001Good. Uh, now on to our video. Dr. Slayer. Yes. Uh, board members, tonight we're pleased to share a video highlighting the progress and impact of our UFly program in our district. As you may recall, we introduced this initiative earlier this year, and it has generated tremendous enthusiasm amongst our teachers, uh, staff and students. Uh this video provides a glimpse into the work that's taking place in our classroom and the successes we are seeing. So let's take a look. My name is Michelle Hoffman and I am the director of elementary and early childhood education. Obviously literacy and reading is a huge component of what we do for our students and we work with our teachers to equip them with what they need. And so UFly is this year a new resource that we have onboarded. So
002UFly is a foundational reading program. It's explicit and systematic. It follows a scope and sequence that um builds logically. So when you learn a new concept, you learn um something that is an addition to it. You're constantly adding on, you're really building the foundation for reading really those building blocks. So it is from the University of Florida. they identified that there was a need for reading um in the United States and so they wanted to make something that was affordable and accessible for all to help impact our kids um to close the reading gap. Something that we were noticing was just that we needed to arm our teachers with um something that was a little bit easier to follow that had all the explicit steps so we knew kids were getting exactly what they needed.
003Really, it's not necessarily different. It's just how it's organized is different. And I always tell teachers and when I was coaching or as an instructional leader as a principal, it's all the things that we already know about good instruction and teaching kids to read in a fashion that works for kids brains um and for teachers. And this is just a really great way to teach kids the parts of reading that how they all go together in the bigger picture. Our teachers show up with hard work and heart every single day. So, if we can put something in their hands that actually makes their job a bit easier and more effective, then that's a win. Um, because in the end, our students will be more likely to benefit from that and and grow more quickly and
004our teachers have a supportive path to being able to do that. I think we're teaching more kids to read. We're making a bigger impact. I love being able to share that that we are able to implement a curriculum that is brand new quickly and effectively because of the outstanding work of our teachers and the hard work of our coaches. The end result is, wow, I'm having my kid bring home library books and they may have older kids and they'll say they're reading so much more than my first grader at this time. you know, we attribute that to a lot of things, but OB obviously in our primary grades, it is you um but they definitely have seen a change and then we've been able to celebrate with so many parents about their kids' growth because
005we are seeing faster growth. I know it's early um but whether it's a student in intervention or a tier one student um the pace that they're keeping is just incredible. Here we go. One, two, three. But we are hearing from our teachers that they're more confident in in reading when we are asking them them to like read decodables or or read other texts in their in their book boxes. And that's that's really exciting to see. U we want every kid to learn to read on time and in a way that makes them feel empowered and successful because reading is what opens the doors for every other subject. And we want our students to have choices in this district. And a key to that is making sure that they learn to read successfully and are confident
006and enjoy it. Board members, I've been on classroom visits with several of you as we've uh popped our way into classrooms and we've seen this in action and I can tell you the the joy and and watching this uh be implemented over this year has been a joy to watch. So I want to sincere thanks to many individuals who have brought this to life. Especially our teachers and staff who have embraced this work. Our instructional coaches who supported the implementation, our principles, ASC leadership uh who have guided and encouraged this transition in our buildings. Uh this is certainly the the best way to move forward and far as far as reading goes and their collective efforts have made this success possible. So, thank you for indulging us to watch that highlight video and uh we
007can't wait to see what year two of UFI implementation holds for us. Now, on to our presentation by Timber Creek. Yes, Dr. Lauren Geter. I'll turn it over to you at the podium, principal at Timber Creek Elementary School. Hi, I'm Lauren Gar. I'm the principal at Timber Creek Elementary School and I'm going to take you on a multi-year journey in about six minutes. Um, everything will be great. So, this is the journey of how we got our learners empowered through goal setting and voice and choice. Before I get too deep into this, why goal setting? We all know you can set a goal and not do it. It's why so many people don't achieve their New Year's resolutions. But when you incorporate goal setting in student learning, at a minimum, you get an extra half
008year of learning in one year's time. When you do some of the more advanced techniques, you can get over two years worth of learning done in just a year. This also aligns with where we're going for our students when they reach graduation. We are working with some of the smallest kiddos, but we are looking at that end goal. And when we look at Rayek, the portrait of a Ray Pek grad, you can see goal setting, accepting feedback, resilience, and all of that is is combined in what we were thinking. So we had this idea and we combined it with our strategic plan and just slowly worked away goals are broad uh but basically grow um and do well in reading and math but kids aren't really connected to that. So for our first two years
009we did a lot of groundwork just learning about assessment capable learners. We figured out how to do goals on a classwide scale, identify where where we're going, where we're at, how to close that gap, and you'll hear that language more this year. Now that we have that foundational understanding, we really worked to personalize those goals. Not every kid's the same, and they each need something different. Also, when you get personalized goals, kids get a lot more invested. Our focus was reading, but our teachers really took off with it. A lot of them incorporated in the their subjects. Um, and we also had a lot of success incorporating it in some behavior goals. Although this is centered on students, I do want to praise our leadership team. They realized that this is a skill that needed
010to be taught and that it can vastly increase student engagement and clarity. and they have just done a great job keeping this a priority throughout the last couple years. So, if you ask a first grader though um how many words they want to read a minute, they will tell you something like a thousand um which is a little much. So, we did have some teacher guidance and all of that was grounded in um our data. So, the students got to help pick their goals, but we guided them into what was realistic and attainable. Even though we provided some guidance, our students had a lot to say on where they were going. Um, and sometimes even more importantly, how to close that gap, how to get there, what strategies they wanted to use. We heard over
011and over from students this same sentiment. I like that I got to choose my goal. It feels like it's mine. When it feels like it's theirs, kids will try. They are more engaged. um it's not just the teacher teaching at them anymore. They are invested. Okay, so here's some classroom examples. Um this is a kindergarten example and a lot of our standards look like this. They have lots of different parts. So here students were able to identify where they were at, which pieces did they have, which ones did they want to work on next. This is the same thing for a kindergarten math standard. And this they start, you know, at the basics. And so they were tracking their letters. And that tracking also helped them see what they had accomplished. And then they could
012go back and look and see they had a couple letters left um that they needed to work on. And their voice came into, you know, picking which letters they wanted to focus on next. In first, second, and third, you see a bigger transition over into that self-evaluation, and those grades are more aligned with our proficiency scales. So, you can ask any student at Timber Creek if they're a one, two, three, or four, and they will be able to tell you and why and what they need to work on. Maybe not all of them. There may be one or two. They're the new ones. When you get to fourth and fifth grade, there is an additional increase um with a lot of reflection. And so when you add that reflection, you again increase ownership and also
013show students that you might not reach your goals the first time. You might have to keep going back at it. You might have to make um new plans. So what this has done so far, we did a survey of our students and it has vastly increased um student clarity and engagement. When we asked our students, "What goal are you working on?" 92% of them could give us their specific goal. Um down to I am uh my goal is to increase three words by the next time I read with Mrs. Cummings. Um when we ask them what where are you in meeting your goal, they could say where they were at again that one, two, three, and four. And then what are you doing to meet your goal? They would describe their different strategies. Not quite
014at 100% but pretty close. So our goal this year was to master personalized goal settings in reading uh with a focus on students understanding really that weekly rate of improvement and that fluency. Many of our teachers have already gone well beyond this and started incorporating it in math. And while I don't have all of our NWA data, it has seemed to make a huge impact. I was looking at one class today and only 25% of the students came into that class on grade level. As of today, 75% of those students are on grade level with their reading fluency and we still have a month left. Some of that is due to UFly. Um, but the goal setting really has helped them be invested. So our next steps are to continue this and expand it across
015different um areas into science, into math, into behavior. And in two years, um, we hope to be able to have our students comfortable enough with this process that our big buddies when they go down to see their little buddies, they're able to talk about their reading and math goals and help them help teach them how to set those baby steps to reach that goal. All right, are there any questions? How do you deal with the kids that don't reach their goals? I think that's a great life lesson. Sometimes you're not going to reach your goals, especially the first time. And we have kids who for an entire quarter or entire semester won't reach especially their reading fluency goal if they're if they're very behind because their rate of improvement is so high. Um but that
016doesn't mean you stop. We switch strategies. Um, and sometimes we switch the goal. Maybe it's too big. Um, there's never just a okay, give up. You can't read. And showing kids that we are not just teaching them, but going beside them of I'm going to help you. You're not on your own. We're going to figure this out and check in every week. Um, has really helped. I don't think there have there is a kid who has not met a goal all year. What does DACA stand for? Developing assessment capable learners. It's one of the high impact teaching and learning practices. Dr. As you look back on this this year and in previous years and looking forward to next year, what what tweaks, what changes, what kind of what have we learned as as a as
017a team that you're going to put into place for uh for this approach? A lot of it is going to be refining. Um teachers and kids had huge range and autonomy to make this look like what they wanted to look like. Um, and it developed throughout the year and now we have a better idea of what goal setting will look like in each grade and what would be appropriate. Um, almost every single one of my teachers has already has a plan for how they're going to introduce it and when they're going to introduce it and different variations that the kids can choose from. Uh, it's just been a learning process, but they're very excited to get started even sooner next year. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Consent items. Need a motion. On to
018consent items. Uh, I need a motion to approve consent items. So moved. A second. Second. All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. on to uh the facility needs analysis. Yes. Thank you, board members. Appreciate that, Madam President and Vice President. Uh I'm pleased to present to you tonight the draft of our facility needs analysis. This work represents a significant step forward in our understanding of the long-term facility priorities and opportunities for our district that we have yet to seize. With us this evening is Adam Aaron Hardy from the Insight Design Studio. IDS has helped us with the comprehensive study and is here to share both the process and the findings that have emerged from this work. At this time, I'll turn it over Mrs. Mr. Hardy. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for having
019me here tonight. We're really excited to present this information and also thank you for allowing us to go along this journey with you as we uh work through the facility needs for the future of uh Ray Peek. Uh the goal from the beginning was to uh to capitalize on the momentum of the previous rounds of work that's been going on, all the great things that have been uh accomplished in the recent years and to start to identify what the future might look like and what needs uh could be out there that we might want to take a look at uh in future um initiatives. So it was a kind of a fact-based uh approach, data driven for the most part with lots of conversation uh in the middle. Uh we started the process in October
020of last year and we were still working on this up until about a week and a half ago wrapping it up. So it went through April of 2025. Um we had an executive steering committee that met regularly uh to review data. It included two board members and uh also uh quite a few of the district administrators. So they're able to provide context uh feedback uh alignment with strategic plan etc from all the data that we collected throughout the process. Additional stakeholders that we interacted with were the building administrators. So they're very gracious to give up an hour or two of their time back in the fall to walk the buildings with us. Uh we met with team Rayek last November, the citizens advisory committee in February and then we had two opportunities for feedback from
021the community staff and students. uh one at early in the process and then one recently in March. So we'll walk through the process that we went through uh to come to our findings. Uh started with information collection and it is just what it sounds like. It's not exciting. Uh we walked each building uh so we could see firsthand and hands-on how the facility was operating, the condition of the facility. Uh get direct feedback from the principles and other people that were present uh on maybe some hopes and dreams that they may have uh for that facility and to just really understand how things are operating in that facility so we can better understand the data that would come uh next from this. Uh lots of notes and uh those were all passed along to the
022committee. Uh we also collected information um enrollment data. We have the deferred maintenance log um open orders you know things that get repaired. So all the deferred maintenance pieces were captured in there as well. Demographic forecasts etc. So that was all data that we used as well and referenced as we worked our way through the process. Once we had that information we started the engagement side of things. Um first thing we did was a collaborative work session with team Rayek. Uh and then we also went out to the community with a survey and both of those had the same topics that we were uh asking and talking about. So the first one is about what types of educational programming would you like to see expanded or added? Uh the second one was more about facilities
023and activities kind of the same question. What would you like to see expanded or added? And then also um what kind of maintenance and facility upgrades would you like to see? Um team Rayek was group work. uh they they spoke for a while as a group, shared out information and we collected that information from each one of those groups. So we were able to get live feedback and context on each one of those which was good because we were able to take that information and start to overlay it from the community findings as well. So we had a little bit of background on what some of the comments uh might say. Um part of that we also uh mixed in two meetings with the executive steering committee. So the first one was uh right after
024team right back we met at the executive steering committee. That meeting was focused on digesting the information from the facility walkthroughs understanding all the other information in terms of enrollment and deferred maintenance and all those aspects and what they meant and how they correlated back to the feedback we heard from team Rayek and we started identify some some themes that were coming and trying to put things into buckets and what that meant. So that that was a small sample for what we didn't know was coming with the survey that we received in terms of what the the compartmentalization of data that we were going to have to do following that. Uh we received on the open-ended side of things in the survey 850 different ideas on what we could improve. That was a lot and
025we went through each one of them and uh and started to break those down and that happened in the in you know the second meeting that we had. One thing that became apparent is there was there was quite a few things in there though that that maybe dealt outside of the facilities. Things like, you know, operations or transportation and routes and and things like that. So, uh, one of the tasks before we went to the next meeting was to start to break those apart, set those aside, give those to the district so they could use those where they need to, and just come back with the things that focus specifically on facilities. So, from that, we had about 500 items left. And some of them are the same thing. These are individual things. They might
026have said gym nine times, but they counted individually. And that's what we started to group into into the various buckets to evaluate. So from there we moved into the envision phase now that we have the the baseline data that we wanted to evaluate and and what we might want to push forward in terms of the facility needs um for the future. So meeting three, this was at the end of January. Um the 500 items were were worked through continued to put into buckets. And the outcome from that meeting was nine facility uh project considerations. So these are in no particular order. They're only in the order that I felt to type them. So I don't think I' I've ranked them. Uh they're not from the committee. So um but these are a little bit general
027in some aspects. Some of them are fairly specific, but these were the nine categories that came up with a little bit of context for each one that the committee felt should be pushed forward to the community for additional review and feedback. Um, so I'll go over them in in a general sense. Uh, maintenance, this is probably the biggest category. It includes quite a few things. So, what you would expect from maintenance, HVAC, roofs, infrastructure, things of that aspect. But also included in here were building upgrades and renovations, um, safety updates, things like that. Real world, um, learning. I think this is a testament to the lead center. There's a lot of excitement around that and we can, you'll see this when we go into the validation phase that where the students are at on that.
028uh but the opportunity to push this down into the middle school level as well as trying to expand that program at the high school to make it even more robust early childhood learning. Uh this focused around access on the northern side of the district as well as the the current facility uh on this campus. And then at the middle school, there's two two aspects at the middle school. The first one is the athletic improvement. This is this is inside of the building. So this would be gymnasiums or other activity spaces to provide additional flexibility and scheduling and more access for activities throughout the school day and for the community. Uh the second aspect of that is the outside of the building and this was mainly um focused on the south campus um south middle school
029and the addition of a track in a field so it could be used by community middle school students and as well as support the high school for additional uh scheduling flexibility. Uh the next one was the military and career program. So uh introducing or bringing online um leadership and ROC programming uh but also a facility or a space that could be multi-use, have community use, athletics could also use it. Uh so a multi-use facility but also bringing in military career training. Uh warehouse additions. uh just being able to expand the capabilities to store, purchase, and distribute uh goods to all the buildings and allowing it to catch up to the size that the district is. Right now it's it's it's a little bit in inadequate in that aspect. And then also uh for the fleet
030and uh the maintenance staff additional improvements to their spaces. Uh the stadium renovations were a little bit more targeted and focused. There were specific audio, you know, some bleach bleachers, press box, some of the support spaces around the field, not so much overhauling the entire stadium itself, and then baseball and softball field upgrades. So, those were the nine list, nine items that made the list to get pushed forward. So, from there, we went to citizens advisory committee. So, they're our first test subjects, if you will, and we gave them a presentation and let them know the process we had went through, how we had gotten to these items, and did an initial survey to start to see how they might rank or prioritize or give us feedback on those. Uh, but really the main takeaway
031from this was to get their feedback from a community aspect. You know, how was that survey received? What additional information would they need on these questions if it was to be put out? What what additional context? Um and then feedback on how things might be ranked or uh identified as preferences or not preferences. So there are kind of our feedback on there our beta test on the big survey that would ultimately go out. Following that we revised and updated and um finalized the survey to go out to the community. Uh and that was where we entered our we're calling it our validation uh phase. So we had our nine ideas and we wanted to make sure that as they got pushed out that these were good sound ideas and they would have support from the
032community and all the vested folks that uh would be using these facilities. Uh it was the intention was not to rank or say these are the things we need to do. Here's number one, here's number two. The idea was to make sure that the list was comprehensive enough that it had support and met everyone's needs and that there wasn't some outlier in there maybe that was really under supported or if there something that was really oversupported. We wanted to know that as well. So we issued a survey uh that had some demographic information up front. We were able to understand the participants of that whether they were parents, what grade levels their kids were in, if they were staff, what building they taught in, if they had kids, what buildings were their kids in, if
033you were a community member, we asked, did you go to Rayek? Uh uh will you have kids that enter Rayek? did you have kids that went to you know we were able to break this down in a lot of different ways so we could understand how the feedback was coming in um there was two main questions uh in the survey the first one was a a head-to-head ranking exercise so everyone was it just randomly assigned two of these options and put them next to each other and the respondent was simply asked out of these two which one would you prefer which one do you prefer more it wasn't it never asked you to go one through nine it was which out of these and it just randomly cycled through those until it felt that it
034had enough information to move on. Uh the second question though gave them all nine options with all the contexts and said if you could have one and only one, what's your mustave? And we wanted to see we wanted to see what the must haves were. But we wanted to see if the feedback if there was any variations in the feedback uh between those two. And again, we're going for validation of these ideas. If there's something that's not getting any support in the must haves, that's something we need to discuss. If there's something that's getting all the support, we would want to discuss that as well. So, the breakdown of the feedback, we got almost 1350 responses, which I will say is a testament to your community and your staff and your students. I have similar
035surveys out right now in larger districts, and it's like not the same. It's much lower. So, very good feedback. Overall, parents and and students were the largest respondent groups. Both of those were around 500. Uh staff was 270. They're fairly equal split between students with students in the district and without students in the district. Slightly more than 50% have students in the district. and then 53 community members. I chocked that up to we had a lot of different categories you could get into before you were just a community member. So, I think that we captured a lot of people in those other groups, but we did get 53 of those. Um, overall on the head-to-head feedback, there was about a 33% spread in the win rate. So, again, it's looking at how many times does
036someone pick that's my preference. That would be considered a win in the survey's eyes. So the lowest amount of support that anything received was 34% win rate and the highest was 67%. I see this as a a success. It's a very tight window. It means that even the ones that were least preferred still won one out of three times that they were put on the screen. So there that we see that as as support for that. And then there wasn't anything so over the top that you know that's like becomes a mustave. These this is a tight grouping and it in our in our opinion it validates the list that's there. Um, in the must-have portion, um, all of them got a mustave, which is great. Now, there was a big spread from top to
037bottom. Um, but I, you know, I'm not going to lead too much here, but even some of the students voted the warehouse as a mustave, you know, so they're thinking big. So, you know, there were some surprises in the data that came back. Uh, but now we can kind we'll go through some of the trends that we saw in that data. um two there was two that were most preferred and when I say that those are the ones in that 60 to 65% success rate and it was maintenance and expanded expand real world learning and that that was consistent across all groups so they had really good support across all four of those the parents students community and staff uh when I say least preferred I I hated terming it this because it's they they
038were still prefer this not quite as much but they tended to be on the lower end across all four groups as but they still did have support. And then there was the group in the middle and those are the ones that might vary just by a different demographic group that we're looking at. Um the general takeaway was um students tend to focused on on opportunities. So real world learning uh and then also stadium and athletic improvement. So more access to to spaces to do activities. So it's all about opportunities for the students in terms of how we solve this. Uh parents there was a focus on early childhood learning. Same with um uh staff uh but also parents focused on the the maintenance side of things and the practicality things. In the community were more
039focused on stadium improvements and maintenance and other things of that sort. So depending on the user there's a little bit different focus and that's where you got those five in the middle kind of grouped together. And then the baseball softball was just kind of right in the middle all across all the groups. So it was just kind of 50% win 50% lose. So uh a really again a really tight spread in terms of that feedback. So, sorry, big chart here. Um, but this is the actual musthaves that came back. So, you can see there there's some at the top that got a lot of support and and we would expect those. Those are um you strong student support from expanded uh this the real world learning early childhood center. You your parents and staff really
040supported that one quite a bit. Um, what's interesting though is some of the things that change between the two where the military piece was more on the least preferred on the head-to-head. It's kind of right in the middle and actually had quite a bit of support when it said it's a mustave. So, what we're finding in here are those items that there are people there are items that people will be really passionate about and and then everything else is kind of irrelevant and it goes different sorry it goes different ways. you know, you might be really passionate about the the military side of thing, but then someone else might be equally as passionate about athletics or something like that, which is good to find. It shows a balanced approach and a comprehensive list of projects
041when I see this even warehouse 27 uh overall said that. Um so again, I think the list has been validated overall. And then in summary, sorry, we did one more exercise with our executive committee. I forgot to mention about that part. So last uh last week we got together and we put all nine up for the committee. Um they have we had nine options. Each got five dots. So some were going to be left out uh by design. Uh the top tier, the green dots that they received, they got two of those and those were to represent immediate priorities in their opinion uh that need to be implemented uh first. Uh tier two were important priorities that maybe just didn't quite get top level support. And then there was a pink dot that is tier
042three, which means it's a priority, but maybe it's something we we can look at waiting on and and satisfy some other things first. And then just like the others, it's a mix. We're kind of uh, you know, kind of all over the place a little bit, but again, every single one got some sort of support from these dots. And we didn't even have enough dots to for everybody to vote on everything. Uh, but the most support came from maintenance. Again, it's it's a strong candidate in this list. uh baseball softball even came up a little bit higher than in some of the previous uh feedback groups that we had. Uh early childhood was interesting uh because it's one of those priorities that's been identified, but let's maybe ease into that and look at some of
043the other priorities we have and kind of talk about how that might get phased in. And then you can see some of the other upgrades. But this was where it wrapped up. But what was more important about this conversation and and our takeaway from this was really the conversation that was had outside of this and why these were chosen. And it's summarized into three principles that we wrote down and we kind of included at the end and these are principles that we would say as we move into the next steps that are considered as we're deciding projects. Um safety was obviously really important. It always is. So, a lot of things had safety connections to it. Even baseball, softball, we talked about the safety of people on the field and the players. It goes beyond
044just your secure entries and window films and things like that. Um, equal facilities. There was a lot of conversation about the balance between the middle schools, comparable facilities to to surrounding school districts and so on. And in opportunities for students, uh, that was another big piece of of the conversation. So those are the three principles that we took away from the conversation of that last meeting rather than the ranking. I thought the ranking was was insightful as well. Uh but that's what we would push forward in terms of something to consider when we move into the to the next steps of the process. So that's kind of the end of the summary. Um, if he has any questions, happy to answer. As a member of the executive um committee, um, it was very insightful for
045all of the feedback that we got from all the different components, right? We had community, we had different team rec, we had the citizen advisory. So, it was um very interesting to take a whole bunch of feedback and you guys narrowed it down and um what I want to also say is from that that 350 that didn't make the 500 cut, we tasked Dr. Vulkar and Dr. Bar and team of these are important. Our community has spoken. How do we It It doesn't have anything to do with a place to sit. it has something to do with something that they want. And so this was um it was part of the facility needs analysis, but it's part of us taking um the feedback and becoming a a district of choice and all the things that
046we are having. So um this was a huge undertaking and you guys did a great job each time of compiling all the data. So I really appreciate that. Thank you. All right, seeing no other questions, let me address next steps for the board and for our community. Um, first of all, thank you, Erin. This is a lot of work and you have got us, I think, this part of the ship into the harbor. Thank you. Only to launch another one here in, you know, a year or two. We'll see. Um, we'll take a deeper dive of this draft report in our June advance together. At that time, I'll share thoughts on the areas where we may need additional study, particularly around cost implications of what we've seen here tonight. Uh the current economic climate in
047our communities, what that forecast looks like because at some point that we had additional level of needed investment from our communities to make some of these ideas a reality. So, that's still down the road yet to be discussed. I think this initial um look was trying to identify the projects that are most important to our community. Make sure that we start planning around that and then we can figure out how to onboard that or what the priority is to onboard uh some of those projects in maybe another bond election that might be coming up in a year or two depending on the board's preference for that. But there's still a lot of work that goes into that economic work, you know, they'll take to look at tax rates, you know, all that stuff that goes
048into how we're going to pay for it. um that wasn't the focus of this initial um thrust. It was more about identifying the projects and we did a good job with that. So um more to come. I you know there's a lot more work on this uh but we need to continue moving because if you stop and stand still and look around and um think you know you've really come a long way people pass you by. So we got to continue to making sure that we provide for our our community for our students and for our staff in the greatest ways possible. Stay tuned. Thank you. Thank you, Erin. We appreciate it. Um, now on to teacher appreciation week. Yes. Just a quick announcement as a reminder, May 5th through the 9th is teacher and
049staff appreciation week in my weekly update to you coming out as well as uh an email from Pam Steel that you'll be getting. We'll be sharing opportunities for you to sign up to serve breakfast at schools across the district during that week. This is a great chance to show our support in a personal and meaningful way, and I know our staff does does appreciate that. So, be on the lookout for uh those opportunities coming the week of May 5th through the 9th. Now, on to the produce vendor, Dr. Vulkar. All right. Good evening. So, we have our produce vin uh bid for this year to talk about tonight. CNC Produce was the sole bidder for the district produce contract for the 2526 school year. Child Nutrition has a strong long-standing partnership with CNC and confidently
050recommends continuing this contract. This agreement does include the option to renew for a second and third year. And I'll be happy to answer any questions about our produce. It's good for you and tastes good. Can I get a motion to approve CNC Produce as the produce vendor for the 2526 school year? Is there a second? All in favor? Motion P passes unanimously. Thank you very much. On to milk and dairy vendor. Yes. Child nutrition also received bids from Anderson Ericson Dairy and Highland Dairy for the district's dairy products for the 2526 school year. After evaluating annual low escalating bid pricing, it is recommended to award the contract to Highland Dairy. The contract includes the option to renew for a second and third year. And in talking with Child Nutrition and looking at the bid tab,
051they believe that Highland Dairy had a complete bid and one that they believe will serve our school community very well. So happy to answer any questions. If you look at that bid. Yeah, I think we've been with Anderson Arison. I I would have to go back and check. I think we have used Highland in the past. Um, but I think we've used both to be honest. And it really is what they can provide at this at this school year and at this time. And right now, we believe Highland is the the vendor that can provide us with our the needs for our students. Can I get a motion to approve? Oh, it moved on me. Sorry. We're new diligent. We're figuring it out. Yes, we are as well. So, that's okay. Okay. Motion to approve
052Highland Dairy as a provider for dairy products for the 202526 school year. Second. Second. All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much, Mr. Gooding. Welcome. Thank you. Appreciate it. So, the district recently conducted a RFP for purchase of 1,125 Chromebook devices to be deployed as take-home devices for our sixth and 9th grade students. They're part of our ongoing commitment to support instruction in the classroom and at home. And after an evaluation of that, we decided Lenovo Chromebooks this year were the product that we wanted to select based on pricing. Uh the touchscreen functionality, the battery life of it, and just the rugged design overall of the product. So each device will be protected by a 4-year accidental device protection warranty that covers damage resulting from any type of unintentional damage to the to
053the device, whether it's at home or at school. Uh this is a new warranty that we're actually getting with this group that it's an unlimited number of warranties replacements. In the past, it's just been one per year. So that's another benefit uh of going with Lenovo. So tonight, we're recommending the purchase of 1,125 Lenovo Chromebooks with full four-year accidental device protection coverage from YNS Technology Computers at a total cost of $58,275. Is that replacing all six through nine every all of them or just replacing? No, that will replace our sixth graders. So our fifth graders this year's fifth graders will get new Chromebooks as sixth graders and our freshmen. Okay. So, two classes and then plan is that the plan then to the rolling plan of Yeah, that's how our device refresh plan has always
054been those and then we'll we'll take um what we get back from the seniors and we get back from our eighth graders and we roll those all back. So, that's about a thousand devices. We take the best of those, roll those back into elementaryaries and we also buy some new ones from the elementaryaries every other year to help keep that replenished as well. Okay. Because as remind me kindergarten, first grade they have iPads, tablets, iPads. Okay. And so then as they're moving forward, what what percent are unusable or damage rate? Yeah. So damage rate uh depends on the level. So elementary is really low because uh our the majority of them are just left at school. So our fifth graders take them home sometimes, but the majority of them are just left in carts at
055school. So those don't see a ton of damage. Our middle school students are an adventure with their Chromebooks. So we have lots of damage at the middle school level. And when I say lots, we estimate 8 to 12% that we'll have to replace annually. So um and then the high schools 6% or so, six to 8%. Do we buy new Chromebooks then every year? We so um three years ago we p we had a grant and we purchased a large number of Chromebooks. Traditionally we have had this recycle refresh every year but um a couple years ago we had a large grant that we got so we purchased a lot of them. So this is our first time kind of getting back on that refresh cycle. But yes traition traditionally yes we have. Do we
056um do we use students to help with like the IT help with that? So, we have had we have have had that in the past, a class of students. Um currently, we don't we don't have a group of students that work on Chromebooks partly because we have the warranty. So, if it's broken, we can send it back to the the uh manufacturer and let them fix it. So, Sure. Can I get a motion to approve the bid for Lenovo Chromebooks including four years of ADP coverage from YNS technology computers in the amount of $58,275? So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? Motion passes unanimously onto interactive flat panel. All right. So, the district uh conducted another RFP for the purchase of 121 flat panel displays to be installed at South Middle School, East Middle School,
057and at the academy. These displays are much needed in these buildings and are going to replace some very aging uh equipment at each one of those building each one of those buildings and it's also the final phase of our district-wide classroom displayment cycle. So just a little history behind this um process that we went through to get to this place was a collaboration between the technology and the academic services department and that was in the 2019 2020 school year and we initiated a thorough evaluation of all interactive display technologies at that time working with five different vendors to provide proof of concept units for us. And we took those displays and went through several tests, evaluated them in real classroom settings, professional development settings, and other types of other types of areas that um we
058thought were appropriate. So, um we brought in teachers, building administrators, technical staff, and went through a technical assessment with each one of them. We checked for instructional functionality, how easy those the boards were to program. And after four months of testing, uh we collected a ton of data on it and uh the overwhelming winner was the clear touch interactive display. So over the course since 2020, we have rolled clear touch displays out throughout the district and almost all of our buildings. So tonight, we're recommending the purchase of 121 clear touch interactive flat panel displays, including installation, professional development, and a 5-year on-site warranty from from KCAV at a total cost of $515,867. Can I get a motion for what he just said? So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank
059you Dr. Bar onto apprenticeship before I completely am gone the voice I'll just whisper. So I'm here tonight to talk about an exciting new real world learning opportunity um for our students which is youth registered apprenticeships. Um the apprenticeships are really supported through the um US Department of Labor and the apprenticeship USA initiative and it really is designed to give kids hands-on um experience on the job training in high need high skill um high wage career areas. Um it is very industrydriven and that we have to look at industries where there's a need. That's where you can apply for apprenticeships um and helps them develop their future workforce. These are different than internships uh because we obviously have those as well um in that the apprenticeships are much more structured um there's much more you
060know rules for them um and so uh for instance they have to the student has to be paid um although in our internship program we really make sure we place them in in paid uh positions. You don't have to do that for an internship. You do have to do that for an apprenticeship. Um there does have to be classroom instruction that is related to it. um they do have to have a mentor and an apprenticeship. A youth when they finish their apprenticeship will receive a national certification unlike uh an internship where there's not a uh national certification. So some great benefits um for students is that you're earning while you're learning. Um they get that national credential that will work anywhere in the United States. They do get that hands-on learning and again they do
061get assigned a mentor who kind of walks alongside them. So, it's not just throwing them into a job and and sink or swim. Um, they have that mentor to guide them. They do get a head start on a on a career pathway. Um, and they get to develop those professional skills and workforce habits or as we would say those um portrait of a graduate um skills that we really want them to to develop. There's great benefits for employers and in this case the school um because we are the employer in in this instance um is that we get a pipeline of of workers. um you get to train them the the way you want them and then if you like them and you have an opening then you know what you're you're getting. Um it
062really does strengthen that school to career pathway um for kids in kids' minds and get some meaningful partnerships and can really help with economic development especially as we look to move apprenticeships outside of the district into into other businesses. So our first one and we're just starting with one right now uh is the is a dock worker. Um we are working in collaboration with Scott Dobson's department. He needs help in that warehouse and um this is one way that we can provide that by also giving a great um experience for the student. So we are going to do one student um and it'll be a two to threeyear apprenticeship um and it takes that long because they have to have 2,000 uh hours of on the job training and we are going to divide that
063up through um working during the school year and working in the summer with that student. So they'd have 720 hours during the school year for multiple school years um across multiple school years and then 1440 hours during the summer where we'd have them working full-time um for several weeks. Uh they also have to have 144 hours of related coursework and we get to choose that coursework. Um but it is supposed to be course work that will complement them and then we'll also help them build those professional skills. Um the core task that we're looking at for the dock worker is to that secure that cargo, monitor safety, operate transport, um review work orders, um move freight and supplies, um record inventory and and other data. Um and then communication obviously with team members. Um it
064would start this summer. Um we are looking for someone who is finishing their sophomore year because it would take that many summers uh so three summers and two school years to get the 2,000 hours of of apprenticeship so that they can get that certificate. Um and again we are looking into apprenticeship options where we don't have an internship option or we don't have a multi-year program. Um um for instance we are looking into plumbing. Uh we still you know that was at Scott's request. We actually suggested two dock workers. He goes how about a dock worker and a plumber? and we're like, well, we'll see what we can do. Um, so we don't have a formal plumbing um program at this time, but we can do related coursework like through home maintenance and things like
065that and then put the student in apprenticeship where they can get some hands-on learning. So, it's not replacing the internships. It's just an additional option for our students. So, upon the completion again, they'll get that national um credential that they can take with them with them anywhere. Um and then we are committed as I said to expanding uh this program. Um we are looking at other areas again such as plumbing. We're also looking at areas where maybe we're already paying kids. Um for instance we have some kids that work um after school care at boost. We could do something like an after um school care you know child care um apprenticeship where the kids are already working. We're already paying them. Why don't we get them that national credential as well? Um and then we
066are also after we get it all figured out and know how it works in district. We have plans to expand outside of the district. Um Dr. Vulkar has been working with me on this and we've been talking about um it would be great maybe if we could partner with some of our banks and get like some kind of finance apprenticeship um or you know talk to the Chamber of Commerce about what kind of needs they have and what can we begin to explore. So this really is the the tip of the iceberg um of another like a great opportunity for our students. Uh Missouri is very invested in this. They've actually hired regional um experts at our Kansas City Professional Development Learning Centers who actually will walk you through this process and we actually used
067ours. Her name's Clara Li. Um she used to do apprenticeships in St. Joseph at their career tech center and so she really absolutely walked us through the paperwork via the phone, helped us fill it out, help us get approved. Um so that's definitely a support Missouri is trying to provide because they really would like more of this type of learning to happen um for students. So again, it's an exciting time. Um, what I'm asking is, uh, permission to sign the agreement with the US Department of Labor so we can move forward on apprenticeships for our students. Any questions? I love what we're giving our kids just even more opportunities. And it's not you have to where where are you going to college? It's what are you doing? What are we giving them? Opportunities to make
068choices. Eventually, we are hoping things like the the finance one could be maybe you don't go to college, but maybe you do. Um, and you you could even transfer, you know, if you're working at Southern Bank here and you want to go to Springfield, you could transfer maybe there. So, we're trying to look for options for both kids who maybe aren't collegebound and kids who are. I love it. I need a motion to authorize Dr. Bulk to sign the registered apprenticeship standards with the US Department of Labor. So moved. Second. All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. We're supporting another real on to committee reports. Aaron gave my committee report to us. So, thank you, Erin. Uh, on to the superintendent update. Yes. Thank you, ma madam vice president. I have so many good things that
069I want to share with the board tonight. Uh, one of which, you know, the uh, board update is in the the document that we have that our public gets to see. I want to highlight a couple things that were sent to you in our board updates recently. Uh, 10 new courses in the 2526 school year. Uh, Dr. Bar and her team put together a description of each of those. We are excited about what those are because those are uh, courses across our school district and in many of our schools. Um, if you haven't had time to peruse those, please do so. There's some exciting opportunities for kids that are will be uh available to them next year. Uh as you know the K12 mathematics program review report was delivered to you a couple of weeks
070ago in the update. We will be visiting that as a formal report to you in May. I think I inadvertently wrote to you it would be in tonight's meeting. Uh it was on the chart all the schedule to do that in the May meeting. So we'll Dr. Bar will be delivering that report in May. So I want you to be aware of that. Also on April the 11th, we had the extreme pleasure of hosting uh the deputy commissioner for education for Desi of Kelly Jones came to visit our district. Uh toured the lead center, our English language learners program at Creekmore uh elementary school. Ruth Johnson also joined the tour and I can't say enough about how our students represented that day, taking our that team on the the guided tour, answering the questions and
071being the stars of the show that day. And we do want to thank Miss Jones, deputy commissioner, for being here that day to share some time with us. My phone was uh blowing up earlier and I just want to share with you some good news that's hot off the press. All right. Uh, our one act play received second in the state today. So, Readers Theater received first. They are state champions. So, Amari Russell run the best actress award and Ian Hannenburgg won best supporting actor. I'm sure we will be represent or acknowledging these students and these and these uh actors here maybe next month. We'll have to see what the what the timing is like. That is the day before the last day of school. So there may be some uh some conflicts. Also, blue
072star nominees are up. Uh we are up for outstanding orchestra and outstanding ensemble. So a lot to celebrate tonight. Also about 5:30 tonight, it was informed that uh Abby Brown, who's with the uh the chief Kansas City Chiefs organization, was not at the draft, but she was on our campus presenting the undefeated girls flag football team with coach of the week honors to coach Shelman. Uh, Coach Shelman received Oakley sunglasses, a heated vest, and $500 for the flag team uh from the Kansas City Chiefs. So, pretty cool stuff happening there. By the time we come back together in May, we will have had the excellence in education banquet, retiree banquet, several showcases at the lead center, senior awards night, and graduation. So, there's a lot being packed into the next three or four weeks here
073in the school district. So, looking forward to that. At this time, I would like our board of education to go to the uh awards area if you would. Appreciate that. And I would like Pam Steel to go join them, please. If you would high five, Pam. Maybe not. This week, organizations across the country have been observing administrative professionals week. Yesterday, Wednesday, was administrative professionals day. Missouri School Boards Association also designates this week as a time to recognize school board secretaries. So, it's with great fear and trepidation that I take this opportunity to recognize our board secretary and good friend Pam Steel. Pam has served on the school board secretary for about 30 years, as she describes it. She is also the executive assistant to the superintendent, my right-hand person in lots of things. Pam's work
074is crucial to both smooth functioning of the board and also the smooth functioning of the school district. Her most visible duties are recording and maintaining accurate meeting minutes, ensuring compliance with policies and laws of which she does dutifully, tracking board member terms, and providing safekeeping of all official records and contracts. But Pam does so much more than this as she fills the important role between the administration and the school board. She maintains a high level of collaboration and communication as she keeps track of our schedules, deadlines, and changes in policies and regulations. She juggles all of these with a healthy dose of humor. Let's remember that humor after you come back here, Pam. And of patience and grace. Pam, we appreciate all you do for the board and for this school district. Thank you. [Applause]
075And that concludes my report. I am enjoying the new signage that's been put up on the campus down here in the who's where did this come from? Well, I'm going to give credit where credit is due. Dr. Vulkar, Scott Dobson put a plan together to make sure that we could have some some wayf finding across on this district. So, I think it looks really sharp. it does and um really something that's long overdue, but I think as as the as the campus has settled in to some definite uses, we've got a lot of things happening on this campus that we need to get people to. So, kudos to that work. Thank you so much. I it's much needed. You know, I I don't know how many times people have stopped me on a walk or
076something and said, "Where is this building?" or "How do I get here or there?" And they stand out. They're sharp looking and thank you. I I Yeah, nice addition to the school. Any other comments? No. You're done hearing me? Um, uh, calendar of events. May 16th, graduation, 700 p.m. at the stadium. May 22nd, regular board meeting at 7. And the meeting is adjourned. It was nice knowing you.