001All right, welcome and thank you for being here. Uh, all the new hires to OKCPS, whether you already a new hire, just moved up. Thank you for doing that or you're completely new to us. Appreciate you being here and we will get this board meeting going that is usually not at 9 in the morning. So, it's kind of odd for us, but we're here. So, let's get going. Thank you, Madam Chair. And we'd like to ask everyone to please silence your cell phones. And if you would uh need to have an extended conversation with the person next to you or on your phone, please do so in the lobby. Please note, spontaneous comments from the floor are not permitted. Individuals who exhibit disruptive or distracting behavior will be asked to leave. And finally, those who
002come to the podium to address the board are asked to please introduce yourself by name, title, and organization. With that, I will call the role. Paula Lewis, present. Carol Thompson, present. Lorie Bowman, present. Jessica Sephuentes, present. Dana Meister, present. Mike Shelton, present. Juan Lakona, Maghaney, thank you. We have a quorum. Thank you. Okay, let's see. Greg, did you already do the meeting protocol? Yes, ma'am. Meeting protocols are taken care of. Roll calls taken care of. We're ready to move on to uh the information agenda. All right. I'm sorry. I beg your pardon. Reports. Yeah. So, board member, just know this is a pretty lengthy agenda today. So, just be mindful of that as we move forward. There's great information on here, but it is necessary we get through it all so that the district can
003wrap up this school year and get on to next school year. reports and agendas. Um update regarding the John Rex Charter School contract renewal. Uh Mr. Mack will come to the uh podium. Thank you, Madam Chair, and good morning uh board members and our Dr. Pulk. Uh it's 9:00. I'm highly caffeinated. Um I just wanted to give you a uh update on to the John Rex renewal application. Um, every time that we have a charter school that is ending their term, we will give them a renewal application. It has two parts. A looking back on their past performance, um, and then a looking forward part on their, uh, plans for the next term. And so, I think Doug's got something for me, my man. Okay. Uh, looking forward. John Rex is is asking us to
004um allow them to expand their grade bands. So, right now they're prek through 8. Um they want to take it through the uh 12th grade track um and so complete their vertical pathway. They've uh eyeballed and put a LOI in for a location that's still in the downtown area at 615 North Hudson. um that is um just a little bit north of like the bus depot to give you kind of a a reference there, but still in that downtown uh area. Um this high school is going to focus on post-secary opportunities. So have a bunch of different tracks um for stuff like cyber security, aviation, entrepreneurialships. Um and then they will also have uh AP concurrent and like a general uh diploma sort of route on there. They have about 810 students currently in their
005pre-K through eight and they want to expand uh with the goal of being right over 1,700 kids um within uh the next 7 to eight years uh having about 500 students at that uh high school that was previously mentioned. They will begin um their uh expansion of numbers this year um adding an additional class in preK kinder first and then fifth, 6th and 7th and 8th. Um so adding about 120 students this year to go from 810 to about 920ish. Um they will have three different sites this year. Um the John Rex Elementary School. Then they have a Macaupine campus that houses their fifth and sixth graders. and they're opening um a new site at the Carnegie Library that will house their seventh and eighth grade students. Um that is there. Are there any questions
006though? That's it. So, this is back on for information board members because when we had the um presentation from John Rex, it was a great presentation. However, it did not say that they were extending to the 12th grade and so it came back on so that everybody on the board knew what that was. Um, also I'd have to refer exactly to Tony Childers, but the state law has changed and it's not up to us to approve or disapprove whether they expand. It's just for us to know. Am I correct on that, Tony? Yes. Okay. So, anybody have any thoughts, questions? Yes. Just thoughts. I just want to uh thank you for your presentation. I just always love to tell people that I'm a John Rexer for life. And uh my kids went to John Rex.
007And uh I I always tell people that uh uh my son, young son, was pretty discouraged on school. And uh and the parents, the teachers, the administration at that time, just gave him life again and enjoy enjoyment for school. And so I know that my son was one in hundreds of students that benefited and if they've done a great job K through eight and I'm looking for them to starting the high school. Yes. Can you expand on what you mean by like so we don't like we we don't approve if they're become if they have a high school or not? No. Can you expand on that? Like I mean I can't. It's the law. Tony can't law. It's I guess what I'm saying is why is it good for us to know? Why you're authorizing
008a school? So if you're going to authorize a school, we should know all the details of the school. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. So it's generally it's just part of their application process that comes before um but once they're approved, we're authorizing them and then they kind of control the size of their program in terms of the grade levels. So we again we wanted to bring it up to the board to make sure you were aware of it since that wasn't necessarily clear in the prior presentation a vote would come up to the board uh at our next meeting in July. Okay. And if I may please and good morning everyone. Um please know once we did see that I felt it was needed that you all knew and we just didn't sign. Uh which is why
009we kind of slowed that down just a little bit. I was assured that this would not slow down any process or anything of that nature. It's just real important for me if I know something. Board members, I want to be as transparent as I can and you know also uh but I was assured that us hearing this today and voting uh next month there would not be a delay. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes, Carol. Jason, could you go over the timeline again for adding the additional grades? Yes, ma'am. Uh this year they'll add uh a section um so maybe like 25 to 30 kids in prek, kinder first, and then fifth, 6th, 7th, and eighth. So that would increase their enrollment this year up to about 920, 9:30. the high school campus will not
010open until 2028 29 school year and so there's some time on that um for them to renovate a building um enter into a lease or and that's what's going to be in the Carnegie Library. No ma'am the Carnegie Library is a seventh and eighth grade center. So a middle high, a junior high, I don't know how they phrased it. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mack. I think that concludes that. So this will be on the July 14th meet meeting as an action item. All right. Okay. Information agenda. There is no action following this. 3.01 is to consider taking future action concerning additional courses for the 2025 2026 OKCPS middle school and high school course cataloges. Um if you have you've had it on the agenda if you have any questions. Uh Jerezer.
011No. Um, somebody would be here to answer question. Alicia, there you go. Alicia's here. Sorry, my notes said anybody. Are we good? All right, moving on. Consider future revisions 3.02 consider future revisions of OKCPS board policy D15 bond citizens oversight committee. Uh, Mr. Childers, our general counsel, is here for that. He sent that out to us. Um, this has been discussed with the current BOC and again this is information it would be on for a vote July 14th. July 14th. Okay. Stay at the stay there. Mr. Childers 3.03 103. Consider future revisions to OKCPS board policy F-04, student transfer, and F-05, student transfers for children of active duty military members. Um, anybody have any questions for Mr. Childress? All right. 3.04. Consider future revisions to OKCPS board policy I-03, curriculum guides, and course outline. All
012of these will be up for action on July 14th. Does anybody have any questions on that one? All right, I think you get to go. Wait, hang on. Mike has something. I I just uh I I have not I'm going to be telling myself I haven't looked at the new draft revisions of the bond oversight, citizens oversight, but I did make some recommendations. I know we're past that. Well, what what is on this paper is what's going to be submitted. It's what would be I mean well I mean there might be some tweaks to it but nothing anything significant. Yeah. Yeah. It's subject to obviously conversation between board members and here right now. Yeah. But mainly up just for information for the board. We good to move forward? You good to move forward? Okay. All
013right. for uh special business 4.01 consider voting to wave the information appearance of proposed revisions to OKCPS board policy F-25 electronic communication devices. So as you know per our board policy we have the policy states that any um policy change would have an information item one month and following we would vote on it. The district is asking us to wave this policy specifically for this is the cell phone law that came out of legislation in order to get it into place for the school year when it needs to be. So, this is really more that the legislation when it came and how quickly they could get it to us. So, that's what we're voting on right now is to wave it and then the next item would be um to approve the policy. So, I'll
014make a motion to wave the information appearance of proposed revisions to policy F-25. Is there a second? Second. Call for the vote. [Music] And for the record, members, for this item to pass, it requires a unanimous vote. If we don't pass, if we don't wave the policy, then we will really put the district in a hard place for having this ready to go and principles being able to understand what what they need to do moving forward. So, Mr. Shelton, did you want to keep your vote as it is? Thank you so much. I'm just not favorable on waving stuff. But uh if it if it is uh if it yeah for everyone's benefit, we have eye votes from all members with the exception of Mr. Shelton. I have not saved the vote. Thank you for
015calling me out. Thank you. I beg your pardon, sir. I beg your pardon. May I please also uh give a little information in regards of the necessary u move on today regarding the waiver. it will put us behind even to uh go for funding that um we will need or could apply for uh if we wait till July. That is why we're bringing it forth. It's already law. I'm asking us to support the principles, especially high school principles who may want to use state funds to um offset any cost. If we don't, I promise you, we'll miss the window. That's why I had to bring and ask for the waiver on today. So, how do I how do I flip since So, you would like to change your vote to an I vote, sir. I
016beg your pardon for calling you out. I didn't mean to do that. So, you are just for the record, you're an I vote. I I I will I will change my vote to an I vote. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I had that right. So, that being said, we do have um Well, I just tried to change it in Board Docs and it didn't want to do that. So, I'm going to ask all members if we could uh revote on this. We're going to try this one more time. My apologies. Members, you can now select your votes. Oh my god. And while you all are voting, please note um I had uh high school principles even at uh 6:00 this morning me answering emails as soon as this gets across the line, they're
017ready to take it and um now make this OKCPS um procedures so that they can go to work. Uh please note and I say a very special thank you to the high school principles for the meetings that they have had for us to be first day ready. Craig, should we be seeing this? Good. Yep. Madam Chair, I think board docs is uh not being very cooperative. So I'm going to I've just logged everyone's vote in as an I vote. And as we can see on the screen, we have six I votes and zero nay votes. Therefore, the motion carries. Thank you. Okay. So, I do want to thank the district for not bringing us this very often. Um I know we get in a time crunch, but I do appreciate it because um Mr. Shelton
018is right that it's not ideal to wave it, but if it's important for us to move things along for the outcomes for kids and we willing to do that. 4.02 02 consider taking action regarding revisions to OKCPS board policy F-25 electronic communications device. Um is there a motion to approve the proposed provisions to the policy? Oh, so move. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? I actually did have a question, Tony. Sorry. Um it's not in the policy but I think in the email maybe you sent us or I don't know where I saw it but it said that after this year is basically is year one that there is an opportunity at the end of this to basically look back and see am I like what worked and there's an opportunity to
019modify based on the experience that the district has this year with this particular policy. Am I that's correct. So SB139, which was passed this year, which is this change in law, requires that every school for this year have a policy in place that restricts cell phone use during instructional periods. So from the first spell at the start of the school day to the bell marking the end of the school day. Every school has to have that. After this year, the law then allows school boards or actually requires that you go through the process of reviewing that policy each year. And after this initial year, the board then could decide that no, we want to we would like to be uh less restrictive and to allow students to use it during particular times or whatever else.
020It would give discretion back to the board to make a local decision of exactly how they want that policy worded. And would that policy I'm sorry, would that policy have to be then submitted and approved like by the Department of Education? No. Modified? No, it would just be approved by the local board. doesn't require state board um approval for that policy. Uh it's just for this one year. And even this policy this year doesn't necessarily require uh SBE approval or state department of ed approval. It we just have to have a policy that's restrictive as to this year. After that, it's totally the decision of of this board. Okay. My last one and then anybody else. But so I guess that means that that you all basically have to have a system in place to
021get feedback from our schools. And I I I just want to say so that we're ready in a year next June or May or whenever you come back to us to say this is the feedback we got from principles and the challenges the you know all of that and that that was a big part of our conversations with our principles is this year we don't get to make a decision. So that's why we're using this year to be sure that we know and we have information to bring back to the board so that they can make an informed decision based on the data that we have of what has that impact been for our students in the classroom. Wonderful. That's great. You're kind of reading my mind a little bit right there. But um though,
022I would like to request and if the board agrees or not, that we get an update on how it's going at the end of the first semester and by spring break the second semester, so that we don't get in this situation where we're waving another policy. And quite honestly, like as many of us are parents up here or, you know, have people that still work in the schools, we're gonna catch a lot of questions about this, even though it's state law, they're somehow going to think it's our fault. So, it's just going to happen. And that's okay. I mean, it is what it is. But if we could just be able to say that we're going to get a report back out on how things are going at two times before the policy comes. Certainly.
023And that's one of the reasons we also wanted to try to get this weighed because it's important for us to have that communication with families now to start that communication as early as possible because we have to have those communications with families who are ultimately making the decision about the cell phones going with their kid to school or not. Um but we want to start those communications have them often have them early so that families are prepared. Okay. Anyone? Yes. So when I was reading through it, it it says from bell to bell. So for in a high school situation, passing periods, lunch periods, they can't have them during any of that either. Correct. That's correct. It's it's from the first bell marking the start of instruction for the first class to the last bell
024marking the end of instruction for the last class. That's that's the requirement of the law and they refer to it as the belltoell no sale bill. So from that first bill to the very last bill, no passing periods um or in lunch anything like that. Cell phone could not be used. Now there are exceptions as you've seen built in there if there's an emergency situation or health situation where that that could be an exception but otherwise it's restricted use. Um yes so and also good morning Paula forgot to tell you good morning earlier. Um but um so since the cell phone use is going to be prohibited, can they still have them on their person or is that something that the schools are going to have to dictate how they can still have them on
025their person? They just cannot use them. For for many students, they use it early at the start of the day. They get a hold of their family or at the end of the day to let them know whether you I'm on my way home. I've made it home or even to contact a a relative and say, "Hey, mom can't pick me up today. Can you pick me up?" So they would still have them on their person. They just cannot use them during the instructional period. Uh the idea being that students should be focusing in the classroom, but they still have access to those devices outside of instructional period from that first spell to the last spell. Awesome. And I have a follow-up. Um and so I think uh yeah, what we kind of were talking
026a little bit about were student outcomes and how this policy will affect student outcomes. So, I'm definitely intrigued to hear how that will improve our student outcomes in the future. Um, I do remember there was um a school board um it's a rural area here in Oklahoma that they did pass a um something similar a long time ago already and they just prohibited cell phone use. And I mean even even just um how students interact with each other during breaks. I mean they were playing games and um and and having face-toface interaction um even on breaks. I mean, that was just a huge improvement on how um students were interacting with each other and um and you know, and just being present. And so, I'm I'm pretty excited to hear about student outcomes and how
027this particular policy will affect that. And we even had meetings that included parents, uh principles, and even a student who reflected the same sort of um communications about the need for a policy. Okay. Oh, okay. might thank you first and foremost uh for the information. Uh just couple of questions is that uh how are we addressing punishments for the students that may break it the first time, second time, third time ensuring that students on the south side are treated the same as the kids on the north side depending on who the principles are. I I'm uh just curious what kind of uniformity punishment is the district looking at to say this is what happens. So the the law does require that some sort of discipline be tied to a violation of the policy. Uh it
028did not require a change of our discipline policy. We already have a policy that has discipline in place for students for uh misuse of electronic devices. So if a violation of this policy would fall under that. Um I believe that for first, second, third, it's really uh inschool suspension there. We're not looking at out of school suspension unless it's something that were to become uh greater than that. I do know there's an ongoing conversation with principles about support for that to be sure that yes, we're addressing it uniformly across school districts, but that all of our principles are on the same page in terms of understanding of how this will be applied so that we aren't getting outliers for a student that had a phone and uh got it out one time and now they're
029being suspended because that's that's not the effort. the effort is to be sure that students are paying attention in the classroom um while also supporting our local sites uh with with appropriate discipline um under this under the law. So I um this is a ridiculous question probably but I I am going to ask you what the definition of use is uh because this your cell phone is a computer tool uh for and you do research on it. Yeah. And so, uh, students are use their cell phones as much as calling and texting as they do looking up information they need to use in their classroom. So, I'm just curious on what is use. It would be um bringing out the phone to open it and use it for searching the internet, uh, for texting, for
030calling, um, any of that would be use. So, if they're wanting to use it in the classroom, uh it they need to be using school approved devices. Um the law does give some exception where um if it is a school authorized use. So, if it's something where the district are to authorize the use of a device for some particular reason, um we could go that route, but typically bringing out the phone, using it for any purpose really, so texting, calling, looking information up, um whatever it might be would be a violation of the policy. I got one more question. Mh. So, uh, cell phones are often used to document bad behaviors of teachers, other students. Uh, is that student for recording a bad behaving teacher or a fight in the classroom or whatever it is,
031is that person is is that person guilty of misuse of the cell phone? If it's during the instructional period, then yes. if they're getting out the cell phone to record um whatever it might be, it would be a violation of the policy. Yes. And and to be just to make sure, we don't have much control of this policy this year. Not for this year. It really the restriction is from bell to bell. No cell phone use from that first instructional bell to the last. But we have control of the policy, the punishments. We do. Yes. But there has to be punishment tied to uh a violation of the policy. Okay. And if I'm excuse me again, may I also add that and I'm going to read following today's board action, Miss Martin, senior executive director
032um for secondary will coordinate with principles, general counsel to align the next steps and ensure building level practices are anchored in this new policy with the proper language. But we be as equitable as possible. And it I looked out at the audience because we have several principles uh and and they're the ones who have drafted this when you sat southside this side and we we will attempt to be on one accord. So um Mr. Shelton, you're right in line. Uh but please note uh the principles are already ahead and so um as chair has said this is what has been given to us and so we will keep documentation and report back to the board um what are what we see but I look forward to the principles coming back and saying what the desired
033behavior will be and that's what we'll report out on consistently. Okay. Yes. I just want to um assure Mike that students will have uh Chromebooks uh for research and for anything they need on the internet that they, you know, were using their phones for in the past. Most uh classrooms have like a mobile cart or either um Chromebooks in the classrooms that they can use for that. And also there is a student code of conduct that we all follow in Oklahoma City public schools for that one. And I'd like to respond to that and I appreciate the comment and I have I have absolute confidence that the principles are doing their part, the teachers are going to do their part. where I get nervous is is that some teachers are a little bit more lax
034on the rules than other teachers and and then it just it it's it creates a confusion and so I just get uh a bit nervous uh on uh if everybody doesn't stick to the rules and we know that they don't uh uh it makes it hard to enforce a policy. I recognize that the legislature sent it to us. We don't have to like it. Uh and uh I just I'm going to be voting no, but I don't I don't disagree that we should pass a policy. Uh but I'm not for uh the legislature dictating what's going on at the Oklahoma City public schools. Okay. I I respect not liking the OKCP the legislator telling us what to do honestly Mike but if all of us decided to take that stance we would put the board
035the district in harm's way and that's not our job to put the district in harm's way okay so I'm assuming you guys are somebody over it's Chuck Chuck Thompson I might get this right over climate and he will be tracking all schools down to the teacher level of where infractions are happening. Correct. That's correct. And that will be part of our report that we will receive back. Okay. Awesome. But we won't know the teacher's name because that's not a thing. We don't do personnel. Just to clarify, I'm not asking for that. Just general maybe feeder patterns or something of that nature. All right. Okay. There's no other call the vote. Oh, hang on. Last thing. Um I did have a question. I know sometimes there are activities that might use a cell phone. Does this
036uh policy um allow us like if a teacher wants to make an exception to bell to bell? We don't get a choice this time. No, I don't. There's no choice. Nothing. Not this year. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you. All right. I'll make a motion to uh approve the revisions to OKCPS board policy F-25 electronic communication devices. Is Madam Chair, I do apologize. We already have a motion from Vice Chair and a second then call the vote. Okay. [Music] Sorry. Having received five I votes and one nay vote, the motion carries. Thank you. 4.03 is consider taking action on the 2026 2027 student academic calendars. Um, this is simply to keep they've already we've already approved next year's 2526 and the district tries to keep us at least a two years at a time approved so
037that families can make plans, teachers, principles, everybody can make plans for um their future u needs. So, I'll make a motion to approve the 2026 2027 student academic calendar. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? I've got something. Yes. Uh yes. I just wanted to continue to encourage the bilingualness. Um I think this was great. Really well done. Um whoever decided that um and it's it's just accessible uh to have uh two languages um on the same document as opposed to having to find a different link or a different attachment somewhere else. Um and just thank you to the district for for being accessible in that way. Okay. Call the vote. Having received six I votes and zero day votes, the motion carries. Thank you. 4.04 is consider taking action on the fiscal
038year 2026 budget based on appropriations projections. Um I'll make a motion to approve the fiscal year 2026 budget based on appropriations revenue projections. Is there a second? Second. Was that Carol or Jess? Carol. Okay. Um, is there any discussion? If there is, we have our CFO, Sydney Ward, in the audience. Yes. Did you need her to come to the podium or you making a statement? That's a question. Okay. Come on up, Sydney. Yes. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Um so my question was um so if we look at page 12 I see that our revenue projected um for those columns is less than our revenue budget um for FY 2020. Hold on. Do you want me to come grab my computer? You can look at it. Yeah, I didn't I can bring mine up here. Okay.
039Okay. So, you're looking at the 26. Yes. So, the FY25 projected is less than the revenue budget for FY26. Yeah, we are projecting a little bit of an increase for our tax collections because um our net assessed value has went up slightly. So, we're anticipating receiving more money that in that column in that section of revenue. We're also uh projecting a slight increase in our foundation aid um due to our student counts going up and uh the basis of what we use the rate to calculate that on the our foundation aid mean meaning of the state our state aid money. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Um okay. And is that that's for all of that in the columns? Yeah. Column C will be the what we're projecting to receive next year and we're projecting a slight
040increase in those two areas. We also have a little bit of a decrease decrease in our federal money just because of ESER went away. So decrease money. Okay. Okay. Perfect. And then and I also saw and this was actually just a comment um that we on other other pages I think it was page 14. Um yeah our budget was also over um from our projected from the year before and so another in building fund. Yes. Yeah. We we'll receive we'll receive a little bit of a tax or the tax money coming in will be slightly increased, but building fund will decrease because they're not going to receive any federal dollars next year. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. There's no further discussion. We'll call the vote. You're an I vote, Mr. Shelton. Thank you. Having
041received six I votes and zero nay votes, the motion carries. Thank you. It brings us to the consent agenda. Is there any member who desires to pull an item off for discussion only or to be voted on separately? Okay. Is there a motion to approve the Wait. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Call the vote. Mr. Sheldon's having issues getting back to his uh thing. We're almost done. We've only got one more vote. Yeah. Okay. Got it. We're good. We're okay. We're okay. Thank you, members. Having received six I votes and zero nay votes, the motion carries. All right. Well done. We don't have executive session today. Wow. I know. I'm just smiling. But before you do, I'd like to say a thank you. Um
042and if Thank Yeah. Thanks for share it a little bit in regards of what we have here, please. Oh, let me Hey, before we do that, because it's not on our agenda. Oh, I'm sorry. So, let me make a motion to adjurnn. Perfect. Somebody second it. Second. Call the vote. All in favor say I. I. Now, Dana. Any oppose? Say nay. Oh, now Dana, you can talk to us. Wait a minute. Hearing none. Motion carries. We're adjourned. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to show my appreciation to everyone that works at the board here and I'll be giving these to my uh teachers and principles of the schools that in district 4. I work at a bookstore and one of the uh authors gave these little bitty tiny school buses out with her book because
043the book was about schools and I thought I've got to have those. So these are all for me and for appreciation from what for what you all do and if you didn't get one today um I left the bag full here and I have I should have one for everybody that works at the board. So thank you guys very much for what you do. Thank you everybody. Enjoy your summer. Thank you.