001Order of the Carne School District Board of Education meeting. Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. [clears throat] Roll call, please. >> Matt Baker, >> here. >> Jason Clint, >> here. >> Jake, >> here. >> Christina Lindsay. >> Bruce, >> here. >> Daily >> here. We have a quorum. Adopt the agenda. >> Move to adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> All in favor? F. Thank you. School spotlight. We have South View, Dr. Parks. >> Hello. Good evening. Thanks for having us tonight. Um, tonight we have Rachel Terrell. Um, she is our vocal music teacher at South View. And we have our South View singers. So, they are going to all file in and Mrs. Terrell will say a few words and they have a couple of songs for you to get you
002in the holiday spirit. bells too. Oh my gosh, there's so many moving around. Okay. >> Thank you for letting us come and perform for all of you. Oh, sorry. Thank you for letting all of us come and perform for all of you. I have the holiday third, fourth, and fifth grade southwers. Um, we got to sing at the football game for homecoming with the high school choir, which was very exciting. We are also getting to sing at Carney Magical Night where we get to carol during the parade on the 13th. So we have another performance coming up in just a few weeks. But we have performed two songs to sing for you tonight. We're going to sing Sleigh Ride and Silent Night. Um both of these we have ventured into ac capella which is a
003new a new something new for us which is going to be an exciting adventure. Is everybody ready? Do you hear my jingle belling together with you? Yiddy fairy cheeks are nice and comfy. sing the songs we love to sing without a single song at the fireplace where we watch around the coffee and the pumpkin [screaming] pie. It will be like a picture together with you. Updes. Single jingle jingle jingle jingle. >> Wow. [cheering] [applause] Silent night is all bright and child of tender and sleep. Sleep in heavenly peace. might shall rule. Shout out. >> [applause] >> every way. Thank you for coming. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much. Don't go anywhere because we want the parents to get a chance to get a photo, too. So, hang tight after I get done.
004All right. Big smiles. Hang on. Take a look at the picture. One more. Awesome. You guys did great. >> Good job. Great job. >> So good. It >> was fun. >> That was lovely. [laughter] >> I wanted to You got to get this. Otherwise, you're sleeping in heavenly pee. >> It's got to be peace. >> It's warm, but it's not the same. >> That music room is right there. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Really? Just in case. >> Did you say no or something? >> I just said something about you. >> That makes sense. >> No, I didn't say everybody. >> Okay. She said, "Mom, you saw me do it last year." >> I got you. >> Did you find it, Jason? >> Brand new. >> Okay, I'll ask. >> Nine. >> Yeah, >> I'll ask.
005>> No, it's a fair question. I'd like to ask that, >> but I'll let you do it. I'm more than happy to let you do it. >> Of course you are. [laughter] [clears throat] >> Well, that was fun. That was great. Thank you. >> Uh, next we have no public comment, >> correct? >> And so after that, the next item on the agenda is the superintendence report. >> And hi Brian, if you're watching, we miss you, but you're doing great. Well, normally uh for my superintendent comments, I I don't do a presentation, but um this month I thought I would give a brief presentation. Um just like we saw such amazing talent before us, I think there's also um reasons to celebrate. So with this um is a brief PowerPoint presentation uh we I shared
006with staff last week. Um so just wanted to go through that with you and really uh going to focus on two things. We're going to talk about our annual survey results and Rey does a much deeper um dive on this. It will do it justice and you'll hear about that in December. Is that right, Rey? And then Dr. Utek is also going to talk um at length about some APR data also in December, but I think it's timely that I share it with you um and u allow the community to see it as well. So annually um we provide a survey um that goes to students, it goes to staff, it goes to parents and it also goes to patrons. Um and really some of the key questions it it focuses in on culture climate
007what we what we value and really what we believe is that culture and climate uh really set the conditions for student learning. Um and that's uh part of our strategic plan. You can see objective 1.2 there. So, I'm really going to just hit the highlights for you [clears throat] and show you some what we think are pivotal pieces in the culture climate data um in the annual survey. And so, one of the questions that we ask on an annual basis um what's your overall perception of the Carne School District? So, from last year to this year, we've we've seen a pretty significant increase going from 3.84 to 4.03. And this really indicates, this is on a liyker scale, 1 to five. uh and it identifies the number of uh people who uh indicated on the
008survey that they felt was the top two indicators that they agreed or strongly agreed. Um next slide really takes a look at what do they feel about the quality of the educational experience in Carne School District. Again, moving all the way up to 4.25. This uh question really dials into um it's just a student specific question. Do you feel like you are accepted and belong within the school district? And again that um needle is moving in the right direction. Ideally we would like to see that at a five. Um but again uh this is work for us to uh continue to dive into but it's a strong indicator that our our students feel valued when they're at school. Other more specific questions that we um ask students. Next slide. Um, am I proud to be
009at um at attend my school? Again, significant increase over last year. Do I feel cared for and supported? Again, increase. I feel that I'm treated with dignity and respect. Um, my school includes me in decision-m and that's that's a real celebration actually from data that started in uh 2022. Um, and that was probably closer to Ray, maybe 3.5. So that indicator has really moved um pretty significantly over the last few years. So again, lots of celebrations about not only how we're perceived, but how students feel when they're within the school setting. So we're going to move on to the next slide and talk about academic success and student support. Um we know that this is why we're here as an educational system. Um this is our calling. This is our belief reflects our belief system.
010Um this is why we show up to work every day and it's our core business. We need need to make sure that we uh students um are performing um at high levels of achievement. And one of the ways we um measure this is we look at the academic performance report or this is basically Desi's annual report card on how we perform as a school district. And this requires a little bit of explanation. So it's really kind of ranked on a a 100% scale. Um the unfortunate piece to that um it's the report card almost looks as though schools are ranked on an A tof scale and that's really not how it's intended to be interpreted although that's tends to be the walk away. Um 30% of [sighs] the score is really based on continuous improvement
011and that's really what's the district doing? Are we strategic planning? Are we submitting our audit report on time, core data on time? So it's more compliance in nature and that's about 30% of the score and districts tend to score about the same. 70% of the score really takes a look at student performance. Um half of that is on status. How do our kids just test overall and the real um the real challenge is in growth and this is a fairly new metric with under MSIP 6. What's challenging about uh growth is it really makes the APR score extremely highly volatile. Um Desi uses um a statistical analysis developed out of University of Missouri. Um not only how did we grow against ourselves from one year to the next, but how do we compare against other
012districts? And it makes it really challenging for us to communicate that transparently to our patrons. And again, what we've seen over the, you know, since 22, uh, since the inception of MSP 6 is that score can swing pretty dramatically. It can swing up or down. We've seen as much as 10 plus points. So, it's important to really be aware of that. Um, since we've started in 22, uh, we've scored between 86 and 89, which puts us in the top 10% of the state. We've done very, very well. So with that, we're going to go and talk about the 2025 APR score. So again, we compare ourselves against 12 other school districts within the Kansas City metro area. Our APR score really um swung to the positive. We ended up at 95.2. Significant gains. And again,
013that puts us at the top of our peer group in the Kansas City area. It also puts us tied for 10th place compared uh within the state of Missouri over 550 school districts and charter schools. So outstanding performance um and we can't be more proud of our students and our teachers for all the work that went into this. So next slide. One of the things that the APR also provides is a three-year composite. And truthfully, with the volatility of the annual score, I think there's I think there's benefit in us really looking closely at the three-year composite. So last year, our three-year composite was 87.8 with the 95.2. This year, um, we went up to 90%. Next slide. And you'll see when we compare our three-year composits, that also puts Carney at the top of
014the Kansas City metro area. Again, lots of reasons to celebrate. That also puts us in the top 4% within the state. So again, what that shows is Carney uh academic performance um showing that it's sustainable over time, which is a huge huge huge accolades going to students and teachers and it it really demonstrates a system that's focused on teaching and learning. And this is again um our teachers are very familiar with standards. Um, our teachers are creative. Our building principles, um, have created a culture within our schools that's focused on instruction and supports students. Our academic services team that was with Jennifer Cop and Ally Stewart, now joined by Dr. Utek, really focuses in on the right work. Dr. McMains is very intentional about hiring the right people for the school district. Eric Nolan is
015a very intentional about looking at classroom environments so kids can learn and thrive. I I just want to celebrate this as a system approach to really academic success. So a lot to celebrate here. Very very proud of the work that our our um staff and our students are able to accomplish on an annual basis. So very very thankful. So, with that, I'm also going to read through, and I'm sorry I'm taking a little bit longer tonight, but there's a lot of celebrations. Um, long list here. Um, McCarnney High School football, they are conference title, district title, and state football quarterfinals, and they will be playing uh Warrensburg this Saturday at 10 1:00. Carney High School boys swim and dive 11th consecutive conference title. Two state state titles for Whitaker Stewart and eighth place at state.
016Carney High School girls cross country district title seventh at state. Carney High School boys cross country fourth at districts 10th at state. Carney high school cheer third at state. Carney high school band 34 members earned honors at the 2025 all district band auditions. Carney High School softball conference title district title second at state. Carney High School Theater, successful production of Roll Dolls, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Carney High School volleyball, district title, advanced quarterfinals at state. Carney High School choir, nine students earned all state choir honors. Carney High School girls uh golf conference title and sent three athletes to state. >> It's impressive. Um very very thankful. um very unique. >> Thank you, Dr. Miller. [clears throat] >> All right. Next, we have the consent agenda. >> Move that the consent agenda be approved as
017presented. >> Second. >> All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. Next, we have information items. the audit report. You got here just in time. Good job. See you, Brian. [clears throat] Good evening. I'm Brian Ekoff with Westbrook and Company. Hang on. My bad. >> [laughter] >> Well, I think we had a draft. >> It's gonna say draft. >> It's going to say draft. Okay. >> I'll talk about that while you're uh grabbing it. >> Yeah, please do. >> Um so, it's a little bit different this year. Um we are required to audit your federal programs. Um that's because you have more than $750,000 of federal expenditures. Um our rule book for doing that is the OM data compliance supplement. It's issued every May, give or take. um it still has not been issued for this year.
018So, we are not allowed to actually release your federal program [clears throat] audit. Um so, it's going to be a little bit different this year. It's going to be stamped draft right now. You won't actually get to approve the audit tonight. Um we are waiting until about December 1st. Um once December 1st hits, we are going to actually split the reports. Um then you will have a financial [clears throat] statement audit to approve at your December meeting so that you can send that into Desi. And then once we receive the compliance supplement, we will give you that report and I'm hoping that we can just put it back in the financial statements and you can reapprove that at a later date. Um the federal audit is actually due to the OM data compliance um January
01931st. So my hope is that we have something by then and that at your January meeting you can approve the federal audit. I just don't know. We have no guidance. We have a draft of the final uh document, but we don't have anything telling us when they're actually going to issue it. So, um that's why it's stamped draft this year. I have it on a flash drive. >> Well, it's just I have to because it's PowerPoint, I got to put it in a good old >> Okay. >> So, it'll just uno momento. Sorry. Talk quietly amongst yourselves. Um, you want me to just drive it for a minute because otherwise I'm going to have to put it in the thing. You're going to have to refresh. >> Brian, while we wait, what's the Do we
020know what the issue is with the hold up on >> That's the big question. >> Yeah. what an issue with the guidance or something. >> In the school world, there's no new programs. So, there's nothing new. There's no COVID dollars or anything like that. Um, federal world, we're, you know, we're the school district. That's where we focus on. So, federal maybe there is new um items that they're dealing with. But the AICPA has written multiple letters to them basically saying, "Hey, we have the final draft. Why are we not just issuing it?" um and there's no response coming out. >> My past experience usually tells me that it's like there's a an approach issue that there could be a you know potential for like guidance discussion of changing. >> So >> my assumption is with
021nothing new for school districts, we're going to be fine. We're not going have to do any additional auditing or anything like that. Um, but yeah, I'm in the same situation you are and thinking and it's just a matter of getting to finally release it. >> Yep. >> So, >> all right. So, um, as you can see, this is the independent audits report, and I'm sorry, it has the terrible draft across the front. We're we have to do that required by our standard. So, um, if you look through that, you'll see that the red box says presented fairly. So, this is a clean audit opinion or a good audit report. Um, so exactly what you want to see on your audited financial statements. This is the statement of activities. Um, it's kind of a different financial
022statement because it has your expenditures down the lefth hand side offset by revenues in the middle of the page to show the net cost on the right hand side. And while we uh were in COVID, everybody talked about how we were making money on food service. Now we are postcoid and we're back to losing money on food service. So that's the one we usually highlight here. And you can see that it's $278,000 as a decrease on food service this year. So I'm seeing that statewide. Um everybody's going back to the normal situation on food service. So next slide is going to be your balance sheet. Um through the four funds, you can see we had 40 million in assets um across the three. So special revenue fund, that's your teachers fund. Standard practice in school
023districts is take that to a zero balance as of the end of the year. And then at the bottom of the page, you can see the various fund balances. And the next slide's actually going to give you the information on those. So if you look, you can see in the general fund we have um several small balances for professional development and food service. And then um down below the assigned amount. So back hold on back up on the food service that is whenever you were making money on food service during COVID years. Um since you made money, Desi requires you to track that and as you lose money that balance will go away. So go back to the there you go. So that n that 16,000 will actually be gone next year due to the
024loss that you're going to have this year in your food service professional development. Um you're required to spend a certain dollar amount of your basic formula. If you don't spend that amount, you're required to track how much that is and carry it over the next year. That's the $27,000. And then down below, you can see the student activities. It had 639,000. That's your clubs and organizations, things like that. Um, the remaining balance in the g general fund is unassigned. That's your 10.4 million. That's for day-to-day operations of the district. Over on the right hand side, debt service is always restricted for debt service. It can't be spent on anything else. And then your capital projects fund, you had unspent bond proceeds of 21 million. And then the remaining balance in your capital projects fund is
025always shown as a sign for future capital projects. That's the 1.3 million. So this is a statement of revenues and expenditures. This year you can see we had revenues of 58 million and expenditures of 81. However, if you look down in the red box um the majority of that overspending occurred in your debt service fund and your capital projects fund. Um so that was the spend down of those bond proceeds is what occurred. So you can see the capital projects fund had a decrease in fund balance of 19 million. If you look closer up the facility acquisition and construction was $20 million. So that was um a plan spend down basically. And then your general fund had a decrease in fund balance this year of 913,000. So there was deficit spending in the general fund,
026just not uh if you look at the entire total amount, it's kind of large. You got to go to the operating fund and see that's $913,000. So the next slide is going to be a summary of your debt. Um standard debt started the year with about 71 million, ended the year with about 63 million. Um, and the next slide's going to give you all of the payments through the next 10 years. Um, no balloon payments or anything, just your standard annual payments. Your debt service fund is set up to take care of that. So, nothing there to uh be alarmed or worried about. The next slide is going to show you the direct borrowings. Again, just standard payments on those for the next six years. This is a five-year comparison of your revenues. Um, if
027you look at the fourth chart over, that's the federal. Um, you can see the CO dollars came in and then the CO dollars have gone away. So, that is why we've gone from 7% down to 3% of federal. Um, and you can see that basically you have continued to support the district with more and more local funds. So, your local funds were significantly lower five years ago than they are now. And that's what I'm seeing statewide basically with most of my districts. Uh, this is a five-year comparison of your expenditures. Expenditures continue to rise. Um, however, if you look at the chart, you can see that basically they're rising at the same percentage. Your salaries and benefits have consistent consistently stayed about 75%. So, um, they are increasing, they're just increasing at about the same
028rate as your other expenditures. This is a five-year comparison of your reserve ratio and your average daily attendance. Reserve ratio this year was 22.21. We consider that a healthy, financially stable school district. Um, and then down below you can see the average daily attendance. Um, it did decrease this year. Again, it's down to 3187. So, 3,187. Um, something to keep an eye on. Obviously, uh, with the declining average daily attendance and the declining reserve ratio, we do want to monitor that. Um, since average daily attendance does drive a significant amount of your revenues, um, something you will have to keep an eye on going forward. >> [snorts] >> While we're here, we look at Missouri laws and regulations. Um, if we note any deficiencies or violations, we bring it to your attention. And you can
029see here that it says it's fairly stated. So, this is a clean opinion on the state side of things. While while we're here, we also look at internal control. Um, we don't give an opinion on internal control, but we use it in our risk assessment. Um, if we note any deficiencies in internal control, we bring it to your attention. Um, and if you read this, you'll note that it says we did not identify any deficiencies in internal control this year. This is the beginning of the report how we believe it'll look for the federal programs. Um, if you read this, it it indicates there's no deficiencies. Um, so it's a clean opinion on the federal side of things based upon the current compliance supplement, which we used last year's compliance supplement to do the federal
030program audit. Um, if the new compliance supplement comes out with changes, we will then send our federal program auditor back to do the additional work and then if we have a change in the opinion, I will come back and represent to you guys so that we're all on the same page. Do not believe that'll occur though. Um, and then on this report, unmodified means clean opinion, good audit report. So, exactly what you want to see. No checked all the way down except for the bottom one means there's no findings, no question costs. Um towards the bottom of the page, you can see that we tested the special education cluster. That's where my auditor spent the majority of her time doing all her testing. Um going through your general ledger to make sure the expenditures were
031allowable. And then on the bottom, did you qualify as a low-risk audit? The answer is no. When they wrote uniform guidance, they wrote it for acrruel basis financial statements. And you guys are cash basis financial statements just like 99% of school districts in the state of Missouri. So you'll never qualify as a low-risk audit. Don't switch to approval basis financial statements. Just know that we'll have to audit a higher percentage of your federal programs because of it. So, and then none [snorts] and none no findings on the federal program side. So, perfectly clean on all findings so far. Um, good year [clears throat] financially. You know, it was a little spend down but not much. Um, so as clean as you can get on everything there. And then two things, these are minor details that
032we just give you. uh improvements, things that we see. Uh the first one is the current state auditor. Um when they're doing state audits, they are making a recommendation to their districts. So, I'm telling all my districts that you should implement this procedure so that you're covered. Um they're saying that you should put some sort of procedure in place to limit the date of how long your staff can modify your attendance. So, if it's due a certain date, you should put a a a step in to then limit that they can only modify it so many days after the due date. Um, a lot of attendance softwares, you just can log in whenever you want and modify it whenever you want. Um, I've actually had other districts where they've modified prior years accidentally and not
033even realized it. So, I get the reason for going in and putting this in place. Um, so this is just us telling you you should set up an internal procedure to to establish that. Um the second one is a budget item and um if you look at your budgeted items on the special revenue fund, there was overspending. Um it was to the tune of $66,000 um on a $28 million fund. Um the reason being is because the budgets ran so lean. Um those, you know, the expenditures were always wanted to be basically spot-on. Um and some salaries came in at the end of the year that actually put you over budget by $66,000. So, um, that is a an item that I'm required to bring it to your attention. So, overall, it's a clean opinion.
034It's a good audit. Just a couple items to make a improvement on. Questions for me? >> Thank you much. >> Thank you very much. Have a good evening. >> [clears throat] >> Next we have on project update. That's a written report, right? >> It is. >> Okay. And then next we have financials. Just a couple of quick comments while we try to pull up the latest uh fund balance projections. Um when I first came on in July, um I told you after looking at the numbers, I kind of felt like we're going to be just above 20% towards the end of the year. Again, I'm trying to be a little conservative. You'll see I've kept with that same ending number for the last four months. Uh I'm not going to change it yet. I done
035a deep dive, did some looking some trends and stuff. I still I am really confident we're going to hit the 20. Uh I'm a little confident we'll get to 21. I don't think there's any way we get to 22 though. Um you know, ideally we would like to try to at least get back to where we started, but I think we're going to dip just a little bit this year. I know Brian mentioned we already dropped to the tune of about $900,000 uh between the two years. Um probably going to drop a little more this year. Um I did tweak the numbers towards the bottom. if you're following them closely. Um, for the self-funded, um, fund five, um, it was brought up, you know, there were some negative numbers showing up, and obviously that's rare
036when that would happen when the credits come in. So, what I did was I kind of figured what I think's going to happen for the year, and I do think we're going to lose a little ground in that fund. It It's too early to tell, and the numbers are going to fluctuate so much from month to month, so I just kind of spread it out. Um, and so I would focus more towards the ending balance and hope we don't cut into reserves. It would be nice if we could build reserves. Um, there is no magic formula there for what's the right number. Uh, if you looked at other districts our size, I'm sure you would find some with lower cash balances and some with much much higher cash balances. Obviously, the more you carry in
037that fund being self-funded, the better. Um, I also for construction, um, I the numbers there were were a lot bigger than what I anticipate us, at least last month, were a lot bigger than I anticipate us spending this year. So, I back some of those projections down um, and now showing a a carryover balance of about 8 million by the time we get to the end of the year and those will be put towards projects after July 1. So, any questions? >> Mr. Schwin, do you want to just mention our year-end fund balance is is based on fully funding the foundation formula? >> That that's a good point. Um, it it is based on I right now we're getting funded at 6,900 SAT. Um, we still anticipate and it's from everything I've heard it should
038still go to 7145. Um, but because there's we're not getting funded at that level just yet. Um, it's anticipated a lot of our revenue will come in later in the year than now. If that does not happen and we're at 6,900, then we probably are looking at a a percentage of more like 20% and it could even get below that. But right now, we have no indication that um that'll get sliced significantly. But things can change as we all know. >> We just wanted to put that on your radar early. >> Yep. So, >> duck question on fun five. I'm fascinated by fund five and I try and think of what's the most uh >> difficult question I can ask you every every time. So, uh I don't know given what you just said. I
039don't think you'll be able to answer it, but you've got four you're four months into fund five, right? So, a third of the year. >> Yeah. >> Your forecast, do you still feel confident in kind of the way you forecast or has there been things that have moved that you thought, gosh, I would have thought that would happen? Well, the start of the year is usually the roughest part because you haven't hit the pooling limits yet and so you have a lot of outflow. So, I I don't know what those numbers are because they're too small. I can't see them. But, uh I'm I'm sure it's it looks a lot worse in the first four months and then kind of gets a little better towards the end. And that's just because some of those high
040claimments will hit pooling points and then we'll actually start getting some rebates and stuff back on pharmacy and some other items. So, okay, >> that does that answer your question? >> It does. You could I you could probably expect me to I'll do a better job of trying to figure out what the forecast was the previous month and see if there's a huge difference between them and then see if we can figure that out. But I just know that's something that I don't know that I quite understand as it moves and I'm trying to better understand what it looks like. >> Yeah. And it and it can swing fast and it can swing fast both directions. You can have a really good month on claims and then just absolutely horrible one and swing 300,000 easily
041between two months. So, >> and maybe Dr. McMains can add to this, but we continue to have high-cost claimants that will impact us for this school year. [clears throat] >> Yeah, early indications as far as claims so far is it's going to be uh a little on the high side, but things can change. So, we could finish very strong. It's too early yet to tell for sure. >> When you >> Great question. >> When you talk about the other schools that you've looked at that that do have these kind of programs, we're only in our second year. Is that right? Yeah. And some of the others probably been at it longer. So hopefully I think the the thought is over time that that builds up better. And >> I I mean, if you're asking me
042for a comfort level, I'd love to see at least a million million five setting in that account. And we're like halfway there. So it it take a lot of work to get there. So >> on average, how long does it take to get there? I mean, >> well, if you have a really good year, it could happen in a year. Okay. >> Um if if claims are down and you set your premiums just right, you you can get it in a year. The only thing is that good year could turn into a bad year and it evaporate. It just it's there's no exact science there. I mean, you can kind of trend it out and look at what's normal for the industry, but um it's probably one of the hardest things to project. >> Doug,
043I know we continue to talk about the legislation that's that's passed in the in the Missouri Senate and stuff like that. Um and I know as we get closer to year end and and we get a clearer picture of that, has that um been included in your forecast of future revenues? we have a better target of potentially what types of reductions we're going to see on that front. >> The the picture is getting clear. The the one number that I'm can't wait to see is that January tax payment where the bulk of our revenue hits. Uh making sure that it's a big number making sure that comes in where we think it is. Um once we get to January, I think the picture gets a lot clearer and we'll probably know a little more whether
044the 7145 is solid or not. So right now everything that we know and heard is it is but couple more months and who knows what the climate might be. >> We still have yet to receive uh final numbers from the county regarding Senate Bill 190 as well. >> Yeah. Yeah, but I was at a meeting today with some of my colleagues and they were talking about revenue estimates for the state and I guess through October it was plus 60 million but then something happened in November really good and it was like plus 180 million. I I still wasn't quite for sure what caused it to jump so much but these are just ahead of revenue estimates and you know estimates can change but so far there was some positive numbers coming from the state. So,
045uh, I think it'll be hard for them to make cuts if revenues exceed expectations and so far that's what it's doing. So, >> all righty. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, we have a written program evaluation of federal programs to review. >> I had a question about the ELLL. It looked like it was a lot focused on the uh students that we you know the services we're providing. What does that look like if I'm a teacher that student in my class? I hope that may not be directly connected but just curious. >> Sure. >> I'm hopeful it's more than Google Translate. >> Cyber can definitely share a little bit more with you. It >> is more than Google Translate. >> That's great. That's great. >> Um so as you know
046we have one ELLL teacher. Um and so she provides direct services to those students. She goes to all of the buildings and then also on like a consult basis provide support to the teachers um so they can essentially provide accommodations for the students that are ELLL. >> So she's working with them in their classrooms. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. It's pullin pull out service and it different students get different things based on their level of >> So if I'm that student score teacher I can use that teacher as a as a resource to help me out. That's that's how it's working together. I couldn't put that together with what? Okay, great. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> All right, next we have program evaluation for counseling >> where I get to pull the
047mic down. All right. Well, thank you for your time tonight. I'm excited to highlight uh some of our um staff members who are with us this evening. We have uh Rebecca Chambers our way and she is brand new to our uh district just like me. And then we have Mandy Jury who's uh here. So Rebecca is at Dogwood and Mandy is at the high school. So um I'm going to lead us through some highlights and then should we have questions, I'm sure these ladies could help me out as well. So uh the primary uh core um function of a counselor is to remove barriers for students in the academic, social, emotional, behavioral and um you know hurdles that might come their way. So every student's different but we do have some universal uh practices that
048we see all the way kindergarten through 12th grade. So I'll highlight those as well. also um career uh education is also a part of that. So um just so you know um we just we have some differences at the secondary level uh when it comes to elementary level and I'm going to highlight those but as you can see consistently we support students and staff and families. The alignment to strategic plan are through these two objectives and um they've been highlighted multiple times but it's academic but it's also um providing support for social emotional learning and primary responsibilities. This is just kind of a what it's mostly uh and like I said, it kind of evolves as students go through the system. Uh what kind of supports uh they get in the classroom versus individual. What
049that looks like as we look at self-regulation skills and career educ I'm sorry um uh what do you call that? Character education then all the way through changing into career education and individual groups um indivi individual plans. So, uh, working through multi-systems of support and just, uh, helping find areas that we can support classroom teachers and then, um, they also at specific levels serve as our assessment survey coordinator and then they work with, uh, social workers and we have three of those. Um, at for the most part, we have whole class lessons at our younger learners and then we also individualize and have small groupoup counseling lessons as needed. and we partner with families and staff members to ensure that anytime a student might need that level of support, we have that um parental involvement
050with them. Crisis intervention should that need uh something uh that we need to postlook at situations or pre-look at situations to make sure that we have uh responses in place. um they're a part of that more secondary master scheduling the INCAPS and career liaison secondary and then the dual credit advanced placement and then scholarships is more secondary. So our ratios in uh workforce focus and you can kind of see there's a couple of bubbles there. We're pretty consistent and right alongside uh in line with um what DESI standards have for MZIP 6 outside of Dogwood and outside of South View. However, in those schools, we do have a full-time assistant principal that uh works lockinep with our um counselors to provide additional supports in their schedules as needed. So, we're going to start off with
051highlighting some uh some specifics to Carne High School counselors. We have Ashley James, Mandy Jury, who's here with us tonight, and Janelle Ve. And they have uh yearly meetings with every single student. And during those meetings, you can kind of see in that chart, sophomores, it's more introductory and pathway looking into their pathway. Juniors, it's a little bit more focused on what MVAs they're working through, and then what their post-secary um pathways might be for them. And then seniors is really like finishing touches. Um what have you completed, what needs to still be done, what scholarships do we need to do, what are your um you know, what are you what have you seen um come your way? and how can we help you get there. Uh that is solely focused on program of studies
052that we're also going to look at tonight. So I'm not going to really get in much to that. But a lot of it is enrollment timelines and making sure that we have what we need for our students so that way they have that clear pathway to what they are customizing for their future. Uh in addition um they also work with those outside agencies to make sure that our students who are interested in getting those career career pathways have that opportunity at the junior and senior level and even before that if needed. So uh at the junior high we have Kaylee Stevie and Aaron Mc Aaron McMains. Um so you can kind of see a little stair step down to the counseling program. We still have classroom in integration in this time during science and social
053studies. So there's individual lessons or individual meeting time with their individual career um individual career plans, but then they also have uh that tier one support going into the classroom. So it kind of is the best of both worlds there in getting them ready for that secondary um high school world. And then there's just a few items that uh in the building they are building um a sense of community and they did the canned food drive and things like that. We have similar um programs when it comes to our middle and elementary. At Carne Middle School, we have Holly Merryweather and Amanda Gray. And just even further, they bridge the gap between our elementary students going into that secondary world. So it starts off with a lot of uh team building and huddle up is
054one of the things that we're starting at the middle school that now all of the elementaryaries have as well. So as you can see that practice is is going up through the course of our students experiences and the huddle-ups are really that team building that smaller uh touch with students in um outside of grade level connections. And then um they also go in for guidance counseling lessons. Um and then they also meet with small groups and um individual uh programs. So that is highlighted there. And then this year brand new is the Northland Youth Leadership Summit. So we were able to send um some of our different groups to that and it was a wonderful day to kick off um just some of the leadership responsibilities that we look at for some of our sixth
055and seventh graders. And then at the elementary level we have Rebecca and we have Lyanna Wilcox Hawthorne. She is new this year as well coming with a lot of experience just like Rebecca. Elaine Tiner at Carney Elementary and Magowski at Southview and this is her second year. So highlights this is pretty common and universal for all of our elementarymentaries. the counseling lessons you can kind of see we really focused on zones of regulation and that is showing how your body can respond with different emotions and feelings and so that's become common language. Uh using portrait of a graduate to help out with that. Um again, individual counseling lessons, problem solving teams are more universal and new this year. And essentially, we have the instructional coaches and our um counselors that where teachers can bring um
056individual uh students for some extra support if needed and the administrators are involved as well. And we've seen that really speed up some of the in um interventions that some of our students have needed. They've also welcomed new students into um their buildings based off of some of the district shifts and collaborate with social workers and they also serve as that testing and um survey coordinator. So I just wanted to highlight some of the things that may be a little bit more uh activity specific for Dogwood Carney Elementary Hawthorne and South View. a lot of uh giving back to the community with food drives and things like that, but also um bringing in assemblies and uh Red Ribbon Week and then um just helping um build that foundation where uh Rebecca is new coming into
057maybe having the minute meetings and one-on- ones. So, that is a quick overview. Um trust me, um Dr. Miller, I had a lot lot lot to say in this. I could speak forever about our counselors and and pretty much all of our staff, but I wanted to keep it timely and and succinct for you and um just open it up to you. You have any questions? >> I just wanted to thank these ladies for being here tonight and the administrators who are also in the room that um helped support that that work and I appreciate your time. So, thank you. >> Thank you all for coming. >> Thank you. action items. First one is setting the filing dates for the April election. >> Move to approve the notice of filing publication for the April 7th,
0582026 election as presented. >> Second. >> All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. Next, we have the 2026 2027 program of studies. Move to approve the 2026 2027 program of studies as presented. >> Second. >> We're going to have a presentation on this. >> Yes, we actually um just wanted to entertain any questions but wanted to talk through the um the document that is actually on that uh that page has a page long of just semantics of what we've um do uh Dr. Gustin and team have u proposed changes. A lot of them have to do with added courses or courses that maybe are on different um time frames and then in addition uh like are offered one year and then the following year and we shift those around and then um a lot I guess
059about 50% of them were changed based on the college or university course alignments. In addition to that, we had um looked at how we can with the increased enrollment at the junior high level, how to um keep up with the electives as well. So, we added um a couple of uh uh in the course prescription backed it from 10 to 12 all the way from 9 to 12. So, that is some in addition to that on page 8 and 9 and 10, Desi came out with a new IAP uh format for us. We will gradually put that into play as students go through um and it's it's literally formatting but also including some of our MVAs that um and CTE work that we um value at our high school level. Just open it up for
060questions. I think that's why I have Dr. Gustiffson here. um he can tell you all the ins and outs of it and I can find out more information and should you have questions. I specifically have questions about smaller classes if we have classes less than 10, how do we are we are considering putting those on every other year basis something to make sure that we're really getting the most the time. I just hear my kids say a lot like I have two or three kids have like we have four kids, we have five kids. Like I love that the teacher's passionate about that. I love that we offer that at the same time. >> Is that the best use of our resources? >> That's a fantastic question. And yes, we have um prior to even
061you asking that question. Um the three of us in SLT, Dr. McMains and Dr. Miller and I had talked about that consistency across the board um for what class sizes might look like and then what challenges could that um provide for some of our students who are on the specific tracks. So that was kind of our initial response and wanting to be fiscally responsible but still give what our students are asking for and what they need post-secary. So that brought um when we looked at the course um of studies then um with your question we had already met Dr. Gus and I had met to talk through that because that was a question of practice we wanted to make sure that we were looking into diligently and um we did talk about some of the
062pockets and so it was factf finding and even this morning we met with um Emmy and uh Dr. Gus and I and we identified some areas of those smaller class sizes. Um there's already I think two or three a handful that we aren't going to offer in the future because we couldn't identify some students who are coming up from the nth grade level that would utilize an applied like math class or ELA class. So >> and some of my thought process on that came from the work that Dr. McMains has done with career ladder like you have to have at least what 10 students for it to count. So if 10 [clears throat] is the number, then let's create some consistency and that's make that all the way around. It's just easier for everybody to
063understand. >> And the great news is is that was already the cuto off with that being the bare bare minimum. I think um you know I think we can you can talk to historically but um there were a couple classes on there that were proposed as an applied level class um to help students who are maybe needing that um needing that um credit but were maybe not getting it all the way through and how can we best support those students and we're finding that those classes were not utilized. So already I mean we're looking through that now. Will it be a perfect process and we're going to catch everything right this year? No. But it's been a great conversation starter for me to look into how we look um look at you know scheduling students.
064And the benefit here is that we are looking at pro program of studies very early. So that way we can get student interest in January and then we can start looking at staffing. we can start looking at student tracks, what CTE, what um MVAs, and then that way we can appropriately give students what they need without having just minimal classes. >> It's a living document. You can make changes if you need to later on. Correct. >> Well, yes. And um the state of Missouri keeps coming out with more here's another pathway. They changed this pathway and but with this like we looked at one today that would alleviate some of that. Um, but it then also gives students more uh of a pathway in um some of our interior design, but you also have to
065add this course. So to get this and to do this, here's a level series of four courses. We might offer two of them. So what does that look like? And so we're studying that. We're also, you know, we have to look at certification. We can't just have student or teachers teach something they're not certified and experts because we call it quality teaching. Um, so it's a big puzzle and and I know that uh it is sometimes we offer this elective this semester, maybe not the following semester, but then again their sophomore junior year. So I do appreciate the question. It is a huge puzzle. >> I don't envy your position to have to figure that out. But >> thanks for doing it. >> No, [laughter] it's all good. And I I'm learning more and more
066about how it works in Carne. I've kind of come from a a little bit of a smaller where it is like whack-a-ole a little bit nutshell. what do you call it the game? But um you know in just in looking at what we offer it's a good balance but you also have to consider you know class size versus is that student going to go off that track because we don't offer it whatever year. So just have to really put the puzzle together. So >> anything to add Dr. Gus >> because of all of our meetings about we've been really looking at it. So thank you for your question though. All right. Thank you. >> All in favor? Ratification of letter of intent. >> Move to ratify the letter of intent with behavioral health allies as
067presented. >> Second. >> All in favor? Post. Q. Approval of over $50,000 purchase. Move to approve the over $50,000 purchase from Heritage Tractor as presented. >> Second. >> Good evening. A little background on this would be um facilities department is asking for uh approval of uh purchase of approximately $53,000 for two pieces of equipment uh a midsize tractor for us and a um standup mower for the grounds department. And these would replace pieces of equipment that have reached their um end of their useful life for us or costing too much money to keep them going. So, um, that's the long [clears throat] and the short of that. Happy to answer questions about that. >> I'm sure you've told us this before. How many acres do we end up that we have to take care of?
068>> I wish you wouldn't have asked, but I know [laughter] I know I know the paper it's on. >> Yeah, I know. It's a lot. I'm just curious. I mean, I think >> two How about 256? >> Okay, I'll take that. Okay, I'll take it. Just I mean, I think people need to be aware there's a lot more ground out there than you may think. So, And I sorry, go ahead. >> I don't have one. Go ahead. >> I was I mean in the language I see that it says that it's included in the budget. Is our are the final cost here that we're approving. Is this in line with that budget or are we slightly over or >> Slightly under. Okay. >> Eric was close. It was 227. >> 227. >> Good job. That's
069from your document. >> [laughter] >> All right. Any other questions? All in favor? >> Opposed? Thank you. Second over $50,000 purchase. >> I move to approve the over $50,000 purchase from Freedom Interiors as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. This purchase would be um uh furniture that is designed to um bring some equality to the all four elementary schools after we have done our additions and renovations where uh some schools got uh fifth grade ele or fifth grade furniture and kindergarten furniture and second grade furniture. So we had a mix of those going in some schools. Our our uh plan from the start was to eventually bring flexible um modern furniture to our elementary schools and this would be uh a start to that process. Met with the principles of the elementary schools. Um fifth grade
070um is a good starting point where some schools had that new furniture, others didn't. Same thing with kindergarten. there was some in some schools and others not having any. So, um took kind of the directive we had talked about on um not having that full purchase at the beginning of our bond spend and um this would be the first phase of furniture, holding off on a majority of it to the end of of the bond. But this is uh kindergarten and fifth grade flexible classroom furniture, 22 classrooms. Eric, when we talk about furniture, what what exactly are we talking about? Are we talking about desks? Are we talking about flexible seating? Like what when we say furniture, what what does that mean? >> Both of those things. U student desk, teacher desk, um a portable
071uh table for teachers to use for uh computers, laptops, things like that. U seating itself. There's a combination of uh plastic chairs, um roller chairs, um wobble chairs, and a combination of desks, um that fit together so they can be easily combined for groups of three or six or five or two. uh the shape of them, some tables that have um so for the example on the fifth grade setup, there is a a wide variety of sizes of kids that we found. The principles thought and they they really like it thus far that you've got some tables that you can have bigger kids or more uh kids that need movement, they can stand up with them. Uh shorter desk and so on. So um you can see that there's a visual here. This is >>
072um looks to be a fifth grade classroom. You can see that the desks are at different levels. The desks are the tables in the back are uh stand up. They've got some what do you call bar stool size seating probably with those. And um so that's a fifth grade classroom. These would be um first through fourth and you can fit those together. Um, you can see that looks like a table of five and a table of four. Um, >> this is kindergarten classroom. >> To be clear though, we're just doing kindergarten and fifth tonight, right? >> Correct. >> And I see that the spend for Dogwood and South View is higher. And I assume that's because you did Carney and Hawthorne as you did the renovation project. Is that [clears throat] right? >> That is
073correct. eight eight classrooms at uh South View and Dogwood. >> Okay. And you alluded to it, but just you there's still more here in terms of you're going to come back and ask for first, second, third, fourth. Is that right? >> Correct. >> Okay. But I just I'm okay with furniture and I I like making sure that our I'm our elementary schools have the right tools as a part of of what they have there. I just want to make sure that we don't uh decide not to do other projects for lack of funds. So, I noticed, you know, on the October update, you know, we still have event pipe replacement and some of those things that aren't accounted for. So, as we account for costs, and I'm sure some of this will come in under
074budget or over budget, but as we do that, you know, I would like to make sure that as we look at bond funds, we're taking into account the other things that we probably need to do from a deferred maintenance as well. So, I just I'll leave that with you in order to say that let's make sure that that we don't leave other projects that maybe have a bigger impact on and us wondering how we're going to pay for it after we get done with this portion of the bond. We'll do. >> Eric, was there was there an event that prompted because back to Jason's point, I I know in the October workshop, uh, we had we had looked at stuff and there, you know, we talked about a priority stack and and such like that.
075Is there is there some significant event that happened or is this some kind of really like a great deal for us on on this furniture that's prompted us to to move this kind of to the top of that? Well, I I here's the I think that we we took what we heard from from the board on making sure we have everything taken care of and we we took a majority of the first, second, third, fourth grade, uh roughly 60 classrooms and move that to the the plan would be move that to the back end of the bond once things are taken care of. And this gets us to what we felt like was an equal footing across the board on um putting those in place. So everybody's got a kindergarten and a fifth grade as
076a as a starting point. And and if if we can't go any further than that at the end, then we've get at least our kindergartens and fifth across the district are the same as far as furniture goes. And um you know, hard to say what inflation does, but every year that once we go past January 1st, everything goes up 3% in the furniture world, I'm told. So, no no no no specific event, but we we thought we were um trying to take what you had said and put it to to useful um work with what we what we feel like we need to get done. Yeah, just to reiterate what Eric Eric said, we heard your feedback at the work session, considerably scaled that back by close to twothirds. Um, and he's done a nice
077job working with uh Jeremy to come up with that next round of deferred maintenance because we we hear that's a priority as well. Um we do feel um that you know some of the flexible furniture um the shift away from some of the chairs that we've historically had. Comfort's important. Making sure that kids can attend for long periods of time. Um and I I think setting up a a suitable classroom environment is important as well. >> Any other questions? >> All in favor? opposed. Thank you. >> Agreements with American Digital Security. >> Move to approve the agreements with American Digital Security as presented. >> Second. >> Questions? All in favor? Post. Thank you. >> Approval of payment. >> Move to approve the payment to Nick Vazquez as presented. >> Second. >> All in favor? [laughter]
078>> Opposed? >> Nobody. >> Thank you. >> Board member comments. >> I just wanted to pass on to the board some hearsay. Um, I was at uh this time I got at least got that side of the room's attention. [laughter] I was at uh this time last year we were working on the boundary change for the school and I was went to the football game. I think it was Friday. It might have been this Friday, might have been the earlier Friday. We have so many playoff games at Carney, it's hard to remember. Um, but I was I was sitting in the uh in the uh audience and the people behind me were having a discussion and so of course I eaves dropped because that's what you do. Uh, but they I but what I picked
079up and what they were talking about was apparently their child had been one that had moved from one elementary school to the next elementary school. And I'm pretty sure that they were moving to Carney Elementary and they were asking them how the one parent was asking the other parent how that had went and they couldn't have had more profuse praise for it. Even going so far as saying, "I don't know why we thought about this in the first place." And so they were just talking about how wonderful, how great the principal was and what a great experience they had had so far. And so what I wanted to do is I just wanted to take a moment and thank our elementary principles, thank our elementary counselors, our teachers, and everybody that that didn't just happen
080because because it's a great environment that happened because people put some intentionality behind it to make sure that those students that moved have a good experience. And so I'm sure now I'll get emails from people that haven't had a good experience, but it it sounds to me like that there are people out there having a really good experience. And I just want to say a special thanks to those that have made that happen. >> Thank you. And I would say that's not hearsay. That's that's [laughter] fact. That's >> okay. Um, anybody else have anything to say? All right. Important dates coming up. No school. Is that this week? >> Thursday. Whole week. >> Oh, no. That's >> first of next week. That's right. We voted that in, didn't we? We changed [laughter] We changed the
081calendar. >> Yes, we did. No school Monday, Tuesday. Professional development. Th um Thanksgiving break is the 26th to the 28th. Candidate filing [clears throat] begins 8 to 4 on December 9th. and uh anybody interest there should contact the district office. We did a seminar on that last week uh for interested parties. Our next board meeting is December 17th and then we have a half day on the 19th in preparation for the winter break. December 22nd to January 2nd. December 30th is the last day for candidate filing 1 to 5:00 pm. I'll bring cookies for Becky because she gets to work that day. January 5th, there is no school for professional development. And January 6th is classes resumed for the second semester. [clears throat] A lot's coming up as well as Dr. Miller already mentioned that
082football is still playing. So, and basketball is getting started and all of our other winter sports. Um, miscellaneous >> action for a close session to immediately proceed the regular meeting in December, including any record or vote to discuss items and issues allowable under section 610-021 of the Missouri Sunshine Law. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Matt Baker, >> yes. >> Jason Clint, >> I. >> Jake Clingith, >> yes. >> Christina Lindsay. >> Bruce Witzer? >> Yes. >> Nick Vasquez? >> Yes. >> Darling Bailey, >> yes. We Thank you.