May 17, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

All right, good evening, everybody. It is May 17th, 2023, and welcome to the board meeting. Let's go ahead and get started with the Pledge of Allegiance. Stacey, will you adopt the agenda? I move to adopt the agenda as posted. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. And we are now on to recognizing our own. So I will invite Dr. Poole to come up.

All right, good evening. So, and as a part of recognizing our home, we want to commemorate a very special month because we're celebrating two celebrations this month. May is Jewish American Heritage Month, and it's also Asian American and Pacific Islander Month as well. And we have a couple student representatives from our Asian Student Association to talk about why it's important. And then also an event that they hosted that had a pretty good turnout this past Saturday. So I will pass it on.

Basically for our event, we did a potluck of sorts at Shaw Park this past Saturday. And even though it rained out, we had a really good turnout pre-rain. And then that was basically we had Clayton families of Asian cultures like all over Asia bring their food for a cultural potluck. And we invited kids from the grade schools and then like the middle schools, the high schools to bring in their own food and share their heritage.

Oh, okay. So hi, I'm Chloe. And the money we raised during this event will be going to the Very Asian Foundation. So when I get a chance, I'll do that.

And they put in a lot of work for the event in terms of planning, communications with different families that wanted to participate and bring dishes to the event as well. Made a decent amount of money to donate. So it was a really good event. And You know, it was great seeing them kind of take ownership of the event and, you know, to celebrate the month and to make sure that we're recognizing every culture that's within our school and district. So thank you for you all's hard work

with

that as well. Thank

you. Thanks.

And then one other celebration we had was We had an event earlier in the month for Jewish American Heritage Month about combating anti-Semitism where we had a representative, the executive director of the Anti-Defamation League come in and give a presentation as well as a panel to talk about anti-Semitism on college campuses as well. And we had some good turnout for that too. just as we continue and continue to, you know, make Clayton a place for everyone and celebrate everyone, making sure that we continue to do different celebrations that highlight different cultures, ethnicities, and identities. So that is that. Thank

you. Thanks, guys. Okay, so is there any public participation tonight? No? Okay. All right, so then, okay. Well, you can talk, Melina. Okay, so we'll have, I'll let Dr. Patel talk.

As far as superintendent update, you know, last board meeting, we had the community engagement forum at Y-Down with the safety security update. We had a great turnout. I think there were about 50 to 60 individuals there. I thought it was a great way for us to engage with our community on this topic. A lot of questions asked. We had a great panel up there. So I just wanted to give a quick update since then. The first thing is we are in the middle of conducting the safety audit. So we have contracted with Tier 1 Tactical Solutions. I've already met with them about two to three times, and we're emailing almost daily. The person that's going to lead the audit is the chief of police of Ellisville. So he is currently the chief of police. He has so much background on all of this safety and security information, and so he's going to start off by interviewing staff members. He's going to look over our policies and procedures. He's even going to go ahead and once school starts, come into our buildings because he wants to make sure that he sees what it's like once the students and staff are here. So it's going to be a long process, but a very thorough process. And then he'll do a presentation with the board probably around October or November to give us the results and recommendations of what he sees. And the reason we went with Tier 1 Tacticals is because they're the same company that did the safety study a few years ago and gave us recommendations. So we're in the middle of that having conversations. He's actually looked at our emergency operations plan that we've put together over the past couple of weeks. So we have that in draft form and he's gonna go through that and give us his thoughts as well so that should be another huge step towards safety and security and then in the realm of training. So all of our staff had a faculty meeting last week, I believe, or maybe it was the week before, but they went over the options-based training that we do twice a year anyway, so it was kind of like a review. Some of the things that we really wanted to emphasize were what do you do in large spaces? That's what we learned from this situation. And then we also are going to be doing, HR is gonna work with all of our subs within the next week or so and bringing them in after school and actually doing another training with them as well. They do it every year anyway, but this is an additional one that we wanna make sure. And then from here on, we'll continue to do that. And then with our students, this week and next week, we're going to have another training session for the students. And this is all on options-based. And it's going to look different. So elementary, the teachers are going to get together with the kids and go through what the different options are, escape, evade. educate, et cetera. And then at the secondary level we've created a video and so all the teachers will play that for all the students and then after that have like a question and answer format. And then they'll fill out a form if there are questions that came up that maybe the teacher didn't know the answers to or something that we haven't thought of. We'll collect all those questions, get the responses and then send them back to the buildings. So that way we close the loop for communication on that. visitor management system another thing that we're really emphasizing is one point of entry into the buildings so if you're a non-district employee you get in through the front and so part of that is the visitor management system and you know making sure all of our front office personnel are properly trained on it is our machines working and operational. We noticed that Captain, it came up that the badge would print out but the picture doesn't necessarily print out. So those are like little things that we've already fixed and we're working towards making even better. And I know HR is also going to go to each building and talk to the administrative assistants there to make sure if they have any questions and they know the processes and protocols for all of that. And then cell service. So that came up as well. And so we are actually soliciting, um, quotes right now from three different companies. And we're going to be going with one pretty quickly actually to do phase one, which is like cellular benchmark testing. So what they do is the company will come in, they'll go to all of our buildings. So not just Y down. So that's all of our schools and the admin building and the facilities and basically kind of do like, um, coverage for data like they do a study and then based on that it'll be phase two where they give us solutions like this is what we recommend you need to do this is in this area in this building and then that'll be phase two for us so we're moving on that as well and then of course later on today we're going to have um we're having a conversation about the addition of an sro and so we will talk about that and our recommendation for that So I wanted to just at least give you an update on all the things that we're doing safety security wise and then continuing to be very intentional on that and focused in that area. Switching gears, so last week was teacher appreciation week and we didn't have a board meeting. So what we did is we put a video together to highlight it. So we're gonna play that right now and it's about two minutes long and it's adorable.

My teacher, like, she always, like, helps me when I'm having a bad day, and I can always rely on her to help me. She's, like, always thinking about other people and making everything equal. She sees us in our own way, and she's always making learning more fun for us. She's kind, she's loving, and she's helpful to all students. Us. Helping figure out stuff. They take a lot of time to make sure we're having fun at school and make sure we're enjoying our learning.

Why is your teacher so important?

Because... Because they watch you.

What makes your teacher so special?

They watch you and take care

of

you. And

that's really important, isn't it? Yeah.

How do they

make you feel

good? When I'm not with my family, yeah. I got to Dr. Jody. They watch us and take care of us.

I feel like teachers are important because they help us make a way and pave a way for the future.

They want to see their students succeed. I know teachers that are willing to come in before school, stay for lunch, stay after school. I think they're just, they want to see their student succeed and they'll do anything that they can to make sure that happen.

And I can, like, talk to them about anything where it's not just about school. And I can trust them enough.

They give us the freedom to express ourselves, not only just, like, as you might expect, just in the classroom. Like, you have to solve, like, math problems or fill out a worksheet or something. But they allow us to put our own spin on it, creative taste into it, which I think makes them really unique. Who wants to go first?

You got to go first. In an airport?

for being those little, just trying to get them to answer. It's adorable. So I want to thank all of our teachers for everything that they do. I know all the buildings have different ways to celebrate and recognize them, and the principals always do a great job making sure that we celebrate them. So thank you to all of our teachers. And then lastly, Of course, the reason why we do everything we do is because of our students. And so I wanna make sure we recognize our new state speech and debate champion. We have a champion, state champion. And I don't know if people understand what it takes to be a state champion. It is incredible. So basically, he's given a topic. He gets 30 minutes to research it. It was in foreign affairs. And it's go time. And you don't get to take any notes or anything. You just talk and debate. So Carter, congratulations. We're so proud of you. And I think we have someone here as well who is also just as proud of you. Would you like to say anything?

No, not really. Thank you for recognizing me. It was a lot of fun. Recommend, join speech and debate. There you go. It's a very good skill.

There you go, well congratulations. All right, now I'm gonna hand it off to you.

All right, I don't have too much to talk about today. But there are a couple of issues that I did want to touch on. First, just to reiterate what Dr. Patel was talking about, it was really cool to see not only all the parents and administrators and teachers here at the school safety community engagement night, but I also thought it was really cool see all the students that came out and asked questions and gave their thoughts on the issue. And just to sort of add on to that, I really want to recognize the Wydown students who did a really good job of turning around right after the situation happened and they did a really good of synthesizing their ideas and their feelings and they actually gave the school district a lot of really impressive and important information that helped us sort of figure out what to do going forward. I just wanted to recognize them. I got this whole Google Doc with a ton of information, which they all came together in about a week to produce, which was really impressive. And then the second issue that I wanted to talk just a little bit about was the calendar, which we're going to be approving today. In general, the students didn't have a ton of really strong opinions about our calendar. The biggest issue was, like we talked about, just the religious holidays. And based off of the conversations that I've had with students, in general most students recognize that it's not realistic to get a day off on every single religious holiday without some group feeling excluded. So instead we really focused on what as a school district we can do on those days where there are religious holidays and people are in school. And there were some really interesting ideas that came out of that, one of which actually was in the interview for the next student rep where someone thought of just making those religious holidays a sea day, which we do for other types of days. Like, for example, on Senior Skip Day, we just made it a sea day because that way you're missing less of time in each class. And in general, it just sort of gives them more recognition on those holidays. Yeah. And then in general, most students just said to always be communicating with parents and students about what the school's policy are as to what teachers can and cannot do on those types of days. And then the last thing that I just want to touch on, I talked about this a little bit at the end of my last presentation, which is just the district's stance on artificial intelligence in schools. So I talked about how it's important for us to start having these conversations, but this is really ramping up, especially at the high school. I know a lot of many students who use artificial intelligence for schoolwork. regularly, and so I think it's really important that as a school board we get this issue on the agenda. We talk to teachers, get experts involved, and figure out what our plan is moving forward. And thank you again.

I agree on the artificial intelligence stuff.

And Carter played an amazing baseball game district first round of districts yesterday.

Oh, nice. Carter's a superstar. Okay, so where are we here? Presentations. Presentations. Dr. Poole.

Good evening. So I invited four students here two months ago, March 27 through the 31st. I was extremely honored to accompany 18 Clayton students as well as other students from other districts on an HBCU tour. We were gone for five days and visited eight historically black colleges and university. And I can say out of my role, all the things that I do with sports, with activities, with clubs, this was by far one of the most inspiring and just amazing experiences. Just seeing our students, the questions that they asked, just being on these campuses was an absolutely amazing experience. The highlight of my trip really was as we were on a lot of those different campuses, we kind of came across some of Clayton alumni. And so that was, like, extremely cool. Daryl Sands, he is class of 2019 is when he graduated from Clayton, and he's at Morehouse. He actually sent me a note last week saying that he will be graduating in a couple of days, and he's the valedictorian. Wow. So I mean, it's just like that was just really inspiring. I invited him to speak with some of the students there. And so it was just an amazing experience. And so three juniors, one sophomore, 18 students, they were picked. We really invited a lot of the students to kind of fill out an application, but I really focused on because they were, this was during the school week, just really picking students that are able to balance being absent, but also stand on top of that work. And so we have phenomenal students go. And so I'm going to let them introduce themselves. They're great. And they just kind of share a little bit about their experience being there.

All right. Hey, y'all. I'm sorry. Hi, my name is Ayla Hopper. I'm a junior and I went on the trip. It was definitely one of the highlights of my school year. Seeing all the... Students who look like me on the campus having fun. It really, what's the word? Well, like Ms. Young said, it really inspired me. I've always kind of wanted to go to an HBCU, but this really pushed me to do what I have to do in school so I could make it there. I don't have anything else to say.

Hi, I'm Kaylin Rimes. I'm a junior. And I really love this trip because I've never been on the college tour. So this was kind of shocking for me when I went there and stepping on campus was pretty big. So I really like interacting with all the students and what Ayla said, seeing people who look like me and seeing how they're pushing their education further. And I really liked it. And I kind of already chose my school already. So this was one of the schools that were there, and I really liked it. I talked to the admissions rep, our tour guide, and it was really great.

Hi, I'm Kayden Tate. I'm a junior. So like everybody said here, I really liked the experience. I feel like it really broadened my perspective on HBCUs. I wasn't really considering them before because of my background, but after going on the tour, I definitely started considering them more. I really like the culture feel and the family feel, and I didn't really know that they were there before going to HBCU. So I feel like when I go away to college and I'm away from St. Louis and I go to a different school outside of the state, I'll still have that family feel like with my culture and everything. I really enjoyed that. And I feel like this experience was definitely one of the highlights of my year. And I feel I really hope that we will be able to do it again in the future.

Hi, my name is Lauren Young. I'm a sophomore. And I really, really liked the trip. It was definitely one of my highlights of the year, like Ayla said. And one thing I really liked about the colleges was that I really felt like I belonged there, especially seeing people that looked like me. It made me feel like I belonged and that if I were to go to an HBCU, I would be safe, especially since people looked like me there.

Yeah, it is. So are we going to be doing this? Is this going to be a yearly thing? I hope so.

Yes.

So we are hoping to do this annually. We were fortunate enough to get sponsorships from the district and from the Clayton Education Foundation, so we're extremely grateful for that. The students who will be our rising sophomores and juniors, we've talked about... doing different fundraisers, um, because we know that there is an expense that come along with this. Um, we worked in partnership with people's clinic. Um, and so they pretty much put the structure around the trip and then we kind of like just got on board with that. So, uh, we will be working, um, with our BSU sponsors so that this could be something that we definitely continue in the future.

And I think we already know this, but, um, We are so lucky to have Tishan here.

Our

students are amazing, but Tishan truly has the initiative to find these kind of events for our students and then goes with them, and you're amazing. So thank you for all that you do for us.

Thank you.

We agree. Yes. Yes, also just a little add-on. Since I did go to Tuskegee and that did kind of solidify my thought on going to there, I did apply for a summer program, an animal science program there, and I did get accepted. So I was like, yeah, this is great. Thank you. That's great.

Is your mom going to go with you? Okay.

No.

So funny. We'll hold on one second. Does anyone have any questions,

comments, questions, board? I'm sorry. I might have missed this. Did you say how many did you go to? How many schools?

Oh, so I did not say that. Eight. So there's eight schools. And it was nine on the agenda, but that Friday when we were – Going to go to Alcorn. That's when a big storm was coming through that evening, so we made the decision to come back for the safety of the students, not to drive through Memphis with that storm. But we did go to Tennessee State University, Alabama State, Alabama A&M, Spelman, Clark Atlanta, Morehouse, Jackson State, and Tuskegee. Wow. Yes. That's great. So it was like...

In five days?

In five days. Wow, wow. When

did you sleep?

Well, and we stayed in three different hotels over those five days. So it was like One night, we got to the hotel. It was like 12 o'clock at night. We got there, checked in, got in the rooms, and then it was up by like 8 o'clock in the morning to get on the bus to go to the next school. So it was like in and out. But when we was there, I was so impressed with the questions that the students asked. They were really attentive. They were just engaged. And we got to go in dorms. And most of the campuses, we were able to eat in the cafeteria, so it was like a full experience. This is dorm life, and so just really interacting with their students coming in, and so it was like, a real thing, so. So that was going to be on the agenda. So like certain schools only have tours on certain days. And so, and then like even with Spelman, we kind of got on campus, but then they were like, nope, you guys do not have a scheduled tour. But we was able to go to Clark and Morehouse. And then that's when they kind of gave us a tour off kind of like the campus. But yeah.

Awesome. They love it. That's right.

Thank you for being here tonight.

Good evening everyone. I'm here to present a preliminary budget to you for the next school year. This is a preliminary budget and it's subject to change, meaning by the time the final one comes around there will be some amendments to some of the numbers. But for me, a budget may be a lot of numbers but it's really not about numbers. It's about establishing a plan that fulfills our strategic goals and what we seek to achieve this coming year. The process is really year-round. It involves many steps that I've outlined here. I'm not going to go through them, but these are things we engage in all year long. And I have a series of highlights. The first is that the budget is balanced. People don't always see eye to eye on what a balanced budget means. For some it means that revenues exceed expenditures. But legally, it means that revenues, the combination in revenues and fund balances exceed expenditures. So we comply in this budget on both viewpoints. The legal viewpoint and the more common viewpoint is whether we're bringing in more money than we're spending. We've reasonably projected revenues. We have two significant gross revenues. One is our property taxes. Due to reassessment, we expect revenue to grow from property taxes around 5%. We're also seeing growth in our earnings on investments. Our balances are higher and interest rates are higher. So we're seeing that up substantially. We've projected expenditures reasonably. We've solicited that across the district from building administrators, department administrators, et cetera. And we've built a budget accordingly. On the debt side of things, our debt is coming down. We have a significant debt amount due in Fund 3 this year that we have planned for and will be able to accommodate in the cash flow. Other than that, all of our debt is scheduled to be paid off in about six years. With the rise in reassessments, it may pay off faster than that. We have programmed a series of projects in our capital fund and we're still working on finalizing and refining some of those cost data. Overall, it's designed to support the continued operations of the school district. M6 has us connecting our budget to our strategic plans. And our three goals in the plan are outlined here. I'm going to go through each one of those and show you some of these connections. In goal one, a place for everyone, we have a series of initiatives here. Dr. Patel already went through a number of the safety and security issues, and I've outlined those on here. We also have the affinity empowerment initiatives that Dr. Poole has worked through this year and will be continuing in the future. We seek to support all of these items here. In goal two, we have many investments around curriculum. Data management, supporting the classroom instruction with equipment and then we have our global STEM squads, et cetera. So quite a few initiatives around Goal 2 of growing as learners. Around goal 3 and head and heart we have some initiatives as well. Our wellness center at the Clayton High School is a primary concern that you've discussed many times. You can see the SEL curriculum for K-5 and several other initiatives that we have. Overall, our buildings have contributed to their budgets. We want them to own their budgets so that they can use the time, staff and money provided to drive student achievement. Running through some snapshots of numbers, this would be total revenue. All four funds showing the change in budgets and the change in actual results. The numbers that are shaded are projections and estimates, not actual on the actual column there. You can see movement can be extreme at some points. We do show significant growth in the next year, and we're still studying that growth to make sure that we're comfortable with that number. On the expense side, the same thing. We see some years growing faster than others, and we show some pretty strong growth in our budget for next year. When we look at that total revenue over expense, you can see this is where it's balanced. Our revenues are greater than our expenses and this helps fund balance grow. We want to have strong fund balance. Dropping fund three and four and just looking at our operating revenues, our operating funds in funds one and two, we see similar trends as I just showed you. Revenue is growing. Expenditures are growing. Net results are still positive something we want to maintain at least for the several years forward. Whoops. In our next steps, we continue to refine all of our data. So between now and the next time you see this, we will go through the numbers probably two more times just to be confident that they are reasonable estimates. We will also finalize the capital projects and their cost estimates. We have estimates in the budget now, but I would want to refine them further. We'll present it to you on June 7 for adoption. We'll install it in our systems and we'll set a tax rate for you in September. Overall, the goal is to support the strategic plan with intentionality, and I think this budget does that. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions or comments. I hope I've answered your questions generally.

Okay. Carter, do you have anything?

I got a couple for you. Go for it. They're not too bad. Just as a general comment, I think it'd be helpful when you produce the actual budget, some sort of a call-out. You did in the slides listing what we're investing in that supports the strategic plan. I'd be curious to see what the dollar figures are.

We'll add those.

I'm sorry?

I will add

those. Great. Thank you. And then do you have a sense – Do you have a sense of what the operating reserve percentage is going to be at the end of next year yet?

As a percentage? Yeah. Or at the end of this June or the following June? June 2024. Above 70%. All right. I think that's it for now. I'm done. Which is a strong number. We want to protect that going forward so that we can add quite a bit of distance between tax increases. So I don't know, I mean it'll continue growing after that but we're gonna be managing that carefully so that it doesn't start falling precipitously.

Yeah, thanks, John. I like the methodology. I like the I like the overview that you put here. I think just for we could we could talk. We can meet. I know we meet frequently anyway to talk about finances. I'm curious to find out how much of the increase year over year. I kind of ignore 2021 because of the COVID year. So that's why it looks so much lower than the rest of the years. but how much of the year-over-year increases are related to salary, which I think is in some of the tables that you presented in the PDF document. So that would be helpful, I think, just for the community if we just reflect that in the next iteration. And then it looks like there's $1.8 million, and I know that number is still moving around as far as capital expenses, and then another half a million dollars on debt service. And it sounds like you're going to have a list of those capital projects maybe tied to the strategic plan, like, like Jason just requested, so that would be great. My guess is that the majority of the increase year over the year is from staff and salary increases based on the inflationary measures. That's my gut tells me, but I need to do a little more digging.

Well, that is true, but inflation is hitting us at all levels. Right, on supplies and everything else I see that too in terms of some of the curriculum outlay. So when we develop budgets, we make them conservative in the point that we want all numbers to be achievable. So we want to achieve our revenue numbers and we want to stay within our expenditure projections. So with that, there is a gap between what actual is gonna be. And we're working on that gap, trying to make it more realistic I mean, it's kind of a contingency, but too much contingency is not helpful either. So we're working on that. So I think some of the numbers are strong, partially because every time we make a number where there's a little bit of assumption with it and a little bit of margin of error, and the more of those we stack up, the farther away we get from actual sometimes. So we're looking to manage that gap into something that's a little tighter.

Yeah. And then outside of capital projects, I think that we're going to have some costs this coming year, especially thinking about some of these like safety and audit assessments that I would consider one-time costs. So it would be nice to separate some of those like non-recurring costs is what I would call them out just so the board can see also what that kind of aggregate looks like. And it might be useful to see that even from previous years. Like the renovations of the library, right? That happens one time. We're not going to renovate it again any time in the near future at the high school. So some of those one-time cost estimates, I think, is also kind of a helpful metric. But thank you.

We'll bring that back.

Thanks, John. First of all, I appreciate the process and the format that you've presented this. Really appreciate breaking this down and tying it to our strategic plan. It makes it seem like that's an actual... important thing that you're thinking about, so I appreciate that. But probably more importantly, I appreciate your attention to managing both the expense and the revenue side so that we can have this positive balanced position regardless of definition. So thank you for that always and not just in the presentation. A couple of questions related to the safety and security stuff that we've been talking about. talking, thinking about a lot of that stuff in the last few weeks. Is there anything that you, I don't know what your process was for putting this together in a preliminary way. Is there anything we might not have been taking into account there that we need to think about or significant expense stuff that we're thinking about in that area that might not have been baked into this?

We believe we've accounted for everything that's on the table for discussion at the moment. If something new comes along, it's not accounted for. But in conversation with Dr. Patel, the rest of the admin team, Jim Brunell, our facilities general overseer, we've outlined these. We've got pretty good understanding of where we stand with them. Some of them have longer lead times than others, but we're going to work efficiently through them as efficiently as we can.

It sounds like the things that we've outlined as goals are things that we want to do. This takes into account we don't have other significant expenditures that this wouldn't account for in that area.

We don't believe so at this point in time. So I put that list back up there. We're going to talk about the SRO thing further in a few minutes. The audit Dr. Patel's talked about. Cameras are mostly already on site and acquired. We're waiting for some other components before they get installed. Again, some of those are replacements. Some of those are additions. Ballistic film, we're still inventorying all of that and getting pricing. We have some of it, but not all of it. Door and window number coding, we have this already in a I'll call it amateurs way in that it was our scheme. But there is now code schemes that we have, that have been adopted and we're going to be implementing those. We've got meetings already set with the code enforcement officials on how to do that. The way finding signage is, pretty well designed and soon to go out to bid. The intruder system enhancements are underway and being tested. I think we're probably, we're close to getting those done. The cell phone and Wi-Fi signal, as Dr. Patel indicated, is we're getting ready to hire a consultant to do all the testing and mapping of the buildings. Once we hear back from them, we'll know what that initiative looks like for equipment. And the communications, one of the valuable things we learned in the White Island thing was cell phones towers get overwhelmed pretty quickly. We've got to have an independent way to communicate effectively. So we have some walkies in the district. We'll be expanding that so that we have quality communications in cases of crisis. That's pretty much our list at the moment.

That's great. I mean, it's great to just be thinking about that in this context of what money are we spending on things.

Some of these are, I mean, all together combined, I mean, this is not a huge price tag. This is pretty affordable for us.

Great. And then just a process question, I think for the benefit of everyone. You talked about a preliminary budget. Could you just kind of reiterate what happens between it being preliminary and being final?

Looking at scrubbing every number again. I mean, we basically take it through about five or six iterations. of looking at them, validating cost, trying to understand what they should be looking, comparing the past trends of actual cost, trying to compare the market cost. We just work through every number more than

once. Well, we certainly appreciate that so that when we approve it, it's something we can all stand behind. So thanks for that work. Rob, it's up to

me. Just to follow up on A couple things Gary said, not to beat this, but are there other large-scale projects like the high school library that we have in plans, maybe not for next year, but in the foreseeable future that you're starting to think about as you look at the budget?

We don't have any major construction projects this summer. Earlier this year, you authorized us to start looking at finishing off the press boxes and the two fields. That has taken us longer than we'd hoped. Everything, the design process, Everything in construction today seems to take four times what it should take. So we're not as far along as that as we'd hope. But that hasn't been forgotten about, and that'll probably be a subsequent summer project. One of the things that I put on here that could be significant in cost is this playground at Glen Ridge. I think you know the origins of some of that conversation. And so Dr. Murdoch has been working for quite a few months with her staff and students on that. We've tried to support her with consultants and stuff, and they basically have it figured out. We're getting ready to go out for bid. It's probably a summer 24 project, though. Long lead times on playground equipment. It's not going to be a cheap project. I'll tell you right now, it's probably a $600,000 project. It'll be a very accessible playground. It'll be an amazing playground. I think we'll be proud to have it in our inventory. It's a change from what we have seen in other buildings in the past with a lot of PTO fundraised activities around these. This will be a district funded project. And as soon as we do one, there will probably be requests for more. We have the capacity to pay for this. We have the capacity to borrow if we need to do more of these. So it's not a problem getting it done. We can certainly afford it. But the goal here is to make something that that building can be very proud of. And I think they've done an amazing job getting it to where it is now.

Good, I'm glad to hear that. And then next just a comment which Gary also mentioned was I appreciate the simplicity of this presentation for non-financially minded people like myself. This was very easy to understand and I also really appreciate the connections to the strategic plan because it just gives it all context and puts into perspective where our priorities are so thank you.

Well there's a burden placed on us by MSUBSEC to do this. It wasn't just all us. We're trying to comply.

But you put it together, and I appreciate how you presented it, so thank you.

Well, I want to assure you about the numbers. We do our best, and we'll manage them all year long. But again, I don't think budgets are about numbers. I think they're really about what we're trying to achieve, and it's easier to talk about the projects, the initiatives, and the programs. So I hope that's where helpful to you.

Very helpful. Like I said, just to see the list of those, what the investments are in, is very helpful. And I agree, though, with Jason Growe, to even see dollar signs next to those would be even more helpful. So thank you for that.

Very helpful. Like I said, just to see the list of those, what the investments are in, is very helpful. And I agree, though, with Jason Grote, to even see dollar signs next to those would be even more helpful. So thank you for that.

We'll have those for the next meeting.

My question was going to be about the Glen Ridge Playground, so thank you for asking that. The other thing I want to... A lot of things were already covered. The only other thing is when we were talking about the safety and security stuff, the SRO is a big question mark. So how was that budgeted for in this preliminary? Does that make sense?

Well, it's budgeted in accordance with the way we already have two. So we currently pay 75% of each officer's pay, and we've budgeted that accordingly. Okay. We have it on another agenda item, and I think we'll probably get into it a little deeper at that point in time.

So you do have another one added based on?

This budget does include

funding for a

third officer. Got

it. That's it. Thank

you. Awesome, that was a great presentation. I just have one very quick question So back in the day like when I first came on the board eight years ago We used to talk about this zero based budgeting that we used do we still do that or is that?

We did not do that this year. Okay When we look at and where that was really dealing with was supplies and services within the buildings and across the rest of the district and And those really don't vary much year to year. So what we did this year is I worked with the trend data that we saw from actual results in the past, and I built a budget for everyone. And I shared that with them and said, I suggest this as a budget to you. You're free to change it. If I don't hear from you, this is going to be your budget. Or if you are going to turn something in, this can validate your thoughts. Everybody turned a budget in. The numbers are very close for the items where there was not change. So if somebody was adding a curriculum that wasn't in the prior year, that obviously changed those numbers. But overall, the data that I provided them helped validate their requests. And there's a lot of continuity between those two presentations. I didn't feel the need to go through and start from zero for things that we do over and over and over and year after year. Makes sense. So we did not do that this year.

Okay. Great. All right. Well, thank you forward to the next

we'll bring it back next meeting for adoption.

Very good. Thank you All right calendar

All right. Good evening. So tonight we're presenting a revised version of the Board of Education approved academic calendar for 23-24. The only change that we are recommending to the calendar is to move the professional learning day from November 1st to November 7th, which is election day in 2023.

Okay. Are there any questions? I'm sure there's nothing. Go ahead.

No, well Jason do you have anything?

Okay, go ahead.

I mean this really could pertain to both calendars but I know you all probably know how I feel about the proposed calendars after our discussion last time but I just feel the need to point out we have a lot of different minority groups in our district and the efforts we go to to make each of those different groups feel valued and seen and heard varies based on the need. For example, we have gender neutral bathrooms. We've increased the number of teachers of color that we hire. We've broken down barriers for some students to enroll in the gifted program and AP and honors classes. And for our Jewish students and families, these holidays on the calendar are one way that they feel treated unfairly. And it's my opinion, clearly not, and maybe not anyone else's that making adjustments to have at least one or two of those days off would have been an easy fix to make our Jewish families feel that they weren't being seen and heard and valued as an effort on part of the district. So and probably easier than all those other examples that I gave before. So that's all. I just want everyone to keep that in mind, that that's having to make the choice to go to school or not and miss learning, miss instructional time, miss review time or tests or whatever because you observe a certain holiday because of your faith and your religion is something that makes Jewish students feel that they are treated unfairly. That's all. So I just want that to be in everyone's heads as we think about calendars, as we talk about calendars. That's all. That's it. Sorry.

Do I marry the motion?

Anybody else have any

questions? I just want to say quickly on that point. I know we've heard in the past that there are school-level rules about what you can and can't do, like on Jewish holidays so that students don't fall behind, things like that. I would just say at the very least, it sounds like just based on what Carter said earlier in the year, we need to just make an extra effort to enforce the rules we have in place. And if we do a better job of that, then that's at least a step forward in what Stacey's talking about.

Tony, do you want to talk about

some of the things that we've considered? Sure. So one of the ideas, I know that Carter had mentioned about the CDA. I did talk to Dan Gachewski at the high school, and that is definitely something that he's willing to consider and look at. Doesn't think that would be a difficult situation to navigate if we made the school calendar C days on Jewish holidays. Another thing that we're looking at is, I know we talked about If there's tests on those days or if it's a review day, coming up with some system school-wide so the whole school was on the same page with those days. Are there other things?

Part of that system is basically being very intentional about it, like from the beginning of the school year. So if there's some way for us to, if students can identify any religion, religious holiday, right? Like this is my religious holiday. I'm not gonna be in school and letting teachers know ahead of time. It's almost like individualizing their learning plan for them and being very intentional about it. And that's something that we absolutely can get better at.

Are we doing the same thing with our staff?

We

allow them religious, you know, right? So I mean, I think I'm just saying we can learn from what we already do. Maybe in that situation, we can just make it a policy that, you know, students can also do the same thing. Request days off for religious reasons, just like our staff.

Yes. So can I just make one request? I say this with all peace and love. Can we make sure that the process is in place before the beginning of 2024 so we don't, you know, if you can let us know what that process is going to be and how it's going to be different than it's been in the past would be great.

Sorry, I just thought of another question. In the past, we've as a board voted on the calendar. Like we voted to approve these already. Are we not voting on these new ones?

Yes. Tonight? Yeah. It's an action

item. It is an action

item? It's under

presentations.

That's for the next calendar. Just because it's

not listed under action, it's listed under presentation, so that's why I was asking.

Correct, so what I wanted to make sure Tony came up here and actually had a presentation about it so we could have question and answer, we could have dialogue. And then later, it's in the action item as a motion to approve the calendar. I thought we were gonna put the motion with the presentation but we must not. It is?

Yeah, it is.

Oh, it is.

So I understand the rationale for the Good Friday in April being off because we historically have not been able to have enough teachers that don't take that as a personal day. It looks like, though, in 2024, that is a professional learning day. But in 2025, it is a... It is a actual teacher comp day. I don't know how you expect teachers to show up for professional learning if they're gonna take that time off anyway, so that seems to be a little inconsistent. So it's April 18th in 2025 and it's a teacher conference comp day but in 2024 it's April 26 and it is a professional learning day. I think if if the rationale for having that off is not for religious reasons and it's for because we can't staff then we should not be expecting staff to show up for professional learning. So that's my one comment there. And then it also looks like in 24 and 25, you guys have moved that fourth Monday in October. And the rationale for moving it in 24-25 was for more continuity in the October calendar. So why was it not moved then for the 2023-24 calendar? So in 24 and 25 the 21st of October is no longer there. 23 and 24, the 23rd of October is still there. So it just seems like there's some inconsistencies in the methodology between the two calendar school years.

Who's in charge of this?

Calendar. So Chris Tunnell and I were working on it together, and I'm taking over the calendar.

Okay, so now you're in charge?

Mm-hmm.

Congratulations. Thank you.

Sorry. That's okay. So

did you address... Kim, so to address the 23-24 calendar is the one that we're talking about right now, right? You're saying October 23rd is a professional learning day. But when you look at the 24-25 calendar. And

we look at the motion to approve that calendar. The 21st was taken off. Correct. In order for continuity in October for learning days. So why wasn't it taken off? Yeah, I mean, we need to be – I don't necessarily have a bone to pick for this, but we need to be consistent with the methodology. And I just think that there's still some inconsistencies here in terms of – Or was

there a rationale that we don't know?

I think

the

rationale for the 23-24 calendar was to somehow try to build in a fall break that had come up, but I see your point in terms of why we didn't continue that rationale in 24-25. And I know we moved the professional learning day to September just so that we're not three Fridays off in a row, but...

What was your rationale on 24-25 as to why it didn't pan out the same way as the 23-25?

We were trying to avoid, we originally had it on the 25th, we were trying to avoid three Fridays off in a row. For continuity of learning is

what the 24-25 explanation

is. It could mirror the exact October 23rd.

CEO team, do you remember? I know we've had this conversation as a CEO team. For 23-24, was there a reason why we kept the 23rd on there besides the fall break? There wasn't, right? So could we move that? Okay. What's the best for professional learning-wise, Milena? What day would it be?

In the 24 and 25 calendar, you moved October 24th to September 20th. It says to provide more consistency for students and families in October.

Right. If we were to move the 23rd, so... When we moved it in the other calendar, moving a professional development day into September felt consistent for professional development. Also, if we move that 23rd day into September, we're going to put two free PD days in September. So if we do that, that's OK. I would just advocate for it to be late in September, so being like the 29th. to provide, because it's difficult for us to turn around quickly to do professional development days one after the other. And so when we were looking at the calendar for 24-25 and we saw those three Fridays off in October, We said let's move a PD day into September because the one that's normally with Labor Day is earlier in August on that year. So we didn't have something in September. I think we need to decide if we're going to have a fall break or not have

a fall break. Because if we had one this year and we're going to one next year, people are going to expect it the following year or not. Kim's got a good point. It should be consistent. What do you And your point about the April date was called something different in each, the Good Friday day.

So for the October one, do we feel that the fall break isn't something that the community and students would prefer?

I think people like a fall

break. That's the

question. What did the survey show? Maybe we don't have to call it fall break. Right. It's semantics, right? If you take the fall break label off, maybe you just call it a day off. That's what

we do. It's just a teacher conference content. So

it's just a day off. Maybe we start calling it a fall break. Again, we're looking for a fall break, like you said, the next year and the next year after that. And that's kind of hard for us. That's not sustainable. So maybe you just call it, don't call it fall break. You just call it a day off. It's just the way the calendar was built, right? Is that how you, Melina, that's kind of how you explain it. Well, you kind of explained it like this many days in September. So you wanted to push it back. You didn't want three Fridays off. I'm just saying. And this is kind of the way it rolled, kind of the day we chose. So is it a fall break or is it just a day off?

No. So when I was looking at it, I was looking through a professional development lens, not through a fall break lens. So the difference in the 23-24 calendar is there's a comp day. for teachers on the Friday and then a PD day on the Monday. So for families, that feels like an extended break. For teachers, that's not an extended break. So when I was advocating to move on the next year's calendar, I was advocating only from a professional development lens. I wasn't thinking through the lens of like...

Right, I'm thinking the same thing. That's easier to articulate and understand than it is to say, hey, we're going to fall break. So I don't know where the terminology fall break came from. Where did that come from? Who came up with that? I don't even know if it says it

on the calendar. No, it doesn't say it.

Did you call it that?

Maybe I said it. I don't know who said it

first.

So is it a fall break? I don't know. Families call it fall break because you have a Friday and a Monday off. Don't let

them call it that. It's not a fall break. What it is is it's just the way the calendar was created, correct?

I think

the question is the rationale for moving it to 24 and 25 is to provide more

continuity and education for

students and families in October. So if we're looking for more consistency in the calendar for learning days, then in my opinion, that date should be moved.

To September just like the other year? Or what? Right.

For consistency. Wait, sorry. You didn't watch. I'm

now very confused. So you can say specifically the date that you want to move. October 23, 2023 to like September 22 or 29.

just like the October 21st and 24th was moved to September 20th.

But does it have to mirror the same thing as the

year before?

That's why this helps that

too.

Move it out of October and into September.

No. We would be moving October 23rd to September 29th. So we would have two Fridays in September, which is five. That's a month with five Fridays. And then two in October.

So the 29th, then October 13th, and

October

20th. Correct.

But so is the 24 calendar. It's giving

us six, pretty much. You guys, can I just inject something here? I think that we have to do that... They have spent a lot of time on this calendar, and I think it's great that we're opinionated and we can share our thoughts. But at some level, it gets a little bit into the weeds, and we've got to let our CO team trust that they've made the right decisions. Well, I mean, I don't know that I agree with that. I mean, years vary from year to year. I don't know. How can

you have a professional development day on a day that we've been told

teachers don't show up for work? How are they going to show up for professional

learning?

Well, I understand on that day. I'm just saying like overall high level, big picture, I think.

Kim, what day are you talking about?

Friday in April.

April 26th? If 20... Yes. And I would suggest you just swap that with... That's not Good Friday. It's March 29th.

Ah, it's earlier than here. I just like to do Fridays. It shows what a lapsed Catholic I am. So I think that's fine. Okay.

Yeah. Also, sorry, this is just a minor thing. April 18th, 2025 is... Oh, I see. It's blue. Never mind. Sorry, I got it.

You guys good? Carter, you want any days off? Okay. Okay, so can we adapt this? Real fast, I

just want to make sure that this was, this could have been, this could have incurred early on had we just been able to explain the calendar. That's all I'm saying. Like, yeah, I mean, Kim thought that it was this and was corrected, right? That's cool? But then had someone said it early on that that's not Easter, that's not Good Friday, that would not have happened. Just be prepared. Sounds like I'm being a jerk-off, but I'm not. I'm just saying be prepared. That's all I'm saying. That's it.

Okay, well, I appreciate the work that you have put into the calendar.

So

do I, guys.

Good job. Do you want a motion?

Yes.

Okay, move that the Board of Education approve the revised 2023-2024 academic calendar as presented.

Aye. Second. Second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions or comments?

So are we not moving that Monday in October?

We're voting on it as presented. As presented.

I guess. And the reason, in my mind, for not moving the October 23rd is because now you have two professional learning days in September, which are pretty close together. That would be my rationale.

I think it's really hard. I just want to say to everyone in this room, we know how much you guys work on it. We all are wanting to make sure it's great, too. It's really hard that we don't get to be in these meetings. I feel like I... I really trust that you guys are

putting... Okay, Chris, we have a motion pending. Oh, yeah. I just want to say I'm

sorry that this is so rough.

Yeah, but I agree. So let's just vote on it, and then if you want to keep talking. Okay, so all in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Me.

Okay, two opposed. And... The rest are in favor.

And I just want to point out, you might have had two professional learning days in September, but they would have been at least four weeks apart. Now you have two professional learning days that are less than two weeks apart between October and November. You have one on October 23rd and another November 7th. Does not make sense.

True. But if we did it in September also, then we're looking at quite a few Fridays as opposed to a Monday off.

I understand. I mean, I just, it's

very inconsistent. Do we? I

mean. Come on, we

already voted on it. I support the group board decision. I just...

I'm just wondering if, you know, historically, you know, the board used to, there was a calendar committee and this, our process was that there was a calendar community. There was a board member that was on the calendar committee and, um, It wasn't, the Board of Education didn't vote on the calendar. So I wonder if we went back to that process, if that would be better than what we're doing now. So we had a committee of some parents, a couple parents, a couple CO team, a couple students. Teachers. Teachers, that's right. I mean, Tony, I'm sure you're like, I'm gonna kill you, Amy. I don't, okay. No, maybe not. I'm just trying to suggest if there's something that...

But it just seems like Tony and Nisha and whoever was on the calendar committee put this together. If you have a rationale, just explain it to us. I mean, whether I think it's inconsistent with the kid or anyone thinks it's inconsistent is irrelevant if it doesn't work for the operations of the school. So if you can explain it based on what's good for the school district and how it's going to work, then explain it that way. At that point in time, it doesn't matter our opinion. We just want to understand why it's not,

and

then just explain it, and then we will leave it alone.

Yeah, and I totally agree with you. And I

understand Chris was the one that kind of helped us together. I got that. But he's not here, so I'm just saying going forward, just have an explanation for it.

Yeah, and I think even though I totally agree with that, I would say that that's probably very difficult for Tony and the rest of them to do because as I'm assuming that in the calendar committee, you are sitting there looking at 16 different things that you need to all integrate together. Nothing is going to fit perfectly, and you have a rationale for every single different scenario, and then you have to pick one. And so the idea is they're spending hours talking about

– We're saying the same thing.

Exactly, but I guess –

Then why don't you say what I'm saying?

Well, I said I agree with you, but I'm wondering how much they could make that more efficient. Tony couldn't sit here and go through 18 different things of why they did or didn't do X, Y, or Z. No,

that's not the point. I'm just saying you all have already concluded on the calendar. It's being presented. Explain it. We move on. That's all I'm saying, Chris. You're saying the same thing I'm saying.

I say that might take too long. Okay, you guys, let's take this. What are you talking about? I support Amy's because we only have so much time for him to be able to explain. No, Chris, that's not

what we're talking about. If there's a question, it should be able to be explained. It's not like you go through every date and explain 365 days of the days that were off.

Correct. That's not what I'm

saying.

They wouldn't say that. No, I didn't say you said that either, Jason. I'm just saying if we could say, hey, what about this? Tony might have to say, well, what about this and this? It just could be a laborious process to go through at a board meeting, and the reason I'm saying that is because a committee that has a board member on it might be the best way to avert this kind of conversation at a board

meeting. I just came from a world where it just wasn't voted on, so we already voted on it.

Tony, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Okay, so we voted on it and maybe next year we won't vote on it. Yes, we do. We go through that same exercise. Let's

go. Another calendar conflict.

Okay, ready? Yep. Move that the Board of Education approve the 2024-2025 academic calendar as presented. Somebody second it.

Somebody's got to

second it. I second that. Good.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions on this calendar?

I don't have any questions. You guys good? Question? I think we've talked about the specifics. Hold on. I'm sorry. I think this is a very micro process that does not need to happen. So that's my take on it. I don't think we need to go through this at the board level. It's a very day-to-day execution of what days off and what aren't.

And you know what? When we get to that policy on agenda stuff, if you guys disagree, if people disagree and they want to you know, keep voting on this and going through this, then we can all... I

think the conversations about principles that we direct the administration to execute on are really important, but there's no way that we can accurately and comprehensively understand every single date on every calendar and why the decision was made. We need to identify this is the priority, go forward. Including that, I agree with that, but... we don't need to be approving every single date, yes or no, up or down. My opinion, so.

Okay, so I think, can we take a vote on this calendar? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Me.

Okay. All right. So now we are, we're gonna move on to our policies. First reading of BDDB. The agenda.

Good evening. So the first one we're going to look at is brought to you due to language change in MSIP 6 and it doesn't necessarily change What we have, it just clarifies language so that it mirrors MSIP 6. There were a couple of changes. One in the back of the policy page, if you look under consent, it's the second paragraph. It talks about the consent agenda. And in that sentence, it just says removal of any item on the agenda. So if we add consent in there just to keep it clean and it doesn't get confused with the agenda versus the consent agenda. And then the other piece that's in M-6, it does reference section 170.311 of revised statute. From Missouri about allowing 30 minutes of a presentation. And that's if there's a request for it for organ donation tissue donation in. It also provides that if a student does not or if a family wants to opt out they can. So it's not a mandatory. It's just that they can opt out. The organ donation presentation. This one is at a board meeting, but then it also can be presented to schools. Yeah. And that's where the students or the families have an option to opt out.

Okay.

Where does it come from? Law. It's all law.

Is

this

a little antiquated or is this just me?

No, I mean this is a public health issue. We have to educate the people about what our health care system needs. So this is a great way to do it.

Oh man, I'm misunderstanding it now. Alright, let's go. I'm probably misunderstanding it.

No, I don't know that you are, but it's – I think it's – It's

pretty narrow.

Yeah. Yeah, I think it's within a Missouri – the Missouri revised statute.

Yeah, it's just kind of interesting to know how that's allowed. Yeah, it's not. All right, so does anyone know the etymology of that? What is that? I just wanted to know if you all knew

this. I'm sure it's a public health initiative of some kind.

Yeah,

it's probably been around a long time. Education around these issues is the only way to make sure that we have access to them.

Gotcha. Okay, that's good.

Yeah, it says it's the conservatives.

Okay So remember back in the day how like, you know There was a whole idea of you driving and you have an accident and you got donor on your like won't let you die Okay

Um, that was a good one. Okay. So, um, I think we're on to public participation at board meetings, which is B D D H dash one.

So this one and the next one policy Casey, which is community involvement in decision-making go hand in hand. Okay. So the first one B D D H public participation at board meeting. Yes. basically allows, and this is from Senate Bill 681 that passed in 2022. The reason this is brought forward now from MSBA is because a policy and the process of this has to be in place by July 1 for law. But this includes a process by which a community member, anyone in the community can add or ask to add an item to the board meeting agenda. There's a process that needs to be followed and that's outlined in here. It it includes setting up a meeting with the superintendent or designee first and then the board can still decide whether to add it to the next agenda or you know There's already an item that's already there then So there are different processes that can be followed to add this If you look on page four of BDDH Under public comment because one of the pieces was I We have public comments at our board meetings and the option was to remove that from the agenda and just have this. My suggestion would be to not do that to keep the public comments as is. But there were a couple of things on here that I would suggest we take out which is number seven that the discussion will be limited to items from the posted agenda which means for They could only speak to an item that's listed on the agenda. So, for instance, when Mr. Hackman came up a couple of meetings ago and spoke about a previous teacher, he wouldn't be able to do that. And so I would recommend that we remove that line. And then number eight, I would suggest that we take an address off. So people state their name when they come up to speak and address the board, but not have to state their address. We get that on the comment card. But I don't think it needs to be on a recording where somebody lives. So those would be my suggestions on this.

Can I just add, just for clarity's sake, there is a rule, I did see a, as one of the rules in here, that we can refuse to add a suggested item to the agenda. Yes. Right? Okay. Yes. That's good. Yeah.

Thank you. So basically this policy states that there's a process to add something to the agenda, but we do have to have a policy in place. Got it. 14 oh yeah, I know to the agenda without Adequate yeah, I saw that too. I Think that was a cut and paste mistake

Okay. So this is just a, we're not voting on this tonight. It's just a first reading. So does anybody have any additions or deletions or clarifications on this? I just

want to point out a couple of things on that one. Like I said, it goes along with the public participation at board meetings. And on this one is the community engagement piece. That the community is we have to have a process in place to invite the community to be a part of the decision making. We already do this. We send out newsletters, so there's different ways. For information, we sent out newsletters. We send district newsletters. Each building, each school sends out newsletters to their families. We have two board communication Okay. Community engagement sessions twice a year, and then we hold forums as needed, just like the one we held at Y-Down. We also have on the website a link where somebody can send us a message that goes in the general emails, go to the communications department, and then all staff members, including board members, emails are listed on the website. So if anybody wants to communicate or send something, they have that option already. So that's basically what this is.

Okay.

Can I just ask a question, I guess? And it's more for, I guess, you, President Rubin. But do you think we're going to set up rules around this? So talk about how the board can, number three at the top. This is going back to BDD. H. Talks about how the board may establish rules, such as limiting the number of speakers and things like that. Something, I mean, I don't expect us to have an answer tonight, but sometime before July 1st, someone's got to figure out if we're going to establish rules and a policy and a procedure for this. That's all.

Yeah. I think we're required to. I don't know that we know what they are today, but... I assume that it will be posted. It'll be posted on the website. Yeah, okay. I don't know what central office is going to come up with, though.

Micah, was there a procedure that came with this? If not, that's okay. We'll put one together, and then we'll share it with the board and get your input on it before we finalize it. Yeah. Does that sound fair?

Yeah. I'm just flagging it. That's all.

Okay. Okay. Do you guys want to take a quick five-minute break?

There's only one more.

Oh, there is? I thought we were done. Oh, yeah. Let's do the eligibility to enroll. That's a good point. Thanks, Kim. And then we'll take a quick five minute break.

Good evening, everybody. I'm here to talk to you a little bit about the first reading for policy JECA-1, eligibility to enroll. The changes included in this policy are required due to updates in the law under Senate Bill 681, and many of these changes need to go into effect by July 1st, 2023. After posting this to board docs and studying the policy further, I'd like to move forward with amending the policy as presented between now and the second reading. Because while I don't have any intention to change the current language, I would like to add additional language. that would speak to the grandfathering aspect of the policy, which would apply to the students who are currently enrolled through our tax credit program whose parents or families are commercial property owners. So I'd like to amend the policy by adding some additional language that would speak to that and working with our attorneys to do so.

I like that. Any questions or comments on that? Okay.

Thank you.

Actually, Robin, my only question is does this affect at all any of our foreign exchange students?

I would need to double check that. We have very few of them right now, so I just need to cross-check who their host families are. Yeah, I mean, I know there's only like a

handful each year, but we used to have one. And so as I read this, I think, you know, especially when I read things like districts can count only biological or adopted children first, you know, I wonder if there's going to be an exception for foreign exchange students that were already, have historically hosted, even if only in small numbers in the district. That's a great

question. I can look into that.

All right.

Thank you.

All right. Let's take five. of legislative advocacy to the next meeting. Yeah, because he. No, not yet. OK, so I think we're back live. And we are on number eight, which is our action items. And the first one is classified pay salary structure.

And Tony's up here

at the

table in case anyone has any questions for action items.

I move that the Board of Education approve the classified staff pay salary structure as presented.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. And part-time temporary

employment. 8.02, I move that the Board of Education approve the above referenced part-time temporary, employment rates for all summer work to become effective May 17, 2023.

Second. Moved and seconded. Any questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, our school resource officer.

8.03. Wait, never mind.

No,

you're right. Yes. You're right. I move that the Board of Education authorize the district to work with Clayton Police for the purpose of adding a third SRO for Clayton Schools and to amend the police services agreement accordingly. I'm sorry, it's been a long day.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions or comments?

Yes. There have been some inaugural conversations around this already. There are no guarantees on the district. I mean, the police department has its own scheduling hiring needs, et cetera. So the conversation will continue. This will be the goal, but there's no guarantees.

Can I ask a question? Yeah. So this is just authorizing the administration to pursue this, right? It's not saying you have to do this or whatever. I guess my question is, I guess I'm offering an amendment, but to add up to three additional SROs to the agreement. In other words, we're not saying you have to go get three, but it's really a question for the board. If we're open to three additional ones, meaning really one for each elementary school and reasonable people can disagree on that, but if we want to, why not just give the administration the authority now and let them move forward however they see fit?

Okay, what do you guys think about that?

Sure. So is your suggestion that we would amend the motion to authorize just a broader conversation about adding SROs or a specific number? What is that?

Well, I guess my – yeah, so I'll try to do this the right way. I'll

try again. I wasn't sure. No,

no, no. So it would be an amendment to up to three SROs, additional SROs. Okay. because right now it's just one additional one.

I know what you mean. It just gives the freedom to like, if we worked it out with the city one day and decided we wanted more than one.

Yeah, I mean, where I come from, and I said this in an email, I'm actually undecided as to whether SROs are the right thing. I've seen academic research on both sides. But to me, if you're going to say, yes, we want to do SROs, then you might as well do it at all the schools or at least move that way.

That makes sense. I think we should increase it to three and then have the discussion for sure. What do you all think?

Yeah, I mean, I'm fine. We're just authorizing the district to engage in conversation. It'll be

up to the police department.

Right. If the administration comes back and says, hey, look, we're not going to do this because the cost is going to be $2 million. Okay, cool. You know what I mean? There's lots of reasons not to do it, but I'd rather...

We've actually had the initiation of that conversation. Currently, our SROs, we pay 75% of their cost and the city pays the balance. The third one potentially is under that similar formula. Beyond that, we know that it becomes harder because of lack of equipment and other things that would cause issues for the city. So the dynamics of that formula may be very different beyond three, but that still can be a conversation.

Yeah, and I guess what I would say is I trust the administration before I call on that. I just, for me, I'd rather give you guys the freedom to move that way, and I trust you guys to figure it out. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm?

So it

sounds... Is that okay?

Yeah, it sounds like the suggestion would be to amend this motion to make it not as specific about the number that's being pursued now, but just authorize an additional conversation about additional officers, which I think is a reasonable amendment that one could offer. Well, I'm just saying

raise the cap at 30. Yeah. He's being specific. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

With three additional.

Three

additional. Right, right. Up two. Let's put a one. Up two. Or don't put a number on it at all. Just additional officers and then figure out the number.

So that motion, we would have to vote on the motion to amend the motion.

And

then we could vote on the amended motion if it passes. Good luck, Gary. We'll

just go with mine. She's got to record another one. If I made a motion for an amendment, can we just vote on that? Yes. Let's do that. Well, we can vote

on that first, and then we can vote on the motion.

So

there's been a motion to amend the original motion.

And I seconded. I think as

follows. To authorize the district administration to work with Clayton Police to consider up to an additional three officers.

Nailed it. Thank you.

Second. So now

we vote on, and that's been seconded. So now we vot on that motion to amend the motion.

Right. Okay. So all in favor? Aye. Okay.

Now we can vote on the motion or discuss it.

Okay.

So the only comment that I have for that motion, just to set expectations for the community, is this had come up, I think, during our community session. And the chief of police already expressed the difficulty in finding the right kind of officers that make good SROs and also kind of the shortage of police officers in general right now. So although we may desire to have up to three, I think the reality of us actually getting an additional three is going to be something that's going to be difficult for the administration to actually achieve. So I just want to manage expectations up

front.

Along those lines, I think it's important for us to sort of have an open mind and think creatively about how this might look. You know, even if we couldn't get an additional one SRO, what could we put in place at every single elementary school that would continue to support this idea that we know that having someone there that the kids know is an expert in safety? Again, we can be creative. If it can't be three officers, what can it it can't be one office or what can it be does that make sense I just want our community to know that we're thinking about this and that we do want this to happen but given the fact that there's only so many dollars and so many people available we're still going to be making an effort even if it can't be you know what we're hoping to get which is hard to get

yeah okay so all in favor aye any opposed Okay, so Gary is going, we're going to move the Vice President of Legislative Advocacy to our next board meeting.

So procedurally, we need to vote to amend the agenda because it was already approved. Yes. So I move to... Right, to move that, to remove that agenda from, that item from the

agenda.

Let's remove it and then we can, yeah, when the agenda is adopted, we can... decide when it happens. I think that's the idea, but

procedurally tonight we just need to take off the agenda. I think the intent is to discuss it next at the June meeting, but let's just remove it.

Yeah, so the motion is to remove 8.04 from tonight's agenda, or to amend the agenda to remove 8.4. Can somebody second it?

Okay, second. This is getting confusing. Okay, are there any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Okay. Gary, I think we're

on 8.05. 8.05. I move that the Board of Education approve the purchase of Illustrative Mathematics through the Imagine Learning Platform and Centers Kit through the Math Modernist.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there questions?

I have a few.

Yeah.

Can you tell us how many What's typical for when you say you looked at several primary sources? What's typical? How many did you look at?

So with this pilot, we ended up looking and actually piloting two. Oh, you did? We looked at probably about 10 things before we narrowed it down to the two. Awesome.

Is it very different from math and focusing?

to teaching than the same format. So it feels a little bit more traditional in the sense of how the standards are presented, but the materials for the teachers and the way that the students are learning parallels more of what we're focused on with Empowered Learning, so the idea of project-based learning, the idea of students being able to play with math and numbers, so it feels more aligned with our strategic plan.

So my kids were in elementary school when we switched to Singapore math, Do you remember the feeling that the parents had of just this feeling of, whoa, this is different? Have you guys thought in advance about whether or not there will need to be some parent education around this new curriculum because it will look different?

Yeah. So we'll have some initial thinking around the way that we roll that out, probably through curriculum nights. One of the other kind of cool resources that's a part of illustrative math is a home school communication tool that provides sort of a better, more robust way of communicating information to parents about what their students are learning and how we're teaching it. So we would use those materials to help us. And that feels like a more... Um, not like a one and done kind of thing, like a more continual way of communicating home.

Right. Good. That's really great. Um, how much of it is digital?

So most of it is digital. There's um, the, if you look at the breakdown, um, on the price quote, You'll see that there are print materials for all grades. We're probably not going to go with the print materials for K and one. Um, but for the other grades for the first year, we're going to go with those and then see how those work for us. Um, and then decide, make decisions beyond that, um, what we would continue to use with the print piece.

Okay. Um, and I did want to say how great it is that this particular curriculum that you chose. has access for students with disabilities, that there's materials around how to help teachers with that. I just want to say that that obviously aligns with all of our thinking and what we want to make sure that we are inclusive of all our different learners. So it's awesome that it's there. I really liked it. What you sent us was really great. It looks like a great program.

I think the thing that we're the most excited about with this is we have a lot of change coming for elementary teachers. And this feels like a much more robust resource than what we currently use. So our teachers are spending a lot of time writing and creating that this will allow us to have some pre-done things and then make some decisions based off of those. So our first year, we would implement with fidelity and then make decisions about what we would want to change up.

I had one about the cost, but she answered it. Okay. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Okay. 8.06. 8.06,

a move that the Board of Education approve policy IF as submitted.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions?

I think it still says broad. Instead of broad-based, I think it says board-based still.

Yes, it does.

Remember that?

Under number seven. Sorry.

It's okay.

So do we need to move that to the June

meeting?

I think it can be submitted with the correction.

All right, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? 8.07.

I move that the Board of Education approve policy IGAD-1 as submitted.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? 8.08.

I move that Board of Education approve Policy IGCD as submitted.

Seconded. It's been move and seconded. Any questions? All in 8.09.

I move that the Board of Education approve policy IGCDA as submitted.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Questions? All in favor? Aye.

Keep going. 8.10, I move that the board of education approve policy IGCE-1 as submitted.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there questions?

No questions, but I will just point out to anybody watching that all of these last five policies were second readings, so we've talked about them all before. We're not just

buzzing through. Thank

you. That's true. It's a lot tonight. We don't usually have

five. In case all the people listening are wondering. Right, right.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Financials?

There's a financial report for information, and there's disbursements for action.

Yeah, no, it all looks like ordinary course of business. Thank you for

pointing out the larger expenses, and even those really aren't huge for the month of March. I don't have any additional questions. I think we can go ahead. I

think we need to... We need to approve them.

Yes.

So that's a financial report, and then we're going to approve the disbursements, correct? Mm-hmm. Good. And will the Board of Education approve the disbursement in March 2023, disbursements in the sum of $2,358,407?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions? Okay. All in favor? Aye. And the next one.

10.01, I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda items 10.02 through 10.13.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions? All in favor?

Aye.

And consent. Do you want

to acknowledge the 10.11?

Yeah. So before we do the consent agenda, I just want to acknowledge... and thank Mr. Fairfax Altimer for the generous donation towards the high school scholarship fund. It's very appreciated, thank you. Okay, we could read the consent? Oh, we did? Okay. Okay. That was a lot. Okay, so we are on to board communications. So anybody have anything?

I do.

Go ahead.

A couple things. Jason Growe and Gary and Nisha and I attended the Clayton Chamber of Commerce. Was it like the 50th? I don't know. 75th?

A couple things. Jason Groh and Gary and Nisha and I attended the Clayton Chamber of Commerce. Was it like the 50th? I don't know. 75th?

It was monumental. Celebration dinner.

Kristen Reddington joined us as well. And it was nice. And if you didn't realize this, Nisha sits on the Chamber of Commerce board, right? And they did recognize the School District of Clayton for being there, so that was nice. And second of all, I attended the Mayfair celebration which some of you, I think, have been there before. It's an acknowledgement of our retirees across the district and years of service, like milestone years of service, all kinds of staff, and it's really nice. The retirees are presented by a colleague of their choosing to give a little speech about them, and it's real touching, moving, emotional, sometimes funny, and their families are there, and anyway, it was a really nice event.

Thank you for what you said.

I was happy to. It's nice. It's really nice.

It is. It's an amazing feel-good event. Yeah. Last year, I think you and I both went last year. I mean, you come away from that event, you can't help but feel good about the universe.

Yeah. It's really, really good. And it showed me how much our staff care about each other and how close they are. and not just teachers, but to our custodial workers and our maintenance workers and our administrative assistants. And everyone was recognized equally. And that really stood out to me too. It was really nice. It's a really nice, I've been in the past too, and it's always been really great.

Oh, it's not just the finance committee, Kim. I've attended three other meetings. So, Clinton Education Foundation, they are, you know, so Sandy resigned. I think they're going to, they're sort of grappling a little bit with like what they want to be and how they want to move forward. And I think it's a really positive conversation that they started to have. And I think they're going to, you know, we're going to meet again and that will sort of lead to what sort of professional do they want to hire in that role. So I look forward to hearing the outcome. I think they're meeting in June. So look forward to hearing how that meeting goes. Then I hopped across the hall to the financial advisory committee. I thought, John, you had a great meeting. I think people are just generally happy with the financial state of the district and the clarity that John particularly has brought to stating how our district is doing. And so that's very much appreciated. And then Dr. Patel and I were at the, sat in on the, no, you were absent for the Clayton Center board meeting. And I'm actually happy to report that they are running a profit this year. And- You know, I got them on record to say that they will finish the year running, you know, a profit. So, yeah, so that's, you know, so that's good. You know, I think the corporate memberships are still lagging. I think they're going to lag for a long, long time. But, you know, they've done a reasonable job, reasonably good job of getting membership, you know, back up. So, you know, it feels positive. Yeah.

Yeah, it wrapped up. I wasn't able to go to our last meeting, but what's really exciting and I want to make sure everyone knows is that Cameron's planned a retreat for that committee for this summer. So they're going to really have time to dive in and look at what they want to do this coming year and really plan it out and be very intentional about it. And I just think it's nice to think of that committee having that really intentional time not just random meetings once a month sort of thing. I just think that could be really useful, so I'm really happy that's happening. And then the other thing is with the SSD governing board, we still have a meeting coming up, nothing to report.

Okay. Anything else? All right. Do you guys want to adjourn? Oh, go ahead, Carter. I'm sorry.

Uh, lastly, I just also wanted to, uh, as many of you know, we have selected the student representative for the next year. Uh, so I will be back for the June meeting. I'm not sure if I'll, uh, still have my seat, but I did want to say thank you to everyone. You will have your

seat.

Ah, okay, good. Okay. I did want to thank you to everyone for giving me this opportunity this year. I've really enjoyed it. Um, and yeah.

Well, you have been outstanding. I think we can all... I'll agree.

Yes.

OK. Remember

us when you go to the White House.

Yes, remember the little people.

All right, I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

Second. OK, all in favor? Aye.