ESD Board Meeting: Business Session for Monday, June 9th 2025

001Monday, June 9th, 2025. And I call this business session of the Elizabeth School District Board of Education to order at 6 PM. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan here. Director Fletcher is absent. Director Olsen here. Director Pal here. And Director Waller here. Okay, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I move that the board approve the agenda for this June 9th, 2025 business meeting as presented. Second. Any discussion? Okay. Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Powell. Hi. And Director Waller. Hi. I move that the board approve the minutes from the board of education meeting

002on May 19th, 2025. Second. Tie. Tie. Okay. Any discussion? All right. Can you get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi, Director Olsen. Hi, Director Powell. Hi, Director Waller. Hi. Okay, next up we have communications and we have our chief academic officer, Kim Moore, here to give a presentation on year end data. Yes. Is it warm enough? It's flashing. You have to hold it down. You see numbers? I see numbers now. Maybe That's warming up. It's It just takes time. I see an Epson. Oh, there we go. We're on the road. There we turned the light off. There we go. Thank you. Okay. So, you can go ahead and start. So just as a reminder, this is the I Ready end of the year data. I did bring um forth the beginning of the year data

003as a comparison. Um remember that the darker green is at mid or or above grade level. The lighter green is early on grade level. Yellow we're looking at um students that are scoring about a grade level below. And then the lighter red is two levels below and the dark red is three great levels below. So just kind of keep that in mind. And I'm going to show you the math scores first. So we have Running Creek. So at the end of the year we had um 47% grade level proficiency in math um which is a 34% increase from the beginning of the year but it is a 9% drop from last year's math scores and that's overall kindergarten through fifth grade. And then I broke down the you have in your packet I broke down

004all the grade levels. Um, so you can see kindergarten beginning of the year to end of the year. Great growth, first grade, second grade. Sorry, great great decrease in the number of red students that scored in the red in kindergarten in first grade and again in second grade. So some great growth for those students. third grade, fourth and fifth. So that's Running Creek's map data. So what is the little area with the stripes? That that's the darker color. So that's three or four grade levels below. Yeah. If you're looking at the red, that's three or more grade levels below. This is where our our gap begins to form. as you know, young primary grades, children are are really staying on track and then as we get to third grade and above, we start seeing this

005chasm begin to form and some students just don't get out of it and that's what we've got to address. Is that pretty typical? Um, it's typical nationally. I mean, our national data isn't far off from what we're showing, but it's unacceptable. It is unacceptable. I just didn't be the only ones. No, we're not the only ones, unfortunately. Okay. So basically what we're seeing is there is there is a drop in grade level but there's also a decrease in the students that are in the red. Yes. So they're kind of going in the middle. Yes. Okay. We just need to get the yellows. You'll see the yellows get them closer to the green. So closer to grade level. So we are seeing a great you know typically a good decrease in um the number of students

006scoring in the red. The only grade level here that that comes to mind that's a little bit concerning is the fourth grade. You didn't see as much of a drop, but we also had um some change in personnel in fourth grade at Running Creek. So about mid year we lost a teacher and then we had it took us a little bit to find a teacher to that was when um Jessica Henley stepped in, the dean of students stepped in to teach that class. So, it took us a little bit to find a teacher to win that gap. Definitely some areas we'll want to watch as we begin next year. We'll do a beginning of the year assessment. So, we'll see, you know, have students regressed over the summer, but um again, we we just have

007a few grade levels here at Running Creek that we're really going to have to target um and monitor very closely to make sure that we we make up some ground next year. Again, thank you. Singing Hills, they were at 63% grade level proficiency at the end of the year. That's a 43% increase from the beginning of the year. Um, but it is a 5% drop from last year's end of the year scores. So again, a drop in in the number of students percentage of students that scored in grade level proficiency. But if you'll notice, take a look at the beginning of the year versus the end of the year. Look at the the increase in the green and the decrease in the red. Yeah. Yeah. That's And so we just we're closing that gap. We

008just need to be able to get that final push to be able to get them into the grade level proficiency band. And remember, we're talking about our new policy is a more than a grade level below is where we're going to have those concerns. So we're really talking about the red or the striped red of students. So when you look at, you know, the the two different schools, it gives you an idea of, you know, where we have some additional work to do um to make sure that we remediate those students prior to the end of the year. So now, is there any indication are these new students to the district or these students that have been I did not follow it as a cohort. If you want that information, I can follow. I'm just

009curious if it's students that have been brought up through ours or it would be everybody. Okay. So, but I could break that down for you if you'd like that. I can get that information to you. Be great. Sure, we can do that. You bet. If you look at the math data by grade level though, look at the kindergarten grade. Um, remember again, this is for math. So, look at the the beginning of the year to the end of the year at the increasing green. That's great. First grade, second grade. some great growth in these in these primary grades in math. Jeremy, go on. Yes, please. Thank you. And third grade, again, we're looking at great growth. We just need to be able to fill in that gap, get that final push. And I have the

010middle school. So we again for math 48% grade level proficiency at the end of the year. This was a 2% increase from last year's math scores um it's a 19% increase from the beginning of the year. Remember we did change curriculum on them at the beginning of the school year. So this is their first year using the I Ready core curriculum. So um sometimes when you change curriculum you'll see a decrease before you start seeing some growth. So, I was excited to see that that our students had responded well to the to the new curriculum. Um, sixth grade, um, seventh grade, eighth grade, you can see we had some struggles in eighth grade. Um, didn't see as much growth as we would have hoped. Um but we do have um some strong teachers coming in

011next year to begin the year. So I think things will will greatly improve. So we'll move on to reading and this is Running Creek's um reading scores kindergarten through fifth grade 55% grade level proficiency at the end of the year. That's a 12% drop from end of the year last year when I presented this data. Um it is a 30% increase from the beginning of the year. So that that drop from the previous year. Remember you do have different students, right? Well, that's true. Yeah. Some stu some different students, right? Right. Because your fifth graders move up and you have new kindergarteners. All right. So, so is that is that kind of where you think it lies in just the the change in the mix of students or is this we're going to we're going

012to share some analysis as we get through the data of what we believe we need to do next year and what maybe hadn't been done this year. So, so we'll get to that. I have some next steps at the end. So, if you'll hold that thought, I will. Okay. So, one of the good thing look at kindergarten. Look at the great growth we saw in kindergarten at Running Creek. And again in first grade and second grade, we saw some great growth with our students. Third grade, fourth grade, um that band of yellow students that scored in the yellow um did increase or decrease, I'm sorry. Um, and then fifth grade, they saw a great growth in the number of students that were scoring at or above grade level. And this is Singing Hills. We have

01373% of our students reading at grade level at Singing Hills, which is the same percentage they were at at the end of last year, but it's a 40% increase from last from the beginning of the year scores. Look at kindergarten scores. This kindergarten scores were pretty exciting. This is a grade level that struggled with a lot of students that had behavioral issues. And the fact that our teachers could push those students to that to that level of achievement is exciting. move to the middle school. You want me to move on? Yep, I think so. Um, at the middle school, we scored 55% at grade level proficiency, which is again a 2% increase from last year's end of the year scores, which is and a 12% increase over the beginning of the year. Could I could

014I ask you to go back to fifth grade? Yes, sir. Sing Hills. So this is really our key challenge for next year is like looking at fifth graders who are more than a grade level below. We're talking about 22% at at Singing Hills and um sorry and and 48% at at Brenn Creek. So just to outline kind of the challenge that we face and the work that we have to do. So, as we begin to talk about our next steps, it's going to be really critical. And what we're really going to need is is fidelity to our plan. Um, I think we'll talk a little bit about what we feel maybe didn't happen this year, some of the the deep dives that that Kim has done on on on processes and procedures we put into

015place and maybe some that were stopped mid year um that led to we believe some of the decline from midyear to end of the year. And that's going to be really important that we're very clear that we expect interventions. We expect students to continue to stay on target um all the way through the school year and not not let up let up on the gas. All right. Can we're having a conversation. It's all good. So there's your Yep. You're good. So this is the breakdown by grade level. um beginning of the year, middle of it or end of the year for all three grades. Really strong growth in in seventh grade. In sixth grade, we did have um a teacher that was out about mid year. I think she went out early early fall. So,

016we had a substitute in there and while she did a good job, um, sometimes that's reflected in the scores as well. What about eighth grade? We had a 2% increase from the beginning of the year in the um the above grade level and a little bit of a drop in the the lighter green. But you picked that up. So was there any teacher change? Brand new teacher. She was first year teacher. And again, remember we changed curriculum at the beginning of the school year. We didn't provide the curriculum until right before they started school. So that also has an effect on on their ability to plan. So I think moving forward with it with them having gone through a full year with the curriculum, they're more familiar with it. The planning, the scope and sequence

017will be more in line with what we need it to be in order to improve the student growth. Okay. So next steps, Mary, your question was about what we're going to do right next year. So, um, I've done a lot of digging into the data. This is just a a brief overview of the data. We could be here all night looking at data, but I know you turn into a pumpkin. So, we got got uh three two hours and 45 minutes. So, if you want more different data, I can get the cohort data for you. If there's anything else, just let me know and I can pull that for you. Wanted to give you a brief overview of that. um next steps for us especially at the um well at the elementary and the middle

018school is having a PLC personalized learning community where teachers are meeting on a regular basis talking about the scope and sequence of when they're supposed to be teaching things and how they're supposed to be teaching things. Um especially tying in that explicit instruction and incre increasing the rigor of our tier one instruction. So tier one instruction is what all of our students get in the classroom. So we need to increase that rigor of what they're getting in the classroom. So having those personal or uh professional learning communities where teachers are talking about what they're teaching, how they're teaching, and when they're teaching things um on a regular basis is important. That's not something that's been happening um on a on a regular basis. Is that something that would be led by like you? It would

019be led typically by the um principal or by the AP or dean. Um usually an agenda set by the by the principal or the or the AP. They would set them together and having a weekly focus like one week that the teams might meet to talk about math data and and ma math scope and sequence. Um, the next week they might be talking about reading, writing, and having a a rolling agenda and talking about specific students and their scores and what they can do to help increase those scores and where those students are scoring, how they're doing in the classroom. Because while we do I testing, this is only one component of it. This doesn't make or break a student, right? It's only one snapshot in time. we need to talk about how they're doing

020in the classroom, how they're doing on unit assessments and things like that. Um, so having those conversations, um, having a an intentional focus on data analysis, um, by the administration, but also by the classroom teachers. Um, when we started doing takeflight therapy groups at at Running Creek this year, one of the things that I heard from some parents that I called and asked if we could do further testing on their students, they asked me how did how did we identify their student as to why they might be a good candidate for take flight therapy. And I told them one of the things that we looked at was I ready data. and they said, "I ready data. Our teachers told us that the data doesn't matter." Oh, so it's changing and and some of those teachers

021are no longer with us. Um but changing that mindset that it is only one component. We know that, but it's an important component because when we have to look at data to make determinations as to who to further screen for further intervention, we need to have data to back that up. And so it's important. So changing that mindset. Um, and part of that might just be um providing more professional development and professional learning for our staff to help them understand why the data is important and what it means. Um, that was something we tried to bring in this past year and I think it it's something that I'm planning on on working on further as we as we move into next year. Kimber, you want to talk about your data drive last week with my

022ready staff? Sure. Um, what was that? Tuesday. Tuesday of last week, I had um principal elementary principles came um for one session and then we had a middle school session and and we had a gentleman come from curriculum associates. that's I I ready and he helped us dive into the data. So he helped teach the the principles and the deans and the APs how to dive into the system to look at the different data. Um I ready has some great components in it that will help us be able to provide tools to the teacher to provide interventions in the classroom can help special education teachers um provide support with those students during their pull out time as well. that's aligned with what we're teaching in the classroom. So the we did spent um two and

023a half hours with elementary um admin and then another two and a half hours with the middle school admin diving into data and really looking at things and getting into the backside of things and helping to develop their knowledge of the program so that they can then take that information back to their buildings and help support their teachers. I already does have a dyslexia screener too, which is obviously going to be very important as we implement our dyslexia program next year. So, I'm just making sure that everyone understands how to utilize that data. I thought that was an an outstanding opportunity. Will that data be able to be when when a student is identified as, you know, a potential, you know, issue with dyslexia or whatever? Is that is there a report that can be

024generated so that the parent and the and the teacher or whoever can look at it together and it can be you know has something black and white and hard for the parent to see. Definitely. And and so when we do any assessment, whether it's beginning of the year, middle of the year, end of the year, and we we're looking at the data, um students that have a significant reading deficiency, SRD, they are flagged and then we can provide that information to parents, we can write we're required to write a read plan if if that data is backed up by what we see in the classroom and by f further diagn diagnostic type testing. um if because we don't want to just make a decision on a student based on one test score, right? So, we

025do some more digging, but if it's supported, if that score is supported by what we see in the classroom and other other assessments that then we do, then we write a read plan or if they're older, we put them on what's called an MTSS plan, um multi-tier stu uh systems of support. Thank you. Systems of support. In the old days, it used to be part of RTI, so if you're a little old school, you can too many acronyms. Um, so there's things that we can put in place and provide the parents to let them know what we're doing to help support the student, but also what they can do at home to help support their students at home because we we can't do everything at at school, right? They spend more time at home than

026they do at school. So, we need to partner with their parents to help them um help us. Right. Now, you mentioned um previously there's a program that parents can like a like a training that parents can actually take that's provided by the state on helping teach your child how to read. I It's the um like a supplementary the science of reading. Okay. There are there are some components there that would be helpful. It goes really indepth. I don't know if you've gotten I haven't tried again, but I've tried two or three times to get into that thing and I it it just stops me and I don't know where to go and one of these days I just need to make an appointment. Well, and if you're frustrated, a parent's going to be frustrated. Well,

027exactly. I mean, I I was very frustrated. And I Ready, the the I Ready component has all kinds of tools in there that we can print off and give to parents to help them support their kids at home. there's little mini lessons they can do and and other supports that they can be doing. So, that's all part of like creating a read plan and going over that with parents during parent teacher conferences or um you know the MTSS plan. Same thing. We tend to do those about the same time as we do parent teacher conferences and it's just a supplement to what we're doing during documents the day. Yes. Yes. So it documents what interventions we're doing um in the classroom but also outside the classroom. So if our student if a student qualifies to

028be pulled out for reading intervention, what are we utilizing in there and tracking their progress? Because if you're use utilizing an intervention, you want to keep data to make sure you're progress monitoring those specific skills that the students deficient in and seeing if the intervention work is working. If it's not, you need to change the intervention. you don't it's like you know going having an illness and treating it the same way forever and not ever getting better right so we need to change things up sometimes so how is that data gathered like if it's not through I ready assessments how is that data so there are other assessments within I ready there's progress monitoring we can do but there's also literacy tasks so um some school districts use dibbles um I has the same assessments

029built into it. So, it's like phenemic awareness and and oral reading fluency and things like that. You probably have heard those. Those are built into the I Ready system. We don't have to pay extra for it. And um teachers can give those assessments. We also use Spire as a reading intervention program, especially for our younger students, and they have assessments built in as well. So we have all kinds of different data points that we can collect to determine whether or not what we're seeing in I Ready is is accurate or not. So I know we did I Ready training last year for the teachers. So is that that's ongoing training? Yes. Okay. Yes, it is. And one of the things that I really feel strongly about is building up the knowledge of our um admin

030team so that they can take that information back to to the teachers during PLC time. So when they're having those professional learning communities, the the principal or the dean can be meeting with the teachers and showing them how to dig into that data and and helping them understand why that information is important and what we can do moving forward. It's great to have data, but if you don't know what to do to improve the data, it it's not very helpful. Well, and if everybody's on the same page when you do the handoff of a child from second to third grade or third to fourth, that that helps with consistency. Yes. Good consistency. Yes, for sure. There was a um it seems like a while back, quite a while back, and I think this was just

031sort of a quick reference to something, but it seems like talked about and this is great that you know we would have the training for the you know some help for the parents and stuff but on sort of an even more basic level um I I just recently read this article that kind of made total sense to me especially with young parents who as they grew up they learned reading through like whole language and things like that so they don't really like to read to their kids because they don't read very well and so um from a from a very basic level, not even into data and not you know for kids who are necessarily having problems but just from a very basic level. I would love to see some sort of a program if

032we could get engagement with it you know for the parents to just kind of come in and you know understand the importance of it and you know maybe some helps for them but just really encourage them you know to to read to their child because I think from what everything I've seen that makes a huge difference in the early years to to read to your kids and students having access to books. Yes, exactly. So um I don't know if there's something like that that we could do. It seems like we talked about that a long time ago. What district was it? One of the other districts down south they were doing a program to where they would have like a parent night where they would bring the parents in for training. Yeah. So just you

033know very you know basic level but you know just because I don't know well just not even like should I say training that makes it yeah that makes you know but to help help them to understand that they are an integral part of this process and encourage them and give them ideas and um I I I'm just not you know everybody is extremely busy these days so that's something that could easily fall by the wayside and we need to make sure they understand how important it is. Well, and I think that starts with our early childhood program as well. And I know Karina has worked to have um pro parent nights and and exposure for parents on the importance of literacy and what that looks like even in preschool because that's where it needs to

034start, right? Infant, toddler, preschool. And so we're doing some alignment over the next year between the preschool and into the the elementary school of curriculum and and scope and sequence to Karina's really, you know, wants to make sure that what they're doing in the preschool classrooms is supporting what we're doing in the elementary school classrooms and they're preparing their students accessibility shortcuts. Sorry. Okay. Way to go. So, so focusing on data um implementing of the win time or the the intervention time doing it with fidelity at all grade levels in all buildings including ability grouping for classroom teachers. So, what um what we what I had directed um principles this year was that at the elementary level was that we would have win time or intervention time. would be a set time 40 to 45

035minutes a day, four days a week. We would use spire. Students would be that were scoring the lowest. The students with special education needs would be pulled out during that time. Students that needed reading intervention would be pulled out during that time and be seen by the reading interventionist and we would use spy or other researchbased programs to support their reading needs. Um, and then those students that stayed back in the general education classroom, let's say it's a a third grade classroom, we would take those students that were remaining, and we would ability group them so that you had like needs in those classrooms and you would split them among the remaining teachers so that teachers would be able to focus on the needs of those specific students and that those groups should change as

036the students needs change. Right? If you're doing an inter intervention, you should be filling gaps and as those gaps get filled, then hopefully they move into the next highest higher group. And so making sure that we're doing that with fidelity next year. Um because unfortunately that that was not the case. And how do you see the grouping working with like a direct instruction? Well, this is a different time. So we have a set 45 minute block that isn't during the tier one direct instruction time. kind of like a breakout. Yes. Yep. It's a breakout session. It's exactly what it is. And every grade level has a different breakout session time so that the interventionist can work with a specific grade level. Okay. So, this year was the first year that you had arranged though for

037this very specific time, right? Yes. Regular. Yes. So, that was a good first step, but obviously now it needs to be utilized better. It will be implemented with fidelity moving forward. So I I think again it is um encouraging teachers to see the importance of what we're doing and why we're trying to do it. So and I think sometimes that got lost in translation and so um helping them understand um the importance of having those ability groups and that you're not you don't have the same group all year long because those groups should be fluid. They should we should be looking at data every six to you know six weeks six to eight weeks and we should be moving students along as we're filling in those gaps or taking in other students that that might

038need that hole filled. Um so on like the Thursday late start days um is that when you do some of this training? Yes. And then also of course obviously a little more in depth on personal development days and stuff like that. Yes. and and we don't have that many honestly professional development days. So trying to get this into the hands of the principles so that they can get it down to the to the teachers I think is the best way for us to do that because I meet with principles at least once a month. And so and I meet one-on-one with every principal every week. So having those conversations and and providing them with the knowledge and and the understanding of why we're doing what we're doing and the importance in doing it with fidelity.

039Um and then they can take that back to their team because it needs to come from them because that's their team of teachers and they they need to collaborate with them and help them understand. And if they if the teachers have a lack of knowledge in something then then that would be the best person to go to. you know, if they have questions. Yep. I mean, we have we have a great gift of Thursday morning delayed start. And I think as as Kim indicated, getting a routine of this Thursday, we're looking at this data that this Thursday we're looking at that data is not something that has existed. And I think that's going to be really critical that we establish that practice. Yeah. And we're actually looking at not using the Thursday mornings because um

040that would be more like um you could do department level conversations but having a set time during the week during their planning time taking one day that's specific. That way the principal or the dean can go to those specific meetings. If you do them all on Thursday morning they can't be at every meeting to try to direct those conversations. So those will be Thursday mornings would be more for department level conversations or subject level conversations. So maybe all the teachers get together to talk about the scope and sequence for reading or or math. So So is it it would it be a good idea? I don't know how those those typically work if they are very productive or not but are they directed sort of somehow to talk about something or is it sort of

041up to them to No, it it an agenda will be provided in but has it been up to now? No. Okay. in in a well-run um PLC. Um if it's in a building and and is part of the culture, a well-run PLC um you get to the point where you have a team lead or a grade level lead that runs those meetings. But usually the agenda or the list of topics and when they should be talked about is set by the principal. So that's what we're working on is getting that into place. So, do you believe that the elementary school principles and teachers understand the policy we passed about not moving kids forward? We we've been very clear about it. I think our direct explicit instruction there's there's things that that Zach will encourage that

042we implement at the very beginning that will set expectation of bill to bell instruction and direct instruction. um they certainly understand right now that our policy says that you must be within a grade level of of your reading level to progress and that obviously that's not to just retain students as much as it is for us to change what we're doing to get them to where they need to be. And so I believe it's there. I think our principles certainly are there and I think as we start the year that's going to be the critical part. Do you think in a year we can because 48% behind grade level is significant to hold kids back. Do you think in a year we can reduce that significant? I think we can reduce it drastically. Definitely. Absolutely.

043I think this sounds like a lot but it's small tweaks. Okay. It's supporting the teachers and the principles and the building leaders to put things into place that are best practices that are that are done in a lot of other districts that see higher growth than what we've been seeing. Um they're proven practices and and hold providing the support the knowledge but then holding people accountable. I was accountability but but you can't have accountability unless you provide support and the knowledge right you need to provide training you need to provide some other avenue you know some other steps before you can hold people accountable and I think that those are some of the components that have been missing and I think once we have the training in place and and people have an understanding of

044what the expectations are then we can hold them accountable. Keep in mind we've added a literacy specialist to Kim's team for next year who's a dyslexia expert um as well. So being able to diagnose will have far more than two day a week take flight therapy groups. So we're training this summer we're training three staff members um to become certified academic language therapists. So, not only will Cindy Ku, who is our new literacy specialist, be doing uh literacy groups, so will um three additional teachers in our district who will um or four additional three, one of which will be at the middle school. Yeah. So, so we'll be able to increase I mean, for a student who's dyslexic, it's not uncommon to to to not see them move beyond the red with the the type

045of intervention that we're doing. Spire works well with students have minor dyslexia. It doesn't work well with students who have severe dyslexia. And so I mean we've seen our middle schooler who was in our pilot project who only had two days a week of take flight grew four grade levels. Oh wow. At the middle school and now has the confidence to read publicly which is something she was always very self-conscious of as a seventh grader. That's so to see that type of growth in two days a week. Can you imagine when we have four or five days a week the type of growth we'll see in students that have really plateaued. So one in five students are dyslexic according to research. And so if you apply that to the numbers our numbers are not far

046off especially if they're severe dyslexic and not getting and learning to decode. And so being able to break that code through take flight and the the staffing that we've devoted to, I have great confidence, Mike, that we're going to see those type of changes. The reading interventionist that was serving at Running Creek has um chosen to go to the middle school. Um and she's one of the teachers that is going to be doing the take-flight therapy training over the summer. And so she'll be doing some takeflight therapy groups there. So it's in addition to regular intervention just to give you so if we have a student who's making the growth because we're applying the intervention and it can continue in the middle school our likelihood of retaining that student is not high if we know

047what's working and we're on track to see the closing of that gap that student could go on. The students that I'm most concerned about to be really frank are the students who are absent 40 to 60 days a year and they're wondering why aren't we teaching them to read? that that's going to be where we're going to have lots of difficult conversations with families. You can't not have your children come to school for a third or more of the year and expect somehow magically we're going to close a gap. They're three grade levels below and you're only giving them to us for 60% of the time. How can we close that gap? And so that's going to be probably the most difficult conversation where unfortunately that reality of your child may not be able to

048progress is probably going to be the one key to changing that behavior. We if we can't teach your child, we're not going to just continue to socially promote them as unfortunately school districts across the nation have done. Good. Any any questions? We definitely have our work cut out. What's the What's the law on truency in Albert County? We do not have a formal um truency um process. Judge Slade had brought that up last summer. This time we got all excited about hopefully seeing a try court uh start here in Albert County. It never has. And so there's very little teeth uh to the currency laws. And that's truly where I think our policy and it's county by county. It's county by county. Each county typically anything over 10 judicial district really is the key. Uh

049yeah, typically anything over 10 10 absences is considered current. Of course, if you know if there's no consequence, right? But it obviously you would take into account whether or not it was sickness or or whatot, right? But we have students um that have missed over a quarter of school throughout the whole school year. But if there's no reason for our staff to go through the process of sending letters to parents and and whatnot if at the end of that nothing happens, right? So it's the 18th judicial district. Now it's the 23rd. So we move from the 18th to the 23rd. And that's where we had some synergy last summer and that now that we're the 23rd, do we want to start something? It's fallen by the wayside. I'm not sure why. I'll follow up with

050Judge Slate and see if if there is desire to I I will say of the all the districts in Albert County, we were the only district to show up at the meeting to talk about. So it's a huge issue, not just here. So, but the parents do get notified if the we notify they get they get generated letters from infinite campus but again it's a generated letter that has no teeth and it has no no enforcement mechanism. Your policy change gives us some enforcement mechanism because now we can say your child is your child is more than a grade level below. They're not coming to school and we have a policy that says we may need to retain your child if we can't change this practice. So your attention sometime again the last thing we

051want to do is retain hundreds of children. It becomes a tool to say we've got to change our pathway because moving your child to the middle school three grade levels below in reading is really author. I don't know what our um at the beginning of school I'm sure you know the parents get all this information but you know when we pass the parent respons parent rights u policy it is fully called the parents rights and responsibilities and it does say in there you need to get your kid to school and I think we need to keep reminding parents that that's in there I mean they have responsibilities too and I really think we need to remind parents if you think about it if there's no no fear Like you know me growing up there was

052always a fear of you know you're held back and your friends are moving on without y'all your you know classmates. So you know you don't want it to be fear based but but it can help. Well yeah it can help it builds that level of respect of oh there is a reason I'm coming because up till now doesn't matter what your grades are public education has said you don't retain students. Um, and and that just that's where we've gotten ourselves into this position of why send my child to school? I send them when it's convenient for child care and if they learn great and if not, no big deal. They're going to the next grade. And and and by your policy change, you've given us some some authority to say if they're not reading on

053grade level. I mean, I also have a problem with children who are out 30% of the year and make A's, that says we're not doing our job. Obviously, what we're offering isn't that important. if you can miss 30% of the year and get an A. So I will say we have problems on both ends of that spectrum. That's another policy for another another another issue we'll have to address at some point. So we have some areas for celebration where we saw lots of growth, but we also have lots of opportunities for improvement and and that's our focus and that's what we need to be focused on. And I think we have um the right people in place in the right positions to help take us to the next level. And I'm excited about next year.

054So, I'm I'm hoping to be able to doing a jig next year at this time with some great scores. So, great. Thank you. Thanks, Kim. Exciting. Okay, so um next up we have board member reports. I'll go ahead and kick it off. Um graduation. That was a lot of fun. A good time. It's a lot of fun and it it gives you a lot of hope seeing the kids that came through that line and shook hands. They were they were amazing. Yep. Can't even call them kids anymore. Yeah, I know. Of course, you know, you hit my age. Young adults. The young want to know what they call us. The young adults. So, congratulations to all of them and their families. I was going to say the same thing about graduation. out. Yeah. Yeah. It's

055always a fun event. So, well, I was going to say the same thing, but um I'll go um Elizabeth on on Saturday was was good. I was at the booth for a couple of hours and uh it was nice to meet a lot of people and we got a couple of interesting contacts for potential teacher and sub and new books returned and and new enrollment. And so it was uh it was a good time and people had a good time and and and there was another lady who um just gave an encouraging comment to us as a district. So it was great. So it was just it was nice. Great. Nothing to report. I've got a a few things. Um I know our policy is DD that we're um hopefully we'll finalize tonight. We are

056in the process of looking at the school violence prevention program grant those uh SVP grants. It's through the US Department of Justice and it's a a grant targeting safety and security measures. One of the challenges that that Tyler's identified and we've been looking for the funding source is that our inner classrooms where there are joining doors right now those doors um do not necessarily have a a keying system that prevents so if someone m gained access to one room even if the room next door was locked they can go through that door. Um and so um we are in the process right now of developing that grant um uh that will allow us to do some rekeying to ensure that the that your key from your classroom um uh you know you can get in

057from the other side but you can't get into the other room just so that you know again we protect that that so we have that primarily at our elementary schools and maybe a couple of rooms in the middle school. We have a couple rooms in the middle school that have bolt locks versus keyed locks. So, if someone were in there and they locked and heaven forbid they had a medical issue, you'd be breaking the door down versus being able to use a master key to get in and access. So, a number of things like that that we're going to be pursuing with that grant. So, just out of the spirit of DD, I wanted to notify you that that is a grant we're working on. Um, and we will bring that back to you. It

058is due by June 26th, so we'll hopefully have a pretty good draft by the 23rd to share with you at How much is that? Um, it can be up to 500,000. I'm sorry. The 100 is the quick application. 500. Yeah, the expanded application is 500. I think we're going for the 100,000 which will give us enough money to do the rekey necessary um to achieve that that goal and objective. So, so yeah, we're really um excited about that. I do want you to know that we've talked about this behavior center and it will be a reality next year. So, we have instituted a contract um with both an outside uh BCBA as well as an internal BCBA that we did hire. I know we've shared that we had hired someone who started part-time at the

059end of the year. We also have a couple of pair professionals who will go through training this summer um and into the start of next year to become RBTs, registered behavior therapists um or registered behavior technicians. So they will have specific training in how to deal with students whose behaviors have become problematic in the classroom. Um, and we will be able to move that team to any school that's necessary to deal with the student that potentially has become disruptive that is causing disruptions in the classroom and hopefully not just suspend, not just expel, but actually help that family change that behavior, help identify what what that child's trying to accomplish and hopefully give them the right ways of doing that versus a disruptive behavior that we center going to be. Um we have a room

060at both um Running Creek identified and we're in the process of identifying a room so the center can go to where the student is. What we don't want to do is have a student at Singing Hills have to get on a bus. We'd rather the team go to Singing Hills and address that need in that building. Um and then our our uh hired BCBA, we plan to have a part of that team but work primarily at the secondary schools. So we have a contractor who's going to help us oversee and train. It's really a first year is a little heavier cost and then it becomes less as we train up our staff. Um, but we really have a couple of pair of professionals that are extremely excited about getting the RBT training and and being

061able to be a part of that initiative. So, it'll be both outside and inside um staff. So, we hope to build the capacity of that team um over the next couple of years. Elizabeth, I know has already been mentioned. We really appreciated the number of staff. We had lots of staff who rotated through that booth. hour by hour. Um it really took a great deal of pride. Um both of our middle school administrators were there from 9 to 11 and announced that on their video about the redesign of the middle school and we had a number of parents who came middle schoolers who came to just see their their principal and assistant principal. So he was so engaged. He he already knows a lot of those kids. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. They're excited about him.

062So Exactly. Great. Yeah. We had a science teacher. We have one position open. It's a sixth grade science. We had a teacher who just moved here and has a out of state teaching credential and looking for a job who happens to be a science teacher. To talk about having the moons align was pretty amazing. So yep. Um so um new administrators I just want to touch on. Len Pearson is is started full-time now. She is our new director of special services. She's doing an amazing job. Again comes with a lot of experience as a director of special education. She's our director of special services um and and reports to uh Kim. So, um, the work already being done, meeting with parents, meeting with parents of of high need students and developing those relationships, um, she's

063doing exactly what I would have dreamed she would have done, which is reach out to those families, not wait for the challenge to occur, but really start building relationships. I'm meeting with her with a couple of families that I've been engaged with to really build those relationships before the school year begins. Um, so I can't say enough about Len. Um Tam Smith and Aaron Dilbback are principal and assistant principal at the middle school really have hit the hit the ground running. They have completely cleaned out the middle school. We've got painting that's starting there next week. Um it truly will feel like a completely different building. Um and teachers are very excited about moving into pods and having that grade level team. Um so that's turned out really well. Pauline Elaande and Emily Gentiel who

064is our new dean. Um, Jessica Henley, who was our dean, had a baby, as all of you know. She's been out. She is returning, won't return right at the beginning of the year, and decided it was best for her not to remain dean. Uh, she is actually taking the interventionist role at at Running Creek. Um, that that, um, uh, was vacated by Angela, who's going to the middle school. Um, and so we hired Emily Gentiel, who is just a dynam dynamic, um, teacher leader. um and very excited about being a part of that team with Pauline and so they already have done a lot of things together. Now I do want to we talked about um John Roger leaving John Roger's leaving the district. He actually became the executive director of South Central Boseies. Um,

065but Tammy Myers, who has been an employee of our district for 30 years, h was retiring, had left, came back to to help uh with payroll, and then helped us with HR this year, and really trying to perfect our our processes and procedures. She is now our HR coordinator. So, she will be the person who will ensure we cross our teas, dot our eyes, and people are onboarded, they get the support that they need. She won't do everything that our director did. Um J uh Justin, myself and Kim will pick up those with our respective uh departments. Um but she will make sure that the onboarding process and all of the legal ramifications of employee are covered for us. So I don't think I've mentioned that. I did want to bring that to your attention

066that Tammy Myers will be our HR coordinator. I get to meet Len at the lunchon the other day and she she sounds amazing and she's she's going to be great. I think she's got such a drive and Again, she has a a student, a child herself that was disabled and is adult now, but just really has that passion from a parent point of view, which which is hard not to not to it's hard to have without that personal experience. Not that people can't have that passion, but she definitely brings that. Then last is obviously our summer work on explicit instruction, the reading initiative, the behavior center, all of that. I know people think, oh, it's a summer, you you've got time off. This is a time where that we're really trying to roll up our

067sleeves and and to dot our tees and cross our eyes and make sure that we um dot our tees and cross our tees and dot and I didn't even know who we're sorry. Um so anyways, there's a lot going on and a lot of work being done behind the scenes by our 12 month folks. So I think with that I'll stop and get the meeting moving on. Okay, Jamie, do we have any public comment? Okay, so next up consent items. I move that the board approve consent items 81 through 83 as presented in your packet. Second. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. I. Director Olsen. I. Director Powell. I. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. Next up, we have our 2526 budget adoption and appropriation resolution. I move that the board approve the 2025 2026

068budget adoption and appropriation resolution as presented. We'll invite Oops. Second. Second. I'll invite Justin up to answer any questions that you have. Nope. Yeah. Um, so, um, just so you know, the variance column, um, there there are some things. I know Rhonda and I were talking about some of those and and and there's explanations behind each. So, obviously, this is your time if you have any specific questions around those. Again, as we've talked behind this are detailed pages for each of those departments, both staffing and and their budget expenses. Um, we really appreciate the leaders in our district who have really kind of sharpened their pencil to say, "What do I need to to accomplish the mission and what is not working that we really don't need to continue to do?" So, you'll see some

069departments that have cut their expenditures. You'll see departments that have some increased expenditures. Those will probably make sense when you look at some of the initiatives um that we are doing. Um, again, we did have a couple of shifts in expenses. I want to point out um in utilities and insurance at bottom line um this past year we have had um uh treasurer collection fees, we've had copier leases, we've had trash removal in that we have moved those to the appropriate. So every copier is actually charged to the department in which it exists or the school um the board treasur or the treasurer collection fees are now in the board budget. So when you see the increase in the board budget, no, it's not this board's decided to spend more money. It's we've just accounted

070for that spending um in the appropriate location. And then trash was moved to facilities because they oversee obviously trash removal and oversee those contracts. We actually were able to negotiate about half the price of our trash contract in the past for the coming year. And so Andrew Rodriguez has done an amazing job in kind of shopping the market and and pitting uh vendor against vendor and saying, "Well, they can do it for that." And and really was able to even get our current vendor who still is doing the work to actually cut their fees by almost a half. So um again, just some great work on the part of our of our departments. Um I'll shut up and let Justin jump in on anything else. Justin, you want No, I don't know that we can

071reject it if anyone wants or Okay. Yeah. Is it the same thing as what we It's the same thing that you're looking at that we kind of chatted with last time. Um, as Dan said, a lot of shuffling and and more proper organization and a lot of items that'll be able to be tracked and forecast on a line item perspective moving forward. So, this one, while there's a lot of overall jumps in categories, the big thing to to look at is we're cutting out over a half million dollars in expenditures throughout the locations. Um, salaries, uh, just everything that we can is surgically reviewed. Um, I can't look at these sheets anymore or talk with the the stakeholders on that. Um, another wonderful thing that we'll be rolling out that was taken very very positively

072is I want to roll out monthly uh accountability meetings with all stakeholders. Whether that be all my departments, all of Kim's department to say here's your numbers, here's your budget, here's where we're at. And and we have that conversation monthly verse annually. And u all of our stakeholders, our principles, our athletics, everyone was like, "Thank you. This is wonderful. we they really appreciate it and I'm like wow that's people usually don't want to have meetings with me but they wanted to know where we're at and then we're also able to um we're moving forward with getting the crushed asphalt at the bus terminal done. We're getting the middle school parking lot fixed. We are getting uh backboards coming in at the high school and Frontier coming in. Uh shot clocks required by CHASSA. So, the

073list of things that we have to get done um we're checking those off as well um because of of everyone's efforts and reviews. So, a lot of good capital projects and even uh funding some roof future and roof repairs and improvements for putting a little bit of money in that coffer. So, kind of planning forward. Do we have a plan um for the high school like parking lot towards the curb and the concrete there? Mostly concrete work that needs to be done and something that Justin and I have talked a little about trying to the concrete's harder to repair because you really can't like pour new concrete on top of concrete. It's not going to adhere. Um so you really do have to cut it into sections. And so I think what we've done within

074the the capital project is there's still some money that's unencumbered. I think we it just it's a little harder to say we're going to peace meal. We really need to build some fund balance in there. So truly we can say repour the entry to the brickyard is probably the worst entry there. Um when you go into the sports side of the building, lots of divots, lots of of things that that we need to do. And so Andrew's team has repaired some but Running Creek. Um, you know, to repair it and make it, you know, we've got to decide, do we repair it and make it look really horrible. Um, is it safer that way or is it just going to come up after the first freeze and then we're going to have a worse danger.

075So, there's lots of things that we need to do at at the at Reading Creek. We've painted some of the areas where there is rough in the asphalt to at least alert people, hey, pay attention when you're walking through here. So, there's things like that that we might need to do to mitigate, but but long term, I think that's one that we've just found concrete is in in the concrete bids and and the projects and the weight of our equipment, you know, th those are some pretty big bills. Um, it's not on the forecast right now. What I want to develop is kind of a three-year rotation. So, say we do the middle school, high school, elementary, elementary, and then 12 years later, and now we're coming back to the front of that line and

076just having a nice continual, but we are talking millions of dollars to fix that, and it's just not the coffers right now. We are trying to in the parking lot in particular where there's concrete that matches asphalt, we've actually had them do some asphalt filling of some of those divots, some potholes because it transitions right into asphalt. So that's actually worked in a couple of areas. So Andrew is trying to be very resourceful with this team um trying to to really work through um those options to see if there's not something we can do at least temporarily. Um roof of Frontier um we do have access to a grant. I I gave that my recent update. Um that grant's not available till December. So Justin's going to do some work with some other roofers about

077is there a temporary repair to at least keep that roof from leaking until we can get access dollars like History Colorado who will give $250,000 to a historical building. Um that roof repair bill came in at $790,000 for the portion that's that's failed. And so, um, the homeschool legacy homeschool program, they said they want to help fund raise for that 250,000 from from history Colorado helps, but we're still about 500,000 short. So, yeah. So, we still have a lot of work to do there. Um, their use of that building as as a homeschool group may actually access things like Daniel's fund. Um, Daniel's fund doesn't necessarily grant to directly to public schools, but do grant to choice organizations. And so the homeschool academy by applying for a grant to help repair that roof, which would

078be a win-win for all of us, um might actually help us close some of that gap. So, didn't you say the other day, I thought I heard you say about working on some of the gym floors, too. Yeah, the gym floor. Yeah, that's great. Um, we've pulled the trigger on the middle school that's getting a complete complete restoration, restripes, wood repairs, flooring that's coming in, uh, maybe the end of this month as well. Um, so the yeah, the middle school's getting redone. The, uh, other schools, high school and elementary schools are just getting refreshed on the top. Not not a full redo, but the u, the middle school is getting redone. And then we're also with the help of parks and wreck, we're also going to redo the frontier gym floor to have it refinished

079and restriped as well for their usage and uh their assistance. So it's a win-win for us. And also to note on that frontier gym with a partnership with Renaissance Charter School, um they're the ones fitting the bill for that u new scoreboard and shot clocks. So we're not paying for that as well for a partnership with another charter school. And that's about it. I can get as detailed as you guys like, but nothing's really changed since our last conversation. The the net into effect is right now I am at a deficit next year of $4,610 income outcome still leaves us with an 8% projected fund balance at the end of the year because of the the carry forward we anticipate this year. So, so we're really excited to be able to invest $800,000 into capital

080projects, um, do the salary initiatives that we've done, um, and actually continue to maintain a very healthy fund balance with the year that there's not a whole lot of new money coming from the state. Dan, when you first came on there, you mentioned that you wanted to establish a rainy day fund that would slowly grow. Yeah, 10% is our goal. So, we'll be at eight at the end of next year. So, we have two more years and 2% to build over two more years. Yeah. So, we're on track. Great. That's everything on budget, guys. Well, thank you. Good. Thank you. So, I've got a second. Any further discussion on this one? Okay. Going to get a roll call. Director Callahan. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Pal. Hi, Director Waller. Hi. Okay. Next up, 2526 interfund

081borrowing resolution. I move that the board approve the 2025 2026 interfund borrowing resolution as presented in second and discussion. Justin, you want to cover that? You want me to cover it? Um, not anticipating need it, but just in case, I'd like to have it in place. So now one of the questions I had was it's it's a borrowing. So basically you're just moving from one fund to the other. Does that mean you've got to move it back? Yeah. It has to be returned before the end of the year. So this authorizes Justin as he's dealing with cash flow issues. Um you know we get our we get our state equalization payments now frontended. Then we wait for our tax payments. We have the no interest loan um through the state treasur. Um, this allows us

082if we're, you know, 100,000 short for payroll and we've got that in another fund that we can borrow from that fund knowing that our tax payments coming in the following week and we move it back. So, it allows pay my house payment today, my house taxes. So, you should be getting Okay. Okay. That was one point. How much that check is not going to clear. So, we've limited ourselves to each individual fund um as you see on the on this specific amount. And again, it it has to be returned before the end of the year. So, it just grants Justin the ability of not every month having to come and saying, "Hey, can I borrow $36,000 from this fund to to make sure that we, you know, our our our payments because we're so heavily

083tax uh local tax funded. Um, waiting for that until March, April, May is just really challenging with cash flow. So, so this allows us in some cases to prevent having to do the no interest loan borrowing. Got it. All right, sounds good to me. Any further discussion? Okay, going to get a roll call. Victor Callahan. Hi, Director Olsson. Hi, Director Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. All right. The next one up is um probably a touchy one, but um school district lunch fees. So, do you want to talk about this before I make my motion? We can. Um, as I've shared, I think in my updates with you in my past explanations, we have not had to touch lunch fees for the last few years because of the Colorado's healthy schools lunch uh meal program. Um,

084the state cannot continue to afford it. So, they are going to the ballot in November to ask taxpayers to help fund the program that they've already approved and has offered children for the last several years. Um if that doesn't occur then then we will have to begin charging families who don't qualify for free and reduced lunch under the federal school lunch program because we haven't touched prices. We are under a directive from the federal school lunch program to move our um charges closer to what we get in a reimbursement. So the federal government reimbures us for every every student that qualifies for free lunch when they eat lunch. what we have charged our families in the past has been a portion of that. So they're saying we're tired of offsetting your lunch program by us

085giving you $10 for that meal and families paying $3. That's exaggeration for effect but but um so we have to by order of the federal government through our audits with our national school lunch program move our prices closer. Um we are have tried to limit that to 10 cents a year. We haven't touched it for several years. So, we are doing a 25 cent um increased cost in our breakfast and lunch. Um we are not needing to increase adult lunch or breakfast and milk is not needing to change. So, we're just seeking your approval tonight um to go ahead and make those adjustments should the again we'll start school with free lunch for students and and um free breakfast. However, if that that motion fails at the ballot box in November, we expect that the

086state will direct that we can no longer reimburse. Can I ask a question about the breakfast thing? I mean, does every student get breakfast? What do they need? Every student who wants it. Okay. Yeah. It's not it's not forced on a student, but a student who wants breakfast is getting breakfast. Okay. It's going to be a hard change because you've had children who never got breakfast before who now it's like, hey, it's free. Why not? Well, that's what I wondered because I mean honestly the whole thing kind of astounded me when we were in one of the schools. I'm kind like why are these all these kids having this time where they everybody gets food now it's like 9:00 in the morning. Yeah. No, so it was a little It will take some adjustment and

087we'll we'll educate families pretty heavily on here's what you might need to expect. Yeah. Um and again the more families who fill out the free reduced lunch application the better it is for us because it does drive title one fundings for our interventionists. So, we've seen a cut in half of that federal money um since they've stopped requiring the the lunch application. Um and so this will hopefully drive families who need it. Families who qualify for free and reduced lunch also are exempt from fees at the high school. And so sometimes you have children who who again are getting free lunch, but they don't realize that that would also help them with their sports fees and and some of the other fees that we charge because families who qualify by policy are exempt from other

088fees um in the district. So hopefully parent education opportunity it will be yeah it'll be really important for us to educate families heavy and having this approved now gives us the ability of publishing those rates as soon as school comes back. Okay. So with that, I move the board approve the school district lunch fees as presented. Second. And one question. So why the increase in students but not adults? Um really the the cost of the meal to produce the meal is is right around3 to$4 dollar. Um and so we're getting out of those. Um the federal government has reimbursed us more. Um uh I would say these prices are in line with probably the cost of what it's taking us to prepare the meal for a student. The the adult lunch is is felt to

089really cover the cost of of what teachers are. Teachers aren't forced to take everything. They can buy a lunch and take the the the protein and take take a vegetable and not take all of the other sides. Children, we have to give them everything whether they want it or not. And unfortunately that leads to a lot of waste. Yes. So you look at it even with the proposed new cost, it's you know the the cost for the students is still less than you can't you can't go to a restaurant. Yeah. It is still less than Yeah. At some point we may need to increase this food cost continue and increase but Terry's analysis was the cost of what an average adult is taking for lunch or for breakfast this is already covering it. So to

090increase it would have just been for the sake of increasing it. So, and is that part of a state statute about the you have to give the kids everything whether they want it or not? Yeah, that started back in I think the Obama administration. They must have this, this, this, and this on their plate and they can't deny it. You have to give it to them. So, does it get tossed? Probably. Lots of food gets tossed. Is there any way to have like a little We do We do capture fruit. We capture unused milk, things like that. But, but you if you've dealt out vegetables on the plate, you can't recover those. So, big farm compost compost. Yeah, there are districts who have done that who have done a compost bin so that they can

091give that to to farmers. So, I don't think we've done that. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Powell. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. Next up, 202526 coach's salary schedule. I move that the board approve the coach's salary schedule as presented. This has just two minor swaps um in the one that was published last year. The the amounts were switched from one to the other. You'll see that um the assistant coach for football, basketball, and track, which are longer seasons. Um their starting first year pay was 2150. it it should have been 2450 and on um uh the middle school head coaches um it should be 2150 is the starting rate and not 2450. So they caught that error in what was

092published and obviously we have to come back to you to get permission to fix it. So that's what we're doing tonight. All right. Any further discussion? Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Palingham. Hi. Director Olsson. Hi, Director Powell. Hi, Director Waller. Hi. Okay, next up, uh, revision of our 2025 2026, um, school district board schedule. So, basically looking at moving from Mondays to Tuesdays. I move that the board approve the 2025 2026 revised Elizabeth School District board schedule as presented. That's starting in August. second did want to throw out um there are a number of districts who have started um doing their work session and their board meetings on the same night. So they'll do the work session first um give the board a chance to dialogue, talk in more detail, kind of

093prepare any changes that they might want to make and then go into the board meeting. Um some districts have gone to one meeting some months. I don't know that every month you could do that, but wanted to throw that out just in case there was any appetite for anything like that. Um, it just really allows that conversation to not wait two weeks before you took action. You can have that conversation, have those discussions, and then go into your board meeting where you could remember what the things that you wanted to do. So, I don't know if that's of interest. It would lead to a longer meeting, but it would lead to one meeting a month versus two. So, and again, I think as we were talking offline before the meeting, I think there'd still be

094months you would need to, but maybe not every month. So, just something to throw out there. It's may not be something we want to consider now, but wanted to at least put it on the table. Well, depending on what's on the agenda, you know, it probably wouldn't hurt. So I think it's I I think it's worth a shot and then you know this isn't something that you know we file in this is yeah this isn't edged in stone it's not working we can change you approve this tonight you can certainly have that conversation at a retreat and decide if there's something different you want to try but this at least allows Jamie to get proposed calendar out there for people and the change from Monday to Tuesday is important we can okay any All right.

095Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director Pal. Hi. Dr. Wallace. Hi. Okay. Next up, we have our DAC bylaws. That's the District Accountability Committee. I move that the board approve the revisions to the DAC bylaws as presented. Sra, I will share. I did thank you for catching that seven. Still said seven. and then the number of six. So, we did fix that on the one that's in your drive. So, the one that's in your drive does have that correction. Um, this is is officially going to two-year terms, one-year officer terms. So, every year person could serve two years as an officer, but they would be elected each year. Um, and then we did put a statement that we want to alternate so parents that not all parents rotate off

096at the same time. And based on the ones who are emailing saying they'd like to continue, which I'll waiting for a few more and then I'll send you the summary of that, I think it's going to work out where you'll probably be reappointing half of the parents and then other parents are willing to serve another year. So that would allow us that getting into that staggered um term. So makes sense. Um I think other than that, community members are two-year terms. It really appoints you have two two community members. Um, I think you have one that will rotate out this year. I I have not heard back from the other if they want to continue, but my hope would be that they would and then you could appoint a new community member and know that

097next year that other one may rotate off. And so ultimately get into where we'd be alternating um the number of new members and it's a two-year term in that position in that position. So when you appoint now if they if they don't like Melissa Papulus would love to serve on Dak, she no longer has children at Running Creek. That's where she was appointed. Um, so she said, "I'd love to serve, but I can't be running creeks rep anymore because I'm no longer I no longer have children there." But at that point, you could be a community member. You could you could move. So there's nothing. Absolutely. Yeah. Just do your term in that role, correct? In that class, correct? Okay. One question I had was um teacher members. So it says they will serve a

098term of two years. How does that affect the point system? Um that was my only Yeah. Our ideal situation here would also be that teachers would rotate. So, we wouldn't have all teachers rotate off. Um, we haven't had a long line of people who have volunteered yet. There's lots of other point activities. Um, and so our hope would be is that we'll have some teachers rotate off. I think the high school may change next year which will bring in a new teacher on. You have uh Christine Badeston who this was her first year um because that teacher had stepped off. So Christine's on another year and we have a new high school that serves two years. We're going to have that alternating between the two. So we still only have one elementary because if we

099add a teacher for every school including the charter, we do get staff heavy. So we end up outnumbering uh parents and and by law, by statute, we have to have more parents non-emp employees. You can't be a parent um and a staff member. Your staff member trumps. So you can't you can't be a parent on DAC and work for the district and be counted as a parent because technically you're an employee of the district. So so for the teacher representation, so there's four teachers at the elementary level. So two from each school. There's no there's four total teachers. There's one elementary, one middle, one high, and one charter. I think that paragraph needs to be because when I read it, I took it to mean four four teachers and I was thinking, okay, two from

100each elementary. Uh, so it should say provide instruction, comma, one at the elementary, um, one who provides instruction at the middle school. That's what's so I think it's four teachers who provide um instruction, one at the elementary level, one teacher provides instruction at the middle school level, one teacher who provides instruction at the high school level as teacher representatives on the DAC, a teacher from the charter school will also be selected. Does that work if we add that? Yeah, that so that makes it clear because I was reading that and I thought, wow, I didn't know we had that many teachers. I was kind of surprised we could find that many teachers who wanted to do it. Just making sure you wrote it. Yeah, I wrote it. Yeah. Okay, good. Okay. So, I will make

101sure we clarify that the four total teachers and then one at each school and one charter. Okay. So, one from either elementary, not not both. Right. And Christine, what she did this year from being the elementary teacher, she would email the staff of Running Creek before a DAC meeting and ask for any updates, anything that they wanted her to bring. So, she tried to fairly represent both elementaryaries, even though she worked at one. So, she'll continue to do that next year. So, since we're making changes, I'm going to amend my motion. So, I move that the board uh approve the revisions to the DAC bylaws with the changes proposed um in this conversation regarding the teachers. Second. Okay. And can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi, Director Olsson. Hi, Director Pal. Hi, Director

102Waller. Hi. Okay, next up we have the EA general asurances form. I move that the board approve the ESA general asurances. Second. So this uh from Justin's department as well. Fran um Cisco Johnson who's our grants coordinator works with our team to submit the title one, title two, title three plan. I believe you passed something at your last meeting about that. Um, this is an assurances form from the federal government that says we're going to comply with all of the requirements. Um, so upon signing this, uh, Justin can have Francisca submit this, which clears the way for our federal grant funds. At least this one defines what LEA means. Remember, I remember asking local education agency. Yep. Yeah. We are the LEA for us and for the charter school. So any charter school authorized by

103us, we're the LEA for them. Okay. All right. So, if there's no further discussion, can I get a roll call? Director Callahan, I. Director Olsen, hi. Director Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. Next up, we have our audit engagement approval. So, you want to talk about this a little bit? Yeah. Um, last item. This was sent to Rebecca as she was transitioning out and when uh Justin reached out to Kim Temple with Wall Smith Baitman, she pointed out that she had not gotten it back. So, we're just trying to circle back that we we selected them. We went through the RFP process. Mike was part of the interview. We selected them. This is just the formal engagement letter that they've been waiting to get signed. Um, they are still meeting with Justin and preparing for the

104audit for next year, but this is a formality that we just need you to sign it. One question I had about this, and I don't know if this is an issue or problem or not. Probably because it's stated when Rebecca was still here, but it is signed by Rebecca. Is that okay to just proceed with that now? Um, well, she was she was the CFO at the time. She was at the time. Yeah. I would I would leave her dated the way that it is and and when Rhonda signs this that she would sign it today. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Chem Temple knows their team knows that Justin is now the CFO. I'm meeting with them on Thursday. Okay. So, I move that the board authorize the board president to execute the audit engagement letter. Second.

105Okay. Is that you, Mike? Yeah. All right. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi, Director Olsson. Hi, Director Pal. Hi, Director Waller. Hi. Okay, next. I think that gets you off the hook. So, all right. Thank you, sir. Okay. So, um, next up we have the first, possibly final revised policy, KHC, distribution, posting of promotional materials. Um, let's talk about it because then you can decide which one you want to do. So, um, so this policy is one of those that are in the series of policies that Jaime's been tracking that need to be updated because of some statutory changes. and certainly through our audit with CASBY, they highly recommended that we get this policy in place before the end of the school year. So, um we have had a challenge in that

106that in our community and I think it's been a great service. However, it does confuse parents um when the folders go home and we've stuffed tons of flyers from other organizations and sometimes you lose that reading score sheet and that communication from school. So, this policy is really intended to be very clear on we're not the distributor advertiser of the community's events. Um, uh, Jeff and I have spoken about, um, something Jason was preparing to start and we chose not to do it last year. There is organizations like Peach Jar that allow community organizations to pay to to post information for families. Families can opt into receiving that. So, it produces like a monthly or by monthly um email blast that goes out that businesses in the community who have things to offer to CH,

107you know, based on it's not for everyone. I'm not going to advertise cars in there, but you know, if you're if you're a gymnastics group and you do gymnastics lessons, you can pay a nominal fee to get your advertisement on that and then parents who want that information can opt in. Um, that is not something we've chosen for next year either, but it is something at some point we could look at. Um, what I have encouraged principles to do instead of copying and sending home full flyers is that if it's a service that they think their parents are interested in, include a little blurb in their newsletter that says, "Hey, here's some information that we had shared with us. If you're interested, go to this website." So, we're not providing the whole flyer. We're just

108letting parents know, hey, if you want gymnastics, here's a place you can go. Um, so we've tried to get principles to do that. Um, we still have some flyers that are getting through um that are still getting sent home. So, this really clears up what what gets posted, what gets sent home. Um, I think it does a nice job in making sure that, you know, we're not sending home political advertisements, uh, things that that might promote things that we'd rather not promote. So, um, the language is from Casbian class. And so, I think, um, what you have here is what we would recommend we consider. So previously the schools were actually making the copies of the student. In some cases the schools were making the copies. So yeah. So in in other cases they bring

109500 copies and then the secretary was counting them out. I need 25 for this class and 20. So I mean either way it's a burden. So um so this really allows us to say you know we're not we're not sending home just anything. Again, um I have said to some principles, we have great partners like the Wranglers and things like that where we'll make their flyers available at the front desk. Uh they might mention in their newsletter, hey, if you're interested in in the Wranglers upcoming basketball season, flyers are available at the front desk. So, parents can come in, get a flyer, but again, we're not overwhelming every take-home folder with a flyer. So, or like you said, they could put a link in their news. Exactly. Exactly. And I think at some point Jeff

110Jeff's really trying to get our new website rolled out. He's got a lot of projects that we felt Peach Star was not something for this year, but that may be something in the future we'll want to consider and that really allows community businesses. They have to pay to get it. It's a paid service. Peachar maintains it. We just have really an oversight of it. So that may be our direction in the future. And then anything commercial purposes it does this requires that I approve it. So it takes away that pressuring a principal. Um principles can say oh that's got to go to the superintendent. So it allows that common look across the district. We have had that where principal has had a really hard time telling someone no um where this makes it very clear.

111Yeah. I'm the bad guy. So well I think this is a good idea. I have a couple suggestions under the regulation, but I think on the policy I think it's okay. It's good. So, with that, I move that the board approve the first and final reading of revised policy KHC, distribution, posting of promotional materials. Second. Any further discussion? Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan, I. Director Olsen, I. Director Pal, I. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. And with that, here comes the regulation. So, um, I have a real challenge with this one because we are placing you, now this is the recommended policy, so we brought it to you. We're placing you in appeal. Um, which I don't know if this is really time well spent for you. Now, there are boards who want

112community to know that you can come and talk to us if there's something you want think is really valuable. Um, I I worry about opening that door, but again, that's that's what the Caspie policy has. And so, um, I you know, if that's of a concern to you, I think we could certainly take feedback. It sounds like Mary has some other things she wants to talk about here. So, we could certainly modify it. Um, I just don't know. Do you really want to appeal because the little league basketball team is mad because we said no because it's not free and it costs kids a lot of money and we're we're allowing, you know, a blurb and a website to be in the newsletter. Do you really want to have to hold a hearing because somebody

113wants their flyer passed out or adhering to the policy saying eliminate appeal all together? Yeah, I don't think it's necessary. I don't think so. I felt funny removing it because it is CASsby's recommendation, but I just was something I felt like, is that really what you want to be in the business of? Yeah. I mean, you you intentionally did not take appeals on suspensions. Um, but taking appeals on a piece of literature that someone wants to be handed out to every student in the district seems like a seems like an it seems like a waste of I don't think that's a public school's job to hand out literature for Yeah. And so to put you in that position to to say if somebody's mad at me for saying no that they can now come to

114you. Well, if they brought the appeal to me, my my response would be that's not our job. Yeah, exactly. As a public school, we're like sorry. But do you want your meetings 30 minutes longer because someone wants to talk to you about the the roofing flyer that's giving parents a great deal on the roof getting done? I mean, it just Yeah, seems like I would definitely vote to take that that out. Yeah. What do you think? take the whole section out. I think they take the appeal section out. Um when you were just talking about the uh deal with um you know encouraging the principles to even if they accept something for you know for advertisement to put it in their newsletters and I think that I think that needs to be part of this.

115Um I I like that idea. We need to not be in the business of making copies and even even you know having to maintain them on the counter for somebody to come and pick up. I mean just send it out. I think the newsletter is a nice because there are families who want to know, hey, how can my kid get involved in this sport or how can my kid get involved in this activity? To me, it's it's a service to at least say, "Hey, go to this website if you're interested in this. We're not forcing you. We're not adding two more pieces of paper to your child's backpack." Yeah. Um so to me, it's a night especially a small community like ours. I think it I think it allows that community feel of we're going

116to let people know about it, but get a website that's got the details because all we're going to do is say here's the information. Yeah. And I' I've heard parents, you know, be not real thrilled with the number of pieces of paper that come home. Then, like you said, you know, the important stuff then gets tossed, buried, well, never pulled out. How many times has there been confusion over well the school sponsored this or the school is behind this because it ends up in a backpack. Agreed. Agreed. We can certainly work on KHC um take out the appeal and try to add in that language, Mary, if you'd like. I'd say this one because we want to remove appeal. Maybe we bring this back for a second. Yeah. And then just accept it as a

117first. Right. Just another quick little clarification in the first paragraph uh in the red red writing it says the superintendent kind of toward the end of that first paragraph the superintendent or designate may somebody else that you choose may approve distribution or posting in accordance with this I I think it should be with this regulation and the accompanying policy I think uh just for clarity just a couple more words in there Okay. Okay. I think that was all. Okay. Okay. So, with that, I move that the board approve the first reading of revised regulation KHC-R, distribution, posting of promotional materials. Second. And we'll make those changes and bring it back for second reading. All right. Any further discussion on this one? Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Director Olsen. Hi. Director

118Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. All right. So, our next couple are probably going to be pretty touchy subject. So, um, first up is the, uh, first reading of revised policy GBA, dress code for employees. So, you want to talk about first? Yeah, let's talk about it. That way, we we have an idea if we want to go first. So, Casby's policy has um business attire, which talks about ties, dresses. Oh, no. Um and and and so I think in our agenda setting we talked about business casual which is presentable we can tell you apart from your students. Um and so we found this definition um so we've changed it to business casual attire shall be neat clean in appearance and then outlined what business casual attire might include. It would include um chinos, khakis, slacks,

119kneelength skirts, paired and button-down shirts, blouses, polos, sweaters or sweaters over shirts. Um and then shoes that are closed towed um options, oxfords, boots, and flats. Um so we tried to to shift it from that. You have to wear a tie and a jacket and to to business casual. I think it's still a major improvement. Um some of the things that we've seen um we did add the word volunteers because that's been something that has surfaced is you know we we have had some volunteers who have come in with alter dos um to volunteer in a capacity that we've approved them for in the school. Um we really feel like as an administration that this should apply to any adults who have an official capacity. As a volunteer you're being invited in to carry out

120an official capacity. maybe help with reading groups, maybe it's clerical work, whatever it may be, we really feel like this should be enforced for all adults who come into the building who are working with kids. And so, we did add yoga pants, which were not. We've we've we've had a number of instances where we've had some concerns expressed to us about people with yoga pants, very tight pants that are very revealing. Um, and then we added the promotes political or religious beliefs because our policy on controversial things says we shouldn't know where you stand. And so obviously if you're wearing a shirt that clearly outlines, you've violated that controversial policies. One of the questions I had or one of the concerns I had was the religious beliefs. Um, you know, I I can Okay. Yeah,

121the shirt, but I'm wondering there's people that might wear a cross or a star or um you know, and at what point when it's like Ash Wednesday? Yeah. You know, is that going to be considered? So, I mean, there's there's a lot. You know what? It does include it does include jewelry. You're right. I was going to say it says clothing, but it goes on to say jewelry, accessories, body adornments. So, so I would agree with you based on that. I think religious beliefs should go away. Political is fine, but that's kind of what I'm thinking as well. Religious beliefs. Leave in jewelry. Leave in jewelry. Leave in jewelry, but remove religious beliefs. Religious belief. If you have a cross or star David or or some other symbol that's in a necklace that's not going

122to violate this policy. So, um I have a couple of questions while we're in that paragraph. I'm not necessarily opposed to this, but the hair coloring in there um is that going to cause grief? I mean I mean grief. Yes. But but grief appropriate? I mean, so are we saying no no no purple hair? That's what this would say. I do find it to be I mean it's you know not to be you know come across as I don't know offputting whatever but I do find it a little distracting. I've had I've had parents in a couple of classrooms that have said my child with their ADD cannot learn in that classroom because all they can see is the very bright hair color. Um, so I think having it in the policy, I believe it's

123been in the policy. I just don't think it's been something that's been enforced and and we have talked with our administrators about the fact that we are coming with the dress code that will be thoroughly enforced next year and and so they're prepared. That's good. I mean, I like it. I just want to bring it up. And then on on your hair coloring though, tough one point item number five says any hair coloring that and it refers to the bullet points. Does that specifically state in the bullet point that Yeah, that's true. Yeah. You see what I mean? There's nothing in the bullet point that says it just says, you know, if it denotes something of those things. So, you would need to add a bullet point that would say colors that are not natural

124natural. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Um, we can we can check in with um Brad about this and just see how we'd recommend. But I I Good point because it you're right, it does talk about that that specifically leads to one of these conditions. That's a good point. I don't know if I missed it, but I don't see anything about offensive tattoos. Um, yeah, only well, it's body adornments that contain advertisements, symbols, words, slogans, patches, or pictures that relate to drugs or alcohol or weapons, sexual nature. So, that would, in my opinion, would capture that. Well, and you've got the bullet point on the second page that says otherwise disrupt the teaching learning process. So would that be that would be the hair color. Yeah, but that could be argued that it should be clear.

125It needs to be more specific. Yeah, I'll work with Brad on that and we would like to get this finalized by the next meeting so that we can enforce it next year, but I'll I'll get some wording from him that can capture that. The other thing that I was going to bring up on this is um in the first paragraph. So, we've got not mine. Not mine. Not mine. I don't even have my keys. How would it go? Yeah. It's chaos. doesn't it sounds too deep honestly really that's true doesn't sound like a who's playing um so in the first paragraph it says the employees shall adhere to a professional standard of dress and then it it seems like it's I don't know then often considered business casual okay I get And I agree with

126that. Shelving neat and clean. Business is a style that strikes a balance between formal and casual often suitable. That whole I think it needs to be more of a definition. Business casual shall be defined as instead of all this kind of soft soapy stuff in the middle. And then um and then two things that I just wondered particularly. the shoes one. Um, the way it's written does not allow for sandals at all. And I would agree with no flip-flops because those are just but I mean in the summer I I you know it seems like sandals is okay. I think I think the rationale is um footwear that that's securely attached to your feet so that if you have to execute an emergency evacuation procedure running sandals Yeah. that you're not you're not tripping and

127falling. Yeah. So so I think that's okay that's that's the basis for why the recommendation is as it is. So as long as we can kind of describe that and then the other question I have is about genes. Um I I I mean I have worked in professional places where they do they include jeans as part of uh business casual as long as they are nice jeans, no bully jeans, not ripped and not ripped on purpose or otherwise. Yeah. Um you know and clean and neat and and all of that stuff. So, um I just wondered if we should include non-holy jeans in the list, but we said rel unholy jeans, but yeah. Um I just I'm just bringing it up. I don't know if there's thoughts about that. Jeans are That's a good point

128because that's not listed. Yeah, because I mean it the way it's written I would say it's saying no jeans. Yeah. Which I think is a little hard. Depends on the a custodian's an employee, they are going to wear it. Well, that's true. Jeans and it does say, you know, if you if your job has a uniform, you wear that. So, I don't know that jeans would be necessarily considered that, but it just seems, you know, as long as we don't have people. I don't see how we can work in in jeans that that that are presentable or because to me, business casual, ripped jeans do not No, that doesn't meet business casual. No, it does not. So, and it's it's definitely not professional, but you know, so um and find a way to say jeans

129jeans that are footwear that's secure that you can put on without getting your hole through the wrong hole foot through the wrong hole. We we could add to the footwear. Back to that other one, we could also add um secure to your foot. So that if it is a sandal that's that's got straps that firmly secure it, maybe that's acceptable versus a sandal that might fall off your foot when you're running. Yeah. So, so, you know, I just think I think those two things might make it a little more palatable. Yeah. And I think they're reasonable. That's a good point on the jeans. Okay. So, so we'll work on jeans and securely fastened um for footwear and try to get some language and then we'll consult those dangerous too. You are not going to be

130running in an emergency in those settings. Well, you know, you'd be surprised how many people can run in those. So, just so so we'll more clearly define what business casual is. I agree there's some extra language there, Mary. So we'll we'll business casual is and we'll go into definition versus combination of formal and casual and I don't think that needs to be in there. We'll address jeans. We'll address securely fastened footwear and then we'll we'll figure out how to include hair color to address a distraction um issue and we'll work with Brad on that so that we'll bring that back to you. And I don't know that this needs to be in this policy, but you know, there are days, you know, like homecoming week or something where everybody is dressing crazy and including the

131teachers. I don't know if we want to put an exception in. We could add an exception on like spirit week and spirit week and you know, or the days we have t-shirt day. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be so exceptions for schoolwide events. Events. Yeah. Okay. pajama day. All right. So, we'll do first reading on that. You bet. Okay. So, I move that the board approve the first reading of revised policy GBE BA, dress code for employees. You did that very well. Second. Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. I. Director Olsson. I. Director Pal. Hi. Director Wall. Hi. Okay. Next up, we have the first reading of revised policy GB staff use of the internet and electronic communication. So this particular one you asked us to look at with regard to the

132cell phone. Um and so we did um we did add some of that language. Um we've also made some other adjustments um from specific things to technology devices so that we're more inclusive um of this. Um, again, really clearly outlining some of these changes are from CASBY. So many of the changes, the change you asked us to make is on page three. Um, oh, wait. Yeah. So, there's no I'm sorry. Where is it? It's on four. Page four. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So page four specifically has the staff members similar to students as directed in policy JICJ are to refrain from use of personal technology devices i.e. cell phones, smartwatches, airbuds, etc. during class time unless used as part of your professional responsibility. Such uses may include interchool communication with staff, administration, special education, but

133should be approved in the advance by administration of the building or the department. meaning um it can't just be well I'm going to use this for this purpose. It needs to be something that's discussed and pre-approved. We have a number of our special education departments that would rather communicate with teachers student needs versus over the radio. You don't want because everyone has a radio. You don't want hey Johnny needs this. Yeah. Every student now knows what Johnny needs. So So that's a a prime example of a use of cell phones but I did feel like it should be approved in advance by administration. What about uh something regarding emergencies that should have be approved by administration? Like if they're using the app? Yeah. You know what I mean? Did they um I thought we had

134that in here, but maybe not. I don't remember. Well, kind of the use as part of your professional responsibility is pretty broad. So, um, you know, that would include communication about students as needed, but also lifespan responsibility, including emergency um, response applications, something that brings up another question. So, is it a requirement to have a cell phone? No. As part of the job, have classrooms. I I don't think we have any classroom that doesn't have one, but it's not. So, if we require it, we have to pay for it. And most of our teachers have a cell phone and they've been very satisfied with downloading. It's a it's a benefit to them to be able to communicate. Yeah. One thing in that paragraph too, um it starts out staff members similar to students as directed

135by policy JICJ. The way it reads now is are to refrain from use. And I think it needs to be stronger and say shall not use. Okay. Which one is that? Um at the very first line, change the right after JC. Okay. change R to refrain from and change it to shall not use and then I guess get rid of of uh personal technology devices yada yada and then add that including and then um as far as the permission to use it for like communication about students and things that I guess what's the process is that kind of at the beginning of the year where you know just kind of one time thing certainly not every time. No, it should it should be if it's if it's I'm going you know special ed department we

136like to use our cell phones to communicate about student needs. Principal would say yes that's an approved application. You may do that during this year. So just sort of a one time first of the year this is our school policy kind of thing. There there are some times that one of our teachers may have a son or daughter expecting um that may say you know I'd like to keep my phone on. I you know I get this notification. Um so that would be something that I'd get a permission for for this this week. Yeah. And um kind of to the way you said that though um so so you know in our student cell phone policy now as we have just passed it the the in the middle in the secondary grades this the students

137can have them remain on but they have to be silent and put away. Mh. Um, but of course the teachers need to have it on for all these uses. So you kind of mentioned that's really talking about use. Yeah. So kind of available a little more out in the open available for use. Like if you're waiting for, you know, to hear that you're a grandma or something, right? Yeah. My my husband's in surgery. Yeah. Need to know. What the heck are you doing here? So now when they're in the classroom, are their phones silent? Um, or can they not be silent? I mean that that could be that could be something we could be more clear about probably in this because it's ringing constantly with and then it's constant I can't remember did the app

138will it override override it I the app will yeah spot override so they should be able to silence yeah so if it's silenced lifespot will cause the phone to go off it won't so if you want we can work on silenced yeah I think something about the distraction That's good. Um, back on page three, and I think this was this in the middle is is the red language. Staff members have been prohibited from using or possessing any software applications. I think that was kind of something that was mentioned before, but moved into a new place, and that's fine. But as I read that, I was thinking um so so this is kind of probably related more to their their district issued computer or it right. It it it's yeah it's in the section about un

139under un under unauthorized and acceptable uses about technology devices issued by the district district technology on that um they are prohibited from using anything unless it um without appropriate registration or payment of any applicable fees. So my question is if it's on a district-owned computer, should that be vetted by Marty? You're not allowed to even download anything without being locked. Yeah. Our our our technology is locked down where if it's a district device, you have to have administrative privileges to download and and so you'd have to seek permission. Okay. because I was so I don't know if that needs to be in there that you're blocked from doing that or I mean it almost seems like somehow you were over if you were over if you were able to override um that um restriction somehow

140um you know having bootleg Yeah, I think it's in there. It's in there specifically for that purpose. So you can have a bootleg version of software that could if it's found could cost the district money because it's our device, right? So if I if I got a pirated copy of Microsoft Office and put it on my computer, Yeah. this is saying you can't do that because we're responsible for it. Okay. And then any fees I mean they can't do it any fees anyway. I mean it couldn't be registered and the fees would I mean Marty would know about it. Our system prevents them from doing it but there's always that rare opportunity that you are techsavvy enough to over get around that. Right. So, I don't know if that language needs to be strengthened a

141little bit in that regard or not. I mean, probably not since there's safeguards in place. I mean, it clearly says staff members are prohibited. So, I don't think there's a question about what does that mean? Nope. So, I have going back to page one. Why did we take out the word maybe temporarily? So, we took out temporarily. and almost leaves it open to you can disable the filter like not temporarily. Well, I think it's if you think about it like there are places I go all the time and I boss doesn't allow me to. So, they can find a way to allow it all the time. Like I'm trying to think of a website I use for work related. I can't even think of one off the top of my head, but there have been

142times they've had to go in and fix it permanently. Okay. Just added add the website to an allow list for that for that usually. And it would just happened to me recently. It was Oh, it was um Primo Water. Okay. It would not let me access their billing site. That's just weird. Yeah, because they've changed and it blocked it. So he went in and Okay. But it sounds like we've got some modifications to do on this one which we'll bring back in second reading. And we added AI in here. Yeah. And this is from CASBY's policy and it's been brought up at DAC or TAC a number of times. And we have anything in here privacy laws. Okay. So basically they will not be entering anything any personally identifiable information into an AI engine. Correct.

143Right. There's piece of language in the second paragraph that I just wanted to at least talk about and it kind of just hit me a little bit because uh so it says generally staff can use AI tools yada yada and then the third line and aiding in curriculum development. Now that language just freaked me out a little bit. You a little bit because think about it because we're trying to get away from right and we we don't want them developing. Maybe the word development isn't good. Maybe a different word. Curriculum um delivery. There you go. So development to delivery because technically they're not developing curriculum. They're delivering. They might be using it to enhance, right? I will disclose that the business casual definition came from AI. Thought I should let you know. There we go.

144And but how do you define a how do you how do you decide business casual and I asked Chad GBT and they came up with an amazing description. Amazing. Ask him about the hair while you want to see what Hey Google. gray line. Do we This is sort of an aside and not for this policy, but we're kind of working on what these tools are that we're going to be able to figure out for AI that's in process. Kim's been tasked by TAC to to explore um you know what workshops, how can we how can we ensure that our teachers are adequately prepared to appropriately use really figuring that out because it's it could get it's it's already out of control. Sure. Well, and that's I mean that kind of segus into instruction and teaching

145teaching the kids how to effectively and ethically use AI. Yeah. Yeah. And then on the last page, just a note, we uh it says staff members are required to sign the district's acceptable use agreement, which probably now will be need to be amended once we figure out here. So just correcting that out. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, I move that the board approve the first reading of revised policy GBE, staff use of the internet and electronic communication. Second. Okay. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. I. Director Olsen. I. Director Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. All right. Next up, we have um the second reading of revised policy DD, funding proposals, grants, and special projects. So, I move that the board approve the sec. Well, I thought it looked final. Do we want to

146talk about it first? Um, we probably should. I think we we we agreed that that we wouldn't formally bring grants under 10,000, but that you would be notified of all grants. I think that's what we had. So, that was a major change uh to this. I think everything else was as presented previously. So, you wouldn't find out we got a $9,000 $9,900 grant without haphazardly. We would let you know, hey, we we've applied for this grant. So, and that was the language you guys requested. Okay, I'm good with that. So, I move that the board approve the uh second and final reading of revised policy DD, funding proposals, grants, and special projects. Second. Okay. Any further discussion on this one? All right. Can I get a roll call? Director Callahan. Hi. Dr. Olsson. Hi. Director

147Pal. Hi. Director Waller. Hi. Okay. And last action item is the second reading of revised policy ADC, tobaccof free schools vaping. I move that the board approve the second and final reading of revised policy ADC, tobaccof free schools vaping. Second. I think we captured your feedback. if there's anything there that you we've added parental permission on participation couple of different sections. Yep. I thought it looked good. So, um if there's no further discussion, can I get a roll call? Director I. Dr. Wilson, I. Director Powell I. Director Wallace. Hi. Okay. Next up, board planning new business. Our next board meeting is June 23rd, 2025 here in the district office at 6 pm. And when you get done with that, I would like a moment of your time. Okay. Yeah, I'm done with that. Good to

148go. All right. It's with great reservation and sadness that I am tendering my resignation effective as of right now. and I'll read this little letter. Dear board president Ronda Olsen and fellow board members and of course Dan, I am ready to formally resign from my position on the Elizabeth School Board effective June 10th, which is tomorrow. I guess this decision has not come easily, but after thoughtful consideration, I believe it is the right time for me to step aside. Serving on this board has been a meaningful and rewarding experience. I've been very proud of the work we've accomplished together and deeply value the opportunity to have contributed to the betterment of our schools and community. I am confident that the board will continue to move forward with the same dedication and integrity. Please let me

149know how I can assist during the transition. I remain committed to the success of our students and staff and I look forward to supporting the district in other ways in the future. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve and I have really enjoyed it. Here's my letter. Thanks, John. So, your last act was approving a tobacco vaping policy. Well, you know, it does give you cauliflower. There we go. Well, it's it's for the health and safety of our kids, whatever they call it. Well, John, I will just say um I have tremendously enjoyed working with you and and I know TAC has enjoyed having you as their representative and and licensed compensation committee. Your work on those two teams has has really been um important to the work that we've been able to do

150as a district. I've been very proud to be part of the this district and um I think we've come a long ways in a short period of time. So, I'm very pleased to step down feeling confident that it's going to continue to get better. Well, you stepped in when we needed. Yeah. When we needed you. We miss you. I appreciate that. I do. And we have gotten a lot accomplished. Yeah, I mean we have we've got that auto building that's just about and you'll have to come to the grand opening. Yeah, for sure. We'll make sure we call you with that one. I don't know what the future holds, but we'll see. Thank you. Well, thank you very share. Never mind. Okay. Well, with that, I call this meeting adjourned at 8:07.