May 15, 2024 — Meeting Transcript

has been given, I'd like everyone to join me in saying the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Chris, do you want to read the motion?

I move that we adopt the agenda as posted.

Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye, any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Okay, recognizing our own, Dr. Poole.

Good evening. So the month of May, there are a lot of things to celebrate. So the first thing we're going to do this evening is that we're going to recognize Jewish American Heritage Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Month to kind of talk about some things that have been happening within the district and some things that our students have been doing in the name of these months. We're going to have them come up and kind of Talk about that and talk about the importance and some of the great things that they are doing. So we'll start with Jewish American Heritage Month or Asian American Pacific Islander Month. There we go. So you all can come on up. We'll have some students from our Asian Student Association, and I have a presentation to share for you all today. You're welcome to sit down.

Cool, so happy AAPI month from ASA. Just a little side note, we just came from the city hall, so that's why we're dressed up. We had to perform for their AAPI celebration So we played some music there. But just a little bit of history tidbits if you guys didn't know, May celebrates when the Transcontinental Railroad was finished and a lot of Chinese and Japanese immigrants worked on this railroad and were undervalued. So that's kind of why we choose May to celebrate it. Also a cool tidbit, Max over here and a couple other Asian students in 2023 testified in the Missouri court to pass a bill to recognize AAPI month as a state. But getting into kind of the purpose of AAPI month and why ASA takes some time to celebrate it is that we think that the Clayton community should really appreciate the diversity of students and take some time to represent the Asian community in Clayton and include all the students there. So let me pass it off to my other members, and they can talk about what we've been doing so far.

Yeah, so one of the things that we've been doing as a community lately, not only us, but also other Clayton students and students from around the area, is we've been working with the Very Asian Foundation and the Maybook Project, which are both student-led initiatives, which the Maybook Project is aimed at expanding AAPI literature throughout schools. And this is led by students. And so we recently held a Very Asian concert to kind of you know, kind of spread representation and awareness. And yeah, so that's some of that. We've been kind of working on that behind the scenes. It features a lot of different people from around the St. Louis area. Yeah.

Yeah, so I'd just like to add on. Specifically, Catherine and I, we actually performed at the Very Asian concert, and Dante and Elise, they helped set up, helped plan for this concert. And this concert was actually at the St. Louis Art Museum, and we... had about, I would say, 40 to around 50 performers, people helping set it up. We performed traditional Chinese, traditional instruments, Asian instruments, dances, and all sorts of different culture from Asia.

My name is Dante, and I'm currently in Clayton. I'm working on something called the May Book Project. So this is a nationwide thing hosted by the Very Asian Foundation, which is started by Michelle Lee. And this is to get more books into schools. There was a group of professors who curated a list of good books for cultural purposes. and she really helped start this in COVID, and we were very fortunate to have her for a speaker event at Clayton, and it was pretty good. And a lot of people showed up, and the Maybook project, we're still raising money for it in Clayton schools, and I mean...

And at this event, of course, Michelle Lee did talk, but also at the concert and through various fundraising activities throughout the community lately, we've been able to raise upwards of $2,000 for the May Book Project Foundation. And that will go directly to elementary schools in the area who may feel underrepresented in Asian literature. And so we will be donating sets of books to those schools in the coming months.

All right, so this event is very dear to me. I'll explain a little later. But this is an event we held, I think, in February at CHS in Mr. De La Paz's room. So it was ASA. We hosted it. And basically, my grandparents actually um they made like the filling the filling for the dumplings and like the um the outside layer as well and then so during the lunch period we basically brought in a lot of people and we um we were just making dumplings and um cooking them and eating them all during the lunch period and i think this event was very fun we weren't trying to raise money we were just trying to spread culture and we um Yeah, we taught people how to make dumplings. And I think it was a very good experience and helped raise some awareness and helped bring people to start to understand or like start to get to know ASA more. Yeah.

In the last couple of weeks, we have been doing a bakery fundraiser to help raise awareness and some funds for ASA for next year. These are some pictures. What we've been doing is we've gone to the Weihong Bakery, which is off of Olive, and we have been buying buns, an assortment of them, and selling them during lunch at school. Here are some pictures of that picture. But we really have been enjoying this, and we've done this to raise awareness and money for next year ASA, but also to kind of just make it more of a human thing and kind of personalize it. Because you can hear all about ASA and the announcements or whatnot, but this is something that people can really engage with. during the school day, which is super cool. And yeah, it's been super successful. We've had two so far and we have another coming up this Friday. So if anyone would like to come get more, if they maybe didn't get them in the last two events, but yeah.

Yeah. Along with spreading awareness, we have been trying to get awareness in the announcements. And because we started doing video announcements, we thought this was a great time to start doing this. Max and I kind of started this project where we started doing facts every day into the announcements. And I think it was pretty fun. We got a lot of people to do it. And it's short, but it's pretty interesting. We also recorded a game show for the GET. And I don't know if that's broadcasting in May or on the May GET or not, but we're just trying to spread awareness in general. through these outreach fundraiser events that are fun and people can engage, or with other events where we just help people learn about culture.

Is that the last? Okay, just talking about the, I guess, future plans for ASA. We're definitely going to try to keep up this momentum in the upcoming years and hopefully reach out to more of the Clayton community, including maybe going to the elementary schools or wide-owned and having outreach there, and also keeping more representation throughout the high school with bake sales and whatnot throughout the year. So definitely stay in tune with ASA. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you.

I'm glad you're dressed from the City Hall performance. It's fitting. Thank you so much to all four of you for not only telling us about AAPI Month, but also updating us on all the great things that ASA does. I'm really impressed and I love that you don't just have meetings with yourselves, but that you've made it a point to educate the whole community about AAPI and Asian culture. So thank you. Great job. Let us know next time there's a dumpling event, too. I feel like I missed out. Yeah. Thanks. Friday for buns. Okay.

All right. Next up we will have Noah to come speak about Jewish American Heritage Month.

There's a, push the button on the bottom there. There

we go. Good? Okay, awesome. Hello everyone, my name is Noah Lerman and I am a junior at Clayton High School. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all today regarding the significance of American Jewish History Month, Heritage Month, I'm sorry. As a Jewish student, I believe it is crucial to recognize and honor the profound contributions of Jewish Americans as they have played a significant role in shaping our nation's history. American Jewish Heritage Month is not just about commemorating history. It's about celebrating the values of resilience, diversity, and community that Jewish Americans embody. Their achievements in fields such as science, literature, and the arts have left an everlasting mark on our society. For me, Jewish Heritage Month holds personal significance. It is a reminder of the importance of inclusivity and understanding in our school community. By learning about the experiences of Jewish Americans, we gain insight to the struggles they've faced and the triumphs they've achieved, inspiring all students to embrace diversity and stand up to prejudice. Take, for example, the story of Jonas Salk whose discovery of the polio vaccine saved countless lives. His dedication to science and humanity exemplifies the spirit of American Jewish Heritage Month. Similarly, the work of Ruth Bader Ginsburg who fought for gender equality and justice serves as a testament to the enduring impact of Jewish Americans in our society. One step that I've taken to advocate for Jewish students was in the months of January and February, I, along with two other Jewish students in the Clayton High School, planned and led a program for Clayton High School students. In said program, we worked with a local rabbi to lead a 90-minute crash course and discussion on the history of Israel, anti-Semitism, and the current conflict in Gaza. About 20 students participated, and I believe that the event was a success. There will be more of these events in the coming year, and I hope that our participation will increase. I have a few Jewish organization leadership roles that I will hold next year, and I believe these resources and knowledge that I gain from these positions will better equip me to help lead and plan these events. In conclusion, I urge the Board to support initiatives that honor Jewish Americans, As anti-Semitism continues to rise, us Jewish students in the district are looking for your support now more than ever. Thank you.

Thank you, Noah. And Dr. Wiens. By the way, you kids can leave if you don't want to stay for the rest of our riveting board meeting.

Good evening, everyone. It is a pleasure to come to the table tonight to recognize Mental Health Awareness Month. And this is a time to educate our community about the resources and the strategies available to support the mental health and well-being of everyone, both the adults and students across our country and in our school district. And tonight I have Jennifer McEwen, our wellness coordinator at the high school, to tell everyone a little bit more about what's been happening at the high school this month in honor of mental health awareness.

Thank you, Robin. I want to just thank the board for having me here and also thank you for being so supportive of the Wellness Center. The students have responded to this space here at Clayton High School. And as we're talking about mental health awareness, I wanted to share some data with you guys that we just reviewed in our panorama survey when we asked some questions about the Wellness Center. And it just shows the awareness that we're creating and the space that we're creating for students. When we asked some questions related to do the students know about the Wellness Center, 96% of students are aware of the Wellness Center here at Clayton High School on just over two months of us being open. And then also 67% of students know how to refer themselves or a friend. just showing that you have created a space and students are responding, students are aware that this is expanding the safety net for them. So I just wanted to make you guys aware and thank you for your support of this space. And then this month we've done a lot at the high school. We've Done two events this month really interactive events. We partner with all in coalition to do some trivia related to coping skills and We have done a poster campaign around campus giving you know tools and guidance and resources for students Next week is our wellness week, which is a highlight for students in supporting and giving some activities for their wellness before finals. And then we also have our summer wellness resource list that we're going to be sharing out to students so that they know that even though our school is closed, that help is always available and support is always available, even over the summer months. And then we've also done some outreach for staff. We've shared some resources to engage in some mindfulness practices if they would like in their classroom. And then we're also sharing some staff wellness tips and resources for them as well this month. So we're really trying to spread the awareness, provide resources, and I'm really excited about the response from students and staff. And I'm really excited to continue this work next year.

And as part of our strategic plan, we're thinking about students' mental health throughout the school year, not just in the month of May. And so I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your support of our work with Center for Mindfulness, which helps run group sessions for students at our elementary schools and our middle school. And over the course of this school year, we've had nearly 75 students participate in targeted skill groups. Everything from coping skills, anxiety management, positive thinking, and emotional regulation We've been able to address our students' needs and build their skill sets and support their parents through all of this by working with therapists on a regular basis from Center for Mindfulness. So I just want to thank you for that support, and we had a great debrief meeting with them today, and we are looking forward to collaborating with them again in the future.

Thank you. This is a big month. Lots of mental health awareness issues is obviously important to recognize, but I'm glad you pointed out that, of course, not just in May. So thanks for highlighting the panorama data too. I appreciate that. Thank you. In addition to AAPI month and Jewish American Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm sure Dr. Patel will talk about this, but I'd also like to point out that we just recently had National School Nurses Day, and we all know what an important role our nurses play in all of our students' lives, not just physical ailments, emotional ones as well. They are a huge support to all of our students so I want to give them a big shout out and also, as probably you all know, Teacher Appreciation Week and I feel very lucky to both be on the board and have my kids as students in this district. I think Clayton has the best teachers and I am incredibly grateful and appreciative of all of you that are either here in person or watching virtually or not We appreciate everything you do. We all know that teachers are the number one most important factor to our students' success, and I appreciate everything you all do. So thank you. Luke, do we have any public comments? Okay, Dr. Patel.

Great, thank you. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our board meeting. And I know we have a larger than normal crowd today, and I see a familiar face in the third row, Debbie Riley. Thank you for joining us here today, because I know you just love for me to highlight you right now. So why not? So welcome back. Thank you for being here today. So a lot of things are happening. As Stacey said, it's the end of the year. We are... towards the end and summer's coming. And this week we had our seniors, a lot of activities for our seniors at the high school. I feel like every day there's something happening, which is a great thing. And speaking of seniors, when you think of college or when you think of a signing day, you typically think of a student signing a letter with the intent to play a sport at a specific university. Well, I'm really excited because this year for the first time we actually had an educator signing day. We want to empower and inspire our students to go into the field of education. And so I want to thank Lauren Compton for actually taking charge of this, and it's part of the state's focus on Grow Your Own program. So we actually have three students that are going into the field of Education, and two of them were able to come, and we really just did a small ceremony and celebrated them. for going into the profession of education. And hopefully, over time, we can have more and more of our students going there and then go to college and then come back and be our teachers. So I just thought that was a great way to start their career by celebrating them. and going into the profession. So I wanted to make sure we have three students that are committed to going to different universities, and two of them are pictured here that are going to Loyola, and then University of Georgia, and then we have Denison University as well. So great celebration there. And then this week, we got some really good news. Merrimack and Captain were recognized by DESE as being a Missouri Gold Star School. And so we took two of the eight spots that the state has, which is incredible. And this is really just a recognition of the academic achievement that's been really from state assessments, specifically in math and ELA. And I really want to congratulate the students and the staff and the communities, really, for their efforts in this because it's a reflection of their hard work every single day. So congratulations to both of them. And then last week we recognized our staff at the annual Mayfair Awards that we have every year, and I always say this is one of my favorite evenings as well. And thank you, Jason, Chris, and Stacy for being there. But it's really an evening where we get to celebrate our staff. We had about 43 staff members that we recognized for years of service. And when I say years of service, from like 10 years in the district to 35 years in the district. 37, there you go. 36, there you go. And then we also celebrated 22 staff members that retired with over 35 years, some of them. So it was really a great night and you get to hear their stories and their journeys and it's a feel good event. So thank you also for attending and congratulations to all of them. And then tonight we are going to have three presentations. The first one is on early childhood and The coordinator, Kristen, is going to be up here with Dr. Garganigo and our director, Amy Perry, and they're going to share with us all the work that the curriculum committee has been working on and their goals for the upcoming years. And then we will have Paragon, who is here, that we've partnered with to work with our long-range facilities master plan that will share their high level like plan for the next eight to nine months and then finally we have Mr. Raziel who will be here to give us a preliminary budget and which will be brought to you in the June meeting for final adoption and then before I hand it off to actually Stacy we have a quick video that we wanted to just share it's less than two minutes in recognizing our teachers because we also had as Stacy said teacher appreciation week so we put together a quick video for us to see.

And as Stacey said, they truly are our heroes. So thank you for all that you do for our students every single day. Stacey.

Okay, before I hand it off to Mohini, we have, this is our second to last board meeting of the year. The next one is after school is out. So Mohini, it's up to you whether you wanna come to that one or not. But in case you don't, I just wanna take the opportunity to publicly thank Mohini for being an incredible student representative to the school board this year. It is crucial to our decision making to hear a student's voice and you were so good at sharing that and your perspective and not only yours, Thank you for also bringing the voices of elementary school kids and middle school kids and other high schoolers to the table. Every time you speak, we all learn something. We appreciate the questions you asked and all the additional information you give us. So thank you, Mohini, and congratulations on doing a great job as our student rep. We will miss you. behalf of all of us i gave mohini earlier a gift a little gift and some flowers um i'd also like to take this opportunity to introduce our new student rep lucia lorena um we are really excited to have lucia join us as the next student rep we had several students apply for the position and i want to thank um Chris Win and Dr. Patel and Mohini for helping with the process we had reviewed several applications we brought back some for a first round of interviews and they were all so great that we couldn't decide so we brought up some back for a second round of interviews and actually the last round of interview what we did is have the students present to us like Mohini does a student rep update as if they were at the board table and the candidates were all very impressive but we were extra impressed with Lucia and we are very excited to have her join us so Welcome, Lucia. And if you, by the way, if you don't want to stay the whole night, you don't have to. But we're happy to have you. We're happy to have him here.

Okay, before I hand it off to Mohini, we have, this is our second to last board meeting of the year. The next one is after school is out. So Mohini, it's up to you whether you wanna come to that one or not. But in case you don't, I just wanna take the opportunity to publicly thank Mohini for being an incredible student representative to the school board this year. It is crucial to our decision making to hear a student's voice and you were so good at sharing that and your perspective and not only yours, Thank you for also bringing the voices of elementary school kids and middle school kids and other high schoolers to the table. Every time you speak, we all learn something. We appreciate the questions you asked and all the additional information you give us. So thank you, Mohini, and congratulations on doing a great job as our student rep. We will miss you. behalf of all of us i gave mohini earlier a gift a little gift and some flowers um i'd also like to take this opportunity to introduce our new student rep lucia lorena um we are really excited to have lucia join us as the next student rep we had several students apply for the position and i want to thank um Chris Wynn and Dr. Patel and Mohini for helping with the process we had reviewed several applications we brought back some for a first round of interviews and they were all so great that we couldn't decide so we brought up some back for a second round of interviews and actually the last round of interview what we did is have the students present to us like Mohini does a student rep update as if they were at the board table and the candidates were all very impressive but we were extra impressed with Lucia and we are very excited to have her join us so Welcome, Lucia. And if you, by the way, if you don't want to stay the whole night, you don't have to. But we're happy to have you. We're happy to have him here.

Yes.

So let's give Mohini and Lucia a round of applause. Thank you. And with that, Mohini, I'll turn it over to you.

Hi, everybody. Thank you so much. I really appreciate being on the board for the last year. And after doing interviews, Lucia has just done such a great job in the community and helping everyone. And I know for a fact she'll continue to bring a fresh perspective on the board. And so I'm really excited to see her continue being the great job that's student rep. To get started, the first thing I wanted to talk about was NHS, the National Honor Society. And so right now, both sophomores and juniors, if they have enough volunteer hours and if a teacher recommends you, you are able to join the National Honor Society which means you are a member of the community who can help with volunteering and whatnot. And so right now, what they're required to do on the National Honor Society is volunteer about 20 hours once they are let into the society in order to continue their membership. And so the purpose of this really is to make sure students are staying involved in the community, and especially in a program called peer tutoring, where basically for an hour or a couple times a week, people will go to a learning center room or in the counselor's office to tutor one of their peers. However, there has been an issue where two main issues have arisen this year from National Honor Society. The first one mainly being that it was only introduced into the second semester of the year, so a lot of students are really struggling to get that 20-hour limit. And especially when they do go for tutoring, what's also become an issue is that students aren't showing up. And so for about an hour, they'll go and sit in an empty room and basically not... like spend a great time using their time and really wasting this opportunity we have to reach out to the student community. And so I think what's happening right now is there's just a lack of awareness with teachers and even other students. I talked to some freshmen, and especially concerning the subject of physics, a lot of freshmen have actually wanted to be tutored and want that sort of support, but not a lot of people knew it existed or how it even works. And so I think going on for NHS, it would be because this program has so many, I think 60 students who are in it, I think in order to really help the most number of students, peer tutoring definitely should be more widely known to teachers and students or to actually see a change. And then also, an update for CHS is we have our final schedule. And usually it's been you go to your first hour and your second hour and so on. But this year they've actually reversed the final schedule. So it's 8, 7, 6 instead. And a lot of students really don't understand why this is happening. There's not a lot of, like an email didn't really go out saying, oh, we've changed the schedule. So a lot of students actually didn't know this was happening. But further than that, it is sort of disorienting to a certain extent, especially since because it runs on a 3-3-2 sort of days because we don't have all our classes on the same day, you could actually have a different number of finals on each day compared to the winter semester final. So it's just like a different structure and a lot of students don't really understand why this is happening and further don't really think it's maybe that necessary especially since it's basically very similar and so it's like a lot of struggles for students trying to figure out how that final schedule is going to work. And then also, on the topic of the Wellness Center, all these programs, students have actually been using them. A lot of students do, in fact, actually know about the Wellness Center and really appreciate its existence. An issue that has been happening is that teachers really don't want to refer kids to the wellness center or won't write them a pass during class in order to actually access those resources. A lot of teachers don't really understand how it works, and they just overall, students don't really feel comfortable asking to use the wellness center during class. And so while the Wellness Center has been extremely effective, when we look at lunch and Greyhound time and all the outreach they've been doing, when we look those extremely critical moments when people use the Wellness Center, especially during class or when they actually might need it, a lot of students aren't able to access a resource that they should. And so teachers really need to know how the Wellness Center works and understand that when their student is asking to be referred to the Wellness Center, that they're looking for support that they can't access in class. And so working towards seeing the Wellness Center, even though it's new, next year becoming more consistent for students not to feel scared in class to ask to use it would be a really great change to see. And then next, about the announcements. It was great that the ASA came here because almost every single day on the announcements they talk about Asian American Heritage Month and they really spread to the school great things about our community and what they're doing to help. However, once again, some teachers don't show the announcements. And in some cases, people have free periods or are just simply unable to access it. And I heard one student talk about how the TVs across the school used to actually show the announcements during the time they go on because there's some in the basement. There's some in the library. kids in the SPSA particular were thinking that if they had access to the announcements through these new means that they don't have to actually be in class, that there'll be a lot more awareness, especially since it's spreading all the important information you need to know, the school and the resources and just everything we're offering. And then also as graduation is nearing, You know, we're excited to see all our seniors graduate. I know there's four seniors in the SPSA and they've been talking a lot about graduation, the plans and everything that's concerning it. One thing the seniors were wondering and hoping in maybe in the future is that they had the opportunity to decorate their hats. I know it's something they do in other schools, and they were saying that you're not allowed to walk the stage if you decorate your hat. And so when we think about those graduation celebration moments, when students wear cords or decorate their hat or do something, it's really an opportunity for them to express what they've been doing at Clayton High School for so long and express themselves. And so seniors really want to have the opportunity to do that and Yeah, the seniors would be really excited if that were to happen in the future. And then finally, in regards to classes as this week and last week were AP tests, I heard a lot of feedback from juniors in particular about AP classes, and specifically how because they weren't able to take AP classes their freshman and sophomore year, they were completely unprepared for the test this year. Lucy and I are in AP Chem, and a lot of students had it. That was their first test they took on a Monday morning, and they were brought straight into a three-and-a-half-hour test. And a lot of kids didn't really understand the time management skills, what an AP test even looks like, the preparation throughout the year, and how to actually prepare. And so while the curriculum does have so many opportunities for students to stick with the class and really grow in each of the subjects containing a specific path. A lot of students feel like the opportunity to take at least one AP class before their junior year would make it a lot less daunting and a lot more approachable, especially since because students couldn't take AP class in the past, if they actually can't handle it, they don't know until it's ultimately too late and they're already in the class and are really forced to take a $60 test. And so when we're thinking about classes, about the juniors and how stressful that time really is, AP test is looking towards helping students be more prepared before they actually get to junior year would be great. And so as my last student rep update, I want to again thank everyone so much for having me. I've had a lot of fun this year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mohini, again. for a great last update. And like I said before, you've been great. We'll miss your voice at the table and wish you the best of luck. Have a great summer. Dr. Milena Garganigo, we're on to our first presentation, early childhood.

Thank you, Mohini, again. for a great last update. And like I said before, you've been great. We'll miss your voice at the table and wish you the best of luck. Have a great summer. Dr. Garganego, we're on to our first presentation, early childhood.

Good evening. We are here tonight to present the early childhood goals and the work of the committee. Similar to the other departments that have come this year, early childhood can be confusing in the sense that there's a program and there's a curriculum. Our focus tonight really is around curriculum. But we know that there are things that the board has wanted to know about programming, particularly about things like enrollment and those types of things. So we tried to add some of those things into the report for you to give a perspective on our enrollment at the Family Center is healthy, continues to grow, and we've continued to look at different ways to think about programming in order to better meet the needs of the families within the community. So tonight we're really going to amplify our early childhood curriculum. I have Kristen Redder here with me, who is the early childhood curriculum coordinator. And I publicly want to thank you for the work that you do to lead us In this area and for your expertise in the area, I will say publicly that one of the things that the family Center as a whole has taught me. is really about the idea of empowering children and thinking about children from a very early age and the ways that we interact with children, the ways that we see them as capable. The work that we do with them that's important and the play-based curriculum and the way that we talk and ask questions, I have learned a tremendous amount from the team behind us and sitting at the table with me. And I have been very humbled at times by the work that they do with children and the way that they've helped me understand better how to interact with our youngest learners. I am by default a secondary person, and when I first came into the Family Center, they welcomed me with open arms. They were very encouraging and would pull me aside sometimes and say, Here's a different way to ask that question. And that has been tremendously empowering to me as an educator and the work that I do with children. And I just want to say that publicly to the whole team, because the school as a whole and the teachers that work in that school are really amazing with the work that they do. Our focus tonight you'll see is a lot around goal two of the strategic plan and around empowered learning. and the sense of even with our youngest learners, so 18 months old to five years old, the things that we can do to help them to feel capable, to make their work important, and to empower them with this idea of voice and choice and path and place and pace. So one of the things that we're gonna do tonight is have two of our teachers share a little bit around a story within their classroom of some of the work that they're doing. We think that this is really important to understanding the teaching and learning environment with our youngest learners. And then Kristen will talk about the long range goals focused with the curriculum.

It is a pleasure to be here tonight to present the early childhood goals. And while I am this person that is speaking tonight, like most everything at the Family Center, this was a team effort. So let me introduce the team. We have Amy Perry, our director in the front row here. And our former director, as Misha mentioned, is also here, Debbie Riley. And we have quite a few of our teachers here today. Give a little wave if you're a teacher. Thank you. And also some of our curriculum committee members were not able to be here tonight, but they greatly supported this process So I want to thank them as well. Thank you family center team And now I would like to introduce I'm Susan Andy and Anna Schwartzman and They are two of our Red Room teachers, and they are co-teachers in a Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning class of children that have turned three over the course of the school year. And in a moment, they're going to share with you, as Melina said, what an emergent curriculum looks like with some of our youngest students. So thank you for being here today. Susan and Anna are going to show us some examples that clearly demonstrate why this kind of teaching and learning is so important. We also hope that you will see our desire to be present, to honor and respect each child in each family, to build community, and to allow and inspire wonder with children, families, and colleagues at the Family Center. So I will turn it over to them now.

We need the clicker because we have a lot of photos to share with you. Hi. As Kristen mentioned, Susan and I have the privilege of working in a class of some of the district's youngest learners. The children in our class are two and three years old. They're very, very joyful, and as we hope you will see, so very capable even at their young age. Throughout this school year, we've been involved in an ongoing investigation of light and shadow. Here is a photo of the window in our classroom that has provided us so much to think about. We are excited to share a bit about this investigation with you all, with the intention of providing a glimpse into the way we work and what life looks like in a Family Center classroom. We also hope that this will provide you with more context for our goals and recommendations that will move our work forward. So don't forget to look at the screen.

Our investigation began in early October and is still continuing. Over the course of these eight months, we have wondered, imagined, created and discovered. We have played with and been delighted by shadows, reflections and rainbows. We have used a wide array of open-ended materials as a way to deepen understanding while also exploring our ideas and questions. We have had experiences that cover all areas of our curriculum. Language and literacy experiences included representing some of our ideas on paper, using words to exchange ideas, reading books together, and eventually creating a book of our own. Science learning included sharing theories, researching, making predictions, and conducting many experiments as we learned to create and change rainbows. We learned about math as ideas emerged about sequencing and color order and as we counted what became known as the visiting rainbows. Children participated in music, movement, and dramatic play as we chased and played with the light and shadow, used expressive movement and dramatic play to act out what was happening, sang songs together, and created and acted out stories. And perhaps our most important learning was related to the social emotional development and approaches to learning strand of our curriculum. Throughout this process, we deepened our understanding about the world around us and each other. We opened up opportunities to develop a strong sense of wonder and curiosity that we know will serve us well in future learning journeys. Teachers and children have spent time reveling in the idea that there is not always just one right answer. There is great value in hearing the perspective and question of others. Can you hear evidence of children sharing their thoughts and ideas in the following conversations?

Evie, I see the sun up in the sky, and that makes a shadow rainbow. Hey, and my shadow. Yuzu, oh, what happened? Moving her animal back and forth, making the shadow disappear and then reappear. Hugh, let me see what will happen if I put this colored block up there. It makes rainbows on the wall. See? Shiori, I see it.

Josie, I cannot find the dog shadow anymore. Anna, what do you think happened? Josie, well, because it left. Where'd it go? I just miss it. What happened to the dog shadow? I'm trying to get it back with my light. I'm trying to catch it. Leo, that's interesting because the sun is gone, but we can help it come back with the lights, I think. Elliot, I help too. Josie, the sun will come back soon and the dog shadow will come back soon. Jackie, wait. I see nothing still on the wall. That's strange. Why? Maybe somebody took it. I just don't know. Anna, this is all giving us a lot to think about. Benny, I'll read a book about it to find out.

And just remember, these children are two and three. Elliot, so many rainbows. Jackie, Elliot, let's create a house. Hugh, create, create, create. Elliot, a rainbow house. It's something beautiful. Hugh, I'll add a CD. Rainbows like that. Josie, I'll put a rainbow on you, Hugh, holding up a CD. Elliot, I found this long piece of shiny ribbon. It's a surprise for the rainbow. Jackie, this will be a beautiful house with beautiful things for the rainbows. We invited families along with us on our learning journey over the past months as well. Families sent in materials to support our classroom investigations. They shared photos of shadows along with questions and thinking from home. They later then also were invited to come into our classroom where the children proudly showed them all of their work. During these family visits, the children shared the book that we made about shadows. Together, we played with the light and shadow. We painted, drew with chalk, and used blocks and other materials to represent and exchange ideas with one another. Families appreciated experimenting with us, and we loved having them visit the Red Room.

There have been many important connections related to the world outside of our classroom. You better believe that learning about Groundhog Day and the solar eclipse were exciting and meaningful topics for this group of light and shadow enthusiasts.

All this work has been possible because of the underpinnings of our school's values and beliefs about emergent play-based curriculum and reflective practice. As children work in play, we pay attention to the interests of the children, what questions they have, what they know and have to share. All of these things inform how our curriculum is implemented. We believe children are capable and worthy of rich environments that are full of possibilities for learning and exploration. We believe that even our youngest learners are capable of deep creative thinking and working collaboratively with others to weave together stories such as these. We will close with the children's poem from the book that we created about shadows.

What is a shadow? What makes a shadow? How can you find a shadow? It's a dark black. Shadows come from ourselves. Well, actually anything, anything can make a shadow. You need the sunshine. It's something that shines in the sun and on you. And when you run, it comes along with you and is always with you. and I think that's what a shadow is. Walking and walking, I have a shadow, and I see it. I think that's a shadow is. Hi shadows, I see you.

Thank you Susan and Anna for sharing the work of your classroom community. We appreciate it. I hope this provided you with a small window into what curriculum can look like in action at the Family Center. With a deeper understanding of how we work and what is happening in our classrooms, I think you'll clearly see why we have chosen these goals and why we think they're so important to our work. So now I'd like to take a few moments to review our recommendations for the goals. Goal number one, early childhood educators will deeply examine the questions of what it means to collaborate, observe and inquire with the intention of aligning practices and deepening a sense of belonging for children, teachers and families. This goal embodies the profile of the Clayton graduate competency of being a collaborator. Through connection and collaboration with others we deepen our sense of belonging. This goal came from our ongoing work of reflecting and really sitting with the questions of who are we and who do we want to be. As we think about our staff, we have three very experienced teachers that are retiring. Next year, we will have new teachers. We'll have teachers that have been with us for years and years, and we'll have teachers that fall somewhere in between. We are always working to align our teaching practices. As we do this work, it deepens our understanding of one another and our intentions for ourselves and for our students. To align our practices, we recommend examining our influences, participating in ongoing observations in one another's classrooms, and cracking open meaningful words to explore varied perspectives. This will give us clarity on similarities and differences. We strive to agree philosophically. It is helpful to have ongoing conversations to build understanding of where we can be loose and where we need to be tight in our practices. It is always important to understand the purpose, the why behind our work. To support our new teachers, we are working to refine the Family Center's new teacher induction program. An updated new teacher handbook will be shared with our new teachers this fall. A variety of staff members will share resources and information with them throughout the year. New teachers and current staff will participate in individual and small group coaching and ongoing observations. We know that our new teachers come to us with a wealth of knowledge and experiences, and we look forward to having opportunities for them to share their learning with colleagues. Together, we will work to create a sense of belonging for each child, family, and colleague. Goal number two. Early childhood educators will create and utilize systems for engaging in reflective practice in order to support our work with children, families, and colleagues. This goal strongly connects to the profile of a Clayton graduate competency of being intellectually curious. We are continuously learning as we reflect with children, families and colleagues by asking questions, solving problems and considering possibilities for moving our work forward. We recognize that as a staff, we are very reflective We do this well in many ways, however, the world is busy. And so we went to create more opportunities for being reflective. We went to refine and align systems that will support all of our teachers in the work of being effective, reflective practitioners. We went to build trust among our community of learners, and we went to grow our comfort with giving and receiving feedback. To support our growth, we recommend that we participate in self-reflection to further develop self-awareness, emotional awareness and a deeper understanding of individual beliefs, values and biases. We will refine and align systems of self-reflection that could include journaling, video reflection and coaching conversations. We will determine daily, weekly and monthly experiences for deepening our skills as reflective practitioners. to create a school-wide culture of listening and being open to the perspectives of others. We recommend increasing opportunities for ongoing reflective conversations among early childhood educators, providing ongoing opportunities to practice giving and receiving feedback, and creating a structure for weekly planning meetings. We will also work to make our reflective practices visible through journaling, our planning framework, blog posts, and documentation. Goal number three. As a family-centered community, we will renew our commitment to strengthen our relationships, cultural consciousness, and communication practices. This is the goal of ours because we believe it develops and encourages the growth of cultural consciousness and empathy. Strengthening cultural consciousness and empathy supports our work in building a strong community of learners. Several societal changes have greatly impacted our practice in recent years. COVID, issues related to social justice, concerns about school violence, and changes in family dynamics. It is a different world than it was five years ago. We want to continue to be a place where children are viewed as capable and competent, and we want each child, each family, and colleague to know that this is a place where they belong. At the Family Center, we continuously study what it means to be a community, to be in relationship with one another, and to value children's rights. We are on an incredible journey and we want it to be a shared experience with families, district colleagues, and the greater community. We know that we are stronger together. We are committed to strengthening our relationships, cultural consciousness, and communication practices. To strengthen family relationships, we recommend that we examine the impact of societal changes and determine possibilities for partnering with families. To deepen cultural consciousness, we recommend that we create assured experiences for increasing a sense of belonging, explore possibilities for learning together with families, and expand our resources and understanding by researching and learning from and with other schools committed to deepening their cultural consciousness. To strengthen our communication practices with families in the larger community, We recommend that we create a structure and timeline for sharing resources and information with families about curriculum, developmental milestones, parenting, and the value of play. We would also like to explore ways to share information about the progression of child development and the importance of play with the larger community. Children are our future. Everyone says it. It's a cliche, but we mean it. These children are our future. We also believe that children are our present. They are capable of teaching us and they are capable of influencing their own learning. We want all of our students to be self-actualized, intellectually curious, culturally conscious, and empathetic. We want them to be collaborators and creative thinkers. Learning about these attributes and developing these skills begins in early childhood at the Family Center on day one. That learning continues for our students throughout their experiences in elementary, middle and high school. It continues for all of us as lifelong learners. Everyone benefits from deepening and refining these skills. Our goals will support us in nurturing the growth of all of our children, families and teachers. We want to learn more about our children and their families, and we want to learn more creating a sense of belonging, becoming reflective practitioners, building cultural consciousness, and communicating efficiently and effectively. These goals will support us in making that possible. Thank you. I want to thank all of you for your time this evening and for all the work that you do for the Family Center community and for all of our schools, for our district families. You are greatly appreciated. And I also want to thank Melaina for supporting us with this process and for all of her past and future learning. Thank you.

Thank you so much for that great presentation. And I especially liked the kids' quotes, so thank you for including that. Anything a two-year-old says is cute, but those were exceptionally cute. Okay, I will go around and see if anyone has questions for you. I'll start with Kim. Anything?

Can you guys give us just a quick update on what enrollment trends look like at the Family Center? Are you guys at full enrollment right now or where are we in terms of what that looks like?

I did have a slide at the beginning that I skipped. So we are seeing sort of a steady increase in enrollment. And some of that also reflects what I was talking about at the beginning, the five morning and the three and four full day are new programs. So we've changed up some programming to meet the needs of the families. So right now we're projected at 116 for next year, but enrollment has not yet closed. So we anticipate that that will increase a little bit more before the fall.

And what would you guys consider full enrollment, given your current resource staffing?

I think typically in the two morning we are full at 10, and in the three morning we are full of 14. And then our programs for three-, four-, and five-year-olds are typically between 15, 17. We definitely wouldn't really want to have any more than 18 students per class. Thank you. Jason?

Chris, any questions? Yeah. Thank you so much for all of that. I'm so happy to see all my Family Center family members here. There couldn't have been a better experience for me and my family starting out in this district. Just couldn't have been. It's beyond. So I could go on about it. And I'm kind of emotional because my two boys who many of you taught are about to graduate. I credit. I know. I know. It makes us emotional too. What's that?

That makes us emotional, too.

Exactly. That's the community that you formed. You guys are truly part of these families. And my kids truly remember being in your classes and the feelings that they got when they got to study light and shadow. And as a parent, just learning from that experience that you were giving my kids was so, so valuable to me. So I just feel... extremely lucky to be here today to be able to thank all of you for the work that you do. It makes a huge difference in these families' lives, so thank you for that. Now, building on that, what I will say to you is that I love the idea that the work that you're doing and the understanding that you have of learning continues to be shared with the rest of the district, and certainly with families. And so I love how you've woven that into making sure that you communicate all of that. One thing in particular that was exciting to me, it was a, okay, I'll say it this way. It was a, I felt a bit of anxiety when my students who had been at the family center for three years, my kids, had been at the Family Center for three years, and then now are going to kindergarten. And I thought, uh-oh. How's that going to be for them? They spent three years in this environment of being extremely nurtured. The things that you do in those classrooms are so kid-focused in terms of where they are in their developmental stage, et cetera. And I had a lot of anxiety about what will that be like, especially for my two boys who were very active kids. How are they going to respond to kindergarten? There's very different expectations there. So what I loved seeing, and I was pleasantly surprised by when my two girls came along, which was a little later, but I wanted you to comment on it. Tell me more about... Has the understanding of the value of learning through play continued to be something that the kindergarten teachers embrace? I saw that happening, but I just want you to speak on that. And then after this, I'll say one other thing that's also related to this. But first, if you could answer that.

Sure. So a couple things that – so we would agree that that is something that is important for us to continue to focus on. Awesome. And so Amy and Kristen and I have had some conversation most recently about ways to partner particularly our kindergarten teachers and our early childhood teachers together through professional learning. Awesome. And we've had instances where that has worked well for us. And then we've had instances. Where it's like we could improve it in some way. Yeah. And so we want to be very thoughtful. About how we partner them up. To think through those pieces. Some of the things. So through summer institutes. We have opportunities. Where teachers across the district can get together. And learn together. But that's not assured learning. Right. So really thinking through. Like what are the ways to use. Some of our district professional development time. To go back to that partnering. I would say the last time that we did it, um, in sort of in depth was pre COVID. Um, and almost actually with the last review, um, when we brought people in from the Opal school, um, to do some work with us, um, together, another opportunity where that happens is through lab classrooms. So teachers who participate in lab classroom have an opportunity to be within the family center classrooms. And then the family center teachers have an opportunity to view within their classrooms also. And oftentimes what comes out of that, like some of the most powerful pieces of learning are when like an AP science teacher at the high school is in a classroom of two and three year olds and comes out and says, we're working on the same things.

Yes.

Like we're focused on the same things like to us. That's super exciting because it's like, OK, we get it. Yeah. Like now we're now we're understanding. So the, our most recent conversation has been, how do we now coming out of COVID, how do we continue to grow that and sort of rekindle what I think was on a pretty good path and then sort of got stopped for us. Okay.

That makes perfect sense. Thank you. That sounds really great. So I'll say in also related to that is we talk a lot about transitions for students, you know, going from both kindergarten to elementary and then from elementary to white out and white on to And we just all know, I think, and we're becoming more and more aware of how important preparing for those transitions is and making sure that not just the student but the family is also really informed. So I guess I'll ask, what do you currently have in place or have you had any thoughts about how to share with families that are going to now have a kid that went from the family center to a kindergarten what to expect in terms of how different it's going to be in that following year in terms of just the schedule and what's expected of their child. Just, again, sort of those fears around, uh-oh, what do you do to sort of outreach and help the transition with the families? Because I think they're the biggest key in your partner in terms of that student being able to transition well.

Mm-hmm. So our teachers with families that have a child that are going to kindergarten, that is really a big part of the focus of their spring conference. There's a lot of time to talk then. Also, our parents' teachers are a wonderful resource, and so they are meeting with families as well. And also, Jenny Holian, our PAT coordinator, puts together a really nice packet that she sends home with every family that has a child that's going to kindergarten. So that's really helpful. There's also... a video on the school website, Kindergarten on the Horizon. Awesome. That features all of our elementary schools. They each have a teacher talking a little bit about how to get ready for kindergarten. Oh, good. Those are a few things that can help families. That's great. Thank you very much.

Leo, do you have any questions?

I don't have any questions. I didn't send my kids through the Family Center, but I've talked to some people who did. And I've heard incredible things about the work you guys do. So just thank you for that.

Thank you.

Pam. Thank you so much. Dr. Gargadillo, you gave us an incredible report and I'm sure you did this collaboratively. It was really helpful. So I just want to start with that. So my one question that I would love just for the public to hear is one of the things that makes the Family Center special is your approach, the Reggio Emilia approach. And I wonder if you could just give us a few sentences for our larger community to hear what that means.

Sure. Yeah, so we just believe that our children are just so capable and competent, as you heard me talking about. And so we have a very strong image of the child, and we want to provide an environment that is rich in possibilities and provocations so that children have time to explore and learn. collaborate with others. We know that we form our identities from our relationships with others and with the environment, so we are just trying to provide all those experiences. Our teachers are partners in learning with children and so They are there to nurture and guide students and are also learning right along with them. So we pay a lot of attention to what children are interested in, what questions they're asking, and teachers are just always observing and documenting that and asking questions. And we really reflect on that information and think of the things that we can bring in to push the work forward. answers that.

Thank you so

much. Thank you. Mohini, do you have any questions or comments? Or Lucia, anything? Okay. Chris has another question, but I also just want to add, I appreciated, I appreciate that in your curriculum framework, you have the five strands and with the exception maybe of the dramatic play and movement. They're very similar, of course, to the framework for curriculum in all subjects up through 12th grade and the way that you connect them to the strategic plan, I think is so key because when I think about our youngest learners and their families, putting that together, connecting the curriculum to those competencies, even if they can't articulate it. Just I think about as those students move through our schools, how those competencies will just, that language will become so second nature in the culture of our district. So I just think it's great that it's something that ties our pre-K through 12th grade students and teachers and families together. And so I love how you have made all those connections for our youngest learners. So thank you. Thank you. And Chris had one more.

I forgot to say part of my question, which was in part of that transition process that you really want to make sure the families and the students have a great experience going from one type of environment to a brand new kindergarten, do the teachers themselves give feedback? Do the preschool teachers still have time and space on like a... like a systematic way to communicate with kindergarten teachers in terms of their understanding of the child?

We do. We have the opportunity to create kindergarten transition reports and have conversations with our kindergarten teachers. So that's just standard practice. Perfect. All right. Thank you.

Okay. No other questions? Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Both of you. And thank you to all of the Family Center teachers for being here tonight, too. And congrats again to your three, I know two of you are here, retirees. Okay, John and our Paragon representatives, we're going to hear about the Long Range Facilities Master Plan.

Good evening. We have embarked on a long-range facilities master planning process. As part of that process, we have hired a team at Paragon Architecture to be our experts and lead us through that process. If you read their literature and their proposals, they not only want to be our consultants, they want to be a sherpa to us. And so I'm here to introduce tonight the head sherpa of Paragon Architecture, Mr. Brad Irwin. He's going to cover some information about our scope of work and our timelines.

Thanks, John. Appreciate that connection. That's truly how we envision ourselves and our team is to essentially lead you through this journey, not only just up the mountain but also safely back down to base camp. And so our team of experts, we've got Mike Younglove here with us, Emily Johanson and Carly Rickerson. They represent several members of our team here in St. Louis. And they'll be the familiar faces that are with us through this journey all the way through. As John mentioned, we'll be here a couple of times through the next six to eight months and just kind of walk you through some things today. So for us, obviously we'll be in front of you a couple of times to give you updates along the way and, of course, at the end. But what's key to our success is really getting that engagement throughout the Clayton community. So at first we have what's called the subcommittee level. And so that's going to be representatives at each one of those buildings that you see under that second group. Will also then essentially what we do, we meet with them two different times to be able to engage get some information get some feedback and then we also asked them to help us set what those priorities are and identify what those priorities are at each one of those buildings. Based on that information, that's when we can go out to kind of that broader community. So that first step is to then reach out to each school's community. So a little bit of a microcosm of the Clayton community as a whole. Because with that, we can be really sure that we have truly captured all of the needs, all the priorities, all the things that are going great and some of the things that need some help at each one of those buildings before we go out district-wide. So that's a little bit of how we're set up. Throughout the process, we'll be meeting with a steering committee that's made up of district-wide representatives to help give us that guidance, help give us that feedback, kind of that guiding light through that process, a filter, to make sure that we're on track, make sure we're not missing anything. Are there people that we need to connect with that we haven't? Is there other things that we're hearing from inside the community that we need to be aware of? So that's a of who's gonna be part of this process. And then really some of our deliverables, and we'll go through some of these examples. But a lot of the things we're focusing on first is demographics. What's the makeup of the community today? But also what does the community potentially look like five and 10 years down the road? So as we look at enrollment trends and as we look at how the birth rates and transfers in and out really can impact that enrollment for the district. We want to have at least a guiding light there of what we could maybe expect, because that really is one of those baselines that helps inform a lot of decisions moving forward. One of the great things we'll be able to do that gives the district a tool moving forward is developing building material standards. So anything from the carpet the white color walls, the type of ceiling tile in the ceilings. So that's our first point of entry so that as we're looking at renovation projects or improvements along the way, we have a strong baseline to start with. In addition to meeting with each one of your building principals and touring the facilities with them, we go out and independently do condition of facility assessments. So from the inside, that looks like if you were to walk into a room, what's the condition of your interior finishes? So we look at when that might need to be replaced so we can budget some facility improvement dollars for that. We also look at the outside of the building as well. So your roofing, your windows, your tuck pointing of your masonry, for example. Parking lots and driveways, that's a heavily utilized piece of most sites. So we're looking at your replacement plans and assessing those. Exterior lighting from a safety and security standpoint. So is it just that we have some lighting that's out? Just some bulb replacements? Or has the landscaping now grown up into a place that is now blocking some lights for example? So we take a look and assess that. As we look across the district, we'll be looking at playgrounds, play fields and tracks as well as your heating, ventilation and air conditioning and getting that replacement plan scheduled. It's really important when we're looking at HVAC and roofing, those are high dollar items that have a pretty regular replacement plan that we wanna make sure that we capture as part of the budget moving forward. And as we go through this process, we're going to be looking at what's that highest and best use of that existing space. So before we come up with an idea to potentially expand a footprint of a building, we want to make sure that the existing footprint is being utilized to its highest potential. Because we know for every square foot that's added, that's more obviously construction cost, but it's more maintenance dollars, it's more operational dollars, and it's potentially more staff. And so those are ongoing long-term costs that go beyond just that initial kind of construction that we make sure we identify early on. And then as we go through this process, some other ideas will come up about some of those needs. And so we'll provide some diagrams and I'll show you some examples there. So this is an example that we did with the Northwest School District where we looked at their enrollment through the current year and what that projection is moving forward. Because by the time when we're looking at this in, for example, at Northwest in 21 and 22, by the time we go through a design process and construction, that facility isn't going to be open until potentially 25 or 26. So we want to make sure that we're not just solving the need or the concern of today, but we're really looking forward because the first time you have an opportunity to impact that could be three or four years down the road. So we want make sure that especially if it's a capacity issue that we're really looking ahead versus looking behind. For example, here at Murphy, As they have, you can see down there in the red at the bottom, they are anticipating a capacity issue. And so one of the ways that we're looking at solving that is in addition to needing two to three, probably two to three classrooms, they also have an undersized cafeteria, an undersized and inadequate music room, and an undersized art room. So instead of just part of the master plan and one of their high priorities where we need to add four classrooms. Well, instead of just putting a four-classroom addition out to the side, the solution was let's put a cafeteria, music room, and art room addition so that those rooms are properly sized not only for the current capacity of the students but what that future capacity is going to hold, and then convert those inadequate or underutilized spaces into grade-level core classrooms. We're spending maybe a little bit more money on construction, but we're actually meeting the needs of that school for the long period and not just that immediate piece. So that's why we look at that utilization in the demographics. So for example, at Valley Park, this is just an example of their interior condition assessments. And we try to keep it pretty simple. So this one's looking specifically at their ceilings. Green means it's in good condition. Red means it's in poor. yellow means it's in fair condition and so we try to set a replacement schedule for when those items may need to be addressed but that way for district facility staff maintenance staff board of education the public really easy we don't need to get into how many ceiling tiles are potentially damaged in that room it's pretty clear that's just an overall grade and we try to keep it pretty basic and you'll see this throughout so for example when we're looking at our building envelopes so that's the outside of the building your windows your roofing your masonry, what we try to do is identify, first of all, what type of roof that might be and when it was installed so that we can understand when that warranty period is up, again, to set that replacement schedule in place. So we know that five years from now you might have $10 million of roof, but 10 years from now you may have $30 million of roofs to replace and to be able to work that into your long-term plan. And parking lots and drives, again, jumps out of the page pretty easily spot first area of the parking lot that might need to be replaced and you can see it's about 58 000 square feet in the areas that are pretty much brand new and same thing with playgrounds and play fields so this was at kirkwood north middle school and you'll see the track up there is one of those items that's in red that was identified as a as a high priority item that needs to be replaced and this is that process that we go through so at first in combination with our assessments that we do independently and then the information that comes with walking through with the building principles. We have a good set of data that we can meet with the subcommittee at that first meeting. Essentially, at that first meeting, we ask them, we present this information, but we also ask them, what are we missing? Because at that second meeting, we're going to ask them to set these priorities. So here's that example at North Kirkwood Middle School. It's a simple dot exercise, but you can see what their top three priorities were. Playgrounds and play fields, student lockers, and dedicated space for programs. So the results of that then on the back side of it is we track all the things that were talked about. So even if something might be a low priority, we want to make sure we capture that because you never know when something could be easily added or could be included as part of a high priority item. and then documenting what that looks like moving forward. So one of their high priorities was looking at dedicated space for programs like wood shop, the wood shop and the fax classroom. So identifying areas in the site that that could develop. It's not the plan, it's not a fully designed, executed plan, but now we know And when we go to replace the playground the play fields or the parking lot in that area. We might want to let that go an extra two or three years because you don't want to replace the parking lot if that's the place to put the building addition two years from now. So really looking forward and how to create those solutions so that we spend your construction dollars once talked about the blockers there in the middle school as well they're tall and underutilized. So one of the solutions we're proposing is wiping out about a certain section, wiping out some of them, splitting them into half, and then better utilizing that corridor space for flexible learning environments for just being able to have a high table for charging devices, small group activities, pull-out conversations, and better utilize the square footage that you have just by creating some more student-focused space versus lockers. At North Glendale, one of the things that came up was they had right in August that fifth section of second grade came in. And it was unanticipated, so they made due and put them into a flex classroom in the library. Well, looking forward to be able to provide them with that flexibility moving forward, our proposal is to do a little addition off the gym. And normally, we wouldn't put that as a recommendation to do a 472 square foot gym addition. But it's actually a classroom addition because by putting that gym storage outside into an addition, that bottom right corner where it says SSD and special education, that gym storage now turns into two classrooms. And what we're able to do then is take those two special ed classrooms from the second floor, put them onto the first floor, And then what you see there on the left hand side at third grade classroom now has a normal size room that's. located along with the other core classrooms versus in the library so yes it's a gym addition, but it really is a classroom addition to help serve the needs of the core classroom functions. And then same thing, like where we look is we really wanna be careful that we're not just solving the immediate needs. So for example, at the early childhood center, they have a waiting list. And so in addition to re-renovating some existing space into classrooms inside the building, there's that ability to add two classrooms outside of it. They also have a challenge of getting the little kids from the classrooms up to the top green space up to the top of the page. So two different solutions and two different expenses, levels of expenses. One is that we can add those two classrooms there that you see on the right. But by doing that we're putting a lot of pressure on their support spaces so their kitchen becomes too small. They still don't have enough meeting rooms. They still don' have enough flexible environments to create for special education or for speech or PT or OT. And so really in order to really service the need of the building The option on the left shows essentially a new classroom addition, but then getting those support spaces to the size that's needed to support that long-term growth of the building. So different ways to look at things, and that's what we try to do is provide options, again, so that as we're looking forward in how to improve and maintain the facilities that we're doing it with that long-term view. So this is just kind of a recap of some of the things that we talked about throughout the process. You can see where we're at right now in May. We really do a lot of our prep work and field work here in June and July and August. That really helps inform that engagement with the community. So we're really focusing our building level engagement there with, you can see it's subcommittee number one and number two in September and October. And that provides that great level of information that we can then go to the community at large that would occur in November and December. And then we do what we think is really really important is that by meeting with each subcommittee? We have a really good understanding of what are the needs for each building What we want to do is we want to get all the subcommittees and the steering committee together at the end Get them into small group tables. So if it's a 10 top table you have a representative from each location at that table And we get into some small group conversations because it's really important that the high school understands the challenges and opportunities at the ECC and vice versa. So family center has that opportunity to share their experience with the high school high school knows what the elementary schools because it's important that when we come to you in January that we don't have seven or eight master plans that represent the needs of each school. We have one district master plan that represents the consensus that we've built through this process of engagement with the building levels, engagement with the building level community and engagement with the community as a whole that says this is the Clayton Long Range Facility Master Plan. And that's something that gives this district, your board, that guiding light moving forward to base future decisions off of. So that's our charge is, again, lead you up the mountain and back down. And that's the process that we propose to go through.

Thank you so much for that. I'm sure some of us have questions. Jason, I'll start with you.

Great. And thanks for being here. Appreciate the overview. Just a couple of questions. First, can you talk a little bit about how our facilities plan gets married to our strategic plan and how those

play with each other? That's usually the strategic plan is our first filter to get engaged with. And frankly, we're at the starting point of that. So yeah, so we want to make sure that as we're The language, the guiding principles help guide some of those decisions that we make. We also want to have that, like I said, that first filter as we're talking through with our subcommittees that is top of mind and is brought together.

And what's, you may, a fair answer, let me just say, would be, I'll say this at the next meeting, next time you present to us, but what's an example of that as you're thinking about how it gets filtered out? Do you have one or more to come?

Yeah. I'm

sorry, I don't. That's all right. I preface it because it's a bit of an unfair question at this point, but I'd be curious, at least I'd be curious to know over time how do these two work together. Yeah, I can bring a couple good examples. Yeah. And then I guess more of a question for John. Is the steering committee more or less the group that met in early April that selected Paragon? Or how do we see that steering committee?

It would be a component of it, but we would be much more expansive than that. So we were looking at, yes, the committee that selected Paragon, but expanding it more to some more community members that would be there, long-range facilities plan that people are So we've put a list together that I've shared that I will be sharing just to get some more thoughts on it.

Great, thanks.

Kim? Yeah, so I noticed in your timeline building tours right after this, right? So the reason I ask that is I do think it's important you do your first building tours while the students are in the building, but just so you're aware A senior's last day is Friday of this week. So if you don't get to the high school before the end of this week, it'll be about 25%, probably closer to 30% less student population since that's our largest class. So I don't know if there's an opportunity to get in before seniors disappear, but it will feel like a very different environment and space with 30% of students gone. Senior class is our biggest class I think we've ever had at the high school. So that is kind of tied kind of along with Jason's question. I know when you came during the selection committee, we talked about the importance of not just incorporating the tier one kind of safety plan, but also the strategic plan, which we just talked about, and the Clayton's kind of larger 2040 plan. So I just want to make sure that, could you speak to that a little bit?

Actually, I think we do have a meeting already set up that might be a joint meeting with this board and another board and with them as well. But yes, we're kind of going through that process through the interview. We kind of bet that took us off. Perfect.

yeah i just i just wanted the community to hear that both from you and also from the board um we had a very positive breakfast meeting with all the board of aldermen this morning and nisha and mayor harris and um you know they i think that they will uh are looking forward to collaborating with us on this as we are also looking forward to collaborating

Chris, any questions? I don't have anything. This is very exciting. Thank you so much.

Pam. I'm in awe of the way that your mind thinks. And I just feel so grateful that we have you as our teammates and I should say our Sherpas on this journey. So thank you.

Thanks. Leah.

Thank you for putting this together. I'm a little bit redundant with Kim's question, but we do have this shared facility with the city. It's a little bit unusual or maybe unique. And so I'd just be interested in your experience with working with another organization like that and what experience you might have with that and what you see as your role in working with the city as part of this process.

Sure. About 90% of the projects that we work on are publicly funded projects, so we work with both K-12 and municipal entities all the time. It is a rare agreement that is here, but at the core of it, our job is to facilitate the conversations that need to occur. between our team and yourselves and them but also we have to assess the suitability kind of no matter who owns it in a way to make sure that as we're looking at this is what's that plan what's the maintenance plan what are the needs of that facility as the school district uses it and then filter that back out to all right how do we actually make that work so that first filter is really I don't want to say it doesn't really matter, but that's kind of oblivious to us at first because we're just looking at what's the best needs for the kids to use these facilities and then go back to figure out the intricacies of the paperwork.

And then another thing that occurs to me is one thing we can anticipate is going to come up is that we have one of our elementary schools that's quite full at this point. And so I'm curious, that's something that's gonna have to be addressed as part of this process. So is the way that that gets addressed, I guess it incorporates community feedback and your expertise into a recommendation that then comes to us? Is that how that'll go? I saw that

you had a school So when we look at one of the exercises with this capacity and utilization is, first of all, the uses of rooms change over the years. And sometimes what was a core classroom is now a special ed classroom or it could be an intervention classroom. And so we want to make sure that as we're looking at what the capacity is of the building, that we're seeing what's the highest and best use. And so is there opportunities to repurpose some spaces? So one school district, for example, what we've taken is they were two grade-level classrooms that got turned into reading intervention. And basically at most you had two classrooms with about five or six kids in it at any one time. Can we repurpose those two classrooms into better uses of space and subdivide those spaces? And essentially what we did is we created a counseling suite. And so now that was a need that was in the district that was not met, and we've been able to flip that over into that type of use. So we look at different uses of that existing space before we start saying, all right, we need to find something that's a little bit more dramatic or a little bit more costly than that.

Okay, thank you.

Mohini, do you have any questions? Or Lucia? Thank you so much. I just wanted to point out for Leo and Pam and the community too, our last board last year identified two goals, two priorities. They were community engagement and a long-range facilities master plan. And through your presentation and your scope of work, you are helping us achieve both of those. And I think that's really incredible for many reasons. So I am really excited to be finally embarking on this project, but also that you are including that community engagement piece in your scope of work really helps us achieve the other goal of ours too, which is improved community engagement. So thank you. Appreciate it. Any other questions? Okay, thanks so much and thanks to your team for being here tonight too. We appreciate it. Yeah, we'll take a quick five minute break.

Oh, that's true.