001[Music] so [Music] the united states tomorrow [Music] i move the board approve the agenda as presented aj yes all right our next item is 3.03 public comment um people addressing the board will be asked to not repeat what someone before has said persons addressing the border asked to keep their remarks concise each speaker shall be limited to three minutes because of the number of people who have appeared wishing to make comment i will be monitoring the time closely a person or person may speak what they want at the meeting and i'd also like to be clear that due to missouri sunshine laws if an item is not included on the agenda we can't and won't discuss it concerns brought forward during public comment may be addressed by the superintendent or appropriate staff members usually within
002the week because we do have limited seating and there may be more individuals interested in addressing the board we respectfully request that once you've shared your comments please make your way to the lobby so that our safety and security team can allow another patron to enter the boardroom thank you and we'll start with kyle bryant thank you everybody for uh having us up here like i said my name is kyle bryant i have a student who is a junior swimmer and cellist last march when we left for spring break the only thing we had on our mind was survive survive the pandemic survive quarantine survive virtual schooling just survive literally the actual definition of survive is continue to live or exist especially in spite of danger or hardship we did it we have survived it's
003time to move on live life and allow our kids to thrive our community has come together and ask that you put kids first we don't want our kids to merely survive we want them to thrive thrive means to grow vigorously to prosper to progress towards or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances the circumstances of coven 19 are as the media likes to like to say unprecedented but putting safety and physical health as a top priority has left our kids without without health for their social well-being their emotional well-being and their mental health you see all four of these areas make up the whole child we must not prioritize one over the other if we do imbalance occurs we see rises in anxiety depression drugs and alcohol use suicide and much more the lp
004graduate profile says that every student will thrive by interacting with building relationships a better way to do that than on the field engage in an environment where professionalism is learned sportsmanship is a great way to practice identify strengths and learn how to address weaknesses i can't think of a better way than sports and extracurricular activities create opportunities for success both on and off the field in fact four out of the five graduate profiles are practiced and met by playing sports to the board our community knows that you do put our kids first people move here just so that their kids can be part of the excellence that this school district offers now it's time to lead lead by allowing our kids to play allowing our kids to learn allowing our kids to thrive allowing our
005kids to live let them play mr bryant next brett horn thank you i uh left my speech at home so i'm doing it off my phone so uh bear with me thank you my name is brett horne my wife jenny and i reside in the kansas city side of the liberty school district we have three kids currently in high school but we have four kids total unfortunately we know the tragedy of losing a child way too soon and so trust me when i have my perspective it is it is thoughtful uh i don't want to see any child harmed but our three kids are currently involved in band football cheerleading so friday nights are our life if you can imagine i don't have time to go to the restroom but i do believe that the
006lessons they learn from these activities are um for some more important than the skills that they acquire in the classroom june 15th that's the day that the world reopened in liberty public schools it's the day that we began football soccer volleyball cross country cheer dance and band every single drill every single procedure for all of these sports was explained in detail and agreed upon and approved by the director of the clay county public health center as football playing parent we take the risk the american academy of pediatrics states ultimately the decision falls on parents and guardians to decide whether to allow their children to participate in sports as a parent of children who complete in who compete we understand the risk we understand the benefits as well and in today's world we understand that our
007children are going to be exposed to covid in the grocery store the hardware store in your hallways at parties family reunions and more in a study published for the 2013 american journal of sports medicine it concludes that the high school and college football have approximately 12 fatalities annually in high school football that's before covid we know the risks spring won't work i'm going to breeze through this section the cdc indicates uh that it's going to be a bad winter uh covet will still exist in march unless you know something i don't this springs alternate season that they've suggested for mission it simply will not work and it will result in the cancellation of many many other sports suburban conference has 27 schools who are all committed to play fall sports yet last week our county
008health department made a tweet that has threatened the sport in in our particular area today if you don't know i'm speaking with a friend from the raytown school district and their superintendent has announced via email uh that they will be opting for fall not for spring alternate school much has said been said about the liability of the district and liability is our biggest concern i think we should shut down sports immediately we should stop all fine arts and clubs we should not allow teachers in our building and we should go virtual immediately covet is here and it's going to be here in march and it's here now doesn't matter if you're in group a or group b i'm almost done there's no possible way to maintain social distancing in the buildings which you operate 50
009or less and and i would challenge you challenge any of you the teachers to say that they do it better than the coaches do because they know that their sport is being threatened being taken away i'm going to there's one one point i wanted to make about the recommendations that the clay county public health department department has issued we're already in violation as they recommend that gr infection is greater indoors they recommend against it there's that key word again recommend i don't understand the recommendation if this infection is bad enough then the health department needs to take the decision out of this board's hands and move on please let them play thank you sorry it took long all right lisa mayer hi good evening i'm lisa mayer my husband and i have raised three children
010in the district and i'm a liberty grad we have a senior a freshman in a fifth grader on behalf of those of us here and every single person outside we appreciate your service we urge the board to ignore the county health department's soft recommendation the health department is making recommendations that by all accounts are not based on justifiable or quantifiable data it is both fair to unfair to the kids and unfair to deflect the burden of this decision to you the board my understanding and its website my understanding and its website the county health department does not specialize in children's overall health and wellness or education the department's focus is certainly not on school-aged children the county data states that there are zero deaths under the age of 65 years old the statistic alone provides
011a solid basis for allowing school and school activities to continue without interruption the data also shows that clay county has 15 times more child flu cases than coped these two statistics together make a strong case against the department's recommendation sports and activities have not been shut down for any other illnesses in the past also important to remember is that our teams and groups have had practices all summer and youth league's accommodated thousands of players and fans this summer with just a few cases reported between them and zero outbreaks as you likely know the department manages among other things food safety water sewage sanitation senior services flu shots free dental exams birth control etc in other words they are not infectious disease experts and they certainly are not experts in responding to pandemics with regard to
012education i urge you to consider that the real medical experts and child wellbeing have to say and partner with us to push back against the county's soft and lazy recommendation the american academy of pediatrics the cdc who john hopkins and pediatric psychologist all these medical experts state that children need to go back to school and that activities need to resume for not only the physical well-being of children but possibly even more importantly the mental health of school-aged children well-adjusted kids are struggling the struggle is real i understand that this is part of your duty to consider risk but if you are concerned about risk in my opinion the district will be facing an overwhelming amount of non-coveted issues if activities are canceled if activities are cancelled i strongly believe that this time of year next
013year we'll all be i just lost my place if activities are cancered i strongly believe that this time next year we'll all be i wish a cova case here there is all we had to worry about instead we'll be worrying about lower college attendance rate college attendance rates suicide depression anxiety drugs alcohol unwanted pregnancies lower test scores and numerous other problems that come from idle time unsupervised time and lack of structure i understand that insurance coverage and risk mitigation may be what is all this boils down to right now but that is really short-term view and we have elected you to represent our interests as well as the kids i noticed a difficult burden that has been put on all of you and on the districts to make this decision please take a stand and
014advocate for the to for the kids take the side of overwhelming majority in the community and vote to proceed with all activities as scheduled the kids have lost their spring season already seniors have already lost any assemblance of a traditional year we've taken enough away from them there's a mountain of data that shows that kids thrive in participating in all activities and it truly changes the trajectory of their lives you have the power and responsibility to change these kids lives for the better or for the worse i truly appreciate your time dedication consideration and research you've put into this decision please consider more than the county's statistically unsupported recommendation and allow us the opportunity to push back on the health department for a sound data-driven recommendation thank you for the opportunity next is landon robinson
015hello my name is landon robinson and i'm a senior at liberty high school i appreciate the opportunity to have my voice heard and i really hope that you listen to all of us speaking tonight and take into account our views and stories on how the cancellation of fall activities will affect us as a student body i just wanted to talk about a few experiences that i will miss out on if not only fall sports but fall activities are canceled i am a very active member of the student body at liberty high i have been a member of the football team for four years a member of the choir for four years and have been involved in various clubs including breakfast club student council fca national honor society and a three-year member of our nationally recognized
016chamber choir senior year is the year that everyone looks forward to throughout their life as a student last year when coveted was just starting up and becoming an issue not only did singers miss out on many opportunities but so did many underclassmen as a member of the junior class it was our job to plan prom as our gift to the seniors when i was told that i would not get the opportunity to have that experience i was devastated our prom committee had already spent months of planning and organizing the event and all of it went to waste another opportunity i missed out on was participating in the district and state competitions for our choir as a middle class male i had to put myself through college because my parents could not financially support me through
017that endeavor the state and district competitions were a way for me to earn scholarships to help me pay my way to a greater education my next point i want to bring up is the topic of mental health i know for me personally i'm someone who thrives off social interaction it is a necessity for my survival quarantine was very rough for me i often find myself not wanting to get out of bed because there was no point i'm going to be honest with you i was depressed the thing that brought a little light back into my life was the idea that i would be able to go back to school and the normalcy of life even with all the precautions that we would have to take i was excited to get back to football practice choir
018rehearsals and just being able to see the random faces in the hallways our coaches and athletic department have done such an outstanding job of making sure all the correct guidelines are being followed not only at practice but outside as well every player on a team wears a mask into practice facilities during practice and when leaving practice we constantly sanitize our hands practice equipment and our uniforms to make sure we take all precautions to prevent covet i am proud to be a part of a school and community that takes into consideration the needs of its children and is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure they get to have a normal life i was also excited to use a new performing arts theater we just spent millions of dollars to build but now there's
019a chance that it's not even a possibility when i was informed that there was a chance that my excitement would get taken away again it wasn't taken easily i know that in for a fact there are students in high school that stay in high school just for participating in extra activities what will happen to those students how many students are we going to lose because going to school and participating in activities are their safe place my senior year was already disrupted by the fact that i'm not going to be able to see the faces of my fellow seniors on a daily basis but at least i have the chance to do what i love surrounded by people that love it just as much as i do are there risks to this virus and allowing us
020to play sure there are but there are risks every time i wake up in the morning i risk my life driving my car but with the right precautions taken i lessen the chance of injury if something bad would happen i'm thankful for the ability to do the things that i love and i commend all the people that have had to make the tough decisions that come along with this new and uncharted territory but i big of you let me play let me sing let me have my senior year thank you for your time and brady snyder hello my name is braden snyder and i'm a senior at liberty north high school and i'm privileged to represent my fellow student athletes and participants in school clubs and activities i'm here tonight to ask you to get
021us back to school and back on the field a sport is a sport for most a sport is more than a sport for most athletes it's who we are i've waited 12 years for my senior year which is most of my life since i put my first pads on in pop warner football i've been to countless games as a kid waiting to be on that field being back on the field is more than football it's again it's about the game of life the sport i play shapes me builds my character connects me with my teammates ensures i'm academically and emotionally successful and perhaps above all it has taught me the importance of discipline we are very well disciplined as a football team this is due to a large part this is a large part due
022to our coaching staff school leaders and our parents we are following all the guidelines to ensure everyone is safe and that we can take the field this fall this self-discipline is powered by the strong desire of 160 plus football players 36 of whom are seniors which equals the most which which equals the most and the most which equals the most players on the team and the most seniors in school history while i recognize the difficult decision this group is going to have to make i ask that you remember the large number of students who may be devastated by the postponement of their regular season i am concerned about the increase of anxiety depression or worse thousand for thousands of high school students we'll take the role seriously too we remain disciplined we want to be
023back to school and we want to be back on the field please let us play thank you um we don't usually comment after this but i would like to say thank you to all of our patrons who took time to speak with us today i especially appreciate that all of you have remained respectful and have recognizes this is very difficult for all of us um regarding this issue the board does understand that it's an important issue for our family for your families for our entire community and as board members as parents we also understand that activities are important to all of our students so we are still awaiting guidance from several other governing bodies and associations and we remain in conversation with kansas city and clay county health departments with misha with the greater kansas
024city suburban conference and other school districts so that in similar classifications so we can determine the best way forward together we are committed to providing families in the community with an update as soon as we have news or decisions thank you all right is there anyone else are there a few more okay um yeah that's fine hmm um [Music] okay hmm right come a little statement first people addressing the board will be asked not to repeat what someone before has said persons addressing the board asked to keep their remarks concise and to the point each speaker shall be limited to three minutes a person or persons may speak only once at the meeting i'd like to be clear that due to missouri sunshine laws if an item is not included on the agenda we can't
025and won't discuss it concerns brought forward during public comment may be addressed by the superintendent or appropriate staff members usually within a week okay so first we have janae is that right moultrie hi my name is janae mulcher and i'm a senior volleyball player at liberty high school first i want to start off by saying thank you for allowing me to represent liberty high school volleyball and all you have done these last few months to keep us all safe during this pandemic sorry you can take your mask off we can hear you a little bit better great thank you i think i speak for a lot of us when i say right now is a very confusing time the pressure on adults to make the best decisions for their kids and their families is an
026ongoing conversation but not everyone talks about how kids and teens are dealing with it as well tonight we have a voice and i hope you truly hear us ever since i was little all i've ever known is sports sports has given me relationships that have changed my life the mental toughness i never knew i needed and skills for life that you don't always learn in a classroom before cover 19 i was a six days a week four to eight hours a day athlete constantly in the gym or at school once the pandemic hit i didn't realize how much my mental health and overall life would change in just a few days when my club volleyball season was canceled and we weren't able to go to nationals i thought it was the end of the world
027but little did i know that was just the beginning of bad news that was yet to come thankfully our athletic department and our coaches were able to do virtual workouts and zoom meetings to give us some sort of hope and stability for me and two of my closest friends our senior season has been something we've been looking forward to since we were little especially with the amazing group of girls we have being able to finally get back into the gym was probably one of the best feelings i've had since quarantine started it got me excited to wake up in the morning because there was something to look forward to now that we are at the start of our 2020 season we have high hopes of going back to state and playing again our athletic department
028as you know has made sure that every guideline has been set in place is being followed by all teams not only in the gym but also when we aren't at practice please know this is not just about games and competition playing sports gives us a sense of hope because it gives us back our normalcy our security and our safe place this deeply influences our mental wellness and how we see ourselves how we see each other and how we cope with the stress of life even covid if our season is postponed until spring not only would it take away those hopes but would take away our motivation and our healthy way of coping with this pandemic please don't mistake our passion to play with not taking this pandemic seriously we understand all the precautions that need
029to be taken and we are all doing our part to protect our own families as well allowing us to play sports in the midst of covid gives us all a chance to learn how to live safely and wisely while still doing the things we enjoy in this new reality i know i can't make this decision for you but i hope you sincerely consider the impact of your decision as you represent me and every other student athlete in our district thank you again for listening thank you now you can put it back on all right next is natalia nook correct me if i didn't get it right hello my name is natalia kanoke and i'm a senior on the liberty sapphires to me sapphires is a time in the day where i can go do what
030i love with people that i love when i came into high school i didn't know who i was or what i wanted to be but i had sapphires and that was enough looking back on my time as a sapphire i learned so many life lessons and changed so much because of this program i found so many passions in life and established a strong sense of individuality that will help me succeed in college and in life outside of college speaking for all athletes our sports have had a crucial impact on our lives and we need to have our season so that we can fully be prepared for college and life not having a season takes away from recruitment opportunities and without that athletes are not getting scholarships that are vital and affording college it's not just
031the upperclassmen that suffer from this but underclassmen as well without a season they're missing out on the major growth that happens those first two years they're missing out on learning what veterans are missing on when they say oh my gosh do you remember this moment is moments and memories like that they're incredibly important to leave with our sports or our seasons there will be a lack of growth opportunity and inability and ability to develop some of the closest bonds you will have in high school legacy that is something that all athletes want to leave behind they want to be remembered by something they did or achieved looking back on the many amazing people that have gone through any program at liberty high school we have been able to leave our mark it is now our
032time we have worked so hard to come to the point our lives where every action we take has building our legacy as much as we want our year to happen we also want our legacy to remain as this the seniors that took every advantage of so little possibilities that's what we are doing we are making the best of every practice every event because we don't know when will be our last this legacy and mindset that we're building every day will help us as adults because we know how to adapt and see the best in every situation the sapphires want all actions to be regarding the health and safety of our wonderful community but we also want the voices and concerns of high schools to be heard class of 2021 wants this year to happen because
033we need every opportunity as the grades have had before us it's not just us that we want this for though we want the juniors to experience the craziness of being a junior we want the sophomores to have their growth year and we want our freshmen to learn the incredible high school life that the rest of us know every student athlete wants this year to happen no matter what it looks like we just want the opportunity to build memories that will make us smile when we look back on our teenage years those moments that bond teammates into friends and friends into family because family is what holds us up and keeps us going every day it's not just football cross country softballs or even sapphires it's one family lps needs to come together as one family
034we need liberty to lead out in the metro area and we need to know and show what liberty can be a family and we can be united together thank you natalia thank you to both of you for speaking today um i'm just going to read again what i said to the other group not all of it but they're um this issue the board is still um considering it and we're awaiting guidance from several other governing bodies we're remaining in conversation with various health departments with misha with greater kansas city suburban conference and other neighboring school districts so that we can determine the best path forward together make sure that you have competition um we're committed to providing families in the community with an update when any new information is received or when decisions are made
035thank you to both of you for speaking and for remaining respectful we appreciate that thank you all for your time thank you thank you okay all right very much um i think that brings us to 4.01 the consent agenda can you read that consent agenda yeah can you read the statement my computer timed out our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure robert's rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion documentation concerning his items have 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 i'm sorry i moved the board approved consent agenda items 4.01 through 4.0 second [Music] good job yes brings us
036to the computer i'm scrolling down 5.01 okay that brings us to 5.01 uh so the first of our reports from the administration uh first off is innovation and learning it looks like dr westfall is approaching to give an update as she's doing that i want to thank her and dr moore and the entire department for their leadership always more importantly these last several weeks and days and everything that they're doing to welcome new teachers to the district as well as uh welcoming staff back as they get back together lots of excitement in schools it's always good to reconnect with people so i appreciate dr moore and dr westfall both for their leadership as we get back enrolling and ready for the new year so dr westfall thank you dr tucker and thank you to everyone
037i just want to submit our board report um to you today for the details that are happening in our department we're trying to give you a little bit more specific information from every one of the directors that reports to us and so we hope that you'll be able to see those details that it's kind of a different report for us so we wanted to offer that to you but dr tucker really outlined for us the information that we just wanted to chat about today and those are the top three things that we've been dealing with in the last since we saw you last the first thing is we were excited to welcome back last wednesday our new teachers to the district we ran that program in partnership as we always do with human resources and
038we welcomed 49 teachers in the new teacher institute so that's not necessarily how many we've only hired but it's certainly how many we trained last week they started on wednesday with three full day schedules that included learning just around all things liberty and so it was it was really fun to see their excitement to really talk through what our new paradigm looks like in instruction working with um with the innovation and learning coaches i don't know if you know that they constantly work on designing that and and leading the learning so a huge shout out to the innovation and learning coaches team but we also wanted to let you know that we had some guest speakers as we do um dr tucker and voglar usually open the the new teacher institute for us with welcomes
039to our teachers and then this year we were super happy that mrs graham and mr bartlow were able to come and visit means a lot to our new teachers to see that we spent a lot of time just so you know working on that whole idea of online learning with our new staff we recognize that that's going to be a necessity so we did dedicate some significant time to that we also had a special shout out for um our two teacher unions liberty um both nea and msta were able to come and share with our staff they share lunch with them and then have a chance to talk with them about that and then of course our very favorite is liberty foundation where they always promise new teacher grants for uh our new staff so
040again i just wanted to let you know a huge shout out for our innovation and learning coaches next thing is as dr tucker mentioned we started yesterday with all staff back so this is something we've been preparing for all summer and it was pretty excited to see everyone else's excitement and coming back and and working together the principals have been working just endlessly to try to make sure that the buildings are prepared spent a lot of time and yesterday today and the rest of this week just preparing our staff for what that new expectations are for social distancing and mask wearing and all the guidelines that are around returning to learn the buildings have been revamping their master schedules as you can imagine we've had to make some adjustments in staffing due to the ability
041for us to manage both the liberty virtual school and the face-to-face instruction so um dr kelly slurry has been a huge he spends typically three months working on that um in the spring and he has worked on that now for two weeks and trying to turn that around for us so he's still working on it making great progress and then we've just been fielding a lot of questions about our new schedule so that face-to-face learning for elementary school five days a week and making sure that everyone's aware of how that works and then our alternating schedule for secondary so that's a little bit new with virtual wednesdays so just making sure that everyone's clear what that looks like and answering our parents questions and settling any kind of angst that might come around that change
042and then last but not least last week we started um monday with the design week for our new liberty virtual school so that kicked off with um we're sitting right now actually about about 118 staff members um serving the virtual school not all of them are full-time we're sharing some of them face-to-face and virtual and so we'll be working with them getting the two schedules so we have i think at the last count we were about 24 50 i think at virtual students so if you just think about that for a minute we have a virtual school that's kind of as big as many school districts in the state of missouri and we put that together this summer and have staffed it and have been training and the teachers are working really hard at designing
043that learning doing a fabulous job i've looked at quite a bit of their content it's pretty impressive and so um just a shout out to that crew that stepped up volunteered or the building said we need your help and they came forward for us to help us so anyway we're working on scheduling students right now so that's happening i think dr soleri was able to schedule elementary students or is getting ready to this week so we'll find out and be able to release school you know student assignments around the same time as we do our face-to-face assignments that's our goal so anyway that's all for innovation and learning if you have any questions i do just have a comment about the virtual school in particular sure um i don't know how many of you have
044had conversations with jeanette but i've had multiple conversations with her in the last week because i've had individual parents say this is the schedule that my specific child needs and that's been a challenge and every time i send it to jeanette she says all right we're going to figure it out and she's been figuring it out for individual kids thank you all of us down yeah thank you for all your hard work could you please explain how we're assigning kids to virtual teachers i think there's some confusion on how that's being done sure so um it's it's a little bit different elementary and secondary so elementary first we have anywhere from four four five to about six or seven grade level teachers k5 pre-k five so two at pre-k and um we are really working
045hard to try to keep cohorts of students together so if we can and make the numbers work with the teachers the first thing we do is for example if a teacher is from let's say lillian schumacher then the teacher that's the lillian schumacher teacher gets all of the students from lillian schumacher so that they have an instant connection in case we have any return to the building and then after that we're trying to cohort in to make sure that the numbers match keeping our numbers even amongst all the teachers but then also not going over our max capacity that we've tried to keep under 40. so we've done a really good job with that i think we're going to be able to make that goal but then some of the schools had larger capacities and
046so we did have to split them but we split them only like between two schools so for example if um franklin had 26 students we might have had to put 13 with one teacher and 13 with another but if their teacher was one of the teachers they got them right so that happened at a grade level uh i think fourth grade had two teachers from lewis and clark so we split the lewis and clark kids between the two of them and then we added classes in so that's the elementary side of it with the middle school and high school we are we recruited teachers we kind of called it to be fair it's kind of equal sacrifice we said everybody has this many students coming so we need you to support that with the number
047of teachers that's equitable to the number of students that you have in virtual school they all were great every single one of the middle schools and high schools was really good about providing staff for us to to meet that goal we're still working on that we're still trying to figure out the numbers because in secondary it really is about scheduling and so it's really interesting to figure out some students it's easy for the core that's a little bit simpler to figure out the math science social studies and english but it's a little more difficult when it comes to electives and so we're still working through those kinds of numbers but what we're doing is assigning so going back to if we have three english teachers one is from one one is from each middle school
048and then we're putting all the students in those so it's not one school with a tremendous number of students but it's equal distribution amongst the teachers that are assigned there so that's how elementor that's how middle school and high school are being handled based on schedules we're still trying to figure out some of the very specific classes that are unique if we can find those at the at the high school where we can get a period for a virtual teacher then we're talking to those individuals trying to get them to to take that class so that we can provide the students so kind of like what mrs graham said is we're doing our very best to meet the needs of our families we did have a unique situation for example a family asked us for
049a pandemic pod where they're going to group all their children together and can we have a learning manager so mr bartlow like what you asked for so we're trying to do that too so we're trying a variety of things to make sure that not only does it not over overwhelm our staff but also meets the needs of our families so just trying to balance that between so i on behalf of innovation and learning really it's all of our teachers all of our coaches without question all of our principles have been just right up front trying to problem solve along with us and so it's definitely a learning event we are all learning for sure and i have noticed that there are some superstar teachers who have decided to do virtual learning so that's yeah we
050have superstar teachers across the district but it certainly doesn't mean that the virtual school is going to be any less quality or any less prepared for an area that's so new we just ask them to be patient and learn together and they are all there so super proud of them yeah other questions of dr westfall dr moore thank you thank you next up then is 5.02 equity report dr dixon seahorn as she is coming she also had the opportunity to connect with our new teacher institute and welcome our faculty to liberty public schools i won't ruin it for you like i ruined it for dr westfall so we'll turn it over to you dr dixon i can always leave it with you and then we can just drop the mic okay so um thank you
051again for the opportunity to just share some updates with you on this evening i wanted to just highlight just a couple of things and want to be short and sweet in the interest of time we have a cultural competency work group that's aligned with the strategic plan and so that team we're still continuing to work on our educators online resource hub resources on cultural competence unconscious bias cultural relevance we're uh reviewing all of the resources that we've kind of curated within this draft site and so our goal is that by the first week of school that that website will go live for teachers so that as we're rolling out professional learning experiences for them um as we're having conversations at the the building level with leadership teams that they have a place to go to
052secure some resources to really kind of grow on their own at their own pace so actively working on that as well as our knee network for educator effectiveness that piece connected to our evaluation process we're currently also we have some members on our team that are reviewing the instructional videos for school leaders so they'll know what to look for under that new standard that we've identified for our district 6.2 that is around communications with students that are sensitive to their culture their gender their intellect physical differences and so on and so forth so we're reviewing those videos at this time uh we have someone on the team that has exceptional rapport with the knee folks so if there's something that we're needing more of as a better quality example they're willing to work with us
053and possibly developing something so we're excited about that and of course we'll be partnering with innovation and learning with respect to dr moore and school leadership and and having those deeper conversations with our our school leaders i also wanted to highlight the fact dr tucker did allude to this that i did have the opportunity to connect with those approximately 50 new lps staff members in the form of our session on the three c's of equity in the school and classroom context and so that session is aligned with state standards desi has a requirement for all new staff members around diversity in the classroom and so we rolled out that conversation and it was interesting how we were able to do it even in a social distancing way we actually had some really good dialogue that
054came out of that session on that day and so the three c's again center around cultural competence that's about just the knowledge the skills the dispositions that we want our educators to have in classrooms working with diverse learners the cultural relevance part is about the planning that they would do to fold a student's culture their experience their background as much as possible into the academic content and then the cultural responsiveness is really about the strategies that we use in a classroom setting to be more responsive to our students and families wherever they come from so that was exciting and then the i think the other really exciting thing for me was to be able to facilitate a live session with our innovation and learning coaches around cultural competency and beyond so these are these are
055kind of sister professional learning experiences so while the one was for our those folks that are new to us here in lps the other was recorded with innovation and learning coaches and it will roll out tomorrow to all schools as another layer of professional learning around diversity equity inclusion so in that session we covered the six dimensions of the cultural competency continuum and it was an exciting time with those ilcs and so it's been edited and formatted within a 60-minute time frame and so that will be again another layer of pd uh early pd for our staff in addition to that other safe schools requirement for everyone across the system this pd is just unique to our educators so certificated staff and then also paraprofessionals and others that support learning in classrooms every day so
056that's all i wanted to share is highlights are there any questions comments or concerns any questions for dr dickson thank you all right thank you so much next is 5.03 and miss cindy sullivan good evening we have one donation to recognize tonight and that is a donation from temple engineering inc of 100 cases of half gallon size hand sanitizer with pump worth seven thousand dollars we can use that we're greatly appreciative of their donation and would like to thank them for that a couple other things i'd like to highlight from my report for you tonight something different you saw in the financials tonight was the annual secretary of the board report and this is the required financial statement that districts all public school districts and charter districts are required to file with deci it's due
057by august 15th of every year and that takes the financial information for the year and slices and dices it in many ways so it's a very good report to look at if you didn't get to chance to look at it very closely while you were reviewing the finances this month i encourage you to have a look at that and holler if you have any questions about that it's a good picture of what we did this past year i would also like to remind you that the audit and finance committee will try to have an in-person meeting in september we have been reviewing financial statements just on their own and submitting questions but we do have a meeting scheduled for september 14th and we are going to meet with the auditor on that night as well
058in a closed session so i am looking forward to getting back together with them in person as far as we know now that's what our plan is i also wanted to report to you that at the end of the year we were a little concerned about our collection rate of personal property taxes being a little bit lower than we were accustomed to i'm happy to report that our delinquent tax collection rate is skyrocketing through the first two months of the year we are about three times higher this time this year than last year and we have already collected almost half of what we collected last year overall in delinquent taxes while that is not necessarily good for our county it is good for the district that people perhaps paid late and that we will see
059an uptick in our collection percentage overall i'm hoping that that is good news and bodes well for the things to come in the next few months so i wanted to share that with you and also on the state front the state revenue collections also remain strong so more to come on that as we continue to get updates around our state payment but those are both pieces of good news for you tonight that's all i wanted to highlight in my report unless you have any other questions for me tonight i appreciate financial good news thank you cindy thank you next up then 5.04 mr anderson thank you just a few things to report out tonight in addition to the two reports uh included and uploaded um so first uh just a really quick update on our
060planning uh for fall for uh september for the back to school i just want to call out a few people and specifically as we're all working through the details now and have been ever since we've kind of landed the plan and the approach there's been a whole lot of work just on the operations and facility side but our teams and our directors are working so closely with three individuals principals uh uh right now and just wanted to thank them that that's rosemary camp is kind of handling the secondary level uh high school level scott cars at the middle level and then chris gabriel's handling the elementary level and they're serving as kind of a point person for all of their principles and has been just exceptionally helpful to us and the contact point for all
061of our directors as we're working through all the details related for to everything from transportation to nutrition services the kids own facilities maintenance custodial all those folks and so just really appreciate their work and of course with dr moore and dr westfall working with us as well so i just want to kind of point that out and then last just quickly on construction just met today with the team so i have some pretty fresh updates the performing arts center we did get a temporary certificate of occupancy last week which was great so that allowed folks are in that space right now teachers getting acclimated everything but the theater in the stage so that's still kind of set aside for right now but but so we're able to kind of get into that space the theater
062itself and the stage we're expecting seats uh probably about this time next week and then that will take him about a week two weeks to kind of get that all set in place and then to fine-tune the space with all the sound and acoustics to make sure it was it's ready for occupancy so we expect that by mid-september to turn that space over as well so all that is going very well on budget as projected so we're feeling pretty good about that the media center uh that's part of kind of the roof removal they're laying carpet in that space right now and that area will be ready for the start of school so they need that space and they will be using that space uh the atrium kind of the main atrium area they're going
063to start here in the in the coming weeks and start to kind of recapture some of that space because it's an important point of important conduit from one side of the building to the other so we'll be opening that up gradually uh and that will be complete by october one and the scaffolding will come down in phases uh and and be able to recapture that space and then the 800s wing we a group of us toured this last week the 800s all the space including the pack and the 800s is coming along great you're starting to really kind of see what it's going to look like and that again is still on track for thanksgiving last thing i point out is we've been having some conversations and around finding a time to to bring the
064board and maybe some of the folks that were very involved in the campaign uh to tour that space working with aaron money we'll probably find a time here in the next week or two and we'll let you know and get you over there and kind of get you in and to look at the space and especially the theater space so some more to come on that um with that i'd be happy to take any questions you said all the atrium work will be done october 1. that is what they're telling me by october one that everything will be peeled off and finished up and paint and painted and ready for occupancy i had a big thing no leaks no leaks by the way sorry for the all the hand sanitizers outside the classrooms teachers are
065very grateful yeah yeah the team jason bright and his crew have been on top of that and ordering um procuring all the necessary materials and ppe so yeah i feel pretty good about that so isn't that isn't the goal to be at a hand sanitizer station and be able to see two more that that's still a goal we've not done the full tour but um that they know that's the goal and projects are visible like a lot of these you're talking about what i like to just go in and walk through it make sure i help people you know whatever what are the opportunities because i know with covet and everything it's an effort that needs to be is there any opportunity for us to walk through and check things out or you mean in
066lieu of or in addition to them more organized tour is that what you're asking i don't know if i heard you organized your win well yeah we're looking at maybe next week or the week after uh and met with aaron money and his team that we would don't get old i missed i just missed that okay yeah yeah that's what i'm looking for okay yeah tour's coming and we had it we had an opportunity several of us from the dac went over late friday and um eac as was mentioned um with the exception of the auditorium that additional space is ready to go furniture's moving in so it's pretty amazing to see it we also got a chance to see the 800s that that is gutted and open and you kind of get a sense
067of what that's going to look like the little theater is trans is being transformed that'll take a little while longer but i appreciate steve for setting that up and look forward to taking the board through that as well what is the 800 going to be used for so that it used to be the fine arts wing right so all the fine arts space is moving and so right now i don't know we're formerly doesn't have a name yet uh but it's going to be similar to that that new space up at liberty north eagle point it's going to be the the with the capturing off of the little theater uh that's been flattened out so it's a flat space now so it'll be like a big black box theater and then there's two openings that
068will push out into the 800s wing where it opens right up so there's a real great opportunity to have large group gatherings in there and then there will be a lot of other um like smaller offices and several classroom spaces as well sort of more flexible learning kind of yes anything else for mr anderson okay keep an eye out for an invite as far as facility tour so we'll be sure and send that your way next up then we have 5.05 dr vogeler with the hr report [Music] thank you very much for an opportunity to share the report on behalf of uh human resources department to kind of get used to the height of this uh shield here we have several items in there i won't go through all of them but uh a strategic
069plan update in terms of action plans 14 15 and 16 are in there also i wanted to draw out some of the work of our compliance officer dr duane smith he is putting together some training for our our leaders two of them have happened on august 11th this is a selective enforcement avoidance training and child fine in the area of covet harassment bullying these trainings took place live via zoom and were recorded and will be made available through safe schools for our administrators uh selective enforcement avoidance is really targeted around uh you know the fact that we're heading into a political season and and there's unconscious bias just naturally when people hear things that they necessarily agree with they might turn a blind eye and if they hear something they don't agree with they might
070feel like they need to enforce a policy and we don't want that we want consistent enforcement of our policies across the board regardless of the viewpoint and so that was the focus of that training and the other trainings there that are listed i'm very pleased with dr smith and the work that he's doing as a compliance officer it's more than just enforcement of policies but looking at where all the gaps are in the organization and then making strategic recommendations to close those gaps a fine job he does on behalf of the school system the other thing i want to draw out of there is with regard to our health risk assessments and the the point accumulation that we have every year for folks to qualify for the premium differential waiver that we have this is
071the 600 cost sharing of health insurance unless people choose to voluntarily participate in in some goals that we have some wellness goals that are set uh last couple of updates uh that that i gave because of the covet disruption we saw pretty low participation rates rebecca fisher our wellness coordinator has done a yeoman's job of really chasing down and helping assist employees to make sure that that this kind of gap of silence that can be created when we're not face to face doesn't result in a higher number than usual of people having to cost share when it could be avoided through uh through just our our usual trend of voluntary uh participation in our health and wellness initiatives so we're right now at 85.36 percent participation this time last year we're at 87.2 percent so
072statistically it's very equivalent talked with her she's very pleased with that that path and progress and feels very good that we'll be on pace by the time the the health and wellness year concludes i also wanted to draw out that team liberty is planning on meeting september 3rd i've mentioned that before the major topic of that team liberty meeting is going to be our health insurance renewal so our health insurance brokerage firm holmes murphy will be on hand to present our insurance utilization they'll also prepare a report to present to you at the board meeting in september as well that same insurance utilization so you get a chance to consider a first read recommendation from dr tucker on our health insurance renewal so that's slated to happen september 3rd with team liberty meeting virtually through
073zoom so it'll be a virtual meeting on that day staffing update as dr westfall uh already uh talked about uh 48 uh teachers were involved in that she did a phenomenal job her and her team dr moore all the innovations and learning coach a phenomenal job but i do want to point out that in the in that rank of 48 a couple statistics that mean a lot to me one is that 11 of those teachers did their student teaching here so these were people that that sought out while they were in college to want to do their student teaching with liberty public schools we had about 35 or so student teachers over the course of the year and of those 11 of them were retained for employment so very excited about that statistic and the
074one that i'm most excited about is that nine of those 48 are homegrown graduates of liberty public schools who've decided to come back and launch their career with us right here in lps final thing i want to draw out of the report is with regard to the network for educator effectiveness every year we do bring an updated manual to you i want to thank dr moore publicly her work in partnership with building principals building leaders and the innovations and learning team really went above and beyond this year because we had to tackle a way to provide look fors that could be examined virtually so helping our administrators know how to engage their staff virtually and still provide meaningful feedback around our indicators is an important part of that process so she's been working diligently to
075revise the handbook to accomplish that there's some hyperlinks in that uh section of the report as well that identifies the two district indicators as uh dr dickson seahorn mentioned indicator 6.2 is now a district initiative uh priority indicator for all classrooms and that's that communications with students are sensitive to cultural gender intellectual and physical differences that will be evaluated across the system and then indicator 7.4 is the other one that's a district-wide indicator this year and that's to monitor the effect of instruction on individual and class learning those are the district ones and then in there is also hyperlink the building indicators every building will select two above and beyond those two district-wide indicators and those are all listed there they're listed in that document by number so if you want to actually see the
076wording of those indicators just click on the handbook and scroll down i think it's page 16. there's a hyperlink there that takes you to all of the indicators rather than housing that in the manual itself you have an opportunity to just hyperlink then over and it is page 16 toward the bottom all classroom indicators are outlined you click on that hyperlink and that will show you everyone you can cross-reference that to the building selected indicators as well there's more to the board report i'll be glad to answer any questions that you have regarding that but those are the items i wanted to draw out of the report this evening i'll take any questions if you have them just with regards to enrollment and may not be directed directly to you dr vogler i know north
077kansas city saw a significant increase in their students opting for virtual i don't know if we've seen more people coming into virtual versus wanting to be in person what's that trend kind of looking like if we continue dr tucker so we continue to monitor that daily and so there is a little bit of fluctuation back and forth we're still pretty much hovering around that 80 to 20. as you look at other buildings our high end is still you know 27 28 you know that low end 12 to 13 i don't know if dr moore dr westfall you want to speak to that as well frightening me they're both working that would be crazy so um yes we're monitoring every day and what we have is an idea of what would happen kind of like that
078do you remember we talked about the green red and yellow so right now we're really tight on the elementary face to face because that's the super critical turn point and um i would tell you that if you were going to look at which side we're flexing on the most it's probably on the virtual side taking in more students there and we're able to navigate that a little bit easier but it does it's a lot i mean it puts a lot of pressure on our teachers so we but we do check that every single day thank you other questions for dr voglar or others okay thank you thanks dr vogel uh last administration report then would be a report from me a couple of additions that i wanted to share with you i want to lead
079with congratulations you may or may not have seen this as of yesterday the department of elementary and secondary education issued a news release and it's that time of year in which the missouri teacher of the year semi-finalists are announced and so this is for the 2021 missouri teacher of the year semi-finalists and um as you may or may not know the selection process begins with the announcement of 34 regional teachers of the year and then it is winnowed down to the semifinalists and then eventually on to the finalists who will be reported out later but the 15 regional teachers of the year include one of our very own from liberty public schools and that is summer kelly from liberty academy so we wanted to recognize her in that respect and share that information with you
080in addition in addition to that announcement uh we're in the midst of beginning this week our building level meetings with schools and departments across the district we started that yesterday between yesterday and today we've had nine already and what we've shared with them is really a little bit different approach this year to convocation still keeping with some of those components but not necessarily gathering together to preserve social distancing in light of covet 19. so what we're doing face to face is welcoming them sharing some thoughts with them um on behalf of myself but then also transitioning to welcoming new teachers uh for each location as well as honoring them with their years of service plaques we still wanted to be able to do that face to face a couple things that i've shared with them
081in reflecting on where we've come from since spring break back in march to where we're at and then also to where we're moving the first thing i shared is that really i think there's value in pausing and reflecting on everything that we've accomplished over the course of the last five to six months thanking our staff our teachers our parents and our community our students for everything that they've been through but then also to remind them that if we're not careful we move on to the next issue the next challenge the next problem and we fail to look back in that rear view mirror and acknowledge the things that we've accomplished so what we were worried about back in march in april and may was incredibly challenging at that time we could not have done it
082without the help of everyone in our community but then we also then pivot to how we navigate the challenges and the problems the issues that are going to come before us so as i share that idea and that thought i left them with a couple of areas it really lands on two hands that first piece is how do we ready ourselves for everything that we're getting ready to walk through when there still remains a lot of unknowns we probably have more questions ahead of us than answers we've provided and i think the way that we do that and teachers are great about this they make the best plans they possibly can but at the same time they adapt they adjust they tailor their approach to every single student they tailor their approach to every family
083because every family's needs are unique and so i think they're incredibly equipped to continue to move forward albeit it's in a time of a continuing pandemic significant challenges no shortages of opinions or perspectives so if readiness sits on this hand the other way that we navigate that is in and around care or patience grace empathy and so as we think about that it's not only us modeling it for our classrooms and our teachers and our our families whether they're face to face or whether they're virtual but it's also recognizing that everybody enters into this conversation into the new school year from a different place from different set of circumstances or challenges or successes and highlights and celebrations that they've experienced over the last several months so it's readiness on one hand it's care for one
084another on the other hand and i think what we've seen over the last couple of days as we have tough issues to tackle our community approaching it in the right way approaching it with a certain amount of dignity or grace patience certainly but as i shared lots of varying opinions and we'll continue to move through that and navigate that together so we've enjoyed getting back into buildings seeing our staff connecting with one another but then rolling up their sleeves and getting ready for the start of the new year we were at manor hill earlier this afternoon and i was talking with valerie utecht and she just shared kind of on the side before we welcomed teachers she said you know a lot of these teachers just a couple days ago we've had to approach and
085say hey would you mind teaching this section would you mind moving to this grade level and we're seeing that time and time again and albeit it is stretching us it's stretching our administration and our staff it's also being met with yeah i can do that i can adjust i can shift i can pivot and so we certainly could not be where we're at today without our our staff our students our family and their support a couple of additional items we have the opportunity over the last couple of weeks since we last met for our study session in august to participate in a couple of diversity equity inclusion opportunities one was with suburban balance since i appreciate dr dixon c for working with me partnering with me to be part of a panel or a symposium
086across the metro area it was facilitated virtually and had a great conversation i think we've made a connection with suburban balance to possibly partner as well as with other districts that are working closely with them in the future another dei opportunity was a presentation that i had the opportunity to share on a saturday morning virtually and that was a new teacher mentoring session on the topic of diversity equity inclusion in the arts and that was through the missouri music educators association so enjoyed the opportunity to connect with about 50 or from their association as well as welcome new fine arts teachers into the profession particularly around the topic of diversity equity and inclusion in their space over the last several days we've had two opportunities to connect with u.s congressional delegates representative emmanuel cleaver as
087well as representative sam graves appreciate them connecting with school district leaders superintendents administrators just to get a sense of the issues that we're navigating that we're working through and also to hear from them from a federal level as far as the the areas that they're processing as it relates to schools a couple of key takeaways one of which is the usda and continuing to provide nutrition support for families in need we saw a significant demand and access back in the fourth quarter during the course of the how we ended last school year that then just continued over the course of this year and will evolve into this coming school year and so we appreciate their continued support of food nutrition programs within our schools another area is in and around federal dollars tied to relief
088or stimulus whether it's the cares act or other proposals that are coming through that might impact schools we're watching and monitoring if the congress is able to get the next wave of funding uh through that then could be utilized by schools to navigate covet 19. we're hearing a little bit more flexibility and leeway potentially at the local level and how those funds are used but we'll continue to watch that pretty closely as they try to get a package across the finish line so stay tuned on that the last thing that i would share is both congressman cleaver as well as congressman graves are working to try to incorporate additional liability protections into four school districts as we continue to navigate this knowing knowing that there are legal ramifications and so we appreciate their openness and
089their their willingness to connect with school districts the last thing that i wanted to share was just kind of a follow-up to what we heard this evening from public comment and really just to reinforce what kim marie was sharing earlier is that in and around the missouri state high school activities association announcement last week and press release regarding options for school districts navigating fall seasons pivoting to the spring just to reinforce what kim marie shared is continuing to work closely with missouri state high school activities association as well as the greater kansas city suburban conference both clay county public health center as well as the kansas city missouri health department knowing that things continue to be incredibly fluid we learned that early in march and at one point we're hoping that things would somewhat settle
090down and we could work our plans but you all have lived it we've lived it together and that as soon as you make a plan something derails that or a certain circumstance evolves or changes um so we'll continue to work closely on navigating this as we start the school year as we begin the fall and then communicate we remain committed to communicating with our families and our staff students any changes that might be forthcoming so that concludes my report unless there are questions from the board i did notice on your report you you mentioned strategic planning coming up in the next over the next month or two um and while to some extent that seems like a distant topic it may actually be super relevant in you know current time needing to prioritize is there
091stuff that you need from us as you re-cue that up i think what we've talked about going back a little bit with kind of being more flexible and agile and we started this six years ago in bringing a revision to the board wanting to continue in that mind's mindset where we're at as a strategic leadership team is really walking through those plans and revisiting are those the right plans do we need to reprioritize what have we accomplished that then we can shift off the plate but then what are some of those things that perhaps we had as placeholders to either bring forward or completely new plans or focus areas given everything we've just experienced over the last five months the other piece there is really connecting our strategic plan to our school improvement plans and
092so appreciate the innovation and learning department having those conversations with principals as well as their building leadership teams so to answer your question i think it would be to be able to react and solicit your feedback once we're able to bring a revision or an update to the strategic plan forward but then at the same time relay for the board the connection from the strategic level all the way down to the school level and then a companion piece that we'll follow will be departmental plans as we think about operations and more importantly for the board program evaluation we've talked about that for some time had a little bit of a curve ball thrown at us in march but wanting to get back to that conversation and how we move move forward and thinking about program
093evaluation differently the other thing as i'm talking and thinking at the same time would be our metrics so we typically bring forward in the month of october november our scorecard that looks completely different now because some of those data points are missing particularly as it relates to assessments at the end of the year and waivers that we have received even then though we've been talking about those uncommon measures that bring forward real world learning opportunities those social emotional metrics from panorama and other surveys that we may do and then lastly what are those academic metrics so we have a couple of holes that we will want to shore up but then that will be another piece we want to bring before the board more to come on uh just one comment so uh i did
094catch the suburban balance uh just to see what it was all about and i really appreciate both yourself dr dixon seahorn thoughtful strategic very empathetic answers some of the others may not have been as much and so thank you for uh representing us well we could not see who our viewership was so we didn't know if we had one on the on the line with us or thousands there were a couple of hundreds at the height i feel better about that thank you for watching that all right that moves us on to new business 6.01 contracts and purchases we do have several items under contracts and purchases really two sets a couple items that we're going to ask you to approve on first read and then a couple of additional items for review so i
095wanted to ask mr anderson if he could give us an update on those contracts and purchases thank you um so i'm going to skip the first item just for now um and and hit a few other the that are listed here uh first one i'm going to address is the bus purchase uh and so there was a potential uh companion piece of this and that would have been a lease arrangement at least purchase arrangement with commerce bank we're going to need another month to kind of pull that together but feel very positive about that but this is to really kind of replenish the fleet and we are going to be purchasing 10 propane fuel tanks uh fuel buses conventionals the larger buses spent a lot of time reviewing the different options including the compressed natural
096gas diesel of course and really the more time we spent in this option the more we were drawn to it and it really has a lot of benefit i listed some of that out here so so basically purchasing 10 new buses from central states bus sales uh and again next month we'll have a lease purchase arrangement this will allow them to begin the production of the buses uh which will get put them into our possession a little bit later in this calendar year um the second item um we also have a contract uh up and this is to be approved on first read um this is with alc it's a renewal agreement with them and they provide um alternative uh transportation services for uh it's curb to curb service for our out of district and
097special needs students we've we've been in a contract relationship with them for for several years we're pleased we put out an rfp uh and and they submitted a formal proposal that we actually they came down in their rates which will benefit from that pretty significantly you may have noticed there was a a second companion piece to this uh with a group called assist assisted transportation services they were going to basically work in the same space but we could use them kind of strategically and that was pulled just earlier today that contract we have a few cleanup items uh with with legal right now anticipate that as well we'll be in front of you next month um but those two pieces tend to go together um one item for review so this will come back next
098month this is not to be acted on tonight this is just the introduction of a new agreement with transio this is innovation and learning and this is a subscription for college and career readiness tools for students and then last is is often the case these days uh per policy djf-1 uh some emergency purchases uh these are really just again in preparation uh for the start of school and a lot of those purchases are listed out there below so a few action items and i'm going to hand it to cindy to talk about the first one the first item that we want to bring to you to approve on first read tonight is a memo of understanding with the city of liberty we learned that they might have some excess cares fund money that they were
099not going to be able to spend so we reached out to them and provided them information about some needs that we had so they agreed to give us 175 000 of their funds that they were not going to spend um to go toward the purchase of student desks and we would like that approved on first read tonight and thank them for their generosity and sharing their funds with us you want a motion just get that one on um do we can we include them all in one motion or do they need to be separate or they went off i was just going to i move the board approve the memo the memorandum of understanding for disbursement of karazhan's coronavirus release funds from the city of liberty to the district that work i guess there was
100one there and i missed it oh okay yes david yes yes what did you say the bus purchase that will be for purchases so i'm if the board approved the listed agreements and purchases second steve are these the first propane buses we have yeah okay we all have to pivot sometimes don't we sandra yes all right that moves us on to 6.02 the 20 20 21 tax rate yeah as cindy is coming to the podium i appreciate all of her work over the last several months and that this process really starts early in the spring and getting the best information from county and then waiting for even better and better and better information leading up to the month of august so working closely with the county but then also working with state auditor's office to
101ensure that the pro forma is ready to bring forward this evening so we'll turn it over to ms sullivan thank you dr tucker a couple things i want to highlight about the tax rate hearing and the process we go through to set the tax rate state law requires that the board of education set the tax rate by august 31st of each school year the recommended levy is based upon the last certified assessed valuation from the county clerk and has been reviewed by the state auditor's office the 2020 assessed valuation represents a net increase of 2.3447 percent when compared with the assessed valuation of august 2019. the total assessed valuation for the liberty public school district on which current taxes are collected is one billion ninety four million eight hundred and seventy thousand eight hundred and
102seventy eight dollars new construction included in assessed valuation is approximately 26.6 million which is a 26.63 decrease from our prior year new construction number local tax revenue represents approximately 36 percent of our overall revenue budget the 2019 tax rate was six dollars and forty five and a half cents with the operating levy set at four dollars and eighty eight point eight five cents the authorized operational tax levy ceiling is set to be recommended to be set at four dollars 89 cents 89.56 as approved by the state auditor this reflects an increase of less than a penny from the prior year and also note that the 30 cent 36 cent capital projects levy is in crude included in the operational number the maximized authorized levy as approved by the voters was set at 5.35.15 cents in
1032014. the district has consistently levied taxes beneath that rate since that time the 2020 debt service levy ceiling has been set by the state auditor at 1.76.87 it is recommended and budgeted that the board of education voluntarily reduced this levy to one dollar fifty five point nine four cents that's a reduction of twenty point nine three cents so based upon the state auditor's office calculation of the data it's recommended that the board of education approve tax levies in the following funds fund one operating 4.53.56 debt service 1.55.94 and capital projects 36 cents the results in this results in a total tax levy rate for night for 2020 of six dollars 45 and a half cents maintaining the same levy rate as 2019 upon this approval the tax rate will be submitted to the county clerk
104and to the state audit auditor for further certification continuing to maintain the same rate correct below what we can charge correct all right so i moved the board set the 2020 2021 tax rate at 6.455 second aj yes scott yes yes david yes yes thank you cindy all right that moves us to 6.03 board policies and procedures please say you're going to read all of it you know since you asked that i will say this in my in my previous life i would do that policy by policy by policy my my previous board was incredibly excited when it got to that time we do have a laundry list though of policies for us to look at to really kind of divide out 6.03 we have one policy for adoption for first read this is something
105we see regularly and bring this forward for the board's consideration that is bbfa board member conflict of interest and financial disclosure the subsequent ones that follow which is the list that mr bartlow is speaking of are policies that are presented to you for review this evening um that then you will see again at a follow-up board meeting so in between now and next time we're together for our regular monthly board meeting our administration our departments will be looking at those to ensure that they align with our practices and procedures and at the same time identify those areas that are new for which we may have to justify our adjust our approaches the last segment that you have then this evening are some administrative procedures and as a reminder those are just presented as a review
106only um from month to month as we bring new adjustments forward from the missouri school board's association it would present that slate of items for you and your consideration to see ready for a motion i move the board adopt policy bbfa second aj yes yes yes yes yes okay we have no unfinished business on the agenda tonight which moves us to board of education items 8.01 legislation and advocacy angie did you have anything do you want to add there um aside from the fact that we're all registered for the msba conference because it's free and virtual and virtual and my understanding is they're going to be doing several of those sessions throughout the year delegate assembly is the 25th so when i find out if there's anything additional that you guys need to provide input
107for i will let you know are there any advocacy items that need to be brought forward i think we mentioned watching congressional at the federal level what's taking place there and how that transpires whether it's monies received through the cares act by way of dusty or by way of grants through the county or through city government we appreciate the city of liberty what we have noticed is that that's not consistent from county to county to county or municipality the municipality or municipality so there are some of our peer districts in our area that have not received any cares act dollars to assist with navigating covid19 and so that is something that we're advocating for on behalf of every district whether you're suburban urban or rural so it's again kind of a wait and see what's
108happening at the at the federal level at the local level in jefferson city we have been working closely with the senate as well as the house of representatives on some communication that they pushed out to districts in and around navigating virtual options both ones that are provided by the district but then others that are provided for or accessible to families under the mopcap program that's the missouri course access program in ensuring that we're meeting parents needs for those that choose that virtual option so continuing to navigate that in regard to what comes out of the special session we'll stay close to that as well seeing if there are topics specific to public education okay okay there's our list of upcoming meetings and brings us to a conversation about upcoming meetings um there is a possibility
109that i will be out of town for the next one so if i've asked mr bartlow already to step in in the event that that happens and we do have a board meeting on election day in november and we're gonna press on with that reschedule okay moving on to board remarks you don't don't want to make anybody choose [Laughter] uh can i just say how good it is to get teachers back yes back in a flow in rhythm i think it's been great to see all the the tweets and the posts and things of that nature of everybody getting back into it and i know everybody's excited for that so happy to see that finally come to fruition i thought we had left honoring excellence out of our meeting today was not on the agenda
110and then i realized that the parent speakers were at public comment were fine they were very good but they were excellent but but the students wow yeah wow thoughtful leaders passionate trying to articulate um very difficult topics i glad we had honoring excellence here even though it wasn't specifically listed on the agenda i agree with that i would also just like to um thank the city of liberty for offering their agreement on the excess cares funds um when i came on the board 10 years ago 10 years ago we really embarked on forming a stronger partnership with the city not because i joined it just happened that was the timing and this is the fruit of that work for the last 10 years of really working on partnership so i'd just like to say thank
111you to them for that i'd like to add to all the teachers who have come back thank you for your flexibility i know that this is we've asked a lot of the teachers of the administrators um they are working their way through this i know this is not easy but they are being quite flexible and and that is extremely appreciated i know parents appreciate the fact that those who have chosen to have their children come back to face to face will be getting to see their friends and their teachers so it is exciting to get back albeit it's a different school year so thank you for that that brings us to 9.01 do we have a motion to adjourn move the board adjourn second you beat me to it yes scott yes yes david yes
112yes great we are adjourned thank you all [Music] you