May 12, 2026 Special Board Work Session

001like to call our meeting to order tonight. Would everyone please stand? I'm sorry. Roll call first. Sorry. Here. >> Fine. >> Miss Chzn >> here. >> Miss Karns >> here. >> Mr. McMillan >> here. >> Mr. Moore. >> He'll be here shortly. >> Miss Neil >> here. >> Miss Williams >> here. Miss Miller here. >> Now we can stand for the pledge. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I'd like to start our meeting tonight by going over our board norms. Um, the members of the St. Joseph School Board will put the needs of students, teachers, and staff first. We will model behaviors the board expects of students, teachers,

002staff, and community members in all aspects. Uh, we will ensure that we are fully prepared and ready to participate. We'll make decisions as a team based on facts and serve as an advocate for PK12 public education. Um, another statement I would like to make tonight is uh for those of you in the audience, we always appreciate you coming to the meetings and we appreciate public comment. I know tonight we won't have any because it's a work session, but we would appreciate if um there would be no yelling out or blurting out as we're trying to conduct our meetings so that we could make uh the best decisions possible that we can make without distraction. So, we appreciate that tonight as we conduct business at the school board. >> Okay. Uh, if we could have an

003approval of the agenda, please. >> I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda. >> Okay. >> Approve it. I'd like to amend the agenda to add a review of district practices related to serious and chronic illness as a discussion item. I second. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. I'd like to amend the agenda to add discussion or to add um Hold on. I wrote it out because I was going to forget it. To add review of district practices related to serious and chronic illness as a discussion item. >> Send that over to me. >> Yes. >> Thank you. I just want to make sure I get >> No, you're good. You're good. >> And you made the motion and you second it. Yeah. Thank you. According to policy, B DD B2. It states um that

004a majority of the board members present in the meeting may vote to remove or move an item from the agenda. Items will not be added to the agenda at the meeting except in accordance with law. A member of the board can make a request to amend the agenda. And there's a motion on the floor in a second. >> All right, we'll do a roll call. >> Is there any discussion before we move forward? I mentioned this at the last meeting um as a request about a review and a discussion. We've had a few emails in the meantime and I know that I would be more comfortable. I know that you emailed me this afternoon and you mentioned that this will be on an agenda in the future and it's at the policy committee. I would

005like to be a part of those meetings in order to get my questions answered in the meantime. And that's why um it's a request about an amendment on the agenda. I believe in transparent conversation and not only through emails. >> Any other discussion? >> Okay. Don, would you call the role, please? >> Miss Chzn, >> no. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Mr. McMillan, >> yes. Yes, >> Miss Williams. >> Yes, >> Miss Miller. >> No. >> Okay, motion passes. >> 4 to two. >> And now you need to agenda as amended. >> Okay. Now, can I have an a motion to approve the agenda as amended? >> Okay. Thank you, Cassandra. And this will be number 18. >> Yes. Right. >> Miss Chzny. >> Yes. >> Miss Karns. >> Yes. >> Mr. McMillan. >>

006Yes. >> Mr. Horn. >> I'm sorry. I'm going to say I didn't hear the >> That is fine. Miss Val. >> Yes. >> Miss Williams. >> Yes. >> And Miss Miller? >> Yes. Okay. >> All right. We are ready for items of discussion. Dr. Dennis, if you would start us out, please. >> Yes. Thank you. Good evening. We are happy to continue our facilities planning discussion tonight. I want to start with drawing your attention to our current facilities plan. It is linked on assembly. And I want to highlight some of the progress that we have made on the current plan. So, as you remember last April when the bond failed in our facilities plan, we had um stated that we would go to a two high school model, which is happening. But other pieces that

007were in the facilities plan include aligning boundaries, which is our feeder system, reconfiguring middle schools, which is something we will have that 78 model, right sizing elementary schools, and then all of this would take place in the fall of 2026. So I think it's important to highlight that we are doing some of those actions in our current facilities plan. Also on assembly I have the makeup of our school system for the 2627 school year. And then due to our financial reality some adjustments need to be made on our long range facilities plan. So there are some things in there such as the gifted innovation center, English language development team center. um we still have some work to do with inefficiency in staffing and inefficiency in building usage. So those are pieces that we need to

008continue to consider as we build out our facilities plan. DLR is here tonight. So welcome Ian Kilpatrick to the podium. He's going to speak to us about some options for consultation services that the board can consider. So I will at this time turn it over to him. >> Absolutely. Thank you Dr. McInness and thank you for having us here tonight. Um, attached I believe in the agenda is that preliminary proposal we put together. And we believe this could answer any questions regarding a long range plan for the district. Um, first and initially out of the gate, we would want to take a lot of the data analytics that you already have, a lot of the facility condition assessments and do a little bit of a deeper dive to understand number one, does that data still

009hold up? And number two, what interventions have been made to your facility since we walked through all of those buildings. And that's about a four-week process for our team of architects, interior designers, engineers, and in-house educators to come and help assess your facilities and just ensure that all of that data is still holding true because that's our northstar, right? As we dive into sort of the next six weeks of that proposal, it's really looking at the programming and conceptualization piece, which to Dr. McInness the point earlier has a lot to do with the utilization and capacities of your building, understanding those fever patterns, understanding also how the buildings are supporting teaching and learning because ultimately that's what these facilities need to be doing and then aligning that with a one to two as we outlined.

010It could be more. It's really as needed community engagement sessions because the voice of your community, they're going to be the biggest advocates for this facility plan if they're brought along with that process and we're able to hear them and their concerns. Ultimately, it's great to get that cross-section of community members because they know their realities and their current schools, right? But they don't know the realities of the entire district at large. So, we're able to really use that six weeks as an education process for both district employees, students, but also community to really see the the bigger picture, right, than what's in it for just me. And then once we're able to go through those sessions, we can understand some prioritization. Number one, what does it mean to prioritize need in the district? Because

011the need will always outweigh the dollars. And that's it doesn't matter if you're big, small, that's every district we work with. And ultimately that leads to us being able to game plan scenarios. For instance, going to two high schools would be a scenario. How does that play out? What ripple effect does that have to your other facilities? What interventions are needed in the building to support say that new middle school model? And those are parts and pieces that we're able to build out in a 5, 10, and 15 year kind of long range plan. knowing that by the time you get to that 15-year mark and as we've seen today just from the 2019 plan, so much has already changed, right? None of us, I hope none of us were predicting a global pandemic. But

012once we get through all the community engagement around that, we understand the program and conceptualization of what that long-range plan will be moving forward. That's when we really get into what we call game plan and adoption. It's creating all of the visual collateral, all of the PR, all of your social media posts, making sure that the community understands this plan and how it's supporting the long-term success of St. Joe School District. And then what we've really found success in lately is these documents used to be PDFs. They dive on the shelf and collected dust, right? But taking that and making it an electronic interface that only not only allows the community to go in and see transparently what's the age of the buildings, how are they scoring from facility condition standpoint? How are they scoring

013to support teaching and learning? But also just to understand if I did X, Y, and Z, what ripple effect does that have in the district? What dollar amount is associated with that that we would need to invest in our facilities? and it helps build that transparency and trust as we're making decisions down the road, whether that's to support just deferred maintenance needs or a bond referendum in the future. So, a kind of highle overview of our um proposal that would help support our refresh as we're kind of looking at it to your facility plan to align with not only the changes at the high schools and going to that two high school model, but also how that's going to impact your middle schools as well. But with that, I here tonight to answer any questions

014or curiosities that you might have. Um, and as I mentioned, this is a preliminary draft, so we're more than happy to take any feedback tonight and revise that for the district. >> So, I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly, you have the 2019 data, but you are going to in a sense update it. So, you're going to consider what we've done with these buildings since then. you're going to take in consideration COVID um and all that to make sure that the data is more updated. Correct. >> Yes. And Oh, go ahead. >> Oh, no. Go ahead. >> Uh to elaborate a little bit on that, the facility condition assessment, which we call FCA, is kind of the bricks and mortar of your buildings, how are the the mechanical systems performing, how is the

015building holding up physically? That data, we anticipate for the most part, won't be too different. You'll have some upgrades that have been made since 2019. um the educational suitability assessment or the ESA where we look at how the building supports teaching and learning. That's where I would venture a guess that it's going to look a lot different post pandemic than it did pre- pandemic. >> Right. Okay. And then my other question I had for you, you said that community engagement will be part of this. >> Yes. So in this proposal, we outlined four community engagement sessions. Um internal to DR Group, we about eight years ago realized that we don't speak educator as architects. that we hired educators on our team who help facilitate a lot of that community engagement. It helps bridge that gap

016between, you know, what we're hearing from teachers, from students, from parents, and what that how that translates into architecture. But yes, that would be four community engagement sessions. If we needed more or just down the road, we're more than happy to do that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I have a couple questions. >> Yeah. >> Were you a part of of the last team? I was one of the um younger staff members at the time who was walking through all your buildings. So I got to graduate up a little bit. >> Okay. So what's the difference in between the two plans? >> So big difference is going to be your scenarios. So how all of the different planning kind of plays out at the time when we were looking at that it was you know

017build we had multiple scenarios for building new high school, maintaining or renovating central high school. We had scenarios that got you to that 678 middle school model. What's going to probably be the biggest change from that one to this one will be those scenarios because your reality is different today, right? Your enrollment is different than it was in 2019. Some of the conditions and educational support is different. The biggest shift is going to be that digital platform. Um, and a great reference would be to look at Kansas City public schools recent um, bond referendum where we're able to do a facilities plan for them and create interactive um, data analytics that are online virtual. You can manipulate. You can pull down a single campus and look at all the statist statistics of that. You can

018look at what would happen if we did all of the phase one interventions at X Y and Z campus and the dollar amount that that would be. And so the biggest thing would be going from that print document to a virtual platform that's much more live. >> Will we use much of the last plan? >> So the last plan has been implemented but so much has changed. Um and originally I'd have to go back and look so don't quote me but one of those pieces was building that new high school. There was never a scenario where we were taking you down to two high schools in your existing facilities. So it has already been different. A lot of that is going to be driven by enrollment, driven by just budgetary constraints that exist in the

019state of Missouri. Um, and so there are parts and pieces that have definitely been used to inform the decision- making, but this would allow us to be able to kind of refresh that for future decision making. >> Okay. So my next question is um to the poor if we're going to spend a lot more time, a lot more money, are we going to listen or are we going to get answers, you know, that we don't want to hear and then just waste a lot of time and money. I think if we are going to do this, I think, you know, that we need to look at this like they're the professionals and we are not. We're going to spend their money and their time and whatever the outcome is, we're going to do not, well,

020I'm going to look at it. I don't think I like this. like we've already used a lot of money and a lot of extra time on this organization and I've looked at the old plan. I know that a couple of you guys have too. We didn't really utilize a lot of it as we needed to. It was just like well I look at it I don't like it. I'm not going to do it. And I say we as in I know you know that we were not on the board at that time or even after that you know if we're looking at this I don't want to look at this been this extra money that we don't have in this extra time and then in November get an outcome and we're like we don't like

021it. We're not going to use it. And so, are we able to contemplate making an agreement to follow through for a month? >> Oh, wait. I think the facilities topic's been on multiple agendas and work sessions and the board has been quiet on this topic. So, I do think our silence has told us that we may need outside help uh to get us to bring the community uh stakeholders, administration, all to the table in order to formulate a plan that's best for the district. So, I do think on this topic, I think there's a lot of fatigue um on the board. I think there's a lot of fatigue in the city. And I think bringing in uh fresh eyes with fresh energy would help us. And I do agree with you. If you're going to

022spend the money, you need to listen to the the professional advice. So, as long as our community hears this activity and our admin and we all can come together and say this something we can buy into, I see no reason why we couldn't follow through. >> I I agree. I think whatever we do, if we're if we're going to move forward with this, that we need to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars, we need to utilize whatever the information is that we're given. Um, historically before the administration was even this administration and before we were all members of the board, our district has not always done that. And I think that that's really hurt us um over the years. So I think it is important that if we invest in this and get the

023information whether we like it or not um we have to do something with it. >> Do do you feel like um do you feel do you feel like the the plan will be at that level like okay you know we've engaged we've looked at buildings we've engaged community do this do you feel like it'll be that solid? So we will approach it with recommendations based on that community feedback. Um at the end of the day I don't live in this community. So I don't want to be the one who's advocating on what should happen. The one thing I will add is with the the virtual data. >> So it's all the same data. It allows you to slice and dice it a little bit more so than like a a static PDF, right? So it

024may not necessarily be that this is the only solution, but in a year as you're assessing your needs across the district, you're able to manipulate that tool and understand, okay, if we prioritize based on this, here's the dollar amount, here's what it'll be. And so it's a little more of a living document than say past plans have been. And this is something that we've had a lot of success with just in the last few years. >> Yeah, Miss Williams, I I think that it's hard to speak in absolutes around this, but we know one thing. you know, we'll look at financial data soon that says we're going to be sub 3% on our financial reserves by 2029. And so my tendency would be that we would I would be inclined to act on on what

025came back. So hard to speak in absolutes, but that's my thought. >> Yeah. I just I just mean, you know, that we're not in the position to waste any money. And I know it's easy, you know, to look at the plan and think, "Oh, it's only x amount of dollars." Well, we're making a lot of moves based upon we're broke. And so I think it would be irresponsible to use this extra money and this extra time and the community's time and our time and the admin's time, you know, and then the information comes back based upon the community engagement and the board and the admin's like, "Well, I don't like that. We're not doing that." I'm just going to let you know if that happens, you guys are going to hear my mouth about it.

026>> Yeah, we just have to we have to have some kind of plan moving forward because our debt service levy, you know, come 2029, we have to start improving our buildings. We have to start uh making decisions whether it's improving buildings we have or building new. Um we we have to invest in our our buildings. And so if we don't invest in them, then we're going to risk losing our our debt service levy. And so I I do feel like we need to have this conversation now rather than in two years. I do think working ahead uh needs to be a priority. So I do think the services would benefit our board and our community. >> So question maybe more administrative I guess. So will the board have opportunities to like review and provide feedback

027um on the facility scenarios like throughout the different phases as this comes along? I mean I'm reading on here and I see it says board member has identified by Dr. McGinness. I assume that's just over the current boards, not like a select handful of us. Um, but you know, I I think that's also going to be a key is that we we have stakeholder input from various places. Um, and we need to be careful in how we do this and how we communicate with the public and how we use their feedback because I think there's a lot of um, superficial buy in like we're going to have town halls, we're going to hear you out, we're going to do these things and then uh, we get their feedback and we do not a lot with

028it. Um, and again I think that only hurts us and I don't think we do that every time but there are times where we are doing that. I appreciate the fact that when we're doing the community engagement, if four doesn't appear to be enough for whatever reason, if we have low attendance or something like that, we could we could add additional ones on. If we do add additional ones on, is there additional cost to that or um is that just part of the package and we get however many we need? And >> barring that we don't add 10, right? Right. within reason, we're more than happy to do that at no additional cost and that's our commitment as a partner to the district. >> Okay. Yeah, I appreciate the fact that we're looking at someone

029who does this on a regular basis considering the rest of us on the board do not do this on a regular basis. And so I I agree that I think it would be a good idea to get some outside help and um look at some options. >> I do like that it's it can be manipulated as you go. that some of the questions might be laid as we do that. >> Absolutely. >> If something comes up, we don't like something that it can be manipulated in different ways that work with our funds and with community input. >> It's a great tool and we can do two facets of it. We can do one that's internally facing for the facilities team. They've got it all. And we can do one that's externally facing that helps build

030transparency and trust with the community. Um, I will happily share a couple of examples of these interactive dashboards with Dr. M. Jones and she can share with the board. But great tools. Um, we live in a day and age where community trust is everything and anything that we can do to build that I think is huge. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you very much for coming and sharing that information with us today. >> Thank you for the time. >> Thank you. I have a question about the about the plan on page 10 I think it is. Um if you look at the top in the building capacity um is there a reason why that's not updated yet? >> Sorry I'm trying to get there. because the capacities in other areas. >> I think I

031might be able to answer that question. So Casey Housing and myself are are going through and and looking at those those spaces uh with Benton. You know, we kind of remodeled some of those spaces um that we're going to do this summer. Um you know, we're moving medals out to Hillyard. And so with some of that, we just want to review those areas again. Um there were some classrooms that were converted to more of office spaces that might have been used in sold numbers. So we're just want to make sure we go through that and get that um the way uh it should be documented meaning that yes it might have been a classroom before but is being used today in what capacity because you have different classrooms used in different ways. >> Um and

032so we should have those numbers by the next board meeting for Benton and Central for that max and optimum capacity. >> The next meeting at the end of May. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Thank you. It also changes when you go from a middle school to an elementary school. So those capacity numbers can change just a bit. >> No, I was only talking about the two high schools at the top. >> Sure. >> Because there's no numbers. There's no numbers listed at all for those. As we head into this, I'd like to make a comment that that um let's be really really clear um when we talk about capacity numbers, what that means because this board has been surprised in the past by published capacities that didn't really mean what they what was stated. So,

033you know, because of different programs, lunchroom situations, what a variety of reasons. But as we move into this, let's be really crystal clear what that capacity number means. >> Thank you. >> I also have a question. Obviously, if we go down this process, we're looking at 5, 10, and 15 years, but in terms of the current pro plan we're on right now. Are there objectives or inefficiencies that maybe this board needs to also be discussing that we could accomplish in the next one or two years? Um, I know our middle school, we have four of them. Um, you know, could could is there inefficiencies there? So while we have this conversation about 5, 10, and 15, I feel like there's some aspects of the original one from vision 4 that, you know, we paused because

034it was too much too quick. Are there other are there aspects of the stuff that we paused because it was too much too quick that we also need to be discussing as a board right now that could be accomplished in one to two years? >> I mean, I think if we're looking at losing at 4.2 to 6.2 million from our SAT and we're also potentially losing almost 14 million if our um income tax thing passes through in November. I think we're going to have to look at that stuff. Not that that's desirable or anything like that, but I mean we're looking at 1820 million gone >> just from the state funding alone. Yeah, I would expect there would be things that would come up in the plan that that may not necessarily hit exactly at

035five years, perhaps could be executed earlier. I would sure hope anyway, but I'd be I'd be open to that again because of the financial situation. >> Any other comments? >> Is this item going to be on the agenda >> at the meeting in a couple weeks? I don't know if I'll have everything updated that at that point, but it can sure be on there >> as long as we have all of the information in order to make an informed decision. >> Right. But I mean to have the facilities plan approved by the board, I would have to fill in the additional steps for five years, 10 years, unless you just want what we have right now. >> I was meaning about the contract in between us. >> Oh, got a company. Sure. >> Okay. >>

036All right. Next, we're going to look at the finance committee outcomes. Dr. Hitchco. >> Yeah. I thought this would be a good meeting to discuss some of the things that we've been working through with the finance committee. Uh being that June, we're presenting two budgets. We're presenting the final amendment for this fiscal year and then the preliminary budget for FY27 for that fiscal year. And so a couple of things that we exercises that we went through um is the first one I'll mention is the uh citizens guide. So the citizens guide is a kind of a two-page overview of concepts or financial concepts that kind of showcase St. Joe school district um and give you different metrics or I'll call key performance indicators um comparative to other districts. And so, uh, with the committee and

037the work of the committee, we, um, we, meaning the finance committee, uh, Jenny Powers and Katie Nive and myself worked through the process of looking at our citizens guide and giving a snapshot of looking at South St. Joe compares to other districts, um, and how we compare to ourselves. And so, um, on the first page, you can see that we've chosen some districts that are are very much alike us, meaning that their enrollment is similar, their demographics are similar, uh, they're they're close vicinity as well. And so, you can see the the first one we have there is a tax rate comparison. Uh, we're able to split that out by our operating and our debt service to show what we compare to other local districts. Uh, you can see that we're on the low end.

038>> Is this the new one or the old? Um you can see that we are the lowest of our comparison districts. Um and then you can if you look at the assessed valuation you can also see that uh Park Hill which has just 1,600 more students than us has double the assessed valuation. So that makes a difference when you talk about funding that's available to the district um and how we uh are able to spend um what we have uh comparative to other districts as well. So, um, then speaking of how we spend that money, uh, to the right, you can see how that's broken up. We use a pencil, uh, to kind of show the diagram instead of like a pie chart or something to make it a little more relative to school. Uh,

039so you can see direct instruction and instructional support, you know, are the the main components that make up our budget. Uh, you have transportation, which is small cost, and then our facilities and maintenance and support services. And so, uh, that makes up our first page as well as our top five taxpayers. Um we always want to ensure that we recognize you know those industry and those uh commerce that's in our town because you know commercial real estate is assessed at the highest value compared to residential and agriculture. And so those are the folks that are supporting the district uh by believing in St. Joe and being here in our in our community. Um then if you want to go to the second page uh it shows some comparison of our expenditures and our revenue. So

040you can see on the expenditures how it's broken up by objects, whether it's salaries or benefits, purchase, service, supplies, capital outlay, or our short and long-term debt. And then our revenue by sources. Again, you can see that local revenue is our biggest source of revenue uh followed closely behind by our state revenue. So when I talk about, you know, state SAT payment, our assessed valuation, the reason why I'm always talking about that all the time is because it has the biggest impact um on our revenue. And then again, I kind of talk a little bit about enrollment measures. you know, Park 11 about 1,600 more kids than us. Um, that gives you a comparison to the districts um that we were talking through that we use for comparison districts and how we um match up

041as far as like expenditure per enrollment and those type of things. Then of course at the top we have the milk carton that shows free and reduced lunch percentages for our district and at the very upper right hand corner we have enrollment. So we tried to hit those key pillars that really drive um you know what St. Joe looks like as far as enrollment um revenues and expenditures and how that's broken out and then comparisons to other districts. So, I appreciate the committee's work um in helping us revamp this, making this more understandable uh you know, helping uh guide because sometimes we get lost in the weeds of what we think is important and they really brought us back to here's what the community is thinking and here's kind of things they want to see.

042So, just kind of wanted to showcase that. that's on on their website under the business office section under that department if you want to see it out there, but I attach it to this agenda review. So, >> battery level is low. >> Happy to take any questions you might have. >> Dr. I know this was talked about in the committee meeting, uh, but this year we hear a lot of times that staff is a big portion of our expenses. We did have a higher capital overlay this year because of some bond issues. So, just we need to keep that in mind. we look at that because that's going to show 66. I know we always put you at 75. So, >> right. Yeah, that's a great point. Um, that one showed all funds. When a

043lot of times when I talk about 75% being salary and benefits, I'm talking about our operating fund. Um, that graph did show all four funds. And so, that's a great point. When you're showing everything or you have a year where you're doing a lot of capital improvements, you pass the bond and you're showing all funds, it kind of dilutes what just the salary benefits are. But, that's a great point. Um, and then a second activity we did, which kind of goes into, you know, looking at our future budget. Um, I I'll I'll go into kind of what the state came out of last week with the state legislator and what they approved versus, um, what we have here. Well, I'll just jump into the state first because that kind of sets the stage. So, uh,

044last week the state approved the budget. Um, for the first time in years, they did not fully fund the foundation formula, which states that the state adequacy target will be a 71.45. um com if you take both fiscal years and add transportation in uh we are underfunded by $362.7 million and so it was a um a tough go uh you had reduced revenues in the state because they reduced um I can't remember which category it was um capital gains that's what it was so they reduced the capital gains tax and so once they did that the general revenue came in below what was u indicated in earlier budgets And that also with the state school state monies fund and lottery and gaming all those came underfunded. So then that in essence underfunded schools as well.

045So with that being said um you know we went through a process with our committee that talked about ways we could reduce expenditures and also ways that we could maybe look to increase our revenue. And so I won't you know read them verbatim as you have them there in the agenda item. um but would be happy to answer any questions you might have is these are very general in category um that you might want to get more specific with okay like for example you know reviewing class size norms what do you mean by that and how could that save us money so I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have on that >> I'm looking at the list and the list on the programs outsourcing isn't it normally more costly when you outsource

046it is unique to the situation. Um, sometimes we outsource because we have another choice. Like for example, we might need a speech language pathologist that we don't have that we can't hire and so we have to um just by need or for example we might have a situation where outsourcing um can save some money. Um it just does depend on the on the situation. So, I think that's what the committee was getting to there where if it helps us financially, could we outsource um certain programs or scenarios? >> Okay. I have another question on the revenues. It says increase enrollment attendance hours. If we increase attendance and hours, won't we have to increase um what we pay the employees? >> Sure. So, I think they're talking to trying to increase enrollment um through like for

047example, I'll bring something that we did after COVID. We ran a campaign, we being a previous district I was in, where kids that, you know, maybe had left for um whatever other kind of schooling that they wanted to have, we we called them up and said, "Hey, you know, we want to check in on you, see how things are going. We'd love to have you back in St. Joseph School District. Um, you know, we we hope things are going well and just want to check in." And so through that campaign, after calling, I think 140 kids, we actually got around 21 to reenroll in the district. And so that campaign was just to let them know, hey, you know, we're here. We're here for you to support you. Um, even if it's just, you know,

048after school activities, which, you know, Desi passed LA or sorry, the state of Missouri passed last year that even if you're homeschooled, you can come and participate in after school activities. It might be just for extracurriculars or maybe one class. Um, whatever it is just to re-engage with our customers because those all all our kids. And so that's kind of what we're talking about with the enrollment piece. On the attendance piece, of course, you know, trying to do attendance incentives and uh making sure that our kids are coming to school because not only is it financially better for the district, but we all know that the more hours kids spend in school um that the better those learning outcomes are going to be. >> In looking at each of the lists, are there like a

049top two, three in each list? >> Sure. So, uh, to get more specific, um, I'll go to revenues real quick with tax levy increase. Um, something that many districts have done is not a tax levy increase, but actually a levy transfer where what they do is they ask their community to transfer um, a certain amount where there's 10, 20, 30 cents from debt service to operations. And when they make that transfer um, if they increase their operational levy by 20 cents, they reduce their debt service by 20 cents. So the overall tax rate stays the same, but allows us to get more money in operations that we can use for expenditures that relate to salaries, benefits, curriculum, things like that. And so that has been something that many districts have have asked our community to

050to approve um and it's been very successful for them. So um of course you can just ask for a you know 20 cent levy increase for whatever initiative you may have. Uh but that transfer doesn't increase the tax rate. And so that's something that has also been popular and been on the table with with many other districts. Is they start to see um you know the state not fully fund the formula, they start to look for other areas to cover that that difference. questions. >> So, yeah, maybe maybe just a comment. Um, I really appreciate the update. Thank you. And and to the committee. Um, Dr. Edgeorth, is there a how I want to ask this? I want I want to ask is there an overarching execution plan? So, you know, as I think about

051this just quickly, you know, as as we look where we're headed financially, we know we need to cut our expenses. So, you know, to me, you tackle these operational things first, right? And and we know that that's not where the most money is, but you know, copying machines, whatever, you know, attack that. And then and then and then the next one is maybe the facilities, the non-educational facilities, you know, selling old buildings, condensing some of our our our different operations, right? And so then and then and then you then you get into, you know, administrative expenses, things that aren't aren't really classroom facing. Then we start getting in, I think, to programs, you know, much like we talked about with early learning or or career ladder, things that are that are, you know, getting awful

052close to the classroom, but but maybe not directly, right? >> Um, and then and then finally, you know, we we seek to cut last on those direct classroom things. So, again, that's just my version of of how I see it. it. Um what do we need to do as a board to facilitate sort of a execution plan around those type of items? >> Sure. Um something I did include because I anticipated that question might come up of you know hey what's next now that the state hasn't fully funded the formula. Um you know I I have again your fiveyear forecast and you can see for FY27 we're about $3.7 million deficit. If you take our um weighted ADA, weighted annual membership times what we get paid and you multiply that out um times the $345

053that it was short, you get about that amount. So um that budget deficit you see there is direct result from not fully funding the formula. So how do we how do we spread that gap or how do we how do we fill that gap? um you know the attached you will find the October um budget uh reduction plan that we went through and we really cut purchase services and and supplies to the very minimal that we can. Yeah. >> If you see anything that any increase anywhere it's because of you know contract increases um just having a software contract typically it's automatic 4 to 5% every year. Transportation is a built-in 3 to 4%. There's some things that we can do. Um, the reason you probably haven't heard me talk about them is I don't

054necessarily think they're a great idea, but I'll I'll go ahead and mention some. Um, when it comes to transportation, you don't have to transport early childhood. You do for ECSE. And so, that's something you can take out. I don't recommend that. We And we had the revised ELC plan. We made sure we put that back in. Um, you do not have to transport. Um, you know, we right now if you're a mile away from school or less, you walk, unless you're in an area that's not safe, we can push that further if you want to. Um, again, another idea that you know that why I brought it up, but that I'm just listing options. Um, >> you notice in there that there's class size norms. Um, you can look to increase your class sizes. Right

055now, we have a St. Joe norm, then you have a desi max. You can look to push more towards the max. You notice the reason I haven't mentioned those things, but those are things you can look at um if you really want to. >> Um you can look at your software expenses. You know, we looked at um Canvas is is an item that maybe we could reduce. You know, we had feedback from teachers that they felt like that was a really important tool. And so, you know, we did not pull back on Canvas um you know, at that high school level. So the things I'm mentioning, there's a reason I've never mentioned before is because, you know, I don't necessarily think that they're are great ideas, but when you start getting to, you know, the

056bottom of the barrel, those are items that are I'll call bad ideas that I just mentioned. Um, but they're what that's what's left besides staff, which is salary benefits. And so continuing to get efficient in our square footage and making sure that we have the staffing that we need to cover those areas um is the best way we can get efficient. Under gradu I just want to say great job in the last year. Uh we're coming on a one-year anniversary where we realized that our reserves weren't at 20 or 25%. They were they were a lot lower. Uh we we didn't have 30 million in reserves. We had 16 million. And since you've came on in your leadership, I feel like we've done a great job of making those. I mean, we cut 3.3 million

057out of purchase services, which is 10%. Uh we looked at ELC. Uh we've looked at consolidation. I mean, I think we're upwards of $5 million. Um if you look at this plan right here, $4.8 million of salaries that are coming out of consolidation of attrition, not forced. So, I just want to say great job and keep going. Um, you know, I think we look at career ladder, uh, when we look at these different programming things. We cannot forget the reality we live in. A year ago, we woke up to a brand new reality in St. Joe, uh, that we weren't as well off as we thought we were. And so, a lot of these decisions that are coming to this board, uh, to these individuals, um, are us trying to work ourselves out of a

058hole that, uh, that is unfortunate. So I I do think we need to keep the big picture here. Uh that due to a miscalculation of of salaries, uh some HVAC improvement, our reserves went down rapid. And so I appreciate the efforts that's been made. I appreciate the fact we haven't been touching the classroom the best we can. Uh but we got to keep looking into this more and more because we got to get back to positive budgets. So I just want to say good job. I I appreciate it. Um you walked into a hard problem and I think you've done a great job leading us out of it. It was a team effort, but I appreciate it. And I did want to note on the five-year budget, um these numbers are as we know today,

059um they might vary a little bit from what I have in June, but please note on this fiscal year, you'll notice um that we are uh in a budget surplus and that we are looking to end our operating fund balance percentage or reserve ratio percentage at 10.26%. So, we did climb this year a little bit. Um although a little bit you can see the drastic drop in the last two years. So that's a win in my opinion to start um going back up. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you very much. We're looking at the auto service RFP please. >> Hello. Um I'm bringing to you tonight and then in a couple weeks the RFP results for our audit that we do our our board policy has us do it every three years put it out to

060bid this year we got two after our website advertisement and newspaper advertisements we got two um they were both very good in previous years we've had some and sometimes they weren't always up to speed, but both these were very good. Um, so that was exciting to see all that. We rate them on a few different areas and they were very close. Where they really differed is in price because our current auditor can give us a discount because he's got all our information already loaded. they don't have to reather that information. Um, so when I go through everything and view it, I think a 38% savings is substantial. And so my recommendation will be to give that RFP to our current auditor again for three years. But I wanted to see if you guys need any

061questions, what info you need to make that decision in two weeks. >> It's not really a question. I do appreciate all of your work and I know that you are just amazing at what you do. I know that when I'm looking at the report, I would appreciate looking at the information and not like only a blank application of an RFP like I mean it doesn't really >> I got you. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um, the reason why I did not put any more, normally I put a big sheet at least so you could see it. >> Okay. >> Because they have asked for it not to be probably because they don't want to tell other clients what discounts they're giving us. >> Yeah. So that's why you don't have that on there. I do have

062that information. I'm happy to provide it to you directly. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> I have a question. >> Sure. >> So, we've used KPM the last three years. How are we ensuring like audit um >> like a yes >> independent like fresh practice, >> right? Um there are several things that KPM does and I'll speak to them because I we've discussed this ourselves. They use different auditors within their pra their firm >> um so that there are different people looking at it. Now, we will have the same, you know, head person who's going to come report and those kind of things, but the people doing the actual work on the numbers are different throughout our contracts. >> I assume something like transparency. It was a good question to ask. >> That's

063a very good question. >> Um, are there any prior audit recommendations that remain unresolved or partially implemented from last year? >> Nope. We had we've worked really hard to get out of those. um recommendations. We haven't had any. >> Yep. Yep. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Anything else? >> Yeah. I'm ask question. And I think is this something you know like the public would want to know using this auditor and I'm just asking. >> Yep. Yep. Should they I know you say it's a 38% um saving but should the auditor that we use caught the mistakes that were overseen the last year or is that something that could happen with any auditor? >> It would happen with any auditor because we budgeted for those. We they were checking that that we budgeted for those. They're

064not checking if we went and researched those timely. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It it would not matter the auditor at all because we were within our guidelines. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Dr. Hedge 2024 bond savings. >> Okay. Um, so a couple years ago, uh, St. Joe passed $20 million bond for improvements which included HVAC. St. Joe school district decided to do some additional HVAC project above and beyond at the 20 million. Um, in retrospect, due to some closings during winter weather activities, uh, where those units couldn't keep up and so they wanted to continue that process and get some additional buildings done. um part of when you earn interest on a bond, you have two years and different guidelines to spend down that

065money. And if you don't meet meet that in that two-year period, you have to pay back the spread between what you interest you earn and what the interest was on the bond that you're paying because that is a taxdeductible bond and it's called arbitrage. And so our deadline is June 3rd. So we have until that time to designate um the savings that we had on that bond for those projects. And so these projects have been completed. We have already completed the Edison Elementary miniplit HVAC installation and the Mark Twain. But by your approval at the next board meeting, we are designating and coding those to the bond so that way we can be compliant with that arbitrage rule and not have to pay that back. And so that is what I'm asking um the board

066to do. Um, if you were not to choose to do this and chose something else, our fund for balance at the end of this year would be exactly the same of what it would be no matter what project you chose because this was going to be spent out of capital projects. You'd be just choosing a different project. But I'd highly recommend that a project is chosen. So that way we meet those arbitrage rules. >> So that's something that we put in that contract, correct? That we the overage or if we had more H language >> in our bond language. Um if as you read it, it talks about uh the athletic fields, it talks about the tracks, it talks about HVAC and additional HVAC improvements is verbiage that you see in that um that that

067ballot language that was passed back in 2024. >> So it's already there. So we're not just goofing around. >> Correct. >> Can we just make an agreement to keep these buildings open if we're spending all this money for them? Well, that is that is a great question. Um, that's another reason why I think it'd be vitally important to have DLR come in and do um that community group and community feedback with stakeholders. Uh, you know, board of education members, our community members and stakeholders. And so to have that feedback, it really helps me, you know, if I'm with Casey and let's say I'm just going to call building XYZ because I don't want to mention a building. Let's say at building XYZ we have an elevator go out and to replace that elevator is gonna

068be $280,000. Um to have a master facilities plan that gives us guidance helps us make a decision of okay, do we just try to repair this? Do we replace it? Um is this building, you know, scheduled to be retired in five years? That helps us make very wise decisions when we invest capital into those buildings. And so, um, you know, you bring up a great point. You know, we have Edison and Mark Twain here. Um, you know, we we invested those dollars. So, so that community, um, input with a a plan going forward helps guide decisions like that. Not just, um, a new school or retiring to school, but just the little things that go on within the school about how we approach that, if that makes sense. >> Any further questions? Hey, you're up

069next for career ladder. Happy Tuesday. Um, tonight you're going to hear a number of items from academic service team. Miss um Kaser is going to present as well. And I want you to understand that all items really have been um adjusted um due to the district's um financial reality. One of them is the career ladder. Um at our April board meeting, I've presented that to you as anformational item. In thatformational item, we are um charged at looking as a CSIP as our guide, right? And so you look at your priority number one of effective teaching and learning and you look at recra uh recruiting, retaining highquality educators to our classrooms. And so this is really interdependent upon many of the departments here that um provided stakeholder feedback into this. Um I I wanted to provide

070some context with you and I appreciate Dr. McInn is sharing the numbers um on the board agenda for 2425 and so you'll find that the total number of hours for tutoring was 13,845 um and then it was followed very closely um by the professional learning at 11,268. Um remember this reflects a strong district emphasis on what we want to happen right which is direct student contact um and educator growth um for the 2627 plan that career ladder will continue to um operate in those two stages um where you'll see stage one which provides that $1,500 stipend um for 50 hours of work and that's compensated at $30 in hours for educ educators. Um in stage two, that would provide a 3,000 um stipen for 75 hours of work and that's compensated at $40 an hour.

071Um the structure then maintains a clear progression of expectations while aligning compensation and ensuring that we're leading with a high pact of um directly impacting students. There was a question asked, is the district anticipating a reduction in state reimbursement or is this proposal based off just local budget priorities and projection both? Um, it is based on both. And as a reminder, Career Ladder is funded 60% um by the state and 40% by our local um district. Given our current um district financial conditions and the guidance provided by the the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the status of the program for the FY27 budget cycle won't be finalized until that state budget is final and won't be and signed by the governor um in June of 2026. So, district leadership really needed to take a

072proactive approach at looking at this. We do not expect to know the final FY27 budget until late mid June. Um and we also wanted to note that um there was a collaborative development process for this. Um it was shared with the working group of 15 individuals who were brought on. um it was presented at the April board meeting for review and following that there were revisions that were made um and brought into it. I also want to share that um yes there are other districts looking um at making similar adjustments to this or that have made similar adjustments to this. Um I alluded to the fact that Raytown they're not implementing um the career ladder plan the state grant. Um and then I had um many conversations with other districts, districts like Cameron that are

073reducing participation levels as well. These decisions reflect a statewide effort to balance instructional priorities with the career ladder plan and the financial constraints. Um also remember it's it's important to recognize that the career ladder funding is never guaranteed or it's a permanent s funding source. And so over time it's experienced the um reductions across many districts and over um across the state. Regarding the program design, there were adjustments made to ensure alignment, eliminate duplication. Um and I outlined specifically for you guys those um duplications. And the duplications are um items like mentoring uh for new teachers. The PDC provides the $500 compensation for mentoring and what we want to happen is not only teachers working with our students but also receiving the $500 compensation for and by PDC um which was approved that Tabitha will

074share. Um the other key piece that we want to ensure is that human resource provides an extra duty um salary schedule and in that extra duty salary schedule. Um there are things like at the elementary level like StuCo and um safety patrol that we want our teachers to take advantage of and receive that compensation. um other things at the um middle and the high school level like coaching and sports um receive the compensation don't depend upon a system of career ladder. We can't guarantee that you know moving forward career ladder is a permanent system or structure um to support our educators and and the great work and and that they do for our students. Um I do want to say that the St. Joseph um school district is committed to the 206 27 school year

075and um this for our teachers and I've outlined the two stages there. I appreciate your time and the questions that you've asked um already um but I'll take any other questions that you might have. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Um, listen, I think viewed as a whole as part of the total compensation system for educators is I I find >> I shouldn't speak for everybody. I find complex um really difficult to understand. This is a piece of it. >> Um, and so as a board, I think we're trying to figure out, you know, impact compared to other things. Um, so just to kind of understand where we are, we're not going to know really what the state funding looks like until June, but are we going to be asked to approve this new plan in

076May? >> Yeah. Yes. And I'll lean on Dr. Hedge because again, we worked as really a team to decide um, you know, what can we financially support moving forward as a district. Okay. So, so, so, um, I think if I understood the data right, we we we supported 409 staff members uh, this current school year uh, uh, withund 1.7 million >> and and and and the plan that you're asking us to approve next week or two weeks, what what what would that what would those numbers look like? how much how much would go out and and and how many staff would benefit. >> Um they're in a process right now of finalizing their 2526 career ladder plans to submit to the state for you know compensation for the 2526 year and they're in the process

077of signups with our educators currently right now. >> Okay. So we don't know. >> So this data that's in here is from 245 that we had 409 participants in the 1.7 that you mentioned. Yeah. So not this year but the year before. If you look at it, Mike, there's stage one, two, and three, but it doesn't list years of service for each stage. So like on the new listed stage one, stage two, you know, how many years? Can you tell me what the years are for? >> Yes, that has not changed um in the years of service. So the previous plan was also um in the individual Dr. It was two years in stage one and then three years in stage um two >> and then five years in stage three. >> Okay. My question

078is like and I just want to say I appreciate you contacting other school districts getting um information about about their plans and such. um our district isn't like other districts especially over the past year but and over the changes where going through and what we're asking our educators and so um we were advised and I know that we've kind of repeated this over and over and over again you know to make as many cuts away from the classroom as we can our teachers are already experiencing a lot of cut a lot of change um and then if we're looking at this other information is going to be more cuts and changes um could be making you know their jobs a little bit more difficult and so uh I'm just more concerned about cutting cutting cutting

079away from our educators. I mean I'm kind of looking at this like what's left. It's just really concerning, you know, that um we're cutting another thing. I know it's not in the classroom, you know, but the teachers aren't in the classroom and we're cutting from the teachers and so we're cutting in the classroom. You know what I mean? >> Yes. >> And I do understand about the finances. I get that. But um there has to be a point and we're like, "Okay, we're not going, you know, to cut the teachers even more. >> Yeah, I I feel the tension. M I agree. It's like our CIP, our priorities are now there's a tension between them. So CIP priority 2 is finances. CIP 1 is effective learning. CIP 3 is recruiting teachers. So we're getting down

080now financially where we're having to evaluate decisions where even our own CIP, our own priorities are now rubbing against each other. And that's when it's very difficult for the board because we're trying to accomplish all of our objectives in our CSIP. We don't have the resources maybe to do it the way we want to. Um, as I thought through this and the challenges of, you know, the teachers maybe losing that stage three, I'm thankful we didn't have to free steps. I'm thankful that the one and a half% uh raises for all of our uh staff was secured this year. I feel like that was never on the table. And so I do feel like there's been areas where financially we have protected them. Financially, we have said we want to reward you for your years

081of service and your dedication to the district. But at the same time, we have to tighten our ship up so that in years to come, we can reward them more. We have to make decisions now based on the reality we have. And I appreciate the tightening of academic focus. When you look at the numbers, 22% of this year's that you gave us was coaching and 30% was mentoring. And so that's 52% of career was coaching or mentoring and you've explained to us that those are kind of overlapping categories that there's other areas that we reward those activities. So I think protecting the 36% the 13,845 hours of tutoring that should be our number one goal in career ladder the the tutoring the student teacher relationship the student contact hours that is where we're going to

082get our best bang for buck and so I understand the tension our cip is kind of leaning against each other um as peer reviewed so I think your committee probably had to have that same tension so I appreciate that the recommendation um it kind of mitigates some of our financial risk by stopping at at the 3000 level, but it does not stop encouraging our teachers to invest in our students. And I think that's the best we can do with where we're at today. But I do agree with Miss Williams. It is very difficult every time that we have to look at these cuts. But we're in a hole that we didn't dig, but we have to get out of this for the sake of our community. >> My concern is though when I look at

083this um the old figures and then the new figures. So this is going to affect our most ten teachers the most because they're potentially looking $2,000 a year. And I mean, that's a lot of money, especially, you know, when you go to the pump and it's $4 plus a gallon now. And, you know, things like that. Grocery prices. I I worry about the I like how DLR said ripple effects. The ripple effects of this decision on those tener teachers and then losing more staff. Um, our our more tenered staff, which we need to recruit and retain them. Um, and I feel like this just directly goes against that and it does I feel like even though this is not an instructional like it's not a piece of curriculum necessarily, this most definitely is going to

084touch the classroom. I mean, we're going to lose teachers, we're going to have students not participating in certain events because teachers aren't going to stay after and do it for less pay. Um, or they're going to be doing other activities to make more pay. Um, so I think this is one of those things that's most definitely going to affect the classroom. I I I would like to see a list of like potential things we could cut that are the furthest away from the classroom or where we have more wiggle room um that's not directly related to teacher pay or activities and organizations that involve students. I think you brought up like copying machines and things like that. We need a I I would like a visual of those things to to be able to see

085>> where to make decisions of that. I'm sure it's tedious to do that, but I mean we have to have a budget somewhere that >> line items things at some point. >> But Dr. Hedge shared in his budget reduction slide that he attached to the the thing that in October we cut $3.3 million from our operations and supplies and purchase orders. That's 10%. And sooner or later, you can't cut out of that anymore. you have to pay your gas bill, you have to pay your light bill, you have to have copies. So, I mean to ask Dr. Hedgecourt to go cut another 10%, another 20%, sooner or later there's just nothing to cut. And and and that's what's really difficult is that in this last year, we've been making some of these adjustments. If you

086look at that reductions, we've been making some of this stuff. I mean, this conversation didn't come up until May 2026. So, it is at the very end, but I don't want to not bust kids to ELC. don't want to free salaries. I really don't want to get into a rift. I mean, sooner or later, we're just in this tension where we got to find compromise. And I do think this committee has brought us a good compromise where student tutoring is being protected. Not as much. I understand that. But students can still get tutoring. Teachers are still being paid. And at the same time, we may alleviate 300 to $500,000 that we desperately need right now. I wish it wasn't the case. I wish we could do all stages. I wish we could give raises to

087our teachers. I wish we could do all that. But last year when when the board met in June, we had a big bomb dropped on us that we didn't have 31 million. We had 16. We didn't have 20 25% reserves. We have 10. And this we can't get down to three 2% and let and and lose the control of our district. So I understand the tension of our CIP. of teachers and staff, but we all got to find compromise as a district and a community to get out of this hole. >> So, I get that. But what I'm pointing out is this is going to affect our most tenered teachers the most. And we all know that it costs money to hire new educators to train them and bring them on and we get the

088most bang for our buck when we're able to retain those educators that we already have. And and honestly, we all know like the more experience you have, I don't know how to say this because I don't want to knock new educators. I think they also bring a lot to the table too. But but you have to have a balance and right now our elementary educators are 2third first and second year teachers based off of our academic data. It was like 66.76% I think. Um so we need to retain these tenor teachers and this is one thing that is directly going to affect them. So when we look at the ripple effect of that we also have to consider the cost that that's going to be in HR when we're having when we're losing these teachers.

089bleeding tener teachers and then we're having to retain and hire all these new ones and educate them and do all the training and all the cost that comes with onboarding essentially is I guess what I'm saying. So I just want to point that out. I know that's probably not going to change the outcome of this. Um but I feel like I'm not doing a good job or being a good advocate if I don't raise awareness to that or ask those questions. >> Yeah, it's hard. I mean you think of if you're a teacher, you know, do you want more kids in your room? I I don't think teachers want that. Do we want to lose some of our reading interventionists and math interventionists? I I don't think we want to go down that road. So,

090I hear you. We don't want to upset our veteran teachers, but when it comes to teacher satisfaction, compensation, classroom environment, student conduct, there's a lot of ways that we can show our tenure teachers that this board supports them that may not be directed to a money sign. And I I think we got to keep that in mind that the steps didn't get froze and uh classroom sizes haven't been discussed and we're not rifting and getting rid of a bunch of intervention. So I I think we also need to remind them that we are supporting them. It's just we can't support them in all the ways we want to. And I feel that tension and and that's unfortunate. >> No, we kind of disagree with you just a little bit. Um cuz right now I mean

091it is about money. Um our teachers are struggling, you know, to pay their bills. And so I think it's kind of irresponsible, you know, to be like, well, well, we're giving you a little bit here, you know, but we're going to cut you here, and just, you know, continue to expect everybody to do more on less. Um, I do appreciate all of your work in this plan, but I wish it was a better one, and I'm just not in agreement with it. this year. How would you relate that to HR that offers extra opportunities? >> So, for example, we had some teachers um use um student council um as um and they applied the time that they spent in student council um working with the elementary student council as part of their hours instead of

092taking the compensation on the HR side. So, there is an extra duty um pay um for student council. I think um I've said it a number of times to teachers. I think it's about $1,200 um that teachers can take on an elementary side for the compensation for um student council. >> So there's kind of a way to work that um to get more out of it. >> I'm trying to build a system where we don't aren't dependent upon career ladder. Um because if I am a like crystal ball um in the crystal ball, I cannot see that the state is going to be able to continue funding this grant program. >> Yeah, if I could piggy back off that, this is the first year in a while the state has not fully funded the SAT.

093And so, uh history repeats itself and here's what happened last time because that happened that a lot of legislators took a lot of flack. So what they did is they pulled back on career ladder and did away with the program and they also pulled back on the transportation funding because for years we were not fully funded for transportation. We just been fully funded for the last what three or four years um which has been great. And so what they'll do is they'll pull back on those programs but then fully try to fully fund the formula. And so we've seen career ladder come and go two times before. I would not be surprised if that doesn't happen again. So, I just want to prepare the board is I'm showing five-year forecast figures that at some point

094uh you don't see our legislature pull back completely on career ladder and try to use that to fully fund the formula to say they did that. Now, with that being said, the state only funds 60%. So, what you can do is take the 40% um that we funded already. It's not called career ladder, but you have the same pool of money for tutoring. And so that way you can facilitate a program where people can uh tutor um you know you can facilitate however you want people to you know sign up or be eligible for that but that way you're still allocating the 40% that you did um still to making sure there's an impact on students. >> So I have two questions. >> Sure. >> For you first. Um so you save say the HR

095incentives student council and all that. So if this goes away how open of opportunities are those? like is there always an option to do that or is it is it going to be full and they're not really going to have that option? >> Right. So, and it's not that every educator does the extracurricular groups like this, there was just individuals that have become dependent upon career ladder for those particular hours. They say instead of mentoring a teacher and being paid on the PDC side, I'll take the um hours that I would have done mentoring and my career ladder. Um same thing with the student council. I will oversee student council. I won't get the compensation from HR um you know on the extra duty side um but I will use supervision um as a key

096component to um the career ladder. Okay. So then my other question is to you going back to your list that you had up here have and I know it's probably from your last finance committee meeting. I'm going to assume so I'm pretty sure the answer is probably no. But the list you have up there the expenses like for instance I really looked at that vendor. I mean is there any of that that we have looked into or that you thought oh that might be a good savings. Maybe we should have looked at that stuff. >> Yeah. So, something we did, we did meet with our copier contracts since we're, you know, consolidating square footage. Um, we had, you know, copiers that we weren't going to be using next year. And so, they didn't have to

097because we signed a contract for a certain amount of devices and being a good partner, they agreed to take those copers back and pull back on those charges for next year. And so, we have had those discussions and we have done that. Um, and so in some, you know, scenarios we weren't able to do anything, but at least we looked at each contract, we vetted it out, um, and saw were there their there opportunities where we could pull back on some of those expenses. >> Okay. >> I just want to say that I appreciate that you included teachers in making this decision. And I think the reason that this is really hard because everything we do impacts kids because kids are our customers. So, if we're not going to have as many copy machines, ultimately

098that's going to impact children. If we don't have a bus, that's going to impact children. If we everything that we do impacts children because our customers are children and I think that's why this is so difficult. Everything comes back to kids and cutting money is never never fun for anyone. So I appreciate that you're trying to include people in the conversation because I can certainly say that in years past there was no voice allowed of teachers. The decision was made and that was the decision. So this is a big shift I feel like for our district to include um teacher and staff voice in decisions and I really do appreciate that because I've been on the receiving end where that wasn't the case. So I appreciate that. >> Thank you. And um you know questions

099continue to come in. I was working with the business office today. Another question from MSBA and um was about can we um actually start um counting our professional development hours on June 1st and we got approval from um Desi and the business office just this afternoon to if if if we want to move forward with this. Yes, absolutely. We can start our cycle for professional learning on June 1st. All right, you're up again with student attendance and feedback. >> Yeah. So, I wanted to provide um an update regarding student attendance um from the St. Joe School District and clarify any state guidance connected to attendance reporting. I I I the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education through the Desi attendance manual states that students must be in attendance in the instructional capacity under the

100direct supervision of a cert a certified employee of the district um to be counted for attendance purposes. And while districts may have policies that allow excused absences, there is no authority to provide attendance credit for state aid purposes when a student is neither present nor under the direct supervision of a Missouri certified um teacher. And so I um wanted to provide for um context there. You can see as of May 8th, our district-wide attendance rate for students in grades K12 was at 81.21%. 21% um when we include early learning sites. Um and remember that's not calculated in MS6 or APR count but the attendance rate is 80.5. Um and just to provide some context um to you I went back to look last year at the same time May 9th our attendance rate was 83.26%.

101Um and when calculating early learning it was 82.73. Um we were asked to seek some feedback from building administrators and school teams regarding two specific attendance related practices and I provided that recommendation from our building leadership for you. There was a question regarding the high school finals incentives for 912 where students currently participate in final exams at the high school level with teachers maintaining the authority to determine the design of the assessment. Um and that indicated that students with 97% attendance or higher who are passing all courses designated um by semester deadlines are exempt from taking finals. Um, after re viewing the attendance trends and gathering the feedback from building principles, that recommendation was we back in March when we met in this very room, we needed to continue to honor the current finals policy

102for the um school year. However, they did note that revisions may be warranted with this attendance um policy as the current approach they have felt has not resulted in an increase in attendance rate um at that high school level. The other um concern was that um brought up was about medical absences and attendance and coding practices there um you know and I shared those recommendations as well. Um, but as we all know, if Miss Katie Kn was here, um, and she's always consistently reminded me, while districts we can establish consistent coding practices, remember, we're not an authority to provide attendance credit for state aid purposes when a student is not present nor under the direct supervision of a Missouri certified um, teacher. And so really, there's just two options here. is either a student is

103either present or they're not present. Um you will see that our building leaders also re recommended some rethinking practices for our team um and re-evaluating those attendance incentives um to provide more what they call like um you know and I think Dr. McInness had shared with you guys like popup incentives where you don't know that they're going to happen. They just happen on a certain day. Um and so there's no um warning, there's no um note that comes out that says, "Hey, on Friday we're going to have this certain attendance incentive if you're here the rest of this week." Um um Amanda Ulicker had shared um with our team was a great thing is she had provided the Remington Nature Center to come in and she had brought reptiles into the library. Um and the

104kids were there that day. they got to go hang out in the library for a little bit with reptiles. And so it wasn't anything the kids got as an incentive. It was an experience for those kids to check out the um reptiles and all the great things that nature um center provided. But again, it was a popup and so if you were there that day, you got to partake in the activity. Um and so there were a lot of building leaders that liked that um particular incentive practice and there were many that were going to take practices um back to their schools um with that. But um again we know that attendance remains a critical component of effective teaching and learning and I just wanted to provide the team with the um administrator feedback, the

105stakeholder feedback and just kind of give a snapshot of where we are in in in attendance um with the St. Joseph School District. >> I have a couple questions. >> Sure. >> I think that a lot of times when we're looking for the feedback um ask groups of individuals, we know what the answer is going to be. I mean, asking admin about attendance, we know what they're going to say as they should. Okay. Okay. But the thing about it is if I'm a mom and I have a child who's chronically ill, um, who has cancer or seizures or like a diabetic and there's lots of appointments. Um, we're going to have absences and there's no way around that. I mean, I'm trying to keep my kid alive. I do understand, you know, the requirements under

106Desi. I'm not arguing that. I get that. If you're in the building, it's included. If you're not in the building, it's not. I get that. I'm not arguing that. I'm talking about our district showing compassion and grace to chronically ill students. What do you suggest about that? >> Um, without knowing specifics, Miss Williams, I, you know, You know, empathy is so important, right? And understanding is so important and leading with that. But without knowing specifics of a particular case, I can't speak to it. >> No, I'm not talking about a particular case. I'm just I think that what I would like, you know, to see is um I don't know if it's a policy or like a procedure or like a process. I would like written information on if my kid has cancer >> or

107my kid has seizures and they have appointments. And I understand people call in, oh, my kid's a sick, there's a cold, everything. I get that. Those are not what I mean. I'm talking about chronically ill children. Is there a way to put like anything in place? You know, they're still able to participate in incentives, like a play date, an ice cream party. I mean, if they're a child that's chronically ill, their lives are already sucking right now. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, and then, you know, to be penalized because I'm missing over an appointment to keep me alive. I don't >> is not that compassionate to me. >> And I'm grateful that you brought this up. I will say I think that's why building leaders want us to rethink attendance incentives like what

108you had just mentioned um like an ice cream party, you know, if I'm absent, I can't attend because um that was brought up as well. Um and so I appreciate the feedback. Um and we can definitely do something like that or there's some type of written communication or um some rethink. We we they've already stated in their recommendations that they want to rethink attendance incentives. Um it would be just getting everybody together to think and and that includes parents and that includes other stakeholders, not just like what you said building leaders. >> It's important to different. >> Yes. So So we have Desi who just says simply building or you're not >> right. >> I think and so what what what Miss Williams was talking about is more like okay there's these indist allowances that

109are hinging on attendance and that's where we could maybe find a way to be more compassionate. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Good. And then um is there is there going to be an ask of the board for this topic >> like >> No. >> Okay. >> Not at all. I just was um you know I wanted to provide the feedback. It was um requested um that I provide feedback on the attendance um the two items. I think it was reported back in March. Okay. >> Um we had that um initial meeting and then um that following it was ironic that we were meeting with building leadership and so I just presented these two case scenarios to building leadership at that time. >> Thank you. Thank you for the information. Are we able to get like update

110of like a proposal of like a process, a procedure? I'm not asking about like a policy change, just an idea. I don't want this, you know, to be a topic at a meeting and then it never comes up and then there's no change. >> No, no. I mean, I just want an idea of a way, you know, that we're giving those kids grace. >> Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. >> Well, and I appreciate the fact that you're reooking the incentives because when we look at the attendance data, um, what you just told us, our attendance last year was better at this time than it is this year at this time. So, obviously the incentive, whatever they are, are not working because we're not seeing giant leaps in attendance. So, I think it's a great idea to rethink

111those and relook at those and come up with some fresh ideas because we want children to come to school because school's a great place to learn is why we really want children to come to school. So, I appreciate the work that you're doing to kind of rethink that, look at some different different options. >> Thank you. >> Right. Any other questions on this? All right. We're going to look at new Mrs. Kezer, please. All right, guys. I'm going to get comfortable because we're going to have a lot to talk about. I think it's important uh to remember that in curriculum, instruction, and assessment, our work begins and ends with teaching and learning. So, everything that we talk about tonight, it's really focused on our first CSIP priority for effective teaching and learning. I am so

112aware that we are in a financial situation. So just as we talk tonight, we've thought about what we ask for. To begin with, we are going to look at the new courses for 2627. We have math modeling and reasoning 2, interior design 2, and food science and safety. Um, interior design 2 and math modeling and reasoning will be offered at both sites and food science will be offered at Hillyards. Any questions? I love that. You know, another avenue for them to be successful at Hillyard, you know, that draws their attention that's maybe not academically inclined or or just have an interest. So, it's nice to have classes offered that attract the outliers. >> We're continuing to focus on our pathways work >> and math modeling and reasoning, a commitment to uh increasing ACT scores >>

113and also any classes that we offer at Hillyard are also offered to students from other districts. Yeah. >> And then those other districts pay us to send their students to our district. So, it's kind of nice that It's I mean I don't want to look at as money maker but it is nice that we're offering for more than just kids that lots of students will be able to take advantage of it. I agree. >> Just curiosity why these why these two classes uh do >> good question. So interior design this um offers an expanded pathway towards another IRC and industry recognized credential. So um that's a big reason for that one. Math modeling and reasoning too. We basically took the first course and we just split it in half. We were trying to compress a

114lot of work into first semester and we essentially just spread the course over an entire year. >> Okay. And and and and um so so as it affects staffing are these would these be new headcount jobs teaching this would be part of current staff? >> Yes, that's my understanding. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have the professional learning plan. And I want to emphasize that this plan has been co-constructed with our district PDC committee. Uh we have Barbara Spencer who is on the PDC executive board. But we did also go through multiple rounds of um gathering stakeholder feedback. We went through a round with principles at our instructional leaders network. We met with the academic committee last month um and then multiple PDC committee meetings. I want to um note here that we

115pay for professional learning out of our local budget, but we have the 1% uh Dr. McMillan put me on the spot to answer the question last month, but I've got the answer today. That is part of our state foundation formula. So this money, this 1% that we speak of, we have to spend the money on professional learning. That's around $417,000. So even as we discuss our financial reality priority, but we have to spend the money or we lose it. So attached to um this item is a consulting agreement with Carabandis. It's included um with this item because it will be paid for from PDC with part of those 1% dollars. I do want to note that our professional learning came in significantly under budget this school year. I think probably around $200,000. Professional learning is

116extremely expensive. Um as you can see from the consulting agreement, it doesn't come cheap. But the instructional coaches have worked so hard to come together as a team and provide high quality learning to our teachers. And our focus for next year, we're calling it instructional coherence. And we have four pillars that are going to ground our work. So no matter which instructional coach is leading professional learning or if we bring in a consultant, these four pillars guide us. We have a shared understanding of standards, those state standards that guide us. High quality materials which you know, more and more information continues to come out on as to why this needs to be a priority, which we'll speak to in a moment. We have um content knowledge. So, it's important to develop a teacher's content knowledge.

117That is how they answer. That's how they ask the hard questions of their students and really get into that DO level where you're going to see the critical thinking. Um and then we have high leverage instructional practices. So those four things we're going to be very very consistent on next year. We have strategies that we are going to collectively commit to across our school district. Comprehension, reading strategies, math strategies. That will be the focus of our work. Uh and Barbara's here if you have any PDC questions. >> Okay. >> All right. Next we have the district assessment plan. >> Okay. So, so, so before you Yes. I'm sorry. Um, let's see. So, the ask of the board is going to be to approve that plan as >> Okay. >> And this is developed with the

118PDC and they have already committed to what they're going to spend their money on next year. >> Okay. So, all right. And then and I'm sorry to take us back just really really quickly, but the the the new course offering that we talked about is will that require board approval as well? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Under the mentoring of uh the $500 that a teacher would get, is there a set amount of hours um that they have to report back or is it just a organic relationship that's supervised in the building or >> So we follow the mentoring guidelines that are set by the state and we have mentor discussion guide that guides their monthly meetings. It's a two-year program that teachers have to complete. >> PDC professional development committee >> man all

119over. Thank you. >> All right. Can we talk about the assessment plan, please? >> Yes. This is very similar to last year's plan. I highlighted the changes for you um so that you could see those easily. The big change for next year is that we will move to Dibbles as our foundational literacy screener. So, as part of reading success plans, which is what students have to have if they're uh showing a deficit in reading, uh we do have to have a foundational screener. Previously, we've used ready reading. Um, and we're going to switch to dibbles, which we're already using in K3. The advantage to this move is primarily, I think, what a teacher can learn from the data. So, with Dibbles, the teacher um does have to sit with the student and listen to reading,

120whereas before with I Ready, the student was, you know, clicking through an adaptive test. Uh, we are going to expand mastery connect. So again, looking at what we've done this year, we've had predictives. In order to have a predictive, it's got to be in a map tested or an EOC grade. We want to expand the use of Mastery Connect to tighten our vertical alignment and make sure that our MAP and EOCC tested courses aren't carrying the load for all of the student performance. And so those benchmarks would be added to those critical courses. Now we're going to look at fifth grade science core resource adoption. And I think this is the big one for us to talk about tonight. And I want to go back to what I just said about a vertical alignment. It's

121important to remember that with our um science map that it is a test that measures multiple grade levels at one time. So for example, the fifth grade math test has standards from third, fourth, and fifth grade science. And the science map is in fifth grade, 8th grade, and then we have a biology EOC. Of course, we have not talked about science in a long time, and we are without a science resource at the elementary level. Previously, we had something called inspire. It's been a long time since it's been renewed. Teachers do have something called Generation Genius, which is online supplemental platform. It's not to be a core resource. That is something that we will not be renewing next year because it does cost $50,000. So given those um realities, we do think it's important that

122we continue with our uh commitment to high quality instructional materials. Given our financial reality, it's still a pressing concern that we don't have science at the elementary level. What I propose is that we start with fifth grade next year. Roll out fifth grade knowing that K4 will follow. So it will be like a phased approach to implementation. Fifth grade will um not have the pressure so much of just benchmark advance was just put into place this year. At the fifth grade level, most teachers are departmentalized. So, a fifth grade departmentalized teacher can really focus on learning this amplify resource with not saying that there aren't outliers who teach ELA and science. But for the most part, they can just focus on learning this new resource. Whereas the rationale with keeping um extending the pilot at

123K4 is that we need teacher leaders to build capacity for when we do roll this out in 272. Our goal will be to um refine the curriculum in 2627 so that the curriculum can roll out at the same time as the new resource. This year we did um work on aligning the benchmark advanced curriculum at the same time and that was something that teachers didn't really like. They wanted their curriculum at the same time as their resource. So I'm hopeful that the rationale for why we're going to take this approach um is something that I can convey tonight. I also want to note that K4 teachers will have access to some of the online components for Amplify. They won't have the full kit at their disposal, but I think it's important to note on that

124invoice, yes, there is a cost to a pilot. That that's unavoidable. I did come in at the budget that Dr. Hedgeworth and I talked about, and I do want to note that the CIA budget came came in um for 2627 $1.18 million less than this year. So we did absolutely absolutely trim in other areas so that we could prioritize this resource. >> And what's the cost of this recess? >> It's around 200,000 all told for the K4 piece and the fifth grade. And they did cut our shipping in half. I want to note that >> and I will say it's a onetime payment. >> It is a onetime payment and I also want to note that we will be committing for six years just like we committed to benchmark advance but I'm not just thinking

125about 2627. The truth is that five short years from now we're going to have to re renew or replace the elementary um ELA resource. And so what I didn't want to happen is that we have two consecutive years of a very large purchase. So it does stagger at the elementary level. Even forecasting down the road, we won't be hit backto-back years. >> Appreciate when you brought in the middle school teacher at academics committee and she brought in her tub and showed us all the hands-on learning and just seeing her excitement and then just seeing how it's um each grade level will have kind of a project they work through and it's very hands-on learning. I think the kids will enjoy it. So, it's nice to see that the staff that's already using it um endorses

126it and now we're just expanding it throughout our grades >> and I do keep putting my people on the spot and I'm thankful they're here. Um Shel Cross has been instrumental the last two years. The sixth grade sixth grade got amplified this year. She has been instrumental the last two years and I think does hold content knowledge that probably supersedes what I have when it comes to this resource. So, I'm going to put her on this spot as well if you have additional questions that I can't answer. I appreciate your carefulness knowing that our kids need it but then figuring out how to bring it to the district where it doesn't really crunch us. So that does place our kids first. >> Thank you. I'm thankful uh for the leadership of Dr. Hedgehorth and Stacia

127and this work. Yeah, I think the new the renewed emphasis on curriculum resources is a good emphasis. Um I think it's something that we've been starting last two, three, four years and I think our our scores are showing improvement. I think our teachers appreciate the fact that we're giving them materials. If you're a first year teacher, having a resource is probably a great benefit and so the renewed interest on curriculum resources I think is very appreciative. and also the data driven uh testing I think we've seen great returns on that where we can identify uh comprehension and we can adjust our teaching based on that throughout the year. So expanding that and expanding curricular resources I think is a win-win for the classroom and we're doing it uh in a responsible way financially. So thank

128you. >> Thank you. >> All right, Dr. Anderson, teacher of the visually impaired contract. >> Yes. So attached is a document for contracted for a teacher of the visually impaired, otherwise known as a TVI. This is required to provide services for 28 students that we have within the district that are blind or visually impaired. So, they are required services for students. TVIs are very difficult to find. In fact, many districts have to do nothing but outsource and contract. We did advertise. We didn't get any applicants because again it's really specialty area and so I have worked to secure this contract with this individual. Um she actually wanted to come to St. Joe was super excited about that and her rates are actually a little bit lower. She doesn't charge um what some of the others

129do when she's not working right with the student. She charges less than some of the other individuals. So that was also a selling point. So I just Wanted to make you aware of that. Are there any questions? >> Is is it possible to predict like total cost or is it just kind of like as needed? What depends on what the students are doing? Is it just >> I mean it's going to be basically a full-time position. So you could predict I I mean I can give you a prediction if if her costs were uh 150 an hour >> to work directly with students and there are 28 students. So, I mean, that's taking almost a full day of direct instruction. You could maybe take an hour or two out of that a day, >> right?

130>> Um, and then then her her fees on that. >> Fair enough. Thank you. >> Yes. >> So, I had a question. If if she comes and the child is absent, >> what does that look like? >> Yeah. So, that's also within the contract, if you if you saw that attached, there are pieces where if they she's already going to be here because there are 28 students, so she's not coming just for one kid. So she will have a full day of work. >> So she just goes see somebody else potentially. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Which is what we do now, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Or she prepares materials or things like that. There's a lot of braille work, things like that that have to be done. >> Thank you. >>

131Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Dr. Noli, security radio. >> I have another one. >> Sorry therapy at school. >> Yes. Sorry. So, this is a renewal of a contract that we utilize with therapy at school. They provide SLP services, speech, language pathology services, I'm sorry for my acronyms, occupational health services, and physical therapy services as needed. Um, we have had to uh over the se past several years utilize a variety of companies and the therapy at school has been really good to us. Um, and we only pay as needed. >> Are there any questions? >> I have a question. >> Yes. As a district, are we currently billing like Medicaid or private insurance for this? Okay, >> we are billing Medicaid. >> Okay. But not private insurance. >> Not

132private insurance. >> Can I ask why we're not building private insurance? Do we know? >> We have never built private insurance on it. I >> I just asked because I come from the medical community and I know there's a lot of reimburseable dollars there for therapy services. >> I don't know if the district is allowed to do that. So, we are allowed to build Medicaid So, that would have to be something we would check into, but I mean, I took Medicaid over uh last year, and obviously you've seen our Medicaid revenues go up, so we've done a much better job of billing for that than we ever did previously. Uh I know nothing about the private insurance. I I check into it. >> No, you're fine. I just bring it up because reimbursement wise those

133services could bring in some dollars >> insurance individual like the private health insurance of the individual or the private insurance for the district. >> Yes. Like if we're providing them a therapy service and we're able to bill insurance for those reimbursements. Um that would be potentially a significant amount of revenue. >> I don't think that's allowed on the school side. I will double check. I will double check. But yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not allowed. That's why I'm like It's required that we provide that because of their IEP. So, it's not necessarily a, you know, we have some students that require PT, for instance, because of the medical need and that would be a doctor's order and they would build their insurance, but we don't provide those services within district when a doctor requires PT.

134Does that make sense? >> That part makes sense. And I'm not saying like we would build bill them and then like cost the student or anything like that, but there are reimburseable dollars there. when you provide a therapy service, >> um, a medically necessary service that that you can get reimbured dollars. And when we're talking about finances and revenue and monies and things like that, when I saw this on this on the schedule, I remember um I'm I'm drawing blank, but the previous HR >> Yes, Dr. Krauss. I remember him bringing that up that that was something to do, and I just hadn't heard about it in a while, so I thought I would I would ask him. >> I will absolutely It's not something that I've ever known that we've been allowed to do.

135All I have been tasked with is Medicaid. And we have really grown that. And so, um, again, I I will double check, but it's not something I've ever heard. >> I totally get that. And there may be some barriers there, like if we're not able to or maybe we don't have some of the required softwares or whatever, but just as a potential source of revenue, I thought I would mention that. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Okay, now we're ready for you, Dr. >> All right. Um, you know, as I look through this list and I go through this and I know, you know, finances are always, you know, at the top of our list and, you know, I think about all the academic resources and things we've uh talked about tonight. Um, I

136want to tell you that this plan that this this proposal I have in place here that we'll ask to for you guys here in a couple weeks is a more of a system for communication and emergency realm than we've had. I mean, I know in the four years I've been here, but I'm not sure it's ever been this way. We're talking about a system that can combine radios um uh with cell phones and also then also a central dispatch unit uh that can create a communication system between several schools, one school also a centralized dispatch location which may be here or could be uh noise at the administration building. But looking at this, um, you know, I thought when I we initial embarked on this, this was going to be way too, uh, expensive of

137an ordeal. Um, with T-Mobile and with some of the resources that we already currently have, um, this has been a little more accessible than I I believed it to be. Um, right now, if you look at the slides I gave you, there's there's some information on there. We're talking about a device that's a high level device. We've actually tested this device. We uh did a pilot. It was for free this year. Um we got this through T-Mobile and the premier wireless group that is provides these radios uh at Central High School, which we did that because it's one of our biggest campuses. We figure if this system can work um in a campus that size, uh it can work anywhere. Um we there was a lot of success with it between our SRO, our campus

138supervisor administrators um that use these devices uh the radios and also the TDC which is a direct connect. Basically that is a software app that gets put on your phone and treat and takes a phone and makes it uh communicating with a radio or communicating like a radio emergency radio. But when we had this pilot it was it was very successful. um the campus supervisors, the SRO, the all the people that were using it talked about the ease how easily it was used and how effective it was. For instance, they could talk from inside the main offices at Central to the football field, which if you want think about that span and that space with T-Mobile and with the the the high quality systems that you have here, that's a pretty good span to be

139able to talk. Um, one of the things we talked about was CIP and priority 4 really nails it with our security side. Um, and L10 is the MSIP actually indicator. School systems actively address school safety and security in all facilities. And I will tell you this communication system here um will will do that. um right and looking at and this kind of changes based on number of radios you purchase and uh there is actually a savings factor we we would enter into in this pricing um we would spend about $18,000 on the hardware for the radios um we'd spend another a little over $6,000 in the U TDC the apps it's a $5 per line per month fee um and then there is the T-Mobile able um subscription or the 20 month $20 a month

140rate there which uh would is discounted because we already are a use T-Mobile as a provider for some services in the district. So with this I I know that 25,000 is is is the budgeted amount that I put in the student services budget and talk with Dr. Hedge about for next year. Uh this would well fit that budget. Um there is some technology budget that would be used uh an annual rate of about $13,000 a year. Um the first year will be about 5,000 because of the discount that they're going to provide us to enter into this agreement. Um and about a $6,000 a year cost through student services to maintain this be in the building, check things out, everything was fine. It was really minor, no big deal. But the communication that you have

141to rely on to get that done is is very critical. And when we start talking about a possible failure of having to reunify students from a campus to another site, um, and we have to think, okay, what would that communication look like? I will tell you right now, um, we we bandage it together with with Raptor with cell phones and things like that, but this system would be able to allow us to communicate between separate sites very easily. So yes, security and safety is a big big thing for education >> and learning. >> Mr. Note to look flying up a few thousand feet does does so you know we had a good investment significant investment I think in our classrooms for security with the >> somebody help me I'll call it the new intercom system.

142I know that's way underelling it. >> So so that connect it was part of the bond u uh spend a few years ago and So then uh let's see that would that would connect classrooms at at all levels but this connects somebody that's anywhere campus >> right this is going to be your radio and cell phone. Um there there are some possibilities to link those two together. Uh we had some very brief conversation with Premier Wireless which is the the hardware side of this contract and they said there are some abilities to uh link those two systems together. Initially, that's not what we want. We're looking at something as a parallel uh to those that inform because that inform is going to broadcast in every classroom, in every hallway, and every place else. This is

143going to take us outside the building and extend past the building if we need to have that communication. >> Yeah, it's it's complimementary, not redundant. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> That expands outside the building. >> Any additional questions? Okay, thank you very much for that. >> All right, the next item on our agenda is board reorganization procedures. And Mike, I know this was something that you were wanting on the agenda, so I'm going to kind of turn it over to you to lead the discussion on this. >> Yes, thank you. Um so yeah, listen um um at our at our last reorganization meeting, you know, um we didn't follow a process that was posted in the agenda and uh you know, it it caught at least half the board by surprise. Um I think

144it created a little bit of chaos with people trying to hurry up and nominate somebody and and and uh and and really, you know, didn't allow for remarks from the nominees or those that made the nominations. and um you know didn't align with previous years that we did. And so so what I would like to um propose to the board is that we adopt the process that we've used several years in the past, the one that was posted to the agenda as as u part of policy and and perhaps like a procedure, right? So I don't know. I I took a stab. It might be BCA-Pap. how that works exactly, but but but but just so that it's clear to everybody what's going to happen when we show up for reorganization meeting. >> That's it.

145Simple. >> I would agree with that, Mike. I know that I mean I was the president at the time and I didn't even know what was going on and I think that that um created a little bit of animosity. it was at the beginning of our new beginning and that wasn't a good way to you know to begin and so I would agree with it a formal process that everyone knows what's going on it's no surprises okay so what now will you be creating like like I know that it was written in the agenda you know but are you liking language in the agenda at that time or does it mean anything? >> I thought it was effective and understandable. I mean, I would certainly be open to some sort of a review before we

146formalized it, but but yeah, I thought it looked 95% there. >> My opinion, >> I think our practice should should be in the procedure. You know, I mean, if this is what we've been practicing and that's what usually happens, >> it should match the polic. Yeah. Well, again, and and the board can always review and update a procedure as time goes by, but I just I just think it's important we have a single source of the truth what's going to happen. >> And I agree with you. And another thing that I don't know if I can or not, but when we're doing procedures, I think we also need need to do the same like when the seat comes open and that process too because I think that was a little bit chaotic too last year.

147That'll take a little more work, I think. But yes, >> I like the sentiment. >> So that'll be noted in the minutes of our meeting >> for moving forward then. >> Okay. >> All right. Thanks, Mike. >> Thank you. >> All righty. So the next one is you, Donna. Policy updates. >> Yes. Um MSBA had sent us several board policy updates and fortunately or unfortunately this time it all fell on the board, not really any of our directors. So, I have sent all of those to you guys. If you have questions or anything, please know so I can check with MSBA and get answers for you. Otherwise, we will have them on the agenda for this month's board meeting to approve. >> I have a couple comments I just put out there. >> Sure. >>

148And I can also email these to you. Um um policy BCE on page one in the last paragraph ahead of the standing committees. It says the board president will recommend individuals on the committee. I would like to introduce a revision. the board will make recommendations as a whole. Um and then on policy BBA, um the last two paragraphs on page number one in green, I think we've kind of struggled with a little bit. And so I think our board needs to think really hard about this one if we want to implement it. Um >> will you say that again so I can look at >> policy BBA >> school board powers and duties. >> And which which section of that one? >> The last two >> paragraphs in green. Okay. On page number one. And

149like I said, I will also email this as well. Um, policy AF, it's about accountability and the commitment and it mentions, you know, um, accountability in the policy. Okay. But the question I have is how will we maintain accountability because in the policy it doesn't mention that. So maybe we can go over that at the retreat in June. Um, a thing that I must have missed a while ago, um, BDDG R1 in the minutes, um, it says that minutes should be signed by the proper officers of the board. Um, and so, um, I missed that one. Maybe you can look into that, miss. Like I don't know anything about that. I don't know like who who addresses that or not. Um and then let's see another one that I had a question about about the

150implementation policy. BI um is a legislative program. It mentions advocacy, you know, but it doesn't mention implementation and how. And so if we could look at that also maybe at the at the retreat ways, you know, of implementation of that policy. >> Would you say the letters of it again please? >> BI. >> Yes. And then um policy BDDG is a different one from the one above. It's about minutes. Um and this is like a new thing. Um it mentions that um committee needs committees also now need um the published minutes like it does like in board meetings and such like that and that's a new change and so I wanted people you know to be aware of that and the process is like it is in our normal meetings like it's minutes and then

151it's up at a particular time and things like that. Um, and I think that is all I have. >> Thank you very much for going through those. >> Yeah, like I said, I can email you my notes and things like that. I had a question on um like on the one Miss Williams talking about BDDG on the minutes. It includes it incorporated BDDG-R1, but they're not recommending us to resend BDDg R1. But on another policy they sent us that included two together, they did recommend us rescending the duplicate one. So why did they not why are we going to have both of them? So BDDG will now include both BDDG and BDG-1. So why do we still need dash one would be my question. >> And the way I look at it and the way

152that I undertood it is that they work together and not against each other and they're not identical. >> Yeah. >> Um and so that's why it's not like a recent one. >> Okay. because what confused me was in the other one where they did include uh we must be members of the national board. They did recommend resending that one. >> So I appreciate the clarification. >> completely identical on those two. >> And then on the on the BCE one uh you brought up the board president will recommend specific individuals to serve. >> Yes. >> The next phrase says subject to approval by the full board. >> Yes. >> So do you still are you still wanting to strike that and just put the board? Uh >> yes. Okay. >> Um the board to eliminate any

153issues or >> I understand >> conflicts in the future. >> Okay. >> Because that's been our practice, >> right? >> Okay. And that's all >> those minutes. It recommended that the secretary be the signer >> and not necessarily board executive. Be the signer if you're going to be taking the notes, but they're not finalized until they're passed at the next meeting. >> Right. >> Well, the thing about it is I think that's kind of um >> Well, it's oversight by the board because you're writing all the minute And so I think you know that the president should look at the minutes and then sign off on the minutes. I mean >> it's your work you know that you're >> right >> doesn't make sense to me. >> Yeah. >> For you. >> Yeah. I do

154have I do have you know Cassie look at the minutes or even >> Becky look at them you know after I have done them but >> I don't care >> who looks at it as long as >> you've got a person looking over and you don't have your back. >> Yeah. Yeah. But I also like to read out loud >> or we each get a a copy of them >> instead of just sticking them in the consent agenda. >> Yeah. >> Okay. But we do approve them. >> We do. We do. And we have a chance to look at them, but I like a paper copy just like every like if you go onto the agenda. >> I know that. >> You make a click and you can print it off like and so we

155read it >> prior to the meeting. And it's the same thing. >> I would still like a paper copy provided at my desk. >> That's I mean that's a little >> so much but Okay. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's extra cost that we're so >> any any other um questions about the new policies. >> So we're going to go over these at our retreat. >> Yes, I've written them. >> Well, these are updates for Yeah. So, >> yeah, but there's a couple, you know, that we were going to go over in depth. You know, we're going to vote >> to adopt these >> um next week. >> Yeah. >> And you're going to check about that. Okay. >> And Latia, I'm going to get back with you after our meeting and double check and make

156sure I've got the right ones that you want to focus on at the retreat because I'm in the process of planning that. Like I said, I'll email them. >> Okay. the school board as well. I >> everything I had in my notes. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. The next one up is communication from legal services and procedures. So I would um like to start this discussion. Um, we've asked ED cult ed council what their perspective is on this process and they have shared uh with board leadership that their preference would be that all of our legal advice and counsel be discussed in um close session and I feel like since they are the legal e experts that hearing their voice and what their recommendation would be is really important and that way we're educated

157from people who are experts um in the legal system and that will be a safeguard for the board as well. So I just wanted to share that information with the full >> a couple questions and comments. >> Sure. >> As I've emailed legal counsel is a legal counsel for the full board. It's not even one individual. It is not legal counsel for the board president or the vice president or leadership as a couple. It is our leadership. And so I know that the practice in the past was when I received information, I immediately emailed it out because it is not only my information, it is everyone's information. And I think it's it's really kind of disrespectful for you guys to keep this information away from everybody as a whole. And I also want to add

158legal counsel is a guidance. We're the elected officials as we've often commented and we all know, you know, that we don't always listen, you know, to what the gospel tells us. It's what it's our choice pretty much. And we've all proven that many times, especially lately. And so, um, I think that we need to be cognitive of I'm respectful of your position as the president and vice president, but it is not your right to withhold information of the legal counsel of the board from the board. That is not that is not my desire to do that. I was just stating when I would be distributing that information based on a recommendation from ed counsel >> and I completely I completely disagree. um at the last meeting of the board um I was asking about the

159communication from legal counsel and if you're going you know to say legal counsel said well I want to know what they said um I don't think it's right you know to make any decisions based upon the words of legal counsel that we've not all receive knowledge of and at that meeting we were told We received the communication after that meeting and it's been two it's been over two weeks and we've not received that information and I understand I know what they told you but as we all know you are our voice. You are not our decision maker. All of us are equal members on this board. As I said and I want to repeat, you are our voice to legal counsel. You are like a conduit. You are not the end all in the beall.

160And I think it's really disrespectful that there are legal issues occurring. And every member of the board is not privy to those. >> And I emailed you when that would be happening. And that will be happening this evening during our executive session. >> And I told you it's been two weeks and there's been more legal things occurring in the two week time frame and I think that the board needs to figure out a plan. The board as a whole on what they want legal communication, you know, to look like. Is it like a 24-hour period? Is it like a twoe period? Okay. But it is not you decide when you want to do these things. And I I've thought about those questions a lot because I mean I'm new to the board and so I've

161thought about through thought through it and I do think close sessions are a benefit because it it it secures our communication. It avoids any kind of opportunity for things to be leaked or shared inappropriately. Um the policy says that everything even the discussion of legal matters is protected when we do it in close session. So I do think close session is a good thing. I think if I could go back and do it again and we had more time to prepare for that meeting, we could have had a close session prior to our open session where that email was shared, um we didn't have the conversation until Monday and so we couldn't have called a meeting and that that that led to this situation that is is not um a good outcome and I hear

162that. I know you're frustrated. I think you should be frustrated that we quoted legal counsel and wasn't able to show you that and I apologize for that. But I think moving >> your decision to make. >> I'm one board member. I'm just talking. Exactly. And so >> what I'm saying is as one board member, I would prefer to discuss all legal uh communication in close sessions. And I think if we all want to be educated and kept up to speed on that, we just have to be willing to meet more times in close session to discuss those communications. So that that's just where I'm at. Um, I know that solution didn't help the last time, but last time if if I could go back, I would recommend that we'd have a close session prior to

163our open session where that email was shared to the whole board so that when that conversation came up, everyone was informed. So, my my position is that we would discuss all legal counsel and communication in close sessions and that we'd all be willing to prioritize maybe having to meet more often uh when those issues do come up. >> So, there was a Friday where we all came here and we met and we that contract and I had emailed and then also asked about speaking with legal counsel or getting the information. Um, and we had a more than a quorum of the board at that time. So, I'm not sure why we kind of marinated on that and didn't act and have this conversation sooner rather than later um given everything going on. Again, as a

164new board member, like I'm being named things that I wasn't even a part of. Um, and so the fact that I'm having to wait all this time for legal when we had a quorum of the board and we had multiple members requests to speak with the attorney and we had enough time to contact them and to put it on the agenda and yet that still didn't happen but there was no communication as to why that didn't happen or why we would not be able to meet with them on that Friday when we all showed up that morning. I did communicate with you that I felt the information was extremely important that all board members needed to be aware of that information and we had a board member that had to leave our meeting and go

165to work and so everybody was not to be able to hear that. So that was my reasoning for that. >> Like I said, you're taking liberties and they're not fair to the board as a whole. You are our voice to legal counsel, but you are not our decision maker. Now, if the quorum of the board is okay with not knowing anything or waiting two weeks or whenever you choose to give information, it is what it is. But it is not your decision to make. It is not your decision to make. is the board's decision to make. >> Thank you. I will take note of that. It's an information item and so at the next meeting of the board, it should be an action item >> to do what >> to for the board to take

166a vote on timeliness and or the manner of legal communication to the full board. have that action item. >> Thank you. >> So, I'm just going to add one thing to this just because and it's not to throw anybody under glass. It's not to argue with anybody. This isn't a problem that just started. We me and you've had several conversation last year. You know, I'm hard on this. So, again, going forward, I'm going to be hard on this as well. I've said many times last year, we are a board of seven. I want to know all legal problems that's happened and we've had those conversation because we can, right? So, it's not a problem that just started. This started last year, too. So, I do like the idea of having this on an action item

167and moving forward so we have a plan together. >> Sounds good. >> Okay. Moving to number 17 is town hall. And I know we had a long time ago set a date for a town hall and then we postponed it. The consolidation was happening and then it got postponed. And so um Cassandra brought this up at our last meeting about putting it back on the agenda. So, I think we should discuss if we would choose to to do this, what would be the goal that we would want to achieve from having a town hall meeting, especially taking into consideration the open houses um that are happening next week um to help students and teachers get situated in their new school environments. I know that will be happening in the month of May. So, I just

168want us to have some conversation about what would be the goal if we would choose to have a town hall meeting. >> I would say that we would choose to have the town hall meeting because we already told the public that we would do one and um we're going to do what we say we're going to. So, we're gonna we're going to have one because we've already committed to it. And honestly, I get it. It's not always fun to hear all the things that everybody has to say. Um because it's not always the nicest thing sometimes. Um, but it's important that we hear those people out and give them an opportunity to speak. >> Yeah. But I am not for just an open come and complain. I am I am I want to present some

169material I think. Right. So I've heard a bunch of it today. Right. Like like okay here's some financial situations. here some facility situations >> and and and really just share with the public um some of the plans and again I I I know we'll hear >> whatever's there >> without a plan just because that's my natural nature is >> no and I mean we we need to we need to do a little research like okay you know we need to have some rules of engagement and and a time limit and uh we need to talk a lot I think about who facilitates >> right because maybe it's none of us >> they nominate hedge court. >> I was going to mention I've seen DLR DDS in a town hall format. I've seen them do their

170process through committee. So maybe they have a exercise that is part of the town hall that could you know be part of our facilities plan as we look forward. Just thought >> that would be a great topical. >> Yes. To speak to a particular topic that's been put out by the board or brought to us through this kind of meeting. then went all together too. >> That was a quick pivot. >> Well, you'd also have your facilitators. >> Yeah. I do think having a an agenda or a topic we're discussing and then they have to speak to that topic would be beneficial. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, are we looking at like a date or >> Well, I think if we're going to utilize are to do that. We would have to wait till after

171the next board meeting after we make a decision about what our plan is with them. Um >> yeah, >> whether we're going to be able to utilize them or not. >> Yeah. I feel like we don't want to try to cram it into this month. >> Can use a date >> right >> at the next board meeting. Yes. Okay. All righty. Number 18, Lata. Okay. So, as I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, I mentioned this at the last meeting, and it's almost like um it's almost like the agenda item about the chronically ill children. Um, I think that we as a board need to look at the policies and the process and procedures in place in regards to our chronically ill or terminal staff. Um, now there were some emails we received an

172overview and I do appreciate that. Um I had a list of questions after that though. Um and then I know that you replied you know that um it's being vetted in the policy committee in MSBA prior to coming you know to the board and I appreciate that. um in the past has been members of the board as a part of the policy committee and um I would like to be a part of the conversation. Um I have questions. I've got concerns almost like when Mike was a part about the procedure about the building rentals. Um, I would just like to move this forward rather than it come and then go back and come and then go back. And I wanted this as an agenda item um because I believe if you mention it in the

173meeting, you should um come back with some follow through um and then um transparency is always key. I know that it's not a lot really kind of known about those practices and um it should be. You mentioned about policy committees. What are they? kind of random based on whatever policy we're looking at. And it's a it's a revolving rotating group. So, it's not the same members every time. That way we're getting different staff members involved in the converation. So it's not as >> it's more of an ad hoc. >> Yeah, that came to my mind was because it's kind of a complex deal and it has to do with benefits and >> and uh so so so yeah, it might be a committee level thing. >> Yes. And in the information that I received though,

174um it's in the process right now to be presented in June, right? >> Correct. So there's already a committee like in place. >> Yeah, we have meetings >> about this >> probably October. >> Okay. So when are the meetings >> when >> um we finalize the policy and it's with um MSTA and NEA for review currently and once they give their really kind of their thumbs up they've been asking questions. I've been answering those. Once they give their thumbs up then I would bring it to the board for approval or through that process. >> And what about the questions I have? >> If you submit those question, we'll try and get some answers, but we haven't seen any questions. >> Yes, I know cuz this is our first time ever conversing about this. I mentioned

175it at the last meeting. I attended a couple weeks ago and then I emailed on the 5th and I've been attempting to get this item on the agenda ever since on the 5th. And at that time I offered to give my questions and it was never approved as an agenda item until now. And that's why no one had it's why no one's ever received a copy of the questions or the board's not received a copy of my answers. I received from Rhonda and Ashley. I'm asking about our implementation, our input and the policy. Because a lot of times you guys will um bring us a policy back. Okay. But your mind's already made up about what you want and as you want it. I'm asking to join you in the creation of the policy. That's

176all I'm asking. >> Okay. Um we would have to reconvene and then it probably would not be approved to start the new contract school year because >> well because our our most of our staff um are not going to be working. They don't come in off contract but they would want to volunteer to that committee um because we've we've been doing the work for six months. I wish you would have asked to be on the committee six months ago. We would have granted that. >> But when it comes to the board as a final vote, you guys approve it. So if there's things in there that you want to discuss as a board, that's up to you guys. >> And then ultimately not able to be a part of the process of this policy. >>

177We would have to reconvene. >> That's what you would like. >> My question is is when I emailed you guys on the 5th, >> why was I not told at that time, you know, that this was in process? I don't know. >> I've been sharing updates on on the weekly updates >> for the policy. >> I don't know what email you're referring to off the top of my head. >> Do you guys on the board know what email I'm referring to? >> Because I included everybody. >> I remember there being multiple emails about this. Um, yes. >> And it was to mention, you know, that this was even in the process until 2:00 earlier today, >> but we've been providing that on a weekly update. Mr. Carell has >> I'm asking why was it not

178mentioned in the chain of emails? >> Because it was answered in the weekly update. >> I know on >> Okay. >> or two it was kind of some notes were provided um about policy GCBDA and some of our um thoughts from the committee. I know I shared in a board meeting um probably back in January and February, >> my question about changes policies in relation to chronically ill or terminal employees and I asked in the email about an overview and then it was ignored and then I asked again and then you gave an overview and you never once mentioned We we've been working on this in the policy committee and we're bringing this as a policy and I think if we were talking about the same thing I think it would have come up in

179the email thread. I don't know if remaining the same thing and you're not on the email thread. Okay. But you're like on the email thread. a majority of the board were and then it was me, you, Rhonda, and Jacob. Are you remembering the conversation I'm talking about or does nobody remember but me? >> I know that you've been submitting questions about this policy and asking for an overview >> and did anybody at any time mention it was already at the policy committee >> today at 2 p.m. that was given. >> Thank you. That's all I was ask. Do you have questions about this polic that we can just I have a list. I've got a list and because I'm not going to be a part of the process, I guess I will just email them

180>> and I would appreciate everybody. But >> you said you weren't going to be a part of the process. >> You said we would have to reconvene. >> Exactly. And that means I'm not going to inconvenience our staff. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to be the one to do that. >> And like I said, I will email >> Thank you. >> I will email these questions. I wasn't finished. I will email these questions. and I would appreciate a response in a timely manner. Thank you. >> Do you know when we'll get a copy of that policy? >> Our hope is, again, I'm still waiting on MSD and they've had it for about 3 weeks. They've been submitting questions. Um, my goal is I've already sent a preliminary um, draft to MSBA.

181Um, and they have sent it back with the example of what you've had with the red and the green. Um, they've kind of given their blessing that they don't see anything any glaring issues with it. if there's other changes that MSTA and NEA might suggest. I responded to to an email yesterday and we've made a couple month um kind of waiting for more before I send it back to MSPA to make some final changes but my hope is to bring it to the work session in June. >> Okay. So we will be voting on right till we have a lot of time. Now if if MSDA and NEA say yes by our next board meeting, we more than happy to bring it then for anformational item and then we can if we want to discuss

182further in the work session in June. We can have discussion then and then hopefully approve it at the end of June to start July one. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> All right. Our next board of education meeting will be Tuesday, May 26th because of the Memorial Day holiday falling on that Monday. And I would need a motion to adjourn to executive session. >> I'll make a motion to adjourn to executive session pursuant to 610.21 close meetings and close records for legal, hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees and individually identifiable personal records. did it. Can I have a second to that? >> Yes. >> I feel like that should be a >> when we do the reorganization in that position, >> Mr. McMillan. Yes. >> Mr. Moore. >> Yes. >>

183Miss Williams. >> Miss Miller. Yes.