001e e [Music] sit down I just e [Music] right thank you everybody for joining us today we'll get this meeting started with the Pledge of Allegiance I PL Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all good evening everybody before we get started on our our business at this meeting I want to take a moment or two to introduce our new superintendent Dr Mike Dominguez who will begin his role on July 1st you know many of you were able to speak with him during the meet and greet so we're happy to have you here and there will be other opportunities to get him get to know him in the near future behalf of the board
002I am excited to officially welcome Dr Dominguez uh to Francis how with more than 30 years in education two previous superintendent roles and a track record for promoting academic Excellence for all students he's well qualified to lead our district in its next chapter Dr Dominguez was selected by the board following a nationwide search we are impressed with the results he's been able to deliver for previous districts his broad knowledge of school finance and bond issues and his commitment to transparency integrity and open communication I want to thank the community for their input in this process the insights you shared with us through surveys and focus groups help shape the profile for our next leader and I'm confident Dr Dominguez will deliver on our lofty expectations with that I'll invite Dr Dominguez to share a few
003words with the [Applause] community right here uh thank you community for being here thank you board for the vote of confidence thank you Dr rumpus and uh executive cabinet and Jane for uh the warm welcome uh I'm Dr Mike Dominguez I've been in education many years I've been on the rung uh if education is a ladder I've been on most rungs I've been a teacher I've been a coach I've been assistant principal principal uh Deputy superintendent and superintendent of multiple districts and multiple States uh I was drawn to Francis how if you look at our 5year strategic plan and our values that we have written down uh we pursue growth and learning we grow to be we desire to be a little better strive to be a little better every day and a little brighter
004every day but that's we need to do that as as a community if we do that our students our staff and uh community at large will do much better we focus on what matters relationships um every encounter is important so culture is build 20 seconds at a time every time we meet every time we introduce ourselves uh we need to put our best foot forward and as a community we definitely have done that this evening uh spend we spend time and money wisely absolutely fiduciary duty the board uh I know that board values that I know the Community Values that we're going to definitely do that we're kind and safe Safety and Security U we number one have a lot of depth of knowledge of that but want to make sure that Francis house stays
005on that same trajectory and embody one how if you get all of those things together uh the collective efficacy is one how and that's what we want and thank you I'm Dr Mike Dominus I'll be around uh we don't start officially till July one so uh just happy to be on board part of the one family thank you [Applause] Bo like a motion to approve the agenda for March 20th 2025 as presented all those in favor say I I all post say no eyes Havey next we have Schoolboard recognition Mr delini thank you Mr Bertrand I'm standing in tonight for Mrs jeles obviously um as she is not feeling well um tonight we are here to recognize all of you uh the Francis how Board of Education the Missouri School Board Association has declared the
006entire month of March as Schoolboard recognition month and so tonight we celebrate you for the care and dedication you give to our schools and our community you give so freely of your time and your talents in a purely volunteer capacity and I know for many of you your board responsibilities often require the same amount of time and attention as a full-time employee we've left some small tokens of appreciation at your seats this evening we also want to thank the students at Fairmont Brian middle and vacation station for the artwork for uh adoring the dis as well as the beautiful banner hanging in the hallways just outside this room we were able to grab a photo of our board members with the artwork ahead of the meeting so we won't make them come around again but
007let's give our Board of Education a round of applause for all they do for the Francis House school district and our [Applause] community student board rep our student board representative this month is from Barnwell middle school as you know the purpose of the student board rep program is to honor and to recog recognize talented students Elevate student voice and provide growth opportunities in the areas of public speaking leadership and governance students are selected for this Honor by their principal with input from the student body they have an opportunity to prepare and deliver a short speech to the board and to the public that is focused on their school and or the district and with that I'd like to invite principal Dr Aaron thirston to the podium to introduce our board rep from Barnwell Middle [Applause]
008School good evening it is my privilege and honor to introduce to you Brena fam she is an eighth grader at Barnwell Middle School where she participates in the National Junior Honor Society student council robotics club and the Spectra program Rena is a straight A student who goes above and beyond in her work even pushing herself for the extra credit she is a hardworking student and has really shined this year in her robotics team the Super Splash Bros Brena was on an all girls robotics team at Barnwell and took a leadership role this year she had many younger students on the team and helped guide them through the first Lego League season which included researching building and programming Brena kept the girls organized on task and helped the team go further in their research project which
009was to grow coral and put it back into the ocean they could track their Coral with an RFID chip that they programmed themselves with all the team's hard work Super Splash Bros won the first place Champions Award at the FLL qualifier in December this allowed the team to go to the state competition in February where the robot placs Fifth Fifth out of 43 teams competing I look forward to seeing the amazing young lady that Brena will become in the future because whatever she puts her mind to she will achieve right [Applause] now dear ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for having me here tonight to represent my school Barnwell this evening I'm here to celebrate the achievements of the school I call my own but first I would like to thank our school's incredible
010teachers thank you for being supportive in and outside the classroom several of our teachers come in early and stay late to help students achieve more academically by offering office hours and tutoring also many of our Barnwell faculty have shown support outside of school by being present in our plays Sports and even robotics competitions I would also like to recognize any students in the building for you are a school at its core and the very reason we have these meetings my school is an amazing environment due to our variety of clubs incredible community and enriching curriculum our school offers phenomenal Club opportunities from our very successful theater crew to our long-standing robotics Club you'll hear from later tonight these clubs allow us to explore new interests develop new skills and collaborate with our peers outside the
011classroom along with the opportunities that our school offers it also provides a strong sense of community each staff member works every day to ensure our school is a safe enriching and inclusive environment this community Fosters friendships and Partnerships that extend beyond the school I've met so many amazing people during my time here and hope our friendships continue to grow also our school Works to develop us mentally all classroom curriculums be the traditional education they challenge Us by promoting creativity problem solving and decision-making skills in our classroom curiosity is celebrated and we're encouraged to push the boundaries of our knowledge overall our school is an amazing Place committed to encouraging enhancing and improving itself for the betterment of students I'm proud to be a part of this inable community and look forward to see how we
012all grow and Achieve together thank you [Music] stand thank you [Music] all right at this time I'm going to invite Dr hold on one more one second Mark yes I apologize I just want to welcome you to uh the board meeting and you are allowed to ask questions throughout the meeting follow along as well um we're just really glad to have you be a represent students um I know gracious professionalism is one of the things they teach at first Lego leag and you have just uh demonstrated that in a lot of different ways so I'm really glad to be able to SN next to you tonight thank you I'll invite Dr thirston back to the podium to introduce tonight's Spotlight presentation um about the outstanding robotics program at Barnwell Middle School Dr thirst I'm gonna
013stall while Brena changes her outfit I would like to introduce to you Mrs Heather Thomas Barnwell barnwell's robotic sponsor who has grown our robotics program into the one of the most large one of the largest and most decorated in The District in addition Brena fam Gwen Maguire and Macy saell will be leading one of our top who are leading one of our top team Super Splash Bros to provide the spotlight on their project and this amazing program at [Music] Barnwell good yes okay hello thank you for having us tonight so I'm going to talk a little bit about the robotics program very briefly but um like she said uh I wanted to tell a little bit of the background history very briefly uh the first Lego leag program is the one we participate at the
014middle school level but these are the four levels that um different schools in the district participate in we start with the youngest it could be kindergarten through third grade we participate fourth grade through 8th grade and then the First Tech Challenge and first robotics are usually at our high school so I know at Francis Hall North they have the first tech team that they um they have two teams actually there and then um Francis Hall High School ends up hosting the F FRC team that hosts for the whole entire [Music] District okay so basically how barnwall began is in 2007 and 8 we had one team short story I had students that came to me and said Mrs T we really need you to host this robotic program cuz we need a teacher sponsor so
015I said what do I have to do they're like oh nothing and then here we are uh 18 years later so yes um we have 10 students on a team usually uh for each team we have two coaches per team that is a requirement from first Lego league and at Barnwell we are privileged to have community members who volunteer as our coaches for our robotics team because I'm one person and I can't host as many obviously so we have wonderful coaches like Mr Claus and here who is one of the team's uh uh coaches and then we usually have between four and seven teams a year at barnwall obviously we started with one I would say we have probably hosted over 50 teams since 2007 so we have definitely grown the program over the years
016this season so we had four teams at Barnwell obviously we had a lot of people graduate onto the high schools which was wonderful but um the coaches we had we had eight coaches this year they were the underwater astronauts the Kraken crew Coral commanders and the Super Splash Bros this is our underwater astronauts group this was a sixth grade team only they had lots of energy this is our Kracken crew with our lovely board member Mr Blair he was one of the coaches um we had the privilege of them winning the first Lego League core values award which shows gracious professor gracious professionalism and it's just being a kind team to all the teams the coral commanders they ended up winning the LL robot design award and you'll see one of the robots that Splash
017Brothers have here but they have to design their whole entire robot to solve um the missions and it has to be completed in two and a half minutes so as many missions as that they can solve and it gets the most amount of points and then last but not least our Super Splash Bros they like Dr thirst said won the first place Champions Award they got a ticket to go to state competition and it was very exciting so I'm going to turn it over to our three eighth graders who are leaders for the team and they can continue [Music] on hello we are nine members from the ssf team and our team number is 5977 we are lucky to have three eighth graders three seventh graders and three sixth graders on these team and we're
018going to explain a little bit about what we do in robotics this year in robotics half of our total scores come from The Innovation project where we find a problem within a specific theme and try to solve it this year's theme was Oceans Where we have been working on a coral awareness project we have set up a tank to model our solution this is our tank we built this at the beginning of the year and it helped us progress through competition throughout this project we have learned about Oceanic problems and gained experience with saltwater tanks we have expanded our Outreach and shared our knowledge with our school this year we placed first at our regional robotics competition and went to State we also learned how to code RFID chips RFID chips or radio frequency identification
019chips send information through W waves we use these to identify our corals which help scientists learn about them we have one here we we are just one team in this incredible Club our barn marks robotics team Works to teach kids about robotics by promoting creativity and providing a strong Community our program teaches students about the Engineering Process constructive skills and responsibility we have competitions and events throughout the season to show off these skills or we participate in robot runs as well as present our research project robotics provides many opportunities and we wouldn't be able to experience them without so many amazing people at this time we would like to thank our coaches for always showing up and taking the time to cultivate our robotic interest I would also like to thank many of the volunteers
020that have worked so hard to support all of other robotics teams but most of all we would like to thank Miss T who has made all this possible we are one of the only middle schools to have multiple robotics teams and we have Miss T to thank for all the opportunities the robotics provides if you have any questions about our tank robotics experience or opportunities that robotics provides please feel free to ask thank you I I have a question um where are you going to put the coral what ocean Gulf see we know yet um we'd hope to put it like in the Florida Keys area we talked to the coral restoration Foundation which actually puts Coral in the ocean and we hope to put some Coral from these tanks the ocean specifically we are
021specifically we are going two types of coral green star pops which is native to the indopacific region and Kenya Trees which are native to like the Kenya area so those were the specific places we were going to put them and then we were also hoping to potentially grow a different type of coral but we haven't gotten into that yet I want to say I talked to somebody at Warren it was a girl in the um robotics Club they have there and um they were told that the all girls team from Barnell went to State and uh two or three little girls jaw dropped and were so amazed and you don't know this but there's a couple students at Warren who are really looking up to you and I just want to say you guys did
022a fantastic job Sor Haven take a picture you the RFID sorry than you thank you [Applause] [Music] next we have Patron comments during Patron comments residents of the district and staff members are invited to address the board of education on issues related to the school district speakers are called forward in the order of sign up and each speaker has 3 minutes to make their remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted the board appreciates that you've taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and perspective I would like to remind everyone that we expect that speakers will remain civil and respectful in giving remarks if anyone fails to comply with
023board policies regulations and rules reserve the right to cut those three minutes short we also ask the patrons in the audience remain quiet in order to be respectful to the speakers a lot of time now we welcome Jennifer [Music] Maine good evening welcome to Dr Dominguez I'd love to see the Barnwell robotics team highlighted tonight we have some amazing programs in the district led by amazing teachers in fact the thoughts I'm bringing tonight are on teacher and staff retention happy our incoming superintendent is here with us because I believe he should understand the climate where he's becoming the new leader let me start by asking why teacher retention is important a few thoughts the cost to replace an employee is estimated to be one and a half to two times an employees salary replacing employees
024is expensive two retention is important for institutional knowledge three organizations with higher retention have higher employee morale four retain teachers and staff lead to better relationships between the district and Families how many of us parents have looked forward to repeat experiences with a teacher for our second third fourth children five better retention signals to the community that we are stable and six when we retain teachers and staff we have the dis we have the opportunity to grow them from a leadership and skill perspective which benefits us as a district in the long term it is no secret that education is universally strained there are fewer new teachers graduating and more teachers leaving the profession instead of throwing up our hands and defeat I want to see this board working on Creative Solutions to keep our
025teachers here better pay as a start but when you make working conditions miserable teachers leave and you are making working conditions miserable members of this board have engaged in vindictive targeted attacks on individual teachers and staff that have caused them to leave the district or severely limited their capacity to serve one instance could be chalked up to hearsay as I've heard members of this board try to explain away this is not one instance this is a pattern members of this board have called out and belittle teachers by name on social media they have attempted to remove teacher extra duty pay based on personal grievances they have insisted on notes in a teacher's personnel file based on that teacher's unintentional mistake in an email and they have taken steps to sabotage careers of individual Educators these
026behaviors are unacceptable the actions of some of the members of this board are creating a hostile work environment that is becoming apparent not only to those of us who live in this District but to teachers staff and residents in neighboring districts you want to make this a destination district for students you must make it a destination district for teachers and staff one board member posted on their Facebook page some time ago before they blocked me this quote people join because of great vision people lead because of poor leadership this might have been intended or directed to our District administration but that leadership is you District administration has also been fleeing this board buck stops here and I ask the community consider whether you want this kind of District leadership during voting on April 8th [Applause]
027up next we welcome King [Applause] gar board superintendent welcome during this week's candidate Forum a question was asked about holistic education when holistic education is used to advance social and cultural ideologies such as CIT Dei gender affirming education bathroom and locker room utilization social justice parental rights pronoun usage you introduce subjectiveness and bias of one's preferences into education here is what the two liberal Progressive Schoolboard candidates say will promote positive climate in our in our school system on Missouri House Bill 627 the parents Bill of Rights Act which protects parental rights candidate Grider opposed it on Missouri House Bill 634 which establishes protections of parents to direct the mental emotional and physical health and well-being of their children a second parental rights Bill candidate Grier opposed it on Missouri House Bill 113 which directs student
028participation in athletic cont text strictly by sex candidate Grier opposed it on Missouri House Bill 1081 save adolescence from experimentation act which prevents and protects children under 18 from receiving pubity blocking drugs and cross- sex hormones candidate Grider opposed it again miss Grier has been ex has expressed her support of pronouns for elementary school kids as mentioned last month on one hand we see a post of her wearing a t-shirt with the phrase be kind but on the other hand we see the costic and ugly language she uses to describe those who oppose her views as bigots racist and homophobes on another matter just last year Francis how removed the divisive and polarizing social justice standards of the Southern Poverty Law Center promoted by CRT Professor larrett King yet Nea School Board candidate Oki received
029the Janda Boseman social justice scholarship award apparently in support of social justice social justice is a major part of the Dei controversy currently dividing our nation Missi has also stated that she likes to see teachers trained on the nea's gender affirming education curriculum enough of the culture Wass on April 8th vote to continue common sense exceptional excellence and education for our kids keep the focus on education thank you up next we welcome Grayson Joseph good evening my name is Grayson Justice I'm alumni of Francis H Central class of 20 2013 and uh my pronounce is he and she Randy cook has voted against Brain Pop even though teachers love love the program but he doesn't want teachers tell him what to do calling teachers and parents groomers for loving and supporting the lgbtqia plus child
030and student as strum has blocked anyone who doesn't support the cult uh does who doesn't support the cult-like PAC group Francis H families or her campaign on her public social media page and not having a mature conversation these two candidates don't have what it takes to become board members if they only talk to people who have different viewpoints in person but Amy G and Sarah o do respect everyone in the on our district and they do not have time for culture War policies and resolutions but they do have time for improving our students teachers staff and of course our district vote for Amy G and Sarah o for board for the next month's election and sadly since um Mary Jane pusar can make it to the board this month um I am going to save
031my um her uh my stance on her anti-transgender bathroom um locker room policy because it's bigoted and um it's it's it's it's bigoted and it's basically ignorant for our trans and non-binary students thank [Music] you up next we welcome Carrie Zukowski hello good evening we're lucky in this District to have so many great teachers we've lived in our house in Francis hell for 20 years my children's whole lives my kids have attended our schools for 12 years with one more to go they have so had so many great teachers teachers who taught them to read and how to love books teachers who encourage their love of history and communication teachers who asked about and supported their interest and challenged them to try something new knew teachers who they got along with right away and those
032with personalities that maybe took a little longer to appreciate teachers who let them take leadership roles and those help help nudge them as needed we are so grateful for all of the wonderful teachers in this district and I know we hear this a lot we love our teachers in Francis how and we mean it but somewhere along the line some outside groups have started pushing a narrative and sewing distrust and some of the community started listening they say that our teachers well not their kids teachers but those other teachers are some nefarious group of people who want to indoctrinate our children stroking this fear has driven our community apart and made our teachers jobs more more difficult through board decisions that limit Educators autonomy ignore resource resource recommendations and deny professional Dev development opportunities teachers
033and Learners in this District have gone from having support we love our schools to being controlled you get what we say that's not the academic environment that my kids need to the general public out there your child's teacher is not pushing anyone's secret agenda on them there is none they want your child to have the skills they need to navigate and succeed in the 21st century teachers want kids to be kind work hard and stay curious so they can reach students and engaging ways and achieve the learning outcomes of the curriculum that's it how do we support our Public School Educators well one we vote for legislatur and board Representatives who support public education through policy and allocate funds to directly support teachers and students two we ensure schools and students have what they need
034so teachers can do what they do teach specialized supplies Necessary Technology textbooks workbooks should be in the budget for all students no matter their background so they can all succeed three we provide comp competitive salaries and benefits packages for all staff certified non-certified starting salaries should be competitive and those at the top of the salary scale should re receive at least at minimum a cost of living increased every year that's what psrs is projecting a conservative 2% each year to recruit high quality veteran teachers we need a pay to pay based on experience and not cap those starting steps number four stop the culture wars parents teachers community members we're all tired students too we live in a diverse Community we need to be accepting of everyone's different religions cultures and backgrounds instead of stroking
035fear and imposing specific worldviews we must work together to ensure diverse highquality educational opportunities for all and impl Implement innovative solutions to increase achievement thank you next you welcome Anita Keener good evening I would like to first thank Francis H Central's journalism teacher and students for hosting an excellent candidate Forum on Tuesday I would also like to address collaboration or lack of collaboration for many years fhaa collab collaborated with Administration and the board to make Francis H School District a destination District in The Last 5 Years this hasn't been the case this isn't just the fault of this board of education this started about 5 years ago with the board members that wanted to get rid of the teachers union and administration that complied the result was hurt the result has hurt our students staff
036teachers and the community because the people who are supposed to be um working to make this this a destination District we um just going through the motions prior to this time um we would collaborate on Staffing insurance policy Finance Etc this is no longer the case the results are that the district will cost our community and staff 40% more for preschool this should have been a conversation with fhaa how we calculate the cost of preschool is ridiculous we do not ever say Francis hell Central or Hollenbeck cost us this much in teacher salaries we should be using an average teacher salary for the cost of preschool if we reduce the amount of teachers there those teachers that have the highest salaries will still work for us just in another building this hurts our students students
037come into kindergart coming into kindergarten will be less prepared we have the best preschools and have had the best for a long time because our teachers and Paras are amazing the inclusion of students with disabilities and our tuition students has been beneficial to student growth academically and socially this has been an amazing program ultimately this board will get the credit or the blame for dismantling An Early Childhood Program that has been an integral part of this of our successful schools another example of lack of collaboration is the insurance committee bylaws that excludes a retiree from the committee this Comm should not be chosen by the president of the of the um the president of the Board of Education this should have have an fhaa representative also an ESC esc's negotiate their contract under fhaa and
038they should have seats for feisa teamsters administrators and a randomly CH and randomly choosing of teachers and support staff but here we sit again we need to collaborate about teacher retention and not issue one-year contracts to teachers hired after a certain date those should only be given for out for specific reasons again let us collaborate on how we retain teachers in our district let us collaborate to solve problems let us with a Kinder gentler Francis Howell up next we welcome Jamie Martin good evening as an education professional I'm constantly amazed when folks object to Dei as a system of preferential treatment but then conveniently ignore overwhelming data that shows our existing systems already Advantage some of us over others director cook I've spent the last few days looking closely at District data from 2017 to
0392023 I can see that in all that time black students are underrepresented by nearly half in advanced classes and over represented in special education at Harvest Ridge Elementary there were zero zero black students in advanced classes at entral elementary only one black student in an advanced course offering for all of that time and only for the 2017 2018 school year in fact for three of these years white students made up 100% of advanced offerings with no students of color having access to the same in these two buildings finally statistics show that black students in Francis hell not not just anywhere in Francis H are three times more likely to be suspended than their white counterparts unfortunately the district cannot provide me with data for races where fewer than 15 unique students were suspended or I
040would and could speak to other racial groups as well I would also love to highlight other subgroups such as English Learners or socioeconomic status and I'm happy to provide free analysis there but I can only afford to pay for so many Sunshine requests with respect it takes a lot of Pride to imagine that that all of these kids over all of these years have consistently just not worked hard enough if we if we think this way we're like an engineer who ignores a hidden leak in a water system dismissing early signs of inefficiency while pressure builds and waste and uneven distribution persist if we believe and I think that together we do that all kids are capable of learning at high levels these numbers should make you pause they should make all of us pause
041you must recognize that at least unintentionally there are actions or systems flaws in our systems that exist at The Forum you were also quick to agree that students need access to any resource necessary to learn but when asked about holistic education you spoke about the need to stay in our lane and focus solely on academics unfortunately this board has heard from parent after parent saying that their children are facing incessant bullying racial slurs or slurs about their sexuality their classrooms and in the hallways my own kids speak to this problem at their school in recent months our community has seen a news found in a bathroom on school property one high schooler appear in Instagram on Instagram in blackface and another in a chat displaying a swastika it's possible that the students in each of
042these instances did not and probable that the students in each of these instances did not understand the impact of their choices I believe that that could be absolutely true but no one needs a research study to tell them that kids can't concentrate or perform in a toxic climate thank you your time is up thank [Applause] you up next we welcome Jane [Applause] Maguire hi I am a parent of students at North and Barnwell um I am concerned right now that we are going to lose our highquality teachers I'm one of the parents that can stand up here and tell you all the amazing things that my students have learned in this District some of them most of their experiences were very positive but they're also having those same experiences other people are talking about um
043I'm concerned right now that we have teachers that are being attacked and with accusations that are clearly politically motivated with the intent specifically to punish and remove our teachers from the classroom as a parent I'm concerned we're going to lose these teachers and we are not going to be able to recruit the same high quality teachers to replace them um we are going to lose our teachers that are showing care for our students who do not feel entirely safe in our buildings we for some reason idolize our public teachers when it comes to keeping students physically safe we publicize we idolize we talk about how wonderful it is that they put their lives on the line for our students which first of all causes harm and we need to lose that narrative because it's disrespectful
044to them but how are we protecting and what expectations do we have when they continue to protect our students but it's not physically it's emotionally it's mentally we have students who do have concerns about ice how are you protecting your teachers and how are you guiding them to be a system of support in our buildings because if you haven't given those them those directions and you haven't given them how to answer those questions right now you're not protecting our students and as a result you are not um creating safe spaces for our students and I know safe space right there I know that that those words trigger things but school should be safe for our students it is easy to hear from community members that disagree with our teachers and it is not so easy
045to have to have our parents give a voice to stand up and defend because it should be a private thing and I respect that and honor that but when we have teachers who are clearly being attacked for political reasons I'm concerned they're going to leave the district I'm concerned that our students are going to be worse off because of it and I'm just concerned that we are going to not have the high quality education that Francis House School District used to Pride itself on thank you next you welcome fhaa good evening my name is Francine Hill and I am the President of fhaa we would like to welcome Dr Dominguez to our Francis heal family and we look forward to building a positive working relationship our district benefits from our teamwork and this is important
046to fhaa though there are many changes coming to our district next year we know the focus on making Francis hell the best possible district for our student staff and Community will continue to be our goal we understand that s Wilson has made some changes to the team working on the Francis H North toxic coder issue we hope this will result in resolution to the situation since our students and staff have been suffering through the toxic odor since July fhaa would like to have an opportunity to sit down with the members of this team and discuss the information we have learned about in the emails that we received through the sunshine request we also want to thank the board for forgiving the fee for those emails I had the opportunity to see this beautiful new building
047when I spent the day with the citizens in our schools group spending the day with our community members as they learned about our district was a great experience I enjoy listening to the things that are important to them however I must admit the best part of the day was Millie officer Shu and Millie are a wonderful part of our SRO team I can personally speak to the impact Millie has when emotional support is needed the most Millie and Chile are a valuable part of our supports for our students and our schools fhaa wants to wish everyone a relaxing and fun spring break take time to recharge as we move into the final stretch of the 2425 school year thank you next we welcome Pisa thank you president bertran good evening my name is Heidi Nixon
048the vice president of technicians for FEA we would like to congratulate Dr Dominguez on his appointment as the next fhsd superintendent we look forward to getting to work with you starting in July Francis H is currently at a very important Crossroads we have had a large number of high Lev positions within this District open up over the past year this High Lev turnover and uncertainty can be felt throughout every level in this District hopefully we are able to fill these positions with highly qualified individuals who can help lead Francis hell into the future to all of those moving on either to other districts or into retirement we thank you for your service during your time here several key committees have been at a standstill for months committees allow all stakeholders to have a voice in
049decisions made throughout the district tonight the board will be voting to approve bylaws for both the insurance committee and the policy committee both of these committees have missed numerous meetings since policy revisions require the postponement of meetings hopefully those serving on these committees and all of the Committees that have been halted are able to make up for this last time finally we hope our teachers staff and students are able to find time over spring break next week to recharge for the home stretch of the school year and to our year round staff custodial maintenance grounds it and many building administrative assistance we hope you are able to take some time over the next week to relax without the stress of students in the building please remember to vote on April [Applause] 8th Bo like a
050motion to approve the consent agenda for March 20th 2025 as presentative second all those in favor say I I all opposed to say no I have it Bo like a motion to approve the policy committee byw and employee Insurance committee bylaws as presented I'll move second goe any discussion board no discussion all those in favor I want to point out um there is an addition to the employee Insurance committee bylaws it includes a retiree is now part of the bylaws thank you for pointing that other discussion or comments being none all those in favor say I I I I'll oppos to say no I have it or like a motion to approve the continuation of EMT to provide non-school bus transportation services for the 25 26 school year discussion board see noce discussion all those
051in favor say I I all those opposed say no eyes have it or like a motion to approve purchases as presented [Music] P discussion none all those in favor say I I all opposed say no eyes have it next board like a motion to approve the financial report as presented second Ponder Cook miss hry good evening thank you very much misser so for our report to you this evening of course we've posted all of our standard documentation on board docs for your preview and also for the Public's uh ability to review this evening we are providing you with that promised uh budget amendment uh relative to our revenues and as you can see we have a total budget amendment increase for revenue of 3 milon 621 603 most of that is within local and it
052is mostly specific to investment income so we uh took a look at where we stand currently and projected out for the rest of the Year and have included that for your uh understanding the other primary adjustment on the expenditure side it's showing um increasing the bond expenditures to catch up to all of the approvals that you have made uh throughout the year we uh don't have clarity as to where that will actually land at June 30 but we will understand that we'll be moving the funds that are left uh in the current year so that total expenditure uh increase which is again primarily our bond fund is 49 m223 544 there is a 2 174,00 purchase service increase as well that culminates in a potential June 30 fund balance percentage of 30.23 that is a
05369% increase over that which we reported to you the last time these next slides break down for you by fund and by primary object code all those changes that have been included in the recommendation this shows the total budget amendments each month that they have occurred and the cumulative total at the end for revenue and also for expenditures this slide shows you our operating fund balance trajectory uh it's a similar chart for us to review and I basically have repeated the information from last time we do have updated preliminary information from St Charles County relative to the assess valuation so I modified uh that uh every 10 cents of um levy results in 4 million in operating funds and that's plus or minus annually we know that the spike uh that occurred in the 23
05424 school year is relative to eser funding and uh the FY 28 operating fund balance estimate at this time absent changes that we know will be coming uh would take us to a 14.6% fund balance at that point in time this reminds us that we are posting our bond financials each month we're showing currently an excess balance for projects not yet committed of just over $3.6 million and we anticipate that we would bring you a recommendation in the coming months on what that might potentially be we still have the uh HVAC Phase 2 to bring you so we're waiting for that to to occur as well for this in oops excuse me I did it uh for the Self Insurance Fund uh we're still staying in that same space uh our balance in the current
055uh year as compared to the balance in the prior year including the $4 million transfer in is almost a $3 million deficit so we do have new information from Mar mclinton I'll comment about that on the next Slide the preliminary information and this was not good news for us but basically the preliminary information based on our expenditure Trend shows that we need to increase benefits 23.5% we know that uh that is not something that we could um take into the budget basically based on our current projections and so we will continue to take a look at that data often times it will pull down uh what has happened in the meantime uh just for your information I'm provided that communication to the people who had previously served on the insurance committee so that they're staying
056informed on the information as well and the marsh mclennen agency team will provide us with an update next month as well it will be closer to Mid April so I'm hoping that I'll have additional information by the April board meeting and I uh am committed to provide you a comprehensive update as a whole board each month as we journey forward on that the other primary new information for planning is the that assessed valuation increase and so we celebrate that it uh increased from a revenue perspective by 7.7% over the December 31 values it's actually 8.8% over the values that we published during the tax rate hearing last September and uh the Consumer Price Index though that comes comes into play with the Handcock amendment that holds the revenue increase down caps it at 2.9% last
057year CPI was 3.4% so a little lower for us there we'll bring you updated information relative to what that calculation means for us uh in the upcoming meetings the work in progress does include the facility master plan and I'll share with you that uh the team is already planning during next week to uh do some preliminary assessments within the buildings and other than that they they will be gathering data and the um priorities will be Set uh working with Mr ster our director of facilities and operations and truly the evaluation should be summarized for initial reporting uh it would be May and June but then the final plan would probably occur in October or November so we have that to look forward to in the fall uh next month uh well beyond that the benefits
058analysis continues we are heading towards that full recommendation of the budget during the June 5 meeting and we'll continue to provide you the updates each month uh The Debt Service defeasance will likely be presented during the May 15th meeting so that's a prepayment of some existing debt that we have and then scheduled for the April board meeting would be the uh budget review for Debt Service and also our health fund fund and then uh if we're required by Statute to provide a temporary or an estimated Levy to the county they provided us data by um March 15th and then we turn around and calculate an estimated Levy based on that data due to timing and posting We post it for your information purpose uh during the April meeting each year so that will be coming
059uh during that next month the estimate uh that we've calculated this time is that our operating Levy would reduce down to 32777 so that is a reduction over the the current Levy it's approximately 3.41 okay you have any questions for me that concludes the finance and operations report questions Bo I had a question um this is for a different uh attachment when it comes to the the schedule of Investments and so there's a bunch of Investments listed there um can you share like how that's managed um just whenever like the stock market goes up or down especially goes up and down a lot it's nice to know somebody's looking over that their hands are on the wheel can you explain what that process looks like who hands on the wheel and I'll start with uh
060explaining that we are required by uh statute by board policy to align to that which is approved by the state of Missouri for investment purposes so the money is very safe and secure and but in terms of actually managing that money I'm very happy to say that we have partners that uh they provide that service they are investors one is uh mosip and one is referenced as moat and I don't know that I would be successful in delivering to you what those acronyms are but it's like Missouri security investment program I think is one and uh yeah I won't try on the other one uh but uh they're very competent people they're large teams of people that are watching the market and watching uh the best opportunities for us and also to ensure that we're
061compliant with board policy thank you sure thank you for that update just uh just a comment for the community I know that there's been some concern Nationwide lately about Federal funding coming from the Department of Education um and I don't know if my fellow board members I'm sure you all caught this the the Missouri School Board Association update just a few weeks ago noted that uh despite any concerns out there all of the entitlement grants so these are your your title funds and special education money is all flowing it's not not held up at all um in addition to discretionary grants are also still flowing so there's um there's no impact there to to Public Schools right now so it has been a question so we're just putting it out there and and I heard
062that same information from a different direction as well so the the word is getting out for everyone to rest assured on that I would like to say just one comment um thanks to you and your team for all the hard work you do on keeping I know this is a dynamic process I saw up there that fund balance projections up 10 710 of a percent so we'll Cate we're working hard in the background to update update us as things change month and month I really appreciate all the hard work that the the team does thank you all right board voting on motion to approve all those in favor say I I I all oppos say no I have it next we have an informational report from missen on our build yes so this is you
063know last month we had just the overview of this is what will be coming your way and uh those of you that have uh tuned in last year you know that this is the same experience and so we have updated the information uh the most important thing I would uh comment about is this is a moment in time this is not the final recommendation for you to consider many things could change uh it gives you perspective on the needs within the system and we also need to continue to watch and determine what are all the other needs from an operational perspective because we know that the capital fund absent any bond projects that are funded by our patrons uh presents a drain uh on the operating account so so we'll cover uh some of the
064information I have my same charts in here talk about uh historical and then we'll look at all those uh varieties of categories and um provide you with some uh budget balances and relative to bond it's listed for this presentation but as you know we provide you the bond Financial update each time Mr ster and others present on the specific projects and uh we continue to keep you apprised on on that work so the first slide is our budget development calendar and you can see we are at that point in time where these presentations are delivered to you um next month we will uh provide you with the we actually I have that on the next slide I believe two slides from now but all of this will culminate in a recommendation June 5 and then
065we will seek your approval during the June 19th meeting we must have all budgets approved prior to July 1 or we can't spend any dollars so uh we are a a subdivision of the state of Missouri and we operate under the same rules of play the fund requirement I remind you each time and I keep this slide in here just to set that out for you that we are required to operate under the variety of funds and that's per Missouri statute 165.024 in it at this time but we don't have to place it there uh and that's a conversation I I would like to explore further at some point in time whether we continue to um do that have that practice our debt service fund is its own separate fund and it has its own
066separate Levy and uh that slide provides you with the types of expenditures that posted there so this is the presentation schedule so again here we are capital and bond in April we'll bring you debt and health fund followed by the general fund and Teachers Fund and uh then culminating in our comprehensive budget recommendation this pie chart depicts for you how the funds break down in terms of our expenditures for all funds this does not include the self-funded insurance the health fund because that is a separate fund for us and uh one may wonder how does money get into the capital fund I alluded to the levy so we always have fund balance carryover then we're able to make transfers from the operating fund and that amount is provided to us by the department of Elementary
067and secondary education it's called a guaranteed tax based calculation in the current year that amount is 7.2 million and it does change and it's actually not final until we receive the final June amount we have other allowable transfers such as food service and transportation remember last year when you approved that we would transfer some of the food service fund balance to pay for the Francis H North kitchen equipment so we're allowed to do that uh Revenue distribution we're allowed to code certain types of Revenue directly into the capital projects fund but when we do that that takes it away from the general fund and then lastly that Levy distribution and currently we have 6 cents in the capital projects fund this uh reminds us of the expenditure types one of the primary changes that you've
068heard about from me is that the um threshold for Capital has increased from 1,000 uh it was 1,000 for my entire 30-year career and uh so we've caught up with the current times and so 5,000 per item is the threshold for which things might be coded to Capital so basically if it's Capital it should have a a longer lifespan and not be considered a consumable like those coded to the operating fund this shows you our spending trend and you can see that we had some uh years where we didn't spend a great deal and just keep in mind that our capital projects fund is how we take care of our building assets uh throughout the district and um there's not really a specific industry standard relative to how much you should be spending each year
069for a particular square footage but this does show you that we we've been low for a period of time in the past we had the spike that occurred in 2019 and that was relative to the 9 million of bus purchases that occurred so we've we've had a range of between 2.69 4 to 9.03 7 million and that's excluding uh the 2019 bus purchase as we go through the capital planning process we ask that leaders throughout the district submit work orders through uh the work order system so that they can identify needs within their buildings or in their departments and then we form a team and we evaluate that as we take a look at the instructional requests we'll engage with instruction leaders uh to ensure that we're prioritizing appropriately and we are prioritizing based on
070safety and instructional impacts first and then that protection of assets so the final costs uh are identified we may have some changes as the work moves forward if things are identified as uh qualifying more for an operating fund code uh fund 10 instead of the capital fund this is reminding you that the cost will roll through the year and so it's not un usual for us to end up having a balance at the end of the year because the project did not come to fruition in time to pay the bill so then that bill pushes into the next fiscal year so it's a revolving balance if you will not it's not the uh comprehensive use it or lose it at the end of June 30 because when we have projects that have been approved and
071committed for we need to carry those forward this is a reminder that we use operations hero software and that has worked out very well we implemented that last year year with the new capital planning process and Mr ster and his team have uh been overseeing that and we'll continue to tweak it and make it better for everyone so here are some of the specific recommendations I commented earlier this is um just the the preliminary recommendation and that any individual P purchases will be presented to the board for individual approval based on the threshold of the cost the first slide uh references buses and engines and once again we are currently recommending zero uh dollars for that this year we will be studying the replacement cycle and what is appropriate for overall efficiencies and operations um
072I've included this year though to show you that we have 161 buses and those are the years that are noted there year 2019 we have 33 buses year 2020 121 buses and year 2021 s buses and the mileage is noted as well the average mileage is 61,2 the low being 265 and the high at 12964 last year we invested in replacing some cafeteria tables uh this is really you know it's one of those things it's no different than your own maintenance in your home you can ignore things and uh hope it hobbles along whatever the case may be but we had a number of tables that really had met their useful life and Beyond and we want to make sure that we're providing safe tables that would work well for the custodians and other staffs
073who are dealing with them so once again investing 240,000 uh is the recommendation at this time for replacing 92 tables uh the team has prioritized the sites and so those are listed for you as well uh those that would be addressed we again are offering a contingency allocation of 250,000 so that we can deal with uh emerging or special needs for custodial equipment we're continuing to ensure that we're providing that which is needed to clean our buildings this would be a placeholder budget so we could see that dollars would be returned back if we didn't identify high priority needs during the fiscal year for electrical the same thing we have no specific projects but recommend a placeholder of 50,000 for that purpose on exterior buildings we are showing you a couple of pictures here uh
074we have doors that have been identified needing replacement also one of the elementary buildings needs a little painting uh to take place the images depict where an angle bracket is bracing up a door frame and then the other one is where we have some deterioration there on the lower side so again this could all fall under Safety and Security as well as we consider ensuring that our building envelope is is addressed for fields we have uh a couple of primary recommendations so francal high school rubberized track you can see I highlighted for you the large crack in the surface there I I have to tell you I I salum provided me the pictures and I'm like what so what's wrong with this I I'm why is this bubbled up as a as a problem he's
075like well look look to the right of the painted line oh a large crack that probably a foot might be able to drop I'm not sure so this was originally installed in 1995 and resprayed in 2008 2013 and 2019 and that's the max so it's time to address that to ensure we provide appropriate uh surfaces the tennis courts at Francis H you can kind of see how that fencing is leaning and so uh that would be another part of that 750,000 recommendation for flooring we continue now each year we're going through and conducting uh a prioritization assessment and these are the sites that have been bubbled up as needing Carpeting and other flooring addressed in the buildings for furniture fixtures and equipment we currently have a placeholder assessment of 5 ,000 that's approximately what we
076did last year and our purchasing manager is assisting in making sure we prioritize and calibrate throughout the district it's hard to know who really has the greatest need so he will be going out with each of these work orders and uh taking pictures and identifying uh the the relativity of the needs within the buildings for grounds parking lots and other exterior we do have a $2 million price point and that is for the uh surfacing rep repairing replacing resaling and striping all the parking lots sidewalk repair uh and Curbing and that's at Francis how high school for gyms uh we are recommending that uh Sager middle school and Hollenbeck Middle School receive new bleachers the approximate cost is 158,000 each these bleachers are more than 29 years old and uh Pro present some safety challenges
077and also uh functionality challenges for HVAC the things that we're providing you here as we know the bond funds have addressed significant upgrades throughout the district for HVAC but these are some of the smaller sides potentially we could ask that this get shifted over to the bond fund that that's left uh that would be determined as we journey forward but this one is for Hackman Early Childhood Center uh it's been prioritized and it's 370,000 um and then uh Central EC was completed during fy2 information technology so um Mr Gallon is a high flyer for us but as you know you um you approved uh us moving forward with the e- rate recommendation and that's all about capitalizing on those federal dollars where they pay 40% and we pay 60% so this is an anomaly for
078us uh but it's pushing our total up we also have a few small allocations for interactive panel replace reps often referred to as smartboards and then some audio system Replacements that are needed in some of our uh Elementary spaces interior building we have uh restroom partitions that need to be replaced and those which have been prioritized include Elementary sites Warren John Weldon and Becky David and then also at Francis House Central High School uh two projects were originally scheduled for fy2 this is an example of when sometimes things roll into the next year they'll be completed in FY 26 and that's at Fairmount and Henderson the total for all those is 300,000 the other item is a placeholder allocation of 250,000 to address lighting needs as we continue to replace uh outdated lighting throughout the
079district Harvest Ridge has been prioritized the next slide summarizes for you uh lease uh recommendation and it's I shouldn't say recommendation it's a placeholder amount at this time uh any further lease recommendations would be brought to you for your consideration and as you can see we have those listed out in terms of total impact then the item two is our existing uh annual lease payments and those uh have decreased from the prior year for playgrounds as you know you approved addressing that during the March 14th meeting as the preliminary space and then uh move forward and taking care of all those sites and so we have nothing recommended I like to keep these things in the slide deck though just so we remind ourselves that we need to be looking at it every year and
080making sure that you're updated as well so for roofs 670,000 uh roofs typically have a life cycle replacement Target of 22 to 25 years and we are blessed or not blessed I'm not sure how you look at it but in 2017 a number of our roofs were replaced due to a hail storm that occurred we do have certain sections so uh fair amount was identified in fy2 but that work is extending into FY 26 for and then we are also needing to replace a section at Hollenbeck Middle School uh and that's estimated at 400,000 that section is more than 30 years old for Safety and Security at this point in time we still have 500,000 of our bond allocation available uh we don't know that we'll have real needs relative to Capital that's part of
081that assessment that is uh continuing we know we had the physical security audit presented during the December 12th meeting and we're taking a look at those pieces a lot of that will uh be considered operating costs so that would be uh recommended to you during the upcoming budget recommendation so no Capital at this time and then lastly we have the White Fleet recommendation uh you can see that we're recommending replacing two HVAC Vans they're 2007's and a 2008 Ford F 350 plow truck and one mowing trailer some of that may adjust uh we still have some some needs uh in the current year that we may bring forward a recommendation uh but at this time we are recommending 206,000 so this shows you the summary of all of those I've also provided for your context
082our revised budget from the current year so you can see that it's uh slightly elevated and again we'll thank Mr gallan uh for that but we do thank you Mr gallan for bringing forward the eate recommendation it's for networking that we need it anyway right um so uh will offer that potentially 1.5 million of the current year budget may not be spent so that would be added back into the fund balance this slide shows you where we right now are anticipating ending fy2 at June 30 and then the the the box under that the chart under that is uh rolling forward that ending balance and showing you where we could potentially end at June 30 of 26 all of these numbers will change that's a given but it gives you some perspective on where we're
083headed so again you see this slide all the time reminding us about the bond financials being posted each month for all the detail information and then this shows you that anticipated potential ending fund balance uh of the bond funds at June 30 and then that which would roll forward and what we might have at June 30 of 26 but again if you deal with draw schedules and construction you know that you can't count on that information necessarily to play out it's weather dependent and many other factors play in so that concludes the capital and bond presentation happy to answer any questions you may have questions supp you mentioned that the recommendations from the Safety and Security audit uh would be potentially paid for through operating costs instead of a bond can you explain that conversation
084it it really depends on the nature of the expenditure so there could be purchase services and those always post to operating funds the general fund fund 10 uh if something is identified that is a high cost so the board approved having security vules uh handled and so that work has already been done and so unless it's some major expenditure uh there could be something so let's just say like a visitor management system depending on the individual price per unit that would go into each of the buildings that could potentially result in capital but otherwise it it might be an operating fund expenditure does that make sense it does thank you sure other questions for say thank you once again I'm amazed that all the information provided your team does an excellent job and also that
085how still has the same track that I used to run on that's when was there that's pretty amazing and you just said that to someone who just received her 45y year um class reunion invitation so that so uh thank you and I definitely will pass on that compliment to the team uh we have great people working really hard every day for kids so thank you for that next we have a calendar report from missins good evening board uh tonight I am happy to present to you a draft of the 2026 2027 School your calendar um it really is just some information for you this evening and at the end of the presentation I'll have a link for the community staff uh to provide some input and then we'll take that input we'll uh have some
086conversation about that and then bring this calendar back to you next month for approval our practice is always to create and approve a calendar two years in advance it it does allow our families and our staff the opportunity to plan ahead for vacations and breaks hopefully increasing student attendance on those planned days um in the past few years of course we've had a lot of changes and a lot of additions and edits to our calendar which it hasn't been our history but um some different things have happened to cause that uh this calendar tonight has been created uh following the same format that we've used since the 20 2021 school year uh with one big change we have modified this calendar to show you an option of ending first semester before winter break um we
087had conversation with our senior leadership team at fhaa as we created this draft to present to you this evening just to take a minute to remind you of some of the challenges and parameters that create this calendar there's not a lot of flexibility when it comes to creating a calendar based on these things so I just like to provide this and remind um everyone kind of what we work with we try to create one calendar for all levels uh that's fiscally responsible and allows families with students in multiple levels to be on that same schedule the 2019 legislation bars districts from setting an opening date for the school year that's more than 14 calendar days before the first Monday in September and in 2026 it really is the latest that we can start since uh
088September starts with a Tuesday that first Monday is pretty late in that month so it causes the first day of school to be a little later in 2026 our staff and our families have always asked to start with a shortened week but due to that legislation it's it really we have a struggle of starting students on a Tuesday or a Wednesday we try to start on that Monday it gives us the most flexibility when it comes to in uh inputting fall break or winter break into our calendars we've had a long-standing tradition of trying to keep our quarters and our semesters as equal as possible that's for those quarter level classes or semester long classes so that students receive the same content in each area um that is different in this calendar that we'll share
089with you this evening to try to end uh first semester before winter break breaks have been important for rest and relaxation for our staff and our students and fall break is a longstanding tradition in Francis how um it does support the recruiting and retention of our staff winter break is uh often wanted to be at 2 weeks and that sometimes changes just depending on how the dates fall and where the calendar will allow us to move things we include spring break as well um and then that's just right there before the uh closes close to the end of third quarter as we're preparing for map testing and things of that nature teacher PD is included in our calendar and research states that it's most effective when it's relevant and that participants have an opportunity to
090immediately practice what they learn um and so our teachers have that PD spread out a little bit throughout the calendar this option does move one of an additional PD day before the start of the school year again trying to get as many student contact days in first semester uh with that change of ending it before winter break election days uh several of our schools are pro uh used for polling places and just having a lot of different visitors that day we have a no student contact day and utilize those days for PD just to keep our students safe we do try to schedule the last day of school Before Memorial Day uh barring any snow days and graduation is always hosted at The Family Arena uh this allows graduates the opportunity to invite as many
091guests as they would like and then due to other commitments Francis how's graduation is held yearly on the first Saturday of June and when it comes to snow days I'll remind you that we are required to have 1,44 contact hours and then in order to be eligible for that potential additional funding with Senate Bill 727 we have now to have 169 student contact days as well so we'll use a a combination of Ami days and traditional uh snow days to meet those state requirements so in 2627 the calendar that's presented there are some big Ideas here we're following that same format um again with that major change of having uh winter break uh first quarter end before winter break so starting dates our returning teachers would begin working on Thursday August 13th and student would
092return to work return to school on Monday August 24th our quarters and semesters are not equal in this calendar uh for the 2627 school year we have 76 days in first semester and 93 in second semester so those are the quarters there that you see uh 38 38 47 and 46 fall break is included um it's a 5-day break again a great retention tool for our staff election days are included uh we will not have school on November 3rd or April 6th winter break is included and provides nine days nine weekday 13 with uh weekends and then we do end first semester on December 22nd that would have finals being planned for December 21st and 22nd before students would leave for winter break so that is the big change in this draft that you can
093see and consider um several of our um in the input that we received indicated that ending uh first semester before winter break would also be helpful for those students who are going off to college in second semester or maybe starting uh their military careers in second semester so they don't have that winter break and then return um in second semester or in January to finish first semester it does include spring break for one week um and then we do end the year in uh in May Before Memorial Day if we don't have any no we included a possible draft for the 2526 school year if the desire of the board was to end first semester before winter break in 2526 um that information is it's similar to the 2627 and you see a copy of
094that calendar if that is the direction of the board to change the 2526 calendar to follow that same format we know that would cause some difficulties for staff and families they may already have plans um for the end of their summer break this year this would push our staff uh coming back to school a couple of days earlier than what we had originally planned even in the last draft of the calendar so I do think we have to keep that in mind um but these are a potential if we want to end first semester um before winter break we're trying to get as many student contact days in that first semester and that was the reason for showing you that change and pushing that start date up a couple of days and then this is
095the link for our community if they would like to provide some input on the draft that is on board docs um and then we will also include that link in the weekly H for staff to provide some input as well take all of that in into consideration and then bring you a final uh draft of the 2627 calendar next month for vote happy to answer any questions that you might have questions board yeah you said this was a conversation between you and the teachers as well as we did share the draft and talk with it in the fhaa chief's meeting yeah I'm just curious because uh the 2627 you would have 76 days the first semester and 93 days in second semester that's kind of hard to have the same curriculum being used days that
096was what the concern sh and what was their comment I think that a lot of folks would share that that's going to be difficult for curriculum and pacing and that there are some courses in um that will be difficult to get the curriculum in within the shorter number of days so if you take the class one semester versus taking it a second semester you might get different information the student experience would be different so that was definitely a concern that they shared there were also um I'll add two things one miss Simkins mentioned this is important that 26 27 draft is the most drastic version of the uneven semester simply because of the six day difference when we can started the school year so it's not nearly as bad as what next year's recommendation would
097be the other piece that um it's not a great example this year when we've had as much inclement weather as we've had but in a normal year um if we're going to have snow days those are happening January February which would come out of those second semester days when you think about the map testing schedule in the days that takes out of it that's in the second semester so while uneven not quite as uneven instructionally as we would anticipate um but given the nature of more and more classes being semester or year long and fewer they're just a quarter um it would ow us to work through that a bit more easy easily thank you other question yeah just to follow up on the concerns from the teachers of the 76 verse 93 76 doable
098I mean is the feedback basically coming back and saying 76 vers 93 is it doable we believe it would be doable there are obviously some people that aren't going to love that setup um as we said we're interested in getting more feedback from our teachers from our staff and we continue problems with them um again less of an issue next year than it would be in the 2627 calendar we're all also hopeful that at any time legislation could change that might allow us to start the school year a little bit earlier or change the um 169 day requirement that would give us more flexibility at which time we could come back to the board with an updated recommendation um I was wondering uh the teachers have 8 days of preparation before the school Year's chice
099is that correct or typically we've pushed in this draft we've pushed a PD day prior to the start of the school year so there are some work meeting in PD days and so they would come in on a Thursday and Friday and then work that next week as well so there are seven days before students return to school so half meeting a full meeting um half meeting in work there are two py days um and then some meeting and work days for that Thursday and Friday now for our sixth grade uh our transition years there are a transition day that takes a little bit of that meeting and work time away from our teachers in those grade levels but that's been a part of our calendar for a long time well I was just wondering
100if it could ease any of the Pain by some of those teacher work days maybe starting the students during some of those days or earlier well we can't we have we are starting students in both drafts the earliest that we can according to the legislation so I would say in the past you know Francis Hall has started students as early as August 7th 8th 9th that was our tradition um prior to the legislation changing and and pushing that start so this is when students start not teachers I get it yeah yeah teachers would return on if you're looking at 26 27 teachers would return on the 13th and students would return on the 24th that's the first day that students can return because that that labor or that labor date is but do you think
101legislation could it hasn't it hasn't yet I don't know if there's been a lot of conversation we're just hoping if they saw the discrepancy in you know the days of each semester the well the when the legislation changed in 2019 that's when we started pushing finals into January so that we could continue to keep the quarters and semesters as equal as possible and every year we've heard a little bit about how that is stressful for students they really need that time during winter break to take a break and not wor about finals and um but we have always held True to this calendar parameter of keeping those quarters and semesters equal and so we were asked to share this draft with you tonight to try to show you what the calendar would look like if
102we want to try to get those finals done before winter break um and that's that's the outcome is now our quarters and our semesters will not be even and we have those other challenges of trying to figure out how those pacing guides might look for curriculum how we might get the same curriculum in in a shorter number of days how student the student experience might change depending on the courses we talked a lot about personal finance we talked about those those uh semester level courses or quarter level courses in the Middle School wheel um that could all be very different for students depending on when they take it um but that helps us get those winter that helps us get those finals before winter break at the high school level so depending on who you're
103visiting with they love it or they don't so it's definitely just an option to consider and I would say too for some of the teachers while they have a concern of the unevenness they also would like to have the finals before winter break that is a universal thing that we hear a lot um I also want to be clear I have not seen any legislation proposed that would change that okay we would just like them to do it feel free to reach out to your so we need to reach out to them yeah Carol I know that's something that we mentioned when we met some legis a few months ago um and I've personally mentioned it at the the risk of trying to discuss State legislation from the Das I'll just leave that that okay
104visually have done that why add our student representative said that um she would personally prefer to have semesters and before uh Christmas and winter break finals before win finals first semester end finals and all that stuff so that was your preference thank you for sharing that thank you m thank you board next for the community's information we have a policy and regulations uh FR reads there's one policy one regulation from the admin on here for anybody who wants to go online and read those and offer any input before second read comes up next board we have a motion to approve the curriculums as presented we have I think over two dozen here so first by Ponder director Ponder director Harmon any discussion questions on the curriculum board see n all those in favor say I
105I all oppos say now eyes have it brings us to superintendent comments thank you president Bertrand um I also would like to give a warm welcome to our next superintendent Dr Mike Dominguez I really enjoyed getting to spend some time with him today and introducing him to some of the leaders of this incredible District I look forward to working with him to ensure a smooth transition for both him and the district's success over the next 3 months it's been clear today that his experience and expertise and a commitment to both excellence and continuous Improvement will definitely benefit the district as our next strategic plan is rolled out next year and the work continues and I know that the community will continue to welcome both him and his wife Lisa that we had the pleasure of
106meeting this evening Mr Delaney open the meeting tonight by thanking you and recognizing you as part of school board recognition month I'd also like to take a moment to express my gratitude to the board for your dedication and your service to this community and to the district it was said earlier and we can't emphasize it enough but to remind people that board service is completely voluntary beyond the many meetings that you attend you give a significant amount of time and hours to preparation um often at the sacrifice of your own families and careers um being present at events um inter school things throughout the entire district and it's a commitment there is no more noble cause in my opinion than ensuring a highquality public education for all students and for us to do that it
107takes an Engaged and committed Board of Education you support me I appreciate that I appreciate the support of our staff our students and the entire District so again thank you for what each one of you do want to offer congratulations tonight to Dana button the administrative assistant at Francis Hall North who was selected and recognized as the 2025 District support staff member of the year as well as Raina pre second grade teacher at Becky David Elementary who is our teacher of the year for the district for 2025 um they both had surprise announcements over the last couple of weeks and Miss prey now has the opportunity to apply to be the Missouri State teacher of the year and as you know Francis Howell has a fantastic tradition of Excellence of so many of our teachers
108moving beyond the district level to be recognized regionally at the state um and we all have the honor of recognizing both them and all of our other building and District um recognized winners at our celebration in May so if we could give both Dana and Raina a round of applause I also would like to thank the Francis Howell um Central and Francis H high students from the journalism program and their sponsors who hosted the board Forum candidate Forum earlier this week want to remind everyone that the school board election is on Tuesday April 8th and last spring break will officially begin tomorrow after the partial school day release uh students will return to school on Monday at March 31st um I wish our students and staff who will have next week off a safe and
109restful holiday I also want to recognize and thank our custodial maintenance vs staff and others who will be here next week preparing for the return of students and staff the following week thank you all right now we have Board of Education comments there is any I just want to reiterate our warm welcome to Dr Dominguez and his family and um I hope everybody has a great spring break wanted to uh both Echo they the welcome to Dr Mike Dominguez also wanted to uh celebrate Mrs Thomas was here just a moment ago associated with the barnaba robotics um she is just a central part of that group and she's absolutely fantastic um she's also recently was elected the the president of the gifted Teachers Association there's a different you know for the state of Missouri and
110so when it comes to like how great she is it's not just for us to be able to recognize but the the whole state looks at her and says that she is an expert in that particular area and just really thankful that she's here at Barnwell and lastly I was part of a how of Fame uh surprise celebration today uh Church of the shepherd is a Methodist Church that uh is really involved in a lot of different backpack programs a lot of different things with halbeck and they were just celebrating what that church has done and I just want to both celebrate uh Church the shepherd publicly here but also remind people if you're watching a board meeting and you're two hours in uh and you're part of a community organization you want to get
111involved there's a lot of different ways that the community can get involved uh whether it's dealing with backpacks for students have free reduce lunches during the week but they don't have freedom reduce lunches during the weekend so there's some needs that are out there or other opportunities so if you're part of an organization um I think Church of Shephard is one of the many that are involved I think Harvester Christian's another one uh that are doing some wonderful things and Francis how would not be the district it is without those Community Partnerships Mark uh I wanted to reach out to uh superintendent Dominguez and his wife Le said just welcome you guys as well um happy to have you guys here for sure um I also want to uh Dr Rus kind of stole my
112thunder on this one a little bit um my daughter uh was uh privileged to have R to prey as a teacher and I I I guess I'm bias but she was fantastic she put all of those students to the Forefront every single day my my oldest daughter had her she's now moved on she's in third now and um talks about her still to this day so um much deserved um one warning for Raina uh there's another one coming your way and don't let the costume fool you this one is not like the other one so um just warning you um we uh also had a uh uh a very close family member of ours uh Community member that we uh in cville um his name is Ryan Fisher he's a teammate of mine um he
113helped coach uh our daughter's softball team um he passed away this uh earlier this week of of bladder cancer and um if you could all just uh remember and think about um put put them in your thoughts and your prayers the Fisher family um uh I would certainly appreciated I'm sure sure that they would as well so thank you I would just like to uh touch on the policy that we're going to be the second reading will be next month I just a little background on that there's a lot of man hours to win in went into this changing this from 10 to 20% for waiting the final a lot of teachers a lot of admin many manh hours went into this with a work work group over several sessions came up with some with
114some good language with it which even my daughter might be a little upset with me with this going to 20% but I think it's worth it it's it's going to be valuable it it's incentive for for students with more ability now to impact their grades and raise their grades with a 20% final and and the teachers wanted more engagement when it came to preparing for the finals and it even helps more if we're put in the finals before um before the semester or before winter break these changes together would just be that much better so little background on that it wasn't just whipped up it was because of teachers concerns with students engagement and them seeing an opportunity to to help the students prepare better like many of my fellow board members or all of
115all of us here I'd like to welcome Dr dingz I very excited for the future Francis under his leadership going forward just a a warm welcome to you sir thank you I would also like to welcome Dr Dominguez um to the h family um thank you for being here thank you for coming to the meeting and meeting some of our patrons um I also like to thank the rest of my board here for all the hard work and dedication that they put in um day and day out Dr rumus and others have said it's a voluntary job so I just appreciate all the time you guys put into it's um to make the school the district better there are also for patrons there are a number of informational items on the agenda for anybody who
116wants to look at those quite a few of them and then our next thing is to a motion to enter close session to discuss personnel 610.021 second first by director cook second by director i r call vice president cook hi president bertran Hi director Ponder hi director Owens hi director Blair hi director Harmon hi thank you everybody for joining us