FHSD Board of Education Meeting - December 21, 2023

001[Music] oh all right thanks everybody for coming we're going to get thanks every for coming we're going to get started with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we like a motion to approve the agenda for December 21st 2023 as [Music] presenta all those in favor say I I all those oppos say no no can I make a comment I just want to make sure the reason I'm voting know is that I'm really tired of all the different things coming on at the last minute without uh sharing it with other board members that we have adequate time to look at things can we have our microphon I

002just want to make that know that's why I'm not approving this agenda to have a change of an item agenda put on at 6:00 last night it's really not care to any of us can I make it comment can you start again we didn't hear I I learned at the same time that uh the public did and I have no issue with it I'm sorry I didn't hear you I said I learned at the same time that the public did I was not given any for notice and I I don't have any issue with it thank you okay so I'm just letting everybody know that I voted no tonight because I'm really tired of agenda items coming up at the last minute and everybody getting a chance everybody getting a chance to look at things

003and make some comments so that is why I voted no next we have special recognitions [Music] ands thank you president merand tonight we have the honor of recognizing the Francis H High School Vikings softball team for bringing home their first state championship title this fall and I'm going to turn it over to how High's activities director Sean Irwin to tell you more about the team thank you I'm excited to be here to share the incredible achievements of our softball team this fall um it's indeed been an exciting fall for our programs at how we had four programs this H or this fall that reached the final four we had our our softball program we had girls volleyball we had cheer and we also had girls golf so a great fall for our program and also

004over the course of a sixday period uh we also had two programs uh reach the state championship game which was our softball program and our girls volleyball program so very I'm particularly proud to highlight the outstanding accomplishments of our softball program that I think further show that our program is about so much more than just success in our activities and sports not only have they excelled on the field but they've also demonstrated excellence in the classroom and have made an impact in our community through their service um the the team that won the state championship this this year has a accumulative high school GPA of 3.97 showcasing their commitment to academic success of H in addition to their academic achievements the softball team has also exemplified our activities Department goal of serving and supporting our

005community Through Outreach this season they raised over $1,500 for the friends of kids with cancer organization and over the past 10 years have raised over $155,000 for the organization that is a National Organization but has also benefited many uh kids within our own District um very very proud of that very proud of the dedication and the positive difference that they're making in the lives uh within our district um on the field the softball team's performance was really unmatched this season with a 27-6 record they won a district Championship reached the final four for the second straight year and also reach the state championship game for the second straight year facing Blue Spring South in the state championship game they were facing the number two ranked team in the country country who only had two losses

006from the same out of state team the Vikings emerged with an impressive 80 win what makes this achievement even more special is that for the first time in program history they won a state championship also for the first time in program history they finished the year nationally ranked our softball program is ranked number six in the nation to end the season the success of the program and their accomplishments was also recognized on the floor of the US Congress on November 2nd as well um the hall activities Department the softball program would like to extend sincere gratitude to our Hall Community to everyone that supported all of our programs throughout the fall um I think it just further highlights the great effect our programs have not only on our school and our district but also on

007our community um the success of the softball team is definitely uh a part of a bigger picture that we have a great group of students parents staff community members that have supported this program the whole way through so very proud of this group and the way that they've represented how and our district and our community and uh very proud of their accomplishments and uh tonight they uh wanted to uh present to our board um some state championship t-shirts uh just in their appreciation of your support thank you congratulations congratulations so proud of you you were before thank you very much you okay we know it works all right perfect one more [Music] all right and next up is our student word representative and as you know the purpose of the student board rep program is

008to honor and recognize talented students Elevate student voice and provide growth opportunities in the areas of public speaking leadership and governance students are selected for this Honor by their principal with input from the student body they have an opportunity to prepare and deliver a short speech to the board and public that is focused on their school or the district and with that I'll invite Dr Suzanne Lee the principal of Francis House Central High School to introduce our student board rep for this [Music] evening good evening president bertran and members of the board it is with great pleasure that I introduce our distinguished student representative serving with the Board of Education this evening Mr Shawn L Shawn is a senior at Francis heal Central and he is accompanied tonight by his parents Oliver and Amy and

009his younger brother Ryan Sea's academic journey is deeply rooted in the Francis House School District where he has spent all 14 years of his education embodying the district's commitment to Excellence Shan's educational Voyage began began at the age of 4 in Francis hell School District at Meadows Parkway Early Childhood Center followed by Warren Elementary Sager middle school and culminating at Francis H Central High School his cumulative GPA of a 4.2 attests not only to his Scholastic aptitude but also to his unwavering dedication to academic success in addition to his achievements in the classroom Sean has been an integral part of our first class Band program at fhc as a freshman he was awarded most outstanding new marcher his junior year he served as a section leader showcasing his leadership skills within the marching band and

010for his final year he was named one of the two drum Majors by his classmates and directors further exemplifying his commitment to musical Excellence Sean's involvement in stem camps during the Summers of his Elementary years along with his participation in app Camp during Middle School reflects his curiosity and engagement in diverse Fields his coursework during his tenure at fhc has included multiple AP classes as well as two years of study in the computer science and cyber security strand of Project Lead the Way courses demonstrating his Forward Thinking approach to education outside of his academic Pursuits Shawn has a deep passion for jazz music and eagerly anticip anticipates playing in as many Jazz gigs as possible he is inspired by his father and his brother's ability to creatively arrange music and he credits his mother for

011instilling the practical skills in the field of Music Sean's academic Journey extends beyond the borders of our district he has been fortunate to benefit from unique opportunities provided by Francis House School District such as attending the Joseph Baldwin Academy to study biomusicology he was also afforded the opportunity to visit Kansas State for leadership training specifically designed for drum Majors these experiences have undoubtedly enriched his education and broadened his perspectives moving forward Sean plans to utilize his skills in the field of cyber security aspiring to defend the information systems of a Fortune 500 company he thrives in a collaborative environment where problem solving is at the Forefront of the work as we welcome Shawn to the board meeting this evening it is my honor to celebrate his achievements dedication and the invaluable commitments and contributions he

012brings to our school Community we are proud to have him represent Spartan nation and embodying the spirit of Excellence that defines the Francis House School District please join me in giving a warm welcome to sha [Applause] L uh good evening members of the board uh once again my name is Sean uh I'm a senior at Franc Central High School and um I first want to say how honored I am for this uh opportunity I spent most of my life in the Franc D Central sorry the Franc D School District uh at a young age I went to metal Parkway to help with a speech impediment that um has drastically changed my ability to speak even here tonight um um throughout uh Elementary School I always just had a knack for learning I I deeply respected

013all of my teachers all of my faculty there and that carried on through Elementary School where I always wanted to pursue more academic Avenues um in high school I really do have to thank um Athletics and band um that would be Mr Beckman the coach of the baseball team and Mr Griffin and Mr St who are back there who have led me through four years of the most wonderful time through marching band um some great things that I love about this district and public school in general is that it's just such a great um opportunity for you to meet so many new people I am blessed to say that I have met just multitudes of friends created so many friendships Everlasting memories with people that honestly I would not have met had I gone anywhere

014else um through that I have met people who have supported me through some of the toughest times of my life people who have uplifted me when I've succeeded who have been there for me when I'm down um and something beautiful about public school is that you're just getting to mix and mingle I was pleased to be part of the um Advanced learning or gifted program throughout uh middle school and Elementary School and through that you get to experience you know another level of success academically and I am forever grateful for being able to participate in that um Avenue something else that allowed me to do was work with other special needs students we would have um about bi-weekly meetings with the special uh needs classrooms in our gifted classroom and those kids just love to

015be there and I mean they're having even if you know you may say they've been dealt the wrong hand in life they just love to be with other people who are like them uh growing as individuals who um they will be able to have successful lives with the cards that they've been given um something that only I think Public School can offer um when you look at you know private schools um they will not be able to take everybody that's just the way that the system works they don't have enough money to be able to support every student that comes in there and that would exclude some of my bestest friends that I've met through um the special needs programs um uh another great thing about public school is that uh the academics the extracurricular

016activities obviously you've heard that I've spent all four years in the marching band program and something beautiful about that program that I think truly encapsulates all extracurricular activities is you're just putting in work and you're meeting new people uh you know we would work you know two two and a half to three hours after school basically every day for all of the first quarter and what that has given me is a work ethic beyond anything else that could have given me um that work ethic has gone into my academic studies my uh my friendships into my athletic career where I play baseball um pretty regularly I would say and uh into just every part of my life I am I was blessed to be able to participate in that to meet so many great phenomenal

017people that have ranged from some of the smartest people I've known to some of just the funniest people I've known I mean those people you're out there for you know 10 plus hours a week with these kids you're really getting to know them on a personal level especially my senior year as a drum major you know I get to meet this Freshman Class get to see the excitement in their eyes being able to come into my high school and experience the same Joys that I got to experience uh and being able to teach them was just the best thing I've ever experienced it was so rewarding to be able to see some of those kids you know those first days of band camps and that very hot summers that we've had recently and uh just

018being able to see them help them go talk to them and being able to watch them grow not only as a musician but as a person and watching them grow as a person and there's nothing more rewarding than that and I can only imagine that all of you have obviously seen that working here at the board you've been able to work with some of those younger kids some of those more challenge kids and been able to go to them physically and watch them grow physically it's it's a gift that you can't explain it's hard to articulate just exactly just how rewarded I feel being able to do that uh another great thing that I love specifically about fhc is its academic programs I'm very pleased to say every teacher every staff member that I've worked

019with there they're all so caring they all they all love their job truly and when you love your job then you begin to love the people that you're working with and working for and that as you know they're all working for the kids and so once those kids you know get into those classes they truly can enjoy and experience um another level of not only learning but care because truly I would say that every person that I've worked with at Francis AL Central has cared about me as a person cared about my uh peers as a person and clared about my classmates as a person um the I'd also like to thank the um you wonderful people in the counseling office I've struggled M many times not only I've had some Downs academically but I've

020also had some down times mentally I'm not afraid to admit that that's something that I'm I use as a personal uh strength of M is being able to grow not only academically but grow mentally physically and being able to work through some tough times and the people in the that guidance Council have truly been able to get down and talk to me on a human level work me through some of the toughest times of my life that only emotionally but academically and I I'm forever grateful for that opportunity um trying to think everyone else thing I can say um I also love about our district is the high the almost natural high school competition you know as you saw you know Franc how their softball team has succeeded uh this last year and there's something

021beautiful about you know you get to you get to go to those basketball games those football games and you get to compete with those other kids but then you get out you get out of that you get into your academics and then you become almost friends with them kids those kids I'm pleased to say that I know many people at both Fran Franc Central sorry Francis North and Francis Al high and those kids although you know we do banter we do have fun making fun of each other for you know Sports we do care truly care for those people um once again I'd like to thank uh Dr leak for this opportunity I'm very pleased to be here tonight even if I don't change any of your minds about anything that might that might be

022on the agenda I truly am here to give my full voice and full support in whatever decision is made tonight thank you [Applause] I am so proud [Music] okay thank you welcome Sean I'm Mrs stiglet I am proud to see be sitting next to you um on behalf of president beran vice president cook and treasur Miss pushkar we are really glad you're here we would love to have your opinion and your on some of our agenda items tonight well and so please feel free to chime in you do have to turn on your little button in order for everybody to hear you I found that out earlier again this morning and this evening so we would love to hear you can do everything but vote so welcome and we are really really glad you're here

023if you have any questions during the meeting just kind of lean over I'm I tend to listen to what you guys have to say so we're excited you're here I next we're going to Spotlight the France House Central Jazz combo I'll turn it back over yeah and while we don't have a formal slideshow for you tonight I'm going to invite Dr leak back forward to tell you about the wonderful student musicians you were able to enjoy before the [Music] meeting it's my honor this evening to express my admiration and heartfelt appreciation for Central Jazz combo as you arrived and prepared for the evening you heard eight extremely talented Jazz musicians from Francis House Central play incredible arrangements of familiar jazz songs I'll introduce them for you along with their instruments that what their instrument they

024played this evening because several of them play multiple instruments Tony Valera is the leadership leader of the group and he played the bass red you there you are was on keyboard Everett Scott was on drums Nathaniel I sorry thank you twins get you every time Nathaniel mats tener Sachs sha n Barry saxs Kaden Scott Alto saxs Sean L trumpet and Cole trumbone Central Jazz combo is completely student-led they commit to staying after school every Wednesday to practice and create their own Arrangements these eight young men that make up this skillful group are Dynamic for all of the reasons additionally they are also leaders in the classroom as a group they hold a cumulative GPA of 3.98 [Applause] this this exemplifies the balance they strike between their artistic Pursuits and academic responsibilities their commitment to spreading

025Joy through the universal language of music is nothing short of extraordinary every Friday morning before classes begin their mesmerizing jazz tunes echo through the front foyer of our building it has become a magnetic Hub where students staff and guests congregate to enjoy The Melodies that this group creates they have turned Fridays into a day eagerly anticipated by all adding a unique and vibrant energy to our school environment it's truly inspiring to see them all play the creativity they bring to their Renditions of familiar jazz songs showcases not only their technical proficiency but also their artistic Innovation their performances are a true reflection of the passion and dedication each brings to the world of music thank you Central Jazz combo for making Francis Central a place where creativity talent and camaraderie Thrive your contributions have not

026only enhanced the musical culture of our school but also has created welcoming atmosphere for everyone who walks through our [Applause] doors [Music] all right up next we have Patron comments during Patron comments residents of the district and staff members are invited to address the board of education on issues related to the school district speakers are called forward in the order of sign up and each speaker has 3 minutes to make their remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else's non famili board appreciates that you've taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and perspective I would like to remind everyone that we expect speakers will remain civil and respectful when give remarks if

027anyone fails to comply with those board policies regulations and rules we reserve the right to cut those three minutes short for your convenience our 3 minutes is ready on the clock and we welcome Tom Barry to St board good evening good evening everyone allow me to provide a preview of tonight's board meeting during Patron comments a majority will speak to the manufactured political culture wars the board continues to make a priority these culture wars are not unique they're being pushed nationally by groups such as moms for Liberty the anti-education group who also endorsed all five of the conservative majority we'll hear from another mons for Liberty like group who funded the campaigns of the board majority and who've been pushing baseless conspiracy theories in the district for years including CRT which we'll hear about tonight

028again hor in libraries which is ridiculous and now litter boxes and bathrooms which you didn't have any here so great job admin um all of which strain credulity well you will not hear tonight as I haven't heard all year are any plans to address actual issues in the in the district you won't hear any plans or solutions to address teacher attrition over the last 2 years 300 teachers have le left the district 25% of the entire certified staff 7% of those positions went unfilled due to no qualified applicants in our are filled with retired teachers many teachers left for higher pay at Francis how because at Francis how pay scills are about 5 to 10% lower than surrounding districts 25% attrition is unsustainable for any organization but even more so for schools which rely on

029continuity and stability ironically tapping into a diverse Talent pipeline would be a great way to slow attrition but what diverse staff wants to work in a district waging racial culture wars you won't hear any plans to plans or Solutions to address Transportation about a month ago Dr rumpa stated there were still over 600 outstanding bus stops bus stop changes being processed but progress was slow because the transportation department is short staffed and they're still Fielding complains you won't hear any plans or solutions to address address Staffing shortages we have a challenge attracting and retaining janitors and Paras some schools even have a skeleton crew of janitors janitors to do just the basics relying on teachers and staff to pick up the slap the salary skills for janitors and parz are you guessed it less than

030surrounding districts you won't hear any plans or solutions to address our substitute shortage teachers are subbing on their plan times across the district planning periods are critical time for teachers mental health and just to use the bathroom again substitute pay is lower you won't hear any plans or solutions to address technology and resources we don't have one toone technology meaning we can't offer Ami days the way surrounding districts do we're still using 20-year-old textbooks in some history classes you hear any plans or solutions to address the looming fiscal cliff our former CFO warned about contrary to board actions we can't cut our way out of this fiscal hole your strategy seems to involve creating a new cultural controversy each month this allows you to easily dismiss opposition by suggesting that the backlash quickly subsides all

031while diverting attention from the real issues there's an election coming up in April vote for candidates who will focus on students staff and success not bathrooms books and black history next we welcome Alexander [Music] Collins hello specifically hi Mr Bertrand it was fun running into you at Target a couple weeks ago I was your cashier in case you didn't recognize me um hello my name is Alexander Collins I've been here for the last few months speaking out against the proposed bathroom policy I was actually here before it was even proposed um tonight though I actually wanted to talk about a different aspect of the is is I wanted to talk about how scared I am how hurt I am by the idea that we as a group of people are inherently predatory and creepy and

032I wanted to talk about how misinformed this policy is I'm not mad at you cuz you're just people you're people with hopes and dreams and families and you make mistakes sometimes you have vacation plans and grocery lists and spouses and sometimes sometimes you need to run to Target to get some chicken multivitamins and cough syrup because your kid sick and someone needs to put dinner on the table get some wrapping paper while you're there get ready for Christmas but what I really don't think that you understand is that we are also just people we're kids we have people who love us we have dreams that go far beyond high school we have cashier jobs that barely pay for our gas to get to and from school and work and we're afraid for our safety every

033time we walk into a building we're mandated to be in me my friends their parents you board members Mary Jane fusar Francis hell families teachers and teachers and students of black literature and history courses everyone in this room is just people and people will people tend to like to learn we're naturally curious as a species how I like to learn is in a classroom I don't want to have to miss 15 minutes of my learning to go to the bathroom every day or twice a day I hope that you people like to learn too and I would like to reach out an invitation to you I will be in this building all night I would be happy to have a conversation with any of you and that means anyone board members Vivian and Ken Gar

034Kelly bird anyone I would love to have a civil safe conversation with you about my experience as a transgender individual your experience on this issue anything you can also reach me by email at Collins a396 gmail.com that's c o l l i ns a396 gmail.com I want to learn and I really hope you do too enjoy your candy canes and happy holidays next is a [Music] good evening again it is disgraceful that we all have to be here once more taking time out of our winter break speaking to people who hardly listen to us unless we call to them like dogs it's supposed to be a hearing so hear us last time I stood here I could see you rolling your eyes thinking I was another student Co continuing to draw on about transgender him

035and the liberal agenda but no this is basic human decency in my high school we have rise values respect Integrity scholarship and empathy I'm going to say two of those real slow for you again respect and empathy you think these are two easy to learn basic skills yes students are constantly harassed degraded and threatened and people like you who have power over us are doing nothing except contribute not to mention threatening a student via email over a civil Rob battal not only has our safety constantly threatened clubs and classes that promote diversity like Max Scholars GSA Diversity Awareness and black history and liter literature classes which are electives that means they are a choice are under constant attack due to these policies the Friday after last meeting I was approached by one of my principles

036he asked me to recall every time I was harassed and bullied to record it simar similar to what I attempted to discuss with you I know he was just trying to help but it put me in a a place of vulnerability I was shamed by our head principal for not reporting things that happen so often even if it's hard to find time to report it I can't go to the office for every single issue I have places to be that are over halfway across the building which could be uplights of stairs across many hallways through hordes of students humans by Nature are inherently curious we want to be notified of others issues views politics beliefs purely to stay connected and educated within our communities there is however a line that has to be drawn you

037can't use personal opinions to limit our education for example I had a health teacher freshman year that instead of sticking to the written curriculum she used her own curriculum and almost never went over birth control and mainly focused on abstinence this is also not only unrealistic but also a violation of the Missouri State curriculum standards we as students have the right to be educated in a multiple new topics with without being ridiculed for wanting to know more before I wrap this up look me in the eyes you are silencing us you are choosing to ignore real issues and you disregard the important safe learning environment so look Us in the eyes and treat us as the people that we [Music] are that's you welcome Harry Harris you did a great job just wanted to let

038you know that uh unlike that first student tonight uh I am mad every board meeting this year seems to find a new way to lower the bar I'm absolutely disgusted at the last minute ad of the removal of the bias anti-bias framework from the black history and lit classes as it is obviously obviously a thinly veiled attempt to undermine those classes for over two years now those elective say that in capital classes have moved along with just fine with plenty of students who have stood right at this Podium describing how it has impacted them and how great it has been it was one of the most cowardly acts that I didn't even think you all were capable of stooping to but you certainly taught me to not underestimate how low you will go to show

039your disdain toward the black and brown community experiences and existence this year alone I've listened to director pusar go on radio shows mocking the NAACP and proudly proclaiming her ignorance of implicit bias thus it's not really a thing to her despite repeated conversations with cook and Bertrand about the importance of representation you know since we already have a teaching body that is uh less than 1% of people of color in a district that is 15 to 20% people of color they felt strongly about removing still the anti-ra racism resolution without being able to really explain why it was hurting anything I was lectured from Mr Ponder on how his seven-year-old didn't seem to find a need for a resolution on the wall and all the people who came to speak that night in favor of

040it were just activists and didn't deserve to be listened to nor was there a new version months ago that was promised to gather people together and create clearly none of you see that your actions have said loud and clear to us that you don't care about black and brown families in our district you have let the Perpetual lie that somebody after me is going to come up and spread more like that everything you don't like is Marxist or communist or whatever is that you're going to cling on to this month you've been foaming at the mouth to take shots at the lgbtq population and when that didn't work you circled right back around to swing on poc's at the behest of your benefactor we got it plain and clear but let me talk to you

041all on the other side of that camera right there we are a district in crisis we have we have uh ring teacher numbers we have low morale we have dropping pay in comparison to other districts overworked staff buildings held together with duct tape and a prayer but boards our board would rather spend their time making up problems and engaging in culture wars you and I and our children we deserve better and I'm asking all of us to stand up and let them know we're not going to take this any longer thank you W look at us up next meet welcome King gar now for a positive spin board superintendent teachers admin and Jane that Jane being the end of the year it's time to reflect and give Hardy Thanksgiving to all of those who have

042done it a youngman's job to keep the Francis H School District among the tops in the state to our teachers thank you for your dedication your tiess efforts your Devotion to our kids preparing lesson plans grading homework and putting in long uous hours teaching our kids is extremely demanding your efforts are seen daily and are truly valued to the admin working collaboratively to harmonize all the pieces of this of the school district's puzzle is no trivial task there are budgets finances payrolls bus schedules curriculums facilities building projects benefits staffing issues and that's just the beginning yet with all that to manage you've succeeded in making all that work thank you superintendent Rus you are a breath of fresh air I you managed to keep a full head of hair while not going gray are secrets

043that I personally need to tap into it's a pleasure having the head of our school district as professional as capable and as dedicated as you our community and patrons salute you and Jane Hein with all the emails and Cent and requests that we've made over the years including inducing major headaches I'm sure I'm asking the superintendent to bump your salary to just under his seriously Jane you have been a pleasure to work with and I greatly appreciate it to our community and patrons thank you for your concerns your involvement and your support without you none of this would be possible thank you for your part in keeping our great School District great and to the board and to the board reviewing what you have accomplished over these last nine months the list of accomplishments has

044been nothing short of impressive and we will be speaking to that effect shortly you pledge to support our teachers to exercise fiscal responsibility to promote academic Excellence to provide greater transparency to the community and parents and to strive for common sense Back to Basics education and you have delived the pay the pay could be better the hour's more conducive and the paths on the back more forthcoming but you know what your leadership your resolve your courage and your concern for our students and districts are noted appreciated and valued ni job your time you and with that I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New [Applause] Year up next we welcome Jennifer Maine [Music] good evening three minutes is not very much time I'm going to do my best and talk fast let's start

045with transparency because this is something most of the members of this board campaigned on this board repeatedly adds items to the board agenda last minute pulls items from the consent agenda last minute and schedules important items for meetings that occur during breaks or when families are otherwise less likely to be engaged I too and tired of hearing about items added to the agenda at the very end of the day right before they're not eligible to be added anymore most recently you added the motion to resend approval for use of anti-bias academic standards the evening before a board meeting this meeting is occurring on the last night before winter break feels like the board's trying to sneak things through without most residents noticing when you do this you limit the time District residents have to see

046those changes reflect on them and provide their feedback it's not good Optics it's not not transparent posting to private social media groups and discussing District business and forums where only certain members of the district can engage is not transparent additionally use of private email accounts to discuss District Business board members inviting people to contact them via private email addresses because some are fearful of using formal Francis H communication channels is not transparent in fact it seems to me to be a direct violation of Missouri's 50-year-old Sunshine Law members who do this should be recommended and censured screenshots here if You' like to follow up president Bertrand other public officials at the state level who have tried to circumvent the Sunshine Law have found themselves facing litigation I'll use this point to bring up my next

047which is this individual members of this board have shown a shocking lack of professionalism and decorum in their conduct in the community as elected officials you should be held to a higher standard all of the residents in this District are your constituents regardless of how they voted the word opponent should not be in your vocab ulary and reference to members of this community you were elected to listen to and engage with everyone even when it is difficult and even when you disagree you have squandered opportunities to promote Goodwill with residents of different beliefs you have uh discussed compiling lists of teachers and Librarians who you consider undesirable because they disagree you have labeled individuals who disagree pedophiles and groomers you have made students in marginalized groups feel other finally your attacks on all things related

048to diversity are misguided and not in the interest of serving this District students employers expect their employees to be able to function and engage in a diverse Workforce work for a large Catholic based hospital we have a vice president of diversity Equity inclusion and belonging as well as a deib Cabinet my place of employment founded on Catholic principles recognizes that diversity includes not only gender and race but also disability cultural background sexual orientation and gender identity this is the worldwi workforce we are sending graduates of this District into we should be preparing them for it with all available [Music] [Applause] tools up next we welcome Katie rash I'm not planning to talk about the um history and literature courses except just to say that um I do hope that we will do well in this

049District in teaching black history and black literature these are important subjects I see some of the issues with the way the course maybe was the courses were written and some of the standards but um I do hope that we can find Common Ground um in that regard and and find ways to prioritize that education um i' also um my main topic for tonight was just related to the mythology course um that has been in the district for a number of years and the curriculum is being evaluated again and um I'm not opposed to the course I just have something I'd like to share maybe just a bit of enrichment or perspective regarding it um tonight I'm going to quote several men who made significant contributions what's the common denominator among these people they each believe

050literally in God as the origin or first cause another way of saying this is that they each believed in a creation mythology I'm sharing this because the course on mythology being evaluated this evening contains a unit in which students study creation mythologies I recognize there are creation mythologies in a variety of cultures and religions and hope that all creation mythologies researched in the course will be treated with appreciation and sensitivity perhaps a discussion of famous people who literally believed in creation or creation mythologies would enrich the course and assist with helping all students to appreciate that people can literally believe creation mythologies and simultaneously make significant contributions to society first let's start with Dr Raymond deum he is the father of the MRI machine this is a quote from him if you've ever had an

051MRI you can thank him he's the one that invented the MRI scanner he says I am a young Earth creation scientist and believe that God created the world in a 6 24 I'm sorry the world in 6 24-hour days just as recorded in the Book of Genesis by God's grace and the devoted prayers of my Godly mother-in-law I invented the amri scanner in 1969 the idea that scientists who believe the Earth is 6,000 years old cannot do real science is simply wrong and I'm running out of time but the other two were George Washington Carver Sir Isaac Newton the father of physics and uh Carl lenus the father of tonomy I will post these quotes later um so people who are interested can see them thank you thank you next welcome here Zukowski have you

052seen the Tik Tock that goes something like what could you give a 40-minute presentation on with no pres pres preparation I could Stitch this Tik Tok and say that I would talk about all of the ways that the five moms for Liberty backed Francis H school board members continue to push culture War issues and fail to make decisions to serve all students and families in the district well this topic or maybe Taylor Swift well I don't have 40 minutes and I honestly don't think my speech will matter on social media last night director cook said the decision to resend approval for the social justice standards was determined by the voters of Francis Hal funny I don't remember these standards being on the ballot my son is in the black history class he sent you an

053email about what he has learned I saw the email he sent and I don't think he mentioned anything controversial we have been talking about this class all year but last night I brought out the say no to critical race Theory handout that was distributed by a couple of years ago by Francis Al amilies I asked my son directly about many of the terms on it he said he learned about black resistance in the context of civil rights he said some of the coursework mentioned institutional and systemic racism they did a project on an influential person he chose Jesse Owens you'll be pleased to know that he had not heard of the term intersectionality of course I took this opportunity to discuss it with him about how intersectionality influences our identities he said that this course

054is not that different from others it built upon Concepts he had already learned in classes including preap US history and AP human GE geography he said this class supports books he's read documentaries he's watched and museums we have visited like the Civil Rights Museum and the national Muse Museum of African-American history and culture let's face it this course is an elective you can read the very extensive curriculum online with the social justice standards linked directly if the board believes that this course is harmful please be transparent and read the exact parts of the curriculum that are concerning also what empirical data are you using to determine that this curriculum should be removed are you examining assessment data have you surveyed teachers students and parents five of the board members here ran on the issue of

055parents rights how are you supporting my rights as a parent to decide whether my child can take this elective course I have another high schooler who who has not taken this course if you resend these standards you are deciding for me why should students in other high performing districts in the area have access access to diverse classes and my children won't what are you protecting my children from diversity tolerance Injustice inclusion H these are all values that I expect public schools to help me teach this Board needs to reframe and focus on decisions that affect all constituents like approving an elementary math resource improving Transportation focusing on stat Recruitment and Retention and creating Unity among stakeholders please stop the chaos and work towards supporting all students and staff [Applause] next we welcome Kim [Music] H

056Kim [Music] H good evening as I wrote to you earlier this week my husband and I are are disgusted by the blatant discriminatory actions of some of you and those of you quietly supporting them the things I've learned at the Board of Education monthly meetings are deeply disturbing ignoring a sexual assault of a transgender student in an fhsd bathroom Dr director pushkar's proposed bathroom policy perpetuating the litter boox lie her threat to investigate a student email account to silence them because they dared to confront her and express support for her her fellow transgender students and just lat last night president beran's effort to remove black history and black literature elective courses before you vote on any discriminatory policies keep in mind that your vote will be on record and searchable forever think carefully it's not

057too late to lead our school district towards welcoming accepting and supporting every student vote no on removing the black history and literature course burn the transgender bathroom policy do the right thing and keep politics out of our schools Francis hell families the political action committee that purchased several of your seats does not care about your reputation in our community Francis H families is behaving like a local homegrown hate group and they've infected our school board in my 60 plus years of living in St Charles I've never heard so much hateful rhetoric coming from any school district in our County representative Nick schwar does not care about reputation either Nick wants votes and he'll happily take them at your expense think carefully if you proceed with a vote tonight everyone will know forever and always your

058involvement in discri discriminatory policies you still have a chance to make this [Applause] right up next we welcome Grayson jce it's a shame that our school district was on the news in a bad way two board members threaten student with an email investigation about the trend anti-tr and non-binary restrooms and locker room policy just like the student about being silent I too was silent around this summer by this board I'm surprised that half a millionaire and leader of the far right group Ken goar worried about the financial harm from these lawsuits that will jeopardize the district even though you can and your group file a law zo years ago so what do you say about that when the day comes to vote for this policy you've got two roads in front of you you can

059either vote no and give up this Witch Hunt on policies that'll hurt a community of people or vote Yes and you will get these lawsuits including the one of banning the resolution of racism and discrimination by the way have you folks ever figured out that one yet at all I'm also against the victims of Communism day policy even though communism is bad but we but what about slavery racism homophobia transphobia gun violence the Holocaust and other horrible events that in our history books that was never talked about in History Class history teachers and are already teaching about the about communism instead of having a full dat teaching about how bad communism is vote no on this and especially vote no on this ridiculous anti-trans and non-binary restrooms and locker room and also the shell of

060erasing black history and literature because this will affect our districts happy holidays and I'll see you all next year next we welcome Lori lirry L Larry all right next after L would be Steven [Music] Blair four students that's it everything we do should be for students and I have no idea why I have no idea what's the motivation behind the policy proposal today to remove black literature and black history but it's not for students I'm not sure who it's for it's not for the students who performed it's not for the students who were in the softball it's not for the teachers it's not for the custodians all everything we do should be for students and it's not happening once again there's a distraction once again we're focused on another topic instead of what gives every

061student the very best education possible every student each student we can do that but that requires us to move Beyond some of this stuff on December the 21st the most important thing to some of you was to make sure some people cannot attend a black history black literature class that was on your mind on December 20th and 21st not about all the stuff we heard earlier about saying thank you to the teachers there's other ways to say thank you to the teachers besides a high five from somebody who doesn't really mean it for the students everything for the students and if you're not doing something for the students then you don't do it then you're doing it for somebody else so if you vote on this topic today name before us transparently what makes it

062so bad a couple years ago I saw a sheet that had all the different things in a book that made the book a bad book you guys handed out and said this book is bad for this reason this reason this reason you're about to change a curriculum today without any description on what makes it bad if it's so bad transparently say it out loud say it out loud so we all know why bad it's bad and if it's not bad enough for you to say it out loud then it must not be bad enough to take it away we [Applause] want I attended Brian Middle School Seager bont winter concerts and not a single thing that you're talking about today is for anyone of those students who are there not for the custodians picking up

063the chairs not for the teachers also picking up the chairs for the students if you're not doing it for the students then you need to tell everyone else who you're doing it for for the students thank [Music] you [Applause] fhaa any rep representatives from f [Music] good evening my name is Anita Keener and I am the elected president of fhaa President pan could we please have an update on the resolution against racism and discrimination that you promised fhaa is ready and willing to work on this with you in regards to tonight's Staffing plan our teachers are drowning especially our special ed educators of the board's four goals with academics being your number one your number two was cl staff class sizes are on the whole larger than they were 10 years ago even 5 years

064ago students have more learning gaps and struggling behaviors and packed classes are not helping with either of those things we need more teachers Paras and custodians before a new director position or manager position we also need to keep uh the highly qualified staff that we have goals without actions are no goals at all how is this plan going to address that when we we when we when will we get back the 20 teaching positions that were cut several years ago when teachers salary were last Frozen with nearly 30 million in reserves what could you do right now to help the students of your district and your staff all of our students and our teachers deserve to be represented in our curriculum our policies and our schools policy 0411 was put in place to prevent last

065minute items being added to agendas without time for all stakeholders to study these items students have enrolled in courses in January for decades so this issue would not meet the expectation for an emergency exception how can we ever attract a diverse staff when every board meeting has some agenda item that marginalizes another group please vote no on tonight's motion to resend curriculum standards everyone knows it is targeting to eliminate the black history and black literature electives that our students asked for W next welcome [Music] CA good evening president Bertrand our board superintendent rumpus cabinet and patrons firstly fiso would like to celebrate and highlight all of our teachers and support staff of the Year nominees that were selected in their respective schools all of you are the people that make magic happen in the buildings

066we are so proud of your dedication to Children your positivity and selflessness you are heroes Among Us secondly we're very excited for Francis how to fulfill their commitment to safety by hopefully approving the vesal projects tonight that salum will soon be presenting it's so important that our buildings are secure for our children thank you for all the work on this surely you all know Elliot Davis well I scrolled across an article he posted 3 days ago about St Charles County giving all staff from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day off paid when I went to look at the comments section I was so very pleasantly surprised it was very positive I scrolled and scrolled and found an out out Cry of supportive caring citizens everyone was United supportive and understanding this season the end of

067the year the holidays it's a time for love and peace and sometimes it's hard for many people this has been a huge morale boost to their employees and is even been a great recruitment tool this is something we and FEA have been adamant about for a long time it's encouraging to see this practice taking place right here in St Charles County so what I take away from this is always be kind be happy happy for each other consider everyone this season we wish you all the happiest of holidays Winter break starts today take time to be with your family and loved ones that's what's important and have a great [Applause] night or I'd like a motion to approve the consent agenda for December 21st 2023 as presented Ponder [Music] discussion yeah thank you Adam um

068I'd like to discuss the item number let's see it's about the culinary stiens um I have an issue with this proposal I I don't see any quantification in it it's asking for teacher stiens in the amount of $1,000 for um High School teachers and 500 for U Middle School teachers for support shopping and um uh helping with the uh culinary showdowns that meaning Cupcake Wars and I guess the type of Iron Chef um program that we have what I don't know is and make no mistake this is not about not supporting the teachers what this is about is getting more information what I don't know is whether we are approve asking to approve something for $55,000 are $50,000 I also don't see anything in this proposal that will tell us what incompasses preparation uh shopping

069and practice um I had thought that a lot of the the practice or the preparation was done within a school class I could be wrong about that but there's no quantification are we talking about these teachers spending four hours at which time let's see for $1,000 stien that's about $250 and hour and I wish that I had I could make that kind of money um oh my but I would like to know um a little bit more information so I'd like to make a motion that we uh put this off until January Mr bertran I'd be happy to share some information if if and answer some of Jean's questions if I'm able I think that's good y okay okay um as we look to make the recommendation uh the following things were considered and Jane

070I'll apologize if there wasn't enough information in the memo we'll we'll make sure that we we do that a little differently next time so you have that in advance um our teachers were required to work 35 to 40 hours for this one event um it included 8 to 10 practices um necessary shopping and four to five after school planning meetings um The Late Night of the evening of the event and then an evening debrief so those 35 to 40 hours that those three High School teachers uh provided are similar to um what we looked at as our extra Duty salary schedule so in comparison a minimum of $568 is offered as an extra Duty stien for a sponsor or student interest group um that Works about 18 hours per year and then we also looked

071at those sponsors of essential activities they typically work about 35 hours per year and those stiens range from anywhere from $1,800 to $4,000 so we looked at those two things as we made this recommendation we have three High School teachers um that I believe participated in this one house showcase and we anticipate that maybe all five middle schools would participate in the cupcake Showdown um we want to honor the work that these teachers have done for many years they have volunteered their time after school um working with students practicing with students and we just felt like this was the year that we really needed to show some value and appreciation and compensate them for the work that they're doing as I as I mentioned this was not about not supporting this is definitely about more

072Quant more of a quantification as to what we're approving here because to me it looked like it was just a blind check my other question is why are the Middle School teachers only getting $500 when the high school get a, they're not anticipated to work as many hours for the cupcake Showdown as the one house showcase was okay not as many half as many I I'd like to see a a a breakdown of of the hours spent for cupcake and for um the the coolinary wars I I'm I'm trying to be fair to the teachers if we need to pay them by the hour I mean um that's that's wonderful if it's extra Duty it's extra duty but I want to be sure that all teachers equ are are treated equitably so we have a

073motion so we have a motion to approve the consent agenda would you like to would you like to have this pulled from the agenda for secondary consideration I'd like to make a motion to remove it from the consent agenda for more consideration we have a motion to remove the 2324 teacher stiens um from the consent agenda as a second consideration have a second Dr Cook all those in any discussion board all those in favor say I allos say no no call director Harmon no director Lang no director pushkar yes president Bertrand yes vice president cook yes director Ponder go director stiglet no have it all right back to our main motion a motion to approve the consent agenda for December 21st 2023 as presented so move second already that we're good all those in favor

074say I I all those opposed say no no I have it next we have individual action items um first is the financial audit de good evening board this evening we are pleased to present to you the financial audit for the 2223 fiscal year that just concluded there is a requirement of the Department of Elementary and secondary education that audits are concluded and submitted for the Board of Education to accept then we provide those audits to the department uh this evening we have with us M Christina jacine uh she is a senior manager with Showalter jabori that recently became Han Camp PC and she worked with our team to uh review all of our data and is providing this report for you I also want to acknowledge the work of director Jacob Meyers our Director of

075Finance and also miss uh Julie Walsh who is the accounting manager in the entire team in the finance department for their work uh with our auditor so I'll turn it over to miss Jack good evening members of the board thank you Carol um Carol mention my name is Christina jackn I thank you all for the opportunity to present the results of the 2023 annual audit and the related reports that were issued as mentioned my name is Christina jacin I am a senior manager with Han Camp PC which up until a month ago was sha Walter and jabori PC um this is the fourth year that we have had the opportunity to work with the district we issued three reports as the result of our audit this year the first is the financial statements which include

076the required state and federal program reporting we issued report to those charged with governance and a report on internal control and after some brief comments I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have but first I wanted to give a brief introduction to Han Camp um on December 2nd 2023 shalter and jabori merged with Han Camp Han Camp is a top 10 Midwest CPA and business consulting firm that is headquartered in debuk Iowa Hamp offers over 40 Professional Services in the areas of accounting audit and assurance and business services and Showalter and jabori is proud to be the St Louis office of Han Camp so our team is still local residents of St Louis area so back to the audit the first report we issued is the financial statements this is the the important

077one uh the financial statements are prepared by Management on the modified Cash basis of accounting we provided our opinion on page one our opinion this year is unmodified meaning this is a clean opinion it means that in our opinion the financial statements are fairly presented in all material respects in Conformity with the modified Cash basis of accounting with regard to the federal program reporting in the current year two programs are required to be audited the first was the education stabilization fund which mostly consisted of sr3 this year and the special education program during the course of our testing we noted no material instances of non-compliance that we are required to report or any matters that we consider to be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies related to either of these programs the second report we issued

078is the report to those charged with governance and this report contains required Communications from Auditors to the board of education at the conclusion of an audit and finally we issued a report on internal controls it's important to note we did not identify any items that we consider to be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies our report also includes a section as to the status of Prior year comments and I'm happy to report that all the comments we had in the prior year have been implemented and corrected so they were not repeated in the current year I'd like to thank the district Carol Jacob and all of their team for all their assistance to US during our audit and I'm happy to answer any questions that the board may have questions supp I just have one um

079unmodified opinion is that is that the highest right yes okay thank you we're like a motion to accept the 2022 2023 Financial audit as presented pushard Ponder all those in favor say I I I'll oppos say now eyes had it thank you next board I like a motion to approve the bid recommendation as presented this would be for our security vestiges some director cook good evening board members so before you you have a recommendation to let bids for the um five secure vestibules that the board has previously approved uh through the design work that's been presented to you those sites obviously U specified within the uh boorder the motion the recommendation construction documents um and technical specifications are about 99% complete and are ready to be issued pending your approval this evening the bid package

080for the uh board approved scope of work would be issued uh January 4th and at the conclusion of a successful uh bid process a recommendation would be brought back to the board uh for consideration uh and approval at the February 8th board meeting um just a couple of things to note additionally uh you know pending your approval what we would do is release that package uh through the local newspapers we would also utilize multiple construction plan rooms uh available to us to just say again the goal is to always try to get as much competition um General Contractors to chase our work that way we can uh hopefully bring down uh the projected cost so again uh before you you have that recommendation we as of December 1st we estimate uh and we provided that

081to you through subsequent meetings uh the projected cost for the work at the five secure vules 895,000 again uh that's with the information that we had at that time midday numbers will reflect what the actual cost be happy to answer any questions but uh that hopeful that you guys will approve that that way we can release that bid bid package to the students questions [Music] suppity all right all those in favor say I I all those oppos say no I have it next board I like a motion to approve to design development as presentant this would be regarding Henderson and fair mounts again board this evening obviously is part of our process um got you're M thank you again uh here this evening we have uh Mr Mark Ruther with owner Architects and Mr Wade

082Welch uh we're we're we're here as I again part of our process we had presented uh the schematic design for these two uh what we're calling phase two uh projects and so um we took the feedback that you guys had provided at the uh previous meeting and we're back here again to provide the design development we have worked with uh all the building leaders and uh gone through all of their feedback and uh try to basically bring solid design development forward to you for consideration even so Mar Mr Mark Ruther will present and then we'll take any questions at the uh the end Mr Ruther thank you salum Board of Education want to take this chance thank you for letting us present I'm going to jump right into things here as uh s had mentioned

083we are going to present tonight the design development for Henderson and font elementary school and I'm going to go through a series of plans uh Flor plans uh to identify the additions and Renovations and I'm going to go through site plans which will include uh traffic flow revisions and then updated cost and then the project schedules for each one of those projects here we're going to start first with the Henderson Elementary School existing conditions I going to briefly go over the just uh skip over this because if those do reflect the existing conditions just as reference another plan for Henderson I want to just show is just some of the Great configurations of the K uh K through 2 as well as 3 through five grade levels for reference next is the floor plan that

084I believe you had seen in the past it's say uh reflects the kindergarten Wing addition which is roughly a total of 9,000 ft there's a link of 2300 square ft the kindergarten Wing Edition uh is housed of six classrooms that will have storage and uh toilet facilities in each one of the uh each one of the classrooms secondly I'm going to go down to the on the Eastern side is the gymnasium the gymnasium uh also includes a link that has toilets uh in the link as you get into the gymnasium the gymnasium is rough ly 9400 Square ft with um and to note that the link there it's the link right there is tied to line with the corridors I want to bring note that there is access from the gymnasium directly out so in

085the event in an evening of uh activities the gym gynasium can be utilized by itself without any any people going into the existing facility so it basically secures that gymnasium for an evening event but also provides the the toilets and access in the facility one thing I will also identify is that with this plan we will um reorganize the grade levels bring the grade levels one and two over more and keep with the kindergarten and then three and four will move to the North and the grade five will stay centrally located in the middle of the building and again as SLO had mentioned that all these plans had been uh reviewed with the administration and the principles on each one of the campuses to buy into the how things were transpiring next I want to

086go into the storm shelter each one of the building tonight will have a storm shelter that we're going to uh provide share with you the storm shelter you can see in the kindergarten it's the six classrooms that represent the storm shelter itself the storm shelter is roughly 9,000 square ft and is large enough uh to provide occupancy for all of the occupants of the facility in the event of a an event of any uh any manner also the there's a generator to the uh to the east uh to provide any any of the uh utilities mandatory utilities that need to occupy for or go into Force for 2 hours after that so set event next we're going to go into the yellow uh areas of the building that represent the renovation for the building and

087with the new additions it's obvious to note that with the new addition there's portions of the building that will open up for much needed and desired instructional spaces for Key Programs so when you as we look at the some things some of the areas that are renovated there's ada8 facilities of the low low incident room in the special ed areas there is centralized location for the nurse and speech reading rooms there's an art room renovation which will then also include storage and a kill room just adjacent to adjacent to the art room itself counseling and student services Suite west of the cafeteria and really uh west of the stage itself but basically renovation of those areas again to provide the uh the instructional needs for those spaces renovate the cafeteria including an expanded uh serving

088line and then also the existing multi-purpose room will have a music as well as Behavior Support can I make a comment previously we had or I had discussed um since we love to dual purpose a lot of our space um by the gymnasium I had recommended that there's a little spot um that might be nice to put in a a little bit of a roof and and an extra room for storage now I see um there's two other closets that are further up but I don't see the change that that I I recommended to be discussed if you go back to your previous slide no not that one this one not that one yeah um I slide nine I'm not sure I recall I think it's nine slide nine or that's what it's showing on

089my thing so you look at the gymnasium and they were the new gymnasium yes EXC me they were talking about there wasn't enough um storage space so I had suggested filling in that small area between I think the mechanical and electrical are we refering to this right here well smaller than that but yeah and then right right next to the mechanical on the in the electrical panel I guess putting a door in there putting in a basically a closet for storage Henderson is Inc incredibly that ex that's exactly right what we do have in that space in the gymnasium we have provided uh that there's a two storage rooms as well as two offices in that area as well and I'm sorry if I I breezed over that or I didn't identify that but those

090areas are included in the in the gymnasium as well with access to the gymnasium by take put putting those storage rooms in the gymnasium they have access and that freed up space throughout the rest of the campus okay can you can you explain how big that space is as far as storage approximate I mean no approximate they're probably 12T wide by 20 foot long that's okay so and these have been uh reviewed with the staff as well but um as I uh say I did not I mention that but I apologize thanks you thank you for the clarification good question I'm going to now uh the look at the site plan as you can see with the site the existing site we bring in and you start to see the location of the uh the

091two additions the gymnasium and kindergarten go to the next um we then we locate soft and hard place surfaces to the West provide and relocate service areas and utility entrances which are key to Pro providing service areas into the uh into the building for the uh the new or the kitchen area and service areas for for trash shifted a bus drive lane which I want to call attention to right here this area here is why we shifted the the bus lane in order to provide parking up adjacent to the building to provide safety more more of a safety issue to bring for Ada parking to bring directly into the building so with that you'll be able to see in the next slide where we start to show the circulation of the where you see the

092bus traffic as it comes onto the site it runs the perimeter the bus route location as it unloads in picks up in the front of the building and as well as the car again car again very similar to what's out there currently but by providing that service Lane away there was able to have that additional parking up next to the the building and then relocated parking just to the east we're going to jump into the estimates always a fun topic to start to get into what we've done is we tried to identify through the yellow or the the areas is where I want to call attention to and so basically what we've done as we get into the DD phase we start to break down the square footages and look at things because we get

093into more detail we can then start to analyze some of the costs so the interior architectural Renovations did go um is increased from the um the 10 the October estimate or the HVAC modernization actually did go down from what was uh previously presented fire suppression the Fire Marshall has indicated they will require fire suppression of the building which at one point in time we weren't sure we were going to but because there's so much activity in the entire building they will require that so at this point we are we have added that in we've also put Miss Lam's pum Plumbing expense in there as well as we get into next levels of detail project contingency because as we go through the project we start to identify areas and we move the money around as far

094as to identify where those dollars are we have been able to reduce the contingency somewhat from a 10% to an %. back [Music] up the design development um the schedule I'm going go through the schedule now the design development we're here tonight and from uh with your approval we will we will move into authorize authoriz authorization to move ahead with the bid documents for March 21st 20 24 board meeting at that point we will then take the permit uh the drawings to for permit review and approval from March to April issue bid documents uh in end of March bid date end of April review the bid documents or then the bids and also award the contract for a board meeting at May 16th the of 2024 begin construction would be planned for June 24 with

095a complete construction and winter 25 I'm going to move on to Fairmont Elementary School now again the existing conditions the as you had seen previously there's an Edition a one-story Edition to the South side side of the building the building will house six [Music] classrooms three music classrooms three art classrooms special education toilet rooms and vacation Station the addition is roughly 13,700 ft next slide I want to draw attention to the storm shelter the storm shelter is the hatched area within the building which will take which will is roughly 10,400 Square ft it's large enough again as in Henderson to occupy all the or provide uh area for all the occupants of the uh the existing building we'll have toilets and Generator in that in the storm shelter space and you'll notice just to the

096east there is an area that's not in the storm shelter and the reason the purpose of that is to look at that design as not it does not need to be as robust design as the other portion of the building just another way to try to find dollars and safe the safe cost on the project it's not going to look any different it's just not going to as I said not going to be as robust and not going to be the storm sh shelter itself the renovation area seen in the yellow again similar to Henderson as we provide spaces in the new addition we can open up buildings to provide much needed space for the instructional instructional space throughout the existing portion of the building the expanded cafeteria basically it's in the building but we're

097trying to expand area expand spaces to be able to get access into the space so you can see with the with the Red Arrows we're providing access out to the campus so we can reduce the circulation around the remainder of the building with more direct access from other portions of the building into the cafeteria and then also uh the special ed areas uh to the east will be renovated and then the the other areas just show reassignment of classrooms around the building that open up due to the additional space next area we're going to go into the site plan again the site plan then shows to the South the addition new parking parking on the north side resurfaced parking in the East and in the west and then a reloc relocated parking to the South

098what south of the new building to provide access into the back of the campus site circulation is what's really going to help in the site circulation throughout the building the new bus route will come in the rear of the campus with the new car auto route that will come in and stack on the new parking to the North and then go to the East and drop off so this entirely brings all of the not all but for the most part most of the parking off haly uh Avenue in the in the front of the building so this not only will help with the congestion but also by separating the the the bus and the auto from one another the safety will be incredibly uh increased as well on the campus again we're going to go

099to cost estimates and again as we get into design development we start to identify areas through discussions with the administration uh and we've gotten to the the interior renovation of 540,000 and then uh the safety and related site work uh in order to uh bring that sight and safety on the campus increases that uh as well Brandman Elementary School the design schedule this one basically is staggered by one month so again today uh looking at the design development we will authorize bids a month later in April 18th of 2024 permit review will go in at April and May to issue in early May bid late May 24 hopefully award review contracts with the Board of Education June in 2024 begin construction July of 24 staggered by a month and then also with a complete construction

100winter 25 so essentially it would come online roughly at the same [Music] time that concludes our presentation you have any questions or comments about the presentation I have a couple questions I noticed the uh why do why the new gymnasium at Henderson if you if if you look at the operational day there right now right now the the gym and the cafeteria basically function as the same space and so they're actually moving down if you recall we presented back to you I can't remember which specific forward meeting it was but we we're having they collect their food they take their food in the current space which is technically the gym but they go down in the multi-purpose area to uh to eat roughly around 500 uh feet or yards but uh a fairly good distance

101which presents operational challenges from a cleanup standpoint and part of that is done partly because we we also have gym classes potentially taking place at the same time so by adding the gym uh that will allow us to take the existing uh gym and uh make that a fully functional cafeteria that can uh adequately meet all of the various lunch schedules and then um as you saw in the presentation allows us to take that smaller multi-purpose room and uh convert it into a couple of spaces to allow those instructional programs I believe there was it was BS building uh Support Services of Music giving them the adequate space to be able to offer the instruction necessary in that space so you're saying with with the changes the current cafeteria with any Renovations in there couldn't

102function as a cafeteria if we do that then they don't they don't have a gym space I guess I guess I'm not getting the C so you have a multi-purpose room so you're not really necessarily making any changes in the multi-purpose room other than you're changing the name of it to a cafeteria the multi it's just functionally too small correct just the maybe maybe translator or sounds like the multi-purpose room is used both as a cafeteria and as multi-purpose gem currently and so this would give two separate [Music] spaces other questions for I got one um is the HVAC system in the tornado shelter SE is it going to be separate than the rest of the existing School in case of emergency does it like cut off and then circulated or its own return air

103and everything that is correct we're we're currently working with our mechanical engineers to kind of design those systems but yes that would be uh separate from the rest of the building if you recall the rest of the building right now has the PAC units that uh given us a lot of troubles over the years and uh they're working to as as part of hbac scope here trying to come up with a system that uh is is much more operationally efficient uh and much more robust than the existing ptech units yeah I asked that because I was working on a Kirkwood school and it was pretty interesting how it could actually be cut off from the rest of the school and then operate on its own as its own little wing per yeah so preliminarily right

104now for that addition I think what uh our engineering team is is talking really about having a standalone rooftop system for that addition and it would need to operate for 2 hours after that event separate so yes it needs to be separate from the remainder of the building uh one question for maybe youum um at at the new bus route at Fairmont did anybody not uh maybe let them neighbors back there notice or uh notify them because I know that the houses back there really close to the road I get it it's School District property but just so they're aware that there's going to be the bus is coming kind of close to their backyard back there yeah we we we we can certainly do that but we never want to get ahead of the

105board obviously in terms of uh making you know a recommendation but at the appropriate time we'll certainly uh engage with the appropriate people um I think this would be welcomed uh partly because one of the challenges that we have there as I noted did at the previous uh schematic design is we get a lot of complaints from the from the neighbors that are on U I think it's lake Lake Hill Drive um that is currently it just gets stacked to where they can't even access their driveways as they're leaving to go to work in the morning and as well as coming home at the end of the work day during um dismissal and so being able to kind of uh stack the vehicles uh off of I believe I'm probably going to pronounce wrong is

106it th Road uh th th okay being able to stack the vehicles there and we just have a little bit um it it's designed to kind of handle that traffic um in the event that it's just a wider wider thorough here and one more thing we will have a gate there still right for at night blocking it off I know there was in years past cars would go back there and do donuts yeah there there's the gate is actually still there we have not talked about whether it's going to stay but if that's a board wish we can certainly incorporate it into the next phase pending your approval thank you board members as a reminder to you and to our patrons that the motion tonight is to just approve the design development phase and which

107would authorize honer to move into the construction design phase um under our new process that we introduced to you last spring we would again bring at least one point during that next design phase um the current drawings back to the board for additional consider with an update of the current estimates um that the authorizations just to continue the work moving forward not that it's a guarantee that everything will happen as designed Curr one one simple question what as far as the shelter why does it make more sense since they require separate utilities I'm sure you've considered it why why does it make sense for the shelter to be in the kindergarten and the classrooms not the gymnasium but uh Mr one of one of the reason reasons we do that is uh make it you're

108not building as much volume if you build a gynasium you're going to be needing to build a much larger volume of space almost get when it almost gets to a point where you're you're dictating that has to be pre-cast concrete because the M the masonry can't go to the levels or the heights that you need for uh for the gymnasium so if we can keep it down around 16 18 ft 16 really is pretty much that point you try to keep from masonry masonry construction so if if you imagine you're now you're only building the volume the size the square footage by the volume up high so you're not you're not building all that expensive or robust I should say space for the the the upper space of the gymnasium which is uh it's just

109an expensive space so that's why we've started to go with in try to in incorporate more educational spaces that are just not as large I have one more yeah so with that tornado shelter in them classrooms is that I know that's a big school is that going to hold everybody we've we've done the calculations and that's what we need the square footage based on the the occupant that are there the entire square footage it's it's really a pretty defined calculation based on how many occupants and how much square footage per student uh that needs to be in that space so we can do that we usually put a little bit more space we will go back and confirm that if you like just to but yes that space um allows for that entire occupancy of

110that building we would not want to build it and then have to come back and do any additional space to get any other occupants if it grew in any way well yeah I only say that cuz I know you say the first two rooms out front are not part of the tornado shelter so it's really the what's behind them that is correct we can do we can do that but we were just trying to find ways to economically look at it and even if we had to make that a little bit bigger and just to be able to get the occupants in there so we don't have to actually do the whole entire building it's just a way of trying to save dollars but it'll still look the same from the exterior thank you just

111one quick just one quick clarification I know we've talked about this before the new building codes do require us if with any construction to add the storm shelters is that correct that is not something we can get away from or anything that is a code requirement now correct I know we had discussed it but I just want clarification of that that is correct yes okay thank you the uh the Bus drop off and the parent drop off change um is there any consideration given to the fact that there may be a need to limit the Elementary bus transportation within one mile down the road we that's the consideration have we it almost looks like about the same amount didn't measur so what what I can share with you vice president cook is we uh visited

112with our director of Transportation joh Simpson and much of the rerouting for the buses was part of our recommendation so she's taking uh you know those pieces into consideration okay I think the concern was that if we if we implemented the one mile boundary with with Elementary in the future there would need to be more parent drop off space um I guess just something to maybe talk about hav already um since we're doing this I had to come back later if we need to add another 12 ft or something to a parking lot um the only other comment I have is that I know we're still just in the design development phase but can't help but notice that the costs have gone up about 2.7 million um so since we have a finite amount of

113funds left something's not getting done on the bottom of the list um I know we're still working on that list it's like maybe next month we will have that but um as always I I would just really encourage us to to uh talk with those buildings and and about what's really needed what's wanted because at this point some other buildings losing 2 point or probably several buildings are losing $2.7 Million worth of work here from what we we talked about earlier so it's always a tradeoff so I just want hopefully everyone working on this is mindful of that that's some the keep in mind certainly understand and I think as we go through that U we turn down through that process a lot of U things that have been brought to the table for consideration

114but if you'll also you know recall some of these are going to be code related you know for example that $612,000 addition for the fire suppression you know that's the authority having jurisdiction that is mandating that and we have to comply obviously as part of that so we certainly um are trying to be prudent with the resources that we have have uh available to us um we're certainly not going to bring any any recommendation that's filled with wants uh most everything that we're we're presenting to you this evening is true true needs at those two respective sites all I have thank you thank you other comments for right all those in favor say I I I suppos say no I have it thank you next we have the finance report presented by Miss imy or

115like a motion to approve the finance report as presented Ponder M good evening again thank you Miss heer for pulling that up for me so in addition to the standard reports that have been posted for your consideration and also for public you I have just a few highlights for you this evening I've shared with you for many board meetings that I would be bringing you our multi-year trajectory uh projections uh by the December board meeting so we are delivering that also you will recall that when we presented the expenditure update that we did not yet have the medical fund performance evaluation completed and so that is also included with a few other items as well so this slide uh shares with you our discussion objectives I just mentioned that I'll be providing you context regarding

116the teacher salary schedule and also the cost potential cost increase of 1% on the schedule for teachers or rather all staff in this in this view this evening uh the next slide provides again that medical fund performance and so the bottom line for us is based on the work of our team in conjunction with Marsh mclennen agency who is the broker that works collaboratively with uh School District Personnel we are expecting at this point in time a 10% increase in our medical Fund performance for the year industry standard is is showing a 7 to 8% increase and at this time they're indicating potentially uh as it settles that it would be at an 8% increase that shows you our fund balance uh fy22 and FY 23 and then we also have provided you contexts regarding

117July through November of FY 23 and then the current year so you can see in that that we have reduced in our fund balance for this time last year we had 6.9 million in the medical fund account and at this point this year it's 3.6 million there are a variety of factors that can impact that dependent on claims certainly uh if there are catastrophic events in lives of those covered that can impact that but we do also carry stoploss Insurance to assist us in protecting the fund this next slide provides you perspective on the FY 23 percentages and we have limited for you here the base plan view you can see that orange yellowish box represents Francis Hal we have provided uh data from five comparative distri districts uh that we obtained that's Rockwood winville

118Pattonville Orchard Farm and Parkway and you can see the distribution between employer and employee e is employee erer is employer and we are uh providing you information that for the base plan we are uh covering at 100% of the employee cost for employee plus spouse we cover 73% and the employee covers 27% of that for the children coverage the district pays 70% and the employee carries 30% of that cost and then for the family plan the district carries 69% and the employee 31% you can see we are very much alike Rockwood and also uh Parkway the other districts are somewhere in between that this slide provides you with the financial perspective of of what the plan costs uh for the year and as you can see the First Column is the employee premium the second

119column with The Orange Box around it is the district paid premium uh that represents then the total annual premium and we're showing you the members on each plan last year uh with the final column representing the grand total of of the cost so uh as you can see dependent on the plan type selected the dist district is funding uh either between 7 uh $7.9 th000 to uh just over $117,000 per employee this provides you a view of the teacher salary schedule and as you can see we have a seven column schedule six are available for placement the um Masters plus 45 is uh being phased out so each year there's another uh darkened space and then uh The Bachelors plus 15 Steps 19 through 25 are in a phase out process as well we have

12025 steps in total this provides you context regarding the full-time equivalency we refer to that as FTE we have 1,231 uh FTE placed on the schedule at the time this data was accumulated and this represents the current year important to note that as new hires come into the system they are uh placed in very uh locations relative to their years of experience we do suppress the amount of experience that teachers are allowed to bring into the system if they are entering into their first through seventh year of teaching experience they're placed at the appropriate Step 1 through 7 for years 8 through 11 they are also placed at step 7 years 12 12 to 13 they're placed at step 8 and if they have 14 years or greater they're placed at Step n so you

121can see and I apologize I can't see that number it's like 215 or 217 uh yeah uh are are located at step 7even this provides context regarding the horizontal percentage increase or the vertical increase so as teachers are moved vertically on the schedule meaning awarded steps they move a 2% level and that's flat across the schedule the the horizontal movement from each column as they attain greater educational experience varies and those are noted for you as well this shows you a comparative visual of our uh cohort rankings and that includes the the five St Charles County districts also we've added to this comparison Parkway School District Pattonville school district and Rockwood as you can see we have um placement of levels nine and seven often in The Bachelor bachelor's 15 and Master's columns we uh

122have very green columns uh for Masters uh plus 30 and 45 in the doctorate this does not account for the suppression of years as they are placed on the salary schedule then the reason we have nine comparative districts uh in the bachelor's column is that Pattonville has a bachelor's and a bachelor's plus eight for that First Column you also note that there's a a variety of colors and it's because to be third out of of nine is um better than to be well is is not as great as being third out of as seven so the color is more green this provides you with the historical increases in Step movement that has occurred in France Hal dating back to 2009 and has been U monitored or accumulated by our HR leaders current and past and

123you will note that within this chart you see that there are a multitude of years where no step increase was provided or no Cola or salary increase has been provided to the schedule the 5-year average for um this information in total not includes the uh the uh the specific allocation in fy22 is 2.59% 5year average we also calculated what the cost would be to replace previous steps uh that had been withheld and those average between um nearly 1.1 million for each of those step Replacements so for your additional context and understanding what it takes to operate the schedule in our more than $230 million operating budget this provides an all staff 1% increase would cost uh just over $1.4 million and then the step or step equivalency would be just over $2.7 million for all

124qualifying staff I'm also highlighting that the teamsters negot negotiated a 2-year increase and their cost is noted as a footnote so in order to provide you with the operating trajectory meaning let's take a look at the lay of the land a few years out so that we know what decisions will do that are made today how they will impact us in the future and in order to do that we needed to look at some of our primary revenues and make an assumption regarding the direction those would go so this summarizes for you some of those primary revenues and I will definitely uh mention and I do this often that this is all subject to change we will continue to monitor this information and bring you adjustments as those are known and so for the um

125the revenue that we've highlighted here for current tax we are making an assumption that uh we would have a 2% increase for FY 25 and that's um also then for other years using a 3% increase uh in reassessment for years FY 26 and FY 28 so 2% in non reassessment years and 3% in reassessment years regarding the state adequacy Target the um 6760 that is anticipated um for next year we have included that and then for FY 26 and Beyond we have indicated a 50% increase uh for the state adequacy Target we are not um at this point in time assured that that will be funded and so that's why we are uh taking a realistic approach to what we might provide for a long-term trajectory at this point in time we are remaining flat

126on water and prop sea we know that prop sea usually grows it's all relative to those retail sales it's a 1-cent sales tax that was initiated in the 1980s and uh as more information is provided to us from the Department of Elementary and secondary education will modify uh this as well the other big change that's included within this recommendation uh for your uh understanding is that we are pulling out those one-time Esser funds we know that our fund balance percentage has increased relative to the one-time Esser funding and that was supporting us through the covid pandemic so not only Esser but there's ARP idea there's a reduction for that of 124,000 the Essa reduction is4 million 86 and then there's a paycheck protection retention grant that is a primary revenue impact as well so a

127reduction of 89,00 so when you look at this data and again not counting what increases may occur for prop C and some other Revenue changes we are currently estimating that it would uh be an increase next year of $247,000 252 on the expenditure front our assumptions uh are basically including that 8% increase potential potential to occur for health insurance we um have no reduction in what is currently budgeted for unfilled support positions totaling 3.27 million grow and uh we are in the process as you know in working with our leaders and identifying all the needs throughout the system so that a prioritization of those may occur so as we look at the operating changes we've got the 2,179 for health we've got some eser reductions and retention Grant reductions those are included in that million3

128reduction and then other operating increases we're estimating that those could potentially be just over $7 million but that would need to cover not only salary and benefit increases or the taxation required on any salary increases but also fuel for buses supplies in classrooms everything would impact the operating fund this next slide uh provide you with our operating trajectory that uh again we committed to provide you and what we have done in setting the district up for success as we look through this lens is ensuring that we maintain uh at a minimum that 15% fund balance uh and that would be at the close of FY 28 again the numbers will change the data will continue to be updated as we have new information and I'll show you now a visual that basically indicates that with

129the expenditure assumptions and the revenue assumptions that we have represented here uh that includes the 8% medical 7 million for all other operational needs that have been priority prioritized in fy2 uh and with those increases for um Revenue that were noted previously that we would end again just above that 15% minimum through June 30 of 28 now noting that that is a downward Trend and uh we don't expect it to continue to play that way we hope that we'll see some uh changes in Revenue that will cause that to turn up or go flat that would be the objective so before I moved on to to the next do you have any questions about that Financial piece I don't know how to get that questions Bo think we're good okay great thank you Jane okay

130so a few other updates that impact the financial world uh we are in uh the space where it's time for us to let the nutrition services bid uh this is uh following the department of Elementary and secondary education requirements for nutrition services they oversee the bid requirements we are required to have them uh review our information prior to letting those bids and that would start in January so this is a tenative bid calendar it is an arduous task you can see there that we will advertise we'll have pre-proposal meeting uh there'll be a deadline for questions we'll provide answers and then the sealed proposals would be due in March early March March 8th and uh we'll conduct interviews as is needed and then be providing you with a recommendation a April 18th 2024 this next

131slide highlights safety planning you'll recall that there was a safety grant that the department of Elementary and secondary education uh allocated to Francis Hal and that is a $300,000 allocation that must be expended and liquidated meaning we make claim on those funds by May 20 so we will need to expedite that process uh things that qualify do include security vegetables but only if the work is completed and the check has been cut so we're able to claw back though and uh identify any expenditures that have been uh processed since July 1 or beginning July 1 of 2023 and so that identification process is underway uh one of the items under the 7500 recommendation is the site mapping project and that helps us have a very succinct d detailed mapping structure to inform emergency Personnel of

132all the things they need to know relative to uh providing assistance in a building and it's it is a standard uh safety recommendation typically we're also exploring the cost of safety film upgrading cameras and upgrading communication devices as well uh Dr Salvo is not here this evening but she will be leading the safety task force that meets on January 9th 2024 and more information we'll be coming forward to you uh following that meeting my last slide is relative to proposition s the bond fund planning you will recall that in September that the 21st meeting we provided you the available funds that had not yet been committed and that was 84 mil 222 972 we did have and as you know you've uh approved uh the move forward tonight on the security vegetables but and also

133uh Henderson and fair underway so those are included there the available funds number I'm showing a change for you that's increased up to 85 mil1 16777216 million also a change in the Arbitrage refund estimate so remember when we uh discussed that in September as well so an increase of 1.6 but a deduct of nearly 700,000 net change is 944 800 and uh we are proposing that perhaps a work session next month would be a great way for us to discuss the options before you that concludes the presentation I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any D you another a question um regarding the film or the safety planning for the film do you know how many schools that would include I don't have that information with me but I I can phone a

134friend we can we can send that out to you okay more to more to come yeah I know I know I know that they were looking at all I believe all the exterior so it likely would touch uh I mean a number of buildings the those that have already had security vules completed I think would I might make the recommendation that in those schools where there's no SRO might be a priority thank Carol thanks for for the presentation I have a question I'm just curious has the District administration had any discussions or did any research on the possibility of bringing the nutrition services inhouse we have not had that conversation I will tell you well first I'll tell you that the The Firm that we work with currently sedexo does a phenomenal job over my

13530 years of um Missouri school business I um I'm mostly experienced inhouse uh nutrition services and uh at my last District actually we we had outsourced custodial and nutrition services and we did bring custodial back in housee but as I explored analyzing all of the work that goes on to make that system work there are so many requirements of the US Department of Agriculture Agriculture and when you have a national firm that this is what they do they are very connected and um more easily able to ensure that we are in compliance with all of those nutritional requirements all of the nuances that that come with receiving funding for that program yeah I know there's like pros and cons to everything but we're just looking for some more possible work for like Lisa's group well

136sure thank you Chad yeah thank you yes thank you Carol just one thing and I know you you and I have talked about it and Dr Rus and I but um for for the other board members really um it came to my attention just recently that um last time last time the district went out for a the tax increase and which failed as we all know uh one of the things that was that happened was that freshman sports with the exception of football um their games were cut to half as many games um and this this again this is something I learned just recently and um I don't think it's a very large cost impact at all something I think we can re easily reabsorb now in our our current situation here so I guess

137I would just I don't know that any any board action be needed I know we've talked about doing it in next year's budget um but there are some kids that there's old freshman class that's uh playing sports now and uh those kids practice hard and I think any anything our athletic directors can do to make that work and increase those number of games this season would be much appreciated by the students and parents I'm I am told and I believe myself so I think there's I would support that again I don't know that there's a board motion needed but something if we can Empower those a athletic directors to make that happen maybe they can't maybe there's imsha stuff maybe they're scheduling um I'm not going to pretended you know half of the logistical pieces

138there but U by all means if that's something that can be done I I supp I will tell you we actually Dr Rus and I participated in a in a meeting today the meeting was already scheduled we had an opportunity to join the High School principles and also the athletic directors and and I will say that the group greatest challenge is um working out the logistics uh in terms of space and uh supervision and a number of things but we will continue to evaluate that and determine if that needs to um how that might come forward as a budget prioritization great thank you can I piggy back on that a little bit I think also with with with them cuts that year um I think there was also some Transportation related to extracurricular activities and

139I'm not sure if we ever reenacted it or or reenacted it re uh reinstated it but maybe look into that as well that was another part of the discussion didn't understand that there were several decisions made in um limiting the budget that was spent on that and part of it was a decision to only transport students to events within a certain um mileage and so looking at that looking at fees charged for activities in athletics looking at the the schedules are all part of the discussion that we engaged with in today's starting yeah there was a lot of discussion back then I remember it was like they needed rides to but then a lot of times the parents M at the game so they were able to ride back or carpol there was a whole

140bunch of about it sh questions board all right motion on tables approve financial report as presented all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no I Bo like a motion to approve purchases over so 500 as presented any discussion board all those in favor say I I I all those oppos say no eyes have it more like a motion to approve the additional certified positions as presented stigar any discussion questions board pres B can I just offer one comment I just wanted to let you know and the board know that this particular position is not included in the 2324 Staffing plan or the plan that we have presented to you for 2425 is we did not want to assume your direction um so if approved this evening that FTE will be added

141into those counts for both um a position that has been approved for this year as well as continue into next year and we'll get that updated when we bring the plan back to you in January for a vote questions discussion board all those in favor say I I all those oppos say no eyes have board I like a motion to resend approval for the use of academic standards titled social justice standards the teaching tolerance of anti-bias framework as published by teaching tolerance a project of the Southern probility law law Center and any curricula developed using set standard effective July 1st 2024 all right guys I would like to amend this motion please I'd like to amend this motion to keep the black history and black literature courses while a new black history and black literature

142curriculum is being Rewritten to the board's majority standards if I get this right you'd like to amend the motion to add keeping the black history black lit courses until new ones can be created correct I'll second that [Music] second phone [Music] stigl we have a motion on the floor to amend the motion to read resent approval for the use of the academic standard Ty of social justice standards teaching cerence antibi framework as published by teaching Toler thank you teaching a a project the Southern Poverty Law Center and any curricular developed using set standards effect of July 1st 2024 except to keep black history and lit until new ones can be developed maybe the language needs to be a little modified but discussion board yeah I have a kind of a lot to say on this

143subject so let me start with um we have a curriculum committee I would love to know if this was brought forward to the curriculum committee and what their input was on this and I would also love to hear from uh superintendent Ken romz what he feels is if this is something that we need to move forward with forti [Applause] I got a clarification so are you asking him what he thinks of my my I want no I just just yeah just everything in general I mean this is a obviously this was a pretty hot topic when with board disc everything it was added to the agenda last night at 6:30 or whatever time it was added and no nobody has had a chance to look at this I want to know if our administration had

144a time to look at this when were you guys informed that this was coming forward because if we're not informed I can't imagine that you would have been either the administration works for the board not the other way around I'm I'm sorry I if somebody has something to say could you say that loud because I couldn't hear that I'd like I don't think it's not okay that's fine I I just want to know I just really want to know when and if our Administration was part of this decision or we have a curriculum committee for a reason was this brought up and I think if I'm not mistaken director cook you're part of that committee did you have this discussion with the curriculum committee that is a board approv committee there's a committee titled academic

145advisory uh and there's a subcommittee that looks at curriculum and no it was not discussed either of those then why do we have the committee if we're not discussing this with them well the committee supp i' have to direct you to the written purpose of it but generally IT addresses new curriculum oh no but doesn't it also I mean I think we've got more things coming on today doesn't it also deal with making changes to curriculum or I'd like to make statement to Shor delish's comment um actually the the curriculum um committee and the academic advisory committee both report to the board and serve for the board not the other way around um I understand that they are they can be an integral part of developing and our approving curriculum however the board retains the

146right to make decisions without them how is that collaborative I I I just I I'm just trying to understand I thought that that's what we're we do here we work together as a team we put ourselves on these committees we put ourselves on these committees so that we can work with our with our people to develop what people think is is our teachers who work they work so hard to develop this stuff why are we considering what they have to say if we're not even addressing it to the curriculum then why don't we as a board why don't we just start writing all the curriculum I'm not an educator I couldn't write curriculum if I wanted to I I just don't understand I understand that we're an oversight board that we have to approve some

147of the curriculums that come forward I don't see how we can just come through and just make changes at at will I I just don't understand that director stigl I'll uh I'll just tell you that to to take this to a curriculum committee would not sway my vote the committee would vote if they voted not to not not to go forward with the motion that we have here tonight I would not be swayed on this item I I value the C the the curriculum committee on certainly a lot of things but on this item My Mind Is Made Up already it's been made up for two years the everyone's time in committee would be a waste of their time because the board I don't think will be swayed by any opinion of the committee for

148the last two and a half years but I I I understand that part I understand I'm not I'm not here to sway your vote I I I I'm not I'm here to ask why we can't why we're doing this now the night before we go on Christmas break 24 hours before if this was so important why wasn't this brought up sooner to the curriculum committee so that our administrators our teachers our students have a chance to look at this and decide what's best for them that's what I don't understand so I I can speak a little a little bit too to how it came came about just just into into tonight's meeting I know director cook kind of brought it forward towards me um I wanted to make sure I ran by Dr Romus and

149so we we're trying to get get a conversation together um obviously our schedules a little busy so so it's not always easy to do um and within that conversation we we talked about do we postpone it to to January and we've discussed that by the time our meeting happens enrollment happens on the 15th and the potential disruption that would cause it based on on the vote or the outcome of this vote and decided to go ahead and bring it forward to go ahead and bring It Forward tonight to try to prevent that disruption to scheduling and who's the decision for you students I get I sorry I understand that part that we we have open enrollments starting in January but we also have kids that don't register school until February or whatever if if this

150is something I think that our public and our community and our staff and the people that have worked so hard on this deserves a chance to come back and we need to hear what they have to say I I just think just by just willy-nilly changing it because uh that's and I understand D vice president cook that I'm not going to change your vote I understand that um but I would like to at least include other people in this decision be without just because otherwise I I just feel like it's it we're not we're not being inclusive at all I I would add this I know that was that was one of my my concerns about the timing of I'm sorry sorry it was one of my concerns about about the timing of everything which

151is why I wanted to talk with Dr rmus um and why I try to put put out there that that we we made this update and I was glad to see the other community members did the same and through out there made sure people communicated and I think I got more commentary across the board on on this from from the public and obviously from commentary today a large majority or at least a majority a good amount of people have have heard it more than I've seen and many things that we've we've had go on on this board so I was least happy to see that people did come out people did know that was was added to the agenda outside of that would say at the end of the day it's the board's responsibility to

152dictate curriculum and and make that make that judgment call not we we take the advice but at the end of the day we are responsible for it it's it's always been the direction under the recommendation from our superintendent from our director why do we and again I'm just asking the questions why do we pay this our superintendent and our chief academic officer that kind of money when we're going through and telling them what they can and can't do when none of us none of us have that [Applause] experience are we telling them we don't trust what they're saying is that what we're saying we don't trust what Dr rumpus and Dr and Dr Buckman are doing because now we have to go in and say they can't use these standards because it's against what somebody

153that's against what somebody else feels is that I I I I I just I really I'm trying really hard to understand this you are also not relected to control people my my Amendment so this was put on about I guess 5:45 um I didn't even see it till somebody told me about it um and then my job don't allow me to do any research or or or do anything so I brushed on today and was trying to think of thing so I get it you you you you you have the the votes to to get rid of it but in the so me jotting down this at least keeps it in place instead of voting tonight to say that they're not going to have anything so this gives you the opportunity to to rewrite it

154or whatever part of it you don't like or what have it because the motion as it sits and you have it if it passes as written come January 18th a student will not have black history and black literature to choose from in their corrent in the in the course catalog correct just a point it's actually next year yeah so we have plenty no no impact this year we have plenty of time to develop a new curriculum for next year so but my Amendment would have it have the current one staying in place until that one's in place instead of just getting rid of it we'd still have that until that point of time we have from now until next September to develop a new curriculum well I think we need to talk to Dr Buckman

155about how long that would take if that we take CH yeah I would just offer that our so course registration starts January 15th is I don't know who somebody pointed out and so the course and if if you vote to remove the standards and we remove the curriculum tonight we would remove those two courses from the course enrollment guide because essentially we have no board approved curriculum for those two courses and we won't put a course in the course enrollment guide if we don't have a border prooof curriculum for it so when students go to register for their courses they be able to choose those two courses for next school year so if we were to pull a team together or come up with an option for those courses for next school year and if

156the board were to approve that course before the school year started we would have no students enrolled in those courses to run them so even if we were to get something put in place before the first day of school there would be no students enrolled in the courses how many students have enrolled in these these courses this semester this school year we have about 100 students between the two so I think we have about 60 kids in the black history course and about 40 kids in the black literature course let them learn let them learn please we were trying to have a meeting additional discussion [Music] board I'm I'm I'm thinking I'm trying to figure out exactly what we're on here because I'm seeing voting to amend the motion here this is what discussion on

157now is should we amend the main motion and then after that then we will discuss the main motion we kind of gotten a little off track so and then the book that abored from you that I'm reading what what part of this curriculum standard are we talking about here what book was I what part of the curriculum am I reading I don't know what I know what I it's a it's a history book of the maybe maybe it's the black literature or black history course itself that I'm reading I apologize I'm not sure what book you have do your homework I am doing my homework that's why I'm reading the book that we're talking about it is the black history textbook Mr it is the black history textbook okay so that's part and then this

158second class would be a writing course the second class is an English based class the black literature course comment discuss I just like to say that the the again once again the Committees and the superintendent and administration work for the board and the board has the final decision to say so right now we have a motion on the table to amend the motion to include keeping the black history and black litat courses until new ones are developed correct all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say no no those have it can I have a roll call you can do a roll call President Bertrand no vice president cook no director Ponder no director stigl yes director Haron no director Lang yes director pushkar no thank you back to the main motion

159to resend approval of the use of the academic standards title social justice um teaching in tolerance anti-bias framework as published by teaching tolerance of project poty Law Center and any curricular developed using set standard effect of July 1st 2024 any additional discussion board seeing no additional discussion um all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no no absolute no no eyes have it what a dark day next we have umary staffing recommendations for Miss simp it up I'd like to present um I'd like to present to you our preliminary Staffing plan for the 24 25 school year um tonight we'll just present the plan and then at the end of the presentation I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have um or listen to any comments that you might

160like to provide and then Our intention would be to bring the plan back to you in January for final approval executive cabinet began discussions about the Staffing plan in early October Mr Delaney our director of HR and I began to meet with each district and building administrator as we developed an initial plan that was reviewed and Modified by our district leadership team throughout conversations with each leader we shared the intent of presenting a status quo Staffing plan with only minor changes is if deemed absolutely necessary for the work of the organization however we also took notes on all of the general needs and desires that our leaders shared with us if we were to include every request we would be presenting a very different plan this evening the plan would include an increase of approximately

16135.5 certified FTE and 23.5 support staff FTE after much review and conversation we are presenting a plan that includes an increase of 13.5 certified FTE and we have worked to reallocate Staffing when possible and eliminate vacant positions with a goal to do the work differently overall the plan presented will reduce support staff FTE by 6.89 although changes do increase the salary budget slightly I just want to remind you that each year we request a small amount of contingency Staffing in our plan these are additional positions placed on hold and only used as necessary for example should enrollment in certain buildings be higher than expected this contingency Staffing allows us to quickly address the need in some cases small amounts of contingency Staffing are used to make Master schedules work or to purchase teacher plan times

162if additional sections of a class are needed if the contingency Staffing is used during a current school year and it's necessary for that position to continue into the next year the position is shown in the plan as an ad for year approval so we don't carry that contingency over each year it is removed after each time the request to use the contingency um when it is asked of our leaders is scrutinized heavily as we know we have a small amount uh to meet the needs of the district so these are our overall certified Big Ideas we have an overall addition of 13.5 FTE and I'll work through the list just giving you some information and rationale for each position we'll start with the recommendation to add an assistant principal at Harvest Ridge Elementary the student

163population in that building is projected to be 615 students for the 2425 school year the building is currently staffed with one principal and one assistant principal the level of administrative support was reduced for the 2122 school year when enrollment was projected to be around 580 students teachers and staff have commented on the change in administrator support since this position was reduced and now with the increase enrollment and due to the high needs of the building a transient student population and a large special education population Administration recommends aligning the number of Administrators to other sites with the addition of this one assistant principal in comparison another building is projected to have 619 students and is already staffed with three administrators the additional cost of the position will be approximately $16,250 including the salary and benefit assuming

164an entry level salary for the new hire in regards to the17 content leader FTE there has been a focus on prioritizing and updating Francis House curriculum the academic team has worked to create a plan to better align the content leader positions with the upcoming curriculum work to be need to be completed a .17 FTE is needed to complete the plan and create a 05 science content leader currently science is um completed by our math content leaders in their respective levels given that science is a uniquely tested area this position the science content lead position um is helpful and would hold a science certification and perform the same duties as the other content leaders the additional cost of a17 FTE will be approximately $1 13,260 including salary and benefits for the FTE we are also requesting

165an addition of a one .5 FTE to support the creation of a Dean assistant activity director at each High School Administration has reviewed the workload and time commitment required of our high school administrators of all of our high schools in our Benchmark districts a total of 203 all three Francis hell high schools are in the top six when comparing student enrollment our district places a significant emphasis on student engagement and attachment as this has a direct correlation to attendance and academic achievement all three directors run very robust programs to engage our students our high school administrators are required to support those evening activities by providing night supervision and during the day our administrators are often pulled from the instructional work to support student crisis and disciplinary situations their workload increased when the full-time Dean position

166was eliminated for the 2122 school year Administration is recommending that we add a split position part Dean part activity director assistant to support the day-to-day work with students these positions would receive a teacher contract paid from the teacher salary schedule with additional days and a stien as the full-time Dean positions did in the past Staffing at the high school level was reallocated and of 1.5 FTE and teacher Staffing is needed to create the three positions with the additional position additional days in the stien increasing the total cost of about $143,400 including salary and benefits we're also asking that a point five FTE at Union High School remain Union support students needing alternative setting at the high school level and those uh serving a suspension in the 22 23 school year the Alternative Learning Department added

167a classroom to help students with anxiety and Associated conditions using essr funding the classroom aims to reduce the number of students requiring homebound services and helps helps them to build tolerance to the regular school environment the need still exists and administration recommends including the Staffing permanently a05 FTE is necessary um high school students are identified for the program based on recommendations for their from their school from outside counselors and District Mental Health Specialists the additional cost of this 0.5 would be approximately $39,000 uh we are also asking for five teacher FTE to create middle school math interventionists currently the district provides reading interventionists at the middle school level uh this allows for a strong Focus to support those students who are underperforming in the area of literacy we have about we have 13.83 FTE that

168are moved across the five middle schools based on student data for literacy to begin to provide similar support for students in the area of math we're requesting these five FTE for districtwide math interventionists the interventionists will teach six intervention classes each day with small groups of students using the board approved middle school math intervention resource data will be monitored from students who are placed in the intervention to see the impact of the position over the school year the cost of the five teaching positions is approximately $390,000 including salary and benefits a point three for FTE is being requested at the middle school level for classroom teacher each year as Administration creates the Staffing plan projected enrollment and classroom FTE is reviewed FTE are moved from one building to another to support the changes in enrollment

169with the goal of creating a staffing plan that aligns teacher classroom teachers to the student ratios across all five buildings while also considering the Desi class size requirements to accomplish this goal we're requesting that 34 in classroom Staffing the additional cost would be about $26,250 for salary and benefits we're also requesting four teachers at the elementary level um for classroom teachers it's really the same process we look at the student enrollment um that is projected and then we move that um those teachers either by level or by building to support the Desi uh class sizes um or the range that desie provides to us to accomplish all of that we're asking for four FTE at the elementary level um where we see that class sizes would be a little bit higher than what we would

170expect um four positions would be um an add to the salary budget of $312,000 including salary and benefits the last one on this list is a 1.0 um we are looking for ways to support our students in light of our par professional staffing shortages so we'd like to allocate three vacant par professional positions um at one building and move that into a special education teacher position this allows us to see a different candidate pool and support the student students in a different way the salary and benefits um cost associated with that change um is really Zar as will eliminate the three positions in order to create the teaching position I just want to share that as we look at the plan and look at next year we are always moving staff around and reallocating resources

171so we will move staff from building to building as we go through the plan that is classroom positions that special education positions our uh English language learner teaching positions and even our interventionist positions as student data and enrollment come to light those positions will be moved as we have better academic data these are the proposed Elementary class averages that would be um part of this plan so this slide shows the average class size per level at elementary and then I've also shared with you des's minimum and maximum salary I'm sorry not salary uh class size averages uh that we have to work within um we always aim to fall between that desirable and midpoint when we're creating the plan we will have a range of class sizes across the district anywhere from 18 students in

172a classroom to 26 students in a classroom however because there are just some pockets of higher ratios we'll have a kindergarten at 20 and 21 a first grade at 22 and 23 a second grade at 23 a third grade at 25 fourth grade at 24 andth grade at 26 within this plan class sizes at the middle school and high school level are difficult to determine at this point in the process we create a staffing plan based on classroom teacher to student ratio and this plan sets the average student to classroom ratio at Middle School at 22.04.2012 Services virtual learning Early College Etc actual class sizes at these levels are difficult to project with any calculation as student enrollment in courses and the creation of the master schedule really dictate how many students are in a

173classroom um but Staffing is provided for each building based on the ratio calculation and our building administrators are tasked with creating a master schedule and a staffing plan that meets the needs of students and stays within those desie class siiz guidelines and those are shown also on the slide there for you as well we feel with the level of Staffing that we're providing in the plan our principles can keep their class sizes at that level but should a class be a little bit higher than what they've expect or have they have more students enroll in a particular class that contingency Staffing becomes helpful and we can utilize that to support the building and lower the class size want to switch over to our support staff uh we do have some proposed additions in 2425 um

174and really what we're looking at doing here is reallocating staff so I'm going to share with you these positions and the cost of these positions but I do just want you to know the next slide is going to show you some reductions of vacant positions that will offset the costs so that is that's the next slide coming um the custodial Foreman position uh we have a district of 150 square miles with 23 school campuses to clean and supervise nightly currently a custodian manager is scheduled during the day and a foreman in the evening evening this level of Staffing makes it difficult to adequately support and supervise the 111 custodians working across the district a second Foreman will allow Administration to divide the district in half each working Foreman will be able to visit and supervise

175their buildings more frequently and provide support when positions are vacant or absences are experienced the additional cost of the position will be approximately $52,599 with salary and benefits we're also requesting a technology technician so much of our work is dependent on working technology an additional technician is being requested to provide support across the district especially when vacancies and absences occur the additional cost of the position is approximately $6,195 including salary and benefits we're asking for two additional occupational therapist positions of 1.26 FTE the district experience is exper experiencing an increase in students who require occupational therapy as defined in their individual education plan or IEP the additional cost of these two positions is approximately $129,999 including salary and benefits a 1.0 Deputy superintendent administrative assistant position is being requested currently the superintendent's administrative assistant is

176responsible for supporting the superintendent while also holding the position of board secretary and custodian of records as the custodian of Records this position is responsible for responding to all of the subpoenas and sunshine requests that are received by the district the number of requests has grown significantly over time when the deputy superintendent position was created and the interim F CFO was hired this position started supporting these individuals as well this includes managing the clerical work of the policy committee um Administration is is requesting an additional Chief level Administrative Assistant to cover all of these responsibilities noted above the additional cost of the position would be approximately $ 56,80202 IES and regulations relative to purchases increase competitiveness by ensuring District bids are marketed to qualifying vendors and seek alternative purchasing methods when appropriate possible cost savings

177could be realized through exploring other purchasing options allowed for public education including bulk and coordinated purchases after reviewing the duties and responsibilities with executive Cabinet member responsible for supervising the position she feels it best aligns with a manager role the additional cost of the position would be approximately $134,800 homeless and foster care coordinator is included in the plan for the 23 24 school year Sr 3 funds were used to support a full-time social worker position to coordinate efforts connected to unhoused students with the loss of essr funds it's recommended that this 1.0 position be added to the plan buildings notify this individual when students are suspected to be homeless and the social worker then meets with families to ensure they have the support needed beyond what a school-based educational support counselor has the time to

178provide they coordinate transportation and ensure clothing and food resources are in place this position also manages donations the district receives and allocates them to families Across The District transportation billing back to other District also flows through this position for the 24 25 school year if approved the position will also manage state required foster care components which include best interest determination meetings the additional cost of the position would be approximately $ 77,604 uh FTE or one additional parent educator is also included in the plan enrollment and our parent educator program is increasing and in order to meet the needs and serve those families interested in Administration requests increasing the Staffing here the salary will be will be reimbursed through the state program based on the visits that are completed so the total cost of these ads

179would be [Music] $559,500 there is not an individual who would lose their position and as we looked to create a status quo Staffing plan with minimal impact to the overall financial budget it's recommended that we eliminate these vacant positions and reallocate those resources to those on the previous screen those that supervise these positions and um are responsible for these departments have been consulted and agree with those changes and understand that the work would need to be done differently um the reductions allow us to reallocate $550,500 to the salary budget so making up for those positions that I shared with you on the slide before I added this slide these are the positions that were supported with either grant funding or Esser funding and I just wanted just you to see that they have either been

180eliminated or they are being requested in this proposal if we're asking them to move forward so just wanted to be transparent and how these positions were either eliminated or added to the plan um for your for your for your information so our totals in certified Staffing with the addition of 13.5 FTE that would be an increase to our salary budget of $1,405 1, 40,5 I'm not as good as Carol with those numbers um the support staff although it is a reduction in FTE it is a slight increase in the salary cost $9,99 for the total there that you see on the screen and I would be happy to listen to your comments or answer any questions that you might have bus drivers I know that they're in chart suppli can we really do without four

181bus drivers yes we've had lots of conversations with Miss Simpson and with the changes in routing and the changes in transportation she feels that we can eliminate those four positions they're vacant we haven't had them build and so we can reallocate those in a different way and I'm sorry for missing this but what was your cost for the support staff you were going too fast for me I'm sorry I'm sorry no so the change is um it would be $9,99 okay and then the technology technician oh for the it's in the it there the technology technician $60,100 includes that taxation that Carol mentions about um Insurance costs uh red uh tax uh Medicare and um our retirement contributions for the position I assume Miss Embry has been made aware of these numbers absolutely we have

182discussed these yes yes it's one of the things it's the balance right um I wish that we could meet all of the needs that the leader shared as I said earlier but we also know that we need to be as aggressive as possible when we talk about teacher salaries and support staff salaries we have fallen behind as Miss Embry shared in her financial presentation which makes it difficult for us to recruit and retain our teachers and so in an effort to be mindful that we need resources to be as aggressive as possible in salary increases for next year we tried very hard to bring you a status quo plan um but there are some there are some needs and there are a lot of needs that we are not addressing in this plan because of

183the limited resources um but we tried to meet those that we felt were most important to continue the work of the district you accomplished your goal thank you J uh this content leader FTE of 0.17 is this going to be someone who's a teacher now that's going to peel off for a few hours hours to do content leader work it's a 0.17 that's needed to make the plan work we've reallocated and adjusted some staffing um so it won't be somebody that's a 0.17 the 0.17 is needed to make the 0.5 science content so it'll be a 0.5 science content lead position and that position May spend half the time in the classroom and then half the time as a Content lead is this a one time just for this year since there's science content at

184this time it would be included in the Staffing plan going forward it's not a one-ear only um can I also don't understand the 1.5 teacher FTE support a Dean assistant ad what does that person do I know I asked a question about it but sure I still don't know what the dean would do the dean is um like what we've had in the past as an administrative intern at the elementary level the dean is um it is an administrator U has administrator responsibilities um might work with students and handle disciplinary situations in the building um in the past they have they have focused on discipline for students um but this would be only a part-time position um so they would spend half the day uh in the office supporting the administrators working directly with students

185with disciplinary issues most likely and then the other half of the day they would spend in the activity director's office um supporting all of the work that happens in that area so we reallocated Staffing um as to not come forward and ask for a 3.0 FTE to create the positions we were trying to be very resourceful and we looked at reallocating Staffing so all that is needed is the 1.5 to make the positions okay so there will be three people put into that position one at each High School fulltime who handles the is it I assume the other assistant principles that handle discipline now among high school students they have a an alphabet typically that they have a section of students and so they'll have to rethink how they might do that work um but

186yes our assistant principles our principles our associate principles they all have have some hand in working with students in crisis or students that are in disciplinary situations what will they do if all those responsibilities are return over to the dean well I I think that we've had this Dean position in the past and they absorbed that work um they are they are doing instructional work they're getting into classrooms more often they're evaluating and supporting our teachers better um they're able to respond to parent phone calls better faster they are working through all the logistics of running a high school whether that is some of our administrators are outside on the parking lot supervising car duty and pick drop off and pickup for a portion of their morning as before they go into the day um

187so I think it just allows them to have some time in their day to focus on some of the other things that they have been unable to maybe provide as much attention to without the dean position these last few years and then um lastly the 5.0 middle school math Interventional lists um presumably the math you know math scores among student ma math learning among students would improve here is there any you mentioned that we will monitor data which to me just means we'll test it and see what it says is there any S I mean any sort of metric that we we that you've considered to justify these positions I mean we get a 1% increase in student learning is that worth the 5.0 andar clearly if we get 20% it's great is there any

188other districts that have added these interventionalists what you know have we looked at that what what we can I guess my question is what can we expect here I think there is from what my understanding there is a small a smaller pocket of students that are struggling in math and we don't have the resources and the availability of staff to work with those students if they need an intervention it we are struggling to get that into the schedule and what happens is likely we are pulling a teacher from the regular Core math uh department so that they can provide some interventions and then our regular math classes are higher in student ratio um so this would allow these individuals would teach six sections of interventions a day they would likely have 12 to 15 students

189in a section over the course of six sections throughout the day to really meet the needs of those kiddos that are struggling in math um Dr Buckman and her team will monitor the data and look at the student growth that those students have over the course of time so that we can determine how well the positions are providing support it's very similar to what we're doing with our reading interventionists and supporting students in literacy we just we don't have a great system to support our kiddos who are struggling in math at this time and so this is our way we're asking for the 5 FTE not the 13.83 that we have in literacy but this will give us an opportunity to try out the positions make sure that they're working and if we find that

190they're not helpful or supportive then we can come back and modify the plan in a future year it was also important to us that they weren't one position guaranteed for each building that these would be five district level positions similar to the reading interventionist which would allow us based on the academic team based on the analysis of the data to reallocate and move them around as necessary so if one building is having a lot of success or has fewer students with that need it might be that that person shifts to another building or a05 into allow us that flexibility um and making it clear then to a building is as a group we would hire or identify this group of five teachers um so they would know they could be moved and these positions may

191not exist forever which is how we step the reading ofes I I think it's great to add I'm in support of adding and I guess I just want to monitor over time and know what to no what would constitute a success here um the other you know in the back of my mind I've thought about it as as we're improving I hope uh Elementary reading it was my hope that the Staffing of interventionalists and reading would come down and we could proportionately put that back into math but um I don't think that's going to happen fast enough for this year um the other well we'll talk about reading at another time so thank you questions board thank you m okay I'll bring back the plan in January for your approval thank you very much next

192we have Miss IM and refunding Debt Service obligation exciting topic good evening one last time so we have provided for you information regarding a refunding opportunity or a refinancing opportunity when you think about uh when interest rates are lower you might refinance your home and uh ultimately spend less in interest and so this uh is provided for you as information this evening at the January meeting you would be provided a resolution that would basically authorize the sale this would affect the 2016 General obligation bond issue and uh it would uh result based on the recommendation in an accelerated payment plan so we could attain savings with a level payment plan that would result in us paying this debt off at the the current maturity date of March 1 2029 but an accelerated plan would pay

193the debt off uh March 1 2026 so with this uh there is a par amount that is available to be refunded or refinanced of $2,850 th000 the analysis has been prepared for us by uh steel Public Finance and uh it could result in an estimated cumulative Savings of 1, 5879 69 that's all based on current market information and will certainly potentially change I should note too that the uh Levy for The Debt Service uh repayment would remain constant at the previously approved 67.1 3 that will continue to be analyzed and during that meeting in January when the resolution would come forward it is actually called a parameters resolution and I'll just read for you that which is posted it would authorize the sale and delivery to occur later uh what that does then is empow

194empowers the team to watch the market and then enter into that sale at the right moment the final series selected for re refinancing will be subject to the parameters including a maximum interest rate on the new bonds a minimum savings threshold and a maximum maturity and for your context uh the minimum threshold for savings is set by the state of Missouri and the Missouri direct deposit program at 1.5% so this represents nearly 7% of the total bonds that remain out remained outstanding in June 30 do you have any questions for me questions for great so January for the resolution then they would likely come back in February with the actual sale information for your approval thank you next there's a number of curriculum items first read I don't know if you have commentary Dr Buckman

195nope I have nothing to say all right so Community please take a look at that and get feedback um there are also a number of policies and for first fre for the community review and provide feedback there is one board motion to approve the modification of Regulation 3165 as presented this is motion around purchasing or regulation around purchasing board I like a motion to approve the modification to regulation 3165 pushard or Ponder discussion questions board I would since I missed that meeting I tried watch some of it online I would like to know why we're including keeping the 7500 curriculum if we're going to do this why can't we just do it across the board I would think that that's going to be even harder for our finance department to keep track of Z 25,000

196right with but from what I understand it was we're still keeping the curriculum for anything curriculum resources at 7500 yeah it looks like B did we change that you say can we change that no did we change that so it looks like from the workshop that we had um earlier this month looks like the change was the move majority of things the 25,000 excluding curriculum which were curriculum resources which were we main at 7500 so I'm asking why are we keeping the 7500 for curriculum why don't we just do it all the way across the board I believe one of the reasons that we thought about doing that was because of transparency because the curriculum resources are supposed to be posted and it's just easier to keep track of if we have to approve each

197one right aren't the majority of them over 2500 anyway 25,000 25,000 that I don't know yeah they are aren't they okay it's a majority but there's still the rest of it that still has to be tracked in order to be put on on the website for transparency there there's a there's a fair number between 7500 and 25,000 certainly the majority are over but there's some important things between 7500 and 25,000 and as a board you know our main in Du is to the students and those curricular things are the are the things that are presented to the students and I think for the board to have oversight and review of those is important I believe it's important to the parents and the uh community that elected us so I don't I think it's important to

198keep those curricular things where they're at at this time I agree with director cook the other thing is um one of the important things that I want to bring to light is that we need to have a Continuum in our math resources and I don't know that we have that right now I mean I don't know that we have a Continuum meaning the the the resources that we use for Algebra 1 are the same throughout the district I think that's a separate discussion we discuss or on motion other discussion comment board right all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no no nice have it now we are to superintendent count Dr off thank you president berand um board members first I just want to state that regarding the vote to resend

199the curriculum standards um I want to say on behalf of myself and the district leadership team that we do value the courses and the content that is in those courses and believe that they are important to continue to offer to our students um we're committed to finding a way to do that in a way that hopefully the board um would be supportive of it and that we can bring back because again we value them and we we think they are important to continue to offer for all of our students throughout the district um I want to draw your attention tonight that there were two new items under information on the agenda one is our College and Career Readiness report and the second is the middle and high school enrollment guides um both of those have

200previously been consented items in the past uh the College and Career Readiness report is actually an optional district report that the academic part department puts together each year as they review data so we' moved that under information the other one is the course enrollment guides uh for the middle school and high schools these are put together annually by the academic Department reflecting any changes in course offerings that might be new that the board has approved um and while the courses are listed in there they're actually much more robust than just that they include a lot of information for our students and parents about GPA um honors and awards that might exist um virtual options that are out there there's a lot of information and when we bring it to the board and ask for your

201yearly approval um ultimately there's a lot of edits and changes that happen to those informational pieces in between when the board approves it when registration happens and then throughout the year and it's not a require nothing in it requires approval on an annual basis because the board would be approving any courses that are already listed within it uh and so that's why we're putting it as an informational item now our plan will be each winter to post it there with any updates so that you have an opportunity to view it as well as the public um again again any changes to the courses you would have approved and that's why they would be in there that will allow us then to make edits throughout the year to some of the more informational pieces to make

202it a really living breathing document that we can edit ongoing um not waiting until the following year when we can ask for board approval again so we're happy to answer any questions about it but it's listed there under information um some celebrations yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at the St Charles Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting at their annual Awards and um yearly work honored to be able to celebrate and brag a little bit about many of the great things that are happening in the H District it's a great opportunity for us to share positive things in the district uh one of the France House Central choirs was there to perform um Norm the night and King leonitis were also there from house Central taking photos with a lot of the Business Leaders in

203the community so that was fun um on Monday of this week desie released the public school district and Charter School annual performance report scores to the public um and I continue to be proud of our District's continued notable success on many of the key metrics that the state uses uh the report really reflects the collective efforts of all of our teachers and Educators throughout the district our staff and all of the students and the hard work that they're doing each and every day and while we celebrate many of the achievements that are in there we recognize that there is still a lot of work and there are areas that require ongoing attention and continued Improvement and as we look ahead to 2024 um we're excited about those opportunities and challenges and recognize that is our

204work um and we're committed to contining to provide a high quality education for all of our students and we know that with the community's continued support we'll be able to build on the success that we've had I want to celebrate and thank our Alternative Learning Department last weekend we had another successful community resource fair that was held at Prince Al high this has been a tradition in the district for over a decade now in addition to um outside agencies coming that provide services ranging from assisted technology to Recreation mental health transition planning and more for our students it's also held in conjunction with a special Olympics and we have a lot of other volun student volunteers from throughout the district to come to help um it's really a great event I want to thank all

205the firefighters at Central County codville and the City of St Charles um they came together in the fire departments and firefighters made sure that hundreds of our students throughout the district will have um warm coats for this winter and stylish coats um and we really appreciate their ongoing support they do for us throughout the year and this is just another great example of that partnership with our First Responders want to remind everyone we have an amazing board that volunteers their time for this work and right now is the opportunity to sign up if your interest in running for the two positions that are open for next year filing actually closes at 5:00 p.m on Monday the 26th the district is closed but miss heer and I will be here to welcome anybody else who might

206want to come in in that last hour um from 4: to 5: it's the only hour that we're opening that dat but we will be here um you're welcome to come join us if you'd like to spend an hour on December 26th um and then today was the last day of school before winter break we heard a lot of thank yous at the start of the meeting I want to reiterate that to our entire staff um the incredible teachers support staff that um it takes a lot of work to make a district run and run well for just under 17,000 students and we have an incredible staff that's doing that each and every day for all of our students while the district is not completely shut down for the next week or so um I

207do hope that everyone has an opportunity to rest and relax um and has a wonderful holiday season however they choose to celebrate and we will be ready to welcome Sean and all of our other amazing students back to school on January 3r thank you board [Music] comments uh sorry about that I'd like to uh once again um be thankful for this opportunity to uh be here tonight be up on this board with all of you uh I know that a very big decision was made tonight and while I may not ever understand some of your reasonings for the voting that the way you did I do have to accept that um decision and I do truly hope that in some way some form in the future there is some form of that class that is

208offered again because I do see I do believe truly that there is a um value to learning about not only just other uh other you know people other ethnicities but just learning in general I have always been you know curious type I've always gone out of my way to learn and one of the most rewarding things I've ever learned about was with um about you know the African-American culture and now I I might understand that not all of you you know I'm not going to um criticize you or uh you know like put accusations on any of you of being any way that you are but I do truly hope that you believe in your decision and it wasn't made on a win but also that that decision is open to the Future possibility of

209a returning class or just a returning recognition of it in general thank [Applause] you just say um that I I I'm not opposed to teaching black history or teaching black literature books written by black authors um far from it actually I I I am opposed to teaching it through a social justice framework and that's really what was done the past two years so that said I I do think it's a um it was a big vote it's what one of the things that uh that I campaigned on and uh I think it's it's important important and it shows that Community can come together to make change in in a school district um who knows maybe in two years uh the change will be the opposite way but for right now the change is uh did

210come I know a lot of people many of whom are here in this room uh work very hard to to do what what we all feel is best for students in the long term so um appreciate everyone's help along the way and I think it's um if if the courses are Rewritten I am I am certainly open to that I know there's a lot of other curriculum writing work going on but um if someone's able to find time for that then more power to you so with that everyone uh get some much needed rest and Merry Christmas everyone I just wanted to say uh I what I think's happen in Francis House sad you know that's my opinion um I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and see you all next year the coms board

211Sean I like to thank you for for being here um probably one of one one of our most talkative board members which I appreciate so thank you for all all your commentary really appreciate it um I would would second vice president Cook's commentary if like black history black liter courses those can come back under like standard framework of how we do other history courses and we're happy to revisit that um and then everybody have a happy holidays on a well-deserved break and we'll see you next year Bo like a motion to go back into Clos session board like a motion to go back into Clos session pushard cook all those in favor say I I allos say no