June 7, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

Okay, sorry we're a few minutes late. Okay, great. Adequate notice has been given. It's Wednesday, June 7th, 2023 and we will go ahead and get started with the board meeting and say the Pledge of Allegiance. Isn't it usually that way? It is. Okay, well, I don't know. That's

why I turned around. I was like, wait, where

is it? We kind of pledge allegiance to that one, too. Okay, Gary, we just need to adopt the agenda.

I move that the Board of Education adopt the agenda for tonight's meeting as posted.

It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any public participation? And I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Patel.

Okay. Welcome, everyone. I can't believe it is past the last day of school and the school year is over. I still can't believe it, I think, because we're here and I know Carter is like, yes, we're here. And he's so excited. So I'm glad to have everyone here tonight. So one of the things that educators always kind of giggle at when our family or friends are like, well, it's summer now. What are you going to do? So there's a lot of work still continuing to happen over the summer months. In fact, we kind of like amp it up a little, especially in terms of summer learning. So today was the first day for... Elementary Summer Academy, Wydown Summer Academy, and Clayton High School Summer Academy that's been up and running. We have about 100 students in the elementary, a little bit over 100 at Wydown, and over 200 at Clayton High School. So that runs usually the morning part till 1130. And this year we also have KidZone in the afternoon for families that want to take that. And a lot of them also go to the center. for different activities in the afternoon as well. In terms of adult learning, we have a lot of different things going on. We have over 50 summer institutes that we're offering. It could be anything from Google Drive topics on how to do that. And it could be something about, I know one of the sessions I saw was the history and geography of the city of Clayton. So that's a good one. And then there was like project-based learning So whatever interests our teachers have, they sign up for it. And so right now, and it could have changed, but last time we saw there were over 500 registrations for that. The teachers are interested in continuing their learning over the summer. We also have over 40 curriculum writing projects, which means about 125 registrations for that as well. For teachers who want to look at current courses and maybe make revisions to it or any new courses that we're offering, they're going to be writing that. And then we also have 10 curriculum unpacking sessions, which is focused on elementary. So 63 elementary teachers have signed up for that. And that is huge because we're going to have some major significant curriculum changes for elementary next year. And basically they're trying to get ahead of everything instead of waiting until the start of the school year. So that's a lot of learning for them as well, and they're dedicated to that. And to help, we've offered KidZone over the summer for teachers. Sometimes that's also a challenge to kind of encourage them to continue their learning as well. Another huge thing that's coming out of the Teaching and Learning Department this summer, last year, if you recall, they updated the district curriculum website. So this summer is phase two of it. And it's going to basically, the goal of it is to be as transparent to our parents as possible. When they go on the website, they can see not only the courses that we're offering, but what we're teaching in those courses. And so hopefully that's completed this summer and we'll present that to the board in the fall so that the board also can see what's on the website and how to access it and all the information on it. Very proud of all that work that's happening over the summer. And then safety and security update. As we know, we've already contracted with Tier 1 Tacticals. I'm meeting and talking to them almost weekly, almost daily actually, this week especially. Our new Chief Communications Officer, Luke, has also been introduced with them. And we're really trying to look at all of the physical security upgrades, the policies, the procedures, and a lot of work is happening over the summer. And based on advisement from them, they feel strongly, especially in a public forum that we not talk too much about details of what we're doing for obvious security reasons. But please know we're in touch with them They've given us guidance on our emergency operations plan. They're looking over all of our training protocols that we're going to put in place, all of our processes, all of our procedures. We have some work that we're going be doing over the summer as well in our buildings regarding safety and security. And then also specific things that I can mention is, you know, one of the things that came up was like our speakers, maybe not in all the buildings. You couldn't hear them. So we're going to look at that. Maybe in areas like band or in the gym, put like flashing lights as opposed to just counting on like listening to any kind of system. So those are things we're going to be doing. And then obviously partnering with the Clayton PD has been a big part of it. as well and John, Luke and I met with the Clayton PD a couple of weeks ago and obviously the board knows that we're talking to them about the idea of an additional SRO. So that's also conversations that we've had and we're looking forward to seeing where that goes as well. And that is a lot of the work that's happening and it's gonna continue to happen over the next couple of months Um, now I would like to turn it over to Stacy because Stacy is going to give us, um, a new introduction to our school board rep as well. And Carter.

Thank you. Um, I would like everyone to meet our new school board student rep for next school year. Mohini Mahajan. All right. Um, thank you for joining us Mohini. And I wanted everyone to kind of just have a general sense of the process we went through to select Maheny. We're so lucky to have her. We had several, 13 candidates actually apply for the position. We interviewed Jason Growe and I, I should say Jason Growe, Carter, Dr. Patel and I interviewed all 13 of them. We brought back four for a second round of interviews and actually had them do kind of a role play and gave an agenda item on an actual board meeting and had them prepare for that. We were so happy to select Mohini, so thank you. A little bit about her that stuck out to us. First of all, she was extremely confident and poised and articulate and very thoughtful in her presentation to us and in her answers to the interview. She also in her application mentioned things like as a minority, she wants to foster a culture of inclusivity in our schools, which we all thought was so important She has a relationship with students of all ages because she's been a science fair mentor at Captain Elementary, right? So she has a relationship with elementary students. Some of the other things that she's been involved with are speech and debate, Science Olympiad, Tri-M, which is the volunteer music organization, and she was on the library renovation committee as well. But we just really appreciated that she wants to make sure All students' voices are heard. And she also gave us great examples of when she has advocated for some groups in our schools that she felt were treated unfairly and really appreciated that as well. Because as we know, what's most important for the student rep is to advocate for all students, but also come here and represent all students' voices at the board table. So thank you, Mohini. Welcome. And we're all looking forward to working with you. Thanks.

Thank you. Um, I would like everyone to meet our new school board student rep for next school year. Mohini Mahajan. All right. Um, thank you for joining us Mohini. And I wanted everyone to kind of just have a general sense of the process we went through to select Maheny. We're so lucky to have her. We had several, 13 candidates actually apply for the position. We interviewed Jason Groh and I, I should say Jason Groh, Carter, Dr. Patel and I interviewed all 13 of them. We brought back four for a second round of interviews and actually had them do kind of a role play and gave an agenda item on an actual board meeting and had them prepare for that. We were so happy to select Mohini, so thank you. A little bit about her that stuck out to us. First of all, she was extremely confident and poised and articulate and very thoughtful in her presentation to us and in her answers to the interview. She also in her application mentioned things like as a minority, she wants to foster a culture of inclusivity in our schools, which we all thought was so important She has a relationship with students of all ages because she's been a science fair mentor at Captain Elementary, right? So she has a relationship with elementary students. Some of the other things that she's been involved with are speech and debate, Science Olympiad, Tri-M, which is the volunteer music organization, and she was on the library renovation committee as well. But we just really appreciated that she wants to make sure All students' voices are heard. And she also gave us great examples of when she has advocated for some groups in our schools that she felt were treated unfairly and really appreciated that as well. Because as we know, what's most important for the student rep is to advocate for all students, but also come here and represent all students' voices at the board table. So thank you, Mohini. Welcome. And we're all looking forward to working with you. Thanks.

All right. So today, as you all know, we're going to be talking about the budget. I can safely say that the students trust John 100% with the budget. So instead, I'm going to talk a little bit about sort of the end of the year for students and just some of the things that I and some other students have observed. So at the end of the school year this year, something that I really started to notice is that in a lot of classes, like the last two or three weeks of school, we really just aren't really doing much. I see this especially in the sort of older AP classes where you've already taken your AP tests. And it begins to almost feel like you're just coming to school, sitting in a room basically all day and not really getting much done. I mean, I don't want to be critical because obviously we have accomplished the things we need to accomplish. And I'm not here to criticize anyone. All I'm saying is I think this is a really good opportunity to sort of try and bring in some of these... Empowered learning initiatives that we've been talking about because I feel like these last two weeks of school Especially in higher level classes is a really good time to experiment with new things To let kids dive deep into things they're interested in and try these new Types of learning when you know no longer do you have to teach for an AP test or something?

I Think that's a good idea Does anybody have any?

Yeah, I do. That's very thoughtful, and I appreciate your commentary because some students wouldn't even offer that kind of feedback. So I think that's a good idea to be able to offer more, something off the record, but allow these kids to go deeper into different subjects and really have the autonomy to be free in the conversation. That's actually a good idea. Thank you for that. I appreciate that.

Awesome. Okay. Well, Carter, we are certainly going to miss you. You have been outstanding. And on behalf of the board, I thank you for all your hard work and dedication and commitment and being here and staying late. You've done a fantastic job, and welcome, Mohini. We are very excited to have you.

And thank you all for this opportunity. I've absolutely loved this year. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm excited to see what happens next year.

Yeah, hard to follow up.

Good evening, everyone. I'm here tonight to present the budget to you in hopes that you'll adopt it. And before I begin, I'd like to express appreciation to all the people that contributed to the process this year. Staff throughout the district made their requests for evaluation, and we were able to include virtually everything that was requested. The budget itself was in the agenda in electronic form. You may have had a chance to read it. It's also been put in front of you tonight in paper form. When I presented at the last meeting of preliminary budget, I indicated there'd be some change and there has been. It's not material, but we did refine some of our revenue estimates and some of our expenditure estimates. And they're not material again, but they are slightly different. I'm gonna make a presentation and some of it looks very familiar as to what you saw the last meeting. But from a fiduciary responsibility that I have to you, I need to cover some of those things as well. So from opening thoughts, my main point on this page is that the budget is ready for your approval. Everything else on that, every other thought I have there I've already expressed to you previously. The budget process is a year-round effort. I explained that last time, and we take every one of these steps seriously as we consider and monitor the district finances. Highlights, the budget is balanced, and we're pleased that this organization is able to do that. We have the resources we need to cover the expenses we have. Strategic plan alignment. This is a really critical thing in our budget this year and will be going forward as we seek to connect what our Strategic plan is and how we're investing money and making those connections So this is a general slide to that And you can see the alignments to each goal and the investments we've made. Within the document, toward the rear of the document, you will find these items with costed out. We've indicated the investments we're making around each one of these entries here. So all three goals are represented. I went over this slide a little bit the last time, how we... are designing or seeking to design allocations of budget towards student needs and distribute that equitably across the buildings especially across the elementaries. You'll find seven different views of the budget here and it's something where it starts out views one and two very much high level snapshots And then you can drill down through the other views in more detail. Hopefully we meet you where your level of interest lies. So one and two are very snapshots. Three is a little bit of an expanded snapshot. Four and five get into the detail of the revenue, and six and seven the detail of the expenditures. And if you look at the prior year data in five and seven, you'll see some of the data trends that we that are evident for this district. I'll just go over about four slides with you. This is a revenue snapshot. It shows the revenues by funds. You can see in that first line our local property taxes make up approximately 80% of what we take in, but our total revenues for next year are projected at $78.25 million. This is the first expenditure snapshot. In this view, we're looking and displaying salaries, benefits, services, supplies, capital outlay. See the investments we're making in each of those categories by fund. Total expenditures are projected at $75.4 million. If we slice that a different way, looking at instructional support and what says non-instructional, it's really community investments. uh... you can see same expenditures same total is sliced a different way and finally in our fund balances we're expecting our fund balances to grow next year To approximately 49 million when I say that number that's at June 30 year-end We need higher balance. We need levels of balance at that point real a cash flow the organization through When we received new tax receipts in December This is not an unreasonable sum for us at this point in our history. I Closing thoughts. I'd like to say that our budget supports the strategic plan with intentionality, that our financial health remains strong, and at the best evidence of our financial responsibility or financial stability is our AAA bond rating. We're one of four districts in the state that have that. And there's a lot that goes into maintaining that rating. With that, I'll take any questions or comments. My last comment is I recommend your approval.

Yeah, I have a question. Yeah, just a quick question. So the detailed expenditures. Yes, sir. It's a lot of expenditures. I was wondering, is there any way to consolidate that into groups? It was some of the same thing, but just obviously at different points In the Excel sheet. And so for me, is there a way to group those together and then be able to see what the cost of those items were? Or is it better just to do it the way you had it?

I mean, I can get more detailed. No, no, no, no. Less detail. Or

detailed, but just consolidated and grouped together.

We can group it. So many ways. Okay. And if there's a grouping that makes sense to you or speaks to you in a different way, I'd be happy to produce that.

Okay. We'll

chat

about that. It's not that big of a deal. It's just hard to read. It's a lot of numbers. A lot of numbers. And then... I do appreciate the comparisons, that's what I wanted to say. I appreciate the comparison between last year and this year. That's what I think I need most is being able to see what the growth was in our revenue, for example, from this year to last year. That was

in expenditures. You see some inflationary growth this year in our expenditures, services and supplies, utilities for sure. You see some growth in our pay because of our new pay schedules. Sure. Some of the change in budget is a little deceptive because we're trying to move budget closer to where we anticipate actual to be. So that movement of that margin may show, you may think there's growth there when there isn't as much growth. It's really our effort to... move budget closer to where we expect it to end up. So we're always going to be conservative on that and have numbers that we believe are attainable, but the margin between actual and that is we're shrinking that down a little bit. Okay.

Well, thank you very much. Appreciate it, John.

Anybody else?

Yeah, so John, thanks for preparing this. I just want to say I really like the viewpoint or the budget as John put it together here. It's different than what the board has seen before from previous years when Mary Jo was here. He has also rewritten the entire kind of intro, so it's worth taking the time to read through that. The kind of double click that you can go from view one to view two to view seven So Jason, to answer a little bit of your question, I think if you looked at view one, you'd have that consolidated. Then if you were looking for more detail, you could go into those six additional views. I think one of the things that's really great about to focus the board's attention on, less from a, if you trust that, and I do, and by the way, I trust that the finance and accounting team here is meeting all of the legal requirements needed in terms of general accounting standards and all the rest of it. But in addition to that, Jason and I met with John last week to kind of go through a detailed rundown of the budget so you can also trust that The board also has some oversight over what's happening there, too. But one of the things that I thought was really a nice viewpoint for the board and for the community is the expenditures associated with the goals. So there's a page in the back. And if you add those up, it's just a sign of $3 million there. And that's kind of expenditure above and beyond, I would say, what ordinary course of business is, which is the other stuff that's there. The other thing that I would just comment for, more of the community than anything else, is it is an increase in our budget year over year. A lot of that is attributed to salary increases that we gave teachers and administrators kind of across the board in order to respond to the inflationary environment that we're all living in. And that's consistent with what our experience has been in the private sector as well. So if the community is looking for, wow, that seems like a Kind of a bigger jump than we've seen in the past the the salary increases are a large part of that and then the only other thing that I would add again more for People who don't want to go through the entire thing Is that we did ask John if you look at the capital expenditures? We don't have any big capital projects in here for next year, but nor do we have any deferred you know large capital maintenance that that we're deferring because we can't afford to fix it or anything else. We are kind of up to speed and current with where we should be with respect to spending on capital, either for maintenance or investment purposes, which I think is a good thing. And we're doing some great things that have already been budgeted for this year, some of which we'll carry over into next year, like the improvements at Gate Field, and you hear about an approval for resurfacing expenditures that that will help to, you know, just make the district that much better next year.

So,

one MSJ. Quick

question for you though. When we think about the budget, we think about payroll, for example. Do we have a percentage target of what we want our payroll expense to be annually? When I'm doing my financials for business, I'm thinking it should be an X percent. If I go outside of that, I might be entering into a red zone. We

certainly monitor that, and some people want to chase that as a percentage of... Operating expenditures. I prefer to choose it as a monitored as a percentage of operating revenue And in this district it's somewhere between 80 and 84 percent probably We're below that level presently 80, 79%, what do you think? We're below 80 a little bit. Very comfortable position for us to be in. We had revenue growth this year and we had expenditure growth, salary growth this year. So they both grew nicely and it's keeping that percentage at a nice point.

Yeah, I think we can add that one detail in there just because that's the biggest expense we have

Absolutely. Yeah,

you know that percentage what our target is and where we are and

I haven't said it as an exact target But it certainly we're monitoring it

Thank You John, I appreciate it Kim Jason anyone else wanna

Well, I'll just, I'll add my thanks to John, not only for his leadership and pulling this together, but also for his financial leadership throughout the year. And we're just, you know, we're grateful to have you here. I agree with everything Kim said. And I think this, you know, I really appreciate the call outs for where we're investing to improve the experience of our students here at the district. So I appreciate that. um just as i'll leave this as sort of a cliffhanger for next year i guess right you gotta have something at the season finale uh if you look at the the the the number of students for the gr this graduating class the class that just graduated a couple weeks ago where they entered it kindergarten they had 141 students in kindergarten this year's kindergarten class had 111. that's a 21 drop right and that's the trend right that we are declining, that our student population is declining. And so I think it's something that we want the Long Range Financial Advisory Committee to be looking at, but just for this board, you know, over the course of the next one to two years, I think it's probably something that we should start to pay attention to and come up with some good solutions for before it's actually an issue, right? So stay tuned for next year, I guess, but that's my comment.

Is that indicative of years past and what's happening now, like five years later? Like if we're talking about kindergarten and when they're in fifth grade, does it also have that same correlation of drop, of percentage drop? And somewhere ballpark, it does.

Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, we have a certain amount of attrition in and out of the district every year. But the enrollment in kindergarten is usually a good barometer for what your enrollment looks like throughout the full course of the 12 years, 13 years in the district. So it's a trend that John has been aware of. It's something that. you know, we've been taking a look at and something that we'd like to take a harder look at next year just to start to have the discussion about what that should mean as far as resources for the future, I mean, and investments for the future. It's just, it's a good thing so that we're not caught off guard as a board or as a district five, six years from now when you're wondering why, you know, Should we really have a class that maybe only has five students enrolled in

it? Historically, kindergarten has been the smallest grouping of a cohort. We tend to grow into first grade and then we tend to grow after sixth grade with an influx of students. There's no doubt that overall our enrollment is shrinking. Lots of districts in the region are shrinking. Lower birth rates are at play here in that. So I think from a trend analysis, it's probably going to continue for a while. And it warrants a discussion for sure.

I mean, there's a reason our football programs are merging, right?

Yeah,

for sure.

I just wanted to thank you from a non-financially budget savvy person for those first six to eight pages. Just listing highlights was so great for me to read through because it just gave me such a great overall big picture. And also, I really appreciate, thank you for the different views that you set up, like being able to look by fund or by whatever all those choices were. was also really helpful so thank you for how you've organized it and simplified it and made it understandable even for me thank you john

thanks john not to keep piling on the praise but definitely appreciate this introductory section and i will just say this is a really good explanation of the way school district finances work and i think it's very valuable for all of us to read it over and over again for the public and for everybody that is interested in this to read this. I think this really helps us understand what we do with this money better, so thanks for taking the effort. It's much harder to make things shorter and concise and simple than to make things dense and hard to understand. So thank you for that. I think even just down to the explanation of what do the different funds do? We talked about these funds, but let's make sure we all know what we're talking about. Like, I forget all the time, like, what's what. So I think that's really helpful. I would love to talk a little bit about the revenue growth and the expenditure growth, if you don't mind. I mean, the first thing I think that's helpful to point out is that we're expecting revenue growth that's a lot more than the expense growth that we have in here, and that's a really positive thing. But we know we have some constraints in terms of revenue that we can take, in terms of the Hancock Amendment and stuff like that. Can you talk through how you come up with that projection of what that is and the different components of that? I'm not sure if it makes sense to break down which parts make up what part of the total, but

Our district is very much property tax supported to a high level, and property taxes in Missouri go through a cycle of a reassessment in odd-numbered years. So this year being the 23-24 budget, at 23, that odd-numbered year is due to reassessment. And we see growth in reassessment because market values in property have risen. And under the law, we have to assess values rise, rates have to come down. The statute allows for some growth in CPI. We haven't seen CPI factors more than a very minimal amount for a decade. This year it's projected at 5%, which is the cap. We can't take more than that. So allowing for that growth 5% enables us to capture some growth that we haven't seen for many years. Next year, a year from now, the 24-25 year, will not be a reassessment year. And typically, due to challenges to assessments, we see that roll back a little bit. So our revenue typically from property taxes lurches forward and then falls back a little bit, lurches forward, falls back. It goes like that year after year. So this is the year when it kind of lurches ahead and we pick up some gains, and we're picking up gains we haven't normally seen. Later, as the year starts, come September, we'll be dealing with setting property tax rates, and we'll go through a whole new set of calculations to do that. By then, assessed values will have changed a little bit because there's a whole board of equalization process that will moderate some of this data. We'll still probably pick up the 5%. We may not pick as much up on new construction in that process, lose a hair, but we've built some margin into these numbers. I think when that conversation comes around, you're probably gonna feel some community pressure around rates and we'll undoubtedly have some discussions about those rates and whether they should stay where they're at or whether any kind of Moderation or rollback of that is warranted So we've tried to factor that in and I've already you know, I'm spending I have thoughts about that then we can discuss at that point in time, but There's good and bad what I like about the property tax sources We receive is the money is generated locally. It stays local and it's spent local it doesn't go through the state and get some fees and costs shaved off of it before it comes back to us. So I think there's a lot of value in the way we're funded. It has its pros and cons, but it's a very solid resource for this district.

Do you – is the number that you've – and I know it's projections, and you're doing some things that are not entirely precise and taking some of those things into account. But the 6.15 projected increase, that takes into account both the 5% and the maximum assessed value as well as new construction and things like that. Is that right?

It takes in – and when you're doing that, you're – It takes in, at 5% CPI, it takes in the fact of new construction and it also takes in the fact the way we determine estimates. We're playing them a little bit closer to reality than we're a little less conservative. Still conservative but not as conservative as you may have seen in the past.

It also takes into account like interest on the funds of the bank and other things like that. So I think one of the important points that John just made, which the board should be prepared to have these discussions with community members, and we'll talk more about it when we reconvene next year, is the fact that because there is this expected increase in revenues that we haven't seen in so long because of CPI and inflation and whatnot, I would expect that all of us will get questions about, well, then why aren't you giving some of our taxes back? Not to put too fine a point on it, but that's exactly what John was alluding to. And if you get that question, we need to talk about what our response to that is going to be, if we're going to consider doing that. Those are the types of things that I would expect you'll see on the agenda for finance for next year, or on our agenda.

So... And I'm going along with that conversation, not to jump into it too much. I think it is important for everyone to think about this these limits that we have under the Hancock Amendment. We're talking about 5% now for the first time, like, ever. So it's usually way less than what we're allowed to take in terms of the growth and the value, and that needs to be part of what is considered in responding to something that happens in one particular assessment cycle. Exactly.

We could get a 5% CPI a year from now in a non-reassessment year, but there's no growth in the assessed value, so there's nothing to capture. I say, well, you can capture five, but there's nothing to catch. So 5%, while it's probably the strongest number we've seen in more than a decade, maybe even 14 or 15 years, it really has to be averaged over a two-year period of time. So it looks more like 2.5% is what it really looks like, plus the growth from new construction. So that's about really where it's at.

All of this, I think, reinforces the point that the better able we are to understand and to explain our finances, that's just to everyone's benefit. So again, thank you for your help in that.

I'm just going to echo. Thank you very much for this. It was really helpful to go through. I do want to highlight again what you highlighted, which was that last section where it shows how our expenditures are really meeting our strategic goals and our profile of the graduate, et cetera. And I just want to make sure, and this is kind of a question, this document I know is public on board docs. you know, the public can go and actually read the same document that we're holding in our hands. And it stays there for an extended period of time, I know that, for several years. Forever,

yeah.

Is that right? Okay. And yet, you know, that still doesn't mean all of the public will be able to know where to go to get this information. Again, because next year there's going to be questions coming, I love the idea of the not just to the full document, but especially to that document, that list of all these amazing things, you know, the security care, all these things that we're doing that are really aligned with what we know the public is very interested in making sure happens for our community. So I just want to know if there's a way for us to highlight that, you know, somewhere on our website or if you guys think this is necessary. But I just wonder if there's a we really can help the public to know where they can go to see really good concrete examples of what we're doing with this, you know, their tax dollars.

We archive the budgets and the audits on the website as well. I mean, you can find them on BoardDocs. You can find them in our website. Got it. But I'll work with Luke to see if we can't highlight that in some newsworthy way. Yeah,

I just think for the average parent, this is stuff that they can really see. Oh, that makes me feel better. Oh, okay. You know, just again, it's not that hard of a thing to do and it could really go a long ways for helping, you know, community members feel good about, you know, where we're spending our money. Thank you. One last question.

I know before we talked about... expenditures and having a process that the teachers have to go through, principal have to go through when they request stuff. Has that process been flushed out? Do we have a process for when people ask?

You

know because I want to make sure you know Once again, I think my waist like we could have these things already somewhere stored But then we're it's not accessible to the teacher of the principal. They don't know where it is They put in a request and is there ever a no? You know if they ever know you can't get that we're gonna turn you down or is you know So that's one of the process. Oh, you need to tell what the process right now, but we do have a process. Yeah, right

and Absolutely. Each teacher has a process, and it's based on the building. And then John redid the process in terms of budgeting for the following year and how they do

that. Meaning there's a certain amount that we're... Yes. That's the... Allocated. It's

not like it's NASA's wish list. Correct.

Because I think before, I think there was... Like a yes to almost everything. I just want to make sure. Yeah,

so the way that John described it to Jason and I was this year, and John, you can add detail to this, but is that he basically proposed a budget based on historical expenditures for each department and then gave them an opportunity to say yes or no to that or come back with other items they may need. But it kind of gave them a cap under which to operate. And so that helps to, you know, again, prevent the unlimited kind of wish list things. Although I will say in general, I think our teachers are pretty conservative about their wants and needs here. not that they lack for much here anyway. But

did I get that right? That's all true. We also, all year long, are monitoring everything that comes through the system. And if we're seeing duplicates or we see things that could be done differently, we guide people to hopefully make a better choice on those items. So it's a full-year thing where we're monitoring how people are making purchases.

Gotcha. I'm just thinking of a fiscal responsibility approach to how we administer our cash flow for different expenses. So that's good to hear because I don't think that was articulated to us in the past. So I appreciate you putting those things into play.

Most of that was in play already, but we obviously have conversations around that regularly about how to manage through that. We don't maintain a lot of inventory of things. We typically buy on an as-needed basis. But again, when we see something that can be bought, equivalent product at a better price, we typically guide people towards that. Gotcha. All

right.

Thank you very much, John. Appreciate it.

Carter? Mohini? Okay. Okay. Thank you very much, appreciate it. We are gonna move on to our action items. So we're at 6.01. I'm sorry, 6.0. We need to approve the budget. 6.01.

I move that the Board of Education approve the 2023-2024 budget as presented.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions? Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. All right, now we are on 6.02.

And I move that the board of education adopt policy BDDB2 Agendas with the recommended change.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? 6.03. I move that

the Board of Education adopt policy BDDH1, public participation at board meetings with the recommended changes.

Second. It has been moved and second. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? 6.04.

I move that the Board of Education adopt policy KC, community involvement in decision making with the recommended changes.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Are there questions? All in favor? Any opposed? 6 .05.

I move that the Board of Education approve policy JECA1 with the proposed changes.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the last one.

6.06, I think. Yes. I move that the board of education approve the resolution regarding revised board policy JECA-1.

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

favor? So wait, I do have one. This isn't the second reading of this, but this is basically a response to us passing the new rules under eligibility to enroll. And so just so the community is aware, it's probably important just to note that if you do not meet the current eligibility and requirements that we just passed, but you're already in the district that you are grandfathered in and that's what this policy is meant to do.

This isn't actually a specific policy. We're just making an action in response to

the policy. Okay. Thanks for that clarification, Counselor.

So we're passing a resolution.

Resolution.

So all in favor? Aye. Well,

I have a question.

Yes.

This is our second reading of the JECA dashboard?

Yeah. We didn't read

it. Three weeks ago. Yeah. You didn't read everything.

It was the one where, yeah, there was the new tuition state law.

It was the meeting that we had like 20

months. Yeah.

Right. It was a huge number.

Sorry. Thank you very much, Jason Growe. Just, I know we just, we already passed the eligibility in 6.5, but like, it was a bit convoluted when I was reading it. I mean, or, it just seemed like it was a lot. I mean, I...

Sorry. Thank you very much, Jason Groh. Just, I know we just, we already passed the eligibility in 6.5, but like, it was a bit convoluted when I was reading it. I mean, or, it just seemed like it was a lot. I mean, I...

Which one? 6.5.

It just seems like there's a lot of... You know, you can't... You're not a resident at this, but you could be if you're there, but if you got a mom and dad, you're cool. But if you don't have a mom and dad but an Army guy, you know, you're in the game. But if you know no parent, know nothing... You can enroll in school. And so it just seemed a little bit, you know. Like you came out of the misery. Yeah. Because it did. Right. Sustainable. But then here's the exception, though. If your parents own some farmland and you're on the trust. then you can go to school in that district. And that was odd.

So

I'm just saying.

Think about our legislature.

I'm just saying, so I know that we've discussed this already, but these kind of policies, I mean, I don't always just want to accept these things. Sometimes I do want to push back. I want them to know that there's someone down here in the urban area that's like, yo, this is some BS. You're making a true exception, Greg, a very small amount of people. A small community of folk, meaning it's a big land, but it's smaller communities. And so it just seems kind of odd that we're having to be subjected to pass these types of things, to agree to these things. Does that make sense? Does anyone disagree at all? Am I just talking to be talking? I can't be.

No, I

think that... You have to remember it does come from the legislature. It's like they're not really choosing this. Yeah, because

as a public school district we have to comply with the

Missouri law. But what if we didn't accept that? Well, we would probably lose our funding. We would lose

funding.

Well,

one thing too with this policy or this law change, I mean not to get to whatever philosophical about it is it's a change to say you can no longer grant resident status based on ownership of property but not residents so i don't know that that would be entirely controversial to everyone anyway i mean there probably are people that would i mean There are things that I've disagreed with a lot more in the legislature than this. But that is what they said, that we're going to change that so that you can't do that. Right. I mean, they're giving us, I mean, we have the ability to kind of grandfather people on it until it's over.

So this is a workaround from what they wanted to do, right? For our current students. Well, I mean a workaround from Like kids can pretty much go to school anywhere. What was the what was the bill with the policy early on we talked about? I Can't think it didn't pass but but like they're like, oh open enrollment. Yes. Thank you. Yeah Right didn't pass But this is kind of us, you know a microcosm of that and a workaround where next thing you know, we start doing these little bits of things. And next thing you know it's, you know, we got that bill passed, that policy passed. So that's how I read it from a political lens. Go

ahead. We've always though just to clarify that had tax credit students like students that own property in Clayton are able to pay the difference taxes to attend our school tax what is it called tax credit tuition right that was right anyway so we've always done that here

which i don't think people would universally say is the right thing to do right so It won't be that way in the future once all these kids graduate. Right. Once they change the law again. But, again,

what's important is if your kids are going to school here now. Now, their grandfather did. They will continue to come. From the school district of Clayton. Right. That's right. That is correct.

Yeah. Not the

policy itself.

Right, right. Like I said, stop me from talking too much. I just wanted to bring that up and make sure we were reading it from the same lens. So, all right. Thank you, Amy. I appreciate that, the time. Of

course.

You're back. All

right, so is everybody in favor of this board resolution? Yes. Yes, okay. Yes. All right, great. And then we have... April financial report It's on here. We have anything on that John, okay Just the disbursement report Okay,

so 7.0 I think Ron 7.0 I move that the Board of Education approved April 2023 disbursements in the sum of $1,947,963.24. Second. It's been

moved and seconded. Questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We are moving on to the consent agenda before we do that. I would like to thank a few donations that we've received. First, Clayton Girls Soccer, Clayton Girls and Sports Booster Club for a very generous donation towards the girls track and field hurdles purchase. Michelle Goldman and Michael Goldman who donated in memory of Martha Goldman, former literacy teacher to be used for the CARE fund. Miss Heidi Miller for a generous donation to the high school band program and Clay Co for a generous donation To the high school robotics club. So thank you to all those donated

All right,

so we are now on so let's do the consent agenda I

I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda for Agenda Items 8.02 through 8.13.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Board Communications. uh... clean education foundation

We could tag team. That's kind of how we did the meeting, right? So Jason and I had to kind of like split time at the meeting of the CEF last night. And the time that I was there was a great meeting. I don't know what happened after I left. But Dr. Patel led the group through a process of similar to strategic planning and kind of reassessment of some of the goals and the mission of the organization. And It went great while I was there. So,

Jason? Yeah, I think it – so thanks to Dr. Patel for leading a great meeting. I think at least for the time that I've been going to these meetings, I think it was the first time that the group really was able to give themselves the space to think more broadly about what their mission is and why they exist and what they could be doing beyond what they do today. And so there's a lot of wood to chop there, but the more wood – the more wood you chop, the more we'll be able to benefit the students. So

anyway,

so I thought that was, I thought it was good. I guess that's it. So

that works. Um, financial advisory. Sure.

We reported on it last time.

Okay. Is there anything else? Go

ahead. Well, Chris and Gary and Nisha could chime in too. So Chris, Gary, Nisha, and I attended on Saturday morning the St. Louis School Board's PLC event, which was great. It was a good turnout. So just so everyone knows, the districts that are included and invited to that are all the districts in St. Louis County, St. Louis City Schools, St. Charles County, and Jefferson County. I think that covers it. Nisha and I are actually on the planning committee for these events. And I always feel very inspired to take action leaving these events. It's really great to hear from other school boards in our region about what they're doing and for them to hear from us about great things we're doing. And we focused a lot on legislation in this one. And I think a general consensus with what we came away with was we should regionally be banding together to do things because individual districts lobbying in their own ways individually is probably not strong enough as we would be as a collective. So we had lots of discussions about moving forward, how to do that as a larger group and how to contact legislators as a larger group, and even going to Jeff City as a larger group Legislative advocacy day through MSBA because that's almost too late, right? So We were really talking about action we can take in the future together and more regular meetings Maybe it'd be on zoom or whatever and meetings with legislators and ed plus is always great They come and give an update and ideas for action and advocacy so that's What you know part of what they do so it was great to hear from them we also had some breakout groups in different areas like equity, SEL, student empowerment maybe, and... early childhood, oh and college and career readiness. And so it's great in those areas too to hear what other districts are doing and share what we're doing. I happened to go to the SEL breakout room and the districts loved to hear about our wellness center and ideas for that. And so it just fun to share ideas. We did a lot of talking also about student board reps. Not all districts, I don't remember how many there have a student board rep. Yeah maybe like half. For example, we were at Afton Middle School this time, one of their middle schools, and they're very interested in getting this going. So I shared some of our information with them because I think it's great to share and to learn from each other. So I don't know if Chris or Gary or Nisha want to comment on it further, but I think the next one will be in the fall-winter. They try to do these big ones twice a year. Joe Miller is still in charge of organizing it, even in his role in New City. So he does a great job.

Yeah, one thing that I was really just struck by is the level of leadership regionally between, I mean, some board members, some superintendents, like the people that were on the panel and that were speaking and kind of leading these breakout groups. It's really impressive the talent and the leadership that It's present in those groups and it shouldn't be surprising. It's not surprising, but it's always like a good reminder of that. And I do think it's grown in terms of people's involvement over the years since this started. So yeah, so that was great.

Thank you for that. That was really well said. You covered basically everything. I'll just add quickly that it was really cool to in that room of other educators and board members who were just as concerned and um just as anxious to be a part of making sure that we work together and really make our voices heard we aren't the only district that's concerned about these bills that are coming through and it's really nice to be around other people who have our same um goals in mind and really the overwhelming theme is always you know we want public education to continue to thrive and there are like you said so many talented wonderful educators in our counties adjacent counties etc in the city that also want that and are energized so i feel like it's really great for us to know that we are a part of something bigger and to really take advantage of that because it's really the only way that we're going to continue to make progress and make sure that our students are getting the things that we know as educators, not as legislators up here. We know we're on the ground, our teachers know, our administrators know really what we need versus those legislators that are not there. So that's a very exciting thing for us to think about how we can continue to utilize that energy and the numbers, the numbers are so important. And then the second thing I'll say is in my breakout room, I went to the equity breakout room and I have to say that I'm just so thrilled with what our district is doing in that area a lot of what was discussed in that room you know was the things that I was talking about that we do they were saying that they hadn't done or that they wanted to do but just weren't aware of how to do so again I feel really great about where our district is on that specific thing as well as so many others but I'm just proud of us I feel like you know, we are being the leaders that I know we can and should be. And I was really proud to be able to let the other folks in that room know about our initiatives and where we're at and to know how important it is to their districts as well. You know, we talked a lot about how now in Missouri, given, you know, the legislators that we have, you know, DEI, equity, all these things are now these, you know, taboo words we're not supposed to use. And Everyone in that room said, nope, we're still using those words and they're still important to us and we're not gonna back down from our efforts in that area. We're gonna continue to go forward. And that just feels good. We're not the only ones that care and that see why we're doing these things in our schools. And again, we're doing an excellent job. So a big pat on the back to Nisha and to her team for doing such a great job in that area.

I agree.

There was also a parks and rec meeting this week, if you want to hear about that. Not anything groundbreaking. Parks are good. Rec's good. Skate rink back on? I wouldn't bet on that. Any ice rink updates? Ice rink. No ice rink update this month. Lots of pickleball. They're managing the big topic over the last several months has been lifeguard shortage and what that means for lap swimmers and less lap swimming time, but Tony has a good plan to manage that through, get as much out of the swimming in laps time as possible through the summer and early fall. Yeah, that's it. I didn't bring my notes, but that's about it, I think. Okay.

It would be a shame to end this meet without saying congratulations to the girls' soccer team. That's all I wanted to say.

You just saved it. I just have that now.

And it's been just awesome the past couple years to see how the athletic program has grown and that the community has really started to rally around all the various teams. And so hats off. Yeah, boys tennis won the state championship. Boys baseball won districts. Yeah, so hats off to Mr. Hudson. And, you know, it's really exciting to

see. We got a link to buy state championship merchandise today, right? Oh, yeah. That's pretty amazing.

but i agree but i thank you for not only mentioning that but for mentioning steve specifically because i do think it's amazing in the short amount of time that he's been in that position what he's done for not just our athletics programs but the school spirit around it which was sorely lacking in this district and at our school and like you said kudos to him because i think the whole community's been rallying around these teams and it's fun i went to the baseball sectionals game in festus and it was like we had just as big of a turnout and it was really amazing congrats to carter winning districts um it was just great to see because it was a home game for them and we knew they would show up in droves and there were a lot of clayton fans at that festus game

yeah that is great um all right well before this is our last meeting of this school year. So before we end, I want to thank the board for showing up this year and doing a terrific job. I realize it is not always easy. And I appreciate every one of you for your dedication and your commitment to the board and the school district. And to admin, I thank you for putting up with the board. and most importantly to the teachers who are the glue and hold this whole thing together and take care of our children and teach them and love them and nurture them. So I hope everybody has a wonderful summer, and I look forward to seeing everybody back in August sometime. Be safe. All right, so let's have a motion to adjourn.

Is that the Board of Education adjourned?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?