001We've told them to go rejuvenate and refresh and do all those great things this summer. And I promise you, I bet you we've had at least a fourth of the staff members back in this building the last two weeks, haven't we? It It's been unbelievable. So we've had a loturric bills and what they both mean for us as a community and the district in particular. Uh Senate Bill passed through in the recent special session deals with the modifying provisions related to taxation. This bill will certainly greatly affect the finer funding. more to come on that very important bill that just got passed. And then also in Senate Bill 68 there's about 30 items in that bill that we're unpacking that's not all taking place next year but one thing that's taking place next year. You
002all are going to vote for approval tonight on this cell policy will change again next year. Uh thank you to you all for starting that work last year. But now Senate Bill 68 simply says that cell phone us June also means we have started our program. It's also to see our student learning the learning process during the summer months. We also had safety town at finishing up their two weeks of learning with our little man all the safety just in general just awesome and thanks to St. Police Department very far this year. soccer team soccer they lost in I know for a chance we have summer camps going all over the place kids are back getting ready for next year in the fall goss we also have exciting news that took place last Thursday we
003have five students officially join the workforce through the US department of labor registered apprentichips This is a part of countywide partnership between the five school districts, eight business partners in St. Louis County and St. Jose County Economic Development Council as well. Kudos to Dr. Steve Steve Smith, our assistant director for making this opportunity for our students after school and that's a pipeline. a great meeting plan for the four people who are here tonight. We have consent agenda policy changes uh breakfast and lunch crisis proposal for administrative building uh building adoption district financial report a little bit. I just want to encourage like I always do all enjoy the summer. I hope everyone has chance to take a breath as we prepare for another school year. Thank you to our board of education, staff, students, and
004families for making the 24 school year very successful as we move forward together. And we're excited about the 25 26 school year and being all in with our new CE. We're really excited about that journey, our plan. comments. Is there a motion to amend or adopt the second? All those in favor I1 the school board utilizes a consent agenda items placed on the consent agenda are routine in nature or are among many decisions that the board has already All those in favor. These are policy changes. This is our second reading. If not, is there a motion to approve the policy as present? All those in favor item 7.01 curriculum guide. Yes. Well, good evening everybody. Um we are excited. As Dr. Ca said, we've had a busy couple weeks here in Benton with many of
005our teachers coming back to work on curriculum. Last week we had about 60 m teachers K through 12 who were here headed into year two of the math rewrite. This week we had about 25 elementary teachers here working on finalizing our elementary social studies curriculum which we hope to bring to you next month. And then throughout the year we've had a group of teachers who have been working on some of our electives um at the elementary and secondary level. All of those are handed up by our wonderful curriculum and instruction coordinator, Dr. Tina Lowour. Uh we are excited for her to share what the teams have worked on for you. And then we had one of our teachers come tonight, one of our members of our writing team, uh Delila Vanderes, who's at Harris and
006Black is in Lincoln. Yes. So, uh she's here as well for some moral support. Um so, I'm going to turn this over to Dr. is going to talk about all of the exciting things that our teachers worked on this year with their curriculum. All right. Hello. Thank you. Um we're just gonna go through this nice slideshow here. Oh my gosh. Okay. Sorry that was surprise. All right. So I'm gonna present to you K12 computer science 78 computers and 912 business marketing and information technology also known as EIT according to Desi 912. and then K12 visual arts. One thing that we kind of um did here with K12 computer science and then the seven eight computers and then the we um split them up where K um 6 actually does um they do digital citizenship, they
007do um digital presentations and they do coding which is you know the computer science part. But once they get to seventh and eighth grade, it kind of splits. So, there's seven and eight computers, which are really just your digital um your digital citizenship and your digital presentation, spreadsheets, things like that, more like the business classes at the high school. And then we also have separate uh 78 computer science classes. So, that's kind of why we split those. So, those are two different um curriculum guides. So, um we'll go ahead and we're going to start with K12 computer science. Um this is our great team K6 computer science. And then we have our 78 computer science. Um one of the uh let's see two of those classes are also uh PLTW classes. We have computer science
008for innovators and makers. And we also have design and modeling which are PLTW. The other seven um computer science class is robotics. And then um we have the 912 PLTW computer science as well. So when we started we um we really dug into the Missouri computer science standards. Those were not um available to us when we last wrote uh K8. They had just started in the process of um bringing them towards uh using them when we did the other computer science, the high school computer science last time. But last time we um we aligned to the ISTY standards, which is the international society for technology and education, which is your national standards. So this year since we now have Missouri computer science standards, we were able to dig into those and align all of our
009courses to those standards. And then um we still have some that are our international the standards mostly for robotics too because a lot of devs have the engineering in there as well. And then um we just kind of group um we went into small groups. We had K4 and then sometimes we bring five six in with K. sometimes met with 78 and um we had 78 meeting with 912. So that makes sure that we had that and then um we purchased these resources or we're in the process of purchasing them. They came to you in um April I believe and so we are still doing PLTW at 712. We have dropped plcw at Jefferson and we have moved to code.org. Abby G and I actually were there um at the Microsoft building today learning more
010about code.org and really digging into what um we can do with the 56. She's been kind of looking at it all year and planning that out and it will be a big transition from the PLCW launch um to the code.org But we feel that that is a good transition. And then we also are buying a new thing called e publishing. This is an e-readiness bundle that you will see here, but we'll also have it all the way through um our our business marketing and information technology. It's instead of buying physical textbooks, this is a bundle from the publisher where we have marketing textbook. We have um we also have these For example, um there's one in um 78 called Slater Farms, and it's basically a farm that they have to um do spreadsheets for because
011they have to calculate how much they're making at the farm. They have to promote the products there, everything. So, it's a simulation. So, they're using all of those digital publishing skills into a um a real world kind of activity. And so they're doing that in all of these different courses starting at fifth grade. And then um the other ones are pretty much things that we've already used before. Um the new one though is the chopsaw which is really cool for the engineering part of our um ouresw computer science makers and the robotics. And then um you have access to the document but um am I supposed to bring them up? Okay. Okay. Just checking those were presented to you in the in the agenda. But basically again we did um try to work on that
012alignment from kindergarten all the way through our high school um courses and our high school courses. Um there are four offerings. There's computer science essentials principles a and We also have cyber security and then the seven computers in the business marketing and information technology. So we're starting here at going all the way through both high schools here and then they have had for high school business marketing and information technology they have new standards as well. the state adopted the um NBA research um standards for marketing and then they also um have their own u standards for the business and information technology. So we use that we actually for seven and eight looked at the high school computer um applications. It's really a lot of information in that one course for high school. So we actually
013started looking at what are those for those what are the easier skills that our seventh and eighth graders can already start doing getting them prepared for the computer applications class in high school. So we took all of those expectations and divided them up between seven eight and then computer science application or computer applications at the high school. So they're already learning those um those skills that the the state says they should be learning in high school. are already starting to do that in seventh and eighth grade with that course. These were the resources um we had purchased for this curriculum. Again, we have that be publishing readiness bundle. Uh wanted to use something called typing club. So they are doing still keyboarding skills. Um they have a proficiency scale for it just to keep them
014on track. But really the the whole of typing in seventh and eighth is to see their improvement in it. Not to necessarily say you have to, you know, you have to have this many minutes, you know, keys per minute or whatever, words per minute. It's just showing that they are continuously growing. Oh, and then um tell you that we have some new classes um back here. Uh we we dropped the um called uh the uh travel and tourism. It just wasn't really making and so we we dug into some research about what kids are wanting to go into and a lot of them want to be um entrepreneurs and they want to be social media creators. So those are the two courses that we decided to create this year. So we are going to have
015the entrepreneurship which is a business course. Um we did drop business law for that but we are incorporating all of those business law skills that would have been in a separate course. We're integrating those into our business courses. And then instead of the travel and tourism we are going to be replacing that with the social media marketing. And you'll see that on our business thing we've gotten things for the entrepreneur startup items like large format printer, DTF printer, which is a direct to film printer, um, Cricket, all of these things so that they can actually be a business and they can make t-shirts for teams or they can print posters for teachers, all those kinds of things in this new entrepreneurship class. And then we have 912 industrial technology and Those are our um teachers.
016We also have um some of them also double as PLTW teachers. And we also have one teacher who's a science teacher, but she also is a PLTW engine teacher. One thing that PLTW has done is previously they have had a separate um capstone class for engineering, a separate capstone class for biome. Now they are combined them into one class called capstone instead of biomed innovations and the um the one for the engineering class. So what we have done is we have rewritten that course and we are calling it a PLW capstone course and it can be taken by either strand of students going into it from biomed or engineering and the hope is that because you have they are collaborating on on projects that will incorporate both and that would with what they would do
017in the real world. Anyway, so that's um what we have done. So the science course has also been been rewritten to incorporate that. We also created a new class called school improvement team and that is a course that students can take after they've taken some initial industrial tech classes. They can um take orders um teachers. They can see what's maybe needs maybe there's some painting that needs to be done in the school or or whatever things that need to be done to improve the school and to make it um make it better and whatever projects that we can do to do that. And these are the resources for um our industrial tech classes. And if you've never gone and seen any of those um robotics things, they have them. They have little in class competitions
018sometimes. I highly suggest you do. It's very cool. They um that was at West. Um I've been there when they've had the whole um thing set up like a battleship. Like they have literally giant ships and then a board in the middle on each side and they shoot ping pong balls from their robots and they try and they've done other things as well, but um it's really pretty. And then um we also have the K12 visual arts and then those are team members. And this um this curriculum also had new standards that they had to dig into. And um a lot of it is similar to music which is what they did last year. It's a lot of choice based um applications and giving those students choice in what they do in their art just
019like the music ones were you know choice in their music and then these are the resources that they came up with for um visual arts. Notice we are getting iPads. Um we are getting iPads for digital um digital art at the high school, but we're also getting iPads for our elementary and middle school because they um they can take they can take pictures of their work. We've got like light boxes for them to do that and use an an app called Artia which is a digital portfolio. So that's part of what they're doing. Um they're getting and they're showing off their work and doing that presentation of it. So, it all kind of goes together and then that's all. You have any questions for us? Yeah, no question. coming out of a school year. Fantasters
020finished up like the day after Memorial Day. They were up here already trying to finish that up so it would be ready to come to you today. So, they've been working really hard all year. Yes. couple things I did school improvement one question you said how you were kind of business law how was that incorporating other areas how you elaborate on that yeah so it was a standalone semester course and so instead of just doing that one it's being parts of like tor law, all that kind of stuff is our units in our business classes. So, they're bringing that into the intro to business and just focusing a little bit more time in those areas, but also focusing on the international business and that kind of stuff. So, yes, they they are making sure that
021there is um an understanding of what's appropriate to do in business, what's not appropriate to business and getting that whole thing ethics that's all built into all of our business courses instead of just being a stand I will say this before you go to a vote and Jeremy will appreciate this and her team significantly under Thank you so much. Is there a second? All those in favor? I oppos. Thank you very much. Item 8.01 policy changes. retiring. Any questions or comments about question unless we a motion to approve these policies as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor. Yes. On these prices, you'll note that we include all the other county school districts as pricing that we are suggesting. One thing to note that state does tell us how we must price our
022items based on our fund balances within the school account. Um they will tell us that we should have it at close or something like that unless you increase it the minimum which was 10 cents. If you increase it 10 cents then you have to fund it from your fund uh your other funds non federal funds in order to bypass that increase. So we did the minimum what the state asked for which is 10 cents comparable to the other school districts were better than some were better than us but certainly you can look at it and see that we are comparing typically how will operate and then the last on that high school that secondary are some of the more itms students have more variety. They have more choice to choose to choose those. And then
023the biggest the biggest thing that you may not on there is the adult lunch whatever since we do offer that pricing. We have to go from that highest tier and then add the federal reimburseable onto that and that's how we get that adult because adults cannot get federal reimbursement items essentially on their So that's what drives that adult in our district a lot more bigf conversation. Any questions or comments? If not, there's for breakfast for lunch for the 256. All those in favor? I pass. Item 8.03 is the proposal. quite hard. And uh so just to go through this or at least provide that information when we had the bid open at that time and uh that bid was publicly open. However, there was a second bid that was submitted. It was provided to an
024employee that employee took another step put it on the secretary's desk in my office and then that secretary was out for that day. I go through those difficult process bids that was on desk. So, after we open that open the next day, I saw that go through a process of opening employed and that's where we see the two. So then it becomes did we do anything from a district lens that would prevent us from accepting either bid and did we violate any fairness within the bid at least from a perception standpoint that would cause us to have to disreg had been reviewing that. Well, actually after we opened the second one, we saw that there were some items that were not checked. Uh so that we reach out to try to figure out and you
025know they determine if those are matericient to the point that we must disregard that bid. So upon their review they determined that that bid second uh that is the low is material mater has has determined in several different so I have communicated with that company I did that this afternoon tell them about how I am recommending this proposal to the board and letting them know the board will make that decision this evening It's unfortunate that we had to go through all that. Certainly wasn't a good position for anyone to be in. Uh but uh that's that's how we come to this. Two bids. One is uh a significant bid that met all of the requirements. much forward that only requirements. So that's what we saw with that. this project. We're comfortable. The architect said that
026they were comfortable with the number because this project kept growing the more eyes we got on it. And we have some structural integrity issues that weren'ted previously in this building after they got deeper into it. And then they determined also that the issue within this building was greater than the tough points was much greater than what was originally anticipated. Knowing that project was done 12 years ago by another company and it was not done well that so rather than saying okay we got few areas that are producing moisture area concerns that we know as we walk this building it's the entire building. So, so that's that's what that's a frustrating piece you guys heard me say before this building on but we have to do this address issues. And then there's a second portion of
027this building. So that's once we begin to figure out what's the best alternative to fix. So this is like this is our first Yeah, they've done to approve the bid proposal for the mediation as presented. All in favor of this not so you answer any questions that you all may have pages one through five very standard CI langage updates that Dr. Draper led us on included that obviously in this budget ciphers and the administration. We took away a lot of some of the board members uh biographies for lack of better terms and just put your pictures in there and I think they're wonderful pictures. So that pages six through seven just a budget overview basically how we come along and create this budget which has not been an easy budget to create by any stretch
028of the imagination. Uh as you wait you wait for legislation to get passed and then you wait a little bit more you see it's not getting passed and then it gets passed in the final hour last week or at a surprise session last week it completely disrupts your entire stretch of thinking. So you do you do the best you can and you create this blueprint for us to follow and obviously as the school year goes on you see the budget adjustments that we put in the financial reports uh each month and that's because of an increase or a decrease in revenue or a change in expenditures that we may not anticipated when we created this budget. Also remember we still don't have a tax rate set until September. So the tax rate that we're currently
029using will likely will change in September. So that changes our local taxes that we are so dependent on in this district. So the local tax. So that's kind of what we go through the budget over the budget calendar. One of the areas that we're trying to improve upon is really getting all the stakeholders involved in the process as much as we possibly can. So you'll see in that budget calendar we have that. We certainly try to follow that and get as much possibly could um while they were still thinking about the current year trying to anticipate next year. So it's interesting because it's June we formally adopt this in June July 1 but we do not really impactful revenue until December. halfway through the adjustments really start again seven that's all that dealt with and
030then page n we're dealing with district enoc that was done in December. We're anticipating decrease in enrollment, but for the next 10 years, that's a 200 student. So, it's not significant. It's not a major player in our finances. it will create but it's not a player it's not something that creates a long as we begin to create a budget so because we are local tax not so uh page n shows you a little bit about that enrollment history projections look projection 26 27 that's just straight so we'll do that see if that does what the uh page 10 is staff allocation 941 total staff members um and gives you a little bit of a breakdown 54 certified 342 non-certified staff members 45 administrative personnel district so um staffing is a big component of our budget
031representing about 79% of our overall cost about % from what we saw about years ago. So that could be due to the number of factors including uh page 11 where they're allocated at and then page 12 gives you the certified teacher salary and how that compares to the state and also gives you a trend line to follow on how the state has changed. provided increases how you see that trend line2 is kind of the break it's really all funds the broken out funds that you see at the back end of the budget So right now last year we said that we would operate a$1.6 million deficit for that current this current and we'll probably end up falling a million deficit which is not uncom because we still give our salary increases regardless of what that
032assessment looks like. So this year what we're proposing is about 700,000 decrease during the assessment year. Um but one thing that I think is important for you as we begin to get into financial summary pages later and if you look a little closer the local dollars I've set pretty much flat just based on the assessed valuation based on that tax rate that was provided to us back in March. I think that's a very conservative estimate for us and I think that would certainly that we will get this year will take care of that that deficit but always like to try to plan worst case scenarios uh so we're not caught off guard so that's where you see that but I also believe the conservative approach for our local dollars is probably the best approach for
033this particular the next thing outside of those local is the state so the state is saying that they are and I what the state We use a calculator based on the state assumptions. It spits out numbers to us and we're using those numbers and so that's that's included in this budget. So typically I've always done a decrease a little bit local state but I'm not doing that because I want to see what we did versus what we finan but we will not know that until n months into this budget for sure. So we'll kind watch some of the goicipating we won't know that full outcome until much later in the school year. So they've increased it great love that always love increases right but it is concerning the other piece that is decreasing a little
034bit is the prop C which is an indicator of a loss of sales tax and certainly an indicator that they anticipate the inflation uh to continue to be trending towards that 2% mark which is more uh so we think that we will see and that procedur of taxes that those are called pilots u that is money that is not taxed at the normal that city or the county and those can look a variety of ways and I've included that as well. Transportation 100% funded with the exception of few areas and in federal programs your guess is as good as mine probably uh because uh it seems like every day you look at something you listen to a different market expert and they're saying this potentially that touched. So, uh, we're planning on pretty much flat
035budget this year for federal income as well. So, any changes made to that would be surprise changes and certainly uh the piece I think is important and it's one that we want to keep our pulse on in this budget is page 15 and 16. It's called the development incentive programs 2024 report. That report on page 15 is provided directly by the St. Charles County Assessor's Office and um the we have obviously we have tips tax incentives for properties have become such a bad name that they're going away from tips like streets of St. and going more towards chapter 353 and chapter chapter 100s are St. Charles city finance projects or county finance projects and chapter 353s are what is deemed as properties so they received tax but as you know information. St.5 million. So that's
036significant when you look at a Francis that has $87,000. So it's important for us to keep our pulse on that because um we need to know when will the district begin to some of that money. So that's the city director financide for us between chapter 100 properties and then the tips that you see impact properties on that and when they will go off or come back to ours because that's a substantial amount of money that we Again, not saying I'm disagree with any of this, but this is our reality and it's something I think it's important for us to say, okay, if we're considering any type of rate increase, I do really appreciate the city's help to us. Uh, and then the other all the construction projects, the bond we're going to it's crucial. It's
037crucial for us because what we're spending in bond is what we do not have to capital and that's incredibly important for us. So you'll see years ago uh we were set at 20 cents for our capital. We're reducing that to about 10 cents a few more because we have million sitting very good balance in capital that the operating fund and try to help that fund balance as best we can. So you'll see that on page what I just kind of spoke about there. You'll see that on anticipating that. So that uh so and then you see the definition for weighted average daily attendance that's going to be flat again this year from the state level. The biggest increases expend forecast is all based on truly based ones. That's where the bulk of our money that's
038bulk of our expend. So if we do get that revenue expectation increase local we'll be able to offset that is flat not what I hope to be a surplus and then 216 is all intal Page 25 is our net debt service as it currently sits. Remember, we do not have that $30 million yet. That will be decided in the June 25th special board meeting, but that is hopefully coming on July 10th. So then that's when service will change after meeting July. So one a few things for us to think about I I think at least from my seat is um you know as we look at our fund balance is the most important and keep our eyes in a non assessment year we anticipate based on previous years see next year's growth% so that's what
039we see next we finalize this year's which we'll start working on as soon as we get that fun we will want to see that grow that we just discussed that's where that's where we want to have some senses around so any I don't have any concerns about anything. I have question. No, there's also another one. for the 37 project. No, that's 1.8 million always. So this year, this year they did a correction also from the previous year,000 because they had 14,000 but that will decrease each year as we get tax. So any building that they project that's in our our boundaries could be additional income for us. So last I knew they were attempting to approve that provide us a little bit of we have to any additional revenue could be offset by a loss
040and that loss right now. So those things are a lot. Yes, they are those pilots in the 20 or 16. Sorry. Yeah, it would be in that 5.5 million. says that included as a loss of true tax. these projects occurred and there was no incentivized that reflects the taxes tax. So our share of that money would be less because there county goes to our school% And I suppose that we should track any um typically contacts. Um so it's a great question since I've been in this role. The economic development director has changed. We don't relual previous so I can't answer that well for you I'm afraid I can't but that is a desire of ours and what we had previously because that's not well received in a lot of circles and I think county came
041out so if you're looking at the city is actually financing portion of that project with their own their own revenue So they don't do that. So in a lot of the we will get annual payments alypately and then by goes back to the regular. So in a typical tip, my understanding is they would just say here's a flat payment for the next one payment you can put towards capital expenses for the next and that all you get. So that's so we do get some revenue if it's new construction. But I guess it would be appropriate for us as city. Yeah, absolutely. But one of I know one of the things that's really big for our city, I'm not speaking at all, but just future masterp I think that's something for us to watch and certainly
042grow. But we also I I have come back comments or questions. Is there a motion to approve the 2526ual budget? All those in favor? I oppos. Absolutely. So, as you saw, I say this appendal based on what is our teaching. That will be so we are Our team also goes So we are conversely looking at again ways making accountability understand. So the financial report u you'll notice that compare April to May of this year's spend in May we dropped about $900,000 in our spend compared to the previous that's something that we're as we're speaking that's something that we're really trying to hone in on the expenditures for the current year should be spent on this year's current set of students. So what we typically uh well what has occurred and this is not Charles or
043any other district is we have to starting to ensure that we're not just blowing through money because the federal approach if you don't use it you lose it if you don't use it that helps our fund balance which is then goes back so we're trying to really educate our staff uh those that make purchases, let me say that way. Uh to get a little bit better with that mindset because we're not the federal government. We don't we don't operate that way. It all comes back to benefit our students in the next. So that's an important month that huge decrease in spend that way at the end of the school year unless we have a lot of curriculum purchases which purchases or we have something going on maint almost 1.4 that was service remaining part of
044that is really salaries and benefits really where the cost is going so nothing to be alarmed about again remember that was in the original budget and assessed June is a double pay for our certified by 10 month staff so we bring out that report July you'll see the expenditures for salaries and benefits take a significant jump that's what we The other piece though I think for this I spoke on it a little bit the capital if you open that up and see it you see that we're at that 9.2 fund balance that's why we're able to drop that to seven cents. Uh the other piece will do when the governor signs it to approve that by the time we put it on the ballot. What could that potentially do the that we've been attempting to
045plan on which we planned on this point in time. So what does that do to our overall debt capacity? Uh and then what does that do to our rating more important because that's what our interest is based off of. So a lot of our rating is simply based on those local taxes those taxes which is what is going to be Uh so right now we went through a couple hours with standards to answer a bunch of questions on our finances and they were looking at our previous audits to give us a rating which is what we held for years but we are a plus for the accounts where state that service. So, we're in stable. That's considered stable. If this passes, I can't see us holding that. And that's what's given me a lot. I'm
046not saying we won't. very difficult for us to if we were at 30% but we're not always district this decision may potentially impact our plans for the fall and what our rating looks like and what we're going to pay out next. So that's that's an unnerving reality for us because we will have to go through a ratings call in 2027 and 2029 as well. So I'm not predicting anything with this at all. That's just something that we have to consider. necessary to make and then yeah we are at 0% counties out of 114 impacted by this language. So all we can do is see that what happens not only our friends But then police that's what we're talking based these agencies I would assume a lot of people say I'm not very knowledgeable on these
047changes but I see tax increase tax increase tax increase tax increase uh that that would be difficult to digest as a it's uncess So outside of that June 30 or so end of our fiscal we'll start on our asp right away and we start our right start. So, as we're starting at one budget, we're ending another and we'll try to do both simultaneously through October as we get through that. November and so it's hard like What does that look like? Especially when it gets down to this passes. The only way you'll be able to get through that was baseball. They come back and again the The bill was there to basically try to keep the royals the chiefs part of the state. So that's% the election language. a good questions like probably Obviously, it's going
048to be a quick lot of people at this point. We have not let I don't have anything once we get that information statewide countywide. We don't have an answer for you right now. When it comes down to sad again, but for our context. is that the Senate bill is really just a lot of things. Any other questions? You all question people and this team is you got you got you got a top team working on our budget but we are really watching this we want to keep going providing for for our families. No further questions to approve the financial report. All those in favor I motion to second. All those in favor?