001elementary actually scored a perfect 100% which is pretty cool. This growth and achievement reflects the incredible effort and commitment to our of our students obviously but also our staff and families. We have many staff with us tonight. Um I'm just so proud of our effort. Just very quickly just so everybody has understanding MP6 is the state's accountability system for reviewing and accrediting school districts. The annual performance report measures performance in several areas. Academic achievement, college and career readiness, student attendance, graduation rates, and school climate. While it's an important data point, the APR represents a snapshot in time is among many tools that we use uh for to plan for continuous improvement. Through the MTSS, which is our multi-tered system of supports framework, we continue to see strong academic gains across our district. Our focus on
002high quality instruction because our teachers and our staff targeted interventions and aligned systems is making a measurable difference in our student success and we are seeing that. While the APR score is not the ultimate measure of who we are or what we value, we recognize its role in today's educational landscape as we deepen our understanding of the M76 process. We're becoming more strategic in maximizing points and improving performance in all measured areas. Some aspects like student growth calculations remain complex, but we're committed to learning and improving every year. Above all, we we remain steadfast in our mission to engage, empower, and inspire every learner every day. We are all in for our students and community, and you can tell, and we're grateful for your continued support. SCSD is truly a great place because of the
003people who call it home, and I see many of them in the room tonight. It's an optimal time to be a part of our district. I mean, it is awful. We have a ton of momentum. So, let's keep going. You can clap one more time for that. More great news, a little special shout out. Congratulations to Lincoln Elementary for being listed as best schools in the state of Missouri in the year yearly US News and World Report rankings. Lincoln is just oh third place out of 18 actually, 1830 schools in the state of Missouri. You can clap for that, too. We are so proud of our school district and happy for Lincoln to be recognized as one of the best in the state. Way to go, Lions. Recently, we had our districtwide PD PD day
004for certified staff and it was packed full of great informative information which gave our staff ample opportunities to grow as well. A special thanks goes out to our C CNI department, our DBDC for all their hard work. Not not on Q, that's not on Q, for all their hard work and setting up our PD and learning. And I think our st I think would tell me or tell us that uh we did h pretty much half day PD with workshops and then the second half they were able to work in their PLC's and I think they really enjoy that. Yes, that's what I thought. Thanks a lot for that. Our DVDC our DBDC does a great job of listening to our student our staff needs and really makes that a special day for everybody learning.
005I got more. A team of board and central office team members recently attended the Missouri State Board Association conference. It was a great conference to attend. For me, it was beneficial to spend time with the board and Coot members in the conference setting. Strong relationships helps enhance the work we do together. I also benefited from the collaborations with other statewide districts. There's a nice balance between seeing and hearing many things we already do reinforces what we're doing. We're on the right track and learning new strategies to help enhance our overall operation of the district. I was also given the opportunity to join in our in on a presentation with our architect firm BLD. Uh that was a great experience as well. I want to thank board members Heidi, Ellen, Karen, and Tammy for attending uh
006with us in uh Kansas City. The sister city's German exchange uh program is with us. Students and staff group is here visiting St. Charles. We met a principal and a teacher at each of the schools this past Wednesday. Uh it's great having them. Did anybody meet? Did anybody make it tonight? I thought maybe they were going to slide in. Anybody from Germany? It was great having him. It was great having them here. T this last Tuesday, November 11th, was Veterans Day. There were several ways our schools celebrate our veterans throughout the district. Please join me in thanking all of our men and women who have served served and who are serving for our freedom. Happy Veterans Day, everyone. All service we're gonna clap. All service members and veterans in the room, please stand up to
007be recognized at this time. Do we have anybody in the room? All right, we can clap one more time for our veterans. As stated in last month's board meeting, uh the MSBA, our Missouri School Boards Association has an annual student scholarship. It's called the John T. Belure award that is awarded to a graduating senior in each of the 17 MSBA regions and one regional winner will be selected as a state winner. Our nominee is from St. Charles High. Daniel Waters, is he with us tonight? I thought maybe he'd stop by. No, it's okay. So, Daniel, congratulations to Daniel and good luck in your application process. We're all rooting for you and you can climb for Daniel. It's like a rally tonight. Mr. Shield, you loving it. Mr. Shield is loving it. Uh, the winter season
008is upon us. No, we're not talking talk about snow days. I don't like snow days. Uh, detailed information regarding our inclement weather for snow and ami days plans and communication process was sent out to all families in in the November newsletter. Please note, we will use our first uh three days will be our three built-in snow days first if needed for any inclement weather days uh that we have. We also have an emergency this year for K through four if we get into a situation where we need to call an AMI day and we don't have the Chromebooks home for those grade levels so we can use that as well. I'm assuming staff love that idea. Yes, we have five AMI days to use after our three built-in snow days. And again, I do not
009look forward to those days and I don't care how long I've been doing this that that those are fun days, but our number one goal is to make sure we keep everybody safe. Our fall sports season has ended. Our cross country teams had a great finish. St. Charles High came in third place in the state 4A race. Let's give him a hand. And those St. Charles West girls took second place. That means the last five years as a team they took second. First first and a second. You can clap for that. And then we have backtoback individual champion champion Brianna Krueger who is a junior at St. Charles. So she'll be back with the three feet next year. And boy, she can run. It's unbelievable. Dr. Le was able to Was it awesome? We're so
010proud of our students. St. Charles West just put on their fall play last weekend and St. Charles High is up in a week, right? Are we excited? All right. That's exciting. We're looking. All right. All right. Gonna be good. >> All right. Of course, we're gonna get to see the star here in just a second. There you go. This is awesome. And then also a shout out. We have a lot of students making their mark in our in the music program with several earning St. Louis suburban honors in concert band, jazz band, and district choir. So, let's clap from all them, too. >> I'm telling you, our students and our staff are just I mean, it's unbelievable the things we're doing right now. Uh turkey tip off is next Tuesday, the 25th, at St. Charles
011High. Come on out, watch the girls and boys teams play. We're excited about that's al always a fantastic night as well. And then we also mentioned the play then uh actually the play is the weekend before that. So we're looking forward to that. We have worked hard to prepare for this meeting. We got a lot going on. Obviously you're here for that. We have consent agenda items, health services program review. We'll have a CIP review update, high school graduation credit uh discussion and vote, AI presentation, policy changes, a resolution, a motion, and then also a district financial report. So a lot going on. So, I'm almost done, but I want to make sure I say this. It's hard to believe it's mid November. Uh, this year is moving along quickly as we prepare for the
012upcoming break because it's coming. I know it doesn't seem like it is teachers, but it's coming. Staff, I promise you it's coming. And I just want to wish at this time because this is we'll our next meeting will be to December, but I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. We have a lot of things to be thankful for in not only our country, but our state and our region, but also here at the SCSD. This is a special place. I know I'm thankful for the wonderful people, our staff, students, community members who make up our great district. Uh so I just want to say happy Thanksgiving to everyone. With that said, I also want to say we are in the midst of a very productive start 2526 school year. We're probably in one of
013the best times our school district has seen in terms of APR, uh fund balance, you name it, we are it just we're really doing some great things and as stated earlier, we have a ton of momentum in the district right now. We are performing at a high level in most areas and I want to I just want to encourage all of us to continue to be all in together as we focus on engaging, empowering, inspiring every school or every SCSD learner every day. And I know that's cliche. I know I say that a lot of times, but I truly believe in our C support and being all in this year. Let's stay safe. Let's stay respectful. Let's stay responsible for the betterment of our students. I know it took a little time, but there's a
014lot of good things to talk about. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you, Dr. Secret. And again, very excited for our district, the APR score. I know our CO team works hard, the administrators, st teachers, students and parents who support them. So big shout out to everybody. We will move on to item 3.04 which are board communications. >> Item 3.05 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, 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 of each board meeting. Patrons are invited by the president to speak for or against any proposal on the tentative agenda
015or 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 andor patrons may be recognized at other times during the board meeting. Board is very interested in audience comments. According to board policy, members can not respond during the actual meeting. Board will listen to audience comments and if necessary, additional followup will district. So, we have several um audience comments tonight. Just as a reminder, as Daniel said, it's three minutes. So, Kelly will have a timer. If you hear it go off, just try to wrap up your last thoughts. Um but we will start in the order we receive them. So, Bonnie Wind will go first. You can just when you
016get up to the microphone, press the little person icon, a little head of a person, it should turn on your microphone. >> Yep. In a good position. >> Okay. Didn't know I was gonna be first, but that's okay. First, first up to speak. So, good evening, Dr. Se members, and all others in the room. My name is Bonnie Wland. I am a retired educator and an active organizations with people from all walks of life. responses have been positive with the need to protect children expressed as a high pri to do so. Student and staff safety must come first. Guns are the number one killer of our nation's children. In 2024, our surgeon general declared gun violence a national health crisis in America for the very first time ever on July 9th. Governor signed a stronger
017school safety bill, also known as SB68, which includes improving response teams and also the Installation of anti-int. interior door. Although these changes are important, actually weapons were already urge. I urge you to move forward as an example to all other speak. Hello, my name is Lana and I'm a senior at St. Charles High School. I'm speaking on support of the secure storage notification resolution because it's a simple life step. Making sure families know how to safely store firearms can prevent accidents, suicides, and tragedies before they happen. This resolution isn't about politics. It's about protecting students and helping families stay informed. Even one life saved makes it worth it. Thank you for listening and for putting student safety first. [applause] >> Thank you, Anna. Um, Angela Curtis, good evening. Members of the school board, and staff.
018My name is Angela Curtis. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to speak in support of the secure storage notification resolution that is on the agenda this evening. I am a district parent and a community volunteer. Through my volunteer work promoting secure storage messaging, I've learned what a crucial element it is to a school safety plan. Unfortunately, there have been enough instances of school shootings to compile data on the surrounding circumstances. Data compiled across 10 plus years of school shootings tells us a few things. It tells us that a school shooter is most likely to have a connection to the school. A school shooter is likely to exhibit warning signs. school is most likely to obtain their firearm from home or the home of a relative. When I reflect on our shared responsibility of keeping
019kids safe, I'm reminded of being asked to bundle up the kids for their commute or recesses during a cold snap, being asked to keep them home if they are sick, being asked to see something, say something. of children being asked to practice responding to a shooter in the school and to lock down because of a viable threat. Asking parents and caregivers to secure their firearms to help keep school campuses safe, is practical, is free, is a proven strategy for preventing a school shooting, preventing unintentional shootings, and preventing suicide. As noted in the resolution, an estimated 4.6 million children in the United States live in a home with one gun that is loaded and unlocked. There is no time to waste in each of us doing everything we can to prevent the next gun injury or
020death. Secure storage is not a left or right issue. It is simply a matter of safety. Thank you. considering this resolution for the district to take a more active role in promoting secure storage. I ask you to vote yes to asking myself and my peers to help take responsibility for school safety. I'd also just like to briefly mention that if the BSmart messaging materials you're already familiar with would make implementing the resolution smooth and easy, a co-branding licensing agreement is available so that handouts are digitally available to the district and I'm happy to help with that going forward. Thank you. >> Thank you, Angela. Next, we'll have Julie to come up and share. I don't know that baby. I am just making a pit stop here really quick tonight with my friends slashchildren. Um uh
021I'm Julie Mun. That's my mom. Um I'm a parent to three someday four students in the district. My mom is the board member encouraging the resolution to send literature home in some way about safe firearm storage. As a public institution, school districts provide health and safety interventions for the greater good in many ways. Whether faculty and staff are pushing for more nutritious meals, whether it's Red Ribbon Week, screening for scoliosis, oral hygiene screenings, hearing and vision impairment screenings, or presenting to high school students about the dangers of drunk driving. We are always trying to find ways to keep our students and teachers safe and healthy. We cannot let political concerns and fear of controversy get in the way of doing what's actually right. The vast majority of school shootings are carried out using a that
022was obtained in the home. School shootings, students bringing guns into their school for the purpose of ending the lives of their classmates and or teachers, our loved ones and community members. Not to mention that roughly one child per day accidentally shoots themselves in the US. Gun violence, accidental or intentional, is the number one killer of children in America. Not vision impairment, not drug overdose, not drunk driving, not malnutrition. The number of school shootings per year has been steadily rising since 2021. It's horrifying. We can't do nothing about this when there are simple and obvious things worth trying. If because of this resolution, one district parent second guesses their gun storage situation and one student is kept safe and alive. It is worth all the political losses and all the controversy which may or may not
023be on the horizon for the district or board members. You guys should be proud to be trying to keep kids safe and alive. Please stand up for these kids and vote to approve this re resolution. My husband, a paramedic firefighter who is at work tonight, approves this message. Thanks. [applause] >> Thank you, Julie. Next, Mark Hollander. Good evening, ma madam president, Mr. Superintendent, school board, staff, and guests. My name is Mark Hollander. I'm the executive director for Vision St. Charles County Leadership. My wife and I are also the owners of Wildl Cafe down in the Frenchtown neighborhood and I'm also a St. Charles City Council member for W 2. Thank you for the opportunity to share tonight during this public comment section. school gymnasium or I was a petrified sixth grader trying to climb to
024that ceiling on the ropes. It was way way higher when I was in sixth grade. As a son of a police officer and growing up over on Madison Street, I was exposed to firearms and handguns at a very early age. My father brought guns home and it was not unusual for us to have them in our home and to be around them frequently. I was raised with a tremendous respect for handguns and handgun safety. Dad would return home from a day's work and place his service revolver and his offduty revolver into a small safe that was located in his office. My little sister and I knew better than even attempt to go into that safe or into his office. Safety was always taught and enforced in our home. As an adult, I continued to use
025and respect firearms. When my father passed, I inherited his service pistol and other guns that he owned. I took classes. I earned my concealed carry license shortly after his passing and then maintained the respect and concern for safety and firearms as in my own home. I then had two young daughters and their friends were frequent visitors in our home. I now have two inquisitive grandsons who were eager to explore and play hideand seek in our home. My greatest fear would be that any one of those might locate one of the handguns that I thought was just safely hidden away and decide to play with it. I now own two handguns and both are secured constantly with my handgun locks that were distributed by the St. Charles Police Department several years ago. Being in favor of
026the Second Amendment and approving of a common sense approach to constant safety are not mutually exclusive beliefs. Anyone who owns a firearm should understand by safety standards and store them when not in use, locked, secured, and separate from the ammunition. Also, as a city council member, I've also been honored to support and sponsor the wear orange gun safety resolution each of the last three years that I have served on council that has passed unanimously. Thank you for your time tonight, and I'm in favor of this resolution. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Next up, uh, Brendan Karns. >> Good evening, board members, central office administrators, and members of the St. Charles community. My name is Brendan Karns. I'm the president of the St. Charles Education Association, the exclusive representative of certified employees and nurses in
027the city of St. Charles School District. I'd like to start by thanking the members of our organization who've shown up for us tonight. We have a lot to celebrate here in this district, but SCA also has some concerns. This month, we received some amazing news from our state. Our district scored a 90 on its annual APR score, the biggest improvement in the St. Louis area. This result comes from the combined work of certified and classified staff, building and central office administration, and our community to accomplish this. These results don't necessarily say everything about our district, but they do they are truly something to celebrate.CA CA and central office have kicked off their negotiations. Last night we held our interest based bargaining training session. Teachers working conditions are students learning conditions and negotiating through interestbased bargaining
028allows both sides to come to the table to create effective solutions that help our students learn better. Concerning board business items tonight, SCA endorses item 703, the resolution for secure firearm storage. We believe this common sense measure put forth by director Karen O'Harn protects students and members of our community has been endorsed by pro- education organizations such as PTO as well as law enforcement. As one of my teachers teacher colleagues whose family owns guns says gun locks are about as controversial as car seats. Despite the good news remarks end on a down note, I'm set for resending the grievance our organization filed and won on September 11th. that this action was brought by a board member. When we were asked for an underlying rationale, neither central office administrators nor board members we spoke to could
029give us one. According to board policy GBM1, once a decision is rendered under the grievance process, that decision is final. This board action violates that board policy. SCEA is hopeful that this issue will remain resolved as it was in September. The action sets a bad precedent for board. We've had a number of attention grabbing board actions surrounding districts and leaders ofce were always proud to say these sorts of actions never happened here. We're hoping our board members will see this for what it is, a political stunt, a violation of board policy, and a waste of our valuable time and resources as a board, staff, union, and community. Let's focus on moving forward, not relitigating a final decision. As a district, we have many things to celebrate. So, let's direct our attention to celebrating our improvements
030and continuing our growth. SCDA will continue to show up advocating for students learning conditions, staff working conditions, and to protect our union rights. >> Thank you, Brendan. Next up, we'll have Beth Chamberlain to come speak. >> Good evening, school board members, and administrators. Thank you for allowing me the to speak. My name is Beth and I live right here in the neighborhood. I want to thank you for presenting a resolution that promotes secure firearm storage. I'm a therapist for crime victims and a strong proponent for crime and suicide prevention. But I'm not here to talk about my professional experience, but instead about a tragic incident that happened to a friend of mine. My friend's 13-year-old grandson accidentally shot himself with a firearm in his home that belonged to a family member. The gun was loaded
031and was not securely stored. This young person died shortly after. If he were alive, he would have started college this year. His family and friends will never fully recover from this tragedy. And family member who owned that gun will live with regret for the rest of his life. I am for any actions that will increase safety and prevent intentional or accidental injuries or deaths. I am heartened by this resolution and that it will pass. I believe that if we work together, we can and will save lives. Thank you again for allowing me. Thank you, Beth. Next is Jason Love Jr. school resource officer. This is absolutely amazing. I just came to show my support as young as age gun pretty simple. So I just wanted my support. Thank you. And next we'll have Kayla Gilmore.
032As a representative of our MST members across the district and multiple schools, the comments that they had for us this month really come down to three things. We were really excited about the success of our district professional development day. A lot of our members said that they really felt a sense of community in the morning at St. Charles West, but they had a lot of business that they obtained and got around to in the afternoon they were able to work with one another. So, they really appreciated the time to work with one another. The second thing that our members said is that they are more than elated about our MS scores as Dr. Sebert is as well. They said that that was really a reflection of the hard work put in by our administration and
033then followed through by our teachers. So they said that they were really proud. That's a reflection of how much effort and work we all put into our students and into our district. The third thing that our members said this month is that they are really excited about the change potentially coming for the number of credit hours that are required for graduation. A lot of our members are in support of this change because they feel like the amount they can do for their students increases along with the instructional time that we'll see with our students and as the consistency in seeing our students every day at the high school level every day rather than every other day. Lastly is that we want to celebrate the three of our members that are headed to the Missouri State
034Conference over in Colia. Myself Underwood and Gina Lhof are headed over to Columbia next week to represent St. Charles School District as we meet with other members of MSTA across the state. Together, the three of us are going to take part in the voting of supports we are going to continually fight for our teachers every day. So thank you board administration that ends our audience comments. Uh we will on to item 3.06 if Dr. wants to come up and introduce our student. >> Well or not >> you come introduce >> Dr. Hello everybody. >> Yes. >> Sorry. Hi. I'd like to introduce Mrs. Colleen May to speak as our represent for St. Charles High School this month. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Um good evening, City of St. Charles Board of Education, Dr. Secret Community,
035and others. Uh my name is Kylie Nay, and I'm a senior here at St. Charles High School. Uh for those of you who may not know me, I think it is safe to say I am quite involved at school. But I'm here to give you the student update about our national honor society which I'm president of along with a couple other. So our NHS board set a focus for our chapter this year which was for our members to get involved in a community through service one of our pillars. With the help of my board members we decided to host a children's book drive for the early childhood center and parent teachers program here in the district. Why some might ask? Well literacy is an important part of life. It is how we knowledge at the
036early childhood stage. Books build the brain. They develop the child emotionally and socially and it builds a learner for life. We're truly setting up our children for success when we teach them to read. Um by providing for our little learners, it also helps them set up for going through kindergarten here. Um books are also very expensive. Um families should not have to worry about paying 20 plus dollars for a book or maybe two hopefully that their child might grow out of within a couple months. So we decided to host a spirit week to raise awareness of our book drive here at the high school the week of Halloween. Uh each day was themed selling children's books. We had good night moon, a bad case of the stripes, cat, or the wild things are spooky square
037pumpkin. Our students had a chance to participate through dressing up and donating cash or new or gently used children's books. Um the AIP, which are our home rooms, went headto-head against their opposing grade. We kept track of the points and cash on tally sheets and at the end of the week, we tallied it all up. We were so lucky to have a large donation from our Chick-fil-A leadership group here at St. from last year along with Dr. Kinsey the principal down at null she donated an astonishing amount over like 1400 books which is crazy from the help of some of her teachers so afternoon one of the afternoons after school in the hallway we had a couple students come help us from our NHS and we tallied up all the books and we came to
038our final total for the early childhood center our total was books and that was just the number that was donated there was more than that there were were not in suitable condition or they might have been too old for the children and we're going to hopefully donate those. I'm going to reach out to either Jefferson or Harvard in those for some of their leadership groups. Um but NHS isn't the only people here at St. Charles High that is doing good for our community. Our FCCLA which is the family career community leaders club of America is hosting the annual turkey drive for the past 13 years. They are raising money to purchase turkeys and they are donated to an organization called No Hunger. This organization matches the turkeys with the needed to make a Thanksgiving meal
039and donates to our student council is also hosting the annual food drive here St. Charles West to celebrate the turkey and donate to the St. Louis area food bank. They're looking for non-perishable food items such as cans of vegetables, pasta, oatmeal and stuff like that. If you guys want to donate, just show up to one of the high schools and they'll have locations for either of you guys. Also, um this competition drive has been going on for a numerous amount of years and it makes a really big It started off the 6th of this month and will end on the 25th. Um, turkey tip off is soon, so stay tuned for the final. Key Club is also raking for the elderly in the neighborhood of their members are quite involved and they also help with
040other clubs like student council and FCCLA with their drops. Key Club is also hosting a blood drive, so look forward to that in spring with the Red Cross. Speaking of the spring, we also have our community club working on setting up a rock garden to beautify the school. some of the preschoolers paint some rocks in our AIP to have everyone participate. This is just a me look into our school clubs and how they hardly are working to improve our community district. Along with our clubs, I want to put a quick spotlight on our arts program here at St. Charles High, which I know we have mentioned numerous times tonight. I'm quite involved in the arts as well. This is my second year as a drum major, but my fourth overall in our marching band, and
041I've been a member of our concert band for the past four as well. Since my freshman year, our program has grown tremendously. I know it's the same over at St. Charles West and Um especially with the new director this year, Miss Hot. My last marching season was truly best. Over the course of the season, we won many awards including best percussion, outstanding color, and outstanding drum major at our last competition. Miss Hot has brought organization, leadership, and so much excitement to our band. We are lucky to have her. Our entire music department is looking forward to the Nashville trip. Our students have fundraised for themselves with assistance from parent organizations like the band of pirate parents which they are going to make some great memories on this trip. Some of the events on the trip
042included backstage tour of the Grand Opry, the RCA Studio B tour where artists like Dolly Parton and Elvis have recorded a Broadway performance of Sister Act, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Our AP art students are always hard at work on their portfolios. They work on a certain topic of their choice and canose about 15 or so pieces that represent their entire over the course of the school year and then they get submitted to the AP board in May. So, let's keep those AP scores up. And then finally, like we've already mentioned before, our St. Charles High Department has been extremely hard at work for the past six weeks under the direction of Miss Courtney Gibson and her team, her mother, who has been a part of the city of St. Charles Board of Education since
0432008. Miss Laura Gibson is our creative director along with the assistant director, Miss McKenna Endershot, a special education math teacher at Harden Middle and a former SCS alumni class of 2019. and to Mr. Mike Monzi, our stage choreographer. I am the lead actress of this play and we are performing the legend of Sleepy Hollow. I am a bit biased, but I think it's wonderful. Um, the short story by Washington Irving, which side note real quick, he did actually write a few plays here in St. Charles. If you go on Ghost Tour next year, you'll learn a little bit more about it, but sorry. Um, as it follows though, it follows a goodbye crane and horsemen. I formally invite the board and guests to come see the play either next week of Thursday, November 20th or
044the 21st that Friday at 7 p.m. in the Gilw Auditorium. You will not want to miss it. I would like to add one more item to my agenda. Thank you, Dr. Ted H, for the opportunity to speak to our city of St. Charles board of education. You constantly go above and beyond for your students providing educational opportunities. You truly make a better place to be. Once a pirate, always a thank you, city of St. board of education for your time. >> Great job. >> I think your dad wanted a shout out, too. >> You did. Thank you so much, Colleen. We appreciate you. >> I'm just glad I did my comments before after a hard act to follow. Great job. >> Thank you. >> Um, we will take a quick break if anybody wants to
045leave at this time. Just a couple minutes before we proceed with the rest of the meeting. >> I think I think it Yeah. doing pretty well. Thank you for coming. Okay. >> All right. We're gonna go ahead and resume the meeting. If you guys can all take a seat. Okay, we're going to go ahead and resume the meeting. For those staying, if you could just go ahead and have a seat. All right. So, we're moving on in the agenda. If everybody can quiet down, we're gonna move on to item 3.07, which is to amend or adopt the agenda. I make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. Is there a second? I second. >> All those in favor? I opposed. That passes. Item 4.01 is our consent agenda. For efficiency, the school board utilizes
046a 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. I make a motion we approve the consent agenda. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Daniel second. All those in favor? I opposed abstain. Okay, we will move on and we will go to item 6.01 which is our health services program review. Thank you. We've got Brandy McCann who's going to be coming. She is our lead district nurse and so she will be presenting. [laughter] So my name is Brandy McCann. I am the lead nurse for City of St. Charles School District and I am also the nurse at um Jefferson. Um going to go over a little bit of the health services
047program here. Um City of St. Charles School District promotes healthy lifestyle choices, identifies and locates services for students with health health conditions that may affect their learning and they work and we work to meet the needs of students with acute and chronic medical needs throughout the school day. We currently have 11 school nurses. Um there is one in every school. We have two districtwide float nurses. Those work between all the buildings to help cover um short-term absences and then support the primary nurses in our build our busier buildings. And then we have two health clerks. One is split between six elementary schools and the other one is split between Jefferson Harden and St. Charles High School. Um we have a goal to provide health care and instruction to students and staff. We administer medication um
048daily. We have timely response to health care needs, provide access to health care and first aid. We maintain proper documentation, provide education and reinforcement for chronic health conditions for students. Um we do provide a lot of staff education on those health conditions. And then we serve as liaison between the school staff, families and healthcare providers. Um we also like to promote safety and healthy school environments by providing leadership maximizing students are able to attend school. Uh we provide health related resources, provide professional development for staff. Um we comply with the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services policies on immunizations and communicable diseases. Um we're getting into six seasons, so we see a lot of that now. We are maintaining emergency response equipment and supplies and reviewing um and updating policies and procedures. Um, these
049are the clinic visits for this current school year for August, September, and October. This is St. Charles High School, St. Charles West, Pardon, and Jefferson. Um, so you can see August is lighter blue. September is darker blue, and October is orange. Um, St. Charles West, Pardon, and Jefferson are our busier schools with the highest amount of clinic visits per day. These are the elementary schools and early childhood center again by August, September and October. Um, Coverdale this year is one of our busier elementary schools followed by Monroe, Harris and Blackhurst. Um, average number of daily clinic visits. This is for this it's comparison between last school year and this school year for August through October. You can see some of the numbers have changed pretty drastically. Like Coverdale last year was averaging 27 kids per
050day. Currently they're seeing about 43. Um while Blackhurst has gone down from 40 to 28. Um again it shows West Harden and Jefferson are pretty high in their numbers. Um and then the other elementary schools stay the same. um positive impacts. You know, we're able to provide that immediate medical attention to students and staff as needed. Um we are trying to keep students in school because clearly they need to be in school to be able to learn. Um we're helping at risk students receive those interventions and get access to um services. We have been utilizing the compass clinic at Blackhurst a lot and that's been a great resource to have. We work really hard, especially at the beginning of the year to ensure immunization compliance, training staff, working with stakeholders, um getting in the classrooms
051to provide instruction. We do a lot of screenings, supporting families, and then we're currently working to create and implement emergency response plans. Moving forward, um, currently we are working to update nursing procedures and policies because working under current best practice is vital to ensuring that our students are provided the best care while they're here at school and it is also providing a uniformity throughout the district. We are updating our our whole health services manual and we are creating a thorough training program for our current staff and any new staff that we have that joins us. We're working really hard to utilize our staff efficiently. Um this year we've kind of changed it up a little bit where our health clerks are being utilized to complete and record health screenings. Um which would alleviate some of
052the busyiness of the nurses and give them time to be seeing students. Um we use surveys between the schools to determine like which buildings had the highest needs and needed more support by nurses or health clerks. Um we are completing and implementing plan. The Senate Bill 68 requires all buildings to have a cardiac emergency response plan implemented by next school year. So, we've been working really hard to make a uniform plan that can just be implemented into every building. Um, and then number four, we are really working hard on some specific professional developments. Uh, specialized health procedures in our clinics have increased from last year from 25 to 34. That includes like care for diabetic students, kids that need catheterization, um feeding tubes, things like that. And then we're also getting some education for students
053with asthma, um because those have increased also pretty significantly just this since last year. Any questions? >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you very much. I just want to quickly say how thankful I am that Brandy has taken on the position as the lead nurse. She is fantastic. Um she just takes everything that comes to her and then especially with Senate Bill 68 that cardiac emergency response plan. She has taken that and just ran with it and has such great ideas. So thank you. >> I agree with that. On top, you can clap. And on top of that, she's got a pretty big building in Jefferson that she >> shared what 90 94 student visits yesterday by herself. So, >> thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. >> I make a motion to approve the health
054services program as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? I opposed. That passes. Item 6.02 is our CIP review update. >> So, this is a quick review. We're going to do one day. Make sure that we do this at least, twice, two times. And so, uh, you have seen a lot of this already, but we're going to make sure that we check off. So, always great to review what because the CIP is our plan. It is our work what we're doing the school district. We're all in with it. And so just remind I'm not gonna read it all to you, but we always start off with plan. Go ahead. You can go on down. There's a great book. We love that. And then u and then just again I've already said our mission
055once. We do not have it up here. We don't want to forget what we're doing, what our mission is, and that's to engage, empower, inspire every learner every day. We also have our vision. Is that coming true or what? [laughter] That is awesome. And then also then our values. And we won't go over all the values again, but again, I just want to make sure this is what we're living. This is what our teachers, this is what our our staff, our our families, and our students are are living every day is our values. And so, and this again, this is different than what we've done in the past. We've always had a seip. We've always made sure we we've done what we need to do to get those goals done. But we are truly living
056this and everything that we do and we do a lot is in this plan. And so I just want to make sure that we're all clear what the mission, the vision, and what the values look like. We get through our three pillars real quick and uh the CO members who are uh championing these different goals. We'll have a quick update for you. >> Perfect. So I'll go ahead and get started. Um academic excellence. So remember we have three goals under academic excellence. The first one is our attendance goal. Uh the district increase our proportional attendance from 85.3 to 90% by the end of the 202930 school year. Our second goal is around student achievement. So our goal is that we will hit the target destination in all four content areas. So ELA, math, social studies,
057and science. And then our last goal is uh to increase graduation rate and improve our college and career readiness metrics. So with that being said, we have our action steps for each of those and we developed our year one priorities which we talked about I believe in our August board meeting. We talked about the priorities. So we're going to give you an update on where we are in some of those priority areas. Remember we have an entire year to focus on this but we've got a good start and so I just wanted to highlight some of that. Uh when it comes to success ready students, one of our goals was to create a tracking system to track monitor um students and how they are scoring on our college and career readiness assessments. Um so in
058se September was a busy month for committees. We had a lot of committee meetings that got um started in September and this was one of them. Um I met along with Megan Bowersox our coordinator for data learning and assessment uh with our three high school principles Dr. Coburnness, Dr. Vogle, Dr. H, and then counselors from both schools or all three schools. And one of the things that we started was doing was by auditing our current practices and we were able to identify where the gaps and inconsistencies were when it came to tracking and monitoring students between buildings. So, we wanted to tighten that up and we came up with a pretty unified district plan to carry us through this year. Uh, one of the things that came out of this meeting, I know in our
059last meeting Karen asked about ACT testing and whether or not the district would ever uh test students or provide opportunity to take the ACT test here. And that was one of the things that came out of that committee is that we instead of just blanketly giving all of our high school juniors the ASVAB test, we will now encourage students to take the assessment that is better aligned with their career goals, whether that be college or career readiness or military. Uh, and one of those opportunities is to now provide the ACT testing at St. Charles West, but it will be Thank you. will be districtwide and we will do that twice a year and it will start in February. The second thing that came out of that um or the second portion of our success ready
060was a portrait of a graduate. And so what we wanted to do was develop K12, what are those key competencies and skills that we want our students when they leave the city of St. Charles school district? What are those key skills that we want for them as they head into the real world? And so in September we uh convened a portrait of a graduate committee. It is made up of board members, we have teachers, we have administrators, and we have members of the community. We have parents, we have uh members from the economic development center. Lynenwood has a rep on that committee. Um and so we started, we've had two meetings thus far. Uh we've established our purpose and scope uh scope and process for the work ahead. We have looked at exemplars. So, what
061are other districts doing across the country when it comes to those competencies? And we are currently identifying ways to seek stakeholder input. So, how do we get input from all of our stakeholders when it comes to developing this plan? So, I'm excited. We have our next meeting this upcoming Tuesday here in the boardroom at 3 o'clock. So, that's update for me on academic excellence. Are there any questions? Okay. Going to turn this over to slide up there for me. This the last time I want the slide displayed. I look very haggarded compared to Dr. Lewis. [laughter] So, if we could just eliminate that, I'd appreciate it. I don't have choice as you can tell. >> Let's make sure we keep that in there, please. Mickey, >> I'm overruling it. I actually like to see it.
062>> Yeah, I appreciate it. >> Gives me great hope. We're a good team. All right. Uh we have first one on on the list is a is a is a hot topic item as you all well know. First one is goal one school configuration. Going from there we have goal two is St. Charles school district will complete a facilities improvement plan. Uh and you see the various things that we will target there. We'll get down to those in a bit. And then goal three is staffing and goal for financial stewardship. So some of the strategies and action steps that we will look at and that we're currently undertaking is the uh for the school configuration. You see the four elements there analyzing enrollment trends. We have began that work. It started with a demographer uh
063survey last year. But we can also go back and say and confidently say that we know our enrollment since you know 1950 in this district and you can track that all the way to its heights in the 1990s uh to that slow decline going through uh current present day. We've been pretty If you remember from the demographer report they will say that the anticipated trend would be a loss of about 200 students K through 12 uh within a 10 year period conduct stakeholder surveys and focus group uh that's going to be worked on along with the benchmark and the data report recommendations by a school configuration committee uh Dr. and the rest of the co team have began to develop that team looking at about 50 members as of right now that will begin that
064work ultimate goal on that would be to bring in recommendations within a 12 month period so uh a lot of work that will be conducted with that we certainly have have a lot work to do uh the common question we repeatedly get asked is what's the plan configuration So uh so that's exactly why we're having that. It's important work. It's very very very uh facilities underneath that hiring engaging facilities experts as you all know or most of you know BLD is our hired architect. Uh we also have another group uh named FSG and that is our engineers that conduct walkthroughs of our district so that we can put together a facilities plan which was listed as a goal. But beyond those two, we work closely with the St. Charles fire department. They do walks uh
065within our buildings and with our director of technology to our technology facilities to ensure um our buildings are up to code first and foremost. Um and then some various other pieces to that. Uh we also have TMI HBAC experts conducting walkthroughs. reach out to them repeatedly and uh so we have a lot of experts that are willing to walk in their buildings at any point in time. We have great partnerships with them and then uh the other piece was gathering stakeholder input conduct surveys focus groups members identify key concerns and priorities that's typically done in surveys uh that are that are done in the second semester of each school year. uh staffing. Uh as you can tell, we're just looking to expand university partnerships and enhance digital recruitment strategies as we continue as technology continues
066to advance. And then the last piece uh finance conducting the comprehensive budget audit. Uh we will bring that to the board uh in December. It's a great report. We have that finalized uh implement incremental budgeting strategies. already have it planned out to meet with our major spenders, our departments uh going through the December 19th. So those meetings will be happening during the next month and then align the budget with strategic priests. So um for the culture we have three different goals. Uh first goal is that all students will receive targeted tiered support and we do this through MTSS or PBIS. The second goal is that students and staff feel increasingly safe and valued. Um and we look at that climate culture survey to get that data. And then our final goal is enhancing the community
067involvement and Mickey has been um exponentially involved in this process. So I'll kind of go through these were our year one priorities. If you go to the second page, it explains what we've done in each of those areas. Uh so for student support, developing and implementing a district-wide PD plan for tier 2 and tier three interventions and offering a range of formats. Um I actually met with our coaches uh last week to start developing that PD plan. So, we're using this first semester to kind of audit where we are as a district in regards to how we're utilizing PBS within our buildings and where we are in our multi-tered system of supports and the different tiers um by building and then determining some subgroups that we'd like for um staff to work in um in
068regards to our district leadership team. Um we are currently doing some data gathering through care teams. Um, I'll be stepping into each building's care teams to kind of see what their process looks like and creating more of a streamlined process across the district. Um, so that as students move from one building to the next, um, the verbiage is the same and the language is the same as families get involved. Um, and then just providing those tier 2 interventions districtwide. Our buildings are doing fantastic on this. Tier one is being implemented almost at 100% across all buildings in the district. Um, we're getting there with tier two. And so that's kind of the goal is to continue that process. Uh for sense of belonging, currently a lot of buildings are using the check-in checkout process um
069with students as a tier 2 intervention, but this allows that regular communication with students. Um we also have some of the built-in um AIPs or ACT labs in a lot of our buildings. So that's another check-in um opportunity that teachers have with students. And then looking at integrating voice into MTSS, we're going to utilize some of the um built in the leadership teams that are already available and already working within our buildings um to start um having them look at the processes that we're using for PBIS and having student feedback within that. Um we are trying to streamline communication. Mickey's been a big part of that. Um for PBIS, we'd like to use whatever communication platform is that is upon. Um we're also looking at using Qualrix to be able to send out information um
070surveys to receive feedback from community and students um to get that information back to us and help us create a better process and then using culture and climate survey obviously to adjust our practices. So um looking at kind of what are the trends in each building, what are the areas that are ranked the lowest um and being very building specific and then meeting with those teams and talking about how we can grow in those areas. Um and then finally with community involvement, Mickey's been a huge part of this and working on um just communication in general. Um there is a district-wide communication plan along with individual school plans. So the next step is just including reviewing plans and working to better align them. And then for the communication practices, they're currently working on selecting that
071districtwide communication platform to align communication practices. Um so meeting with staff members, administrators, families um to observe demonstrations two different vendors and then using feedback from the committee to select a platform. Um moving to one platform will allow for transparency and predictability for families who have kids across multiple buildings in the district um at different grade levels and every family member will know how to contact their child's school and where to gather information. Um the great thing about these platforms is they'll include two-way communication, email news and newsletter capabilities for all staff members and mass communications for both text and email. Mickey's also began presenting at professional development days where she shares expectations around communications. So she hopes to keep that momentum going. >> Thank you all. Any questions from the board? >> If not,
072>> well say I just think the way we've streamlined this is just very efficient and just we're on point exactly what we're trying to accomplish. Kudos to our team and also you all involved with this as well. So we're just as efficient as we've been. >> Thank you all. Well, this is just an update. So for information discussion, yeah, no motion needed, but thank you all for the update. Definitely good information. We'll move on to item 6.03, our high school graduation credits. All right, here we go. All right, so we are here to talk about um high school graduation credits and a recommendation to you to reduce those credits from 28 to 24. Uh just a reminder of our mission for the third time this evening. So how we got here? So this is year
073four for me in this role as uh assistant superintendent. And I will say from really early on in in my role here, I've heard about consistently about graduation credits asking why do we require so many? Can we change it? My very first board meeting, I was in this seat uh seven or eight days on the job and I had a board member who's no longer on the board lean over to me and say, "When are we changing these? When are we fixing these?" And what I didn't know is that it's actually not my decision. it is the decision of the board to do so. Um, so we are going to make a recommendation to you this evening. Uh, and then the decision is ultimately yours whether or not we reduce those. So in September, like
074I said, a busy month. Uh, we assembled a high school credit and schedule committee to look at two things. One, uh, to look at our high school credits and to also look at our high school schedule. Those are two separate entities. So I want to keep those separate for tonight's conversation. The credits are not dependent upon the schedule. Okay. Um so I know we still have committee work that we're doing when it comes to the high school schedule, but tonight we are focused on the the credit portion. Um so we met in September. It was combination of we had four members Karen and Ellen served on that committee. our co team, principles and teachers from both high schools. Um we formed this committee in September. We've met several times since then. Have another meeting this
075upcoming Thursday. We um sent out stakeholder surveys to staff, students, and parents. The committee reviewed the state graduation requirements. We looked at the practices of surrounding districts across the metropolitan area and across the state. We reviewed uh data for our students. And of course we review the feedback from those surveys. So our current reality uh I want you to see that the state of Missouri they are outlined over here in the blue. St. Charles we are in the middle in the red and then I put this in here. Although this is these are not graduation requirements. Just want you to see how Missouri higher ed educational institutions like Missou University of Missouri St. Louis what they require for admittance. And so as you our credits. You will see that uh when you compare our district
076to or our district to the state, we require the same amount of ELA credits. We require the same amount of math, social studies, science, fine arts, PE, practical arts, health, and personal finance credits. The difference lies in our electives. We require students to take a half a credit of computer applications and um several additional and just electives. And so for our students, if you're talking about semester, that comes ac that comes out to about eight additional classes that they will take over their high school career compared to other students across the state when you talk about semester classes. So how do we compare across the area? So you can see here that we are at the top of the St. metropolitan area when it comes to graduation requirements. Uh pretty much every district in the
077area with the exception of Leoo and Wville align themselves with the state. On the right hand side, you can just see some of the highest districts in the state. Uh and there are more on this list. I did not list all of them. There are several who are at 28, but of course none in this area. Um so Independence is at 28 and a half credits. They are the highest in the state. And then followed by us and several others were at 28. So, uh, getting into the feedback. So, we had 76 staff members complete the survey, 278 students and 173 parents. So, one of the questions, so when we talk about the benefits of our current plan, so you could categorize those into four overarching categories. So, we had high exploration block schedule and
078a safety net. So for those who saw benefits and our current requirements, they said it demonstrates a high degree of rigor compared to other districts, prepare students for life outside of our district. It provides students with the opportunities to take a variety of electives, help students discover new interests. It allows access to AP and dual credit. It aligns with our block schedule. Teachers value having additional uh students who fail the class still have time to catch up and graduate and it supports involvement in CAPS and Louis and Clark. The setbacks fell into four categories. Workload and stress, equity and access, graduation and dropout rate, and then elective fatigue. So, eight courses per semester is a lot, especially for those who are on the AP and honors track. Students struggle with managing a workload of eight
079classes. transfer students struggle to catch up. And I I can actually attest to this one. Transfer students and ELLL students when they transfer in uh on a different credit system. It is very complicated and tricky to get them to graduate on time. Uh most of the time I have to write or the counselors have to write an alternative graduation plan and then I sign it. also limit students who want to graduate early. Higher dropout and lower graduation rates. Students run out of elective classes that interest them and take easy or repeat classes creates disengagement, poor attendance and behavior issues, especially senior year. So these are some of the collective things that were said in our stakeholder surveys. Then when we asked about the benefits and setbacks of reducing to align with the state of Missouri,
080the benefits fell into four categories. Improved outcomes for students, reduce stress, flexibility and choice and quality over quantity. So many students or many staff believe that this will reduce barriers, improve our graduation rate, and decrease dropouts. Better outcomes for students transferring into our district, including uh ELLL students. Pure credits will help students feel less overwhelmed by taking A classes, allowing them to f focus more deeply on core courses and areas of interest. Students are able to prioritize classes they care about, take more rigorous courses, or pursue specialized pathways. And then lastly, this could eliminate those filler quotation mark classes, encouraging students to be more intentional and engaged in their schedules. Setbacks um that people suggested elective course enrollment, lowering standards, early graduation, and just logistics. So, many worry this will reduce students exposure um to
081a variety of elective courses. Many worry this could shrink some programs or lead to job cuts. Some staff believe this will water down the diploma and compromise instructional rigor. Concerns that more students will graduate early when they may not be socially, emotionally, or academically ready. And then questions raised about How do we logistically do this with kids being on two different um tracks when it comes to graduating whether not the 28 or the 24? But what we heard when you look at all of the feedback over 73% of our stakeholders supported aligning our credits and reducing those to match the state. And based on that, our committee unanimously voted to recommend the reduction of credits from 28 to 24. So the recommendation as you see on the left would be to um reduce our electives
082down to seven which would give us 24 credits total to graduate. It aligns graduation requirements with the state of Missouri. It maintains access to electives so students can still take a wide variety of courses. They simply won't be required to take them. It prever it preserves opportunities for rigor. So students will still be able to take AP and dual enrollment courses. They will still be able to enroll in CAPS Lewis and Clark and SAMs. Uh and it also provides flexibility and a safety net. It gives students more room in their schedules to focus on areas of interest, address challenges, and pursue advanced opportunities. So how we plan on rolling this out? Because this isn't an overnight change. We're not just going to Starting in May, we are reducing the credits down to uh 24. So
083the class of 2027, which which are our current juniors, would drop to 27 credits. Class of 2028 would drop to 26 credits. And then the class of 29 and beyond, so those are current freshmen, that will be the first group to graduate off of 24 credits. This is similar, this is a similar to approach to what other districts have done. have gone on this journey. So there are several districts who have gone on this journey and have reduced their credits. Um and so this approach is very similar to what others have done. So implementation and roll out. So of course step one is getting board approval and updating our board policy. Step two is stakeholder communication. And so we will be sure that we highlight this in our district newsletter, principal website or our our
084website and our principal newsletters. We will velop and distribute a graduation requirement transition FAQ. We will need to revise our high school enrollment guides. And then lastly, we will need to update power school. So that's the recommendation from the committee. Are there any questions or comments? Only concerning me is okay. I know in January they start >> and I don't even just going down one. I don't want them to be overwhelmed, you know, I don't have Christmas or Thanksgiving or anything like that. I mean I I don't want to put extra stress on them by starting it this next year. I mean sometimes I really Maybe we should move it down so they can do what they're doing and then prepare for the next >> because I know they have a lot. >> So with
085the counselors, there's not much the counselors will have to do. So the uh the course enrollment guides and all of that will fall out of my office. So my office will handle that. So it will be a matter of of simply the power school piece and the communications piece and then of course when they do the high school enrollments and speaking to the students about that. Um but I don't our counselors were for it so I don't believe it will be a huge impact on our counselors >> I don't believe so can't guarantee >> yeah I cannot guarantee >> or what did I how was I guess how they thought was this good idea I think overwhelmingly our teachers I mean there's always some in every group there were some in every group who were
086not for it but that number was 20% 20 to 25% in just about every group that we saw. So, even our teachers, I don't have their specific numbers off the top of my head, but if you look at their comments, they were overwhelmingly for reducing the credits. >> I didn't think of this question. So, you're just going through it. Do you know how this wouldffect? I don't but I can tell you that this is the first time in over a decade that we last year was the first time in over a decade that we actually hit 90%. >> Uh and we've had these graduation requirements for at least that amount of time plus some. So uh I can only assume that our graduation rate will increase as a result of reducing those. >> Yeah, sure.
087I know we have like some type of baseline we to the state earlier numbers. I think we talked about concern around that timeline that no so that happens now. So we have students now who like I said who transfer in and then we graduate them on a lower of credits based on where they came from. So if we had a student who just transferred to us at the start of this year and they're coming from Patentville or they're coming from Mccclure and they gradu and they would have 24 credits. So the counselors would come to me and say this is the graduation plan. The student will not obtain the 28. would you approve graduating them on 26 credits? They send me the graduation plan. I approve it. It goes to Nick Mason. He adjusted and
088polished which usually it's a pretty quick switch, but I'm also not Nick Mason to be able to speak speak to what that would look like for an entire class to do that. But I believe it's a button that he would essentially click for those. Like I said, I'm afraid of what might happen. Any other questions or comments? If not, I make a motion to approve the high school graduation credits. All in favor? I opposed that passes. Item 6.04 is our AI presentation. >> He was hiding in the background and he has impressed me in what he can do with our school though. >> David, just tell us is it one button he presses or what? >> It might be one or two. We always make the joke he's back there 01. But no, I he
089expressed some concern about it, but it sounded like >> Okay. So, >> I know you have a lot going on, but good evening. I'm glad to be here. I'm David Taylor. I'm the director of technology for the district. just like to go over K12 education and AI. Um, this is a very long presentation that I'm going to try to keep to like 10 minutes. So, I'm gonna just go ahead and we're gonna go ahead and hit the next slide here. So, while we're talking about AI, I asked AI to create this presentation for the board. Uh, when I created that, I will say full transparency, I didn't keep any of the text that they put on it, but I did keep all the images. So, that's where all the images came from. Um, but just
090background and overview uh of this policy um that uh let me see here the EHBD artificial intelligent intelligence use status draft uh that you guys are going to be voting on tonight. Um so background on this is kind of where we had a policy come out u kind of see how it goes. Artificial intelligence is changing very very rapidly especially in the technology space. Um so I thought it would be good just to kind of give you an over of kind of what as a tech director what we look at. Um so I always use this prep whenever I take a look at any process in technology. Um so you want to carefully evaluate your current processes. Um you want to find that procon list come up with the realization of okay does this process
091make sense or not? Uh explanation and then explain the explanation to our board members uh our staff our students our parents and community and And this is this one's very very important especially as it comes to AI uh moving forward as as AI is concerned. Uh I feel that we all do need to be on the unified front of what our district stance is. So let's talk about the benefits and concerns really quick. Um the policy actually outlines this really well too but essentially when talking about AI there's kind of different categories. We kind of have to split this up into Are teachers wanting to use AI to do administrative work? Are administrators wanting to use AI as an AI tool versus the operational side of it where we use AI in the back end
092as technology uh that could either be for cyber security, data privacy, securing our networks, etc. Uh right now as a district AI applications for students, we do not allow them generative AI access. Um and that is mainly because of the data privacy concerns, but also the safe search aspect of it. AI hasn't really kind of gotten to the point where we can for sure say, okay, this is a safe AI generator. There's still ways around a certain way to get an image of something. The big concerns that I see that our district must address now u the district resource approval process and this is also outlined in this policy uh where it does recognize there's got to be more likely more than one AI coordinator. Um we have plans in our district and uh last
093April we rolled out a software approval process. Um what I would propose here uh recommend would be to expand that to a district resource approval process. kind of rebranding that meaning that AI is kind of in everything now. Companies are baking it into solutions we already own as a district. Um they're turning those options on. There's not really a way to turn them off. We need to kind of just review all of the tools that we use. And then also educate ours. Another big one is the personal versus work. U making that separation. We we do have to recommend you get uh we all kind of tighten down, you know, personal devices that staff bring with student data on them potentially or AI on their phone that can read their email. It is something we
094do need to take and all things that we are currently doing. This is why an importance of an AI toolbox. So, generative AI right now we gave teachers access to Gemini and notebook LM uh the benefit of getting kind of out ahead of that is that they aren't using their personal accounts or their personal computer and chat GPT to upload data or put in sensitive information. Uh and it's also all vaired AI tools embedded in software. This is what I'm saying if you uh was just saying about the applications modern day software as a service software as a AI has been used somewhere either in the production within the application. It's everywhere now where they're calling it AI and it's just a large language model or a reference model. Um we're seeing more and more
095of this the dangers of AI features or free use. So it used to be if you had a free application it might have got some of your data stuff like that. Now with AI baked into it, a lot of these free applications now are taking more and more that they figure out and reidentify information around there as well. Uh and then for technology and operational support, uh AI can very very much benefit us in the way of making us more efficient with less. As we all know in public school districts, uh we have to do a lot with very little technology. So aligning with the district priorities, I really enjoyed the CIP presentation earlier. Um so this does support our CIP goals. Uh operational efficiency and automation, student protections and enhanced cyber security. We are
096actually looking at a secure email tool uh that uses AI that would help with all the spam fishing that are coming in uh and also kind of just cut back on those junk emails coming out and kind of give us overight uh meet educational standards. So this is kind of now taken it into the student section moving forward forming a committee to really talk about this if we ever allow are going to allow student use of AI. Um most districts in Waret actually our internet service provider host a conference. Uh these are really where like some suggestions they have is creating AI transparency statements and badges essentially saying just kind of like what I did when I first came up here. I used presentation, I was very transparent on what I used it for. Uh,
097and then you could have an AI scale just like you would have curriculum standards or things like that if you ever move that direction. Uh, from free resistant meaning no AI was used or no AI is allowed on this assignment uh to empowered meaning you're encouraged to use AI for this assignment. And then the need for quarterly reviews. This is again is something already kind of on our scope but really bringing those departments, breaking down those silos. Uh so getting technology, curriculum, finance and our teachers, uh community members involved in the committee deciding uh overall broader direction, but also just orderly reviews with staff of those departments to see, okay, what tools are we using? Can we manage this? Are they secure? And that including them in on that vetting process for our applications. forward.
098Again, breaking down the silos impacts operations and education. I kind of touched on that. Um, a lot of these other policies, I actually went and looked up the data governance policy as well to kind of cross reference it. Um, so as far as an ISO goes, an information security officer currently u we have a couple kind of designated uh techs network administrators for that, but also myself and our database administrators really uh kind of take on this D and these ISO roles. Um, and with that the AI policy requirements that are in there and the federal policies and guidelines, especially with the retention policies, u those are something we all look at are is are those chats being kept like in Google versus chat. So, and then the AI initiatives break down our silo technology
099that's going to help with our CIS as well. Um that's kind of bringing all of our data together so we can have that data on hand right away for you guys uh to make informed decisions. Uh and then also consolidate of software as a service tools. Uh I was really surprised when I found out that our district has over,400 applications that our staff uses. Um I will say about 400 of those maybe one or two staff members use. Uh they sometimes are paid, sometimes are free, but are always uh kind of consolidations that we can do to better streamline this process. And that is the quickest I could have got through that. I'm sure there if there are any questions, comments, or concerns. Uh and I just wanted to leave you with the last thing.
100Um if you if you've read through this policy, I actually really did think that the um the explanation that they put at the beginning is is a very good representation of a polic Any questions, comments? >> I have a question. >> So, I come from the special ed world, right? So, how or what kind of training will our special educators have to use it with paper? >> Absolutely. So, um I actually on that topic there's kind of two platforms. One is what information are they putting into generative AI see that um this is why the importance of you know like Google Gemini Google has in their privacy policy that that data is not being used anywhere else it's not being used to train their models we can hold accountable to that um the other side
101of that is in the name right individualiz are those plans going to get less individualized we AI and that is a very very big concern. It is still adapting but but the answer is ultimately we would like to leave it in the hands of the professionals which is our teachers to make that judgement or teachers special education teachers >> that really help with the time it takes to do all that >> and as far as education goes I'm always willing to talk to the schools talk to the teachers uh it is one thing that that It's hard hard to get out in front of the teachers, but I'm always willing to educate. >> Any other questions, comments? >> Thank you, David. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate all you do. Thank you very much. >> If
102no other questions or comments, I'll make a motion to approve the AI presentation as presented. Is there a second? >> Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay, we will move on to new business. Item 7.01 is the student calendar. >> Um I think one I want to thank the calendar committee that joined us about 40 or so of us. Um I will say though we did complete the calendar and agree on the calendar in record time. So kudos to the to the group for that. Few highlights. As always, there's a few things in our district that we really take pride in and one is not starting on a Monday. Um, two is having a two week winter break. Um, so we certainly were were able to do that. But I think we um have
103a rock solid calendar and this year in in previous years that winter break time to give our um staff a chance to rest and recharge wasn't nearly as long, but we certainly will have a two winter break. So I think that's a pos Any questions or comments regarding the calendar? If not, I make a motion to approve the student calendar for the 2627 and 2728 school year as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? I opposed. That passes. Items 7.02 are policy changes that have been sent to us from MSBA. These are revisions and updates, but any I got my phone talking to me. >> Any any discussion regarding these policies? If not, I will make a motion to >> Did you want to talk about JCA too? Because I've been looking at
104a little bit. I think you had a good I think I think you had a good catch here. So >> please do please do because I think we need to talk about it. >> JC um is about open enrollment and there's a section uh that is enrollment at the option of the district which states that the children of nonresident employees may enroll in the district without paying tition provided they work at least half time. So that's an option that we would have um had a question about how the district would handle that. >> So Ellen brought this up to me real quick. I appreciate you doing that so I could look at it real quick because we've had a lot of a lot of policy changes in here. The key is it's optional, right? It's
105optional. And so I think and I'll let Dr. chime in as well. But I think not only do we need to look at because it's basically just some different language that they're using here because of Senate Bill 68 um the non-resident certified employees bloss >> what I would say is we can That was a great catch you I think I think we need to take this off this time. I'm just my recommendation and let us look into it some more and then we'll come back with reise next month. Basically all it's saying if you if you looked at it real quick I've been looking at it here a little bit is um because of Senate Bill 68 they're giving us some options and some things they're basically just rewarding what we already do but they're
106adding a couple other options and we're not doing those options right now. So we certainly don't want to approve those tonight. So, let's let's bring that back next month if that's okay with you all. Would you recommend that or would you like to >> I do I do um I think there's a few things on here and I even um had some notes coming in that we we would adopt but then go back and maybe change some of the language rather than trying to change it on top of MSBA's recommendations. Um but yeah, let's take it off and then um unpack it some more. for us for example our contract with Charwell currently a Charles employee cannot bring their child into the district another change so that would be a change another thing that the
107the policy is suggesting that at least part time currently only fulltime employees can bring their children into the district another change on this one that would be and these are the the big ones another change would be that if an employee um if they leave the district okay so you have a hypothetically I'm just using you have a staff member non-resident four times they come to the district but if they leave the district resign etc then their child is no longer allowed to complete the school year this is those are things are just our current practices this is a bit different so I agree with Dr. let's take it off reit >> and they're clear options so it's not just the law chang get it as well. So, we'll bring it back to you next
108month. >> And the last thing I would say on this, one of one of the biggest options when you read the description is it's optional based on it says overcrowding, but that's obviously classes. >> And Ellen said it correctly, but I just want to make sure it's the enrollment at the option of the district. So, when you hear open enrollment, we're not we're not talking about what we think open enrollment is in terms of everybody going where they want to go to school. coming down the road. That's not what we're talking about. It's about us allowing people to come to our school district. We already do in our agreements, but we need to make sure that's correct. That's a great catch on. >> Well, then I would like to move that we table policy J-2
109until later. That's a motion. Is there a second to that motion? Tammy second. All those in favor Okay. And then I will make a motion to approve all policies except JCA2. Is there a second to that? All those in favor? I opposed. Okay, that passes. We will move on to item 7.03, which is the secure storage notification resolution. >> And I would like to make a motion. Um, I would like to move that um the board votes on items and 704 be conducted by roll. All those in favor? Okay. So, we will move on with item 7.03. So this is the secure storage notification resolution and I'm going to let Karen lead just a brief discussion. >> I want to start by thanking everybody who spoke tonight. Thank you so much and uh because you
110did such a terrific job. Our president is allowing me to skip over the long resolution, save you that time and go straight to the uh resolved items that we'll be making a motion on tonight. If anybody is in desperate need of statistics, I know a lot of them. Just uh come to me and I'll give you anything you're interested in. So, um therefore, I want to resolve that the board make a motion that we accept these resolutions that the board directs the superintendent and staff to update the student handbook to include information about the importance of secure storage of firearms and that the practice for secure gun storage is to keep all guns unloaded, locked up, and separate from ammunition. resolved further that the board directs the superintendent to create an appropriate letter in English
111and Spanish to parents and guardians that explains the importance of secure gun storage and preventing miners from accessing guns and that the best practice for secure gun storage is to keep all guns unloaded, locked up, and separate from ammunition to be included in an annual reg in the annual registration materials at each school site and requiring a signature knowledge and awareness of the secure gun storage responsibilities. And finally, resolve that the board and superintendent will continue to work with law enforcement agencies. And thank you for your support tonight. Health agencies and nonprofits to collaborate and increase efforts to inform district parents about secure storage of firearms in their homes. And that's the motion that I'd like to make. This is those three resolutions are accepted. >> Prior to a motion, is there any discussion? I
112just want if there's any discussion questions I just want to com >> don't we have a signature on all registration materials that the teachers have to sign. I mean the parents have to sign, I'm sorry. And so it just be included with the regular registration materials that they sign that they've reviewed. >> I uh I think great conversation earlier and I appreciate the quick back. The only It's making me feel a little squishy. On one hand, uh I think all of the topics in gun safety is incredibly important. I practice gun safety at home to go hunting tomorrow and making sure that we have it locked up safe and stuff for kids not to get into it. Um and all of the points and facts are 100% right. >> But as a body, >> our
113legislative and policy responsibility is just that. have in policy for gun safety and within our general responsibilities I don't think we have anything that covers resolutions or discussions of this whether it's a resolution or not I think that we've always have the right to say hey Jason or central office team we should do something like this and send letters and stuff have more education and everything else but as said as a resolution we're directing it that way what is the life of resolution >> well it has been Well, first of all, over 30 states have a law that requires this. >> Yes, we're one of the few states that do not have a law that requires this. >> And because of that, the National PTA recommends this resolution be adopted by the school boards in
114school districts and states that do not have those um safe and secure laws in place. >> So, the National PTA, that's where this came from. I didn't make it up. I I didn't create it. And there are many school districts right now in Missouri who have already adopted this that are great models. I I think it was Kirkwood. I sent it to you what it but there are a few that have really done a wonderful job with this. And so it's not anything unusual or unique to school boards in Missouri or throughout the country. >> Sure. And I don't think it has to be. I think it's still around. There has been a challenge, you know, with getting materials. I think a lot of people are uncomfortable um recommending what to do >> with gun
115safety. Therefore, they avoid it and therefore the problem keeps growing. >> But this is not an uncommon practice. >> Sure. And I can understand that. especially with it being common or uncommon. Either way, even if we were the first ones to ever do this, I still think it's kind of the same question. What is a resolution in comparison to >> all we can do is recommend like asking parents to have their kids wear a helmet on their bicycle >> or we can't, you know, we can't go out there and enforce that, >> but we can certainly recommend that students get vaccinations. There are many things that we recommend students and families to do >> to protect their children every year. This is the number one killer. Think about that. It's the number one killer of
116children. And therefore, a resolution is worthy to make sure that we're doing our due diligence as a school board. And I did I did ask some parents and community members as well just for their opinion. I think like and thank you to all of you that shared tonight. I think we heard like support. I did hear some people like the other side I think like who are you as a school board to tell us at home what we should do. I agree like we we recommend vaccinations. We like you know the program drug and alcohol use. We don't say though like parents or families, we're recommending you don't drink or do drugs. I mean, we can't really impose. So, I think that's where I think with Daniel feeling a little bit torn, like, do I
117believe in gun safety and firearms being stored securely? 110%. I I struggle with is it my role as a school board member to tell parents and families what to do in their home. I think it could be a slippery slope because I had a community member say like well then are you going to pass a resolution about abortion because that kills children but like would we and I'm not I'm just saying like that was brought up by like a couple community members if we're going >> they weren't here >> and I I welcome their comments. I'm sharing just saying like this is this is something I think as a board we have to consider if we're going to pass a resolution that will affect homes and specifically parents. We're not asking the children obviously to
118lock up firearms. We just have to consider that like at what point do we have the authority or not have the authority to tell people what to do in their home. I think we have the duty. And I'll go back to what you said, Dan, about how you keep your guns locked up at home. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to as a be smart tableing person who never thought about, "Yeah, but my kid's going to go to this other person's house. My kid's going to get in a car and where there's an unsecure weapon and I won't know that. my kids going to come to school with their friends in a car where there's an unsecure weapon. You know, I I'm sorry if there's people who don't agree with it. I
119think as a board we need to make a decision if this is something that we're willing to support. And >> Marker say that the city of St. the city of St. Charles. That's an example of an elected body telling people what to do. No, it's not. It's not what to do. It's making a recommendation. >> Yeah. It's making a recommendation that is not even forceful except by your state of mind. >> Yeah. >> Some people don't think about it. >> Like um I've talked to a lot of grandmas who said, "Oh, I didn't think about, you know, >> I don't think I don't think it's even I don't even think it's much of a recommendation necessarily to providing. >> It's education. It's information, >> right? >> And we are a school district. We educate. So,
120it is our job to educate and to keep our kids safe, right? It is our job. Our parents entrust us with the most precious people in their lives and it is our job to do everything we can to try to ensure their safety. And the last thing I'll say on this before I hope somebody makes a motion is that this is free. This is basically free. We spend millions of dollars in this state that we could be spending on educating children. We spend valuable teaching and learning time doing drills and educating our teachers on what to do in case a student gets shot in your classroom. And this is free. It's proactive and it's, you know, I I I don't see a downside. >> Yeah. I mean that came up she said she has information
121that would be good to send as well. I'm still stuck on this home and we need to sign required signing. I think it just needs to be informative just like you said informing people. This is all the things, >> right? This is good information. Here you go. >> I I don't think it's required to bring back if you sign it just like they sign all the other registration materials. Correct. It would be with registration. >> I think though that's like is that our discretion like as a board are we deciding like >> that is a signed paper to send back? Is it a power school? Like I don't know. Is that our place or is that something we trust the team administration? >> Go ahead. >> Well, I think it's what Brian's saying though is
122what does it actually say on the actual resolution. >> What is it for? Why are we signing something? >> It's just like I've worked in a lot of registrations because I was a guidance counselor. There are a lot of papers packet a registration packet that parents sign >> but anymore it's digital and you're signing like one thing but that's what we're saying. Yeah. And so do we have those? Yes. Could that be added? Yes. I think the question is and that's not my question. The question is do we want them to have or just >> just get the information and put it in the registration materials like you do everything else. >> I think the question is we have signify. Let me tell you how I feel about this. We pass the resolution. You decide
123how you're going to carry it out. That's your job. You know what I mean? >> But I also think that we can't outline it. And if we're going to pass a resolution, >> I'm not questioning. I'm just certainly trying to clarify what the actual question is. The question is are we going to because you all are going to because you're going to vote. Believe me, if I get something to do, I will do it. I will do what you ask me to do and I will certainly figure that out. But I think the question right now I'm hearing is that right now the way it's read is they're going to >> once they vote once you say vote yes to this then have to sign it you have to decide is that what you want
124to do or not and then I'll make sure I think it's linked in the annual registration annual registration >> right it's I don't think it needs to be a separate letter but that's your decision you're the superintendent >> I think you have to vote on that make sure that's Yeah, I think that it's um it just says that it's part of the registration packet. I mean, don't they >> because the if the resolution says that the parents have to sign it and you vote on it, then I'm going to make sure that the parents sign it. Okay, >> that's what that's that's the question. Or can it say it's just the information will simply go home with the registration packets, but there's not a signature needed. >> That's the question. Correct. I would say just
125take this part out. >> No, here's the question. When you when you have parents fill out a registration packet, >> isn't that signed? >> It just depends on what it is. There's different information. >> We used to do reg I did registration every year and when you registered your student, you signed that you had received the registration. >> So I think I think when it comes to the signature, so there's multiple forms within a registration package and so Each form might require signatures and some parents can sign, some they can opt out and not sign. So I think it's whether or not we want to require them to have that signature on there that is something that we they are required to sign or is it optional or do you remove it at all? I
126think that's the question. >> Well, I I personally personally would be happy that it's just in the registration material and turned in, but that's >> your decision. resolution. So, it's not Well, then >> Well, if you want to take the signature out, I'm fine. That's what the board has. >> Okay. >> I'm looking for >> if I may be able to add a helpful comment. Not saying that the other comments are not helpful certainly, but we have a lot of uh right now. So uh but prior previous previous to that it says that the uh this will be updated in the student handbook and if we simply put this information in the student handbook it is there is a um a signature that says we have read the student handbook. So I think it can
127be in my opinion it can be as simple as just doing what it says previously that update the student handbook include all the in that paragraph and then >> there are numerous examples out there in this area that where they have it in the handbook and it's not a long I mean it's a blurb that just says how to secure your firearms and don't you give out a student handbook at registration? Yeah. I mean I I'm just to make a motion that we delete the requirement for registration and just include it with the uh registration materials. >> Okay. You want to take it all out of the registration material just remove >> taking the requirement requiring signature. Okay. made a motion to pass the resolution taking out that a signature is required. Is there a
128second to that motion? >> Well, this is a motion to approve the resolution as presented by taking amendment >> with an amendment. Yeah. So, you you made that motion. I got a second. So, Are we approving requirement or are we approving the resolution? We're approving the resolution with the modified. >> Yes. >> I I >> I will move on. That passes. >> Thank you, Karen, for your work on that for bringing that to the board. We're going to move on to item 7.04. >> And thank you for letting me allowing me to do this. Um and this is a discussion to recent uh three motions previously approved by the board on September 11th. Um so this is we can have discussion regarding this. >> I I'll start off and I have no qualms in saying
129this. I brought this to the board. Uh, I wanted to resend this because just to my feelings and I'll go back to this and I'll make statements on this that this is not an attention grabber. My wife's here, you can ask. I don't care to have any attention on me. I don't want attention. Okay. It's not attention grab. It's not no political stunt. Nothing. Okay. So, what I want to do is get into how I feel about this. Now, I'm not going to say my feelings. I don't believe in feelings. They're not facts. So, I want to get into some facts I see and I think is important to our district. The things that I've heard tonight is momentum. We're all by momentum. Every email I get from Jason Secret says all in. Wake up
130sometimes at night and I say all in all in every day I get emails all in. We have to live it, right? So we have to live it. I've heard everything about CIP. CIP CIP CIP. We talked about this constant. So I want to go through our school improvement plan. We're number one. So we're going through and I was looking through this thing just kind of going through it going the plan going through the plan. So when we're all in, we see it right right at the beginning. All in, right? Page number two. Page number three says Jason, he helps mention that. This is a great statement. Somebody wrote it. I'm not sure who, but it says all engaging, empowering, inspiring, every day. We are a diverse student centered learning community. Talk about getting into
131more diversity. We're looking through here. Then we go into page number four. Go back to engage power every learner every day inspire. We see our vision page integrity. We align our actions to our values. Missouri school board association which we are responsible for. We are not responsible for this that and all the weeds and all that stuff. Got told that on first MSBA training there with Karen. It says this. The board clarifies the district purpose. Right. The district's purpose, direction, priorities, and desires, outcomes are reported in statements of core values, beliefs, mission, vision, and goals. Our job and our responsibility as board members is to follow that improve. And I think we have I think we've seen the momentum. We've seen it. We are all in together. I see in other pages says all I
132know says all in force. I think as a district, it's all in for everybody. I said that in the very beginning. I wasn't supported by SCA and that's fine. I don't care who I was supported by. I told them in the very beginning that I am for every teacher here. It doesn't matter what group you are. We are SC. And I believe the church used to say united. There's a reason why it says United. Now when you take that away from somebody, I don't feel that that's all. I don't feel that when we go into even further into its inclusivity that has nothing to do with that exclusivity. Right? We are excluding 88 members of our school district. We telling them that they cannot speak at new teacher orientation. They cannot have a table and
133they cannot uh put up a billboard in a school. Those are the three things. So that's my concern. Okay. I think we have worked good as a group here. I think for somebody calling me out to say that I'm doing something or personally driven is wrong because I have shown previously when stuff was brought to me brought to us. I was the one that stopped the meeting and said, "You know what? We need to do something about the cell phone before the state did it." I don't care. I'm here for the students and I want our students to go forward. We do it together, then there's going to be a problem. Our momentum is going one direction and it's going up. I think it's proven in our APR scores, right? We're at 90%. Right? Where
134were we last year and the year before that? So, we have been all in. We've done it how many years? 13 years together now and we're all presenting new teacher orientation. We have been all in together. So, I don't understand the big change. something has happened and I and I don't see us in the future is it going to improve like it has that's my heart my passion our school district to go and continue to move forward has nothing to do with any kind of political anything I want to be the best in our school and I wanted to bring it up I mean Danny wasn't here some of the meetings so I know he's way smarter than I am even Daniel would have been here. I would have loved to hear what Daniel had
135to say. Okay. I'm not speaker. Maybe Daniel's got something else and I'd love to bring up discussion. I'm not trying to something because I have hatred towards somebody. No, I don't. I just want our school to be the best. I think being all as we continue to say all is not excluding people because we're not part of a certain group. That's just me. I've been on good teams and I've been on great teams. There's a great distinction between what a good team and a great team is and I want us to be a great team. If we're not all on the same page and all together, we're not going to be a great team. I just hate to break. It doesn't work that way. So, I'm just opening it up for that. I don't think
136that we broke any board policy. MS MTA was not breaking any board policies. I think that was stated in our meeting. So, I just want to open it up. That's why I brought it to the board. That's my part. I'll take a moment because uh I was not here and I will take an opportunity. Obviously, I'm behind on missing some conversations. So, I wasn't in that initial discussion. So, all I can do is tell you where I was at at the time and kind of thinking now. First, appreciate the passion, right? I think leveraging back what we learned from CE today and explaining where you are for stuff is always important. Uh we have a big thing that we work for all time. especially talking about I don't think coming back today technically is against
137anything discussion the grievance itself and the resolution that grievance what was said not the fact that we can't vote on something because there are often times we do have to go back just like if we had a policy just because we vote on a policy one time doesn't mean not an exact appar But in this case, I'm not refuting anything. Um, for me, um, it does link into a bit of what our policy has for the exclusive kind of partnering. Now, exclusive partnering, right, is we negotiate with doesn't necessarily directly always what you're saying of everybody. What we're having here isn't isn't technically removing that opportunity saying nobody can be within it, but it's true that limiting the amount of ability to resource. But it also isn't uncommon with representately practices or more voting. So
138where I'm at right on the head is I kind of agree and honor the board at the moment in time. I don't think there's anything against policy talking about today. Um so there is a procedure for the motion to be rescended. Um member can make the motion to resend. Any member may second it. It's not required that the person moving has voted for or against the motion during the prior meeting. And because there were three separate motions regarding the grievance request, there will need to be a separate motion to resend each of these motions. Um >> is this one or is it just a second? >> No, it's mot Um, so and then I kind I mean because this is uncharted territory I have it here to kind of follow um and typically what we've
139been doing I mean maybe you all have noticed but I make the first motion and any motion we make um just to get the process going and for time sake so I will and then obviously if a motion fails or passes we go to it's like following here so bear with me I will, if there's no other discussion, I move that the motion that was approved during the board of education meeting on September 11th, 2025 to prohibit MSTA from presenting information to new teachers at the beginning of the school year res. Is there a second? >> I'll second. Yes. >> No. No. So the motion to for that to happen trying to make sure failed. So then the board will move to the second motion. So I move that the motion that was approved during
140the board of education meeting on September 11th, 2025 to prohibit MSTA from having bulletin boards in the schools be rescended in the entirety. Is there a second? Yes. No. Since the motion failed, we'll move to the third motion. I move that the motion that was approved during the board of education meeting on September 11th, 2025 to prohibit prohibit MSTA from having a table resended. Do I have a second? No motions. So those three motions and we will move on to ITEM item 8.01 guys. I'll wait. That's incredible that you've just thought of that. I appreciate it. >> All right, I'm going to try to make this very quick as the meeting is has been very long and I recognize that. So, I certainly don't want to keep you here any longer unless you have questions.
141Uh, but as we look at the year end for October on the financial report, and you compare it as a comp back to 25 of or 24 of October, you'll see we're up in revenue surprisingly in federal and in state revenue. We heard all the uh story or the the difficulty stories what happens with the federal government does this with the department of education what happens with this and they shut down and so on and so on. I will give kudos to our federal programs coordinator. She's been doing an excellent job of turning in uh everything as as you possibly can to get federal reimbursements. And we are up about 400,000 in federal reimbursements this year at the same time that we were last year. So, we're seeing that little bit of a tick up
142in our in our fund in our fund because of that piece. We're also up in in our local revenue by a hair. Not unanticipated at all. Our spending is relatively flat compared to the previous year with the exception of only salaries, which is to be expected. about 600,000 more at the same time which is what we anticipated with this hour increases uh that were provided. Uh another area that we're down in is benefits. We know that can change very quickly but right now I think we've got on here we're down about uh 600,000 a little over 600,000 in our benefit payments uh going out as compared to last year. So our fund balance and our self insurance needs that. So we hope that's a that's a not only for the financial aspect but also healthier
143employers is very important to us as well. So um no concerns at all financially. This is our critical period as far as being able to make payroll on December November 20th and December 5th. Our December 20th payroll will not be an issue at all. There's no concerns. We should receive our first local tax checks coming into us. I think it's December 12th. Friday, second Friday of the month is typically the most. So, uh, we'll start to see those and start seeing that trend upwards. Open enrollment ended last month. Uh, so everyone had the opportunity to enroll or change their benefits. Uh, so that took place. We're good to go there as we enter January 1. Our business office is currently making all of those changes uh in our financial software uh for that. The audit
144is complete. It could have been ready uh but I didn't want to push it and not be ready because we know that happens. Uh so uh it is ready and it'll be ready for December. We will have several things coming to you as far as uh recommendations for bid approvals. Uh busing. Those bids have been taken. They've been open publicly and are currently under review. We have roofing projects for Blackhurst. Uh Black Yeah. roofing for Blackhurst Coverdale and Louis that are going out for bid. We will bring those to you in December. And then under development right now is the construction that we're planning for summer at Harris St. Charles West uh flooring in their office at Harden's office and then some safety features at early childhood that we've heard from the staff that they
145would like us to investigate. So we're in the planning phases, our architects are in the planning phases for all of those projects right now. >> And no update at this point on >> no update. Correct. Any any questions, comments? >> If not, I make a motion to adopt the financial report as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? >> I I move to adjourn the meeting. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I thank you all for coming. >> Thanks everybody.