Rockwood Board of Education Meeting October 7, 2021

001all right good evening everyone it is 704 we will call the open session to order please rise for the pledge of allegiance [Music] she's got a flag there we go [Applause] i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you welcome everyone to the rockwood board of education meeting we would like to thank the administrative team and all the staff and students at lafayette high school for being gracious hosts for our meeting this evening thank you also to the ambassadors who are here from schools in the lafayette quadrant 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

002progress and listen to the community on important issues the rockwood board of education is committed to the safety and security of all of our students staff parents and patrons to that end we are requiring face coverings and social distancing at our meeting tonight your cooperation is appreciated in advance we have reports to consider in business to conduct that are critical to the functioning of our school district we want to remind all of our visitors that we expect the audience to remain civil and respectful at all times as 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

003if the audience becomes so inappropriate in their behavior that we can't conduct our business the board reserves the right to adjourn the meeting the sport of education meeting is live streamed for the community's convenience opinions expressed at the meeting are not necessarily the opinions of the rockwood school district youtube reserves the right to monitor and block an accurate and misleading content that processes beyond the control of the rockwood school district we want 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 motion and a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed

004and that passes next could i have a motion to approve board of education meeting minutes for september 16 2021 so move motion and 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 september 30th 2021 so we'll move second motion and a second any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye and that passes and next we have patron comments during patron comments citizens may address the board of education concerning issues related to the school district this board of education meeting is live streamed for the community's convenience once again 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

005misleading content which happened following one of our meetings that process is beyond the control of the rockwood school district 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 and when your time is up your time is up please note that at the board's discretion the board or superintendent may respond immediately to an issue raised during patron comments for clarification however our general practice is to respond to the comment at a later time via a phone call or written message if a response is needed we have a stand with microphones ready so both the board and the audience may hear the patron comments clearly right up top as a reminder masks are

006required in our buildings and should remain on even when you are speaking the board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this evening and we value both your input and your perspective once your remarks are over please return to your seat i would like to remind everyone that we expect that you will remain civil and respectful in your remarks and if anyone becomes disruptive we reserve the right to cut those three minutes short verbally aggressive language and 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 for your convenience our three-minute time clock is ready our first speaker this evening is elizabeth cohen and the next speaker is michelle and selmo hello uh 63005 i think you need our zip

007code um are you aware i will are you aware that there are always going to be positive covet cases anyone who says otherwise is not following the science it is a zoonotic virus meaning it can transfer from animals to humans or humans to animals it is impossible to eradicate due to the prevalence of animal hosts since animals can sometimes appear healthy while carrying the germs that make people sick we need to learn to live with it just like we live all the live with all the other zoonotic diseases such as influenza that creates a an epidemic that affects us each year so why are we still counting cases in rockwood the number of cases is irrelevant it is the outcome that is important according to the st louis county website to date not a single

008person under the age of 39 has died from covid in the county and thus in the rockwood school district even st louis county is no longer contact tracing and mass quarantining quarantines are problematic and illogical currently unvaccinated students are required to quarantine for 10 days at ho at home if there was not proper mask wearing vaccinated students can wait until they have symptoms to quarantine away from school only those students can continue their education yet it has been discovered that the vaccinated can catch and spread the virus just as easily as the unvaccinated according to fauci in an interview on face the nation early in september what is the difference between an unvaccinated person who catches covid and a vaccinated person who has a breakthrough case of covid those who have been vaccinated tend to

009have less intense or even non-existent symptoms meaning a vaccinated student may not even know they are spreading the virus unvaccinated students will likely show clear coveted symptoms therefore it only makes sense that everyone who is exposed should be notified to watch for symptoms and get tested if they get sick then we quarantine the sick there are many benefits to doing it this way kids won't be unnecessarily quarantined repeatedly we now know that once someone has a case of covid they have robust immunity this is according to multiple recent studies the way it is set up now a perfectly healthy student may miss an unlimited number of school days due to random quarantines let's take my sophomore son as an example a 10-day quarantine assures a loss of six to eight days of school depending on

010the weekends involved this means he misses entire units of his classes how do you catch up in pre-calculus honors chemistry history principles of biomedical science spanish language arts and principles of engineering after missing six or more days what if he is quarantined again when he comes back which is possible since very few quarantined students tested positive last year a student may miss an unending number of instructional days how do you plan to provide the public education you are required to provide if you force healthy kids to repeatedly miss school last year the kids were able to zoom into classes on top of their schoolwork but not this year the quarantine rules as they stand today are going to add another year of inadequate education to these kids they cannot afford that many are still trying

011to catch up after the last year and a half missouri state law says a parent or guardian of a child who does not attend school regularly may be reported to the department of social services or to the county's prosecutor's office because it's a misdemeanor in the past those letters came after 10 days thank you [Applause] next speaker is michelle enselmo and after that stacy dixon [Music] good evening i want to begin by saying thank you to each and every one of you on the board everybody in attendance and every single rockwood employee and staff member my message tonight is for the very small uncivil group that continues to erode the great reputation of our school district and so hate in our communities i'm not here to read statistics i'm not here to cite studies i'm

012here because enough is enough we are done with this behavior in our communities i want to applaud the board dr ricker and all of our educators for leading by example we have your back and i'm here to say there are an army of informed educated caring parents who are organized and mobilized and supporting the rockwood school district you know it really wasn't that long ago when we used to rally around each other shared fundamental values you remember a sick kid a family in need in rockwood and we would pull together for meal trains fundraisers and just good old genuine neighborly support but as you now argue in these facebook echo chambers insulated and isolated from reality i have to ask how have your hearts become so hardened from the descent about school masks to the

013manufactured outrage over diversity and inclusion efforts this small group is stuck in a hate blame and complain cycle but we refuse to allow this behavior and mindset to destroy the world-class education so many of us have worked to build in this district the past month my daughter's fourth grade class has focused on respecting others similarities and differences a very timely and well-played lesson for the kids of some parents in this room some parents watching online who are hearing this divisive rhetoric in their homes at their dinner tables during their most formative years so i'm here to say in person and on the record that no matter how much you scream on social media your 15 minutes of fame is up our district is not your personal culture war and our kids don't belong on this

014battlefield of ignorance we won't back down the school board won't back down and i'm here to say we're not having it in the rockwood school district thank you [Music] [Applause] next speaker is stacy dixon and after that comma brown hello first i'd like to thank the members of the board for volunteering their time for our school district and to dr ricker for putting off his retirement once again to give his time i appreciate all of you i'm here tonight to speak in support of equity education in our schools i have two children who attend rockwood and both are black i don't usually offer up that information but a dear friend told me sometimes it's a good idea to let people know i have skin in the game so now you know i'll admit my husband

015and i questioned our choice to remain in this district many times when our kids were little both of our kids faced racism at young ages at rockwood and then the way forward came along i remember filling out the parent survey that helped develop the plan and putting down diversity as something i cared about and wanted to see more of in rockwood i figured there was no way it was going to be in the final plan but luckily i was happily surprised and proven wrong other people clearly cared about it too that gave me hope since then i've seen amazing growth and progress in rocklord that continues to give me hope dr harris and the work he does for all students gives me hope dr grace and miss hogan before her give me hope with their

016tireless work for diversity equity and inclusion of all students i thank all of them for that and i can honestly say that the staff at my children's schools give me hope they are working so hard to make sure all of our students feel seen heard and valued i am grateful to them and want to say thank you to all of the staff working towards a more equitable rockwood i am now hopeful that we can find a way to be better in our greater community to end the attacks on our educators especially dr harris who are all putting our children first every single day i look forward to hearing from leadership on how that will be addressed and ultimately stopped thank you so much next speaker is comma brown and after that kate pannell hi my

017name is kama brown i am here to wholeheartedly support every teacher and administrator i am part of a group of parents who is committed to loving twice as loud some of us don't show up because we are afraid of the harassment we see online some of us don't show up because we've shown up before and we want to make space for other voices but i am here tonight to proudly say that rockwood parents are meeting in groups across every elementary middle and high school in our district to work together to support diversity equity and inclusion goals we are proud to be rockwood parents and we stand by our teachers our administrators the way forward and the beloved community we are proud of the resources dr aisha grace and dr terry harris bring to our children's

018education and their experience in school i know my children are safer and happier because of their role in rockwood we are here tonight and i want you to feel our strength thank you [Applause] next speaker is kelly loretta cama brown there we go hello my name is kate pannell i want to thank you um thank you to board and to the staff of suvar community i'm reading this on behalf of a parent who could not be here tonight before i begin i want to say say nothing for 10 seconds that silence is the majority of parents in rockwood it is not because most parents in our community don't have things to say it is because most of us are tired most parents are running around one two three kids to and from school because of

019bus shortages to and from activities and practices parents on top of that working or running a busy household but watching good teachers being attacked and leaving because of threats is not a good look this is not how we show our kids persuasion it is embarrassing and quite frankly uncivil let's be honest many parents do not want crt but that is not the issue is it i do not want crt as the complicated theory too complex for the minds of kindergartners second graders even seniors the sheer paranoia of crt or masks is the fire that brought some of you here tonight and some of you online and it is fueled by the politicians who want you to be in constant anger but what is wrong with my child learning about their place in american history what

020is wrong with my child seeing herself weaved through the curriculum she is learning in class or reading in the school library reading about the first astronaut is not crt learning about helen keller is not crt learning about susan b anthony and frederick douglass is not crt also humans are not perfect george washington lincoln martin luther king jr many significant historical figures were not perfect we can celebrate their accomplishments but also learn from their mistakes that is what critical thinking is and the historical place in america makes children feel that they belong in their school and that every child is represented and eventually will put their mark in the country that we all love school is not just a place of learning math reading science and writing which some of us probably could retake but it

021is a place to learn societal cues and rules rules of how to act in a group or in a public setting i believe it is so important for our community not to forget that teachers are not only teachers but they are also mentors they fuel young minds to become future lawyers doctors carpenters machinists with of course the guiding light of their faith and their parents foundational love and support we support this board and we hope that um we understand that all parents have choices if this is not the right choice for you you have choices thank you [Music] kelly loretta then cara hall malcolm x once said that ignorance of each other is what has made unity impossible we need more light about each other light creates understanding understanding creates love love creates patience and

022patience creates unity once we have more knowledge about each other we will stop condemning each other in the words of francis bacon knowledge is power this is why it is so critical that our students learn about the history of and read literature by people whose lived experience and history is much different than their own when i moved to st louis almost 20 years ago i was shocked at how segregated many communities are here the area where i have raised my children is 96 white according to a 2018 article entitled segregation in st louis hurts whites too st louis is truly a tale of two cities one city deals with disinvesting so devastating it is regularly recognized as one of the worst places to live this is adjacent to another city so enriched and safe that

023it is regularly recognized as one of the best places to raise a family it is this contrast i'd like to focus on it is damaging to our region and the people who live here and it has everything to do with the shadow of racial bias this shadow blinds people from seeing the history of policy advantages that got people inside the bubble we all need to recognize the ways that these advantages have shaped the history and landscape of our region we must open our eyes to how white families repeat this pattern of segregation think about your neighborhood your church your closest friend groups how can we have more light about each other if we never interact with each other except in the most superficial of ways for many kids school is the only place where they

024are exposed to and learn about the diverse world they are preparing to join the report segregation in st louis dismantling the divide reveals the full scope of our history of an intent of intentional segregation through federal state and local policy i have to wonder what the motives are of parents and politicians who want to hide that history from our children what do they fear it is an uncomfortable even painful history for sure but as i always tell my kids it's okay you can do hard things they can and they have my oldest is a senior this year and not only has he survived learning some painful history but he feels empowered knowing it empowered to problem solve solutions for the future that gives me hope and a sense of pride in what the next generation

025will accomplish if certain groups stop trying to stand in their way thank you our next speaker is kara hall and after that barbara rosenbaum i want to address the harassment and intimidation of our rockwood teachers staff and administrators i have seen the worst of it aimed at one individual in particular over the past year and because i choose to see color i believe i know why one of these people is not like the others certain parent and community responses to official district administrator social media account posts are disgusting trauma inducing abusive and unacceptable the harassment cannot continue unchecked i understand the district has a theory that too much exposure to what is going on can draw the wrong attention or cause harm the harm has already been caused people have already been hurt when abuse

026is so public and the response is so private it creates the perception that nothing is being done is that the case i would think not i believe there are actions being taken i want to believe there are consequences there must be consequences someone who is on social media daily calling an administrator a boy a joke a b-i-t-c-h which is happening should not have the privilege of addressing this board each time it meets i fully support teaching diversity equity and inclusion in our schools it is clear that we need that curriculum we need to educate our students on dei address the hate and end this vicious cycle of torment i find it comical that we have parents asking to ban a book entitled the hate you give only for them to spew hate daily on social

027media the irony what i am seeing on social media is appalling and something has to change enough already we are better than this while i love a good affirmation and rededication of our district goals the way forward and the beloved community that does not seem to be hitting home a dei statement at a board of education meeting is not giving the social media trolls the understanding that we are a district that will not stand for their hate and harassment this district has a race problem some parents and members of our community are racist as evidenced by their actions i want to know what rockwood is doing about it i'm asking for transparency i'm asking for a plan we cannot ignore this problem and hope it goes away hope is not a strategy hope is not

028a plan this district has to do a better job of protecting our teachers staff and administrators no one on social media should be telling them that they are not wanted in our district are calling for their resignation while they are doing the job they were hired to do rockwood now is the time for transparency accountability meaningful action and consequences [Applause] next speaker is barbara rosenbaum after that nicole arb white good evening my name is barbara rosenbaum and i have a senior here at lafayette high school first off i'd like to thank the board of education members administrators teachers and our superintendent dr rickers for keeping their eye on the prize the safety and health of our children i appreciate all you do dr harris i am truly sorry for the way you have been treated

029by some of the parents in our school district in germany students learn about the holocaust in excess of 10 million people were killed by the nazis do you think they try to hide their this history from their students why do you think they teach about the holocaust in their schools to never forget to never let it happen again do you think germans love their country any less because they are taught about their country's history in america we know these are facts that several groups of people have been oppressed by our country should we not talk about this should we not familiarize ourselves and teach our children the true history of our beloved country it has nothing to do with making white people feel bad it has everything to do with understanding recognizing the mistakes we

030as a country have made and most importantly never forgetting and never letting it happen again speaking about and learning america's true history is not anti-american understanding the past mistakes made doing better as a country will make me feel even prouder to be an american [Applause] next speaker nicole r and after that jennifer weston good evening all every time i've spoken before at a board meeting i've had everything written out and pre-planned that i wanted to say and i realized that tonight i just don't have the words um that i'm so thankful that all of you who are standing up for our administrators and our teachers and diversity and equity and inclusion in our education and for our students have tonight i don't have the words because i'm sad i'm mad i'm extremely upset but i

031am here and i am here because like all of you in this community it is my responsibility to be here it is not my responsibility because i'm ashamed it is my responsibility because we are all supposed to be a community we are supposed to stand for each other we are supposed to love one another we are supposed to educate our kids and include the fullest accounting of history that we can possibly give that is what every single one of us deserves what every single one of our students deserves it is not going to be pretty we're not going to use abuse and name calling and bullying like some of the parents online and in this community have but it is not going to be pretty i screw this up every day we're going to screw

032this up a lot of times but we have to do it we can't make it pretty it's not pretty but we can come together and we can stand with our black administrators our black and brown teachers our black and brown students and all of our students and community members especially that have not been given the same consideration in our education in our academics and in our lives that we have enjoyed and i have enjoyed as a white woman in this community i want to say thank you dr terry harris i met you 14 years ago you're a friend you're a mentor you are a strong brilliant compassionate empathic caring open and strong man and nothing and no one is going to take that away thank you [Music] next speaker is jennifer weston and after that

033kyle kyle weibo good evening tonight i'm addressing you dr ricker regarding yesterday's covet 19 update you stated that from september 20th through october 3rd rockwood had 77 student positives by my calculation this is a 0.4 percent positivity rate which is extremely low some schools had zero positive cases and despite there being no change to your mitigation strategies positive cases have steadily decreased you go on to say that we are cautiously optimistic given the number of positive cases we are seeing in our schools having said that we have some major holidays and extended breaks coming up that we need to get past i read this is you saying that you're going to force our kids to mask until january no matter what it seems that our positivity rate could go down to zero but you will

034continue your mitigation strategies speaking of your mitigation strategies there is no way for you to prove that they have been successful as i mentioned a minute ago your strategies have stayed the same but cases have decreased can we give you our mitigation strategies because the ones you are using which are not validated nor based on justified true belief sound like ones we've heard before from tyrants tyrant strategies are one-sided for their own benefit a true mitigation strategy would have validation at its core this requires including alternate strategies and how the chosen ones are proven to be better we do not find this to be the case with yours a workable alternative strategy is wellness based not with restrictive mitigation as its goal mitigation can cause adverse side effects an example of this is the current

035supply chain disaster which has not even reached its critical peak wellness-based strategies improve the immune system so they cannot be hijacked by viruses or other diseases and they are forever we have seen no discussion of these types of strategies on your part additionally you have never given us parents any goal post for when your mitigation strategies will end we deserve to know the exact metrics that we need to meet in order to end the mask mandate for our kids your lack of transparency and communication provides zero hope for us parents and our kids lack of hope creates stress which leads to depression and when people are depressed their immune systems don't work optimally and when people's immune systems are suppressed they are more likely to contract illnesses so your mitigation strategies are not only ones

036of illness but also ones of despair you are creating cascading issues that are worse than the virus itself is this what you want your legacy to be thank you [Music] next speakers kyle weibel and after that kyle cochran good evening thank you for your time i'm a rockwood school district graduate and i have a degree in secondary education so we have some common ground tonight i'm a man that lives by the credence of family and faith i wake up work to support my family then come home to spend time with my family and thank god for my blessings my evenings are not filled with cable news or social media i state that solely as a preamble of what i'm about to say data institut statistics are only applicable and functional if they are objective not

037subjective unfortunately during this period of time we find ourselves in we have gravitated towards the subjective if your decision to mask young children is largely based on safety and statistics from a pediatric advisory board i would like to objectively submit some statistics as well according to aap an organization i know rockwood clearly follows there's been 5.9 million cases of co positive cases of coveted minors domestically that estimate might be a bit conservative because through studies we know some cases are asymptomatic and rarely tested of those 5.9 million cases the cdc reports there's been 587 deaths and minors 10 here in the state of missouri and over half with half of those are underlying conditions or pre-existing or prior complications while that statistic may seem ghastly consider this figure using statistical data and simple calculation our

038rockwood students have a nine 0.00009 chance of dying from coven to put that into perspective here's some other scenarios where our children are at higher or relative risk motor vehicle accidents with a seat belt or car seat do you require your children or grandchildren to wear a helmet in the back seat of a moving car if not why accidental falls do you require your children or grandchildren to sleep on the floor wear bubble wrap when they attend birthday parties with bounce houses perhaps we should put them in armor if they jump on a trampoline at a friend's house choking on food do you allow your children grandchildren to eat salad foods do you employ a full-time paramedic at your house just in case these analogies may sound silly but in terms of statistical risk this

039is where we're at in october of 2021. the common rebuttal or denominator to combat my stance is well those scenarios aren't spreadable viruses i agree they are not in mostly isolated instances however we masked our students an effort to buy time for a vaccine to arrive we masked our students in an effort to keep them from spreading kova to mom and dad grandpa and grandma and uncle mom and dad have the vaccine grandma and grandpa have the facts seen mom and dad can sit in a crowded restaurant in our community our community vaccinated or not and enjoy the smiles laughs and basic social interactions i leave you with one thing to consider during the 2019 flu season 486 miners died domestically from influenza according to the cdc raise your hand if you wore a mask

040in 2019 raise your hand if rockwood required mask in 2019. raise your hand if your children or grandchildren wore masks in 2019 why not respectfully we urge you to reconsider your stance our young children deserve better than this next speaker is kyle cochran after that alan loretta hello my name is kyle uh cochran been a lifelong member of the rockwood community and i just got a few questions this is my first meeting it's time to get involved i got a few questions for you guys on the board and i'm assuming you won't answer so please if we can get this in the future uh maybe we can exchange some emails true or false there have been more children killed in chicago this year than all of cobid okay where does the infection rate need to

041be in order for you guys to lift the mask mandate what is your stance on forced vaccination will you force a vaccination on my five-year-old child dr ricker should we be losing our jobs for refusing the vaccine for religious personal or health reasons how many times will the cdc lie to you or move the goal post before you seek additional resources to base some of your decisions off of it is your civic duty as an american to protect the same freedoms you've lived by and pass them on to the generations below you i don't understand why there aren't any strong men here where the mama bears at fighting for their families there's some wild stuff going on here i'm talking to the members watching this on the stream that aren't here we need you we

042need you now your kids will not live the life that you live period time to assemble look at the people that are trying to force these health mandates on you is that anybody you want to base your health off of not me this will end when we end it and i want to finish with one question dr rickard we thank you for uh pushing off your retirement but when you do get a chance to retire are you going to sit there at the club and you're going to say before i left i got vaccinations for all children and i forced mandates and masking children thank you next speaker is alan loretta and after that deb michaels excuse me excuse me excuse me guys i gotta keep it down mr dennis would you please ask this

043gentleman to put his mask on appropriately or leave for everybody if you don't think your master will be escorted out that's the rules that's what it is all right so please keep your foot back up escort you out thank you excuse me it is time for the next patron to speak if you need to continue speaking you may step out mr loretta thank you good evening you know there was a lot of things i wanted to say but i'm going to first off start by i don't want to be here this is ridiculous what's going on in our community is ridiculous the way certain people are acting is just pathetic you want to know who strong men are i am and i guarantee you that if you're going to take a choice as to who

044you should hope your kids grow up to be i'm a much closer example now i am here to talk about because a lot of people did a lot of good speeches earlier and much of it most of it i agreed with but i am here to talk about jobs because that's what i care about for the most jobs for our children we need to continue to teach diversity equity and inclusion inside our schools and accept it because it leads to jobs for our children and our community in 2004 mckinsey had the first study that demonstrated that corporations that had higher levels of diversity and inc in their workforce exceeded their competition by over 36 percent since that time there's been numerous corporations studies done that backed that findings up and expand and expanded upon it

045in our community we want our children whether or not you want them to be like me or anybody else we want our children for the most part to live in our community in order when they come back from college in order to do that they need to have good jobs and so whether i believe it or not you believe it or not or anybody else does the corporations that bring good paying jobs to our community are looking for communities that have open and accepting populations and are teaching people not just how to deal with eureka in lafayette and fenton but how to deal with individuals in china and in europe and in africa all over the world you are not going to learn that by just learning one example at one time from one perspective

046we need to teach our children how to deal in a global society so that we can bring the jobs to our community that will keep our children our best and our brightest and our future in our community thank you for the work you're doing and i implore those of you that are trying to tear down our community to stop if you don't like it i understand but do it for your kids thank you next speaker is deb michaels after that johanna vote in sorry it's kind of wet up here that's okay um good evening in a recent board meeting there was a presentation about curriculum and having more parents be involved in that i think that is fantastic i have a suggestion if parents volunteer to be on the committees include them somehow and communicate

04727 parents recently volunteered to be on a rockwood committee now the committee only needed two parents but none of them heard anything from you none of them were asked to be on the committee for parents watching if you don't know the parents volunteered to be on a committee to review lesson materials that we are formally challenging not history lessons language arts lessons on oppression microaggressions gender norms parents were concerned about the overreach on topics they say should be handled at home the anti-police theme and what they called a one-sided agenda it's not academics it's the eighth grade language arts critical literacy unit we're challenging three items one the lessons i just described two a book and movie clips about a fictional police shooting because the book has 300 instances of profanity in it and mature

048content describing sex encounters and drug and alcohol use by teens rockwood did say it won't use that book anymore in middle schools that's the hate you give the third item in our challenge is a teacher resource called the teacher's college reading and writing project also known as tcrwp tcrwp was blasted in a recent study experts say this 64-page study shows that the teacher's college reading and writing project goes against science when it comes to teaching kids how to read the study literally says following parts of the program will likely not lead to literary success for all of america's public school children we need to drop the teachers college reading and writing project state scores are down and in rockwood alone in some schools as much as 40 percent of our students are not proficient in

049language arts instead of the science of reading the teachers college reading and writing project emphasizes social justice themes and listen to what happened during one of its professional development sessions this summer area teachers were outraged about a book that was promoted i'll quote from one of the pages white people made up race and decided that they are better smarter prettier and that they deserve more than everybody else that book is called our skin a first conversation about race more than 60 parents signed their names to support challenging the teachers college reading and writing project and the other items i mentioned parents found out about that study parents have more skin in the game in regards to what our kids are learning we notice when our eighth graders don't know how to use commas correctly we

050notice when the teacher says there is no longer the same emphasis on grammar and punctuation we care include us please next speaker joanna beaudian and after that shamaya reese [Music] all right um my name is johanna bodien63005 i this was not what i came here to speak about tonight but i i do want to address it many of the comments that were said already about dei completely agree with you i i also agree that there probably is a very very small percent maybe one or two people who you were talking about regarding the threats um so tonight i just want to say i'm thankful for our rights for free speech in this community in this country unfortunately things have become so politically divisive that the u.s attorney general has suggested that the fbi investigate parents

051speaking at board meetings and i do believe that this board needs to pay very close attention because there are actually individuals in this audience tonight who have taken to subversive manipulative out of context comments on social media to create a narrative for you that appears threatening well i don't deny that there may be one or two people they have taken it to an extreme so now i will get to what i actually came here to talk about tonight um i came in mid-august and talked about the modified quarantine matrix distributed by the district the fact that it doesn't let us know what someone with natural immunity should do when in close contact doesn't protect from the vaccinated individuals who are still spreading the virus as you're not mandating that they quarantine and well it didn't

052seem quite clear to dr rick ricker why this was problematic it certainly did seem clear to many of the board members so i'm grateful for that and i see that yet this week dr ricker became more aggressive in his communication adding the expectation of an unapproved vaccine for children so with only 46 of rockwood staff actually vaccinated why are you again putting the burden on our children get your house in order and let parents make the right decisions for our children whether that is the choice about masking or vaccination i asked at the meeting if perhaps someone simply provided that these infographics to the district and i asked if you could tell us as are its origin was it deci or the cdc and while rockwood never provided transparency related to that we found it

053on our own through a sunshine request and it was clear that the organization ed plus was contracted to coordinate over 20 school districts in the area they coordinated communications from st louis county health department to school nurses through all superintendents through desi missouri board of education so these were not local decisions i went to make sure taxpayers and citizens are aware of that and i also saw the timeline that implied our children may be mass through christmas break can you see into the future the models aren't forecasting this so who is telling you is it jesse or the st [Applause] next speaker reese then laura burkhart [Music] just like so many before me um that came and spoke you almost run out of words it's like you're always repeating yourself time and time again and

054the mission of rockwood school district is we do whatever it takes to ensure all students realize their potential that we is just not the board that we is just not the administration that we is just not teachers but it's each and every one of us in this room also as parents as the community we have to make sure that our kids get everything that they need so that they can realize their full potential and reach their full potential when they leave this district many of the kids here have started from kindergarten and they will complete their um educational career through 12th grade and then it's on to the next step but if we do not teach them properly while they are in this phase we are setting them up for failure to reach and realize

055their full potential and it behooves me that many times people feel that the rules don't apply to them and it applies to others and as i sit here in this room those who feel that the rules don't apply are always the loudest they're always the one who goes against the grain they're always bucking follow the rules the district the board they implement policy procedure they follow them we're not going to always agree there's going to be things that we're going to question there's we're going to mess up the board is going to make mistakes parents are going to make mistakes the administration is going to make mistakes but where's the grace as we sit here tonight and when everyone walked in the door there clearly was a sign on the door that says everyone must

056wear a mask and wear it properly if we as parents can't follow the directions how do we expect our children to there was also a sign that said three feet apart there was a piece of blue tape looks like this every other seat but then you have people sitting right next to each other because the rules don't apply obviously and it doesn't matter so they'll continue to book they'll continue to go against the grain they'll continue to wear their mask under their nose they'll continue to do and disturb because they think they are above the law that is what you call privilege we all don't have the opportunity to do that i'm quite sure if everybody in this section sat right next to each other we'd be advised to move but you have a few

057select that can do it and it's okay if we are going to reprimand on any level whether it's kids students parents it has to be across the board we have to have transparency and everything has to be equal for all next speaker laura burkhart after that jennifer biermann hi my name is laura burkhart i have three kids in this in the district um first of all my heartfelt gratitude to board members administration educators um we all know covet is real it affects children masks are effective vaccines are effective you don't need me to give you data you have access to local health care professionals that give that to you they're the experts you don't need by stuff i'm here to talk about the educators who are under attack right now um they're committed to doing

058this difficult work and they cannot be productive in this hostile environment these educators administrators are an immense amount of scrutiny they've lost the ability to freely teach as they know best they work with the understanding that every move and every word is being watched and then used as a weapon against them our educators are human beings with lives and loved ones outside of their job this hostility is hurting them in every aspect of their lives and hindering their ability to do what they've been professionally trained to do the racist attacks directed dr harris are nothing short of hate speech and hate crimes comments about lynching comments saying go back to city schools where you'd fit in better and fix them these are direct quotes they're not being spun calling for his resignation attacking him for

059a tattoo calling him a boy and a to say that this level of hate is violent and welcome our community is a huge understatement it's past time for the district to squash this once and for all there needs to be consequences lord knows dr harris has suffered enough consequences and trauma to last a lifetime it needs to be done now the kids are well they're surrounded by teachers who love them and want to see them thrive our kids want to learn desire for diverse education is ingrained in them to everyone working so hard to the very best for our kids i see you i appreciate you i'm grateful for you and i thank you for loving my children as they're your own you have my full support thank you next speaker jennifer biermann after that

060jessica risen hoover [Music] hello my name is jennifer biermann belonging feeling safe being supported is an important part of the educational experience children learn better teachers perform better when they feel like they are in a caring environment when we talk about belonging and culture we must also discuss the importance of it being a speak up culture say something do something right and when people find the courage to do that to speak up for themselves and to speak up for others it is important for that to be heard like many i've watched while diversity and equity in our schools and our curriculum have been attacked i've read and seen our teachers administrators and even you the board be harassed like many in rockwood i have read news article after news article confirming not only the involvement

061of the police but also the fbi parents are worried parents worry about their families belonging feeling safe and being supported by an angry hateful small group of people diversity is race gender ability of diversity to neurodiversity sexual orientation ethnicity religion it's all inclusive you're fighting against all of us what i'm hoping for why i'm here tonight is to speak up to support the board to support our district to support our teachers our administrators and our students i'm here for dr harris and miss hogan who through relentless attacks left and two many others who have been unfairly harassed i am willing to speak up and to do so for those who feel unsafe and i ask that the district and the board to join me to speak up for those who cannot to speak up boldly

062and resolutely that these attacks this ongoing sad harassment has repercussions that the district is open and transparent about what is happening in our district and the steps being taken to show that these actions are not okay the decision to speak up as families students the district or not sets a culture belonging feeling safe being supported the teachers are listening the parents are listening our children are listening will you speak up for them thank you [Applause] our last speaker this evening is jessica risen hoover hi thank you so much the message that i've heard from the majority of parents in our community is that people want to move forward and and i think we need to move forward with positivity the reality is there are people who are going to be unhappy and complain and whine

063and be awful human beings no matter what and we just need to move forward without them on a positive note yes um i believe that the fbi has been directed to start uh prosecuting the harassment of teachers and administrators through rico statutes so that should really help to move us forward when you're afraid of getting arrested for what you've been doing um i think also what will help move us forward is that i think it was just announced today that pfizer is going to be available to the five to 11 year olds that's going to move us forward so we have so many wonderful things to celebrate and so i would like to start changing what our tone is it should be positive let's focus on what the great things are in the school district

064for instance our school board members most people probably don't know this but all but two of you so four of the two have um at least a master's degree in education we are so fortunate to have experts in their field helping to guide us forward and and that's wonderful and and what other people know is that even though you guys are elected you don't get paid for it you do this because you're so committed to our community you aren't some deep state government you are members of our community your children go to school in brockwood you're as invested in this as we are and i appreciate all of you for doing that dr ricker i know your kids went to eureka thank you so much for being vested in our community dr harris i know

065that um you graduated from eureka thank you so much for being invested in our community like so many so many other people that work for rockwood school district and so positives that happened since um the school year started with my children dr harris helped me get a name change done for one of my children he made it incredibly simple and was available for all questions that i had thank you so much dr harris for supporting all of the students and their needs we value you a program that some people might know about at crestview they have two dogs clayton and cooper and if your child's having a bad day you can go get a cuddle with a dog and it makes them feel great it's one of the wonderful things that rockwood provides to our

066children and i am so grateful that we have all of you thank you so much and i hope everybody will start going forward with that and let's just leave the negative behind you're not going to change them thank you [Applause] [Laughter] all right next up we have superintendent and board comments so turning it over to dr ricker thank you madam president this week the justice department directed the fbi and u.s attorney's office to meet with federal state local law enforcement leaders to discuss strategies for addressing an increase in harassment intimidation and threats of violence against school board members teachers and workers in america's public schools threats against public servants are not only illegal they run counter to our nation's core values close quote wrote attorney general merrick garland quote those who did dedicate their time

067and energy to in ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their best and their work without fear for their safety close quote threats of violence against school board members officials and workers in our nation's public schools can be reported directly by the public to the fbi's national threat operations center ntoc via its national tip line 1-800 call fbi and online through the fbi website at http colon backslash class fbi.gov backslash tips and we will be posting this information on the rockwood website as well so that people can have access to it here in the rockwood school district i want to reiterate and be very clear that we will not tolerate harassment threats intimidation cyber bullying or racism in any form we will protect our

068staff and students and we will hold accountable anyone who chooses to engage in those behaviors toward our staff and students to the fullest extent of the law this type of behavior is unacceptable it is not who we are we are rockwood where we value and embrace our diversity and we're all individuals are welcome included and treated with respect rockwood has been ranked one of the top school uh districts in the nation and in the state according to niche.com 2020 ranking niche a website that helps families discover schools and neighborhoods based its ranking on a number of factors including academics teachers culture and diversity parent student surveys health and safety resources and facilities clubs and activities in sports as a district rockwood received an a-plus grade from the site and ranked number four of the 454

069districts surveyed in the state all 29 of our elementary middle and high schools received a grade of a minus including six that received a grade of a plus congratulations to all of our students families and staff members who continue to make rockwood such an outstanding educational community our district was recently recognized with the 2020 or 20 21 22 meritorious budget award mba for excellence in budget presentation by the association of school boards officials international asbo and as i've said a number of times we have an outstanding financial plan and we are good stewards of the taxpayers money this is the 22nd straight year that asbo has awarded uh the mba to our district the mba pro program promotes and recognizes best budget presentation practices in school districts participants submit their applications and budget documents to

070a panel of school financial professionals who review the materials for compliance with the mba criteria checklist and other requirements and provide expert feedback that districts can use to improve their budget documents the rockwood finance department under the leadership of chief financial officer paul northington and director dan steinberg regularly earns top honors for its excellent financial management and i'd like to commend them both for their continued excellent work and mr northington is over here so i'd like to give them a round of applause they do a wonderful job [Applause] as most of you know october is national principals month and we are taking this opportunity to show our appreciation for the administrative teams at all of our school buildings who maintain safe healthy and happy learning environments for all of our students if you're an administrator

071in the district or a principal assistant principal please stand [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we are very proud of these individuals all month long we are sharing appreciation videos from our students so let's watch green pines elementary first grader madison wish principal paul godwin and assistant principal angie schlatt a happy national principals month hi i i am madison i love dr godwin and mrs shot because they made the school happen without our wonderful wonderful principles it wouldn't be like green pines without them we love you dr godwin and mrs shot thank you for your pretty smiles thank you for all everything happening that's why i love you thank you madam president that concludes my comments thank you any board comments this evening yes i'd like to mr sun i'd like to uh extend a thank you to

072um dr harris and tyrone dennis i had the opportunity to attend the crisis workshop and it was well done it was informative and we know we're in good hands thank you [Applause] i'd like to thank the town of eureka for the eureka parade on saturday although it was a little bit rainy i had a lot of fun throwing candy out to the kids my only uh drawback was that we ran out before the end of the line so uh next year we have to make sure we have more thank you for representing us and i think it was a rainy was it rainy during the parade i thought i wasn't able to be there but saw some pictures it was a little rainy it was okay good any other board comments all right i want

073to give two uh quick updates one i'd like to give a shout out to two lafayette seniors and it's fitting that we're sitting here in their school building they have been in communication with me over the last several months two i will i told them i would say their names so ashish lou and merrick zhang their resumes are speak for themselves they're impressive individuals but what impresses me the most about them is their constant commitment in helping others and so they dialogue back and forth and asked me to come out and i met with them last week their goal is to put together some support groups using alumni to help support juniors and seniors specifically as they work through and navigate through their next steps beyond high school so their hope is to grow that

074first tier and then hopefully share that and begin other chapters in some of our other high schools so thank you to them for including me in that conversation and there's some pretty outstanding kids in this district the last thing i want to share is just a quick update on the superintendent search process we had a meeting last week and established a a more fine-tuned timeline we will be conducting several focus groups and open community forums over the dates of october 20th and 21st more details regarding that will be put out by our communications team the search firm school exec connect will be conducting those so they will be sharing out information and working with our communications department and put to put those on there will be a community-wide survey that goes out monday october 11th

075and it'll be open for i believe three weeks so you will all have a chance to give some input into that as well once we include the research piece of that this month we will put together a profile and start they will start looking for applicants and conducting some screening interviews and then we will due to the holiday schedule probably uh hone in on those specific interviews taking place in january with a uh hope to name the superintendent sometime in the middle of the month so that is our timeline right now that is all i have all right next up moving right along could i please have a motion to approve the consent agenda items as submitted motion and a second any discussion yes we have we have two yeah okay we have two nice

076donations tonight from the public the first one is from rockwood summit baseball boosters it seems like every meeting they donate something this time they've built and donated two thousand seventy one dollars and 42 cents to support the baseball program and it must be working as they won state at least once about four or five years ago and then won second place last year so it's that's we thank you very much for those donations next one's a huge donation from stanton stanton pto stanton elementary monetary twenty thousand three hundred and fifty dollars to support stanton's various activities throughout the 2021 and 2022 school year monetary support provided for the fall festival field day staff appreciation events class parties and various other family and student events and once again we thank those donations public donations thank you

077thank you dr kinder so the motion is to approve the consent agenda items as submitted all those in favor please say aye hi anyone opposed and that passes let's see here okay my apologies a lot of paperwork next could i please have a motion to approve the bond issue purchases and related contracts aren't we there yep so we'll move sorry to dr kinder could i have a motion to approve the bond issue purchases and related contracts 7 500 to 150 000 as submitted so move second motion and a second we have chris friend here with us good evening we have multiple items for approval related to the bond issue 17 projects the first of which is design services for the renovation of the lafayette tennis court facility here on campus as you are aware we

078have spent the last couple years renovating the tennis courts at rockwood summit eureka high school and marquette high school and our intention is to renovate lafayette next summer chris is that in the same place yes so the footprint of lafayette will not change at the other locations we made some slight modifications but it will be nearly in the exact same location as it is now thank you chris are we using the same process that we used at the other school so the courts are all the same yes we are yes we're using a system that is specific to tennis activities not just asphalt with striping on it and that's one of the things when we researched the system we were going to go to at all four sites we we really did some due diligence

079to find a system that we felt comfortable with that we feel will hold up in our our climate in this area and comfortable with the systems we've installed what's the expectation for the length of service of these courts um a typical recode of the court system we're putting in will occur at about the 10-year mark they are intended to be about 20-year systems the second item in this category is for heartland seating we have made an effort over the last couple of years to renovate and replace the bleacher systems in all of our high school gyms these are the last two remaining systems that we have to do they are the bee gyms at marquette high school and rockwood summit our intent is to do this in the coming months there may be an opportunity

080to do these during spring break if not they will be completed over the summer break very good any questions or discussion so the motion is to approve the bond issue purchases and related contracts 7 500 to 150 000 as submitted all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed that passes not so available second motion on a second all right so our final agenda item tonight is for vernon jones construction um the track systems at our four high schools were installed along with the turf fields in as part of an ongoing maintenance program those tracks are due for a recoat and restripe so this is that preventative maintenance that is scheduled when we perform that that work at each location some of you are aware that we do have a drain condition inside the

081perimeter of those the stadium fields it is a drain system that was actually in existence before we put the turf in there's been some recent concerns about a possible tripping hazard so we are going to address those elevation issues when we recoat the tracks so we do have a solution for that and it will it will take place this summer chris do you have any future plans for the middle school tracks we're actually reviewing those now as part of our capital planning process during the month of october we visit every building in the district to review prior requests and any future requests that may fit into our capital plan and that that is our focus at this time is to evaluate and schedule out when we may address some of our asphalt tracks at the

082middle school level do any of the elementary schools have asphalt tracks many of them have paths um they're more of a walking path um depending you know babbler elementary has a little different situation crestview as well because they used to be middle schools but most of our true elementary schools have walking paths thank you any other questions thank you very much for this uh mr friend so the motion is to approve the bond issue purchases and related contracts over 150 000 from burn and jones construction for recoding and re-striping work all those in favor please say aye hi anyone opposed that passes thank you thank you next we invite carmen fisher up could i have a motion to approve the proclamation designating october 11th through 15th 2021 is national school lunch week motion and a

083second discussion good evening recent research shows children are getting their healthiest meals at school national school lunch week will highlight the nutritious foods available daily at rockwood school lunches offer students fruits vegetables whole grains milk and meat federal nutrition standards limiting fat calories and sodium thanks to pandemic waivers school meals are free to all students this year so it's a great time to give school lunch a try during national school lunch week it helps to educate parents and students about all the wonderful benefits of our lunch program our rockwood child nutrition staff are doing an extra or extraordinary job feeding our students child nutrition staff have already served over 69 000 breakfast since school started and over 385 000 lunches since school began in august our daily average in october so far is 200 2

084000 two two thousand six hundred and sixty three breakfast and over thirteen thousand lunch that's an increase of seventy six percent at breakfast and sixty four percent at lunch so the child nutrition staff are working extra hard to serve additional meals while many of the schools are short staffed we continue to recruit around 40 open positions in the department we're excited to have students working with us in the kitchens as well we have some students at eureka elementary eureka high school marquette summit lafayette and we have some outstanding volunteers at marquette in lafayette as you may have heard on recent news broadcast menus may be subject to change we continue to maneuver manufacturing and distributor shortfalls and weekly price increases but we're doing our best with what we have and we're excited to serve the

085students in rockwood thank you very much director romberg is going to read the resolution national school lunch week official proclamation whereas the national school lunch program has served our nation admirably for 75 years through advanced practices in nutrition education and whereas the national school lunch program is dedicated to the health and academic achievement of our nation's children and whereas recent research shows students are receiving their healthiest meals at school and there is evidence of continued need for nutrition education and awareness of the value of school nutrition programs now therefore we the board of education of the rockwood school district do hereby proclaim the week of october 11-15 2021 as national school lunch week and i encourage all residents to become aware of the benefits of the national school lunch program and support good nutrition habits

086for their children in hope of achieving a more healthful citizenry for today and the future in witness thereof i here unto declaring to cause the official seal of the board of education of the rockwood school district to be affixed done at the board of education meeting the seventh day of october in the year thank you and thank you so much to you and your staff for working through these challenging times thank you so the motion sorry i had a question the free breakfast and lunch it was also in effect last year too wasn't for part of the year yes okay so this is the second year of this and do we know if it's going to happen in future years or uh at this time the hat that information hasn't been announced i think it

087probably depends on congress okay thank you very much yes i think any other questions or comments sorry sorry dr kinder okay so the motion is to approve the proclamation designating october 11-15 2021 is national school lunch week all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed that passes thank you thank you next we invite dr aisha grace to the stage where she will give us an educational equity plan update no motion required [Music] good evening board of education dr ricker staff and community thank you for your commitment to the equity resolution today i will be presenting the beloved community 2021 this is from the office of educational equity and diversity under the leadership of dr terry harris we know that you all have had committed to the equity resolution on july 23 2020. in

088addition to the equity resolution the office of educational equity and diversity will utilize the way forward rockwood's strategic plan as a guide to supporting students and fulfilling this mission we have identified three key stakeholders to support the positive school community we all deserve the way forward is the way forward and so everything that we do from this office will be connected to those goals outlined in the way forward one of the first stakeholders that i want to discuss are dei champions our dei champions are staff member representative from each school that will be the liaison between the deed office and the school we want to make sure that we are building out a strategic plan on how we do the dei work in each school building and so each dei champion will be meeting with

089me once per month for two hours in addition to the three-hour sessions during our full-day profession full-day professional development part of me the purpose of the dei champions is to ensure that we are meeting the goals of the way forward so they're simply outlined and that's what we're going to be talking about we want to make sure that we're increasing student students equity access and opportunity and also creating a framework common language and dei supports for teachers staff and students we also are going to be learning together how to provide a culturally responsive environment that is inclusive for all identities our second stakeholders are our affinity groups we know that affinity groups help not only staff members but students build deep and lasting connections that will ultimately impact relationships collaboration and productivity our adult affinity

090groups are also going to improve the recruitment and retention of our staff that have these specific identities set up so that our students can have opportunities to engage with diverse educators these groups will also meet with me and i will build out a framework for how we can ensure that other infiniti groups can be productive and move forward in our district so our phase our affinity groups we thought about in phases and then i sort of rethought this and thought maybe not phases we just need to have affinity groups and so we know that in our schools there are student affinity groups such as our black student union we know that there is the gender and sexuality alliance we know that we have several students who are part of these groups and rely on these

091groups to feel more connected to their school community so our phase one of our affinity groups will be the rockwood staff of color and this will serve as a safe space for our staff who identify as staff of color it will not only be our teachers but it will also be our administrators and our non-certified staff phase two will be the rockwood lgbtq plus community and so that will serve as a safe space for those staff members and then phase three will be other affinity groups for example we could have a rockwood male elementary teacher affinity group we know that they too need support our last stakeholders but certainly not the least are our parents we want to ensure that we have a voice from our parents representatives we want a rockwood sanctioned parent group

092that will ensure that we are moving forward with those goals outlined in the way forward after all they were a part of creating that strategic plan and so our rockwood equity parent advisory council which we will call repack will also meet with me monthly for an hour and a half or so the aim of this group is to ensure that we stay on course with our universal universal equity opportunity access goals and they will also help with promoting supporting and informing the school community of dei resources initiatives and opportunities i thank you for your time do you have any questions doctor gracie it's great to see you again i had two questions the voluntary parent support groups at the schools how does a parent volunteer to be on those committees absolutely and so i already

093have a google form which i would be distributing to the administrators of the school and they are going to be sending that out in their communication so that all parents in the rockwood school district who want to be a representative for the dei work in this district have an opportunity to sign up if we have an abundance of parents then we are going to we are if we don't have an abundance of parents we're still going to have a board and we're going to function in a way that allows for that board to communicate with the larger group of parents if necessary and we're going to build out a strategic plan in making sure we accomplish the goals of the way forward and so all parents will get this google form and they will all

094be able to participate there is no selection process if you're interested in the dey d i work for the rockwood school district you have the opportunity to use this form to apply for that and we will move forward as such have we had this before or this is new it's new to me dr kender well i know and you're and you're new to the difference i'm new to the district so i good question dr grace we be posting on the beloved country web district website piece of all this information and updates on the meetings and information that's being shared absolutely and so um the one thing we wanted to do was present to you tonight and then we will make sure that all of this is being communicated very clearly not only through my so

095i checked out my page today and there are some updates and so i'm going to be getting with dave morrison to ensure that those things are updated there in an effort of transparency i think the more we inform the more communication we have thank you absolutely thank you thank you any other questions i don't have a question but i have a comment uh thank you for coming to the rockford school district thank you for having me in the rockwood school district i'd also like to say that um in terms of transparency we did have a focus group of principals administrators that um were a part of hearing this proposal and um they were offered their support and were very seemed excited about the prospects of what's in this uh plan and so we are looking

096forward to moving forward very swiftly with the things that are outlined after all we want to build a system and ensuring that there aren't just pockets of schools doing great things around dei work but that the entire district is committed to what we're doing for diversity equity and inclusion thank you thank you did you uh have have this in other districts that you worked in before you came to rockwood so no it takes care of them that's all i need um so no so there were again pockets of great things happening um but in terms of a system i cannot speak to that of from any district that i've been in um which is why this work is really exciting and i'm glad to have your support because it starts with you all and then

097it trickles down to what i'm going to be doing out of this office and i and i know you so i know you promoted these in other in other districts maybe not as a program such as this but but you did promote these absolutely so i didn't have um the position that i have now to do that right and so this has always happened in any school that i've been in i've always done this work so it's act you know that that's a passion of mine so this is why this is my dream job but i never had the opportunity to be in this position to impact an entire district i've only been able to impact the school of which i served so here i am and i'm glad that you all are recommitting to

098the equity resolution this evening great thank you very much [Applause] thank you dr grace dr harris and everybody involved in this important work uh next we have a could i have a motion to approve the reaffirmation of the rockwood school district educational equity resolution so moved motion and do we have a second so all right so we will go through and read this let's start down with you director don if that's okay we're uh rockwood school district educational equity resolution whereas the rockwood r-6 school district the district is known throughout the st louis region state of missouri and beyond is an exemplar school district whereas the district's mission statement is we do whatever it takes to ensure all students realize their potential whereas the district board of education has has been and continues to be

099committed to helping all students thrive whereas the district has been and remains committed to understanding and valuing history as it affects our institutional viability and vitality whereas the district believes that as an exemplar educational institution it must continuously intentionally consciously and deliberately reimagine and create an educational system that centers on equity whereas the district is and continues to believe in the fundamental right to a free appropriate education whereby all district students thrive academically emotionally and socially whereas the district has been and continues to be committed to identifying conscious and unconscious biases and eliminating barriers to educational achievement in our schools whereas the district has and will continue to create policies and practices that are rooted in empathy fairness and justice therefore be it resolved on this 23rd day of july 2020 that the district by

100and through its board of education and superintendent of schools will continue to relentlessly pursue systemic improvements to policies practices and programs and continue to provide educational opportunities to ensure that every student and staff member regardless of race color religion sex gender identity and expression sexual orientation perceived sexual orientation genetic information marital status age national origin disability or economic status can fully realize the district's mission statement and thrive in the district and beyond be it further resolved that the district's board of education believes the district's work can only be realized by ensuring that teachers administrators students parents and community members organized in unity to collectively continue to implement the district's mission thank you all so the motion is to approve the reformation of the rockwood school district educational equity resolution all those in favor please say

101aye aye anyone opposed that passes [Applause] all right next we have could i have a motion to approve a resolution authorizing the offering for sale of general obligation refunding bonds of rockwood r6 school district second always there's a show move motion and a second we have paul northington here to walk us through yes uh good evening uh good news uh this evening um we have the opportunity to do a refunding of some bonds that were issued in 2016 and take advantage of the decline in interest rates over the past couple of years the 2016 issue was a 20-year term that set to mature in 2036 they have the ability to refund those bonds under the current market and save approximately about four million dollars in future interest costs and at the same time shorten the

102maturity by three years and they'll have a new maturity date of 2033. this is the first step in this process to adopt a resolution working with a couple of gentlemen here if they will come up i want to acknowledge and introduce them as well they're part of the of the team to put this package together the first gentleman is tom bazakowitz with lj harding company they're our financial advisor and they will work with us on putting the bonds together and issue them for sale which are scheduled to close on november the 18th and we'll have the actual final number of savings at that time assuming uh market conditions stay uh where they're at we're again we're expecting to achieve about four million dollars in savings and the other gentleman i want to introduce is jason

103terry who is our bond council that helps us with the legal and other requirements to uh to put this package together as well so i kind of hit the highlights on it but there's a lot of work that's been behind the scenes uh these two gentlemen are the best and putting this type of package together uh and at the end of the day we're gonna see some real benefit from it so that being said i'm going to ask either time or jason to maybe speak just briefly anything i may have left out thank you paul and i didn't identify i'm tom pazarkwitz so it it is a pleasure to be here as your district's financial advisor as a brief introduction lj heart and company works with school districts across the state as underwriter our financial

104advisor and we are very excited about the partnership with rockwood with this refinancing we've been working on it for the past several weeks and so with this structure as paul alluded to we're able to push principal payments forward to maximize interest savings but also carve out a path to give you flexibility down the road with your debt service levy so with this resolution the next step would be to seek the underlying rating from standard and porsche corporation will supply your financial data policies and have a conference call with them and then you know i'm sure they will affirm your your aaa rating because of your strong balances diverse tax base low debt burden and the overall management and i don't want to gloss over that that triple a rating because there's only four in the

105state you're one of four and 84 nationally so there's a lot to be proud of there now if we look at the the interest rate environment we are still at historic lows i always look at the 10-year u.s treasury note as a benchmark over the last 60 years the average has been 5.9 percent today was trading 1.57 it has ticked up a little bit recently but i i think we're going to capture it you know again near its historic lows jason good evening jason terry with gilmore and bell um i don't have much ad paul did a great job with the summary and then uh tom gets to come up and tell you about all the great savings no one really wants to hear from the attorney um the resolution is is fairly straightforward this

106evening it approves what's called a notice of bond sale that will go to all to the potential bidders on november 18th in the morning um uh paul and tom will receive the bids the lowest bid or the best bid however you want to look at it lowest cost to the district will win that evening you'll see us again we'll come before you with what we call a bond resolution it will memorialize the sale of the bonds on the 18th so um fortunately or unfortunately you'll be seeing us again in a little over a month but if there are any any questions on tonight's action or the future action on november 18th that's why i'm here i think i heard you right down here but by doing this we save four million dollars explain that how

107we do that please i'd love to take credit for that statement but i didn't make it yes so uh essentially the interest rate you're playing paying right now is three percent which is very good but in today's market uh we think we're going to get a a yield to the investor of less than one percent so by by shortening the final maturity by three years pushing principle up lowering the interest rate uh yeah there's nearly four million or around four million of savings on just over 16 million of bonds so so that time so that time moving that time frame up to closer to now that's where we save the money we're not paying interest for those additional three or four years that that's correct so and we were pushing principal payments up in 2024

108and 2025 where you don't have principal payment there right now right now it's from 2000 with 30 31 through 36. right that's great thank you i think i asked this question last time of paul and i just want to make sure that savings can go into our general operational fund no this is strictly debt service this is strictly debt service fund so that that service fund is strictly earmarked for one purpose and one purpose only and that's to pay the principal and interest on our bonds okay so that four million will roll over into paying that off is that right that's well over the period of time that 4 million will be over the next 17 years got it okay um and to dr kendra's point this savings is twofold and that tom mentioned we're

109pushing the principal up and at the same time we're uh cutting the interest basically in half the interest rate and our aaa rating will help with excuse me i didn't hear you the triple a rating will help with yes definitely and and um that's one of the beauties of having the aaa rating is and as tom and jason will tell you when we take this out for sale that rating uh is very attractive to investors so it's um it's something they're looking for and don't uh don't always see in the market since there's just a few players that have that rating all right it's the highest rating oh yeah so yeah to reiterate that's the highest rating you can get are these bonds from 2019 bond issue no this is part of the 2016 issue

110but we got everything built we we promised on that bond issue true yes sir yes sir and we're getting close on the 2019 one well the 17 was our last issue and uh yes as chris friend spoke to you earlier some of those projects that he addresses coming up this summer was is kind of the last remnants of the 2017 bond issue so we're very we're at the very end of that budget just doesn't affect that in any way we got everything built that we wanted no two separate things thanks sir thank you any other question thank you all so the motion is to approve a resolution authorizing the offering for sale of general obligation refunding bonds of rockwood r6 school district all those in favor please say aye all right anyone opposed that passes

111thank you gentlemen thank you good work madam president just a couple comments about our last item i've said this a number of times that paul northington and dan steinbrigge and the board of education and the way forward finance committee through the way forward plan has put together and just a brilliant financial plan for our district um when i came on board in july paul and i met and uh i i was just astounded at what this plan looks like for now and into the future so you'll be hearing more about that plan and implementation of various strategies related to that plan but as i said earlier tonight the taxpayers should be very proud of the rockwood school district because their tax dollars are being used in a very thoughtful planned and um smart brilliant if

112i would say so plan and their tax dollars are are going far and i think tonight's example and the work of our um wonderful uh colleagues and advisors at the rockwood school district is an excellent excellent financial shape thank you the next item is the proposed agenda for the october 21st 2021 board of education meeting everybody can just take a look at that on the screen yes that one is at crestview middle school and then finally future agenda presentations and events to attend i don't think so nothing on on here for us to note but obviously always check your calendars janet is great about that i think we have some veteran date things that we're going to be attending no that's in november yeah that's right all right without any other additional comments we will

113adjourn the meeting thank you all you