001Jane and I am good. Is everybody ready? So, good evening to everybody. Uh, welcome to the French South School District board meeting for July. I'd like to call this meeting to order with the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance 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. Uh here at Francis How we have a strategic plan that aims towards uh four pillars uh regarding teaching and learning, people in workforce, uh finance and operations, safety and security. And we have a vision. All this is available on our website, but this is a vision that we share collectively as a board. We collectively support it and are excited about having a board agenda that helps us achieve
002it. So u we're actually going to each of us say one thing that is part of our vision for the next 5 years together starting with director Harmon >> by the year on the front right here >> student achievement right here by the year I sent a text message a little bit too late in the afternoon so I appreciate I appreciate you Ron and I apologize for sending the too late of a reminder >> recogn recognized as one of the top 5% high performing districts in the state. >> This was a great idea, Stephen. Uh the I mean, President Blair, the employer of choice for talented educators, leaders, and staff. >> By the year 2030, the Fright School District will be fiscally sound with a track record of smart and long-term planning. >> By the
003year 2030, we will be known for graduating well-rounded students who are equipped with the skills and experiences they need to be successful in the world. By the year 2030, uh, Francis Howell School District will be celebrated for the work we've done on culture, morale, and ensuring all members of our community feel safe and welcome. >> By the year 2030, trusted by families and the community to make good decisions and do what's best for students. >> Thank you all. And you can continue to read this both in person or online. Scan the QR codes, join us if you're watching us online as well. This agenda has been um developed to help us pursue those goals. So with that board, I have a motion to approve the agenda for July 17th, 2025 as presented. >> So moved.
004>> Director Pushkar >> second >> and seconded by director Oli. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. And motion passes. Uh Jennifer Joles, our chief communications officer will provide us an update on the strategic plan. Thank you, President Blair, for allowing me just a few minutes tonight to give a brief update on the work that's been happening with the strategic plan this summer. So, we have really just been focused on rolling out the plan to our school leaders and district administrators to ensure that they're familiar with the goals and the key measures. We want to make sure that our staff are ready to hit the ground running when teachers and students return to school in August. So, we have the opportunity to present and discuss the plan of
005the June school improvement retreat. Um, we bring together all building administrators and teacher leaders. There's about 150 people in the room to really engage around the plan and to make sure that their school improvement plans that they're working on are going to be aligned with the district strategic plan so that we're all moving in the same direction. We also had an opportunity to review the plan with administrators who were new to the district or new to an administrator role. That happened earlier this month as part of new administrator orientation. So again, just starting those staff members off on a strong foot. And then coming up next week, we will dive deeper into the plan with all administrators at our annual all admin retreat. Um, we anticipate that our first more substantial progress report would be
006presented at the October board meeting this fall. We'll have an update on the progress made within each of the four pillar areas and then preview what's coming ahead over the next couple of months. We are also working to develop a visual dashboard to track progress on the 12 key performance indicators and we'll share that with the community soon. And then uh, as president Blair mentioned, the full strategic plan can be found on the district website. There's a nice PDF copy of what the board has been referencing up at the dis. So you are welcome to download that. Um if you did if you downloaded it a couple of months ago you um really only had the high level like those buckets in each pillar. And so what's been added is that next layer. So each
007of the strategies on in the buckets. So it's now uh complete. The the part you don't see are those action plans with all the timelines more of that nitty-gritty stuff that our pillar leaders are responsible for. But this is now the uh the most up-to-date version. So just encourage our community to check that out and then as we have those more substantial progress reports those will be posted online as well. >> Thank you very much u Jules. >> So now we're going to move towards patron comments. 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. Uh speakers are called forward in the order of signup and each speaker has three minutes to make their remarks. Please reme remember that
008only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted. Uh the board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and your perspective. I'd like to remind everyone that we expect that 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. So at this point we welcome Grayson Justice to the podium. [Music] Good evening. My name is Grayson Justice. Uh my pronouns is he and she. Um I'm alumni of class of 2013. Um,
009I want to thank the board for bringing BrainPOP back to the next school year. I believe that some board members who voted to get rid of BrainPOP were personal instead of professional because I think it's a great tool for teachers to use in this time era where outdated book school books are being replaced with factual up-to-date websites for both students and teachers to use. So, thank you. As we celebrated the 4th of July, I think what America really stands for and those are diversity, equity, and inclusion. Diversity for the many people with different backgrounds, equity for the people who for get a great opportunity to live and work in this country, and inclusion where everyone is included in different discussions. Those three things are truly are our American values. And I know someone on this
010board believes that those three things are not American values. And they are wrong. And it's an unamerican to think that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not American values. America was founded that our migrant ancestors must run towards freedom from anti uh authoritarianism. And it's shame that we are heading towards it with anti-semitism, racism, and anti-LGBTQIA on the rise. We can do better than that. and fight for the rights for all Americans. Just like many other presidents said in their speeches, there were all immigrants from our parents, grandparents, and our ancestors who came to this land in 1620 away from dictatorship that we're now live unfortunately living today. Um, and lastly, I oppose two um things. One is uh I propose the third party to be led or helping with the book review. After watching the
011last month's meeting, I would be okay if the third party was apolitical, but I it sounded more one party that target minority groups. Um and also the ban of cell phones that is being first um read. Um I think it needs a little bit work. it. Students can use cell phones before, after or during breaks. But things like like a tornado or god forbid a a school shooting that parents really need to know that their child is okay instead of like a principal or a school official. So I think that needs to be worked or voted no. Same with the third party if ever it comes to a future board meeting. So thank you. >> Thank you for your time. Uh, up next is Carl Suriri. >> Thank you. Good evening. Tonight I want to
012talk about absenteeism. It's not student absenteeism, which I believe is in your strategic plan. What I want to talk about is employee absenteeism. Let me give you a few numbers to just to get your uh attention a little bit. This is 2022 data that was provided by Miss Simkins and I provided to the board a couple years ago. And this is teachers only, but the same applies to other work groups as well. But total teachers days absent in 2022 was over 19,000. What's that mean? Put it in perspective. On any given day, 169 school days, we have 114 teachers absent. 114, that's about 8 and a half% of our population any given day are absent. Which means that our students don't have their regular teacher in front of them. they've got a substitute, right? And
013everyone can decide on their own how good a substitute can do uh covering for our normal professional teachers. The other way to think about this is how many absences do you have per teacher over a school year and it works out to 14 and a half over nine months. So that's about a day and a half, right? A little more than a day and a half every month for every teacher in the school district. All right. So, those are the numbers to kind of get your attention a little bit. How I got involved was Miss Simpkins did a presentation to the board back in 2019 on no fills, right? No fills is you have all these people calling sick every day and then the district scrambles like a Chinese fire drill. Guess I shouldn't say
014that publicly anymore, but anyway, we have a we have an office that basically has to make sure that we can cover all those absences every day. We've increased pay. We've made some positions permanent. And when I heard the presentation, I got thinking. I thought, the problem's not with the not being able to get substitutes and, you know, the no fills. The problem is we have too much absenteeism, right, with the numbers I just told you. So, I had a very good long call with Mrs. Simpkins and we went through a number of ideas and she was very receptive. And this goes back to 200 um 22, 2023 when I sent the email out. All right. And what I put together and proposed to the board then doesn't cost the district any money. No loss in
015benefits to the teachers, impacts the students significantly. You know, if you can reduce absenteeism significantly, you get more time with each student in front of their own teacher, that's got to be a good thing. Hopefully, everyone in this room will agree. That's a good objective, right? So, if we can agree on the objective, hopefully we can figure out how to get it done. So again, I put together a three-page email several years ago that I sent to the boards at the time, but guess what? None of those people that were on that board are on the board now. We've had 100% turnover in less than 3 years. Very few of the people that were in administration at that time were there. So I would encourage everyone to go dig my email out. Unfortunately, I deleted
016the electronic version, but I'm sure the districts got it from December of uh 2023. >> Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. At this time, yeah, at this time we have FHEA uh coming forward. We welcome the president, Francine Hill. >> Good evening. My name is Francine Hill and I am the president of FHEA. We would like to welcome our new chiefs, Glenn Hancock and Amy St. John. FHA is excited to help you get to know our district. We also want to thank Mark Delaney for stepping up to be our interim superintendent while we await Dr. Dominguez. FHE is looking forward to working collaboratively with all of you. Many important events are happening soon. We are preparing to hold our second building rep and principal training on August 7th. This is
017a great opportunity to build positive relationships. FHA can't wait to meet all the new certified staff at our new educator event. It's always fun to see all the happy faces joining our Francis Hall family. Lastly, the board retreat is right around the corner and we are eager to hear the board's ideas. We hope everyone enjoys the rest of summer break and we look forward to seeing everyone again. Thank you. [Music] And uh now for FISA of Heidi Nixon. Thank you, President Blair. My name is Heidi Nixon and I'm the FISA vice president of technicians. We would like to congratulate Mr. Delaney on his appointment to interim superintendent while Dr. Dominguez is unable to join us. While we look forward to Dr. Dominguez's eventual arrival, we are excited to work with Mr. Delaney on ways to
018improve our district for all students and staff. A huge thank you to our maintenance grounds custodial building technicians and clerical staff as they finish up summerlong projects in preparation for school to start in a month. Parrofessional staff, special education teachers, and coordinators kicked off extended school year this week at Westwood. This summer program helps students retain skills that can be lost over the summer months. Thank you for spending your time helping our students succeed this summer. Building and district administration, thank you for allowing flexibility to allowing flexibility to put building staff to work from home or alternate district locations while much neededed HVAC projects are getting completed prior to the start of the school year. Thank you. >> Thank you as well. All right. Right. So board, I have a motion to approve the consent
019agenda for July 17th, 2025 as presented. >> So moved. >> Director Pushkar, seconded by Director Harmon. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. Motion passes. Board, I have a motion to approve the finance and operations report as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by director Pushkar, seconded by Director Harmon. And we'd like to officially welcome our uh W super, excuse me, deputy superintendent of operations, Dr. Amy St. John, who will present. >> Thank you so much. >> Welcome. >> Thank you, Board of Education and community for the opportunity to share an update for the 2025 2026 school budget. U board, you may recall on June 19th, the uh 2526 budget recommendation was presented by Miss Embry. And tonight I will begin to share with you the
020first update um for the schoolyard. The clicker [Music] I learned quick. Thanks Scott. Um this is a familiar slide uh that Miss Embry would share with you in regards to any budget amendments or transfers during the first month of FY26. No amendments or transfers have been made. Our expected fund balance, as you can see, is at 29.75% to end the current school year that we are in. And we are in the final stages of 2425 school year. As we shared last month, we are on target to transfer any unused operating funds, funds 10 and 20 to the health fund, and the final numbers will be shared next month. [Music] The bond financials, we are looking at $4.4 million as designated um in the unused portion of the bond funds. Um the second phase, which totals
021approximately $19 million, will be finalized and the board will have an update for that in September. As for the remaining funds, they will be used for any capital projects that have been identified at the 4545 building for parking lots, restrooms throughout the school district, and other facility upgrades as they have been identified. [Music] As we look at the self- insurance fund financials, our insurance fund does continue to struggle. This is not new information. Miss Embry had been um sharing that throughout last year. Throughout this school year, there was a transfer made of $6 million for it to remain afloat for the expenditures that were coming in. And a quick note to think about for what a fun fund balance might look like for the self- insurance fund is about 3 months of expenses. So if
022you look at the $31 million that's noted just below the yellow block and you take the $ 31 million divide that by 12 you would get 2.5 million times 3 months and the goal is that we would have approximately 7.75 million in the reserve in that in order to stay in about a 3month um ahead cycle for our claims. So that's the plan for this year. [Music] Much work has occurred across the district so far over summer and much more h is yet to come. But as you are expecting in the next couple of months and maybe speak of even during the retreat, the facility master plan is in its final stages, final draft stages and would be delivered in the in the coming months as well as the demographic study, the transportation review and
023then an update will occur for the 35 to $45 million worth of construction projects that are going on across the district. The technology staff is doing an amazing job deploying over 4,000 devices this summer. I can see a smile on Scott's face. The end of cycle things, Julie uh Miss Julie Walsh and her team are working um tirelessly to finalize the school year, which does end on June 30th, but it takes about a month for it to um be able to get reconciled and brought um to close. And then we would be working on the um ASBR which would be the next portion that happens in August. In addition to that, we have open enrollment for benefits that will be in August. That's August 4th through the 21st. And we have begun the the beginning
024stages of the financial audit which starts in June and continues through October um for an on-site portion as well as um a final report that would come to the board generally in November but needs to be in before December. The legislative update for this month is the same as it was for last month. Senate Bill Three had already occurred as Carol had given her um final report in June and I just wanted to bring it back to the forefront this month um as not much has been resolved in this area. For benefit of overview, the Senate Bill 3 property tax is a freeze in St. Charles County. It's new legislation that was passed in a special session in June by the Senate, the House, and then signed by the governor on June 14th. The structure
025of it caps the value of every res residential real estate parcel based on the September 2024 data. It is similar to but not the same but similar to what Senate Bill 190 did but it has no age requirement. So, it's anyone who has primary residence in our school district and it would be frozen at the um assessed valuation of as I mentioned September 2024. The complex part of this is that the Hancock amendment still would apply in the aggregate. So, the re the assessed valuation would still go up. Um the tax bill would show a credit but the district would not realize those funds. So, as the expenses will continue to go up in the school district, we would be frozen at our tax assessed valuation for all property at the 2024 rate. All other
026AV types assessed valuation will carry on that debt service. So, as you have already made obligation under your debt service, that levy would take on some of the additional um heat, if you will, as um the those obligations are already out there. The impact to Francis How as we are estimating um a couple numbers to have in mind is that 75.8% is um based upon um local tax um revenue. We are a 0% growth um based upon the St. Charles County, all of St. Charles County. I think it's important to note too that this is not just for school districts. It's also for fire, ambulance, library, special districts, anyone that is receiving the the tax dollars from those funds. It's very difficult to estimate this type of um effect on the numbers. the overall revenue
027growth as we know um historically is what we're using and then basing that on the percentage of that that comes from property tax. So commercial um and real estate tax would still be out there and our guesstimate at this time is $4.1 million would be the first um year effect of that and that would be in the year of 20 um 627 would be the first time the future cost of Francis how would continue to increase due to inflation but the funding would flatline for all future budget um and create shortages. With that, I would like to thank Mrs. Julie Walsh and her team and support as it takes um many hours to pull this information together as well as Mr. Sets for directing, communicating, and delivering at a very high level on the construction
028projects. That's the majority of that what's been going on in the last 30 days. So, with that, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer. >> Appreciate that. Bordon, do you have any questions? So, so regarding Senate Bill 3, for me it feels like the main takeaway is that there might be an upcoming vote on it, but we don't know when it is or there's other factors there. But if it were to pass, one of the things that we would experience as a school district is 76% of our income is coming from residential and a large chunk of that would just be frozen in 2024, right? And every year beyond this, our cost for insurance, gas, buses, everything else would would rise. So what we would have is our funding would flatline, our
029expenses would grow, >> creating a huge budget issue that would only increase each year. Is that >> the gap would only get wider? Correct. Because it would be frozen in time. And it's nothing that um any of these taxing jurisdictions have ever seen before. There's no benchmark for this story. There's nothing for us to look back in history and to determine um how to to try to mitigate any of that. It's uncharted territory. It also affects primary homeowners in the state that they are in. So, there's a little bit of peace in um that if they move on, um how would that affect it? There's no way for us to be able to um guesstimate that. And so, it would just be yeah, uncharted territory. >> Thank you. Any more questions? Thank you. >> Thank
030you very much. >> So, Jane, do we need to make a vote to All in favor on this one? >> All right. So, all those in favor of this motion say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. >> Motion. >> It was just to approve the report. >> Oh, okay. I >> should that I may misread that. Should that have happened before she presented? >> No, she needed to present and then we could make the vote after. Yes. >> Thank you for helping me as I continue to learn. All right. So, board, I have a motion to approve the purchases as presented. >> Director Pushkar, >> Seconded by Director Harmon. Any questions, conversations? >> All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. >> Motion passes.
031Board, I have a motion to approve the selection of the policy committee members as presented. >> Second. Motion by director Pushkar, seconded by director Harmon. Any discussion. All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed say no. Motion passes. Board have a motion to approve the selection of the employee insurance committee members as presented. >> So moved. >> Director Pushkar with the motion. Second for director Harmon. Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed say no. Motion passes. I want to take a moment and just thank those of you who are willing to volunteer to be part of those uh committees. Um the completion of those votes does not mean that a person can still be added onto those beyond today. It just means that we disapproved
032who are on those committees beginning today. From there, uh want to bring up uh policy 2656 that is being brought forward for a first read only tonight. Originally, it was going to be a first read, second read, and vote, but because we have a meeting uh open meeting training on August the 2nd, we will have the second reading and vote at that moment. Uh between now and then, if there's any questions, continue to send those questions to uh myself or uh our interim superintendent, Mark Delaney. I want to call attention to two different things. One is there are allowances in this policy for emergencies. So if there was a tornado or other pieces, this was uh included. Additionally, the law about how it would continue the entire school day has been signed by the governor.
033So there's a whole lot of things that we're just unable to do or adjust. Um so if you really like this or if you really don't like it, um this one of the cases where the board it really isn't um shouldn't get any celebration or critique on it. um because a lot of it is just handed down by the by the state and yet we will continue to look for small clarities that we can provide for the schools. >> Good. >> All right. >> Can we just >> Yeah. >> Where where' the language come from? >> Oh, thank you. >> Can we just clarify where did that come from and why? >> Yeah. So, the the language in the policy as it's written can't it comes from our policy writer. uh and the policy writer
034designates the language straight from state statute. So uh you know obviously they might tweak a thing here or there but uh a lot of the the definitions the defining terms the the bell-to-bell compliance that all comes from state statute. Uh originally we had a district group that a lot of volunteers that spent some time developing a practice for this year. uh we were thinking that would be in place but with state statute we will we will uh have to comply with th those state laws and then uh we received that uh specific policy from our policy writer >> point of privilege I learned what it is now I want to use it sorry it's a question um I'm noticing that in the policy it talks about level one and level two consequences in accordance with
035this code of conduct I'm I'm also noticing in the language that it doesn't specifically ally say watches and um it does say similar electronic devices. Um although I I do feel like um it would possibly help confusion to add the word watches and or glasses because that is what we're seeing students bringing into classes um now and having a little bit of ambiguity gives them a lot of room for interpretation. Um but is there any um is there any uh process involved with removing a device if it is discovered on a student that would be a result of this like level one or level two consequence? So, are you referring to the possibility of confiscating a student's phone or uh Yes. I mean, if if a student is founding, you know, in violation of a
036code, uh a device could be confiscated. Uh a student could be asked to to put it away as well. >> Would that would that vary by building? Uh I think it's important that there's some consistency but the state statute also outlines that uh in Senate Bill 68 there is uh discussion in that uh law that there are no uh specific zero tolerance. So meaning that there can't be a one-sizefits-all consequence for all things that uh all of these things should be looked at on a case-byase basis. And so th this policy and the ability to uh have things coded as a level one or level two allows >> a lot. >> We we got carried away. >> Oh good. >> Oh, okay. Are you adjusting volumes? I'm very loud. >> Okay, >> you're good. >>
037Okay. >> Yeah, >> maybe. >> Yeah. Okay. uh it allows for administrators to uh you know review the specific situation and make decisions based upon uh you know the facts at hand. >> Just for clarity too, does this discipline data go into the reporting that we do to the state as well? >> It it would be in our student data reporting system. So yes. >> Okay. Um, and then I I want to share a personal experience. Um, just for the sake of of everyone understanding as a teacher myself in the classroom, my building last year was actually part of a pilot program in the district where I teach where um, cell phones were not allowed at all. There was a similar zero tolerance policy. It was absolutely one of the best teaching years that I
038have had in over a decade. Um, but one of the things that made it work and made it work incredibly well is that the teachers were removed from the conflict of when a device was discovered. And that to to give credit to the administrators who stepped up and said, "We'll come get him." Um, basically the procedure was that if a if a cell phone was seen under the table, a watch, especially during a test, um, or whatever it was that a student was attempting to use, um, the teacher would email the admin, whoever was, um, in charge. And then that admin would completely, discreetly come and pull that child out of class and then handle that accordance with the rules. And then that device, whatever it was, went into a black box in the office
039and the student could pick up that device at the end of the day after dismissal. That that procedure in my life revolutionary because I never had to have a conflict with the student. I didn't have to have a power struggle. I didn't have to deal with I'm calling my mom. No, we're in school. You're fine. She can call the my room. you know, these these types of conflicts that we know as educators we're going to deal with with children. Um, and so just to share that story out there, I I'm so in support of this. I love it. I hope it makes our school year absolutely amazing and just encouraging that we we work as one how to be consistent across the board. Um, yeah, thank you. >> Thank you for sharing that. I would
040like to say I think that is awesome that you remove the teacher from the conflict. >> Yes. >> Because if you have a conflict with the student about the phone that carries on >> that's not just that day. >> Well, and it removes minutes from educational opportunities. >> Stop class. >> No, we don't stop class. >> That's awesome. >> No minutes. No minutes lost. >> Can we look into adding that? I don't know that it would be in the policy language, but it could certainly be something we reflect on on our daily practice. And so, uh, part of carrying this over for a second read, uh, also allows for, uh, our director of student services, Mr. Morrison, to work with our building administrators to refine some of those practices. I would also tell you like
041uh director Oli shared, many of our schools uh last year were already engaged in not having cell phone use uh during the school day. Uh we uh as several of of one of our board members participated in a committee to help refine that and and develop some uh more consistent practice this year. Um you know, I I don't think that many of our schools are going to see a change. Definitely will be a change at our high schools, but at our elementary and middle schools, uh those uh practices were already typically in place. >> Awesome. >> Thank you very much. And now, uh drawing attention to policy 3510. Um I I have a motion to approve it as presented. >> So moved. >> Director Pushkar, seconded by Director Harmon. Any conversation? All those in favor
042say I. I. >> All those opposed say no. >> Motion passes. And now Essen Wilson will come forward to present an update regarding Francis Hall North. [Music] >> Hi, good evening. Uh, it's nice to see everyone again. And >> smiling. >> It's been what? >> That was That was me. I'm so happy you're smiling. >> Oh, good. Good. Yeah. >> Tell us. good things, please. >> Well, it we have some exciting news tonight, so we'll get to um so we wanted to provide an update. It's been a month since we spoke. Um first thing, we'll go ahead and go through the agenda. So, Kevin Roberts had been here the last couple months and due to unforeseen circumstances, he wasn't able to make it this evening. Um but the good news is it's fairly easy to
043report. The air monitors still have not read any um any dangerous elements in the building. Uh we've got 10 of them still in place. There's been no readings of hydrogen sulfide, leals, which is methane or elevated oxygen levels. We have picked up some occasional VOCC's and carbon dioxide, but that was traced back to cleaning activities. The janitorial staff uses propane scrubbers and then the VOCC's from the waxing and stripping elements were what was picked up. So, it was traced back to that. It was pretty minimal. Uh, and it was clear that that was the case. So, so good news is the air monitors have been placed for months. They haven't detected any uh harmful substances to date. So, so progress since um the last time we spoke, we last time I was here, we talked
044about some plumbing breaks that we found in the building through smoke testing and there was roughly three locations. They were pretty minor breaks. Um, since then we have gone in, we've repaired those, resmoke tested the piping, uh, got the all clear that the fix was successful, patchback, painted. You'll never know we're in there. Um, at this point, we can say with 100% certainty the plumbing system in the building is intact. There's no openings. There's no dry uh drains, dry traps, anything like that. It's completely isolated from the air in the building. So, that's a good thing. in in a good step. Um the other thing we did is we installed monometers on five locations on the rooftop beds and we'll talk quite a bit more about that uh in the coming slides here. We did
045collect the first round of data recently and Mccclure Engineering is processing that data going through it with their engineering team. We're looking at it as well uh and so is Vax Engineering. He's a civil engineer. We're all taking a look at this data and uh kind of learning quite a bit from it. Since the last meeting as well, Mccor Engineering issued their updated construction drawings that had the uh vent relocations on the roof. We talked about the strategy to manage the symptom was going to uh be basically taking the vents as they come out the roof, extending them to a remote location, getting them high up in the air to elevate so the prevailing winds carry away any odors that come out. and we had talked about we may not ever really know what the
046source is, but we know how to treat the symptom and that's really what everyone cares about. So that was the goal of those drawings. Currently those are out to the subcontractor community and we're collecting pricing on it. Um so we're in that process. We should have the pricing complete uh in the next few days. So I want to spend some most of the rest of the time talking about the data that we've found from the neuron and it really wasn't what anyone expected truthfully. I think we had a bot which is why we did it but the data we found was very interesting. So for those of you that aren't familiar with monometers probably wouldn't be unless you're in the industry. So monometer measures uh air pressure basically relative to the atmosphere. So positive pressure
047means the pressure is greater than the atmosphere. Negative pressure means it's less. So for example, a haird dryer would be positive pressure tool. It creates positive pressure. A vacuum cleaner would be a negative pressure tool. So it's kind of a good mental illustration. Plumbing systems are designed to operate under negative pressure. That's the whole strategy of a plumbing system is the piping should be negative pressure. It draws air in. that prevents zero gas from escaping that deployment system. So we collected the monometer data and um so the monometers are set up and they take a reading every 10 seconds and we collected it for 10 days. We're still collecting we just got the next round of data. I never really thought about how many 10-second intervals are in 10 days but it's 87,000. So when
048we got the spreadsheet the spreadsheet was 87,000 rows long. Um we had to process that data. It took a bit of time. Uh but we got through it. Now the interesting thing was we saw a lot of uh positive pressure readings in the sewer system at the roof. Remember at plumbing systems designed to work under negative pressure. You really shouldn't see positive pressure, but we saw a lot at the roof. Um the highest pressure reading was 0.1 in which um to put it in perspective you've seen the inflatable domes that uh like they have soccer fields and stuff inside those typically they're 0.1 point 2 in of pressure it keeps those domes inflated the atmosphere. um 0.05 05 which would be 500s of an inch is in a healthc care setting if you have an
049imuno compromised patient and they cannot be exposed to germs they design those rooms to 05 positive pressure and that ensures that the patient's safe that room is pushing all the air out contaminants can't get in germs can't get in the patient's safe so that's the design standard for a positive pressure room now the highest reading that was recorded in those 10 days was 0.1 so to a tenth of an inch at the root duct heads. So that's a lot of positive pressure. There was a lot of 005 readings at the root level as well, which is also significant. It keeps a patient safe and strong enough to do that. Now the interesting thing as well is these readings were observed both when the building was occupied and unoccupied. We were picking up readings at 2:00
050a.m. midnight weekends uh and also while the building was occupied. So what that tells us is the pressure is not coming from the building and it's not coming from people in the building. It's not coming from activities necessarily because it's happening 7 days a week any given time. Okay. So the next slide this is one day this is a 24-hour interval starts at uh midnight runs next midnight. And this is representing about 8,700 data points uh brand new chart. The zero line right in the middle that that skinny line that is neutral. So that means if there's no pressure, no positive pressure, no negative pressure, it's just neutral. Uh that's that line. Anything below the line is negative. And that's where a plumbing system should be operating is negative. Now this is on a Saturday.
051Okay? No one's in there in a Saturday. And you can see we've got pressures up to 0.1 up to a tenth of an inch. The zero the 05 which is the positive pressure for a patient. We've got a lot of those and we have a lot of them that 03. So very unusual. You don't see that in plumbing systems. Okay. So this is a Saturday. Building's empty. Uh next one is a Wednesday. There is not a lot of people in the building but there are people there. Um, this is a wind Wednesday. It's mostly negative. Uh, occasional positive spikes, but mostly negative. We really shouldn't see any positive spikes, but we see fewer. And what we've seen throughout the week is it's not terribly predictable on when these spikes are. Most of them are between
0529 and 5 uh during the day, but it could be any given day of the week. Some are later in the day. uh we don't see big spikes in the middle of the night u but we do see elevated levels as the first slide showed throughout the night. Now some of that makes sense because when you connect a building to a sewer system it's no longer just that building sewer system you're tied to all of St. Peters at that point you are basically connected to St. Peters St. Charles, whatever the sewer systems are, you're no longer isolated. That's what we believe we're experiencing in the building is it appears that the municipal sewer system is putting positive pressure back to the building and creating the problems that we've been chasing and experiencing. Now, we're not
053prepared to say 100% that that's the case yet, but that is what the data is pretty strongly suggesting at this point. Um, we did contact St. Peters a couple months ago and asked them if they were aware of any problems that could be causing an issue like that because we had some suspicion that there could be something going on. They looked at the drawings. They were pretty thorough and they said no, we don't think that there's anything going on. Um we went ahead and ran the testing anyway to see and and it does appear that there's there's an issue. Now the next step uh right now we have monitors on the roof and we're testing the pressure of the roof. Um, there's only two openings in a plumbing system. One is on the roof and
054one's where it connects to the sewer outside the sewer bin. They might think, well, there's sinks and toilets and things like that. Those aren't really open to the atmosphere because they have water in them that disconnects the air inside the plumbing system from the air in the building and that's a a trap. So, it traps your gas from coming out. So in that case, the only place that a plumbing system is exposed to the atmosphere is on the roof and where it connects the sewer main. You can't get positive pressure on the roof. Um, and we do have those valved off now. So winds and things like that won't affect the pressure in the plumbing system. The only thing that can affect it would be the municipal sewer system at this point. So the next
055test that we're doing and we implemented it today, we're collecting data. we want to see it through the weekend is we install the monometer on the sewer main itself uh in the manhole to read the pressure in the sewer main and I think at that point if if the sewer main also shows what the building is reflecting then it's pretty clear um that the problem is coming from the municipal sewer system um we've been chasing inside the building was actually an external problem um now there there is good news that goes along with that and that's I was smiling earlier is I don't we never really want to fix the symptom. We want to fix the problem. What this data why we're excited is we think we can fix the problem and not just address
056the symptoms. So another thing I'd like to address is the few breaks that we identified in the building. When a plumbing system is operating the way that it's supposed to under negative pressure, you're not really going to smell those brakes. You might get an occasional slight smell if an exhaust fan creates some negative pressure and it pulls some sewer gas out. But under general situations where it's negative pressure on the left side, it's drawing air in. The sewer gas is not going to escape. Under a positive pressure system, it is emitting sewer gas out of that brake. And a small break like we found that was maybe 3 in long and not quite an inch wide, it can get a lot of sear gas out of there. And we were on site and experienced it
057while we were smoke testing. Uh there was five of us including the engineers and the plumbers in the corridor. And um there was no smoke coming out of it. We were trying to find one of the brakes. We knew it existed. And really out of nowhere uh smoke poured out of this uh uh break, filled the corridor and basically chased the side of the corridor. Now that would represent one of those positive spikes that we saw in the chart. It aligns with what the teachers had said to us when they experience it that it comes on suddenly and often disappears as sudden as it came. Um it it's the piece that makes it all make sense. is what we're finding at this point. So, um while there were a few breaks, they wouldn't ordinarily cause
058the problem. Now, it also explains why when the air emittance valves were installed on the roof, we experienced smells in different areas that we hadn't before and to a greater level in those areas. And the reason that is is when the building would experience the positive pressure and you have 30 plus vents on the roof, the pressure came out of the vents and it relieves some of that. Now it was pushed out of the vents, drawn into the air handlers and pumped back into the building. Once you cap the roof off, so that can't happen. It only has a couple places to go and it was out of the few brakes that were in the building. And that's why those brakes after the roof was valved off became very pungent where ordinarily you probably would
059have never smelled them. And we didn't really smell them beforehand because there were a lot of areas for that pressure to relieve even though it shouldn't be experiencing it. Um so it's beginning to make sense now. [Music] So uh next steps McLaren engineering and backs are working through solutions uh to fix the problem at the sewer main before it gets into the building. Couple reasons we want to do that. We can address the symptom. Uh it's fairly costly and it also congests the roof so it makes it difficult for maintenance. Um we'll have a lot of pipes running horizontal so filter changes, things like that is hard for maintenance staff. Um, and you're just fixing the symptoms. So, you're still going to have, if we do that, you still have positive pressure in your building,
060which ordinarily wouldn't affect anything, but if you were to get a plumbing break or you get a a drain that dries out, you're going to experience a lot of smell where you really shouldn't. And it's always just better to fix the problem, right? So, that's what we're working on right now. Um, we should be getting final pricing for the rooftop plumbing vent stack next week in case we need to implement it. uh we can and then um once that design is determined how we're going to address the problem, we'll get that fixed. That will be a lot cheaper. Um so the it's hard to say, but it's it will be significantly cheaper, less disruptive. You really won't even know it's there. Um so it would be a much better fix. And then at the same
061time, we're going to continue monitoring the air um just to make sure that everything's good. Now, the last time we met, I also assured everyone that we were going to work on this plumbing vent system on the roof, get them relocated so you don't have a problem when you go back to school. And one of my main concerns was, am I able to deliver on that? I promise. And I I feel confident that you're going to return to school and not experience smells because we we have the roof capped off. Smells can't come out of the roof. The curious thing before that is why were these few breaks causing so much smell and now we know those are fixed. So there is no plumbing open to the building at all. There's really no way that
062you can experience smells when you come back. And I think with the new information that we learned the best final solution for the district and the building is to go this route, fix the problem. Um and I don't think that you're at risk for having motor issues when you come back this fall. So, um, so exciting news. I mean, we've been chasing this for a while and th this I would say that the steps that we're taking is not things that the industry does. We're really kind of charting some new ground here trying to figure this out. Um, it's an very unusual problem that people have not encountered in the past. Um, so, so we're happy to be able to make in some way here. Um, >> so I'm happy to answer questions. Thank you.
063Board members, any questions? >> Yes. >> Sorry. >> Um, if we is it even possible looking at the schematics of the municipal connections where the building is hooked up, is it even considerable that we would connect to a different part of that grid? >> It's a good question. Um, but it's not reasonable to do so. So, super system primarily works on gravity. everything flows downhill. Um there are sewer systems where there's pumping stations if it has to go uphill, but you really when you deal with the elevation changes of the land and the sewer pipe, the elevations of that below ground, there's not a lot of options where to connect to. And if we're experiencing positive pressure back through the municipal system, it's going to be wider spread. um it would be hard to tell
064how far you I mean you may have to go a mile you know to get away from it uh if you could even identify that point. So, good question. But >> I think that's my only my only thought was if that's possible. And then I don't know a lot about like engineering. I But I know that there's like pressure valves, right, where you could put a pressure valve in between the two sources to keep consistent pressure. Is that a thing? I don't I'm just curious. So that is a few things that the engineers are looking at is either you know some kind of um basically a valve in the sewer main. Uh it could be providing a relief in the sewer main before the building maybe like south of the tennis courts where when they
065do experience those positive pressure it gives it a route to get out before it reaches the building. Um it it's possible putting a type of a trap in the seam main separate it from that pressure. So it the the engineering intent would be to disconnect the building from the municipal air basically in the sewer system before it gets to the building. That's that's what they're working on. Um and they're trying to determine the best way to do that. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> No problem. >> Um I was just wondering um who is to pay for this uh rooftop plumbing bent stack relocation. So, I don't think that I'm able to answer that necessarily. I think the the district is uh they have an attorney. They're working through that process. I I don't think that's
066something that can directly answer this. >> So, we don't know yet who's paying for that. >> I I don't know. Um yeah, I think it's still in discussion. >> We'll do we'll do some further digging to that question and and bring that back to the board. So when does the fix begin? When does that begin and will it be completed before first day of school? >> Um so rough timelines I would say the engineers are working on it. We're we're going to collect the data on the the sea of main um over the weekend. That seems to be when we see a lot of spikes. Once we determine that we need to get in touch with St. Peters. We have contacted them uh but we need to meet with St. Peters get their information see
067what they know. Now with new information, the engineers are working uh through fixes. I would say that it might take a few weeks to get the fix determined. It should be a pretty fast um installation at that point. I don't see the installation as being highly technical. Um it's probably going to be at one or two sources below ground. I think it's something that we can get in pretty quickly. I think getting it in before school with school start starting in about four weeks, uh, it's probably not likely that it would be installed before school. I mean, we might be right there. Um, but I I also don't expect that you'll experience when you go back to school, but I think we'd be very close to the start. >> Thank you for your time. >>
068Good. Thanks. And now we welcome uh Mr. Mark Delaney, our interim superintendent for interim superintendent comments. >> Thank you, President Blair. I'd like to give a warm welcome to a few new faces in our district uh on our leadership team who started their roles beginning this month. Uh Dr. Amy St. John is our new deputy superintendent of finance and operations. She is now overseeing multiple departments including finance, facilities, safety, transportation, nutrition services, and human resources. So quite a load for uh Dr. St. John, and we're we're glad to have her with us. Also here with us tonight is uh Mr. Glenn Hancock. He's our new chief academic officer and he is responsible for overseeing our entire academic program including curriculum assessment, student services, alternative learning, adult learning, and elementary and secondary education. We are excited
069to have both Amy and Glenn on our executive leadership team, and I look forward to working with them to help move the mission of the Francis Hall School District forward. I would also like to acknowledge other new staff members, directors, and building administrators who also uh began their contracts on July 1. We've had an opportunity to meet several of them at new uh new administrator orientation, and we are excited to have them on board as well as we look to make progress this year. I want to share tonight uh that one of our bus drivers won the state safety competition again this year, earning a spot in the national bus safety competition in Texas. This marks the second year in a row that Francis Hall School District has competed at the national level. 53 bus
070drivers traveled from across the globe to compete in this competition in Hayes County, Texas for a two-day program put on by the National School Transportation Association. Be sure to watch for a story and interview with this incredible driver on our social media channel soon. Congratulations to all of our drivers who competed and took home awards in this competition. If you are interested in joining our award-winning transportation team, we are hiring bus drivers and monitors now for the upcoming school year. I would be remiss if I did not mention that. >> Thank you. >> Also, a back to school checklist was emailed to all district families earlier this week with helpful information and tasks to complete before school begins on August 18th. School supply lists were linked in the the email and are posted on the
071district website. For our families, don't forget about the Missouri tax-free weekend coming Friday, August 1st through Sunday, August 3rd. This is a time when you can stop uh shop taxfree and save on back to school items and uh supplies. And finally, um I think a lot of people think what goes on in schools in the summertime and as we all know quite a bit. I want to remind our community that while students, teachers, and some staff are off work in the summer, many others continue to work throughout June, July, and August. Summer is the busiest time of year for some of our teams, like our grounds crews who mow over,00 acres per week. Our facilities maintenance and custodial staff who have been waxing floors, doing deep cleans, maintaining facilities to be in good working order.
072and our HVAC technicians who are busy making sure our school buildings are nice and cool as staff prepare to return to their classrooms to get them ready for the school year. I also want to acknowledge our computer techs and IT staff who are doing a heavy load with all things technology, both new and old technology that the district uh is either uh bringing in or maintaining and getting those things ready for our students and staff as they approach return in August. And once again, I want to thank you uh President Blair and Board of Education. >> Thank you. Uh we have board comments. I would also like to say welcome to Amy and Glenn. Um we appreciate your hard work they're going to be doing for us. Uh I want to say a special thank
073you to Mark Delaney for stepping in as our interim superintendent. Mark has a long history of service and positive leadership in the Francis House School District. In these uncertain times, we need a leader who will stand up to whatever forces threaten our public schools. As a board, we are standing beside you and the entire staff to ensure our students and teachers remain respected, valued, and supported. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Others, I like to just say, make sure you look at the agenda. There's a big construction update with a lot of really good news. It's really exciting. Um just worth celebrating. I do want to share um that there is no update uh regarding uh Mike De Dr. Mike Dominguez. Um we are unable to give an update at this time and so the
074update is there is no update, but I do want to repeat what Treasurer Owens just said and just a big thank you for Mark Delaney to be able to lead as our interim superintendent in this moment to help us get ready for the school to begin. Um there are a number of different ways I've seen your leadership in display over this last few weeks. I just want to say thank you on behalf of those um who you are serving. I appreciate that. Uh I was also going to celebrate those preparing the buildings over the summer because all the people um especially waxing the floors and um getting the devices ready and everything else like that. There's just a lot of stuff happening and hopefully when we get together we we see all these different angles
075to the school district. we're able to say, look at how many people Francis Hall has working to make it such a great school district. And so hopefully when we come together for a board meeting, we're able to see different angles and nuances to what's going on. Uh the very best days for Francis How are still ahead of us and we're really excited to be part of that. Excited to uh be able to say to all of you, you have been equipped and trusted to live forward this strategic plan. We're excited about getting closer and closer to that vision for 2030. And with that, I'd like to board uh have a motion to adjourn open session and return to close to session. >> Second. >> So, we got got a motion by Pushkar and a second
076by Oki, uh Director Oki, who who seconded before the first, but to be honest, you two are really fast today. So, you >> I'm so excited to learn Robert's rules >> and and so are we. So, again, thank you to everybody else. All those in favor um to uh adjourn open session and return to close session say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. >> Motion passes. Thank you all for being here for the board meeting.