June 30, 2025 Board Work Session | Afternoon Session

001Don't mind me if I take some bites of pizza between all of this. But I'm glad that we kind of created a clear timeline around our board meetings. So now let's do the same thing about communication expectations between the superintendent and the board or board members. So here are the questions that I was going to put you guys into groups to discuss, but I think we can just openly discuss it kind of out loud. Um, but these are the ones that we really do need to kind of think through. Um, so who communicates with the superintendent? How often, for how long, how should questions be handled? And we talked about questions around board meetings, and I think that's great. Um, but there may be just questions throughout that have nothing to do with the board

002meeting, concerns you get from, you know, community members, etc. We need to talk through that. Um, how often and how does the superintendent communicate with the board? I don't know what Gabe usually did, but is there something different that you'd like Dr. McInness to do or continue to do what he's doing? We just again need to talk about it. And then what merits an immediate call or text to the superintendent? Because a part of what's going to be different this year is you do have a new superintendent who's never been superintendent before. I don't care whether you're from St. Joe or not from St. Joe, you've never been a superintendent before. And so it's the board's job also this year to really monitor themselves. Um because this is going to be a tough year for

003Dr. McInness. It's going to be great, but it's just going to be hard. There's just going to be a lot of new. Um and so the board's job is to, you know, uh protect to some degree. Remember the support, monitor, support, monitor. This first year may lean a little bit more support if that makes sense. Um, so let's kind of dive into these. So, who communicates with the superintendent? How often? For how long? What did that look like? Do we like with the last superendent? Do we like that? Do we need to make changes? Yeah. Um, with our last one, I will admit I did not really like it. Well, because it was like anything goes and often times it was a little unorganized and confusing and then it also created issues in between um

004board members I think um just because and then maybe the process will kind of eliminate things. Well, okay. A lot of times if a member of the board would have like a question, you know, for Gabe, I'm not knowing anything about the question or the answer. And so it may make others kind of think, oh, you've got more information than me. No, I just never knew about the question or anything like that. And so I would like a communication process more dream like that's it was actually listed as an agenda item later and we can eliminate it as an agenda item later like like if we're able to like iron it out right now on like almost like a protocol or like on how we do things I guess you say if any of that

005made any sense. So, you're saying there was not a protocol before? No. Okay, here we go. What's my favorite? Okay. So, rest of the board, I'm curious. What are your thoughts? What What kind of protocol would make sense? Would make people comfortable. Obviously, superintendent would want your thoughts as well. I just know that at times it would appear like An example I'm going I'll pick on Whitney since she asks lots of questions. Well, I know that it made other members of the board kind of feel left out over not knowing. I don't know what's going on. And then at times I know they thought that I'm only giving information over to Whitney when I don't even know the information like on my own at times. You know what I'm saying? So, so when board members

006were asking questions in the past, their answers were just going to them. So, other board members didn't get to right see the questions nor the answers. Right. Okay. Well, and I think that goes back to what I was saying earlier. When we do have questions, we send straight to you. We you and you so everybody's in the know. Sometimes, yeah, like I've done it where I would I would text Gabe and Lata both and sometimes Gabe would just jump in and answer it, which is great except I'm not sure Latana ever even, you know, got a chance to look at it type of thing, but it creates transparency and keeps keeps our superintendent um safer if if we all know what's being asked of her or comments and that kind of thing. I feel like

007if we all know, we can all be aware of what's coming in. Agreed. Okay. Um, so we're saying, and we kind of talked about this with the agenda thing, but if we have questions, we send them to the superintendent and we're CCing Lata and vice president, president, vice president on the email. Donna Donna. Okay. And we all feel comfortable with that. Okay. So then this is very e easy for email. But I heard Mike say I would sometimes text. But I'm not saying that's bad, but this is just like, okay, so what's email versus what's text versus what's phone call? And then what's protocol for text? Well, I know that I would text if it was like a little a little thing like like insignificant like I remember I asked about the capacity of a

008school once and I just text Gabe asking if he knew offh hand. In my mind that's not like an email thing. Okay. But if it's like anything else, you know, I mean, I would have emailed, you know, but like at times it's just a little question. And that's like the public affairs copy last what was it Thursday when our legislators were really proud of the school safety bill. And so this text gave and said, "Did we get money for that?" I said, "No, we did not." Yeah. Didn't think so. Just making sure. or if you're at a community event and somebody says, "And then this happened and you're like, I don't I don't think you know what you're talking about." So, I'm just going to say this just for you all to keep this in

009mind. I'm not saying don't text on me. This is not what I'm saying. Your little text is great. There's six other people. And so that's the thing about the submitting questions to the superintendent. I I talked to one board about it and I was like, "How do you all feel about submitting questions so that everyone can see how many questions everybody submits?" And they were like, "Oh, we don't want to do that." And I'm like, "But it's important. I think it's important that you see that like, yeah, I only had three questions, but what's three times seven? That's now 21 questions." And I'm not saying don't ask questions, but I'm just saying this first year really being aware and really thinking like what is necessary and vital for me to do my role. Is it

01015 questions every month? I don't know. Maybe it is. Well, I think that also and I think we talked about this you guys when you guys were here in the fall is I think it's also figuring out like Dr. Edgar was he he was going to text during meetings. he was going to text while he's sitting here having a conversation with you to someone else. So, his communication style was much different than Ashley's is. So, I think we can all recognize that. And, you know, I know that we've talked, we haven't broached on this um much, but I know that he had a very different uh comfort level with our interaction with staff. So, I get that that changes. And I think we tal we talked about all this in the fall. So I recognize

011we have to know what you want and what you don't want. If you don't want us to text you, we don't text you. Um I don't think that text is just a bad thing. My response would usually be, I'll give you a call when I get out. Yeah, I think that's fine, too. Um I worry a little bit about the legalities sometimes of your text. Please keeping in mind that they can be subpoenaed at any time even though it's on your personal device. So again, not an attorney, but I would visit with them. Um, email is great because you're also copying your board secretary who's the secretary of record. And I understand that she's becoming an expert on sunshine request um as she does these. And so yes, we want to get your questions answered.

012And sometimes they can just be a casual conversation you can have before a board meeting. Say, "Hey, I had this about school safety. Do we get any money for that? No. And that can be it because it may be a question for you. I think the hard part here is what's the workload going to be for her work. The expectation is that she is supposed to communicate to you every question she's ever asked and every answer she gives to every board member on everything. She's going to have to discern. This is just Whitney's question. It kind of goes on. If she feels like it's a bigger issue that may impact the other board, he may have other questions. Then yes, maybe. But that's part of her job is to discern some of this, too. Otherwise,

013that's all she's going to be doing. I think we need to have grace as a board in that discernment. And I also think we need to ask Ashley, how are we doing? And and you be okay with telling us, yeah, if you guys keep texting me, I'm going to lose my mind. And I would say that's a great thing. I appreciate that. Like in three months, in three months, have that conversation. Yeah. You you're going to do some evaluation stuff. We're going to get to that. That's a great conversation. That's not only how she's doing, but how are we doing? Yeah. You know, I did appreciate though, Donna um sent out um a text to say there's some attachments that have been added. Oh, absolutely. And and um Right. And the fact is I might

014not have seen it email. I know. I And that's the new communication process. I think that's um right. And so I I want to I want to make a case for when there's some kind of urgency, we I agree. We use a text and we document how we need to on an email if we need to. But just don't be texting. I think we're a little more alert to text maybe even than a phone call these days. Sometimes sometimes I'm more accessible to a text than I am to taking a phone call. I just want to make sure we're not violating sunshine rules. All right. You know, no, I'm not. I'm just Yeah, but I agree. No, no problem with that. Let me say, let me ask this. What about um we have a question.

015We copy the three that are sitting here. What about if one of them has a question? How does the board hear their question? Um you know, Rhonda has a question. How does the board hear their question? If you're talking about the board agenda, it should come out just the same way we had a board member because they're still a board member. Even though they're an officer, they're still a board member. So, it shouldn't be included in that communication. Yep. Absolutely. And so, um, Dr. Megan, it's not to put you on the spot, but how are you envisioning your communication with the board? Have you thought through that at all that might look like? I think it's going to be flexible. Um, obviously we do weekly updates for the departments. I think if it's an emergency

016situation or if we have a a serious personnel issue that's hit social media, I think that's appropriate to say, "Hey, heads up," because they're going to get texts and calls and things like that. If it's something that is not a matter of urgency, then I would say email it. I I am a very much different leader than Gabe. I don't like to be on my phone when I'm in a meeting or listening to someone and so I tend to just I want to get to that on a break. Um, so just if I can have grace in that, I try to be very present with people who are in front of me. I think that's a respect thing. And so I will get to it, email or text, but if I could just ask for

017some grace. Now, if it's an emergency, text or call, I'm always going to pick up the phone if I'm not right in with someone. Yeah. And Ashley and I visit during the break. There's things that you guys need to be in the loop of, not in the weeds, for example. Well, I said we had a ambulance was at one of the middle schools today. had a medical emergency with a student. Yeah. Just keeping you in the loop. You don't need to know the student. You don't need to know what the emergency was. None of your business. Uh but you didn't need to know because you're going to ask, "I saw there's an advert." Yes, we're aware. And it was taken care of. We had a medical merchant with a student. Boom. Because in this day

018and age, everybody feels like they need to know everything before they need and they need to know it now. And if you're not, then you're being non-transparent. Or if there's a lock down in a building, I think that any of those types things. Sure. Yeah, because we don't want to read it in the paper or should be no surprise. That's not how we want to find out. Correct. I think one exercise would be good in a future train board session with you guys would just be what setting your board norms of what are your norms of how you're going to operate as a board would be good for you guys because then you really have something that you're working with and then it's not about the person, it's about the norm. We have a norm

019of no surprises. So, let's not surprise each other. Well, I think things in the school district and kids, you know, text their parents and say, "Oh, this just happened." Well, then it hits social media. It gets out there way before it gets down to downtown to us to the district office and then we're like, "Hey, we didn't know we just now, you know, they just now called us." And then sometimes that's not accurate. Yeah. Yeah. Probably most of the time. Most of the time. Remember, sometimes issues, staff issues, you are the board and so many of those issues will end up coming to you. There's a possibility they could. So, you need to let the process work too so that you can become the board and you're not taining the well for this. They they

020deserve due process. And so, let's make sure we're providing due process as throughout this. And so, that's hard in today's world because they already want you to make a decision. And what have you done? Have you suspended these kids? Have you done, you know, suspended this teacher? Have you fired them? What have you done or not done? We have to follow the law and you have to follow your policy. I don't know if they're perfectly consistent, but I've seen us do a nice job as a board with some of those emergency type situations. Good. You know, sometimes it's Latana saying, "Hey, so everybody knows we had a bus go down, whatever." Um, maybe it's sometimes it's Gabe in the past. So, I don't know 100% consistent, but uh those type of things, you know, we

021had in we had a lockdown at at one of the elementary schools because whatever. Um we I feel informed there mostly. Yeah. Hey, Catherine, I got one quick question in experience. There was a there was a person um in the training that I'm going through that wasn't the president or the superintendent or the vice president. It was like called the or beads or the um some other thing. Some boards have a treasure. Well, but it wasn't that custodian of custodian of records. That's that's your So when we say copy, Donna, that that records. Okay. I I just didn't I want to make sure I go. Yeah. No, that's great. That's a great great question. Okay. Anything other that we need to touch on about communication before we move forward or do we feel like we

022are okay? No, that's just with the super, not with others in not other staff members, right? Yeah. There shouldn't be a need to contact other staff. You shouldn't need to. It's right here, right? That's your employee. Yeah. She's responsible for those other ones. Hold her account. Okay. All right. Um, so now I want to talk about not only communicating with your superintendent, but communicating with others, um, your community members. Um, and so we we talked about chain of command earlier, but I want us to actually practice using chain of command because I think this is where it gets tricky, too. Someone comes up to you with a concern or a complaint or something. And a lot of times board members become the therapists. Yes. And that's not your job, you know. um sometimes they're advice

023givers and that may not necessarily be the job either. Um and so practicing how do we respond when people come up to us. Okay. Um so first of all obviously follow your policy teacher principal superintendent then it would get to the board. Um but I want to actually give you a scenario um and people coming up and asking you things and giving you time to think through how would I respond to this? What would I say? Okay. So, here's the scenario and we're going to use the same scenario for all three community members coming up to talk to you. Okay, so your scenario, the school district has proposed multiple options for new attendance boundaries. What a good time that is, by the way. The board recently held a work session to review the options, but

024no decisions have been made yet. There is a survey on the website about the options and upcoming listening sessions for the community. So, do we understand what's happening? Okay. So, you are at the grocery store and a parent comes up to you and says, "I heard the board already picked the plan that moves our whole attendance zone. Why did you choose that one? It makes no sense for our community." So, I'm going to take literally one minute and write down how would you respond to this parent at the grocery store in this scenario. Literally one minute because you're gonna be on the spot with these things and you got to know. What am I gonna say? One minute. Five, four, three, two, one. All right, I want you to share your response with the person

025sitting next to you. And then you already told me. All right. That's actually not accurate. I just ask about because I've noticed lots of times when I say That's not like All right. I'm curious. Does anyone have a good response? either it was your response or your partner's response that you feel like the rest of the board needs to hear. I can go. Okay. Uh I we just talked about actually we're the same here that really that tell them that there was not a decision made but tell them how important it would be to take that survey on the website and going to the listening session for the community to have their opinions heard. Love that. Any additions because I feel like that covered a lot of it. Same thing. Yeah, feel like you got

026my cheat sheet. Um, so this is an option. I understand there's a lot of concern and confusion right now. Just to clarify, the board has not made any decisions. We've been reviewing options. Your input's important. Encourage you to share feedback through the survey or upcoming listening sessions and just past that. Yep. So, that was perfect. Yep. Exactly. Okay. So, same scenario. We still have the boundary thing, all of this. Um, your brother-in-law at dinner the next night says to you, "Off the record, which plan are you personally going to vote for? How do you respond?" So, take one minute and write, "How are you going to respond to your brother?" Depends on which I know. You can insert wife here. You can insert any any family member or any person. your parent. My mom, my

027sister. Okay. I don't want you to talk to the person next to you. I want you to find someone with a different color postit as you. So, some of you had posted. Some of you had green postits. Find someone with a different color Postit and move around and share with them. How would you respond? Perfect. Rhonda. [Music] Oh, you want me to do it? I just put I really don't have a I think Yes, sir. [Music] I think this is just Exactly. All right. Now, I kind of want to hear any good ones. Yeah. So, I would let my in-law know that you're not even able to hold any water at all. So, there's no way I'm going to tell you a secret. I've just made it a practice in my family. I don't even

028mention anything about the school board. Well, because it's just a part of my life everywhere. And then I'm also a part of educators in my family and I know that if they opened up the conversation and I interact, it's going back and forth, back and forth. And then I know somebody's going to say something and so I never mention it at all. and stuff like if anyone's able to claim I know Latana's brother and he says this, "No, I know you're lying since we don't talk about it." It's interesting because as an elected official, as elected officials, I sometimes feel obliged to tell people way I'm leaning. you know, I don't know if that's right or wrong, but like it would not be uncommon to say say, "Well, you know, I'm kind of leaning this

029way, but I'm I'm going to wait till I hear the results of the survey," something like that, you know, and uh so I don't know if that's too middle ground or what, but I've been known to do something like that. I think that's very, especially when you say, "Here's where I'm leaning, but I really am waiting for the input from the community, and that's what's going to help me make the final decision." Yeah. Helping them understand that you guys really aren creating these surveys just for fun. Like you really want to know what you really want with people. Yeah. Right. I think that's important. We also talked about maybe diverting the question and asking, "Well, what do you think?" Yes. Totally agree. Um, so I appreciate your interest, but I don't make decisions till we've

030had full discussions as a board and consider all public input. It's important I stay open-minded through the process and make decisions as part of the team and not as an individual. So that's also just kind of a way to say it. I like that. That's what I meant. I know. All right. So, this next one, same scenario, but I'm not going to give you time to write. Instead, I want you to immediately turn to the person next to you, and you guys can decide who's going to answer first. But like, if someone came to you and they said this, what is your immediate off-the cuff response to them? Okay. Okay. A local reporter calls you and says, "We've heard that some board members are against the proposed boundary changes. Can you confirm that? Do you

031think this plan is going to pass? Go. Go right now because the camera's right here. for kids in the community and social Okay. So, I'm curious. How would we handle something like this? We talked about just kind of like the one above that giving that leave them hanging and wondering and Mike was saying too that you know I'm only one person on the So, um, yeah, I think just to saying that no one's made a decision because we're still gathering important information. Anything else? I've actually answered these a lot and I just let them know, you know, that the board as a board's not even had a discussion about this yet and that I know that we will come together to make a decision that is what's best for kids in the community and then

032honestly with that can I ask what does your policy say about talking to the media the media you know we've been a little unclear what that so that so so we need to know that but also I think we've handled a little bit differently I mean like at one point I think you were talking about hey it should all be the president the superintendent and then if there's a certain topic somebody somebody like me might slip in there, you know. So, I think we probably need to talk about that more. It must be a policy to make it clear if it's a personal opinion that you're not speaking on behalf of the board. Yes, you Yeah, you definitely need to say I think with talking to anybody, you could say, you know, I am not

033speaking on behalf of the board. This is my personal opinion. Yeah. But I think we need I know a lot of times I know that the media will kind of leave that out and they'll see I was gonna ask so in my experience did the because they're on a timeline and they only have so many minutes that they're going to spend on you. Yeah. So you may give it an answer that was this long but I have found that they will often give you this much. So yes, I think that the normal practice is is if it's like a board thing, I answer and then lots of times people will contact other members of the board. and they'll either say, "Well, am I able to do this or would you rather do this?" And everything

034like that and stuff because I know that when I was initially elected, like I would just open up the newspaper and there's a member of the board and they're talking and I'm like, "What are we what are we doing here?" Right? And so when I speak as a board, I mean, in all honesty, I just kind of give a general answer about the vote and then always that, you know, that we're doing what is best on the district and kids. I mean, it's never like it's never I never use my voice cuz I know that even if I say that this is my opinion, everyone will know I'm the president of the board and they may think, you know, that that has like like a little bit of sway even though it doesn't power or

035something, right? Yeah. I'll let you continue to look for their policy, but here's I'm trying to find their policy. Yeah. Here's a suggestion. Um, I can't speak on behalf of other board members and no final decisions have been made yet. I recommend reaching out to the superintendent's office or checking the district's communications for the most accurate and official updates, redirecting them um to people who may have more information than you do. And then again, following policy, which usually says board president is the the voice of the board. I think it says that or unless it's designated by the Oh, yeah. Quick question. Jennifer and I got asked as a new board members to speak to the media. I saw that. Yeah, it was a very nice. I did. I said no. No. um we probably

036didn't do a perfect job, but um Jennifer did do a nice job of letting Latana know that that was happening and um so it wouldn't be a surprise to her. But I I do wonder was that okay that we did that. I mean, let your director of communications know also because a lot of times they will want to be there with you to help because you are new to this and they deal with the media and and St. Joe has a a strong relationship with your local media here and so that's important. But your communication director really is helpful for that. Um I know that you're make going through a change with that right now. But letting those two know also to say, "Hey, had this request." Yeah, we send an email I think to

037you. Yeah, probably. So probably. So they I mean they know the protocol pretty well, too. They do they do a nice job. Okay. All right. So we've talked board meeting timeline, communication expectations. Now let's talk about expectations of the superintendent. So this is superintendent evaluation. This is what I kind of want to get into. So we um have this process. It used to be six stages and then I worked with NASA and Desi and now this is the statewide tool in the state of Missouri um in order to evaluate superintendent. It's what's being adopted. Um it just got released in March which is really exciting. Um so these are the four stages of the superintendent evaluation process. And when you hire a new superintendent, um, we recommend an 18month cycle so that there's plenty of

038time, um, for Dr. McInness to get beat up under her, kind of figure things out. And I also just think, um, so that stage four, conduct an annual evaluation, usually that happens in January or February. But if you think about it, if she's starting July 1st, January, February is like six months away. So that's why with new superintendents, we recommend to do all these four stages in 18 months. So that put us out to 27 January 27th. Right. Correct. So did Dr. Edure have um evaluations? There is no formal process or anything like that. It's never been ever since I came. And so that's why when I knew that this was coming, I was really really excited since it gives you like if you look at the information online, I actually printed off that like

039off the manual and I've read through all of it. It gives you like a timeline of like on this month I need you to do this, on this month I need you to do this. And it's just like it's a game plan pretty much. and I can send that to the board so everybody has it. It's on our website, totally free. Um, and then with your superintendent search since you all used us, it's six months of free support. So, I can come here for free, no charge to you all, and get you started on this process. Um, yeah. So, uh, stage four would be 18 months from now. That would be that final evaluation. Um, that the annual one is what we call it. Um, so that would be that January, February of 2027. Um,

040stage one, that's determining um what basically what you want to evaluate Dr. McGinness. What do you want her focuses to be this first year and a half in the job? Um, and so I recommend that that starts July, August, September, because it's an 18-month cycle. It's not like a super rush. Um, but getting it going sooner rather than later. Um, stage two is when after we decide, you know, what do we want Dr. McInness to focus on? It's then her job to create um a plan. How am I going to make this happen? What is my growth going to look like over these next 18 months? She then creates the plan and shares it with the board. The board can ask questions about it. Um but you don't have any say in what's the plan.

041Your say was here's what we want you to focus on. But then you have to delegate how is she going to make that happen if she gets to do that. Um so that stage two would happen after stage one. So if stage one happens sometime between July and September, stage two could happen sometime between September, November. Um and then stage three is these check-ins. They would occur that whole time, that whole year until the January, February, stage four. Um check-ins can be very informal or they can be very formal. It depends on what it is the governance team wants. Um, I like the informal personally. Um, and if you're doing informal check-ins, I feel like that means you can do more of them over the 18 months. You know, if it's just once a month,

04210 to 15 minutes in close session, just a how are things going? Do you have any updates for us about where you are on this process? Um, some of them may need to be more formal, like a full presentation. You know, if you're like, hey, we really want you to focus on math scores. You know, at some point she'd have to create a presentation about here's how it's going with math scores. Um, but I think the more check-ins that you do, the better. Um, it just brings you all closer and that's the point of this evaluation process is to just help with communication, help with clarity, help support and monitor the superintendent as they're doing this. You have districts that are doing this well. Yeah. Yeah. Especially when I come help for a lot of

043districts. Um I'm actually that's what I'm going to Kansas City to do. They've been using this process I mean since I've been there. So yeah, we're starting the next stage one tonight. And I would keep in mind too what are leading indicators and what are lagging indicators too as you think about measures and timelines because those are going to be separate things because in this world unfortunately you'll get some lagging indicators and boards always want this really hard data like well how do we know and I understand that and that's a challenge to do sometimes because they do lag behind and so what does that need to look like? So just keeping leading and lagging in your head is very helpful. And so we recommend the board and superintendent coming together to select those indicators

044as a collaborative process. Um and then a lot of U boards get really excited and they're like, "Oh my gosh, there's like 14 things we want you to do. We have a new leader, etc." And sometimes superintendents are that way, too. They come in and they're like, "There's 10 things I want to change. Like, let's go." If I come and help you all, I will not let you pick more than three things um for the superintendent to focus on over these next 18 months. Especially if it's a new superintendent, sometimes I'm like maybe one or two. And just do these one or two things really, really thoroughly and really, really well. Um but I would limit you to three and I'll be mean about it. Make sure you're picking stuff that's focused on student learning

045and district improvement. Really thinking about what does our CIP look like? where are we trying to go with our CEPIP and what goals could we pick for the superintendent that most closely align with our CEIP and our strategic goals. Um, and it provides an opportunity for student learning or superintendent learning and superintendent growth. That's the whole point of this is that they're developing over time to become better and stronger. So technically it's not a time to pick and pick at the super. It's to encourage, wow, this looks really good. How we It's over. It's both. It's both. It's for sure both. Well, it's both. Yeah. Want to be nitpicky, but Well, and then I'll like what I really force boards to do and this it's literally just human nature, but when we're looking at things

046where like, well, this is wrong and this is wrong and this is wrong and this could be better and this could be better. I really help boards say, yes, where are the areas you want the superintendent to improve, but then also what's going well, right? This is your employee. You have to also build them up and support them. And so really helping boards think through like what is some area areas of improvement that we could share with the superintendent that we're still looking for, but also what's going really well that you want the superintendent to keep doing to keep focusing on. And so I help boards kind of go through that process to make sure we're doing both. Um and then you guys will agree on uh what kind of data and evidence you'd want

047to see from the superintendent to show that growth is actually happening. That's a collaborative effort. We do that together as a group. Um and selecting that together just helps so much. Remember I said superintendents want to know what's expected of them from their board or else it's going to be hard to do the job. This process helps all of that. The discussion that we have during that first stage one meeting is so it's like an eye opener like this you know it's like oh that's what we're looking for. Oh this is the data we want to see from the superintendent. This is what we want to and it just brings clarity to the group. It's so helpful. Yeah. um to compile all of this information. It will be another like group meeting like this then

048in order to do this, right? Like at the end of August, you said uh preferably by the end of August, but if we can't get to it till September, that's okay. It's not the end of the world. Okay. And the good news though is that superintendent know there are indicators that are put out by Desi and MSBA and all this work that Katherine has done with this. She's worked I can't give her enough compliments on Mass between the Missouri Association of School Administrators, Mass, which is a superintendent group, Desi, MSBA. I don't think you involved anybody. Those are the big three but truly used to there were I don't know 30 30 some 36. I don't know. It's a ridiculous number of indicators for superintendents. It was like and not I mean there's no way

049you could humanly do these things. And so getting those things down and then putting the categories that are down to 203. And so that's huge right there and then getting this down to these stages really helps condense the work for you. And it really uh you'll be surprised how much more you will enjoy the process and how it helps your leader grow. Most most of the time in these days it seems like on evaluation that um we're asking the manager or whatever superintendent in this case what are their priorities. So you know Ashley gave a quite a treatise on her transition plan that she pres presented during the interview and gave some updates on good on how that is. That that was a pretty long document. I'm sure you saw that. Um but wouldn't we

050be wanting to get her feedback pretty clearly on what are the top three things that you're thinking? Um y rather than us originate trying to originate them. We'll do it together. Yeah. It's it's all of you together. We'll decide. I just um I just think it's important particularly in this first section um that you that that um she's She's she's been thinking about what's the most important thing that I see in our district that I need to do and we want to make sure there's not a blind spot, but we don't want to overdirect that. I wouldn't think. Love that. Exactly. Yes. Okay. Any other thoughts or questions about the superintendent evaluation? Like I said, I'll send I'll do a follow-up email at some point this week um and include information the all of the

051um in that email so you guys have it. Should we choose a date now or like a range of dates or the way to schedule this? Yeah, the quicker you can get on my calendar the better. Yeah, that's crazy to be honest. Yes. And that's why August would be better than September because we got all the regional meetings in Yeah, September is going to be a while, but August I literally only have five open dates on my calendar now. Yeah. Yeah. So, so yes, if you guys want to kind of look at August and I'm not the only person who can help with superintendent evaluation. and I have a phenomenal team and so if there really is only one date in August and I can't make it, I have three other people I can send

052to do it as well who I promise are just as good as me. Okay. And is this like an all day thing, a two-hour thing or what do you think? So I work really really hard to try to get it done in two to three hours. Okay. Mhm. And there's some prep work we can do ahead of time to really make it to where it hits closer to the two hour mark. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I'm glad you guys are going to do this. Is there anything that we have missed today that we need to think about even for future? I know I mentioned norms, but then on your website you have norms, but maybe we need to revisit those norms to see if those norms are still what you use. You that type

053of thing. I but of those other things. We usually have a parking lot that we let you put things up, but if you could just let Lata or Donna know there's other areas that we can be helpful for, we you know that's the job is help you be as successful as possible. Thank you. Yeah. All right. So, I have three. I think there was one thing that's helpful to me because you guys have a broader view than I than I do. way brought it is um you open the meeting with things that we're doing well and um and I'm not asking you to go into something now necessarily, but I think um your observation of where some other folks are doing some things well that that we could learn from. Yep. Um would you know

054you you just see way more things you study more boards. Yep. We see a lot of boards. So, you know, and I'm not looking for us to get run over by the bus, but I think I think it would be helpful to us to say, "Hey, this is an area that are areas that I think you guys could work on addressing just like you did with this part here." So, if you see that, I'd be open to that feedback. I think constructive criticism is I mean, is needed for us to do better as well. Well, frankly, we didn't know until we started doing this going to be a thing. So that's why we need like people could say, you know, we're having challenges. That's probably explains why communication came up a thousand times a year.

055Seriously. Yeah. All right. So I have three quick uh questions that I want you to respond to on your on your paper. So number one is what is one area where you as an individual board member would like to grow or improve moving forward? The second is what is one area where the board as a team could continue to grow or improve. And then the last thing I want you to reflect on is what do you believe should be the board's next step to build on the momentum from this? And I'm going to ask each of you to share out You knew this was coming down. Good. Okay. So, I'm going to ask each of you to share. And I'm only seated because I'm going to take notes on number three. Um, if you want

056to share number one, you can. If you want to keep number one to yourself, that's also totally fine. But if you could share your answers to two and three, that would be really helpful. And so, we're going to go um backwards. You guys still have your postits. So, we're going to start at eight and go back to one. So, I go Yes. Well, for me, the first one is easy and that's education. There's still a lot of things I need to learn both from the training you all provided, what I'll get later, and then experience with the board. Number two is I think that I think that an area that the board can continue to improve is our communication to the community. Okay. um how we how we deliver our message to the community is

057is super important I think. And then number three is um what what I have is we next step um I like to support and monitor but I like the word support support the superintendent during this transition period for sure. Number one thing is to say I'm not the the fact that I'm new really isn't the key. Ashley's new, the HR person's new, the finance person's new. We we need we need to support our administration and in fact we need to advocate for them that they're they're going to do a good job. I I've tried to say in the community that there was nothing I'm not trying to say something negative about the past, but this opportunity to turn the page and have a new day and a new start and let's let's get behind Ashley.

058So that's what I think we need to do. Seven. I can't just say ditto, right? Um for my number one is probably being more patient, but also uh seeking more information from our admin. Continue to pursue that and grow in that as they reach out to our district. not bugging them but just um just growing more in in their information. Um as a team I think we do need to grow to make sure all are involved in our discussions like today preference for that um in wholesome ways without condemnation or recrimination. um and maintain that within this group. And I think I think like you Tom, as much as we can support our new hire, the better off our district's going to be to encourage. Yeah, I think there's going to be glitches, but that's

059going to be normal. but to be able to stand behind and support and encourage as she builds her team with a lot of new wonderful people that that's our job to support them and encourage their best and their continued work. Six, that's me. Um so for board improvement I think communication and we touched on a lot of that. Um I think in the absence of information it's normal for people to create information. So communication helps with that. Uh momentum um I think communication with the public would be beneficial especially as we're talking about making big decisions within the district. Um, one area of improvement for myself, I want to work on getting the board certifications. That's kind of one of my my deals. And then the second one is to continue to improve our communication

060and really um value the communication between each other as well as with the community. And number three, I think to really make sure that we created a good process today and that we follow through and we do the process, not just put it on a piece of chart paper, but actually make sure that happens. I hope you'll review in about three to four months and just say, "How are we doing?" Yeah. Need to make some tweaks. That's all good. That's just all improvement process. Four. I'm four. Do you want me to do this? Yeah, I do. Okay. So I actually have communication on all three of these questions but I'll elaborate on number one there I have a lot of learning to do clearly and but also with communication number two an area where the

061board or as a team could continue to grow communication listening to learn listening is a part of communication and then I just put unity and then the last one what do you believe should be the board's next step I said stay true to the policies practices and norms established today and I again had communication Okay. Three. Number three. Um, yeah, individual growth area. Uh, for me it's policy knowledge and, uh, you know, we're ways down the road on making progress there thanks to Latana's leadership and we've been reviewing stuff and I've learned a lot just by going through every one. And so that's uh, personal. And then board board area growth. You know, I wrote down focus on governance, right? So this was wonderful because it's all about how are we going to set up

062processes to by which we do business for the betterment of the district and the kids in the district and the staff. And so uh if we focus on that, you know, we get so far down the road on all these individual topics. And so just focus on how we're doing our business. And then and then uh next step I like this idea of following through with Ashley on no more than three like big things that we're going to be evaluating really regularly. Two oh that's me. Okay. one um again probably everything everybody's already said here uh communication effectively for myself um including having the correct people on the emails and and I would also like to have the board certification look into that as well. Uh second one as a team as a board I

063would say definitely communication as well our our board meetings just being present without distractions and then everybody having a chance to engage in the conversation and have effective productive um talks as well. And then three follow the agenda meeting timeline which I'm thankful we did. I think that's where a lot of problems will be solved. I thank you guys for that one. And just trans transparency and trust with the community. That's me. Um, number one, um, more open communication and relationships with, um, all members of the board. Um, I'm a part of other boards and I know that like a big issue on lots of boards if you are effective or not is your communication and your relationship with your board president. And so I know that I'm going to do everything I can to

064make that a positive experience. Um, number two for able to grow as a team. um improved governance and professional development. I know that we're all at like different levels of education and experience and everything like that, you know, but I think that we can all do better cuz I know that at times um well, I'll ask a question or I'll make a move and other ones are not really understanding of that and then it can create issues if you don't really understand the process or like our role. And so just a little bit of improvement on that. And then the last one, our next step to build the momentum, it's almost like what a couple of other people mentioned, you know, but it it will encompass everything. Keeping our word. We mentioned lots of things,

065you know, over the morning and it's been amazing combos and we're all like, well, I want to do this and I like X and I like Y and everything like that and we leave and then we come back and it's just lost. And so I don't want to lose any of our plans, any of our goals like um give what you expect. I don't want others, you know, to expect two times as much out of me as the president of the board. Okay. But you're not able to match that, right? And so that's it. Great. All right. Well, thank you guys so much for doing that. I'm going to take these notes and synthesize them and get them back to you. But this has been really great. I I really do always love coming here.

066So, I'm excited to potentially come back and help with Subie Val the timeline. So, yeah. Great. Yeah. So, thank you guys so much for today. Yeah. I know. Always. You too. Yes. You too. Sad I won't be there in next weekend. Yeah. It's literally It is this next weekend. Isn't that nuts? Like, how is that possible? window or something like Windows. Oh yeah, got it. Thank you for allowing us to reaction. Yeah, let the praise waters know then I will tell them I still keep a tap on you. I'll tell them we both we've got an aisle. They'll appreciate that enough. Thank you guys so much. I'm gonna sneak out for 20 minutes and be right back. Okay, I'm running an errand. I promise you it's going to get a lot less than you did

067now. I think finance after you've all had lunch is a great idea. Nobody will fall asleep. Oh, that's right. Absolutely. Well, I hope you might need it. You won't be someplace special or makes no difference to me. No, I can probably just stand up here. That's good. Yeah. Um I think your title today says uh are you ready for me to start? Yes. Go. Okay. I figure you're behind. I'll get you caught up. There you go. It says budget, but really this is a lot more uh broader than just budget. I I didn't know what the parameters really y'all wanted today. So, we're kind of doing a little just a little school finance 101 today. Um so, that's kind of where we're going to go today. So, some of the things we're going to go

068through today, we're going to talk about some funding basics. Uh just some background there. talk to you a little bit about uh how we do budget development and approval process. We'll talk about our own financial status, our proportionality of funding, bond indebt indebtedness. Uh we'll talk very briefly about the district audit, the ASBR, and then we'll talk just a little bit about looking forward at things too. So, school funding basics in Missouri, we receive our funding from three primary sources. local revenue which is primarily based upon our property taxes. Uh there are some other smaller local fees and initiatives. State revenue is the second large area we've received from. Often you'll hear that refer to as foundation formula being the largest component of that. Uh then some categorical aid uh transportation, early childhood, things like

069that. And then federal revenue makes up a little smaller portion. uh but it is specific to programs, title one for low-income students, uh special needs students, Medicaid reimbursements, food subsidies, things like that. And that is subject to federal mandates and priorities. We have very little control over those. So let's talk first about local revenue, property taxes. So how is this determined? So lots of times you'll hear me talk about AV. I don't mean audiovisisual. assessed valuation u assessed value of our property. So if I could tell you how these numbers were derived I I think there was some magic formula that somebody in the legislature just came up with a lot of these. So it's about assessed value of property. Residential property is assessed at 19% of the value. Okay, what it would sell for.

070Agricultural property is assessed at 12%. Commercial property is at 32%. Okay. So, that's with real property. Personal property vehicles are at 33.3% value. Uh there's been a lot of potential legislation to bring that number down. By the way, farm machineries at 12%, manufactured homes, so if you live in a mobile home, 19%, historic cars, 5%. Um, so if you have a vehicle and you can get it listed as historic, you can save quite a bit on taxes. And then crops uh that they have in storage are at 0.5%. tax rates. Those get established by local governing bodies. We have leveies. Uh the library has leveies, other entities like that. So, let's talk a little bit about just an example tax bill using the rates we have in St. Joseph. Okay, our levy total levy is

071$49163. So, you have a $200,000 home. The assessed value is $38,000 because you take 19% of what that property value is, 38,000. Take that times the tax rate divided by 100 because the tax rate is per $100 valuation. So the tax bill for that home for our our levy would be $1,868.19. A $24,000 car assessed value will be $8,000 because it's 33.3%. Multiply it again by the tax rate divide by 100 taxes on that would be $393.30 for us a year. So this is why commercial property is very important. That assessed valuation piece becomes very important and it's why you see a lot of inequity amongst districts. Uh, for example, if you're in an area with a lot of agricultural property in a rural area, $2.7 million in farmland has an assessed valuation of $324,000.

072But a million dollars in commercial property has an assessed valuation of $320,000. So it takes about 2.72.8 times the amount of property in a rural area in an agricultural area to make up that difference. This is why you see communities like Branson. Branson doesn't have any funding issues because they have so much commercial property. Down around the lake, they don't have funding issues because they have so much commercial property. Uh comparatively to us, Lee Summit, Liberty, uh Park Hill District, those areas have a lot of commercial property. That large warehouse you see sitting outside of uh Plat City right now, Ace Hardware down there by the airport, that's commercial property that gets assessed at 32%. Okay, we have a lot of 19% homes. Um we have a fair amount of agriculture and we have some

073commercial. Okay, and that's grown a little bit too. So, uh but I I I think it's important for people to understand why the type of property that's in your school district is important. It's because of that difference in assessed value. Is commercial property the property the the value of the buildings? Yes. And land? Yes. Not equipment. Um I believe the equipment gets assessed at a different in a different way. Um but Tom, I'm not sure of that right off the top of my head. I was just curious. I I didn't realize that different value. That's that's only a significant value. Yeah, it is. And and again, it speaks a lot to why some districts don't have funding issues and some do. So, and side note, that's where the chapter 100, which stimulates um economic growth,

074deferred taxes, um does have an impact on the district as far as you just got out of my depths there, Tom. I'm not even very smart about this. No, no, I I probably got over my head, too. But, but yes, so I sometimes you hear talk about tiffs bringing in commercial properties in. Yes, there's a lot of deferred tax there for us. Definitely. Uh, but you know, on the back side of that wants that commercial property. Uh, for example, I'll give a great example is, you know, the Reed Automotive that just expanded down there that didn't make it on to our assess valuation for 25. it will be on there for 26 uh because it's as of January 1, just like your home, just like one of our cars when you fill that out for

075the assessor and everything. Uh reassessment that happens in oddnumbered years. Um our last five years of growth are up there in assessed valuation and you can see those reassessment years. So our five-year average has been 2.32%. If you recall, uh, for our budget this year, we used a 2% increase, uh, to to estimate what our revenue would be. Um, we were kind of surprised, I'll be honest, in 23. It was a reassessment year, and it was really not very high that year, we didn't think. Um, but it it came in a little higher last year than we thought. I anticipate it's going to be pretty good this year. I've talked a little bit about that one board meeting. A lot of us received letters from the assessor's office telling us how much our our property

076was going up this year. I think mine was in the 25 to 30% range. Um so I think it'll be a healthy number. I think 2% was a good conservative number for us to estimate. Our bonding capacity is limited to 15% of a district assessed valuation. And I'll talk just a little bit more about that in a minute. So uh so that was local funding. Okay. where we receive revenue. Next piece where we receive revenue is state funding, the SAT, the state adequacy target. You'll hear me talk about the SAT quite a bit. That is based upon the expenditures on average of what high performing districts spend to to educate a student. Okay. And so the state um this was put in place the formula was put in place initially um passed in 2005. Okay.

077And it first went in place in 2007. 2007 they set the SAT at 6117 per W8 ADA weighted average daily attendance. Okay? And it's not about how many students we have, it's about how many students and how often they're there. We'll talk a little bit about that too. But in 2007 it was 6117. In 2020 it was 6375. This year we were told it was going up to 6760 and if you recall I told you the other day we just got informed it's only going to be 6750 because we didn't smoke enough, buy enough lottery tickets and gamble enough in a state this year. U and then it it has been said that it's going to go to 7145 next year. Okay. And that's what they have told us. Governor has till today to sign

078that. I haven't heard if he signed it yet. I assume he will sign it today, but uh June 30th is the deadline for that. When the formula was put in place, the idea was is that it would increase along with inflation. Um SAT has increased by 17% since 2007. Inflation's increased by 65% in that same time frame. So you can see that you hear a lot of talk about we've fully funded the formula but the formula has not kept up with with inflation and when the informula was put in place Charlie Shields was was uh our state representative state senator at that time he's very instrumental in putting that in place but everyone at that time he said hey this is going to need major revision several years every several years um again it's passed

079in '05 Here we are 20 years later, same formula. So, and we'll talk a little bit about next step. Let me ask one more step. I'll try to myself in just take 2007 $6,117 that's um per per per average average daily attendance per student per average daily attendance and that's an annual number per so if you have 100 if I have a student and they're there every day they get we get 6117 for them yeah if they're only there 50% of the time we get 50% of that. Okay. Thank you. Um some other areas that we get state funding from the classroom trust fund. Ironically, even though they said the SAT wasn't going to be as much, the classroom trust fund is directly related to lottery proceeds. So whenever anyone asks you the question, you

080hear them say, "Well, hey, when we passed the lottery, we were told that was going to fix education." Well, this is where this is where those lottery funds come from. and they are they are directed to come to education classroom trust fund um but they can only distribute what they collect and so uh you know on the last page the SAT is going up next year classroom trust fund amount was 621 this year it's going to be 576 next year we're actually going to have less money next year in the classroom trust fund Prop Crop C is something we talked about quite a bit last year in St. Joe. Um, it's a one cent sales tax per dollar on motor vehicles. Districts have to roll that back because we received that money from that tax.

081We have to roll that back unless your voters have voted to wave that. Well, we were one of about 20 districts in the state who hadn't waved it until August the 24th. And August the 24th, uh, our voters passed that rule back. So, we got that 59.5 cents back. Um and so Prop C um where that's coming from or where that's going to be for next year uh 1514 this year 1495 next year. So again even though the SAT's gone up the other two areas that we receive funding from the state are projected to be down next year. Okay. Um and we talked about some other areas that we get some state funding. transportation. We get state funding. You'll often hear them saying we're doing full funding of transportation this year, which is great. Uh,

082but full funding, uh, notice I put quotes around that. Full funding means we get 75% of 100% of reimbursement costs. So, I've never gone to the grocery store and said, I've paid my bill in full. It's $100 or here's 75, we're good. It's never worked that way. But that's how it does work for the state with transportation funding. Don't ask me why 75%. I don't know what's magical about that number, but that's what it is. And then the third area, we talked about federal funding, uh, title, food service reimbursements, special education, Medicaid reimbursements, and ESSER. ESSER money was a large temporary infusion of money. Uh, over the last few years, um, we did about $30 million of HVAC in the school district uh, with ESSER funds. So, um, that was the silver lining from all

083of that time. But, um, so federal funding, that third area where we get a lot. And we used all of our funds. We did use all of our ESTRA funds. Yes. And, and our auditor said every dollar was accounted for. So, thank you. We're very happy to say that again. Our auditor said every dollar was accounted for that federal money. So, attendance, you hear us talk a lot about attendance. Why does attendance matter? Well, first and foremost, tennis matters to us as educators because we need kids in school so we can educate them. Okay. But there is a financial aspect to it. Um, as I said earlier, Tom, you'd asked that question. Our state funding is dependent upon our attendance rate. Okay. So even though let's say we have 10,000 students, we plan, we staff,

084we set up bus routes, we have all the staffing funding and everything to have 10,000 students at school. But if 10,000 students aren't at school, we don't get the funding for 10,000 students. If 9,000 students are in school, we only get the funding for 9,000 students. Okay? So, uh, it is important. Um, it's not the most important thing. Again, we need to be in school so we can educate them. But it does impact our funding. There are some modifications. Uh, the state changed it slightly going into fiscal year 26 uh, next year. 10% of its automatic and 90% is based on attendance. and it's going to go on a sliding scale for the next five years until it becomes 50/50 in fiscal year 30. Now, some districts are going to lose in that model and

085some are going to gain. Okay? Districts with poor attendance are probably going to gain. Districts with really, really good attendance are going to lose in that because there's no additional money. It's just that they're going to change the funding, how it's how it's distributed. Okay? We'll probably gain a little bit on that because our last few years, even though our attendance has been better, we probably on a statewide are probably on the on the lower side of that. So, it's probably going to benefit us slightly. Uh where do our funds come from? So, fiscal 25 almost 56% of our funds came from local. Okay. State was about 31.4%. Federal about 10.1, county 2.44. Uh, this year was a little bit of an anomaly. Uh, counties probably not usually that high, but there was some money

086uh from Hillyard. Uh, the Hillyard expansion this year, the county gave to us. I'll let you get a picture of that, Mike. Thank you. Yep. Um, so let's talk a bit just briefly about budget development and approval, how we do that. So starting in usually December or January, we start meeting with departments, start meeting with buildings. Uh what we do is we take a look at their current budget. Um we see how that budget is going at that point throughout the year. Does it look like what they need is what we have budgeted? And so we'll have conversations with the departments. We have conversations with building principles and say, "Hey, you know what? We're halfway through the year, but you've only spent about 20% in this budget this year. do we need as much in

087that budget next year? Or we'll look at an area and say, hey, you've spent about 90%. Is this an area that maybe you need to shift some from other areas? And usually what we do is try we tried to shift that money within their budgets as opposed to adding. Um, and we did a really good job this year of staying pretty flat with a lot of our expenses from fiscal 25 to budgeted 26. Um, we'll review those expenditures and we'll evaluate. We'll look at the CIP. We'll look at apartments, building services. And again, I want to reiterate this budget really gets pushed back to the people who are working with it on a daily basis. We don't sit down with the business office and just go, well, this much goes here, this much goes here.

088We sit down with these people, have these conversations and say, what are what are your needs? And we really try to drive it from there. So that's the expenditure side. Revenues, it's a guess. It's a guess every year. Uh the legislature doesn't have they're not done. They don't approve a budget until May. Uh by policy and by statute, we have to approve a budget by the end of June. Um if we don't approve them by the end of June, it just goes back to the previous budget. Again, it's kind of a weird little wrinkle. Um but again we won't know about assessed valuation till probably late July. We didn't know for sure about state funding until technically until today. Um so and then even after we get those numbers sometimes that's like happened this year

089they can come back later in the year and say ah we said 6760 now it's 6750. It's another reason why we try to be very very conservative. um why we've tried to be very conservative with the budget. And then again, um as the year goes on, we can do revisions, amendments. If we had to, you know, if we've had to make six emergency repairs to sewer and water lines and buildings, which happens, uh we may need to put some additional funds in that area for the budget. So, so Dr. Hedgeforth, he'll bring back an amendment to you at some point. We usually uh do two or three a year. Two or three amendments. Some districts do an amendment every month. Okay. Um that's a lot I think but I you'll probably see two or three

090throughout the year just so that we are giving you the best accurate picture of where we're at with budget. So fund balances um board policy says our unrestricted fund balance on June 30 should be no less than 20% of the expenditure for the prior fiscal year. So uh our original budget for 25 was showing the fund balance of 27.5. The amendment we brought you in February was 25.26. You can see what our uh fund balance percentages have been for the last 10 years up there. Uh and you can see that there were some some tough years there. Um 17 to 18 we got down to 19% 15.9%. Gab's first year was fiscal 19. Uh FY22 and 23. Those are really artificially inflated years because of all the er money. Um but we are sitting right

091there. One thing I did want to point out is that FY26 you see is at 22.8% excuse me FY16 but FY26 is slightly less at 20.3 even though we are showing almost about four and a half more million actually fund balance but it's because our budget has increased over that time. So it's a percentage of that. So again that's going to vary. Some years you're going to spend reserves, some years you're going to u add to your reserves. Okay? It's kind of cyclical. And this year the budget we've given you is very very very close to zero. About as close as you can be. Um debt, our bonded debt in this at the end of 25, fiscal 25, our debts 14.2 million. And then we have about 2.06 million in leases as well. 15% sets

092we've talked a lot about this number so you guys are aware of this but 15% is the maximum that we can borrow within start assess valuation. So even if uh our community said hypothetically we want you to build two brand new high schools it's $300 million we want you to go out and borrow $300 million to do it. We're not able to do that. Okay. Um, our maximum debt capacity using what our AV was for 25, it's about 184 million. That'll probably be close to 190 this year. Um, our proposed, but to give you a little bit of this in equity piece that I talked about with assessed valuation, our bond proposal on April 24 was an increase of 60 cents for $157 million. Lee Summit on that same ballot pass a $225 million no

093tax increase bond. Okay, because their assessed valuation is so high, they could with their current debt service levy add another 225 million of debt and it side note pass 74.9% yes. But um so that's one of the things that ties our hands a little bit is the amount of our assessed valuation. doesn't just tie our hands on what we received from a funding standpoint, but it ties our hands on our ability to borrow and and expand. District audit uh by statute, board policy, we have an audit every year performed by an outside agency. Uh KPM from Springfield has been our auditor the last several years. That comes up for bid every so often. So, uh it's not locked in. We don't just pick KPM. Uh they go through a bid process to do that. In

094our most recent audit, um note deficiencies and internal control over financial reporting, they considered to be a material weakness. So they didn't find any material weaknesses. Um if you want copies of the audit report, we shared those with you at the board meeting then, but they're online as well. I'll be happy to let you look at a hard copy if you ever want to borrow it if you're having a little insomnia, anything like that. uh is pretty dry, but everything has been good with our audit. So, uh looking forward, let's talk a little bit about what's going on right now. I mentioned earlier the original formula that was part of Senate Bill 287 2005. The goal was to transition from a formula based on tax rates to an adequacybased model. they really were trying to

095come up with what does it cost to adequately educate a student in a school that is performing at a high level in the state of Missouri uh based on a successful schools model. So, and again at the onset it was pretty widely accepted it was going to need some periodic modifications. Um and again here we are 20 years later it's not really had any modifications. Okay. So, Governor Kio has established the Missouri school funding modernization task force. Uh, the goal is to modernize the formula and ensure it aligns with current needs and priorities to create a more equitable and sustainable model. Something important to point out in this, much like I said earlier about the change in how ADA is being calculated, there's no additional funding here. Okay? It's just going to redistribute what the

096funding is. Some districts in this are going to win, some are going to lose, no matter how they change the formula. Okay? If I have a $100 and I give 10 people 10, I said, "Well, listen, I'm going to change how I distribute the money and now I give some people 12 and some people are going to get eight." Okay, that's what's going to happen with this. Um, so local advocacy is very important. And I think Gabe talked a little bit to you about it's important probably for you as board members to be in conversations with our legislators. Uh there are 10 members that are appointed by Governor Kio. Two are from the state board of education. Um right about the time this happened, Charlie Shields has been on the state board for a long

097time, was involved with the original formula. Jio removed him from the uh state board of education. Charlie probably would have been a good advocate for us in this formula, but it's how it works sometimes. The closest we have here is Dr. Jeremy Tucker from Liberty. By all accounts, good guy. Liberty's issues are probably a little different than St. Joe's issues. Okay. Um, and then Chris Bass, uh, senior director of Herszog Foundation from Kansas City. Um, so Herszog Foundation probably has different interests than we do too. So just making you aware those are the only people that are even close to Northwest Missouri that are on that on that board or on that uh on that group on that task force. So this really could have a big impact on us depending on how things are

098changed. But definitely the formula it was it was time for some change. There are four legislators also appointed. Senator Senator Black who's up from this area, Senator Fitzwwater, Representative Lewis, and Representative Terry. And those recommendations are due to the governor by December 1st of 2026. So, we've got some time. Uh, but you will want to stay informed about this as the process moves on. Okay. All right. Any questions? I've got Dr. Robert Cigar. I just crossed my name out. put hedge course underneath it because he's going to be who you want to ask questions moving forward. But and then Katie, Katie and Jenny are awesome. Um I can't say enough good things about them uh with everything we do in the business office. Um Katie from the budgeting side and and Jenny from the purchasing

099side and everything. So I tried to catch up a little bit. That's a really that's a really good presentation. Is there a how how do I access a copy of that? It it's it's on the board agenda. It's attached on the agenda. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You can print it off. You could Yeah, that that was that's a good primer. That's good. Yeah. It it's kind of some basic info that I won't be spending a lot of time on much longer. So, well, we want just want to make sure your assessed value goes way up. Hey, um I may have to move dark. You know, we said it the other day, but you know, here it is your last your last official day and you're um um you're doing this just with the same passion you

100did as you started doing it. So, thanks a lot. I appreciate you. Thank you for appreciate that. I think that's a really good explanation for all of us. Yeah. Well, I think I think there's some good info in there that you can refer back to. And again, Missouri school finance is it's complicated. I think it's complicated on purpose. Um I I I really I do I think it's it's not very understandable for a lay person uh for a whole lot of reasons. And uh you know, it's it's it's frustrating and hard because it's hard for us to explain to people why funding happens the way it does. Um and I can't tell you the why on a lot of it. I can tell you the how or the what, but you know the like I

101said why 19% for residential and 32 for commercial. I don't know how those numbers were chosen. That's where they're at. So all right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Are we able to continue on? I think I need to rearrange things because I had to set up. So, if you give me a minute. Okay. Yeah, [Music] she can go ahead. We improved a lot this year. We're getting back to where we used to be. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Well, I'm really excited to talk to you guys about this today. I've mentioned to several of you I don't often have a captive audience to talk about things like this. So, I appreciate that. Um, what I was asked to do today is get some feedback from you. So, it's

102not necessarily a presentation as much as it is to prompt you into giving us some feedback and uh that feedback is going to be for our comprehensive school improvement plan. Uh, as you know, we're underway and writing that based on my last update to you last work session. Um, we're deep in the weeds of that work and so that's really what um I've been asked to get some feedback from you guys today. So, I just kind of want to go back and give you just a just so we all know where this is stemming from. This this 134 page document uh is is what DESIE puts out to us. And just like Dr. Seag just mentioned, it's really complicated and probably over complicated. And so it makes it a little difficult for us to always

103communicate how we as a district get the points that we need on our annual performance report that is generated from all the criteria in here that we need to get a 70% on so that we can be accredited. And so that's where all this comes from. And this is what drives a lot of our school improvement plans. Um so just kind of keep that in mind. So, um, the the thing that you have at your stations, this is part of this document. Okay? And so, it's pulled out of this document and these are the standards and indicators. So, what does that mean? Well, what that means is these are the standards and indicators that DESIE, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, require school districts to write to when they develop their school improvement program.

104So, it has lots of different standards, lots of different indicators. So, we as a school district look at those and determine what areas we need to focus on. So, for today, because I'm asking you guys for your feedback, we can't really focus on this whole document, but I did want to make sure you did have it. But if you look here in your notebook that was left at your stations, um there there is going to be a portion of that that I pull out and we're going to focus on today. But before you open up your notebook, um y'all are getting ahead of me. um uh this I want to point out because this is really central this is uh very central to the work of a comprehensive school improvement program. So even though we

105have this these criteria and these standards and indicators the St. Joe school district just like Dr. Seagris was saying about how we're different from other school districts for us to improve we need to develop our own workout plan. So while we get standards and indicators, we have different challenges. So we need to make sure that we're developing what is unique to our school district. And so for the past year, we've been working really hard to develop a portrait of a graduate. And you guys have heard uh about that journey along the way. But I wanted to stop and point that out because that portrait of a graduate, it has certain dispositions that students should possess. Not just that that diploma, but what dispositions they should possess as they walk across that stage. And so we

106talked to and I won't get into it because you've heard that some of you have, some of you haven't, but we did a lot of work to get to this and a lot of feedback from students to stakeholders to community. So that is central to the work because that portrait of a graduate sits right at the center of our mission, vision and values. So if you want to think of a ven diagram that that mission, that vision and that values that portrait of a graduate is a shared understanding that we have with the community that drives the mission, the vision and values that should then in turn drive this season. even though we have standards and indicators, this should also very much inform that as it's developing. So, I just wanted to start there with

107you guys. Um, and so if you open your notebook, I just just wanted to make sure that we kind of had a a path where you could see, okay, MP6, we got it. Standards, indicators, got it. But the central piece is on the front of your notebook. So then as you turn to the next, it's either it's page three and four. There's some pieces that Desessie gives to us and it is an implementation guide. So it looks like this right here. And then there's another piece that Desessie gives to us and it is called the CESIP verification scoring guide. Okay. So they score our CIP. So we submitted a CIP back in 2022 that was scored by DESIE and it had some of these same indicators. So we know what they are expecting from us

108this time around. But again, it's going to have our own fingerprint on it per the St. Joseph School District. So I wanted you guys to take a look at these two documents. Um, and if you could on the on this particular column right here where it's talking about the priority on your implementation guide, that's measuring how well a school district implements their plan. They don't just make a plan, they actually work the plan. I was just wondering if you guys would take a minute and see what letter and number appear most often that go to that leadership indicator that I pulled out for you. In other words, this packet right here. See if you see letters that that correspond to that first page of this document. L3. L3. Yes. So, I'll give the rest of

109you a good job. So, so take a take a second. The rest of you see if you also notice that that L3 pops up a lot. So, if you turn to the next page, see if you can see where it looks at verification scoring guide. See if you can see what letter seems to letter and number seem to appear significantly. L3. So, you can tell that that's an important piece to our school improvement program. So, if you guys would um take a minute and either in your notebook or in your packet, if you would just read to yourself um that L3, the continuous school improvement And I'm going to be timing you guys a lot today because I have 30 minutes. So, just be aware Okay, it looks like most of you guys are um

110completed with that first task. And so that's going to be a portion of what we what we focus on today. But in addition to that, if you'll notice on L3, did anybody notice what's at the very bottom of L3? with a little asterisk, right? So, anytime if you do, you know, go through this document, anytime you see something like that, that's Desi's way of saying we're going to expect you to show us and give us evidence that this is happening in your school district. So, just just as an awareness. So, those are things we're going to be very focused on. So if you guys will do me a favor, if you look at L1, it also has measured for continuous improvement report. And keep in mind that's 30% of our annual performance report. So those

111are important pieces that we have to demonstrate that we are doing. So if you guys wouldn't mind if you just take a couple of of seconds to read schoolboard leadership. Okay, it looks like most of you are done with that one. And it sounds like to me, having uh listened to the tail end of um some things that folks were taking you through this morning, you've done some of those things already today. But one of the things that we're going to focus on today is letter A. And that's why I put that at the very front of your notebook because that's our mission, vision, and values. And in addition to that, um, not all school districts have a portrait of a graduate. We do because we are um, getting we're cohort three of the student

112success writing network, which I know you've heard about. So, that's another reason um, that we have that. So, I've walked you through these things on purpose, obviously. And then what I also want to point out before we get started is that in your notebook there is a balance scorecard. Okay? And it looks like this. And some of you have seen this, some of you have not seen this, but this is um a way in which we monitor our continuous school improvement plan. So if you'll notice on the very side of it, it has uh financial and then it has academic and then it has climate and then it has employee engagement or employee as a factor. So one of the things that is really important and that's why there are so many leadership uh standards

113is in indicators. They're not all academic. So some of them do have to do with finances and climate and culture and employee engagement. So we the way to monitor our school improvement plan is to have a balanced scorecard because it tries to put everything on the same page all at once. And that does not mean that includes all department plans because departments have plans, buildings have plans, but they all feed back into those district goals and those those limited numbers of goals that we have if we're monitoring what we say we're doing. And so I just wanted you to be aware of that and that and we can go over this I'm sure at a different time or at a work session. Lastly, the the other thing that's in your notebook, and this will inform

114some of your work that you do today, is a uh presentation that I gave back, I think it was in February when our annual performance report came out. The most important piece of that particular report, and there's other things that you can look at, is this slide right here. It's about the second or third page. And what it is showing at this bottom slide is where we are as a school district. And most of you may remember I said to get accreditation we have to be at 70%. And so DESIE is looking at a composite from starting in 2022. So that would have been Dr. Edgar's first year. Um and so what they're they won't they won't count that year because it was a practice year but then 23 24 and then 25 they'll start

115looking at what is our composite in terms of getting that 70%. This year they cannot lower our accreditation. They can only raise it and we don't know what our annual performance report is yet because we're just going to get uh spring scores back on July 7th. um and those scores won't be embargoed. So, we'll be able to share that information, but we won't know what is on our annual performance report at that time. So, that's an important piece for you all to know as a board of education as you think through the lens of especially L3. Um and then there's other pieces in this report. It shows our comparison set um which is this particular chart with the blue and it shows our 10 district comparison set because what we want to do and that's

116part of our balance scorecard that's how we construct it is we are comparing ourselves to other school districts like us just like Dr. Seagris mentioned some schools have the same challenges that we might have as as a school district and other districts don't and so we try to school districts that are similar to us so that we can be best-in-class. And you can see from that report and I went over this in February, we are one of of the 10 comparison set, we have not made that 70% mark yet. And so across the state, we were one we were a group of 54 out of 500 and some school districts that did not meet that mark yet. So that in terms of L3, it talks about looking at data. So as you uh do some

117of the work that you're doing today, I've also provided you proficiency trends in math and ELA. That's the bulk of where our where uh DESIE puts their in emphasis on our annual performance report. And so math and ELA are very very important um to our goal setting, not to the exclusion of other subjects clearly, but that's just something to be mindful of. So for today and you that's why I wanted you to have this as a hard copy so that as you do some thinking um at your stations that you would have access to that data um and that you would have access to the standards and indicators as you kind of think through what we're going to be uh doing. And I'm going to make it kind of quick so that we can get

118some quick feedback. Um, but I know it's a lot to take in, but um, I think that will help really guide some really actionable, concise feedback for from you guys that then we can go ahead and then in turn put in in uh, the leadership component of our CESIP because our CEIP does have a leadership component. Can you talk you say it's a composite so or what do you mean by composite? Desi calls it a composite and uh no one is quite clear on that. Kind of like Dr. Seager said there's Yes. And so you would think it would be an average, right? But it's a composite. So uh and they don't give you a definition of that anywhere that I've been able to find in the 134 page document. So that's a question that

119we'll ask them. Um, so but ultimately it ended up in our favor because our composite was higher than our average would have been. So I wasn't going to throw too much of a fuss about it. Yeah. So that's that story. So this is this is one of this is where our work hits. So you guys in your notebooks have uh some uh sticky notes and you should have a pen. Okay. Okay. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna set you guys up with some questions and then I'm going to give give you five minutes to to really generate as many thoughts as you possibly can. But here's where it would be really helpful to us. And it it doesn't have to, you know, just write what you want to write. But ultimately, um, be thinking about this

120in terms of actionable and concise. So even if you wanted to use some of the data, you could use some of the data if you're familiar with smart goals or anything like that. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it could just be actionable and concise. But the the only the only stipulation is we are going to think through the lens of L1 and L3 and you'll and I'll tell you which one we're thinking about when I ask you the questions. Is that clear as mud? Okay. So here's okay. So here's the first question. Um and again none of these are trick questions by any stretch of the imagination. Um the first question is we're going to be looking at um defining specific responsibilities and actions. So, this is ultimately um is ultimately the question.

121Hold on. Make sure I've got the right document pulled up here. Okay, so here's the question. Um, for example, um, hold on you guys. I had all my stuff. There it is. Okay. Sorry. Okay. So, here's your prompt. What are the most important ways the board can en ensure that the 25 through 2030 CEP because we're going to develop a five-year plan. We'll continue to update it is developed through meaningful collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders and is truly based on a thorough datadriven needs assessment. So you would write a recommendation on each one of your sticky notes. So an example of that could be a hold community forum or use student achievement data to identify needs or include parent and survey uh surveys in a process. But just as long as they're clear

122actionable statements. And this one goes to L uh to L1. No, L3. L3. Okay. So, I'm gonna give you five minutes. Yes. It's how could we how could we have meaning how can we ensure how can you ensure that the CIP is built by meaningful collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders and is truly based on a thorough datadriven needs assessment. score comparison comes out once a year. Three times a year. Three times a year. Yeah. Should we just do one per sticky note? Yeah, one per sticky note. Or if you've done it a different way, it's okay. Got a couple more minutes. Got about 30 more seconds. Okay. So, for those of you that are all the way done, what we what I'd love for you to do is take your sticky notes and

123we're going to put them up here under stakeholder collaboration and database assessment. Okay, thank you. Okay, so our next uh prompt is going to be um we're going to look at academic preparation and well-being of each student because that's how it's phrased in the document. So, here's your prompt. What specific goals or strategies should the board advocate for in 20 in the 25 2030 CIP to guarantee the academic preparation and well-being of each student that are central uh measurable priorities. So, an example might be for each one of your sticky notes, set targets for students mental health supports, increase reading proficiency by 10%. Expand access to advanced coursework, be as specific as possible. So again, what are specific goals or strategies the board ad would advocate for in the 25 2030 CIP to guarantee the

124academic preparation and well-being of each student that are central and measurable priorities and you can use your data if you want to use your data on this or you can use your priorities but it this is L3. Yes. Got a couple more minutes. 30 more seconds. Okay, if you finish up your last thought, I would love it if you guys would take those post-it notes and they go here. Okay, just one more to go. Okay, one last prompt and this one has to do with board monitoring and plan implementation. So this has to do with as as the year progresses, how are how does the board monitor and how can it be assured that the plans are being implemented with fidelity? So this is the prompt. What practical steps should the board take to regularly

125monitor the CIP implementation and outcomes and to ensure the CIP effectively guides the alignment of other district plans whether that's building professional development plan facilities plan all those plans. So list each monitoring or implementation idea on a sticky note. You could write quarterly CEIP progress reviews or align building plans with CESIP goals or annual public report on CESIP progress balance scorecard. There's a variety of ways, but how does the board know that it's being uh the plan is being implemented? The plans are being worked. Okay, it looks like most of you are done. So, if you don't mind, what we'll do is if you finish up your last thought, we'll put those on that um one that says number three, board monitoring and implementation. And if you've had any other thoughts that don't apply to

126necessarily these key central pieces that Desessie outlines, there's another one that's called other. If you want to put other thoughts that you might have that don't aren't related to these that you came up with. So, if you guys if you ladies want to stay up there and stay at number three, I'll just go ahead and pair you two up as long as you're still right there. And then, uh, the first three, uh, you guys, right, Mike and and Tom and Whitney, if you guys would take number two, and you can move it back to your station so that you have some room. And then, Latana and Rhonda, if you would take number one. Um, what I'm gonna ask you guys to do is You could take it to your station or stand up there, wherever

127you want to take it, and just have a conversation about what you're seeing in all of the comments and see if you can develop at least one or two things that your group can share out with everyone. So, Tom and Mike and Whitney, you guys would take number two and develop notes and see if you come up with a couple of things for us and then we'll kind of share out by group and I'll kind of just see give you guys plenty of time to talk but not too much. You can do some crazy stuff these days. So we're looking increase Educators here address issues. district. Continue positive relationship [Music] with Yeah, there's like two spreadsheet science. social studies. A lot of We have Yes. I was trying to get I feel kind of three

128categories. Attendance I had someone else. I was stationur. Okay, looks like a lot of you guys have developed your themes. So, um Um, if we want to go in numerical order, we can do that. Or a group that would like to start. Anybody that want Do you have a spokesperson for your your team? Go ahead. What we were noticing is um better communicating what the CIP is, what its importance is um to families in and I don't I don't have an answer for this part of it, but in terms that they can understand that's not school language, that's simple terms and why it's important, which then in hopes that conveys why it's so important to have your kid at school. I mean, I know that's big and and lofty. But um I was telling Latona

129that it's our job to put out the information how how or if they choose to look at it as on whoever we're putting it out to. So she had a really good idea too to create a video um that that kind of explains it maybe explains it in chunks um in in people who are not in the schools all the time language. So they even know it exists. And then you're able to look at it like like at your own time, at your own pace and everything like that because I understand, you know, announcing it in a meeting and everything is cool, you know, but we kind of go over it kind of fast and you need at least a little understanding. Okay. if there's like a kind of like an easier way to explain

130areas of it like online and then anybody's able, you know, to go and listen to it if they want to. So, then I also mentioned I'm sorry who she just you. And then I also mentioned everyone has opinions about things, you know, but lots of times and not all the time, you know, but a lot of times it's uneducated opinions, you know, but if we're able to put the education piece out there, well, and then a person's able, you know, to learn a little bit about it because I know many times when I'm looking at like emails off of individuals in the community, you know, that they're complaining about you know, that actually already occurs in the district, you know, but they don't they never knew that even it was even like a possibility in

131the district, you know, well, and so I mean, if we're able to put the information out there, you know, to educate them, I think that that would eliminate a lot of things as well. Yeah, two. Um, okay. So, the trends that we saw, we had academic preparation and student well-being. Uh, some of the themes that were written down were an improvement in attendance. Um, we also saw um improvement in test scores, taking the lowest uh test scores up and then overall seeing an increase. And there were a lot of references to staff um staff recruitment and retention. And then there were a couple oneoffs uh two references to mental health and I can't remember that was staff meal health or student health. There was two references to that and there was also reference to career

132preparation. Um so the ones we saw that were kind of kept going is the regular update of quarterly of the CEP progress in the scorecard. Um one was superintendent monthly review and this other one that I saw that I was gonna that I already asked you was researching the successful districts and processes and seeing how we could duplicate to succeed to Well, I appreciate you guys' thinking today. Is there if there's more you guys want to share, go right ahead. Make the CIP one of the superintendent's top three priorities as it should be. And I would encourage you guys, I know Dr. Lau hit on just a few of these on L3. I would encourage you to look at all of these pieces because they are all important. And there's pieces about career um on

133here as well. The teaching and learning piece is significant. So if you have feedback on some of those other indicators, feel free to shoot me an email and we can put those on the other thoughts. I notic there's some measurable things on there when I looked at this ahead of time on full-time equivalent. Um, do we do we have a measure of how we stack up? It's on page 122. Um, that's the page at the bottom there. You know, it's assistant superintendent and principles for building size and all that. Do we know where we stack up in that? We are really close to those standards. Um anytime like for example if you go you're talking about the building the principal building ratios. Yep. So anytime a building elementary building goes over 400 that's when we

134try to get them at least a halftime assistant principal. We have a couple of elementary assistant principles that are split between two buildings. So for example there's um one person split between Edison and Coleman and then another that's split between Parkway and SC and We have a couple of those schools that are actually under 400 that need additional support and so they have that support in place. I I think we are solid in in those numbers. The the reason I say that I guess is because it draws my attention to because there's some kind of some facts and some metrics in those areas and the things that have metrics that get measured are the things you can improve. And that's why I was excited the other day about about our new math curriculum that we're

135trying to address and hopefully improve some of those scores. Um, and the math curriculum is intended to um to have that impact. And so I was excited to hear us maybe be ahead of the game rather than developing a plan, but have a plan to improve those scores. Right. I want to tell you the flip side of this though, too, Tom. So if you look at recommended students that far right column if you think about our high schools I mean you have um bitten and Lafayette in between that 601 and 750 so they should have 2.5 administrators and right now they all have three just pointing that out. So there may be some overstaffing in some areas and that's you guys know that we have lower student numbers and you still have to have the

136same amount of staff to serve those kids. So we're a little off in that regard. Well, and then where do early childhood centers fit in this principal child ratio? Because now that we have gained more early childhood children, They're still in a building with high numbers but only one person. So I think that's something we need to start having some thought process about because they're also dealing with lots of children on IEPs. Hence that's why they get to come anyway. So I really think we need to start thinking about that because this is a new problem I feel like for our district because we haven't had that many children in our early childhood program in the past but now we do. So, how are we going to think forward soon to support those two administrators

137in those buildings? Because they really have the same amount of kids and less staff as some of the elementary schools with more IE. That's something DLO has talked to us about in academic services. So, very aware of that situation there. Just one more little thing. So, this is and I talked to you guys about this at the work session. This is that draft CEIP that we have already submitted to the state. Um, so coming soon to you guys and we've certainly filled it full of needs assessments as the goals are written and um summary of tables for specific needs um and action steps. And then for example in leadership referencing all the leadership standards um because you can tell while we have pages and pages of standards and indicators for a half an hour or

138a little bit over a half an hour it's a really heavy hitter so it's a good thing to focus on. Um and then we have the action steps that'll be taken. Um and the next goal is effective teaching and learning. So we have lots of needs assessments again. So you'll see this come to light and the things that we're focused on um and collaborative climate and culture and again needs assessments and clear action steps and moving through this database decision making. That's a key one. So, how how are we going to be doing that? And goal five, alignment of standards, curriculum, and assessment. So, again, looking at the data, looking at where we're trying to go. You'll notice Tom right here, develop ELI resource learning, and then deploy assessment for learning plan. Um, revise. I

139saw this a couple times. This is actually what our current plan is to do. It doesn't doesn't score us like none of them are marked as complete. No, because this is a draft. Okay. This is what this is the one that's in development right now. Okay. So, coming school year in the next five years. Yes. But then you can as you review it and and watch it be implemented, those check boxes should be checked. Yeah. So, um equity and access is another big one. So those are again we're looking at data to look at equity and access mentioning teacher salary student toteer ratios all the things that you just happen to mention. So those are also things that we've already started to put in those those uh action plans. So that's where we're going with

140it. But your feedback is really helpful. So, we'll we'll take a look at that, I'm sure, as a team and and see how we can embed that in that in those leadership pieces and and like Dr. McInness said, if you have items for any of those other pieces, let us know because um really want your feedback um on that CE moving forward. One of the say Kendra, should I say, you can say K. You know, one of the things that I think about is you have us do this and I I've tried to look this over. I hadn't um but you you've been living this deep in this and then and then how that translates to the scorecard. I'd be interested. You don't have to say these now, but what are the what are the

141three or five areas that are um that you see could make the biggest difference in our score? I you know, we want to we want to portrait of our graduate. I no question about that. I'm with you on that. But we also we got this practical thing that we're below accreditation number and we have to get we're not going to be recognized for anything if we don't get above that number. And so I'd be interested in your um take on where do we really need to be given our attention and and maybe it's a maybe it's executive staff and where do we really need to be and which numbers do we really need to move to get to 70%. Well, if you really look at our annual perform our annual performance report, the heaviest weight

142in that that uh report is in academic achievement. And within that those different areas, whether it's social studies, uh whether it's ELA, whether it's re uh math, or whether it's science, it's ELA and math. That's where not arguing but that's where the state puts the heaviest amount of points there. And so they look at it from two different lenses. They look at it from just the proficiency lens. Are kids scoring advanced proficient below basic or basic? And they also look at are students growing at the same rate as other students across the district. And that's what they're looking at is growth. And while that model can be, you know, questioned, we had a long conversation about that. Well, I think Rhonda heard it at the retreat, too. And I said, "Yep." Yes. And so, while

143that model can be questioned, it it it still is our goalpost. We can't move it. And so, that's something that we have to be really mindful because that's the bulk of the points is in those two areas. And so, 30% is in continuous improvement, 70% is really in academic achievement. They look at our college preparation. Um, and that's another one that we have to be mindful to continue to give kids opportunities for different kinds of coursework and and equity and and equity and access and those kind of things. So, but honest the honest answer is our ELA and our math. Good. Well, thank you guys for walking through that today. I appreciate it. Thank you. I just want to make you all aware that this is Dr. Shannon. [Applause] I can fully appreciate what the

144weight of that name means now. So, and it is okay to call me Shannon. No, I'm not going to get too worried about name for sure. Oh, no, we are not. I do want to say I I reordered if you had this on the um agenda, I kind of reordered a slide. So, I'll I'll tell you that here in a little bit, but it's all the same information. You're five. Big 06. Okay. Well, safety and security discussion here. So, um, this is one of those things that's ever evolving and I'm not quite sure. You could probably make a PowerPoint on this and in probably in a month it could be outdated. So, um, just kind of want to take you through a little bit of historical and some of the new things here. There's a

145lot of things and I try to this is really highlights. Um, there's a lot of things that go into this. um working with the principles in every building making sure we're assessing things. But um long time ago, probably five, six years ago, they started committing to the dual secure entrances at each building and we have that at each building. So um to have students in it now, I know like here we don't, but I know over at noise at the administration center, we do. So, there's two layers um of security to to have to pass through um to get into the main hallways or to get access to any students or staff. Um that was a big piece. I know that Dr. Seager's initiated and and finished, but I think the year I got started

146in this three years ago. Um but that's a big piece. Uh we riot control and bullet resistant safety uh film. We had a grant in 2023 about $600,000 from Desi uh that put we Casey House and I went around and and looked at the entrances in every building and and designated where we thought those highest priority windows were at and access points. um that safety film, that riot control and bullet resistant is a step up from say a lot of time lot a lot of places you see like the graphic stuff and it's it's a it's it serves some purpose but this is a little higher um mill rating which is a little thick bit better thickness um but we were able to do that through that grant which is a big plus um the

147camera systems they were all updated and and up until a few years ago and I know I think I talked with Jake. They're starting new updates with the ones that were started in the high schools five or six years ago. So, the updates on those um could come in the form of um weapons detection or facial recognition and things like that. We've looked into some different things. That's not ready yet, but that could be on next thing on the horizon. the new intercom technology, the new intercoms that are getting put in um all will be able to activate emergency response and from the rooms u also be able to display on TVs and and on digital boards in each building the status if there's a there's a lockdown or whatever there's lights there's there's different

148sensory um responses there but they you can activate emergencies and alert emergencies not just through Raptor which we have but um it will now be readily available in the classroom and in the hallways. Um the security stations at the sport events, we have those obviously you've seen those. Um you know, I never thought I'd be a part of putting that into uh into this activities, but we we feel very secure about that. We're continually analyzing that and learning different ways we can be better. um security wands at to assist principles. They do a lot of uh we have security wands where they can um you know they can check you know if there's a property check that needs to be done a bag check or whatever for a suspicious item a lot of safety plans

149that get put in place maybe somebody's been you know there's been a risk uh before you know we're able to conduct those assessments a lot better with those security ones um protocol updates uh we went through some different trainings I know a couple years ago I talked to the board about um emergency operation planning. We're in the process of still updating that, but we have um we are trying to incorporate the latest in emergency operation planning. Um you see the list of groups that I'm involved with there. Um last week was at the SRO conference and uh but we have district safety committees that involves administrators um at the district and building level. We have uh fire department uh county city emergency managers um our police department police departments representation. So we have a big

150group that meet quarterly usually um the e the ces liaison group um MSBA has a a division or a part of it. It's called center for educational safety. I'm a part of a liaison group that meets monthly. We talk about different trends and different things going on. Also they offer a lot of trainings. Um, and then the Casey area safety directors meetings that I I go to, which is just a way to collaborate and talk about different things going on. This next piece is probably it's probably kind of hidden in here, but one of the biggest I think pieces of communication that we put in last start put in last year was incident command. Basically, it's a way when a when an incident happens, whether smaller or larger, uh that there's a way that communication

151um goes, there's designated people, safety officers, liaison to outside agencies. Uh there's public information, which is your getting information out to uh stakeholders, and of course, there's an there's a uh incident commander, which is usually a principal, usually the lead in charge of a building. Um and then you have different chiefs which are different areas and and it we have we've always had safety um committees, crisis committees in each building, but this better defines roles and how you communicate in this in the situation. I think we are much better along than we were two years ago, but we still have a ways to go. Uh we even have that at the district level. Um so there is an incident command set up at district level that can either assist or take over depending on the

152emergency. um the severity of it. Um and then also what that does is sets it could set up unified command which basically unified command means you're going to then bring in the police department's incident command or the fire department or some other agency and and there's a unified command of incident commanders that are then you know communicating and talking about you know what what's next what do we need to do to keep people safe. So that is a big piece in itself. It's not really it doesn't cost a thing. It's just all about training and all about communication. Um I think it's something that we've come a long way in. Um but still have a ways to go. Um some other things the Raptor you hear a lot about. Raptor uh has a visitor management

153piece. So uh visitors are to check in. Um if there's visitors are not supposed to be in schools or around schools, we're alerted of that. My office is alerted. So are the principles. Um so that that's a good piece just for the screening of visitors. the emergency management which is a big piece that's your alert lock down a shelter in place no entry lock down um those kind of things can be activated through a phone um and communic communication can happen through that that uh app also the drills are run through that so all drills I I think I've got principles trained pretty much on the the initial part was they didn't want to push a button and mess anything up well you can't really mess anything Yep. Especially if you're going to really set

154up, you know, you have to contact 911 or something like that. There's a couple swipes you have to make so you can't accidentally do anything. But getting them to understand that using that those buttons and drills and letting the teachers and the sta and the students know what the sounds of those alerts are um is very beneficial. So we we've come a long ways in that this last year. We're going to continue accountability and reunification. accountability and so if we ever had to reunify and take students off campus, that's the piece that would communicate and talk, look at rosters to see who you have, who you don't have, communicate who's missing, who's absent, you know, all those kind of things. Again, that that portion of it, we started drilling that last year. Um, and we'll

155continue to be better at that this year. Um, the reunification method is from the what they call the I Love You guys Foundation. It was a foundation created after the Sandy Hook incidents. Um, and it was a group of parents and administrators and safety people that came together and said, "We need to have a better process." We follow a lot of that that process and we put that in place in our drills and we've established sites and locations. Um, we're continually analyzing that. I just learned last week uh something from a presentation uh that I'll probably put in place this year. Um, you know, we there's just locations you have to get to off campus. Um, th those are situations we hope we never have to deal with, but um, I feel like if we

156had to do that this year sometime, I think, you know, it wouldn't be perfect, but it would be it would be a much better than it was two years ago. Um, again, it's it's all about communication with those other people. A lot of times it's, you know, maybe just different buildings. It could be a high school for an elementary. It could be a high school that has that access. we can put people there. So, um, Stratagos is our active intruder training, um, philosophy. There's different ones out there. You probably hear Alice, you probably hear different ones. Um, that's the one we've been, it's called the three out method, but all staff are um, trained by the SRO's. Matter of fact, this year we finally have an SRO that will go to the actual training and

157become a certified trainer. We haven't had that before. course just been through their materials, but um they we do that September and then we actually do a scenario training in February with uh through our PD day and it actually we are on site at a school and we actually run through scenarios like getting out of a classroom or getting out of a building, you know, getting out of, you know, how to navigate in those in those situations. Um it's been interesting the development of those trainings with our SRO's. They've been really good. Uh we have one lead trainer takes that very seriously and he I mean he even videotaped it last year. It's like a game film and went back and looked at it and see how we can be better. So um transportation there

158is some safety that goes along with with this. We have a new version of the bus GPS system that was updated this summer. Um it's it's I consider safety because if we have to track or find out where buses are at and and try to find you know if students are got on a wrong bus or you know got you know got to a different place then we can do that in the additional camera we in our contract that we started let this this is our first year of three to five years um we add a camera as a part of that there is two cameras one in the front one in the back but there's There's also one above the driver now that that you know uh would catch anybody that comes up on

159the bus that may not may not need to be on there. So there's some security with that that we also have. This is something that I this is the slide that I move from the end to the middle because this is really something we've been doing. This is really not anything new except for one little piece with sprigio. But this is our incident report and investigation aka bullying. Um so if this is a procedure which by state law and by policy we have to have in place uh whenever that word is used whenever that accusation is made our principles go through this and they they do a full investigation there's a I mean there's it can well depend on the number of interviews you have to do it could be at least three pages of

160of a procedure they have to follow um usually it's required within two days they start it and usually it's done within a day I would say in most cases Um, one thing I did not run before I got here was the numbers on this. Like how many of these investigations actually end up being disciplined? Not all of them do. Um, because a lot of times it's just kids not being nice. They're being mean. And yes, that could be bullying, but it's by there is a definition of bullying which creates like a an imbalance of power. If there's multiple people, one, you know, three versus one type of situation or if it's repetitive. there's definitions that we use that we would you would take into a disciplinary scenario but this is a good process. The one

161thing we did add um this past year was there is anonymous reporting through sprigio for all students but now for staff so if staff see something especially staff on staff um we we did get some of those and what happens is that comes into uh myself and Mr. Carell and what we do is we look at it. Usually what we do is we just like any of the student ones we we push that back to the principal and say you know you need to conduct your investigation. Now in the off chance in a staff one that it does involve the principal as a witness um then we may myself or Mr. Carell may take the lead on that investigation. Um but there's annual training for that each year. So this is the new part that

162I'm kind of uh proud to roll out and for two reasons. One, it's more comprehensive. You can see and I'm not going to read all this, but it's a well thoughtout process. It's called behavior risk and assessment and management. We've done really well with you've heard seag. I don't know if you've heard that in different talks with administrators or maybe sestag was a comprehensive school threat assessment guide. Okay, that's what that stands for. It's a it's a model created through the University of Virginia uh by Dr. Cornell uh who is a a very he's he's one of the doc doctors that studied psychologist that studied the coline shooters after in that whole process and he wrote he's wrote books about this. So that was a book that we was that was well uh written and

163then turned into a guide to to assess threats. We've been using that the last three or four years now. uh it does a good job at the assessment piece, but then the management is the the other piece that we're taking the next step on because a lot of times you do the threat assessment, you decide, okay, was it a high risk or a low risk? And then you, you know, you put safety plans or put discipline in place or whatever. A lot of times, and I'm not saying that that there's some schools that do this probably more than others, but then the management piece, well, if you have a student that's made a threat or a situation that's been a threatening incident and a lot of times students, how are we following up with that

164student? I mean, just because it happened one time and let's just say it was a low risk, what we call transient. Okay? But if that's happening three, four, multiple times, how are we managing that situation? There's a risk. there's a behavioral risk to that student and that situation that we need to be monitoring. This process does it offers a lot better guidelines for that. Um you can see some of the people the Colorado influence I will tell you that's go back to CES. Um CES is now run by uh John McDonald. Uh he was um the district the the director safety and security like I am for the Coline school this school district for the uh in the Coline situation. He's been a part of threaten for a long time. But you can see the

165other p the other uh different resources the FBI and those different places this has been created by. So and the nice thing about this is it doesn't cost any money. So, we just got to get people here to train our train our staff. So, um there's three steps. There's the B there's the assessment screen. You do a screen when you get a a threat. You do that. You have at least two school uh team members that do that. It's really just asking some questions of the student or the target, the student that made the threat or the targets of the threat or any witnesses. You determine whether this going to warrant a full assessment. So right now I will tell you that probably 90% 90 I don't have the exact number but I bet it's

16690% of what we do uh ends up in a transient state which is a low risk low if you're screening this you would say it doesn't need to move to a full assessment but if it does and there have been situations that have then we now have and again this is where the next step I think that is important for this process to be put in place for the next step then goes to you have four building uh team members We also are adding a district level group which has been trained this summer. We'll start training the building some of the building team members here in the fall. Um we have a district team that mirrors and supports those building teams and we will actually monitor um threats in the and in the management of

167it. So if we see something that may you know we have a red flag on we need to talk to principal about how has this been managed or how's this going is a student you know are we providing services for this student the resources that that student needs you know we can then ask questions but we are also trained in that to to to uh provide a layer of support and resource for the building members and we could actually even be involved myself Dr. Davis and Sam Davis. Um, the two of us probably would be ones that could step in and be one of those four four team members at the building. The problem is we usually want to keep at the building because those building people know the kids better than we do. We

168can we can do interviews and we can assess and, you know, make our comments and our checkbox and everything else, but we don't know those students like the people in the building. So, we really want to rely more on them, but if we needed to, we can support. And you determine the threat classification and you go from there. There's mental health interviews. There's all kind of mental health resources that we could go to. This district team also, by the way, does will will include our um uh SRO sergeant, our new SRO sergeant, and um a uh resource from Family Guidance um behavior mental health liaison that she works for family guidance, but she actually has access to more than just Family Guidance resources. So she would be there in case again we're we're trying to

169help buildings with students and trying to get them resources because in all honesty a lot of these things even though they become transient there still needs to be some resources we provide for those students and those families. So if we had to move to step three uh this would this is again another added layer. Um this is where you have the resource management and uh support plan. This is the plan, the safety plan, the the plan for getting that student resources, the school discipline involved, the law enforcement. What what things do we need to put in place not only to keep that individual safe, but also the rest of the students and staff in that building? You got to understand that's a two that's a you know everybody thinks about okay we have a threat

170and all everybody's you know worried and you know yeah we got to keep that the the students and the staff in that building but we got to look at that student and see how are we keeping them safe what are we getting them um to to keep them as safe as possible monitoring intervals just it the the the RMS plan just kind of make sure you're checking on things again it's a well thoughtout well well doumented process that we can monitor assess and revive size as needed. So, this is a again this is a little bit more principles will probably not like me for adding more things to the their plate. We're not really adding a lot because a lot of the team a lot of the buildings have what they call care teams or

171MTSS teams. You'll hear those two things a lot of times. They have these teams already in place. they just need to they just need to in incorporate some of this data and and and a lot of them probably do already talk about what what supports and strategies are put in place for these students. Um but this this definitely covers the behavioral risk more than just the academic risk. Sometimes it goes hand in hand. So it's nice to see that it's like an IEP. It is. Yeah, that's a good that's a good analogy. Um, yeah. So, um, so that that's that's all I have. I don't have a lot of different fun engaging pieces for you. I'm sit and talk to you for a little bit. So, but I'll answer any questions you might have. We

172appreciate your time. I had a question. Yeah. And I can't remember which bill it was. Oh, Senate Bill 68. Uh, so that was a bill that just got passed that had um like um we have to have a plan like safety plan which we already have like a lot of it we already followed but there was one there were like blood spill kits. Yeah. Uh stop the bleed kits. Stop the bleed kits. But that's only we're only required to have those in each building if there's money allotted by the state. Is that how that correct? We have a lot of those kits and I mean obviously the nurses have you know they have they have emergency kits that they would that was I will tell you this that uh Tammy and I have had conversations

173about putting more of those in buildings because the the one thing we've talked about is what happens if you know you have a a locked situation. and you have kids in a room that are hurt that need that. They can't go to the nurse because of the situation, but they may need basic first aid and treatment. But there there are some things that are lacking there that we could we could put more of those kits in in place. And then we have to have anti-intruder locks at every building, which we do. I figured we are. Yeah, that dual that dual uh the air lock part. Yeah, that that that and all the um I mean everything is key card and I mean everything is access controlled now. Um there not every door I shouldn't say

174that but that the doors that you usually have access to um you know we had you know situ situation where a door could get propped or open for some somebody else and that that may gain access. I think we've done a good job. Even we had an incident happen at one of our schools and when I sat down with that team and we uh we limited the number of spots that were accessible and where kids were going in and out of um I think that that has helped. But yeah, we do have that a lot of that is still like you said before with the not a lot of it is funded. So we're still looking at ways we how do we fund these things? Yeah, I think the I I knew that the blood

175kits that they're not required unless there was an amendment put in that they're not going to be required unless the state provides funding to provide that. I would say we're going to find between health services and student services budgets. We're going to find money to to increase that. And then there was a we're not going to wait till we're not going to wait till the state decides money. Well, that won't happen. Um and then I think there was also like a change where about offering CPR certification to students I believe so and I don't have to do it. I'm just trying to see like what what we are doing. We already have in health classes they already they already are exposed to CPR training. Um that is a there's one other part to that. There's

176a uh it's called uh project atom I believe and it's a It's a It's a response team, a cardiac emergency response team that we did actually put we are putting in place and we actually added I'm adding a part two raptor as an alert that goes out because if that happens we need to be able to alert any of the other certain members those those team members as we've got a we've got an issue we need to and if I'm a teacher and I'm on that group let's just say I'm in in my you know teacher next door. They need to know that if they hear that alert, just like you would hear if it was lockdown or shelter in place, they need to know that, oh, Shannon is one of those members. I'm going

177to need to go cover his classroom or pull his class over to mine and supervise. So, yeah, that that will be put into place. That's all I have. Good questions. Dr. Ny, I just wanted to say that, you know, it's the time of year within the next month or so that um kids will be outside football and things like that, you know, and heat in various sports um not just football but other places or do we do we take the necessary precautions to make sure that um whether it be from coaching or physicals or whatever to um for the safety of our kids. Yeah, we I mean we have physicals obviously required and if there's any heat related illness past or whatever there that would be in a physical. Um, one of the things that

178we have is we have what they activity level check. Um, but there is a scale that everyone at every one of our high schools, our trainers actually go out to the site before this before the practices happen and they make they document those temperature checks and there is a a sliding scale. So if it it doesn't go above 100 matter of fact I think it stays at the normal level it stays in the 80s or below. But if there's a reading, then it says, "Okay, at this level, you need to um only practice for an hour. You have more water breaks." It it gives a prescribed um and and it even will if it gets high enough, it'll say nothing outside. You got to cancel all practices outside. I'd be happy. I can't I don't

179know it right off the top of my head, but we have trainers. We have trainers that look at that. And so our middle school trainers that we only have two for each I mean they between the four but they they check that and our ads our athletic directors they work together. Sometimes that's an avoidable tragedy. You know what I mean? And so I just was curious. Yeah. There are place there's things in place that we monitor that. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Missouri summers are not very friendly in August and September. I get hot at chiefs camp. There's probably somebody there with a wet if you you could ask a trainer, they got a wet bulb there, too. I'm sure it's a wet bulb thermometer. So, well, those trainers are required to every game, aren't they?

180Yeah. Yeah. Well, we have a contract with Mosaic uh that provides We have six, I think, um that cover our school district. They they also cover others in Mosaic area, but we have them we have a contract with them, so they're always at ours for sure. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you so much. Okay, does anybody need a quick bathroom break? Okay, let's take five minutes and then let's get back to it. My apologies, Dr. McInness. I got your text and I saw your look. I thought I had given you. That's all right. Thank you very Oh, I was waiting for Okay, guys, let's get started. Um, I don't expect everything to last a couple of hours, you know, but if there are questions, I want to get them all out now over holding

181them in order to go later. So I'll let Miss Rhonda begin with the governance award. Okay. So at the MSBA conference, one of the sessions that I attended was on board certification and the governance awards. So MSBA right now has created a new set of well I know sorry has created a new set of requirements for the certifications. So, there's going to be a one-year overlap. So, you can pick either the old certification list or you can pick the new certification list for this one upcoming school year. So, they're both on there right now. I think it's kind of nice. You can pick the one you like the best. Um, so that's something you might want to take a look at and pick the one you want. And then um if you pull up on

182your computer, I'm sorry I should have said this while we were on our break. Um there's the governance team award. And um I didn't even know this existed until I was doing some digging around, but I think this is something that our board should try to do because I don't think it's that terribly hard. So when you look at it, this is also a menu of choices. So we can pick the ones that we want to do, which some of them we've already done. So it would just be a matter of filling out that application here. Mike, you can I have a paper copy if you if you guys want to look at this. I have a paper copy of it. Um it would be just a matter of choosing the ones that we want

183to do, checking off what we've already done. Some of them um have to have a quorum of people plus the superintendent. So, one of those is like work or volunteer at a district or school event, which I think would be cool if we would pick some school events and go together as a team. Um, the fact I think that this says you have to have a quorum and a superintendent is kind of refreshing because I know we get kind of hung up sometimes on we all can't go do something because sunshine law and all this. Um, this I really like because that's part of the the requirement on here. Um, it's not only things that happen in the schools, but it can also be community events, um, fundraisers, all kinds of different things. So, I'm

184a big list person. So, I really like it that this is a list. I'm also all about choices. So, I like it that um there are choices that we could pick to do. Go ahead and mark off the ones that we've we've already done. So, I think this is something um I'm not quite sure how we organize ourselves to make this happen. We could a couple things. Yeah, I know that part like like and I just want to add that our school boards actually accomplished this the past two years. Only issue is I was unaware of what other people were doing. Well, I never knew that we qualified until after the fact. And so it's another reason why communication is key. If you are achieving something, if you are accomplishing something, I need to know

185that in order to be able to get our application in. As Rhonda mentioned, if you look at the information, I mean, a majority of items, you know, that we're already accomplishing, already doing. It's just a matter of communicating that, getting more organized in order to do it to be able to receive this. Yes. And I think I would I would recommend everybody taking a look at it on your leisure um and looking at the ones we have already accomplished like the first one. All board members have completed MSBA new board member trainings. Well, that's an easy one uh to get checked off. Getting close to All right. Well, we we'll give we'll cut you some slack for now, but I'm going to get there. That's why I love Yes. But I think the one that

186I like that's a requirement is the middle one talk that talks about relationships and doing things within our schools and in our community. Um I think those are good ones for us to think about because I don't feel like we are doing that as a quorum and a superintendent. I think we're doing lots of individual things but we're not really doing things as a group. And I think that would be a real uh positive thing for us to do. Um that will build some of that trust back with us in the community when we're out there in the community involved in in doing things. I love it. Yeah. I think is there something we can target and pick? I mean this this kind of thing for me personally, this excites me. If I have to

187go figure it all out, whatever probably won't happen. But if somebody tells me Mike be here on this night, then I'm good. Well, and you only have to do one. Yeah. I mean, they give you three choices, but you get to to pick one. Um, and I think the fall, there's lots of opportunities there in the fall for us to do. And then I was also looking at the list and you know what would be cool, Jamarie? Like looking the stand or the door at Jambburye like Yeah. I mean, a majority of us attend anyway like we're normally just like up in the box. A few of us kind of kind of move around. Okay. Football. Yeah. Uhhuh. Yeah. I mean, just choose a jamboree, you know. Yeah. They have jambos for a lot of

188And then like like maybe Rhonda and I can maybe create like a calendar of options. Yeah. And then if we're able, you know, to choose maybe three, four this year, I think that would be cool to do. I agree. And as long as we're able, you know, to get a a quorum at those events, I know that Ashley attends. Well, and then it also mentioned either the superintendent or like a key district admin, too. And there's always district admin, you know, at these events and everything like that. And so, I mean, if we're able to coordinate it, I think that'd be cool. Yeah, I do, too. And and I was thinking too even the complication uh rather than us all just going in and sitting down um being at the doors greeting. Yes. Especially this

189year they're only going to be able to come in one set of doors because of the construction and stuff at Civic Arena anyway. Being there greeting teachers as they come in the door. Um having that part too rather than just going in and talking to a few people. That way we could see more people. So I really feel like um doing some of these community things and getting ourselves out there, being more visible is really important for us, whether it's on the governance team award or it's just because it's a good thing for us to do to build those relationships. Basically, that's that's it. Any questions? I would be happy. I was going to say I would I would be happy to say here here are things out there. Um, not here's everything out there

190that's happening because that'd be too overwhelming, but just yeah, here are three things. Sign up for the ones you're interested in. Then we can see who's interested and kind of go from there starting in the fall. I'd be willing to do that. Is that okay? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I like it. Okay. Let me add that to my plate that I I would love to add to my plate. Okay. Sunshine Law Review. Fun stuff. I included this on the agenda because I know it just kind of appears as if people are either like afraid of it or it's not really like a priority, you know, to listen to or you're not like as knowledgeable about it. And so I just look at it as maybe it's just a little confusing. Well, because it is a lot

191in a way, but it's not. If you look at the agenda, I added the PowerPoint from MSBA and it's really really informative only in all honesty. You just mainly need to know like a couple key things. If there is a quorum in an email or like a text message, always include Donna, always, always, always, even if you're just emailing a question real quick. And then never reply all as a conversation. Like a lot of times members of the community will like email all of us as a board and then I will email a reply. I will always add Donna and then I will always add the superintendent as well. Um and then I'll give a reply. Okay. But the problem is is if a person answers and I've not answered it yet, well, I'm not

192able to answer. Does that make sense? Because that's a conversation and that that constitutes constitutes a meeting and we don't want to do that. And so in all honesty, I know that this is a lot of information. Okay. The big key things I want you to remember that it is okay, you know, to email. It is okay, you know, to chill it like a game and there's a quorum, you know, as long as you're not talking about school business. You know what I'm saying? Okay. But like if it's a text or like an email, always include Donna. Never reply. You know, I mentioned on a side note um to Whitney earlier today when we've gotten some of those emails that I've been included on from citizens, you know, expressing things to the board. You you

193the ones that I've seen, you've done a wonderful job responding to those. Um I've not responded. I I think somebody did to a small group and I just responded to that person, but I kind of used template. You You really do a nice job responding to those. I appreciate that. Thank you. But and then in all honesty, if you want to email a person individually, that's fine. Just never a quorum of the board. Right. Right. When I get so I get emails like that, like when we all get an email like that, like I'll typically reply to that person and say like I wanted to let you know like I got it. you're gonna get a formal response from Latan because it just feels rude to like not respond because they wonder if you ever

194got it. Yeah. They're like, "You jerk." It's like, "I got it. I get it. She's going to respond." Yeah. There you go. I try to do that, too. And then I let them know that my response is like on behalf of all of us. It's not only my response. Well done. Well, what I've seen. Thank you. I appreciate that. And so I mean I don't want anybody you know to be like afraid of emailing Mike but I'm just saying it's a way in order you know to do that. always add da in a form never reply all discussion right um and that's where I feel like it gets kind of tricky because then how can I say this I guess then we'll just assume for lack of a better word that if it's sent out

195to all of us we're going to just assume that you reply Okay. But yeah. Yeah. It just gets when we're talking about communication, that's where it gets tricky because we don't really know who's doing what. But I understand why we can't. But you have a question, Whitney. because if there's an email, you know, to all of us, then I will reply, you know, okay, as long as as a collective board. Yes. Okay, that's fine. Anybody's always welcome to reply on your own. Okay. So, starting email, is that what you're saying? Yes, definitely. You just take every you just got to take everybody else off. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. No, nobody really I mean I know you said that but I guess I didn't understand what you were saying even though I thought I did. I guess

196I didn't. So I understood the don't reply all business but I didn't understand the rest. So and then a lot of times I mean I would also add Gabe in as well. I mean it's going to be Ashley now you know but I want you always aware you know of what we're saying to people. Any questions about that? Well, because I know that that's not always kind of clear. And then in our school district, on our board, there's lots of eyes on us. And whereas in other instances, I know things are not as big of a deal in our community, and our district at times it is. And that leads us into legal updates. Whitney, was this for the legislative piece? Is that that was what you were running? Yes. Okay. I want to make

197sure I was right. Um, do we want to do So, do we want to do this around the advocacy part? Yeah, we can move that down. I just think if we're talking about the legislative things, we'll go into it. Perfect. board committees. Um I remember that we were all of um of one mind about adding committees back. And what we need, you know, to do is choose which ones, how to form the committee, and what we're going to do with work sessions. And that's what I mean, even if we're not going to choose like a day at a time now, as long as we're able, you know, to open up the conversation and choose how we're going, you know, to do this, I think that that would be helpful. Um, in the past, we had

198policy, academics, finance. Finance and that's it. Well, the facilities facilities facilities I knew there was another I knew there was an F. And then I remembered that we had added in some like ad hoc ones. Okay, but let's just mention about the committees. Um are we interested in bringing back those four? Yes. And um you have to have scholarship, which that's an ad hoc committee or scholarship committee. Yes. Right. And then you have to have a finance committee for an audit. Yes. Those three you must have. So far on our policy reviews, you know, we've been doing it. I found Yeah. You need an audit committee, a wellness committee, and the scholarship committee you mentioned, and then a policy committee. You say yeah. Yeah, I was going to say okay that we're looking at an

199academics. So we're adding academics and facilities. Correct. But some of these like policy, scholarship, and audit are only time of the year. They're just ad hoc. And aren't they just board members? Pol? No. Yes. Policy normally was scholarship normally was um and audit um I don't know what that normally was because I remember it's a monthly weren't you on that Tom? Yeah, but I think that was blended into the finance committee meeting. That makes sense. This is the time of year that the audit was taking place finance committ. Okay, that makes sense. And so you want to add community members wise, academics, finance and facilities. So I uh are you ready for concern yet? Um I like it open to all community members because it'll whittle down to the few that really want to be

200there anyway. Well, I had an idea um because we attempted an open meeting and the admin hated it. Um and there was lots of issues with that. I remember it mentioned at a meeting like a couple months ago. I don't actually remember when. Like if each member of the board chose a member for every committee and that way there are individuals of the community on those committees and then we're all choosing members of the community and that way it's not applications. It's not all of us looking and being like I don't want this person. I don't want the like all of us are giving a voice on every committee. Could we So I I know that I think Okay. So we did this before and it went poorly. We did it two ways and it

201they both went poorly. Right. The first one was people applied and we selected them. And how we didn't get sued for that is a miracle. Uh and then the second one was anybody could come and anybody could talk which is great in theory but we can't it wasn't effective like we had to keep catching people up and then kind of whatever they were upset about they might come and then we're like we we covered that three months ago. So it wasn't very efficient. Is there any interest in doing two things? one having committees where people serve on them. It's the same people. I'm fine if everybody just gets to appoint a person to each one. It's fine. And then we also did some sort of town hall situation where it's just a night where we

202can go out and say we're going to be at this school. We're going to do it I don't know two. Like I feel like we always talk about this like always gets brought up but then we don't ever actually do it. We did two town halls a year or three or however many whatever the issue is at the time. If it's the APR comes out, if it's the long range plan, if it's, you know, whatever. I know some of the CIP stuff we talked about. Um, but anybody that wants to come out can get up at the podium and talk and be heard. I just I don't know how we do both or something. Yeah. I just I feel like there's we constantly hear like the need to to the public, which I agree with,

203but there needs to be I I don't know that committees are the place for that to happen because you're trying to conduct business to get to the board. So, Dr. Guinness, um there were oftent times because we did some of those committee meetings in the evening, which meant if anybody on staff wanted to attend, they not only had to work that day and then come later on. How How different was it when you when those meetings were held during the day because that's when I began was when they were held during the day when people were already at work and they would come to the meeting. I think there was good intentions in planning them in the evening hoping that staff would be engaged but there just wasn't. And I get it after a long

204day of teaching or doing whatever they're doing for their jobs that may not be the first on their priority. I would ask like for example when we were talking about the books I asked librarians to please come but I think it was more productive during the day. Yeah I do seemed like it and I agree with Whitney on consistency of the same people. I think that went well with academics. I think it went well with facilities until we did allow people to and I want input as well and I want their feedback but that just you're right that wasn't the forum I think for that because then it became my situation and I'm going to use this to talk about my situation. Um, I do like the idea of getting feedback even if it's during

205those committee meetings. If we have topics and we just either have public comment either before or after. Yeah, I think that would be good on committees so that maybe after. So I don't know either way either way before or after so that we can hear their thinking on the agenda items. So then when they were during the day when they were during the day how were they were selected then if they went well then how were those committees selected? Um at that time David Foster was president he wanted one particular person and then there was just a few people in the community that I knew were very passionate about reading and so that made sense. Um yeah so it was a little bit of a combination. Yeah. So it was a board member had two

206you had two board members per committee. Yes. And I think that is helpful as well. Anybody could attend but I think it was helpful to have there were two assigned to and I think that kind of got off the rails too because to me the point of the two board members was to make sure that there was board representation at the committee to make sure that there was someone that had some sort of conversation about what was going to be on the agenda. Then when we went when we changed to where we were all supposed to be appointing people and one board member was in charge but then we all are in charge like it was I think when it went board le from staffled to board leled like things just went wild. Well, it

207went from boardled to staffled and that was well it went back and forth like when we did this when when we did the so that summer of 201 is when we did the we're going to pick but we didn't like each other's picks and then we went to completely staffled and so then everybody and then that's when I so I'm host committees my question is what was the ultimate purpose of the committ like what was the the goal? I mean, I know it's community endpoint input, but what was like like the finish line? It took a lot of the So, it was supposed to take a lot of the work off of the board, so we wouldn't have had that work session. Okay. But then it takes a lot of it takes a lot of

208trust from board members into that committee that you asked all the questions, you vetted all the information. So, I'm not going if I wanted to get into the weeds, I would have either watched that committee meeting because everything's televised or I would have gone. So, it was supposed to kind of get other expertise into the room to help feed information to the board so that then you could answer the question knowing I don't know as much about this, but I feel confident that it was teased out. But we never got to that point. Okay. Go ahead. No, that's what I was I mean, I just kind of got in on the middle of all that and watched some of them, but I never really knew what the end goal was. I really like your idea

209of having a town hall type thing. Yeah. Um because I think if we have something like that and people know like they know the board meeting is the fourth Monday of the month, that's predictable. having something like that where they can come and just share their grievances and that kind of stuff and that is the purpose of that which would be different than the purpose of the committee but I do think we need to be able to have a place where people and then if people don't choose to come well we've offered it and um yeah I think that that's a good idea along with the committees. Yeah. I I've been through a couple generations of committees. You remember I'm the old guy with the king. Um I was with one back in the 90s

210and then again in or something in that time frame both on finance and I was asked to do that as a community member. But when I did that, those were I'm not sure how the selection took place because I wasn't involved in the selection, but then you were actually um you'd agreed to be a part of that committee. And um we finally were getting close to evolving to the fact that the committee wouldn't be making a board decision, but the committee would actually even vote on um um what what had been discussed and and do something of a recommendation or endorsement. Um, and and it was meant to draw together people that had some expertise in an area and and then be able to to recommend that on. We we were pretty close to that.

211I was that's when I was with been with Latana and Whitney in some of those meetings and um they they were an hour long. I was just always in the finance and pretty pretty effective. They certainly w the wild west. Um it had pretty consistent attendance and um and was gaining effectiveness. Um in my opinion when it went to wide open then I felt like I never really knew when the meeting was supposed to be or if I was supposed to be there. I felt no more responsibility and commitment. So I think it's better if we by some method choose if we're going to have committees, we choose committee members and then other Some people are welcome to come but but there are some people that are assigned to that committee. Right. That's kind of

212a little feedback from my and then also as members of the board like our main role is to is to listen and then get that information to the board. It's not you know to control. It's not our committee. It's just, you know, to bring the information to the board. Well, and I think it also gives, you know, what you're saying, Tom, is like if you're putting people that have expertise in finance on the finance committee and I don't have expertise in finance and it comes to the board and it's confusing and I ask questions, but it's not ever going to be your expertise. Maybe you can at least, you know, you could call like I could call you and be like, "Hey, you went through this like, you know, I'm a little skeptical." And you

213can explain. I mean, I know the staff can do that, too. But it it kind of adds another layer of legitimacy and support to what you're trying to approve. I do I do worry about the facilities committee because facilities turned into the long range plan, which I think it's fine if we do a long range plan, but the facilities committee never once talked about a boiler system anywhere. They never once talked about a sidewalk anywhere. It was just it just became a dayto-day are we doing two schools or three schools? Like that's that's all we ever talked about. Um, and there wasn't really a to me if you're going to do facilities and we need to talk about this needs a roof. How are we going to pay for that? Well, do we just need

214to provide that standard to them? Like tell them it's not just about two or three schools, but it's about what's inside of schools, too. Well, I think you almost do. I mean, to me, f I think finance is doing a lot of like the maintenance, you know, like with um CIP dollars with this, that, and the other. And if you can take facilities instead of not not being facilities but it's the long range plan with the understanding we're approving this model to do this. So we're so it's it's not a time to debate you know we're not changing we're not changing the the plan is the point is not to change the plan. The point is to how to best implement the plan. So change your change your facilities committee to a long range plan

215committee. Yeah. I mean I think we're going to have to have a long range plan or at least a shell of it approved at this level. Putting people on it. I just want to make it clear the long range plan it does have pieces in there about recruiting and retaining staff. Yeah. It has pieces in there about academics. And so it's more than just facilities. I know we often use that language long range plan meaning facilities but there are other components. I don't think that's a bad idea at all. I just Yeah. Yeah. I think it's important that we look at it, right? That's all all we ever talked about was buildings, two schools. Yeah. You almost call it like a buildings and boundaries committee or something. I don't buildings and maintenance. Okay. So then,

216well, you'd mentioned casually some something about governance committee too. You didn't say that here today. Yeah. You know, um right. So I know enough to know that a lot of boards will have a executive committee or a governor's committee that kind of coordinates all the committees we've been talking about which sounds like a lot as we're sitting here today. Maybe it makes more sense once we get our committees established. But um but that's another way boards manage themselves is to uh carve out a group of people, a small group of people. And this is internal, right? not community, but but you know, like the soup, a couple of board members, um maybe some other admin and just talk about are we getting what we need from all these different committees and and uh be that

217place to go to that says uh hey, this committee we could use a little help here or there. So then if a committee decided they wanted to bring whatever to the board, then it would go through that committee before. Well, I think that your agenda meeting. Yeah. I mean that you kind of already have that group because that's adding an extra step and has to go through that purely maybe you're right. Maybe without that that's really what we Yeah, that's really the way they That's what I was going to say. They just weren't recognizing it. Yeah. governance is like forward leadership actually in the key admin is what that pretty much is. Yeah, I think that's right. So maybe we sort the finance committee would actually talk about what items were going to be on

218the agenda for the board meeting and and not not decide it but yeah brainstormed about it and um you know the administration whether it was Gabe or Robert or in the olden days other folks would actually um would be actually get some feedback relative to what was planned to be on the agenda. So the meeting was timed so that it could happen in time to get onto the board agenda if if it rose to that level. And I think if you have, you know, can already feel the stress of like we have to keep track of like everything that's happening. But I think sometimes it was also helpful if you had a big thing coming up that they would be able to start talking to that committee about. I mean, I think that the turf

219and tracks are a great example of that. If they could talk about um here's you're going to see this, this is why it hasn't happened because there are a lot of people I think there's a lot of conversations in the public about oh they didn't do it in time because they didn't do it's like no like you just you didn't see that part of it. Like do we also feel like every this is just bless their hearts for being here so often. Do we also feel like every single committee needs to be televised? I mean, I'm I'm all for the transparency, but like it's it was a lot. It was a lot. And I know that there's going to be people that are just something to think about, maybe not decide immediately. So if an

220item goes to committee, if I remember correctly, it would go to the committee and then it would be on like a report. Kim was on academics. So you would do the academics report if there's something like I'm thinking comprehensive literacy plan that we have to have approved by the state. Could we use the works or not the work session, the committee time as hey, we're going to deep dive into this and then place that on the consent agenda. So it would remove that from the board. Well, how would you like I don't think so because everyone's not at that meeting and so it as anformational item. Yes. Well, and the reason being is because like even if like Kim's at that meeting, we've not looked at it yet and we're like approving it and we've

221not even discussed it or Well, that one you wouldn't approve. That one doesn't get approved because we make changes throughout the year. So, I'm talking about things that don't that don't need. Yeah. So, I guess we just need to be strategic in agendas. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Because otherwise then you're repeating, right? So, then what would be the purpose? It's a if there's no approval needed, it's only anformational item then, right? Right. It doesn't need to be in the consent. It could just be anformational item, you know, to the board, but then we're going to talk about twice. But I think something to your point, sometimes it's anformational item that is just a written report that then the staff have to come in and present it and they're really just reading what

222is already written. Like if it's not something that has to be approved, um, but you're right, it wouldn't go on the consent agenda because you're not approving it because you're not voting. And so if only anformational item. Okay, it's on there and we read it and that's it. Well, I think we also have to figure out how how if we're doing committees, are we also going to do a work session or do you do committees? It was my question number three like like is this in the place of the work session? I think I think if you do if we do committees there it takes a lot of trust that the committees are going to do that work. So if if I'm saying, "Okay, academics, we're going to do a committee and I'm I'm more

223leaning towards like the audit towards the finance and and facilities." So that's something that I'm going to go to all the time. I'm going to pay attention to all the time. I'm going to pay attention to academics. But I know if there's a committee hearing, committee meeting, and that that that's where all that's going to be discussed, then I have to say, okay, at the next board meeting, I'm not going to get overly into, you know, XYZ because I trust who is on the academics committee that they have vetted that information. Obviously, you have to read your packet and be informed, but it's it has to be a space a timesaving effort or it's just an additional thing to do. I agree with that. Yeah. So, let me comment on that. Can I comment on

224that? I feel like that this year we have so many um things right in front of us that I think we're still going to have to have a work session and um you know, we've just gone over the CESIP plan that's important. We've got new administration that probably is worth being checked in on. And we have this long range plan that um between now and um you know I want to say April, but the hard work of it got to be done sooner than that. Um it seems to me like there are certain things that the board needs to be hearing and considering together. Um and and whether that is um those items we take off the table and say those aren't going to be able to those this year aren't going to be an

225external committee. They're going to be handled by the board and the work session. Um and there may still be some value in saying we've got a small committee to work with the finance guy. Um the the things that are happening more routinely. Um but but the big things that we have in front of us this year seems to me like this big new um we're going to have to be involved. We've got some important decisions to make in the next few months. So, do you because the other thing that we used to do that may be helpful to the staff is that instead of having a work session and a meeting, you have two meetings. So, if there is something that and really all that is is just you can bring in stuff to approve

226and so you know at the beginning of the month you you're going to get a first reading for this. So it kind of cycles where you're getting things approved more quickly. I don't know. I would still Okay. So question are we eliminating talked about is doing that still going out in the community. I think we're all talking about all different things. Let's kind of bring it back in. Okay. So the work session that I'd see is is that we um that we we still limit the agenda to to what Ashley and us agree are the top three or four things that we need to be working on and and we limit the agenda to that except for emergency situations and it it it it maybe shortens the work session. We don't have to go through

227all the other stuff. Maybe we don't have a finance report that work session. We we just have this the seed sip plan, the long range plan and something else and and we're really concentrating on the things that we need to work on, not the more routine decisions that can they voted on at the board meeting. That that's what I think this year. And then and then like I said, if we want a little bit of supplemental thing, somebody to help you know maybe HR is such a sensitive subject. But anyway, th that's my thought on it. I I think we're going to need to meet and hear from each other. And then I like the community meetings, too. I like the quarterly community meetings. Yeah, there's got to be some kind. Okay. So, I do

228like your thoughts. Okay. But the problem is all of us agree you know that this will be a big year and I think that community engagement needs you know to be a part of our big gear. I mean I understand you know that we're elected officials and everything like that and stuff and this is our job only. I'm hesitant in like agreeing with okay well this is like a board Let's kind of do like a board thing. And so what I'm kind of hearing, you guys can let me know like if I'm wrong at the committees. keep the work session only not as as long and in-depth and the board meetings at least because everybody's new and everything's new and and then maybe in like x amount of months maybe we can evaluate if we

229need the work session. So if we have the work session, what's the point of the committees? But I just my only concern is that it just becomes duplicative or I would also maybe compromise on this if we said, okay, we're going to have a work session, but we're going to have a committee for maybe two of the different things. I mean, I don't like we're not going to have seven committees. We're going to have one committee on the long range plan or we're going to have I mean I agree with you. I don't think you need the committee for finance because it's it's the same thing every time and we should be asking questions. That doesn't negate our responsibility to ask questions and and do those types of things. Um I don't know. I just

230think if we do all of the committees and a work session and a board meeting then I know the committees are for community. I I agree with you. It should be totally important. And I do I I could be on board with doing the committees and just short work sessions and re-evaluate later to get rid of it if we need to to bring the info from the committees to that work session. And then Mike, what do you think? I think the reason to do committees rather than work sessions would be almost entirely community involvement. Yeah. Which is good. You know, uh I think we need more engagement. We certainly need to get some more positive talking about, you know, from the community. Um so, so I think we do need committees. I kind of like

231the thought that we just have a couple of the most pertinent while we wait our way through this next uh year of a lot going on and that's also a good compromise and then just reevaluate later. Yes, I think so. like like maybe this time next year, right? When we're here because this is adding community engagement and we're still, you know, able to get the work done in like a timely manner. Yeah. And such. So, are you saying then that we don't have all four of these committees? Tell me what the four word is. academic facilities, finance and policy. And I I think I I worry too about academics. Um I mean maybe if it was CIP related. I just think it's hard with academics having people come in and say you should be doing

232this with your teachers and you should be doing this with the curriculum and but if you focus maybe more on the CIP like I think it has to be something that's a constant focus that you're you know you're constantly looking at the data so I love the CE committee we didn't meet that often I remember halfway but I really felt informed about our data. I felt like I could talk about it. I thought that was part of academics. Yeah, maybe she came in. What was the fourth one again? I'm sorry. Academic facilities finance and policy. Policy. Well, and we had a culture one that kind of went with wellness and policy and HR. Like it was kind of a jumble. I just think whatever we do is going to have to be really well identified

233so it doesn't Yeah. go crazy have some parameters around it that you can put within your policy. So Dr. McGinness, what's your thoughts on it? What's your recommendation? I a couple things. I like the idea that Whitney said about the board meeting having action items. You don't know how helpful that would be if we have to present things as anformational item and then get them approved a month later. Sometimes that causes a significant delay in operations for us. So if we could do that in need, not a ton of things. I think we can control some of this too as a team where we prioritize and then maybe we do only have three or four things at the work session and maybe I'm hearing finance. Maybe we can have that quarterly. We may not need

234to have that monthly, right? And so I think just um I think a couple things, the action items would be helpful, but then also sticking to a shorter agenda for work sessions so it's not as long as a normal board meeting, right? And the committees, I would be fine with committees. I like the community input piece of committees. I would just want structure on what kind of things do you want to see in committees? We have ideas. So, for example, a curriculum resource when Staca presented on that, that would have been an excellent item for academics committee, but then do you want that to come back for approval as an action? You I'm hearing you say put it as a as anformational item, but maybe it could just be a shorter version of what she

235said. Could we ask legal if it could be like an attachment? Like it's just an attachment to the agenda. It'sformational for board members. It's available to the public. I don't know because it's not I mean we have so manyformational items. I think our last meeting ourformational items were longer than the actual business part which is fine. It's all great information but we're not then we I'm kind of like I make a motion to approve and it's like oh you didn't actually need It's like I'm just trying to keep moving. But maybe some of those things could go to committees and then we just have the reports if you want the admin to do kind of some bullet points of what the discussion was. Well, and the could it be what if when we have in

236the agenda the superintendent's report like if you have a written report I mean I'm also I don't know how everybody feels about the weekly written reports. those seemed like they're miserable to do. Um I would dread Fridays. I would just hate all of it. Um so to me it's like if we could have a written report from you all from you know HR, finance, academics, and the superintendent like here's my report. It's everything that you would have put in your weekly report. It's here. Do you have any questions? It's time to talk about it. I don't know if maybe you could put in here's what the committee talked about. There you go. Yeah. So, I think like I'll just use Staca for an example with academics. If she has an academics committee meeting, she would

237just put that into our weekly update. Yeah. Sometimes it can be a little bit of a work project, but I typically have that open document all throughout the week and then I just put notes on it and then refine it on Fridays. I think it's a good thing for you guys to have all of that information. So, I wouldn't want to do away with that. I think it's helpful. Um, but that could be something where she just adds notes from the academics committee into that weekly report. I think how is it? Yes, it is. I think he I think he could use the finance committee coming in. Um, and I think the community it could be helpful. I mean, that's a little bit of a segmented thing. Their boundaries are a little bit closer. If

238we get to a bond issue, we need some financial people that understand how we're going to communicate that what that's going to mean to the community. I I think a finance committee could be well defined um and not not overlap with the board too much and and actually help him that he makes the report at the board meeting based on that feedback. So I think that's that's one that has enough boundaries and it's not the long range plan. It's not the act it's not the cases plan. I mean it's it's a necessary part of what we do. If we were looking for just making community involvement we could have Dr. Noly do a safety one and there's people in town that are really interested in school safety and um and he could have a team

239that was interested in that. Um and and but I'm just saying but I still think the two or three things um are are going to be necessary for us to have a work session and and keep within our Now I still want to have the listening sessions. Don't get me wrong, I think the listening session once a quarter um or something like that is a is a really good idea. I think it's essential in what we're going through. But but I think think that some of these other things we're going to find ourselves going to six committee meetings if we're not careful because we're talking about some important things that the board's going to have to vote on and make a decision on. Yeah, I know. Well, and I do understand what you're saying and

240I agree. I just I know from my experience um getting rid of the communities committees, excuse me, was like a big negative thing. And I know it's more work for us. I know that it's more time for us only organized community engagement. I think will be a positive. Well, and I don't I've never I guess my thing is with the committees, I look at them less as community engagement because you're only engaging like I don't know, 20 extra people. It's really bringing additional expertise into the district. Um, well, it builds trust and transparency, too. Yeah, it helps that. But I think that's that's key. Well, finance makes that kind of easy easier than some of the others maybe because you're looking at financial expertise in a in a broader scope. So, but I'd like to

241get the the new guys put on that if he's open. Oh, I'm sure he would be. Yeah. Wonder. So, so do we want to So, what are we doing? Question. Sounds like we're doing a lot. I'm getting very scared. I was going to ask too like Okay. So, which which way do we go? Committees number one. Do we want to try? Well, and what if we started out slow and didn't try like all four of them at once? Try like a couple right now and get get those really going going solid. then we can add another one and maybe we don't do a facilities one at all while we're still working on some of this long range plan then we can have those conversations still as a group like I do think also you know

242when we so I think as we decide what these commit which ones to start with I think we need to think about what are the most glaring issues I think we we talk a lot or touch on a lot staff recruitment and retention um and how you freaking do that when you have no way to pay them more. Um and I think the culture committee talked had some good conversations around that and it was data based with the Q12. Um but again I don't know how because I think we did when we did the culture and did we do an HR one? We had one that they were like they were doing like the same thing. It was started to do climate and culture and then Dr. Krauss had HR and then for some reason

243I think Staca maybe gave had her pull away and just gave that piece to Dr. Krauss because that's really the same thing. Dr. Krauss did something like that with staff often and I don't know if if you could talk about that but I remember he met with staff members often to find out what their needs were that was part of that committee too that was the so the policy one is it going to be us is it automatically us the policy committee um it's normally a couple members of the board like I know that the last time it was Kim and I. Um but those are also only as like legislation comes out. That's as needed. It's not all the time, right? Well, no. Honestly, I mean, it's what all of us are already doing

244right now. So, we want to say we can move that on the back board. We'll stay on. So, committees, we want a finance committee. We want to wait on any type of facilities or long range plan until we have I mean I think what we asked for at the last meeting will drive a lot of that. What really popped for me was a reimagined academics to like a CIP committee or academic performance committee or something. Would that all be in one pretty much? Well, I wonder if you could limit limit the scope. I mean I mean our purpose would be because the thing is When you start talking about academics, you also start talking about staff and climate and how you get them to, you know, you can't improve test scores without investing in the

245staff. Yeah. But if you had CESIP committee, then you could have an HR piece, you could have an academics piece. If Shannon had something happen in the schools and we needed to have input from the community and get information out to community members, then he could have that. CIP covers everything. Yeah. So then finance or CIP, that's what it's looking like. I can support that. And then short a short shorter work session. That's what it's looking like forum. Are we in agreement? What's the forum? And then the forums like talk about how we exeute that quarterly. That was mentioned. We can discuss. You just need to do you really just need to do one in the spring and one in the fall? I don't think you need I mean I mean is better. Yeah, if

246you did one because I think what you're going to find is you're going to find the after the first of the year something's going to happen on a bus center and then people are going to want to come talk about how the beginning of the school year happened and then you're going to go through the winter and you're going to get to the second semester and people are going to want So you could probably two town halls. I like that. Two to start. Yep. I would imagine it's going to be similar to parent teacher conferences where everybody comes in the fall and then the spring not so much. But hey, that's on and that's I mean all the was provided. It just reminds me of parent teacher conferences. Just to recap, two committees keeping a

247work session only it's not going to be as long. action items as needed. Two town halls in the spring and in the fall. In the fall and in the spring. I said that. Do we want to also talk about how we're getting people on these committees? Um, and every board member appoint a person relative to to the two committees, right? That would have expertise in that, right? Exact. Exactly. I mean, I'm not just going to like appoint my neighbor because I like my neighbor, you know, like all policy committee scholarship committee which is ad hoc a finance committee cip committee and then your town hall meeting policy is also like ad hoc like as needed it is well we're all kind of doing that now which yeah that's what I was saying that but there

248there are times when Donna will send us an email and vet we'll vet policies and we may need to change it only new stuff that just go through a work session and an agenda meeting us go through every Yeah. Yeah. Because you're just going to bring two or three of us together. Yeah. True. Yeah. I agree with that. So then are you guys going to choose committees that you want to be on? Is that That's what I was going to say. I just feel like you're on all the I mean I guess point person but if we want I think that we can all attend if we want to and then the report that's given it's the admin that gives the report totally and then at the meeting if I attended and I want to

249add anything at the meeting I and I don't want to get into it's my committee and so I'm going to do X Y and Z. Let's just keep the admin in charge. We can attend if we want to. I mean, I know that I always attended as many committee meetings as I could. I know there's always like board representation at the committee meetings and if there's ever a time when it's not and it's an issue we can revisit that. So I want to be clear admin report you want that in a regular board meeting. I mean, I know that you were saying like in the reports at the end of the week, if they're going, you know, to continue those if it's a week and there was a meeting at an in their weekly report.

250Okay. Are you guys okay with that? Yeah, I'm good with that. Well, and if anything does come up that needs to come to the board, right, that's just going to automatically happen as a result of the committee. Right. Exactly. So, our role will be to a member and attend if as we can. Yeah. And then but these things will be admin I'll say le right so my only is admin okay with that yes I just want to make sure I'm clear though like finance committee do you think that needs to meet monthly or quarterly? I don't think that needs to be you want to start a mock faster sooner. Yeah, I think I think partly to get Dr. Hedge hedge court hedge court I think I think that should be okay he's pretty sharp guy

251well and I I I think we have things to learn you know what I mean so I think I think that those things are limited to one hour we don't want to go longer because we don't want You know they cover maintenance there too because maintenance has to do with expenditure. So just so you know that that was finance and maintenance really and then CIP definitely monthly. Okay. So if these are CIP and finance monthly that's what I'm hearing. Well you can always change it if you're like you know this really don't even have anything. Yeah. And if they are during the day if we can record them because I won't be here most of the time during the day. Yeah. I think you have to. We're relying on them. I guess still like, you

252know, to record them. Yeah. Only recorded. Well, if they're during the day, they're already here. They're not having to stay extra. We had CIP, finance, policy, which is more ad hoc. What's I have policy and scholarship, both ad hoc, finance and cip, both monthly, and then town halls in the spring and in the fall. Yeah. Um, that sounds like a great short work session action items if needed and shorter work sessions. Well, and now we're going to be creating the agenda for the work sessions ahead of time so we can control the word focus focused work session is what I'd like to say. Yeah, good. I can't say how long it's going to go, but I think focused where we're not we're not trying to cover a whole bunch of broad bases. We're covering the

253most important things. Yes, I agree. Perfect. Yeah. You know, our our policy that that was attached to the agenda about committees basically says, hey, you know, we need to come up with a purpose to be served by the committee, the length of time each member is being asked to serve, resources the board will provide to the committee, uh data, report should be made. So there's some things there that we just need to get kind of laid out which will help things go smooth I think which kind of would be like the norms for the committee that come from that policy. Yeah. So we don't get railroaded down. Yeah. Clearly clearly you it's so easy for these things to take us on a path that was maybe big and right. So yeah the tighter we can

254be about giving that advice the better off. I think it'll be I think having consistent committee members will a lot of that because it just felt like it was a freeall. Yeah, I remember I was on facility. Who's going to have lead to CES? That would probably be me with thought that would be station. Well, it just depends because within CIP you have recruit and retain high quality staff. So that would actually be an HR piece. um you'll have there's a piece on technology and so I think it just depends on what topic do we define a focus on there to go academic first I mean performance if it's academic then that would be sta but I recruit and retaining is equally important I mean that's the direct impact to Whitney's point you probably don't

255get well one without the other right well and I think it can be I was just curious probably open that door na's like our lead person in then it if another person needs you know to be brought in she'll bring that person in but for doing that I call it academics do you know what I mean because Staca's over academics not the CSIP but you can't call it C okay so put Kra over it put everything over it like whatever put Kra over it then why don't you call it academics yeah that's what I'm Yeah. We'll have to be we call it whatever. We just got to be tight with what the charge. Yeah. Because there's also two new being implemented the school too. And how's that going? What's the PD look like for that?

256All that kind of stuff with those new curriculums is big. Okay. Okay. So, when are we um what's our goal on beginning the committees? Like September. I think that's right. And that will kind of give us a little bit of time. You got to iron everything out. Yep. Who do we give our recommendations to? Um I think that we just choose our person and then email them to the three of us. Do we want to I don't want to do we want the people that we appoint to committees to have to be like people that live in the district. Yes, that would be good. Yes, I think that's Yeah, I just think you live here because we have people that work here that would make sense to go on the committee but they don't live

257here. Okay. We're wanting like stakeholders and in my mind that's community members. I'm glad you mentioned that. Well, because in my mind that's a given, you know, but that may not be for everybody. So, well, maybe you can have a guest like if you have some big hot topic and you know, maybe that person comes as a guest once. I don't know question are you going to have community members on policy and scholarship? No, just agree. on finance and academics. So, we're bringing recommendations for just two of the committees. Okay. That's what I took in. Yeah. Scholarship was board leadership and that would be me and Rhonda. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's easier. Yeah. Policies all of us. Yeah. Okay. Um, can I work best on your deadlines? Can we have a deadline by such and

258such a date? You need to have your people recruited. July 28th at that board meeting. I was like, where did you get that? I know. Like, wait, that date sounds where did that come from? Like, cool. No, that's good. Cuz in my mind, it was my date. So, by July 28th, and then it will give us, you know, a little bit of time, you know, to iron out out the meeting dates and everything, you know, to be able to implement it in the timeline. And so like and so we're looking for people that have finance background and CCP academics is kind of it could be. Yeah, that one could be pretty that could be some HR expertise. That could be uh some continuous improvement process expertise. That could be academic. That's pretty broad. Academic that's

259a little bit broad. Hopefully we'll bring the key a few different skill sets together. Yeah. because that topic is going to change a lot on that committee. Okay, cool. Anything else on the committees? That's good. So, I want to be respectful of our time. Well, we're just going to go only a little bit over um board communication. We've already kind of ironed out about um about the questions and the communications. um contact us, things like that. Um, a comment that it's been in my mind is if we're at a meeting, I begin to do this like a few months ago and it was just kind of like an an off thing. I never even knew that I was actually even um doing that. If you abstain in a meeting, are you guys okay with telling

260why you abstained? Uh I am I mean I because I know that I normally do it in a meeting. If I abstain, it's over this reason. Well, of course, if it's a no or a yes, I don't need, you know, don't I don't need to. But I think I think a lot of times question why you're not just because you don't want to say yes or you don't want to say no. So, you just abaining just Yes. And that's just more transparency away from it. Yeah. Yeah. It's just more transparency. Yeah. It's more openness like and the only reason why I changed that. I remember that there was a time that I abstained last fall and then everyone was asking me why and stuff and in my mind it was it was it was a

261no-brainer and then I'm like well I never mentioned I never mentioned why and so I mean I just I think that that's just like I think it just keeps your clarification questioning. Yeah. Because like your your son's on the personnel report, right? Yeah. It just keeps things kind of more cleaner. I mean, are you guys okay with that? Then then it doesn't look like you're just not voting because you don't want to make a decision, right? I am. Are you guys okay with that? Oh, I don't care. Um, and as I said, I know that we covered the communication aspect earlier. Are there any questions about That was good. Forward communication. Are we all clear? We're good. So now all questions go to Ashley. Well, the three of you, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then you

262will send it to whoever it needs to go through. Yes. You'll get the answer. Oh, I'm so sorry. It's going to be fine. So then, are you still going to do a Google doc with everybody's questions on there? Yes. That way we don't ask them three times. That'll just be used as a tool really to allow questions to be on there and it farmed out to S's cabinet. And Then I will copy and paste the questions and answers and send it to the entire board. And and will it come to us on Google? No. Okay. Cuz we'll send it to you on any Yeah, we typ do you report on Google Docs now? No. Oh, I do a Word document. Tom sitting over here scared we won't be able to open the Google. We've had

263trouble. Yeah. The I can't usually open when we get him an email. We'll copy and paste. Yeah, we'll figure that out. So we will see the questions. Yes. Okay. That's the thing. But we don't need to see who asks. No. Right. Okay. Advocacy plan. Um if you look at the information on the agenda, um I put that um as a board we need to choose our advocacy plan. and then the advocacy methods in which we expect Ashley to do as well. Um, but going into that, well, if you remember that Gabe and even Robert or like advocacy is important, advocacy is a it's extremely important like as of now. And so are you able to go into the bills right now, Whitney? Yes. And why it's important. Okay. Go ahead. Uh sorry. So I'm actually

264tracking all the other bills that are happening right now. Um there's a lot accomplishing right now today. Actually today. Um so we have a lobbyist. We have a couple of lobbyists. Um, NASA has lobbyists, cooperating school districts, Grand Free City has lobbyists, and then we have the lobbyists through the community alliance partnership. Is that what we're calling it? Um, so I'm just going to give you a rundown of what we got from Ken City School Districts, uh, the cooperating school districts for greater Kansas City. So they they tracked 364 public education bills this last session. Um, the transportation was uh, found formula was fully funded. Um you'll probably recall there was um back and forth about the budget with $300 million being added back in um the budget for the foundation for public fund public

265school funding. Um that was related to last year's Senate Bill 727. There's still an issue and I don't know if you signed it or not. uh where Governor Kho wanted $50 million for the ESA program, uh the school vouchers, private education. Uh I just saw an update three hours ago, so today is the deadline for him to approve that. Um so I don't know if that's happened yet because we've been sitting in here. Uh so that will likely be there will probably be some legal ramifications to that. uh because in the constitution uh there's language in the constitution that may exclude that. Uh the report that we also got talked about how um house bill 7-eleven I think we all we did a we did a letter on that didn't we? Yes. Okay. So the

266the bill that we had done a letter to oppose on 7-Eleven for open enrollment um did not pass. um a parents bill of rights bill and a bill on um this is everything that did not pass that we have been tracking and talking about parents bill of right and critical race theory. There was a bill that would have expanded charter schools across the state that did not pass. There was another bill that would have moved schoolboard elections to November did not pass. Um I think most of us were at the legislative update last Thursday that the community alliance or that the chamber put on. There was some reference if you remember I think it was representative talked a little bit about um changing the way personal property taxes are applied and the way that um

267uh income taxes might be reduced. Both of those we were tracking bills because those could potentially affect the funding for public schools. Um let's see. There was also a bill about superintendent salaries um that did not pass. So there was a cap on that but it didn't pass. Things that did pass um Senate bill 26 266 personal sorry there's like a little net over here. Well it's over here now. Um so personal electronic devices. I know that a lot of school districts and a lot of people are real jazzed up about that, but we already have like a policy on that. So, we're just going to have to tweak or what are we going to do on that? Um, really just sending out information to our families. We have a policy in place. It's already

268bell to bell, but I think this will just provide backing for our teachers to actually implement it with fidelity. It's it's not a matter of not having that policy in place. It's a matter of implementing, which is the hardest part of it. It is. Um, Senate Bill 63 also passed which allows uh homeschool students to participate in sports in public schools. Um, and then Dr. Noly, Dr. Noly had mentioned uh that and I know that Representative Schultz talked about that school safety bill. Um, which he had talked about. I think the big issue right now that Dr. Seagris talked about was the school foundation formula modern modernization task force. They met on June 23. So just last week they met. Um and what Dr. Sig mentioned is concerning because I think the whole point that

269we've always talked about the foundational formula is old and we need to revise it isn't that we need to better allocate the money, it's that we need more money. Um, so Kho specifically told that group, uh, don't come back with a plan that increases school funding, just make it better allocate the funding. So that's a little concerning. That's what's going on there. Okay. Now, um, as I mentioned earlier, thank you, Wendy, by the way. Um, what should our advocacy plan be? And our plan for Ashley, I I really liked I don't I think we did it the last two years where we invited our local delegation into the schools. We took them around. I wish there would have been a stronger connection to what we took them to go see. Um, you know, there were

270good things with career readiness. And so it would have been nice if we would have sat them down and said, "We're going to talk to you about career readiness and then we're going to take you to Hillyard so you can see it." But there wasn't It was kind of just like, "Come in, take some pictures." Yes. Rather than, hey, these these things could be good for us or bad for us, and now we're going to go show you how that actually operates like SPED services, AAL, like I don't know those types of things. There just wasn't a connection. more than just a tour. Well, well, then at times like I'm in the schools a lot and I was at a school and I'm like, "This isn't how you normally do." Oh, no. We cleaned it

271up or company coming. No, they need to know here's how things actually are. Here's how things actually look. You know what I mean? So, I mean, I want them, you know, to be able to look at here's how your vote impacts these individuals, you know, that you're posing in a picture with. You know what I mean? I think that I had heard that there was Did Staca Staca took a group of realators around and I heard really great things about that. But what I had heard had happened was as she was driving, because they were all in a bus together, as they were driving the bus, she was explaining, "Here's what you're going to see and here's why it's important." And a lot of them were like, "I didn't know any of that. If we

272could get everyone together and take a little bus ride, you can talk about this foundation, the transportation formula, like, "Hey, you're in a bus. Here's how expensive it is to drive this freaking bus." you can drive by the turf and track fields and you can say, "And this is how we were able to do this because we had to do this." Um, I just think there has to be a connection to what we're having them look at. And I think putting them on a bus is a great idea. Put them on a bus. I think putting them on a bus because then you get the reality of what kids are doing and what that looks like rather than written some fancy because they are who they are. They need to see the reality. Well, they

273all we we all because we went to two or three at a time, like two or three schools, and then I think we finished with lunch, which was great, and they got to see everything. Um, but when they're all in different cars, you kind of lose that conversation as you go. Yeah. Because you can point out things along the way. And I think if we're going to have them eat lunch that we don't eat lunch as a group, we eat lunch with children. And we we get the same I mean, I know that was lovely when we went to Spring Garden. The lunch was lovely and those kids got picked to come, but we need more of the reality of here's what it looks like to be a kid eating lunch at a school and

274we get the same lunch and everything. Um, so it's more real. I agree. I agree. The other thing that I think that need to choose a good lunch. Every day is a good lunch. Chicken nuggets and cheesy mashed potatoes. Orange chicken. Orange chicken. Orange chicken. Orange chicken. I I think the other thing too is I do think that last year Gabe did a good job of calling them ahead of certain votes or calling them it didn't always work out for us but um but at least being able to say like here's here's what we're here's here's our concerns and I mean I think a handful of them did tell them like sorry but at least so that we can say like we had the conversation well and they also So, I mean, explain why. I

275mean, I'm not able to do this over X, Y, and Z. I mean, that's fair. And it's at least it's like at least you're trying. Um because it's everybody's mentioned, you know, we've got to try something. I know that at times I know that our methods are not the same. um only I'm just asking either individually or as a board or we guide Ashley I guess as to a method like o over not doing anything like I mean I know that I talked to our legislators a lot and yeah, I go to the capital a lot and then in my role on at MSBA and we advocate, you know, a lot as a group and individually at the capital with our legislators about the about the bills harmful to public education and I understand at

276times, you know, it is kind of scary and you don't want to choose a side, you know, but elected officials on a board of public education and we've already chosen a side. Well, and I think we need to protect that. You know, those bills that I had kind of rattled off, um, open enrollment was a bill last year, it was a bill this year, it will be a bill next year. Um, we heard at that legislative coffee, uh, Sean Pushet mentioned like, I think maybe we should change your votes to November. I mean, he said so. So, you can hear these things are going to come up again next year. Um, and we're going to get the same frantic emails from CSD GKC like please call your legislators. So, if we could have like rather

277than just calling them, I mean, I think we need to call them when the vote comes up, but we need to have them in talking about here are our priorities for the year, here's why. Um, and sometimes they just need to be able to have somebody that they can call and say, "What's this AV you're talking about? Why is that a problem?" It's like, here's why. Another aspect. I think, you know, we need, you know, to get educated on the priorities and then we also need to educate the community as well. Well, because lots of times like as we were listening to them at the coffee like and they're like we need to lower the property tax and we're like we we need more money and then I at times I don't really think that

278individuals really get the impact of the property tax on public education. I mean, everyone's like, "Oh, can we lower the taxes?" Okay, but what does that mean, you know, for schools? Well, and I think as if if the state aid is not going to be coming in, then the local aid has, you know, you have to you have to do one or the other. But if you don't do either, then not in a good spot. Federal federal, too. And that's a harder one to affect, you know. Well, and that's I was just looking up this big beautiful bill that's going on right now. I mean, there are some provisions there that are going to are I mean, we I feel like we brag a lot about like we're 70% free in I mean, it's not

279bragging, but we're we acknowledge it very frequently. And some of these things are are whether you think they're good or bad, they're going to impact our kids. So making sure that we have an understanding of how they're going to impact our kids and then how we respond to it. I think it's unfortunate but it's true. But public education kind of becomes everything for every kid. So being proactive instead of Yes. And then also keep in mind you know that um advocating is nonpartisan. It doesn't mean you know that you're choosing a side our sides public education and what's good you know for public education and in all honesty maybe it is against against your individual views maybe I don't know okay but is it good for public education And that needs to be our focus.

280Yeah. Ashley, do you you maybe haven't thought a whole lot about it, but as you think about advocacy and your your role in that. Yes. What might you need from the board? Um I don't know that I need anything from the board. And I'll just be really open and honest, transparent here if you don't mind. Um the the DC trip where I thought we were going to be able to go and do some of that. I was pretty disappointed. I felt like it was a little bit of a waste of time. So, I have a connection with Brenda Shields. I hired her daughter-in-law at Lafayette and so I saw her twice last week. I I know Gabe had a great connection with her as well. Yeah. I feel like that might be more meaningful to

281have individual phone calls with those folks who are making decisions. I've emailed them. I've had conversations mainly with Brenda. Um, I'm just wondering if that is going further than going to Jefferson City and pitching something to a staffer. That's just my personal opinion. Even the, you know, Great Northwest days, you know, we all go down there and then everybody is pelting them at the same time. Like, and I think that's a good show of like we're here to see you and visit you in Jeff City, but that work needs to happen outside of session. And I think I can't remember MSBA comes out with their legislative priorities before session. And I think last year we maybe the last two years we've we've basically said, "Okay, we're just going to adopt these. They're all good for

282public education." But if once we can adopt those, if those can be delivered by you to them to say, "Hey, here's what we're doing. Here's what we want you to be thinking about." Sure. And then the other piece I'm involved in is NASA. Whitney mentioned that Scott Kimble. So he does a little Monday update every time legislation stuff is changing and um so I was able to to chime in on on some of those things and he would tell us things that we need to advocate for and so that was very bene I found that more beneficial than the Friday call that I know that we're a part of with the chamber because Scott Kimble is strictly focused on education when I've been on some of those Friday calls and they're talking about soccer coming

283here and you know just different things. It's great to know community perspective, but I'm going to be more concerned and focused on educational priorities. Is there a way to forward that to us? Which piece? The what you were just talking with NASA that is not recorded. Okay. And it's superintendent only. So kind of got into it roundabout and then he's like you can't be in it. And then when he found out I was replacing Gabe, he's like you can be in it now. I didn't I didn't realize it's like a it's a super super a secret society. Yes. Of public. But he is I don't know if you are familiar with Scott Kimble, but he uh he's a straight shooter. He's very direct. He speaks in just normal human terms. Um and then tells us

284what's going to happen or what it's looking like is going to happen. Um and tells us who to reach out to. Um, how do you guys think that we should advocate like as a board? I mean, I know what we're like able to do individually, but as a board, what do you think we should do? I think we should invite him to come like Whitney was talking about a long ago, but to come come for for a visit. I don't know how you do that. I don't And I think the way that school lunch when I had talked to Gabe about it, let's start. Um, what I thought we were going to do is, you know how when we would meet down in like the welcome area, I kind of thought we were going to

285be either in a conference room or somewhere where we can say, you know, hi, thank you for all you do. Um, here are our priorities this year and this is here are the top ones that we are especially ya. And then we would take them to that school and say, remember how we talked about this? this is why. And then then when it became the email your legislator like then they would be like okay we already you're gonna you know it didn't become this right frenzy still a frenzy but plans. I like that idea. I mean especially since last year I mean it was mainly only about the good like like look at our schools. were so happy only like it was not the real picture. Well, and we are happy. I know this is

286being recorded. We are happy, you know, but we need to be realistic about here's our needs and our goals and the priorities and so and this is why and that's a start. I mean, are we able to begin scheduling things like that? probably in the fall for sure. I think you're outside of session. You're going to want to get on their schedules. Yeah. Like if we're able to contact them soon. So, do you have specific people that you want all or like admin or the legislators? Legislators. I bet we're going to need to do it like a couple of times, you know, over their schedule, you know, but ours like Well, one that we always leave out Yeah. And he's always like, "You guys always leave." And I don't know why. Yeah. It kind of

287hurts his feelings when we leave him out of stuff. Well, then he might be the first one to want to go. Yeah. So then he has no excuse invited. He has to go. Yep. And so I know she did last year. So she has a list of everybody or whatever. Well, I take that myself. And you think just like two buildings and then maybe a Yeah, like if we're able to do like an overview about the priorities and our concerns and then I'm sure like to see what we do with early childhood. Yeah, we took her we took her. Okay. Sorry. Well, and I think the other thing is, you know, for I think you know, Faulner and Shield, this is going to be their last year. So, getting on, you know, we can practice

288on them a little bit, but you're going to have new reps in a year to that, but they're never going to have been likely through anything perhaps. I wasn't just I was trying Okay. Okay. Anything else on this part? Well, if there's not, guys, it's been a good day. We have a good plan. Um, at least a start. And our next meeting is work session. There was not a work nothing. There's not one. on my calendar. There is not one scheduled meeting. And the only reason I scheduled a board meeting was because I knew we would need it for hires. Well, you've got one scheduled. It's on my calendar, but secretly it's for next Monday. Um 14th. I don't think it's on anybody else's calendar. I'm out of town. I think I put it online,

289but that might just look. Yeah. Okay. But there's not, but not through July. Um, our next meeting there. Our next meeting is on the 28th. 28th. Sounds great. Okay. Oh, I need clarification. You want that to be personnel only or are we open to whatever? I think whatever you need to put on to whatever need I think we need to put on and I I want you guys know this isn't the only important thing to me, but I think we need to put on what the results of the Lafayette Central and Benton Central. Sure, I can do that in my report. Yeah. So, DLR is coming the second week of July. I think we need to change our takes always. Great. Okay. Um, is there a motion for adjournment? Thank you. I have a motion

290to second. Um, everybody in agreement? Yes. I'll say I I opposed. Okay. Byebye. Meeting journal.