001and contracted services partners for all or a contracted services partner for all their hard work for getting us back to school so quickly. And yes, I probably visited about seven schools today, including St. Charles High, and all I heard all day was, "Why couldn't we have an AMI day? Why couldn't we have an AMI?" I'm like, "I'm not Oprah. I'm not giving them out to everybody, but uh all seriousness, we we had a our facilities team and our partners work so hard to get us back so we'll be ready for tomorrow. Tonight, we are celebrating school board appreciation week. Special special thank you to our board of our board members. We are so appreciative of of your service and help in guiding leading our district and our community. To celebrate, we have some small gifts
002of our appreciation and signs and cards from our students, from our very own students. and we just want to say thank you for all that you do. Let's give them a nice round of applause. Just a personal note, my job is a lot easier when I have uh seven board members who are here for the right reasons and just want to support and help lead and uh help guide and and um it's it's it's a privilege and an honor for me to to to work under such a group. So, happy board appreciation week. Recently, it was our honor to surprise and celebrate several of our staff members who have won our Charting the Stars awards. Congratulations to all who won awards nominated by their peers. Staff members recognized by their peers were or are Nick
003Mason, Stephan Stephanie Jwitt, Melissa Sanheimr, Ashley Panhorse, Morgan Drury, Cliff Hescamp, Delila Vander, Nicole Hullman, and Ryan Po Dexter. We can clap for them if they're watching. It is March. That means we have several school events, activities taking place throughout the district until the rest of the year. This is a very busy time of the year, but so much fun. The middle of March also means spring break is around the corner. I think we're ready for that. It's hard to believe that we're down to about two and a half months of school left. It gets pretty exciting here at the end. Uh speaking of spring uh spring activities and sports, the new season is in full swing. Uh we will start actually we have a string of great theatrical fine arts performances taking place. St.
004Charles High has their spring musical this weekend. Dr. Lewis and I got to catch a little bit of it today. It's funny, isn't it? We laughed the whole time. It was good. It was really good. So go and check that out this weekend. And our spring sports are starting their competition start next week. So as always, we like to say go Pirates and go Warriors. Quick thank you to our board members, especially Karen O'Harn for being actively involved in communicating with our local legislators and pertinent pending on pertinent pending legislation. Your your support of public education and the district is greatly appreciated and needed. Uh well, thank you. In the election this April, we've talked about it uh several times, but I want to make sure we say it again. There is Prop Prop RT
005on the ballot. Information on this bill has gone out in several ways so that everyone is fully informed on how and why Prop RT will impact the SCSC if passed. We had a presentation on the impact of Prop RT. We call it SB3 as well 3 at our last meeting. Um make sure you're well informed of the ramifications of proposed legislation and get out to vote on April 7. Also a remember reminder we have uh with this election coming up we have uh three seats with four candidates for board of education. So we're excited to have four uh one very very uh I should say solid candidates running for um for board and we have two incumbent so we're excited about that. Uh and we have successfully completed negotiation season. And I want to give
006another shout out to our three union groups, SCA and CESO with us tonight and also SC CTE. Very productive conversations meetings with all three groups as we're all in on making keeping and making slashkeeping the SCSC the best place possible for staff to be the best for our students. We appreciate our ongoing strong relationships with SEA, CES, and SCTa. Tonight the board will vote to approve both the SCA and CESAM meet and confer agreements. We are planning to bring the SCTA agreement in April. We don't have a huge agenda tonight, but we have some great things. We're going to have a student update from Addison Tubs. She's in the house. We're looking forward to that. She's got like a three-page uh essay, so be ready. She's bringing bringing the heat tonight. Uh we also have
007a C cip update. We have both meet and confers certified classified for you guys to approve. We have a policy update. We have some construction bids and then um Mr. Shields will dazzle us with a financial report. You look excited. Are you excited? Okay, great. We're in the midst of a very productive 2526 school year. Want to encourage all of us to continue to be safe, respectful, and responsible as we continue to be allin together. And I wish everybody a great spring break when we get there. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Seafruit. Item 3.04 is board communications, of which I get to ask myself, and we do not have any. We'll move on to item 3.05, which is school board appreciation week. >> And I kind of already done it, >> but
008I just want to say thank you again. Hope we had a chance. Kelly does a great job. >> Just take take a chance before you leave and look at the cards. Our staff, our students, they know who our board of education are. That's our district and they know how important these positions are. So, please appreciation. So, please please make sure you read those and know how much we appreciate all. We hope you like to thank you. Item 3.06 is audience comments. 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 desiring to address the board may do so during the time so allotted on the agenda and according to established procedures. During the audience portion
009of each board meeting, patrons are invited by the president to speak for or against any proposal on the tentative agenda or on any other school concern. The individual is asked to identify him or herself, limit comments to a few minutes, and avoid discussing personalities. The president reserves the right to limit the number of presentations and or length of comments. At the discretion of the president, patrons may be recognized at other times during the board meeting. The board is very interested in audience comments. According to board 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. Uh tonight we have two audience comment cards. First one is uh Brendan Karns. Good evening, central office staff, members of the board in central
010and St. Charles community. My name is Brendan Karns and I'm the president of the St. Charles Education Association, the exclusive bargaining organization for certified employees and nurses in the city of St. Charles School District. Um, I'd like to start off this is board appreciation month for thank by thanking our board for the um important and challenging work they do on a volunteer basis for those of us here in the school district. So, thank you very much on behalf of SCEA and also I'd like to thank any of our employees or members of St. Charles community who are involved in helping out with our difficult situation around West today. Um, they scrambled to get that out to us. Um, and I know that's difficult deal, but all of our kids will be back tomorrow, so we
011are glad for that. Tonight, we are excited to bring forward our recently ratified bargaining agreement. This agreement includes dedicated IEP writing time for elementary teachers, department chairs for our ELLL teachers, an additional sick day that can be converted into a personal day, allows the use of sick days for maternity and paternity leave, the opportunity for nurses to earn more by achieving advanced degrees, full tenure rights for our early childhood educators, and language formalizing the board exclusive representative grievance decision from September. We are proud to work of the work of our organization and central office were able to do coming together to do what's best for our students and employees. This is the power of interestbased collective bargaining and why it is such a vital thing for our district. To build on the work our union
012is currently doing. Will be sending members to to our national leadership summit this weekend in Chicago. Myself, Jennifer Powers, and Mackenzie Pyrick will spend the weekend learning how to build our union from NEA's nationally renowned leaders. We are looking forward to this opportunity to talk about the amazing things SCA is achieving as well as learn from others. Finally, elections are fast approaching and we encourage members of our community to get out and vote April 7th. SCA has endorsed Karen O'Harn, Lorie Gibson, and Charlie Daniels in the upcoming race and believe strong pro public education candidates make for stronger public schools. We have finally encouraged members of our community to look into Prop RT and the devastating effects it would have funding our county's education, fire, and disability board. Thank you. >> And next is Jill
013Meyer. >> Hello, I'm Jill Meyer. I'm president of the St. Charles Education Support Staff Association. On behalf of CESSA, I would like to thank the administration and members of the board for their time and collaboration throughout the classified negotiation process. I would also like to recognize and thank the CESA negotiations team um we had five new members uh join this year um for the many hours of work and preparation and thoughtful discussion um that they dedicated to this process. We appreciate the opportunity to work together in discussing the needs of our classified staff and the district. The CESA membership has ratified the 2026 through 2028 collective bargaining agreement. And we look forward to continuing our partnership and supporting the students and staff of the district. And a final thank you to the board for all
014of your uh hard work and dedication for this district. Thank you. Item 3.07 is a high school student update. We have from St. Charles High, Addison Tubs. >> Hi, as you all know, I'm Addison Tubs, a sophomore at St. Charles High. Today, I will be talking to you about my experiences and opinions about our school. I am very involved within our school community. I'm a part of the cross country, basketball, and track team. I'm also very involved in FBA, DECA, New Alpha Data, and a new member of NHS. In the first semester, me and my friend Lily Black unfortunately couldn't make it tonight due to the musical are both members and DECA. We had to pick a project to compete in at the beginning of the year. We chose to raise awareness for bullying. In
015this project, we first conduct contacted the Megan Meyer Foundation which is a local foundation dedicated to Megan Meyer who took her life in 2007 due to bullying. Her mother created this foundation in her memory which provides free counseling and support line located right down the street from our school. Liy and I soon decided we needed to go straight to the source of bullying, the students. We conducted a presentation in a real life video with scenarios of bullying and which ways you can be an upstander. We presented this video to all AIPs, sophomore, freshman and sophomore AIPs. Post presentation, we sent a survey to the teachers asking if they had noticed people being more upstanders versus bystanders and if the amount of bullying in their classroom has gone down. Teachers said that there was more kids
016being their own advocate in bullying situations and standing up for themselves. But there was not a lowered amount of bullying. Some teachers suggested that next time we talk more about a difference between joking with your friend and actually bullying them. After the presentations, me and Lily still felt like we needed to do more. We decided to create posters to hang around the school. We created one poster that gave a place for people to know how to contact the Megan Meyer Foundation if they needed help. We also created a more casual post poster with a catchy line so that students could remember to be a buddy, not a bully. With our project, we inspired our counselors to to have the Megan Meyer Foundation come and speak with our whole student body. In all, I think this
017project was really brought awareness to a topic that many of us overlook dayto-day because it is so common nowadays. Whether it be something small, making fun of someone, or actually hurting them and putting others lives in danger. Next, I would like to talk about some things that are going well within our school. With being a student athlete, your time management needs to be very well established to ensure you can get everything done in a timely manner. Teachers at St. Charles High are very helpful with communicating and planning ahead so that when students know that they will miss a day of school due to a track event or a fa event or family matter, they ensure that they you will have all the materials to stay caught up in class. Most teachers are very good with
018working with students who have missed a day to catch up on work they need to complete on their own. They are very understanding and know you have other classes. They do not rush you. They make sure you know you are cared and will always help you complete all your work. With time management, another point has been brought to my attention of out of block scheduling. This is going to make it really hard for student athletes because these students will have less time to work on homework in AIP. If students miss a day due to a game or DECA or FAA event, then then they will have to work have more work that they have missed and they need to get caught up on. In the long run, this will hurt our students with missing lessons.
019with our faculty in our building. Our counselors are very good with helping our students find more opportunities to push themselves and better themselves in their future with new SEC programs and new classes available. Our school is very involved in activities within our school. We have over 100 members in FLA, almost 180 students in track and still have full rosters in all other sports. With having all these students involved in these activities, we become more than just peers. We become a family. Some days we see them more than we do our parents. With Being a community community, we all like to recognize each other's accomplishments. Every day in the daily announcements, we have a section where we talk about if we won or lost the game the night before. I know during cross country swimming track,
020the coach will write a full report of explaining accomplishments of the new personal records or school records that were set the night before. Our school is more of a communic community where we like to help each other. This brings me to the point of our studentled tutoring. As a school, we all have we have student tutors who excel their knowledge in class and decide to help others who aren't doing so well in a certain class. One student said, "It's very helpful having someone your age to help you in getting a different point of view from on your problems. This is very important to help all students ensure that they are getting the right amount of help they need. Our school has assemblies about once a semester. During these assemblies, we have a teacher versus staff
021games which really brings our school together and helps us have fun and makes school enjoyable. I feel like we need to more ways to make a school a place where students want to come every day and learn while also having fun. Some ideas that came to mind that is that we could have more interactive learning opportunities not just on the computer or writing notes, but we could also have um soft lighting, comfy chairs, making the classroom more um welcoming and less intimidating. I think we should make students work more as a team and collaborative than I'm competing against you, I'm better than you. Another point I think needs to be recognized within our building is that we just got all new drinks and new options in our vending machines, but have still failed to stock
022the phenomenon products in the bathrooms. I feel like these products are essential in the bathrooms. Students have to go all the way back to class and get these products in emergency. I feel and feel more embarrassed because they're like, "Oh, can I go back to the bathroom real quick? I need to go back in front of the whole class. I know that they can go to the nurse and ask for these products, but they have to walk all the way down to the nurse's office feeling uncomfortable and asking them. Not to mention, they are on a time take longer than the time given on the pass and they can get counted for skipping. We can eliminate this awkwardness and worry for students by just providing them in the bathrooms. My last issue in our school
023is that is how much funding we give all of our sports and forget about our clubs and let them f for themselves. With being an officer in the FBA chapter at St. Charles High School, I witnessed firsthand how no funding we get from the school district. In April, we taking almost 60 kids and going to Springfield to compete in the state competition. Excuse me. Each student must pay on their own over $300 just to go and pay for all of their food and anything else they need once they get there. To some students, this is near impossible. Either they don't have enough money to pay for this or don't have the enough people to hand out money for the fundraisers that are given. We without any funding, we give our students such a high price
024to pay if they want to be successful and push themselves for their careers in the future. We are penalizing our students just because they don't have the right amount of financial aid. When talking to other schools, they said that their school districts provide a little bit of money and that they have way less kids than us going. If this were a sport that had 60 plus kids going to state, we would have given them tons of money to make it possible for every student. In all, our school is thriving in many ways that can't even explain. There are some areas where we need improvement. Thank you. Any questions? >> Um, I have a question. Um, congratulations on your anti-bullying efforts. It's really important, especially since it's coming from students. Is there any plan to continue
025this effort once you graduate? >> Um, yes, Lily and I I am a sophomore, so me and Lily will be doing this project for the next two years, and afterwards, we will probably talk with our fresh incoming freshmen that will continue this project. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Item 3.08 is amend or adopt the agenda. I motion that we adopt the agenda as presented. Is there a second? >> I'm going to after that one. >> I was planning on I was trying to get to four. Okay. All those all those in favor >> I opposed. >> Now we'll take a short break for anybody that doesn't want to stay for the remainder of the meeting. But thank you so much for coming for the audience comments and the school update.
026So we move on to item 4.01 which is the consent agenda. For efficiency the school board utilizes a consent agenda. Item place items placed on the consent agenda are routine in nature or among the many decisions that the board has already determined are in the domain of the administration. Item 4.01 is approval of the consent agenda. I motion that we'll approve the consent agenda as presented. Do I have a second? All those in favor? Opposed. Moving on to item 6.01. It's a CIP update. And as he's getting this up, I just want to um say this part. And it's not that we're going to go fast at all, but just so you know, these are just quick just really quick kind of check-ins. Most of the reports that we do all have the CIP in
027already, but we do these. How many do we do for these? Four. And that's because of Mub6 has us do it. So we used to do two a year. So just so you know, if we're kind of going quick through it, it's just Just really quick quick update. So just little caveat there for you. >> So uh just a reminder our mission is to engage, empower and inspire every learner every day. And then as you can see this is our mission, our vision and our values. academic excellence, student centered, integrity, diversity, and community. With that being said, we have three pillars that you all know. We have academic excellence, resources, and culture. And so, we're going to give you an update on where we are at this point in the year towards working some towards
028some of these goals and our year one priorities. So with that being said, just a reminder for under academic excellence, our first goal was centered around increasing student achievement. Our second goal was I'm sorry, our first goal was centered around increasing student attendance. Our second goal was student achievement. And then our third goal was centered around increasing the graduation rate. I'm sorry, there's a the clicker is a little off this evening. um do we want to increase our grad graduation rate and also improve our college and career readiness metrics. So under academic excellence, our year one priorities were centered around that success ready students. We had um determined that one of the things that we really wanted to do was have a um a a systematic way of tracking, monitoring, and and intervening when it
029comes to our students, especially determining whether or not they were on track to graduate. if they weren't, what kind of interventions could we put in place? Um, and so one of the things that we did at the beginning of this year is that we formed a committee between all three high schools. So between success, West, and High. Um, part of that, we audited our practices to see where we were different and then we created a unified plan moving forward that we wanted to kind of pilot throughout this year. And so that's what's been going on. Now, our counselors and our building principles have been um working with this new system to track students. And so, our next steps are once this year is over, we will meet, we will evaluate the system, make any tweaks
030or discuss what tweaks we need to make for moving forward. And then once we know, once we have a solid game plan, we want to have clear written protocols written down so that we will always have that to follow us regardless of who sits in those seats. So regardless of who the principal is, regardless of who the counselors are, regardless of who the assistant superintendent is, we will have clear clear written protocols for tracking, monitoring, and intervening for students. So that's the first uh update. And then the second one was around our portrait of a graduate. Our goal was to create a portrait of a graduate that identified the skills and competencies that we want for a student by the time they graduate from the city of St. Charles School District. And so we formed
031a committee back in September. We've had meetings up until this point. And at our last meeting, probably our most productive yet. We identified the six attributes that we want for our graduates. It was it was a long conversation, but it was a good conversation. And so we landed upon effective communicator, perseverant, critical thinking and problem solving, personal wellness, self-determination, and community-minded. So those will be the attributes when we say a student is graduating and going into the real world they will leave with those items. So next steps for us we are now moving into the second phase of this project where we are convening a subcommittee of teachers and administrators and we're going to define what each attribute looks like at specific grade levels. So, for example, um perseverance looks different for a kindergarten student
032than it does for a sixth grade student than it does for a high school senior. And so, we're going to start looking at those uh by each individual grade level and then developing the instructional strategies that we will use to teach those skills and then establish those success metrics. So, that's the work we've been doing uh thus far this year. Uh we have a lot of work to do but we're excited about where we are uh in our journey with academic excellence. >> Any questions for me? >> I have one question. The portrait of a graduate committee, I've had a couple of parents approach me who are interested in doing the grade level. Yeah. How are email? >> Have them just email me. Absolutely. I'm I'm definitely looking for volunteers. >> Okay. Thank you. >>
033Any other questions? move on to resources. >> All right, this is just a a quote that we get to see uh every time we do this presentation. So, it is from Dr. Vocal's daughter who is performing very very well at Missou. Uh moving on from that, school configuration probably one of the uh uh the hot topics of the CIP right now. uh we we have stated as that goal by the end of the 2930 school year we will determine a sustainable school configuration model that optimizes student transitions between elementary and secondary schools. We have had two meetings which mo uh the majority of the board has attended those on 129 and on February 3rd just looking at background information historical information and some present day information at this point in time. Our next scheduled meeting
034is March 31st of 2026. So we are we are uh attempting to meet that 2930 goal. Uh we are going uh slow through this process intentionally because we want to make sure whatever decision is made if it's status quo maintaining what we currently have or making a change it is in the best interest and will be sustainable for a uh foreseeable future. Um second goal uh we'll complete a facilities improvement plan. So that has been done. Uh we do have a priority plan for that. Uh and we within that plan, one of the key components is just ensuring our buildings are safe, clean, and conducive to learning. That's a daily task. So we do have teams that monitor that, administrative teams, uh facility teams, but also custodial teams along with our staff uh that do
035help monitor all of that. The second one there, increased stakeholder satisfaction scores, that will not be seen until uh reviewed until uh May at the earliest uh when we begin to get those uh results back. Uh I will say that that is a score that we can always improve upon clean buildings. Uh so it's something that did we did highlight uh this past year and made sure that that was included uh in the CEIP because that's something that's very important to us. And then the last one, I'll be honest, the the bond. We didn't have the bond passed when this CIP was created. So, we didn't truly know what number we should put in there for high priority renovation projects. The bond makes it very easy to do that because we have the funding uh
036to do such projects. So, we have completed five high priority uh renovation projects and we will continue to build upon that this summer uh with the summer's work that's already been approved. Um, next one is staffing uh maintain the district will achieve and maintain 100% staffing levels as defined by a 10% or lower annual turnover rate for certified teachers and support staff and an equitable distribution of highly qualified staff. So that's to be determined. That's going to be over the course of the CIP that we're able to provide some data on that. I will say uh this year we uh in my opinion and I think in Dr. Lewis and his team have done a really nice job, especially with our classified certified always there, right? Um, but especially with our classified staff, we've been
037we've been uh doing very very well as a district and hiring and making sure that those positions are filled even when people are resigning uh within the year. So, uh that's certainly stretching our budget a bit because we haven't felt that since uh 2020. Uh so, uh that's a great thing. That's a great thing for our staff. That's a great thing for our students. And then the last one, financial stewardship. That's a that's an every year goal for us. That's not just a one-time deal. So, we will take those check marks off again probably by the next time we do those this report to say it to be determined uh once this audit hits. So, it's achieving unmodified annual audits, maintaining a fund balance that aligns with board established priorities, and and then ensuring a
038balanced operating budget. And as you guys know, that budget can switch a little bit here and there with adjustments throughout the year. Uh but we want to make sure that we are balancing that out each month if so if so necessary. Uh for instance, this these surprises that we have with sanitary drains certainly certainly push us a little bit. So uh so we have to make adjustments when those types of events do occur. Uh any questions for myself? Oh no, I'm sorry. We got one more. Analyzing enrollment trends. We did do that with a demography report prior to it, but we're constantly uh reviewing that. I will say in the last three years, you take the best of the three. Uh our total for this year for our student advocacy target is a little bit
039higher, which is great because we do receive a bit of state funding for that. So that's that's welcome news. Uh benchmark with comparable district. We're still comparable districts. We're still looking at that. And then implement incremental budgeting practices. Uh we are working on that. We're working on that this year. Uh as far as um uh meeting with the teams repeatedly, we we will continue to have some spring meetings before we start establishing that budget that we will bring or finalizing the budget that we will bring to you all in June. Uh any questions for myself? >> Thank you. >> All right. So for culture, we have three different goals that we've been working on. Um the first is that all students will receive targeted and tiered support. So this is done through PBIS. Um goal
040number two is that um students and staff feel increasingly safe and valued and we measure that um through our climate and culture survey. And then goal three is enhancing community involvement um again through that um survey. So you'll see on the next talks through the priorities. Um, this is kind of a mirror of what's on the the following page and it shows the progress we've made. So, if you wouldn't mind clicking on to the next one. So, this kind of same information but with the um updates. So, for the development and implementation of a district-wide PD plan for tier 2 and tier three interventions, um, we are working on a district-wide PBIS manual. So this is something that all teachers um will be able to reference to give them specifics about how we as a
041district um do PBIS um in all three tiers. And so currently our district leadership team is working on that manual. Um and they have broken into the two advanced tiers and are working on creating those pieces while as a group as a whole we work on tier one. Um we're also just doing data gathering through care team. So looking at the percentage of students that we're providing um tier two and tier three interventions for and then freshman success. So this is something that was brought to you guys that you had um signed previously but uh through Missou we're working with um doing kind of like a research um opportunity for our high schools to be able to have them come in and do consultation and and work if they get chosen. Um there's this freshman
042success program um that looks some key indicators of freshman success. And so it's all about preparing them for their freshman year. Um so we're going to be working on that with our high schools. Um hopefully they get chosen to be a part of the research project. So uh the next is with sense of belonging. Just building those relationships with students uh through regular check-ins. U tier 2 check-in checkout at multiple buildings is something that we're continuing and then integrating student voice into multi-tered system of support. Um and so we've been trying to identify ways in which students can have more voice in that through our DEP uh district leadership team. Um for regular feedback to assess effectiveness of those interactions again is through care team reviews and then adapting practices based on feedback is just
043we'll be using that culture and climate survey u data to adjust our practices per building. Um, in regards to community involvement, um, we still have the district-wide communication plan as, uh, as well as the individual school plans. And then our communication, what would the be the word platform is parent square, so that was what was decided upon. Um, and we have one of our counselors who's piloting that platform with his baseball team, which is helping find those blind spots. Um, and then working on training days for staff members for that. as you can tell you can tell we've got a lot of good work. It's one year I mean not even a year down and look at the goals that we're already getting to and meeting. So I think it's just a testament to not
044only the co team but also the staff that comes alongside board members. I mean, you go to any committee meeting, we have board members, we have parents, we have staff, we have students all coming together and we are we and we know what we are about and where we're going and we have a clear path of the CIP and it's just awesome to see when you keep it in the CIP makes it easier for everybody and that's what we're doing. So, kudos to our team. >> Any questions? >> That's just information. >> Yeah, just that was an and discussion items. We don't have a vote. So we'll move on to item 7.01. >> Mr. Draper, Mr. Jones, safe travels. >> Thank you. Is our meet and confer agreement for certified bargaining. Is there any questions
045or discussions? Uh I motion to approve the meet and confer certified agreement for 26 and 27 as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? Item 7.02 is the meet and uh confer agreement for classified 2627. Is there a motion to approve the or I motion to approve the meet and confer classified agreement for 2627 as presented? Is there a second? All those in favor? Opposed? Item 7.03 3 is a policy update for IGDB. We have any discussion or questions on this one? >> Okay. I motion to approve the policy IGDB as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? Opposed? Item 7.04. 4 is bids. >> All right. We were able to bring one bid to you uh this meeting and that's uh it's a bond uh related project for St. Charles
046West. We performed uh some of that uh construction work this past summer and are looking to complete the remaining portion uh this summer which is uh some renovations to the athletic wing and the activities wing, music and art hallways, new flooring, u roll out mats uh which is that um kind of that uh spongy feel when you enter in the exterior doors to protect the flooring because we don't have it in any of those spaces right now and they do receive a tremendous amount of traffic for activities. Uh and then the stair treads that are uh falling uh off right now. So um so we would do do that portion with this with this uh construction work inside the gymnasium. Obviously we have some uh concrete flooring that was painted over years ago and that's
047chipping out. We're going to um we're going to sand that down essentially and uh and finish that concrete look off naturally uh so we don't have the the chipping of the painting uh that's been going on there. And then in addition, we have carpeted the last two spaces that we have offices that we have carpeted flooring is null and harden. It's pretty old as you can imagine, especially in elementary school. Uh Dr. Seafford knows this all too well. Uh what happens on that carpeted flooring throughout a year. So um because he's watched it, he's that's what I mean. Yeah. Not because of you. Sorry. Needed to clarify. Uh >> but who has been on this? >> You have been all over it. >> Oh my word. Yeah. So, we really needed to replace that carpet.
048So, uh this did uh BLDD was estimating this work to be uh 750,000. I was a little nervous about that number. It actually came in uh smaller than that or lower than that. So, uh that's what we're proposing uh for recommendation tonight. >> Sorry. Thank you so much, Mr. Shields. Is there any questions or discussion on this one? Okay. Um, I motion to approve the bids as presented. Is there a second? >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Thank you. Moving on to item 8.01, our district financial report. Back over to you. All right. Thank you so much. Uh, very quickly, u trend lines are are fairly consistent in in the areas of salaries um as far as meeting the expectations of what I said earlier. pushing that a pushing those expect pushing that trend
049that we had previously seen uh prior to co uh we are pushing that a bit because we are maintaining that staffing at at the rate that we want to. So that's pushing that trend a little bit. Uh probably about 150,000 higher on salaries than we would have anticipated. Uh not not anything to be worried about at this point in time. The good thing is benefits have stabilized tremendously. So we are slightly below uh this same uh period threequarters of the way through this fiscal as we were in February of 2025. So we're trending the correct way u with benefits and we hope to maintain that and I'll get into that a little bit. Two areas that we're really monitoring right now are purchase services and supplies. Uh we're a bit high there comparatively speaking. Uh
050so that does uh bring a little bit of concern. One of the things that we're doing is uh we're asking some of our big spending departments, hey, is there anything that you've been purchasing uh in a much quicker rate, meaning now instead of April and May that you did the previous uh previous norm. So, we're just trying to make that determination. And then obviously, we do uh we started this last year putting a spending uh limit, not a full spending limit, but a spending limit deadlines uh for our spenders of April 17th, I believe, this year for for uh um certain port portion of spending and I think it's May 8th for primarily for the mo the remaining portion. That doesn't mean we just eliminate it all. We just trying to monitor so we can
051effectively close out June. Uh that's what we're really trying to do and make sure the payments that we have spent now are actually being built to us in June so we don't flow into July's fiscal. So just trying to tighten that up a little bit. So that's currently what we're working on. So monitoring the uh purchase services and supplies is probably the biggest one that we're looking at right now. Uh I will say Prop RT U that we've discussed numerous times. We will know what's going on with that by the next board meeting. So uh obviously it seems so wild to us uh that April is already on the doorstep, but it is so April 7th, April 9th's our next board meeting. So we will know what that's going to look like uh by our
052next board meeting. So a little anxiety obviously, but uh uh on because that certainly will challenge some work. That's what I mean. So uh the other thing I think is important for us to be aware of is the state will often say they have $7,145 per student. Um that is accurate except for certain school districts. So like our school district, we actually received $1,200 per student last year. If they were to fully fund that $7,145, it would be nearly $30 million towards our budget. So, what that means is our local taxpayers, that's where we rely that's what we rely on in order to function as a school district. And the reason why it Well, there's several reasons why that exists. One, they can't fully fund 7,145. Um, they can't do it. It's impossible. Uh, so
053the funding mechanism goes back to 2006. So they will say what is 7,145 times the number of students for that membership year uh for the St. Charles school district. They give us that total and then they take away all money that we earned by local tax dollars in 2006 which was $29 million. That was what we were given in 2006. So that means they will only fund this this year to to the tune of about $6.9 million. Uh so that's where that funding mechanism really kicks in. And the reason why that's difficult for St. Charles school district is comparatively speaking to the other school districts in our county, we were pretty built out in 2006. Uh we were we didn't we don't have a whole lot of room uh room to grow uh from a
054residential standpoint since 2006. The other school districts receive a much higher amount of that state advocacy target because their 2006 total per student was much uh was much less uh from from their assessed valuation gains. I hope that makes sense. So uh that's what challenges our district. I think the next nearest one had received like $2,500 per student and like I said we were at 1,200. So it really pushes us as a district. When we talk about Prop RT, that's the attack on the most money that we receive. Um I shouldn't say the attack, that's the legislation on the most uh revenue that our district relies on. So if were to go in effect, I we we begin to get really hopeful that the state does change that funding formula uh that would benefit uh
055the district and hopefully offset some of those gains. Uh that makes me nervous because as the state will tell you, there is a bit of a financial crunch with the state uh on the horizon. So, we will see. We will see. Um let's see here. Obviously, we will always have a uh attempt to bring a measured response to the board uh in any situation. So, uh, we will not act in hysterical ways. If we do, we know that you will set us straight. Um, insurance is the other one, uh, that we would like to discuss. I'd like to discuss with you now, uh, because I typically don't do that midyear. So, we know our insurance, uh, funnels split, it splits our fiscal year. So we operated on last year's insurance uh this year's budget has
056a 2025 insurance and a 2026 insurance uh uh financials. We finished last year at around 90%. So that means basically the last six months uh of our fis or the first six months of our fiscal we were operating at about a 90% loss ratio which is fantastic. If you remember in 20 uh one we were at 110% 22 we're 108% and 23 we're at 115% loss ratio. We're performing terribly. Our insurance was performing terribly. Um so about 90% last year. Our first two months. Uh this year so far we are right at that 90% mark again. So why that's so beneficial for us is we were able to refund that self insurance that was getting a little bit low on us. Too low for us. uh and we're getting back into that more comfortable range
057where we can fund that should we take a make a major change from the self insurance uh portion. So that's really great news. Uh very very excited about that and hoping to continue that trend. Um so I think that's it for for me tonight. Any questions? We do still have the possibility with the Prop RT of it being ruled unconstitutional because of the inequitable nature that it's um is across the state. So that is still a possibility. >> Yeah, I have no new updates on that. >> We actually just received I think it was either last night before I did receive an email that went out just to the group from our our lawyer that's on this. So, I I'll I'll forward that to you. There's there's nothing exciting, but I'll I can send that
058to you. There's anything else? A motion to adopt the financial report as presented. Is there a second? >> All those in favor? Opposed? Thank you. Item 9.01 is the adjournment of the meeting. I have a motion to adjourn the meeting. Is there a second? >> All those in favor? Thank you very much. >> Thanks everyone. should go.