001Thank you. Good evening everyone. We are ready to start our open session this evening. We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance. Those that wish to participate are invited to stand, face the flag, remove any hats, and place your right hand over your heart. >> I aliance 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 for all. Okay. >> All right. It's close enough. >> We do not have any recognitions this evening, but we do have a retirement. So, we accepted in close session with regrets the retirement of Sandro Atwell. She has been with the district for 20 years and total in education is 28 years. We wish her all the best in her retirement years. All
002right. Moving on will be questions from the floor. At this time, any person wishing to speak on any question previously discussed through administrative channels and not on the agenda will be granted three minutes to make a presentation to the board. Seeing none, we will move on to presentations on agenda items. Any person wishing to speak on any items on the agenda will be granted three minutes to make a presentation. Seeing none, moving on to the consent agenda. A consent agenda is utilized by the RA board of education as a means of dealing with routine matters which must be considered by the board of education but require minimum of discussion. All board of education members receive and review written information supporting the items listed on the consent agenda well in advance the meeting. While any board
003member, excuse me, while any board of education member is welcome to remove any item from the consent agenda for separate consideration or discussion for any reason. Normally, all items on the consent agenda are approved in one motion with a minimum of discussion. This evening, we have items A through D. Is there anything you want to call out, Dr. Dar? >> Uh, just briefly, the um Intertech contract, Intertech PSI, uh, that's uh, special testing and materials testing for the building project. So, um, concrete testing and those kind of things, that's, uh, they work for us. They don't work for the contractor. So, it's kind of our double check. Um, but that's what that is. Um, >> and I'm assuming that the portions associated with the Mark Twain project, >> the insurance should cover those. Yes. [clears
004throat] >> That was your question. >> Yes, that is my question. And also for the softball field. >> Yes, for the Yes. >> All right. >> That's correct. >> All right. Anything else? >> Uh, no. Happy to answer any questions. >> Okay. Anybody have any questions? If not, can I get a motion to accept the consent agenda items A through D? >> I'll make a motion we accept the consent agenda items A through D. >> I'll second that. >> All in favor say I. I. >> I. Those opposed say no. >> All right. Old business. We have our long range facility update with Dr. Fulton. Good evening. Let's hope I can run this the right way. Left-handed is not my thing. >> Oh, there it goes. So, just a reminder that we are remodeling and
005on working on our new early childhood center. Very exciting work going on there. I was unable to make the um tour last week, but I did sit in on the meeting. And as you can see, everything that they dug up I showed you two weeks ago. Now, the plumbing is going in. So that is for the bathrooms between rooms 113 and 117. Very exciting times up there. And again on the first floor there's more plumbing installation of a brand new girls restroom. So there was a classroom there. We took out the other the other old restroom will go to the clinic and clinic area. And this is going to be a nice restroom for the girls. Second floor still stays the same. There's not been a lot of work there, but that just kind of
006gives you a view of what it's going to look like. So the area up to the left over [clears throat] here, we'll have a classroom sitting over that. So whenever the steel comes in, the structural steel starts coming in, we'll be seeing more work happen in that area right now. Any questions about the early childhood center athletic field updates. Um, a lot of work going on there. The two pictures on the left are of the football field. If you will, it's kind of hard to see, but you will see um in this picture right here where they have dug out for all of the footings for the new retaining wall that's going in there. And they have poured the wall over there by the bleachers. So, exciting times. They've replaced all of the piping that
007was in there. So, that is now 18inch drain pipe that will be going in there. Um so, it it should address it will address all of our drainage issues that we have been having there. On the right, as you will see, they are working on our softball field. And while it's hard to see, there's some plumbing coming up in there. So, that building will start going up very soon. Very exciting times there. And at Mark Twain, I really don't have a lot to show. Um, we awarded the contract. We've met with them um last week and so the fencing will go up next week and so we're al Mr. Cross is working on the rerouting all of the car drop off. If you didn't see him today, he was a cone. So, it was great.
008You could had that picture up there. >> I could have, but I didn't get it in there today. So, but he was up there working on helping all the all of the parents learn the new the new way it's going to be. So, but it's going to be so nice whenever it's done. >> Any questions? >> Anybody have any questions? >> Thank you. >> I was going to throw just a little shout out to our um city personnel. Um all of our contractors um meet with our fire inspector, our our fire team, uh city engineers, RMU, all through that whole process and they're all super complimentary of all of our departments and and those folks and uh that means a lot and and they don't always get that is what they tell me that they
009they don't always find the people who are willing to come and spend the time with them and and go through that. So, uh, appreciate Scott Profett and and Rodney and all the folks, um, uh, throughout those processes, Keith Ryberg, everybody that's part of that that that they're, um, cooperative for us, uh, but also for the people who are representing us. So, little little shout out there. >> Thank you. All right, moving on to new business with our career and technical education update. So, Dr. Chapman >> and friends >> and Mr. Chance and friends >> [clears throat] >> Thank you all for having us. Exciting times. Uh Dr. Dar was talking to me last week and he'd like me to talk for a long time and I said, "Whoa, whoa. [laughter] I don't want to talk
010that long. I got a lot to talk about." But anyways, >> I don't remember that. >> Uh I think that's how it went. Anyways, so what I decided to do today is it is February is career and technical education month and so we have all of our programs that you'll see and we're going to run them on a loop on the slide and some really neat activities that we're doing with students. We'll talk about and and Mr. Chance will tell you a little bit about those at the end. What I brought for you today is our CTSOs, career and technical student organizations. We have six of them between RTI and C. So I brought one from each of those to give you a little bit of speech and a little bit of taste of what
011they have to offer. So instead of me bragging on the students, I'm gonna let them brag on themselves tonight. Wonderful. >> So FCCLA, >> good evening. My name is Jonah Rackom with the RA SECLA chapter and I'm here today to talk about the SECLA or Family Community Career Leaders of America. I have a large blended family with seven siblings and two sets of parents. I am also a member of a church in the community. Coming from a large family and church, I have a deep interest and respect for developing and serving my local community. This desire is what attracted me to the FCCLA. As a member, we are given the opportunity and taught how to take initiative and be servant leaders. We learned that leadership isn't just about bossing people around. It's about helping people
012and working with your community. I find immense happiness and satisfaction bringing happiness to others around me. The past two years, the FCCLA ran a food bank drive-thru to hand out meals to those in need during the holidays. I'm grateful to be part of an organi organization that helps take care of those in need. It brings me a great sense of purpose. If anyone is is interested in hearing more about this organization, feel free to reach out to me after following this brief brief. Thank you for your time. Thank you. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> Hi, I'm Miranda BS. I'm here to represent our local DECA chapter. So, DECA stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America. It's a little outdated. So, our mission is we prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in hospitality, marketing, finance, and um
013business around the globe. So, we do three competitions a year. We have the district level, state level, and international level. We actually just took about 40 to 45 kids to districts and we have we had 20 or not 27 we had 24 go to state uh this coming spring break but we also had 17 students walk home with at least one some of them even two medals. So it was a very it was very rewarding to see that. Um some experiences that I have had during DECA in my four years being a participant is I have gotten the chance to go to chamber events. I have met so many people. I've made so many professional relationships and as a high schooler that's very rewarding. Another thing is we have the opportunity to gain internships and
014I actually have an internship at Town and Country Bank. So I am doing marketing every day and it's really rewarding. So we just thank you for all the support and just for listening today. Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening everyone. My name is Elena Geller and I will be representing RAW Skills USA. So what exactly is Skills USA some of you may ask? So we are a CTSO that is based on closing the skills gap in our workforce. As we know that's a little bit of a struggle right now with our generation. So we want to be able to focus on that throughout the whole nation. At Raleigh RTI and RTC we host 13 programs which allows us to be the most diverse and allow the most opportunities to our students. We range from like
015masonry auto automotive technology to design academy and then the program I'm a part of is criminal justice. And so with these opportunities in the classroom they get to learn real world experiences. They learn the skills of their trade and then whenever they go to your second year they have the opportunity to go out into the real world either working on job sites, working on cars at actual shops or in my case I want to go be a lawyer. So I will get to go study at a law firm for the next three months. So things in Skills USA that we get to do, you have contests, whether that be leadership or where we're leading within your community. You have public speaking as we are doing right now. And then our big focus is competition to
016where we have we just had districts a couple weeks ago and we will now be moving on to our state portion in April to where students can take the skills they learn in the classroom to the real world and put those skills to the test. And if you win state, you get to move on to the national level, which is a huge compliment to our chapter especially. I would like to thank you all for your time and for the dedication and support you all have provided us in allowing us to get to do what we do. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Angela Bo, Rala Hosa President, and today I'm honored to share with you all what HOSA has meant to me and so many other students.
017I still remember my first HOSA conference. I was wearing a blazer I'd never worn before, dress pants I'd borrowed from my mom, and shoes that were slightly uncomfortable. On the outside, I looked ready, but on the inside, I was a little lost. I was surrounded by a sea of students who seemed so accomplished and certain of their futures and healthcare. I remember sitting in the opening session wondering if I belonged there. But over the next few days, that fear evaporated. I listened to guest speakers deliver powerful insights about serving others in healthcare, attended educational symposiums led by professionals who brought real world experience to every session, and connected with so many like-minded students around the world. This conference didn't just teach me about healthcare, but showed me a glimpse of my future and how to
018achieve it. HOSA is an internationally recognized student-ledd organization that be that empowers students to become leaders in the global health community through education collaboration and experience. We attend conferences, engage in competitions, participate in service projects, and so much more. HOSA develops the knowledge and compassion required for today's healthcare workforce. So now I'm standing up here still in slightly uncomfortable shoes. >> But this time I'm also standing up here with confidence. Not because I have all the answers, but because HOSA has equipped me with the tools to find them. So thank you for supporting a program that allows students to find their spark. Have a wonderful evening. [applause] Hello, I am Richard Kim and I'm the RAA chapter president of technology student association or TSA for short. In this [clears throat] organization, students are encouraged to
019participate in events that relate to engineering and technology. Currently, I am planning to compete at state for the following events. Architectural CAD, transportation modeling, and fracture design. With these events comes the need of unique skills like mathematical excellence, flawless brainstorming and punctuality. These skills can be used in everyday life, which is why I cherish a time with this organization as much as possible. Going to the going into the job field, these skills can help with any job from administration to law enforcement. I want to share an an I want to share an experience I had with this organization. For TSA, organizers host competitive competitive event workshops for state readiness. This year I was lucky enough to attend the workshop in Jefferson City. Once we arrived, we introduced ourselves along with the state officers. But then
020we got assigned to a task. Build the tallest freestanding tower with the materials provided. Now this was pretty confusing considering we were pretty sleepd deprived. But using our skills in material management and brainstorming, we were able to create the tallest tower in the room. This is why TSA is such an important part of my life. I can use skills I learned in this organization to improve my lifestyle and develop my engineering skills. As my thoughts come to a close, I ask you to think about a club, organization, or experience that helps has shaped the way you work and go about your everyday lives. With that, I want you to try and thank the person, organization, or club leader that helped you with every step of the way. Thank you. [applause] Hello, my name is Katie
021Lewis. I am the Rola FFA vice president. Okay, for first I would love to give a great thanks to my FFA adviserss, Mr. Stockdale and Mr. Jenkins for even giving me the opportunity to speak to you guys and also letting me be a part of such an organization that has instilled such a like impact upon me. See, honestly, FFA has so much to offer. Although it may seem like it's all about agriculture, it actually does tie back into our community as well. See, there's this competition that I've been a part of since my freshman year. It's called Grasslands. And in Grasslands, there's this little equation called the cow problem. In that cow problem, we figure the amount of forage it would take from the cattle's weight to have a sustainable production. Well, I've actually taken
022this equation and I've reconfigured it and I applied it to my goats and my rabbits. >> Well, it worked. It's beneficial. And I've been able to tie back so many other things as well, like public speaking. And another thing is I've also been able to tie back from a sales because I've learned how to make proper sales pitches. And I've also applied that into my new business that I'm starting, which is selling um real beeswax candles. See, FFA has such an impact on everyone that is in it. Because whether you're fully engaged or not, you still learn something no matter what. We have such a wide variety that it is just so inclusive and impactful because we can go from a mechanics to a sales. We can go from floor culture to livestock judging. And
023honestly, that is just so amazing that we as a community can have such a influential club. And I would just love to say thank you so much for supporting us. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Holy smokes, right? >> Great job. >> It's pretty awesome. Uh, you know, I'm sure you guys remember high school >> and u public speaking. Yeah, I I don't think I could have done that. That was awesome. That just proved what our CTSOs, you know, those extracurricular organizations do offer our students over at RTIC. I mean, it's just pro proofs right there, right? The performance shows it. Um, and we are going to wrap up here real quick. Honestly, just just a short couple things as you're watching the slideshow. You know, CTE month, we have some some really cool events we've
024been involved with all year. Um, and those are just a few of the of the tons that that that we go through all year. Um, you can see those on our Facebook page. Make sure you're you're tuning into it. We like to we like to really push that out and see all the cool things our students are doing and show that and then share that with you guys. So, um, make sure you're uh make sure you're tuned into it. Um, also tomorrow being one of those big events, if you don't recall, the masonry madness is a really cool one we do every year. you know, gives our kids an opportunity in masonry to showcase their skills to uh contractors to to to you guys to to to to staff members and and uh compete for
025I think uh Mr. P said they got $2500 worth of prizes that are going to be donated and given away at this event tomorrow. It's a really cool deal. So that'll be between 09 and oneish somewhere. I'd say closer to 910 somewhere be would be your your prime time to come check that out. So, you know, I think I think most all you have come and witnessed that in the past. So, I'd encourage you to come do that again for sure. Um, that's tomorrow. And then the 26th, next week be FFA week. I know they have a big pork loin supper and auction will be the 26th. That'll be on Facebook as well. So, be sure to check those things out. But, um, not to really sit here and we could brag on our kids
026all the time. It's the best part, you know, uh, coming here and bragging on these guys, but I think the proof's right there. you know, awesome job by those guys and we appreciate your time seeing us and um and hearing us out and just celebrating career tech and we really appreciate what you do for us in our in our buildings and our programs. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you for the invitation. >> Yeah. [applause] Thank you. >> You mind if I get a picture with a few of you and our students we brought today? >> Yeah. Y down. Gina. >> Yes. All right. >> I'm not tuned in, guys. They have two rows. Two rows. How's >> that? Hey, look at the camera. Thank you. >> Kendra, do you need help? Is are they on
027it? >> Yes. >> All right. Moving on now to our counselor's presentation. So, our districtwide school counselors will share their latest developments in their programs this evening. >> Perfect. Hi. Thank you guys. Never know what's coming out of my [clears throat] mouth, but I'm gonna be good tonight so we can relax. So, I am gonna go ahead and make you guys super happy and tell you we're skipping through all this because it's in your packets. You can read it. It's the numbers. It's the percentages. We have a lot of kids. We have a lot of needs. But that's not what I want you to remember from us tonight. So, I'm going to go ahead. Look, we're still skipping. So, we have district counselors meetings and about a year ago, our dear friend, Mrs. Thesson, who
028couldn't be here tonight, encouraged us to have these things called courageous conversations. And we're people pleasers. So, we all nodded and said, "Yeah, sure. Let's let's do that. That sounds great." And we carried on business as usual. And then probably about a couple of months ago, we had a meeting right after we had an incredible loss in our student body. And some of the things you don't see is a counselor's heart. And we're stoic during it, but we break after it. And my really good friend, Mr. Bridgeman, he um he was grieving that day and he was courageous. And he showed us his heart. And it was hard. And it brought about some really, really excellent conversations though. And we kind of really looked at ourselves like what are we doing wrong? because every kid's
029life in our building is um they're our kids and we love them fiercely and we're probably the most educated groups in the district. We have our professional degree is probably double any other um any other teacher or administrator for what's wrong? Am I not talking into it? That doesn't work. >> I think maybe >> Do I need to start over? [laughter] >> All those slides you missed. >> Dang, I don't have the drop mic moment. No, no, I'm just kidding. So, um, our staff consist of two PhD level counselors. We all have a masters. That's huge. Some of us have LPC, some of us have psych certifications, several of us are specialists, but it's still we're still lacking. And one of the most creative people I know, Mrs. Spurgeon, who you're going to hear from
030in a second, has been through pretty rocky roads at her position where they needed to pivot and they needed to pivot a lot. And so she said, "There's got to be something that sustains us. that administration is going to change, principles are going to change, we're going to change, but our kids, they're still going to be our kids. So, what is it that we want all of us, not just the counselors, not just the board members, not just the teachers, what do we want for every student from the very first day they step foot on our campus to the last day hopefully with a very successful future in mind? What do we want our actions to prove? And so, if you open your bags, Miss Virgin said, and it just hit home, we want every
031student to feel safe, heard, and connected. So, as we move forward, we want every action we do, everything that comes out of our mouth, every program that happens to feel safe, heard, and connected. So, if you allow us a few minutes, each one of our groups to let us share with you how at each building we really strive to make every student feel safer and connected and um for you to hold us accountable, which is what we really want in the long run. So, step on up. So, at the elementary school, we got to thinking we pretty much all do the same things. And when we look at safety, it's very important that we don't think of it just as physical safety. That's kind of your department making sure that we're all physically safe. Um,
032our kids come to school in survival mode. And for that, it's our job to make them feel safe in other ways. And some of the ways that we do that, um, we create a very predictable safe space, um, that's separate from getting in trouble with the principal. Um, we have a safe space where kids can share, where they can have our confidentiality and where we can protect them. Um, we try to teach social emotional skills so they even know how to share what makes them safe and what they need to feel safe. Um, part of that was when Miss Curtis finally got to be a counselor and that was a huge step in making Mark Twain a much safer space to be. Um we provide um response and support for every student. We do small
033groups. We have individual sessions um and we advocate for them. So if they're not safe with us or they're always safe with us, but sometimes maybe not safe other places and it's part of our job to make sure they're safe even when they're not in our building. So um safety is not just physical, it's emotional. And that's definitely where we try to hit home. And if you look at our picture up there, our goal was um to come up with an elementary version of Safe, Heard, and Connected. So, I do have my ears that I wear for preK. When I first introduced my role as a counselor and say, "I'm here to listen." And because that's what I want them to take away. Um, as elementary counselors, our role is the foundation. We are the
034beginning of mental health for kids. A lot of times, we're the first person that they come in contact with in the mental health field. And so we want them to feel safe, heard, and connected with us. No matter if they transfer from Mark Twain to Truman to Wyman, we want that to be across the board for them. So, um, like like Dr. Hul said, we want to ensure that every student has a safe person. And a lot of times that's us, but it isn't always us. And we understand that our teachers are also really good at building relationships with kids. And so, we want to help facilitate that, whatever um, that might mean for them. We do individual sessions to where their voice is heard. Um check-ins for students and we do have open door
035availability with boundaries because we are um like celebrities in our building. If you walk through with us, kids are excited to see us and they always want to come visit. So we do we do put boundaries in place, but we are an open door um for them. And at Truman, Dr. Hul has done minute meetings where she's connected with her students. She's pulled them out to have those individual conversations and that's really powerful. And then Mrs. Burjet Wyman has an A+ mentor that is just another safe person for kids to connect with in her building. Um, in our classroom lessons, we're also teaching students self- advocacy skills. We want them to be able to speak for themselves in situations. So that comes with practicing those things. And we do a lot of collaboration with families
036and teachers. Um, Ashley Gisham is a huge part of that for us. when we have an issue or something arises, we know that we can call her and she will help us facilitate that. [snorts] Um, we are also all three of us a member of our student support teams, student assistance teams in our building. So, we get to advocate for the whole student in that, not just their academics, but their social emotional um to get those needs met. And we are also a part of our special education staffing. Um, we teach our students communication skills so they're able to advocate for themselves. And what we know is when students feel heard, they're more likely to engage in learning. >> I'm Lindsay Spurgeon from Wyman and although Michelle made that sound like this was my um
037thing, we are a really amazing group that works really well together and it's because we are all different people and what one of us doesn't have somebody else has. So I definitely wanted to let everybody know that we have dreamers on our team. we have um leaders and organizers and then we have kind of warriors who are the brave ones who get up and say the hard things sometimes. So um I get to go last time the connected piece. So a lot of the things that I'm going to say they've already said. Um one of the first things that we do to help kids feel connected what we're hoping to do going forward is instead of kids feeling connected to a building that if we can kind of create some continuity they'll feel connected to
038our community. Um so we are giving classroom lessons. Um, all of those lessons will focus on social skills like kindness, inclusion, acceptance, um, celebrating our uniqueness. Um, I do at Wyman try to do a a game every day that I go into a classroom so kids have a meaningful connection so I know when I leave that every student that I've seen that day has at least one positive peer interaction. The next thing we do, we run small groups kind of based on building needs. They're going to look different at different times of the year and at different um, buildings just because that's what we need. So, the ones that we do have in common, we've had some friendship groups, um some social skills groups, some impulse control groups, and all of us are working with
039the community partnership. They run a year-long friendship circle through capable kids. Um the third thing that we do in our buildings is that we um all work really hard to build um and strengthen peer relationships through conflict re resolution skills or encouraging collaboration. Whether kids are having trouble on the bus or on the playground, they come to us and we teach them how to have respectful conversations, how to listen and understand how your actions impact those around you. Um, we try to describe it as a family, just like your family at home. Sometimes you have to compromise, share, and lift each other up when we're having hard times. The next thing that we do is we still play a pretty integral role in the building that bridge between school and home. As um, Katie said,
040we all serve on our building SAT team, our 504 and IEP teams. So we're making communication home anytime we feel like um a kid needs some social emotional or academic support. Um at our level particularly family um is vital in that role trying to get supports for kids because our kids are not old enough to make decisions on their own. So we refer to um outside organizations when we need to um the compass SBTs we have in our buildings and we also have the mentoring makes a difference program with prevention consultants. Um, the final thing that I was going to talk about that we do to help kids feel connected is we just try to be active within our buildings. Whether we are um out in the halls checking in at lunch, I know Miss
041Curtis does um every morning she tries to greet every single student by their first name so that she can do a very quick assessment to see what kind of a day that they're going to have. Miss Hal is outside the Truman every single day with her signature smile and a warm hug for all of her kids. So the first thing that they see is that positive safe adult because we truly believe that if every kid has a caring safe person that their behavior and academic um outcomes will improve significantly. [applause] Okay. Hello. I'm Mike Armstrong. I'm currently the fourth grade counselor over at the middle school. I've been a counselor for 24 years. I've worked in every grade level from prek to the GED students. I've never done anything else besides counseling. It's the only
042thing I've ever done. Um, along with me are Missy Reid, the sixth grade counselor, Jessica Zinc, the fifth grade counselor, and Miss Angie Parsons is over here, who actually runs our office. Getting ready for this presentation, I was looking back um on the things that we've done in the past. We've presented to you on a day in the life of a counselor, all the different hats that we wear. And last year we had to give you a big thank you for hearing our needs and supporting us with a wonderful 504 coordinator and an amazing school liaison. [snorts] Who doesn't want to be singled out? Um but our focus is like they said, how do we make kids feel safe, heard, and connected? At the middle school, we help students feel safe through relationships, our environment,
043and intentional practices. Not just the one-on-one sessions, but the whole school climate. We feel like that is part of our job. We are visible and accessible to all the students and staff, even though we may have been caught ducking down the hall when the superintendent came because none of us like to have our picture taken. Um, [snorts] we are consistent, the three of us, in our procedures and our communication. And this structure helps students feel physically and emotionally safe in our building. Because safety isn't just security, it's emotional predictability and trusted relationships. >> Um, Mr. Armstrong is hard to follow, but I will try. Um, I'm Missy Reid. I started teaching in 2004 and I've had many different roles, but I started counseling in 2016. I came from Houston, Missouri. When I first met you
044guys, I said, "Hi, I'm Missy Reid. I'm at Houston Middle School." And I got booed. I'm not pointing fingers, but I think it was this guy right right here. [laughter] Um, just a quick little boo to welcome me. And I'm like, "Oh, okay. I'm old, too, but I came over." Um, so, but so I've been in counseling since 2016. I am one of the ones, like Dr. Hawk mentioned, I did go ahead and get my psych examiner and my uh credentials for LPC. I just have to finish the LPC with her help. [clears throat] And at the middle school, we do like to help the students. We like them to feel heard and by active listening which is hard with our um demographics and our you know 900 students it's hard to for them to
045feel listened or feel heard. Um reflecting we like to reflect on their feelings and not just solving problems. We try to create spaces where sharing is normalized and confidential. When students feel valued and understood, engagement and compassion increase. Students don't need us to be f perfect, but they need us to to feel understood. They need to feel understood. And I just want to take the time while I'm up here also because not only was it my first year at such a a large district um from the previous ones I taught at, we had a tornado and Dr. Chapman um and >> Yeah. I mean, uh, doctor or I just called him Derek, but um, anyway, they were just so, um, they were so welcoming. Like, they made signs. The entire staff, our kids want didn't
046want to leave this building. We kind of want to come back for MAP. It was really done. It I enjoyed it. But just having the the welcoming committee that we had just made my first year here even better. And having that the goals that like Dr. Hal mentioned that that K12 alliance and that vertical alliance, you know, we are trying to increase upon that in our district and make our teams stronger. Thank you. Hello everybody. Um I'm the final to our uh trio here. I'm Jessica Zinc. This is my 13th year in education. 11 of those were spent in the classroom as a fifth grade teacher and this is my second year a part of the middle school counseling team. Like Mr. Armstrong said, I'm fifth grade counselor this year and I'm the connected piece
047uh this evening. And so just some things, you know, to make our students feel connected at the middle school. Uh just our first our daily interactions, you know, with the the positive smiles, the warm greetings. We also offer our small group counseling. Uh this semester uh we are offering our grief group counseling, uh social skills, and uh we have regulators group. We also offer multiple clubs for students to be involved in. Our staff does a really great job as well offering morning and afternoon opportunities for those students to be involved and feel, you know, connected. We also do the mentoring program like the elementaryaries uh mentioned. Our mentoring makes a difference, a Wednesday after school program. We also support students in conflict resolution and social emotional skill building through those everyday interactions and also our
048classroom pushins where we get to see the kiddos in the classroom setting. And we also helped uh try to have students, you know, identify at least one safe adult in our building. And through our team efforts each day, we just really promote that safe herd and connection. Connected. >> That's our department. We work really well together. We're very different. Different personalities, different styles, but it works well together. We want to lead the culture at RMS, not just in the counseling, but in all areas. We believe we can achieve this by focusing on the relationships, the safety, the learning, and our environment. And that's how we're trying to make everyone feel safe, heard, and connected. Thank you. [applause] Good evening. I'm Jeremy Jameson uh representing Raleigh Junior High. Uh Nikki couldn't be here tonight and I
049know she hates that because she really loves doing things like this. So, she is uh if you look at our slide there, she uh is the creative uh mind to that slide. So, I could never do that. I'm not techsavvy like she is. So on behalf of her and our new office assistant, Janine Brandsteader, um she's no stranger to junior high kids, but the pace of the junior high is new to her. So some days we all sit at the in the office at the end of the day and just kind of go, "Wow." Yeah. Right. So you are hearing a lot of similar words like relationships, connection, things like that. And it and it's true. We are such a a cohesive group as a counselor group and we want that reflected in our community
050so the people when they identify any one school they can identify the same things in the other schools. So for safety I want to use an analogy. I have a three-year-old son Cooper or a three-year-old grandson Cooper SORRY [laughter] three-year-old grandson Cooper. And when he's over at our house and it's time to take a nap, that can be quite a challenge. And uh so sometimes I'll have to lay down with him and he'll be just at that point where he's ready to go to sleep and he'll jerk and he'll reach and touch me. And that's because he wants to know I'm still there, right? So, when we talk about relationships, that's really what safety means to us at the junior high because it's consistent uh relationships and and them knowing your presence is going to
051be consistent. Uh not just with the counselors, our staff do that as well. Uh I kind of laughed. Why do you think we have issues in classes when we have a substitute teacher? Because that's not their person, right? >> It's not that consistent relationship that they're used to. So for kids, it really is safety is in relationships, those consistent relationships. Um like the other schools, we try to to have a a welcome open space. Uh we try to be out of our offices as much as possible. Uh connect with them throughout the day. Uh heard um we talked about minute meetings and you guys have heard that before and that's something that uh that we do with our seventh graders. When I talked about it last year, I just talked about it in terms of
052just starter conversations, but that's really where the relationship starts as a as a counselor, at least at my age. I've been at the junior high for at least 19 years. Um, there's a big age gap between a seventh grader and me. So, to sit down in front of me and try to talk to me, it's like, oh, whatever. So, [laughter] building that relationship through simple questions. What's your favorite color? If you had a Lamborghini, what color would you paint it? You know, what's your favorite food? If it's your birthday, what what are you eating for dinner? Those simple breakthrough connections, those relationships, that's really important to to knock down that barrier. With our responsive services, the kids know that they can come in our office and there's really no time limit to their to their
053problem or what they want to see us about. If the bell rings, they know I'm going to get on the phone and call the teacher and say, "Hey, I have soand so." they they might be a while and that's not going to be an issue. So, they know that they're going to have our undivided attention. When [clears throat] it comes to connections, um you know, we've talked about our school-based therapy. We really love our guy Sean. Uh he does a great job. Uh Ashley, the Ashley Gisham, uh who is a a gym to this district. Uh we have our mentoring program, uh that they're active with other schools as well. for Nikki and I uh to be connected. We have instituted a couple of new things. One is kind of newish, the other is new.
054Council corner is something we started towards the end of last year and it was just a a snippet of something to give the kids to think about. Um if you go to the next slide, you'll see those those little happy new year and are you your biggest fan? So, we might throw together a little something in Canva, which Nikki is. so adept at and and give them a question or a concept, maybe someformational tidbits, just a real quick thing for them to read about. It's called counselor corner. Um, we do somewhat of a similar thing with our staff because our staff have lots of needs as well and sometimes they need to be connected and heard and feel safe at school. So, we do a thing called TuneIn Tuesdays and it's something similar, but it's
055just for our staff. How are you taking care of yourself? What do you do for fun? I usually throw in a a YouTube video that's funny or a song uh that they have to go search for and and uh they really like that. Counselor kickback. That is something new. Kickback is actually a slang term that the all the cool kids are using to mean just chill out, right? [laughter] So, we were trying to find something that fit. So counselor kickback is a time we have uh renovated a classroom into our our staff lounge and it's a really nice space and so we have kids go in there uh for a short amount of time and it's it's a low light setting and we might do something as simple as directed breathing exercises uh simple simple
056meditation kind of things. Maybe we're just sitting and being quiet and and drawing a coloring page with colored pencils. So, uh, kids like that. Um, it's not a big group that does that and sometimes it's the same kids each week and that's okay. Uh, but that's something that we've started and is, uh, gaining gaining speed. One other thing that we do individually, Nikki and I, is we are also club sponsors. So, Nikki is an awesome student council sponsor. Um, student council teaches our kids leadership, volunteerism, action planning, and uh, community service, and that's uh, super important. Those kids are really active. They've won awards already for being a young group at the state level. So, they they're doing awesome. My particular group, how do I say this? Um we use high level engineering principles uh
057such as aerodynamics, force and motion to solve complex problems in delivering sensitive cargo to correct locations. Some call it cornhole but [laughter] call it what you want. So, um, one thing I did want to point out on our last slide when you talk about some of the the data stuff. So, I went back to 25 last year and our responsive services this year is 62.0. Last year was 62.3. So, a lot of what we do at the junior high level does not change a whole lot from year to year. But what is constant is our responsive services, those relationships to kids, and you can see how much time uh that takes up in our day. So, um it's a heavy job sometimes, but we are up to the task. Sometimes we know we're going to
058have to put uh our armor on and go into battle, and uh we're ready for that. So, in closing, uh a quote by an American broadcast journalist, Edward R. Muro. Good night and good luck. [laughter] >> [applause] >> Go. One more for me if you don't mind. Thank you. Hi, my name is Liz Pogue. Um, I'm the counselor at RTIC. This is my second year in this role. Um, so safe herd getting connected looks a little bit different in my building. So this is a little different and then we'll get back to programming there. But um some pieces are similar. Um so for me when I think about safety, I'm thinking about students feeling engaged, the relationships that our students have um and the identity development that's happening with our students. So I truly believe
059that what we do in our building inherently um promotes engagement and a sense of purpose with kids. Um, I really think we give students an opportunity, a safe place to try out something different, to try out a new skill, to try on an identity or something like that. Um, and I really think our instructors um, and staff do such a good job of building trusting relationships with our students. Um, they spend h almost half of their day with our teachers for two years, so they know them so so well. Um, and that is such a protective factor for so many of our students. Um, I also see identity development with our kids and what they're wearing. So, of course, some of them are wearing their uniforms, but we also have many programs and our CTSOs
060that they are proudly wearing their shirts, their hoodies, their crew necks that have their CTSOs or their programs um emblems on them and things like that. It's it's neat to see that o sense of ownership in that way. Um when I think of heard I am thinking about um our hearing um everyone around us about expansion. Um I'm thinking about the communication that we're doing and I'm thinking about our collaboration. So terms of CTE expansion we are really intentional about getting information from all of our stakeholders. So what is our student interest? What is our workforce need? What do the different uh individuals that come from our within our consortium? what type of training and programming are they looking for for their students? Um, so we are listening to that. Um, we are so thankful
061for the support that central office and the board provides for continued expansion and we continue to listen um and get that feedback so that we can meet the needs of our students and our workforce. Um, in terms of communication, we have some really targeted communication. Um, you know, in addition to the day-to-day communication that it takes to run a school that has students from 11 different high schools. Um, so um, targeted communication that I want to speak about is the um, I host a couple of counselor meetings where all of our counselors from our consortium attend twice a year and we also host institutional advisory which is coming up next week. Um, and that is an opportunity for us to share um, information about what we're doing, some of our changes, get feedback um, from
062people and uh, provide them with the type of information that, you know, a counselor needs versus a superintendent or a building principal um, and get them that type of information. Um, I personally spend a lot of time communicating with staff members at 11 different high schools about individual student needs. So, we're talking about their mental health. We're talking about safety plans and what that looks like here. We're talking about attendance concerns, getting academics on track. So, lots of communication there. And then collaboration. I wanted to tell a quick story um that kind of highlights us hearing what people need and collaborating with them. So, I think you guys know we added a new class this school year called adaptive technical um oh my gosh, career shop class. >> [laughter] >> Um and um that class
063um if you don't know about it, we are um Rob Rogers is our new instructor and he is working with some of our special education students to provide them an experience. Um they're using hand tools, power tools, they're learning all sorts of things. Um and it's it's a really great place to be if you ever need somewhere warm and fuzzy to be from 12:00 to about 1:15. Um, but that program, the seeds of that program started in a conversation between student services staff at RTI and the process coordinator at the high school sitting down having a tough conversation about some gaps and um some hopes that they had for services that we might provide or experiences. The seed of that class was born of collaboration. So that we are hearing, we are listening, we are
064taking that in. And then lastly, um, connected. So, we are I'm focusing my connection on success ready opportunities for our students for what's next for them. So, I spend a lot of time supporting IAP development through some events. I've talked to you guys before about our eighth grade tours, our sophomore expose. Those are huge. Like, we're hitting a lot of kids, a thousand plus kids on eighth grade tours, and those are in groups of like 10 to 15. So, like it's it's a big undertaking between myself and the student services staff and that's to help with career development, IAP development, and then our sophomore presentations and expose as well. Um, you guys got to see our CTSO um representatives today. Um, we love being able to support and have those kids connected in that way.
065I have gotten to judge a few events um and help some students prepare for contest. It's amazing. Um, you guys got to see a little bit piece of that. I was actually telling Michelle, I was like, you get to see my happy place. Like, this is so cool that you guys get to see this. Um, I also spend a lot of time supporting dual credit opportunities, embedded credit. We want to maintain those. We want to grow those. Last year, we added HVAC, um, and cyber security dual credit, and we are so close to having a certificate of completion for construction trades and automotive technology in place with ECC. are so so close. So, we're working on those efforts. And of course, last but not least, our work-based learning opportunities. So, our students getting them connected
066to what's next. We have more than a dozen students doing paid internships in the field that they have gotten their training in from us. We have more than 30 students in clinical placements with our medical assisting program. We have dozens of students in this district and all of our districts doing field experience for daycarees, preschools, elementary schools, getting ready to launch criminal justice ones here in a couple weeks. Um we do job shadowing and we have several registered apprenticeships. So we're connecting kids to those success ready opportunities and we're proud to do that. Um so lastly, I will just say thank you so much for your continued support of RTIC um and our programs and all the cool things that our students get to do. So, thanks. [applause] >> Question is, do I need to
067point this thing up? Do I need to stand closer? All right. Um, hello. I am one of the counselors at the high school. I will get around to introducing us here in a moment. Aha. Um, there are our lovely faces. We have expanded our counseling office thanks to everyone's support. Um, especially those of you on the board. We've added a fifth counselor. So, that added some restructuring that we did this year. Um, which has been absolutely amazing. Um, speaking of safe, heard and connected, uh, you will notice at the bottom right picture, we have been making a focused effort also on participating with kids, maybe one uping them, if you will say. Um, and [laughter] with with that though, it is about letting the kids know that we are there for them. And I say
068kids, they're teenagers, they're 18 year olds potentially. Um about to go out into our community, but letting them know that we are there for them and not just behind a door. We do our best to be visible, to have our faces in front of them, to have conversations with them, whether that's out in out in the hallways with them as they're just passing by or also behind closed doors if they're needing that kind of conversation. Um and we've really just focused in on that. uh not only opening up doors for them to come in to see us, but also making sure our face is available to them to stop by in the hallway if they just want to stop in and say hi. Maybe that one high will be one less barrier in their mind
069as they come to see us later. Um so with a fifth counselor, we restructured our office. Uh we did 9 through 11th grade, still alphabet split. We redid the alpha split because numbers and those types of things. Um, and then we had Dr. Kalin transition from the last part of the alphabet to seniors. And so she she will talk about what she's been doing this year and growing essentially senior program college and career type of activities and conversations. And then for the other part of our office, we have Mrs. Hendricks who is first part of the alphabet. Mr. Bridgeman, second part, I am Mr. Rogers. Hello. Beautiful day in the neighborhood. [laughter] It is. It didn't rain today. Here. Um, and then Mrs. Steelman who joined us from Salem. Um, I will let you guys
070read the slide if you want, but I felt like that was a very formal way of just saying like Steelman has taken on EOC testing. Those things have come back into our office since we now have the time and space to take that on. Um, in addition to growing our program and figuring out where we can be serving students best, um, sometimes it's about asking the right questions, sometimes it's just about creating space for them to figure out what questions they need to ask. And so having that extra person has really helped. And then our office has taken on the CCR testing. What that can mean is that juniors choose to take one of three tests on a testing day in March. So they choose between the ACT, the ACUPPLACER, and the ASVAB. And so
071that's kind of what that means. And then I've taken on coordination for scheduling requests for the following year. Dr. Kalin used to lead that. I've taken on that. Yes. Um and then quarterly class meetings have been a real big focus for us this year. Uh we've been doing those in the performing arts center and that has been a wonderful space for us because we have not been able to do that previously. There just hasn't been a good space for that in the high school. The cafeteria can technically hold us but it's really hard to hold a conversation in there with teenagers and I'll just leave it at that. [laughter] Um, and so having that performing arts center to be able to hold conversations and meetings with them to give them some information that we feel
072like they need to know or they may not be knowing to ask. Um, and also again putting our face in front of them so that they know who we are. And then we've been using the schoolings platform for college and career lessons during advisory. That has been a platform that we've been using for a couple of years now. This year we really tried since our teachers are the ones who help us implement that in the classrooms during advisory which is 30 minutes on a Friday. Um making sure that teachers understand what it is that they feel supported in that that they understand what the lesson is so that they can walk the the student through those steps that they need to do to do some college and career exploration type of activities. Um, and then
073we've been able to actually sit down and discuss what that looks like for the different grade levels. So, they're not repeating the same thing every year. It is a stair step of whatever they are completing in 9th grade will build on itself not only later that year, but into 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. Yes. And I think I get to walk away now. I will have to lower this because I'm not as tall as Zach is. Um I'm Amber Hendricks. I am one of the five counselors. Uh I just want to piggyback a little bit on what Zach shared. When we've had the kids in the PAC for their class meetings, um there's some downtime and having 300 kids in the PAC while they're waiting to anxiously get back to their class has been a
074challenge, but it is also a great space to play whole group games. So, we played a really fun game with over 300 kids in the PAC and it it handled it. So, it is a multi-purpose facility for sure. Um, so some of the other things that we've been able to do to help make sure that kids feel safe, heard, and connected at RHS is we have um with our additional uh counselor in the department now, we've been able to increase our group availability for students. So, so far this year, we have uh had a grief group, an anxiety [snorts] group. Uh we started this school year off with a new student group. So kids that are brand new to Rala High School. Um no matter what grade level they were, they can participate in that
075just to kind of know the ins and outs because as a newbie last year myself, it's overwhelming. And that um giving them a safe place with at least one or two other familiar faces that they know are new as well was beneficial. Um and then we've also we're currently working with a study skills group. Um all of those groups are pulled based on teacher recommendation. And so we send a Google form out to our staff to recommend uh students that they see are struggling with those specific areas because they see those kids on a daily basis. We we can see them a little bit, but they see the ins and outs and they know more of the [clears throat] stories than what we do. So um we've had great um feedback from our staff on
076who to select for those groups. Um and we anticipate them growing over the next several years as well. Uh for the rest of the semester, we're anticipating having a positive relationships group and then focusing on uh some of our first generation college students uh to be able to get some support there as well. Um that's our hope. We're hoping we don't have another spring like last year. So, we're going to get it in. Uh we also this year have been able to increase student and family support through our Thanksgiving and Christmas uh programs. Mr. Bridgemond has taken care of those for us and um the community involvement with it as well as our staff involvement has been um very great to see and very beneficial for our families. Uh then we also have um the
077ability students have the ability to come in and speak with us whenever they need to. Um so far this year we have had over 1500 signins to the counseling center. So that means in that amount of time and those are the ones that actually take the time to sign in a lot of them. U Miss Pace, our registar, does a great job of trying to stop them, but a lot of them just fly in and we don't get to document that. So, um it's probably a lot more than just that 1500. Um and we've also currently been working with meeting individually with all of our students for scheduling. So, in the last uh four weeks, three and a halfish weeks, we have met with all of our students that are assigned to our alphabet or
078a large majority of them and had a one-on-one conversation about what they want to do for their future career as well as what can we put what classes can we put them in to make that happen. Um, so that's a really great way to also help Miss uh sorry, Dr. Kaylin get connected to our seniors as we're meeting with them and we hear well I don't I don't know much about college because I'm the first one that's going to get to go to college. Those are the things we get to pass on to her to be able to support them. So I'm gonna pass it on to her. >> Um good job. The the um wait next slide. There we go. Uh, one of the great things about having a former um, elementary teacher in
079the high school counseling office is that our social media game and our graphics and our bulletin boards high quality now. So, we're really appreciating that and Amber has done a great job of putting together this. This was a social media campaign that went out for school counseling week, not necessarily to toot our own horns. The purpose of the campaign was to make sure that they know why we're there. How can we serve? How can we help? she sent it out to FA she sent uh different information out to faculty, but it it always aligned along those those sort of things. So, um this year, I know my slides are a little wild looking and it's that's intentional. I know that you guys have been listening for a long time and for those of you that
080are relatively new, we usually do like a really long year and then we'll be short for a couple years. So, you can look forward to that next year. Um for this new college and career program, I was so excited to have the opportunity to get to kick this off. Um that's actually career development is what I did my entire dissertation about when I was coming through school. So it is a passion project for me and um I've got some of the goals over there uh lined up. So um you can see what they are and I have colorcoded them. So my year one goal was to increase individual planning meetings. And sure enough, first semester I doubled the number of students that I saw. Um and actually when it came time for them to sign
081up for their individual senior meetings, 60% of the senior class signed up with just one or two requests. I didn't have to chase them down. So that tells me that they were looking forward to it or at least they knew that it was important. I've also had parents, they were all involved in those meetings. They could come in, they could do Zoom, we could do phone call. I wanted parents to be as involved as possible in that. Um, and the next goal that I had over there, we'll go on to the the lilac colored one. Um, I wanted to go out because this is my first year and visit some other college and career programming and see what some other schools were doing. So, um, you can see on the execution side that I went
082I did site visits at Lindberg, Lafayette, and Holt. Amber was brave enough to go with me because we were looking at one other thing with the principles that day at Lindberg. And so, um, got a lot of good information and was able to make some connections and, um, really kind of bolster what I'm doing and what their timeline is. Um, and the green square there, um, wanted to return the senior advisories to postsecary plans. So, that 30 minute a week advisory for lots of years back when at least one former board member was teaching in that building, we would have them organized by what what the kids were planning to do for postsecary. So, it would be a four-year, two-year military tech trader work. And so, we had them divided up and that allows us
083to do some more focused um lessons andformational sessions with those seniors based around where they're headed um following graduation. So, we did shift back to that and we're really lucky at the high school to have um Mr. Owens um who is a veteran and so he takes on the military and he's really good about getting speakers in there and talking talking to his students. Um the dark purple there is I wanted to increase uh parent communication and this year alone with using parent square I have done six uh senior specific newsletters that have gone out. I've done three that were for all grades and then I've done five just general posts and I'm trying to get out as much information as I can about those sort of opportunities and what we have going on. Um
084finally there the um orang-ish red was increasing student parent um engagement in postsecary planning and that goes back to those individual meetings and inviting the parents to come in. So um 100% of the parents were invited. I made contact with everybody. Um if they wanted to follow up um we could do that. I also took notes in school links because we have the ability to create meeting notes in there. And so I was able to have just a generic like if you're going to college, I can cut and paste these links in there for you. So parents and students can have access to that right in there. Um, additionally through the parent accounts that we launched earlier this year, um, the the parents can also go in and see all of the IAPS that their
085children are putting in as well. All right, I think that covered all of that. So um, for year two, what do I want to do? Um, I want to increase the use of advisory. So, you know, sometimes you are building the boat while you're sailing. Um, this year was one of those for me and it's a growing year and so I look to improve next year in in terms of the content offered during those advisories. Um, doing a little bit a little more in-depth there. Um, I would like to provide school links information and training for parents as well as staff accounts. We have school links actually just launched a parent university and a um school they call it school links UU and it is on it is training videos that parents and teachers can
086go through so that they can learn more about the information they have access to there um intentional I Mrs. Pog and I have talked about this. I want would like to do some more intentional collaboration with her on the RTIC side because I it just makes sense. She's doing she's doing career tech ed. I'm doing the college and career readiness. And so we're looking for um some opportunities there. [snorts] Um [clears throat] the stars network. So that um thank you for theou you signed off on for that one. that is a free opportunity provided by 26 or 28 um high-flying universities throughout the United States and they are offering individual college advising on demand to um the top 20% of every graduating class. We kicked off with the juniors and it is great. We have
087actually the gentleman who comes down to see us was the college and career counselor at at St or at St. James for a while. So, he is now an admissions adviser at WashU. And I've already, even though he wasn't working with this year's seniors, we've gotten him on the phone a couple of times to answer specific questions the kids had, like, oh, I accidentally submitted the long the wrong letter of recommendation, is it going to keep me from getting into that school because now they know I applied somewhere else. And while I can give the correct information on that, there's something about hearing it from someone who reads all of those applications that really reassured the student for that. Um, and additionally, so they I think have you >> I'm gonna my meeting's next week.
088>> Okay. So, I was gonna say um Ashton I know has taken advantage of that and students can have one 30 minute meeting a week if they want to with um an on demand advisor. Um, additionally, I look to implement partially with them and oh wait, I forgot this part. Um, the stars program also provides general information for all families. So, I have pushed out information just this past week um aboutformational sessions that are open to all of our families. They don't have to be part of that program. So, that just increases um our ability to give more detailed and expert um advice to our families. Um I also am going to look to get involved in the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development um and their Apply Missouri, their FAFSA frenzy and
089their decision day for all. um the FAFSA we have always done. Those other two pieces I would like to focus a little bit more on and it's just about getting things done and advertised in a more um structured way. And let's see, I think that oh uh next year I would really like to be able to start meeting with juniors during second semester to kick off. And when Mrs. Hendrickx mentioned the um first generation um college students that we're going to be working with. That's actually a survey they're going to be fill juniors are all filling out tomorrow in their advisories to help me identify those students that need the most support. There's a rating scale where they're going to tell me um how much support it is that they need for that. All right,
090I am I am going to say one of the things I Are you coming down to talk? Come on down, girl. Um she's like no, leave me alone. Um I I know that she does not like to have attention called to her, but um we have had some really intense um mental health situations with students this year and Ashley has been fantastic to come and walk us through all of that. Get over here. Come on. I'm about to go to your slide. Um we we talk about he Zach also alluded to our student engagement and making sure we're out there. One of my favorite things is because we are right at the tea of the busiest hallway in the school. all of those kids coming from the math department have to see us every day
091as they're coming and going. And so it's it's just great a great way to connect with our students there. So we really appreciate that. All right. Thank you guys so much for um the support you gave for getting this fifth counselor. I feel like we are really making an impact. I have parents that came in and they're like, "Did you meet with all of the seniors like this last year?" I'm like, "Well, we wanted to, but now we've got the dedicated time to do that." Do I do some of the responsive services? Absolutely. But my primary focus is working with students to help make sure that they are knowing where they're going when they get that diploma. [applause] >> Wow. I get to follow up and finish for the superheroes as I call them. Um
092I'm Ashley Gresham, the leazison for the district student youth liaison. Um up here I just updated my slides from last year. I think last year when I presented at this time my direct referrals were at 43. Um and that slide was updated two days ago and I'm up at 114 now. So as of today um and my non-direct referrals have also increased and that's just more people recognizing um me and my position and reaching out for just simple questions, resources and however I can help them through that. uh there point and part of one of the awesome things about the referrals is that it keeps us data. So it was so wonderful and I was able to I think the slides were due Tuesday at noon and I found out at Tuesday at 11:30 and
093so I was able just to copy some charts pretty quickly. So most of my referrals um obviously is going to be family, student and resources. What are the needs for those students needing that connection? Um and then attendance um family crisis planning and at risk students for failure. Um that's just going to be the bigger picture of the chronic attendance um the assessment the needs that those families need not only for the student for the parent as well. I did that right? I think that's my Nope. I got more. Um so once one referral comes in more than likely there's other siblings in the district and so that just tags. So if say Wyman um made a referral there's could be one in middle school there could be one in German or I mean junior
094high or the high school. So I'm helping more than just one student. I'm helping that whole family in that in that process. So, my most exciting slide to me, um, I'm still connected with all of the outside stakeholder meetings, part of the CIT planning meetings, uh, the crisis management coalition, which is growing every month. There's new people. Um, there's 40 plus people at that table that brings resources monthly. That's new to our community. Um, and we share that, which is fantastic collaboration on that SANS meeting. We were successful and had our first one Friday last year. Snow took us out. We had to cancel and then the took us out. So, I didn't get to host my SAM meeting last year, but we did this year and I believe it was pretty successful with all
095the collaborations. I bring resource people to the table and we just were sorry that was loud. Sorry. We're just all together. Um I did [laughter] they always laugh at me uh to bring everybody to the table and we open discuss um some students with needs um try to put uh plans in place to help those families um with each one who can bring what to the table and how can we make a successful plan for that student and that family moving forward. So that is really nice. We have some key people at that table. We have juvenile office. We had Judge Hedrickk at the table. We had Compass. We had Four Rivers. We had children's division. Um we had the schoolbased therapy director. We had Compass Health CPRC director. Um anybody that does tag team
096with case management I tried to have at that meeting. So I was super happy about completing that. Um still can stay connected with TDMs with team decision meetings with children's divisions when those are at need. Um our counselors will let me know. I try to assist with those the best that I can. Friday food backpack program still help deliver on those. Those are wonderful. The two new resources that I have up there that um I was super excited about and I probably got super excited with them is the torch program. Um and it is through Phelps Health. It's called the B3. Um I just got not really trained but more informed had a one-on-one um training about that piece on how to make referrals because when we I reach a barrier with our community with
097our resources and we just don't necessarily have that resource or the funding for some of those families. I'm able to utilize that torch program to really help those families with the funding um piece uh to whatever to make them successful, safe, heard, and connected inside their homes. Um and so that is a really really great benefit to have for us for and the children's division prevention team um which is Sherry Bailey I work very closely with as our counselors as we have to do our due diligence to support families and um unfortunately sometimes that needs to go a little bit further than us but how do we bridge and keep that communication going? So I always call our counselors the superheroes, the boots on the ground, but for me um not only of keeping kids
098safe and connected and heard inside the school. I'm trying to do that for the families inside their home. Um, I'm going to them. I'm listening to them. I'm hearing all of them and bringing whatever resources to get them connected. Um, and keep those kids in school. That's me in a nutshell. >> I'll wrap it up. >> Oh, sorry. >> Question. >> So, um, >> I have a question for you. I just >> I'm trying the 102 referrals. Sorry, [snorts] >> that would be a family. So, >> and it it could each referral is one individual student, but there could have been um >> if there's three three siblings three siblings in and would you count that as three or >> No, I still count it as one referral. >> Okay. >> One student, one referral.
099I'm trying just to say that then I'm assuming that one out of every two classrooms there's a student in every one out of every two classroom that you're >> um I don't know how to >> 102 divided by 4,000 >> so the sibling impact so R middle school um 21% of whatever referrals they have sent I don't I don't know how many referral numbers that comes into one individual student but that's how many students we have in more siblings in the district that from that one referral they >> we didn't get that slide So >> yeah. So >> that >> right you've helped you got you answered the question. >> Okay. [laughter] >> So um the last thing that I wanted to touch on was during our last PD date in addition to uh attending
100the SAM meeting um this districtwide we are working on compiling resources. We know that um our district has had three losses in three years and we're looking for ways we can better support mental health and make it more public. We're working on um remodeling our website so that we can have some of those supports on there. We also have um taken on looking at the national suicide risk assessment um and that that sort of thing. So, we're trying to get as aligned with those those items as we can. Uh, I'll close out with a you know how much I love data, but here's a couple warm fuzzies for you on the safe herd and connected from my job point, which is I've had two students walk into my office this year that walked in, closed
101the door for their first senior meeting. One of them, it was the first time she and I were really meeting and just burst into tears. The first one sat down. I said, "So, what do you want to do after high school?" and she said [snorts] because she's a real high-f flyier student who's very involved and she's in all of you know she all of her friends know what they're doing and or by her perception but most of her friends have parents that went to college and most of her parent most of the parents you know kind of know what's going on and she had no clue she's like I just keep smiling and nodding and I said just come in here and I will explain it and we can get that and she left with
102a real sense of relief and it It was very humbling to remember that some of times those kids who act like they have it all together and know what they're doing still need that time behind a closed door where they can be like I have no idea. I'm just making this up. So, um that was really great. And the other one was a student who is um headed to a career field but she's not sure what. I said, "What do you want to do?" Tears. And she said, "I have no idea. I'm not going to college. I don't want to go into the military, but I don't know what I want to do." So, we backed up. I'm like, "Okay, let's meet again next week, but between now and then, you're going to go into
103school links and you're going to do a couple of those assessments that suggest career fields to you." And then she she did that. Made the appointment on her own to come back. I didn't even have to chase her down. She came back and she's like, "Okay, let's pull up my results." And we looked at them. I'm like, "Okay, your top three. Would you like to go job shadow in any of those?" She's like, "What is job shadowing?" So, I took her over to the A+ office and we got her signed up and she got to do two different job shadow experiences and now knows which of those fields it is that she would like to go into because she does not want to just go job to job to job um as has been done
104previously in her family. She wants to have a career. She knows she wants to be in a field for a long term. And so it was really fantastic to be able to help two kids headed in two completely different directions but really just needed to feel safe, heard, and connected so that they could plan their future. So thank you guys so much for allowing us to speak today. We'll answer any questions that you got and we promise not to be this long next time. [applause] >> Anybody have any questions? >> I I have a question. Um and and any of you can answer. Um we had to implement some new policy this year about cell phones and I just wondered how has that changed things at the high school at RTIC. Um I we we've
105heard mixed reviews. >> Yeah. >> Okay. At the at the high school, I can tell you from my office for 20 years, I've been able to hear noise in the cafeteria and then it started slowly fading away because the kids were in their phones during lunch. And now my office is loud again. I can hear it right through the floor. And I love it because I hear those kids engaging the hallways. They are talking to each other walking down the hallways. I had a teacher say, "I don't remember the last time the class discussion went so well." And while we have always at the high school had a policy of no cell phones during instructional time, um, having the policy and the law in place really gives our teachers the out to not have to
106be the bad guy because they want to provide that safe, heard, and connected place for their students, but they don't want to have to always be the one who's nagging on them about that. So now they can just say, "Look, I'm sorry. It's part of the law." My favorite was when a student came up and asked our SRO if she was going to get arrested if she got her phone out. Anybody [clears throat] other buildings? Okay, just >> a lot of fear of anxiety of separation. >> I had one student who went virtual because she couldn't have access to her phone. She said she didn't have any friends at the high school. Her her friends all went to school elsewhere. And I said, "Well, they can't have their phones during the day either." Um, so
107I don't know if the other district saw some people go virtual, but she just she couldn't handle it. And so I've reached out to her parents about getting some resources so that we can decrease the dependency there a little bit. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Good job. Well, thank you everyone for coming and giving us an update. You got some really great stuff going on and so we really appreciate that. Thanks for the presence. Yeah. And thank you for the >> Thank you. Yes. Thank you. >> Bye. >> They need a picture before they go. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's get a picture. >> Come on down. >> That's all right. >> We'll photoshop her in. >> It's all right. >> What are we doing? >> Taking a picture. Right. >> Come have three
108rows here. >> Very good. What's that? >> I know. Yes, exactly. >> Hey, you loved your story >> and I think you scared your wife for a hot minute. That's all right. [laughter] >> Grandson grandson. >> Thank you. >> It'll be two weeks tomorrow. >> All right. Go home. Take care of that son. >> Thank you, >> grandson. [laughter] Rand'll never let him live. >> Nope. >> It was news on that. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you. >> And thank you, Dr. Chapman, for coming into the house. >> Okay. >> So, our next item is substitute staffing and management service bills. Dr. Fton. Okay. Just second. Okay. Are you staying on or leaving? >> She's out. >> Oh, here. Good girl. >> Good job. Yes, >> I thought about it. Good >> call. Thank you.
109>> I'm gonna get yelled at. Not a good thing on TV. >> Good evening. I am back tonight to talk to you about a submanagement RFP that we submitted out um to different companies. Why did we do that? Um we currently manage all of our substitute teachers and pair professionals in the district. So that goes all the way from them applying to helping them get their subsert onboarding them. We have tried this year to do some training. We're just there's just not enough time sometimes to get all of that done and to give them some feedback. Um and with that some of them walk in and say I want to be a sub and here we go right in the classroom. A little bit of a disadvantage for them sometimes because they need that support
110and that mentorship that we just don't have the staff and things to provide. So with that we want our subs to come in and our guest with our kids to have the best experience possible. We have been talking to other schools and with that they have the availability of services through a substitute service that provides training and mentorship and feedback along with a lot of great benefits for our substitutes. So we went out and did a request for proposal. We issued the request on January 30th. We gave them time through February 6 to submit to us in writing any clarifying questions they had regarding what our expectations were and proposals were due on on uh February 16th actually the 17th Tuesday. Um what we the response we received we had five companies involved responded Kelly
111services essaff and pinac but indie global was new they are not in the state of Missouri so just keep that in mind as we move forward that is a disadvantage for them at this moment so the items of importance that we were looking for was training for our substitutes mentoring and support feedback to the substitutes about their performance. Um, as well as we want to increase our pool of substitutes. We run about anywhere between 90 to 95 and that kind of varies, but not all of our substitutes go to every building. So, they can choose if they want to go just to the high school, the junior high, and that's great because we want them where they feel more comfortable, but we also know that we could um tap into some resources around um they
112we wanted a company operating in Missouri in Missouri with a proven track record. questions so far. So within this in considerations when we looked at all of the proposals I looked at references not just what they provided but with what we know people we know out in our school world and our school community. So we did some extra checks on some of the companies. Will they hire existing substitutes? And all of them were a yes which is good. Um with that many of our of those companies offer retirement and health insurance to substitutes things that we don't provide them. They also provide incentives. Um they have like substitutes of the month. They work with us to do some, you know, recognitions and those types of things. Things that we just currently don't do with them.
113We narrowed it down after all of those things to the top two candidates of PINMAC with an additional cost to us of $60,911.50 or to ESS at $59,588.33. What really stood out to us through all of this were the references. I'll be honest, the lowest company that we looked at had two had a fill rate in one school of 45%, one fill rate of 55%. We currently offer 85% on our own. Because of that, they're also not in our area. With us going with the sub company, we want someone that's going to be close enough that we can pull from a subs and and benefit from. So, with that, we took the lowest one out. just being in all honest with you. So, we went down to these two companies, but tonight we would like
114to ask that you um make a recommendation to for PinMac to host our substitute management training. Pinch has a retired educator, retired superintendent that will come in and evaluate, meet with us. They also give us our own coordinator, so would the other company. But Pinmak has schools very close to us, which would then automatically increase our pool of substitutes. I will tell you that some of those substitutes that I'm talking about already work for them. Um, so it would just give them another option. But they offer insurance right off the b off the spot. They pay them weekly, which is a big deal for people. Honestly, some of our subs wait three weeks to get a paycheck here. That is a source of complaint for them. Um, it also provides benefits. So 401ks, things that
115they are that they do not have with us. So, I'm looking for a recommendation for PinMac to host our substitute management and training. >> Questions? >> So, I have any questions? >> Um, >> oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> What schools in the area use Pinman? >> Right now, Lebanon and Wesville host them. We do share subs with Wesville currently. >> Perfect. All of the other ones were in the state of Missouri that I talked about with the exception of Indie Global, but they were very concentrated in Kansas City, St. Louis, and more up by the Columbia area with no other companies around us. One of them had two in southwest Missouri, one like one in Popular Bluff and one way down southern Missouri that I didn't even know. >> Okay. >> And and Dr. the
116cost that's a per year cost. >> That is a per year cost. >> Okay. But they but keep in mind what we did not account for in there is that we put all of them in our workman's comp and all of our salaries. So that will give us a little bit more of a deduction but we have no way of saying if we take our subs out we get this much money back. So we're expecting it to be close to that amount. There should be some some other cost of savings but right now that's >> you're going to also get um some savings of time of secretaries and people call >> Absolutely. We are and coordinating and coordinating all that. >> Absolutely. >> Get some of that back. >> We are constantly onboarding substitutes within
117our office because that's who does it. Um we do that all the time. We work with them to help them understand the process. People think they'll just apply, but they have to go through the state of Missouri to do all of that. So we do that with them. We help them. We kind of hold their hands if they need it at times so they can achieve their dream. Um but it's it's an ongoing labor to not only my office but to every school. So, every school now has to call their substitutes. This service will call substitutes. They will call substitutes at 6:00 in the morning, at 5 in the morning. They keep a call center there. Will we still have to do a little bit of work? Absolutely. So, those last minute call-ins we may
118have to place. We do that anyway, but as far as um one secretary at some of the elementaryaries, and I know at the middle school, that's what she does. She is on top of it, making sure we have all of our positions filled. They will work with us to make sure that they fill positions and they go through the processes there and communicate with us as well. >> Is this something you're planning to implement part of this school year or first of >> next school year for 2627? >> They will make sure in any of them all of the companies were assuring us a safe transition for our substitutes as well to bring them on board. >> Will they reach out to our existing? >> They will. We will not. We will notify them via
119a letter probably next week that we are doing this and then we will work in a long transition process. We have a detailed transition with them. >> And they will also come here to train them and here to meet with them. >> Oh, nice. >> Sounds great. >> As far as subpay, did you go over that? That what what the substitutes are going to see and >> the substitutes will Yes. our current they will pay and work with our current sub rates and then there is with them a markup price. That's how we do it. So whenever we talk about that, that's that is the markup price >> with Pinmac. Um we currently pay $125 a day for a substitute and with a 30% markup is 16250. Um with daily half a sub half a
120day sub 6250 8125 um sub pair professional for a full day is 125 same as same as a teacher which is 16250. Again, half a day is the 6250 long-term sub with no certificate, meaning they're not certificated in the area in which they are teaching. $147 a day is what we we have, and it' be 19110. A long-term sub with a teaching certificate. So, if a retired math teacher comes back and subs in math, they get the extra pay. It's 225.44. With Pinmac, it would be two then 2937 is what they're charging us. >> So, let me let me let me talk about that just a little bit more. So, currently I'm going to use the just the teacher sub. So, 125 a day, but we also have to pay the taxes and and the
121other pieces that go with that, the FICA, the Medicare, all those things. Our rate with PINMAC is based on the 125. So, their markup includes them paying the work comp, they pay the taxes, they they're their employee, so all of that cost burden shifts to them. That is accounted for in this cost. We we we've taken that off off the top. Um, and then as Mark was saying, you know, the pieces that that we we don't have a way a good way to account for are those extra time savings and those other things that we can use our people for more efficient purposes. Um, we think the savings is greater than this, but but we don't really have a way to quantify that. So, >> yeah, my question was concerning what the sub was >>
122the subs the subs will actually get essentially the same pay. Same pay. >> Yeah. And we set that rate. So if if as we're going through and we feel like people around us are adjusting the rates and we need to raise our sub rate, we would still do that. The markup >> is the same and it just we we set the rate. >> Will we be hiring any subs like a permanent sub? Uh >> we will shift uh we will focus with Pinck on teachers in Paris. We will still do our own bus substitutes, bus driver substitutes, nursing substitutes. We will still have a few of those that we're doing. Um, we currently don't have permanent subs other than um, well, no, we currently don't have any sub permanent sub, but we would always have
123that option. We're not we're not we're not locked into not being able to do that if we >> but I guess long-term sub is what? >> Yeah. Um, we we have full um, say also in who is subbing and when. If we don't want someone, we just say no. Um, but yeah, I think for long-term subs, we would have a lot more great a lot greater input in that process. for our substitutes. They come, they get they get benefits, they get things that we just can't offer them, which is a good thing for them as well. >> Would we be restricted from uh if a teaching position opened and we wanted to hire one since we are employee? >> We are not in we are not restricted in that manner. They work with us. If
124we if someone is subbing for a parah and they want to come on and and be a parah with us, they will support that. Within this training, there's also professional development for teachers. So, there is a library of some online videos that they could also do to greater hone in their skills. >> Right. Any other questions? If not, then can I get a motion to approve the contract with Pinmac? >> I'll make the recommendation to uh for contract to Pinmac to host our substitute management and training. >> I'll second that. >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. Our FY27 preliminary salaries and benefits with Mrs. Atinson is presentation. [snorts] >> So this evening's presentation is just forformational purposes. I'm not here to make
125any recommendations this evening. This is just one step in the budget process to give you a snapshot of where we are currently in this year's budget, where I'm kind of projecting that we're going to end the year and looking towards salaries and benefit uh projections for next year. All right, so revenues for this year, looking at ending the year slightly more than budgeted, primarily due to current um and delinquent property and real estate taxes. So, our local revenues coming in a little bit um more than budgeted right now. That's how it's trending. So, by the end of this month or next month, I'll have a better handle on that and adjust the budget formally if it's if it's needed. For expenditures for this year, um as always, we budget very conservatively. So, budget a little
126high on expenditures. Right now, I'm projecting to end the year about 2.2 million less than budgeted. So, that's a good thing. primarily in purchase services and supplies. Um purchase services, just as a little reminder there, those kind of are what they are, but a lot of people don't understand what that is. So, uh repairs, any maintenance, um certain software, uh certain utilities fall under purchase services. So, those are a little bit hard to um some of those like utilities to uh to narrow down. So, so that puts our ending projected fund balance at 31.65% for this year. Uh that if it comes in at that uh percentage, it results in about a $665,000 surplus for the year. So, we'll see. We're actually still really early in the year to be making these projections. So, it
127really is a bit of a wild guess at this point. So, there's a lot of a lot of year left. So, I just want to give you a visual snapshot of where do our local operate or our operating revenues come from. As you can see here, 49% of our revenues come from local sources. So, primarily uh real estate and property taxes. And that's going to be important here in just a minute to keep in mind uh on a coming slide. for our budgeted operating expenditures for this year, 75% of our operating budget is for salaries and benefits. So when we talk about possibly cutting or anything like that when we're looking at budget, we have to really really pay attention to that because the main dial that we can move to have any real effect
128on our budget is people. So we really want to be careful when we when we talk about that. So, moving forward into next fiscal year, some budget considerations. The big ticket items are pending legislation. There are a ton of bills going through the legislature right now uh that will affect real estate tax revenue, property tax revenue, income tax revenue, also open enrollment legislation. Any one of those things would most likely negatively affect our revenue stream. We have no way to make up those revenues if they're if they're lost or cut. So, we're really paying close attention to that right now. We have no idea where any of that's going to land, if anything will pass. So, we'll keep an eye on that and keep reporting back. Um, but again, real estate tax, property tax, those
129are all local revenue sources. So, if those any of that passes and goes all the way through and becomes law, that could really negatively impact the school district and other school districts across the state. Other things that we consider of course during budget season district ongoing maintenance programming and staffing needs. So all of those just standard thing that we consider. So next year revenues as compared to this year's projections about $900,000 less. That's due to primarily two things. So one the uh the grant revenue is a onetime grant that will come off the books this year. That's the early childhood uh grant through the foundation. And then we're adding increasing a little bit of state revenue, the foundation formula, because we will be able to account for some of our early childhood students in our
130average daily attendance, which uh positively affects our foundation formula revenue. So again, big ticket item are our salaries and benefits. So just looking at the cost of moving all of our certified staff one step for the years of service about $267,000. Increasing the base to that scale by 1% so every 1% that we increase it is about 275,000. Our current base uh teacher pays step one is $41,76. A 1% increase brings it up to 42,123 for support staff. Uh years of service 26,374 and a 1% base increase for support staff is about 110,000. So want to point out something there. I don't have it on the slide. So our support staff on the there's three lowest scales. So that would be our custodial staff, our food service staff, and our pair of professionals. Right now
131their hourly rate base is 1587 an hour. 1% increase brings that to 1603.6 cents more per hour is all. Okay. So total equates if we do one step and 1% about a 2% increase across the board. It's about $860,000. Looking at our insurance fund. So, um, as a reminder, we are self-insured. So, that means we have an insurance fund that we collect money. All the premium um, revenues go into there. From that, we pay fees to UMR and a stop-loss carrier for processing our claims. Um, right now that fund balances at 5.7 million or rather as of January 31st. It's actually an increase over um of one just over $1 million since October 1st, which is our plan start date. However, I think we're actually about flat right there because just this week we had
132a huge claims uh invoice come in. They got behind. So, in one week we had $860,000 in claims that we're paying out. So, we're actually kind of flat there. But, um I am not upset at all. I very confident that for next year we're not going to have to increase uh premiums again. Uh we decreased premiums two years ago by 10%. Yes. And last year by 15%. This year we're remaining flat. I anticipate no change to premiums next year unless something totally wild happens in the next couple of months. We'll come back to you in July to go over full insurance stuff to actually set our premiums for next year. Uh but for budget purposes, I have to make a decision here in the next couple of months on on what to do. So FY27
133estimated expenditure. Some assumptions here on this slide are um an additional about 1 million in salaries and benefits for the early childhood staff for the additional staff for that program. One and a half% increase to supplies budget. Moving substitute costs now that you've approved that. I did make an assumption coming into this meeting that you were approved that contract. We're taking substitute costs out of salaries and benefits and moving them to that amount to purchase services. Okay. And then also, I'm assuming an actual 3% increase to salaries. Again, not a recommendation at this point. We're still early. I'll come back to you in April to get your approval and a recommendation and then approval for um salaries for next year. >> Your supply increase, that's just a consideration of things continuing. >> Inflation, correct? Yeah.
134Yeah. It is just based on trend data and inflation. And what did you say about purchase services? >> Moving se uh substitute costs from salaries and benefits into purchase services. >> Okay. >> So all of that is a wild guess. I have nothing entered into the system yet, but it's making those assumptions at this point. Ending uh fund balance for next year is 20.65%. >> In our payments for our certificates of participation, are they also in the purchase services area or >> they are not they are um in capital. All of this is operating. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Yeah. All of this tonight this discussion um is based on operating budget only. >> There any other questions? Again, just to reiterate, so we we have um we'll have our meetings with the central office
135advisory, which is our um faculty and staff members uh for uh that we go through insurance and salary and benefit type things every year. Uh we will continue to refine data as we get more finalized pieces from our local uh sources and uh more information on how the state revenues are coming in to see if our state money is going to hold out through June, those kind of things. So, as time goes on, we'll solidify those things. Um, continue to bring you pieces as we go. This is all preliminary information just so that you understand kind of where we are, what what um uh the the cost of certain pieces would be um as we move forward. >> So, the movement is part of the 3% increase that you put into the budget personnel. >>
136Yes. >> And so, that would leave 2% for >> base. Base increase. And that would just about keep up with inflation. >> Well, I said about >> about. Yes. >> So, >> that's correct. >> I hate I would hate for us not to be able to afford to keep up with inflation. >> I agree. Yes. That's certainly the goal. Always the goal. and the FY27, you said we would get some money back in revenue from the state, but we're we face a deficit because we're a year behind in getting most of our revenue >> on a steady state basis for uh through the formula >> For early childhood >> early childhood, yeah, >> we're a year behind for early childhood special education. How about for claiming for the formula? >> I can estimate in a
137year and get paid in that same year. >> Yeah, we can start. >> We would be a year behind money next year. It's the ECSC money that we have to pay. >> Okay. >> Right. Classroom. >> Yes. Am I right? Classroom trust fund money is a year behind. >> Classroom trust fund money is a year behind. Prop C all of that is a year behind. So all we can get is the formula for the rest of that has to wait a year. >> The sales tax and all those things are are all paid in years. So, yes, some. No, not all. >> Well, that would be good to know in April when you come back. All right. >> Yeah. Um, and if I may, Mr. Packard, you did ask me about the the certificate of
138participation. >> Yep. I maybe should let everybody know that March 5th, uh, Lorenzo Boyd from Stifel and Sean um, I just lost his last name from Gilmore and Bell will be here to present the resolution for you to approve them going to market with that certificate of participation and then they can close anytime after that. So, >> okay. >> So, I let you know that. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Next item is staffing request with Dr. F. Tonight I am coming to you to ask for a special education teacher at Raleigh Junior High due to an increased enrollment to meet IEP needs. Last year we moved this position to Rala High School because we didn't have a lot of our students went to the high school and they needed that
139position more. But next year we're going to get an influx of students and now we need the position back there. So the budget impact um which is a master step 15 um on the 2526 salary schedule, keep in mind this is a 2627 request. We're still at 2526 salary schedule would be $80,210 full year. That is including benefits. >> This is for next year. >> For next year. >> Yes. For next year. >> And and just keep in mind, we always pick that masters plus 15. We're just kind of hitting the salary schedule dead in the middle. >> We have no idea who we're hiring for that position until we get there. So for budgeting purposes, we pick a spot in the middle. Could be less, could be more. [snorts] >> Okay. >> Questions? I'll
140make a motion to approve the additional special education teacher at the junior high for the 2627 year. >> I'll second. >> All in favor say I. >> Thank you. >> You all right? We have it's comment time. So, would you like to go? >> Yeah, I'll just I just have a brief little uh announcement of local news that has happened here at the high school in in RA schools. I know it's a little late though, so I'll try and go a little quick. Um, last weekend we had the play Check Please. It went very well. I know a few people in here went to see it. I hope you enjoyed it. I know a lot of people like in the community got back to me on it and they enjoyed it a lot. Um this
141upcoming last speech this last weekend there's a speech and debate competition and our local speech and debate team got first place at Oage High School and um we're our own hosting tournament is coming up pretty soon I believe. next weekend. >> Next weekend. >> And then FBLA, um me and uh the people in there, we went to districts, I believe, like two weeks ago, and over 18 out of 19 students made it to state qualifications. >> Wow, that's great. That's great. >> I'm exc I'm excited for it. And then basketball season is wrapping up and districts start soon from girls on March 2nd to 6th and boys March 3rd to 7th. Mhm. And then wrestling start is start wrestling state for boys and girls is February 25th to 28th. >> Thank you so much. >>
142Thank you. >> All right. >> I I went to the play. >> Very good. I enjoyed it. But I really enjoyed seeing how many different students were involved and it was really neat to see that many kids involved. >> Our production gets bigger and bigger every year. That's great to see. And uh Ashton had a really big role and had had a great role in that. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. I saw that. You did a great job. >> Want to give them a little preview? >> Just a just a sentence or two >> in a world. [laughter] >> I love it. [applause] >> Very good. >> Thank you. >> Wonderful. >> Good. >> Okay. Dr. D, would you like to give us an update? >> Yeah, just a couple things. Uh just as a reminder,
143February 24th, we have our first uh community conversation night. So Josh Barner will be here as our keynote speaker talking about mental health. Um and some of the stigmas and things that go around that. Um you know, as we heard from our counselors tonight, that's a that's a a huge piece of what we do with our student body. Uh mental health does not always mean uh that you need to be hospitalized. Um sometimes it's just anxiety or perseverance, uh resilience, um uh sometimes there's traumatic events in our lives. There's a there's a whole litany of things that that includes. And um we're having a resource fair. So we have several members of our community that are coming together at 5:30 that night uh to share resources, share some um connections. We will have some light
144refreshments available uh there in the fine arts lobby. And [clears throat] then um the the presentation will be after that. Uh after Mr. Mr. Barner does his presentation, answers a few questions. Um, Compass Health and Prevention Consultants will come up and and talk about how to access resources within the community, uh, what that looks like and and some of the things that they offer. So, looking forward to that. There's still, um, plenty of seats available. We do ask that you register online um, just so we can kind of have an idea of how many uh, things we need for refreshments and and handouts for our vendors that are coming. Um, and so all of that information is on our Facebook page or on the website. There's a little QR code you can click on. Uh,
145please register each person that you plan on bringing. Um, and uh, we're um, looking forward to that night. We also are planning our second community conversations night that's geared around cyber safety. Um, we have a lot of things happening. Uh, we talked about the cell phone ban earlier. Uh but there's a lot of things that happen with um technology that we want to um try to help parents understand how they can safeguard and keep their kids safe uh from predators and and scams and those kind of things. So uh we're getting we'll have more information about that soon. Uh we're looking at probably late April for that uh date. We had uh another citizens academy meeting last night. Uh we hosted this one at Truman Elementary um and uh presented pieces of our district technology
146system, some of the things that we use to protect student uh student data and privacy. Uh we talked about our library services a little bit, talked about our early childhood program, and then took a tour tour of the Truman Building. Doc, uh Mr. Hawk was there to help uh facilitate those pieces and um had a great turnout. Still um seeing some great things come out of that process. Uh I wanted to mention a couple of legislative watch items. Uh Mrs. Atinson mentioned the tax bills. Uh you know unfortunately as a government entity we are uh subject to those tax uh impacts. No one likes paying taxes. None of us do. Uh but but um any changes to any of those areas affect us in some way, shape or form. And so it's just something we
147need to keep an eye on. Um she mentioned open enrollment. Um open enrollment has been uh pretty hot and heavy for the last five or six years. However, this year, in addition to the filed legislation, we also have the governor's executive order and an an order from the state board of education. And so, we believe that there's there's a little more emphasis and probably a like more likely pathway this year for open enrollment. We still don't know what that looks like. Um, every one of those has a different version and and some different details and how that's going about. the the proposed bill in the House, the proposed bill in the Senate, the governor's order, the state board of education's order, all of those look a little different. Um, but we do anticipate that being
148an impact for us in some shape or form. And then, uh, the other big one that's out there right now is this ADF report card. And, um, uh, I do want to, you know, just say there's a lot of, of, um, information out in the news that schools don't want an ADF report card. Uh, I don't think that's necessarily the case. I don't think we're opposed to accountability. We're not opposed to transparency. Um I think some of the pieces that we we're concerned about is n the the init the current proposal is 90% of that is based on the statewide assessments. Um and so that's one test once a year in certain grade levels in certain subjects, >> right? >> Um this negates social studies completely. Um and so um some of the things that
149that we think are problematic, uh some buildings would not get a grade. So, if it's a kindergarten center, for instance, they don't do a statewide assessment, so they don't get a grade. Um, smaller districts don't have the same uh measures and the same uh student accountability pieces that we do. Uh, we're one of a of only 100 and 114 districts, I think, Dr. Wilson, like that. They're held accountable for every single piece of those accountability pieces. Um, just trying to think about is it fair and equitable? Uh, if we're going to say we have an A or a B, or a C, is it the same as everybody else's A, B, or C? And so, um, again, accountability is not something we're can we're we're um opposed to. We just want to make sure it's
150a it's a fair and accurate system. And, um, the other big one that's out there that I'm sure you've seen in the news is the Misha legislation. Um, there's some, uh, ongoing talks about, uh, an accountability uh, board to oversee MSHA and the activities association from the government. Um, not sure where that's going yet. Um, there's there's some um, negotiations occurring there, I guess I would say, but it's just something we're keeping an eye on because again, that could impact our operations and how things are handled with uh, payments and dues and and memberships and bylaws and all those kind of things. So, um, those are the ones we're watching. There's there's 2,000 and some odd bills out there. We're tracking60ome of them. uh really paying attention to those four main areas right now. So,
151we'll keep you posted as more things happen. Uh but we're early in the session, so we don't really have details at this time. And that's all I have. >> All right. All right. Any comments from board members that you want to share? No. Okay. Well, pay attention to the written reports. There's the substitute teacher list, the gifted program report, the ELLL program report, and the cafeteria program report. At this time, we need to return to close session. So, can I get a motion to go into close session, please? >> I'll make that motion. >> I'll second. Right. How do you vote? >> Yes.