001should be here. She is Okay, I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. I apologize we're running a little late, but we made it. If everyone could stand for the pledge of allegiance. 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. >> Thank you all for coming to the meeting tonight. We'll start with superintendent comments from Dr. Seaf. >> Thank you, President Sigma. Welcome to tonight's board of education meeting. We're glad you're joining us. Got three lovely people with us today. Tonight, obviously the people in the back as well. We're glad you're here and hopefully uh we have some people following along uh at home. We've got a few things
002to talk about. We are in August and that means the start of the 2526 school year is here. I want to thank all of our staff for all their hard work and dedication to get us ready. It takes a great effort from a ton of people to get a school district in top shape to start a school year. I want to thank everybody. custodians, secretaries, tech, teachers, paras who everybody, trans transportation, everybody in this room. Um, our buildings are looking great. I think our staff came back with great energy and we are just really really excited about uh this school year. Uh, we had the annual the annual family festival was held on August 11th at St. Jose. So, it was this past Monday. We served 400 hot dogs and hamburgers. I didn't even get
003one. Um and and we gave out 450 snow cones. How about that? You can write those down. Those are big numbers. It was another great event to welcome our families and to kick off a new school year. Lots of community resources, inflatables, games, enjoyed by all. It was just awesome. We had Compass Health there doing immunizations. Want to thank our board members, Ellen and Karen, for being there as well. Just an awesome to see all our families and students come on out. And uh how about a special thank you? We're going to clap for Kelly Pendleton. She set it all up and did all the work. So, we want to make sure we say thank you. And then we love St. Charles Care to learn. Uh great support uh supporters of her as well. What
004a great night for the district. The district also once again had partner has partnered with we love St. Charles to provide our SCSD families with school supplies which is awesome is a game changer. And so it's called supplies for five. It ran a couple weeks ago and they uh over at Matias Lot Church they basically have in their u entryway they put up a whole um basically supply store for our kids and we had over 400 students come and get backpacks and supplies. Uh each student received exactly what they needed for school. Just awesome stuff. We we we have a special community. Uh, as you're probably aware, we have a few major construction projects taking place throughout the district this summer thanks to great support from our community with the passage of our spring bond
005issue. St. Charles West is looking great. Hard Middle School, Harris Elementary is basically brand new. Uh, those are the major projects, but then most of our schools and buildings receive some type of work or upgrade. Um, if you ever get into St. Charles High. Uh if you notice that we have a skylight in there, a huge skylight, and it's completely um uh changed over and and uh just it just looks beautiful in there. So, lots of great things happening, upgrades, uh and some type of work in all of our schools. A lot of HVAC, a lot of uh roofing. You want to add anything to that, Mr. Shields? It's been very, very busy. >> That's exactly what it says. We're pleased that all of our Are you reading it? of our schools are fully ready
006to welcome students back on August 19th. And let me just say this, you can do all you want to get schools ready. You can get them looking good, but if the people don't if the people that don't come back and fill them fill them up with energy and loving our kids, we don't go anywhere. And that's our that's our staff and that's what they did. So, let's uh as a reminder, our new cell phone policy, I'm sure a lot of our kids are excited about this, but that uh that the board of education will vote on to approve this evening from MSBA, uh has already approved, you all already approved the change in the code of conduct in June. So, we already got it set up, but you're going to see the wording tonight. Uh
007goes in effect the first day of school. Uh and this is what it says. Per Senate Bill 68, there has been a change to the cell phone policy beginning at the start of the 2526 academic school year. A new policy pro prohibits students from using or displaying electronic devices. It says i.e. cell phones, smartwatches, airpods, earbuds, headphones from the beginning until the end of the school day, including but not limited to during instructional time, meal times, breaks, time between classes and study halls. The following steps will be taken if a student is not. And then it goes on to the consequences and I won't talk about all of them. Uh information has gone out to all of our high school families because that's where most of the changes have happened. Again, I just want to
008encourage all of us to make sure we follow this new law and policy to make certain we are we are minimizing distractions from learning in the schools. Uh thanks to you all. Uh we we did change our policy last year. So we took the cell phones out of the classrooms last year which is a huge that was huge by you guys and I think it was wellreceived and we saw some great things there. Now per law they're not in the building. They can be in the buildings but they can't be displayed or used. So, there are some specific nuances about smartwatches and different things that we're going through with our staff as well, but we've got a pretty good plan moving forward with that. Um, I I kind of told our high school principles K
009through8's pretty much already did all this, but if you look at our high schools, we have our freshman coming in. They don't really know any different because they they haven't had it. Our sophomores, they only had them in like passing periods. So, it's our juniors and seniors that we really have to make sure we hone in a little bit. But we we'll get it and we're we're we're uh excited about the new policy there. Um we also facilitate our annual new teach orientation last week. It was a ton of fun to see and spend some time with our new teaching staff. Our entire staff returned this week, like I said, for a welcome week. Uh and it's just been a great week. Really a good week of energy with PD training, you name it. And
010I think um this year uh we don't have a whole lot of new things, which is great. We just have and I think they're shaking their heads. Yes. say some of the teachers in the front there. Um, so we were really able to give a little bit more time back to our teachers this week. We still did our PD and did our training that we needed to continue to fortify some things, but we don't really have a new curriculum that was going to take up a lot of time. And so they got a lot of time in their classrooms this week. And so that's been a I think that's been a a really good thing for our staff. So it's been a great week having them back. Um, and again, we're just really excited about
011welcoming our kids back next Tuesday. Practices for the fall sports season started on Monday as well. Soon we'll have exciting fall and all year sports with activities and performing arts and and all those great things. So we always say go Pirates and go Warriors. Um mark your calendars. We will host our first of two community forums. The first one will be Friday, August 29th. Is that correct, Dr. Draper? Dr. Draper is the one who putting this on for us. It's exciting, isn't it? >> It's going to be in this room 8 to 9 on a Friday. And what are we calling it? I forget. >> Coffee with Morning Brew. >> Morning Brew. >> Morning. >> Thank you, Mickey. We're so excited. We forgot what it was called. Morning Brew. So, 8 to 9 on the
01229th be here. Um and we're going to have the the um CO team in here and people can just come in and have questions and answers and mingle and just they've got things they want to talk to us about, they can do that. So, we're excited about that. We'll have another one on February 6. I think we're gonna have two this year. So, >> it's here. >> Uh what else we got? We uh we have worked hard to prepare for this meeting and uh tonight we will have uh obviously consent agenda items. We're gonna have a quick cip review. Uh we're really excited about that. Setting the date for the tax rate hearing resolution for the Louiswis and Clark house. That Lewis and Clark house is was sold for what was it Jeremy Ford? >>
013It's amazing. Uh we have a resolution for that policy changes and then also our district financial report. Let me get uh I'm always serious about we're doing but let me just get serious for just a second and make sure I make a comment here a statement about what happened this week. But I just want to say as many are aware we have been dealing with a very sad and horrific situation in regards to one of our SCSC teachers being arrested. Please know that we are swiftly and fully handling the situation. The safety of our students and staff is our number one priority. We are all reeling from this tragic situation but we will remain focused on our set mission vision and values. we will get through the through this together like we always do and
014thank you for your continued support and thoughts and prayers and um just our hearts go out to anybody that's affected by this. So we'll turn the page real quick and just say we are we're really truly excited about year 2526. Can't wait to see our staff and students all together on August 19th on Tuesday. I hope every ready to be all I hope everyone is ready to be allin. That's our theme. I get a little excited when I say that because we're all in. We're ready to go. Obviously, the new CIP and I think honestly we the momentum of test scores and growth and just the things that we've got going on this district, it's a good time to be in the SCSD. That's it. >> Thank you, Dr. Seit. We will move on to
015board communications. Any >> We have none. >> Okay. Next is audience comments. >> All regular and special meetings of the board shall be open to the public. Since the board desires to be a good listener and be responsive to the community, persons desiring to address the board may do so during the time so allotted on the agenda and according to established procedures. During the audience portion of each board meeting, patrons are invited by the president to speak for or against any proposal on the tentative agenda or on any other school concern. The individual is asked to identify him or herself, limit comments to a few minutes, and avoid discussing personalities. The president reserves the right to limit the number of uh presentations and/or length of comments. At the discretion of the president, patrons may be
016recognized at other times during the board meeting. The board is very interested in audience comments. According to board policy, members cannot respond during the actual meeting. The board will listen to audience comments if necessary. Additional follow-up will occur through district administrators. Thank >> you, Daniel. We'll have Jill Meyer come up first from Cessa. Hello, I'm Jill Meyer. I'm the president now um of St. Charles Education Support Staff Association. Um my fellow co-president has retired, so I'm doing this alone this year. Uh so really just wanted to greet um the board of education and uh administration and hope you all had a great summer and let you know we are looking forward to a great year and working together um during this uh negotiation year. So thank you for all of your hard work and I
017said looking forward to working with you. >> Thank you Jill. Jessica Ross with >> CA. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Jessica Ross and I'm a building representative for the St. Charles Education Association at St. Charles High School. I'm here to speak tonight on behalf ofce. Um, first we would like to extend a warm welcome back to our staff and our students as we prepare for the 2526 school year. Our members have been very busy preparing for the year and we're all looking forward to welcoming each student back into our buildings next week. This summer was very exciting force. Several of our members participated in networking events these last three months. Brendan Karns and I had the honor of representing Missouri as delegates at the National Representative Assembly in Portland, Oregon. We were then
018joined by Quinton Gettomire and McKenzie Pyrick at MNEA's summer leadership event in Chesterfield. And then finally, Laa Lopez Ree and I joined other educators from the United States at the Leaders for Just Schools Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. At each event at each event, we collaborated with members on the collective goal to strengthen education for our students and our profession. We would also like to extend a welcome to our new employees of the St. Charles School District. We're happy to report that once again, after learning about the impact we make at the local, state, and national levels, a majority of the new colleagues chose to join with us. We're excited for the year ahead, proud of the work that we have done, and we're committed together to making this great year for our students and our
019school community. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jessica. All right, we will move on item 3.06. I move to adopt the agenda as presented. Is there a second? >> I second. >> All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Item 4.01. For efficiency, the school board utilizes a consent agenda. Items placed on the consent agenda are routine in nature or are among the many decisions that the board has already determined are in the domain of the administration. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second? >> All in favor? I opposed. Okay, we will move on to reports and presentations. Item 6.01 is our CIP review update. >> This is Dr. Draper. >> Okay, >> you can do it. You want to set it up for us and just >> Good evening everyone. So,
020we're excited to um go over our year one priorities. So you all are well aware of our CIP and the goals of within our CIP, but um in today's meeting, we are going to outline the year one priorities for each area and each pillar. Um so I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Seifer who's going to get us started and then we will go through each um pillar a little later. And >> we're just going to go over very quickly, but let's start with allin again. That's our theme. Allin to be on CIP. And we've streamlined everything that all the work is in our CEIP. All of our staff members have a t-shirt that has our mission statement on it. And I wanted to point out something and I forgot to say this in
021my comments and I can't believe I did it but the top left is Paul Wright and he's our teacher our ELA teacher over at success and we just honored him or the region just honored him as he's teacher of the years for the district but he's teacher he's top 10% or top 10 in this whole St. area and so we can clap for that. And so Paul now goes on to the state level and not only does he represent us well and we're really excited about it. Uh Paul does unbelievable things for kids in his classroom and he also coaches at St. Charles High. So I just wanted to make sure we said that and it's awesome. So we are all in this year. Just want to remind you that's our plan. You can read
022that real quick. you guys were, you know, it's outstanding when you have all of you have to have a when we had our CIP CIP process or ceremony. We had to have a uh we had to have a set meeting because our whole board showed up for I mean it's just it's just awesome how awesome you guys are being being a part of it. So there's our plan. We also have No, I don't care about that guy. Uh here's our mission. We've changed it to engage, empower, inspire every learner every day. Everybody's got a t-shirt to remind us of that. That's what we live. That's our why, our vision. And let me tell you something. When you talk about being a leader and you talk about the work we're doing here curriculum wise, what we're
023doing for kids, what our test scores are starting to look like, how we're growing, we are starting to see this vision. It is happening. And then our values. We won't go over them because we've done them, but I'm telling you, uh, we did a little activity with our administrators this summer and they did a lot lot of them did with the staff, but to make sure that we really understand what our values are and how that they're aligning with what they've align us every day for what the work that we're doing. So, we'll go through those real quick. Everybody knows those already, but um as you see, academic excellence, student centered integrity, diversity, community, and then we're going to get into the pillars real quick. So, we have three of them. Academic excellence, resources, and
024culture. And what we want to focus on tonight is just to make sure you all are aware of what the highlight or the priorities are for this year. >> Yeah. So, we'll go ahead and get started with academic excellence, just as a reminder. So, we have three goals with academic excellence. The first one uh is centered around student attendance. So that first goal is that uh St. Charles School District will increase our proportional attendance from 85.3 to 90% by the end of the 2930 school year. Our second goal is around student achievement. Uh when it comes to our APR, we are shooting for target destination for all four content areas for all students and our student groups as well. So that is the goal that we will hit target uh by the end of that
0252930 school year or before. >> And then goal three is that we will increase our graduation rate and improve our college and career readiness metrics. So those are the three goals for academic excellence. Just a reminder these are the strategies and action steps that we will complete over the next five years to help us reach those goals. So with attendance uh developing a comprehensive absence prevention system also developing a support uh network or support system for our students with chronic absenteeism especially at the high school and the secondary level. When it comes to student achievement uh we are developing a district-wide literacy framework for K through 12. We will be enhancing our tiered instruction. So we've we've had RTI in our district for many years. So we will continue adding to that and building upon
026that. And then um creating a district-wide instructional framework is also one of those strategies. And then for success ready students uh we want to improve our success ready systems by creating a system to help us monitor and analyze that data and then also creating a portrait of a graduate. So with that being said, our priorities for year one are around that success ready students. We will um start in September by convening a portrait of a graduate committee. Um really starting to look at the people who will make up that committee and we will meet monthly with the goal of bringing you uh that portrait of a graduate in our May board meeting. For those of you just as a quick reminder what that is, the portrait of a graduate is really a shared vision of
027the skills that we want for all of our students by the time they graduate from our district. Uh, and the beauty of that is that this will not just be made up of St. Charles School District employees. It will really be a community effort. We talked about how we value community. So, we want to bring the community in and have them be a part of this. What is it that they look for in the students when they leave and they become members of society? What are the skills that we want them to have? And so, that's the portrait of a graduate that we will collectively develop together. And then we're also going to be developing uh an SRS tracking monitoring and intervention system. I'm excited that our tech department has purchased um a data management
028platform called Qualric. Uh we'll really use that and that will help us when it comes to identifying uh monitoring and analyzing that data that we get for student success ready um student su success ready students. There we go. Um so I'm excited about that as well. So, those are our two goals when it comes to academic excellence for this year. Are there any questions for me before I turn it over to the next pillar? Okay. All right. So, Jeremy and I are um tag teaming resources and um first and foremost um go to the next one. Um, goal one is school configuration is something that we've talked about quite a bit and will continue to talk about, but by the end of the 2930 school year, the district will determine a sustainable school configuration model
029that optimizes student transition between elementary and secondary schools. And I think it's really important that we go through a systematic process to determine what is best. And certainly, we do not have anything predetermined. as Jeremy likes to say, we have um ideas and opinions, but we do not have anything set in stone. But this they he puts that really well because I think there are a lot of ideas floating out there, but we actually have to go through a process and it'll be something that we will start here in the school year, but we'll get to that. go to um SCSD will complete a facilities improvement plan and Jeremy and his team are on top of this and he'll talk about this a little bit later when we get a bit little bit more in
030depth but obviously the safety um and the cleanliness of our schools is of the highest priority. Um and then in making sure that um we have satisfaction among our stakeholders and last but not least complete a five high priority renovation um five high priority renovation projects identified in the plan which his team is always on top of which I believe to a certain degree we're seeing a lot of that with construction and facilities now go through staffing certainly that's my wheelhouse but by the end Yeah, exactly. Um, but by the end of the 2930 school year, the district will achieve and maintain 100% staffing levels as defined by a 10% or lowering annual turnover rate for certified and support staff in an equitable distribution of highly qualified staff. It is always our number one priority
031to get high quality staff in front of our students and is anybody that serves in this role, that's their number one goal. I think it's the one of the most important things that we do year in and year out is not only retaining our high quality staff, but when we do have those staff that leave, replace them with high quality individuals. And then last but not least, u financial stewardship. Again, you hear about this every month from Jeremy. So you understand exactly how on top of it him and his team is but um achieving um unmodified annual audits maintaining a fund balance which you're seeing in real time happening now and ensuring a balanced operating budget. >> All right for our strategies and action steps for school configuration. Uh some of this work we started
032uh previous to CEP but we want to continue that work and go a little bit deeper if if we're able to. So the first piece with that is analyzing the enrollment trends of our district. Not only what we anticipate but also previous enrollment trends which the demographic report hit on. It obviously hit on the next 10 years. Uh but we want to maintain as the demographic report said we can't rely on that solely. So, if this is a five-year plan, we need to be monitoring it in the next five years and using that demographic report as a comp as and as potential to possibly move forward with and it should not solely be used. So, we'll continue that work uh this year and forward. Conduct stakeholder surveys and focus groups u within our community members.
033We know that um a superintendent's lifespan is not very long in comparison to or an assistant superintendent And when I say lifespan, I mean career lifespan. >> I don't I don't know. It slipped. Just slipped out. Sorry. Um so we know. >> So we know what we know. >> We don't know. Let's go. All right. So you and I can talk later. >> I know. I apologize. I'm getting I'm getting a letter. Um, so we're we know how important it is to get out to the community and and to receive as much feedback from the community as we possibly can get. Uh, we want ben we want to benchmark with comparable uh districts, comparable districts uh to ensure that uh we are uh in fact not only being good stewards uh of our own community
034but we have uh comps to compare that with so we don't look like an outlier within the state or within the region. develop the data report and recommendations obviously is the final step and uh that's going to be an important piece and that's going to be a very difficult piece as the board understands. So um like Dr. Lewis had stated lots of opinions, lots of ideas. Uh but it's our goal to try to create a mo the most concise uh configuration that we can get report that we can get uh to then re uh to to bring to the board for a vote at some point during the CESIP plan. Uh facilities hire and engage facilities experts. That's what we do with BLDD. That's what we do with FSG facility solutions group mechanical engineering and
035then uh we also use tmi for a lot of our HVAC another engineering group. So we do have th those individuals uh at our at our back and call and they really are they do a really nice job for us. Um so continuing on with those efforts, evaluate safety and compliance standards uh along with that using their input and then gathering stakeholder input would be students, parents, staff um and uh community members. Um staffing, expand university partnerships. We know that that's uh critical especially in this time of uh u certain areas where we have shortages. So if we can get into the uh ears and promote our district to the best of our abilities, we're going to do that. Doc, I know Dr. Lewis does that frequently. Uh and then enhance digital recruitment strategies as
036well. And then finance, conduct a comprehensive budget audit uh which we do um uh frequently, but we can get better on that. We can always improve. We know we can improve in that. uh meaning that before the actual audit is done, we should be auditing ourselves and our spending practices throughout uh each fiscal year. Um and sometimes time gets away from you and you try to bring it back in. And uh so we would like to do that more frequently in uh implement incremental budgeting practices just justifi just justification if expenses are needed before we actually begin to budget and then align the budget with strategic priorities and those priorities will be listed in the CIP. >> Awesome. So our our first year priorities in school configuration and finance analyze enrollment tren enrollment trends and
037collect and review projected enrollment data. So, this is data that we collect every month, but I think we probably need to start looking back um a few years back to help us predict what the what the future looks like. So, that'll be something that we're doing. Benchmark with comparable um districts. Jeremy talked about that. So, just research other districts that have been in a similar situation. We are unique, but look at those that have been in similar situations. And um last but not least, implement incremental budgeting practices and um require each department and school to justify additional expenses annually to ensure funds are allocated to its most critical need. Um certainly something that Jeremy and his team have started to to tap in and only see it improving as the future progresses. >> Okay, you
038want to go on to the next page? So, we have um culture, Caitlyn Cromian and I worked on culture. Um our first goal is just in regards to students receiving that targeted tiered support through PBIS. Um we have allowed buildings to be um autonomous in kind of their progression with PBIS and so some buildings are further along um with implementing tier 2 and tier three support. Um so we'd like to just continue to grow that across the district so that all buildings are receiving um a robust tiered support system. Goal two is in regards to staff and students feeling safe and valued within our school district. Um we would like to see a a.5 um increase on our u climate surveys over time. And those are things that we had looked at whenever we were
039working on the CESIP and just taking that feedback and continuing to grow. Our third and final goal was enhancing community involvement. Um so we would like to focus or increase as well um.5 uh on our climate survey um in regards to how the community feels in um their how they feel welcome within our district, how they feel involved. So, our three priorities for this school year are continuing developing that district-wide PD plan for the tier 2 and tier three interventions. Um, because buildings are in such different places in their journey with PBIS, we do want to be offering different formats um and different levels of practice for for different buildings because not every building is in in the same position um and working on the same things. Uh, our second priority is sense of belonging.
040So, building those relationships with students through regular check-ins. We want to ensure that all students have an adult that they trust within the building that's regularly checking on them. Um, and then talking with students and getting that feedback from them and from families about how they're feeling about those check-ins, how they're feeling about how the adults in in their school are building those relationships with them, and then using that feedback to then adapt our practices. Um, and then finally, community involvement. Uh, Mickey is a big part of this and developing a district-wide communication plan and then aligning our communication practices across our buildings within the district. Um, we are blessed enough to have multiple families that have students in multiple grade levels and so anything that we can do to streamline that communication process is
041better for them. >> That's all I've got. >> Very quickly, I would just say this. This is probably what the third or fourth time we've gone through this with different various groups and I'm more impressed by the work we've already created. Every time I read it, I mean this this plan has everything we need to do as a school district and it's very very concise. I want to thank Earl. I mean we all did a part of this and we were all part of it. But Earl Draper ran this whole thing with his department. He really did. So can we give him a hand? I mean, it is I'm not thrilled with Jeremy over there, but we'll see about the district financial report here at Disney. But Earl, honestly, and I know you're going to
042say it's all of us, but your committee, your group, Mary Hendricks, >> Harris, >> and if you and and it's not just about, oh, we it's all pretty and and we got these nice like we're living it. It's everywhere. You you can't go anywhere without seeing a a a banner, a sign on our shirt, mission statement. We have a pocket notebook for all of our staff members where they have the mission. We want to live those values every day. The vision like we used to kind of all we used to live the CESIP, but not everybody. We are living the CESIP when we talk I can go on and on and on. We talk there's a lot on our plates, lot on our plates for our teachers, but we are more streamlined than ever in
043this school district and everything is in this plan. So when we talk about things, it's all in this plan and it has to be clear and it has to be streamlined so then our teachers and our staff can do their job the most efficient way. And I'm telling you, this is a great time to be in this school district. We've got great work ahead of us. So Earl, nice job. >> Great job. >> Yeah. Thank you all. >> Did you want to add anything? I just took I just kind of took it to the end. You >> No, you were you were preaching. I let you go. So it was great. >> No, seriously. Uh it was a collective effort um from all of our board members to all of our CIP steering committee to
044our um subcommittees. Uh it was a lot of work. It was hard work, but um in the end it will pay off and we're going to see great growth in our district over the next five years. >> Awesome. Thank you. Thank you all. Thanks to our CO team for spearheading this and for the board as well for everyone's involvement. So we are excited to see this all play out. We're going to move on to new business. Um the set date for the tax rate hearing is going to be September 11th at 5:45. Do any more information or is >> No. And that's um that's it. I mean really that's when I will start advertising as soon as we get the board of education or the board of equalization numbers. Uh we'll begin to advertise that.
045As you guys know with the state auditor advertising is critical. So uh we will be sure we follow that to an absolute T. >> Okay. I make a motion to approve the tax rate hearing to be held on September 11th at 5:45 p.m. Is there a second? >> I second. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. All right, that is set. Item 7.02 is the resolution of the Lewis and Clark house at 522 Dove Drive. >> Pretty straightforward at this point. Do you want to add anything to that, Jeremy? >> No, not at all. It was a very quick sale and um and we're very pleased with the outcome. And um I close on it tomorrow at uh 3:30 I think it is tomorrow. So I'll be doing that. So >> I move to
046approve the resolution for the 522 Dove Drive property as presented. Is there a second? >> I second. >> All those in favor? I >> opposed. Item 7.03. these there's various policies here that have been sent to us with updates or recommendations from MSBA. Any questions? >> I just wanted to add to the point I already emailed you all, but I want to make sure people are looking at the board docs. They know what they're looking at when it comes to the communication devices. We added a little bit more of a phrase to the onetoone because now we do not have an opt out program where they can bring their own devices because by law we can't do that. So, everybody gets an issued Chromebook now. >> Okay. >> And then obviously the new cell phone
047policies part of that. >> Any questions, comments? If not, I move to approve the policies as presented that are listed. Is there a second? All those in favor? I opposed. That passes item 8.01, the district financial report. >> All right. So, you're >> um if I could interrupt, um uh there was a situation in a another school district where a board member took it upon herself to contract with a consultant and um for $3,000 worth of work. What uh procedures do we have in place to prevent that situation from happening in our district? >> Yeah, that's a that's a great question. There's a couple things to this I think is important for us. And one, you never expect something like that to occur. You don't even think like, oh, that that could happen until it
048happens, right? Uh so uh I think it's important for the board to to recognize hey that that did occur and uh that could in fact occur in any district um because board members are not allowed to sign contracts uh without prior approval uh by by each other. Right? So that's one issue at least that's how our policy reads. I can't speak for other districts. Let me say that. Uh the second piece is all of our purchases are are are typically viewed by at least three people. Uh if that's a finance secretary, uh the supervisor, and then our business office. And if it's a PECARD expense, uh we will have a uh a Google sheet that's shared with me that I'm able to review and then make comments on for additional questioning. I'm not winning popularity
049contests when I question spending, but it's an important piece to be able to then say to you guys, this is what we do because I want to be able to say that and to show that we have different lots of eyes essentially on spending. U with this board member doing that based on what I know. Uh, I would think that we would see it come across, but would we see it come across in the timeline since it was signed by the board and there's that reputation like it can happen, especially depending on how it's paid out and the services provided. Uh, I can't guarantee that that would have been the case for us. Uh, but certainly I think it's important for you to bring that up so we don't put ourselves then in that situation.
050Um the question then would become you know if we catch it soon enough we we would refuse payment obviously inform the board and refuse payment if the service is already provided. I would then have a reputational concern for the district that we're not honoring contracts um that are signed by by our representatives. So uh again that would probably be a conversation amongst uh you all. So I do believe we have good practices and procedures in place uh and we do have lots of eyes on our spending but that's definitely a difficult one that I had not thought about ever. I also think I'll just add to this. Yes, we have things in place in terms of procedures, but also as you all know, we we communicate thoroughly you all with us with we do with
051you and even other things. Obviously, I'm authorized to sign for contracts and so is my design. But even if there's contracts that necessarily have to go to you because of a certain amount of money, we're still we're we're we're all constantly letting you know, hey, this is what we're doing. And I think that communication piece really helps us as well. and and even if there is something I can sign or something, we're always putting our two at least two heads, three heads together before we do something just to make sure uh and and we will continue to do that. Doesn't mean that we can't make decisions. Doesn't mean I can't obviously I'm the superintendent, but I am always we are always communicating and collaborating with each other so we're not out of line. And that's
052that's what we'll always do in this district >> and I think that helps us too. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. question. >> Yeah, very good. >> Thank you, Ellen. >> Uh, going back to um the month, we're period one and we don't have any, you know, we don't have a a good look in period one of actual salaries or benefits paid out since we do that in June uh for the July payments uh to our certified staff. Uh so it's not a a a great comparison to look at of what to expect on spending going into period 2 and period three, but once we get through September truly or August, I guess truly uh we have a better idea. And then September is the truest picture because we know salaries and benefits drive. And I
053say September because that's when we have all our staff and a full month's worth of payment. So that's about period three before we can really ascertain. No surprises in period one at all. The end balance uh is perfectly fine. As a matter of fact, when we we uh when uh Jennifer Jenkins, director of business and accounting, submitted our ASPER on August 1st, it's due August 15th. Uh I would say you could clap for that, but we've clapped several times tonight. So, I don't got it in. >> Um >> Jenny Jenkins is fantastic. >> She did a really nice job. >> I'm not clapping for you right now. >> Okay. >> Maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow. Uh the the fund balance did come out at 25.5. Now that >> could [Applause] you give me when you put
054that five on you give me every time. >> Yeah. >> Uh so so that's a that's a really good sign. Uh as we had talked about uh last month uh when we went through our ratings call and we talked to our our advisors, they would like to see us creeping towards that 30 30 mark. That's going to be really difficult. I'm not saying we're doing that. we can do that quickly, but certainly that's in the back of my mind because I I I would certainly listen to the market experts over myself. So, uh so that's a really good thing. Uh we're also working on the uh this year's audit which is due to you in December. We always hope to get that to you before the December board meeting, but it's very possible that it
055won't be until then. Uh waiting on the board of equalization uh for the assessed valuations to truly to come in to us. We typically see that the last Friday in August. So that's a quick turnaround for me to get everything ready for September 11th and to make sure that we advertise correctly. So we advertise correctly. I believe it's five five business days before the September 11th in a in a published uh media. Uh or I can go to public settings. I think it's it's two or three different public settings and begin to post. I might do both just out of fear just to let you know. So um and then uh Senate Bill three impact we spoke about that last month and certainly challenging for all of us um in the educational community including the
056board of education. So uh the assessor was able to go through and give us some better numbers of expectation. I I did it at 100% uh property that the assessor said 75% is probably of more accurate. So that first year impact according to the assessor is going to hover around that one according to the assessor is one about 1.3 million on that first year impact. Um so um obviously that's not that's not changing the pocket. So um that that would be a significant impact for us and uh so everyone's attempting to wrap their head especially in the St. Charles County uh arena around what that impact could do and what that would make us do um in future years if it were to go forward in April and depending on the voter vote >> and
057right now no real update on anything litigationwise. Uh Mickey, Jeremy and I all three went to uh St. Charles County tax meeting today of all of the special districts coming together and uh Mickey's doing a great job at actually uh helping lead our efforts and getting all of our information together. So then we're ready to go and educate our people when when it's time. And then uh next uh Wednesday the 20th, uh Mickey, Jeremy and I will also be going down to Clayton to a tax reformed meeting. Um and um there should be a lot of legislators there and different people. We're having a conversation about what tax reform looks like. Anything else you want to add to that? >> No, not nothing at this time. >> I guess it's your report. >> Thank you.
058Um, and then I guess the last thing is, as you know, we're in August, construction projects are finishing up. It always creates a bit of a heightened hysteria for all of us. Loose sleep, you think about the whatifs um uh frequently, and everything will go as everything will be ready to go by Tuesday, but it will not be without a little bit of a a final push. uh and you know what we're dealing with and a few of our buildings that's going to be an unexpected cost to the district, but we're going to do it right and when we do it right uh in this scenario, it's very costly, especially in such a quick turnaround force. So, um you'll see that come through in the uh September board meeting more than likely if we've been
059invoiced uh for all of that. >> Kudos to Jeremy Scott Bennett, tire maintenance staff, custodial staff, tech staff. Who am I missing? just to get the buildings ready. >> Yeah. The buildings themselves, the building principles and the staff coming back. >> Just just the staff coming back. But just the preparation all summer long though, a lot of lot of hard work. [Applause] >> Any questions, comments regarding the district financial report? >> If not, I move to approve the financial report as presented. Is there a second? >> Second. All those in favor? I opposed. And item 9.01, I move to adjourn the meeting. Is there a second? >> All in favor? I. >> No one better oppose. All right. Meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you all for coming. >> I motion there.