May 27, 2025 Board of Education Meeting

001Good evening everyone. I call this meeting to order. Roll call please. Miss Donna. Yes. Miss Williams here. Miss Miller here. Miss Chzn here. Miss Karns here. Mr. Moore here. Mr. Here, I'll stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Members of the board, if you can come to the front, please. Good evening. I am not Jana Brown, but I am honored to be the representative for Rubido Middle School this evening. My name is Marta Sansson. Um, I also had the honor of attending the state competition for FBLA with the Rubidu team this year. Just a few words about Miss Brown. Uh, she founded the Rubidu FBLA program at Rubidu

002Middle School and her remarkable dedication and hard work have been key to its success. She devotes countless hours to prepare her students for state competition and her efforts truly make a difference. So now I'd like to celebrate Canon. Last year Canon earned top honors in both the Exploring Technology and Video Game Challenge events. This year he focused on the video game challenge and excelled once again. Canon has been an active member of the RMS FBA uh for two years and throughout that time he has shown great dedication qualifying for nationals in the video game challenge both years. After attending nationals last year, Canon was determined to qualify again, and he did just that. He created an outstanding game and secured first place at state this year. Canon consistently gives his best efforts and sets a

003strong example for others. Uh we're incredibly proud of his hard work and his achievements. Good job, Canon. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you. Tonight, we are honored to recognize an exceptional student, Annaise Klene, for her outstanding accomplishments during the 2425 school year. This past February, Anna was among 31 HTC students who competed in the District Skills USA contest against peers from seven other career and technical education schools in the Northwest District. HTC students earned an impressive 10 gold medals, five silver medals, and six bronze medals. Anna distinguished herself by winning first place, earning a gold medal in the first aid CPR event. Following her district level success, Anna advanced to the Missouri State Skills USA contest held in April at State Technical College in Lyn, Missouri. There, students from 74 CTE schools across the state competed in

004skilled and leadership competitions. HTC students brought home three gold medals, five silver medals, and two bronze medals. Anna earned not one but two gold medals, further showcasing her exceptional prep preparation and poise under pressure. Her achievements have now earned her the opportunity to represent HTC, the St. Joseph School District and her family at the National Skills USA leadership and skills conference to be held in Atlanta, Georgia June 23rd through 27th. There 6,500 students from across the nation will compete in 114 skilled and leadership competitions. Anna will compete against other first place winners in first aid CPR from across the US in pursuit of national honors. This contest will evaluate Anna's ability to react in simulated emergency situations requiring first aid and CPR intervention. HTC is incredibly proud of Anna, not only for her awards and

005accolades, but for her dedication, perseverance, and 110% effort she brings to every challenge. She exempl exemplifies the best of what HTC and CTE programs represent. Excellence, preparedness, and a vision for a bright future. We are confident that Anelise will continue to be successful in whatever path she chooses to follow. Congratulations, Anna. We're proud of you. [Applause] [Laughter] Scoot down real [Applause] quick. Hi, good evening. My name is Lana Wooten. I am director of bands at Central High School. Tonight I am here to recognize five of our central band students who earned top ratings, the gold rating at state music contests uh at the beginning of the month at Colombia. We um we started this process back at the very beginning of second semester uh where students chose which pieces they would want to do at

006district music contest which we hosted in the middle of um March. And students who earned top exemplary ratings at district music contest were eligible to compete at state music contest which was May 1st for us. uh competing against students from all across the state and we had five students who earned gold ratings tonight. Unfortunately, four of them are not able to be here tonight, but we do have one here tonight because he's a master of all. Uh he this is a Sav Gupta. He did a snare drum solo and he earned gold. So, we're going to recognize him, but I would be remissed if I didn't mention our other students. Uh, also earning top gold ratings were Michael Hickden on his clarinet solo, Emma Haddock on her euphonium solo, Owen Case on his snare or

007excuse me, on his vibrophone solo, and thank you Isaac. I'm so sorry I forgot. All right, so uh this is a if everyone will clap loudly for him. [Applause] Okay. Um it's my pleasure to introduce the next set of rec recognizes. Um the class six state champions of Central High School Scholar Bowl team uh has finished another remarkable year. I'm going let the coach go into it, but I just want to give you some simple statistics here. Over the last 11 years, which is 10 championships due to the year of co not being in there, which they would have probably done well there, too. But um they've been at the final four, the state tournament. Um they've won two state championships in the last four years. Um so and five second places I believe. So

008they've been right there in the mix for a lot of years for the this last decade. Um St. Joe has been represented by the Central High School Scholar Bowl team very well. And I'm going to let Coach Carter come up here and share a little bit more about his team. Um yeah, thank you. Um, so yeah, we're here to recognize the the achievements of our our team's performance this season. Our our season began all the way back in October and over the past eight months, uh, we've been competing tournaments across the state. Our record this season was 75 wins and 12 losses. And for the 11th consecutive season, we achieved the following, it's our 11th consecutive suburban conference championship, district championship, and also the 11th consecutive season that we've gone to the state tournament. Uh

009three weeks ago, we uh went to the state tournament in Columbia and found ourselves in a rematch of last year's state final against Lindberg High School. And I'm proud to share that we uh had a different outcome this year and that the Schol team from C Central High School defeated Lindberg to win uh our second state championship. Um so just a quick recap of that game. Um the preliminary rounds uh we played Lindberg and they beat us by 200 points in the first time we played them. So we knew we had some adversity to overcome. Um but in the the rematch in the final we we got off to a hot start and by halftime we were up 240 to 160. Lindberg battled back and by the final toss up they had retaken the lead

010by 10 points. So with just one question to go uh the whole state uh championship came down to a final tossup and uh our sophomore Christopher Harris got the question, tied the game. Uh we had three bonus questions left to uh determine the outcome. We missed the first one. Lindberg took it took the lead back. We got the second one, tied it up. So the very final question of the match all came down to that. Uh came down to that one question and we were able to get that and pull ahead to win 390 to 380. So couldn't be more dramatic than that for a scholarable game uh to win it at the final second like that. Um, so, uh, I'd first like to to recognize, uh, our team members. Um, I'm going to have

011all nine of you come up and we'll, um, recognize both teams. Uh, we have our A and our B team here tonight. Um, so the four members of our state championship team, we have our captain, Assav Gupta, uh, Edison Kimmel, who earned all state recognition as one of the top scorers the state tournament, Zion Picket, and Christopher Harris. Uh just mentioned this is our sixth time we've appeared in the state championship. 10th year that we've played in the placed in the top four teams at state which is now tied the Michigan state scholar record for most consecutive final four appearances. Uh now this past weekend actually we just got back last night at about 12:30 from Atlanta. Uh we played down at nationals uh among 336 other teams from across the nations. And to qualify

012for nationals, you have to place uh in the top 15% of tournaments during the regular season. So merely qualifying for nationals is a huge accomplishment. And we were the only school in Missouri to send two teams to nationals this year. So at nationals, our A team's record was 5 and five and they placed 148th out of three and 36, just one victory away from breaking the national playoffs. Uh the B team who was coached by our assistant coach Becky Carter. Uh they finished three and seven, but that was a very strong performance and they finished ahead of several other Missouri schools. Our B team members included uh Payton Wagner, Sophia Jura, Quinnland Yates, Aaron McAllister, and Dayton Fitzpatrick. And our B team members, I just want to give them a shout out. They are all

013very incredibly talented players. Uh but unfortunately, we only get to take one team to conference district and state tournaments. And I just want to shout out these kids because uh at just about every other school in the state, they would be starting players uh on on just about any other team. Um and uh so they may not get all the the opportunities to play, but they they have worked really hard and they're a big part of our success. Um and they have definitely pushed our 18 kids to be as good as they can possibly be. Um so they've been really key to our success. Uh I also need to recognize Edison Kimmel once again. He has been selected to represent team Missouri for the national all-star tournament that'll take place later in June. So only

01412 players from the state of Missouri are chosen for that honor. Uh so he'll go play in a tournament later this month with all the best players from Missouri against all the best players from across the country. Um and he's in good company because last year team Missouri won that tournament. Um which just goes to show you how good the competition here is in the state of Missouri. We have some of the best players and teams that you'll find around anywhere. Um, so, uh, in conclusion, I just I'm incredibly proud of these kids. They've worked exceptionally hard, been incredibly dedicated. They're ridiculously talented. Um, and for members of the board, I'm sure this isn't the first time that you've met many of them. Uh, they're involved in tons of stuff. Um, they we've got national

015merits, semi- finalists, state qualifiers for music, tennis, math contest. We got a couple headed off to nationals for speech and debate. We got a perfect ACT score, some almost perfect ACT scores. They take about every AP dual credit class imaginable. I know Assad wants me to wrap up because he's got an AP physics test tomorrow. He wants me wants to go study for. So, with that, uh uh just super proud and uh thank you for for recognizing us tonight. That's awesome. [Applause] You guys [Music] stand. Congratulations. [Applause] All right, we have one more. And um this is an individual uh uh boys tennis player from Benton, Ridge Stagner. Um Ridge competed in the individual um competition at the state tournament and ended up being the uh second place runner up uh to the state champion.

016It says class four up there. I inadvertently said that because I I think of Benton as a class four school. Usually they are, but in tennis it's class one. and they are in the lowest lower lowest division there. But that doesn't take away I I told him I said, "Well, I just want to give you more props, so I made you a class four runner up." So, uh I'll let Ridge and his coach come up here in a second, but one thing to note about Ridge, you know, I I looked a little bit on his and last year, he made it to the final, the semi-finals of that individual tournament, lost in that one of those semi-final matches. So, I was glad to see Ridge get back after it. Probably dedicated a lot of time

017and hours and he got back after he got to the the state championship match and and fell just a little bit short. So, I'm going to let coach come up here and tell you a little bit more about Rich. Good evening. I'm Wes Sanger, tennis coach of Benton High School. It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you one of our rising stars in both athletics and academics, Ridge Stagner. I'd like to recognize Ridge for his outstanding tennis achievements this spring. Out of 414 varsity athletes at the class one level, only 16 earned honors of competing in the state tournament. Ridge secured his spot by winning the district championship. He finished the season with an impressive 32 and5 record, the most single season wins in Benton High School history. Capping off his junior year,

018Ridge claimed second place at the Missouri State Tennis Tournament, improving on his third place finish from last year. This marks the highest finish ever by a singles player at Ben High School. Ridge is not only a standout athlete, but also a top student, ranking in the top 10 of his class, showing strong commitment to academic excellent. His coach, I've had the privilege of watching him grow both on and off the court. While his tennis accomplishments are remarkable, it is his character, integrity, and dedication to success in all areas that truly set him apart. Please join me in celebrating Rich Stagner, a shining example of what it means to excel both athletically and academically at Bent High School. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, next audience participation. And if anyone wants, you know, to move up, you're more

019than welcome to move up. And are there any additional slips for audience participation? I didn't ask at the beginning. Excuse me. It's right there on the table. And we'll go with number one. Um Perry Cooperender. I said that wrong. I'm so sorry. That's right. I should know that. Good evening, uh members of the board. My name is Perry Cooper, owner of Preferred Pest Control. I appreciate the chance to speak briefly about pest control service proposal on your agenda this evening. I understand the current recommend recommendation is to award the contract to an out ofstate provider, but I respectfully ask for you to reconsider. The cost difference is just $1,300 a year. A small amount when weighed against the value of keeping this partnership local. Preferred Pest Control is a familyrun business. I have a child

020in the district and many of my employees do as well. Each summer, I employ school staff who are on break, give them flexible supplemental income. I also donate the use of our event center at no cost for school banquetss and student events. We've proudly served as a vendor for the district over the last two years, keeping Carden Park bed bug free. Also, as an added benefit, our proposal includes a standing discount for any district employee who may need pest control services. We've also sponsored ads in school programs and donated to fundraisers throughout the year. And we show up. You'll find us cheering at football games, watching theater performances, attending tennis matches, and supporting debate ter the tournaments. Because we care deeply about these students and this community. As a family and locally owned company, we

021can quickly adapt the newest pest control technologies, often before larger companies can. Our proposal includes proactive rodent monitoring system and the newest, safest, and longest lasting bed bug treatment practices, services that other provider does not offer. As you vote tonight, I hope you'll consider consider the long-term value of choosing a local company, one that gives back, supports your schools, and is truly invested in this community, and keeps your dollars right here in St. Joseph. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Is there somebody else? Did you want to turn in your form? So, my name is Sarah. I've got a student in the structured learning program uh out of Ellison, the lower level, and I just wanted to come out tonight and just uh speak to how much that program has assisted my daughter and really

022allowed her to thrive. Uh it was a rocky start of the year. Um, we had too many um, suspensions than I could count on or even tell you about. Lots of tears until December. And when that new contract started, my daughter just thrived. We've not been suspended. Um, her grades are improving, her behaviors are improving. Um, so I just wanted to share my testimony and how much that program really is worth it and how much it helps our kids. That's all. Thank you, Miss. Okay, moving on the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion? Thank you, Miss Karns. And Miss Miller, you're ready. Miss Williams. Yes. Miss Miller. Yes. M. Chzn. Yes. M. Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Richmond. The motion passes. Five. Oh, with one abstension. The consent agenda. Is there a motion for

023approval? I have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. Any discussion? All right. I have a motion in a second. If you can call the vote, please. Miss Williams, yes. Miss Miller, yes. Miss Chosley, yes. Mr. Karns, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Richmond, the motion passes. 50 with one abstension. Okay, Dr. Edgar. Okay. Uh, tonight I have uh two things I would like to visit with you briefly about. Uh the first thing um I wanted to talk about was uh some direct service reimbursements that we receive uh from the government. Um you know, you're always trying to come up with ideas on how to maximize the dollars that you have. And so I want to thank Dr. Anderson and and her staff for bringing it to our attention that you know maybe we

024needed somebody specifically to take care of some of these reimbursements that we're receiving from the government. So just to give you some numbers uh we did hire a position um and that position uh paid for itself 10 times over and I just kind of wanted to provide that information to you tonight. So, in 2022, um, our reimbursements were $775,000 in this program. In 2023, our reimbursements were 812,000. And in 2024 to date, uh, we have been reimbursed $1.248 million. And, uh, we we still have another payment to come on June 13th. And so, um, I just wanted to pass along that good news. Um, it has paid itself. So, thanks to Courtney and thanks to Dr. Anderson and the whole team there. Any questions? Speaking about about the reimbursements, it's Medicaid reimbursements, right? They're just

025Yes, Medicaid reimbursement. Yep. Okay. I'm going to make one comment. Dr. Edgar won't say this about himself, but we were we were not recovering these Medicaid reimbursements at all until he looked into this when he was in this position. And uh we missing out on a lot of money. And so Dr. Edgar won't take credit for that, but I'm going to give him credit for that. Um, you can see it's a significant amount of money. It's been much better even since we hired Courtney, but prior to that, uh, those numbers he threw out were numbers that we were not recovering before that. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay. The second thing I wanted to talk about, um, just kind of wanted to talk about state funding in it in itself. So, as a lot of

026you that have been on the board for quite a while, you know that the uh state foundation formula, the funding formula that funds public education in the state of Missouri, uh was built in 2006 by our own Charlie Shields. And it's a great foundation formula. Well, obviously public education is very different in 2025 than it was in 2006. And so, um they have created a committee to redo the foundation formula. Dr. Dr. Jeremy Tucker from uh Liberty is kind of our local representative from a superintendent standpoint. Very capable, good guy. You couldn't have picked anybody better um to be the representative from this area. So, with that being said, I think it's important for the next administration and the current board of education that we have to make sure that you build relationships with your

027local legislators. And I say that because as you know um a lot of the challenges that we face in St. Joe school district um are very different than other school districts and they the legislators need to understand what kind of challenges we face so they know how to supplement some of those dollars that we receive from the federal government or the state government. Um so there's a lot of challenges out there public education is going to face. Um, and so I I really think that um it would it be in the best interest of the school district for each of you to reach out to Bill, to reach out to Brenda, um, to reach out to Rusty and um, you know, just to pass along the information and let them know what kind of things

028we're facing here. and Senator Luke Meyer as well. Could you um could you summarize some bullet points on that that would say these are the differentiators that we should be emps and I think that I have forwarded that to some of you guys and I'll resend that out tomorrow so you guys have talking points um on what to to speak to. Yeah. Thanks. you know, and and and Brenda has been very um helpful along the way, and I know that DLO could speak to this as well. Uh she's a big supporter of early learning and uh so that's a perfect example of and she would reach out to us and you know, and say, "Gabe, what do you need as far as this is concerned?" So, they're willing to do that, but if you stand

029silent, um you're never going to get anywhere. So, I think it's time to be become vocal just because of a lot of the challenges that you'll face. Any questions in regards to any of that? Okay, thank you. Okay, Dr. McInness. All right. Well, last week we had our last day of school and today we had our first day of summer school. So, I wanted to give you a little update of how many kids we had in attendance today. It was at 2,984. So, just shy of 3,000 kids showed up for summer school today. Uh, third grade wins the challenge. They had the most kids at 394. So, uh, we noticed a a large enrollment even over the weekend. I think that 4-day weekend may have encouraged some parents to say, "Hey, it's probably time to

030sign you up or drop you off for summer school today." So, uh, we were pleased to, uh, to take them in today. And I'm going to shift to career ladder which you should have this sheet at your stations. So this is our first year of career ladder since we did away with it in budget cuts maybe in 20 gosh I want to say 2012ish but this is our first year bringing back career ladder. So, I know many of you know what this program is, but basically it's an opportunity for certified staff with the exception of administrators to obtain additional funding for extra responsibilities outside of contract time. So, those things could be tutoring, it could be a volunteer coach. I know we have that at Central High School where they have large numbers and someone

031helps out when they can and uses career ladder. It could be supervision at a sports event. Um it could be professional learning. So I tell you tutoring and professional learning are probably the top two categories for teachers to get hours. So with that uh it is funded through a grant with DESIE 60%. 40% of that is through local funds and all of this is on assembly but with desi covering 60% of that cost. We have a requirement of a report at the end of the year and that report must consist of four pieces of data. Uh one is the total number of participants at each stage. Two is the total local contributions. So how much we're paying locally. Three is the total hours of participation in each of the categories of responsibilities. And then four

032is the overall annual retention rate of those who participated in the program. So if I can draw your attention, I'll go through those four pieces of data. The very first one is the number of participants at each stage. So you'll see three stages there. Stage one is for staff who have two years of experience or more completed. Stage two is for certified staff who have three years or more completed. And stage three is for those who have five years. So each stage it's a little bit more funding. Stage one's 1500, stage two is $3,000 and stage three is $5,000. And they get that at the end of the year for doing all those responsibilities throughout the year. So you can see at the bottom there, we had a total of 409 total staff members. And

033you can see how many we had from each school. And at each stage, I will tell you, we had about 515 sign up. And I built in an extra 30 spots just in case we filled teaching positions throughout the summer. I didn't need to do that um because some people weren't able to do the hours or decided not to do the hours. So we landed at 409 total staff who participated and completed the career ladder program for this year. And then if we move down to B total local contribution, you can see those dollar amounts in the number of staff. So the cost there locally is $681,600. And you can see it's largely funded by the state through a grant that we do in the spring. And then section C is going to be the

034one that's kind of difficult to see on your page. It might be easier to look at the screen. So those are the categories of hours that DESIE puts into their plan. And so we have to determine how many hours each of our 409 participants completed in each one of those categories. The principles have been wonderful and were able to get me this information last Tuesday before the deadline. And so you can see the highest amount on there. We do require 50% of that be student contact hours so that we are having kids with tutoring and extra support if they need that. But then the other big category is professional learning. So we do offer a lot of professional learning in June and July. And we want our teachers to go through that professional development. And

035so this is an opportunity for them to be funded um without tapping into all of our local dollars or just having them not participate at all. And then the last piece is the retention rate. So of the 409 participants, 26 are resigning or retiring, which leaves us a 93.64% retention rate, which I think is pretty good. So this will be provided to Desessie. uh they can ask for additional information, but I thought I would present this to you guys as well since it's going to the state. Any questions about career ladder? Actually, I have to believe that 90 almost 94% retention rate. That's quite a bit better than the overall average. I think so. Um it's hard for me to say that without knowing. The overall average last year was 96 something. Okay. I mean,

036I'm sorry, 86 focus acting. So, yes, it's it's a good 7 to8% higher. That makes sense. Thank you. I know it's a recruitment retainment strategy. Not all school districts participate in career ladder. And then if you recall from the career ladder plan, we don't have to pay them that maximum, but we do. We pay them the maximum allowed period by the grant. Correct. Thank you. Yep. Let me ask you a quick question. Sure, Tom. Um, one is I I appreciate the information that you've provided here. About how many hours is that? Maybe it's on here, but about how many hours per teacher does that? So, stage one, I'm glad you asked that. Stage one is 50 hours, stage two is 75 hours, and stage three is 100 hours. Okay. So, it's not just um they're

037not just getting paid more for their experience, they're also getting paid more for more. They are hours. You know, that's a that's a good piece of information. And we've had some teachers that they signed up for stage three, they didn't quite make it, but they were able to get stage two. On the flip side of that, we had stage we had teachers sign up for stage one and they met the 100 hours. So, we were able to compensate them for the 100 hours. So, there's some flexibility there. Interesting. As long as they met the requirements, compensation's all well documented per per person and all that kind of thing. I mean, I wouldn't have expected that on here, but that and so there's no question about that funding or where it's used or any of that.

038No, we we submit a career letter plan and it's approved by the board and approved by the state. Um, and so it has specific guidelines in there and then principles have all of the participants turn in a plan for how they plan to get their hours in and then they keep track of their hours throughout the year. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? That's it for me. You'll be hearing from me later, though. Thank you. All right. Okay. Let's talk about You want to get to the fun stuff, huh? Okay. Uh, first talk a little bit about I've kind of got a little bit of a preliminary budget for you that I uh said that we'd bring to you and uh thanks to Katie and Jenny for their help on this as we've put this together.

039Um quite a bit of information for there for you to digest. So I I'll give you some time to have that for a little bit. Um my goal with this budget or the budget that we bring you for final approval next month is it's going to be very conservative. it will be the worst budget you see all year long. That's my goal. Dr. Hedgeorth and I have visited a little bit about that. Um so we've been conservative with some of the numbers we've used um for a couple of reasons and I'll talk a little about that. uh Desi's recommendation. Um I think you saw the governor uh we're waiting his approval on that, but uh the legislature did approve the 7165 SAT that we had all been told we would have this year. Um we've

040used 7,000 uh just in case. And this part of the reason we're doing that is that um we could have withholdings this year. We're concerned a little bit about that. I think across the state um that uh since that wasn't the number the governor originally had um he could say revenues are not coming in at the level they would like to see and they could do withholding. Gabe's lived through withholding. Probably haven't had that happen since about 2011 or 12 somewhere like that. Um so I'm I'm building a pretty conservative budget there so that we have some cushion in case that would happen. Um the classroom trust fund we're very close to that. we're slightly actually uh just a little bit above what the desi recommendation is. And then Prop Cy, uh we're slightly below

041that. So, and then for assessed valuation, we've used 2%. Uh we think that's a conservative number. That's well under the 5-year average. Um we think that number may be a little bit higher this year. Um mine was 31% higher on my letter I got from the assessor. So, uh, u, so I feel that with everyone else out there who got those letters from the assessor as well. Um, but we're using 2% to be conservative there. So, the budget, uh, that we've got for you right now, and again, we may go back and work a little more on this. Um, we kind of ask people to build flat across the board for the most part. Um, and everybody did a pretty good job of that. U, some areas obviously we we know won't be flat. We

042know there's some built-in pieces that will go up a little bit. Transportation, for example, we know will go up based upon our contract. Uh we know salaries are going to increase based upon the raise that you all voted in. And so there are areas that we know we're going to have some increases. Uh but if you look on the back side of this right now uh this budget right now uh spends reserves down by 454,000 which may sound like a lot of money but if you look at as a percentage of the overall budget it's.3% which is pretty close to bringing you a zero budget at this time and so um we anticipate we'll be pretty close to that. We may work on that to try to make it just a little bit u a

043little bit better to bring you for a final approval in June. But again, my goal is to bring you the worst budget you'll see and then as Dr. Hedge does budget amendments throughout the year, those will improve. So happy to answer any questions you might have about the budget there. Okay. Um we'll go to the monthly uh financials. Uh if you take a look at that, um through the end of April, we're at 83% of the fiscal year. Uh the expenditures, our operating running at 78% right now, so we're in good shape there. Um I kind of sound like a broken record. I'm kind of telling you the same thing every month. expenditures are up uh n 19.2 million right now. Uh that is due to your capital projects with bond and with the salary

044increases that we that we put in with the passage prop in August last year. Revenues the state revenue is down about 2.54 million and we knew that would be that way because of our loss of ADA. Tax revenues are up 7.49 49 million and that again is because of the Prop C passage, the roll back and then also because of some increased AV. Federal revenue is down a little bit right now. A lot of that has to do with some timing of some title payments. Um Gabe mentioned that you would have some more Medicaid reimbursement coming there. We also have some title dollars. Um also our nutrition reimbursements are down a little bit this year. Uh but we had anticipated that as well. Any questions about uh the financials before I talk about the healthcare

045trust a little bit? Okay. Uh the healthc care trust um including our investment account balance at the end of April uh 7,269,000 just a little over that. That's up from last month just uh just a hair over $1 million. And again, that's mostly due to uh last month we were short on the payment. Uh just the timing with payroll. Uh in comparison to last year at this time, end of April 24, we're up 371,000 uh from where we were last year this time. So, we're in a good position with the healthcare trust. Uh things are are very solid right there financially. uh to look at some numbers from your plan as a whole. Trying to be trying to share these with you uh pretty much every month. The total plan is running at a funding

046ratio of 102.5% so pretty close to even. Uh but that means it's running at a deficit of about $327,000 for the year. The EPO, which we've discussed a lot, is running at 152% with a funding deficit of just a little over 1.5 million. Uh the PO is running at 107% with a funding deficit of 298,000 and then the HSA is running at a ratio with 74% with the funding surplus of 1.5 million. And so, um, again, as we've restructured that a little bit next year, uh, as we have modified a little bit what the board, uh, payment is on the EPO, uh, we do think we'll see, um, a move down in the amount of usage on that. Again, those people are going to end up somewhere. So, those claims are going to be somewhere

047else. Uh, but we think that that's going to be a good move to kind of drive people away from the EPO, which is the recommendation long term. We're eventually not going to have that EPO. It's just going to be too expensive to maintain. Happy to answer any questions you might have about any of that. As a reminder, I know we've um talked about the EPO. How much longer are we going to keep that? We have for the all of next year. All of FY26. All of next year. Yeah. Um and then it's done. I'll have to find out from uh our open enrollment numbers what we're looking at right now percentage wise. Uh about 20% are enrolled in it right now. Right. Um we'll see when when everything comes in. I'll have to check with

048Dr. Krauss and Nicole want to see for sure um what percentage of our staff it looks like for next year are going to be on each plan. I can bring that to you in June. Thank you. Are there any other questions? I appreciate you Dr. Seag. Thank you. Okay. Is there a motion for approval? A motion from Kim. Is there a second? A second. Miss Williams. Um, yes. Miss Miller, yes. Miss Chzn, yes. Miss Carns, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Richard, abstain. The motion passes. extension. Okay, Dr. P. I got one more thing. I have approval bills. Sorry. I'm trying to I'm trying to speak. It's all right. This will be quick. If you don't have any questions, I'd ask for you to approve the bills. I'll make a motion. Okay. Second. Miss Williams? Yes.

049Miss Miller? Yes. Masn. Yes. Mr. Moore. Yes. And the motion passes. Five. Okay. Not advice. All right. Thank you. I left the uh supplemental report at each of your workstations. Uh the personnel report was a part of of the board docs. Don't believe there's anything unusual in either of those reports. I would tell you that we're um continuing to uh work as hard as we can to find employees both certified and classified. As of last um Thursday afternoon, we still had 57 certified openings. So, there's some substantial work to be done. Uh it's running about 10 to 15 people higher than a year ago this time. Um we're really working hard with uh finding people to fit into the grow your own into the pathways to teaching. And then I think we're going to have

050to work u especially hard with our retiree population when we can communicate with them August 1. That's people who are retiring at the end of of this year. Um we'll be preparing a letter to send to all of them thanking them for their service and asking them if they're interested in continuing. Uh just so you know, a district can have up to 1% or I'm sorry. Yeah, it's 1% of your total population uh can work under critical shortage. And there's also a sister program um with the substitutes. You can bring them in as full-time subs. Uh but we can have up to 17 folks in those categories. And I think we're we're probably going to need them. So we will those will be the areas that we're hitting the hardest. U most of the um

0512025 graduates that have been applying for jobs have them at this point. So it's going to rely on um you know somebody's spouse gets transferred to St. Joe or moves into the area. We'll really work hard with that. that we're making reaching out to um the population at the military base across the river because they have a lot of movement and a lot of times one of the military spouses will be educators. Uh so that's another population that we're trying to tap into as much as we can. Uh so we're we're still working hard. It's it's not even June yet, but I just wanted to to let you know that that is a a high need for us at this point. Does anybody have any any questions for me? All right. Thank you. Is there

052a motion for approval? Thank you, Kim. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Whenever you're ready, Miss Williams. Miss Miller? Yes. Miss Chzn? Yes. Miss Karns? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Richmond? Okay. And the motion passes four to zero with two abstensions. Okay. Action items 8A appoint the new board member. Um we were remiss in our last meeting and we did not officially appoint Mr. Richmond to the board. And so, um, is there a motion for approval? I move. Thank you, Kim. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mike. Miss Williams? Yes. Miss Miller? Yes. Miss Chzn? Yes. Miss Karns? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Richmond? I abstain, but that hopefully that's the last time I'm having I I wasn't I needed did not vote on anything before I was officially approved. So, if

053it seemed awkward of why I was abstaining, um, I want to make that explanation. Thank you. I appreciate it. And the motion passes six to zero with our last abstension from Mr. Richmond. And from this point on, I'll have opinions. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Action item B. Mr. Casey. Good evening. So, I provided each of you a little booklet since I've got so many items tonight to kind of follow through with. Um, start off is with action item B 8B and it is for the integrated pest control contract. Um, our recommendation would be to go with Ecoab for the bid requirements and board policy. And I'm going to hop in and speak to this a little bit. Um, we're tied a little bit by board policy on our recommendation here. You as a board

054can go separate from that. DJ DJF AP1 uh says that uh we can go local if it's within $1,000. That's an AP. We can modify that at any time. It doesn't need board approval. I'm going to make the recommendation tonight that we change that. Not because of this, but because it needs to be changed. that we changed that to 5% of a bid. $1,000. In this case, it was pretty close. It's about $1,400. Uh on a $2 million contract, that $1,000 doesn't really make a lot of sense. So, I'm going to have Donna change that to 5% in this policy moving forward. That being said, you as a board can um make a vote to hire the local company. You just need to document why you hired the company that was not the lowest bid.

055That's all you need to do. And so Casey's recommendation, our recommendation is based upon policy. You can override that by documenting with Donna that you are approving a different company that is not within that $1,000, but all you have to do is document why you're doing it. And it would be because you were going to go with the local company. Okay, cool. I make a recommendation to do what he said. Well, my recommendation was the lowest bid. So, no, the next part. The next Dr. Se, quick question. Uh, going back to our days of choosing a a I need a second first. I'm sorry. And then discussion. Okay. Okay. Is there a second? No. No. You're motioning to approve preferred test to approve local. Okay. Now discussion. Now go. Thank you. I just kind of

056straightened my head out. So I remember when we talked about choosing the CM, there was a local one involved there and I remember hearing something about you had to be within 10%. CM is a much different process. This is standard bidding. CM is its own individual. So don't apply those rules here, right? We're we're in a whole different section of the policy book. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And I'm inexperienced with the bidding process of the district. Do we um do we give a second look at all to um contractors to see if they can make any improvement in that pricing. We're not allowed to do that with the seal bid process. Thank you. Once they've been approved, we can go back and try to ask them to sharpen the pencil a little bit, but they

057might want to think about that. Well, I think that's such a small amount for a company that gives back to us, too. So, I would agree with you 100%. Yes. Yeah. Because if they're letting us use a room free and you take that times however many people might want to use a room, it's probably going to more than pay for itself. Yeah. And we can see a human being within minutes from right here. We're getting a lot more than $1,300. I agree. Any more discussion? Okay, cool. I have a motion to second call, please. M. Williams. Yes. Miss Miller, yes. Miss Chney, yes. Miss Burns, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Richmond, yes. I feel good about that statement. And the motion passes. 6. Thank you. Okay. Next, Dr. Cross. Okay. you had quite a number

058of of job descriptions that you had seen at the work session with the red markings and the strikethroughs and they were all all corrected. Did any of you have any questions about those? Uh reiterate the process again just real quickly. Those were given to the supervisor of that whoever was in that job to look at. Many of them were looked at by multiple people and the recommendations that they made um were then put in there for you guys to view. So I think they they are indicative of of the actual responsibilities of those jobs and and I would ask that you would approve them as submitted. Second. I'll second. Any discussion? Dr. Krauss, this is a bit of an adjacent question, but do you feel like staff and hiring managers are bought in with the

059updates that when we fill a position, um the understanding is we have to meet the minimum qualifications. Well, absolutely. Yeah. I mean that's um certain certain of our jobs because of desi requirements have certain requirements so that we can't we can't hire somebody that isn't doesn't meet those criteria. Um but yes I think they're are they're apprised of them and by just having reviewed them I think it's good for them too to um bring it back to their attention what the minimum requirements are. Obviously, we strive for more than the minimum requirements, but sometimes that's the pool is what the pool is, right? Let me ask another quick question. One is I'm going to end up abstaining to this because I was I didn't see them beforehand, but let me ask you a question. did

060with having others involved is a really good thing, but did you look at them yourself to see if um there was enough consistency of those requirements across the across the scope of the um of the job descriptions? Yeah, we have we have almost 500 job descriptions. So, I'm not going to tell you that I read in depth every one of them because I didn't. Uh the ones that had significant changes I reviewed to see if they changes made sense to me. uh if they didn't for some reason I talked with whoever had submitted it and we you know would talk through it. Uh so yes I feel like they've been been reviewed thoroughly. Yeah. Thank you. Any additional questions? If not I have a motion to second. Miss Williams. Yes. Miss Miller. Yes. Miss Chzn.

061Yes. Miss Karns. Yes. Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Richmond. And the motion passes five with an abstension to Dr. Press. All right. The 201day individual work calendar. Uh that's on there because we just learned that um AAL developed educational literacy uh needed a 201day position. uh we had not prior had that calendar, but that was developed and is in uh in the board packet for you. So that's uh so our person that's on a 201day contract knows what days they're supposed to be in and what days they are not. You said there's one person on this table because that's the adult learning. Yeah, adult learning is a is a small staff and they also um like they have some 12-mon teachers that we don't in Janed and and there are just a lot of differences in

062their in their schedules. So, yes, there's only one person that I believe they needed to have that that particular schedule. Remind me what the next schedules are. There's a 180. Uh there's probably 15 of them. They start at 174 and go through 260. Not every number obviously there's 174 77 79 81 82 2011 205 216 and 260 I believe and I may have 211 2116 [Laughter] sold for 197 is that typical of school districts our size Oh yes That's That's typical of smaller schools, too. It is. Yeah. Thank you. It's really dependent upon the need. So, if you have summer school, you're going to need a secretary there for the summer, you know what I mean? So, just based off teachers are 181. We need them for that. And then some of them Yeah. extend

063out. And so, it's based on the needs of the building. I got you. Yeah. Thank you. In the different jobs. Okay. Any additional questions? Okay. Is there a motion? A motion. [Music] All right. I have a motion and a second. Miss Williams? Yes. Miss Miller? Yes. Miss Chzn? Yes. Miss Curbs? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Richmond? Yes. The motion passes six to zero. Um, Dr. Seag. Yes. This was the fine arts uh change order I shared with you at the work session. Um, as we've upgraded uh the equipment, the sound equipment at all the elementaryaries across the district, uh, Cardon Park and Oak Grove had more modern equipment, but some of the, uh, Bluetooth capabilities, um, some boom mics, things like that for student performances. We wanted to add those there as well, so that

064they have the same equipment now that everybody else does. So, just ask you to approve this change order for that. I move to approve it. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? Any questions? So they all will have this improvement then now be the same. Okay. Uh yes. Sorry there. Miss Miller. Yes. Miss Chzn. Yes. Miss Burns. Yes. Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Richmond. Yes. And the motion passes. 6. Okay. Mr. Chair. Hello. So, first I got two things for you. First one, um, some network equipment replacement. So, as most of you know, and some of you will learn as we move forward, um we get some federal money to help us replace network equipment in all of our school buildings, but we have some buildings that don't um qualify for

065that money like TMC here, our administration building maintenance, um Webster, Hillyard. Um, so now, um, I've budgeted for next year the replacement of that equipment. Um, we put out bids and, um, we only, uh, received one response to the bid. Um, even though I received several phone calls and did a lot of talking, but um, the way network equipment goes is when you, uh, get into a brand like we are districtwide, um, that kind of narrows your response you're going to get for it. Um, but good pricing. Um, nonetheless, um, to to cover all of our non-ET buildings next year, uh, grand total 277546, um, from Yellow Dog Network, and that, um, I'm bringing to you hopefully to approve tonight. I'd like to add one comment, too. Um, I just want to compliment Jake. He's

066he's done a nice job of getting us on a rotation so that we are starting to rotate equipment out on a cycle. Um when I moved into the student services role seven years ago and and technology was under me at that time we were not on a rotation of any equipment at that time and so um we had a lot of things that had become outdated obsolete um over that period of time and Jake's been a big part of that. We now have things on a rotational basis so that buildings are being upgraded at certain times. Security cameras, it goes it goes to a whole lot of technology pieces that we now have on that. So, I want to commend Jake for getting us to a point that we are not having one big giant

067bill come due because now everything's obsolete all at once. Plus, I think Robert's just being nice to all of us before he retires. He's just getting it all out of the way before he gets out of here. I'm just trying to get really nice retirement if he compliments Gabe and I in the same meeting. You know what's something going on, right? Can I ask another quick question? Um, yes. Do we want to wait for the motion or do I do it now? A motion to second. Is there a motion? Yes. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. without discussion. My quick question is is 277,000 is that what we'd anticipate? I I appreciate what um Dr. Siger said about um smoothing that curve, but is that what we or is

068that still a catch up here? No, that's what we anticipate. Uh, if you would have asked me, six months ago, it was a little bit less, but now we're starting to see the beginning of some of the tariff money getting added on to some of these purchases. Um, so that's a little bit higher than what I anticipated, but probably only about 10%. And you'd anticipate next year it's going to be something. Next year will be different um because these are the buildings we don't receive federal funding for. So the rest of our buildings as we go to replace them, um about 80% of that is is covered by the federal government. So those totals will look a little bit different for a larger amount of buildings. Thank you. Yeah. So you said we only had

069one bid, correct? Yep. Is it just because they're the only ones that had the stuff that No, it's because with this type of equipment, the manufacturers work with certain vendors and so they like for us, they like to only work with one vendor through us. So, they tend to give one vendor better pricing than all the rest of them that contact them. So the rest of them will ask us questions and figure out that they're not even going to be close to what another vendor can give us. So they don't even submit a bid. Okay. Is how that works. We're seeing that more and more, not just in Jake's area, but yeah. Are there any additional questions? If not, there's a motion to second. You can call for the vote, please. Williams. Yes. Miss Miller,

070yes. Miss Chzn, yes. Miss Karns, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Richmond, yes. And the motion passes. 6. Okay. Second one. Um, we've been um working on replacing all of the uh projectors in all the buildings in the district um for quite a few years now. I think we're this will be year five of of that project. Um the last three schools that we have uh Persian Parkway and Hosia um we put out a bid to replace them this summer also um as a budgeted item for 2526. Um and we received um four different companies responded with a couple different options on different TVs from from a few of them. Um, and we're recommending uh YNS Technologies was the lowest bid at 75,383 to finish off those three schools. So, if there any questions otherwise, I'd

071like a a motion to approve that bid. Okay, there's a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? Does that include installs or does No, we install those. District does install. That's just for the equipment. Okay. Thank you. Any additional questions? All right. Miss Williams? Yes. Miss Miller? Yes. Miss Chzn? Yes. Miss Karns? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Richmond? Yes. And the motion passes. 6. Thank you. Okay, Miss St. Good evening. I have the next three items and two of them I presented at our work session. So, I want to extend many thanks for allowing me to share that teacher voice. Um, the first one is the science core resource for middle and high school students. Um, and so what you'll see there is amplify and status to support as a core

072resource. Um, that would provide consistency and high quality instruction and materials for our students. All right, I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All right, call the vote, please. Miss Williams, yes. Miss Miller, yes. Mley, yes. Miss Karns, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Richmond, yes. All right. And the motion passes. Next. Thank you. Um, this next one, I would be just to not thank uh Dr. Laauo um and her partnership this past year and looking at assessment a little bit different and really what we want teachers to do is use assessment to drive curriculum instruction. Right? So you give an assessment, you use that data to inform your instructional practices. And so what you'll see presented in that assessment plan is that um design of thinking um that models

073the work of the PLC process. So what I am presenting to you tonight is in collaboration with Dr. Lao and this assessment plan. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second it. Thank you. Um okay. My question is are the only changes in the plan already listed on the board docs? Yes. So what she has outlined is um really I'm really excited to look with uh Dr. Adams and we have a group of educators coming out the end of June for professional learning and that redesign of what the grade card looks like in K2 which is desperately needed. Are there any additional questions? Miss Williams? Yes. Miss Miller? Yes. Miss Chzn? Yes. Miss Karns? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Richmond? Yes. And the motion passes. Okay. Next one. All right. I've waited three years to

074present this one to you. This is the approval of the K6 ELA resource, a core resource adoption for our literacy instruction. And so again, the state has already vetted the resources we piloted to um based off teacher voice. Um they have selected the benchmark advance um to support that literacy framework. So I have a motion from Kim. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mike. Any discussion? Thank you for the hard work on that. That's a big process to choose curriculum. It is. And I'm I'm grateful for the teachers who piloted this work. Do you do you think that the uh we'll look at stuff for the middle school next? Is that kind of what's going on? Yes. So, this um past year was a look at the science um uh core resource. Next

075year will be the ELA core resource. And we have an instructional coach, Kelly Lock, um, who will lead up that process. So, Miss Williams, yes. Miss Miller, yes. Mr. Chzn, yes. Miss KS, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Richmond, yes. Hello. Hi. Good evening. I have the sessy uh contract for special services um on the agenda tonight. This is something I've presented several times over the past several years. Um let me just explain a little bit to those of you that are newer to the board. So three years ago we used to actually four years ago we used to send students to a specialized school in Kansas City called Milestones. We sent four students there. It cost us about a million dollars. These are students with highly specialized needs. We decided that they were on the

076bus too long. We weren't able to um access their IEP goals and see their progress like we would like. So, we chose to contract with a company called CESI to actually provide those services within our school district and that included two classrooms at Webster. Since then, we have done a lot of expansion with that programming. Um they uh currently run two classrooms at Webster, three contracted classrooms at Oak Grove called Foundational Skills. And last year in the middle of the year, as this parent stated to you, we had to um actually utilize the company to contract structured learning at Ellison. Um there is a staffing shortage. Obviously, it is our job to exhaust all efforts to provide those services to our students. And this is something that we believe is really cost-saving to us because

077uh with the current contract that I'm presenting to you, we can actually provide services for 68 students as compared to the four that we could provide before. Now, this contract uh last year was six classrooms, but we are proposing eight classrooms. We need to add one foundational skills classroom uh at Oak Grove and another classroom at High Road at Webster. Those are for our students with our most significant needs. We have had those postings up all year. Um we were able to find one foundational skills classroom teacher for Oakrove through our district. So just know that we are still always trying that. We just aren't getting the candidates and these students really need um really specialized instruction with teachers and parents and staff that can support their needs. And so, um, the proposal is for

078eight classrooms this year, three at Webster, um, four foundational skills contracted classrooms at Oak Grove, and the one structured learning classroom at Ellison for a total of eight classrooms that are contracted. All right, I have a motion, a second. Any discussion? I think I'm looking that there are 21 kids coming from preschool. Yes. And um I don't think that number is going to go down anytime soon. We're looking at kids who were born in during COVID and existed at the beginning of CO. So I've been in some of those classrooms, some of those children who uh should be going to kindergarten. It's alarming the behaviors um that I see. So, I appreciate the fact that we're looking at those children to try to help them the best that we can. Um because they have some

079some different needs. Um could you and maybe you can't, but maybe you can. What is a foundational skills? I know in education we call classrooms lots and lots of different things. So, what is a foundational skills class? Yeah. So those are are students that are typically uh diagnosed autism. Um significantly cognitively impaired. Um usually they are nonverbal or have very few verbal skills. They use AAC devices to help communicate. They um often have time um have issues with restrooming needs. They need one-on-one Paris uh for safety and security. And you're right, Rhonda, the problem is it's continuing to rise and it's not just a St. Joseph problem. No, it is not. It is a society problem that we're seeing. And so I'm I appreciate the fact um that we're looking at those children and really

080trying to help them. Um my other question is what in a foundational skills classroom, what grade levels or are they divided? Because I know we used to put K through six together and that's not a very good situation. So I was curious about that. How we group those classrooms is really more on a skill-based level. Okay. Um usually our incoming K kids are grouped together. Um but as they age, we kind of mix abil we mix those age groups on ability. So I can't say it's a definite one one thing or another. All of the foundational skills classrooms are at Oak Grove in the elementary. Once they move to the high school level, they either transition to a targets classroom or potentially a DLC classroom, which we call a daily living skills classroom. I think

081that's good that you're looking at where they are ability wise rather than grade level because I feel like we used to do grade level and I don't think that was working real well. Do these children mainstream out at all into a regular classroom or a specials classroom so that they're being exposed to typically developing children as well? Yes. So that's the purpose of housing at at Oak Oakrove. So they do have access to their peers. It is really dependent upon the students individual their IEP and whether that is something they're capable of doing. That is our ultimate goal and the reason we try to get them in this programming early so that we can start transitioning them out and there are some stu some students that are able to go to specials or eat lunch

082with their friends um can transition in the hallways and then we try to then move them to the next level down which is a DLC classroom. So we have those programs together so that we can share students and once they have met certain milestones then can access a different classroom. This is so much better than what I've seen in the past. So I appreciate that. Any additional questions? Okay, I have a motion to second. Would you call the vote, please? Miss Williams? Yes. Miss Miller? Yes. Miss Chzn? Yes. MS? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Richmond? Yes. And thank you. And the motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Casey. Okay. You want to take your little book out? I have you for the next 11. So, get comfortable. Settle in. Okay. So item 8L, Oak Grove site

083circulation improvements. So this is for the construction of the new car loop that's around the entire perimeter of the building. Um it's widening of the entry and exit onto Cook Road. Um and sidewalk additions and accommodations for traffic flow. Any questions on that? Second. I'll second. Thank you. Now, I'd like to throw something out discussion piece here, too. Uh I I want you to note the duration time from the different contractors. Um we had hoped to get this completed. Our plan was to have this completed this summer. You can see that our recommendation is actually not the lowest bid, but it is the bid that is 16 weeks and is very close to the lowest bid. The other contractors are saying 24 weeks. We don't want this to be a six-month process. Uh we didn't

084really want it to be a four-month process. We're going to hold our fingers crossed for good weather this summer. Um and hopefully we can push and maybe get it done more quickly. Um because our our intended goal would be to have it finished by the start of school. 16 weeks is not going to allow that, but we're hoping that we can get it finished as close to the beginning of school as possible. If we go back to the time machine, 10 plus years when that school was built, do you think we underestimated like the amount of traffic and parents that would be dropping their kids off? What do you think we missed the first time? It really changed during CO. It really did just from amount of car drive car riders and buses. Okay. I

085I will tell you part of the issue there is very few people ride the bus over the road percentage wise. Yeah. Very few students walk. Yeah. Um you have a very high percentage of of families that take their students to school and drop them off. Um there probably was not um I'll say it I've said it publicly a lot of times the ingress and egress on that was not thought out very well. It just wasn't well. And it's just it's not throwing stones. It's just less less. It's just Yeah. I mean, uh, and a little bit of that has to do with the the traffic pattern out there. Uh, there probably should have been, if I could go back in the time machine, as you said, Mike, a little more coordination about uh the entrances,

086exits there. Uh, especially where you have one entrance and exits that does not allow you to turn left out of the drive. It only allows you to turn right. Um, so again, okay, hindsight 2020, u, not necessarily throwing stones at that, but looking back, there probably should have been more. I mean, if you look at it, our two brand new schools, what have we done in the last year with part of our bond money is we are fixing the ingress and egress at those two places. And a lot of it has to do, I think, like Casey mentioned, more people are just not putting their kid on the bus. More people are not having their kid walk. More people are taking their child to school and picking them up. Thank you. Are there any additional

087questions? Let's call the vote, please. Miss Williams, yes. Miss Miller, yes. Miss Chzn, yes. Miss Karns, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Richmond, yes. And the motion passes unanimous. Mr. Casey. All right. Item 8 M. This is for the science lab expired chemical disposal. Um so this is for two high schools for Central and Benton High School. When I first originally started here six years ago, we had started getting an inventory um kind of figuring out what we had in the labs that were expired or not used any longer. Uh finally through help with the state for the uh the contract that they have been awarded to a local company or sorry a company out of the state um we're eligible to get rid of it now um rather than keep it on hand and a

088lot of that after this point will go to more of a inventory management that we've struggled with in the past. um putting places putting those items into place, you know, what expiration dates, you know, discarding them on the correct level rather than having everything at one one time. Um so the the company that I'd like to award this to is Midwest Services Group based out of St. Charles. Um they're the only one of two contractors that were on the CIP or on the uh contract with the state, which you have a copy of on the computer. Um but they're the closest one. um for the amount of $63,450 to dispose of both sites. It gets us back into our requirements to where we need to be. Is there a motion? Thank you. Is there a

089second? I'll second. Okay. Discussion. I have a question. Could you repeat what you said about it's the only one that's approved under the state? They were the closest to us in the state of Missouri. Yep. They're based out. Mhm. Okay. I had a question. Is is there some catch up in this as well because we're using, you know, we've been holding these things. I mean, next year would we anticipate this amount being lower? Yes, considerably. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully next year we'll have one site left which is be Lafayette which we're still in the current we're getting the large portion of this done initially that I promise you when I taught science at Lafayette there were chemicals there that were probably 60 and 70 years old at the time. Uh there probably were a lot of

090chemicals that truthfully we had no business having in our labs anymore. um you know when you talk guys I can remember being in lab in high school and we get the mercury out and play with them you know and we know better now than to do that and so uh unfortunately you can't just take those things and pour them down the sink they need to be disposed of properly and so um I say something nice about Casey but then you'd all think it wasn't genuine so but he is doing a lot of work right now you can see listen that that number is a bit shocking for disposal, but I can assure you from from a business standpoint, right? That's the deal. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. And so, and so that is absolutely in

091line with what I'd expect. One other quick question. The city has an annual has a disposal program. Have we ever considered seeing if we could just add ours to that disposal program? Absolutely. But this was current price was cheaper than than what I could get rid of these at the time. Uh yes, moving forward we'll either work with this company or with another city city or state contract just to ensure we have the lowest feable price. Okay, there's a motion in a second. Any more questions? Miss Williams? Yes. Miss Miller? Yes. Miss Chzn? Yes. Miss Karns? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Richmond? Yes. And the motion passes. Okay. All right, next item 8N HVAC C system and purchase for Eugenefield Elementary. Um, so I I'll be bringing three of these to you this evening. Three

092projects for the elementary to remove the VRF system, which the variable refrigerant flow systems that we've had problems with over the past years. Um, this particular uh bid here is for equipment purchase that we will be doing inhouse at Eugenefield. um in order to purchase the equipment for all the rounds $94.57 $9457. This will just allow us to get the lead times and get everything on site where we can start installing. I have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? All right. If there is none, can roll, please. Miss Williams, yes. Miss Miller, yes. Miss Chzn, yes. Miss, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Richmond, yes. And the motion passes. Okay. Next one. All right. Item 8, HVAC replacement at Mark Twain Early Learning Center. All right. So, this is again

093to replace the VRF systems that we currently have in place there. Um, we did put it out for an RFP locally. Um, we received uh one respondent which was through IHP. Um, so the first off the bat here will be for 1,001,9,600 plus an additional amount of $29,270. That $29,270 is to relocate the current solar panels that are on top of the roof at Mark 20. Um, we will relocate those above the gymnasium that's got a newer roof on it. Um, within the last 5 years, this allows us to keep reaping the benefit that we're we're currently getting from the solar panels. We did a little homework with the solar panels. Um, reached out to Snyder Electric who we used, you know, for our our energy audits and everything. And, you know, their advice was

094that we approximately have at least 10 years left on those. and the initial cost of 30,000 basically to move them. We'll be we'll be able to pay that back within the next three to four years and still recoup additional cost on that. Top of that for the next six roughly we're about $8,700 a year that we're saving from that location. So that that was a real discussion and we said let's reach out to the experts see what their recommendation is. Uh does it make sense financially and then it did. Is there a motion? All right. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? Solar panels had to be moved for what reason? To allow for room for the new equipment on the roof. Thank you. For the roof matted. Gotcha. Yep. Are there

095other schools with solar panels? Yeah, we have 16 in total. Okay. I was um involved some when we were looking at heating and air conditioning at um and Snider was kind of leading us through that process. I'm kind of honestly I'm kind of surprised to see a million dollar bill still re remaining on all that we did to make that happen. Can you give me a little bit of explanation why that's the case? Sure. Yeah. Snider uh had nothing to do with any of these sites besides some upgrades on controls. That was that was all that was done there. These were the BRF systems that were put back put into place back in 2014 2015 that we've continually had issues with and spent numerous dollars. Tom, these buildings we're doing this HVAC on right now

096are the as Casey said, the the VRV, the heat pump uh systems that have just not been adequate. Uh that we've had to close buildings in the winter winter because they're not able to keep buildings at temperature. we have uh we just got to the point that we're not willing to spend more money on those systems trying to band-aid them to get us to the point uh that that um you know and and again not throwing shade there at anyone in the past but we just those systems are not capable when it's 10 below here of keeping our buildings warm enough and so Dr. Se I I kind of remind the public when I can that that absolutely they're they're inadequate for those below temperatures. However, we have benefited from lower heating bills. We have

097our utility bills been great because of Yeah. Yeah. So, it's it's while there's an issue, it's not without its merits. And I was going to ask that question on all these. I won't ask it on each one, but thanks for the explanation. Oh, absolutely. And and if we were Tom I because I I'll go back to when you're on finance committee. If we were to go and put like a fourpipe system at Mark Twain, which is what we did with our three high schools, which is which is a great long-term solution, which is also very energy efficient as well. I I think at Mark Twain, we're looking somewhere probably in the $4 to5 million range, and that was five years ago when Schneider ran those numbers. Um, we we're trying to maximize as much as

098we can with the bond money right now. probably also going to have to supplement with a little bit of our CIP budget. Um, but our our goal is to not have these schools. Uh, we're we're going to try to knock these three out this summer. And u, and I will I'm going to go ahead and say Casey, you can see that Casey and his team and Daniel are they are doing a ton of work. You're going to see a lot of stuff going on this summer if you're at buildings uh because there is a ton of HVAC going on. There's a ton of roof going on. There's a ton of side improvements going on. There's a ton of sidewalk going on. Um there are just don't talk to them very long if you see them

099this summer, please, because they really have a lot to do. Um but uh but no, and I I am going to throw that compliment out to Casey. I know it sounds like I'm doing this to everybody, but no, Casey's done a ton of work. Uh you can see there's been a lot to bring these uh to you so that we can get these projects going and done this summer. We don't want to have to close buildings this winter because we can't heat them. Okay. Um, there's a motion in a second. Are ready to vote? M. Williams. Yes. Miss Miller? Yes. Mr. Yes. Miss? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Yes. And the motion passes. Okay. Mr. Casey. Okay. Next one on the docket here, Spring Garden Middle School site circulation improvements. So, this again is to

100improve traffic flows. Um, addition new sidewalks along the front of the buildings. Um, and improve the bus and the car traffic around the the exterior uh of the front and the back. Kind of utilizing some of the acres that we currently have that we have never utilized in the portion of before and going ahead and fixing and resealing the existing parking lot. While we're at it, same thing that we pretty well did at Cardon Park. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? I just have one question. I think I know the answer, but as you're looking at at the bids and then you're looking at the length of the time. Mhm. How do you choose? Well, this particular one we went off the dollar amount and the bid and

101the duration. Um, they were considerably lower than the in the others. Um, and their 12week time frame was along the lines of what we were anticipating. that that last one the bid amounts were very close. The the bid amounts are pretty significantly different here. Yeah. Um would we like the six week time frame for example down there below? Uh yes, but probably not uh for you know 75% more cost. Thank you. Any additional questions? You said this will start this summer as well. Yes, they ready to start last week. They were ready to start last week. Yeah, they're here in the audience. They're chomping at the bit. All right, call the vote. Miss Williams, yes. Miss Miller, yes. Miss Chzn, yes. Miss Karns, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Richmond, yes. And the motion passes unanimously.

102Okay, Mr. Casey, you're almost done. All right. AQ. This is for that goes along with the HBAC replacement at Eugenefield as well. This is this job here is kind of broke down since we're doing the majority of the work inhouse. Uh the part that we can't do in-house is the gas piping. So you'll see in the bid results I've highlighted there. This is for the gas piping only at Eugene Field for the amount of $88,650 to IHP Industrial. So that's what I'm asking for the approval on this evening. This is to pipe in all 13 units that will be installed and replacing the existing BRF. Is there a motion? I'll I'll make the motion. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second it. Thank you. Any discussion? That's the gas that's going to keep it

103warm when it's 10 below to use. Thank you. We'll be cooking with gas. There are no more questions. vote, please. Miss Williams, yes. Miss Miller, yes. M. Yes. Miss, yes. More. Yes. Yes. And the motion passes unanimously. Okay. R 8 R. HVA Replacements at Edison Elementary. Uh this again was bid out um IHP would be the sole provider also for the amount of 1,70,560 for this site. Um this would be also with us doing work at all three. We would do all the carpentry work and things like that. They'll be responsible for the gas, the electrical and the equipment setting up itself. Is there a motion? Thank you. Is there a second or did I make that up? Did you say something? Okay. I was like I I thought maybe I'm hearing stuff. I don't

104know. Okay. I have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. Thank you. Any discussion? All right. If there is vote, please. Miss Williams. Yes. M. Miller. Yes. M. M. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. And the motion passes. One thing I would like to point out real quick is to the right of the bid tab sheet, you'll see a deduct to use train equipment of the amount of 35,000. That is actually going to change, I believe, is going to be for deduct to use carrier equipment and it's going to be a deduction of $113,000 and a shorter lead time. So, thank you IHP for putting that together. I really What's that? I really vote yes. Okay. And one thing I do want to point out because it was brought up a little bit earlier. Casey

105and his team reached out to a lot of local companies. IHP is the only one that did bid on these. So, and they're leaving. [Laughter] Thank you for attending. Okay. His name Casey as well. Yes. Good guy. Are we doing a motion already? We're We're on S. We're on an S. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Now go. Um S CIP roof replacements for Lisberg Elementary. Um this does kind of go twofold back to back here with Eugenefield Elementary's um section A replacement above the kitchen. And I'll explain why here. So, Robert's roofing overall was the lowest bid um in both categories for both jobs. Um, in order to do the slate removal, you also have to replace some of the lower roofs right underneath it as well. Um, and the purpose of that is basically because we're

106going to end up damaging it no matter what, and they're in bad shape. Um, but their overall bid came in at 667,382. There's a typo there. to do a combined bid. It will come in at the amount of I didn't write it down. 62530. Sorry. Yes. 625,300 will be the combined bid to do both sites. Um that's basically contingent to combining those and awarding. So we're kind of asking these two items on here because the combined bid price is cheaper. Is it S&T? Yes, S&T. Yes. So, they're listed as two separate items because we bid them separately, but we also bid them as package. Also, are you going to make a motion to amend the recommended bid of 625? Is that your motion? Perfect. Thank you. In a second. I got your second. All right.

107Any discussion? Everybody get that? All right. If there no discussion, you can call the vote, please. M Williams? Yes. Miss Miller? Yes. Mley? Yes. Mr. M? Yes. Mr. Yes. And the motion passes six to zero. And Two more goes over to 8U 8. All right. Asphalt bid results. This is for resurfacing of the existing parking lots at Rubidu, Lindberg, and Truman. Um, and the pick and the playground at Pickicket Elementary. Um, we had one sole bidder this year. uh was Keller Construction local company with the combined bid of all four locations for the amount of $321,250. So I'd ask for your approval to move forward with the construction. Is there a motion? I make a motion. Thank you, Rhonda. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mike. Any discussion? Is this just ceiling or

108is it actually This is milling and 2 inch overlay. And and are you surprised you only had one um bidder on that? Yes and no. Last year we only had two. Um that was a company out of Kansas City. Everybody's busy in the summer and the only time we can do work is in the summer. Yeah. And for for jobs to this magnitude. Yeah. The one that we that put the bill in does not surprise me. And and you've been doing this for a while. is that and I I think that's going to be our choice, but do you um is that a is that a right price that we're getting? It falls very very in line with what we've done the last three to four years. Y thank you. I'm assuming pick is just

109a lot more to cover. It's the entire parking lot. It's the main entrance as well. There's a lot more surface area. It is the parking lot and the playground for pick and the rest. are just the parking lots. Correct. Okay. Parking lot, the entrance. Yeah. Any additional questions? Okay. I have a motion to second. Would you call the vote, please? M. Williams. Yes. M. Yes. M. Yes. M. Yes. Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Richmond. Yes. And the motion passes. Unanimous. Mr. Casey, is this your last one? This is the last one for spend much more money. Okay, this is for uh CIP for nutrition services equipment. This is to replace some outdated equipment that we've had some problems with and to just get it updated into par with the rest of our fleet. Basically, we kind

110of have a standardized system, standardized units, that way everything interchanges and we're not looking for parts here and there and everywhere else. Um I gave you a list uh on the back there's a bid sheet for kitchen procurement that is a full list there of what we will be purchasing. Um two exceptions Coleman Elementary is actually Mark Twain ELC and the various locations for basically the the the holding the proofing cabinets um is 21 and not 24. So we lowered the overall price to $250,558. And you remember last month the budgeted price at that time was 375. We're well under that. You're welcome, Robert. Thank you. Okay. Is there a motion? Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second. And that's the amended number, right? The amended number. Yes. 250 558. Perfect. Any additional questions

111or discussion? If there are none, would you call the vote, please? Miss Williams, yes. Miss Miller, yes. Mr. Ter, yes. MS, yes. Mr. War, yes. Mr. Richmond, yes. And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Casey. All right. Um, W. Wow. Yeah, that's hard hard act to follow there. So um so uh W is a request forou uh with alternative transportation services called first alt it's a division of first student uh we started this two years ago um it's alter if alternative transportation is where this company secures public transportation which is sedans smaller vans for um our fit population. A lot of times we have f students that move from one boundary set to another and we usually keep them in that original that school of origin. So getting them back there on a bus

112um would be a a bigger mess than we already have. So um this is a a very nice supplement. I will tell you this and I give kudos to Amy in our office because she's really a integral part of this working with the dispatch and group out at first student. Um, we spent close to $800 900,000 on this the first year we did this. Uh, currently going into this, um, we have spent $310,130 cuz she works with the dispatch and where those kids are at. So, we can get them on a bus, we still try to get them on a bus. Um, but we don't use this um, service as much uh, as a result. Also, I would credit their partnership. They when they sent me the bid, I had to look twice and call

113and I didn't want to call, but it was a lower rate. Uh they lowered the trip rate from $87.50 per trip and that's one way. That's just to school and then it's 8750 back. Um so they lowered it 3% to $85. Um they I asked them and they said they want to continue our partnership. They want to keep us um involved. I mean, we do spend money for them and we do it's a good contract. So, they reduced the rate for us and so that's a 3% decrease from the decrease we already had. So, I'm not spending more money. Um, so I would ask you to re uh approve this recommendation. Thank you, Kim. Is there a second? Thank you, Jennifer. Any discussions? Any questions? All right. There are you call the vote, please. Miss

114Williams, yes. Miss Miller, yes. Miss Chzn, yes. Miss Burns, yes. Mr. Horn, yes. Mr. Richmond, yes. And the motion passes unanimously. Okay. Next. Okay. The next one is RFP for athletic uniforms and apparel. Um, this is a contract, a five-year contract we've had with BSN Sports um uh for the last five years. Um, it's a volume purchase agreement. Uh what it does for us is it allows us to purchase in volume at a lower rate and also get rebates that we can then in turn buy more uh by uh apparel for our staff, our coaching staff, our our staff at our high schools. We also this year added the middle schools into this that had not been a part of the bid previously. Um so we add the middle schools as a part of the

115rebate pricing so they can purchase uniforms and we can save that money as well uh through those rebates. Um, I apologize when the bids came in uh at the end of the week last week, I was not available. Uh, so I put those up for electronic uh on on the assembly today. And so basically, we had three bids. Two of them were from BSN, one with Under Armour, one with Nike. Um, the third bid that we got was uh from a vendor that did not encompass everything we needed. They didn't include all of the It was just uh uh cheer and spirit uniforms. It wasn't uniform for all sports. So, these were the two bids that fit our proposal. Um um with BSN, Under Armour um and Nike are the two brands that they bid

116us. The difference in those um we are recommending Under Armour uh bid. Um they had a uh they had higher percentages of rebates across the board. Um they also every year um will uh have a $10,000 rebate for each high school because that's where a lot of our uniform purchasing apparel is made. Um versus Nike only had an $8,000 a year um rebate there. Uh both of them al they are going to and with BSN that is going to give us a $20,000 signing bonus. Um that can be used for anything equipment anything in the catalog the BSN or would have um for Under Armour or Nike. In this case we're recommending Under Armour. Um so any equipment everything else we get to choose how to spend that 20,000 but it's just a first year

117deal. We have to spend that within the first year. So, I'm recommending the BSN Sports and Under Armour Rewards Program uh for your approval tonight. Is there a motion? I move to accept the recommendation. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second. Any discussion? I just have to have a question. Yes. Because I know sometimes when you get in those brands, they get picky. So, if we have if we have people who are because I just noticed tonight some drills had Nike on. Will people still be able to wear if they have old Nike stuff, will they still be able to wear it? The old stuff. Basically, what this does is is we purchase everything through uh going forward. So, yes, through the end of this year. Okay. Our uniforms are all on a rotation,

118right? Okay. And so, yeah, and again, we've we've gone to that to try to keep from having the big balloon year. uh so that no school has a big balloon in their activity account that year. Um and so yeah, but everything we have will stay the same. Just means that moving forward that we'll be buying under armor. Okay. I just I know sometimes they get picky about that and I didn't want us to have to get rid of something that we already have. We're not getting rid of anything. Good. That's right. Good plan. I like that plan. Any more discussion? Okay. If not, there's a motion in a second. Would you call the vote? M Williams? I abstain. Miss Miller? Yes. Miss Chzn? Yes. Miss Karns? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Rick? Yes. And the

119motion passes 5 with one abstension. Thank you. Okay. Next. Um Y is the last one I have. This is approval for a mission cooperative sports uh sponsorship application. Co-op sports are where two school districts combine uh their um teams in a certain sport to participate. Um we have been approached by the Union Star School District um uh to uh because they have a a swimmer that has swam with them as an individual single person for the last two years and they would like to be a part of a team. Um they have approached uh they they've approached others and they're contiguous. They have to be connected in this this by admission st uh bylaws. But they've approached others around them and they're not interested. Um so they approached us. Um some of you may ask

120the question, well you know why are we why are we co-oping with somebody that's that far out? Why wouldn't we co-op with our own? I'll just answer that question. Um you have to combine your enrollments when that happens. So if we were to combine our enrollment with say central and Benton or Central and Lafayette, that would put us over the maximum amount that we are allowed, uh there's a cap and it's so that big schools don't go out and eat up middlesiz schools or smaller schools and and create super teams. Um so the bylaws of Misha said there's a cap, there's a number. It's actually 1,439 um as I did my homework on this last week. So um but Benton and Lafayette combining with either one of them combining with Central would put us over

121that number. So we would not be allowed to do that. So this advantage of a smaller school district that has 35 students that adds to Central's enrollment and that does not put us over. So and it does it is um a benefit to this student. Um he has swam uh in the same pool. They practice at Missouri Western too. They've been traveling uh that distance. They still will travel, but at least he'll get going to be a part of a team this way. Um, and uh, the Union Star Board of Education has approved this as well. Um, they they're looking forward to that partnership as well. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, ladies. Any discussion? Um, if there is none, let's call a vote, please. Miss Williams? Yes. Miller. Yes.

122Mosley. Yes. Miss Karns. Yes. Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Yes. And the motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Nelty. 8 Z. Policy updates. Um, okay. Everyone looked at these at the work session. Um, are there any questions or discussion about any listed below. All were looked at by administration and everyone approves. Um, I'll take a motion for approval. I will move to approve the policy updates. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion or questions? If there are none, would you call the vote, please? Miss Williams. Yes. Miss Miller, yes. Miss Chzn, yes. Miss Karns, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Missain. And the motion passes. 50 with one abstension. Okay. Information items nine. That is you, Dr. Ed. All right. You have the attendance report in front of you. Um, St. school district finished the

123year at 83.19 uh which is 5.4% increase over the year ending 2024 at 77.8. So uh this is the highest attendance rate post pandemic. So you know we're still not where we would like to be but uh we are making progress. I would entertain any questions you might have in regards to the attendance that the CIP has a shooting for 90. Yes. Yes. That's for full points. to be on the board for points being above 80. Yeah, we didn't receive anything last year. Great. That's great. Yeah, thank you. Get 85 to the next level. Yeah, nice work. Well, so viable to the students as well. You know what I mean? It's valuable way around. Thank you, Dr. Ed. Excuse me. Good evening. I am pleased present to you that we were notified last week that

124we have received the CLSD grant, comprehensive literacy state development grant. Uh there were about 150 applications and about half of those were approved and awarded. And so for us that means Hosia Elementary will receive um $45,000 for the next four years each year towards literacy. Uh with that comes a literacy specialist through uh Northwest RPDC, family literacy support and resources as well as um access to some ongoing professional development support. So the goals of the grant is really to strengthen teacher knowledge and provide evidence-based instruction. So we're excited to get started with that work at HOSIA beginning next year. Well, we're starting beginning of June actually. So, any questions from me on that? Um, it's for four years, you said, or five years, I'm sorry. It's a five-year grant, but because of the way the

125fiscal years run, it's federal dollars funded through DESIE in alignment with their um Reed Lee, Nix literacy initiative. It's actually a five-year grant, but it's year two of it. No one received any dollars year one and they just awarded last week. So it's the next four years 45,000 each year for us. I know that's a little confusing, but I just participated in a webinar last week where they went through that and I don't believe there were any schools that received any dollars last year. In the spirit of shout outs that we have tonight, Dr. Adams has spent a lot of time working on this grant. So I would like to give her a shout out for efforts and it's great. Thank you. Any questions from any other? Okay, the grant will run through 2829. So,

126thank you. Thank you. Okay, next. Um, Dr. McInness, you've got the next two. I sure do. So, this first one, parent student handbook. My name's on this, but I will tell you it's a collaboration with a lot of different departments. Um, so you have everything from student services with discipline to health services um to academic services to nutrition services. So every year we look at this and we make updates based on our needs or if certain policies have changed. So all of those changes are listed on here. And then I did get a couple of suggestions from our board members via email um which were minor things such as linking in policy. So I've done those edits as well, but they're not listed on here. But I would take any questions you have questions. I

127know that as a parent I look it over every year. I mean, I read everything anyway. Only I I like looking at the changes and knowing and so Sure. I appreciate the updates. Thank you. Yep. And all the changes are in red, so we'll start working on them this week and turning them into the black color. Okay, next one. Okay, the next one I'm super excited about. So, you have this at your stations. Yes. And this is all on assembly, too. But over the course of the 2425 school year, we engaged in a comprehensive data gathering process to define the essential skills and dispositions we want to see in our graduates. So through this collaborative effort, we gathered input from a broad range of internal and external stakeholders. Surveys were distributed to students, parents, staff,

128and community members. While focus groups were conducted with representatives from the business community, we also had students involved in this process. We noticed a gap that we didn't have as much feedback from our English language development population. And so Dr. Laauo led a focus group with some of our family advocates. So we believe this inclusive approach ensured that a wide range of voices and perspectives informed the creation of our portrait of a graduate. This is our final product after a year-long process. And so, um, it went from August with our district leadership team to September during our engage professional learning where staff were able to contribute um, all the way through focus group surveys and land to this. So this feedback collected through the process has been instrumental in not only shaping what we want

129our seniors to the skills we want them to possess after they walk across our stage. We want them to be good communicators, strong problem solvers, engaged citizens, have courage and have respect. But that also is shaping our refreshed mission, vision, and set of core values for our district. If you remember, this survey was deployed about a month ago, and the survey data chose our mission, our vision, and these dispositions as our core values. So, we're very excited about this. It will require a policy change to AED, which actually says that we're still educating each child for success, which was about three years ago. And so, we need to update that policy. But this is also in um our success ready students network professional learning and it's also part of our academic services goals for this

130year. So this is one thing that um we checked off the list. We of course do not want this to be just a poster on the wall. We want it to be an action. Um, so now we're going through the process of defining what does communication look like in preschool, what does communication look like in middle school and in high school and through all of those grades which with each of these dispositions so that when kids come back in the fall, teachers know how to implement this and embed it into our instructional lessons. So it's not a in addition to it's with instruction. For example, courage is something you should see in the classroom every day. Oftentimes kids are lacking courage and they don't volunteer to speak out or to go to the board and

131work a problem. And so courage could be an easy one that's implemented just by encouraging a student who volunteers their thinking. So we're pretty proud of this. Um it is a little bit future ready uh for our kids. Um but we want to be vision casters and help them be prepared for the next step. take any questions. So this will actually be our mission, vision and and key values. Correct. Which if if you recall from vision forward also that was part of their recommendations. Um crazy enough three years ago we had a new mission and vision but none of us knew that it happened. and it kind of happened overnight and we didn't have a whole process like we have this year to gain feedback from all of our stakeholders. And so I think that's

132that's really why we're so proud of this product because everybody had a voice in this. Yes, it will replace I think it's a super important thing that we have and so I appreciate the work putting together. I did nothing to help it, but I appreciate the fact that we've um we've identified that and now we're going to figure out how to implement that and to make that meaningful. So, I I I commend you on that. I can't take all the credit. It was really Dr. Lao, our whole academic services team, help with the chamber vision forward process. It's been a collaborative effort. What an impact on our community. I think so too. Um, a lot of those dispositions are what we would want for our own children. Yes. And so I think that's important. In

133some days they will lead us as adults. Correct. So we will launch this officially in the fall. Yes. It's actually in um the parent student handbook already as well. So, we're getting word out now, but it'll be launched at convocation. I will tell you, I asked Kendra La a bunch of questions on this and how this does cip together, and she did a really, if you get a chance, ask her, a really good job of showing how it all fits together and how it's implemented. Any additional questions? Thank you, Dr. McInness. Okay, next. board of education updates and I actually asked if it can be added to the agenda almost as an afterthought only in all honesty I would like it on there every month well and that's just it's an avenue for the board

134in order to let each other know um the things you know that we've um participated in as a member of the board. I know a lot of times that I will email out a report, you know, to you guys, you know, but I never know what you guys are doing it unless you contact me or anything. And then I mean I think it's important if the community is able to know our activities and our involvement in our engagement as well. And so, um, I'll let you go first, Mike. Absolutely. Thank you. And, uh, right, you know, as a board, we're members. We're always out there doing different things. I think some of those rise to the level that it's good to report out to fellow board members and also the public. And one of those,

135uh, was a recent event that, um, President Williams and Dr. McGinness and myself took uh, advantage of, which was the opportunity for a DC fly in. So we traveled to Washington DC. Um a DC flyin is a is a trip organized by the St. Joe Chamber of Commerce and it includes uh leaders in the world of business, health and education as well as uh members of the 139th Airlift Wing and um elected officials from the community. and uh we basically go there to uh state our case and what's going on in our region to our elected officials. So this year we got audience with the staffs of uh Congressman Graves and Alford and then also uh Senators Schmidt and Holly. Um actually Senator Schmidt uh was gracious enough to attend in person and and everybody

136else we talked to their staff. And so you might imagine with a big group like that, 30 plus people, um there was a lot on the agenda. Uh some highlights were, you know, uh lobbying for the latest model of uh J model of C130 transport for the 139th Airlift Wing. Uh advocating for continued funding of Medicaid, uh and its importance, especially the rural hospitals. Um and then uh really involved in the district, we were able to share the good news about the business and district partnerships regarding technical training and some of the wins we've been having at Hillyard Tech. Now, uh unfortunately, we didn't get an audience um automatically with those staff members that focus on education at at the federal level. And so, President Williams sought that audience. Um and unfortunately, we couldn't put

137a schedule together. And so we shared with those staff members some of our concerns specifically um you know this was at a time where uh federal cuts in the federal um education system were kind of underway. And so we just reiterated our need that hey that still makes up a significant part of our budget and that u to the extent our federal representatives and congressmen and and and senators can we wanted to make sure they relate to the states if they pass that money to the states that that the make sure that money goes to the district in the end was sort of our lobby. So, uh, we we heard from the US Chamber of Commerce. We had a lunch briefing at the, uh, um, National Guard Association for the, uh, United States, and that

138was all tiptop. And then maybe the biggest value for those of us that attended from the district was just the ability to network with local leaders and elected officials and uh, you know, lobby for the district in every way we could. All of that's written in the report and it's in the agenda. So, thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Mike? Any comments? Okay. And mine's not written. Okay. But it's not like as long as in depth. Over the past month, um I was able to judge a few art shows in the district. Um I was able to also participate in some career days. And then in about um two three weeks it will be another MS BA conference. Is anybody attending? Yes. Is anyone else attending? Okay, cool. Well, well, I received an email

139um a couple of weeks ago and I was asked if I could um be one of the panel um discussion speakers. Well, and the topic of the panel will be about language, about the importance of language, about the about the issues that our kids could have. I was actually pretty honored since when I was contacted by MSBA, um, he mentioned as we were looking at the topic, you know, that you were one of the first ones in the in the state that we contemplated asking in order to speak. Could you make it known about your issues on your speech and your disability like and everything? It is empowering and inspiring and so um and I'm like well you ask a person that has a speech impediment to speak on a panel. I mean that's kind

140of uh but I mean I understand why and it is an honor and everything and so I wanted to let you guys know that I will be doing that and that's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. I'm a little nervous. I mean I'm always nervous every time I speak even at even right now with everybody looking at me and everything. I mean I still get a little bit nervous. I mean, and then I also think about the kids in the district. I mean, if there's an issue like mine, it's always a struggle. It's never ending. It never changes. And so, if there's anything that I'm able, you know, to give or inspire, I'll I'll continue to do so. And so, um, Anyone anyone want to add in anything else you know that they have participated in

141over the past month? Anything that's out of the ordinary? Anything? And as I mentioned, it will be on the agenda every month. And so just like I keep a page in my notes and I just kind of add add everything I do well. and then in order to be able, you know, to make it easier because I know that we all participate in a lot and they're little things, you know, but they could be big things and I want everyone to know that it's not just us appearing at a meeting of the board, you know, that we are actively engaged in the community as well. So, I do have one thing just because I want to compliment um the district administration. um my Missouri Western students met with all the district administrators to um hear

142pluses and minuses of their experience in classrooms so that we can continue to give Missouri Western students the best opportunity um to be good teachers themselves and to see good teaching. And um I appreciate that we met for over an hour. So, I appreciate them taking their time to do that and continue to strengthen um the partnership that we have and there were some complaints and um so we they listened to those and I appreciate that and I think things over the last three years in particular have really gotten a lot better for placement for Missouri Western students. So, I appreciate that. I have one small thing that I probably because I'm excited about it. Um it's it's not only of St. Joe School District, but there are St. Joe School District um young people

143participating as Pivotal Point is at a new um high for their um youth facility and um they're they're right at the stage of 8 to nine um young people um between 17 and 20 that are getting an opportunity to be successful um moving on to jobs. Um and some of those at least three of those are attending um well were attending I suppose school year's over but um attending the St. Joe school district and some graduated um this past year. I know that's a very small number but it's a it's a niche in our community that is um hurting and there's there's a helping hand to help those folks. So I get to participate in that and I disagree with you. I think that's a large number. I mean if it was just one child,

144you know, it's still big. I'm excited. Thank you for bearing with me. Thank you. Okay. Well, then one more thing. Huge shout out to Dr. McInness and Dr. Edgar and is Larry here um for Project Graduation. They help every single year. We put countless hours in and they're a great help. Thank you. And you for organizing it. It's awesome. It's a big event. Yeah, exactly. You should mention that. It's a It's a great event. Okay. Policy review. My favorite. Um I do appreciate the questions, you know, that you guys are emailing and everyone's answering and everything. Um I'm just really just in awe and I'm loving all of this. Are there any in particular ones that called to you? I guess you know that need amending or editing or anything like that? I mean Ashley

145mentioned one policy um because it's in alignment with a portrait of a graduate ad. Correct. Um, are there any other ones you know that we should take a closer look at? Anyone notice anything? Well, and did you get your questions answered, Jennifer? All of your questions? Yeah, I believe I did. Are we going through these in a session? Does that work? Oh, yeah. I'm just asking now. Just Oh, no. That's fine. Are we good? Perfect. Are you good with me working with Donna and DJ AF1? Yes. got it done. Look at you. She's already got it done. Dr. Seers. Okay, Dr. Edgar, long range plan. Okay. Uh, last thing on the agenda, long-range plan. I don't have a lot of information for you tonight, but I know that um at the last work session uh

146you were told as the board of education that uh we would be doing some uh walkthroughs with um DLR, who was the architect that we worked have been working with for several years now. And those did take place um last Friday, not this last Friday, but the Friday before. And you know, the the concern was how many kids can you put into Lafayette High School? And so we've met a couple of times administratively. We feel um confident that uh we are still we still need to pursue two high school system. Um and I I think the biggest thing that we see in regards to the two high school system is that it will help with staffing. Um as you heard from a report from Dr. earlier tonight. Uh we have staffing challenges of I believe

147he said 57 openings right now. And so that's just a testament that uh we need to do something. And so right now uh we're we're visiting about that. And the target number that we're going to use for Lafayette is 1150 students and 1,700 students at Central High School. And as of last Friday, we had 2832 students. So that would be 20 850 if you add those two numbers together. So that's where we're at. There are some challenges that are presented with that. You know, there's going to be lunchroom issues. There's parking issues. So, there's things that we're going to have to overcome. Um, one thing I think that um we all felt was that we should not put a bunch of money into these old buildings. And so, we're trying to come up with a

148plan um to do that without spending dollars. And so, right now, we met again today and uh we're going to run two scenarios. uh one scenario with a three middle school model and one scenario with a four middle school model just so we can put it up on the board and look at the numbers administratively. So we plan to do that between now and the next work session on June the 9th and then also DLR um will be here on the 23rd to present a timeline um to you guys as a board of education that gives you an idea of where you're headed. um on that timeline administratively we felt like we should not give up on a new high school and so there will be a time we feel like we should put a

149new high school back on the ballot again. So because the the situation that we're putting ourselves in right now is not ideal. One note that I would make, you're not going to fix anything um as far as an educational standpoint. You're not moving anything into the 21st century learning environment. Um for those types of things. Now, I guess I shouldn't say anything educationally because staffing obviously is going to help. So, we feel like that that is the biggest concern. So, it's it's systemic, right? I mean, it's a system change. It's something you can't take a look at two high schools. You can't take a look at three middle schools or four middle schools. You can't take a look at 11 elementaryaries versus 10. It has to be prek through 12 education. And so, um, I

150think that that's the our biggest concern administratively is to make sure we're doing that and doing that right. And so, that's kind of where we're at. I would entertain any questions that you guys might have. But, uh, we hope to have feeder patterns and, uh, the middle school model issue addressed by the June 9th meeting. We'll provide that information then. And like I said, DLR will they're working with us right now about building a timeline that'll show you seven to 10 years of what it looks like to get to a two high school system. As you're mentioning about a new high school, you're mentioning like years out. It's not in like a couple of years, right? Well, they haven't really provided us with any dates at this time. So, yeah. I mean, it wouldn't be

151just like coming up now. Um, Uh, I mean, you're going to have to there's a lot of things you have to take into consideration, but you're probably looking at April 27, I would say, at the earliest. And then, you know, boards of education are going to change. You're going to have uh, one thing that we did talk about is that um, we want to make sure that if students are going to be moved, we only want them to be moved one time. And I think that that has been uh, something that everybody has talked about. So I think it's safe to say that um you're not going to see anything until 2728 because of that if you pursue on the ballot you mean right if if you pursue it a high school any changes. Yes.

152Well okay so just to be clear about the direction admin admin is working on a plan for the two high schools. Okay. like eventually a new high school as well. Well, I I think that the new high school is in the conversation. Um yes, the two high school model that we had in plan B with Lafayette at the number of students at 1150 as we just mentioned tonight and Central High School as the other one at 1700 students. Does that answer your question? I just um in a way it does, but in a way it doesn't. I'm just I don't want for people to get confused and they're thinking it's either the two high schools or we're going to do a new high school like well I think you have to look at I would

153I would say you have to look at it from a phased approach um that's one thing that we talked about administratively internally you know like a phase one phase two u because if something does happen then something does go away or not go I mean there there have there has to be steps. I mean I guess if you don't want to pursue a new high school ever again then um then you could strictly say that you were going to two high schools using current facilities with Lafayette Central. But I think administratively they felt like we shouldn't give up on a new high school later on down the road. And and I think the report states that that's not going to be a long a longl lasting fix for you is to use Lafayette and Central

154as high schools. It's not sustainable. Yeah, it's it's not sustainable forever, but it is something we feel like we need to go to now because of the staffing issues that we're facing. So, it's not you know, it's not the best hand to be dealt, but you know what? We need to step up to the plate and do it. I mean a plan it's not the number one choice. It's number two choice. It's not but you know what going to be the best choice. I just want like like a clear plan, you know, that everybody understands, everyone's able to look at and they're like, you know, everybody understands the school district is doing XYZ. And it's not, well, maybe if this happens, we'll do this. No, everybody knows that this is our plan. Here's what we're

155doing. Well, and I think that uh Dr. McGinness and I's conversation with DLR. Uh we feel like that that's that would be the importance of the timeline because you have something to look at, right? So you have something that shows you this is where we're at and this is where we want to go, but there's obviously different roads that'll lead to that final decision. And there's also different boards. I mean, every year new members of the board in like a two year. Like even if you make a plan now in a two years, it's an opportunity to meet five new people in the seats. You know what I'm saying? So, as long as there's a plan in place and we're able, you know, to begin the plan, I think that everybody, you know, all we

156want is a plan, right? comments or concerns from anybody. You want to do a plan, not something just to get out there as a plan, just to throw something at them, but as you're working on it, it'll be nice as as it progresses to see the end goal, but all the steps in between and they're looking at different scenarios, you said. Yeah. And I think it'd be good and I agree with saying, you know, a doable plan. I don't, you know, expect you guys, you know, to just give us anything. Well, and I and I agree with you. I think it's good to have a plan because your board is going to change. Administration is going to change. So, I always said a five, 10, 15 year plan is good to go by a guide

157by anything over here on this side. Yes, but I'm not I don't I'm going to save it. Okay. for everybody's benefit. I was going to say there'll be plenty of time. There'll be plenty of time. All right. Anything else about the long range plan? Nope. If not, uh are we at the end? Yep. Okay. Okay. See, future meetings and events. June 9th, 5:30 work session uh here at TMC. June 19th, the district is closed. Junth observed. June 23rd is the next regular uh board of education meeting. June 30th 8:30 a.m. board work session at TMC. Uh we need to adjourn to executive session pursuant 61021 closed meeting and closed records. One legal three hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees and 13 individually identifiable personnel records. Motion to adjurnn. I move. Thank you. Is

158there a second? Second. Miss Williams? Yes. Miss Miller? Yes. Miss Chzn? Yes. Miss Karns? Yes. Mr. War? Yes. Mr. Richmond? Yes. All right. This meeting is adjourned.