December 11, 2024 — Meeting Transcript

Good evening, everyone. We are going to get started. Adequate notice has been

given.

I'd like everyone to join me in saying the pledge, please.

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, will you please read the motion to adopt the agenda? I move that we approve the agenda as posted. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. We will move on to Agenda Item 2.1, Recognizing Our Own. And... You ready, Luke? Okay. Okay.

All right, I am going to invite Ms. Kate Lyons up to talk a little bit about Clayton High School students' participation in the election judge program.

Hi, everyone. Go ahead, Mrs. Lyons.

Hi. So we have quite a few students volunteer for this program. It is really important in partnership with St. Louis County Board of Education to just provide some help for election judges. And so these students that are being recognized here today... served a very long day. They worked the entire election day. I think we're up from like 5 a.m. until like 9 p.m., and we're just helping with voter rolls as well as just making sure the whole process of voting on election day for the presidential general election in November runs. like ran smoothly. So they were, you know, the backbone I think is what it said in the letter of our democratic system and were really essential to make sure that the presidential election was actually carried out and democracy was possible. So kudos to those students that volunteered that day.

Thank you so much. Okay, thank you, Ms. Lyons. And the students' names, by the way, were Winston Jordan, Anais Ogier, Henry Lee, and Garcia Berberian. Congratulations to them. Thank you. Okay, 3.1 is public comment. I believe we have one public comment from a community member who's not here, so Luke is going to read it on her behalf.

Yes, I will read a comment from Ms. Angela Lieberman. I want to make the board aware of a proposed athletics complex development on Concordia Seminary's property. WMS is about to become a Wash U sandwich. This could affect the safety of our children and bring more traffic to the area and also impede on the district's long-range goals.

Thank you, Luke. Ms. Lyons, are your students here? Yes. Okay, could we recognize them? No. I don't know if we want to read their names or email. Yes. Do you want to come back up and say you want to introduce them? That would be great.

Did we? I didn't know.

Yes.

Okay, that's what I thought. Do we want to do it up here or here? We'll come to you. Okay, great. It was about the same. So, yeah, again, just a little bit about the program. It is very intensive. They had to go through training as well as go through the entire election day. And so, yeah, if we're going to have time, go to the office. It's the first day of the week. And then... Oh, sorry about that.

And I will turn it over now to Dr. Patel for her superintendent communications. Sure. Good evening, everyone. Luke, if you don't mind, can you move the slide for me, please?

Thank you for being here, everyone. And thank you again to the students when we recognized you. I was actually at one of the polling sites that one of our students was at. And you guys did such a good job talking to everyone walking in and guiding them through the process. So we really appreciate your leadership. Thank you again. Quick superintendent's update. First thing, we're approaching the holiday season, so a lot of our musical performances are happening. Last week, we had the elementary strings performances, so fourth grade strings and fifth grade Vivace performance. And from what I hear, I couldn't make it to this one, but it was very engaging. They actually got like individuals from the audience to come up and teach them different things. So that was exciting. And then last night, we had all of our Clayton bands performing at the music center. So a great way to celebrate all of our musical programs throughout this semester. Next, I wanted to highlight, we have a new teacher at Wydown Middle School, Mr. Kareem Deans, and he's teaching our seventh and eighth intro to speech students. And what they've done this year, and they've been talking about policy debate, And this semester's debate resolution was over intellectual property. So the students worked all semester, and then eventually they ended up doing a debate in the final competition, and we had staff members come and judge them. It was really exciting, and I thought a really great learning experience for our students. So I wanted to make sure we highlight them. And it was impressive to hear how these students can debate on different topics. So very proud of all of them for that. And then next, I'm not sure if you've heard this, but Steve Hudson, I do want to give him a huge kudos. He was named the Administrator of the Year by Missouri High School soccer coaches. Steve is an outstanding leader for us. He's been in the district for about 20 years now, and he not only helps in athletics and activities, but also this year he... implemented the first ever Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. So he talked with all the building principals. He had a vision, and he made that come true. So it goes beyond his impact at the high school. It's district-wide. So very proud of Steve, and congratulations to him. And along with that, he's given, since the past three years, he has led our athletic programs to seven district championships, which is state championships. I heard it was an unanimous

vote.

With the highest

number of votes that any administrator has ever received for that particular reason.

Yeah, it was. So very, very proud of Steve. So congratulations to him. And he has single-handedly, I think, really impacted the culture and school spirit at the high school. So kudos to him. Long Range Facilities Master Plan, we wrapped up all of our community forums recently. So right now we're in the process of the survey phase. We've sent out a newsletter to over 7,000 email addresses and we've had over 7,000 views on each one, meaning they've clicked on it. We've got about 150 individuals who have responded to the survey. Right now, I think you guys each have a sample of the postcard that should be arriving to residences this week or next week. It really depends on the post office. They're saying that they're a little backed up right now just because of the timing, but everyone should get this and hopefully we can get more engagement. through the survey that's out there. And then Paragon will get all the results from that and present that into our January district steering committee meeting and subcommittees. And they'll use that information as well and present that to the board. So we're kind of turning the page, turning the corner on that one. And then finally tonight we have a presentation, which is the auditors. I'm not sure if they're here. Oh, they are here yet. Yes, we changed the time on you guys, so we appreciate you making it here. We have a policy and obviously Missouri statutes that require an annual audit that we do, and tonight KEB's going to present the findings of that audit for us. And with that, I'm going to actually hand it over to Lucia for the student board report.

Perfect. OK, I would like to start for my student update with Merrimack. So I met with them a couple of weeks ago and just sharing some common themes. We talked about playground space and organization, the organization of the lunch lines, how classroom time is. And one of the biggest things that they wanted to share with me, of course, is that they love their teachers and how supportive they are and how they can always go to them with anything that they need, homework and everything. And I thought that's something incredible that, of course, is no surprise here at the Clayton School District, but it's always really important to say. For Glenridge, I wanted to share some Glenridge shout-outs. I know I met with them earlier, but last year, Glenridge implemented the SOAR program, which stands for Safe, On Task, Accountable, and Respectful, to help build character among students. And this year, there has been an increased emphasis in that program for SOAR. When students are caught SOARing, they receive a... a shout-out in the announcements every morning. And I asked Dr. Murdoch if she could maybe hand me a list of the students so that I could share it with the board, but she said that the list was so long that she was scared she was going to miss a student, which I think is just something incredible. So I'd like to give a big shout-out in general just to all of the students who have received that award and for, of course, the ones to come so they can keep soaring. The fifth-grade Clamo leaders have been leading the Griffin PACs and their lessons have been on teaching various ways to be kind. So those are some of the most recent lessons. And finishing off with the high school, really just a small update, of course, final seasons are coming up, so there's a natural nervousness, and along with some of the college application decisions coming back around December and January for those who applied early. The Wellness Center, however, and the Youth Council has been organizing a great wellness week. Today's activity was making your own tea blend. Yesterday, I know it was making stress balls with rice and a lot of different beans. So I thought that was really amazing. And I know it's helped a lot to calm down the nerves. So yeah.

Thanks Lucia great update especially like hearing about the elementary school, so thank you. Okay 6.1 time for the audit so. john and our representatives from Kerber Eckenbrickel.

Good evening, everyone. In front of you, you should find a stack of books, which are the various reports from our audit firm. Our audit firm, again, was KEB. They performed a financial audit for the year into June 30, 2024. I'd like to introduce partner Gina Cochran and manager Allison Williams, who will present the rest of their findings to you.

Great. Thanks for having us here today. This is, I think, my second time I've been in front of you. And Allison, how many years have you been on the audit now? Several, but probably in the background for a while. So thanks for having us. So instead of going over every individual book that you have in front of you, we take a high-level approach in terms of going over the financial statements We cover not only the regular audited financial statements, but also the governance letter, the single audit and the state compliance. So all of that will be covered in one fell swoop here. And it's pretty short and sweet because I know you guys usually have a lot going on. So. Just a summary of those audit results for the financial statements themselves, reminding everybody that management is responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and for the design and implementation of the controls over those financial statements. And that not only includes management, but really the board who has oversight over the management as well. The accrual basis of accounting is used for your government-wide financial statements, the top level financial statements. Then your fund financial statements are based on the modified accrual basis accounting. And our responsibility as auditors is to express an opinion on the fair presentation of those financial statements. And that audit was performed in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards, governmental auditing standards, and also uniform guidance because of the single audit. We did issue an unmodified opinion on your financial statements. That's a good thing. It's known as a clean opinion. It's the best of three opinions we can issue, so that's what you want from us. Okay? We had no material weaknesses noted in internal controls over those financial reportings. Also a great thing. Compliance issues that were noted related to laws regulations contracts or grants that would be material to your overall financial statements also a great thing This next page is just a summary of the federal awards in terms of that single audit that I mentioned every year if the district's expenditures related to those federal awards are those federal funding fundings and If they're over $750,000 is the limitation for this year, then you're required to have a single audit. That will jump up next year, right, Allison? Two years. Two years, sorry. To a million dollars. So you're at about a little over $800,000, so maybe in a couple years you will not be required to do a single audit, but... but this year we had one. We did test one major program that was the child nutrition cluster, and we also issue an unmodified opinion on that. And also no material weaknesses noted in controls over those major programs, both great things. And then lastly related to that also, we had no audit findings that would have been required to be reported in accordance with the uniform guidance. So clean opinion on that as well. And now I'm going to send it over to Allison.

I don't know if that will help any. Okay, turning to page five here. So looking at the state compliance. So in addition to the financial statements and then the federal awards, we also review the compliance with certain Missouri laws and regulations related to your budget and attendance procedures. We performed those procedures in accordance with the examination standards in accordance with the AICPA. And we again issued an unmodified opinion in terms of state compliance, meaning we didn't find any material noncompliance with those requirements. There was one issue in the current year related to attendance. So that was reported as just a internal control and management advisory comment in the internal control letter, a separate report from your financial statements. Just so that's just one thing to note in the current year. And then the last two pages here, in addition to our audit opinion, there's a separate report to the Board of Education. And these two slides here just outline some of the high-level information in that report. So the significant accounting policies that the district has adopted are included in Note A to your financial statements. As we mentioned previously, there's two basis of accounting in these financial statements, the full accrual for the government-wide and then the modified accrual basis for your fund financial statements. So what that means is modified accrual, there's no non-current assets or liabilities reported on your balance sheet. All those transactions flow through the income statement. There were no new accounting policies that were adopted in the current year. And then there are two significant estimates in your financial statements. This is consistent with the prior year. The first one being the recognition of the net pension liability for the district's proportionate share in the peers and PSRS retirement plan. and then the total OPEB liability. These are significant estimates just because there's some actuarial assumptions that are used to record those liabilities on the district's books. There were no transactions that lacked authoritative guidance or consensus, and as part of our audit we're required to be independent of the board and management and disclose that the fact that we are in fact independent The financial statements, we also audit those in addition to, or the note disclosures in addition to the financial statements and we found those note disclosures to be neutral, consistent, and clear. There were no difficulties encountered in performing our audit.

Next

page. There were no disagreements with management. And then there's two significant risks here that are pointed out on the next page that I just want to preface by saying these are inherent risks. So that's nothing that the district is doing incorrectly or we found issues with. We're just required to disclose these risks with you because we perform additional audit procedures over these areas. The first one being management override of internal controls, and this is required to be a risk in all audits in accordance with our professional standards. There's nothing the district can do to get around it regardless of the internal controls. We just have to be on the lookout for this each year that we do the audit. And then the next one is related to those significant estimates that I mentioned previously, related to the net pension liability and the total OPEB liability. And those are just more riskier areas because there are estimates involved. As part of our audit, we did not identify any corrected or uncorrected audit adjustments, so we did not make any adjustments. Upon approval of the audit, we did receive the management representation letter and that's where John and Brent certified to us that they disclosed all of the relevant financial information and that they found the financial statements to be accurate. And then to our knowledge, management didn't consult with any other independent accountants to get a second opinion on any accounting matters.

And then lastly here, we would just like to thank the board and also John and Brent and the other district employees for all their help with the audit. Things go smoothly. They're prepared for us, and we appreciate that. And we appreciate you having us back every year. We would open it up for questions if anybody has questions related to the audit or to our report. Go ahead, Jason.

I'll go ahead and start. So first of all, thank you for this nice summary for all of us. And I look forward to reading through all this over the winter break. And John, congrats to you and your team for another clean audit. It gives us a lot of security to know that the financial management of the district is in good hands. I do just just to clarify the bullet point on page five regarding the the the attendance discrepancy. And I just wanna confirm that there's no material risk or concern, whether that's financial or otherwise to the district as we clean this up through the audit process.

And John, you can probably add a little bit more to us to that than like we can if you wanna explain a little bit what happened with that.

We had some change in personnel, and we operate our attendance through a software program called Power School. Due to some changes in settings and due to some other recordings of time in that system, we got our totals off. for the year, and those were reported to MOSIS. Our auditors found that. We pulled the data back, reviewed it, corrected it, and resubmitted it. So it's all been resubmitted correctly, and we're reworking the system to make sure we get all those controls set correctly in there now. But it was partially due to the software and partially due to some change in staffing.

Okay. Makes sense. And then I guess secondly, just sort of big picture when we think about financial management and I think the Board over the next handful of months is going to be faced with sort of financial strategy, right, on a number of things as we think about particularly our facilities plan. And can you just, John, from your experience talk to us a little bit about how a clean audit, how clean financials relate to our ability to secure debt on good terms, maintain that AAA bond rating?

Clayton School District is fortunate to be in the financial position it is. We have a very strong financial position, and I think it's best described in a couple ways. One, our fund balance relative to our spending is strong. It's over... It's in the mid-60% range. That's one strong feature. Second one is we annually submit ourselves to the bond rating agencies, and we carry a AAA bond rating for one of four districts in the state that are able to achieve that. But both of those indicators indicate just how strong our financial structure is.

Great. Thanks.

Anyone else have questions? Yeah. And John, I don't need the answer tonight, but I'm just wondering, I know that I understand there's no financial penalty for the discrepancy in the enrollment or attendance files. I was just wondering if you know offhand how large a discrepancy was between the catch and the number of days that we submitted. Again, you don't have to answer it now if you don't have it. And the reason I ask is at the end of last year, we had a change in our attendance policy, presumably based on the data coming out of that same system, which might have been erroneously reporting things. So as a follow up to that, at some point, it would be good for the board to know what was the actual attendance that was recorded for the end of last just so that as we're having the broader policy review discussions, we know exactly what the absolute numbers are that we're dealing with and then I also noted that the Recommendation for the submission of files next year is it's someone independent Of doing the calculation somebody somebody else reviews the files before they're submitted So have you guys identified who that'll be as you guys do the cleanup?

It'll be the business office.

Okay, so

That data currently is collected in the buildings and submitted through the technology department and reported, so we'll pull our department in to make those reviews.

For the final oversight,

great. Incidentally, in those attendance records, the rates of attendance did not change, but some of the totals did. And that was partly due to the day. For instance, at Y-Down, they had a passing period listed at five minutes and it's really only three. So those two minutes per day.

Because it's calculated on total instructional minutes so that it's not the absolute number of class periods that are missed. It's just that's where I get it. Right.

And so like at the high school, we had some short periods. Like a lab period is partial period. So we had some gaps like that that created these differences. Got

it. And congratulations, I echo. And thank you for coming back and doing the audit. But yeah, congratulations to you and Brett and the rest of your team.

Thank you. Yeah, John, congratulations on clean audit. I'm curious, so we're in accrual-based accounting, right? That's our setup? I'm just curious, and how common is that for a school district to be in accrual? Yes, but. Yes, but.

So the state has us report to the state on a modified cash basis. We voluntarily do the accrual basis, the two forms that were discussed here this evening. We believe it to be a more accurate presentation of our overall financial structure now. Whether you do the cash basis, modified accrual, or full accrual, You look at those numbers, you still have to understand what those numbers convey. And they're all accurate in their own way. But we take a step further with the accrual. So this is an effort on top of what might be normally required, but we do this. Gotcha. It's above and beyond what's required by the state. Perfect. Thank you.

Most larger school districts would go with full accrual. basis versus a smaller school district or a charter school would go with keeping modified accrual and modified accruals instead of full accrual. It's just easier accounting-wise instead of having to flip and make that change.

Thank you. Anyone else? Well, thank you. Thanks for rushing here. I apologize about the time change. And congratulations, John, and please send Brent our congratulations as well, and thank you. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much. And Chris, we have a motion.

I

don't know. We need

a motion

to accept the audit. Your acceptance gets reported to the state to assure that you do receive the

audit. It's not written like a typical motion. Can you just maybe just say I move that the board is in receipt of or something. Like I move that the Board accepts receipt of, or something like that? Approves? Maybe? Acknowledges receipt of.

I move that the board acknowledges receipt of the financial audit report and the federal state program report for fiscal year 2023-24. Yes. And hereby acknowledge and accept from Kerber, Eck, and Breckel, LLP, the district's independent financial auditor.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No, okay, motion passes. Thank you, Chris. Okay, moving to consent agenda. Chris, will you read that motion, please?

I move that we approve the consent agenda items 7.1 through 7.8.

Second, and then I want to just call out a couple details because there's a couple kind of bigger things in here at this time. So item 7.2, the cooperative water polo sponsorship, we do that already in field hockey and football. So that's similar to the programs already running in athletics to make sure that we can continue to provide that activity to our high school students. And then John or Jason, do you want to talk about our acceptance of the contribution pledge agreement? Because that's kind of a big deal. I think, yep. Is John still here? Jason could. Yeah, you can do it,

Jason. So John and I, as you all know, but for the public to hear, John and I served on the TIF Commission for what is known as the South Brentwood Project. It's commonly identified as the space in between the boulevard and the new waterway across from the Galleria. Uh, Midas hospitality has acquired that site and is taking their run at putting a commercial development on that site. Uh, they partnered effectively partner with the city of Richmond Heights to, uh, uh, go for some, uh, a TIF, uh, TIF pro, you know, use TIF dollars to help finance the construction of that project. Um, You know at my own view and I think historically the district has been opposed to these sorts of projects as they take property tax money away from public schools You know, we voiced that concern Midas hospitality approached us to basically, understanding the concern that we have, they're willing to make this $500,000 pledge over the course of 20 years if this project were to get developed. You know, with that in mind, we are grateful that they stepped forward and did something they really were under no obligation to do. And the TIF was going to pass regardless. And so we appreciate MIDAS being willing to do that for us.

And I appreciate you and John taking the initiative to go ask for it. Those that ask, get, maybe. And in this case, if we hadn't asked, we wouldn't have gotten anything. So $25,000 a year is maybe less than what we're giving up in terms of the TIF, but more than we would have had if you hadn't taken the initiative to go asked for the money. So good job. I agree. Thank

you for that. And yes, that is within our school district boundaries. I think most people don't even realize that. Okay, any other questions or comments about anything on the consent agenda? Chris? Yes.

Thank you. It's around the 7.6 mental health approval of service provider. I, again, I just want to acknowledge and I'm so happy that we have this agreement to work with the Center for Mindfulness and CBT. I just wondered, I see that, you know, that certainly obviously has a financial cost to our district. I was surprised to see how much it was per year. I think it was $17,000. Is that right? Yeah, per year. So is it possible for us to get, I guess I'm asking Cameron or Nisha. I know that, you know. He

doesn't need to. He's

on the screen. I know. You don't have to do it now, I guess, is what I am trying to say. Sorry. I just mean in general if you could get back to us at some point around just data related to what we get for that financial output, like how many kids are being seen, what are the outcomes per

Oh, you do? I think Pam knows, too. Pam knows also. She had asked Nisha about that. Oh, beautiful.

What was the total number? Beautiful. Okay. Oh, good. Oh, thank you, Cameron.

Sure. So, I guess where would you like me to start?

Whatever you got. Lay it on me. How many kids?

Okay, so I'm looking at the data from last school year.

Okay.

Last school year, we served 76 students. Okay. The majority of which were at the... Some of the skills targeted group questions, you know, it varies from elementary to secondary, but we look at emotion, identification, coping skills, flexible thinking, self-control, emotional regulation, friendship skills, anxiety management, self-esteem, and self-compassion. progress that we've observed from last year was seeing students identify interacting with peers. So kind of being able to say, hey, I'm in the red right now. I don't want to talk to this friend and being able to increase in use of self-control when excited. being able to regulate those emotions, improve positive interactions, pairing coping strategies and relaxation techniques with different emotions, verbalizing feelings and connecting feelings to physical manifestations and situations. One thing that we started this year a little bit sooner than we have before was marketing groups at the start of the school year to possibly start earlier, considering students who participate in the fifth grade groups and looking like how that continues into Y down. So kind of getting more vertical integration with that. which I know that's an area we're working on as well. And then one thing that we did talk about in terms of how are we seeing it in our data? So comparing the students from their fall data for Panorama in the spring and seeing if we see a difference there. So that's something that we're gauging for this year.

Are you saying you compare it with the specific student?

Yes.

Okay. So you don't have that data now, but that's what you'll get later? This year? Correct. Awesome, and is there any evaluation done on the actual service provider and how well we as you feel that they're doing in general?

Yeah, definitely. We actually just had a meeting this afternoon with the leader for the Center for Mindfulness, and we kind of have check-ins, like how are things going? What are some things we wish they worked on? So we're in contact with the leaders of the organization if we do have some issues or if things are going a certain way. You know, historically we've been lucky to have a lot of great people that are coming in. And I think because it is a business and sometimes the people vary from you. Right. Without communication in case there are any issues or we feel like we need to switch the therapist that comes in.

Great. Because I know we have had this partnership with them for some time, and so it would be great to make sure that our data show that we're seeing some great improvement with our students. And if not, then to consider other service providers because there are many. I just want to make sure that we have the right provider for our needs in the district. So we just want to look at that kind of correlation on whether our students are actually having the improvement from their work with this group.

Definitely, and I think as we move forward just with all of the organizations that we have MOUs with kind of getting together with the team and deciding, you know, do we not fix what isn't broken or do we want to expand and look at other opportunities? So that is something that is down the pipeline in terms of just looking at things from all the MOUs that we have.

Awesome. Thank you. add something that I learned in asking questions is that the students who are chosen are referred by panorama data, by the counseling department in the school and sometimes even by specific teachers. And then they do eight sessions in a group. So students don't drop in and out but they're a consistent group for eight sessions which is just typical in the field.

Thank you. Okay all those in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Consent agenda motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to board communications. Um, Leo, do you have a parks and rec or, oh no, now, sorry, we forgot this was written before Ben, Ben lecture. Yeah. Yes. Do you have a report you want to share? So I leading up to this last

meeting, I was citizen member of the parks and rec board so now I am serving as I guess the the board liaison role so yeah the big update well is really there's renewed discussion and planning around the former ice rink part of Shaw Park it's back So there was also a board of aldermen meeting, kind of a joint board of aldermens meeting parks last night. And so they laid out some of the high-level concepts. So I had asked Tony if she could keep us in the loop on that because there will be a steering committee formed. And it's really, I mean, there's really everything from skate park to basketball to open kind of green event space. There's talk of possible integration with the pool, concessions potentially. So anyway, so a lot is being thrown around, so we'll see. But, you know, it's nice. These are like the kind of things that you want to see happening in the parks, meetings, talking about these kind of things. So anyways, that's my update. Good.

Thank you. Yeah. Chris, you had a wellness meeting?

I have several. I have three different. Wellness. We just had our meeting the other day. Cameron led that. It was the first one of the year. It's our SEL and Wellness Committee. We make sure to include SEL in the title of that because it is both mental health as well as physical wellness. Cameron had us, our focus for this meeting was goal three, you know, to take care of our learners in head and heart. And we went through as a group the four objectives under that goal. And each of us sort of reflected based on our role, so me as a board member, there's teachers there, there's counselors there. We all reflected on what we feel like we should see if those four objectives are being met. And so Cameron collected that data, you know, that we all wrote out and discussed afterwards. And he's going to look through there and see what, you know, if anything, you know, tends to be, you know, something that's coming up like across the board with different folks in the group and just go from there in terms of what he learns from that survey. So that was great. And it's great because Cameron does make sure to give the people in the committee back, you know, that data. And then we take that data and we continue to use it ongoing with the following meetings. So, yeah, great work with that, Cameron. Thank you so much for that meeting. Do you want me to go on with my other two? Okay. We also had an SSD governing council meeting at that meeting. They had their annual audit presented to us and their audit was clean this year. They have done an incredible amount of work to, in their words, I think you guys have read this, right the ship. Their financial situation was dire, and they have a very clear five-year plan with very clear goals in mind and how they're going to reach those goals in order to get their financial situation back to where it needs to be. But this clean audit was a great first step. They also have a fantastic new CFO, Um, and under the leadership of Dr. Macklin. So, um, the governing council is feeling very good about their financial position and, you know, we see the trend, um, is in, is going in the right direction. And that's wonderful to hear. So important for such a major player in our students and the entire county students lives. Right. So, um. That felt really good. Uh, I think that's all I have to say about that. Um, should we talk about our PLC? Um, Let's see, five of us, the biggest number from any school district, were in attendance at the recent PLC. Thank you to Luke and all those. I know, Nisha, you're involved in making sure that these things are planned and are well executed. The focus of this one was safety and security. I think that's one of the reasons why five of us showed up because obviously this has been something that we have had a priority about talking about, and we have this long-term facilities master plan we're looking at, and we want safety. That was one of the common themes that all of the buildings, et cetera, made sure to mention is that safety and security need to continue to be a priority as we look going forward with our facilities. So anyway, I found it extremely helpful. The panel that was there were folks in safety and security in various ways. There was an FBI agent there that spoke about her, how she is involved in school safety from that level. There was the St. Louis County Chief of Police. There was Parkway had their... Yeah, it was like assistant soup. Yeah, it was a coordinator of student discipline. Anyway, various stakeholders. There was even a gentleman there. Normandy had their school safety... the coordinator, not as SRO, but like the coordinator of their SROs who used to also be a police officer for many years. And they even actually had a gentleman there who wrote a book about his experience with Columbine because he had a personal experience with that and he's also in law enforcement. So The panel couldn't have been, you know, better. We could have, I think all of the school districts there could have asked, you know, way more questions than we had the time for. But we walked away from it with some great notes about many of which we're doing. You know, a lot of the things that they're discussing, you know, we're really proud to say we are, you know, in alignment with what their best advice was. And, you know, there are a few things here and there that we'll continue to think about, but... In general, I'm just really proud that Clayton is doing such a good job of making sure that that's a priority and really proud of where we are right now, especially compared to three, four, five years ago. It's just fantastic to see. And it's wonderful to see all of the districts continue to care about this the way that we have to for all of the children that are in school right now. So excellent event. And if you all want to add to that, that we're there, please do.

Yeah, I was going to say, does anyone else want to add? Anything else, Ben?

Yeah. So I thought it was excellent. And yeah, we were very well represented. Clayton showed up big time. Just a couple of takeaways I had was comprehensive security plans are critical. That was a message that came across. And one dimension of that also has to do with cybersecurity. So I think cybersecurity, sometimes it falls between the cracks a little bit, and they're saying you really have to have a focus on that. The fellow from Parkway around school discipline, he's like, you must train, you must drill, you must have your staff know what to do in circumstances that may come up. I also found it interesting that there was a lot of discussion about how police departments and school districts collaborate on their security plans, things like sharing of camera feeds. Um, so anyways, it was just very, there was so much information. It was really, really helpful. Um, and I think, uh, as being, being on the safety and security committee for us along with Chris, um, with Michael coming on board, uh, next month, I feel like it was really good timing. So thank you.

And, uh, one other thing I'll add is, you know, we, we all know this, but to be reminded of the fact that we are very fortunate that our school district is in I know not all of our residents, but our buildings are in one municipality. We have one police department that works with us. And hearing from some of these other districts, I mean, Normandy has 24 municipalities. That's 24 different police departments they have to coordinate with that have to know their safety plans and know their buildings in and out. So... just hearing from all of them that level of coordination, and some of them are unincorporated, so they work with the county police. It just made me appreciate even more not only that we're in one municipality, but the great relationship we have with the Clayton Police Department because that is clearly, you know, obviously most important and essential. I think that Joe Miller counted, I think there were 17 different school districts represented there. So it's always, I always just enjoy hearing, you know, meeting all of those school board members and hearing kind of things they're doing in their districts as well. And by the way, we also had some breakout sessions into three different areas related to safety and security that we kind of all split up. One was physical safety, emotional safety, and then inequity. It was called like inequity or safety. Equity disparities, yeah. All related to safety and security. So those breakout sessions were really good too to kind of share what's working well and what people are doing in different districts. So thank you everybody who

went. This is important to note too. The panel did make sure to note that safety and security really needs to be board-driven. And they said, the board needs to be able to say this is a priority and therefore we make sure that our superintendent sees that through. And they said that boards that do approve and have a head of safety and security And we were all like, you know, and clearly we've had one already. But with the hiring of this new person that will strictly focus on that, it was so validating to hear that, hey, we are that board that is very safety and security driven and making sure that our district has what it needs. And I'm extremely excited to welcome Michael to our team and to make sure that our community is well aware of him and his role I think it's it's gonna make all the difference and like I said, we've already improved and will continue to do so under his leadership So anyway, I'm just proud to be part of a board that continues to support this effort

Okay Pam had an equity meeting or did you have something else yeah,

it just made me think What they're saying one of the things I wrote down was that the Board of Ed needs to be trained in our role in a crisis which we have our systems of communicating in a crisis, but I thought that that was an important thing for us to maybe be thoughtful and delineate that. That's it. Okay, equity committee meeting, I think last week. So they're preparing for the equity walkthroughs that I believe start in January. And so what Cameron or Dr. Poole had everyone do is divide into tables by their building or schools and fill out a form or a chart that had three columns This chart would then go to the people who will be doing the walkthroughs So that they know what to be looking for and these equity walkthroughs. So the three columns were What were there? The first column is like what are your building initiatives about equity? The second one is what is the prep? what is the professional development that has happened in your building around that issue and And then the third is, what will we see or what should we see if the professional development has been effective in bringing to light or bringing to fruition these particular pieces? I think last year they did equity walkthroughs within their own buildings. And this year they're doing something different and dividing it up so that they're seeing other buildings. That's it.

Thank you. Jason or Kim did you have any committee meetings Leo.

I'll mention briefly the legislative PLC. It's early in the process because we're guided we're controlled by the legislative calendar but it's neat to see that the regional group coming together and talking about these issues and I look forward. No that's not the right word. I expect. We will have something to report out about legislation in the spring and the coming months. I think there's stuff coming, and we'll talk about it here, I expect.

Thank you. So I had a PTO council meeting, which was great. I'm always impressed by what these... PTOs are doing in our schools, and what I particularly am continually impressed by is not only the sharing of ideas, and no one feels like this territorial ownership. Everyone's so happy to share not only ideas that worked but help them actually execute it, but it seems like now our PTOs, so much of it is more streamlined. the financials, the fundraising, everything. And I think it's been so much easier not only for them to oversee but even for the user, you know, for parents as well. So that was great. I also had a teaching and learning advisory meeting where this time we reviewed the fine arts curriculum, which was great. We moved around in different groups to talk about our and meaning the parents that are there the teachers that are there you know all of the stakeholders that are on these administrators are on the committee talk about how we have how the fine arts in this district have touched us what is our experience and what have our kids been saying about their experience with the fine arts and I learned that I think Dr. Milena Garganigo correct me if I'm wrong there's like 57 different fine arts classes opportunities from K through 12 in this district which is incredible and a woman sitting next to me who moved here from another state said like her elementary schools didn't even have art anymore and you know which unfortunately you kind of read these stories that when a lot of districts are having to make cuts arts is sometimes or often i should say the first to be cut so i felt very fortunate that we have such a great fine arts program and 57 different options is really outstanding. So we reviewed and talked about how the fine arts in the district relate to their enduring understandings, which are connecting, performing, and responding. There's a fourth one. What is it? And creating, right, as it relates to all of the fine arts. So it was interesting to hear parents that have kids at different ages and how fine arts have touched them. And of course, everyone raves about all of the art programs, but especially the theaters programs like at Whitehound and the high school. So that was great. Let's see. Also, I wanted to just so the public can hear from us that we had, I thought, a very successful last community forum about the long range facilities. Master Plan, all of us on the board were there. And I thought we heard some really great feedback of things to consider. I even emailed Nisha afterwards with some things that we've kind of now repeatedly been hearing from stakeholders that we want to maybe weave into the process. So thank you to the board for coming. Thank you to the community for showing up. And again, like Dr. Patel said, now we have a survey out there as well. And... I think. Hold on. I made some notes. Oh, one last thing. Filing opened on December 10th for the school board election, which will be April 8th. Thank you. April 8th. And new this year, the filing happens at the Board of Elections at Northwest Plaza. How long is that? Filing is open until the 30th of December. 31st, sorry. Until December 31st, thank you, at the Board of Elections. And I will say it was a really easy process. You guys agree? Okay. I thought they did a good job. And that's it. Any other communications before we adjourn? Okay, you can read the motion.

Thank you. So I had a PTO council meeting, which was great. I'm always impressed by what these... PTOs are doing in our schools, and what I particularly am continually impressed by is not only the sharing of ideas, and no one feels like this territorial ownership. Everyone's so happy to share not only ideas that worked but help them actually execute it, but it seems like now our PTOs, so much of it is more streamlined. the financials, the fundraising, everything. And I think it's been so much easier not only for them to oversee but even for the user, you know, for parents as well. So that was great. I also had a teaching and learning advisory meeting where this time we reviewed the fine arts curriculum, which was great. We moved around in different groups to talk about our and meaning the parents that are there the teachers that are there you know all of the stakeholders that are on these administrators are on the committee talk about how we have how the fine arts in this district have touched us what is our experience and what have our kids been saying about their experience with the fine arts and I learned that I think Dr. Garganego correct me if I'm wrong there's like 57 different fine arts classes opportunities from K through 12 in this district which is incredible and a woman sitting next to me who moved here from another state said like her elementary schools didn't even have art anymore and you know which unfortunately you kind of read these stories that when a lot of districts are having to make cuts arts is sometimes or often i should say the first to be cut so i felt very fortunate that we have such a great fine arts program and 57 different options is really outstanding. So we reviewed and talked about how the fine arts in the district relate to their enduring understandings, which are connecting, performing, and responding. There's a fourth one. What is it? And creating, right, as it relates to all of the fine arts. So it was interesting to hear parents that have kids at different ages and how fine arts have touched them. And of course, everyone raves about all of the art programs, but especially the theaters programs like at Whitehound and the high school. So that was great. Let's see. Also, I wanted to just so the public can hear from us that we had, I thought, a very successful last community forum about the long range facilities. Master Plan, all of us on the board were there. And I thought we heard some really great feedback of things to consider. I even emailed Nisha afterwards with some things that we've kind of now repeatedly been hearing from stakeholders that we want to maybe weave into the process. So thank you to the board for coming. Thank you to the community for showing up. And again, like Dr. Patel said, now we have a survey out there as well. And... I think. Hold on. I made some notes. Oh, one last thing. Filing opened on December 10th for the school board election, which will be April 8th. Thank you. April 8th. And new this year, the filing happens at the Board of Elections at Northwest Plaza. How long is that? Filing is open until the 30th of December. 31st, sorry. Until December 31st, thank you, at the Board of Elections. And I will say it was a really easy process. You guys agree? Okay. I thought they did a good job. And that's it. Any other communications before we adjourn? Okay, you can read the motion.

I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. We're adjourned. Thank you.