001oh okay 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 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
002is 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 inaccurate and misleading content that processes beyond the control of the rockwood school district we want everyone to have the ability to hear the business of the district reports presented in the comments of everyone who is here to speak we appreciate your cooperation and that you took the time to attend tonight's meeting okay please have a motion to approve the agenda [Music] motion
003and a second all 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 july 21st 2022 october motion and a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed and that passes drop mine i can't turn [Laughter] sorry about that all right next up we have patron comments so i will read this before we move on to that portion during patron comments rockwood patrons may address the board of education concerning issues related to the rockwood 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 patreon comments on items related to tonight's agenda the second public comment period
004shall occur at the end of the meeting order of business and shelby for patrons to make a statement or address the board 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 an opportunity to listen and receive information but board members will not engage in debates or discussions with those speaking other than to seek clarifications of their comments a board member may ask that the superintendent ensure that the appropriate staff member follows up in a timely fashion
005with 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 would 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 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've 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
006ready tonight we have one patron for agenda items and that is derek pratt good evening does this turn on sorry good evening um the agenda item i am uh asking about is agenda item 8.02 which would be the item for next mo our next meeting which would be the 18th of august unfortunately i will not be able to be there because my daughter is turning 14 so you get a reprise from me for one day what i would like to see proposed for the next meeting is an agenda item that is around the safety of our schools i've always tried to push the whole education and safety issue being the number one priority of our school district and that's what it should be like i said at the last meeting there's 35 buildings plus or
007minus total in the district four high schools four middle schools and i believe around 27 elementary schools if you put three sros at each high school that'll give you 12 sros two at each middle school will give you eight and at a minimum of one for the other 27 you're looking at a plus or minus of 47 total sros if the school district would pay them around 70 000 per year annually per person that'll give you a total of 3.29 million dollars total and according to the budget of the 2021-22 school year that is less than 1.15 percent of the annual budget i ask this to keep the education and safety being our two top priorities in the school district thank you and next we have superintendent and board comments dr king thank you president
008bayes um as the 22nd of august is quickly approaching felt it was important for us just to um have a or actually for me to share some thoughts and specific um details when it comes to our return to school and so what you see on the powerpoint is a safe together update that i would like us to review so as this year begins we know that covet cases will continue to occur in our communities i mean at the same time information and opportunities to manage prevent the disease have increased and are now widely available district administration has continued to meet with nursing team health advisors and also had multiple conversations with other school districts to calibrate their thoughts and plans as relates to the return to school there is very likely going to be some
009variants among districts across saint louis county in terms of what their plans and their particular realities are going to look like as we're returning to school and i want to completely take some time on this next bullet if conditions worsen in a building we will use our communicable diseases policy to address the situation and work with the public health department as we typically would it's a part of our our communicable disease policy it's been a practice in district and quite honestly across school districts across the country in terms of working through whatever issues happen to present themselves to school districts but at this point in time want to share these following facts the rockwood school district will start the 2022-2023 school year with masks being optional signage is going to be and is being revised
010to state that fact that masks will be optional in schools in rockwood we will no longer be engaging in contact tracing with the availability of home testing and for a variety of other reasons um contact tracing and dashboarding as you see on the next bullet are going to be very very problematic and quite honestly aren't going to be fully valid in terms of the information that's being shared and we think it's important we're sharing factual information with our community with our patrons and ultimately our students as well what we are going to do is continue to link in this case to the county health department for additional information i want to re-emphasize this next point if a school or building sees a spike in absences or encounters a situation that requires us to pivot we
011will in fact do so although there has not been history for example this is just an example a theoretical example um if there's an influenza outbreak in a school and there's a need for deep cleaning and other preventative measures to occur within a school in the past and schools across the country if there's been a need to shut things down or to alter plans in that school for a limited number of days that's in fact what has happened the reason this is fuzzy is because we don't know what is around the corner and just in case we want to have that flexibility to make pivots if in fact it is necessary we will continue to encourage people to wash their hands actually do that for the foreseeable future to wash your hands but also to
012stay home if you don't feel well there are a number of summer viruses that are afoot right now and it's really important for people to understand that if you in fact are not feeling well you need to stay home we are going to be working to communicate this plan with staff and families over the next week and continue to update our website accordingly the classroom is the reason that we have a school district and we are all about a couple of items that i'm going to mention in a bit which will be safe focused and fun in terms of what we're looking to do this year in the rockwood school district we want to continue to focus on what unites us and ensure that all kids have the opportunity to reach their full potential we
013want to ensure that all stakeholders have a voice and an opportunity to partner with us to assist us in making it happen and of course we want to inspire people to be a part of this very special team and always it's always appropriate to look out for each other and we're going to continue to work to keep kids at the center of each decision and i shared this with administrators last week we want to share it with this community at this point in time we are absolutely going to have a great school year this year here in rockwood with that i'd be happy to engage in any questions that the board may have at this point in time i do have some additional comments thank you so grace dye is a rising freshman at marquette
014high school and she has been named one of five national finalists in the annual doodle for google contest fan voting occurred from july 7th through july 12th and helped to determine a national winner from each of five grade groups and grace's artwork is the national winner for grades eight through nine a panel of google employees will select the national winner the student whose work is chosen at the national as a national winner will receive a thirty thousand dollar college scholarship a fifty thousand dollar technology package for their school and google hardware and their arts will be featured on google.com for one day the four other national finalists will have their doodles featured on the doodle for google gallery and receive a five thousand dollar college scholarship in google merchandise congratulations on this achievement grace and
015we are absolutely rooting for you to be the national winner let's give a round of applause [Applause] last week more than 150 rockwood leaders gathered for the district's annual administrative conference last week in terms of wednesday and thursday at lafayette high school the theme for this year's conference was safe focused and fun in this community we'll hear more about this in coming days in terms of our focus for the upcoming school year our administrators participated in learning sessions centered on curriculum technology and school safety finance and then human resources as well student services and most definitely communications they also have the opportunity to meet with each other in their schools and in their departments to work together to plan for this upcoming school year this year we are welcoming more than 20 administrators or current
016rockwood staff members taking on new administrative roles to rockwood these two days were filled with excitement and enthusiasm for this next school year and we can't wait to see those students in our hallways on august 22nd always a mixed reaction sometimes we have parents that are more excited than students but we're ready to roll for august 22nd i thought that might be the case one more update is this this year the annual missouri sales tax holiday begins at 1201 on friday august 5th and runs through sunday august 7th certain back-to-school purchases such as clothing school supplies computers and other items as defined by the statute are exempt from sales tax for this period of time in those cities that are participating in the same is true for specific counties and districts as well for the
0172022-2023 supply list for your student school visit the school's webpage or via the app in terms of parent square for additional information in terms of what those specific specific school supply lists look like rockwood will be hosting our very first stuff the bus school stuff the school bus event at walmart in eureka during the sales tax holiday on saturday august 6 and on sunday august 7th volunteers will be collecting personal items in terms of personal care items school supplies cleaning supplies and food items as well so just look for a pretty sizable yellow rockwood school district bus in the parking lot and all the donated items will be given to rockwood gives back those are the updates at this point thank you thank you awesome thanks to share any board comments all right moving right
018along then i have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as submitted second motion and a second any discussion i do have one item can you hear me okay i can't hear myself i do have one item it's typical every month falcon football boosters for rockwood summit high school monetary 4992 dollars support of the falcon performance program covers costs associated with performance program over the summer at rockwood summit high school and as always we appreciate donations and we'll keep looking forward to some other ones coming in later thank you thank you dr kinder okay so the motion is to approve the consent agenda items as submitted all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed that passes and next we have bond issue purchases we will welcome paul northington could i please have
019a motion to approve the bond issue purchases and related contracts 7 500 to 150 000 as submitted motion and a second good evening um on behalf of chris friend and director of facilities uh we have one item tonight which is sci engineering uh fifteen thousand not to seed uh this is for our park parking lot uh renovation project at babbler if you recall last year we did the rear of the parking lot this year we're finishing it by doing the front of the parking lot and a lot of that is a concrete base on the front side of that parking lot this is for the testing of the base as well as the concrete that is poured to make sure we have a good sound system in place uh this will all be done prior
020to the starter school sure will what do you say excuse me yes it'll be done prior to starting now everybody's going to have to be ready for a start of school yeah it looked like it was close it looked like it was close paul yeah it's close i think we're looking at a date of the 12th if you want a hard date on that 12 this one would expect it to all be completed sounds good any other questions thank you so the motion is to approve the bond issue purchases and related contracts 7 500 250 000 as submitted all those in favor please say aye hi anyone opposed and that passes all right next we have the proposed agenda for the august 18th 2022 board of education meeting coming up on the screen there just
021for information jamie will we have any preliminary student data like how many students are going to be attending or do we usually get that afterwards uh wait until the first first week see those enrollment reports typically in consent and i'm not sure if that's up there there's no enrollment it reports because there's nobody enrolled i mean in school right now so probably the second meeting of september will be the first enrollment okay thank you thank you chainment you're welcome all right and then we have future agenda presentations and events to attend please check the google calendar is what my notes say so stay up to date on your items via the google calendar any questions about any of that all right then we'll move on to our final patron comment section for non-agenda items we
022will 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 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 have a couple of speakers and the first speaker is jocelyn yedlica hello good okay thank you rockwood school board staff and administrators for creating and implementing the powerful and important equity resolution that came to be in 2020 and thank you for reaffirming this resolution in 2021 today i ask that the board superintendent and administration proceed with
023reaffirmation of this resolution in 2022 to demonstrate your commitment to the beloved community and following the way forward because we all know that students will not feel safe and will not earn an education if they are not fully supported emotionally socially and academically i also want to mention that rockwood teachers believe in and support diversity equity and inclusion initiatives tonight i will read a prepared statement from one of our teachers think of one word to describe your identity is this word all-encompass encompassing of who you are and where you come from does it tell the story of you and your life is it accurate and fair to identify yourself as only one thing what would it be like to go to work and only be thought of of of as that thing could you do
024your best work feel pride feel seen feel connected how would you be treated would this identity make your chances of being successful greater or not it is only natural for people to group things we see into categories but what if these categories of who we are become single stories that give us incomplete and simplistic understanding of the identity of others now imagine you're a child a second grader and this word this single story was your identity how would this impact you in the classroom would it be easy for you to learn will others believe in you in her ted talk the dangers of the single story chimamanda echide says and i quote i've always felt that it is important to engage properly with a place or person without engaging with all the stories of that
025place and that person the consequences of the single story is this it robs people of dignity it makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult it emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar the single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete they make one story become the only story and quote children are very impressionable in the face of the story rockwood states our core values affirm that we stand for and how we treat each other these values define who we are as a school when our mission at rockwood says we do whatever it takes to help our students realize our potential i'm so sorry to get to finish that because i didn't read it i'll step aside if anybody
026wants it thank you our next speaker is derek pratt i told you i'm trying to get everything in before next meeting so um two issues um not so much an actual issue but i don't know if you guys have looked at the ratings on the app store for the new school pass app that you guys are gonna be using this year um it's getting some terrible ratings around 1.5 out of 5 stars i'm not sure if there's anything else out there that can be utilized better but um when it comes to safety of our kids and the screening process i don't really trust something that has a 1.5 out of 5 star rating so much my other point of safety is what's the policy of the district when an employee has multiple duis should said
027individual be an administration leave until said case is resolved would this be a safety issue since the employee would have access to a student's in a role that could be influential what does it say to staff and students when the district continues to employ said individual that has had multiple duis each year the high school has a reenactment for effects of drinking and driving would we continue that if we did not hold this staff member accountable for their actions how can we expect our students to follow the rules of law when said staff member is not being held at a higher standard it seems like a do as i say not as i do or rules for thee and not for me but for the betterment of the district this behavior should have a zero
028tolerance and the final speaker is danielle muir beautiful hello my name is danielle meart i use she her are they them pronouns and i'm here tonight to thank you for approving the district wide trauma informed training from our last meeting the rockwood community has experienced too many traumas in recent years we lost students in a car crash off kiefer creek road near my house we lost a student to gun violence outside their own home we've lost administrators and teachers to covet drug overdose and a recent drowning in a neighboring or neighboring district heck if you've been to more than three rockwood board of education meetings in the last two years you probably have a mild form of ptsd and i want to thank you for recognizing the need and making our communities mental health and
029healing a priority i hope the trauma-informed training helps identify students who are being bullied and puts a stop to it immediately we know that students most likely to be bullied are those perceived to be different including minorities those who are differently abled or identify as lgbtq we've also learned that the school shooter in uvalde texas was bullied in that classroom and he murdered innocent students and teachers imagine how the outcome could have been different if they had gotten to the root cause of the problem before it was too late unfortunately the families in uvalde texas will never know and i understand that parents think that redirecting funds to hiring additional sro officers at each school will keep our communities safe however we know that 376 law enforcement officers including local police and border patrol couldn't
030stop a school shooter in uvalde texas 376. they waited in the hallway while the student who had been bullied in that classroom murdered innocent students and teachers you know i don't know maybe they only needed three more sros at each school and that could have stopped it but i don't know i think i tend to disagree and listen well we disagree on a lot of things one thing we all can agree on is that scenario amongst the countless other traumas we've experienced is our community's worst nightmare and we pray our kiddos classroom won't be next so i'm here to thank you for taking the proactive science-based approach to protect and rebuild our broken community thank you and i hope we have a safe and prosperous year thank you and that concludes our meeting meeting adjourned
031huh you