001Good evening and welcome to tonight's regular board meeting of the board of education. I'll begin by turning things over to President Ruth Johnson for the consent agenda. President Johnson. >> All right. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> Some moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. Sorry, I gotta scroll. Scroll. All right. On toformational items. Dr. Vulker. Well, good evening everyone. I'll let them get the slide presentation up and available. And if they don't have it, I did provide your material. So, you have that as well. Excellent. Well, good evening. My name is Al Vulker and I am the vice chair of the Cass County Health Foundation. So, it is great to meet you all
002and talk to you this evening about the Cass County Health Foundation and what we do for kids in Cass County and beyond, actually. So, I'll I'll dive right in. Thanks for the time. I really I really do appreciate it. So, who are we? There's our our board. Um, we serve in a volunteer capacity really with the best interests of kids and their oral health in mind. And we come from all walks of life, education and business. And you'll see there and and different communities from Archie uh to Raymore. You'll see the list on there as well. So, from we're from all over the county and we're here in the best interest of kids. We really like presenting to school boards because we know you receive the same pay as we do. Um, and you do
003this for the same reason, for the best interest of kids. So, that's why we serve on this board and and that's why we're here to talk to you tonight. So, what really do we do? Okay. So, we really are a safety net dental clinic and that's been our focus for now a number of years for kids in Cass County who for one reason reason or another cannot afford or do not seek dental care. And it's it's really an issue that is much broader uh than most people realize and much more impactful than most people realize. when you have uh dental concerns and you're in pain in that capacity, think of all the other things in your life that aren't happening at well. Uh nutrition, education, those things are very difficult when you're worried about um
004your oral health and honestly sometimes we just got kids in pain. So we work on that with a safety net dental clinic for our area for school-based dental screenings. We do hundreds of those. We offer scholarships for students going into healthcare and we have started recently a telead dentistry area. Um so we can come into schools actually have a a clinician there do telead dentistry with a dentist offsite and then seek treatment if needed down the road. So dental screenings is one a big thing that we uh facilitate looking at oral health education uh supplies fluoride treatment and referral and care. We use we had over a hundred volunteers help us with our process and these are our screening results. So we're in schools across the county and beyond uh looking specifically for our district
005at Rimmore Peculiar. We've always screened in preK and third grade. So we had 580 screenings. You'll see 40% of those parents elected to have that fluoride treatment. That is parent permission required to have that florine treatment. And then we found 9% decay in those situations. So those are situations one in 10 that really need additional support beyond the screening but was found at the screening. So you can see that across our communities. So it's very we think it's really important that we continue that work. So we now have as I change slides we now have two um dental clinics. We have a brand new site. If you know, if you're on the way to Menard's, you will see our new facility. Very proud of that. We're going to talk more about that in just a
006second. And then our second site ha in Harrisonville. So, our Harrisonville site's open two days a week. And our Cass County, I mean, excuse me, our Belton location is open five days a week serving students um excuse me, young people who need support. Oh, I skipped one. We also started an inoff sedation program for our kids that have significant need and need to go under to have that. That is that's a big deal that you we have in our county. Um a clinic that's able to do that for students that are on Medicare, Medicaid, excuse me, and Medicare on Medicare and uh students that are under or uninsured. That's often very hard to find dental care in that situation. and we provide that support. So there are a lot of students that we serve in
007that capacity. Looking at who we serve, um we served in 2024 3,368 children and teens were served through 7,23 visits. So we serve a lot of students. Excuse me. I will say that I'm in the education world. We serve a lot of young people. Most of them are our students as well, but um young people as we work through this. Here's a little more detail about who we serve. How many you see? You see in peculiar students that live in our area or young people in our area 183 and Raymore 310. And we provide services to low-income children and adolesccents from 0 to 20. Conversations about starting um with older uh with some young adults and beyond, but we're still working on that. But 69% of our patients reside in Cass County with 31% outside
008often in the Grand View area. As stated before, we started telead dentistry. It's still fairly small serving 46 children. Uh the vast majority of our children uh when we find need in our screenings, we get uh have them schedule appointments at the clinic. But if not and they can't get there, we can come to them in that dental assistant and the registered dental hygienist and then x-rays and photos and things sent to the actual dentist. An exciting thing that we've done uh and continue to do are scholarships for our high school seniors. So you'll see Kendall Johnson here, a Rainbow Pure High School grad with our 2024 recipient. Uh we gave out uh these are students that are often going into nursing. We focus on the healthc care field scholarships for students and I believe
009our senior scholarship total has been given since 2003 268 scholarships to Rayek students for a total of $365,000 that the Cass County F Health Foundation has given back to Raymore peculiar students and they've used that to go on to college. So we're excited to continue to be able to do that. I know that money means a lot to those families and those kids and as they progress through we continue on. I know some people of personally that received those scholarships and I think they're very appreciative of that. So here's our new location purchased land right there on East Marquy up from Menards. We expanded we needed to expand. We went four to eight operatories and we continue to raise funds. We needed care to expand access for our young people. Here's just a couple photos
010of what it looks like inside. It is really nice when our young people and families can come into a facility that is as nice um as any dental facility in the county. Even though they might receiving be receiving care at a reduced cost, that doesn't mean the facility shouldn't be as nice and as appropriate. So, we're proud of what we're able to provide our families. uh that need dental care. So, how can we help? We have opportunities to volunteer. Uh community members can sign up to volunteer, even participate in screenings. We can train you for that. Uh that would be great. really advocacy and support, talking about this, letting people know that the Cass County Health Foundation is supporting students in our community, just making as many people aware that this is and then advocate
011it for advocate for it. Our big if you just want to come do one thing, this is a a big annual event. We have our uh annual 5K for health. It's in May each year. Sometimes it slips into June, but it's usually early May. and you can come walk. Our district has been very supportive of this. The board has has voted to um give funds to this cause as well as encourage our own staff to participate by paying their entry fee. I believe through our wellness funds and that has been a big help and I believe our staff members love to participate and we just want as many people as possible to participate in this. It's for a great cause and that was a lot. So, Cass County Health Foundation appreciates your support. Uh we
012believe that we're doing just another side of supporting young people uh through their rural health. We appreciate that everything that you do to support young people. >> I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> I have a question. >> Yeah. I noticed that some of the schools offer up to sixth grade or even up to eighth grade. Why does Ray Peek not offer that? >> It has historically been a K3 and I would have probably have to do a little I think it's been a number of years that we've done prek and third grade. It really might even go back to when we had intermediate schools and it became more difficult. It really could be that historical. So I can go back and check. I've always just known us to do prek through three. I
013could see if that's something that we might want to look to extend. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. Good question. >> Do the dentists volunteer their time or are they full-time on? >> They are paid. Yes, we have full-time dentists. Um, sometimes that is a challenge to keep dentists, but I think that's a challenge for any practice as that's a high demand field. But no, we have we employ our dentists. >> Do you know the time time frame? So if you've got a kid that needs more emergency dental care that if they have parents call in, what the time frame is is to get more of an emerent appointment? Well, it would depend what how emergent you're talking about really because it is something that the dental health that I've learned a lot about
014in the last decade um could be something that we're actually sending them in an emergency situation to the emergency room. If we're talking about a a dental emerent care that um we could wait until an on-site then I think we'd probably bring them in to ask them to come in the office. It really is a tricky situation in some of those conversations because often they might need to seek there would be I've seen situations where extensive care is needed and medical coordination with dental coordination might be needed though it's a tricky situation. I think I I don't know if I could answer that specific. We I've seen kids in the in the ER >> that I've had to refer to Children's Mercy Dentistry, but that's sometimes a challenge as well. Correct. >> We prefer to
015send them back to their dental home, but unfortunately they're >> they they don't always have a dental home. >> Correct. And I I think I could do a little more research and get back to you on how how our coordination between those two because I know there is some, but I don't know the exact process. Good question though too. It's an area of need and I think we all know how impactful poor dental health can be. >> Absolutely. >> I just want to acknowledge you El and thank you for your service on this board. I think this is how how many years have you served as a a leader? >> Oh, eight maybe. >> So, >> eight or I I I was a member and then I was the treasurer and now I'm the vice
016chair. You know how that goes. Um, but it's a it's good for our community. It's good for kids. Um, I enjoy serving on it, but and I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. On to electronic personal devices. Dr. Slegel. >> Yes. Thank you, Madam President. Uh, board members, as you are aware, uh, Senate Bill 68 was passed earlier this year and signed into law by the governor in July. We all know that one of the more significant provisions of the legislation is the introduction of new restrictions on student cell phone use during the school day in public schools. And I just want you to know that our team is working diligently to to prepare for the implementation of this of these new requirements. We've already launched a comprehensive communication plan to ensure
017that parents, staff, and students are aware of the challenges. Uh, additionally, we've developing the board necessary board policies along with the company regulations and guidelines to support this work. These policies are in the refinement stage and will be shared with you in the next couple weeks in your weekly board update in advance of our August meeting. Because the law goes into effect this August, in fact, technically goes into effect the night of our board meeting on August the 28th. We'll need to fasttrack the approval process. I want to emphasize that these policies are being developed in consultation with our policy service as well as others to ensure a full alignment with the law. It's important to note that while the state law is quite prescriptive regarding when and how phones may be used during the
018school day, it leaves local school districts with the flexibility to determine appropriate consequences for such violations. And that has been worked on diligently as well over the summer. We'll bring these policies to you for formal approval when we meet again on August the 28th. But I did want to give you a brief update as of the work to date and the fact you can be looking forward to those policies at our next board meeting. Thank you. All right. Thank you. On to uh setting our tax levy hearing. >> Yes, Madam President. Thank you. This is our first action item of the evening. On your agenda is the annual requirement to set a public hearing for the proposed tax levy. Missouri law requires that school boards hold at least one public hearing before approving a tax
019rate. And tonight, you will consider a motion to schedule that hearing. So, that hearing tonight is to schedule the hearing. Uh motion time just a schedule hearing that actually will have the the tax hearing. The recommendation before you to set the tax levy hearing for two or for Thursday, August 28th at 6:45 p.m. This will give the public an opportunity to offer feedback before any final action is taken. I'll be happy to try to answer any questions if you have any before you you vote tonight. >> All right. I will entertain a motion to set the tax levy hearing for August 28th, 2025 at 6:45 p.m. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. On to the heavy equipment building. Mr.
020Dobson. Good evening. >> Good evening. All right. Well, this evening we have several action items. Uh, as I'm sure many of you are aware, uh, Rayek was fortunate enough to be granted um, and awarded uh, $370,000 grant through DESIE uh, through the Career and Technical Education Program, one of seven school districts in the state uh, that was a given this uh, sum of money and the DESIE award. Um, so we'll move forward. I have four action items that are going to relate to that grant this evening. first being um the heavy equipment building itself, the expansion. So, as part of the expansion of the program, we will need to add on an addition uh onto the east side of that building for the classroom section and we are looking to move forward uh with Worldwide
021Steel on that this evening. Uh they were the sold bidder last time and we are looking to move forward with them again um for that extension of the building. Happy to answer any questions on that one. That has to be one of our record expansions one year. >> It is. It is the growth. Uh I think it's almost more than doubled this year, this coming school year. >> All right. I will entertain a motion to approve the cost of the building package at $58,58110. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? Motion pack passes unanimously. All right. And then to make a way for that building, we're going to go ahead and need to expand the site work uh to expand our parking lot. Uh because
022at now we will have upwards of 22 to 23 students out there at one given time and then also to make way for the additional equipment parking and then for the building itself. Uh we put this out for public bid and we did receive uh two bids on this and we are electing to move forward with our apparent low bid. Happy to answer any questions. Why is there such a um difference in the bidded prices? >> Yeah, it was a was a concern as well. Uh we did follow up with our low bidder and they do feel confident they're 100% scoped out and have all materials and labor covered. >> And have we used them before? >> We have not. This will be a new vendor for us. >> All right. I will entertain a
023motion to approve the bid for site work for the heavy equipment building expansion from GB Construction LLC in the amount of 35,000. Second. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. >> And then for the fun and exciting part of it, we will need to furnish the new building of which we are building. So with that, we would like to move forth um with the furniture expansion. We did use uh on this one. Uh if you remember Miss Miley, so she was still around when we were rolling out this project. So she and a bunch of the students from the lead center worked through this uh and have made all the furniture selections u working with both the company and then actually our students and
024our instructors even from the HO program the heavy equipment program work through this and have established what equipment will be needed for their workspace in their classrooms. I'm happy to answer any questions on this. So, um, Scott, is the is the grant covering all of this or do we have to pay? >> It is a 7525 matching grant. >> Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Will all this be done before school starts? >> No, ma'am. Uh, we will be starting hopefully uh next week. Uh, we hope to move forward with the approvals tonight. We'll be able to issue some POS tomorrow morning hopefully and then we'll hopefully uh get move moving on site work in the coming week. uh the vendor is prepped and ready to go. They have assured me they will be able to
025start site work in the next seven to 10 days hopefully and all the other trades are stacked right behind that uh and have availability in their schedule. So I think um in most these grants we're never notified of the award until mid June to late June. So it's to be expected. >> Sure. When what's the estimated completion? >> Um with everybody being very positive here I I think we will be able to roll this out first of November late October. I was going to say where are we housing them until then? >> They'll just continue as they did last year. So they we have uh temporary classrooms set up for them inside the existing building and they'll function just like last year. This will simply just be an improvement enhancement. >> All right. I'll entertain
026a motion to approve the purchase of furniture for the heavy equipment building expansion from Freedom Interiors in the amount of 57,430 Nent. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. All right. Next one. >> Yes, ma'am. All right. Thank you. Um, as part of putting the final pieces together here, we will need to once the building's erected, we have the concrete done and now we have the site work. So now we'll need to go ahead and finish out all the interior. Um with that will be all the metal studding, the sheetrock and then all the polished floors and drywall and ceilings, heating, cooling, electrical. So with that uh we're electing to move forward uh through her companies utilizing the Gordian contract um as
027we've previously used before and hoping to move forward with that. So happy to answer any questions. Since I just thought about this, since we're out there in a big open field, have we been able to do site work enough to where there's not any water issues, seeing as how we've just had the wetest summer ever. >> Yeah, I actually haven't seen any water issues yet. The crews have been able to work out there. Uh we moved quite a bit of stuff. Um both the instructors were out there this week. >> Justin and I were able to meet both the instructors out there on site this week and they were actually preparing for school already. >> So, no issues at all. >> Good. All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve the proposal for interior and
028concrete work on the heavy equipment building expansion from Heron Construction in the amount of $149,18157. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any other questions, comments? >> I have just a go right ahead. >> A question. >> And maybe this has happened and I I wasn't able to, but can we come out and tour this as a board or uh as an individual? I would love to come out and see this. >> I would believe that could be set up pretty easily. We can work through I'm sure the department and then Mr. Lewis. I'm sure we can work through that. Absolutely. >> Could I drive the >> We'll leave that up to instruction. >> Not bragging or anything. >> You have to pass a test. >> You have to go through
029your OSHA 10. >> Oh, okay. >> You got to travel. >> Well, not very far, but when we did the brown ground >> groundbreaking. Yes, >> we did. There's a photograph to prove it. All right. Any other any other questions? >> No. I would just love to come see. >> Oh, absolutely. All right. All in favor? Motion passes unanimously and we will work at getting that set up. >> Okay. Thanks, >> board. Before we move on, I want to acknowledge a couple of things. First of all, I want to thank publicly Desi for a grant of this size which has allowed us to realize a lot of these dreams. Uh I mean $370,000 is quite a chunk of money that they've invested into uh this program and we're the happy recipients of it. We're not
030going to turn it down by any means and we know there's a a lot that we need to do to to to meet those expectations. But I do want to acknowledge them that uh that's a tremendous show of support for our students in this program. Secondly, I want to also thank our team who put a grant the grant together that was worthy enough to be awarded such a large grant. So team um academic services and grounds to finance whole host of team members put together to to make this happen. So thank you as well. >> Absolutely. All right. On to the high school main gym bleachers. >> All right. Awesome. Thank you so much. um as we just finished up here in late May, first week of June, uh bleacher inspections throughout the district to
031just represent all of our insurance requirements and to maintain bleachers uh across the district at a high level. Um there were some noted deficiencies at the high school this last year and we'd like to go ahead and get those resurrected uh as quickly as possible. So, we are looking to utilize H Heartland Seating, uh, who is our normal bleacher vendor through the Green Bush Cooperative Contract and go ahead and get those repaired ASAP and happy to answer any questions on that. >> Repaired or replaced? >> Uh, we are going to repair them. They are definitely repairable. No, no problem at all. They are original. Uh, so they do have some age on them, but we are able to get them repaired. >> Okay. >> All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve the proposal for
032the bleachers in the high school main gym from H Heartland seating in the amount of $43,72. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. All right. On to committee reports. I don't think with school being in we have any. >> All right. Superintendent's update. >> Thank you, Madam President. I want to share a few additional updates with the board and with our community tonight. Uh first of all, my written update is included as normal in our tonight's posted agenda. So, I invite the public to review those materials online if they wish. Looking ahead, several exciting dates coming up. We're excited for convocation on Monday, August 12th at 8 a.m. This annual event is one of our most energizing gatherings of the year. a
033time when we come together to with our entire staff and to celebrate the start of a new school year and really talk about where we're headed as a as a team. So, we're excited about this. Board members, we sincerely hope you'll be able to attend. You have your t-shirts ready to go and be recognized as part of that celebration. Uh you've likely heard about delays or uncertainties related to federal education funding over the past couple weeks. Uh while some neighboring districts have taken public position on this issue, I want you to know we have remained silent and had done so intentionally uh anticipating the situation would resolve itself sooner rather than later. At this time, we will continue to monitor the issue closely. If you followed the news last Friday, the federal funds were fully
034released and so we are expecting no delays at this point with some of the title funding that was tied up for uh the better part of a month uh in in Washington. Tonight also marks our final board meeting before the first day of school, which is on August the 19th, if you can believe it or not. We'll re when we reconvene on August the 28th, we'll have already had seven days of school under our belt. Uh with that in mind, I want to assure you that our team is actively reviewing all aspects of system readiness. In fact, on our cabinet agenda on Monday, we've added uh additional areas to make sure that we are dotting our eyes and crossing our tees for the upcoming year. So, I want to let you know that uh we
035are we're going to be ready to go as ready as possible for August the 19th. Our assistant principles and principles returned this week and we already had a welcome back event that included reviewing our board advance document, examining key goals, and beginning our work around data, a theme you'll be seeing more of from our team throughout the year with our new director of accountability and assessment. I can't wait to show you some of that data work that he has done and completed for us and some of the questions you might have that will allow us to dig deeper and further than we ever have before. Operationally conducting thorough reviews across all critical areas including transportation, child nutrition, safety and security and other essential services and everything is on track for a successful start to the
036school year. Lastly, I want to share some exciting news about the integrated learning house. Construction is on schedule. Scott Dobson, go like this, please. Yes. And the F facility be ready to welcome students as planned. This is a major milestone for our district and something we all should be very proud of and I can't wait to see our students when they walk through the doors for the very first time. We are currently working with the board president to identify possible dates for a formal dedication ceremony. Our goal is to find a time that allows for as many uh board members, stakeholders, and community members to attend uh as possible. You know, this facility really represents a new chapter for our students in our system. I can't wait to see how it elevates the learning experience,
037how it brings a variety of students with different interests together in an integrated fashion and helps us deliver on our promise to provide lifeenhancing learning opportunities for all students across this district. I'll be happy to try to answer any questions if you have any. >> Thank you. All right, on to board of education comments. I will say in relation to the um integrated learning house, the peculiar chamber hosted uh couple of weeks ago and it was phenomenal to see the response uh from this the community about that building and all that it holds for the future of our kiddos. Um I was at a chamber lunch the other day even and got another comment. So, it's very much appreciated in our our communities for what we've got for our students. All right, moving on to
038calendar of events. Uh, August 12th, convocation. It says 7 a.m. here. Okay, breakfast at 7. And then August 28th, our next regular board meeting. 6 p.m. closed, 7 p.m. open. And we are adjourned. Have a good evening. that she did.