001pledge of allegiance welcome to the rockwood board of education meeting we would like to thank the administrative team and all the staff and students at eureka 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 we would also like to officially welcome dr curtis kane who has started as our new superintendent on july 1st and is here for his first board of education meeting [Applause] 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
002conducts its business calling out verbal aggressiveness inappropriate language or name calling is not acceptable and will not be tolerated the board reserves the right to recess or adjourn the meeting at any time if deemed necessary this board 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 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 could i please first have a motion to approve the agenda second motion
003and a second any discussion all right all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed and that passes next could i have a motion to approve board of education meeting minutes for june 23 2022 motion and a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye hi anyone opposed and that passes next we have our patron comment period number one so i'm going to read a statement before we begin we do have a few patreon comments this evening 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 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
004minutes 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 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 the 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 if the superintendent ensure that the appropriate staff
005member 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 would like to remind everyone that comments about individual employees and or students will not be permitted in public sessions 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 in vulgarity in any form is not acceptable whether you're 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
006convenience our three minute time clock is ready so our first patreon comment could uh we have i believe this is this is aidan smith let me make sure i'm saying the first name correctly adrian sorry about that come on up adrian first the smith family would like to welcome our new superintendent and we have heard numerous great things about you and what you've done your previous school district and we are looking forward to the improvements you are doing here but that is not why i'm here speaking tonight we have heard we have some attendees who we need to tonight we're here here to hear some attendees why do we need to or should we even bother recognizing or more recognizing more than two genders by our god why are we spending taxpayer money to educate
007people in the woke concept that people who are lgbtq plus should consider and consider include or even be treated as human beings in the fact that many people here who are who are excluded minimizing minimize diminishing and or other ways to destroy people for who they love how they feel and how many how they dress and how they talk in other ways that they are different they're much more collective voices in the community eureka high school my high school teachers teach us individuality individuality is important and there are work that we are worth something more than those than other voices that make us feel and believe and there is a special place in society that we do not want to be oppressed by the others people what those people ignore is that people may be
008uncomfortable in their bodies and that is okay that some people may love someone who is the same biological sexism and that is okay that people may want to discuss who they are and who they love and how they feel about it in their schools and that is okay having teachers and staff around telling us that they may that that they may be only thing to keep keep some and numerous times and house have teachers and staff around us telling you that you may only may be the only thing and some others and numerous times that some and people in the community including to help stop committing suicide and being involved in drugs and doing numerous self-depriving acts we need our safe place in our public schools thank you [Applause] next speaker is jocelyn yedlicka thank
009you board dr kane administrators and other community members present thank you for offering incredible opportunities for professional development including those made possible by alive and well communities alive and well communities is a local organization that provides evidence evidence-based support consultation and training surrounding trauma and its impact on individuals and the community alive and well partners with school districts including rockwood slps uc rittner and hazelwood as well as healthcare and corporate organizations they are incredibly knowledgeable and well respected with a wide reach in our area communities years ago as a rockwood employee i was able to attend a professional development presentation provided by alive and wealth this particular presentation included a module on adverse childhood experiences or aces aces are instances of toxic stress occurring occurring in early childhood that create impact physically and emotionally and
010then development aces include abuse and neglect racism segregation and the death of a loved one about two-thirds of americans have experienced one ace one in six have experienced four or more aces can affect student learning and behavior in the classroom children with three or more aces are five times more likely to have attendance issues six times more likely to have behavior problems and three times more likely to experience academic failure why as a rockwood employee would i need to know this well from the presentation by alive and well i learned that more children in the classroom have experienced a traumatic event than not i learned that my behavior in the classroom could trigger a trauma response from a child and that might look like aggression or disengagement without this valuable professional development opportunity i would
011not have received the tools necessary to understand adverse child events and how to support the many students who have experienced it from this professional development i was able to make immediate and impactful changes instantly in the classroom that made me a better educator rockwood school district continues to provide appropriate and timely professional development opportunities when educators and staff are given tools and knowledge they are empowered empowered knowledgeable educators and staff create learning environments that support the success of all students when all rockwood staff are empowered and all rockwood students feel safe our children will learn and our beloved community will thrive thank you again rockwood for continuing to support our relationship with alive and well providing excellent learning opportunities for staff and ensuring all students feel safe so that they can learn and prepare for
012their most excellent future [Applause] next speaker is danielle muir hi my name is danielle meert are you she her or data and pronouns i'm a graduate of lafayette high school and i moved back to rockwood in 2008 to raise my kiddo near my family and where he could attend one of the best school districts in the state of missouri we're fortunate to have a an exceptionally qualified new superintendent dr kane and i'm thrilled that our district is prioritizing diversity initiatives by funding a variety of training programs including a district-wide science-based lgbtq affirming workshops rockwood staff and administration need the knowledge and skills to support queer and trans students as they have a legal and ethical obligation to provide an equitable learning environment to all students administration and staff also have an ethical obligation to do
013no harm to students regardless of their personal political or religious views queer and trans students are harmed every day albeit often times unintentionally by administration and staff who are not equipped to meet their needs creating crisis level numbers of self-harm mental illness suicide substance abuse and more among queer and trans youth in 2021 one in six trans youth attempted suicide many studies also show that having just one affirming adult in the life of a queer or trans child their life it greatly reduces their risk for suicide self-harm substance abuse being unhoused to rinsing school et cetera and by creating providing training for our administration and staff that increases student achievement and reduces risk factors for queer and trained students across the board from substance abuse to self-harm depression anxiety suicide and we also know that
014the science and gender and of biological sex has evolved over time from what i learned at lafayette in ap biology back in 1994 is very different from what we know now in 2020 too and what we are teaching to our faculty and staff and our students should uh stay updated with the new science that we know and we should provide the most comprehensive up-to-date information staff need access to accurate science-based information on these topics in order to meet all of our students needs and regardless of personal views on gender we exist in a diverse world where students must learn to live and work alongside those who are different from themselves and staff must be able to meet the needs of a diverse student population including lgbtq students listen my kiddos standardized test scores improved by
01544 percentile courts from 30th percentile up to 74th percentile within weeks of coming out and being affirmed as transgender by his classmates and his teachers i pray that all students receive the same opportunity for success and thank you for your support of all students in rockwood thank you next speaker is james thoreau hello my name is james thoreau um these he him pronouns i have a son who is going to be a sophomore at marquette this year and i just wanted to speak about the uh funding for the diversity equity and inclusion i think it's very important um regardless of our personal views on gender we exist in a diverse world where students must learn to live and work alongside those who are different from themselves and staff must be able to meet the needs
016of diverse student population and including lgbtq plus students i work at a large multinational corporation i know not every student that goes to a school in rockwood will end up working at such an entity but those that do if you want to work percent on enterprise and heiser bush monsanto you will have to dei is the way it is it is standard procedure it's what um all corporations are moving towards because inclusive you get the best employees you're not discriminating against everyone to have that training here in rockwood will prepare these students to move on in life and be successful thank you next speaker is kelly grossman good evening my name is kelly grossman um and i just wanted to come tonight to thank the board for all of the training that you're giving to
017the teachers and the staff in both diversity issues and mental health issues as has been so eloquently stated our kids need to feel safe in school and they need to be seen for who they are and they need to feel comfortable being who they are and i know that there are many in the community who argue that we're spending tax dollars we should be spending them solely on reading writing and arithmetic and i would thank you all for understanding and for knowing and appreciating that maslow's hierarchy of needs is a real thing and unless students are comfortable and happy and healthy they can't learn and so providing teachers with the resources and the knowledge that they need to make sure that those kids are ready to learn all of our academics will improve the kids
018lives will be better and you know that's what it's all about thank you [Applause] next speaker is derek pratt good evening it's great to be back i had a little bit of a sabbatical reason i'm here this evening is i'm questioning the amount of a half a million dollars that is being spent on training that i want to know if you actually ask the teachers their opinion because i've talked to a lot of teachers i've watched to talk to a lot of staff members in the sabbatical time that i was given to find out what they want what they're doing what they those people who are with our children every day what they think while they may some think this way some other things that way so instead of forcing something down somebody's throat how
019about you give them the option if they want to go through this training because they might not agree with it on many different aspects whatever their personal opinion is they have that right just as every student has that right to feel that they are important also because at the end of the day the teachers and the administrators are with our kids every day they love them no matter what and i know there's people in the community that may think different we all have different opinions and that's fine i have different opinions than other people in this room and that's fine but at the end of the day i have never met a teacher i've never met an administrator i've never met anyone in the school that treats any student any different than if they were
020their own because i have three of my own kids and i've been told by a lot of them that you know what we don't let your kid get away with things that we're not gonna let our kid get away with and i appreciate that but i'm a number guy so if we're gonna be talking about the diversity training and all this other stuff and spending a half a million dollars and since i can't say their name i'll just say the executive director of student services we all know who we're talking about so let's get to the meat of it safety is a big issue we have 35 buildings throughout the rockwood school district so if you take 12 sros and the high schools eight sros and the middle schools totaling 47 sros and you gave
021them 75 000 a piece per year that's 3.29 million dollars the 2021 22 budget is 294 million dollars that's 1.1 percent to get 47 police officers in school for safety reasons so i encourage you to look at the spending that we're wasting and put it to the safety of our students and before i leave miss bayes if you want to sign this i would love to hang this in my office downstairs have a great night next speaker is sarah barnard good evening board members and um welcome to our district dr kane um i'm just very concerned by the proposed expenditures that i've seen on the agenda this evening they seem to be focused on things that have nothing to do with a school district's main function which is educating children i believe in this current
022economic climate spending should be carefully considered and we must focus on our priorities as he mentioned safety education those are the things that we really i think need to be focused on at this point instead it seems that there's a trend in this district where we are focusing on everything else but education my concerns are actually based on the actual tours that we are seeing in our district academic scores are dropping many parents are starting to see the decline and they are worried about the quality of education that their kids are receiving so before you vote tonight i just i want you to consider some questions i'm i'm just wondering why is the training needed wondering why were these projects not even put out too big it seems like it was just given to some
023one place i'm wondering why a political ideology needs to be pushed i'm wondering why teachers are needed to be loaded down with even more responsibilities than they already have i'm there's definitely a trend that i've seen this district of person pushing a certain political ideology which i have seen by these expenditures a school is just to be a neutral ground no ideology of any sort from either side should be pushed so i'm asking that the board please can consider not funding the the funding for jesse jones education alignment well communities and hazel health thank you all right that concludes that section of patreon comments and next we move into superintendent and board comments dr king thank you president bayes hello everyone i am very excited to take part sorry this microphone is exceedingly loud i
024apologize to take part of my first official board meeting here in rockwood and just wanted to deliver some superintendent comments during closed session earlier this evening the board of education approved the hire of three new administrators who have taken new roles in the district former superintendent dr tim ricker approved these interim hires back in june of june 23rd and they took effect on july 1. daniel hannon was approved as a new interim principal at geige elementary dr timothy rebolt was approved as a new geige interim assistant principal and sarah thomason was approved as the new interim assist i'm sorry interim administrative assistant at blevins elementary most recently daniel served as the assistant principal at geige a position he held since 2018 prior to that he worked as a teacher and interim administrative intern at the
025ferguson florist school district for eight years he was named teacher of the year in 2017 at griffin elementary in ferguson fluorescent and daniel earned a bachelor of science in elementary education from central missouri state and a masters of arts and educational administration from lindenwood university timothy most recently served as the administrative intern at blevins a position he held since 2019 prior to that he taught second grade in melville school district for 12 years he served as assistant principal in the summer academy for two years and was a principal in the summer academy this year and also serves on the district's calendar committee timothy earned a bachelor of science in elementary education from the university of missouri st louis a masters of science in education from southwest baptist university a masters of educational administration from missouri
026baptist university and a doctorate in educational leadership from maryville university most recently sarah taught third grade at blevins elementary a position she held since 2021 prior to that she taught second grade for a year at kurz mill elementary and also taught kindergarten for three years in the northwest school district sarah was a rose award nominee in 2021 and 2022 and serves as a rockwood champion for the diversity equity and inclusion committee sarah earned a bachelor's of science in elementary and early childhood education from the university of missouri columbia and a masters of arts and k-12 leadership from south east missouri state she is currently working on her specialist in educational administration as well so i ask everyone please help me congratulate daniel timothy and sarah on their new roles here in the rockwood school district
027[Applause] lasalle springs middle school social studies teacher bergen toth has been named one of 34 missouri regional teacher of the years for by educational plus and in the st louis i'm sorry and the st louis regional professional development center toth is one of 10 awardees from the st louis region chosen by the committee by a committee of her peers because of her teaching excellence she is now eligible to participate in the state level missouri teacher of the year program which is conducted annually by the department of elementary and secondary education desi will select a teacher missouri teacher of the year in october will then become a candidate for national teacher of the year i had the opportunity to help bergen and nine other st louis region teachers of the year at a reception earlier this
028week and i am so proud of her and her fantastic work and she absolutely impos absolutely does an amazing job of positively impacting the lives of her students bergen congratulations to you [Applause] as a part of rockwood's continuing efforts to enhance security in our schools and our buildings we are introducing a new visitor management system for the 22-23 school year rockwood has contracted with school pass to implement the new system which is specifically designed for pre-k through 12 schools visitors volunteers vendors and students who are late or leaving early sign in and out via an intuitive mobile or web-based app each visitor can be screened against the national sex offender list and alerts are sent to administrators and staff for risks customizable badges with photos are automatically printed at visitor check-in and robust reporting allows
029rockwood to see who was on campus why and for how long not only will this new system improve the safety of our schools and streamline the check-in and checkout process it will also enable the district to effectively communicate to everyone in the building in the event of an emergency safety of our students our staff and our families is a top priority here in rockwood and with this new system we are adding yet another important an extra layer of security for our community so during my first three weeks on the job i have had the pleasure of meeting with listening to and learning from a variety of students staff and community members as i prepare to help lead the rockwood school district in the coming years i've seen the sort of fun educational experiences our students
030have enjoyed over the course of the summer with the rockwood summer academy and i've had the honor of discussing different aspects of my background leadership philosophy goals and plans for the rockwood school district not only that i've done so with the student at from each one of the high schools and for those that are interested and have any free time during this exceedingly hot time of the summer you can check it out on our youtube channel there's a a link for conversations with dr curtis kane i also had the unique opportunity to drive the rockwood bus the book bus that is to eight of our schools in two days two very warm days just about two weeks ago funded through the title one um parent involvement grant the bus provided thousands of free books of
031free book choices for students and to promote summer reading in our school communities that have a higher level or percentage of economic deprivation as you can tell by those smiles on those faces on the screen behind me we all greatly enjoyed that experience during these special visits and i look forward to continuing this important work of listening and learning in the months to come thank you dr kane you've been a little bit busy in your first few weeks indeed on the move absolutely yeah learn a lot any board comments this evening yes um i got the opportunity to sit in on two professional development um sessions over the last couple of weeks one was um something about trauma like trauma 101 and the other one was the power of procedures um i will say the
032power of procedures was amazing and i think that um every staff member should be involved in a training like that about classroom management and how powerful it is to have structure some of our students don't have structure at home so having that in the classroom really benefited these students and academics and emotions and all that so it was a great um great great session uh the trauma one was interesting it gave me insight to some of the things that i didn't realize were happening in the classroom which was um powerful there were some things that i didn't necessarily understand or agree with and i think that is a point where we can start to find balance with the message that is coming out because it you know we are lacking balance but i think having
033the opportunity to be there and to listen and to have that input was powerful so thanks janet for making sure that we had those invitations open good any other board comments all right then we will move down could i uh please have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as submitted [Music] motion in a second any discussion we have two great gifts tonight persons from eureka elementary pto monetary two thousand dollars financial support for the outdoor classroom space if you've ever been by eureka elementary you've seen the space or the development of the space and this will help enhance that we'll cover custom made benches to be used in the outdoor classroom space and the crestview parent organization monetary 3341. financial support for general school use the funding will support multiple items for student
034use including but not limited to picnic tables chairs or outdoor courtyard aerobic and chin bars for pe classes web party food and more more various items each each board meeting we get these type of donations and as a member of the rockwood school board and i'm sure you in the audience are very grateful for these donations and we do appreciate these and we love to recognize them in each board meeting thank you dr kinder any other discussion all right the motion is to approve the consent agenda items as submitted all those in favor please say aye hi anyone opposed opposed to do you want to propose all or do you want to pull um we'll just pause all okay um and any extensions okay so that passes and we will move down to um agenda
035item first agenda item could have a motion to approve the resolution authorizing the payment of general obligation bonds of the rockwood r6 school district so move second motion in a second hello dr northington welcome good evening how you doing so this evening with the approval of the resolution um we will be taking those funds out of the debt service account and moving them into an escrow account with united missouri bank um in an amount as stated in the resolution not to exceed 9.9 million the purpose of this will be to pre-pay 9 million 655 000 in bonds that come due in 2034 and 2035 so we have the opportunity to prepay those about 10 years earlier it's just another step in our long-range financial plan to really look at opportunities within our debt service management
036and when we have those opportunities i work with our professionals to to seize those if you recall our debt service fund can only be used for one thing and one thing only and that's to retire our general obligation bond debt so we can't do anything else with that service in regards to operational capital things so this transaction fits exactly with the intended purpose for what these are um had two gentlemen that i've worked closely with not only on this transaction but other prior early redemptions that we've done before this um i want to acknowledge them jason terry with gilmore bell and jason handles the legal and compliance issues that go with that and make sure we got all our eyes and crossed all our tees and then timers are with with lj heart and company
037who handles the financial aspects of the transaction so a big kudos to them i always lean on them heavily when we have these uh discussions and they they always lead us in the right direction so that being said uh tom has some of the details of what this transaction uh will accomplish and the benefits of doing this so i'll let him talk to that just briefly thank you paul yeah just some additional comments here so with the purchase of the escrow account which we expect to occur within the next few months the district will be able to lock in interest savings of about 3.3 million dollars and shorten the final repayment on the 2015 bonds from 2035 to 2026. so nine years now if we look at these bonds the average interest rate you're paying
038is only three point three two percent it's very good but with the strength in your debt service fund and the ability to pay these off on february one 1 2024 just makes sense to eliminate that unnecessary interest uh and i also in my opinion this goes a long way towards i think it's going to be really appealing to standard and poor's which will help support your aaa credit rating that's very attractive to investors as well so if i take this one step further this savings of 3.3 million and then what we've been able to capture over the past 11 years through refinancing of 9.3 brings a total benefit to taxpayers of 12.6 so that's a lot to be proud of any questions would if the proposition had passed in april sir would we have done
039this or is this the result of it not passing or does it have anything to do with that the the timing uh certainly has we're able to accelerate it but there was the ability by the call day to to pay these bonds off earlier this just yeah it accelerates the process but not by much by two years right yes so my question is with this 12 point million savings that can only go into debt service reduction again that cannot go into general funds is that correct that's correct so the savings essentially now were you know what otherwise would have gone to interest expense now we can apply towards principal or you know look at other projects down the road if need be do you anticipate that we might be able to do this again next
040year the next year or the next year or is this a one time shot it's hard i i do anticipate uh pre-payments down the road but certainly it's going to be contingent upon how your seth valuation comes in overall growth year to year do you also have suggestions just on how we can get that proposition passed that we didn't pass in april or do you deal with that i do um just it's hard to say right now but just the overall community support the recognition that we can you can utilize that revenue source over on the operating side and free up well let me let me back up so now we can if we move some of that levy into the capital projects fund we can purchase for things out of cash as opposed to
041refinancing them that was the original intent and again avoid the interest expense so i i guess i would say just reinforce that message would you also suggest that we keep talking about it each board member meeting or as much as possible so that we can educate some people that voted against it without realizing what they voted against absolutely very good thank you any other questions all right thank you both and thank you so the motion is to approve the resolution authorizing the payment of general obligation bonds of the rockwood r6 school district all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed that passes and next we have just the proposed agenda for the august 4th board of education meeting which will be held at summit okay summit thank you up here for everybody and
042if no comments on that then we have future agenda presentations and events to attend there's a few things on our google calendar coming up as we gear up for the beginning of the school year so obviously check your calendars for that um for work session on august 10th and then we have a conflict on november 3rd you've highlighted so that's the msba conference which do you want to discuss what to do with that meeting all right well the november third meeting um is the same time as the msba conference so i know for sure tammy's going to that and any other board member that would want to go wouldn't be here um at the meeting last year that meeting we cancelled yeah so it just is better to if we're going to plan on doing
043that to do it earlier rather than later so that finance and hr can adjust for that yeah msba that is kansas city i'll send more information out again if you're interested in going it's the um third fourth and fifth tammy did you go last year all the way to kansas city all right funny to me that's a long way i'll join so do we want to cancel that one and just have one november meeting now that worked out okay last year to do that yeah okay if you're okay with it if you just wanted to get ahead of me fine with that yep okay everybody's good with that and then look at your calendars and let janet know if you're able to i guess i'm okay with that the conference as it gets closer okay
044we'll take care of you dr kinder make sure you don't show up somewhere all right i think that concludes this portion so we will move into the second portion of patron commons so i will do the intro for that 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 the first patron we have a couple of his ben murray no i'm sorry yeah i
045think yeah right um uh welcome to rockwood dr kane i know many of us are overjoyed to have you with us at rockwood and we're looking forward to getting to know you better i recently watched the first of the student conversation videos uh that you mentioned earlier uh and really appreciate the time you take for activities like that um provides value for all of us whether it's students parents or rockwood staff i hope this example you're already setting can help all of us do a better job of listening to each other and to bridge the divides that we've created usually by simply misunderstanding each other we all want the best for every student academically and socially and want to ensure the current younger generation has both educational and emotional support they need to be happy
046healthy and successful adults as a parent i also share responsibility to help repair some of the societal risks we have exacerbated in recent but i think you're off to a great start in the city in setting an example for all of us to follow when things are done well you unfortunately hear from parents like me very seldomly but we do appreciate we have the opportunity to voice our opinions and that we are listened to even when we disagree and especially when we disagree um so as we transition to a new school year thank you for listening to the diverse opinions from parents as well as every parent student with a vast range of opinions and life experiences it's the diversity of individuals and of thought that made rockwood a great fit for me when i
047was a young autistic student and i had no idea i was autistic until i was 40 but the way the school ran it it made it it made it easy for me and as a parent i've seen how the district has improved by orders of magnitude since that time so i think we can all agree they continue to support and embrace the diversity of every student to make rockwood even more inclusive district for everybody is a win for the community especially the students and that's both in the short term and the long term as the students then become parents of their and have kids of their own so thank you and welcome to rockwood [Applause] next speaker is sally nickel hello my name is sally nichol i use pronouns she her hers whenever i listen
048to ben speak i always just want to say ditto because he's so eloquent and kind in his works i wasn't able to make last month's meeting so i did want to say a belated thank you to everyone board of education and dr ricker and all of our administrators and staff including support staff for getting through the last year really the last two years of pandemic strain and whatnot um again actually if you play ben's comments from that meeting you can just do a ditto for me as i was watching them i literally had tears in my eyes and for today a welcome and thank you to dr kane when i participated in community forums last year to build the profile for a candidate that would match what we need there were concerns about would there
049be someone who wanted to take on the challenges of our district and we were assured by the professionals that there would be and here we are to have someone from our local area step into the role i feel very confident that dr kane knows what he's getting into and is going to be a great asset for us and help us over this coming year come together and heal we are a district frankly on the brink the last two years of strain from the pandemic as well as a very politically challenging time frame it's kind of make or break we're either going to continue to be strong and come together to support our students and staff or we're going to continue to be divisive and fall apart and see more people moving out of the district
050see our property taxes fall and see our reputation fail so thank you dr kane for stepping up for that challenge we look forward to what you've already started and we look forward to supporting you and our board for that one thing i heard a lot about last year was people not feeling heard on all sides people not feeling heard and one suggestion that i thought of perhaps because i cannot imagine how many emails everyone got and phone calls everyone got and what that would look like to reply to all of them is perhaps if we could have a spot on the website where the common concerns you receive could be posted with names removed and then the common response that gets emailed out could perhaps be posted so that if someone was going to email
051something that is a common concern they could look there and see what the discussion has already been and then rather than starting from scratch could perhaps go deeper in making progress to coming together so that was my suggestion for tonight thank you for being here thank you for having patreon comments both before and after i hope everyone has a wonderful evening next speaker is gage dodson good evening members of the board and welcome dr kane uh congratulations on your first official month the superintendent of our district though i suspect you've been hard at work long before july 1st my name is gage dotson proud parent of two rockwood students here's one of them and a nine-month-old future rockwood student i'm also a public school teacher in neighboring district members of the board dr kane i
052would like to take just a brief moment of your time to thank you for all that you do to support our students at the end of the day that's what it's all about as an educator myself i have had the pleasure of working with a principal for the last 10 years who would always remind us teachers we do what's best for kids i commend you for the work you do for rockwood students and understand that doing what's best for all kids isn't always easy or straightforward doing what's best for all kids rarely is can be scary at times i applaud the fact that you're making brave choices to provide professional development for teachers that supports the social emotional health of our students maslow's hierarchy of needs informs us that these social emotional needs if they're
053not met our students educational needs don't even stand a chance i suspect some community members might be scared or worried but it's important that we trust our educators to adopt research-based approaches because it's what's best for kids our kids want to be heard they want to be seen and though change can be scary for grown-ups our kids are courageous empathetic individuals who want to feel safe and seen in school we're all here tonight because we love rockwood we love rockford teachers administrators secretaries nurses support staff support staff bus drivers the list goes on and they work tirelessly too you guessed it do what's best for all kids so welcome home dr kane i'm looking forward to the experience and expertise you bring to rockwood appreciate you putting in the time and effort to do what's
054best for our diverse student body and i'm wishing you all a wonderful new school year thank [Applause] all you with that that adjourns uh the meeting thank you all you