullying and discrimination towards our LGBTQ students, teachers, and staff. I still propose an elective course at a high school level about the community of people who made a difference in our in this country. Um second families and MAGA lawmakers are trying to bribe our students of this district for $1,000 to start a chapter of a group known as Turning Point USA. This school doesn't uh this school doesn't need a club to teach students how to be trolls both online and at school. We don't want it here and it and we will not take bribes from
023groups like Turning Point USA. Um third, uh yet again we had another racist attack in our school district. This district had a long history of racism and it's time to bring back um the resolution of racism and discrimination back. And then finally, this is um a little personal to me. Um, this summer, um, someone anonymously messages me something from a request report and it says, hold on, let me get this. Um, I like to request the address of Mr. Grayson Justice Records when resigning from for patron comments. Um, this is for a particular board member and that is Mary Jane Pushkar. Um, I know we're not really good uh friends and whatnot. I know you're trying to silence me on um not coming here to speak, but if this happens again, this happens uh this
024was request um was in March. So, if this happens again, then something um um it shouldn't be happening. You shouldn't you shouldn't silence speakers like me. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Next we have Carl Serby. [Music] >> Good evening. Last month uh Miss Joles did a presentation on the strategic plan and one of the first points was to take our MAP scores and I believe it was for all students across all subjects to go from 63 to 70% which was a fairly fairly large increase and kind of piqu my interest and got me thinking about how do you do that? And the first thing I think about is how can you increase the time that our teachers get to spend with their students one-on-one. All right, two ways to do that. One is
025through the school calendar. First way is to eliminate AMI days and return to 169 days in person to maximize studenttoteer engagement. Right now we have a schedule that calls for 169 days. But if we have snow days, the first five days under snow day is an AMI day. What I call another miserable idea. If one thing we should have learned from CO, remote learning doesn't work. This district stayed in person and we benefited from it, but many many districts across the country shut down and tried to do remote learning and it and it didn't work. The reason we do this is because we can we can have five AMI days and still meet state minimums since when is simply meeting state minimums adequate for Francis how I think our students deserve better than that. That's
026the first point is school calendar. The second point way to improve uh studenttoteer engagement was something I talked about three months ago and that is improving uh attendance or reducing absenteeism for our teachers. And I spoke about that three months ago and I sent an email several several months ago or several years ago rather to the board. So hopefully that's uh underway. You if you think about snow days, if you just take four snow days and you can convert from you know we have five but if you say four AMI days and four days um you know to reduce teacher absenteeism out of I forget the numbers were like 13 or 14 on average. So a conservative reduction. So you get eight extra days. That's a 5% improvement in the number of days on annual
027basis between teachers and students. I come from a manufacturing environment. If you told a manufacturing person they can get 5% productivity improvement with no cost, easy to implement, they'd be ecstatic. So the challenge for the board and the administration I believe is to focus on things that one favorably impact the academic achievement of all students in our district, two they're easy to implement, and three they're no cost. Those are my ideas for evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Our uh third and final patron comment is from Bobby Sutherly. Bobby Sutherly. Okay, we are moving on to comments from uh FHEA. Is there a representative from FHEA here to present? >> Okay, we are moving to comments from FISA. I'm aware that the uh FHA president is currently attending a conference um to develop skills
028um and thankful for her. I'll be willing to go to Phoenix. >> Thank you, President Blair. >> Back to FISA. >> My name is Jennifer Vineyard and I am the FISA vice president of clerical staff. As with many in the Francis Hall community, we were appalled by the racist graffiti found at Francis Hall High School last week last month. We appreciate the swift actions of the building and district teams in identifying the individual responsible and ensuring accountability. There is absolutely no place for hate and Francis how and we encourage the board of education to reaffirm its commitment to equity and inclusion by revisiting the resolution against racism. With the federal government shutdown, reports last week indicated that the Department of Education had a reduction of force that severely impacted the offices that oversee individuals with
029disabilities education act and make sure the funds appropriated are sent to states to help students with disabilities succeed in school with the supports they require. Families of students with these disabilities are nervous for the future for their children. Teachers and staff too worry about future school years and the potential budget cuts that may lie ahead. Although IDEA is a federal law, without sufficient monitoring, these funds might be diverted to purposes that don't directly benefit the students for whom they were intended. We encourage encourage the Francis Hall community to contact their elected representatives and advocate for continued support and proper funding for our most vulnerable students so every child has access to the education and resources they need to succeed. Finally, we extend our warmest wishes to all students and staff for a restful restful and
030enjoyable fall break next week. May you find opportunities to relax, recharge, and return with renewed energy for the remainder of the semester. For our year-round staff, as important projects continue across the district, we hope you can also find moments of rest. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> board. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda for October 16th, 2025 as presented. >> So moved. Thank you, >> Director Pushkar. Second by Vice President Grder. All those in favor say I. >> Any oppose say no. >> Motion passes. Uh board, do we have a motion to approve the financial report as presented? Second. >> Director Kushkar. Second by uh Vice President Grder. The deputy superintendent of finance and operations, Dr. Amy St. John will present. >> Good evening. Thank you board for having this opportunity to
031share an update with finance and operations tonight. Our format again is similar to what you have seen before. We'll start with our first um overview of where we set with the fund balance at 27.84%. Consistent with what you've seen in the prior month. And this month, again, we do not have a budget amendment or transfer to share with you. We do expect that to be in next month's report as we have received, we believe, our final allocations for many of the um programs that that get updated in the fall. This is a similar format to what I shared last month. And again, just to remind you what some of the variables are that are in the projections as we look forward. So to again to guide your eye, the green column is the current year
032that we are living. And so this is where you draw that 27.84% fund balance at the bottom of that column. And you can see the um columns to the right of that are the projections for the years 26 27 through 2829. And then I draw out in the table to the right the assumptions that are being made in those projections so that you can see where that would take the fund balance. As you know those are both conservatively um held through the revenues. So revenues could come in a bit higher and conservative um for the um estimates that we have there for um for instance the increase to salaries it's showing an overall 3% and that would include the 1% that we do expect from house p house bill 727. In addition to that it's
033showing the benefits increasing each year by 8% and we do know that historically that has been a little bit higher. So we are running um the the uh projections on that each month as we're talking about that in the employee insurance meeting. This is just another way of looking at it um so that you can see it and again not to show doom and gloom but rather just to show with those assumptions what that would look like as it would trail off to that 15% which would then still um meet the board policy for fund balance. The bond financials are brought to you this month. As last month, um, Salum Sutzster was able to share with you what phase two was going to look like to finalize those dollars in the bond funds. And the
034phase 2 would include those HVAC projects at six more locations. And to draw your eye to the bottom right hand corner, kind of midway through there talking about that available balance, that's after those items have been started. Um, so those are those are pulled out and said this is what we've earmarked those for. And those remaining dollars, you might remember we've talked about that we'll have to pay an arbitrage payment, which is a little unusual. May not have happened in any time that you've been um in the school finance world. It happens when the bond funds earn um a greater percentage than what um the bonds were earning. And so that's money that we will have to pay back. So that's currently estimated at $1.8 million. and that remaining balance will go towards that. This
035is our self- insurance fund financials. And again, this is so that you're seeing them uh year-over-year so that you have a comparison. Um total expenditures July through September for this um current year are at 9.4 million and the revenues are only coming in at 6.4 million. And so that's something that we're really paying attention to in the employee insurance meeting each month so that we're staying aware of um some of those high claimments that are coming through that we're paying um at a much higher rate than what we have seen in the past. It's trailing um or trending much the same as what last year looked like. There haven't been um many updates in this area. My next slide, I'll talk a little bit more about Senate Bill 3, but again, this is just a
036reminder um each month. This is something that we're watching on a weekly basis um and we are not back in session yet um with the legislature, but as we know, these two items happen outside of that cycle. And so just again paying attention to that through both St. Charles County as well as the state overall, making sure that we're uh staying in tune with any legislative changes. The one update began or did happen on September the 26th with Senate Bill 3. There was a lawsuit filed in Cole County and you can see the plaintiffs that that included. There were some named school districts um some that are in our area and then uh some down in southwest Missouri and southeast Missouri as well as a fire protection district. The claim is, as we talked about
037before, is that they it is hoping that we're all hoping that it'll be determined to be unconstitutional for them to be able to institute the Senate Bill 3. As it stands, um all of the districts, all of the counties would benefit if this were to um come to fruition, but at this moment, we still believe that it will be on the ballot in April. These slides are similar with updated green column and then the projection out. But again, the assumptions that we're making is if Senate Bill 3 were to come to pass, that would be a negative $4 million in the first year, a negative 8 million in the next year, and then the following year would be a negative $10 million to our school budget. You can see with the yellow arrow at the
038bottom that that does um impact us, bringing us down to 7.41% 41% fund balance in that third year. This layers on that house joint resolution of um the elimination of personal property tax. Should that come to pass that would be a negative 20 million in one year. So that's um would be in effect for the year of 2829. And that um also again has a negative impact. And again, this is not to scare. It's really to keep you informed and to stay alert to these types of changes. These are just projections and proformas. But I think it's important for us not to have our head in the sand as to the changes that are occurring. Um, and the much conversation is happening in the area of property tax and personal property and that and so
039we just want to make sure that we're staying in tune with that. October has been a very, very busy fun month. Um I will share much of this in the strategic plan update as well. But um again that phase two of the bond projects has been announced the facilities master plan. Uh the safety updates um were part of tonight's um financials and the visitor management system moving forward. We're very excited about that. The employee insurance committee meeting um that's meeting monthly and it's riveting and exciting and everyone loves to go to that meeting. Just in case you've heard that on the street. Yep. That was a laugh. Anybody? Yep. Uh transportation continues to be short staffed. We are starting to see some good efforts um by Lisa and her team in regards to some recruitment
040um ideas that those are sort of coming to pass and we're pretty excited about that. Nutrition services does still um struggle a little bit but we are excited that they're at about a 90% staff rate. our FFN um request where those some of those capital expenditures um Salum and Matthew Bulick are going around and meeting with the district leaders and making sure that they have everything that they need for the um current school year and planning for the next. And then Scott and his team will be working very hard this fall break, not much of a break. Um and they will be um doing a final inventory for um helping to build that five-year plan that we will um be bringing to you at the February board meeting. And a look ahead look ahead is
041just to continue to develop the budget amendment as I mentioned there. Um getting all those final figures as the um June 30 ends and finalizes um and our normal audit cycle um is wrapping up and then um getting the the first of year numbers. We we like to get an update to you all um in the current year budget as well as um starting to talk about what's going on. It's it's funny that it's only October and we're already talking about the next school year and the things that are on the horizon. Um we are final um as as much as I know with the state audit um that we've gone through. I believe I've sent the final um pieces for that um just today um with the just a few more artifacts and and
042pieces that they were seeking. Um it's been a very pleasant experience. A very nice gentleman that I get to work with. So that's a been a good thing. And then um there's a construction report that you'll see in today's board meeting as well. and many of those projects are coming um to wrap up at this time. Um we're very excited about. So with that, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer. Board, any questions or comments? Just to reiterate, uh, Senate Bill 3, the effect is that it freezes the assessed value of property taxes on September 2024, and we will then have our largest source of revenue frozen while cost increase. So whether it's cost for insurance or gas for the buses, all that stuff would increase. So that's why you're sharing this
043idea of a growing gap between revenue and cost. Does that >> that is that is an accurate statement. Um uh about 72% of our budget is based upon local revenue. So when there's a change that would be made to that legislatively, it would be um devastating to our district like us. It would um be something that we would have to have ongoing conversations as to priorities and things that we would have to look at in the budget. So I want to make sure that we're staying in tune with any of those legislative changes. >> All right. And so for the community to pay attention that's currently on the April ballot. Um there's some potential lawsuit that's being filed that might be heard, might change that. But for right now, the community should be aware that
044this Senate Bill 3 is currently on the ballot impacts schools, ambulances, uh ambulance districts, um fire and library and it >> as well as the DDRB. >> The DDRB >> stands for the disability >> de developmental disability board. >> Thank you for that clarification. Anything else? Okay. Uh board, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose say no. >> Motion passes. Uh board, we have a motion to approve the purchases as presented. >> So move. >> Dr. Kuskar, >> second. >> Vice President Grder with a second. Any conversation? >> Um can you help me? Which purchases are we talking about in particular? [Music] just everything that's listed under the consent agenda for the under the action items individual the >> okay um one of the things that I had requested was numbers
045for some of the things that were listed as to be determined did we get those numbers >> they um so some of them are ongoing so the PO number has not been created and that's all that's missing is just that PO number so many of those will happen um ongoing they're they're a monthly occurrence and So, um, Julie Walsh indicated that that's something that would be created at a different time, was not available before the meeting. >> Okay. >> You're you're just me missing the PO number that >> Well, I'm looking I'm >> The cost is available. >> Yeah, there was so much in this agenda that I'm trying to find what I'm thinking about. It was a table where it had a bunch of purchases and there were three items and it might not
046even be in the consent agenda. That's why I'm trying to find it. I believe it is in this one and it's um like the first one is the lead school and it's requesting right um requesting um tuition for a student to attend and so that's an ongoing um expense that we have there and so it's just making the board aware of your prior approval of a um a purchase that's coming. >> Okay. And that was one student or several. We don't know how many. >> That's one student that was asked for in that one. I think another one was the um benefits administration, right? Um that's gone through an RFP process and and we've um had a committee to review um our options and we've narrowed it down to the last one. And so again,
047that's something that would be >> that that was the one that was half a million dollars. >> It is and that's actually a discount from where we were. If you um have a chance to look at the full memo on that one, that's we're going to be saving money and getting a better product. I saw that and but I did notice that in July there was also a purchase or some kind of a purchase for bet smart ben again >> this is to prepare for next school year. >> Oh >> so we just went through it this year and then and we have smart bin and then this will be um preparing for next school year. >> Okay. So the smart ben takes us through the end of December of 2025 or the end >>
048uh no we are at October one beginning. So when October one rolls around for next school year, then we'll use the new system. >> So it takes time for us to be able to convert that over. >> Okay. Cuz I I saw Smart Ben in July and I was like, wait, we just paid these people and now we're going to pay another group $400 some thousand. >> It's just the overlap from one system to the next. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Any question? >> Any other questions? >> All those in favor say I. I. >> Any oppose say no. No. >> Sorry. >> Motion passes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh next, Director Pushkar is bringing forward uh policy 0412. It's for a first reading. It will be brought back for a second reading and vote
049at the November 20th meeting. Uh board, is there any conversation that you want to have about this at this point? Uh I just want to make a comment. This is largely to make policy 0412 align more with state statutes. Um, and that's the purpose. It's not the same as patron comments. It refers to a different specialized type of patron comment. >> My my question about this one was what is the need? What what why is there why are we modifying this policy? What's the problem we're trying to solve? >> Dr. Prescott. >> Yeah, the policy is not clear. Um, if you read it, it says that a person that uh has an issue that they want to address by the board, of course, first goes a superintendent. If you can't solve the problem, then they
050come to the board. Um, it's it's not real clear whether or not each person gets five minutes um or that five minutes is divided among three people, which would amount to a minute and 30 some odd close enough seconds. Um, I believe that if a a person has an issue with the district, they have the right to be heard uh for more than a minute and a half. Since patron comments get three minutes, I think it would be a great idea to make that clear because uh there's been some discussion and disagreement about that in the past. So the purpose is just to clarify >> the amount of time >> for this for this special agenda item patient comment >> and policy 412 was invoked in the past. >> Do you remember the last time
051it was used? >> Uh yeah it um >> six months ago. >> What was the topic? >> It had to do with bathrooms. >> Yeah I would say that it was invoked last year. I can't remember the uh specific month. Um uh at the time Dr. Rumpus and I met with three community patrons. Um and um they did come to speak to the board. They did request an agenda item to be placed on the board's agenda. Um and uh I think at that time uh the additional complaint was due to the time constraints instead of all three individuals being able to speak to their concerns, one individual if I remember correctly spoke uh on behalf of all three or maybe two spoke. Um but but >> one one said about 15 seconds. Yeah, they were
052limited to the five minutes collectively as a group and and I think that is uh director Pushcar's request for change >> and there's a state statute that we're referring to. >> Uh yes, the the actual addition to placing an agenda item on the board's docket is is tied to state statute. There is some uh uh districts have some opportunity as far as time limits to set some of those things. Uh so we we were in compliance previously with state statute. I think uh director pushkar is asking for clarification on the time. Uh and additionally uh the idea that each uh if there are three speakers on one topic that each speaker would be allotted a full five minutes to share their concerns. Um Dr. Director Kushkar if I am incorrect please correct me on that.
053No >> you're fine. And this is being presented as first reading for tonight. >> There's no hope tonight. >> I have a question. Uh at the very beginning it says u there'll be a total of 30 minutes that could be allotted and it talks about um residents and staff. So is that 15 minutes for residents and 15 minutes for staff? So, this policy covers both the public comments and uh a community member that would want to place an agenda item on the board. So, that first passage is our typical 30 minutes of patrons signing up for coverage. That's kind of what that refers to. And the secondary part placing an agenda item on the board agenda. uh an individual would first have to reach out meet with the superintendent to see if they could reach
054some conclusion or middle ground on what the concern was. So that's a great question but they are two kind of separate items >> different things on there >> under the same policy header. Yes. >> And it but it's a maximum of 15 minutes of the of these. >> That is correct. Now, what the policy does allow for uh and this is in compliance with state statute uh is there could be three separate um items that come to a board agenda item. So, you could foreseeably have um nine different individuals uh on three separate subjects. Now, that has never happened yet, but I guess anything is possible. >> Could we write it in that you don't have that occurring? I I think we are required uh to by state statute to state that a minimum of
055three. Anything beyond three can be pushed to a a uh >> Three topics. That is correct. >> Yeah. I think there's a a portion in there that says that you can push it to the next meeting if the board's overwhelmed. >> That is correct. >> Any more conversation? >> So it says in here no more than three topics. >> Yeah. >> Correct. >> Okay. Three separate topics. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's item five down at the very bottom. >> I think having some name that distinguishes this kind of agenda item from regular patron comments will be helpful. I don't know what that language is, but that way it's not as confusing, but you have it doesn't even change the policy. It just means how we talk about it. >> Yeah. So, we have this does not
056change patron comments at all. It just means the specialized version of like a super patron comment has to have a certain process. But that that definitely cannot be the actual we come out with. Um but that would be helpful to distinguish. Any other comments? >> Does it say patron comments at the up at the top? >> Well, they're resident initiated agenda items. No, I mean when it's maybe we if we put patron comments we could discern which was which >> we could present that whether it's to the policy or anybody else just for friendly editorial for clarification. Okay. All right. That was uh for first read. Um now uh we have other policy and regulations for first reading. Uh, these will also be brought back for a second reading and vote at the November 20th
057board of education meeting. Um, so everybody just want to check those out. Um, I don't know if you want to make any comments around that list. Seeing nothing, we'll go on. Uh, board, we have a motion to approve the policies and regulations as presented. This is uh, item 12A. We have a motion by director Kushkar, second by Director Harmon. Any conversation? Uh just a reminder to the public, a lot of these are just mandated um ways to be up to date. And so all those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed say no. The motion passes. Up next board, we have our quarterly strategic plan progress report. I'm excited about this. This is going to be something for the next five years and this is our very first one. And so I
058invite uh Miss Jennifer Joles, our chief communications officer, to present this evening. Miss Joles. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Blair. We are excited to share a high level overview this evening of some of the work that's been happening on our new strategic plan. I'm going to review the planning timeline and some of the foundational plan components before turning it over to my friends, the pillar leaders who are here. They're going to actually present their section tonight. Um they are going to highlight progress they've made in each area of the strategic plan and give you a peek at the work ahead over the next quarter before we come back to you in January or February. And then I'll just ask that you hold questions till the end. We'll let them all present and then we're happy
059to answer some questions for you. Here is a reminder of the planning timeline. Just to take you back a little bit, we kicked off the planning process about 20 months ago in January 2024. That spring, we held a series of community roundts, focus groups, and surveys to better understand the district's strengths and opportunities. And then last fall, a strategic planning team came together to develop goals and key performance indicators. You approved the five-year strategic plan in late November and pillar teams convened for the first time in the spring to build out specific action plans to accomplish the lofty goals we established in the plan. We then spent the summer making sure our staff were familiar with the plan and our priorities. And as all of our staff returned in August, that's really when our pillar
060teams got to work. I want to pause here and just provide a bit of perspective. When we think about this, we have to remember this is a five-year strategic plan and we are really only about eight weeks into the school year. And so I just want you to keep that in mind as you hear the pillar leaders talk about the work. We're really excited about the progress that's been made, but you will hear there's a lot of planning that has to happen, convening work groups, just putting those structures in place so that we can have those um you know those bigger initiatives that happen in years 2, three, and four. As a reminder, the full strategic plan can be found on the district website. Our mission, as you know, is to empower students to be
061lifelong learners prepared for the future. you are very familiar with our vision because you have now started leading that at the beginning of every board meeting which I really appreciate. So I will not read it to you all again here. You know what that is. And then our values you might have noticed um the core values posters. There's one in here, one in the hall and these are starting to make their way around our buildings. And so maybe next month we can bring you some photos of those hanging in the atriums in the in the different buildings. But we're really excited to push these out. Um, as a reminder, our values are to pursue growth and learning, focus on what matters, um, spending time and money wisely, being kind and safe, and embodying one how.
062And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to our first pillar leader, Mr. Glenn H. I see he typed in Mr. Glenn Allen Hancock Jr. He edited my notes for his full name. Um, he's going to talk a little bit about his team's work over the last eight weeks and what's ahead. And then when he's finished, Lisa's already close. Well, then pillar two leader will come forward and so on. >> Mr. Flynn Allen can't talk to you. >> You're very funny. I got to prep my read my notes before I get there. >> No worries. Hopefully didn't edit mine. Uh good evening. Uh I'm excited to provide uh you with an update related to our teaching and learning pillar of our strategic plan. Uh tonight I will provide a brief overview of some
063accomplishments and our focus areas as well as work we plan to begin in the near future. Our overall KPI, as I was mentioned earlier, is for pillar 1 to be in the top 5% of all K through2 public schools as measured by DESI's annual performance report or also referred to as the APR. Just this past week, DESIE did announce our Department of Elementary and Secondary Education just announced that they'll be releasing the 2025 APR scores to districts in the next few weeks. So here sometime in November we should be able to provide an update to the board of education and where we are in relation to that overall KPI 5%. Pillar one and our pillar includes three key areas to help support learning for all students work within our student achievement area is focused on
064improving our effective teaching practices and having a well- aligned curriculums with supporting resources to support effective teaching practices in every classroom. Dr. Altman and the instructional framework team pulled from four bodies of research to create an instructional framework and strategies that can be utilized as an instructional framework. This year, secondary schools and early childhood are receiving professional learning around the framework and beginning to utilize it. In an upcoming slide, I'll give you a brief example of what this uh might look like that they're able to use. Another action step we have made progress uh with over the summer is writing common form of assessments and proficiency scales. Proficiency scales help outline the steps or breakdown uh of what it would take to be considered proficient on a learning standard. An oversimplification of a proficiency scale
065would be to think of driving. So if you divided the skill of driving into four parts, a beginning driver, emerging driver, proficient driver, uh and beyond proficient at the very beginning level, you might be able to name some parts of the car. The emerging level, you might be able to know the rules of the road. Uh you can drive simple streets, perform driving simple driving maneuvers, basic turns and such. Um but you still need some guidance on complex tasks like parallel parking at the proficient level, which is kind of the goal to be a proficient driver, right? Uh you'd be able to drive on your own. Uh you know the rules of the road. Uh you follow all the rules of the road and you'd be driving independently and handling different routes uh and such.
066If you go one step above that into an expert driver, that's when you might be be able to drive in any weather condition, maybe even a stunt driver if you will, uh and say that you're going above what's required for proficiency. So, proficiency scales help us narrow in on areas that provide support for helping students uh reach proficiency, the targets that we're setting uh in our learning targets and goals. Common assessments, common assessments for several courses have been developed and they're to help provide feedback on their progress. uh when the word common is used, it means we usually have teacher teams coming together to review results together so they can help plan and support instruction uh when they're together. Within our focus area of student support, we have created a walkthrough instrument to help with
067ensuring consistency and quality across classrooms. Uh it's really a snapshot, a conversation starter, and a way for us to collectively monitor and support the implementation of our core instructional practices and resources. We'll use the data collected during the walkthroughs to help inform our practices and ongoing professional learning. This is these are walkthroughs for tier one which tier one refers to really the instruction that all students are receiving for their uh for their courses uh inside there. And so this would be a walkthrough that we do uh to ensure that tier one instruction is happening and then how do we continue to help respond and provide additional professional learning within our college and career area. We have formed a work group to help look at the development of a portrait of a graduate. Uh the portrait
068of a graduate really creates a picture of the skills and competencies and experiences we want for our Francis how graduates. So that committee work will be beginning here coming up. This slide uh is an example of an instructional framework that I referenced earlier. Um and the work uh here in the instructional process uh was built on a foundation of nurturing a supportive community where all stakeholders are valued and respected and educators reflect by thinking deeply and critically about their own learning and experiences and knowledge. This graphic helps illustrate the instructional process of planning, instructing, assessing, and responding. You'll notice that each quadrant in yellow has links there, and those links are links to strategies that can be used within each area. uh when you click on a link, it contains additional information about implementing a
069teaching uh instructional strategy along the way. This slide shows uh teachers conducting curriculum writing and assessment writing. Much of this work with curriculum writing, assessment writing begins over the summer during our curriculum and assessment boot camps and then continues uh throughout the year. And as we look ahead, the second part for pillar one, looking ahead, we'll continue to work on each of our focus areas. Teams will begin to you teams will begin using the tier 1 walkthrough data to review implementation and adapt the instructional framework to support teachers. We'll also continue with ongoing curriculum and assessment development. Within our area of student support, MTSS or multi-ter systems of support, a leadership team will begin meeting to develop a plan for implementing an MTSS framework in our district. MTSS is built upon a strong curriculum, instruction,
070and assessment foundation. Much of that work with the instructional framework. The assessment writing that we're doing is all part of providing a strong multi-ter systems of support. Uh this framework uh will utilize assessment results and student data to help provide the right support to students at the right time to help ensure we have the appropriate times within the day to provide necessary supports. Scheduled work groups will begin looking at ways to provide learning opportunities for all students. And lastly, within our college and career uh focus area, we will look to gain additional input from our community to help shape our portrait of graduate. So again, any input for those skills, competencies, experiences we want graduates of Francis How uh to have upon graduation. And with that, I'll now pass along to Miss Simkins to share
071an update with Pillar 2. >> Thanks, Glenn Allen Hancock Jr. Good evening, everyone. I'm Lisa Marie Simpkins and I am the chief human resource officer. I am the leader of pillar 2, people and workforce. Uh we have three main areas of focus. Workforce planning, staff retention, and staff recruitment as we work to ensure that the Francis High School District is a destination district and the employer of choice in our region. Um some things that we have started and have started to do, our director of human resources, Dr. Leak, is working closely with our local colleges and universities to place practicum students and student teachers within our schools. That has been something that we've done for a long time, but really being intentional about that and developing relationships with these students, setting them up for success
072and really getting them connected to Frances early will encourage them to apply in Francis Hal when they graduate and get certified um and and stay here as teachers in Francis Hal. We have a focus on employee satisfaction to support our recruitment and retention efforts. After getting stakeholder input, we worked with academics and communications to develop a survey that will inform our future work. A heavy focus has been placed on recruiting support staff. You may see paid advertising on help wanted job boards. You'll see some billboards showing up here throughout our area soon and a school bus that has been moved throughout the area with a help wanted sign. Um we currently have 93% of our support staff positions filled. So, we're working diligently to make sure those positions that support our teachers and our students
073are filled. We are close to completing annual staffing visits with each district leader to inform how we will use our staffing resources for the 2627 school year. And in addition to our monthly chief and FHA meetings, uh where we problem solve as a group those larger district issues, the FHE president and their lead negotiator and I are meeting monthly. We're collaborating, problem solving some more individualized building issues, planning together, and really supporting district working conditions for all staff. And finally, administration and FHEA have worked collaboratively to develop a draft of the 2728 teacher calendar, that student uh school calendar um to work together to do that as well. So, what's next? Um, as we work to develop next year's staffing plan, we are taking time to really analyze our current staffing process. This will help
074us determine next steps regarding that third-party analysis that you'll see in our strategic plan. It's important to us that when we do that work, we'll have the resources to respond to whatever data might come from that analysis in a timely manner. The workplace culture survey will be sent to staff in early November. The information and results will inform our next steps and the work that needs to be completed to support retention in employees. So basically that employee satisfaction survey administration will present the first part of the 2627 staffing plan to the board in December and seek approval in January. Any requests for additional positions will be held until the budget is finalized and if necessary that will be presented to the board in June. And while we have completed a draft of that teacher work
075calendar for the 2728 school year, we'll pause bringing this to the board until we get further into negotiations. We know that changes to that calendar can be frustrating for our families and we want to be sure that there aren't any other changes that might come to that calendar before we bring a solid draft to you and the community. And finally, we are really looking forward to continued monthly planning meetings and the opportunity to collaborate with FHA during negotiations which starts in November to improve our staff working conditions. FISPA and Teamster negotiations will also soon be scheduled. Um, and now I'm going to turn it over to Dr. St. John. She's going to share updates for pillar 3, finance and operations. >> Thank you. I didn't know your bill name. I'm sorry. Hello again, Amy Lynn
076St. John at your service. I'm very excited to share with you the update for pillar 3 progress, finance and operations. The most exciting pillar, don't tell the others. Um the three areas for the three focus areas for this pillar are resource allocation, process improvement, and service and compliance. what we have done. Julie Walsh, the director of finance and I have had an opportunity um to start the work and we're meeting with building principles and department chairs or department leaders rather and um champion the work of resource allocation. So understanding where their budget is currently and any um anticipated needs that they will have moving into next year. In addition to that, we have had two employee insurance meetings. We do plan to have those each month as I mentioned earlier to monitor the health care
077cost as they are rising. Collaborating with stakeholder groups to finalize the process for improvement on the work um of the facility master plan. Um we will develop the priority list of the areas to conduct the utilization and efficiency studies. You'll hear the first of those tonight with Dr. Vanderpool regarding the early childhood education. And our goal there is to bring the various programs to you by definition, by cost, and comparison measures. Each month, I've had an opportunity to sit with the FHEA leadership and review the finance packet prior to a board meeting um to go line by line and page by page so that their comfort level is um and all questions are answered in advance. And I plan to continue that each month. And finally, Jen Joles, myself and 60 plus citizens gathered in
078this room and it was so much fun and we had the uh citizens in our school reunion focused on finance and we we do plan to continue that work as well. Here's a very exciting picture. Please notice the smiling faces, the clapping hands, the cheers. It really was a lot of fun. I know I'm being silly, but it truly was. What's next for pillar 3? We do continue to monitor that legislation. As I me mentioned there earlier, we have the two that are um extremely important in front of us, but we know there will be more to come. Um it's definitely something that um that will be on the horizon. We will continue to organize additional um finance education sessions with the public. um Jen Joles and myself, we really are brainstorming new ways that
079we can um think of other community events that we can attend and connect with and network and continue to have those open dialogues. We will finalize the long range demographic study in the facility master plan. As you know, last month we had um the first pass at that report. And then um tonight, next um coming up, we'll be Brent Blevens to kind of explain where we are um in connection with any um debt service that that would connect to. And then next month, November the 6th, we'll have a work session and being able to roll up our sleeves and truly understand the priorities of what lie in terms of our facility and demographic study. We will also continue meeting with our leaders and departments um to review any resource allocations. We will begin to um
080develop standard operating procedures and perpetual calendars for each department. We know that some of those exist throughout the school district, but we want to make sure that we're standardizing that and being able to access it um for the prosperity of all of the systems that are in place. And then finally, continue comprehensive analysis of revenue and expenditures and collaborating with our district leaders in ensuring that we have the right um priorities set for that. With that, I will turn it over to Dr. Vanderpool. I don't know your middle name. >> Okay. Just Kirk, by the way, just give me a quiz later. >> Good evening. I'm excited to update you on our Pillar 4 work. Um this pillar is broken into three essential interconnected areas. Culture, climate, and communication. Physical security and data privacy and
081protection. A comprehensive approach helps build an environment that is safe, structured, and supported. The long-term work involves building sustainable systems. And tonight, we'll review our our starting points in each of the three areas. In physical safety, we've seen rapid growth. We hired a director of safety and security and three security officers. We completed safety walkthroughs at all our school buildings and added a school resource officer at Francis Hell Union and Warren and incorporated the new Senate Bill 68 requirements into our plans. We also conducted safety training for administrators and threat assessment teams for culture, climate, communication. We completed the initial draft of our safe schools curriculum. Following a recent graffiti incident, we engaged our inspire team to support the community, invited local leaders for collaborative problem solving, and relaunched the afterchool superintendent chance for staff.
082And finally, in data privacy and protection, we successfully completed the multifactor authentication roll out for staff, which s significantly enhances the security of our district digital environment. And now what's next? And we have a lot going on. So looking ahead for the next quarter, we have several critical initiatives. In physical safety, we're implementing the visitor raptor visitor management system which will screen all visitors to ensure uniformity and safety across our buildings. We plan to hire additional security officer and SRO's with a recommendation for an SRO at Harvest Ridge coming to the board tonight. We also will establish a district safety and security advisory group and continue to ensure compliance with Senate Bill 68 for culture, climate, and communication. We'll present the safe schools curriculum to the board for review and approval. We'll also expand safety
083questions on the student survey to gather better insight. To facilitate better listening, we're scheduling focus groups for parents of African-American students at Francis Hill High School to share their experiences with the possibility of expanding these conversations to other groups later. We'll we'll enhance staff training on incident response and you'll start seeing our core values posters hanging in schools across the district in the next couple of weeks. Finally, our communications department is launching a new initiative, the PTO president's forum. The first gathering is next month designed for PTO leaders to share best practices and for district leaders to gather direct feedback from these highly engaged volunteers. In data privacy and protection, our next step is to eliminate vulnerable operating systems, specifically transitioning from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Worried about that one sitting right next to
084All right. I just want to thank everyone for allowing us to share our updates tonight. And now Mr. Mr. Delaney says he'll take anyone's questions. >> Yeah. Um board, I just wanted to share a few words. First, I just want to uh take a moment to thank our pillar team leaders. Um the strategic plan is the focus of all of our work in the district. Uh but these pillar leaders have taken on significant amount of work over and above their daily duties. So the the strategic plan drives our work, but day-to-day operations still happen. And all of these people are still doing their day-to-day jobs while doing the heavy lift of leading these groups out. As you can see from the reporting this evening, significant work has taken place in the first eight weeks of
085school. And and again, as Jen had said, this in regards to a plan that's a five-year strategic plan. The initiation and implementation of strategic plan requires a significant lift by staff across the district, not just these pillar leaders. We are proud of the work that has been done thus far. We know there is much more work to do. We will have another quarterly update to share with you the entire board and the community in January and board. With that, I'll turn it back over to President Blair. >> Great. Uh board, do you have any questions? >> Director Brush. >> Yeah. Um couple things. I I hate the off the cuff. I apologize for the offthe cuff questions, but you mentioned Raptor. Can can in two minutes can you explain Raptor? >> Yeah. So, currently when
086anybody visits one of our school buildings and I know many of you guys have visit your your buddy schools, you notice a Google Chrome book that's there. You type in your name and and that's our line of security. If you visit a lot of other school districts, you will notice uh whether it's a what's called a raptor system, which would be anybody that visits a building uh placing their ID uh a scanned picture of their ID. Um that Raptor system checks for anybody that's on a sexual offender list and ensures that anyone coming through our doors is safe to be in our school buildings and is not on that list. It also uh manages and tracks like the people that are in the building. So, if we were to have an emergency situation at the
087time, a secretary would be able to pull a quick list and when we're out, like say a fire drill or if we had a lockdown drill or a real fire, um they would have an effective list to pull to ensure that everyone that was supposed to be in the building was accounted for and anyone that had exited the building uh was was not uh still being tracked or we weren't sending fire department officials back in. So, it is a safety security system that most of our benchmark districts have had for years, and we appreciate the work that Mr. Gmerson has done to to get that lift off the ground and and to get that initiated. I know he hopes to have that in place at the start of second semester as there's a lot of
088training that will initially take place. >> Okay, thank you. So, that's what I signed into. Okay, got it. Um, and then I had one about pillar two, and don't want to put you on the spot, Lisa, but have we started any conversations? Um, when one of the patrons were speaking tonight, they mentioned, you know, ways to get more teachers more time in front of the kids. And I know previously that same patron has talked about um somehow re-evaluating how we pay out um sick time or, you know, have we started any conversations about that, >> Jane? And I would say that all of that conversation will happen during negotiations as those are things that we have agreed upon with FHEA. So, um, >> as long as they're on your radar, >> they're definitely on the
089radar. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Other questions? >> I just wanted to give Kinley an opportunity, too. I don't know if she had any questions. It's always awkward to be like, "Hey, >> this is this this affects you. This whole >> Everybody, let's all look at Kinley." >> Now it's awkward. Did you hear anything that you have a question about or sounded exciting or good? >> I think that the raptor thing is good. I think that that's a good thing to have in schools, >> but I don't have any questions or anything. >> Thank you very much. >> And I'm going to talk to President Blair later about putting you on the spot. >> Yeah. >> Don't ever look at me. Yeah. Uh other comments or questions about the quarterly update? U I think
090the key performance indicators will be once a year. We'll find out those that pieces of information. Uh I also want to say thank you for those of you who are able to go through and explain the acronyms to some of us just don't recognize what some of those acronyms are. U want to make sure that was clear. Also, if everybody looks at every agenda item, there's a link that has all of our questions and answers. It's one of the ways that we make sure that any questions we have, it's reported in that setting as well as if it had this kind of a setting. So, there's just a lot of great things and and if you're watching at home, if you're here in person, just want to say how exciting it is to have these
091professionals with their hands on the steering wheel to to know that our present is in very good hands and and so are our next five years um and this goal and the way you're collaborating. Uh we're just we're very thankful to have you all leading our district and really excited about that five-year plan >> and I think the middle name was a nice touch. >> It wasn't it was Steven Ryan Blair. >> I'm not saying >> you're not going to say okay with that being the case uh we don't need to do any approval. Um now we have representatives from Piper Sandler who will present general information on financing options for public education and specific information relative to the debt and levy options for the district. Uh Dr. St. John, um please introduce representatives. >>
092I'm very excited to introduce Brett Blevens. He's going to be joining us for this presentation. Um and as you mentioned, it will be general information, some bond 101 type information for the board as well as specific information to our um debt um and debt service levy um for the district. And Brent might want to share just a little of your background because we have a few new board members maybe since you were here last. But I hope you enjoyed the presentation and he can answer all of your questions. >> So maybe your middle name. >> That seems to be the the the thing tonight, is it? Matthew. There you go. Uh yeah, I appreciate uh being back in front of the board of directors again. Uh some of you probably recognize me. I was here
093uh I think it was last November uh going over some information. A lot of that's going to be a little bit redundant tonight. Uh but as Dr. St. John mentioned uh we have some new board members here and so I think it is pertinent information to look at go over again. Uh I did shorten it down some. Uh but yeah, so my background uh I am a retired educator. I retired 9 years ago uh from the Lee Summit School District. Been in public finance now 9 years. Uh I will have to say cuz I think she's listening online. Uh being a public finance banker, my date night is my wife drove up with me from the Springfield area because that's about the only time we can get time together in the car. So she's out
094there listening. She's going to kill me for saying that. But yeah, so uh truly enjoy my job. Uh pleasure to work with the school district. Uh spend a little time here going over kind of uh some options and opportunities. So what my job is is to come in and really educate the board, right? What are your options? Lay out some plans. We like transparency. We want you to understand kind of what what your district can do and and I make recommendations based upon the goals of the district and what's best for their students. So when I present these, we want to show you different options. The board will then will come back and let us know kind of what they think their best plan is and we build a finance plan for you all that
095fits that. So So that is my job is to educate and inform the board and provide opportunities and options. And that's what we're going to do this evening. Uh make sure I get this going. So we got two objectives tonight. You can tell I'm a retired educator. Objective one, objective two, right? Uh bonds 101 and long range planning. Bonds 101. So, I'm going to be fairly quick at this. This is maybe some good late late night reading, but I never want to take for granted. Uh, as you all know, sometimes uh public education and public school finance can be very uh convoluted and very difficult. You've got obviously four funds. You're operating your special revenue fund or your teacher fund, your debt service fund, and your capital project fund. You also here is fund one,
096two, three, and four. Uh so tonight what we're going to talk about is specifically your fund three your dedicated levy or debt service fund. That is what I call the bricks and mortar fund. The other funds are what I call especially your operating and cap and teacher fund I call the kid the kid fund. Uh so we're going to specifically talk about your debt service fund and your fund three and what that looks like. So what are the pro what are the projects that can be done with your debt service fund? I will say this, one of the things about your debt service fund, it has a dedicated levy to pay off your existing bonds and future bonds as well. It's to renovate, repair, improve, furnish, construct, uh all the things that you do again
097for the bricks and mortar. Um you can purchase equipment, uh fixtures and furnishings, technology, infrastructure, all the different things. Uh so that bond is those bond issues and those projects that you do sometimes you construct new buildings and you need those new buildings or you do major renovations on existing buildings and those are important but there's a lot of projects that can be done with bond money such as asphalt HBAC roofing flooring uh those type of things that as you know in a district that has probably over 3 million square foot under roof hundreds of acres of playgrounds asphalt uh roofing uh outdoor or facilities that you have to manage and take care of just like we do our homes. It's hard to take care of all those projects out of your fund for your
098capital project fund. So to utilize some of those bricks and mortar fund to get some of those projects done are important and can be utilized with your debt service proceeds. Every dollar that you can spend out of that adalor tax in your debt service fund is a dollar you can save in your capital project fund. As you know those capital project uh revenues come from your operating dollars. So it goes back to the kid dollars back into the classroom authorization. So you do know you have elections in February, April, August, and November. All April elections are 47s. That's why you typically see most school ballots in the April elections. Also, as you know, schools are much more empty in the summers where you can get projects done when you get those April elections patching a
099lot of projects done throughout the summer months. There's a 47th Missouri majority in April. Uh August and November on even number it's 47th but on odd they're 2/3 uh on the August to November dates. Uh bonding capacity. So Missouri's fairly stringent in regards to how much bonding uh capacity districts can have. So you have two types of bonding capacity. One I call affordability capacity. It's what the district can afford with your debt service levy. And the second one is your constitutional bonding capacity, which is 15% of your total assessed value. So you cannot be in debt more than 15% of your assessed value. So for the Francis House School District, uh that 15% of where you currently stand, including your outstanding debt, is uh $395 million. So obviously uh your constitutional capacity is is much
100higher than what we call your affordability capacity. here. So, you're in debt much uh less or way below that 15% capacity that you would have constitutionally. Methods of sale. Again, uh you know, bonds are a debt instrument. As you know, in Missouri, we're limited to 20 years. So, all most of your bond issues go out 20 years. Uh we sell these in $5,000 increments uh to the lowest bidder. In other words, willing those investors want to pay the highest price for the lowest yields. Uh most of our investors are what we call institutional investors. And the reason being in a district with a great credit rating like Francis House School District, you're going to get very very low yields, very low interest rates, uh probably in the mid3s if we were to go out in
101the market right now. Why that is is you're very highly rated. You're very secure bonds. And so for retail investors, for individuals to go out and buy your bonds, unless there's they're supporting your school district, you're probably not going to go buy a 20-year bond at a 330, right? That's when you can probably put it in your local bank at over 4% and be liquid. So, we have a lot of institutional investors that don't care as much about yield. They care about somewhere safe to put their dollars. So, that's why school districts with those high uh ratings receive such low interest rates. Uh obviously like we mentioned local property tax revenue. It's a dedicated levy just to pay those off uh for your fund three and we talk about an advalorum tax. So in your
102no tax rate increase bond issues. It cannot state that you will keep your debt service levy where it's at. So the constitution requires you to set your debt service levy wherever you have to to pay those bonds back. That's another reason why districts and investors like to buy those bonds and you get such low interest rate is because it is an advorum tax and you're just making a promise to the constituents that you're going to do that. But you are required to set the levy wherever you so uh need to to pay those bonds back. Tax exempt status. Uh as you know investors get uh t tax uh tax breaks both on their income tax federal tax and state uh all interest on those bonds are tax exempt for those buyers. That's another reason we
103get that uh purposes for those bonds they have to be for nonforprofit. So if you are to go build a building let's say we have done that some districts where they share that space they build it and then they rent spaces out to certain uh different companies. uh those are actually have to be taxable bonds because they're not used uh they cannot be used for tax exempt purposes uh for for-profit facilities including for the school district. The school district cannot use their buildings uh for for-profit. There's an actual percentage of that but but but basically saying uh for profits cannot be utilized for taxes and bonds. And then you use bond counsel. Uh anytime we do any type of uh bond issuance, we involve your special tax council, bond counsel uh to ensure that you
104keep your tax exempt status because that's very important. So that is quickly over bonds 101. I just again never want to make assumptions that uh board members know exactly what we're talking about. So I want to give an update on that. Again, you can go through that. If you have any questions, feel free to relay that back to your administration. I'd be happy to answer those for you. But what we're really here to talk about is where you're at and future options for the board. And I will hesitate for a second. Is there any questions on bonds 101 before we jump into numbers? Very good. So this is your historical tax levies. Uh as you can see the district for the 202526 school year operating levy is 330 3.3056. Debt service levy of 0.6713. total
105levy of 3.9769. You can look historically and see that at least in the last since 2002, you're running the lowest levy that the district has ran uh in quite some time. Uh the debt service levy, as you can see, has been the same since 2003 2004. So, all of the projections that I'm going to give you uh will remain the debt service levy where it's at or be moved uh like we'll talk about an option uh to the operating fund if if the district so choose which we'll get to here in just a second. So, your tax levy again like we mentioned your levy of 330 uh 3.3056 your debt service levy of 0.6713 6713. Your operating levy, as you know, fluctuates annually based upon the Hancock amendment. So every September when you set your
106levy, you're going to only receive new revenues up at the consumer price index. So that levy when you get assessments that are above the CPI. This year the CPI was 2.9. You s you got a significant increase in your assessed value over that. So you had to roll back your operating levy to be revenue neutral up to 2.9%. So that's why you see in the past slide why your operating levy has dropped so much in the past several years because you have to roll back anything above the consumer price index. Your debt service levy stays consistent. It is not impacted by the Hancock at 67 cents. The board does have the option of setting the debt service levy uh where it would like up to a cap. The district does take an a voluntary roll
107back each year back to the 67 cents. It actually formulates in the form C calculate calculation to be higher but you have kept that at 67 cents based upon your past no tax rate increase bond issues to your patrons. Districts do have an option to move debt service levy to the operating through a ballot initiative. So at any point again this goes back to providing options to the board that best suits the district's finances and needs whether it be in the operating debt service fund. So tonight I'm going to show you two options. One of those options is what can the board do in future no tax rate increased bond issues with the 67 cent levy. The second option is if the board so chose they could go to a ballot initiative to move a
108certain amount of cents out of the debt service fund into the operating fund. That's a simple majority vote. It is not a 47. It's a 50 plus1 simple majority to do that. So what that takes is is an election. uh that ballot language is kind of a little bit wonky. It takes some explanation to your patrons of what you're doing, but it's called a tax levy increase because it's an increase to your operating, but then you're decreasing the debt service levy the same amount, making the overall levy remain unchanged. So, it's basically moving levy from one pot in the bricks and mortar fund into the second pot into the what I call the kid dollars and the operating dollars. So what what option would the board choose will depend on do you need more bricks
109and mortar money or do you need more classroom money based upon facility needs for classroom space renovations programming all the things that take place uh or whether or not you need that in your operating dollars. So first hypothetical that I've built out is option one and it would be a levy transfer. Now, I have shown this in uh a spring of 2027 election. That could happen. Obviously, we're getting close to spring of 26. Uh so, I did not put that in there. That could obviously still happen. You have till January 27th to call an election, but obviously this is going to require some communication across your community. So, I put in a hypothetical of a of an April 2027 election. Uh you can see in this scenario right here I've highlighted 12 and a half
110uh 12 cents. You said why 12 cents? That can be at any level the board so choose. I tried to choose a number that was impactful to your operating budget and at the same time allowed you some fairly significant resources in your debt service fund for no tax or increase bond issues. Those numbers I can provide any scenario the board so choose that they would like to see whether it's at 5 cents, a dime, 15 cents, whatever that be. So I put in a hypothetical of 12 1/2 cents. That 12 1/2 cents in an April of 2027 election obviously would not take place until the September tax rate hearing of 27. Therefore FY28, if that makes sense. So you wouldn't see those revenues till FY28. That's why you see that levy changing to 5463 in
111FY28. How much money does that generate on your current assessed valuation? That 12 1.5 cents generates about 5.5 million annually. So as your AV were to grow, if your AV were to grow, obviously that 12 1.5 cents is driven on the assessed value growth. So yes, sir. >> Yes. Uh first of all, thank you so much. Uh I received a note that our esteemed guest uh Kinley uh has to go home and u continue to do the things that a student does. So >> thank you again for your time here. >> Thanks. Thank you so much. Congratulations. That's exciting. >> Thank you. >> And thank you for allowing me to interrupt you. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> So you're still discussing uh option one versus option two. >> That's right. So uh again I can provide
112any scenario you'd like. Uh this just a hypothetical gives you an idea of kind of what 12 and a half cents drives. It drives about 5.5 million uh into your operating fund annually and could increase through AV. Now obviously if you lower your debt service levy that's going to be less no tax rate increase bond issues you can move going forward based upon the revenue that's being driven into your debt service fund. So, what this looks like, no tax rate increase, obviously baseline for Missouri, uh if you were to utilize that uh 12 1.5 cents, go to the ballot in April of 2027 uh for that levy transfer, uh that would allow you a no tax rate increase bond issue in 2027 for 150 million. in 2035 150 million and then 2042 275 million. So
113the district would have obviously still some fairly significant no tax rate increase bond issues for facility needs across the district if you were be if you were to decide to do that levy transfer as you'll see on option two if you keep it in the debt service fund those numbers will be higher u but this is what it would look like hypothetically I always like to show uh obviously those numbers will change depending on your assessed value growth but I always like showing multiple issues the reason being Your comprehensive school improvement plans has an area about facilities, long-range facility planning. When you look at those long range facility needs and desires in your comprehensive school improvement plan, this allows you to kind of put a number to those. Can we get those taken care of
114and when can we get those taken care of? Those will be adjusted every year. We work with the school district setting their tax rates, doing their form A and form C calculations. We look at your assessed value. I update your cash flow analysis. But that gives you a basic idea of what that would look like with a three and a half% AV growth. So the three and a half% AV growth, uh, you've grown 6% over the last 10 years, you've grown 3.7% over the last 20. We built in 3 and a half to be conservative. Okay. So what does it look like if you do don't do a levy change in your debt service fund. Okay. Obviously the operating dollars stay as the operating dollars. Your debt service fund then increases uh to 200 million
115in 2027, 200 million in 2035 and 400 million in 2042. So obviously more revenue going into your debt service fund. You have the ability to run a larger amount of no tax increase bond issues. So again, it goes back to what the district needs, their desires and and the needs that they have in their operating. Uh you know, I looked at Dr. St. John's presentation on the operating fund balance going down. Uh we have some challenging uh issues to watch in the legislative and I do want to make make point of this because this is very important. These are all subject and another reason I have this in 2027 and not 26. Uh these are all subject to Senate Bill 3. So this is this is status quo if that makes sense. These scenarios are
116built on status quo. Uh we will do a Senate Bill 3 scenario if that is to come to fruition. Uh like Dr. St. John mentioned, I think a lawsuit was filed yesterday or this morning. Yesterday I believe uh sometime this week. Um and we'll have to see how that goes, whether it's found constitutional or not, we'll also have to see if it's passed uh in each different county. Uh but if that is to come to fruition and does stay in place and is found to be constitutional and is passed by your county, these change and they change fairly significant. And that's another reason I think 27 would be a better option to start looking at what decision this board might make in regards to their debt service fund based upon hopefully having some more knowledge
117and input uh on how Senate Bill 3 is going to impact the district. [Music] So lastly, again this is your constitutional bonding capacity. If you look at and again I know there's a lot of numbers the finance guy comes in and this this is a no no for slides but unfortunately necessary. Uh if you look at your 2027 and go across to hypothetical 27 of 200 million, you still have a remaining capacity on the far right column of 235 million. So the point of this is is the district is in nowhere close uh to getting uh to the point where you're up against your constitutional bonding capacity. Uh in fact, you're less than half of your 15% assessed valuation of what you have outstanding and outstanding debt including the scenarios that I've built in. Uh
118so again your you know your long range plan uh maintain levy mix plans are formulated. I've showed you those. Uh the bottom line is is uh if the board chooses not to uh move levy to fund three and chooses not to do a bond issue. I think I got that question a year ago. Hey, what if this bond issues in 29 uh or or 28 or whatever it might be. Your fund balance is you can only keep 2-year reserve in your debt service fund balance of payments. So our job is to keep you in that sweet spot on your debt service fund balance that you have enough in there in case you don't get AV growth so you don't raise your debt service levy and at the same time not too much in one particular
119year that's an anomaly that then you automatically have to roll back your debt service levy which changes everything in your long range facility planning. So that's important. And so what happens is if the district so chooses not to do that, we can do what we call prepays or defeasants. If you recall, we did one of those last year. Um I think in fact it was on in May of 2025, we did a defeasance. Uh we had about $3,790,000 of principal, $4,73,000 of interest. So the district eliminated $17,863,000 of future debt payments. So that's great. I mean, that's great news. That's that's a huge savings to the district. So that that's a question I do want to answer though. If if we if this long range facility plan does not fit in 27 and it's a
12028 and our debt service fund balances increases too much, is there a way to get us to 28 and keep our 67 cent levy? And the answer is yes. And it's a good story to do that. It's paying off debt early. saving constituents obviously uh and district interest costs. So, I did want to make point to that. So, I know that's a lot of information. Uh the good news is is the district's in a great position. You have some ability if the board so choose to move some leving to operating if that money is needed in in in the in the fund one. It still do some fairly significant bond issues of roughly $150 million over the next two issuance. uh or if not, they're obviously in a great position to do about 200 million
121uh over the next two issuances as well if the board decides to keep the 67 cents in the debt service. >> So, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have at this time. >> Any questions, board? >> No, I just have a comment. >> I thank you very much again for an excellent presentation. um a lot of information, but I noticed that we became our levy went down after uh Miss Embry and uh decided to switch companies and I know that Miss Embry, too, is very happy with her decision. So, I just wanted to thank you. >> Well, I appreciate it. We're we're extremely happy to work with the Francis House School Board. We obviously are passionate about what we do. We care about kids, care about schools. That's our number one priority. So,
122I I greatly appreciate the comment. Uh other comments board just want to share u one piece. U for those of you in the public paying attention u the timing of all this is intentional. We had a facility masters plan that was considered a long time ago and that work took place that was revealed last month so that we have that information in place for this presentation. So thankful for all the different uh foresight happening within administration to be thinking about these conversations a year in advance. And also listed uh he mentioned it as well that last year's debt to feeasants uh saved taxpayer money um to the tune of $4 million 73,200 $200 that would have been interest but it was paid off. So, the conversation that happened um at the board meeting at that
123time and then updated here, uh just want to make sure everybody hears that. We sometimes we hear the other pieces of the conversation. Um but taxpayer money um was saved to the tune of $4,73,200. Um any other comments for me. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> And next up, we have an early childhood review presentation. Uh Dr. Dr. Will Vanderpool is here to provide the presentation. >> Board, I just want to say a few things before Dr. Vanderpool kicks off. You'll remember back on at the June 5th board meeting, there was a request to evaluate the overall EC program. Uh today, Dr. Vanderpool is bringing the board anformonly update describing the programs uh that are housed within our early childhood centers. uh a recommendation will come to
124the board at a future date. Uh but Dr. Vanderpool uh oversees our early childhood communities and we'll provide the board some informationformational update. Thank you Dr. Vanderpool. >> Thank you. I'm very excited to be up here today especially to talk about early childhood. That's a real passion of mine. So good evening. Thank you for this opportunity. Tonight is our first in a series of presentations focused on our early childhood systems. Tonight's goal is to provide a comprehensive overview with specific focus on our full day tuition preschool model leading to future recommendations for its sustainability. To offer context, sorry, flipped ahead a little too soon. Our purpose tonight is to provide a clear overview of the current early childhood programs serving students and families from birth through kindergarten. This sets the stage for our problem statement
125which will guide our work moving forward. How do our tuitionbased early childhood programs support our community and how do we ensure they are sustainable? The district operates three distinct early childhood programs. Our parents as teachers, early childhood special education, and our tuition based preschool. These programs serve different student ages and needs and focus some focus more on family engagement. We found there's some confusion about how they overlap. So, this overview will provide a clear framework and help you make decisions about our tuition model. To offer some context, we benchmarked against our typical peer districts. As you can see, all districts offer the three programs: parents as teachers, full day tuition, and early childhood special education. It's important to remember that our parents as teachers program is state supported. Our ECSSE is legally required by federal
126and state law. And our full day tuition program is not required, but it's very popular. Um, we're gathering data from our peers on whether their tuition programs like ours are running a deficit, which we hope to be able to share in the future. So, we're going to start tonight with our parents as teachers program. Uh, this supports families from pregnancy through kindergarten. They focus on parent child interactions, child development, and family well-being. PAT completes developmental screenings beginning as early as 3 months. Visits with parent educators are offered both in home and at our centers. And we also provide services and screenings in local community preschools. Last year, our parent educators served almost 1500 families. They completed um over 8,300 home visits and they also completed almost 2200 developmental screenings. And this data highlights the significant
127reach and impact in the of our critical early intervention system. [Music] Early child and special education program supports eligible students ages 3 through 5 with a developmental delays or disabilities as required by the federal individuals with disabilities education act. Students are identified through referrals uh various sources including parents as teachers, pediatricians, first steps um or sometimes families just know about us in the community. There's a comprehensive evaluation that takes place and then services are primarily provided in half-day classrooms with a few students receiving speech therapy through itinerate model. That's them coming in for 30 to 60 minutes a week for those speech services. Last year we served 477 students in our ECSSE program. These classrooms are loc located located across four sites primarily in our early childhood buildings but we do have a a classroom
128right now at Central Elementary. This requires a significant team, teachers, pair professionals, therapists, speech, occupational, physical, um supported by evaluation teams, building administrators, front office staff, nurses, ESC's, and the extensive staffing ensures we meet um our mandating needs of our students. So, when you walk into our early childhood buildings, most of the staff in those buildings um are are supported by our early childhood special education grant that we received through the um state. Our tuition based programs are available to students age three through kindergarten. We have both full day programs and half-day options. Enrollments on a first come first- serve basis and typically we start enrolling students right after the board approves the uh the tuition rates in January. Our full day option is the current focus of our problem statement and the full day
129program has traditionally had a long wait list but not this that has not been the case this this past school year. We currently serve 106 students in our full day classrooms. Additionally, 188 students are enrolled in the half-day program which operates as a peer model within our ECSE classrooms. So full day classrooms are distributed across four sites. Um our three early childhood sites and Becky David Elementary. And then the staffing for these tuition programs includes the teachers primarily in the full day classrooms and then the uh the classroom assistants in in this slide shows the enrollment history for both the tuition and ECSSE programs. The half-day tuition students are served in our ECSSE classrooms. And with ECSE, we have a to be determined. We gather those numbers at the end of the year. Students qualify
130as they turn three typically or are identified. So we start with a much smaller number than we end with. Um so right now we that number grows every single day. Sorry, apologize. Um, this slide represents the number of classrooms we have across the district. You can see a slight decline in our full day classrooms and increase an increase in our half-day classrooms. The primary driver for this shift is the increasing need for our ECSC services. We've seen a significant um number of students coming into our programs and we've had to make some decisions in our buildings about adding a couple of classrooms as as those opportunities arise. Right now the fun part, financial data. So now review the financial data for ECSE and tuition based programs. We're focusing on these two um since the problem
131statement um focuses on the tuition model and understanding state funded ECSE helps provide context. Parents as teachers is a separate funding model and it's primarily state supported. This slide illustrates the unique funding model for ECSSE. Expenses for a given year are reimbursed by the state the following year. Uh and for example, our 2324 expenses were reimbursed in 2425. The reimbursees process can be complex and you'll note the lag in the most recent year. Um 2425 uh it says that we captured $6,151,739, but it actually cost us the year before 7,336,114. And the reason why those don't add up like they should is because the state reimbursed us a little late for the 2324 expenditures. So let's kind of carry over into the next fiscal year. [Music] Uh to elaborate on this previous slide, the ECSE
132program is funded through a desi grant. The state reimbures us in a rears uh which means that they pay us this year for expenses that incurred the last year. This is necessary because they need to verify all expenditures which include everything from staff salaries and benefits to utilities and building supports like custodial and nursing services. Essentially, the grant covers the vast majority of our ECSSE operating costs. This chart shows the financial history of our tuition based programs, preschool programs specifically, because we also have our tuition vss program and that's not included in any of these numbers. You'll see that we have run a deficit annually across the past few years. While the budget is always designed with the goal to break even, we have not achieved that goal. Please note, as mentioned earlier, the revenue
133shown here include the tuition from the half-day ECS peer model and that revenue is not significant enough to offset the large annual deficit in the overall tuition program. Um we plan to bring back at a future meeting um the this year's expected budget and so give you some updates about where we are mid year. Our tuition rates are determined and approved by the board yearly based on our anticipated program costs with the goal of hitting a break even point. While we used to have focused heavily on remaining competitive with local preschool centers, uh the the need to cover operating expenses has become the primary factor in setting our our current tuition rates. I want to thank you for reviewing the foundation of our early childhood programs with me tonight. This background is essential as we
134turn our focus to the future of our full day program. Next, we plan to return with an update on this year's financials and present specific recommendations. Happy to answer any questions anyone has. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Um you mentioned that the um full and half day students serve as peer models for the ES ECSC students. Is that correct? >> The the full day do not. They have they're run in separate classrooms, but our um if you walked into an ECSE classroom, >> you would see 10 students. Typically, half of them would be identified with a with some type of delay and be served through the ECSE program and the other half them would be tuition paying students and they'd be considered our peer models. >> So, they would be sharing the same classroom, >>
135correct? >> same teachers, same parents, >> support staff. >> Yes. Correct. >> How would the how would that look financially then? because I know that the grant covers a majority of the ECSSE expenses. >> Correct. >> So, if those children are in that room covering the the heat and the electricity and all that, then how does that financially separate from the kids who are paying that tuition? >> Um, so the state allows us to have a peer model for those classrooms. So the state's going to pay for the electricity, the heat, the staff salary and benefits. And they allow us to have a peer model and it can be it can be based on tuition. It cannot. So we have the flexibility to decide. But that's the that's a best practice to have those mixed
136groups. Kids learn best from each other, especially when they're three to five. So >> Oh, I agree completely. I teach in a beautiful, you know, co-op classroom with lots of peer models um designed to be in that class on purpose with um operating that way. But I'm curious on the financial side of that because if the grant is covering the ECSE students, correct, >> which is covering the teachers, which is covering the operations, which is covering the building, >> then those other kids that are in there and they're paying tuition, >> why is that money that why are they paying money if the state is already paying for that? I I think that's just the way that the the the tuition model in the district has looked at those half-day classrooms and those full day
137classrooms as a as as as a whole set with a goal of breaking even um assuming the costs that are and typically the the tuition costs are um related to the teachers in those full day classrooms. Um, we haven't run the numbers in the past couple of years, but when we have looked at how much tuition we capture from those half-day students, it's it's a small fraction of the total costs in our tuition, and that's something we could bring back, how much our half-day tuition brings in, but but it wasn't significant to make a real difference in um, >> is it significant to be part of the debt? If it was removed, if the students that were in those um ECSSE classrooms as peer models paid nothing, it would considerably add to that half that
138full day tuition debt. Correct. I >> I guess I'm confused because if the grant is covering a majority of the EC expenses and then we put some extra kids in there, it's paid for. Am I misunderstanding that? >> No. No, you're you're accurate. I I I think maybe the confusion lies that the debt arises from the full day tuition. Okay. >> So that that that full day tuition is running a significant deficit debt. The half-day tuition that Dr. Vanderpool is talking about that we're capturing helps to offset that full full day debt. If we weren't capturing any of those half-day funds, our debt would be even greater than what it currently shows. >> Okay. I was confused by that because it seemed like the full day and the half day were the dead versus it
139it it felt like they were all separate and I was imagining they had different teachers and different administrators and different so we were and then different building expenses and all the things. So it would be helpful I think to to put it through that lens and actually understand that. So it's the full day students who are in their own classrooms within the building simultaneously though with the ECSC kids as well. Right. >> Correct. Like Meadows Parkway has 11 um ECSE classrooms and has two full day classrooms. >> Okay. So have you thought about just offering half day tuition based? there's been um a lot of options that have been looked at. Um and I know that's that's the plan is the next presentation will be a recommendation about what what's going to be the best
140option. >> Are are we will find out how other districts are coping with these costs? >> Yeah, that's that's been something we've been working on reaching out to districts to find out. Um, it's pretty it's pretty easy to see in our in our financials what what the what the deficit is, but I think it's been a little harder to discover what other districts are running. >> Do the ECSE kits go all day? >> No, it's a half-day program. >> AM, PM, or both? >> Yes, there's an AM session and a PM session. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? for >> I think in your next presentation if you can share you mentioned the district comparisons but if you can share what those comparisons are >> that that that that'll be our goal I guess you
141>> anything else >> all right thank you very much >> and now we're at interim superintendent comments um Mr. Delini. >> Thank you, President Blair. I'm proud to share that all three of our comprehensive high schools have been ranked in the top 5% of Missou's 725 public high schools by US News and World Report. Yes, definitely. Francis How High School is ranked number eight. Francis How Central is number 13. And Francis Hall North is number 32 in the entire state of Missouri. That's an incredible feat. excellence across the entire 150 square miles of this district. I'm honored to lead a district where our students and staff consistently lead uh achieve at such a high level. The rankings are are based on how well students are prepared for college, how they perform in reading, math, and
142science, and how underserved students are doing, the variety of advanced courses offered, and our overall graduation rates. The Francis How School District also ranked in the top 3% of nearly 500 districts on NIH's 2026 best district list, earning an overall A rating and the number 11 spot statewide. The rankings reflect strong performance in academics, college prep, and student activities based on data from the US Department of Education and school reviews. Francis how North Choir students set a record and I wanted to share how proud I am of the dozens of students across the district who auditioned for the all district honor choir this month. Out of 347 singers from across the St. Louis area, 29 How North students earned spots in the all district mixed honor choir, which is a new school record. 17 juniors
143and seniors ranked in the top 20 and will advance to audition for the All State Choir. Francis Hall Central will have four students advancing and Francis Hall High School will have nine students. Congratulations to all our incredible student musicians and the teachers that help support them. Earlier this month, Becky David Elementary staff, friends, and family gathered to cheer on music teacher Claudine Lewis as she competed on Jeopardy. While she didn't she did not win, I would like us to celebrate the dedication it took to reach the stage. Competing on Jeopardy was one of her lifelong dreams, we are proud of Mrs. Lewis for representing Francis Howell and showing her students that dreams are worth pursuing. We had a great turnout as was shared earlier uh regarding our citizens in our schools reunion tour on September
14430th. Graduates from the last two cohorts plus new applicants gathered to learn about school finance and some of the recent and pending legislation that will have a significant impact on the district's revenue. I want to thank Dr. Amy St. John and Jen Jules for organizing this event and a special thank you to all the citizens alumni who remain connected and engaged with the district. We appreciate their time and their commitment. There will be opportunities for the broader Francis Hall community to learn about these financial impacts later this fall. Jen Simpson, our director of transportation, is retiring this December after a successful career leading our transportation department. Student transportation will continue as normal for the rest of the school year. This position is posted and will remain open for about eight more days as the job
145listing closes on October 24th. We are actively recruiting a replacement to have someone in place so an interim will not be needed. To talk a little bit about Jen, she has dedicated her career to student transportation since 2003. We're grateful for her leadership since joining FHSD in 2019 and remembering when she came here. She started a transportation department inhouse from the ground up. We will be forever thankful for what she has done. We encourage interested candidates to apply on our district website. I've been very fortunate to attend many great evening activities across our school district over the past eight weeks. Last night, I was able to watch students at John at the John Weldon talent show. It was great to see students so eager to support each other as they displayed their talents to such
146a large group of families. These students demonstrate the core values of our strategic plan by being kind and embodying one how. Thank you, John Weldon students, for reminding us all how we treat each other in Francis How. And finally, I want to remind the community that tomorrow is an early release day for our elementary students only. Fall break is next week. Students return to school on Monday, October 27th. And I hope everyone has a relaxing and safe break. Thank you, board. >> Thank you. Uh board, do we have any comments? >> Start with >> Yeah. Thank you. >> I'm surprised at first. Let me thank uh Mr. Delaney for all of his hard work. I know he's been pushed to the limits and resources stretched and his time is still the same 24 hours that
147we all have, but I I hope that we're not taking too bad of advantage of his his calm demeanor and his leadership. Thank you, Mark. Everything you do is appreciated. I'm surprised at the numerous complaints that I have received lately from parents and patrons in this district regarding the books that our children are being exposed to. These book books are inappropriate in so many ways and it's very upsetting. In August of 2024, we passed regulation and policy 6341 to make the challenge process more unbiased. Up until then, LMS's or library media specialists were the only ones sitting on the challenge committee and the result was that only one book challenged was taken out. Currently, it takes five voting to take the offensive book out, but only one to put it in our libraries. In hindsight,
148I should have pushed back on that to make a majority of three. However, I had no true idea of the per pervasive uh inappropriate books in our schools. I've been told that there's a list of a 100 books that have been identified and will be challenged. I'd like to read a section from a couple and yes, these are in our libraries. Uh if you have children in your room at home, please ask them to leave or turn off your sound. I'm going to read number one. A man with lips like a fish comes into my room and says, "You're lucky to be with Habib." He's squeezing my breast with his hand like someone shopping for a melon. I try to push him away, but my arm stone heavy from the lassie doesn't move. You're lucky,
149he says. That Hhabib is your first one. I close my eyes. The room pitches this way and that. You can tell the others that it was Habib, he says. I open my eyes, watch him squeeze my other breast, and wonder who is this Habib he keeps talking about. If this is really your first name, he says, "Old Montes is a tricky one." He unbuckles his belt. Once before, she sold Habib used goods. The fish lips man removes my dress. I wait for myself to protest but nothing happens. Hhabib, he says. Hhabib is good with the ladies. Then he is on top of me and something hot and insistent is between my legs. He grunts and struggles trying to fit himself inside me. With a sudden thrust, I am torn in two. Oh yes, he says
150panting. Hhabib is good in bed. I hear coming from a distance a steady thud thud thud and register that this is the sound of a headboard hitting a wall. After a while, I don't know how long, another sound interrupts the rhythmic thud of the headboard. I know this noise from somewhere. I work very hard to make it out. Finally, I identify it. It is the muffled sound of sobbing. Hhabib rolls off of me. Then I understand I was the person crying. In between, men come. They crush my bones with their weight. They split me open. Then they disappear. I can tell not which of these things are real and which are nightmares. I decide to think it is all a nightmare because if this if what is happening is real, it's unbearable. I hurt. I
151am torn and bleeding where men have been. I pray to the gods to make the hurting go away, to make the burning and the aching and the bleeding stop. Before it starts, you hear a zipper bearing its teeth. Perhaps the sound of a shoe being kicked aside in haste and the wincing of the mattress. Once it starts, you may hear the sound of horns bleeding in the street below. the peanut vendor hawking his treats or the pock of a rubber ball as the children shout and play in the schoolyard nearby. But if you're lucky or if you work hard at it, you hear nothing. Nothing perhaps but the clicking of the fan overhead, that steady ticking away of seconds until it's over, until it starts again. That's only one I have in this second book.
152And it doesn't end. You'd think these two are tied together, but they're not. And it doesn't end. There's down her throat, coming through down through the crack of her ass. The young one has bitten the blood right off of out of her left breast, and it doesn't end. They are young. And by the time the last one is finished, the first one, oh god, the first one is ready again. He looks at the skinny redhead and the one who keeps squinching his eye up and tossing his head and tells them to watch the path. He's gonna take his turn now that she's broke in. He unbuckles his belt. He unbuttons his flies. He pushes down his underwear. Dirty black at the knees and dirty yellow at the crotch. And as he drops a knee on
153either side of her, she sees that old Masa's little Masa is just as floppy as a snake with its neck broke. And before she can stop it, the rockus laugh burst all unexpected from her again. Even lying here covered with the hot jelly spend of her race rapists, she can't help but see the funny side. Shut up. D'vor growls at her and smashes the heel of one hand across her face, breaking her cheekbone and her nose. Shut up that howling. Reckon it might get stiffer if it was one of your boys laying here with his rosy red ass stuck up in the air. Right, sugar? She asked. And then for the last time, Sarah laughs. D'vor D'vor draws his hand back to hit her again. His naked loins lying against her naked loins, his penis
154a flaccid worm between them. Please don't tell me how this after reading this that this has been taken out of context. >> What are the titles of those books? >> Uh, one is sold. It's a story about a young girl being sold into sexual slavery >> by Patricia McCormack. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And the other one, Gosh, they're >> And what libraries were they in? Middle school, high school, elementary? >> High school. I'll >> What was the other title? Do you have it? >> No, I'll I'll look it up and get it to you. >> We'll return back to Jane for comments. >> Yeah. >> Please don't tell me how this been taken out of context. Don't tell me. Let them read. And please don't tell me. Leave it to the experts. Maybe it's time
155that we as a district start discussing who the real experts are, and that is actually the parent. And finally, please don't tell me that this is book banning. Taking this type of of inappropriate materials out of our schools is not book banning. This is inappropriate material for a child under 18. Period. Let our kids be kids stuck trying to negatively influence their childhood. My call to action for parents. Please watch and make sure you know what your kids are reading and where they're getting it from. I hope that you don't find anything that you disagree with, but if you do, please consult policy 6341 for your right to disagree with what is being put in front of your children. Thank you. >> Thank you, Director Pushkar. Other board comments? Well, I guess I could add
156that last night I went to the first meeting of a book review and um we'll be reading the book and then you know deciding on that. So >> yeah process >> I went to um Hollandbeck and I met Director Harmon there. I didn't know he was going to be there. There were three different groups going on that night. >> No >> any other director comments. I just want to say uh on the flip side of that, I understand that's tough. However, the reality of kids and what they're exposed to and what's going on in the world. I mean, part of education here is expanding minds and helping them understand real life scenarios that they're going to get into. And >> for high school level, >> yeah, >> like I'm sorry, but that's, you know, that's
157for parents. It's I personally am >> hold on. >> I hold on to >> Heyon, >> listen up. Everybody in here will be quiet. We've had this very respectful evening. If you want to have that conversation afterwards, that's fine. Um, and this is not really an opportunity for conversation. This is for each board member to maybe make a comment versus addressing other board members. So, thank you. Strong opinions are okay. We just need to be handling it in a certain way while we're here. Thank you all very much. I just appreciate having an opportunity for my kids to have exposure to things that stretch their minds, make them curious, and we have good discussions about it. So, >> I would like to add that um >> um every board member, you can make a comment,
158but we're not having conversation back and forth. So, no problem. Okay, if you want to share opinions, that'd be great. >> Um the book sold by Patricia McCormack is based on a true story. Um she is an activist and a journalist who went abroad and that is what she discovered and she did an investigative journalism piece on it for the purpose of way raising awareness um about what is happening in the world. She has an introduction at the beginning of that book and um activism resources at the end of that book. I read it myself. I cried horribly. Um, and then, um, there were times where I have had students ask to read that and I do give my parents a permission slip and I let them know what the book is about and if
159they sign it and approve it, I trust the parents. >> Thank you. And I'm I'm being very restrictive right now because the conversation on books is not in the agenda. I want to make sure we're following those particular rules. Uh, but allowing each board member to make the comments they wanted to make. So, anybody else want to make a comment on any particular topic? >> Yeah, Ron, you want to make it >> have a good fall break everybody? >> I'll just follow up and I am on a book review committee and I'm curious to see where it goes. I haven't started the book. They didn't have the book in in the room and we'll get it here shortly. So, I'll start reading it. The challenge is is for parents to they should be involved in
160this whole process. They should be aware of what's in the school. They should be involved >> because I would have I would disagree after hearing that little bit of that book. I would disagree because my daughter read a book when she was in 8th grade that I wasn't aware of and it still bothers her to this day. >> So there are some topics that children should >> are not we talk about mental health. It may be a topic that's out there, but are depending on the ages. Is the child really able to mentally process? Have they have they had the life experiences to be able to process and be able to live with >> what they're going to read? I think that's something we really have to be involved in. So, and we need to
161watch out for that. So, I appreciate the comments, Director Harmon. Uh, I just want to add two things. Uh, one, uh, last Friday I was at the trick-or- treat at Central Elementary and I went to celebrate. Uh, I happened to meet a second grader who was there for her second day of school. She had just moved here from North Carolina and she was so excited. uh she uh loved reading books and her mom and dad were there and she was so excited to see what Central Elementary did um in this trick-or- treat event and uh it was just really neat when you think about 16,500 students every once in a while to get a chance to focus on one whether it's one tonight or uh or Amelia. Um it was just really cool to see
162how many people stacked hands to create a great event for hundreds of kids um with one very special, very excited girl who is really happy to have moved into the French South School District. U also last week I attended culture night at Francis North. I was able to try food that I don't normally try. I was able to talk to students um who have a background with uh either Vietnam or or Palestine or Korea or China um Norway, England. England had toast there was like oh you have the worst culinary everywhere you're serving toast. Um and it was just really beautiful to see u a collection of folks who make our district better and grateful for that culture night and all the other culture nights that happen. we'll do a better job of communicating when
163those are available so everybody can enjoy and uh appreciate and benefit from that as well. So uh with that being the last comment uh board we have a motion to adjourn open session and return to closed. You have a first move >> by Dr. Harmon second by vice president. All those in favor say I. I. And any opposed say no. Motion passes. Thank you all for being