001assistant all right good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under indivisible with liberty and justice for Allah hey Mr cook I have a question I don't know if we actually need to change the agenda but I would like to request a discussion is open on policy review mainly 9B the board director of policy changes we typically don't have discussion on first reads but I'd like to request that we do tonight discussion on informational item yes yes sure board can have a motion to approve the agenda for the June 15 2023 as a presented so moved second all those in favor say aye
002aye any opposed say no motion passes Patron comments the Board of Education welcomes comments from its Community a period of public comment is set aside at the beginning of each regular Board of Education meeting Court policy zero four one two regarding public participation in board meetings is available on board docs those interested in speaking during Patron comments are encouraged to visit the district website for more information about addressing the board during Patron comments residents of the district and staff members are invited to address the board on issues related to the school district speakers are called forward in the order of sign up and each speaker has three minutes to make their remarks please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining or giving your time to someone else
003is not permitted the board appreciates you've taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and perspective I'd like to remind everyone that we expect that speakers will remain civil and respectful when giving comments if anyone fails to comply with board policies regulations and rules we reserve the right to cut those three minutes short for your convenience our three-minute clock is ready we welcome Grace and Justice step forward [Music] all right next uh we have Terry Greer thank you so good evening um my name is Terry gear and I do reside in the Francis House school district and even though I never had children attend this school my grandchildren currently attend school in the district I'm also a volunteer for look ahead America which is a National Organization with the mission
004to stand up for patriotic Americans who feel they have been forgotten nowhere is this more Karen than a public or actually government-funded schools I'm uncertain as to when this began to happen but it appears that patriotism is no longer promoted to our students and that they have lost interest and do not realize the importance of being a citizen in the United States of America so one thing I did find out just kind of checking around I checked with my grandkids saying do the Pledge of Allegiance every day at school that's I'm really happy to hear that I also wasn't sure if we still um required Constitution uh studies of our high school students that I think I did find that as a part of the curriculum as well as competency so again that's that makes
005me very happy um look ahead America has put together a resolution that could and should be adopted by U.S educational institutions this is the reason that I came today to present this resolution to you the school board and decision makers in the district I would ask that you review the document and do what you can as Americans to help promote these ideals to our our students pledge to do this for myself the things I see in our great United States these days hurt my soul but more importantly I fear for the lives of those children currently in schools that are learning that they should hate the country as well as themselves for being who they are okay I do not see a reality of Independence or aspiration to succeed so I would like to see
006the school district you want to adopt and publish these policies we want to educate successful students but also proud Americans and citizens of the United States and if I could I'd just like to read the last two paragraphs of this document that I handed out the primary educational mission of this school district is to instill in our students of pride in the nation that our Founders have created and to develop a clear unbiased understanding of America's glorious history and the promise it holds for Untold generations to come we must instill in our students a love and respect of this nation its history institutions culture people and future and to embrace our great honor to live not just in this nation but for this nation work tirelessly to preserve and protect it and as our Founders
007did pledge to its survival Our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor thank you next up we have Kim Hutton good evening my name is Kim Hutton and I've lived in Saint Charles my entire life I come from a long line of farming families that held external conservative values and were devout Catholics I'm also the proud mom of a transgender child who told us we had their gender wrong at the age of two and a half after almost five years of dental correction endless therapy and ultimately the recommendation of three experts in this field we supported our child's social transition at seven years old and over time all of the medical care that he needed this naturally occurring transgender Human Experience is woven into families of all value systems religions and races today's binary gender
008model is simply a classification of gender into two distinct opposite forms of masculine and feminine created and imposed by culture religion or other societal pressures and does not account for the diversity of gender identities and expression that exist the fact is that gender variance is documented as far back as the Neolithic and bronze ages did you know that their pride is scientific and medical Minds in the world have established peer-reviewed medical standards of care to ensure transgender youth live happy and productive life in the United States the most respected medical associations support gender affirming care for transgender children including the American Academy of Pediatrics pediatric endocrine Society the endocrine Society Society for Atlas and health and medicine I could go on and off these medical associations acknowledge the grave danger faced by transgender children who
009are not supported a suicide risk factor of over 40 percent you must consider this before making any harmful and unnecessary policy that could result in extreme danger to a transgender student if it ain't broke you know you won't want to be the person held accountable for the damage before tonight you could leave and say well I didn't know or I didn't realize but now you can't say that now you know the risk factor and you all know of all the medical organizations recognizing the transgender experience and that the lack of support can result in suicide ideation on a more positive note as the parent of a transgender child I speak from experience not opinion and the unconditional love and support we raised our child with has resulted in him being smart buddy friendly and wildly
010well-liked adult with countless runs his recent three years at a Francis Hall School District High School only increased his confidence due to the support of teachers administrators and student body he changed out in the boys locker room and was voted to his school's Prime Court by fellow students never did I dream this could be his high school experience well done Francis Howell School District you should be so proud that the superintendent principals teachers and students thank you brilliantly you're navigating this experience this is a gold star for all of you in terms of diversity equity and inclusion thank you next up we have Daniel Marion good evening board members Administration my name is Daniel Marion I'm a school counselor at John Walden Elementary and a member of fhea both as a building representative as a
011member of the Union executive board I stand before you to ask the current board members to please think about the things you're saying from this day is the things you say really do matter you represent our school district parents students staff and patrons what you say from the day is in Your Capacity as a representative of our district reflects on us all for example I listen to you debate my job position when it was being proposed that a school counselor position be added at Daniel Boone under Grant funds appropriated for just such a use I listened as you debated the low-cost use of Telehealth instead of adding the Staffing position that will stay with your counseling staff in the district that you publicly proposed that we be replaced by Telehealth that a student in crisis
012tearing up a classroom could be asked to stop and speak to a counselor on an iPad or a telephone the worst affront however has come when board members congratulate each other publicly from the Deus for staying awake and alert through our district board meetings you've been elected as the best representatives to serve our community in making decisions that have already significantly impacted our students staff parents and patrons please do not so carelessly make light of the lives of our students and staff for whom you are having the job to make Monumental life-altering decisions it should be your honor and privilege to sit where you do and wield the ability to affect a child's life as a student now and as it carries into their future your jobs are crucial to everyone related to the Francis
013House School District if it is a trial to endure staying awake as you hear and contemplate the issues that pertain to our district perhaps as you consider your words as I asked you may also consider whether this is a job you should continue in representing the song thank you next we have Lori Leary hi good evening I'm going to keep it pretty quick tonight I just wanted to point out that I noticed some discrepancies on the policy committee meeting minutes from May 30th in regard to the four pin items all other items say approved and moved to first read however the four pin items State feedback will be provided to president for Tran two of those items are on the agenda for tonight as a patron that reads agendas I feel it necessary for the
014public to know where the policy committee stands on every policy revision or pin request and therefore the pin request should also be made public if the policy committee didn't recommend moving the request forward Why didn't it just state that but it move forward to tonight so why did the board choose to move forward these items many of you ran on a platform of transparency the public expects the same next we have Chris Brooks well books is going to be back after short Hades after a couple months here I wanted to start off with a couple notes of appreciation I wanted to mention appreciating the extra questions and answers that have been provided from the board and the discussion happening with the administration they've been very informative discussions during the meetings have certainly been much more
015detailed and in depth on things uh to the earlier Hickman's comment I deplore gotcha statements and I hope you take from this the idea that you should feel free to speak openly in public and I despise the fact that people would attempt to use discussion items in an attempt to cut you down or to grade your options and your ability to perform on the board as anyone in the engineering industry understands it's important to have free and open discussions when trying to come to a proper decision what really should be discussed later by everyone is so thank you for having open and honest discussions and hope you continue to do that I also really want to appreciate the budget department and the new budget format much more readable over previous years and although I wasn't
016in a previous meeting when the consultant presented that I wanted to compliment her on her presentation as well so thank you for that uh I wanted to to have a moment tonight to comment on the curriculums being proposed here you'll note that there's a wellness curriculum I don't necessarily have any suggestions to the content itself but I want to reiterate on my long-standing objection that the new template format that the district is using for curriculum rewrites is way too boring there's no detail in it right there's no information you as a board is not going to try and make decision on the content and what's going to be on the curriculum of the course and instead what you get is a recitation of Standards along with a couple of reworded standards to be the enduring
017understandings and not much else previous curriculums may have been a bit too much but at least they had things such as assessments activities resources suggestions ideas definitions and things that help the community to understand the actual contents of course if there's anything that has three years it taught us it's that while we can hopefully trust individuals involved in education it's still important to be able to verify what's going on in classrooms so given the the move towards transparency that I hope we're talking about here uh in the spirit of that I hope that the curriculum gets revised so maybe not be quite as long as the old stuff but still continue to contain details and I urge you support to let the administration know that curriculum without details of content will be approved as long
018as you have 30 seconds here at the end I want to do a brief comment on the new director of proposed policies tonight uh showing appreciation for the automatic sun setting resolutions a resolution is a brief snapshot a moment in time of the desires of the board it's not really fair for future boards to be held to that standard unless they want to do it so while I appreciate the importance of perhaps passing resolutions it is still more important to understand that those board members are no longer on the board so I look forward to this becoming policy thank you next we have Jamie Martin good evening board I'm not as prepared as I usually am to speak to you tonight but I did want to come forward to address the resolution that 'll come
019that'll be up for a first week tonight I especially want to address not only you but our community and make clear how I feel about this and what I think is behind it I think we should say the quiet Parts out loud I think we should say why I think we should tell our motives and let's be honest Francis how families never liked the statement Against Racism perhaps is how families didn't want it to come forward they've complained about it since it was signed and five of you now sit here who are endorsed by that organization why would we Sunset these proposals why would we I'm sorry these statements these resolutions because the board does not want to acknowledge racism the board doesn't want to support its black students not five of you anyway you
020have been funded you have been supported you've been installed on this board for exactly this purpose and you've been waiting waiting to do this since it was signed so I just want our community to understand what the motives are here and to know clearly why this policy is being floated thank you next we have Becky Horman all right good evening my name is Becky Harmon and I have been a patron for 20 years an active parent in the district for 15 and I'm an employee at Independence Elementary for the past seven I'm here with my husband tonight and we are the proud parents of two children in the district one who has graduated in 2021 and one is going to be a junior at Francis Howe High School mark one that is a junior at
021Francis Howe High School this next year is transgender um in addition to that we are very very proud to have a nephew who is a student in Francis Howell he is one of approximately 46 black students out of the 750 students that attend Independence Elementary I'm here tonight to address my concern with the new board policy proposal regarding the organization philosophy and goals and basically that sun setting policy for any resolution I'm particularly worried about the wording and the policy where there's a lack of open discussion about any resolutions and that any future directions can be made and instead the sun setting procedures just go into effect after a matter of time and they just eventually disappear in my opinion this is not a very transparent way to conduct business the community has a right
022to hear open dialogue and rationale behind all decisions before this policy goes forward and specifically dissolve the resolution and response to racism and discrimination my family would very much like to know the current board members thoughts beliefs and views as how they feel regarding this resolution it is relevant to the current work in Francis Howe how is it not relevant to the work and the Improvement that our district needs and to can you continue to strive for and successfully move forward in supporting all students in our all of our families given our current cultural climate just as it was back in 2020 having a resolution and response to racism and discrimination is most definitely still a need in all actuality I highly suggest that the board please revisit the current resolution and consider making some
023additional race of visions specifically making additional statements against lgbtq discrimination this would showcase the important message of the previous stance along with making the resolution more relevant to what is also needed now if you're not aware the Human Rights Campaign declared a national state of emergency in the U.S against lgbtq community and that is real and it's happening here in Missouri it's happening to our students it's happening to our families and Francis House should be a safe haven where everyone feels accepted respected celebrated for who they are but unfortunately that is not the case thank you your time is up please but this is out of order with your name was called in there I know but all can I please speak isn't very important for her next up we have fhea good evening Board
024District administration and staff parents and patrons I am Anita Keener Francis Hall Education Association president in 2020 this school district had one of its proudest moments as the Board of Education stepped out to support our students of color and stand together with the resolution in response to racism and discrimination Educators throughout the district were so inspired that they requested copies to hang in their classrooms and buildings student leaders praised the board for taking this stand last year the board wrote a resolution opposing any legislative moves to eliminate property tax which would have put the funding for Francis House School District in Jeopardy although Educators supported the move they were not making copies of that resolution to hang in their classrooms it is for this reason that this policy seems targeted at the 2020 response to
025racism and discrimination because the third paragraph of the policy details how resolutions that Sunset should be scrubbed from buildings and websites only the 2020 resolution is likely anywhere before docs and so we ask ourselves why write a policy that quietly sunsets resolutions instead of writing a policy that would have each newly seated Board review and vote on whether to reaffirm previous resolutions our Educators and District leaders are still committed to creating an equitable and anti-racist system that honors and elevates all why is the board not willing to reaffirm this statement our district is already struggling to attract teachers and staff of color wouldn't reaffirming this resolution help prospective employees believe fhsd is a community where they too will be supported we urge this board to consider the Optics of this policy to our black and
026brown students and really our whole Community Francis Health school districts has historically taken the lead on change initiatives that have helped us be the success that we are today if this board does not believe in this resolution we believe our community our patrons our staff but most importantly our students deserve to hear an open session why you do not also in the LA in 25 years we haven't been the lowest paid in the county we are struggling to keep and hire teachers we will have a larger Surplus this year than expected it is time to go back to the table and negotiate time to reward the teachers that are staying here and to the new people that are taking a chance with us please direct Administration to go back to the table thank you foreign
027[Music] good evening board superintendent rhombus Administration and all patrons my name is Jordan fruit and I'm the president of fispa today we're here representing all the support staff in the district for those that may not be familiar with Vespa we are the paraprofessionals in classrooms helping all children learn we are the nurses taking care of sick children every day the maintenance guy patching holes and guaranteeing safety throughout the buildings the custodians who are here every day cleaning entire buildings and getting them shined up for the start of the school year where the secretaries that keep ordering the building keeping it all afloat interpreters that are here so that all students are heard and communication is clearly seen grounds that keep the schools beautiful all of us are here for the kids every single one of
028them that's what makes our jobs different from a typical job we do a service for this community for the sake of every single child no matter what their background is or where they live they're all children of Francis Health and all deserve the best of the best thank you and have a great night foreign next we have our proposition s update Mr Butler hi good evening I'm Matt Franklin Wilson I'm filling in for Jeremy tonight about he's out of town and couldn't make it so I'll be given the update um lots of exciting stuff happening at the Francis Hall project if you've been by in the last month you can see there's a ton of work going on most prominently the drive from Hackman road to elementary school is gone we've demolished it we're replacing
029it so um everything's going great there the weather's been good dry weather we're working a lot so that's going excellently we've got a lot of canopies on the exterior of the building the windows are being installed um Rick veneer is wrapping up by the end of July all the Masons shut down and off the side I'll make sure your work you know and that was a huge scope so super exciting to be finished with that you also notice a lot of concrete work going on uh curves and they're being installed so you can still see the parking lots forming in the drive Lanes things you can't really see from the outside the framing's wrapping up interior to the building we've got a lot of painting going on uh we've kind of the south side of
030the building that half is painted on the interior and we're working to the north side of the building we're in the main gym right now painting that area and then we have the mechanical electrical Plumbing Fire Protection work going on that's you we're moved to the north side of the building and started working the kitchen areas in the Commons administrative areas we've got the big Docker going up in the gyms so a ton of work going on there well this is a drone photo uh June 2023 and really since this was taken a lot more work has been completed but a couple exciting elements as you can definitely see the track in the field at this point both the curbs are installed and designate the track surface the fields in place gold posts are installed
031looking great and then that large rectangular section on the south side of the project those are the new tennis courts it's post tension concrete slab several tennis courts would be on there the concrete's installed fencing's in in about a month I'll come back and put the corner 10 sports subscribe button to designate the app and you can kind of see some of the drive lanes and parking areas taking shape on the south side of the building you'll also notice most of the masonry work it's made on the on the headline here's a little closer view the track and the stadium you can see the goal post installed we've got foundations and steel in the ground for the scoreboard that will be coming in a couple months um so pretty exciting there I know that students
032will be happy to have that back again a little closer up here the tennis courts so as you can see it's just concrete right now the color will be coming in about a month here so here and then the 10 scene around the 10 sports is installed we're back into here to the building this is a lower level area and Industrial arts section lockers installed you know I mean it's lockers but it's kind of an exciting point because we're to the stage of construction where we are installing the lockers and most of those are installed on the project this morning we're back on the main level here and this is the corridor to the musically again you know it's a corridor but it's it's exciting because it leads to music areas Lots MVP stuff you
033can see in the ceiling height being the same new block walls are installed this is interior music room this is one of two areas what you see here is the metal framing and each one of those rooms are the individual practice rooms for the students so they posted for practice or instruments and then this larger section would be uh for the larger group all right and there's two of those spaces we'll be starting drywall in this area and about two or three weeks this picture here so this is actually taken from the second floor and we're at the top of the learning stairs looking down over the commons so learning stairs are a prominent fixture uh in the building when you walk in the main entrance you you we'll be facing the learning series and
034it's kind of a collaborative area there's some big steps with Outlets students can charge their devices they can meet there collaborate Etc and this is overlooking what will be a big open area so they think on your left would be the auditorium in the cafeteria area on the right is uh administrator here it is the fun picture um after school was how we had a couple days where all the teachers got to come through we took them on tours to see see all their spaces lots of happy faces and you know I think they're just excited to see their actual room they're going to be teaching in and you know the places they're going to be using so that was pretty fun we had them out on Friday and a Monday and looking around okay
035so here's a drone video you get a lot better view of the roadway and so this for those of you that haven't been by or can't really see it well from Hackman the drive is gone and we've demolished it uh we brought the grade back up we've cut some areas some areas we praised about three or four feet since this picture was taken which you can see this was on six six we've got most of the curbs installed so the driveways Drive lanes are all designated the light poles are in and we're looking forward to starting a solid asphalt pretty soon I'm trying to wrap this up at the end of July so whatever everyone's doing keep the weather dry keep doing it it's helping a lot so pretty exciting to get back on there's
036a lot of planning on this we spend a lot of time eating with Henderson in the high school to make sure that the cans weren't impacted necessary if you get to Henderson's this is a big dirt area to the left side that's a retention Pond it was there before we started but it was smaller it had to get a little bit larger for credit requirements so the grading is pretty well complete in there we'll be planting that area this fall whenever it makes sense to grow grass back to the main building uh Auditorium is prominent slash storm shelter it's an audit attorney shelter the big boxy there the scaffold set up Masons are finishing their masonry block there's some decorative lock you can see there the blue is the air barrier that I'm sure you've
037heard about the main entrance is right to the left of the auditorium and this is a big steel canopy that's it's really dramatic when you see it it's big it design some main entrance it's a great area that students and parents and staff can get under if it's raining Etc in the space then we wrap around to the east side of the building so this big area that projects about the others that's main gen and at this point they've wrapped up the masonry work uh you know this was six six so they're kind of working their way up they finished it at this point and that's the main story to go next up will be installing glass and of course in those areas from the engine the smaller area to the left is the opposite
038make something oh [Music] okay so these are the dials that we revisit on a monthly basis we have an escalation allowance it's been holding pretty steady at about 14 expended and we don't we don't foresee a big expenditure on that allowance so everything's going well there be built today to mount is 68 I believe which is appropriate for the state to work that we're in everything's going great we're excited lots of energy on the side and uh yeah it's really coming together so I have to answer any questions thank you for any discussion I seen some rooftop units in are they they some of them still coming in yeah so every two weeks we're set rooftop units uh we said three of them last week or this week we said three um two weeks for
039an hour we have a few more to set so we've got it's kind of counting in my head I think we've got about seven or eight of them set there's about 20 total um so yeah it's going going well so I take it all the the roofing's done yeah everything's complete there's a couple small areas you need to come back like the top of the canopies the main building is uh roofing's done we're weathered in and thank you okay great thanks all right more like a motion to approve the consent agenda for June 15 2023 as presented so moved any discussion all those in favor say aye hello as opposed say no motion carries all right boy I like a motion to approve the practices of Wellness curriculum as presented we'll move any discussion all
040those in favor say aye hi all those opposed say no motion carries or like a motion to approve the foundations of Wellness curriculum as presented so move second any discussion make a few points I'm going to be voting against this one I brought up some concerns during the academic advisory committee I've shared those with the administration around some of the way that the lenses through which some of the standards are taught specifically the the two units of the four around self-esteem and emotional intelligence just there's some questions I think in the scientific Community about whether those aspects are widely agreed upon by by scientists in the field so um I'm not an expert on that it's easy enough to look it up on the internet and find scientific articles on one side or the other
041so I think reasonable people can disagree on I'm whether those are real or not um but my objection is really that if they're not widely agreed upon I don't think their lenses under which we should teach our students and um K through 12 schools so that's the nature of my objection here I just have a quick question Connie um I know you've touched base on this but can you remind how much time has been put into this Curriculum by our teams there wasn't like a quick Google Search right it wasn't a Google search um I can tell you the kind of cross I can tell you the process that we use for um we wrote both classes together so it's not just Teen um the wellness course it's also the uh it's not just foundations
042it's also practices of Wellness we have a class right now called teen health and wellness it's a course that we've offered for uh don't quote me about 12 years and in the recent years the three teachers that teach it it's one teacher in each of our high schools those three Educators have come together and they've just had conversations that our students really need more times the conversations have gotten richer and in more depth over the last few years and they needed more time to cover the content in the course they're struggling to get it all in because of the rich content or the rich discussions that kids are having which is a great thing and so it led to some conversations with a Content leader and some interest in developing a second course kind of
043a companion course to Teen Health and Wellness um when we started having initial conversations one of our first thing is are we sure kids would even take a second course if we offered it or have they met their need with the first course that we offered and so they did give a survey to the kids that were currently enrolled across the district in the class A couple of them said that they were seniors and they obviously wouldn't have a desire to take it again I think two kids said my schedule wouldn't allow another elective so I wouldn't take it not because I'm not interested but because I don't have room in my schedule for another elective and all the other kids that were currently enrolled in the class said yes if you had a part
044two I would take the part two class that's something of interest in me and I would enroll in it if offered and so with the teachers seeing a need for it and a desire from the students to continue to participate in it they pursued the development of it's not really a level two class but a companion class to it so um they also asked the kids as part of that survey what were the most valuable and least valuable parts of the course and in that those survey results kids really talked a lot about Stress Management Mental Health General life skills as part of what they felt like they needed wanted appreciated as part of that class so in the fall of 21 the content leader and those three teachers came together and they started to
045kind of scope out the new course so what would we keep in it's foundations of Wellness is the first course in practices of Wellness is the second course I'll just say course one and two for me so I don't get them mixed up but they started to talk about what would we keep in course one what would shift to course two what would be additional content that would be added to one or additional content that would be added to two there was a workshop that our content leader had attended with the director of Health and Wellness at deci and they pointed out that the Missouri learning standards are extremely out of date and ours our state director is actually here to us to use the national standards and so exploring those national standards that provided
046a lot of Direction on what would we be including in these classes and so the The Clash you'll notice well let me finish we we went through the normal new course proposal process that involves talking with Department shares talking with administrators talking with academic team talking with academic advisory and they got guesses along the way as they went through that typical process that we follow um then they came back at the beginning of the year and the three teachers who taught the course were again excited to start that process they spent some time unpacking standards writing the curriculum they had a few release days in the fall and then kind of finished up the work in the spring the both courses are a one semester elective they are for juniors and seniors both classes they're
047intended that kids would take the foundations class and then go on to take the practices course however it's not a prerequisite that you can't take practices unless you've taken donations so the desire is that you take foundations and then practices but there could be a scenario where a student doesn't take foundations and wants to enroll in practices and that would be okay the other thing that this would allow at times we have a junior senior that enrolls in the district and they they come to us without a Health Credit our students take a requirement 8th grade health class and our students could then take this class as a upperclassmen to get their Health Credit instead of us putting them in the Freshman health class as an upperclassman as you can imagine it's not a popular
048option um we anticipate just based on the current enrollment over the last couple years we anticipate that we would run depending on the high school you know it's more popular at some schools than others we anticipate running one to three sections per year of Foundations the first course and the second class practices we would anticipate depending on the school running one or two sections of the practices class so just to give you an idea of the typical enrollment one to three sections one to two sections for the school year of those two classes it's taught by a teacher from rpe Health Department in each of our high schools and the three that would teach the class were all part of the process of writing and working on the course I Chad I don't know that
049this will fully answer your question but I know that part of what they've looked at or talked about were just some of the you know we've talked a lot about miss vargas's work over the last few board meetings I hate to call her out again but we look a lot at the local job growth reports and what are the the jobs in our community that employers have available for students that stay in our community we want them to stay in our community we also talk a lot about the skills that employers tell us we need kids to come to us with these skills so they're more employable and this class aligns with a lot of that so when we talk about the jobs the kids would have I think down exercise trainers and two of
050the top 10 lists exercise trainers was one of them child family schools social workers was one of them and some of the skills covered in this class would align with the skills in those two career fields we talk about when you look at the shortcomings of job applicants they talk about lack of communication skills lack of interpersonal skills lack of teamwork lack of collaboration and inability to interact with people who are different from them and that's exactly a what this part of what this course gets at so some of the logic behind alignment of Standards but what we're covering in the classes they're excited about it any other discussion all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed say no no motion carries [Music] more like a motion to or like a motion to
051approve the May monthly financial report as presented vice president cook I just want to point out one thing that there's an addition to there is an additional report this month you'll see in there the Board of Education May schedule of Investments policy 3160 requires that investment reports will be prepared by the Chief Operating Officer or CFO for review by the board and superintendent of schools but our policy doesn't distinguish how often the vent should take place historically they've been done intermittently for the board but it is a report now that the finance department will provide on a monthly basis to provide you an update ongoing for our investments any other questions all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed say no motion theories more like a motion to approve the purchases over
0527 500 as presented Mr Ponder Mr Harmon any discussion um yeah as you know I had questions about the um the one that for the St Louis County parks um I I just want to bring this up that I think it's you know I know it's probably the only option that we had but it has to be difficult for some of the parents who live out here to take their kids across the river for for practices and things like that but I've been assured that every every option was looking at looked at to have our kids practice on our fields around here I just hope that they hurry up a difference how nice done we agree um and I will point out that we do transport the students from school to the practice fields it
053is their responsibility to get themselves back home though when they do that usually working together with others well those in favor say aye cool I'm sorry just real quick I know you guys are you did answer the question regarding the doing a cost benefit analysis going forward for the for Education Plus I'm curious let me track throughout the year I wonder if you have any ideas I know us real quick only a few days what ideas or what areas are you going to be tracking so that you're going to be able to compare the cost benefit of Education Plus versus something else that might be available yeah our policy a lot asks for or expects a cost benefit analysis of Cooperative purchasing agreements and that is just one portion of the membership benefits that we
054get with our partnership with Education Plus so our commitment is to look at any relationship we would have with an outside organization to look at all aspects of it specific to the cooperating purchases piece what we do is we have a list of the vendors that they've approved and the percentages of that we would get off on purchases we would do with those companies the next step for us would be to look at what purchases we made in the last year so what savings did we actually realize and then to work with our buildings and our department leaders to make sure that they're utilizing those relationships when they can and purchasing from those vendors through the educational plus relationship to make sure we're maximizing that portion of membership foreign trying to think off the top
055of my head I remember like a big cost savings paper I don't remember it was toilet paper or printer paper just off the top of my head just remember it came up years ago and not having done the full analysis that's why we didn't want to provide any misinformation we believe our largest purchase this year was with correct CD CDW the technology company that we work with um and again the different vendors they work with it ranges from 5 to 25 30 discount we've possibly get so how are you going to coordinate that or who's going to be a responsible for tracking or who's working to make sure that you're utilizing it to the utmost so for the Cooperative purchase purchases that will be done through the finance department like I said it's two things
056one monitoring the historical purchase is what we see this year working with schools and buildings to make sure that they're taking advantage of those moving forward and if it's not something that we would take advantage of or not realizing the benefit taking that into consideration um in continuing the membership moving forward what I'll point out though is that again The Cooperative purchasing piece of the relationship with Education Plus is just one small part in addition we get technology sources from them we get our subscription to Discovery Education through them that it's paid through them which is a little bit over fifty thousand dollars if we're paying that out of pocket there are human resources services that we utilize they work with the mo reap system which allows us to post all of our job openings
057for free um and if we were to do all of those postings specifically through the post dispatch or other marketing mechanisms that would be thousands of dollars of their savings they're in addition to all the professional development opportunities we take advantage of for not only administrators also teachers as well as support staff in the district so it's a unique partnership um the history is that it's it's a non-profit organization that was actually developed by superintendents when it started to be an organization that is feel funded by member schools to support the schools that are out there so it drives a lot of our professional development work a lot of our professional learning networks within the district and some of that's hard to monetize so we will look at all of that across the board as
058we go with all ongoing subscriptions and memberships that we have the St Louis area Business Health Coalition membership I know it's not a lot of money in in the scheme of things but thirteen thousand dollars to employ some Pharmacy benefit managers um to me in being in the healthcare field I I understand how all of that works I'm not sure that they're always as efficient as they claim to be in their savings I would just encourage those that that are putting this forward to keep close track of exactly how much they do spend on drugs in a year so that we can have more of an accurate I guess cost savings just because there are people I mean you you're perfectly welcome as a district to send out a request for proposal on your own
059you don't necessarily need a pharmacy benefit manager which is something that you might consider moving forward all right all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed say no motion carries or like a motion to approve the purchases over 7 500 for Gateway security as presented so second Mr Ponder Mr Lang I think this was uh this request was based upon last year's security classes is that correct necessarily like a whole um calendar year not a fiscal year which is fine either way fiscal or calendar year I don't care um but what I'm getting at is that I think that we're getting some sros that are going to be paid for by the county I know those are probably two different functions but with that in any way affect our proposed costs for
060Gateway security not in this time that it's a separate contract um the sros I would say that our security guards provide very different Services than our sros and we would continue to utilize them because they serve as the at the entry points at the high schools in those guard areas they also provide additional supervision help when it comes to afternoon activities evening events and those episodes I believe that part of the reason it was pooled I president Bertrand's thoughts about it yes president Bertrand who couldn't be here tonight for a personal matter felt that this is the last year of a five-year contract it presents an opportunity to take a look at our security measures overall to determine if we continue with the status quo that's been effective for the district or if we should
061be thinking about future changes president Bertrand supports the approval of the contract you would be supportive also have an in-depth review over the next year to determine if any changes will be prudent and wondered if the board members would be supportive of giving this direction to the district so I'm certainly supportive of that I've discussed it with him I I do think it's worthwhile too since this is this will be the last year of our five year maybe we look at this advantageous to continue with Gateway or we look at another Avenue for providing those services yeah I think I would agree as well and I think when you guys first got on the board last year we talked a little bit about Gateway and some what other districts do possibly even bring in people
062in-house or thinking outside the box here administration supports that review we would be looking at the services they provide the role that they fulfill within the district are there other ways to do that that could be anything from other companies potentially continuing this going through a RFP process or looking at the possibility of bringing such positions in-house moving forward and all of those options will be considered over this next year we'll be able to share the information any further discussion all right all those in favor say aye say no motion carries am I born like a motion to approve the 2023 to 2024 Benefit Plan proposal as presented drapas board is a reminder at our last meeting we shared our health insurance renewal recommendations for the 23-24 plan year I won't go through the entire
063presentation again there have been no adjustments made since we made that presentation as a reminder that we are recommending changing our flex spending plan administrator from Paylocity to ASI Flex that went out for bid for the dental services there are no plan design changes for the PPO plan but we would move from Aetna to Delta Dental for the claims Administration we're recommending eliminating the Cigna standard and sigma Plus plans under the dhmo plan and renewing Family Dental for one year with no plan changes for medical there is a recommended increase in out-of-pocket costs and deductibles for almost all plans but no increase in the employee paid premiums for the 324 plan year the board contribution would increase by three percent and that would also the board would also cover the increased cost of the employee
064portion for next year next year any discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed say no motion carries or like a motion to approve the fiscal year 2024 budget recommendation as presented let's push car second their Harmony Dr Rapace is there a board also at the June 1st meeting Carol Embry presented a detailed presentation of our budget recommendation based on the work that she and our director Finance Jacob Meyer the department and all of our building and District leaders had completed we're presenting a balanced budget for the 23-24 school year that would end 2024 with an estimated fund balance of 22.79 percent this is a conservative budget as we continue to be cautious regarding future revenues on enrollment revenues based on enrollment the ending of the pandemic provision and its impact
065on the basic formula uncertain fit and transportation funding Beyond next school year and the depletion of Esser funds through next school year next year's budget you'll remember from the presentation moves the self-insurance fund from the general fund into a separate fiduciary fund that will allow for us to have a better tracking of the revenues and expenditures of that fund and overall the that our self-insurance program I also want to remind everyone that the recommended budget is based on our best analysis at this time and that we will provide routine budget amendments to the board as needed next year as we realize actual revenues and expenditures we also share during that presentation and during our budget meetings that we will Engage The Board of Education as well as other stakeholders and work to review all revenue
066and expenditures next year as we strive for operational efficiency and ongoing Financial stability we recognize with an opportunity and continuing to be open and transparent to talk more about our budget to help our community understand our funding mechanisms and how our dollars are spent and as we make decisions before moving forward to get input from stakeholders in that process thank you any discussion all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed say no motion carries all right boy I like a motion to approve the amendment to renew Cost Plus B Food Service management contract as presented Mr Ponder second change [Music] or is this Mr Myers so I will turn this over to Jacob Myers in Board of Education and to our community this is the first time he's come to the podium but
067this is our Director of Finance who joined us at the beginning of May Jacob Myers so uh thank you for having me I'm happy to be at Francis Howell I'm excited um there's a district that provides Food Services through a contracted service vendor the district is required by the department of Elementary and secondary education to approve an amendment to renew the cost and fees for the management contract annually in our case this is the fourth and final renewal within our five-year agreement with Sodexo so we will be bringing a new bid to the board next year to look at contracted Food Services Desi provides a maximum increase total equal to the CPI Consumer Price Index change and this year that was 8.6 percent Sodexo agreed to a negotiated reduced rate of four percent which is
068the same rate increase as last year it will result in a total budget impact of approximately 18 599 dollars thank you board any questions I have one quick question so you said uh this is the final year and uh next year there could be a new contractor contract so we're required to go out to bid for those contracted Services every five years by Desi how about also maybe bringing it back in house I think that would all I think that would all be part of the analysis as we've reevaluate the Food Service program okay thank you any other discussion board all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed say no motion carries all right boy like a motion to approve setting the following meal prices or the 2023-24 school year as presented
069push car Mr Ponder Mr Myers so as a participant in our federal Food Service program the district is required to set prices based on various calculations determined by the Department of Agriculture which typically results in an increased price of 10 cents which is the maximum limit Allowed by the district we could go over 10 cents but that is what would be required currently there's an exemption to this requirement to utilize the calculation and allows the district to maintain a flat meal price if the Food Service account has a positive balance which we do after reviewing our food service account and discussing these findings Mr dexo we feel as though the program is in a position to maintain the current pricing level this would be re-evaluated annually adult meals are not included under the exemption and
070do not have a price increase maximum the district is required by the Department of Agriculture to utilize a formula when calculating these prices and they have been presented for you if you have any questions or any questions all those in favor say aye okay all those opposed say no no guys have it or like a motion to approve the a la carte prices for the 2023-24 school year as presented push car Mr Ponder Mr Myers again the district is required to adjust Alucard items based on the total food cost and the proportion of usage to the program the purpose is to ensure that these non-food program foods are not being supplemented by the revenue of the reimbursable meals The District in Sodexo have reviewed the prices based on inflation of purchased food and are recommending
071the increases as presented or any discussion overall overall how much do you think those prices went up another percentage a percentage Yeah total food yeah they believe they are calculating an eight percent increase in food all those in favor say aye okay although suppose say no no you guys have it next up we have policy review and informational item first reading of several policies here believe Dr Lang want to have a little bit of discussion here yeah um after seeing the policy change recommendation I want to make sure I weighed in with my thoughts on it um I personally don't feel that there's a need for a house for a policy would automatically sunset um resolutions are not really a common thing around here and my eight years on the board we've probably had three
072or four I understand that you know the the Board elections are every year and board members could theoretically change every year like we have here five different board members in two years I'd be in total support of a policy brought back for a first read in July that would bring a resolution up for an open meeting agenda item to be discussed and voted on by the board this way they get the resolution adopted is the same way and it's pretty transparent you know example that I think of is a the resolution of response to the racism and discrimination that I proudly signed in August of 2020 and feel it's important you know just disappearing like it never existed without even having discussion it just doesn't set well with me personally and if we bring you
073know we have discussion about it you know you can have the new members who weren't here sign on to it change it resend it but at least it's done transparent rather than just disappearing like it never existed and ultimately after meeting and discussing it and that happens that happens at least it was transparent and open so that's my thoughts on it I know we don't normally discuss read but we normally don't have these policy Pages happen like this sure so important happy to have discussion here I'll just remind this is a a discussion on a policy review a specific policy so in accordance with with open meetings act were permitted to talk about policies on here discussing a specific resolution I I believe would be out of out of order not on the agenda to
074discuss that particular resolution but also remind the board that the board is as voluntarily agreed as it was just reminded to us at the last board orientation meeting in early June here that we have we've we all voluntarily agree to abort policy to support prior decisions decisions of the board so I would say should tread lightly criticizing other action actions of the board certainly an open session so it's going to make it difficult to follow those rules that we set to ourselves and and also explain this so happy to think of a way around it this this discussion item here tonight is right to discussion it was was just added here this evening so I wasn't planning on a lot of discussion here tonight it's not fully prepared for for that but just a few
075thoughts there but as we as we navigate here okay just a question um as far as I guess moving forward which is more binding a resolution or a policy and then my second question would be which one is more broad a resolution or a policy my my opinion is a policy is binding a resolution and I don't necessarily know is but that's my opinion on that also you know why I'm not making that point sure if you have two say they're similar documents you know which one your health feeder held at the fire at some point which one's more binding so well that goes with all resolutions and policies not just one and I have no problem with a policy where it comes back before the board just not sunset so we can still make
076a policy to where we have discussion about it and then change it alter it let the people who weren't involved with it sign on change or resend or sun setting resolutions right that's the not policies is that correct that's correct the policy in policy that's being discussed here is is policy zero two nine nine that's what that was proposed um and that policy would for those who haven't read it with sunset policies of Prior board space as soon as a majority of board members no longer signed on to the to the resolution in question I'm sorry I think I said policy earlier but the resolution in question the resolution will automatically Sunset there's an informational item placed on the board agenda for the public and board members to see what resolutions are there and then
077if the board so chooses to to re-adop that they have to they certainly have that ability to add it back to the agenda at that time or before it's Sunset that's why there's a 75-day window in there to give basically any new board pretty much to the end of June give or take to to make those changes or re-uh resign the resolution if they so choose the transparency part would be the way you adopt a resolution is by an open session in the meeting and members vote so in order to get rid of it I think it would be fair to go about it the same way well yeah in my opinion the policy does that I mean the board is openly where we're all agreeing that this is the way we're going to address
078resolutions going forward if we implement this policy policy is certainly transparent it's been I guess just an informational note here about policies this particular policy was submitted as a pin form by a board member by me um the comment was made earlier about a policy committee not approving four pin forms I just like to clarify there that since those four pin forms were submitted by Board of Education members they were brought to the policy committee for comments not necessarily it's not necessarily required for a board of education member to send a policy proposal or pin form into the policy committee but that's something that that we have done to see see the feedback in theory the board member could bring the board I'm sorry a policy to the board added to the agenda for a
079first answer me on immediate approval without a version second read so this is something that we have done we've we've proposed a pin form send it to the policy committee here we're doing a first reading in July we'll do a second if there's any board comments or or suggestions to the policy I'll certainly take those into consideration over the next several weeks if there's a way to improve it but that's in my view given what um given our authority to pass policy and really our responsibility I think we're being transparent here and going with a normal amount of review and transparency here with the exception of a a policy committee vote because it's not necessarily a policy committee decision to bring up a policy proposal that a board members submit so that's the reason that
080the policy committee didn't necessarily vote on it speed book feedback was sought and that feedback was provided to president Bertrand so yeah I'll send some more messages we'll do some communication like it's just a new new thing so all right moving on to superintendent comments Dr rumpus thank you vice president cook Ed we initially had an agenda item tonight under purchases over 7 500 to renew our district membership with character plus I just wanted to point out to you and to the public that it was the administration who requested to remove the item from tonight's agenda for additional consideration we do value the character education work and celebrate the state and National recognition that Independence Elementary received for their work this year over the last couple of years and the work taking place throughout the
081district this specific membership offers benefits that we've not been maximizing over the last couple of years we have a new director of student services beginning July 1 and we want to give her an opportunity to learn more about the program and the benefits of that membership and to work with our principals to develop a plan for next year and if the character plus membership is part of that plan we will bring it back to the board at an upcoming meeting but that was the reason why we asked for it to be removed from the agenda to see um we are very excited to announce a new program called citizens in our school that we shared with our stakeholders yesterday this program will provide an immersive opportunity for community members Business Leaders parents and others to
082learn more about the operations of the district we believe this is the first of its kind program to be done in a school district it's modeled on some other leadership experience programs out there in the county and with police departments and with other organizations and we really see it as an opportunity to continue building trust and transparency with our community by creating a coalition and a group of well-informed citizens that better understand the work that we're doing and can share some input with us we're piloting this with an inaugural class and are accepting applications through July 21st there's a small fee for participation we received a couple questions about that um one there is a cost to feed the people who participate will be using um you know buses and transportation for different events to
083go around and so we're not making any money off of this it really is to defray the cost that the district might have in providing this opportunity and we're excited to see where it goes and if there are interested community members that want to participate you can access all the information on our website while summer school camps and vacation Station and sports summer training have started there has also been a lot of adult learning taking place in the two weeks since school ended I just wanted to highlight that our school leadership teams so we had our principals assistant principals athletic directors along with teachers counselors Librarians and other staff in the buildings come together for two days last week to reflect on last year's School Improvement plans and to begin planning for next year we
084had teams of teachers who participated in curriculum boot camps that took place last week come with our content leaders and we also had hundreds of teachers participating along with administrators in our PLC Institute that we offered internally so the learning does not stop and I just want to thank everyone that's been giving up you know the beginning of their summer to come in and continue to do work for the district I also want to say good luck to three Francis Hollow School District students or recent graduates who will compete in the National skill USA leadership and skill competition that's being held in Atlanta this weekend this competition is the largest Showcase of skilled trades and skills competitions in the world and they'll have more than fifteen thousand students teachers leaders and trades Representatives participating career
085and tech ed students from across the country will compete in over 100 different categories of this five-day event so I want to wish luck to Francis Howell Central Senior Ian Edmonds and recent fhc graduate Anthony gaglio and recent and Francis Hall North graduate Catherine Miller who will all be there representing Francis Howell School District and last board as we conclude the final award meeting of the 22-23 school year I would just like to thank you and our staff and Community for a great year and for the support we have a lot to celebrate and that we have been celebrating that was accomplished this year by our students and our staff we also recognize that we have a lot of opportunities for improvement as we look to next school year I don't take this role or
086the trust that you place to meet lightly and I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve the community by working with you an incredible leadership team and getting to serve our 16 000 students and Families thank you Board of Education any comments requests let's just have a small comment um my grandson started vacation station for the first time for Becky David but it's at Harvest Ridge and it's awesome everybody's doing a great job and I noticed my backyard backs up to Cosley and I think vacation Station for elementary or something's there and it's the line is pretty extravagant so I think it's pretty popular I just want to thank Dr Roberts and his team for making the transition run smoothly for us probably not for you but smoothly for us and being patient with us as
087we make our way like share those those two sentiments Dr raffas uh nearing your end of your first year here um well first year in this role and um it's been a real pleasure and look forward to many more additional years similarly my children are also in vacation Station I have to applaud the teachers and staff there at Independence Elementary they're taking on a big big challenge taking on my kids there but just to managed so far and more importantly the kids are thrilled to go which is great also I as was discussed earlier about about policies the one policy of zero two nine nine was was discussed a little bit there's another policy that is proposed there that I brought which I'm proud to bring it's uh Pete this policy proposal is um ineffectively
088requires the flying of an American flag in every classroom so that when students play say the Pledge of Allegiance they're able to face the flag so in the event that there's not any classrooms left without American flag in the Francis House School District hopefully that will all come to a close very soon so well just as yesterday was Flag Day I thought that's a appropriate thing to just highlight here so or like a motion to adjourn Open Session and go back into closed session it's all moved all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed say no guys have it have a good night everyone