001e e e [Music] good evening everybody we will get this meeting kicked off uh with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge the aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all or like a motion to approve the agenda for June 20th 2024 as presented oh I have an amendment to the motion to approve the agenda uh removing the first reading of proposed policy and regulations uh the policy committee has not been consulted regarding policy revisions or for the creation of these new policies additionally several of the administrators that oversee these areas are on vacation this is a very bad look for this board and for the Francis House School District following the proper channels is crucial for fairness
002transparency and the best learning outcomes for all of our students therefore I move to amend the agenda removing the first reading of all policy revisions deletions additions on the June 20th 2024 Open Session agenda so we have a motion to remove the first readings from the agenda I believe we have a second from director Blair discussion board I could add more um I think it is imperative to thoroughly discuss all implications of policy so there is no future litig a and for the Assurance of our basic freedoms we need to take a breath like I do take a step back rely on Research listen to education professionals and hear from all the groups that will be impacted by these policies in the public schools of America everyone deserves a place at the table I am
003committed to participating in a collaborative effort driven by trust and respect [Music] other comments board I would just say I agree with you carolly that thank you we should provide feedback and that's we should go through the right [Music] process we should be following a process we are by going do first we have not done any we have not followed any process [Applause] [Music] um all those in favor say I of the motion to admit remove first readings I I'll opposed to say no no we do a roll call can I please do that by phone call so this is for a motion to amend the agenda and remove the first readings of any policy and regulations as presented and I will start with director Ponder no director Owens I director Blair I director Harmon
004no president Bertrand no treasur pushkar no all right motion to remove first readings has failed um we will move back on to the motion to approve the agenda for 20 June 20th 2024 as presented all those in favor say I I all those oppos say no no no nice have it up next we have Patron comments residents of the district and staff members are invited to the address the board of education on issues related to the school district speakers are call forward in the order of signups and each speaker has three minutes to make their remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted the board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this
005evening and we value both your input and perspective we would like to remind everyone that we expect expect the speakers will remain civil and respectful when giving remarks if anyone fails to comply with those for policies regulations and rules we reserve the right to cut those three minutes short um director cook cannot be here tonight but he did want me to relay the message that he looks forward to listening to and seeing those as he sits in the airport awaiting his flight that has been delayed um so we welcome up uh Harper Schneider hi my name is Harper Schneider I'm a rising Junior at FHN and I've been a student in the Francis House School District since kindergarten I've always loved coming to school I've had wonderful teachers Who provided a safe place where curiosity
006and exploring new ideas has always been encouraged however today I stand before you disappointed for many years I noticed Francis how schools creating more opportunities for students that are diverse and inclusive however in the past year the board has revoked the resolution Against Racism proposed a bathroom policy targeting transgender students remove so social justice standards from black history and literature and recently did not renew Brain Pop these decisions all directly affect our students taking away our rights and opportunities does not show you care about students instead these decisions push individual board members beliefs into our education system if you don't believe me board Treasurer Jane pushkar quote in the sdl dispatch on April 8th we just have to get this shored up tight so it take any board that's liberal way too long to get
007it undone end quote it has become increasingly clear that your political agendas influence our rights and education ra rather than our welfare shielding students from certain topics and Cur curiosity impede student intellectual growth and destroys our education system under the status quo parents can see what their children are checking out in many different ways the proposed new policies and regulations give the petitioner more power over what I can read than my parents in addition the policies and regulations regarding the learning common and spam the board authority over the library materials and limit decision by the experts Librarians and teachers someone's gender and sexual orientation are often a big part of their identity students and staff are often a safe space for students regulation 6116 would make it harder for students to be seen or heard
008I want to end by that I think it is unethical and immature that some board members in their political action committee continued to use the students for Francis hell in our First Amendment right to protest to raise money and gang clout and political Arenas just this week on the radio director pushard mocked the 300 plus high school students who walked out for black literature and black history she insinuated that the protests were mediad driven and parent maybe if the Boe took time to listen to us you would understand our concerns the board's handling of that issue was unpopular with our community and many Nationwide before I end my speech I would like to say every single one of you who said your is up up next we welcome Laura trishan good evening board of directors
009fhsd cabinet and all who are here and viewing from home I am Laura trishan a teacher and proud fhea member the policy and regulation changes that are being proposed those are not good for our school district 0380 electioneering guidelines violates Title 9 suffrage and elections chapter 115 115.6 37 class 4 election offenses which prohibits quote any employer making enforcing or inting to enforce any order rule or regulation or adopting any other device or method to prevent an employee from engaging in political activities end quote there are already prohibitions in place that ensure that our buildings and staff leave politics at the door for the entire School day this policy would prohibit all residents from our district from quote electioneering on District property does this mean neighbors can't talk at a football game about their opinions
010for the upcoming presidential election will the high schools still be able to host their board candidate night or write anything deemed political by this board in newspapers and yearbooks will patrons of the district even be able to learn about a levy or bond from anything but mailers and canvasing when we finally get one back on the ballot will future board candidates be prohibited from speaking at board meetings even if their speech is about a specific issue this change is limiting free speech of everyone in the district policy 6114 curriculum adoption is also concerning because the curriculum is not defined will this include supplemental materials part of the art and craft of teaching is responding to our students learning needs on a daily basis this means that teachers create additional lessons to close gaps and clarify
011lessons as needed and students deserve the right to receive this support and not have to wait for this board to approve a supplemental lesson or activity that was not included in the original curriculum adoption regulation 6450 assignment of grades increases the weight of finals in four credit classes from 10% for 20% for what reason the decision to move from 20% down to 10% was made by a committee of teachers and District leaders working together why has the decision to move it back up not involved these stakeholders what is the board hoping to accomplish with this change the 9010 calculation is in line with surrounding districts and many colleges are changing their policies around high stakes testing like this when the state mandated the change in our start date this forced us to move the end
012of semester 1 after winter break if the test impact increases will that not be forcing students to study and work over what should be a break when we would prefer them to take that time to relax and enjoy their families what about students with testing anxiety or other related concerns a greater Impact May make them feel defeated and not even bother to try high stakes testing doesn't guarantee or even demonstrate learning fhsd is providing a high quality education to our students already and we do not need this change thank you up next we welcome agenda for me good evening several policies are on the agenda tonight for a first read I'm concerns with most but I only have three minutes I'm going to use my time to speak to policy 0380 which references election earing
013on District property I have four points I would like to make first promoting Schoolboard candidates is not an illegal activity there's no harm to health or property and it does not financially cost the district you are trying to limit the First Amendment rights of District patrons without due cause as taxpayers we are partial owners in this District's property and we have a right to be here second how are you going to Define electioneering and enforce this policy am I going to be removed from school if I walk into a parent conference wearing a t-shirt endorsing a Schoolboard candidate what if I'm talking to a friend about the Schoolboard race at an athletic event and the patron behind us overs what if I have a candidate magnet on my car when I pick up my child
014from vacation Station our sro's and administrators have enough to do and real problems to attend to third I find the hypocrisy and inconsistency in this policy astounding Patron comments at these meetings for the last 3 years have been peppered with endorsements of candidates running for the board and supported by multiple political action committees those Patron comments are taking place during board meetings on District property five members on this board were funded by a political action committee whose members sued the district when their political speech was prohibited at board meetings now this board majority funded by that pack has a problem with election hearing fourth and in my opinion most importantly you are attempting to prohibit contact regarding School related elections in the spes best suited for reaching individuals involved with schools where are parents and
015grandparents of District students they are at schools when I volunteered for campaigns and approach parents my first question to them was did you know there is school board election soon they frequently said they didn't and most of the time they were glad someone was bringing it to their attention and engaging with them about their thoughts parents are busy people but they want to be involved you are trying to restrict one of the best ways in which they can hear from candidates who are looking to represent them on this board it is undemocratic it is not in the best interest of the students and residents in Francis H and it is Unbecoming of you as District leaders I want to conclude with this question what do our district attorneys have to say about this policy and
016its [Music] legality next we welcome Nathaniel basset my name is Nathaniel Basset I have two autistic children who have been in Francis H schools for the past four years in the past I've worked in research and education earning a doctorate studying social and political impacts of media and technology and I believe in the importance of curiosity now my work revolves around educational and Career Development with industry and federal Employers in the region focusing on spurring economic development by building educational pipelines to high-tech careers there is a saying that a society grows great when elders plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in but the actions taken by the majority of this board are those of arsonists burning down a forest to eliminate what they don't understand and fill up the world with
017the emptiness inside of them the proposed policies shared for a first reading and those pulled from the agenda spell the death of curiosity this board seeks to establish itself as sole arbitrator of all curriculum and instruction in the district this effort's rooted in the anxieties and fear of the unknown what we haven't learned what we haven't read fear will strangle curiosity wherever it can St Charles County is moving from a fear over having children exposed to difficult ideas to these asfixia gasps for control by terrified people in front of me and elsewhere who want to decide what we are and aren't allowed to read in our public libraries and now in our schools Regional industry and federal employers are not looking for K through 12 graduates who barely know the basics for example the geospatial
018market is a 97 billion industry with a significant foothold in St Louis the colleagues and partners I have who are developing career opportunities for young people have emphasized the importance of critical thought broad perspective and competency When approaching difficult ideas ranging from stem subjects but also the humanities fear-based direction that Prides itself on ignorance in our schools has a far-reaching effect on our community it'll come for most marginalized Children First be they diverse disabled or different and then those who need less support but it will impact us all fear will ultimately impoverish us first by denying us of ideas then possibilities and finally options for our futures My Hope Is that members of this community come together to defeat each and every measure that the majority of this current board brings to us practice courage
019and replant a forest of possibility with the freedom to learn inspiring curiosity for years to come thank you for your time next we welcome Shanny Fraser my fellow board members and esteemed Community my name is Shanny Fraser I am a parent a teacher and one of the FHA membership directors today we confront critical revisions to our policies at strike at the heart of our duty to provide Equitable accurate and inclusive education to every student in Francis how School District policy 6116 newly incorporating regulation 6116 on human sexuality is intended to ensure that all information presented in our classrooms is medically sound and based on facts this policy affirms a fundamental truth sexual orientation and gender identity are distinct aspects of human identity they are not intertwined and it is our solemn responsibility to ensure that
020our students receive appropriate factual education on these matters however there are troubling elements within this regulation the prohibition against making value judgments on human sexuality is Paramount yet the current language particularly concerning transgender issues fears dangerously close to judgment and exclusion we must reaffirm our commitment to every student's dignity and well-being our classrooms must be havens of acceptance not Arenas of fear and discrimination turning to policy and regul regulation 6241 on challenge instructional material we find ourselves at a Crossroads yet again of educational integrity and parental involvement while it is essential to respect parental concerns we must also trust our highly qualified teachers to choose materials that support their curriculum's educational goals removing established guidelines for selecting learning resources jeopardizes the equality the quality and coherence of our educational offerings teachers meticulously consider multiple factors
021from age appropriateness to the accuracy of information when crafting lessons this holistic approach ensures our students receive a well-rounded education that prepares them for the challenges of Tomorrow moreover the composition of the Review Committee raises concerns about inclusivity and impartiality the selection process for Lay members must be transparent and inclusive of diverse perspectives are all a members required to be residents how will differing viewpoints be represented these questions demand Clarity and accountability to uphold our commitment to fairness and Community engagement the conversations that take place in this committee should be of intellect not Echo chambers of one perspective in conclusion our decisions today will shape the educational landscape for years to come let us reaffirm our commitment to truth inclusivity and educational Excellence let us ensure that every student feels seen valued and supported here
022in Francis H together we can build a future where diversity is celebrated knowledge is cherished and every child every child can Thrive next next welcome Adriana here I've been a parent in the Francis H school district for over 10 years and have never seen a Schoolboard director use our board for a political platform until recently on May 16th when Steven Blair directly used our board meeting to promote politics he disparagingly spoke of six elected officials by name then suggested citizens contact these elected officials during school board meetings directors of Francis hell School Board should not use our meetings as platforms for political agendas Stephen campaigned on not having politics in Francis hell yet he is the first director I've seen use our school board meeting as a platform for politics Blair's Schoolboard election campaign was
023funded by prominent politicians he was funded to the exact amount of $452 by one pack that was formed by Ted house a former Democrat Senator Stephen is this the reason you are using your seat to push political agendas because you owe the Democratic party who funded your election also Blair's own treasurer for his personal campaign is on the St Charles County Democratic Central Committee Blair's campaign was funded by democrats and within 1 month of him being Seated on the board he used our nonpartisan School Board as a partisan platform by negatively naming Republican elected officials it is no coincidence that he was funded by democrats and now he uses his voice to speak out against Republicans let me repeat not once in over a decade have I heard a Francis H Schoolboard director call out
024elected officials by name in any school board meeting this is unethical and unacceptable Behavior Swift action should be taken by our board to prevent this from ever happening again I propose one a formal warning be issued to Steven Blair by our board for using our Open Session board meeting for political purposes two I call for the board to put forth a vote and set a standard to prevent any board director from naming political officials or political candidates during Open Session board meetings this is a reasonable solution to make sure that our nonpartisan board directors do not put politics over education Open Session board meetings should be held to a high standard where directors are prohibited from speaking for or against elected political officials not only is this a gross misuse of a board position but
025allowing actions like this to occur only creates more division within our community tonight we have multiple first readings for policies pertaining to politics in our schools Steven Blair and carolly Owens you ran on slogans of no politics in our schools and now is the time to show if you really meant those words I truly hope you prove with your actions what you meant by your words and that you didn't only campaign on those slogans to get elected up next we welcome Amy easterly good evening I think the other speakers have covered the overreach so what I'd like to talk about tonight is the lack of care and respect that some of you have shown recently for our lgbtq students and community members director cook in a recent Facebook statement defending the removal of brain pop
026stated I don't support injecting the pride movement into schools since it inherently deals with sexuality attraction and sexual preferences now tonight we have new regulation 6116 from you director Bertrand which seems to prevent teachers from even acknowledging the existence of gendere expansive students this is going to get personal is the parent of a non-binary gay child I have one word for you stop these sentiments are hurtful and they add to the fear that parents like me experience when we send our children into a world with people like you again and again you deem lgbtq people as some sort of of social or political agenda and you constantly over sexualize them you are saying that my child's very existence is an agenda and somehow inappropriate in your warped vision of society please stop and listen I
027love my kids just like I'm sure that you love yours I'm their Advocate their cheerleader their encourager and sometimes the person who asked them to clean their darn room when our child came out to us three years ago my husband and I listened we educated ourselves and then we supported them when I asked teachers at Francis hell North to use my child's preferred name and pronouns I wasn't doing it to be political when I support the right of a teacher to hang a pride flag in their classroom it's not a social agenda when I support the rights when I question your bathroom policies it's not because I'm personally against you I do these things because I am a mom and I'm working to Aid and protect my child and others like them in the lack
028of empathy from Members some members of this board has been astounding and I promise you that I will not sit down even though both of my kids have graduated I'm going to continue to fight until all students are equally respected the teachers Administration and counselors at Francis H North I want to give them a shout out they were so supportive in recognizing my child's new name and pronouns and my child felt safe at school especially in their beloved art Department that is the direction that we need to continue to go and it seems that you are hellbent on taking us backwards I ask our community to remember that elections matter and to help us elect board members who will support all students thank you next we welcome Janny Wilkins I would guess that the majority
029of people in this room believe in parental rights if you support these new policies you support violations of parental rights tonight I'll focus on the learning Commons policies because that is where my own expertise exists as a parent of two high school students in our district a former Ela teacher and a current librarian I am shocked by the lack of expert knowledge in the proposed Library policies and these are by director cook who's not here tonight here are some of the violations of parental rights in the proposed policies number one violation one my kids will no longer have access to a wide variety of books that I want them to choose from did you know that recent data shows and I quote the research study students read more understand more and are more likely to
030continue reading when they have had the opportunity to choose what what they read or that another quote self- selected reading is twice as powerful as teacher selected reading in developing motivation and comprehension both ELA teachers and Librarians in this district will tell you that getting the right book in both expert readers and reluctant readers hands can be the key to creating a lifelong reader and this positively impacts test scores read the data our kids deserve books that are real to them this means those books will address topics teens are dealing with and gasp they will likely have curse words in them we don't curse in my home we're a Christian family but my kids read books with curse words in them and it doesn't make them curse in public one of my own kids who
031hates to read was so into the hunger gam series at sixth grade which I thought was a bit too young that they hid under their covers reading it late into the night want to know why it was so desirable because it was so shocking kids died over adults politics in that series well we can say goodbye to that type of book because of the violence listed in the policy and at it with M Of Mice and Men we can also say goodbye to some of our teachers who will not want to store away their cherish classroom Library when they can teach in a district that Champions all reading at appropriate levels violation number two my kids will experience censorship of books books at their schools this violates their freedom to read and my parental right
032to decide what they are allowed to read a study done by a BYU professor in 2012 analyzed 40 of the top selling young adult novels 35 of the 40 had profanity in them these are books that you know A Wrinkle In Time the Percy Jackson series are our Librarians going to be instructed to throw these books out where is the money coming from to buy wooden unrealistic books to replace them we can say goodbye to school environments rich with reading for Learning and pleasure your time is [Applause] up i' actually to welcome Jeff areli good evening I'm Jeff bargelski lead library media specialist for the district and I'm here to address some problematic proposed polic first to all of our students family staff and friends who live outside the dominant majority happy Pride y'all and
033happy Bittersweet juneth I see you I hear you and I serve you and all of our students our existing policies regarding the learning comment program serve you and all other H students they guide our work in serving our dynamic student population they were written in collaboration with District Librarians they are rooted in the fundamentals of librarianship they go beyond simply stating every student shall be given equal access to resources current policy is intentional about preventing artificial barriers that impact student access to materials but proposed policy 6341 and revisions to policy 6310 and 6241 were not drafted in collaboration with Librarians they are tall on artificial barriers Bo overreach and short on student rights current policy promotes the development of book collections that support and enrich the curriculum and or students personal interests and learning that
034reflect individual students needs abilities backgrounds maturity levels representing different viewpoints providing Global perspectives that have a high degree of user appeal and that earn favorable favorable reviews in standard review sources but in proposed policy you've redlined the universally accepted criteria that we use to curate a diverse collection of books for our students and that our Benchmark districts also use you've created an artificial barrier to the books our students love to read you've redlined students needs and interests proposed policy requires prior board approval before purchase of all library books with monthly bill limitations our Librarians are licensed and qualified so please let us do the work without the delay of approvals so we can honor our students needs and interests in a timely manner proposed policy regarding purchases creates an artificial barrier to student access proposed
035collection development policy is restrictive some of the students face heavy complicated issues at home as such our age appropriate book collections should sometimes address those complicated issues the limit of 10 occurrences of profanity in a title is out of touch with young adults and would prompt immediate censorship in our secondary realistic fiction collections same goes for our mystery science fiction and dystopian collections if anything considered a criminal act in the state of Missouri like rioting in the face of institutional overreach is banned from our books your proposed orwellian policies build barriers and they Redline students experiences and interests proposed policies include Provisions to maintaining transparency like submitting inventories and sending more emails to parents but we've always been transparent with our parents current policy honors the voice of concerned community members lays out a trans
036transparent committee CH committee challenge process it involves the complainant Librarians teachers administrators a board member it includes parents and even students at the high school level book challenges proposed policy however removes Librarians and students from The Challenge committee you've redlined our students again and proposed policies stack the board stack the committee with four board selected lay persons not even stipulating that they all be District patrons thank you your time is up [Applause] up next we welcome Julie McDonald's I've been a teacher in the district for 23 years I'm proud to be the political action director for the teachers union fhaa real issues that Francis House staff grapple with include extreme student behaviors due to a lack of appropriate resources to address their needs never having enough substitutes or support staff a general lack of time
037the list is staggering board members betran cook pushkar Harmon Ponder instead of wasting our time with these policies that do nothing but fan the Flames of your ongoing political agenda can we get in a dialogue about real problems that need to be solved in our district your actions show us it's not about helping our district become stronger it's about advancing your agenda a couple summers ago we started summer break with Randy cook calling teachers groom since then the attacks on staff members and minority groups have not stopped when you do not water and fertilize the necessary aspects of public education it wilts I want to see my district Bloom not continue to wilt berran cook pushkar Harmon Ponder Francis House staff see that you are choosing politics over helping us Bloom and the voters see
038it too when Jane pushkar agreed with the opinion that the teachers union is trash Steve came to our defense and said that teachers are Treasures not trash Carol Le is a retired teacher who understands our realities Steven Blair and Carly Owens are board members that care about all students and want to help not harm simply put that's why they won the election in April how refreshing and encouraging to work with them it was a thing of beauty to witness the Francis how Community come together and work so hard this past election cycle to elect board members that believe in an equitable public education for all students now the work is finding two more candidates that share these Notions so we can get back to watering fertilizing and growing we will fhaa Francis how forward and
039St Charles County families for public schools rallied dozens of Francis House staff and community volunteers who engaged with voters that were appalled to see the district on national and local news because we have board members using their positions of power to do things like take away black history literature courses question professional development bash the teachers union terrorize transgender students and basically just cause chaos and division instead of using their positions of leadership to bring positive changes you can either take these divisive policies and put them in the shredder or add to the list of reasons voters will show up again on April 8th next we welcome fhaa [Music] good evening Board of Education executive cabinet fhsd students staff parents and patrons I am Anita Keener president of fhaa a parent of FHA fhsd graduates a
040grandparent of a preschool student and a voter in this District fhea was absolutely shocked to find out find policy and regulation changes on tonight's agenda without any collaboration with us District regul ation 4832 States board policy will not be changed without prior notice to fhaa and our do and our closure document which is a Le legally binding document States in article two recognitions recognitions bullet 3 board policy will not be changed during the term of this agreement without prior notice to and input from the Francis he Education Association as the association president I received the agenda at the same time as the board members there is nothing prior about that nor was I or any of my executive officers allowed to provide input because of specific language about revisions in the 4,000 series including included
041in our closure document and board regulations fhaa notified the board of a grievance because the outlined process was not followed discussion with fhaa and District administration and editorial review by the policy committee should happen before presentation to the board to avoid a breach of contract 4631 maintaining professional boundaries and 4632 advocacy activities were removed from tonight's agenda the proposed elimination of 4430 District committees and its replacement which was identified as 060 strategic committees were also removed fhaa and the policy Comm play important roles in making sure the implication of policy and regulation changes are fully studied specific members of this board need to embrace the collaborative culture of this district and realize that we are a high performing District that we are because of work because we work together to make decisions that are in
042the best interest of students staff parents and patrons the elimination of brain poop without any collaboration is another recent example at no time were Educators consulted about how they used Brain Pop the science behind providing multimedia lessons or which lessons are even being used in a survey of our members 58.3% of our respondents reported that brain poop appears in their board approved curriculum elementary teachers do not have a primary textbook so now they will have to scramble to find resources online we urge you to reconsider this decision and invest your time in true collaboration thank we in the top time is [Applause] up up next we welcome Pisa next welcome Peace p now PE representatives and board I like a motion to approve the consent agenda for June 20th 2024 as presented pushard all those
043in favor say I I all those opposed say no I have next we have action items um Mo board I like a motion to approve the financial report including budget amendments and transfers as presented sove Miss in good evening board it's great to see you again this evening for the second time this month uh we do have a very brief Financial presentation for you of course as you are well aware the budget presentation was made during the last meeting as well as a multitude of reports throughout the year and you'll have opportunity to vote on that later so the financial report provides you again our fund balance projection for the end of the year this again assumes that we would spend all dollars budgeted and for expenditures and then also receive all revenue items budgeted
044as represented by fund I have a note at the bottom there that the fund balance percentage estimate is changing from 3.35% to 29.4% and that's relative to that food service equipment for Francis H North we discussed that the the balance in the Food Service account was appropriate to spend towards that that equipment and free up some of those Bond dollars so that transfer is included within this please note that it's represented within the bond fund but that collapses for desie or Department of Elementary and secondary education reporting into the regular capital projects fund and that's how it will be represented on the asbr or the final expenditure report to the state this is a a view that no one can read on the screen but just a reminder that the documents for Bond financial information
045are posted each month under the financial report agenda item and I'm highlighting for you that as of May 31 that balance is now adjusted to 1, 48411 of not yet committed items a reminder too that we will put items on and pull items off relative to that prioritization for HVAC or heating ventilation and air conditioning items and uh also we will continue to bring all of that information to you as separate agenda items for you to vote important to note that is as of May 31 with the fa amount recommendation this evening that came in under bid and Mr ster will cover that for you under a separate agenda item we will see this number grow if it reaches a point that it will cover an additional HVAC uh recommendation and then we'll add that
046back on to the full recommendation for you this is a slide to briefly cover for you some of our investment information and so this is a new item of sharing we have been posting this investment report on a monthly basis for you we are governed by board policy and regulation 3160 relative to Investments we align to those that are appropriate for the state of Missouri so our policy align BS us to that which the state of Missouri must comply with and keeps us all compliant with Missouri statute we also have a depository with UN Bank unb bank and we bid that every five years per statute that is an item that must be bid our next bid for that will occur in the spring leading up to July 1 of 2027 the other allowable avenues
047for us for investment purposes other than us investing on our own perhaps pay paying an investment officer to check out different um investment paper that might be advantageous for us which would cost more to have that position than it would be worth when you have uh entities such as a Missouri Capital asset Advantage treasury or Missouri Securities investment program that are allowed by uh statute and policy so so we do partner with those entities in addition to our routine depository Bank on the investment report we provide you each month with the interest rates that we received at the time we are always focused as are our partners for investing on legality complying with board policy and regulation on the safety and for your information it takes two people in the finance department to be able
048to affect change moving funds between accounts it takes uh moving um more um authorization rather in terms of moving it outside of a financial institution so all that work is handled by team members uh leaders within the finance department and we're very safe in how we operate on that liquidity meeting our cash flow needs is highly important so that we can pay our bills and our payroll to our people when it's due and lastly even though it's great to earn a fantastic interest rate like we've seen this past year that is our last priority in terms of managing the funds for the district this is a reminder to you of all the things that happen as we end the year so while we have you approve bills each month and other transactions and adjustments we
049will continue to conduct our normal business operation through June 30 and where there may be more revenues that are received and expenditures paid as well as other adjustments we also have our financial auditor scheduled that's hanon Camp PC used to be show Walter uh to come in to do their preliminary field work on June 24 they also are scheduled already for their primary engagements the week of October 14 October 28 and also the week of November 4 our requirement to meet desie and statutory requirements is that we provide the final audit and financial information to the department by December 31 and that only comes after you accept it at a board meeting an open board meeting in the meantime we must finalize information that closes out the fiscal year that report to the department is
050due by August 15th and that's the preliminary deadline they do allow us to continue to uh make changes to that information they're basically like amendments like we would do for Budget if we don't meet the December 31 deadline which I don't know of a district that would avoid that deadline because uh we would be subject to potentially not having state revenue come into our bank account uh on a routine basis so that's the penalty but um any District I know of complies with that including Francis House if you have any questions I would be happy to answer those for you questions Bo thank you Miss in okay thank you very much right board just as a reminder we have motion on the table to approve the financial report including budget amendments and transfers all those
051in favor say I I all those opposed say now guys have it Bo we have can I have a motion to approve the purchases as presented Ponder pushkar all those in favor say I I all opposed to say no eyes have it and Bo I have a motion to approve number eight JG andm Consulting as presented discussion board yeah I had hoped that Dr Van could be on the phone you're trying to get him I am doing that okay as we speak so Dr Vanderpool is very ill this evening including uh running a fever so uh we appreciate him thinking of the rest of us and not um joining us with his fever but I have him on speaker phone ready to answer questions that you might have good evening and thank you for the
052um the uh flexibility to to be available to answer the questions I'm looking at number eight JG andm Consulting um one of the first questions that I have is please explain the 621 minutes of instruction and the 495 minutes of consultation when I subtract when I figured that out it's 10.35 hours of instruction and 8.25 minutes of consultation but anyway can you explain let's start there can you explain what that what that that means what what happens during those minutes well during the uh direct minutes um the onm is working with students um and so an orientation and Mobility specialist helps students that have visual impairments navigate their environment um both out in public and in the schools and then the consult is the time provided for our staff um there's some training that needs
053to happen for staff that are working with the students throughout school day so if a student is using a cane um helping staff understand how the cane works and how to um support the student as they navigate the building okay so you said this is to cover 27 students in 12 buildings is that correct that's yes okay so are what controls are in place to ensure that any any invoices that we see from uh JG andm are valid meaning that nobody's I I know you're not going to each building every day um who's supervising these activities and who could verify that the services actually took place well he is um expected to turn in um an invoice essentially to us listing out the students the time of day the minutes that he seen them um
054he schedules that with buildings and uh go pushes in to make sure that those service minutes are met um we cross reference that later uh with we're looking at the number of minutes on his contract the IEP minutes for a student and making sure they alignment um I can't say that one for one every time he's seeing a student there's someone else verifying but typically we're If he if a student has 200 minutes a quarter on their IEP and he's pushing in and we're expecting the case managers to confirm that that's taking place throughout the year well I can see we have a little bit little bit of work to do there but furthermore when I read through the contract it allows this provider to use subcontractors or it because it mentions or his employees
055in the performance of these Services however nowhere in there does it claim that the subcontractor must be a licensed professional that needs to be changed or added to the contract also it doesn't say anything about sub subcontractors having to be approved by the district I don't know if that's normal practice for us or not uh maybe you could speak to that yeah and I don't I don't have the the specific document you're referring to right in front of me um the subcontractor I'm assuming is is the omm yes well it's it's jar we're not Contracting with another person it's no it's it's Jared is listed Jared I forget his last name g gurg or something like that anyway he is listed as the provider but further down in the contract it mentions that he can
056subcontract some of this work out and my concern is that we may end up with a un licensed individual yeah and I would I would have no we use a a standard contract that the district that's provided so from from our legal team I I have no problem if that was struck and and then approved um U that that yeah we don't we don't Jared's the only one that provides a service and we verified that he has the the uh proper credentials okay and I know that it says in there that they go through a background check and all of that stuff so okay Carol's shaking her head yes and that's a good thing that's a good thing okay and and and Dr Vanderpool is correct this uh actual contract was developed by legal council
057for our use and uh but but to your point perhaps in certain scenarios we might need to strike certain language from that okay I would suggest that be done before it's signed okay um I don't have I guess any other questions unless any other member of the board does about that I guess just then make a clarification are you wanting to make a motion to amend the motion to strike the ability to subcontract from the contract yes so do I'd like to I make like to make a motion to amend the motion to have the subc to have the contract strike that portion of it that or or is it motion to approve this item with that subcontractor language or REM I make a motion to approve this with the changes as mentioned to the
058contract okay clarify you'd like to amend the motion to approve number eight GJ andm Consulting with a amended contract that strikes the ability to subcontract yes and I will add I'll work with Carol later on how we may and end up looking at some more controls for how that all happens but that I don't want to make that contingent run now so point of clarification what's the change so the change would be to amend the motion to the motion would still approve number eight would change the contract language to remove the ability to subcontract from so the service Brier be the one that has to provide the service gotcha and does this person provide the service directly or does he naturally subcontract like does that I believe that's what Dr Vanderpool indicated that this he
059does not sub cont out correct correct yes we we hire him to do the service not others so just do we have a second before we do that I'd like to also make a motion that we change the in the contract it says all invoices go to Dr Vanderpool we'll have to pause pause on that okay so we have a motion in a second on the table any questions on the on that motion board all right so actually yeah um does it really I mean I guess it does matter obviously I I understand what where you're coming from on this but if the subcontract subcontractor is District approved goes through the background checks and um is also a licensed professional does it matter no it doesn't but it doesn't line it out in that's what
060I'm saying I as and maybe that's what the language says if once we get to that point if he does have to some subcontract then it has to be approved by the district but I don't think that I I would just like to say that we would we would have concerns in our department if he was to subcontract this out um we we do vet the individual doing this work and and I there would be there'd be some red flags if he was having to have other people that we don't know working with our kids sounds like Dr doesn't have any issues with saying this is the person has to do it right yes questions all those in favor say I I all those oppos say no eyes have it all right so right now
061our motion is to approve number eight GJ andm Consulting um with the amendment to strike the ability to subcontract as um any other discussion on that board all right all those in favor say I I all those faos say no ni have it back board we have a motion to approve number 11 the Center for Autism education as presented second discussion board okay I have a question for Dr vanderp um in currently it looks like we're requesting $538,000 for six kids two two student I mean students two students are being contracted for $5,00 ,000 and the remaining four are contracted at $82,000 each can you please describe what these Services contain yeah so students that attend the Center for Autism or um applied Behavior Services are um placed there uh because of their significant needs
062typically there students that have um some more behaviors than we can support in school setting and aren't able to make progress in a large school building um when you see differences in the contracts like that it's typically because those students require two onone support So along with the teacher the therapist uh the behavior analysts working with them they also require two support staff with them at all times so do they go to the center of autism or does the Center for Autism come to them no no all the students go to the Center for Autism so you you have deemed that these children or these students cannot be um I guess educated or or properly handled is that the word handled in in our in the environment of a reg school that that is a
063decision made by the I team collectively sorry Dr sorry sorry I can only hear PS in pieces um I apologize um the the teams we we're very fortunate in our district have a lot of strong autism programs um we have a behavior analyst several actually that work at the district level that push in Provide support to buildings and our special education teachers but when we've exhausted all that we can do and we see the students continuing to um need more than what we can provide or becomes a safety risk to themselves for others we start to look at the outside placements as a way to provide that really intense support that students need at the risk of sounding and don't misunderstand I I totally um I guess I totally get the fact that um certain
064autism spectrums have a very hard time with education because of their sensory issues but has this been sent out for bid or have we looked for anything that may be a comparable type of service for maybe less money um no but there's only a couple of U programs in the area that even provide it um newer programs that have actually come up are more expensive um we've worked with the center for ISM and abs for several years and when it comes to costs they're pretty competitive um each year the districts does something um called the high needs fund where we look at kids that we're providing services to across our district we seek reimbursement from the state for students that have excess costs and and and we can look at the students in our buildings
065and and some of them even reach you know numbers that are close to what we send students out to the Center for Autism for so um financially um it it can be pretty close we would require just as many staff and people working in a small classroom with the students um so we we've run the numbers in the past thinking is this something that we should be bringing in house we should you know open a building like we have at Westwood and in the end it it doesn't it doesn't make sense they can do this better honestly and um than we can okay thank you for that that um clarification Dr vanderp um as you can imagine six kids and $538,000 there's a lot of money so I appreciate you're explaining in detail exactly what
066happens okay I will maybe just add and any other board members can add comments as well um as a parent with a child with with an IP I would say the IP teams do a very good job of trying to match up the the needs for for the for the children that that pleas understand I was not calling out anybody you know any anybody that works from an IEP or any child that has an IEP no I just want to say I appreciate the questions uh this is new to me I'm not familiar much with what's going on at the center of autism education so I appreciate the opportunity for will to be available and for Jane to ask the questions but I would like to say I I think in that contract to it
067says all invoices must go to Dr Vanderpool and I'd like to make sure that we put in some controls that there's more than one set of eyes looking at the invoices and and I would offer to you on that that our our St protocol is that the invoice does go to the originator they're the first uh checkpoint to review that information their staff in each department or building also does that and then it progresses through to accounts payable where it's reviewed as well before being paid this one was a little bit different than some of the other ones okay but I get it Carol okay thank you president B I would like to offer based on the questions and I demonstrates that we offer a significant number of different programs both internally and externally to
068meet our student needs some that do come with significant Cost U I think it is a great opportunity that we as we think about next year's board schedule and work sessions um to do an informal work session where we share some of the different programs for a variety of different needs just to better educate the board and our public about what we are offering and some of the associated costs so that our community understands where our tax hours go with these programs I really appreciate that and I I just want to say um you know for a long time uh kids with autism have been near and dear to my heart and uh you know they they they're so special and they're they're just fantastic um fantastic young kids and and in my mind they
069deserve every single thing that we can possibly ever give to them and and every bit of support that we that we have and when I see these numbers I it just doesn't whatever they need is what they need and and that's just how I how I've always talk about it so um will that's a message from me to you we got to do what we got to do but obviously we uh you know everybody understands that we've got to you know watch these things no matter who it's being provided to but um this is um I think a fantastic program that that we've got going on here um with the sers for autism and and we need to continue to do what we can do for these kids and I in no way suggested that
070they could should get anything except excellent care all right Bo we have a motion to approve number 11 Center for Autism education all those in favor say I hi I was suppos say no guys have it okay next we have a motion for to approve number 13 the center for exceptional learning as presenta after this Dr vul you can you can relax okay first the first and a second discussion board okay after this Dr vand I hope you can relax um so I looked up this company and it has eight employees their certifications or licenses are as F follows there's a special instructor SL teacher is the owner a certified occupational therap therapist three teachers assistants two special instruction SL teers and one special education teacher it doesn't say that any of these teachers are
071certified so I'm wondering if you have any idea of who these I mean are are these certified teachers who who are they we I mean we have all of this on staff except for the the occupational the therapist and to be honest we're not an occupational therapy instit tion um but there's nothing that make in this contract that makes any mention of any of these people being certified or licensed except for maybe the specialized teacher so those are special placements and the key would be that the the teachers would be specializ certified that would be the requirement the the state actually approves the agencies and verifies that the staff working at those agencies are appropiately certified um and accredited so we we have to follow that we can't place a student unless the state has
072actually given approval and and as for that agency okay is this the only company that can provide that that care for these two students for $4,850 well um yes and no that's a little complicated because we have several providers in the area that we utilize for students with high needs um and sometimes when we're looking at placing students it's it's based on availability um we don't want a student to go without service is too long but when there becomes a point where they're not being successful in their school environment and typically we're seeing students that have some significant Behavior so they're not safe um we we need to find the placement that's that's local um that can provide appropriate Services um and so sometimes we're looking at we're looking at different schools in the area
073there's only a handful um schools sorry okay okay I mean I think that's all the questions that I have any other questions for any any other questions for all those in favor say I I I'll suppose to say no I have it thank you very much Dr Vander P I'll TT I'll put it on here anyways I hope he feels better appreciate him be being able to call in um board up next we have a motion to approve the 2024 2025 budget as presented Dr thank you president Bertrand uh you'll all recall that at our June 6th meeting Miss Embry presented a detailed presentation of the 20124 25 recommended budget um we are presenting that budget this evening and includes a balanced operating budget with expenditures totaling $245,900 year with an estimated fund balance of
07428.35 we believe this budget to be prudent as we continue to be cautious regarding future Revenue based on enroll on enrollment and challenges and changes based on our local state and federal funding which were highlighted highlighted both last board meeting as well as throughout the year with the changes coming at the state level um taxing changes changes in our fit Revenue Etc we want to remind everyone that this recommended budget is really based on our best analysis at this point in time and um Miss Embry and the department have really gone to Great Lengths this year to provide monthly updates as we learn new information to update our budget and bring those amendments to you throughout the year and that will be our intention as we move into next year uh we'll also continue to
075engage the board and all of our stakeholders as we talk about our budget U making decisions to keep us in a position to continue to provide a high quality education for our students um and competitive salaries and benefits for our teachers and staff so I want to again thank Miss Embry Mr Meyers uh Miss Walsh and the rest of the finance department all the leaders who spend a significant amount of time preparing this budget for you and will'll allow Miss Embry to answer any questions that you may have regarding the recommendation questions board all those in favor say I I I suppos say no eyes have it we like a motion to approve the insurance plan and premium contribution recommendations as presented Rus thank you again also at our June 6th meeting we shared our
076health insurance renewal recommendations for the 2425 plan year um and there have been no adjustments since that recommendation was made to you earlier this month um to highlight a couple of pieces after a review of the RFP that went out we are recommending continuing with personal assistant Services as our employee assistant program provider we are recommending a dental insurance premium increase of 2% with no plan design changes for the next um Insurance year we do recommend continuing with Sigma for our medical plan Administration and accepting the proposal from Express scrips to serve as the new Pharmacy provider when we switch to the new plan year for next year um as Mr Meer shared with you earlier this month for the medical plan we are recommending a 6.7 increase in premiums um that will be shared
077both by the district at a 6.7% increase as well as by the employee with a 6.7 increase um for their premiums and that is to cover the increase in expected expenses in next year's plan um there were no plan adjustments being Rec recommended for next year there's also a $200 increase in the embedded deductible on the CDH plan per IRS regulations so again um I want to thank Mr Myers for his work Miss Embry and the team um as well as the insurance committee that came together there was unanimous support for these recommendations that were shared with you earlier this month questions for all those in favor say I all those say no eyes have it next we have a motion to approve the Fairmont Elementary School addition and Renovations bid package as presented Mr
078Scher good evening board uh before you for consideration is a recommendation to award a Construction contract to uh crazy construction for the addition and renovations good thank you good evening board before you for consideration is a recommendation to award a Construction contract to frzy construction for the addition and Renovations at Fount Elementary we do have a short presentation for you this evening we'll walk you through the process uh for consideration and ultimately your approval so so uh at the April board meeting uh board approved to uh let bids for that package and uh we received really great competition we had seven General Contractors participate uh in the bid process and uh you can see the bid tabulation there and frzy uh on bid day this is a base bid plus performance bond and we did
079have two alternate bids that will I'll talk about here in the next slide for a total uh bidday amount of uh 6,684 950 we did have two alternates alternate number one uh as part of just routine mechanical electrical Plumbing Systems uh review we worked with Amron uh that specific site uh when you're factoring the addition is vulnerable to power outages due to the loop that's coming in so they recommended that we uh address that as part of this work and so we set that up as an alternate and you can see what that alternate came in on the bid tab alternate number two uh again during systems review uh there was an asfalt section just adjacent to the gymnasium uh that has some compromised subbase and uh we're already doing quite a bit of milling
080and uh overlay as part of the original package and so we went ahead and uh set that up as an alternate as well and so um we've shared shared with you in Prior board meetings uh honer's estimate as well as a thirdparty estimate and so this evening we would recommend the board approve crazy construction to provide labor and materials um for the addition and Renovations of Fairmont Elementary for a total cost of 7,184 and9 700 7,184 $198 and that also factors in uh some soft costs as well as some f and we've listed uh that out so I'd be happy to take any uh questions but that is our recommendation to you for consideration uh just a couple of notes when you base uh the bid what we brought forward based off of what owner's
081estimate was as well as the third party estimate uh we're lower by $625,500 owners estimate and the third party estimate uh lower by 1,889 911 so be happy to take any questions the board may have um just a a quick little note we don't have a schedule yet uh pending your approval we will jump on that right away and develop a schedule that uh we will share with the board uh as appropriate you just stole my thunder so when do we start and how long will it take I will uh provide that as soon as we can uh get a schedule uh but uh we we will start very soon I guess do you have any foreseen issues that no we've you know through the systems review and everything uh We've we believe we've covered
082everything and obviously with uh new construction um we've already done all the soil testing and all of that that the board has approved in Prior board meetings and so uh we feel good there uh but really we don't over we don't foresee any unforeseen circumstances I assume for has a a good reputation in the industry they do yes we've uh they on a bid or cooperative or something uh no uh this this was a hard bid uh they they chased it just like anybody else uh that that owns a a general contracting company uh they have a very good reputation we've already checked references we we've debriefed with them regarding uh the number that they submitted they feel comfortable that they've uh addressed all of the Scopes uh in the package and so we feel
083good about bringing that recommendation forward for consideration and ultimately your approval all right thank you Mr ster okay thank you board all those in favor say I I I was supposed to say no I'd like not that I abstain is have it all right thank you or up next we we have policy regulations for review that has been requested that we have some discussion so we have split these up into um kind of groupings between the topics that they cover so we'll be just kind of going through those one by one and having any discussion or commentary that is appropriate there so our first one up is policy regulation relating to electioneering guidelines uh director beran or president Beren I move to table the first read on policy and regulation proposals until there are discussions
084with fhaa negotiations then the proposals will be submitted to the policy committee then the proposals are to be sent to the entire board for review as for closure document Article 2 bullet 3 this is past practice and allows for transparency to the entire Francis H Community additionally we need to be careful not to cause a breach of contract with fhaa so I'm asking again we have a motion on T motion to table policy first policy readings we have a second second second first by suest by director Owens and second by director [Music] Flair any discussion commentary board uh I just had one question and that was whether or not um going forward with the first reading is in violation of the contract is this in breach of contract uh if it is then we should
085not do it but if you have confidence that it is not breach of contract then that's a different story based on all the feedback I have given is not a breaching contract um they've been giving this the 4000s we want to make sure that they go goes to them um in the manner described um but any other ones as long as they provided notice not be a um who assured you of that are legal comments questions all those in favor say I of the motion to table first reads I I allos say no no no those have it so we'll move on to first read um in any discussion of policies a Rel to the election earing um I was had a quick thought and um I realized this is not normal for a first
086reading so I appreciate the generosity allowing at least a small bit of input to be uh provided here uh I just disagree with removing the paragraph the blocks the Free Speech outside of school buildings U when I was campaigning I talked with hundreds of uh parents um I know Carly Owens did on two different occasions I was able to be there once with um candid adrion and also candidate Sam young and in all those situations it was civil and cordial um I had a good conversation with Sam and Francis Al High during a storm talking about robotics um I think it was vable for me to hear from parents I think it was valuable for parents to hear from candidates um I would I would believe that the other three thought the same thing and
087uh I just believe this is a removal of um access and speech and I just want to VI that as an input as we consider Shar next policy committee before next time comment um I believe this violates freedom of speech I'm not a liner I'm a teacher and I can delete that anything else um I will say I don't know this was submitted by director cook um so I was was not involved in the writing of it um but I know there was a number of complaints during that so I don't know I don't necessarily agree with the language that that's here is written but I think there is potentially room to say what's right I think some maybe some guidelines from from the district weren't necessarily followed and complaints inspired because of that um
088I know a lot of parents reached out to me reached even more so to my wife people she knows from across the district on having questions on why am I I'm here for parent teacher conferences why am I having to go through this and get people come up to me trying to push papers and so there may still be something to look at I think well taken no I think like facts are our friends and I know one person actually is putting um information like sticking it to uh car windows that was somebody who was there on on my behalf and we obviously had told them like don't do that and corrected them but that's example of somebody who again there's a good policy in place somebody just went against it and there's correction so
089I think keeping the policy in place and then correcting it would be a good idea so maybe instead we could give better guidelines to the candidates and maybe they would have to do some kind of a course so that they would know what's expected them cuz I had to remind I'm not saying who another candidate that they were too close to the door 25 ft and I just said you know you're too close to the door wasn't a fight yeah um but it's free access to information yeah I don't I don't think anybody anybody Minds anybody being there what what I think that that they have a problem is is like you said when you're having when you're when you're going up to a security vesle and you're trying to open the door and there's
090people blocking the door which happened to me and I it was it was just inappropriate at that point so you know backing off abiding by rules and having some as set some some regulation some outline some guidelines is absolutely so what I've seen as a problem with all of this is things are not written properly and here we're deciding to vote on things that are not written properly that will cause US problems in the future so we need to make sure they're written properly before we do this that's why we go through the proper channels and I think if we did that we would all come to agreement that there are things I think there should always be you know looking at you should always be looking at policy and regulations how can we do
091it better what does work what doesn't work but you don't just do it in a a halfhazard manner you follow a plan so that you come up with the best plan for everyone so no one is discriminated against and no one is treated unfairly and everyone has a voice we want everyone to have a voice in all these processes that's what schools are about they're about collaborating number I think is the importance of having a first read and going through this discussion so you're saying after the first read then we will change them that is a possibility that's point of feedback collaboration so see I thought a first read meant that this is what we are going to vote on exactly how this is reg is that not correct there's nothing Dr rumus can you
092clarify on that I would say that that part of the process is not clearly identified historically what has been the practice is the feedback is taken and if there are changes they are made if they're substantives sometimes they are brought back to the committee for additional discussion or the board or the board could vote to move forward with those changes written into the second read so it really it's an opportunity to provide input after the first read and then the board will consider that and would have an opportunity to approve or send it back for further discussion before it will be voted on and put into policy regulation well would you think it would be better that we follow a procedure before we do all of this work by fixing things we write it correctly
093first and then we don't have all these issues I think the purpose of getting the feedback is to hear points of view from different stakeholders then to incorporate those suggestions into the updated policy or regulation to bring back to the board for final approval so yes I think we can always improve on the process and and what that looks like um there are sometimes when things are initiated by different stakeholders or possibly through a pin form and go directly to the committee and then come to the board we have had instances of board initiated policy or regulation that are read first here then go to the committee then come back we've also had certain instances where a policy has been brought to the board for a first and a second read at the same meeting
094because of a unique or specific situation so it sounds like we maybe need a better plan or or followup plan I think there is definitely an opportunity to have more clarity about what the process looks like as the policy and regulation around policy and regulation does not clearly identify every single step that's accurate yes I'm just concerned that all the I mean there's a lot of pages and if they're not looked at by the eyes that know you know like lawyers and and our our experts in the classroom our administrators you you know the people that are in charge of all these programs that we're going to make mistakes because just listening to a few people say I think we should do this this well it might sound good but does it work and does
095it work for everyone well so I think there's just way too much information here for us to even know what's right and what's wrong what is legal what isn't I I feel like it's just too much of I I don't even I can't even understand some of it so that is a step in the process we get input from our legal council if we need to get a second opinion from other legal council MSB or other organizations we do that um the intent is to bring these policies to the policy committee um we don't always meet in the summer but we have talked based on this set of policies and other recommendations that we didn't meet at the end of the year doing a meeting in July before there any of these would come back
096for a second meeting would also provide an opportunity for us to with policies that were removed this evening to meet with FHA leadership and discuss and get their input as well as to allow Administration time to get input um whether it's by an apartment to get input summmer is a little bit harder just because of vacation and other schedules but my understanding is that that is the intent this is the first step of getting feedback tonight that we will do a policy committee meeting um in early July and be able to combine that input as long as as well as if we need to get additional input from our legal councel so the board has all that information as they move forward in the process and what about other stakeholders in the district parents and
097not teachers so there are there teachers and support staff as well as our transportation Association are all represented on the policy committee um after a first read tonight there's also an opportunity for all those stakeholders as you're aware you've been getting that feedback over the course of this week that those emails are send um emails that only come to us that we would also share that feedback with you well I feel a lot better knowing that we're not voting on as written there there is no vote and no action tonight so the reality is we could have this discussion and a board member could choose not to move a policy regulation forward at all they could choose to move it forward with modification or edits um or they could make a recommendation to move it
098forward as exactly it's right tonight is just a first reading to put it out there in the public for feedback and discussion but to clarify legal's always consulted legal's always consulted before first read isn't that correct not I would not say always before a first read and probably not always but often especially if there are any concerns that we are in compliance with state federal law um under the normal process each usually it happens each fall we receive um recommendations from MCU which is um the um firm that we use to get policy recommendations and updates and so after State Legislature laws are passed the governor signs them they incorporate those changes into their recommendations that they feel to be in compliance with statutory requirements that we would have to do and so those come
099in usually August we have those and start the school year reviewing those I think president bur could probably speak because when you saw when the agenda was formed and shared on Friday you had not talked you're the only person to speak to Legal like I can't nobody else on the board so when it was shared with the rest of the board you had not shared with legal all these policies first not all believe the majority of them had been shared with legal shared at that point yes both me and Dr Rob talked about it and Sh sh to share the ones that we thought may be contentious and may need that that staff would legal to provide through that incorporate that's good that's new information any additional questions comments on elction we will move on
100then to curriculum adoption 614 or 6 [Music] 6114 I was going to wait until 6116 all right [Music] here D16 well I'm could I back up on 6114 are we saying that all curriculum will not be developed by District staff because that is crossed out it's crossed out I don't understand why that would be crossed out I think it's the approval of curriculum I think the point was to align it with talking to direct director cook since was almost such a kind know small policy I think his intention was to line it with being law it says Board of Education approves all curriculum well I mean all it said was all curriculum develop by District staff shall be formally presented to the board of education for FAL approval I don't see why it's wrong to
101say developed by District staff I think he wants to make sure it's clarified that it's all curriculum not just the curriculum developed by staff well maybe you could say developed by District staff and other appropriate yes School Personnel I don't know I maybe I'm I'm not reading into this correctly but I think what he means is yes some curriculum is developed by not all so you know what I'm saying it looks like yeah I know looks like we don't want District staff yeah I don't think that point the point is that any and all curriculum shall be formally defended to the board so I think this needs to be written better appropriate don't disagree disagree okay also suggest all right again I going back to this is the point of first reads the like bring
102that feedback and also talk with fellow board members any one of us to go reach out to director cook and be like hey have you thought about this and maybe change change these words to make it a little more clear and I think that's totally appropriate sorry oh turn on your m micophone you're going to have your microphone I think we're publicly realizing that it's more helpful to have the policy committee look at it first find tooth it figure out what's practical not practical what's because and and this is this is going to make a lot of people upset but like we probably agree on a lot more stuff than people are aware like and so that many times and it but there's also some things disagree with and and we'll get to that too
103but at the same time if there's a process that allows this to be refined um with lower temperatures yes um I think it is a benefit to the entire School District it's a benefit to uh every single person's heart rate uh heart health all that kind of stuff too so anyway we could go on to the next one I just I think policy committee then first read would be referred helpful uh because we might still find things that we don't like after a policy committee has looked at it you know but I just you know being all these people here and I'm talking anyway um I want I want us to look like we know what we're doing and it it it just Mak me kind of nervous that I because I don't you know
104this is the first time I've you know done this I mean I did it as a teacher but not through a board and it just kind of looks like we're just throwing out some stuff so I'm hoping I'm I'm feeling really good now or better that we're going to have good discussions and have the appropriate people really looking at it the people that really understand how it will work in a school well I I I I agree um I and I'm going to pick on the the people that have been part of the part of these types of meetings for longer than we have Dr robas Carol um Lisa you guys have been part of these for a long time um not to date any of you um but is it typical of first reads
105to have for for a board to have a first read than policy committee Etc or policy committee then first read then like what what in your mind what is what is a best practice or is it up in the air so director Ponder I would answer that that's a complicated question as well because there's a question of what is how has Francis Howell potentially done this historically and then how do other districts across the state because there is no consistency there are examples of districts that don't run a policy committee at all it might be Administration drives all of it or the board drives all of that we've there is practice that develops over time so again I think is there an opportunity for the board to engage in a discussion on policy development in
106general and how there might be paths for policies initiated by a board member initiated by a teacher through the pin form um again there's an opportunity to talk about that process but I think that's a discussion we would want to plan for and prepare for ahead of time as a group and work through do do you feel like policy and committee and and you know basically everything we're talking about up here is supposed to be driven by the administration by the board is there cooperation I mean can you give me some feedback hard question I know sorry so can I interject here I don't we're putting Dr rumpus in a tough spot here because I mean idea our role right he he doesn't project to us it's it's our role as the board to develop
107the policies overse the financials all that stuff it's not Dr rum's role to tell us how to operate and I think we're what if what if he upsets we we need to be careful what we're doing here in public we've already established that this is a first read right we're going to we can collaborate after this during this process before the second read happens I I would just caution us putting Dr rumpus out here in public he's just giving us information he's trying to find out are we doing this backward and and no and and what what I was getting at is is that really his opinion or is that so I've just caution us here but I guess I'm asking the hard questions on purpose because I know that there's really not a good
108answer there's there's you know it's it it is going to be what I guess the board decides it's going to be regardless but at the end of the day what it comes down to is a collaboration of all of us and getting together and much to Stephen's Point bringing down this temperature and and helping everybody to understand that we're all all just here trying to do the best we can for these kids period so at the end of the day what it what it really boils down to is what is the we have to get together and get a get the best process we can and implement it and and abide by it like you said a plan and and while I think that that there were some misconceptions um surrounding what was going to
109happen and what was happening tonight I think that's probably the best course forward is to is to get get a plan and stick to that plan well I'm I was informed I people that I think know that it starts with fhaa and then it goes to the policy committee and then it comes to us that's what I was told and I that was told this is how it's been done in the past I don't know if it's been done that way every time but um people I spoke seem to think it had been what if those teachers aren't part of fhaa well it would it would be the team what if the teachers negotiations team Dr Rus isn't correct it's the FHA negotiations team the current agreement we have with FHA and board policy says
110that the 4,000 policy and regulations that that is the process they would be first discussed with fhaa negotiations team which is generally a subsection of the executive group then brought to the policy committee and brought to the board specifically around the 4,000 policies is how that's described well I was also told that um all the proposals uh were supposed to go through them it says according to Article 2 bullet 3 do you know what that is I don't have that pulled up in front of me what I believe what that says is that there should be no changes to to the policy first um I I think the discussion to engage in is whether or not a first read is considered a change or is this opening up the discussion for potential changes so so
111can we perhaps in the next meeting I'm have agenda item on what are the policies and regulations for the creation of policies and regulations can can we have a I feel like that I feel like there's some things we can stack hands on and say what is the process I think probably the best practice there is I think Dr Rus has already alluded to is to have a working session and have that discussion I think that with with which voice is at the table that would be for the the board decide okay so we're going to do this in within a month is that what you're saying that is not what I'm saying okay we'll need to schedule a working session so we won't do second read next month never said that either Oh I
112thought it was I thought that was the plan the first read they might know I thought second read was next month Dr Rus potentially yes oh poent okay but not for sure we have we're working to schedule a policy committee meeting so policy committee okay so that that's what I'm confused about because I thought that was a done deal but in in July the agenda for next month has not been said there has been times in the past where first reads have come and second P have not okay I get it I'm I'm learning tonight no no I understand questions are always good I love learning I do love that questions are always good as I'm sure many teachers tell their students all right any other questions on 6114 all right next we have regulation
113two pieces um everybody can follow along on the board docs as well U the second guideline says no District employee or contracted Personnel shall encourage a student under the age of 18 years old to adopt a gender identity or sexual orientation U I'm not wondering if the word encourage if you're actually were looking for the word persuade um like the you you don't persuade somebody to that Identity or pers the person to that identity does that make sense like it'll go both ways you does that make sense so this is not about persuading um yeah we don't need this is just open reading just take that lock it in for the other part and then number five you know what are those kinds of discussions that you're trying to prohibit and uh that that needs
114to be teased out anything else for so this is this this is already in existence this is this is a new regulation the other 6116 is new yes 616 is a new suggestion the whole thing the whole thing I think we need a lot of experts looking at this [Music] I don't and that's not me I was going to say do you there clarify which which well U counselors people that are familiar with all of this people that really know because you know you don't want to do anything that damages anybody this is um you got to be careful how you how you treat people right moving on to policy and regulation 6241 challenge material question again and I appreciate the generosity to be able to go through this this is not normal to go
115through first readings in this way uh we should recognize the generosity to be able to have this small short brief conversation it's a little Source time for you um there a couple things one when you look at policy 6241 it crosses out the way the word Freedom a lot uh and somebody may want to do that the count how many times do cross off the word Freedom it also has this approach that every book is guilty before proven innocent and so once a person is concerned about like gets yanked um and it could take a long time for a viiew committee to look at it considering sometimes it takes a while for a policy committee to get together even though it lines out um U one thing I stood out to me and I just
116want to lift this up um one of the values of me going to a lot of these parent teacher conferences another events is getting a chance to talk to a lot of parents and you know parent rights is something everybody's interested in and there's this line uh in the policy that says no parent Guardian uh has the right to determine the reading viewing or listening matter for students other than their own children and I thought that's a good idea right I mean no no parent or Guardian has the right to determine the reading viewing or listening matter for students other than their own children that's part of the policy that got crossed out and we can't say parent rights when it's convenient and I just wanted that to be named um that needs to be
117changed um I ALS it shouldn't be guilty before proven innocent uh the other piece the board President should not be involved in picking parts of the community whether it's anytime in the near future the board president is going to be somebody who's endorsed by a political action committee and to have somebody who's endorsed by political action committee in charge of this process no matter what side they're on is going to make the process look less trustworthy to other people um and so board presidents for anybody should not be involved in this uh selection process the last part is how many review committees would it be need because I would be I wouldn't be surprised if if this was passed there's an immediate uh 10 um 20 100 books that are identified and so how many
118review committees do you need to go through 50 100 so what mean we're talking about a lot of committees and if you were just talk to people they might say there's 50 books they have on in their mind right now so um the ideology behind this is something that I just disagree with and the Practical part of it is I think impossible to apply I appreciate taking a moment just to share um also how would you you know if you form these committees um and there's teachers on there do you get them a sub get them out of class to review these books or do they work after school on weekends and we pay them more money um you you can't expect them to put in extra hours um to read all these books and
119what about if if I complain about I don't like any of the books in your library so immediately nobody can read those books that doesn't sound like America to me you I think that's what it says Carol yeah it does it says one person it says one person so you can well the way it's written now is very similar that any any I mean the the current policy states let me pull it up here I can read it any Resident or employee of the district May formally challenge learning resources used in The District's educational program so it's already there but it's not immediately removed from Reading maybe I can clarify a little bit have a quick conversation with director cook on this one just because of the statement of President selecting I'm like I don't
120really I want to have that responsibility um and I know one of the things that he he mentioned to me was this one aligns very closely with with the MCE which is our our service that we provide for boards and so he was trying to align it closer to that not that I'm in necess agreement that everything the line we have numerous policies that sure don't don't align in other places uh but I think that was part of his his desire there was trying to align it instead of being like completely different um but I think he's expressed that he's he's open to feedback back as well well on that um for those things but yes there is definitely operational I would say operational challenges with with how it's yes and again parent rights uh
121thank you and thank you uh the next one we have is p and policy and regulation 6310 um learnings Commons sure there's commentary on this yeah it's not practical it's impossible um it's impossible to review all the books uh one uh library media specialist emailed all of us said that their school bought a th books alone and so that's one library and just all of them um to get those books and have to and educated vote on each of those is near impossible and again doesn't reflect the expertise of the people who are already making the decisions um and the other pieces if you look at it um again and it's not about Progressive people say don't remove Progressive books like it is also about it impacts people who might consider themselves conservative books like
122there's a Tony duny book about leadership that's a great book somebody can just pull it away right and and so it's it's all of it it's it's all of it and uh for example if you look at um The Collection development part the second paragraph um that reference uh I the Bible wouldn't be allowed like when you look at what it refers to I I run it a bit and um and it just yeah I mean the song of songs alone if you read those eight chapters that that it's not a metaphor um and I what I'm saying is um with the classroom libraries everything else um this is an overreach and I want to show that between now and the second reading thank you for the time for that I think we need a
123lot of input from our our expert Librarians Library Specialists I we they need to tell us what works what doesn't work I think they're already kind of doing this isn't it Dr rumus um don't our Librarians V our books regularly I won't pretend to be the expert on the entire process but there are expectations in place currently for how they review recommended titles get additional information and um check the content of those books this is one I I didn't get a chance to talk to director cook about when he called me and told me he was had a late had a late late flight um but based on his commentary for the other ones would certainly assume that he's open all the feedback that he's getting CU I'm sure he's I don't know if he
124read read all the emails while he was while while he was traveling but I'm sure he will get to him when he gets home and he 200 email right and again I don't know why I'm saying this but I had lunch with director cook and uh he was on a work trip and sometimes work trips happen sometimes air light and you know you're not in control of it I know he was trying to be here um today and I hope he does listen to everything but um I know he was trying to be here he was willing to leave a really cool place early in order to be here um so just want to name that out loud too U all right up next we have policy and regulation 6341 challenge learning comms material uh
125just just very briefly the board may not remove materials from the learning Commons because they dislike the ideas contained in those materials and seek by the removal to describe it shall be Orthodox in politics nationalism religion or other matters of opinion um that's that's why Brain Pop was removed last meeting um and so if it's one has to one or the other either this has to go or um other stuff has to come back that's it another commentary word on to regulation 6450 assignment of grades um the person who wrote this um or presented this uh is here I don't know if that person wants to share if they don't that's fine um does the person who presented this want to share sure reason yeah that was me I had teachers Reach Out reach out
126to me who were disappointed with the the 9010 because they're getting disheartened um with students not putting forth effort at final when you can when you have a grade and you can't Advance it really they don't put effort into it and for you to lose a grade for instance and this was given to me by one of the teachers and's say for instance forgot my cheaters tonight but if you're using the 9010 if I have a 90 I've got a grade I'm at 93 I'm going to need those back thanks Mark I'm at a 93 in order to keep my a all I have to do is get a 63% to get a B to get a B I can go I can go - 37 if I go 80 to so what is the
127incentive for me as the student I don't what is the incentive for me as the student what and teachers the teachers are frustrated with that and then on on the other side if you go if you go 8020 I'm at 93% to keep the a I have to get a 78 it's so I know i' I've gotten some emails where people are afraid of their student having test anxiety and whatnot I get I had a daughter who had the same thing but then the other side of it is I want to make sure that my students are putting forth effort that's the whole maybe it could depend on what the class is and what the students needs are and I know in some districts the teacher can choose what the percentage is for the final
128test I I think if you make a hard and fast rule everybody has to follow it doesn't work for everyone and we need to listen to all the teachers and all the different subject areas and see what works for your subject area I mean you know could depend on the level of the class too there's so many factors to just choose this one statement you know what I'm saying I think we need to look at all of it and maybe give the teacher the right to decide what the percentage is for the final exam I mean I that happens in I know I think it's is it Parkway or Rockwood that the teacher chooses probably other districts too I haven't ped all the districts to see but I think the teach I think we need
129to look at all the there's a lot of factors so not just one I would say I agree with that like why limit it even why say everybody's got to do 10% like why not put a range 10 to 20% but they have to match across different the same course right or something like all those teachers that teach algebra one have to get together and agree on this is what we're going to do for our our class give them some choice and also because every test is not the same obviously student is not the same right of course yeah I taught music I wasn't given a final exam that was 20% of the grade you know what I'm saying I would oh I I would just say agreed we can look at that I mean
130because obviously this is first reading right second reading we don't vote until that is correct right so so I I would just we just need to be careful and realize how many students how many teachers teachers how many different schools that's a big ask for 177,000 students how many thousands of teachers to come up with a a sliding scale well maybe just needs to be flexible right let's ask the teachers I think they're the experts well I had the teachers come to me with yeah but not all you know what I'm saying so we we need to listen to many teachers I think your your commentary is it may not be appropriate for all classes all course to have such a definitive one one or the other yeah the schools are there everybody's different in
131school everybody is and as long as those teachers are comfortable coming forward yes would be yes yes they should be I agree they should be but you have to be watch out for the bully pulpit as well because they're not always comfortable coming forward in front of that well we need to change that that's what we do appreciate it right thanks everybody on to superintendent comments thank you president beran I'd like to start this evening with a celebration um Sasha Wakley uh Independence Elementary was named the Mid Rivers magazine um 2024 teacher of the year she she is a second grade teacher there who just completed her 20th year of teaching she's worked on a variety of different projects and initiatives in addition to the classroom has been instrumental and working close with the administration
132around the state Nation work on being a school of character um they were able to surprise her on the last day of school in front of her co-workers and her family she received a nice gift basket with an iPad and it's great for her and for independent so again congratulations to aasha the application process is currently open we are moving forward with the second cohort for citizens in our schools for next year we've received a lot of positive feedback from the participants this year and have taken their input on how we can make it even better um again we're trying to identify community members different Business Leaders parents and others who want to gain a deeper understanding of the operations and the leadership of the district um you know at the end our goal is
133really to rebuild trust and continue to build transparency in the community with a um well-informed group of stakeholders who just understand the work and so that application process is going on now and those are open through July 15th and that's available on our website uh we have started to advertise that um everyone listening on the live stream in here tonight that we want to invite everyone to join us at the new Francis Hall North at the school's black and gold opening celebration that will take place on Saturday August 24th it's a combination of their black and gold day which is their back to school event we will also hold the official grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony at 2 p.m. followed by open houses with student Le Tours refreshments and some special activities until 8:00 p.m.
134at the stadium that day there will be um Club booths activities food game performances and a parade of our athletes so we'll continue to um communicate that out but want to make sure that we're putting that date out there um I want to thank there's a lot of work throughout the district right now if you drive around um tonight Mr ster presented you um approved moving forward with the Fairmont work but the Henderson work has begun the five security vestibules are well underway um playground work asphalt work um Roofing work is being done so many of the buildings as you drive around are being touched and yes we have contractors working on that outside the district our internal teams are also working incredibly hard I just saw um a posting that I believe was it
135over 2.4 million square feet of flooring have been stripped down um to the actual tile and they look brand new and beautiful so thank you to all of our employees who are working incredibly hard and in many buildings doing that around summer programming vacation Station and the other work which is a challenge so it's exciting um again the um Bond issue work taking place to really provide improvements throughout the district and the last thing to remind you that we are in the process of hiring staff for next year while we are close to fully staffed on the certified side we continue to have a lot of openings for support staff and especially tonight I will highlight we have a need for um bus drivers custodians and monitors for next year so please if you know
136people who um would love to come work for Howell all of those postings are on the website and we encourage people to apply thank you you now we have on four Compass I'd like to address a couple comments that were made earlier um actually there comment made that we took away black history and black literature courses no such thing happened we took away the Southern Poverty Law Center curriculum black history and black law uh black literature courses were available in the January or the spring semester of this year they obviously are not available during the summer semester and they are available this fall so no black history or black history or black lature courses were ever taken away also I did not mock thank you I did not mock kids don't know who that was
137if I I did not mock kids for walking out and protesting as is their right go back and listen to the entire segment of the radio show but I'd like to move on to the teachers are leading the leaving the district in droves some candidates have even run on this concept let me impart some accuracy about the matter I will qualify these numbers with a C out that these are only High School teacher resignations I did not want to overload staff with preparing a huge report but just know that if you request it I'd be happy to look further into the subject with that being said I asked for the prior three years this year and two years past of data for high school teachers and how many teachers left and for what reasons here's
138the act real truth and it's actually going to expose some of the lies that have been told so let's go back to school year 2122 2223 3 and 2324 what I'm going to read to you in three separate numbers are the total number of resignations in that order 54 59 and 50 the number of retirees in that same order 26 3127 move to other districts 5 8 and 6 and and all other resignations which includes out of state transfers to ceased wanted to stay home with kids are no reason given those are 23 20 and 17 now if you look at those three years there's nothing really out of line or nothing that is really like takes a big leap as far as somebody's leaving in droves you can interpret this data however you want
139but the fact is there is not an exorbitant number of teachers leaving because of this board or its policies these numbers are not indicative of a major change in Personnel in fact if you look at this immediate previous year it looks like the number of teachers leaving is actually going down but then facts never really get in the way of a good story do they when I speak to teachers about the reasons for leaving the profession through retirement or other reasons it's mainly discipline that is by far the primary reason this Board needs to take a closer look at how to would you like to call this Board needs to take a closer look at how to enforce discipline and make our schools safe from bullying Etc [Applause] education over politics let's discuss this for
140a minute this was or is another campaign Mantra we all know what happened at the last board meeting so I'm not going to rehash it here what appalls me is the number of emails that we have gotten that actually want to keep politics in our schools we've heard that electioneering and passing out pamphlets to parents where they go to parent teacher conferences is perfectly acceptable because how else would they know who to vote for besides that fact that this is in direct opposition to your original claims of educ over politiv I have received complaints from parents that felt that they were being attacked on their way to a meeting these people the people handing out PS were aggressively demeaning other candidates and no parent should have to experience that when going to a meeting with
141our for their child besides the fact that you can't have it both ways that you you you either want to remove politics or you don't by removing bra brain pop or as I call it brain propaganda you do realize we are removing you do realize we are removing the politics contained in those little videos videos that disparage any conservative leader and exalt those who are that are liberal our children are very impressionable at that age and need a balanced discussion of history for those that are missing foreign Brain Pop is and will be active through the end of the year it's paid for through the end of the year so there will not be we will not be putting curriculum directors in a bind or in a rush to find an alternative that doesn't radical
142or politically influence our children for the detractors and those that love everything about Brain Pop I would encourage you to look at the other side of brain pop by going to brain pops BLM propaganda for school kids I'll say it again brain pops BLM propaganda for school kids Division and hatred that's what your kids are watching since I've been told I'm the one that closed-minded I suggest you open your mind to the reality of what your impressionable children are being taught lastly president Bertrand and vice president cook I would like to suggest that the board look more closely at the fhpa closure document I have read it closely and nowhere in this document does it require that the union have a table of the new teacher orientation I suggest we unauthorize this practice I've gotten
143complaints from teachers new teachers that say that they are intimidated to stand in line or not stand in line and and walk past the line for fear that they will be singled out for Retribution later it's not fair to those teachers not wanting to join a union I suggest we take the necessary TS steps to prohibit this from happening before the next new teacher orientation thank the comments board um I would like to thank the board especially president Bertrand for letting us have this this productive discussion I was feeling very different at the beginning of this meeting thanking oh this is a done deal and I could see all the problems and I I know you could see problems too and I appreciate us having a a great discussion and a respectful discussion um so
144I'm I'm really hopeful that we'll do this in the right way and it'll have the best benefit for everybody and I think stepen said we have probably more things in common than we have that are different and uh I really believe that we need to move forward with unity and the way that we do that is by listening to each other and respecting each other's opinions and I will pledge to do my best for that for with everybody on this board and I'm feeling a lot happier about this and I hope you all are too thank you yeah first of all thank you thank you car um first of all thank you all for everybody sending the emails um I've received about 75 emails and I've responded to about 75 emails I about 30 more
145um keep emailing um whether you agree with the board or not it's always good to hear from U the board there's about two or three ideas that I didn't even consider uh from different angle so I appreciate all of you taking the time to send the emails to the whole board U on the agenda uh there's a line item called Bond and capital projects update and um uh director rumpus referenced it it has a lot of really cool updates about what's happening in the district right now so if you were to click on that and just see all these different Construction projects are happening it it's it's really awesome and um especially as we get ready for the next school year I know you all just started summer um but as you get rid the
146next school year you can see a lot of the stuff happening but just check it out before you go to bed um I think there's some cool stuff there I wanted to name um you know yesterday was juneth um and just recognized that uh when I grew up in Collinsville illino I had no idea about juneth or a bunch of other things that were happening in that area and uh I just want to name publicly I have a lot to learn in that area and uh please keep uh sharing with me different angles uh when it comes to topics regarding race and what your experience is based upon who you are um I again I have a lot to learn so please keep sharing so I can learn what I need to learn in order
147to serve you all better U I do want to ask uh as we go through all the conversations realizing that seven uh policies is a lot for any policy committee to go through in one month and so just asking as we go through it all that um one thing that's considered is to have half of the ones that go forward uh be presented in July and half the ones that go forward to be presented in August so that a policy committee has a fighting chance to actually talk through it um having them discuss seven in one month will be difficult um and the last thing I just want to say um sometimes we talk about ideas so much we forget those ideas are attached to people and I'm aware that that some of the conversations
148that happen tonight some of the policies that happen uh might be harmful um to some of the people who are within our district and I just want to remind people um if if I could be of any service if you want to reach out to me through email I'd be glad to have a conversation with any parent um any kid who's especially feeling what might be unintended harm but still harm um from some of these conversations um I'm available that's want to be one more person in your corner um to listen so if you want to talk before you leave uh I'll be glad to talk then to um again public schools are for all people and it's good for us to make sure we um fulfill that promise well thank you all just just
149real quick I I know a teacher that's on the K5 reading curriculum um Task Force if it would be nice there's some really good stuff happening with that it'd be really good to have an update from that about that on the July's meeting yeah oh and then also with all the emails I can assure you I have no political aspirations Beyond this school board this is the school board pays way too well for which is zero right Stephen so no this this is the limit just three minutes I I will say something um just real quick to Stephen's point about you know some of the projects going on around the district um I had the opportunity um to tour the new uh Fran north of high school and I hadn't been in there since well
150I guess they had just completed the roof and I just came back in and it's I mean I think kids could be there not right now it's it's unbelievable I the the district is in for a treat but more so the the the students that get to go in there for the first time it is absolutely amazing um I I I have never seen a high school like that um I know there's some high schools in Texas that are like small cities um this is very comparable and it is it is going to be an amazing asset to this district and and and and really just provide an absolute Elite academic experience and when you all get to go in there and see it for the first time you will absolutely be amazed it is
151a fantastic facility so kudos to everybody that was involved with that um I know there there was some turmoil around the the price tag of it but when you see it it it is it is going to be um a Marvel of of St Charles County for sure so um thanks to um salum ster and and uh Mr Fletcher the that uh took me around the building but it it was if if anybody has a chance to just go take a look at it it's it is fantastic you should all go through if you haven't can you get in huh can you get in you get in yeah yeah they didn't give you a key no I know everybody gives you a key they'll they'll they can get you and this young lady right here
152will will be happy to set that up anyway um but yeah and if if you drive by just take a look at it it's a fantastic facility um I got to I was there on the day that the uh the the football players were getting their their equipment their pads and and uh I saw a couple people in the gym they're actually using the gym currently um there was a a camp in there um and I saw a couple a couple kids that I know in there shooting hoops and you know they were one one of them was okay I guess um and he knows who he is um but anyway it it is a fantastic facility and I invite you guys all to uh um you know just take a look as you're driving
153by and and look at the Marvel that is now um one of the best assets of this District it's fantastic thank you Mark um I do have a few comments as well probably longer than I would normally talk but one of the state a few things number one thank you to everybody in the district that's working over the summer I really appreciate that but you're what you're really what's makes France a great district and I think you've heard tonight and a lot of the comments on the podium like we all know it is a great District um but also you've heard in the comments tonight that that doesn't mean we can't get even better um first we have to get agreement around what that looks like to do that requires real conversation and collaboration must
154happen um this will obviously lead to disagreement but also dialogue individuals talking with one another looking for common ground to may include bringing contentious topics forward I take all concerns raised to me seriously even if I don't agree or they may be untrue and I believe that my fellow board members do as well um if a concern comes to us it is because that concern is important to that person um and as a board works through policy if there is no policy we can have a minimum question if one should be there um while we can't always alleviate concerns if a policy that reinforces aspects of what is already happening in our district or can create be created or small changes be made that maintain a level of trust with our patrons I feel it's
155reasonable to explore those items um and I've really been a little sadden and disappointed by the reaction of a subsection of the community whose first response even informing him that we may take potential action and looking for feedback was to attack belittle and dismiss rather than seek to understand work to be constructive or look for Solutions issues raised action is to complain or even organiz to obstruct any action from occurring further there there feels to be an equal and opposite reaction of just blind trust and support while while the board always works for the best interest of the District of students we are public servants and it is fair to scrutinize us um at any and all times um this is a system that we work in and I certainly look forward to the feedback
156as it only makes us better um I continually have many constructive conversations with patrons teachers staff Bell board members um since the release of the week this week's agenda I've continued to have these conversations even finding some common ground um with director Owens and hope to partner with her in the future to try to find some solutions for for improved discipline um as well as other board members in the community um and overall I hope my fellow board members would generally agree with these statements um have open dialogue with one another which I think we saw tonight um even and especially when we don't agree um to continue to move the district forward and be an example for the Community as we work to fulfill the mission of the district to the students that's all
157I wanted to say um little along but thank you for listening and thank you for being at tonight's meeting really appreciate it board I would like a motion to adjourn Open Session the meeting we go Blair all those in favor say I I all suppos say no ni have it thank you everybody uh yeah we've already