Board of Education Meeting - August 17, 2023

001thank you everybody for coming before we get started tonight I'd like to ask that we observe a moment of silence for Dr Stephen Curry a long time math teacher at Hollenbeck uh he passed away this month let's take a moment of silence to honor him thank you I'd like to call this meeting into order with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for Allah thank you or like a motion to approve the agenda for August 17th 2023 as president director Ponder all those in favor say aye aye aye oppose say name motion carries next up we have Patron comments during Patron comments residents of the district and staff members

002are invited to address the board of education on issues related to the school district speakers are called for in the order of sign up and each speaker has three minutes to make their remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else's not permitted the board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this evening and we value your input in perspective I would like to remind everyone that we expect the speakers will remain civil and respectful when given remarks if anyone fails to comply with ordered policies regulations rules will be reserve the right to cut them short of those three minutes for your convenience our three-minute clock is ready first up we would like to welcome Sam young

003[Music] good evening board superintendent staff I'm glad that the majority of the school board approved policy 0299 addressing resolutions to the last meeting I'm especially glad that the resolution committing the district to teaching the principles of critical race Theory and taking on an act of political voices on to lay out the local Nea and supporters still deny that the resolution supported critical race theorem however the resolution ends with a commitment to quote the culture of anti-racism district-wide unquote the term anti-racism in the August 2020 resolution does not simply mean being Against Racism follows even Max kindy's notion of anti-racism and a podcast was slave from June 2021 kidney says a critical race theory is foundational to his work and inspired his formulated definition of anti-racism in a follow-up question he is asked if it is

004possible to be anti-racist without studying critical race Theory his answer he says quote I just can't imagine a pathway to being anti-racist that does not engage critical race Theory unquote while the district soon call with critical theorist Professor legarrett King in 2020 current and former District staff do their own engaging with CRT and admit that such ideas are controversial and unpopular one history teacher says that she would be better described as an anti-us history teacher than a U.S history teacher another points directly back to this resolution saying that the board provides support for administrators to say to the public that they are moving forward with tenants of CRT The District staff meant to move forward with or without the Public's approval or support supporters of the anti-racism resolution never defend the use of racial balancing

005to remove Middle School challenge courses racial disparities in Middle School challenge classes is not proof that there are systemic racism within the district the term equity in August 2020 resolution does not call for equal opportunity for all students to place into these challenge courses using objectives standards but seeks to impose racial quotas on the class formation once again why do resolution supporters not talk about these anti-racism policies I didn't hear anything about them last meeting when they were supporting that the last two election Cycles show that the resolution has caused enough damage and that it's time for it to go thank you next we welcome Grace and justice [Music] hello my name is Grayson Justice I'm an alumni at Francis Howell School District of class of 2013 my pronouns are he and she I want

006to talk about what happened on June 15th I was denied permission to speak on the June 15th meeting because I was late plus there was 10 minutes on left on the clock Mr cook who is not here denied My First Amendment right to speak I was silence Mr cook came to me after the meeting to apologize and said he was only thinking about the board and speaking about the bar two members were at the library board meeting on June 20th including Miss pascar Jane you said some ignorant and bigoted things from what you said at night and you were mentioned a few times in different newspapers and articles the Francis Health reputation how dare you now I have looked under the rules of public comments and none of them mentioned anyone who is late and

007already signed up cannot speak I I know you all four hate me for who I am and when I'm for for the good of all Francis Howell and I was sitting long and hard about this situation and I'm giving you guys one last chance we're not finally man first amend her rights the right of free speech I hope you all learned your lesson well including you Randy cook because you know what they say history will repeat itself and shame on you for bringing back racism and discrimination back to Francis Howell shame on it all thank you [Applause] next welcome Amy easterly [Music] good evening my name is Amy easterling you guys know that um I have been a resident of the Francis House school district for the last 20 years you know that too um

008I have two children who have attended all levels of school in this district one graduated in 2021 and I have a current senior at Francisco um I'd like to speak tonight in support of our gifted program and specifically the National Association of gifted children conference that's being voted on tonight my older child as a participant in the Sega program here in the district in middle school and high school benefited greatly from the support and education that he received I am confident that he wouldn't have but he wouldn't be the successful Rising college junior that he is now if it hadn't been for the amazing support he received from Theresa Marr and Karen flood at both Sager middle school and Francis House Central the curriculum that our gifted program provided to my son filled many needs

009first it gave him the opportunity to learn at an academic level that was appropriate for him this was done through several different methods specific topics that are taught within the gifted class that he attended in middle school as well as making sure he was able to take courses offered in our high school that he was ready for that flexibility really helped us as parents to navigate through the curriculum and make sure that our son was challenged and engaged even more important was the social and emotional support that he received I know some of you don't like social emotional support but I'm telling you it was needed and he specifically received that from his teachers in the gifted program and wanted to address this because I saw that there was a board comment a board question

010about this on the conference so I want to give you my perspective as a parent if you haven't parented or taught a gifted child you may not know that gifted children often need support in many different ways being gifted just doesn't mean that you're academically Advanced or smart there's actually a known phenomenon called asynchronous development that is very common to gifted children you can actually go to the nagc website and look it up if you want I have a very technical explanation but I'm not going to waste my minutes to read it but basically it means that these kids their brains are advancing at one speed they're social they're emotional is it a difference feed and they really do need support other than just advanced classes so as a parent of a gifted child I

011can definitely say that's a thing and I can also say with confidence that our gifted teachers right here at fhsd were invaluable in helping our son cope with his challenges because they are educated specifically to work with gifted children I'm sure in part by attending national conferences our gifted teachers are able to help these kids get along with peers and cope with their emotions that in turn helps them be successful students I watched a kid that really struggled in Middle School turned into a confident young man and I know that if somebody sitting in this room contributed to that so I just ask you to put aside your political beliefs and support these kids and support these teachers up next we welcome Kirk bloom uh uh thanks for the opportunity to speak I had some

012other comments which are not really relevant now but my thing is talking about educating all the kids I volunteer in various capacities and one thing that I do is that I take a team at the Y that nobody wants nobody will Coach and uh I've coached third and fourth grade fifth and sixth grade and seventh and eighth uh this last year I did seventh and eighth grades and I was uh blessed uh myself and another coach with uh just an incredible team great attitude everything else uh but there are two kids that are on that team that I'm really concerned about as they go into High School one is almost non-verbal but the kid is a great kid he'll I think he's going to how the other one is in middle school at um again

013I think it's Francis Howell middle school and both of those need attention and you know that's what we need to strive to do uh I think my son was gifted also and uh I was at least one of them was uh the other one took after me but anyway that was a great experience for him but the ones I'm worried about are the ones on the other end of the spectrum teachers have so much to do they have to teach to the middle unfortunately in my opinion if I'm wrong I apologize but uh the the kids that are On The Fringe on the lower end we just got to figure out some way to address their needs to get them special help if they if they need it and some form or fashion uh my

014uh younger son the one who took after me um I was on the board in 86 89 I think I think those are the dates I'm not sure while I was on the board and unbeknownst to me he was abused in high school at Francis High School Lord knows at that time I probably wouldn't have been as kind that I would be now about that but we we just we can't allow bullying or any type of prejudice against any student teacher administrator period you know we just really have to look at after everybody this is a great School District I I have a gifted child your time is up I beg your pardon me sorry foreign welcome Caroline Owens good evening my name is Carol Lee Owens I am the daughter of two Educators the

015mother and mother-in-law of three Educators and I am a retired educator my family and I believe in the democratic ideals of the public schools where all are welcome and all are seen and heard I'm assuming we have all seen the incredible amount of press coverage regarding the Francis Howell School District unfortunately has not been positive and it has put this District in a bad light the act of sunsetting the resolution against racism and discrimination has brought embarrassment to this District on a national level I did hear it on the national news one of the comments from the majority that appeared in the newspaper was the school board doesn't need to be in the business of dividing the community these words do not ring true the action taken by the majority was not only divisive but

016offensive to those of us who believe in the promise of equality in our schools another disturbing statement that appeared in the paper was carrying out commitments made by prior school boards as many challenges are you saying this school board and this District cannot live up to carrying out a resolution against racism and discrimination no one on this board or any other board should serve if they are not committed to fighting these evils standing for the basic principles is a sacred Duty for everyone involved in serving students in America public schools are under constant attack in this country but we do not expect attacks to come from within you were elected to provide a gateway to opportunity for our students who are not elected to force your political ideologies on this District we need to send

017a positive and uplifting message to the families of Francis Howell the walls of our buildings must Proclaim that racism and discrimination will never be tolerated in the schools of Francis Howell words do matter and the words of the resolution should be respected and upheld please begin working on the issues that impact our students and teachers every day school safety Mental Health and teacher retention should be at the top of your list instead of your current focus on the culture wars of today thank you [Applause] up next we welcome pack our plan [Music] good evening Board of Education Administration and Community Founders I am here this evening to address the introduction of a policy to Sunset District resolutions as many of you know I proudly served six years on the board of education and was part

018of the team that introduced and signed all the three resolutions in question hopefully I can help clarify the board's vote on each document resolution to introduce charter schools to our state's largely populated areas the board was not against the concept of charter schools Our concern were of the proposed legislation at the state level charter schools in the state do not have to be accountable to the Department of Elementary and secondary education if a public school opens in the state the district is accountable for attendance hiring highly qualified teachers test scores graduation rate act performance special education services and gifted services on day one basically Public Schools gladly accept all children with open arms Charter Schools can be selective in their enrollment and are not held accountable for student performance until their sixth year of operation

019resolution to eliminate personal property taxes the board was concerned with the elimination of taxes taxes that benefit the schools libraries police departments fire departments emergency services and local governments there was not any proposed way as to how we would replace those necessary funds to maintain the excellent level of services in our community the resolution to accept and respect all children teachers staff parents and community members in our learning community sadly we have had black brown Asian Indian and Middle Eastern children called derogatory names accused of causing the spread of coven told to go told to go back where they came from told they had no right to be here and accused of ruining the American dream the board felt it was necessary to develop a statement that was inclusive of everyone in our community all

020three of these topics continue to be relevant today they were not just a moment in time as it has been implied now more than ever our community needs the support and the role of our Public Schools as we strive to be a part of a strong Community my final thoughts are to request that you consider the needs of our children in our public school please set aside to a personal or political thoughts and remember your Ultra promote provide our students with the very best education in an accepting and welcoming environment I do appreciate your time at Netflix [Applause] next we welcome Natalie Berry thank you greetings to the Francis Howell School board members and everyone who is joining in to listen today my name is Natalie Berry and I have an amazing child in the

021district this year anti-racism resolution created in 2020 following George Floyd's murder who was massive masterfully written however I wasn't shocked to learn that it was shot down this year in 2023 given the the current political climate I want to share a short story with you one day I came home from work my child aged three and a half asked Mommy if you're a dark brown and daddy is white am I yellow my heart just sank I responded no Sweet Pea we are not crayons we are all a part of the human race you took the best parts of me and your father Sweet Pea there is no such thing as black white or yellow races some people simply have more pigmentation or melanin in their in their skin than others but we are all made

022in the image of God my my child views race challenges in this country as completely stupid my child isn't colorblind and can see the differences in skin colors but intuitively he understands that there isn't a whole lot of difference between people in general there are good and evil ones there are nice and mean ones intelligent and unintelligent people in this world and they come in all skin tones we are 55 years removed from the civil rights movement and we are still dealing with race issues racism is Alive and Well in America uh and it won't even change in my lifetime I truly believe that I honestly care more about the bullet than I care about the foul mouth words coming from a child my child is raised to handle it just like I was if

023an adult is out of line my child will let me know and we adults will deal with it accordingly with all due respect in this community we have gun shows almost every weekend crime substance abuse and mental health issues are on the rise I'm more concerned about the security of our children getting to and from school how safe will they be at school when they arrive and how responsive will the police department be if God forbid we have an active shooter I want to know if our police department will respond to an active shooter as ferociously as the police responded to protesters in Ferguson Missouri following Mike Brown's murder in 2014. because if it's not I want you to know that I won't be one of those mothers standing in front of the camera singing

024some old Negro spiritual talking about I forgive not when it comes to my baby parents this is for you it starts with us at home we must all check our own ignorance and biases so that we send our children out into the world to be mindful and considerate of others we must secure our guns so that children don't enter the schools with them we must be vigilant in our communities as the children journey to as the children journey to and from school in the light of bus issues and child Predators amongst us and I close with this question can the Francis Howell Community please look into opportunities to bring us together and thank you your time is on the school ground next we welcome John eidbreiter [Music] uh good evening my name is John hibritter

025and I'm the 13-year resident here in Francis Howell School District um after the last board meeting I was able to send the letter to the board and to five of the staff and teachers um that included a a book called The Quest for character raising as Martin Luther King Jr did many years ago that the most important thing in my view that we've been raised in our children is good character in that book I've asked y'all to read a opening statement about the character crisis and I've included four questions subsequent to that relative to the application of that book or any better book as a starting point for character being understood and taught to each of our students here in addition to that I ask you to read a from the Patriot um book the

026primer a little short article by president Samuel Adams about being created equal and I will address in a letter again uh my thoughts but included in there I had the two mission statements that I found for the Howell School District I've asked for the mission statement from the Francis Howell Education Association and I believe that it would be beneficial that we have one unified mission statement that the board the staff the teachers and the citizens could agree on to post in each school as a unifying document that our children would see I think fundamental to that that we are created we are created equal and we are created man and woman three Basics from all of our presidents and all state constitutions in this nation so I think that consideration of the premise is the

027very important that our children have clarity from us as leaders and not confusion I think it's one simple step that we can do and I would certainly address this further again to everybody staff teachers thank you your time is up okay thank you we actually welcome King dinosaurs what admin good evening in April 2022 and for a second time in April 2023 patrons of the Francis Howell School District resoundingly he elected five new members those elected received more votes than in any other non-owned referendum election ever we all aware of the ideological dialectic facing our nation's schools including here within Francis Howell the struggle between conservative and Progressive perspectives sadly rages issues that have been passionately brought up at every school board meeting in the last two years include the audit of the new Francis

028Howell North High School critical race Theory curriculum content Justice versus social justice equality for all versus equity racism discrimination Dei diversity Equity inclusion First Amendment free speech lawsuits lgbtq issues transgender issues bullying biological boys in girls bathrooms biological girls in boys bathrooms objectionable content in school libraries mental rights regarding children gun rights separation of church and state issues with dominantly displaying the American flag in our classrooms and the list goes on Saint Charles County patrons in recent elections have chosen repeatedly to elect Common Sense Representatives Francis Howe families will continue to work tirelessly to elect such school board members as well The Sixteen thousand patrons who test their votes sixteen thousand sixteen thousand cast their votes in the last two elections as well as defensive South families appreciate and applaud the sports courage and resolve

029we commend you for staying the course you're doing an exemplary job the emails phone calls and texts we received recently have sowed attesting to the overwhelming support of this community well the one's views are conservative are progressive both sides have this in common a fervent desire to do what is right and what is best for our schools our children and our teachers keep up the great work the vast majority of our patrons and the elected officials support and thank you nice job up next we welcome Jamie Martin it's quite the political list we just heard for a nonpartisan School Board yes okay probably not the best way to start because the way I want to start is I want to recognize that the last time I stood here my comments were pointed I believe my

030anger was justified but I assume Dil intent and that was not productive so I want to apologize As Leaders of our community We should strive to serve as public figures in unpaid roles without these assumptions which are harmful and I'll work to avoid them in the future I also want to thank our board members and their spouses who are serving as parents of school-aged children this month it's a sacrifice to fulfill these duties on the board as the school year opens while also supporting your children and preparing for their own school year which came from open house okay tonight I want to talk to about three issues first is you're all aware I strongly oppose the sun setting of The Resolution against racism and discrimination I request to be reinstated without revision dozens of requests

031were emailed to this board to preserve the specific resolution and a clear majority of speakers came forward last month and pleaded for a different action I'm disappointed in your lack of recognition in response to these patrons and I hope this will not be the standard moving forward a mobilized outspoken Community deserves the sports recognition furthermore should the board consider revising the resolution I encourage these revisions first be justified by compelling and credible reasoning to do so and to that this be done in a formal public exchange second it's come to my attention that fhsd staff members have received the directorate from this board not to survey students asking about their pronouns these staff members have cited policy 1610 which restricts questions to students in several areas including political religious privileged information or sexual behavior and

032attractions Etc board our gender pronouns do not align with any of this criteria gender identity is not the result of party affiliation or religious worship it is not protected under attorney-client privilege nor does it concern sexual attraction however misstating a student's pronouns is an awkward mistake and it's challenging for student teacher Rapport it's challenging for peer relationships when someone is misgendered this is actually common it's happened to me with students who identify as their gender at Birth because adolescents explore many forms of expression through dress and appearance and they present with a host of different body types directing teachers to avoid these awkwardness steps by denying them the chance to learn a student's pronouns up front is of no benefit to students or staff it's silly finally as you consider the request for the travel

033to the gifted conference tonight please do not overreach please remember that personal and individual funds should be spent at every individual's discretion thank you fhea [Applause] okay [Music] good evening Board of Education Dr rhombus and executive cabinet patrons and parents we want to welcome our Educators back to start a fantastic New Year thank you to all of our support staff for the amazing work completed this summer we look forward to partnering with our parents to provide our students with the safe the safest and best learning environment I want to also share with you fhea's mission statement as it's been talked about lately we are committed to protecting promoting and advocating for our students Educators and schools we strive to ensure our schools are safe places where the Dignity of students and Educators is honored allowing

034All To Learn and Grow I also would like to take just a second to say that we look forward to working with the board and administration to retain our loyal teachers and Francis Howell thank you and I hope everyone has a great school year [Applause] [Music] another summer has come and gone this Monday our doors will open and the kids will once again Grace our Halls a lot of work has gone into prepping for this Monday the halls in classroom glistened with all the efforts from your custodial team the lights shine bright and things once broken are fixed and ready due to your maintenance crew yesterday I got to witness their work transforming old admin into the beautiful bus garage and it was amazing to see despite being short staffed the work got done our

035groups buckled down and did the thing we reduced the custodial Workforce by 18 last year to get an increase so it is extremely important to provide the insurance and benefits and working conditions that we currently have to keep the outstanding Workforce we have the work never ended for secretaries as they continued prepping for this upcoming school year our poor grounds crew with this weather all summer these teams have been grinding so that this Monday kids of the district can come back to safe and beautiful buildings our other groups are back and ready to help support the children and getting a great education our interpreters parents and nurses are all ready to do their very best for our students it was mentioned at our Labor Management meeting on Tuesday that we too are recruiters of the

036district and what we say to potential candidates is important and we have always done this the last several years have been a struggle let's change that let's work together to change that we are willing we are a diverse group with all different types of jobs all of them matter in the scheme of things we're all here to support the students at Francis Howell the schools are ready the teachers are ready support staff ready let's all have a wonderful year and keep Francis hell one of the best workplaces [Applause] up next we'll have being a prop s good evening board well it's been another busy month at uh Francis Howell North and we continue to average about 150 uh trades men and women on a consistent basis and so I'll go ahead and jump right into

037our presentation so from this vantage point it doesn't seem like the site has changed very much from last month but it really actually has and so to the uh North here the new Drive is completely paved I think I noted that at our last meeting and so it's already open and been heavily utilized here the last couple of weeks with band camp and all of the various co-curricular programs that have kicked off at North and I think transition day and so far all is good here in the next week or so we're going to really begin sequencing a lot of work on the North End of the site here we're going to sequence a construction trailers over to the Northwest end that way we can finish developing the north parking lot so we're going to

038start pouring uh curbs and get all the sub grades squared away because right now the construction trailers sit on the old tennis courts so that work will kick off uh next week also um we're to the west of the football stadium we're going to start working on the grandstand so they were actually starting to form up and they'll pour that concrete pad the piers have already been set and bleachers will ship the first week in September and they'll start installing those also on the Highlight the North West corner of the stadium itself you see we haven't finished the the curbing there we've got some drain work to install but as soon as that's installed we'll mobilize with the asphalt around the track we'll get that laid we're trying to beat weather that way we can

039get the rubber surfacing installed before winter it needs a cure time so again I already mentioned the front entry but here it is it's open everything seems to be going well we also showed a shot a drum a drone video that we pushed out to Henderson as well as Francis Howell North families that way they know how to uh Traverse and follow all the construction traffic and make sure everybody's in their right lane um this slide here has really progressed uh we had progress meeting there today so these are the outbuildings you've got the concession stand ticket booth and and the restroom facilities so all of the brick veneers actually been installed the vapor barrier here was a couple of weeks ago so the Masons have already installed all the brick veneer and they will

040begin pulling off here in about another week or so we also continue to develop the east side of the school here we've got the retaining wall That's installed and as you can see there below we've also formed up for all the concrete work that's surrounding that East Side they've actually poured a majority of that then this is the East elevation of the building we continue to work around the building with various areas getting all the storefront curtain wall systems installed as well as the glazing South elevation of the building all the overhead doors are installed as you see here the mechanical room that's a fairly sizable overhead door just in in the event down the road that we need to you know re-maneuver and make some necessary repairs in there we've got the room to

041be able to get equipment in and out and then also on the right side here you can see the overhead doors for Building Services and all the other shop rooms these two spaces on this slide are the music areas so we've got drywall the finishers are in there right now they're actually ahead a little bit so they've got all the drywall hung all the seams taped and mudded and the painters are falling right behind them uh here's a to the right of the screen is a nurse's reception area again the brick veneers they've topped out in those areas and they're Framing and drywalls in progress and so we have again we have about another two weeks of the Masons on site and then they will begin pulling off and that'll be a pretty large Workforce

042that'll roll off and so we'll probably go from an average of 150 to about 100 Tradesmen and women once they pull off and then again this is a gym lobbying concession brick veneer Framing and drywall continues to progress in those areas this is the media center framing drywall again is in progress there and then one little neat thing here that obviously I wasn't up here for this but back in July of 2022 they did a student art program a project I should say and so you see the first graduating class there of Hackman Early Childhood Childhood Center so with that being done back in July you can see they've taken that artwork and incorporated into the library medius on the second level this is science swing chemistry Labs polished concrete continues to progress in those

043areas all of the case work obviously you can see all the plumbing rough ends they're all already all stuffed up ready to go and caseworks on site they'll start installing those as the polished concrete flooring crew moves to other areas uh here here we are with the allowances not too much has changed there the escalation allowances I should say and then the GMP value build to date as the most recent pay application 123 million 719 and 154. 123 million seven hundred and eighteen thousand hundred and fifty four dollars okay so that's my uh presentation and uh before I get into any additional questions uh just kind of want to note obviously we're continuing to work on some of the remaining uh framework for the work that still needs to take place regarding our bond projects

044uh this evening you guys have a motion in front of you under consent uh for potentially moving forward with the secure entry vestibules that still need to be completed and Miss Carol Embry and myself can are starting to work on a framework to present to you guys at some point in time here in the very near future regarding next steps with the remaining work so be happy to take any questions that you have all right thank you thank you order like a motion and approve the consent agenda for August 17th 2023 as presented section all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed say no I said it or like a motion approve the travel request for a National Association for gifted children as requested so moved second secretary all those um any discussion

045board all those in favor say aye I I was supposed to say no I said it or like a motion to approve the 20 23 2024 adjustment to adult meal prices as presented so I moved Ponder discussion board all those in favor say aye aye aye what was I supposed to say no I just have it more like a motion to prove the July 2023 monthly financial report as presented biglish Lang or director Ponder Liberty thank you very much oh phone should point to the mouth yes we've established this okay so thank you so much for this opportunity I will just briefly uh comment the adult meal price um you read in the memo but basically we didn't have to reduce it back down but with the new information we thought it was important to

046give you opportunity to to approve that reduced fee so thank you for that so this evening we have prepared prepared for you a summary basically analyzing the FY 23 revised budget to the actual experience that just ended June 30. we also finished our first report to the state it's called the annual Secretary of the board report Miss Hepler is happy to share that she has nothing to do with that report that's that's delivered out of the finance department and um and basically that report is submitted multiple times until we are finished with work that includes the conclusion of the financial audit for FY 23 and at that point in time you will be presented both the financial audit and the asbr that matches that excuse me so for this evening we are providing you those

047actual differences with revenue and also with expenditures we'll also cover some upcoming Financial impacts and then next steps the uh information that has been submitted in the asbr as a ugust shows that FY 23 we ended with an operating fund balance percentage estimated at 27.61 I say estimated because that could potentially change depending on whatever information might changed through final expenditure reports that still need to be submitted for various programs and other adjustments that estimate is approximately 5.44 higher than what we had estimated during the June presentation of the fy24 budget so actual Revenue received was higher than that which was budgeted for revenue and actual expenditures were lower than the expenditure budget so what I want to remind you of first is that the budget for FY 23 was basically constructed During the period

048January through probably May of 2022 and then present it to you and then there were some opportunities for Budget amendments based on information that was known at the time so with the budget that was presented in June for fy24 we relied heavily on that FY 23 budget so we know that as we go through this process of analyzing the data and digging deeply to understand where the Gap exists that we will need to bring forward for you budget amendments to the current year budget so I'll jump in now and cover with you some of that data that has been analyzed so far so I mentioned Revenue has come in higher than our Revenue budget and so you can see listed here are the primary object categories overall Revenue came in nearly five percent higher than

049the revised budget called for okay the primary categories include local County state federal other Revenue which could be sale of goods and then revenues received from other districts so we see on that slide that we were 3.2 million higher on local Revenue 121 000 higher on County 4.373 million higher on state federal was 4.148 just a slight uh under budget situation for other revenue and then received from other districts was 280 000 higher than that which was budgeted if we take a look at some of that just a reminder that there are unpredictable revenues and there are non-recurring revenues included within all of this data so what that means is while we may see a spike for FY 23 that will not necessarily repeat in FY 24 or Beyond so some of those revenues include

050Delinquent Tax collections we don't know always how much will be paid those tax collections could be from prior year data multiple years earnings on investments did fluctuate from this sort of historical so while we provided a budget amendment in FY 23 to increase that Revenue allocation it still came in stronger so it's all good news it's just different than what we anticipated we know that financial institutions tax was atypical information from Desi indicates that they had a correction from a prior year and so that showed up under the state revenue section and then we had significant increases in the nutrition services area also we've talked before about Esser funds where those are temporary runtime funds that have come in who are bank account this further breaks down the local revenue and shows you that under

051Delinquent Tax 615 370 higher than what was actually budgeted Proposition C have a slight increase and note that I'm representing for you here anything that's 100 000 higher than budgeted or 100 000 lower than budgeted earnings on investments or temporary deposits 418 750. Food Service sales of reimbursable meals to pupils came in stronger at 579 thousand other pupil activity 867 000 and typically with that one we budget an offsetting expenditure to revenue so it's possible that the expenditure side is also uh higher than or lower on con expenditure Community Services 343 395 our preschool tuition actually is one that shows that it came in under budget so digging into what is causing that or what caused that in the FY 23 year and then we have a prior period adjustment that is an anomaly and

052that's 583 362. for County revenue we have one code that produces itself on that one hundred thousand dollar threshold and that's data says Railroad and utility taxes came in stronger than was budgeted at one hundred and ten thousand oh seventy five and for that particular Revenue we often budget what we receive the year before because we don't have strong indicators on what that might look like for state revenue basic formula we have that back payment of financial institutions tax that came in and it's coded under basic formula skewing that information ever so slightly three million eight ninety three 105 our early childhood special ed Revenue came in under budget by 142 000 110 educational screening and program entitlement that's parents as teachers so we received additional Revenue there then was anticipated by 424.035 and then

053lastly our Career Education came in stronger at 289.90 for federal revenue Medicaid was higher at 332 658 sr3 so actually there are several Esser and cares funds codes listed there and so uh those were different than what was originally projected within the revised budget are also ARP Ida came in slightly under and then our regular Ida entitlement which is our special education Revenue it came in 287 978 under what we anticipated I referenced previously about our nutrition services program so we had stronger participation and likely our Revenue budget was understated than where it should have been or fy23 and part of that is due to all the changes based on the waivers based on special funding formulas that were implemented uh relative to the pandemic so stronger by 1.819 million for lunch and 253 000

054for breakfast Child Care Development Fund Grant that Revenue was received one million 469 432 again we will be conducting deep Dives on all of these categories and bring you additional information in the coming months to help you and the department better understand where the Gap was for federal we have one line to show you Transportation received from other leas and that is I'm sorry not federal that is um it's truly other districts other District Revenue 262 377. so now we'll pivot to the expenditure side and the comprehensive gap on revised budget versus how much we received was 5 million 157.073 now what that means is we did not spend every dollar budgeted in the fiscal year that just closed by 5 million one fifty Seven oh seventy three salary we had excess budget of 3

055million 162 281 benefits 381 785 purchase Services 226 728 supplies one million 284 479 equipment Thirty One Thousand eight and then Debt Service operating seventy thousand to make up that total so to provide you with context some of those numbers sound large but when you look at the large budget that we manage these percentages tell the story for you so salaries while it was 3.162 Million higher that's 2.31 percent of actual salary expenditures for benefits the excess represented less than one percent 0.76 of a percent purchase Services was slightly over one percent higher than budgeted and that resulted in the 226 728 and then lastly supplies nearly a 10 gap on supplies and there are some some significant categories within that area so 1.284 million left on the on the table for supplies this further

056breaks down for you highlight for you that for regular salaries our budget was stronger a lot of that is relative to unfilled positions you can see also that our substitute cost for both certificated and classified staffs we spent more than what we had budgeted or those particular object codes and then we also have an opportunity to take a look at how do we budget in France's health for our unused leave and Severance payoff so those both came in exceeding the budget that had been allocated for them now Missouri statute requires on all expenditures that we cover the expense by fund that's the extent of the requirement so there's no problem that we have a little give and take Within These object codes and that provides us that flexibility that we need as we ensure that

057we are appropriately budgeting but we would still desire that we get closer on these budgets moving forward under the benefits category you can see the retirement or non-teacher came in with extra budget left and that is 446 781 employee Insurance exceeded budget by nearly two hundred thousand dollars and then work comp worker compensation we had excess budget of 148 000 215. for purchase Services again there are a variety of categories here I will highlight for you the larger ones purchase Services Under the instructional Services category we did not spend six hundred and six thousand to twelve we did spend additional over budget under contracted people Transportation 663 688 and we've had conversations in the past about the McKinney binto Act and homeless transportation and I would expect that that is what we'll find those would

058be applicable to we also had other purchase Services we exceeded budget by 771 000. for supplies we had a significant amount in the General Supply code so one million three fifty three seven ten I didn't mention before but the percentage of total is listed in each of these categories so that you can see we definitely had some some excessive budget left in the supply category on the other hand gasoline and Diesel we expended more than we had allocated by 224 092 and normally I would say we will need to increase the budget in that category but we know that we have the the new information together this year as routes are deployed and expenditures change for that so so upcoming Financial impacts just that reminder that we will provide you with the tax rate hearing

059and the levy calculation in September we have preliminary information from the county and we're vetting that to ensure that we provide you with an accurate calculation as a reminder we do that using this data Auditor Office calculation process and their interactive website to assist us through that process also September represents the first month during which all employees in the district are paid based on the new salary schedules based on new hires or people who've retired so all of that data comes to play during the September payroll so after that we immediately start assessing how will the current year budget for salary benefits perform relative to what we can anticipate based on annual calculations the future impact on the tax credits is unknown for us so that would be something we would continue to watch and

060then we have been advised by the department of Elementary and secondary education then there could be changes coming relative to that Transportation formula that we've received last year and we have anticipation of bully receiving this year so another thing for us to watch um lastly the Missouri State Board of Education met on August 15th and one of the agenda items for them was the state adequacy Target it will be recalculated it gets recalculated every two years the past two times it has not changed it's remained steady at 6375 per average daily attendee which means no new money from the state on basic formula calculation so it's been that way for five years but because of the change in M sub six and the group of districts that will be accumulating those average costs we are

061anticipating that there will be an increase in the discussion is that it will go up so that could be some great news for us we'll find out more in the coming month but keep in mind that we have a 2.5 million dollar reduction that we refer to as a funding clip when the pandemic provision on the basic formula calculation falls off so that statute that's providing that protection for us where we're able to reach back and grab our FY 20 attendance data for our students we will no longer have that ability and that's a Statewide implication we are not alone in the impact it just depends on changed within each district in terms of the total that would happen so moving forward we will be digging more deeply as I mentioned we'll take a look

062at where were these budget gaps where do they occur we will provide you that budget amendment that we will learn through this process and then using the updated fy24 budget amendment we will provide you then that multi-year projection data that helps us better understand what is sustainable for Francis Health and monitoring regularly and bringing you the adjustments as as we know them that is it if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer those I don't have a question but I have a comment and I just want to applaud all of your hard work and your dedication to transparency what you just presented is I mean it's an incredible amount of data obviously and I just want to congratulate you on being able to make sense of all of it I hope we all

063understood what you've been saying but it's you just phenomenal so so I'll say uh Mr Myers uh he's the wizard behind the curtain I I it takes a village yes it does it does especially in accounting and we're a team and you know we'll all be collaboratively talking about this all the leaders of the various departments and working toward having good information for you I do have a question you mentioned that and the the salaries would start in September and you would start assessing in October is there other Revenue that comes in later in October that may affect any everything so that you would not know or be able to project out until maybe November that makes sense from a revenue perspective we should really be able to get a good handle on that in

064the next few weeks and so I'm hoping that we'll have even new data for you in September the salary and benefit piece which typically runs you know 75 to 80 percent of your operating budget that will be following the September payroll so that would be in October but also in the meantime all those purchase services and supply codes we should be able to take a look at what that information tells us for an adjustment perspective so we'll have it all except for salary and benefits we'll trail behind I just have a quick question on Carol um are all the Esser funds and any kind of funds like that all will be done after this year that would be correct um I'm I don't have anything on my radar that would be allowed to go beyond

065that part of the review process thank you I have one question I know that you said that you're gonna when you have the data from what the full is going to be paid for our staff and everything in the month of September in the past we've always had to we've talked about maybe having to get spend where we didn't have enough in our budget to pay our employees do you see that as a an option do you see that is coming down this year do you see as of right now that we should be okay to make because we know our revenues don't come in until January after the property tax do we see that as being an issue we don't anticipate needing to have a tax anticipation note is what you're referring that's what

066it is and when when districts are highly dependent on local Revenue you do sometimes need to borrow funds temporarily until you get your tax revenue and no the answer to your questions we do not unexpected me to do that okay great refreshing yeah thank you it's it's not even questions no I I would like to say it and I'm so glad that we're doing these monthly Financial reports I think this is huge we want to talk about transparency this is huge to help us keep the taxpayers informed as to what we're how we're handling the money here with how you're how good of a job you guys are done with the money so I appreciate these monthly reports so we just have one quick question though please I know you have a lot of experience

067and experience in other districts how much uh kind of variance would you normally expect or have you seen in the past going through budgets it it can vary most definitely and it really boils down to having attention month over month of what you see occurring okay um I will say that for me in the past I considered it a huge celebration if my salary and benefits were within let's say 0.5 to 0.75 percent um if I had that excess budget limited to that we're you know in excess of two percent currently but um that that's really the goal and I wouldn't say that we've looked at it from an overall budget perspective but it really boils it down to me also for uh having that fun balance that carries us to the point where we

068don't need to borrow money to pay our people and that that means an increase in my balance prior year end did I answer your question yeah okay okay thank you Lord all those in favor say aye aye I was opposing now I said it thank you or like a motion to approve the purchases over 7 500 as presented sure stay glitch all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed to say no I just have it or like a motion improved purchase over 7 500 number eight c-e-s-t-a-g as presented a big glitch honor discussion board yeah thank you for pulling this Adam um I guess basically what I want to say is I have a strategic and possibly an ideological disagreement with with this expense first the training that um this addresses is only

069for internal threats by identifying and categorizing those threats um and nothing about external threats which you know there's both according to the website there's two different types of threads one's transient and one substantive transient could be just joking around and usually ends up with an apology so substantive is a real threat about raping or killing someone and the way you ascertain it if it if it's a and that's the way you ascertain it if it's a substance threat it's filling out a form which they provide for free on their website and then you enlist some action by maybe law enforcement so my question is if the child says hey I'm going to kill you and then they apologize with what kind of threat is it that substitute or is that just transient I think we

070need to call attention to the threats that I believe most first I think if we call attention to the threats that I believe most teachers are going to see during their tenure then I trust our teachers to know the difference between transient and substantive just by Nature I do believe that our teachers are that good and that they don't need a farm to fill out second shouldn't we be getting our Law Enforcement Officers into the room for substance threats before we fill out a form instead of a a group of psychiatrists and psychologists done art Law Enforcement Officers offered to do this for No Charge should we be partnering with them as opposed to an outside agency such as this this is a train the trainer program and while in most situations that's a great

071way to educate I I ask how trainers would be picked I'm not sure I got a well if I'd answer just said they would be picked from a bigger group that was I guess of participating or looking at it for bids 2022 The Proposal mentions partnering with St Louis Public Schools I'm I'm confused as to why we don't you know partner with somebody out here Wentzville like St Louis or I'm sorry Wentzville Fort sumo I guess what I'm trying to say is for those of those that know me kids security is a utmost importance to me as you know I've I've probably garnered each one of you individually at some time and said you know let's do something about you know making sure these kids are safe I'm not sure this fills the bill in

072my estimation um but I'd like to hear anybody else's comments president Bertrand if I can share a little bit information thank you treasure pushkar you bring those are some good points and good questions I think we have an opportunity to better explain a little bit about what this model actually is and so yes there are internal and external threats and when we think about school and District safety we often focus on those Eternal external threats how are we keeping people out of our buildings how are we responding when there's a crisis or something takes place in the building this model specifically is focused on internal threats when we think about students or potentially staff might make threats or exhibit behaviors that we would want to be responsive to so really this is a model it's

073not a program we're buying um the training is actually working with our internal teams within the district to train people to do it so when we think about the different types of threats regardless of the type of threat it is it isn't just a form it is a team that would come together within the building and that team includes building administrators we have District administrators who are involved it includes a counselor or emotional support counselor and it includes the SRO in each building so law enforcement is involved from the beginning that team comes together and what the model is that then they can evaluate the threat that was made so they look to determine was the threat credible what is the context within which it was made do we believe the student has access to

074a webinar they might do it that team can make that decision the SRO is part of it so in a critical situation the student could be taken into custody or the police are involved to do that from the beginning to really determine is it credible I mean to take action and so then when we follow up with the after steps it is a situation where there may be discipline based on the threat that took place it may be encouraging or asking the family to pursue additional medical or mental health supports for the student there could be an opportunity for apologizing or repairing the relationship during it but then it also allows us to track some of these behaviors and information over time so that if a student were to make a threat as a junior

075in high school we could go back and see this also happened as a freshman in eighth grade so there's a pattern of such Behavior when we talk about the training back in September of last school year the board approved this and we did an initial training of Staff within the district because again to have that team of five or six in each building trained will take some time after the first training our buildings really liked it and wanted more of their staff trained so back in July of this year the board approved doing two more trainings in-house this year that cost will get expensive over the next several years as we train new people to keep doing the training so the idea here is now to take a group of leaders who have experienced the

076training that could go get trained so they can come back and on an ongoing basis provide additional training within the district the piece with St Louis Public Schools is only that they also are working with this company and so we can invite them to our training and go to theirs to help defray the cost so when we did the initial training last year they purchased spots at our training and it was just a way that we lowered the cost to Francis Howell by them participating with their teams as well it's something we'd be happy to continue to provide updates around it and again we recognize this is only one piece of overall District Safety and Security but it's an important piece we we realize because oftentimes you know students begin acting differently or acting out

077or we see behaviors that are concerning and absolutely right our teachers are the first ones to see that they're tuned into that right when a kid comes into the room so they can then contact the appropriate people in the building to go through the process of assessing the student in the situation okay maybe if I can paraphrase and make sure so we kind of have this we've already started this process it's kind of a goal you know maybe the standardize it across the across the district so we're all doing things the same way so we have kind of a Baseline and a foundation that we continue to be better at and if we're going to continue to utilize this we want to bring that training in-house correct thank you additional questions board who will Who

078will look or what sort of process are you going to have in place to verify that the Train the train or process is working that were staying up to date with the best of the best how will we do that yeah so the treatment we'll post them up there the trainers will be selected from the all of our principals our counselors our sros our educational support counselors that's the group going through the initial training the approved the trainers will be the eight folks that are selected from that group that's gone through initial training and so once we've identified those eight folks they'll get the additional training that'll allow them to then become the trainers that provide that admission training so to miss pushkar's point we haven't identified those eight folks yet so I I can't

079give you the names of the folks that we'll select but it'll be from that Guru so they'll likely be an SRO there will likely it'll likely be our district mental health coordinator it'll likely be an educational support counselor it will be one of the counselors so it'll be eight of those folks they'll have to maintain certification we don't know that you've approved it yet so I don't have an ongoing plan for year to year what that will look like we've partnered with St Louis Public to help offset the cost we did reach out to St Charles County districts they either already have a program they're not there yet to have a threat assessment model in place they didn't have funds to do it they timing wasn't right St Louis Public was the one that was

080willing to partner with us so it wasn't that we didn't try to it's that we weren't able to okay so the so the the Train the official to the eight trainers will then be obviously get the initial training and then I'm assuming there will be some annual biannual training then to help update them as to hey I'll be honest I don't most organizations have a um uh criteria to maintain your certification to be a trainer some companies it's an annual training you have to go to some it's every three years you have to recertify I don't know off the top of my head I can get you that information I don't know what their criteria is our goal is every year we hire new principals new counselors we have new sros that come in we

081have new educational support counselors and it's going to be more cost effective in the long run for us to have internal trainers so that if we hire a new educational support counselor mid-year if we hire a new or uh the police department switches out an SRO mid-year we're able to provide that training throughout the school year because we have internal trainers that can provide it throughout the year if we have to break the company in annually to provide the training it's just not a it's it'll just be a slower process so our desire is to have eight people in-house and we will be able we'll just be more Nimble to provide ongoing training I don't have an answer to your question of how often will we have to re-certify the trainers I would imagine there

082is a frequency to which we'll have to do that but I would tell you just from my experience with professional development their fees their train the trainer program this is their cost like at Cost they're this is not a profit making organization normally it's significantly more expensive well I appreciate but Dr Buckman say that when you put eight trainers that one of them will be including intimate director pushkar's point if she had mentioned that sros making sure our police are involved we would make sure that an SRO was part of this training team or one of our police officers I don't want to commit to that because I don't know that we've decided who the trainers will be yet but they will be part of the group that the trainers would be selected from I

083would imagine that that would be part of the consideration part of what we have to look for is what does their schedule look like if we're pulling an SRO to provide training throughout the year then that's leaving a building without an SRO every time that we're pulling to provide training so it could be that we decide well they might be a great trainer if we Vision offering six trainings throughout the year that's six days throughout the year that a building's without an SRO and logistically that's probably not a great idea so it's not that we don't want an SRO as a trainer it said that doesn't make sense but you would still look at that as a possibility for sure okay I just want because I I think director brought up a good point I

084just want to make sure that that would be it could be that we hire are we higher like we invite one to be part of the trainer group and they do the summer training site right we haven't decided yet okay thank you sorry no no thank you okay I I appreciate both of your comments and and your perspective I truly do I as I mentioned earlier in what I was talking about I mean this may be an ideological difference in opinion and that is if there's a a threat being you know whether it be a gun or Whatever It Is by a by a kid shouldn't that be handled or addressed by a model developed by police as opposed to psychiatrists I guess that's basically what I'm getting at because law enforcement does they do

085create models and they do do training I'm not saying that you know I wasn't asking for who this these people were going to be that were going to be hired I wasn't getting that far down into it but what I what I'm trying to I guess stand on it to say is that if it's a legal infraction then my thought is my belief is that it should be modeled after something that the police have already developed and to get them involved at the at the beginning instead of after you know going through whether or not it's a substance a threat or a trans instead of going through all that I can't give you more details um I don't have all of them in front of me but I can tell you that this model was

086developed based on recommendations from the FBI and from the Secret Service and so it very much is grounded in police research it's not necessarily grounded in like here's what the counselors think we should do it really is a partnership it's what the entire state of Virginia is using right so to your point yes and I think that that is part of the processes that are in there it the desire is really kind of to president bertransploit the we have 23 sites over 100 administrators and counselors that are responding to these situations and we want to make sure that we're doing it in a consistent manner building to buildings so that if you know Miss embry's child says XYZ and my child says XYZ that as a school system we're handling it in the same approach

087and it's not this administrator handled it this way in this administrator him but this way that school safety looks the same from site to site and this is our way of kind of handling it with a uniform approach so that we can ensure at our level some consistency that's safe for the student but that's also ensuring some safety for the other students around them so that's the goal that this model provides we also the team that came together and spent about a year working through this to identify a model or a system we might use they have five different programs and models they looked at in some of our sros in the district were part of the team that also helped select this model so at least internally they were a part of the group

088that helped make this decision and support utilizing this model I also wonder in my head too if this gets approved tonight if we can maybe in a future meeting once they've gone through training have some of some of the trainers come come to the board meeting maybe present on it one is kind of practice run but also to inform us with the public and how they're what they're learning how handling those situations and I'd like to looking from the teacher's point of view well you you mentioned that it's this is a well-liked program that's what I'm trying to expand it and you know make it make it a district wide um uh program can you can you give me some I want to look at it from the teacher's point of view and and and

089understand how how they like it why they like it um and if you think it'll be something that could uh retain teachers in the future um how that if you thought of that side of it so our teachers don't use it it's for counselors administrators sros educational support counselors I hope I'm not forgetting a group of folks um and again it's just that model so that when a student makes a threat I'm so mad I'm going to kill you um that there's a process to use on how we assess that threat was that they use the words transient and substantive I believe um is that a legitimate threat is there something behind that and there's a there's a process to miss pushkard's Point there's a form but it's not just about filling out the form

090the form kind of walks them through a process that they're using they're considering all points and it triggers when do I need to move to the next step and involve law enforcement when do I need to reach out to that um I want to get you it walks them through the process to use and so there's some comfort in that as an adult because as you can imagine there's a lot of threats that as an adult I might feel a lot of pressure to make the right call that's a lot of pressure on an adult and so there's some comfort in that it's a support that we're putting in place for the adults that are dealing with some big situations yeah to be clear I I know that the teachers aren't going to use this

091but what I'm looking more at is how how is this affecting the teachers and their ability for discipline within the schools and is that something that you can look forward to and say well I think that the way that this is working is going to attract other teachers and and retained on the teachers in the future I think most often when we hear from teachers about discipline behaviors is that you'll hear there's a lack of consistency that you know if I send them to this administrator they come right back or if I send them here they ignore what are they doing or if I send to this person it's taken serious in their sent right home I I would say speaking for the teachers that I I think how they would interpret this is that

092it provides that consistency and that Clarity so they know that if a student makes a threat it's not on them to determine if it's serious or not it doesn't matter which administrator they might see but they're going to be sent to the office the team will come together and follow this process consistently which will look at these different factors in making a determination of how to move forward with it and I would like to believe that that would the teachers would feel good about that and that it is provide some consistency to the process another discussion board I'll just throw it out there because I would imagine many people watching might now have a lot of questions about the threat assessment model Dr Vanderpool did do a best practice session at the April board meeting

093about it so for those at home that are watching and are now wondering what in the world the threat assessment model is there is a great best practice session at the April Ward meeting it has all the details about it how we landed on it what it looks like there's a whole slideshow about it so there you go thank you for that clarification Connie all right board all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed say no I just have it all right next we have Miss Jim Jones presenting honors stakeholder shipping thank you Mr Bertrand and if you did not get your fill of numbers from Miss embry's presentation you're in luck because we are going to dive into some more data and percentages and all kinds of things tonight but I'm going

094to try to go through this pretty quickly and keep it pretty high level I'll get us started and then I'm going to kick it over to Dr rumpus to talk about next steps and kind of how we're going to use the information so um first just a little bit of context you may recall that right before the end of last school year we distributed a survey to get feedback from the community the survey was sent via email to all parents and Guardians our staff and all community members who are subscribed to our email list and then we also posted it to the district website and so again I'll give you a high level overview of the results thank you too many arrows okay um so as you'll see here the survey was open for just

095over two weeks from May 11th through May 26th and the purpose of the survey is really to help us understand what the district is doing well in addition to the opportunities for improvement we wanted to know how to best engage our community as we move forward and use that information to inform the district's next strategic plan and I also want to say up front that we recognize this is not a scientific or Norm survey the full of people who received it is limited but what is important from the survey is the general themes as they serve as an indicator of the overall culture and climate of the district at this particular moment or at least as of May 11. so you'll see here we had more than 1300 participants start the survey and about 1

096246 actually answered all questions there was an ability to skip some things so we had a couple people skip here we had a good mix of stakeholders we have parents staff and residents in all areas of the district were represented in responses and if you're a math person you're saying well then that doesn't add up to 100 and those of you who took the survey probably remember that you could select all relationships that apply so like I'm a parent in the district I'm a staff member and I also live in the district so I would be counted in all of those buckets if that makes sense so if they're not mutually exclusive categories so we'll first look at our quantitative questions or our rating questions and then we'll move into some of the qualitative themes

097that we found in the data on this slide and then the next few they're going to be formatted the same way and there's a lot going on so let me talk you through it you'll see three columns of data here this year's scores are on the far right and they are compared with scores from the last two years of data we have so there's one pre-covered year in 2019 and then last year's data in 2022. you'll see the number of responses we've received this year and last year are pretty similar between 13 and 1500 but the 2019 survey for reasons I am not sure if this was before my time I only had 327. so just keep that in mind just normally there on this first set of questions we asked respondents to rate the

098district on a number of topics similar to a school report card so we asked them to grade us on a scale of grades basically a being the best in F being failing so you'll see that on these three topics involves citizens and decision making reporting our plans in progress and responsiveness the percentage of respondents reading the district's efforts in these areas as a or b increased suggesting the district made improvements in these areas over the prior year we then took those same three questions and we looked at the percentage of respondents who rated the district's efforts as a d or F and so given the increase we saw in A's and B's we would expect the failing grades to go down and you see here that they did so the takeaway for us on this

099is that the district has a better report card in essence in these areas more A's and B's and fewer D's than F's than the year prior so that suggests we're moving in the right direction based on these issues right here these topics the next series of questions asked respondents to rank each statement from strongly Agree to Agree let's go see the statements listed there this slide overall is really about engagement it shows the percentage of respondents who indicated they agree or strongly agree with the statements listed here there were very little change from last year many categories didn't change at all in terms of percentage really the two that did slightly fewer people say they watch or attend board meetings and slightly more people indicate they read news from the district on a regular basis

100one thing you'll see here is that less than 40 percent of respondents are familiar with say that they're familiar with the district's budget even though the vast majority pay taxes here and so that tells us we have an opportunity to better educate stakeholders around budget and financial issues which Miss Embry has already started doing and finally it should be noted that this data represents respondents right and not necessarily the entire community and so we know because of our survey pool the respondents by and large are people who are at least somewhat engaged you had to care enough to open your email take the time to fill out the survey and so we understand there are other stakeholders who either didn't have the opportunity they're not on the email list didn't have an opportunity or click

101delete or sent us to spam Miss Jones share though that we did try and seek opportunities we sent the survey out to some of our chamber groups our community groups that were connected to and did ask people to try and disseminate at a larger level we understand we won't reach everyone but we are continue to try and find Opportunities to engage the community larger than just our staff and our parents recognizing that our taxpayer base is much larger thank you all right and then moving on to our next set of questions still in that same format again the district made improvements in each of these areas over last year so you'll see that a strong majority of stakeholders agree that Francis Howe offers a high quality education and prepares students for the future but less

102than half agree that the district spends taxpayer funds effectively and efficiently and though there were improvements in this area more than half of respondents do not trust District leadership to make good decisions and one thing that became apparent when we looked at the open-ended responses is that some of the survey questions could benefit from additional Clarity so if we do this survey again we want to look at that so for example some respondents interpreted District leadership as the superintendent being new in his role someone interpret this to interpret it as the entire administrative team and some interpreted it as the board of education so we just I think if we do this again it might give us better better opportunities to understand people's perspectives if we clarify what we mean by District leadership and then

103there are two new questions we added to the survey this year versus last year and so you'll see here this first one these were really designed to measure the impact of some of the concerted efforts that Dr rumpus and the leadership team have made to build relationships increase transparency and improve trust so here you'll see that 63 percent of respondents agree or strongly agree that the district has made efforts to be more transparent in the last 12 months with only 12 percent disagreeing with that statement okay and then this is the second new question we added in terms of overall satisfaction you'll see a relatively even split among respondents who feel more satisfied with the way things are going this year those who feel less satisfied and those who are neutral so if you stack

104your agree and strongly agree together and you consider that agree and strongly disagree and disagree together you'll see that it's really about the same but what's interesting here is you know a large number of folks kind of stayed neutral so no things they feel the same that they did a year ago all right and then there was another question on the survey that asked respondents to rate their overall trust in the district and its leadership from a scale of one to ten so one being low 10 being high and so the purpose for the purpose of this slide those who rated their level of trust is a seven or better were categorized as high trust and those who rated it as a four or lower were put in a category of low trust and so

105you'll see the comparison to the year prior down in Yelp at the bottom of the slide in yellow so you'll see there were some improvements over last year but there's still significant opportunity here for the district to continue building trust with stakeholders for those who rated their level of trust is low that was that four or below they got a follow-up question so if you for someone you took the survey and you rated it as a high a four or seven or higher you didn't see this question um but those who rated it low we said what can the district do to strengthen your trust and support and it was an open-ended question and these were some of the things that we read in the comments um so one thing really being around communication so

106this desire for the district to continue to be open honest and transparent about the curriculum and budget involves stakeholders and decision making where appropriate listening to all voices more two-way communication not just pushing information out but considering input from stakeholders and there were also a number of references to keeping politics out of Education others said the district needs to demonstrate fiscal responsibility in order to earn their trust so that things like spending dollars wisely being transparent about how funds are being spent and showing evidence of long-term planning and finally there's strong support for our teachers and staff and some respondents indicating it would take improved working conditions and competitive pay to earn their trust and support so you'll see some of these same themes that will come up again as we move through the open-ended

107questions the two open-ended questions were what is the district doing well and what can the district improve so I'll go over some of the top themes in those areas we'll start with what we're doing well communication and transparency was a strong theme throughout the responses with many stakeholders acknowledging the positive steps taken over the last year things like the citizens Roundtable the prop s audit were mentioned as examples of the district being transparent and inviting the community in problem solving the next theme was quality of Education comments expressed satisfaction with the education provided by the district mentioning academic rigor or stem programs a wide variety of electives and specialized courses including AP classes next Francis how teachers received High Praise for their dedication hard work and caring attitudes the efforts of teachers to engage Challenge

108and support students are highlighted some mention the need to retain good teachers and you'll see this come up again when we discuss opportunities in terms of sports and extracurriculars respondents liked the variety of opportunities that students have at Francis Howe with regard to sports and music programs and other clubs and organizations there was also a theme of student safety and well-being comments here touched on the feeling of safety in the school environment and the measures taken to ensure the physical and emotional security including mental health support were a lot of comments around our sros especially being you know being able to protect many of our elementary schools last year being the first time for that really came through as a positive for what the district was doing and then with regard to leadership and administration

109the text reflects opinions about the superintendent board members and District administrators citing their commitment to Improvement rebuilding trust and making strategic decisions to steer the direction The District in the right direction on a number of fronts and the final theme that emerged was really around Community engagement and responsiveness so the text reflects the sense of community involvement with many stakeholders again feeling that their opinions are being heard and the district is working to build a closed community and making efforts to repair trust and build relationships so the survey also highlighted then a number of opportunities for the district and what's interesting you look at the data is some of these themes are really familiar they look familiar because they're kind of opposite sides of what we saw in terms of our celebrations or things we're

110doing well so teacher support and retention there's a real concern that we are losing and will continue to lose quality teachers to other districts if we can't find a way to pay them more that was really the strongest theme that came through the opportunities a recurring theme is really again around providing those competitive wages and benefits to attract and retain the very best teachers and stuff fiscal responsibility was another strong theme with stakeholders wanting more evidence that the district is spending money wisely there's a call for more responsible handling of funds with some advocating for a focus on the basics and cautioning against unnecessary spending on technology and curriculum that may not be essential to Student Success student Behavior was another theme concerns about bullying vaping student discipline and safety within schools and buses were

111repeatedly mentioned stakeholders are calling for stronger measures to keep children safe old students accountable for their actions and ensure a respectful learning environment stakeholders also shared concerns about student Stress and Anxiety and would like to see proactive measures to address mental health as a way to help and protect students the next team was around curriculum there were different perspectives that emerged on this particular theme some wanted to see more diversity in the curriculum While others want the district to get back to basics and focus on Reading Writing Math and Science some stakeholders want increased academic rigor and standards While others want a well-rounded education that includes all viewpoints and some want over those things topics related to culture and climate include calls for tolerance and inclusivity more diversity among staff respect for traditional Family Values

112concerns about gender issues in schools and contradictory opinions about how Dei should be approached there are also concerns about the influence of politics in schools the pushing of particular agendas and the need to keep politics out of educational decisions and curriculum next is family and Community engagement we've seen this theme a couple of times comments under this theme really relate to the need for better communication more communication between schools and parents specifically including enforcement of rules collaboration and decision making and opportunities for Parental involvement and then at the district level there's a desire for more communication including Community meetings similar to the Roundtable series and factual information not just PR this will allow the district to continue building trust with stakeholders which many stakeholders in the comments said they see that as an essential step

113toward gaining support for any future ballot initiatives and finally facilities and infrastructure are an area of opportunity for the district concerns about the state of physical infrastructure including our school buildings parking lots and drains are mentioned with stakeholders calling for better maintenance and responsible planning there's an awareness that the district's 23 school facilities are not Equitable with some schools in better shape than others comments also highlighted the need for better technology access for all students however opinions on technology usage within the classroom specifically seem divided some advocating for increased Tech availability and integration and others expressing concern that over-reliance on technology and a need to return to more traditional teaching methods so you see lots of like if you noticed again the sort of the celebrations and the opportunities oftentimes where opposite sides of the

114same particular topic so with that I'll turn it over to Dr rumpus and I'll remain here for questions thank you thank you so board looking looking at this information we really need to think about how we as a leadership team use this to continue to move forward and to better engage our stakeholders if we go back to the purpose of the survey when we pushed it out a little over a year ago it was really meant to give me and the leadership team some direction about where we needed to go when we think about how we spend our time our limited resources and what our community really needs when we talk about how we better engage them we ultimately want to continue providing one of the best educational experiences in the state of Missouri and

115that requires us being able to recruit and retain the best staff and that ultimately requires strong salaries and benefits combined with a culture and climate where staff really want to work it also requires in order for us to do that us being able to fund the programs and resources necessary to provide a high quality education for over 16 000 students within this community and that needs to be balanced by demonstrating fiscal stability that our community both deserves and expects we often talk about these things as either or that they're polar topics as were several of the items that Mr Jules listed and I think as we move forward we really need to think about the opportunity to talk about both and these don't need to be we either do this or we do this but

116how do we find the combination of those things that will best serve our entire community and we plan to do that through opportunities to educate and share our financial information with all stakeholders in a variety of different formats to increase their transparency one of those first steps was tonight having this Embry come up and share the information which we plan to do on a monthly basis looking at some of our round tables and other events we hold and how those could be used to better inform our community about our finances to answer the questions they have and to really help them understand it school Finance in some ways it can be complicated it doesn't have to be and the more we're talking about it and sharing the information the better that understanding becomes for everyone

117we're excited to work with the board as president Bertrand shared last month and worked through a new strategic plan and updating it this fall that process will allow us the opportunity to revisit our priorities and really focus on what's most important to this community and the goals the board has for the district and for administration as we move through the next several years we received a lot of positive feedback about the citizen roundtables that we did last year so we do plan to hold three of those again this year and we'll be announcing topics and dates for those in the near future again when we think about engaging the community it's about providing a variety of different formats there are some people that love coming to the board meetings or tuning in online and they

118get their information this way there are some of our parents and constituents who only can attend events at the building I'm the stakeholder roundtables were another opportunity for a different group of citizens to come together and share information in a format that really a lot of people to just hear different ideas and not let any one person control the conversation overall so we look forward to continuing those we're doing a comprehensive review of steps for the district after the audit results are released we understand that the audit was initially requested and brought because of prop s but the reality is when the state auditor comes in they're auditing everything we do all of our processes and systems within the district and so we know that when Auditors come in they're going to have findings of

119things that we can do better so once that report comes out we will have an opportunity as an administrative team and as a board to review that and talk about systems that we either need to put in place or to improve to continue effective and efficient operation within the district and last we we really continue to be focused on continuous Improvement as a new team last year we knew that there was a lot of trust that had been broken in the community that communication was at a low as was shown the first time we did the survey and so we put some intentional pieces in place last year and some action steps to try and approve that we're thrilled and we celebrate some of the small or incremental increases you saw in some of those

120questions last year but we also recognize that building trust and maintaining that trust is ongoing that's not something that will ever stop for us as a leadership team or in our work with you as a board of education and we recognize that our stakeholders whether we're talking about internal staff or teachers parents or just patrons and citizens of the community that everybody wants that level of understanding and communication from the district so they know what's going on so that ultimately we have the support of our community so I and our team committed are remain committed to that work we continue to welcome feedback from stakeholders both the positive things as well as the opportunities that we have to do things better and we want to incorporate that into the work understand that ultimately that's what

121will allow us to best serve our students and this community so we would be happy board if you have any specific questions about the survey or any of the information you heard to try and answer those questions [Music] question support Max we have superintendent comments thank you president Bertrand um first I would also like to take a moment and extend my gratitude to each and every one of the staff members of the district the dedication hard work and commitment that's put into place to prepare to reopen a school district of this size is pretty incredible whether that's working in our buildings and our grounds getting our buses ready or preparing classrooms for Monday and that work has not gone unnoticed so I want to thank everybody as they come back thank you and I know

122they were mentioned earlier but also specifically thanking everybody's working hard but custodial and maintenance teams have really been working overtime the last several weeks to make sure our schools and grounds are ready the reality is we offer a significant amount of Summer programming so for many people there is no break and to be able to get buildings ready to reopen even in the midst of Summer Camps Sports Camps vacation Station it is a pretty significant fee we also know that and we're well aware there have been HVAC issues throughout the district um most specifically very recently that actually has led to some schedule changes this week and having to be flexible in schedules I appreciate the teachers and the staff who have been flexible around that we understand that people have been working this week

123in the last few days and conditions that are not ideal everyone is working as hard as they can to address that so that we're prepared for our students on Monday last week a week ago Monday we welcomed just over 150 new Educators to this District they were squeezed into this space right here which was wonderful it was a high energy group and then this week we welcomed back our returning teachers and staff so this has been a week of preparation meetings professional development team building happening both at the district level and at the school level to prepare for the start of the year it's an exciting energy to work in a profession where you you have that you know we're all sad to say goodbye from the summer but you come back anticipating a new

124year and with all the excitement that brings so that we're ready to welcome back every student on the first day of school which we need to continue to remind everyone is next Monday August 21st today we held transition day which is a day where we invite all of our sixth graders and ninth graders to come they get to spend part of the day in their buildings meaning their staff they got to ride buses to school they receive an overview of the classes and really to help them feel comfortable in their new middle school or high school as part of that process it was also the first time then that some of our middle school and high school students had the opportunity to ride the bus together this morning which was one of the changes that

125we implemented this year with our transportation updates that we spoke about a lot last year I know that over the last couple of weeks there's been a lot of concern related around transportation and the changes we really did our best last year to communicate as those decisions were being made we got input we shared that they were coming we shared at the end of the year we shared over the summer but the reality is which we anticipated it wasn't until bus schedules were released last week and parents opened those up and looked at them that they really realized what those changes were and how they would impact them personally our transportation department has received hundreds of calls and emails which is the process when parents either have a concern or want something changed I want

126to thank our parents for being patient there's a team of people who are working through those and it does take some time to get through them but they are really doing their best to respond to each of those parents and try to address each person's situation understanding that they're each unique and need some special attention I also want to use this opportunity to remind parents that as those changes are made it causes some changes in the system so bus routes that continue to change sometimes have continued to change we do try to communicate those out when they happen but I want to make sure everyone's aware that that will continue to happen even after the school year starts as we figure out who's riding who's not writing and we make Corrections especially now that we've

127combined more routes those will continue to change and so I just I thank everyone for being patient again we'll try to communicate as those changes happen but please anticipate that there still will be additional changes as we start the school year and work through that one other group I would like to thank is our Central County Fire and Rescue who is always a huge supporter of the Francis Howell School District last week they donated a whole set of backpacks and school supplies to the district we have those and ultimately they'll be gifted to students as needs arise and so we thank them for their ongoing partnership and recognize that that's a great help for our students one last thing I want to recognize that we also still have some staff openings specifically in our paraprofessional

128positions our custodial positions and for substitute teachers so if you know people who are looking for full-time and part-time work we do have openings and please encourage them to reach out to Francis Howell and to our human resources department so as we gear up to welcome our students back on Monday which is really why we're all here and what the work is about again I want to reiterate to our staff that the hard work they do is not unnoticed we know that they've been preparing not only their physical spaces their classrooms their buses our buildings but they're also setting the foundation for a successful and enriching Academic School year for all of our students their dedication to the work is truly commendable and we're glad to have them back and to welcome our students on

129Monday [Music] in fact we have board comments or requests um I would like to say that I had the opportunity to visit some of the schools this week some of my buddy schools and took credit to Dr rumpus and his administrative team and to Anita Keener in her and all of her teachers I have never seen it's been a long time since I saw the kind of enthusiasm I saw this last week I saw it at the high school I saw it in the middle school I saw it at the elementary school people are excited to be here in Francis Hall and I think that just says a lot for our administrative team and for our teachers and for our paraprofessionals hmm I guess I'll chime in uh the the few schools that I visited

130this week and the early traveling Center all look great lots of Buzz and excitement I think they're ready for the kids to come back next week and hopefully have a great year um Adam I'd like to request that we Farm a Citizens panel for school safety I know of a few parents that might be interested in joining to just them kind of being an advisory capacity letting us know what they hear they'd be like our boots on the ground I'd like to involve you and and Dr rampas and and whoever else maybe Mark Ponder um to to be on this to help guide this panel and and help us get information that we need when we make decisions about the safety of our kids board um I would just like to say thanks to all

131our teachers and staff I've been in a number of schools going to all the meet the teachers and open houses and everything does echoing everybody else everything does look great and everybody seems well prepared and all the kids seem excited and ready for the new school year so thank you unlike you guys I'm gonna wait till the schools are full and then I'm gonna hop in uh more like a motion in or closed session discuss personnel 610.021 legal610.021 and terrorist incidents 610.021 sure glitch I'll lose a favor say aye aye opposing now here's thank you everybody for coming