FHSD Board of Education Meeting-June 5, 2025

001That was uh our transfer Kirley Owen saying let's try not to drag it out into the microphone. All right, Kirley. Uh all right, you can mute. There we go. I'd like to call this hearing to order. Um, join with us also online through Zoom is Kylie Owens, our treasurer. Um, and uh, it's allowed for board members to attend virtually. And so, somebody else is also watching to make sure everybody knows it's Carol Lee who's speaking and voting just versus just anybody else. I'd like to call this meeting to order. As required by Missouri statute 160.665, 665. The board of education is holding a public hearing on whether to allow the designation of a teacher or administrator as a school protection officer or SPO. After the public hearing under a separate agenda item, the motion will

002be voted on by the board of education. Our deputy superintendent Mark Delaney will provide the additional information and we will do the pledge of allegiance after this part. Mark Delaney. Thank you, President Blair. Good evening, board. Per Missouri statute, a notice of this hearing was published in the Mid Rivers News magazine 15 days in advance of this hearing. School protection officers, like school resource officers, are authorized to carry a concealed firearm or self-dispense spray device. They must also go through a special training program, have a valid concealed carry endorsement or permit, and be registered with the Missouri Department of Public Safety. The SPO must ensure the firearm or device is within their personal control at all times while on district property and is subject to termination of employment for failing to do so. The district

003can also remove the SPO designation from any individual at any time. I want to be clear tonight that we are not recommending that any teacher or any administrator who wants to carry a weapon has that option. Rather, it is our intention to designate one individual who we have recently hired as the district's director of safety and security for the 2526 school year. He is highly trained and is a current and active law enforcement officer in the state of Missouri. Since this individual will be a district employee and will not be commissioned through a law enforcement agency within the district, we are seeking to utilize the SPO designation. For this hearing, we are asking the board to vote on whether to authorize the designation of an SPO to be used in the district at all. If

004approved, we will then bring a separate request to designate this specific individual as an SPO. As I shared, our intent is for the SPO designation to only be given to one specific individual based upon their extensive law enforcement experience and training as a leader here in Francis Hull. There are no plans to recommend additional SPOS, but any future such recommendations would require approval from the board of education. So, thank you to Mr. Delini. Uh this is a special hearing, so some of the rules are a little bit different. Uh at this time, I'd like to ask if there's anyone in the crowd uh that would like to make a comment about the designation of a school protection officer. These comments will be specific to the topic at hand, and we would ask each speaker limit

005their comments to 3 minutes. Uh the board wants to hear from patrons about this issue, but we reserve the right to end the comment period in the event we need to move on to the regular business meeting. Our general patron comments will happen during the regular business meeting that follows a special hearing in the order of signup. If you wish to speak about the school protection officers, uh please raise your hand. Are we allowed to do both? You're allowed to speak in both different deals. You didn't have to sign up. Yeah, you do not need to sign up to speak at this moment. So correct. So let me ask u so I have one hand up and any other hands up to speak. All right. If that's the case um I would invite you to

006come forward and uh we would like to have you limit your speech to three minutes and to the topic at hand and we'll start the clock once you begin. Thank you for being willing to speak tonight. Yeah, absolutely. And I'll be honest um I actually just think we need to look at what the peer-reviewed research is. And I'll be honest, I don't know what it is. And I've heard that it's a lot of convoluted stuff. And it's hard because the United States is the only one that has like this gun um like problem, but we're kind of already in it. We can't take away everybody's guns. Um we're an avid hunting family, so I'm not like anti-gun, but I don't know if this is the solution to the answer. Just looking at it from a

007behavior analytic standpoint, I think the issue goes quite a bit deeper. and adding more guns to um the schools. I I I I think a working in a school is a stressful job. So, you need to really be able to have a lot of emotional composure and guns are dangerous. It's and guns don't kill people. The people, you know, they take that on. But when you're looking at guns, you are lowering the amount of response effort to shoot them. So, it's something so easy and if you have that impulsivity and it depends on how your emotional state is, people are real likely to pick up a gun and shoot them. That's very different than taking a knife or having some premeditated thing. But if you just have this minute of snap, it I don't know.

008I mean, if there was really a lot of protective things and we knew if if and just how I feel about guns shouldn't even matter, but if it helps kids, then let's by all means do it. But I truly don't think there's enough out there to say that. Um, but that's my opinion on it and we're gun users. We try to use them safe and I think the education piece is really important. Um, and I'm I'm excited to hear more about it. So, I I I need to learn more about it. I I looked it up before the meeting and uh read your notes. So, um I'm open-minded to this. it's uh if it helps the students, I don't think anybody on this board would be against that, but I don't think jumping to something

009that's experimental is a great idea either. Guns are dangerous if they're not in the right hands. And um that's a hard thing to do. So, good luck with that. I know that's not super helpful, but somebody had to say something about it, right? Okay. All right. Well, thank you guys. Thank you. Um, so we have one more person who just raised their hand. At this point, if you're going to speak, I like to have everybody raise your hand if you're going to speak, so then I know how much time to all lot. Okay. So, we have three other people have their hands up. Um, and so with just three more people, we'll just have those three people speak in that uh in that order. So, would you come forward? Thank you so much. [Music] Thank

010you, board. Uh, when she was speaking, I started thinking about the situation, not being aware that this was on the agenda for tonight. I'm one of your school counselors in the district. My name is Daniel Marin. I'm school counselor at John Weldon Elementary. And, uh, I can speak from experience of seeing it happen in my own building. I know that it's happened in other elementary buildings where some of our special education students in moments of crisis where our school resource officer has become involved. those students have made moves to try to gain control of the gun uh out of the holster away from our SRO uh during moments when the SRO was trying to assist our staff in uh responding to the crisis call for these students. Uh I know it became an issue at

011one of the other elementary schools. At our school, our resource officer never lost control of his weapon or the situation, but I know that we're trained in something called mindset as staff for the district on how we respond to students who are in crisis. I don't think our SRO's uh can respond in that same way and continue to keep themselves safe uh with the uh armaments that they have on themselves uh that I see them wearing in in our elementary situation. So, if we're going to approve more uh self-defense uh equipment to be brought into our schools, especially at the elementary level, I would suggest before we approve it uh without further research, that we take a look and talk to our current SRO's on uh how they're being utilized and how those weapons or,

012you know, uh equipment for control of individuals are are being secured while they're in the buildings because I think they're being asked to help in those situations, but they're being asked to help with those armaments on them. And uh you know, it certainly could be a scary situation if it ever got away from them, right? So, if we're going to approve more of that to come into the schools, I know you all love children as much as we do. That's why you're sitting there. just please take safety and security of the children into account, right? Because we want them there to protect our children and to protect us employees, but uh we do have situations that they're asking to respond to um that are are putting them in in a situation where they then have

013to uh be more responsible of their equipment. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. the next speaker and based upon my question a moment ago, uh we'll have the speaker and the one other person raised their hand and those be the last two speakers um as part of the special here. I'll keep it brief. Um I'm Julie McDonald. I've taught at Central Elementary for 24 years. Um I know that intruder drills are a scary thing for our children. Um, school shootings, horrible. Um, the solution to that, I guess we're not going to solve that tonight. It's gun control. Um, this seems to just be a bad idea. We have SRO officers in every building. And honestly, if we're going to talk about staffing needs, I think we need to start at we don't

014have substitutes. We don't have pair of professionals. We don't have what we need to get through our day. So now to be contemplating these things seems difficult. Um seems like a bad idea to me. Thank you. And uh our last speaker Hi, Brine Hill. Um, I'm the FA president. I actually have this as part of my speech tonight, but since I'm not sure when you're going to vote, I thought I'd go ahead and um say it. Um, while we do welcome our new director of safety and security um to our district. His credentials are very impressive. However, our district needs to stop writing policies and changing agreements because of the person in the position. Changes need to be based on the position, not the person. And while we hope that he'll be here for many

015years, that has not been the case in the past years. What if his replacement doesn't have the same qualifications? But now the district has approved that the director of safety and security gets to carry a gun. This policy policy should be reconsidered and based strictly on the needs of the position to be armed instead of looking at the person currently in this newly created position. This is what our SRO's and most of our buildings are for. Thank you. All right. I want to thank the four speakers for your feedback. With that, I'd like a motion to conclude the special hearing on the designation of a school protection officer under Missouri State Statute 160.665. Uh, if I have a motion in a second. So moved. Second. So moved by director Pushkar, seconded by director Ponder. Um

016all those in favor of concluding the special hearing say I. I. All those opposed. The motion carries to conclude the special hearing. And now we will move on to the related agenda item in front of us. Uh I'd like a motion to allow the designation of a school protection officer in the district under Missouri state statute 160.665 665 and that the designation of specific individuals as or uh school protection officers be made by separate votes as determined by the board of education. So moved. Motion by director Pushkar, second by director Ponder. Board, any comments, questions, any discussion? Is this when we have the opportunity to make like is this our first reading? This is also connected to policy 1432. And so at this point, if you want to make a comment about policy 1432, it

017would help you make your vote here. That would be the time to do so. Yes, please. Yes. If you want to make comments now. So, the policy, as I read it, leaves a door very wide open. I understand. Um, we heard that this isn't going to be the intention is not to have teachers or anyone else in the buildings as designated as SPOS's, but the policy doesn't say anything about that. And my understanding is that while this is a state statute that has been in place for what 11 years or something now, um, our district doesn't have a policy specific to SPOS's at this time. Correct. So that is correct. Okay. So if we're looking to have a situation where we are talking about an individual a single role then I think the policy should

018say that. So before we have any other voting on that that I would just want to make sure that we are clear about the intention for the scope of this um and just request that we would edit the policy to limit the SPO designation to only the director of safety and security. So I'm hearing you say because 1432 is just the first reading. You are approaching this decision in light of that possibility and so that yeah I think it will help alleviate some concerns. Okay. I'm not passing judgment on it this time. I'm just saying that I there are concerns I know um about the slippery slope of this and just opening the door to this. Um so if we have a unique situation for a unique role that we feel is so compelling that

019we need to initiate a policy on this then I would like it to be very specific to that particular role. In addition I'd like to add that I sorry that sounded loud. Sorry. Um I think the job description itself also probably needs to be updated to include um verbiage with um regulations and rules um about the scope of that role and also um how that role will interact with students and or not interact with students in the district. Um where their office is located. And then I I was I've asked a lot of questions in the last couple days. This is something I've been agonizing over. Um and so so let me just kind of state um I have no problem. I I also come from a family that does a lot of hunting. So

020this is nothing against the Second Amendment. Um if you know me, my maiden name is Browning. And so if that tells you anything, um it's not about guns. It's about our students and it's about um the young people who will have a memory of what life was like in school at some point in time um when they reflect back as adults as well. Um I a thousand% think that we can this this position is a good position for our district. I know that it is the answer to part of our state audit. It was something that was recommended to us and so that this position is great. Um the part that I have personally been stuck on is the conceal and carry part. Um, I've talked with um a lot of other educators and friends

021in other school districts and I have learned that they those districts do have these roles and that those um those people that serve in those roles um are are armed um and that it is something in this region that is fairly common and it has um helped me understand more about it where I think that we're not ready for this in in this this part of it anyway is in the policy and the job description. I feel like we need more um specifics um in terms of the scope of what will be done, how when um I know that one of the things that were discussed was that the SPO could potentially be a substitute if an SRO is out. Um I'd like to understand more about that and how that might look. Um, I

022want to know um a little bit more about when the SPO might be in front of students. I know the the weapon itself would be concealed. What? Oh, I'm so sorry. Um, and and and um to Amy's point, I just feel like we need to um I think the phrase was button down the hatches a little bit. Um, but so in my opinion as we stand right now, I think the position is great. It's the part of it with the carrying of the weapon that I'm hesitant on and I want to have a little bit more time if possible to uh work with that. I would so I would say that that uh what Mr. Delaney um outlined up there is he stated that the that the um uh that the officer or the the

023new employee would be armed. Yes. But he also stated that it that particular person is a certified law enforcement officer which means that that person is either as qualified or in in I would think that they are more qualified in doing in actually carrying those types of weapons or concealed carry and things like that. So in in in my view it I I don't necessarily separate the two. If you have a an SRO that's in a building, that particular employee of the building that has concealed carry is either as qualified or more qualified than that particular SRO. Yes. But an SRO, when a child looks at that adult, they're wearing a uniform and that child associates that uniform with the role and they understand that that person is there to help them. And we build

024those relationships through our SRO's with our children so that in the future they have positive relationships with law enforcement. So that becomes a win-win for our community as a whole. The SR or the SPO position would not be in a uniform. So if students are going to be seeing that person around campus, if that weapon is in any way, ca case or shape or form visible, I feel as if that we owe it to our students not to leave um that to the same level of anxiety or fear that for example, you know, like I as a teacher, if my kids saw somebody in plain clothes walking around and there was a a weapon on them that it would disrupt the day for that child. There'd be questions. Well, I think that's why we're having

025this hearing is to educate ourselves and the public as to what that is so that there isn't any sort of misconception as to what that person may be or the duties thereof. I I agree with you that maybe we we need to look at the policy and see, you know, what what sort of, you know, restrictions or things like that that we that we need to have on this particular, you know, person. Um but I I don't think you know it's stating that that the qualifications of that person is is what is at play here. I No. No. And I I do um No. I And I believe that the we're what the person we're hiring is highly qualified, highly respected in their field. Complete complete trust in that process. Absolutely. I feel like what

026we're questioning at this point possibly is the wording and the policy and also um the the specifics within the job description. And then to add one more thing to that, I want to make sure that if we uh approve this in in in this process where we're allowing that uh concealed firearm to be part of the position or part of just this special circumstance with this person because they are so qualified. So I want to I want to pause and I want to um Mark Delaney, our deputy superintendent wants to respond. Yeah. So the the SPO designation is the board can request that the policy be updated that the SPO designation be tied to a specific position. That designation that would be later potentially approved by the board uh would then only be tied to

027that singular individual. So if there was ever a transition, uh the person that received that designation resigned, retired, left the district, that position doesn't automatically guarantee that whoever fills that position is a is an SPO with the district. That authority lies solely with the board to approve that and then for that individual to go through all of that additional training as well. But to uh Vice President Grder's point, the language in 1432 can certainly be adjusted to articulate remove the language around administrators and teachers and specifically name the position. With regards to the SPO designation, as outlined by state statute, this SPO designation is not necessarily tied to the job description. This is a voluntary thing that our director of safety and security is looking to do uh because of his extensive background and training,

028his over 25 years in law enforcement, his training of SRO's, his training of police forces across this uh the St. metropolitan area and and again we all would never hope that this would happen but his in ability and skill set to intervene should we have a situation that that transpires we have Carol has a question then push no I have a question so u we're saying that our SRO would have a gun and the SPO would have a done or more than one SPO in a building. We are only talking about one person being an SPO. We're not talking about a lot of SPOS's. We're not nothing like that. It's the SRO gun. SO with SRO with a gun and SPO with the gun. No, only the director of safety and security would be the

029SP the SPO for the district. Okay. What it's sounding like is we have SPOS's at the schools. No. Yeah, that's I don't think this is very clear. That's what we're asked. That's what I asked about to just have policy when we get to that. Like right now we're doing discussion and deciding whether or not we want to and that's the comment the role right now and then policy comes that's a comment that I wanted to clarify. one of the comments. I I wanted to apologize if I've misheard what was being said, but the question arose as to subsequent hires that may not have the same qualifications or training or whatever that they would automatically be vested with this gun. And and no, it's written in the I thought from what I understood, it's written in

030the policy that this is tied only to the person that we're voting for right now. And other requests can come forward, but we have to we have to it's a case by case, person by person, and that's not just policy. That is the state statute that any individual that wants it would have to make application to the superintendent which would come to the board. They have to be approved by the state. They have to demonstrate they've done the training and go through multiple other steps. Okay. So, so we're clear and and I want I I want to make sure that this is said out loud. We are authorizing the job is already authorized. Correct. Like the SPO position. No, not yet. Okay. So, but by giving this designation to Mr. Jameson, am I saying it

031right? I just want to clarify that's not what the board is voting on. The board is simply voting on the ability for the district to designate an SPO in a different hearing that the board would would have in closed session. Okay. All right. One other quick question if I can ask. Do we have any like Sarah you mentioned the neighboring districts and things like other districts having is there any other information that we can help educate and communicate like standards that are happening that maybe the community isn't aware of policy I'm not aware of just around Yeah. Yeah. I you I I think the I think certainly individuals could research that in St. County. There are several school districts and and they may have approached this through different means. Um there are districts that have

032named singular individuals. Uh there are districts that have developed their own internal police forces. Um that some some are commissioned officers on staff, some are non-commissioned officers on staff. In addition, they all have SRO's as well. and and so uh there there are certainly both large and small uh districts in St. Louis County uh that are equipped and have policies around that. So, so this vote is to allow for a position in this area to be called a SPO, a school protection officer. And we would approve that or not approve that in this. And if it was approved, we could change the policy um to reflect the values that were just shared. And at a later time, we would decide who to hire, who to designate, understanding that in this case, it would likely be

033a person who's the director of safety and security. Right. That is that is correct. All right. So that is the u so that's the motion before you. Uh Caroli, did you want to share anything to that piece? I just I think this is as clear as mine. Okay. I I I'm not I don't think it's clear what we're doing here. It is to create a new role called an SPO in the franchises school district. So that that's what we're doing right now. That's all that's all it is. and it is in relation to Missouri state statute 160.665. If we vote no, we vote no. If we vote yes, then there's a following question about what the policy will be regarding this position and we can make it more restrained as uh Vice President Grder just

034mentioned. Um and then we decide who this will be. Sorry, my battery just died. It's plugged in but it's not working. I was trying not to but sorry. So, yeah. And you understand? I mean, everybody understands what we where we're at. Yes. Okay. Sorry. All right. But it wasn't charging. Is the board ready to move? Okay. So, again, I'm going to restate the motion just because it's been a little while. Um, the motion is um to allow the designation of a school protection officer in the district under Missouri state statute 160.665 665 and that the designation of specific individuals as school protection officers be made by separate votes as determined by the board of education. So that's been moved and been seconded. There are no more comments or questions to say. Um and if that's

035the case, uh do we want to wait for back up? Um can I can have her join for this one if you want. Can somebody just take your phone and text? I mean, can you face somebody? Second. I'll hover up. All right. And so, while that happens, um, I just want to make sure uh, transparency is one thing, but understanding is better. And so, we're trying to make it where transparency is the point of understanding that we already have SRO in schools who are armed and tasked with protecting our students. What this is is adding a person to be an SPO that is decided on a case by case basis according to the state of Missouri and I just want to make sure well this is just this is just to enable us to appoint

036this is just open up to and my understanding that administration is in favor of this we are making the recommendation we do support this thank you Okay. Thank you, Carol. Can you hear me? We delayed the vote so you can have your vote included as well. I'm so sorry. What I'm saying is that we're saying that the SEO is Mr. Jameson. We were not if we keep on getting attached to the person. Yes. This is just to let us have the ability to at some point at our discretion appoint an SPO. Period. The rest of it will happen in future sessions. And it could be him. Okay. Hypothetically. Could be. Yeah. Okay. All right. Everybody's aware of the vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say no. It passes. Uh,

037you know, thank you. I want to be clear that this vote only authorizes the district to designate SPOS's. Uh the board must vote to approve the individual via separate vote in closed session. Uh at this time I will call the regular business meeting to order. So we are entering into the regular business meeting. Uh I want to remind everyone when you walked in you would have seen uh something on the doors that allows you to follow along. Uh there's a QR code to follow along with the agenda. There's also a QR code that allows you to see the strategic plan. Uh we have a strategic plan aiming for FHSD 2030. Uh all the board members have this in front of us as well. Uh the agenda that is before you is an agenda that we

038have decided um helps us reach that goal. And before we approve of the agenda, we are all going to say the pledge of allegiance. 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. I'd like to have a motion to approve the agenda for June 5th, 2025 as presented. So moved. Second. Motion by Director Pushkar, second by Director Ponder. All those in favor say I. I I all those opposed. Motion passes. Uh at this time, we'd like to welcome Miss Jennifer Joles to present our special recognition. I've been practicing. So good. Thank you, President Blair. I got practiced yours as well. Tonight, we would like to recognize Francis House Central for once again receiving

039the exemplary school library program designation from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This is the third year in a row that FHC has earned this statewide recognition. The application consists of providing evidence for 21 different indicators across five main categories. Those include instruction, leadership, library environment, library management, and staffing. The applications are evaluated and assessed by a team of school librarians from across the state of Missouri. The exemplary school library program was established following the passage of Senate Bill 743 in 2018, which required DESIE to establish a process for recognizing library programs. Francis House Central's library is one of only six programs in the entire state to earn the designation this year and the first and only school in the Francis House School District. We want to be sure to recognize the tireless

040efforts of our dedicated library media specialists who made this possible. So, big thanks to Cassie, Cassie Flores, Tanisha L Martina, and Carrie Smith. And we'll call them up in just a moment to be recognized. Um, tonight we have Dusty's director of literacy, director of literacy for secondary schools, Miss Lisa Scrogs with us this evening, and she's going to come forward and present a resolution and a proclamation. Mr. [Music] Frogs, good evening. Um, Cassie and Tanisha, if you would come on up, please. On behalf of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, I am very pleased to be here this evening to recognize and celebrate your achievement for the third year in a row. Outstanding job. Um, I bring gifts. One of these is a proclamation from the Missouri State Board of Education recognizing your

041achievement. and the other is a resolution from the Missouri House of Representatives recognizing your achievement. Um, ladies, three years in a row. That that is really special. Congratulations and thank you for all that you do for students. [Applause] [Music] Amy, your head. There you go. Perfect. Congratulations. [Music] We're moving towards patron comments. Want to remind everyone uh that patron comments is for residents of the district and staff members uh who 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 remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted. Uh the board appreciates

042that you have taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and perspective. I would like to remind everyone that we expect the speakers will remain civil and respectful when giving remarks. Uh if anyone fails to comply with board policies, regulations, and rules, we reserve the right to cut those three minutes short. Uh we also ask the patrons in the audience remain quiet in order to be respectful of the speaker's allotted time. We welcome Grayson Justice to come forward. [Music] Good evening. My name is Grayson Justice. Um I'm a alumni of class of 2013. My pronouns is he and she. So, I was going to talk about a list of things that needs to improve to the upcoming school year like the gas smell, bring back brain pop, and not bring

043up personal political policies like the anti-trans and non-binary locker and restroom policy. Um, at last month's meeting, one board member invited an outofstate MAGA book banning anti-LGBTQ pastor to speak at public comments. And policy states that only someone in the Francis Hall district or community or an employee of this district can speak at public comments, but that board member wants to have that policy voted off for that one person so he can spew his hatred and bigotry towards a community. And thank thank God it got voted down and I want to thank the board for standing up for the policies that were sworn to protect. It was finally last two meetings ago, but last meeting was like a nose dive. Um, shame on anyone whether it's a school board member or a PAC for not

044following the policy that was green upon just like all other school districts when they conduct um public comments. Now, this month is Pride Month. Um, and I want to want everyone to celebrate, but also fight for the rights for everyone, including our trans brothers and sisters, to have the same rights as our sis allies. Cuz the first day of Pride Month started as a riot at Stonewall in in New York City by our gay, lesbian, and yes, transgender people who started this monthlong event for those um who are still fighting to be seen and to be alive from hatred and bigotry by our government. Happy Pride. Thank you. I thank you. The board welcomes Amy Gueon. Yeah. Is that right? Well, thank you, Stephen, for saying my name like perfectly. That's never happened, I think,

045ever. So, and thank you for what you did last board meeting. I think that was really hard. And they should double your salary for being a board member. My dad always liked that joke because I know you guys don't. You volunteer your time. But anyways, good evening, Mary Jane. This three minute speech is dedicated to you. Last month, you wasted our community's time and resources to spread political agenda. I have order. Yeah, I'm speaking. I'm watching. I I am watching. Um, feel free to disagree with speak over her. Or can you pause when she pause? It's paused at 24. I'm not trying to be aggressive, but I would like to stand up for me like as she stood up for her. Hi there. Hi. Yeah. Sorry, Stephen. Oh, we have a paused at 2:40. Um,

046if you want to share disagreements, um, you can share disagreements, but you cannot attack the person and call names. Um, I don't know if you've gotten there yet or if you're about to, but I'm just want to let you know. I haven't done it yet. I know. I'm just I'm going to I know. I'm just want to let you know, okay, that again, I shared earlier, we expect that speakers will remain civil and respectful when giving remarks and that's the that's the standard I will apply for you and other speakers, too. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Um, 240 and I will Yes. Okay. But I do think that there was a spread of a political agenda. It's laughable that you invited Pastor John to a board meeting. Is there no such thing as separation of church

047and state? I did not invite him. Well, you were very adamant that he should speak and you disrespect. That's right. So, two different things. We've only have conversation back and forth on this, but I wasn't the one that How am I going to be? So just I'm speaking and I'm not going to be harassed anymore. This is not harassment. This is talking about your objective behavior. The speaker can continue. You have 2 minutes 7 seconds. All right. Thank you. I'm going to take a quote from the movie Mean Girls by saying he doesn't even go here. He is not part of our community. And I don't know why you invited him or why you promoted that he had to speak. But do you think you're above the rules, Mary Jane? Of course you do. you

048are privileged and I think you are culturally I'm going to ask that you continue on with the points without attacking the person. Thank you. Okay, Mary Jane, you said in session and I quote, "I am embarrassed by the district." Mary Jane, you make me feel embarrassed for white women. Mary Jane, if you are so embarrassed, then leave. Leave now. Mary Jane, you as a board member, you preach against personal attack. You can continue. Continue. Did you pause it because I'm really running out of time to these disruptful All right. So again, you had a minute and 30 seconds. Thank you for that. Continue. All right. Mary Jane, you as a board member, you preach against the indoctrination of students. You accuse teachers and librarians of brainwashing students. Yet behind the scenes, you are known for

049paying people to go to your church. Number one, that is thirsty. Number two, what's so wrong with your church that you have to pay people to go? I personally know someone who you did this to point of order. Here it is. This is the last time. Can you please focus on a topic versus trying to attack a person, but she's claiming that teachers and doctor I I I have I'm just trying to show the parallel. Okay, here's this is the last time I'm just Okay, focus on the concern without attacking the person. We have a minute left. Thank you so much. All right. All right. I personally know someone who you attempted to indoctrinate. My friend took your money and stood you up at church. Here's a tip. Don't give the cash until they show.

050Mary Jane, did you know the salary of an exotic dancer from Texas is around $4,000 a year? I was expecting it. Teachers need to be paid more. That's all I want to say. Okay, let's go ahead and cut the microphone. Okay. I've asked you to be respectful multiple times and you it was worth it. I understand what you're saying, but your time is over. Okay. I'll talk to you later, Mary J. No, you won't. [Music] We get a chance to make the culture we live in. It's hard to know where to draw the line because different speeches have happened at different times, but there is a line and it's hard to know where it is and I'm just trying to find it. Um, whenever possible, we speak on what we're for, not who we're against.

051And I will ask that we continue to do that going forward. Speak about what you're for, not who you're against. Um, we're going to move forward to FHEA and FISA comments. At this at this time, I'd like to welcome FHEA first. Dan just has copies of my speech because I got a lot packed here. Um, good evening. My name is Rene Hill and I approach this. Yeah, he's just passing out. Yeah, but that's not You can't approach the Well, I can give you copies later if you can. I'll be great. Thank you. Excuse me. Good evening. My name is Francancy Tendle and I'm the president. Um, some of our employees that I want to have consideration by the district for are special area teachers. FHA reached out to the district on May 20th about the

052traveling teachers having inconsistent hours. They're being asked to work the early starting school schedules on some days and late departing school schedules on other days. the days are not consistent because they're a three-day rotation which makes it difficult to plan for and will cost some of these teachers more money due to child care. Um we were told that HR is looking into this um but we haven't heard anything yet and now the teachers have another issue. This was only brought to FHA's attention on June 2nd. Um some of the elementary schools are not going to have the same number of special times as other schools because they're sharing time with the library and counselors. So, we know that some of our students, the specials, are the reasons they love coming to school. Other elementary schools

053have figured out how to make it work. So, we're requesting that those elementaryaries that have not do so. FHA wants to be collaborative with the district to solve some of these issues, but we're not being given the opportunity to help. RUD from MMEA, Lisa Waha, works with nine groups in St. Charles County. Of those nine groups, seven requested to open negotiations. Six were welcomed by their district to open negotiations to improve their working conditions for their staff. The only district to refuse to open negotiations was Francis Health. We applaud Wville and St. Charles that are willing to partner with their staff to improve their district. That is what truly makes a destination district. While FHEA appreciates the district moving from being willing to pay 8% of the insurance increase to now paying 14%. We hope

054that next year we will be provided more opportunity for collaboration before the committee meets only twice and has just given one solution. We were happy to learn that summer school has been moved from Francis Hill North to Francis Health Central and we hope that the toxic gas issue with Francis Hill North is resolved before the start of next year. We also hope that if any of the classes still remaining at Francis Hell North for summer school experience any issues, they will immediately be relocated. I just want to say that I had talked about the position earlier. I think it really would be important to focus on getting SRO's in every one of our schools before we start talking about other people being harmed in our schools. And I hope everybody has a great summer. Thank

055you. Thank you. And now for feast. Thank you board. My name is Heidi Nixon. I'm the FISA FISA vice president for technicians. Congratulations to all of our graduates. those who graduated last week from Francis Hal Union and those graduating from Frances Central, Francis Hal High, and Francis Hell North this Saturday. We are also proud of your accomplishments and look forward to seeing what you will be able to achieve in the future. We want to wish our school staff a restful and well-deserved summer break. Teachers, paras, interpreters, behavioral behavioral support specialists, and our non-yearround administrative assistants. Thank you for all of your efforts to help our students succeed. For our year-round staff, custodial maintenance, grounds, year-round administrative assistants, and building technicians, we hope you are able to find some time over the next 2 months to

056relax and rech recharge while the majority of the buildings are empty of students. To all of our retirees, thank you for your dedication to our district and our students. To those leaving our district for other opportunities, we also thank you for your service and dedication to our district and students. District administration, thank you for making the difficult but proper decision to move the secondary summer schools to Francis Hall Central. This will allow proper time for muchneeded repairs on Frances North so that staff and students can work and learn in a safe environment at the start of next school year. Finally, thank you board for standing up for the staff and students at Francis Hell North. Hopefully over time the district can get proper resolution for the issues that have occurred at this school during its

057inaugural school year. North is a beautiful building that should be the pride of the district. But this year it has left anox noxious gas in everyone's nose. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to have a motion to approve the consent agenda for June 5th, 2025 as presented. So motion by director Ponder, seconded by Vice President Grder. All those in favor say I. All those opposed say no. No. Uh the eyes have it. And now we move to motion to approve the purchases as presented. want to point out to everyone that um there's an item that has been pulled away prior approval number three. So, we are going to be approving the entire chunk that you see in front of you all at one time. So, this is for everything you see before you as you

058follow along. Motion to approve the purchases as presented. So, move second. Motion by director Kushkar, second by director Ponder. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. The eyes have it and the motion passes. And now we are at purchases for prior approval number three. Uh motion to approve the purchase as presented. So moved. Motion by director Ponder, second by Director Pushkar. And now we have time for discussion. Yeah, thank you for pulling this uh President Blair. Um, one of the reasons I wanted to pull this out was to call attention to the fact, which I'm sure you already know, that BrainPOP was removed from the as a curriculum resource last year. And when that was removed, it was removed by that majority of the board, which is now changed. I

059mean, we all know this. Um, what I want to call to mind is the fact that since Robert's rules of order is our governing body that there's a a item in Robert's rules of order that states if the practice was and and what I'm talking about is the recision of something. So we pulled away brain pop. Now that's being reversed. Okay. So that's that's the issue. If the practice was established by a formal motion that required a twothirds vote to pass it, or if it is a matter of significant importance, then it would require a twothirds vote to resend or amend the practice. Now, that wording is not real clear. And so, what I would like to do is have this tabled until our next board meeting. By that time, our board secretary will be

060back who has access to a group of parliamentarians that could help us sort this out. But if we go ahead and just approve it now, we would be in violation of Robert's rules of order. And when we do that, we run the course or the possibility of having some adverse events, which one would be an invalid decision. Um, the challenge could always be to the decision. Um, and it goes on there, risk of appeal, legal implications, whatever. I just want to be sure that we're following what what governance we should be. So, what I'm hearing you say is that you believe the Robert's rule of of order has a certain rule to a vote that was decided one way and now the vote is changing and this doesn't just didn't Right. Right. And so it

061didn't happen in December last year. Right. So, and so what I'm hearing you say is you're invoking Robert's rules of order to say that because it was rescended in December, it that's not a clearcut approval now. Correct. or you just want a proletarian to look at it. So, what I'd like to do is make the motion to table this until the next board meeting and hopefully if we can get a definitive answer in that amount of time. Okay. So, based on Robert's rule of So, based on Robert's rules of order, I the motion to table has to have a second and then Okay. I make the motion to table it till the 15th. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. So, two seconds. So, there's a second. Now, we discussed do you want to table

062it? Um so the question is that she's saying to table it in order to get information from a parliamentarian. Uh the question is uh have you sent that question to our parliamentarian or to our district ahead of this meeting so they had time to address it? You mean to our board secretary to um anybody on the district so they can I I did mention it to Dr. Rampus at one point in the past but it wasn't a um I don't know that it was considered an action item. It was I'm thinking about this. That's basically how the conversation took place. But no, no formal action has been taken previously. So, right now, we're in the process of discussing the motion to table. Um, and and you're saying it's for parliamentarian reasons. Um, I'm going to

063ask the admin, is anybody in admin, are you aware of any parliamentarian reason why a vote in last December cannot be voted otherwise in in a different way? I am not aware of it, but I will be the first to admit I'm not an expert on Robert's rules, right? Because I believe what happened was the vote in December was a vote to remove to not renew it for that year. Okay. So, and so so this would be voting for a different year. It was removed from the 2526. If you remember, we we we were concerned about the content in Rainop, which is one of the reasons that we removed it. It wasn't because of the the cost necessarily. it was more the content. And at that point in time, I asked that, you know, we

064begin some insuranceances that Brain Hot Pop has taken out offending um videos or whatever considering the new federal guidance that you know not contain CRT or DEI. And I've not been assured that that's the case. And by I but nothing was ever done. All that was done was that they said that the teachers had to preview the videos beforehand, but you know, we don't know that that's being done. I I would think that the tableling would be uh would be out of order because it is a decision last December was to stop funding it for that school year. And so this is a new topic. This is the funded for this school year. Yeah. You can vote whether or not to. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever was voted accepted this year. Yeah. Whatever was voted no last

065year could be voted yes this time. I think it it we aren't clear or I'm not clear though on Robert tools of order. Like I said the if we do the motion to go ahead and approve this and then we I find out later that it it really took a twothirds majority and it wouldn't have passed then we're in a situation all I'm asking is that these 10 days be devoted to getting some information. I don't think that's too honorous. Okay. So uh any other questions or comments? anything from the administration regarding um how this might work with parliamentarian purposes? My recollection is the vote last year was for the renewal of the subscription and that was not approved to renew the subscription. I don't recall that requiring a certain vote. That was just a

066simple majority vote. This was it's not curriculum. This is a purchase just like anything else. Right. So, yeah. How is this not curriculum? It's not part it's not under the curriculum like it's a resource just like all the other supplemental resources. That's why we have it approve in the approval like in the consent per or the purchase approvals here. So, as a resource you're saying it's not curriculum. No, I'm not saying that. But I'm saying it just doesn't fall under curriculum as in it's not an investment that we make forever just like before when you had approved it the board had approved it previously. Does it one year at a time what it is? We still have to follow Robert's rules. Correct. So that's a question. Um the idea is that in December of last

067year the vote was to discontinue the use and the sub uh the subscription to Brain Pop, right? and the vote passed and so it was discontinued and now we're looking at the next school year and the question is do you want to renew it? Do you want to renew it? And we might decide yes or no but the idea is so now Jane's point is that she believes that Robert's rules state that it takes 2/3 versus a just simple majority. She's calling it a rescending because it's rescending a vote and the idea is that it's not a rescending of a vote. It's just it's just a different vote. It is like Yeah, we didn't we didn't vote to like rename a school and then now we're rescending that vote to go back to the old

068name. That would be like resending a vote is that was a vote for that school year. The majority voted certain way and now there's a new vote just like everything else on the purchase list and it's our job to approve the purchase. And when we talked about this at the previous meeting, everybody was like that's fine. just be use caution and judgment in which videos you that was for the free version. We we we weren't approving the paid version which is now. So right now the conversation that's not your argument though that you're making right now. Right now the conversation is about do we table it or not? And then after that the conversation is do we approve it or not? So right before us is there any more conversation we need to have about

069tableabling. Okay. So it's been motioned has a second. All in favor of tableabling the approval of Brain Pop um until the next meeting say I. I. All opposed say I. I. I. And Carly. I'm opposed. Okay. And so the motion to table does not pass. And so now the motion is a hot in front of us when it comes to the purchase of Brain Pop. Um, as you all see the purchase number three, is there any conversation about the purchase of Brain Pop as you see in front of you? Yeah, I I would just like to add comment if that's possible. Um, this is the 21st century reality of education. Um, we expect our teachers to differentiate our curriculum. We expect them to meet the needs of a myriad of learners. We expect that there

070are numerous students to come to our classrooms that need to learn with their eyes. Some need to learn with their ears. Some are in tactile ways. Some need more special opportunities. Um Brain BrainPOP is a tool that offers this. This is the one tool of many including the curriculum that can be used in a teacher's tool belt. In our district, we rarely purchase new textbooks for our secondary students. So, this 21st century tool will fill that need. In a nutshell, purchasing new textbooks would cost us millions. Whereas, supplementing with an online tool that is curated at an ongoing basis as well as designed to meet state standards is not only a cost savings over time, but it allows us to meet the needs of these diverse student populations. And so with that and my own

071personal experience, I do highly recommend that we consider adding this resource in and approving this purchase. I just want to add too that I mean the presentation that we had that the teachers put together was very factual, was very compelling. I think what Sarah just said too about the resources and Ron, I know you talked a lot too about just helping us focus on our scores and helping us with academics and everything and to that end and the teachers responded basically that this is a huge tool for them to supplement and they have assessments that you know you can watch on there and everything. So, it's surprising to me to just all of a sudden feel like there's a shift that happened with this when we went to the teachers to ask if it's valuable.

072They said it was. They have I mean, it's attached to this meeting too with all of the data, all of the backup, all of the reasons. And it's it feels like a personal problem that you have with maybe a couple of videos that had been mentioned rather than, you know, throw the baby out with the bath water kind of thing. It's No, Amy, it's not. It's it's more of a fact that if there are videos in there that are against federal guidelines currently, we're going to lose funding and we can't afford to lose any any funding at all. And you can roll your eyes and say that that's not going to happen. But unless I we have some verification that all the videos that these kids are being exposed to don't contain um CRT, DEI,

073whatever the current federal guidelines are, then we stand the risk of being docked financially. I I hear Wait a second. The audience is not supposed to be talking. I would argue the last audience I got to talk for. The audience is not supposed to be talking right now. Um I would argue that some of the textbooks that we even have in the classrooms right now are so old that they would v violate the federal guidelines that we have as of January. Bingo. So we need to be constantly vigilant and I do agree with you. But I also believe that we have a lot of highly trained, highly educated experts in these classrooms who preview this information long before they they show it. And we have policies that back them up, policies that back us up,

074and we have a solid administration and curriculum um director who I believe trusts the educators that we hire. I have as our well part of our responsibilities on this board is oversight of the district. And there I I want to make it perfectly clear that I not once questioned the intelligence, the commitment, or the education of our teachers. I've been all over radio stating how how we have the best teachers in the in the state, not just the county, and that, you know, I I I stand by them and wish that I could get Well, those teachers want this resource change. So, okay. So, my com my comment was be would be is there's no way me as an individual could even pretend to speak for every teacher in this district. So, I'm not going

075to say that. I can't pretend to say that I'm going to speak for every voter in this district. I can't say that. All I can say is is this. I had a series of questions last month. I don't know that I have them answered. Are we utilizing all resources already included within the curriculum? Number two, what are the resources have been considered in addition to brain pop or have we explored free options? Number four, how does the effectiveness of brain pop get evaluated? to which great. Yeah, Brain Pop has scores. You you take a a test off of what video you just watched that in no way correlates or how do you correlate that test to a test that you're going to take um at at the semester break? How do you tie those in

076together? Wait, wait. So, I can answer that. So, those the brain pop tests, how do you tie those? How do you tie the brain? How do you evaluate if we fall short in in our guidelines that you talked about that we're shooting? If we fall short in these scores, is brain pop part of the problem? Is brain part part of the solution? How was that evaluated? And then number five and number five was I found that answer was um our new academic officer will will include those. So those those questions haven't been answered. You want to vote on it? Great. They I don't have these answers. I don't support it. So because I know not every school in this county uses brain pop. Several do. Several do. But all right. But not every school. So

077it's not an end all be all. So I'm going to vote no for this. So thank you Don. Um I want to allow Treasurer Owens chance to speak too. Thank you for allowing me to Yeah. President Blair. I would like to uh support Brain Top. I would like to support the teachers. I would like to support the students. I trust them. I trust their expertise. And I believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion because you don't have public schools of America without those three things. And when we turn our backs on that, we've turned our backs on public education. Thank you. Um Um Director Eli, you had your hand up just a moment ago. I I I do want to state um I am a teacher. I can speak for myself. I can say that being

078in the classroom with 25 students where six of them have IEPs, four of them have 504s, three of them have severe behavior problems, and maybe I can't do math. Eight, what's left the number? I don't know. A lot. Okay. When you have a tool, well, let's back it up. The school that you went to and the school that I went to when we were younger are gone. They don't exist and they never will come back again because the kids that are in schools right now are different. Their parents, even the 30s that are are raising them now, is the 30s and the 40s, they're different as well. It's different than it used to be. the textbooks that we have now, they can't keep up with the technology and the knowledge that needs to be part

079of the 21st century. So, a tool like BrainPOP is the future. Textbooks will and and it will not be part of the future. So, we will be bringing in more of these tools as time goes on to help us develop more of a whole curriculum. to meet the needs of those diverse needed learners that are already in our classrooms. And what I can tell you as a teacher that is in the classroom right now is it's not easy. And there is no one source that does it. There's not even two or three sources. I can tell you in my own classroom, I'm I'm juggling probably five or six different resources. And in my school, they don't buy textbooks anymore. There are zero. Zip zilch. Okay. So, we develop our curriculum, we use state standards, we

080bring in um uni UBD, we um we scaffold, we um we differentiate, we work with special education, and I it to teach one lesson, I might have to build three or four different versions of that lesson in order to reach the whole group. And then even after that, even after I teach to my whole group of 25ish students, then I still have to do a formative to figure out what they've learned or what well a formative comes first, then I teach. Then after that, I might do some type of a midpoint check-in. And I might have four kids who get it, three kids who don't, 55 who are ready to move forward, and 234 who don't even know what day it is. So in that world that I live in, I can communicate and please

081trust me when I tell you this that our teachers are living it too that we need tools like this. We need them and the cost is minimal compared to us going out and looking for another textbook or something like that. It's it's it's nothing. It's a blink compared to it. But just like if I were to tell you, how about this? If I were to say like uh nobody has cable anymore. We all have subscription services, right? That I I I called it 20 years ago. I called that. I told everybody I know cable's dead. It's gone. Textbooks are dead. They're gone. This type of a service is the future. It's curated. It's met. It's meet state standards. It's it's vetted. And maybe there's one or two questionable videos, but I can guarantee you that

082the textbooks from 2001 already are violating those federal guidelines that came out in January. So, pull those off the shelves. What are you going to give the teachers? Sarah, I I appreciate your comments. I truly do. I I you you have a different perspective than than most of us. I think I want to say on behalf of myself and I hope everybody else on this board, I believe it's true that we all want what's best for the kids. that is our driving force. We may have different ways of how to get there, but in the end, we all want what's best for the kids. So, I really appreciate your comments. I I totally respect, you know, your difficult job as a teacher. Um I don't know that any of us up here besides Carol Lee

083could do the job that that you're currently doing. So, I appreciate your your input and and your perspective actually because I, you know, you did bring forth some things that I hadn't even thought about and that is that textbooks are dead and that, you know, they were everything. I still like opening up a book to read. I'm sorry. You can have your Kindles. I like my books. I like books. Yeah. Um, I want to just direct attention to the file that's in this item. talks about everything that the last board meeting included the presentation on how brain pop has different it helps differentiate connect assess experience support we know that there are well I think the numbers from last month were um 30,000 views in social studies 29,000 in science 8,000 ELA 6,000 math that

084was in the 2425 school year that was cut short um in terms of how many u months they used it um I do want to hold on to the things I heard from Ron as well. The idea of how do we evaluate it, I I think that's a fair thing to ask for anything we apply. Um, and I'd like to hold on to that. But, uh, for me, uh, having heard the the experts in the room say that Brain Pop is something that would empower teachers, I will be voting yes on Brain Pop. My question, I won't ask anybody else if they want to share, but is there anything from the administration uh, whether it's uh, Dr. Buckman if or anybody else who wants to say a comment about it. You had asked if we

085explored other resources. We haven't found anything else that's as comprehensive as Brain Pop. So, we have been looking over the last year while we didn't have access to it and we haven't found anything that we feel would be a comparable resource um that's that comprehensive. Um there was a question about how often content is updated. Rainpop shared with us they have a team of content developers who focus exclusively on creating the new content and updating the existing material. Major content updates occur at the start of each school year, kind of back to school time, uh, with additional updates released quarterly to make sure that their topics remain timely and accurate and relevant. There was a question about content becoming outdated and does the company remove it. I think someone had asked, can teachers report um,

086if they find something that, you know, is inaccurate or no longer accurate? Uh, Brave takes the content accuracy seriously. They actively monitor for outdated material. They have an internal team who regularly reviews and updates the content to ensure that it reflects current standards and information. They welcome and value educator feedback. Teachers can easily report content they believe is inaccurate or outdated through a feedback form that they have. Um and then your question about just how we monitor it. It's really the same way that we would monitor any of our supplemental tools. And so we look at those usage reports several times throughout the year at the district level. um informal conversations with teachers and then really it's if we're not meeting our goals through our data then we're looking at what are the tools we're

087using to teach that course right and that's I guess that's part of my point is there's really no metric to say whether or not this is truly working so I mean I've said my I think there is and that is that it hasn't been there for a year and has have our scores gone up, gone down, stay the same. Like that's a metric that we can use, right? I think sometimes there's a longer delay in terms of see how we've done over the course of the last however long. I think it would be hard to pinpoint our overall student achievement data on one specific tool. So if the scores went up, I wouldn't say that was because of BrainPOP. If the scores went down, I wouldn't say that's because of BrainPOP or any of the

088other supplemental tools that we use. Well, that that makes my point is that how and that makes Ron's point, too, like how can we measure this thing that we're spending money on? Is it valuable? Is it something that teachers want? Absolutely, they do. It's overwhelming. We get it. We get that side of it. But our job up here is to make sure that whatever it is that we are buying and providing to the district has a measurable outcome whether it's good or bad so that we can evaluate whether or not we need it in the future. Right? If we think there are some tools that you measure process and usage there are some that you measure outcome and I think the example here would be the utilization in the classroom. Are teachers utilizing as an

089instructional resource? Are students accessing it as part of independent work? you know, if we're offering it to use at home, is it being utilized? So, if it's a tool that is being utilized to demonstrate it's worth the investment, then we would say that's part of why we're recommending it. Right. Any other discussion? I just don't think we've ever had such interest from our teachers and students for any resource that I've ever heard as the outcry for Brain Pop. And that is something. and also all of the effort that went into doing all of the research to help everybody up here feel comfortable about the resource and renewing it and express the importance of it. I don't want to dismiss either. And anything that the administration is putting forward for us is something that they who

090are the experts have already vetted and you know feel confident that it's going to help be a good investment for our students. And so I find it surprising that we would scrutinize this one resource that is a supplemental resource so harshly given the spend. Yeah. I think the point would be is just because the administration wants it doesn't what are we just a yes board? We should just have them come up here and vote. No, we're that's oversight. We should all we everything should undergo scrutiny and and that's my that's I'm going to vote no that my issue is is I don't truly not every school uses this resource and somehow somehow they're able to teach the children and there's no way to truly be able to evaluate the effectiveness or the necessity of this

091tool. Hey, I get it. It's 15 grand. You're going to use it. You're going to put it in. Gotcha. And I I don't like to play this trump card. I get it. Um my wife's a teacher, too. She doesn't use this resource. She doesn't need it. So, got you. I'm I'm voting no. Thank you, Carmen. Any uh last comments before we uh make a vote. Okay. So, the motion is ahead of us. The motion to approve the purchase as presented. This is referring to purchase number three, the brain pop. PDF. All those in favor say I. I. I. I that's four. All those opposed say no. No. That's three. Um eyes have it. And the motion passes. Next up, um motion to approve the meal and the alocard price recommendations for the 2526 school year

092as presented. So moved. Motion by director Bushkar, second by director Ponder. Uh any conversation? Yeah, I'd like to know how they got by with only one raising at 10 cents a meal. I think they raised 10 cents. A high five to whoever raised 10 cents. My my food budget went up more than 10 cents a me. I know. Um any any questions about this. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. The eyes have it. And now we have a budget presentation. I'd like to invite our chief finance and operations officer, Carol Embry, to present. [Music] Good evening. Hello. Hi. I'm very excited to be here for this moment in time because a great deal of work has gone into the development of this budget. So I would like to

093acknowledge and thank the leaders throughout the system that contributed to this process and especially recognize our director of finance Julie Walsh. This was her bud first budget full experience and she did fantastic and so I celebrate her this evening. So much of this will be very familiar for you uh those of you who were on the board last year or attentive to our board meetings. Uh the slide format is very much the same. The data has been updated and so our objectives will be of course to talk about the process and some of those slides will be familiar but then we'll cover the changes. This is focused on the change from the current year revised budget to the new FY26 budget. Talk about revenues and expenditures. We'll ensure that we talk about each of the

094funds and uh that includes our fiduciary fund, the self- insurance fund and then uh wrap up with the operating fund balance and trajectory information. This is our budget development calendar that we followed throughout the year. Uh the legislative session is still active, just so you know. Uh we'll maybe learn some new information next week and apprise you of that. This is that fund uh distribution requirement where we place our levy in the teacher fund, the general fund, capital projects fund, and the debt service levy goes in the debt fund. You know that you've had presentations every board meeting uh dated back to February 20 and uh this budget is presented to you, but then you have two weeks until the June 19th meeting where we will ask for your approval. The budget does need to

095be approved prior to July 1 or the existing budget would roll over per statute. This is the budget development process and again it indicates that we've engaged with a number of leaders. I've shared with you before but just highlighting that we do follow Missouri statute and board policy relative to the requirements within the budget document. I've added the board policy reference for you there at the bottom. And I did add in this slide regarding fund balance. Our policy 3114 governs our fund balance and indicates that we should have an undesated operating fund balance equal to 15% of the prior year operating expenditures and that if we were to decline under that then uh the board of education would need to uh establish a plan to replenish the fund within two years. So for our general

096information on revenues, I'm providing for you that overall understanding of the primary factors that are involved in the calculations of each of the revenues. Uh as uh you know very well and especially hear more about during the September presentation for the tax rate hearing, our local tax is one of our primary revenues and the calculation includes our assess valuation, the consumer price index and also the collection rate that we apply. we are subject to the Hancock amendment. I have a slide for you on that. Proposition C is a statewide sales tax. It's a one- cent tax that is um throughout the state and then it is distributed by the state of Missouri, but it's collected locally and applied by student measure. For our state revenues, we uh do pay attention to our attendance. We have

097a new uh calculation process that will be imposed relative to new legislation and that is bringing in an additional student measure of enrollment. The uh the lean-in will be a 10% on um enrollment and 90% on attendance the first year. So we also have the cost of living adjustment through the dollar value modifier. And then uh we could potentially benefit from certain waitings for free and reduced lunch special education and limited English proficient students uh within the formula calculation for regular federal funds. We uh are budgeting exactly what we have budgeted in the current year. The allocations occur in the fall and we will provide budget amendments at that point in time. the student enrollment projection slide. Uh this varies each year and we do not hit the mark. Uh I'm hopeful that our new

098demographic information will provide a guide for us moving forward. But as you can see, we're showing that if we do a look back to the FY20 year, which was that pre-COVID time, uh we have uh had a reduction of 303 based on our our new estimate, which does grow by 68 for next year. So we'll see where those numbers actually land. I always say it, I need to say it again or I'll feel really badly. Uh we talk about attendance. We talk about instruction and instruction uh is completely dependent on kids being engaged and in enrolled in school and in SE. Uh but we also in the state of Missouri are impacted financially by that that attendance. Now, our historical uh enrollment data is provided for you and I mentioned in the slide deck that

099potentially the dem demographic study would be available by the June 19th report. That may lean into July. I just want to say that now. Uh I was being especially hopeful uh for June 19th, but looks like it may be in July at this point. So, now we'll get into some of the specifics on our local tax. So, I should have mentioned to you that the slides have numbers. If you want to take me back to that with a question as we move forward, I'll pause at the end of revenue and see if you have any questions and uh we can uh talk about that then. So, for local tax, we have an estimated increase for FY26 of 6,279810 and that's for all funds because again, we do have a debt service levy. We uh received

100information in March from the county indicating that we have just over 35 million in new construction and improvements and that is a little bit down from last year when it was 38 million. The celebration of that is that we are able to capture all new revenue on new construction and improvements were not held back by the Hancock amendment. Our uh AV March 2025 over the September 2024 data increased by 8.88 88% and this is a reassessment year because this is tax year 2025 which is part of fiscal year 2526 reassessment years uh we typically have more growth and we are held though to Hancock I have a slide coming up but note that the consumer price index is 2.9% that's down from last year of 3.4 for our collection rate is really strong. We enjoy

101great uh uh collections in our district and so we're estimating at 99% and we will get new data from St. Charles County so that you can then have the tax rate hearing levy uh for the levy in September and set that we follow statute the the slide the images at the bottom indicate the different percentages. So when we talk assess valuation it's a percentage of market value. If your house uh is $100,000 and it's a residential real estate property, you apply 19% to that. So, you're assessed on $19,000 uh worth of that. This slide reminds us of the Hancock amendment. And so, when we talk about revenue growth, while I just mentioned that we grew by 8.88%, our revenue is capped at a 2.9% uh growth rate. It's the lowest of CPI, the actual assessed

102valuation growth or 5%. So the lowest number for us this time is 2.9%. That does not apply to the debt service levy that is only applied to our operating levy. For Proposition C sales tax, this is a large revenue. I kept the slide in here because usually we would be reporting on that. But at this point in time, while this generates uh 23,575,341 for us, that's the estimate in the current year and for next year. Uh there's no change indicated at this time. We know that the factor to be applied to the student measure has dropped because all ships will rise as the new student measure is applied where people are able to grow uh with their 10% enrollment number. So, as with everything, a budget amendment will be brought to you as soon as

103we have new information to inform us of what that will look like in the new year. For state basic formula and classroom trust fund, I'd like to remind you always uh the perception is the classroom trust fund is new money or we get more money for gaming and that is not the case. It's a carveout of our state formula calculation and we are estimating at this time a $3.2 2 million increase and that's relative to 50% of that state adequacy target increase. Our total uh revenue for the state is 50 million71099 with those two sources combined. restraight state transportation. Uh again celebrating and I hope that at some point in time this is uh something that we don't focus on but we went for so many years without full funding of transportation that it still

104seems too good to be true. Uh for our fourth year since 1991 we have full funding of the transportation and that's indicated for the new budget as well. Now full funding does mean that they pay 75% of eligible costs. So it's not dollar for-doll reimbursement, but we are certainly at a greater space than we were back in FY21 when we received 30.6% or 41.1% in 22. And uh so that is a celebration. So we currently have 7,173,000 budgeted for transportation and we are repeating that budget for next year. This is also a reminder slide for us that we we do not budget for financial in financial institutions tax. uh that chart, that line chart tells the whole story that needs to be told and that is that it's not reliable. Uh we certainly should never

105uh use it for recurring costs and we will continue to watch for it and if we receive it, we'll bring a budget amendment to you for approval and determination of how to use what I'm considering to be one-time funds. for earnings on deposits. We have enjoyed very rich rates and have had significant interest uh earnings and you know that we talk about arbitrage and the refund that will need to happen at some point in time relative to the bond fund. But in this situation, we're showing you by all funds the total reduction of 4,000441 for our interest earnings for next year. Maybe that will come back up, but at this point in time, we're being realistic in the approach of how much we're allocating for that. So, we are taking the budget from 8,39441 down

106to 4,390,000 across all funds. Uh the first slide on tuition based programming is our preschool information and we are reflecting within the budget an increase of 614,369. This is an image that was provided to you during the January board meeting when the rates were approved. And I want to highlight and emphasize for you that it's very important that an evaluation of the structure of the full day program needs to happen in the fall so that we can be equipped for what would that move forward look like for the preschool program. We will continue to struggle with this and if we're going to run a net operation that uh pays for itself where the program is self- sustaining uh because it's outside of our normal instruction focus then that change would need to be implemented. We

107do uh have 54 students currently on the full day weight list for FY26. Uh and again the net operation estimate will be conducted uh with budget amendments as needed for you. For vacation station uh we are showing a revenue increase of a million 32693. Again this slide information was provided to you as part of the net operation during the January meeting when the rates were approved. The program has not only met uh enrollment for the upcoming year but it has exceeded enrollment. It's actually up by over 10%. And uh again, budget amendments will be provided. I do expect that we're going to see that we perform better this year than anticipated back in January. And as soon as we close out the year, June 30, that information will be reviewed um to see if any

108other adjustments are needed. But as you can see, we had a couple of years of negative operation to pay our balance back. I truly believe this is the final time we will talk about COVID funding. We received our final revenue for the ESSER funding uh in FY25 in the fall. It all had to close out by September 30 and so we received 644,923 or that's what we had in the budget this year rather and that is getting removed out. So that closes that out. But overall, we received 18,26313303 in federal funding through uh to support the pandemic impacts in the district. Other minimal revenue changes taking us from FY25 to FY26 total 211,870. As you can see, those are individually listed out. In a number of situations, we are uh repeating the budget from the

109current year for those smaller revenues as well. And again, we'll continue to monitor that and perform a comprehensive review after everything closes out at the end of the fiscal year. This slide shows you a summary of all the changes that I've just covered. And for operating funds, the change is 7,2543. And this slide shows you our debt and bond fund uh changes. And so you can see we've got local tax revenue increased in the debt area, uh change with earnings from deposits, and then a change for county revenue. And then on the bond fund, the simple change is reducing down that earnings on deposits. This shows you by fund the comprehensive changes, the total moving from FY25 revised to FY26 6,689,378. And with that, I will ask if there are any questions relative to revenue.

110Oh, sorry. Raised my hand. Sorry. Um, slide 21. Sure. Yeah. Um, given that we're seeing in slide 21 like a decline in earnings, did we already talk about the strategies that we might have to to mitigate that impact if it doesn't bounce back because it looked You're talking about the interest income. Yeah. We really have to be responsive to that. uh and and overall anytime we have any of our revenue sources fluctuate then we just have to look at where might we be able to reduce expenditures to maintain the same net operation and ending fund balance percentage. So no specific strategies it's just something part of the overall picture that we look at. Okay. And then on slide 25 will you help me understand what that inl? Sure. So we receive property taxes as I

111mentioned about the local tax. There can be some particular financing structures within the city government or county government where they do not pay property taxes but instead they it's payments in lie of tax. And so it's just a different structure. It could be uh tax increment financing. It could be a chapter 100. It's just kind of flows a different path. And so we're required by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to code it differently. So it's just treated separately. Yes. Okay. Got it. We we follow the structure required by the Missouri uh Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. There's a U financial accounting manual. Has all kinds of wonderful coding. Yeah. Well, it's actually not horrible, but it does have a lot of uh requirements within it. Caroline, I have a question on honor

112about slide number 11. I don't think it's necessary that you go back to that, but you made a a comment about the enrollment and attendance. Yes. Do you believe that the state is moving more towards enrollment? So actually the change uh will ultimately it'll be a phase in process and so for the next 5 years it will be 1090 then 2080 then 3070 until we reach a 50/50. And so for districts that do not have really great attendance they are going to get a larger piece of the pie ultimately because there's still one pie. We're just going to be diving it out differently. But we'll all see our numbers increase because enrollment's larger than attendance always. So it it will be interesting to see how that all fleshes out at the end. But we have

113a pretty great attendance in Francis House. So I don't expect us to be on the side of the ledger that's a real winner. I think we'll we'll lose some ground when all of that is implemented. Good news and the bad news. um on about and the thing that always uh enthrals me is the fit tax. I know in 21 22 and 22 23 there were these huge windfalls. What were they 78$8 million and we've never been able to duplicate that and it looks like we're about due for that. You said that to me a year ago. I just listen to Yes. Uhuh. And so uh I I said it before. I didn't really uh comment about it this evening, but in all of my experience in 30 years in school districts in the state of

114Missouri, I have never experienced witnessing fit tax like play plays out in Francis How. And it's relative to certain bank institutions that are in our school district boundaries. And I had no idea that the Francis How school district even received this kind of money. So, what a blessing to looks like all the banks are going out of business. Well, and and I actually even engaged with the deputy commissioner whenever I first came to Francis How to say, "Help me understand." And the word the phrase was, "It's like a black box and nobody knows and we can't get data." So, we can't predict, we can't project. It's just a gift when it shows up. That's where that million dollars is. That million dollars. Yes. And I don't mean to put you on the spot, but you

115um triggered a memory vacation station. Has there been any action on looking at or changing pricing or any of that? We have not pursued that. We have worked on we not me but the the team that does the real work. They the team that are that that run the programming they are doing everything they can to ensure that they're cutting the costs down as best they can. But uh absent a directive from the comprehensive board we wouldn't be bringing any recommendation to change that. And as I mentioned, we not only have we met uh but enrollment, but we've exceeded it by by 10%. Maybe maybe we need to get that on a future agenda. Maybe. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Sure. Wonderful job, Carol. Okay. So, I guess we'll talk about expenditures, right? Well, question on

116slide 22. Sure. Evaluating the structure of the full day program should occur immediately. Yes. Who and how does that happen? I had a conversation with Dr. Vanderpool about this and I I suggested to him that I needed to say that to the board uh because that's what I believe to my core. We need to look at this. There is not any way that that full day program is ever going to be able to sustain itself. And while it provides wonderful instruction opportunities for kids, we need to take a look and see what are our other options. You know, there are options in um Missouri where you can have a a preschool program set up that would draw ADA or average daily attendance which would bring some of the foundation formula in, but it requires a

117very different structure in terms of the work schedule and a number of other factors. It's just a very different program than this one. uh that would be one of the conversations I would suggest but I do believe that a stakeholder group needs to pull together and come up with ideas and provide uh recommendation to the board. So is Dr. Vanderpool has he volunteered to be in charge? He is delighted to lead that charge. Would that be correct Dr. Vanderpool? Yes. At the will. At the will of the board. Yes. So that's a presentation of the June 19th committee. Actually, we were kind of thinking September would be when we would start the work. We want to be sure that we get well ahead of any kind of staffing recommendations that might come forward because it

118would affect people who serve in those positions for sure. How do we go about making sure that maybe there's an an update or an awareness made at the August meeting that an update is coming in the September meeting? I had an update for who? An update for us to be aware an update is coming or for the parents a reminder that we're going to get an update an results of the evaluation for this preschool program. We can provide that that communication actually uh I I'm engaging already with Dr. St. John and she met Miss Dr. Vanderpool this evening and so we'll make sure that those conversations come up and work with the new superintendent and board president. Okay. All right. So we will move forward to the expenditures. Okay. So we know that we are

119a people business and uh our primary uh expenditures include staffing and any negotiations for salary benefits. our health insurance utilization changes, those impact us. Uh student enrollments and programming, regular inflation, we're affected just like everyone else. We uh often have some purchase services and supply adjustments depending on the needs that have been identified and then major capital improvement changes and our changes to debt structure also affect us. So this is a staffing chart and I do want to highlight that this includes the requests that have been approved through May 15. So in January uh Miss Simkins provided you the staffing plan and it had minimal uh changes at that point in time. Also in January the director of safety and security was approved as a separate agenda item and then in May two SLP positions

120uh were approved. So this has been updated to reflect those positions. For benefits, this reminds everyone that we are required, I refer to it as taxation when we're talking about the retirement or uh FICA or Medicare or work comp and unemployment uh compensation rates. So we are required uh as a district to match those and the employee pays their portion and the district pays uh an identical amount. Health insurance of course is a primary benefit type for us and uh as you well know we've navigated that in the recent board meeting. Salary benefit changes relative to FY26 and specific to negotiations uh include 6,264 645 and we've listed for you there our interest bargaining units and the representation multi-year agreements were previously approved for all units. Salary and benefit staffing recommendations that uh we're providing

121you this evening include the addition of three campus security officers to replace our outsource security guards and that would be at the high school level. The intention is that this would be costneutral. Uh we need to identify what specific staffing would benefit each of those uh those sites. One occupational therapist for early childhood special education. two registered behavioral technician paraprofessionals, one English language arts content leader for K5 and one data associate for a total of 268911. I just referenced those previously approved increases for the director and then the speech and language pathologist and the 20 FTE is what was within the staffing plan in January. So that's 319637 total staffing change recommendation 588 548. Other changes that are not new FTE but some specific changes uh for specific positions. Building information specialists increase their days

122a total of 16 days. Instructional coach stipens provide instructional coach stipens for the additional work that they are performing. We have included a reduction in total of 750,000. Our staff turnover savings typically averages about 1.5 million. And what I mean by that is when we have people leave the system with multitude of years, they are retiring at a higher wage than the new uh hire, whomever is best in the pool that gets hired for the position. And so oftentimes we have a savings. We do have horizontal movement that uh costs approximately 750,000 each year and so that uh is why the net is only 750. We will also have changes relative to that 169th day that was approved that is to be determined. We are expecting that information to be provided by the department of

123elementary and secondary education in the June memorandum. As soon as the number is known, then we will start working on what that looks like uh for the district and what we specifically need to do. So at that point in time for next year, it would be paid next year and um we would provide you with a budget amendment for that. So other recommendations total uh negative 681,956. This next slide refers to the health insurance impacts for FY26. As you know, uh, we included a recommendation for the district to increase costs by 14%. That amounts to 3,482 398 for the health insurance itself. We do pay a taxation on that retirement and we've calculated this at the higher level 14.5% so 504 948. Not all of those costs will be associated with PSRS, but we want

124to be realistic in our approach. And then reducing the operating fund transfer budget that you had approved previously this year of $6 million. That's why the net total is 2,012654 negative. I am um highlighting that this is based on the re recommendation from Marshall McClennon Agency, the district broker. And originally the very first rates we received that I reported to you during a public meeting was 23.5% and then it went to 20.7% and then 22.7% and uh we will be updated continually on our utilization uh as we journey forward. So, I'm reminding you of those health recommendations you approved during the May 28th meeting. And one again was the 14% increase that included plan design changes and that the balance needed would be applied to reducing dependent premiums paid by the district. The second was

125that I recommended transferring unused operating budgets for fund 10 and 20 June 30, 2025 to the health fund to contribute to sustaining the fund moving forward. That amount will be determined and we will we will do what we need to do to ensure we do not uh reduce our anticipated fund balance percentage that is reported to you uh during the June 19th meeting. the um also the budget allocation included and is included within this that 3.2 million for the state adequacy target that uh we capture to help offset these additional increased health costs that you approved. The new premium rates for employee and district contributions are being developed and our intention is that they will be posted within the June 19th meeting for information for you and also for our employees with our regular communication

126process being developed out. Under instructional recommendations, we have early childhood outside placements of $80,000. That's for special needs for certain student and curricular and instructional resources. It's a reduction from the current year to next year of 294,761 and then assessment and literacy resources netting at 139,538. Total instructional change recommendation 75,223. I am highlighting that some of those curricular resources you always approve each thing as it is um brought forward for each item as it's brought forward for your consideration. But some of those things as you know occurred in the current year. This is our safety and security recommendation and we have provided a placeholder much like we did for the capital uh budget. We provided a placeholder to address operational needs. So those items that would not qualify as capital items but might be software

127or some other needs within the district. $400,000. Uh the new director of safety and security with our deputy superintendent is uh monitoring and reviewing the recommendations from the safety audit and we'll consider those recommendations before bringing forward a an official recommendation. Also school resource officers we have indicated an allocation of 311,976 and that is to uh increase our placement of school resource officers at Harvest Ridge Warren and Henderson elementary sites and union. This of course would be in collaboration with the municipalities and depending on staffing availability that type of thing. So the total increase for safety and security 711,976. These other operational recommendations are based on the needs that have been identified uh from leaders in various areas. And you can see we have a few items under transportation for special ed, early childhood special

128ed and regular transportation needs. Our property and liability insurance. Uh I told you that technically the increase should be 5% but it's also based on utilization. And so we have a 15% increase included at this time and maybe we'll see that uh we're able to drop that in the fall with the budget amendment. Reduced HVAC repairs. So with the increase in replacing units, we're able to cut down on some of those costs. We'll continue to monitor that. Uh we are seeing some increased student food costs and that is uh uh an a very slight increase when you consider the big scheme of things, but uh 176,891 for that. And then some other miscellaneous reductions where leaders reviewed their individual budget codes and determined that they had some excess that they were able to return back

129to the fund. Total operational change recommendation 900,755. So these next two slides are the uh representation of all of those changes that I've just covered. We have line numbers. We also have the FTE applicable. I'm highlighting for you that anything that's early childhood special education, we do receive dollar for-dollar reimbursement, but it comes the next year. So, it's very um uh unpredictable in terms of what the final amount will be and it's based on our final expenditure reports. And then this is that second piece of that. So, total operating fund increase is 5,000, excuse me, 5,69691. And I'm also highlighting for you that there were were 11 additional identified needs including nine FTE that are not being requested this evening. So those totaled just over a million dollars in additional uh requests. The total expense

130change for operating funds is indicated on that slide again 5,69691. And for debt and bond, you could see that debt uh would increase by 537681. And that's based on the amortization schedule of our debt repayment schedules for our um capital projects fund that is a 1 million20291 increase. And then for bond fund, a reduction of 24,958,924. This slide shows you overall all funds combined the change from FY25 revised to FY26 a reduction of 17,74 862. And I will pause to see if you have any questions. Yes. I don't know why I keep raising my hand. I'm sorry. Slide 35. I noticed there was a stipen for instructional coaches. How many instructional coaches are receiving that amount and what is it for? It's 13. There's an instructional coach at each and many of them all of

131them will do work outside of their work day to support the work of the instruction throughout the building. So the the stipen will be similar to our elementary department chairs to help them in the meetings that they're working through the planning and the preparation that they work through outside of their regular workday to support instruction throughout the building. Do department chairs get stipens as well? Yes, it'll be the same amount for the elementary department chair and the instructional coach. Okay, thank you. Uh just want to point out the SRO's uh for those pay attention this budget that you're presenting and that we would vote on on the 19th would include adding three full-time SRO's in at the schools that were mentioned. Correct. Yeah. Not adding them. They wouldn't be FT additions, but it would be

132funding through ourus with the four municipalities that we hope to accomplish to add those individuals at the three elementaryaries and at Union High School. So, it' be a purchase service expenditure on the budget. And a previous conversation, there's just a lot of municipalities involved. So the lack of them right now isn't because of lack of interest in having them, but we just believe that there's an opportunity both funding and opportunity together to make this happen. So last year we we all wanted it to happen, but right now there's an opportunity that's opening up for us and accurate. We're working toward those agreements. The reality is each of those municipalities have their own boards and their own budgets. And so it's working together to make sure that they can in fact hire the individual and that

133we can reach an agreement on um the cost sharing that we would engage in to provide them. But we do recognize the desire and we agree with the goal of having an SRO in all 23 of our schools. Um and we're working toward that. I have a question on the same line as Stevens. Is it and and this is just a out of the box. Is it possible that instead of housing that new SPO position in the transportation office, we could put the new SPO in one of those buildings and allow them to act in the role of an SRO? So, that would be a completely separate discussion, but that is again not the job description of the director of safety and security, which is its own full-time position. And so, um, okay, thank you.

134So, Carol, are we still at 333 million total expenditures budget uh for the grand total? Yeah, I noticed how you left that out. That's correct. I did. Well, it's at the end. Okay. I will highlight that at the end. Okay. On your slide 37. Yes. Number two. Okay. Transferring unused operating fund budgets fun 10 and 20 amount to be determined. How do you determine that? Who determines that? And then so how are you going to maintain that? Okay. Well, this would be a a one-time moment unless the board would approve that again in another year if it would be determined that would be necessary. Uh we're hopeful that with the new increase uh relative to premiums for both the district and employees that the fund will be covered, but we cannot control the cost as

135we've discussed. The reason it's left as an undetermined amount is uh at at the end of June after all bills have been paid, all payrolls have been generated and posted to general ledger, we will then know how much of our current revised budget has not been used. Okay? And so we'll take a look at fund 10 and fund 20, but we will also look at fund 10 and fund 20 for the revenues to ensure that all of those dollars made as well. Whatever is available will determine what would be an appropriate threshold for that uh increase in health [Music] basically. we would determine the amount. We we want to ensure that let's say that during the June 19th meeting can be pause for about a second. Yes. Maybe there might be a difference between like

136where you're sitting. I don't hear. I can see. Um so that the request is for everyone in the audience to be quieter so that the presentation can be heard more clearly uh for both people who are in uh attendance here but also online. So if you're in the audience please uh be a bit quieter so that we can maintain the business session that is that thank you. So, if if we were to message to you that I'm just going to use a number that the uh fund balance percentage on June 19th that based on our budget amendment, we're assuming that we will land at a 29%. Let's just say 29%. Then we want to ensure that we do not drop below that. So if revenue didn't come in as strong as it needed to to

137offset some of these expenditure changes, then we would not recommend transferring the full unused budget over to the health fund. So we can provide you with an update on that. It will just need to be in July after the fact. uh this you approving that motion basically uh empowers us to do that calculation and make the change within the general ledger by June 30. I know that sounds very vague. Uh it's vague for us too because until everything lands, we don't know what that number is. Did you on slide 42 the 11 unfunded needs? Did you go over that or was there a need? I'm just kind of curious what those I I just referenced that there were additional uh needs. There were some positions and um some other uh identifications. A number of the

138positions actually were contingency in nature and our conversation with leaders is that as those needs are truly identified then those would be brought to the board of education as a budget amendment recommendation in addition to the FTE approval. ready to move on. Okay. I appreciate you chunking this for us. Sure. Thank you. Yes. That's how my brain works. So, it it resonates for me as well. So, we've talked about our operating funds and now we are going to just highlight this is where we're landing debt, capital projects, and bond funds as well. And you've seen some of this information when we presented the capital projects recommendation and the debt recommendation. But as you can see, uh our budget changes uh that are included for FY26 do maintain that uh estimated tax levy for our local

139tax of 6713. And uh we do have that increase for debt. We mentioned that before. And then the expense chart we mentioned before. And this shows you then what that culminates to be. So our estimated beginning fund balance, which again we won't know uh until June 30 lands, but our estimated beginning fund balance is 28,700,000. Revenues are noted and expenditures and then the uh ending fund balance at June 30 of 2026. I'll highlight for you again that our debt service fund may maintain an amount that will meet the next calendar year's expenditures. And when we do the uh interactive process in the fall of setting the levy with the state auditor office, that is how that levy is set. And we roll back our levy for debt service in this district because we can, but

140we are still maintaining an appropriate fund to meet our payment obligations coming up. Oh, I should also mention that the the defeasants that you approved in May actually closed today and so some of these numbers will need to be changed potentially next year as a budget amendment but ever so slightly. Uh so that will be brought forward to you. This slide highlights for you that we have six debt obligations uh 2009, 2016, 2019 2020, 2022 and 2024. the beginning balance and the amount of principal issued or repaid is noted as well as the ending balance uh anticipated June 30, 2025. We're also showing you the interest paid and this looks very uh similar to a slide that is included in our annual report to the state uh that ASBR report that you receive in december

141each month when the auditor presents the financial audit. Our general obligation debt is noted. This is a summary slide and we provided for you the full amortization summary within uh the the document that is posted. Principal and interest obligations for FY26 total 27,587700 debt service levy again 6713 and uh we are carrying an a um a bonding capacity which is set at 15% of our assessed valuation that is approximately $387 million that the district would have available for bond issues that were identified uh to be supported by our patrons. This slide shows you a summary of our gross debt service general obligations and it is from February. So this uh will be updated uh following the defeasance that occurred. Again that's for debt service. Now we'll transition to capital projects regular. One of the recommendations

142I made early on was that we isolate capital projects regular from bond. Always keep that separate is u my recommendation. the ASBR or the DESIE report collapses those together. Uh but for you here, you're seeing that again the reminder of all the things that are considered expenditures for capital. The threshold did get increased this year to 5,000 uh per and we are reflecting a transfer from operating for FY26. We've typically transferred 7 million the past couple of years, dropping that down to 5 million uh to reduce that balance a bit. And you can see that it culminates in uh a net operation of a reduction of 2,ion575321. But the estimated fund balance at June 30 of 26 will be 11,849503. Lease payments are part of the capital fund. Those are attributed uh from a payment

143perspective to fund for and there is a requirement on that Missouri statute that I showed you early on of the pieces that must be in the budget and that includes our lease schedule. So you can see uh tiny print here, but you can blow that up and see all of our payment structures. The FY26 principal payments of 1,468534 and interest of 145038. These do not yet include the final numbers for that new technology lease uh that we are engaging in and that will be updated uh in the coming months. You'll remember this from I believe yes the March 20 I have it on the slide the March 20 meeting where we made recommendation for all of the necessary uh things to be addressed in the district that would be meeting the capital threshold. The total

144is 10,14649. The major player in that is relative to the parking lot that you approved recently at uh Francis Hal High. This is our capital projects bond fund and we know that we are unable to accurately project how much the expenditures will be ex each year and capital is actually the same way. They're much of a revolving balance because whatever you don't spend in the current year, you roll over to the next year. And so certainly that will take place with our bond as well. But at this point in time, we're anticipating potentially we could spend 37,744867 next year. We've dropped that revenue, which would be relative to interest income, down to $400,000 for next year as the fund continues to deplete. and that is carried as a restricted balance on the financial report to

145the state. This slide just reminds us all so long as we're reporting on this bond when the bond issue was approved, how much it was, and the support that it received and also that reminder that we navigated during the March 14, 2024, a reset on how the funds would be used for necessary projects. This reminds us that we post our bond financials every month uh within our finance and operations report. This represents data from April 30, 2025. And as you will note, we have $4,300,000 available to determine utilization for. And then once this bond issue is completely spent down, then the U bond council will perform the arbitrage calculation and that amount will need to be paid. We're estimating currently that it's over $2 million and uh in checking with the Department of Elementary and

146Secondary Education, you can code that to operating fund 10 or you can code it to capital projects fund. I recommend it get coded to capital projects fund so it doesn't disrupt all of our numbers in the operating uh budget area. Moving forward to the self- insurance fund. This uh restates our financial projection for next year. Uh we are showing revenue totaling $33,200,000 and expenditures offsetting that 33200. We are showing a an ending fund balance in the current year of 3,280,000. Remember that that uh is mainly there because we transferred 6 million in and landing at 3.280 280 million is contingent on us receiving $2.5 million in the month and by the end of June 30 uh for rebates and also self- insurance fund reimbursements. So whether that comes to fruition or not, we don't know.

147We don't want to deplete the fund, but that will also weigh in in terms of how much we uh recommend transferring uh out of the operating fund. And that just states again uh all the pieces and parts and that our plan year and data estimates cover the period October 1 through September 30 for the self- insurance fund. Are there any questions about those other funds beyond operating? Um looking at slide 56 and 57. Yes. You you mentioned that the the unspent funds just roll over until the next year. Is that right? Right. Is there a penalty for that at all? No, not at all. We we set the budget to ensure we have cover for any of the necessary expenditures that you've already pre-approved through the variety of presentations and recommendations. And we need to

148ensure that we cover all expenditures by fund. But any balance just simply uh goes back to that fund balance. But in this situation, we then know we need to budget for it then again in the next year. So that's a normal process. And and then you mentioned you recommend that any of that goes to this capital not operations, right? Okay. Well, maybe a couple things. Yeah. So, if if you if we're talking Are you talking about the transfer from operating to the self- insurance fund? No. No, it was about Oh, the arbitrage payment. Yes. Arbitrage. Yes. So, with operating funds, uh that's usually our people. it's purchase services and supplies, that type of thing. And anytime we're analyzing data, if you have a a bump in that data for something like a $2 million arbitrage

149expenditure, that can, you know, throw you off in terms of looking at historical trends, that kind of thing. And so if we set it over in the fund for the capital projects fund, then it won't disrupt that because capital projects does have a a variety of flow in terms of the the dollars. We never look at it in terms of trends in capital projects because it's all unique to whatever the project demands are for that year. Okay. And and the the the purpose of that would be preserving kind of like our historical data so that we can really understand trends for projecting into the future. I was cuz I my and I don't know much about this at all. I'm learning because I was like well isn't our biggest deficit in the operational funds? So,

150wouldn't it be better to put it in there? This is a payment that we have to pay out. We have to write a check to the Internal Revenue Service for arbitrage. Yeah. Not fun. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Not fun. That's not fun. Now, it makes sense to you, right? Not a fun place. Yeah. But the only reason we have to write a check is because we earn so much interest income. So, yeah, just kind of like how IRS works for everybody. The more you make, the more you pay. Yeah. Yeah. Question. on the uh the projection versus the estimate for 24 versus 25 insurance claims basically the same and other expenses basically the same right or is the same can you explain that the reason that and so you're talking about the insurance on 59 yes

15159 okay thank you for that insurance right and so the reason that we would be setting our claims or the expense the expenses rather The utilization of the fund at 33,200,000 is very directly related to the plan design changes that uh are anticipated to result in that savings. So otherwise, yes, that would have gone up and we would have needed to somehow increase the premiums that get deposited into the fund. Very good. Thank you. Okay, so we'll move forward now to final wrap up and we'll talk about the operating fund balance and the trajectory for it. Uh this is a repeat slide that I provided last year regarding the fund balance percentage. You've heard me say every month that that is a measure of the health of the district and that Missouri statute indicates that

152a 3% fund balance is considered financially stressed. And I've shared before and I'll say it always. Everyone's stressed if we are at 3% because we're not paying any bills. We're not meeting payroll. We're not, you know, paying. I'm shocked actually that statute says it's 3%. That is a really low fund balance. So again, for us, I shared with you before the policy 3114 and that if it's below 15% at June 30 that um we need to address that uh through action over a 2-year period. But I'm also sharing with you that if we fall below 15% at June 30, we likely would need to borrow money to meet payroll uh in the fall. And that's because we are highly dependent on our local tax revenue and we don't receive that until people uh pay their

153bills in December and we receive the the revenue in January. So our estimated fund balance percentage for FY26 based on this recommendation this evening is 27.3%. This slide shows you our operating revenues and you can see the breakdown and this is for general and teacher funds only. But you can see that we are highly locally dependent. 69% of our operating revenue is through local sources. County provides.1% so very tiny amount. Uh state is 26%. federal as uh 4% and uh we have some slight other uh at 0% based on the chart calculation but very minimal uh that could be in the form of like other district payments that type of thing for our operating fund expenditures for general and teacher fund for FY26 again we are a people business and salary and benefits represents 83%

154of the operating budget you can see the breakdown is 60% salaries and 23% benefit benefits with purchase services at 11% and supplies at 6%. This shows you, this is a new slide for you this year, and I don't recall if I've ever provided you the cash flow, but this is one of the behind thescenes documents that we monitor, and it shows you the fluctuation uh in a public education uh institution. And again, the uh the fund balance line is that gold line. Little hard to see on this screen. The uh revenue line is the blue line. And you can see how it spikes there uh around January, December, January time frame. Some people pay their bills early, so we do get revenue in in December as well. And then uh the red line is our

155expenditure line. And typically expenditures drop in July and then they start ramping up as everyone gets back on the payroll again. And uh we have a balance of contract check that or checks that we distribute to our certificated staff uh in the classroom that uh happens in June. So, we have extra payments that go uh tax anticipation notes are something that districts can use and it provides you just a temporary borrowing structure against those anticipated revenues and typically your local bank will provide you that service. We haven't done one in this district since FY21 and we we did a TAN a tax anticipation note for $6.6 $6 million at that time to ensure that we could cover payroll costs. So again, if the fund balance is strong, then you do not find yourself in that

156situation. So for the trajectory assumptions, we are showing current tax revenue increases of 3.4% for FY26, then 2% FY27, 3% FY28, and 2% FY29. That curve each year over year is relative to reassessment year, non-reassessment year, reassessment year, non-reassessment year. The increased state adequacy target uh to 7,145 is included as noted previously at 50% for FY uh I'm sorry for FY26 and then uh 100% for FY27 28 and 29 assuming that's fully funded. Our estimated staffing changes and salary increases and related benefit costs not including health insurance included in the assumptions at this time is at 3% and that likely needs to be higher. If there will be any movement to uh affect change in programming or provide additional u services for students that would increase the staff salary and benefits and um 3% would

157not cover it. For health insurance, our increase is limited to 8%. And um again, the plan performance is not controllable. So all of that culminates in this operating fund balance trajectory chart that you can see here. And as you can see, uh year-over-year, we are in a declining situation still. Uh our ending fund balance June 30 of 29 would be 14.71%. We know that uh we have been in this situation for some time now. As we look at this chart, the chart has remained the same. I began providing you this chart in December of 2023. The slopes still remain the same. Uh and um I provided you in um in March. Well, I should say that the charts been provided. We started providing you budget amendments each month beginning January of 24. In March of

15820, I provided this information again that we need the staffing analysis, the benefits analysis, which has partially been completed. Um, need to consider bond issues for major capital needs so that they're not draining from the operating fund to take care of our building assets and then consider a levy trans transfer andor increase. I provided that information to you and the public during the March meeting. the debt service uh transfer to operating could generate an additional $5.2 million or more. That's based on today's uh dollars if we had a 13 cent levy transfer from debt service to operating. And then just that uh note that basically each 1% of fund balance is $2.5 million. So we need to grow our revenue by $2.5 million to raise the fund balance by 1%. So uh all the data

159is estimated and it will change uh and again the health of the district is demonstrated in the operating fund trajectory and I feel compelled to say this and um you know some people may perceive that administrators or even board members don't care deeply about taking care of our employees and taking care of our kids and and that is our heartfelt mission and focus. focus or we wouldn't be here. Um, but I have to say that while we do that, we are a business and we have to run this district like a business to ensure that we maintain the financial sustainability of the operation of this district in the future. And that means sometimes you have to make hard uh recommendations and hard decisions. And I don't like that always, but that's just the reality of

160the work that we're doing here. So, I just needed to say that in my parting moment uh with you. This is our general budget summary and this is a requirement of Missouri statute that we provide this to you within the budget each year. Again, as you can see for FY26, the recommendations that have been provided to you result in an ending fund balance of 27.3%. Our move forward next actions would be uh not only the approval of this budget by you for consideration June 19th but then we will after the close of this year analyze the performance of our budget to our actual expenditures so that we can identify where are some of the pockets of improvement that we can bring to you as a budget amendment in the next year. continue with those routine

161budget amendments as we know know better, we do better and we provide you better information and just a continued analysis of all of our programming and are we spending our dollars to the best utilization possible to take care of our kids. So that concludes this presentation and I'm happy to go back to any slide for you. I'm good. It wasn't live. Yes. No. So again, the presentation and the reason why we have two meetings in June is so that we can have this presentation on the 5th in two weeks to consider and approve on the 19th. So I appreciate all the time and effort you put in, but the rest of your team as well to make sure we all have this today. So I appreciate any final comments, any other questions? We don't need

162to vote on it. So no. And over the next two weeks, if you have any questions, I would be happy to take your call or email or however you would like to address it. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are moving towards uh Palestine Regulations first read. Uh none of these will have a vote, but there was a comment earlier about uh 1432. And Amy, could you repeat the um what you're hoping for us to understand? And again, we don't need a vote on it, but just so we know what you're thinking and whether or not it's the move of the board to suggest that be added to the next second review. Yeah, I just wanted to make the uh policy specific to the SPO position and not just an open designation. Is that

163anything? Anybody have anything against that? Yeah, just for the director of safety and security and not just an open designation. And this is for kind of market and rails. Um any you mentioned that anybody that the SPO the SPO any SPO would have to be brought to the board for approval. Yes. Not just this one, anyone in the future too. when when this one resigns, a future SPO has to be brought to the board again for any consideration. That's correct. That is correct. And and the SPO cannot I don't know, maybe this isn't the right word, but deputize anybody underneath to be able to do the same thing. None none of those types of things are only the board has a statutory authority to approve uh that individual. Right. Got it. So if that's just

164move to the board, we'll just make sure whenever comes back has a second read. We'll update that language second read has that language in it to be consistent with that request. Any other comments about any other out of curiosity I I don't know. Basically I think it says that all teachers and administrators seeking designation as a school protection officer. I think what uh Miss Miss Grider is requesting is instead of saying all teachers and administrators that that is specifically says the director of safety and security can be designated as an SPO to limit it to that one position and if there were ever turnover in that position it and somebody backfilled that singular position it would still require a vote of the board to approve that person to be an SPO as Well, so making

165that change would that because there was a comment here tonight saying you would hate to see that a position gets a certain benefit just bea just because of the person. Are we would we be doing that in this situation that if we're we're making this change to being the school probate protection officer? The statute though says that every person gets designated or not. So yes, it would it just like reduces it to the only one that we would consider being an SPO would be that person in that role, but each person that enters that role has to be individually approved just like by the statute. That's my understanding. But yeah, I get it. I think we're just giving that person then. I think that kind of justifies the comment that we heard tonight is we're

166giving the position and the person but we but if I recall what they said they said it should be based on a position not a person. So we are basing this on a position and then phase two is for us to decide whether or not we want the person in that role to do it. and we would just do that for every person that goes into that role. That is how I understood it. I think Director Harmon, there there were two different points there actually. I think that um and I don't want to put words in Vice President Grder's mouth, but one of the concerns that was raised over the last couple of days was that once this is approved, um although we're saying this is not about anyone, it's this one specific role. The

167reality is a recommendation could be made and future boards could start approving multiple people. So by making the change in the policy, we would narrow it down to say no, it really is about this one specific position. Um I believe the comment earlier there was a little bit separate around not making this decision because of the person that was hired in their um what they currently had, but making it about a position and a quoting that. So I think it was kind of two different points. I'd like to say a few words about 6310. No, no, wait. I'm not done. Sorry. I need to still talk about 14. Got to be fast. Yeah. Look, thank you so much. Let's stay on 1432 and we'll make sure we get to 63. Yeah, I you No, I'm

168sorry. I'm sorry. I was like, wait, stay. We'll be bouncing all over this this part. School protection officers. I'm reading the word for word is specifically in 4332. The district may designate one or more teachers or administrators as school protection officers. That's the sentence I'm struggling with. And that's the sentence. That's the sentence we're changing and we're going to change. Okay. Good. Okay. For a second read. Cool. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? Anything else on that item? All right. Uh, precar. Yeah, I just want to say a few words about 6310. I went to the policy uh committee meeting when this was discussed and it doesn't appear that any of my recommendations or discussions were incorporated into the the policy that we see tonight. Um, one of the complaints that about this

169is that the um library media specialists have to you have to input or have to record an ISBN number. I'm sorry, but I see no downside to recording that number in a report to the public or to or to us. Uh, an ISBN number actually has a uniqueness that designates the book that gives uh books with certain common names or words in the title gives them a uniqueness which makes it easier to be found. There's an efficiency. I mean, they use ISBN numbers when when they load the books onto the shelves. It's also helping in inventory management. A lot of titles are the same. Um an a or athe sometimes separates what the book is. Um for tracking and reporting. It makes it so much easier. Uh, I just I just don't understand why it's

170such an honorous um requirement to have an ISBN number on the books that are in that are being being reported to the public and to the board for uh purchase. Another thing that they they put in there is that they don't want to send the list to us before or sent not to us send allow the public to see the list of what they intend to purchase before but rather after they have already bought the books which negates the entire transparency I think of what the board and the public were after when this started. We thought once you get a book in the library and if it is in agent appropriate, I'm not saying there are, but just in case there is, then it's much harder to get that book out of the library. If

171that was visible and transparent to the public beforehand, their voices could be heard and and that that book possibly would be challenged and possibly not purchased. The the changes that they made to this this policy totally prevents that. Oh, I'd like to speak to the barcode. Please do. Is that um when you go to the grocery store and you go grocery shopping, do you buy your groceries by the barcode? Of course not. Well, I mean, they're scanned. Sure. But do you pick them off the shelves by the barcode? No. I don't understand the correlation. Well, the ISBN number is very much a barcode. and and that particular number. If you had to shop at the grocery store by that barcode of the item, you would say, "I want Cheerios." But you couldn't get Cheerios. You'd

172have to find the barcode number. The barcode number, yes, I agree with you. It serves great um for like maybe like on the back end of referencing, but the the the tools that the librarians are using like title wave, wallet, destiny, discover um and they the way that they use that software is that they don't necessarily provide that barcode to the librarians when they are doing that purchase. So they may not get the version of the book that they wanted because each each version would have a different ISBN number. And and you are correct. And I'll even add to that complexity and say that every time a publisher re publishes a book, for example, like Catcher and the Ry by JD Salinger or The Great Gatsby, they might even get a new ISBN number even

173though it's the exact same book because they also change the covers every 10 years or so too. And that's why we hire amazing libraries, librarians who know that, are trained like that and understand that. And when a kid comes up and wants to have a book like The Great Gatsby, that's something that the librarian would look for, not by the ISBN number, they change, too. The intent of this, thank you for your comment, Sarah. The intent of this is for transparency with the public. So, let's say the public sees the title of a book, goes to to look it up in whatever wherever they go to look the books up. They're not going to know what version of the book that they're getting. And there have may may have been a material difference in the

174in from the first version to the third version or however that happens. I'm just talking theoretically here. An ISBN number definitely nails down which book is being bought. I think it's unfair and not all at all transparent uh for what we are intending to purchase if that ISBN number isn't there. True. But a lot of the books that we are repurch we are repurchasing books that we've already approved and already own. And so right now the policy requires our librarians to list those books even though we already have them. Every single copy, multiple copies. What if we only requested that books that are being purchased as a new purchase, not a preview, not a new version and not a new language? Because we had that discussion in the the uh the policy meeting. They said,

175"Well, if I want to order a book that I have in English and I want it in Spanish, I have to bring it before the board." And I said, "I don't think that was the intent of what the board wanted as far as transparency. If you've got a book in English, you can have the book in in Spanish." I mean it just that that was and that's the guidance that I gave good or bad or only being one board member. It all to me it was just common sense. I mean I think that the policy requires those those books and I'm and don't get me wrong I I'm a parent too. I am not against transparency here. Um I think the the policy the way that it it's written slows our librarians down by anywhere

176from 6 weeks or more in getting a book in the hands of a kid. And so I'll give you an example right now. Um the new Hunger Games book that's super duper popular. I forget something in the prequel, whatever. Kids are consuming it. They love it. They're they can't get it enough. If a kid, even though we already own copies of it in our library, wants it and we don't have it or it got, you know, they spilled their Stanley cup on it or um you know, it got destroyed by they dropped it and a bus ran over it. they still have to wait six weeks to get that copy replaced. And that's what we're trying to do. But let's say that this version of the Hunger Games is age inappropriate for the the grade

177that it's going or for the library that it's going into, meaning it's going into elementary and it's age appropriate. I'm not saying that Hunger Games is. I'm just using that as not appropriate for elementary, but yeah. Well, okay. So, um, they don't want So, they go ahead and they buy it and then it considered agent appropriate. So then the board is faced with a cha with a challenge of do we leave that book in that that library. It would be more transparent and le and and I understand it's a timing issue though if you want a book you know and to buy it in January well should be on the December you know the December listing. Yeah you you are correct. It comes down to timing and time time leanness right. So, um, you know,

178I don't know, you remember having you have kids, you remember when they were little and they wanted something and if you told them you need to wait a month for me to get that for you, that was probably like a no-go, right? The kids forgotten about it and stuff. When we're working to engage a child in reading, which is hard this day and age, especially with these, um, that time frame is hurting our students. And so if there is the policy the way that it's written right now makes it so that even replacing a book that we've already owned like Peppa the Pig, right? And that's why I said we don't that's fine if you've got if it's just like a newer version, not a separate edition, but a new newer version. I don't see

179the big deal in us having to see every one of them or the public having to see every one of those. If there's a material change or an inversion, then yeah, I think the public should and I'm sorry that that kid has to wait, but at the same time, it's for their own uh it's to ensure age appropriateness and it's for the kids's own protection. Kids shouldn't shouldn't be exposed to age inappropriate materials. That's my belief. I I agree with you completely. If I could um but I don't think we're agreeing on time. So, if I can just both want what's best for the kids, right? If I just wrap up this part at all. Um, if anybody wants to look at the back of our agenda information items, you can see what it looks

180like. Now, when you see the ISBN author and title and you can look there and make decision whether or not the ISBN is is necessary or not necessary, but we do have an example of what that looks like in additional work that goes in with I guess finding the ISBN. Um in May what we did we asked and directed the librarians uh to I actually this might have been in April. I think it was April we directed the librarians to come together with others and say what changes do you want to see in 6310. Last month the idea was we want to keep transparency and hold that as a value and then what we wanted to do instead of just getting rid of 6310 we wanted to hold the the the transparency part of it

181and see if we can find the efficiency part of it. and we're just trying to find out if this policy as it's being presented is able to do both those things. And and that's really what's going to be up for us in the next meeting to to decide if we need to change anything on there. But um if my understanding was that the reason these changes were made was because of the amount of time it was taking the librarians and to do this meant they were unable to do other parts. And so I was in the policy committee meeting. Was that the argument that was made was that by removing this the librarians would have more time with the students and to do the rest of their job? That was a big part of it.

182Was that what that was? Okay. It was. Yeah. Well, that wasn't that wasn't specifically addressed in the meeting. It was just u presented as an honorous thing. It just took too much time. Period. But right time everybody has things about their job that they don't want to do or don't like to do. However, yeah, I I again I'll go back to the transparency public. Well, right and what what we're seeing I guess and what or I I should say what I have heard across the district is that the disparacy is between like for example elementary school libraries who have the same expectation with this policy as for example a middle school or a high school library. Um, but the elementary school libraries don't have paras to assist them, which means that in a higher need

183community, because the little ones have lots of higher needs. I mean, they love library time. They have in that library less help when they actually Well, maybe that's what we need to address. A lot more help. We do. We do. it comes with but it it's really not I don't I don't think the like when we swing that pendulum and we're like transparency and appropriateness and all those things. Hey, I'm I'm don't get me wrong. I'm also saying though, but we also need efficiency because our kids deserve our time and our attention. Do we have volunteers that we allow to help out with certain task in the school district? Yeah. Maybe that's instead of cutting out the work, maybe we should add the manpower. VI and what I've heard in that capacity and and in

184my own school, I can say that we have a solid group of parents who come in and volunteer consistently. However, that's not the case and there is a rotation. There's a level of training that goes with that. Um, you have to learn how to shelf the books. You have to learn how to catalog the books. You have to learn how to access the spreadsheets to the books. I mean that that and then to have a new person every day, every other day, that librarian now we're adding on to them that retraining of that next person. And if they show up or if they flake out or there's a there's there's if it's a paid position, like if we want to give the librarians back their paras, cool, this is fine. Don't change the policy. But

185if we don't have those paras helping them, then the burden is is high and it's it's affecting our students because our students aren't getting the help they need. they're not getting support and they're not getting books, for example, Spanish language versions or books that are overly popular, books that are damaged, um books that get lost and never come back or in the case if if we get a new enrollment of a student who happens to be like very very blind and needs large print and we don't have a large print copy and it's part of the curriculum, that kid waits 6 weeks or more to get that book. So, there's factors, right? Appreciate that. So, let's I want to make sure we're at the first reading of this. I want to make sure um I

186want to see if anybody else I have a couple things just for adjusting the wording that I think might help some clarity. Also, um just first of all, just calling out what we were talking about with the library commons materials that are currently in the library collection, you know, not needing to be relisted. Um I think that's helpful to clarify. Um, and then also I know received some feedback too around just concern with it saying at the next regularly scheduled board meeting to be able to list that you know on theformational piece just for those times when there's a book within a few days or something. Um, so just wondering if we can also note something that uh in one of the next two regularly scheduled board meetings from the respective purchase or acceptance date

187and just calling out again additional I've got this written down but additional copies of items already included in the library collection or versions in a different language are not required to be listed again. And then also once if we whatever modifications we make to the policy reading to also just update the regulation to reward that so it's clear also that says um the same language basically because there's a little bit of a dis a difference between the policy and the regulation as it reads now and just want to make sure that's clear. Sounds to me like you want to bring it back for after the modifications bring it back for another first read probably the best unless the modifications they'll update with just like they're going to with the other one. It's not substantial. So

188just those clarifications not changing anything. Is there anything else regarding these policies for first read? Okay. Uh so let's move ahead. Uh we have policies and regulations listed for second reading and a vote. A motion to approve the policies and regulations as presented. Second. Motion by director Pushkar. Second by director Ponder. Any conversation? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say no. The eyes have it. Motion passes. Uh motion to approve the curriculums uh as presented or curriculi. I think somebody Is that a joke? Who did that? Who did that to me? Um motion to approve the curricula uh as presented. Motion by director Pushkar. Second by director Ponder. Any conversations? Okay. All those in favor say I. Hi. Hi. All those opposed say no. The eyes have it. And

189we are at superintendent comments. Thank you, President Blair. Um I first would like to also thank Miss Embry, um Director Walsh, uh the finance team that put the budget together. Um and really, as Miss Embry said, she and that team have been working with leaders throughout the district for months now to put this together. um you've had updates along the way, but as you can tell, the significant lift that it takes to put that together for a budget this large is significant. So, thank you for that work. I want to remind everyone that our annual stakeholder survey is currently open and available on the website and it's been also sent out through um our news blasts and other media channels recently and it will remain open through next Wednesday, June 11th. Um it really is

190hard to believe that summer is already here and has started. Sports camps are happening this week already. Summer camps and summer school begin next week. Um we had the pleasure with several of you to celebrate our Union High School graduates last Friday night. Um and are preparing to celebrate all three traditional high schools this coming Saturday at the family arena. Um I hope that our students and our staff who are enjoying summer are having a great first couple of days. And we also want to thank the many employees who are still here as the significant summer work has already begun. Um, we know summer scrub and cleaning is happening in buildings. There are millions of dollars of bond work taking place across the district, which our custodial maintenance teams also are having to work around

191or assist with. And we also have teachers and administrators who have been here the last couple of days rewriting and updating curriculum work. So, um, although summer began on Wednesday, work began on Wednesday as well, preparing for next year. So, thanks to everyone and um, we look forward to seeing you back here in just two weeks for another meeting. Thank you. All right. Any board comments? Yeah, I do. Yeah. Go ahead. Hold on. Go ahead. Oh, Jane's here. Higher rank. Jane, it's you. Junior, you're up. Okay. Push me forward. All right. Um, I'd like to discuss the necessity of bringing in a third party to investigate the materials available in our school libraries. As educators and caretakers of our children's learning environments, we have a profound responsibility to ensure that the resources we provide are

192age appropriate and conducive to a healthy development. First, impartiality is is essential. By engaging a third party organization, we can ensure that the evaluation of these materials is free from bias and internal pressures. This independent perspective will facilitate a comprehensive review drawing upon expertise in child development and educational psychology to assess whether the content aligns with appropriate age levels. We want to uphold a standard that reflects the values of our community while prioritizing our children's well-being. Second, transparency builds trust. An independent investigation uh reassures parents, educators, and stakeholders that we are taking their concerns seriously. It demonstrates our commitment to accountability and helps mitigate any feelings of distrust that may arise. By inviting a third party expert, we're not only listening to the voices in our community, but we are also actively engaging with them

193to ensure their concerns are heard and addressed. Furthermore, a thorough review can enhance our educational framework. By examining our current materials, we may uncover not only areas of concern, but also opportunities for enrichment. A fresh fresh set of eyes can bring invaluable insight into what is most suitable for our students, fostering a balanced and diverse literary environment. It's essential that our libraries not only inform but also inspire, aligning with our mission to develop well-rounded critical thinkers. Finally, it ensures compliance with educational standards and at educ as educational institutions, we are obligated by statute and morally to adhere to guidelines that dictate appropriate learning materials. A third-party investigation can help identify gaps and ensure we are meeting state and federal standards concerning age appropriate contact content. This proactive approach will safeguard our students and protect our

194institution against possible liabilities. In conclusion, the investment in a third party investigation is not merely about censoring materials. It's about ensuring that our students have access to appropriate, enriching, and engaging resources. We need to act responsibly and decisively to protect the minds and hearts of our future generations. We can foster an environment where our children thrive academically and socially. Therefore, I'd like to make a motion that on next month agenda agenda there be an item to investigate the hiring of a non-biased third party to review our books for purchase. Do do we know any of those agencies that exist? I do. What's the name? The one is Jordan C. Adams Consulting. Jordan. What? Adams Consulting. Okay, cool. There's other ones out there, but that's the one that I'm most familiar with. Okay, awesome. [Music] This

195is the first that we've had a conversation on this topic and I I feel as if there's an opportunity for maybe you and I to talk about the spirit behind this before determining what's on the agenda for the June 19th meeting. Um yeah, I know that there's a conversations about whether or not this is the moment where a board member can add things to the agenda. Um, so are you saying you're not going to allow me to add that to the agenda next month? I'm I haven't said that either. What I'm saying is um I need to know more about the parliamentarian um piece of whether or not this is the method. Um this isn't part of the parliamentary in terms of can you do this? uh any admin direction on whether or not this

196is up to the board to either what and let me make sure what I'm requesting. So you're you're wanting you're wanting to make a motion to have somebody second it and then we decide in a vote to either add it to the agenda for June 19th or not. We we're is that what you're asking for? I'm asking for there be an item in to investigate the hiring of a nonbiased third party to review our books for purchase. So, a discussion as to whether or not this fits the board's needs at that. Right. But what I'm saying is that what you're asking for is whether or not the board is able to add this to the agenda on June 19th. But if we have a conversation that we vote on it now, we're voting on a

197topic that's not publicized on. No, I know. But it it will be public. It the requirement is 24 hours in advance as you know. So when on June the but it's not on it's not on this day's agenda to talk about adding a third party piece. So us having a conversation to vote on it is not part of the June 5th agenda. We're discussing whether to put it on a future agenda to be discussed. We're not discussing it here. We're putting it on a future agenda. What do we what did Yeah. And that's what I'm trying to figure out is what might like a discussion of it, right? Does that make sense? A discussion about whether or not we added it to the agenda. So you're you're just making a motion to allow us to

198talk about it next meeting. That's all. Correct. Correct. Um yeah, I I'd like to know like what something like that would cost. Okay. Um well, we can't discuss it here because then that's why we wanted it on the next agenda. I don't know the parliamentary procedures but it doesn't sound adding something to the agenda just so that we could talk about it in front of the public I don't think is a it's not in violation of open and that's just a part that I'm not clear other parts I've been clear about and per policy any board member may request that an agenda item be placed on the agenda the board president and the superintendent work together to set the agenda um I think one of the discussion pieces that needs to happen though is if

199this is a topic that the board has an interest in discussing, would that be better suited for a work session where the board could come together and actually have dialogue and discussion? At a business meeting, normally recommendations are made, motions are brought to the board for clarification, presentation, and a vote. Um, the ongoing debate and back and forth discussion is not necessarily the purpose of a business meeting. So, I think the board as part of your norm setting as you look at moving forward into the new school year and with new leadership, um, needs to have a discussion around how the agenda is set and items are placed on it. That's one area where the board could be more consistent moving forward and that ultimately a decision made when topics like this are brought up.

200Um it might be very worthy of a discussion but is that hoping happen during an open business meeting like this or in a work session where different ideas can be brought forth. Okay. When's the next work session? When's the next work session? We do not have our next work session. I don't think so. Okay. All right. So, um that's what I'm wondering. Um, yeah. I'm wondering about if it's out of order for the move in motion right here, but you can submit the submit the request to the secretary president. Ron's a little slap happy today. All right. So, um, on this um, without doing a vote, um, Jane is interested in having this topic discussed at June 19th. Anyone interested in having this topic discussed in uh, June 19th? Yeah, I'm I'm like I mean

201Sarah Anybody else? I'm not afraid of it. I feel like Yeah. Um so I'll take as the but I'll take it as the mood of the board. I'm with Dr. Rumpa. Shouldn't that be a special I'll take it as the mood of the board that this conversation gets pursued and whether gets pursued in work session or 19th. we can all decide. Um when um earlier director Pushkar requested a change to the agenda to make brain pop separated and I listened to that and applied the request and we see the request as it is in the agenda and so we will discuss whether this happens June 19th or at a work session. President Blair, will there be clarification provided to administration of whether or not you want us to prepare something to bring this to this

202discussion or is this a conversation the board is going to engage in and of course we'll receive further direction from the board because there's a very quick turnaround um a week from tomorrow board docs needs to be posted for the next meeting and I don't know that we have the time to research these companies or this information before that next meeting. Okay, this is a discussion not a conclusion. I was only asking for clarification if it's only the research or the board will do that. So you're asking for a discussion moment for the June 19th. You're not asking for a proposal for this company or this. Okay. So if that's the case, we'll just put agenda for a discussion on the June 19th. Uh you there's no presentation by the board or the mean there's

203no presentation by admin for June 19th that anybody else want to comment. I just want to make a second. I made a motion. It's good. We just we just we just said yes. Like so it'll be on there'll be discussion on June 19th. Um it'll be on the agenda for June 19th. Okay. Yeah. I just want to say uh echo congratulations to all of the graduates. It's going to be a long but a really amazing emotional day Saturday which I have the privilege of attending. Um and then I want to wish everybody happy Pride month as well. I know there are a lot of great opportunities around town to celebrate. Um I always think this month uh my favorite quote, I have it on my keychain that says courage over comfort. Uh it's one of

204my favorite Bernne Brown quotes and it applies in so many different ways, but I think especially this month to help support all of our humans uh in our lives that are uh struggling especially. Um, also just want to remind too, um, on since it'll be before we meet again, uh, there are some great Junth celebrations happening also on June 14th. Um, so just watch for those. I'm happy to share any information if anybody's interested as well. Thank you. Uh, any other comments? I, um, I will be at the Francis Howell Central graduation where my youngest will be walking across the stage. So if I'm blubbering blubbering mess I will bring my own tissues. I'm looking forward to that. Also wanted to share thank you and happy uh Junth to everybody as well or not Junth

205sorry happy pride month and I look forward to Junth as well. question. Since we just approved curriculum for AP, is there who would we talk to or who's the person leading talking about the AP testing procedure process and possibly just doing that on paper? Who's who's going to take the lead and follow up on that? If you want to send me the questions, we can get them to Dr. O'Neal Hooker. She's our director of assessment. Perfect. And then I just to follow up on this because it got a little contentious in here. It it just baffles me that that we we sat here and sit in our little bubbles like we can't talk to each other because I don't agree with you politically or I have a different idea on something. Why in the world

206do we have to just point fingers and castigate somebody? And to put it I don't get it. cuz just because somebody doesn't agree with you doesn't mean they're evil. So, and I don't understand why we have to attack people that serve on this board or I mean, we had somebody try and speak last week. They didn't agree with your politics, but all of a sudden they're some sort I don't even know who that the pastor was going to speak. I get it. Per policy, he shouldn't be able to speak. He doesn't live in the area. But just because you don't agree with him, he's evil. these all these extreme. We can't talk to each other for the going to be so extreme. So I I just listen to people and talk to them and stop

207belittling your the people in your own community. I I don't get it. And for the record, I received an email from a patron that said that I invited Dr. amanuku to here here to speak. For the record, I absolutely did not. And how did that how that rumor ever got started is beyond me. I didn't I supported him once he was here, but I did not invite him. I also received a text from a patron while he was there saying how disappointed they were in inviting him here. I didn't invite the man. He invites himself. I didn't have anything to do with that. Thank you. Well, I would like to say um you know, I've been on this board for a little over two years and I I do share Ron's sentiments. Um I I

208don't get it. I don't understand the the drill and all those things. I don't um I would just like to thank all of you up here. I I I I really admire each and every one of you. I really do. Carol, 70 slides. Really? I mean, come on. Um, but that just goes to show your your your heart and your mind and your drive in from Kansas City is is all about these kids in this district and I really do appreciate it. Um, Dr. Rompus, Mark, Jen, Joles, um, uh, Lisa Connie, all of you. I I just I admire every one of you. And yeah, these board meetings can get a little contentious and a little bit uh long, Carol. Um, but I do think that that it's worth it because, you know, from now,

20910 years from now, when we're all in our graves, everybody's going to look back and think, "Wow, those are the people that really really wanted to help and do what what was right and what was what was true and good." and and uh um I know for certain that I'm going to miss Dr. Rompus, Carol, um anybody who's not here with me for the next however long I've got left um less than a year. Um I I I am unfortunately going to miss these days or fortunately going to miss these days in these meetings, but um I do I do look forward to them because it does create a bit of a um a soap opera in my life that I can have on going on in my own head. Um, and it's uh it's

210fun to fun to, you know, chat with these folks up here and and really help to understand the differences in all of us and that we all, you know, can, to Ron's point, have these conversations without thinking that the other person is evil or mean or whatever. Um, so I do think that's important and I think it I think that the the the district if they're watching really needs to uh take an example from what Ron said and what what um I'm saying now and just really, you know, reach out to the people that you appreciate and and uh and have a conversation with them and maybe you'll maybe you'll learn something, be educated on somebody else's life. So that's all I got. Oh, Kie's still there. Oh, hi Carol. I hear Carol's voice in

211like the side of my ear pretty often. Like I'm really I'm really sorry. I've had to, you know, do Zoom meetings, but I had knee surgery and I I can't get around yet. And I'm heartbroken I can't go to graduation this weekend, but I'll be there in spirit. And a big thank you to everybody. We'll miss you, Caroline. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see you soon. I know. And I just want to end with saying um everybody pay attention to the strategic plan. Our four pillars are teaching and learning, people in workforce, finance and operations, safety and security. Um all of you who are members of the FHSD staff, you are equipped and empowered and trusted to pursue those. And we'll be glad to have the next conversation on the 19th. And I just wanted to

212again uh repeat the thank yous on the go along. and wanted to ask uh for a motion to return to closed session. Motion by director Pushkar, second by director Ponder. Uh all those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. Motion carries. Thank you all for being here and for joining us online and we will move into close session.