001Woo. >> [music] [music] >> Woo. >> [music] >> Woo. >> [music] >> Woo. Woo. >> [music] >> Woo. >> [music] >> Woo. >> [music] >> Woo. Woo. >> [music] [music] >> Oh. >> Woo! Woo! >> [music] >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good night, everybody. Thanks for being here tonight. Welcome um to our last meeting of the 2025-2026 school year. Our last meeting of the Hard to believe that we're here. Um right now, we've got a motion to approve of the agenda. Uh I move the board approve the agenda as presented. Second. Nick? Yes. Drew? Yes. Angie? Yes. Karen? Yes. Motion carries. All right, then next on our agenda
002is honoring excellence, which is when we welcome Dallas Ackerman to the podium to share with us great things that are happening in LPS. Thank you for being here tonight. >> Yes, and thanks for allowing us to recognize some more amazing students as we close out the the school year. And we're going to begin with our LPS awards. It's hard to believe that we launched this earlier this year back in September. We've had a chance to recognize, I think, close to 30 students this year and uh the LPS award stands for love, perseverance, and strength. And we've received so many great nominations. It's just an opportunity for us to recognize students for just being amazing students at school. And the nominations have poured in, I'm happy to report as we start 2026-2027 school year, we will
003have a full bank of nominations when we when we get things started up again in September. Tonight, we recognize students from Franklin Elementary, the Falcons. We have three awesome Falcons with us tonight. Going to start with Teddy. Teddy, would you come forward? Come up here and join me at the podium. Here he comes. How are you, sir? I'll have you just stand right here, Teddy. And I'm going to read what Franklin said about you. Teddy is the perfect candidate for this award because he truly embodies the characteristics of love, positivity, and strength. He is thoughtful and kind, always being one of the first to offer to help. He consistently treats everyone with respect, showing patience with his words and actions to everyone around him. This is just one example of how I'm sorry, he takes
004his time in his work, making sure it exceeds expectations and still manages to turn it in early. He brings joy to our classroom and to our school and his commitment to success deserves to be celebrated. Congratulations, Teddy, and I will present you with your LPS award. Good job. >> [applause] >> Moving along, I'd like to introduce Tucker. Tucker, would you join me at the podium? Hello, Tucker. I'm going to read what they said about you and it's all really good stuff. I'm happy to present the LPS award to Tucker who truly embodies love, positivity, and strength. Her joyful spirit lights up our school every day with a growth mindset, a kind heart, and genuine empathy. Tucker uplifts everyone around her and ex- emplifies our core values with pride. She is a role model, an inspiration
005to her peers, and a source of laughter, smiles, and fun wherever she goes. You seem like somebody I want to hang out with. We are so lucky to have Tucker as a Franklin Falcon. Congratulations, Tucker Smith. Good job. And then, finally, we have Ellie Winn. Ellie, I told Ellie that she has one of my favorite names because I have an Ellie at home. Yeah. Ellie Ackerman. Ellie is a delight to have in class as she lights up the room with her positive energy and delightful attitude. She is one of the first students to come into the room every morning with a genuine smile. And I see it evidenced right there. Ellie is not only up to be challenged in all subjects, but also shows resilience when problem-solving and giving up is not an option. Can
006always find Ellie at recess with classmates, always playing with her as she shows kindness to them and being that friend that students want to be around. I couldn't think of a more deserving student to be honored for kindness, resilience, compassion, and a positive spirit. Ellie win. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> And there's your award. Good job. Uh next, uh we recently had two schools named Exemplary Library Programs. We've shared that, I know, in many of our uh social media platforms and on our website. We have some special guests with us tonight. So, at this time, I would like to introduce our director of Library Media Services, Andrea Sumi, to the podium to introduce our guests. I'm honored to welcome Lisa Scroggs, the director of Secondary Literacy within DESE's Department of College and Career Readiness. Dallas, thanks
007for letting me take over this part. In her role, Lisa supports teachers, administrators, and librarians in all aspects of literacy and libraries, including instruction, reading success plans, programming, and more. I appreciate Lisa being here in person and always being a supportive thought partner. Lisa recently led the process for the publication of DESE's new instructional guidance for librarians. This vital resource provides support for both administrators and librarians while building consistency in library instruction statewide at a time when information literacy, media literacy, innovation, and reading engagement are as important as ever for our students. Lisa also administers the Exemplary School Library Program in a way that is reflective and responsive. Because of Lisa's work, next year's ESLP rubric has been updated to allow for libraries on a fixed instructional schedule, as many of our LPS elementary libraries
008are. At our recent Mizzou Spring Conference, I had the pleasure of recognizing Lisa's contribution to DESE's Exemplary School Library Program recognition with a commendation from the American Association of School Librarians. She's here tonight to honor two of our own school library programs with this prestigious state recognition. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Lisa Scroggs. >> [applause] >> Good evening, and first I want to congratulate our three students who received awards. It's good to have these future leaders here among us tonight. Established by legislation signed into law in 2018, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Exemplary School Library Program recognition is in its sixth year. The purpose of the initiative is to assist school libraries in Missouri in providing the best support possible for students, teachers, and communities. Scoring for ESLP
009is done by a team of eight experienced school librarians from throughout Missouri. Applicants must score at least 90% of points possible without receiving a score of zero on any of the 21 indicators. Applicants are evaluated on instruction, leadership, library environment, library management, and staffing. On behalf of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, I am pleased to announce that among this year's 14 Missouri school libraries being recognized are two from the Liberty School District. Liberty Middle School under the direction of librarian Megan Bright and South Valley Middle School under the direction of librarian Jamie Summer. I would also like to extend extend appreciation to the Liberty School District's building and district leaders who recognize the importance of strong school library programs and work to support them. At this time, I would like to present
010to Megan and Jamie resolutions from Missouri Representative Marty Gibbs and Senator Gregory along with resolutions from the Missouri State Board of Education. Please join me in congratulating Maggie Megan and Jamie on their accomplishment. >> [applause] >> Thank you Lisa and I should mention Dr. Jacobs is in the back of the room. He snuck in just before the meeting started. Appreciate him for being here and all of his support and before I forget I also wanted to mention an appreciation for Amy Tobin, Jason Hartman from Franklin Leadership for being here tonight and helping us with our Opus Award nominations. Also want to thank Joe Mullen and Jeremy Bradham for supporting our exemplary libraries for both Liberty Middle and South Valley. So, this is our last meeting before we move into our new space and the last
011week or so I've been thinking we've got to find a state champion to recognize before we close this room down and there's a young man from Liberty High School that came through. We have breaking news. There he is. Andrew Beltran, please join me at the podium. >> [applause] >> I didn't know if it was going to happen. Coach Jeff Lacy, who's with us tonight, he he helped make it happen as I emailed him early on Monday morning and asked if we could pull this together and he delivered. So, thanks, coach. Appreciate it. Um you may have seen this in our social media and a lot of a lot of posts over the last uh few days, but Andrew captured the individual Class 3 single state championship at the MSHSAA tennis championships held this past weekend
012in Springfield. With the victory, Andrew becomes just the second boys tennis player in Liberty High School history to win an individual state title. And how about these accolades? Beltran finished his outstanding freshman season, yes, freshman season with a 28 and one overall record with his only loss coming against the Kansas Class 6A state champion. He was also the only freshman competing in the singles draw at the state tournament and dominated the competition throughout the weekend, never losing more than two games in any set during the entire tournament. Off the court, he excelled academically maintaining a 4.0 GPA during his freshman year. You're off to a pretty good start. >> [laughter] >> In addition, we did want to also make mention that Blue Jay sophomore Logan Heiser had a strong showing as he turned in a
013fifth-place finish in the same bracket. Andrew, Logan, and the rest of the Blue Jays are now headed back to Springfield for the team competition tomorrow, correct? And you'll compete Thursday. You guys leave tomorrow? Yeah, yeah. So, uh Final Four. Um so, we'll be cheering all you guys on. Now, we did have your sister, Ava. Many of you may re- recall Ava was here uh with her state championship. Um many know that I'm a fanboy. And I had her sign a tennis ball. So, we have to do it again, don't we, Dad? >> [laughter] >> And I even have a Blue Jay blue Sharpie. How about that? >> [laughter] >> It is right there. So, that's going on my office uh office mantle. So, uh Andrew, tremendous job. Uh we congratulate you. Let's do it again.
014Okay. Congratulations. >> Andrew Belton. And as Mr. Atkins mentioned, it is our custom and we'll close it out to do a standing ovation for our state champion. So, one last time in this room you win the words with Austin and a five. >> [applause] >> What wonderful recognition is thank you, Dallas. And thanks to everybody who came tonight. It's nice to see so many familiar faces showing up here and to honor so many wonderful students. So, the next part of our agenda is typically public comment. And so, I do want to say a few things about that. What what I'd like to do is just let you know that we we we do have an opportunity for public comment. If anybody wants to give public comment, um our our secretary, Denise Aldridge, has cards that
015you can fill out or they're also in the back um by the entrance to the room. Um but, what we typically do after before we start public comment is take about 10 minutes or so to just visit with all of you who took the time to be here tonight and just kind of wish you well, meet your families for those of you Franklin Falcons who came tonight and just congratulate you and your families again as well, okay? So, we'll take about 10 10 or 15 minutes and come back here to to start the rest of the meeting. >> Mhm. >> Our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure, Robert's Rules, provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by simple motion. Documentation concerning these items has been provided to all board members
016and the public in advance to assure extensive [clears throat] and thorough review. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member. I'll take a motion. I move the board approve consent agenda items 3.1 through 3.5. Second. Nick? Yes. Drew? >> Yes. Angie? Yes. Karen? Yes. Motion carries. I have to pay attention. I know. We're not used to We're not used to being four of us. We're used to seven. So, we have an order and so we're we're all a little bit what? Um so, item four is report administrative report. So, turn over to Dr. Tucker. Yeah, good evening. A few items under reports from administration starting off with 4.1. Our Innovation and Learning Report, we'll welcome Dr. Moore to the podium. Hello. Good evening. Good evening. Well, we graduated
017almost 1,100 students on Mother's Day. So I wanted to say thank you to the Board of Education and our cabinet members for being there for that event. Graduation is booked for next year and it is not on Mother's Day. Now that Dr. Tucker is gone, we can do this >> [laughter] >> kidding. >> [laughter] >> I haven't done your evaluation. I'll keep it I'll keep it good. But no, we are looking forward to being at T-Mobile again next year on May 16th, 2027. We have also made it through testing season. [clears throat] 98% of our students completed all of the required testing from the state. I want to thank our teachers and our building leaders and our assessment department led by Christopher Hand who kind of just made that run very smoothly this year. Also
018summer school, we have over 5,400 students who are enrolled. Just for Nick, I wanted to share that we had 20 spots that came back not filled. Seven of those were teaching spots and the rest were para or admin assistant type spots. Last year there were 54. So great improvement to go from 54 to 20. With regard to real world learning, I wanted to share that we had CNA graduation about a week ago and we had 100% of those students who were in the program completed fully. Mr. Bird spoke on behalf of the district and is a William Jewell alum, so we appreciate that from him. Also wanted to share that going into next year, we have 40 new business partners who have come on to um student interns. So we definitely want to continue to
019thank our business partners for um coming through and um working with our students. Also wanted to highlight, if you didn't see it, two Edge students, um Morgan Yates and Scarlet Langhorst, who were a part of a podcast from um What Schools Could Be. Some of you might remember we did a book study on that a few years ago. Um the host of that podcast visited Edge um in February as part of that Kaufman National Conference and was just so um in awe of what the students said um that he invited them. He actually lives in Hawaii, but he did the podcast with them and um if you have time to uh listen to that, you'll be very impressed. And then finally, I wanted to congratulate Lillian Schumacher, Alexander Donathan, and Discovery Middle Middle School, who
020recently found out they were distinguished PLTW um award winners. And that is my report. I'll take any questions. Is the 98 students in Early College next year is that our highest yet? We were a little bit higher um this year, but typically we'll have a few that will come on um in the fall right before um we we capped it last year at a 100 and we kept a little more as we we tried to raise it a little bit this year. He usually has four or five that will actually come on, but that's one of those programs that we think the more students we can get in it the better. And obviously, we've increased the number of students who receive their associate's degree, so we definitely think it's worthwhile. Awesome. And then more broadly,
021like you do see higher numbers this time of year in some of those programs. Northland CAPS, some of those career center enrollments that then will shift between where we're at now and August. >> Yeah. Um as they narrow down their choice or shift programming. Yep. Um so that's not uncommon. Yeah. And you might have some students who applied for Northland CAPS and you know we have a a number there that we can't we don't plan to go over and so then those students might shift over to >> Yeah. Makes sense. Dr. Moore, is the 98% for math testing whatever pretty standard? Yes. Yes, we want to be over 95% obviously but you always have students who might be out for illness, they might be you know dealing with something, might be out of the country,
022just some different things. So we always kind of try to make sure we have at least the 95. >> there was a level I just didn't know where that sat. Thank you. Dr. Moore, if you I think you were also including in that number the success ready students network pilot or assessment pilot. Is there any feedback you can share about how those pilots went at the schools that were doing those tests? I don't have I will have Christopher give you more of that. I think the teachers thought it was a positive experience from everything that I heard. There were no concerns but yes, I think any more than that I don't necessarily have it but and I can get it but everything I heard was positive. Great. And it wasn't too much on them to
023to do it. Thank you. Anything else for Dr. Moore? Thank you. Thank you. 4.2 then our student equity and access report with Dr. Dixon Seahorn. Good evening everybody. Very excited to share some new data. I see Nick smiling over there. Actually he looks gleeful like [laughter] okay, so let me start holistically first and then just real down just a little bit. So as of today hot off the press, we have a total of 585 kindergarten students enrolled. So, that does include our ECC count. But, just wanted to kind of give you that hot off the press information. So, we have 376 just brand new to LPS and then the 209 students that will come up from the ECC. So, compared to last year, we were at 609 students around this time last year. So, we
024are, you know, relatively on trend with that data. And so, Nick posed a challenge for us. We accepted the challenge. And so, we just took a look at what does that early data look like when we first open up the enrollment window for kindergarten, which you know we've been doing that February 1st date now for some time. And so, we looked at 24-25, 25-26, 26-27. And we could see within that first 3 months, the first 90 days for kindergarten, we were we were looking at initially in 24-25, 362. And then between last year and this year, again during that 90-day window, right? We were standing at about 337, 338. So, that's some good data for us to just kind of be aware of. And it's something that we'll continue to capture moving forward. And again,
025those are just exclusively kindergarten numbers, not including the ECC. And then we broke it down by building. Again, another challenge for us, but it was very intriguing to dive into that to just see the trends. And you see for the most part, the data is pretty comparable from year to year. There are a few fluctuations. Sometimes those are due to student transfer requests, things of that sort. So, but we can see where it's pretty consistent across the buildings. And again, that's just during that 90-day window when we first open up you know that opportunity for families to get their kindergarten students enrolled. So, hope that was somewhat helpful Yeah. for Unique. It doesn't answer all the questions, but it does give us some additional insight. Also, wanted to just highlight we're very excited about tomorrow
026when it gets here. Wednesday, May the 20th will be the day that the Children Services Fund Committee will announce their grant awards and so we're hoping that what we applied for in the amount of $5 million over a 2-year window for all the things that we have listed here that it will be granted to us. That's always a nice addition to the coffer for us to do the things that we need to do. So, we are looking forward to the news on tomorrow. So, Dr. Meisenheimer will be attending that meeting first thing in the morning. And so, those are the highlights of what I wanted to share. Just wanted to kind of keep things brief for the evening and take any questions and answer to the best of my ability. Questions? Questions for Dr. Dixon-Seckhorn?
027I just appreciate the continued work of the parent advisory teams that you work with. That's that's going to I'll give you an opportunity to reflect on how that's gone this year if you'd like. I think that it's just a continued success. It's yet a forum another forum for parents to be heard. And to feel valued and to provide input and so that has gone well for Dr. Stark this year and so always at the end of the year to reflect on that with families and then get their input on what would be some viable topics for next year. So, that's what's coming next. So, I would say it is a tremendous success. Great. Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Dixon-Seckhorn. Thank you. Next is 4.3 and our finance report by Ms. Cindy Saltzman. Good evening. All right.
028Couple of things to share with you tonight. Of general collections of property tax revenue, we're sitting right at 97.34%. We budgeted 98% collections, so we're not quite there. We only have 1 month left to collect, so um we'll see. But with everything going on, we may be collecting for this year in July, so always that hope. Um AFC met last night and they spent quite a bit of time discussing the budget that we're going to present to you tonight. Um had some of the same questions you have already voiced in the March and April sessions where we looked at revenues and expenditures separately. And um talked through those just like we have with you, so um they were didn't have any thing concerns to pass on to you about that, but very engaged in the
029process of looking through that document. They also did review the finances and had nothing to report back to you on that. We do have two openings for audit and finance committee next year, and to date, we have two applications. So, they will be brought to you at the June board meeting to interview and anyone else that comes forward with an application. Applications are open until June 4th, so we very well could have a something else appear on the horizon there. Um as you are aware, the state legislative session closed on Friday, and nothing changed with the state budget. Um we will end this year still at um underfunded by an estimated $138 million. For next year, the underfunded formula will be $190 million, so that did not change from our prior conversations. And that does
030not include the transportation shortfall of $15 million that did not get budgeted as well. So, that's a cumulative underfunding over this year and next year if it plays out as um presented, uh $362.7 million overall. the state for underfunding for school education. On a lighter note, no property tax legislation passed. No open enrollment legislation passed. No A through F report card legislation passed. That's a not when, but how that will happen, I believe. And no literary legislation passed. So, of the financial pieces on those, um, those were good work by our stakeholders and constituents and people that, um, had a voice for our legislators to hold those things at bay. So, um, some positive news there. The thing that now we are looking toward is the income tax elimination referendum. And that will be either
031voted on and at the August primary or the November general election. So, that would be the next thing I say is very important that our voices get heard about that because that's a big piece of our school funding. So, some good news, some no change. So, that's my report for you tonight. I'd be happy to answer any questions. The $300 million and change, that's total statewide, right? Yes. Yeah, good. Yes. And then, in the budget presentation, I'll talk more about the exact amounts that it affects us. Perfect. Anything else for Ms. Sullivan? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Uh, next then, our 4.4 operations report. Good evening. Uh, a few items I thought I'd highlight from the reports that are uploaded. Uh, first, um, the nutrition services report indicated that they just received a, I think
032it's $70,000 uh, grant for from, uh, federal grant farm to school, uh, program on the purchase and procurement of local foods, which we are now able to do in bulk because now we have a a good place to store it and so appreciate that team for finding that opportunity and procuring that. Um Um so that's one item. Uh second wanted to highlight a couple things from school-age care or Kids Zone program. Um one item of note I think has been one of the more transformational things in terms of staffing for that program is is our focusing on some of our high school students to help with uh filling some of those staffing gaps. And um specifically I think there's I think it was 24 uh graduates um that are uh within Liberty schools um that
033are now going to be moving on. Uh but again, just an indication of how helpful that is to the staffing of that program. There's also going to be um I think it's a week from Thursday at 3:00 at the building 53. It's a open house for new families who are considering enrollment enrolling into our Kids Zone. Uh we've not done that before. I appreciate that team for kind of listening to some of the feedback and parents uh conversations that they've had to put that together. Um so again, that'll be an inaugural thing uh here next week. Um And then last, just quick uh quick construction uh bond update. Um the the three last kind of very large projects that are in play. One is Heritage, the lawn at Heritage. All that's going pretty well. It's
034scheduled to be done uh by the end of July. If you do go by now, you'll see that the front stoop with front steps are in place so you get a get a pretty good perspective of how that's going to look. Uh and then much uh other work remains. Uh Lewis and Clark uh restroom remodel project begins here as soon as school is out. That'll take the the full course of summer. Uh but that should be ready by the start of school. Um and then last, this building. Uh we've referenced that a couple times tonight. Um they're very confident that the second floor will be available for the uh board meeting on the 23rd. It's the 20- 23rd, right? Yeah. 23rd. Um so, that'll be ready for that. The rest of the building will be
035kind of in lockdown mode, but working with the uh city and fire code officials to make sure that everything's on the up and up um while we access the second floor for that that evening. Um so, that's what I have to report and be happy to take any questions. Does it feel like you're about to run through the tape? Um It's divine, isn't it? There's more tape down the road. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. It's funny you say that. Tape around here means like boxes of tape to move everything out. >> Everybody's boxing and moving in. Yeah, that's right. And labeling. Mhm. Other questions of Mr. Anderson? Thank you. Uh next then, 4.5, human resources with Dr. Marriott. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. I'll start by sharing that Dr. Copeland, who is here this evening,
036has been very busy in conjunction with our building level principals to diligently fill our vacant staffing positions for the 2026-27 school year. And really at this time, we have really just a few open positions. I'm happy to say we only have two content positions to fill in middle school and high school, and no elementary classroom positions to fill at this time. Um still really working hard on special education, but that is a staffing concern um across many districts at that's at this time, which is a wonderful transition to our next topic. Um so, I am happy to have Dr. Copeland here with me this evening um as well as a few students that I want to introduce to you in just a moment. Uh but, I want to highlight that our grow your own teacher
037program and what that bit of historical information that it's been part of the dis- district strategic efforts to address the national shortage of high-quality teacher candidates. And and the primary focus of the program is to identify and cultivate aspiring educators from among our own high school students. So, the vision for Grow Your Own Teacher program was ignited in 2016 when LPS was introduced to that Missouri's plan to ensure equitable access to excellent educators. And that first cohort of four GYOT award recipients was introduced to the board in May of 2019. The program has evolved over the years to strategically support LPS students pursuing an educational degree in hard-to-fill areas. And so, this evening, I am happy to introduce the four recipients of that evolution of that GYOT program. So, if when I call your names,
038if you wouldn't mind just stepping forward. So, I want to introduce this evening from Liberty North High School, Lara Braden. And she will attend Northwest Missouri State University majoring in early childhood education. So, we're As you hear, there's positions waiting for you here. Come back. Um second, also from Liberty North High School is Zoe Brashers. And Zoe is going to attend Longview Community College majoring in early childhood education as well. Congratulations to Lara and Zoe. And then finally, from another one from Liberty North High School is Elizabeth Myers. And Elizabeth is also going to attend Northwest Missouri State University majoring in elementary education and special education. And finally, from Liberty High School, we have Riley Huffman. Riley will be attending William Jewell College and majoring in early childhood education and special education. So, congratulations to
039these four recipients of that scholarship. The crowd. >> [applause] >> Appreciate it. And then want to invite you guys and anyone else to join us for our annual Grow Your Own Teachers Meet and Greet on June 4th from 3:00 to 5:00 and that's going to be at building 53 this year. And it's an opportunity to meet current as well as former GYOT recipients. I'll take any questions that you might have. That's wonderful. Glad to have all of them. >> ed. Yay. Yes, and early childhood. Those are yes to the tough positions. So, we can't wait to have them back in 4 years, if not sooner. We'd love to have you sooner. All right, thank you. Yeah, congrats. Thanks for being here, too. And absolutely, and your families. Thank you, Dr. Marriott. Uh lastly, under reports
040from administration, uh a few items to highlight uh this evening, but also want to echo Dr. Marriott's congratulations to our students and also put families at ease if you need to slip out. >> [laughter] >> We will not feel offended. I know I know you're processing. Have a Have a good evening. Thanks for choosing to be teachers. That's right. Um a couple of highlights from my report this evening. Also want to thank uh Liberty High School, Liberty North High School as Dr. Moore shared earlier, uh to the team, administration, [clears throat] and staff for all of their efforts on Sunday and hosting uh two graduations in terms of our combined uh graduating class from Liberty Public Schools being that it's one of the largest we've seen. So, again, congratulations to all of our seniors as
041well. Couple things that are upcoming, as you're all aware, on June 1st, we'll have our strategic planning workshop with uh Scott Fuller and Gandy Associates. Our team is already at work ideating and thinking through items to carry forward for next year. So, we'll spend a little bit of time celebrating, reflecting, identifying those things we've accomplished, but then also those things that carry forward uh with just a reminder that much of what we heard from our community is captured in our vivid vision. And so there is more content and work to be done that sits within that vivid vision that we work to try to carry forward each year as we refresh the strategic plan. Over the course of the summer that will continue to take shape and then be brought back to the Board of
042Education as is our cadence in the fall for your approval and then begin operationalizing those plans. Also included in my report from the federal level a couple of items and that the ABA Americans with Disabilities Act digital compliance guidance that was provided to school district we've received an extension. I do want to give recognition to our communications department and our technology department that have worked diligently to be compliant by the deadline that was previously set. So we feel like we're in pretty good shape there and we've had number of districts reach out asking you know can we see what you're doing and how you're approaching this pretty significant shift. Also from the federal level appreciate the opportunity to have been able to visit Washington DC for the last several summers in terms of advocating on
043federal issues related to public education that will occur again this summer. And so last year Dr. Kephart was able to attend for the first time we've already got her slated to attend in July and continue the good work and connecting with our legislative delegates in Washington DC from Missouri. As has been shared the legislative session came to a close May 15th appreciate Cindy for sharing a few updates. We're just getting updates from our various associations in terms of kind of how the dust has settled. We'll share a little bit more information but some of those highlights that Cindy related to in and around conversations around income tax at the state level, local property taxes, and the discussions that occurred during the session around that. The A-F, certainly the funding formula with no significant bills passed
044regarding A-F, that then shifts back to DESE. And that the executive order still applies, but now DESE has perhaps some flexibility with input from the field to be able to shape what that A-F looks like. Keep in mind that that has to be done in June. Um so we'll uh continue to watch that and relay updates as we learn more from uh the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Um some surprising news out of DESE was the resignation retirement of our commissioner, uh Dr. Carla Eslinger, effective uh June 1st. That was a bit of a surprise to the field. And then uh subsequent surprise was the retirement of our deputy commissioner, Kelly Jones, who as you may recall uh served under Governor Parson's and then shifted in support of him over to the department uh
045just about a year ago. And so the department and the State Board of Education has yet to release their plans and timeline, but that is forthcoming as well. Um so stay tuned for more information from the department. One other question that remains uh and that we worked to try to get funding for um three-year assessment as part of the IADA through the legislative session with budget appropriations, but that was struck uh just recently from the appropriation. So we're curious as to what revenues or resources will be present to be able to fund the pilot assessments we've been talking about next year. Um I anticipate DESE has a plan, they just haven't released that information. Um so we're moving forward accordingly as though that will all transpire as we've been notified and as we've shared in
046the past, but we'll keep you informed of that as well. Um in addition to my board report, you have the Communications Annual Report included for you this evening. I appreciate Dallas for all the work that he does as well as Caitlin Brown, our communications coordinator. A lot of good information there. I want to also echo appreciation for him recently as we've been in our schools and departments in recent weeks celebrating our years of service recognitions and a few retirements ahead of our retirement ceremony the other night. But that's been great to be able to be out in campuses. I'm be able to connect in a little bit more of an intimate setting and recognize our teachers for years of service as well as our support staff for their years of service. We had eight that
047are in that 30 or above category that we're going to hold and recognize at convocation. So I'm guessing Dallas has a few things up his sleeves, but look forward to celebrating with them and recognizing them for the 30 years of service to Liberty Public Schools. As school concludes this week, we certainly wish everyone well, but we simply turn around and shift into summer school in terms of our students nearly half of our student population participating in some form or fashion in our summer school program. So we wish all of those teachers, staff, families a great summer knowing that it will be August before we know it and we'll be starting off another school year. So that concludes my board report for this evening. Any questions from the board? No, but thank you Dallas for your
048concise first page. I really pay real close attention to that. But I like how you have summarized some highlights and put those in there. And um I have really enjoyed seeing all our little elementary students in here with their awards and recognition. And that I think is really special for them. 100% agree. I forget that you're a two-person team sometimes. I mean the stuff that you guys put together and this this year in particular with all the special things you've done around Dr. Tucker and others, it's it's impressive to say the least. So, kudos. Yeah. And the ADA accessibility because I know that was a lot of training and helping across departments, too. So, that was a lot of work as well. Right before the deadline when they're like, "Okay, never mind." Extension. >> [laughter]
049>> And to Caitlin, our personal photographer, thank you. She does a very nice job. And I would add Jaylin, Michelle, Trey, Scott were all the ones that carried the load on that 80 days. Well, it's all appreciated, so it's all appreciated. So. All right. Okay. Thank you. >> One more meeting. We're close. All right. Well, well, then we're done there. On to unfinished business. Uh 5.1 is our 2026-2027 compensation plan, and this is the second time you've seen it. Um but we've been having budget conversations throughout the course of this spring, as you're aware. I do want to begin by thanking Team Liberty and the folks that spend countless hours diving in and pouring into looking at a variety of scenarios. Appreciate Cindy Sullivan and her team in bringing much of the finance information forward.
050Um for transparency and visibility, along with working with our audit and finance committee, just to kind of let them know what those projections and that forecast looks like, along with Dr. Marriott in helping support Team Liberty, as well as Adso. Uh what's reflected this evening is what you saw previously. And so, just to hit on it real quickly, um the estimated recommendations for the costs associated with our salary recommendations compensation plan for the 2027 fiscal year um includes funding all salary schedules, which is both vertical steps and horizontal movement, um, as well as extra days. And that estimated cost comes to a total of $2,074,428, uh, with the recognition that that particular number does not include the costs of PSRS, Mhm. uh, or PEERS as it relates to retirement contributions. Um, so again, I know
051that we've been refining those numbers in terms of our employee cost projections. And as it is, uh, as it stands every year, you have those that are leaving our system, whether it's to new opportunities or to retirement, and then you have those, um, that we are replacing those positions, all the while going to the drawing board and ensuring, you know, is there a different structure? Are there students that demand those positions in terms of the student to teacher ratio? Um, as we look at our demographic projections, those are all the pieces that come to this recommendation this evening. Um, so want to present that to you this evening for your consideration. You also have the subsequent related salary schedules updates for 2026-2027, um, that have been made, uh, that are included in this motion language
052for you this evening. Any further discussion? I want to echo the the team the the Thank you to team Liberty and the work that went into this. Dr. Mary and Cindy Solomon, just I know I know that that team worked very hard and so just appreciate the understanding of the current environment that we're in and that this was the recommendation that was brought forward by the team. I move the board approve the 2026-2027 compensation plan. Second. Nick? Yes. Drew? Yes. Angie? Yes. Karen? Yes. Motion carries. All right. 5.2, registered youth apprenticeships. Another item that we shared with you previously at our study session uh last month was the idea of uh incorporating registered youth apprenticeships. I appreciate Dr. Moore and her team and innovation and learning uh working on this over the last uh year.
053Want to turn it over to Dr. Moore to provide any additional updates or any insights as we move forward with consideration this evening. Anything to add, Dr. Moore? I don't have anything to add from the study session except for the reminder um we will start small and it is um as of now no cost to the district for anything unless we move to the um para program, which would also be coming cost neutral. But, outside of that, just appreciate you considering Okay. Discussion? Motion? I move the board approve the registered youth apprenticeship program. Second. Nick? Yes. Drew? Yes. Angie? Yes. Karen? >> Yes. Motion carries. All right, 5.3, board policy updates. You have quite a bit here. Uh so, you have three different items that I want to make sure uh and probably provide some
054clarity around. Um the first of which are policies to be considered for approval this evening. Um again, those are policies that you have seen once prior and in terms of a first read, it's also been circulated with our administration for review and recommended changes. That is the first set. Um it is a little um smaller than what you saw last month and that we pulled a couple of policies BBA, BCE, BF, BI, and BJ, um as well as AF that um we probably need to hold during this time of leadership transition and that there's a lot of information there pertaining to board duties, responsibilities, and that superintendent relationship. So, we've started a folder for Dr. Kephart. We may have an opportunity to discuss this a little bit further at our board retreat, but really allow
055you all and Dr. Kephart the opportunity to talk through some of these process pieces in terms of that board superintendent relationship and that dynamic moving forward. Um So, there are four for consideration and a few that have been pulled for conversations to come. Additionally, there's a category of policies to be rescinded, and that's policy IA, instructional goals, priority objectives, as well as regulation BDDG-R1 related to minutes. Um those two items that information will be captured in policy updates. And then the last category is administrative procedures just for your awareness. A couple of of those items that have been included in your board packet this evening. So, we'd present those policies to approve for your consideration. Nick, I never want to deprive you of the opportunity of saying as many initials as possible. It's amazing. It's
056amazing. Are [clears throat] you ready? You want to take a simple one first? May need one. I move the board approve policy AD, BCCA, BDDG, IGD, JFCF, and rescind policy IA, and of course regulation BDDG-R1. Second. Nick? Yes. Drew? Yes. Angie? Yes. Karen? >> Yes. Motion carries. All right, item six, new business. So, that gets us to new business item. The first one being 2026-2027 preliminary budget. And again, uh thank you to Sandy Sullivan and the budget services department along with all of our we call them budget managers, principals and directors that assist in overseeing the finances and expenditures of the district. Our process starts uh it really is throughout the course of the year, but the following fiscal year planning really begins in as early as January. And so appreciate the board engaging, diving
057in, uh putting uh your thoughts together, and then also questions you may have as we kind of navigate this each semester. But, we'll turn it over to Ms. uh Sullivan for where we are this evening. >> Thank you, and I would also just like to add my thanks to specifically Joe Maloney in the Business Services Office, and Denise Aldrich. They work very closely on putting the document that was presented to you tonight together and finalizing that for us. In addition to all the people Dr. Tucker uh mentioned, also my fellow cabinet members, the conversations that we have, they're very supportive in um making sure the message is heard again and again. And um so, I do appreciate them as in this whole process. So, what you're going to see tonight, you've seen. It There's really
058nothing new about what we're going to talk about. It's just all put together in um one document and one presentation tonight. So, as you are well aware, we have five budget statutory requirements to meet when we present to you a budget document. You have all of them as is our tradition except for the budget message, and I will compile that after um we do the final touches on the document to make sure nothing changes. I will put that all together with what is there. Man, there's a typo there. General Budget Summary. Pardon that. My apologies. We may We're done. We're done. The budget summary. You know, you look and you look and you look and you see it when you stand up here. Um it happens to the rest of us. So, we're going to
059move right on into the revenue budget, and you have seen this before. We know that our total revenue budget projected for next year is 235 million. This is down from 302 million this current year. That is primarily due to the paying off of the refunding of the 2018 and the 2016 bonds that were held in escrow. Those had to be presented as revenues that escrow did until we paid it off, so it's a subsequent expenditure as well in the same year. Um so that that's a big chunk of money on our debt service account. So that's primarily one of the items in the revenue that caused it to go from 302 down to three or 203 or 235. I'm going to get it right. Um so that's a debt service decrease of about 69 million,
060a capital budget increase of 1 million, and an operating revenue increase increase of 1.3 million. So we'll talk through those, but the thing I wanted to talk about as always in the revenue budget is first off the property tax um budget, which you know is about 41% of our operating budget. So we are expecting an increase of 1.6 million in all funds. This is 1.2 in operating. Um this is a non-reassessment year. So on average in non-reassessment years, we experience about 2% growth in AV. So we stayed with the trend there and um are expecting that increase this year as for next year as well. The consumer price index in December um was 2.7%, so the Hancock amendment will cap our revenue growth on reassessed property at 2.7%. New construction, of course, we get the
061full value of. So nominal increases there. The state basic formula, this is the one that we wanted to spend a little bit of time on. Um next year, we've budgeted for $6,742 down from um $6,900 this year for our state adequacy target. And that decrease results in a $1.5 million decrease in our state funding payment. Now, I I mentioned uh my earlier report that I would tell you a little bit about this year because all of that plays into the numbers that I gave you earlier in my report. So, full funding is considered $7,145. This year, we're being paid out at $6,900. That shortfall is $4.8 million in the current year. So, that um you look at where we're going to finish and the deficit spending that we're occurring we're having this year, and you
062think that when we budgeted 7145 back at the beginning of this year, that that added to that deficit spend in a way that we did not anticipate. So, you add to that another um 1. 36 million, I believe, for the the 1.5 plus 1.36 next year, and you're getting the feel of what that shortfall is going to mean to the district and when we talk about deficit funding or deficit spending, um that explains a lot of where our shortfalls are coming from that we did not predict to this degree when we started down this road this time last year. So, um you'll see that in reports, you'll see that state funding could be as low as 6,500 SAT all the way up to 6,850 next year. We have chosen to go with the 6,742 because
063that is what DESI is indicating would be the number that they would recommend us going with. The 6,500 takes too much money out of students' hands. If it does hit the 6,742, and they're projecting hopefully it might end up at that 6,850. So, um that's one of those situations that we will watch in the fall. And if it doesn't appear that it's going to hit the 6,742, then we have talked with all budget managers, and they are aware that this might be one of those years where we ask them to hold back spending all of their budget until February when we know what the situation is going to be. Um they did this in COVID where we did ask and they did withhold for the whole year and put back in the fund balance about
06410% of their operating budgets. So, it's not new. We didn't ask them to cut their budgets. We asked them to budget for what they need and think strongly about the wants and the nice-to-haves and then be prepared if things get worse that we may ask for that withhold again. So, they're very aware um but I just wanted to make it heard that we did not ask them to cut their budgets this year. Um so, you'll see across the budget that it looks fairly flat, but that is a result of fulfilling needs and um tamping down the wants a little bit this year. So, that budget process um was just like normal and um they're not sounding any alarms that the sky is falling or anything, and that the intent is fully to meet student needs
065as we have have always done. So, but this is a a big um decrease as it stacks up from year to year over what the state funding shortfall is. The next slide shows you other operating changes. I want to call out the shortfall on the first line of Prop C, which is the sales tax. Um as you've heard, sales in Missouri, the state of Missouri, are down. So, therefore, our collection um number is down from 1513 this year to 1465 next year, which resulted in that 451,000 budgeted change. Also wanted to call attention to the increase in the nutrition services revenue and the Kids Zone revenue. We've talked about both of those before that we are increasing the prices to cause those programs to break even, which we had not done for a while after
066COVID. We did not um have those programs back up to break even status and recognized that we needed to make those prices so that we did have self-sustaining programs in those two areas. The transportation decrease is reflective of the $15 million um shortfall in the transportation budget next year. So, that that's back to FY25 funding, which is right now about $325,000. Um but year-over-year, the budget change for these items is $1.7 million to the positive, primarily due to nutrition services and Kids Zone changes. And then you put all of that together and you see the $69 million decrease in the budget revenue and there um for debt. And then for capital projects, you'll see the million-dollar increase, primarily due to sale of property, which is devices, as you know. We have a deep a device
067refresh that's going on right now. And once all of the old devices are collected, we will sell those and have the money going into the capital projects to offset that first year payment on that debt. And if you have questions, please stop me as I go along through this. Most of this is repeat for you, like I said. So, total budget revenue changes from this year to next, the $67 million total reduction in revenue spread out by the funds you see below. Okay. I'm going to move on to expenditures then. Total expenditure budget is going to be $249 million, down from $350 million. Two main reasons for that, the debt service refunding, and the capital decrease due to bond projects wrapping up. Operating decrease is $860,000, and I'll go through why we're having a decrease
068in that budget um as we go along. But, you can see by the graph as well that the salaries and benefits represent right at um 65% of the total budget, or 79% of the operating budget. And I know on the page in the book that all of those percentages are represented, so you need to just watch if it's an operating budget percentage or a total budget percentage, because the figures you'll think the figures are wrong, but it's just because it's referring to either operating or total revenue. So, that's by and far and large the biggest part of our expenditure budget. And for the salary and benefits, Dr. Tucker mentioned early in his um presentation that we had $2 million in step, and that the new people coming on replacing people that are leaving sometimes has
069an offset, and that's what we find occurring this year. The staff replacing staff leaving are coming at a less cost so far. So, right now we're looking at an estimated increase for a million dollars on salary and benefits. So, we had a good trade-off there for steps in new staff coming on. And of course, we haven't replaced them all, so that will change. It will go up or down as reflected in the final hirings. And when we do the employee cost projections in September and October to true up those numbers, you will see a budget amendment at that time to reflect what is in the employee management system then. So, that's always a budget amendment that you see occur in October. So, more to come on that. Um the other operating expenditure changes from next
070year. Uh sped services, we were able have been able to hire in-house some of the services that we've previously contracted out. Um that also is an ever-changing number. So, I I don't expect that that will stay there with some um employee things that are happening right now, that may change a little bit. Uh substitute services, we've increased that budget. We're paying a little more for Kelly services and have seen a pretty good utilization of that, so we've increased that budget for next year. Right now, property and liability insurance, we've budgeted to go up 5%. We're still waiting on that, and it may also come in a little bit higher than that. So, we won't have those numbers till a little later. You'll see those at your June meeting to approve that contract as well. So,
071um the total purchased services budget actually is decreasing by a hundred thousand due to that contracted sped mainly. In the supply budget, it is decreasing by a lot, though one almost 1.8 million dollars. And that's primarily due to the general supplies, which is as we've discussed before, the furniture and fixtures primarily in all of the new bond spaces. Most often, as we've done in the past, the furniture and the fixtures, the FF&E, are all paid for out of operating funds, not necessarily the bond funds, as was done this time as well. So, you will see a large decrease in that budget. Technology-related supplies, the same have gone down just because of some of the um new spaces that we have are already outfitted. And then just right-sizing food supplies for a decreasing number of students
072and some of the commodities that we were able to acquire with grant funds has enabled us to decrease food supplies for a total of about $1.8 million reduction in supply budget. You put that all to No, let's go to debt capital and bond. Um that service you see in the $67 million payoff of the refunding issue went out. Lease payments are going up for some of the new leases we've acquired for the turf and the rooftops that are new for next year. Capital projects saw a small increase in their budget, and of course the bond project budget will decrease as those projects wrap up for a substantial decrease in those two budgets of $100 million. Then our totals. So, you can see how they put them all together and how they are spread across the
073funds, primarily debt service and bond fund for a reduction of the expenditure budget overall. And that's how it all wraps up, and you can see in the general budget summary that takes our fund balance down, anticipated at 20%. Um typically, we know that we have some return of unbudgeted unspent budget, so realistically that could bump up to 22% when it's all said and done next year. And that's what I have for you tonight on the budget. Like I said, it's mostly things you have seen before, not too much. There's some additional explanations in the budget book this year, some pages that are a little bit different. But I would be happy to take any questions that you might have. I don't really have a question but this is a clarification. When you're talking about deficit
074spending, I just want to make sure that that it's it's not that we're spending debt. It's that we have a fund balance for this reason, right? So if we don't have the allocation that we would expect from the state for this year and we end up needing to spend more to meet our operating goals for the year, that that's the deficit but that we have a fund balance for that reason. Yes, we it's fortunate that we did have the fund balance that we've carried all of this time. So, you know, we plan to be able to take care of emergencies. This is not necessarily an emergency at that point, it's just the things that are happening in the state and we are able to rely on that amount of reserves to see us through as
075we plan for potential that it might be this way for a while and if we have to plan for additional changes, we can weather it while we make plans to weather it further or come out of it however the state revenues play out. So yes. While we don't want to deficit spend, it's never a positive thing. We were somewhat prepared for it. Well, I appreciate the approach to staging it with the budget managers. The idea that hey, let's go in with with this mindset of the wants versus the needs and really being mindful to that but also having a plan B if things get even worse than where we're currently thinking things are heading to be able to have that backup plan to hold, that we're holding revenue, not spending it all at the beginning
076of the year so that we're stuck later. >> Right. And I will say that during district leadership team meetings, um Dr. Tucker has spoke to it, I've spoken to it on multiple occasions. So, they're always very aware of the state situation and how revenues are playing out and how it might affect them. So, it it does not come as news to them, either. Um we try really hard to make sure that they know, and groups like team liberty know, administrator salary and welfare know, and you know, audit and finance committee knows. So, it's not something we're keeping a secret. It's This is the lay of the land and this is what we're expecting and it is playing out as we've talked about for a couple of years, really. With a a couple of other pieces
077to continue to monitor, right? Certainly the revenue side. Um depending on what districts are receiving, but then also keep in mind the conversations around income tax. Mhm. And then moving forward and rewriting a foundation formula when revenues aren't what they were previously, right? So, like those are some incredibly important things to continue to watch. And to this conversation, the other piece that you you don't want to do too many years in a row is continue to dip into that fund balance. >> Right. Right. Right. And not take steps to be able to like curb that, right? Whether it's budget reductions, taking advantage of attrition as far as staffing, um departures and opportunities there, um and just the prioritization. And to Cindy's point, having those conversations with your budget managers and being able to convey kind
078of what's at stake, what the horizon looks like, but then also taking advantage of the the opportunities in front of us as compared to being caught on our heels. And you will notice on our operating projection spreadsheet that and in the budget book the pages show that the deficit spend does go down from this year two years out. Um still it's I would hope that through the things we're talking about now, um the the wise hiring, the through attrition, um the wants versus the needs and nice to haves versus what we need to do, those things will all play out in a manner that's positive for that bottom line when everybody does know and everybody does their part um to affect any change we can make without compromising what students need. That's appreciable. So so
079roughly from a total standpoint, we're going to deficit spend 14 million? Next year? Yeah. Five. Five? Five. Okay. At the I'm looking operating. Yeah, yeah, well, I and maybe this is where I need some help. I'm just using the the total expenditure budget versus total revenue budget. Right. >> That That's not operating. I'm primarily looking at operating because capital projects budget has its own levy Yeah. >> and transfers. For us debt service a statutory mandated. Yeah. So if there's a deficit spend, it's because we have the fund balance there again, but we always have the levy to support what has to come out of debt service. So when you're talking about deficit spending, we need to take capital projects and debt service out of that discussion and this document or in your budget book is
080the best to look at for that deficit spend in operating and that's um online 42 if you look at this document. >> Yep. It shows a $7.4 million deficit this year, Okay. a 5.2 million next year, and a 2.3 the following year. And that 5.2 though that's sitting here it's based on what we've got here in the projections. >> Yes. Okay. Yes. So I guess as I and maybe I need some assistance here on slide 11. Slide 11. >> budget. So as I begin to take a look at that and I see we've got total number of I don't know 249 change. Mhm. And then we less the debt service and the capital projects. >> Mhm. It's 206. Yep. Yes. So if I'm as I in my small brain here I'm trying to connect back
081the debt service of 26 and where that is in those top numbers above the total. I assume it's spread out in a couple of different areas. Is that right? It the debt service is in the debt and lease number. >> Okay. So the way DESE codes debt and lease Yep. lease payments actually come out of the capital piece of the budget, but they're coded as a debt and need to be combined there for this purpose. Yep. So that's why you see >> where the capital so I've got capital projects of eight the other eight sitting in the debt and lease. Okay. Great. And this is where I was just trying to go through and say okay if if I've got the expenditure of 249 here in total and the revenue up top is >> 235.
082That's the overall deficit. >> my 14 came in deficit spend, but that's not when it's all said and done it's not a 14 million deficit spend this coming year. Well >> The numbers say that yes it is, but I in the operating seven of it is in operating. Seven of it is between the other two funds. Okay. Um and the debt that some of that is bond funds. We don't have the revenue to offset the bond funds. Yep. Pay them out. Get that money done. A large chunk of that is arbitrage. Okay. >> That we'll have to pay out. >> Yes. >> Um there's just not the revenue to match those outgoes, but they've already The revenue's already been accounted for in prior years. >> Yep. That makes sense. And then within the expenditures I
083mean, I know some of that's some of it's fixed, right? I mean, like salaries, benefits. >> Correct. >> Those are are done. Where is where do we have flex? Is it primarily materials and supplies? >> Yes. Okay. Which is a, you know, 20% of our budget. >> Yeah. Yeah. They don't make a big big mark when you decrease those. It takes a lot to decrease. Yep. Okay. And about a million and a half dollars as a percentage of fund balance. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Mhm. Other questions of Ms. Sullivan? Discussion? So, this is another item that you'll see again uh next month in June once we get ready for uh the board's consideration and action or approval of the 26-27 budget. >> And as is um >> [clears throat] >> standard process, we will provide
084you with this budget document and I will provide you with a one-pager that tells you what changed between this document and the final one that you will see next month if anything does. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Sullivan. Just to I just tagged on to her, but the Is this the year where we have the difference in how the weighted average daily attendance gets calculated? You want to speak to that more? Sorry. That's fine. He almost got away. You have to be officially sitting. >> [laughter] >> Shoot, I got be quicker. Um so that yes, so it's 90/10 this current year. Next year it becomes 80/20 and it goes that way all the way until it gets 50/50. Unless something changes with the formula rewrite. So that's correct. Throw that in there and
085that that's been part of the conversation, um particularly from the student counts group, in how students are accounted for, whether it's our ADA or whether it's a weighted average daily or whether it's this hybrid that we've created here lately. Um odds are you'll start seeing and hearing of like some scenarios of how all of the different pieces from the work groups fit together with the formula rewrite. That's going to happen sometime this summer and then get pushed out into um the public space for feedback and probably early fall with the recognition that we're still on track um for December recommendations to the governor, which just happens to align with board or with uh bill pre-filing as we get ready for the uh spring 2027 session. So And when is the meeting is June 1st? >>
086We meet on June 1st in Jeff City. Yeah. One of the reasons I think that piece is so important as well is as you wait that like it it it makes um projecting what you're going to get incredibly hard because right now it's a moving target and then it just complicates things. So the the transitions from WADA and what's the acronym? >> WAM WAM Yeah. WADA WADA to WAM WADA to WAM These are like 80s bands. Great. WADA was awesome. Thank you. Thank you. I feel like it's called Whac-A-Mole. >> [laughter] >> Pretty much. All right, item Thank you. Mr. Golden, item 6.2 is curriculum approval. Yeah, a few more items under new business. Uh curriculum approval this uh month is in and around elementary and secondary math. As we've kind of kept in previous
087years, you'll see this for first grade this evening. It'll be brought back forward for June for approval to take effect in the coming school year. Dr. Moore, would you like to speak to this item? Sure. What you see before you comes from the work of Dr. Smith and her team curriculum and answer any questions you may have. But really the work is all the curriculum is aligned to DESE standards and then the national standards for AP courses. One of the things that the team has done through all different content areas is moved our work to competencies, listing the priority standards and then learning intentions and success criteria. So when we work with teachers, we make sure that everyone knows not only what the standard is from the state or national level, but then what's the
088competency and then what are we actually wanting students to do? So you can see that grades K-12. We'll take any questions that you have. Yeah, so it's it's our internal education teams that are pulling all this together. Obviously the state is State guided Yeah. Yeah. It's all of the state standards for all of our content areas. Yep. And when we meet with the teams, there's a representative for every content area and every school represented. Perfect. Yeah. Good. The one hour study Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um question I I noticed during our retirement reception the other day that that or that we have several math teachers at the high school level that are transitioning. Do we have new chairs identified for the math departments? Is that so that they they're part they're familiar or part of this
089process as well? Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. You'll see this again in June. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments between now and our June board meeting. Thank you. All right. Then next item is actually for an action item. It's 6.3 summer school application. So this is annual requirement. Appreciate Mr. Hand and the innovation and learning team and pulling this forward ahead of summer school. But we'll present that to you this evening for your approval. Any comments in regard to this, Dr. Moore, Dr. Schmitz? Okay. We'll just present that to you this evening for your consideration. I move the board approve the 25-26 summer school application. Second. Nick? Yes. [clears throat] Drew? >> Yes. Angie? >> Yes. Karen? >> Yes. Motion carries. All right. Item 6.4 board policy updates. Boy, they're
090churning them out. We're going to bring it back. This is another set of board policies for us to present this evening for first read. Take a look at those. Let us know if you have questions, considerations there. We'll also circulate this with our administrative team here at the district administration center to bring back to you in June for your consideration. Those are kind of confusing, Nick, so you might practice. It really is. Well, there's there's administrative in there, so I That is true. There's only two policies. >> [laughter] >> But they can apply for those please. Yeah, they do. Tongue twisters. 6.5 contracts purchases. We'll uh turn this over to Mr. Anderson to walk us through a couple of emergency purchases and actions this evening. First of all, we'll go through JF1. We had two
091items both were included in the Friday update on May 1. Both pertaining to kind of the end of year festivities for the schools. First, Pleasant Valley Baptist Church for the baccalaureate to the rental agreement for that space. And then the second was related to the audio visual needs for the commencement ceremonies. Um both of those items were a little bit of a pinch to get those done and so we appreciate your approval of tonight. I move the board approve the emergency contracts as presented. Second. Nick? Yes. Drew? >> Yes. Angie? >> Yes. Karen? Yes. Motion carries. Okay, item seven, Board of Education legislation advocacy. We've already talked a lot about the session. Um I think the one thing the other thing I would highlight is um one [clears throat] of our priorities has consistently been
092non-partisan elections in the spring and while there was nothing that impacted districts most districts almost all but one district in terms of legislation on that. There was a bill that passed that targeted St. Charles County, I believe. Was it the county or just the one school district? I think it was the whole county. I believe it was the whole county, yeah. the whole county where that district will is now supposedly going to have to move their elections and there's going to be a number of changes. It's going to be four-year terms for those board members. Um option to identify partisan label if they so wish. I mean just a number of things that that bill started as an applying to all all the school districts statewide and then got over to the Senate and then
093got reduced down to the basically the bill sponsors county, I believe. So, um So, I mean, something that passes this year all, you know, the camel's nose, whatnot, but something to continue to watch as we try to prioritize continuing a tradition of non-partisan commitment to this work and having municipal elections mean something. I mean, there's there was a lot of discussion around having turnout in November elections, but there's some data to show that when these these elections get down to the bottom of the ballot, that people aren't necessarily voting in those anyway. Like, because they're so busy focused on the stuff at the top of the ballot that they have ballot fatigue and get down to the bottom and then they don't they don't vote on these races. So, um I think something to continue
094to watch, but overall, if anybody else has comments that they want to add about the session, I welcome those. Mhm. I'll keep it to myself for now. Two beers and two juices filled through No. All right. I'm still processing on the the budget pieces and what we're seeing and we've got state tax cuts from the state funding standpoint and based off federal funding that we got through COVID and all the reminders that we talked about about not building those one-time federal dollars into our budgets, which which we haven't and all of those things are coming to fruition now. Um So, I mean, I think it's great that the property tax pieces passed or, you know, came through the finish line, but um between, you know, the senior tax credit and Senate Bill 3 and how
095that's impacted other counties, I mean, it's some of the damages have been done. And those those topics will be back around next session, as we know. So. So. Are we submitting anything for the conference? Proposals? For the legislative? No, for the MSBA conference. I'm sorry. In October? >> Yeah. There's one in the works, I think. Sarah and I talked about it. Cool. For grow your own. It's not really grow your own. It's Well, Yeah. Well, it's kind of kind of odd that you agree. Yeah. Yes. But they are due the 12th of June if anybody comes up with anything else. That segues to upcoming dates nicely. So, summer summit is coming up and Angie and June 14th to 16th. >> Angie and Jen are going to represent us there. Appreciate that. That's some hopefully good
096news out of that. I saw somebody's name in the As well, you should. >> Yeah. Is your name on there? >> Yeah. Woah. And a nice video we can all Go watch. >> There's a video, too? I haven't watched the video. Melissa Randall interviewed. Woah. I know. Woah is right. There's a cruise on the lake I'm looking forward to. And best wishes. It's only a one-day, I mean, the summer summit itself is just the single day. And interestingly enough this year, it starts with the delegate assembly. >> Do you like that though because then it's out of the way? >> it. Yeah, you don't have to sit around and wait. >> Maybe people will actually come and listen because they're also putting in the um update from the session. Oh, that's great. Caitlin's going to
097talk. It's a good idea. So, then we have our board retreat on June 2nd and then someone's last regular board meeting on June 23rd. Yep. So, more to come on that. That's right. So, any other remarks? Uh thanks for a great year. Yeah. Awesome for everybody. Yep. >> by quickly. Yes. Yeah, there's um I mean, it's it had there there's a part that you think back to August and it seems like a long time ago, but it it flew by and um thank you, everybody. >> You're welcome. Yeah. Great year. Yeah. Um one more thing, tomorrow there'll be a reception to honor Dr. Tucker 4:00 to 6:00 Eagle Point, Liberty North High School. Definitely looking forward to that. >> Big dog. >> [laughter] >> Unless it's canceled, though. Unless it's canceled. Oh, no. I'm thinking
098that's not a possibility. >> Not a chance. So, all right. I move that the board adjourn. Second. Nick? Yes. Mhm. Do you want to say no? He reconsidered. >> Angie? Yes. >> Karen? >> Yes. Motion carries. Thank you, everybody. >> You could have abstained. Thanks, everyone. What would happen if we had a Then we'd have to sit here because we don't have