August 25, 2025 Tax Rate Hearing and Board of Education Meeting

00170. Okay. Dr. Hedgecore. >> Yes. So, we're here this evening to talk about the tax rate for St. Joe school districts. Um, per state statute, we are required to turn our tax rate to Ukanon County. And the tax rate is calculated using a formula from the state auditor's office. Um it includes our assessed valuation from the previous year and the current year as well as information that includes new construction um and personal property. So when you take those calculations and put those into the state auditor's calculation, it gives you what's called a tax calculated tax rate ceiling. And so in St. Joe school district, we have three different levies. Uh that includes our normal operating levy, our temporary operating levy, and our debt service operating levy. So based on those calculations u that is sent

002back to us from the state auditor's office we're asking the board of education uh to set the normal operating levy at 3.7429 which is the calculated tax rate ceiling the temp operating levy at6033 and then the debt service levy at 5701. Uh the calculated maximum for that levy was 6675 but we are asking the board to voluntarily roll that back rate back to um for a debt service rate of 0.5701. And the reason we're asking to roll back that debt service is to keep our to total tax rate uh the exact same from the previous year at 4.9163. And with just to let you know that debt service levy does service the debt we have for our district. Uh we do vet that through Raymond James who is our municipal adviser for the district and

003we do ensure that the tax rate that we ask the board to set uh does handle the um obligations that the district has to pay those bonds. So um I would ask the board to approve in our regular meeting uh the total tax rate of 4.9163 and then on the screen you can see how those will be broken out into each individual fund. Um in our incidental fund which is fund one will be 4.3462 and then in our debt service fund which is fund 3 will be 5701. There is also a document in your information with all the calculations on that proformant that came back from the state auditor's office if you would like to ask about any questions on those calculations or any other questions you may have at this time. >> Are there

004any questions? >> Yeah, Dr. Hedgecourt is um so so my question is around the temporary operating levy. Are are are we saying that um what am I trying to ask? Does does the fact that the second part of the document does doesn't mention the temporary operating levy, does that mean anything? >> Um on the proforma, >> I'm going to say yes. >> Okay. So on the pro for it's actually on form A in the back. So the first form A is going to be the incidental rate. Okay. >> And then you have your debt service which is form B. Then there's a second form a in the back that does the calculations on that temp levy and that temp levy is a sunset levy that goes through the 2829 tax year that would have to

005be um renewed again at that time if it were continued. >> Okay. So it's basically just adding those two numbers together. >> That is correct. >> Thank you. >> And Dr. Dr. Dr. Hedgecore I was curious um why why we're why we're leaving that 10 cents. You know we've got some financial straits. Why are we leaving that? >> Sure. Uh my best answer to that is to being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Um if we believe that our that levy 0.5701 can handle our debt service, um then rem at 4.9163 I believe is always in the best interest. Um I don't believe that you should have a tax rate increase unless the voters um approve an increase. Yes, by law we can increase it um by what the calculations from the state auditor say. Um

006but I think it's in the best interest of the district to rem let it remain at 4.9163 um to to be good stewards of of those dollars and to only increase your total tax rate if the voters of St. school district do approves that >> and uh you know I don't I don't know how that changes year to year but assuming that it increases will that um that will that difference will grow between what the state allows and what we choose to do and is that consistent with what other districts do? >> It is consistent with other districts do. Um it it all depends on assess valuation and new construction how that comes in on the amount that you might voluntary roll back. might be only 5 cents next year versus 9 cents this year.

007It just all depends on how those numbers come in. Um but but I do believe that that you know in my experience and talking to a lot of CFOs around other districts, it is in the best interest to uh never increase your levy unless the voters you know approve so of the ballots instead of using state honors calculations to try to move it up and down a minimal amount. So >> thank you. >> Yes. Are there any additional questions? If there are no questions, public comments, >> I had none turned in. >> Had no one turned in. All right. And if there are none, then is there a motion to adjourn and open back up at 5:30? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Would you call the vote, please? Mhm.

008>> Miss Williams. >> Yes. >> Miss Miller, >> yes. >> Miss Chzn, >> yes. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> yes. >> Mr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Richmond, >> yes. >> This meeting is adjourned. Good evening. I call this meeting to order. Miss Donna. >> Miss Karns >> here. >> Miss Miller >> here. >> Miss Williams >> here. >> Miss Chzn >> here. >> Mr. Moore >> here. >> Mr. Richmond >> here. Miss Lanny >> here. >> All stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. I aliance 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. >> Okay, members of the board, if you could join me at the front, please. >> Dr.

009Lacy Adams. >> Good evening. It is my pleasure to recognize Dr. Becky Evans and Miss Brook Kle who you guys want to come up who lead Scape Elementary School. We were excited to learn recently that Skate Elementary was recognized by Solution Tree as a promising practices professional learning community at work school. Um PLC's are schools and districts in which educators recognize that the key to improved learning for students based on enabling job embedded learning for the adults who serve those students. The three big ideas of PLC call upon educators to one focus on learning, two build a collaborative culture and three create a results orientation. Promising practices. Schools are recognized for building a strong foundation based on PLC concepts, implementation of these concepts for at least two years or more, and clear evidence of improved

010student learning over the period. Once measurable results can be seen, the school must explain its practices, structures, and culture, and then submit its application for consideration by the PLC review committee. Recognized promising practices schools are listed on the all thingsplc.info website. Congratulations to Skate Elementary. It's a lot of hard work. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Audience participation number one, Mr. Shot. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> My name is Dick Shad. I speak to you tonight as an educator of 32 years as a teacher, guidance counselor, principal, founder, and director of an alternative ed program, an adult education program. I was part of the program that provided teacher training and counselor training. I know the educational system the me the mission of the St. Joseph school department should read every student will

011be provided equal access to all academic programs, extracurricular activities and clubs and sports. The St. Joseph school department does not provide this equal access. Benton and Lafayette do not have equal access to program the same program as central. Just a sample of that. This is really easy to obtain. You just go to any administrator central office and ask for it. Here's activities in sports. Benton High School 28 Central 70. Lafayette information is still coming in. My guess it would be C uh closer to Benton. Advanced Science Curriculum Central 6, Benton 0, Lafayette 1. Advanced Math, Central 5, Benton 1, Lafayette 2. Some of the sixth graders are not provided the middle school experience that other sixth and seventh grade students do experience. going through a middle school uh uh junior high program gets you ready

012for high school not in terms of information but in terms of process change classes change teachers. These issues of unequal access will be addressed when redistric redistricting is completed resulting in two high schools that are fed into by the elementary and middle schools. I asked the board to consider an agenda item that requests that the present administration prepare for the board the specific changes that will occur with two high schools. So you are aware of that with this specific plan and with all the changes that occur, the business department may well be able to calculate the amount of money to be saved by the St. Joseph our St. Joseph's school board. I request I request that the planning for two high schools occur during the school year 2526. That's right now. The transition of two

013high schools to be implemented for the 2627 school year. Remember that every year that passes with three high schools is another year of unequal access. Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Okay. Number two, Mr. Leak. Good evening. I agree with a lot of those problems and we can solve them without solving or without spending a hundred hundreds of millions of dollars immediately by redistricting and ending the segregation in our community. I if you want to whatever plan we go forward with let's have a board policy right now that we will balance free and reduced lunch in all of the schools. Let's put that out there. Uh when we have new schools I'm all for building schools. We should have them as part of a long range plan for the next 20 years. Lafayette's all about

014opportunity. And for those of you that came down to the Jamberee and watched the other day, I appreciate you being there. We did pretty well there. But the the biggest things that we did there, you didn't see. You didn't see that our winning run was manufactured by a girl who's never stepped foot on a softball field until Saturday. She didn't even know what to do when the foul ball was hit. Another big hit came from a girl who's never touched a ball, who wouldn't even be a manager at other schools. These schools that we admire tell their players, "Don't even come out unless you play a high level of travel ball." It's simple. I don't want my kid at a big school. That's my choice. That's what I want. My kids have done well. Even

015with the lesser opportunities, I think they've done well. We could we could solve a lot of the opportunities problems. It's almost like we're trying to break it a little bit more so we can get a new toy. Now, there's a lot of people here. I respect all of you and I disagree with you, but I'll make a deal here right now. If you pull our administrative team, our administrators across the district, I respect them. They're very intelligent. I will follow their lead. If the majority of them took their children to larger schools, I will follow. But I think if we look, they've made a choice like me that they want smaller schools as well. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Leak. >> Okay. Approval of the agenda. Is there a motion? a motion. >> Thank

016you, Jennifer. >> Thank you, Kim. Anytime you're ready, >> Miss Williams? >> Yes. >> Miss Miller? >> Yes. >> Miss Chzn? >> Yes. >> Miss Karns? >> Yes. >> Miss Lanning? >> Yes. >> Mr. Moore? >> Yes. >> Mr. Richmond? >> Yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. >> Consent agenda. Is there a motion? I'd like to remove G, H, I, and K. Please, >> could you repeat those, please? G, H, I. >> Okay. Now, are you removing them or are you moving them to action items? >> I'm removing them so that we can vote on them separately. >> Okay. So, you're moving them down the agenda as >> action items. Okay. Now, would you like to make a motion about the consent agenda? >> Sure. So, moved. >> No, I need to repeat

017the whole thing. >> Make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the removal of GHI and K. >> Thank you. I have a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Whatever your writing would call this, >> Miss Williams, >> yes. >> Miss Miller, >> no. >> Miss Chzn, >> yes. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> yep. >> Mr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Richmond, >> yes. >> And the motion passes 61. Okay. Admin reports. >> Sure. So, first I want to start with all our alternative methods of instruction plan. So, if you remember, the board approved back in June our AMI plan an application to submit to DESIE. They did approve that last week. So, I just wanted to give you an update on that. We will

018send communication out to our families later this fall. And then moving to facilities. So, back in June, we were charged with researching two options for a two high school model. that being Central and Benton and then also Central and Lafayette. DLR has been involved in this process and has toured our schools probably multiple times now. So, at this time, I'd like to invite Mike up to the podium just in case we have questions as we go along. You should have this document at your stations and it's been updated from what was on assembly last week. We had updated numbers today as far as Lafayette costs. So, if you notice here, you have three different columns. In all three of these options, central is included in the equation. You will also see pros and cons of

019each option. And then you'll see costs listed at the top, a range of costs. And so, I just want to go through a couple of these. If you look to the far left column, the cons, I want to point out capacity. So from a capacity standpoint, even if you are using the existing gym to add eight additional classroom spaces, it's too low of capacity to meet our target of 1,150 students. And there's little space at Benton to add an addition. We also have small parking sizes there, parking spots. So to add on, we would be dipping into the parking. And so shift now to the far right side column with Lafayette High School. Again, from a capacity standpoint, we can get closer to the 1,150 requirement, but the recommendation from DLR was that this would

020be a short-term solution, not an ideal long-term solution. And then I also wanted to point out um the recommendation from DLR with Lafayette was to expand the cafeteria space and also include more parking to accommodate those students. In both of these situations, ADA compliance is an issue. And so I just wanted to point that out. The other thing I want to point out on capacity. So if you look at all three options here, um let's go Benton underneath cons. So if you go to the third bullet, it talks about conservative maximum enrollment calculations. And when you see that five out of seven on the first two bullets there underneath that and then the next one it says six out of seven that means teachers are teaching five out of seven courses and six out of

021seven is teaching six out of seven courses. Right now our high schools teach six out of seven courses. But I also want to draw your attention to that where it says 28 students per class. That would be very difficult to do with scheduling to have it that balanced. So, for example, if you have an honors course at Benton High School, you're typically not going to have 28 kids. You may have 14 kids, you may have 16 kids. So, those kids have to be shifted to another section. So, it does make it pretty unlikely that that would be an option between Central and Benton Combo. One thing that DLR did point out was we do have Hyde Elementary right next to Benton High School. And that could be used to combine facilities. And so you can

022see on there on the capacity standpoint, if you have six out of seven, you're you're towards 1,680 students. Of course, that's again if 28 students fit perfectly into each course section. Um the downside of that obviously is Hyde Elementary and re relocating those students to a different facility. We have not gotten into the weeds as far as feeder patterns and schools that would be closing. We were simply tasked with coming up with those two options, pros and cons and the cost. And so I know you guys have had an opportunity to look at this and deal here if you have specific questions, but we would love to have some dialogue with our board members to see a direction if you have one right right now at this time. >> So we we I thought sorry

023hold on that. I thought we were So we had a plan that had a feeder system at the June meeting. Was it May or was it June? May there was it was >> kind of central Lafayette combination. >> It was Central Lafayette and then it was it had the middle schools that had the elementary schools. Am I right? Okay. So I I thought we were coming back with okay if that feeder pattern if that doesn't work then how would that feeder pattern move into two high schools being benton central? This feels like we're starting. And I'm not saying there's not. I I appreciate the work that's gone into this. I just feel like we've started all the way back over because when we like we've done all the facilities conversations, we've been talking about this

024for a long time. So, I was surprised when we saw Benton Hyde and then we we acknowledge where is Hyde going to go if Spring Garden isn't retrofitted? So, I was surprised to see that that was even an option because whenever we've done the facilities meetings, we know if we start at one spot, whether it's elementary, middle, or high, if we start at one spot, we can't get there. You know what I mean? Like, we can't just look at the middle schools and high schools because you have to look at the other feeder patterns. >> So, what are we doing? >> I was tasked with looking at the two options, uh, pros and cons and the cost. So that's what we've done till this point. We have the old plan, but obviously the community shot

025that down. So I think we have to listen to that. And >> no, I I I understand that. But I feel like we've talked about having a sense of urgency, especially with the finances. And so I just want to, you know, when people ask me, I'm like, I don't know, like what are we doing? Are we are we I don't know. And so I guess I would just want to know from the board, are we going to do anything or not? I have a couple questions. Um, if you're only looking at this information, is there a recommendation from administration? So, we talked about this in our advisory team last Friday, and we did believe that the Benton Hyde combo would be feasible if um we had a long-term plan that included uh building a new

026high school in the north. And then Hyde could be used as the swing site and then you could potentially, and we've talked about this in phases with like Black County and North Kansas City have done with Benton High School. So, if we wanted to have a long-term option, that's something that we've discussed. I'll be honest with you, our leadership team, our district leadership team, we just talked about this today. So, I feel like they need a little bit of time to chew on this information. Um, I understand the sense of urgency with our financial situation. I think that we all do, but we also don't want to rush this process without having a detailed plan as far as facilities, staffing, how that will all play out. >> But if the board says go, we can

027go. It's just going to be a rush process. >> Well, I mean, are we able to get a detailed plan? Like cuz my only issue is everybody will look at this information and get and they'll be like, "Well, I like AB or C." And I'm just naming them AB or C just cuz they're lined out like this. Okay. But we don't actually know any of the details of either. It's like I'm looking at a car and I'm just going to choose because of the color or the price, you know, but I don't really know about the plan and I'm not able to, you know, speak for anybody else, you know, but I mean I would like to look at like a feeder system. I want to know where hy kids are going to go. I

028mean, I'm not able, you know, to look at this >> and be like, I like this plan if there's no plan to look at. You see what I mean? >> I do what you mean. We got this information about a week ago. And so, um, to build a true facilities plan, that's going to take some time. Our last plan, in my opinion, was a one-pager. And the feedback that I received from several people in our community is that it wasn't detailed enough. It didn't talk about what classes would how many classrooms you would have, how many sections each classroom would be. And so I I would love to have a plan that's more detailed, but that's going to take time. >> So I have a couple questions, too. So just to make sure, we did

029and I know I kind of asked you already, you did look at Central, too. Um I know it's only going to be like 100 more students. DLR went through them as well, but I mean right now parking and drop off and the hallways are all congested. There is nothing needed at central. >> There wasn't anything on the report. Mike, do you want to chime in? >> Well, I know that in the short term, as far as just what is the quickest and most cost effective way to get to two high schools, um we're assuming that Central has little to no work in the short term. In the longer term, to make that a viable option as a as a long-term large capacity high school, you definitely want to do some work to that. Increase parking,

030do some upgrades into the facilities. But for the short term, for the purposes of the pros and cons list in front of you, this is just if you're trying to move to two high schools within the next two to three years, these are the these are the quickest ways to get there with the shortest amount of work and the least amount of expense. >> And no matter what option we pick, we're going to need more money. Correct. We're going to have to ask for money >> possibly. And we've talked about Lafayette High School. Right now, they have three lunch shifts and they could go to four. We were at four some years ago. And I think that would assist with the overcrowding at lunch during CO. We also use the practice gym. It's not ideal,

031but it's something that we could do to cut costs. >> I'm just thinking out of the three, this might be a good opportunity to get your community input, too. >> And what do you do if you're not able to get any more money? >> We have to do something. But by I guess so my question is by when? By when? Because I was under the impression and I' I've read the emails. I've had I've heard the conversations like we need to do something by next year with no money. But now we have discussions that it's going to cost money and it's going to take multiple years. So I'm just confused. Do we need to do something? I my opinion has always been we have to do something with what we have. um that I'm not

032saying that we don't pursue more, you know, a new school. I'm not saying that at all. But just like Mr. Shot said, every year that we don't do anything, these kids are not getting the same opportunities. And some people may be okay with kids having fewer opportunities than others. In our own district, I am not. Um, so the longer that we talk about, you know, we're going to do something in 2026, but by the time we get it ready, it's going to be 2028. I mean, that's that's 3 years. That's a whole cohort of kids going through our high schools nearly. Um, and I don't know how we're going to make up 60% of that vote. So, we can keep planning, but I mean this I don't think it's we this has not been a

033short-term plan. We've been talking about this for 20 years. It's intensively been talking about it for 3 years. We can go back and look at all of the meeting minutes. We can look at all of the reports that have been given. We have all the information, but we need to move forward or or just decide that we're not going to. Madam President, I I really appreciate, you know, the board's patience, but also the public's patience as we wait through this because uh this is a very new situation for everybody involved. Um and so I think patience and communication is key. Um but you know, I got to tell you, I I want to I want to really uh echo Mr. Shod's comments. Um for for me um in the past what we've done is is

034talked about thinking big and building new and building one or building two. And so now we find ourselves um having run that course in a much different position. And so um in effect we have a lot of control over what we do. Now obviously if we're going to spend a significant amount of money we'll have to go to the public which is great. But we we have a lot of control over what we do. I think what I've always wanted to see was a a a complete plan of feeder systems and buildings and then translate into that into savings. So, so we need a plan that says, "Okay, here's what we're going to do at all three levels of education. Here's what we're going to do by building and here's what that will do to

035help us get back to a good financial position, specifically 20% reserves. Um, so it's all new to all of us. With that said, is it a fair ask of the board to say to administration, bring us that plan? I mean, you know the buildings you have, you know the staff you have, you you you you understand education way better than I do. And so, um, is that a fair ask or is there some other method by which the details of the plan that I know the public wants to um um, you know, get get in front of us? >> I think that can. I just think it's going to take a little bit of time to work out all of those pieces. >> Yeah. I mean, I'll work on it. I will. >> Well, I

036get the concept is that we're everybody wants to work their way up from the high school down for the feeder pattern, but still, if we're stuck on the high schools, we can still fix other things. We can fix the uh redistricting. We can fix the middle schools. I mean, if we're stuck at the high schools, why don't we take care of what we can? >> We've already done all of this. >> We really need to look at systemwide >> rather than bits and pieces. It's all I mean and and I get it is it is really difficult when we have and I'm not saying this that this is you know I'm not saying this to to be disrespectful. It is hard when we have an have an um an election every single year cuz people

037are coming on. I wouldn't expect people to watch every facilities meeting when they're not on the board. Some people do. But we've we've gone through all of this. We've gone through let's try at the elementary level. didn't work because then where are they going to go? We've tried at the middle school level, didn't work because where are they coming? Where are they going? So, if it sounds like, and I guess I would want to know from the board, and I'm sure you want to know from the board, are we still committed to going to two schools? I mean, I think we all are. There's still conversation, people making comments about are you or are you not? I think we still are. And on that, we know the schools that we have and we know how

038much money we have. So, I don't know what I mean, I I get that this is uncomfortable and this is not an ideal state at all, but we knew that when we went into the April election that if it didn't pass, we're going to have to make hard decisions that are not ideal. So, let's do something. >> Dr. McInness, let me ask it another way. Is is there some way we could help you? Um, you know, it's not sometimes it's not clear to me, you know, is this is this the board that needs to try to dream up the details? I don't think so just because we're not next to it every day. >> No. >> But but can we can we help you? You talk about I know it's a lot. It's a big

039workload how long it might take >> but how can we help you get to the plan? >> I don't know that you can as a board. I think DLR and having community input um and then just our our leaders, our team and even some staff on that and maybe a couple board members too a part of that committee process like we had before. The downside of that, we have the facilities committee, right? And what you have is a lot of different opinions and then we didn't move anywhere. And so I think having DLR involved would be helpful in that and discovering the the appropriate feeder patterns. >> I think that largely the problem and and I know that we talk a lot about community input and and you know, we're going to do the town

040halls and I think we all try to be out and present in the community to to get the information. I think anything that we do is going to be unpopular. It's not going to be Nobody is getting everything that they want. We're not getting a new school. Um, but based on our academics and our hiring and our money, I mean, this I think the the writing on has been on the wall for this for a long time and we've just never moved forward because it's not it's not going to be comfortable. It's not going to be fun, but but something needs to happen and we have to me I feel like we have all the information that we need to make a decision. We just need to move forward. >> I agree. >> I would

041just say if we're voting on that um next month that that'll be in September. And so that gives us six, seven months to get um things all ironed out as far as where staff will go, what buildings will close, feeder patterns, and be mindful of. >> Can that happen? I guess I always en envision this and and I get it. I've thought about how how in the heck are you going to move things just even the physical movement of of items. Can we look at a plan that says here is the plan prek through 12. Here's the plan. Here are the phases we are going to take. And then if you want to add on to that, every year or so we put out a bond issue for a new school, so be it. But

042I feel like there has to be some movement and there has to be, okay, first we're going to do I know we've talked about perching, we've talked about hide and spring garden, what those look like and then doing a phase to it cuz you're right, it's eight months to do all this probably isn't enough, but there needs to be some movement. >> I agree with phases completely. >> Dr. And that's correct. You were starting to say something. >> Well, I' I'd want to apologize if you felt like we were starting off a little bit with the, you know, July board meeting. Let us know where our reserve ratios were at 10%. I feel like there might be a re-evaluation of the situation. Um, and so what we wanted to do is show, you know, the

043three different scenarios and with the LR's assistance look at what the cost structure would be for some of those and just to show the board, hey, if it was a Benton High School only, for the amount of money to get um that facility ready for those kids, we wouldn't need to go out for a bond where with the Benton High combination and Lafayette High School combination, uh, we'd be able to handle that within our own operating budget. And so just with that type of information to be able to help with the new information about the reserve ratio um was kind of the goal there. So um you felt like I started over I apologize. I also you know coming on in January don't have all of the back information although I have a lot of

044it trying to you know watch all the board meetings and and get all the documents but I don't have 100% of it. So, um we can certainly bring back detailed information um for every single scenario we have here, all three with feeder pans, feeder patterns and everything laid out or if one was eliminated tonight or whatever type of information you want to see that would help us move forward. >> Is there so is there a reason why you know we I feel like we had a lot of this in the long range plan that was prepared ahead. I guess we approved that I don't know September of last year. I don't know. Um and then we took that into option A. We passed for a new school and then if it doesn't pass, we had

045all of that information. Is there a reason why we can't go back to that? Just say here was the plan. >> We could, but we were tasked with looking at central Benton. >> And I and I understand that. I guess my question then is can we take what we've already created which spent took a lot of your guys's time already took a lot of DR dealer's time already can we take that plan and then look at okay with how would that have to be revisited or changed if we do a bent and hide which I mean I understand it would because you're going to have to change spring garden I don't know where you're going to do with elementary schools Um, but it sounds like we already had this and then we're kind of like,

046well, if we do mint and hide, we got to throw that we got to throw away all that all that whole plan and the time and the money that it took to make that plan, which sounds eerily familiar to what we typically do. Um, or can we move forward? I was going to ask um okay so what other information are you needing in order to move forward and then to um hedge courts question if you look at the plan so you're looking at the money amount in all honesty you should just grab the plan A since we cannot afford that on our own and look at a detailed model for plan number B and C. >> Well, and can we So, the long range plan that we already had in place had the final desired

047state by school, by building, a map with new boundaries for every for elementary, middle, it had all of that. I guess to me if we're going to change from the final the end being central Lafayette then I would need to see another plan >> that has bent and hide that can still work right >> but in the meantime I I don't see convincing evidence to not move forward with the original plan >> because I don't know I don't know what you do with hide >> wasn't that part of the community's issue of saying no to that >> so they come up with something else >> because it didn't pass. So, it's a I like the idea of going back and getting fuller information for this plan for Benton Hyde because we told that Lafayette is

048not a long range plan. It's still a short range. So, if there's something better, just get a fuller plan, put those things on paper, the the routes, the redistricting, all of that what it looks like. and we can do that with the bit and hide option. I would tell you from my just conversations, I don't think any of these buildings are super sustainable. Um, from the conversations that we've had, >> okay, but we can do that. And you can compare it to the the Lafayette Central option that we had before. My only thing would be that plan was about two pages. And so I think our community wants to know more >> than just that. I think they want to know what does a classroom size look like? how many classrooms are in that building.

049So, I think there's some additional information that we would need to add to make that sell to our community and at least inform them of where we're going. >> I I like the um I I said in the previous meeting that I like the idea that we um we retain Benton. Um, I think as our community the the we've always been a longer community and I think that that's going to best meet the distribution need of our community. What I don't know I I and I appreciate the creativity of the Bent and Hyde solution. Um, what I don't know is what's it going to take to get um 1,200 1,250 students to the B ventonhide? you know what um I think that I think that part of the um feeder system does need to be

050flushed out a little bit and says does that make does that mean Truman um gravitates to um Benton um you know what are the implications at the middle school level I do think it's interesting at the convocation this the safety resource officers clearly identified that the best way for them to support was um identifying the elementary schools that naturally feed towards Benton and um and I and and that they see the city separated that way. I I like the fact still that we're looking at retaining Benton. Even as a medium um to long-term plan with Central, assuming that we don't pass a bond, we still need to get to two schools. >> Correct. >> And the and the best positioning of two schools are those two locations. and and this is one piece that says

051it's possibly doable. The the question I think though our ballot is um how would we feed that? >> Yeah. >> Where would the high students go? >> Um we just added really nice classrooms thanks to the community at Hosi. I got a chance to see those dedicated. The kids are excited about those. But I think we we need to see how do we feed those schools and what other um unseen modifications are there going to be required to do that. I had somebody say and and I'm not asking you to do a fourth thing by the way, but I had somebody say, should we um you know in this kind of a model um you know should should we take a look at Hyde being the middle school and um and and that campus being

052more of a middle school high school combination. Um I don't know how I don't know what Hyde can handle in terms of people. Is is the Benton is the South End freshman big enough to fill Hyde or are we going to leave a lot of capacity there? Should we look um at a a solution that says um we need we need to get Hyde filled up more than just what the ninth graders would do. >> So Hi has an optimum capacity of 420 kids, but I'll tell you believe that's our oldest building. Yeah, that would been my concern because I know we've talked about that one as being the one of the toughest buildings, you know, as far as condition and stuff. U so yeah, I again I I could go a lot of different

053directions, but we've got to keep our eye on the overall money ball, right? So if we say, well, okay, look, go Benton and hide because these numbers look pretty good in front of us tonight. I'm not so sure that translates into overall district efficiencies that we need. >> Yes. >> To to to to to get us out of the financial hole that we're in. >> Right. So, what we can do is come up with the feeder systems, what our options are with the benton and hide combo compared to what we had for Lafayette and Central. So, our team can can do that. So, you have a little bit of a comparison. We haven't, like I said, we've had this information for just days. Appreciate it. So, we've we've thrown together uh some pros and cons

054um based on the DLR data, but we will need a little bit more time to look at feeder patterns for bitten and hide. We're happy to do that >> and then go from there. >> I I realize I'm one of the new people you're probably referring to, but and I I take no offense at that, by the way, because that's just a fact. the um but when I saw it with the bond issue, I saw what it was with a with a new south end school and then what would happen at the north end. I didn't see um I didn't see plan B that said um what's the what's the Lafayette um central redistricting? Where where do where do folks from Hyde and Hosia go to school? Um and where do they go to middle

055school and where do they go to high school? >> But that's in the plan. That's that's written in the plan. I think we can pull it up. >> Yeah. Well, I saw it certainly for the um South End School and the North End School long-term plan, >> but um I I think that I think that what we're on the track here to figure out I'm I'm not just looking at those dollars um by any means. I I said this before the dollars came in. I think the best position that we're in is to have a south end option and a north end option. Well, and I and I think every I mean I would agree with that, but where our buildings are and the status of our buildings and you know that we can't change.

056So I I am just concerned that we have a whole plan that already has building use. It has um an additional it solves the prek issue where we are currently busing kids from county line down to Lake Contrary. Um it solves that with the use of Persing as a prek. It has uh Eugene Field as a um gifted and talented building. Um, there were a lot of good things in that plan and it feels like we are abandoning that plan or or at least looking away from that plan because we're so obsessed with high schools. And again, this this issue in this district and to Mr. shots points he he was right that there aren't equal issues in high schools but he didn't mention what is also true is that we don't have equality throughout

057the district because of because of enrollments because of boundaries so I'm I I am hoping that we will use the money and the time that we've already spent and move forward um because it feel it feels like We're kicking the can again. >> Well, my group I think that our staff and our community, they want to know what's going on. Like they're sick of waiting, too. So, we have to do something. But I do like that you looked at this because even I know you guys have Lafayette and Central Plan, but again on here is telling you Bon's in better shape than Lafayette. So, at the same time, we got to think of a long term because what if we don't get a new high school past in the future? I mean, you have to

058think about that. So to me, you temporary is not the best way to think of it. We got to think long term, >> but I don't see it as temporary at all. I mean, to me, the con of what do you do with hide is a glaring issue. What do you do with the hide? You can't send them to Hosia. Like I know we put on, you know, got the trailers out, but that was because we were using trailers. So, you can't push them to Hosia. You can't push them to Spring Garden. The first plan also addresses the spring garden issue that it was built as an elementary. So now you're actually giving the middle school kids something through Benton of larger amenities and a football field um those types of things. So we that

059first plan addressed all those things. So I I don't see it as a temporary issue. I see it as this is where we need to go and then hopefully if someday we can get 60% of the vote then that's fine. But >> and again, I do think community input is going to be important too because it is a community as a whole making this decision. >> Yeah, I would agree. >> Are we able to get a draft of each of the two plans like a feeder system in a couple weeks at the work session or is that too soon? >> I would have to have that in a week to get it on the agenda. Um, I I can do my best, but I would have to have it in by Monday to get it

060on the agenda. >> Tuesday. >> I would love you to take your time and come >> to get it on the work session agenda. You'd have to have it by Tuesday. >> Yes. >> To get it to you guys. >> Well, could we at least get an idea of what you'd do with Hyde? I mean, to me, I can't wrap my brain around how you even answer that question down there. I guess for me I would like to know what the will of the board is at this point as far as what you want from our administrative team for the next meeting. >> Admin said about the plan in the middle is your best choice. >> Yes. Again, district leadership, >> we would like an idea of how you would go about that plan, a

061start. Cuz the problem is if there's nothing in a couple of weeks, it will be nothing in a month. In a month, it's going to be anformational item if there's nothing in a couple weeks. And that means it's not going to be any action until like October. >> Well, and I feel like we have gotten, you know, we talk about we need more community input, but we did, we don't even talk about vision forward anymore. We did a whole vision forward plan and we got community input. You know, we can say, you know, it didn't pass because people didn't want this or they didn't Nobody Nobody knows specifically why it didn't pass. I could argue it didn't pass because they liked plan B. So, well, you know, I don't know. I I have no idea.

062None of us will know. But at the end of the day, we are all elected and we need to move forward with something because I don't know that we have three years. It doesn't sound like fiscally we have that much time. But if I'm just afraid of >> a year from now, it's going to be this combo again cuz it was like that a year ago and then it was like that a couple of years ago and so I'm just afraid we're not going to do anything at all. >> I think agree that we want to move forward. I think as a board we all agree we need to do something. So I think giving a month and coming back with a plan in a month would be acceptable. >> When we talk about a

063plan, do you So when I when I'm thinking we want a plan to me, we already have a plan, right? So we have the plan that goes um central Lafayette that has the middle. It has all of that. Are we asking for another a a second plan, a second option that's bent and hide that has all the same components? >> I am fine with that. whatever the ads feel like they want to do. >> Miss Landing, I think you're referring to plan A. We had all of those details ironed out if we were to have a new high school in the south. >> Plan B was going to Central and Lafayette and the details weren't all worked out. >> I agree. >> So, plan A, we had a we had a plan, had feeder systems,

064we had the new schools, what would be repurposed at Persian and Field, but plan B was not with Central and Mafia. The u the other thing that I would say >> you're still able to choose >> choose the amenities from plan A though into the plan in the middle. Right. >> Here's what we will do. What I think I'm hearing you say is you want to see feeder patterns from the Bent and Hyde combo compared to the Lafayette Central combo and what all of our buildings would look like. Yeah, Mike, you are you wanting cost at that point, Mike, or >> Yeah, look, I I just don't want to get five years down the road and realize, yeah, you know, we didn't really save all the money that we needed to save. And so, we've

065got to find a way to put uh long-term dollars and staffing and and facilities costs into these two options, right? So, absolutely, we need to know, okay, here's how we would do the boundaries and the the the bu the buildings and where where kids would go to school, how many classrooms, but that needs to translate. I mean, what we're charged with as a board is is fixing this financial issue we have. And so that needs to translate into um you know this is this is the recommendation and we believe it'll get us there financially because >> I agree 100%. That's what I was that's what I was going to say and I was going to say hopefully Dr. Edgeorth can help us with that. We need a we need some kind of projection that says

066is this gonna um how much this gonna take the community really wants to know that there's certain parts of the community that say let's say three schools and and we know financially that's going to be tough but we need to be able to show what's the financial improvement going to be going to two schools >> agree >> two high schools and then and then the associated feeder schools and and I agree with you I think I think we need to have that feed computer system plan and it may need to be um ironed out some for both of the options Lafayette central and Benton Hyde central >> and I think what I what I'm hoping that we can get to is okay feasibly this is what we have to do with buildings with feeder this

067is what solves some of those vision forward issues that we've been talking about for a long time and then as we say okay this is really the only feasible way to do this or this gives us more of those vision forward things you know ticked off the list, then we start figuring out the the details because if we don't start somewhere, we're we're never going to we're never going to go. >> So, I think we're just we're asking for a more complete detail >> feeder systems. >> Any other pieces to those plans >> and and and some projected savings? >> Yes. like financial closures of buildings, things like that. >> Well, yeah, at least um at least at the top level of um of the the two high schools versus three high schools. At least

068at that level, but but it probably needs to go as far as we can. >> Okay, we will work on that. >> Thank you. >> Are there any more questions, comments on this topic? Thank you, Mike. >> Thank you, Dr. McInness. Okay, Miss Student, >> happy Monday. First of all, I want to thank you guys for ever being present at convocation and for being present in our buildings as well. Um I know I saw some of you at um friendly faces Friday um over at Hosia. Um, in my report tonight, what you'll find is, um, the three-year um, student achievement trends from 2023 to 2025, and it's displayed on the screen. You saw at our last board meeting the overall projection from a district level, but what we did provide was a ranking by building

069um, according to proficient and advanced. It's a mastery um, level. We want students to be on grade level. And so, you'll see that report. Um our team is um again analyzing these performance trends highlighting um both growth and areas of need. Um and I know that um Dr. Reid and Dr. Adams have data consults. This report was shared with principles um on their first day back um at our instructional leader um network um and then it was shared with teachers on August 15th at our professional learning um and we asked for their input in um solutions um being oriented. You will also find in my report the St. Joseph School District teacher evaluation plan for 2526. And so how are we investing in developing our educators? Um and I'm grateful for Mr. Carell and Heather

070Adams um in the new system for um the evaluation of professional staff through our platform frontline um and you'll see a detailed report there with um timelines for building leaders and providing effective feedback um to develop um again our um teachers. The other thing you will see is I know um Dr. Evans and and Miss Kessle um were honored for their promising um practices for um PLC um as a school, but we are trying to get really strong with that at a district level too. And so the next piece is really a response to um leading a results orientation and rallying our educators who serve in our classrooms to be at the forefront and be in the know. Um and what we provided was um a schedule for you for district department chair meetings. Um

071and that job description was um revised to include a monthly meeting with our department chairs um so that we can bring them to the table, share that results orientation with them and have them provide input um and what tools and resources they might need to have. Um and so we we meet monthly. Um the first meeting was held on August um 12th and um we brought elective and the four core together. So the same practice will be uh facilitated through our elementary PLC leadership teams. Um I'm thank again very thankful for PDC. Um and knowing that that said component or a system we need to have at the elementary level too. And the last item that you will find there is um I've updated the district professional learning plan and on August 15th um gosh

072Tabitha Keyser and her instructional coaches did a fantastic job of leading really contentdriven u professional learning um and um we started the implementation of our new ELA core resource um with the benchmark advance. And so I was grateful um to be able to um have a core resource to support our ELA instruction moving forward this year. So that is going to be critical in the move um in literacy scores. So now it's just supporting teachers in this first year with this core resource and then helping principles oversee um what does it look like when I enter the classroom? What's that framework look like? Any questions? We are serious about academics. We are really um very targeted in our approach and I'm thankful for the academic service team and our building leadership team. Um again, I

073can't speak that we're leading with the three drivers. You know, having and strengthening tier one instruction and making sure tier one instruction is first very strong and then having collaboration with our teachers. that's ever important. And the third one is remaining on the prize, a results orientation. We can teach, right? But our students learning and that's the key question that we're we're reflecting on right now. Um and if you look at our student outcomes, um you know, we that's something that we'll hit really hard moving into 2526. >> You know, I I do want to make a comment. Um one, I I and I this is a little bit of carryover. You know, I I spoke to um Dr. McInness and others. It the most important thing that happened last week was the start of

074school and um I congratulate the team on the convocation >> um the energy in that room and the u excitement among the teachers. Um, and then I I got to experience um a little bit of Hosia and man that was that was exciting for me to see those kids come in and I so I compliment you guys on your preparation in the midst of um of some of these other issues we've got going on. I I appreciate that you focused on that very most important thing and that is the students and the teachers and these academic scores. you you all know they're super they're super important to me and and probably to every parent out here. Um and so I I'm I'm not at all saying this is backseat to the other things we just

075had a rousing discussion about. It's so important and I appreciate the things that you're doing to work towards making this happen. And it'll be interesting to me to see um as the year goes on if we if we can get updates that says it looks like this trend is going to is going to create a difference. I know in some ways we won't be able to see the difference until the end. It's harder to measure probably, but um it'll be it'll be certainly something to celebrate if we can see some of those pieces um having the positive impact that we're hoping they'll have. So I I I I know that's more of a comment than a question, but thank you for what you're doing. >> I'm grateful that you said that. We are working on

076an internal progress monitoring system where we created a live data dashboard where um we use our predictive data to be public facing um and so we can kind of monitor that ahead of time. We um the the program Mastery Connect that we use for our um assessment um will um provide that opportunity for us to keep a like a little watch over how are things um going in the classroom along with walkthroughs along with serving in um observations. So I'm grateful. Thank you for saying that. >> And we just approved the new curriculum this year. So and that takes effect this year, correct? Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay, Mr. K. >> Okay. >> Kind of skipped it a little bit. >> Financials. >> You don't want me to talk about those. >> Me on the

077first. Um, you have your July financials in front of you. um of the three documents you have your typical financial GC and then you also note you have the bond project tracking document. Um also in the board agenda there is the link to the website uh where that is updated in real time. So if anybody would like to go uh look at that between board meetings they can see um how that's tracking. Um, but I wanted to make sure you guys saw that we did add some information to that bond tracking document. Um, if we can go ahead and pull that up real quick. Um, to show the change orders separated out from the original bids. So, um, it shows your bid amounts and also shows the change orders in that um, area that was

078bid. For example, the top one we have there is the athletic fields for turf to see what that total comes to and then the amount spent to date and the balance remaining. So that will hopefully give you guys a little bit better perspective as different change orders come um in front of you to prove to to have more of a tracking of okay what have we done in the past and how much does that bring the total to. So hopefully that helps um with that. I felt like you know that was something you guys wanted to see in that document and so we got those added in. So just a FY on that. um on the uh July >> financial aback upgrades that um that um there was a big project at Edison the expensive

079project it's not on there because it was a part of the bond promises that's the >> that is correct >> and so um I guess the the question is is other capital expenditures that we're having and that aren't covered under the bond my understanding is we've had some slippage on those and the net result is is that we're were overexpensed on our on our capital projects. >> That's correct. So examples of those projects that weren't in the bond that just came out of our our capital projects fund 4 um you know was over spent and so we had to transfer more money from fund one and two to cover those and so that's what brought that operational reserve down to 10.02%. >> Yeah. >> And that's where the bleacher project is going to come out

080of fund. >> Yes. on your financials. One thing I did want to point out, if you look at federal revenue for FY26 on the first page, you will see $6.181 million in federal revenue, um, that's a result of the 2324 federal dollars being deposited in our account. And so I just want to make sure the board is aware that half of the dollars um that weren't there from the U June 30th cuto off for ASBR has been deposited in July and then uh we expect um the remaining hopefully in the next month. So um I'll continue to give you updates on that when when all of it is deposited. I will certainly point that out. Any questions I can answer on July financials? >> I make a motion to approve. >> Thank you. Is there

081a second? I'll sit on Chesley. >> Okay. Whenever you're ready, >> Mr. Richmond. >> Um, yes. >> Mr. Moore. >> Yes. >> Miss Lanning? >> Yes. >> Miss Karns? >> Yes. >> Miss Jeznney? >> Yes. >> Miss Miller? >> Yes. >> Miss Williams? >> Yes. All approved. Pay the bills. Make a motion to approve the bills. I have a motion. >> Don't get any questions on them real quick, but if you >> I have a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Okay, ready? >> Miss Williams? >> Yes. >> Miss Miller? >> Yes. >> Miss Chzn? >> Yes. >> Miss Farn? >> Yes. >> Miss Lanning? Yes, >> Mr. Moore. >> Yes, >> Mr. Richmond. >> Yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. >> Thank you, Dr. Hitchco.

082>> Now, Mr. Grow. >> Thank you. All right. Um, I have submitted the personnel report and you also have the supplemental report at your stations as well. If you do not have any questions on those, um, there's it's pretty straightforward. Um I ask that you for a motion to approve. >> I have a question. So the majority of these are appear to be retroactive. There's one also from March, one from May, couple from July. What why is that? >> Um those would be because they would have resigned and then we filled that late. So it would have been open. Does that make sense? So they've been open for a while and then we filled it um in place it individually. >> We didn't approve. So like the there's a March 11th um March 11th 521.

083We're approving those resignations upon their replacement. >> Are you on the >> page five? It was on Well, there's transfers. So, if you're on um >> Are you on the supplemental or the >> I'm on the regular. >> Okay. >> That's online. >> Yeah. So, >> so these are these are not um resignations or separations. These are appointments that are effective. So, the first page we have appointments effective 8:13. Um I'm not sure when long. >> Right. So these individuals would have resigned on those dates and then when nutrition because that's what most of them are is a is a nutrition. Correct. >> One on 311 is a nutrition on page five. >> Well, even on page one of the certificated we have some staff that the following appointments the appointments of the following personnel

084are recommended for approval. This couple people were hired and they're they took effect on August 13th. >> Correct. Those that was the first day of their contract. >> So, typically we do it before, right? Or am I remembering things? >> It's it's either we either wait um and approve them now and then we have open positions once school's already started. So, we go ahead and allow them to work. >> Yeah, I get that. I just >> Tell me if they're wrong. I typically see why are we approving things after the fact, >> right? >> Brought this up in June that we had like in June we had some people that were hired, worked seasonally, and then stopped working and we were just approving them. But in other instances, we're having special meetings to approve people

085before. >> So, Mr. G, correct me if I'm wrong. What I think is happening here is we have openings for teachers and then we have taken other teachers from other buildings, placed them into those spots because we haven't filled it. >> That could be part of those. Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. I would say the other part is again if we have openings for example on page five we have an individual um it's 311 of 25. So when nutrition has hired these individuals they are hiring them as subs but on our end we have to show who they're replacing. So it doesn't look like it's a new position because it's not a new it's not an added position. So, we have placed that individual with that name, but they started on 813, >> right? And

086I would just have expected for us to approve it an 813 hire on at the July meeting, >> but they weren't hired until recently, >> right? But we would we would be approving you to hire them. Is that not what we're >> But if we don't if if we wait to approve them, then we're going to be sitting with open positions until we have a board meeting. >> Yeah, you just said it's timing. >> I wonder if I So attached is policy GCI and it says the board directs the superintendent to annually assess the professional staffing needs of the district and reassign staff as necessary to meet those needs. Although the superintendent will take the employees express preference, um may reassign staff members at any time, including after a contract has been signed or during

087the school year. Board approval is required when a reassignment results in a change to the employees compensation, benefits, or contract. So, is that sort of by policy how we get where we're at? >> No, I think it's more And I may be wrong. It just appears as if it's easier to wait until a board meeting to approve them all at one time. >> And that's where that's where my confusion is. Are we approving them before they happen? Because we've had special meetings specifically to hire people, to get board approval to hire people. when I'm familiar with how we've done it and other districts do it is you get offered a position pending board approval but these are all these are mostly retroactive. So, I would say if we didn't have board approval, we'd have no

088math teacher at Lafayette High School and we would have serious special meeting >> like we and so we I mean I assume we know when we're posting a position, we're interviewing for a position we're offering >> and some of these already have contracts. They're already contracted with us. So, we're just transferring them. >> They've had a contract before 813. I would say let's >> let's say that >> we don't have any openings for sort of certified positions which is good but let's say we have an opening in math right now and we hired them tomorrow we would either have to have a special session to approve that tomorrow or we wait till the next board meeting. I if if you want to have a special session every >> That's just what we've been doing. That's

089that's my that's my question. That's where I'm not understanding. Are we requiring board approval before those changes happen or are we not doing that? Because we've had special meetings. We've had we've had that. I'm not saying I want to do that, but we also know. But if I'm the only one that that hasn't takes issue with it, then I'm just one person. >> So by policy, we're okay. We are buyation >> if as long as it's a transfer transfer or reassignment because there's no change to the contract compensation or benefits. >> We have conversations on new positions I I know in a little bit different uh you know ahead of time type of light. Uh maybe that's what you're thinking of Whitney. >> Okay. Right. If it's a new hire, I think it needs approval

090before because it would kind of fall under this, you know, change in compensation, change in spend of the district. >> Well, for example, on page two, there's a position that started today that's a new position that we're approving at the end of the day. >> And if that's what you want to do, we're going to run into >> it's planning. It's going to be a lot of meetings just because think of pair of professionals, custodial staff >> and they will not be able to start >> which could be a week. >> Right. But you just said the policy is if it's not a new position then we can do it. But this is on page two. There's a new position that started today without board approval. So how if if I'm the only person that

091has a concern about it then I'm the only person and that is fine. [Music] Mike, what policy are you looking at to set up the new position? >> Yeah. So, uh, the transfer of reassignments is GCI. >> And, uh, I'm kind of digging through some of the other ones. Uh, support staff recruiting and hiring is GDC and, uh, hiring. The board will fill a vacancy after receiving a recommendation from the superintendent or designate. All candidates will be selected on the basis of qualifications, training and ability. Uh all applicants will be promptly notified once the position has been filled. So it doesn't really give timing, right? Doesn't really say you have to have that approved before you fill it. But >> on GDC2, it says the board delegates to the superintendent the authority to make decisions

092on the hiring, promotion, or demotion or termination of all noncontractual support staff. >> Yeah. >> So that's what >> second paragraph. >> Yeah. I'm just referring to what we have been doing is prior to start. But if we don't want to do that, then that's fine. You >> just let me know what you guys want to do. >> I think we're good by policy. >> I think it's fine. I think we're following policy. >> Yeah. >> If you don't mind, I'll reach out in order to check if we are really interpreting it correctly and legally. >> That's fair. >> Okay. >> In the meantime, are we in need of a motion? >> Yes. >> Okay. I'll motion. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Would you call the vote? >> Is that second? >> No, it was

093Tom. >> Miss Williams. >> Uh, yes. >> Miss Miller, >> yes. >> Miss Chzn, >> yes. >> Miss Burns, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> no. >> Mr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Richmond, >> yes. >> And the motion passes. 61. Okay. Action items. >> So, we presented the data for the tax rate to be set at 4.9163, which is uh the same tax rate that it was set for uh the previous year. And be happy to take any questions um before you move. >> Make a motion to approve. >> I have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second a motion to second whenever you're ready. >> Mr. Richmond, >> yes. >> Mr. Moore, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> yep. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Chzn, >> yes. >> Mr. Miller,

094>> yes. >> Miss Williams, >> yes. And the motion passes. All approved. >> Okay. Dr. McInness. >> Sure. So, this is something we talked about. Sorry. This is something we talked about at the work session a couple of weeks ago, updating the policy to include all assistant superintendent, director of HR, and director of communications residing within district boundaries. So, I would just take any questions if you have any. >> What's the implementation going to be on this? I know we talked about that last time. >> We talked about grandfathering in folks who are already working with us. a motion. I'll second. >> I have a motion in a second. I have a question though. >> Sure. >> Um like Okay. So, is this added into their contracts? >> Uh it could be. Well, well, I'm

095just thinking it's no other way to really enforce it if it's not in the contracts. >> Well, we could if it's in board policy and board policy hasn't been enforced, but to my knowledge, I don't believe that that was in contracts for previous people when we did that years ago. >> Well, and that's my thing. I mean, it's in the policy, you know, but it was never enforced. And then >> even if it is enforced, like >> I don't know what that actually entails. Like if there's a person that's in violation. Okay. So what do you do? Well, but if it's a part of their contract, isn't that easier to handle? I mean, I don't know. >> I mean, we could do that. I'm not opposed to it at all. >> I mean, I'm okay

096either way. I was just looking at this earlier like and I'm just like it's already in the policy and nobody really >> Well, the language hasn't been clear in the policy. There's rules in there that we don't have. >> I know, but if I'm an admin, I know I'm included in this on the most part. If I'm like an upper admin, like if I'm Mr. Carell, I know I'm included in this. You know what I mean? But it doesn't mean that I really have to do it. I don't know. I'm just making it easier for you guys. I'm okay either way, though. What do you think, Mike? I see your mind working. >> Well, as I recall, I I think we did put that in in the most recent superintendent contract. >> It's in mine.

097>> Yeah. So, I mean, I think I think we're we're good to do that for future hires. >> What do you guys think? >> I agree with that. Sure. Okay. Any more discussion on that? Okay. If not, is there a motion? >> Yes. You have a motion. >> Have a motion in a second. Thank you. Would you call the vote, please? >> Yes. Miss Williams? >> Yes. >> Miss Miller? >> Yes. >> Miss Chzn? >> Yes. >> Miss Burns? >> Yes. >> Miss Lanning? >> Yes. >> Mr. Moore? >> Yes. >> Mr. Richmond? >> Yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. >> Mr. Cra. >> All right. you have hopefully the last round of job descriptions that have been updated. Our departments um our department leads really reviewed those and made some changes based

098on their knowledge of the positions. Changes are in excuse me, additions are in red. Changes have been crossed out. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer those. If not, I ask for a motion for approval. >> What's the roll out of this going to look like once we approve it? I I just wouldn't want somebody to be working and you for someone to say, "Well, not do your job description." And then people say, "What are you talking about?" >> Yeah. Um, so we are revising those through HR currently. I know she's done with with most of them already except for the ones you approved in the consent and then this one. And then um we will send those to our um departments so they can share that information out to make

099sure that they are familiar with um that there's any changes or any updates on those. >> So like the staff that are getting revised job descriptions, we'll get them >> correct. >> Is this for next year? >> Um I would say it's going to be current. >> Oh, it's for contracts already signed and we're giving you job descriptions. >> Yeah. Not much is changing though. >> Okay. I move to approve. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion to second. >> Miss Williams? >> Yes. >> Miss Miller? >> Yes. >> Miss Chzn? >> Yes. >> Miss Burns? >> Yes. >> Miss Lanning? >> Yes. >> Mr. Moore? >> Yes. >> Mr. Richmond? >> Yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. Okay. Miss student. >> Are you having someone else do it for you? >>

100Dr. Adams is coming up. I'm here to celebrate the work that we did over the summer. Um on the um act one of the action items here, you'll see the K2 grade card revision and Dr. Adams is going to speak to that work. But um I did want to give a shout out um in that um attachment is the writing team um that participated in that redesign of the assessment and I'm grateful for their um leadership in this work. >> Yes. I'm excited to share this. This has been a long time coming. Um the St. St. Joe School District K through 2 grade card revision process uh began on June 18th and 20th during our assessment design team professional development in partnership with Northwest RPDC continued on June 23rd and 24th and concluded on August

10112th 2025 guided by policy if curriculum development. The team completed essential foundational work to align curriculum instruction and assessment. This will strengthen how we communicate student progress toward grade level expectations. Standardsbased grading communicates how students perform on clearly defined learning targets or standards. Its purpose is to identify what a student knows and is able to do in relation to those targets. Standardsbased grading reports uh what students should know and be able to do in each core content area at every K through 2 grade level. So, I'm really proud of the teacher and the instructional coach team that uh really put in the work to accomplish this. And it's a revision of our K through 2 grade grade cards in the areas of reading, writing, and math. Very thankful for this team. A lot of hard

102work into it. And so, you can see the writing team attached in the board docs and the K12 grade card as well. So, I'll entertain any questions at this time. >> Motion to approve. I'd like a motion to approve. There's >> a second. >> Any discussion? >> I have a question. >> Um, so are there rubrics attached with the grade cards? So each kindergarten teacher say across the district because I noticed some of them say like this one says the student will apply independently at grade level text. So is there a rubric connected to that? So every four across the district is the same four. So for every priority that the grade card is um communicating to parents as a target or a standard, there's evidence, there are documents, there's assessment documents and rubrics, evidence

103that goes behind that. A lot of it um we try to streamline the assessments that we're already gaining that information from so that we are not overassessing students. So we're really trying to balance our assessment as well. But yes, and then um a three if a kid receives a student receives a three that is at grade level considered a grade level. So we did a lot of proficiency scale work in this document. >> I have a motion in a second. >> I have one more quick question that I I too appreciate the work took place to get this in position. What about a roll out to the teachers? Has that has that happened? Yeah. So, September 19th, I'm waiting for board approval. There's a mass email going out tomorrow to all K12 uh teachers and

104principles explaining and thanking the team for this work with with the resources attached. Um September 19th, our next professional development day, there'll be time dedicated to for K12 teachers and instructional coaches to help facilitate a roll out of this. So, yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Would you call the vote, please? Miss Williams, >> yes. >> Miss Miller, >> yes. >> Miss Chzn, >> yes. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> yes. >> Mr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Richmond, >> yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. >> Thank you, Dr. Adams. Okay, Mr. This is not Mr. Hedge. >> You're good. Go. You're good. >> Okay, >> you're good. I just look at the names on my list. I'm sorry. >> That's okay. I wasn't sure which one. >> Okay. I

105am here to present an extension contract extension with Buchanan County. Um I'm sure you guys remember we've had with the county and the city and the school district. We all put some money in the pot and built the Hillyard expansion that ended at the end of December, but we did not spend every penny. So, we have been going back to the county and saying, "Hey, can we have it for this or that?" And they have finally said, "Hey, of what's left, you can have 150,000 towards upgrading the parking lot so that it's still within the same project of that expansion. So, the county has written up that 150 and I'd like you guys to approve that so that Casey can put in that parking lot. I have a motion to second. Any additional discussion, questions?

106>> Good job of securing that. >> Well, that was at me, but thank you. >> All right, let's call the vote. >> Mr. Richmond, >> yes. >> Mr. Moore, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> yes. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Chzn, >> yes. >> Miss Miller, >> yes. >> Miss Williams, >> yes. >> There you go. >> And the motion passes. All approved. And about the parking lot, Mr. Casey. >> Hello. So, this is uh to follow up with that approval there. This is a RFP that we put out for the parking lot itself. Uh the amount of $104,995. Uh what it does is around the back side of the building where the large ramp is that goes up into the new expansion. We ran into many issues with buses being able to

107get access through there and delivery trucks. What this does is red the corner there. It extends the parking lot out to allow for easier access to those buses and everything to get around. Along with it, while we're there, it also replaces some of the curb and the guttering and along with some of this storm water drainage that's failed. >> Casey, who are you picking? >> Sorry, what? >> Who's the choice? It doesn't say in our >> league rover. >> Le Rover. I make a motion. >> Sorry. So, are you I got one question. Are you going to um that leaves 46 $45,000 kind of on the table? Is there a plan for that? >> We're still we're currently looking for what exactly we have left. And then there's some other items on the parking lot

108that could be addressed as well. At this time, when we put the RFP out, we just were unsure of what the exact cost would have been. >> Thank you. Miss Williams, >> yes. >> Miss Miller, >> yes. >> Miss Chzn, >> yes. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> yes. >> Mr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Richmond, >> yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. Thank you, Mr. Casey. And you've got the next one, too. The bleacher repairs, >> correct? Yeah, this is for bleacher repairs at both or all three Central, Lafayette, and Benton. Um, this is to utilize a company called H Heartland Seating, which is who we've established over the last decade that does all of our repairs. Um, they're local out of Kansas City, family-owned company. Um, but we'd

109like to use the co-op purchasing agreement with Greenbush. It's a co-op that we haven't used in the past, but that is the purchasing agreement that they've been awarded. Um, as well, um, that does allow peg banking because it is out of the state. Um it's actually based out of Shauny Mission uh Kansas. Um but we are all approved per policy to utilize those out of state organizations if if we wish. >> Overall it's be the it's right around $54,000. >> Okay. Are there any questions? >> Mr. Hman, what was that last number you gave again? I'm sorry. >> Sorry. What >> the last number that you gave? >> Uh all combined together it's right around 54,000. >> Okay. So I was a little confused. There were two there were there were several documents two different

110dates and so what you're asking >> correct sorry the original documents um what was provided me for budgeting that was back in uh May I believe or April um and then since then due to tariffs and everything the prices have gone up a little bit. >> Okay. Okay. And um is this the first time we're hearing about this one? goes on our the CIP stuff that I originally presented for repairs. >> Okay, I must have missed that list to put out for bid. >> Let me ask you this. Just in light of our current financial situation as a district, how bad a shape are we? In other words, are these things working? They're just a pain or are they just nonfunctional and we don't have enough seats in these? >> One set is nonfunctional. Um

111then the rest is also ADA compliance that we're required to follow. So it is all it's either safety or ADA compliance which is essential. >> Okay, understood. Thanks. And where will that money come out of >> our CIP fund? Fund for >> something I add to this. Um in June of 26 when the preliminary budget was presented, they had $100,000 budgeted in fund four for this. You said the bids came in about 56 54,000. >> So yeah, it did come in under bid for fun. So which is which is good news. Thank >> using that co-op. motion. >> All right, I have a motion. Is there a second? I have a motion in a second. >> Any additional discussion? >> I'm going to abstain because I have a firstderee relative with a business relationship with

112Green Bush. >> Any additional comments or discussion? If there are no, would you call the vote, please? >> Miss Williams? >> Yes. >> Miss Miller? >> Yes. >> Miss Chasing? >> Yes. >> Miss Burns? >> Yes. >> Miss Lanning, you're standing. >> Yep. Mr. Moore. >> Yes. >> Mr. Richmond. >> Yes. >> And the motion passes all with one abstension. Thank you, Mr. Casey. Um, >> I see Dr. Adams. >> Yes, me again. Um, okay. Tonight, I'd like to bring to you the federal programs evaluation findings and recommendations. Uh, the St. school district conducted a comprehensive evaluation of its federal programs from January through June of 2025, aligned to the district's established program evaluation time. This report incorporates extensive focus group feedback and follows the district's evaluation framework and guidance to provide clear actionable recommendations

113in accordance with policy IM as a requirement of our continual evaluation program used to determine program effectiveness and recommendations for continued or improved effectiveness. So key findings of the program evaluation um there were six and so the first would be to develop a succession plan for our federal programs administrative assistant who is retiring at the end of this school year. also uh to consider a software project manager and with that uh an implemented centralized workflow software um digital platform. Also to establish clear protocols and training uh across departments, foster continual improvement and to explore free tools such as AI that could help us be more efficient. the uh resolutions that have already taken place and started would be targeted training uh to help internal workflow workflow. Um those can those things are monthly meetings that

114we've started. I know the board has established committees as well. uh we'll begin collaborating and have already started collaborating um with our new regional director through Desi also to uh restructure some duties and physical workspace locations to uh improve collaboration and communication. Um, we also would like to request more frequent payments from DESIE uh so we can um avoid delayed funding and um improve our internal processes such as uh forms, workflow, um training with consistent coding and a perpetual calendar that helps all departments stay on track. So, those are the key uh resolutions. At this time, I would entertain any questions or ask for a motion to approve it as presented. >> To approve >> in the >> I have a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Okay. I have a motion

115and a second. No discussion. Go ahead. >> In the in the uh I don't know what page it is. It doesn't have page numbers. Uh page two. So it talks about I think it says on page one and then again on page two it talks about we received multiple dusty warnings due to inaccurate and late submissions resulting. So what how long has that been going on? >> So I began in this role two years ago and since my onboarding um that has occurred. I I think some of that is a normal natural process that Desi um Desi and school districts they they have to cross-check a lot of items that come to them through different departments of our district. And so um one issue would be an example would be like coding. So, if they

116notice that an employee maybe was coded a certain way and then transferred positions and it didn't get corrected in um with Desi, then they'll shoot back an email and say, "Hey, would you take a look at this?" And so there's in a district our size, there's just a lot of back and forth cross-checking until they approve. And then once they approve, then they release funds. And so, like Dr. hedge spoke earlier. We've already received u one payment and the other everything's been submitted. We're just waiting on approval and we should be receiving those funds soon. >> And I guess what what I would hope would happen in the future because I don't know that any of us were aware that there were there were issues with inaccurate late submissions, the delayed funding. I don't believe

117we were ever notified of that. I would just ask that if in the future if Desi is sending us warnings and I don't know are these are any of were any of these written? >> I didn't receive those emails. I don't know if that went to the previous superintendent. I do get emails now that when we get payments, but I don't get any of those >> typically when so in the federal programs, state and federal programs that I've worked with, if there's a a warning, and that's where I guess I it's hard to from this context. If there's a warning, typically that warning is going to come in a really angry letter form the government likes or is that not this? >> No, we didn't have a warning like that. We had phone calls from

118Desi um where we would pull across across departments and try to get everybody in the same room and Desi also has many departments. So there might be somebody from finance there, there might be somebody from title one, there might be somebody from ECSE. So it takes a lot of um key stakeholders at the table. But we we did have one phone call midy year um and it was over some core data coding that we needed to get lined out. The others are back and forth emails that I think happen with every school district. And Dr. Hedgefor speak a little more to this. He's been in a variety of schools, but um some experience with this just everything has to match and align and I appreciate that from Desi before they'll approve. Um but sometimes it

119can take sometimes it can take up to 45 days to get a response after you submit something and vice versa. So it can be time consuming. When I saw warnings, I'm thinking like, >> you know, so that's helpful to understand. >> There is more of that than I would prefer. And so we as um a group of departments have started meeting. We started meeting I think in December of last year and put some things in place to try to streamline and make sure everybody's working off the same documents. >> Are you all considering the um software project manager and software to help um fill that in? Is that is that still a consideration or not? >> I I can say that I have met with one of our programmer uh analysts and actually Mr. Kelly

120this week in a meeting um offered some help from his department. We have frontlined with HR now that we feel like some of this workflow can move through more productively. Um, but we have to build those systems because it's a new platform and so we've got some things in motion, but it just takes a little bit of time for us to get built. My main concern or request it's like what Miss Lanning mentioned if there is a major issue like this if there was like a memo to the board in a report or like or like an update especially if it's missing millions of dollars if it's going to come like a long time after the fact or like in another year. >> Yeah. So, I'll be happy to speak to that. So, what I'll

121do is anytime we submit for payment, I'll let you know when the just anformational piece, let you know when the windows open for submission, let you know when we submitted and then keep you updated every month on when those payments might come in. Also, through your financials, you'll also I'll point those out in financials in the narrative that we receive federal funding from the, you know, 12 to December 2nd, the submission date as well. Um, also the board talked about, you know, project management and different things like that. Um, you know, I I've kind of looked for myself to take on that role. We don't need to hire anybody else. Um, you know, I look at we'll I'll work with HR and work with, you know, systems to ensure that we're having, you know, a

122a timely flow of information. Our core data team is going to be at the same noise building as everybody else. So, I always look at federal programs as a three-legged stool. You have your budget side, uh, you have the core data side, and you have the tier monitoring side. And I think Lacy will do amazing job at the tier monitoring side. and I'm here to help on that core data and that budget side and we'll make sure we get this thing ironed out and get it going. So, >> I just want to clarify too, there are no missing funds. We have delayed funds, but they're not missing dollars, >> right? >> Yeah, that's good. >> They are coming in. >> And that's what you mentioned that we might be able to submit more than once

123a year. >> Correct. Matter of fact, I've said that's best practice. >> Yeah. And and I thought I read on here maybe it's every three months or once a quarter or something like that. Is that what our timid plan is? >> Right. So you can sub you can only submit for dollars that are spent. So if let's say they open that window in late November or early December, then we can accumulate all the dollars that we spent to that date, you know, from the first day of school in August all the way to that day and we can submit. And then of course we've submitted everything that we spent. So we got to give a couple more months for expenses to build up then submit again. So I would say at least you know three

124times as typical maybe four is what you'd submit in a year for federal funds. So we had actually if you look back at you know the history of St. we'd actually done that in the past. Um it was just this last year where it looked like it some things got really hung up on um the core data side and it also didn't help that you know at one month federal funds were frozen and they couldn't do anything and then then the window was open again and was closed again. So that back and forth also didn't help because Desi couldn't process anything. So, it was a combination of things, but I think going forward, we'll we will make sure the board's informed of when we submit for payment and then what the resulting deposit is in

125my financials as well. So, >> great. >> And Jesse's been good about saying, "Hey, some of this was our issue because we got some things caught up in our system. It didn't release for me pays into payment." And so, they they're taking ownership for some of it, too. So, I appreciate that, but there are definitely things that we can do to be more timely. >> I appreciate Dr. Adams that you're already working on improving these things that have shown up >> and it's already a process. So, I appreciate that. >> And I just want to say working with Desi sometimes can be really a challenge because they've had a high turnover of staff. So, you might be working with one person one day and two days later that person's gone and then you have to

126start all over. and getting communicating with them is also extremely difficult especially when they have a high turnover of people like that. So I appreciate the fact that it takes patience to work with them as well. So I feel like some of the delays are also created on their side um as well and so I appreciate the patience and the frustration sometimes that comes with working with them. >> I have one more question. You may have already answered this. So, I'm looking at the established clear protocols and training. Do we already have something in place or >> Yeah. So, some things that we've already put in place um we're next month we're going to have training on um consistent core data and coding, budget coding, um which we think is the root of some of

127the issues. So, making sure that all departments are operating off of the same budget codes when we hire new employees or when an employee transfers. Uh we've put some new documents in place that um run the appropriate workflow for when an employee is hired or transferred. Uh we just need to get those put into the digital system of of front line now. But that initiates a workflow that notifies all departments that need to know when somebody's been hired and has a new budget code or there's a change or a transmitt or things like that. Um or also I mean we continue meeting monthly. um the perpetual calendar that we put in place uh is broken down by month and then who's responsible for each part and then they have a part where they sign off

128when when their task is completed. So those are just a few of the things that we've put in place but we're continuing to work through it. >> Thank you. >> Okay, call the vote, please. >> Miss Williams, >> yes. >> Miss Miller, >> yes. >> Miss Chzny, >> yep. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> yes. >> Mr. More. >> Yes. >> Mr. Richmond. >> Yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. Thank you, Dr. Adams. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Dr. Hedgecourt. >> Yes. So, in front of you, I have our quarterly investment report that shows our different investment with mocap for our operating our healthcare trust and also our bond proceeds. And then what the um then with each one of those you see the separate documents for those balances as

129well in the investment. You want to interrupt me, Dr. >> Sure. >> Headquart. I'm sorry. >> Cuz we made a >> Yeah. >> a change on the agenda. >> Yeah. >> So, we pulled the >> turf projects change. >> The ones that we pulled down, you're an ATG turf projects change order. >> Oh, we take those first. >> Sure. No problem. >> So, I had >> JKL. >> I'll just explain. So, I had taken GH and I um because at the last meeting I said that I would approve it if I heard about how the finances were with the bond project tracking tool and so I wanted to have a conversation about that before approving them. Um 25 on K the 2526 paper bid. It doesn't say who won the bid. Um it's my understanding

130that it was it's going to Clayton as the second lowest but also local. Sorry. Correct. >> But in the actual document, it doesn't say who the bid was going to. So that's why I moved it. >> Okay. So let's take um I the ATG the change order. >> Are we doing G first? >> It was G, but it's still you know to I but yeah. >> Okay. We're looking at G first. I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> Okay. Call the vote, please. >> Miss Williams? >> Yes. >> Miss Miller? >> Yes. >> Miss Chzn? >> Yep. >> Miss Karns? >> Yes. >> Miss Lanning? >> Yes. >> Mr. Moore? >> Yes. >> Mr. Richmond? >> Yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. MG change order. >> I'll second. I

131do have a question about what's going on with central. >> Absolutely. >> Uh so currently we were promised to have a crew last week. Uh the contractor failed to meet that obligation. Um or the promise I guess it wasn't obligation the promise that they uh gave us. So right now the the crew is scheduled to finish up either Wednesday or Thursday at Lafayette and then they will move to uh central. to begin the installation there. >> Okay. So, we'll miss the first one. >> Correct. >> So, that's going to go to >> it's been moved to Missouri Western, >> but it it's not at the price that you mentioned last time. >> 3,000. >> Yeah. Thank you. You added a zero last time and then remember people like >> Well, I heard I did say

1323,000. >> Oh, okay. I thought you said 30 as well and I was like, >> yeah, I discovered that. Sorry. >> Where did that 3,000 matter on the budget? move that >> where does it come out of the budget? >> It' be an activity account that that would come out of >> activity account. >> Okay. >> From the school's activity account. >> Correct. Yeah. >> Okay. >> And I saw that they're rescheduling the first game to a Saturday, but after that it'll go back to the Friday. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Y >> is there an estimated like date it will be completed? Uh usually typically it's 14 to 17 days once once it begins the turf installation. >> When's their second home game? >> 19th. >> Thank you. >> Guess it can be it

133should be completed by then though. >> And I I will say I will say that there's um we do have one uh subvarsity game. It's right now C team game with a school district. It's on September 1st uh for Central and that would be moved more likely to Benton to be played cuz that field is open on September 1st. So that subars game will be played between Central and Winonka at Benton. Um Lafayette already has a game on the 1st, the subbars game. So but we'll use that one in town to to take care of that subar game on September 1st. >> Okay. I did want to mention, if you don't mind, um Casey's done absolutely everything he has in his power um to make sure that these fields are getting done and getting the

134attention they need. Um I could go into a longformational piece on why they're where they're at. Um you know, those started many, many, many, many months ago. I won't, you know, rehash all that, but I can tell you from my time here, I have seen Casey come up with all sorts of innovative ideas that didn't end up going through because of the some of the contractors unwillingness to do it of ways to try to get these things done. So, um, I appreciate his efforts. All these things are out of his control. Um, and and so I know he's the one up here, you know, mentioning and talking about, um, the progress on these, but um, I just want to let you know from my vantage point, I mean, he has absolutely done everything he has,

135and I appreciate his efforts on it. And they look >> they look amazing. >> Thank you. >> I have a motion to second. >> Would you call the vote, please? >> Miss Williams? >> Yes. >> Miss Miller? >> Yes. >> Miss Chzn? >> Yes. >> Miss Karns? >> Yes. >> Miss Lanning? >> Yes. >> Mr. Moore? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ra? >> Yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. >> Okay. Now on the HT next. So, I'm going to vote yes on this one as well, but um how are we doing? What's it look like? >> We're doing very well. Um it's exciting. Uh Eugene Field is 100% as of today. >> Good. >> Um on Saturday, we finished hoisting all the units up on top of Mark Twain. Um so I I I

136have plans and and hopes that by the end of this week, we're starting to start to commission some of those at Mark Twain. um on Edison. Um it's we're probably 90% um two weeks my guess. >> Okay. >> The latest. >> I make a motion to approve. >> I have a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> You have some favorable weather. >> Thank goodness. Yes. >> Sorry. >> Mr. Richmond. >> Yes. >> Mr. Moore. >> Yes. >> Miss Lanning. >> Yes. Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Chzny, >> yep. >> Miss Miller, >> yes. >> Miss Williams, >> yes. And the motion passes. All approved. >> Thank you, Mr. Casey. >> Okay, Miss Ch. Okay, this one is uh my fault probably why it's up there like that. Sorry about that. Um

137I thought it would be an action item because my paper bid normally is an action item. So, I thought I would bring it to you guys for your choice. and then it was in the other one and I completely spaced it. So I put that out to bid. I got seven bids um back seven vendors with I don't know 12 paper choices. Two of them we vote out immediately because they jam in our machines and for every one piece of paper, you know, we waste 20. So it ends up being more um to have that kind of paper. Then it came down to um two biders. One is a St. Joseph and one is Kansas City. In the past um you guys have went with the St. Joseph. I would agree with that. I would

138support that decision, but I thought I would put that back in your your hands to decide if that's because it is within your percentage. Now >> make a motion to approve Clayton. >> Thank you. I'll second. >> I have a motion to second. Any discussion? >> And if there are none, would you call a vote, please? >> So, get it in here. >> Miss Williams, >> yes. >> Miss Miller, >> yes. >> Miss Chzn, >> yes. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> yes. >> Mr. Moore, >> yes. >> And the motion passes. All approved. >> Thank you. Okay, Dr. Hedge. >> Sure. >> Yes. In front of you, you have the quarterly investment report that shows how our investments are tracking with MOAD and there's some individual documents that show those individual

139funds and then um a separate document showing the proceeds for each one of those funds and be happy to answer any questions. >> I move to approve. >> It's anformational item. >> Oh, I second. >> Okay. I like the information. if there are no questions. >> Yeah. On the second piece um that you have is the uh budget projection tool and that was uh discussed in in detail at the last meeting. Um something I did want to give you an update on at that meeting. We talked about having uh the executive director of MSBA um of director executive director of finance, Linda Quinley, uh to come look over our finances and do a board workshop or session with you. Um I've contacted her and she has agreed to come on site and do that. Um,

140her question to you was, would you like that in a special workshop or would you like that during one of the normal workshop or board meetings to have that information that she um finds on site when she comes to visit our district? >> I think that does that how long she going to take? I would say probably somewhere between 5 to 10 minutes would be my guess on the presentation and then depending on the questions you had um could go into different detail if that 5 to 10 minute you know presentation gave you you know questions that you might want to answer based on the information. >> Sounds like a good work session topic. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. So, I'll let her know that you're looking at the work session. Um, and then I

141guess it would just fall on the next work session is available after she wraps up all of her analysis. Is that how you'd want to do that? Okay. >> Yeah. >> I would say her analysis will happen pretty much during September. Um, and then you would it would probably be the October workshop, but my guess she might be able to wrap it up before then for a September workshop, but that might be pressing a little bit. So, I would say probably October. But, um, you know, it could possibly be September, but probably October. >> Yeah, I think oc I think October seems like it's going to be reasonable because there's Labor Day in there and >> True, >> that's going to be the 8th of September, so that's pretty close to now. So, >> right.

142>> But I was happy that she um, you know, listened to all the information that I had about kind of their situation and and was happy to assist in in doing that analysis for us. >> Thanks for doing that. >> Absolutely. Any other questions I can answer on um the bond or sorry on the budget projection tool um you know one thing I can say about this is on the um second scenario where I have us coming out of that 10.02% 02%. I can tell you as a team, we've met and gone through some uh you know scenarios of different budget cuts. Um and and we are ahead of the 500,000 purchase service and 500,000 um supplies that I have is just this one scenario. So that is great news. And then I of course

143I will have that uh to you in the October uh budget revision of of where we're at. And then also a new projection tool showing you with all those cuts in there. So um it will be better than that second page that I have have here in front of you. >> We had we had talked about a corrective a corrective action plan of some sort of how we got I know that there were several um several factors that got us to where we are. Um, and I think at one of the last meetings, maybe it was a work session, I don't remember which, that, we had talked about some sort of corrective action of what things are going to be put in place to prevent that. When can we get that? >> Yeah. So, I'm

144would like to have that four to five page report with October if that because we'll be working on that um, you know, in in parallel with our long range facility planning um, you know, with this topic we talked about at the beginning of the board meeting. So, those will kind of run side by side. So, >> perfectly fine. I I I won't I don't want to put pressure on you because of the timing. So I I but I do say this I think it'd be a nice practice to see if we can get those figures plugged into the budget projection plan. >> Sure. Um we can >> and I say that in support of what not not at >> we could definitely have one of the pages have a scenario of you know a two

145high school system with you know this being the feeder system or this being the feeder system and kind of put that in. If you start getting too many scenarios it can start to get a little cloudy but um yeah we can definitely show long range. Okay. If we have these savings for this scenario, that's that's what it'll look like in FY29, FY30. >> Yeah. And I know we're all on some learning curve on a projection to, you know, how much is that as reality versus how much of it's projection, but I I just think to have a tool like that would be um would be a good place to practice and see that. >> Sure. Absolutely. With the revenues, I mean, it's a very predictable tool. um as long as the state doesn't change, you

146know, um drastically from from where they're at, which they could with the formula rewrite. Um you know, our property taxes and what we've had on assessed valuation from year to year, um is has been pretty predictable. So, um that's the majority of the revenue that we get. The unpredictability part has been some of the federal with, you know, all the ESR stuff. So um you know and you can control most of your own expenses when you with how you you know um have your your salaries and benefits and you know your facility. So that facilities piece will go right into our expenses side of that. So >> okay and your next item I know you've already kind of talked about it. >> Yeah we had that in there twice. So um I might have you

147know actually put it in the financials as well as a bond project track but I wanted to make sure everybody saw it. So >> um >> if there so from my understanding but absolutely correct me if we do underspend in those um projects that we currently have if we underspend the remaining funds can be because of the way the the election the ballot language we can put those towards capital expenses. Correct. >> Yes. So we have a lot of different HVAC projects that are going on. Some of those were from the bond and some of those were just out of account projects. So if we do have savings from the bonds, we can apply those to the other HVAC projects per the way the verbage was on the front. >> Okay. And that's just going

148to be so if it's already been done and it's already gone out of fund for it's just going to be like a journal entry. >> Yeah. So what we would do is basically um we can make a journal entry to recode that to um the bond funds or you know we have a lot of ongoing things. So there might be something we might be finished up that um we now realize our savings that could just go right away. So, which will help our our budget um because we won't have to transfer as much from fund one to fund two. So, >> gotcha. >> Okay, Mr. Carl. >> All right. We are suggesting a change in policy GBC, which deals with staff absences and tardiness. It's really just the absences that we're going to focus on.

149So I um currently the policy states that um in order for the absences of a staff member to be excessive um and this does not include FMLA does not include military leave, workman's comp, all of these um legal a legal absences. Um, currently our policy states that a staff member can miss um five days in a month, 15 days in a semester, and 30 days in a school year. Um, we hold our students accountable for 90% attendance. We hold our staff accountable to about 84% 84% attendance if they miss more than 30 days. based on some of the data that I received and this data um has removed all staff who either was out on leave for FMLA, military or workman's comp. So if they missed one day under any of those categories, they could

150have missed 50 days, but if they missed one day of FMLA or military or workman's comp, they were not included in this data. So, John Hattie who is an expert in education, he has um identified specific points um that shows that high quality teachers that are in front of students has one of the largest effect size on student outcomes. Um, so if we have student if we have teachers in front of our students 90% of the time or more there's a better chance that they're going to have higher outcomes. Um, just a few examples. So teachers alone. So I did year-to- date on um missing more than 30 days. So we had four staff members who missed more than 30 days. It's it's also difficult as a building administrator to have conversations with our staff

151members who have not exceeded any of these um absences based on policy. Um we really can't go to them if they've missed 15 days in a semester. um we can suggest and maybe tell them that we miss them but to actually have a conversation it's um according to policy extremely difficult. So we had four teachers that missed more than 30 days in a entire school year. We are suggesting that we change the policy to go 5 days in a month. Excuse me. No more than 5 days in a month. No more than 18 days in a semester. excuse me, nine days in a semester and 18 days in a school year, which would be right around 90% for our staff. So, if we reduced it down to 18 days, excuse me, more than 18 days,

152we'd have 22 staff members who have missed um more than 18 days of school in a school year. When you go to teachers in a semester, more than 15 days, we had five. And then we had 50 staff members who missed more than nine. Now, we are not talking about the staff members who have a child who is sick for a week. They're having conversations with building administrators. They're providing doctor's notes. These would be individuals that um are are just chronically absent. When you go down to staff, I kind of identified them for those who have direct contact with students and those who um kind of have indirect contact with students. Um you can see those that are directly um involved with our students do have higher absentee rates. Now that could be because we

153have more staff members in those categories, but it is alarming to us that um with these individuals, we have 50 staff members who have missed in a school year more than 18 days. We have 105 staff members in a semester who have missed more than nine. Um we'll entertain any questions or maybe this is something you guys don't even want to go down or pursue and that's and that's totally okay. >> Uh I'll get my input here. So I'm kind of torn with this one just because I get your reasoning. You want them to hold the same expectation. So but here's my concern. So I looked at the policies of everywhere around not everywhere but a few places around us and they're 2040. So, we're already got them cut down from 20 to 40 and

154then we're going to cut them down even more. Um, I sit here and I think the percentage that's not doing it is so low. I wish there was a way we can incentive the ones that are having a good attendance instead of penalizing all of them for the ones that are having bad attendance. If that makes sense. Um, I don't know. I just feel like I get what you're saying. I just my other thinking is I don't know if I like the idea. >> Jennifer, you're talking about other school districts policy. That's what you're talking about. >> So I kind of looked I looked at and I'll tell you I looked at Savannah and I looked at North Kansas City are the two I looked at. Um it was late. So I look at those

155two but they're 520 40 >> correct >> if I looked at So we're already cutting them down. I just now we're just gonna cut them even more down compared to our surrounding. >> Have we talked to MSDA or NEA about this? >> We have not. >> I would um I I will vote based on the input from NEA and MSDA. >> I'd like their input as well. I just >> Mark I like or yeah Mark I like the concept um in any industry that would be far out of bounds even the new even the new standard and so um the idea on attendance is you're not um restricting somebody that's had a catastrophic event or something that like that's happening. Um, but casual attendance causes all kinds of trouble. It substitutes, all those kind of

156things. And I don't think that those numbers are unreasonable from my experience. I'm I'm not saying we're going to vote on it. I I respect what the others said about written information, but I think that I think that that's a that's a good normal thing to happen in a professional position. >> I think it that's the expectation we have of the children. in our district and that families obviously they're the ones that get their children to school. I think we're a little hypocritical if we're not following that as the adults um in our buildings as well. So I think it's important that um and and when you think about how many people it it will affect is very few. So hopefully that helps that number move over to I'm going to come to work because

157that's the expectation. So that's kind of where I would stand on that. I just I wanted to share something. There's nothing worse than um if I'm a teacher that attends all the time, what's happening is our quality educators are having to cover classes um because we can't get substitutes. And so then you're asking if I'm an elementary teacher that shows up and we all get that there's going to be personal personal and family emergencies that happen perhaps in a year, right? But if it's chronic, it is the biggest climate and culture killer if I don't have a um break or if I'm asked to combine classes at the elementary level. I just I wanted to share that um in our work when we work in the classrooms. One of the things that we're trying to

158do is, you know, show individuals that we value them. And um if if we come in to provide curriculum instruction support or um check on an individual um to see is there anything you need is is that's one of the first things they a quality individual would say. And I would actually agree with you. I mean, I run an organization and chronic absences. I mean, it's a major issue. I'm just lary of making a policy change without the input of the teacher unions. I mean, in all honesty, I bet they would agree with you, you know, but to make it official. I mean, I would like that. Are we able to get that information? >> Yeah, I will. I'll reach out to them. >> Okay. And here's another question. I don't know if I can

159word this correctly. So on the policy it says employees may be disciplined or terminated for excessive absence or tardiness which I'm assuming if they go over this 9 or 18 days. So someone that's had several time buildup and they have a bad semester. Obviously they don't have bad attendance because they got time build up. So they've had good attendance all along. if they go over these days just one time because again it's a bad semester are they going to be disciplined or terminated because of that one instance or one >> I would assume that I'm I'm just speaking from experience as a administrator that >> if it's a if I'm in a building for three years and I know my staff and they've had an issue whether and hopefully if it's something mental health or

160that they've applied for FMLA anyway, >> that's going to cover it. But usually just having those conversations just to let them know that we're here for you and we understand. Um, but we also have students that we have to take care of, too. Um, I can't speak for other administrators, but for me, it's going to be a conversation. It's not going to be I'm going to immediately seek termination. Um, but if it's something that's ongoing with a staff member, we need to be able to address that. >> Right. Again, I get your reasoning behind it, but I agree. I think going to the unions and getting their opinion would be a good idea on this one. Okay. Anything else on this topic? Okay. Next, um, the board budget. It kind of lists all of us.

161I guess we can begin with looking at the budget and looking at the information that we received um a little over a week ago in an email about ideas about cuts. I looked at the email and I know that it it's my opinion that like a majority of the cuts I think are reasonable except um cutting our options for professional development and training. I do think especially right now, you know, that the board means and I'm also including myself as many opportunities for training as we're able to get well and by just cutting it nearly in half, I don't think is a good move, especially when we can make other cuts elsewhere. I do think that like um it was mentioning about food being optional on nights at board meetings, about the mayor's Thanksgiving dinner,

162about the Ignite event at Mosaic. I think that those are reasonable are reasonable cuts. Um, I just I'm just lry of cutting off half of the board's training and then as a member of MSBA of their board, I'm actually obligated in order to do typical things all year long. And then I'm also encouraged to bring my border along as a part of the of the professional development and training. Um also mentioned on the cuts were my paper. Um a big one was the legislative partnership. Is that the community alliance or is that something different? Is that the >> That's the Friday call. >> It's the lobbying agreement. >> Yeah. And we mentioned this what, like a few months ago >> about the contract and about the importance and if we're able to get information elsewhere.

163I mean, what do you guys think? >> I see your mind. Mike, what's up? You know, look, I I I I like the idea of uh you know, we're we're in this with the whole district and we and we uh we can save some money. Um I I don't know that we can just carve blind say, "Okay, we're not we're going to go to half of the trainings we used to." I think maybe we we look at the number of people going and the purpose that they're going and the needs on the board. So maybe we can get a lot leaner. I just don't know if that number is half. Well, well, and then also I was looking at the information and when I initially joined on the board, a majority of the trainings, a

164lot of the people on the board in those earlier years only went to the mandatory ones. And so, I mean, it was a lot cheaper. Well, well, now a lot of times it's a quorum or more. And then I I'm just lary of in charge of so much cutting off our opportunities for professional development. I mean, in my opinion, it's kind of counterproductive. Lata, I have a question on that. is um MSBA is is the one that's normally providing that training. Is is it you know they've come here and done something. Is it more cost effective for them to come here and speak directly to us? >> No, it's more expensive >> than than all of us traveling. >> Yeah. >> Well, I'm kind of curious what other ideas you have then. So I had

165>> what other ideas you thought of? >> So my >> instead of instead of cutting that, what are some other ideas that you had? >> Well, if you look at the email, I mean, it's cutting a lot of our public appearances, you know, that we like pay for. um the um I also looked at the one that's attached to the agenda. Um tribute to teachers. I mean I wouldn't want to cut that, you know, but I mean if we need to cut it, >> what is it needs to be cut? >> What is that? Is that that whole event? There's still 175 left. teachers. In the past, we have sponsored a table for the board and I spoke with um Julie Cobb about this and she said that we do not need to sponsor a

166table going forward that you guys can attend as a staff member for a cost of $25 ahead. So we can 5:00. >> Okay. >> Well, I am also looking at our conference in Kansas City. I don't mind coming home and not having a hotel. It's a 45minut drive and I'm only because I value those conferences, the connections there are, the training we get and those things I think are important. They're important to me >> and some of the things they offer. But I don't mind making that drive. I even if I don't get reimbured on the gas, you know, I don't care about that. But to be able to attend is my desire. I don't have to stay the night because it's right there. The one in southern Missouri is a little different, but it's

167only an overnighter usually. So that's one way that um might make it easier on that particular item for a conference or for training. But I like participating in local events where um we get to be with the community. I I appreciate that. I like to do that. That's how we learn what the community prefers, how how they're invested in in the school systems. Um, now I'm not I'm not a proponent of some of them that are pretty expensive, but like the mayor's breakfast, that is a way to participate with the community. But Ignite, that's a that's a different story for me. It's a fundraising night. >> So is the mayor's Thanksgiving. Um but for different purposes >> the prices are different >> food healthare food >> prices are different. So that's my opinion. If it's

168local Kansas City we can take ourselves come home you know for a price cut there. So I'm willing to shave as much as I can off. >> I have a question too about is driving the district car. What are the rules for driving a district car? Then none of us would have to incur mileage that way. I don't know what the rules are. The insurance >> I remember you mentioned that and I said I do not want to drive a district car. >> I don't want to die. >> I don't mind driving it. I don't know what the rules are. >> We can ask legal about that. I don't see anything in board policy that refers to members, but we can ask legal about that. Yeah, because I see when we go to those, I

169see other district vans and vehicles and things there where they've come together. So, just curious >> and it's only anformational item right now, you know, but I think a big one um could be the legis Well, >> yes, >> cuz in all honesty, I mean, I know that on the call it's not a lot of board participation anyway. It's mainly only I mean a couple of us and we can get that information elsewhere. I mean >> I get three emails on those things. >> Well, so it's not just from that person. >> And then I I remember when we were looking at the contract at the beginning of the year. I mean a couple a few of us were kind of against it then anyway. And so I mean if we're going to begin someplace

170I'd be okay. I'm more apt in agreement with cutting that over training. >> I I agree with you and Kim both on the training part and I think my reasoning for that is what I've said before that we have new board members every year and I think having that training is important. Um I would absolutely support ending the legislative partnership for $10,000. We're already getting legislative updates from the cooperating school districts of greater Kansas City through that lobbyist. Um, we're also getting it through MSBA. So, I think it's duplicative. Um, I would also be fine with getting rid of all board food. Bring a sack lunch or a snack. Uh, but if we don't want to do that, that's fine. I'm fine with the mosaic um the mosaic event being cut. I didn't see the

171fly in on or the fly the flyin is on here so I'm fine with that too. The last handful of times I don't know that p public education has even been a discussion about that. Um I'd also be fine with cutting the chamber membership but that's probably not going to happen. So, did we already talk about do we know why we're so over on legal fees this year? >> Well, it's been a pretty difficult year. Um, and so legal fees were a little more up in the past 18 months or so. I know that it was interesting. I never knew that all the legal fees of the district are in in the board budget. I never knew that. >> Yeah, >> I think that's interesting. But I mean, if that's as it is, I mean,

172it's as it is, you know, but >> it will be lower going forward, I'm thinking. And then it was an extra bond last year, too, and that was extra money in that c >> category as well. You know, that's not normally in there. So, superintendent. >> Yes. soup search. >> Yes, >> I mentioned that in my email and it it was also extra funds in that avenue as well. And so I mean we're actually already cutting a lot of expenses just having um a quote unquote I guess normal year even though it really isn't normal but you know what I get. Um and so >> so Ashley, are you asking all departments to cut 10% or what are you asking of other departments? >> Yes, Dr. Horth has loved this charge, but yes, we're asking

173all departments to cut a minimum of 10%. Sometimes that's not as feasible with some departments and then other departments like technology and operations have been able to cut significantly more. So I'll let you speak to that if you'd like. >> Yeah, the hard part is when you look at our budget is a is a piece of pie. 25% of it is supplies and purchase service which we're looking at here and 75% of it is cost with people because we're a people based business right so um we're all having a lot of discussions about that 25% and then whatever we can't cut from that 25% we'll have to start having discussions about a 75% now we hope for that to be things with attrition and be able to shift you know things around so the more

174we can do in that purchase service and and applies then then less we'll have to do elsewhere. So a lot of hard conversations um you know cuz there there's two sides almost every every discussions. >> Well I feel like as a board that if we're asking other people in the district to have a cut that our cut should be very similar or equal to their cut so that we're all in this together. So, >> yeah, >> I'm having a hard time seeing the numbers because my eyes are old, but I think looking at and us thinking together as a group um how we're going to do cuts that are similar to what we're asking other people to do. >> Yeah. And I think just an example of when they coming in from MSBA and having

175that expert, you know, the more we can contact MSBA for different legal questions and not our other attorneys because MSBA's legal um representation is covered by that $13,500 for our membership. And so I'm always trying to call Susan Goldhammer for anything, especially the policy, the more I can converse with them, but there are some things you have to contact outside. There just is. But trying to talk through the staff, that will certainly help as well. So, let me make a comment. One is I appreciate you going through this and giving recommendation and I'm a I'm a pretty conservative person that you'll learn that. Um, but I I uh I think we should consider complying with that particularly this year and I I respect the things about the additional training. It probably applies to me as

176much as anybody. I think we um we take a look at some of those. I think we've heard from everybody that that may be a thing that we need to um not take such a big cut, but um I think on on the others, we probably even need to feel the pain a little bit um because that's what we're asking others to do. And our percentage will be higher, but ours is more discretionary spending than than some of the areas. And so I'm um I'm basically in support of it with the other comments about training >> is the great north. So, the great Northwest Days that there's more to that than just that $350, isn't there? Or at least there should be >> because we included in that event is travel per DM. And >>

177that's also included in like the >> or is it somewhere down >> hotels for above that? >> I know, but there's extra charges and stuff like about meals and >> Okay. gas cheap but that's >> so I would just add all of our staff are cutting conferences as well I understand the importance of that I value I value that learning as well but when our staff are trimming that professional learning um I think anything that we can do on our budgets helps us pour into people that are serving our kids >> right >> I'm all back accountability and just can we add maybe like a simple little chart like board spending last year, board spending year to date and just know that we're on track because I don't want this to be the last time

178we have this conversation. >> Yes. Well, well, and then about your comment about the staff also cutting professional development, I think that's okay in a way, you know. Okay. but they're also educated and degreed in their field and we're just normal average everyday elected individuals who are just doing our best. I mean, I don't think I would be able to be the board member I am if there were not like a lot of opportunities, you know, for training and such. And so I just I don't any kind of educational opportunities cutting that is always very I mean I'll starve every board meeting and every event. I'm completely okay with that you know but >> I just want an educated an educated board and we can continue you know to discuss this. In all honesty, it

179appears as if a lot of like all of us are pretty likeminded. >> Yeah. >> And that's good. >> So, can you all send us a list of things to collectively to trim because we're working on the budget revision for October. So, the sooner we have that, the better. >> Okay. But we're not going to trim it until we all agree on what to trim though, right? Okay. And will you email that list? If you can email it to all four of us. >> Thank you. Um, anything else on that topic? Okay, great. on the board notes. Um, if you're just able to keep an eye on our next batch of the policies and then I think that a majority of us are enrolled in order to go to the meeting at the end of

180next month on midbuck, right, Miss Donna? >> Um, and that's pretty much all I had. I really haven't done anything ever since the last meeting. Anybody else have anything? >> I'd like to talk about our district and the first week of school after witnessing these great rooms that have been created at Hosia, going to that uh ribbon cutting and then to opening night. The schools are open. Our the staff is amazing. Excited. They were all welcoming the kids, the parents. It was also an opportunity to see our bond money at work, how it's improving. We hear a lot about, "Wow, it's not done yet. Why isn't it done?" But it it's just nice to see the progress, knowing that there is. And to see that they work in spite of that. they work uh with

181our kids in spite of maybe a little, you know, a road mishap out front trying to finish the the parking lot at Oak Grove, but nobody pays attention to that because they're caring for their kids. So, it has just been wonderful to be at the schools like last week to watch the kids come in, the staff enthusiastic, ready for schooling, ready to be with our kids, and nobody's complaining. Nobody has anything bad to say or mean. They're just just excited to be there. Now, I I do have to say it was a little tough at Mark Twain. It's my my first time when the kids are coming in the first day of school to an early learning center. So, it was interesting. The children are crying going in, but the parents are crying going out.

182And it just it just gets you because that's their baby now that they're they're they're out of their hands. But it was wonderful to be able to participate in that and see the excitement to see the kids ready to see the buildings uh with brand new rooms with parking lots being built. It it just was good. So, your tax dollars are working well and our staff is amazing, very welcoming, very enthusiastic. So, it was great. Every place I went, they were like that. So, I am grateful for a staff who's ready. Me and Tom had a fun at Hosia last Friday. Does all the schools elementary do that or just >> pick it does now? Let's pick it. >> I think it's a growing trend. I know is also doing that and I know Persy

183does as well. It's fun. >> You know, to Kim's point, um we I saw a few kids that were having a little separation challenge from their parents. And you can't believe how the teachers and I mean, you guys can, but to witness the teachers um helping that student and the even the um safety resource officer helping that student and connecting with them and saying, "Hey, I'll walk right all the way to class." um you know, meeting the needs, taking the time with the child um and winning them over. It they wouldn't have been won over without the extra effort the teachers. If they stood their hands off, those kids would have gone home that day. And um so it was awesome to see that and and um realize again I wouldn't have been able to

184do it, but see them do it. They really care about those kids. I appreciate your comments, guys. Thank you so much. >> Motion to adjourn to executive session pursuant to 610.021 closed meetings and closed records for legal, hiring, firing, and disciplining or promoting of particular employees and individually identifiable personnel records. >> We have a motion. >> Is there a motion? >> I'll make a motion. >> Mike, >> Miss Williams, yes. Miss Miller, >> yes. >> Miss Chzny, >> yes. >> Miss Karns, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning, >> yes. >> Mr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Richmond, this meeting's adjourned.