April 20, 2022 — Meeting Transcript

Good? Okay. Okay, good evening everybody. Adequate notice has been given. It's Wednesday, April 20th and we are going to get this meeting started so everybody please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, great. So we have Jason Growe with us tonight and we are going to start by swearing him in. So he is an official board member. So come on up. Okay. So Sandy, he reads us, right? Okay, you ready? Yep. Raise your right hand. That's right. And repeat after me. I, Jason Growe, do solemnly affirm that I am at least 24 years of age, that I

Good? Okay. Okay, good evening everybody. Adequate notice has been given. It's Wednesday, April 20th and we are going to get this meeting started so everybody please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, great. So we have Jason grow with us tonight and we are going to start by swearing him in. So he is an official board member. So come on up. Okay. So Sandy, he reads us, right? Okay, you ready? Yep. Raise your right hand. That's right. And repeat after me. I, Jason Groh, do solemnly affirm that I am at least 24 years of age, that I

am a citizen of the United

States,

THAT I AM A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES

AND A RESIDENT TAXPAYER OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF CLAYTON

IN ST. LOUIS COUNTY AND THE STATE OF MISSOURI, AND THAT I WILL SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTIONS

OF THE UNITES STATES AND THE STATE And that I will abide by and uphold the School District of Clayton Board Member Code of Ethics.

That was a long one.

Okay. Let's backtrack.

And that I will abide by and uphold the school district of Clayton Board member code of ethics.

And will faithfully conduct myself in office.

And will faithly conduct myself in office Good

job. All right, you're a board member. Congratulations. Good job. And we get to do

the post swearing in. And we need mom and dad up here,

too.

Hold this. Pretend like you're actually doing it, though.

Oh, okay. The paper. This

is exactly what we did last week.

Raise your right hand.

There you go.

Why don't you just take the pictures while we're doing it?

Here's how that works. I do that. You're talking. And then your mouth looks like... that in the picture. You want photos

with your mask on?

Got

it, okay.

We probably don't

care. We're up to a moment in time.

That's true.

I'll do it for 30 seconds. Take a picture

of this. All right, all right, okay.

Should we get his finger? Yeah. Yes.

They were... Can we all take

Family photos. We'll get some. Awesome. Jason, will you sign this? I've signed two or three already. Oh, you have? Oh, you've already

signed it? Yeah.

He choked there. We're trying to do it. Thank you so much. Good luck to you all. Congratulations.

Okay, so tonight I'm on the information item for tonight, 3.01, and I am going to ask Susie Ward with Learn Lifesavers to come up and give us a presentation on organ tissue donation.

Can everybody hear me okay? That sounds a little louder, doesn't it? Okay, well good evening everyone and thank you all in the audience here also. I'm Susie Ward and I work for a nonprofit organization called Gift of Life. And we've been around for about 25 years and what we do is we do presentations to high school students about the importance of organ, eye, and tissue donation. The reason we do that, as you know, when students go to the driver's bureau to get a state ID, a driver's permit or driver's license, they're asked the question, do you want to be registered as a deceased donor? Most students at that young age have never had a conversation about organ donation. So our organization just provides an unbiased presentation that we're not here to persuade the student to register to say yes. but to give them information so they can make an informed and enlightened decision, and to really have a conversation with their family and their loved ones. So there's a group of people that came together of educators and We have come up with a 30-minute online program for teachers to do. So the great thing is it can fit into whatever teacher's schedule. We know you have a tight curriculum. You have many important topics that need to be covered. We feel this is another part to add to the student's learning toolbox. Chris, next please. Okay, so who we are, and it's a group of educators, and it's our organization, Gift of Life. It also, we have people on our advisory board from DESE, from Department of Health and Senior Services, and an organization called the Governor's Organ Donation Advisory Committee. Also, two transplant centers, one in St. Louis and one in Kansas City. It's Mid-America Transplant and Midwest Transplant, Missouri Kidney Program, and Closer to Home DUO. We have individuals from the Missouri School Board Association. So they've all supported this to have a bill that just allows us to get on the school board agenda. It is not saying you have to implement our program It's just saying you hear the information and then you all discuss it and see if it's right for your community, for your students, for your families. But obviously we feel it is important. The reason why it's so important that nationwide there's over 100,000 people a day that wake up praying for a life-saving organ transplant. So you figure a Bush Stadium holds 45,000 people. It would take more than two Bush Stadiums filled with individuals waiting for a life- saving organ, eye or tissue donation. Just in Missouri, there's 1,200 people. and sadly every 10 minutes a new person is added to that waiting list they're added to that waiting and people unfortunately pass away 22 people a day pass away because there's not enough organs to meet the demand and lifesavers is just another lesson plan that just helps educate people and what you all know that it's not always the adults that are educating the students But sometimes it's the students that are actually educating the parents because there's a lot of myths out there, and our program just separates the myths from the truths. Okay, next, Chris. Our program, as I said, it's 30 minutes. It can be done whenever is convenient for the teacher and tied to the curriculum. We have two videos, and we also have some short quizzes that are true-false. Some examples of the true-false questions are, is it legal to sell organs, eye tissue donation in states? Obviously, the answer is no. Another question is, can you have an open casket? Yes, you can. Is there any cost to the donor's family? And there is no cost to the donor family. So again, we just kind of separate the truth from the myths. And then there's a very short survey that the teacher will send back to us. And we do not need the student's name. We don't need the class, the teacher's name. All it really says is that Susie Ward teacher had 20 students that participated in this survey. It just gives us some information, our impact, our reach, and hopefully some success in the program. And it's also teacher-guided so they can add to what their regular curriculum is. Okay, next please. And we're not going to see the videos, but it does in there, there's two very short videos that are part of the eight-step program. Okay, next. And again, the performance metrics, it's just that short survey they teach who will fill out the very end. And then next. And this is why it's so important that one person can actually save eight lives, because we have two lungs, we have two kidneys. So one person can save eight lives. One person can also impact and enhance 75 people's lives. And then if nobody registers, if nobody donates, then obviously there's zero impact, zero lives saved. And I know personally that one person can make a difference by donation, and that's why I'm here today, why I'm so passionate, because one person saved my uncle's life. Sadly, a high school student was in a car accident. His family had discussion before about donation. They all agreed that it was right for their family, so they donated their son's heart. My uncle got it, and my uncle is able to live eight and a half years, see my cousin get married, and hold his first grandchild. So I'm a brand new grandma. I've got a six-week-old granddaughter, and I just can't imagine if I had the health issues that some of these people have, and then some generous family made that difficult decision but said yes, but saved someone else's life or enhanced lives. Just on sight alone, there were over 40,000 corneal transplants done last year. So maybe somebody's organ may not be healthy enough, but maybe the cornea can give sight to someone else. I think the next slide says thank you. Oh, okay. This is, you have on your PowerPoint, but these are ways that our program is aligned with your curriculum. Just last Friday, I was in Timberland High School in Wentzville and I talked to their ninth grade health classes. I talked like 163 students in person. We also do Zoom presentations as well as the online program. And we're available to do any of those options for you. It also obviously fits into health and education. for the molecular organisms, structures, and processes. So there's many ways. Some schools have been incorporated in their English classes with debates that one person will say I'm for organ donation, another person will say why they're against it, just to have an open, honest conversation to hear both sides. I've also done driver's ed classes, and so it really can fit in multiple places. I think now maybe the next one says thank you. Yes, thank you. All right. So I gave Sandy a letter, and all it is is the next time you have an opportunity to vote on this topic, whether it's yes, whether it's no, just send the response back to us, and we hope that you do say yes. And now I'm open for any questions.

Is there any information that you might be able to point us to in terms of if obviously we're talking about people making these choices who are not adults, not 18 yet. Is there any information about when kids of that age have this kind of information presented or education about it impact on the how their choices turn out, or do they choose to do that more often, or is there any information like that at

all? In the Gift of Life was started in the Kansas City area, and they have great statistics that I could share, and they had a definite increase in people who have registered to be a donor. And I'm part of a grant to Mid-America Transplant, and the goal is they love what was going on in the Kansas City area. And we're doing presentations in the St. Louis area. But the beauty of this online program here, we want every single Missouri student to have the opportunity, and we can't get out to all the rural areas. So long answer, but we do have some statistics that show it does have an impact. And I also want to add that at any time a student could opt out of it. Maybe they're not, maybe it's religious belief, maybe it's their social and emotional state, that it is never something that would be required for every student to do it if your district chose to do it. They have that opt-out program. And the teachers are going to know their students best and who is emotionally able to hand a conversation because, yes, we are talking about mortality. We also share with them that We pray they live a long, healthy life, but it may be later on in their middle or elder age that they themselves might need an organ transplant themselves, not necessarily passing away and being a donor to them. Thank you. People are considered a minor until they turn 18. So you can hear my presentation and go, it's right for me. I sign it when I get my driver's license, get the symbol on. But you never had that conversation with your family. Something happens to you, it won't. Just something happened to you and your parents are presented How do you pronounce your name? Atana. Atana signed her card. She wanted to donate her body. Your parents may go, we have never had that conversation. I don't think she was old enough to know what she was saying. We're traumatized already. We're just going to say no. So it's really important that minors let their family know what their true wish is, whether it's yes or no, is important, but it's also for... students' loved ones to know what their wishes are too. So our kind of catchphrase is the conversation matters because it's easier to do in a calm situation than if something tragic would happen, they give me a pray, it never happens to anybody. Any other questions or? All right. Well, thank you very much for your time, and I wish I could stay for your community engagement. It sounds wonderful. I have a friend in from out of town, but I'm going to look because I would love to participate in it. It sounds what every school district should be doing, so we really appreciate that. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Okay, so we are on to... our action item for the budget revision of the library. So Stacey, we need you to read a motion.

I move that the Board of Education approve the lowest and best bid to be the general contractor for the Clayton High School Library renovation from ICS Construction Services Limited for $911,536 and authorize administration to negotiate and enter into a contract for the same. Also, I move that the board approve a budget revision to increase the capital budget for the total estimated project cost of $1,501,540. Second. Okay.

It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions or comments? Do you have a question? Yeah. Mary Jo. I know she's going to come up here.

Mary Jo, I'm just going to ask the normal standard questions that I have. I see the list of contractors, and it's gone through the formal review process internally with the internal committees that have all reviewed it. And I see that you guys have picked the best and lowest, and there's no compromise as far as – I mean, we're really talking about kind of a de minimis amount between the best and lowest and the other bids. Any other reasons why they're picked besides being the lowest bid?

We did have ICS construction on last year's round, and actually there were some concerns with them. And so we reached out to them to address it. They did adjust their initial bid submission, which during the bid process we're allowed to do, Once we've selected the lowest is to negotiate any concerns that we have on them, and they increased it. I think it was $13,000. There was two concerns when we looked at it. One was the electrical. We reviewed the information from their subs. Actually, three concerns. On the last year when we had them, a couple of their subs did not work out very well. They did not submit any of the subs that we had issues with. They used different subs. And so once we reviewed everything, we were fine with the new subs. The electrical, after we went through the submission, they had not missed anything. They were good on all the numbers. And actually two other vendors had the same sub for electrical and had similar quotes on that. And then the second item was your general conditions, which was one of our major concerns last year. General conditions is actually just like miscellaneous items, cleanup, stuff like that, which in reality it can save us money because our staff would just be doing the cleanup. But with the multiple projects and everything going on, they ended up adding a labor to it, which increased it to the $13,000 and offset some of the general conditions we were concerned of. after that everything aligned um they didn't go over their contingency the last time or anything i mean in reality other than those couple things they were good to work with so we did decide to go ahead and move forward again so we called had a conversation with them let us let them know their concerns and we basically said we'll give you one more chance

okay great and then um i'm assuming that the uh request for the increase in the capital budget just due to the request the increased cost of materials just generally because of the macro supply chain environment. Can you remind the board what the original capital budget was for this project?

It was $1.5 million. And so the difference I had in the explanation is the furniture. So that's coming, that's actually getting purchased through a cooperative through EdPlus because really with our history there's no difference in bidding the furniture or purchasing through EdPlus. They'll give you the same price regardless. So

it's $1,500 plus the $500,000 for the furniture. So

it's the

9-11 plus the $500,000 for

the furniture.

Okay. So the increase was in just the furniture costs or the addition of the furniture costs?

Back in February, we said it was going to be $1.5 million, and we came in at $1.5. Okay, so there really isn't a budget revision then.

Well,

we said that's what we expected. We weren't going to bring a budget revision until we knew actual costs. So we didn't want to present a budget revision that might change. So we're kind of coming in as expected. Yeah, we teed it up back then, and now we're giving the actual. So this is the motion to do it.

Okay, I'm good.

Okay, so just one quick question. So is the contract we're going to enter into with ICS Construction, is it going to be a lump sum contract? Yeah. Okay, so it won't be like cost plus the fee or anything? No. Okay, awesome. Any more questions? Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Thank you. Consent

agenda. I move that the Board of Education approve consent agenda items 5.02 through 5.03.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. And I think we've got to... Yeah, our financials.

I move that the Board of Education approved the payment of current expenditures and investments from March 2022 as presented

second spin moved and seconded questions or comments. No one. OK, all in favor I any opposed. Motion passes. And public participation. Nothing? No one wants to talk to us? Okay, we can

adjourn then. I move that the board adjourn to executive session. Following executive session, the board will participate in the community engagement forum to be held in the Clayton High School Commons.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Great. So we're going to go into executive session now.