LRSD Board Meeting 01/26/23 (Color Corrected)

001good afternoon everyone and welcome to Little Rock School District Board of Education board meeting welcome it is January 26 2023 and we want to welcome our stakeholders our parents our our students our teachers and all that are in love with the Little Rock School District at this point we will have a little inspiration from one of our board of directors director Leanne Wilson inspiration so I am going to read a poem by Morgan Harper Nichols if you have not heard of her I suggest you look her up she's on Instagram she's fabulous and she's definitely someone I go to um when I need to reframe my thoughts and she is a female an artist a poet but she also is autistic and so I find it really inspiring that she can create such moving Words

002which is not something we typically associate so it takes bravery to connect we're all worthy of love and grace no matter where you find yourself in this landscape never forget who you are and all the good you can do showing up with love and open hands and even without words saying I see you this is abundance over scarcity even when you do not feel like you have much you can still show up with love thank you director Wilson that was beautiful that is going to be a feature of of my Administration having selecting a board director to come with words of inspiration so now let me turn it over to our other inspirational leader Dr Jamal Wright I don't have much inspiration to share today but uh I will jump right in with uh with

003our district celebrations and recognitions we do not have a VIPs report today so I will just jump right in with our special acknowledgments for today starting with just waiting for the uh info to pop up on the screen there we go all right after pausing the Junior Beta Club activities for about four years at Mabelvale Elementary our Beta Club is back and at this year's State Convention Mapleville Elementary's Arion Hannah she earned fifth place in the speech competition fifth place from all of our students Statewide in the Beta Club so congrats to Arion her family and her principal principal Glover [Applause] all right and I had a chance to meet this young man today we'd like to give a shout out to the 2012 graduate of Parkview High School alum Mr Mark Hudson he is

004nominated for a Grammy let me say that again he is nominated for a Grammy for his work with R B artist Chris Brown Mark has worked with several A-list celebrities like Chris Brown cardi B to name a few and we're keeping our fingers crossed for Mark when his award when the awards are announced next month the 2023 Grammys will Air live on CBS on a very special day Sunday February the 5th which is also my birthday by the way music runs in his family his brother is a popular is the popular DJ Nick Hood and his mom who I learned today is also a singer who happens to currently work for our district in our legal department so congratulations to Mr Hudson and best of luck at the Grammy Awards on February 5th foreign I

005believe this was yesterday or the day before but an exciting day for students at J.A Fair K-8 Preparatory School we're in royalty visit their School Miss ebony Mitchell who is the current Miss Arkansas along with Miss outstanding Arkansas Kamaya Tackett they spoke to the students participating in the new generation girls mentoring program the young women shared motivational messages with the students focusing on positivity and mental health well-being foreign all right moving on we had 100 Washington Elementary students who excelled in their Lexia reading scores they received new books and shoes on Friday as a reward for their accomplishments the effort was a joint literacy project between the school and non-profit beautiful feet Beautiful Minds so way to go and congratulations to those 100 students at Washington Elementary School foreign I'm not going to say what

006I said to you earlier today but I read this in my office and I said well they don't have her picture on it but this is Miss deal I just didn't recognize her [Laughter] um but lrsd we are proud of our special programs director Miss Cassandra Steele She was recently announced as one of the recipients of an education award as a king Kennedy award honoree Miss Steele will be recognized with other recipients doing a special Gala on February the 18th so congrats again to Ms Steele [Applause] may be kind of hard to read but congrats to the U.S presidential Scholars Program candidates we have several to uh recognize this evening Adam Ahmad Jessica dos and Gail a New Year Aaron Liu Ben Min in a cool sure vastava all from Central High School the U.S

007presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 by executive order of the president to recognize and honor some of our nation's most distinguished graduating high school seniors so congratulations to all those students from Central High School [Applause] all right and next congratulations to Mabelvale Middle School for earning it's level I'm sorry let me back up yeah congratulations to Mabelvale Middle School for earning this level one high reliable High reliability School status as well as to Coverdale which is pictured here uh Middle School which earned its level three status and I had an opportunity [Laughter] [Applause] thank you Miss Austin one of uh cloverdale's proud faculty members but I had an opportunity to attend this uh program and if you don't know anything about high reliability schools it is there's there are five levels um and right

008now Cloverdale is the only School in the entire state of Arkansas to have reached level three it is a very uh rigorous process that you have to meet various standards and criteria in order to earn each and every single level and this is just a testament to the fact that you know one single letter grade does not define all of the great things um that are happening at our schools and this is just a this is just one of many examples I didn't know much about the process that they had gone through so sitting here having a chance to listen onto their Journey this has been a three or four year Journey Miss Austin yes so this has been a long process that the faculty and staff have committed to and whenever you have staff

009or body who commits to do something and everybody is working on one according in unity uh great things are happening at Cloverdale middle school and this is just a testament to The Faculty the staff and the leadership there so congratulations to reaching level three and we are giving you a one year period to get to level five [Applause] right today just a few hours ago um actually a couple maybe last week Senator Chesterfield one of our Senators representing uh the Little Rock School District area reached out to all four of the Pulaski County superintendents asking for us to give her some names of some Educators and students to recognize because she wants to take her privilege as a state senator to you know dispel some of the negative myths that may be out there about

010public education especially in today's age and so we were happy to March our way down to the Capitol today and as you can see several of our Educators and a student from Little Rock School District was honored on the senate floor in front of the entire Senate and our governor who just happened uh to be there and so she was able to witness um and provide congratulatory remarks to all of the students and the staff we had of course just a new uh the ear she was also one of the presidential Scholars she was a make sure I get this right a regeneration she was also a regeneration STS scholar which is the country's oldest most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors and so we were able to recognize her we know

011that national board certified teachers is a huge accomplishment but not only do we have several in our district we have several who were just recently identified as mentors to help other teachers throughout the state of Arkansas receive their national board certification so they were there as well to recognize and I'm forgetting someone oh we have region two Coral director of the Year Michelle Meyer from Parkview High School was there in addition to it was one other teacher from central the stem State panelists who His Name Escapes Me Maybe if I would have just read this as I was supposed to I would not have messed this up fully uh from Central was also recognized we had a great time at the state capitol today and so thank you to Senator Chesterfield for recognizing the greatness

012that is in Little Rock School District and thank you to Senator love who was there you see picture there and also um yes Tucker who was also there uh to recognize and congratulate our students and uh staff from Little Rock School District all right you may be tired of us uh recognizing our state champions uh from Parkview High School but we're going to keep on acknowledging them and so we want to thank the city of Little Rock and mayor Frank Scott who acknowledged them at last week's City directors meeting and so they were they packed the house out and I believe we have uh one more time to recognize them on the senate floor they will be coming back with Senator Chesterfield I think in another week or so to be recognized once again so

013hats off to the Parkview state championship football team and last but certainly not least as we mentioned uh last a couple of weeks ago the month of January is School Board member appreciation month and so we are going to take some time today to acknowledge and recognize our nine volunteers and let me stress this again for many of you who don't realize that these individuals give up their precious time to govern volunteers I was told to say it again they are volunteers but they give up uh their time to govern um and to lead in our school district and we are definitely appreciative of each and every single one of them and I can say With all sincerity that each of these individuals are extremely committed to the success of the school district and I

014am honored to be able to work for them and to work with them and so we are going to recognize each of them individually uh I want to thank Patrick Schroeder from Baldwin and shell for sponsoring uh the dinner that we have for them earlier today and also we want to thank members of our stem Department who put together the baskets that we are going to present to them today and you also have some prestigious um custom-made lrsd cardigan sweaters that did not arrive today but they are coming and you will get them as soon as they arrive so starting with our president uh President Michael Mason yep followed by uh director Sandra good morning [Applause] followed by uh in her absence but we still will call her name is Evelyn uh Callaway our second

015poet in Residence Miss Leanne Wilson foreign director Ali Nolan [Applause] director Vicki header [Applause] director Norma Johnson director Greg Adams and our vice president miss Joyce Wesley foreign yes well I'll come yeah all right that is it for our special recognitions turn it back over Mr President director Heather did you want to say something real quick oh yes hello everyone Halo rocking Beyond um as some of you guys know uh um this is uh the week of our state takeover years ago but I am looking at us now um on the 26th of January um of 2023 and all of the accomplishments that like we have um done as a board I think is a testament to the faith and the commitment right of our community um and just really keeping that one lrsd spirit

016and um and and so like we can make sure that like we're not just making policy and actions and um and setting the a direction for today but but but but but but really um looking down the road um because the next few years is going to be very telling and and we've I've said before by 2025 we're gonna have a smaller leaner District but that doesn't mean that like we we can't be strong because a lot of um districts and people look to lrsd to be that Beacon to be that leader um because I still believe that like we are the most boldest and the most dynamic District around and there's a reason on why people reach out to us and there's a reason why they ask for us to lead and then like

017they um for us to provide the cover you know for them to be able to do what they do and so and to my colleagues thank you for your service to former colleague Jeff Wood thank you for your service um um and and then I look forward to doing more great work with all of our colleagues my colleagues thank you ma'am thank you Mr President thank you all right we'll go with our agenda are you ready certified PPC Mr Austin are you ready Happy New Year [Music] I was coming in today since I didn't have any reports the last end of the end of last year at the start of the New Year Dr Wright met with a small group of the PPC where we actually had a great collaborative meeting a couple of topics

018that came up from the ppcs in was about the covet leave and Dr Wright explained to us about the budgeting and how we can't bring forth a full 10 days of pay so he was actually willing to at least credit us with two days that'll help in some ways without having any leave at all so I will be crafting a recommendation to forward to Dr Wright and he'll share it with you all and you know some days are better than none and so we currently don't have any cover leave in place but if he's able to extend two sick days to help those who have had any type of covet or respiratory illnesses and they have that information documented on file then we would be able to assist with that we're still kind of working

019out a little tweak with the sick leave bank because they won't actually go into effect until the 23-24 school year so that would not be of service for this particular school year our next thing that we talked about is the Personnel policy manual it has to be done by April so we're going to have our committees to start meeting next month we have complete it the majority of it from last year I'm going to share that with Miss Dr Wright so that he can look at the changes that we've tried to bring in that may have caused confusion or something of some sort so um between the covetly policy and the Personnel policy manual those are two biggest Heavy Hitters at the moment and I'm happy to say that we collaborated um just this week

020with a compensation meeting so I like the way we're doing things now I like how Dr Wright has called upon us to sit down so that we can talk so by the time everything comes to you it would have been something that we would have all truly collaborated and have worked on so um I'll get those reports to Dr Wright if not tomorrow early part of next week because everyone knows the life of a teacher we have to collaborate we have the team we have to attend plcs we have the lesson plan create rubrics create proficiency skills grade papers contact parents we have to Mentor we have to support our students and I'm on my way back to a game we're playing Pine Bluff so thank you it's good to see everyone and Good Vibes

021thank you thank you [Applause] thank you it was actually a gift and it was handmade in India courtesy of Kathy Kohler thanks Kathy thank you Miss Austin all right we'll have our next presentation by classified PPC for others oh the student advisory Council we had to cancel out our meeting last Saturday due to dental procedures so we'll be back in Action next month thank you so it sounded like a sound like you had someone so we'll move on to our uh public comments do we have any public comments I don't have any names okay I'm sorry okay oh so I'm Michael Hansberry with uh Baldwin Michelle I'm here with uh Patrick today and we just wanted to come and say uh thank you to all the school board members Dr Wright for everything that you

022do serving our community serving our children within our community we know that you know we celebrate School Board appreciation month only once so throughout this year but we don't want it to go without notice that we appreciate everything that you all do for us and for our children all 12 months of the year and so we really want to you know extend our thanks to you all if there's ever anything that we can do please don't hesitate to reach out to us thank you all thank you thank you okay is that the only so we were the staff was working on a new procedure we we always try to uh provide three minutes for public comment and in the past we've had our one of our directors uh do the timing in the future as

023we go forward in this year we will have a digital clock that everyone for for transparency will have a digital clock for everyone just view on the screen and at the end of the three minutes it'll turn red to let you know hey your time is up we're trying to get proactive and being more modern coming into the 21st century so it's a different platform and it's also provide transparency for our public so we'll move on to our consent agenda items so I know we don't talk about the consent agenda but I just really want to um honor and recognize some of our board members who have outstanding training hours uh that was we get a trading hours report once a year and just wanted to note um Norma Johnson where's the total number that

024you had here training hours that is incredible uh nine I believe yes don't forget out the next the second best the second best is director Callaway with yes 98.25 hours I thought that was a typo then I realized that um I think that that's carryover from my previous service and then it made a little more sense because uh I I couldn't take credit for that okay so let's move on to our consent agenda has everyone had a chance to review the consent agenda what is your pleasure on the consent agenda policy 3.6 3 student requirements to attend a full day a resolution continued use of the Island Way for electronic posting of lrsd invitation for bids November and December 2022 purchase reports and donations of property receive a second second it's been moved in property

025second that the consent agenda be approved all those in favor say aye all opposed the motion carries the consent agenda is cloud the next item or agenda is school and academic board goal for update all right as Miss Goody is coming up to introduce our distinguished team who is here today just a reminder to everyone watching our board approved four goals and two constraints and every uh work session and board meeting um we will have a presentation from the various implementation teams who are working on all of these goals throughout the district we have the goals but we have to determine how we're going to achieve them what we're going to tackle first and in what order and we have several uh staff members who are here today working on board go forward and so

026I'm going to turn it over to Miss Goody to introduce a team and let them take it away thanks Dr Wright good evening everyone um I'm not going to talk long I'm going to seed the mic to these folks behind me but just as a reminder for everyone what sport goal for that is the goal really aligned to staff recruitment and retention so to read the language it says increased Recruitment and Retention rates of Highly qualified teachers and leaders rank among the top five school districts in Arkansas in teacher salaries at every educational level by August 2024. and remain there every year thereafter ensure salaries of all staff remain competitive so that's the goal we're talking about and I think upon first glance that could feel like a HR goal could feel like a school

027goal um but I think the reality for this goal is it's really going to take all of us to make sure that we have the highest quality teachers in every classroom the highest quality leaders in every school and uh you know the highest quality staff and dedicated folks in all of our schools so without further Ado here's the team so these are all the folks representing different departments different schools you can see them here and many of them are here today and so I'm they're going to share with you um I know sort of anxious to hear what are the recommendations what are the actions we're going to take but I also want to elevate just the importance of this and the importance of the process of bringing a group of folks together from different

028departments I think one of our big goals has been really breaking down silos and and bringing more voices to the table and so just this process in and of itself is a is a huge success and also just want to give them huge Kudos this team has been very dedicated uh very very very much so um and so I think Miss Carla are you up first yeah um Miss Pearl is a teacher uh instructional facilitator at Baseline and also as a teach plus fellow right so she's done all kinds of research and stuff in this area um so good evening everyone um we want to start off by defining the problem and giving some data and background on Recruitment and Retention so as you can see from data in 2011 it is noted that about

02933 percent of Current public school teachers do not expect to return five years from now in fact speaking of teach plus according to a more recent brief published by teach Plus in November 2022 in the state of Arkansas alone about 31 percent of Educators leave the profession within those those five years so another source found that the estimated cost of this turnover is seven billion dollars annually in our district we have an approximate turnover rate of 10 percent yearly um so if we want to improve education for our students we need to do something to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers in our schools good evening I'm Kelly Chaney the media specialist at Williams magnet as of last week you see that there were nine posted certified and 29 classified vacancies if we follow a

030similar pattern from last may we can expect almost 150 vacancies which will be close to 10 percent of our certified teachers at the end of the year with many of these vacancies being in schools that serve students that need the most assistance additionally almost a quarter of teachers in 2020 2021 were categorized as inexperienced with less than three years of teaching experience and although this is not currently a dire situation these statistics are cause for concern it is imperative that we address the need for qualified employees now to avoid considerable problems arising in the future good evening April Reich assistant principal Jay fair let's see everyone continuing on discussion of the realities in 2019 an audit was conducted of the HR department and they identified streaks and gaps at that time and one of the

031things that they noted and we should take consideration is that the most important factor for student achievement they found was that relationship with the teacher in the classroom that they're with every day and also the leadership of the principal and you can see the gaps that were identified in 2019 and our discussions and research found the same gaps and you'll see with our considerations and recommendations that we've addressed each one of those and Mr Robinson is going to go into more detailed to review that audit that was conducted thank you April the Arkansas Department of Education desired that Little Rock School District would become Cutting Edge a leading HR model for the state of Arkansas and they employed the human Urban human capital Urban human capital Academy very much so known among the great Council

032of schools a lottery in action with New York school district Chicago all you have major school districts they serve as a consultant a leader a leading consultant to be cutting the HR programs in those districts so the state department decided to bring in urban the urban Academy to work with the Little Rock School District and we developed seven major goals from that assessment and from the seven major goals we developed a number of action plans you have gold one the pipeline developmental talent management 11 action steps and I guess a highlight what that is about they emphasize that we must look at the pipeline as well as how we're dealing with the talent management of of all employees in the district pipeline we looked at our grow your own approach we've already established a relationship

033with Harding University um also reach University and we recently established a relationship with philander Smith college so we have a way of working with these schools to provide training College preparation for these individuals employees to be enrolled and come back and teach in the district philander Smith college is going to establish and fine-tune their relationship working with grades 6 through 12 encouraging students to become teachers also we have developed at the high school level is a teacher Academy so the teacher of Tomorrow program with Orlando Smith college that will work also as a feeder to the academy stakeholders relationship is another goal they emphasize we have four action steps in that area Workforce culture they emphasize uh uh very that we pay serious attention to that it's hard for customers to love the district if

034employees don't love the district go for we focus on Career Performance Management we have five action steps HR compliance and policies HR System data driving direction we're moving in and compensation programs and strategy one of the action programs uh steps in that under item seven compensation programs is two that we should develop a comprehensive compensation study and and we did that we should continue to look at uh to be numbered among the five highest paying School District in the state of Arkansas and I want to say that we have already accomplished that in terms of uh being numbered at the beginning salary one of the five highest paying school districts who have to continue that but then when they heard Little Rock arriving so to make that happen one District had to step out now

035the starting salary is fifty thousand dollars but we have to propose that by July 1 at least we'll have 48 000. uh we are leading in our market area here as well and that's just a highlight of the model the human capital best practices over the overview that they shared with us thank you yes this is just a language thing and I know it's a business term too like the human capital which is the staff but I know um most of our staff teachers is classified non-classified whatever um they have a a concern with that language and so just for like internal you know when we're reporting out can we just say our staff instead of human capital because it because it makes it more human you know what I mean sure our language is

036human resources and not only is reference Urban human capital because this is the name of the organization but we still say human resources we're not changed that name to they talked about us change the name to human capital but we did not all right thank you sure good evening everyone I'm Alfreda Johnson and I work in Information Services as you may be aware we have a three-year plan board approved for teacher and administrative recruitment in the 10th and retention the purpose of our group four is to come up with action items to support this plan and ensure that our work aligns with the goal of this plan okay so I'm Cassandra Steele special programs really I think I tell you okay so right um I'm going to review the slide that is focusing on the

037Little Rock School District teacher and administrative Recruitment and Retention plan for 2022-23 so the focus area of course is recruiting a diverse representative educator Workforce that meets the needs of all of our students the goals are to submit a three-year Recruitment and Retention plan to the Little Rock School District Board of Directors to advance the Strategic initiative of talent acquisition and retention with emphasis in minority recruitment the Little Rock School District staff composition will be reflective of the student population not less than 40 percent of minority to majority demographics the set retention goal for full-time staff of no less than 93 percent for Selective employee groups develop and to implement long-term recruitment plan via Career Development and future teacher programs and so our our goal for with a focus on priority three um here our

038pathway is to assess current Pathways for development in order to refine build and promote internal pipelines and development to solidify Partnerships as needed and to ensure opportunities for growth some of the associated issues with recruitment and retention or with that we have in the district are a lack of Highly qualified teachers a lack of Highly qualified teachers leads to gaps in learning and thus leads to students graduating unprepared for the next phase of life whether it be career or College teacher turnover also impacts School culture often creating an atmosphere of distrust and uncertainty professional development and teacher training is an expensive investment that is lost when we have teachers who just leave the profession good evening my name is Gina Curry principal at Chico Elementary so our team has given you a variety of background

039information we wanted to make sure that we iterate our goal and show you how it aligns to the plan that you've already approved in this area so we'll start with just our process and focus our team was very diverse represented a variety of sites in different positions within our district we met multiple times starting back in October and what we really wanted to do is not be locked into we have to fit you know this idea or this concept but be Innovative in our thinking think outside of the box and put some ideas on the table that could say how do we really recruit the best people to our district and keep our staff here that we know impact our students so greatly so this is the process that we went through discussed and identified

040the following themes that connected to that what were the specific actions what was the timeline that it would take for some of these things how would we monitor our progress on them and how did it correlate overall to the plan you submitted and you can see the responsible parties and support that might be needed there I do want to give a caveat on this that because these ideas were out of the box and not just traditional thinking in that there are some ideas that we considered that might need more feasibility studies or an assessment of the financial impact but we wanted to share them so we could see what was possible and then determine what was best for our district so this Slide encapsulates the majority of our conversations I can assure you they were

041very robust over these next these last few months and because it represents the work of the team I'm going to ask the team to come up and they're going to share select items um with you that we discussed hello again so we're talking about exit and state interviews and we're talking about not just certified staff we're talking about classified is talking to the people that are here like from is 24 years next week why why do people stay in our district and have that and have those conversations and grow that and then at the same time why are people leaving taking that information about why they're leaving it could be that they're retiring but it could be also that they're going somewhere else or they're leaving the profession all together why are they leaving what

042can we do as a district to change the environment to keep more staying then we have these great Partnerships with these universities but we also host interns from UCA and other schools around here UA Little Rock as well and what we want to do is find a way to make Little Rock look like the place they want to stay if we have trained that intern at our school then that intern needs to join us and stay part of our team good evening I'm Barbara Kirkpatrick assistant principal at Forest Heights STEM Academy I got the fun one recruitment materials so we think about recruitment we have to have something that we're willing to offer people something that's different so what makes us great and Dr Wright's all my word what makes us great what are some

043things that we have going on that are great that we need to share for recruitment one of the things that I thought about immediately since I've been in several school districts is because of our benefits our insurance Little Rock School District many people don't realize we pay more for inch of our part the district pays more on our part of insurance than a lot of different districts that's huge when you think of that that's not something that we talk about when we're recruiting also we talk about our salaries you've heard that tonight we have very competitive salaries maybe people are not aware of that we also have a variety of schools if you want to teach at a K-8 a Pre-K Center a specialty a magnet a high school we have many different things that

044schools to offer people so that's one thing that we we have as well so coming up with a pamphlet and just highlighting all these great things that we do you know hashtag lrsd greatness you know we have a place for you talking about Billboards we've done Billboards before for recruitment of students why not recruitment of teachers and staff have a group picture of their employees in our district we have a place for you hashtag lrsdgreatness same thing with little blurts on TV ads I know TVs TV time is very expensive how about just having a teacher I teach in little RSD because and let them have several different people do that things like that just to make people aware of who we are recruiting why not have these brochures at all the schools I think

045about all the people that come in our school in a day outside counselors volunteers VIPs parents we all know somebody that's probably looking for a job in education why not give them a brochure why not have an area in your school where you highlight a little recruitment area for people have them available at community events at your school events at basketball games football games where we just actively recruit something that's very intentional good evening Ashley Sams instructional facilitator at Jefferson Elementary so as they discusses additional benefits that what comes to mind is a benefits that are going to help the Little Rock School District stand apart from neighboring districts okay so and looking at additional benefits some of the options that were discussed were the enhanced tuition assistance possible loan repayment options possible care options

046as well for staff those are just to name a few but in thinking about those we really want to consider the ones that are going to help lrs you to stand out and stand apart Mr Patrick I get the fun one obviously um considering bonuses so our conversation um on the committee was around considering referral bonuses sign-on bonuses critical Supply um position bonuses and Etc and when we talk about referral bonuses we're talking about bonuses that our own employees or our own teachers can get when they refer us to people perhaps internal or if they get a know of a teacher for instance today I got a phone call from a young lady from a school who just wanted to come in and do some observations and I said oh so and she was like

047I want to go into special ed Behavior class and I have my degree in the following I said well do you have a job she says no I say well yeah I got one now so you know just like that um you know someone referred her to me to come and observe and so we have an employee hopefully in the fall but when employees we have employee boys all the time who say I have a teacher or if a position is going to be cut and they need a job or they would like to transfer to special education we talked about adding bonuses we already have sign-on bonuses I think we pay two thousand dollars for new people to critical positions who come to the district and and a thousand dollars for an incentive for

048moving incentives but our employees who have switched from one area to special ed who already work for us are not eligible for the bonus and so we would like to to perhaps consider that for those employees who are getting the certification added they've had they have other Pathways of getting special ed certifications now through universities and if they switch to a critical position we'd like to consider those people being eligible for bonuses as well um in addition to bonuses we would also like to recommend potentially providing Equitable compensation for additional roles held by staff in the schools things such as as the coordinators or testing coordinators or being the technology Point person in your school we do currently have a um we have compensation for people who Mentor first-year teachers for example so something similar

049for the additional roles that stop hold within the schools I thought there was one before me um so I have the improved channels of communication for staff and I'm glad that this is something that our district is going toward and for lack of a better work this is very nourishing I think for us as a district uh one thing I want to mention is that um and particularly because I work in Information Services we just want to ensure that those of us who work in the trenches now have a good understanding of just how these networks will impact how we will deliver our services moving forward I had robust mentoring hi my name is Tiffany Lewis I'm Tiffany Lewis I'm Forsyth STEM Academy third grade Rob educator and I have the luxury of talking about

050more robust mentoring as of the only member that is a classroom teacher I think it is imperative they have a more robust mentoring program because the first Year's teachers fear is not failure it is rejection and it's isolation so it is important that we support them to make sure that they make it past that five years to 30 years plus and then also we I have developed layers of Labor leadership and career development Pathways for staff because remember the student the teachers of today will be the administrators superintendents and potential board members of tomorrow thank you okay that concludes our presentation just to summarize I mean we could share you know a whole lot more there was very good conversation that happened here and I just want to again come in this team and Mr

051Smith for guiding us through this process and so thank you for having us here may I add a recommendation because we we haven't talked about it but and a recommendation of of creating your own students that are going into education from the district that may graduate from high school Little Rock School District may want to come back and do become teachers so I want to talk think about developing those students to come back to the school district and maybe we can help them with tuition assistance if it works let me be quiet you know but that's a good that's that's a really good point because even like at J Fair yep doing fair I saw you I was looking to see if we had another campus um they have um cityer and then like that

052is also a glimpse into the classroom because those um service members they are serving as partners to a teacher and so like they're doing the tutoring the teachers are sharing their lesson plans and each campus might look different depending on if it's secondary or Primary in elementary but at the same time that is a really good Glimpse and really seeing how how how how the function of a school work because you know they're going from the classroom to the office to wherever is needed and So like um that that that is something I I do have a quick question though um with the with our with retention right did you guys talk any about um some of the more challenged um campuses and how to um either grow retain or move you know the transition

053of that and strengthening those um those campuses and and two I'm not asking you guys to get into Personnel I'm just asking you to stay at the Treetops and see if you've talked about how do you how do you um motivate or strengthen those um personnels that are in that um I appreciate the situation yes ma'am I appreciate that question Miss header because we had a lot of discussion about support uh and one reason that we found that teachers do leave is they feel lack of support and I think maybe at some schools you have more support than others and I think that is something that definitely needs to be addressed and looked at I think at the more challenging schools uh where you you do have those students that need more I think more

054support is needed and I I think that was one one thing that we talked about quite a bit is support because we heard that a lot we heard that from teachers we heard it from staff Communications and more support we felt that was an issue that needed to be addressed if I can just add I think we kind of got to some of that with the networks too so the network structure that you guys have already reviewed is about that support so we were talking about even in terms of our onboarding of new staff and the HR partners and what that looked like in other organizations like business partners how having that structure also makes the navigation of through the district and just getting your feet on the ground if you're new just so with

055so much more ease and so I think that that particular structure will benefit us greatly so you've kind of got that built in with the process moving forward hi um a lot of it starts with culture right if we're talking about growing our own we have to have teachers that say hey it's great to be a teacher senior you're about to graduate would you consider and so some of these recommendations that we're making are going to support hopefully the cultures in the schools for teachers to be happier about their jobs maybe talk about it sell ourselves and continue to continue to do things like we were just discussing I just have a comment about the students that may decide to come back and be teachers and if they do decide to go off to college

056can we just put a personal spin on that and walk with them from day one of college all the way to graduation or college I think building and sustaining that relationship and showing them that yeah we do care we love you and I think they would just might come back and be here for the Long Haul um so thank you all very much obviously this is a huge issue and I'm glad to see that you all are working so hard to help us make decisions on this um and I'm curious about what the next steps are because we have you know some ideas that have been throwing out it sounds like y'all are going to need to work together a little bit more and potentially work with the ppcs um about if their personnel policies

057they may have to go through that process um is the longer term Vision to bring back policy proposals to the board to vote on is that you know where we're headed with this yeah I think that and I mean I would say every time I meet with this group I want to leave because I leave with a bunch more of things to think about because they come up with such great things but I think some of their recommendations I think policies but also even just practices like they talked a lot about support right so a couple things identified really early is like what is our novice teacher's support like how does that look like across three years how can we be fed up what are we currently doing that um and and what personnel do

058we currently have dedicated towards that right they talked about layers of leadership so Dr Wright's been talking about um different ways to explore teacher leader positions we have awesome people in the classroom and I think sometimes when you're a great teacher the only thing to do next is to become a school leader and sometimes we don't want great teachers to leave the classroom and actually they don't want to either but what other layers of leadership are there for them so I think you can expect some of that but also just expect to see some overview of of different practices for us to take on and just to piggyback on that a little more um a lot of the recommendations that have come from this group via Miss Goody to me you will begin to kind

059of see reflected even in as we continue to build out the support the supports within the network structure you also begin to hear us talk about she mentioned teacher leadership but we're looking at right now three different types of ways for teachers to be leaders in our district and so we'll be rolling that out pretty soon as well and so a lot of the recommendations that have come from this group um you'll begin to see reflected in our in our in our tier plan for support and so a lot of it's being I mean they meet I hear about it and then I have a teacher Advisory Group they say some of the same things and so um we just begin to update um our plan and include some of those things in it I

060think one of the biggest things I've heard from this group via Miss gouty is really around um you know it's hard enough to get teachers and then when they're new to our district if we don't have the right types of support systems in place I think we've already kind of like recognized the current model of of teacher mentors because we're basically given a stipend to somebody else who's working full-time all day and don't really necessarily have the time to provide the support and so we're already looking at some things to kind of do differently for next year and so every time they meet they well I hear about some of the stuff that they're talking about until we're already beginning to address some of those things and our plans moving forward for the upcoming year

061and uh Dr Wright with the plans would would they be um more of the step process on getting that into where the board will have a clear idea of what the plan is not not just from a policy standpoint because you can't make policy without knowing the plan and the course of that right but how do you will we get more I don't want to say substance because because you guys are brought you guys did some tremendous work really um but the the the the plan I I know I can't remember who's I had talked about timelines and being able to measure it to see if it's working to make sure that like we have the right staff no one in the right building creating the right culture and climate um and so it would

062that is kind of within that realm of what you guys are talking about because I we have leaders in school administrators among y'all so very quickly I just want to mention um so Mr Mason threw out a suggestion I'm going to throw out one of my own but I hope that y'all will consider to possibly incorporate um which as you talked about exit interviews and stay interviews I would love to see some sort of Crisis Intervention when you have someone who is thinking about leaving you know um have someone that they can contact and say you know I'm having a problem and it's making me think about leaving the profession and hopefully we can intervene before we get to the exit interview stage um and one thing I wanted to share I'm sure that y'all

063have probably seen this but the Nea did a survey it came out February 1st and it showed annual numbers of people leaving the profession that match the numbers that you all showed but it showed 55 percent of current teachers were considering leaving the profession this year right now um which is alarming so um anything that we can do to to step in and intervene when someone is having you know so much um so many obstacles that suddenly they're considering leaving the profession we need to step in and try to fix that I don't know and unfortunately I had experience this past week with a very simple situation principal tried to talk to the teacher I reached out to the teacher it's it's done I have a question I guess I'm going to look at it

064from a different angle so teachers are leaving a profession they're retiring probably early is it because they're unhappy or is it because maybe the Dynamics of the students have changed and the way they used to do things are not actually working like they used to and so they're kind of like it's a plethora of things is exactly what you said the children from the 80s are not the children of today right um it's also people are retiring it's also just the frustration and the everyone said it's a lack of teachers feel unsupported feel like if I did not say that I would not being true to my profession and to my colleagues that I just left three hours ago so it's important that I I absolutely love being on this committee because it's important to

065have that voice that they don't feel supported in speaking to Mr Smith it's also that if we talk to them that I mean I feel like we'll talk them off the ledge but it's a plethora of things and everything you said is exactly why they're leaving so when you think about a mentoring program you should have it as a diverse maybe an older teacher with a younger teacher or a male teacher with older younger and so exactly exactly I feel like I'm I'm a unicorn I have a wonderful Administration staff I have a wonderful facility that aren't acted as my mentor but when I speak to my colleagues at other schools that's not the case that's not the story they are feeling as if their Mentor if they receive a mentor doesn't really eat them

066and so that is I really want to make sure that they feel like I make sure that I never like Miss Lewis make sure you tell them and I was like I'll tell them I don't know how it's going to go over but yes if we have a more robust Mentor program making sure they get mentoring from day one not day 365. make sure there's someone there to support them in the classroom understating their concerns I feel like that that year five will turn into your 30 plus like my niece would say what you just said [Laughter] um Miss Lewis I have a question well it's for everyone really but um but but you did bring up an interesting point on director Johnson is that um our students are different and so if if our

067students are different they're learning they're different they are not able to sit in the one in the lecture style class um they they really need those Hands-On and that experiential you know experience learning and all that um how my question is and it's a very broad question not to Target it anymore um how don't teaching profession changing to meet the needs of today's students um to where it is a a match um or even a hybrid yeah it's amazing because there's so many what one thing that Little Rock schools are just amazing is provide you tools to teach your children we have so many if you look at our curriculum map we have so many links on how to reach If the child and we when our plcs we have those four questions what's happening

068if they if they do understand it what happens if they don't understand it how are we going to support them so it's so many tools but think about it it's a six hour day and then you have to look at all of those tools and pinpoint it for all 24 or 105 of your children so while we have all of these tools we have to make sure that we can Implement all those tools in technology another thing the little roster the little school district is on point with it's providing technology even if it's not the technology that everyone wants and they're making the steps in the right direction so we are meeting those students we have the tools but if we don't have the support to make sure that we can look at all the

069tools make sure that we can also look at and make sure they're matching all the children and making sure that we have everything they need and make sure that we're telling parents how to use them a big gap is that we know how to teach the children but who's their number one teacher parents so we have to bridge that Gap as well so if we can beat all those needs and then meet all the other needs that we know they're in the back that we haven't talked about I think that that'll Bridge those gaps so talk to universities because universities are still teaching prospective teachers the way they taught them 10 15 20 years ago and those strategies don't always work today so we can do tons and tons of stuff but if that intern

070if that prospective teacher has come with this set of ideas about how School is and then they get into that student teaching and it's not that way it takes a lot of heavy duty mentoring to get them to stay so some of this is going to have to be conversations with higher ed to let them change their way of thinking to the reality of today you know you bring up a good point that's one of the things they talked about at the National School Board Association conferences about the importance of um a K-12 or p12 talking oh I'm sorry I was talking to you hey Little Rock okay but but seriously um at the National School Board Association conference that is what they're talking about and talking about how important it is not only for

071school board um directors to talk to higher ed and legislators about um changing the curriculum but also bringing along our administrators and then and then our teacher leaders to have the conversation whether it's a collective and so like they're able to truly see just how classrooms have changed how students have changed right since that co-curriculum was was developed and so um if that's something that while you guys are already talking with um of several different colleges and so like you got it's good to know um it is one thing to think it right but it's another thing to see it and connection and so it feels really good to know that we are we mean the lrsd are already on that path to meet our students while we're there thank you you know I am

072really liking this I have one more um have we considered or will we consider maybe one of the campuses that we referenced was Hardy reach and philander maybe we could send a teacher into their classroom to see if they're on point or maybe we could tweak some things for the teacher if they would allow it for universities to change what they're teaching it's a long process because they have to propose that change to their Department then to the university and you know there's several layers of of changes that have to be made but I think it's a conversation that y'all y'all could have and I'll just quickly add like just from from thinking about where to enter and how to move people into teacher roles we um actually Dr Wright just signed off on an

073mou with uapb that allowed our campus to go ahead and hire in for a vacancy we had as a paraprofessional but this individual is in the teacher preparation program needing to complete their internship so we structured her day where she's assigned to her Mentor teacher but then also is able to do her paraprofessional duties and the hope is right when this individual graduates they may leave that role that they currently have in my building but they'll enter a classroom teacher role hopefully in Little Rock School District so thinking like that and extending kind of like how we see it and not just traditional teacher preparation when they graduate moving to a teacher role how about now in other roles so I thought that was a really good move on their part and thank Dr Wright

074for signing off on that agreement and I think that's a great segue to add that we also if we as we talked tonight about classic means certified the discussion also centered around classified staff so it wasn't just uh teacher but it's how do we grow our entire staff uh and Miss Wesley got an opportunity to see that in Washington how they were utilizing their classified staff to support instruction and support the systems in place and that's part of the discussion this group has had as well but I just want to come up and thank them publicly they give up their evenings to meet with me and share these ideas and made it easier for me and I had to present just work through the Powerpoints with them they don't get paid to come and meet

075with me but they did hear about the sweaters that you all are getting and one of them already asked for one so so it seems like I'll be ordering some sweatshirts uh for this group but they have been a pleasure to work with uh and and it's it is refreshing uh and what Mrs Lewis didn't want to say she was talking about the caliber of students uh this is one of my former students so it makes it it makes it really good to see uh she had help though great family uh but uh our family at Wright cell also helped her as well but I want to thank them publicly for all of your work Miss Mrs Smith let me let me check and see director Callaway did you have director Callaway did you have

076a question okay I'm sorry um I'm unusing myself now um no I like to congratulate you all on uh actually taking this up of this manner but uh I I missed part of the meeting and be honest with you and uh are you out of willing are you talking in this program are you all talking about having student teachers to come to uh the Little Rock School District to do student teaching is that still a thing okay yes Miss Callaway also some residency conversations are happening too right okay uh because I think that we could we could probably extend our uh a whole um idea Beyonce Beyonce borders like other schools in different districts I mean other schools in different States neighboring states and and have an active program for uh teacher recruitment uh that

077you know back in the Stone Age of one thing when we got out of teacher teacher uh we did our student teaching and whatever and we were graded and uh then we would have bears to recruit like for instance you could have uh somebody from Personnel to come down and recruit and tell them what's good about uh Little Rock School District and I really think that uh this group would be of excellent group to do that I do so I like what I've heard okay and I didn't want to say that thanks okay thank you now bring in the donuts all right thank you thank you [Applause] [Laughter] well let us move on to uh district report card and school designation update all right we'll make this very brief we just wanted to make sure

078that our board was aware of our uh any changes with regards to we know we had school grades but we had district report cards that were just released a couple months ago and some designations for schools have changed since we haven't officially tested since 2020 so we just wanted to make the board I'm aware of these changes so we have Dr Robinson who is joining us by Zoom from our data assessment and accountability department and she's going to walk you through this presentation yes good evening hello everyone or president Mason board member of superintendent Dr Wright and before I begin I would like to say to the board members thank you for your service uh I believe Dr Wright has provided you all with the notification of our district and our school's accountability status but

079the district report card and school destination I'll be going over an update with you the district report card was released on December 30th 2022 and it provides an overview of District characteristics and demographics uh there's three years of data the Essa indicator achievement grow sqss and that is the school quality Student Success indicator graduation rate School environment and teaching quality but the district report card all data has been previously shared but what's new is the graduation rate increase in 2020 we were at 78.38 79.48 and 2022 were at that 80 percent so the school designations uh in your packet in the agenda you would notice that there are some acronyms for these so schools in need of comprehensive support and Improvement which is CSI our Title One schools whose asset index scores are at or

080below the lowest five percent of Essa index scores and their grades span also we would like to note that unfortunately no matter how much title schools improve there would always be a bottom five percent for this criteria beginning of the 22-23 school year any school identified identified as CSI prior to 2223 and not meeting the exit criteria will be identified in need of more rigorous intervention comprehensive support and Improvement in Little Rock School District we have the destinations for the schools that are in need a more rigorous intervention comprehensive support and Improvement we have five schools and also I would like to note that the asterisk behind the schools of the Little Rock School District Schools identified as priority schools so we have five schools they are avail Stevens Washington Cloverdale J.A therapy eight schools

081in need of comprehensive support and Improvement our Baseline Mapledale Elementary King Watson Little Rock Southwest Dunbar and Mapleville Middle School we also have schools that are designated in need of additional targeted support and Improvement these clothes have at least one subgroup consistently underperforming and are below the bottom five percent of all Title One schools Dr Robinson can you give an example or can you uh give an example of what is a subgroup of the different types of subgroups possibly um students with disabilities it could be the African-American uh what's up group so um economic disadvantage yes guys for low performance of all students so um those are just a few of those subgroups yes sir so beginning and the 22-23 school year any school identified as atsi prior to 22-23 and not meeting the exit

082criteria would be identified as in need of comprehensive support and Improvement additional targeted support and improvements and that would be the csiatsi identifier we also have schools that are in need of comprehensive support and Improvement additional targeted support and Improvement we have 13 schools they are Baseline Booker Carver maplevale Elementary King McDermott art Creek Wakefield Watson Western Hills Dunbar Mapleville middle Gillespie height and middle and the schools that are in need of additional targeted support and Improvement we have two schools and those are Brady and man so I'll identified schools must demonstrate upper progress on the acid index score over two or more years for all subgroups those are the MRI s c s i c s i and c-s-i-a-t-s-i are subgroups but the atsi and they must succeed the 2022 as the index score

083in 2025. a Dr Robertson I have bought and run for the listening public uh can you say what what these um these acronyms are please yes um on the slides um the MRI CSI are schools that will receive more rigorous intervention comprehensive support Improvement and the CSI are comprehensive support Improvement csiatsi are our comprehensive support and Improvement additional targeted support Improvement and the atsi is additional targeted support and Improvement it's I think prior to covet it was really just CSI and atsi and then once schools hey Siri after several years didn't exit those categories now we've created um we added the MRI to the CSI and the CSI to atsi which which makes it sound so complicated but it's really yeah but yeah so is I have a question about the exit criteria because it's

084just like you said that's complicated that is the exit criteria um is complicated if it's continued to change which it has changed multiple times over the years so it so it's a moving Target so how are districts particularly Little Rock School District supposed to meet an exit criteria that that is constantly changing um and and then once we think we're on Mark we're not on Market because something changed and so um I definitely I'll just say it I definitely as an elected board member now don't want to be back in the situation we were before um so what is the comprehensive plan to move these students and then what is the state wanting um this District to do and then is that in writing so I'm going to answer the so it's so and so

085part of the question is for before you answer director Callaway I'm sorry okay part of the um question is really we're gonna try and do what they ask us to do right like we've been doing but we need to make sure that like they understand what they want us to do so is is the exit criteria they have for us in writing and have it changed so I'm going to try to explain this as as clear as possible so the Essa in debt score criteria you have to show Improvement for two or three years consistently in order to move out of or move up from these levels so that in and of itself hadn't changed the that criteria hadn't changed but how your that's the index score changed that has right that's what I'm talking

086about change again once we do a new assessment after this year um but I think the bottom line is we've got to get all of our schools on a path to Improvement regardless of if the criteria changes or not I think the the reason why we have schools that have moved from regular atsi and regular CSI to now MRI CSI and CSI atsi is because regardless of what the criteria has been there has been there hadn't been enough progress um which rolls over to the total asset index score and we know that for middle and elementary in high school it's different different stuff but the bottom line is you know we've got a we've got to show Improvement um and if we show Improvement and it impacts our Essa index score and it improves over

087you know two or three years then that's enough for our schools to to um to improve so is is there a individual School plan all the way down even if it needs to go all the way down to the classroom is there a plan to move to which which I'm still you know I'm I'm really looking forward to the tiered system you have for instruction um is it but but is there a plan for all 21 schools that is the plan and as we continue to add layers and and complete it that is a plan and the fact that we have um so many of our schools in Little Rock School District that is in one of these categories to where it doesn't necessarily need to be an individual plan per se um we've gotta

088we've got to do some systemic work at our level the district level and some systemic work at the school level which is what the tiered support plan when it's completed will address all of those different factors and and will the board get uh uh substantial reports on on on being because like we won't be we will need to be able to measure the Improvement and so um along the way like every quarter or a semester report we will be getting those reports on those 21 all of our schools but targeted our 21 schools as soon as we get the right types of uh assessment system and assessment strategy completed in our district to be able to first of all we can't report to you what we don't know ourselves absolutely so but yes yes which

089I know you're in the process so I just wanted yes ask that question I knew the answer foreign you have Booker so can we subtract that one school from that 13. yep that was just an oversight all right any other questions is there this is not an action item this is just a report yes um so we move on to the next are we ready for uh Chief Deputy to come in yes we are foreign y'all doing okay all right great we'll get some excitement going on this financial presentation here [Applause] no money no money yeah More Money More Problems Financial reports here uh typically the same here we'll go through a few other things that may be a little more exciting here but as we get down to our Revenue update I'm gonna make

090a little bit larger here on the screen here so local tax collection still tracking well and likely to close uh close close to our budget projections if all fares well for this second half of the year so the first half you can see here and this report is through December 31st uh property tax on Main collections we end up collecting almost 91 000 more than we actually have projected on land Redemption we were up by 87 000 my random support revenue and low in taxes up 65 000. so that's very positive so we pretty much have hit all those targets for the first half of the year so that's great all right thank you taxpayers as far as I expenditure data uh and you saw some of the reports in the previous uh report that

091they actually gave on Forest vacancies out there we're still tracking quite a few vexes out there and this has created some savings out there for us as well so I'm projecting right now just by looking at it possibly about two two and a half maybe to three and a half million of savings and nice hours and benefit section there just because of the vacancies there other expenditures seem to be tracking uh with the original budget with a few adjustments we still have to continue to adjust some accounts for 63 470 and 64 500 that's our architecting construction projects that we bring different projects to the board as we get different projects off the ground those are budgets we actually adjust accordingly based on our uh our chief Deputy you repeat that first bullet because I

092don't think they heard that oh yeah the salaries and benefits we'll probably eat it up later but sour is the benefits seem to be coming in uh under budget man 200 I'm saying about two and a half of them projecting two and a half to three and a half based on what we're trending right now so I don't foresee us hiring an onslaughter folks it's still hard out there to get people so I was actually talking to my security director today uh asking about some banks we had we had 11 people apply uh he was able to contact seven with good numbers uh out of that well he was able to contact seven those seven agreed to the interview I think maybe three showed up and out of that three we didn't have in Africa

093so they didn't qualify so It's hard out there so some of those vacancies will still be out there so why you looking at me like that Dr Wright operating fund balance we're still good and remember the operating fund balance and fine balance is a snapshot in time is just measuring how much revenue you've brought in and how much expense you had then over that fiscal year so this is not what we're going to end that it's real it's healthy right now it's about 63 million dollars I think last month you might it might have been close to 90 million dollars but our captain Improvement fund balance uh is going down slowly but surely 160 million now uh and that's you know the money we went out for to our voters so we brought in a

094little over 200 million we have another 100 million authorization out there so hopefully the market will be favorable when we go back out and try to get those funds Federal fund balance uh still it's not it was actually negative last time we were waiting on a reimbursement but we're positive almost a million dollars right now and of course that's on a reimbursable basis and Child Nutrition is still very healthy out there so Miss Walker hanser staff if you've been to uh probably Parkview and probably Century you've probably seen some new cafeteria tables and different things so they're ordering a lot of equipment trying to get those things in uh just like anything else it's long lead time so most of the things we order now still because of the supply chain demands and stuff so

095that's pretty much it for our uh as far as our overview of our actual financial statements if y'all have any questions I will entertain them we've talked about multiple uh meetings which is the end of Esser funds and being prepared to deal with that ending and being able to um you know carry over in terms of if we have uh staff and Personnel that are being paid out of those funds and having a plan to to address that once those end so can you just speak to how prepared we are for for maintaining that once those funds are exhausted so we have have a little while longer on Arps so this is just kind of overview where we kind of started this is a total we got almost over 100 million dollars in that Esther

096fines whether it was Luke Harris that's the one there's a two and those both are all expanded right now and we have 64 million local 64 million wire that we call Arps or excuse me soaking band right now if we look at Arps or I'm gonna go down to the bottom and kind of show you where our span is at so right now in 20 fiscal year 22 was our first year actually spending in that Arps and we spent about 14.6 million if you can notice right here and I just updated these numbers today uh for this current fiscal year we spent about 27 6 million so far we have what's calling convert 2.8 so uh basically I remain in Balance right now just on available funds is a little over 20 million dollars we

097actually have allocating this can come off I believe now Dr Wright this extended day for Ka so I'm gonna put a zero right here real quick It's Magic down there so basically what we talked about I think on the last board remember we pretty much have about 13 and a half million dollars somebody say something no it's cough okay 13 and a half million dollars that still can be allocated toward other you know items up there so if we scroll down you can kind of see the things we've actually done in all these and while we the balance is different between the 13 and 20. we hadn't paid all these bills up here yet so some of the things are still pending that line item that says Personnel that's the one that I want you

098to make sure that when these funds are exhausted we have a plan for addressing those again and I think that's a big part of Dr Wright's Network his three Network things so those will be addressed so yes ma'am so we still have some money to spend out there uh I'm sure we'll we'll have some plans brought before you and we won't let in this money get away from us because we have a lot of needs out in the district still so we have through uh September 30 for 24 to actually obligate These funds so I want to just uh just remind everyone too that we did kick off our tutoring pilot last week this week last week this week this week I could remember all four of the or five of the companies that we

099have working in various schools and so fourth it's for companies working in various schools um and so we are anticipating um when we get the results at the end of this school year to see how some of those interventions are working we do anticipate um really expanded that especially at some of our elementary schools if we find that either one of these approaches are really working and we're I know we're just in one week but I we are seeing some I can say we are seeing our schools really being committed and doing the things necessary to make sure that the students who need these tutoring intervention services are really getting it and so I'm excited we've got a plan in place to begin monitoring progress as early as in the next week or so and

100so we'll be with go school box um so we've got everything in we're looking at the progress and so um some of the excess money that you see here will be eating up if we expand some of these tutoring programs to other schools all year long next year so that concludes my financial report unless y'all have any additional questions um are you are you going to talk about buildings the difference okay thank you I got to take action on this one first I'm ready though I'm sorry I just put you all together honey well chief I don't want people to I know him you're fine okay you wasn't offended were you no no okay just need to be clear all right directors what is your what is your pleasure on a December 22 board financial

101report so I moved that the Little Rock School District School Board except the December 2022 board Financial reports as submitted the second it's been moved and properly second Miss Wesley moved and directed Calaway director Wilson I'm sorry director Wilson seconded all those on purpose I oppose motion carries next item so we're going to be doing a facility update along with the vacant property I want to can I pull up the vacant property first and then we jump in the facility so uh to be kind of seamless with Mr yarbria here so uh let's see here so I know we I think we did this update maybe I forgot what month but it's been several months but needed to update you all as far as uh the status of some of our property that we currently

102have that we're not currently utilizing so the first one on the list is like what's called formerly David Little Dot Elementary here so uh before we we got approval we had actually accepted offer on there they went through some due diligence and end up uh let's see what date was that they end up terminating the contract this month so uh it went back on the market we had another some more folks have been interested the whole time so we got another offering and we're still going through that negotiation so should be following up with uh Mr Mackey on tomorrow to kind of see what we are as far as those negotiating terms so hopefully we can get that one closed out other ones we have these Lots out over there on absent street so we

103the airport is interested in the property we're waiting appraisal right now from the airport so based on the appraisal that should go under contract so uh hopefully over the next month or so we'll we'll get that appraisal back uh the little piece of parcel that's across from David O Dodd and counting that triangle there we had several people interested before we put it up for sale because they kept calling us but we put it up no one's really brought it anything to us yet so no offers yet but it's still listed for 175 000. uh Bryant Street that's formerly Southwest Junior High I used to hold uh Hamilton Academy as well currently it's been it was being used as excess furniture and custodial supplies we've actually cleaned it out for the most part I think

104Jim was still being used for wrestling practice uh for Central uh the overall plans has been that become a welcoming similar and actually bring in some multiple departments I think maybe student registration possibly Adult Ed is Adult Ed and maybe sped and maybe some early people on some other places there so we'll get some use on that that one was pretty much exempt from and we'll talk about the other becoming uh available for charter schools because it's within 500 feet of an existing building so it would adversely affect you know I think based on the law so let's see here Barber Street Booker Elementary building contents we actually auctioned off in December 22 so that's something required by state if we have access uh contents we put it up for auction so uh typically sell

105for pennies look like in most cases so most of our stuff is well used by the time we get to auction So currently with the city uh expired December 31st 22 so we're scheduled sometime here in the near future to meet with City officials determine the future of the site since uh we own the building Improvement they own the land so we have to do something it would be probably good something for the community so we'll we'll see so we'll be um yes on whatever those plans are the trend okay which I know y'all so this one is a gray area it will I guess we'll list it on our facility update as under utilizer however the state make classified but I don't know how it would be available for you know charter schools at

106that point it's good original lease because for us to actually tear down any improvements on there based on that 19 I think 62 lease on there I don't think anybody want to see all the improvements on that ground torn down us or the city so it I think it has some future use for something so have they not removed the playground equipment did I we did yes yes no we actually that was actually auction off right did y'all move a piece so we do try to utilize some of the playground equipment to other places if it's something that was fairly new and it was it's expensive to move that stuff is because it's very well installed team um our independent Football League team they also utilize that that uh field filled in the track and

107the community utilize that track and so like that is so open and taken care of you know for them to still uh utilize that correct yeah it's still available so yeah I think I saw somebody with a walking the other day so yeah okay and maybe any talks that we have we I know you said you guys are going to talk about uh making it a community space but making sure that like they too have a space the city official that we've been talking to um is definitely interested in keeping that space available for Community regardless of what what happens to the building so yeah right now meadowcliffe no action has been taken on the property because we boarded the building up uh Gone by and try to keep in the trash cleaned up I

108think we're trying to probably limit access to driving around the building some so that's one thing I was over there a few weeks ago we had a somebody had dumped some trash there on a few spots so I think you all got that all straightened up the same day or maybe the next day after so something we can try to curb that so the big part on here I want to show you as far as that because we've had a lot of uh questions about Metal cliff is of it pretty much our policy and state law here so this is our policy and it reflects what's in state law so if you ever want to go out there and look it's in section 7 but it's section 7.13 I'm going to scroll down let's just

109kind of tell you what prompting different other things will go down the disposal Surplus property so and basically it uh States here the board of directly recognize that real property it on sometimes become no longer used to the district and thus meets the policy definition of surplus real property and this talks about by February each year the district shall submit a report to division of Public School academic facilities and transportation division that identifies any under using under globalized property so and basically at that time once that list is published it becomes available for charter schools so they have two years of first rights of refusal so uh at that point I think on dot after one year we petition the waiver to ask that we didn't have anybody that came forward that said they were

110interested I think they had to put another notice so they granted us an earlier waiver after a year I believe maybe a little more of the year so but right now for anybody that's interested the first writer refusal goes to a charter school to get it either leased at fair market value or purchase it fair market value so that list won't be published to March 1st I believe and I think that's when the date actually starts point so we still have the building probably for at least another year uh if we can probably petition a waiver from uh Ade at that time to shorten that period whether it's granted or not I'm not sure so up until that time a charter school has a the first Rider refusal basically so nothing we really can lease

111out or sell or do anything so I have a question regarding that so I know we've been talking about solar energy is that property how can I ask this question can we use that properly to put a solar array I probably could put some type of Ray on there you would have to actually so the if you put one on the building since it's still first write a refusal for Charter Schools you're going to be putting some on you can put if you just say if you put on the building anything on there so Charter Schools still have first right refusal to profit because it's not being utilized for educational purposes so it's going to be on the utilize so basically how they look at if I have a school that has a capacity of

112two thousand students I only have a thousand students in there I have a portion of buildings unutilized so actually they can actually request to actually use a portion of that so when the building is a vacant you wouldn't want to make an investment over there when it may change hands but it's not enough acreage there what is that like 15 Acres maybe yeah we have the solar RFP out now but we're you're going to need a whole lot more yeah yeah you know with that I'll pause and it's keeping for for are you going to be here for board comments at the end so I'm not coughing okay because it's on solar but solar's not on the agenda it's all wait until Port comment to say it um question on the building though um so

113we can't we're not using it for educational purposes which means that it is is it that is educational purposes are students in that building or or else it's educational purposes we are using it for students to go there for specialty classes and things like that I mean I'm just trying to figure out yeah what what does that mean at least for intended purposes of a elementary school which it was uh I guess dinged at that time Kate excuse me k-6 okay so yeah okay um okay five one ten K six K five after after the year and then the right of refusal and so on um if there is a non-profit or someone who wants to buy it or interested in any one of our properties uh do they have to wait for the Y

114to reproof refusal or are they able to so like on diet once we got the waiver granted I mean we put it up for sale so uh it like the first offer came in from a private school uh the second office come in from a I believe it's a church is interesting and so I mean it becomes open to anybody at that point so yeah okay so anybody could come in I mean any citizen or a non-profit or whoever it might be at that point so but they have to put the statutory notice out there for the charter schools within you attendance onto to get it on their potential so okay I don't know if anybody's gonna come forward though okay my last question on metal Cliff is um we did make that um promise

115to the that community and we don't have any life in that building um and since it's so long and it's been stalled on what are we going to do with that building like whether we're going to move some of our more transitional um departments in there or do something with that building so what is the position of of the district or are we not going to honor that we honor that saying to the by to the medical community with not having it vacant I know it's boarded up but that's still I don't know if I can speak on that that might have been a promise somebody else made I know medical is one of those buildings we identify that needed a lot of work so I don't have any okay um Mr Bailey Mr Bayliss

116yes ma'am could you uh could you give me uh uh that long uh where uh you said it was seven points it references I believe it reference and I pause and that may be 7.13 if you go on our policy here 7.1.3 let me see if it's at the bottom here well there it is well no let's go uh concerning Charter Schools having first uh having the first uh write a refusal so it's going to be one of these legal references down here I can I can uh specifically find the one for you well that's that's what I'm interested in okay because I like to read that okay will do okay um understand how well we have to you know provide the first runner refusal I understand that my question is that a lot of

117the decision-making process for the board dealt with the condition of that building um and is there not I guess I'm a little surprised that there's not any caveat or I mean so we have to offer something for sale regardless of the condition and is that you know the plan is to offer it in the current condition yeah yeah that wouldn't be my suggestion because we don't we didn't yeah and I'm I guess I'm trying to word this carefully but but my understanding was that I'll just I'll just stop there yeah well no it's you know the condition of the building was something that really went into decision making about whether or not to keep that school open so I'm a little surprised that it would then be put on the sales bought for potentially being

118inhabited by other students when I can be inhabited you just don't have to spend some I would think spend some money to get it up to the point where you want so it's a lot if construction price right now about three something a square foot how much is it well I don't know but if they will build a new yes so not if we're going to have to offer first try to refuse like we don't need to spend we don't have to renovate a building to offer for sale but a charter school or a church or somebody that wanted a building instead of coming in from the ground up spending say 300 a square foot they could probably renovate it for just say half of that amount a square foot 150 square foot or whatever

119it might be so it gives you some ground but it is you know it's going to still be expensive I think probably I don't know if anybody's gonna try this gonna come through it or not so but we do have that some period of just notice out there so hopefully didn't have to last but two years our timeline is March 1st that's when the the published lists will come out from the division so yes sir any other any other questions regarding but we got Mr Yarbrough are you doing a presentation Mr Arbor you'll come up here and ask answer some questions at least so uh so one of the other things you all wondered was an update as far as some of the the statuses some of the projects we had out there and I

120think you all are prep this is a pretty long list and it's going to continue to grow we have a Google doc out there as well so uh if you hadn't got a chance to look this look at it it's quite a bit going on right now a lot of the stuff may not be the prettiest stuff you just see on the outside so I'm gonna maybe some of the the guts of the building the HVAC systems or whatever it might be but you've probably walked through some buildings saw some floor and stuff and maybe you'll see some new uh gem bleachers and different things like that throughout I can make it a little bit larger for you all it may cut off a smile on my screen here too so but uh may cut

121off the actual site over there but just show through and kind of see some of the things here and uh I'm gonna let Kevin talk to you all about the real cool stuff the new construction and the major Renovations and stuff like that Marion Marion Lacey we What's the progress what's the status answer that question um we're on schedule and we're a little under budget right now so we're going to continue to try to push that and we have weekly progress meetings with our contractors and Architects so and we don't I don't I don't just go by myself we've got a group of folks that that are assigned to be at that meeting that weekly meeting and so we've got more than one set of eyeballs on it and so right now it's tracking very

122well it's if you've not been by to look at it it's something to see I think that they're I think I heard some comments recently about how it set for so far back off of the street and you wouldn't really be able to see it but if you can drop by and look at that right now I mean it is really in your face it's it's yeah yeah so it's coming along very well I guess there are no surprises yet but pretty substantial yes ma'am yes ma'am that's one of my favorite design features in our schools so we do have one one uh well I guess I'm gonna get all of them so we're gonna hit Rockefeller thank you all aware Rockefeller is going to be converted over major renovation over there so I think

123it's well overdue and well deserved so uh Rockefellers won our open architecture schools where you really didn't have but you have some classrooms or whatever you got a lot of open space there similar to what was at uh I guess full ride is semi-open but Dodge was totally totally open so this is kind of if you want to kind of show them this design here and these are still I guess draft right yeah it's still draft um you know once we get to a point in design I believe we've got to be 90 or better before we submit to the state for review they've got to review it and approve it before we can move forward with uh you know getting a contractor plugged in financially so um there's a lot a lot going on

124at Rockefeller um it's it's a it's not really any part of the building that we're not touching um maybe with the exception of the cafeteria slash gym we've already done some pretty significant work in there to to kind of give that a facelift and make a little bit more usable a little bit more friendly we've also done some pretty significant playground work as well on the outside but these are just some some renderings of of what we've been I guess dreaming about really um a few years now yeah so um anyway we're making pretty good progress on the design and we're really right now we're tracking trying to get um start turning dirt that's just kind of a so to speak but um we're actually anticipating starting this work this summer and it will be

125a pretty lengthy process and uh but but we'll um I think we're looking at probably 12 to 18 months renovation time so we're hoping to get back into actually start using that building again as it will be intended for um after that so Dr Wright do we want to pull up anything on that uh West Little Rock like the survey stuff I really just uh just a the slides that shows the building features okay this one or not you got to just keep scrolling towards the end starting there again now I'm gonna ask a question about the the architectural design for the renovation of the Little Rock Central yes sir so where is the status what's the status so uh we should be getting ready to send for State review we're expecting that probably early

126this month early in the middle of this month um we have made progress on providing temporary classroom buildings those will be relocated with new buildings so that we can start the work where the current portable classrooms are so that work we expect to start probably late April we'll be developing the site to accommodate those new new buildings but the the real good heavy lifting part of that project will start in June says the president went to Central I guess I can pull it up real quick quite a privilege on one thing maybe that design draft Ed everything there so this is uh just a you know a rendering of the um once the renovations or the the construction is complete this is an overhead view of what that looks like we kind of 3D model

127there so you'd have the academic Wing right here let's finish along with the field house baseball field New parking here we'll go through this and kind of look at it a little bit so that's the first floor of the field house it's got an indoor practice field [Music] um weight room plenty of storage obviously football locker room baseball locker room some coaches offices I've also got wrestling locker rooms on this floor as well this is the second floor we've got two wrestling spaces we've got a chair practice room we've got softball and soccer and cheer kind of sharing a space locker room wise they've got a team meeting room which also can be used for um special events or alumni type activities one of the unique features about the building you really can't see it

128too well here is that the the north facing part of that building actually has a a ledge if you will for folks to be able to observe the game from the South End Zone much like what we've got at Little Rock Southwest I might be a little larger um and then you're seeing the science Wing here this is the first floor most of this first floor is physics obviously and you see the first floor of the we've got a um lecture hall in this building as well we've also provided a restroom space to support the baseball field because currently baseball doesn't have any restrooms for spectators or the team or anything else so this was very close to the to the stands and the backstop so it made sense for us to try to provide

129those those spaces for that second floor most of this is chemistry um again and this is the second level of the the lecture hall and this is the third floor and most of this is going to be geared toward biology we also have a robotics lab on this floor and again this is just an overhead view of what that looks like when it's complete one of the I think one of the things I wanted to point out too is that there's a space in between the new science building and the existing academic building it's we're calling it The Commons area and it's a space for students to be able to eat their lunch if they want to study outside it's kind of like a plaza area if you will it's it's been very useful outdoor

130space currently some students eat lunch out there now and it was important to them to the staff and the principal over there that they that we provide them with space to to be able to handle those kinds of activities so and you ought to get a full preview and everything before when we bring the GMP to you as well so we have architects in the construction manager here as well so it'll be more Renditions than this right here so yeah when we put when we bring the GMP to you for approval um we'll be giving you a full full presentation of the design and we'll have Professionals of room to do that for you um I have a question uh Miss Yarbrough yes ma'am um now I'm I'm of course you all going kind of

131fast and um now I can't even see it but uh where the parking lot the new parking lot is going to be uh uh you remember where Camp is in used to be okay like over there with new parking lot is what's going to be there that that's going to be all parking it will be parking yes ma'am that uh we're intending that to be um staff and teacher parking okay evidently staff parking is a pretty significant Challenge on that campus um yes ma'am so so we I'm gonna make it I'm gonna make it I'm gonna make it large for you miss Callaway here's the uh here's the fact stuff what floor is this first floor right okay yes this is the first floor yes so those classrooms will be replaced right here is that

132first floor in the main building or no ma'am this this is the first floor in the new uh Wing that we're building okay so you're only uh you're going to have like two rooms we've got three three um right on the other side sewing classroom yes ma'am you got you've got two classrooms in the lab in the middle yeah um it's gonna be it's gonna be great do you see the sewing classroom absolutely uh but see I haven't seen this is not rendering or whatever before and that's the reason why I'm asking these questions because when I know what fact folks were over there in the old campus and and I was just wondering were they just gonna eliminate the facts program at Central that that was not something I was ever I don't think

133we were ever aware of we we always knew that we would need to either relocate those classrooms or provide space well they used to be on the fourth floor which and you know nobody really wants to walk up that many floors uh but that's what I was interested in is was that still going to be included yes ma'am and and see uh thank you very much for for pulling that up because that's exactly where I was going with that because I couldn't see it yes ma'am and I can't read the blueprint um that okay that's that was my question okay Miss Nolan um just very quickly in these you don't have to respond just kind of keep it in mind as y'all move through this process and the things that I've heard over and over

134again from constituents about specifically as to the central project or wanting to make sure that any addition matches the historical nature of the building um and the efforts we were making regarding security and safety are at the Forefront when we design anything those are two things that we have kept in mind the Architects have done a fantastic job of celebrating the design of the original academic building at Central now um just to be transparent obviously we're not using a lot of the same materials right those materials some of them are almost impossible to procure and now in today's time so but I think that that when you see the full presentation you're going to see a lot of nods to the academic building in this building there's a lot of similar features but one thing

135we we didn't want to do was take away from the Brilliance of the original building right so there's a lot of similarities and you all will see that in the presentation so these are just teases for you that's right Ms Hatter director Hatter thank you okay so you take etched a little bit you touched on my question that the historical Factor um because it is the only operating school within the 400 plus National Park system um so it will not and then I'm sure you're in conversations with the Department of interior and in the National Park Service yes ma'am we actually had an official meeting with them regarding this project okay so we we got into that meeting we gave them a presentation we explained to them our intent and frankly their answer was we

136don't really have any oversight or interest into what you're doing on that part of the campus now they were appreciative of the presentation and the conversation but we've had one meeting and that's really all we needed because they it was really just a we were trying to give a courtesy to be sure that there wasn't something that we weren't considering but but there are no concerns from the park service or from the historic groups okay I I just wanted to make sure that that was it so it doesn't jeopardize the the overall United States interests within Central High by it being a part of the national park system yeah I think just to be clear too I think the National Park Service their main interest as far as the exterior elevations is literally what you

137see from Park Street so it's the front elevation of the building all right thank you thank you sir we're gonna move good was there any we've had several public meetings for the new West Little Rock High School but I didn't know um I think do we need an update of that the the physical nature of that building here a little bit where they were going and just given okay okay so this is this is a general site plan so the the um go back the other way now I'm all the way down I go back I didn't say this mama it's not something that's a good one to start with so um you've got some different colored boxes here and just to kind of go over that the light colored square is one of the

138existing three-story building is the yellow in the middle is the new academic Wing this will be three levels tall and then you've got the dark blue is the auditorium and the Orange is the arena the basketball arena I mean you've got some red between the arena and the football field too because we we do there are some changes that are going to be made to the existing football stadium it's just we it was not designed or built for high school standards so we're going to have to provide some more room some space and some accommodations um and obviously we've got a large parking lot to the north as well as some parking to the north of the new buildings and then of course we're showing a baseball and softball field as well and that's just

139kind of some some different ways that we've been breaking the building up you can kind of see how the the different spaces are carved out one of the things I think that came out of some of the community meetings was about the ninth grade academy and I and and where we're at right now with that is that the academy will be in the existing three-story we will be doing some pretty heavy Renovations in that building to accommodate that but it makes sense to to do that because our cafeteria is that it's kind of that gray area to the right of that yeah right in there that's the cafeteria so it's kind of a common space between those two buildings and between the two programs uh what what I was looking at just now uh so

140uh West High School and and Pinnacle View are going to be joined no ma'am because like the the orange uh is that that's the current Pinnacle View so so the brown kind of to the left right there that is Pinnacle View but they are not joined okay they physically are separate okay well what is and the blue football field I know what that is yeah so the Orange is the basketball arena and the dark blue is the auditorium the Fine Arts building those were buildings that's correct the only the only buildings that exist at this point are the dark Browns on the left and the blue the the diamond shaped in the middle there those are the only two buildings that exist at this point okay I I some word really different but okay I

141see it now and these are just some uh artist renderings of of what we envisioned this to look like once it's complete so and believe it or not the existing three-story is is kind of to the left of that large structure we we really are just trying to make it its own we're not we're not trying to just um we don't we don't we want it to look like our building we don't want to look like something that it used to be so the Architects have been done a very good job of of recreating that using existing structure and finishes Mr robbery with the ninth grade with a wedding building being renovated to be the ninth grade academy and it's that existing building is three levels right or it is yes yeah um that waterfall

142in the middle is that going to stay there that's not been decided yet okay um my actual question was um is the cost of that is that part where is the funds coming from to renovate that building because I don't remember that being a part of the conversation overall project once we get to GMP so yes okay and then what is the number of students like the student body that is supposed to be in that building uh currently I believe we're programming 1200 1200 1200 okay yes and okay so we will I don't know about that okay um so well when that happens we would need to remove the central zone so it's not a double high school zone I have a question for you sure okay that's cool yeah the I don't know if

143it was if it's currently West or if it's currently Pinnacle View but there is an agricultural Focus that is that is West and I think it's a it's a it's an extension maybe of the East program that Pinnacle View has um I don't I don't know if it's shared but I think it's a transition thing from Pinnacle View maybe to West but there is a urban agriculture thing happening there I thought it would be an academy and a pathway it's incorporated into all that right I mean go ahead sorry you know better than I do because I know there was changing it up it's currently a pathway at the current Little Rock West School of innovation we went through a series of meetings with the community and various stakeholders to kind of get their feedback

144on what their Academy choices will be and we did come to some decisions which I can't remember what they are but that that current pathway that's currently at Little Rock West School of innovation can be embedded in one of the academies that were chosen by the community I can't remember exactly which one it was but it can't exist as a pathway underneath one of those academies that were chosen okay um a lot of buying especially from the current West students but we also were very intentional about trying to get um feedback from students who will be potentially coming to the school in the various elementary and middle schools that are around so the reason that I brought it up was because there's a lot of green space on this picture in front of us um

145and it just seems like a potential good fit for use with that agricultural program if that is something that y'all can you know well one thing I don't I don't want to yeah okay I certainly don't want this this rendering to um skew what you I don't want your opinion to be skewed about what you see there so okay um so if we're talking east of the football stadium for instance all that green space so behind the pond that falls off dramatically I mean it is a dramatic Decline and then behind the pawn is a dramatic incline up to the neighborhood above so you've got a lot of elevation changes significant elevation changes outside the perimeter of the project in fact for the baseball and softball field that's going to have to be a lot

146of sight work has to take place to accommodate those to get that level enough for it to be an acceptable playing surface and of course the remaining Green Space is is just what's required for us to provide you know trees and grass and things that the city are going to require us to provide in a new project so well let me understand that there are a lot of decisions I have to go into this and that there are requirements like that if there is any way to collaborate with that agricultural program and look at you know in a regular school we may and I say regular school without an agricultural Focus we may landscape things a certain way but we may want to leave some of that well certainly available so that's one thing that

147that we're very uh purposeful about we're not we don't try to assume that we know what they need and how they need it right so we do we will engage those folks to be sure that what space is needed and you know what what that means exactly and and so we'll we'll be sure to have those exercises we've we do it with all of our the whole project yeah that's right we've engaged all Departments of the entire project that's current s process yes yes a little aware of what no doubt no doubt can you elaborate a little bit on on the pond and the and the blue structure that's next to them so the the pond um it's still another one of those things that are that is kind of up uh for debate or

148I don't even know what's up for debate really up for a decision about what's to become a pawn um currently it's pretty grown up um it's not real pretty um and obviously we can fix that um this design originally we we we envisioned that that blue wedge next to the pond speed part of the CTE program now we've since found where we've got space in the main academic building for that and so I'm not sure it makes sense to put it some put another building out by the pond it probably wouldn't be very cost effective for us to do that but right but if we're to keep the pond we will improve around the pond I'm not real sure exactly what that means yet but there are some options we can drain the pond we

149can keep the pond obviously there's a lot of implications if we if we drain the pond and there's a lot of a lot of work to be done as well to to get us to that um to get that approved so so maybe a walking Track or something that's right that's right yes ma'am and and and as agricultural it may be a Fisheries program that could be it could be yes thank you yes sir we'll close it out unless y'all all right my welcome so I'm getting out of here any questions anything I appreciate y'all attention is yep thank you thank you thank you all right Dr right we want to we want to move on to uh Communications and Community engagement yep so uh real quick we know that um uh as part of

150the the board goals or an objective of the board in the past there was a move to there was an RFP a marking RFP specifically geared toward increasing enrollment um we have had many internal conversations about the initial intent of that RFP and at this time it is our recommendation that we do not move forward with that RFP as it was initially designed we feel like we need some internal work done with regards to our Communications marketing some branding things that we can do with our own internal Communications Department and we know that we have some additional internal goals that we have as a district to kind of in prove outcomes and do some other things before we head down the road of trying to um hire an outside company to help us develop a

151marketing plan to increase enrollment we believe that we need some internal work done before we go down this road and so that this time we are asking and requesting or recommending that we don't move forward with that RFP and allow us to continue working on some internal things first that you have some people in mind uh possibly okay got it I'm moving past the lrsd school board not move forward with the marketing RFP process second there has been a motion by director Johnson a second Bob director Wesley uh to not move forward with the RFP presented um with the marketing RFP process all those in the paper say all right discussion um so trust our Supreme internal things um what I would like to do is set a time frame to come back and revisit

152and talk about this issue because um increasing enrollment is obviously such a urgent need and um so so I'm gonna vote Yes let you handle what you need to handle in-house and then maybe let's set a three-month something you know window to come back have the conversation again about where we are on plans because we're increasing enrollment okay um so my question just so I'm clear so we're going to go back and cast the net for an external partner no okay so are you so if I hear you correctly um basically you're saying there is some internal work that have to be done because typically people are leaving our district because of Campus experiences and so um and so you want to make sure that like you are doing what what needs to be done

153internally before moving forward with such a grand um a bigger plan that have a large price tag to it yes and part of that plan involves some some real deep Grassroots Community engagement stuff as we begin to think about our strategic long-term plan really getting some feedback from our community in terms of what they really want to see um so it's it's I just don't want to put the cart before the horse um before we yeah thank you so what I'm hearing is you're working on the brand number of things developing the brand yes yes right that's right you don't want to put a Band-Aid on it you want it to heal so it'll be smooth and perfect right yes and we want to what we don't what I and what we as the the

154the team here we don't want to do we don't want to put out a marketing plan not say that we're gonna false advertising but we really want to um you know it's you want substance behind it for it not to be baked yes and we want to um you want to be sincere in what we're doing um and we want to we want to really right um yeah from the inside out any other questions any other unreadiness [Laughter] all those in favor of the motion say aye all the posers motion carries uh the next item on the agenda is policy personnel and legal uh the I'll let you present this Dr Wright so we started this conversation two weeks ago and I know that there has been a lot of internal and external discussion about

155this particular proposal about partnering with iag for the purpose of recruiting International teachers and I've heard from quite a number of people internal and external and I know that there are we'll valid true concerns about moving forward with this partnership and I just want to be clear and say that um the only concern um that I've heard that I feel like that we can't adequately and effectively address if we if the board gives us approval to move forward with this is the the concern around cost all the other concerns around cultural barriers language barriers all those things I feel can be effectively mitigated um when we go through the interview process when we go through the screening process we know especially in some of our schools that have the most needs we know that we

156don't want to set those schools up for failure by hiring teachers who may present more barriers for students than benefit and so I feel like with the teacher shortage that we are experiencing in our district I just really feel like we need every tool available at our disposal to be able to mitigate these challenges I do want to also note that so as I was looking through um they actually just published a list of teachers that are available through iag and I was very interested in the fact that they were like 10 right now who are termed as language teachers these are teachers who teach English to students who speak other languages and as you know we have a growing ell population in our district and we currently do not have many and in some

157schools any ESO teachers who can really help us meet our level one and level two and our level three ell students there are specific teachers in this network who are from from some of the countries where we have a lot of student populations represented in our schools and I feel like this can really give us a pool of folks to look at and screen and vet um and that pool currently does not exist right now in our district and so I just don't want us to close ourselves off of any potential opportunity for us to find quality teachers who may be a good match for our school especially in heart to staff areas and so I've heard the concerns I am in agreement with every concern that I have heard but again I just want

158to stress the fact that we will screen we will interview we will find if we find a teacher who is a good fit for any of our schools then you know we may move forward with it but if not we won't but again I don't feel like we should cut ourselves off from any potential source of finding teachers for our district especially when we've been unable to feel so many of them um I know this was brought up last time I think um director Nolan is the one who brought it up um have we uh those nine or no 22 positions that are trying to be filled uh have have the district advertise those positions at the cost that we would end up paying International Alliance Group at at the salary that we will pay

159the International Alliance Group so because that's I'm not sure I can clarify so we're talking about the regular salary for that position plus a roughly 20 20 charge 20 to 25 to International Alliance Group the suggestion I made last time was we offer the 20 to 25 as additional salary or a bonus to a potential applicant to fill that position so that we're paying the same amount but that money is going to the teacher instead of going to the consulting firm so no we have not done that um yes we can in addition I think I had to leave last board meeting but I went back and listened to um some of the suggestions and ideas that were that were mentioned Alternatives I believe we should pursue and we are going to pursue a couple

160of things that I heard we're actually looking at um and it was brought up today ways in which we can um encourage or provide incentives for teachers within our district to go back and get their sped certification um so we're exploring we're exploring those particular options and so there's nothing that's going to be off the table in terms of of us trying to feel these particular positions okay so with when the gentleman from International Alliance group was zoomed in he said that there's only 500 visas the and that he's working with the agency is working with over 100 school districts so there's no guarantee that we would get a teacher from this group so I know you said that you saw some teachers that are um that like it will be maybe a good fit

161for the district so my question is have conversations been had with the the agency about guaranteeing teachers are are we like he said competing with a hundred plus districts across the country for what they only have 500 Visas so 500 people so there will be um uh close to a thousand teachers in this particular pool I think that was 500 visas in addition to others from what I understood but there's no guarantee there is no there is no guarantee and we only pay if we hire somebody so there's there's no the guarantee Is Us screening interviewing finding the match that's good for our district going through the hiring process and then we pay um but of course they can't guarantee us anything because we have to select and choose and find uh the teachers that

162will be good fit for us and will we pay for their J-1 Visa as well and all of their all of that's handled through the company our costs is the teacher salary plus the 20 25 director Adams yes I'm willing to make a motion that at the lrsd board approved the administration's request enter into an agreement with iag to recruit teachers for lrsd motion it made by director Adam's second by director Johnson to approve any questions you have unreadedness a question question yes ma'am yeah this is going to be a lot of people uh I feel my opinion uh what level are we bringing these people in on like as far as teacher pay because this is what I've got from a lot of teachers uh uh as far as bringing somebody from out of

163the country and is there another uh way that you could hire another firm that would be um interested in helping us out other than out of the country uh we're the the the state government is cutting out funds they're going to possibly not guaranteed but I just don't understand it doesn't look good if we just start them in let's say making more than the first year teacher and uh we'll give them all these perks and be that as it may um I I will be voting against this and so I I don't want to uh uh not register my vote but I would definitely be voting against this because I think it's going to open up a can of worms that I don't think we really need to deal with because we gotta know I

164wish we could find people but uh I don't think everything's been exhausted I don't know because I'm not having a Arena right now but there are companies that have a tendency to uh uh other than leaving the country I didn't know I don't feel good about that at all so I will be voting against that uh this motion and I want to be counted okay promoting against it director Adams you had a question yeah I just wanted to make a comment in support of the motion the com the rationale that Dr Wright has made to me is compelling that this is not a risk of our funding at this point um we are not compelled to hire anybody that we don't feel good about who could come in and serve our students and the concern

165I have is we just have students who have gone who have gone for too long without a certified teacher and if we can find a certified teacher perhaps who could even bring some particular skills that we have a hard time finding we're not displacing a teacher a domestic teacher in order to bring in someone from another country we are serving the students that we have who are now being underserved and if we're able to do that and if we're going to find someone so because of that I am in support of this recommendation just one thing if I may it just appears to me that we are exploring options and this is yet another option it is not to say that we will choose this option perhaps there will not be you know applicants that

166we're interested in or that we desire to hire so there would not be funds pushed in that direction further I believe that I heard the superintendent indicate that he has not explored every option as it relates to the current you know faculty staff and he will be moving in that direction so it appears that we are you know motivated to move in that direction but we desire to have more options and I think options is always a good thing most often Nolan director Nola um so I just wanted to briefly say I will be voting against it I want to be transparent that um I receive the contact from constituents a hundred percent of it was opposed to this plan and so um I also want to say to everyone who's watching and you know

167following this although I will be voting against it I can clearly see that it is a good faith effort to fix a problem that we have to fix somehow or another um and so well I would really like to see us if we are going to spend this additional money spend it in a way that goes directly to the teacher and uses that as a recruitment tool I understand that one way or another we have to get certified teachers in these positions director Callaway and um and I appreciate uh the effort and everything to to to fill those spaces I think that we do need the uh we need the teachers no doubt because we're having them leave for whatever reason and uh but I cannot support hiring somebody from another country and I realize

168that there are people in in the United States now that are currently from other countries and maybe even in this District who are here on visas but actively recruiting um someone I have a problem with that and and with the people that I've spoken with uh they have problem with it too uh so I will be voting against it but then again I've already said that so yes ma'am director Wilson yeah to speak in favor of this motion um because there's not a pool of out of work t-shirts that want to come work here that were stepping over or ignoring um the positions that are hard to fill in our district are hard to fill Coast to Coast top to bottom so we're not just competing for teachers in central Arkansas this is a national

169Nationwide issue um and so I absolutely support this as an option because I trust that our human resources department is going to do their due diligence and if we have a good candidate in front of us that's who we're going to select thank you any other discussion so all those that are in uh agreement with emotion would you please raise your hand so Jesse can count the votes all those against emotion raise your hand at uh director Callaway it passed Jesse what was the count five four so the motion passes board resolutions Miss Walker do you have uh yes um so you're board packet has a copy of the resolution that I submitted and and I don't know I'm not going to read the whole thing let me see if I can pull it up

170if we want to talk about it generally the idea here is that we are into the legislative session I think everyone is aware that education issues are at the Forefront of what is happening at the Capitol right now and we have talked in the past about really needing to actively taken take a role in advocating for the best interests of our students our staff in The District in terms of legislation and so I've drafted a resolution what it would do let me see if I can pull it up here we go so what it would do would be to allow either the board president the legislative liaison or a designee so someone designated um for that purpose to speak on behalf of the board in the as a whole on very specific issues just during

171this legislative session and in the resolution it specifically says and I'll read this part it says we specifically authorized the board president legislative liaison or the designee to advocate for the appropriation of additional State funding to increase teacher pay Statewide and fund universal access to high quality public Pre-K programs and Advocate against policies that would harm our students by diverting public education funding to private schools censor the teaching of accurate American history or valuable works of art or literature or Target our lesbian gay transgender or non-binary students or staff for harassment and discrimination beyond that it allows the board president the legislative liaison and the superintendent to meet and discuss other areas of advocacy if there is unanimous agreement about what is in the best interest of the district what type of advocacy is in

172the best interest it would allow the board president the legislative liaison or a designee to then go to the Capitol and speak on behalf of the board in the district as a whole in in that process if there is not unanimous agreement there is no authority to do that it requires a board vote on those issues so it expires at the end of this legislative session I think that kind of covers the what it does and you know at this point we have talked about this several times you know either there is support to do it or there's not you know I don't know that um we need to have a prolonged debate or discussion I hope that we could do this and take an active role but um all all of us in our

173own individual capacity are always able to go and Advocate and speak on behalf of ourselves this is simply about being able to speak on behalf of the entire board for issues that impact the district as a whole okay any questions I do um this I did I understand what you're saying but this goes against the the public voting for each of us to be um on this board um each of us is able to speak from our elected capacity so because we are elected School Board they're going to automatically listen anyway and this this this resolution puts two board members it to say that they're speaking by for the entire board that is not a democratic process that is not the way that this board works like it shouldn't be the way that it works

174now if the board passed this five or more then that would be them blindly giving their voice away and as far as speaking any elected official you don't even have to put the statement I'm speaking on behalf of myself as an elected official with the Little Rock School District I'm speaking in my elected capacity and so we don't need this resolution to have two board members because the the the the superintendent can't even speak uh right for the board so it so to have that there and and and and for the other seven members to give away their electric capacity oh you use the colleagues words um that does a disservice not only to the other seven that are elected who can go up there and speak who could go and give News interviews on

175topics whether the board have decided on something or not the president is able to speak on things that we have voted on as a majority and then I think that um like I said it it it it it it it it it it it diminishes the board because you're saying because this resolution would be saying that this is The Stance of the board we all know and everybody knows that we are the most inclusive District around we are a civil rights District this is what we do we stand on this front line when others don't want to speak first that's just what Little Rock School District have done since 1869 like this is what we do so um I won't be voting for for this because I don't believe in um this is like option

176two on the ballot no and and then right right where we was going to right where the legislator wanted a small minority of the legislative assembly to speak for the entire body and now we're asking for this to happen at the board level we can all speak right right to the legislators and the fact that it's two board members and a superintendent the the siding on what the board is deciding I can't I I can't uh vote for that and and then it goes against why we are elected any kind of bigger and briefly I'm not gonna We're not gonna have to go back forth I will just say everything that you can do every board member can do right now they could do after this was passed it does not take away anybody's ability

177to go speak as an elected official you hit the thing on the head when you said the board president can speak on things we have voted on as a group but we can't always convene and vote on something within the very short time frame before it would come up in committee to speak on at the legislature this preemptively lays out here are some things that we have already decided that we're going to advocate for and we're going to Advocate against and we are voting on them tonight so that we will be prepared when those go to committee but that's the role of of an elected official every person who decided to get on the ballot whether or not they decided or someone asked them or they was encouraged to get on the ballot they decided

178to be a political figure that's their every nine member on this board that's their job to pay attention to what's going on in the legislator it's not our job to rely on one or two people to go and Advocate and speak right now and then went to the legislator it defeats the purpose of running for office bike I I get it I get it uh there was a lot of things that are um on the legislative agenda as well as our censoring history to attacks on um our lgbtq plus um population of students to uh the defunding of Education with the voucher program like there's a whole bunch of things on there but it's everybody's job to content to to to contact legislators regardless of what party they're they're in and if people are not

179comfortable with doing that and then like maybe they need to check whether or not this political position this elected volunteer political position that we spend countless of hours regardless if the state recognize our professional development hours all the way or not we still have a duty not only to our district not only to our students and our staff but also write them to watch our stakeholders to engage politically and not be afraid and and not the leads get scared director Adams yes I'd like to make a motion and then speak to that motion if we get a second I've moved at the lrsd school board approve the resolution authorizing efficacy on behalf of the electricity board during the 2023 legislative session of the Arkansas Journal assembly a second so director Adams made the motion director

180Wilson seconded any other discussions yeah I would like to just speak to that yes sir Mr Mason um two points really one is thank you Miss Nolan for putting this together I mean this is very thoughtful and helpful it's helpful that there are some of those issues that already are before this with a legislature that we can decide that that as a district if there's opportunity we could speak as a district on such as issues around um protecting our students and teaching and those issues the other is I would second I think that there's nothing in this that prohibits any of us just has been said from doing the strong efficacy job that you described Miss Hatter I think that everybody can can still do that as he will and I I have faith in

181in our president and let's say liaison and Dr Wright that if there is any concern at all that that there's a an issue that comes up that needs prompt advocacy for that if that if there's we think there'd be dissension or division on the board that you wouldn't do that but if it's something that you you all know us well enough that if if it's something that's quick and needed and there's a short win of opportunity I trust that you it's been we've been together for two years now you know us well enough that that if um that if we would feel strongly and support something I think you could do that and and I would give you Grace if you made a a little bit of a bad call but I don't think it's

182going to happen because I think you notice well enough so I feel comfortable with this and I think it's a reasonable plan director Callaway you had your hands up can't hear you you're muted um actually I thought that was the job of the legislative uh person to speak and that she she can bring the information back to us but I guess we never just sit down and talk about what our actual job I assumed it would be to speak on the behalf of the district the board now uh the things that she's outlined so far I understand that you know but I thought that was your job and and and I don't have any problems with um uh having at least two people but I'll call my legislature to have my representative every time I

183get rest because and complain and then we know each other well enough that if I'm really that far against something I I would call you or you could just email us and or something I don't I don't want to be brought in for every little thing the things that you have mentioned so far I agree with you know all right I don't feel like I'm giving away my power I think the that someone has to speak for all of us all right any other or someone or some two people but I don't think that's giving away your power all right that's my opinion yes ma'am I won't be supporting it I feel like we are abort we were elected officials I don't think that a resolution is necessary I feel strongly that before any of

184us can go to the state capital talk we have to sit and talk about it and agree that that is something that somebody needs to do now I'm not a designee I'm a volunteer so if we have that discussion and somebody wants to go and speak to the legislator I feel like that person should do that you may not be available Dr Wright may not be available Miss Nolan may not be available [Music] his header may be available so I feel strongly that we don't need this and whatever person is available to go to deal with whatever issue we need to deal with I think that person should have the right to do so so no I can't support it all right any other discussion so by show our hands uh all those in favor

185of the motion raise your hands direct Callaway your hands up okay all those against the resolution raise your hands for the first round oh okay okay all right what is the count Mr Lee the motion um the motion carries six to three we off to uh boy comments moving on comment other comment we have been contacted um late this evening by quite a few lrsd students asking us to speak up in support of lesbian gay trans and non-binary non-binary students all across the state and so I want to use this moment and this platform to say um in lrsd you are welcome you are valued and you are a cherished part of our community director Adams thank you I appreciate that comment second that I just want to we're sitting here looking at the uh

186direct the architectural drawings of the proposed west of our high school and I was feeling really grateful for a board 10 years ago or so who bought land which is now Southwest High School and which bought land which will be the West Little Rock High School and and that was not an easy process to get to and was not without criticism and it just reminded me that um sometimes the things we do you don't see the results of for a long time but people made decisions for that group you know years ago and and have paid dividends and invested and and there are benefits later and the things that we do now will like some groundwork and foundation and there'll be benefits that we'll have no idea about but we will plant seeds that will

187be harvested many years from now and and I really appreciate that kind of work uh let me let me say uh just uh one little caveat about every day do that when I wake up I go to work and and what I do every day is fight for everyone to have a house wherever a home a house land to purchase to rent wherever they wanna go and it and it is based on race color national origin sex religion persons with disabilities and families with children that's what I do every day I've been doing that for 22 years and I will continue to fight for persons in that protected class which includes everyone in this room and uh and I support persons of all Races colors sex and I do not discriminate director um I wanted

188to make a comment about the solar since we keep talking about it I think it would be wise make sense for um at some point during this year for us to talk about what's the plan because they're the the districts that have a um like how many emissions are are we trying to reduce it by we don't have a plan we just keep throwing out um that we need to put solar panels out there without having a comprehensive plan much like the gentleman from the Department um spoke about is that first you should have a plan before you put out an AAR a RFP or have a goal um of of of of of what we're trying to do and um so that's just something I want to uh throw out there and of course

189you know again um we are being called on to speak and to stand on a very controversial issue soon enough where someone's going to ask us about what do we think about um the or and then our history classes and we're going to stand like you can't lead scared you can't I mean you can't speak scared I mean at some point you just have to square up and and just say what it is and stand on um principle and moral and of course if then if anyone was to ever come after our students of course we're going to stand I am then I know for a fact you know me and Ali we we've stood in very controversial situations and we didn't bow and we didn't blink because that's just part of what we do

190as public servants so um we will always support our gay lesbian binary transgender Community will always support um our our students of different ethnicities we will never be anti-black we will never be any of of of of these things that is being used for fear so um I'm glad that we have a board that is inclusive I'm glad that we have um a board that will speak even if we disagree on things passionately at the end of the day um we will move as the as a unit as the way that um the majority says and so to all of our students in lrsd now I think I worry because because you got a board that is going to back you the same way we did or stood up right for the teachers the same

191way I stood on a scratch line for our teachers and others and the other thing is um lastly to our youth out there in Conway that is being disrespected by their board I'll say it then our hearts are with you um and and two I and then I hope that some level of resolve comes I then I hope that um they get the fierce fire that like Little Rock had um and still have to um you know for that Community to stand up for their kids and so um with that I just think that that just goes to what to the fabric of the lrsd um to those Nine Stars on around our Crescent that like we speak up when others don't always feel comfortable to speak up so um I I do appreciate my

192colleagues even though I don't agree all the time with them Miss Wesley director Wesley just one one last thing I just want to leave with you dad it just leaves me with this one my very favorite favorite quotes and it says what lies behind us and what lies before us our tiny matters compared to what lies within us and to me that is what's pivotal that we stay focused on what lies within us and I love that we may have banter you know we may have different ideas different you know diversity but we come together and I really applaud the fact that we don't come together with contention like we once have and you know just to be completely transparent that is improving and we must be leaders and demonstrate that in our walk especially

193as we lead so I just applaud us all and hope that that will be something that will kind of you know embrace it in our fabric superintendent right I'll make this very brief the only thing I want to add is that to our students and staff you not only to have a board who supports um all of our staff and students but you also have a superintendent who does the same I just want to make sure that I was included because I felt left out right because I wanted to add my speech director Callaway director Callaway director Callaway uh I agreed what's been said the only thing that concerns me are all of these resolutions that the governor I put as signs and last since she's been since January 10th uh and that we might

194end up in a real City and I I don't mind being in a serious situation as far as this is concerned because I support students but I just want to say that we need to take into mind what has been and the resolutions don't necessarily have to be you know but we got we had that fight coming everybody and I I really want us to think about it however I I agree with all of you I want all of these people to feel comfortable everybody I don't care who you are or what you are or what you think about I want everybody to feel just comfortable coming to the right School District okay man I just want to put that in about the resolution [Laughter] thank you Mr Mason for your wonderful thank you Mr

195Mayor that was great it was great absolutely all right all right and I guess I can wrap it up with my um testimony of my story the other day you know I had read this post and everybody was talking about people who have a Navy Federal bank account think there's some kind of secret society so naturally I was like wow okay what's going on with Navy Federal let me see if I can get an account right so I went to the website and asked me these questions they said are you a veteran are you in the military are you related to somebody I'm like no because unbeknownst to me you have to be a part of the military to have one of these accounts right did y'all know that yeah yeah yeah I did it

196I did it right yeah so you have to be a family member I said who do I know and I instantly thought about my sister she um she's in the military she's in the army and I said Tasha do you have an account and she was like yeah and I'm like okay my sister is responsible you know I said let me get your excess number so that I can give me an account too she gave me the number I went back to the website I put it in and it said congratulations you're eligible and y'all know I was so happy I was so happy that I was eligible to get an account with Navy Federal secret society and then it dawned on me wow the only reason I was able to get an account was

197because of my connection to somebody who was already connected so in this season I just want to encourage everybody to realize that there's so much value in relationships because it is only through your connection to somebody else that you may be eligible to access the membership of the abundance that you deserve amen Holly praise God past [Music] entertain a motion for a German okay [Music] we are adjourned