001[Music] for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. All right. Good evening everyone. Would I have a motion for the approval of the agenda, please? I move the board approve the agenda as presented. Second. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Then we have honoring excellence. Dallas Zack is up with a full slate of folks to recognized tonight. It's great to see a full house. Yes, for sure. And uh this is kind of becoming tradition in May as uh we had to move some recognitions due due to some conflicts earlier in the semester. Uh, our first
002uh, recipient tonight is one we I think had to move a couple of times. And we're going to lead off with uh, Mr. Rob, actually, Dr. Rob Fischer. Rob, come on up. Woohoo. [Applause] The sharpest stressed man in the room here tonight. Although there's several stressed individual. Absolutely. But many of you know Dr. Rob Fiser. He's a a a mainstay here in LPS. Known Rob for a long time and and uh he recently was named the Greater Kansas City Counselor and Director of the Year by the Greater Kansas City School Counselors Association. Uh what we've what we've done here recently, uh you've probably read the releases that we pushed out in recent weeks about this achievement. and it's on our website and on social media platforms. But we thought, speaking of so uh social media,
003we'd share a couple of those posts that came in from uh colleagues from former uh a former grandparent. Actually, the first, this was from Epic counselor Leah Esle. Uh the best of the best. Rob Fischer is such a great role model, advocate, and amazing leader of school counselors in LPS. He is so deserving of this award. And this from a grandparent of a former student at Manor Hill. Dr. Fiser deserves this and so much more. He made such an impact and difference in my grandson's life when he needed it the most. And there were literally dozens and dozens of uh uh comments on our Facebook page uh very similar to that. So, it is an honor to be able to recognize you here this evening, Dr. Rob Fischer. Congratulations. We also, I believe last month
004promised that we would introduce you to our newlyannounced LPS support employee of the year. Vera, come on up. Join me at the podium. [Applause] It was it was pretty exciting because um she came Oh, come on right up here, Vera. Um she had she came in um here about 10 minutes ago and and she said, "Is there any open seats?" And I said, "There's a perfect seat for you. It's right next to Kurt Gates, our newlyannounced teacher of the year." So, you guys had a chance to to connect. Love that. So, uh, thought I'd read just a really, uh, brief part of our press release that we shared. Um, in a surprise event held Wednesday morning, April 16th at the Liberty Public Schools Support Services Building, Miss Vera Hollowman was announced as the 2526 LPS
005District Support Employee of the Year. Miss Hollowman currently serves as the district's nutrition services quality assurance manager. Her career in LPS has spanned over three decades as she began her service to the district back in 1998. I bet many of you weren't born in 199. Um but uh yeah, she has also served in elementary and secondary manager roles in LPS over those roles. Uh Misty Nuland, our director of nutrition services, who is with us tonight supporting her, uh shared this. Vera is incredibly reliable and organized, always working quietly behind the scenes to set everyone up for success. I have had the joy of working closely with Vera for 10 years, and I can honestly say I've never heard her say a bad word about anyone. I'm so excited to be able to honor Vera for
006her outstanding contribution. She is going to be a great representative as our newly named 2025 Liberty Public Schools District Support Employee of the Year. [Applause] Congratulations. We also want to make a special presentation as you may have uh seen this in recent weeks as uh big news out of Liberty Middle School as the library media center team uh named the Desi Exemplary School Library Program. Um, we are going to introduce Lisa Scrogs representing Desi as she has made the trip to Liberty here this evening and she is going to make a few special presentations. Good evening. Um, on behalf of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, um, I'm very pleased to be able to recognize librarian Megan Bright and the Liberty Middle School Library Program for this achievement. Um, just so you understand
007how rigorous it is. We had approximately 40 schools start the application process this year. About half of those completed the process and of those 20 only six schools from throughout the state received the recognition. They had to score 90% of points possible in the areas of instruction, leadership, library environment, library management, and staffing. So, it takes more than just an outstanding librarian, which you have here, but it takes a strong school district for this to happen. So, I want to thank all of you who are involved in supporting the library program here. Um, to honor the library, I have a resolution from the Missouri House of Representatives and the Missouri Senate to present to Megan this evening. [Applause] tag. And coming soon, we will have to mail it, is a proclamation from the Missouri State
008Board of Education. Um, I believe we also have uh Representative Jacobs here who wishes to extend his congratulations as well. [Applause] Awesome stuff. Thanks for being here this evening and congratulations Megan and team at LMS. Um I say this because it's students. We saved the best for last as uh more exciting news here in recent weeks as uh the speech and debate programs at both Liberty High, Liberty North making big news with state championships all over the place. Uh last week Caitlyn and I had a chance to get out to both schools. We did some virtual presentations as we had some larger groups, the readers theaters specifically at both um high schools. We had them uh introduce themselves and then we had the entire group, all of our champions introduce themselves virtually on our video
009presentation. We also have many of them with us here this evening. We wanted them to have a chance to be congratulated by our board and and cabinet team. So, what we'll do right now, let's roll to about a two-minute uh video clip of all these various teams introducing themselves individually and then I'll introduce them one by one when we come back. Most of the cast of Liberty High School's greater stand where the sky meets the sea. I'm wear the student director. I'm Tim Plameumber and I'm a freshman. I'm Rowan Martin and I'm a freshman. I'm Cammy Harman and I'm a freshman. I'm Zarya Gordon and I'm a junior. I'm David Bundleman and I'm a freshman. I'm Luke Johnson and I'm a freshman. I'm Talia Snoggrass and I'm a freshman. I'm Chloe Elmer and I'm a
010sophomore. I'm Elizabeth Cruz and I'm class of 2025. I'm Maddie Hannah. I'm a junior. I'm Hannah M, sophomore. I'm Eliza Star and I'm a junior. Hello, we are the Liberty North Readers Theater Boo and we tied for second place at the Miss State competition. My name is Tommy Monaco and I'm a senior. My name is Julian Downing. I'm a sophomore. My name is Kennedy Lowry. I'm a senior. My name is Tony Monaco. I'm a sophomore. My name is Ken Nannyad. I'm a sophomore. My name is Cole Harri and I'm a freshman. My name is Chloe Williams and I'm a junior. My name is Hunter Anderson Jones and I'm a sophomore. My name is Kylie Johnson and I'm a sophomore. My name is Abigail and I'm a freshman. My name is Isabelle Mount Jones and I'm
011a freshman. My name is Porter Ster and I'm a junior. My name is Jude Kelly and I'm a sophomore. My name is Violet Sul and I'm a sophomore. My name is Joanna Beckner and I am a freshman. My name is Grace Gerby and I'm a sophomore. My name is Katie Cole and I'm a junior. My name is Bridget McKenzie and I'm a freshman. My name is Asosa Kay and I'm a freshman. My name is Naomi Avidor and I'm a junior. And my name is Ava Powers. I'm a senior. Hi, this is your Liberty High School debate team that plays at State coached by David Dempsey. My name is Caroline Chimwell and I'm the class of 2025. My name is Abigail Bixler and I'm a junior. My name is Althor and I'm a junior. I'm Kaylin
012King, also in the class of 2025 and we also represent Ellie Wisel who couldn't be here with us today. We are the Liberty North High School speech and debate team and recently we placed second in speech at the Misha State Championships. My name is Drew Clawson and I'm a senior. My name is Richard Sun. I'm a senior. My name is Molly Delgi and I am a junior. My name is Alex Rogers and I'm a junior. My name is Linda Whis. I'm a junior. My name is Joseph Zazinski. I'm a sophomore. My name is Nick Williams and I'm a junior. My name's Addie Crop and I'm a senior. My name is Adelinda Iceland. I'm a junior. My name is Ethan Alamo and I'm a junior. My name is Jillian Miller and I'm a sophomore. My name
013is Payton Alba and I'm a freshman. My name is Sam Amador and I'm a junior. My name is Ava Powers and I'm a senior. My name is Kenison Ninga and I'm a sophomore. My name is Kennedy Lowry and I'm a senior. My name is Tony Monaco. I'm a sophomore. My name is Julian Dling. I'm a sophomore. My name is Tommy Monaco and I'm a senior. Hi, my name is Maddie and I'm a junior. My name is Chloe Albert and I'm a sophomore. And we place first at state in duet acting. I'm Nick Williams and I'm the informative speaking champion. I'm Drew Clawson and I'm the informative speaking runner up and the radio speaking state champion. Let's give them all. So again, last week we did present them all with their awards, but then tonight we
014have many of them um in attendance with us. Uh I'll have them stand when I announce their name. We're going to start uh we'll start with Liberty North. Uh you just heard from Drew Clawson who finished first in radio speaking. Drew is here. [Applause] Congratulations. Nick Williams also received first in informative speaking. Nick could not be here tonight due to work obligations, but let's give Nick a round of applause. And then moving to Liberty High School. um debate students, all of them are here tonight, which is awesome. Kayn King, Abby Bixler, Adnan Ruthor, who wasn't able to be with us on the video, but is here tonight in in person. Ellie uh Ellie Meiselle and Caroline Shimwell. And then you heard them in unison, first place debate sweep stakes champions in duet acting, Mattie Hand
015and Chloe Elmer. Also with us tonight, coaches from Liberty High School, David Dempsey and Mick Turpin. Thanks for being here. The the coaches from Liberty North could not be here, but as she often does, Rosemary Camp is here with us tonight to provide support, so we appreciate her being here. I just wanted to make one final announcement before we wrap up. Uh the last couple weeks we've had a chance to get out and recognize our uh years of service recipients and I appreciate our cabinet for making the effort to be out and and recognize them and give them a personal pat on the back and we're going to be back into that tomorrow with I think five more visits starting with Kelly Brookke uh through Liberty High School tomorrow afternoon. But it's been really fun
016to be able to recognize all of them. I think over 2500 hours or 2500 years of combined service of those 100 plus uh employees in LPS and we're going to we're excited to be able to share those in the coming weeks as we um as we roll those out on social media. So again, congratulations to all of our recipients this evening. Um and that will close us out for uh the 202425 school year as part of honoring excellence. Fantastic. Let's do a standing O for our student champions. [Applause] Let's take let's meet back at 7:30 to start and then let's go meet our folks that are here and then if anybody has wishes to speak for public comment um see who do they see you Denise or Dallas for cards? Um or do you have
017them? Oh, they're at the the front. They're at the back there. So if you have public comments so [Music] She thinks you're hiding behind the, you know, the strategic place. Okay. All right. We're going to get going. Do I have any cards? public comment cards. No. Oh, who don't? No cards. Okay. All right. Well, then we will move on to the consent agenda. Our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Robert's rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion. Documentation concerning these items has been provided to all board members and the public in advance to asssure an extensive and thorough review. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member. I move the board approve consent agenda items 3.1 through 3.6.
018Second. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen. Yes. Motion carries. There's a lot in there. There's a lot. Okay. Now we on to reports. Good evening. Uh the first item is a report from administration innovation and learning department and we'll welcome Dr. Moore to the podium. Good evening. To thank everyone. um haven't seen some of you since commencement um last Sunday um on Mother's Day. Um so thank you. Sorry, had to put that in there one more time. We are working on a date for next year. So um to be determined, but um thank you um for being a part of that special day for our graduates. I wanted to highlight just a few things. I know sometimes it's hard when you're sitting on the stage and kind of
019not being able to hear um some of the numbers um from um that go along with that, but we had six students um between the two schools. We had six students that uh received their associates degree from um MCC. We had 78 validictorians, 29 saludiatorans, we had 134 AP scholars, and we had 483 students who um received their uh platinum diploma. So, that was the first year we did that. Um I know there were some questions about that, but that was really exciting. About half of the graduating class um earned the platinum diploma. So, we're excited about that. What's even more exciting is that 100% of our graduating seniors walked away with a market value asset, meaning 100% of our students had a real world learning experience during their time in high school. Um that
020took a total team effort. Um counselors, assistant principles, career navigators, um innovation and learning team, everybody, um teachers. So, I would like to say thank you publicly to everybody who helped make that happen. Went down to the last minute, but we did that. Now, we work on um just making some of those um projects, some of those experiences more rigorous, more meaningful, but um we were able to give everybody an opportunity to have an experience. Um question. Yes. Is that approximately four years that you went from zero to 100%? Yeah. So we start counting I mean we don't count anything before 9th grade. So obviously but I mean when you implemented this wasn't it about four years ago that we started it was before co Yeah it was been about a six year journey. Okay.
021We've been doing it for a while. Six years to 100%. Pretty amazing. It's exciting. Um, and if you think about that 483 um, students, they all had two, they had to all receive two um, to get that platinum diploma. So, that's also exciting as well. Um, I shared before that we celebrated um, artwork that we had a student who had a mural put up at the Klay County Prosecutor's Office and so we had some who were able to go and um, see that last week and that was outstanding. Um, here in the next couple of days, I'll share a video about some students who are making downtown Liberty just look a little bit u more exciting. So, if you drive around down by Franklin, you'll see some electrical boxes that just look um a little
022bit cuter. Um, one student in the video, and I just love this, said, quote, "I feel like this class makes it more apparent that the things you do in class can have an out outer effect on the world." And that's really what um that's what we hope to do um in class. And then finally, Liberty was proud to host the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions last Friday at Liberty North um which brings the nation's best together. um at the national speech tournament. Thanks to Kim Linger and the fine arts department who was able to put that all together um for our students. What a great event that was. And um everybody at Liberty North who helped kind of supervise and um host that. That is all I have for you tonight. Any questions of
023Dr. Moore? Thank you. Thank you. Uh 4.2 then student equity and access report with Dr. Dixon Seahhorn. Good evening everybody. Good evening. Hello. Hi. I have a couple of more things I want to share this evening than Dr. Moore did. So, thank you for your patience in advance. I want to start out with the uh building equity cadres. As you know, this school year 2425 marks the third and the last year of the cadres. And we are so excited that there were 403 cadre participants. And again, this is across all 19 school buildings. Um, as you're aware, those cadres included school leaders, um, certified staff members, our support team members, classified staff members, and student representatives. And we want to thank Angie publicly for that challenge to include students. And with the with the 403
024participants, of those 73 were students. So, we think that that is pretty amazing. And that means that students do have voice and they do have input on helping us to build sustainable school cultures that foster a sense of belonging for staff, students, and families. Excuse me. The next thing I'd like to share is with respect to our returning student registration process. As you know, this is the second year in a row that we've opened up that window um early in May. And this is again for those students who are currently enrolled in the district um so that we can just get them reenrolled for the upcoming school year. So we are asking all families to get their students enrolled before August 1st. So we're ready to go for the first day of school. As of
025date, I know you have numbers in the report, but I did ask student services for updated numbers as of today, and we're looking at 3,04 students that are returning students that are fully enrolled. and that represents about 25% of our student population right now. So, we think that that's amazing news. Want to thank Dallas for getting that information out on quick news and other uh social media handles for us. Uh as of the last day of April, so this is still um just as of that last day of April. So, it's not as of today. Um the kindergarten enrollment has totaled at around 551 students. And uh right now that number represents when we compare this to our numbers last year in terms of where we were timestamped last year, it's about 37 students fewer,
026but we're still very hopeful that more and more will get enrolled as we get, you know, closer to the summer and parents go, "Oh yeah, I need to get my kid enrolled for school for next year." So we'll continue to monitor that and give you updates. Uh with respect to the uh special programs department, the gifted education program, they are so so proud that um our district, we will have six projects that will be presented by 11 middle school students who have advanced to the National History Day contest. And just for a point of reference, that contest will take place on June 8th through the 12th at the University of Maryland College Park. And so I do want to publicly recognize um those gifted educators as well as the students that will advance. So our
027DMS gifted ELA teacher Carrie Sparks and we want to recognize those students Audrey Meisel, Mirabel Jones, Laya Horitz for first place at state, Brady McInve, Evan Bower, Ty Pollson first place at state. And for LMS gifted ELA teacher Kathy Leafoon, we'd like to recognize the students Matthew Bright and Ilana Smith and Sarah Kern first place. And then for South Valley, the gifted ELA teacher there is Sarah Forsman. And we would like to give recognition and kudos to students Kinley Mortonson and Cooper Patrick for second place at state. So giving them a, you know, congratulations here for the board meeting this evening. Next thing I'd like to mention is for our English language development department, they will host the fourth annual returning student registration event. That will be held on June the 10th from 8:00 a.m.
028to 12:00 noon. They'll take a pause and it'll be uh it'll kick back up again from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. This will be held at Liberty High School. This is an important important event because we have laptops available for use, translation and interpretation support services. Teachers will be on hand to assist families with completing the registration process. And then we'll have representatives from other LPS departments such as nutrition services, transportation, health services, our social workers, student services, and technology. All will be present to provide support and services. So those are highlights from the uh student equity and access report that I wanted to share with you this evening. And we'll gladly take questions. That's a lot. That's great. Great work. It's a lot. Kudos to all of our teams and uh for the the
029work that they do and the just the magic that they make happen every day. Questions of Dr. Dixon Seahors. So, cadres obviously come to conclusion for this three-year period. Is there new cadres? Well, there won't be new cadres, but what we have elected to do, there are about nine schools, school leaders that have expressed an interest in having kind of an additional year of just some support uh from Dr. Nathan Hostler who was our facilitator, those cadres to just embed the work a little bit more. And so, we're going to provide that opportunity for one more year. Again, they've elected to do so. And so, again, it's not that the work ends. It's just that formal structure with grant funds that we had to make that happen. That portion of it ends. But at this
030point, after three years, it's all about sustainability. Yeah. Of those cultures in our schools. That's great. All right. Thank you, Dr. Dixon. Uh, next is 4.3 with Miss Cindy Sullivant. Good evening. I too have just a little bit more than normal. So I do apologize for that. But um I want to start with recognition of donations. A monetary donation of 7500 from the Persan family charitable gift fund to the Liberty High School football program. Our quarterly Office Depot office max contribution of supplies valued at $733.11 to the students and staff at Manor Hill and the monetary donation of $500 from Pony Express Bank in partnership with Missouri Bank Association to support the upcoming endeavors at Louiswis and Clark Elementary. So, thanks to all of them for their generosity to our schools. Um, the first thing
031I wanted to share with you was an update on the senior tax freeze information from the county. As of May 14th, and this is after the deadline for all applications being March 31st, they had 17,868 applications out of 33,000 possible. They still have 3,000 of them to look at that they haven't even touched. So that being said, I have no information how many of those belong to us or what the assessed valuation of those applications might be. They indicated that we probably won't have any more information till until it's about time for us to get the regular information from the county. So probably not until July, August will we see any more information from them. So I won't be addressing that anymore until that point unless they do provide me something in the meantime. So,
032no more on that for now. You might have heard that the Missouri House and Senate completed their work on the 2526 budget. The final version of the budget did fully fund the state foundation formula at the adequacy target of 7,145 per student. That's great news. However, we are going to be cautiously optimistic for the next couple of months to wait and see what that really means. While he most likely will not veto that, he all he can withhold from that and he hasn't signed the budget yet either. So, we're going to watch and see what he decides, the governor decides to do with that and um see what we can hear as far as what we think he will do, whether that be fully funded or wouldfold based on the consensus revenue estimates, which is
033what they base their budget decisions on. So there will be a lot more to come on that and we'll talk a little bit about that when I present the preliminary budget a little later but for now we're holding at the current rate of 6760 per SAT with the note that for this year we are not even receiving that in May. So we are not fully funded for this year. So, that's another reason that I'm thinking um we if we do increase our SAT for next year, we may meet somewhere in the middle of where we are currently and fully funding based just on that information alone. So, um watching and waiting at this time, but just the fact that it got passed for full funding is encouraging. So, more to come on that as well.
034I also wanted to remind you that we have three AFC members whose terms are expiring and applications are open until June 5th. They are being um promoted in quick news and on the business services page on the website. So we currently have two applications and so we would encourage you to um encourage anyone else that you might know that might be interested in that to put in an application to join our committee. And finally, the audit and finance committee did meet last evening and we went over the budget and talked about the state legislative session and had some good conversation in the midst of the storms. Um, but they didn't have anything to pass on to you. So, that's what I have for you tonight. Miss Selva, what was the total number? I had 17,868
035applicants out of how many potential? 33,000. Okay. And there's 3,000 left to be reviewed. Yes. Have all 14,000 been approved or there do we even know that? We don't even have that information. They would not tell me any more than 17,000 plus three of those to look at. But not all of those would apply to us. Correct. That's countywide. That's countywide. Total click county. As I said, they they can't even tell us right now which of those apply to. Somebody needs to get to some kind of document like entry. Well, and you would hope in advance of districts setting their tax rate later. That's true. So whether we have that information or not, we'll see. Yes. And I'm They indicated they did not want to release any information until after the board of equalization meets,
036which doesn't really affect this since they're frozen anyway. So yeah, not sure. Other questions of Miss Sullivan? We're going to hear from her a little bit later on. Did you say there was a $7,000 per student? $7,135 the state adequacy target which is the what it takes to educate a student in Missouri after your local effort. The budget that was passed this past week did go up to $7,145 in state aid per student. Okay. Okay. Currently we're in the governor's hands. Yeah. Currently, we're sitting at 6,760. Thank you. Uhhuh. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Miss Sullivan. Next, we have operations 4.4 with Mr. Anderson. And I would be remiss if I didn't say happy birthday, Mr. Happy birthday. Thank you. Um, and good evening. Um, just a few things I was going to highlight. I'll
037try to be brief tonight. Um first uh out of the report um I don't if you noticed but the health services department had a diabetes education night that was put together in coordination with some parents and with with um um some students. A good 25 to 30 folks were showed up for that. That's not including the the dog who was present um who was quite the hit apparently. And uh just really appreciate that work and kind of um the coordinating with the right folks and um I think the the Lman's who are staff members here were very involved uh along with um their child and it was just a really encouraging night. They're going to continue to do that going forward. So thanks to Chris Redmond and Kathy Alamire for being very involved with that.
038I also want to report out a couple things with kids zone. uh if you noted in the report that there are 28 of our students that kind of kindergarten through fifth grade are now graduating. They were kind of there the whole run for their uh time here in Liberty Public Schools in addition to another 60 or so students that that had were kind of winding down their fifth grade year. Um and they were celebrated by the department uh here recently. In addition to that, and this one I thought was really cool because this is a real big change to what it was a few years ago, but the number of high school students that have been working in the program and there were 16 Liberty Liberty North graduates that were kids zone staffers here just
039recently. Um, and for those who have been around for a while, we didn't used to do that. You know, we it was it was very rare that we would have that. And that's just helped that program program out so much. Um, also wanted to um mention the transportation department kind of towards the tail end of the report. They've been working with TSA TSA for several years on some security training programs and they did a um surprise they did two sessions of surprise kind of visits while um uh the buses were still in the lot in their pre-check pre-insspection that the drivers do and they put 10 bags and it's all kind of this you know um this little not game but kind of game and um the department on both occasions 100% kind of um
040they got all of them. they didn't know what was happening. They had no clue. Um so kudos to them for being tuned into that and that's you know through a lot of proper training. And then if you look at the very end it showed the rate of success kind of generally across the country and um we way outperformed um what was normally kind of expected there. And then last um uh nothing much new to share on the bond uh project update front other than the distribution center. Uh they're getting ready for a movement here in about two weeks. They're very excited. Mr. Bright and Miss Nuland in their departments. Um, and so really appreciate all the work that's gone into that that building. And then related to that, we're going to have a U tour
041for the folks that were really invol involved with the bond committee. Um, handful of those folks. And then I know you all are invited for this Thursday. Uh, we're going to kind of do a little tour about beginning from at 3:00. Uh, so if you're able to come, uh, let us know and we're going to arrange um, transportation if you're interested. Otherwise, uh we have a schedule where you can meet us on those uh at each site. So that's all I got. Uh Steve, to follow up on up on the question about where do we go from here with the cadres in terms of I noticed there's a report uh from technology uh working with Dr. CR in terms of looking at the data and numbers uh about what's been happening and I think this
042suggests uh that that inclusion has become integrated and a part of our culture uh and impacting all facets. Uh so I think that suggests uh Nick we're on the way to something staying solid. I agree. I would say like I and Dr. See knows this. I very intentionally wanted each director to kind of, you know, they created their own program and commitment level and every once in a while we would connect with the team members individually. I would and each of them in their own way really kind of found a path and they're all deeply committed. I think it looks different probably for each and every one of them, but was very appreciative of the work they did in partnership with with Dr. Seahhorn and her team. So yeah, it's been it's been a success.
043where we know data will drive it. It'll pay the bills. Look, as a parent who has had kids in kids zone for 10 years, I've seen the just tremendous growth of that program under multiple leaders and it has just been uh compounding over time as to how much better it has gotten and and it continues to get and just being, you know, the integration of obviously kids from the district and helping out the the leadership that's there at the building level and then in totality has been super impressive. And um I have been incredibly pleased to have been a part of it uh for the past 10 years and and certainly some of that goes to you as well. I know you'll pass it off and say it's other people, but uh you know the
044head has to to encourage that and and foster the environment. So thank you for all that and to the team as well. Thank you. And and of course um um Megan um who's currently the director um and then Tena before her Dr. Brown that kind of really helped start that big turn. So, you know, shout out to both of them. Um, yeah, it's been good good leadership for sure. Steve, when the distribution center starts filling its uh shelves, will we have contracts to that we will not renew uh in other warehouse locations? What will be that I guess transition or what might we expect there? I think the main thing we we will we will stop and and cease the relationship we've had with the storage down at the caves and some of the transportation
045related kind of issues with getting the all the nutrition service product kind of back and forth. Um other than that, I'm not sure yet, you know, as we scale up and what that might look like, but I assume it would kind of from a contractual and vendor standpoint look very similar. But that will be the biggest change. will no longer have off offsite storage. And they're they're anticipating that. I mean, they know we're moving out, right? Yeah. So, yeah. And will we go to nothing or we just significantly reduce in terms of that? We're we're on our own. Okay. We have the space for it and we're excited to get it all under one roof. Great. Yeah. I'll say the the reading the TSA test that was very sobering to think that that's something we
046plan for. It's good that people are thinking about that, but it is I'm glad we're able to participate in that and I'm glad that we did as well as we did. And I always enjoy learning a new thing when I read the operations report and this time I learned what duckweed was. But I did have to look at so weird. We just had a conversation about duckweed. Strange. It's everywhere. It is. Now I know what duck. Any other questions for Mr. Anderson on that note? Thanks, Mr. Anderson. Uh, next then is 4.5 human resources with Dr. Sarah Marriott. If anyone knows about duckweed, good evening. Um I would like to start by just sharing some thanks to all of our building and department leaders um who have worked very hard with our HR team specifically
047um our um certificated staff members Dr. Copeland and Cindy Rollins and making sure that we are filling all of those vacant positions for the 2526 school year. And so we only have two elementary classroom positions to fill, a 0.5 middle school, high school, and four special ed left. And so I know that they're actively working on filling those positions. And um there may be a few more that open up, but I feel very confident in where we're headed for the 2526 school year. So thank you to all of those people who've worked very hard to make that happen. Um, a reminder that our annual grow your own teachers meet and greet is going to be on June 5th from 3:00 to 5:00 at the LHS Blackbox. This is an opportunity to meet um current and
048uh past GYOT recipients. So, if you're able to attend that, we would love to have you there. Um, sharing that Mr. Christopher Han, Mr. Aaron Money, and Miss Anne Bell assisted with facilitating our focus groups. We conducted six focus groups over uh across departments and buildings to gain additional insight regarding our staff mental health needs and resources, work life balance and financial wellness. And we will be summarizing that information and identifying themes and sharing with that that information with you guys in the very near future. And then last, I just want to share a note of thanks to Innovation and Learning and specifically Colleen Jones who helps with um creating opportunities for our LPS staff members to serve as youth mentors. So that has wrapped up this year and I think that there's several cabinet
049members who participate in that and that is just really a fun opportunity um for maybe those of us who don't get to interact with students very often um at this point to be able to do that. So, um, thank you to her and, um, innovation and learning and creating those connections. So, do you guys have any questions for me? Just a big thanks to your team. This is a heavy lift these last big these last months as you're filling in everything for the next year. I will extend the thanks to them. Anything else for Dr. Marriott? I really like going last. That is Thank you. Thank you. We're kind of quiet tonight. We haven't gotten to budget yet. We're all waiting ourselves. A few highlights from the superintendent's report. Um, just to express uh tremendous
050gratitude to our students, our staff, families uh for another successful school year in Liberty Public Schools as we wrap up um school year as well as congratulate the class of 2025. Um some of which you met this evening. Uh we celebrated them of course on Sunday. Uh but they will go on to do amazing things I'm sure. So we want to wish them well. Also want to draw attention this evening to an item in our report that is from the communications department. Appreciate Dallas uh for comply or compiling that information to share with you in his departmental report. Um with a small communications department, they are incredibly mighty. So we appreciate Dallas and Caitlyn and others that support whether it be graphics and design work or videography. Um, one of the things that's notable among
051other things within the report is kind of the social media component um that sits as part of our storytelling efforts. So you can look at the number of clicks so to speak and subscriptions. Um, you can follow along our YouTube channel and all the videos that are shared there. Um, they are constantly looking at ways of doing things differently whether that's incorporating LinkedIn or rethinking convocation and a variety of events. So again, tremendous thanks to Dallas uh for assisting not only the board and the district administration all the way down to our school and department level um as far as allowing them to tell their story and showcase the amazing work that we have going on at every single one of our campuses. Um a couple of other items as we've shared the last couple
052of months, we are approaching our strategic planning refresh with Scott Fuller from G&D Associates. uh he'll be here on June 2nd and June 3rd to assist our strategic leadership team members um in planning and crafting uh actions and steps and plans for next year. We'll share some of that at our board retreat um as well as later on this fall. So, we welcome Scott here for that time with us. As a followup to our Kaufman Foundation Real World Learning Summit just a few weeks ago where we connected with three student ambassadors, Maddie Hand, Scarlett Langghorst, and um Hadley Akert, I believe, were the three ambassadors. Um, we met with them just a week ago at Liberty High School with several of our administrators to start to think about a real world learning student advisory and
053what that might look like, leveraging these three young ladies along with other students to be able to think through how to just continue to spread the word and information be it for students or be it for teachers or be it for families on the programming that we have in and around real world learning. Um so they're very excited u as far as kind of leveraging their voice and how we might be able to do this as we start the new school year. We are continuing in our journey uh with the partnership with the Carnegie Foundation. We've had a first meeting uh with the team at Future of High School Network. Later on in June, we'll be sending a team uh to Palo Alto to meet with the Carnegie Foundation along with other districts across the
054country that are embarking on this work as a sub project. There are six states that were identified um through the National Association of State Boards of Education to partner with the Carnegie to think more from a policy and system level on how we might be able to leverage state departments of education to move change within high schools. Uh Missouri is included in that. So, we anticipate the work that we're doing in our district, but then also Missouri being part of that sixst state collaborative to converge at some point. Um and it's at that intersection in which we believe we may be able to make a bigger impact on our state uh from a policy standpoint, from a practice standpoint at the state level. An update regarding success ready students network. Um most of those conversations
055to date have been around an assessment and accountability and competency based real world learning practices. We're starting to look at um high school assessment as well and how we might be able to rethink end of course exams by leveraging artificial intelligence to then design assessment um items as far as test items that might show up on an end of course exam that are associated with the standard certainly connected to the standard but have their root in real world experiences in terms of a relevant word problem so to speak. Um, so we're exploring that and just beginning to partner with Success Ready as well as the Lean Lab and what that might look like. As Cindy shared earlier in her report, uh, the end of legislative session was somewhat abrupt um, in terms of how that
056ended with the call for the previous question. U, we had a brief meeting this morning on some hot topics associated with Prop A as far as minimum wage, how that impacts school districts. whereas it was previously thought that that piece would be excluded from that legislation, it was not. Um so we'll be walking through that in addition to Senate Bill 68, uh which ended up being the omnibus bill. We shared some messaging early last week at the end of the week. Um as far as our calendar and our intent to continue to um honor what we shared with our community as far as our last day of school on Wednesday, se or September, let's go with May. Wednesday, May uh 28th, and that being a half day. Uh as we've talked with other Northland districts,
057they're staying in the course as well, and that the effect date identified on the bill is August 28th, 2025. Um, additionally, we're still waiting on the governor to sign some of these pieces. Um, so we'll wait and see how that plays out. We are hearing a little bit more about budget as Cindy shared in terms of the SAT. Those are kind of the big three items in addition to the possibility of a special session um early part of June. We're hearing perhaps June 3rd of which we're not entirely sure what those items might be that they take up. Um but we are hearing there will likely be some conversation around keeping a couple of stadiums in Missouri. Um, as the dust settles this week and you hear from different associations on kind of what played
058out in the legislative session, that will undoubtedly impact policy from the school board's association. Maybe some change in practices, but we'll definitely share some information for you in that regard. In total, I believe there were 50 bills that made it out of the houses, both houses, um, onto the governor, but several of those bills are omnibus bills, so it's not as though they only got 50 things done. Secondly, I believe there were 15 budget specific bills um that came out of this legislative session as well. So, we'll share at a later time um those things that passed as well as maybe some things that we were able to avoid in this session, but we'll likely see um in the spring 2026 legislative session. Last thing that I would say, um for those that aren't participating
059or teaching in summer school, hope everyone has a great summer. Uh we look forward to seeing everybody back in Liberty Public Schools come August. I think you forgot to mention that the governor appointed you to the school finance formula rethinking commission. That's my horrible way of describing it, but you're one of what two superintendent on that commission? I think there are two of us along with several other business people and legislators. So um thank you for that. I'm not sure what all that will entail. Thank you. I'll I'll report back on that as well. So, you're pretty busy. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. All right. So, I guess I should look at what's next, which is unfinished business. Um, compensation plan. Yeah. The first item 5.1 is our 2025 2026 compensation plan. And this is not
060the first time that you've seen this. Um, in fact, several of you have attended our Team Liberty meetings throughout the course of the year, which I know our Team Liberty members appreciate. Um, so that you can have some visibility to the work that they do um, year in and year out. So, I want to thank them. I want to thank our human resources department, business services department, um, for getting us to this evening. Um, you have several attachments that are included in your, uh, report this evening. Um, but to hit on the highlights of my memo to the board that we shared back in April, uh, keep in mind that this allows for these recommendations allow for both vertical and horizontal movement in the cells in which a role in the schedule is allowed. Uh,
061in addition to that, um, enhancements that are created or incorporated to be able to remain competitive with surrounding districts. Um again we we saw this earlier in April. So this evening it's presented to you uh for second read um and a motion that's incorporated as well. Um to kind of walk through those recommendations real briefly at a higher level. Um the first recommendation is to fund all the salary schedules as mentioned vertical steps and horizontal movement including extra days. That estimated cost is at $2,23,832. The second recommendation would be to enhance certificated salary schedules at approximately 2% including extra days for a line item total of 1,377,460. Uh the third recommendation is to enhance the classified salary schedule again at 2% uh for a total of $61,46. The fourth recommendation would be to enhance the
062professional 10 and 12 month salary schedules again approximately 2% at $90,64 as a cost. The last recommendation would be to enhance the administrator salary schedule similarly at 2% for an estimated cost of $231,166. If you tally up all of those recommendations, um the estimates as far as the total costs that exclude PSRS and PRS contributions at this time, uh just to kind of provide that disclaimer, um the estimated total cost is $4,324,468. Also want to point out in the memo, the second page to that goes into a little bit further detail um as it relates to an explanation of each of those recommendations. the accompanying attachments reflect those recommendations. So again, a thank you uh to everyone that has had their hands in this work um over the course of the last several months as
063we've journeyed together with team liberty. Would present that to you for your consideration this evening. Before we just start start any discussion and thank you Dr. Tucker. Um can we start doing the motion and second before our discussion? I think that's the way Robert's rules runs. I'd just like us to get into the habit of doing that if that's okay. We're good with that. And then so just go ahead and start the motion and then the second and then whenever we're kind of done with discussion then I'll just let you know. Denise, is that good? Do I have a motion? I move the board adopt the 2025 2026 salary recommendations and compensation plans as presented. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Nobody has discussion. We appreciate the work of Team Liberty. They do a great job. Ed
064Saw as well. And I know you all, Doc, Miss Sullivan, Dr. Barriott put in lots of time and and so that process. I think several of us had the opportunity to sit in on some of those meetings. So, I think it's very important we stay competitive and and this does some of that. Well, and one of the things that I noted was that there was there was actually a reduction here at one point, wasn't there, in the process? I don't there was a discussion I think from going from 2.5 to two just in terms of setting some of that aside for insurance next year. I think. Yeah. You know, I think um I mean those discussions I know it's a lot of work on a lot of different sides. Uh I'm I'm glad we're able
065to do some of these things, but I mean I think about some of the legislative issues that we're dealing with. Um so, but we have to stay competitive and this is important. Yep. So, all right. Well, Denise, if you'll call the role. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen, yes. Motion carries. All right. And then down to board policy updates. You have two sets of attachments uh this evening in your packet. The first is a set of policies for approval that are shared with you this evening for second read. Um, and as you all know, the administrative procedures that accompany those policies are shared as well that do not necessitate action. Those are for the board's awareness only. So would share those with you this evening for your consideration.
066We have a board approved policy DFA, DFA-2, DJFA, GB, CBB, and IGBCA. Second. Any discussion on these? Has everybody had a chance to take a look at them? Lots of really interesting federal funding compliance. All right, the D may call the role, please. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen, yes. Motion carries. All right, new business. Budget. We're going to ask Miss Sullivan to come back and provide us a preview of the 2526 preliminary budget with the recognition of the work that has already been done by her and her team um as we kind of unpack this process accordingly with the spring semester. So, we'll turn it over to her to provide an update. I would also like to recognize the work that goes into this by anyone that
067manages a budget, anyone that writes a contract, anyone that has anything to do with financials, and that's a lot of people. So, there are a lot of hands and a lot of work that goes into that. So, I do appreciate all and every ounce that's gone into the production of this budget. the next slide. And this first slide you've seen before and this just depicts a little bit of the process that's cyclical and that we go through every year to make this document happen. And you have already seen most of this document in some form starting with March when we look at the revenue preliminary budget and then the preliminary expenditure budget in April and now we're in May where we're going to put it all together and look at the total budget and then
068in June we'll bring back to you any changes we've made since you have seen this document. So um I also wanted to share with you the next slide. Thank you. That the um budget has five statutory requirements that are um according to Missouri statute and board policy. Tonight you have before you all four four of them except for the budget message which I always save that till the very last and you will find that in the June book. So it'll just be a synopsis of everything that's happened in the book. Next slide. And we'll start with the revenue budget. And we'll look at the total revenue picture first. And the total revenue budget proposed for this year is $228,622,685. This budget shows an $878,000 decrease in total revenues from the current year budget. and that
069is comprised of debt service increase of um $923,000, a capital decrease of $4.5 million, and an operating um revenue increase of $2.7 million. We'll break that down a little further. Starting with our property tax revenue, local tax revenue is one of the two primary resources um of district revenue. We levy personal property tax in the operating the debt and the capital funds. And the personal property tax is approximately 41% of our operating budget. So that's why it's one of two of our primary resource. Uh oh. There we go. Okay. All right. So with that being said, we were expecting a property tax revenue increase of $5.9 million. $4.5 million of that goes to the operating fund. The primary property tax factors include the local t excuse me, the local tax rate calculation at our tax
070rate hearing in September. So we're actually budgeting before we even set our tax rate. So that is a little backwards it seems but um we do our best to estimate what we think that will be. We also use the assessed valuation data. 2025 is a reassessment year. We used 7% increase in assessed valuation in this budget document based on conversations that we did have with the Klay County Assessors Department. Um the consumer price index is 2.9% which caps the revenue that we can increase on and that cap is um applied to revenue generated from reassessments. We get full reassessment value on any new construction. But I wanted to assure you that you probably received a reassessment notice far greater than 7% in your mail. Um, but with that 2.9% cap, our using 7% does not
071drive a lot of additional revenue from 7 to 15% or wherever your reassessment may have landed. It's only about $66,000 per percent in the operating budget because of the Hancock amendment using the consumer price index to keep the revenue down. Where do they what what is the marker for the CPI? It's December of 2024. December of the year prior every year. So, and at that point it was 2.9%. And yeah, I know. So, are you saying that county increases in assessment by seven, we we as a school district are capped at 2.9? What I'm saying is the revenue calculated on the county's reassessment is capped at 2.9% of existing values. So if your house grows 15% I can only get revenue increase on 2.9% of that of your growth the county or we as the
072district. We as the district. Gotcha. That's what I was afraid Bruce said. Yes. So you are correct. Based on the CIA the highest that we'll go is 5%. So, we're always going to be capped at 5% of existing assessed value. Any new construction assessed value, we get the full growth in that. And that stayed flat this year. I do have that number. It's about $27 million. So, it's very similar to what it was last year. And do you have any assumption based upon the senior deal? I I can tell you that based on conversations with people that have better information than we've been given, it's been about 0.5%. So, do you know I mean any other district at one point we thought that maybe uh Jackson County was a little ahead of Clay on this.
073Are there any school districts that are factoring that in to their assumptions that you're aware of? Only in in where I can say it it could conceivably be factored in is in our 98% collection rate. We're we're assuming we're not going to collect 100%. And when in fact this year, which I'll report out on next month actually, we surpassed our collection of 100% this year in our levy. So, I feel pretty safe in that that being captured there somewhere. And we're not hearing of any other districts in any of those counties that did allow for the senior citizens tax credit getting any better information than what we have to inform the budget process. I know you're surprised by that, but I just I mean it's still we're still working at trying to get as as
074good of information as we can from it. Well, well, and I don't think we have this issue, but I mean, in the theoretical world, what could happen is is it's such an impact that we have to set our levy higher at the tax rate hearing and tax other people, right? Correct. So, correct. If it if it were to be that great. So, shift that tax burden to Yeah. Correct. Any other questions on that slide? I know it's a great slide. Lots of good discussion. Not one of my favorites. Our second um largest source of revenue is the state foundation formula and classroom trust fund. And we are only expecting an increase in revenue of $266,000. And the primary factors of this revenue are the state adequacy target which we talked about earlier in my report
075which is the adequate education factor. the dollar value modifier which is a cost of living adjustment. The student attendance which next year will be based on Wada and wham. There's a song in there somewhere. The weighted average daily attendance and the weighted average membership. Next year it's 90% Wada 10% wham. Then the following year it will be 8020 and it will continue changing until it gets to be 50/50. So the in the decrease in the combination of those factors from the WADA that has been used this year is 58.6734 which accounts for part of that 266,000 or $26,000 growth. The other part of it is the factoring in of the $600,000 growth for the $169day calendar provision. So the net of the two of those was an increase of 2 $66,000. So from formula decrease,
076we would have lost about $800,000. What is the weighted average membership? Weighted average membership is enrollment. So how many people you had enrolled in your district and average of the two count days in September and January. Weighted average daily attendance is how many kids are in seats on the count day. An average of the two of those. Okay. And so if if we go with the full formula that the Missouri legislature is proposed, so you're not factoring that in. So that's potentially another 400 million. Nice. Yes. And um that can be used to offset any increases that we're expecting in um premiums for insurance, which are going to be quite high. Mhm. And also then be held in reserve to increase salaries for next year so that we are able to keep retaining and attracting
077staff and keep up with other districts that are also enhancing their salary schedules. So um it will be put to good use. Other questions on that one? Okay. Then some other notable operating revenue changes are listed here. Um, as you know, Proposition C originated in 1982 and it's the 1 cent statewide sales tax that's used to benefit schools and highways. That collection has slowed down a bit even this year. So we took it down to more um in line with what we expect this year in actual um interest income reduction just because of smaller balances in our funds and potential decreases in interest rates. We have brought that down a little bit. Federal programs and grant revenue we as um you heard earlier from Dr. Dixon Seaborn. Her grant is expiring and federal programs had
078some carryovers in the current year that we are not budgeting for. So, we're back to what we think the grant actually will be. Those allocations don't come out until June. We may have them for the June book, but we may not. So, from here, it's just an estimate. Nutrition services collections have slowed down just a little bit. And miscellaneous, we did have some ESSER money that came in this year and that will be gone. So, we decreased it for that. But overall, that's about a $2 million decrease in some notable things in the revenue as well. For the debt, capital and bond revenue changes. The debt property tax revenue will go up $1 million. Another interest income reduction due to the same decreasing balances and lower rates. and miscellaneous. Um, some state assessed utilities revenue
079and financial institution taxes also go into debt service and they're expected to increase just a little bit for a total increase in the debt service um income of [Music] $923,000. Capital and bond bond project, same thing. Revenue, property tax revenue, we get 36 cents in there, which is $347,000. interest income as those bond funds decrease greatly with the winding up of the projects that account gets the biggest hit on the income um interest income reduction sale of other property we had a device refresh last year so we took the old devices and we sell those off they go into fund four when you sell a capital asset the revenue goes back into it but we won't have that this year so we took that down and the middle miscellaneous are some sales of the buses
080and some rebates on the LED lighting. So that accounts for about $4.5 million decrease in the capital and bond leveling. So put all that together, those are all of the things we just talked about and you can see how that works across the funds on the bottom chart for the $878,000 decrease in revenue that we're expected in next year's budget. questions on revenue uh transportation. Uh I think I saw in the legislative report saying that it was still somewhat up in the air. Think that it's positive, but similar to you saying that there could be withholdings on the formula. They weren't sure how the government was going to respond to transportation. How is that where's that fit in? It's in um the local their state revenue category and transportation in the budget the state budget
081was fully funded and so we keep it flat until we know because until the audit is done and everybody has turned in their transportation expenses for the year. We don't know what our allocation is. So, we're taking all of that one as passed in the legislature, but we're not taking all of the because because the governor did indicate in his state of the state that he would fully fund transportation. So, he will sign that part. Transportation is typically one of the first things where if withholding occurs, it comes from transportation. Um, this year we were fully funded, so I don't have a reason to believe that it will not be fully funded next year. As with any state appropriation, however, we have to remember that the revenue, state revenue has to be there to support
082the appropriation. So if the state revenue, income taxes, and all of the revenue accumulated by the state isn't there to support the appropriation, then it will not be paid out in 100%. That is why we haven't received full funding of the formula payment through May this year either because the state revenue is they haven't withheld it. They've only paid out what they have that they have. Where does chapter 100 and tiff roll into this? So, it's part of the um property tax calculation. You'll see when you take a look in September when we provide you the levy calculation, there's a line where it backs out the tiff um property and does not calculate taxes on it. And do we have anything rolling off anytime soon? Um the biggest Shaw Creek projects have already rolled off.
083We haven't been notified that there's anything um coming off. Now on chapter 100s, we are starting to get a few more payments on the board plants. So our pilot payments have increased substantially over the last couple of years and that that's all calculated into the property tax calc. The pilot payments are a separate line item and we receive that information from the city. So it doesn't really affect the calculation of the property tax revenue. Okay. And just to clarify, keep in mind, and you all know this, the the summary of all of that is captured in our audit where that information is spelled out as far as kind of the breakdown of chapter 100, 353, um, TIFF, as it relates to that summary page. So, any other questions before we move on to expenditures? Okay.
084So here's the picture of the total expenditure budget for 2526. We are expecting an expenditure budget of [Music] $263,48,97. That is a decrease of a little over $17 million from the current budget year. That is very deceiving though. So um it's mainly due to bond decreases because the capital projects are being um completed. So there are not the expenditures at the rate that we have been doing that in the past. The capital budget's going to decrease by about $25 million. Debt service expenditures will increase about $500,000 and the operating budget increase um expenses will be a little over $7 million. So those in total account for $17.3 million in a decrease in the total budget. Talk about salary. Thank you for approving the salary recommendation put before you tonight. You'll notice that my estimated increase
085is a little bit lower than what you were presented with tonight. That's simply due to the update of information because I pulled the data at different times to work into this budget. And as you will remember, I do salary um and benefit amendments twice a year for any changes in staff or benefit rates or um for the completion of hiring for the next year. We haven't even done that. So it's very hard to come up with a very accurate number. So right now we're estimating the increases in salaries at 4.1 million for next year. Keep in mind that employee salaries do account for approximately 60% of our operating budget. The next slide shows you the benefit increase to go along with it. It's just a little bit above the $2 million. That accounts for the
086increase in the um salary budget and the payment of PSRS and peers retirement for all staff that are eligible for that. It also includes a $660,000 allocation made by team Liberty of their bucket of money to go toward health and dental and vision insurance premiums. So hopefully if the state does decide to go ahead and fund the formula payment, we will have a little bit more to put toward that other than the $660,000. And benefits account for 19% of our total operating expenses. So salaries and benefits in total are 69 or 79% excuse me of our total operating budget which for a school district that does not contract out any of our um nutrition services or transportation that is right on par with what we would expect um that percentage of our budget to be.
087Um, other notable operating expenditure changes for the coming year, vocational and early college tuition are increasing. And this is a good thing because that means it's giving more children, more students an opportunity to go to early college. And then we're adding the cyber security program. So those account for the the bulk of that increase there. Contracted sped services are decreasing by almost $600,000. We talked about this, I believe, last month where we do contract out some services currently and we're trying to bring as many of those in house. That doesn't mean we won't have contracted services because there are still positions we can't fill internally or if we do have a new student show up with a need that we can't hire immediately, we will still have to contract out some of those services. But
088anytime we can bring them inhouse and at a savings of this much, it's a good opportunity to do that. Technology related services is software licensing costs going up. Substitute services, we're trueing that up to what we spent closer to this year. So that's an increase. Property and casualty insurance, we are in the process of bidding that out. had a meeting today with CB Viz, our broker, and I'm hopeful that by June we will have a better number for you on that and I think it might swing the other way. So, we're we're really pleased with what we're hearing. So, more to come on that one. Miscellaneous purchase services. There are a ton of little things that swing up and down and change. So there's nothing one big notable expense inside of that, but that gives
089a total um increase of purchase services of $565,000. For supplies, um we budgeted an increase in fuel. Fuel has gone down, so I don't know if that will actually come to fruition, but we are buying um additional buses. So we do know we will have an increase there. technology related supplies. We are replacing some cameras um I believe or budget or projectors, excuse me, and those are on a replacement cycle. So, there's a little bit of an uptick in supplies there. And overall, general supplies are going to go down $345,000 in miscellaneous. Again, budgets changing there. So, supplies will go up about $212,000 overall. debt, capital, and bond. Our debt service payments are per an amortization schedule because that's all for bonds. So, they just change periodically as the um amortization schedule is worked through.
090Lease payments are going up by $1.1 million and that's due to a new energy lease, a new bus lease, and a change in a new copier lease. So, we don't have exact numbers on those. Those are not all finalized. So, those are estimates at this time, and as we work through getting those agreements finalized, we will update those numbers for you as well. We are putting about $1.7 million additional funding into capital to try and knock some of that list down. And of course, the bond projects are decreasing about $28 million due to completion of projects. And um that leaves a total change in those budgets of a decrease of $24 million. So again, this slide wraps it all up, combines all of those items, and shows you how it affects each fund, noting, as
091I indicated at the beginning, that we have a $17 million decrease in the overall expenditure budget. Questions on that? So, our last slide is our general budget summary. You'll notice we had a beginning fund balance of um $107 million. We're expecting 229 in revenues, 263 in expenditures for an ending fund balance of $72 million. That leaves us with a fund balance of 20%. We're projected to end this year at 24.94%. So that is a deficit spend that is planned for the expenditures that we are showing you tonight. And that is the budget as it sits today. In June, we will bring this back to you with a summary sheet of the line items that have changed. Otherwise, you will anticipate seeing what you see tonight. Uh on this page, by the way, lovely job. But
092um on this page is a reminder for us. Can you say a little more enthusiastic? Pretty darn enthusiastic. Uh, no. No, it's great. It's great. I love it. Should I take it? Um, remind us about the fund balance percentage. Why that's important? What the target we try to 24 to 20 concern us? Um, it's concerning if we keep it up. Yes. And if you look at your operating projection spreadsheet, if you um take it down to to 3 years, it gets to where I'm uncomfortable just a little bit. But you also have to consider that um we'll keep growing our assessed value and we're conservative when we grow our revenues. We also tend to budget a little healthy and we have some gift back every year and that's usually a percent or so. So when
093you factor all of those things in and you look at the trend, I trend this out. So I know that if today I can see 3 years out and I have a fund balance of 15%. I know on average that the give back percentage is 3% gets it up to 18. So I can be comfortable with seeing that operating projection at 15%. Is it concerning that we would deficit spend all the time at this rate? Yes, it is. um if the um the revenue from the SAT comes through that would help this situation greatly but I and that's part of the reason why in the salary um discussion we went from 2 and a half to two because of my uncomfortableness with what it did to my projection document. So, um, we tend to budget
094conservatively on [Music] revenues and liberally on expenditures. Put all of that together and we have a comfort level that I can live with. What were we projecting last year at this time? I don't have that in front of me. It was less than 24. You're you're saying we're kind of coming in on 24. M. So, we're coming in better than what we thought we expected that number to be, which is typical this time of year. Okay. Yeah. And a district could could choose. No, no, no. District question. No, no, you're good. A district could choose to reduce the fund balance even lower, but you run into the may have to take out a loan to pay salary. I'm sorry. I didn't even answer your question. No, no, you're great. You're great. We have determined that
095it takes a certain amount of fund balance in order to keep the lights on and pay payroll in October, November, and December. Because you realize from July 1 through December, we're living off of our savings account. Fund balance represents our savings account. We get the bulk of our revenue in January, February, and March when um taxpayers pay their property taxes. So, we have to have a balance in order not to borrow money on a short short-term basis to pay people. And that percentage will vary from district to district to district. You may hear of some smaller districts that carry a fund balance of 70 80%. Right. And scratch your head as to why. But then once you peel back into their books, then you kind of see the picture there. And it's a lot. It's
096generally 3 months. Yes. um so that you can you can sustain that until your payments come in as compared to tax anticipation borrowing um which several districts have done in the past and it's a lot harder for a small district to pay for a catastrophe um with a small fund balance so they tend to carry a larger one anyway to as a savings account. That was an amazing explanation. Once I finally answered, but anyway, again, I I just really appreciate all the work that goes into this. Um, I can stand here and talk about it really quickly, but it it's a lot a culmination of a lot of work. So, a lot of hands that I appreciate very much to do this. I just really appreciate your ability to explain it. Yes. To us. I
097mean, you can read through it, but then your synopsis just very well done. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. So, we'll see this again June. Any questions you have between now and then of clarification that can be provided, don't hesitate to let uh Miss Sullivan know. So, thank you. Thank you. Next, we have uh 6.2, which is curriculum approval, but it looks like it's uhformational. So, in the month of May, we bring forward uh for first read anything needing uh your review from a curriculum standpoint. You'll see this again uh come June as far as second read and consideration. Uh so this evening, we're going to ask that Dr. Schmidz, I believe, Dr. Moore, which of the two of you, is it Dr. Schmidz or Dr. Moore, speak to this particular item regarding uh curriculum revisions?
098Uh this month is pretty routine. We're doing fax, IT, industrial tech, and uh business. And so you get to look at those. You want to um make sure look at the bottom it says other there. We have added the ACT prep class. They worked hard to get all those competencies written. You approve that class in the fall. So just make uh sure that you don't need that one, too. a lot of echoing in there. Only thing I would add is that um all of the classes are written through competencies. So all of the teachers came together with Michelle. So you'll see that they're all competencies, learning intention, success criteria. So now K12 you'll start to see that every single class every single content area has the same format with competency learning intention and success criteria
099which makes it more uniform. Um and Miss Bower you will see on the AC under the comp standard English conventions of standard English will be happy. Thought that would makeense. The only other thing to clarify is they're still rooted in the Missouri learning standards. So that's their foundational piece and then the competencies and what Dr. Moore shared follows. So again, you'll see this in June. Um, so certainly take a look at it. If you have any questions or need clarification, we can provide that as well. Any questions of Dr. Schmidz or Dr. Moore this evening on that item. Okay. All right. Thanks. Then we move to 6.3, which is our summer school application approval. So per DESIE requirements, every summer school uh program that holds session each summer is required to go through this process
100of approval. And so this is an item that we bring forward each year and readying for summer school. So we just present the 2425 summer school application for action this evening. Move the board approve the 20 2024 2025 summer school application. Second. Nick. Oh, sorry. Nope. That's okay. Any discussion? Nope. Go ahead. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen, yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Denise. Uh, 6.4. A few contracts and purchases to share with you this evening. So, we'll turn it over to Mr. Anderson. There's a handful of them here. All expedited actions, purchases. Again, as me typically mentioned, you know, consistent with policy and such, but just to move these along. Uh the first is with AB staffing solutions for school age care to provide nursing support uh
101during um their camp in July. Um the next item is with the same group for special services to provide on-site nurse and school psychology services primarily for summer school. That's why the rush but also would be applicable to the upcoming school year. Third is with uh Ben Swer glass and that was to uh help us keep a project on on uh on schedule. Um so we moved that forward. Um next one is crowd strike crowd strike with tech the technology department. Uh it was a conference that uh a couple members of that team were going to attend and and it just didn't get brought to you in time. the uh after that favorite health care staffing with special services again more for nursing staff uh for students during summer school and for the upcoming school
102year. So a lot of this is just to get the right staffing in place for summer. And then the last one is with KC Behavioral Health Holdco LLC again for special services um for for a particular student during the um this last um stretch of the year and into summer school. Do we normally have this much need for health care for summer school? Did something change? One thing that changed is we and it really the the one in particular on the health services is for the um kids camp. Okay. And and what we've done in the past is we had a uh a health aid that was extremely proficient that would stand in there um and uh she's no long no longer with us and we weren't able to get any of the nurses to
103work it. So that's what that was brought in the floor. But this has been typical in years past at this time of year as we're trying to serve the needs for for June and July. A motion. I move the board approve the emergency contracts and purchases as listed. Second, any discussion? Hi, Denise. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen, yes. Motion carries. All right. Item seven, board of education legislation and advocacy. I feel like we've talked a lot about session tonight. Special session coming up. We'll see. I guess what the scope of it shall be, but hopefully not education. See, um we have our upcoming meetings, um our study session. If you have ideas or things that you want to talk about, please don't hesitate to reach out to
104me or Angie or Dr. Tucker. Um, June 23rd, we've settled on for our regular board meeting for the budget. Any other remarks? Anything? Where is the retreat? Retreat house. Oh, we're going to do it at building 53. Oh, okay. Which is the former building 53. library, building 53. Yeah. Where the technology that'll give you an excuse to be able to tour that site, but then there's also a nice uh flex area that we've used for various things. So, we're going to meet over there. I like that. Yeah, I'll try not to drive to the treehouse. And I just wanted to say congrat congratulations to everybody on a successful school year. I know we've gotten a few days, so we'll um but it's been awesome. and I I hope it's a good rest of and congratulations
105on graduation. It was nice to be with everybody on graduation. So, I'd like to note the CNA uh service. It was truly a tremendous experience and I'm just convinced those those students are metriculating. It's going to really pay pay off for them uh very shortly immediately. Some are already working and using them. Fantastic. But it was a great uh 22 students, 24 students I think is what we said. Great. Yes. Yes. And just thank you to everyone who has been attending all the things all the days all day long. So everyone Jen, can you say that with all my enthusiasm? It's really fun stuff. It's just a lot. Well, I move the board adjourn. Second. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen, yes. Motion carries. Thanks everybody. Thank you.
106Thank you all. [Music]