001I'd like to call the meeting to order. Um please stand for the pledge if you're able. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay, item 3.03, the superintendent's summary and comments. Thank you. This is here. Welcome to the We are glad you joined us. We have a huge crowd tonight. Hi guys. I do want to take a moment and thank our local law enforcement for ensuring our safety on all of our campuses. I simply want to say thank you. We appreciate our police department and we can give them a hand. We are truly looking forward to some safe graduations this weekend and finishing our school year. Our staff and
002students deserve a safe place to go to work and I and I'm and hopefully Officer Will, you can hear me out there. We are not only our SROs, but also the whole entire police department with the interim police chief, uh Chief Grove, uh Detective Rhodes. They have done an outstanding job uh to help us through some tough times. Happy Teacher Staff Appreciation Week last week as well. Uh It's just that I'm sure Brennan's going to say something to you about it, too, but we're just so proud of our staff. There's all kinds of days. You can't hardly keep it up there. There's Nurses Day and there's but we just want to say to all of our staff, thank you for all that you do. We see you. We value you. We care care deeply for
003you and thank you for making that CSD truly the best place it is. Um It Speaking of action-packed weeks, it's been an exciting action-packed few weeks as we head closer and closer to the last day of school. Our school schools are filled with students working hard on standardized testing, which is over now, but it's they've done a great job participating in a plethora of activities and events. We've had and will continue to have until the end of the year concerts, plays, recognition nights, various student events. This room was filled with art art um work for the last two or three weeks. It was just awesome to see all the art projects in here. The kids are very very talented. Our spring sports teams are either already competing or getting ready to compete in the state
004playoffs. We wish our students the very best in all their assessments, performance, activities, and games. As always, we say go Pirates and go Warriors. And we can't wait for graduation again, which is this Sunday. Looking forward to we'll start off at high and then we go over to West. Very quickly, I don't have a specific update, um but uh I was just text to me about our legislation session, which is very very important to us that there is an ominous bill that is there. And right now it seems like it is going to be smaller than we thought it was. So, that's good news. I don't have all the details yet, but that just came off on my phone right now. So, we have been very active in the legislation but legislation I've been Jeff
005City twice in the last week or two. Um two things that we're watching very closely is ominous bill that has a lot of things in it that would affect uh public schools. And the other one is Senate Bill 1002, uh is in the house at this point and that has to do with our election. So, thank you to everyone for supporting us and our board is so active on this, too. I thank you so much for being active, but sending letters, talking to people because the biggest thing I hear when I'm in hearings or or in people's offices is uh the senators and republic and the representatives, they say they know or hear what our people want and that their constituents are telling that. Well, we have a great group of constituents and we are
006loud and clear and we showed that. We and we're loud and proud and we showed that when? We showed that at the last election. So, continue to to to to and I hate to use the word fight, but fight for public education every day and we're going to continue to make sure that SCC is a a wonderful place for everybody to to continue to learn and work. Uh tonight we have a great agenda. We have a career tech now technical education program review. That is our basically our audience. We're glad you're here tonight. >> [clears throat] >> Well, you can clap for that. We got our our tech guru in the house tonight. It's going to be riveting, right, David? Yes. And then we have we're going to talk about a board member resignation plan
007and then also have our district financial report. Just want to encourage us all to finish strong. I know we're almost there. Uh let's continue to be all in um as we uh look to close out the school year. Thank you, Ellen. Um item 3.04 board communications. Um we are going to change up the board communications uh item and it's an opportunity for board members to share what they learned at conferences or um uh any any uh professional development. So, Karen O'Hearn went to the school safety conference and she'll uh have a few words to say about that. Yeah, I want to thank St. Charles School District for giving me the opportunity to attend the school safety conference. It was presented by the Missouri School Board Association Center for education safety in downtown St. Louis. There
008were many more participants than I had anticipated. They were from all over the country, district superintendents, board members, representatives from the FBI, DHS, and a variety of police departments. Um, the keynote I would say there were two to 300 people there. It was quite an event. The keynote and breakout speakers consisted of a variety of survivors and family members from school shootings, experts on AI risk, suicide prevention, and weather emergencies. I learned a lot about tornadoes. The first day focused on behavior threat assessment management and the importance of networking and educating all shareholders, including parents and families, about warning signs for potential violence or emotional mental health concern in children and adults. I'm glad to say that I am confident that St. Charles School District has already established many of the interventions that were advised
009at the conference. Dr. Siefert and other school leaders stay in touch with students, staff, residents, and community leaders regarding This is a little touching tonight. >> [laughter] >> Regarding all safety issues in St. Charles School District. Actually, St. Charles School District was ahead of the game most ahead of most districts because of our safe and secure firearms resolution, which should be fully implemented next year. While speaking with one of the conference organizers, she shared that next year she plans to include a speaker specifically on safe firearm storage, which we've been seeing in the news recently. The second day's topics were school hardening, security challenges, computer concerns, weather sheltering, and recovery methods from traumatic events. Well, I'm looking forward to attending next two years school safety conference. The organizers shared the funding for the center for
010education safety is one of the many education initiatives that is being considered for substantial budget cuts by our Missouri legislature. They requested that we write our legislators to encourage continued funding for this program, and I have. I plan to continue sharing what I learned at the conference with our other board members and CEO team. They gave out a great book. I'm going to give it to Jeremy on school, you know, security is great, so I'll make sure he gets that. I got one, and I think they're free, so if you like it, you can probably request one for the whole CEO team. But anyhow, thank you. It was a great event. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Okay, and I guess you will be available for contacting if you they want more information. Yes, there were
011great people there. I mean, the speakers were out of this world. They were, you know, people you see on the news. It was great. And anybody else have anything they want to share? Um I know this is the first time, so we we didn't know about this because we can't discuss school uh business unless there it's in a meeting, so I sprung it on you. Okay. Okay, item 3.05, uh audience comments, public participation at board meetings. Uh all regular and special meetings of the board shall be open to the public since the board desires to be a good listener and be responsive to the community. Persons deciding desiring to address the board may do so during the time allotted on the agenda and according to established procedures. During the audience portion of each board member,
012patrons are invited by the president to speak for or against any proposal on the tentative agenda or on any other school concerns. >> [clears throat] >> The individual is asked to identify him or herself, limit comments to a few minutes, and avoid discussing personalities, no names. The president reserves the right to limit the number of presentations and or length of comments at the discretion of the president. The patrons may be recognized at other times during the board meeting. The board is very interested in audience comments according to board policies. Policy, members cannot respond during the actual meeting. The board will listen to audience comments and if necessary additional follow-up will occur through district administrators. And we have one speaker, and Brendan Kearns. Good evening, members of the board, central office staff, and St. Charles community.
013My name is Brendan Kearns. I'm the president of the St. Charles Education Association, the exclusive representation group for certified employees and nurses here in the district. Um May has been a crazy, busy month. So crazy, I did not prepare my usual speech, so I'll be speaking extemporaneously and hoping I get everything included. Um so we've had a lot going on in the district. Um first is kind of a point of our organization and personal privilege. I would like to thank Ms. Karen O'Hearn for meeting with my students during our trip to Jeff City and discussing the responsibilities of um a board member and civic uh duty and voting. It was a great session. Uh they got to meet set um our local rep, legislative aides, um other workers in Jefferson City to kind of learn
014the essential workings of a democratic society. Uh it was a great trip and I'm hoping to continue this in the future. Um I know all of our members are super busy right now wrapping EOCs and MAP tests and getting those last grades in and waiting for your students to get those assignments in as you sweat a little bit. Um not speaking from personal experience at all. Um but uh everybody is working hard. We are almost to summer. Um a lot of us um we're wishing everybody a relaxing summer, obviously, but a lot of us are going to be assuming duties beyond that, working an extended class um school year, uh doing book study sessions, professional development. SCEA members will be meeting together as an executive committee, um to kind of build up for the next
015year and prepare. And myself and Laura Lopez Reese will be attending our National Assembly in Denver, Colorado. So, we are looking forward to that, but we want to wish everybody in the community a great end of the school year and a safe enjoyable summer. Thank you. Thank you, Brandon. Here we normally take a break. If If Brandon wants to leave. >> [laughter] >> But I'm going to hang out till the end. Okay. Um Okay, uh item 4.01. For efficiency, the school board utilizes a consent agenda. Items placed on the consent agenda are routine in nature or are among the many decisions that the board has already determined are in the domain of the administration. Um I move we approve the consent agenda as presented. Oh. Ah. Oh, okay. I My mistake. Um uh I move
016we adopt the agenda as presented. And that's not a roll call vote. All those in favor? I. Opposed? Okay, thank you, um, Kelly for keeping me honest. Okay. Um, I move we approve the consent agenda. Okay. Um all those in favor? I. Opposed? Okay, that passes. Let me scroll down. Well 4.4.0 six, right? Ah. Um Oh, uh 4. Okay. Uh, I I see. Yeah. Well 4.08 approval of the Ah. Well, okay. Uh-huh. 6.01. Okay. Um, career technical education program review. Who's going to do that? All right, good evening, everybody. Um, we are excited to have, um, our career and technical education program review. Uh, first off, this was prepared by Mr. Martin Hanley, Eric Land, Dr. Tina Lauer, and Dr. Steve Smith. We want to thank them for being here, and I also want to
017acknowledge before they get started that this is Dr. Mr. Hanley's last board presentation as he will be retiring at the end of this school year. And this is Dr. Lauer's second to last board presentation cuz she's also retiring at the end of the school year. So, can we give them a round of applause and thank them? Thank you. Um Uh hello everyone. This is our CTE program review. We do this every 2 years just to kind of give you an update on our career and technical programming in the district. Um the first thing is we did have a new CCEP. So, we have aligned our CCEP to Do I Do I use this thing? Oh, okay. Is it on? It's on. Oh, there we go. Okay, thanks. >> [laughter] >> So, we just aligned it
018to the new CCEP goals under the pillar one academic excellence for success-ready. And then also with MCIP 6 there is a standard in the MCIP 6 called TL1 success-ready students which I've kind of bold-faced it what we're kind of kind of go over today which is the IRCs dual enrollment, the PLTW program, CAPS, registered youth apprenticeship and the career and technical student organizations. So, that's our part of the TL1. All right. So, in both of our high schools and we also offer it at Harden, we offer PLTW. The high school version is um, a some it's a year-long program. We have it in engineering, biomedical, and computer science. Um, there are four courses in each, so they can start as a freshman and go through the whole pathway if they wish to do so. These
019are our PLTW transportable and technical skills, um, from the PLTW program. There are opportunities for students who, um, take a PLTW course in high school. Um, the one that we most, uh, kind of offer, or, you know, advertise, is the one at Missouri S&T. They have been a big proponent of of the PLTW program. However, there are many, um, universities and colleges throughout the whole country that will offer, um, course credit for PLTW. They just have to have a qualifying, um, EOC score and an A or B in the course, and then they just send that off to the college that they wish to do that. And so, um, this is, um, the pathways that we are offering. Engineering actually has more courses available. They are the That's the only pathway through PLTW that has
020more than the four courses. Um, but we do offer all four of the biomed and the computer science. One thing that's different than the last, um, time I presented is that the, uh, biomedical and engineering capstone course, um, they used to be separate, and now that PLTW has actually combined those two into one, they're just calling capstone, so that engineering students and biomedical students can work together, um, in the same course on a real-world problem, just as if they were out in the real world. Um, You don't just I'm a biomedical person. I only work on biomed. You're going to maybe need an engineer or something like that. So, that is one thing that we have gone with. They gave you the option to do it the first year and then now they're saying, you
021know, we really do want you to have that capstone course as a combined course. And then um those are links that you can use if you're looking at it on your screen for what is acceptable at Missouri S&T and most other universities are very similar. Um so, we do request the students because it changes so much that when they have finished and completed and gotten their EOC score and their um and their grade that they go ahead if they wanted to get that college credit they get it then. But in case anything else changes, they have already gotten that and then they would be grandfathered in for that course. And then of course, we also have other opportunities for our high school students and career and technical. We have the business, marketing, and information science,
022also called BMIT if you look it up on DESE. Um and then industrial technology and then the FACS program as well. And those are our courses. We just recently um last year we rewrote BMIT in industrial tech, so those are our new course listings. And then next year will be a rewrite of the FACS program. We also just recently this is the first year, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, we are offering some of the FACS programs um the career pathways for teaching one and two and also child development one and two. They both have a dual credit option with UMSL if the student decides to do that. And now I will let Hi, I'm Erica Land. I'm the director of the CAPS program. Uh so we have three strands that we um that we
023offer to students. And uh just like Lewis and Clark, we're in all 17 high schools in the county. Um our largest is our healthcare medical professions and we're actually in the hospitals where we're in Mercy, uh Barnes-Jewish Hospitals, Progress West, SSM Lake Saint Louis, Saint Joe, and then Saint Luke's actually just reached out to us asking to be a partner uh from hearing about the things that we're doing. So um it's it's always a great end of the year because I like to see uh how many students when they go into the hospitals, what they observe. And so it's very special to us um because it's really a make or break if a student can handle what they see and they see they see it all. So um we are great partners with the Saint
024Charles Ambulance District as well. So a lot of our students will go on ride-alongs. Um in October, we had a student who um she was the third ambulance that showed up on a um uh accident. Uh two of the ambulances took the two drivers away. Her ambulance came up and it was a little 9-year-old girl. Um the little girl passed away when she got to the hospital uh but she the student had to be a part of a 4-hour debriefing with all medical emergencies who are part of that accident. So it confirmed that she wants to be a paramedic and she's going to SCAD um in the fall. So um that was great to hear for her. Um we had a big enrollment this year and that's because of the spots are open in the
025hospitals. And so um we're able to open more spots in the fall because we're going to acquire Saint Luke's. But of that this year, um we're actually up to 37 births that have been observed by our students. 131 surgeries. Uh our students go into the surgery room, operating room as well. Um we had 89 intubations and 12 ride-alongs as well. Um the the ride-alongs are 12 hours, and so the students have to commit. Um also this year, Mercy has a program for our students that they can start working um in fulfilling 24 hours a month where they go in and they're a tech, and then they could they fulfill that program, and then uh they pay for their schooling as well. And so quite a few of our students took advantage of that. Um we
026did have quite a few students. I think we only had nine this year who passed out in the OR, so that's not too bad. Last year was a little bit more. Um but the healthcare medical professionals is it it's really strong program, and we're very lucky to have strong partnerships in what what we do. So next is our entrepreneurship and business management course, and they're actually they're taught entrepreneurship. And so that particular course, our students who actually Heidi's daughter took that course, and um they wanted they want to go into business or real estate or entrepreneurship. And we're really lucky because a lot of uh the community really embraces this particular strand, and we have a lot of students who want to go into real estate, and a lot of them who do very well
027after they graduate will continue on down that path. And so um I just heard from someone who participated in our golf tournament on uh Friday, the Hanigans. They just actually hired two of our students who graduated last year. So um so it's great to to hear that as well. And so we had about 59 students in there. A lot of those students will also who had were in internships the second semester from January to May, and a lot of those students are actually going to stay with on in the summer, um and they will continue down that pathway with with them. A lot of our students also when they graduate from college, they come back and they will work with those uh companies as well. So, next is our creative media engineering applied technology and
028that's kind of one strand that's that absorbs everything of what you want to do photography, videography, engineering, creative media, IT. And so we had 18 students in there as well. We will disband that strand after this year and going into the fall we're going to start a new strand called AI AI emerging technologies one of our board members on our CAPs board Scott Dratnik he is the president and the CEO of the St. Charles Economic Development Center and he has really helped with that strand getting it started and he's done a lot of introductions so those companies who have AI incorporated with them and have already come up with a lot of projects for our students to start in the fall. So we're excited to hear about that. But those creative media engineering students again
029though they did internships and a lot of them as well will be continuing on with those companies. In the fall we have 107 students that are going to be enrolled in the health care program. We have 60 in the entrepreneurship and we have 40 in the AI emerging technologies. We do a lot of goal setting for our particular strands and we always send out a survey to the parents and to the students in the beginning of the year and to ask them you know how do your students feel about getting up and presenting in front of adults. How do they do an elevator pitch? When they go up to an adult they have to look them in the eye and they have to give them a handshake and so all of those are very important
030skill sets that they have to continue on when they get into a real business job and so we look at that and quite a few of our students feel that they lack those in the beginning of the program but they feel confident that they can do that now. And so this year we also had a lot of partnerships in the community where real businesses will give projects to our students and then our students will fulfill those items and needs of those companies and so we're 98% of those partners who feel that those projects were met. One of them I was just telling the CEO group. So one of the groups for the healthcare strand, they created these little bags of activities for all patients of all ages at St. Louis Children's Hospital and they went
031around and gave them out and popular one were for the babies and the infants and they sold out of them. And so there was a specialist who was their mentor part of this group and she was so impressed because they ran out of the project of the bags that they went to the foundation and the St. Charles or the St. Louis Children's Hospital Foundation is going to fund their bags from here on out. So that was really exciting to hear. We do one fundraiser of the year and that was our golf tournament this past Friday. It was our biggest. We had we had 39 teams. We one backed out the day before but we did really well and it's it's continuing to grow and so a lot of our parents a lot of the grandparents
032still come involved and this year we had alumni who were participating in it as well. So Yes, we have our wonderful school district here that donates so Yes, yes they are. So we do it in partnership with the Sunrise Rotary and so our we have a our group of students who always go into Rotary and they they hear from the Rotarians and they they really get a lot of feedback and they help partner with the golf tournament and so we're very fortunate because we're very lucky that we have a wonderful superintendent who really supports our our program and our and our fundraiser. Yes, it was. Yes. >> And I want a purse for my wife. Thank you. I I did not stay the whole day. I just came for a little. That is correct. That
033is correct. Um I do just want to point out um we have such wonderful students. We always hear back from them. Um but this particular student, Jackson Curry, uh he's a Wentzville student. He took 2 years of CAPS um and he uh was in the business strand. So, in the business strand there's it's a project called 10X and you have to take $100 or $10 and you have to turn it into 100. I bought a lot of baked goods from your daughter that year. And so, um Jackson Curry came up with this his own model of um helping people who are older, who are not tech-savvy, and going into their homes and helping them with their computers, their laptops, their iPads, their phones, whatever it may be. And so, he has done so well. He
034just hired his third uh full-time employee. He was um featured on Fox 2 News and um he's doing really really well. And so, that program that or that uh internship project all started within the CAPS program. So, uh we're really we're really happy about that. So, I can go on and on about a lot of the stories that we have, but um this one's really special as well. So, Evan Melton, he could not um get up in front of class at the very beginning of CAPS. He couldn't speak. Um he was terrified of speaking in front of adults and people and so, um his dad actually saw somebody that he used to work with at the YMCA about 20 years ago who he works with and um the message that he shared like so, Evan
035is a kid who really struggles. He has a really hard time at times with just talking with people and um he said the CAPS program has brought wonderful changes for my son Evan. They have truly brought out his best qualities in him and built his self-confidence. While doing his internship at Belt Industries, Evan has worked with teams in Italy, Germany, and it's truly been life-changing to watch. And I saw Evan today at Lewis and Clark, and he we him and I had a conversation for 20 minutes. He couldn't do that with me whenever he started in August. And so, it's always great to hear. So, does anybody have any questions for me? Thank you so much. Well, good evening, and um thank you for the last 3 years. Really has been awesome. Uh so, just
036to talk about um all the little tiny print up there, um all of our different programs, and you guys know all of them. Um you've been you've been to our building. Um I wanted to touch on a couple of things with them. Um this year, new for the 25-26 school year, we transitioned from CNA to CCMA. So, our students in that program are um I like to call it more nursey. Um they're actually learning how to draw blood, learning how to give shots, and all of those things. They are the ones that when you walk into a health clinic, they're the first person you see. Um and we had an amazing pass rate this year for them. I looked it up today, I think it was 83% uh people taking that national test, so that's
037a good thing. Um and then, planned for next school year will be our EMT fire program. Um Dr. Smith did a great job putting together that application for DESE, and uh we're waiting on final approval from them, but we're looking forward to having those students come in to be a part of that program, and then um take and pass their NREMT test at the end of the year so they can be uh working in uh as a as an EMT, and then be prepped for paramedic class. Um one thing that's brand new that we just got news yesterday, um that our early childhood careers has dual credit with Missouri State University. So, that is a brand new thing that just happened. Uh we would like to invite you to stop by, probably not this week,
038you know, because everything's you know, kind of wrapping up, but at the beginning of next year stop by and visit. Um, I won't be there to tour you around, but we'll have some amazing people that can take you around and show you all the different amazing things that are happening at Lewis and Clark. Um, our our goals this year have been 95% attendance, um, 90% of eligible students earning an IRC. We didn't totally hit that. I think our final numbers were like 85%. So, we came very close to that. Um, 90% of our students on track to earn a certificate. We did really good with that. We've increased our essential employability skills. Uh, we put together some things to help the instructors track those this year. So, we're we're being a little more proactive to
039make sure those happened and more CTE focused professional development. Uh, one of the things that's important for our staff is um, that that professional development that makes sense for um, CTE people. Um, and so we've been focusing on that and that's gone very well this year. Um, some more little numbers. Um, we had, um, and I know we're going to talk more about CTSOs later, so I'll kind of skip that. Um, but each year we see more and more and more applicants uh, for Lewis and Clark and what we offer. We had over a thousand applicants and and we say 500 spots, but let's be real honest, it's about 250 spots cuz we're bringing people back for that second year, so we can only have roughly 250 spots for new for new students. Um, again
040our enrollment keeps going up and up each year. Um, for last school year, um, it was 491. This year it it pushed over 500 and next year it'll be even more with the addition of the EMT program. So, constantly growing. Um, we are again achieving our IRCs, which is a good thing. Now, I will give you a caution. DESE is changing the IRC requirements and the IRC tests that are available that will go into effect in 2 years. So, you may see some numbers change as those tests change. I wanted to give you that heads-up as as we look towards the future. Um our IEP percentage remains relatively consistent. Roughly a quarter of our students have IEPs. Um and we have amazing staff that um work with um our students. Um our placement data again,
041we continue to place students. That is what we do. Our students leave Lewis and Clark ready to work, ready to go to college, ready to go into the military, whatever uh life is calling them to do, they are ready to do that. And we're really proud of all of our students. We're proud of our instructors who make this possible for those students, who help them achieve their goals. I forgot that was popping up. Oh, stay up here. Uh-huh. Okay. All right. So, the CTSO um highlights we have um those are the different student groups that we offer for our CTE students. Um DECA, FBLA, TSA, FCCLA, HOSA, and then SkillsUSA. Um I have Well, let me get my glasses on so I can actually read what I'm going to say here. Okay, so for DECA
042we actually had a student at St. Charles West, Nick Beeler, who served as the DECA state president for the last school year. Um and both schools, both high schools um had great community projects, um community awareness projects with Megan Meyer Foundation. Um students competed at both district and state levels. And St. Charles High was actually awarded the DECA gold level recertification for the galley, which is considered their small business enterprise. Um FBLA, St. Charles High School took 50 students to state and will be taking 11 to nationals. Um FCCLA, I have students competed at Missouri State Leadership Conference and um they've also planned and facilitated the Region 4 meeting consisting of members from 32 Missouri high schools. And I'm going to let you um talk about SkillsUSA. Okay. So, I'll sit right over here. So,
043um real quick, uh looking at next year, we'll add uh HOSA to Lewis and Clark. Um so, that's one of the things that we're looking at. But, our SkillsUSA students, um we had about 80 students 90 students competed at the district level. We took a full busload down to state contest. Um out of state contest, we ended up with five students eligible to go to the national level contest. I've been in SkillsUSA, involved with that for the past 21 years, and one of those students did something that I've never seen in 21 years. Uh one of the leadership competitions is a is a demo. Um and he demonstrated how to rope a calf. And he took gold medal with that. And he won. He took gold medal. I I think everybody at the state level
044was like, "We've never seen that either." So, um sadly, he's not going to be able to go represent Missouri at the national contest because he's got to go work at the ranch that he owns. So, he's going to be a little busy dealing with live cattle as opposed to the fake one that he roped. Um but, the other four will be going to um Atlanta to represent Missouri. Um they'll be doing dental assisting. Um Um uh medical assisting. So, dental and medical both. Um uh precision machining and small engines. And the young man who's uh representing us in small engines, this is his second year in a row that he has gone to Nationals to represent Missouri. So, we're pretty proud of our students. All right. No. >> [laughter] >> All right. And um also
045the IRCs, um that's the link of DESE's list of IRCs. Um like Martin said, they they changed it up a lot. Um and every year you there's a window where people can request IRCs be added to look at them. And as um the test change, they will um change whether or not they're approved by DESE or not. Um you'll notice that we used to offer the Adobe test for our business um students. However, due to the way that DESE has changed it, um we are no longer doing that. However, we are doing the career pathways for the teaching profession. They are taking the AAFCS educational foundation fundamentals um at the end of their um second semester in that class, um which I believe is the same one that they take for early childhood careers at
046Lewis and Clark. And I'll let you Do you want to talk about that one or no? Well, so um there's one uh we're working on uh power equipment technologies adding an IRC there. That's one of our uh programs that does not have a uh approved IRC by the state. So, we're working on adding that one. Um hopefully next year for that. Um but again, those are all the different tests we take. Any questions about any of them? Not that I'd be able to answer them cuz I don't teach any of them. I think that's it. Okay. I think we're at See you. Good evening. Uh I'm Steve Smith. I run the registered youth apprenticeship for the district if you don't mind my voice. So the youth apprenticeship program it connects high school students throughout the
047district with paid hands-on career experiences while they complete their high school education. They can earn wages while they're in high school. The key here is that they can start at 16 because it is through the US Department of Labor they will go out in the workforce start at 16 gain real world experience in very high demand areas mostly our manufacturing partners around the St. Charles area. And earn industry recognized credentials. All school districts in St. Charles County we work together on this so there is one of me in every district for Zumwalt they have a full-time FTE that does this Francis Howell has two people Zumwalt I'm sorry Wentzville got one and then Orchard Farm Dr. Greg Jones runs it for Orchard Farm if you're familiar with him. Then Lewis and Clark Career Center I
048play a unique role because not only am I the youth apprenticeship coordinator for the district I'm also at Lewis and Clark so it affords me a unique perspective in working with these kids and trying to get them out in the workforce. Regional employers this is actually primarily spearheaded by Quest Specialty Products. Just across the river in Earth City their a machining operation they've they kind of got Syberg Industries on board and then kind of the the the waterfall opened up after that and then the Department of Elementary and Secondary Ed in Missouri and the US Department of Labor. David Here we go. I guess I I a new outfit, huh? Um So, youth apprenticeships bridge education and workforce needs across St. Charles Uh is this what I just talked about? Yes. So, for the students,
049it's a paid career experience. So, what I do is twice a year I go to to the high schools. And frankly, in this district, it does not work without the counselors at St. Charles High and St. Charles West. They are extraordinary. They go out of their way to help cuz I can't be in the building all the time. Um my counterparts in some of the other districts, you know, like Greg Jones in Orchard Farm, he's with those kids every day. The other schools, they have more flexibility in getting out. I rely on the counselors at West and High, and they do an outstanding job in helping me reach the kids that need to be targeted for these programs, and also getting me into the building during AIP so that I can present to them. I
050go in then, I kind of give them my spiel, run through everything, and then we see if they're a good fit. We'll look at their the kind of the same things that they do for Lewis and Clark. We look at their discipline record, we look at their attendance. We need to make sure that when they go out and represent us, that they are representing us well. We don't want to just throw anybody out there. Um they get professional networking opportunities, reduced post-secondary debt, direct pathways into high-demand careers, and a focus on soft skills. We work with them on everything from resume building to kind of some of the things that CAPS does with their own elevator speech, really just getting them out of that awkward little teenage bubble and into the workforce. Um for the
051employers, I I mean, they they're knocking at our door all the time for all of our programs. They're saying if we if they're not trained up fully, we'll take them. And these kids are coming out and they can make upwards of 20, 21, 22 dollars an hour right off the bat. Um and then the benefits for the school and the community is that it does build a strong business partnership with local manufacturers. I mean, we're working I've gotten to know so many people in the business world in St. Charles County that I never would have had an opportunity to meet if I wasn't doing this. And so through those connections, we're able to do better things for students. And then um it in St. Charles, when I talk about early successes here, we have actually
052So when I say we've got about 7 to 18 students placed in the district over 1 and 1/2 year time frame, that may not sound like a lot, but we start with a lot more. And these are 18 people that have made it past all of these different, you know, day one, day two, going out, learning all these things. Um you know, for a smaller district in the county, we are second to Zumwalt in terms of the numbers. And Zumwalt is operating with a a one full FTE. That's his position. He's doing this. So, um again, I could not do that without the counselor support, without the administrative support at High and West. They they really make it uh easier for me. Um we have apprenticeships in manufacturing, welding, and the skilled trades now. We
053are getting into the nursing areas. We're getting into early childhood. So, it's kind of across the board. You can see a list of industry partners up there. That's a small list. They are all local. We have placed 18 students since the spring of 2025 and this continues to increase. Um they do not need to be enrolled at Lewis and Clark. That it helps, for sure, but they do not need to be enrolled at Lewis and Clark. You might have a student that is taking a shop class at at West and the the teacher there says this is a good fit. And then they go talk to the counselor, they get them involved with me, and we go from there. Um what is not on this is just 2 days ago we had a meeting with
054representatives from St. Charles Community College and our business partners. St. Charles Community College right now for um a CNC associate's degree, so CNC is machining. They will be able to earn up to 24 credit hours by taking by by doing this internship. So, if these kids come out, they go work, they complete their 2,000 hours at these um you know, True Manufacturing or Syre Industries, they're going to get up to 24 credit hours at St. Charles Community College. So, again, just trying to get kids out there debt-free. And we just kind of went through that and solidified it um a couple days ago. So. That's all I've got. Any questions about youth apprenticeships? All right. Thank you very much for your time. I I have a quick comment about Lewis and Clark. I want to
055brag a little bit. Um we have a group, the St. Charles Foundation, and they were awarded a $20,000 grant this year from General Motors. And uh Lewis and Clark received one of those lump-sum grants, and they're going to have, which is a I mean, she had to apply, she had a beautiful application, and I can't remember what is the McKenzie. Yeah, she did a great job and um received grant and they're getting two portable EKG machines for their program. And McKenzie came to us just this January. She was a nurse up until December of this past year. She's been in education for a total of 4 months now, so. Two portable EKG machines Mhm. used for the My quick comment is this. CAPS, Wilson Clark, this is a partnership program. They're changing lives and they
056really are. I mean, it's amazing what our kids are seeing and this is the this is the education we're talking about that's across the nation that that is giving kids an opportunity to see what they want to be when they grow up. It really does. It saves It saves money. It saves time. And I They those guys know how much I love CAPS and Wilson Clark. But this guy right here, he sells himself short when he says that the counselors are helping him.