001e e e health issues as subhuman and walking disciplinary ignoring their desperate cries for help there needs to be serious changes made no student should be subjected to the type of was and especially not by their teachers and not by their principles next we'll hear from Melissa Fister um so I am here um for bullying too um I been having issued with several of the schools my son is in uh Harden right now um an incident happened Thursday night my son had told me that he wants to end his life because of the bullying and back and let's reverse a little bit to Jefferson when he was at Jefferson I got a phone call from the IEP team that he threatened to bring a gun to school and I rushed up there terrified and found
002out that he's being bullied so bad that he wants to shoot his bullies okay that's taken care of gets into Harden I've been at harden my daughter went there seven years ago dealt with the same issues nothing was taken care of curtain dismissed it um so when I was up there on Friday I walked in the school and and I said I need emergency meeting right now I and and so he was really upset and I said either you talk to me now or I'm going to the school board he talked to me we went we had an emergency meeting he was disrespectful to me he was mocking my child he said well your son doesn't come and talk to me and I said he's triggered by men and so he said oh Bentley since
003you're triggered by men we have plenty of women in the school my son has been dismissed he is scared to go to anybody and I told them he came to me and I'm advocating for my child my child is literally doesn't want to be here because of kids at the school and the bullying is such a problem when I asked for the Sunshine Law when I asked for the numbers of the bullying I was told there an email writing by Dr jitt that we had no bullying this year I do not believe that it is a problem and as a mother I should be able to speak up for my child because that that's what we're supposed to do I was told that I need to be a mother and get him into counseling the
004problem is here we're failing to find the root cause of things everything has a root cause why people act this way act do this the root cause is bullying my son is having mental issues from bullying and not only that all them parents that have come forward to me every last child has a IEP or 504 that is discrimination why every single child has been through bullying that has has IEP or 504 it's unacceptable is everything's brushed on the rug so I was just recently informed never heard the term my child went through there my middle son now my son I got an email saying it's it's not bullying it's pure disrespect uh-uh I'm not I'm not handling that I never heard of that I was informed to go look up the um code of
005conduct I want to hear I kept asking curtain over and over he said it's in a code of conduct I said so what where do we go from here he said he's got to investigate supposedly they investigated and you know the kids didn't do anything so they came to the conclusion that it's pure disrespect and it's uncalled for the bowling like I want you guys to really think if this was your child what would you do as a parent what would you what would you seriously do if your child came to you and said I just want to end my life do you know what you know how I felt Thursday night when he came to me and said that it was the worst feeling I could have ever felt in my entire life because
006I don't want to lose my child over other kids bullying him I was so mad when I woke up Friday morning I already had my mindset I said son I love you and I will go to war for you and I'll do anything for you I'm going to school and then when they wrote an email I cannot do that I have to sit up no I'm coming to school whenever I want to come to the school because my child's life like I told him his mental health is more important than his education I will pull him out of the school I'm I'm not playing around because this bullying is insane Mr curtain is the worst person ever he's disrespectful ma'am if you can stop just we're supposed to avoid talking about personalities or specific people
007so you're and the timer's gone off so if you can just finish your final thought please okay so I want you I mean we I think if if you guys want to know who it is like like I think you guys should know okay like the names are you know but I want more I want more attention and rules and things done to bullying than just an investigation and a little slap on the wrist and then it turned around to my child now being the suspect I'm not I'm not dealing with it I really need you guys to really just look deep into it as a whole because like I said if it was your children how would you feel and last in audience comments is Deloris thank you I am the grandmother of a
008young girl who was bullied fifth in sixth grade we had no support from the principal at that time in fact we were told to put her in counseling to soften her up for seventh and eighth grade we kept her home she was homeschooled she excelled in her academics she was given the opportunity to recover to rest and do the work she wanted to do she did her own art therapy sometimes spending as much as 50 hours a week you could see her progress from very dark work to opening up some words work was just words of all the horrible things she had been told but putting on on paper is half of the solution fortunately her mother worked from home I was there all the time so she was well watched we prepared her for
009high school armed with information that we hoped she was not going to have to use we prayed that she wouldn't drop out my daughter went to school she talked with every teacher she talked with the principal and he was a godsent every teacher was on board with it Lily got up and walked out the door they were to leave her alone she had a safe room within the high school to go to she excelled at high school straight A student student of the month or freshman year uh on the dance line from a freshman on National Honor Society and she was one of two students given the student council award at the end of the year my daughter and I cried that is better than being named proin Queen we are happy to say she
010went on she is now going to her second Fashion Week in Europe but this was done by different methods we allowed all the art she wanted to do any medium she wanted we took control we no longer depended on the school to solve this problem we removed her from the problem maybe schools could look at some of these different options support animals if we could have gotten her one dog there get him certified as emotional support he would have been marvelous maybe having some support animals maybe having a safe room they can't leave the school they can't be on media they have to be in a safe room resting maybe reading maybe listening to some mov m music but they need somewhere to go when they can't handle it anymore we were lucky she didn't
011commit suicide she didn't drop out of society she works she has a great following you just have to look at developing something more than being told P differences I have never heard that before it made me giggle and if most of us probably grew up with little house on a prairie they did an episode on bullying it's been with us forever it's always going to be with us but schools have to look at different ways to help the victim my granddaughter is not a victim she's she's even more than a Survivor she has flourished beyond belief she still has scars but it took a lot of work thank you that's all I had to say thank you for sharing and I do want to the principal is no longer at the high school where my
012granddaughter graduated from if he would have quit during her four years we would have pulled her from the school he was incredible thank you all thank you that's all our audience comments so at this time we'll take a short couple minute break um if anybody wants to leave you're welcome to do so at this time but we'll take a couple minute break and resume back e e e we're going to go ahead and resume the meeting feel free if you want to have discussions if you don't care to step outside thank you item 3.07 is there a move to amend or adopt the agenda agenda as presented I move to am or agenda which one which one or you want to do you want to amend it you want to adop AC is there a
013second I second all those in favor say I I opposed motion carries item 4.01 for efficiency the school board utilizes a consent agenda items placed on the consent agenda are routine in nature or are among the many decisions that the board has already determined are in the domain of the administration is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented approve consent is there a second all in favor I opposed motion carries old business item six .01 these are policy changes it's our second reading on these five policies is there a motion to approve policies bbbb BDC gcba IC and jhdf I moved to approve policies bbbb BBC gcba IC jhdf has presented is there a second I second all those in favor I opposed motion carries new business item 7.01 this is the
014meet and confer agreement for certified staff for the 2526 school year any discussion or we're just making okay is there a second I second all those in favor I opposed just wanted to thank our sea group for uh great negotiations yep thank you all item 7.02 policy changes this is a first reading there are a lot of them hopefully everybody had time to read those over any discussion comments on those if not this was just uh for information we'll have our second reading next month we'll move on to item 8.01 Food Services Program review Mr Shields all right well we have the pleasure of uh the director Michelle fi uh with us this evening uh this is her third year you're on your third year now is that correct seems so crazy to me but
015yeah third year uh in the district so uh she's going to be able to present to us this evening you I'm glad you liked it Dana is amazing isn't she she well as you all know I am Michelle so I've been the food service director here now for I Le two and a half years it kind of started mid year a few years ago so um I've had the pleasure to work with you all in the district for the last year I'm very thankful to be here for the second time to kind of give you guys a little eye into what's going on in Food Service I did fill with a lot of pictures they're better than me talking so and I do want to start also by thanking the board for all of the
016hard work you guys do you know we truly appreciate it and your support and it doesn't go unnoticed so so was a little touchy um just want to do a brief recap of the programs that we've been running our future goals and our objectives cover some accomplishments and results we've seen and uh the work that's been done so our mission is for the program is to provide healthy well balanced meals that students will enjoy eating the goal is to do this while staying financially responsible following all the nutritional guidelines required by the national school lunch program and maintaining a high quality standards and options for all of our students and staff we want to provide students and staff with an experience during meals and be able to teach them as well about different foods that
017they might not be able to see at home not only providing meals but provide nutrition education that can be used throughout their life beyond the school to make healthy decisions so I know a lot of you are probably already familiar with the national school lunch program and the guidelines I won't go into the details of those but in the next two years just some changes that we're seeing I guess not changes but they're continuing and then the final recommendation so uh the first one is the sodium guidelines are in their final stages of implementation the lower sodium regulations will be in full effect by July 2027 we actually currently already meet those so we're a little ahead of the game which is nice starting in 25 26 added sugar will begin to be limited in
018a lot of uh processed items it's always been limited they're just putting a little more restrictions on that all right so uh I know or one of the things that we love most about being with St Charles is our opportunity to be great partners with the district and all of our area vendors um oldtime produce was very generous this year and donating a lot of fresh and fresh fruits and vegetables at our Farmers Market family Festival that we did this allowed the students and the families to fill a bag and take home to enjoy uh we continually work with the lwis and Clark students to provide a site for them to have hands-on experience in food service and prepare for the workforce we actually have a few previous graduates from that who actually work with
019us now which is really nice to see we did receive a $2,000 Grant from the St Louis Dairy Council Vis fall to promote benefits of dairy we purchased a smoothie bike to travel around the schools it's been a great experience for the students not only are they learning the importance of fueling their body for activity but they're getting the chance to exert The energy needed for the activity and refuel after I don't know if you can tell in that picture but the the little boy's tongue is out so we all you know know if your tongue's out you're concentrating you know you're working hard so that's love that picture um a global eats has been ran monthly at both the high schools so each month the nacho Line's taken over with a new recipe from
020different cultures they're giving the students a chance to explore diverse cultures cuisines in the cafeteria this year we have visited China India Italy Mexico Korea and the Caribbean and surprisingly enough um whenever we have that actually beats out the nacho line every time so nice popular yeah they love it I mean Dana does it so we all know yeah [Music] yeah all right Discovery kitchen incorporates monthly themes into the kitchen the picture shows one of our dietetic interns from fonton she's doing a taste testing on root vegetables believe that day we did uh parsnips rudaba and sweet potatoes not very popular but they they tried it uh the student choice we do at the high schools and will be doing at the middle schools the opportunity for the students to vote on their next menu
021item item so we put two station Concepts up head-to-head and we have them vote and then it takes over for the next month also a picture of another smoothie bike event I should have brought the pictures we had some admin staff do it here but I didn't share those pictures with you and then one of my favorite programs that we ran last spring was that project pickle uh our amazing chef Dana really took this opportunity to hold pickling classes at three of the elementaries students learned the benefits the history and how to pickle they got to pickle their own carrots and take them home and enjoy I'd say it was um a little smelly but ultimately it was a really good experience and the kids really liked it so this is so cheers is our
022employee recognization recognization program here we have our high school staff receiving a cheers for their resilience and attitude uh I had them decide the new station concept we were going to start last fall they had chose the deli and they really took it on themselves and ran with it and it's been a very popular choice back at the high schools the the reason our program is so successful is because of our wonderful staff they strive for operational excellence whether it's be training on new processes and equipment or initiating new stations and programs we keep communication throughout the schools constant to help manage our food costs and drive the revenue for the district our people are the ones driving participation and helping to manage costs through incorporating new products finding more efficient ways to do processes
023and monitoring our waste we're always looking for feedback not only to improve but to see where we're falling short last year we completed a survey at Jefferson Intermediate School this led to some menu changes to incorporate more of their favorite items and also some new equipment purchases that have allowed us to make better quality product through different cooking methods so we started over about a year ago replacing um many of our standard ovens with the new Combi or combination ovens if you familiar with them they're a little like an air fryer um they cook with water steam in combination so fries might seem like they came from a fryer when they didn't which is ideal so [Music] so our objectives and goals we've really been focusing on our equipment needs whether it be maintenance of
024them or replacement to ensure all the kitchens are kept up to dat the lead this leads to a continuous innovation and allows us to get better to serve you better we want to encourage feedback and we'll be sending out our a parent and student survey in early April and that will go to the whole District uh to keep product costs in line throughout the district we are taking advantage of bonus commodity buys and getting creative with our product products to incorporate more scratch cooking uh waste knot program has been implemented in all of our kitchens to help us better forecast our product needs and reduce waste and lastly we want to make sure we are sharing what's going on in the cafeterias uh I know getting out of your students when they get home from
025school usually goes you know what did you do today it's oh nothing you know let alone what did you have for lunch what happened at lunch did you know I know the they skip over the Smoothie bike it's like they forget all about it so we want to do some more newsletters and let you guys know what's going on some accompl accomplishments and what's next so we have had three new kitchen renovations in the last two years thank you they all look amazing and they've really made the space more efficient it's not only for the staff of the students as well the environment can really set a tone for the students and I think all three have definitely made a positive impact on our students we strive to always provide fresh fruits and vegetables at
026lunch and really make a point to make sure the students always have access to Fresh Produce prod items last year we did move to power well with the move to power school that means Food Service also had a transition so we um transitioned to Mosaic we successfully transitioned and also were able to move to my school apps which is an online free and reduced application system the administrative load that this relieved has been tremendous in the past paper applications could take about an hour to process 40 application and that's a perfect application don't have to call a parent don't have to ask for any more information so these new the new system it can process 40 applications in about 30 seconds or less uh I do not I think this shows as well in our
027free reduced percentages so what's next we keep look we keep a lookout for those surveys this spring and we continue to stay 96% fully staffed this last year and has allowed us to open new stations and Concepts both high schools were able to open their Deli lines and we hope to continue in this direction and finally some results we've seen from the last year to this year this is a comparison to year-over-year and it's from the end of February for these so I think this year we're finally seeing a school year more representative of the ones before 2020 in terms of free reduced percentages our profit and loss and all of that U it's easiest for us to measure our daily meal counts based on daily for daily participation we do buy daily meal counts
028so you can see we've increased from last year slightly in both lunch and breakfast which is good to see um food cost is about the same which again we've been really monitoring that because product costs are going up but we are able to do with Bonus Buys and um those Commodities to really help with that um we have seen that increase in free reduced percentage by about 4% I think some of that is due to the online most of it's probably the online application system it relieves a lot of it's confidential you don't see the paper coming it's not shameful so it's very easy for everybody to do and so overall the program is able to use a profits to keep improving and maintaining our kitchen areas that's I have questions any questions or comments
029my quick comment is Michelle is awesome yes she is thank you Michelle she does a phenomenal job chart Wells is a great partner but it it runs all through Michelle she's got a great team too yeah yeah I think we commented the other day as an administrative Team all district administrators and building administrators uh just how seamlessly they transitioned through those kitchen renovations which requires off-site prep and then the food delivered back into the building where the kitchen renovation is occurring and then displayed in a nice fashion back for the students to then select their items from so uh complet I say completely see seamless from a Personnel standpoint uh on my part but if you and she was never rattled her team was never rattled uh which was incredibly impressive cuz we know what
030it takes to renovate our own homes let alone have to work and through a renovation and prepare food so uh tremendous compliment to Michelle and her team for that and um uh the other piece when we're talking about um the the free and reduced lunch applications uh the need for her team to create meals in St Charles in this county is is is significantly greater um compared to the 11 to 15% ranges of free and reduce that we see in others meaning a lot of our kids are getting fed here at school um and and that's impressive because they've been able to staff our kitchens in a very meaningful way and and then obviously uh meet the needs of children so just tremendous compliments to Michelle and her team great job I have a question
031um uh are you encountering problems on with the online application for free and reduced lunch with people who uh uh uh families who aren't uh computer literate um you know we we're going to online only and I'm wondering what well we do always have the paper available okay so it's always sent out too we just don't print them out and pass them out okay and a lot of um Susie Mills works with a lot of the students too that do have difficulty filling them out maybe different languages okay thanks anything else thank you very much thank you Michelle is there a motion to approve the Food Services program review as presented is there a second all in favor I oppose motion carries item 9.01 District financial report all right a couple of things we obviously
032we have a lot going on in the financial world uh from a state and federal level but if we were to pull up the uh February board reports the very first one m I appreciate that and then uh if you scroll down to the bottom uh to the year end and just looking at fund one and fund two because as we've discussed this is the most important piece uh for a lot of us the fund three and fund four uh are are our fund three is our debt service that's getting paid fund four we have plenty of money in there but the fund one and fund two if you were to compare those two totals uh which pays our salary benefits to last year you would notice a three a $3 million difference in what's
033in the bank and I point this out because that obviously creates a tremendous amount of alarm uh when you're looking at February totals but uh we do have some lagging payments from the federal government as you could imagine so uh title one specifically and um um I can't remember the other one but I know the biggest one the $800,000 is title one uh dollar so uh we're certainly looking at that and we are asking asking for reimbursement at a much quicker rate than we ever had before based on advice from legal team so that's that's a consideration last year's total also had an $800,000 uh delayed payment from the previous year for transportation cost and then we're also paying down that food service balance that was at an abnormal rate so we could fund that
034kitchen renovation so that's another $1.3 million off the books this year so we start getting very close to that $3 million uh when we when we talk about that uh so uh I am not alarmed by that number the one thing that I think is important for us to uh at least annually talk about is in our language we have that if we fall below 20% we go back and renegotiate renegotiate with the team but if we go above 25% we go back and renegotiate with the team I will say as I've looked at all the area school districts we are the only one that I can find with that type of language and I'm not saying it's bad language but but it certainly tightens us into this uh 5% category and when we start
035having delays in payments or you just have a tremendously bad Market that's unexpected or state legislation decides we're going to make some changes uh that is hard that is hard to to uh maneuver a lot of schools are are sitting at 30% and above uh fund balances uh in this region and certainly across the state so uh and that's not a complaint I just think it's it's why for us to always keep that in our pockets to remember um that fund balance also includes like I've said the Food Service money the Student Activity money so when we talk about that 25% there's money in there that we could never spend back on employees uh salaries and benefits purchase services and supplies so that really Narrows us even more uh and I'm not making a plea
036to change I'm not doing that but I think it's good for us to to just to uh remember that um so that being said um we're kind we are kind where we expected to be um we do have some increasing costs at times with claims for health insurance but we're also again we wait for that reimbursement check for uh scripts and claims because that does come in uh quarterly uh a couple of things from a legislative impact I listened to our state expert today that uh uh the state of Missouri relies upon for desie and um we won't know our true uh fiscal impact until about May 9th um that's his belief is is we won't know that until about May 9th uh and a lot of that rolls around to what state money are
037we going to be receiving is it going to be $6,700 is it going to be the 7,100 that was plus that was offered in Senate Bill 727 he believes right now the governor has has recommended a $200 million increase to fund that state adequacy Target um we would need in order to fill uh Senate Bill 727 uh we would need about uh 500 million and he's requested he's recommended 200 so obviously we should not anticipate any increase in the state ad adequacy from what we have right now uh that would have been a tremendous gain for our district in just supporting salaries and benefits just that alone that would have been tremendous for us so we're going to have to rethink some of that um that the state is also though combating a LW of
038Gaming revenue uh a tremendous loss of gaming re Revenue so obviously it's supposed to offset education so then when that recommendation comes in they have to consider that loss as well um we're going to in uh expect a slight decrease in classroom trust fund uh and prop C money that sales tax where we're seeing some of those sales drop off and then uh obviously you guys all know there's a resolution sent out by the board uh of opposing open enrollment the house for the third year n has a uh sent that forward and and uh voted in agreement for their version it is with the Senate uh the thing to note with the Senate they um are not as concerned about public to public um uh open open enrollment but more so about the privatization
039of open enrollment so we're going to see where that lands everything that I'm hearing and I know Dr St and the rest of the team are hearing is that this Senate is actually doing a really good job of communicating and getting bills passed through uh compared to previous years uh so we don't know where that what that means uh it's everyone keeps calling it The foggy crystal ball so May 9th is what we heard May May 9th as far as that the last piece trying to be very quick for you all uh the last piece I'm sorry uh is uh we got our preliminary assessed valuations this is a uh a uh assessment year for real estate and personal property or for Real Estate and personal property personal properties every year uh and we're looking
040at about an $86 million growth in assessed valuation that gain for the district uh 86 million in assess valuation for our count for our our boundaries um that's that's good growth however if you look at the previous 10 years that's one of the lowest uh that is the lowest since 2017 and that's coupled with this year's lowest in a non-assessment year for the last 11 years so we're seeing that slowdown that expected slowdown uh from when the government was pumping a bunch of money and the economy was thriving and such so uh that's certainly going to be a factor as as we're planning the 26 budget thank you thank you thank you any questions if not is there a motion to approve the district Financial report as presented I move to approve the district financial
041report as presented is there a second okay all those in favor I oppose item 10.01 is there a motion to adjourn the meeting I move we adour the meeting second I all those in favor I opposed