Liberty Board of Education Meeting from March 22, 2022

001[Music] 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 do we get a 2.02 the approval of tonight's agenda i moved the board approved the agenda as presented second denise when you are ready scott yes kim marie yes aj yes drew yes angie yes nick yes motion carries thank you and when we get to honoring excellence good evening everyone uh we are gonna begin re introducing some uh in-person presentations and uh we've got a a good one tonight as we have invited uh dr april i'm gonna invite her right now to the podium dr adams would you come forward stand next to me i've been lonely at this podium for too long oh poor dallas uh brian's gonna

002roll the the surprise uh back and i'll read the text as we as we play this but uh the afternoon and wednesday february 16th was a memorable one for not only liberty high school but all of lps as long time liberty high school principal dr april adams was announced as the 2022 jim l king missouri high school principal of the year to quote the press release dr adams was awarded this recognition in part because of how well she has created a culture of collaboration where staff staff teams frequently engage in problem solving to identify strategies to support students dr adams will officially be presented the award next week at the annual missouri association of secondary school principals conference please join me in congratulating the 2022 missouri high school principal of the year dr april adam

003tonight's actually a big night for liberty high and we shared this in some of our social media several weeks ago i guess it was february where it was actually the the big week or two where a couple of national champions or state championships were won and i invited her since she's the principal of school i said i'll start reading this to set up our next video and then she's going to finish it so i told her if i would have sent it to her earlier she probably wouldn't showed up so february was was a month of excitement for everyone at liberty high school as we were able to celebrate not one but two state championships first it was our sapphire dance team who shined at their state competition bringing home their first place trophy and

004missouri classic state championship they also won first place in the categories of lyrical jazz and palm this is the 11th state championship for the sapphire program big ovation for them the podium is yours so he did catch me on my way up hey i got an idea oh gosh what's this going to enjoy so it is my privilege well first of all thank you and um thank you for all you do for our school district thank you for all you do for our children and for our faculty and um it is an honor to work for the school district and it's also an honor to talk about this next uh championship and that is the dominance on the mat that has been displayed by our blue jay wrestling program at the missouri class for state

005championship in columbia the jays ran away with the state team title which becomes the third consecutive state title for liberty high school under the leadership of coach of lead head coach dustin brewer in addition liberty claimed four individual state championships those that made their way to the top to the top of the metal stand included hunter taylor at the weight class of 113 pounds christopher coates the weight class of 132 pounds uh dustin kyle dutton at the weight class of 145 pounds and wintry williams the third at the weight class of 195 pounds so now let's hear from these phenomenal young blue jays [Music] [Applause] i mean it's just a little crazy for us because one of the teams that we beat empowerment nationals is like 25 time national champions so it's a big accomplishment

006and they were more than just winning like advancing straight to finals that we've never done that before so that was the first time in program history so it's just been a big few weeks for us as a rep of my time with the sapphires i think it's just our coaching staff has been awesome and i think we definitely owe it to them and everything that we have accomplished it's been so memorable because we've had a great group of girls and i think we can just look back on it and just be super proud of everything we did honestly it was just a blessing it was all surreal winning another state championship i just couldn't think or thank my coaches or teammates and everybody involved that you know helped me and supported me get through that

007process uh you know just being a part of liberty it definitely has um the teachers the staff the people that have been involved throughout their my whole four years it's just helped me and you know molded me into the man that i'm becoming and that i am today so [Music] i don't believe in at least my time here we've had two state team championships at the same board meeting for recognition so before i wrap up mr barlow i guess i'll turn it to you well you know the tradition is state championships in whichever way they come we get a standing ovation and thank you dr adams for being a good sport and helping with our recognition um here this evening before we wrap up and you're going to see a few of the images as

008we are we are last week we uh completed our we did our school board appreciation and we had a chance this year to to do something a little different and thank our board members and our social media platforms and i caught myself last week looking through some of the comments uh from our community and if i know some of you were able to see some of those and if you haven't i would encourage you to go onto our facebook page and see some of those uh messages of appreciation because i thought they were very heartfelt and from many people and many great people so i want to wrap this up just by saying again that school board appreciation week was was observed officially march 6 through the 12th and i'll read the press release from

009msba missourians benefit every day from the dedicated energies and countless hours devoted by a group of more than 3 600 men and women from communities across the state these public servants are elected by local constituents and do not receive competition a compensation for their may receive common competition for their tireless efforts they are the local school board members of missouri during the week of march 6th through the 12th communities across the state will honor the dedicated service of their local boards of education during school board recognition week the goal is to build awareness and understanding of the important function an elected board of education plays in communities and schools all missouri citizens are asked to recognize the important contributions of these men and women and focus attention on the vital role these public officials play

010in the education of missouri's children so as has been a tradition over the years i know many of our schools contributed tokens of appreciation cards i have a few videos that uh that that they share that i'll be emailing each of you uh coming up in the next few days but uh uh you know from from uh not only an employee a spouse of a teacher a community member of 20 years i i think thank all of you for your service and i know i speak for members of our dlt our families our community and our staff so let's give our board of education and with that that concludes honoring excellence well thank you dallas appreciate that and going along with that hey the board will also like to recognize um once again the individuals

011who filed for a border director position in the upcoming april 5th 2022 election um you'll get your one week as well of recognition whoever is the the winner so uh karen rogers matthew samick daniel kearns kyle bryant jim bates and john road have all filed for a board of director position i know we've got four of them with us here tonight and i appreciate you all being here and being engaged so thank you for that uh moving into 2.04 public comment i do not have any blue cards this evening so if you meant to give one that would be the time otherwise we will continue on all right into our consent agenda i want to remind everyone that our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure robert's rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for

012approval 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 of any board member do i have a motion i move the board approve consent agenda items 3.01 to 3.06 second denise when you're ready scott yes kim marie yes aj yes drew yes angie yes nick yes motion carries and into section four reports from the administration starting with innovation and learning first off under 4.01 we're going to welcome dr moore to the podium to provide their update this evening good evening we wanted to start with a congratulations to aaron munir director of fine arts for being named the mmea administrator of the year aaron

013will be recognized tomorrow in jefferson city for that obviously we were able to recognize dr adams this evening and will formally recognize her at the lake of the ozarks on monday just a couple of weeks ago jamie acker assistant principal at shoal creek was formally recognized as assistant principal of the year for the area we're very proud of all of our school leaders we will be having a competency based learning parent work group on tuesday evening for middle level pair next tuesday for middle level parents parents were selected by school administrators and through conversations with the department of innovation and learning kindergarten enrollment kindergarten enrollment is underway going well we currently have just under 400 future lps students enrolled the number will continue to grow and we'll keep you informed on that robin lewis at

014south valley middle school and beth marley at heritage middle school were recognized with the deci exemplary school library program award for 2022 across the state there were 21 applicants and eight recipients no other middle schools besides south valley middle school and hms were given the award this year this is the same recognition received by dms lms lhs and lnhs last year when liberty had four of the seven recipients from around the state that also means that all of our secondary schools with the library program have earned the recognition between 2021 and 2022. the application process is very robust and libraries are scored on 21 indicators around instruction programming evaluation assessment community engagement staffing print and digital resources policies etc indicators are scored with a zero one or two the minimum score allowed is a 38

015out of 42. recipients cannot receive any zeros and can only receive three ones so congratulations to both of those buildings tom vanderhoff the ceo of getting smart will be in district next week to work with our middle level leaders on growth mindset and innovation at the middle levels we're excited to welcome him and finally some more exciting news the international school of prague is wanting to learn about edge and epic elementary dr wickham dr dr schmitz and i will be hosting a session with them tomorrow to talk about innovation in our schools dr wickham and i also had the opportunity to work with notre dame decion yesterday as they were wanting to start their first global micro school dr westfall and i are certainly loving sharing all the great things that are going on in

016our schools and with that we will take any questions okay dr moore i see summer school we've got some notes in here i know we approved recently to increase kind of the compensation for uh teachers to take that did that bring in more teachers do we feel good about it about it other questions of dr moore or dr westfall i do have one more question and and i i'm sorry if you don't have this information because it's actually about library media services the survey that was conducted there's some information there about how some students especially at the middle level don't feel like they're the library collections adequately represent them um do we have any additional context about what that means were there any open comments i think i don't know if i don't know if

017dr westwell if you want to comment on that i think part of it i think from being a middle level principal was um more just of an interest level of you know that boys want to go in and look for things about sports and different things like that and there's not um there's not enough of that that goes based on their just interest interest okay that's helpful and we can we can circle back around with andrea sydney as well to see if there's any additional detail on instagram i wasn't sure if there was particularly on the open-ended comments received from students so we can either just curious oh that forwarded a study session or on a friday yeah okay okay as we're talking about belonging i just wondered if there are things there that would

018be helpful okay okay all right thank you doctor next up then under 4.02 our equity report we will welcome dr dixon seahorn good evening board of directors again happy board appreciation week we do appreciate your service to the lps community i just have two main things to share uh for the purposes of the office of equity and the report the first is that as you know we're in our second year of equity action planning and we have an additional layer that we're folding in for this semester and that is around conducting a mini audit so that means every school building uh by the way of the leadership uh every department by way of our directors and then department by way of operations in hr as a department as a whole they have an area that

019they're going to focus on that's connected to their equity action plan for the year where they're going to drill down a little bit deeper into that focus area i've shared with you in the report kind of the five step process that will follow around awareness and that's really to just kind of better understand what it is we're going to focus on secondly around acknowledgement and that's really understanding what might be some contributing factors or persistent conditions that are creating the inequity in the first place action in terms of determining what what are the data points that we're going to look at to better understand the issue assessment analyzing that data and really studying the findings and then lastly adjustment i mean there's no point in conducting an audit if we're not going to make some

020adjustments whether it's adjustment in our practices and what have you so we do have a smartie go protocol that we'll use to make that adjustment they'll have the rest of the semester to work on those audits and so i'll be providing whatever support is needed as that process is being conducted and then lastly stakeholder engagement we're very excited about this we've been our dlt equity work group we have a number of members of our district leadership team that are part of this work group and so we are starting this week our stakeholder engagement sessions with our secondary students so that's going to be all of our middle schools all of our high school including liberty academy so i want you to to know that and so we basically are going to be looking at two

021specific groups of students students who per their panorama data have supported higher levels of sense of belonging and then those that are scored around the lower areas of sense of longing to really begin begin to kind of conduct like a cross-case analysis of what is it about the higher levels of sense of belonging what is it about the lower levels the sense of belonging and really figure out what we need to be doing as adults across the organization to better understand what supports are needed for students so those are the highlights of the report for the office of equity if you have any questions i'll take those at this time all right dr dickson see you or i know what a smart goal is i don't know what a smarty goal is i'm so glad

022you asked someone so everything you know about a smart bow right specific measurable achievable relevant timely the i is for inclusive and the e is for equitable and so there's a protocol there's some questions that go along with that so yes that is new to us this year that you get to be a smartie pants so thanks for asking that question um dr dickson seahorn on the engagement with the students how what is that going to look like when i'm assuming they're going to the buildings they're meeting with students like how many how long so on okay so you have five key questions that the team has developed and again this is as a result of looking at our panorama data and really figuring out what do we need to be asking kids secondly uh

023mr christopher hand who's over our assessment and research department he and dr meisenheim who's in special program to write for special programs are going to help us really identify students that fall in those two main categories we then are going to present those names if you will to school leaders uh and then uh just based on parental consent because we must have that in order for students to participate we're aiming for around five to seven students per group so higher levels of sense of belonging lower levels of sense of belonging for each building and our aim is to spend no more than say 30 to 45 minutes with students by way of what we're calling listen and learn sessions we're also providing pizza and punch for them just to kind of they're british we have

024figured out that when it comes to students and stakeholders food's always a good thing so yes that is our aim to spend no more than an hour maximum at each school site awesome anything else thank you dr dixon thank you next up is our finance report from miss cindy sullivan as she's approaching you will hear more from her a little bit later on in our budgeting process so other than that to come later anything else to share a couple of things just a couple of quick things i do have a donation to recognize we did receive an anonymous donation of fifteen hundred dollars made to the liberty north high school orchestra department so we do appreciate that donation very much um two things i wanted to make you aware of that we're keeping an eye

025on pertaining to this year's budget current budget state collection of sales tax is continuing to be very robust and strong this year and the state cannot pay out more than is appropriated so they have put in a supplemental appropriation to the legislature for prop c and if that's passed that will be a nice source of potential income for us in this year we could receive up to a 1.9 million additional dollars for sales tax if the legislature does pass that supplemental approach appropriation so we're watching that hopeful on that and hopefully that will offset the not so good news that our property tax collections are still coming in very weak compared to prior years um we still have april and may to hopefully recoup and get that percentage of higher but we're running about 96

026percent collection rate and we typically are between 99 and 100 so that's a little disappointing um so we'll keep keeping watch on that we may have a budget amendment in may if that doesn't turn around and come in the form of delinquent taxes in the next couple of months i wanted to inform you about that also the audit finance committee did review financial statements and did not have anything to pass on to you they do have a live meeting on in may to review the preliminary budget so they'll be looking at all of this as you are for the budget purposes and as dr tucker indicated we will be talking about preliminary revenue budget this evening a little later questions of ms sullivan's it is their busy time of year and so thank you to

027her and her team for facilitating budget conversations with our directors and principals and again we'll hear a little bit more here in a little bit so thank you thank you next up as we're preparing the slide deck mr anderson as far as our operations report we'll turn over to you yes thank you uh before i uh go through a few slides here with respect to some changes in our safety and security program couple things i did want to highlight from the operations report uh first of all uh we had shared last week a quick overview of our capital plan that we have planned for the summer so you'll probably have noticed quite a bit of bidding activity coming in uh in and around that plan about 5.1 million dollars which is pretty much on par

028with how how much we've spent in years past for capital planning a lot of that is in around major projects infrastructure hvac roofing projects also a lot of in building projects we're doing some work at the library in the playground area donovan along with some other some nursing office remodels and some other classroom work as well also you'll notice that we had our state bus inspection uh results just come through and really appreciate the team and transportation great results i think the 99.97 the point that jumped out at me is of 8 inspection points they found three issues minor issues so that's like a loose bulb or something like that so really credit to that team down there uh for ensuring full compliance and i also want to mention again as we keep you up

029the prize on staff turnover and the effect it has on on the operations department it just continues to be a struggle and i think what i wanted to mention tonight is just the effect of that change in the the constant change that that comes with that in the training uh the loss of of kind of the the knowing of the workings of each department uh there's also a an implication into overtime there as well right because if we have these gaps when you're down 14 custodians you have to do that work and so there's an overtime push when we kind of get into filling those gaps so just wanted to bring that to your attention as well and with that i'm going to pin it real quickly to i hope this reads okay and we

030have a new clicker i get to try out but there's a few slides here uh to give a brief overview of the safety security program and some changes that we're looking to implement here over the next couple months i'll read through this since i think it might be hard to read so basically the district formed a security function back in 1993 and that's when the district teamed up with liberty the city of liberty to introduce a school resource officer an sro into the district and then after that shortly after that we did hire a part-time a 0.3 full-time equivalent security director who is already a full-time highway patrol officer and that person really helped us kind of move the program forward and worked with us for many years mr fletcher as you all probably recall

031a few years after that the district then added some more sros in conjunction with working with the city of liberty and then over the last 25 years or so there have been many changes what i've outlined here just to give you some sense of how much the district has changed since the 1993 the population the city of liberty population has gone from twenty thousand to thirty thousand while the district population has gone from twenty four thousand to sixty three thousand our enrollment has gone from forty four hundred to twelve thousand seven hundred the percent of the population that resides in liberty at the time was about 84 now it's a little less than half uh the number of schools has obviously changed as well we've added a few schools on the kansas city side um

032so just wanted you all to have a little perspective on that um since 2014 we've had we've made several changes to the program um and a lot of these are outlined here we've created a full-time director of safety security mr mangers who i think is behind somewhere here uh we also completed uh updating all the secure entries and this ties back to some strategic planning and previous bond work of the district we introduced a visitor management system that does a constant check of sexual predators which occasionally gets flagged and we appreciate that that tool we've also brought forth and unified a district-wide it's called sprutio and it's a system to kind of trap any concerns or complaints bullying what have you uh concerns over suicide or threats of violence and that's a very effective tool

033that we use and it's a very it's very actively used as well we've developed a formal threat assessment protocol again with mr major's laser should we develop and implemented a trained staff to address uh any crises using our critical incident management system we've significantly upgraded our surveillance camera and radio systems we've also transferred the high school hall monitor staff members to the security team that better integrates with some of the work that they do those folks are are unarmed but they really are kind of the eyes and ears of the the buildings and stay closely tied to the security team and the building leadership as well in 2018 uh the sro who's at the high school level left the district and went back to work for the city and at that time she split her

034time between liberty north liberty high school and the academy and so with that departure we went ahead and hired three full-time internal security officers all armed all trained all certified uh through the kansas city licensing department and uh and and basically grew that program that's when our internal security officer program really took form um and i mentioned here they're all all of them right now the five that we have and actually at 86 with mr majors all are former or retired police officers and all commissioned through the kansas city police department private law office or licensing program and then we've added two uh other positions uh over the last couple years to provide evening security at the high schools as well mr anderson what does that mean when it says commission through the casey the

035private officer licensing program is that additional licensing let me explain that just a little bit yeah that's i'll take a shot and if gary can step up that's the formal licensing program to allow them to carry a firearm so there's a training protocol through that and it's an annualized kind of reset that they take a look at so thank you so here are some of the changes that we're looking to implement this year so i'll walk through this fairly quickly we're looking to phase out the rotating highway patrol program so right now we have two officers and about 15 and they rotate daily and really serve primarily our elementary buildings but rove around the district we're also looking to modify the sro program to go from two sros they're both liberty police department down to

036one sro and with that we look to add six full-time district armed internal security officers um and then with that change this is probably the most significant of the changes and it's one of the things that we've been aiming for for for some time is it allows us to put an armed security officer in each of our middle school buildings all day long and right now we don't have that we have the two sros that split their time between the four buildings and sometimes they get called away so this is a this is the most significant change in improvement as part of this program um and then i just outlined here to the net change of armed personnel would go from 10 to 13 and the net change from internal security officers would go from

037five to eleven real quickly on benefits enhanced armed security coverage to the four middle schools it creates stability in the positions and this probably speaks a little bit more to the highway patrol officers who kind of rotate in and out pretty frequently this allows our internal folks who can really kind of get into the building establish relationships not only with the kids the students but also with staff parents so it's a really valuable ad to the program when you can have a presence in that building kind of full-time dedicated to that building so when you say rotating in and out those highway patrol officers are not the same people or they're about there's about 15 to 20 of them okay and so they may work you know a few shifts a month so and again

038fantastic you know group of folks that have helped us out in measurably over the years but there's not the stability that this would offer um added uh iso's provide broader coverage of the district and this this allows them to kind of respond across the district whereas right now the sros because they're lpd they're restricted to the city limits of liberty and as i mentioned much of our district is not only in kansas city but also under corporate clinton county um not only are schools but i think this is often this it's also the homes where we often have to pay visits and so having the ability to kind of span across the district and not have the city limit line get in the way is helpful and then we would evolve the existing sro position

039into more of a mobile patrolling uh individual who can kind of hit all the buildings on the liberty side and respond as issues arise keep in mind too that we have a really good relationship with lpd in general of course kcpd on the kansas city side and the sheriff's department they're very responsive when we need them and so we can feel very very good about that relationship all the changes are proposed and that costs the is about 26 000 and that's because we're realizing some of the savings of the other positions and then the timing right now would be to put this in place uh in august uh august 1st of and this is just uh just real quick i won't go through all this but um this shows the number of staff by physician

040it also outlines the current five isos in their years of public law experience public law enforcement experience um i think the average is about 17 years um all of them like i said retired or former police officers and then um somebody did this for me i'm not going to take credit it was pretty fancy and this is the change but it was still impressive so really just kind of shows the number of uh officers kind of increasing pretty significantly so mr yesterday the sro is the responsible at this point for the life program right i think i'm capturing that right is the plan to keep that moving forward look at that yeah yes the life program would continue it would evolve we've had a long conversation with the sro uh officers as well as uh

041the police department um leadership team about kind of evolving that over time they've been involved in these conversations and again i won't go through this this is loaded up on board docs i will go through it by point by point but it really kind of evolves it so it's not only the sro component and where their skill set is best suited to kind of help and engage with the middle school students and sixth grade students specifically but we're tying it into our curriculum we're going to bring in more speakers that can more specifically address issues that may be there that's your professional um expertise and so it's really going to grow we'll kind of have more detail on this through the spring and summer we'll share more with you kind of as we get the

042summer but we feel really good about the evolution of this program again it's been a great tool for the district for all the students that have participated and much of that will remain this will just basically formalize it and grow and expand it and then bring in some other folks to kind of help with the instructional part i think i think you may have brought this up the sros today part of liberty police department so they're not dedicated solely to us they can and rightfully so right public safety i totally get it they get called away to do whatever they need to for liberty and so they may not even even though we've agreed in principle and financially the 50 50 split of time doesn't necessarily always end up that way so we may have

043right i don't have a good accounting for that but you're right i mean it's it's i think the impression is is that we have uh an officer in those middle school buildings so technically we have one that splits but they do get called away from time to time and again they're good you know the communication is strong and it's always for good reason right and and uh it's just the work calls them to be out of building um so but there are gaps as a result of that and so this would address those gaps and also on that um further question on the sros part of the uh change there is that one of them is retiring so it isn't that we are taking a proactive move to change that number but that one of

044them is leaving that's right officer hemline's retiring uh and that kind of prompted some of these conversations we have been having conversations and around the highway patrol program for a couple years and have been communicating that to that team as well but again in the instance of the highway patrol and lpd officers because we still bring them in on time because we still have demands if there's events um or helping us fill in gaps that we have maybe somebody out on on leave or vacation and we might have to bring in other folks from time to time so we'll maintain those relationships uh for sure yeah so the sro position then in particular with the single individual if we move down this road in the future uh evolving into mobile patrol so really being able

045to go anywhere and support wherever it needs support is that kind of right on the left side and then they would manage the life program on i think it's going to be managed more through um instruction and learning and and through um their pe and health departments um so it's gonna be like i said formalized um so i think that will be some somewhat of relief to the sros that that that part of it's gonna be managed and then they'll be asked to come in uh when when they're when it's most suited for them to be involved in the construction side and think of just as there's been kind of area boundary adjustments from 93 to present and all the change that's occurred from a societal standpoint you know in 93 we weren't talking about

046social media we weren't talking about cyber security we're talking about a lot of the things that our students face now and so as we've thought about a life 2.0 program there are a lot of those topics that weren't around in the early 90s where we have expertise in our community that then we can pull in for those individual topic presentations where you have someone specializing in cyber security or you know sex trafficking for example or drug use and abuse so it'll complement our sro that will be helping but at the same time kind of bolstering the program with expertise so other questions of mr anderson um with the hall monitors are they the same between lhs and liberty north is there the same number uh i think i think north is down one but i

047think that changes this year i think that was another ad um yeah so that will be leveled off at four piece okay coming the next school year thank you mr anderson as well as mr majors in the back and our entire department as you can see by the slides we've we've continued to grow the program because safety and security is certainly part of the voters our staff and our communities so more to come we'll turn it over to dr vogel our event for 4.05 in our human resources report thank you very much thank you for the opportunity to share with you the work of the human resources department and the strategic work of the department specifically a few items we've uploaded obviously a full report i won't go into all of the details of it

048but we'll highlight a few items and take any questions at the end as far as our grow your own program d rose crans and the steering committee are interviewing this week the candidates who have applied for our grow your own teachers program that will culminate in the identification of those recipients and then we'll introduce them to you probably in the may board meeting the grow your own administrators program a session that was to be taught by dr moore dr westfall and dr shannon who's the principal rich view elementary school was postponed due to inclement weather that's going to be made up in may but this week we will have a leadership academy where our guest presenters are dr kirth and dr allen and the topic is going to be on the partnership that's necessary between

049a principal and an assistant principal and carrying out the vision that the principal has for the school as far as updates for the department obviously we're watching and monitoring uh turnover very closely as steve anderson talked about on the non-exempt side on the operations side and you see on the document that was uploaded the total exempt departures and total non-exempt departures and you do see a sizable difference in the numbers and that's consistent with the trend over time so it's not just a new phenomenon our trend though is on the exempt departure side is decreasing over time the numbers this year at 53 currently on the exempt side with more of the school year to come we should see that number go up a little bit so we probably will trend toward a little bit

050higher on the exempt side than in the past i also want to talk about substitutes and and fill rates that's a recurring theme as well uh february fill rates overall with 77 if you isolate that data to look at just the classroom teacher coverage only was at 86 uh march so far is at 90 percent uh for teachers only classroom teachers only so you're seeing a pretty sizable increase in that overall of 83 so february 77 to march 83 and march isn't over yet but we're nearing the end of that wellness on on-site wellness screenings it's an offering that we do every year for our employees uh as a matter of convenience to allow them to get some very important numbers in terms of their health screening it also feeds into our premium differential incentive

051that we have for employees as well that launched this week of three sites for this week liberty high school show creek elementary and liberty oaks elementary and thank you to all 16 sites that are playing host to these on-site screenings because it is a significant convenience for our employees and then the final thing i want to highlight is team liberty we met today obviously the the major agenda item right now is on compensation schedules and that will result in a recommendation to dr tucker he'll have time to move over that and make a decision about the recommendation that he'll present to you cindy sullivan and i anticipate that the recommendation to you will come in the april board meeting with a month to consider that and then a decision we would ask for a decision

052in the may board meeting that would allow us to stay on schedule of notifying employees of updated contract amounts and assignment letters from there so other items are included in the report i'll be glad to answer any questions you have but that's the hr report report today questions of dr vogel i would just like to give a shout out to team liberty for their work because the discussion today was um was lengthy but very um they did a good job at listening to each other and trying to work out options and stay within cindy's guidelines and um and look at the big picture which is difficult yeah to realize that money is even though it's in different pots it's in the end all in a pot yeah and it's particularly difficult right now because we

053all recognize inflation and and what that's doing and how that's impacting employees and we have employees that are obviously on a pretty wide spectrum in terms of that what they earn as a result of the jobs they do and i would echo that team liberty and all of you have served some time observing on team liberty you see how that works it's a very collaborative process the team members genuinely care about each other and it really is a a very um i think it's a very encouraging sign that we employ the kind of people that care about all our employees as they wrestle through those very tough issues so dr voglar love that you brought up the great resignation and thanks for having those those numbers in there i know we have the e-nip that

054helps us out with some of that have you seen any trend lately as more than usual coming in late with regards to resigning or moving on yeah not not so much right now but uh our trend every year on the this is on the contracted side kind of there's a rhythm and a theme to contracted employees so tonight we renewed contracts for teachers probationary and tenured teachers and so those contracts are all going to be released starting tomorrow we'll ask people to take 15 days to decide and sign and every year we kind of see an uptick in resignations people who've been mulling it over for a while thinking about it they now see that okay this is the time i've got to make a decision and so we'll see an uptick there i think

055for me seeing 53 so far on the exempt side when last year for the totality of the year it was 67 we're going to exceed that it's just a matter of how much are we going to exceed that and i think that's what we watch really closely we're very fortunate as a school system that we see between six and eight percent of our certificated staff turn over year over year when the trend nationally is 16 and up right and so uh you know we we are we benefit by that we're blessed by that and then the applicants that we come in you see that report as well 1300 applications so far for jobs 700 plus for certificated positions we get a lot of applications to cull through for the positions that are open on that

056certificated side the concerning side of course is on that non-exempt side where you see you know triple digit turnover year over year we're already at 306. and if you look at the trend on that the the the exempt trend is declining as years progress but the non-exempt trend is increasing as years progress so you're seeing a you know an opposite effect there between those two populations and i think that's in large part um by not being non-contracted and two weeks notice and opportunities to move elsewhere and when the job market is moving up in price and we're a public entity and we're limited in what we can do it does create a attention point for the system for sure thank you yeah dr voglart when people leave i know we get the i'm leaving letters

057whatever um but do you find that particularly on the classified side that they're leaving due to monetary issues more so than workplace issues like workspace where they what they do for sure yeah we we do exit interviews with every employee that departs and we're able to to look at that data and see themes and you guys see it in the form of the stay survey results it's the same questions we ask on the exit side for exiting employees and then there's open-ended questions on that where they do cite we group them into push and pull reasons for departures where poll reasons are a better opportunity push reasons or something that we're doing that is sending the wrong message to our employees they want to leave and work elsewhere and so we look at that a

058whole reason is higher pay and and we do have employees that exit citing that we see it more on the classified side than on the certificated side but also i'm hoping that we're not the only school district that that's happening to that it's more a yeah a difference between what a public entity can pay and what a private entity can play yeah we are we are not unique in fact i meet monthly with the assistant superintendents over hr in all of the school districts in the metro area and we see that every year i attended an annual conference uh statewide conference and that's the conversation from the saint louis side springfield all over the place so and when you look at the teacher pipeline and the staff pipeline really even on the classified side coupled

059with what uh is happening economically with inflation and then the cost of labor it's a combination that that is making it a very difficult challenge for school systems everywhere i think we are impacted less than others school districts especially in rural parts of the state have always had a very difficult time filling positions and that's just exacerbated by the times so thank you yeah thank you anything else for dr vildemar okay thank you thank you last item then under administration reports is 4.06 a couple of highlights i'm going to begin because no one else did this by acknowledging our students are in the audience i recognize a few of you i won't call you out but i believe most are from liberty north is that right any liberty high school students okay we have both

060awesome i didn't want to leave a bird out good to see you all this evening i hope you all had a great spring break so to dive into my highlights a couple items we are hearing the end of the year and as you all know with relation to our strategic leadership team as we prepare for a board retreat in the month of june we will be able to reflect on those areas accomplished but then also those areas to be carried forward as we kind of bridge into a new school year so we're continuing to work as a leadership team and effectuating our strategic plan vivid vision and graduate profile just prior to spring break teacher and parent conferences were held kind of a mix of both face-to-face and virtual i think now that we've experienced

061virtual over the course of the last couple of years we will likely continue to offer parents choice of one or the other and that some prefer a virtual environment and that they have a little bit more intimate time with their teachers at the middle level multiple teachers at the elementary level maybe just one but that's allowed for more time for them to be able to connect and allow for flexibility and scheduling as well as those who participated in face-to-face who just enjoyed being back together and seeing how their children and their students are doing as we've shared in the past the department of elementary and secondary education this spring has convened a success ready students work group and liberty public schools and partnership with kearney school district was able to present some of the work

062that we're doing in and around our strategic plan particularly around career readiness and life readiness to a group of over a hundred members of this committee they've had three sessions so far they have three sessions remaining that will then culminate in a presentation of the state board of education around a framework to be developed on innovative assessment practices and considerations in developing a framework for competency based learning as that's part of mc6 as well as conversations that have been going on at the legislative level with mc6 as you all know but for those that may not be aware it stands for the missouri school improvement program and we are entering into the sixth evolution or iteration of this process that assesses and holds districts accountable in terms of our accreditation in the state of missouri

063we were approached earlier last week about participating in a pilot and that there will be two districts from every region across missouri identified to participate my first question was is it going to involve any additional standardized assessments at the end of the year because if that's the case i don't think we're interested the answer was no and so then i said tell me more and really what this pilot will entail is to get a preview or a look at the reporting process that will accompany the standards and indicators as part of mc6 not only the opportunity to inform but also the opportunity to see some of our early data in that as we looked at other versions msip one through five every time a shift occurs we have to rethink metrics we have to rethink

064data and it's not entirely apples to apples as you think of one iteration to the next to the next to the next so we'll keep you informed of that work as it moves forward with that msip6 pilot i also want to express appreciation for those that attended our march 8th event as far as our facility master planning sessions we had two that day one at liberty high school and one at liberty north we were also able to post one of the videoed sessions on our facebook live page and since that point we've had over 3 200 views so thank you to dallas and our team for making that option available for those viewing it virtually as well as archiving that information the last thing that i wanted to share is in and around the missouri

065association of school administrators conference taking place later this week at lake of the ozarks the district has three presentations that we're participating in uh one which is an overview of the success ready schools work group that i mentioned in addition to to academic or innovation and learning presentations as far as us being afforded the opportunity to further tell our story and then just keep an eye on the end of the legislative session we're at kind of that midway point and so things get hectic and and occur quickly so we'll continue to watch what's occurring both in the house and senate to the missouri legislature with that would certainly entertain any questions you may have with me this evening i assume we'll get into feedback um in those two meetings on march 8th with also another

066when they come and present is that right in just a few moments i believe i will move my questions okay and then i'd like to ask why we have such a wonderful group of students here in the audience were you guys here with student council just had nothing better to do you're just hanging out eip awesome your educator internship program every single one of you are connected with miss taylor okay awesome yeah very cool so glad you've made the time to come and hang out with us i hope you found it insightful inspired all right moving into unfinished business we'll start with 5.01 board policy revisions you have three items presented to you this evening in your packet board policy dcb entitled political campaigns kkb audio and visual recording jhde behavioral risk management these are

067shared with you this evening for second read and consideration as we saw them at a previous meeting one thing we do not have this inning this evening are any items presented for first read so we'll just present those three items to you for your consideration any questions on either of these i move the board without policies dcb kkkb and jhde second denise when you're ready scott yes andy yes kim marie yes aj yes drew yes angie yes nick yes motion carries and into 5.02 the library material reconsideration appeal five 5.02 is the second of two library material reconsideration appeals for the board of education to consider just a couple of items to kind of walk you through on this item on november 17 we received a request to reconsider a text entitled out of darkness

068by a patron in our community on december 2nd packet was prepared to those individuals we had identified to serve on the committee appreciate dr westfall's help as well as ms andrea sumi our director of our library media program those participants were provided a packet with the original appeal request with the individual's name redacted along with some guiding questions to consider and an ensuing committee meeting date that was scheduled for january 10th they were tasked during that time in between to obviously read the text and reflect and be prepared to come in and participate in that committee discussion following that committee meeting on january 10th the group held the decision which was reached unanimously and the decision was made to retain the book at the high school level and then from there an appeal request was

069made at the board level thus the conversation and the item on the agenda this evening you all were provided the packet a few weeks ago um to be able to do the very same thing as our committee members did back in december into january for the opportunity to review the text and to be able to reflect on it for the sake of informing our conversation and decision making this evening so with that we'll turn it back over you mr president um yeah i guess as we get into discussions it comes to me i i'll i want to bring up something i didn't bring up last time we had a lot of good discussion and conversation the supreme court of the united states has already ruled really on what we can and cannot do with books

070once they're into the library 40 years ago you know it was ruled on actually in 1982 board of education versus beco case the situation is eerily similar to what we're talking about here list of objectionable books were provided by an organization members of that board of education they were characterized the books were as anti-american anti-christian anti-semitic and just plain filthy those are quotes ward stated that it was their duty their moral obligation to protect the children in their schools from this moral danger as surely as from physical and medical dangers so the board much like us decided to establish a committee of teachers and community members to review the books and provide a recommendation on whether they should remain in a high school library that committee reviewed 11 books decided five should be retained two

071removed and did not have consensus on the remaining four the board disagreed with that recommendation returned only one book without restriction one book available with parental approval and removed the remaining nine books so a student argued it was a violation of their first amendment rights took the board of education to court and it went all the way to the supreme court so supreme court and i'm going to just read it ruled against the board stating that the first amendment rights of students may be directly and sharply implicated by the removal of books from the shelves of a school library the supreme court's precedence focused not only on the role of the first amendment in fostering individual self-expression but also on its role in affording the public access to discussion debate and the dissemination of information

072and ideas they went on to say the right to receive ideas is a necessary predicate to the recipient's meaningful exercise of their own rights of speech press and political freedom continuing on in some just as access to ideas makes it possible for citizens generally to exercise their rights of free speech and press in a meaningful manner such access prepares students for active and effective participation in the pluralistic often contentious society in which they will soon be adult members they further went on to recognize the petitioners or the board emphasize the inculcative function of secondary education and they argue that they must be allowed unfettered discretion to quote-unquote transmit community values through the island tree schools that was the school district but that sweeping claim the supreme court said overlooks the unique role of the school

073library it appears from the record that the use of the island tree school libraries is completely voluntary on the part of students their selection of books from these libraries is an entirely a matter of free choice and the libraries afford them an opportunity at self-education and individual enrichment that is wholly optional but we think that the petitioners reliance upon that duty again transmitting community values is misplaced where here they attempt to extend their claim of absolute discretion beyond the compulsory environment of the classroom into the school library and the regime of voluntary inquiry that their holds sway the courts went on to further indicate that insofar as the board appointed but did not follow the recommendation of the review committee and other district employees it was likely that the board acted with unconstitutional intent in

074removing the books and violated the first amendment rights afforded to the students so with that background as the law of these united states of course which we are a part of we as a board have extensively reviewed the involved process for which books are placed in our libraries we have qualified library media specialists who reviewed the books we have a book review committee who unanimously recommended keeping the book as well as the prior book understanding that our role of the board of education is governance which includes the resources of this district a vote against keeping this book in the library to me is a vote to divert financial resources from the education of our students to an extensive and financially costly legal battle that will most likely end with the book left in our library

075so i point to the windsville school district across the state who banned a book in january reversed their decision in february when they were served with a lawsuit alleging the same unconstitutionality that was determined by the supreme court in board of education versus pico so i feel like any sort of limitation we place on student to voluntarily access materials that are currently in our school library likely will be seen in violation of their first amendment rights and lead us into a long and costly legal battle now that's not the only reason why i think that the book should remain and i will vote in affirmation but i personally trust and affirm the current process of placing materials including books in our libraries the expertise of our library specialist to make appropriate choices that expand the

076knowledge of students who choose to learn beyond the compulsory classroom curriculum and in addition i affirm the review process that we have in place and believe the decision from the review committee was comprehensive so i'll leave it at that i know we didn't talk about the board of education versus pico last time but there is precedent at the supreme court level dr tucker how many people were on the review committee turn that over to dr westfall we had 15 um with seven seven uh staff members and eight on the first time then we had two students in the second round so still 15. so no 17 17 okay right we had two different group numbers and then can you just give us a quick recap of what that looks like when they come back together

077just in case people weren't here or paying attention watching when we talked about the book last month certainly so one of the things that we do is we make sure that we have um people nominated through the buildings principals and uh students and staff members who are equally representing both buildings in addition our community members are selected based on their participation in organizations in our in our district so they have already shown their interest in being a community member with us partner we meet set the meeting give them we gave them two to three weeks to read the materials and like dr tucker said questions to consider and think about just to prompt their uh conversation when they came we invited them to this building to meet and sat in a process that looks very

078much like this meeting is very formal where we asked them we gave name plates for everyone we only used first names because we wanted to make sure that we were able to just really engage in the conversation about the text and not make it about personal relations but we did have the opportunity for everyone to follow a set of norms so we established those at the beginning which included the opportunity to listen to each other to provide insight to their thinking to take two minutes for each response so that everyone had a chance to contribute in our time and then we used a process that we call a whip around which is allowing every single person to contribute at that point we ask for clarifying questions so if anyone had questions of each other then

079we offered that opportunity then we went around again to ask anyone if they had any other or additional commentary to make at that point we took a what we call a straw poll with a thumbs up to retain a thumbs sideway to retain with restrictions and a thumbs down to remove when we took that we asked if anyone had clarifying questions again after that point and then upon clearing up the last comments or clarifying questions which was a popcorn style so anyone could contribute at that time then we took a final vote which we announced and then took it each session that we provided both of them took inside it took an hour and we kept our meeting to that level i think every time that we went everyone was incredibly respectful they gave really

080great comments and um insights to the book that i think really helped people in their thinking so it was a very impressive process and i'm really proud of the way that we offer that to our families and did you get more input or more you got more discussion this time maybe it sounds like then you didn't the second time we did and i'll be real honest with you the thing that was the i think that helped with that was the addition of the two students and not to be emotional about it but they were amazing and the things that they brought to the table and the things that they said about what they got out of the text and the way they provided that would you would have been so proud they were good really

081good thank you any additional conversation questions well i was i was ready to just say i've i've made all my points on the february february 15th meeting and it's on tape so there's no reason to go back through another 45 minutes discussion on this but i wasn't prepared for you to read the supreme court information so my question now for the group is if the supreme court has already ruled on this and then why are we voting on why would you even make a motion on this lively part of policy right i mean you're right if it's our policy to go through this entire process and the supreme court's already ruled on it it's a fair point fair question then should our lawyer jump in and the other part the other part of that is

082if they have a rule on books that are already in the library does that mean the only thing we can rule on are books that aren't in the library can i respond to that yes i can anybody i think it it kind of reverses the importance of the front end versus after the fact right so then if you think about board policy board policies crafted to guide administrators educators and decision making and so forth right so is there work to be done there as we talked about last month the other piece is in that identify and selection process prior to something being shelved right and are we really honed in on that element at the building level in the library media departments to be able to be selective around what gets shelved or what doesn't

083get shelved so after our last conversation we had a deep brief together with dr weatherball and andreasumi and i'll just highlight a couple things that i heard they gave me some examples as to a couple texts that might have been kind of on the verge but then they went through their vetting process as they always do and a couple of comments there were two texts that were selected and of the two texts that were shelved there were multiple positive reviews for the middle school and the high school level on both of those texts on two texts that were not selected and going through that reviewing process and that vetting process there was only one positive review on one particular text and a grade and age level recommendation after they looked closer wasn't really clear so

084they opted not to shelve the book on a second book a student had requested hey would you add this title to library and as they were looking into it there was no initial review as far as a young audience review that could say hey librarian this is a good idea to shelve this book at this level or this level really didn't have a book review and so i say all that to say going back to the original 27 texts that were identified in the fall across the country to question we have some we don't have all but that's part of the vetting process that happens on the front end my point being is if we focus on the front end and we have that right vetting process in place per our board policy you're probably

085going to do a better job as a system as an educator as a librarian in identifying what content belongs as compared to what content does it because again we don't have all of those titles we have some but we don't have all of those titles so to that point we don't have all those titles but we have some of them are we telling our constituents our patrons that you have to start making these uh challenges in books that we don't even have yet just in case they want to come in because what i've heard is if they're already in then we can't touch them so is that i think it's wrong i think it's an eyes wide open i would hope we're not there that's a that's something i think it's an eyes wide open

086to ensure that board policy is short up if there's a concern there how do we need to shore that up are there better approaches from a policy standpoint as well as a procedure or practice standpoint the eyes wide open in the after a book is shelved and being challenged is the reality of yeah the board of education for policy can remove a text but you also have to be aware of the implications of that which is the discussion we've had this evening right so it's knowing both sides and i think we're pretty good at that as a board in looking at perspectives and from a variety of lenses on issues and topics we spent some time talking about polarities prior to the start of the pandemic so to your point i think it's all of

087the above but it really i think the work is done on the front end in my opinion as far as being able to assess age appropriateness grade level and so forth of content distinguishing between what sits in a library as comparative to what is used from a curricular standpoint in the classroom for all kids and we had some conversation around that at our study session previously so and just understanding that some of the books that are used in curriculum or that teachers choose to use as part of the curriculum were previously banned books i would see to consider that over time some of those things change since you brought that up the one of the things i've heard about these books is well these books are in the library but it's not like they're being

088used in class or they're going to be used in a class somewhere and if that's not the case then it kind of makes me wonder what the appropriateness of it is to be in the library if it's not a fit for being used in a class classroom i don't i don't have the exact numbers on that but think of the volumes in our inventory at the elementary in the middle of the high school level okay i i really was trying to avoid this but um the supreme court has already ruled that we can't do this even if we want to do this we can't do this we could we could do it but there's likely a lawsuit we'll have to go to court yeah and we all know that if the motion is made tonight

089it'll be 61 like it was last time so the point i'm wondering about though is if that's why we're voting thumbs up now kind of as time goes on in the next five months five years whatever it is what is the process for parents to say i don't want don't wait till it's already in the library because then you're telling me i'm handcuffing we can't do anything about that so how do i prevent it now from getting in the library and we've already done that at the middle school level but parents can already give us a list of books they can already opt out and give us the list of books that they don't want their child to check out correct and actually in one of the readings that i did i spent a lot

090of time also diving into this issue and i'm not an attorney so correct me if i'm interpreting something incorrectly but there is also the idea out there that the library doesn't take the role of the parent we still need parents to have a relationship with their kids about what they read and what they don't read and just my last time asking questions and having discussions and that's not the role of the library or the school board to have those kinds of conversations about what the kids can't recognize dr westfall wants to add can i add just one thing mr connor is that in this situation right here somebody over there i was like it was six on one i was like thirty on one um the one thing to remember is in this situation the

091the complications that the choice perhaps for the book may not have been the agreement or disagreement for all people but had our committee voted to completely remove those texts you may not have agreed with that so in this situation it may feel like that wasn't the case but that committee regardless and it will be different every time they could have a different outcome that isn't unanimous that then they need your help so say that committee had decided to remove this text and then it would have come to you for a different decision that could have just as easily happened well and i think because you're going back to the process and what step one of the process step two etcetera but i don't want to remove you from it because i think it's a critical

092point right but my point is if if we believe that that is the law then and i think we're going to talk about this process at the work session april is that right we have the last couple of study sessions we haven't set that agenda yet and certainly can um i'm just i'm just wondering if that's something we should take into consideration as we look at the policy around what the process is i mean why put everybody through this if it's like well the supreme court said once it's in the library we can't do anything about it well i don't i don't think that's what i mean the case law and first amendment rights for students i mean there's tests built into that we have a review process it sets forth i'm looking at six

093different criteria for which we can review and that reconsideration process can be initiated so i don't think it's a futile process just because there's first amendment case law on that but you have to analyze that first amendment case law you have to analyze that and weigh that against the student's right to access information and so you know while that case law exists and there are other cases more recent in federal reports from arizona when they a school district did away with you know with certain history curricula and the student challenged that and the court came back and said no you're going to have to reinstate that that that curriculum for that district it weighs the ways the students access to that information and so when i look at some of the reasons that items are

094challenged or what we're looking to provide students with an access to to see themselves in books or to be challenged with new experiences you know we're talking about two books at the high school level i noticed and looking at some of the districts that had removed this book they had had it at the middle school level i don't necessarily agree that this book needs to be at the middle school level that's another discussion but but what i'm saying i think an 8th grader but what i'm saying is is we've trusted our librarians and the processes and the resources that they look at to make those decisions in the placement in the first place and i think it would be um while we are the last say on this i trust them to make those decisions

095and review that information and access those resources and make decisions on the placement of the book can dr westfall i noticed on this one there was an issue noted that it was part of the curriculum books on one of the papers that were that were added to our packet when we are choosing books let me see if i can get this straight is there a difference between when we choose a book to be in the library or the media center for whomever to read whatever as opposed to i want to put this book in my social studies curriculum or my ela curriculum is there a difference in that because i feel that there is um but i'm just curious obviously similar but different so the text that we purchase have a higher i mean there's

096a lot more eyes and vetting on the purchase of that those things come to a through a lot of systems if they're attached to the current curriculum piece okay that doesn't mean i mean let's let's just be honest there are lots of books that work their ways into our schools through the hands of children through i mean that are left in classrooms that get popped on a shelf that doesn't mean they're part of the curriculum or instructional materials but we do watch for that our teachers are just as responsible as our librarians in respect to looking at that but children bring in books that come from their homes or whatever and we and they share them but it is not part of our instructional materials that are selected through a six-year vetting cycle that we

097bring teacher committees together to make selections about choice text but we do take a lot of text offline you know it's not like every piece and teachers make those selections every day which is why we train our teachers and then why professional development is so important to make really good selections about the materials they place in front of the students and if it's not an improved curriculum there are there's a course of action that comes if that occurs in our classrooms so we do lots of things to protect students and keep developmentally appropriate materials in front of them so i mean it's not it's not foolproof as you've seen across the nation exactly but we do a really good job in liberty as well as well as the opportunity for parents to opt out absolutely

098of curricular content within the classroom that they deem objectionable yes um whereas that parent or student even can have some choice in the matter and that's age old we've done that for years i've been here 10 years we've had that process in place and i've seen that happen many times and that goes for all of our curriculum if we have disagreements with what we're offering including state standards i've parents call me all the time and say i really don't want this taught to my child we do alternative learning for them we do provide that because we do believe in that here so find out the grade of my 12 year career it's over well you know it's well taken we'll i do appreciate the ability to dialogue and debate and talk about these things because

099i i think it's necessary and even when the next one comes up you gotta talk about the difference in the last one one of the problems with this one i didn't like is the last release it was it was a true story it was this guy's and you felt for the author this was just pure fiction i mean this was just well except for the fact that it's based on a true event it's certain it's centered around a true event yes the other thing to mention that i thought was important from our last conversation is to recognize districts are in a lot of different places with this some that have not really focused in on a policy or a process or a procedure others that have i would put us in that category of we've

100got a pretty good process and structure in place can we tweak policy and continue to evolve and reflect absolutely that's part of the reason why our library programs were recognized earlier this evening because they are in a constant rhythm of evaluating and reflecting and so a lot of that's happening behind the scenes as we think about parent engagement on the front end or advisory committees putting together standards for when a student selects a text at the elementary of the middle school or the high school level how they opt out of text in terms of their own choosing that's that continuous improvement piece that we want for our entire system so i just wanted to read it and i appreciate that our previous conversations yeah i appreciate that process the amount of number of eyes that

101go on it but when it you know i have to vote my conscience on this stuff and i can't say well i i just read this book and i don't agree with i think you know i'm sure 99.9 of the time everything is fine but when these kind of things are called to our attention that's where i stand but you know that and i'll let somebody else have the last word well i don't know if i'll be the last word but my word on this is i don't read the pico decision as being that uh controlling over local school boards i think that there are still instances where books can be if they're pervasively vulgar removed even after they've been in the school library and i that's a fairly subjective standard and i think that

102the lesson from pico isn't that we can't do anything it's just if we're going to do it we get better very sure that the book should be removed that it meets that's that kind of standard it can't be just because i don't like it personally or you know i've got other members of the community that don't like it personally well then don't have your kid read it or you know can it be is it okay sorry i don't didn't give you the last word but i will go ahead can it be that i don't feel like it's appropriate for a 14 year old is that okay that's your opinion well i know i don't know that pico addressed the retain with um you know restrictions question versus just the outright removal question i think that

103it's addressed somewhere there is a case right but i'm just talking about the one that we're talking about right now but with respect to they're not completely eliminating the power of the local level i just think that they're saying exercise with extreme care because students have first amendment rights too yeah and i think i think the committee come back and said we don't think this book should be here well then that probably gives us some level of rights to review and say we maybe we should pull it right what i agree yes i agree with that statement but my question is how do we get in the committee look i can find 15 people that'll say maybe we should at least read it again is that what we're doing i don't know we get advised

104by committees a lot but i know they are i help seat them i know their background i don't know it's difficult for me to just say well the community gave it a thumbs up so i'm good with that i can't do that that's just me yeah my opinion the delineator being a standing committee appointed by the board as compared to like occasional committee like what we're seeing whenever these appeals serve or just pull it in house and do it with i'll stop we know where this goes i moved i moved that the board affirmed the decision of the question library materials committee to retain without restriction out of darkness in the liberty public schools library collection liberty high school and at liberty north high school denise when you're ready scott no andy yes kim marie

105yes aj yes drew yes angie yes nick yes motion carries moving into 5.03 facilities master planning we're going to welcome mr nelson to the podium no stranger to liberty public schools as i mentioned in our reports from administration our event that was held on march 8th to events as well as the virtual recording that is still available for those that have not yet viewed it was a step in the process to get us to where we're at this evening with really kind of this funnel approach of thinking big but then really honing in on prioritizing uh what's really doable as we think about a future no tax increase bond issue to be placed on the ballot at a later date for consideration so this is that next step so thank you for being here great

106thanks for having me guys appreciate it we're going to kind of dive in here just again we're going to focus on the project menu mostly all projects on the menu are things that you've seen already um we're just in that explore options phase we're still as dr tucker said prioritizing and kind of narrowing down you know last time we saw a huge list of potential projects and we're going to show you a little bit narrowed down list but i wanted to kind of just take a minute to look at the things that have happened to date to get to where where we are and again if you remember back in that step two in the data collection we did principal surveys and interviews and building tours and facility assessments and did a lot of work

107to kind of understand kind of what the needs were and then since then we've been taking that work layering it in with a community engagement surveys talking back with staff again working with the facility division team again to get to that project list and then again using those committees and our resources the staff and the community but then starting to narrow that down so the first parent community survey had about 1500 participants that were involved in that and then most recently as part of those community engagement sessions we did have a survey participants as well about 300 took the survey but as dr tucker said we had 3 200 people view that presentation um on facebook live so not great numbers for us i i don't love that i got to be viewed by 3

108200 people but i'm glad that people are out there they're paying attention and being engaged in the process because that's exactly what we want them to do so last time we talked about the project list we had about 385 million projects on the list about 47 projects since then taking all this information that we've gathered we've pulled that down to about half the number of projects in about 143 million worth of projects so again we're starting very broad and trying to work our way down to kind of what those highest priorities and and needs are based on all of the information that we've been able to collect to date so we're going to spend some time kind of walking through what's on this kind of new list and certainly stop me if you have questions

109i'm probably not going to go into a lot of detail on each project because we've talked about them but if you have questions please stop me and we'll stop and talk about a little bit more i did want to though show you we've kind of re-categorized the the projects going forward and this is because of the information that we gathered from the the survey so you don't need to read this in specific detail right now but just know that that's helped us cool down these 27 25 27 projects going forward and create kind of these new um groups going forward so we did start to see themes of where the priorities um were landing um that helped reinforce this list coming up so there are five groupings of projects and they are district wide infrastructure

110district support services kitchen facility improvements the innovative learning environments piece and the wellness and athletics group so again some of these projects like last time are dependent on others kind of domino projects as i call them is one needs to happen before the next one can go um the project estimates are again our sole estimates we're still watching that market volatility and where that inflation is kind of taking us on those project estimates and then just as a reminder and dr dr tucker mentioned this it's just that no tax increase bondage these projects are thought to be um potential for for a bernardo taxi respawn issue all right so let's start with district-wide infrastructure a couple projects on here we do not have a slide for each each project so we'll kind of roll through

111what that looks like but the first one would just be that led lighting upgrades again 2.6 million dollars is the budget for that big key piece on this one is to remember that two to three year return investment again upgrading the quality and saving some utilities on that piece this one district-wide air quality so hvac replacements this is offsetting our capital improvement plan as well as increasing ventilation and air quality about 9.7 million is the allocation or allowance for this one some of the projects there are locations at the bottom start to show you where we're relieving that capital improvement need um in some of those locations um with um improvements to the hvac sorry mr anderson so this would be we'd have to do this at some point because it's just right this is

112a capital plan yes again the hidden capital is so profound that it's a good opportunity yep and deferred over a longer period most likely right absolutely all right so then we have that exterior envelope piece a lot of this is roofing masonry tuck pointing windows those sort of pieces to kind of help um continue to maintain some of our aging infrastructure again heritage is kind of the poster child for this one we know it has a lot of heritage but there are other locations as you see on the list that would also benefit from this 6 million allowance i'm sure they enjoyed being the poster child there are a lot of needs that heritage we'd like to be able to take care of yeah district wide restroom renovation so about a million dollars for that

113allowance this is a restroom from franklin again ready to be upgraded and maintained but there are several places locations around the district that would benefit from that allowance district-wide safety and accessibility upgrades about four 4.4 million on this one a good chunk of this is playground replacement and upgrades for accessibility but there's also things like sidewalks that have heaved that would be causing tripping hazards there's fire alarm upgrades those sort of things would also fall into this safety and accessibility we talked earlier about the secure injury pieces have been done so it's not that type of safety but other pieces around around the district so we're looking at replacing playground surface across the board nice similar to what um maynard hill has recently received with new equipment and surface would be kind of the example

114of what you would see that move away from mulch or like scrap tire yeah material because it's not accessible it's like a wheelchair accessible rubberized surface absolutely yeah focusing on that accessibility for sure and it's ugly all right district support services again four projects kind of in this category first one is the new support service facility down on the south view campus again pulling several departments together the big chunk of this one is that district freezer that allows that both purchasing and storage for the entire district also brings down warehouse and receiving together so finding some efficiencies with those departments to work together it's about 18.8 million on that new facility there on that campus to your point we see that large number that is where the freezer is really driving that the freezer is

115a big piece of that it's a it's about an 80 pallet freezer so you're going to park a bus in this thing it's a big freezer so that does allow some places just one bus maybe two okay but it is when you think of freezers it's not your typical elementary school walk-in this is right right we're driving forklifts in it we've got high-based storage to really efficiently store that but the next point we've had some pain around that over the last couple years that's what we've learned a lot so let's that's a big promotion piece for this project is that freezer space the supply and demand issues of the last two years kind of provide some of the rationale for this and the district's currently leasing space right now that would allow you to stop

116doing that exactly i know we say freezer we need refrigeration with this there's typically a small amount of refrigeration majority freezer but then a small chunk of refrigeration one that allows them to pull pallets out repack them for going out to the buildings but typically it's mostly just the freezer piece all right next piece would be the renovation of the old vidcon library building about five and a half million again moving technology from the dac into this building fine arts kids zone um also would be part of the departments being considered for this building with this being renovated into office space then we start to vacate second floor of the dac and the estimate for renovation all second floor would be about 2.4 million for that additional professional development office space again looking at places

117for potentially virtual school testing services there's lots of ways that we could provide support space for the entire district on that second floor once we open up that square footage and then the other one on this piece is once we've moved warehouse out of the 801 kent building we now have some space that we could free up and create that district high school auto tech pltw type lab space within there one of the things we're most excited about is just autotech next to our current transportation facility there's some great pairings um for students there in that space and then there'd still be probably a little bit of additional storage space within that building as well but by doing the new building by doing the library building we can then open up this space for this

118opportunity mr anthony we got some partnerships that we've leaned into maybe with some local vehicles we are working on how best to expand our program currently housed at liberty high school with um mr wheeler if you're familiar with that space it's a very contained space we also have access to programming through northland career center excelsior springs career center short end of your answer is we're looking at how to expand that in in partnership with several of our auto dealers star is another one we actually have a meeting coming up with general motors from a programming standpoint so as soon as we know more we'll share more all right keep rolling down the list we've got three in that kitchen improvement piece one is just kitchen equipment upgrade so there's aging kitchen equipment across the district

119so replacing ovens and those sort of pieces to kind of keep those kitchens running smoothly so that's a 600 000 allowance um for that piece again relieving that capital plan need by kind of offsetting it with this allowance and more energy efficient i'm assuming absolutely yeah anytime we can upgrade those we can improve energy efficiency as well and so the next two projects are actually kind of full renovation of the kitchen scramble spaces this one at heritage there's again aging infrastructure within the scramble but also some needs around just getting students in and out efficiently and quickly and serving those students so this would be kitchen scramble and commons renovation for heritage and then the last one is the high school liberty high school scramble uncommons renovations so you see the image of the kitchen

120scramble so again trying to get students through their quicker faster more efficiently provide them upgraded equipment more efficient equipment but then this would also extend out into the common space so as you start to connect renovation of the 800 to the edge area through the commons towards the pac to kind of take care of that whole main space for all students within liberty high school that's about a five and a half million dollar project in our category for innovative learning environments several projects are hitting this one the first one is just that allowance for innovative learning environments across the district we have this at the last round again and that kind of helped us look at spaces throughout the district that we can kind of improve whether it be additional furniture or remodeling areas to

121help support the learning environments that we want to see for our students the edge was one that benefited from that allowance last time then it's epic looking at a multi-purpose room addition about 5 million for that edition again this does start to trigger the storm shelter requirement that we talked about last time for the new building code so that's kind of part of the reason why you see it pulled off towards the north a little bit from the existing building but this would give them that flex space where they're you know currently using the old board room that was the board room of the the central office for pe for art for music for their cafeteria this would allow them to spread out a little bit for not only pe but also presentation type space

122just truly a multi-purpose addition for epic and give them some inside space so pe doesn't always have to be outside some opportunity for some inside space for sure and we did try to avoid the the south side of the building because they don't have a lot of playground as it is so again we're able to kind of squeeze that into the to the north next to the drop off lane the next one to look at would be the south valley middle school gym and flex performance so again keep in mind the idea with this one is it's providing pe space but also performance space so it would be designed in a way that we can transition that gym space to have a stage to have performances within that new space it's about 6.7 million for

123that this is also a storm shelter again it's large enough that it's triggering that um requirement so is this just south valley or does this imply both this is just south valley um at this point when we called down the the list south valley was um at the top of the need as far as capacity struggles i'm looking at the former principal of the discovery middle they're school the same size right because they're exactly the same size they're exactly the same size and they have the same number of students in them now square footage they're the same size that's where you get into capacity differences as far as the student enrollment is discovery or i'm sorry well are you talking about baker i'm sorry were you talking about the addition the editions were the same

124size the schools themselves are not identical there is a few tweaks that are a little bit different and their enrollment's not the same so their capacities search in south valley's enrollment desire results the addition that discover discovery doesn't okay that the need is higher discussion was too that there would be opportunities potentially something so close for a difference of 150 kids that's a lot previous report multi-tasking example of going from the 385 million down to 143 there's just some decisions quite quite a bit of information shared in our sessions too in and around the difficulty in designing one shared space between the two campuses because at first glance park it right in the middle of that driveway well then that creates all sorts of issues as kevin shared with our stakeholders at those engagement events

125um along with the the the grade the liberty there's 18 feet 12 feet of difference between the two buildings that's right the service happens between the two buildings all your deliveries all your trash removal all happens between the two buildings to put an addition between the two even if you solve the level change all that stuff is happening on the front loop where where you've got parents and students and all those things happening there also is no good way to connect it because you'd either be removing space from a kitchen to get a wide enough corridor through it or you're going through existing gymnasiums to get through we're going around creating hard to supervise um corridors so really we didn't feel like that was the best solution to try to to do that as a

126single shoe it's a 12 girding difference i know all right next up so 6.8 million is looking at heritage so again heritage is on the list for a lot of needs this would focus on some flex collaborative type spaces within heritage they've got a lot of old locker commons spaces that are not used that could be really useful spaces for for students for flex instruction for collaborative type spaces so it's an allowance for heritage does that include that commons area like down the ramp from the office yes it's in the whatever the numbers are it does that is ugly but i don't think it's used well either yeah it's it's a space that could certainly be used much better we could provide a little bit different technology and siding furniture and those sort of things

127they don't use the lockers that are in that space so again it's it's an underutilized space that could be highly utilized with some remodeling liberty academy so the multi-purpose building shop area across the parking lot to the west so about 1.1 million dollars we did increase the size of this based on some input that we've got through our um meetings this would allow them kind of that dirty lab space that tinker space where they they just don't have that in the existing building right now so that would give them an outlet for that also a small half-court basketball court just give them some outdoor place to be outside and shoot some hoops and be outside when on a nice day so they don't have to do that in the parking lot anymore don't have to

128do that in the parking lot exactly so it's a safer place to play uh liberty fax renovation so about 1.8 million to take those existing fax classrooms those residential style kitchens are very dated and ready to be remodeled that's an allowance there then and right next door would be the liberty high school sped renovation so about two million dollars again to take those existing spaces and better remodel them for for their purposes for the student population just a quick note on the facts renovation liberty high school some of the concerns at north were alleviated with the additional winning approved in 2018 as we relocated the facts department correct relocated correct right the north issues were solved rectified yes all right last category four projects and that wellness athletics category piece the first one would be

129new aquatic center so 50 million estimated for this new aquatic center it is um would be considering a 50 meter pool eight lanes wide and a dive well so this is a larger pool than many districts have it would be set up that there's two bulkheads so they can have three practice areas a thousand to twelve hundred spectators again this is providing not only for swim team but p e wellness partnerships around the community um so really trying to see this as becoming a community asset um as well as a district asset where i was gonna say that's a mock-up like to have some sort of visual to talk to so this is a fictitious conceptual pool obviously if we get this project on the road there's going to be lots of design process and

130collection of information from people to make sure that we get it just right picking the location is still up in the air no one um has determined that yet either so it is just purely conceptual um allowance for that as we've discussed participation rates in swimming and diving across both of our high schools has just increased to a space where we don't have facilities that can accommodate us anyways it is absolutely a challenge this has been a need since ice been on the board i can't tell you how many meetings i've been to in the last nine years involving wasn't there like a taxation district for wreck use what do we try to do with kansas city and parks in iraq yeah i mean that would be like a huge regret that we didn't get

131that done in the nine years i was on the board so i would love to see this happen i just well it sounds like this really bubbled up with community input it certainly did bubble up with the input yeah pardon the pun but that was very good well and you mentioned i'm sorry no you're fine you mentioned the 50 meter eight lanes biggest one of the largest in you know the metro that's all from input from community from participants from coaches from yes we're not just doing that no that is that is direct input for people helping us understand that if we're going to do it let's do it right so that we don't regret it you know we want to be able to host means we want to be able to have it sufficient

132to do all these things or it's not worth the investment so we have taken the time to listen so you've done a lot of work and research to understand kind of what does it need to be you know i kind of keep pushing back well are there things we can share the things we can compromise on but um so it's not shooting for the moon right but it's certainly trying to get it to where it is really a good functional facility for a long time one of if you look at i mean those those length differences i mean you're going to maximize your season so short course long course seasons and get more events there and people that are wanting to use that space outside of the district but um i mean i i swam

133in the you know when i was a kid i swam in the community center pool and that's where our teams are competing now and beyond the high school programming as far as the younger ages as well potentially there's a revenue opportunity that's expanded and opened to uh our younger kid programs okay it was the building but at this point are we thinking we would operate and own the facility so we would manage the times that's what we're actually now again much work to do we're making that assumption and evaluating the costs and you know there's obviously a lot more to it right but that's the assumption right now the other thing to mention and this is really probably true with every project you've shared along with the original 385 million dollar package that number at

134the top in all of these projects as we've had these discussions that number just continues to kind of inch up um in terms of hopefully plateauing and not seeing it north of that expense but with construction costs and things going on within the market right now we know that that is something to certainly keep an eye on absolutely i would just real quick the numbers they have fluctuated i think these numbers we feel pretty good about uh novak new kirk our construction management team spent a lot of time to put a little bit more nuance into inflation and escalation rates to really kind of think that through the industry so again it was wrong but i think it's it's probably a pretty decent number at this point but i think we've settled that a little

135bit throughout all of these yeah and this is a stand-alone aquatic center that's all that would be here for this point i clearly could probably add on to it at some point absolutely and i would just add to that i do think we're missing an opportunity if we don't enter into conversations with the city of liberty city of kansas city about what that could look like as a shared community resource like they have in gladstone we're going to put all that money into water um let's just make sure that we're not missing an opportunity for people or lenexa i mean yeah that's a large parking lot i assume with the 1 000 to 1200 spectators it is yeah yeah that's needed for those big events and one of the things that we can consider down

136the road is as we're looking for locations there may be a location that has existing parking where we can share certain things do certain ways to economize but at this point the assumption is stand alone again trying to kind of protect the budget protect the district and then we'll look for as we dial down into more design we'll look for other opportunities to be efficient all right final thing as we think through this i would love to understand what a 50 million aquatic center costs for operations all right and the revenue that it could potentially sure that's right yes all of it yes thank you great question for sure all right next on the list so liberty tennis court so again this is um removing the old grounds shielding the old sheds over there um

137across the street from epic and south of the stadium um to be able to get these new tennis courts again trying to get space for tennis team but also pe and other folks to be able to use um that facility at liberty high school 1.9 million for those um for those eight tennis courts and this is really sorry this is that one's really an equity issue where we have liberty northwest currently right now 40 seconds drives to bennett park for tennis liberty north house around court so it is a bit of an equity issue this is going to be parking space agnostic it looks like so yeah we'll um we'll adjust whatever space is left to clean up the existing parking lots to kind of make that all seamless so we can maximize the amount

138of parking within that area and then that same concern surfaced in our engagement meetings so yeah and then the last two are looking at upgrades to baseball and softball last time we talked about a phase one phase two approach we're only bringing back phase one at both high schools about two million dollars at each location but again that does do full field turf on baseball and softball fields it provides upgrades to backstops and dugouts and fencing around those areas and that would be at both both high schools so again you've got then a baseball and a softball field up of high schools with full field turf so that opens it up as you know here for other groups to use absolutely you know when you don't have turf you can only play it on so

139much before the grass dies and you can't can't maintain it we had comments from people in the community meetings that you know they feel like there's some safety issues with the maintenance of the grass and some of those things that would take that piece um out of there so there is an initial cost obviously in the turf and getting that stuff but it does save you in maintenance and watering and mowing and fertilizing and seeding all those things so should provide greater use for lots of groups all right so again that's the that's the full new list where we're at we still have work to do we still have prioritization to take place on this list next tuesday we have an open house here for staff to come in we're going to have all these

140slides printed out on boards they can come in they can ask questions they can get more information about why these products are on the list and then there will also be the phone survey and the online survey in mid april that will again start to give us some more feedback on what the community wants to see going forward kevin remind me i know i'm sure you said it but this final list that you've brought to us at this point that's been whittled down over time the main decision factor factors which ones to go forward what's the community input is that right it's one of the facts so we are also you know including the capacity needs we're including the facility assessment all that data that we collected early on stuff from principals and staff and

141um both certainly listening loud and clear to what the community is telling us we're so happy that we had such great turnout at both those meetings you know i'm excited that 3200 people watched it on facebook live so we feel like we're getting hopefully getting the word out or providing opportunity um for them to provide in but big piece like we said the pool was a big loud voice any other questions all right that's all i had for you guys if you don't have anything else for me i appreciate your time thank you thank you thanks kevin 5.04 looking at the epic calendar amendment so earlier this year we approved both the district calendar as well as the epic calendar for 2022-2023 as you all know because you've participated in the events in the past

142over the course of the last two years we've had to adjust our convocation plans and move to more of a virtual or on-site building level convocation and take that show on the road we are already making plans for this coming august to host a full-blown district convocation and so we've locked in a date we're still working on the additional details and that soon will follow as we make announcements later this spring but as a result of locking in that date for august 22nd that is a monday which had previously been on that friday around august 19th we're needing to look at amending the epic calendar and switching that monday august 22nd to a professional development day just as a reminder as you look at the calendar beginning on august 10th with the first day of

143classes those first few days we've labeled globe which stands for getting learners on board to be epic technically the way we report that to the department of elementary and secondary education that is coded as summer school because it does have such an earlier start once we get more in line with the district's first day of school then you transition to the regular school district calendar and reporting mechanism or process so we won't lose time on either the summer school accounting or the regular year accounting we've vetted that with the help of bob citro so we would just make that a recommended adjustment to you this evening for consideration with more information to follow on the details around our convocation we're pretty excited about that opportunity but don't want to let that cat out of the

144bag just yet i moved the board amend the 2022 to 2023 epic elementary school calendar to allow staff to participate in the district convocation event second denise when you're ready scott yes andy yes kim marie yes aj yes drew yes angie yes nick yes motion carries into section six new business starting with the preliminary revenue budget update as ms sullivan's coming back to the podium um she probably has this tee'd up to share but this is all subject to change but it's as best as we know it right now shocking um so i just wanted to provide that kind of update all of this once today turn it over to cindy so if you've heard my analogy before it's like a new car once you drive it off a lot it's used in out-of-date and

145yesterday i had two new pieces of information one i was able to get in here when i was not so it's my presentation is already out of date but we'll go through this um so it is march so we have a few more months to get it right or get it better so we'll give you what we've got tonight and then in may we'll do it again with both the total budget so it's just a fluid document cindy it is it is living and breathing um so the first slide i wanted to show you is what i as of last week was projecting total revenue to be and that's right at 185 million dollars that's only a 243 000 240 300 000 increase over the current year so we're very flat for total revenue what

146i wanted you to note on this slide in particular that state revenue is 35 of this budget and local is 58 59 of this budget when we flip it to operating revenue it is 155 million we are more dependent upon state revenue for local or for operations than we are for local so that increases the state to about 43 and decreases the local to about 52 percent the sources are the same key sources for both operating and total rep total revenue budget is just how they're divided out so i wanted you to just see that picture real quickly we're going to take those sources and divide them out and talk about each one of them quickly as to what i'm expecting those sources to provide us for the next year for the local and county

147that is primarily our property taxes as it indicated on the previous slides proxy sales tax pilot payments and food service sales as of today i cannot tell you that there will be a change in the overall levy because i don't have enough information from the assessor's office to tell you what that change would be it is a non-reassessment year so any change in the levy will be caused by increases in personal property values and new construction and i am not able to get that information yet it's too early in the assessor's office process to give us that preliminary information historically we have built into our projection document a two and a half percent increase in assessed valuation which is pretty typical of where we have been um and a flat collection rate and as i

148indicated in my report earlier that may change the our collection rate is not as favorable as it has been in the previous years so we may have to decrease this estimate in local sources just because of that and see how that all plays out we will have a significant increase in proposition c sales tax revenue that's the one cent sales tax revenue that will be paid out at a higher rate next year based on the governor's proposal so we will see almost 2.7 million dollars of additional income if that plays out as well as the governor has recommended so we're looking for a significant increase which you can see on the far right of that slide where that blue column has bumped up a little bit part of that is in that sales tax revenue

149i did this is one of the things that i did find out yesterday that the congress failed to renew the waivers for paid meals so for free meals so all meals next year will go back to being paid we had anticipated that this might happen so we had shifted a little bit of revenue up into the local this year current year all revenue for food service is coming from the federal level so you will see the shift in revenue and you will most likely see a decrease in the revenue because currently with every meal paid for more people are participating in meal services and especially breakfast and our participation rate historically is lower when it's not paid for obviously so we need to dive into that a little more and look back at probably fy19

150and when i say look back at fy19 we have to recall that fy20 fy21 and fy22 data is no good because of covid began code was in full force code ended but we still are feeling the impacts from variance in fy 22 and the revenue stream and spending patterns so we have three years worth of data that is really difficult to normalize if you will so we're looking a lot back at fy 19 to kind of decide for where we think we should be so that's another complication in putting together a budget that is um hopefully reasonable for us so that's one piece of data that is in here that is not not correct that i know we will do some tweaking to as to the actual amount and where it lies also i don't

151have any budget for the children's services fund grant in here and likewise next month you will not see any expenses in the expenditure budget for the children's services fund we have just recently two weeks ago submitted our latest round of applications so until those applications are approved i won't put that revenue in or the expenses and it will be a wash we get the revenue in the expenditures are driven by the revenue so it won't have any effect other than to increase both budgets the same so it did not include that and that historical allocation has been around well we are i can tell you what our application is for we are right at six million dollars for the next two years approximately three each so we will have um three million dollars to continue

152services that we're already offering with the current children's services right and increase them historically it's been right at the two million dollar level or a little lower so i should see a bump in those if that's approved and i i don't i don't know how long that will take but when if it's not within this budget season then we will make a budget amendment when those are approved in actual fy23 so you'll see that coming on and if you have questions please stop me and i'll be happy to answer this is scott connor's favorite slide yes i always include this just so you can see some of the challenges i joined the board right here and ending on a high campaign um so the challenge that's going to happen not necessarily this year but within

153the next couple of years as you see last year during the reassessment year that um values increased 26 so we have a new assessor we had a correction i think last year of assessed values so the big the big gain now will be to decide how is the new assessor going to deal with assessment next year after a correction like that last year so um it doesn't affect us this coming year as much as it will next year but it's certainly something to think about as we try to figure out what's going to happen and the data goes in late so um obviously that will affect some things that we do but anyway this is always a fun thing to revisit how it's um you know we we were worried that we would see that

154trend where scott joined the board again this year but we it didn't play out like that last year so more to come on that for our state sources and this is where my my slide is wrong now um state payment based on fy 21 weighted average daily attendance i actually learned late yesterday that there is a provision in state statutes that allow us to actually go back to fy21 now deci has deemed that fy 22 attendance is being still impacted by code due to the variance so when that happens we we always have the choice of being having our state payment paid out on our current year enrollment or the higher of the prior to right now we're being paid out on f y make sure i get this right for you f y this

155is 2 2 fy 20 because our enrollment is flat and somewhat decreasing demographers projected a decrease of 15 students for next year so since we are not increasing and in an increasing year i estimate so that we can get paid out on the higher amount because we were growing now we've taken the step that we've never done before and are being paid on a prior year wata under the coveted provision next year we can continue being paid out on fy20s wata because it's still higher than the preceding two it'll actually be the preceding three but the provision allows for that so i do not have that is about 780 000 of additional revenue of state payment i do not have that in this picture because i did not get that information soon enough to include

156it in my presentation before i had to post it for you so that's one of the things that's incorrect in here already the basic formula state adequacy target will remain at 63.75 and that will be that way for the foreseeable future actually based on cova data and covered years the cost to educate students went down this number will never go down but it will stay flat until it becomes more expensive which with inflation may be sooner than we know but right now we're projecting that 50-75 out for all five years of our operating document transportation funding i budgeted a slight decrease and this is due to being back in session full force for all districts the governor did not and increase the transportation budget at all but what happens when more people now are back

157to transporting all of their students the same pie is now distributed to more people so our share of that pie will decrease so i have budgeted for a decrease in transportation revenue and early childhood special education is another primary state source for us and it will be fully funded because it is mandatory and they do follow that mandate so you can see that it is decreasing just a little over the prior year but again that's due to covert funds and finally federal resources are primarily federal programs idea part b special education and those remain flat we don't get those allocations until may and you can see that next year's graph looks very similar to 2019 because 21 are skewed by esser funds and cares act funds so we can't compare them so we're back to

158about where we were at the fy19 level so once we get those allocations this will be updated as well but they don't tend to roll in very early either and then finally this slide just shows the summary and on the far left that is fy 18 and that was proceeds from bond sales so that data there is vastly different from the rest of it on the right side of those but you can see where total revenue is basically flat and operating revenue is decreasing by about 2 million dollars primarily due to federal relief funds so that's what i'm thinking about right now what we're thinking will happen with some tweaks obviously as we get more information and then we know that the levy will not be set until september so then in september we will

159have a big budget amendment a budget not necessarily a big budget amendment but a budget amendment to correct that for any levy correction due to changes in assessed valuation so that's what we've got for you tonight in may along with the expenditure presentation that happens in april we will bring you a preliminary budget with all of this updated as well as the expenditure piece updated questions no question just as always thanks to you and the team for putting this together and i and kurt gates can attest to this i don't have a crystal ball he kindly provided me a magic 8-ball today um to help me do some of this but anyway it is it is a big job and thank you i appreciate that sentiment and there is a lot of collaboration across the

160state too among department of ed state associations in addition the legislature governor's office as they think about their projections and share information and data so districts do the same thing with one another so appreciate like nick said cindy and the team so yeah thank you thank you all right moving on to some more uh exciting news 6.02 traffic control easement turn that over to mr anderson to walk us through that item i will be brief this is a small area uh to accommodate a future traffic signal to being celebrated that road at middle school i've been working with the city for some time on this appreciate them reaching out they've asked actually asked us to write a letter of support a couple of years ago when that funding process finally caught up so they'll be

161moving forward with that this fall um like it's a very nominal sometimes entities like to charge a fee for that but our recommendation is not to do that it stands to benefit the district pretty considerably so we appreciate consideration tonight on the first read to allow them to move forward with final design construction as the parent of two children who attend have attended liberty middle school and have been gone through that intersection many many many many times i cannot say how much we need this so are you recommending an action yes i move the board approve the easement for traffic control devices in the form as presented asap sections denise when you're ready scott yes andy yes kim marie yes aj yes andrew yes angie yes nick yes motion carries in the 6.03 revised compensation

162schedule this is um an item to codify a practice we've had in place for some time in which we re uh recently realized that it was not on the books so i want to turn it over to dr vogel or to walk us through this item yeah so this is uh really as you said an opportunity to systemize something that's already a practice in place and create uniformity across departments steve anderson has worked very closely with his team over these areas to create this system the important things to note is this applies to non-exempt employees who are tasked with being on call and the estimated annual increase in cost through the system will be about ten thousand dollars questions concerns comments i moved the board approved the modified miscellaneous rate of pay salary schedule everybody

163we all jumped in at the same time just pick one denise when you're ready scott yes andy yes kim marie yes aj yes drew yes angie yes nick yes motion carries thank you 6.04 contracts purchases and bids so under that item uh we have a couple items that mr anderson is going to walk through for us yeah there are six items three artists for uh introduction on first read and then three emergency purchases i'm gonna go through four of them and i'm gonna have two over to dr voglar the one for first read is related to mechanical electrical and plumbing engineering services and this would be we sent out an rfq they had two firms apply this would be renewal or contract with henderson associates for one year with opportunities to renew every year for

164five years and had really good um relationship with that firm so that would be back next month and then tom to the bottom there have been three emergency actions over the past 30 days to involving hl restoration one at bridgeview and in the other at liberty high school where we had some water issues it brings an outside firm to help us remediate that and then the last one is a vw refrigeration get an emergency purchase requirement for resurrected heritage middle school um so we really didn't have any time interviewing for to purchase that so those are those would be to be approved today uh firm today and then i'll turn the other back over to the bottom thank you these two items will appear in terms of service agreements in the april board meeting so

165no action tonight but uh one is a compensation classification study uh we do we do this regularly as a part of our team liberty process uh phase four of our last one uh would be part of the recommendations for this year and so that tees up in the fall an opportunity to do a comprehensive compensation classification study we submitted the rfp to respondents ems and evergreen solutions we've done business with both we received a letter from other companies that we've done business with we have relationships with where they have extended that they would like to do this business but the timing isn't right and so they bowed out so that left two in there there's a rate comparison of the two we're moving forward with evergreen solutions for reasons that are noted in the in

166the rate comparison among other criteria uh again as i mentioned before we're going to work on a service agreement with evergreen solutions and bring that in april to the board hey mr nation with the uh mechanical electrical plumbing uh dr voglar we talked about just the two that in proposals and the reasons for that it is to seem low feels though but is it yeah i i think we typically had a few more and sometimes i think they just realized that you know the district already had maybe a pre-established relationship with henderson we've not been with him very long either okay um so i'm not sure beyond that i know mr wright puts out pretty broad uh to make sure everybody's aware and tries to solicit more folks to submit but only too soon that

167this go around okay and i want to mention too the substitute management services was the second rfp and we had four respondents there pen mac at your staff ess and kelly educational services which is our incumbent service provider and we're recommending staying with our current provider they're price competitive and you'll see that in the rate comparison sheets for kelly services as well we'll prepare a service agreement with kelly services and present that name report meeting as well any questions take a motion for the emergency purchases and move the board approve the emergency purchases slash actions as presented when you're ready scott yes andy yes marie yes aj yes drew yes angie yes nick yes motion carries into the board of education section 7.01 legislation and advocacy angie i don't know what's going on with legislation

168i've not been paying attention i'm sorry um but check out msba because they keep you up to date but the second thing is there is a regional meeting on thursday april 7th it is in blue springs and starts at six and tell denise if you're going did you get mine yes okay that's all i have all right uh upcoming meeting 7.02 next uh study session uh on election day i believe um april 5th 7 am followed by april's board meeting on the 19th any more remarks 7.03 take a motion i made the board to turn second and denise when you're ready scott yes andy yes and marie yes aj yes drew yes angie yes nick yes don't forget [Music]