001e for e we have you got enough room bent I can scoot over yeah all right am I on okay there we go good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting to order uh Miss Motika will you please lead us in the pledge thank you 2.01 public comments the school board has established a normal item of its order of business at each regular board meeting a period for statements as noted in policy bdh1 during public comments any citizen of Kirkwood School District may make a statement or address the board concerning issues pertaining to Kirkwood School District at regular board meetings the period of time set aside for public participation shall not exceed 30 minutes any non-board member wishing to speak at a meeting must register their desire to do so in the matter they
002wish to present with the board clerk before the meeting is called to order no individual will be permitted to speak more than once during this period speakers are not to address the board concerning specific Personnel issues at a meeting such issues should be addressed during the district's established procedures for sharing concerns about school personnel and if necessary brought to the board's attention in private board members will not directly respond to a speaker during the meeting but if a response is required the appropriate individual will get in touch in the days following the meeting the board establishes a uniform time limit of three minutes for each speaker although the public has the right to attend regular board meetings or sorry regular meetings of the Board of Education no individual or group has the right to enter
003into the deliberations of the board I also want to say because I don't know if it said that but just um refrain from using word uh names direct names our first per public comment is from Joey DeFranco all right you just want to sit right there and then there's a button let's push and can you hear me okay I get three minutes correct um I have a well-written speech right here but I'm actually just going to speak from the cuff um I'm here to discuss a violent sexual predator that is in my daughter's class that has continued to fall on deaf ears uh everybody that we have spoken to has placed the blame upon you guys everything that they have said is based upon the policies that are written by you guys and revised by
004you guys um this these policies if it is if that is a correct statement is based upon Little Sally maybe kissing uh little excuse me little Timmy kissing little Sally on the cheek and her not liking it this is well past this this is this is explicit content this is I'm going to murder your family this is if you if you Nar on me I'm going to come to school and attack and then they do and we have continued to bring this up to every level of administration that will get back to us there's some here that will not and the uh it has fallen on deaf ears um one of the big things I want to point out is that I came in and literally had a silent protest and sat down with someone
005and brought in a book and said I want you to know what it's like to feel uncomfortable having somebody around you now I've never done anything wrong to anybody that is in this room and I was escorted out by four police officers my daughter on the other hand who has been victimized who has been attacked by this kid is now has a student in her class and when she was unhappy about it she was told to wipe the look off of her face and for her to uh be nice to this kid this has been a complete and utter joke the safety of my 10-year-old daughter is not being taken care of this child has been removed from every other class and then put into my daughter's class we were told told that communication will
006be uh directed towards us it wasn't at the end of the day on a Friday they came in and told uh the classroom that this child would be in the class the next day um beyond that um like I said we continuously bring this up and the the actions that were supposed to be done were not done they promised us that there would be an adult with this child at all times this child has been placed into this class and there is not an adult with him present this kid continuously does slurs cusses back talks the teachers punches throws things all this stuff in this classroom and this has been repetitive behavior for the whole time that he's been in the Kirkwood school district and yet somehow this kid is still there um it is
007very clear that if it is your guys's policy that your policy protects the uh the the um the predator and not the victim and this needs to be changed and addressed um I don't think that this is genuinely you guys but everybody that's below you uh is placing the blame on you guys thank you thank you next up Whitney Ricker hello can you hear me okay okay uh my name is Whitney Rickard I am a mother of four students in the Kirkwood School District I'm here to speak about concerns regarding the safety of our students within the walls of Robinson Elementary there have been some flags raised regarding communication and adherence to District policies a student recently sent several sexually explicit and vulgar text messages and videos including death threats to a group of 10-year-old
008girls the content in some of the videos would make a grown man blush the message contents display blatant sexual harassment as defined by District policy AC and yet it's taken a month to investigate with zero answers the administration at riston elementary was made aware of some of these messages on Wednesday January 24th more information was discovered on the 25th and students were interviewed on the 26th the victim's parents weren't notified of their child's exposure to sexual harassment or death threats or the harassing messages I'm sorry and the harassing messages were not immediately reported to law enforcement as policy jgf dictates however the principal did manage to notify the perpetrator's mother of the messages before the victims were interviewed giving the perpetrator time to intimidate them this student sent a message to the girls Thursday evening
009telling everyone to quote delete the group chat school is coming after us over a FaceTime call that same evening the student threatened a group of girls and told them if they tell he would hurt them in retaliation to the messages getting out he punched a girl in the face at school the following morning and continued to attack her forcing a teacher to place herself between the students to stop him from causing further harm this is one of of three alleged assaults by the student just in this quarter his record of assault dates back to kindergarten and here we are in fifth grade with a continued pattern of escalating violent behavior and this student still remaining in the district the attack on the girl was not reported as retaliation as policy AC requires and as of
010my meeting with the assistant superintendent on February 22nd this offense was not included in the title 9 investigation regarding sexual harassment as a retaliatory act which violates policy AC a my stepdaughter is one of the victims of the student she was hit by him on the playground and it took me reporting her assault four times to the principal and assistant superintendent over a period of 3 weeks for anyone to take her statement during this time the student who hit her was placed in her classroom and continued to make her feel unsafe she has missed several days of school because she begs not to go due to feeling unsafe in the student's presence requests to see the safety plan have been denied many times because some sensitive information regarding another student and policy doesn't allow that
011information to be shared however the principal shared this information with other parents in a separate incident earlier this year so My confusion remains as to whether the district is blocking us from access information pertinent to the safety of our children or is the principle in violation of yet another District policy due to time constraints I'm not able to go into detail regarding every offense okay thank you thank you next up excuse me Britney Kilgore hello can you hear me okay um great um my name is Britney Kilgore I'm here to represent on behalf of my child at fifth grade student at Robinson who was assaulted Friday January 26th as a result of a sexual harassment investigation I'm also here on behalf of all children at Robinson as I feel my child and others are in
012immediate danger that is not been properly addressed my daughter and several others were victims of assault sexual harassment and death threats that have caused significant emotional damage my primary concern has been and Will Remain the physical and emotional safety of these victims and all children violence and threats of taking someone's life should never be taken should never not be taken seriously or come to expect as a normal behavior in an educational setting despite tragedies many schools face every year failure to communicate an ongoing investigation with parents failure to report to appropriate a agency's failure to execute the safety plan and followed handbook policies resulted in my daughter being attacked as an act of retaliation I was only informed of the sexual harassment investigation that began a day prior because my daughter was punched in the
013face I would have never sent my daughter to school if I had known she had been threatened her assault was 100% preventable these messages were sent via text also verbal and confirmed by multiple children per the school investigation I was told by the principal directly the conversation on January 26th the content was explicit and she did not with them on their devices and that there were messages hundreds of messages that would lead to a lengthy process after several meetings and conversations with appropriate administrators only one screenshot had been turned turned in by the principal which did not include the context of the videos include the death threats or the full extent of the harassment that had taken place despite the girl's pleas to be left alone with the child punished for the child was punished
014for assaulting my child in within school suspension there has been zero resolution though with the death threats which included knife emoji and quote I'll kill you and your whole family or the sexual harassment investigation although the title 9 investigation is still ongoing death threats were never addressed despite the child's mother confirming those came from him to Kirkwood police there originally was a discrepancy on the death threat if it was the fifth grade student that hit my child or his older brother who was banned from the school districts legally which came from an administrator the death threat to my knowledge is only being investigated by police at this point outside of obvious threats of violence I'm also concerned with the treatment of victims in this case classroom meetings were held to welcome the aggressor back to
015the classroom statements like he deserves an education too he's been doing worksheets in the basement he has rights to made where my child and to other students about him re-entering the class parents were not notified at this time the child would be re-entering the school despite our concerns or conclusion of the title 9 investigation victims were also approached to sign no touch contracts without parental knowledge or consent the children were made to feel alienated publicly humiliated as if they did something wrong and their obligation to sympathize with their abuser parents were also originally told the girls would have a Counseling Group to support the victims that never happened victim shaming is never acceptable I want my child and all children at Robinson to feel secure and supported by administrators when they come forward with particularly
016sensitive admin topics thank you your time is up thank you next up Andy kisby did I say that right you did okay most people don't appreciate thanks uh good evening I'd like to start my statement um actually with a quote from the district's website um it says your words matter your behaviors matter our student staff and families matter Kirkwood school district is committed to creating a community of belonging through equipping students with the skills knowledge and understanding to be empathetic successful and to treat all people with dignity I'm a father of three students in the Kirkwood uh Elementary or in the Kirkwood District this is an outstanding statement of the values and aspirations that many of the parent parents that are here tonight and others that were unable or uncomfortable attending um aspire to live
017up to there is a situation at Robinson that requires urgent action from the board and to protect our children current Robinson fifth grader has demonstrated consistent pattern of verbal threats physical attacks and sexual harassment creating an environment where victims and fears feel unsafe this is not a new problem this particular student has a documented history of behavior going back to kindergarten his actions have become more frequent and aggressive with several physical attacks and incidents That explicit sexual harassment this year alone the Robinson Administration has been unable or unwilling to intervene to prevent incidents from occurring they've chosen to rotate the offending student of the classrooms rather than Implement meaningful consequences to correct the behavior and provide a safe environment for current and future victims the continued failure by Robinson to effectively intervene not only impacts
018the physical and emotional well-being of victims but also does a disservice to the offender a lack of significant consequences has enabled him to continue down a path that will result in significant physical sexual or emotional harm to other kids I'm concerned for the safety and well-being of my children and other Robinson kids as well both if they're protected from reasonably perceivable danger and that they're empowered to speak up for themselves our job as parents the district's job as Educators and your job as board members is to create an environment where students learn these important life skills at a critical time in their emotional development my daughter and other victims have been made to feel that they were responsible for the attacks against them and no longer feel comfortable speaking up to administrators at Robinson they've
019been called to meet with the principal counselor and uniformed officers where their concerns as victims have been dismissed they've been pressured to think about how the offender feels and not talk about this with others and they've been told that they'll have consequences for continued contact with the aggressor 10-year-olds are not mature enough to navigate these complex situations independently they've been made to feel that they're being interrogated and shamed rather than being supported this has resulted in several occasions where my daughter is called Home in tears asking to be picked up and is afraid to return as these concerns have been elevated to District Personnel over the last last several weeks we continue to be met with inconsistent communication and a lack of transparency the school and District site policy is beyond their control yet failed
020to cons consistently follow and enforce the stated policies I'm asking the board to intervene to help our students without your help there will continue to be significant damage done to other kids at Robinson we can't allow violence and sexual harassment to continue we need our kids to feel supported and safe to come forward with issues without fear of being bullied by adults in positions of power or shame for speaking up so I'd like to wrap my statement where it began your words matter your actions matter our St student time is up thank you now this one I can't read first name is it Vincent vinet Patel okay thank you good evening everyone um I'm here in support of all the parents um who went before me and my name is Vin marel and I'm here
021as a concerned parent of two children who go to the same school where these kids go and uh tonight I'm here in the this evening to share the concerns of the student safety at the Robinson as a parent it is very concerning for me that existing policies are not being enforced I believe that the school has obligation to intervene to protect our children uh this includes preventing offenders as you may have seen with the previous uh of my fellow parents this uh includes preventing uh repeat offenders from having success access to the new victims especially when they are defined there are defined policies in place to protect our kids these policies need to be consistently Expo enforced uh by the school administrators moreover when the incidents do occur the school and District should be accountable
022for clearly communicating with the parents of impacted children in the timely and uh transparent manner which you saw that it was not done tonight I am asking the board uh members for their commitment to provide safe learning environment to for our students not only at Robinson Elementary but at other schools also thank you thank you can you spell your first name for me vit uhhuh v i nit T and then last name pel p a i l i okay thank you thanks Miss H you have more online comments I the first one is from chrisy Atkinson as a concerned parent I am calling on the board of education to take actions to protect our children at Robinson Elementary School should be a place where all students feel safely supported by the staff and the administration
023that means the administration taking action against aggression in any form to protect the victims and restore them to a place where they feel heard supported and protected it also means putting measures into place to restore the aggressor and supporting them in making improvements and preventing behavior that would harm another person or their own future um Sarah kisby as a concerned parent I am calling on the board of education to take action to protect our children at Robinson Elementary intervention is needed now to prevent students with a documented history of repeated verbal and physical attacks and explicit sexual harassment from continuing to harm other students it is the district's obligation to stop this pattern of Behavior now before it escalates further thank you for your consideration and action for Melissa lanite as a concerned parent I
024am calling on the board of education to take the action to protect our children at Robinson Elementary School should be a place where all students feel safely supported by the staff and the administration that means the administration taking action against aggression in any form to protect the victims and restore them to a place where they feel heard supported and protected from Christina Suter as a concerned parent and fellow educator I am asking the Board of Education to take action to protect our children at Robinson Elementary School should be a place where all students feel safely supported by the staff and the administration a priority needs to be made to protect the victims and restore them to a place where they feel heard supported and protected my daughter routinely feels sick and doesn't want to attend
025school it is not a safe supportive place it is in fact a place to be fearful of the coming day how is this environment the best for any Learners the first thing kids need to learn is to trust in the adults this year my daughter has learned to be afraid to not speak up and that she will be punished for the actions of others many years ago I made a choice to move to Kirkwood to provide my children with a high quality safe education to say I am disappointed with the leadership at Robinson is an understatement I implore you to make the necessary changes to protect all students we have had years of poor leadership it's time for a change as an educator I know there are constraints but don't let those be excuses do
026better for the future of our kids from Jill Berard urgent reform is needed at Robinson Elementary it's crucial that the Board of Education and the school administration acknowledge the mishandling of recent incidents our children deserve a sincere apology for the ways in which the response to their concerns has made them feel more like perpetrators and victims it's disheartening to see them punished restricted from certain areas during recess as if they were the ones at fault this not only exacerbates their sense of Injustice but also undermines their trust in the very adults meant to protect them furthermore the use of what has been referred to as an illegal contract to manage Behavior must be immediately discontinued this approach is not only questionable in its ineffectiveness but also in its legality and morality no child should feel
027Bound by an agreement that places them at Future risk or compromises their rights this is from Christa Chancellor as a concerned parent I am calling on the board of education to take action and protect our children at Robinson element country I understand the role of the board in ensuring each child has access to a good education and a safe environment the district is also applying the rules and policies currently in place the current policies and procedures as applied have not been an effective course of action to protect our fifth graders in my opinion the board should consider a revie a review to evaluate the effectiveness of the policies and procedures currently in place this includes transparency in required reporting of offenses frequency of offenses and severity so that they can be tied together when linked
028with the same student or behavioral problem I would encourage that this be an independent review and the board be open to the fact that either the policy is not working or the process is not working to keep our children safe this is from Stacy ptil as a concerned parent I am calling on the board of education to take action to protect our children at Robinson Elementary School should be a place where all students feel safe ly supported by the staff and the administration this requires the administration to act against aggression in any form and to ensure the victims feel heard supported and protected it is imperative that our schools provide a safe environment where our children are empowered to speak up and advocate for themselves now as these early years provide a foundation for the
029rest of their lives this is from Lauren Nolan as a parent of a fifth grader at Robinson I am extremely upset to hear of lack of movement to address serious allegations of a fifth grader exhibiting physical and verbal abuse I'm concerned for the well-being of all of the other fifth graders and do not feel comfortable with the current setup child has been recently moved into my child's classro given there have been death threats I'm immediately seeking the school to be very clear with all as to the safety plan and confirm that the child in question has his belonging searched upon entry into the school every child deserves an educ ation but not at the risk of putting the larger class and school in danger I'd also ask that more communication be provided so we know
030as parents what the steps are that are being taken as we navigate this situation thank you thank you moving on to 2.02 approval of the agenda I need a motion in a second to approve the agenda for the February 26 2024 regular meeting as presented so move MOA all those in favor raise your right hand and say I I all those opposed motion passes all right I need a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda items 3.02 through 3.09 as presented so move to Bernardi second pingor I'll those in favor raise your right hand and say I I all those opposed motion passes I need a motion and a second to approve the financial reports for January 2024 as presented so move Motika second pbor Mr Rome good evening thank you our operating
031revenues in January were 19 .5 million most of this is current taxes which was just over $17 million The Collection rate for taxes through January was 81.3% compared to 88% last year um over the coming months I do expect to close that Gap and that will end the year at 97% of our um Levy taxes which is what we budgeted operating expenditures for January January were 8 2 million this includes just under 1.5 million that we spent from the operating fund for the uh High School Turf project in our prop I fund we spent 254,000 toward the turf we had budgeted $780,000 for this project uh from that Fund in our construction fund we spent just over $3 million on Prop bar related construction work thank you any questions okay all those in favor raise
032your right hand say I I all those opposed motion passes thank you all right next up 5.01 our uh experience Management Institute presentation all right thank you very much president CH I guess I don't have to project my voice into this mic um not quite used to that but uh I do definitely appreciate it Dr Fields thank you I'll give you an opportunity to introduce uh your guests here in a moment uh but as we take a look at this Staffing assessment and evaluation I want to make sure that I highlight a couple of things before we get started one obviously in our school district we are very lucky to have the resources that we do uh and we have made decisions to allgate those resources based on our mission our vision our guiding principles
033in our strategic plan uh the work is designed to review the distribution of Staffing but as we have communicated in our communication plan to our staff will not result in a reduction in force um Additionally the work is not focused on compensation the Staffing analysis in addition to comparing uh Kirkwood School District to Sister school districts uh here in St Louis County does include similarly sized districts throughout the state as is um part of Industry standard when looking at different organizations um it's not an indication of aspiring to be like um another District frankly every District in the state aspires to be like Kirkwood um however what it does uh it does allow us to look at things and I'll give one example I don't want to steal uh the group's Thunder but an example
034would be um taking a look at similar sized districts across the state uh and understanding um uh the square footage needs um uh specifically as it might relate to the need for custodians um and that is uh one example U that I will give again I know that uh uh the group will touch on that and so uh the information in the report will support uh excuse me will uh be a helpful data point in planning around Staffing consistent with all of our efforts we will use this information to determine how best to serve students in pursuit of achieving our strategic plan goals for the district um the board and our public will note there are places where the board finds that KSD has a staff Surplus in those comparisons this is a conclusion drawn
035from the data however the support of the board we have PRI prior Iz in areas based on our strategic plan will remain an example I have used before um you will note that uh we it will show uh that uh we have a staff Surplus at the elementary level in counseling this board of education as part of our strategic plan has in fact uh added since Co an additional full-time counselor at each of our elementary schools that was the work of this board we prioritized those resources and we will not vary from that commitment to the Strategic plan goals as it relates to Staffing so this report is a springboard for conversation it will be used to inform decision-making moving forward as with any third-party analysis it will not dictate the decisions the district makes
036nor will it circumvent the district's decision-making process however you will note there are areas where a need for additional Staffing is identified the board can expect followup in these areas Dr Fields thank you DR or uh good evening Board of Education community and colleagues um I just want to give us some additional context related to this um process before I turn it over to um exmi on April the 17th 2023 the district approved the posting of a bid to seek vendors that could provide a thorough and comprehensive analysis to assist the district in utilization of all staff this work stated to include reviewing and updating job description ions as well as making staff recommendations relative to student enrollment scheduling and Staffing and comparison districts to ensure consistency across buildings as well as positions on June
037the 26 2023 the district partnered with experience Management Institute or exmi to conduct the comprehensive analysis if you're wondering about communication last Tuesday an update was shared with all staff regarding this process U more specifically it was shared that exmi work is designed to review the distribution of Staff but will not result in a reduction in force additionally as Dr or has already mentioned this process is not focused on compensation the information in this report will serve as a helpful data point in planning around Staffing consisting with all of our efforts in the Kirkwood School District we will use this information to determine how best serves students in pursuit of achieving the Strategic plan goals of the district tonight exmi will build on this information and provide a comprehensive update on the progress while also
038sharing their recommendation at this time I will turn it over to exmi good evening Board of Education community staff members we really appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with you today I am getting some uh Echo back good evening K can you tell your speak down we know the district's committed to uring that every student is engaged empowered and ready for success and we see this as one opportunity to really support the district as it has been going through growth to give them some insight so they can adequately prepare for current and future needs of students and if you go to the next slide we'll go ahead and introduce ourselves my name is Dr Kate hoski I'm a chief and co-founder of experience management institutes my specific expertise is in data collection analysis I
039also have U more than 20 years of experience and process Improvement across multiple Industries um starting on the corporate side and then after I went back for my doctorate uh through the University of Michigan really focusing in the education nonprofit and government space um one thing that I will share about our team is that we all have a strong commitment to ongoing professional learning so you'll see that in some of the certifications in various areas and we really use that to bring insight and best practices to the organizations that we work with um with that I will let Kim introduce herself next good evening board members uh staff of the district and also members of the community I am also pleased to be here with you uh I am vice president of engagement at experience
040Management Institute and uh I possess my master of public administration also accreditation in public relations and uh my certification um in uh human capital um leadership and education I've worked for 25 uh plus years um really across all sectors um including work um in education uh nonprofits as well as uh in the public sector and then in private sector leadership and it's my pleasure to uh turn things over um to my colleague Taylor tamang yes thank you Kim good evening everyone my name is Taylor tamang I'm a strategic HR partner at exmi um I have my masters in human resource management from the Ohio State University I'm also a certified professional human capital leader in education I have my compensation analyst credential and I am most recently lean6 Sigma Green Belt certified um my experience
041really extends the past three years focusing on compensation diversity and inclusion HR strategy um and social media sourcing and recruiting so I am very excited to be here and tell you a little bit about the process that we went through and we can go to the next slide we'll share a little bit about our organization just to kind of give you some background um around our work and experience in this area um we are a women-owned social Enterprise we do a lot of work with organizations around strategy really focusing on human- centered experience um people management instructional design as well as process Improvement uh a constant lens we try to bring our to our work is a focus on diversity equity and inclusion so we're very proud to also have been awarded a bronze uh
042Stevie award for achievements and equal pay around our work within our own organization um and we also do extensive work with uh organizations and school districts in this area as well and then on the next slide you'll see a little bit more um about some of the organizations we've worked with over the past three years this is just a sampling um we've worked extensively with K12 school districts across the country um from very small districts to extremely large districts we also have worked with um government agencies professional associations State Departments of Education um as well as nonprofits and and corporate and entities so we bring all of this kind of look across Spectre Andross uh the the nation to our work with clients so as we go to the next slide um the objectives of
043our St our uh analysis have already been mentioned but really it began with job description review and updates um we will then share the work of the Staffing analysis as well as some staffing recommendations so this will just be a kind of a highlevel overview of some of the key work that was done as well as our recommendations based on the work that was completed um which will be complemented by the full final report and then as we go to the next slide you can see um where we are currently with this project so the all the of the updated job descriptions are currently under review by the district um we have completed the Staffing analysis and recommendations for the initial scope um but we have been asked to look at two additional positions so
044we'll be looking at athletic coaching positions as well as classroom assistance um that work has just uh gotten underway so the final report will be updated to include those additional positions as well so with that we'll start to walk through each area of the work starting with the job description and review to give an over viiew of um the work that has been completed and the approach in this work and Taylor will be walking through this section wonderful thank you Kate so as mentioned our first objective of this project was to update job descriptions um and to do this we followed a process called job analysis um and job analysis is really studying jobs to understand the responsibilities requirements and the conditions under which work is performed to create an accurate job description so for
045this process we focus solely on the jobs and not the employees in those jobs so if you go to the next slide please we were able to collect this information about each job via an online questionnaire called the job analysis questionnaire or jaq so information on this questionnaire covered many important pieces of a job description including General position information essential tasks physical and mental requirements and the knowledge and skills required so the questionnaire was aligned to each part of the update job description and is primarily where we drew information from um if you go to the next slide please in terms of responses uh 298 employees completed a jaq um and we were able to receive at least one completed jaq for 84% of the positions um in the event that a jaq was not
046submitted for a position we really had a three-pronged approach um starting with reviewing the current job description that we did have um and and then also comparing it to the updated job description for similar positions so for example looking at a custodian job to update update the job description for a sub custodian um and then finally flagging sections of the job description with insufficient information for a supervisor to review and include their input so as we go into the next slide I'll pass it back over to Kate so we had a a grounded approach for looking at instances where the was not jaq information available then when we did have a full complement of information really what we did was crosswalk across multiple sources of information to ultimately make sure that the job description that
047we put together was truly reflective of the requirements of the position and the work being done by the individuals in those positions so our primary sources were really the jaq responses and starting by synthesizing those across respondents if we had multiple responses as well as looking at that current job description in addition to that we also did the job descriptions in batches within the same job family so we could look across the responsibilities of positions in the same job family and make sure there was no duplication and that they're appropriately differentiated um and then the last piece we pulled in on top of that was just a cross check minimum uh requirements with any Missouri Department of Elementary and secondary educ regulations so for specific examples of those what are the minimum requirements for a
048teaching certificate what are the minimum requirements for an administrator certificate um there are certain pieces that are required to be a a parent educator so looking at those and ensuring that the job description reflected those requirements as established by the state so once we had finalized that comprehensive job description it was then we flagged any changes that were sign significant from the original job description and that those are going through the supervisor review and approval and then the final step will be that legal review and approval um and as I mentioned we always bring this lens of equity to the work that we do so that became very important for us as we were looking at the job descriptions minimum requirements and again ensuring that anything that was stated as a requirement was truly necessary
049in order to be successful in that role and looking for ways that we could open up the position if possible so an example of that is looking at education and experience and looking for opportunities to allow for equivalent experience and place of Education where it was appropriate for that particular job um and you can see some other examples of that listed here so that's really the overview of the job description portion of the work um with that we'll talk on the next slide starting to talk about the actual uh analysis that was completed for the staffing um and the way I'm going to walk through this is to First give a highlevel overview of the methodology that we took and then we'll walk through some highlevel examples that sort of illustrate what that looked like
050in practice some of these will kind of um go through quickly um because the full report is available these are meant to be illustrative and we just want to highlight some pieces of the work to show um what it looks like in practice so as we move to the next slide you'll see um the first piece of the meth methodology which was what do we compare ourselves against and we wanted to give the district a really comprehensive look at current Staffing Levels by providing multiple lenses at which to look at your current Staffing levels so we first pulled in compar comparison districts we know that this is a common point of uh comparison used by KSD um so those are uh districts within St Louis County as we looked at those we noticed there was
051kind of a wide array of sizes of districts some that are very small some that were very large so to provide another point of reference we also brought in similar size districts all of those districts are located within the state of Missouri and have similar student enrollment levels one thing we know from working with schools is there is huge variation in the way schools structure um the work and staff for the work um and one thing that you see in particular when you look at very large districts positions tend to be much more specialized you have many more layers of management because of the volume of students and work that's required if you look at smaller schools you tend to have Physicians that much more of a generalist level people that are performing multiple roles
052in one so by pulling in that similar size District we thought we gave you a really good comparison of how do people with similar demands in terms of students um staff for that type of work and then the other two pieces that we pulled in were available were um overall stats for the uh state of Missouri where we saw that reported by the department of Elementary and secondary education as well as state and National guidelines where we saw specific guidance from the state around recommended Staffing um or from professional National Education professional associations where where they have provided guidelines around what Staffing is appropriate for education so again uh kind of giving you multiple points of comparison so that these can then become the basis for additional conversation about where the district wants to go
053to meet its strategic priorities as we go to the next slide we've just shared a quick snapshot of who's included in those first two Benchmark groups that first grouping is our comparison districts so those probably look very familiar to you you can also see the range and enrollment levels with looking at these two groupings and then on the uh next column you see those similar size districts um all of which would fall within plus or minus 15% on the enrollment size so much uh more similarity also as you look at the number of schools that are being um that are supporting students in those districts if we go to the next slide um the other thing that we just want to call attention to and make sure that you know we accounted for was the
054fact that we know that Kirkwood's um partners with SSD for special educ ation services and other Support Services all of the comparison districts in St Louis County do that but within our similar size District that was not always the case so we did make sure that we made adjustments to ensure we were looking at Apples to Apples comparison where this became relevant and then the last piece on the methodology side is to really talk a little bit about the metrics so if we look at this next slide you will see both information about the data sources as well as the specific metrics we then use to make those Staffing comparisons so on the data side um our primary uh data point and where we pulled as much data as possible was from the Missouri Department
055of Elementary and secondary Education data portal we also submitted data requests for additional information that wasn't available in the standard reports um another source the national Center for Education statistics publishes National Data for school systems we did use that um but tried to minimize that data because it's a lagging data source so the most recent data was for the 20 2122 school year um so we only used that if no other data was available um and then we Pro pulled from uh local data sources so the HR department was able to provide us detailed Staffing data for Kirkwood schools um and then we've requested data from those um districts that were among the two Benchmark sets as well as reviewing District websites and organization charts to understand their Staffing levels so again pulling in a
056lot of data and trying to triangulate to make sure that we had accurate information to use as part of this study then in terms of the actual metrics we Ed to begin to make comparisons for different position groupings we used three primary metrics so the first student position to position ratios and those were really used for jobs or Department areas that directly support students so if their work involves work with students that to us was the most appropriate metric we also looked at total staff to physician ratios and that was for positions or departments that were more on the operational side so they're supporting the work of schools so that kids can be successful and then the final metric that we pulled in was square footage to position ratios and we use those for positions
057that maintain facilities again because their focus is on the upkeep of the building or the grounds so with these different ratios we then created um comparisons to look at whether the district appeared to be adequately staff or maybe have a staff Surplus or staff deficit so if again we use those median values to make those comparisons and looking at a range of plus or minus 15% so that really kind of provides the background of the data um and the way we looked at the data in order to make these comparisons if we go to the next slide you'll see one of the groups of staff that we looked at so this is first starting with overall comparisons we looked at four different staff groupings this one included total staff administrators and teachers I've just pulled
058in teachers as one example of the analysis again so you can see how that methodology translates into actually looking at different positions so as we go to the next slide what you'll see here is kind of an overall look at Kirk wig Staffing Trend over the last 10 years um what we've seen is that stud student enrollment has grown staff has grown at a little bit faster rate than student enrollment um has grown and I will say kind of nationally this has been a standard Trend that we've seen in a lot of places in particular um Co was mentioned earlier a lot of increase in students need has led to increase in providing support for for students so as we go to the next slide we'll see specifically that uh analysis as it relates to
059the teachers so again we're looking at our two different groups of Benchmark districts on the left you'll see the comparison districts uh and again because teachers work directly with students we use that student to classroom teacher ratio um and similarly on the right you'll see those similar siiz districts again that CL students per classroom teacher ratio and in both cases we see that KSD is adequately staffed um using that Benchmark of falling within plus or minus 15% of those median values if we go to the next slide um this is one uh grouping that the state does report Statewide ratios for so we also looked across the state and Kirk would directly aligns with where the state average is for student to classroom teacher ratio as well so showing adequately staffed and then the last
060piece if you go to the next slide will be the third piece we've told in um the state does report recommended class size so they report two different levels they report a standard level and a desirable standard again we know that Kirk would invest strongly in students and their success so the comparison we made was to that desirable standard that lower standard knowing the priority that you place on student growth grow and if we look at the next slide you'll see in every CL in every case in every school building perid is at or below that desirable standard so in a couple places specifically the high school and middle school uh significantly below that desirable standard um but in all Cas of showing a strong investment in education for kids so as we go to
061our next slide we just concluded a quick summary um but for each position and that overall analysis for every data point available we went in and looked at that information and summarized it into charge and you can see in most cases um Kirkwood appears to be adequately staffed looking at these metrics so as we go to the next slide and I'm not going to talk through all of these in detail but I'll just hit a few highlights of the analysis the next group of uh positions we looked at were Department Staffing levels so you can see each of the Departments listed here and if you go to the next Slide the one Unique Piece that I want to point out for this analysis and I mentioned this earlier when talking about what benchmarks to consider
062and compare to is schools do vary widely in how they um staff departments in the responsibilities that fall under the purview of different departments so in addition to just comparing departments we also paid attention to what are their areas of responsibility and are we truly making Apples to Apples comparison um and when appropriate to improve that consist of comparisons we remove some positions from the FTE counts again because we want it to be a consistent compar and comparison of like positions and like responsibilities so as we go to the next slide um we're just highlighting one department where we did this in so in the technology as we looked across um these are our comparison districts and what types of responsibilities those departments have um across the board pretty much all technology departments had positions
063with responsibility for data information systems or student Information Systems um they had staff that were responsible for the technology infrastructure and the management of different software applications and they also had specific staff that were really supporting the technology itself so your help desk staff your help desk technicians that are fixing that the hardware what was a little bit unique in some of these districts is some also had additional um technology integration Specialist or technology coaches that were working with Educators on how to use technology in the classroom in some cases there was also a Web Master position included in technology so we pulled out those kind of add-on areas to make sure again we were looking at consistent roles across departments so if we go to the next slide and we're going to skip through
064a couple of these we did this from multiple areas and multiple departments again to understand that scope of work if we skip to the next slide um you'll see this is one example for HR looking at the department um and doing comparisons in general what we noticed with the HR is that um it was adequately staffed but with the caveat that HR and Kirkwood is also managing benefits which is not typical of most of the comparison districts um and when you think about the volume of work that comes with managing benefits and those peak times during the year they would be underst staffed when that individual was fully dedicated to benefits management work if we go to the next slide um we did the same thing with um similar size districts and found the exact
065same thing again when that one individual if they are fully dedicated to benefits the department would show is underst staffed and then moving to the next slide um you can see a summary across all the different departments with Again by and large most appearing adequately staffed and some cases we showed a split because we looked at both staff to uh excuse me student to Department ratios as well as staff to Department ratios knowing that these work kind of straddle the the sphere of doing work with students or for students and support supporting the work of District staff um in our next group we go to the next slide we also looked at several certified staff positions um you can see the list here um and for this one I'm going to skip through most of
066the analysis because you've seen it but if we go to the next slide you'll see that similar comparison to those similar districts uh we see that looks adequately staffed this is our similar size districts and then the next slide is one that I wanted to highlight just because it shows what I what I mean by pulling in National comparisons so we also looked at the National Association of School nurses and their Staffing guidelines and provided that information to the district again to serve as another lens for thinking about Staffing and where you want to be um with nursing staffing levels specifically and then the final group that we took a look at on the next slide um sorry the summary support staff analysis so we can go ahead and move forward um this is where
067we get into some of those uh comparisons to square footage so as we look at this one um we pulled in specific guidelines recommended by the national Center for Education statistics this is a fairly simple uh methodology um and this is the one we really focused on for these Staffing groups these kind of square footage comparisons um one because these levels these Staffing positions are not reported to the um the state so it's hard to pull them out and they're not readily available we worried about the accuracy of self-reported data and two because at the end of the day what matters is are we appropriately staffed to do the work that needs to be done so the target levels that you would really want to hit are that level three level that's a standard uh
068cleanliness level for an office environment and general School environment um the other that is marked or noted as level two is or as adequately staffed as that level two and that's because um specialty areas like early childhood should be kept at a level two standard of cleanliness so we considered individual buildings and what is appropriate to main the maintain um those buildings so as you go to the next slide you'll be able to see what that breakdown looks like specifically by school building and we can see for this analysis when we look at those cleanliness levels again we want to be at that level three for most buildings and in several cases the district's currently at a level four which indicates a staff deficit um and those are primarily the middle and high school areas
069and a few of the elementaries and then if we go to the next slide we also as a reference um pulled in and provided information around other types of standards that are typically used for these areas so apaa is used widely by school districts as well as um Institutes of higher education to set Staffing levels it's a little bit more sophisticated than the national uh Center for Education statistic metric because it brings in factors to adjust for um like considering things like special education classroom space uh Carpeting and what is involved in cleaning that versus uh tile flooring so this is another option if the district is looking at um cons determining how to set Staffing levels if they want to be a little bit more nuanced they could look at a standard like Appa
070sets and include some additional factors which could impact the Staffing levels that are needed and as with the other ones we've provided a summary of these findings again using multiple data points where those are available so with that I want to turn things over to Kim to share the recommendations then that came out of this work based on the analyses analyses We performed thank you Kate uh it is my job to bring it all home for you here um as we um wrap up the uh findings and make the pivot into our staffing recommendations so let's go to the next slide please so overall um we are recommending that you um really re review and reflect on those shortage areas um and as you um go through the process of reviewing the information we've provided
071um really prioritize your actions um to address those areas where the the shortages are truly truly evident um as we've called them out number two make sure to uh develop a staffing plan um we recommend using Staffing benchmarks and guidelines to really set your Target Staffing levels and of course everything has to be in alignment vertically with your mission and goals and your strategic plan and then next we want to make sure um that you know along with that process of setting Staffing levels that you're reviewing organizational structures because the two have to operate um together in concert and looking at those structures will help you to make sure that your Staffing overall truly is optimized and it then it links back to uh the Strategic framework for the district and then number four we
072um really want to encourage operational efficiency um and making sure that that operational efficiency is again um aligned with uh your board priorities um so from an efficiency perspective you know I heard the guidance counselor comment earlier um you know you're talking about um this case really prioritizing Staffing and balancing that off with with efficiency when it comes to the the guidance counselor position but we do want to make sure that any areas the custodial positions would be a good example that are seeing bottlenecks um or really high work volumes uh would be addressed and I think we can go on to the next slide there so shortage areas um and we have identified them um by building here um for the custodians and we really want to encourage um use of those guidelines developed
073by ncees um which prioritize the uh building square footage um we are recommending that you hire additional staff so that all of the buildings are maintained at that acceptable level of CLE cleanliness and uh the Early Childhood centers focusing on level two uh that standard while your Elementary secondary and office spaces can keep at the level three standard um and you can see in the chart here the number of staff that um we're recommending um that um should be hired to meet those basic standards and we understand that there are could be additional factors in play um including different types of space restrooms uh food service areas Etc um where more staff may need to be hired and um all of those considerations taken into account think we can move to the next slide more
074observations and recommendations um by um Staffing type Grounds Maintenance um the district at right now is at an acceptable uh level based on the standards that are you know the national standards published by ncees um to move to um a standard level um you would need to bring in an additional half FTE so to move from that acceptable to the standard level and we know that you contract with an outside vendor uh to mow the grass so taking that into account you might not need any additional FTE and then next for human resources um we noted earlier that unlike most of your comparison and similar siiz districts um your HR does manage benefits and we know that during those heavy um workload times for benefits um this could create a staffing benefit so our uh
075deficit I should say so adding one more FTE would help the uh HR department to really um stay more on top of that volume of work during those busy times in particular and could be spread out to handle other things during the uh the uh the other times of the year also for the school uh nurse positions again in comparison to uh your comparison districts you are ad adequately staffed but when we look at the districts with similar size uh you do have a shortage and again um we're really keying in on the fact that those similar size districts while they are dispersed throughout the state they are Missouri districts um we do want to call out that that National Association of School nurses recommends that every student um have that access to a uh
076an RN all day every day um so that may mean that you you would want to look at bringing in um more than one school nurse um to meet the needs of each of the individual School populations can go to the next slide so then moving from uh the staff shortage areas to the Staffing plan um we've made a lot lot of recommendations here making sure to pinpoint those specific positions and departments to um include within the plan make sure to stay focused on your Staffing metrics that make sense for each position and departmentment and we highlighted those three different metrics metric types um throughout the report um make sure that if you need to use any adjustment factors um that you call call those in and um put them into place and we know
077that different budget constraints different limitations different a available resources could also need to be factored in and then along the way that you um as you implement the Staffing plan monitor the Staffing and make you know any um notations and adjustments as needed um as things continue to change which they always will next slide please so a few uh notes about organizational structures um some overarching observations here we noted that um in terms of the superintendent position overall span of control um unlike most of those comparison districts um in Kirkwood the principles do report directly to the superintendent which um is a span of control that you're you're not seeing in the in the other districts um um and in those other districts there is a uh uh one or more cabinet level positions for
078assistant super super intendent of teaching and learning um assistant superintendent of Elementary and secondary or a CAO position uh responsible for campus leadership so that is definitely a consideration um other department core responsibilities um comparison districts do Ru that finance and operations under the CFO or assistant superintendent um but most districts in your similar size category don't combine finance and operations so it's it's a toss up there in terms of um you know your decision-making calculus for what to do next um it is more common for the business and office and finance to own both benefits and payroll among both your comparison and similar size districts um so just want to reinforce that as it pertains to the HR department uh for technology most of the uh Tech departments in your comparison districts have addition
079areas of responsibility maybe for teaching and learning Tech integration um the district website um among your similar size districts um they pretty much have the same level of responsibility so again reflecting that similar size um and like um likeness from that perspective so just make sure to keep those take those things into account and then last but not least on the list here um almost all of your comparison districts have a print copy center while again the similar size districts look to be Outsourcing that responsibility so another consideration for you I think we can move on in terms of uh job titles um we noted that in the community uh community relations department there isn't currently a specialist position um and that the department relies on part time Secretary positions to um really satisfy those
080uh many of the core Communications functions um we have recommended a reclassification um for one of the secretaries to a visual communication specialist given their uh level of responsibility and then looking at the other um secretary position um given their responsibility for uh alumni Communications uh reclassing them as an alumni communication coordinator and then um also for community relations um the uh most of those similar siiz districts have an executive director or Ed position uh leading uh the department instead of a chief um KSD has um communication and engagement as a priority goal for the school district so KN knowing that um the elevation to a chief level position position is a good way to align your resources and back to the Strategic plan and then over to um division of labor for uh your
081technology team um your technology specialist um at the building level have a limited amount of positions which could pull back on their ability to directly uh so resolve any issues that come up um so we just want to make sure that you take that into consideration um and also um we did note some insufficient training for Tech staff um and um some concern about being able to escalate issues as a result of that um we're recommending the development of a Department training plan um and just some updates to escalation procedures next slide please and on to next steps Kate I think we're going back to you so this just Recaps where we started the presentation in terms of where we are and where we are going so currently in terms of the job description work
082supervisors and legal are going to be going through the process of reviewing and approving those updated job descriptions um we are going to complete the um Staffing analysis and recommendations for the scope of work that has been added which are athletic coaching positions and classroom assistant and finally we will prepare that final report inclusive of those two new positions um and provide that to the district so that was where we are to this point um and again we just appreciate the opportunity to share a highlights of this work um as well as provide the full report to support the additional work that has been completed thank you Kate um Taylor as well as Kim before I turn it over to Dr or I do want to thank you for your thoroughness uh with respect respect
083to all of the work that you've provided but also um want to thank you for modeling that even Rivals can get along and so um yourself Kate and Taylor um between the Michigan and the Ohio state was certainly a model piece for us to review again thank you I'll turn it over to Dr o and President Sharon for any questions thank you um I'm going to start to my right um on the screen Mr boo do you have any questions or no um I think my only question is where things uh once they come back to us to the district uh Dr Ock and and uh president shurn kind of where that process would be in terms of uh recommendations actually being implemented or or not imp M all right thank thank you for your
084question uh Mr boo what the board can expect is now that the uh presentation has been given and now I feel like I do have to project my voice a little bit there um the green light is on I promise uh there we go um and so what the board can expect is now that this has been presented and and is uh has made public that the board can expect us to go through a process at the cabinet level U to identify uh what to prioritize of these recommendations as I mentioned before it is a report based on the data that has been uh that was given to exmi and it will not dictate uh to us however um I do believe that you have seen some areas where we we do feel like we
085need to respond U and so I'll go through a process Now with uh with cabinet make sure that uh anything that we do bring in terms of acting on these recommendations does in fact fit inside uh and uh make sure that we are doing that in a fiscally responsible way that can be sustainable and I'm trying to make eye contact with Mr Rome every time I use those words um but uh absolutely the the board can expect followup uh with very specific information the other piece that I think Dr Fields would want me to mention as well is the board can expect followup with regard to the approval of new job descriptions once our supervisors have the opportunities to review those uh and make sure uh those do in fact match our expectations uh and
086the expectations of our employees uh the board can expect followup um in somewhat uh large chunks I might uh warn the board now um that that will be coming uh to to the board I think uh Dr field you want to did you hold up there'll be one large chunk well just one additional thing I concur with everything Dr oric said but if you recall it was uh a board comment with respect to Staffing plans and the importance of it and so that is going to be something that we look at moving forward for a learn term piece based off of the recommendations and feedback by exmi Mr boyo did that answer your question yes that answered it and and I guess my only other comment is just to reiterate I think what I said
087at the last meeting where we discussed this that um you know the goal isn't just to replicate what other districts do uh obviously the information is helpful um but but I hope that the administration uh and the board uses its own discernment too thank you Miss Motika no Miss pbor um no I just this is a lot of information so I really appreciate going through it um I had two questions first one is um it was identified that athletic coaching and classroom assistants were not included are there other positions that were not included why did we miss those can you just highlight that those were the only two with regards to um the turnover and how much data that was all already at part of the exmi information and so what we wanted to do
088this being our first time engaging with exmi we wanted to go through all of those job descriptions and everything that it has been some time since they were updated once we saw the work and the thoroughness of their research and Reporting it was evident that once we finish with this particular process we were going to have an updated process for all positions and I think that was more so the logic at least initially okay and so there's not other positions that we should should be considering with the thoroughness that they've done current positions that we have in the district right now um every position would have been gone through the what I would call the exmi uh filter okay perfect thank you I appreciate that and is very thorough again lots of detail um and
089then my second question which might be something for the future Dave so Dr all work sorry just put it on your radar um if we're looking at updating job descriptions I want to be really cognis or have an understanding of how we would be communicating that with step um so not necessarily for tonight but just for the future thank you thank you Miss Andrews okay so I would also Echo um in terms of when we're asking our staff to do this as I look at um the report we ask our staffs to do this at the beginning of the school year when we all know that that is the absolute busy most chaotic um time of year and so I think that we want to um as we always say we want to make sure
090that we are taking care of our staff and so part of taking care of our staff is thinking through things like that um one of my questions is um how many different job categories do we have when you say job categories we have admin we have support staff we have certified in addition to that though we have other areas so I'll pause to see if there are any additional layers of your question so I guess what I I'm trying to understand when they say 85% have responded I'm trying to get the next layer of detail on that so for example um you know I I would like to know um how many employees fall under each job category and then for each job category how many of those employees filled out the ja kill so
091great question as it relates to our 14 different areas we have Administration with 35 custodial maintenance 84 Early Childhood five facilitators five Food Service 2 guidance 24 library media Specialist 9 nurses 12 office 6 63 other support staff 16 other certified eight classroom AIDS or assistance to 61 teachers 399 and Technology 17 as it relates to the specifics related to jqs I will actually turn that over to exmi because we did not go through any filter all of the jqs went directly to exmi so I'll turn it over to them so there were 298 total job or jaqs that were submitted by staff um the 84% number is reflective of there were 112 unique positions or job titles so then um we had I'm trying to remember the exact number 90 94 90 actually I
092think it was 97 different job titles had at least one jaq submitted and then we have a tracking sheet that details by by position how many we received so we'd be happy to provide that level of detail if you want to see how many jqs were turned in for each specific job title um yes please um because again if we're making Staffing decisions based on this um I want to as a board member feel confident that the staff that are doing the job had their voice represented and so um that's that's where this is kind of that that questioning is coming from um my next um question is kind of I know Miss Pangborn had ask about um the classroom assistants and so classroom assistants are a vital vital um part of our our school
093and so I guess I'm kind of confused on how we can um determine that we have an adequate staff or inadequate staff if if we have um not included an essential part of our staffing correction we have included them they're more so their job description has not been updated but when we look at the number yeah okay so they were included in the study of Are We Ade adequately staffed looking at all of the U classroom assistance and everything the question was with respect to the update job description so I'll turn it over to exmi I just wanted to make sure that was clear okay so for the job descriptions they were one of the job titles that we included for the staffing analysis we pulled data from the state around a Aid position but
094later determined that that Staffing information from the state does not include classroom AIDS so we need to do a separate poll to be able to specifically look at Staffing for that particular position okay so in my understanding then that in your study you did not include um the classroom assistance the study is incomplete the study on are we adade adequately staffed did not include classroom assistance that's the additional scope that's being completed right now is the classroom assistants plus the athletic coaches okay so then I go back to the question about how do we have a document about Staffing if we didn't include all of the Staffing you know that where's saying to our public we're saying to our teachers we're saying to everyone that we're maybe not adequately staffed or we're overstaffed but we
095didn't include a huge group of employees if this was the final report I would say absolutely but given the fact that it was um stated earlier that they're looking at the um classroom assistants taking a deep dive a comprehensive dive of classroom assistants and coaches and that's going to be part of the final report um those decisions will be helpful as we look at the final report great um I would just say that we've made statements about our staffing and so it gets a little bit confusing that we made statements about if we're ad adequately staff or not and so I I think that we've got to be careful with that oh miss Andrew can I just interject please um you'll note that however throughout the um in the positions reviewed there's not a comparison
096of classroom assistants included in the Staffing report as it is currently presented either so it's it's not a question of of other school districts had their classroom assistance in here and then we're compared against ours that didn't um just you'll note in the in the um uh in the report uh that is not uh included and I don't know if anybody from exmi wants to uh elaborate on that but just want to make sure that we are making truly Apples to Apples comparisons so what you're saying you're asking yeah I mean that was in part what I was trying to allude to previously we did try and do data pull from the state to include the position of aid but later came to learn that as we dug into the details of what was reported
097to the state under that Aid position code it only included Early Childhood par professionals and it was not the classroom AIDS which is why we're doing additional research to pull in the classroom Aid position to to be part of that full comprehensive report okay um my next question is um so we have comparison districts that we compare ourselves to um Dr Al can you speak to why we kind of compare ourselves to those districts you mean the the traditional kind of seven that we yeah that that was established long before I got here of something that has been um I don't know if the word tradition would be the right word to use but certainly was identified as a list of what we would call our comparison I usually refer to them as our comparison
098or our sister sister districts um here in um uh in St Lewis County don't know necessarily the history on how those particular ones were identified uh but certainly uh in terms of of where we stand with regard to um a student achievement um I think that it would be certainly districts that we want to compare ourselves too favorably but I don't know if there's maybe some folks with a longer history that might be able to speak to it I mean okay um okay I'm G to let some other board members but I might I I I just W to Cathy no I will come back to me Miss sh oh well go ahead and get them done I got okay Kathy um three quick ones and so this might be one to take away Dr
099Fields but I am just curious so uh 21% increase in staff over 10-e period kind of where are the big buckets of where those jobs were that were added not expecting you to Rattle that off right now but I am just curious like what percentage of like a pie chart I'll get that information to you just curious um back to the student to classroom teacher ratio um calculation um I'm I'm curious were Specialists included in that number as well when you say specialist do you mean so we have like reading Specialists and math Specialists they believe definitely the elementary school level correct I'll turn that over to exmr for the teaching comparison we pulled analysis for classroom teachers as well as um just teachers as a whole and so for class teachers that aligns the
100core data physician 60 it would exclude special education remedial reading Title One in vocational teachers the classroom teacher or excuse me the um regular teacher student to teacher ratio would be inclusive of all those additional positions so we pulled uh kind of the standard data as it's reported to the state for those two comparisons so I'm far from the expert here but I don't know if the specialist would be included in those codes that were rattled off my my point is with the question is and again we can clarify this after the fact but it seems to be a simple calculation of total stud goodness I just sorry sorry uh total students divided by teachers in the building and so we've got correct me if I'm wrong but anywhere between three and five Specialists if
101not more um so that certainly I'm just curious if it's included in the calculation if not it certainly could lead to a different number right and just for my my benefit Mr Kathy to make sure we get you the most accurate information I know enough to back away then U the most accurate information is what I think you're referring to like are reading interventionists math interventionists just all the folks that are that provide that certified teachers that provide that direct support to uh uh to our teachers in the classroom correct okay we'll make sure we get that inform if it's in or in or not in uh the calculation and then my last point is so I I appreciate the detail and I'll call examples to technology and HR where when you assess your Staffing
102you also look at responsibilities so you can gauge you know uh total workload bandwidth of those individuals what I did not see in the larger 1504 slide PowerPoint was that level of detail specific to our teachers and I think it's very important if we're going to look at that level and say we're going to judge whether or not we need FTE ads with with tech or HR which I think that information is important as you make that assessment we need to have that same level of detail for for classroom features and so I'm curious if this process and I I recognize that this is not the final report I can't wait to see how big that one is when we get it but um is that going to be included because I think that is
103critical again as we assess proper Staffing specific to you know the individuals that are you know shoulder-to-shoulder with our teachers are we looking at what their day-to-day looks like um both internal but also is there a way to to do that with our um sister I'll um great question I'll ask exmi specifically about the teacher um job description here in a moment uh with regards to the jaq um what I will say is looking at job descriptions as close as I have um historically in Kirkwood the position of classroom teacher is pretty broad so you don't have a job description that will say elementary math teacher versus physical educator it's classroom teacher so that is pretty broad um we typically lean on that particular component now when we're talking about adding staff historically um for
104those particular positions it does come back to student enrollment having said that you bring up a ballot point in terms of the expectations that we're asking of teachers and all of that will that shift well the great thing that I have a front R to is this space called collective bargaining and we were having a lot of conversations related to what we're asking teachers to do I know that's a vastly different component but those discussions naturally navigate into that space and so I'll lean over to um exmi to see was there a representative sample from the teacher job description and I think that'll um bring in some more insight on your um question um Mr Cathy so in terms of the analysis we looked at the Staffing levels we didn't go into the level of
105researching um negot ated agreements and kind of additional duties and responsibilities and contract days of that level that was beyond the scope of of this work and the the comparisons that were made um typically we see um you know in terms of comparisons made from teacher to teacher that districts have kind of one job description that's an umbrella for all positions so that kind of level of granularity really would not be available so if it's within the scope though for other positions though I guess my question is why it wouldn't be within the scope for our teachers so if looking at responsibilities we informs our decision as to whether or not we need FTE ads or we're a deficit why would that not that same level of detail be provided for the teacher job description
106for the Department we looked at the scope of responsibilities to a department we didn't go roll by roll and split out every single role and do individual position comparisons so we did it at the group level as opposed to the individual level okay to to ensure that we pulled in like positions to compare to each other so I I I will speak for myself and say I would struggle if this report comes without that level of detail that that will be what it is um but as a district you know one of my other points that Mr boo touched on this is when this is final you know I'm sure you guys will do a job of distilling this down in terms of what it means as we go forward I would hope that we
107take into account really looking at what the day-to-day aspect of our our teachers looks like at each level um to come to kind of the internal determination as to whether or not if we're staffed appropriately or not does that make sense yeah again just for clarification purposes Mr Cathy I want to make sure are you suggesting that we we break down um you know like what a high school teacher a middle school teacher an elementary school teacher te is that the kind of Distinction you said at each level I want to make sure we're that we're clear my so I'm operating really off just an observation right now that what I see with you know specifically the examples of tech and HR where I think it's it's good practice to look at what the responsibilities
108are there um I just without seeing that for the teachers it feels void to me at first reaction so I think I'm I'm not the expert in terms of looking at whether or not we're we're fully staffed but um that would just be my feedback is to make sure that we're taking some level of account into to that piece as well and I would appreciate that I actually give you more credit you are the expert in terms of looking at the the data and making sure we're responding to those questions because I think it's important the only other piece that I would add is just when we're talking about Staffing alone typically student enrollment won't have an impact on some of the areas that were or departments where we went a little bit more in
109depth with historically the only two areas me being here in HR that have led to increases or Staffing Dynamics with classroom teacher positions has been either student enrollment or if we're looking at the Strategic Plan and there's something that we're doing unique or align with our strategic plan and so I get it especially with those Dynamics and I didn't even look at that before so I I do appreciate that but that's the only other thing that I can think of yeah and I just think my last comment on that will be I think the jq's provide had a good opportunity if I understand what they represent uh to hear from our teachers and say hey there might be these big things um that are part of our dayto day that we need to make sure
110are part of the job description what I hear is that's part of this process which is which is encouraging so that's so thank you Miss Bernardi thank you thank you for all your work and for all your data we love that here on the board um and two things it's kind of just um I'm stepping back and looking at it uh but there's two things that we look at resources and then student performance and what we can do to have the best results for our students so I really like your student to position ratio because those are the positions that directly support students um so my question is more about how does Staffing directly affect student performance and well-being and what measures you know we can use so one measure that we have used in
111the past is looking at analysis of cost per student in our compar comparison districts and those comparison districts because I'm I've been here a while a little bit longer than superintendent but um those are model districts and it's based on student performance and achievement so you can of course you know the more money you spend hopefully the greater effect you'll have on the student performance so I would be interested in I'm not sure if it's possible but maybe I know Mr R likes to look at the finances but cost per student is something we do look at um at our comparison in districts um so that we as the board know how to um use our resources most wisely to help our students um so that's one thing and then the other thing is I'd
112be interested in that cost per student and student performance of our similar sized districts across the state of Missouri because there are some districts on that list that um Kirk would uh would probably outperform in some areas so we like to Aspire to be the best that we can be I do appreciate apprciate you using those districts though for building square footage which I believe you have so you have to look at the size for custodial and I very much appreciate that also appreciate your work looking at the nurses um so those are the things the spending and the student performance that as a board member I just look at more for more what we can do to help the students and and I very much appreciate all this work you have done so thank
113you so much Miss Bor I don't know if Dr or wanted to speak to that but I second um some of those pieces um especially seeing that some of those um districts with similar enrollment have um more um Staffing in certain areas so I would agree we need to look at that because if we're underneath those uh particular districts in certain areas that's something we should look closely at so I do second that I'll turn it over to Dr Ori to see if there's anything else as well as from exmi one yes goe so I know that this report's not finish one of the things that I would like in the finished product is when you say a surplus of Staffing I I need a little bit more in terms of what does that mean
114exactly um and then um just to kind of echo what Miss Bernardi said um when we're making Staffing decisions based on schools that we only comparing ourselves to solely on the number of students um we've we've got to look you know that that starts to concern me um because there are variety of factors beyond the size of the district that we need to be looking at um and then the last thing um where does class size fit into all of this um and I think that as Mr Cathy was saying you know if you're looking at um the number of teachers you have reading interventionist classified as teachers and so then it um is bringing your ratio to you know or it brings your it changes your number where those the reading interventionists are not
115having a a they're serving students greatly but they don't have a classroom and so I think that we've got to kind of break that down more um and so Dr allor can you speak to or go ahead Dr or had a long night so I'll let him take the last one um the first one just on page 16 of the 136 page document when it speaks to staff Surplus it's speaking to above that 15% um below the medium Benchmark value and it does go into that so I just wanted to bring that up um the other piece is I get it especially when we're talking about enrollment along and if in fact the report only looked at enrollment along it would be extremely problematic my interpretation of these data is more so the comparison districts
116are there all of that data with comparison districts are there as another bench point point or another layer which appears to be the industry standard is looking at the similar siiz districts but even though that's a piece that was also looking at the state of Missouri and so if in fact this report only looked at those particular districts and all of that and we didn't have our comparison District it would be in in a massive problem especially here in Kirkwood but I don't want that point Lost first of which with the U definition for the staff and surplus used for these data as well as the fact that the similar size district is one of the comparisons that was there but not the so one Dr or I didn't know if you wanted to mention
117um the fund with class sizes that I won't touch right now he said that I won't touch no I don't I don't have anything more NE necessarily particularly to add I think getting clarification on what was included and not included in the comparison districts when it comes to student per classroom teacher ratio will'll provide a great deal of followup on that um and so at this point I think uh we need to wait for that clarification before I can speak more to that and how um which is Page 21 on the smaller of the uh uh of the two the presentation um uh I would have to wait till I have that clarification before I can speak to how that would relate to this if that makes sense y so I guess that kind of
118I'll wrap it up then um what as a board member I would like to kind of see in you know as part of this is um some class-size discussion um and in terms of a staffing plan um what would be helpful to to me and I don't know if my fellow board members feel this way um but in terms of a staffing plan and future planning I would ask that we be provided with with kind of a comprehensive plan on any changes or any suggestions um that are going to be um brought brought forward so for example um you know last year we we added several things and they came at different times um and it would just be helpful as a board member for it all to come as once so that we can
119see the full um picture and Dr R rck and I had a conversation um with regards to to that um a few days ago so um that I think would be helpful thank you we believe it would be helpful as well so I do I do appreciate you thank you again for all all this this is thank you thank you um EX exmi for your thoroughness in presenting this information um I do just have one comment or question um going off of what Mr boo said and I know you said with the next steps you're going to prioritize the recommendations can we um expect that in the 2425 school year that some part of this will be implemented like when will we see this implementation the short answer is yes you can expect in that
120terms of that prioritization for us to bring that forward to the board um I would certainly uh think that it would be no later than the April 1st board meeting which is really the March board meeting but we couldn't have it on March 25th because there's no school no students that day so it was moved back but certainly no later than April 1 uh board meeting awesome thank you Dr Fields thank you all right okay moving on to six point 01 future event um on March 1st we have our many cultures one Kirkwood here at North Kirkwood Middle School um March 4th is the our board work session March 7th our curriculum Review Committee March 8th end of third quarter March 11th we have our board special meeting um March 13th will be our League
121of Women Voters uh board candidate Forum at I the keing theater at Kirkwood High School also on that day be exciting um budget and finance committee meeting March 15th staff development day so no school for students March 18th is spring break March 25th no school for students and then on the 26th School resumes that's nice Spring weather maybe we'll get that for spring break all righty we are moving back into our clothes okay so I need a motion in a second to Reiner closed so move motia second Pangborn you got a um Bernardi Cathy Andrews yep pingboard Motika Boo and yes and Sh yes good evening thank you guys for coming