LPS Board of Education Meeting | April 19, 2025

001Well, [Music] yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty for all. [Music] Uh, approval of the agenda. Move the board approved the agenda as presented. Second. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Karen, yes. Angie, yes. Motion carries. And approval of the minutes. I move the board approve the April 1st, 2025 study session minutes. Second. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Karen, yes. Angie, yes. Motion carries. And then honoring excellence. Mr. Acriman, are you ready? Yes. Are you ready? Good evening everyone. Uh, as you know, April, May is the season for recognitions and hopefully everyone's been following some of our activity on social

002media with so many of those to share with our community. We wanted to recognize a couple of our staff members tonight as they've been making headlines. Playing a little bit of catchup is uh going to recognize uh Reagan Allegri from Heritage Middle School. Dr. Allegri, would you come forward? I'll have you join me at the podium. Um, this came hard to believe this was over a month ago. Um, I'll read a quick little uh announcement and a nomination that was submitted on her behalf. It was a great way to start a new week on Monday, March 10th at Heritage Middle School as the entire staff and student body at HMS surprised their principal, Dr. Regan Allegri as she was named the 2025 middle school principal of the year by the Greater Kansas City, Missouri principal

003Association. We were able to receive a few of the nominations as I mentioned that were submitted by several of Dr. Allegrey's colleagues throughout the metro and thought we would share at least a portion of one of the nominations. Uh I have not only worked with Reagan throughout my last six years in administration, but I'm also a parent of two students that attended Heritage over the past four years. Reagan has created a positive school culture that promotes a sense of belonging and provides equitable opportunities for all. In recent years, she has demonstrated integrity, perseverance, and resilience as she has led the HMS community through several challenges. Dr. Allegri continues to push herself every day to ensure she provides the best educational environment for the students and staff at Heritage Middle School. Dr. Allegri, we congratulate you

004tonight and thanks for being with us. [Applause] And we also had a uh big celebration a week ago and uh that being the naming of our 2025 2026 LPS district teacher of the year. He just so happens to be with us tonight. Mr. Mr. Mr. Kurt Gates, come forward. We made the announcement last Wednesday, April 9th. It was a surprise. You said you were surprised. Um, if you haven't had a chance to to preview the video that we produced and shared on that day. I'd encourage you to go back and check that out on any of our social media platforms. As I'm standing here talking to you, I just noticed somebody left a prop for me here at the uh podium. Are you getting emotional? I'll I'll place this down here. Um, we were talking

005just before the meeting um just about the the tremendous response we saw on Facebook on that Facebook post and just all the outpouring of of love for from former students from colleagues and you had a chance I know to see those. I encourage you encouraged you to check those out. So, I didn't know really where to go with uh introducing him tonight since we've already done several several different ways, but I thought I would just read a couple of the posts that came off of our uh Facebook page. This from Lisa. Thrilled that you earned this recognition and award. You inspired your students with your knowledge, enthusiasm, and humor. You saw the best in them and made them believe in themselves. Thank you for being that kind of educator. The profession is noble, and you

006do it so well. from Doug. Doug Winkler, former colleague at former colleague of mine at Liberty High. An incredible teacher who sets the bar high for students, but in a way that makes them want to achieve. His ability to motivate comes not only from his skill as a teacher, but his compassion for students. Can't think of another teacher that I desire to emulate more than Kurt Gates. Congratulations to Kurt. And then Could you do that in a Doug voice? No way I'm getting that low. I can promise you that. I've I've actually practiced uh you know in private trying to have the Doug Winkler voice and I do not achieve that. Um I hope he's watching. You know, I'm sure he is. Uh this coming from Justin. I don't know what his voice stand sounds

007like. Uh Mr. Kurt Gates was my AP government teacher in high school. I loved his class and remember it fondly. He greatly impacted my understanding of our governmental system with balance, fairness, and keen insight. Way to go, Mr. Gates. Welld deserved. So, tonight we have an official certificate, and I teased this to him. I forgot to bring this to North last week. We presented the school with a big banner that's going to hang and display at Liberty North, the home of Kurt Gates. So this one you're you're actually going to take this home and hang this in Melissa. Are you good with this? We'll have you like hang this above your front end front door. Exactly. So congratulations Kurt. Thank you. Way to go. Our 2025 district teacher of the year. And I do have

008to mention, of course, you talk about a power couple in Liberty Public Schools. Melissa Taylor sit sitting next to him, his wife. She was the 201120 LPS district teacher of the year. The first time that has ever happened. Melissa also want to thank Dr. Rosemary Camp, principal from Liberty North for being here. She supports all of our honoring excellence recipients uh so often and we appreciate her being here as well. So with that, that concludes honoring excellence for tonight. Thank you very much. Thank you. as is our practice. Before we get into the meat of the business of tonight, um we would like to take um some time to congratulate Kurt and Dr. Algri and if you also uh wish to speak to the board at public comment, there are blue cards outside that door.

009Um you can hand those to any board members or um our board secretary, Denise. So, um, we'll take, well, 8 minutes. That'll take us to 7:15. Good Anning for so late at night. [Music] education member, which then gets us to the next order of business and reorganization, and that is administration of the oath of office. So, we'll turn that over to Denise Aldridge to administer the oath to Miss Rogers and Mr. K. All right. Dallas. I do swear affirm I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States. for the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Missouri and the Constitution of the State of Missouri and that are faithfully and partially discharged faithfully and partially discharge the duties of school director duties director in and

010for delivery for school district and delivery school district. County State of Missouri. County State of Missouri to the best of my ability to law. To the best of my ability, according to law. [Music] Do they have to sign before we go anywhere else? I'm sorry. Do they have to sign before we do anything else or can they sign at their leisure? I think they can sign. Uh the second item second item this evening under reorganization is the election of president of the board of education. Uh so now the floor is open for nominations for the position of president of the Liberty Public Schools Board of Education. I move the board elect Karen Rogers as president of the board of education. Okay. Second. Karen Rogers has been uh nominated for the position of president. Do we

011have any other nominations? Uh, having received no additional nominations, then nominations are ceased. Is there a motion to elect Karen Rogers as president by acclamation? How do we word that? I move that we elect Karen Rogers, board president, by acclamation. Do we have a second? Second. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? Denise, would you please call the call the role? Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Karen, Epstein, Angie, yes. Motion carries. Congratulations, Miss Rogers. The next the next order of business then, um, is that we will open the floor for nominations for the position of vice president for Liberty Public Schools Board of Education. I move the board elect Angie Reid as vice president of the board of education. Second. Angie Reed has been nominated for vice president. Are there any additional

012nominations for the position of vice president? Hearing no additional nominations, uh, nominations are then ceased. Is there a motion to elect Angie Reid as vice president by acclamation? I move the board elect Angie Reed as vice president of the board of education by acclamation. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. Any further discussion? Uh, Denise, would you please call the role? Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Karen, yes. Angie, abstain. Motion carries. We'll now turn the meeting back over to Madame President, Miss Karen Rogers. [Applause] We'll just do a little test. little white husband. Got it. Yeah. I'll take this off. Think we can all give Angie Reed a hand for her two years. Thank you. Right. So, next we move to the appointment of MSBA delegate and alternate for the

013board of education. Do we have any nominations for the delegate? I move the board appoint AJ Bird as MSVA delegate and Drew Marriott as the alternate second second. Any other nominations? Do do we need to do another acclamation? Having received no additional nominations, the nominations are ceased. Is there a motion to appoint AJ Bird as MSBA delegate and Drew Marriott as MSBA alternate by acclamation? So moved. Yes. One second. Whenever you're ready. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, abstain. Dan, yes. Drew, abstain. Karen, yes. Angie, yes. Motion carries. Congratulations and thank you both for being willing to serve again. Then we move to the appointment of the board treasurer. Got a lot of applications for this, especially right now, right? Do we have a nomination for treasurer of our board? I move the board appoint Cindy

014Sullivan as treasurer of the board of education. Second. Any other nominations? Having received no additional nominations, nominations are ceased. Is there a motion to appoint Cindy Sullivan as treasur by acclamation? So moved. I like that. Do I have a second? Second. All right, Denise. Call the RO. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Karen, yes. Angie, yes. Motion carries. And then finally, we have the appointment of the board secretary. Do we have any nominations for only one applied? I hope there were a lot more in the wings. Well, before she changes her mind, I move the board of Denise Aldrich as board of education secretary. Second. Any other nominations? Having received no additional nominations, nominations are ceased. Is there a motion to appoint uh Denise Aldrich as board secretary by acclamation? So

015moved. Second. Second. All right. Denise, will you call the role? Can she do Nick? Yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Karen, yes. Angie, yes. Motion carries. Nice job. Very good. All right. Here we go. All right. So, next, I believe we're ready for public comment, which is item 3.7 on the agenda. Um, I do have a comment card. Um, but before that, I ask that person to come forward. Um, do we have any others by any chance that haven't had a chance to turn them in? Okay. Thank you. So before we begin with public comment, um we have a board policy BDDH on public participation at board meetings. Speakers may address any subject concerning Liberty Public Schools andor education. Board members will not engage in debates or discussions with those speaking other

016than to seek clarification of the comments. Speakers will address the board from the podium and are asked to keep remarks concise and to the point and will not repeat what someone before has said. A person or persons may speak only once at the meeting. If several patrons wish to speak on the same topic, the board president may restrict the input to one or two spokespersons. Each speaker shall be limited to three minutes. Profane language or comments that constitute a threat to the safety of others is prohibited. Spontaneous comments from the audience will not be tolerated and may close public comment. In the event board members agree the normal flow of businesses being unnecessarily delayed, they may by majority vote wave or end public comment. Concerns brought forward during public comment may be addressed by the

017superintendent or appropriate staff members usually within a week. And so the board, let's see, we'll now call, let's see, Ellie Marx, you may come forward for public comment. And there will be a timer that should the help you. All right. Thank you. My name is Larry Marx. I'm the founder and the director of the California Brain Tumor Association. I am here in Kansas City because my daughter lives here with her husband and baby. and my son-in-law grew up immunity and we couldn't ask for more awesome son-in-law. So, thank you for that. And I've been involved in the issue of health effects of wellness and radiation since 2008 when my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor which was attributed by worldwide experts to his cell phone. I attend international expert symposiums and I'm in constant

018communication with researchers all over the world. I continually study the science and I can tell you that when you take apart the industry funded science from the independent science it is overwhelming that wireless radiation is indeed causing cancer and other delotterious health effects. I have testified to the United States Congress on this topic and at the request of the government accountability office I was on a panel of experts explaining the science as they prepare a report to Congress. Congress did tell the FCC, the regulatory agency, that their so-called standards are not protective, but they have yet to make appropriate changes. When you are told that the tower emissions are below the guidelines, it is sadly very misleading. And no one is measuring the cumulative exposure your children and educators are getting for 30 or more

019hours a week. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that the US government tighten the wireless exposure limits and cautions that tell radiation is causing headaches, sleep problems, and depression among other things. I can say without hesitation, from my knowledge and my 17 years of experience that the emissions from the cell tower at the school are absolutely endangering the health of staff, teachers, and your children. it does need to be relocated. You have been told by the health department that there is no cluster. I have learned over the years that it's very hard to prove a cluster. And it's also very important to understand that many cancers have very long latency periods. When media reported on a school with a similar issue and printed my email address, I received 65 emails over the next two days

020from former students who had attended the school and they developed cancer in their teens and 20s, some deceased at very young ages. It was heartbreaking. I also helped another elementary school in California get a tower removed as several students had cancer and one recently died at the age of 16 after suffering multiple brain tumors for six years. My colleague Dr. Kent Chamberlain among other people. Um Kent is professor emeritus in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of New Hampshire. He's an expert on this issue. He's also president of a school board. He's willing to present to you via Zoom. I am optim optimistic you will make this a priority as there is no business more important than the health of your students and your educators in Liberty. And I thank you

021for your time. I brought along one handout. It's a study that was commissioned by T-Mobile showing you the health effects that are very real. Thank you. Can I leave this with one of you? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And next Fred Branson. So I'm a parent of two students that go to Warren Hills. Uh my son goes there right now. My my youngest daughter Blake is getting ready to do six years at Warren Hills. And I've kind of sat back and watched all this unfold. I I don't know for certain that the energy emissions from this tower, whether they're underspec or oversp spec, can cause cancer or cause issues. But I do know that basic questions that would need to be asked by the school board to T-Mobile don't appear to have occurred. And

022I happen to work at a law firm on the plaza named the Accurso Law Firm. That firm has handled probably the largest environmental exposure case in Kansas City where the Jackson County courthouse was successfully sued for asbestous exposure and the total sum of money is in the ballpark of $80 million in terms of recovery on those multiplan of cases. The difference in those cases is when you get cancer from asbestous the cancer itself is a specific type. That type of cancer is causation. the type of cancer you get supports causation. Here we don't have causation because there's nothing that ties the these six women that have breast cancer to RF or EMF exposure. But I can tell you if there was that data, which is an emerging area of science in our country, there would

023be causation. We just don't have it yet because the science hasn't caught up. But I can tell you in the Jackson County courthouse asbestous cases, the department of health also said it was not a cluster. The department health of health was consulted and their opinion was it didn't qualify as a cancer cluster. You don't ask the department of health if it's a cancer cluster. That's like asking the IRS for tax advice. Okay? What you do is you hire an epidemiologist that's nationally recognized. You spend three or four grand and you get an epidemiology study done. and you ask a neutral expert, is this within the realm of pure chance or is this borderline on something that's not normal? That's the first thing LPS should have done. Why we haven't done that, why we haven't spent

024three or four grand, I don't know. Okay. Why have we not asked T-Mobile to produce their operations and emissions records showing testing and maintenance of what those emissions were over these past years? If if we go into litigation, those will be obtained. So LPS is right now has plausible deniability, but you are teetering on culpability because all I see LPS doing currently is running interference, kind of calming things down. But you will be culpable for not asking T-Mobile these questions when you have privately obtained a contract on taxf funded property for some unknown reason. I don't even know why that's permitted. Why? Ask a jury why public school ground that's tax supported and funded and subsidized by tax dollars gets to have a private T-Mobile contract. I don't know. But my point is this. Thank

025you for your time. You guys are treading very dangerously on culpability. You're not asking the questions. Thank you. And you're not providing that information. Those are basic things that need to be provided. Thank you. So, all right. We now have time. Thank you, sir. I'm sorry. We have three minutes and we keep everybody three minutes and thank you. We will have somebody follow up with you. Okay. Um we are now going to move to our 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 assure an extensive and thorough review. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request

026of any board member. Have a motion. I move the board approve consent agenda items 4.1 through 4.5. Second. Denise Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Karen, yes. Angie, yes. Motion carries. Right. Now, reports for the administration. The first report this evening is from Innovation and Learning. and we'll welcome Dr. Moore to the podium. Good evening. On behalf of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, we wanted to congratulate Liberty Middle School and specifically Megan Bright as a recipient of DESIE's 2025 exemplary school library program recognition. As you know from the past, this is not an easy um award to accomplish. So, congratulations to Megan and Liberty Middle School. Um, also wanted to share that tomorrow we have orientation for a new class of the um, CNA, Collegiate Nursing Academy students.

027Um, as you might remember when we started this program just a few years ago, we were allowed to have 20 students and we kept asking why 20? Um, that's all that they could handle at the time. Um, we are excited to share that we have 33 students that will be starting next year. So, that's huge for us. We actually wanted a few more, but they said, you know, calm down. Um, that's all you're going to get, but we're going to take it. So, 33. Um, map testing has um start we're getting ready to start MAP testing. We started I Ready this week, but map testing is also getting started. Um, we appreciate all of the schools as they keep focus on the testing. We know it's not easy. Um in the spring uh we have

028AP EOCC's that are also getting started. Um Panorama started this week as well. So uh spring there is a lot going on for all of our um teachers and we appreciate all that they do. Um as you may also remember April 5th and 6 we had our second entrepreneur fair at Hi Ve. We had 16 student entrepreneurs this time. U many great stories. Hopefully, you got to see some of the pictures in our um um in what we shared. Uh there was a story, I don't know if um you heard this, but there was a one student who shared with um someone who came by and they asked what they were trying to uh save money for. Um and the student said they were trying to save money to buy a horse. And um someone

029at Hi was very generous and um gave them quite a um donation um toward that horse and so they uh it was a good thing that that student was there that day um selling um their product. So that was pretty cool. And Hi Ve, we appreciate their partnership and they've uh have said that they'll continue to do that twice a year with us. So we appreciate them. Uh parent teacher conferences as well. We have the percentages included in our board report. Uh most of our elementarymentaries, if not all, had studentled showcases. Um many of them had portfolios. I had the opportunity to go around and see several of the elementarymentaries and um students were showcasing and talking about the skills and dispositions within the um graduate profile and um being able to share those stories

030with their um parents was pretty inspiring to see. building walkthroughs concluded today at Epic Elementary and it was a great conclusion to those. Thank you to everyone who was able to um get to those throughout the school year. It was pretty neat um to see the one of the slides today 100% of students Jen get me make sure I get this right. 100% of students on Panorama at Epic are excited to come to school every day. Wow, that's great. That's pretty neat. Was that Did she ask that of their parents? Like how many of your students are excited to come to school and their parents even knew that they were excited to come to school? Yeah, that's that was pretty pretty neat. So, um appreciate the board support of those and um and we know

031that you are all busy. Um but um thank you for making those a priority when you can. And then finally, May 7th, senior's last day and commencement is around the corner on May 11. So we have just over 1,000 seniors and we want to wish them well in whatever is next for them. With that, I'll take any of your questions. Any questions for Dr. Moore? Um is it typical that we are doing I ready mat prep and panorama all kind of together or is that we kind of have it so yes we kind of have just a bigger window. Um so map for most people map will come maybe a little bit later. So right now we kind of do I ready to kind of gauge you know how the students will do on um

032on the map. So it's just kind of where it falls but it's also um they all kind of fall right here toward the end of the toward the end of the year a lot. Yeah. Most will most will start MAP here in the next couple of weeks, but we'll get I ready done now and then go into go into math and then um AP and EOCC's will start here May 6th 28. Yeah. Yeah. That'll be the same for Liberty High. So getting close. Congrats on the 33 CNAs. That's amazing. That is wonderful. It is wonderful. Cool. The more we can get our students, as you know, into those opportunities and we increased our um students in early college just a little bit. Thank you, Miss Sullivan. Um so, we started with 20 in that program

033and we're now up to 105 in that program. So, not all are not all are full-time. Um you know, we had to do some con not all are full-time at at 12 hours, but we have some that, you know, do six hours and then some that do the 12 hours. question on parent teacher conferences. I mean some of these elementary numbers shocking the So you credit that to some uh of the portfolio work or what's helping elevate I mean I see Alexander Donovan with nearly 100% engagement. Well, you know, I I credit our elementary teachers for putting together these studentled conferences across the board to allow, you know, the students to take their parents through the journey and being able to come in and say, "This is what I did, you know, and then the

034teacher is there kind of to to help support, you know, if they have questions, but really the teacher is kind of standing there and letting the kid, you know, tell the parents, "This is what I've done." Um, it's pretty neat to see a kid explain to their families what they've done. Um, so yeah, I just think it's that being able to see it on a portfolio or to see um just that work spread out, however it is. Um, being able to talk about it. We were sitting there today in awe watching a fourth grade student talk about thought that kid was in eighth grade. Compassion. Yeah. I mean, just talking about skills and dispositions that, you know, they're practicing in fourth grade, it's amazing what they can do. So, I think that they um that

035we just hear, you hear about it at home and then the parents just want to go and see it. So, I think it's just that feedback that you know, you as parents get that constant back and forth between home and school that parents are saying like, I want to go to school and I want to see that. Follow in a second with secondary. Do you have any trend on that? I mean is this a typical typical? Was there a is this something that has changed postco? No. So this would be consistent precoid. Yes. Yes. It it's never been um you know maybe No, I would not say I' i've gone back and I've looked. I'd love to say it was a little bit higher before. It hasn't been. I just think because we've always had

036the ability to go into power school um and just see the grades and then if there was an issue, email, call um and so it there just hasn't been the need to to go and do it and to to go in for, you know, a spring meeting. Most of the time the parents who do go in maybe are the ones who whose kids have higher grades. Do fall and spring numbers pretty much compare? Do you know for secondary? For secondary, yeah, they're typically a tad higher in the fall. Okay. Um especially like for maybe like freshman and sophomore, those parents will go a little bit more in the in the fall, but then they'll um they'll get a little bit lower in the springtime, but they are typically a little bit higher in the fall,

037but not much. One distinction postcoid would be the access to virtual, right? So then if if it doesn't work for a parent or family to connect face to face, you do have that virtual option. So then we've we've increased ways in which you can access which the numbers don't change. Uh they're about the same as we saw prior to CO and then uh postco especially at the high school level. And we've discussed this before, but at the secondary level, I mean, there's honestly more events and opportunities for parents to be there. So, I mean, I know at least from my experience, I'm probably at the high school more than I, you know, would have been for events at the elementary school. So, I think that weighs into it some. Yeah. Any other questions? Thanks, Dr.

038Moore. Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Moore. Next then is 5.2, to student equity and access and we'll welcome Dr. Dixon Seahor to share. Good evening everybody. I want to open up just very briefly sharing about our family learning modules. This is something new this year that's being rolled out and uh it's a partnership between innovation and learning and student equity and access in terms of the modules that have been developed by educators uh as well as some of our directors of uh several of our departments. And so as you can see we have rolled out three new uh modules around career and education planning project lead the way and on school libraries and all the resources that are available uh there and so that makes for at this time nine modules that we have as part

039of our digital platform that can be accessed on our uh district's website. So that includes AVID, real world learning, fine arts opportunities and um also the graduate profile competency based learning and AI and education. So very excited about that and this is part of strategic plan uh 13 with this emphasis in particular on families having access to these resources and materials online as on demand content. So we're very very excited about that. Uh on behalf of student services, just wanted to share that our returning student registration process uh will open uh early this year for all students who are currently enrolled in the district. Uh this does not pertain to uh seniors. Uh the returning student registration will open on May 1st. So this is going to be our earliest date that we were able

040to open up enrollment. Last year we tried to get it to that May 1st date and it was somewhere around May 15thish, but this was the date we were aiming for all along. So, we're very excited about that. And so, that means that as families can get their students registered sooner, then we can have a better count of how many students are, you know, returning uh to our schools for next year. And so, we're just asking all families to complete that returning registration process by August 1st before school starts. So, uh so uh there will be uh information going out through our communications office. I believe in the next quick news coming up. I believe that's uh mid um or I think it's this week going into next week and then also at the end

041of this month. So, and then also wanted to share on behalf of special programs that uh we were able to recognize 92 92 elementary and middle school students and their families were there to celebrate with them as part of the pathway to bi literacy awards ceremony on April the 3rd. And so we just want to send out a special thank you to our pathway coordinator and sponsors for all of their hard work in coordinating this event. Um there are also some upcoming events within special programs that you see listed here including the syllabi literacy awards ceremony that will be on May 1st from 6:30 to 7:30 at Liberty High School Performing Arts Center as well as on May 7th. We're very excited about the English language development department uh hosting their uh family event. This

042will be the spring ice cream social. We do hope that it will look like and feel like spring. You never know with the weather. Uh but that will be from 6:00 to 7:30 at Midcontinent Library, the Wood Library Center. And then on behalf of special services, pleased to announce that the last parent information night uh for this school year, also for Dr. Cook uh will be held on Wednesday, May 7th. Uh we've reached out to Dr. Alexis Stark, our incoming special services director, to see if she would be able to attend just as a meet and greet with families so they can get acquainted with her. So, wanted to share those and I'll be uh happy to take any questions if you have them or hand any comments. Questions? Is that the special services thing

043the same it's the same date as the ELLL? Yes. At the same time. Yes. Well, it's I believe their meeting is at 6, so it it overlaps. Okay. It overlaps. It's just that time of the year where things start kind of running into one another. May. Yes. Yes. I'm double booked for a lot of things on my calendar for May. So, clone yourself. Well, I don't know where this fits in exactly, but I um attended the Northland Job Olympics on Friday. Yes. Oh, that was amazing. Yes. Um Yes. That that team that handles that is just off the charts. So organized, so fulfilling. Yes. So useful. Yes. So I was thankful that Karen mentioned that to me that that was an option to judge at that event. So I just wanted to shout out to

044Jessica King and her team that they did a fantastic job. I would agree. I look forward to it every year. It really fills my bucket. And I think just the the joy that's in the room, even the kids cheering for one another, it's just it just really fills your heart. Yes. I appreciate the videos that are very accessible for people at any time. I know we've sometimes we've tried to figure out how do we get parents in for information nights about specific topics and it's so hard because almost any night of the week for high school parents and middle school parents you're going to events like Mr. Mar said and so having these videos that are available on demand to explain what a graduate profile is or to talk about what why the use of

045AI and education is important and what are we doing to make sure we do it responsibly and those kind of things that's that's really helpful information for people to just be able to access. So thanks for that work. Thank you. Any others? All right. Thank you so much. Thanks Dr. Dixon Seahhorn. Uh 5.3 then is our finance report uh with Miss Sydney Sullivan. Good evening. I do have three donations to recognize for you tonight. A donation of packing boxes valued at $5,823.60 from Vanguard packaging to the district warehouse to be made available for building staff to use when packing items to move classrooms for remodeling and summer cleaning. Uh, shout out to Vanguard. They do this every year for us. So, um, they're very, very helpful for us getting ready for the summer and we

046so appreciate that they continue to do this every year for us. A monetary donation of $500 from Charlie's car wash to the Liberty High School visual arts classroom to be used for classroom supplies. Thank you to them. and a monetary donation of $1,000 from Strickland Construction to Liberty Oaks to be used for windows in the outdoor reading playhouse, which was designed by third grade students and the Liberty High School constru construction science club. That sounds like something we should go see. Yeah. So thankful for all three of those donations. and other items. Um, in a week and a half, two people from the business office and myself will be attending the MOASBO, which is the Missouri Association of School Business Officials conference. That's the large conference for business officials every year in the state. It's

047a great opportunity for them to get out, meet with other people who do the same jobs that they do, and get caught up on anything that they might need a little extra professional development on. So, we enjoy having that time with um like-minded staff of the same in other districts. Um I also wanted to make you aware that three members of the audit and finance committee are completing their terms this year. Kate Hamilton and Cindy Thompson are finishing their first term and Elvin Holl Holland is completing his third term. So, all of those positions are advertised on quick news. Um, I did encourage all of them to apply again. They've done a fabulous job and would love to see them come back. Would also welcome anyone else that would like to apply that would bring

048that skill set to um ensure that the finances are appropriately reviewed on your behalf um to give you some peace of mind that other people are looking at those items as well. So that will continue to be in quick news until the um date has passed for application and we um like to see as many people as possible apply for those. And finally, the audit and finance committee did review the documents this past um month and did not have any questions to pass along to you tonight. That's all I have for you tonight until we talk budget, but I'll take any questions you might have. Questions? Miss Svin? Can't imagine what y'all will have to talk about at this no ASBO meeting. Oh yeah, there is that. There will be plenty to talk about. Thank

049you. Thank you very much. And again, we'll hear more from Miss Sullivan as we get ready for expenditures. Next up is 5.4 with our operations report uh with Mr. Anderson. Good evening. Um just a few items pulling out of our reports that are uploaded on board docs to highlight. Um and then a couple other notes that are not included. Uh first and foremost, um one of this came up in a conversation with the board member earlier today. Um our team has been actively working through some of the tariff concerns and looking at both our procurement uh procedures and policies as it relates to construction and also certainly with related to related to our commodities that we have to procure. And so, uh, there's a small team of us kind of pulling together some strategies there,

050working closely with Miss Sullivan, uh, to try to get ahead of some of this as we kind of turn the budget year. So, some challenges there, but, um, the team is kind of working through that. We're fortunate with the added space coming online here fairly soon, uh, we'll we'll have room, uh, which is kind of a nice luxury to have here, uh, during that time. Related to that, uh, nutrition services reported out here today actually, um, again related to having some of this, uh, additional space come online fairly soon. Um, some commodity products, food related products became available to us, uh, at no charge. Um, that will become available to us here within the next month or so that we're able to to go ahead and grab and now we have room for this. And

051some of this is related to other schools not having the ability to kind of grab some of that product and and hold it. Uh obviously it it keeps well. So uh we're going to go ahead and move aggressively there. Uh as well um uh one note in there under the maintenance section the um Mr. Aldridge uh with the director of facilities and maintenance reported out an interaction he had recently with the department of health uh related to the lead testing uh efforts that we went through here uh within the last year um lead in the water and um he received a call out of the blue from somebody from the state. He was a little concerned that maybe they didn't, you know, dot the eyes and cross the tees in the reporting. Uh when in

052actuality he called to kind of commend Steve and his team said it was of all the districts across the state, it was the best kind of product they received, the most thorough, comprehensive, clear um and just kind of called him out, wanted to share that with him. And so just wanted to recognize not only Steve, but his whole team. You know, they had to develop the whole system. I think there were 2500 or so um spiggots and faucets across the district that we had to tend to. So there was a lot of work there, a lot of reimbursement through the state. Um but um we're real pleased with how that came together. And the last thing I was going to mention is just our summer capital planning. You all received an update uh last Friday

053um as we do annually to kind of give you a quick highle sense of some of the major projects that are planned over the course of the next year. Um, as you'll note, it's going to be another busy time um for uh the next um eight plus months, especially through the summer. A lot of that work dubtales in with the bond work. Um, we'll keep you updated along the way. And then we'll report out here at the base study session how, as we've done periodically, how all that allocation plan and the funding with both capital and bond work are coming together in accordance with what was approved by voters back in 23. So, we'll update you all here in a couple weeks on that. And with that, I'd be uh happy to take any questions.

054When the distribution center comes online, what do we get to stop doing as a result of that? We've got storage in the cave. The main thing is we no longer have to store food product at the caves in Independence. Got it. Lantern is the company we use for that. And obviously, not only the distance and the inconvenience to that, the the travel time, the transportation, the distribution. Yeah. So all that comes and streamlined within that facility. Perfect. And what's your projected date for that to be fully functional or to be operational? I guess. Yeah, I think June the first couple weeks in June will be pretty chaotic as they transition from the current facility to this. Uh we talked about today in fact. Um I do have a high level of confidence in Jason Bright

055and his team. Um I know they've been in active conversations how to make that as seamless as possible. I think it'll be just a week or two that it'll be a little chaotic, but that early June's kind of a good time to fight through that. Anything else? Well, thanks. Thanks, Mr. Anderson. Uh, next then 5.5, our human resources report uh with Dr. Sarah Marriott. Good evening. Uh, just a few updates to share with you. Um I wanted to share that we have 100 employees who joined our blue and you challenge which is a national challenge of challenge focusing on physical activity daily challenges and education. Currently Liberty Public Schools is ranked 25th nationally in that challenge and fifth among school districts participating. So that will continue through the end of May and it will then

056continue to encourage physical activity for staff members. So just a fun little added piece. Also wanted to share that team Liberty conducted their final meeting of the 2425 school year on Thursday, April the 3, and they have worked for the past several months studying information, gathering feedback from team members, um, and engaging in detailed discussions to finalize their salary recommendations for classified positions um, and certificated positions for the 2526 school year. And those re uh, recommendations have been shared with you this evening for a first review. And again want to continue to thank team Liberty for their thoughtful work again this year and their job and and work that they do together as a team is just truly appreciated. And then finally I want to share that Dr. Copelan in conjunction with um she is

057our director of human resources for certificated staff along with building level principles work diligently to fill our vacant positions for with many high-quality candidates for the 2526 school year. We only have 18 positions left to fill um for this year. We've received 76 resignations which include 25 retirements for the 2425 school year which is right aligned with our prior years. So in 2223 we received 81 year to date and then 23 2467. So I will take any questions that you have. Questions you're entering year two. That's right. Yeah. It's gone by fast. So fun. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thanks, Dr. Marriott. Uh, finally, a few items to include as far as my update. Um, as Dr. Moore shared earlier and others, a lot of end of year celebrations uh, this time of year from

058teacher of the year to support staff of the year to the Northland Education Banquet coming up next week, uh, retirement celebrations, our hope awards. So, there's certainly plenty to fill your calendar um in recognizing our students and staff. Uh we do also have our final coffee with the community presentation scheduled for this coming Thursday as far as a district update. Uh in addition, I shared in our report that uh we'll be spending some time in early June, June 2nd and 3rd, uh where our strategic leadership team will be connecting with Scott Fuller as far as our strategic plan refresh. uh during the month of May, he'll be involved in some one-on-one conversations with those leaders uh to ready for those conversations when he is in district. Uh keep in mind as we start the 2526

059school year, we'll hopefully be able to share with the board uh items that we've accomplished in our strategic plan, the work that carries forward from this academic year to next year. Uh but then also perhaps some additional areas we identify uh in terms of moving the district forward in the years to come. Uh last week on April 10th, uh we held in Kansas City a real world learning summit uh with school districts that are involved in that initiative. Uh we were glad to gather as an LPS team of leaders outside of the district. Uh more importantly, we had three LPS students uh that were there and presented their perspective as RWL ambassadors. They've been working this year with the Kaufman Foundation in those ambassador roles just to be able to get the word out uh

060to educate families, to educate students, to educate staff on the importance of real world learning and what exactly a market value asset is. Uh so we appreciated the time that was spent with them. Out of that conversation uh was birthed the first real world learning advisory council. And so we're looking forward to connecting with those three students to further discuss um how we can take that council into next year uh just to ensure that students understand the why uh behind obtaining a market value asset. So more work to come there. Additionally, uh we look forward to connecting with Carnegie next year as far as the future of high school transformation network um on a couple of fronts. We'll start with a webinar um on April 22nd to learn more about the effort and then that'll

061culminate in June, end of June on uh June 25th, 26th and 27th at their place as far as the Carnegie Foundation um with the initial launch. And so we look forward to taking a small team there. Uh tomorrow in district, we host at Liberty High School the Kansas City area districts that are part of system design 1 and system design 2 innovation districts uh for part of the success ready students network uh meeting. So that work continues as we look to file uh with the United States Department of Education a federal waiver entitled the innovative assessment demonstration authority or for short IADA. So we look forward to that as well. Uh shifting then real quickly to the legislative session. We are down to the wire. Just a few more weeks left. uh in the legislative

062session, much of the conversation is centered around the Senate um in discussions around budget and how that plays out in reconciling the governor's budget proposal from earlier in January, the House's proposal that they've come up with, and then now the Senate's involved in markups that will eventually go back to a joint committee of the House and the Senate, uh who I believe have until May 9th, um to finalize their budget to send that on to the governor. Of course, the governor has a little bit longer until June 30th um to approve that budget. So, we're watching that very closely uh specifically as it relates to funding of the foundation formula, uh funding for transportation along with some other categoricals. Keep in mind there are a lot of u tax bills that are circulating in both

063chambers that we're keeping an eye on as well along with the impact of changes at the federal level. There was an announcement earlier today uh from the state board of education as far as the appointment of some new uh state board members and appointments through the governor's office. Those include um from respective areas Michael Matusk from Kansas City, uh Kenneth Brooks Miller uh junior from Sunrise Beach, John Otto from Kansas City as well, um and Thomas Prader who is previously or currently seated from the Springfield area. Um those appointments then are subject to confirmation through the Missouri Senate uh over the course of the next several weeks. So that that is forthcoming as well. And then lastly, an important vacancy that was filled earlier this week within the department of elementary and secondary education uh

064is the deputy commissioner over finance. Um thanking Dr. Carrie Monese, former superintendent from Raymore Peculiar for serving in that role. Um and then welcoming Dr. Kyle Cruz who retired recently from the St. Claire School District. So, he's now the next deputy commissioner. The reason I mention that is whether it's um the executive office through the governor, local legislators, the commissioner of education, the deputy commissioner of education, a variety of education associations, a lot of leadership changes uh happening in education related spaces. Um with that comes learning curves, with that come change. Um so, we'll continue to navigate all of those leadership transitions. With that said, would open it up for any questions you all have of me this evening. Questions? Are those state board vacancies are they filling? Is that Charlie Shields's seat? One of

065them and Carol Hul was another one is my understanding. Keep in mind that some of them were serving beyond um what they were initially set up to serve um with various transitions. So, okay. Thank you. Well, then we are ready with the conclusion of reports to move on to item six, which is our unfinished business and then we'll start with the health benefit broker services. You will recall last month we shared this with you for first review uh first read um but wanted to bring it back to you this evening for your consideration uh as far as a recommendation um to move forward with Holmes Murphy and Associates uh as our health benefit broker service agreement. Appreciate the work of our human resources department, our business services department operations um and helping with the process

066but then also the selection. So we'll turn it over to Dr. Marriott to hit on our highlights of the site. Thank you. So, as you're aware, we've worked with Homes Marketing now for a number of years, but we did go through the RFP process for that, and that's a recall um every 5 years at least to make sure that we're still satisfied and moving forward with the best uh and most appropriate brokerage form firm for us. Um so through that process which was facilitated by Jason Wright and the operations team in the purchasing department um we interviewed as I shared last time five different brokerage firms and um through a series of interviews and then question and answer sessions we selected home to continue with. So some of their work what we think of as

067maybe just brokerage in the in the sense of uh brokering health insurance rates for us. They do do that but they also do um several other components such as they assist with enrollment. They share marketing information and assist with that. Our employee assistance program they help with the provision of that communication to staff members. So they really are an integral piece of um our human resources benefits enrollment and then the payroll component as well. Um so it's very important for us to have um a solid relationship with a with a firm that is trustworthy that we can ensure that we'll provide good crop uh good services for our district and we have been pleased with homes and would like to continue with that relationship. And so this this contract um goes three years, but it

068has provisions for extensions for two years after that and then we would within that that process within those last couple of years determine that we will want to go through that RFP process again. Yeah. Dr. Mary, do you know how long Murphy that we've worked with them? I believe it is between 10 and 15 years. Maybe around that 12 year range. Yes, that's it's a nice long relationship. They've done a nice job. Yes, we've been very pleased with the services that they provided. Thank you. And but I am glad that you do assess, take time to kind of go back out market and look and see. So that is good. There's a motion. I move the board approve the full service consulting agreement and business associate contract with Holmes Murphy. Second. The next one. Nick,

069yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen, yes. Motion carries. And we're ready for new business, which is item seven. 7.1 is our Carnegie Foundation data sharing agreement. You may recall back in March we presented to you for your consideration the memorandum of understanding uh to become a partner with the Carnegie Foundation for teaching on the national transformation of high schools network. Um this is a subsequent piece to that. Um it's been vetted through our technology department along with legal counsel providing u input for review. Keep in mind anytime we talk about data sharing one of the delineators is personally identifiable information. in which we do not anticipate that being shared in our work at the high school level uh with the Carnegie Foundation and instead keeping unidentifiable information uh to

070share whether it's assessment data which we do regularly with a variety of groups from some of our platforms to our department of education here in the state of Missouri as well as to the US department of education. Um so we present that to you this evening for your consideration. Questions? I move the board approve the data sharing agreement with Could you have a question? I do. Okay. No more discussion. Just how are we ensuring PII is being respected and reflected? Is it are we just creating numbers for correct as we go through it? Yeah. And keep in mind the state of Missouri has what's called a Mosus ID. Yep. And that's the information that is shared even when it comes to um you know assessment data for example in part for the sake of students

071transferring between districts and those MOSUS IDs following that student. Um and then we also have the delineation of aggregate data as compared to disagregated down at the student level. Yep. Um so we're really talking about aggregate data as it relates to us moving forward with this. And that Moses ID key is held by the state. That's correct. We have that as as a as a school district through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Okay. I had a question. The the data compliance official that's signing that for us, is that going to be Trey Cer? Typically, um, in terms of the contract itself, it's it's signed operationally. Um, so when we identify those individuals within the district, the compliance part is the contract is signed by either Steve Anderson or myself. Um, we would just

072need to identify who that person would be and it would likely be Trey Trey or perhaps Christopher Han over the assessment side. Finished. Okay. I move the board approved the data sharing agreement with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Second Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen, yes. Motion carries. 7.2. Uh, the next item then is our preliminary expenditure budget. And as you will recall, uh, this process really happens year round as it relates to budgeting. Um, with things picking up in January as we enter into the hiring season, as the legislative session begins, um, just as a reminder, and we always like to share this, and that in years past, we would have a budget retreat sometime in June with a presentation to the board of

073the finalized budget uh, at the June board meeting. Um, and then it would change July 1st. And we've since changed that approach in spending more time um, as a board of education. uh becoming educated but then also opportunity to learn and share and ask questions uh really starting earlier in March with a glimpse at revenues followed by April in terms of looking at preliminary expenditures a preliminary budget in the month of May um and then finalized in June with a presentation to the board for your consideration of the subsequent year the following year's um budget. The reason I mention that is because there was a recent study conducted through Georgetown University that we heard about uh that was circulating nationally about the amount of time that a board spends uh looking at the budget. Um

074keep in mind we also have our audit finance committee that works behind the scenes uh with Cindy and the business services team. I say all that to say you all and the district spends quite a bit in this space as far as time. Um, so we appreciate all the work that goes on across the system. Thanks to Cindy and her team um, for their work and we'll turn it over to you this evening. Thank you for that introduction, Dr. Tucker. And as he said, the development of a school district budget is a 12-month process, and it includes the analysis of prior year actuals, current year performance to budget, input from staff and administrators, and the board of education. So tonight we're bringing you the preliminary update on the expenditure side of the work. So the

075first four slides are really just um this the synopsis of all of the work. So we'll go through those pretty quickly and then um break each one of those items down to give you a little bit more detail. As you can see, currently we're projecting the um budget for all funds next year to be $279,945 and $945,000476. And um that's just about a million less in total than the current year budget. based on things that I know I don't know right now. I believe that in May and June you will see that creep up to a little bit closer to very much the same as um this current year. So the next slide just shows you that same information in two different forms. The comparison of the bar chart on the left and the circle

076of the preliminary budget on the right. You can see that the 22 and 23 total budgets are significantly lower. This is primarily due to the lack of bonding funds. The district had just completed the 2018 bond work and so there were no more bond projects in those two years. Then in 23 we did um pass the the current bond and there you see that the capital outlay increased significantly to um raise those two the current year and the um prior year significantly over the two from 22 and 23. And then the preliminary budget circle on the right just shows the breakdown of the percentages of the items to the total budget. The next slide shows the preliminary expenditure budget for operating funds and that's projected to be 204,331,833. That is an increase of right at

077$6 million. You will see primarily that is in salaries and benefits which we will break that down a little bit later. And the next slide then shows the same comparison of the bar chart and the circle graph. And you will see that the operating budget for the last four years and the next year projected has just stairstepped up um primarily due to salaries and benefits. When we did pass the 2023 bond issue, we also did a levy transfer which enabled us to give significant raises in that year and um the past year we enhanced and are projecting to be able to enhance for the next year as well as provide steps um which is good for teacher retract um retention and attraction. So that's primarily where you will see most of the expenditure increase again

078for the next year. The next slide then gets into the employee salaries. And tonight you will see in our next item on the agenda the recommendation that team Liberty has brought forth for the salaries and the benefit or the salary piece for next year. Um employee salaries are about 60% of our proposed annual operating budgets and the expenditures are um budgeted for next year to increase from 119 million this year to 123.5 million next year. This does provide for vertical and horizontal movements on all schedules as well as a 2% enhancement to the certificated classified professional technical and administrator schedules. and um salaries for certificated employees account for approximately 66 and a half% of all salaries in the district. The salary and benefit recommendations are developed through the collaborative discussions with the team liberty process

079and through the administrator salary and welfare committee and these projections are based on existing staff at this time. So in May I will again do employee cost projections to true that figure up based on the hiring class for next year and then estimate any positions that are still left unfilled. So the number will change but team liberty has a finite set of data to work for at the time that they are making that recommendation and that's what these numbers are budgeted for. So you will see that change and it will likely change again then in September when I true it up again for the final round of hiring that is done. So it's a moving target throughout the year as staff come and go. So that's the piece on employee salaries. The next slide shows

080you employee benefits and employee benefits consists of approximately 19% of the proposed annual budget and we are proposing that they will increase from 37 million in the current year to 38.5 million in 2526. That's a 3.7% increase. Throughout the team liberty process, they also talk and have discussion about the employee benefit piece and the insurance piece uh is basically the highest cost of the benefits that we provide along with retirement benefits. Um, Team Liberty did carve out of of the bucket of funds available for salary and benefit increases. $669,000 to increase um the cost of medical insurance covered by the district. 600,000 of that goes to the premium and 69,000 goes to the benefit for retirement associated with that cost of insurance. While we know that the proposed um or anticipated increase in the benefits

081is going to be more than that, we are hoping with some work through the homes Murphy process that we can come up with some other ways to decrease the ask on increased premiums for employees. And um you will see more of that in August when team liberty reconvenes and Holmes Murphy has had a chance to do more of the work of bidding out our insurance contracts and seeing if there's any other plan changes that we can make that will enable us to keep those costs as low as possible and prevent passing too much of that on to the employee. And the last note on there I didn't touch on, but the district does contribute 14.5% of certificated salaries and insurance costs and 6.86% of classified salaries and insurance costs to retirement on behalf of eligible

082employees. And as you know, the PSRS Pier system is a wonderful retirement system for public education employees. So that's a a good benefit that all of our employees are able to have. The next slide is purchase services. Purchase services constitute approximately 11% of our annual operating budget. They're budgeted flat. It's a $21,000 increase right now in purchase services and it's um several small increases and decreases that offset to make that budget come flat. Um, some notable things that have changed in the purchase services, the sped contracted services are going to decrease about $643,000. And that's due to us hiring people to fulfill those positions instead of contracting out. It's significantly um cheaper for us to hire them instead of contract them out. Plus, they then are our employees and get our benefits and um work

083for us instead of the contracting service. So, you will see that likely in the change in salaries over the coming months when we talk about salaries and benefits. Um some other changes are white fleet box truck leases are increasing, techreated services for software and licensing are increasing and we will also see an increase in property and casualty insurance. We are in the process of uh bidding that out with C viz and hope to hear what that is going to be in the next couple of months. So you'll likely see a change coming through on that. And that's one of the items that I don't know that will cause us likely to be more in line with this year's budget when we finally get our numbers. And then moving on to supplies and materials. That is

084approximately 10% of our proposed budget. They're increasing about $317,000 from this year in increase and primarily that's due to the increased cost of food supplies, transportation, fuel, and technology for replacement items. Mr. Anderson talked earlier about tariffs and we have been having those conversations and there are a couple ways we can handle that and we haven't done anything inside this budget yet because I do believe it's a little bit early to make a contingency for that um until we really see what's going to happen in that arena. Um, if you'll recall in the past in COVID, we did have all of our departments withhold 10% I believe of their budget until February until we saw how funding because that was the year that the governor withheld um formula funding. We were prrated on that. So,

085we we asked everybody to um be careful with their budgets. And that's one thing we could do. If tariffs do indeed um come to fruition and start costing us quite a bit, then we may want to ask our budget managers to withhold or not spend a certain amount of their budget until February till we see where we land. The other thing is we could indeed put a contingency account in for tariffs. We're also having the conversation of do we want to speed up purchasing as Mr. Anderson talked about. Are there things we can buy now and just move that budget in from next year into this year to cover those costs and think about um the things that are available to us now. So, we are looking at that. It's um middle of April though,

086so things have to move fairly quickly if we're going to do that. But we are having the conversation. So wanted to make you aware of that that that may be one thing that does change in all of this in May and June as things unfold and we know more. So the famous thing more to come on that I'm sure there will be more to come on that for the rest of the year as we deal with the fallout for that. And then we move on to capital outlay. It's 19% of our proposed total budget. Now we're moving from operating to total budget and capital outlay um expenditures are budgeted to decrease from 61.6 million to 52.1. That does include 45 million for bond projects which were funded by the 2023 bond. Um you will see

087those start to wind down. Hopefully we finish those up within the next year to year and a half and then we will be back to the smaller um spend on capital until the next bond project rolls in. Capital improvement plans, you did see that in the Friday update as Mr. Anderson uploaded for you, but some of those bigger um plans are bus purchases, playground replacements and enhancements, and various site renovations. And I wanted to make note that capital budgeting and Mr. Anderson has has told you about this, but it does happen as well throughout the year um based on growth that we learn about through our demographer and specific building needs as they come apparent to what replacements and repairs need to be made. And the staff put those in the um operations folks along

088with Mr. Anderson review those and prioritize those and then the ones that are not selected to be fulfilled in the current year are kept on a list and that priority list is gener continually updated as the list grows and as we mark things off of that list. So um it is to an ongoing process capital outlay. Um, any other questions you might have, I'm sure between the two of us, Steve and I can answer those. Debt service, it constitutes approximately 8% of the proposed annual total budget. And the debt budget is based on the plan of finance adopted with each bond sale. The principal and interest costs calculate are calculated out for all future fiscal years so that our existing levy can provide the revenue necessary to make the debt payments. and you're familiar with

089that when we have our um bond council or our investment advisors come and talk to you about how those exist and what our debt service schedules look like. That's exactly how the debt service budget is calculated. So, you should be familiar with that. We do have an increase this year from 21 million to 23.5 million. That includes just some escalation in bond payments and it also includes a new energy performance contract lease which we're not sure about that amount yet. We are in the process of um getting those leases um negotiated through Piper Sandler. So that's the debt service. I also wanted to um you can go to the next slide Denise to just to make a note that um at each school how we budget we don't talk about how the process works very

090often. So I did want to just remind you that um we do have budget meetings with every budget building budget manager and department budget manager in January and February. And at each school, the principal allocates the amounts that specific to specific departments based on his or her conversations with the chairpersons of the department or just the people in the grade levels. So they do take into consideration the strategic plan of the district, their building improvement plans and what they know um is changing for the future years. And as far as building budgets go, they go under three reviews after they're submitted to the business services department. Um the accounting staff reviews them, I review them, and Dr. Moore and her staff often have eyes on all of them as well to make sure that we

091are doing things that promote our strategic plan and the education of students under our vivid vision and our graduate profile. So we want to make sure that when we're spending money, it is for the reasons that we promote that we're spending money for. So that process is taken into consideration all things academic and all things students. And we don't very often talk about that. So I just wanted to make sure that you did understand that it's all based around the academics and the job of educating kids. So here again is that um last slide that shows you the total expenditure budget for all funds. And that's the presentation that I have for you tonight pretty quick, but I would love to have any questions if you have any [Music] questions. So you mentioned and I

092should have asked this when we were back on that page regarding that's a huge savings in special ed. It is. And so we're bringing instead of sending kids out or bring or contracting contracted. Yes. We have those employees coming to us. We have Yes. And oh and then at times that um those contracted employees will often express an interest in working for the district, but they were contracted and we honored the contract and then at the end of the contract period, right, um offered positions up to them. So, we were we honored what we said we would and didn't break that contract or anything like that, but it is a significant savings and recognizing that um you know, we want those people to be our employees. Much cheaper. I can't believe how much cheaper. I

093mean, that's a lot. It is a lie. Any other questions? Just anecdotally, as a share of the operations budget salaries percent is going has gone up. Is that fair? It is fair when you think about um last year we had an 80 an years ago an 8% increase in our salary schedules plus a step is about 10%. Yep. Last year we had a 3% enhancement plus a step so that's a 5% increase. And then this year if you do another 2% enhancement and a step that's another 4%. Yep. So, combine that with the fact that we are fully staffed, closer to fully staffed than we've ever been before, it makes perfect sense that the salaries um are going up and make 79 to 80% Yep. property budget and then I would assume purchase services and

094those other ancillary ones have come down over time as well. Yeah. Okay. Cindy Tick, your salary projection. You mentioned the buildings working through their process. Dr. Moore had worked on staff allocation. So your forecast now includes the staff allocation estimates for next year as well as the the salary adjustment, right? To the extent that we can. Yes. At this time. Yes. send it to based on that that uh let me go get my thought together. Uh that special education staff we can reduce the cost. Does that suggest we can look further at other places where we could return to hiring staff in other areas? I know that's not your area expertise, but does that does it suggest that or would any anyone else confirm on that? I can tell you that in the in the

095conversations that we have, the staffing conversations that we have, um it's always our goal to hire instead of contract out. I think we contract out when we just cannot fill a position and um for whatever reason we especially the most difficult. Yes. Okay. So, not as likely. Correct. Okay. Go ahead. No, you finish. The the other question is related to federal funding. Mhm. Uh I heard you say you're going to the Mo Mosab meeting. Moazbo. Moazbo. Uh will there be any federal officials there that you'll be engaged with? Are likely to be attending that meeting? And will we learn more about how federal funding is our number like I haven't looked at it for a while, but like 4 million or is it more than that? It's it's 3% of our total ex or revenue

096budget. Okay. And I I think that's more along the lines of 7 million. Okay. Okay. And I am not aware of any federal department of education officials that will be at the conference, but there will be plenty of DESIE officials, Missouri officials. And um I am sure that that will be a topic of conversation at the conference. So those those are real dollars million as opposed to my four million. Yes. Yeah. 4 million is real dollars, too. Yes. Yes. Yes. I agree. And part of the issue is is I mean the DESIE folks haven't quite received or obtained information from the federal folks and so you know I think part of the difficulty is the lack of information and the uncertainty with title funds and free and reduced launch funds and things like that. So

097um I hope they have some answers but I don't I yes I agree with you and and things are happening in such real time. For example, uh two weeks ago I viewed a webinar regarding the ESSER reporting. We still are doing we still were doing that and that that goes was supposed to go out several years until you had all of the data that they wanted to collect. Not 2 days after we had that webinar telling us how to collect the data, what data was due, um, Desi learned that all of that data collection was halted. So, we no longer are required to report out about the usage of ESSER funds. So, real time happening as you know, building the plane and flying at the same time. Um, so that's one example of why they

098probably don't have a lot of information. Thank you. Mhm. And to confirm what Drew shared in terms of Desi not being aware that then they can communicate with LEAs or school districts. Um that's something we've broached with the commissioner and her team um and that we're hearing things in our respective school districts um and trying to piece it together in the absence of communication from the department of elementary and secondary education. Even if it is there's no update, there's value in DESIE communicating to those LEAs. So we shared that feedback about a month ago and since then we have had a couple of instances of which they listened and they responded with messaging to leas in regard to what's going on at the uh department of ed at the federal level. So they're the primary

099conduit um of information coming out of the US DOE along with a lot of the news media uh headlines. We pay attention to that as well. So yeah. Okay. Has there been any conversation about changing what is paid into PSRs and peers? Not. It's been a while since that's changed. It has been. And um with interest rates being so favorable up until uh just well they're still favorable but the market is now going crazy but they've been able to earn enough and and that their their percentage that they take is based on what they think they need to fund RIP people as they retire. Mhm. So, with the earnings that they've been able to sustain and the investments that they've been able to make, they're sitting in a very good position. I like their position.

100Yes. I would like to stay there. Yes. And so, I have not heard anything in all of the reporting out from their board meetings. I just know it's been multiple years since they added anything to that. It has. I didn't know if that was like they did that cyclically or they just what you just explained makes perfect sense. Every year they have at their board meetings they discuss whether their um percentage take is enough to keep you in your paycheck. Thank you. One little one question switching topics and maybe go to Steve on this one. projecting 45 million to bond projects in 2526 roughly. Do you have any what that leaves on bond beyond that next school year? We were talking about this morning. I mean we're kind of we go off the draw schedule

101that our our contract contractor team puts together. Um we didn't look at it like most specifically to that number, but I think that's probably not that far off. then that that winding down. So then it's just becomes kind of leftovers at that point beyond the 25 26. So that really does kind of wrap up. You you said 12 to 18 months, but so that's kind of the remnant that would be left. And how does how does then the debt service follow that as as the bond expenditure concludes? Does I mean this time the debt service actually went up a little bit. It should fall as we wrap that up. Well, yes, that is if we don't do another bond issue, right? So, they just are in a rolling, but yes, it's an amortization of the

102payment and sometimes as you as you remember two years ago, we frontloaded a large bond payment, right? Um um and we can with the help of Piper Sandler or Stifel back then we create those amortization schedules to fit what we foresee the need to be. So if we know we're going to have a large draw or need for money, we may frontload it and then lessen our payments somewhere in the middle to meet needs. But we can kind of design those in different ways. But theoretically, yes, those payments should decline as we as bond issues roll off. One other quick quick thing, there's there can be a pretty significant lag uh as those invoices come in over time. I mean, sometimes it's six plus months just to be mindful of that. So that work will

103drag into like the following year. Yeah. And as we hit year end, that we will true up that number. Sure. Once we stop moving in the middle of June, we will know what that true leftover balance is. And on that note, we do intend fast forward to May at our study session uh to include a debt service uh conversation as an agenda item. Yes. Uh and welcome Piper Sandler to come in. You'll recall Miss Sullivan and her team provided an overview of where we stand earlier this year as it relates to debt service. um as we went through the selection process and transitioning to from Stiflel uh to Piper Sandler, we thought it was timely um to bring them in at the May study session. So, more to come. Yeah, I just have it's not

104a big question. Just going back to the debt service slide, the energy performance contract lease and this maybe is you or Steve. Is that where that we were looking at hiring somebody to come in and look at all of our buildings and take a look at what f like with heating and HVAC and all of those things to see what we might need to replace? Yes. Doing the actual work. Okay. And that that lease will actually be broken out into two pieces. We're phasing that into two pieces. And Piper Sandler is also helping us with that um performance contract lease work. So to get the favorable rates and how to break that out so that we um can do the best by using that money and not having debt on something we don't need at

105the current time. So we'll speak more to that coming down the road in May as well. So in May as I wrap up, we will present to you the complete book um minus a couple of pages that you'll see in in the June, but it will be the culmination of all that work and anything we find out that changes along the way within the next 3 weeks will be reflected in that document. Updates for employee cost projections and things like that. So you will see some changes from March and April into May. Thank you. Thank you. And thanks to your team for all of the work that they're putting in. We know it's busy. So then I think we're ready to move on to 7.3, which is our 2025 2026 compensation. Yeah. And so this

106has been mentioned uh previously this evening as far as our compensation uh plan and recommendations to you all for 2526 as it fits with uh the budget development process. Again, thank you to team Liberty uh the business services department, all the work that happens behind the scenes to get us to this point this evening. Um what follows within this agenda item then are nine different accompanying documents uh from the recommendations uh from myself to you all on behalf of team Liberty uh but then also u a lot of the subsequent pieces that support uh the recommendation whether it's schedules miscellaneous rates of pay and so forth. Um so I wanted to highlight a couple of things from the recommendations as you see in front of you. Uh first of all, it's the acknowledgement that it

107includes vertical and horizontal movement. Um we're applicable in terms of cells rolling on schedules and where that's allowed. Um enhancements as far as remaining competitive with surrounding districts. Um so that's presented to you this evening to run through the numbers as far as each of the recommendations. Uh the first recommendation then is to fund all salary schedules, vertical steps and horizontal movements including extra days uh at a cost of 2,23,832. Enhancing certificated salary schedules at around 2% including extra days for a cost of 1,377, uh460. enhancing classified staff salary schedules schedules similarly at a rate of 2% um for a cost of $61,46. Enhancing the professional 10 and 12 month salary schedules at 2% for a total of $90,64. And then the last recommendation enhancing the administrative salary schedule similarly at 2% um for a

108total estimated cost of $231,166. As you combine those five recommendations together, um the total estimated cost which does not include the cost of PSRS or peers contributions as was asked previously, um for a total uh with this salary recommendation for 4,324,468. Um so this is presented to you for first read this evening. Um, it'll be brought back to you at your May board meeting uh for consideration and action as a second read and motion. Um, that then informs the full budget development process as we enter into the month of June for final approval of the FY26 uh district budget. [Applause] Okay. All right. Thanks to team Liberty. Thank you to Miss Sullivan and Dr. Marriott and Michelle Baldwin and all of the people that work together as well as you for um putting that all

109together and for the proposal for us. So, be sure to take a look at it and if we have questions and be sure to get those answered and reach out. So, then we're ready for board policy updates 7.4. Under 7.4, you have two categories. The first of which are about five policies for your review u for first read this evening. As a reminder, we do send these out to our cabinet, to our administration, um, and departments to take a look at to ensure that the recommended recommended language from MSBA uh, matches with our practice and procedure here in district. Um, in addition, those will be shared with you at May in the May meeting for your consideration. The second set of administrative procedures, as you all know, uh, do not require action. Uh, they're guidelines

110as far as how our procedures uh, are carried out within our district. Um, so those areformational purposes only. Again, first read this evening on the policies for review. Uh, you'll see those again come May. Thank you. And then 7.5, we have an item that's pulled out for the agenda. We did have a check in the amount of $336.99 uh to SAR Sarpenos um which was to assist with Heritage Middle School's parent teacher conference uh week and a staff dinner. So we've pulled that from consent agenda and would present that uh to you this evening for your consideration. Miss Sullivan, what percentage of our budget is pizza? I move the board approve the visa payment to Sarpino's Pizzeria in the amount of $336.99. Second. Nick, yes. Jen, abstain. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes.

111Karen, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. And then we have under the board of education legislation and advocacy. Um, we talked a little bit about that already of Jeff City wrapping up. Anything else that anybody would like to add? It's always an interesting time of year with the end of session. So, we'll see what happens. Jen, you said you had listened in and I think there we've had a couple of legislative update sessions with MSBA and with council school districts greater Kansas City. So, we're continuing to follow open enrollment, House Bill 711. Um, se several things that impact our thoughts on future budgets. Budgets, right? That's right. So, then 8.2 is our upcoming dates. You can see all of our meetings. I'm glad we were able to get everybody on a day in early June for

112our retreat. So, I'm looking forward to that. And then we'll have a couple of board meetings. have a lot of time together in May between graduation and all the celebrations and things. So, you know, look forward to that. So, and then I guess we're at 8.3, which is any further board remarks. Um, just a reminder from Denise, board gowns for graduation are in. Please take it home with you tonight. They're ready to go, right? Yes, they are. Don't forget. And don't forget it's at Sprint Center. Oh, yes. I just wanted to thank Angie again for her two years as board president and her leadership and um all you've done. Always fun. And congratulations to Karen. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. This is a great great team. And congratulations. I haven't seen you sign those documents. But

113congratulation on winning an election. Wait, do you actually win when you don't have to campaign? Absolutely. That's actually a double win. And it saves us money. That's true. That's like a triple. I don't think most people realize that we have to pay for elections. Well, we do have to pay for elections when we have items on the the ballot. So, and that our roles are volunteer. That's I think another shocker to people. Yeah. That is not So, thank you for your volunteer hours. Well, thank you to the individuals who are here to took the time to be here tonight and appreciate staying to the end, too, which is something that frankly not a lot of people do. I hope sometimes um and you know, I'm going to pass these on to our administration and there

114will be followup. So, um if we I move the board adjourn. Second. Nick, yes. Jen, yes. AJ, yes. Dan, yes. Drew, yes. Angie, yes. Karen, yes. Motion carries. [Music]