February 23, 2022 — Meeting Transcript

at it. Okay, we're

live. Okay,

good. All right. Good evening, everybody. Good to see everybody virtually. It is Wednesday, February 23rd. Adequate notice has been given and we will go ahead and start by seeing the Pledge of Allegiance. All right. All right. Okay, should we stand? Okay.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, great. So I believe we are going to start with recognizing our own, James and LaDonna Sutherland. Are they here? I

believe they are. Chris, would you let them in?

Yeah, they are in.

Oh, okay.

We'll have them start. We'll see if we can start the video here real quick.

Okay. So while we're getting them situated, tonight it's my honor to be recognizing James and LaDonna Sutherland. We've been trying to get them here for quite a few board meetings and they've had basketball games scheduled. And so we finally have the opportunity to recognize them today. So I am so excited to have both of you here today. Even though it's virtual, I was hoping you'd be in person, but we will make it happen because your schedules are busier than our schedules. So their journey actually started 17 years ago in Clayton. James happened to be at a basketball game and he watched and he noticed that we didn't have an announcer that night. So he went up to the AD and said, how about I volunteer and announce for the game for you? James actually has a degree in communications from Missouri Baptist with an interest in broadcasting. So why not do that, right? So he went up to the AD. The AD said, absolutely, and the rest is history. He has been announcing our basketball games, boys and girls, every single game. LaDonna has been for a while, she actually used to sit in the bleachers with the parents and cheer on our kids and the games when James was announcing. they both have five children that all graduated from Clayton high school. And so it ended up becoming a family affair where their children would also help with like keeping the clock, keeping the stats, et cetera. And then once they left to go to college, LaDonna stepped in and ever since then she has been keeping the stats for us for all of our games. And here's the fun fact, right? James is actually a firefighter during the day for St. Louis city. LaDonna is a counselor, I believe at Parkway Northeast Middle School. And when the schedule for the season comes out for all the boys, think about that, all the boys and all the girls basketball games, James blocks out his work schedule so that he can volunteer and make sure he's at our games. And his colleagues help cover the shifts. And many times like James comes, does the announcing, which if you haven't heard him announce, he's phenomenal and goes back to work at night. So I, you know, they say it takes a village. These two individuals truly are amazing, amazing examples of dedication, commitment, and truly what gives our kids and our staff the Clayton experience. And I get to meet them every time I go to a game and they're just positive and energetic. And I can't say enough good things about you two. So you, I just want to thank you on behalf of everyone for your dedication time and just being amazing human beings. So I'm going to mute myself and allow you to say a few words, if you may, please, before we head on to the rest of the meeting.

Awesome. Thank you very much for your kind words. They mean a lot to us. It's a family. We've been doing the games for so long now. There are a few occasions where I've had to be out of town and miss a game. It's like you know, missing one of your own kids games. So I've really connected with kids. I'm like their biggest fan. So it just makes my job a whole lot of fun doing. I try to bring a college type atmosphere to our game. So when people come, they'll remember it and want to come back.

And it's been a pleasure. My pleasure. I enjoy doing it. I enjoy seeing the kids. I enjoy the kids getting enthusiastic about hearing their names called or coming up to the table saying, say this, say that, say this, so it's been exciting. Wouldn't change any years on it. I have enjoyed it and it is true. I am stalking him. He has pulled me along the way. She just

wanted to come be near the announcer guy.

We used to have Friday night dates in the stands. So I would watch him and then now I'm right next to him. So we enjoy it. We are glad for the opportunity to do it. We have enjoyed our experience at Clayton. All of our kids have graduated. So no problem. Always giving back. It's our service. We're happy to do it.

Yeah, we also want to make note of Steve Hudson and Tashaun Young. help make our jobs super easy. They're always there, anything we need. And they just do a great job of preparing and getting everything ready for us. Our clock keeper, David does an outstanding job. David Willie does an outstanding job too. So it's refreshing when the referees come over to our table and they say how they love coming to Clayton. So we, We try to make it as best a professional atmosphere for them and they really enjoy coming. So that means a lot to us. And actually this is year number 18, finishing up year number 18. It's hard to believe it's gone by that fast. We just had a coach from one of the other teams is a Clayton graduate. And now he's gone on, he's coaching and he's got a couple of kids starting to make us feel like we're getting a little old.

It's great to

see the kids come back.

Well, thank you so much. And you know what? They love being there. The referees love being there. Other students love being there because you create that atmosphere for them. So thank you again. Thank

you. Thank you very much. We certainly appreciate it.

You bet. And thank you for the great music you play also, by the way. Yes, Mr. DJ, he is. He is. Well, thankyou.

Thanks so much, guys, for your commitment to the district and spending time with us. I know that there's other things you could be doing at night together, and we appreciate you being with us and all of your hard work and dedication. It's very meaningful to us, so thank you both.

Okay, well, have a great rest of your evening, okay? Take care and be safe. Thank you guys. Thank you. Bye.

Thank you all.

Okay, so I think Dr. Patel, you're up.

Okay, thank you. So we will, Chris, if you don't mind pulling up the presentation, thank you so much. So I'll give the superintendent update at this point. We don't have a lot of different topics that we're going to cover. The main topic that I am going to be covering tonight is COVID. But before we do that, I do want to make an announcement in terms of there will not be a snow day decision made right now because I know I'm getting emails and texts from students. So just so you know, in case you're watching, we may have a lot of views tonight. So all of a sudden they might start dropping off. We'll wait till after the board meeting. And then also I want to say an early happy birthday to Stacey. I believe it's your birthday tomorrow. So happy birthday. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, so going into our presentation, I'm going to start off with some data that we always start off with with COVID. So as you can see right now, we don't have any staff members that are positive or quarantined. We do have three students that are positive with four students that are currently being excluded from school, which makes our positivity rate 0.09%. Again, the direction we wanted to go in and staffing has been completely different than it was a few weeks ago when we were in the middle of the surge with Omicron. Our next slide that we always show is the slide that shows you basically, and Chris, if you can change that for me, the positivity rate. There we go, thank you. Positivity rate, you could see January 7th when we were at a peak and now it's down to 8.3% positivity rate. Again, same direction we wanna go to. At the last board meeting, we were still in the high band and now we're getting closer and closer to the medium band, which is good news. And then the transmission rate slide gives you a similar view with the peak being around January 10th And now it's dropped down to 17.4 cases per 100,000. That's your daily new case rate for the county. Now, what that shows us when you look at all of that data is basically where are we headed with our mitigation plan? We've stayed true to the course. We've continued with all of our masking protocols. We've continued disinfecting, making sure that our kids are washing their hands, trying to social distance as much and more. But some of the things that I would like to talk about today is like trends and patterns is what we've continued to do. And Chris, if you can get to the next slide, please. Trends and patterns we've always looked at. And we've always said from the beginning of the school year that we'll look at everything per quarter. So once we know what our trends are in terms of data, positivity rate, transmission rate. We'll decide what we want to do in the next quarter and the next quarter. And moving into fourth quarter, we're trying to decide, okay, which direction are we headed based on the data? So we look at our vaccination rates. We look at our internal data, positivity rate transmission rate. And then we also take into account the county rate as well. individuals and entities that we look at for input. Yes, we've continued to listen to CDC and hear what their thoughts are. Our Department of Health and Senior Services, our local county health department. Remember every week since basically March of 2020, we have a weekly superintendents call where we're talking to each other about their community transmission rates. school community transmission rates, their mitigation plans. And then when we meet weekly, we also hear from the superintendent's health working group, which is made up of different physicians who also give us their thoughts. In addition, we have individual medical professionals that each superintendent talks to. In fact, this week, I just talked to two of them personally as well. And so as we look at all these different data points, we listen to different medical professionals We're looking at which direction we want to head into for the fourth quarter. And one of the things that we need to start having conversations around is moving towards mask recommended. So as of right now, and I want to be very clear on this part. As of right now, this is our best thinking. And Chris, if you can. So what we are thinking, and I put this in the email that we sent out to the community last week. is we're looking at after spring break, moving towards mask recommended. And when we say after spring break, there were some emails that have been trying to answer every parent's emails that I've been getting was they were, some people thought it was the day after spring break, which there was confusion in terms of if we expect a peak, why would you do it the very next day? And it would not be the very next day. It would be at least a week or two weeks after spring break so we can monitor what happens during spring break when students and parents may be traveling, et cetera. So we can monitor that. We would also set a threshold for every single building. 1.5% is the number we're looking at right now in terms of positivity rate. So if a building, for example, goes above 1.5% positivity rate for three consecutive days, we would go back to universal masking for two weeks. And then they have to go below 1.5% for three consecutive days again to go back to mask recommended. All of the universal masking would remain mandatory for our early childhood program and on buses that we've always been doing. In the early childhood, we say that because they're not eligible for vaccination yet. So again, all of this when we look at it is basically what we're thinking at the moment. We have talked to different physicians about this. They've given us their input on it. And in terms of the threshold, just so that people can understand the numbers, when you look at each building, here's a slide that kind of gives you an idea. So Clayton High School with students and staff, that's the number that they have. the 1.5 threshold would be, the magic number for them would be 16 in terms of positivity rate. And right now we have one. So if, for example, at Clayton, we hit 16 for three consecutive days, we would go back to mask required, universal masking. And let's say Miramac didn't hit the 1.5% threshold, they would continue to stay recommended. So what this allows us to do is really for the next five to six weeks, we're gonna monitor and also learn from other school districts. When I was talking to a physician just yesterday, even she said, she said, you know, we've had school districts who've already gone to mask recommended and they have not seen an uptick of cases from that. And what she actually said was it's good for us because we're gonna wait another six weeks to really see the effect of this from other school districts and learn from them. And so in between, and one thing we know from this pandemic is that things change constantly. So this gives us some time also to continue to monitor it. And again, this is just our current thinking right now. And what I'm also working with our lead nurse, Heather, and a couple other physicians is we're going to do about a week prior to spring break or two weeks prior to spring break We're hoping to get a couple of physicians and to do like a virtual Zoom town hall sort of meeting. So any parents or any teachers or staff members that have questions, we can directly have that conversation with them as well to help them with this. And I know that they're gonna be willing to do that. So we're gonna host one of those as well to clarify any questions that anyone may have and may wanna talk to them directly. And so that is what I just wanted to share tonight in terms of where we are with our plans and our thought process. Again, this is just our best thinking at the current moment, but I think it's time to at least begin to have these conversations. And so with that, I plan on sending out communication in another couple of weeks, just we can continue to monitor where things are, send out an email and then go to spring break, see how things are occurring and then come back. And then hopefully things continue to trend in the right direction. So that is all I have today. And now I'm going to hand it off to Itana.

Thank you. Can everyone hear me all right? I know my sound was a little, no. Yeah,

no, we can hear you.

Okay. So last week, I know I got to say that our girls swim team got first at conference and now they actually went to state. Sorry, can everyone hear me?

Yes.

OK. So they actually went to state this past weekend or this past, I think it was Thursday and Friday. And they took third at state and then got a lot of individual awards. Yeah, and I think they broke some records in there. I think there's a picture on the next slide. Yeah. And then our hockey team also made state this past Monday, I believe. So they haven't actually gone to state yet, but they won the game that they were qualified for state at. So they're going to be going to there soon. And then we also had two wrestlers who went to compete at state this past weekend and one actually got third place in his division. So yeah. Moving on to more of our like academic teams, you could say. So our teams, teams, sorry, lots of teams are going to be competing this Friday morning, weather permitting, at the Clayton High School. So it can't necessarily be like in person with all the other schools, but they're still going to be able to compete, you know, with a community of their friends and peers. And the speech and debate person had their, sorry, team had their first fully in-person tournament this past weekend at Marquette. So they've been having their like half in-person, half virtual tournaments where they can, you know, compete from school, but their competitors are, yeah, they're still like online. So they still have to do their rounds through Zoom, but they were all at Marquette this past weekend. So they got to see their competitors' faces and speech and debate in person. And then our Science Olympiad team took second place at regionals a couple Saturdays ago, as well as our Quizable team. They got first, second, and third at a couple WashU competitions this past weekend. And now lastly, we have, I want to say like an uptake in club involvement lately. So on this next slide, I put their Instagrams down there in the bottom right if you want to follow them. So we have this new thrift club. So the thrift club is focusing on going out and finding cool items to thrift and then selling them back to people at school so that they can raise money for some organization. And then the green club, which is one of the clubs that actually came through some of our like district advisory council focus groups that will hopefully be able to make some real changes with environmental problems and food waste throughout our schools. And we also have had some standardized testing lately. So I believe it was just the 8th graders, but I might be wrong on that. That took the NAEP yesterday. That's just like a standardized test. And this coming Wednesday, the sophomores are going to take the PSAT and the juniors are going to be taking the SAT and the 9th and 12th graders are just going to be having asynchronous learning days. And then we're going to hopefully start to resume our Captain Wydown District Advisory Council meeting soon. We kind of took a pause on that just because COVID was looking kind of bad. So we didn't want to, you know, put any of the younger students at risk. But I think in the coming weeks, we're going to try and go back and we can hopefully have more updates that are not just so, you know, high school oriented. And lastly, I just wanted to go over some of the things I've heard about, you know, the new mask rules around schools. So mostly I've heard that people are comfortable with going mask recommended and They are mostly worried about the spring break thing, but I think it's good that we're clearing up. That's not going to be just directly after spring break. It's going to be like a couple of weeks after spring break that we're going to be able to go mass recommended. And the other main thing that they're scared about is, you know, for the students that are immunocompromised or maybe teachers who have young kids at home or more situations like that, how we can like adapt for those students. So if we can maybe move seating charts around just to make everything more safe for those students. Yeah, so I have, thank you.

Thank you, Itana. That was great. I apologize for my dog barking in the background if you hear her. So I think we are going to move on to our high school library renovation. And Do we have Bond? Do we have the architects with us?

Yes, we should. Mary

Jo? I don't know if she's on here or not, but I can text her. Are we changing the order? No, this was first. Oh, I thought we had confirmed that athletics was first. Do

we... I apologize. No, I'm sorry. So athletics, we took that off the agenda for tonight. It'll be on our next meeting. We'll be talking about that. Mary Jo, I see Sue is on here. Hi, Sue.

Okay,

great.

Hi, everybody. There she is.

Awesome.

Are you ready for me to present?

Yes, we are. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for inviting me. And first off, let me apologize in advance if you hear barking. I did come home earlier today and doing what we can to occupy them, but never quite know. So is it okay for me to share my screen? Yes. Okay, can you see a floor plan? Yes. Okay, and let me know if you have questions while I'm presenting to make sure that you understand what I'm showing you. So this is a floor plan of the current library. Can you see my cursor as well? Okay, good. So the current entry to the library is here. The long hallway goes to the front entry to the campus and the school. You come in and there's an elevated section of the ceiling with some windows, clear story windows with the main service desk here. There are some rooms here used by IT as offices. This section of the area is the high density shelving. Then there's a staff area with a small kitchenette. The main open area of the library is here. with chairs and tables. And then there are three classroom spaces here facing south in the building. So I wanted to kind of get you oriented. We have two classrooms here on the east side. One, I believe is English and the other is an SSD office. Isn't that correct Mary Jo? Yeah.

Yes, the one towards the back is the SSD. Yeah, that one and the other one is a classroom.

There is a door here that goes into this classroom now and the door into this SSD room is here by the backstage and that'll come up in a little bit later. All of these dotted lines that show up here are walls that we're talking about being removed. So I wanted to get you oriented into the space first to kind of see that what we're talking about. We have met with several student groups, we've met with faculty and administrators, and we did some brainstorming sessions to talk about what does the library need to be? What do we like about it? What do we not like so much about it? What we learned that they like about it is that it's a very homey space A number of the students refer to it as the campus living room, that they like to come here and kind of be there with their friends and hang out. It gives them the opportunity to either be alone and thinking about their own work but still seeing what's going on or to be in groups with their friends or doing projects together. So it really is a special place for the school, and we want to make sure we maintain that kind of feeling and ownership that the students have. The things that don't work so well, we heard are some of the existing furniture. We understand that they're really sturdy but they're not terribly comfortable, the wood chairs and tables, that there's not a lot of comfortable seating. There was a lot of question about the high density shelving, how effective that was for storage because it's not very easy to browse through it right now. So let me show you next the plan that we are working with right now. So this is the same entry to the library. We are opening up that whole area and widening it so that when you look down that hallway, you actually can see into the library and see some light through there. Right now, it's a little bit harder to see that there's an important space like that. Then as you walk in, there's some areas of groupings of soft seating. This one we've placed underneath that elevated ceiling with the natural light. That seems to be a real draw for the students is to go someplace where there's daylight. And this area with the lounge seating gives you enough room for a whole classroom of students if they wanted to come in and do a project. Another alteration from the previous slide existing plan is looking at some offices over here for the library director and IT, and then an IT health desk. So students come in, they can just pop over here to a help desk and get updates or power charging, anything like that. And then these areas where we're seeing these bar shapes, that is the library shelving. All the shelving that's out in the space of the library, it floating shelving would be on casters so that if they needed to open up more floor space in the library, all of these can be moved to one side or kind of stacked up in a different area to give us more open space. Continuing on here, this area which is an office right now has some built-in storage along this wall. We're thinking about that being another classroom space and enclosed type classroom space. The biggest change you'll notice is the three classrooms that were on this end of the south end of the library have been removed. And what that's done for us is it's opened up this whole area to be collections, seating of different types, kind of a big open area for the library. Right now, the kind of open area is here, but now we've got sort of this much bigger open area and we've managed to capture classroom space in other areas of the library. We've got what we're calling the bread company like seating here with some booths here with tables and chairs, some high top kind of cafe height seating with some lower lounge seating in it. This shape here that shows up in different areas, those are whiteboards. That was something that the students commented on a lot was having a place where they can stop and start jotting down some ideas and kind of think through things while they're writing on a wall. Very analog, but also something we're seeing a lot in collegiate environments. And then instead of the larger classrooms, which were in this area, we've got smaller kind of study rooms, which is another thing in all the libraries we've worked on that is growing in popularity. It allows a student who might need a moment to go into space, even though it's observable, they could close the door, have quiet with, you know, take a bit of respite and kind of gather their thoughts in the middle of a busy day. Or maybe they need to just think through some things before they go into an exam or they might want to go in and practice talking about a presentation that they have. So these areas would have some acoustical separation. We're proposing doing different kinds of seating in those areas, some lounge, some more structured to allow students to use them in different ways. And these areas would also become equipped with technology so you can do group work sessions in there. And then over in this area, which has really the nicest day lighting, we would gather most of the tables and chairs here. And this would allow in this particular area a lot of the professional development activities that would happen. So these Ranges of shelving could be moved out of the way and about 50 people could be set up at tables and chairs in this area. And they could also use these lounge pieces as breakout areas. This area represents the service desk, the circulation desk for the staff. We placed it here. We looked at different places. We've settled on this location because it's close to this gathering area, so they have good visibility into just about every corner of the library. It's also visible as people are coming into the library, so if they need help, they know where to go. But right now, the desk is in this section where those classrooms are, there's a limited visibility over to this corner. So that's what we're seeing as an improvement there and closer to the staff support areas as well. And then this lounge section over here has a feature wall where we're including right now a electronic fireplace. So it would be kind of a focal point, a gathering place against this wall. On this wall would be a large format monitor that you could use for presentations. Mary Jo, did I miss anything?

No, and I want to apologize because I was a little distracted trying to get you on. So this is Sue Prishnagy, and she's the lead architect on this with Bond and specializing in the libraries. And she's also been working with Andrea Giovando and Eric Wilson on this. Andrea's the... what do you call it?

The interior designer.

The interior designer and Eric's doing more of the mechanical stuff. So I apologize for not introducing properly, but yeah. And I guess, and I don't know if on the last part, did you talk about the digital display on the wall next to the right

there? Okay. Right there. So that would be a really, is it 59 inch or larger? 95. 95. I got the numbers translated. 95 inch monitor that would be mounted here on the wall. Another alteration that we're showing is this door that went into the backside of this classroom and the door that goes back into SSD. We're creating another way out of the library here, so there's a stairway out here and then there's a doorway out here, but we thought that in this section of the library it would be good to have an alternative exit out of the space just to make it easier to kind of clear that space out, still keeping these rooms very useful. And then we're proposing to remove portion of this wall, which has some storage closets for this classroom right now and putting some display here as well as in this section of the hallway. We understand that the art department and the students brought this up as well as they would like more areas to display student artwork. and have it be really visible to the other students. So they're proud of the quality of the work that their students have. And we thought this area could be a great location for that. And then this could also function as an art gallery space at times, so that you could use the library as almost like a pre-function space for a gallery. And tying some of the art display with the library seemed like a really good dual use for the facility. And as Mary Jo mentioned, with Eric Wilson doing more of the technical exploration, we've looked above the ceiling. We're looking at ways to maybe try to raise the ceiling and make it a little bit higher. And there really isn't a good way to do that. There's a lot of mechanical electrical sprinkler pipes in the ceiling. So we're going to try to do the best we can to make the ceiling look fresher. The other thing that we're talking about doing is freshening up the finishes, which is what Andrea's real focus is on is a lot of people felt that the library felt very tired. right now, that the finishes were dated and they needed to be brightened up a little bit. And we're looking for possibilities for accent for school colors as well throughout the design. So I believe next week we're going to start bringing in some color options to show everybody. Something else that's been going on in the last month is we have been bringing sample furniture into the library for the students to try out. We felt that that was the best way to find out what they like, and they really like certain things. When you go into the library, we'd see them in some of the furniture pieces, and they were really very attached to certain parts and pieces that we had brought as samples. So that was great to see that they're actually enthusiastic about some of the revisions that are gonna be possible. Let me show you some 3D views because plans are sometimes hard to read. So here's the view, here's the entry to the library looking through that taller space to the service desk and then the lounge area with the fireplace. Here's that very large monitor here with the open seating area. Here you can see a shelving. This area was where the high density shelving was included and what we're showing now is wall shelving, and then some shelving in the floor with some lounge pieces. What we heard from the students is they want to be around the books. They feel having the books as sort of a backdrop of presence around, they feel very comfortable with that. And they feel that that is part of why they like to go to the library. And then back here next to the service desk is another kind of service point where a student can come in, print a paper last minute, get some staples, maybe some paperclips, and sort of almost like a copy center for them to kind of work on their last-minute projects. And it's near where the staff will be so they can hop over and help if that's necessary. And then a view from the other side. So this is where that fireplace and large monitor would be with the windows here, looking back towards the entrance with the shelving, some lounge pieces here and here, that lounge piece here, and then kind of a real mixed lounge piece here in the center. Now, are there any questions?

One thing I'll add real quick is, and as you notice, Sue talked about the higher shelving on the walls. All of the shelving on the floor is all about, what is it, 48 inches, Sue?

Under 48, yeah. And all of the shelving will be on wheels. And we did have samples of that as well in the library that the staff was able to try and see how they felt about moving it. Each individual section of shells is held together with magnets, so very little kind of manipulation or tools are needed to kind of pull them apart or put them back together.

And then when Sue mentioned the interior finishes, we're going to be updating all of the lighting as well. And it'll be dimmable. That was a lot of the other comments that we received from the students is making sure that there was the ability to dim lights. And then we'll also have some decorative lighting in order to make that ceiling look a little better. And then there was one other thing I was going to say. Oh, yeah. I was going to mention. Yeah. Yeah. Outlets in the floor. We actually met with the electrical engineer last week and talked about how the The electric would be in as well as the zoning of the lighting and stuff like that, and then new shades on all the windows, instead of the blinds and and that different like Sue mentioned you know finishes looking different.

I have a question um thank first of all, thank you so much, this looks awesome the library is definitely tired and i've been like. anxiously awaiting a new library at the high school for a long time. I can't picture in my head right now, but are the only windows those round ones in the rounded corner?

There are

no skylights. I don't remember. Are there not windows on any of the other sides?

They're smaller. So there's a taller window with a higher window across the top and then a tall, skinny window. And that's repeated around the perimeter. So you can in the corners by the columns, you can glimpse out the other windows are up higher, which is not uncommon in libraries because you often have wall shelves. So we're going to keep the windows as much as we can. This one section of higher windows we're going to cover because of that large monitor. And one of the reasons, it doesn't show up in the drawing, but one of the reasons why this room we turned into a classroom space, because it has a really nice big north facing window in it. So we looked at other ways of using it and we felt that people will want to be next to that window. So that is a nice view. It's

a floor-to-ceiling window. It takes up the whole hall. And so also where that TV is, we will just be – the windows are tinted, and so we'll just be – I forgot what Eric called it to – Like kind of skinning it. Yeah,

covering over that. Covering over it. So

from the exterior, there won't be any difference. It'll still look like a glass window. And then again, flexibility, if we ever wanted to change or to move it, it's just drywall over the windows and enclosed.

Right. And so here's the fireplace. It'll be a long linear fire, but not it'll be very decorative. It's not meant for logs and that kind of thing, but it's just a decorative feature. You know, the students talked a lot about the hominess of this space, and that's part of what they like. So that was a feature we think will be very popular. Go ahead, Steve. Have you already given us, have we seen any cost estimates of this? We have done a preliminary cost estimate and it's currently in the budget. We're focusing the bulk of the budget on furniture right now, as opposed to architectural changes. Most of the building changes will be related to the finishes of the building. We are getting into more detail as Mary Jo mentioned with meeting with engineers to get more detailed costs, which we will have for you in the next few weeks to review in more detail.

So, Steve, as I mentioned at the last board meeting when we approved the safety and security, our preliminary budget on this is $1.5 million. And right now there's about a million in construction and a half a million in furniture. Okay.

Thank

you.

I can bring up one thing we have heard a lot about with schedule. So our goal is to have this under construction over the summer, which could potentially have some impact to how the library is used over the summertime if it is under construction during that time. So there are things that are going to be discussed academically on what other spaces might be available that are currently being used in the library. And the goal is to get the furniture ordered soon. Those are some of the longer lead time items so that the bulk of what you're seeing on this design We'll be here in time for school to start, but we all know how that's going these days. So nobody can make guarantees about when everything will be completely done, but we're targeting the things that are longest lead time to get them ordered sooner than later.

And one other thing from this angle, you can see the entrance to the library has a different door. And so it will have a different glass front door as well as branding to make it and with those glass display cases that will have a much different entry look at it when you come down the hallway.

Well, it looks great. I appreciate um, all of your hard work on it. And I think this is a really good opportunity for us to think about, um, our, you know, the social emotional needs of our kids and how we can, um, incorporate that into the library. And I like that we have, you have those kind of those quiet rooms, um, Has there been any talk maybe about trying to add some ping pong tables or something like that for kids that could be kind of fun for them to just, you know, give them a break during the day? and

something

like

that? There was a lot of talk. Chess came up a lot, that there's a real strong core group of people who enjoy playing chess. There's some people who enjoy the puzzles, you know, the crossword puzzle. I mean, not crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles. And I think that that could continue to happen in a room like this where you haven't some room to spread out And then you could spread a whole chess tournament out inside the library. I hadn't heard a more active game like ping pong coming up. There was some, a lot of requests for quiet space because there are other areas in the school that you can go if you're looking for a dynamic space more energized space, maybe like the Commons cafeteria area. And I think what we were really focusing on are things that are a little bit, even though you may be social in this environment, but where you can find some quiet. And that particularly came up with these smaller rooms was something that students really were looking forward to.

Awesome. I will say with the sample furniture that we've had, it's allowed the students to be in a more collaborative space. And every time you would go over there, they just were, that was where they were. So I think these areas where it has gathering spaces for them will really be the highlight of the space.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, these would be tablet armchairs where you could sit with your laptop or tablet and kind of work and you can pull them together in a grouping or pull them away and have an individual.

So mostly chairs or is there more lounge type seating like couches or beanbags or more comfortable seating? I noticed that was one of the things that was noted on the student feedback. So I see a lot of what look like traditional chairs in this architectural rendering. Is that just visually because it's not coming across in the drawing?

So let me see if I can zoom in. In the center here, these would be lounge pieces, modular pieces with some higher backs on them to give sort of a sense of an enclosure. Even though staff will be here and be able to see everything, this would be more of a lounge type space. Here by the fireplace would be more lounge type furniture here. And then In this section, this is the booth area where you have the continuous row of seating with tables and chairs. This area would have a high top table overlooking a couple more lounge pieces. And then over here by the entrance would be another section of lounge type seating as well. And we're even incorporating some decorative lamps in areas. That was something people brought up. And I think they use the word lamp to mean something cozy and more residential. There's a term in design right now it's called res-immersal which is residential commercial kind of a crossover so that's kind of the look and feel that we're going and that's going to be reflected in the finishes that we're showing they'll have more texture to them and not bright colors but some color to it right now it's all very neutral. So we're looking at ways to make it feel very comfy. And that was a word the students used a lot.

And then what about power outlets for like, you know, laptops and that type of thing? Is there already enough of that incorporated in the library or is that going to be are there going to be more outlets in the floor or incorporated into the furniture? I mean,

what do you. And Sue, I can talk a little bit about that. We met with the engineers. We're definitely going to make sure that those gathering areas have floor outlets around them and then also the presentation areas. So almost like all the columns. So there's so many columns throughout the area. Lots of things are butted up next to that. And then we'll have mobile TVs that will be able to plug in there. And then all of those areas where you see seating, there will be flush. Right now, if you've ever been in there, they're monuments. I mean, they're actually, they're like a foot long and like six inches high. And I think there's six of them in there right now. So everything will go flush and it'll be more centralized. It, it all has to be flexible because this whole space is flexible. So it might fit. I mean, we're not trying to get it to fit the existing furniture because the furniture could move or the replacement furniture because the furniture can move, but at least it'll be centralized in the areas where based on zones of what we expect to use to be it'll be available in all those areas because that was one of the things that the students asked for was more plug-in stations for their phones and their computers and everything.

We also demoed some modular power towers that can be either charged and brought out for lasting a day long, what you can put pretty much anywhere, or the kind that you plug in and can move, can be brought over from a wall outlet over to an area that a group can share. You might have seen some of those in airports if you happen to be traveling because having...

Brian right now is at an airport. That's exactly what made me think of it, is I'm sitting in an airport and looking at the battery on my computer and noticing that there's not a single power outlet around me. So yeah. Yes. Great. Thank you.

Oh, one other thing to mention, it is a library so we did do some research on the books and the shelving that we're showing here, the current layout on this plan shows an increase in the amount of the collections. Right now I believe they have Is it 8,000 items and they want to have capacity for 10? And so this has room for 10,000 items in the collection with room for about a quarter of each shelf. So if you have a shelf, one quarter of it could be open so you could do a face-out display of a book. And that's a very popular way to kind of get people's attention to certain titles. And it will also accommodate all of the books in the collection because they do come back at the end of the school year. So there's probably more shelves here than you would absolutely have to have. And that's another thing we talked about with the furniture. We were suggesting that we may not want to get all of the furniture up front. We might want to get most of it and then see what's really popular and add some more after the fact and fill in some of the areas. Makes

sense. It kind of reminds me of a cafe. Have you all thought about maybe having an espresso machine in there of some sort?

Right now their food is not allowed in the library, but we are going to have it. There's a kitchenette with a sink in the staff area. So for professional development, they might be able to have some food, but the students currently as far as policy goes are not allowed to have food in the library.

Does anybody else have any questions or comments? Oh, sorry,

I had one more. The two classrooms that I think you said it was an English room and an SSD room that you, I know one of them you said maybe the size didn't really change much because you're taking out storage. But correct me, was that what you said? And I'm just, I just wanted to check, did the sizes of those classrooms change in any way that would affect, you know, comfortably fitting and however many kids we have typically in a class.

And in this room, let me go back to the first drawing. So this shows how that wall jogs right now. So this little corner is not terribly usable space in this classroom. And here we've got the storage classrooms. So here's the after. So it ends up fitting about the same amount of furniture that's in there right now. This area, the SSD room, I believe it's office space, isn't it Mary Jo?

Yeah, it's office space. And I think the intent is to not use that other space as a classroom any longer. So they're giving up the space as a classroom. Oh, OK.

Yeah, it's not a heavily scheduled space. And the idea of having a gallery near the library that's also secure, but you can see into it was something that we'd like to try out.

Okay, thanks. Sorry, I think I misunderstood. I thought just the outside wall was the gallery, not the whole room. Okay, thanks.

Both probably, yeah.

So the walls, the students wanted space to display pieces that they were concerned that if they get touched, they might get broken. So that's what the display cases are for. But then there would also be other instances of more gallery work that would be like displayed throughout the larger space. And the art teacher was way on board. So that's why Dan was willing to give up the classroom.

Thanks. Wonderful. Um, so is there any, any further? I can't see everybody. Um, any further comments or questions? Okay. Well, thank you so much again for the presentation. And we appreciate you being here tonight.

My pleasure. Thank you very much. And we look forward to seeing this coming together.

So do we. All right. I'm trying to get back to my agenda that shut down. Okay. So I believe that we are on to the consent agenda. Stacey. Thank you, Sue. Bye.

Okay. I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda for Agenda Item 6.02 through 6.04.

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Financials.

Financials. I move that the Board of Education approve payment of current expenditures and investments for January 2022 as detailed below.

Second.

And moved and seconded. Questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. And I don't believe we have public comment tonight, Chris, but did anything come in last minute?

No, there's no public comment this evening.

Okay. Um, so we are on to board communications. Um, I had a CRSWC meeting and, um, So they're exploring what to do over there with their masks and they will probably end up going mask optional too. I think what they're trending is kind of looking at what the county does with the mask mandate. The other thing that, I'm trying to look at this memo as I talk to you guys. So apparently we have, and this goes back probably We paid $20,000 a year, Mary Jo, for 400 employee memberships, I believe. And the city pays $10,000 a year for up to 200 employee memberships. And I think that is going to be increasing this year. Um, just to let everybody know. So the district will now pay $40,000 a year for up to 400 memberships and the city's going to pay $20,000 a year. It's for up to 200 memberships. It seemed like they got a better bargain on that, but

no. And basically it aligns us to the corporate rate. Um, there's been no increases in that at all over the past 20 years. And we just feel like it should adjust and keep up with the operations and go into that fund instead of um the way we've been handling it it's just a better method of accounting okay

um does anybody let's see were there any other meetings does anybody else have any um i had a pto council meeting

how'd that go um great um I'm always impressed with our PTO presidents, and I actually think it's so great that we have an organized way for them to all collaborate because I think it sounded like at this meeting they're all challenged right now finding volunteers and kind of filling their boards for next year. And they think, at least in the elementary schools, part of the problem is that the younger students' parents, the kindergartners, first graders, even some of the second graders' parents, have yet to even be in the schools. And there haven't been any events, you know, so it's hard to recruit parents to want to volunteer when... They haven't really been through normal school years with normal school-wide events to help with yet. So they're getting creative with ways to recruit parents. Merrimack had created really eye-catching flyers, like actual paper flyers that they went back to that they're putting in backpacks that were getting a good response. So they're sharing it with the other schools to see what they can do to help. Let's see, we had... They gave an update Chris kind of give an update that he's given us also about the new website that's going to be launching for the district. And we also heard from Kim sharoni about the all in coalition work she was trying to gather feedback about what events and when are the best times to kind of do their displays in the schools and that kind of thing but. That was it. They're all trying to find volunteers and fill their boards for next year. So if anyone watching or listening wants to help reach out to your school's PTO presidents and help them out.

Anybody else?

I just wanted to flag a meeting that's coming up. It's not one that we've had yet, but on March 7th, the governing council for the special school district will meet and actually elect the board or a couple of positions for the board. And that's a really important thing that we are as one of the member districts as a part of. So I just wanted to call everyone's attention to that. If you have input about that board election coming up, certainly let me know. And it's an important thing that we want to make sure we're always participating in. So that'll be just a little less than two weeks from now. So report back on that at our next meeting.

Wonderful. And as a, as a reminder on the Saturday, Joe has and he sent out an email, the St. Louis board professional learning community is meeting from nine to 10 30 virtually. So I'll let Joe, Joe can, do you have a joke and talk about that more?

Yeah, if you can come, great. It's not, you know, unfortunately we won't be meeting in person, but it will be virtual, be an opportunity to connect with other board members in St. Louis County, St. Louis City, actually St. Charles and Jefferson County. So four different counties, you know, a little chance for wellness and then just kind of a chance to talk about the, you know, the PLC moving forward. So hour and a half, I'm really thankful to Nisha and to Chris and to Sandy for supporting it. And, you know, I think it'll be good if you can come.

Thanks for doing that, Joe. All right. Anybody else? I don't see any hands. Okay. So we will go ahead and adjourn then. I'll have Stacey to read her motion, please. I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

Second.

Great. All in favor?

Bye.

Bye. Bye.