001Yeah. >> And they're in my best friend's class. >> Oh, that's awesome. >> And so they have to get >> Did you call them? >> Yeah. They get a selfie with me. They get extra credit. Hey, >> even better. >> Good. Sorry. >> All right. Tell me when you're ready. >> No, you're good. >> Ready. >> Uh, go. >> All right. I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. If you guys could stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We will begin the meeting with the superintendent summary and comments. >> Thank you, Miss Sigma. >> Good evening and welcome to
002tonight's board of education meeting. We are glad you're here. We got a great crowd. Vivian's with us tonight from St. Charles West. She's going to be the reporter today. Dr. Ver, are we excited to be here tonight? >> Awesome. We have our Lindlewood friends with us today. They're in my best friend's class, Dr. Alex Trimmer and Linda Wood. I just got a self selfie with him because if I get a selfie with them that you guys get what? Extra credit. Isn't that awesome? Come on people. It's exciting to be here tonight. All right. It's amazing to think we're already in the month of October. Things are moving uh along smoothly and quickly. Parent teacher conferences are next week. That's crazy to say that. It's that is always a perfect time for our staff and parents
003to connect in person on the progress of our students. So, we really look forward to that next week. And uh together we're doing great things. Speaking of great things, uh we've got uh high school C uh high school uh schedules and uh credit committee going on. What else we got? >> Ports for graduate. We're >> calendar reconfigurations coming up. I mean, we've we are hitting a lot of our see a lot of great curriculum work with math. Just awesome things happening and uh it it's all powered by our awesome staff. Fall sports season in full swing as well. It's been a fun time as we are busy with exciting sports activities and performing arts events to attend. Uh speaking of excitement, the Pirates and the Pirates and the Warriors squared off in football last Friday
004for the St. Charles High U homecoming game. And who won, Miss Sigma? >> Warriors. >> The Warriors won. Warriors back. The Warriors back on the winning winning track there. Uh speaking of homecoming, we're in the middle of back-to-back weeks of celebrating at both High and West. And uh like I said, last week was High and this week is West. are looking forward to. Uh tomorrow is an assembly, a parade, and the game, the dances on uh Saturday night. So, happy homecoming to all of our pirates and warriors out there. And as always, we like to say, go Pirates and Warriors. The MSBA, which is our Missouri School Boards Association, has an annual student scholarship, John T. Belchure, that is awarded to a graduating senior in each uh in each of the 17 SBA regions, and
005one regional winner will be selected as a state winner. Our board of education has again given our high school principles the direct the direction to select a nominee who will apply. They don't they don't win anything yet, but they they get to be nominated to apply for the scholarship. And we will have our nominee announced at our next board meeting in November. So stay tuned. And this year's nominee will come from St. Charles High since it was St. Charles West's turn last year. We have worked hard to prepare for this meeting. We've got consent agenda items, assessment plan. That's going to be exciting, right? >> Yes. Uh, school safety program review, homeless program review, notice of annual school election, RFB district district buses, and then also the district financial report. Just want to encourage everybody
006to keep going. We're having a very productive uh 2526 school year. I just want to encourage us to keep allin. That's our theme this year is all in and keep doing great things. So, awesome. Thank you, Heidi. >> Thank you, Dr. Seaffort. Item 3.04 is board communications. We do not have any at this time. Item 3.05, audience comments. All regular and special meetings of the board shall be open to the public. Since the board desires to be a good listener and be responsive to the community, persons desiring to address the board may do so during the time so allotted on the agenda and according to established procedures. During the audience portion of each board meeting, patrons are invited by the president to speak for or against any proposal on the tenative agenda or on any
007other school concern. The individual is asked to identify him or herself, limit comments to a few minutes, and avoid discussing personalities. The president reserves the right to limit the number of presentations and/or length of comments. At the discretion of the president, patrons may be recognized at other times during the board meeting. The board is very interested in audience comments. According to board policy, members cannot respond during the actual meeting. The board will listen to the comments if necessary. Additional follow-up will occur through district administration. And we will start um with Noah Sutton to share tonight. You can just press the little person on the bottom. Central School District Board. Thank you for having me here tonight. Um it has come to my attention recently that there is an issue with the retaining wall um sliding
008out which is in turn causing the building to slide. Um Mr. Shields told me that in order to be up to code with city requirements, you're going to have to put a parking lot out there. I don't like that idea. Um I use that parking lot, not that parking lot, hopefully not a parking lot. I use that park on a daily basis. Um I've been living here in St. Charles my whole life and I've been walking past that park since I was probably five or six. My grandma used to live over on Monroe. Um, and there were a bunch of school bunch of neighbor kids and I that would come over to the park and we'd play like all the time. I'm talking like four or five days a week we would come and play
009at this park. Um, now that I'm older, I'm not playing with Nerf swords and I'm not playing baseball or kickball up here anymore, but I come up here because I kind of use it as an extension of my backyard. I live in downtown St. Charles, so my backyard is pretty small and we have dogs, so we don't have much of a backyard to really play in. This is one of the few green spaces in the area that's open to the public. Frontier Park is usually trashed and there are sometimes homeless people walking around. So, it's not really a nice place to go and sit quietly. It's nice and it's elevated. Um, and it provides a really nice view of St. Charles. You can kind of see St. Louis from um across the park. I see
010a lot of people up here at this park playing. I see families using the playground. I would like to mention that I think it's very honorable that the school district put a new playground in there and tore down that old one. The old one was much cooler. It was a little more dangerous, but I like that one a lot. A little nostalgic. Um, but I think I do like that you guys put a park a new playground there and it kind of affirmed that the park would stay. So, when I heard that there was potentially a parking lot that was going to be put there, I was a little distressed. Um, there's an estimated 12.4 million acres of parking lots in the United States. Imperable surfaces are really bad. They contribute to erosion. Uh, we
011don't manage our water very well in America. So, another halfacre acre parking lot. I just don't think we need to add to the problem. I don't know. Mr. Shield said that the parking lot was going to go from the big tree out there to the shrub. That tree out there is a 150 plus year old bur oak. Bur oaks provide up to 400 uh they provide support for up to 450 different species of native wildlife. And that tree is probably soaking up close to 2,000 gallons of water a day. So it is an asset for you guys to have that tree here. Um it has a I'd measured it a couple weeks ago. It's got a trunk diameter of 12 foot three inches and a crown spread of over a 100 feet from north to
012south. It provides a lot of shade. It cast a beautiful shadow and I really love that tree. >> If you can just sum up the rest of your The timer went off. I'm sorry. >> If you guys destroy this park and you put a parking lot there, then you're going to sew distrust in the community and whoever votes for this parking lot, I will not vote for you in the next school board. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I'll invite Brennan Karns to come speak. >> Good evening, members of Central Office, Board of Education, St. Charles Community. My name is Brendan Karns. I'm the president of the St. Charles Education Association, the exclusive bargaining organization for certified employees and nurses here in the district. Um, we're off to a very busy start to the school year.
013SCEA members um are working on all of the committees that Dr. Seafford has mentioned. our calendar committee, high school curriculum committee. They're working hard to put our professional development day together in addition to all the hard work they're putting in for our students. Uh everybody's excited with conferences upcoming to have the opportunity to share uh successes for that our students are experiencing in class. We also held our first sped cohort meeting last month, so it was a terrific opportunity to build camaraderie among special education teachers. And I have to shout out Jessica Ross who does an amazing job running that. So, thank you, Jess. Um, just two kind of things I wanted to compliment uh board members on their work for. Um, Missouri NEA sponsors cheer grants and Karen O'Harn has sponsored one of our
014members for that. So, thank you to Karen and thank you for her to finding someone to sponsor that. And then Tammy McGrellis, um, at a time where our building was struggling with the death of a student who was friendly with many of our students, um, it was a very comforting message to receive from you. So, thank you very much on behalf of Success Campus. >> Thank you, Brendan. We will move on to item 3.06, which is our high school student update. We have St. Charles West student Vivian Joyce that is going to present to us tonight. >> Will you hit the little person? Sorry. >> Yep. Um, hi. Can you hear me? Yes. >> Okay, awesome. I'm super excited to be here. When I found out I got this, it was like Christmas morning all
015over again. And I'm really excited. Um I believe I actually fastened your um cap at St. Charles West graduation and uh I've seen you in 2018 map testing magic video for Harden and football games and I just know you. >> You're famous. >> I just know you. >> Um unlike last month's uh candidate for this Owen, I do have a bit more to say. Um nothing about the physical aspects of West, but all infrastructure. So, um, I wanted to start off by listing some of my awesome successes. Also, I want to say thank you for doc to Dr. Vocal for having me here and letting me come and represent our school. So, our first success, which if you ask any high school student, they're not going to agree with me at all. Um, I think
016that our phone policy is the best thing to happen. Um, I really love it. I am just amazed by the quality of both studentto student and studenttoteer interactions that have gone up since then. Um, students honestly are more engaged in class. And I noticed that because I've like just looking around you can tell there more class conversations, teacher to student interaction. Also, not to mention lunch is so loud now, which is great because like it used to be everyone's sitting around on their phone and it was just so boring. And I'm really happy that the phone policy has really paid off. You know, people are more immersed in their classes, talking to each other. You know, it's it's just awesome. I love it. Um, another one I wanted to highlight was AP enrollment. We have
017had a steady growth of AP enrollment. It also shows that students are motivated to challenge themselves academically. This is not only prepares students for college level work but also reflects this the school's culture of academic excellence. Um some statistics I quickly wanted to share were um we had last year we had 200 exams completed which is 38 more than the year before. um 79% success success rate which is a 4% increase but from the year prior and we ended the year with 37 AP scholars 16 regular, seven with honor and 14 with distinction. Um I believe that um many extracurriculars have actually seen growth as well. Um for example, I'm actually a part of this. I am the president of our new St. Charles School District United competitive speech and debate team. Um it see
018growth in numbers. So, we've got about 25 on our roster now from both High and West, which is incredible because it's just it's experienced such such a strong comeback, and I really love it. Um, attendance at school events such as pep rallies, games, and and um, etc. has been really strong. These events give students that opportunity to really connect and build their community. Um, being St. Charles West versus St. Charles High, we have a very like a much smaller school than Hide High was, I would say. um which is such a good thing because that means our community is more tight-knit which is awesome in that these um events that people are showing up to really helps strengthen that warrior community. Um a consistent success is the dedication of our teachers most importantly. U many
019actually go out of their way to help students during planned periods AIP or even after school honestly. Um I can't tell you how many times I've been saved on a math test by my math teacher Miss Lake because she stayed after school to help tutor me out of um the kindness of her heart which I really appreciate. Um it's not just me, it's other students. Students are feeling encouraged to encouraged to succeed academically and personally. Um my favorite part is the student leadership organizations like StuCo, NHS, and Welcome Ambassadors, which I'm doing leadership for as well. Um I'm also NHS treasurer. Um but they've really successfully created opportunities for students to plan events, lead service projects, and advocate for their peers. >> Yeah, you can. >> Okay. if you Yeah, >> I was like, "Oh,
020no. >> Feel free to keep sharing." >> Um, let me just let me know if I'm talking too much. You guys can cut me off or whatever. >> Great. >> Um, I am part of Welcome Ambassadors. Um, our one of our new initiatives we're taking on is lunch. It's called lunch buddies. So, we're combating the issue of students sitting at lunch alone. So, that is one of our biggest things we're going to be taking on um in the future coming up with we had an impromptu meeting recently, I think about two weeks ago. um students are coming up with ways to include others which is incredible because hearing that from high school students like they're many adults. So that's just like it says so much about what our community is going to be. Um I
021personally have gotten to experience a new take on our SAMS program which is our students as mentors. Many people that are involved in the SAMS program go down to elementary schools or middle schools to help out. I've actually gotten to stay at West and I've gotten to help out with an English one class at my school. Um it's really incredible. Miss Piece has been so great to me. Um, we have a few English language learners in that class. So, I have been able to take them out of the classroom and help like um help them scribe what they want to say onto like paper, which is has been a really good um experience for me. Um, now I would like to move on to challenges and solutions, keyword solutions, because every challenge has a solution.
022Um, student involvement. One of the biggest challenges that I've seen lately is getting students involved in clubs, organizations, and activities beyond athletics. For example, some clubs only have a handful of dedicated members. For example, the club I'm a part of, Renaissance. It's um an awesome academic um program. It's nationally recognized, but we don't have a lot of members. And other than like people are so into sports that they don't see the academic piece of it. So, I thought a solution might be like an annual involvement fair. we have something like that at the beginning of the year before school starts. But I feel like if we could have it more like in the middle of the year or maybe even before winter or um even spring starts, that would be incredible because students and parents
023like especially like after teach parent teacher conferences could be like they know about that. They know what's going to happen so they could go. Um another thing I thought would be peer-to-peer outreach could also help such as having current members personally invite friends to a meeting. I just thought it would be awesome to have something like that. Um my next issue is recognition. While sports achievements are celebrated, accomplishments in academics, the arts, and service don't always get that same attention. Teachers also deserve more recognition as a whole for their hard work and creativity in the classroom. A solution to this could be a monthly recognition program that highlights both students and staff on announcements, social media, or even in newsletters. Okay, this um I love this next point. I was really interested in finding out
024more about this, so I just thought I would share this here. Um library integration. Some of my fondest memories as a kid were going to the library during school. I would really love to see the library being used more. I feel like it's really right now it's an underused learning hub. Many students only go there for study hall rather than to engage with the resources of the library. Books are um collecting dust. I would just love to see the library hosting more interactive events like maybe student le book clubs or poetry nights or research work workshops. Teachers could al could also collaborate more with these librarians by making classes or bringing them in for projects or creating cross-curricular reading challenges. Class connections. There's often little interaction between underassman and upper classmen, which has been a
025big issue because for outside of sports teams, they don't have that connection. When I'm in a sport, I'm I'm part of cheerleading. Um there's so much connection between underassmen and upper classmen, but when you're not in that sport, you don't get that same um connection. So, I thought it would be awesome if we could have like a structured mentorship program where older students were paired with younger ones and they could help each other. Um, another idea could be grade level mixers, team bonding events, and etc. And then attendance incentives. We have a lot. We actually do this thing where we um every two weeks you if you have attendance perfectly for those two weeks, you'll your name will get drawn and you could win a pizza for your lunch, which is so awesome. I won
026that once and I shared with my French class. Um, many students don't see a strong incentive for perfect or near perfect attendance. For example, some other schools offer recognition like certificates, free admission to events, and of course, like I'm not saying this is our school because a lot of this could um not be integrated because of our schedule, but some even do an extended lunch um for students with strong attendance records. I think imple implementing a positive reinforcement system could encourage students to value consistency in showing up. student voice. Unlike this program here, which I love, this is also written a little um earlier before I ended up getting it. So, students don't always feel like they have enough opportunities to share their opinions or concern about school life. Um while occasional surveys do exist,
027they aren't frequently or widely discussed. More regular feedback systems such as quarterly surveys, student action teams, or even a student suggestion committee would allow students to feel heard and contribute to the school development. And I believe that's all. >> Awesome. You did amazing, Vivian. Thank you so much. >> I talked a bit more than Owen, but >> I love it. >> I talked more than Owen. >> Thank you, >> Vivian. Real quick, tell tell them tell these great folks up here what your plans are for next year. >> Oh my gosh. So, I am applying to Grenell College in Iowa. Not sure if I'll get in, but I've also applied to a few more places in Missouri. My plan is I really want to like be a teacher and I would love to come back
028and teach at West. I would love to come teach at St. Charles West. Also, I will just add this. I forgot to add this. I'm currently the one and only student custodian at St. Charles West. So, super fun. And I technically already work for the district. >> Awesome. >> That's awesome. >> Isn't that awesome? >> Great start. Thank you. >> Any any questions or comments for Vivian board members? >> Yeah. Are you willing to take on the challenge of implementing these great ideas or um do you know of anybody who could because you seem like you are a busy student. >> Honestly, I would love nothing more than to take this on. These are the things I live for. Um having that extra outside of school reason to come to school every every day like
029brightens my day. Like there is no reason that I should just go to school and just be a student because I'm not just a student. I I mean I am a student but I'm so much more than that. I feel like I could totally take that on. I'd love to because that's what get brings me joy. >> Awesome. >> One more story because I Vivian is just awesome. tell them about their day when I this is a couple weeks ago when I saw you in the office and you were beaming because you literally went into the you can tell the story but it's when you went and talked to Lynenwood and all of a sudden something happened to you that day >> with Lynwood with the Yeah, I know a lot of great things happened
030to you but you received something from Lynwood that you believe Oh yeah, this is not >> this is a great story. >> That's a great story. >> So um there was Lynwood on the spot at Mission Southwest. Um it was so fun. I loved it. I'm not like planning on going to Lindwood because I mean I could. It's just an option but you never know. So, I decided to just say, "Hey, what's this about?" So, I brought my transcript in. I got the highest academic scholarship of $12,000. >> Right on the spot. >> On the spot for you. >> She came in. She goes, "I got $12,000 from uh from L." I said, "Oh, you got that like in No, right now." I'm like, "Where?" She goes, "The counselor's office." I'm like, >> that was
031so That was awesome. >> That's awesome. I loved it. It was so great. >> Yeah. Thank you so much, Vivian. Thank you. Thank you to I'm guessing that's mom back there who's raised an amazing amazing human. >> I'm a triplet so it's fun. >> Triple the fun. >> A triplet of fun. >> I love that. Well, thank you very much for taking time to share with us. We appreciate it. >> Great job. >> We're going to take just like a two or three minute break. If anyone would like to leave at this point in the meeting, you are welcome to. If not, you're welcome to stay, but we will reconvene here in like three minutes. >> Okay, we will go ahead and resume with our meeting item 3.07. I make a motion to adopt the
032agenda as presented. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? I opposed. That carries. Next is our consent agenda. For efficiency, the school board utilizes a consent agenda. Items placed on the consent agenda are routine in nature or are among the many decisions that the board has already determined are in the domain of the administration. I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second? >> All those in favor? I opposed. Oh, you can't you can't pull it up. >> Got a new >> new program. >> Yeah. >> Can you go to item 6.01 I think is where we are. >> Okay. >> Right. I just approved it though. We just approved it. Right. >> So then we'll go Yep. So, item 6.01 is our assessment plan.
033>> Perfect. Thank you, >> Dr. Draper. >> So, um board tonight, we are going to present our assessment plan um for you. So, we have Megan Bowers. She is our data learning and assessment coordinator. So, one of the things about um our assessment plan, it's nothing new. It we've had an assessment plan annually. However, with this cycle of MP6, there's going to be a lot of kind of routine plans that we do that are now required for board approval. So, I know um Dr. Seafford and Mr. Shields are going to present the safety plan after this one. That used to be a by or every other year uh plan review. Now, that one's going to be an annual review. So, you'll start to see a lot more things that are kind of routine. you'll start
034to see those throughout um our board presentations. So, a lot of the information that uh Megan is going to share is not new to you. Some of it might be, but most of these assessments have been around our district for years. So, with further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Megan. >> All right. Thank you guys for having me. It's good to see you again. I'll try to keep this concise. I know there's a lot to get to tonight. Um there's a clicker. Perfect. I was like, how is this going to work? Okay. So, one of the um updates to this assessment plan is that it is um more deeply and closely aligned with our new mission, vision, and values as a district. So, um really what you'll see with this um assessment
035plan is that it is deeply rooted in that new mission, vision, and values. Our full comprehensive assessment plan is not on the agenda for tonight. You guys have access to that. Um, but the things included in there include our purpose for assessment as a district, our statement of philosophy about what assessment is and how we use it, descriptions of the different types of assessments that we provide as a district, and that's really what the focus of tonight's presentation will be, uh, our testing schedule for the current school year, um, accessibility guid guidelines for students with special needs, provisions for teaching test taking skills, and just test security procedures. in general and this will be shared out at the district level after tonight. One thing that I did want to really emphasize here just you guys
036already know this but just in general that our assessment philosophy is that assessment is not just a a tool for measuring things. It's really a tool for supporting all students in making the achievement gains that we would like them to, you know, accomplish when they're with us. It's a way to equip our students for success. So we also really wanted to demonstrate the alignment of our assessment plan with the district values. So our assessment practices reflect and uphold the following core values. Academic excellence. We really make sure that the assessments themselves help us um demonstrate that our students are achieving academic excellence and um provide intervention when students are struggling so that they can achieve academic excellence. they're student centered and that we use this data with students. We talk to students about their data
037and we use it as a tool that can empower them um to celebrate their success as they achieve it. Integrity. We um act with integrity because we are transparent with our results. We're sharing them with our students and with their families and we use the data um to ensure accountability and ethical decision- making in our diversity. Our data reveals the unique needs of our students and it allows us to meet each student where they're at instead of treating every student as the same oneizefits-all. And then community, again, I spoke to this already, but the results are shared with our families so that they can come come alongside us in supporting their students. So, the first assessment type that I'll talk about just briefly is the state assessments. And these are the ones that most people
038think of when they think about district tests. They're the ones that count for accreditation. Um, but we do use these assessments districtwide to have system conversations to determine the impact of our instruction, you know, systemically. Um, and of course they're count they count in our accreditation. So the most common assessments here we have the kindergarten entry assessment which is probably the least known of these but the state requires that assessment in the first 30 days. MAP and EOC EOC are at the end of those courses or school at the end of the school year. And then MAP A is instructionally embedded for those students who need the alternative assessment and that's a year-long assessment. Um but only our spring testing counts toward AC accreditation. The district benchmark assessments kind of work closely with our kind
039of end of course or end of um grade level assessments to monitor student progress toward achieving the expected outcomes for the end of the year. And uh these assessments for um K through six are I ready and I ac diagnostic for grades seven through 10. They also keep us um in alignment or in compliance with Missou's um reading foundational reading requirements and screening and dyslexia requirements. Our college and career readiness assessments are not necessarily required but they are strongly encouraged for every student within our district um so that they can help the students inform their post-secary outcomes. We do require not require we offer inhouse the preac for every 10th grader in the district. Um, we just had our two high schools finish set that up today at St. Charles High School. And, um, this
040test is used for students to support their post-secary planning, even if they're not going to college. Um, and then we recommend that each student selects one of the following assessments to again support their post-secary goals. So the ACT or PSAT if they're going to college, the ASBAB if they're going into the military, ACT work keys if they're going into the workforce immediately upon graduation, and then the ACUPPLACER if they're going to community college. Um the advanced coursework assessments also support students postsecary goals. the state um does hold us not accountable but we are um a part of our APR as you know is the CCR assessments but then also advanced coursework assessments. Students who are going to college have the opportunity to take advanced placement courses to really prepare themselves for that um rigor and
041practice um the type of learning that they will need to exper or be successful at for college. And then the industry recognized credentials are wonderful work-like experiences where students learn real world skills and demonstrate their ability to be successful in real world scenarios and get these credentials that go with them into the career field. And then our classroom assessments are those uh common formative and summitive assessments that are created by each grade level team or PLC. and they're really the front line of intervention needs. We are consistently looking at student performance on in smaller, you know, smaller than just the benchmark assessment on a unit of study and it allows teachers to provide that intervention in a very timely manner. So PLC's look at this data together, they grade together, they um problem solve and
042troubleshoot together using these assessments. And then finally with our assessments, we have our special population assessments. We do the WEDA screener for students who are new to um just to determine their language proficiency. Um our access test um helps us determine the growth, monitor the growth that our students receiving language proficiency services um or English language services. And we have our gifted assessments for identifying students who qualify for that enrichment. and then our special education evaluations to determine and identify students who may have additional instructional needs. So, that was pretty short because you guys already knew what these assessments were. Um, so I will open up for questions, but I did just want to say again, we do I know it looks like there's a lot of tests, but we really are not just testing
043to test. We are testing to support. We are testing to um really provide that intervention and support that every student needs to be successful in our system. So what questions do you have? Okay. Do we offer the ACT inhouse and in our schools and how many times a year do we offer it? >> Yeah. Great. And do we have statistics on um the best time to take the test? Because in the past it's always been at the end of the junior year was actually when the highest but students tend to put it off till their senior year and I just wondered you know what is the schedule for that and do you have some numbers? >> So um so great question. So one of the things that we are doing different this year, so we
044used to offer it a few years ago and then some things happened. Uh but this year, February 27th, we are bringing ACT testing back. It will be at St. Charles West for the entire district. Um so that is a day that is the Friday after parent teacher conferences in February. Um so students will be able to come and we'll be able to offer ACT testing and the plan is to do it twice a year. So, it would always be um at the spring and fall that the Friday after parent teacher conferences is the plan moving forward. >> I just throw out there that if they don't do as well as they hope they would in February, it's really to their advantage to take it someplace else than in April. Yeah. You know, so don't wait
045until the next one. >> That's why we chose February. And then we we encourage juniors and up to take that. >> I have one more question. um they charge for that test. Do we have any kind of assistance for students who have difficulty coming up with the money for the test or is there a criteria for assistance? >> Right now, we are trying to partner with them to see if our students who qualify for free and reduced lunch if they can get it at a discounted rate. We've not heard back yet, but we are hoping that we are able to do that because you're right, they do charge. So, one of the things is that um because we are a host district and it will be closed to the public. It will only be open
046to our students, we have to pay for it, but we have to charge the student accounts for it. So, if uh a student wants to take it, we would charge their account for that and then um they would pay us back for their assessment. But we are trying to work with ACT to see if we would qualify for student reduced to have a discounted >> okay test. Well, thank you for bringing it into the building. That really encouraged. >> That was the That was actually It wasn't just a me decision. That was a team decision. We had Dr. Vocal left, but Dr. Vocal, Dr. Hap, some high school counselors, uh Megan and myself, we met um that was one of the things that came out of a brainstorming session in my office a couple weeks
047ago. >> And we did have we had it a few years ago and then we lost. >> We're getting t-shirts on that bringing it back. >> Yeah. And will that be on a school day or a Saturday? >> That's on a Friday where school is not in session. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Awesome. >> No further questions, comments. >> If not, I make a motion to approve the assessment plan as presented. Is there a second? >> All those in favor? >> I oppose. All right. Thank you so much, Megan, for presenting. We'll move on to item 6.02, which is our School safety program review. >> Yes. Amazing work. report that we did last year this time and we used to do it every other year but now with M sub6 they
048want us to do it every year and make sure that you can vote on it. So we're going to go through this very quickly but uh Mr. shield is going to help me. And uh right, >> we want make sure >> accurate. It's accurate. >> Make sure you're ready. >> Yeah, I'm ready. >> Safety and security plan review. We're going to go over a few things for you. First of all, obviously our theme is all in. So all that we do, we are all in and obviously safety and security. And we would say, you know, I don't know if this is a sad statement or not, but obviously we're here for our kids and our mission statement is to engage, empower, and inspire every learner every day. But you can't do that if they're not
049what >> safe and secure. So this is a huge huge uh process and plan for us that we focus on uh on uh every year. But I wanted to make sure just some every report that you're going to see is going to have some of the same information at the beginning because we think it's important to make sure remind people what we're working with and what we're talking about. So we're talking about 17 square miles. We're talking about 13 schools just under that's a wonderful quote for me under 15 under just under 5,000 students and then thousand staff members that we are in charge of to make sure that we keep them safe and secure every day. Think about that for a second. It's quite it's it's it's quite the um I wouldn't say burden.
050It's it's and I wouldn't say challenge to me. It's an honor and on our shoulders that we get to do that every day. But I think it's important that we always go through, we start with our mission, our vision. So our mission again is engage, empower, inspire every learner every day. Our vision is uh the city of St. Charles School District will be a leader of academic excellence that prepares students to be successful in all aspects of life. And again, these are great things to have, but if you're not safe and secure, you can't get there. Our values, I put our values back up here. I'm not going to read them all to you. And again, the reason why we're making sure they're in every in every report because everything we do goes back to
051our CEP. Just jump right in. I'm going to try to go through these pretty quick though. So, our values and what I did is I highlighted all these values can go back of of feeling safe and secure, but I want you to see where it fits right into with the CIP. So, obviously student centered, we develop the whole child academically, socially, emotionally, behaviorally. If if again if they're not safe and secure, there's no way we develop the whole child. integrity, diversity, community, and then we have our three pillars. Our three pillars are academic excellence, resources, and culture. And obviously, when it comes to safety and security, we're talking a lot about our resources and our culture. So, goal two, SCSD will complete a facilities improvement plan. And there it is right there. Ensure all buildings
052are safe, clean, and conducive to learning. So, this is not something we're making up. It's right in the middle of our CIP. That's under our pillar of resources. Again, I'm gonna I'm not going to read all that to you, but you can see in facilities of the things that we highlighted that go right directly into our safety and security plan. I highlighted also uh goal two for um the next pillar in the STSC staff and students feel increasingly safe and valued. That's under our culture as well. And then these are the items and you guys have the report so presentation so you can read them. But this gives you a good idea of what how we're fortifying these school schools and these buildings to make sure that people not only feel safe and secure, but
053they are safe and secure when they're in there. Jeremy, you want to add anything to any of these as we go through them? >> Yeah, I can add add a bit. you know, when we we're looking at updating and revising crisis plans, uh obviously that's in coordination with the local law enforcement uh as we consider them uh much greater experts than ourselves in response in particular. Uh but also uh I think it's important to note that um I think there was an article recently uh saying that there was a the school district down I7 that was the first one to ever uh provide law enforcement access to school cameras. And uh we've had that now for about eight years. Uh in in addition to that um and that's just to our city police though to
054be clear. That's just to our city police. But in addition to that, our SRO's or any officer that enters our building, uh the police can review a live camera from that officer's body cam. So, uh I think those are two important uh things to mention as that gains some some regional attention. U we didn't obviously go out and and start uh attacking that in particular. Uh but I think it's important for us to know at this point in time that St. Charles does have that as well. Now, that's not all we want to focus on either. Uh, but I think that was an important piece for everyone to know. >> Truth be told, the chief of police for the city of St. Charles school district when that uh article came out about that school down
055uh Highway 70, he called he was kind of fired up like don't we we've had this for years. I'm like I we've got it. Yeah, we we've had we've had it. So, what a great uh partnership we have with our our city of St. Charles uh school or I should say the city of police department. Not only our SRO's our five SRO's. We'll talk about them in just a second, but I'm on speed dial with the chief and have a great relationship with him of an understanding on on what their their role is also what our role is and what our partnership looks looks together in anou. So, thank you. >> Shout out to Officer Chapel. >> Officer Chapel's here, one of our wonderful SRO's. Thank you. >> We're going to talk about him again
056in just a second. >> Absolutely. >> You want to keep going or? >> Yeah, just keep going. Let's question. >> So, when you see a lot of these things, we're not just checking these things off the box. the things that are on here we're really doing. But you'll hear and see because safety and security in schools is a big business. And so when you see a lot of things that uh not only the legislation is telling us to do, but also you'll hear um glass film, you know, film on security uh film on glass and uh double u double entry locks and different things. We have majority of those things in our schools already, which is really uh which is great. So you'll see the everything that you see listed are things that we do
057with Fidelity. >> Yeah. I think it's important to also say that these are not items that we want to appear that we are are bragging about because they're not any item that we ever want to have to address or spend time and resources on. However, it's a response to the society that that unfortunately we we are uh we are living in. Regardless if we're public or private, uh these events do occur and questions are asked. So we we do like show that we have responded. >> So you see classrooms are locked, safe, safe defend. We also have our um we review safety regulations, best practices with our fore training. I'm going to skip. So here's another whole long list of things that we do and we don't just check these boxes off. We make sure
058that we're doing these with uh um to our best of our ability to make sure that we feel that safe and secure. Um a lot of things there that you can read. I don't have to read those off all off for you, but um a lot of things that we do I think one of the most challenging things on that list, at least from what we hear from students and staff in particular, is the cyber security. Um, you know, you you can't understate how important that is, at least for personally identifiable information, but beyond that too, making sure that our that our children are protected from any uh online um vigilantes. I I don't know another word. I apologize but uh so uh we we we want to ensure that and sometimes that comes with
059us following what's called SISA regulations. Uh they are not popular regulations to follow because they do seem somewhat restrictive especially with students and with with some of our staff but we feel like it's very very important to tow that line uh with those regulations to to ensure that we are doing what we can do to protect uh uh students and staff from online uh online incidents. one of the highlights on there and you all are um aware of the the program we have but we have a safe defense system that where we have I call them kiosk but where there are uh stations through the school where every uh staff member can press the basically press the button and the alarm goes off for our intruder uh if we ever needed to use it and
060then every classroom has a box of non-lethal um tools that they can use and they use those within the fore training that they get on a regular basis as well. So, we that's not something that every school district has. Our board of education, you all uh put that in play. Actually, eight years ago, uh my first year as a superintendent, we've added to it. And that's a system that just doesn't sit there. It is it is a system that we live that we we drill. We make sure everything is ready to go in those boxes. And so, it's a way of of life for us in terms of making sure that we have that safe defend system up and running. But you'll see other things. It's not just the physical things, trauma informed. Um, we
061continue to address the bullying, mental health issues and things that we can do. Obviously, our student clinic all of those things are making sure that we meet the whole whole child's needs. Um, as we Raptor uh visitor management system is another thing that we use. We have a lot of technology we use obviously that's for um visitors in our building. make sure we get quick checks of who's in our building if they come. And that that's from parents to vendors to people who are working in our buildings on a regular basis and coming in to um to visit. This is our safe defense system again. I was just talking about it. And then we have fore training that we've been doing with our staff and our students. So both staff and students get for training.
062Uh for training will come back next year. State legislation has come in come into play now and telling us that we do have to do regular training. And so we were kind of um I'd say uh in front of the curve a little bit with some of that. So we're we're we're happy. And then again that's our SRO's doing the training with our staff and students. Anything else you want to add? >> Yeah, the other one of the other things I like with the fore trainings particularly with our SRO's and our uh school our uh our officers in the community. Obviously you guys know that we do pay uh for our school resource officers. Um, but one of the nice things that I believe the law enforcement is doing with them and Officer Chapel could
063attest to that is they become really embedded in the community when they're not inside of our schools. And really what they focus on our children um as far as making those connections so when children do enter our school or the children that are in our school are seeing them repeatedly throughout the summer, at least have the opportunity to see them repeatedly throughout the summer. So that's a great connection. I'm so pleased that the department is doing that because I I do believe it makes a tremendous difference. >> Oh, I skipped too far there. >> So, that's our for training and I think SRO's again, we can't say enough about the five people who five police officers that work in our on our buildings on a regular basis. Again, we have two full-time, actually three full-time,
064two at the high school, one at Harden Middle School, and then we have two that float in our our elementary schools. Here's some I'm going back. Sorry. Yeah, I'm going backwards. Sorry, >> I can't do the clicker tonight. So, the focus again um just this is the overall focus of the district. So, we're all in on our CIP and this gives you a good idea academically, also behaviorally, the things that we do. And when you're talking about student needs, think about the social workers, the counselors, the RTI specialists. Um, obviously our teachers do too, but we we all of our staff are are um are there for our students on a regular basis. It's not just fortifying the physical uh buildings, but also making sure that we're meeting the needs inside the building with our
065our students and our staff. Do you want to add anything else, Jeremy? >> Again, this is a pretty quick review because we did it just la last year, but we need to make sure that we have it on the agenda to get approved this year. So, >> any comments, questions from the board? If not, I'll make a motion to approve the school safety program review as presented. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. Okay, that passes. Thank you, Mr. Shields and Dr. Se. We will move on to item 6.03, which is our homeless program review. Ashley. >> Yep. So, we are going to review our program. Um, Kelly and I are the student services department. So, we will go through all this information with you. Um, some of
066the key takeaways from tonight, we're just going to go over what McKenna Vento is, how we support students who are experiencing homelessness, um, some data and trends, impacts and outcomes, and then opportunities for growth. So, McKenna Vento is a federal law that guarantees that homeless children and youth have access to a stable and uninterrupted education regardless of their housing situation. So, the definition of homeless is that they are lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. Some of the qualifications for this is um one of them is they're living in a hotel, a motel, shelters, transitional housing. um that students are considered doubled up. So that's when a family is living with another family um due to situations like economic hardship or loss of housing. And then our unaccompanied youth. So these are kids who
067maybe were kicked out of the home um and are living with another family. >> So we have a few different ways to identify um families. Um the first one would be during initial enrollment. If a when they're doing enrollment, there's a questions about housing. If they answer it um in a certain way, it gets flagged. Enrollment sends it to me. Um I print that off. I communicate with the family, kind of get some background, go through the um what we call the McKini Vento questionnaire. Um once we go through the questionnaire, review it, see if they meet the requirements for it, and then we push the enrollment through. Um the second way is through annual reverification. If the families are enrolling at the school level and they don't aren't able to provide proof of residency
068or they haven't finished it yet, the registars call, check in on the family, kind of get some information and then they provide me the family's names um and the schools the students attend and then I'll follow up with the McKini Vento questionnaire um go through that, get some information and then make that decision on qualifying or not. Um and then the second part of that is also each year you are considered McKini Vento for the entire school year. So each summer I call each family and communicate with them try to get an update from them um about the latest uh situation that they're in. And then we also redo the Mckin Vento questionnaire to see if they would qualify for the upcoming school year. Um and then the third way is during the school year.
069I have the registars, the counselors and the social workers. were on the phone all the time, even with the principles. Um, and they're just kind of keeping me in the loop about things. Um, asking me to follow follow up with families. Um, put people on my radar. And then again, we fill out the Mckin Vento questionnaire. >> And the beginning of the year, like August, um, early August is a really busy time because we're doing all the reverification for the next year. Um, so it's a lot of contact with families to figure out what their current situation is, um, and figuring out those little nuances that go along with that. So as um a district we have a few different responsibilities that were required um immediate enrollment that means even if we don't have immunizations
070we don't have previous school records um we can request documentation but we cannot require it. So when a family is deemed Mckin Vento um I either communicate with the school or with the enrollment department and then they get pushed through immediately. Now immediately is not like the same day, but we talked to the family and explain as soon as possible we're going to get you in and get you into classes and get your routine and get some uh stability for you. The other part is transportation to school of origin or school of residence. Um if I am talking to a family, part of the question is um questionnaire is letting them know that they do have the option to stay at their current school. So, if they um found themselves in a transitional situation and
071they are in a hotel in St. Charles, but they came to us from St. Louis County, I will talk to them and let them know of their options. If they choose to stay at their school of origin, it's my job to work with that school district to coordinate transportation. Um and then on the flip side, if we have students that go to other districts, that district is required to reach out to me and then we set up all of their contracted transportation um on their behalf. Uh, every Mckin Vento student has access to title one services even if they do not attend a title one school in our district. Um, and then we have a um process that we have to go through if a family would dispute what uh we our decision was. Um,
072and there's we would give them the paperwork in the process for next steps for that. Um, and then our most important thing is to remove all barriers to success. So an example would be if a McKini Vento student needed to take the ACT and couldn't afford it, it would be my job to work with people in the district to see how we can get it as well as transportation on that day. Um so anything that they need in order to be successful to be able to be at the same level as their peers. >> We even buy alarm clocks if that's a barrier to success. We've bought alarm clocks to ensure that students are able to get up and and get to school. So with that free of charge to all the students they get
073their school meals, breakfast and lunch provided. Um transportation, we do contracted transportation when necessary. Uh we also work with the transportation department. If we have a student that may have been residing at St. Charles West but has found temporary housing in St. Charles High boundaries, transportation will work with me to get them the transportation they need within our district boundaries. Um they get the academic support through tutoring and title one uh supplies, backpacks, clothes, alarm clocks, whatever they might need. Um and then we follow up with immunizations and getting records request. So they're allowed to start, but then our school nurses or myself or the registar will work with the previous school or give them access, let them know about the clinic if they need to get up to date with their shots. Um it's
074kind of just a fluid fitting in their needs. And then for our high schoolers, um the FASA and college career help, they get um the counselors will work them one-on-one and make sure that they understand the process. Um especially our unac unaccompanied youth. Um so here's just some of the data. Uh we currently have 61 homeless students. Uh that is the breakdown of the schools. We have 15 at ECC and elementary, 20 at intermediate, middle, and 26 at the high school. You can see our numbers over the last five years. And then some of our transportation data. We have 61 students. Like I mentioned, um we have 33 students that currently take contracted transportation, which is about 54 to 55% of our uh identified homeless families. That does not count that's just our contracted. that
075does not count those that we provide service within the district. Um, and that's about average to what we've been doing for years past. Um, here are some of our community partnerships. You can see there are a lot of wonderful resources that we have within our community that help support our students that are experiencing homelessness. Um, we rely a lot on Care to Learn and we love St. Charles. Those are two of our biggest supports that we have. Um, some of our students even utilize um our district system of care program or like through DESOC uh where a group of of different resources comes together at the table and help families that are experiencing homelessness to provide those resources that they need to get into um fixed and adequate housing. And uh JC Penney, that's one
076of our more recent partnerships that we have. they actually provide like vouch is vouchers essentially for clothing um that it goes it it's a very um discreet way that they do it with families. So they provide them the the vouchers and then they go in and they can do their shopping um and and use it just like money. It's pretty neat. Um some of the impacts and outcomes um obviously increase access to education for atrisisk students. So that that is why we're doing this. We want them to have as much access to their education as possible. Um providing strong staff training and internal coordination. Um we are consistently working through all the different scenarios and situations with our schools and they are fantastic about reaching out to us um when they have concerns with a
077family and are trying to provide support. Um some great information. We've had zero disputes or appeals filed last year for homeless. So that means um that the decisions we're making are are adequate and appropriate and families aren't coming back and questioning the decisions that we've made. Um last year was our tiered monitoring year. So we do a self assessment for our district. Um and we came back at full compliance for Mckin Vento. Um this helps students remain connected and supported throughout housing transitions and then multiple families were able to move into permanent housing by removing that burden of those school fees, transportation and community and providing community support. So, we've seen an increase in that permanent housing. Um, some opportunities for growth. So, obviously, we always want to continue to to grow um and and
078get professional development. Um, just expanding community awareness. So, teaching our community members how to get in contact with us if they have information that they want to provide um so that we can provide the resources to our families. um creating a more practice proactive approach by continuously communicating with families to offer timely support and then attending trainings and offering PD opportunities for district staff. Um we are required as liaison to um attend a specific amount of professional development every year in regards to Mckin Vento. Um so we continue to do that and go beyond. And that is all that we have. Any questions? I have a couple. Yeah. Um the clinic are they made aware and how does it work for them to use our clinic? You know, are they told on enrollment that the
079clinic is available to them? >> Yes. So during enrollment, if that is some a barrier that's looking like it will be um enrollment and the school that the student will be attending, that nurse, they'll work in partnership with the family um to provide their options. Sometimes it might just be they can't get um the paperwork but they've had it. So then it's tracking down if the school had it or the health department and then if they need it, we offer them the clinic to get up to date with all their shots. >> Okay. But in just general health, they >> know that they can use the clinic when they need it. >> Yes. >> Okay. And why are there so many less homeless people in our district this year than there has been in past
080years? it always it will increase as the year goes on. So um it >> so we're seeing end of the year numbers on the previous years and we're seeing beginning of the year number now. >> Did the data um as of September 30th and since then there's been about 10 additional in the district that are being added. >> Um unfortunately sometimes they don't start at the beginning of the year. They may be in transition somewhere. They may be trying to still go somewhere go somewhere else and kind of settle somewhere. Um, so we tend to get a little bit more of an uptick towards the October, November time. Um, and then it'll kind of slow down a little bit and then January it'll it'll pick up a little bit more. Uh, last year we had
081>> um more students from St. Louis County after the tornadoes that came over. Um, and then they've since been able to go back to their housing in that situation and have opted to go back to school there for some and some are like we're going to stay and they make it permanent. So then they no longer qualify. >> And thank you. >> And and I think it's important to know once a student is deemed homeless at the be like at any point throughout the year that stays in effect until the end of that school year. So they stay on our numbers. >> Thank you all. >> Thanks. >> Thank you ladies. Yep. I will make the motion to approve the homeless program review as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? I oppose.
082That passes. Thank you, Ashley and Kelly. We'll uh move on to new business. Item 7.01 is just the notice of the annual school election, which will be on April 7th of 2026. Um, so this is justformational, correct? Oh, I I have to make a motion. So, I'll make the motion to approve the notice of the annual school election as presented. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I oppose. Item 7.02 is district buses request for proposal. >> Mr. Shields. >> Yeah. What uh we're presenting to you today is a draft RFP uh to uh receive permission to advertise uh for transport uh for up to 42 uh buses. Uh these will be fueled. uh diesel buses is what we're asking for. We do have 10 buses in our 21 fleet
083that we could go out and receive uh additional options. Well, we will because we don't want them to hit the 10-year mark. Uh our current fleet is at 2017. So, uh it is time um to go out and for this bid again. So, we're looking at a variety of them with most of them being class A uh and then a few a few others. um in addition to those class A buses. So, uh with this with this RFP, certainly we would be attempting to get our three bids in uh present that we hope uh to the board in either a November or December uh board meeting uh with the hope of then getting them on the manufacturer schedule for delivery in July. One option that we're asking for in this uh bid that has not
084previously been asked for uh is air conditioning. Uh I know it seems a little archaic that we do not have air conditioning, but most buses do not. Uh with the uh increase in humidity that we have been seeing, especially in in August, not so much here lately, but especially in August, uh we feel like that's not only important for our students, but also our drivers. Um so we are asking for that. we would see a bit of an increased cost. Uh this option, this item was a part of our bond. Uh so that would be a part of this a spend of the 30 million tranch that we had released to us back in July. >> Any questions, comments? If not, I make a motion. >> I just want to say I have relatives and
085other school districts around here all the way out to Colombia. Shout out to us. We do. I mean, they are having such a hard time getting bus drivers, buses, um, bus service is a mess and you do a great, we're doing a great job. It's >> Yeah, even with, you know, we notice our constantly, I know HR is constantly working on it. um ensuring that we do have drivers, but within our trainer and our directors over at the transportation department do a very nice job of getting these individuals trained so they can pass lure. Uh which we pay them as monitors as they're training. Uh so we get them acclimated with students, student behavior, how to speak to students, all of that good stuff as they're training. So uh we're fortunate right now uh to
086be quite honest with you. you hear the the stories from some of the other districts and we're always I well yeah I kind of live in fear a little bit that maybe one day we won't be so fortunate but uh so far uh we have been and we're grateful for that. We're grateful for the the the people in this region that would desire to drive for us and and we hope that that continues. I would add one of our pillars is culture and culture matters. >> And you go down, you know, I I spend some time down there and I get in there 5:45 in the morning just to check on our bus drivers because that's the time to see them because they're all coming in and every morning they are fired up, excited to
087be there every day. Even in rain, snow, the culture, Stan, Rob, the whole group, the culture is is second to none. And people are coming from other districts. We're not poaching them, but they're coming. And we just say, I got a couple others this month because they see a difference. pay and those things are important as well, but culture is a big part of what we do and who we are as a district. So, >> it's it's very scary for parents when they think they might be sending their kids to a bus stop that the bus might not show up. >> And I know people who that's happening to >> or excessively late >> or very late or >> is this going to be another like 10 year project like every 10 years this is
088what we do >> by design by how we have it designed? Yes, it would be. Um, so there are a few options that you could do in between that to to reduce such a large expense in the 10th year, but by design and how we have our fleet set up right now, this is what we have to do. >> I didn't know if there was another, I guess, option of even a shorter term. Would there be more incentive to trade buses in at that time? Is there I know at 10 years it's probably not near as much value. I see them online all the time. They sell at auctions for >> nothing. Is there in a fiveyear plan. Have we ever looked at that? I don't know if even an option trade in value will
089be something to where we we're not spending a whole lot more money doing it, but we're getting newer fleets. >> Yeah, I don't I don't know if we've really looked at that as saying, okay, is the fiveyear mark a better mark for us? I will say because our routes are so short comparatively speaking to some of the larger districts, especially in the rural areas, we do not put a ton of mileage on our buses. So even the ones that we are trading in right now would be considered a low mileage bus in the grand scheme of things. >> Anyone else? If not, I will make the motion to approve the RFP for district buses as presented. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? I opposed. That passes. We'll move on to
090item 8.01, 1 which is our district financial report. >> All right. Thank you. Um numbers are looking as we expect as we finished out September which would been our first full pay uh with all staff. Uh so they are trending as expected. Um no concerns there. Remember we did finish at a 255 uh fund balance. Um I've been on record a few times saying I'd love for that to inch up just a little bit based on some of the third party uh recommendations. So we'll continue to try to work towards that. The one thing that would prevent us is are those events that like happened in July at Noel Elementary a little bit at Harden where those high humidity rates bit us and we had to react very quickly to make sure that the schools
091were in fact uh ready to go for students. So we are going to be addressing that in the next bond for null. We are having a team of engineers just today a team of engineers walked that building and looked at all of our units and are putting together a plan for us to address that. More than likely um that's going to be a full a HVAC replacement in that building because they are the old unit ventilators that suck in the outside air from through the wall. So uh so that's uh that's a concern for us, but we're going to try to address that as quickly as we can because we don't run want to run into that situation again. Interestingly enough though, I did see I've been reading back a little bit through the history
092of some uh spend expenditures and it turns out humidity is always been an issue in St. Charles where they're constantly uh looking to address and that's just as the buildings age and adjust. Uh so I just thought that that was a bit of an interesting piece I was reading about that was commonly coming up. So it's not just a present day which is what I felt like because it was it was just my problem at that time. Right. So, uh, so I thought that was interesting. But again, finances are looking good. A couple of things to note real quick here. Certification letter through the state auditor has been, uh, provided back to us. So, the tax rate that was approved in September is good to go. It is made official. Um, insurance renewal, that's our
093physical and our, uh, workers comp uh, insurance. Uh, all of that has, uh, all of the information that they needed from us has been submitted. We should be getting a u an increase in that is what I assume. remember it about four years ago that was 890,000 to ensure the district and now up to 1.5 million to insure our district and that is through a consortium that is shared across the state with other school districts a lot of other school districts about 90% of them so uh that's just the rate of the insurance business right now we do closely watch our workers comp uh uh numbers those are ticking upwards right now so we want to put in some meaningful steps for that for our employees in particular uh to ensure that they are taking
094some safety preautions We won't go so far as the factories uh might do where they say number of employees without injury and put a date or anything like that, but we do want to make sure that we're looking at it to uh address it or educate as appropriate. So, um a couple other pieces, uh in negotiations about a year and a half ago, uh we put a plan in to try to target some of the overtime usage that we have in our district. Right now through the first six pay periods of this year, this is considered our fiscal 26 compared to fiscal 24. It's about $100,000 in savings just from 24 to 26. So that's a significant number. It could stay at 100,000 for this year. Just slightly tick downwards, but uh we're very pleased
095with that number and I think that's good for the association uh to recognize as well as far as when we go into these next rounds of negotiations. It was a it was a a combined effort on on all of our parts. Um medical renewal update for enrollment. Um uh we have that going uh starting October 20th and that should last us a few weeks to get that done. Our audit is in process right now. Auditor is asking us for lots of information. We providing it all. Uh so should be no no concerns with making that by December. We've also went through some other audits. We will have a food service audit this year as well. And then last but not least, when we're looking at uh everything financial, we do know that this is negotiation
096season. So just reminding the board that we will be entering those negotiations very soon. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions, comments? If not, I make a motion to adopt the financial report as presented. Do I have a second? >> All those in favor? I opposed. That carries. I make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Is there a second? >> All those in favor? I opposed. Thank you all for coming. Have a good rest of