001103 thank you for your patience we'll call the meeting to order please rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice role welcome to the Rockwood Board of Education meeting we would like to thank the administrative team and all the staff and students at Rockwood Summit High School for being gracious hosts for our meeting this evening thank you also to the ambassadors who are here from our schools to assist with greeting and signing in our guests the purpose of this meeting is to conduct the business of the district hear reports about our progress and listen to the community on important issues we want to remind all of our visitors that we expect
002the audience to remain civil and respectful at all times as the board conduct conducts its business calling out verbal aggressiveness inappropriate language or name calling is not acceptable if the meeting becomes unruly the board may take a recess until such time the audience is appropriate if inappropriate behavior continues by individuals they may be asked to leave the meeting if the audience becomes so inappropriate in their behavior that we can't conduct our business the board reserves the right to adjourn the meeting the sport of Education meeting is live streamed for the community's convenience opinions expressed at the meeting are not necessarily the opinions of the Rockwood School District YouTube reserves the right to Monitor and block an accurate and misleading content that processes beyond the control of the Rockwood School District we want everybody to have
003the ability to see and have the ability to hear the business of the district reports presented and the comments of everyone who is here to speak we request that all individuals speak slowly and clearly we appreciate your cooperation and that you took the time to attend tonight's meeting can I please have a motion to approve the agenda second Motion in a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye anyone opposed and that passes next kind of a motion to approve Board of Education meeting minutes for the March 16 2023 meeting check motion and a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye aye anyone opposed that passes next we have our first Patron comment section during Patron comments Rockwood patrons May address the Board of Education concerning issues related to
004the school district under our updated policy there are now two Patron comment sections during regular board meetings the first public comment period shall be solely for Patron comments related to items on tonight's agenda which will be limited to 30 minutes the second public comment period shall occur at the end of the meeting order of business in Shelby for patrons to make a statement or address a board concern concerning any issues pertaining to the Rockwood School District please know that patrons also have the opportunity to submit comments and writing to the board at any time each speaker will be limited to three minutes combining time or giving your time to someone else to speak is not allowed only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time the board uses the public comment periods as
005an opportunity to listen and receive information but board members will not engage in debates or discussions with those speaking other than to seek clarification of their comments if needed a board member may ask that the superintendent ensure that the appropriate staff member follows up in a timely fashion with the individual regarding the information question or concern presented during Patron comments we have a stand with microphones ready so both the board and the audience may hear the patron comments clearly I'd like to remind everyone that comments about individual employees and or students will not be permitted in public session we also expect that you will remain civil and respectful in your remarks and if anyone becomes disruptive we reserve the right to cut your three minutes short verbally aggressive language and vulgarity in any form is
006not acceptable whether you are reading someone else's remarks or they are your own it will not be tolerated the board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and your perspective for your convenience our three-minute time clock is ready our first Patron this evening is Jessica risenhoover our first speaker is now Amy Krebs hi good evening I just wanted to say congratulations to our newly elected board members the people that campaigned for you made it very clear that you are all conservatives since that's what we all heard that's what we are looking forward to it's also what we are expecting as you cast your votes for how Rockwood makes decisions on what our kids are exposed to at school and how Rockwood spends its money the
007word conservative is not political as in a political party instead it describes a general set of values that indicates how you will vote most of us consider ourselves conservatives conservatives value these things we want teachers to be respected by students parents and administrators we want them to be paid well and allowed to do what they do best without having to wear so many hats we absolutely appreciate it when teachers know something's off or not right with our kids but they really should be allowed to teach and not also try to be social workers or therapists or any other roles that parents are handling at home as conservatives we also want every child in Rockwood to know what they can succeed or know that they can succeed we want them to be inspired to work hard
008and achieve given that we've had some setbacks in learning after covid our students and teachers deserve more than ever an environment that is free from divisive distractions instead of teaching our kids to focus on who they are let's teach them to focus on what they do I think they need that to do their best and I think they need you to make that possible for them And in regards to the voting of the board president it is disappointing to hear that the majority of the board did not listen to the large amount of Rockwood citizens that send in emails this week to elect a new board member just for change I think change is good the board is supposed to be our voice and the Rockwood citizens were ignored thank you next speaker is Sally
009Nichol good evening my name is Sally Nichol I am a Rockwood parent and Resident I want to address you this evening regarding the proposed policy changes to public participation in meetings that you're on your second reading for I would like to ask that you reconsider eliminating the non-agenda patron comment period this is our as the Public's one opportunity to address the board publicly it meets a need for the community I believe that's not met by sending emails or even phone calls I do agree though that it could use some fine tuning and so I did have a couple of suggestions that I do hope you'll consider one of those is to have a time limit for it there's not currently one I think 30 minutes is probably reasonable um I think it would be fine
010also to restrict patrons to commenting to one portion or another either non-agenda or agenda I feel that would be a good compromise and then maybe even also limiting the number of consecutive meetings a patron could comment at during the non-agenda portion might help balance whatever it is that is leading you to wish to get rid of the comment period with keeping it as something that our community can have as a resource and a way to address you guys thank you for your time all right next that takes us to superintendent and board comments Dr Kane thank you president Bayes earlier this evening the Board of Education approved four Edition promotions within the administrative team here in the Rockwood School District Dr Cassandra Walker Suggs as our new District director of educational equity and access Robert
011Madison as the new administrative intern at Pond Elementary Sarah Thomason as the new administrative intern at Blevins Elementary and Dr Michael Wegner as the new associate principal at Marquette High School they will all begin these roles on July 1. Cassandra is currently the principal at Wildwood Middle School where she has worked since 2021. she also served as an assistant principal for a year at Rockwood South Middle School prior to that she was the dean of students at Hickman high in Columbia Missouri and taught both middle and high school in the Washington School District Dr Suggs earned a Bachelor's of Applied Arts from Western Illinois University a masters of teaching from Lindenwood University a master of T tesol from Southeast Missouri State University a specialist degree in educational leadership policy analysis from the University of Missouri
012Columbia and her doctoral degree from the University of Missouri in St Louis she also holds a certification in school management and Leadership from Harvard University she replaces director of educational equity and diversity Dr Aisha Grace and is taking on a title change as a part of reorganization of the district leadership team for next school year Rob has been teaching fifth grade for the past eight years at Eureka Elementary prior to working in Rockwood he taught fourth grade for three years at Union Rob has worked on multiple School committees including Eureka's Safety Committee and the Rockwood learning Council and he is also serving as an assistant principal this year for Rockwood Summer Academy Rob earned a Bachelor's of Science in exercise science and a masters of arts in education from Truman State University and a master
013of science in educational Administration from Southwest Baptist University he replaces Dr Andrea Darman who will be serving her new role as Pond's principal July 1. Sarah has been serving as the interim administrative intern at Blevins for the past year before that she taught third grade for a year at Blevins in second grade for a year at Kerr's Mill she also taught kindergarten for three years at Northwest school district and is a camp director for the golf Foundation of Missouri Sarah was an award a rose Award nominee in 2021 and in 2022 and serves as a Rockwood Champion for the diversity equity and inclusion she earned a Bachelor's of Science in edu in elementary and early childhood education from the University of Missouri and a master's of Arts in K-12 leadership from Southeast Missouri State where
014she is currently working on her specialist and educational administration degree as well currently Mike is an assistant principal at Oakville High in Melville where he has worked since 2014. prior to his role as an assistant principal he was the school's choral director for six years he also worked as a high school choral director in DeSoto County schools which is in Mississippi and he did that for four years Mike is the leader of oakville's cultural education and diversity organization and serves as its safety and crisis coordinator Mike earned both a Bachelor's of music and masters of Music in education from the University of Missouri I'm sorry University of Mississippi his educational specialist in school leadership from Lindenwood and his Doctorate in educational leadership for Maryville University he replaces Dr Tracy wackerly who will begin her new
015role as marquette's principal starting July 1. please join me in congratulating all of these leaders on their new roles here in the Rockwood School District [Applause] Rockwood South Middle School principal Dr Laurie berkenmeier has been named the 2023 Middle School principal of the Year by the St Louis Association of secondary school principals this award recognizes exemplary performance among secondary school principals who have succeeded in providing high quality learning opportunities for their students s-a-s-sp is a district within the Missouri Association of secondary school principals and covers 31 school districts and private schools throughout the St Louis metro area each Mo a SSP District selects one individual to be recognized as Middle School principal of the year and one high school principal of the year as well one of those recipients will be selected as the mo
016assp principal of the year and will be entered into the national principle of the Year award program Lori will be formally recognized at an award banquet later this month where she will receive a 250 scholarship to award a student of her choice let's give her a round of applause [Applause] a total of eight Rockwood School District students two from each High School have been selected as 2023 Missouri Scholars 100 a Statewide program that honors some of Missouri's top academic students in the graduating class of 2023. Olivia Edwards and Erica Springer from Eureka Kumar Samantha Zhang are from Lafayette Alex Chen and Joyce Liu are from Marquette Max payeski and Grace steinmeyer from Rockwood summer all eight of them are representing Rockwood's representative class this year this program which is known as 29th year the Missouri
017Scholars Program is a program that again recognizes students across the state who have excelled in their academic area and in the area of attendance and are exemplars as it relates to school citizenship and involvement in school activities as well Missouri Scholars 100 students will be recognized at a luncheon on April 30th in Columbia and I want to congratulate these eight students and thank you for being such outstanding representatives for the Rockwood School District [Applause] and finally tonight I would like to congratulate our three grade level teachers of the Year Danielle Toro from Pond Elementary Laura Fontana from Crestview middle school and David Choate from Lafayette High School these three outstanding Educators were chosen amongst our 31 building level teachers of the year and are now under consideration to be named Rockwood's District teacher of the
018year this will be announced at the Rose awards ceremony on May 7th on Wednesday I joined school and District administrators staff and multiple family members as we surprise these three teachers at their schools with this very very good news let's watch [Music] congratulations you say congratulations thank you [Music] because you know we do recognize [Music] I think you know I have flowers I do flowers again that's awesome thank you congratulations thank you so much [Music] wow [Music] that is a great way to spend a great day so with that my comments over thank you president Bates thank you Dr Kane that is uh always fun to see and I just want to extend a welcome to Carrie and back to Lynn and Bob up here so um we talked earlier about uh helping you all
019through the mentorship process and we're excited for the next few days of all the learning that will take place and we appreciate you being here any um other board comments this evening all right then we will move down to a consent agenda items could I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as submitted second ocean and a second any uh discussion I'm not sure if this is the right spot for this but I would like to request to remove item 7.24 policy zero four one two public participation of board meetings the second reading from the consent agenda it's the right time to do it yep it just removed yep it's not even a motion so that one comes out and so right now we're just talking uh we'll talk about that next but
020right now we'll talk about the items that remain in consent so if there's any other um discussion items regarding anything else in consent now would be the time okay so um all those in favor the motion is to approve the consent agenda items as submitted except for I abstain from 7.02 okay so uh you're good okay no motion is to approve the consent agenda items as submitted except for item number make sure I read the correct one on here let me find it 7.24 thanks Janet 7.24 all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed and you got the abstention yes all right so that passes and now we move right down into item 7.24 yes so could I have a motion to approve item 7.24 so move second motion and a second discussion
021so if I could I'd like to uh start by maybe echoing some of Sally Nichols comments I have two concerns with the policy and I know I was not on the board for the first reading of the policy but I was in attendance during that reading I'm concerned on removing the section for the public to be able to bring comments to the board that may or may not be directly related to the agenda and second as I understand the policy it does allow for patrons to speak at the or to put agenda items on the board's agenda but I don't see the policy on how somebody goes about doing that so I kind of feel like those two policies should should go hand in hand great question uh sort of in there that I'll just
022lend a little bit of historical information too so the last meeting where we discuss this um the item0411 that will will come related to the agenda items has not yet been discussed by the board because there's a process for that so number one it aligns with a new state law that will go into effect on July 1st 2023 and in accordance with that state law there's certain parameters for us to have in place in order to reach that discussion period and one of those is a process of community engagement and so beginning I believe later this month or the beginning of May there will be a survey that goes out later this month April actually in April um in both um parent Square um and then reminder was sent out today and there was a
023social media reminder um that went out um today as well it was also an e-news and five things for staff as well okay technically speaking Yeah looking at Lisa's stuff so I am not going to play lawyer in front of this crowd but technically speaking we are going above and beyond in terms of soliciting feedback from our community as relates to that process we could have easily actually just had a conversation at our last board meeting and that would have fulfilled the requirements of the law we're going above and beyond and providing um a month of response time in space for our community to provide us some feedback in terms of what that next step will in fact look like so it's my understanding that um in pursuant with 162058 that that will we will
024eventually then build that into a policy so that'll have zero four one one that'll be part of 0.11 yep and I agree completely Dr Kane with your comments that were going above and beyond and Bravo that we should uh as our whole mission is is to do everything it takes I think this is part of doing everything it takes is to make sure we're hearing from stakeholders knowing their opinions even if they aren't the number one things we're talking about today foreign one one is in place there will be the return of to comply with the law there will be a return of a second um an opportunity for another comment period or as you stated an opportunity for agenda items to actually appear onset um agenda here in the book or here for the
025board meetings themselves do you mean they'd be both the opportunity for open comments and agenda items according to the that's related to agenda items themselves right but that the the statute does not include open Agenda items that that's something we would have to explain oh four one one correct okay and we have to remember other school districts don't even have public comments so or one of the few that have actually not just one but two and I'm not in favor of the second one because it's becoming it's just unproductive people come here and it's just a live social media you know people just throwing rocks at each other really and they come attack us board members other employees in the district and that's why I think it should be removed and we should just focus
026on the first one only related to the agenda that's it I feel strongly though that our community should know the steps to communicate with our administrators in the chain of command so as long as we're I'm having conversations with them so that they know the process um I think that's important um for them and um I did check with multiple school districts um most of our surrounding school districts do allow for open speaking at board meetings so I I checked into that um there's a few that are split like we are currently but most um just have it for open it's not agenda only the only one that has agenda only that's on their website is Ledoux currently and one piece I think we need to focus on is if we do Implement a policy
027around limiting it to agenda items we need to make sure our communication on how to get out how to publish to people to get on the agenda is not just parents it's all taxpayers and property and voters in the district foreign May when we discuss zero four one one and right out here and open and we will go through um the recommended red line that comes in from legal and we will have this exact uh same conversation about what that looks like obviously step one is always in compliance with the law and then step two is how does this work best for Rockwood and so um those will definitely be part of those conversations and um Carrie thank you for your research um we just implemented this second Patron comment period back in uh fall
028of 20 when was that Janet 22 yeah this past year yeah so we had months of discussion leading up to that um that involved a lot of research done by our legal team and our Communications experts um on best practices among school all the other school districts in the area and things of that nature um in St Louis County and so um obviously just letting you all know the historical background with some of that because um it took months and months of a lot of discussion because I think it's finding the right balance of making sure that the community has opportunity to speak and speak to and address the board and communicate and engage with one another but also to make sure to ensure that our board meetings which are established for the business of
029the district maintain that order and um timeliness so that you know moving from one um Patron comment period to two Patron comment periods to then three opportunities was where the discussion kind of all came together now to do it at one time um so looking at the one we're looking at now is to get zero four one two in place in order to move uh down uh in May to zero four one one and have that discussion and get that in place so that's that's yeah fill it and whatever I'm missing no so just to recap we will go through the process for zero four one one and we'll have a first reading opportunity for discussion for input during a meetings and then we'll move to the second reading correct yes and along the way
030we'll we'll have surveys and other other opportunities so a clarifying question then would zero four one two go into effect before zero four one one so would that result in a period where somebody can't get on the agenda because they don't know how yes I mean they're they'll be able to speak so somebody wants to bring something to the agenda but we haven't published the rules on how they bring something to the agenda that means until we publish those rules the open Period essentially bringing something to our attention doesn't exist not in the meeting capacity only in you know other obviously other Alternatives yeah there would be an interim of uh the second April meeting in May and June which is good I mean to to the point I think that's compliant with the law
031but not compliant with I think what should be a Rockwood standard so again Bob you know one of the things that if I'm hearing you correctly both 04110412 and then 0411 will all both be limited to agenda items only which allows no open comment time and that's the issue right well I think there's two issues here the first issue as I said is the open comment period but theoretically 0411 which we haven't discussed yet would allow an individual to put something on the agenda and now it's an agenda item right okay so I can see that as a path but until 0411 is there there is not that path so I don't think these policies should be put out separately I think they should both go out together there could be an amended motion that
032bridges for I don't know if it's we could bridge to a certain date and keep that second as it currently is constituted the second comment period open until there is um ratification approval of the second read of zero four one one zero four one one I moved to admit can I move to amend it or not is this an appropriate time to amend the motion okay I moved to amend um that we extend our current policy until we establish 0411. yep I'm just looking at Janet to make sure she gets that yeah not good okay so uh the motion has been made to extend the current policy until zero four one one has been approved does anyone want to make second that a sec okay everybody on board with where we're at right now I
033know it's been a lot of movement with this motion so I just want to make sure okay so then all those in favor of the motion to postpone the approval of zero four one two until the approval of zero four one one um please say yes yes anyone opposed I oppose and any absentions okay so that passes and then we will get zero four one one out on the agendas um in the appropriate order as soon as we're ready to start bringing that forward okay all right thank you all right next can I have a motion to approve the bond issue purchases and related contracts over a hundred and fifty thousand from Schaefer electric company for data wiring upgrades motion second motion and a second we have Deb Kettering here hello good evening I'm a
034little short um this motion is for the approval of data wiring and I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not but babler Elementary Center for Creative Learning and Pathways Wellness Center still have the original wiring that was installed in 1996 so it is getting a little older and needs to be upgraded to allow us to continue to provide the services that we are currently able to provide to our students this this should hopefully get us through another 25 or 30 years thank you any questions thank you all right thanks Deb so the motion is to approve the bond issue purchases and related contracts over 150 000 from Schaefer electric company for data wiring upgrades all those in favor please say aye aye aye anyone opposed that passes and the next item is the
035proposed agenda for the April 20th which is just next Thursday a Board of Education meeting which is taking place at Eureka High School okay following that we have our future agenda presentations and events to attend we operate with a Google Calendar for the board and so Carrie and Bob you guys will start to see a whole lot of events showing up in your calendar there's an option and an opportunity in there to reply or to accept or decline invitations and it's always a good idea to try to keep that as accurate as possible some of the events are paid events such as our chamber lunches and so we want to make sure that that's always an accurate tally and then of course if we're going into a school or anything like that we always have
036to be cognizant of where there may be a quorum and where there's not so just always try to stay on top of that and Brace yourselves there's gonna be a lot coming I know on here is also highlighted coming up in June 16th through 17th the msba igniting great ideas Summit which is going to be held in Branson this summer so please just get it to get your information to Janet if you plan on attending that she I know it's open registration now so should like to get everybody registered and secure Hotel space and anything else that needs to happen with that yep no that's coming all right and now we have our second Patron comment section uh we will now hear from those Rockwood patrons who have signed up to speak about non-agenda items
037as a reminder each speaker will be limited to three minutes please remember that comments about individual employees and or students will not be permitted in public session we expect that you will remain civil and respectful in your remarks and if anyone becomes disruptive we reserve the right to cut your three minutes short for your convenience our three-minute time clock is ready we welcome Tom Dunn to the microphone thank you hello congratulations to the new board members for two of you your journey is just beginning I urge you to independently listen read and evaluate everything brought before you to the entire Administration and board I want to address an issue held during my own campaign when I met with many teachers they all said the same thing they are tired of how many students treat them
038with so little respect and yet not able to get any discipline the administration turns a blind eye for fear of backlash from parents they are tired of the toxic work environment they want to speak out but are afraid of repercussions or being ostracized they are tired of valuable instruction time being wasted on other topics other ish or issues rather than on subject matter they are tired that certain social causes can be displayed freely in the hallways classrooms and clothing but causes that support their own beliefs are not allowed they are tired of parents turning to the internet to openly and publicly bashed teachers the result is that teachers are willing to end all communication for fair further online slander Rockwood takes great pride in the schools and teachers the most recent statistics for three-year teacher
039retention rate for Rockwood is 79.2 percent which is better than Clayton's and Parkways however if we want to keep our high quality teachers in Rockwood I urge the administration in the community to come together to solve these issues that interfere with the ability to teach subject matter otherwise I fear the teachers I spoke to are ready to either retire or leave for another District thank you next speaker is Jessica risenhoover hi congratulations to those who uh won the other night happy to see you guys up there so tonight I wanted to keep it positive unfortunately I'm unable to do so simply because of the actions of one of our directors tonight I am asking for Izzy and Meg to be removed from all committees three times in the last month director of Meg has violated
040the ethics you have each agreed to uphold of March 15th director and Meg disparaged her fellow Boe member Dr Keith Kinder who has served this District we aren't going to address direct board members oh okay in our so I guess my question is is how is it that we can ask for accountability for all of you because we have a board member who continuously three times in the last month has gone publicly and identified themselves as a Rockwood School Board member and attacked board members teachers parents and students so where is the accountability and I'm going to send you an email with all of them with the time stamp so you can hear it for yourselves but why is it that that this is allowed to happen why is it that Jessica Clark was removed
041from her committee we're not we're not going to continue to talk about it needs to be individual board members so your time is up to your time is up our next speaker is Sarah Barnard hi my name is Sarah Barnard and I'm the mother of five kids in the district um you have to excuse me I may get emotional during this um my daughter is a senior now and she believed those in the schools who said that if you see something wrong you say something so she did say something when her running coach texted sexually explicit things to former teammates and when she realized that she he was actually grooming her and her fellow teammates she spoke up the administration did a fantastic job they supported her they were there for her and so then
042of course we believe the next step would that he be removed from the school but to our complete shock an incredible upset he is still allowed to be there every day he's allowed to keep teaching he's allowed to be near all of your students it has been very difficult for all of us but we never understood like what happened until we realized that Rockwood has a policy that says termination doesn't occur until something physically happens between a teacher and a student so I guess the policy is let's just wait and see what happens but let's not prevent something from happening to one of the 30 000 other like sorry the other 20 000 students in the district and no it doesn't bother you right now but if it happened to your kid you'd be shaken
043to the court it seems like Rockwood has a continuous problem with this um I've heard that a middle school teacher did like a middle school teacher recently was just discussed in a board meeting recently where they were doing all the requestable things but that person's also allowed to remain Administration was on TV recently um saying that the children's safety in Rockwood is the district's priority I wish I could believe that instead it looks like the teachers are being kept safe but not the kids and this is just teaching that other that now the teachers just can see oh well we're safe we're not going to get fired we can do whatever we want that's what they have learned now so they're safe but but the kids aren't my daughter has suffered immensely from this situation
044on multiple levels she's in therapy I can't I can't describe what we've gone through but she has to see this person every day in the school and nothing has changed for him everything has changed for her and me and my family she couldn't be here tonight but she will be available to talk to any of you if you want to know more I implore you to change the policy please prevent this from happening to other kids okay that ends our meeting the meeting is now adjourned okay