February 1, 2023 — Meeting Transcript

approve our agenda

I move that the Board of Education approved the agenda for February 24 February 1st 2023 as posted

second it's been moved and seconded all in favor aye any opposed motion passes and now we were gonna recognize our own

Good evening, everyone. I'm excited to come to the table tonight to recognize all of our counseling staff for National School Counseling Week. And this year's theme is School Counselors Helping Students Dream Big, and that's sponsored by the American School Counselor Association, also known as ASCA. And National School Counseling week is going to be celebrated next week, February 6th through 10th, just to focus on all of the different contributions that school counselors across our country contribute every single day in our school settings. So tonight we have Katie Jane Johnson who's one of our newest teammates representing the counseling department and she joined the team over at CHS working with our 12th graders and soon with our 11th graders as we get ready to transition them into their year of their last year of high school. And I just wanted to share, and I'm sure all of us know this in different ways, but our counselors do a lot of work in front of the scenes with our students and our parents and our teachers. And they do so much work behind the scenes being amazing champions for kids. And they probably have no idea all the different things that counselors did on their behalf either sending emails making sure that teachers and other support staff have the most updated information on how they're doing helping families find resources outside of the school building and also helping families who are going through really difficult times and I think we've all been on quite a roller coaster with different needs over the last couple of years. And our counselors have shown up every single day, ready to go, ready to meet the day's challenges. And I find it a huge privilege to work alongside all of them and to support their work here in the school district. So I just wanted to take a moment to read all of their names and to publicly thank them for all of the things they've been doing in the school district in no particular order. I would like to thank Anthony Henderson at Merrimack, Crystal Taylor at Captain, Jenny Todd at Glenridge, Jason Thompson at Widown, Liz Tucker at Widown, Mark Snyder at Widown, Carolyn Blair at CHS, Chandra Brown at CHS, Homer Turner, CHS, Jacelyn Cole at CHS, Katie Jane Johnson also at CHS, Toby Smith at CHS, and Jannie Hoyland at the Family Center. So thank you again to all of our counselors and all the amazing things you do, and thank you to the school board for supporting them in so many different ways as well.

Thank you so I have now the well are we done I'm sorry are we done with that yes we are okay yes we are I didn't know I didn't mean to be to rush everybody so but I have now that we're doing public did we move public comment back here I have another public do other Yeah, are we on? Are there any public comments tonight? Okay. All right, so Dr. Patel, you're up.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to a cold, lovely evening. Appreciate you guys being here today. Just a few things I would like to highlight. Obviously, today is February 1st, so as we enter the month of February, we begin to honor the contributions of all our African Americans and recognize the sacrifices that they've made and celebrate all the achievements as we celebrate Black History Month. Obviously, this is not just one month. Journey and celebration that we do we take pride in recognizing everybody year-round for that. So I do want to make sure that we Honor this month in terms of celebrating the great achievements I know we have a lot of different activities happening at all of the schools To do that as well as a district-wide event that you will be getting more details and information on in the coming weeks And dr. Poole is spearheading that so I'm excited to see what that's going to be all about. I Also in other news, I don't know if I've officially announced this but we have hired our new assistant principal at Clayton High School. His name is Drew Spiegel and he comes to us from Fort Zumwalt North. He's been there about 14 years. Seven of those years he taught high school science and it's almost as if he's returning home because he actually began his student teaching here at Clayton High school and he was also a SummerQuest science teacher. for us as well. So people already know him and we're very excited for him to be part of our family. And then also recently the Clayton Foundation partnered with athletics department at a basketball game and had first ever alumni night. And I think we had like almost 20 past basketball players who came out and it was a great event. So it was another great example of building community and having people who've graduated and gone through our district coming back and taking so much pride in it. So it was wonderful to see that. And then I'm extremely excited this week we have the Clayton High School Broadway show Beauty and the Beast that's going to be taking on stage. And so it's Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. If you have not gotten your tickets, please do because I'm sure it's going to be amazing. And they're really trying to also invite all the elementary school students to come to this as well. And today I believe the eighth graders came to see the matinee performance. So that should be exciting. They actually, fun piece, they actually did a promo video for this play and part of the promo video was, it was almost like a parody and Dr. Gutjewski was Belle and I was Gaston. I don't know how that happened. I thought that should be the other way but that's okay. So it was a lot of fun and they did a video and tried to promote it. That was a lot of Presentations tonight we are going to be hearing from Steve Hudson our athletic director on sharing some really exciting news about a cooperative agreement between us and Brentwood so I'm very excited for the future of that and football so we'll be hearing more details on that and I want to in advance thank you Steve for putting all this together and all your energy and passion and making sure that this is occurring so thank you Steve. then our second presentation is going to be Dr. Wiens is going to talk about you know all the focus we've had on mental wellness and if you recall last time when she did goal 3 update she said that she would be coming back to the board with the request and so we are now at that stage where we're gonna request for you to approve a provider for us to help us do a thorough needs assessment in this area to help us really plan out what we need to do and in addressing the mental health of all of our students, in particular at the high school. So does that look like a mental wellness center? What is that going to be? But that is really going to be driven by the needs assessment. So she'll talk to you briefly about that as well. So Carter, hand it off to you.

what I've heard from football players and just other students about what they think about this idea. So in general, people are pretty excited about the idea of getting more players to play football under the name of Clayton. Specifically, I've talked to a couple of football players and they all like the idea of getting uh, maybe getting some more talented players who would, uh, you know, just make playing football at Clayton a better experience, maybe get us more wins in the future. So, uh, in general, they like the idea of that. Uh, but it's not a 100% like everyone is in favor of it. Like there are some people who have sort of mixed opinions about it. Uh, Mainly they just think the idea of playing football with kids from other schools sounds a little bit weird. This might just be because they haven't done it before and aren't used to it. And they just, I don't know, they feel like it wouldn't necessarily be like our football team is 100% representative of Clayton and representing our school. But in general, the majority of people I've talked to, especially the ones who are really committed to football and don't just do it for the social and experience of being with their friends, are in favor of the idea of getting more players and hopefully getting more wins in the future. And on top of the people who play football I've talked to some people who don't play football who are just like, you know interested and fans of the team and you know They all like the idea of maybe finding ways to get a couple more wins next season. So In general, I think the students are excited about this proposal, but they just want to make sure it's done the right way So, you know no complications come up And then the second thing that I'm going to be talking about today is that mental wellness proposal that Dr. Williams is going to bring to us. So as I've previously talked about, the students are very much in favor of figuring out what the needs of our district and our community are on this front. So we're really excited about this initiative. And in addition to us being excited about the plan, I know that I and the School board student advisory would also look forward to working with people if they're looking for ways to you know Understand what the claim community is like and maybe even coming up with a plan of what to do about it. So if this Provider is interested. I know that that group would be excited to help them out to sort of understand Clayton And you know what needs to be done

That's great, thank you

Can I say something to Carter? Yes, of course. I know Steve's going to talk more about this, but I just wanted to give you some feedback on like that. Some of the kids were saying that it might feel weird to have kids that don't go to our school, plan our football team. Our hockey team currently has some players that don't play for our school. Hockey is not a Misha school sponsored sport. However, if your school doesn't have a team, you can enter a draft. So anyway, we have a few players who don't go to Clayton and I would say it, it, I don't know that anyone first of all really notices or knows but also I will say those kids and their families Have been so appreciative of the way that Clayton community has included them and welcomed them and they are treated no different in it So anyway, I just think it's a good example to maybe remind kids or have them talk to the hockey players about how that works That I think anyway,

yeah Maybe there's a reason because you know, it doesn't really have an impact and I Right, exactly. Yeah,

exactly. And I find the fans just as supportive. I mean, they even know who those kids are now, and it's been great.

Awesome. Thank you, Carter. And Steve, do you want to come talk more about this?

Well, good evening. Thank you all for having me. Well, first off, I just wanted to discuss at the state level, so at the Missouri State High School Activities Association, what is a co-op? I know specifically we're going to talk about football here, but a cooperative sponsorship at the state level is when two schools that are geographically close are having low participation rates in a specific sport. In order to provide that experience for their kids still without dropping the sport, they come together and create the cooperative sponsorship so they can still offer that sport. In this case, there's a receiving school and a sending school. They don't really have a term for it, but in this case, we would be the host school. Brentwood would be sending their kids to us. So why is it important to Clayton High School? Well, this past season, 2022, we finished with 31 active players. Started the season between 40 and 45, but some students decided not to play for whatever reason, and then we had multiple injuries. But of those 31 helmets that were able to play in the last game, 15 of them were seniors. So you can see almost half of those kids... Or almost half of those kids will not be returning. If we have the same returning players who are then healthy, we'll have 26 returning players plus our incoming freshmen. And then another component of it, which is extremely important, which I don't know if people are considering, is the need for a lower level JV team. Number one reason, safety. We have freshmen that are coming in that are lining up against kids who are seniors. They're much bigger, they're much faster, and there's a safety concern there. And we see it across the state with these students who are doing this. So if we were able to grow our numbers, we could then establish a lower level team that has a full schedule so we can grow and develop those players. The history, real quick, in 2018-2019, that was right before I became athletic director, Clayton High School and Maple Ridgeman Heights were in conversation about a cooperative sponsorship. At that time, the Clayton Board of Education agreed to it. The state agreed to it, but it was declined at the Maple Ridgeman Heights board level. We're not really quite sure why. I don't have a concrete reason why. We had heard at one point there were some financial reasons, transportation reasons, possibly because not all of their fields are on-site at school like we have. So they would be providing transportation for the football team to get from Brentwood to Clayton but not provide the baseball team transportation to the field down the street. There was multiple reasons as to why, but from 2019 to 2022, I continued to have conversations with their athletic director about this idea of bringing it to the board table. But every year it was declined when it got to that point. It never went to the board table because it was never brought to the board table, so it was never declined by their board, if that makes sense. So why Clayton and Brentwood? Our combined enrollment would still keep us in class four. So if you look at the numbers online, our raw enrollment is what we reported from the previous year, and it's only your freshmen through juniors. So if you looked on Amisha's site and you looked at Clayton's raw enrollment, you'd think, well, we have more kids in our building than is actually the numbers presented, but we only report the previous year's freshmen through juniors. So combined, our raw enrollment would still keep us in class four. If we co-op with another school like Maple Richmond Heights or even one of our other neighboring schools, we would probably move into class five, which is in the higher level of competition. So this would keep us in class for where we're currently at. Again, we'd have 26 returning players plus our incoming freshmen. Brentwood's data shows they'd have 13 returning players with incoming freshmen. We'd be able to create that full JV schedule. And then something I don't think a lot of folks think about is that unlimited community engagement. We would be able to bring people in after practices for socials, community events during the summer. Not just on Friday night when we're playing are the Brentwood and Clayton community combining or not just on Saturday during those games. So it's really a neat opportunity to engage both of the communities. Some other factors, in 2022, Clayton got brand new uniforms. So there is a certain uniform standard we need to meet at the state and national level, actually. So we're going to be creative in working with Brentwood to make sure that they are... you know, resembled on our uniforms. People know it's Clayton Brentwood but still meet that standard. One of the ideas we currently have right now is we basically only have Clayton on the front number and with a number, we would put Brentwood on the back with a number and then both schools have representation. The logo, we can really do some neat things with that. At the state level, we would still be the Clayton Brentwood Greyhounds, but we can be unique in our own way on the helmets. We replace the decals every year due to wear and tear so we can have some student engagement within our art departments to create a unique logo that combines both so both feel represented. Our home field, we're in a unique situation this year. We have six home games. We had a team we were supposed to travel to last year that they would rather play at our place. So all the six games, home games, we could see Brentwood hosting two, us hosting four. We would have our own homecoming. They would have their own homecoming. The everyday practice location would be Clayton High School. The schedule, we would remain in the suburban conference like all of our other sports. We play six suburban conference schools in nine weeks, so the other open weeks we would offer up to the Brentwood schools that are on their schedule those weeks. If those schools would decline, then we would just continue to keep our schedule the same. The coaching staff, we would have both the ADs and maybe some outside other administrators to work together to do interviews to define who the new head coach is and the other roles within the staff. Transportation, Brentwood would be 100% responsible for transporting their kids from Brentwood to Clayton every day. Other programs impacted cheer. We've been having conversations with other schools that have cooperative agreements. We now may have the opportunity to have a full JV cheer squad, which can cheer JV events, which is something that would be very unique and something we haven't had around here. In band, we see ourselves, the games that we host, our band performs, the games they host, their band performs. And then this is only at the state level, a one-year agreement. So if we reflect on this cooperative sponsorship and say, you know what, we're better off, you know, hosting this ourselves without another school joining us, then we can decline the offer as we move forward. So really that's all I have. If you all have any questions for me, I'd be happy to answer.

Make sure I got this right. So we'll have to choose between the two schools, the two ADs, a head coach, right?

Yeah, we have to define a head coach at the state level. And I believe it's important for our kids and families to know who the head coach is.

And so the current head coach, what happens to him?

So what we would do, and we haven't... made this decision yet, but we would offer it really to any coach. If you feel like you want to be the head coach of this cooperative sponsorship, you would apply, and we would interview you, both schools,

and make a joint decision.

Yep, and then there could be a change in defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, because both schools essentially have a head coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator, so we're merging the two, and those are very defined roles.

Excellent.

Um, first of all, thank you for all this work. I know this isn't like a board vote, but I am fully supportive of this. I think it's great and it's going to be so good for our kids and the community. I'm just curious. I remember when we talked about this with Maplewood, they hadn't had a football team in a long time. Does Brentwood have? Yeah, they currently

have a very successful team. So it's interesting. They approached us. They're a Class 1, so we're Class 4. They're Class 1. And they've made a nice run in the playoffs, much further than we have historically. But what they're seeing is, and much like if our participation continues to decline, they're not going to have a football team, and neither will we. So that's when we decided to have the conversation. I work really, really well with their athletic director. He's a great guy. So we've already got a really strong relationship, which I feel is like the foundation for this being successful.

And one more, thank you. One more question. So I remember reading it. I understand what you're saying about Brentwood keeps us in class four and I definitely understand why that's a good idea. But did I read somewhere, did you tell us once, does the state only allow two or would it allow three schools?

It doesn't allow three. Currently, if you're going to do a three school co-op, your raw enrollment, your previous freshmen through sophomores is 150 kids. So we're talking some pretty rural schools and communities. Okay.

Okay. I just was thinking ahead, like if this worked well, and then Maplewood came around and said,

hey. So in our

case, cooperative

sponsorships in our region are all to school, no matter the sport. And Brentwood has a cooperative relationship with several different schools, U City, Maplewood Richmond Heights, I believe, and other sports.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Thank you Steve I appreciate this couple of questions for you I believe that I don't remember exact participation numbers but when we were talking to MRH back in 2018-19 I know it's unfair I'm going to ask you about things before your tenure we had a similar dip and then we had a bit of a spike I think in participation is that right I mean can you just talk through that a little bit in terms of where we are now in the... Right, of course.

I mean, I think if we saw a spike, you know, it's... I mean, spike might be... What we really see with football is you have an influx of eighth graders who are really excited about playing football. They may have never played organized football. Maybe they've had a little bit of experience in flag, but they're excited about this idea. Let's be honest, it's one of the most popular sports in our country and it's watched every Sunday. So they come out and want to participate in football. And for whatever reason, they stick with it. And for whatever they don't. But we're seeing more and more kids that don't stick with it. They come out throughout the camps in the summer or they come out the first week of practice. And let's be honest, it's not an easy sport to participate in. So they decide not to play any longer. So we immediately see that decrease. And the number of helmets on the sideline. I mean, I think every game that Dr. Kachewski and I attend, we count the number of helmets, helmets on the sidelines and there's always less and less kids. And not just because of injuries, injuries are going to happen. It's just because kids choose not to play.

And if I remember correctly, sorry to interrupt, I think Steve made a concerted effort to reach out to kids who were ineligible because of grades, right? I

do spend quite a bit of time worrying about and helping kids advocate for themselves and their academic success. And that's something I'll continue to do.

So I think I remember there were some kids that wanted to play or for whatever reason were ineligible and he did a great job getting them in. whatever, learning center, whatever help they needed to get them to play, which was great.

Yeah, I appreciate that. The other kind of topic that I do feel like need to bring up a little bit, and I will say this as I know this might shock you all, looking at the physical specimen that I am, but Football's the only sport that I played in high school. So just put that out there. But there's also, you know, there's a conversation and there's a topic around this, you know, culturally and locally and nationally and everywhere else about the safety of football, right? So I think that we... we have a responsibility when we're talking about a sport like this to talk about what we think about this in terms of our safety expectations, our injury expectations, what is the equipment necessary to make sure we're having you doing everything to make it as safe as possible and I mean, I love this sport, so be totally transparent about that. But I think we do, there are people that look at our numbers and say, yeah, they're going down because people think it's not safe. So we have to address that, I think, in this context. So that's putting you on the spot a little bit with this one, but I just would love to hear your thoughts about that.

Yeah, no, I don't disagree at all. And I think we could be better about that if I'm honest. But we do something that's very unique that a lot of schools do not do. We have the Insight Helmet technology through Rydell. And we've actually just upgraded that software for this past season. So now during contact, a coach can tell where the impact was. Crown of the head, side of the head, back of the head. And we even use that technology during practice when we're teaching kids how to tackle. Because it used to be you tackled with the crown of your head. Well, now that's not good. So even during tackling practice when you're using, you know, tackling pads or tackling dummies and you're seeing this number keep continuing to flash up on your monitor that they're tackling with the crown of the head, it can be addressed in practice. So we're teaching kids to tackle the right way with that technology. And then even more importantly during a game, there's a threshold on their helmet. So if it reaches a certain threshold, the coach and the trainer both have a monitor. They pull the kid out immediately, check them. The trainer analyzes the situation. They either stay out or they go back in. So that's one thing we're doing, which is very unique to Clayton because it's expensive. Brentwood heard that. We're very excited about that, the idea of their kids being able to use that technology. Furthermore, our coaches go to training on how to tackle. you know, how to get your head around rather than having a heavy impact on the helmet. So there's a lot of time and effort spent around keeping our kids safe in that regard. And I would say that if you looked at the state data on concussions, you're seeing a lot more in soccer than you are in football. So I think as a state, we're doing a good job of protecting our kids, teaching them the right way to play the game, getting them out of play when they need to. So yeah, I think there's an issue of trust. Like, do we trust that the system that we have is going to keep your kids

safe? I love that you talk about that technology which is an incredible thing actually and can you just talk about whether if we you know obviously not every school has that so is that something that equipment wise with bringing in the Brentwood Combination will we I mean that do I don't mean to call out whether they have that or not That's not the point of the question. Like well, we have additional expenses around that.

That's a great question So all all of our helmets we have enough helmets to outfit all of their incoming players where the cost comes in is the refurbishing of the product so at the end of every season rather than waiting to the beginning we send all those helmets back to Rydell they come in box them up for us actually so then we would say that's when we look at you know the cost how many kids actually wore them and then they would be invoiced for those helmets and we would obviously pay for the helmets we used and that will be with all of our equipment they refurbish everything so whatever needs to be refurbished The schools will split the cost equitably between the two schools, what's used.

That makes sense. Thank you for explaining that. And one last question, if I can keep the floor. You mentioned basically a one-year agreement. Did you say that's because that's what the state requires? Yeah,

so we have to enter into the agreement every year. I think it would be a lot easier after year one with the state. I mean, the application's not... Not very in-depth, you know. It's just an online application. The key is we need the support of both boards.

But the point is we're not only choosing to do it for one year. That's just when. Right. That's how long they will qualify. Exactly. Great. Thank you.

Steve, I had a board member who wanted to ask you a particular question, and that's why I'm smiling. And I asked him not to ask the question, but I will ask on his behalf. Sure. What's your view on a spread offense? View on the spread offense?

So, look, I'm a four yards and a cloud of dust type of guy, okay? I think, you know, Eureka does it right. You know, they have like three plays. Run right, run left, run up the center. Yeah.

We might be looking for a new coach as we go into this cooperative sponsorship. I'd welcome you to apply.

I was going to say that I was going to ask questions about a philosophy, but I was advised that's not really a board-level question, so I'll skip those. No, just real quickly, you said the word camps, I think, in one of your answers. So I guess are there off-season camps that are happening, and what do the economics change around that in this agreement?

So each sport is unique in what they can offer as far as camps and costs. They each get 20 contact days over the summer. If you choose to call one week of it a camp, now you have 15 more. Of those five days you use so you can't do 20 contact days plus five more days as a camp You get 20 contact days, whatever you want to label it Typically we their end of the summer Camp goes right into the season. They have the dead week right before the first Start date which I believe is august 7th this year and we haven't charged for that camp We want every kid that wants to participate to have that opportunity We do do a fundamentals camp the first week out of school, which there is a charge for that. And once we enter this agreement, you know, all those kids have the opportunity to participate in it at a cost. Okay. So did I answer your question?

Yeah, I think so. I think whatever it is, it's de minimis and it doesn't really matter. But I'm also really, just to say, I'm just really for this. In fact, one of my high school football coaches is now the principal at Brownwood, so hopefully he whips those kids into shape. Perfect. There you

go. Yep, Steve, I think it's great. The only thing I have to add is it's halftime. Ford Zumwalt, varsity basketball, and we're up by 10.

Excellent. Good to hear.

Thought you might like that update.

I do. I do. Thank you.

Okay. Any further questions? Awesome. Well, Steve, thank you. Thank you for your hard work on it. Sounds like a great idea and will be great for the kids.

Yeah, I just say our next steps are once, you know, Brentwood and here's the good news that I'm able to move forward with this is defining those coaching roles and defining a schedule. So those are the next steps. And then we start working into even the finer details of it all. So thank you so much for your time tonight.

Thank you. Hey, Robin.

Great, great.

You know, I'm going to be sitting in this chair for a while. I've got a couple agenda items, so I'm just getting comfortable, warming up my seat, getting my water cup ready. So I'm good. Well, good evening, everyone. It's good to see you. And I'm just here tonight to tell you a little bit more about the service agreement that I included in tonight's consent agenda with an organization called Schools Well. to support the development, implementation and evaluation of wellness programs and initiatives at Clayton High School. So the request for consultants as you may recall a couple months ago when I came to the table anticipated coming back with an ask and tonight I am doing that. And the request for a consultant supports our progress toward goal three, particularly as we think about how to foster lifelong wellness in our learners. And so I hope the board will support this request as it is certainly the confluence of multiple needs that have been shared with us over the last year. So what's my why? In November, we hosted our community engagement forum and we heard from our students, family and staff about our progress toward the strategic planning goals. And I was at the head and heart table. And there were multiple themes that came up about how our community has really made meaning of that head and heart goal. And so some of the themes that I heard were that folks felt that helping students develop as their whole selves was part of that, that finding more balance in a competitive environment was important for our students and also having students have a safe place to go to get emotional support while they're in the school setting. And then some of the ideas on how we can improve in this school area were more onsite support, not necessarily therapeutic, but just a place for students to drop in and have check-ins more access to mental health resources particularly in building students awareness around their own mental health and then more access to prevention in particular opportunities for students to be equipped to make healthier choices more specifically related to coping strategies when they're under a lot of stress. This is also really timely because the social work and counseling departments are in year one of their self-study and I think some of the information that we can learn through our work with this consultant can inform their goal making in addition to the rest of the work that they're doing to assess their strengths and areas of improvement. So what does this work potentially look like pending your approval? Well, Schools Well has opened about 50 other wellness centers across the country, mostly in California, but in schools that are very similar to Clayton in terms of the graduation rates, the free or reduced lunch rates, and some of the other demographics that we have here in our community. And so there are really four main things that I'm hoping that we can get out of this work over the next couple months. The main idea is that I think this is a great chance for us to learn what we need to stop, start and continue when it comes to addressing our high school students' mental health needs. I think the needs assessment is a huge part of this work. And, Carter, I'm absolutely taking you up on your offer because the consultant, Jessica, has really emphasized student voice. And I think engaging representation from our students, our staff, our administrators, including our health services team, board members and families. I think all of those perspectives will really be powerful for us to learn about what we can do. And we can tap into a lot of our existing structures, obviously District Advisory Council with students, we have our SEL and Wellness Committee, and then we have a variety of other student groups that we can tap into. I've also asked Dr. Moore to help lead this work at the building level. Another important piece of the collaboration with the consultant is ideas on coordination of care. So we know the needs are changing quickly. And what I am interested in learning is like, what can this all look like when all the pieces fit together? What does the exchange of information need to look like to be highly effective in triaging and tracking students' needs and growth? And I think that there's absolutely a Venn diagram between what our social workers do, what our counselors do, and potentially what someone whose area is entirely on wellness coordinating could do as well. And so I think working with schools well to identify what those roles and responsibilities and what that division of labor could look like would be very, very powerful for us. And part of that work also involves asset mapping. So finding out what are our current strengths and how we service students with mental health needs, and then that will help us to figure out what's gonna be the next best step for us to expand our safety net for students. I think it's also important to note that this work is really looking at how do we service the students with mild to moderate mental health needs. Those students with the most, I guess, tier three, the most intensive level of need, those are things that could be serviced in other ways that we already have in place. And those students often are getting support outside of the school building, and we work in conjunction with their families. So this coordination of care and needs assessment is really going to be looking at kind of that Tier 1 and into Tier 2 level of needs. And then the last part, as I mentioned earlier, is an opportunity to learn about what role a wellness coordinator type of person could play to help students us improve how we assess students needs not just under like a suicide risk assessment or behavioral risk assessment but just in general their mental health needs and how do we have a seamless handoff to providers particularly during a time where many of our families are having a hard time getting connected to services that are community-based in a timely fashion So if we are able to do this, we hope to be able to make some informed decision making on whether or not it makes sense on moving forward with some type of wellness coordinator, wellness center type of model in the high school program. But I think ultimately we want to have a stronger support net available to all of our students in response to what we're hearing from the community. And I think some of the criteria for success, if this is able to go in the direction that best supports our students' needs, I would measure this by changes in our panorama data, particularly for our students' ability to describe their feelings I would expect to see a change in the percentage of students feeling safe at school and particularly changes in the responses of what our students are saying around challenging feelings like being sad, worried, frustrated. I also anticipate potentially seeing changes in the number of students who are getting to the place where their families are taking them to the ER. or urgent care due to mental health crises because I'm hoping that by what we learned through our needs assessment, we can have a better system in place to help those students before they get to that place of having to get some type of more intensive support. When I look at our data, a majority of our students in the past year who have had to go get outside support at that level They're first timers. I would say about 70% of them have not previously gone, and so that lets me know that there's an opportunity for us to support families before things get to that place. So I will open it up for any additional comments, but I just wanted to add a little bit more information to that scope of work that was in the consent agenda.

Thank you. Questions? Go ahead,

Stacy. Thank you, Robin, so much. The proposal looks great and it's very comprehensive. I was actually happy to see how comprehensive it was. And their cost is very reasonable too, I think. So this consultation work runs through June and then what's the timeline beyond that? Do you then spend the summer kind of reviewing the assessment from the consultation and implement something at the start of next school year?

So the needs assessment and the coordination of care conversations can start happening simultaneously. So my hope would be that over the summer we would be in a position to make some informed decisions about whether or not we need to look at staffing differently in order to support building out into a wellness center component. So it definitely wouldn't be a situation where we're like, adding a whole bunch of things all at the same time, I think we'd probably stair step our way into it. Okay. So probably phases. Okay.

And I know I can't speak for all of us when I say this, but if you need us to approve some staffing or something over the summer for this, I'm all for it because I think this is so important and I want to get it in place as soon as possible. So if that means you realize in July you need to hire someone and that has to be brought before us, like I wouldn't, not do it because we're technically not meeting. So anyway, I'm so happy we're going this way. And this consultant and this company that you hired seems great. The proposal's very comprehensive, and it seems to cover everything that I had concerns about and that we've talked about before. So

thank you. Thank you, and one of the reasons I'm recommending this particular consultant is I looked at a couple other organizations that could help us do a needs assessment, and I felt like this one was the best fit for our students' mental health needs. That mental health component was definitely the strongest out of the different folks that I looked at.

Great. Anyone else? Okay.

Just a couple quick things. First of all, I'm also, you know, this seems great. I'm really excited that we're doing this and I'm excited to hear about the outcomes as well. So I guess first question is maybe just talk a little bit. I got some insight into this, but maybe just talk a bit for everyone about the work that the consultant will do to engage the variety of stakeholders that have a stake in the outcome of this project.

Yeah, so she and I have talked about this at length, and it will be very much involving representation from all of the different stakeholders because we want to be able to do asset mapping to figure out what do we need to keep in place because our families value it, our students value it, and it's doing the job that we need it to do as well as finding out where the gaps are. And so I think my plan is to – utilize a lot of the structures that we already have in place. So the SEL and Wellness Committee has a representation of parents, administrators, teachers, and folks from all-in Clayton coalitions because they play an important part of learning about how we can support our students in substance use prevention and coping strategies. And so I feel like that's just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, there could be other opportunities similar to a community engagement forum where we can get additional feedback from our stakeholders to make sure that we're turning over every stone and really looking at it from a variety of perspectives. I think I was really intrigued by her idea of not just creating kind of a student health advisory group just for the needs assessment, but actually maintaining one over time to really hold the vision and mission of adding potentially a wellness center, keeping it student-centered and making sure that it's effective in meeting students' needs and that it's doing what we hope it would do.

And then I was just going to, just to piggyback off of what Stacey was saying, I mean, I think there's interest in getting this stuff approved. To the extent there's anything that can be rolled into the budget by the spring, you know, I know the project won't be over, but if you can identify things and call those out in the budget report, you know, that would be, I think, for me at least, that would be interesting.

that's a perfect segue into my next question so and it's probably probably for you robin and also for john in the back of the room so i noticed separately on the board agenda that there is an immediate responsive services grant that looks like it might tie nicely into the funding for this so um that's a part of the consent agenda i'm sure you guys have all seen it but it's for a little over close to $44,000. So it does seem like this type of program would fit into the requirements for that funding grant. Yes. Am I right in assuming that the two match up well? Yes. Okay. That's great.

Yes. The timing was very fortuitous. Go ahead, Chris.

I waited until the end because I assumed everyone would ask questions that I already had, and they did. So mostly I'm all done. But I'm really impressed with what we're doing, and I just love the work you're doing, Robin. And I, again, want to make sure that we do do that whole look at what we can do in terms of wellness, in terms of an actual committee that really is well-formed in terms of who's actually on it we know we have people in there that are health care professionals including you know you know, the parents and all the other stakeholders we've already talked about. I just think that in this day and age, there's no reason why we can't have people that are really experts in these fields, you know, that we're addressing, mental health as well as physical health, that are sitting and helping us make these choices. I've talked about this before, so I know this doesn't seem new to you, but we just live in a place where we have plenty of resources in terms of people who would be willing to and who have the medical expertise and not just an educational background or not just a kid at the school or et cetera. And I just would love for us to see a group of folks that are sort of like the shack that we talked about in the policy that includes, in addition to the stakeholders you've already talked about, someone that is, you know, has more medical expertise and that's their background.

Yeah, that's a great point. Thanks for that feedback and that idea.

How many people will be involved in this process? The $43,000, what's that gonna go towards

again? So the $43,000 this is a agenda item that's later but is a DESE grant that's a division of ESS ER funding that is related to mental health and could potentially be put toward future expenses related to a wellness center.

So the people and we have to identify who's going to be a part of this wellness center, right? Who would be the people?

In terms of who would receive the services or the adults

who... The adults running it. Until adults... Yes. And

what our hope is to determine through our needs assessment is what does this, first of all, does a wellness center make sense? And two, what does the staffing need to look like, especially if we look at kind of the first phase of building one out? So not physically, but just programmatically.

Right. And if we built one out, I'm sure you all ballparked this a little bit, but what kind of cost would that look like and how many people do you think we would need? Just rough it.

I would say at the beginning stage, I would think 1.0 FTE, somebody who would hopefully have an LCSW. And then I think the next phase would be adding probably a 1.0 FTA classified staff to help with Fielding students, I guess. And again, to make the systems more efficient. But like I said, I think we would need to, one, get through our needs assessment to figure out what's going to make the most sense. But I will say based on other wellness centers that Schools Well has helped open, the staffing has usually been 2.0 FTE. That does not include the community partnerships that get built out because of the wellness coordinator able to get in and build those MOUs with additional community partners who might be able to then send one of their therapists to come on site. So the wellness coordinator, again, in previous models that Schools Well has helped launch, the wellness coordinator is really only doing about 20% direct service and other 80% is coordinating, tracking data, cultivating those community partnerships and making sure that the information is being exchanged to the right people.

So in other schools have this right, you know, some of the schools that have this. Yes. So is there any like data on efficacy rates? how effective this is at other

schools? Yeah, so I don't have any specific hard data on hand right now, but based on our work with the consultant and some of the samples that she provided me of schools that are very similar to Clayton, more specifically Redwood High School in Larkspur, California, Tamal Pais Union High School in Marin County, very similar demographics to Clayton. And the feedback was we should have done this sooner.

Thank you very much, I appreciate it. Good work.

Yes, I am thrilled about this and I just have one question or comment and it's more to Carter with respect to the advisory board that's going to help as a student voice. Can we make sure that the kids that are part of that are not just like the super motivated high achieving kids and that we have a very intentional cross-section of kids at voice so that their voices can be heard with this even if they're not like technically on the advisory board just do what you need to do too okay

we should do uh i will say i'll probably need help with that because it's not always easy to get people to right places right

You guys can figure it out I have faith in you all right, thank you so much and This is great great news Robin, I think you're still going to stay and talk to us a little bit more.

Yeah, we're going to turn the page and talk about interviews with or the removal of students. So this evening I'm bringing forward for the first reading Policy JFGA. So this particular policy just updates and clarifies the district's role in protecting students when outside entities such as law enforcement or representatives from children's division want to access a student during the school day. Adoption of this new policy is not required. After reviewing it with our attorney, also no major changes. And I think that the highlighted section, the addition of the student records pieces fairly self-explanatory.

Does anybody have any questions on this? Go ahead.

And I realize this wasn't a change in this policy, but it mentions in there a couple times that the principal or whoever would make an effort to notify the student's parents before they're interviewed by the police. I'm just not sure... how I feel about that and I if I were a parent and my kid came home and said he was interviewed by the police and I had no idea I wouldn't be that I wouldn't be happy so I'm just trying to think like to what extent is the effort made and I understand that maybe sometimes it's timely and so if you can't get a whole parent you you know for whatever reason it has to happen, but I'm just curious your thoughts on that. I

would say I feel very comfortable with our current practice, and it's very much in alignment with all of this is we absolutely reach out to the parents immediately. And, you know, in most cases we're able to get a hold of them right away, but sometimes we – it takes some time to get ahold of them. And I would say that we have a great relationship with our school resource officers and the Clayton police department. And, um, we've been able to have a very collaborative relationship in terms of really making sure that we slow down, take a beat to make sure that we can get ahold of the families before we move on to the next step. Um, thankfully they, we really haven't been in, um, a lot of situations where, I mean, it is critically emergent, you know, um, but, Even in the times where it has been pressing, we've been able to all work together to make sure that we get in touch with parents before we move on to the next step. Okay.

It's just like such loose language that make an effort to. I just wanted to make sure that really weren't trying. Yeah, we really do try. I don't even know if that language should be changed or what, but I just thank you for that feedback

on that. Okay anyone else? Okay I think we're on to our JHC policy.

Yes so policy JHC I'm bringing forward again for the its first reading is related to student health services and requirements. The changes in this particular policy are required in order to bring the policy in alignment with Senate Bill 681 which requires schools to create health plans for students who have epilepsy or seizure disorder. And really the main addition is on the first page, the development of the individualized health plans and the individualized emergency health plans for students in consultation with their families and their providers for students with epilepsy and seizure disorders.

Does anybody have any questions?

I'm so sorry. I'm just the one with all the questions tonight. Okay. So on page two of this policy, right under that number three where it says, as used in this policy, the term invasive physical examination, and it defines what that is. I didn't – do you see what I – Maybe I just couldn't find it. I didn't see where in the policy it used that term, but when would a school ever need to do an invasive physical examination?

I cannot think of a practical one. We don't usually have to do those things. I think the only thing I can think of is if like a object had been inadvertently you know, gotten into somebody and we were trying to remove it or something like that. But I mean, it's not part of our standard routine of clinical business. I mean,

I didn't think so, but I was just curious why it's even in here. Like it references it like, but I just couldn't even find it anywhere else in the policy. So I just was wondered why it's even called out. I can't imagine when a school would ever did it. Where is it? Oh, parents will be notified when any invasive physical examination is conducted. Okay. Got it. That makes me feel a little better. I still can't imagine why a school would ever need to do that, but okay. Yeah, I think it's if the

injury is in a sensitive spot.

Yes,

got it. Okay, thank

you.

Okay, anyone else? Great, and we are now on policy JHDF.

Yes so JHDF I'm bringing forward for a first reading and it is related to suicide awareness and prevention and again this policy update brings the language into compliance with Senate Bill 681 and some of the highlights of that include the crisis lifeline number being on the student's ID cards But I also want to note there are two additional changes I'd like to make to this policy that were not submitted when we uploaded the document. Based on feedback from stakeholders, on page two toward the bottom, we have steps one through three about what would we do if there was a suicide crisis and I'd like to add a number four which would be basically an after action debrief. So in the event that the team has had To work through a suicide crisis that there's a chance to to check in on the team members who were involved Understand what was learned from the process and to make sure that they are doing okay or finding out what support they need as a result of the crisis situation. I also wanted to add in the very bottom section that's highlighted in green about students attending virtually, I want to add in on the second half of that first sentence where it says the district must also monitor virtual learners. I want to change it to the district must also monitoring virtual learners enrolled in the district who may be at risk for suicide. I just want to clarify that the virtual learners have to be on our roles in order for us to help support them. And I think those were my only additional changes that were not reflected on what was on board docs.

Does anyone have any questions? Go ahead.

So what is the evidence-based informed tool that you guys are using that's reflected on page one? Yes. To determine whether the student is at risk of suicide?

Yeah, so we use a modified version from the name of the book is escaping me, and I apologize. I can look it up for you guys, and I can even send you a copy of it. But basically it's a version that we have modified from a suicide resource text, and we've also had it reviewed by a provider at the CHADS Coalition. So it does involve a screener and then a decision-making aspect that would then add on a full assessment with a team consult at the end.

Okay. And then I know according to this latest Senate bill that you need to add the Lifeline three-digit phone number on the back of students' ID cards starting in middle school. So then my other question was, how are we preparing students to see that number on the back on their ID cards for the first time coming out of elementary school? Is this being covered in health classes in sixth grade?

I will need some time to research where that suicide risk and prevention unit pops up in the middle school curriculum. We have kind of talked through what our options would be on how to use our current resources around the ID badges that have already been produced using some of like not the vinyl stickers but those like metal strip ones that are pretty heavy duty. so that we don't have to rerun all the IDs. We can add it, and one of the other ideas that we've discussed is having those stickers distributed perhaps maybe during pack time, so that way it can be part of a conversation and a lesson plan as to why. And again, I still need to work with the building teams to figure out what that actual implementation should look like, but pending the approval of this particular policy, we'll be working with them to make sure that we have a smooth implementation.

Yeah, I'm just remembering, you know, I'll speak for my own sixth graders and you know, that's the age when there's like the dial and hang up type of things that happen and I just think there should be some some type of you know that number what it's what it's supposed to be used for when you use it and use it to help a friend you only use it for yourself I would assume those conversations are happening or will happen in health class before it shows up on the back of their badge because it'll be a change from what they're used to in elementary school

yeah I'm sorry go ahead No, you go first.

Yeah, I had the same thought that you did, Kim, and what I realized is that it's an even bigger question in my mind about how we address this in the middle school and in the high school curriculum because this is the best resource that's happened for our kids in years, in my opinion. The fact that you can call this number, anybody, any adult too, can call this number and we are in such a good place to help our kids know it's okay you have somebody it's free it's anonymous I mean this is just fantastic so I would love for this to be a thing that in our schools our kids are saying oh yeah this is this cool thing that you know I can I have this is at my disposal and it's okay that I needed it you know two months ago when things were really bad and it becomes just part of our culture that we all accept help and go seek help when it's needed And that has everything to do with our health classes, obviously. But in general, as a community, our teachers and the fact that we obviously prioritize health and wellness and mental health, it just should be part of the thread of our whole community. That we talk about being healthy physically. We talk about being healthy mentally. Those are all just as important. And I just love the idea that now we have this amazing resource that every single one of our students can access anytime. I want them to know how incredibly powerful that can be in their lives. So I just, again, our health teachers do an amazing job. But yeah, any way this can be tied into our curriculum in any class in terms of just that access, knowledge of the access and knowledge and the destigmatization of, you know, it's huge in my opinion and here we are trying to have a wellness center this is a huge part of a wellness center in my opinion that that access and it's free and it's just dropping in our lap so let's embrace it and make sure our students really see it for what it is which is just an invaluable thing for them to fall back on and for their families to fall back. I mean, think what they could say to their families when they go home and, you know, uncle whatever and maybe he should call and it's just such, it's very empowering and I'm just really happy that the crime rate is there because then boom, now we can use that requirement to then use it in order to make our community safer and just more strong in terms of their outlook on you know, resources and what's okay to, you know, to need help with, et cetera.

I assume we have a CRT crisis response team established and do we have one at each school? Okay. Great.

Anyone else? Great. Great. I just have one quick question and the answer might lie within the suicide crisis lifeline number. But is there a place, a safe place for children that are worried about a friend to call and report something anonymously?

Yeah, all of the resources that are currently available, even for our student who is in crisis, are also available to friends who need to report. Obviously, we always encourage them to tell an adult, and that has happened. We've had students reach out to us over the weekend or during off hours, and they have really saved their classmates' lives. Or we have students who reach out to their trusted adult, And, you know, we work with our community-based resources, often with police departments to do wellness checks depending on the time of day. But I do think that all of those things are also available. You know, there's the Courage to Report. There's our Quick Tip. There's a lot of other resources that all of our students can take advantage of.

Awesome. And how is it – how are those are continuously communicated to the kids? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Wonderful.

And a lot of those things are awesome. Great.

Terrific.

Yeah.

I'm glad we talked about that. You brought up the trusted adult. So the fact is, first of all, where are we in that process? Because I know we were relooking at, you know, do we have that? It was sort of in place in a solid way before the pandemic, and then we're relooking at do our kids at the high school have a trusted adult? Is that correct? Yes, that is work that Dr. Kachewski was leading. Good. Okay. And so that's in process, right, in progress right now? Yes. Okay and so here's my thought is if someone calls someone wants to get a hold of their trusted adult and is potentially in a crisis does that trusted adult have the understanding and knowledge of the screener that they would need, the things they would need to ask in order to assess

that person? Well, they would never be responsible for assessing them unless they are someone who's been trained to do so. But all of our, we, as part of our suicide risk training that we do both in person and through our safe schools training, everyone is directed to connect with someone on their crisis response team. It's often the counselor or the social workers. usually the first folks that they'll reach out to. So those folks can do, have a smooth handoff again, keeping everyone supervised and make sure they're safe until someone who's been trained can further assess the situation. Okay.

So our, our teachers are, I want them to feel confident that they would know what to do in the situation. If you know, if they, you know, I don't want them to feel like, Oh, did I do the right thing or not? Did I, did you know what I'm saying? I want them to really know, um, the procedure is so they can feel like they did the right thing and getting the person to the resources they need

yeah so we do regular training and slowly with them I think it's also important to know that in those moments that I kind of just described those things happen very organically so you know it's and there's really not always a predictor and so it's whoever students feel like that they can reach out to the most quickly is who they'll talk to so

Great this okay so this is great I'm glad that we're revising this policy and with that I think we're on to our action item for the responsive services grant.

I move that the Board of Education approve the immediate responsive services grant through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as described above.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Questions? Comments? in favor aye any opposed great motion passes

I move that the Board of Education approved the recommended changes for policy B DDF voting method

second it's been moved and seconded questions or comments all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes and last one Stacy

Is this supposed to be declined?

Yes, it is. I'll explain to you why. I

move that the Board of Education decline the suggested changes for policy BDDL, release of information.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. So the reason why we have this action is because, correct me if I'm wrong, but at the last meeting Jason Wilson brought up a very valid point of there really was no reason, we weren't making these changes pursuant to any law change. They were just some recommended changes from MSBA that didn't really need to be made and we liked the policy the way that it read prior to their recommendations. So that's what's leading us to this particular motion.

okay so the motion was to decline it

so just to clarify if we if we vote in favor of this motion we will not be changing our existing policy but it will that policy will still be in place

correct okay are there any further questions all in favor aye any opposed motion passes I move

that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda for agenda items 9.02 through 9.05. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Let's see. So our financials. John, do you have anything?

There's three items. The first item is a financial report for information only. Second is the disbursement approval and the third relates to closing out the 22 the 21-22 school year open POS and unspent capital improvement money that we're rolling forward into the current year. So we're requesting it's really a budget adjustment to the current budget.

Great. Any questions?

Okay. I move that the Board of Education approve December 2022 disbursements in the sum of $2,382,665.56. Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? I move that the Board of Education approve an adjustment to the 2022-2023 budget. A, increasing the Fund 1 expenditure budget by $96,260 due to carry forward of open 2021-2022 open purchase orders. B, increasing the Fund 4 expenditure budget by $4,610,230 due to carry forward and capital projects, and C, increasing the fund for budget by $636,790 due to carry forward of unspent 2021-2022 facility improvement funding and technology improvement funding.

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

Sorry. I just want to point out for anybody, those sound like really big numbers. Yeah. critical term and what words that you just read out there are the carry forward, the stuff that was in previous year's budget that was not spent. And so we're rolling those expenditures forward because we didn't spend it during that year. So in the grand pool of money that the school district is spending, that's not a $10 million sum of that 4 million. So I think that's important for all of us to make sure we understand and for any of the public listening that we're not just saying, yeah, $4 million, no problem. That's money that had previously been approved by previous boards for expenditures that we didn't incur in that year that we're rolling forward to this year.

And just also along those lines, John, would you just explain like Fund 1, Fund 4, Fund 4?

Fund 1 is our general fund and our current year operating expenditures, services, supplies, payroll are coming out of that. Fund 4 is our capital improvement fund and we're spending or purchasing assets that have a lifespan more than typically one year. Most of that carry forward in Fund 4, that $4. plus million, are the The construction projects that were in progress started last year, completed in this fiscal year. We've been spending that money all along. We're just moving the budget forward to cover those spending. Those projects are basically reaching completion at this time and there's very little money left to be spent on them. Thank

you. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Thank you.

thanks John okay board communications let's see what do we have does anybody have any reports

I'm just a couple of things quickly I just want to acknowledge the event that we were I invited to at Y-Down last night, which I thought was really great. And I just want to point out kind of along the lines of some of the things that we've talked about tonight and approved tonight, in the student presentations that we all got a chance to look at, the – I mean, prevalence isn't even the right word. Almost – it was almost all of these things mentioned mental health or things like that. And it was very noticeable and makes me really glad that we're doing things that will help us to assess that. So I appreciated being invited and felt like we should point that out. Also, I just wanted to remind everyone that the legislative advocacy kind of inter-district group that we Participate in that's hosted by Webster is on Friday. It's via zoom now. So anyone and everyone can participate And it's coming up Friday

It should be on everybody's calendar 8 o'clock 8 o'clock Anyone else

Everyone is welcome to the Merrimack Pancake Breakfast on Saturday morning at the Clayton High School. Should be a great time.

Are you cooking pancakes?

I think I'm overseeing the volunteers serving the pancakes. Supervising? We'll find out. We'll find out, 50-50.

Jason, I heard that you are doing an excellent job with the pancake breakfast this year. I'm being serious. I don't know what you're doing, but...

Honestly, I'm so nervous that I'll screw it up for everyone. What are

the hours for that breakfast?

Well, I'll be there at 6.30, but I think it's 9 to noon.

Okay,

great.

Sliding with my high schoolers.

Anything else? Communications? Anything that somebody wants to talk about? Nothing? Okay. Then Stacey, we will go ahead and adjourn. I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned.