December 10, 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. And Chris, would you please move to approve the agenda? I move that we approve the agenda as

posted.

Second.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No, okay, agenda is approved as posted. Okay, now we are moving on to recognizing our own. So I will call on Dr. Kaczewski to recognize these students.

Good evening. Are you going to hand out the certificates or we'll do that. So one of the two of you come up over here and then I'll do a little I've got a little intro and then we'll call the students up one by one and then you can shake hands and then hand out the certificate and then we'll take a group shot actually when we're finished. The National Merit Corporation annually sponsors a highly selective competition to recognize scholarship in our nation's schools. Based first on scores on the PSAT taken in the junior year, students qualify as commended students or as semifinalists in the National Merit Competition. BASED ON SCHOOL RECORDS AND EXTENSIVE APPLICATIONS, SEMIFINALISTS CAN ACHIEVE FINALIST STATUS. CLAYTON HIGH SCHOOL IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT NINE STUDENTS HAVE BEEN NAMED SEMIFINALIZED AND 11 STUDENTS HAVE EARNED COMMENDED STATUS IN THE HIGHLY COMPETITIVE 2025 NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM, ONE OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS ACADEMIC RECOGNITIONS FOR HIGH SCHOOLS STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES. THESE 20 STUDENTS REPRESENT OVER 10% OF THE CURRENT CHS SENIOR CLASS. The following students have been recognized as National Merit semifinalists. So when I call your name, if you'd come up and then they will have your certificate over here, and then we'll have you just kind of gather in the back, and then I'm gonna read the semifinalist first, then we'll do the commended students. And then we'll all gather out back for a picture in a little bit. The following students have be recognized as National Merits semifinalists, Remy Coulier, Lily Evans. Tyler, he. Jack Lenz. David Lin. Raghav Mani. Yijia Mao. Thomas Wei. And Sophia Zhang. These students represent the highest scoring entrance in Missouri based on their performance on the preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Of the 281 semifinalists named statewide, Clayton High School is honored to have nine. Semifinalists now move forward in the competition for approximately $50 million in scholarships to be awarded next spring. In addition to our semifinalists, 11 CHS students have been recognized as National Merit Commended Scholars for their exceptional academic promise. First we have Maya Chakrabarty. Nicholas Helmering. Ivy Lau. Oliver Mayer. Catherine Wynne. Wilson Ray. Reese Robb. Andrew Wang. Magnus Yin. Wayne Yu. And last but not least, Dante Zhao. Although commended students do not continue in the scholarship competition, they are among the top scorers nationwide on the PSAT NMSQT. So if we could recognize these folks by giving one last round of applause for the whole group. And then I will have all the students gather out on the steps there in just one second for a picture. Thank you all very much.

Okay, sorry about that break, thank you. But we wanted to make sure we gave sufficient time to recognize those students so I appreciate your patience. Okay, we're moving now to public comment and let me pull this up. I would like to first call on Brent Holzapfel. I apologize if I didn't pronounce that right. Okay.

Hello. Hello. My name is Brent Holtzapfel and I'm a parent of two students here in Clayton. one at Y-Down and the other at Captain Elementary. I've worked at Special School District, at the Bridges Program, and the Jewish Community Center as a site liaison for their amazing summer inclusion program. I sat and watched the last time I was here my neighbors and community members, young and old, stand up to speak about how much they cared about this district. Their hands shook while they read in front of everyone addressing the problems of anti-Semitism and also the problems with bringing the No Place for Hate program hosted by the Anti-Defamation League. When I heard about the ADL bringing this program to the school district, I was worried about it, considering their history of equating anti-Semitism with anti-Israel rhetoric, as well as the fact they're a lobbying group that has heavily influenced our political system. However, the last meeting I attended, a mother spoke that her children went through the same program during their time in Denver, and it was great. He said there was no mention of Israel, and there shouldn't be when it came to addressing the anti-Semitism we have here in our community. But then I saw a promotion in the district email for Eli Shabari to talk about his experience being held by Hamas in the war in Gaza, not quite shining light on the struggles of Jews here in America. We also spent $1,500 promoting the speaker and now have his books at our libraries. Now, when I hear that kids in the hallways at Y-Down have been using the N-word, I'm not expecting Louis Farrakhan to speak, nor do I expect to see his books on our library shelves. I then saw a promotion from our district for a high school anti-Semitism workshop where two young men with unique perspective on Israel advocacy, quote unquote, help high school students recognize and effectively respond to anti-Semitism while also strengthening their confidence and pride in their Jewish identity. Should the JCC be able to host these events? Absolutely, but not as a supplement to the curriculum we bring to this school district. I'm proud to be a parent in this district, and when you listed off the accolades for the schools both my children attend, I was not surprised in the least. This is a great school district, and every teacher, counselor, and support staff are here for the students. But bringing a powerful lobbying group to align Israel's identity to that of our community is dangerous. Anti-Semitism is not anti-Israel. It is anti-neighbor, and it's our neighbors who we all want to help. It is important that we teach our children to love and accept our neighbors, but there's no place for propaganda here in our schools. Thank you.

Thank you. And I forgot to remind everyone before we started that I have in previous meetings that we don't respond to public comment at the meeting, but we will follow up afterwards. Next, Brad Bernstein. The three-minute timer is on the screen as well.

I've been out of town for the past week and I came home today One of the steps was brochures and brochures of what the district is planning to do with respect to this bond issue. Let me just tell you a quick story, a story about the school district in St. Louis County. All of you should be aware of this. Hired a superintendent maybe four or five years ago. This district had tens and tens of millions of dollars. Hired the superintendent, great, student-oriented, going to make things work. It really sounded good. social well-being infrastructure I think as many as you know and the board went along with it about a year or two ago at a meeting similar to this one board member questioned the superintendent about the finances the superintendent walked out of the meeting left her cell phone there as many of you know this is special school district they're in financial disarray reserve of 75% very similar to ours within three or four years and who are they blaming they're blaming the superintendent but who they should have responsibilities the Board of Education the Board of Education as a responsibility to ask hard questions honest dialogue and not just be a rubber stamp what's going on in the district and what the student with the central leadership once I hope that is happening my second comment is I probably spoke here a couple months ago And afterwards, the CFO and one of the board members, we had a great conversation. I was very impressed. It went very well. And I think I had a really good conversation. I think we were talking on the same terms. At the end of the meeting, I said, do you think I could have this conversation with one other board member? One other board member. And it was sort of a difficult answer that I got back. I indirectly said, I felt no. I mean, I just couldn't feel that I had other board members. I could have that same conversation I had with the treasurer, which was absolutely outstanding. I even asked, could people navigate the DESE website? Actually, I was sort of disappointed with that response. I was told we're working with certain board members. We're trying to get everybody up to speed. Some people have an interest in... And finance, some in legal. I think we have a responsibility to make sure all of you, and that's your job, that's why you're on this board. And I did not feel comfortable after that meeting getting a positive answer. The second thing is facilities. I think the messaging is completely wrong. I mean, we spent tens and tens of millions of dollars in 2010 renovating the school. additions. I mean, money was really put in. I think there is an opportunity you have to maybe do certain things. But do you really need that whole 50 or 63 cents? I think absolutely not. I mean, I'm hoping some of you know there's 30 to 40% already in the capital budget that's used for capital expenditures. You could easily borrow after that. I mean, there's a 500. I looked at the DESE website today. It took me five minutes to navigate. I barely remember. The Clayton School District was like 09610 or something like that. You all should know that. But I think there's an opportunity. Is that me? The other thing, snow days. I think a bad decision was made on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Next Francis Okay, Jessica

Y'all know me at this point. So, you know, at this point, myself and other speakers, we've been to five meetings over the last four months, we've had over 10 speakers, 15 guests, we spent so many hours looking into the ADL to give you well researched testimony, find viable alternatives, and gain a better understanding of the district through talking to parents and students and learning more about our Palestinian student population. We've really, I think, been trying to connect with the board in good faith. But what we've received in return is honestly about 20 sentences worth of pretty bland email replies. We're not looking for empty platitudes but rather meaningful engagement with the substance of the concerns we're voicing. Dr. Poole reached out for a meeting with us and we had a really great conversation. And I would love to see the same from you, Superintendent Patel, and from other members of the school board who are interested in having this conversation. I'm looking for responses to the following questions. One, why is the Clayton School District partnering with a clearly biased political organization like the ADL with a history of political lobbying and doxing students and educators alike who don't agree with their political viewpoint when there are alternatives available? And two, where is the insistence on sticking with this curriculum coming from, despite all of the concerns that we've raised? This curriculum does not have a broad scope, as I'll hopefully get into if I have time. And it does bring politics and foreign policy into the classroom with students. The fact that the district has not made an effort to bring in any Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim voices and perspectives on this issue tells me that you recognize the political nature of the path that you've embarked on. And now kind of circling back to the email communication, I just wanted to address a couple points that I've heard in email communication from the district in response to testimony. In the last email you said politics and foreign policy are not included in the curriculum, end quote. That's not true. Equating a form of hate like anti-Semitism with criticism of a foreign nation like Israel, as the ADL does, is explicitly bringing politics and foreign policy into the classroom. In another part of the email, you said, quote, as with other curricula, it will be reviewed to evaluate its effectiveness. End quote. I'd like to know what are the metrics for evaluation? Does that mean that there's a chance that it could not meet the metrics and the district would cut its partnership with the ADL? Actually, the first email that you sent to me He said, quote, the ADL No Place for Hate program that we are implementing addresses all forms of hate, bias, and bullying, including Islamophobia. This broad scope is why the program was chosen, end quote. So I was looking through the No Place for Hate website. They have their curriculum available. And there are no lesson plans addressing Islamophobia. There are only two lesson plans on LGBTQ history. The section on religious discrimination only includes lesson plans addressing Jewish identity. The ADL website even has a content update for basically that they're narrowing their resource and they're not hosting a lot of their broader anti-bias resources. So yeah, it doesn't really have a broad scope like was communicated. So thank you.

Thank you. Okay. I believe that was all public comment. And again, we will follow up with each of you afterwards. I will turn it over now to Dr. Patel for superintendent updates.

Thank you everyone and welcome to our board meeting So I'm just gonna give a quick update on what's happening in the district We had a recent board meeting it feels like pretty recently actually two weeks ago, and then there was Thanksgiving in between so Still quite a bit is happening. So at the last board meeting I highlighted some student performers who shine on stage every time and I'm gonna start off with doing the same thing again and Because last week I got to go and watch the Clayton High School, Y-Down Middle School Winter Choir performance. An outstanding. Our students were remarkable. They make me proud every time I go to any of these performances. And it was standing room only in our theater. in our auditorium, I should say, rather. So if anybody got to see that, I think you would probably agree with me on this one. And what was really interesting to watch is over the years how our choir program continues to grow and grow. And I truly believe that's a testament to our two teachers who collaborate from the middle school and the high school and go and team teach each other's classrooms and really are present in that. And that was evident by when I was standing in the back and watching all the students on the stage, I'm like, wow, in four to five years we have really grown that program. So just wanted to highlight them again and just remind everyone how amazing we have our students doing so many amazing things every year. Next, as we look forward into next semester, can you believe that? 2026. Our second presentation in the Clayton Cares Community Speaker Series will be coming on January 8th. It is free to the public. You can RSVP on the website and we are going to be celebrating the voices and experiences of our LGBTQ plus community. We are going to welcome Missouri State Representative Ian Mackey. He's going to come to Clayton High School, where he is going to share his identity as a gay man and how it has shaped his law education and career. So it's going to be a great event, and I hope many of you can be there to support this. Oh, and what's really interesting about this and very collaborative is we are co-partnering with the City of Clayton's Equity Commission to sponsor this event. It's a great collaboration between the city and the district as well. And so mark your calendars. January 8th will be here before we know it. Moving again, looking into next year, we are working on our reimagining our Summer Academy. We have our dates set for June 8th through July 3rd. And recently, well, last week, we announced that Angie Caracciolo is going to be our new director of Summer Academy. Angie has been with us since 2008. She has been our math coordinator for over 10 years. And when you talk about someone who has amazing leadership skills, she's collaborative, she's results-driven, that's Angie. And so we're really excited to see what she and her team will work on in terms of reimagining what Summer Academy looks like. Details are still in the works, but we will keep you posted on that work. And Angie being Angie, she's already sent out an email to the staff. She's already started a continuous start-stop survey to get different perspectives on what people think about this. And she's already doing listening tours at each of the buildings to hear feedback to see how we can make it better. So I'm excited to see what we do with that for next summer. And then finally, we have three presentations tonight. The first one is the findings of our independent financial audit that we do each year. So KEB is here to present that. And then second, we have the design team and BSI who will be giving us an update on all the schematic designs as well as the latest budget estimates for these projects. And then finally, will be presenting a draft resolution calling for bond election potential adoption in January so all of that is happening tonight there's a lot lot to get through and with that I do want to wish everybody happy holidays because we will be seeing you in 2026 after this board meeting I will hand it off to Nina who is ready for studying for her finals

Hi, everyone. We are well into the heat of final season, but luckily, the CHS Wellness Center is doing a great job of keeping everyone calm and bringing down the stress with their wellness week. From duo dogs and hot chocolate to origami and stress ball making, there's always something fun and peaceful to look forward to during this busy time. On Tuesday, before my friends and I had to study for bio, we all got tea from the Wellness Center station in the cafeteria, which made doing our work a lot more enjoyable and way less stressful and just more exciting in general. Speaking of excitement, the CHS Speech and Debate team saw great success at the Francis Howell Central Tournament this past weekend. We had 10 people placed in the top six for their event, which was quite the way to end one of our last tournaments of the year. So that's very exciting. And then in other news, last week I sent out a survey. to a range of CHS students, grades 9 to 12, about feedback for the long-range facilities master plan, specifically the possible changes to athletic facilities. I phrased the question as, how do you feel about the state of the Clayton athletic facilities? And then parentheses gave some examples of locker rooms, dugouts, fields, et cetera. While some CHS students are grateful for their current athletic facilities, many wish to see cleaner and more up-to-date locker rooms and showers, dugouts for the softball fields, not just Adzick Field, and general improvements to the softball field in general to make them more on par with the baseball fields. So from what I gather, CHS students are somewhat happy with their current athletic facilities but many wish to see changes that they feel would make their experience even better with athletics. Next semester, I plan to revisit the three elementary schools to meet with their focus groups. Ideally, I would love to do this one time per quarter so I always have up-to-date and relevant information to present. Additionally, I will continue to meet with Principal's Advisory Club and send long-range facilities master plan student feedback forms to ensure the voices of high school students are being heard as well. All in all, it's been such a great first half of the year, and I've absolutely loved my role as student rep. Thank you.

We've loved having you, Nina. Thank you. And leave any time you need to study. If you want to go now, that's fine. Good

luck.

OK. Agenda item six, acknowledgment of receipt of fiscal year 2024-2025 audit reports. I will turn this over to our CFO, John Brazile, and the audit firm as well.

Good evening, everyone. On the agenda, on the online agenda, there are the audit reports. But in front of you as well tonight, there are three books that represent the audit report for the year ended June 30 of 25. The audit was conducted by the firm of KEB. And joining us tonight is Gina Cochran and Allison Weems Gina is the partner on the job, and Allison led the audit. So I'll let them do their report, and you'll hear some good news.

Perfect. Can everybody hear me okay? Yes. All right, great. So I am the partner in the engagement, Gina Cochran. I am actually retiring May 1 of 2026, and Allison was made partner May 1 of this year. in anticipation of my retirement, so she will be our new partner next year. Congratulations to her. And to you. To both of you. But yeah, you'll be in great hands. So she's been doing the audit now for how many years do you think, Allison?

Probably about at least 10. Yeah, at least 10

years. Great, so just to summarize and go over the financial statement audit. First, just the general financial statements. Just to remind everybody that management is responsible for preparing the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and also related to the design and implementation of and maintenance of your internal controls. Your financial statements are prepared on the accrual basis of accounting Related to the government-wide financial statements then the fund financial statements are on the accrual basis or I'm sorry on the modified accrual basis of accounting our responsibility is to express an opinion on those financial statements and our audit was Performed in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards governmental auditing standards we did not perform a single audit this year because your federal expenditures are related to those federal grants were not in excess of $750,000. So we did not have to issue that audit report this year. And we will issue or have actually issued an unmodified opinion on your financial statements, which that's the best of three opinions we can issue. It's also known as a clean opinion. So that's what you want from us. We did not identify any material weaknesses over the financial reporting, and we did not identify any compliance issues related to laws, regulations, contracts, and grants. That's all great news. And then related to state compliance, there's a separate report that's related to that where we look and examine the specific requirements of Missouri laws and regulations regarding budgets, budgetary and disbursement procedures, and then your attendance. That examination is performed in accordance with attestation standards established by the AICPA. We also issued an unmodified opinion on that and there were no findings related to that Examination as well

Okay, so the next part of our presentation you have also received a report to the Board of Education as a separate report. This is our governance letter, so on the next couple of pages we're just gonna highlight some of our required communication under professional standards. So the significant accounting policies that have been adopted by the district are disclosed in Note A. Again, there's two basis of accounting presented in your financial statements, the full accrual basis and the government-wide, and then the modified accrual in your fund financial statements. There were no new accounting policies adopted, so when you're comparing the accounting policies from the prior year financial statements to the current year, they are the same. There were no changes. The financial statements do include two significant estimates, comparable and consistent with the prior year, and that includes the estimate of the net pension liability and the OPEB liability that gets recorded in your government-wide financial statements. It's considered a significant estimate because the actuary determines those liability amounts based on certain assumptions. There were no transactions that lacked authoritative guidance or consensus in the financial statements. We're required to be independent of the board and your management, and we are in fact independent and we're just required to disclose that to you all. We also look at the note disclosures that accompany your financial statements and found those to be neutral, consistent, and clear. And then we didn't have any difficulties encountered in performing our audit. John and his team were very well prepared for us. We didn't have any disagreements with management. And as part of our audit, we do take a risk-based approach. So we did identify two significant risks that were required to disclose to you all. These risks are the same as prior year. Again, they're inherent risks. It does not mean that management or the board needs to take any action on these risks. They're just areas where we focus our audit. and those are related to management override of controls. This just means that we have to be on the lookout for management override, and it's required to be a significant risk in all audits, regardless of the district size, its controls, or processes that are currently in place. The next risk is related to that significant estimate that I mentioned previously, and that's just due to its significance in your overall financial statements, and that it's actuarially determined. So that's the net pension liability and the total OPEB liability that's recorded in your government-wide financial statements. We're happy to report we didn't identify any financial statement misstatements, so there are no audit adjustments. And then when the audit financial statements were approved, we obtained what's called the management representation letter. And that's where John and Brent certified to us that they disclosed all relevant information to us for the audit. And then the financial statements are complete and accurate. And then to our knowledge, there were no management consultations with any other independent accountants to give a second opinion on any complex accounting matters.

So that covers our report, but we just wanted to thank the board and superintendent for having us here tonight and for continuing to have faith in us to perform your audit.

You keep bringing us good news, and we'll keep having you perform the audit. Thank you for being here. Thank you. I'm going to have Chris read the motion so that then we can ask questions.

Well,

we

want a motion acknowledging receipt of this.

I guess, I would just say move to receive. Let's

wanna make sure, okay. I move that we receive the financial audit report and the federal state program report for fiscal year 2024-2025 and hereby acknowledge and accept from Kerber, Eck, and Breckle, LLP, the district's independent financial auditor.

Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded so now I can open up the floor for any questions.

First of all, congratulations on another clean and successful audit. My takeaway from that is that John and his team were very well prepared, I think is what you said, so that's good. That makes it easy on everybody, including us, and particularly on me as the board treasurer. I just have one question, and it's more to jog my memory historically. When I was looking at the for the pension, net pension liabilities in the OPEB. There was a big change in 2021 and I can't remember why the net pension liability was so much lower in 21. And just for the public's knowledge, the rest of the years are consistent and in fact the percentage of our liabilities there and in OPEB are very consistent with previous years. But in 21 it was just much, much lower.

So our pension liability derives from our participation in PSRS and PEERS, the state retirement systems for educational employees. And they have a lot of market exposure to the stock market. And as those values fluctuate, up and down from a market value standpoint against as compared to what's happening with their liabilities that are accruing from continued employee participation in the plans, those differences flow, our share of those differences flow to our statements. So there can be wild swings in those numbers from time to time, primarily due to market conditions and with their stock market investments.

Okay. Well, maybe you and I can offline look at, I mean, I expect, I think that's a reasonable explanation. It's just, it's a huge wild swing to go from, you know, it's a percentage of payroll, it's pretty consistent, and in 2021, it's a very wild swing, so.

I'll look into that deeper and give you a better response. Yeah, you can help me

remember, so. I'm sure there was an explanation for it. It was a clean audit that year. I just can't remember what it was. Yeah.

Any other questions

for them, Pam? I have a few. Hi, how are you? I have a a few questions mostly just forward looking or forward thinking and I guess I wanna start by thanking you and your entire team for a wonderful audit. So for you all, you reported that our internal controls are functioning effectively. Do you have any recommendations for improving or strengthening them?

We did not identify anything that would be to the nature of rising to a material weakness or significant deficiency that I recall, and Allison, correct me if I'm wrong, that would have had to be reported in a letter to the board. Internal control findings that are lesser in nature, I don't even remember any issues related to that either. Typically we would discuss those with John and the team, and sometimes boards want to be included in all of that because they want to know the, nuts and bolts of what's going on, but I don't recall anything even at that level that would have just been an internal control that didn't rise to the level of a significant deficiency or material weakness. Correct me if

I'm

wrong. So to

follow up on that, is there something that we as a board can do to better support the financial oversight? process, I'm thinking as we are all preparing for a transition in CFOs and a transition in auditors. What would be your recommendations for us for how we could better support this process?

I think just gaining an understanding of what the controls are. I mean, I don't know if everybody on the board knows exactly what those controls are, but we get an internal control document that walks through the cash receipts process, the cash disbursements process, all the different high level processes of the district.

Delegation of authority. Yep.

And that's what we're testing. We're pulling those key items out of there to look at and to test. So getting a copy of those, what's provided to us and understanding that and making sure that there's nothing that you want to change with the change in management that's occurring would be my suggestion. Allison, do you agree with that?

Yeah, and I think, you know, then just from board's oversight, looking at the financial report that the CFO submits and making sure there aren't any significant variances when that gets presented is also important.

Okay, thank you. Is there anything, the last one, anything new on the horizon, politically, economically, that we should be preparing for, that you anticipate we need? in all districts.

The single audit threshold is increasing to a million dollars for the next fiscal year, which high likelihood you won't be at that level if you weren't this year unless there's some special funding that you would qualify and go after, but that's the only thing in terms of standards. There was a new standard this year, GASB 101, that was evaluated related to compensated absences, which the district didn't qualify for the recording of additional amounts related to that, so that was new this year. GASB 102 is...

Was also new, but no, we haven't seen any impact on any of our districts related to that.

Thank you. And there's a component unit change next year too, but I don't anticipate any impact for the district too. I don't remember that GASB number, but off the top of my head. 103. 103. Makes sense. Sometimes it doesn't go on orders. It

might get held up somewhere. OK. Thank you. Go

ahead.

Real quick. First of all, John, congrats again. I feel like I say that every year. So again, congrats again on the clean audit. Real quickly, where, and this is not a reflection of our audit partner KAB, but where are we in the three-year cycle? We bid this out every few years. Do we know?

I think we have two years left.

I think so, too. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you.

This side of the table, anyone? Ben?

So the million-dollar threshold you mentioned, so that puts us into a federal category in terms of audit. Do I hear that right?

Correct. So that's the single audit threshold, which we said we didn't have to do this year. because you were only at 750. What changed things for the district, and correct me if I'm wrong, Allison, was when we had all the COVID-19 funding, all of that funding kind of increased you guys over that threshold. So now that those funds were spent, we're back under that threshold.

Gotcha. But if we ever were to qualify, is that a big lift? Or how would you characterize that effort for that particular audit preparation? If that makes sense.

I would say the tracking it and reporting of it internally is probably a heavier lift than the audit portion of it. Gotcha. And Allison, can you explain that a little bit more?

Yeah. And I mean, I guess in terms of workload for the audit purposes, it adds probably another three to four days on the audit. So anywhere from 24 to 32 extra hours for us.

Any other questions? Anyone? No?

Okay. So your recommendation is that we as a board review financial monthly statements that are prepared by John and his team. We all know, right, that we do review those just so the public knows those are in our captured in our, we vote on those to accept those every month. And in that reporting, the way that John and his team lay out that report, it does exactly that as it shows any significant variances from what's in budget versus what actual spend was. so

yeah it's made very easy to understand and digest for us so thank you for that yes and please pass our congratulations on to your whole team

yes this was a team effort and I think we got a good report

yeah great report thank you okay it's been moved and seconded all those in favor any opposed no okay motion passes thank you all for being here and congrats again on your retirement thank you Okay. 6.2 is facility planning updates by the design team and construction management team, so we will call all of you up here, Paragon, Perkins & Will, BLDD, and BSI for a facility update. Okay.

Okay,

good evening We're here back in front of you tonight to give you an update as where we go through the process again I'm not sure who has the clicker out there. I do I There we go. Just kind of a reminder of all the different times we've been in front of you, in front of the workshops at the building level. A lot of work has gone into the updates tonight. really working to get you the right information for the potential discussion in January about the final ballot language. Again, if that ballot were to go forward, it'd be at that April 7th. So just a reminder for where we're at within the process. So tonight you're going to hear from all the design partners as well as the construction management team for some updates on where we're at today. Let's start with Captain. great

captain elementary so existing sites just here for reference we can certainly come back to any of the existing sites if needed one of the things we've got for you this evening we brought some toys they're small but we're gonna pass them around these are Basically, we've got the existing and we've got the proposed in terms of captain. It's a new building. And then the others, you'll see the additions. But we're going to go through the site plans. Amy's going to run you through the planning for each school. And then I'm going to talk a little bit about the massing sort of as these projects become vertical. If I go back, the... Obviously, the existing Captain Elementary occupies mostly the eastern half of the site. The notion with the new building, and this will depend on swing space ultimately, is to start the project on the west half of the site, and if the students stay on site, it would be phased in. If they're removed off the site, obviously it's just one big phase, and you can do the project all at the same time. Um, the so basically we're flip flopping the, the. The building, um, putting the building kind of back in its original location when it was the moon elementary school. I sat on on the West end of the site originally. So the play fields then move east, parking lots essentially stay where they are. And all the schools that we'll be looking at today relative to the site program, there's always hard, essentially flat or flattish space that's mostly asphalt for just playing. There are playground spaces that I would call sort of structured spaces where there might some type of playground equipment We're showing a kindergarten play area and then like Glen Ridge, all Merrimack and and Captain, you'll see a turfed site on there as well. And then there's and then there's parking. So here at Captain, the parking is essentially unchanged. We're basically trading places between the building and the other site functions.

Also mentioned that all of the sites were planning for an outdoor learning area, all of the elementary schools as well. So all of the plans you'll see tonight, they're all on one page. They're pretty small. So we'll just go over the big points of each of these plans and how they are in support of the work that we've done since the summer with your educators and the desires of adjacencies and program elements that they want in the building. So You'll see in green on the right and green will always be the color for the cafeteria and the gym kind of those big community common spaces at Captain they're together with an opening from the cafeteria to the gym so that it becomes the large performance space. So it's kind of a multipurpose use for those spaces that are used all day long in schools anyway. They have to be there. Those are right at the front door at the lobby of the building. In the center of that on level one is the main administrative office, again flanking the lobby for just best practice purposes. On the left side you'll see the specials, so Captain wanted all of the specials, including Jim, grouped together on one floor, so we were able to accommodate that. And then in the back, the big gray area are things like the main mechanical spaces, receiving areas, bathrooms for the large function areas, et cetera. Marching up the building again it's a it's a tight site, as we could say, for every one of your sites and so it's a very efficient kind of rectangular plan, the other desire of the educators was to have kindergarten and fifth grade be. sort of autonomous learning pods and so you'll see that in the Center of the building on level two and three you'll see kindergarten and then fifth grade above that. On the left side of that is first and second grade sharing an extended learning area together, and same for third and fourth grade on level three. All of these buildings have pretty much the same components serving same amount of classrooms, small group rooms to support extended learning and storage, et cetera, all of the things that are included. The library is in the middle of the floor plate here on level two. Along with a maker space as well. So miscellaneous offices all over Each floor but in the desired location of the captain programming group

So I'm gonna go ahead and pass these around would you like to like feel and touch them? Okay, so the first you'll get and every instance will be the existing and And then it'll be followed by the proposed. Oh, thanks. Whichever way you want to take those, Brad. So I would sort of characterize the massing so far for Captain as basically I've kind of extruded the floor plan. There's a lot of articulation that needs to happen to the building to sort of make it feel at home there. But that's work that will be coming further in the schematic design phase. You'll see, as you saw on the floor plan, that There's not enough program to completely fill three stories of the building. The piece that is in the back, that sort of the long edge of the L on the top is that fifth grade area. And then the academic areas are principally then on the west side with the specials that Amy mentioned on the first floor. So each of those is showing you one of the things that becomes very evident, especially when you sort of look at the models, is that that site slopes. From east to west, you're sloping downhill from corner to corner 15 to 18 feet. So there's a good amount of fall. The building is planned with some slope in the first floor to help mitigate grades with the building itself. So with that, we'll move on to... There's a couple of model shots in the slide deck. You've got the models in front of you. Happy to answer any questions about those, but they're in the deck for reference for the public if they ever want to come back and view this in the future, and yourselves as well, obviously. So Glenridge Elementary, the existing site, Glenridge does have its own turfed area right now. I should mention on all the sites to the extent that we were able to and I can kind of tell we've got the numbers if you'd want to know what the numbers are in terms of amount of square footage of hard surface play area that exists on site today versus what's in the in the proposed plans you're seeing this evening parking we've made you know we have tried to keep parking those numbers equal so every option that you're going to see cat all three elementary schools it has got the same amount of parking on site in the proposed plan as it does today okay all right so let's move on to the proposed so this is proposed the light blue is the existing captain that remains I'm sorry Glenridge Glenridge that remains the dark blue is the new construction it's not maybe quite so evident and looking at the the plan here but really trying to honor the roof forms that exist and we might as well go ahead and start passing these around So you'll see that across the back of the building. What any pedestrian would see walking around the building would be pitched roofs. And one of the things that is somewhat different between Glenridge and Merrimack is you really do have houses facing this property all the way around, maybe with the possible exception of on the east side where you're seeing sides of houses, but whether you're across the street to the north or the south or even to the west, you've got front windows looking at the school. So keeping that and honoring sort of the massing and the architectural vocabulary of the existing building is really what we're after on both Glen Ridge and Merrimack.

Okay so these since you last saw these we've made a few changes based on recent conversations so these will be updated from our meeting last week. So both Glenridge and Merrimack for many reasons one is footprint and the other is economy are keeping the existing kitchens and cafeterias though they'll be remodeled. Those exist on level 1 and at both Glenridge and merrimack. So that's the green you're seeing there. But we're still able to accommodate that performance element with the gym and a multi purpose room stage area on level two of the building so it's not the cafeteria function attaching to the gym. That makes a much larger footprint on level two and three of the building. And just given the compact site and the neighbors nearby, we were trying to pull that back a little and also save some dollars. So we were able to do that here. On level one, we're able to re-sculpt the front yard so that we can get an on-grade entry for accessibility into the main administration area, which is that orange part of level one. And again, you see the gray functions there, which are things like mechanical and bathrooms, et cetera. Moving up the building that the students student focused areas are concentrated on level two and three You'll see though. It looks different because of the existing building the same configurations where kindergarten and fifth grade are kind of their own Learning area and first and second grade are paired third and fourth grade are paired so that those two grade levels Partner on the left side of the site the west side and the kindergarten grade is on the right upper right side and We were able to also keep intact with some of these changes, the specials remaining in some existing classroom spaces. Again, that could be renovated, but for example, your science classroom is really beautiful at Glenridge, it's staying where it is. And the nice part about this re-planning is that on level two and three, those light blue areas are the special classrooms, and they're all together now, concentrated in one zone, so they're not spread apart like they were the last time you saw them. They're in a really nice location for people to get to them centrally. From a zoning standpoint there along the front of the building along that main shared hallway another I think a good thing that came out of the change is that the library at Glenridge can really stay where it is. So we talked about studying the libraries and their sizes. The library right now is that pink area at Glenridge. If you haven't been there, it's actually the thoroughfare. But for the main hallway, you actually walk through the library. That could still happen if... the Glenridge staff and educators would like that to happen. Or we could enclose it if they'd like that to happen as well. But the nice part is, it's right where it is today. It's centrally located and easy to access for everybody in the building. So that's the layout at Glenridge. Those are the changes.

Yeah? Please. Yeah.

Yeah.

Is that from set up, set back from the road in the new way?

This is the most recent plan. So this reflects what you're seeing on the

screen.

We were pretty close to the property line, and we've gained back about 10 feet additional in this iteration. So it really sliced a good amount of depth off the building, which is obviously really important on this site. So I think it was a good move all around. All those changes, I think, are really, really positive. And I think they'll The replanting also allows for more use of existing space to be reused and renovated versus a full gut. So there's some economy with that as well.

And we are able to gain that flex classroom. Oh, that's right. At Glenridge as well.

Yeah, with the library reconfiguration. we were able to gain the requested flex classroom at Glen Ridge that is associated with the level three fifth grade pod so that if you had a year where there was a larger grade level, you could move them into that pod and those classrooms are all contiguous together.

Is it set far back enough from Oxford, that there's room for a sidewalk? Yes. Like right now there's a sidewalk? Yes, yeah.

Definitely a sidewalk and still a buffer zone between the building and the sidewalk. It's not right up against the sidewalk where the last iteration was pretty darn close. The

sidewalk is typically in the public right-of-way. Oh, okay, good. Generally speaking, your property lines start to the back of the curb on your site size, yeah. Okay, okay Yeah, so massing wise you've already seen the model one thing I would want to point out So this is looking obviously at the rear of the building with the existing building in the front Is that you know we do have a pitch troop across the? North side of the building We are still working to articulate this you can see a few indents in the mass of the building There those are right at those extended learning areas. So those are probably end up fairly glassy to let light into those extended learning areas, those grade level pods that are sort of at the ends of those wings now. The gym is right in the center. But I do anticipate you'll start to see as we start developing elevations of this more articulation in brick and I think even in the roof line here, I think this could stand to be broken up once or twice across the length of this roof. So that's all work that's going to be

coming. I might wanna add just for Merrimack and Glenridge with the decoupling of the cafeteria and the gym, we were also able to make the gym the storm shelter which is It's very good in a lot of ways. It takes a space that doesn't need as much natural light as classrooms, and so you can have a little more economy about the windows that you're putting in that space that still can have windows. And it will make it easier to have equity between the classrooms before it was in the classroom wing, so a little bit harder to have maybe as much daylight as some of the other rooms that are not storm shelters. So that's for both Glenridge and Merrimack. We think that's a really positive outcome of this as well. I did.

And both of those are obviously centrally located, so from an equity standpoint of kids getting to it quickly, it's a great

spot. And they all have restrooms? They do. They all

do, yeah. So the gyms will now have single-user restrooms in them because of the storm shelter.

Okay, so you've already seen the models but here it is again for record's sake both the front of the existing building and if you didn't notice it on the model you can see it in the photo here on the right sort of the sculpting of the front yard to bring access into that lower level. You'll see that pay particular attention to that on Merrimack when those models come around it's very very obvious there. And then On the right the rear of the north side of the building Merrimack Existing site as it sets today And then let's just move on to the new site plan. So you're seeing again the light blue on what is the Now the West North is to the right here The west side of the building is the existing side of the building will remain unchanged, with the exception of that sculpting of the front yard to gain access to the lower level. And then the dark blue to the rear. Merrimack is obviously different in any number of different ways than Glenridge. It's got... The, you know, Forest Parkway to the right. You've got sort of stepping up the hill to the rear, to the east side. And then you've got sort of neighbors backing up to it. One of the things we're showing on the – I think all the schools are concerned about the open play space on their site. This was expressed, you know, quite a bit by Miramac when we spoke with them. What we're looking at trying to do here is take over essentially that upper tier, what we might now start calling the upper playground. That is where the road kind of comes in and there's a drop-off area there. We were originally thinking about removing the retaining wall and sort of excavating out to create one big flat area. Our current thinking is to do a switchback ramp to provide ADA accessibility up there and leave that upper level at the elevation that it is. It's far more economical. I think a teacher could stand on the elevated part and be able to survey and observe students in both areas. And it actually nets, at the end of the day, nets Merrimack in particular with more open hard space than they currently have. Because there's a lot of, the hatched area is what I'm talking about on the lower part of the plan. So it actually is, we hope they feel good about that. It's a win in terms of the open play space for them. We did also take the two academic wings here, and Amy will show you the plans, and rotate those 90 degrees to try to keep those hugged as closely and tucked in as close and tight to the building as possible, again, to keep as much open play space. So you're seeing the kindergarten play space, you're seeing the sort of structured play space. This is up near where the turf field will go now, and then the turf field on the far south side of the site.

Okay, so these are extra small. So much like Glenridge, the cafeteria kitchen at Merrimack remains on the lower level with some renovations to that space planned. And again, similar to Glen Ridge, the ADA level grade entry will happen at level one. So that's where the bulk of the administrative offices are. We also, to again provide a little bit more equity of the classroom spaces, as Steve mentioned, we're, we are, kind of doing the three classrooms across the back as a as a learning a grade level learning pod and then we all we did not change the way we were renovating the spaces on the right those are the first and second grade and third and fourth on the north side of the site but we were able to with this again a little bit more leeway on the the amount of space on the site we were able to reconfigure the extended learning area for that grade level that's in the existing building to have a much nicer contiguous extended learning space. So we're feeling very good about that renovated portion as well as the new. And we were also able to take the storm shelter out of that classroom wing, so we've got it in the gym here as well with its own bathrooms. Similar to Glenridge, you can walk in as a spectator or as a parent coming to see a play into the gym and see the stage, which is also the multipurpose room at Glenridge and Merrimack as well. Another positive thing on this option is all the specials again are grouped together, mostly on level two with some on level three. The library is on level three as well and we have a flex classroom on level three with the south classroom wing so that is fifth grade on this floor but again it could be that grade level where there's a larger grade level could go in there and it's a contiguous classroom space. and we were able to kind of right size the libraries here and and We're able to make the footprint a little bit bigger or a little bit smaller for Merrimack as well with that change. So That covers it

Yeah Back a slide to the Right there so right now I believe at that your new upper level is I believe that there are walking paths there that neighbors use a lot, and I'm wondering how this design would impact

that.

I think they could still do it. I think our proposal would be to... create a new boundary with a playground fence, like a low playground fence to make sure that it's contained. But those usually just have gates that people can open and close anyway so the public could continue to walk through as they do today. I

don't think the path changes if

you put

up You have the, you're keeping the existing retaining wall.

Yes, the retaining wall is staying, yeah. So they can still walk through it. What's there now is concrete and greenery then becomes a playground.

We could actually keep the existing pavement exactly where it is. Yeah. And just provide some hints around it. If

the school district is, so if the path is, let's say you're going from right to left to sort of to the cul-de-sac from the neighborhood where there's a stair at the end of that path that takes you down to what we'll call the lower playground that we know gets used. But if they make a left-hand turn and they go over to the cul-de-sac at the end of Central, that's sort of the route you're talking about. As long as the school district is okay with them walking through the playground, they can still do that.

Yeah, because there's nothing being built on top of that. No, it's just,

yeah, this would be hard surface as Brad said. It's taking the place of

the open asphalt area that's being consumed by the new additions.

So the Where it says hard surface play there's kind of a gap there between the two set new segments is that gonna be like a is that gonna be a Wall door. Is that gonna be a main flow in or out of the building? I'm just curious what that break is about That makes sense. Sorry, well, maybe go one more.

There? More of

a side view from the back looking.

Oh, this?

Yes, right in there. This area.

Right now it's conceived of as still part of the hard surface, but it could, I mean you could put kindergarten playground there if you wanted it separate. There's some other options. For that space? I

mean, I guess, you know, just looking at it very simplistically, like would there not be some benefit to considering a full loop like of the building? Because it would kind of hit a stop. Oh, I

see what you're saying.

I don't know because that was my impression. Like a thoroughfare. A full loop.

Like a donut. Oh, connecting the circulation. Yeah.

Yeah, circulation. I don't

Not intended. Okay. Yeah, we certainly could look at it. I think it would add a little bit of area, right? Because you've got to kind of come around and do that. But if you think that the connectivity of those two wings is important, we could certainly look at that.

Yeah, it would add area, and as a result, it's going to add some cost associated with that. Right. One way to think about this, this is true at Glenridge as well, by the way, is... The way that the plan is situated right now, a lot of the common elements that students need to get to are in a place where for the most part they can get to them from their grade level area without walking through a lot of other stuff. Which is a nice thing, right? There's a certain seclusion that happens in those grade level pods potentially. So for students in those end, let's call them wings, the new part, to get to the gym or any of the specials like Spanish or science, They're basically walking into the common area of the building, and that's where they're going to find everything. So the need to get from one to the other, it could be a very nice thing from a circulation standpoint. Right. It will, you know, obviously it adds area and cost. Okay, you've seen the models again, but here it is in two-dimensional flat screen form where you're seeing the... Sort of that upper play area, the lower play area behind the building now. For the most part, these buildings started their lives or at least got there fairly quickly as pretty symmetrical pieces of architecture. We're trying to again honor that and honor the form and sort of the heritage and the architectural character of the existing buildings. We didn't quite feel the need to do that over the top of the gym for this one just because of the context. But really, you know, what you see around the sides and around the front of the building feels sort of very much at home with the original building. Yeah, and with that, I think we're, you know, the models are in here again for reference. Turn it over to the high school. All right.

Here we have the high school CTE addition. Here's the site plan. So on the right there in the gray is the existing building, and the white is the addition, about a 10,000 square foot building one-story additional on the southwest side of the high school. On the left we're protecting the existing drive that circulates around the building and the fire lane access and the far left there is Adzick Field. uh... take a look at the floor plan that uh... brownish area on the right there that is your existing building uh... where your math department's located in the existing pre-engineering uh... woodshop area so uh... on the left of that is the addition where you're seeing the colors there so Kind of the teal color is the geometry and construction in the center. There's that direct adjacency to the wood shops important and then just to the left of there is the robotics so incorporating a practice field in there an area for their own dedicated space that does come lacking right now. Below that we still have the math office that's currently located in its existing position. We did have to demolish two classrooms. at that back area, but we're relocating them in the addition. So those are those blue boxes. So we're adding a math classroom back in and then also a flex classroom that could be used for math and just different CTE purposes. On the bottom left there is the amps room dedicated room from them that has all their equipment, classroom, a couple breakout rooms and storage. And then the addition will have its own entrance vestibule there that you're seeing on the left, and then a ramp down to grade and a stair leading to the parking lot to the north. Here's some 3D views. So in the back is the existing building and kind of the front of the screen is the addition. So this corner, we're looking at the robotics there with those corner windows. So the goal here is to really tie in with the existing building. So having some brick that matches the existing and wider band at the top, having some metal panel, some sun shades to protect the direct sun into the robotic space as well. And then on the right there, you see the glazed vestibule entrance. Looking at the PAC improvements, still relatively what we've had before. So on the top there, looking at the band, choir, and orchestra rooms. have some loud noise, so how do we treat that acoustically? Auditorium, looking at some light interior finish upgrades, so seat replacements, some carpet there. Behind the stage, incorporating an ADA lift, so currently the only way to get on stage is an ADA lift at the seating area, and then once a student's on there, performer, they're kind of stuck on stage to the end, so having that back door access to an ADA lift Getting to that back area of the building will help ease that need. Also looking at the restrooms of the auditorium, giving them a good refresh as well. And then incorporating a new school store at the main entry there to display all the school gear. So that's currently located where Hounds Grounds would be. So we would relocate that to the commons level of the high school where there's an underutilized bookstore area. Here we just have some snapshots of the acoustic report for the band, choir, and orchestra. There's a lot of information on here, but just high level. That table on the right, so we did do some sound testing at those three spaces. The noise levels were coming in high, about 50 decibels approximately in each space, so On the left there is just a summary and some recommendations. So really we're looking at those top three items replacing some fan terminal units some duct liner looking at relocating some compressors that are creating some vibration on the floor in the orchestra's orchestra room and then creating a soffit just to help in that noise. So trying to get that NC rating down to that 30 decibels. And that wraps up the high school. step away I'm

focusing on Glen Ridge for these questions that's I think the consensus kind of the triage list it's the first one and I've been trying to kind of come up with a way to articulate what we're doing there in simple terms and If I were to say that the drivers of the big structural changes at Glen Ridge were moving educational spaces out of the basement, creating these extended learning spaces, and I want to ask you to describe what those are, and then the larger gym. Are those three, is that an accurate, is there another big driver of the structural changes beyond those three? I mean, I know there's lots of changes that are being made, but I'm trying to simply describe why we're making large structural changes at these buildings and and that was what i've come up with

yeah i would well i would also add this this need for a storm shelter to that list as an important one um i when we had the three workshops with your elementary school groups um and came up with a program that's a equitable program across the elementaries we talked a lot about teaching and learning in Clayton and what you're doing and trying to do in your classrooms, and what you can't do because you're hindered by the space. And so the consensus around the group, and while they look like classrooms right now, we'll be developing those further to have more connectivity, more agility to change in size and shape. especially a captain where they're open right now, right? There's a lot of, they're already doing those kind of things together. But they don't have that space that's not assigned classroom space. So all the classrooms are right sized. They're all equitable in size now across all the schools. They all get small group spaces and support of educators coming into and pulling out kids within their peer groups with them together as well as students working together in small groups. And the extended learning areas are just that. They're an extension of the classroom. So if you're not in direct instruction mode, if you're in project mode or you're doing things, kids can have direct line of sight to their teachers and be working in the space that's really an extension of classrooms so larger than their classroom. So you might want to add to that?

Yeah, I would add another one. One of the big ones is Given the way these buildings were built originally and how they've been added onto over the years, the entries to these buildings have found themselves in odd spots. So trying to... They have a Frankenstein quality. Well, I wouldn't use that word, but you can. I do, yeah. So trying to relocate those back to a place that is civically makes more sense. Let's put it that way. So I would say that's one thing. In terms of the sort of the planning... There's so much talk over years and years about flexible learning environments, and that's a good word. But we like to also talk about things that are agile that can change pretty quickly. And also, I like the word variety as well. Traditionally, schools of this era, of mid-century era, were essentially the same classroom repeated down either side of a corridor. But trying to dial in some variety of space type and size into the learning environment goes a long way towards that flexibility piece without necessarily maybe moving a wall or, you know. So having those extended learning areas where a teacher can say, yeah, a small group go out and do this collaborative work out in this area while we're doing other things in our classroom. I still have line of sight to you. I still feel like I'm in control of the situation, or a small group space that's been added to that as well. That's part of that kit of parts in those grade-level learning environments where if a small group of students need some acoustical privacy and need to work as a group, they can do it there. Or if a specialist comes in and needs to do a pullout and do a quick tune-up with a couple of students, they have a spot to do that. So that kind of variety is something that was just absent when these schools were built. It just wasn't on the radar anywhere. and the nature of public education has changed so much with so many more things being offered just for the good for the good that the space needs to have you know schools across the country we have this new program we need to find a home for it and we've seen literally really interesting things in our survey of schools where janitor's closets have been turned into somebody's office because that's just what schools do, right? I mean, they don't have the space. So trying to bring these to match current and future programs is really a big, big part of this. Steve, one of the

things to build on that is what we've heard also is really they'll have more classroom time. because of how the specials are going to be right-sized and the location, thus allowing for less time for transitions. So it's going to actually increase the classroom time and that ability there. And something that we heard carried over from the master plan that was a big driver that is kind of built on that front entry built into this is overall accessibility for all. Being able to get in and out of both sides of the building parents, faculty, students.

Right, there's a lot of little staircases in Glen Ridge in particular.

So it's a lot of those just by the nature of the designs that we're doing are very well minimized. There's still a couple there, but it's minimized.

I would add to your list, Leo, community space. That's right, the gathering. Oh, did you say that? Sorry. Yeah.

I did, right, I did say larger gym. I didn't say, but it would be a community space, that's true. And the extended learning I guess I just We have it at Y down for anybody who happens to be looking at this and wanting to understand what it is It's what we have at Y down where the classrooms are around a central space

One of the benefits I would share with the extended learning areas they've all been programmed essentially at a classroom size So they're a nice relief valve if you see an uptick in enrollment, right? Where you can? Think about how could you use those spaces actually as somebody's classrooms to help you with a bubble in your enrollment. The flex classrooms are in there, this is another way that will help you potentially in the future depending on what happens with enrollment. Okay, that's what I had,

thanks.

I'll add to that list too, which is to say that because we're getting completely new systems and we will have better air quality. We will have appropriate plumbing that works consistently and efficiently, et cetera, et cetera.

I agree with that. I'm trying to get at why we're making, we could get some of those benefits with a major but we're also making large structural changes and explaining why those are there. Yeah, I got you. That's what I'm trying

to get at. But it will be a safer, healthier environment because of what we're doing. So I think that's a big deal. I think people that haven't been in Glenridge for years or at all ever don't realize the situation. And we're doing a good job, I think, of putting on social media and as much as possible letting people know what it actually looks like in there right now And it's not up to what we would want for our children. It's just not. So having all new systems is a huge lift in the safety and health of that environment.

That's honestly one of the benefits of doing the long range facilities plan is those building infrastructure needs get identified, plumbing, mechanical, and so forth. So while you're doing those, while investing those dollars, look at those programmatic educational needs. And the more you can marry those two things together, the more benefit you get out of the spend. It might be a little bit bigger spend, but the more long-term benefit you get as a school district.

Thank you. Appreciate you being here. Thanks for the models, too. That was fun.

Sure. Thanks.

BLDD.

And I'll do this as quickly as you allow me, but please ask questions as we go. So as you know, the work is at Y-Down. We have work at Adzick and Shaw Park, and we also have Gay Field. So we'll just jump right into Y-Down, and Y-Down is really taking your athletic area, your playground area, your recess area, and providing synthetic turf. We are showing a soccer layout, but really that will have field hockey and lacrosse and some other line work as part of that. It's showing a two lane running jogging track around that. There is some minor electrical work, making sure that you have the power you need for some of the special events you have at this field. There's also requests to replace the drinking fountain. I won't get into this much detail on all of them. This is just simple. We're also showing two different types of shade structures. One is more of a team bench area that can be portable, can be easily purchased at any time if you want to have those now. and some fixed structures to provide some of that shade that was requested as a part of this project. So that's why down in a nutshell, and I'll just continue to move on. At Adzic, what we're really doing is we're taking the incomplete work from your last round at Adzic is completing the dugout work and the press box work. So the press box will be a two-story structure. The lower level will have two single-user toilets, a little bit of storage, janitor's closet, and then the stair access to the upper level, which is basically just a press box with sliding glass windows to the field. The dugouts will be more or less. And again, I should mention that the foundations are already here. So we're really just building up what's already been started. So the dugouts will be fairly similar in size as to what you have now. There will be a large storage area at one end. for obviously storing all the baseball and field hockey equipment that needs to be pulled off the field. And again, the bench and helmet and bat storage as a part of the dugouts. These will be brick-enclosed buildings with roofs, so those will be completely redone. There is a small project at Shaw Field number five, which is taking the existing dirt area, the softball area and providing synthetic turf in that area. And so that's pretty simple. And that's all that's happening there. now the big one gayfield uh... myself somebody work uh... okay so the work it's shop field in terms of the site is creating you know replacing the turf field area for showing football for simplicity but i feel across field hockey uh... soccer will be lying here the existing track is already going to be resurfaced again next summer We are showing as a part of the track work is, we're showing two locations for javelin. This one's a little sketchy because we do have a water inlet, storm inlet right here. There is some preference to maybe putting javelin up here at the existing soccer, which would require sandbags to be located at sprinkler heads. So there's a little bit of a negative there. There's not the intent to build two javelin areas. We're still gonna price it separately and decide what makes the most sense for the user groups. They do like the idea of it having to but we realize that budget may not allow for that to happen. Um, so yes, we are showing perimeter fencing around the soccer field. We're showing perimeter fencing to enclose the stadium. Um, and then what happens really the big is the upper parking area right now, which would then be divided into two, um, bleacher areas, one at the lower level and one at an upper level. The upper level will allow us to have some track storage underneath it, which would be enclosed with fences over here. Um, and I'll, I'll blow this up a little bit so you can see, but the, Behind the bleachers would be toilet areas concession areas press box ticket booth and then of course a fence Enclosure of that area the upper area would still have a car drop-off turnaround and parking That's where our ad a parking would be and then the lower level would be the majority of the parking We are showing some additional parking along the road, knowing that budget will be a part of the problem, but also knowing that parking is one of the big issues that we're trying to solve here. So getting as much parking in as possible is one of our priorities. We are showing renovations at the existing concession and toilet building and the field house. And so I'll get into that right away so it doesn't. take too much of your time. So behind the bleachers, behind the bleachers is a two-story press box. You're seeing this is actually the upper level. This is the lower level. So the lower level would have a large concession area with three large windows with easy access for groups. We're showing lots of toilets. What I didn't mention is those bleachers are providing seats for 2,000, so we have to provide toilets for 2,000. And good news, that's a lot of women's toilets, so that will be provided. So that even means that at the concession, we're taking some existing, I've lost the ability to show it on the screen. So the concession building, what we're showing is the storage going away and actually increasing the toilet counts that are occurring in your existing toilet room and taking that concession and make it into storage, small storage, and of course a mechanical janitor's closet room. So really what you have behind the bleachers is a press box, concessions, and toilets, and a ticket entry booth. The field house. The field house is really accommodating storage, which is a huge priority, and locker rooms. So really two locker rooms in the fall, three, but two, one football, which would be this large one on the upper level is on the right, lower level is on the left. So on the right side of the upper level, that's the football locker room. On the opposite side in the fall, that would be the visitor locker room for teams that are visiting the site. Men's, boys' soccer would be downstairs. Each one of these locker rooms is provided with a few showers and some toilets and the large two-by-two lockers that you currently have and they continue to want to have. The upper level does continue to have your training room, which we will upgrade. You've got your official's room, a coach's area that has individual desks and conference room, and they also have access to toilets and showers. And then those gray areas, which again, I can't. There we go. Those are storage areas, again, with outdoor access from the upper level. So that's easy to bring equipment in and out. On the lower level, we're taking the existing weight room area, which is right here, turning that into a team room, a large classroom. So we're going to have 60 to 70 kids. We're actually showing 60 desks right there, 60 chairs with desks right there now. That's where they would do team video review, get-togethers, have the whole team in one place. There are two locker rooms down here where you would have lacrosse in the spring along with female soccer downstairs and upstairs would be your track programs. Men and women would then handle those. On the north side of the building, which would have access from the lower level through that garage door, which is a part of your The wood shop that facilities use would then be storage. It's not as easy to get to, but your track storage of your bigger pieces. If you haven't been in the field house lately, all the track storage, the mats and the hurdles and things are in the showers. There's not a whole lot of, there's no showering going on. There's no room for it. Again, every locked room has access to showers and toilets that we're showing out. And there is a coach's area down here too, again, providing for individual desks for your coaches and a conference table for them. And that really is it. I went through it pretty quickly. In the next couple of weeks we will be elevating these creating some aerial views for you so you get to see what this looks like in real in real life.

I might have missed this. Did part of the Gayfield plan include visitor bleachers on the opposite side? Yes. I'm sorry

I probably went too fast. Yes, we are showing 500 seats currently right now on the opposite side. You would access this from around the field on the south and west side. And, again, stadium lighting is provided, new stadium lighting for the field. And there is a request, and part of the pricing will include maybe having the throw areas lighted as well, lit as well. But, again, that will all come down in the wash whenever you get the final pricing.

What makes a locker room, is there anything beyond the locker rooms being assigned to specific sports, beyond you and Steve Hudson maybe sat down and he said, well, this is how we can make it work across the fall and spring. Is there anything else that's unique about a football locker room or a lacrosse locker room?

Well, in this particular case, we are making them fairly similar because sometimes locker sizes are different depending on the equipment that you're bringing for the type of sport. Soccer doesn't necessarily have the same needs that a football locker room would have. We are providing, and each locker room does have, and I keep hitting the wrong button, does have a coach's area. We're trying to keep these locker rooms open so that the teams can gather at halftime. and work on a marker board so that you can have these sort of team conversations that happen. But what makes the difference between a soccer and a football in this particular case other than the number?

Well, I guess what I'm really asking is as sports popularity ebbs and flows over the years, we can't swap this out without any sort of major changes to the locker

room. Especially going with the 24 by 24, the bigger lockers, full height, you can use them for anything. Okay, great.

Is there a training room or a trainer's room? Yes,

the training room will stay where it currently is, which is right here. And that has easy access from the field on the south end at the upper level, which is where it is now. But there's some equipment in there that they don't need to have in the training room, which we can now relocate because we have extra storage areas like the ice and water. And so the training room will open up and provide them more space to do the work that they need to do.

Does this help with anything for the staff and coaches in terms of what they have on the main campus now? Is this an improvement to... Will the coaching staff be using this facility during the day, during the school day? Not when there's necessarily kids around. Is this going to be a new location for the coaches or are they okay with where they are now on the main campus?

I think most of the coaches that we have are either teaching during the day or they don't work in the district. So if they weren't working in the district, it would be a space for them to come because right now they don't have one, like a designated space. The activity

would be afternoons and then game days, practice days? Correct,

yeah.

And this plan, right now, the existing coach's office... Every once in a while. There we go. This is about two-thirds smaller, so it's a third bigger now with access to toilets and a shower. And there's also on the lower level coaches' offices. So we do have a more appropriate number of spaces for the coaches to meet. Right now they don't have enough space.

Could we go back to the Gayfield image? And this is a ton more seating than we have currently. And I don't know that we actually use all the seating we have currently. And so I'm wondering where the numbers and estimates came from for the cost of this many bleachers. I'm just wondering.

It has been a driving force of the design from the beginning for that number. And I have pushed back on the need, but during especially track events. I was going to

say track meets.

Track events. It's

full because there's like dozens of schools that are here.

Maybe it'll be a

graduation or something, I don't know.

In terms of some of your fall sports, it's sort of a field of dreams feeling, right? If we build it and we create a place that people want to be, that we will have the kind of crowds that you're looking for. But it was very definitely an issue for the track season.

Sorry, Pam, did you have a follow-up? I didn't want to cut you off.

The current bathroom concession stand, I think, is in like...

Right there.

I don't see your... I don't know if it's only me, but I don't see her pointer. I don't either.

Well, I can barely see it. So if you guys can't see it, I apologize. Is it a black box? I can just stand

there. Okay, that's right. And is that going away or that's... So

it stays and we are going to enlarge it to have even Concession out of

there and

put the concession behind the bleachers

Yes, plus all those other toilets under the bleachers yes believe it or not yes Okay

And what about storm shelter at this

site? So all of those, the concession, the toilets, yes, we'll provide storm shelter in those areas. There's also the idea of some canopies that we're planning throughout the upper area behind the bleachers. So in case of inclement weather, there is a place to go that's not necessarily inside. That's a

big concern with now there's nowhere to go.

Right. So I think with the field house, with the concession toilets, with the additional toilets, you'll have plenty of room to meet those demands.

And the number of parking spaces? Because it looks like more than half, most of the parking on that upper level has been taken away. And I see you've added down below. But how does this compare to current parking?

We still need to do those numbers. And I don't have those off the top of my head. I apologize. I'll get that

to you. That's a good question.

I actually promised Steve I would get him that number, and we haven't done that yet.

Okay, good.

And

there's a...

Well, that's what I was just saying to Pam. With all these bleachers, I said we couldn't hold

it. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

And there's a shop building on the site. Is that

still the shop building? Facilities. Facilities. Yeah. The facilities building is still the dark building in the northwest corner.

Gotcha. Is there any needs there while we're doing all this work? I don't know if that's been talked about.

Well, we have talked with John a little bit about the fact that we are taking over the entire field house, which is taking over their workshop. And so I know facilities is sort of trying to figure out if they have other areas for it, but it may need to be a part of a project. Okay.

Yeah.

That's the only conversation we've had about any of that.

As long as Jim Brunel is part of the conversation then.

Absolutely. Good.

Okay. Well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

I

don't know about that. Okay, so we're here tonight to talk a little bit about the process To this point in terms of budget and then share some preliminary budget ranges that we've developed so far So as the design team has been working through developing their building designs BSI has been working with the design teams and the district to develop budgets for each project the goal has been to establish reasonable preliminary budgets for planning purposes and So to help with this, we pulled data from other K-12 school projects that BSI has constructed over the last few years. All of these projects are in the St. Louis area, some with storm shelter components, some with new addition components and renovations. We've derived dollars per square foot data points from each of those projects and adjusted them up to $20, $25 each. Each of those reference projects has varying levels of scope and quality for the Clayton projects Obviously, it's still very very early in the design But some of the early discussions to date have included mentions of some higher level mechanical systems higher quality exterior architecture To match the existing buildings. So so these things are toward the higher end in comparison to some of these other projects that we are comparing to. We won't have a more complete, better picture of the total project costs until a little bit later in the design when we're able to build our full cost model, but the discussions so far about scope and quality and aesthetics have helped to develop these preliminary budget parameters for the proposed Clayton projects. So the dollars per square foot parameters were applied to the square footages that have been provided to us from the design team and their diagrams. When a project is in the early stage of design, where we're at right now, where essentially we only have the plan diagrams to go from, this is really the best approach is to use comparative dollars per square foot analysis to establish these preliminary budget ranges. So I will go over to the next slide, which has a recent snapshot of the preliminary budget ranges. We want to emphasize that these are budget ranges for planning purposes, not estimates yet, which will come later when more design information becomes available. The projects are grouped by potential funding category right now. The potential phase one bond funded projects include the high school CTE addition, the Glenridge Elementary School improvements, and Gayfield improvements. So those three projects currently are totaling in the range of 105 to 130 million. The next category, the potential future bond-funded projects, Merrimack and Captain, those total to north of 163 to 187 million. And then the separate bucket for potential budget-funded projects would be the PAC improvements at the high school, some of the athletic components at the baseball field, softball field and middle school. And then also potential temporary bridge campus while the elementary schools are under construction. So in addition to the construction costs, These budgets also include all the soft costs. They include factors for estimating contingency, owner contingency, and then an assumed annual inflation rate of 3% up to those assumed construction start years that you see up there. We want to emphasize that both the design processes and the pricing processes are iterative. It's still very early in the design, and there are a ton of scope and quality decisions to be made between now and the end of design that will really impact cost. So budget pricing will continue to be updated as the design work continues. So once the design team has completed schematic design in the next couple months, We anticipate that there will be enough design information at that point to build project-specific, comprehensive cost estimates that are based on actual quantities and unit prices and such. And we anticipate at that point that there will be a better sense of where the projects might be in relation to the ranges up there, some of which are quite big, but that's not unusual for where we are so early in the design. Anything to

add, Steve?

No.

Any questions from anyone on this?

I guess I just wanted to point out that bottom section for all of the public who's paying attention right now, that those are projects we've been talking about throughout this long range facilities master plan. but have pulled out of a potential bond-funded project and will be funding them, or proposed funding them through our current budget.

Correct, thank you. Anything else from anyone?

Yeah, I have a question. I see that for Glenridge it says assumed construction start, it's 27, and then it's occupancy in 28, whereas with Meramec and Captain, It looks like a two year span for both of those. Is there a reason why that's?

So for Glen Ridge, Steve correct me if I'm wrong, I think for Glen Ridge the thinking is that construction will begin first quarter 27 after the construction documents are done and the project has been out and then it would be completed summer 28, is that right?

Right. Okay. I mean there's still quite a bit of discussion needs to take place regarding the actual schedule the bridge campus, so that would be the temporary. And so there's still a lot of work being done figuring that out. So these are approximate. This was really just developed in order for us to be able to try to calculate the cost of future dollars so that we weren't portraying everything in today's dollars. We're trying to portray it in the future. Those dates may not be correct, but they're our best attempt at projecting the future. But you're

not looking at double the amount of time to make Merrimack and Captain as you are for Glenridge, are

you? Merrimack is going to be very similar to Glenridge. I think it's just that the start

date of Glenridge is where it

falls. I will say Captain being a completely new construction and also like Steve had mentioned earlier, the potential phasing if students are bridged in their existing building versus what we'll call the bridge campus, that's going to have an

Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate you being here. Other questions? OK. OK, thank you to all of you. Yeah, all of you. Thank you so much. OK, we're moving on to 6.3, which is the review of a draft resolution calling for bond election. And John will come back again to join us. And this is just a review and a draft, which we all have received. So go ahead, John.

Before you is a copy of a resolution and potential ballot language. It was drafted by Eric Creech, who is legal counsel with Gilmore and Bell. They've served as our bond counsel for years. Many years. We've played around with the actual ballot language some, and my proposals to them have been corrected for a variety of reasons. One of those is St. Louis County has a limit on the number of words that they will police on a ballot. Their preferred limit is 50 words. And based on the basic words we have to put down and put our name on there, we're really at 50 words almost to start. So this does exceed that limit, but they believe this will be approved. Secondly, they recommend against being overly specific into what the language has. So originally I had school names on here. They have removed those. And partly because of the 50 word limit, partly because they wish to be more flexible in the wording. So this is the current version, the current wording that they've recommended back to us. I have tried to leave the dollar amount out and just put TBD in there as we try to determine the exact amount we will need to seek for phase one, whether that includes one elementary or more than one elementary. I did have a plan to have a representative from Piper Sandler here tonight, who is our investment banker. As he was traveling over tonight from Kansas City, I guess I-70 got shut down for some accidents and he ended up having to turn around because he wasn't going to make the meeting. So I apologize for that. But he's helping us in providing all the cash flow analysis that we need for our particular bond issues. With that, I'll be happy to take questions. I would have to add that our next meeting is January the 22nd. The certifications of these documents have to be by January the 27th, so that's why it's scheduled at that date and we'll be finalizing this document before that time. Happy to take questions.

I had a question I'm looking for. Anyone else can go ahead. Who has a question? Jason.

Well, I guess I have a general comment and then a specific question. So my general comment, and I've made this to I think everyone a couple times now, but just again for the public, for those that are watching at home. You know what we've been talking about so far this evening is the plan itself and it's a 15 to 20 year plan. Right? And, um, all of these things that we're talking about, they're all really exciting, but you know, we're just not gonna be able to do it all 1 time. So in the course of regular school district facilities planning, you know, we decided to go forth with a 15, you know, put together a 15 to 20. Your plan. what we're talking about now is how do we find a component of how we finance that plan, right? And how, you know, what Pam said earlier, you know, indicated there are different levers to pull, right? And so I just want to be clear that in case there's been some confusion out there that this is not, you know, this is one way in which we will finance the plan over the course of 15 to 20 years is the contemplation of this getting approval for bond issue. So with that in mind, my question is I you know, and I think this is just a quick one that there's $135 million number in there. We're not saying tonight that this time around necessarily we're going for 135 million. So maybe you can confirm that and then also maybe just talk a little bit about our borrowing capacity as we head into this portion of the conversation.

So working with Piper Sandler, our borrowing capacity in the short term, which would really be phase one, is about 135 million. And that would be a situation where we would probably borrow 45 million in each of three years, 27, 28 and 29. As you know, we have existing debt that will be expiring in 29, and our ability to borrow improves after that point in time. But if we max out our borrowing capacity that exists today, we're going to limit ourselves after 29 a little bit. By phasing this down a little bit, as we've proposed, our borrowing may only need to be around $100 million at this point in time, and that preserving that extra capacity will help out on Phase 2. Did I answer all your questions?

Yeah. So in a qualitative way to say that is, you know, we're approaching this in a way that honors our previous public statements that are intended to go for a zero, what we would call a zero tax increase bond. And this is a zero. Yeah. And so that would This is a way to structure that, to sort of honor that.

Yes,

sir.

So we've built a model for determining our ability to borrow, and it's got an assumption in there about growth of assessed valuation. That's a critical assumption. And we're running that assumption right now about 50% of what it's been the last six cycles of reassessment. There's so, I would say, I would describe that model as safe with upside potential. I wouldn't call it a worst case scenario because worst case would be assessed valuation actually going down in some form. But I think the assumptions we've made are safe. I think there's a lot of upside potential so as reassessment year 27 and 29 and 31 come around if they Grow at the rates that we have seen historically Our borrowing capacity will increase pretty well

I guess just connecting with Jason's comment. I mean, if you're watching at home, go back and look at the last slide of the last presentation, and there's a portion that's, that portion would be funded. It's at the top of that slide would be funded by this ballot measure. In terms of the language, most important thing is what Bill Moore-Bell says. I think any simplification you can do of this in terms of It is a mouthful right now. But so if there's a more general language that can capture multiple of these sub points, I think that could have some benefit. But the most important thing is to meet the legal requirements.

One thing we still have to do is name the proposition. And Nisha, you may want to talk about our proposal?

Yeah, the communication team, which just a reminder for the public, includes Gina Tarte, our chief communications officer, and we're working with Donovan Group, as well as an individual who was a chief communications officer for Ladue that helped them with their recent campaign, Susan Downing. So they came up with a few ideas, and one of the ones that rose to the top would be Proposition O for Our Schools, Our Community, Our Future. for zero tax rate increase. Proposition O, our schools, our community and our future.

Yeah, the communication team, which just a reminder for the public, includes Gina Tartt, our chief communications officer, and we're working with Donovan Group, as well as an individual who was a chief communications officer for Ladue that helped them with their recent campaign, Susan Downing. So they came up with a few ideas, and one of the ones that rose to the top would be Proposition O for Our Schools, Our Community, Our Future. for zero tax rate increase. Proposition O, our schools, our community and our future.

So I just want to add a couple things. So we are not voting on this tonight. We will be voting on this Officially in January at the end of January between now and the end of January I would expect that as a board we receive additional information about exactly how we are triaging and prioritizing All of the things that we've seen tonight and been talking about over the last year as far as the needs that have been identified structurally systems wide educational programming wide within the long-term facilities range plan. So I think we're all very well kind of aligned on that between the board and the district. Then the only other thing is that I wanted to add to what John said, and John looked this up last week on his own and then sent it to me so that everybody would have it, and I want to make sure everybody listening at home as well as everybody here at the board hears it too, We are currently indebtedness, our current bond indebtedness is $28.6 million. So that is the amount which will fluctuate a little between now and when we would retire that indebtedness in 2029. But that gives you an indication of the additional borrowing capacity that we would have in addition to any appreciation that happens that occurs between now and then when we might go out again and ask for an increase in our capacities. So, that's it. Yeah, so any questions from the board for John or I or anybody else on anything I just said?

No, you explained that very well. Okay.

That was good. Go ahead, Chris. So what I want to say is that if I was not on the board and hadn't been able to ask you guys why in the world this doesn't say specific building names, I want us to make sure that we are really doing in our PR work and in our, you know, campaign effort for this bond to pass that we are being as specific as possible. This is just a little, a little, yes, we're being specific in the way that they want us to say, you know, you know what I'm saying though? The fact that we had to take the school names out I think is hard, but I want to make sure that every voter that goes into that voting on April 7th knows actually what that really specifically means and actually has possibly had pictures of what those mean. That's what I want to make sure that if we can do that, it's not going to be vague. There's going to be real concrete understanding.

Our informational campaign has to make sure all that data gets out there. Absolutely.

And on the flip side, I think it's important to keep the ballot language vague in case I don't know what happens, and we are not locked in to very specific projects. Yeah, I think that makes sense.

But it's almost good to educate the public that it won't say on there X, Y, Z. Well,

this won't pass unless we educate

them. Exactly. So I just want us to know that we—

That even though it doesn't call it out in the ballot language—

I want every voter to know what they're going to get when they go to say yes or no to this. Yes.

There are things that are not on here like it doesn't say we're going to buy school buses. So we're not going to buy school busses but it is vague enough that you know if for some reason we were fortunate enough to have money left over it can still be spent in these categories.

It's just incomprehensible the way ballot language is always incomprehensible. I mean, always. And we're going to have to go out and explain what we're doing.

It's always very confusing. Voters need to be educated because it

is always confusing. The one thing, though, that I noticed is there's a question mark in there, which however you continue to massage language, we don't want to be questioning whether or not we really want this money. So that should probably be a period.

No, it is a question. Shall

we borrow the money? Shall

we borrow money? Shall we borrow money? It has to be a question.

I had another grammatical, though, question. I know that career and technical education is a title of a, CTE is a title of program. In this case, I'm not sure it needs to be capitalized because to me it reads just like fine and performing arts. I wasn't sure if it needed to be there. It's like a general career and technical education, not specific.

That's a state term.

Macro, not a micro. But does it even need to be there? CTE classrooms can't be there. CTE is a defined term. Right, but can't we just say classrooms, which were already there? Why do we need to say this?

Because we

already have

classrooms. That's true. So I think we can take that whole thing up. But I'm not a lawyer.

Then we'd be more specific. I think that's fine.

I'll discuss it with legal counsel.

Well, if we're going to get to that level, they're not using the Oxford comma. I just want to point that

out. And we could probably call libraries just media centers. It doesn't need to have the word library, but I guess the public knows the word library.

John, that was the thrust of my initial comment, that anything you can do to simplify this language will make it more comprehensible and reduce the number of phrases that are in there.

wanted to say one thing or ask you one question for you to say to all of the people listening in the future that the residents of Clayton who have applied for and received the senior tax freeze will they be impacted by this specific bond issue

the proposal is to not increase the debt service levy, the rate of that. And so for people that are participating in the senior tax freeze program, their taxes will not go up as a result of this vote. Even if their assessed valuation goes up.

So people who have applied for and received the senior tax freeze will not see an increase in their taxes based on the passage of this bond?

That is correct.

Not the rate. The rate will not increase.

Well their taxes will not. Taxes won't go up.

Oh, I was just using your language that you like. If they signed up and received it. In

the senior program, those that are participating will not see an increase in their taxes.

Okay. It's something really exciting. I wanna say that this is exciting. You know, I'm proud of us for being here finally after a year, more than a year, guys. And it just feels like now we have these tangible things we can hold. And, you know, last time we got together with this team a week ago on our retreat, we got so much work done. We are on a really solid path. And I'm very, very excited to be a part of it. And our district is going to be just... Miles apart once this is over and I want to also point out that we are doing it in a very fiscally responsible way the fact that we are going up for a bond and saying we do not want a tax rate increase is huge and We wouldn't have it any other way. We want to be fiscally responsible. That's who we are We owe that to our public and that's what we're doing But we're also serving the needs of our students by doing it in this way by getting it by having a plan for we'll do our top priority first and we'll do this then we'll do that so I'm thrilled with this, I'm excited. I want us to continue to roll with this awesome momentum we got here. It's great work.

Well said. Any other questions or comments on the ballot language? That was a good ending point. Thank you, John. Okay, we'll be moving into policy now. We just have one first reading. Policy KB, Public Information Program. Gina is joining us.

Good evening. The policy that we're looking at here, there's just very minor modifications to more closely align it with the MSEC 6, focusing on two-way communications and strengthening communications with stakeholders.

Does anyone have any questions on this? It's a first reading, so this is the opportunity to make any changes or?

Yes, I had emailed mostly about on the top of page two Nope middle of page two effective communications number four promote a climate of trust That statement while it's a beautiful intention is a vague statement and if we are going to include it I would love for either us or you to put some actual like meat behind what we mean when we say that trust promote a climate of trust is that transparency accountability communications

sure we can look to tweak that um of course having the information in our communications plan will be available on the website when we launch it next week and i think when people go there they'll find it to be more centrally located. So they'll be able to see how we communicate, what our expectations are, how we work with the media. So by, I think, building this web hub, it will look more transparent and look more trustworthy. But certainly, we can look to tweak the policy language.

And I actually think one, two, and three kind of is what goes and adds up to four, like all of those things. So I don't know. What? Yeah, like maybe we don't even need four. Because one, two, and three to me do promote a climate of trust if you're doing those things.

I agree.

Or you could say in all communications we promote a climate of stress. So put it in that sentence above the board.

With a colon and then just the one, two, three. Yeah. Does

that make sense to you? Yes. Thank

you. I just think it's great they're actually putting this on the website and it will be a live living thing that parents, if they ever should need it, are actually able to go and easily access it. So that's great.

And even for us as a board to see the communications plan and all of that laid out on the website will be great for us too.

Website launches next week.

Exciting. Thank you for all your work. That's a big lift. Okay, thank you Gina. Thank you. Okay. So now we have some second readings first 7.2 policy AC prohibition against illegal discrimination harassment and retaliation

Would you like to read the motion? I move that we adopt the revised policy AC Prohibition against illegal discrimination Harassment and retaliation

Okay, that's been moved and seconded Any questions or comments on this revision? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No, okay, policy AC passes. So now the second reading of policy EF, food service management.

I move that we adopt revised policy EF, Food Service Management.

Second. Okay, that's been moved and seconded. Any questions or comments on this revised policy? Okay, all those is in favor? Aye Any opposed? No. Okay, EF passes. Seven point four GBE staff health and safety

I move that we adopt policy GBE staff health And safety with the recommended changes

second any questions or comments on these revisions Okay all those in favor Any opposed? Okay, that one passes GBE EC criminal background checks

I move that we adopt policy GBEBC, criminal background checks with the recommended changes.

Second.

Okay, any questions or comments on this one? Nope, okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes. Policy GCPB, resignation of professional staff members.

I move that we adopt policy GCPB, resignation of professional staff members with the recommended changes. Second.

Any questions or comments on this revision? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. The second reading of policy GCPE, termination of professional staff members.

I move that we adopt policy GCPE, termination of professional staff members with the recommended changes. Second.

Any comments on this one? Okay, all those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes. And the last policy up for a second reading is GCPF, renewal of professional staff members.

I move that we adopt policy GCPF, renewal of professional staff members with the recommended changes. Second.

Any comments or questions on this one? No. Okay. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes as well. Thank you, John. Okay, we're moving to consent agenda. If you would read that motion, please.

I move that we approve consent agenda items 8.1 through 8.8 Second.

Any questions or comments on any of the consent agenda items, Pam?

Yes. 8.3, I think, and 8.4 are contracts with ongoing external sources for mental health or social emotional support for our students, K-12. And so I... Well, I asked Dr. Patel, who spoke with Mike Seavey, I wanted to hear what Mike, this being his first year in our district, running this and evaluating these programs, to hear what he thought. And he sent me a very thoughtful, detailed, if you want to speak more to it, but really a focus on there has not been data collected in the past on these interventions and so moving forward this year, he is and they will be collecting data and then analyzing whether these two programs are the most financially responsible way and effective way to add these supports to our students.

Yeah, thank you. Any other comments on that consent?

Nisha, would you add anything to what I said?

No, I think that was a good summary. I think from Mike's perspective him being new in the role He really wanted to take the time and he has expertise on this to really analyze where we are He met with them when he started in his role and they did provide him with data And it was surprising to him in our conversation. He said we're paying for these services yet In the past, they had never given us any data to show the impact that they were having. And so now he set that expectation. And having said that, though, he said give me this year and then we'll look for other alternatives if needed. Yeah. Thank you for that.

Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. The consent agenda passes. And moving on to board communications, I know we've had a lot of committee meetings and events. I'll start with CRSWC. Any updates on

that? We had a meeting. We reviewed some of the budget, the anticipated budget, which is within kind of the parameters that it's been over the last several years. There's some development in terms of maybe getting together a group of community members to look at Decision-making around Incidents that have that have happened in the athletic programs there and so there may be an opportunity for people to join a committee to give input on how that is Handled and that's what happened there And then I guess I'll mention that Pam and I attended the, was it the St. Louis area PLC on Saturday? School board and PLC. And Dr. Patel was a panel member there and did an excellent job representing our district and for lots of great insights shared.

Good. While he mentioned it, is there anything else you want to add to the PLC? that's okay. Um, okay. SSD governing council,

Chris, you are

really

dazed. You were there. I saw pictures and I wasn't, and I apologize. And Nisha, thank you for going in both of you. Thank you for going. And I'm sorry that I was sick and couldn't make it, but thank you. Um, It's really a wonderful thing that we participate in that. And so I'm hoping, I'm really excited that so many different districts were involved. That's amazing. I love it. That's the whole point. And it's huge. It's building community. You know, it's supporting the other people that are doing the same thing that we do here. It's really great for our district. So thank you for going. And

I'll add to that in terms of like after during the breakout sessions, because the topic for those of people that are listening was superintendent and school board relationships. And so there was a panel and afterwards there were breakout sessions and there were 15 districts represented there from different like board members that were there. And one of the things that I thought was so nice to see is there was a breakout session and it was all the board members. And the board president from Parkway volunteered to go to different boards if they want to help educate them on what they do in terms of specific things. So it was really that collaborative, instead of reaching out to MSBA every time and hiring them. It's like we have expertise. You guys are experts in areas. But I thought that was really nice.

And that Parkway board president has been on the board for a generation. Wow. Maybe not that long. That was an

exaggeration. More than a decade as a board president.

Wow.

That's called stamina. That is serious stamina. Okay. Thank you for sharing that, Nisha. That was great. SSD governing council meeting I will talk about. We reviewed the fiscal year 26 budget. We got a fiscal year 26 CSIP update and they also did a technology update for us because One of the things that's come up in several of the previous council meetings is the idea that there hasn't been a uniform way of sharing SSD data with each of the partner districts. And it's, you know, each district does one thing and then SSD does one thing and how do we share that data? and they are doing amazing work. The technology officer over there at SSD is making a portal by which we will now be able to share information between the two districts in a seamless way, and it's gonna make major improvements. It reminds me of what we've done with our amazing new system, so I'm really excited to hear about that. That'll be really helpful to educators to be able to really access that data more effectively. That was that meeting.

And you had a wellness

committee too? I did, I had the wellness committee. And Mike Seavey was the one that he runs that. Cameron Poole was also there. We went through and did, as a committee we go through and Mike has us give any updates that we have around For those of us that work with student health versus those that work with staff health versus community health, we all give updates in our individual ways on what's going on. So we did that. But we also, the main meat of the meeting was that we dove into the work on the triennial assessment, which is happening this year and is overdue. we'll be having it come to the board in April. And what we're doing now is we're looking at our health, all of our policies that have to do with, you know, health we are looking at and making sure that they meet all the requirements of DESE, et cetera. So we've just started that work and there's a subcommittee that will continue to do more work in that. But, At the end of it, we will end up in April with better policies, A, and procedures, which is huge, but also a great way to say, wow, look at what we're doing. I mean, DESE requires that, and that's great. But I think it's great for our public to be able to say, look at what we're doing. Because I think the amount of work that happens that people don't know about is a bummer, right? So this assessment will be a nice document for us to be able to put it up on our website, Gina, and we can say this is all the ways that we are talking about health and wellness and how it relates to students, staff, and our community. And one of the things that came up, by the way, was that the wide-owned folks have mentioned many times, Cameron was saying that they've talked about their kids, those students really needing more time to move. And so I was able to say, well, we've got a bond that's coming right up that will give those students a turf field if it's approved. And they all were overjoyed to think of that idea of being able to use that field daily if they wanted to, which is just a huge need for them. And again, I want to just relate that back to, that's us serving the health and wellness of our students. Giving them the ability to move, it increases not just their physical health, but their mental health. It's a snowball effect. And so that helps their academics, et cetera, right? So it's exciting to understand how even this facilities planning really is impacting the health and wellness of our students, so it's great.

Any other committee meetings that I missed? Okay, I had a PTO council meeting. They basically started with a discussion on do we feel having a PTO council is worthwhile? No other district has it. Other districts, as far as they know, other districts, each school's PTO operates completely independently, files their own taxes, does their own finances. And part of the reason they brought it up is they're having trouble filling leadership roles on the council, not just in the school's PTOs, but on the council. They're like begging people. Ultimately, everyone in the room, all the PTO presidents, agreed that they find the council valuable and helpful to them, and they appreciate having people that facilitate conversations that they can share best practices and ideas. And they also, the feedback they gave was that they don't feel like the council itself is publicized enough, that parents don't even realize there is this umbrella body that oversees the PTOs so they think if they publicized it more they would have more interest in getting involved and like they need a treasurer and like right there in the room there were like two people who raised their hands like well I would do that if you showed me how you know so there was a lot of willingness to get involved I think they just weren't aware that they were having trouble recruiting people so it was a I thought a good discussion to talk about the benefit the advantages and disadvantages of having a PTO council and Yeah, that was it, I guess. Okay, I think we can adjourn. I

was thinking of something that Leo mentioned. So on parks and rec, there have been some reflection right now around the rec sports leagues, which of course a lot of our kids you know participate in there's been some there's been some challenges around parental behavior uh yeah etc etc i don't i don't so one of the things that they it was a great opportunity to revamp policies around this and actually they put a lot of signage out like at games that were kind of like you may have seen i don't know they were kind of they were they were cute what's that

apparently

Oh, right, right, right. So they had some signage that was very cute saying like, you know, there are no scouts here today, et cetera, et cetera. But furthermore, they are also forming kind of a parent council or parent advisory group. One of the things that, which it'll be helpful to kind of help give voice to things that are happening. But additionally, one of the things I think is they'll have at least one representative from every school. So like, you know, in the elementary schools, you know, there's a lot, a lot of teams coming. So one of the challenges for the parks and rec people is like figuring out who's on what team, you know, a lot of times that's, A lot of it falls on them. They get calls from parents like, why is my kid on this team, not this team? So this assigned person, let's say, whoever raises their hand that is, will help coordinate a lot of that, which happens organically to a degree, but it also – so I think that's a nice synergy between everyone. And then the other thing I want to mention is that The Shaw Park former ice rink space is really moving along. And so there's kind of a pretty solid design, almost the elements of the design are there. There's still a lot of talk around ICE, but I think there's a fair chance that ICE will be in the programming. Not in the same way it used to be. There's not going to be any hockey, but it's just not feasible. I mean, but a lot of exciting elements, a lot of programmatic elements, and sort of the important dates coming up is we have one more task force meeting next week, and then on the 19th, is when all this goes before the council. So that would be if you had a free evening, come by for that. Or I think it's like 3 in the afternoon. I don't know exactly when it is. But it'll be kind of like, I think, the kind of coming together or coalescing of a lot of work, a lot of discussion. I think everyone from the task force will be there. So anyway. Interesting.

Where's the money coming from for this new facility?

The city is funding it. Yeah. Or are they getting

the money?

Well, it's not my department. It's just the reason it failed the first time, so I'm just curious. To be honest, like... Well, I mean, of course, I don't know. There's a lot of discussion there yet. I don't think we've really got into—there is a budget. I didn't know if

there were private donors. They had already—I don't

know. You know, I think that's always welcome, you know? So there are elements that may not get as built out as they would like to eventually, or maybe they'll save those as, like, you know, future adornments. Yeah, yeah. So

anyways.

Okay. Did I hear a motion to adjourn? Oh, sorry. I did.

Chris, why don't you read the motion? I move that we adjourn. Second.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?