001States 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 will start with superintendants comments. Thank you, Miss Sigma. Good evening. Welcome to tonight's board of education meeting. We're glad you have joined us. We have a looks like a great group with us. And we've got a lot we got a lot of good things to celebrate tonight. Come on, Karen. That's what I'm talking about. I want to thank our whole community for your support in passing and approving our Prop SCSD with 71.89% of the vote. Yes, it's almost 72% of a yes vote. We are humbled. We are grateful. We are excited. Uh this approval and support is greatly needed in order for the
002SCSC to continue to move forward. Projects are starting now. Aren't they? Yes, they are. So, congratulations. More work for Jeremy. Thank you again. Can we give everybody a hand? Want to thank all the volunteers. There's a lot of key ones in this room that helped get the important information out to the public regarding Prop SSD. Your hard work and support is greatly appreciated and needed. And thank you to all. Also, tonight, congratulations. In just a second, we are going to uh resign uh Daniel Huitt up for another three years. Daniel, let's give Daniel a hand. And I feel like she's already with us because she's she's everywhere with us. Tammy McGrillis is going to be signed in tonight as a board member as well. Welcome Tammy. And we can't wait to work with both of
003you uh as uh we move forward. It's the middle of April and that means the end of the school year is a little bit more than a month away. It's hard to believe that we're down to our last stretch of the school year. It's getting pretty exciting as we progress towards the end of of end to graduation. We have several school events, activities taking place throughout the district until the rest of the year. Uh, lots to do there. Uh, this is a very busy but fun time in the SCSD. Speaking of spring activities and sports, the new spring season is in full swing. Get out and root our students on. Standardized testing will also take place soon. I want to kudos give kudos out to our staff for preparing our students to do their absolute
004best. This is kind of my little soap box. Although we don't believe standardized tests are the true or entire picture of our students ability, it is important that each student does their best. These tests are a snapshot of our students abilities and are used to evaluate our school district's effectiveness in meeting student learning needs. Our annual APR, which is our annual uh performance rate, is based highly uh on these tests. So, let's all focus and let's finish the year strong and let's show the rest of the state what the SCSD is made of. How about tonight? We've worked hard. We've got a lot of things for you. We got policy changes secondary. We got a little better for everybody. It's like GoPro tonight. You get you get policy reading certification of election results. We got
005a board organizational meeting. We got cons consent agenda items with a curric instruction resources on there. We got to do the the crazy designated MSBA delegate. That's always a hot contested uh race race bid bid proposals for the new bond projects. We got a CIP plan that we can't typically you don't do this in a year. Typically, you don't go for a $90 million bond issue and then do your CIP all in the same year. But guess what? We did and we have both to be approved tonight. That is awesome. We have a preliminary tax rate for you tonight. We have meet and confer agreement classified ladies are in the house. Uh community this is this is the highlight. Adult Ed's in the house tonight. Community ed education program review and that's second to none
006and we'll talk about that later. We're so proud of that program. financial planning investment of surplus funds program review that's our friend Mr. Jeremy is also has our financial report so a lot going on in this meeting stay with us it's going to be a great one and then again just to encourage we're obviously in the middle of a very productive year got a lot going on let's keep moving forward together the SCSC is a great place and I'm proud to be the superintendent that's all I got thank you Dr. Seaffort item 3.04 4. Board communications. We have none. None. All right. We'll move on to 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
007responsive 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 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 other times during the board meeting. Board is very interested in audience comments. According to board policy, members cannot respond during the actual meeting. The board will present or will the board will listen to audience comments if necessary. Additional
008follow-up will occur through district administrators. Got tongue tied today. Thank you, Daniel. Um, Brendan Karns, if you'd like to come share with us. Good evening, members of the board, cabinet, and 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 in the district. Um, it's been a busy month. Congratulations and thank you the community on passing our bond issue for everybody who volunteered and voted. We are grateful for your help. Um, also wanted to congratulate Daniel Hwitt on his re-election to the board and Tammy McGrellis on her election. We look forward to u working with you guys, having productive conversations and keeping St. Charles great. Thank you. Thank you, Brenda. Item 3.06. Is there a move to amend or
009adopt the agenda as presented? opposed. Motion carries. Old business item 4.01. Is there a move to approve the regular session minutes from our March 13th meeting as well as the CIP meeting minutes from our March 19th meeting as presented? I move to approve the regular open session minutes of March 13th and CIP meeting minutes of March 9th as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? I opposed. That carries. Item 4.02 O2 policy changes. This is our second reading. Ellen, I have some questions. Uh I apologize for not asking them at the first reading, but quickly um uh uh policy EHBD um is is about AI. I assume the AI use plan will be developed by David Taylor. Um and um uh um I'm requesting that the board gets to see that plan. Um
010I not necessarily to approve it because I wouldn't know an AI plan if it bit me. Um but uh and um let's see and uh [Music] DJF1 raises the limit for informal no bid contract spending from $3500 to $50,000. Uh does that seem excessive to anyone else? And how um how often are we Um uh approving a $3,600 um yeah over the Yeah. Um Jeremy, could you speak to both of those? Pull up that policy to make sure. It does say 50,000. It does, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And um Yeah. So, what right now what we're doing because that's been a a policy that's been floating for a number of uh well for about a year I believe. Um we're still holding with that 3500 for three vendors. Uh we've maintained that and we will
011continue to put that uh maintain that in our procedures. Typically what we're what we do is anything with the original policy was anything between 3500 and 15,000 would be a three vendor. Anything 15,000 to 50 unless we are using a cooperative purchasing agreement which is a nationally uh recognized purchasing agreement uh because it's uh the RFPs already been written by government entities or approved by government entities uh state level and or federal level. um those would come to me for sign off. Anything 50,000 or above, if we believe it's 50,000 or above, that's when we come to you with a draft RFP, say, can we go out uh to um request to advertise for those jobs? And then we bring that to you. And that's what you'd see in the consent agenda today. Okay. And
012um uh the AI, do you want that addressed No. Um, any other questions? AI looking at AI, how do we what are we putting in place now with that new newer technology to because it talks about, you know, student information, you know, pertinent information that's supposed to be this or that and the other. Well, that came up before. the same thing with our other thing and it got hacked into. So, how are we how are we I guess moving forward in that and and looking ahead on how we're going to protect ourselves from that, I guess, with that. I know it's it's a policy suggestion or whatever, but I'm sure we're we're definitely going to need something in there. So, with uh any of our technology, we have there's a couple of components to this.
013Uh one, we have to meet our insurance standards uh or else we cannot be insured. So we have to go through every piece of technology that we software that we have in our district that's allowable and guarantee that their guidelines uh within the user agreement are being met by that that uh company. Uh if they do not even if it's the smallest of guideline we say no. Typically gets our technology department in a little bit of a uh a quandry with some of our certified staff especially that desire um to have that that software. uh but there are strict standards that we have to follow just to meet that insurance guideline and then there's also state guidelines that we must follow. So when we talk about that data breach uh with the student information system
014that was not a part of our system that was a part of uh the other and I will say this and you talk to the insurance companies even with us meeting every one of those standards we're still at risk we're always going to be at risk personally professionally um and a lot of it just depends on worldwide events. So um even though we may we we have the policies in place the only real protection is to eliminate all technology usage that's the truest form of protection right which is not going to happen as for a 21st century learner would happen for a 21st century employer. So um but we do have to follow those guidelines and we do have a team uh that manages and monitors that and then communicates back to our staff when
015those standards are not met. Thank you, Jeremy. Any other questions? I know we've on the student side of things, I know we've started to address that in our code of conducts a little bit with AI and adding that into some of that academic dishonesty piece as well. So, we'll continue to to look at that. I don't know if you want to add anything to that, Earl, or not, but No, I was just going to say um as of now, currently, AI is is blocked for student use at the district level. Is it something that we see as a a definite need for the student moving forward? I think we are still ourselves in there. It's so new that we are still trying to learn as much as we can in our department about it to
016see how it can be a benefit u for both teachers and for students in the classroom without uh as Dr. Seafford alluded to uh academic honesty like without breaking academic honesty. Um I think There are definitely some research out there that would support that it can be beneficial for both students and teachers. Um we're still in that research phase. I think it's a game changer just like the internet was right. Yeah. I mean it is. So at some point um not that we have when I say some point doesn't mean we haven't embraced it already but I think we we have to move forward with technology but we have to be very careful it looks like for our kids and and for the adults in the buildings. So, I can tell you this, anytime we
017go to a conference, there's there's AI stuff everywhere for us. There's a new AI summit coming out at a Hancock place this summer that hopefully we'll have a couple staff members sign up to go to as well. So, as Earl says, we're learning. We'll keep progressing with it and obviously we'll continue to put in safeguards, make sure we're using it correctly, but it's it AI is here. It's going to continue to change the uh the game a little bit, and we have to make sure we stay up on top of it, and I think we'll do that. So, It's a balance, right? It's a balance. I'm just old school. I just I just I'm just not for it. I'm just old school. I just say, you know, can we do without it? I'd love to.
018You know, I think I look at the cell phones. We had to move away from the cell phone because that was an issue. I just see this thing moving forward going to be an issue with our students, with our staff. It even has says in there talk about staff. You know, what's the staff discipline going to look like when they when they breach that, right? So, I I almost look like is it going to be more of a headache as we move forward or we just we wait a little while? we wait I don't know five years down the road is it going to hurt us that much you know just my thoughts like I said I'm old fashioned from what I to that point from what I gather from other districts and some other
019superintendents and different things and some uses they're using I don't think we're like behind like way behind but I certainly think we're we're certainly not in the forefront of it and and I don't want and then anybody else who's sitting in here go that thinks well we should be it's a balance right I mean we know it's going to be a game changer we know it already is there's a lot of people aren't using it. Um, it is a tool, but how do we use it the right way for our kids and our adults? And that's what we have to do. So, that's what we're figuring out as we move forward. I I do like the idea of seeing it. I would like the plan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Last one for the 50,000. Is that
020because of a change in regulation values for thresholds? Yeah. I think the uh if you if you're looking at any of the current legislation, they are saying that um and desiring many of them are desiring um if you can just use cooperative purchasing and you never have to do another RFP. So, I'm not saying we're going that route or anything like that, but if that passes, uh certainly it reduces our cost in advertising and it speeds up our process. rather than a three-month process to get a final payment, we just take it to you the month of and and seek approval through uh the cooperative purchasing agreements, which we're a part of, uh three different ones. Um so, um so I think that that's probably what it's leaning towards. Again, not saying that we wouldn't
021go out and get quotes and get bids because obviously we want competition. Um, but we but I will say this too, for me personally, I love the cooperative purchasing. Uh, since the RFP is already written, it's already approved by uh state officials and f andor federal officials, governmental officials. Uh, it does reduce our cost long run and can speed up some of our our processes. Yeah, I'm familiar with 3500 where that came from and five and 10 and 250 but not 50. Um, so all good. Thank you. There's no further discussion. Is there a move to approve the policies listed as presented? I move to approve the policies as presented. Is there a second? All in favor? I oppose. That passes. Item 5.01 is the certification of the April 8th election results. Is there a
022move to certify the April 8th election results as presented? Is there a second? All those in favor? I opposed. That passes. Item 5.02. Is there a move to dissolve the 2425 school board in order to reorganize? I move we dissolve the 2425 school board in order to reorganize. Is there a second? All those in favor? I opposed. Okay. Item 6.01. We take over here. This is where I like to make my annual joke. I don't have a boss right now. Yeah. Just for a couple minutes. You were on and then you turn yourself. Oh yeah. Now it's on. Yep. Tammy, if you want to come up to um the microphone, please. That's the little person. Okay. I will recite this and then you and Daniel can repeat after me. I do solemnly swear or affirm
023that I will support the Constitution of the United States. I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Missouri and the Constitution of the State of Missouri and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of school director. And that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of school director in and for the St. Charles R. Six School District. And and for the St. Charles R school district, County of St. Charles, state of Missouri, to the best of my ability, according to the law. County of St. Charles, State of Missouri, to the best of my ability, according to the law. Thank you, Tammy. Tammy, you can come have your seat. So, the first election for this evening will be
024the office of president of the board. Nominations are now open for president. Nominate Heidi Sigma. Daniel Hwitt has nominated Heidi Sigma. Are there any other nominations? Okay. Hearing no further nominations, nominations are closed. We will now proceed to the election. The candidate for president is Heidi Sigma. This um election will be conducted by roll call. We will vote on Heidi Sigma. Please respond yes um if you wish to elect and no if you do not. Uh I'll take a roll call vote now. Gibson Huitt. Yes. Sigma. Yes. O'Harn. Yes. Omera. Yes. Zair. Mr. Thank you all. Okay, we have a unanimous vote for Miss Heidi Sigma who will um remain as the board president and now she will conduct the uh election for the vice president. Okay, item 6.03. The next election this evening will
025be for the office of vice president of the board. Nominations are now open for vice president. Daniel Huitt is nominated. Are there any other nominations? Hearing no further nominations, nominations are closed. We will now proceed to the election. The candidate for vice president is Daniel Hwitt. This election will be conducted by roll call. We will first vote on Daniel Huitt, who has been nominated for vice president. Please respond yes. If you do not wish to elect Daniel, respond no. You may also abstain. The secretary will call the role. Gibson, Huitt, yes. Sigma, yes. O'Harn, yes. Omera, Zar, yes. And McGreles, the results of the vote are as follows. Everyone voted in favor of Daniel Huitt. He has received the majority of the votes and is declared vice president. Congratulations, Item 7.01, approval of the consent
026agenda. 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. Is there a move to approve the consent agenda as presented? Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay, we will move to new business. Item 9.01. This is designation of the MSBA delegate. Each year, the board is asked to select an MSBA delegate. This person will officially be responsible for casting any votes during the MSBA convention on behalf of the board of education. The MSBA delegate for the 2425 school year was Ellen Zair. The delegate assembly is being held in person on June 16th. The MSBA annual conference where voting will take place will
027be held on October 23rd. Do we nominate again for this? You move to elect. I move to elect Ellen. I second. And sir, all those in favor? I opposed. Congratulations, Ellen. Item 9.02, we need to designate an MSBA alternate delegate. So, similarly, um each year the board selects an alternate delegate. This person is responsible for casting any votes during the convention on behalf of the board if the appointed delegate is unable to do so. Last year's MSBA alternate delegate was Karen O'Harn. Same dates as follows for the delegate assembly and the MSBA annual conference. Would anyone like to make a motion to I nominate Karen O'Harn unless Tammy wants it, but Tammy's busy. Yeah. Yeah. So, I nominate Karen. Is there a second? I'll second. All in favor? I oppose. Congratulations, Karen. Item 9.03. These
028are bid proposals. Mr. Shields on there. Sorry, I was caught in my own thoughts there for a second. Wrapped up in all these nominations. I am. I'm like, man, this is really great. Trying to write them all down. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Oh, so one thing uh because I uh with the policy reading with that 50 that was just for federal funds. Okay, that's just with federal funds and that's because of the federal agreements with the RFP. So just to give clarity on that, I didn't say that. I apologize. Thank you. Thank you. Uh um but going to what we're actually supposed to be talking about here, let me see the first one that we've got. Uh we've got three proposals. So we've got um and any and I want to tell you
029this as well. Uh what I've been told and what we've always tried to do with this, even if this wasn't a bond related issue, any project that would exceed $250,000 wouldn't be put into an consent item. It would be put in new business for us to look at with maybe a heavier lens. So, um the three that we have all would be bond proposals. We have a full uh roofing replacement at Success Campus for $275,000. Uh that's minus materials. We expect those to be about between 125 and 150. I believe we allocated a little over 500 for that job. So we're we'll be under budget there. Uh and then the other ones are the roofing renovations. Uh that's the recoting for four buildings right now. Uh this heavy rain has certainly highlighted uh some areas
030of concern for us especially with the heavy winds and Dr. even all of us have discussed like the heavy winds are pushing the rain into areas that we didn't know existed on our rooftops. So, um so those areas are the first four that we want to tackle because they are giving us the the the greatest grief. Um and so you see the four of those. Uh one important thing to note on those uh items we're going with Garland manufacturer roofing so uh in all of our on all of our buildings moving forward um at least through this bond issue. I can't speak for next ones. um because um they are have been competitively bid through education plus uh and education plus has selected them as the as the uh material and the designer of ro
031of roofing and um so the people that are associated with um Garland or the people that won these bids, Garland walked around and walked them through all of our all of our areas that needed to be recoded, gave them the specs. they are the experts on the job rather than our architect because they are the roofing experts and um they they are the ones that have coordinated this work for us. So you'll see Garland I think it's DBA and then you'll see the contractors that won those awards. There were eight of them that did show up. We were very surprised by the turn very very fortunate with this turnout uh and very very happy with the turnout for eight bids to come through. And then the last one is one that we just finished uh
032today. waited until the bond passage. Um, but it is Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Har Harris and St. Charles West uh new flooring all throughout Harris, new painting throughout Harris and then tack boards uh as well as some of the um uh the cabinetry and the and the media center and media uh center library area uh under bid as well there and along with St. Charles West. Now St. Charles West. I will say I I say we're under bid, but it's a little bit harder because we still have a second phase of flooring, albeit much smaller phase of flooring. Uh so I feel very confident that we won't come close to what our estimates are. In conversations with the roofers and
033the architect today, um so far we haven't seen any uh effect from anything that's going on and with the market volatility uh that we have. So, um, we're very fortunate to be in this in a place right now where the estimates are, uh, a bit under than what we were originally projecting. Uh, so that was that's great news. Uh, and and we'll see where that takes us as, as we carry through this bond. So, good start though. It's a good start so far. Absolutely. Any questions? Yeah, I think the biggest one to just pull on I think that you mentioned at the beginning, but all of these are pretty I think everyone but one is underneath what we had for the budget or what we thought it was. The only one that we didn't do
034a budget as everything is under with the exception of Jefferson. Jefferson I we did the major remodel with just a big price tag on it because that was the estimation for a major remodel by our architectural firm. So I didn't even have a roofing reco on that. Uh, but it would be taking that 22.5 and taking that number off of that before we get to the interior finishes. Yeah, great start then. Yeah, sure. Is there a motion to approve the bid proposals as presented? I move we approve the bid proposals as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? I oppose. That carries. Next on the agenda is the 25 through 2030 CEP plan. Dr. Draper. All right. All right. We have a presentation for you. Okay. Perfect. All right. Well, good evening everyone.
035Uh we are very excited to present to you our CES plan, also known as our continuous school improvement plan that we have been working on throughout the year. For those of you who don't know, um, a strategic plan is essentially a formalized road map which outlines the district's long-term goals, our vision, and our priorities over the next five years. And it will serve as a framework for decision making um for when how we allocate our resources and how we evaluate our progress over the next five years. The plan will go into effect on July 1 of 2025 and conclude on June 30th of 2030. what you will see throughout the plan and you have a copy of this presentation but you also have in board docs a copy of the detailed plan as well. Uh
036what you will see in the cip it will include our revised mission vision statements along with our core values. Um you will see the three strategic pillars that the steering committee determined. Um also our smart goals which are um specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely objectives that detail how we will accomplish each of those pillars. Uh it also includes our strategies and action steps, success matrix and lastly uh our plan for monitoring. So the process this process started about a year ago actually about a year ago this time when we started identifying stakeholders to be a part of the CIP steering committee and at the conclusion of last school year uh we held our kickoff meeting right here in this room. Um and throughout the year we met to kind of review uh district data,
037look at historical data. Um, we conducted a SWAT analysis. We held uh community forums. And based on all of that information and all the feedback that we got, the steering committee um redeveloped our district's mission, our vision, our core values, and then created those three strategic pillars. We actually have several people in the room tonight who were a part of the steering committee. So, if you were, just wave your hand. I see you. Yes. So, Dr. Westbrook and Jill Meyer, Brendan Karns, and then all of our board members. So, thank you all for um your work with this after those. I think it's pretty I think it's pretty neat to to say this that all every board member was a part of it in some way. Even Tammy was part of the subcommittee. So, I
038mean that that shows you the the level of I mean it's just neat to see the committee. So, sorry I wanted to say that. No, thank you. So um after the uh development of our three strategic uh pillars, we then split off and started um subcommittees. We met in sub commmittees for January, March and April based on those three pillars. So we had an academic excellence resources and culture subcommittees and those groups really uh began to define the goals and action steps and strategies that will really carry out this work that we're going to do over the next five years. So with that being said, I'm happy to share for the first time that our new district mission, our new district mission is engage, empower, inspire every learner every day. You can clap for that.
039You guys are fired up. This is awesome. I love it. Our vision for the district is that the city of St. school district will be a leader of academic excellence that prepares students to be successful in all aspects of life. You can clap for that. And then our core values are centered around academic excellence, student centerness, integrity, diversity, and community. And you can clap for our values as well. I've already kind of shared with you, but we developed three strategic pillars um as a CEIP and these uh were just priority areas for us for the next five years. And so um what we're going to do is each of us from the CO team, we were uh in charge of kind of carrying out that work and leading that work with the subcommittees. So we're
040going to talk about what that looks like um for our u respective areas. And so for me, I was um co-leading the academic excellence subcommittee with Megan Bowersox. As you can see there, we had several um subcommittee members from um all areas of our district. And so what we did was we developed three smart goals. One, our first goal was centered around improving student attendance. Our second goal was centered around improving student achievement. And then our last one was improving success ready students. Uh in particular looking at our graduation rate and our college and career readiness. So those were the three goals that were developed out of the academic excellence subcommittee. And then these are the strategies. I'm going to skip to the next slide because this slide really kind of outlines the strategies and
041the action steps. So when it comes to attendance, one of the things that we wanted to do was develop a comprehensive absence prevention and intervention system and then really support our secondary schools uh by providing um instructional support and reintegration and engagement um strategies. The purpose is so that we are more proactive and have a systemic approach to monitoring student attendance and also providing early intervention. And I think right now you when you talk to uh our our building principles, we are very much reactive in how we're responding. So uh we realize that in order to move ahead, we need to really start focusing on what proactive measures can we put in place, what research is out there to support chronic absenteeism and how can we better um support our students. So that's what you'll
042see uh out of the attendance piece. When it comes to student achievement, we have four strategies with action steps that we're looking at. Um, the first one is developing a district-wide literacy framework. I will say that this is required by the state to include this in our CSIP. Uh the state requires that anytime you have a percentage more than 25% of your students, 30% of your students uh with a reading success plan, meaning they're reading below grade level, um then you have to address reading and literacy in your uh strategic plan. And as a district, we're sitting at about 33%, so slightly over that. And so we have um we are wanting to develop a literacy framework that will not only support our beginning readers, but a framework that really looks at literacy from kindergarten
043through 12th grade. Uh in addition to that, you know, we've done a lot of work over the last few years when it comes to RTI, but we would really want to take that to the next level and continue enhancing our tiered instruction. And uh then lastly, we want to develop a district-wide instructional framework. And that will really just ensure that we have systemic alignment across all of our buildings, across all of our grade levels and how we teach in learning practices and assessment practices in the district. And then lastly, uh success ready students. really looking at what does it look like to be a SCSD graduate from and what what steps can we take as a district to help our students be lifelong learners and to achieve outside of the walls of St. Charles City
044School District. And so those are all of our action steps and goals for um academic excellence. With that being said, I'm going to turn this over to Ashley who's going to talk about culture. Thank you. Um, so I had the pleasure of working with Caitlyn Cromian and um, her and I co-led our culture subcommittee. Um, all of our committee members are listed there. There is one that's missing that I'll need to get added. Mickey Plamer who was um, instrumental in that. So I need to make sure that she's on there as well. Oh, there fantastic. Y if you want to go to the next slide. All right. So we had three uh, main goals. So the first one is regarding student support. So this is um academic and behavioral support looking at um the interventions
045that we're providing the tier one, two, and three through PBIS um and collecting that data through the um TFI which is the way that we rate our schools every year. Um then we have our goal in regards to a sense of belonging um and we are looking at increasing our um points on our culture and climate survey. Um and then same with community involvement specifically of how our families are rating us on that. We can skip that one too because it goes into more detail. Um so for student support we're looking at um continuously right now we are already doing those data driven support teams. So our our tier 2 and tier three teams or our care teams in every building. Um but just continuing to do that with fidelity at all levels. Um so
046that is um a big piece that we're looking at as well as continuous learning and collaborative growth. Um so that's providing that robust PD um this and hopefully staffled PD. We have some buildings that are doing some fantastic things in regards to PBIS allowing them to continue to share with their um counterparts in the district for sense of belonging. Um looking at cultivating that positive and supportive school environment. Um, so that goes, you know, into that active listening, positive communication, um, and and getting that feedback, that constant feedback, um, to continue to build that positive school climate, um, collaborative growth and inclusive leadership. So that's empowering those leadership opportunities for students um, within the buildings um, so that they can have a a greater influence on on their, you know, peers as well. Um, and
047then again that real-time feedback and and using their information to kind of adapt and and to grow our policies and our procedures within our buildings. Um, and then the last is community involvement. And so that's strengthening that family and school collaboration. Um, increasing the family engagement, more opportunities for that, and then aligning our communication um, across the district and then consistent and inclusive communication across the district. That kind of plays into that as well. um and creating that district-wide communication guide and just having consistency. Awesome. And um last but certainly not least, Jeremy and I with resources. So we had so one we had an outstanding group. Thanks Tammy for being a part of that. Um and um Mickey as well. But we had a a pretty wide um wide range group of um facilities,
048teachers, etc. So we had four goals. School configuration obviously can be a hot topic. Um and I want to say our our subgroup was really strategic about this about determining where we need to go through a process which Jeremy will get to later, but not saying we are we will be at one high school on at this day. Right. just trying to determine what is the best course of action for us as a school district to take. Facilities obviously a lot of that we'll be talking about through the bond issue etc. But obviously having an identified plan of where our resources need to go staffing always and as we progress through this CIP will always be our number one priority to make sure we have high quality staff for our students. Um and this guides
049us and directs us toward that. And obviously in the last CCP we um we did it and we're doing it now, but we're always trying to be financial stewards of um our resources with our um strategies as um Earl and Ashley did. We'll bypass that and Jeremy will talk about um key action steps. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. Uh first one for school configurations. Dr. Lewis said it is a hot topic issue for some people, not all, but definitely for some. Um so analyzing the enrollment trends as you guys know um in the late fall maybe December we brought out the demographic report. Um so that doesn't mean that's all we do with it. We want to to review that data uh compare it to real data as our enrollments are changing or coming in from
050year to year and then possibly uh use that um with a potential committee uh that we will have uh to determine if a school configuration model needs to stay the course or or change. And people that are hearing that or have heard that may think that that's new, that's not uh foreign to this district. Uh there was a uh a committee that met in 2012. There was also another committee that met in 20 uh 2009 uh that have maintained where we're currently at. Uh our our enrollment hasn't drastically reduced or anything like that, but certainly we're at a point where it's it's it's desirable uh for us to to review and and to discuss and make a plan moving forward if if necessary. Uh conduct stakeholder survey. Focus is a way we'll do it. We'll
051benchmark with comparable dist districts and develop a data report with recommendations. Our goal for that will be within the course of this five-year plan. Um so we will go as as quickly as we can but we also want to be mindful and make the best decisions I know because that's what the board uh desires. So facilities we're hire and engage facilities experts. Uh we have that currently but we want to maintain what we have and and possibly even improve upon that. That's one of the things that you'll note that we did with the roofing and and going out with Garland, getting experts on on the rooftops and and then making sure that the final product meets their desired specifications because it's their warranty. So, they will they will make sure. So, that's one of the
052elements that we're talking about there. Evaluate safety and compliance standards including ADA, fire safety, air quality, HBA efficiency, um, etc. And all that is in the bond. uh gather stakeholder input. Uh we always are surveying uh especially towards the end of the year. So if you happen to uh so every building will do that. I'll just say that. We move on to the next one please. Uh staffing expand university partnerships. Uh the market is very very difficult right now as uh Dr. Lewis could uh could discuss at length for us this evening. And then enhanced digital recruitment strategies. Uh we certainly have the communication expert in the district that can help out with that. We know that's for certain. And then the last one, finance. Conduct a comprehensive uh uh budget audit. Uh looking for
053those unmodified reports at all times, which is what we desire. Implement incremental budgeting practices. Uh you have really two budgeting practices. We you could go with zerobased where you drop everything back to zero and you put everyone in a panic in the district or you can do incremental where we're adding percents on. and then align budget with strategic priorities. Uh that's our goals for each one of those or action steps. Um and that's really it as far as the CIP. One of the things that I did want to point out is that over the next five years, you will start to see us report out to you more frequently on um the CIP and where we are with the CIP. Quarterly, we will have either a presentation or report. It might you might see it
054in some of our annual reports. So for example, when I do the annual student achievement report, I will probably add where we are also our progress with the student um the academic excellence as well. But you will start to see quarterly reporting of our progress towards making or meeting our CIP goals and action steps. And to piggyback on that real quick, one thing that we saw from the previous CIP, uh it was a lot bigger than this one. So we've really streamlined it. And so, uh, and what we want to do is it's not just the board. It's not just the central office team coming up here quarterly and talking about it and living it. We want our whole staff to live it. We want everybody to live it. So, what you see, what you
055saw presented today, what you guys helped create, that that's it. That's the plan. So, when people talk about, oh, we got this going, we got doing that, everything fits in that plan. So, the why is the mission and then everything else is the what in terms of of the strategies and the action steps. And so when we send this out to our when the when staff gets a hold of this, you know, we want to live out our values. Obviously PB PBIS and things that we do, MTSS, all that goes into it, but that plan is what we're going to live out. So Big Rocks, all those things have been great, but this this is it. This is the new plan. And so, uh, we're going to put this on t-shirts for everybody. We're going
056to do all kinds of stuff with our mission statement and making sure that people are living out not just the mission value and uh our mission vision and value but actually the action steps as well. And so everything we do is this plan. So everything we are doing in the school should basically reflect and line up with this plan. And not that we didn't do that before, but we're taking it to a different level. So, and the big rocks and losings are great and we had themes, but for next year, this is all we're focusing on. And it's a fiveyear plan. Yeah. Any questions? A lot of hard work and time put into this. So, thank you to all of our central office staff and board members, teachers, parents. There were a lot of people
057on this committee. So, and it's pretty exciting to have the funding to go along with it. It is. It is very exciting. Is there a motion to approve the 25 through30 CEP plan as presented? You can just say Is there a second? All those in favor? I opposed. All right. Item 9.05, 05 the preliminary tax hearing or tax rate, I'm sorry. All right. So, this is a annual uh endeavor uh that we we have to put out and it's for our assessor really to send out tax notices and give uh homeowners andor personal property owners the ability to predict what their taxes may be. Um but as we said before, this is a non-binding tax rate. It's just for communication purposes, especially for our assessor group. This is done every April and uh it's based
058off of uh the figures that the assessor currently has on the evaluation that they currently have. So, um right now what we're seeing and what we what the numbers I can give you preliminary assessed valuations indicate about a 6% increase since certification uh from the county board of equalization last August. That's really our real estate uh assessed valuations that have grown uh since 2023 especially and the assessed valuation has increased 5.2% uh since last March. So we saw kind of an uptick uh from that um from last March. Um the other pieces I think are important to note uh because I think a lot of people associate our tax rate with increases in their their taxes u and the biggest thing that that I want to emphasize and for for people to hear is we
059are having one of the lowest tax rates uh that we've had in quite some time uh just due to the increase in valuations. So valuations really drive our tax our taxes. And when we see those valuations uh grow, specifically when they're higher than the uh consu consumer price index, uh we're going to see our tax rate decrease. And if you saw and uh on the last slide, if it was up, you saw in 2019 and 2020, we're in a $5.37 with the 75 cents on there. Uh now we're looking at about $446 uh as a tax rate. Uh to give you an idea also uh we are approved to go as high as $4.88 just on our operating that's minus the 75. So we could go well above that. We're actually ab above our we're
060below our actual operating ceiling minus the 75. So um so our tax rate is good. Like we I've said before um we're about we are third in the county for tax rate. Um and we are third for our bond rate as well. So, um, we are not, uh, I don't believe we're we're definitely not overextending oursel to any stretch of the imagination. It's also important to note every taxpayer is protected, uh, by the Hancock amendment. We can never grow beyond 5%. So, in those years, last few years where we had really high inflation, we weren't keeping up. Uh, we weren't allowed to keep up because of that taxpayer protection, which I agree with wholeheartedly. Uh but it makes it much more difficult um to to keep up with the market when when the inflation is
061growing so rapidly. Thank you, Mr. Shields. Any questions? If not, is there a motion to approve the preliminary tax rate as presented? Second. I second. All in favor? I opposed. That carries. Item 9.06, meet and confer agreement for classified for the 2526 school year. Does anyone have any? I would just like to say as always um you know when we sit and we have the opportunity to negotiate um with our union partners, it's always good when we can come to the table and um and agree and make it better for our staff and in this case is for our classified staff. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. Any questions? If not, is there a move a motion to approve the 2526 meet and confer agreement for classified staff as presented? Thank you, Ellen. Is there a second?
062Karen. All in favor? I oppose. That carries. Thank you for your patience. Adults ed. Now we were moving on to community education program review. You all just happen to be in a meeting that we have a lot of other stuff. So thank you for your patience. They love they soaked it all in. They love Yeah, I could tell. It is. Press the little person. Press that little person. Yep. There you go. All right. Thank you. Good evening. I want to begin by acknowledging President Heidi Sikma and Sigma and our esteemed school board members for their leadership and dedication to education. I also want to recognize Superintendent Dr. Jason Seafford and our district administration team for their continued support and commitment to student success. I am Dr. Stephanie Collins and I have the privilege of serving
063as the coordinator of adult and community education, also known as ACE, for the city of St. Charles School District beginning in 2024. And prior to this assignment, I was the ACE program supervisor for 17 years. And as we present our ACE 2025 program evaluation now in our 82nd year 82nd year of service, we are excited to share highlights, data, insights, and the ongoing impact our program continues to have on adult learners and the broader St. Charles community. Our program functions under the leadership of Mr. Jeremy Shields, assistant superintendent of operations. And joining me this evening are my team members, Mary Elman. Mary is our marketing specialist. She's responsible for promoting our programs through various channels. She oversees our websit's management and content development, coordinates print and digital media campaigns, recruits instructors to support and expand
064our course offerings, and is pivotal in keeping our office organized and running smoothly. Sarah Steinbriggy, our secretary, provides essential administrative support for our program. She oversees key functional activities, manages student registrations and class schedules, and works closely with district building personnel to ensure instructors are properly onboarded to their class sites and that students are informed of class logistics. Their dedication and hard work make a meaningful difference, and I am truly grateful for their support. We believe in not just educating students, but investing in our instructors. And a strong support system is in place to empower them because when our instructors succeed, our students thrive. And a true testament to this is when former students return to teach the next generation. We're proud to have a former Lewis and Clark career student leading our ARC welding
065program. And a former phabbotomy student is our lead phabbotomy and medical assistant instructor. And also joining us this evening is retired firefighter paramedic Brian Beasley. He's a former EMT adjunct who now serves as our lead EMT instructor. And Brian is well connected in the EMS community, providing a wealth of knowledge and resources. He oversees the EMT program and the adjunct instructors, coordinates clinical experiences, and ensures students are prepared for certification and real world emergency response. We are also supported by Jesse Scheme, our customized training and workforce development liaison. Each person on this chart plays a vital role in developing and delivering quality learning experiences to our adult learners and ensuring the continued growth of our program. As we move into discussing the heart of our program, I just want to briefly touch on the why
066behind ACE. At the core of adult and community education is a simple but powerful belief that education has the ability to transform lives. We're here to create real opportunities affordable, accessible, and meaningful for people at all stages of life. Whether someone is a recent high school graduate, switching careers, discovering a new passion or working toward a personal goal, ACE is designed to meet them where they are. Our four major areas of program that help bring our goals to life and to meet the diverse needs of our community are career training, workforce development, personal enrichment, and career and online training. We offer 244 seated courses, two virtual courses, and over 750 online course offerings through our online partnership. Our program is supported by 37 instructors and we utilize seven district buildings ensuring that we're able to
067offer our courses in a variety of settings and formats to reach as many learners as possible. In the skilled trades, we provide hands-on learning opportunities in areas such as welding, precision machining, HBAC, residential wiring, and small engine repair. For those interested in health care, we offer allied health programs like EMT, phabbotomy, billing, and coding, and our newest addition, the certified clinical medical assistant program. We also offer a variety of enrichment courses from creative arts, dance, fitness, commuter, computer technology, language, and life stages. And through our partnership with Ed to go, we provide affordable online continuing education courses. This slide highlights our enrollment trends by semester beginning with the fall 22 fiscal year. And to illustrate, we've grouped the data by fiscal year. In 2223, enrollment grew modestly from 595 in fall 22 to 629 in
068spring 23. And 2324 marked significant growth. Fall enrollment jumped 35.5% over the previous fall. and spring 24 climbed 42.7% compared to spring 23. Our current fiscal year continues that upward trend. Fall 24 rose to a 6.2% increase from the previous fall and spring 25 stands at s 748. That's a small dip from last spring, but the semester is still in progress and final numbers are expected to rise. Our revenue trends for the same time periods show that in fiscal year 22 23 tuition revenue rose by 48.3% from fall to spring. 23 24 marked notable growth. Fall 23 revenue increased 15.2% over the previous fall and spring 24 climbed 13.2% compared to spring 23. Our current fiscal year continues this momentum. Fall 24 shows a 18.9 in% increase over the prior fall and spring 25 stands
069at 147,462. And while slightly below last spring's total, the semester is still in progress and we expect that number to rise. As with enrollment, we typically see stronger revenue in the spring and that's likely driven by new year goals and seasonal engagement. Overall, our enrollment and revenue trajectory remains strong and speaks to the continued demand for our programs. Transitioning into our workforce development efforts, this slide outlines our customized training program with Missouri in partnership with Missouri. As one of 16 LEAs managing training funds, we've maintained a 15% administrative return while supporting 11 manufacturing partners. Our consistent recognition as a top performer in spendouts in audit readiness underscores the impact and efficiency of our program. The fiscy year comparison of our customized training funds shows in 2223 we administered 862,755 which increased to 877,000 and 2324
070with projections reaching 935,746 for our current fiscal year. These increases reflect growing demand and trust in our ability to deliver results. Our administrative fees have also risen proportionately, helping us to maintain capacity and compliance across projects. ACE helps to reduce financial barriers for our learners by providing tuition assistance with a strong focus on leveraging community and state partnerships. Through our collaboration with the Missouri job centers across the region, including locations in St. Anne, St. Charles, St. Louis and Troy. We connect eligible students to funding through WEOA, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. In addition, we work closely with vocational rehabilitation. We offer scholarships based on available seats and flexible payment arrangements to ensure our programs are more accessible. We also extend discounts to district staff, students, and retirees. And these combined efforts reflect our commitment
071to equity, access, and student success. Now, with progress comes the need to constantly evaluate and respond to challenges. ACE actively monitors registration trends to address enrollment fluctuations and adjust course offerings and schedules to meet learner demand. We maintain a strong presence in community through targeted outreach partnerships and flexible class formats that accommodate diverse lifestyles. Instructor recruitment is an ongoing priority and we focus on hiring qualified, dependable professionals who align with our mission statement and our student needs. Course retention is strengthened through consistent communication, engaging instruction, and timely support. Regular check-ins and feedback gathered through instructor and student surveys help us to identify and address barriers barriers to success before they become obstacles. And as we continue to grow and serve our community, the following highlights a few achievements that reflect the quality and impact of
072our programming. Our EMT training entity in its 42nd year completed the rigorous reertification process securing accreditation with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Bureau of Emergency Medical Services through December 31st, 2029. This milestone reinforces our commitment to excellence in emergency medical training. We're also proud of our strong student outcomes with an 87% assessment pass rate and a 95% pass rate on skills. One of our district's cap students earned the honor of EMT valictorian. An incredible accomplishment that showcases the caliber of learners we serve. In addition, we've expanded our reach through high school partnerships, offering presentations to inspire and inform students about our career pathways in various programs. We continue to invest in our community by helping individuals and families navigate the tax process by hosting an annual six-week tax free tax service through
073the St. Louis tax assistance program. And to wrap up, we want to share a few exciting events before the end of this fiscal year that continue to show AC's presence and community and ongoing commitment to student success. We will present to the optimist club at the invitation of former superintendent Dr. Roger Deppy to discuss the correlation between mental health and adult education. And the premise is that we need to keep our minds active and adult education is one way to achieve the goal of being a healthy optimist. We will serve as a vendor at the St. Charles Job Center for their short-term training event aimed at expanding access to workforce development and other opportunities. We will participate in the third annual MAX Scholars Recognition Night at St. Charles West, a special evening celebrating student achievement
074and academic excellence. And of course, we look forward to honoring our next group of emergency responders for the spring EMT graduation. So, I will pause now for any questions or comments before our last slide. Any questions? Comments? No questions, comments. Great presentation. Thank you so much. Did amazing. Yeah, I I just want to say Stephanie and her her group, they're amazing. They're doing amazing work. And a lot of school school districts either close their their ACE programs with their adult education programs or never have at had all you're talking 80 you say 82 82. I mean it's just that that tradition is just fantastic and uh we're just really really thrilled with the work they're doing. So kudos to you. Yes. You clap for that. Well on behalf of the entire adult and community education
075program, we thank you for the opportunity to to reflect on our progress, our mission, and our vision. This invitation allows us to realign with our why, our commitment to serving the St. Charles community and surrounding areas with lifelong learning opportunities. And we also recognize that we cannot do this important work alone. It takes collaboration and support from our incredible district leadership team and their staff, principles and secretaries, building custodians, and especially the dedicated team at the Louiswis and Clark Career Center where our operation proudly resides. Together, we are making a lasting impact by expanding access to education, supporting workforce readiness, and shaping a more empowered and educated community. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you all so much for coming. Just so you know, not every presentation gets a clap. So, especially this
076late. That's awesome. No, thank you all for coming, spending time to present. And you all are obviously feel free. You can go. You can see the pride on your faces. So, we appreciate and having an instructor come and stay this long. I got here early. Thank you so much. It means a lot. Yeah. Thank you so much. Amazing presentation. Thank you so much. Bye. Thank you guys. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the community education program review as presented? Is there a second? Brian. All those in favor? I oppose. Amazing program. People this district item 10.02 is the financial planning and investment of surplus funds. Speaking of people, I plan on joying any enthusiasm. It's a tough act to follow. Sorry, you have to. You should have got to go first. Let me
077tell you about this policy. Uh really all of this is an annual thing as well uh a piece as well that's required by the state and it's really just to say that all of our investments follow the state guideline of being safe uh meaning it's diversified across hundreds of different investments with our MOAT and or MOSIP if you if you remember MOAT is for our operating MOSIP is for our bond money and that's how we kind of keep that but then them they themselves uh scatter it across hundreds hundreds of different um um securities uh within our nation. So um so it definitely meets that requirement. Um and is it liquid? Can we get it out the same day? That's the biggest piece. As long as we tell them before 11:00 a.m. we can have
078same day. Uh and we're talking our operating funds, which are a significant amount of money. Uh it's more secure than sitting in the bank, one bank, that's for sure, because we have one depository bank. Um, so we prefer that route. Right now, there is no uh reason to believe our money is at risk given uh the the climate of our market. So, uh we've had many phone calls about that already just to ensure and to to receive that data. So, March is still showing that we're making money on our funds. Uh so, so we're happy about that, but it doesn't mean again that we don't have risk. And I think that's the most important piece. Uh just like with technology, anytime you invest money, there is risk assigned, but there's also a risk if we
079put it into just our depository bank. Um so um we think it's a manageable risk and we think it's a risk um that's that's uh uh worth our efforts for sure. Thank you. Any questions, comments? If not, is there a motion to approve the financial planning and investment of surplus funds program review as presented? I move to approve as presented. Is there a second? All in favor? I opposed. That passes. Item 11.01, district financial reports. All right. So, the biggest thing on that, if we were to pull up the March 2025 board reports, scroll down to the bottom one, that's the year end. Uh, and to see what those operating funds are looking like, uh, we're currently sitting at about 30 close to 30 40 million 3940 million in our operating account. Uh, we we
080should honestly have a bit more money in there if our revenues were keeping up from a state and federal stance. So, uh, we're we're looking at that very closely. Um it doesn't mean we're in bad shape by any stretch of the imagination. We are not. Uh but we do want to monitor that because there is some revenue that would have been expected this year that we just want to make sure is not going to go into next year which could challenge our fund balance meaning just challenge the the number. Uh right now we believe that number is going to fall between 23 and 24%. Uh but again it is dependent on that revenue uh that we could see coming in the state. Just to give you an idea with with how we look at that,
081the state just confirmed that oh, we are going to receive the student adequacy target money uh that was presented uh last uh May to us. So you you do we do have to monitor that as well to make sure it is going to be fully funded. We've been receiving it, but we didn't know how if it was going to be fully funded or not. Uh so that that's certainly a consideration. So we're we're operating as needed. I like I've told you guys before, I always like to have a little bit more security, but uh we're operating as needed. Uh the big component is that is as we're we've got a two-hour meeting tomorrow just on budget uh tomorrow morning. Uh we're going to be looking at those revenues. Uh but it's also to get us
082to plan for next year. Um so we've been having these meetings frequently. And so the biggest thing that we've looked at here recently is Senate Bill 190 and the impact of that. Um we believe we have a figure a projected figure on the loss of revenue because of that. Uh we think it will land around 100,000 uh and loss local revenue. Not the end of the world certainly sustainable but that's where we get how we get that figure is um they believe we believe it was a 7.9% revenue or valuation gain from 23 to 25. We have about 3,115 residences who have successful applications within our district boundaries. So, taking that preliminary tax rate total evaluation, um, and taking that property value, those assessed valuations off of that, that's where we get that 100,000 projection
083from. So, um, again, sustainable, that's not going to hurt us by any stretch of the imagination. What's that going to grow into? We don't know. There's no trend. But uh but that's where we believe we'll end up landing uh going forward. Last couple of things. What's the bond plan after you've approved it this evening? It's about 8 weeks before we start getting money and that's when we uh authorize our financial adviserss to move forward. It's a little bit tricky though because um we will have to take this uh to you at the end of June and that and then at the end of June for our second meeting in June. Remember, we have two because uh we'd like to close out our fiscal year and and make all our payments. Um we would receive our
084first money around July 8th. That's the expectation. So, uh we will uh be going to the board. Dr. Se will be reaching out to the board to get that worked out for you guys as far as when you're available uh to get that. So, again, it's about a two-month period of time. If we tried to to hurry up and do it um at our June board meeting, we would have some conflict with our financial advisor. That's why we're going to push it back into the second one. So, we don't not we don't want to push our financial advisor too quickly. The other piece to that is they are hopeful that we'll have some stability within the market. Meaning right now people are waiting like oh it's 4.7 today and then tomorrow it might be five.
085And that 310 is very important to those big money investors. So um so they're hoping it stabilizes by then and we can get a firmer rate. There's some other aspects to it as well, but I won't go into all of those details. Uh but again, looking for have that money released on July 8th. Now we've just approved some projects as well. So what do we do with when we don't have the money until July 8th? It's reimburseable for 90 days prior to when you authorized uh the bond to even go out into a vote. So you author authorize that in December. Uh so you can go back three months from December. Any money that we've spent uh can be reimbursed now starting that July 8th. And if you look at our capital fund, that's fund
086four. That does include a little bit of bond money u which isn't significant. We're pretty healthy there. Uh so we will be able to concur that without any issue at all and then reimburse that bond back. Um so let's see here. That's that's probably it for the financial report. Thank you. Any questions, comments? If not, is there a motion to approve the financial report as presented? Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed. That passes item 12.01. Is there a motion to move to recess to close session? Is there a second? I thank you all for coming to the meeting today. session.