001thank you [Music] thank you all right we'll get started with our tax rate here good evening so the presentation this evening is one that is familiar for many who have observed this over the past several years and I have added in some informational information informational information that's a great expression is some items that would be informational in nature so the hearing this evening is provided to allow patrons an opportunity to experience the tax rate hearing with you and also uh provide them an opportunity for comment and important to note that everything that we've done in preparing for this evening's tax rate hearing is in compliance with Missouri statute 67.110.2 and also board policy 3320 in Saint Charles County the tax rate must be set by October 1 each year and we utilize an interactive process
002with the state auditor's office their website provides us forms and the county provides us with information that we enter into those forms to calculate the levy this is a reminder slide that we operate under four primary funds and the operating Levy may be placed in funds one two or four that's General teacher and capital and The Debt Service Levy is placed in The Debt Service fund this is an image of the tax rate hearing notice that was posted throughout the community and the requirement is that the notice is posted seven days prior to the actual tax rate hearing these are the primary factors in calculating tax rates and for the operating Levy and also The Debt Service Lobby it's a calculation of the assessed valuation data the Consumer Price Index and also the Hancock Amendment
003with regard to operating for Debt Service there is no cap on that it is said that the rate required to meet the principal interest and fee obligations assess values are relative to the market value of different types of property and this slide provides you with those percentages residential real estate is 19 agricultural real estate 12 commercial 32 percent and personal property is 33.33 and that is according to Missouri statute and its applicable Statewide RSS valuations by primary category are noted on this slide and you can see that real estate the value there has changed by 21.09 personal property 0.32 for a total percentage change of 17.43 again this information is provided by Saint Charles County and utilize that in the tax rate calculation important to note that reassessments do occur in odd years this is
004a reassessment year for our current fiscal year new construction is not capped by the Hancock Amendment and we are allowed to increase Revenue based on all of those values the new construction amount this year is 28 million and that is an increase of 8.7 million and the other great thing about that is that it is an indicator of Economic Development within the community so we are experiencing an increase in Revenue based on that and the percentage change is 44.67 percent the assessed valuation by subcategories is provided for you you can see that residential encompasses 74 of our overall assessed valuation data commercial is 10.26 percent agricultural is typically very small so it's not unusual in this community that it's 0.14 personal property just over 15 percent and then railroad utility is 0.4 percent the grand
005total is 3.81 548 160. this shows you the assessed valuation history in our district or the past 15 years and or including this year would be 15 and note that the the span of 14 years from 09 to 23 showed an average increase of 2.22 percent the 15-year ad of including this tax year increases that to 3.23 so you note that there are a variety of changes over time you'll also see a pattern relative to that reassessment odd year versus the non-reassessment even years the Hancock Amendment we covered this during the budget present reason so we are limited on our Revenue growth or reassessment values of up to the the lowest of the actual assessed growth which again is 17.43 percent for this year the CPI consumer price index for this year is 6.5 percent
006or capped at five percent in total so that's a Missouri statute and we are capped at five percent this year all these numbers are in aggregate so as we think of at the application of that to individual Parcels or individual homeowners that will vary depending on their their own property this shows you the Consumer Price Index changes over the year you can see it wasn't that long ago that we were at a 0.7 increase or 0.8 percent increase last year it was seven percent this year it's 6.5 percent so no different than other factors within our economy we are seeing some tremendous swings in this regard the proposed tax rate or tax year 2023 is a total operating Levy of 3.4165 and a Debt Service Levy of 0.6713 which is the same Levy that we
007have had consistently the past few years we are including a rollback of The Debt Service Levy the actual state auditor office calculated forms calls for 72.64 cents and it's being rolled back to 67.13 cents and that will be sufficient to meet our needs the information that is presented here shows the percentage change from a year ago to this point in time excuse me the um the the tax levy itself will actually roll back 37.27 cents for this fiscal year the proposed tax rates we were required in April to provide an estimate of what our tax levy might be that is a requirement of the county and they in advance provide us with data on what the likelihood of the assessed valuation increase would be you can see we did have a slight adjustment from the
0084.0835 that we provided them down to to up that's actually up to the 4.0878 this slide shows you the before and after Board of Equalization changes so each year patrons have an opportunity to request an evaluation of their tax liability notice you can see that we had adjustments downward for residential and Commercial Real Estate and an increase in personal property [Music] slide shows you the Saint Charles County school districts and how we compare to them you can see Francis Howell is there in blue and in each situation each district is reducing their Levy due to assessed valuation growth experience this slide shows you a comparative of all districts in that pool and this is for total tax rates you'll note Francis Hal is in the yellow at the bottom and carries the lowest tax rate
009in the total tax rate space as well as the operating tax rate we are the lowest and The Debt Service tax rate we're the lowest by just a few cents in that situation this is an excerpt from the tax rate hearing notice we're required to show how much revenue we will increase relative to our reassessment versus the new construction and improvements and so you can see that total there this assumes a 100 collection rate for us and uh for budgeting purposes we had originally included a 98 collection rate and we're making a recommendation based on a re-analysis of historical data to a 99 collection rate I should also note auditor office did provide a recalculation they do that every year relative to changes in Railroad and utility and provide those notifications to school districts so
010for a future budget amendment we will be making a recommendation to increase revenue from our original adjustment up by 1.508 million and then based on changing from a 98 to a 99 collection we would increase the budget 1.560 million for a total change of three million sixty eight thousand nine seventy five that will come to you within either October or November this slide shows you the impact to a homeowner and you can see what we've done is included the tax rate from last year made an assumption of a market value of one hundred thousand dollars so again you take the market value times 19 is the assessed value rate that provides you 19 000 divide that by one hundred dollars and then multiply it by the tax levy of 4.4605 for last year for this
011year we applied the 21.09 percent increase made an assumption that a person's 100 000 home would increase and then applied the new tax rate to show that the net change for on an annual basis would be 92.99 this slide reminds us that there is an opportunity for people to make claims certain senior citizens and those with 100 disabilities can make claim for a Missouri tax credit uh refund and that link is included in the presentation that is posted publicly this slide provides information regarding the new Senate Bill 190 and the implications for the district I do have this slide also included within the financial report I'll go into detail on that during that presentation that concludes the tax information if you have any questions I would be happy to answer those ordering questions before we
012get started I'd like to ask everyone that we observe a moment of silence for Eli Turner also known as Elite Ritz a halbeck student and Junior Spartan football player who passed away this month a moments of Silence [Music] I like to open this meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] 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 it like a motion to approve the agenda for September 21st 2023 as percentages push Carter your Ponder all those in favor say aye aye aye Jose no no there's something told that I wasn't aware of I said it Miss Jules [Music] thank you president Bertrand tonight we are recognizing a young artist whose flag design was selected to fly in front
013of her school all year long and here to tell you more about our guest and this fun School tradition is Mr Kevin armor at Daniel Boone Elementary [Music] thank you very much Board of Education uh Dr rumpus executive cabinet uh and thank you for this opportunity to recognize what our outstanding students and artists Edina Boone Miss Rose Barrett along with uh with her and me this evening we have Mr Tom Sherman who's our art teacher and Kathy for burkmos administrative intern so about 14 years ago Mr Sherman started a fun Tradition at Daniel Boone where all of our fourth grade students were allowed the opportunity to design a school flag that would fly during their fifth grade year so Rose's design last year which was voted on by all of our students and faculty was
014selected as the the flag that would fly during her uh her fifth grade year so we started off the year but the big school assembly and Rose and Mr Sherman raced her flag to symbolize at the start of our school year and Rose will be given the flag back at the end of her fifth grade year when we select another one so thank you very much and we brought Rose's flag to kind of show you here this evening as well so thank you thank you [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] that is really cool all right next up is our student board representative the purpose of the student board rev program is to honor and recognize talented students Elevate student voice and provide growth opportunities in the areas of public speaking leadership and governance students are selected
015for 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 the public that is focused on their school or the district and with that I'll invite principal Jeff gruner from Bryan Middle School up to the podium to introduce our rep for this evening foreign cabinet it's my honor to introduce you to the deceiving student board representative Cecilia Culbertson Cecilia is an 8th grader student at Bryan Middle School she's a member of student council National Junior Honor Society she is enrolled in our higher level classes and science as her favorite subject outside of school Cecilia plays volleyball and basketball her favorite book is animal farm and her favorite thing about school is learning new things especially if it's related to
016science and math her teachers of all described Cecilia as smart hard-working helpful but especially kind I would like to quote one of her teachers had said CeCe just oozes confidence positivity and kindness she comes to class every single day with a smile that just lights up a room cece is also a natural leader and a role model with her kind and caring demeanor and I always see her peers drawn to her because of that I honestly cannot think of anyone better to represent our four core ethical values of respect responsibility honesty and kindness she is a true patriot at heart please help me welcome Cecilia Culbertson [Applause] and today I'm here representing Bryan Middle School thank you all for allowing me this unique experience being able to sit in on this board meeting is a
017privilege and such an honor I'm extremely grateful for all the teachers and students especially Mindy Resnick and Carmen Weir who have supported me these three years at Ryan being part of such an accepting and diverse school is a rarity not many get to experience this is a wonderful opportunity that I will never forget thank you [Applause] thank you [Music] thank you are you boarding for our final recognition this evening we want to shine a light on an amazing and adventurous educator who recently returned from a research trip to the Arctic Miss Rhonda O'Keefe a geography teacher at Brian middle will be the first in a series of what we're calling spotlights this year so you'll have a chance to hear directly from her in just a moment but I'm going to invite Mr Bruner back
018to the podium to brag on Miss O'Keefe just a minute thank you it's a big night for Bryan Middle School here I have the honor introduced to you Rhonda O'Keefe 6th grade geography teacher at Bryan Middle School Mrs O'Keefe embarked on an arctic adventure this past August for three weeks this professional development opportunity was through the Grosvenor Fellowship in partnership with Glenn ballad Expeditions and National Geographic this year the program selected participants from 24 States one U.S territory and five Canadian provinces Chief's here tonight to tell you all about it I'd like to welcome Rondo O'Keefe [Applause] you must have snuck a sneak peek at my few first few slides he uh stole a few of my lines there Mr gerner good evening I'm Rhonda O'Keefe I'm a sixth grade geography teacher at Bryant middle
019school this is my 29th year in education with 22 years in the Francis Hall School District my Edge of the Arctic 19 day expedition was made possible as we said through a generous and fully funded partnership between lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic there was no cost to the Francis Hall School District I met qualifications and applied for the fellowship on my own I am still processing all of the photos the interviews the videos and the learning documentation that I did and working to find ways to incorporate it over the next two years into our classroom and through our school and our district I will share a little bit with you this evening about what is planned from hundreds of qualified applicants from United States Canada and Puerto Rico I was one of 50 Educators chosen
020for this incredible professional development the Expeditions took each of us in pairs to different locations around the globe Iceland Greenland svalbard Bali Antarctica the Galapagos Islands and I am very excited to be networking and collaborating with these amazing Educators for the next two years what are the chances that there would be two National Geographic Lynn blad teachers on this Expedition with 50 chosen Katie Lotus teaches locally at St Joseph Academy she is currently right now on a ship in Japan doing her Expedition but when she returns because we live so close to each other we're going to do a lot of collaboration together for both of our classrooms my partner for the trip for the edge of the Arctic was Jill mcnabny she is a high school biology teacher from Michigan we first met each
021other in April during a four-day pre-expedition workshop at National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C this was our home and our classroom for 19 days as we explored Iceland and Greenland in the Arctic aboard this ship we were pleasured to have 14 naturalists with very degrees and expertise in geology history glaciology marine biology and botany each day presented new adventures that included wet zodiac Landings from our ship into communities and into open Wilderness areas throughout Greenland and Iceland so that we could discuss and explore the balances between the human world and the natural world we explore geology history ecological habitats and their inhabitants as well as human culture to prepare for the Expedition my sixth graders from last year helped me to research my itinerary and they created challenges for me to complete I displayed the
022evidence of the completion of my challenges in the hall just last week some of the challenges were to eat traditional foods find specific landmarks or to engage in certain activities even a Polar Plunge geography students use many of the same tools skills and vocabulary as Maria the ship's navigation officer she provided a lot of advice for students who within the field of geography when I sat and was able to interview her being able to show my students real world examples of geographic application is powerful one of my goals with this expedition was to go beyond just having my students talk and hear about my experience I want them to experience the role of being Explorer in the Arctic and Beyond and develop those curious attitudes on their own as well I created a Google Earth
023Tour for my students to use next week that will take them along my Expedition route with a few photos and brief descriptions along each stop with this new geospatial technology students can drag themselves into the map and visit and view the areas firsthand with 360 degree views in each of the locations that I explored so that they can go search and find some of their own Explorations I'm really excited to see what they discover about the Arctic I was privileged during my time on the ship to hear firsthand from Thora ornest order she is a documentary documentary film producer and former presidential candidate in Iceland and from aleka Hammond the first female prime minister of Greenland they were invited guest speakers who traveled with us during the 19 days one particular current event Topic in
024Greenland that we will be debating this year is the Arctic policy it is currently in the works and it is working to determine who owns the rights to the North Pole during my Expedition I also documented grocery store shelves in small communities of Greenland to highlight the issue of food insecurity and the issues of supply and demand in one grocery store ahead of wilted iceberg lettuce was eight dollars my students will be examining positive and negative of different approaches to government and to economic trade in many countries around the world this year the total population of Greenland is about 56 000. in comparison the population of Saint Peters is about 58 000. students will be examining the role that geography plays in population density and the culture of its people in a country as well
025as examining how to preserve and or adapt one's way of life to the changing world with so many outside influences glaciers were a major Focus for this Expedition and the reality of climate change was evident livelihood in the Arctic is specifically tied to the ice and the waters surrounding the land and those areas are experiencing significant change Global issues happening far away can be impacted by and can affect our local area and students will be examining those cause effect relationships since 2019 I have been an active member in the National Geographic education Community our District's geography curriculum was last reviewed in 2016 so seeking new and relevant resources is necessary in an ever-evolving and current event content like geography the Explorer's mindset is the foundation of my new learning it works in partnership with the
026district curriculum standards while empowering students to take action in their communities based on Geographic principles all while advancing our practices and approaches to help students develop 21st century skills students will be examining current event Global issues through seven Geographic perspectives we look for ways to view a global issue within our own local area there are many possible connections from the focused Project based on my Expedition but students will have a voice in what we choose one possible and potential example is something like this we would not want to look at the solving the problem of fishing gear pollution in Greenland we can study it we can look at it but our goal is not to solve the problem in Greenland our goal would be for my students to take that issue that's happening in a
027global situation and look for local Connections in our area what's happening near our Missouri River what's happening near our local lakes what kind of human pollution do we have in our area that we could impact because we can't make a difference in Greenland but we can make a difference here and find the parallels between those two National Geographic's Geo inquiry model will be used as our guide to as the project the students choose to develop they will be creating a question together as a class to ask collection of the data will not just be from primary print sources they will be seeking to set up interviews with local experts and Community leaders in our area on the topics during the visualize phase they will be taking all of the data that they collect and creating
028their own charts and maps and graphs using geospatial and digital Technologies Geographic education has the power to be more for our students for our community and for our world if we let students explore the possibilities beyond our classroom walls if you are interested in knowing more about the Grosvenor program the Expedition or the resources that I will be creating and adding to my Google site over the next two years I have brought some stickers for everyone here too and I feel bad that I'm not facing you well I'm sorry that's not my personality I will sit them on the table over here feel free to take them but it will lead you to photos and videos and resources that I will be continuing to build over the next two years I thank you for your
029time this evening if you have any questions please let me know thank you very much thank you [Music] I didn't have a question but I did have a comment I want to be in that lady's class I do want to be in her class that sounds absolutely amazing and for the record CeCe leaned over and told me she was in her class and it was just as amazing as I thought it would be so there you go speaking of CeCe welcome CeCe to the Board of Education meeting I'm Mrs stiglitz on behalf of the school board we'd like to welcome you to join us tonight you have the full agenda in front of you you can do everything but vote so please make sure if you have any questions you can ask me personally or
030ask out loud we'd love to hear from you welcome to the board of Welcome to our board meeting thank you thank you he's definitely welcome um as we move forward we're going to move into Patron comments but before we get to the kind of broad General Patriot comments I want to ask anybody who has any commentary on our texts rate hearing if they would like to come up and speak to that topic specifically singing that nobody uh we will move into the patreon comments during Patron comments residents of the district and staff members are invited to address the board of education issues related to the school district speakers are called forward in the order of sign up and each speaker has three minutes to make their remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed
031at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else's documented the board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and perspective I would like to remind everyone that we expect the speakers will remain civil and respectful with the given remarks if anyone feels to comply with board policies regulations and rules we reserve the right to cut those three men short for your convenience our three-minute clock is ready and we welcome Grant Killian [Music] good evening board Administration patrons here and at home Grant Killian senior class president at Francis Hall North and I agree I think that would be a pretty cool class to be in I mean that looks neat uh congratulations CeCe I got to sit there once
032it was a great experience make sure you make the most of it so I want to share a few comments tonight on the approach proposed amendment to policy 0380 which is being first read tonight as class presidents you can probably imagine I get a lot of requests and ideas from students I represent while I enjoy hearing every one of them the fact is that most of them are either unrealistic or are really just a building level concern however not too long ago a student brought a concern to me that seemed to not only be of significance but of district-wide concern this student shared that she had been approached individually by a teacher and asked to speak at a board meeting about an extremely controversial subject she described that this created a situation which was continuously
033uncomfortable for her as she did not want to and did not end up speaking at that meeting I approached vice president cook about a policy-based solution to this issue and I appreciate his work working with me on this and helping students on this matter I want to be clear even while I have personally not given a public comments and I'm besides coming to every board meeting for about two years I welcome every instance in which a student engages the district with any sort of good faith idea but here's the thing if a student is asked by a teacher to do some sort of political activity or legislative advocacy as the amendment reads it places the student in a really bad position we are in a time of extreme political tension even at local school board
034meetings I can think of 101 reasons why a student wouldn't want to come speak at a board meeting right now or do any other activity that's concerned in the policy especially even if they agree with the teacher they might still be uncomfortable putting their views out there even more when it's coming from a teacher well every student knows that when a teacher asks you to do something it's usually not optional even if the teacher poses as a suggestion it could create the appearance of that student that there could be undesired consequences if they don't comply NSA to do comply let's say they do come speak at the meeting then do the board are getting an augmented artificial view of what's actually important to students because it wasn't on their own initiative so I hope you
035take these things into account over the next month as you're looking at the policy and preparation for the second reading and I didn't plan to speak about this but there was the directory information that was requested and I know I'm sure a lot of people are going to talk about it what I wonder the most is I understand wanting to send mailers out I think that's a totally legitimate purpose I just understand why all the other information was involved if they just wanted addresses to send mailers to fair game but why do you want to know where each student lives that's what I don't get thank you appreciate it up next we welcome Stephen Blair [Music] so let all the board members there is a lot of drama at school boards I think one of
036the reasons is because we skip a step whenever it comes to having a conversation we skip the whole step where you try to define the terms so when we come together we say words like racism but we don't really agree on what racism even means um words like Equity get thrown around but we don't really understand what Equity means so we just argue about that word too the truth of it is that the seven board members here at the district are actually big supporters of equity uh the district actually supports Equity a lot of different ways one of them there's a special day of school for sixth graders called transition day so they have a unique experience for them because their unique population the district has Equity regarding Paris not every kid gets a para
03710 goats for parents as teachers IEPs free and reduced lunches special needs hearing disabilities Vision impairments the district has a wonderful Veterans Day celebration last year it was really great I hope it happens again this year but we don't do the same thing for dentists right because veterans have a unique experience and we want to honor that and because dentists are mean they say the words like pressure and they really mean pain let's give each student the education they need even if it's different than the person right next to them and if there's any student or group of students who are being blocked from that kind of education then the reason behind it is because people are playing politics I believe we have a lot to learn and that's why curiosity and humility need to
038be values at the school district from the top down leadership creates culture and we can't learn anything without curiosity and humility curiosity can take us to questions like why are teachers leaving this district is it just for financial reasons what impact of any does the recent anti-teacher National talking points and the micromanaging have on them and on our ability to retain and attract other teachers or for students do all students feel supported regardless of their post-high school future are any kids presents or Futures being damaged by bullying curiosity and humility are good we expect that from our students we expect that from our leaders here curiosity and humility help us in this meeting and it can also help us lead a huge district with different experiences leadership creates culture I'm going to sit down and
039use the rest of my three minutes to listen to the other speakers thank you up next we welcome Jamie Martin [Music] in July many of us were accused of virtue signaling as we stood here pleading with the board not to Sunset the resolution against racism and discrimination but we were dismissed we were dismissed as folks who couldn't discern between policy and resolve expression or regulation and I was reminded I was reminded that I didn't used to stand in places like this or spend my time in this way but that was before now most of us have experienced a moment that changed us That Shook the reality our reality so completely that everything that came after looked new and different from before maybe you fell in love or became a parent or experienced a tragic lost
040my apologies on my son's 8th birthday our dear young friend was shot and killed in the light of day in a Suburban Austin neighborhood he was 17. he was black and he was unarmed David was also kind and smart and good but he was scared and he officed her he was facing was scared and our David lost his life when I tell this story I always say that the officer was good that he had a good record and a good reputation and he was even black now the city fired this officer they said he hadn't followed a policy they should have practiced the letter of the law but I knew and his fellow officers knew that he did what he had been trained to do in countless training exercises and conversations because policy rarely trumps
041culture and policy isn't what holds when fear and pride hang in the balance culture as they say eats policy for breakfast now Francis Howell has some work to do on culture we all do when folks stood here and they told you what the resolution meant to them they weren't signaling they were trusting you with their moments and it isn't too late to earn that trust you can resolve to make a safer culture whereas our mission says we Empower students for the future before the October deadline for the sunset arrives I urge you to vote to let it stand night you have another opportunity to shake culture please vote Yes to reimburse me for the data I'll use in research and in recommendations for a more Equitable Francis Howell thank you [Applause] up next we welcome
042Grace and justice [Music] good evening born my name is Grayson Justice my pronouns is he and she and if you have a problem with that you can say it to my face if not that's your problem I'm also a alumni of Prince Hall Central class of 2013. and next month is October a time where when winter gets colder and we start to start summer and spring close to fall in Autumn or um and winter clothes and decorate your home with fall or Halloween decor October is also lgbtqia History Month where we learn about the men and women who made a difference in America in American history from Marcia P Johnson Harvey Milk and many more it would be great if we learned these amazing people in history classes in front cell that'd be great one
043October is also a very important month because this is what you guys voted for on July's meeting that that expire is the resolution of response um of racism and discrimination it's a shame that a board that hasn't come up with a rewrite or a change or change their minds about the resolution Francis hell has a bad history with racial harassment before the resolution was introduced back in 2020. time is running out Lord either bring this resolution back or rewrite the resolution and you guys have a choice you have two roads ahead of you you can have go to the road of basically not doing what you're supposed to do and bring racism and discrimination back to our schools and let it go or you can go to this road where you can move on and
044have this resolution back and racism and discrimination shouldn't be in either School whether or race your gender your sexual orientation or religion and this is really important this is a really important decision for you guys and if you can't count up with a a thing to have this resolution in the schools or in schools I don't it's just it's totally up to you guys it's really totally up to you guys love is love and Trump hate uh hate Trump's love I mean yeah love trunks hates but yeah thank you what's up next we welcome Kelly bird [Music] being a teenager is hard with a raging hormones puberty growth spurts and constant looking for acceptance most teenage boys and girls feel like they're at war with themselves and and their peer peers all at the same
045time compile all this with mixed messages CRT social justice social media news and peer pressure it's rough when indoctrination is being held high in our public education and the influence of sex and gender identity know a biological man cannot be a biological woman and the inverse it it's all about feelings over facts my son has experienced complete and total disregard for his safety to urinate in a restroom and in the minor and in the restroom in Francis Hall Central why is it that the minority is ruling the majority based on what real law quite frankly I'm just so glad I was raised in the 90s I'm a single mother of four terrific Boys in this very District I have a traumatic past filled with things that would make your head spin this is why I
046must point out the dangers of the traumatic impact on the students in English too at Francis Hall Central did you know trauma can be experienced just by experiencing Through The Eyes of someone else did you also know that two English teachers at Francis Health Central are allowing illicit books filled with domestic violence profanity pornography sex mental abuse sexism heroin use alcoholism child abuse bullying molestation insect incest kissing sexual exploitation pregnancy protra Choice dances neglect rape abandonment theft infidelity and murder racial profiling political discrimination and racist ideologies is demoralization of our youth the end game here what motives does this District have against the nuclear family is an unbroken home the norm even more alarming is the fact that these books are becoming are being bruised as overcoming obstacles book club I'm sure the district can
047choose better books on overcoming obstacles for the nine books have been banned across the United States I am going to hold both this District the teachers the principal and the Librarians responsible I would like to put you on notice I will be in contact with the attorney general what you are doing is illegal by section Missouri standard 573.030 let me read some of the crap that you're allowing in this District thank you your time is up okay I will be sending you a um detail of all the stuff that's going on your time is up up next we welcome Chris Brooks [Music] right ladies and gentlemen I stand here tonight as a parent deeply committed to the well-being of our children and the sanctity of their educational journey through our public education system student privacy
048is a fundamental right that we as a community need to be actively engaged in safeguarding our school district is here to nurture our children's minds and Foster their growth and environment to trust and respect but recent events have left me deeply troubled in the how our district is approaching this vital issue over the past week we saw the revelation of two separate requests for student information one by a democrat-led political action committee and the other by the political director of fhea the teachers union while the pack claimed to only be interested in finding parents for voter registration purposes fpga has released a Facebook statement indicating their intent to use this data in the upcoming election for political purposes regardless of whether or not this is legal it is not right or ethical to use student
049data in this manner this blatant disregard for student privacy is not only alarming but unacceptable when we send our children to school we do so with the expectation that their information will be kept in confidence and used only for education purposes so tonight I call on the St Charles County families for public schools Pac and fhea's Leadership to do the right thing delete any student data you've collected and pledge not to use student data for clinical purposes this is not a partisan issue it's a matter of Ethics responsibility and whether or not you have genuine concern for our children's Future Let's be clear if either of these groups uses student data for their political purposes it will be a reminder to all of us that their interest is only in politics and power and not
050the well-being of our students I also call upon any other political action committees active in this District to repudiate this data collection and commit that they will not use such student data for political gain however this issue extends Beyond one incident it speaks to a broader problem considering the policies related to our student data right now if a parent wants to restrict some of this data from being shared they have to choose all or nothing either allow anyone who asks to have access to it or you don't get your picture in the yearbook can't get your damn read an awards ceremony can't get an article about your kids game-winning tackles current opt-out policies are far too binary to forcing parents to choose between bad options we need a nuanced approach and it's time to revise
051these policies federal law does not prevent us from doing this you can develop a better system if you desire to as parents we should have the right to choose what data shared and for what purposes it shouldn't be all or nothing we can strike a balance between the necessary data sharing for educational purposes and protecting our children's data from those who had exploit it let's work together to create that balance in conclusion the protection of our student privacy is not a matter of right or left but right and wrong I implore the political groups to do The Honorable thing and delete me student data you collected show that you care more about our children when you care about political power and let us as a community demand a revision of District data sharing policies we
052must be our children's voice thank you [Applause] next we welcome Chris Hyman [Music] long time no see friends bathrooms resolutions Sunshine requests and policy changes oh my my name is Chris Hyman my oldest graduated from North in 2010 and my youngest is a junior there now one has multiple graduate degrees the other has IVs reaching out and I attribute that to the foundation they got here at Francis Howell pulled my transgender child out of the district between fifth and sixth grade who knew six years later it would turn out to be one of the safest choices I've made for him Missouri 49th in school funding Missouri 47th in teacher pay Missouri is third for the number of Books banned in schools Francis Howell flushed a hundred and eight thousand dollars of taxpayer money down the
053toilet on math curriculum our teachers worked hard on because a board member didn't like it now let's talk politics and activism something many of you had repeatedly advised you don't engage in and in fact use it against us who do busy weekend Mr cook and Mr Bertrand and others attended our education rally Saturday activism I'm aware of who and from which district attended the GOP Freedom Fest Friday night in defiance this weekend and I won't even get into flamethrowers now but that's very political because the sitting Senator made it publicly known school board members attended and thanked you for doing so this man behind me before me said let's not make it political now our legislators legislature did win a battle this year against our trans kids by taking away their health care and Senator
054schroer the same Senator touting freedom flamethrowers was a big leader in this year's legislation and subsequently wrote a letter to all of the Saint Charles County school board members suggesting policy be made against coed which is the new word for transgender bathrooms and locker rooms for the record transgender bathrooms and locker rooms were legislated in 2016 and overturned in 2017. Mr Bertrand posted that senator's letter on his official Facebook page political Sunshine requests have been going on for years and are completely legal if you had waited until Monday to find out what was actually sent instead of creating chaos and fear we could focus on the above things that I said the same people whining about sunshine requests do it all the time in fact they did it to two of my kids last year
055transparent group space and the walkout led by my student at Francis Hall North after he evaldi irony is dead the resolution has a group been set up no the translation up next welcome King dantars good evening good evening superintendent over the last several weeks I attended not one not two not three but six events with transgender issues were discussed one of these events had over a thousand people attending Patriots voice their anger their disgust their disbelief that biological boys are able to use girls bathrooms and locker rooms and that biological goals I'm able to use boys bathrooms here in Francis Howell I had a teacher and mother in The District telling me last week that one of our one of our high school principals along with her assistant told her that it was illegal to
056tell a student which bathroom to use but that her son her son was invited to use agenda neutral bathroom outside of the principal's office how was it that a very small percentage of students can dictate this we have a situation in Francis Howell School District where the tail is wagging the dog incredibly innocentate confirmation hearings the latest Justice dominated to the Supreme Court could not State what a woman is and prefer to call a mother a birthing person but we really had a point in this country where Science History religion and common sense being dismissed we spoke to our state's attorney general Andrew Bailey on how this issue can be addressed he suggested the following until transgender issues a fully adjudicated quartz of law have your school board members write and enact policies stating bathrooms
057and locker rooms may only be used by individuals according to the sex that is stated on their birth certificate that is biological boys must use biological Muslims boys bathrooms and locker rooms and biological girls the same transgender individuals are welcome to use designated gender-neutral bathrooms such a policy would make accommodations for all this is exactly the policy that is enacted by the areas YMCAs Senator Nick schmoore posted on Facebook this past Friday an open letter to the country to the County's Board of Education superintendents and to all it states the undersigned that is 12 elected officials including virtually every state senator every state representative in the Saint Charles County respectfully urge the school districts in our County to take immediate action that these type of facilities will not be forced on students in Saint Charles
058County I joined with our electorate officials in calling upon this school board in cooperation with the superintendent to enact such a policy immediately it's a win-win-win situation thank you up next we welcome Marissa Holden [Music] hello bored I am Marissa polzine and oh lots of our community showed up tonight um walking in I knew there was going to be some tension I'm not a fan of conflict I'm a good time Gat like I just want to have a good time so I've got some bubble guts I'm sure I'm gonna go off on a tangent like I do but I've also changed you know I've listened to what some people were saying here and you know I feel like there's a lot of things that were brought up tonight that a lot of people in this
059community get behind I personally would love to be able to limit the opt-in opt out option I'm sure we could all sit down and have conversations around that um I think that that's something that this board can do in the community can do together um but you know I came here because I am frustrated um my I'm here to kind of talk about my kids I came to talk about how my high schooler has two classes with no permanent teachers one being an honors history course um my fourth grader has about six to eight more kids in his classes the past two years than my older two did when they he was in third and fourth grade um to talk about how gifted intervention and sped programs I've watched over the past 10 years we've
060been in the district to slowly less and less and less um those are things I think we could all come together and and discuss how we how we work together to do these things those are the issues I want to talk about bathrooms I'll tell you what my kids come home daily complaining about vape and weed walls in the bathrooms when they walk in in Middleton High School that's what my kids are and It's upsetting to them that's the only thing I've heard from my kids and their friends kids about bathrooms I would like that to be an issue that that would be taken care of if we're going to talk about bathrooms right um another reason I'm here tonight is I care about my community like no matter how different we are we are
061a community we live together we're neighbors and I want what's best for your kids I want what's best for my kids but I want what's best for all kids and that may be different for each person you know and sometimes I hear this whole Back to Basics thing and I wonder what what Basics are we talking about like are we talking about like back with my daughter who's dyslexic they would have put her in bed classes and not mainstream classes I mean she still can't read on reading level and she's got a 3.98 and was just inducted into the National Junior Honor Society last week like I'm glad things have changed so that we know how to better support all the students right so that's what we should all be talking about that's what I
062mean I know people are mad about the bus situation I know that's not your fault but like we should be able to come together and have these real conversations about real issues um it's a it's a shame that there's like I feel like we're all trying to win sometimes there's this win mentality yeah we're gonna win we're but who loses our kids in our community I don't want to fight with people I don't like it I don't like walking in here and wanting to vomit I want to laugh and have a good time and talk about real issues thank you your time is up next we welcome Alexander Collins foreign I'm Alexander Collins I'm a senior at Francis Hall High School and I have here a copy of Nick shower's letter open letter to the
063school boards I know many transgender students at hell I run our genders and sexualities Alliance so I have connections to almost every lgbtq student at Howell and I know many of them who identify as male but are biologically female who you would not ever let in a bathroom with your daughters because they look just as masculine as you do Mr Bertrand um Senator Nick strower also who called us friends groups and I disagree with that I think that the lgbtq rights movement has been a massive movement since the 1960s and we deserve our place on in meetings such as this and we deserve not to have to fight to pee I don't want to sit up here and fight you for my ability to pee um why I do have a mild question with why
064are you so interested in miter genitalia because you would have no idea that many of the transgender students that I know are transgender um except that it's marked in the school system I believe that people should be able to use whatever bathroom that they identify with however I understand that there is a safety concern that many people break up I believe that's irrelevant because who you're scared of is not transgender women who you're scared of is not transgender men you're scared of cisgender men and cisgender women who are going into bathrooms that you do not agree with and insulted in your children I am not your enemy here I am just a student I've been in this District since I was 10. I moved here from Wentzville um my dad still teaches over there and
065they are about the same on bathrooms as we are over here but they also have not rescinded anti-racism policies recently and they aren't actively Banning as many books as we are I love Francis hell I truly do I'm incredibly involved at my school and I love the community I love the people I love the teachers but students deserve transgender students deserve to feel safe in their schools even if that means having separate gender-neutral bathrooms which our schools are not built to accommodate just that's all thank you up next we welcome fhea [Music] good evening everyone we are pleased to share that we had our first meeting between fhea executive officers in the district cabinet last week we appreciate having this time to work together to collaborate on questions and concerns so that we can provide
066an excellent learning conditions for our students and the best working conditions for our educators our mnea unicever director Lisa Blaha is currently providing training to our building representatives to ensure that they can support members with strong communication collaborative meetings and building principles with building principles and advocacy we look forward to hearing what progress director Ponder and the board have made toward answering the concerns of the community regarding the resolution in response to racism and discrimination fhea stands ready to help with this important work finally tonight the board will hear a proposed change in policy that will prohibit staff from sharing information photos on any non-district site without prior consent we'd like to share our concern that some of these changes could have negative impact on celebrations that with administrators coaches band directors and Club sponsors
067are they're able to share during District events as well as impacting Educators who want to share snapshots of learning from our classrooms has the board considered other unintended consequences with these changes impact apps like remind seesaw talking points and s'mores that's staff use to communicate with families many parents and patrons enjoy being able to get a first-hand glimpse into the life-changing work that is happening in this district and we hope the board will consider how far overreaching this policy could be up next we want the pizza [Music] good evening president Bertrand members of the board Dr rumpus cabinet and patrons the first month is down in the books and what a time to celebrate what we've been doing right we're a district with some of the best high schools ranking in the top 10 percent
068of Missouri we celebrated our I.T professionals this week and during the heat wave in August we celebrated our bus drivers October 2nd is custodial appreciating day so show the silent hero some love we recently had our Ninth Annual First Responders night we've been showing our appreciation to all the dedicated employees in our district but also within our communities we rolled out the one howl recently I can't wait for my shirt I ordered but it's an incredible culture to bring to life we're hosting our first senior citizen prom September 30th for our community we have our First Citizens in our schools class up and running we're being transparent we're doing a lot of great things and we just wanted to shine a light on that go to our Facebook page to just see all that's happening
069in our district it's amazing when you're all in this together United one howl with that being said we understand our CFO wants time to really get us financially prepared for spring negotiations we ask that you consider coming back to the table not for wage related items but for some items that can really help your support staff get the rest they need this winter break a lot of departments are still running short staffed but doing the absolute best they can for the kids in the district just something to consider sometimes the small things mean a whole lot we hope everyone has a great upcoming fall break and of rest and recoup and get ready for the busyness of the winter season thank you for like motion approved the consent agenda for September 21st 2023 as presented
070under our vice president cook all those in favor say aye aye I was opposed to say no I just have it or like a motion improve the travel request number five ascd Leadership Summit as presented so moved biglage second harming discussion board appreciate you pulling this one um similar to other conferences in the past this one just has some themes that I don't think are the are the best for our district here so I'll be voting no on this one other discussion all those in favor say aye I I was supposed to say no no we did in my real call yes director oh director Harmon no director pushkar no question for Trend vice president cook no director Ponder aye director stiglitz aye the split the eyes are the nose heaven that's where I like
071a motion to improve the September 2023 monthly financial report as presented [Music] Miss Henry thank you very much so I very much appreciate this opportunity to provide you a peek behind the curtain on the work that is taking place as we analyze the performance of the FY 23 budget compared to the actual experience this evening I've included within the presentation a budget calendar and I'd like to spend some time reviewing that with you and then share at the end some Financial impact that may be pretty significant for our district excuse me so this represents a tentative budget development calendar and as you know we are going through our routine of reviewing the budget performance currently and we expect that to conclude in the coming months we also during this period of time I've indicated to
072you that we would bring to you any budget amendment recommendations as we know new information we just had the tax rate hearing and the adoption of the levy that impacts the current year we will be implementing a new capital planning process in the month of October for development of the 24-25 fiscal year budget and we will also be developing a process where we're reviewing all current year budgets with our directors especially beginning with those uh leaders and then conducting further those reviews with our principles but looking at the current year budget also with a a focus on what changes might be needed whether it be reductions or increases as we work on building the fy25 fiscal year budget so during this window of time also collective bargaining begins in the month of January and concludes
073by May for all of the negotiation process and then I would also appreciate the opportunity to provide you with a variety of presentations they would be very brief and just building your context of what the budget is comprised for the current year and what it might look like as we move forward those might begin in the month of February leading up to the culmination of the budget recommendation we would anticipate having preliminary information to share with you regarding the needs that have been identified in the district during the month of March and then mid-may we know that the legislative session ends so we have an understanding of primary impacts to public education we would work with the leadership team in prioritizing the recommendation to you that would be forthcoming in May and then likely would
074ask to set a special meeting of some kind for the comprehensive budget recommendation in early June then seeking your approval at the June 20 meeting as you know we need to have our budget approved prior to July 1 at the next fiscal year this slide just reminds us of our progress and the work that we're conducting it's similar to what we provided before after the review you of all the fy24 data is concluded after the 23 data rather we will provide a multi-year projection that will help us understand the impacts of any decisions you might make moving forward on a multi multiple years at least three years out so this analysis I've broken into two pieces one is affecting mostly General Revenue General operations and then there are some special revenues that are one-time sources
075or they're unique in the application of the fund balance that is carried for those I won't go over each slide this has been posted for your preview it's been posted publicly on board docs for anyone to access I'll pause on just a couple of large items and then continue moving forward if that's okay with you that'd be fine so each of the slides is constructed to either provide you information about that specific revenue or to provide you historical context of the data that we see within the general ledger system and in each slide we're indicating what the impact was as we look at the Gap from the revised budget of FY 23 the year that ended June 30 to how the actual landed and if we received additional funds we've covered that in the in
076the past meeting as well and so then at the bottom we are providing you with an fy24 we know that we need to affect our current year budget to adjust it based on what we've learned on this analysis so in this instance Delinquent Tax we know that following the tax rate hearing we need to take a look at how do we set our budget in the current year and I alluded to those impacts in the tax rate hearing presentation so again the change and then the forward impact I'll move forward to a larger one coming up so each of those are posted and let me pause on that one uh if I can figure out how to go backwards how do I go backwards could you back me up please it's not working I need
077PD on how to operate this go back again please and again so that yeah that prior period adjustment so the very next one comment that forward so this is unique we had a prior period adjustment normally we would budget nothing in this code and so what we need to do throughout the year is monitor that this evening the Missouri United school Insurance Council or music as we refer to that is presented for your consideration and we they do go back and do a retrospective review so it's a Consortium we pay based on all the data that they've accumulated but then they do basically some it's not profit sharing because it's a non-profit but but basically they refund back any overages so that 3226 nine is an anomaly and that's a specific example we also had
078a retirement correction based on some processing confusion in terms of what qualified and what didn't from a an FY 22 expenditure and that Revenue was received in FY 23. then moving forward this is the basic formula slide we've talked about the financial institutions tax and how we received a significant amount of of Revenue this past year we also received a correction that was provided by the department of Elementary and secondary education and that represented the two prior years FY 21 and fy22 so again we see significant fluctuations sometimes out of our control and out of our awareness and we always must be agile and I would say to you maintain an appropriate fund balanced and manage through that forward again to other section so again this is local to Federal to other districts providing so
079this is that section I've referenced it a special purpose and I'll highlight for you that these first few slides are relative to Food Service we had previously as you were aware covered waivers and so students weren't required to pay and then we've seen fluctuation in how we are now serving students and new revenues coming forward and so you can see that food sales to students how that line has changed significantly dropped down to just under 200 000 in FY 21 and then FY 22 is zero because of the waivers we're receiving more Federal support during that window of time then it spiked back up it when it spiked up in FY 23 it Rose even higher than our FY 19 values so again some significant fluctuations we commit to you to monitor this throughout the
080year so that we can keep you apprised of any recommended budget changes an important note at the very bottom of this slide and it's on each of the next Food Service lines Food Service balances while they're not contained within that restricted fund balance on the asbr that causes our fund balance percentage to be generated they are restricted in use so any balance that we carry within the Food Service fund must be allocated for supporting Food Service expenditures so very important to note we align to the Food Service balance that is maintained with the Department of Elementary and secondary education and that is part of our audit process as well so again there's school lunch and breakfast that's federally funded and then these next slides are relative to Esser and we all know that those were
081considered one-time funds and so we anticipate at the conclusion of this fiscal year we will no longer receive Sr Revenue so again one-time funds that we cannot rely upon for recurring costs this one is a unique one it's a grant that we received we are so proud of and thankful for our employees who had their eye on this opportunity that we might bring in more revenue for Francis House school district and they were able to do that our Revenue exceeded budget by one million four sixty nine four thirty two and the indicator for us is that it wasn't monitored and a budget amendment was not provided so again we will continually monitor any grants coming in and provide you a budget amendment recommendation for both expenditures and revenue as is necessary so much like the
082food service balance Student Activity balances are the same any Student Activity balance that is maintained within our operating fund balance is exclusive to the use of Student Activities so the revenue must be used for the purpose for which it was raised by students or contributed by students so it's not our money to use that's maintained in a separate fund again ideally we would have an offsetting expenditure and revenue budget so that they net to zero and have no impact on our budget and what we can see here is that FY 23 we did increase again the revenue budget increase again to 1 million nine forty five and we've also included for you the expenditure line so that you have context of those changes between the two you can see that our budget was 1.945 our
083actual Revenue was 2 million five forty one our expenditures that year were 2 million three ninety nine So based on that data I would recommend that we set our budget at 2.5 million and actually this adjustment takes us to a 2.2 but we may we may take a further look at that and determine the the proper place so this slide provides you our operating cash flow for fy23 and what it represents is the influx of Revenue and the outlay of expenditures on a month-to-month basis it also provides you with a running balance at the close of each month and so it's slightly colored you can see that on the line for November 2022 our running balance was just over six million dollars to provide you context on this business that we are running that supports
084educating students our payroll runs on an average during that year 16 million per month so while 6 million seems like a lot of money within the month with it's not when you consider the likelihood of bills coming up so had we not received the December Revenue so if you look in the revenue column you see three cells that are highlighted green December January and February those are our highest revenue months and that means that we had patrons paying their bills in early because likely they paid them in November for us to receive them in December the turnaround time ledge typically a month I'm not familiar with the situation here but we'll learn that and so so those revenues then spiked our our running balance up and we continue to spend that down you can see
085in June on the expense line that our greatest month of expenditures is in June and that's because we do pay those Balance of contract checks to our certificated employees and uh so that's very typical this cash flow looks very normal to most other districts this does tie to the asbr that has not yet been officially audited but has been accepted by the department of Elementary and secondary education that shows there that we ended with a fund balance percentage of 27.61 percent yeah this shows you a visual if you are a visual learner of the the line so again this is not a typical in and out process within public education and again that line graph would look very similar to other school districts as well so other Financial updates I referenced earlier Senate Bill 190
086and the property tax credits this information highlights the St Charles County ordinance that would allow for eligible seniors that are 62 years of age at January 1 of 2024 to apply for this or be considered for this tax credit and basically what this will do is it will freeze their taxes in tax year 2024. we um we have not officially worked on calculating what that might look like for us early information from staff at the County office indicated that we could potentially experience a six million dollar loss of Revenue meaning that their assessment would not grow so a lot of factors have to come into play and we can look at historical data to make those assumptions okay this next slide is some great news and that is I prepared for you information previously about
087the state adequacy Target and that is a primary factor in the uh the state basic formula calculation and so we do have information about how that will impact us as a reminder because of the change in msip six the districts that are identified as the high performing districts have changed the calculation and so basically they look at the total costs to educate a student in those districts and that's how they determine what that state adequacy amount should be to educate a student so the updated calculation this is a slide that was presented to the Missouri State Board of Education on September 12th and what you can see is that the adequacy target would increase in current year at 6375 per weighted average daily attendee our kids attending school it would grow to 6760 in fy25
088the um the way this must be handled is they roll in a 50 percent increase over two years and that's why you see then in fy26 it would grow to 7145 per water if we did simple math and said we had 16 000 water in the calculation with the 385 dollars per water increase that would result in approximately 6.16 million dollars for Francis House School District the challenge for us will be will this be funded and when I reference that mid-may moment when legislate the legislative session ends we will likely have an understanding of whether this will be fully funded or whether they will need to prorate that the other risk that we would have would be that they may fully fund the formula the state accuracy Target that they may decide to affect a
089reduction to the transportation formula which had been in place for many many years prior to that fully funding situation that occurred a couple of years ago so more to come on that but we'll continue to watch it and learn more more about that do you have any questions or are there clarifications I might provide you um you mentioned the um the variances with music and I forget the other one the other one was an Esser it was a response that occurred are we able to get any preliminary data if that were to happen again do you get anything in the interim that tells you this is going up this is going down we don't I I don't anticipate that we would be able to do that we could look at historical data on what that
090has meant for the district but it really is relative for the the music Insurance relative to utilization uh and in relative to the premiums the districts are assessed I I had one other question I wasn't real clear about I am hoping it seemed like there was an overlap of the time when we I guess do the negotiations and the time that we have a concrete idea of what we're fully funded for am I correct and that's a challenge and and I I also often highlight that tonight you set the tax levy yeah but we had to set the budget in June and this is just the normal rotation of public education and and how you approach the work so it does create challenges there are many districts that hold on negotiation decisions until closer to
091seeing that legislative process play out closer to the end of the session and we can you know look at more information that might be available to us but that's I mean in an unusual year we've had a couple unusual years here lately and yeah and I'd hate to see us and put in a bind with a very little balance at some point in the future anyway it's my personal questions thank you sure other questions board right all those in favor say aye all right I'll just first say no eyes have it we're like a motion improve the purchases over 7 500 as percent age under all those in favor say aye aye can we talk about some can I make a comment real quick yeah I just wanted to talk I know we got a
092couple emails and then going through some of these this first off I'll say I think 7 500 is too low for us to worry about personally I think it should be hired but there's a there's a couple in here and I know I talked to to miss to resembly about this earlier today um there's there's a couple I think that red flags I guess that it might some people in the community might have problems with when you when you're going for items for approval under the guise of a secure or emergency procedure when when really it's just for the RecPlex pool which you know you're going to do you know you're going to need next year and then the next one was Junior Achievement it was after the fact I think I know Miss Embry
093has been talking and you guys are working on a process to improve that so this doesn't happen again I just think you would pay to encourage you to keep working on that process so that these sort of items don't come up and then people in the public start thinking you guys are just covering yourself you're spending money and then you're coming back just to cover yourself so I would just encourage you if I went through on that process and getting that line and working out in the inefficiencies I happen to agree with director Harmon and I think there's there's other processes that we can work on as well to decrease the workload of the people that do the accounting and do such a great job at it but at some point I think we really
094have to be serious about running this more efficiently and that's no reflection on anybody sitting here now I'm just saying we can always do something better I know Carol and I have talked about some of the requirements and the way things are done and it just seems like you know having a business background there's an easier way and so I hope in the future we can move towards that right all those in favor say aye aye I was supposed to say no nice have it or like a motion to prove the tax rate as presented a second Ponder all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed say no I save it or like a motion to Grant the reimbursement of fees associated with Jamie Martin Sunshine Law request as presented book [Music] Dr
095Harmon all those in favor say aye those opposed they know no you guys have it more like a motion for the teamsters memorandum of understanding as presented Ponder [Music] other than Mr Merchant I just wanted to take a quick second to thank our Teamsters Representatives um we had a conflict in in something that was proposed to the board and they were very professional in bringing that to our attention and asked us to work with them we had some very great conversation worked very collaboratively together and we're happy to propose this change to you as something we worked together to do to continue to support our bus drivers and monitors to do this additional work so just a shout out to all of those on that team who did great work thank you thank you or
096in all those in favor say aye aye I was supposed to say no I have it next up we'll have our process update hungry so president Bertrand I'm going to introduce our first Speaker we're actually going to start tonight um each month we've been providing a process update which has generally been focused on the progress of France sell north tonight our update will be a bit bit more comprehensive we will start with our director of facilities Mr Saloon stetzer who's going to share an update on bond program progress throughout the district which will include the monthly update on Francis cell North and then miss Embry will come back up to the podium to provide a bond Finance update including where we're at with Bond proceeds that have been spent year to date our current encumberences
097and then the remaining bond funds that we have and she will conclude that by sharing our initial recommendations for the next Bond projects and engage in a discussion with you on next steps for the board thank you Dr Roberts good evening board and uh we'll work through this fairly quickly but we're going to highlight really the high level projects that have been completed throughout the district there's a few other miscellaneous smaller items that won't be captured within our presentation but we'll certainly Continue to update that as we move along so we've completed a total of 16 security vestibules you can see the school sites there and obviously the board as a board you've given us your approval to start working on the remaining five here and those are listed out there as well uh so
098these are Elementary sites so we've got a total of eight that were completed let's see the uh slides there another set of Elementary sites these are middle schools [Music] and these are three high schools other improvements across the district uh you know we I also want to make sure that I highlight our internal staff there was a lot of work that took a place of Becky David you can see the scope of work there and really about 95 percent of the scope of work here was really driven and managed by our managers along with their support staff in various areas utilizing third-party vendors to help complete that work but they did a great job for those of you that have had the opportunity to walk through Becky David I don't have context for what it
099looked like before but I can tell you how context for what it looks like now and the work is was outstanding again Becky David on the exterior obviously we did do some some Paving work there was a little bit of Milling in certain areas to kind of you know make sure that we get everything feathered in correctly so the first picture there is the playground and then we obviously made Paving improvements to the parking lot itself [Music] this is our Central High in Seger campus again a lot of Paving work the entire complex there from an asphalt standpoint received new uh new asphalt then obviously with the transition of central office to the 801 building obviously there's a lot of finish work here as well as relocating and bringing over Union High School Mr significant
100work that took place obviously on the second level to be able to accommodate instruction for for those students and then down to on the right hand side there uh with with the central office moving to 801 we were able to go back and uh do some some Renovations and improve the old central office to the new Transportation Center and you can see the work that's taking place there other improvements over at Hollenbeck Paving work new track also received Paving on the track as well moving into Francis Howell North a lot of work is taking place there we had our progress meeting today we're really trying to beat the weather um we're getting ready to complete site work for the most part there'll be a few things that obviously once you demo the existing Francis Howell
101will continue to to develop that area but where we currently sit right now we're getting ready to lay asphalt on the drive that goes all the way around the building um the home grandstand they were setting the structural beams on the piers that had already been set so you'll start seeing that structure get erected here in the next couple of weeks they will start Paving uh playing asphalt for the track again these are all weather driven scopes of work in order to uh to beat the change in weather coming up the goal is to have all of the exterior site work really completed by mid-november including Turf on the field as well as the track surface being completed as well up also on the North End we did have to relocate the construction trailers they're
102kind of on the northwest corner now that way we can develop that North site that work is moving along what we did end up discovering how to see where the old tennis courts were there was actually another layer of tennis courts underneath that um so there's asphalt and then post tension concrete report on top of that so that works a little bit slow as we're having to to do basically double the demo on the interior uh majority of the glazing is in as you can see here um we're working on finishing out the the painting of the main gym restrooms I've got all the resinous floors complete as well as the uh the wall tile and the business lab there are flooring ceiling grids installed we're still running a little bit of minor mechanical electrical
103component above ceiling but we should be wrapping up with that in the next couple of weeks General Science classroom we're setting tables and then we'll have the epoxy resin tops that'll get set here in the next week and really the same process there in the chemistry Labs we're setting case work and setting the epoxy resin counters so I'm going to turn this back over to our National officer and she'll give an update thank you okay so Our intention for your receiving this evening is the process for large-scale projects that was covered with you during the march board meeting by Dr rhombus and we'll talk about spending requirements and bond funds the financial update is embedded within this as well as the conversation about the contingency funds we do have commitments that aren't yet in covered
104so I'll cover those for you and Arbitrage earnings which is a unique conversation that districts are having these days and then followed by the project recommendations so this slide is familiar to you it was included in the report that Dr rompas gave in March regarding the proposition s review and embedded in that then would be this is our commitment to you that for large-scale projects moving forward we will stop and explore the new information with the board and seek approval to continue forward with any of those different phases of design this shows you a bond spinning requirements chart and so as a reminder the issuance was issued in two phases September of 2020 and then March of 2022 and the overall primary target is that we spend 85 percent of the bond proceeds within a
105three-year period there is a five-year fallback provision and all of this ultimately is reviewed by Bond Council to ensure that we have maintained an appropriate process for delivering on spending bond funds the idea behind it is that when you receive bond funds you don't leave it sitting in the bank and earning interest on it you go ahead and move forward with your projects that's usually not a problem in districts we have lots of needs this shows you a financial summary of all expenditures that are associated with proposition S as of August 31 and I've noted for you on the side there each year how much we spent in each fiscal year there is an encumbrance amount of 45 million 342 385. I am highlighting for you that some project expenditures have been coded to regular
106Capital so as the years progress some of those were provided to that fund for amount that is part of our regular operating structure and then also with regard to security vestibules there are a number of those that are included within that district-wide total amount they all got coded to the same thing because they were part of that same project and when the pay app showed up they were coded to one accounting code this shows you a summary of revenues and expenditures with the encumbrance is also resulting in the net amount so revenues include the earnings from Investments over 4.8 million dollars Bond premiums 34.757 million dollars and the actual sale of the bonds was 243 million 915 I'm 26 for a total revenue of 283 552 253 you can see the expenditures there where we
107have Bond fees of 1557 Bond projects of 151 million 690 to date and then that total of 153 248 we have encumbered the SM Wilson contract at a value still a 45 million 342 and that also then I've noted for you the contingency return of 3.2 million dollars that is anticipated that adjusts down the total expense teachers to 195 million 390. the net then becomes available funds for decision making of 88 161 so this slide further defines the contingency it shows you the original construction contingency of just over 7.3 million we have construction related costs and then some other costs that were incurred as some modifications were made when new information was known adjustments needed to be made and the culminating remaining construction contingency balance is just over 4.5 million dollars and the unused contingency
108distribution will include a split of 70 percent to the owner or the Francis House School District at 30 percent s in Wilson So based on that data the current estimate is a 3.2 million dollar contingency return so remember that 88 million 161 that's what is available for making decisions we also know that we need to provide Furniture fixtures and equipment for Francis Howell North and we've estimated that at three million dollars we have the remaining secure we have updated costs on that and so that has been adjusted to 938 thousand eight thirty seven leaving an unallocated remaining balance of 84 million two hundred twenty two thousand so with regard to Furniture fixtures and equipment you can imagine that's a big lift to make all of that happen and do it in a timely fashion so
109that we are ready for students when the building opens and inventory has been conducted we are recommending that we pursue the interlocal purchasing system most often referred to as tips and it's an Avenue that is available a Cooperative that's for school districts it's for municipalities it's for other governmental agencies and state agencies so that you can rely upon their pricing that they've received based on a vast volume of collective entities and the moving costs for your understanding just to move everything that's currently in the building would be 750 000 the cafeteria tables will be moved those have been identified as being in great shape this would be compliant if we were to use this Avenue with a Missouri statute and I'll support policy regarding bidding requirements and I want you to know also I've been
110answer about this we would definitely vet pieces of the pricing to ensure that it certainly does align with what we would expect to receive for particular products what it does is it eliminates the need for additional staff to manage this heavy lift and they would have just in time delivery where they also assemble it for us so that would be part of the package deal so we will be bringing forward a recommendation for your consideration during the October board meeting on this the potential estimated cost is 1.7 million dollars and and to speak with Dr Wilson we would likely pursue a similar path relative to technology needs in the building to equip the classrooms this line to help provide you some information relative to Arbitrage and so this is a again something that's very unusual
111I don't remember in my entire career that I had to deal with Arbitrage refunding of Interest earnings so the situation is that if a patron or entity purchases the bonds when the district sells the bonds and let's say that it's at two percent interest earnings for a specified period of time then the district receives the money but then we're able to make more interest and again this is about interest earnings values it's not about comparing interest rate to interest rate it is a complicated tax analysis again that is performed by bond attorneys we are currently in a situation where aware that of our wonderful interest earnings that we've received we will likely need to refund to the Internal Revenue Service one point uh likely 1.1 million at this point in time we just received a
112new notification today but certainly a million dollars and so that money doesn't go back to those entities or individuals who purchase the bonds it doesn't stay with the district it goes to the Internal Revenue Service and that's per IRS code section 148. so that inquiring minds want to know about that right so um so that is just for your education on Arbitrage earnings it's so rare that Mr Myers contacted the department of Elementary and secondary education because my curiosity is do we commit and spend down all the bond money and then a year later have to pay the bill or six months or whatever point in time how do we code that because we wouldn't code it to bond because we have to spend all the bond for them to do the calculation so they
113know the timing of all those payments and so he did they had not considered it they don't have it in the Missouri Financial Accounting manual and they had to check into that and they told him that be coded to fend 10 or fund 4 which would be regular Capital just like we would code Bond fees so interesting interesting thing to learn so this again restates the the recommendation for your consideration so now we're transition transitioning into the actual projects that we are recommending that get move forward so uh and I will offer that Dr rompes May chime in I'm providing you with uh basic information and then he uh certainly has institutional knowledge to share as well so this is about Henderson Elementary and we're providing you the enrollment projection we know that that projection
114has not proved itself to align perfectly but there is a slide coming up that will show you that it was amazingly close and spot on so current enrollment in Henderson Elementary is 673 students the capacity is 683 students and we we do want to offer that these recommendations for these projects are not about capacity in the building capacity for regular instruction those needs are being met the needs that are presented are above and beyond that dealing with other ancillary services that need to take place in the building and and the creative ways that those are being addressed currently so again that information is per the demographer the the demographic study indicated that 664 would be the high for this fiscal year so that's slightly off there that that demographic study again was conducted in August
115of 22 and provided uh in a report to the Board of Education October 2022. these slides provide you it's it's really hard to capture what you really experience when you're there so I personally Walk The Journey we have students who are receiving their lunch in the lunch line and then they walk approximately 500 feet to the space where they actually sit to eat and so that's a very unique structure they're carrying styrofoam and plastic wear with them as they go to go enjoy their meal does create messes through the hallway it's just a very different way to address the need a bigger issue is that we have over 80 PTAC or package terminal air conditioning units so if you've ever stayed in a hotel or a motel you may have experienced that unit in the
116wall and that's what is our our heating and cooling for our entire building there are some rooftop units but mostly this is what is placed in those classrooms so it's individually managed individually operated and no central control of that whatsoever we imagine it is highly inefficient for a building of this size and we as you know you've you've approved a multiple emergency repairs to different units and even the ones that were purchased not that long ago to replace some of these have been failing this shows you some of the creative instructional spaces so for a small group instruction needs teachers and the leader in the in the building they've set up makeshift walls and different structures to attempt to provide that privacy setting for instruction for students we also know that there are a number
117of storage items that are placed in hallways where students and staff are walking every day not an ideal situation uh they're making the best of it we know that students are receiving great teaching and they're doing great learning in those spaces in spite of the challenges so we've again summarized for you some of those space limitations uh within this building highlighted for you the other challenges including that HVAC system so this shows you a draft design and our architect toner is continuing to work on this I will tell you that I want to emphasize again we are committed to bring you that opportunity to receive the information for you to make decisions and approve the direction that we're headed this these two projects here they're in a very gray space because a lot of the
118work had started so for us to identify on that stop sign sheet where this really rests it it can be in between spaces right now so moving forward it'll be very clean cut but right now all the work that we had honor do for this discussion and recommendation to you was to re- review those costs because the costs estimates were from 2018 and so they have updated the cost estimates for 2023 so this slide now shows you that cost estimate and you can see that the total project estimate as of September 11th would be 16 million 655 650. it would include a significant portion to address the HVAC upgrade within the uh the building it includes addition and Renovations and all the pieces to it it does include a percentage for project contingency and inflation
119very important to always include uh appropriate level in that and I do have a disclaimer at the bottom that this is based on the square footage and the cost per square footage estimates as of September 11th if we are provided updated information you could be apprised of that information now we transition to Fairmont Elementary and again we're providing you the demographer information and this was the funny for us was that the current enrollment is 1015 and that is what the demographer projected 1015 for the high based on the August 2022 study the capacity of the building is indicated at 865 for serving the student population there there are trailers uh on that property and those are being used to provide specialized support of instruction staff so students are not currently being educated out in those
120spaces but again it's a it's a makeshift approach it's a workaround to providing spaces for all the people that are needed to support our kids the music room is an interesting place a tour of these buildings with Mr stetzer and kids are happy and you know being loved on and educated but they definitely have some challenges in terms of how they receive instruction and in this situation in the the music area takes place in a partially enclosed place so I I personally would have a hard time teaching a class nearby but that means that the the sound then is traveling in places it'd be best to not go there's another small makeshift instructional space of that small little room there where someone's working and basically a closet so again highlighting space limitations and challenges the
121the music classroom is in the old library and and then we also have noted with regard to other challenges the playground accessibility in the site parking lot would be part of this review process this shows you a version of the draft design you can you can see there and for the cost estimate for Fairmont Elementary again it's laid out the same as Henderson the grand total estimated this time as of September 11th 2023 is 5 million 898 992 for the work that needs to occur at Fairmont so taking you back to that unallocated remaining balance of 84 million two two two nine seventy two we're showing you that if Henderson and Fairmont were approved to move forward those are a combined total of 22 million five fifty four six forty two leaving 61 million 668
122330 for future recommendations and I when we say future recommendations I want you to know and Dr Roberts and I talked about this quite a bit due to the getting the funds expended in a timely fashion the requirement of those bond funds that recommendation would be forthcoming as quickly as possible for your consideration so in consultation with honer and Associates we have noted here ideally we would be seeking your approval for this recommendation uh either during the month of September still or in October uh there would be a six-month window for design and the construction document development that honer would then progress through the bid window would be between March and April it takes four weeks for an appropriate sealed bid process and then may we would break ground as soon as school is out
123or whatever that work needs to look like we would we would move forward so we've noted here considering in that special board meeting for approval to expedite the work if we're able to provide you all the information you need and then we may we would definitely provide you those continuing updates and seek approval and we may in the future also be seeking special board meetings to continue the work very quickly based on the construction schedule demands this slide shows you um some of the other projects for consideration when you think about how that remaining fund might be distributed these are some of the projects from the original presentation with regard to needs in the system I do have at the top the transportation continuing that work there there's there is a need from a safety
124perspective that we address the fuel Island and also provide an expanded Bus Barn so that would be a priority from my perspective the other items we would be open to whatever questions or inquiry you might have relative to those projects I should note too at the bottom oh I can't go back again but it's okay none none of the Deferred maintenance items so there was quite a list of deferred maintenance that had been identified for the original proposition s fund and none of that is noted so we've had significant second conversations about addressing the needs so that we can not be reacting and we can be proactive and then just maintain what we have just protecting the building assets and also taking Fairgrounds as well that concludes the presentation do you have any questions does
125it look like thank you miss somebody okay great so president Bertrand following up on that um we would like if the board is willing to entertain those two projects specifically I mean it's something that Miss Embry said that I want to reiterate is that those two buildings specifically are not about capacity you know there's always a discussion based on where we're at could we redo some boundaries that would alleviate the enrollment in those buildings and would that change that these recommendations are about the programmatic needs of those buildings and the spaces they're currently in when you look at those designs it's not adding significant General classroom spaces it's really moving some suites of classrooms around for office spaces that would allow us to better utilize the existing space in making those changes both of those
126projects would likely be summer school year summer projects we do not have an empty Elementary or building in the district where we could move Henderson to Iowa be able to do this work and so it would be the timeline timeline will be tight and that's why we're hoping that the board will entertain a special meeting in the next few weeks that we could have owner Come Share the more detailed drawings talk through the s um to give them to go ahead and move on those schematic designs and finalizing them if we hope to begin that work this summer I think you can um with that with that I assume you'd want the board to be thinking about questions and what what input they need from from the district and where they make that make that
127yes please now we're gonna have this of this uh extra special meeting that um I'm sure we'll talk more about but um I guess my my initial thoughts on seeing that schedule is if we're going to bid it in March March April time frame seems a little bit unrealistic that a contractor would love and have all his have all their materials I may I don't know if lead times have improved all that much lately but I think even just in the regular five years ago it would be hard to get that many materials in 30 days something that's the architect I think how realistic is that that's all I got on that uh up next just for Community Information there is a number of policies for first read if you anybody wants to look at
128those take their time and look at those and offer feedback feel free intended comments thank you president Bertrand the first thing I would like to address to the board and to our community is about the email that parents received from the district earlier this week following the sunshine requests for student directory information we understand that before this communication many parents were unaware of the district policies regarding student information and the access that individuals and outside organizations have to directory information via Missouri Sunshine Law and the Nuance between that and FERPA which protects student information we are working with you as a board to determine how we can limit these sorts of disclosures in the future looking both at possibly policy or regulation changes and also looking at ways that we could offer more flexibility for
129our parents who want to protect their child's information from third parties while still allowing them to be included in school yearbooks or other publications of sharing of information that the parents would deem appropriate we do want the community to know that we take student privacy seriously we are continuing to work on this and have been since this was brought to our attention we've already been updating some of the guidance for our families we will continue to do so over the next several weeks and as we make any changes either in our internal processes or working with you that we will communicate that to our parents and allow them time following that to make a decision to opt out as they see appropriate for their family based on those changes I apologize we want to apologize
130we know it's caused some frustration and concern in the community and we're committed to improving the process and the communication moving forward to avoid this happening again the other thing I would like to share is that following that communication earlier this week you know we shared that one Sunshine requests have been fulfilled we had also received a second request for directory information but in that request was actually asked to be run on October 1st since this happened we have reached out to that requester and asked that they would be willing to delay the date of that Sunshine request in order to allow us to do the work with you as a board to make any changes to policy or regulation that we see necessary and to adjust our internal processes and then to communicate again
131that to our families and allow them the opportunity to opt out as desired I'm happy to share with you that the person did agree and that will give us additional time to work with you to make those changes and again any changes we make then parents will have the opportunity to receive that information opt out as appropriate and then we would move forward with any future requests I mentioned last month our new citizens in our schools program that we started and since that time we had an amazing opening reception with the group where they got to introduce themselves learn a little bit more about the programming each other and the experience they will have this year they will come together again on October 4th for a driving tour of our 23 sites and really get
132to see what 150 square miles looks like traveling on a school bus so we're excited about that and getting to share some fun facts with them about the district at each stop our district Communications team and our Francis Howell High School students are teaming up to host the prom for senior citizens on Saturday September 30th that you've heard about several times tonight it'll be from three to five at how high they have volunteered to host it before their homecoming dance that evening this idea came directly from our senior Pals group that we host events with each year so students will host residents age 55 and older as they celebrate and dance to music from the 50s 60s and 70s we do have space for more participants but tomorrow is the deadline so if you are
133interested or want to bring your friends who are 55 and older please go to the website and sign up tomorrow Constitution Day was last Sunday at September 17th and our schools across the district have been participating in a variety of different activities at all grade levels really where they celebrate and get to learn more about the Constitution and it fell on a weekend so that was happening last week and this week um some examples are our third grade students read and wrote about the purpose of the Constitution and learned about the founding fathers and the motivation for Independence and freedom our fourth grade students read about the Missouri Constitution specifically and how that's aligned to the U.S Constitution at the secondary level there were a variety of a variety of activities you know ranging from
134puzzles quizzes presentations scavenger hunts all related to the Constitution so really a great week of Hands-On learning understanding the US Constitution I also want to thank there are several organizations that donate um small handheld size versions of the Constitution to us to distribute to our students and we've appreciated that I had the pleasure a few weeks ago of attending our annual marching band preview this is an amazing opportunity where our three high schools marching bands come together and each preview the show that they're going to perform throughout the year kind of kicking off Friday Night Lights um it's done to a packed house I really want to give a shout out to the amazing band directors and many parent volunteers who really are involved every single week to make those performances possible they also want
135to recognize that um I along with most of you got to attend the eighth annual First Responders and Military Appreciation Night game at September 8th at how high again an incredible night with so many um Community Members First Responders a helicopter landing on the field with a parents and SRO delivering the game ball um just an amazing experience and that night they raised nearly three thousand dollars for backstoppers bringing the total over of the event over eight years to just over twenty thousand dollars that has been donated and given to backstoppers you know to support the spouses and dependent children or First Responders who have lost their lives in the line of duty um continuing with that I realized continually how amazing our partnership is with our local law enforcement and First Responders their expertise
136and professionalism came to the Forefront a couple weeks ago and we had to work through an unfortunate situation of a bomb threat at one of our schools each time an event like that happens I want you and our community to know that we come together and debrief that had an opportunity to meet several times now and work with our law enforcement to talk about what went well what we need to do differently to keep our students and our staff safe moving forward they know exactly how to respond to each situation but yet they also as First Responders want to look at what they can do better and how they can better support us and so I thank both St Charles County and the other agencies that were involved in that and I mentioned to the
137board earlier this evening that Dr Salvo has arranged a meeting that we'll be doing with the other for Saint Charles County school districts and their safety group working with the Saint Charles County bomb squad to talk about how we can work together as a county to best support our schools last I'll share that yesterday I had the opportunity to present to the Saint Charles County Regional Chamber and their luncheon and shared both some of the challenges we face as a district but also got to celebrate a lot of the great things it was a wonderful reminder for me to really get to celebrate the amazing things happening at five public school districts in this County and I think it's rare that you can be in a county where you can't go wrong with the school
138district that you choose I happen to thank Francis Howell was pretty amazing but I will also celebrate the other four districts that were there but it was just a demonstration of how we work together and really reinforce one another and again every single high school in St Charles County is in the top 50 in the state on those rankings that recently came out and that's pretty incredible so thank you to our students and our staff and our community to make that happen thank you or any board comments I know a lot of you I mean a lot of you out there have contacted me have um called me spoke with me um and you know I've spoken to students and teachers and and various other people around the around the district with regards to the
139resolution on racism and discrimination and I want to let you know where my mind kind of is as I took on this endeavor and and that's what I really do consider it I consider it an Endeavor and okay as I as I heard some of you speaking tonight um you know Stephen Blair Chris Brooks Marissa um you know Grayson uh Grayson's right we're at a Crossroads here we we can really you know choose to do something or choose to do nothing or you know what do we do and um you know I I thought in the beginning you know shortly there after the meeting I was in my car and I thought how am I going to do this what did I get myself into right um and it was it was one of those
140things where it's like well this is a great opportunity for us as a district um we can we can show the country the region show each other that we can get along and we can we can come together and make this you know a great place to be and in a district that that really sets an example for the rest um of of the of the world if we if we wanted to um so I started out looking at it as um you know I asked my daughter you know she's she's 12 or she's 12. she's seven and I thought what does she think you know what what is how does she feel about this so I I flat out asked her I said do you need something on the wall do you need a
141a piece of paper on a wall to make you feel safe and she said no Daddy I don't need that and I said okay all right I I kind of feel the same same way I don't need it but we both kind of agreed that that there are some kids and some families that do and what that looks like I don't know I've got uh you know it was very very profound of a statement from a seven-year-old but she really made me realize that that this is just how important this really is to everybody and and and and the opportunity that we all have to really come together um I I've I've got you know several drafts in my head several drafts on paper several several several as Grayson said several Forks in the road
142that we can go down um I've talked to like I said I've talked to the board I've talked to students and teachers and more people than I've I've talked to in a long long time and and there's a lot of people that are in this crowd right now that that have reached out to me um I hold all of your opinions in high regard I'm taking them all into consideration I've spoken to our chief uh communications director about um um a meeting that we're going to talk about uh tomorrow about possibly putting something together for next week one of the things that I didn't want to do or that I should say I wanted to do is keep the politics out of this politics has no place in this and has no place here it
143has no print place up here and um I kind of made a general you know internal policy that that um uh special uh interest groups and political action committees will have no place in this this is of the people and by the people and for the people and that's the way that it will stay I've had an unbelievable number of people reach out to me and um the the people that are from those groups that have reached out I've told them exactly that so whatever we come up with however we do this whatever we decide is going to be from us as a district as the people as the students of this District so again I just wanted you all to know where this is coming from and where this is headed and um everybody
144understands I hope by now that you can reach out to me you can email me at any time and I I'm happy to get back to you as soon as I possibly can um But please understand that this is a work in progress It's not something that we can Rush um but uh to Grayson's point we we do have a a fork in the road and we have a great opportunity in my view that we um that we need to take advantage of and come together as a community and really ensure that we do what's best for this District foreign [Music] just two topics to comment on tonight the first is regarding transparency with curriculum I'd like to uh just request that all of the board approved curriculum be placed on the district's website specifically
145under the curriculum and assessment web page so just to provide a little context to those who are wondering what in the world I'm talking about that um I'll just note that the district's website was overhauled last December and only curricula for what I would consider to be the course subjects is available on our curriculum and assessment web page so that's math English language arts science and social studies so if a mother or father were to go to website and look for the curriculum for ninth grade health first grade art music or dozens of high school electives our gifted program and many other curricula they won't find them there so the old website was not complete either but as I recall it listed many more curricula than our current website does several months ago shortly after
146our new website was launched I brought this concern out during a one-on-one conversation I was having with someone in the admin and as I recall there was apprehension about posting many of the curricula because they're not all consistent in formats some have links or references to outdated websites or resources that are no longer used so I understand that apprehension I think is a valid concern but I'm not sure it's a reason to hold back making all those documents which are the current board approved curricula easily available so to be sure most if not all of the board approved curricula is available via board Docs but as anyone who's used Port docs knows the site is not the friendliest to navigate and the search function leaves a lot to be desired so more important though is
147the fact that the average parent or Garden or Guardian would not know to look at board not report docs for the curricula they seek they'll likely go to the website they'll click on the academics then on curriculum and assessment where they will search in vain for the curriculum approved for many of our classes so additionally I'd just like to request that the curricula linked for the parents be the actual PDF documents approved by the Board of Education the old website I noted that in the past that the versions available to parents were not the same versions approved by the board the parent-facing versions in some cases had fewer pages than the board approved version versions and in the examples I found so just to summarize I think it's important to be very transparent about what
148the board approved curricula is and what's being used so we've all experienced the frustration of looking for something on a website and just not finding it and I don't wish that upon any of the parents or Guardians here and lastly I want to be crystal clear that I don't have any reason to believe that the lack of certain criteria on the curriculum and assessment web page is anyway LinkedIn illitan or attempt to hide certain curriculum or anything like that I truly don't rather I just believe it it's just a matter of looking for a solution to the concerns that were expressed to me earlier this year but until solution is found I think it's worthwhile to just be transparent put everything out there and handle questions about anything that might be outdated on a case-by-case
149basis my second comment tonight I have is regarding the student directory information data and this is very hard to talk about but I'm a father just like many of you out there but you know I want people to imagine you're waiting for your second grade daughter at the school bus stop and when the bus arrives three students get off the bus now imagine that as the bus leaves you see three adults get out of the car behind the bus and follow each student home you notice the lady following you and your daughter as a clipboard is jotting down notes as you walk to your door you confront this person and she tells you that her and her pals are just collecting the addresses of your daughter and the other two kids they got off the
150bus and that there's no need to worry what she's doing is perfectly legal now try to imagine in this hypothetical scenario you don't do what would come naturally to you instead you keep your cool and you continue your conversation with this person and you ask why is she collecting this information about your daughter he responds she's merely collecting public information about your daughter so she can make you make sure you are registered to vote and send you political propaganda and then without batting an eye she crities that proceeds to ask you for your daughter's first and last name your phone number email address what school your daughter attends and what grade she's in this sounds downright weird and sick because it is Theory this is perfectly legal to sit in a car and watch kids
151get off the bus and copy down their addresses and roll down the window to hear the parents call their kids by names you can write that down but if you're caught doing this you're very likely going to get a visit from the police and rightly so decent people don't do this though because they know the scrutiny they will face in the court of public opinion and when their Neighbors start telling each other who was following kids off the bus indecent people do this sort of thing equals little to no respect for the privacy of kids do this such people should not be surprised when those of us charged with protecting kids call them out that's right there's many of us in this room know instead of taking the time to follow 16 000 of your
152kids home from school and collect all that information and risk being seen two individuals just recently requested your student state of being an open records request or Sunshine request effectively exploiting the information that schools use and have used for years designated as directory information so we can do things like publish yearbooks publish a list on our website of who's on the football team another routine School matters like that but by sending a few emails one person was able to make a sunshine request for all publicly available directory information for the students in our district she used the word all in her request and a few days later she was given a listing with not quite all the available data a student first and last name address school building and grade of nearly all the students
153who were enrolled in this District along with the phone number and email address of each student's parent or garden guardian it's unbelievable and then it may be perfectly legal but not everything that's legal is right maybe legal to stand bus stops and record the addresses of kids as they walk home but it is not right according to Facebook posts made by each organization over the past few days since I made this News public on Saturday night the political action committee St Charles County families for public schools stated that they made it one of the recent requests which is the request still pending to be fulfilled and the other recent requests which has been fulfilled was made by the fhea which of course is the local teachers union for those who aren't Savvy with a lingo
154around here when I first learned of these Sunshine requests for the personal directory information date of students Saturday night and just before I made it public I was reviewing our agenda for this meeting tonight which is how any school board members spend Saturday nights once a month and when I came across this agenda item we considered earlier tonight relating to an unrelated Sunshine request I saw it as a board member I have access to the annual spreadsheets we maintain to log Sunshine requests along with very brief notes about the status of each request so I checked the list for any notes that might be relevant to my review of tonight's agenda item it was then that I noticed the two recent requests for student directory information data now if these two organizations are using this
155data for electioneering and voter registration as they've claimed then shame on them for using student data for political gain I can think of nothing shallower and that's saying a lot in the world of politics although I'm not an expert in that Arena but even if it's true the data is for electioneering and voter registration then the data requested and obtained is far more and would be needed to send a mailer to someone's home all of us adults know that when we become adults we eventually make our ways on all kinds of phone mailing and not text message lists for politics car warranty extensions and so on kids don't vote their parents do I'm sure I'm not sure why these groups don't just get the list of registered adult voters like every other political organization does
156the date on kids is not good so where do we go from here now we as a board and a School District administration have to spend time crafting policy revisions to preventive actions that Common Sense people know are wrong it would be great if our legislators also took on this issue and carved out restrictions on sharing student data in central in such as the easy way but I cannot wait for that as I've stated elsewhere and I'm committed to working with the administration and our legal counsel to develop something I feel most parents here would consider reasonable with respect to their students privacy from groups obtain details about them in fact this works already begun those of us sitting up here were elected by our community at least in part to protect students and it
157would be great if the people and organizations in our community would help us do that by refraining from collecting this personal data and details of my children and everyone else's children whether that's for the van and the clipboard or an email from their computer that's all I have to say about that right now good night everyone cook I have two items that I would like to discuss with everyone as well just a heads up for those parents that want to filter what their children are exposed to if you are concerned about inappropriate books that your child children can have access to I've had some reports that's classic Book Fairs have books that are inappropriate with sensual content when my granddaughters were in grade school I would go and let them pick out any two books
158that they wanted in the interest of having them enjoy the active reading I never opened it or looked at any of the content we now live in a very different world my comment to parents today is to be vigilant make sure you open up the book and make sure it's appropriate for your child because as we know the title is not always revealing of the content it's a different world we live in but never forget that you have the absolute right to restrict what your child is exposed to my opinion that is that as a school board member I must respect that wish and make it impossible for your child to be exposed to things you don't agree with after all your taxes pay the bills many thanks to all the parents that take the
159time and the energy to make us aware of what's Happening now let me move on to the discussion about bathrooms if you are a parent or guardian of a young lady and think letting a young man in the restroom the same time as your daughter is extremely inappropriate I know the vast majority of people in the district would agree with this um I also think that if you just the opposite if you have a son then you would be appalled to know and I have had Direct reports of this that a girl walked into the boy's bathroom and used a device so that she could use the urinal that happened in this District I know that the majority of the people would agree with what I agree with and actually I predict that a pot
160approximately 99.8 percent would agree if you're appalled when your son comes home and says there's a girl in the boys restroom I'm sure as a parent you are just as appalled I for one am very disappointed that we are having to step in and have this conversation in the first place right I've heard the comment that Title IX mandate that we allow boys in the girls bathrooms and vice versa this is absolutely totally and inretrievably incorrect the Civil Rights division of the Department of Education added language to Title IX after it was written and it's Mir their writing is merely an interpretation it is not a law a mere interpretation again not law gender identification is identified as a protected class but in no way doesn't mean boys or girls can switch bathrooms right now
161there's a school in Pennsylvania where hundreds of students walked out of the school in protest for this very activity going on for two days this week and I'm waiting to hear if they're going to walk out again tomorrow until or at least until it's set up is this what we want for Francis Howe we need to put an end to any confusion surrounding this issue kids should have a voice in this decision and administrators and board members should be excuse me be listening I get a little emotional should be listening to the 99.8 percent of those that disagree yes those privileges I believe are inappropriate and I'm sure the majority of the students of this District would agree with me I thank my fellow board members for their consideration writing and passing an appropriate bathroom
162bill thank you we've had a lot so we've had a lot of commentary up here so I'm going to shorten mine up to a few key points uh first off I'd like just like to thank director Ponder for all the time energy he's put in his efforts on reviewing the resolution and collecting information talking to stakeholders and just having those conversations I know it's a lot to wait for your family and and I really appreciate that um second she speaks to the administration to the district for all the work I know you guys really jump to it and we're around this directing information stuff I know it's been a busy week probably because of that and I just really appreciate it I know you guys have worked hard um I just want to personally say
163like to the community like I don't believe there's any malice or ill intent to any of it it was just I think District district desires to fulfill the legal obligations around the sunshine requests um just so everybody's aware like and they're great as we worked through kind of what the next steps are um then finally I'd like to thank Cecil for being here um any last commentary that you have just thank you sure more like a motion to adjourn Open Session honor all's in favor say aye aye I was supposed to know I said