September 25, 2025 — Meeting Transcript

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. Thank you. Chris, will you please move to adopt the agenda?

I move that we adopt the agenda as posted. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motion passes to adopt the agenda. We're now moved to recognizing our own and I will call up Jenny Todd and Dr. Kaczewski.

good evening everyone we're extremely excited to be here tonight to recognize our own clayton high school students and an absolutely amazing achievement to discuss this evening so every year college board recognizes our students who are exceptional demonstrate exceptional academic achievement through their performance on ap exams And so last year, we had a total of 187 AP Scholars that were recognized. And of that 187 students, 91 earned the top honor of AP Scholar with Extinction. What that means is that those students earned a total of, on five exams, a score of three or higher and averaged a total of 3.5 on all of their exams that were taken. And that is a testament to the hard work of the students, of our educators and their families. Now, because the tests were taken last year, some of our students actually graduated in 2025. But we would like to recognize those students and our current students who earned this amazing award. Thank

you. Thank you. I'd also like to note, this is a great problem to have. We have so many that we couldn't have them all come here today. So that's why their names were up on the screen. And I just want to congratulate Dr. Kaczewski and Ms. Todd and everyone at the high school, and especially the students who put in all the hard work studying for the exams. So thank you, and congratulations. Do you have any idea, do we have like more than most schools in the area? Or the most? I

thought so. Great, great. Well thank you and congrats.

Moving on to public comment, we do have a few tonight. I'm going to start with Sarah. You can come up to this microphone here. Before you get started, I just want to remind everyone if you have not made a public comment before, you're each given three minutes. There will be a timer on the screen and we don't respond publicly here at this meeting but you will get a follow-up email so that we don't engage in discussions about public comments. OK, thank you. Can

you hear me? Go ahead. My name is Sarah. I'm a resident of Clayton, and I'm also a former Clayton student, K through 12. I'm here today because I'm concerned the district doesn't have the full information about what partnering with the Anti-Defamation League entails. I'm also an educator and an instructional coach. And in that capacity, I've worked in a number of schools and districts across the country. And we've had conversations about the ADL. So I'm here to share what I know with you all today in hopes that you'll reconsider this partnership. The Anti-Defamation League presents itself as an anti-hate and inclusive organization, but it is in fact deeply biased and political. And they have a history of fostering environments of fear and intimidation through their work that I think is important to consider when bringing this into our district. I'm worried that it threatens the tradition of fostering student curiosity, student voice, and critical thinking that we have at Clayton. The ADL is, in fact, an anti-Semitic organization. It regularly attacks Jewish organizers and individuals and organizations that don't align with them politically. And I think that's also something to consider. In addition to other Jewish organizations, they attack other civil rights organizations, often civil rights organizations that advocate for the civil rights of minorities. In the 90s, they were sued and fined for amassing illegally information about members of the NAACP, the ACLU, organizations that work with LGBTQ members, and congressmen. The other thing that I think is important to consider is that their definition of anti-Semitism really craftily includes this idea that criticism of Israel, the state of Israel, is anti-Semitic. And the program takes something that we care a lot about, which is prejudice based on hate based on prejudice and involves their political agenda of quashing anti-Israeli sentiment. So one of the things that concerns me is their practice of encouraging students to report and surveil on their teachers and their peers. It's reminiscent, honestly, of China under Mao in 1930s Germany, and I'm worried that bringing that type of surveillance into the school will threaten what Clayton promotes in terms of free speech, and conversation. The National Educators Association this summer voted to distance themselves from the ADL and sever current and future ties. And that is the biggest teachers union in the country. And I think that that speaks volumes to the fact that educators across the nation understand this organization is not what it claims to be. So I really encourage you all to look into these things in addition to their commitment to police training before continuing to partner with them in our district. Thank you.

Thank you. Jess.

Hello, everyone. um i'm in chs alum and i wanted to talk about how my education at chs earned me a full ride merit-based scholarship to college where i had the privilege of studying human rights education around anti-semitism was a major part of this curriculum one of our core classes was a holocaust education trip to poland where we spent two weeks visiting and paying our respects at 13 of nazi occupied poland's most notorious killing fields and forests ghettos, prisons, and concentration and labor camps. Because of this, because of the many hard conversations that I had as a student about how our history impacts our present, I want our students to be able to dialogue about these same hard questions in their educational spaces. And because I know that if we do not learn history, we are doomed to repeat it, I wanna share with you some history about the ADL. In August 2017, following the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, the ADL issued a primer for law enforcement advising cops to film and plant undercover agents among anti-racist protesters in order to use surveillance footage to prosecute them. The ADL's actions in Charlottesville are part of a long history of surveillance. In the 90s, the ADL was investigated for surveilling and infiltrating human rights organizations, including groups opposing South African apartheid and U.S. racism, United Farm Workers, Jewish peace groups, and thousands of members of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Today, the ADL continues to attack Black and Arab organizations that advocate in particular for the rights of Palestinians. This well-documented history of surveillance is mirrored in the surveillance system that the ADL introduces into schools through their incident reporting form that they have used as evidence in their multiple civil rights complaints against universities and school districts. Bringing the ADL and their reporting measures into Clayton schools opens our students up to risking their chances of college acceptance and teachers up to losing their careers if they dare to share critical information about the actions of the Israeli government in something like a history or a literature class. It encourages students to snitch on each other rather than engage in a hard dialogue, hard but necessary dialogue with trusted adults. And there are alternatives. I definitely sympathize with y'all that you care about the students in the district and you want to offer anti-Semitism trainings. You want to do right by students. I understand it's very convenient that the ADL comes in with a prepackaged curriculum that's free. However, this training is not free. It costs us the Clayton School District's vision of developing students who change the world through independence, creativity and critical thinking. And it could cost Clayton students their chances of getting into college and educators their careers through their reporting measures. ADL is a highly biased political lobbying group. And at the end of the day, educational decisions shouldn't be made by political groups. I have here a list of alternatives for anti-Semitism trainings, including an organization called Parseo that teaches the curriculum on anti-Semitism and the framework of collective liberation. Thank you.

Maxine.

Hello, everyone. My name is Maxine, and I'm a resident of St. Louis. And I was once a Jewish high school student not too long ago, actually in the Bay Area in California. But I work for Missouri Coalition for the Environment now. I'm doing this in my free time though outside of that work, just to be clear. But I hope that you see that we are all a group of people that really care about antisemitism and really value opposing antisemitism. And I want to thank you all first of all for bringing this to attention, to really wanting to do something to bring in curriculum that does address antisemitism. I speak from personal experience when I say I experienced a lot of antisemitism growing up as one of very few Jewish students in my high school. And I take the issue very seriously. And I echo what other speakers have said when I say that the ADL curriculum is just not the way to address antisemitism in schools. Luckily, there are many great alternatives. And I would love to hear what Jess has to say about all the alternatives. But upon a cursory glance, there's also JFREJ, which is Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, which offers a very holistic approach to looking at anti-Semitism as a part of a larger framework, looking at how white supremacists and Christian supremacist systems impact all minoritized communities and how we all suffer under a regime of white nationalism. And people have mentioned before, but the ADL has a long history of actually targeting groups that speak up for civil rights of all kinds. And they do something very dangerous, I think, for Jews, which is to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism and to label all criticism, and I mean all criticism, of the state of Israel as anti-Semitic. I am a Jew who has participated in protests for Palestine and for just collective liberation, and have been labeled as a terrorist by the ADL for my participation in those protests, which is a little bit absurd to me as a Jew. And so I would just encourage you all to really take this criticism seriously. And once again, I just want to reiterate that I appreciate your attention to antisemitism. Antisemitism is on the rise, along with many other forms of hate right now, and along with Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism and anti-Black racism. And I think in this current administration, in this current governmental structure that we find ourselves in, It's really terrifying, and I think probably many of us have experienced what it is to feel utter fear at the political climate that we're in right now. And I really encourage the anti-Semitism education to reflect that spirit of collective liberation. Thank you.

Thank you. Maxine, we didn't get your email address. If you'd like us to follow up, could you please give that to Gina in the back corner? Thank you so much. Michael Berg.

My name is Michael Berg. My father graduated from Clayton. A lot of my family is from Clayton. I've got a 13-year-old son here, and I'm speaking on the same subject as the previous speakers. No school district should work with the Anti-Defamation League. The Anti-Defamation League claims to fight for the rights of Jews, but that's not true certainly for all Jews such as myself. I'm part of Jewish Voice for Peace, a very large and the fastest growing Jewish organization in the country. And the ADL actively opposes us and works hard to undermine our organization through legal actions and through public attacks. And the ADL does this specifically because we oppose political Zionism. We believe everyone in historic Palestine, Israel, deserves equal rights regardless of their religion or ethnicity. And the ADR smears us and falsely claims our actions are anti-Semitic. incidents and because we believe in racial equality the adl calls us a hate group uh the adl claims to be a civil rights organization but it is not the ceo of the adl jonathan greenblatt recently denigrated black lives matter protesters and commit compared american student peace activists to isis he said this about left-wing activists they're opposed to the west they're opposed to capitalism they're opposed to america uh this is not a neutral uh you know civil rights organization to talk about hatred. At the same time, a few months ago, the ADL went out of its way to excuse and explain away a Nazi salute given by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk. Musk has a long history of expressing unambiguous anti-Semitic ideas. Now, how hard would it have been for the ADL just say that what Musk did appears to have been a Nazi salute and that we oppose it? But they did not for various political reasons. Right now, the state of Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, according to all reputable observers. The United Nations Independent Commission, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, Al-Haq, the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Anybody who's observing this sees what's going on. And the ADL sees as one of its primary missions to the protection of this genocidal state from harsh criticism. That's why it's much harsher towards anti-genocide activists than it is towards Nazi curious billionaires. It's not a civil rights group and has no place in public schools. Thank you.

I'll turn it over

now to Dr. Patel for our superintendent update. Great, thank you everyone. Thank you for being here and thank you again for the public comments. We will make sure that we respond to you so thank you for sharing that with us. Okay, so this week it's exciting to be in Clayton. Every week is exciting to be in Claten but this week in particular you will have noticed an enhanced level of school spirit occurring from our family center, elementary school, middle school and high school. And one of the things that's been really neat to see I would say over the past five years my time here is how much school spirit community feel has increased throughout our district. Quick example, I was at Widown Middle School today and they were having their pep assembly in preparation for homecoming, which is this Saturday, and the band, the high school band was there, the cheerleading group was there, and what I noticed was, I remember five years ago we had three cheerleaders and now we're up to 17. That's a whole other engagement that our students are having and participating in. So that's, again, just one small example. But tomorrow morning, starting at 6 AM, Fox 2 Prep Zone is going to be at Clayton High School. So we're hoping, even though there's no school for students, we're hoping the gym's going to be filled with students. And we're going to highlight all the activities and just get excited for homecoming. And that's a great segue for Saturday. I hope the community shows up for the parade that starts at 11 o'clock, football game against U City at noon. And then we're going to have the alumni barbecue that we have every year. And we have a huge alumni turnout and support that comes to our games. So again, thank you for participating. And I'm looking forward to Saturday. So hope to see everyone there. Switching, transitioning off to the next part. And the second part I want to talk about is our long range facilities master plan. The work continues to happen. We're making strong progress in this area. On September 10th, I believe, yes, September 10th we had our first community engagement forum. We had a good crowd, a good amount of people that came in. We had our design team that went over and they shared the early preliminary design work for our elementary schools, our Clayton High School, the academic area that we're trying to look to enhance. as well as athletics and activities in terms of what does early concepts look like. So we shared that, then we had some time at tabletops conversation, and we got some initial feedback from the community from that. So we have two more community engagements coming up, one in October, one in November, and I hope to see a lot more individuals come to those. And if you happen to miss that, we do try and update our website and give all the information that we shared that night there as well. So we did the community engagement forum. In addition, what we're starting new and we're gonna be uploading all the information on the website, sharing it on social, sharing it via email. We're gonna begin our building tours. Elementary schools is one of our priority areas so we're gonna open our buildings to the community to come and see firsthand some of the challenges that we face at our elementary buildings. So more information to come for the building tours that should happen this month which is October or I guess next month which is October. And then tomorrow we're launching our community survey. The survey remember will have a telephone component so there'll be randomized calls that will be made. If you get a phone call from that please answer and please do respond to the community survey. If you don't happen to get a phone call, you also have an opportunity to give us feedback on this important work that's happening online. So we'll have the survey that launches tomorrow. It's going to be open for two weeks. And the feedback that we get from that also is additional data for us to decide which direction we're moving forward with our priorities. So it's important information that we really ask our community to please participate. So again, if you can't be there in person, we've got information out there for you to find and we will share it with you. Please engage with us with our survey and or telephone survey as well. And again, we'll use that information. And then as a last reminder, community engagement is happening in October and November. So that gets to our presentations for tonight. Our design team is here. They're going to give us a presentation and an update on all of the early design work that's been happening. Please know this is preliminary work, preliminary designs, but a lot of work has already happened to get to this stage. So we'll share that and that'll be a presentation, the first one for the night. And then the second presentation for the night is Dr. Solberger and Mrs. Turner will be here. they're going to talk to us about our partnership agreement with special school district so a packed agenda today and now i'm going to hand it over to nina our student board rep

On Wednesday, September 10th, a select group of 45 7th grade students from Rydown Middle School got the opportunity to see Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speak at Wash U, which is the picture you see up here. Right now, the 7th graders are learning about politics and government, so the opportunity to see what Justice Sotomayor had to say was pretty incredible for them. Not only did they get to hear about her experience as a lawyer and judge, but they also got the chance to get a hard copy of her book signed. This is a great chance for students to hear about a career in law and justice from a professional. Additionally, here's another update. Last week I met with Clayton High School's Principal's Advisory Club. This club meets roughly every one to two or three weeks sometimes. is composed of around 15 students who were nominated by teachers for having a unique or interesting perspective our first gathering was meant to serve as an introductory meeting but our group was so eager to get started that we ended up discussing everything from new school policies which i'll talk more about in the next slide to the overload of nachos in the cafeteria which we spent a lot of time on but was fun to talk about our next meeting is next thursday and we are planning to discuss the possibility of a facilities update as well as what can be done to combat hate and anti-semitism in our community I had a great time meeting everyone, and I'm super excited to see what this group can do. So for the next slide. Additionally, on the topic of focus groups, next Wednesday I'll be having my first focus group meeting with a group of fifth graders from Glen Ridge Elementary School. In the weeks following, I will also meet with fifth graders from Captain and Merrimack, as well as Y-Down Student Council. I plan to ask these students a variety of questions, including how they feel about their school building, which will hopefully provide valuable information that can be used in crafting our long-range facility plan. And I am very eager to meet with these students, because I'm sure they'll provide me with a lot of important feedback, as well as a lot of laughs. Speaking of feedback, I'll kind of now touch on what I got from the high school students who I met with last week. They had a ton to say about the implementation of the new cell phone policy. When asked if they felt like the policy was effective, an overwhelming amount said yes. While some say that they don't particularly like the policy or find it necessary, the majority concluded that although it's been an adjustment, the policy has been beneficial. Here are some examples of specific pieces of feedback I got. Someone said the policy was hard to get used to at first, especially for sophomores, juniors, and seniors who experience CHS without the cell phone policy. But they think it's a good thing in the long run. They say that the school has a lighter mood, which I got a lot, just like lighter, happier mood. And then one person said my friends and I get so much more work done during Greyhound time, which is kind of fun to hear. Additionally, I talked to an English teacher a little bit. This is just a little anecdote I thought was really interesting. She told me that last week at lunch, they thought something crazy was happening outside their office in the cafeteria because it was so loud. But when they went to go look at what was going on, they realized it was just people talking. And for the last couple of years, it had been so quiet in the cafeteria. This was just such a change. All in all, CHS community members are seeing the success of the policy. And though many were annoyed at first, they are excited to continue the year cell phone free. And I really do think it's working. Thank you.

Thank you, Nina. That's all great reports. Thank you. Okay. Item 6.1, we're going to have a long-range facilities master plan update. Come on up, team. Yeah. John and team. Yeah. Thank you. We have Paragon and Perkins and Will, BLDD, BSI. Everyone here to give us an update.

Thank you John. It's a pleasure to be here this evening and to share an update on the work that's happened. So it's just trying to provide in one on one slide a lot of things that have been underway. It's color coded your board meetings are of course up at the top including this evening's board meeting the 25th. So that's just a point in time as terms of where we are. There have been building tours that have happened. The elementary workshops, three of those have taken place, the last of which was last week. Two high school workshops. The BLDD team has done athletic workshops as well. Community engagement started last week with our first session on the 10th. Surveys about kind of repeating a lot of what you just said, Dr. Patel. The survey is just about to roll out and all leading up to a potential bond vote in April. That which is really what was our starting point in terms of laying out the overall schedule sort of working backwards from that and Understanding that if that is to occur in April, then you need to finalize your ballot language in at your January board meeting So there's a lot of work that's been done. There's a lot of that's in front of us yet to be done Okay, the elementary schools I just talked about we had between the last time that we met with you, we've done our third workshop with the elementary schools where we were poring over building diagrams, different options, weighing pros and cons for each of those, and trying to narrow the focus a bit. The same thing happened at the high school with its second workshop, and of course, again, just mentioning the community engagement session that happened just last week. One of the things that came out of our very first workshop with the elementary schools was a set of guiding principles that we feel are really important as we consider the options moving forward. I'm not going to read these. These have been presented a number of times, but just really a guidepost for us and for the building teams and the community at large as we start to develop options to really keep these issues and ideas and thoughts in mind.

So this should look familiar from the community engagement session if you attended that. It really summarizes the programmatic elements and challenges that are addressed in the elementary school options that you'll see tonight, and you'll see them morphing and changing as we iterate with all of the input from the educators, administrators, community, et cetera. So this is just a summary a couple of things we're doing right sizing classrooms providing a larger indoor space for school and community activities creating storm shelters among many other things programmatically that are being addressed. So what we'll share tonight are each of the three elementary schools with the existing site plan so you can have some context for some of the challenges at Captain. We know that there is a right-of-way in that hatched area on the west side of the site, so we're trying to steer clear of that. And you can see the area of the site that does not have a building on it, which would be a logical place to put a new facility of some kind. So what we'll share are the options summary that we shared with the workshops as well as the community and the slashes rec are the showing what the workshop group recommended moving forward with. There was there were strong opinions throughout the day of what was the best option. So this is representing what the workshop group wanted to move forward which was the larger footprint building at Captain the one that had better adjacencies or more ideal adjacencies of space and it says shifted so it avoids that right of way that is not owned by the district. The next slide shows where we've gone from the feedback on September 10th from both the workshop as well as the community and sharing the two options that are moving forward at the moment. One is that same option one that you just saw. which shows an idea of phasing which comes about by avoiding the right of way and needing to build a building in phases. Option two is an option that came out of the community engagement session where somebody asked why would you not save the existing captain it's the newest building even though it's over 50 years old so we did some due diligence and did some test fitting of that existing building and showed what the new building footprint would be and what you see is that the captain is two stories and the new building that would have to supplement the program there would be two stories the option one is a three-story building so more efficient more compact And it means that option two gets less playground space in the end. So that's really the major difference there. Steve will go through Glenridge

and Glenridge at elementary school. Again the existing site just for context but moving into the three options that were presented during the workshop Differences between these would be how the lower level is used in option one and option two. No students on the lower level in option three. We put specials, specials being art, music, science, and so forth on the lower level. The workshop group really sort of kind of vacillated kind of between option one and option to throughout the day but really gravitated toward option one at the end. And what that's progressed to now is Three options and a little bit of a different take on where the the addition is mostly in the back side of the building We've actually pulled the addition off the front side of the building So the front side of building is exactly what it is today Consolidated everything to the to the backside to make one more consolidated addition to the building But you can read in the descriptions across the top that options one, two, and three, one thing they share in common is they don't have classrooms in the lower level. And then option one has got administrative space in the lower level and then it's also One of the descriptors there is where's the gym in the cafeteria? It's new it's combined and it's at the main level option to The cafeteria is renovated. It stays in the lower level in the new gym with a stage now is on the main level option three The admin and cafeteria are renovated in the lower level, and the gym and stage are on the main level. So there's slight variations, sort of variations on a theme here. And then option four, which is not illustrated here, would be a new building of the same square footage on the site. So it's basically taking down the existing building and building something new on the site.

And if I could add that option three there's a little more site because you're using more of the lower level by putting both the admin and the cafeteria down there so that's the main kind of footprint difference with that option. For merrimack here's the existing site, as you can see. North is to the right on these plans. The outcome from the workshop group was that they were happy with specials in the lower level of Merrimack. The gym cafeteria combination was in all of these options at the time, and the smallest footprint on the site was option two, and that was why the group gravitated toward that option. They wanted to preserve as much play area as possible, so that's the one that they wanted to move forward. So we actually studied a couple of iterations of that option similar to Glen Ridge. The first option one is very similar to what was presented to the workshop group with that combination gym cafeteria where the cafeteria serves as the stage so the gym is the house to the theater if you will and that's all new together on the main level and you can see it just takes up more space because the cafeteria and gym are the largest programmatic areas if you leave the cafeteria where it is and renovate it in option two and provide a smaller stage for the gym still allowing performance to happen on the main level you get a smaller footprint and so that that is the option two here and again option three showing kind of just book ending costs because there's going to eventually be cost associated with these that we have you know renovated area a new building area and sometimes those complexities of renovations can be more expensive or nearly as expensive as building new so that's where option three and option four for Glen Ridge come in just to eventually provide that bookend so you can see what that cost could be not suggesting that that's what you want to do or that you should do but just just to give you a sense of what it would cost to build brand

new. So just looking at some of the challenges at the high school similar to the elementaries those right sized classrooms and the specialized learning spaces such as geometry and construction and robotics Also looking at how we can just come up with some more collaborative flexible split spaces and looking at the quality of those spaces as well making sure that the spaces are fully accessible. Looking at the adjacencies in those circulations and then also making sure that we get a storm shelter at the high school. So here we have the CTE wing addition at the high school. So the colored boxes there in the middle is the addition. So on the left of that main image is the edge of Adzik Field. We have the back drive right adjacent to that that we're protecting just for circulation fire lane access. On the right is the gray area, that is your existing school. So we're looking at a one-story addition there in the middle. We went through some iterations with the workshops, but right now we've got a one-story edition. Starting at the top there, we have the pre-engineering space that will reuse that existing classroom. Below that is the shop area, reuse that as well. And that purple box there in the middle, that is the new addition for the geometry and construction space. So having that direct adjacency to the shop and pre-engineering is important. And then switching over to robotics there in the green, having a 27 by 54 practice field in there and an area for robot staging and working on the robots as well. Below that in the yellow is a connection corridor from the math wing through that existing corridor and having also a dedicated vestibule entrance off that back drive. And then the three blue spaces that you're seeing below that having a dedicated space for amps large storage area have all their equipment in that space a classroom setting and then to the left of that is a CTE classroom or have a flex classroom that could be used for robotics or different needs. And then we are proposing to demolish two existing math classrooms. That's the red dash box so we'll have to relocate one math classroom in that addition and the other on the existing building on the north side there. Some other things that we're looking at is the school store at the main entrance of the school. So that's the center image there on the left. Right off the main entry there, high visibility, heavy traffic right next to the auditorium. So having a glass display to display all your school gear. It does take over the Hounds grounds, so we'd have to relocate that to the bottom level of the Commons area. And then something else that you're not seeing on the screen is the performing arts work. We've got some renovations included in that as well. So looking at the HVAC noise in the back area for band, orchestra, and choir. We did a walk-through and did some testing with our engineers, and the levels are above the standards. So how do we address those HVAC needs and improvements there? Also at the back of the performing arts area behind the auditorium and the stage is they've got multiple levels that create some ADA challenges and some logistics issues. So while there's an ADA lift on the stage, a student can get stuck on the stage for a while until the end of performance. Creating an ADA lift behind that backstage area and an equipment lift for just some logistic needs is something else that we're looking at. And then just some renovations inside the auditorium, replacing the seating. And then that lobby area is pretty tight. So how do we expand that a little bit by pushing that vestibule out to give a little bit more breathing room? And then looking at those restrooms in that lobby too, give them a nice refresh with some finish upgrades and fixture upgrades. So that's the work we're looking at the high school.

Okay, it's great to see everybody again tonight. With me tonight is John Whitlock. He's our president of BLVD Architects. He's also our in-house athletic expert. So he's going to present the three conceptual designs that we've gotten to thus far. I guess I missed something. Okay, so, okay, looks like we took that timeline out. Okay, so all right, so as Steven mentioned, we've done two workshops so far. Workshop one, workshop two, I'll get into that right now and then we did the community engagement. Workshop three, we still need to get scheduled and that will happen before community engagement number two. So workshop number one really was discovery envisioning. So we had the participants where I got into groups And the first activity was a scatter map activity So we asked them basically to write down any activity that happens at an athletic event So this could be the actual sport that was being played It could be any social interaction that the spectators are doing before the game or before the event, during the event, after the event. What are people's children doing? Are they watching the event? Are they just running around? Are they on a playground? What are all those activities that they want to see or that they do see? All the groups broke out, had a lot of things written down. The activity two of that workshop was we let them play designer. So we had them take all those activities to the best of their ability and put those activities on the three different sites and where they made sense, where they fit best. So that was at the Gayfield site, Y-Down, as well as the Adzik Shop Park area. With all that information, we took that and we developed two different design scenarios, which we then presented at workshop number two. So that was the first time that the participants saw those conceptual designs, and so we asked them to give us pros and cons of each of the both scenarios at each of the three sites. We also asked them to give as recommended improvements or other information they wanted to see. So we took that information, which helped us refine concepts number one, number two, which we then presented at the community engagement meeting number one. During that meeting, You know the groups broke out they gave us a lot of good feedback a lot of input We went back to the drawing board and essentially generated a third scenario Which John will get into at the end of this so I will pass it off to John and we'll get into the three scenarios that we've designed thus far

Well, thank you. Scenario one. So the good news is I'm going to explain these at a very high level. But scenario one really reflects the committee's desire and the school district's desire to have all of the athletics in one place. That's obviously beneficial for student safety. It eliminates having to drive. A lot of benefits. But does it fit and how does it work? So for scenario one there is work at all different sites so I'll start with Y down the good news is this happens at all three scenarios and so Y down has trouble growing grass in its current location so replacing that with a multipurpose play surface with the surrounding running and walking track and then shade shelters at team areas would be the work at Y down and that is included in all scenarios. In all scenarios, ADZIC, the ball field will have improvements to the dugouts and a two-story press box. And what you see here in scenario one is at the area of the ball fields just southwest of this building is what it would look like if we put two stadiums on site. And so right now, you actually have access to three what I'll call soccer fields. So it allows you to play field hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and football. And so by using ADZIC as your field hockey, you still have a football field stadium and then a track soccer stadium lacrosse. And you can cross the turf sports amongst the different stadiums. The problem, issues, challenges with this scenario is getting people efficiently and more importantly effective in and out of this site, parking. Those are some drawbacks to this site. And then also what happens at Gay Field is we're replacing those ball fields that we'd be displacing by these stadias, having access to soccer fields. improvements to parking, adding playgrounds at Gay Field. So Scenario 1 is really reflective of trying to get everybody, all the student-athletes and all the community where they gather right next to Adzick Field. Scenario two says, OK, again, our work at Y-Down is the same. Our work at ASIC is the same. And actually, the work at Gay Field is the same. The difference is we'll use one stadium. That allows us to have a larger stadium with home and visitor bleachers. It does accommodate all of the throws and jumps and everything associated with the track. But the drawback challenge to this one is it does require you to still use some of the fields at Gayfield. So while it's an improvement in terms of space and efficiency and getting people in and out, it doesn't really allow you to have everybody in one place. So scenario three is the obvious thing. All right, let's again do the work at Y-down. I failed to mention on every scenario there is improvements to the softball field here to provide some turf so easier maintenance for the softball field. Sorry, I missed that. It's on all scenarios. As a field, we'd still do the work for the dugouts and the press box there. And then creating... a one-stop shop in Gayfield for all of your athletics, which would have a large track facility where you play soccer, lacrosse, you play field hockey. Again, providing perimeter fence so that these are all well protected and so that it's your fields. It's taking the existing soccer field, putting a fence around that so you're able to control the use of that field a little bit better. So where the parking lot is now, we're suggesting that for the stadium, where that parking lot is now we're suggesting that's a pedestrian way, an area where you would gather before a game and enter the stadium so it could be a really dynamic place to be and gather. using the areas north of that for parking for the stadium, have the throw areas basically where they are now. And again, improvements to all the parking so that you have a little bit more parking and area there. So scenario three really says, okay, we're going to put all our eggs in the gate field basket, we'll call it, and go from there. Thank you.

Well, thank you so much. Appreciate you being here and sharing all the options and scenarios with us. Does anyone have any questions? I'm sure people have. Everyone has a question. Okay. Anyone, questions for them? Go ahead and ask. Jason, go ahead. Or whoever.

Okay. I have a question. For the Perkins and Will team, so can you – one of the things we heard in the study that Paragon did was that some of our buildings, particularly Glen Ridge and Merrimack, are starting – they're not very close, but they're starting to near the end of their useful life. If we're to renovate, pursue renovations at Glen Ridge and Merriment, how far out do we push out that useful life? Do you have any sort of sense of that?

So the renovations we're talking about on both of those campuses within existing space is pretty significant in terms of the level of renovation. So we'd be talking about new mechanical systems, new plumbing and electrical systems. So the infrastructure piece of it, the stuff that's sort of above ceilings and behind walls that you don't often see is being taken care of. So everything gets refreshed from an interior environment standpoint. The addition, of course, is substantial and brand new. So that's got a long life ahead of it. The existing building that remains, the structural systems of those buildings is sound. So I have no qualms about saying that'll extend out into the future as far as the new construction would. The place that you would want to look would be like your exterior enclosure, right? So the buildings of this vintage oftentimes, and there's not a lot we're actually suggesting that we're doing to the exterior enclosure, like facing the public streets, just because of the look and feel of those buildings is so sort of endearing to the community. But the exterior enclosure is very sound, it's very solid, but it doesn't have the insulation that we would have in a modern new building. So I don't have any issues necessarily saying, like, we're going to extend the lives of these buildings for decades via these renovations. Otherwise, why do it, right? So they've got a lot of life left in them, but we're doing a lot via the renovation to extend that life. So both things are kind of true at the same time, right? They are nearing the end of the useful life today, but we're going to be able to extend that through pretty extensive renovation.

Okay. Well, I understand it's hard to like – you know, it's hard to give an exact answer. I guess my concern of renovation versus a rebuild is what I don't want to do is saddle this community, this board 20 years from now, you know, with having to just rebuild the entire school because we didn't take – you know, because we pursued the cheaper option the first time or whatever it was. So I guess like what I hear you saying is you're not – There's some degree of confidence you're not doing that. When you say decades, I hear 20, 30-plus

years. I think we're talking about a long time. At the same time, even a new building, there are systems in a new building that after 25 years, an air handler, for instance, is typically going to get renewed or replaced after 25 years. So even in new construction, there is typically a rolling schedule when things – carpet doesn't – Ten years probably right painting rooms every five years. So there's that ongoing maintenance that needs to happen even in new construction.

All right. And then I guess for the BLDD team. So one of the things we heard in the community forum just at least some concern about switching from grass to turf or at Y down. Can you talk a little bit about some of the struggles of growing grass at Y down and why it makes it difficult to do that.

You're trying to grow grass over parking. Deck, right? So the ability to maintain that at the level that you would have to provide fertilizer and ongoing maintenance is just an overwhelming amount of work and really your best option in that area. Also because of all the use that it gets, that's another what's happening to the turf that's there now is the excessive amount of use that it gets is deteriorating it at a faster rate that's making it even harder to keep up.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Anyone else can jump in. Any other questions.

Chris. A follow up on both of those. First can you tell us more about it's it's doesn't seem at all a stretch to understand that the grass is you know it's an issue right because of where it is etc. It's getting so much use So it seems like there's this logical sense of, oh, we go to something that's, you know, like we have at Gay, et cetera. But can you talk about those – if there's concerns about health and safety around turf versus grass? Because we're not just talking about usability. We're talking about the fact that one is a natural substance, one is not. So just give us your thoughts on what turf – how that compares in safety and health to grass?

A difficult question to answer. There's a lot of surveys and reports done from both sides, and you all kind of wonder who's supplying that information. And I don't know that I can speak to necessarily the health. I will say that pesticides and herbicides that need to go into your grass can be just as dangerous as the plastics, the microplastics, the rubbers that are in your turf. So there is some danger in both of those, right? And I'm suggesting that to get your turf to grow the amount of maintenance herbicides and pesticides that are probably required are a lot. I will say that there are hybrid synthetic turf systems now I like to say I practice architecture but I don't practice architecture on my clients. So this is probably leading edge technology where it's actually tying both synthetic and natural turf together and it has been used. It's being used. There are organic infills where it eliminates the rubber that you typically see when you watch college sports or the NFL on Sunday. all that black stuff kind of gets kicked up. So there's organic solutions to that that's been used fairly successful, and there's a lot of products out there right now that are non-infill. Now it's still a plastic grass in both of those scenarios where you have organic infill, but by eliminating that factor, which is kids crawling around and digging it up, that sort of benefit could help.

Have you guys done any of the hybrids?

No, I've just read about it.

Okay, so it's that new?

Yeah.

Yes, please. With this hybrid one, one of the issues with the grass there is not only that the grass isn't growing, but that it's so many days wet and unusable. With this hybrid thing, is that still an issue if it gets lots of rain or snow?

I'd be afraid to answer that because I don't know enough about the system to answer that. I do know that with turf systems, there will be Drainage system associated with that a lot of rock and some drainage to get that out. So you wouldn't have that wetness Typically associated but to get the grass to grow I would assume that we're still dealing with an amount of dirt So my guess is that they still struggles a little bit with the wetness Yeah, yeah since probably one person yeah Um

So to follow up on what Jason asked also of you guys, I mean it's the biggest most important question we can ask whether or not we want to do renos versus new construction completely. Obviously the other big question that goes alongside it which is what this community will support. In your eyes, I just need to hear from architects' point of view, now that you've sat at all of these committee meetings and you've heard from our teachers, staff, et cetera, what it is that they're looking for for the next as many years as possible. Glen Ridge, it's been 100. Can you tell us in your eyes whether or not a renovation which is going to be of grand scale, obviously. How that is comparable and whether or not you feel that there are things that they aren't getting in a renovation that they would be getting in new construction. Again, you've been at these meetings. You've heard our staff talk about what it is they're looking for for future ready learning and what they'd like to do. what they'd like to do in spaces that allow the types of learning that they are trying to make do in hallways now, et cetera. So I'm just curious about really your thoughts on what we might be missing out on if we don't do a full complete from scratch.

Sure. I think it's at at captain. I would say your Existing infrastructure is really challenging for a lot of reasons the structural system the floor-to-floor Heights the lack of windows That is something that would be an extra challenge with a renovation and also the as all of your sites are challenged with size and when you take a two-story building and you just extend it as a two-story versus building up, you get less site area. So if I were you, I would look at Captain as probably your best bet would be new, just for those reasons alone. When you look at Merrimack and Glenridge, Have they they're stately buildings right that are part of those communities. So there's some there's some aesthetic value in what exists so I think you have to weigh that and Also, just the love of those facilities from from your community that have had them around for a hundred years there They have good floor to floor heights. They they have really nice spaces. There's some challenges with you know a little bit of maybe some columns in places you might not want or a little bit of a narrow space but for the most part the programs that we have planned and any new option are the same programs that we would be renovating the renovations to and by kind of peeling off some of the areas that are not functioning very well along the backsides of both of those buildings. We solve a myriad of problems and keeping the front keeps that aesthetic that you've had for 100 years and fixes everything behind it. Those additions are significant and they fix a lot of wrongs in the existing building and allow you to have those collaborative spaces and those relationships that you want. So I would say Could you do it better in a new build for anything? I think always you can recreate it probably better, like perfectly better the exact way you want it. But there's so much that can be done with a really good renovation. And sometimes if you talk about sustainability, the best thing to do is to reuse a building. So there's a lot of embodied carbon that comes with a rental versus a new build. So there's lot of things to take into account So I don't know if I have a good answer for you for Glenridge and Merrimack as clear cut as Captain seems to be. Those are a lot of things that you could weigh and cost will come into it. Community sentiment will come into it but Does that give you a decent answer? It

does. It sounded to me like you said during the presentation that the cost of a rental can be very competitive. It can be close,

yeah. Yeah. I don't have those numbers today, but what we've done in the past in situations like this is it always comes up in a community meeting whether or not somebody asked for it is, well, you tell me it's going to take maybe longer to renovate and build an addition than it would to build new, and you're telling me it's going cost about the same like shouldn't I consider that or you know the new build may be significantly more and you don't want to do it so it's it really provides when we get those costs added in just a way for you to weigh the options and be fully informed like the renovation option a captain fully informs you the cost and the pros and cons of that, whether or not you would actually do that, maybe not. But it will allow your community to make a more informed choice.

I actually think you apologized for not giving a clear-cut answer. I actually think that was very helpful because to me it tells us if we choose the route of a renovation over a new addition, we're not there's nothing clear and obvious that we would be giving up. So I think that was helpful.

Yeah, and I was going to follow up and say it, and it sounds like maybe the only thing, maybe, that we could pinpoint is, is it useful use? Is it the longevity of the building? Is there longer useful use on a brand-new building than there would be on a Renault?

I think Steve touched on it, right? All those systems that age and that are at the end of their useful life at Glenridge and Merrimack, the expensive guts of the building, that would be the same in a new build as you would get in a reno. An exterior wall, as anyone who owns an old home, you're always going to have things go wrong with it. And perhaps an older building, you know, those things may happen a little bit more often. But the The general gist of these renovations is to make sure that you've got a better, like you may improve the windows. You would maybe tuck point where you need to. You fix the roof. So you have, you've done it once and you've done it for the next however many years until that next cycle of repair comes along. But the goal would be that you're not gonna have a leaky roof or a bad mechanical system in a renovation that you'd be kind of starting at the same baseline. But you still have those old bones but the bones are good.

I appreciate you bringing up the sustainability of the renovation option as well, because that is something that's come up in the forums and with our steering committee and the workshops. That's something that is asked about a lot.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, so I guess I have a more fundamental question that I want to ask because I've heard it from the community. So when you talk about righting the existing wrongs of the building and talk about these extensive renovations to a lot of things that are behind the walls, right? The ceiling and the roof, behind the walls, underground, plumbing, all of that stuff. So as a school district, we have never really deferred maintenance on any of these buildings. So the perception in the community is that we have kept these buildings in good shape. So then the more fundamental question is why do they need to be renovated at all? So I'd like to get your expert opinion on why they should be renovated, why we should make this investment at all and what happens if we don't.

I think there's a lot of different layers to the answer to that. The first one I'll start with is just programmatic. If you look at the goals that came out of the very first workshop and the guiding principles, and you try to lay that or stack that up against your existing buildings, you fall short in a lot of areas, right? In terms of flexibility, adjacencies between spaces that you would want to have, size of spaces and so forth. So like a lot of buildings, and your buildings don't suffer from this so much, but buildings of this age have been added onto so many times. Oftentimes daylight gets compromised because we're closing off windows to spaces and so forth. So I would say programmatically is definitely one part of this that would weigh heavily. I think if I were sitting in your seat and looking at thinking about the next 50 years, what is education going to look like? What's it look like today? You do great in your schools today. You're a really solid, good school district. But if you think about what's it going to look like 50 years from now and trying to set yourself up from a sustainability standpoint, a flexibility standpoint, those would all be considerations that I would be thinking about in terms of to be acting now and doing something with your buildings. So I think programmatically is one. The infrastructure is a whole other layer, I think, that buildings of this age, those systems are just worn, right? you know school districts do a great job of trying to maintain and a lot of school districts have an attitude up we fix it when it breaks right deferred maintenance in terms of the way that commercial building sector does deferred maintenance typically does not happen in public school districts so if you look nationally at deferred maintenance and public schools it's literally billions and billions of dollars hundreds of billions of dollars of need and so addressing that and setting yourself up again for the long term is really important and those all three of the elementary schools are you know more so in Glenridge and Merrimack because the age of those buildings I'm talking infrastructure now is is a need so I think there's a as I said I think there's like a number of different layers in terms of you know your point in time today and then looking out into the future why you would want to make the investment

So even though we have not deferred maintenance on those buildings, there's still significant upgrades to infrastructure that need to be made just based on the age of the buildings is what I heard. Correct. Right? In addition to the programmatic benefits of if you have to do them anyway, then this would be the time to change the interiors because you've got to take out the walls. That's exactly right. And you've got to get to the studs of the building to where you need to do this work. If you're going to do that, then...

Yeah,

I

think that's a great point. In fact, that's an example that we use quite often when we're talking to school districts about doing a long-range facility plan. At some point, you need to change an air handler. Well, before you make that decision, maybe the spaces that air handlers serve need to change themselves, right? The configuration of those that maybe then is a different mechanical system solution. So Don't invest the money to make that first fix without understanding what the, you know, sort of the programmatic need is and do them both at the same time as possible. That's the best use of your taxpayer dollars that you're going to get, I believe.

And do you believe that we're doing that

through this

process? Yeah,

absolutely. We're accomplishing that through this process. Absolutely. Great.

Kim, thank you for asking that. And the way you summarized what he said was perfect. So thank you because I think it actually helps all of us. That's what we're going to get asked, right? By the community. Why are we doing this? Why do we need to be doing this? And I think that question and answer was helpful to me at least, but I think helpful to everybody. So thank you. Any other questions? Comments from anyone? Ben? Leo?

I have most of my questions have already been asked.

Yeah, mine too.

But I just had two questions, kind of tactical, I guess. So at Glen Ridge, one of the big problems is moisture in the basement. Would that be remedied through this renovation? Or obviously the new building would be renovated. Or is that just built into the way it is? No.

No, I think it's something that we are certainly aware of and we're looking at. In fact, we have received a proposal from what I call sort of forensic building experts to go in and take a look at those issues and advise us as a team on what needs to happen relative to that. There's a lot, if you can imagine, if you look at those diagrams for Glenridge, we sort of removing large sections of the back side of the building. So anywhere we're touching it there we can get down below grade and address any We'll be covering it up with new construction, so we should be addressing it there. And we may need to go as far as doing some excavation around the perimeter of the building to do some exterior waterproofing to mitigate and do some drainage as well to pull water away and get water away from the building. So there's a lot that we can do to help with that. Okay. I'd

like to note, too, we're also actively getting our mechanical engineer engaged on that process to look at the HVAC systems for Glenridge as well to tackle that component.

Okay. Awesome. Thank you. So another issue that's come up, I know it's, I think if I go back to the original Paragon study, there was air quality was something that was identified as a concern among parents. So I would just curious with some of the newer HVAC and so forth, would that include some kind of filtration or other air quality, you know, enhancements?

Yeah, for sure. Any new mechanical system is going to have filtration associated with it, and so that's maybe the short answer.

I'm sort of rhetorical, I guess, I suppose, but I'm assuming that it's basically the lifespan of these systems are just kind of like they are what they are, and that's maybe a result of some of the air quality concerns, and this would be remedied by this.

That is definitely the goal. Okay.

Absolutely. That's

it for

me. Thank you.

No? Pam? Okay. Nina, do you have any questions? Great.

Just kind of like a little bit of a clarifying question. For scenario three, so what exactly is being, like, condensed into, like, the gate field area in this situation?

So you would still – so, again, you have access to three what I'll call soccer fields right

now.

So you use adzec – for field hockey, right? And so you would have soccer, lacrosse inside the track, and you still have access to a grass field, which would be your soccer field on the north. So that existing field would still be there.

Okay, that's kind of what I wanted to know because I know it's kind of a problem sometimes with after-school practice where every team is going. So I just want to make sure there would still be enough space. Thank you.

Okay. Well, thank you so much. This was really helpful. You know, each time we hear from you, helps us more and more kind of narrow our decisions, you know, what we're thinking of, and narrowing the options helps. So thank you all for being here. Appreciate it. We'll see you again soon. Thank

you.

Yes. Yes, I meant it. We'll And now, Dr. Kelly Sollberger and Ms. John Turner are going to present us with the Special School District Partnership Agreement, which we will need to vote on as well. I also see Dr. Macklins here, who's the superintendent of Special School District. Oh, we've got all kinds of other people here. Great. Thank you, everyone, for being here. I want you to key to more. Okay. I'll turn it over to you, Kelly.

Yes. Yes, I meant it. We'll And now, Dr. Kelly Solberger and Ms. John Turner are going to present us with the Special School District Partnership Agreement, which we will need to vote on as well. I also see Dr. Macklins here, who's the superintendent of Special School District. Oh, we've got all kinds of other people here. Great. Thank you, everyone, for being here. I want you to key to more. Okay. I'll turn it over to you, Kelly.

Good evening. Tonight we're going to present the partnership agreement. And the partnership agreement is really just a framework that we use to make sure that our collaboration is effective. Between the school district of Clayton and special school district. I want to start off with some introductions So we have the superintendent of special school district. Dr. Macklin is joining us We also have to my left over on the other side. We have Chiquita Moore and her title is chief partner districts officer and So thank you guys both for joining us for this meeting. We're really excited too because this year we have a new member of our leadership team in special education, so Shannon Gerald is joining us. So she's our special education coordinator and then you guys all know John Turner, our director of special education. We're also really fortunate to have a couple of our parents here. We have our president of PACAD, Megan Lenahan is here as well as Michelle and Najah. They're all here too. There might've been more parents who have come in afterwards, but big thank you all. Oh, and Kate Pavlison, our coach. We'll talk about her too when we get to our org chart in a little bit. So huge thanks to everyone who's joining us for this presentation. I think it's just an excellent example of the close partnership that we have between the School District of Clayton and Special School District. so our rule as partners is that we have a long-standing relationship between the school district of Clayton and special school district and It's really to deliver that high quality education to our students because they're able to bring in resources That would not be a sustainable for just the school district of clayton to have on our own So that's really what it's about. It's high quality compliant student-centered special education services that we have here in our school district and Within this partner district model, SSD is responsible for providing our staffing and evaluation, instruction related to special services, compliance oversight, and School District of Clayton has the things like the curriculum piece, our assessment systems, school operations, and then also that family engagement structure. So it's a partnership between the two school districts working together. In these concentric circles, you'll notice that it starts off all the way at the top with our federal regulations like IDEA. And then this is just outlining that legal framework that guides the relationship between special school district and the school district of Clayton. You'll notice that within this, there are some parts that are separate, but we all work together on them. So for example, separate compliance areas, we collaborate on matters like child find, our evaluation and eligibility, least restrictive environment. Those are things that we have separate compliance, but we work on together. So it's a strong partnership. And then we also have resources that fall within that too. Last year, we spent a lot of time in this presentation talking about the principal and coordinator collaboration tool. We're actually going to spend less time talking about it, this presentation, and more time being able to update you on the progress of the goals that we had from last year and what the new goals will be moving forward into next year. So in our partnership, we have 271 students throughout the School District of Clayton that are also receiving special education services through Special School District. You can see the breakdown on there. I'm not going to read through all of those numbers. But similarly to last year, the highest area that we have students identified is that OHI, other health impaired. We also have many students who have learning disabilities, and students with an autism diagnosis. Those are kind of our highest areas as far as percentages of those 271 students. All right. And I'm going to turn it over to John. She's going to talk about the staffing that we have. Can you reach that?

So our staffing through SSD, like Kelly alluded to, is really based on student need. And so we receive staff or staff might leave the district based on the number of students that we have that require that service. So as a result, for example last school year, we received a part-time social worker because our number of students who required social work services through SSD increased. This school year we have, moved a couple of teachers throughout the district to support student needs, of course in collaboration with the principals and other admin. So we have a teacher who is traveling between Glenridge and Merrimack to support students, and we also have moved paras based on student needs. So some of our students receive pretty significant para support on the middle school level. They graduated eighth grade and they're now at the high school, so those paras have moved with them. And that's usually how SSD does staffing. This is just a picture of our organizational chart at the foundation and, of course, at the heart of what we do because 85% of our students with special needs spend the bulk of their time in the general education setting. So again, at our foundation, we have our general education teachers, our special education teachers, and Ms. Pavelson, who supports both special and general education teachers with instructional strategies and supports for students with special needs and students who do not have special needs. And then we of course have our principals. We have Ms. Shannon Gerald, who is our special school district coordinator myself, Dr. Tammy Yates who is not here this evening but she's the executive director of partner districts and so we collaborate with her quite often and of course with the support of Dr. Patel and Dr. Macklin.

So I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about the purpose of the partnership agreement. Thank you. In general it is a document that provides an increased knowledge and awareness of the expectations that we as both special school district and Clayton School District are using to provide what our students need. It's an inclusive and collaborative approach that puts all of our stakeholders on the same page as far as what our students excuse me what our students need And it's also a tool that we use to monitor decision making and guiding our practices in seven different categories, which I'll talk about briefly in just a moment. And it also guides our conversations and the work that we are doing for our students to ensure that they are getting the services that they need. So the next couple of slides really are just a breakdown of those seven categories. They cover quite a bit of information, so I'm just gonna briefly touch on some of the highlights for each of those areas. In staffing, in order to collaborate with our Clayton counterparts, we're trying to create an inclusive environment and welcoming environment for special school district staff so that we can retain those staff and provide high quality staff to our students in the district. In the teaching, learning, and accountability area, One of the focuses is on shared resources that we can provide for both special school district staff and general education staff, as well as allowing our special education staff to also participate in the resources that Clayton has for teachers as well. So it's that shared piece. And then the collaboration category. Again, many different areas that that covers, but one of the areas that I wanted to highlight was The partnership that we use to ensure that we are implementing a variety of IEP services throughout the district for our students and to support our students who may have some social emotional learning needs and may go into crisis at different times and making sure that our staff have the resources that they need to support our students with that. Student services includes a partnership with our MTSS process, our social emotional learning, as well as transition plans, just to name a few of those services that we provide. Our data and technology component includes sharing of student data so that we can make database decisions for our student needs, as well as provision of technology resources to the staff and augmentative communication devices for students who are in need of that. Our transportation category focuses on making sure that our students are receiving transportation in their least restrictive environment, and also helping guide those conversations about when it's required as a related service for our students. And then finally, career and technical education provides access to programs that are aligning with our business industry standards and the community so that we are providing an alternative pathway for students in post-secondary education and career choices. And so these seven categories are really, again, that guiding piece that allow us as a partnership of the two districts to have an agreement that's prioritizing equity, collaboration and excellence for our students.

Okay, and so now to bring it back to the School District of Clayton in particular in regards to the partnership agreement. Last school year we came up with several goals that align with the needs of our community. The first goal was to take a look at our transition process to make sure that families receive the support that they need with some of those milestone transitions from preschool to kindergarten and from eighth grade to ninth grade. To do that, we said we were going to be focusing on Charting the Life Course, having our teachers trained and implementing those particular IEP meetings with that format which we did for all of those transition meetings. We got our special education teachers trained and also the School District of Clayton guidance counselors were trained in Charting the Life course too so that they would be able to support families in those meetings. The thing I like the most about Charting the Life course is it puts the families and the students at the center of the IEP meeting and not the IEP document. So it turns more into a conversation about the whole child versus compliance. So that's why we chose that, and I think we got some really great feedback. Also, collaboration between myself, Kate, and the Family Center administrators. We had a good time with them talking about all of our incoming kindergartners and also, you know, like getting the little kid feel. I really like it there, and I'd like to go back. I'll go, yes, uh-huh, yes. Yeah, it really is. We, yep. So we took a look also at our continuum of services for sixth through eighth grade because that's the, I would say like that was the most challenging transitions for kids and families because it's the shortest amount of time that kids are in a building within Clayton, that middle school transition and so just making sure that our services are aligned with both what kids received in the elementary schools, and then also what they're going to receive in the high school. So we spent a lot of time looking at our continuum services and making sure that there weren't any gaps. One of the biggest celebrations for this particular goal is that we got a lot of feedback, anecdotal feedback from parents that they felt heard in their meetings. And to me, that was a great import. And we also completed any kindergarten transition IEP that families were willing to complete. I think we had one student who had the privilege of traveling through Asia, and so we postponed their IEP into the fall. Our second goal was to align our resources. Both SSD and the School District of Clayton have a lot of resources and a lot of experts in reading, writing, math, social-emotional supports. So we worked very closely with our, oh thank you, it changed on my paper, not up there, sorry. All right, so we worked very closely with the reading specialists and the math specialists in the school district of Clayton. We did some collaboration with the instructional coaches from SSD and then also the reading and math coaches from SSD. I'd like to highlight some of the really hard work that the school district of Clayton staff did to support us in the areas of reading and math. Angela, who's the district math coordinator for SDC, she collaborated with us throughout the school year and played a pretty big role in us identifying appropriate curriculum for our replacement math courses on both the middle and high school level. That was a huge, that was a really large amount of work that she was passionate about and purposeful about and we really appreciate it. Not only did she help us with the curriculum but she also came throughout the school year and supported and coached our staff, which I think was really, really beneficial. She also this summer said, well, in the fall she said, John, I'd like for you to go to this virtual PD. And I said, yes, I want to go to this Virtual PD. And so we did it. And it was on a book called Rethinking Disabilities and Mathematics. There isn't a lot of research on disabilities and mathematics. So she found this book. We went to the PD, and then we did a book study this summer for the school district of Clayton teachers and special ed teachers. And she co-facilitated that, really took the lead. So that's something that's very unique to Clayton. We also work pretty closely with Julie Parr, who's the school district of Clayton literacy coordinator. And she helped us pick out curriculum for our replacement classes for ELA on the secondary level. She's also someone that helped us figure out what program, what reading program in particular we could get our teachers trained in that kind of covered every area of the reading rope. And so we have that as a foundation. in Clayton now because of Julie. So Julie and Angela really helped us with this second goal here, and we appreciate that. I'll highlight them. We, our third goal, okay, this time I'm on it. Okay, great. Change in both places. Our third goal was to increase collaborative walkthroughs, and we did that. I just wanna focus on the result of that collaborative walkthroughs between myself and the principals. There's some big rocks there were some revisions on the playground and merrimack elementary school to provide more accessibility to students that to one student in particular they're like a principal really did. Make a lot of changes for one student to be included and to have a really amazing play time on that playground so I thought that was really something to highlight. We changed the format of our study skills classes on the middle school level, the principal Jamie Jordan there Dr Jordan she spent a lot of time with us going into special education spaces trying to figure out. how we can make it best work for students, both the physical space and the academics. As a result of that, our teachers, we have three teachers and then also Kate and myself are going through executive skills coaching for students who have some of those executive skills deficits with Dr. Pegg Dawson, she's one of my heroes. And so we're taking a course with her so that we can revise our study skills curriculum K through 12. And so that's pretty exciting. They also added classroom space at Wydown and Clayton High School. We have beautiful classrooms in particular at the high school with a lot of windows, tons of windows for our replacement classes. And then we also added a room, like a calm down room at Glen Ridge, which was really amazing because it allows for some of our students with big feelings to be able to stay in the building no matter what and be able to be with their peers and get their work done. So that's some of the highlights from that goal. Goal four was to expand that two-way communication with parents. Parents in this, in all areas, in all of the goals, but in this goal in particular, very, very important. I think in Clayton the parents are extremely involved and really do guide the work that we do to support their students. We have a lot of our students are very vocal and able to advocate for themselves But our most vulnerable students who are not able to use their voices in a traditional way, they have really passionate parents who work with us to make sure that they receive the things that they need. And I personally appreciate that. I've not experienced that anywhere else. So we work closely with Pack Ed. We co-planned two events with them last year. We also worked with them to figure out what parents need from us for that fifth to sixth grade transition So we held, in addition to the general transition meeting for parents coming into Y Down Middle, we held an additional meeting just for students, for parents of students with special needs at Y Down 2 based on that. We also have a podcast. I don't think any of you have heard this podcast because it has 15 listeners, and my mom, I think, is like 10. But... I appreciate her. It's called It Takes a Village. But this year, we're going big. We are going big.

Email to everyone, not just the families of students.

We are sending it to everyone, yes. And I think the more people we get on there, the more mothers that listen. And so if one of you come on, maybe your mom will listen and be like, oh, this is my child. So that's something to work on for this year. Not yet, yep. All right, so looking forward into this school year, we would like to increase of course family participation. We send out surveys to parents each semester in particular for the students who receive services in Clayton, their general experience and then also for their experience at IEP meetings. The feedback from parents really helps us drive the work that we do as a partner. And so it's very, very important for us to increase the amount of parents that fill out those surveys. And so that's one goal that we have for increasing parent and community engagement. We'd also like to unify our progress in specialized measures. For our students, a very small demographic of students, let me go, for the bulk of our students we have, we use FastBridge and now we've changed and combined so that we don't use FastBridge just for students with IEPs and then the students with IEP's also have to take two other benchmarks For the school district of clayton now they just have to take the school district of Clayton at benchmarks throughout the school year and so we're doing that, so that our data is on edge a climber like clayton and. And that we're able to really have data conversations you know across districts about students we're also trying to come up with some ways. to track data on our students who are not in traditional classrooms, and a way to really monitor their growth for their social communication skills, and then also for their academics. For that we have a cohort, like an essential skills cohort, that we are working with Ladue on, where we're collecting the same data and sharing that data, having data team meetings, coming up with ways to problem solve, to better instruct our students, all of them. But in particular, some students who are in our essential skills classes. This is really, really important because our parents want to see comparable data for all of our students and I think this will give us the opportunity to do that. Let's see. And then the next goal is family engagement in post-secondary readiness. So we have, this again is where the podcast is gonna come into play, okay? So we're gonna have some new guests on the podcast. But we have a lot of our students go to college and we're very lucky for that. For our students who might go to different programs, alternative college programs or work programs or assisted work programs, We want to make sure that their parents have all of the options available to them. So really spending some time investigating those options, bringing some of those options to the parents of Clayton, of the school district of Clayton is a big priority for us. I think that's, I think that's all I can, yeah, I just stopped talking soon. Do you have any questions for us?

I don't usually talk first, but I'm going to talk first. I just want to commend all of you on this work. It is truly remarkable how far we've come with developing this agreement from where we were a few years ago. Like, I see parents nodding in the back. I don't know what other districts are doing. I can guess because we used to kind of all use the same template for this agreement. But I truly believe that we are leaders in this work. And this is, to me, a great example, like this is a real partnership. Everything you're describing, I'm so proud of our Clayton teachers for how they're partnering with you, like the examples you gave about Angie and the math, and getting new classrooms, and all of those examples to me are just such... great examples of how we collaborate and work as one entity, not two separate entities, not two separate districts. I'm not sure anyone would know in our buildings or in this process who works for Special School District and who works for the School District of Clayton because it feels like we truly are one team. And so I just want to thank you all for bringing us to this point and developing this partnership agreement that I really do think is a great example for other districts. And so thank you. All of you and Dr. Macklin and Dr. Moore and you and your staff too, thank you for what you're doing on your side of this too to collaborate with us because I'm just so impressed especially knowing where we were a few years ago with this agreement and how hard we worked to get to this point, so thank you. I don't have any questions, I just had the comment. So I will open it up to everyone else now.

Yeah, and I'll let go of some of the same things. So this is the sixth time, sixth year in a row that I've heard a presentation from SSD. It's the seventh year for Stacey. And last year, it was better than the year before. The year before, it was a rough meeting. And previous to that, I would say I was too new on the board to really know any better what it should sound and look like. And at that time, a lot of parents, some of who are sitting in the audience in person here today, had kind of brought to our attention, hey, it kind of feels like Yeah, it's great. Our kids are getting great services compared to everybody else, but there still doesn't feel that great. I mean, to kind of some, you know, there was a lot more detail behind that, right? There was a lot of tough conversations that were happening. and to see how far you've come knowing that there's still you know improvements to be made and I love that the goals that you have here are now they're smart goals right I mean they're specific they're measurable they're actionable all the things that that we asked for and requested a few years ago is really great so you know well done and keep up the good work it's really hard work but these are very very valued students to our school district and to their families and to You guys have participated in this work as teachers and administrators, so keep fighting the good fight there. So I just have a couple questions. Do you feel like, you guys have heard, maybe you have, maybe you haven't, I hope you have, but do you feel like SSD's voice is in the Long Rights Facility Master's Plan that we've been talking about a lot in this last year? Have you guys had the opportunity to participate in any of the workshops at the schools? And do you feel like your voice is represented in there?

Yes. So I was able to participate early in the process, and I did feel like my voice was heard in there, but I also felt like I did not have to speak. There were several general ed teachers and parents who said a lot of the things that were on my list already, and so to me that also speaks to the partnership.

Great, that's wonderful. And then I know last year there was, I remember there being that you guys knew teachers that were coming in from SSD but were full-time and even some that might have been part-time coming to work in the Clayton School District, participated in onboarding for new teachers at the beginning of school year. Did that happen again this year? And are you guys, besides the unique professional development opportunity that Angela found on the math program, are you still getting access to all the PD opportunities that our full-time Clayton teachers are getting?

Yes. Shannon

actually went through

it because

she was new to the district, so she was there with us. Okay.

That's great. We went through it. And then we're doing, we're working, we are going through the same PD. We have the same PD days. We have the PD opportunities. And I really try to make sure that I'm not pulling my teachers out so that they're getting the same PD and really focusing on the priorities that the school district of Clayton has.

And some of our teachers with special school districts even lead the PD opportunities for our school district. It goes both ways. We're both contributing there.

And then my last question is, I noticed that the numbers of students we have, there seems to be 30 to 35 students in each of the elementary schools. That number shrinks in the middle school, and then it grows again in the high school. Can you speak to why we see that trend? And it's been pretty consistent the whole time that I've been here.

I don't know why that's happening, but I can find out. I can do some digging.

Is it just a natural, since those are natural kind of... That's my question. It's kind of a natural next stage in adolescence at the end of elementary, at the end of middle school. Do we pull in more kids that were not in the middle school into the high school?

We get a lot of students. So we get a lot of student coming in from other middle schools to enroll in Clayton High School. That number is very, very large. Okay, that would explain that. There was a little bit of... We're getting parents coming from Merriam, too.

I don't know if

you're familiar with Merriam. But we have parents coming from Merrium for Clayton. And we have people coming from a couple of the other private schools that work with students with special needs to attend Clayton High School. And we spend a lot of times with those transitions so that the parents feel comfortable coming here. All right.

So I do, as I'm looking at it too, the other thing is Whiteown has three grade levels. The high school's got four. Right. So it's not that far

off. Yeah.

Great.

Thanks. Any other questions or comments from the

board? I just want to say thank you. Oh. You know, in January of 2020, and as a new superintendent that night was a very long night and you guys can remember that night and so we knew that some things had to change and I'm very thankful to Dr. Patel, Dr. Poole who I saw when I came in and really for the leadership and being able to really buy in and stay with us and to make some key changes and so that the for those pieces and as we continue.

I just want to say thank you as one of the newer board members who has not seen these years that Hearing this presentation, it is so incredibly clear. And to echo what Kim said about these SMART goals, you gave us your four goals from last year, explained how you met them, and then your three for next year. And I'm really excited to hear more next year about your first one, the increasing family survey participation. Because in my experience, I remember hearing about the district and the families really wanting to hear more from each other about what was needed and how different families were being met or their needs were being met or not being met. And so thank you so much for making that a goal.

One more thing and then I will leave. But we, so the goals stay the same, but we go over these goals with our pack ed, with our parent group, and there will be additional benchmarks that they will add. We'll get their feedback and they'll add those benchmarks. And then when we're finished with that meeting, Dr. Patel allows for us to present a similar presentation to the principals and the leaders within the Clayton School District of Clayton And there might be some other things added in terms of benchmarks, right? And so I really like that Clayton does that. So these goals don't just stay here. All of the stakeholders get an opportunity to give feedback and to figure out what their role is in making sure that we reach these goals. And so I think that's unique and really important too.

Any other board member questions or comments?

I'm just gonna echo what everyone has already said which is that this is incredible work that you guys are doing and that we are so appreciative of the time and the effort in the clear Just passion you have for your work. It's really shining through and I'm we're just so thankful to have you here And yeah, it's gotten better every year. I mean, this is my fourth and yeah, this is pretty incredible so I just want to give you huge kudos for being the people that you are and doing what you do for our students. The one thing I'll ask more about is PAC. Have we seen better, more involvement in terms of parent, like the numbers, et cetera? Can you talk a little bit more about the experience so far?

I'm not sure who came to the PAC meetings before, but there are a lot of people that come to the PAC meetings. We have snacks. And I think what Megan, who's a PAC president, has done is she has recruited parents in every single school. to be a representative. And then she's also working with other parents. I think I had a conversation with Nadja and Michelle about planning for people to take over their leadership roles when their kids age out. So they're really planning so that we can have a strong pack for years to come.

I was previously a part of the PAC committee prior to being on the board, so I know what great work and what great support that is for parents, and I'm so appreciative to both of you, to all of you, for making sure that that piece is there. And... What was I going to say specifically? And I remember prior to being on the board thinking about all those things like, shouldn't we do this like PTO where we have one in every? And it's happening. So this is extremely cool. Right. It's small steps, right? But you're going to make it happen because you're committed just like these folks here. And we are here to support you in whatever you need. So yay for our families. I'm very, very happy for you. Thank you for doing what you do.

Anyone else? Nina, do you have any questions or comments about this? Good. And I just wanted to also add, despite, I'm reassured, despite what we may be here, like in the news or whatever, that we have the staffing we need for our kids. And I appreciate, I appreciated you pointing that out to us. So thank you. Thanks again. And thank you again, Dr. Moore and Dr. Macklin for joining us as well. It's always a pleasure to see you all. So thanks so much. Thank

you.

Oh, we do need to move. We do have a motion to approve it. I forgot. Chris, if you'd read the motion. I forgot we need to vote on the agreement.

I move that we approve the Special School District Partnership Agreement. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay, motion passes. Great. Thank you so much. Yes, you're going to be here for a little bit. So we have... We have four policies for first reading, all with Dr. Solberger. First one is policy EBC lactation support.

Yeah, so all four of the policies that I'm going to talk to you about first tonight are really the results of either federal or state law changes. So the first policy, which is the EBC lactation Um, that is tied to the pregnant workers fairness act. And, um, we are recommending that we, we do review and make these changes. Um, Leo actually brought up a really good point. If you look at, um, on for me, it's the second page, but it's, it's under the part where it says employees. It says the district will not deny employment opportunities or take adverse employment action against an employee who has requested reasonable accommodations Leo pointed out that that's imprecise Because we may have to take adverse employment action again somebody it wouldn't be because they need lactation support so his recommendation was maybe we clarify it like because they requested reasonable accommodations and So that's the only thing that I would suggest that we change what really came from Leo Unless you guys have any other questions or thoughts on this one.

I Don't necessarily have a question about the policy. I agree with completely with with Leo suggestion though, by the way, but So we obviously have lactation rooms in our buildings now.

We do. And when I was reviewing this policy, that was one of the, you'll notice that the word exclusively was taken out because I reached out to the buildings and I said, because I even thought about central office. Like we don't have a room that's exclusively for that. That's why I was asking. Right. So that's why we're taking out that word exclusively. We do have places. that can be used for it, that they're not bathrooms, that meet all of the parts of the law. And we can

take that word out?

Yes. It's not by law. Yeah, this was already sent on to MSBA. And

obviously because it is law, it will be included in any new facilities planning. Correct. Okay. That was my only question.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for like patient support before we go to the next one? I thought you wanted me to make the adjustment.

All right. Okay, we can move on to GB1, part-time and substitute employment.

Yeah. So this one, they changed – the state changed the minimum requirements to be substitute teachers, so really because of sub-shortages. That being said, though, you could potentially have – people who are younger that now would be eligible to be substitute teachers. So one of the things is that if you're under the age of 20, you will not teach in grades 9 through 12. So we're going to add that in. I confirmed with Rachel Benz in HR, who is the one who staffs this, that she knows this rule and we're good here. And then the other part is we have to we have been doing this for a while Offer a survey to any of our substitutes for them to get feedback that's required by desi and they collect that information We have already been doing this. It's in our frontline absence management system So when those substitutes take positions, they automatically get that survey so we've been doing these things, but it's just putting it in policy

so since the state decreased the requirements can we or will we or keep our requirements higher than these standards

so that's a great that's a great question

and need to decrease

so our so to be a substitute teacher you have to hold a substitute certificate that dusty gives so we can't change how you would get a substitute certificate what we have done is um put more things in place to be hired as a substitute teacher in the school district of clayton So we started using specific questions with spark hire, which is like our online video interview So everybody goes through that process now and submits that any of the interviews that you know are Maybe people are unsure if they would be the right fit I review all of those before we move forward with hiring or making sure that we have three reference with with everybody including their most recent supervisor in Missouri and They have, if they've been substitute teaching or working in any other school districts by law, we have to get a dusty disclosure from that other district that they were not dismissed as the result of any sexual misconduct. And then obviously all of our employees, including our substitutes are entering into that mock system, our Missouri automated criminal history system. And that gives us ongoing background checks anytime possible. somebody who uses our code is arrested. So I feel pretty confident that we have a lot of things in place. The other thing that we did this year that I would say was a huge success, I can't take all the credit for it professional learning did a lot of it but during back to school time we allowed all of our we had professional learning specifically for our substitute teachers so two of the instructional coordinators from the elementary school came and facilitated that with Robin Hogg from professional learning and we have like over 40 people that came in the summer and and participated in the half day of professional learning half of it was like classroom management and engagement and, you know, relationships with students. And then the other half we had Mike Parkinson do a safety presentation and Officer Riley came too. So it was, I think actually a really great success. So those are some of the strategies that we're using to make sure that we have really safe qualified adults with our students. I would not recommend that we make like different requirements there because I think you could have a substitute certificate and be less experienced and still be a great sub in our

district. Yeah, I don't think we need to change the policy. I'm just curious if we had other standards. Yes, we

have some stuff in place, and we have been gradually increasing that because we do see that it's really important.

Great.

Any questions on that one?

Anyone else, Pam?

I think I have two. You just spoke about the option for that, the trainings for them. That is not a requirement.

It was not a requirement. So they all go through onboarding, but to attend that was not a requirement, that was the first offering. We did get really great feedback, and they all want to know when the next one is. So that's definitely something we would want to continue doing, but it's not... it's not a requirement they do go through all of our annual compliance training so all of the training on policy and everything like that they do just like all of our other teachers do

So my question was, how do we ensure or have assured learning about our emergency procedures like those people who chose to do that do? And do they get Syntegics badges on the days that they are subbing?

So they don't have the Syntegics Badges on the days that are subbing. And that was a question that came up in that. I don't think that's something that we want to do yet. As far as the assured learning, that was some feedback that came out of that day, too, was that it's not the same in every single one of the buildings where the folder is. So those are things that I then emailed out to the principals of like, okay, in your buildings, we need to make sure that it's stationed at the same spot. And this was the feedback that we got that day from the subs. So they are trying to make sure that is more streamlined and consistent because that was identified as an area for growth. Yeah. Any other questions on this one?

Okay, GBCBB, Protected Staff Communications.

Okay, so this one, MSBA is recommending to districts to add the section that's in green on protected communications. It's specific to federal programs, and so it's really protection for whistleblowers. So we are recommending that we accept their wording unless you have any questions.

Anyone? The only question I have is actually not in the green section. And maybe, Leo, you can help answer it. Under protected communications, that whole sentence seems a little wonky to me, maybe because I'm not a lawyer. But it says district administrators or supervisors will not prohibit and then blah, blah, blah, and then it says unless allowed by law. Why would the law allow you to prohibit it? That unless is what hangs me up.

Lawyers aren't always great writers, Kim. I mean, I think the meaning is what you suggested. I agree with your interpretation of the sentence. I also agree that it is a very obtuse sentence. Yeah, it's like we won't prohibit it

unless it's allowed by law. I don't understand why. what that means. You'd

have to go dig up, this language was presumably descended from some statute X years ago and somebody interpreted it in that way and you could try and figure out what they were doing with it. It is not a model of great drafting. Okay. I agree with

that. But it doesn't, that's not in conflict as far as what you see? No, I don't see it as. As allowed by law?

I don't see as incoherent, I just see it as awkward.

We can agree on that. Anything else on this one? Nope. Okay, IC2 academic

calendar. So this one is because we are in St. Louis County, we are supposed to take this updated version of it, that it basically is because in 26-27 there's going to be a, our calendar has to have a minimum of 169 student attendance days. Before it was just based on 1,044 hours. I think because some school districts were starting to move to those four-day weeks, they wanted to have a minimum number of days or you had to take it to the voters. So that's what it's about. I will say we are already protected against this because we build 173 days in our calendar, so we already have over the 169, but we're just aligning our policy with state statute.

Okay, thank you. I'm going to take a break and then I'll see you again in a little bit. Okay, now we have some second readings. So first policy EGAA copyright compliance. Do you want to read that

motion?

Yeah, we do. I got it. Mine was just out of order. Do you want to go ahead and read the motion, Chris, and then we'll see if we have questions.

I move that the board adopt policy EGAA copyright compliance with proposed changes. Second.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Does anyone have any questions on this for Dr. Milena Garganigo? Okay. It's being moved and seconded, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No, okay, that motion passes. Now we have the second reading for policy IGBI, homeschooling.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Does anyone have any questions on this for Dr. Garganego? Okay. It's being moved and seconded, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No, okay, that motion passes. Now we have the second reading for policy IGBI, homeschooling.

I move that the board adopt policy IGBI homeschooling with proposed changes. Second.

Okay, that's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments on this one as it's proposed? No, okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, no, motion passes. IGCD virtual courses.

I move that the board adopt policy IGCD virtual courses with proposed changes.

Second.

That's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments on this one? No, okay, all those in favor? Aye. Aye, any opposed? No, okay motion passes. So IGCDA full-time mocap virtual courses.

I move that the board adopt policy IGCDA full-time mocap virtual courses with proposed changes. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments on this one? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. ILA test integrity and security.

I move that the Board adopt policy ILA test integrity, and security with proposed changes.

It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments on this one? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes. Okay, policy IND ceremonies and observances.

I move that the board adopt policy IND ceremonies observances for proposed changes.

Second. Okay, any questions or comments? All those in favor? Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. IGDAA, Resident Participant Student Involvement in Activities and Groups.

I move that the board adopt policy IGDAA, resident participant student involvement in activities and groups with proposed changes.

Second. Okay, this one's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments for Dr. Poole on this one? No, except that the

title says activities and events. Does it matter? Maybe

just read the motion again Chris or do we need to it's been seconded What do you think Leo or Felicia that we do Probably

moved to amend it, you know, to conform to the title, I guess, or something.

Yeah. I mean, it probably doesn't. I'm sorry. I brought it up. No, no. No, but you're right. Chris, why don't you just move to amend the motion to read as events and not groups?

I move that we amend the motion to read as events and not groups. Yes.

Second. Second. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay, so we amended. Now we need to vote on, now we need to read it.

Right, the right way.

Yes.

I move that the board adopt policy IGDAA resident participant student Involvement in, this is where I say. Activities and events. Yeah, activities and events with proposed changes.

Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No, okay, motion passes. And now we have a third reading of GBCB staff conduct.

I move that the board adopt policy GBCB staff contact with proposed changes. It's

been moved and seconded. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments on this?

I was just going to ask, we removed the staff conflicts language as the intention to do a more holistic revision of that and bring it back later. Where do we stand on that?

Yes, that's exactly the intention. So I'm going to go to the Coordinators Council meeting where all of the coordinators are at and kind of see what does tutoring private lessons look like in the different departments? What's kind of the current reality so that we can get more of an understanding of what's going on and then use that input to make an informed decision of what we think would be best for the district as a whole. So rather than... Just kind of unilaterally making the decision we want to kind of see what's actually going on and try to do something That's in the best interest of everyone involved including our students obviously

Makes sense to me

Any other questions or comments?

Yes. I have a yeah. Yeah, sorry Second paragraph paramount in the district's ability on the first line. I believe it should say paramount to the districts ability The first line.

Yeah, so the public stress and educators is paramount to the district's ability. Yeah, that part was copy and pasted from our old, but if everybody wants to change it, we can do paramount to. Just a grammatical change.

Okay. Third paragraph. The second, where it says that it is important that all education employees exhibit good judgment and conduct both on and off duty. This second sentence to me feels like an aspiration and not a fact. Such good judgment and conduct will result in a culture of trust and safety. So I would recommend that we just take out that whole sentence or we say something like the hope is. So I would-

We hope it will foster a culture of... I don't think we need that sentence in there. But if

you like it, we could reword it like that. So I'd recommend we just take it out unless someone wants the idea and then we can speak to it as an aspiration. I'm fine taking it out. Okay. All right, take it out. And then we have that one sentence left that you can easily move up to the... paragraph above I'm happy to so that it is

important we'll go to the one before

the paragraph before to the I had suggested as the third sentence that just makes sense when you read it through that way can't take the high school teacher out of me sorry okay so that it would become it would be before the district has the utmost duty That's where you could move that is what I would

propose. You're suggesting we move it is important that all education employees exhibit good judgment and conduct both on and off duty, and where were you saying?

And put that after Publix 1, 2, 3, the third line of the second paragraph. So put it after support and cooperation and before the district has the utmost duty. Okay. I see we've lost Oxford commas in this one. Just wanted to point that out.

Don't remind us,

Pam. Oh, number, okay, so go down. The number eight, it says like it will be protected by law. That is repeated in number eight and nine, but all of this is already said in, It already says to like, unless as protected by law. So I don't know why we have to repeat it in eight and nine when it already said it above.

I think we added it in the first reading. I think we add that in a lot of places because we felt like some of these were trying to prevent some of the freedom of speech, but we wanted to be clear that they still had freedom of speech. So it was like almost, we were adding it as like a disclaimer in places if I recall that correctly from that first meeting.

Yeah, that's fine. Okay. That's it, those are my questions. So if we all agree with those few small changes that Pam suggested, we can just approve the policy tonight too though, right? Like with the proposed changes, because I don't want to bring this back.

Okay.

Do we need a new motion?

So now I have the proposed changes. I'm going to have to. These are the proposed changes, so I'll fix them, and that's what we're approving. So

can someone just move that we pass the policy as amended?

Perfect.

You say second this time.

Second.

There you go, we switched. Okay,

all right. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Thank you for the suggestions, Pam, and thank you, Dr. Solberg. Okay, now we're moving on to actually voting on the property tax rate that we discussed in the tax hearing earlier. If, Chris, you could read that motion, please.

I move that we approve... 2025 property tax rates as follows three point five three Wow okay three do it has to go all four of these numbers that's amazing that's why I don't do treasurer or those three dollars and yes I do that's that's it all those all four of them Jason Yes, totally part of the motion. All of this is very important in the motion. Sorry, sorry. Okay, $3 and how do you say that? Thank you. $3.5039 per $100 assessed valuation for residential real estate, which includes .5110 debt service levy, $4.4427 per $100 assessed evaluation for commercial real estate which includes .5110 debt service levy plus .1300 recoupment levy, 4.4447 per 100 assessed valuation for personal property, which includes .5120 debt service levy.

Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments that we talked about earlier? Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No, okay, motion passes. And next we'll be moving to approve the CRSWC budget which we all reviewed and discussed at the last board meeting. So will you read that motion please?

I move that we approve the CRS WC budget for the year beginning October 1, 2025.

Okay, that's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments on the budget? Okay, nope. All those in favor? Any opposed? No, okay. That motion passes. Consent agenda. Chris, if you'll read that motion please.

I move that the board approve consent agenda items 9.1 through 9.12.

Any questions or comments on any consent agenda items? All those in favor. Any opposed? Motion passes. And now we're moving to board communications. I think a few of us have had some committee meetings. Chris, you maybe had a couple? I did.

I had two on the same night. SSD Governing Council as well as my first of the year meeting of the Health and SEL and Wellness Committee is what it's called. So I'll start with that one. We had Mike Seabee, is that how you say his name? Seabee. That was his first meeting that he did for us in that role, and it was a fantastic meeting. I called Nisha right away afterwards to say I really wanted to talk about how great this meeting was because Mike has done a great job of looking back at what we've done prior to this in terms of our assessment for our health and wellness and what we offer here in terms of resources and services, et cetera, um, and realized that we're really overdue for another assessment on that. And, you know, he, he engaged the committee in such a way that, um, all of us, you know, gave us the option. Would you like the district to, um, work on this, you know, assessment and what it should look like and making sure this gets done? Or would you as a committee like to be involved? And everyone was, yes, we all want to be involved in, it made perfect sense for everyone at that table to be part of a group that looks at what assessment tool we're going to use this year and then making sure that that is a very streamlined, efficient process across all of the different disciplines that were in that committee, food services, social work, counseling, all of that.

Nursing.

uh, nursing. Thank you. A big one. Um, so anyway, uh, we have the fitness director from, you know, the center. So anyway, all of these experts in this area, um, are going to be really vital and making sure we have a great assessment. And I'm really happy that Mike has taken on this initiative and we've all committed to making sure that we get this assessment in front of us by April. So us as a board, we'll get to hear. all the great work that is already happening, but we don't get to hear about it enough, especially if we haven't done an assessment recently in a timely way. So I'm excited for us to get to hear about that work by the end of the year. SSD Governing Council was very basic. It was basically an introduction for all the new council members, which I'm not. So it was a, you know, here's what SSD Governing So not a lot of meat there, but just a general first meeting of the year. Dr. Macklin and Chiquita Moore were there as usual and they're doing amazing. I want to give them again more props for continuing to fight the good fight in what they have to do in order to right the ship. They continue, the numbers that they show at every single meeting are continuing to improve and faster than they even thought so. I'm pleased to be able to report that. They're doing a great job.

Before we move on to the next committee reports, I apologize. I skipped over. I didn't see that I wanted to announce some donations that we received in the consent agenda items. I wanted to thank Jay Douglas and Gail Workman for their donation of $2,000 to The Globe, the Jewish Federation of St. Louis for their donation of two hundred fifty dollars to the CHS debate team, DAF Giving 360 for their donation of $500 to CHS Soccer, and also thank Big River Running Company for their donation of 700 dollars to CHS Track. So we thank all of them for their generous donations to the district.

Gail Workman was my 10th grade English teacher.

Um, Ben, I think you had a couple of meetings.

Uh, I had just one meeting. Um, so I joined, uh, the tech study committee, which was awesome. Um, Luke and Milena, uh, led that efforts at Glenridge in the library. Very engaged group was really awesome. You would not believe how much tech is being used in our schools. It's incredible. I mean, like the amount of the number of platforms and titles and, um, you know, electronic devices in the classrooms that assist in what the teachers do. You know, it was really kind of structured around the empowered learning framework and sort of this is a tech study that's happened before so it's kind of a cyclical thing. You know, some of the key elements and we'll hear about this more like for example in the spring there will be a recommendation around devices. But I think the work of this will also branch out into some different subcommittees. So AI is going to be a huge topic. Obviously, it's front and center for everyone these days. And kind of looking at AI, how it's used today, what are some best practices. There's also looking at some of the governing bodies around this kind of work, like ISTE and others. that provide a lot of good guidelines for this kind of thing. And yeah, and there'll be other things like infrastructure, but really I think AI and the devices are really kind of the big goals for this year. So it's been great. I'm excited to be part of it, and it was really a lot of fun.

Great. Pam, you had some meetings?

I'll start with the Equity Committee. So the Equity Committee was formed five years ago. And so Cameron has just completed the first five years. And so he reviewed what has happened in these five years and set up goals for the next year. And so just for all of us to hear that in the last five years there has been an expansion of affinity spaces at K-12 for our district, expansion of cultural celebrations. They have done the equity walkthroughs which led to building improvement plans for each of the principles, building principles, using the implementation of data driven platforms like EduClimber and the MTSS system. So that was very exciting. He discussed kind of the new district initiatives now. And there are four of them, two of them I think, yes. One is the Clayton Cares Community Series. They will be focusing on issues of anti-Semitism, LGBTQ+, African American and Asian cultures, I believe. Okay, then he also spoke about the No Place for Hate curriculum that is coming to or has come to our district. And they really gave some time to these intercultural dialogue groups that we're now having at Widown and the high school that include students from many or all cultural, I'll say many cultural backgrounds. And the intention of this work is to maybe transition our focus of teacher to student to also add student to student and help students learn how to communicate with each other about their differences. And I thought that that was really, there was a lot of emotion in the room when we talked about that. So that's the equity committee. The second one for me was the Clayton Education Foundation which Nisha had updated us about. But they basically made some bylaws, changes. They voted in two, I think, new members, discussed homecoming and the rock and roll bingo that is coming up November 1st as a fundraiser or soccer.

That's it. Great. Any other committee meetings anybody had? Pam mentioned this, but I was going to mention and thank Dr. Poole for organizing and creating the Clayton Cares Community Speaker Series events, as Pam said, that highlight the Jewish, African-American, Asian, and LGBTQ communities. And I assume, I guess there'll be maybe one a quarter or some, I think that's how it's timed out. And that the first event that's organized partnership with the Jewish community is coming up on October 9th and it's been publicized on social media and on the website and I know the district has reserved a block of tickets for Clayton staff and families and community members for free so if you're interested in going everyone can go to the website and register for that so thank you Dr. Poole for I think this whole year all these events for the Clayton Cares community community speaker event series will be great. So thank you for setting that up.

And for that event that you just mentioned, as of today, 71 people have RSVP. And there's a block of 100. And there's block of 100. So if you would like to attend, please make sure you sign up. And I've gotten a lot of

positive feedback about that as well. So thank you, Dr. Poole. I'm attending, so I look forward to it. And with that, I think we can adjourn.

I should also mention or maybe we should mention that we're also been visiting the PTOs to talk about and to answer any questions or to you know give any feedback or get any feedback from the attendees there about our facilities planning and all the things that we talked about here tonight so I was at Merrimack Leo and I

went to Glen Ridge today he's great and I know he's been to the high school and we'll be attending like All the PTO meetings for the next handful of months, so thank you. Now we can adjourn.

I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

Okay,

all those in favor?