001all right everybody at seven o'clock we'll call the meeting to order please rise for the pledge of allegiance so welcome to the rockwood board of education meeting before we get started we would like to extend our condolences to everyone who knew and loved eric grimmer a special education teacher for over 20 years at rockwood summit who passed away suddenly yesterday our thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who loved him we would like to thank also the administrative team here and all the staff and students at marquette high school for being gracious hosts for a 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
002reports about our progress and listen to the community on important issues we want to remind all of our visitors that we expect the audience to remain civil and respectful at all times as the board 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 this board of education meeting is live stream 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
003block an accurate and misleading content that process is beyond the control of the rockwood school district we want everyone to have the ability to hear the business of the district reports presented and the comments of everyone who is here to speak we appreciate your cooperation and that you took the time to attend tonight's meeting could i please have a motion to approve the agenda so move motion on a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed that passes next could i have a motion to approve board of education meeting minutes for august 4th 2022 so move second motion and a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed that passes next can i have a motion to approve board of education work session minutes for
004august 10 2022. so we'll move on motion and a second any discussion about that all right all those in favor please say aye anyone opposed and that passes all right next we have our first patron comment section and we'll read another little bit here before we get started during patron comments rockwood patrons may address the board of education concerning issues related to the school district under our updated policy there are now two patreon 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 and shall be for patrons to make a statement or address the board concerning any issues pertaining
005to 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 an 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 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
006may 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 that if anyone becomes disruptive we reserve the right to cut your three minutes short verbally aggressive language and vulgarity in any form is not 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 tonight we have two speakers on agenda items and i'd welcome jessica risenhoover to come up first good evening thanks so much for hosting um so i'm
007here to speak tonight about agenda item 7.2 it's about putting a language within our policies regarding um the legislation that passed sb i think 775 and that legislation bans sexually explicit material however their exemptions for artistic and it for works that are artistic and informational in nature which kind of keeps with uh supreme court rulings that have advised that um something can have explicit material in it and yet still have um educational as well as artistic value and so what i am asking is that uh the books that have already been reviewed and that are on our shelves that they remain that this law is not um does not encompass those and that they stay on our shelves that's also in keeping with the recommendation by the missouri association of librarians who have directed uh
008librarians to leave these books on their shelves that what they have curated does not run afoul of the law so i'm asking for the school board to uh direct librarians to keep these books on the shelves um you know just as an example one of the biggest books that we've all heard about is genderqueer um i've read this book you know there's one page that i can see would make some parents nervous and they should tell the librarians not to let their children check those out it does not make me nervous i'm not afraid to have those conversations with my children we wouldn't allow our children to we read one paragraph and a book and do a book report on it one paragraph one page does not represent a work of art this book is
009needed for children who are gender expansive and to help other students see different perspectives um it's just it's about discovering yourself it's about who you are um and finding acceptance and so and it's the kind of thing that we need in our shelves and for my kid who loves graphic novels who is also gender expansive this is a work of art that is informational and purposes and therefore does not run afoul so i'm asking that those books stay on the shelves that's it thank you our next speaker is danielle mirta hi my name is danielle mear i use she her are they them pronouns and i'm here to speak on agenda item i think it's 8.01 addressing suicide awareness so my husband and i we are the st louis chapter leaders for transparent usa it's
010a nationwide support group for parents of transgender kiddos and we've been attending these support group meetings for nearly four years we actually learned about transparent usa from our counselor in rockwood sixth grade when our kiddo came out as transgender we're so very thankful that we were able to find this group um but these meetings as helpful as they are for parents they they're pretty heartbreaking because nearly every meeting at least one parent shares their kids suicide attempt in one meeting not that long ago there was three families three of our very close family friends had to discuss some really heartbreaking experiences for their family and i'm sure every parent here is terrified of that thought finding their kiddo harming themselves in some way so i'm here to thank you for prioritizing access to mental health
011care and i just want any student or adult to know that if you are thinking of programming yourself in your lgbtq which has a higher rate of suicide attempts there is help available 24 7. there is the trevor project they have chat text phone calls available 24 7 and you can find help at thetrevorproject.org st louis has a local peer help line called squish um they're not 24 7. they're available monday or friday to monday kind of like weekends 1 pm to 7 pm friday to monday and their phone number is 314-380-7774 and they can be found online at thesquish.org so i don't know what else i can say um you know our kiddos especially the lgbtq community we see our kiddos being our books pulled from libraries and parents concerned about how pronouns are
012being addressed and just know that students if you know your kids are listening to you their friends are listening to you so if you are having a conversation just please try to remember that our our students are listening and we only have one chance at this so thank you for doing everything you can thanks [Applause] all right next we have superintendent and board comments dr kane thank you president base four days students i'm sorry four days parents i'm excited for you four days but um we are excited to welcome back staff students and families for the 2022 2023 school year and again only four days away monday august 22nd there are a number of things that we're doing that are either new or updated for the school year and we want to make sure that
013our community is aware of these these items new district systems include parent square for communications and school pass for visitor management and this school year features updates regarding school meals hazel health peach jar and the safe together plan so please visit our district webpage and click on what's new for the 2223 school year for more information last week i had the opportunity to help welcome more than 120 new teachers to the rockwood school district as a part of the new teacher orientation program it's a three-day event for our new staff our newest educators met with members of central office staff and departmental administrators participated in activities and received valuable tools for supporting not only themselves but students as well i would like to formally thank our professional learning department for organizing our new teacher orientation
014festivities and extend another warm welcome to these talented and very focused and dedicated educators who are joining team rockwood also had the chance to attend the annual meet me in st louis event last week at the world's fair pavilion in forest park the event was organized by our department of education equity and diversity for rockwood families who participate in the vic program and it included music food fun and games for nearly 400 people that were in attendance it was an awesome opportunity for our staff members from all 29 schools as well as the early childhood and gifted education programs to meet and reconnect with our families in a great way for us all to kick off the brand new school year last but not least i know that everyone here in rockwood is brimming with
015excitement for the start of classes on monday this summer i've had the opportunity to particip to participate in a number of listen and learn conversations with our community i've had the pleasure of one-on-one conversations with students from each of the four high schools with the student conversations with dr curtis kane it's weird to say that anyway video series which can be found on our district website youtube page and social media channels as well i hope these videos have given our community the chance to get to know me a little bit better before the school year starts so for the final uh installment of the series we decided to take a deep dive with two students that know me let's say with a different depth let's go ahead and watch um oh you should've figured out
016oh um uh okay i am you're good that's no it's fine that's all i have at this point time so i will say there's some be cut film especially with our son that should never see the light of day that's all that i'll say thank you president bass that was awesome thanks to your kids for uh being willing to do that that was pretty cool any other board comments i'll take a quick minute to say uh thanks to all of you for the productivity at last week's work session we had a great day working together and coming up with some great uh plans for the school year for some goals for our board and a process for some of those things as well as hearing a little bit more about m6 so um it was
017a really great day those are always nice to to focus on kids and learning and growth which is a great thing so um okay moving on could i have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as submitted motion in a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye anyone oppose that passes and next 8.01 could i have a motion to approve that the board of education proclaimed the month of september 2022 is national suicide prevention awareness month in the rockwood school district motion and a second we will welcome matthew berry and jacqueline floyd up and um director lynn medyette is going to read the proclamation so would you like her to read that first and then we'll turn it over to you sound good okay national suicide prevention awareness month whereas
018september is known around the united states as national suicide prevention awareness month and is intended to help promote awareness surrounding each of the suicide prevention resources available to us and in our community the simple goal is to learn how to help those around us and how to talk about suicide without increasing the risk of harm and whereas suicidal thoughts can affect anyone regardless of age gender race orientation income level religion or background and whereas according to the cdc each year more than 41 000 people die by suicide and whereas suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among adults in the united states and the second leading cause of death among people age 10 to 24 and whereas the suicide whereas the rockwood school district is no different than any other community in the country
019but chooses to publicly state and place our full support behind educators mental health professionals coaches community leaders and parents as partners in supporting our community and simply being available to one another and whereas local organizations and national organizations like the national alliance on mental illness nami are on the front lines of a battle that many still refuse to discuss in public as suicide and mental illness remain taboo a topic to speak on and whereas every member of our community should understand that throughout life's struggles we all need the occasional reminder that we all we are all silently fighting our own battles and whereas public awareness education referrals and treatment are the keys to preventing further suffering and loss of life and whereas suicide prevention is important to the board of education of the rockwood school
020district and the staff and students of our community in this region and whereas rockwood school district continues to support number one services provided by the unified mental health teams in each middle and high school to support our youth and refer students who need behavioral health support behavioral health treatment number two the implication of evidence-based suicide prevention programs such as signs of suicide prevention program so students and staff learn the signs of depression and suicide and respond to ways to keep students safe number three ongoing professional learning for teachers to identify and respond to at-risk students and for school mental health professionals to conduct evidence-based suicide screenings and make appropriate community-based referrals number four partnerships with professional organizations and community agencies five efforts to develop resiliency protective factors and other social emotional competencies and six strategies
021to engage parents as partners in effective prevention through the sharing of resources and providing education through the mental health and wellness parent seminar series whereas i encourage all to take the time to inquire as to the well-being of their family friends and neighbors over the next few days and to generally convey their appreciation for their existence by any gestures they deem appropriate a simple phone call message handshake or hug can go a long way toward helping someone realize that suicide is not the answer whereas we believe that one suicide is one too many and that many of these deaths are preventable now they're far be resolved that the board of education do hereby proclaim the month of september 2022 as national suicide prevention awareness month the rockwood school district thank you lynn thank you so
022much for reading that and and for making this a priority that we're gonna have this statement made and um recognizing suicide prevention awareness awareness month in september i'm jacqueline floyd and i'm matthew berry and um i just wanted to touch face and say that we definitely take suicide prevention very important in rockwood we have a very robust suicide intervention documentation procedure and plan i do training with all building administrators social workers counselors and nurses every school year so that we were all up to date on evidence-based practice and the best resources that we can to prevent suicide because as you said one suicide is one too many thank you both any questions did you say you train and work with every teacher every year not um i personally train all of our staff that do
023suicide risk assessments so i train that group that is building administrators nurses counselors and social workers and our sebs we do offer trainings professional developments to teachers so we offer something called qpr which is question per se persuade refer and we also partner with other local organizations to bring in building pvs to our school is that training in the summer or is that training during the school all throughout the all throughout the year yeah thank you any other questions wonderful thank you guys for having us thank you thank you very much all right so the motion is to approve that the board of education proclaimed the month september 2022 is national suicide prevention awareness month in the rockwood school district all those in favor please say aye hi anyone opposed that passes and next we
024can have a motion to approve superintendent designee to continue to manage the fy23p card program as presented so move motion and a second we're inviting brenda kirkhoffer up all right good evening tonight's presentation will include an overview of the p-card program for the 2021-22 school year p-cards are intended to supplement our standard practice of issuing purchase orders for district spending they are used for convenience purchases that are less than a thousand dollars we have been using bank of america's p-card program for the last five years their program has several advantages such as a single tool for right to manage and reconcile transactions as well as reporting that allows our department to closely manage and document spend control additionally they have a robust rebate program the district has approximately 240 cards that are available for staff
025use which is substantially less than in previous years when we had over 500 cards available in the district at the recommendation of our auditors we streamline the program and reduce the number of cards through consolidation and employee attrition there are two types of cards available to staff members department cards and individual employee cards each department is available each department card is available to multiple users within a school or department however one employee is responsible for the reporting and checkout of the card the individual cards are assigned to a single employee who is responsible for all transactions and reporting all purchasing purchasing activity is closely managed by our department each each card is assigned a strategy that consists of a single transaction limit and a monthly credit limit temporary changes to the card strategies are tracked
026and reported in the system for retrieval in the event the information is requested by the auditors the system also allows us to restrict usage based on a vendor's merchant category code and this feature prevents cars from being used to purchase prohibited products or services this slide is an overview of last year's spending as shown purchases purchases were just over 5 million dollars and the district received a rebate of over a hundred and eighteen thousand dollars as a result of those purchases the rebate amount is inclusive of both our typical card transactions and electronic payments which is which are called e-payables uh rebates were up 36 over last year and spending was up about 20 percent any questions the um i'm glad you presented us again you you we do that each year a lot of
027this came about 11 years ago or 10 or 11 years ago when we did an audit through the state auditor and they said you know everything is good but you might want to tighten down some of these things and that's exactly what we did 10 years ago we tightened down the use of these and initiated a lot of different things and we cut the number of p cards from like 500 plus down to maybe 200 100 240 and also uh the uh the second the last slide are you talking about the money we got back that was a result of us redoing some things so we're about as tight in the use of these p cards as any district i've ever seen and it's worked very well so i congratulate you and your group for
028getting these things done and the audience needs to know that we've done about as good a job as you can so that we don't lose money or nothing is you know it's all on the up and up so thank you very much thank you dr kender so i have a question on slide number five when you're talking about the 20 21 22 spin and you look at those monthly does that kind of play out normally for us that those expenditures are about the same it varies by a year we did it did increase from last year last year spend was uh let's see 4.4.1 million so it's up slightly um can we attest for what that is well i think overall spending has been up just based on the you know the nature of increased
029costs as well as just um in the school years just the spending has been a little bit different in previous years with covid and everything else um it just hasn't been a typical year if you look at i think 2018-19 was our with the last normal year that we had from a procurement side um and we we're still down slightly the spending is uh back in 2019 the spend was 5.4 million and the rebate was 144 typical of a normal school year we're getting there okay we're getting it yes and the rebate earned what happens to that money that goes back into the general operating fund so it goes right back into this it goes back into the benefit of the district absolutely yes any other questions all right thank you very much thank you
030all right so that motion is to approve superintendent designee to continue to manage the fy23p card program as presented all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed that passes and next uh motion this is a long one can i have a motion to approve revisions to policy 2870 administering medi medicines to students policy 2710 reporting child abuse policy 2521 promotion and retention elementary and middle school students policy 1820 wellness policy 2540 online coursework policy 6241 instructional materials challenged materials and policy uh 4805 hipaa privacy and to approve new policy 2875 plans for epilepsy and seizure disorder care so move second motion and a second discussion your are we doing any kind of a presentation or do you wanna there actually won't necessarily be a presentation we'd be happy to entertain entertain any questions
031the board may have okay thank you sure so any questions or clarifications from board members the epilepsy piece we initiated epilepsy a few years ago as as it came down through the legislature uh there's some changes i i apparently missed that one are there some changes to the epilepsy plan to the policy itself what you see actually in line is actually the those are the legal changes that have been uh suggested by our legal provider can our parents in the audience be able to see those requested changes all right they're up on the board right now but can they look at them at another time sure absolutely the board docs via board docs you can look at all of our board policies vehicles look at them and evaluate them right absolutely thank you very much
032dr kane all of these policies then meet the state requirements correct the state request requirements as they currently are lists uh stated yes they do at this point that is correct so you're saying this is not something we just blew off a handle that we're going to do it no we want to be compliant with recent legal changes in terms of legislation any state statute and so that's what you see reflected in these policy changes thank you you're welcome all right any other questions then i will re-read this motion motion is to approve revisions to policy 2870 administering medicines to students policy 2710 reporting child abuse policy 2521 promotion and retention elementary and middle school students policy 1820 wellness policy 2540 online coursework policy 6241 instructional materials challenge materials policy 4805 hipaa privacy and to
033approve new policy 2875 plans for epilepsy and seizure disorder care all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed and that passes next we have item 8.04 the proposed agenda for the september 1st board meeting right there well we have information in regards to student attendance and figures is that too early for that the firmer numbers would actually be toward the end of september closer to uh enrollment count date that that's typically a third toward the third close of the third week of september that's the ones at the state to go to state yes but if something stands out paul will be able to talk about it or somebody will if we're seeing something we can absolutely bring that forward to one way or the other staying on board or via would you please
034do that sure and the enrollment report will start back up on the second meeting every month so the next september meeting or the september second september meeting there'll be the enrollment reports and consent again is the 15th the second meeting since the first is the first one yes okay thank you i just throwing my math in there for you thank you impressive thank you all right then next we have future agenda presentations and events to attend um obviously monday is a big day in the district so um it'll be an exciting week next week no doubt keep up with your google calendar and then in november we've got the msba annual conference to note coming up the 2nd through the 5th i'm sure janet's keeping track of who's able to attend and when and all
035that good stuff so all right well if nothing else on those items we will move on to our patreon comment section number two we will now hear from those rockwood patrons who have signed up to speak about non-agenda items as a reminder each speaker will be limited to three minutes please remember that comments about individual employees and our 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 and first we welcome danielle mir oh please i don't know if these got out of order so i'm sorry okay oh you're right you're written down first do you want to switch well
036let's go jessica risen hoover sorry danielle all right so there's a rumor going around the district that teachers are being directed um to no longer use a student's preferred name nickname or gender without parent permission i'm not sure if this is true or not but since i was here tonight thought i'd take the opportunity to just address it if it is true um simply what i'm asking is that if that is going to happen that that rule be applied fairly and evenly across the board so um if robert likes to be called bob then his parents will need to go through the exact same process as our gender expansive students otherwise it's gender discrimination targeting students based off of their sexual identity or their gender identity and therefore is in violation of federal title ix
037so if we're going to do it let's make sure everybody gets to put in the extra effort of putting in the paperwork to have jennifer called jen if we're going to fall to these absurdities then let's take it forth all the way and make sure we apply it evenly so that is my request if this is true and as long as i have an extra time i wanted was hoping that maybe we could include social emotional learning as part of our suicide prevention particularly in elementary school it's great they help teach kids how to deal with their emotions their anxiety like they'll do deep breathing things like that those lessons are great lessons to carry throughout our lives and would be great for um the agenda topic that we discussed as far as suicide prevention
038so um just something else to add to that all right thank you and i apologize daniel because i got these somehow really out of order so you're actually fourth so i'm sorry so if you want to move back okay next we have kate sickles hello um the u.s department of education website has a section titled commemorating constitution and citizenship day september 17th is constitution and citizenship day this day commemorates september 17 1787 signing of the united states constitution the website goes on to say that each educational institution that receives federal funds for a fiscal year is required to hold an educational program about the u.s constitution for its students so i just have three questions one is the rockwood curriculum set up to teach the constitution on constitution day two will the rockwood teachers be
039using any of the recommended resources supplied on the department of education website these resources include information on all grade levels elementary middle and high school and three september 17 2022 is on a saturday so i was wondering what day will rockwood schools commemorate constitution day this year and as i could not find it anywhere on the district or the school's websites and could they add that to the school's websites thank you and our next speaker is jan spring sprunger said hari chan is that a you okay that's wrong there you go many people call me mrs s because i can't say it i'm jan sprunger as you know and i thank you for allowing me to have the freedom to speak i'm a retired rockwood teacher mother of three adult children who have graduated from
040rockwood school district i'm currently a substitute teacher and now a grandmother of children in the same district here so as you see i've been involved in the rockwood school district in many ways for a little over 30 years and i've noticed significant changes happening in the district i'm particularly grateful about the passing of the missouri senate bill 775 which states in short that by august 28th librarians are to remove explicit sexual material any pictorial three-dimensional or visual depe including photography film video picture computer generated image goes on in our schools and i appreciate rockwood librarians taking this time and working on it to comply with this bill and i just have two questions how is the district ensuring that all of these books or other things are being removed and my second question is will
041there be a list of what was removed publicly available is there any way i can get an answer to those questions either through email how do you handle that we we will all go through and somebody will get back to you with your questions okay thank you very much appreciate it so does that also go for the speaker before that yes and we'll get back to her yep all right final speaker danielle mear hello again danielle uh you see her are they them pronouns and i am here to discuss um some safety concerns that have been brought up the last several meetings um we have had um several parents suggest hiring i guess one parent suggests hiring additional school resource officers which sounds great to pay someone twice the starting salary of one of our
042teachers but i think you know we all saw the uh huge failure down at rob elementary school in uvalde texas where they had nearly 400 law enforcement officers on campus in the parking lot where they arrested parents or stood in the hallway not even trying to open the door to go in to the classroom for over an hour where 19 students and two teachers were murdered by a former student who went back to the classroom where he was bullied and murdered innocent students and it's absolutely heartbreaking and we are all racking our brains what we can do and um i have a suggestion which i usually wouldn't recommend anything my dad recommends but this is actually a grandparent that said um my dad why don't we have grandparent volunteers go in at least to the
043elementary schools where they go in you know just like kind of do parking give them the little flags like you would have at church on sunday morning they could you know do traffic control um stay for you know read a book if you're concerned about what books are being read in the school like bring your age appropriate book to the classroom you probably do like a little book report to the teacher so they could send that information home to the families letting them know who was in the classroom of course we'd want to go through background checks and all that even for grandparents so we have um the most safe um inclusive environment that we can have and honestly you know i don't care like what books are in the library um if you don't
044want your kids to read it great don't have your child read it i just want to make sure we definitely don't have any bibles bibles in the library because that's full of all kinds of like incest and rape and terrible things um but you know i guess if we're gonna ban you know books why don't we also be on phones because you can literally pull up i mean i'm like a i was like the ocd parent i didn't have my kiddo have a phone until 8th grade but like starting elementary school your kids have a smartphone they could look up any part of the anatomy [Music] right there in their pockets so um it is terrifying there's there's things that our kids are going to see here that may upset us but i think we
045need to create an opportunity for conversation with our students with grandparents with everyone in our community because if we just try to shut down and hide behind closed doors that's where harm occurs so thank you for um opening the conversation keeping everyone included all right that is our final speaker and with that we will adjourn the meeting you