001e e e I didn't I had no idea [Music] you no all right thank you everybody for joining us we're going to get started here apologies for starting out a little bit late today all right we're going to start off with the Pledge of Allegiance i al 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 for board like a motion to board like a motion to approve the agenda for August 15th 2024 as presented I'd like I'd like to make a motion second I'd like to make a motion I'd like to make a motion to remove a propos or policy 2116 from the agenda second we have a motion to amend remove policy 22 2116 in
002a second no second director cook [Music] second discussion board all those in favor say I all those oppos say no I have so board we have now have a new motion to approve the agenda for August 15th 2024 as presented U minus the policy 2116 so move that's all right [Music] have first by director Blair second second all those in favor say I I I all those oppos say no ni have all right 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 um School District speakers are call forward in the order of sign up and each speaker has three minutes to make their remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium
003at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted the board appreciates you taking 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 and giving remarks if anyone fails to comply with those board policies regulations and rules we reserve the right because those three minutes short wel Sam young to the step forward [Music] good evening board uh staff superintendent and uh patrons um my grandmother made a strong impression of me in a conversation when I was a young man uh we were talking about Germany and the uh both the post or the pre and the during World War II years and U how the population must have and
004actually didn't know uh that their government was lying to them and and the dishonesty and wasn't and the deception that went into that um to live in a society that wasn't open and honest with them uh she impressed on me that we must not allow those in charge to hide the truth that we must have the courage to act with the truth uh tonight you have the opportunity to uphold several truths one is that parents should be the main Authority for their children schools should not be able to keep secrets from parents parents about their kids sexual identity the lie that is spreading like a weed that is that it is the responsibility of school staff to protect kids from their parents and not from abuse that might be reported but just for ideas that
005parents might hold that it might not be safe for um parents to to know about certain conversations with their kids policy 6116 must be passed to protect kids and their relationships with their parents uh that stronger Bond and in keeping parents informed will lead to uh better results for our kids there's also a truth that uh schools should set age appropriate limits on the uh the materials that are are given to kids uh setting age appropriate limits on what we have in our school libraries is not book Banning instead it's addressing the uh the the developmental uh maturity of our kids IT addresses uh with openness you know what our kids are learning and keeps our schools focused on their academic uh Mission I would ask that you uh pass the the library policies tonight
006uh there's been a lot of mistruths about them about um that they would lead to the Banning of of Harry Potter of all things or that it would lead to the Banning of even the Bible uh from District Libraries uh I find this uh charge absurd uh Harry Potter has never been tried to be banned from our school libraries and uh I I don't think any of the uh any of the regulations that are going on tonight would would lead to that um I ask that you uh act with the truth tonight and to uh protect the privacy of our kids to uh protect the relationship of our uh of parents and Guardians with our kids thank you your time is up thank you next we welcome Harper Schneider good evening my name is Harper
007Schneider I'm a junior at Fran North I'm here to talk about some policies that have been written and are being voted on tonight I know I will not cover all policies and their points but I have found several flaws in them that can be confusing to the community these policies fail to cover some situations and outcomes from these regulations in policy 6116 the policy is vague and not thorough if a student is getting bullied for being a part of the lgbtq community is it wrong for that student to tell a trust Ed adult working in the building language that values certain groups of students over others makes this policy harmful to the students of Francis hell in regulation 6314 why do Schoolboard members have more power over what I can read than my own parents
008the policy's unclear definitions of obscene bulgar and educational suitability should give attention to censorship groups they may cause biased decisions and the repression of opposing views finally I believe students feel respected when they are given a choice they become more engaged in their education and feel more accountable when they realize that their ideas count they develop into innovators leaders and problem solvers why wouldn't we serve as role models for the democracy and inclusivity that we hope they will one day re defend it is a sad but true reality that the valuable opinions of myself and many other students are not taken into account when creating these shamefully targeted policies it is your job to listen to the students like me and I speak for myself and many other students that we will never stop fighting
009for what is right the adults in the community need to be the example for the students of Francis hell thank you next we welcome Chris Brooks [Music] good evening folks um and one thing I do agree with M Schneider there and that is the adults in the community do need to be the examples for the students and that requires that those adults use their judgment and their understanding that children are not just small adults but they are developing in many ways and it's important especially in the education world that that development that process is taken count now uh in our civilization the figure of justice is usually represented as a woman woman who's blindfolded and carrying a sword and a balance out of scales right this is very symbolic the blindfold represents that Justice needs
010to be dispensed without regard to the person's identity who before Justice the scales represent the equal weighing of all sides and an argument as well as their evidence and the sword represents the authority to dispense that Justice now the symbolism of Lady Justice if you're sum it up in a word might be the word fairness right fairness is a very important value to us as Americans but what happens when that blindfold is removed the scales are way down on one side and the sword is misused in the mistaken service of ideology the policies that are up for vote tonight in each in their own way represent an effort at setting right practices in our district that have become unfair or unbalanced or sometimes both um so let's take an example uh curriculum right now the
011current policy disadvantages curriculum is purchased by not requiring it to go through the same level review that uh curriculum written by the district does policy wisely removes that disadvantage puts all potential curriculum for district review on the same footing the teaching of sexuality update restores the rightful place of those kinds of discussions outside of health class as being with parents finally the library and instructional materials policy updates open up the process to more voices and provide clearly defined guidelines to use in the past decade that I've been monitoring this stuff I have never yet seen a successful book challenge this is amusing why do we have a book challenge process if the outcome is predetermined the reason is is is that the process is weighted in favor of those who are going to want to
012keep the book the administrators uh when the state recently passed a new law regarding the depiction of sexx and graphic knels several books had to be removed from District shelves why were these not already removed previously this fact illustrates the imbalance of current policy I encourage audience members to go to the Francis L family's website for more details on these policies and the examples that we've seen over the years recently uh finally I want to address the hyperbolic language put out there by the the opponents of these policies uh specifically the claim that the teaching sexuality policy will encourage bullying there is no evidence and bullying is already against District policy so it's kind of hard to believe that this is going to to take place if you remember nothing else about the discussion though
013remember these activists want adults teachers and trusted Physicians to talk about sex life and general identity with students impression we youngsters were under their Authority policies for consideration tonight bring back into balance several imbalanced issues we've seen in the district recently I encourage for passage thank you your time is up up next we welcome Jamie Martin I'm not excited to be here tonight I would really like to stop coming to these meetings and I would bet a l a lot of us feel the same way I'm tired of fighting with my neighbors I'm tired of calling you guys I'm tired of emailing you we are all tired the gentleman before me as a man I I know fairly well maybe not so well but um we share some philosophies we share some Faith values that's
014about it um but I think one of the things that I feel really strongly about as a parent is that I get to make decisions for my own kids I actually have pretty strict rules in my house about what movies my kids watch about what they listen to about what they read and we have systems for monitoring that in our home and I wouldn't expect anyone else to do that the way that we do I also don't want that power taken from me right we have a process in place as the gentleman before said and because we haven't been successful in a book challenge or some haven't been successful in a book Challenge and they didn't feel that the process was fair that doesn't mean there wasn't a process in place right we also confuse
015a lot of times uh this 2 uh 6116 policy infused as gender identity with sexuality I'm standing here with red hair about two people out of every 100 persons born have red hair right it's not that common I've been called names for it before but that's fine um you might be surprised to learn that two out of every 100 people about two out of every 100 people is also born intersex that means they may not be born with an XY chromosome set or an XX set they may have some um difference in that genetic makeup they may have mismatched chromosomes with their genitalia they may have an extra chromosome they may be missing one right and so what we learn from that in these um times of DNA right is that maybe gender isn't as
016clear-cut as we thought now we all have different Faith values and I respect those Faith Traditions but I think the reason that this policy exists and maybe some of the folks holding my signs might not like it when I say this isn't because of hate but it's because of fear I think we're afraid we're afraid of what it looks like when our kids get caught up in what some people call social contagion we're afraid of our families being blended with other people who don't have our values or who don't share our identities you know what that's happened before people against integration said the same thing their real Fair their real fear was mixing the races and it's time to just let go of all that fear up next to welcome Daniel [Applause] Basset Daniel Basset
017hello how's everyone doing tonight uh I'm coming obviously missed the last meeting and I'm sorry for that because uh director cook had a lot of changes that I was eager to hear the discussion on uh but that said I was thinking a bit about the direction that this board has taken us is taking us and some of the language I've heard about common sense um you know there's things like this idea that uh Sam young spoke earlier on about how the government doesn't hide things from the people and I like that that's a common sense position of course the question of whether or not the Bible would be banned is something that we have to think about you know that's not common sense we'd have to make an exception for that one of course but
018Common Sense policy is to teach things that just make us feel good I love that it's the ideology of the everyday right what everyday people believe uh good old timey knowledge we got to be careful though because you know people say've all heard uh everybody knows the moon's made of green cheese right uh everybody knows that frogs will give you warts uh everybody knows that you won't get pregnant if it's your the first time now everything I just said is wrong right but only one of those things is dangerous but they're all common sense so I'm still excited about this idea of fairness right this idea that we should teach all perspectives and such so you know it's it's interesting with regards to history science other subjects since we're going to apparently just throw out
019academic consensus on those issues I'm looking forward to the day that my 10-year-old comes home from school with uh homework uh on a numerology module right scientific racism like Eugenics and phenology CU those are points of view right people believe those things they were common sense at one point and I also really want to know where exactly the firmament of the heavens collides with the stratosphere that's what I'm looking forward to in our new curriculum that's fair and even and teaches all points of view but seriously it's worth exploring those interesting ideas and the board has lots of them director pkar for instance is frustrated with the cost of special education I know my daughter my six-year-old is uh non-verbal autistic and requires a great deal of care we are actually considering uh connecting her
020with the Center for Autism which I know it charges exorbitant fees but you know if we can cut costs around that I'm sure it'll still be okay for her director cook wants us to review all the potential objectionable material that might or might not exist in our libraries so I say book club anybody you know we'll all sit down we'll read every single volume in there that sounds awesome uh it's not like there's people doing that but uh president bertr I'm not sure what you are are not responsible for after the gumbo of editorial edits that we've had it's very confusing to me but I'm sure that the direction is going to be great especially with the impending fiscal cliff uh looming over us you will all have an answer for that I look forward
021to it thank you for your [Applause] time next we welcome Miranda Bell greetings to the board and to the community at large my name is Miranda Bell and I'm a parent of two sons in the district I also serve as the education committee chair for the St Charles County NAACP there's not a person in our family who has not been touched by the ugly impacts of racism in our district years ago my oldest son was called the nword on the football field by a How High student earlier this year I was informed by a sixth grade student at how middle that I looked like I belonged in the kitchen making him a sandwich at the career day we spent the last week navigating racist taunts that were aimed at my son at how North words
022like 617 dog look it up and monkey not from enemies but from people who my son thought were his friends we've also been navigating the consequences that were issu when my son stood up for himself and another classmate against these ongoing racial slurs our students have learned learned from our nation's political leaders that taunting mocking and cruel insults can be lobbed at others without accountability they've learned from the leaders in our district that developing empathy about the lived experience of African-Americans is unnecessary and they've learned from the collective silence and the absence of disciplinary actions that these verbal attacks are acceptable there's not an adult in this room who can argue with the fact that there has been an uptick in the prevalence of these verbal attacks as a parent and an advocate for students
023of color the sheer amount of race-based incidents the response of parents and the vitriolic reactions of those being held accountable for these attacks all point to a need for specificity in how these incidents are handled we have to do better as a community in teaching our children that these words are not okay friends this is not CRT this is decency I am formally requesting that the district strengthen its protections for students of color against racial bullying by including specific language in the bullying policy 2655 disavowing all hate speech slurs and racial taunts as well as developing a corresponding regulation that outlines a clear disciplinary action for students who choose to violate the policy a pin form to this effect has been submitted or is being submitted to the policy committee while the restoration of the
024resolution Against Racism is a strong symbolic act it is not supported by policy and disciplinary measures necessary to minimize or eradicate hate speech and other acts of violence against students of color it is time for us as a community to admit the failure to protect the 25% of students who make up the district's marginalized populations to listen to learn and to become better it is my hope that fhsd will take these concerns seriously and begin to address the procedural climate and cultural issues that have allowed race-based incidents to become so rampant in the district thank you for your time next next we welcome Adriana K hello board directors I'm a mother of two in the district and I'm here to speak on behalf of many people that reside in the Francis House School District who
025fully support policies 2116 6114 6116 6241 6310 and 6341 this is a deeply it is deeply concerning that we live in such a time that we have to implement these policies but the reality is that these are the times we live in recently I read an email posted online from a Francis Hal preschool teacher that admitted she was discussing sexual preferences with a 4-year-old how in the world does this make sense this should not be a allowed in our schools policy 6116 protects Children and Families from from these misaligned actions and policy 6116 States no District employee should encourage a student to pursue gender reassignment therapy or surgery encouraging children to change genders is unethical on multiple levels and without this policy implemented Francis Hal is continually exposed to significant litigation risk this is because
026transition whether it's behavioral transition such as pronoun changes or medical transition such as physical mutilation has significant negative lifethreatening health risks here are some statistics from the CDC and NIH the general population risk of attempted suicide is 79% the attempted suicide rate for transitional transitioners is 32 to 50% across countries the NIH studied this is a 4,000 plus% increase in attempted suicide for transitioners we know conclusively that people who transition have severely higher suicide rates our schools should not be encouraging this serious medical choice for our children at all only parents and Guardians should make medical decisions for children especially when our children's lives are on the line allowing our schools to make medical and mental health choices for our children without our consent is illegal multiple other policies up for vote tonight are amendments
027for to existing policies for years we've had these policies in place for challenged books but they weren't well-defined policies these amended policies give clear direction to our District employees that have a unified approach and provide higher levels of trans parency to the public as to policy 2116 boys should not be allowed in girls restrooms or bathrooms period other other schools have seen sexual assaults from boys being allowed in girls restrooms and by Francis hell School District choosing not to implement a policy on this we are exposing our children to increase sexual risk and litigation excuse me can we pause one second um can we give um the last speaker uh 20 seconds more to finish her thoughts since there's some interruptions so so let's let's let's give let's give the full 20 seconds 20 seconds
028I would ask everybody I know there's maybe some heated heated in the room and acknowledge that but I would ask that everybody give the courtesy to all this speakers to let them speak their mind and their thoughts um and from all sides and from both sides um to this issue and and also can we put the 30 minute timer to where it was following um Her speech so it doesn't take away time from the others so I think that was that I would say that set a pause let's do her 20 seconds thank you okay on another topic the gentleman who spoke at the last meeting on cyber security was right we need more attention policies action and Direction on cyber security for Francis H we are entering into an Ever growing technological age and
029after the attacks last spr spring we have to put funding and attention into this critical aspect of our schools lastly I want to talk about some of the summer programs at FR Francis hell I'm so appreciative of all the wonderful programs that Francis hell put on this summer when my kids were younger they attended free Elementary programs and now that they're older there are so much opportunities at the higher grade levels my son is in football this summer program is phenomenal and I'm so grateful I know football has a lot of attention but my daughter going into middle school has also had so much opportunity with Francis hell camps over the summer four weeks she attended different camps and they were reasonably priced and well-run and I just really appreciate the staff and programs that
030run throughout the summer and wanted to say thanks thank you up next we welcome Kurt wolf that's hard to follow um thank you Bor I'm a graduate of Francis how our kids are alumni and now our grandkids attend um said saying that though I'm very sad to be here tonight speaking on this topic we have a couple of dozen Librarians and I think that the majority do exercise pretty good judgment in selecting age appropriate books some however think that there is no such thing as a child too too young to be given extremely sexually explicit materials they are the experts and they don't care what you think think uh they don't want to make it easy to see what books they're buying sunlight is their enemy these individuals are protected and encouraged by a few
031woke ideologues in our Administration who also control the makeup of the book challenge committee those who support their ideology resort to deflection gaslighting and name call so it's time to stop being so abstract about the problem and be very specific I'm going to read from a book selected by some of these Librarians if you're watching with children I recommend that you step out or pause now the book crank is a story of a 15-year-old girl and this scene explicitly describes her being raped by her boyfriend who is high on meth it was challenged a couple of years ago and the committee voted as they always do to retain it including in our middle schools that is for children as young as 11 years old kisses segue to bites bruises pain rippled through my body Brendan
032please stop no you promised you damn little teas off came my shorts down with his zipper I realized I was in serious trouble I'll scream I froze as he pushed inside there it is oh god there it goes it went all right with an audible tear pain mushroomed into Agony and all I could do was go stiff you weren't lying you I laid there sobbing as he worked and sweat it over me stoked by the monster it took him a long time to finish give me a line I'll give you an encore he pulled away sticky and [Music] bloody I urged the B the board to pass the library policies and the others too and I just want to say U Dr rumpus I'm I'm disappointed I think you're a talented administrator and you've done
033a pretty good job but I think you've fallen short in terms of getting your house in Ro so thank you next we welcome Harry Harris yep all right I'm glad my speech got thrown out the window tonight um it's hard to follow the person who's funded for thousands of dollars Francis Hall family but I'm going to really give it a shot I'm going to start off by thanking Dr rumpus as well as the rest of the administrators as well as the teachers who have had to deal with this crap over and over and over again yet here we are yet again all right let's talk about the whole bathroom look first of all let me go back to the book reading that we just had um you know what I'm more offended by than the
034words in that book is young girls getting raped that's what I'm more offended by I'm more offended by the fact that they have to go through the experiences that he just read and unfortunately in a sad sad world we have that now if you're going to try to tell me that that book and its passages are causing rape you're more delusional than I thought now let's go back and let well let me also start academics over activism I appreciate that yet all this week I've had to hear a board member talk about a conservative push for the board have that discussion and let's talk about the bathroom policy I have a million things that I have to deal with as a parent there's a lot of discussions that I have with my son not one
035time has he come home confused about who's using a bathroom I'm concerned about vaping I'm concerned about fighting I'm concerned about his friends who are not sure where they're going to get their next meal those are the things I'm concerned about and those are the things you all should be concerned about and this book thing let's talk about the lies that have been perpetrated tonight your policy could set up to get Books banned that we wouldn't think would be banned maybe Harry Potter hasn't been banned in our libraries guess what spoiler alert it's been banned in different places so that's why we're trying to get this through your heads that we don't want this policy and let me also say there hasn't been a book challenged I believe since 22 so I don't see that
036there's a lot of problems going on right now and then somebody wanted to talk about well you know I've never seen a book pulled just because it doesn't agree with your point of view doesn't mean that the process ain't working we got teachers we got administrators we had students on there we got parents it's working end this culture War crap and quit going on talk radio and talking badly about the district W next to welcome Shaya yell good evening I believe that I'm entitled to a full three minutes thank you my name is shanie yall I'm a District Parent a young adult author and a member of authors against book bands I'm speaking to you today regarding the implications of the proposed library and media policies these revisions are unnecessary and unwanted the policies in
037place work we need to let Educators do their jobs they know something critically important literature can and does save lives I know it saved mine the policies you propose will result in titles being removed from our classrooms this will disrupt our students education it will terrify and demoralize our teachers and it will leave our students lacking is this the district we want to be I doubt it these policies are unpopular a heart research poll found that the vast majority of Americans over 90% trust Librarians 67% of the voting public disapprove of the removal of books from school libraries the policies you put forth are anti-intellectual anti-American and anti- educator stories change lives my grandfather mother served in the Second World War I grew up aware of its Horrors but it wasn't until I read Mouse
038in my 9th grade English class that I viscerally understood how typing and demeaning others can lead to atrocities like the Holocaust art spiegelman's books painted a clear picture of what can happen when we dehumanize people when we name call when we allow our worst Natures to dominate that's when the real horrors of humanity occur Mouse has been banned widely including here in Missouri I ask you is this what you want to say that books like Mouse are bad books that teach that we must value one another's Humanity above all else I find it hard to believe you want that even those you disagree with strongly share a common Humanity literature reminds us that we can find common ground that we can work together that we can survive hard times and work to build a Kinder
039and more just World stories make us more empathetic and understanding they allow us inside someone else's life maybe a raped child they grow our ability to love as a teen most of the grown-ups in my life unfortunately had no idea of the trials I faced but I found stories of girls who survived hardships and flourished that's how I stand before you today stories help me survive and I'm asking you would you take that from our children that's welome f good evening board Chiefs patrons and teachers my name is Francine Hill and I am the fhaa President it has been very exciting couple of weeks last week we had the pleasure of spending time at our new educator orientation it was wonderful to see all the new Educators so excited to be part of our district
040and we had some great conversations this week everyone made it back to their classrooms to prepare for the new year getting their classrooms all set up preparing for open house and making sure curriculum was ready for the first day of school we were excited that we negotiated an extra day for our Educators to prepare for the start of the new year it was disheartening when the district decided to plan trainings and meetings during these days when our Educators had made it very clear that they needed time the word optional does not mean a lot to our staff they feel pressured and obligated to do things when presented with these emails from our Administration it's well known to our Administration that our teachers have a strong sense of dedication and are easily made to feel guilty
041when asked to do these trainings administration's answer when asked was well the workday isn't really defined and the trainings are optional although in a later email it did say that the training was mandatory before the testing could take place we appreciate that policy 2116 was removed from the agenda tonight we hope to never see it again but if we must we hope it will go through policy committee before it comes I hear our board Administration say our board and our Administration say that our school district is the best and I must agree we have always been proud to work in Francis H School District but there are individuals chipping away the things that make us great is our district perfect of course not nothing is there are things that we need to work on but
042they've gotten lost in individuals agendas some of the changes that aren't necessary our staff students and their families are what make us great we can't say enough how much we appreciate and respect them the majority of our Board needs to do so also thank you for your time [Applause] up next we wel on [Applause] pis good evening my name is Marl kanig and I'm the vice president forare Professionals for Pisa I currently work in the learning Commons at frown Middle School helping students find just the right book to match their interest in Reading levels is a part of what I do every day it is a joy when students are able to find that perfect book that interests and challenges them in our wonderful collections my personal goal is to learn something new every day
043and I encourage that in the students with whom I work beo would like to recognize our staff our amazing custodial maintenance and ground Crews who have been working over the summer to make repairs and improvements scrub and clean to make sure that all of our buildings and properties are ready for students to return to school next week I know that my school looks wonderful our wonderful administrative assistants have been working tirelessly to make sure that parents students and staff are well prepared for the coming year with all of the details to make sure that each group has the information and materials needed for the coming year no one loves paperwork but they make sure that we have the dotted eye and the cross teas so that things run smoothly our nurses are preparing the way
044to support the health of students and staff they have taught us some of the things we need to do to handle emergency situations until the experts arrive and we know that we can count on them to calmly handle those bumps Bruises And so many other more difficult situations that walk through their doors every day the building technicians have each been working multiple buildings putting rooms back together after summer scrubs updating and repairing old equipment setting up new equipment the list of jobs that they have during the slow months of Summer and preparing for the new year is literally endless I don't know if you've worked with computers technology but I'm pretty sure that not an hour goes by that a new technology work order is popping in each technologist mailbox their hard work is essential
045to every part of the day for students and staff finally we would like to recognize the Behavior Support Specialists interpreters and Par professionals these people work directly with students all day the work they do to help their students be successful and included and to make Francis Howell the most inclusive District we can for some of our most vulnerable students is often forgotten because the people doing those jobs support their students and blend into the background to quietly help them with their victories small and large here's to a successful New Year for everyone thank [Applause] you or I would like a motion to approve the consent agenda for August 15 2024 as [Music] presented Ponder all those in favor say I I all oppos say now all right next we have individual action item um or
046like a motion to approve the final design development schematic for the frany Central baseball softball complex and letting of bids as presented so second Mr good evening board uh this evening for your consideration uh we've got a final presentation on the design development for the Francis House Central baseball and softball complex our partners with hollon Miller will present this and uh pending any questions that you may may have we would ask for a uh an approval to move forward with the design development as presented as well as support for the four alternates that are part of the recommendation okay so I will turn it over to Mr Justin Durham he will present uh this presentation thank you thank you Salon members of the board it's a pleasure to be here tonight Dr Robison leadership team
047um so we'll start by a quick um just a recap of the current conditions that we have uh at baseball field so we have the baseball softb field combination we have two dugouts that we looked at and considered um we have a metal storage building that we are looking at some alternates to potentially replace we've got two bull pins two batting cages five sets of metal bleachers that we'll talk about here in the little bit and then also we have a f storage area that has some of the baseball stuff in so a design update we've had two uh design meetings with um the Francis H uh Team the Central High School team on July and July 19th and these are some of the things that we have come up with here so um currently
048our base bid scope is to be the biggest part of it is the artificial turf itself so uh installing the artificial turf for the baseball softball complex uh a new perimeter fence around the entire facility and that's kind of needed because of the way we have to Anchor the new Turf we take out that existing fence we pour a concrete curb there's a nailer that goes onto it and that's what kind of helps keep the perimeter of that new Turf down so that new fence is is a Paramount thing that we have to do um replacing of sorry I'm going backwards here there we go um replacement of the back stop so last month when we did present this to you we came to you with an option of maybe doing the concrete and some
049of the work that was behind the back stop and looking at where the bleacher set as we dig into the design a little bit more and we worked through some of the the site uh conditions with uh the team over at Francis House Central we decided that one of the moov that I'll show you later is to reduce the depth of home plate to the back stop when we install that new back stop it's going to be that new net system and I'll kind of explain that a little bit later so we've kind of moved that replacement of that uneven asphalt area um that we showed you last week we're going to put that into a vase bit because it's going to be torn up as part of the base bit work we put in
050the Ning and some of the perimeter fencing um and then also um modifying the that bleacher area and then we're going to go ahead and with one of the alternates is going tohe and putting the infrastructure in for a potential alternate for light so if you choose to do it an hour or down the road that is in we won't have to tear up the field and do some of the other things so we're kind of pre doing some of that work for those things um so here's the four alternates as they currently stand and kind of what we've worked through with the district uh Team over at Francis AL Central is number one that was in the base bit last time want to make this clear we are now doing the renovation of the
051dugouts as an alternate so that work can be done at any time um alternate number two was install the field lighting so that would be those mus go poles kind of like that picture that you see here alternate number three would be replacing the bleachers that go onto that area that we talked about going ahead and and doing that asphalt repair behind home plate um so we're going to fix that uneven surface as base bid will put the old bleachers back and then um that'll be what we do back there and then an alternate four would be the new masonry storage area um on end of each one of the dugouts that we might be able to get rid of that metal building that we have the shed that we store or uh equipment in
052now so for those are the the AL that's the base bid rundown and the four alternates and here's the design of what we have been working with the team on so you'll see the alternating light and green panels uh for the Outfield and some of the turf um we've got the brown infield that everybody liked you can see some of the logos and some of the branding that we have on the field that we work through with them so you'll see we have House Central um on both sides right outside the first base and third base dugouts um we've got some signs behind own plate and then we have a very subtle uh uh logo that is kind of sitting right behind second base in this you'll also see that we have the the fencing
053that we're going to use the current the school district currently owns to set up for that softball season every single year and so looking forward um we will be taking bids out in September um we'll bring those back to you uh in October and hopefully we'll your approval on that and with that I will open it up to some question answers if you guys have questions Bo yes uh can you go back to the slide into lights yes this one here yeah yeah can you explain the lights yeah so what we're doing is taking an alternate for stadium lighting so that would be the big poll so that we could play at night and some of those kind of things so one of the things that we had talked about is with the turf this
054is probably going to be a pretty popular location um and so by providing lights it will give you more opportunities to play either longer into the evenings or do some additional you know play time uh with the fields one of the examples that we had is currently um you guys do not have a turf field within the district and so we've been made aware that when it does rain on certain days that you guys do have to travel to to other places to play games and things like that if you do ad lights it may give you the opportunity to play a home game here at Francis South Central but then also have maybe another one of your District um high schools whether it be North or Francis how come and maybe play a game
055here and not have to travel out of District so if they were already scheduled for a home game that day it just gives you more options and playability time for a tur I I guess what I was asking for is the physical nature of the lights can you explain are those the directional LED lights what are yes yes so these are directional LED musco lights um they're specific for Fields um basically I think what we're looking at is five or six poles just to eliminate the field the good thing about the LED lights is they are very uh controllable in terms of the direction so we can really um help with any light leakage that would go onto neighbor Properties or things like that that can be really focused in on on these here they
056will also have the uplights so that those that play baseball know that if you had a flyball or a popup that goes above the lights it'll disappear until it comes back down below the lights so we'll make sure to include some of those things in the package as well that's what I was getting at is I still play baseball and I still play under these lights and for instance in oallen Illinois they don't have the up lights so a ball goes above the lights and it's gone it disappears until it comes back down so so it's I I want to make it very clear that that needs to happen here because it's first of all it's a safety issue but you know B comes down you you it should have been caught on the infield
057and right it's Pro it's a problem okay that that's making sure that that's the case um can you move over to the uh the slide with the um uh the field itself there you go what's with the short portion right oh that's a good question so what we've done is we've worked with the team what we're looking to do is gain a little bit of distance from those neighbor that are behind it it does two things so you'll see the the sheds in the house that is relatively close behind right field so that's one reason why we've moved that fence in you'll also notice that even in left in center field we've moved the fence in just a little bit that will help us accommodate lights so we have overhead wires that are back there
058so we've had to move that in slightly in order to accommodate for future poles and things like that so we're kind of thinking ahead as we do this um I can tell you right now that left field is 315 ft center field is 375 and then right field is 300 but what we're looking at now is doing almost a 24t tall fence back there we do have to go through planning in cille to get that done because it is such a tall fence but it's almost like your own green monster out there right we've reduced that but it also adds additional safety for you know the houses and some of the property that's behind right field yeah it's going to need it high school kids hitting with metal bats is um the last question I
059have with regard to this is how is the uh softball wall and anchored or is it anchored is it just it it's not anchored right now so what it is is the district owns some movable fencing and it's on feet so it's pretty stable and they put that out and they take it back into storage you know every offseason and season when they set up and tear down the fields so that's kind of what you guys have now and we're going to continue to use that and Mound wise artificial Mound yeah so we will have yeah it will be it'll be a large 18t diameter Mound weighs about, 1600 lb comes in about six or seven pieces so it's it's enough my son plays baseball too he's 65 like 230 he pitches smaller Mounds they
060move around a lot right so being a baseball guy you know that's not what we want so it's going to be the the large you know diameter professional style Mound that we can put a Turf on that'll match the color of the infield different Turf different yeah you can do any color of turf you want on that mountain no I mean different type of turf than the yes yes yes and then that can be put on casters or whatever and then wield out to the outfield for the offseason when softball uses the field and then can be reinstalled for baseball and bases at 45 and 990 or where yeah so we've got well 60 and 90 so we're yeah we're going to have two sets of of um bases what you see in this rendering
061is the shorter bases so we're actually showing you where the softball bases will end up in this rendering and then yes it'll be set up also for those uh 90 foot bases for our high school team and forgive all the questions I wasn't here last month so and this is my thing so no worries regarding uh the bleachers that you mentioned uh are you talking about are you suggesting replacing all the sets or just the set right behind home base that's really rusted out so what we've talked about currently is you'll see you have five sets that are up there in kind of that top picture what we're kind of proposing is doing three sets but they're a little bit larger that will accommodate the same amount of seating that you currently have yeah other
062questions board well the lights if we put those in we we have two games one day does that offer us any cost savings versus traveling to other fields use of other fields is there any cost benefit to putting the lights in yeah I I would offer that there most certainly is uh because as I noted at the last board meeting when we were talking about uh the potential for these alternates is when we have to do that we're traveling upwards of 40 45 minutes uh I won't mention the the the school districts but uh that requires engaging with Transportation getting another uh route driver uh to drive that bus and you're putting kids on a 78 passenger bus to to go play a baseball game or softball game and so what this allows us is
063to not have to do that and play on site uh but the other big thing too is instructional time that's lost right um so you're pulling kids out a lot of times you're working at the uh mercy of what what's already scheduled at the host site if they can accommodate us and that most frequently requires pulling students out of class early to get them to change grab their gear and uh you may lose out on the the last hour of instruction time else one more for for salum um any has there been any talk and and I say this because it's been brought up to me is there any talk of uh possible possibly doing the same thing in h uh not at this time uh you know uh full transparency we have received some
064questions regarding uh Francis H North and uh we're at this point in time we're not prepared uh you know discuss that we've got a lot of different things to consider uh but we'll we'll engage as AO Bard I would just add and remind to you and to our public that this did not stem from a desire to just improve the fields at fredell Central not thinking about the other two buildings that we did have an OCR complaint that was filed against the district specifically for inequity of fields between softball and baseball at Francis House Central two years ago um part of our resolution with the OCR um was to go through a field conversion process each year that is costly the cost is continuing and if at any point any part of that conversion process
065were to fail or timelines were not be met we would go back under charges with OCR and potential ation and so ultimately this recommendation Grew From um that resolution agreement and I I do want to note uh just real quick uh we did have intentions of potentially bringing a recommendation back um at the September board meeting but as you saw with the schedule and looking at the work that needs to take place and to ensure that the package is out on the street long enough uh for you know competitive bidding purposes and making sure that we get good coverage uh we're going to let it be out on the streets a little bit longer and pending your approval this evening uh for base bid and alternates the goal is to bring back uh a recommendation
066for a Construction contract at the October board meeting which is a little bit different than what we had shared previously yeah all those in favor say I I I was opposed to say that I have it up next board I like a motion to approve this mtic designed for the transportation bus maintenance facility as presented Mr all right thank you again president Bertrand um before you is a for consideration is a presentation on the schematic uh first round of schematic design uh for the new Transportation uh bus maintenance facility and uh Miss Megan Barnes is going to present that we've had great meetings with uh um transportation leadership as well as uh end users uh that are mechanics that work on on maintaining our 160 plus bus fleet and we've got a lot of good
067things that came out of that and Megan will share those with you uh I do want to note uh that we did have plans to bring uh back to this board meeting a fuel Island recommendation obviously you guys have seen a schematic design for that uh how however due to the sequencing of work and pavement work and potentially disturbing areas uh around the fuel Island we we felt we were going to package this package together uh for sequencing purposes and also economy of scale and intend to bring back design development of both at the uh September board meeting I'll turn it over to miss bars thank you good evening Board District Administration excited to be back and talk about part two to this project tonight so um as Mr stord mentioned um we're going to
068kind of bring everything together tonight and bring the actual maintenance facility building through the SK design piece and then next month we'll come back together with all of that so we'll touch on it just briefly tonight to go ahead and get started um going to kind of step backwards and we talked about this a little bit last month and kind of talk about those existing conditions since we really focused on the fuel Island pieces itself last month um just to orient everybody again as you can see off of um hell Road as you come on to the site there's one main entry off of there as you can see that yellow arrow by the blue building and green fuel Island and then there's a secondary entrance by Central Elementary and the current Transportation Center um
069right now that current blue icon that's noting the current Transportation maintenance facility um we've gone through an assessment of that and identified it is pretty undersized based on on the 160 plus buses and additional White Fleet that need to be serviced out of that and as we mentioned obviously the fuel Island also some challenges there um also one thing to note is there is about 161 buses currently there's not enough space on the site currently to house all of them so there's about 20 buses that are currently being parked elsewhere which also creates some fueling challenges and efficiencies there so another goal of this project will be to expand that parking to get all the bus and inventory um and assets onto the same site and then also potentially looking at if there's opportunities with
070that to bring some of the white fleet vehicles over as well again from a fueling and maintenance efficiency standpoint there so stepping back into the current maintenance facility um as mentioned there is two currently two bays that can be maintained we do currently have four U maintenance technicians and service staff um so obviously they either can't all be working on buses at the same time or have to be doing that out in the elements um since we don't have that dedicated interior space as you can also see here um clearances around those buses for some of the larger transit buses they're having to actually work with the doors open um to get the safe access and um space around those to get the Jacks underneath them and up so you will see that the doors
071are open most of the time um the smaller buses can get in there with them closed and then just in terms of storage um support spaces restrooms Locker facilities um just not enough space in that current facility as we mentioned just to support the current staff and uh bus fleet additionally there's no U vehicle wash bay on site either interior or exterior um so they're having to do that kind of by hand outside of the current facility so with that we'll look a little bit deeper at the current site design you also saw this diagram um last month and we focused on the orange fuel Island on here so today we're going to focus again on that bigger site and then over there on the right side um the new updated maintenance facility as we
072zoom in here a little bit um you're going to start to see what Mr ster alluded to um obviously the fuel Islands they're kind of right in the center of the site um right next to the current facility which is great um and then with the new facility proposed location on the west side there um you can also see hopefully some black kind of Dash lines and dots those are documenting all the utilities the water the sanitary the sewer all that fun stuff that we've got to deal with um electricity getting everything to that new building so one of the things as we Dove a little bit deeper the fuel island is pretty self-contained and could be done as a separate project but because we're going to have to tear up so much of that
073site a lot of the utilities are coming from um St Peter's H road so trying to get across that and also kind of the logistics and sequencing of that there was some fear that we might actually spend more money by having to either redo work or kind of doing it out of sequins so do feel this is the best um fiscal responsibility to package that all together even if it will um kind of that is about one month behind on that fuel Island original schedule but we do think there can be some efficiencies there the goal would also be to um have the contractor prioritize the fuel Island within that project um we also May gain some economies of scale you know not having two structural concrete guys out there under two gc's or two
074electrician so we're hoping there can actually be some savings economy a scale by packaging those together um as you see here we also are looking at expanding obviously the parking and drive access there um to get up to about 32 Fleet or passenger vehicle stalls whether that's staff or White Fleet or just other District vehicles or visitors um and then getting up to about 163 on bus stalls um for right now the transportation staff did not see from projection standpoint and extensive growth of buses in the future so we are a little bit tight here we do have some detention there to the north so right now um trying to maximize the site could we fit a couple more in there we're kind of looking at that as we finalize design but that's where we
075sit right now um currently they can house 148 and 8 so we have gotten some significant growth there and then we're going to zoom in just a little bit more here too we're going to keep going in so as we get over there to the west side of the site you can see um we're lining up the bus parking kind of east west there along those four rows and then as you come around we're kind of tucking in some of those smaller vehicle parking around that new facility um we're also proposing a kind of fire access loop around there um to make sure we've got safe access around the building um as well just from an efficiency standpoint moving a lot of vehicles on a on a small site so I want to try and
076get as much access as possible and then we we'll jump to the building plan here and zoom in on that a second but from an access standpoint um currently the maintenance facility is not drive-thru base so once you get in there you got to get the buses backed out um what we're proposing here is three full drive-through Bays that would accommodate six buses you can see those with the dashed orline and then on the left side there the light blue arrow would be a single entry Bay kind of like what they have right now and then on that South Side um the Green Arrow would be a wash bay that you come into um and can get that out of the elements and take care of that okay so jumping into the building design as
077you could start to see there um we're currently looking at a six Bay overall Bay structural Bay um facility as kind of the base plan here um we are looking at a pre-engineered metal building structure um so efficiency and kind of um consistency with the sizes and dimensions and all that all plays into trying to get this as economical as possible and efficient um sometimes we actually get a little bit of an advantage because of the efficiency to get a little bit more square footage for the same price um which isn't always typical in normal construction um so starting kind of on the right side here you'll see the first Bay on the right is in blue um that's kind of the office or work Bay kind of some of those support spaces for it
078we've got two restrooms um to service both staff that are in the building as well as bus drivers um one of the things we heard was when they're coming over to go into um Dispatch over at the current facility um sometimes there there's some waiting there or just a little bit of a a walk to get over there so kind of providing some access right off of the bus um parking we've also got a break or training room that can accommodate um when people are coming in sales parts that sort of thing um some training um professional development we've got two offices there and then as we work our way over as I mentioned we've got three drive-thru full Bays or six smaller Bays that you could park up to six fulls size buses in
079um between them you'll see kind of the dash line which is the structure that also is where kind of that work zone is so as we mentioned um pretty tight in the old facility so looking at the appropriate work area and clearances for those lifts make sure being really safe in there as we keep going over in that yellow bay we've got all the um storage and kind of backup house spes tool storage Part Storage obviously all the fun stuff mechanical sprinkler um we do have showers Locker spaces for staff kind of in the little bit Messier area back there um and then as we continue to go as I mentioned we've got the single vehicle Bay that can accommodate buses or other District vehicles and then we do have that one dedicated wash bay
080on the far left you will see um just kind of thinking of future proofing the site we tend to see um more Vehicles more support spaces um needed over time so just looking and planning that if and when um additional vehicle or equipment storage is needed or Bays it would be possible and making sure that we're designing the structure in a way that it could be added onto at um into the future all right and finally with that we're going to start to look at the outside of it um we always want to start by looking at the context around us obviously we want to make sure we're blending in being respectful of the current architecture and the other District facilities especially since there are so many on that site um what you'll see there
081is there's a lots of Reds dark Browns Tans um and then some accents there between the transportation facility the early childhood and the schools they on site the elementary and middle schools so with that we wanted to be mindful of ALS Al again efficiency of building materials sizes all of that so um what's currently being proposed and has been reviewed with the transportation staff and District staff um is kind of blending into that that red brick that we're seeing on site um that would be an insulated metal panel that would make up most of the building we also use that as for thermal um insulation throughout the building required by energy code um you'll start to see some vertical accents of that lighter beige metal panel just to kind of break it up Prov provide
082some way finding also to where buses and vehicles are going as you can see there with the bay numbers um we've got some a little bit of canopy coverage over those just to provide some protection from the elements and then on the base there you will see we do have some masonry um kind of a water table there around the building that really helps with durability long term um taking metal all the way to the ground can be a maintenance challenge long term um so we do have that right now from a from a durability standpoint and obviously it helps with the Aesthetics there as well so this would be your view from um from the front as you're driving onto the site and then from the current Transportation complex building this would be that
083side view of the wash bay there and number five and then those three pull through Bays that you come either way on for the bus maintenance there all right and with that that's kind of a high level summary of the schematic plans as of now um if you guys have any questions or comments we um we can incorporate those and then if we we would come back back in uh September thank you question for yeah are the are these Bays air conditioned and heated or not um not fully conditioned there would be supplemental heat for winter and then fans for cooling um in the summer and then the support spaces offices would have minimal air conditioning and conditioning spaces just for the board's awareness also I did some research on the existing facility in prior
084to Transportation uh being a service that District provides directly and not through a third party the current facility that we're utilizing to maintain our fleet was designed for simply oil changes and tire rotations by the previous um I'm not sure if it was for student I can't remember exactly uh which vendor we were utilizing but larger maintenance was sent to to their larger facility um downtown so I'm not sure which board members were aware of that but from the from the start this facility was not conducive or intended to do what we're doing with it which is maintain fully maintain a fleet of 160 plus buses so the the chief of Transportation or whatever are they housed at this building the director of Transportation uh Miss Jen Simpson is hous at the building next door
085are we required to have those bathrooms ADA Compliant I uh I will let Megan answer but yes I do believe so that is a code requirement that's correct they will need to be Ada accessible um if we can go back to the schematic so everybody can see the overview the floor plan yeah floor plan [Music] yeah I've been in and out of these all my career and one of the things that that always pops up when this kind of thing happens is what do um mechanics need to be a mechanic is their tools their tool boxes where are those are they in the middle I'm sure that you guys have made space I just need to know absolutely and so um we actually have um since we submitted this presentation we've had another follow-up meeting
086and went through detailed uh Tool and Equipment selection plan so next month we can bring that back to you but essentially um in the orange Bays the dash lines there's about an 8T space there that will house most of their um daily use tools toolboxes a workstation for each of them um there'll be a lot of power kind of a phone all of that setup will be in that zone and then some of the you know non daily use tools would be in that yellow tool storage same thing with the parts I know they do say they um parts are so relatively available these days with quick ship that they don't keep a ton there um but those work zones we've been working with them um to really lay those out efficiently and make sure
087it's kind of in those work zones and everything's where they want them Sal I I don't know this do we provide tools or they bring their own we provide tools to the best of my knowledge okay um part storage uh is that just a looks like it's a double door to me but is it a parts counter as well like they come and get it like like most service facilities or for the most part yes and we're that's a detail that we're still flushing out with um all the the head mechanic as well as the uh for uh line mechanics so we'll have more details as Megan shared at the uh as we design this presentation I I suggest that is parts counter with a door so that they they can submit the order get
088the part and have it handed to them versus everybody going route to Parts part we don't want that um and then you and I spoke about a little while back about Bay utilization and things like that so right now we've got um you said we have for tax correct correct working two bays working two bays working two Bay so and also some service that's out sure in the sure so is the current staff are we up to staff to to house in this building or do we need more do we need less how does that work um I believe there's one open position potentially from a mechanic standpoint I'll need to verify that uh with Miss Simpson but U what I shared at the last board meeting well not the last board meeting but at
089the board meeting that you asked that question is one thing that we have to remember in this is this gives all the mechanics the opportunity to multi task they can pull the buses that need to be worked on and they may be dumping hydraulic fluid on another changing a transmission on another without having to work on a bus pull it out go get another one pull it in so it'll it'll we'll speed up the efficiency uh to ensure that we're on our intervals from a rotation standpoint as you guys know Missouri Highway Patrol does inspect uh all of our buses annually um and we've got internal intervals that we maintain and that will just expedite that and and to be clear the the bail utilization type of thing can that's a logistics issue down the
090road we can we can figure that kind of thing out I just want to make sure that it's on your radar obviously it is um because I don't want 8 hours of work to be done in 8 hours of time in these Bays I want 12 hours of work to be done in 8 hours of time in these Bays that's what bay utilization is that's the whole point of these things so um just making sure that that's the case and that's able to be done correct in these B corre okay y understood and point taken yeah going back to slide seven 16 um this is maybe more a question for the administration and I don't want to date anyone but maybe someone who's been who worked in the old Administration long time um but can
091anyone remember any sort of flooding in that building when we work there did water ever get up close to the building anybody in the back no okay good no that was that was a concern mine so you're talking the current right Transportation the old board meeting yeah the old administration building is the one just you know shaded out there and Long Creek right there yeah oh yeah that's yeah that's flood plane right there question we are you know as part of this process we're working with multiple Consultants obviously um and any flood plane obviously uh the appropriate remedy will be taken to ensure that uh we address that issue so I think survey work is near in completion we've still got you know a few eyes to Dot and te's to cross but we're confident
092uh whatever we'll bring forward we won't um have any issues in terms of flooding and I don't know if this is done yet you're only in schematic or getting approval for schematic at this point so I recognizing you haven't you're not done yet but uh appears to me you're having a lot more kind of impervious area there we have an existing detention Pond there there is and there's an inlet you can kind of see a wishbone shaped icon and an inlet up there so yeah we are probably going to have to be and I was thinking this was a pointer so that does not work um where you can see kind of that curved line off to the left we will be having to add some additional detention there but we do have the space
093for it on your radar good thank you other questions board all right all those in favor say I iOS say now I have next board I like a motion to approve the financial report as presented Ponder miss good evening it's been a fun evening at least that was fun for me so I'm not sure how everyone else feels about it me too okay so we have posted for you our standard reports for you and for the public to review and I'll provide just a few highlights regarding what work has taken place and our next steps for moving forward so we did perform a preliminary review of our fy2 24 budget and what I have posted for you uh in this slide represents all the governmental funds as you can see our FY 24 operating fund
094balance percentage ended at 35.42 per. I'd like to highlight for you just a few pieces as we look across that chart the operating fund balance percentage is relative to our general and teacher funds and any subf funds that would be reported within that The Debt Service fund stands alone and as you know in in September we'll have a levy recommendation for you I'll highlight for you also that the capital projects fund it stands alone but it's considered part of operating when we are uh Distributing the operating Levy so it makes a little confusing I do want to especially highlight the bond fund uh we continue to provide you with a variety of reports each month Financial reports and uh a pictoral report that uh salom will provide an update for you this evening and then
095I'm highlighting also I have that box there the bond fund by intention continues to be deficit spending each year so we receive the money when the bonds are sold whatever year that may be those funds get deposited into our bank account and then we continue to progress on construction and other purchases and deplete that that fund so it is not unusual that you would have a deficit spending situation in that fund we've noted for you our operating revenues and operating expenditures and uh we'll continue to refine that as we also work with our financial auditor uh in the weeks to come this though back yes oh Jane oh no I meant Jane heer sorry I did I've heard that before I just wanted to point out so the the numbers operating revenues and the operating
096expenditures it looks to mean like the expenditures are less than the operating revenues so that means we're good right yes uh well in this in this in this depiction for FY 24 absolutely our Revenue exceeded our expenditures okay uh most definitely point that out yes thank you for putting it on there okay so this and I went forward appropriately too so I'm happy about that I'm happy about so many things tonight I know you guys are too with me so uh this is our the health of our district is depicted in this chart and while some people may look at that and think oh my goodness look at that Spike the 35.42 per as we Clos out FY 24 we are not surprised by that it is primarily relative to Esser funding which stands for
097the elementary and secondary school relief emergency relief fund so we know that we talked about Esser funds for a long time that was the governmental support uh following covid-19 and it propped districts up so you could look at this line chart for a number of school districts throughout the state and you would see that very same thing occur where we spike in a current in the current year and then continue to spend those funds down so I do always want to impart the importance of looking out so we're looking out through FY 2028 in this slide and as you can see we are continuing to spend some of that fund balance down important to highlight that doesn't necessarily mean that our our uh expenditures exceed our revenue for those years so it will be interesting
098as we watch uh this level out but when we get to FY 28 we are looking at an 18.76% fund balance the red line represents our targeted fund balance of 15% that if we would drop below that we need to pay special attention to that and uh find ways to redirect and that's according to board policy I did add we didn't have this before but I went ahead and added in fy20 and fy21 so that everyone could see that we were at 18.37% fy20 we did drop down to 13.66% which took us below that 15% threshold and then uh continued our journey upward with the SR supports excuse me so uh FY 25 to 28 will continue to change as we identify information and that includes us providing you with a budget recommendation for fy2
099the current fiscal year so I've also added for you I've talked about it before in previous meetings but I'm providing for you the assumptions that we have embedded within that trajectory and so you can see these are some of those primary categories ories whether we're talking about salary and that percentage would need to cover not only an increase but also any new staff changes that might need to be considered health insurance uh I won't list off each of those percentages but as you can see uh we have a variety of applications there and we'll continue to adjust that based on new information that we have uh available to us and then relative to local tax revenue in fy2 this is a an even year when we're setting the tax levy September 2024 and therefore it
100is not a reassessment year so that is the uh roller coaster if you will on local tax that we typically see uh relative to non- reassessment versus reassessment years so the assumptions are always applied to the previous year actuals what I can tell you for sure to and I've added that to the bottom is that this is the best information we have available we will always provide you with that we would be fully transparent but I guarantee you it will always change that's a given so I've also memorialize for you some of those changes we know that the state adequacy increase the first phase has been embedded within all of our data and we're uh expecting that $385 per formula weighted average daily attendance uh on our revenue for this year the next year after
101that for FY 26 at this point in time we have a 50% increase but hopeful that we'll be informed to a higher level from the Department of Elementary and secondary head relative to what we might anticipate from a budgeting perspective and if I haven't shared it before we always receive the governor's recommendation early on in the year so we'll receive certain uh targeted budgets that are being recommended in the governor's budget whether it makes across the legislative threshold or not is another conversation but that is helpful as we start formulating what the budget might look like uh unknown impact still on Senate Bill 190 we have preliminary July information for our assess valuation and we did see growth not the growth that we actually budgeted for but it's close but more information as we get
102that final information leading up to setting the levy in September and then we don't know all the impacts for Senate Bill 727 there can be positives and negatives and uh we'll talk more about that in the months to come as a reminder no financial institutions tax is budgeted within any of these numbers and we'll bring that budget amendment to you after we have Revenue in the bank so I did want to just pause and um comment about the change so you may recall that I shared with you routinely that we had 3 million approximately 3 million in unfilled positions we knew that would impact our budget back in June June 20 if we had gone ahead and eliminated that out of the budget I would have been saying to you what we would likely end
103at 31.0 n so we've grown technically from 31.0 n to 35.42 for FY 24 and that is absolutely relative to not spending all the dollars budgeted or Revenue coming in stronger where our estimate for FY 25 is currently at the 31.25 so these slides I won't belabor them but what I've done is provided you with some high level information regarding where did we miss it and uh a few of them uh I may have indicated to a few of you in random conversations it frustrates me a little bit on a couple of these things that we missed but uh we when we know better we do better and we can learn from from history so uh what really happens and I'll just say this overall relative to revenue especially as we're wrapping up this spring
104year and our attention is fully on the New Year budget development the rest of the year continues to happen in May and June so there there was a spike in May there was another spike in June could have brought you new budget amendments for that fiscal year but again we'd already turned our attention over to fy2 and so that's what happened relative to Delinquent Tax and earnings from deposits we saw some uh extra revenues come in late in the game on other people activity there's also an expenditure offset to that so that typically is budgeted neutrally and we'll make sure that our budget amendment sets us at that that point same way for community services that would be mostly vacation Station we also had increased expenditures but then the revenue offsets that on Esser that's
105the only negative that we missed and that cross fiscal year so those uh that final expenditure report was either submitted this past week or it's happening uh next week and we'll claim all those final funds and our conversation about Sr funds will be completed and then we have a couple of other federal funds that uh came in a little strong uh strong is better than weak so it's a great story to share it's just not uh exactly where I'd like for it to be so I have some of that noted for you uh there as well we'll continue the process of digging in then this is on the expenditure side again we're not surprised to see significant salary dollars left unutilized the in excess of $3 million we had some type of issue with regard
106to the teacher retirement that went into intrigues me as well as the employee Insurance uh why we were heavily budgeted in those two categories so we'll dig into that we're going to perform a comprehensive analysis of all of our staff now that the First full paycheck has occurred for all of our active staff this year and we'll be able to have a better informed budget recommendation for you to amend the current year budget I think we did really well on on these other categories General supplies that's really not much and the big scheme of all the activities and work that takes place within the district to support students and uh then on the uh technology supplies by the way Scott you and I need to talk what happened with that did we have a miscoding
107situation between the two we'll work through that um it is a heavy lift for us to go through all of this and uh figure out where uh things went arai for us but again overall it's a fantastic uh picture and report for you this evening like you've done an excellent job Carol as you mentioned you were over if you go back to yeah you were over on insurance and teachers retire well teachers retirement wouldn't be part of it but the employing insurance and other items if you Budget on with the um positions that were never filled that could be leading to an excess you're correct it's it's kind of Blended all through that uh so I'm not saying that's anything wrong I'm saying keep the positive numbers coming please yes positive good yes also interjected
108yes sure what Scott's probably W to say is I just started last month I know no excuses I was going to say welcome to the this year Scott what did you do yeah I'll do better you go that's all we want he he knows I I'm teasing with him but yes but we still will be talking about that okay just to be clear okay so this now gives you overall perspective and so when we look at perspective and you think oh well it's you know in our worst situation we're 52% we missed the overall budget those are some really great numbers right there so what i' like for them to be tighter yes will we continue on that Journey absolutely but uh celebrating that and I also want to celebrate so on budget analysis next
109steps that first thing that I put out there is a reminder to all of us and I was super thrilled with the work we were able to do last year and that was developing out that multi-year trajectory that helps us be very agile and uh the the workbook behind the scenes that uh feeds all the information forward for those multiple years it's very important for us to have that tool and we have it it it took a bit to do it but uh we have that in place and so now we'll focus our attention then on that comprehensive analysis of our salary commitments and and along with that would be the benefits or taxation that goes with it uh we will provide also any needed updates for you in an upcoming budget amendment relative to
110purchase Services supplies and capital projects and uh hopefully that will be by October I'm not going to commit that it would be September but definitely by October we'll Target delivering that budget amendment for the current year this shows you our budget amendment and transfer uh document and that that is posted every single month so that you have a handy reference to where are we currently based on our projections we have no budget amendment for you at this time no transfers same as last month but moving forward that will likely change this provides you with some upcoming Financial uh Focus areas you can see in September I've referenced already we'll set the tax levy by bringing that to you and to the public uh in the form of a tax rate hearing preceding the September board
111meeting that comprehensive assessment on salary and benefits and then we're also taking a look at some opportunities uh relative to impacts for Senate Bill 727 the new legislation that uh will be signed into law coming up uh in in August or in effect in August uh in October we'll bring that budget amendment recommendation we're also continuing to work with the financial auditor to close that out and we'll take a look at assessing our debt management and what opportunities uh might we have to make recommendation uh for relative to that area for November finalize the audit and bring the Desi financial report to you whether that will come to you in November or December will determined by the work availability of the Auditors and uh closing that out we have to have that approved by the
112board during the December meeting at the latest because it's due to the Department of Elementary and secondary education December 31 each year we will once again launch our Capital planning process for FY 26 requests so again we have our foot in fy4 and in fy2 and looking ahead at FY 26 always uh as we navigate the work uh and then we'll continue to monitor our current budget I'm providing you also with some non-routine operational projects that are underway and uh the first one listed is a districtwide safety audit so that we can ensure that not only from a physical we've done a lot of great work uh at your approval and Direction uh relative to the physical structures but we want to make sure that any of our um our process any other supports that
113we might need to be providing within the district are identified by um those who are best at that work so so we'll bring a recommendation to you relative to how that might look you recall that we had to unravel that uh lease process for the rental to support our alternative programs and we'll need to bring forward a bus bid recommendation for that uh demographic assessment we're taking a look at we've got a variety of information coming at us from different uh entities through throughout the community impacting our district and just taking a look at that internally as a starting point relative to any de demographic impacts that might be worthy of noting that could require some future uh adjustments within our our buildings and that type of thing technology assessment of services software and Hardware
114yes Scott right here beside me knew that that was going to be reference actually uh I celebrate him he's done a great job uh he started taking a look at our district you know from afar as he was preparing to be interviewed and then was uh uh we were thrilled when he was able to join the team and he's day one has been uh taking a close look at all of the aspects of technology and will ultimately provide a an update on that um just for your awareness I know you know this but informing the public that oftentimes when we talk about Safety and Security whether it be technology in nature or not that is a close session topic that uh we are afforded the ability to to discuss with you uh in that process
115our new purchasing procedure communication and implementation is underway we did uh post and hire that purchasing manager and we're changing up some of our processes to create better workflows and help support our building leaders and staff and then uh just and oh by the way it happens all the time but there have been some especially uh new fun things to deal with relative to Transportation routing impacts and road work in the area and so we don't always think about that when we see construction going on and we might be personally inconvenience but it's a a greater inconvenience and challenge for those people that have tight schedules to to meet to make sure kids get to school on time remind me again when is G project over uh when will it be over or finished completed
116I don't I don't recall that do you remember the project scope has an end date in May but they said once they get into phase two in the work it'll probably be about five to six months yes and that concludes the update you have any questions questions Bo yeah I have a couple the slide previous to this be really curious the districtwide safety audit yes I'd be really curious to get an update as to where we are with where we are in an audit process right well oh I'm sorry no maybe next month maybe by the following sometime we can get an update where are we I would hope that we'll have some form of update for you uh in September at the latest it would be October uh currently I am making contact with
117a variety of uh entities that could assist in that process and I'll continue to work through that and then provide you with an update in some fashion it might be that it's a moment in time at the end of the finance and operations update slide where I just provide you with here's where we are and what we expect in terms of bringing this back to you as quickly as possible so would that be the same time frame we could get an update on a demographic or Democratic demographic assessment we can we can weave as much of that in as possible it will take time uh to navigate some of that I'll need to talk with the other uh the others that would be involved in that process because when was the last time we had
118a demographic assessment done here I want to say it was October of 22 I when we presented that um that study had started about six months prior to that though and was postco and so there were a lot of questions about the data that was included in how analyze it might be a good time to get an updated one and see how things have really been impacted here when was the last safety audit conducted I don't know that the district has ever had a formal safety audit uh we did do walkthroughs our safety manager I believe this was at the start of last Academic School year with St Charles County did physical walkthroughs of all of our sites getting feedback on um hard security measures we look at this as being a little bit more
119comprehensive so looking at our physical spaces landscaping and external safety precaution things um student well-being some of the discipline mental health pieces as well so this would be all-encompassing audit I'd just like to make the recommendation that we include our local law enforcement to to help us out with that task I I think they're free I'm not sure but that shouldn't that doesn't enter into the equation I think by by Garner by asking them to help us we will gain a lot more um Goodwill from the community and also from our law enforcement who are going to have to um be contacted if anything goes wrong absolutely I think as we Define the scope of what the audit looks like to work with them which parts they can complete if they can do all of
120it and to go from there and any other requests for proposal or qualifications we might do not excluding contracted companies to to help along with that I think a dual look wouldn't be a bad thing questions all those in favor say I I eyes have it next we have a motion to approve purchases as presented [Music] second all in favor say I post say no eyes have it next we have a motion to approve the woodworking three curriculum as presented any discussion board all those in favor say I I all those oppos say no I have it next we have information from Mr [Music] ster thank you president B uh quite sure I can follow my boss's riveting presentation but good thing Summit of evaluations were a while ago so um so as promised um
121we would provide a quarterly update uh regarding all of the uh board approved work that's taking place uh throughout the district and uh before I jump into that I do want to acknowledge uh our operations team um I don't I don't know how much people realize the work that takes place in the summer and compounded this summer by all the construction work uh we provide just various levels of support whether it's access into uh control panels uh disruptive disruption from just our our comprehensive cleaning processes from a custodial standpoint so really want to take a second and acknowledge all of their work uh to support this work that we'll talk about here so I'll jump right into it uh we'll start with the bond projects again Francis H North we've been under construction since the
122summer of 2021 uh we hit substantial completion May 10th we have our final inspections uh tomorrow uh they've been ongoing but uh there's a couple that the inspectors need to come back on we had small deficiencies that we need to fix and those will take place tomorrow again as a reminder first day of school is August 20th and uh pleased to say we're ready and a quick update on the last uh bullet point there our subcontractor for the demolition of the current France North actually uh was able to free up uh some Crews that finished up another job early and uh for those of of you that have been by there in the last couple of days you've seen that building uh start to go down so the first process within that is they when
123they submit their their um their bids on that uh they obviously look at uh the opportunity to recycle and uh revalue recycle and recoup some cost from a metal standpoint and other things that still have value so they're currently going through that process uh but on one end of the building they have started to actually demolish the building so uh that process will take approximately five months um and then as a reminder once the building is down we are going to uh develop three uh natural grass uh practice fields for bang choir uh soccer football and any any other outdoor program uh for France Al well this view is uh of the Northeast and Northwest uh SM Wilson was able to fly their drone and and pick pick these images up for us it sure
124is a a beautiful facility and excited for students uh who have already started picking up schedules I think today was freshman uh transition day so it was nice to to see the smile on the the students and just the the inherent difference from the environment that they're coming from to this new building um we've got three pictures here the two book ends there of the Performing Art Center uh that's the equipment storage room for uh band and choir and then on the far right uh is the band room and then in the middle there is just uh a vantage point from the exterior highlighting the the branding and the lettering work that's taking place there uh these two slides on the left you have the auditorium it's received quite a bit of use here uh
125as the for professional development from a building level standpoint I think we've even had some District leadership team meetings there as well and it's a a really nice space to the right is the new weight room uh outfitted with the uh board approved recommendation for new weight room equipment as a reminder uh the old weight room equipment was $25 plus years old and uh this is a very nice addition uh for that space uh these are various uh slides uh this top leftand corner is the uh survery student survery it's not a galley style as um the last one was at the current France North and so it's much more open and it's going to allow our food service vendor to provide potentially some additional options uh for for Food Service top right is the
126learning Commons and then down in the middle there is the um dedicated uh wrestling facility that will also serve other programs as needed uh to the bottom left hand here you have the uh what they call the Learning stairs or Google stairs so if you've been there recently uh a lot of students have have sat there and gotten their Chromebooks out or their laptops and and done some preliminary registering of of certain activities and programs middle picture there is uh just a general science classroom and then the bottom right there is the uh main administrative area where all of the administrative assistance with all the administrative assistant workspaces and uh moving on to the security vestibules uh again I W uh this just sets the platform for the process to get us to where we
127are now um this is Henderson uh these pictures are about a week old uh I will be be honest we're going to come sliding in right uh before the first day of school there uh but I've been pleased with the work that's taking place I know uh Dr Bor Borman might be a little bit nervous uh coming into school today but I did walk that site today and we're we're very close so we we have some teams working uh today and tomorrow and into the weekend to ensure that uh we're buttoned up and ready to go Monday so you have new storefront doors here on the uh left side and then the work stations uh to the right of the one workstation there is the new transaction window uh where guests and visitors will be
128greeted before um they're either allowed into the building and or if they're just simply dropping something off they'll uh correspond and have interaction there with the administrative assistant then be released back out to uh the parking lot this is of Fairmount again very similar State uh as in Henderson with as Henderson again we'll come sliding in just in the nick of time to ensure that uh those spaces are ready The Early Childhood centers are uh much more complete uh what we're working on there is really punch list items um and we've made good progress on those uh this is uh Central uh Central Early Childhood Center all three pictures and so you can see the new storefronts new workstations as well as the uh transaction window there moving on to the France tennis courts again
129just a reminder when construction began uh the contract that the board approved to PCC and we're making good progress there in fact yesterday we had the 225 ton crane set the uh six light posts and we we do have lights there as part of this work and these two slides are of the the eight uh tennis courts that will complete this project uh one thing I do want to note on the top right hand picture you can't quite see it but you have cables that run uh Northwest and East uh north north south and east west and on these slabs the reason that we're able to they last so much longer than asphalt tennis courts as we're able from time to time as they develop cracks we're able to tighten those cables and it pulls
130the the tennis courts together that's why it's called post tension uh there is no rebar and for those of you that uh uh dble and dable in the construction World um you know those are typically prerequisites in terms of wire mesh and rebar in concrete uh but this process is different and it allows us to um to tighten the court down as cracks develop uh over time creating a a safe uh a continued safe environment for our student athletes and and uh physical education classes U moving on to uh Henderson um what we'll call Phase 2 renovations again just a snapshot of the process there uh targeted completion date winter of 2025 uh and this is an older older pictures uh but we do have all of the ceilings buttoned up we do have teachers
131back in the spaces that were Disturbed the primary scope um inside on this phase was to one of the things that was approved as part of that package was new modern mechanical systems uh we have a lot of trouble with the PAC units that are currently there and so we spent this summer in the North in the west and North Wing running all the duct the duct work uh down the the corridors and then Branch off into the classrooms next summer we'll focus on setting the uh new rooftop units up will'll provide heating and cooling for those spaces as we demo the PTEC units and infill the masonry in those areas the exterior pictures there um that is for the classroom uh storm shelter Edition and right now we're just doing the inground utilities that
132process is going well they should wrap up uh the utilities for that uh bu that addition uh sometime next week and then they'll start working on footings for uh the building pad there as well and then moving on to Fairmount um again just gave you a snapshot of how we got here uh this is the schematic design that the the board approved we are under contract with the fzy construction and we're just working through the permitting process with the authorities having jurisdiction and uh it's it's been there's a lot of work going on right now and so we've been a little a little behind in terms of getting some of the required responses that way we can release our material orders so uh we're watching this one pretty close to make sure that uh those
133material orders are released uh soon um and we'll provide the board an update and I know initially what we had shared was completion of uh winter 2025 it's actually summer 2025 for for Fairmount and um as soon as we get released we can hopefully make up some time on that schedule we have lost time in terms of starting the work there we're staged but uh we haven't started moving any any uh performing any site work and then the uh playground improvements at the 10 sites uh those are going well I know know uh personally I received a few questions from uh building leaders they are part of weekly calls uh this has been uh today I think one of the wetest July and so with this exterior work it's it's been delayed a little bit
134we've lost approximately including the two days this week uh 20 working days and so that puts us uh behind a little bit uh but all that to say Daniel Boone is complete uh waren should be completed uh by tomorrow and we' brought in additional Crews uh for each subcontractor on this project uh we brought in additional Crews to be able to try and expedite the schedule uh so some of the playgrounds will be done shortly after uh the start of the Academic Year so the picture on the left here uh this is the swing set at uh Daniel Boon um obviously it's we reuse the swing sets and remodified some things but the surfacing is new and you can see the perimeter concrete curb as we shared on the Francis House Central that you can
135kind of see what we were talking about in terms of what the turf attaches to that concrete perimeter border uh just for a for a visual of what that will look like uh the other two slides are of John Welden uh they're Farther Along these pictures are probably uh 3 weeks uh ago and so we're we're further along there and we've got two Crews there actually trying to uh wrap that one up we've got one large install and then there if you call we Consolidated a lot of equipment uh into one play area uh to reduce the amount of square footage that we have from a surfacing standpoint for budgetary purposes so um I anticipate that John Wen should be wrapped up here in the next week or so and again this is uh Daniel
136Boone the other play structures uh they're fully complete this was about a week ago U they had their I think their open house tonight and they were able to get on the new playground equipment and then uh I won't go into too much detail here uh this is what the board just approved as uh designed you can kind of see um what we hollison Miller presented this evening and we'll come back to you uh with the bid recommendation for a Construction contract in October and again very similar uh to the previous slide transportation bus maintenance facility see the next steps there as well as the floor plan uh and we will come back to you guys with design development uh for this facility as well as the fuel Island at the September board meeting and
137uh pending any questions we'd ask for your approval to go out to bid with the comprehensive package then future construction updates uh we have had uh quite a few meetings uh regarding the wrestling facility as well as the Frances H High Auditorium renovation and the francal central Auditorium renovation uh you will see some beginning uh schematic uh design presentations at the next board meeting those meetings have gone well uh we really appreciate the building level end user input that we're receiving uh because at the end of the day they're the ones that uh are are in those spaces on a on a daily basis and need to make sure that it functions appropriately for the students that we serve and then uh regarding phase uh one of the the mechanical Replacements uh we're starting to
138kind of build build the framework for that and we hope uh as we get into fall shortly after school starts we should be able to start bringing some preliminary information of what that will look like uh the strategy there is uh because of lead times on mechanical equipment would be to have the equipment at least for phase one ordered sometime in in December and complimenting that equipment order would be the uh releasing of the package for the demo and install of that equipment at those sites and then phase two uh would be the summer of 2026 depending on uh where we sit from bomb funds and we'll bring the appropriate recommendations at that point in time so jumping into before I get into regular Capital any questions on bond work what were some of the
139issues connected to the delays at Fairmont and will those be repeated on other projects yeah um the the delays there obviously I think the board's aware we we did have a couple of um uh pick lines on a couple of the jobs and obviously that affects a few of the the trades uh in terms of Crossing you know union workers Crossing picket lines so that did affect us a little bit um outside of that there were a couple of delays from just a hardware issue uh Hardware materials uh but for the most part we've navigated those and we've tried to make up as much of the the time without incurring the additional costs above what the board has approved but uh we're doing our due diligence on all the other packages to ensure that um
140we we don't end up in those situations questions for I'll uh keep moving into regular capital projects um the this this is at France House Central board had approved the demo of the existing uh bleachers which I believe were original to the building which I believe was 7 years old or so um so Demo's complete the Heartland seating who's our partner on this project actually was able to mobilize uh earlier this week and uh they will finish installing the new bleachers in the main gym uh hopefully tomorrow and then they'll move it move over to the auxiliary gym uh starting next year uh over at the Early Child uh Central Early Childhood Center um those mechanical systems were again were original to the building and were 31 plus years old and we were just mandating
141them and so we brought a recommendation that the board approved uh at a prior board meeting and all those systems uh including the units in the ceiling were replaced and uh the building is much more comfortable and our our technicians have appreciated not having to run out there every day to keep 31y old equipment uh running uh roof overlay at Becky DAV again similar to the playgrounds the work's gone well uh but we've had some rain days on this work as well uh most of the heavy uh tear off of the middle section was complete uh right now we're just doing overlay and that work will carry into the sco the academic here uh but anticipate probably the next week and a half or so it's quiet work it's not going to impede uh instruction
142and so we should wrap up that project here in the next couple of weeks but again weather affected that over at Elementary all the pavement improvements that the board approved are complete all the striping took place earlier this week and um I I met uh with the building leader there and he's excited uh about the work that's taken place and the traffic flow uh should be much improved as well as the drainage issues that we are experiencing on that side this is over at Francis how middle again uh this was part of that same package that the board approved for Cosley uh it was full overlay and and Milling of certain areas for new asphalt uh and then I do want to highlight the slide on the right is a new road that goes all
143the way around the building that will uh help with separating bus and car rider traffic and uh I know I visited with a building leader there and she's excited about uh the new process that will hopefully alleviate a lot of um her her parents and and transportation frustrations regarding the safety issues with the cross traffic with buses and car rider traffic that we've had before and then at the three early Ed centers we did make some pavement uh improvements all the the the area around all the playgrounds was asphalt uh it hadm it's useful life it's useful life cycle so we demoed and poured concrete back and so we also striped that you don't see that in this slide but uh that allows U our our our Young Learners to take their tricycles kind of
144have their own little mini track in there and can hop on the playground as well so that's what all I have I'd be happy to answer any questions uh the board may have uh it's been a busy summer and uh excited about a lot of the work that's taken place and as Miss Embry has shared uh with a lot of the work we were a little delayed in coming out and so that's kind of pushed our deliver deliverable uh from a timeline standpoint hopefully starting that process earlier uh this fall and bring in maybe some small recommendations with some budget projections from a um a fiscal responsibility standpoint we're able to release those packages a little bit earlier that way we get ahead of the market uh and on people's schedules earlier rather than in
145in April as we did for many of these projects this year so be happy to answer any questions the board may have questions Bo all right thank you Mr ster okay thank you I have been asked if we can have a biological break so we'll take 10 minutes um come back around 8:51 and give everybody a moment to use the resturant e e e again minut minute to settle down all right up next we have a curriculum update um Dr Buckman good evening board as you might remember twice each summer we host a curriculum boot camp and so this allows us to work through our curriculum writing and revisions without ping teachers from the classroom it's a new process that we put in place uh last summer so it's our second complete summer with our
146new process during some informal visits talking with those who participated they all talked about how much more they like the structure than what we had used in the past they talked about um just really being able to focus they're not worried about what's happening in their classroom they're not trying to keep up with their emails uh they're not having the right sub plans to participate and then just being able to leave their workout from day to day instead of having a day to work and then coming back several weeks later and having to remember where were we what were we talking talking about what we were working on they give five continuous days to work through um the work and so our director of curriculum Dr lammer he leads our talented team of content leaders
147he's here with us today just to share a little about the heavy work that was accomplished during our June and our August boot camps this summer and to give you an idea of the courses that we'll be bringing to you for approval this year this fall thanks Dr Buckman um hello to the members of the Board of Education Dr rumus members of the district leadership team and everybody who's attending in person and online tonight I want to give you a quick update on the progress made by the curriculum team during um this Summer's boot camps and give you a preview of what we plan to accomplish this school year um continuing a practice that we started last summer um this summer The Curriculum team held two week-long boot camps in June and August during boot
148camp content leaders worked with teams of teachers to write and revise curriculum documents for several classes in most cases boot camps were held on the second floor in the space that's normally used by Francis H Union High School we had a tremendous level of turnout from teachers who were PID to stien to participate and as you'll see we were able to make some pretty significant progress so as you can see by what you see on the screen there it was a a pretty busy summer with more than 35 courses from kindergarten through 12th grade being touched in some way each of these courses had as few as three or as many as 10 or maybe even 12 teachers working at various stages of the curriculum writing and revision process we were fortunate to have so
149many um who were willing to give up part of their summer and dedicate their efforts to the important work of ensuring that our students have access to a guaranteed and viable curriculum so during boot camp teacher teams completed the first two steps of the district's curriculum cycle and if they were able to um proceed a little bit faster or they were finishing work they had started in a prior session they were able to start doing some work even past step two but during step one uh they reviewed current Research into best practices and saw how other districts approach similar classes content leaders LED them through an analysis of student achievement and participation Data before helping teams do a process that's called unpacking um standards during that process teachers closely evaluated and analyze the standard language
150to be in a deep level of understanding of what students need to know be able to do um and understand in order to demonstrate Mastery from there uh the teams use Desi guidance um and their own new understanding of the standards to identify priority standards for each course this process is critical um in that it highlights for teachers the most important skills and learning that students must gain in order to be successful and with that knowledge they began creating proficiency scale that teachers and students can use as a learning tool to monitor Mastery levels in their classrooms after step one the teachers were ready to write updated course descriptions and transfer goals for each class they also laid out the sequence of learning into a course map and timeline to help teachers properly budget their
151instructional time and once content was placed into this sequence teacher teams wrote descriptions identified the enduring understandings that students should carry with them after the course and wrote essential questions for each unit they then organized the previously unpacked standards into units and rewrote the standards as student friendly I can statements that allow students to personalize their learning goals as they progress through the class once this part was finished the official curriculum document was considered ready for public review and input and that will happen this fall as I'll explain in a couple of slides here uh teachers then began building canvas course blueprints for teachers and uh began organizing resources to assist teachers with planning for instruction and assessment for all of these courses um that have progressed through step two or through through the end
152of step two our next step is to make the courses available for public review both through an online survey and through an in-person curriculum review event this was a new Step that we added last year based on input from community members we take their feedback and input and make revisions to the documents uh revise copies of the curriculum documents will then be reviewed by the curriculum Council who will provide input on whether or not each document is ready to go to the board of education for a first read and the goal is to bring all of the documents to the board this fall so we can hopefully have them approved before publication of enroll enrollment guides for next school year in the meantime the curriculum teams will begin steps three and four during which the
153uh they'll write Common assessments and select core resources for their classes in step four if resources are more than $7,500 then they'll be submitted to the board of education for approval after board approval the curriculum teams will establish a multi-year curriculum implementation plan which will include plans to provide teacher professional development over the updated curriculum then after board approval and purchase of core materials content leaders will lead teachers through the adoption of the approved resources from this point the content leaders rule shifts to the other major component of their position supporting the implementation of curriculum this is when they visit classrooms and meet with PLC teams to Monitor and support imp implementation while assisting with the analysis of student mastery data so with close to 300 courses that we have available in our district we've
154got courses at various points in this process so you you can see content leaders at some sometimes they're having to think with their writing curriculum brain and other parts of that same day they're um assisting teachers and PLC so they have incredibly heavy work going on at all times this fall these are the courses that we anticipate bringing uh the curriculum documents that we anticipate bringing to the board of education for first read um so as mentioned our hope is to bring more than 35 curriculum documents to the board for approval this fall hopefully in October and the October November board uh cycle this list highlights the courses that we anticipate bringing forward through the process this fall when in addition to approving curriculum uh you as the board uh you fulfill the important role
155of approving the purchase and Adoption of core instructional resources over $7,500 and as was true uh with the curriculum documents we're planning to have a very active year in which we anticipate bringing forward more than 40 resources for approval this list reflects courses that had new curriculum documents last year courses that will have new curriculum this year and courses that don't need a new curriculum document but whose current resources have extinguished their utility um so as you can see from the list this is going to impact every content area and every grade level in our district um one special project um that I want to make note of is our kindergarten through fifth grade ELA resource selection process that's going to happen happen this year and given that those resources will have a large price
156tag um and they're going to impact a large portion of our student population we plan to host a workshop for board members before we bring a request for purchase to the board and this will look much like a workshop for intervention materials a couple years ago and then one last note um as you're aware the district is proud to offer a strong slate of advanced placement and Project Lead the Way courses to our high school students last year um when our team completed a comprehensive audit of all course curriculum resources we discovered that some of these courses or several of these courses did not have a formal curriculum document that had been approved by the Board of Education this is not uncommon in the region across the state or nationally because advanced placement courses and
157pltw courses the curriculum for those do for for those courses they're developed externally so if you're offering those courses you just use what the College Board gives you you use a W gives you uh but we're going to take a step to clean that up this year um so this year we're going to secure updated copies of course curriculum documents for each of these classes and we'll bring them to the board for formal review and approval we not going to do all 90 or you know 80 of these at once and inundate you with with all of that because that that would be an unfair ask um but in this way uh we'll take an important and necessary step toward ensuring that all of our courses have a board approved curriculum um so before concluding
158I need to take a moment to recognize our talented and dedicated team of content leaders who planned and led this year's curriculum boot camps uh they're Dr Meredith Bates Tim Bess April Burton Dr Cara Dalton Dr Stephanie Evans Stacy castner Dr Caitlyn crane Dr Matt Van Horn Sarah North Julie rusy Katy Vargas and Jeff bereli they play a significant role in ensuring that all of our students experience a robust and effective curriculum in all of their classes and finally I want to thank you for your time and attention and for the privilege of providing this instructional program to our community with that I'm available to answer any questions you may have questions board should board members submit uh their thoughts and questions about curriculum um at the curriculum Council Point um or should we wait
159until the first reading point in the process really you could you could do it at any at any point of the process in the um in the curriculum Council we will have a board representative and um that would be it would be an appropriate uh channel for uh board members to address their concerns with that representative who's going to serve on ccul Council uh but that can be done after first read um you know once you get an opportunity to see it and you know it takes a while to get through some of those we had board members come to the the public review event as well last year that's a perfect opportunity to do that as well and it was a great I attended that last year it was a really good event um
160and this is process for all curriculum and it just we different cycle so next year there'll be a different set yes but every curriculum that is being shared with student this year has gone through this process of conversations stakeholder input everything else you they they have an all we started this process last year so this is a this is a a new process and we know with you know 300 plus courses that are offered in the district we can handle a you know the system can handle a few at a time um so um we'll bring a healthy chunk this year when we did the audit of all the courses we identified um what were the courses that you know impacted the highest number of kids what were the courses that you know were the
161the the most I don't want to say most important but the most critical to things like State Assessments in the like reading is a big deal at K5 so like Ela that Rose to the top um so we prioritized you know which ones do we need to hit first and that's the way that we're um progressing through it's a multi-year plan to get every course through this process thank you I have a question about the math curriculum um during some previous conversations with some people they alluded to the fact that the math curriculums are not coordinated meaning that there's not the same type of math or same Concepts taught from the beginning the middle high schools and and or middle schools and then the high schools the the basic complaint was that mid middle schoolers
162were not prepared to enter high school math um and they attributed that to the fact that not all three groups were brought into the planning Pro process has that been corrected or or rest so are you so the the when you you asked I want to clarify the question so were they saying that they they would have liked an opportunity to have like the high school middle school and Elementary folks all in the same room at the same time doing the curriculum is that do I understand the question pretty much yeah okay um we have not done all three of those at the same time uh but we do have structures in place to ensure vertical alignment as we're working on curriculum um and that's something that we can always look at and continue to
163improve our efforts I just think that'd be necessary to keep the score M scores at a high level that's a good point any other questions for thank you Dr L thank you all um next is informational items we have policies and regulations for review for first reading for the public out there but I want I know last couple meetings we've had open kind of for for board members to ask questions so I do want to see if there's any any questions from this first reading from any board numbers that may be out there we'll start with 0340 yeah I have a question um has this been through the policy committee yes okay um no it's going to go to the policy it was presented as P form and then the policy committee see it they
164just didn't talk about it need to go to policy okay so it's not been through policy not that I know I just know it know the policy committee will meet but that's not a question well they're meeting August 26th oh okay and um I'm hoping um that they will also add language about social media in this I think that would be important where's that where's what where's that word what no I'm um it's 0340 no I know but she she was hope they will add oh they will amend it to include social media so what prompted um this change I thought this was well I think they they they saw that it should be uh not just U being polite to other board members but board members being polite to patrons staff and students and
165all their communicating mentioned disparaging remarks do we have a a definition for disparaging I know but we can U we can include that I'll put that in there and then I think we need to be very clear about inappropriate and the word disparaging okay um in our out of meetings uh I what I'm getting at is when a point is made that is incorrect and are false would it be considered rude disparaging or inappropriate to make that not in my mind but it to be so probably should be defined any any other questions comments next then we have 0360 move on all right next board like a motion to approve regulation 2 1 Z as presented said 2110 2110 regulation 2110 this is for first read and V second vote so this is equal opportunities
166for students with disabilities this is just a compliance change that's we changed name yes any questions comments board all those in favor say I I all those say no I next we have a motion has been removed from the agenda okay following this one we have policy 6114 need a motion to approve policy 6114 as presented no one uh discussion board I'd like to propose an amendment to U the current draft crosses out the phrase developed by District staff and so the section all curriculum developed by District staff to replace that with all curriculum developed by a committee of Administrators teachers staff parents and our community members for curriculum used in our buildings shall be formally presented to the board of education for official approval and adoption prior to use I have a second I
167can speak to it um me a second second discussion yeah I uh the first part is just hearing what the curriculum process is for the first part like we just heard seems like a good process for all of our curriculum to go through um even projectly the way an AP that are designed largely outside and there is still some development required by District staff make it uh appropriate for our students uh removing the phrase developed by District staff would allow uh uh other curriculum to be introduced that has not gone through the same process and I think that would cause problems that I'm been trying to avoid happening director Blair to offer one point of clarification we cannot make edits to some of those curriculums such as AP that you just spoke to so part
168of this change was to make it more all-encompassing that curriculum developed internally as well as some of those outside curriculum resources that we adopt would all come to the board of education for approval and I'm willing to include those exceptions to be included and I can find a better language to include that what I'm concerned about is last uh last fall there was a curriculum that was presented um that was discussed as a possible implementation into our school district that was presented by the Heritage Foundation um that um would not would not meet the criteria of the current language but if this amendment is I'm Excuse me if this policy is changed the way it's been presented before tonight curriculum like that would be allowed because it hasn't been um properly believe it's not required
169to go through this process of District staff review I'm not aware of any curriculum that was proposed by the Heritage Foundation um this is [Music] uh are you are you objecting to the board approving whole curriculum is that no I just don't want to remove the phrase uh developed by District staff I want to replace it with something that allows District staff to be named as an important part of curriculum adoption uh without just removing the phrase but the word all does that there but doesn't say it develop by developed by District staff gets crossed out and I would like to have an amendment where District staff is not removed from this policy maybe I'm misunderstanding it seems like that would be the same policies we have now the point is to include yes all
170C all curriculum developed by District staff and all curriculum that is not developed by District staff Bo would this is honestly I'm not even really sure what the objection is because this is already a state statute that we're supposed to approve all curriculum that the district uses correct what I wanted to make sure was we didn't I me back up uh what we could do [Music] is no I think so the the language um all curriculum developed by Committee of Administrators teachers staff parents and our community members for curriculum um and that I'll change that language uh of using our buildings with as well well as what would you call Project Lead the Way and AP those are courses that are um they're developed out externally how would be are those called third party resources
171[Music] or purchase curriculum okay right and so I would just say all curriculum developed by a committee of Administrators teachers staff parents and our community members for um for curriculum as well as developed by third party Partners she be formally presented maybe I how is that different from all I wanted to identify that there are curriculums that uh need to be developed by the district staff and that we don't find excuses to use the curriculum that are different and apply it and circumvent the process we just talked about where AP and project Le way doesn't have right I want to make sure there isn't another category of curriculum that is dreamed up or introduced that is trying to be brought in as an alternative right but the word all would encompass I I think what
172you're what you're trying to amend it to needs to be put in a regulation as opposed to a policy I'll just point out I think I understand the nature of your concern now I'll just point out that in this hypothetical Heritage Foundation curriculum under the current policy the administration could bring that in if they so desire and we would never get the chance to approve it this would prevent that right now the administration could Implement that because it's not District developed or developed by District staff this policy would as as it is proposed would prevent that from happening so are you saying that you are okay with the district doing that by themselves and not bringing it to the board that's what's not allowed under State Statute by the way so I could could you
173read that read what it says the way you wrote it are you talking to me well the the the proposed one would say pursuant to 160. 516 RS Mo all curriculum shall be form formally present uh presented to the board of education for official appr approval and adopted prior to use I think what he's trying to say is um he's worried that um like the board might decide to write curriculum or some random group you know and just say that's curriculum I think are you is that what you're saying you trying to avoid I'm trying yes I'm trying to avoid that happening like you want it to be legit groups yeah writing curriculum mhm so do do you know what we're saying here that should be people know all curriculum wouldn't that fall under all
174yeah but people can come up and say oh I have a curriculum I'd like you to approve I think if you want to make that delineation that's a very small spec specificity get that one it's getting late um that should go in a regulation that's typically where you line out exactly what it is that the policy is saying and and if that's the idea that that should be a regulation I'll gladly um remove my Amendment and then pursue a regulation for future conversation how was that would say the the lineation between policy and regulation aren't always clear yeah don't money the waters just just saying that for clarification it's not always clear um I think we have many policies that have things that could be considered regulation depending on how in- depth the policy is
175or maybe regulations are really wise in that policy because there's already policy that it relates to some back and forth it's just how MCE can writes it for one reason or another just like MBA writes them differently they don't even have regulations everything is part of policy um I'm just thinking it's this policy is is not definitive enough it's just kind of like an overview I don't know what all yeah but I think it should be what time and you know is it legitimate you know what I'm saying kind of sort of but yeah when you when you go to artist ice cream and you say when all the toppings that means wow nuts I don't think they get that on there okay bad bad uh example sorry but all to me and I think
176bring this all means everything all well I don't think we want everything so I think that's what Stephen's saying I am what I'm hoping to do is create it where the District staff has a voice in all curriculum that is being presented and that sounds like it's a regulation that we can talk about we have curriculum committee sounds like you want the districts and I don't want to put words in your mouth mouth right trying to say the district needs to Define it and the board shouldn't do anything outside with the district as said you want to do this uh I am uh removing my uh uh motion for a minute and uh we will revisit this future I'm happy to try to work with regulations we do have I'll point out as well there
177are several other policies under curriculum that do direct that and guide the superintendent and our team to write curriculum to develop curriculum revise curriculum so we are in support of this has written it flowed through the curriculum committee um or excuse me the policy committee we had discussion earlier this year and so um I I don't know that there needs to be separate written I think some of the other policies also cover what you're getting at as well thank you for clarify the second needs to agree to removing the amendment car the original seconds to age I have to second okay well say your agreement to resend the amendment second all right so we will scratch that motion to amend and we are back to the original motion to approve policy 6114 as presented any
178other discussion all those in favor say I I allos say no eyes have it next we have a motion to approve po regulation 6116 as presented discussion board I have some questions um I was one wondering uh why the uh changes that were recommended by the policy committee were not included in this final B you have specific changes um well um I learn we I went to this meeting and um I learned that where it says purpose I think it's that two paragraphs that that is really a policy and not a regulation and um I I would learned in the committee also so that the state regulations should be named what are the those numbers and names of the state regulations you're referring to and uh the term or the expression values judgment uh they
179they thought that was inappropriate wording because it's pretty much out there what what does that mean and encourage they suggested uh should be changed to influence because you always want to encourage students but I think what you're really not wanting to do is to get teachers to influence students you don't want to take away that they can encourage students you know what I'm saying because they do that every day so anyway that that's what came out of the policy committee meeting so I I was assuming that this would be addressed guess my response if you're asking for my response policy uh regulation is just like I just said policy regulation aren't necessarily clear on the lineation so part of policy committee is there providing their their feedback and their thoughts and their opinions not all
180of that is like in stone this is the way it is that's way it's not um first off but there's also there already is a policy 6116 that we have this is a regulation to go along with that so first part of it's kind of clarifying A little bit on the regulation kind of how it goes through why it's there well I mean did someone tell you of these things they wanted changed I've heard a number of things and made a number of changes right along with I know there was some some changes um I don't really see a whole lot of difference between the encourage and influence why if somebody wants to change that they can but also this is very specified on what areas they encouraged and whether it's encourage or INF I
181think I think though you mean influence probably I think that's what I mean what you're basically getting at I mean could be both yeah well I mean cuz you don't want to tell a teacher not to encourage her students in general though but specific things they probably don't shouldn't be well I I think don't get lost in sure you want to encourage a student to achieve but you have to be careful as to what you're encouraging so so I I think there would be some parents that would disagree that they don't want their children encouraged in well I think they I think they would agree that in they don't want them influenced I think that's more clear of what you're getting at but that's my opinion um and then you know to go further um
182I'm just wondering this reg if this regulation would make teachers afraid to have any personal conversations with their students for fear of their conversation being misconstrued by the board uh many of our students need a friendly ear to just listen and care I fear this will damage healthy student teacher relationships sometimes a teacher is the only adult that students feel they can talk to growing up is hard and you you want to develop relationship with your students I think there there's a level of relationship that wants wants to be built and and should be there I would agree agree with that I think the delineation becomes where does that lie then who makes those judgments calls just throw out that there's some St that's a very big judgment call and who makes that judgment call
183of whether they have somebody else to talk to or not and what those conversations centers around right and I mean I I can th even by our music training so for those don't know our Missouri Unified School Insurance Corporation or like their training specically says teachers should not talk about anything but academics period so that's way over here ACC where this is so it's like I don't know that I would say it's purely that like there's some room this is just what you know I'm feeling that you know by you know words like values judgment and encourage that I think that's really not what we want that's my that's my opinion I feel like teachers have pretty good education and Common Sense and can figure out what a definition of a word is yeah they
184do and their definition might not be yours so that's kind of the problem I have some uh questions about Point number one so not make values judgments can a teacher say the phrase um underneath this new rule all of you are equal in my class uh is that values judgment is and I have a lot of questions so it might be better instead of me asking you each time to respond each time for the sake of time Etc so can teachers say all of you are equal in my class can they say that can they say the phrase all are equal um if it's on a sign and there's seven rainbow colors behind it can they do it with a sign behind it that only has four colors um and can they say all are
185equal my class if it's four colors does it matter if those colors are part of Roy G Biv or any four colors does that trip any of the concerns that's a value's judgment on this topic because um human sexuality as it says here is referring to sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression if a student says uh today is my one month dating anniversary does a teacher have to find out if they are lgbtq before they say congratulations because because if they say congratulations to somebody for being dating in a same-sex relationship that would be a Valu judgment that means that they're supporting that same-sex relationship can a teacher wear a rainbow pin or is that them making values judgment on that topic can a teacher display a photo of a same-sex wedding of a
186family member or is that showing a values judgment on human sexuality for the kids uh I do have a question if policy 6116 is religiously motivated uh that would be a good answer to share well this block teachers from saying um that they disagree with W uh lgbtq as well like if there's a teacher who disagrees with lgbtq with this block them from that Val's judgment with this policy cancel the gay and straight Alliance because this would require a district employee or contracted Personnel to say you are welcome as you are um uh if a student is bullied for being lgbtq can teacher uh say the students are wrong for bullying you can a teacher use a student's preferred pronouns because this would say that would be a value judgment to affirm that part of
187them so using their pronouns or their preferred name is that allowed underneath this uh can teacher share empathy with the lgbtq student or is empathy a values judgment can a teacher put up a safe Zone sticker can a teacher say you are awesome just the way you are or do they have to make sure the student isn't lgbtq first before they say those words uh what happens if the teacher affirms the value of a student but later finds out that student is lgbtq and do they have to go back to the student and take back the affirmation uh these are just some questions um and I don't know if the teachers know how they would to answer these questions based upon this rule that you can't make a values judgment on it um bands can
188bands play music by John or queen because does that is that a Valu judgment that uh we are affirming um same seex artists um in musicals um are musicals and plays allowed that have a uh empathetic stance towards lgbtq characters uh people inside uh the the play or the musical um if they decide to do the musical the greatest showman and the song This Is Me is some do they have to skip it or do they put an asterisk in the program that that saying does not refer to lgbtq so what I'm getting at is this first point that a district employee shall not make values judgment is very vague and I mean I don't know if you want to go through the whole ly but like are do you feel like those questions are
189easy answers I would probably go back to my comment earlier that I feel teachers are very well educ UC and understand what the meaning of words are and have common sense to the go and understand values where where the line is sure go look at our training they shouldn't have be having any of those conversations in the first place ORD to music this is just trying to clarify a little bit more a different area well sure well if they're trying to say um you really should be gay or you really should do this that's a different message this this is values judgment um is saying that it's okay to be gay is that a value judgment yeah is that I'm not sure if you went through the music training I know all teachers have to
190do it but there is a statement in there that says teachers shall not Council students on non-academic matters this comes from our our Le training now with respect to the rest of your your questions so it's board policy that board members should come to board meetings prepared to vote I if you want if you had a lot of these questions the proper thing to do would have been to email them you clearly have a lot you've put a lot of thought into it I don't know if you did this this morning but there's a I suspect you have thought about this over several days and weeks but you know second read vote this is not you know if you're asking these rhetorically as a as an objection to sure why you don't support it I
191understand but the the second read and vote is is not the place to go through 25 different questions here that's what policy committees for it gets down to emails for all these there's several avenues for you to have done this over the last several weeks so I think that there's you know if if you're not prepared to vote if these if the answers to these questions will sway your vote what I'm not quite sure what the good question the point is the point of the question is I'm asking you can to answer any of these right if you don't want to say I don't want to answer 25 um or however me say right what I'm saying is that if you are unable to answer any of these if like this one's a yes this
192one's a no if if there isn't a clear description of answers to these questions then the teachers cannot be expected to know the answers to these questions too there and what that does it creates it creates a free speech violation and a chilling effect if the teachers don't know what they can say or can't say and I'm asking an open setting can teachers say it is okay to be gay so maybe let me answer this way we go through and try to Define every word in policy we're going to be here for a really long night just like we talked about earlier with what what's disparaging mean well I think we can all use common sense to try to figure out what disparaging means but also at the same time we start getting into not
193setting policy but implementing policy and telling the administration what they shall and shall not do and what everything means at that point we're administrating the school not overseeing the school I see saying to some degree director director B I call question second so we have a call a question first and the second all those in favor say I I I was suppos to say no no no ni have it so then we move on to voting on the motion to approve R 616 6116 as presented all those in favor say I I I was opposed no no I have it I'm we we have a motion to approve policy and regul ation 6241 with an effective date of September 1st 2024 as presented move second good discussion board I like to make an amendment where
194it says every effort will be made to provide materials that present all points of view concerning international national and local problems and issues of our times I would like to add the phrase except for hate speech false science and false historical claims and if I have a second I can speak to it second we're I'm clear is this policy regul what are you this policy 6241 policy 62 first and second yeah it um as we try to get all points of view we don't respect all points of view regarding hate speech like we don't say well well there's there's not hate speech and there's hate speech we want to make sure we present both points of view we don't want to talk uh and present false science like the Earth is flat like that's not
195a that's not a point of view and uh and don't want to present false historical claims like the Holocaust is a hoax you know that is not a point of view and so I just being clear just add um at the end of it except for hate speech false science and false historical [Music] claims discussion board we're talking about 6241 policy 6241 and where exactly does this extra ver said at the end but I'm not yeah thank you U the second full paragraph I should have said that earlier second [Music] full just as a clarifying director cook if you don't mind answering um is there other language in the policy that you feel would cover that or I'll just say that um The Lang this is not an amendment this language you're changing is not
196language that I revise this is language that's in current policy um my personal feeling is um hate speech is a very broad term means different things to different people it's a very politically charged term in my view a false science I you know you gave the example of the Earth is flat um I think it you get into some very uh heavy discussions here is is climate change real is it not real is this is what what's that what's that science is that what you're trying to avoid here are we not just both sides of that argument what's the are you going to prevent teachers from doing if the teacher thinks it's not real is that okay with you is that okay with you is it okay with me if what if a teacher decides
197that the science behind climate change is not real and so therefore they're not going to be you know bringing those materials into that be okay with you are you asking me if it's okay with me if a teacher was saying that climate change is not real yes because that's who you're leaving this decision to now if you had that language without adding that language it would allow a huge variety of without adding it you're right it would it would allow a variety of viewpoints but with adding it you're giving some some administrator who's unelected the the determination to decide what they feel is is true and false yeah it's the science teacher to share the science yeah yeah I'm comfortable with the science teacher teaching the science in the science class that should be in
198the curriculum so again the amendment is to add the phrase except for hate speech false science and fake uh false historical claims any other discussion no all those in favor of the amendment Blair mentioned say I I I all oppos say no no we do a roll call I would like a roll call please director Blair I director Harmon no vice president cook no president Bertrand hi Treasurer push car no director Ponder I director Owens I I all right so onto the amended motion for policy and regulation 6241 effective date um I had something else about policy 6241 okay um I I I think it's wrong to delete students First Amendment rights from um the policy and I I don't understand why that was removed I think we should be honoring a student's first amendment's
199rights and not attempting to hide it because whether it's there or not they still have First Amendment rights and that needs to be celebrated so I mean who wrote this who crossed out was it Randy um I was wondering why students First Amendment rights was erased I cannot answer that in Open Session oh okay any other question right the vote all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no no no I next we have policy regulation 6310 regulations 641 was that is all together motion to approve policy and regulation 6310 as presented discussion board regulation okay once again I'm going to talk about removing uh critical thinking and problem solving skills um as an educator myself this was what removing it from where from she talking General from 6310 policy 63 the
200second sentence underneath intellectual um because that's what teachers are taught to do um critical thinking skills is learning how to identify a problem process and organize information and come up with Solutions teachers don't want to spoon feed their students they want their students to learn how to think for themselves the wording of the current policy was carefully crafted by professionals to illustrate today's education standards is critical thinking on the shopping block too I I don't know why we would fear putting critical thinking in this policy I think it's a bonus it says who we are so so are you requesting to amend the policy that add that it would be added back it's pretty safe thing request to amend the policy I'm sorry where exactly are you I'm in policy 6310 right where I don't
201know there's so many pages I did I second line under intellectual access on P yeah under intellectual access did you request these changes in writing that I missed via email no I did not I did speak to it at the last board meeting though the the same issue yes and I don't I mean I don't know what was I supposed to ask again or I'm not sure if we need to put St that in every single policy that critical thinking is an important aspect of why the policies there is that your view no I'm just critical I'm saying that EXC me I have the floor if we don't write critical thinking in every policy that's that somehow we are not supporting the critical thinking of students it's in our mission our our mission is to
202create lifelong Learners of critical thinking is in part of that we have much bigger problems than a sentence being struck out in a policy I was just asking why it was deleted it's language that is not gerain to the policy itself is is what was deleted well the people that originally wrote it thought that it was do you know who originally wrote it no I don't but I know they were professionals and and if 20 years from now somebody looks at this policy and and and changes some of the language that I wrote Would you be comfortable with them saying well the person who wrote this meaning me was a professional no they didn't know even though they don't know well I I you don't really know who wrote this no I don't but I
203I trusted they were professionals and it went through process and they thought it was important uh something else I found in my investigative work in the last week was I asked three former superintendents um how many times they' ever had board members writing policy or regulation everyone said never so why is this happening now so I think that's alarming I think it's very alarming so you take that as a bad thing yes having a member willing to take his or her time outside of their work their family time the board doing their own research to write and develop a a policy that they think is germine to the district that they're volunteering deserve well um some some of what they said was they have had members suggest that a policy be written and then the
204policy committee wrote it with the uh board members you know know input but that a board member had never taken upon themselves to just write a bunch of policy and regulation I'm just I'm just sharing this with you okay and and my question would be is that a reflection on previous board members or is that a reflection on the current active board member I I I don't see that as a positive or A negative just because I see it I see it as over up here for Applause line I know I see it I see it as overreach but this is my opinion and I'm just I'm just sharing that with you I get it and I I guess I I don't agree because somebody's willing to take the time and that's you're right and
205put in the effort yes to do all this work and write this kudos to them I mean that's everybody's responsibility as a board member to be able to write and propose policy it's it's in the policy that it's our our responsibility yes with collaboration uh to you know through the takes collaboration for the policy to pass but it does not take collabor collaboration I'm just I'm just saying I disagree and that's and you don't so you don't agree with me that's fine that's your your right did you have something I saw your little hand I mean I was Qui we're trying to run meeting um so maybe we should refocus on the yes actual policy and regulation um any other additional discussion ler yeah I um I don't agree with the board being the final
206Arbiter for profanity and violence that we're not the ones who have the most information and training to decide educational suitability uh the list of books that we blocked from 631 [Music] uh um it'll list some books that you might be surprised are on the list when you start identifying what fits the description for profanity and how many cuss words is too many cuss wordss um are all cuss words created equally like in my home if if a kid says uh you know the SW word it's not as bad as to say the f word and so do they weigh the FW versus the SW word uh on this or what if it's MF and what if it's this and so it's hard to decide how to apply that based on the length of the book
207The of the book I guess maybe I'm a little confused because I thought correct me am I long you updated the language to it took a lot of that where it was very specified on here the numbers here and change it to be more generalized to allow and of give a little Direction but allow for librarians the teachers to kind of use a little more judgment around around those things I'd like to I'm sorry thinking here I did uh make make revisions to this section regarding profanity um just to be clear it's Elementary School sh shall have little no Prov vanity um and uh Secondary School have shall not have excessive or unnecessary prity and the board should be the final Arbiter the board is always the final Arbiter we can take it out of
208here but the fact of the matter is the board ultimately can can have this decision well if you do that that way currently by the way if you do that you're going to negate policy 510 policy development adoption and review which states the development and Adoption of policies to govern operation of the district are the respons responsibility of the Board of Education proposals to develop new Pro policies or amend current policies may be initiated by any board member citizen of the district or an employee of the district at any meeting of the board policies governing the schools may be enacted amended or repeated or repealed by a majority vote keep it down the board she also review written policies on a continuing basis to ensure consistency and legality of the board actions and administrative decisions
209policies shall review and that shall be reviewed and revised as a result of newly enacted State and our federal legislation Court decision as a result of research and our policy development as presented by state and or national organizations and agencies are for other reasons as determined by the board and that was review right abort should review we we no review written policies yes so does it say right no it doesn't but it says we have the distinct we have the distinct responsibility to review anybody any citizen can come up not right it says here that a a citizen can make um make uh recommendations right for new policies recommendations is what it says yeah director Owens I think you're misunderstand you're you're only list in to the last part yes it is also in a
210board member's purview to review existing policies is also in our purview as was stated in the first part of the of the policy that says we may develop right and amend policies and that's what's been done here develop with other voices in the room no I don't believe it says that at all so you don't need okay I get it mean developing it I get it that's clear but just to be clear Crystal Clear they are developed and then we did get feedback from other voices as eviden by all of the changes that have occurred to this over the past two months um 6310 uh again there' be a list of books blocked that um could be seen as Banning or in books from entering into the school district uh based upon uh the board
211members ideologies versus The Librarians um expertise and uh I will side with librarian expertise over board member ideology uh uh part of the current regulation says the final decision is left to the library media Specialists on the bottom page one um the board is supposed to focus on a big picture and it seems like 6310 would mean that books that are being presented for purchase will come to a board meeting and will have a conversation on which books can be pulled from that purchase order is that a point is is that one of the steps that's happen that's just quite for K is that if I read it right Qui just say it should be brought as an informational item so it's just there for the public to view and say Here's the books coming
212into the district right so here are the books coming to the district for purchase is that going to be presented at a board meeting for a board member to take a book off that list and say before you purchase it I want to pull it off the purchase list is that is that the purpose it's for transparency and notifying public if here's public concern here's here's the things just so we canate that public concern so so public wants to go and review the list and then voice some kind of concern around it they can but so next month um according to this will there be a list of the books that are uh hoping to be purchased and brought into the schools will we see the list and then do we act on it in
213a way where they can't purchase it until we agree that those books can be purchased think it requires us to agree this to be purchased it's just yeah the nature of informational items is that they are informational right but if if we so choose to remove that and put on the agenda for approval or amend the purchase we have that right just as we have got and so they're also we also approve purchases that's my question is because be purchas you choose to yes so we can choose to see a list of books to be purchased and remove a book off at at a board meeting and decide at a board meeting yes if somebody purchases $25,000 of books right now we would approve that maybe maybe this the clarifier try to clarify the question
214are you asking if the intention of the policy is to do that or if that's what the policy I'm asking there or if like the has the ability to do that in the first place uh the board should focus on the bigger pictures of the whole District versus having um board time being spent discussing the book list every single month and so every single month there's a book that's on the list do which is why it's on and it's an informational item I believe for our director cook and not as an agenda item to discuss and so we'll just wait to see if that if a pattern shows up up pulling books off the information list director I wouldn't assume or intend for so are you saying that we see the list before they're bought
215or after I believe the policy says before they're bought they come as an informational item for the public to view so then we how would we know what how they all I mean I wouldn't have read them all I don't know how I would decide well I think that's part of the point too what that didn't we discuss in the last meeting I believe there was an answer to a question that somebody was asked how many thousands of books are being ordered every year yeah I think it was like about 7,000 yeah 7500 and something but I'm saying who's going to read 7500 books I mean probably the Librarians really so I think had in one year 12 people are going to read 7,500 books I think it was 6800 I don't know okay so
216again I think the the point of this is that and maybe a little story would help a little bit of a history lesson is that uh in I think 2021 or 22 there was a purchase of some classroom books that came before the board one one parent of course uh noticed the title of one of these books and that parent happened to know that this book had you know sexually graphic images of oral sex drawn out on the pages of this book we were about to put in classrooms of children that parent spoke up book was not purchased and the remaining books on the list were had that not had that list not been made public that book would have been in 30 different classrooms throughout Francis hell so that is the intent of what
217this informational list does is it gives not necessarily the seven of us you're right you're exactly right it's impossible for us to go through every title or have familiarity but anybody in the public who's interested in looking at that list can peruse it and if they see something that that they know through personal experience to be problematic they can bring it to our attention and we can act on it at that time that's that's it that's the only intent here and ultimately you keep if it is truly a problematic book like that one was you keep it out of the hands of of of kids which I think is a good thing Dr berand I call the question second question in a second all those in favor say I iOS no no I have it
218um so we have a motion to approve policy and regulation 631 please hold it down thank you um as presented all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say no no no eyes have it up next we have motion to approve policy and regulation 6341 with the Ive date of September 1st as presented discussion board uh policy it says U board May remove materials from the learning Commons that they are deemed to be pervasively vulgar or lack educational suitability uh question is um how do we measure educational suitability uh and um are we equipped to do this and if we aren't what training do we need to be able to decide if it has educational uh suitability that that is up to the each board member to decide uh concerned that on
219page one on the regulation uh removing nine copies at one time can result uh to a temporary sensorship uh there are some other first amendment concerns um we've talked again about is trees versus Pico um which was there when people were criticized in books of being just plain filthy um and realizing some of that same language might be repeating here um uh I do want to make a suggestion the uh Review Committee um can rule and then it can uh be presented to the board for appeal and that is um page three after all parties have addressed the board the board may ask questions the board shall vote to accept or reject the recommendation um decision of the board is final um I'd like to make an amendment to 6341 uh regulation um that requires
220the board to read the book um that they are having to vote on I'll second that you realize it's not current regulation or policy for the board to do this for for creating policies let's create policy can you read the amendment um Rec it would be uh before the line the board shall vote to accept or reject the recommendation Review Committee the idea um enter the line the board um is required to read the book being appealed discussion board why not make the board the entire board part of the Review Committee then I'm not sure how you're planning to enforce you're G I was just going to say a book report or some this is one of the most more absurd uh recommendations I've heard from social media that you seem to have picked up
221on um but I am vehemently against this we you know there's some things that you need context for and there's others you clearly don't such as the book I mentioned earlier I don't need to read a whole book to look at pictures of people perform in oral sexx on each other and know that it's inappropriate so maybe you do I don't need that no I'm not going to read that book I'm going to look at that picture and say this is not appropriate for kids so I I'm just I'm making a motion that the board should read if the Review Committee has to read the book that they're voting on the board should have to read the book they've been voting on if you disagree Just Disagree no that's the amendment the board should read
222the book that they are voting on I'll second there good yeah we are first and second so this just discussions any other discussion board so you want to put something into the policy or into the regulation that wasn't even in the old correct regulation gotcha other discussion Bo how do you intend to enforce this um trust that you would read it trust that the board is following the policies like we ask everybody else to follow [Music] policies we have a motion for what are we voting on we are voting on a motion to ADM the motion to change the language to require the board to read the book prior to voting that yes on page three of Regulation 6341 there there yes all those in favor say I I all those F say no no
223no have it um so we're back to the original motion to approve policy regulation 6341 with effective date of September 1st 2024 well I just I do want to bring up one more piece um yeah um when we talk about books one of the the best parts of the regulation on 41 was the idea that the review the Review Committee was supposed to look at the book uh whatever phrases whatever passages in light of the context of the whole that was a line that's listed in 6241 that got removed I believe the Review Committee should have to view the context in the middle of the whole there might be exceptions like what Randy said is there's no there's no explanation of the rest of the book that would explain that one section but what I'm
224saying is that there are if you don't the whole book you don't know why that scene is in there otherwise for example um uh there's a book that says uh she lusted after her lovers whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose mission was like that of horses so you long for the luness of your youth when uh Egypt caressed your young breasts uh sleep with your brother's wife fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise Offspring um but Onin knew that the child not be his um so whenever he slept with his brother's wife he spilled a semen on the ground to keep from providing Offspring to his brother um you made Idol you made for yourselves male idols and engage in prostitution with them which is a reference to uh
225an ancient version of a sex toy uh blow on my garden that its fragrance May spread abroad let my lover come into his garden and taste its Choice fruits this is a reference to oral sex um all of these are inside the Bible and so the idea of view committee they need to view the whole context and so um I think 6341 is poor because it doesn't allow it doesn't include instructions for the Review Committee to see the whole context of a um book so um where is it um so underneath 6341 sorry sorry it's right it's it's late um uh regulation 6341 um I will U add make a motion to add um point B that uh that says what the current 6241 says about viewing uh viewing the section in light of the
226overall context of the book say that again You' like to make uh point B is to weigh the positives negatives um in light of the in light of the entire context of the book in other words if there's just one bad section does that spoil the whole thing so just tell the Review Committee to consider the whole section just so I'm clear are you making an amendment or is that just just discussion here making an amendment think they make Amendment we have a second I'll second the point of the challenged materials policy and regulation is to the board has the ability to or if if adopted uh remove books that are considered obscene under State Statute um which is a very clear definition um in my view um or is pervasively vulgar or lacks educational
227suitability so the pervasively vulgar and lacks educational suitability those terms those standards come directly from the PCO versus Island Trees Supreme Court uh case and those are the reasons um those are the those are the standards from which a Review Committee or or iew the board should review a book if if if it is challenged nowhere in the policy does it say well if it's I mean I suppose if if you as a board member think that the context is important to educational suitability I think that's every board member's right um but I I don't know that that needs to be added that if you think that's important to educational suitability that's each individual member I think instructing the committee to review that to do that creates a lot of room and honestly this is
228how if you if you look at some of the U most recent book challenges this is how they all were sustained was because the commit say well if you look at the whole context of the book it's actually okay to have all these vulgar phrases or sexually explicit uh descriptions of scenes and sexx and whatnot so that's that's what you're after I'm not sure that that right um and just for clarification I'm just going to use the words from regulations 6241 um so the amendment is to use exact words um weigh positives and negatives and form opinions based on the material as a whole rather than on passages or sections taken out of context but that's the language exact language from 6241 that existed that was removed um I'm just want to add that as
229Corrections for the Review Committee last motions in front of us and second any other discussions questions you want to read the language sure uh weigh positives and negatives and form opinions based on material as a whole rather than on passages or sections taken out of context that yeah that language would give the Review Committee basically cart blanch authority to just approve basically anything they felt that is that that language is so vague it it's basically not a standard at all at that point if that's what you're after then I suppose now we see that so where would you add that just for um as added underneath point a it'll be the new point B the new point B so that's a what do you give from the it already says examine and or read the
230challenge resource so as part of their examining and reading you don't think they're going to be doing that um it was important enough to be added before um and it needs to be for me I think it's important just like the Bible references right that if somebody doesn't look at that based on the whole big picture like they're going to say well that's just too much violence I mean sexuality sex toys I like all the things that mentioned this um which again like people going to start reading the Bible tonight because all this I don't what version is it in what is the version of the Bible yeah a new international version yeah we see what you were trying to do there challenge the Bible and get every board member to read it Pastor yeah
231that's amen well again that' be awesome that'll be that'll be a long meeting I'll vote for that I I will be I will be honest there's a section there in the middle that's pretty dry um so it again I'm just presenting that as an amendment um approve it or not but I think that um it was there for a reason and I think that should remain there any additional questions or we'll go for a V all right amendment to Dr players language all favor say I I I opposed say no no I believe the news have it I think yeah roll call did you get that I'll be happy to do a roll call roll call are you awake yes I am Treasurer push car um no president Bertrand I president cook or vice president
232cook no director Harmon no director Blair hi director Owens hi director Ponder no does have all right back to the original motion motion I had one other thing I didn't know if this was a mistake um that the uh learning media specialist was not included in the configuration of the Review Committee we discussed that you that meeting weren't you we discussed that great lines I don't I don't recall hearing that why why was why was that well they voed their opinion by wanting to buy it and purchasing the book that was already no on the Review Committee you know when you review yeah the book why aren't they on there that's that's I thought that was because they were involved in the purchase it's like were they originally on the Review Committee yes okay that's
233what I thought I thought well that well the current the current policy yes right um under the um not been on in any of the revisions of of the policy that I proposed after some feedback from uh it's all running together now I don't remember if it was the Librarians or the policy committee but at some point I got feedback that um and we agreed that I would put in a uh a place for the librarian to submit a statement about the you know the ucational suitability of the book or whatever the challenge criteria was um but the procedurally or logically for me it was that if a book is informally challenged which is which is what happens first before these committees are formed and all of this all of this procedure at that point
234the librarian has a has a chance to remove it if they they agree that is pervasively vulgar obscene or not educationally suitable so at that point the librarian has already rendered a decision so they would not be an objective okay so it's not a mistake that's what you want yes it's by Design any additional questions all right so motion to approve policy and regulation 6341 with an effective date of September 1st 2024 as presented all those in favor say I I all those post say no no eyes have then we on superintendent C thank you president Bertrand um board I want to start I I don't believe it was anyone's intent but through these policy discussions the past two months our library media Specialists have at times been regarded negatively on social media posts and
235in some discussion and I just want to point out that we as a team and I believe you um do regard them as highly qualified professionals and do value the work that they do in the district and that these discussions and changes are not a reflection of the work that they are doing as employees in the district I also believe that we as a district have followed bore policy and continue to and follow State Statute regarding materials and appropriateness and when there have been concerns from patrons um from parents we do take them seriously and have looked into each one of those concerns along the way we'll continue to do so under these updated and revised policies as well I want to start tonight celebrating with celebrating Patrick schy who is a 2019 graduate who
236was a member of the 18 player US men's national soccer team that competed in Paris the last several weeks while that did not turn out how he and we all would have hoped um that is an exciting celebration for the district um we welcomed 129 new Educators to the district last week spent a lot of time right here in this room um and this week we had just over 1,00 returning teachers come back to work and so collectively our staff of over 2,000 has been working incredibly hard um the past couple weeks to welcome as of right now 16,639 students to the first day of school next Tuesday August 20th um this has been a week of preparation meetings professional development training and team building as we prepare for the start of this year U
237Mr ster presented earlier but I really want to thank him our director of facilities and operations his entire team and Department as well as our outside partners for the capital improvement work this summer I don't believe he said it tonight but just over $50 million worth of Capital Improvements were done over 75 days this summer and that is really an incredible heavy lift for anyone to do in addition to all the other preparation to get the year started so thank you to our facilities and operations team for all of that work this summer um last week all of our new teachers gathered at the former Francis H Union building and participated in what's called 4E safety training um this is an intensive 4-Hour training that all of our staff have been through it's Hands-On and
238really teaches staff the skills to effectively respond to emergencies the four e are to educate Escape evade and engage um we work closely with St Charles County Police Department who come in and do that and I share that it's a reminder that we're always thinking about student safety and the safety of our staff and there are a lot of things that happen throughout the year and that's one example of a training that we do um that takes place each year I'd also like to take a moment to recognize the hard work of our district parents' team Teachers program they also do a lot of work over the summer um we have certified parent Educators who offer personalized visits to um family's homes they also come into our Center they focus on everything from developmental guidance
239parenting resources on sleep and nutrition tailored activities for students and it serves all the students living within the district and it's really working with the parents on these topics helping the parents fill in gaps or information that they would like um serves hundreds of families throughout the district and we're um working with them to bring them as a best practice Spotlight presentation to share with the board this fall a little bit more of the work that they do it's been mentioned a couple times but today was transition day for all of our sixth and ninth grade students and we've done this for several years now but it's an opportunity for those students to come in at the transitional years to be in the building get to walk their schedules ride the bus um get to
240know their teachers in a environment where the the scary upper classmen are not present and get to go through their buildings um and we heard a lot of positive feedback about the day today and it was also the first first ever transition day for the 456 new freshmen that are entering the new Francis Howell North High School this year salum shared the demolition did actually begin yesterday and while we're all sad to see that building come down um it's exciting that we're at the point of opening and welcoming our students and staff to the new building next Tuesday again we want to invite our entire Community to come to the opening celebration on Saturday August 24th at 2:00 there will be an official ribbon cutting ceremony with the board and other guests following that there'll
241be tours of the building and then from 4: to 8: that evening uh is their black and gold day where there will be scrimmages out in the field on the in the new stadium um activities for families going on throughout the evening so we hope everyone will join us uh there's a lot of great energy as we get ready to welcome our students on Tuesday um obviously this week's board meeting took a lot of people's energy and focus as it should but I hope now we all turn our attention to welcoming back our 16 and half thousand students um to the first day of school I want to again reiterate for all of our staff they put in a lot of work throughout the summer whether they're here in our schools and our buildings getting
242them ready they're working on lessons and planning at home um the work doesn't stop but everyone has been working hard to lay the groundwork for a great Academic Year um our staff's dedication to our students is amazing and really excited to begin a new year with our entire Community thank you board commentary first off I'd like to thank um this board and of course all the patrons as well that attended tonight um I thank this board for all the her hard work dedication and insights and thoughts that go into working and passing these any any policies not just the policies tonight it's not always easy as you may know to take a to receive close to 200 manufactured emails um over one one or two policies but that's exactly what happened this time I I
243would like to thank the board and for their diligence in sticking to what they what they believe that is right I also want to say that I attended the new teacher orientation and I was very excited to see so many best of the best teachers that we've hired that are excited and and just really really going to put their all into teaching for the next year I especially applaud our teachers because teaching makes all other professions possible think about it there's nothing happening unless you're taught so um I thank the many teachers that made the decision to join our school district and I as I told them at the at the lunch and that they made the best decision that they could have they join the best District in St Charles County and I really
244don't care what Wentzville Archard Farm or any of the other ones think we have the best we are the best and we will remain the [Music] best okay um I just wanted to say that I am thankful for the entire staff as they work to prepare for the beginning of school it is my hope our school Community can shut out the noise and focus on the students so everyone will have a great start to a new school year this new beginning is a good time to reflect on how we want to live learn and grow as humans teachers know they are to show the same kindness and compassion to all of their students and hope their students will learn to do the same they know all of their students are different but they make accommodations
245for them all whomever they are that is not only their job it is their calling life is hard and it's not always easy to hear other viewpoints but our teachers are expected to do that every day and they do because they want to make a difference we must do the same it is my hope we will all remember to lift up our teachers staff students and Families every day this school year we all cons send a note of thanks volunteer to help show kindness and caring to everyone in the school Community I'm continuing to hope we will one day be one howl where everyone who enters our doors will feel valued safe and welcome I to say U I had a good time on Tuesday seeing some of the teachers at Franc H North just
246a beautiful building um I I went there thinking I was going to be like carrying uh teacher supplies from the curb to their classrooms but that all all that had already happened um so I ended up just being there to help hand out lemonade um but talked to a number of teachers like what Jane just said really like The Treasure of the entire School District or each of those teachers um I did talk to Stephanie the opening custodian and just a reminder that everybody at that school and 129 knew um you know lot of things will learn at once so let's give extra Grace and encouragement to all of our staff and teachers especially um during these first few weeks uh I wanted to Circle back um Patron Randa Bell made a comment um regarding
247clarifying some language about discrimination um in order to be one how we have to make sure we protect everyone including the 25% of our school district who are minorities and so ID like to have a conversation on that at the next month meeting and um I just want to say uh well we hear the word values judgment a lot we trying to figure out what it means um but as a board member I I don't fit the description of District employee or staff or Personnel right um so for me I just want to say uh you know if you're somebody who is bullied if you are somebody who's lgbtq we see you you are important our district is better because of you you are filled to the brim with worth and value and our school
248district is so much better because you are in it and I just um today I visited a man who's on hospice and I don't think the man on hospice is thinking about the people who disagreed with him or the people who he passed along the way I imagine he's thinking about the people who who loved him and if you're somebody uh who identifies as LGBT you I would um I want you to know that I don't think the people on the board here they're not villains they're not people who who uh dislike you or harm you or or desire to harm you um but my best suggestion is if you're lgbtq uh to focus on the people who are surrounding you with love and kindness and care and uh may your attention be passed towards
249them at this time so thank you very much just real mine will be quick in years I guarantee you s so a couple things you talking about that is it's been a very busy week for me but I had a pleasant conversation with somebody that would sit that is across the aisle for me as some as you would say I sat down and we had talked for an hour and a half last night it was a good night we we didn't Shake papers at each other we didn't whistle at each other we didn't we just had a conversation I enjoyed the the meeting and if she ever wants to reach out again have a sit down I'm more than happy to do it because I'll talk to anybody um but and and I did I
250I went to the to walk the class schedule today and then this one it always strikes me when I they're they're sayings in Francis House Central and this one always gets me um and I happen to remember to take a picture when I walked by it no one can make you feel inferior without your consent Elanor Roosevelt is there in the hallway in Francis H Central speaks volumes that wasn't as short as you thought it was um I'll I'll be probably a little quicker than that um so this this week we all got an opportunity for our children to go and and meet their new teachers and and you know for me it's it's always you know a pretty special day because you know my kids are young and they're experiencing these new things and
251fortunately for us my um my littlest one um was able to get the same teacher as my older one which is kind of something that happens quite a bit around here but it was really neat to see that you know you know Mrs Stark remembered Isa obviously and and and really um embraced her and and one of the things that she said was that you know she always gets a hug whenever she's sees him sees her in the hallway and and you know that to me is is why we're all here is to raise these kids to be able to do that and and and really make sure that the teachers understand that that means something to us as parents but as I was there um you know going through these things you know obviously
252I had to get there first and it was it was not a an ideal situation in the parking lot when we pulled up and um we ended up having to you know park across the street there's a you know very very busy um four-lane road that we had to cross and and um it uh during rush hour and it was you know I I found myself you know I was like well I'll just drop you guys off at the front and then I'll go park the car and I'll come back up and and meet you guys up there so I did that and so I found myself with a bunch of parents and kids thinking this is bad you know parents kids crossing a bit busy road in during rush hours so um I kind
253of just jumped out in the street stopped a bunch of cars and Away everybody wentross the street well the first thing I did when I got inside was what I called Ken he didn't answer of course cuz he's doing something else so I texted Dr rompus and and I said this is what's going on somebody something needs to happen here somebody's going to get hit we need to figure this out and he said okay I'll handle it every we we'll figure something out we'll get you know the cops to come over whatever so we go into the building do what we have to do I'm coming out and what do I see Dr rompus in the middle of the street with a parking cone directing traffic getting yelled at by cops to not do that
254and you shouldn't be doing that and and I just kind of I looked at my wife and I thought this this is what we need this is the superintendent that that and she's like that's Dr Romus I'm like that's Dr rompus like and she can't see that far anyway so uh I was like that's you yeah that's Dr rpas out there in the middle of the street with a parking cone directing traffic so if anybody ever wondered what kind of a superintendent we have that's that superintendent I did not expect him to show up I expected to walk out with cops there something like that but to walk out and see this man that left wherever he was to come over and do that for the district just speaks volumes to me so congratulations that
255that's fantastic thank you [Applause] Ken all right I'll wrap us up I'll say a lot of the similar sentiments here so just you know we haven't been here long enough um just want to just like everybody else Express appreciation for all the teachers and admin want have worked all over the summer preping for the school year but also the teachers and Librarians who both returned to get to set up the new new classrooms new learning spaces and meet all the students um and definitely to all our support staff who keep the district functioning each and every day that we're we're here and even when when we're not sometimes um want to thank everybody for showing up tonight and listening onine line now interesting story um earli this summer a few of us I included had
256the opportunity to hear some stories from a former board member um that recollected a Time board member of board members yelling at each other until red some getting into each other's faces and even occasionally getting a little physical with each other um he spoke of how crazy everything was um so it just makes me think like sometimes emotions can run high in these meetings and I'm thankful for the people that I'm up here with and we can all get frustrated with one another or one things at one time um but we're all here to do the work for the district working to have robust dialogue come to Collective decisions I'm just thank each and every one of you for the time that you put in and the effort that you put forward um also I'm
257always happy to have conversations there's no guarantees I'll I'll agree we'll agree but if anybody ever wants to talk feel free to reach out um I'll just about that so thanks everybody for coming uh board like a motion to adjourn the meeting all in favor say I hi I suppose you know ni have it thanks everybody