001so I appreciate you guys [Music] thank you more like a motion to approve the agenda for June 6 2024 as presented all those in favor motion to amend the agenda to remove item 7 I St Charles County Public Library statement second first cook director Harman discussion board as this is a school war and it's just my opinion that uh we should stick to school board matters and not make public statements on matters of the library other discussion comments do we have a draft of what the statement might be see if the statement is aable say sharing sharing a graph would be going against and sharing the agenda item so but there is a draft right there there's something for us to look at later on yes I would I would prefer if you kept this
002in the agenda and we get to that point people can decide if we make or do not make the statement based upon what the statement actually is I'd have to I'd have to back Randy up on this I agree this is a slippery slope I mean we're a school board we should in no way be involved in politics we shouldn't be involved in state politics we shouldn't be involved in local politics I mean at what point do we stop it's just in my opinion we should not be trying to intrude on somebody else's somebody else's vein I would have some questions for clarification because at the second Library meeting I was impressed and appreciated the words uh director cook and U Beren both made at the library meeting and I'm curious why it's not appropriate
003to talk about this as a board and yet I thought your words were especially powerful and helpful and people within fhsd were glad to hear your words at the meeting well again I think we all have personal opinions about plethora of matters be at the library or Jefferson City but sitting from this dis we deal with Schoolboard matters and frankly this isn't a Schoolboard matter I think if individuals want to comment in their private lives as some of us have that's part of uh part of being American citizen but for a school board to do it this is a uh as Ron said slippery slope what do we you know we make a statement on this then are we going to make a statement on something next month there's always something going on always something
004local that somebody will want us to comment on it takes up time this is taking a time for from educational matters I agree I I know slippy slope is also a mological policy and it's not something that usually works as an argument not to do something making the right decision now and the only reason we would even discuss it is because two of the three branches being proposed for closure are within the fhsd boundaries if if it wasn't for that we wouldn't be saying anything but U there's a significant amount of people who are hoping that their elected officials at least make some comment that says simply we like libraries they're important we're thankful for the role inside our community doesn't necessarily mean you cannot make these changes but some comment some statement about support
005I think is helpful um again it' be nice if we had a statement listed in the board docs that we can be addressing um but I would I would say we should keep that within the agenda can we call the question can I call a question wait um has to have a second call question does have a second calling question has to have a second and has to be approved by two vote call a question as a second can we do this by roll call yes can you tell me who the second was for [Music] call ready for roll call ready for roll call okay director Blair this is a motion to remove this so this is the motion to call the question this is quit debate right so I would say yes I call
006I agree with the motion to quit debate on this topic so that's an a yay it's a yay to the motion to stop debate which is what I call the question is if you have two3 votes to actually quit the conversation director Haron hi vice president cook I ber president ber trand I Treasurer kushar I director Ponder I motion passes all right now we have a motion to amend the motion to remove 7 I from the agenda Ro vice president cook hi president berand um I'm actually going to abstain since I was the one that sets the agenda so I'm going to abstain from this question the at the remainder of the board Treasurer pushkar hi director Ponder I director Blair no director Harmon hi I have it um so we have a motion to
007approve the agenda for June 6 2024 as presented um as amended all those in favor say I allos say no nice have it uh next we have Patron comments during Patron comments residents of the district and staff members are invited to address the board of education on issues related to the school district speakers are called forward forward in the order of sign up and speakers have 3 minutes to make their remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time comining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted the board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and perspective I would like to remind everyone that we expect the speakers will remain civil and respectful one giving
008remarks if anyone fails to comply with those board policies regulations and rules we reserve the right to cut those loose those three minutes short first we welcome Grace and jce [Music] this good evening boor my name is Grayson Justice my pronouns are HC and I was the alumni of Fran H Central of class 2013 this month is pride month a month where the lgbtqia plus Community celebrates and accomplishments celebrates our accomplishments and embrace who we are and let the world know in sty also learning our history and never repeating the vent from the past to bring them back to the present and to the Future let me tell you my story I came out around my junior senior year in at Franc H Central my mom and stepdad really accepted me for who I am
009and when I went to college for 2 years I learned more about myself I am a non-binary ace gay person I've been bullied both at school and my current life yes adults too including some in the board um but I have but I have friends and family who really supports me and accepts me I'll keep speaking against out bigot uh out ignorance and bigoted um policies and bills like the anti-trans and nonbing restrooms and locker room policy to Banning books I will continue to be myself and if you have a problem with it it's a you problem students need to express themselves without being harassed or targeted and for this students out there watching or listening who do not feel accepted or loved by their parents there are people out there who love and accept
010you for who you are and they could be your family when the sto's words want to cut me down I'm going to send a flood going to strown them out I am brave I am bruise I am who I meant to be this is me thank you happy Pride next we welcome Miranda Bell good evening everyone good evening to the board and stakeholders of the Francis House School District you might recognize me as that multi-hyphenate Mom wife Grandma Minister musician educator bridge builder and tireless Equity Advocate but today I'm coming before you in a different capacity I've recently joined the board of the St Charles NAACP and I would like to formally introduce myself as the chairperson of the education committee as such it is my hope to continue to extend a hand as a
011partner and a budsman in building a world that works for us all especially when it comes to the challenges that we face as parents and students of color in the district our work will center around the following encouraging diversity in hiring practices in St Charles County schools providing parent engagement support and assistance in navigating public education and three helping to network and support bipac Educators and allies it is my hope to avoid the antagonistic and adversarial interactions that only serve to further divide us and this sets terrible examples for our children they are watching how we interact when we encounter those with whom we disagree instead my hope is to look forward to reach and to build relationships connections systems of support and understanding among those who are diverse and come from diverse walks of
012life my goal is to continue helping to build the cultural competence and awareness that can make our district a safe and welcoming environment for all I have a one-pager that is available to each of you upon request and I'm happy to set up a time to connect and talk through these priority goals and talk more about how we can all work together to bring them to fruition finally I'm a woman of deep and Abiding Faith I've been doing bridge building work a long time and I'm not tired yet I'm up for the challenges and I'm excited for the opportunity to serve you and the stakeholders of this great District I'd also like to take a moment to invite everyone here out to the next reach summer book club discussion uh it's going to be centered
013around Bor of crime Trevor Noah selection that was taken from the black history uh black history courses and that's going to happen on June 25th at 6:30 at the Spencer Road Library thank you for your time next we welcome David Williams Williams all right next we up welcome Lori ly good evening board um so it feels a little like deja vu um some things continue to happen and I've started to notice a pattern and so I checked some records and I just wanted to kind of go through and see if what I was feeling was accurate on April 21st 2022 the items for Ed plus and BookFlix were both pulled from the agenda and there were questions that were asked and that were answered at that time some of the questions that were asked about
014Ed plus were what benefits do we receive as a district and there was an analysis that was shared for book flicks the question that was asked was um have we seen any Improvement in ela scor since implementing these projects products and then it was also put in here I certainly did not use the products in public schools and growing up yet I learned to read so that was 2022 two current board members voted no but it still passed May 18th 2023 book flicks was pulled again it passed with one member voting no May 18th 2023 U science was pulled all voted yes and it passed and there were questions that were asked and answered for that as well some of the questions that were asked for that night how was it selected over other vendors
015what is the point of this software and has it had any influence on students in truly selecting a career path all of those questions were answered on June 15th 2023 Ed plus was pulled again all voted yes October 26th 2023 Brain Pop was pulled all voted yes so if we include the items that were pulled tonight that's three times for book flicks three times for at plus two times for us science and two times for brain poop there are questions that the teachers and the academic team in this District have answered over and over again at last minute without very little time have you gone and looked at any of these programs and spoken with the teachers that are using them the academic team that has selected them or are we just pulling them to
016for what you have answers you you've had answers about brain poth so then I decided to do a little bit more research the elementary social studies curriculum references brain pop three times and book flicks 10 times it is in the curriculum document to support the learning standards first grade social studies brain pop 39 times book flick 16 second grade social studies your time is up thank you next up next we welcome Chrissy Dorman [Music] does my time start when I I notic the clock was going so can I I just want to make sure I get my three minutes I guess okay hi the three minutes started when you to the podium oh okay okay um hi my name is chrisy I spoke with Chris Garland earlier today and uh very concerned with some of
017the changes in the district uh regarding the summer reading program for kids that are struggling uh this year uh they made a decision to eliminate children who have an academic need or who have an IEP maybe or struggling in some way could have a learning disability and they force students and families to make a decision between an enrichment option for students to be in an enrichment summer program and either select if they were going to go to the reading program and lost out on the enrichment opportunity in the summer camp last year this was not the case and in Prior years this has never been the case and to see my son lose out on some of those opportunities robotics uh different features that the District offers for kids in the summer uh to be
018with his peers and only because of an academic need um they forced that decision on us he could not have both this year and I think we can do better I think there's a workaround I think next year we need to revisit this and uh make sure that kids that have an academic need are given an option to have both um they shouldn't be eliminated because of that need so even if it can't be all of the programs they should be given some option uh it's very disappointing to see that happen this year and I was here last summer right around this time on another uh summer program uh challenge too so it seems like there's always something popping up but I also want to say some great things that I love about our school
019district um Becky David Elementary is a phenomenal Elementary School I have had great leadership experiences faculty staff amazing but I'm very um disappointed in our district for losing a phenomenal principal that's been with our district for 24 years she's given her heart and soul to the school ever since I have been a part of Becky David stays late hours calls families late in the evening uh goes above and beyond and we're losing three principles in the Becky David Elementary School this employee could have been retained she was here 24 years principal since 2006 and we allowed her to walk away to not walk away I shouldn't say that it's not my job but thank you your time is okay thank you next we welcome FH and I'm still here good evening tonight we are pleased
020to bring the board uh a memorandum of of understanding to amend our closure document over the past few months we have been working with District administration to solve a scheduling problem that was making it impossible for high school teachers with labs to fully Implement their curriculum this situation revealed that teachers at the secondary level were not getting the plan time that was agreed upon in our closure document and board policy through many meetings threat of grievance we were able to um agree to 20 98 minutes of plan time in order to maintain the time for the important PLC work that is so crucial to the success of fhsd we hope that when we have concerns that need to be addressed and shouldn't wait until the next negotiations the district will do the do us the
021courtesy of negotiating and working together to benefit the Educators in this District we shouldn't have to wait until the next negotiations we do um bring a concern tonight around the proposed increase to Insurance costs we know that in the insurance committee with collaboration from fhaa FEA teamsters and District leadership worked hard to reduce the increase without compromising the quality of the coverage the resulting increases are being shared between employees and the district but for a number of employees the increases are going to consume their entire raise which results um with them bringing home less money next year because their salary schedule did not provide Equitable raises to everyone we cannot imagine the impact to the non-salaried staff members who make so much less than certified staff this is something that we need to consider addressing
022now and in the future so that we can retain and the highly qualified staff and create family stress also we are disappointed that items were pulled um at 11:00 a.m. this morning it doesn't feel like we trust teachers to teach we need resources and we have already had many discussions about some of these resources trust your teachers to do their jobs we have amazing teachers in this District on the matter of the library our students use the library Services sum are reading programs many of our teachers tutor at these libraries this also helps our students thank you up next we welcome fisa [Music] fisa Bo like a motion to approve the consent agenda for June 6 2024 as presented so car second second by all those in favor say I I all post say no
023I have it Bo I like a motion to approve the purchases as presented second all those in paper say I I supposedly no eyes have it up next we have individual purchase items um we have a motion to approve number 10 Brain Pop as presented pushkar discussion board can we hear why it was removed from the larger uh collection of resources sure I asked for it to be removed because I don't support the direction Brain Pop has taken education I'd like to ask if uh you consulted any teachers or admin yes the teachers in your buddy School the no not every teacher not every teacher but you you have consulted yes multiple teachers yes I have right and they have said what about Brain Pop they like it okay you think I should do whatever
024the teacher say why am I here whoa there's two things I'm hoping you're here for one is to make every decision based upon what's best for the students and I think sometimes that's exactly what I'm doing okay number two um you're here to be a supporter and advancer of public education as a whole and to ask tough questions and I appreciate in multiple occasions where you do ask tough questions and I'll acknowledge that I like the fact that you stand on um your beliefs even if your beliefs are different byis I think that you are consistent a lot of different things um the way that you not only made this decision but the um the decision to make this change so late is something that is eroding some trust in the board and it's one
025of the reasons why I am calling this out right now well I disagree I actually think that these uh services like this Brain Pop for instance are taking public education in a direction that many people do not agree with is actually driving people away from public education when school districts adopt these third party things these for-profit companies that many of our residents do not support the material and the social agendas that they push Which social agenda are you excuse me I have the floor these things are not supported by a large number of our community certainly one7 and so I will vote no because I actually think that removing these items helps protect public education I'm thinking of the long game here so as much as you want to talk about public education and whether
026I support students this does support students my decision I believe that many things within Brain Pop and many of the positions they take are not suitable for for students that's the reason no I'm not going to go through and name them all this is my decision I came to it over really over a year of thinking about it approving this last year is one of the one of the biggest regrets of my decisions on this board I lost sleep over it this is not a company I support you can support it I clearly you do question are we just started this conversation can we call the question you have a call a [Music] question there has been a second so we're looking at the rules on that go for it right um I use Brain
027Pop regularly in my classroom we l to resources for social studies brand pop away will make planning more difficult than it already is please keep now we have a call of questions we can't we have any more discussion so we get this sorted out it hasn't been second we can't have any more discussion until ask you a second before [Music] second the motion to call the question thank you director for the rules there's no more debate and there's no need to take a vote on the calling of the question all right so we have a motion to approve number 10 Brain Pop as presented no we're voting on the question being called this gu passed by two3 vote it was my board training last [Music] week do we have a problem Matan you can speak
028to this [Music] if I experience in large conferences having a vote to call the question is important otherwise two people can call a question that drives determines a body of 200 300 400 [Music] people question [Music] good we have a call a question first by director pushkar second by director cook all those in favor say I I I I oppos say now no question passes motion passes so we have a motion to approve number 10 Brain Pop as presented all those in favor say I I I iOS say no no could I get that roll call Y roll call and this is for motion to approve number 10 motion to approve okay director Blair can the motion again motion to approve Brain Pop number 10 I director Harmon no vice president cook no president Bertrand
029I Treasurer pushkar no director Ponder no so I have a point of order um is that rejection is the decision to not renew Brain Pop is that in order considering how many different curriculum are um embedded with that does that require us to change all the curriculum that was uh the refers to it as well Brain Pop is woven into every a lot of these different curriculum do we have the ability to just reject it in this moment I think we'll have to look for further information on that sense as of this moment from from this motion and has been not renewed so when do we find out if that the decision was in order decision to remove Brain Pop right because Brain Pop is woven into all these other things that have been approved
030I think the decision's in order we that's why we H the [Music] motion so do we just vote to change how many curriculum did we just vote to change I think we're going to move on to well we just voted to change how many ccum 50 60 board like a motion to approve number 12 use science Discovery as presented point of order question takes precedence some point of I just want to make sure if we're in order that's fine a point of order question takes precedence and I'm rolling that question out of order at this point that we're moving on to the next topic because but I say I don't think we made a motion like if we didn't make a mo if we didn't have that motion if we if we can't legally make
031that or we can't formally make that motion then why have a motion in the first place I'm just would to ask the question if we were in order y thank you so Bo a motion to approve number 12 view science Discovery as presented bushar second Ponder discussion board I like to share um couple things from patrons one says U I enjoyed Youth Science took my assessment my son who be a senior pulled up his results from his freshman year we went over it was very helpful in planning his uh future career activities um another person made a comment um your science is a great tool for career post-secondary planning is so many different uses more levels the the T to the strong resource for all schools I know it was used in citizens in our
032schools to great success and um I believe that it is a resource that uh teachers would like to have continue any other discussion comments are there any concerns that could be answered by person who knows a lot about U science can be what is the reason for removing U science I'm sorry you didn't hear my objections when this came about many years ago but new science is a program that collects psychological data on students very valuable data and a data breach would expose all of this uh to Untold number of uh nefarious parties and to me I don't think the risk of that information being out there is worth the benefit I think data breaches are fresh in all of our minds and U the amount of data that you science collects on our students
033is tremendous and if you read their so call it if you read their agreement with the district um is very one-sided and uh so no I don't support this do we have somebody from the uh District able to speak about use of use science is there anybody here can speak about what it does and what we benefit from and what we would lose this one is it possible to invite somebody to speak on your sites because these questions weren't asked ahead of time excuse me um so the question is what is about Youth Science they've been asked in Prior years right um for the sake of transparency we're all here um are there consolations to be received about the security of information um any answers I'm sure the answer will share yeah can anyone guarantee
034the security of this data what level of security wanting that it won't be 100% security 100% information [Music] do we somebody standing up in the back we can't guarantee the data 100% what I will point out is that um we've shared the questions previously that are asked that they really are aptitude and interest questions as opposed to um personally identifiable information about the individual student that we would be concerned if it was out there there are also opportunities when the student completes the questionnaire um while it does ask for a zip code it asks for a phone number we encourage the students to put in just 10 arbitrary numbers is and not their actual phone number um it does ask their current level middle school high school their current grade what they're considering following High
035School twoe four-year military Tech um it does ask for a birth date again we encourage them to just put in arbitrary numbers and not their actual birth date um for gender and ethnicity they have the ability to answer the question or choose not to respond um so in that sense we do believe that the information that is input um what we're comfortable with it being out there and I think Dr bucking can speak to specifically how we use the assessment within the district our nth graders complete U science in the fall and that helps to inform their course selections through high school again it's at interest aptitude and so it gives them career opportunities they can sort it by careers that I would be interested in they could sort it by careers that I might
036be successful in or there's actually a future where they can kind of combine the two um and sort both they can do some brain games along the way and kind of update that um and then in Middle School our seventh graders do the U science snapshot and that again provides a personalized report to each student that talks to them about their aptitudes career Pathways educational opportunities that might benefit from them um they use those results to prepare for the seventh grade career fair um which is something new that we've added in the last couple years and then all of our students use that to help build that state required IAP it's that individual career and academic plan and that four-year High School plan somebody was standing up in the past I'm not sure protocol wise
037is there like the expert about this some who was standing up I can't I'm here but I don't whatever the I didn't just to say I I know you read some anecdotal comments right there about some students that liked it in my experience the students I've talked to my family my kids my their friends they don't necessarily put a whole lot of weight into it they don't take doing the questionnaire seriously for instance m one of mine ended up being that they were going to be a park ranger he's definitely not a park ranger now so and one of a general question typically always revolves around do do you want to help people well yes MH they have no interest in the medical field so yeah so you'll have anecdotal say I'm sure some somebody
038likes it but by and large I don't think that the kids take it seriously and I don't really think they get a whole lot it's not as useful as some may say I think we have an admin who is in favor of using it who is skilled in that profession and I feel as if the board can go a long way into affirming and listening to U the experts in the room and I I wish we would uh practice that Curiosity and humility um we talk about resources that they live with on a daily basis and some of us didn't even research until this morning when he got changed on [Music] the my concern about the kids is that they are inputting information I and I know Dr Romus and I appreciate the fact that
039you you and and other administrators tell the kids to put in you know fake phone numbers and our birthday dates but my concern is that anytime we input information and it goes to a third party who cannot you know who can do with that information whatever they please I don't believe that's fair to the kids if there was a program where they could get the same information where it wasn't recorded just a a database of of you know kid inputs well I like this I like the color blue that must mean I want to be a pilot whatever the questions are and then get an automatic feedback I don't understand why this information has to be kept in an outside database that concerns our kids never did like it we'll never vote for that I
040will also add that it is an opt out assessment so if a parent does not want the child to take it or input their data the parent can choose to not have their student complete the assessment Dr buman Dr R is there a way for it to I guess for a student to participate without even being asked to input that information yeah I don't know that we have the answer to that question this evening I think that's one the Mr far can you come yeah I'm sorry say I'm sorry say one more time who has the question I I is is there a way for a student to participate with this in this program without even being asked the question to provide information do they have to provide information in order to participate or can
041they just participate without being asked you mean the demographic information yes the the first information whatsoever the first portion that Dr rump has covered yes but that's really to connect the the results that come from U science are not connected to let's say our our our data system our Gradebook system or Infinite Campus so it's just a way for us to be able to identify that this was Mark Ponder and these were his results so there are required pieces of information at the beginning the basic demographics but the um ethnicity and I think there's one or two other questions again those are strictly optional it does pass um and I'm glad director I'm glad uh Rich Wilson is here because he could probably speak more to the security of it than I could but it
042passes all of our other um all of our district protocol and and expect ations benchmarks which are high Lev benchmarks that all of our other platforms pass um the company itself has the language in the security um portion of their of their website and the documentation they've sent to us to verify that they do not sell the data to third party um people it is not and I do want to clarify it is not psychological data it is not a psychological test it is not an IQ test um it is strictly interest aptitudes and and personality based off the ball aptitude assessment Halland codes and um the onet interest inventory that anybody in the country can take on our onet website do you know if the you mentioned the information that's on their website that
043says that they're not going to sell the data and the information that they send to us is not going to send their data that's what they say is that also in the contract that they're not going to sell our data or well it's I mean it's stated everything that's been reviewed based with our technology I I would hope so is not I just want to make sure that the contract and what they state are yes one the same yes Dr Rus you would agree with that and I and I just if I could to to address Dr um rather director Harmon's concerns you may get a student who might get more arbitrary broader results if they aren't putting the effort into the assessment students are told and reminded by teachers counselors and as we continue
044to grow the program a multitude of different ways that this is a a tool to be taken seriously like any other assessment that's given so if you have a student who is mismatched uh it is likely that they didn't take it seriously and they were arbitrarily marking responses um it's not going to produce accurate results if they are not putting forth the effort on the aptitude assessment or if they're at on the interest inventory just click click click clicking so if there's an arbitrary response I can assure you it's because the student to your point did not invest the time or energy into the assessment we've had grown adults through the citizens in our schools program complete the assessment um and I asked for their very candid honest feedback and they gave it to me
045they they were a very candid honest group of people um sometimes it hurts most the time it was great to hear it and they were all very um impressed by the assessment itself and the alignment to um what it was suggesting for career goals both by interest only aptitude only and the best fit feature that's I can I can vouch for that and the adults that I know 100% put in the effort and time um and the students that I have spoken with and the families of those students who have taken the assessment seriously really value the discussions that it um dri drives at home for high school course selection as well as post-secondary training planning well I guess my to to I guess your point and Dr robson's point the the fact that we
046have this I mean you're we're asking them to take this seriously right and then the first thing we do is say oh well don't put just put put 10 digits as your phone number don't worry about that yeah it's kind of counterintuitive would you say I mean hey take this very very seriously but when it comes down to it don't about any of the information the beginning part um where we asked them to put arbitrary numbers was at the request of the Board of Education I would be happy to instruct students to put the accurate information in um but I do think that would be a very simple clarifying point that we our teachers and I trust that our teachers would make um that this is the content the the pre the precursor to the
047actual assessment um but that was not um something that again the academic team or certainly myself uh is requiring of our students it was a concern brought up by the board and we're trying to be as discreet and confidential as possible to protect that data because we do take that seriously do you know if there are any other programs available that would not take the students information and put it in an outside database well I can tell you there are multiple platforms out there um some uh much costlier than than this assessment um that would collect the exact same data and then we have all the way down to a a free version that is just the interest portion it's not the personality assessment or aptitude assessment um and that's ran by by desie uh
048and so they have all of the students information connected as well what I'm hearing is that youve found value in this program and it meets The District's highest threshold of data security significant L done my homework and my research I can assure you that and um again for the volume of information um the accuracy of the information when taken seriously um and the the the fit of all three of those areas combined I I cannot find a match um both in quality or Price Point um for the for what we're trying to achieve with students which is essentially helping them align align themselves from mid seventh grade on both in their High School curriculum and what they're starting to dream up for the future After High School um there is a lot of data and
049support out there to support show that our secondary schooling system misalign students um and and as wonderful as our teachers are and the rich amount of courses that our students can take um I think sometimes that can be a detriment to our kids when they're trying to figure out what they they want to take in high school um so to really help them be develop self-awareness and and truly get to the core of um who they are what they love to do what they're good at and and have an assessment that shows them the multitude of career paths out there and then to show them the classes in high school that line up with those opportunities is in my opinion and I know I'm biased is gold and I really wish I would have had
050that as a student um here in the Francis H School District 25 years ago so so um I'm very passionate about it and I have done my homework I think this is a very rich valuable tool and we'll only continue to grow and support it as we continue to use it um and we are taking steps even just over the summer and into early fall to ensure that we are um implementing it with greater Fidelity and with greater purpose and that we are doing a even better job of educating parents um as well as students on the value of it and how to use it um to impactfully in the home if if find this guy right yeah your choice of all of the systems and and programs out there yeah can you name a
051couple that you would rather have well the Cadillac if you will is Zell uh x e l l o and um that is the reason why I I I'll say this I'm not I wish I could take the U science portion of U science the assessment piece and bring it over to zel Zell is a Cadillac platform if you will because it um merges all the things we need for postsecondary Readiness tool tool wise into One login so it has transcript submission and college search um opportunities and um Community Partnership connections and uh the IAP that Dr Buckman referenced can be housed in there kids can select their courses through there for high school um so in terms of efficiency and not making our teachers and our students log into 7 million different things um
052canvas Infinite Canvas you science score um Zell is the end all be all winville School District just adopted it a year ago and they love it but it is instead of $119,000 um that's I I know that's just one portion we're looking at tonight it's in the upward of $150,000 a year so it's very pricey um and Beyond Beyond Zell there's really not much else I would sniff at um and I've sat on many many many a call um Mya learning might be a very distant third you mentioned that you don't think this collects psychological data how would you classify the data that it collects on students then well psychologic and this is just me putting my counselor hat on and the just the the psychology classes I took through that program psychological data had
053typically has metrics so that's number one so you're you're going to get and on any psychological assessment for the most part you're going to get you're going to get a a um a you're going to get several scores on that that are Quantified the big five is that how you're talking quantifiable so I don't know what the big five is but I do know that most uh most psychological assessments are going to have some qu quantifiable data U science does not provide quantifiable data so there's no way for us to throw our students results onto a scattergram and start comparing Dr rumpus to Dr Buckman and pigeon ho holding them into certain tracks or classes or post-secondary programs um it really is individualized and unique um I would also say that often times psychological data
054the the one major assessment that is performed during a psychological evaluation is an IQ test a wasi a whisk um a San for San for Benet you name it this is not an IQ test we do not we do not take IQ or intellect data on our students through this process um and there's probably a few others I could think of but it is it is not a psychological assessment it just isn't so maybe just commentary like prior prior to this this program I assume either we didn't have any much of anything or and their kids were just left on their own or they sat down with the councel and the councel asked him a few general questions and said you might want to think about XYZ yes is how we kind of approach things
055yes and I would say that's what that's very accurate president bertran and I would also say that the the one assessment that we used and I will use that term lightly um both at middle school and high school is the Missouri connections desie based um assessment the free one and that is just the interest inventory piece that again is also free and accessible on onet and interest change they evolve it's not it's not a an accurate predictor of of what a student may really enjoy taking in high school nor is it an accurate predictor of what career they may enjoy down the road so that's why when you get the question what do you want to be when you grow up and you get the response a professional YouTuber or you know uh you know
056I don't know a professional skateboarder or or whatever it's because you're asking seventh graders this question that is what they love to do and that's there's nothing wrong with that um but you have to tie in that abilities piece too that aptitudes piece and we have to start getting better at pinpointing and helping kids really articulate this is what I'm good at and I like to do this as well or I'm really good at this but guess what I don't like doing it and we get that a lot too you're so good at math you should get into accounting well Mom I don't like math I'm sorry I don't I like people I want to serve people okay well then let's find a way to incorporate your math abilities and your analytical abilities that go
057with that along with your love for people here's a platform that can show you that in all their careers that take those two things and mush them together other questions Bo no but thank you for all the great information that you shared I I hope you know we all think very highly of your program well I appreciate it and thank you very much for your time I just would like to say is there any you guys have anything else to add at all just good okay okay didn't want to make sure she all or motion to approve number 12 you science Discovery as presented all those in favor say I I all those oppos say no no I have it Bo like a motion to approve the number 15 Scholastic book flicks as presented discussion
058board uh can we hear why it was pulled what what are the concerns we should know about I ask this it under to be pulled I do not support the direction that Scholastic has taken many educational portions they're a Big Driver of many public education things and for the same reasons as Brain Pop I don't think it's good for public education overall and not good for students here in Francis H I'm worried because if it's something that's really bad I like to know what it is so can you share and say this is dangerous to our students um for transparency I know we all like trans transparency can you say this is what is exists within Scholastic book flicks that you think is a danger um takes us in the wrong direction I'm sorry you
059didn't look at the agenda for this item until this morning but no I cannot you to say that I haven't looked at the agenda yes you said earlier that you hadn't looked at the agenda oh no I looked at the agenda on Monday Tuesday Wednesday Wednesday night Thursday morning and then again at Thursday 11 when so you must have misspoke earlier when you said that you didn't look at it till this morning I didn't see the change happen till this morning but I I've looked at it multiple times so um what what's the answer what's what's so the answer is I cannot explain to you in a board meeting here at 8:00 730 at night all of the problems with Scholastic name if you'd like to do some research on your own I'm not going
060down this road I name something and then you say but that's good for students I'm not no I'm not answering your questions so when you ask like what's your role here it's to ask ask questions to pursue the truth and present the truth in transparent ways if it's so bad share with us what it is and again I didn't have opportunities to ask further questions of any the staff because it was added as an agenda item in this way early this morning which becomes to feel more and more intentional and so my question for you is what is so bad about Scholastic booklets three things like I don't answer to you I know you don't I know you don't I'm just asking I'm asking on behalf of everybody else can you share with us we
061here support you're you're welcome to ask the question if director cook does not want to provide provide an answer right um uh there are people who have uh appreciate Scholastic book flicks um Ive talked to uh some parents and um who have shared online in other ways that they think it's a good tool um I know this is going to be called anecdotal but I did ask parents I did ask people what they thought and um they said book Flix is a great tool for students that are either non-readers or struggling readers research has proven that listening to books can increase reading skills um another person says please keep uh Brain Pop book flick I use these resources for my sped kids and lower readers they are great resources um so is there um is
062there anything from a admin who can tell us uh the value the book flick has for our district go ahead Dr off my apologize go ahead um just for context I can share a little about what it is it's an electronic resource that pairs a fiction and a non-fiction book around a topic for our prek through third grade students uh we've been using the resource in the district for about 11 years it supports a lot of our early literacy efforts um it'll read a book aloud to a student if that's necessary uh it includes some puzzlers which are features that ask questions related to vocabulary comprehension Factor fiction from the book um some sequencing activities many teachers use this with research for our younger students in their classrooms uh they often use it if they
063don't have a book that goes with a topic they're looking for they can go into book flicks and pull up a book online that goes with the topic that they're looking for if they don't have a physical book um some teachers use it as listening centers in their classrooms it helps with vocabulary and background uh back uh building background knowledge for some of our struggling students especially our um English language Learners who need that extra vocabulary um we looked at some data through April there were more than 140,000 documents that were used so like a book would be a document um through more than 64,000 sessions through April so usage is I know we've had this conversation before T about these resources and whether or not they're being monitored by um anyone and I remember
064a discussion in the past where the the resource was being considered but it was admitted that there was agent appropriate information in there maybe subject too old for a younger learner maybe um an inappropriate subject for a more developed learn or older learner um and that that I think that's my issue is anybody watching what's in these resources because as anecdotal goes I've heard that there's inappropriate you know information being passed through these in book flick in book flick yes I haven't heard that concern I you know if you pass those along to us we're happy to investigate them as you hear of them we appreciate that um we don't preview every piece of information in the resource we would expect our teachers before you using something with students that you're previewing it and making
065sure that it's appropriate for the student that's consuming it and I would say that's just a general expectation across any resource that we're using it's nothing special um for book flicks that's expecting a lot from the teachers though I mean you got 30 kids in your class and you're supposed to preview each thing that they want to watch or review or learn from that that's a lot my estimation comment board question would removing this require teachers to then have to find supplemental resources and therefore ask our teachers to do a lot I think is that the idea they would have to replace this that would be our teachers that use book flicks would need to find a different resource if the board doesn't approve it right seeing no more discussion board we're going to make
066move on to voting uh motion to approve number 15 Scholastic book fli all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no no eyes have it or like a motion to approve number 26 Education Plus as presented director Ponder discussion board I like to know why was pulled I pulled this because I don't support Education Plus can I ask what is part of Education Plus that is objectionable so that we can learn we can research Education Plus on your own but I don't support the direction that they're taking public [Music] education question well can I ask uh claric uh clarifying question um what does education plus do and how is it currently being used in our district it is a local education Cooperative that we actually use for a variety of different um
067sources and opportunities um everything from they offer significant professional development that supports all positions in the district from the superintendent to leaders at the district level leaders at the building level support staff positions throughout the District of a variety of levels um in all classifications so we take advantage of the professional development opportunities that they offer throughout the year um some of it is open to anybody in the district that we send people to and then some of it is also customizable specifically to needs we have within the district uh they offer a lot of high quality specialized training that we need um specifically we send a group of teachers over just the last couple of days to an E English learner conference that they provide um if we were to send people large numbers
068to these conferences nationally it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars um in this case generally um on average it's about $2 to $250 a person that we're able to get um high quality professional development locally um other recent professional development they've done um the letters training that we've talked about around the science of reading they offer a lot of that locally that many of our teachers have taken advantage of there are pieces related to instructional technology um math has been a focus lately and they provided some of that um additionally they are a purchasing Cooperative so we receive other benefits from them we're able to use them for certain purchases um we receive rebate from them along with other districts within the St Louis region who participate for the purchase card program um that
069we utilize as a district and so a r wide variety of um services that they provide and some of them are quantifiable that we can look at and then there are other pieces some of the purchasing um there are some way we can't necess measure everything that we do and then the ability to utilize the networking professional development for all the positions within the district is a huge Advantage for us as well thank you Dr other questions Bo discussion um do all districts in the St Louis naturop paltin area on the Missouri side use Education Plus or are there ones that are using something else there is not another Cooperative that provides all of the same services and resources that they do I don't believe that every single District participates but it is most of
070them in the area as well as a couple of the districts on the Illinois side of the river as well so Education Plus also provide some Financial savings as as well is that correct so this is more than just an Education topic this is also financial implications okay all right any no more discussion move on to voting board all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say no no no eyes have it more like a motion to approve the Hollis and Miller plus Miller architects to serve as the district architect for bond fund and regular Capital fund projects as presented bushar director Ponder discussions or questions [Music] board I would just like to make a little statement just for the audience that um this is for replacement of honer just for everybody
071that that's trying to follow along with all the pass items from previous board members so this was brought brought up and this is the motion to approve that um Replacements board all those in favor well just to clarify on new projects one are still serves us on the project there thank you for that clarification and home owner is cooperating with the thank you for that clarification Vice pres Bo all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say no eyes have it Bo like a motion to approve the meal and allart prices for the 24 25 school year as presented so moveed questions for all those in favor say I I I all post say no I we like a motion to approve the F memorandum of understanding as presented Missin thank you
072president Berrian I don't have anything to share other than to thank FHA for collaborating with us in Sol in this planning um and schedule uh concern that we had and uh we recommend that the board approve the memorandum of understanding and if you'd like to just wait until the end of the meeting we can sign it at the end instead of taking a break if you'd prefer to do that thank you very much any questions for all those in favor say I I all supp say no I we will sign at the end of the meeting up next we have recommendations for employee benefits plan Jacob [Music] Myers good evening board tonight we're going to go ahead and uh give you a first reading of our 2024 2025 health insurance renewal we're going to do
073a brief overview of the current offerings of the plan as well as the results uh from our committee meetings and then ultimately the recommendation that will be returned to you on the 20th first I wanted to point you to the board regulation that requires us to offer all of our employees um District paid health insurance for both medical uh dental and vision we uh offer that full contribution for our base plan and then it is up to the employee um to cover a portion of their spouse or children plan the district does uh cover a portion of that as well we'll go into that in more depth on a later slide I briefly wanted to talk about the group of stakeholders that went into um developing this um recommendation to you um I want to
074thank our Francis H Team our benefits team and all of the administrators that participated both through the committee um and discussions and meetings with our benefits consultant I also wanted to thank the board appointed Insurance committee um who have uh members from the retiree fhaa fisa teachers and other uh members uh we brought this recommendation to them um for review we discussed it and then there was unanimous consensus to bring this forward um as a recommendation tonight so I wanted to thank all of their work our last meeting was in May um finally I wanted to talk about our benefits consultant currently we utilize MMA and their resources um they provide an invaluable resource uh and and give us um transparent objective data that allow us to make the decisions and bring those recommendations to
075you um not only do they uh provide us comparable data so that we can make sure that our um plan design and premiums employer contributions are all in line with our competitors but they also manage and assist with the RFP process for all of our vendors um making sure that we're in compliance with all of the requirements of the plan uh as well as um create and provide us plan design changes employer premiums that we can present to the committee for discussion so they are vital in all of those uh those roles I know that we have some new uh members on the board so I wanted to remind everybody the difference between our self-insured plan versus a fully insured plan so we do have two self-insured plans that's our medical and our dental plans
076and we have one fully insured plan which is our vision plan essentially with the self-insured plan all of our premiums that we pay on behalf of our employees as well as their premiums they're paying for their supplemental coverage goes into a bank account that the district manages and then we utilize all of those premiums and reserves to pay out the claims and administrative costs the benefits of being self-insured are that we have full control over the plan design uh we can shift things like d able and out of pocket maximums and premiums and adjust to fit the district's specific needs in addition um any potential savings from the plan goes back into the district so if we have a good year with low claims the district is the one that reaps the rewards of that
077positive year versus a fully insured plan which just is returned to that insurance [Music] carrier a brief overview of our current offerings we currently offer two uh medical plans they are both administered by Signa with our Pharmacy benefits through our Uh current vendor of CVS we have both a PO plan as well as a consumer-driven Health Plan essentially your base plan or po plan that we reference to this presentation is your typical co-pay uh plan where you would go to a specialist and pay a co-pay or an urgent care you'd pay a co-pay and then all of the additional costs would be covered a consumer-driven Health Plan has a higher deductible as mandated by the IRS um and we actually contribute to a health savings account to cover your first portion of your deductible um
078and then uh any portion after that you would pay up until you reach the deductible maximum other benefits that we offer are the carry TC Clinic uh this is a low to no cost General Medical Care for our employees um ultimately it saves the district and employees um funds by utilizing our care ATC clinic and then another benefit that I wanted to point out we'll go into further detail on another slide is that the district does fund partial premium payments for spouse children and family plans that is a major benefit to our staff um many districts uh do not contribute a specific portion to these additional dependents that are on the plan whereas Francis how has historically um contributed to those plans we currently offer one dental insurance plan it's a PO plan administered by
079Delta Dental and then that fully insured uh iMed vision insurance is offered to our staff as well our life insurance and short-term disability are both administered by Lincoln um our life insurance all employees are have a $75,000 term life insurance policy as well as the option to purchase supplemental health or life insurance at the employees cost short-term disability is also um maintained for all employees this is utilized when our staff go out on leave after a certain period of time they are automatically eligible for that short-term disability which pays them a prorated portion of their wages while they continue to be out finally we offer an employee assistance program uh this is a benefit to our staff that they can utilize free counseling services uh Financial Services dieticians uh there are lots of different resources
080that are available for free and confidentially uh through our employee assistance program on the 20th we're going to be bringing several recommendations this is just a brief summary we're going to go into each of these recommendations we did rebid our employee assistance program so we're going to be bringing uh the recommendation to maintain our current administrator we are going to bring premium um increases for both the dental and the medical program as well as a recommendation to maintain our current administrator for our health insurance and finally the recommendation to change from CVS to Express [Music] Grips we put out an RFP for the employee assistance program and received four responses they came from personal assistance services comsy mellin and Modern Health based on the results of the RFP passed personal assistance Pro uh Services provides
081the most competitive PID from both a pricing perspective without changing our program we will see a slight increase from $160 per employee per month to A180 per employee per month but they were overall the best and most uh cost effective solution for us MMA um gives us regular updates on our projected um gap between our funding and our expected claims for the plan and based on that recommendation we're bringing forward a 2% increase to our Dental [Music] premiums we issued an RFP for our medical provider siga is our current incumbent we also received vids from Etna Anthem and United Healthcare as a group we analyzed and evaluated those RF pce for more than just price We examined them utilizing a comprehensive rubric that looked at such things as customer service effect to employees um change
082from Network to out of network doctors and how that would affect our employees ultimately on all respects Signa was the recommendation both from a cost perspective as well as uh all the other factors that were considered Pharmacy pbms were also bid we had four respondents from a carve-in uh perspective as well as two from a carve out what that means is when we went out to bid for our health services we asked them to bid both with Pharmacy included so siga's health plan with sigma's Pharmacy as well as siga's pricing without their Pharmacy which would utilize our bhc program um all four respondents for our medical their Carin policies were significantly higher than our bhc Alternatives so we already were aware that we were going to be selecting the bhc as a recommendation to the
083board um we had to wait until May 2024 before the business Health Coalition was able to complete their Market check on their Pharmacy providers uh which was a bit of a surprise we expected to be bringing a proposal for CVS but Express Scripts came in uh extremely competitive and we anticipate an approximate Savings of a half a million dollars every year for the next 3 years by switching to Express Grips we didn't want to make that decision without examining how the disruption will affect our current users of the plan um we should see 80 users have a positive benefit on the switch to Express Scripts currently they are on medications uh that are nonformulary in nature and they will move to the formulary so they should have an easier time and more cost-effective time getting
084those medications 160 users will have their medications moved to a formulary alternative what I want to note is that doesn't necessarily mean that they will be switching um or noticing that change at all it could be a brand of pen maybe a diabetic pen um where it does the same thing but it's now Express Scripts brand versus CVS's brand it could be that um Express Scripts has a new or or a better option on their formulary for a different medication the other thing to note is regardless of whether we would switch Pharmacy benefit providers each U company goes through a formulary review every year we would likely see some of these changes with or without the change can I ask a question yes okay so a lot of times when they're talking about a formulary
085alternative um what I know from that is typically that they'll use something in the same drug class meaning uh zertek and what's another one benad I don't know whatever anistan that you're talking about is that what you're referring to here that is correct okay yeah might get some complaints I know there's always going to be but it happens every year whether we stay with CVS or we move to Express Grips CVS also reviews their formulary and brings forward a recommendation so we see these complaints every year regardless in analyzing the financial data of our plan um we are taking the projected expenses after MMA has looked at the prior three years made a a cost estimate um based on our current plan design as well as the trends within the market we then determine the
086required Reserve which is based off of um two months of claim data and three months of administrative costs making sure that we have enough in the account to sustain the program on average and then we come up with something called a funding Gap essentially that means if we keep our premiums exactly the same we will experience a gap of 6.7% from what is required based on our investment for next year when that happens we have two options we can either review plan design changes which would ultimately decrease our projected expenses or we will have to increase premiums or we would have to do a combination of the two um during our work with the insurance committee we did bring forward options that reviewed plan design changes as well as premium changes um and the the
087committee decided they reached a consensus that the 6. 7% increase with plan design no plan design changes was recommended as we go through our comp data you'll see that our deductibles are relatively in line with our competitors so it makes sense that our plan design would stay relatively the same I know this is hard to read um but it should be online a little bit easier the main thing that I want to show you is that our bottom line the monthly employee contributions is the only thing that kind of sticks out is not exactly comparable to every other um category the reason for that is that we do provide a benefit to our staff of providing um premium contributions for our family spouse and child um plan options so that doesn't necessarily mean that's the
088exact cost split but you'll see that we um require family contribution of 30% where our STL schools are are expecting a 52% um contribution looking at our high deductible plan you'll see the same thing we're relatively in line in terms of deductible and out- of- pocket maximum um but again that bottom row where we're talking about 0% contribution requirement for employee only coverage 15% for um Family coverage um is out of line with other area uh comparable districts and other book of business with MMA I don't bring this up to change necessarily just to point this out that this is a major benefit for our staff that we do cover a portion of their premiums that other places may require them to contribute more again uh we are bringing forward a recommendation to increase premiums
089for both employees and the District of 6.7% another change would be to increase the embedded deductible from 3,000 to 3200 although this is included with our recommendation we don't really have an option if we want to maintain our high deductible status this is an IRS regulation they are the ones that set that deductible amount and in order for us to qualify and allow for the HSA plan we have to meet those minimum requirements so this embedded deductible for those that are unfamiliar if you are on a family plan with um a high deductible plan you have a deductible of $5,800 that means that every member of the family uh in your plan once you reach that $5,800 you are done paying uh for your medical care an embedded deductible takes one individual out of that
090family and says if you hit the embedded deductible of $3,200 you don't have to contribute anymore to the deductible if your um child or spouse goes to get care they would continue to contribute until you reach that maximum but the embedded deductible is for an individual within a family plan this is just some rationale that we use we continue to monitor on a monthly basis the plan performance we continue to meet with MMA and our vendors to examine future Trends and we try to uh base our decisions and recommendations on that information um we then analyze whether any plan changes are needed or District contribution changes are needed the goal is to develop a long-term proactive plan that supports the retention and attraction of staff while maintaining a fiscally responsible insurance benefit plan this slide
091just shows you a summary of what the projected increases would be for the board to approve a 6.7% premium increase I will note that they're slightly different than what was originally posted but it's only between a do to $5 difference on each line that was due to some new information that came in but I want to assure you that what's on this slide is what will be brought on the T this is just a summary of what we went over so again we're going to recommend remaining with pass the rate increased from $160 per employee per month to $180 per employee per month a 2% rate increase with no plan changes for dental 6.7% premium increase with no plan changes for medical accepting siga as the provider increasing the embedded deductible of for $200 to
092reach that $3,200 Mark as well as accept the Express Scripts as PBM be happy to try to answer any questions you may have question [Music] supp do not look like it thank you very much next we have more excitement with Miss imry and the 2425 budget recommendation I'm so glad to be introduced like that thank you and actually this represents us coming full circle so those of you who were uh on the board at at the June 1st meeting last year this is going to be a Deja Vu moment for you and for those who've tuned in but um there is new information to share so we'll we'll cover that so let me get started here thank you Miss hippler for getting that going my goal is to top the insurance presentation okay I think
093that's I'm picking up right okay okay so uh this represents our presentation objectives we'll follow that same pattern and you'll see some slides that have been presented to you not only last year at this time but throughout the year as you know one of the major changes that we made this year was bringing you budget amendments and transfers every month when we have new information we provide you new information and we also are uh updating that fund balance percentage so that you have the best information that we have and that's our continuing commitment to you so this reminds us of the budget development process the people that we involve and this slide reminds us that we're compliant with Missouri statute there are five primary components that are listed there that is included within the budget
094document that's posted on the website for you and the public to view budget message our estimated revenues and expenditures the debt of the district and then culminating into the general budget summary that informs us of that fund balance percentage that's the reminder slide on our funds and the distribution of how we must code expenditures and how our operating Levy and our debt levies are separated out and we'll get into the revenues so reminding you again that we have these primary categories of Revenue and how they are all impacted I won't belabor all that but if you have any questions or want me to pause I'm happy to delve into any of that information so again this becomes rote whenever you're hearing about it all the time so on uh local the uh contributing factors did
095it again there we go uh we have our local tax rate calculation in September we'll bring you the calculation uh using state auditor information I'll highlight that further later assess valuation Consumer Price Index and then the collection rate prop C is a Statewide tax that is collected on state we have student attendance that's very critical our state adequacy Target which is the base Revenue distribution and some other factors weighing in on that we then have our federal revenue which as you've seen in previous presentations that doesn't amount to very much for public education except for those Esser years when we were uh heavily impacted this slide provides you the student enrollment projections and you can see uh again that we've had a variety of numbers uh postco and our current number is at 16289 we
096are uh projecting a slight increase but I'm highlighting for you that our budget does not anticipate the increase we'll wait and see what happens if we receive the additional 87 approximate students and it's always ever changing this is a reminder that we have had a demographic study in the past but given the new information we continue to receive about potential changes in apartment complexes and other housing units we do recommend performing an updated demographic study and that would mean Contracting with an individual or company to come in and do that and that work would U be deployed very soon this slide provides you how those assessed value valuations come into play so we're estimating an increase for fy2 of a million 55590 and that's all funds and remember that the tax levy is deposited into
097all operating funds and also The Debt Service fund we are currently projecting and this is based on that April requirement where we took the St Charles County data that they gave us and then calculated our estimated Levy we brought that to you during the April meeting so in that information that the county provided us there's an estimated 35 million in new construction for the district uh for new construction and other improvements I should say we know that our Consumer Price Index is 3.4% and this past year it was 6.5 so a significant change in that we are expecting a 99 99% collection rate which has been something we've enjoyed in the district for several years and the levy will be set in September using all the factors and we know that we are held back
098by the Hancock provision where we can't grow greater than um whatever's lesser and I'll cover that in a minute but the slides at the bottom or the charts at the bottom rather the pictures that provides you with a reminder on how assess valuation is calculated using the market value of property you apply that particular assess value valuation rate so personal property is 33.33 % our um commercial property is 32% residential is 19% and agricultural is 12% this is that Hancock amendment that uh protects the community basically by imposing a cap on how much revenue we can grow so if assess valuation spikes then the levy goes down it's basically a scale if you will and the factors that are considered it's the actual growth and assess valuation the inflation rate which I just mentioned Consumer
099Price Index is 3.4 for us now or 5% so we already know that the cap would be 3.4% growth in Revenue but we are expecting our assess valuation because this is a non reassessment year this Summer that we will not grow very much based on the April data from St Charles County we can anticipate approximately 1.91% growth so it could be that would be uh our our greatest revenue and that's what we've included in the budget for your consideration Proposition C sales tax a reminder it originated in 1982 it's Statewide but it's collected by the state and then distributed out to public education uh districts based on wada weighted average daily attendance and you can see that our estimate for fy2 is 1,513 per W as compared to the current rate of 1,474 those numbers
100are provided to us by the department of Elementary and secondary education and it's based on the governor's recommendation so all of that information flows to all districts and we uh have the ability to project we had the pandemic provision that had one point protected us on our water number on which that multiplier was applied and that did go away uh previously so we don't have that additional revenue for State basic formula and classroom trust fund we're anticipating an increase of 3, 47596 and that's mostly because the state adequacy Target is increasing uh for the first time in five years the state adequacy Target is now uh changing from 6,375 to 6,760 uh again that's based on formula Ada and we do have a dollar value modifier and that's basically a cost of living adjustment that's
101applied District to District we are changing to .88 down slightly from 1.0929 success State excuse me State Transportation we are uh planning for full funding for the second year that was prioritized by the legislative body and has uh every indication that for fy2 we're protected in that as a reminder it is the second year since 1991 we you can see those percentages that we received in the past were always capped at 75% of our allowable costs or authorized costs uh and then if it starts getting prated it would be prated down from that level financial institutions tax I've shared with you that uh moving forward we will not include this as an operating budget we will be in wait and see mode so we will wait to see what shows up and then bring a
102budget amendment to you as soon as we are able to do that these charts both show you what has occurred in the past several years and you can see that it is very very sporadic uh non-reliable for operating funds do you have a question no I do see a pattern though yes two years of growth one year of lean two years of growth one year of lean so we're due for growth uh we're going to wait and see I've shared with you that there's there is no that's where you're going to find that million dollars yes there you go there's no data available to us it's a a tax basically on uh Banks and other financial institutions this this is a very unique the the dollars that Francis how has received have been very unique
103compared to any District I have awareness for in the state and so it's relative to the businesses in our community so again we'll plan for this unpredictable Revenue by adjusting the budget After we receive it and the recommendation would always be that it be very targeted for onetime purchases and uh whether that be in the capital area or whether it be in operational uh for operation needs this is a reminder for you when we presented this to you a year ago our total was just over 17 million for our Esser funds and as you can see that has increased to 18.26% final expenditure reports by September 30 so that work will be done and we'll get closure on that uh there Ina it includes a provision that we must spend uh 20% of the most
104recent allocation for learning loss and so some of that is uh continuing to cross over into the next year but we'll bring you that budget amendment after we know how much it is so other Revenue that has been changed uh within the budget recommendation include our tuition program uh rate increase increasing our Revenue to an estimated 610,000 311 our bond interest earnings were pulling that down because as we deplete the funds we have less to earn interest revenue on we had the refunding bond issue budget amendment that you approved previously so that needs to come out we also had a safety Grant this year that now that budget allocation comes out both on the revenue side and the expenditure side and then we had some other uh miscellaneous changes of uh just under $1.4 million
105so the total other Revenue changes is 20, 887 775 this shows you some of those uh the summary of some of those Revenue types as you can see we have a local tax increase for current and delinquent property taxes the elimination of the Student Activity fee a reduction of 160,000 other people income we're leveling that out to make sure that our revenue and expenditures also at one another much like we treat our self- insurance fund and that type of thing uh we had the T tuition-based program our state monies Proposition C the safety Grant and the adjustment on Esser Revenue that I communicated I think back in December at least so that summarizes all the rest of that again ESS related grants this splits it for you it shows you the non-operating budgeted Revenue items
106that are changing and then by fund you're seeing the overall changes uh in our revenue and again this is all anticipated that our revenue is depleting because we have received those Esser funds that propped up our fund balance and uh have continued to allocate those as uh recommended any questions about revenue or shall I continue on with expenditure it's a little faster this year right continue on with with Revenue um yes remind me how I think we've talked about this before I just don't remember but remind me how we're estimating the senior citizen property tax frees well we we really don't have data that's a great question we have talked about it before we've attempted to get information from the county and we we don't anticipate that it there will be a significant impact for
107us this coming year and that's because it's a non- reassessment year but beyond that and our hope is that we'll have some greater assistance and being able to get to the uh the root of what that might look like but it it will come you correct it won't result in a reduction though it'll just cap as much correct we would be Frozen as much as it would otherwise that is correct so then we still you know and and being deliberated is how does that affect the Handcock Amendment and you know are we going to take a double hit because is it going to to pull down that AV number and then we still have the minimal increase so there's speculation that there potentially could be some litigation that follows all of that but more more
108to learn wait and watch or watch and wait great question okay so on expenditures we have these primary categories our staffing and that includes our negotiations for all salary and benefits the health insurance increase that Mr Myers has Shar sh with you purchase Services adjustments and supplies this shows you a summary of the Staffing plan that was approved by you at the January meeting and then there were a few modifications very slight that were brought to you you can see that our FTE count our full-time equivalency count has uh changed ever so slightly year-over-year and uh the net increase is 71 FTE uh is included in that our salary estimate is at this time for fy2 5,916 58 that's the increase and that's an increase of 4.07% comprehensively for this year salaries account for 61.5%
109of our total operating expenditures and we've identified the the uh interest based bargaining units that we participate with uh through the negotiations process this slide tells us that once again our benefits account for 22% of our total operating expenses the primary factors in that beyond the health insurance include those Retirement systems public school retirement system at 14.5% of gross plus employee health and then peers which is the non-certificated or non uh teacher or administrator rate at 6.86% of gross plus employee health the other things that were required to match include FICA or affectionately referred to as Social Security and Medicare Teachers Pay Medicare they do not pay F we have some slight uh benefit costs as well and that includes worker compensation and employee compensation so for our benefits our estimate is an increase of
1104,830 543 again that uh represents the 8% that we communicated to you previously uh we have an increase in peers and P and psrs because we must apply that percentage to the gross pay and the health insurance and that's noted at 1,253 675 with the health insurance increase noted at 2,11 253 the summary of expenditure changes for operating are noted here and we do have some nonoperating budgeted uh changes as well and those would correlate to our Capital fund our debt fund and you can see uh some of the changes noted on that slide on the right I know this is getting a little small but again you can uh scroll and make it larger on your screen this shows you all of the operating expense changes that have been embedded within the comprehensive budget
111recommendation that's posted online as a reminder for you you do have the next two weeks to review all of that information and bring forward any questions you might have I won't read those to you uh but again this is the culmination of a multitude of leaders combing through through their budgets trying to identify where there might be excess budget ways of doing business differently and making those adjustment recommendations this highlights again those uh primary changes that I just referenced were the bond fund we we had budgeted the full amount of the bond we'll do that again as we roll into the new year but we must wait until we close out the books following June 30 to know where those numbers will be directed so de excuse me huh I Jane I I I need
112a PD uh time on this here we go I got there so we've talked about operating funds now this is debt capital projects and bond but you received a comprehensive uh presentation on debt a few months ago I think it might have been the March board meeting and then capital projects we provided to you during the April meeting where we uh shared with you all of the work that had been done to to address our life cycle replacement needs and this is the culminating recommendation for you so we won't labor all of the details of that since you already received it and it's posted online but this uh highlights the summary of the changes to The Debt Service account The Debt Service Revenue uh increases relative to local tax and state assess utilities we've got
113a few other Revenue items the big change of course is that sale of refunding bonds that needs to be pulled out uh that revenue on the expenditure side again we uh we actually uh expenditures will decrease overall because we had an increase for any of our amortization costs but then a decrease overall for the um the refunding that got pulled out so that's noted as an increase but it's actually a decreased and it's always amazing to me how many times you can look at these presentations personally and still not see that so I missed that okay so on uh debt General so this is now showing you unless we receive new information this W this is the budget that's included uh within our budget recommendation and we do not expect this to change we know
114that we'll bring you budget amendments when we have better information for all of these accounts but we are estimating for the close of this current fiscal year Debt Service will end at 26663 797 we're anticipating revenues next year of 26 m578 76 and expenditures of 27519 so a slight reduction of The Debt Service fund that's not unusual for that to fluctuate we always are able to set the levy to generate the revenue to meet the principal interest and fee demands of debt service and so that will occur again when we have the tax rate hearing and seek your approval during the September meeting this is a slide that shows our general obligation debt and there are six debt obligations those are not at the bottom 2009 16 19 20 22 and 24 with 24 being
115the refunding issue that you uh processed and approved this year and and then the uh this next slide shows you the summary of principal and interest for all of the debt of the district and again we continue to maintain The Debt Service Levy is 67.1 3 to provide the revenue for those annual payments and I we had shared with you during the capital presentation or the debt I think it was the debt presentation about our bonding capacity and just a reminder that that is governed by the Missouri Constitution and it was voted in 1998 to be a 15% um rate of assess valuation in total so we provided you that calculation and we have the ability uh for Bond issues of approximately $315 million at this time data is always changing in calculating that as
116as well this provides you a summary of the gross Debt Service General obligation bonds and this is a slide that steel Public Finance provides for us you can see the repayment structure of all of that debt uh I don't have new information regarding the dip on some of that I know it's always relative to the ability of interest rates and securing Bond purchasers uh for getting that all structured for capital projects fund this shows you what we are planning for the budget that's included and the change in that so we've been fairly aggressive this year in identifying needs and determining what we might be able to handle in terms of the workload moving forward this year those were all presented to you as I mentioned during the April meeting and capital uh oh I should
117also share that um the department sent out notification that where is districts in the past had been held at a $1,000 per item rate if it was greater um it was 1,000 or greater it would be considered capital and that is an archaic amount when you think about there's no way you're going to pay to repair something and spend $800 when you could buy a new one for a thousand right and just common sense tells you that so in each district including Francis Hal I had uh engaged with the local auditor to seek permission to set our Threshold at 3,000 and the auditor concurred with me that that would be appropriate and they would audit accordingly and now we have new information that it's been increased to $5,000 per item so that's very exciting I
118still think it's a little bit low but that's the uh the threshold so so regarding Capital keep in mind that uh we rely on our fund balance carryover we also rely on not only the small Levy that gets placed in the capital fund of 6 cents of our operating Levy but we also transfer funds over and the transfer included here is $5 million uh from operating to Capital this shows you our lease schedule and all of uh those terms within that this information is also posted each year in the annual report to the Department of Elementary and secondary education we include it as I referenced early on that it's one of those five requirements that include all of our debt within our budget docu document that's recommended this provides you Clarity on um the primary
119object categories of where our Capital funds are uh being distributed and so you can see that a lot of it is regarding building improvements that's HVAC needs roofs that type of thing that's historically been where it has been allocated we do uh we do have our lease payments included in this as required by the department of Elementary and secondary education and then any uh School Bus purchases that type of thing that we would um be deploying in the district would be applied there as well this uh summarizes now our capital projects fund relative to bond funds and again we provided the full allocation and um we know we won't spend all of that each year but that covers Us on budget and then we retool as we have better information so we have an estimated
120uh balance of um noted here in our bank account of 11,755 237 um we will continue to monitor that as we uh adjust for the end of the year so we know that it that will be higher what we provide to you because we know we haven't uh been able to spend all those funds this year so this is the uh slide that just reminds us of when that bond issue was approved and provides that data each time we provided that comprehensive report to you during the March 14th 2024 meeting regarding the intention of how those funds could be allocated and you supported that that's that listing right there we have now Incorporated that into our bond financials that we provide you each month and so uh you can monitor that with us this now
121shows us that we are providing you with a total governmental fund expenditure of 295 milon 98762 our Revenue news ,900 20 yeah 280 m957 257 keeping in mind governmental funds have the fluctuating Bond and the fluctuating capital and the fluctuating debt within them and that's why in Missouri public Ed we really hone in on the operating budget that is presented that is how we inform our fund balance percentage that is an indicator of the health of the district I shared with you last year that um the statute for Missouri indicates that you're financially stressed if you're at 3% and I I believe I told you that we are all stressed at that point because we're not meeting payroll and other important things but as you can see right here we're projecting that we would have
122a 28.35 per operating fund balance percentage at June 30 2025 that does include a capital transfer of $5 million so an operating um a balanced operating budget is presented there could be times as we move forward as we've looked at our trajectory that that won't be the case because we know we will be continuing to spend some of that Sr fund balance uh that has been provided to us and is currently in the bank account so this information uh just remind you of our self-insurance fund and we committed to you last year that we would keep that separate so that we can more easily track it and that it would not uh affect our operating fund balance percentage and so this is uh a proprietary fund separate from our Desi funds that we report on
123we are providing for an allocation uh that would end up being a total of 31 million for revenue and 31 million for expenditures and you can see the breakdown of those uh claims versus other expenditures just a reminder that for all the claims that are processed we rely upon third-party processors to to uh process that information we don't have details of any individual's personal health information within the district oh there's the 31 million and so references all the other things uh and so I do have a clarifying moment for you because last year I had included that 8% would be required so that we wouldn't have to borrow funds um to meet payroll and I should have said 8% leaning into the next uh budget cycle the next month okay so if we're looking at
124a June 30 percentage truly the 15% fund balance is necessary to avoid short-term short-term borrowing not an unusual thing for a school district like Francis how where we are highly dependent on local revenues uh and we have the dip of Revenue uh spiking or the dip of our expenditures rather July through November before we start receiving that uh new revenue from local tax income so that's this slide then references that Missouri statute about the 3% again 15% is the right place for us we took another look at it just to make sure that that would be an appropriate threshold for us at June 30 and then um our board policy as you well know does indicate that we will strive to maintain a minimum of 15% of PR expenditures so again our estimated unbalance percentage
125is 28.35 at June 30 of 25 but we know that will will change as we move forward so this slide uh highlights that um basically we don't know what to expect in the long term we don't know how legislation might impact us provided in the budget I should have highlighted on the uh State adequacy Target it's supposed to grow another $385 per water formula water next the next year in FY 26 but we are only budgeting 50% of that so we don't know um what we can expect moving forward all we can do is continue to monitor it but again our our assumptions are noted for your consideration for all that has been included within the budget recommendation this is the final uh operating fund trajectory and again this is not new information for you
126we' provided provided it to you routinely and it shows you that as we continue to look out to FY 28 again being relatively I I don't like to use the word conservative but realistic is is the word I actually prefer to use you can see that as we now as we uh look out to fy20 28 June 30 of 2028 based on the assumptions that we've included within the budget information we are looking at U maintaining still a 16.06% ining fund balance we know that we have other work to do to ensure that that flattens out and that we don't have that downward curve on where our fund balance heads this shows you the general budget summary so this is that uh final requirement of the statute where we list all of our revenues and
127expenditures and transfers by fund we're showing you our Surplus and um deficit by col by fund column and then any restricted fund balance information again 28.35 per at this moment in time that is it this just reminds us that we'll continue to uh do our budget amendments each month and we'll continue on our analysis Journey any questions Bo just a small one um there's a slide 32 where it mentioned increase instead of decrease to make sure that that was changed oh yes that I'll I'll change that to go into it afterwards can see that slide 32 right just a comment or point out that um know back in December or January we talked about trying to extend the Freshman Sports season and we took care of this is in that budget it looks like for
128next year so freshman Sports now have a full season next year I should have highlighted that thank you for poting that that was one nut change was [Music] good thank you Miss H thankk you very much you are welcome I know it's overwhelming and I know you you have a lot of information to go through happy to take any call or email however you would like to approach digging more deeply into the information we're just going to hold you um to those numbers that we're going to bringing more Revenue than expenditures right I think I also said we know these numbers will change how they will change just to be deterred no you did an excellent job thank you car right up next we have superintendent comments Dr upus thank you president Bertrand um first
129I'd like to also thank Miss Embry Mr Meyers and the rest of the finance department for the incredible work on the budget recommendation that you just heard this is a significant lift that as you reminded you began last October with the cap capit planning process and then involve leaders and staff from every single school and Department in the entire District um working much of the year on preparing the following Year's budget at the same time that they're still analyzing the prior year and making sure that we're running the day-to-day operations fiscally for the district um we really believe that this is a budget that will continue to meet the needs of the students in our district um move us toward being more competitive with salaries that we believe our teachers and our staff really deserve
130while also ensuring that the community resources um are being utilized responsibly um as taxpayers within the community when this was presented to you last year we committed to better engaging both you and stakeholders in the district to review all of the expenditures and revenues from the prior year and looking at this year's um and we really believe that our our financial path was more transparently shown this year with the monthly presentations you've been receiving um and we've heard positive feedback from the community about that as well so thank you to Carol and the entire department for the work that they've done on that um whether you're a parent within the district or a taxpayer that does not have school AG children or you're a staff member um we know that everybody has a vested interest
131and we've done a lot of surveying this spring um but our community stakeholder survey is currently open and will be open through June 10th later this summer we share the information that we get from that survey specifically compared to Prior years with the board of education so I'd like to encourage anyone to complete that if they have not already done so um I want to take a moment and celebrate the staff students and families at sexual Elementary um we learned recently that they are one of only 149 schools in the state of Missouri to receive the PBS Award of Excellence for um this past school year and this recognizes the implementation of the multi-tiered system of support for behavior in the school and really demonstrates um a commitment to the processes that need to be
132in place to help the students be successful so congratulations to Central Elementary and then the last thing just to get to celebrate again that um got to spend about 11 hours with most of you last Saturday at The Family Arena as we celebrated just shy of 1200 High School seniors getting to walk across the stage from our three um comprehensive high schools and then about 10 days prior to that we celebrated 100 graduates from Union and um dayto day you know we recognize that there's incredible work happening throughout this District um but that really is a celebration of our why as we recognize these students um going on to two-year fouryear um postsecondary College learning opportunities entering the workforce and many our students were also going directly into the military so it was a a
133great celebration of the culmination of 12 or 13 years of education in the district and um I just want to thank all of our staff for the incredible hard work that goes into preparing our students um as graduates thank you me BCS I just say uh a personal privilege just to make a comment that uh my oldest son got his driver's license yesterday I'm super excited about that so uh everybody uh count the amount of gr haes I have today and then a year from now we'll see how it works out um I wanted to uh recognize the 11 hours we spent as a board um at the graduations and thought it was a wonderful collection of Ceremonies um wide variety of handshakes is one thing we notice some people shake hands a little stronger
134than others and uh um I wanted to lift up uh one board member uh had attended a funeral earlier that day and still came to do the act in service of a board member at the graduation and I want to lift up that as a great um act that I was uh really uh impressed by um I want to thank um uh Adam and Randy for their comments at the library um meeting um couple weeks ago um heartfelt um appreciate U hearing them speak and just wanted to see what else we can do going forward if if Brain Pop isn't part of our future at uh Francis how how do we create a future um that is as strong as possible for every single student and love to hear conversations with the teachers um about
135what suggestions they might have to provide that so thank you just one quick comment I know Dr Dr rumus mentioned uh being with with uh the board on Saturday at graduations for 11 hours and you mentioned the board was well just for the Public's sake the board doesn't talk about we don't talk about business during that time L talk about baseball and families um so no business is occurring during that I just that may not be clear to the public so I just want to make that crystal clear that we're not meeting in secret Family Arena green rooms I appreciate that and an awful lot of baseball so I apologize to both Jan and Carly for way too much baseball I I don't apologize for talking about baseball at all um director Blair turned me
136on to a uh a new thing that I've been become addicted to guessing players and things like that um I do want to uh highlight one of the things that U president beran brought up uh with a moment of silence earlier um at the beginning of the meeting and you know I don't know that a lot of people you know I guess we all know about this day and know what this day means to our country and and a lot of the families that have been involved uh with the military and and our service uh our services and um you know I I I was reading something a little earlier that sh that said that um with the Allied Forces just you know storming the beach of of Normandy there was over over 4,000 young
137men and women that that lost their lives mostly men um on that beach um 20 over 2500 of them that day were um uh American soldiers and um you know I think in the whole War over 170 some 17 some OD thousand uh Allied troops lost their lives and um this day was kind of the culmination or the the beginning of all of that and it's uh it's something that that I I don't take lightly the the sacrifice that those folks made those young men that never got to live their lives or have kids and and and enjoy all the uh the things that we that we get to enjoy this uh in our lives every single day um one of which being the ability to sit up on sit up here and speak to
138you and debate and and and make decisions that we think are right uh for this country and for for these students and and this District so um you know when you when you go home tonight you know maybe just take a step back and thank those those kids that lost their lives you know some of them were I heard today that there were lieutenants that were 23 years old that's crazy to me that that some of these kids were 17 18 22 23 years old and in this beach knowing that they were probably not going to come home uh the amount of Valor and bravery that those those uh young men show was amazing to me something that I've never seen in my lifetime I've seen a lot of people be BR but nothing like
139that so just when you get home tonight just hug your kids hug your family and thank them for uh um for really allowing us to be here and do this thank you I know I'm jumping out turn um Mark um was a h was respons responsible for the first stting Ovation we gave at the graduation ceremony for all the graduating seniors who are part of the military going directly into um the the military service and um it's really interesting to be in a position where you truly look up to somebody so much younger than you and the the content of the character was just brilliant I don't know if the district has listed the names of everybody but I feel like um just like Mark said there's an opportunity for us to celebrate and honor
140um these 18-year-olds who are um incredibly Brave and so mark thank you for starting the standing ovation and uh complet agree thank [Music] you just real quick so several the emails that that we received this week and then also there's a comment made tonight as to pulling items so late in the week yet you have to understand the I guess you don't have to understand but just for a little clarity say for instance this last weekend was jam-packed we had graduation all day then if you happen to volunteer for a graduation party to to work the party tables you don't get home until the we hours of the next morning you're in no you're in no mindset or interest that following day to look at an agenda for the school board meeting so you've got
141a full day the following you you've got a job you got a family so somewhere in between there you've got a group of seven people doing doing their best to go through the agenda to raise questions and then the question the answers to the question come out say on a Wednesday night doesn't doesn't leave a whole lot of time there's nothing nefarious going on we're doing the best we can in the most timely manner that we can I would just say that and then for those that organize there's one member the president of the party central here the amount of work those people do to organize a graduation party is mindboggling while I'm standing there watching them stuff last minute baskets and big for for all the students crazy crazy amount of work um kudos
142to them I have some comments on a totally different note thank you uh director um um Harmon because I know that we're all volunteers and we're doing everything we can to try to keep up at times um but anyway the students in this District were shamelessly lied to why was it unknowing or was it intentional for those responsible I'll let you wrestle with your conscience on your own but I will ask you to remember these numbers 62 and 74 that's a total of 136 there were alternates but not enough to make a m a material difference in this discussion for this I want to set but in light of this I want to set the record straight late last year this board decided to remove the Southern Poverty Law Center divisive curriculum from our district
143students should never be taught to look through the lens of color when interacting with their peers and that's exactly what the Southern Poverty Law Center curriculum did and that curriculum was adopted by a group that admitted that it was not a good idea to be open about its adoption in St Charles County but that deceit is worthy of its own discussion we had over 300 students protesting their rights which they're they that's their right to do that to take a black history or black literature course when they were lied to and told that this board was removing these courses removing not taking out the changing the curriculum removing these courses unfortunately there's a faction in this District that wants Division and thinks that's what's best for our students I don't subscribe to this belief now
144nor have I ever getting back to the two numbers there were 62 students that signed up for black history courses there were the course there were 74 that signed up for black literature that's out of the entire District this tally was taken after registration for electives at at which time it was closed so no student experienced A disruption or inability to take black history or black literature last spring semester or this coming fall semester my question to you is where's the media to straighten the record [Music] okay just a real quick comment for myself so I just want to congratulate all of our recent graduates like a number of us up here uh but also give a big thank you to all the staff and their hard work over their hard work over the summer
145for our students there's many things going on um and as you can see there are each of us have very individual and have varying perspectives um that is by Design even even when it's messy um we reach one voice one voice of seven that we don't always agree that does not mean anyone is doing they believe is not doing what they believe is best for students and the district no no board member has the right to make demands of others prior to making decisions as we are not a monolith up here um in our individual decisions but I do encourage individuals to reach out to other board members when they have questions or concerns or potential individual conversations we should all have cour relationships um but we are all expected to reach our own conclusions
146which I believe we do um in meetings we come together and it may provide information or may ask questions um for a short amount of time prior to formalizing your decisions as a whole at the end of the day that's how it's designed this is how it's supposed to work supposed to have conversations even when it's messy but I thank everybody for being here um and joining us tonight [Music] or like a motion to adjourn all those in favor say I I all those oppos ni have it