May 13, 2026 — Meeting Transcript

Good evening everyone. Adequate notice has been given so if we could all stand for the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one

nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Well who's going to make the motion on the agenda? How are we supposed to keep going?

Do

you want to

take

it?

No, I move to approve.

We'll get it going here. The

agenda is posted.

Second.

All right. Motion has been made. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. Agenda has been adopted. All right. Recognizing our own. And I will take the lead here. And I'm thrilled to recognize our own because, ladies and gentlemen, tonight we recognize someone here in the room who is a state champion sitting here with us. And not in, you know, a casual participation trophy sort of way. No, this is a person who placed first in public forum debate at the MSHA Class 1 State Tournament this year. First in the state, which means somewhere across Missouri there are still students replaying arguments in their head thinking, wait, how did she do that? Now, for anyone unfamiliar with public forum debate, and I had to research this a little bit myself, it essentially requires students to research complex issues, think critically under pressure, communicate clearly, anticipate counterarguments, and stay composed while doing all of it. In other words, exactly the sort of skills that become mildly terrifying when possessed by someone still in high school, and exactly the type of person we seek at the board table with us. but naturally this person does not stop there. This year she also served as Missouri's representative on the National Coalition Against Censorship, advocating for intellectual freedom and student voice on a national level. She is also a member of Congressman Wesley Bell's Youth Council, helping bring the perspective of young people into important civic conversations. And this summer, she will participate in the St. Louis Changemakers program, working alongside other student leaders to develop projects focused on creating a better future for the St. Louis region. At this point, this is less of a student resume and more of a LinkedIn profile that causes adults to quietly reconsider their own productivity. Of course, I am talking about Nina Sartorius. But as impressive as all those accomplishments are, and there are probably many more that I am not aware of, what we are especially grateful for tonight is Nina's service as student representative to the Board of Education. Throughout the year, Nina brought intelligence, poise, perspective, and certainly a lot of energy to this board. She represented students with honesty and maturity, asked important questions, and consistently reminded us of real experiences of the students we serve. The role of student rep is not always easy. It requires balancing leadership with humility, advocacy with diplomacy, and confidence with empathy, not to mention excellent time management skills. Nina managed all that with remarkable grace. So Nina, thank you for your leadership, your voice, your service and the example you have set for students across the district. We are incredibly proud of you and are excited to see what comes next. So please join me in recognizing Nina Sartorius.

What if he said no?

That's cool.

Joining Nina tonight is Manu McDowell, who will join us as a student rep to the board next year. And Manu, I've just met you tonight, but I've heard great things. There was a pretty, you know, a lengthy process for this role that you went through, and thanks to Chris and Leo for leading that for us, and we're excited to work with you next year.

Yeah, I mean, I'm really excited. Thank you so much.

Great. We welcome you. All right, do we have any public comment? No public comment. All right, then we'll keep moving. All right, Superintendent Communications.

Thank you, thank you. Good evening everyone. So we're gonna start off with Teacher Appreciation Week which was last week. So we celebrated all of our teachers across all of our schools. It was a fun-filled week with lots of treats and lots of activities across each of the buildings. And one of the things that I wanted to make sure that I highlight was also thank our ptos because in all the buildings our ptos really went above and beyond and making sure that our teachers feel valued and we are very grateful for them so thank you to all the educators and our ptos for the continued support and partnership Also, one of the highlights from last week was the Mayfair Award. So hopefully if any of you got to attend and thank you to the board for all of you being at the Mayfair, which was a wonderful event. And it was a time where we honored all of our service award recipients and our retirees. It's one of my favorite times of the year and it's just a nice feel good evening. So that was a great event. And I appreciate everyone's support in being there. Next, speaking of amazing districts, I am proud to share that the School District of Clayton has been recognized as a 2026 Culture Excellence and Industry Award winner through the top workplaces and bucket list. The district received eight honors which are highlighted on the screen. And these recognitions span across areas including employee well-being, professional development, innovation and so much more. These accolades are especially meaningful because they are based on feedback directly from our employees. And we had more than 280 employees who did the assessment and completed the survey. So it's especially meaningful to us for that. And we're incredibly proud of everyone and all the work that's occurring in the district. So I just want to thank everybody and continue to engage our employees and make sure this is a wonderful school district for everybody to attend and be a part of. So congratulations to everyone on that. Next, speaking of top workplaces, the summer is coming pretty soon and that does not mean we stop learning. We are a learning institute. And speaking of that, I want to thank the teaching and learning department for putting together what we have amazing plans for the summer in terms of our summer institutes. We have over 50 summer institutes that are being offered that are led by our staff and other individuals, and our teachers sign up for this. Later on in August, I'll provide a report of how many teachers went to the summer institutes and what all that we learned about. Some of the topics that I got a glimpse of included mindfulness, there was wellness, there was tier two instruction, technology sessions, you name it, we have it. So we're 50 sessions this summer that our teachers will get to be a part of. So thank you again for everyone who's planned it and for everyone who I know has signed up to present at those. And then finally, or almost finally, we have the next two weeks are busy and exciting weeks ahead for us. We have graduation coming up next week. We have eighth grade promotion coming up. Our elementary schools do all the field days. And I know our family center also has fun activities planned. So the next two weeks always fly by. And believe it or not, tomorrow is our last day for our seniors. And the week after is the last, no, is it the week after? May 29th is the last day of school for our students. So time is flying and we're just excited to finish off the year strong and it's been another great year in Clayton, 100%. And then lastly, tonight we have three board presentations that we will be hearing. Dr. Milena Garganigo and Mr. Daniel Henderson will be giving us a fine arts curriculum update. And then Dr. Garganiego and Lauren DeRigne is going to be also giving us a library update. And then we will have John Brazile give us a preliminary budget. And of course, as we know, the June meeting is when we adopt the final budget. So with that, it is my honor to hand it off to Nina for the very last time because we don't have our student reps attend a June meeting. That's a small gift that we can give you. It is summer officially for them. So Nina, it is my honour to hand it off too and I truly just want to echo everything Jason said that thank you for all that you have done. You have been an outstanding, outstanding board representative so thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you. Good evening everyone. So we're gonna start off with Teacher Appreciation Week which was last week. So we celebrated all of our teachers across all of our schools. It was a fun-filled week with lots of treats and lots of activities across each of the buildings. And one of the things that I wanted to make sure that I highlight was also thank our ptos because in all the buildings our ptos really went above and beyond and making sure that our teachers feel valued and we are very grateful for them so thank you to all the educators and our ptos for the continued support and partnership Also, one of the highlights from last week was the Mayfair Award. So hopefully if any of you got to attend and thank you to the board for all of you being at the Mayfair, which was a wonderful event. And it was a time where we honored all of our service award recipients and our retirees. It's one of my favorite times of the year and it's just a nice feel good evening. So that was a great event. And I appreciate everyone's support in being there. Next, speaking of amazing districts, I am proud to share that the School District of Clayton has been recognized as a 2026 Culture Excellence and Industry Award winner through the top workplaces and bucket list. The district received eight honors which are highlighted on the screen. And these recognitions span across areas including employee well-being, professional development, innovation and so much more. These accolades are especially meaningful because they are based on feedback directly from our employees. And we had more than 280 employees who did the assessment and completed the survey. So it's especially meaningful to us for that. And we're incredibly proud of everyone and all the work that's occurring in the district. So I just want to thank everybody and continue to engage our employees and make sure this is a wonderful school district for everybody to attend and be a part of. So congratulations to everyone on that. Next, speaking of top workplaces, the summer is coming pretty soon and that does not mean we stop learning. We are a learning institute. And speaking of that, I want to thank the teaching and learning department for putting together what we have amazing plans for the summer in terms of our summer institutes. We have over 50 summer institutes that are being offered that are led by our staff and other individuals, and our teachers sign up for this. Later on in August, I'll provide a report of how many teachers went to the summer institutes and what all that we learned about. Some of the topics that I got a glimpse of included mindfulness, there was wellness, there was tier two instruction, technology sessions, you name it, we have it. So we're 50 sessions this summer that our teachers will get to be a part of. So thank you again for everyone who's planned it and for everyone who I know has signed up to present at those. And then finally, or almost finally, we have the next two weeks are busy and exciting weeks ahead for us. We have graduation coming up next week. We have eighth grade promotion coming up. Our elementary schools do all the field days. And I know our family center also has fun activities planned. So the next two weeks always fly by. And believe it or not, tomorrow is our last day for our seniors. And the week after is the last, no, is it the week after? May 29th is the last day of school for our students. So time is flying and we're just excited to finish off the year strong and it's been another great year in Clayton, 100%. And then lastly, tonight we have three board presentations that we will be hearing. Dr. Garganego and Mr. Daniel Henderson will be giving us a fine arts curriculum update. And then Dr. Garganiego and Lauren DeRigne is going to be also giving us a library update. And then we will have John Brazile give us a preliminary budget. And of course, as we know, the June meeting is when we adopt the final budget. So with that, it is my honor to hand it off to Nina for the very last time because we don't have our student reps attend a June meeting. That's a small gift that we can give you. It is summer officially for them. So Nina, it is my honour to hand it off too and I truly just want to echo everything Jason said that thank you for all that you have done. You have been an outstanding, outstanding board representative so thank you. Thank you.

I really can't believe this is my last meeting. This has been an amazing year, so thank you guys all so much. I'm very sad that this year has come to an end, but just because we are nearing the final weeks does not mean that Clayton students have slowed down at all. In fact, this final stretch always seems to motivate and inspire students across all of our schools, and it's been wonderful to see. So let's touch on a few of the awesome things that Clayton students are continuing to do even into May. First, I'd like to shout out freshman Natalie Young. She's been hard at work at bringing an important initiative to our attention. Since the beginning of this year, she has been meeting with teachers and wellness center leaders to discuss mental health and how Clayton can improve our already very impressive practices surrounding emotional wellness. She met with both Dr. Patel and I to tell us about her ideas for improvements. And suffice it to say, she has done an absolutely wonderful job in coming up with an idea and taking purposeful action to make tangible change. And she's just getting started. So big shout out to freshman Natalie. I can't wait to see what she'll do. Second, across all of our schools, like Dr. Patel talked about, end-of-the-year celebrations are well on their way. On May 2nd, Glenridge held their annual Strawberry Festival, which was very fun. And on May 5th, Clayton's Asian Student Association wrapped up a great year with a cultural celebration night, which I wasn't able to attend, but I heard was a lot of fun and had a lot of good food. And those are just a few of the fun things that Clayton is doing to end the year with a bang. But as we celebrate the end of a great year, it's also important to look back and reflect on all we have accomplished. I think it's safe to say that one of the community's biggest accomplishments was the passing of Prop O. The amount of work that the community members, including teachers, parents, and students, who I'm especially proud of, put into spreading the word and making things happen was remarkable. From the earliest briefings and informational videos in September to the day spent canvassing with my fellow students in April, the passing of this referendum was truly a testament to the commitment and dedication of our town. And I am honored and proud to be part of the board that made that happen. So thank you guys. And speaking of commitment and dedication, I couldn't be happier to pass a torch to somebody who truly embodies these traits. I work with Manu in speech and debate and law review, and I can't imagine someone more fitting for this role. He is hardworking, friendly, and a perfect advocate for Clayton students, and I know he'll do great things. So as I wrap up my final update as student rep, I want to say thank you to the administration, faculty, and especially the students for allowing me to serve in this role. It's been an incredible experience to work with this community, and I am proud of what we accomplished together. I'm excited to see what happened next, and I know the future is in great hands. Thank you.

Great, thank you for that. Okay, we'll now go to the Fine Arts Curriculum presentation.

Good evening. I will start off by introducing Daniel Henderson as our Fine Arts Coordinator. And one of the things that I publicly wanna say about Daniel is he's done an amazing job of bringing multiple disciplines together under one umbrella. And I think those of you who were on the board before and know that our last board report had a lot of goals, we've gotten to a place where we're very unified as a department. So I just wanna publicly thank him for that work. I'm gonna let him introduce the members of his team that are here just so that we can publicly shout them out for their work and contribution and then we'll get started.

All right so tonight we have a number of the fine arts team here and if you just raise your hand when I caught your name Adam Van Pelt teaches general music at Captain Elementary Tiffany Marquardt she is art at Captain Carolyn Day is our orchestra teacher at White on Middle School Alyssa Overman. is our director of bands at CHS and White Owl Middle School. Mallory Duncan is our theater teacher at CHS and also helps out at White Owl. And Kami Chevarin is art at CHS, and Beth Williams is art at Meramec. So thank you guys for all being here tonight. Yeah. And before I really dive in, I just want to say a few thank yous. First, to Milena for your guidance and encouragement and especially the demystification of the self-study process for a new coordinator. I came in right as we started, and I was extremely nervous about it. You just helped me sail right through. So thank you very much for that. So the whole fine arts team you know they're a group of skilled and talented artists and teachers but in the last two years we've done a lot of work and I've gotten to see them as thinkers and as dreamers and it's been a wonderful time working with them and to a person I found them to be devoted to this work and interested and vulnerable. So I just want to thank them publicly for their work. And finally, I'd like to thank the board and Dr. Patel for your continued and ongoing support of the arts here in Clayton. We have a lot of very vibrant programs, and we really appreciate what you do to support that. So thank you. All right.

So just to get us grounded in our work before we start, our profile of a graduate and our CSIP, our strategic plan are the things that ground us within our work. And I think you'll see breadcrumbs and evidence of that in the work that the Fine Arts Department has done and the goals that they have chosen to set for themselves to study for the next several years.

Our main disciplines of the fine arts are music theater and visual arts and we start in our elementary schools with the shirt offerings for all grades in visual art and general music so each student gets an hour of instruction every week all six years of elementary school. In fourth grade we begin our first specialized instrument offering with strings in fourth grade which goes into fifth grade and on and we also offer of course before school in our elementary schools as we move to the middle school students are able to take elective visual arts classes theater classes and this is where we start our music ensemble classes the big band orchestra choir classes at CHS we expand even more and we have many opportunities The study including specialized art pathways and non performing music classes. In our secondary schools we offer over 60 distinct courses between Y down in the high school for students to choose from. And it's worth noting that our high school students need a fine arts credit to graduate though. Great. Our work is guided by the National Core Arts Standards and the Missouri Arts Learning Standards. The National Core Arts Standards, our anchor standards are creating, performing, presenting, producing, responding, and connecting. And as we began our self-study last year, we evaluated our curriculum against a number of things. Against our strategic plan, our profile of a graduate, our commitment to equity, and our department also looked at our enduring understandings. And we decided we didn't really have an authentic connection to those enduring understandings. Out of the 25 fine arts teachers I think 21 of us are new in the last 10 years. So most of us weren't here the last time they were updated. So we took this opportunity to create new enduring understandings that better reflect who we are and what we believe. And we took the opportunity to align those with the national core art standards. There we go. By grounding our curriculum in these standards and by refining our enduring understandings to align with them, we're ensuring that the fine arts in Clayton are not just a series of projects and performances, concerts, but a pathway for our students to global citizenship, critical thinking, and creative thinking. Over the last five years since our last board review, we've had a few A few changes to our curriculum as we evolve to better meet the needs of our students. I'll just go through these very quickly at Y down speech and debate in tech theater were previously only an eighth grade class and now they've been opened to seventh grade. And if a student has a special interest one of those classes they can take it again because of our rotating curriculum. So it kind of starts a pathway for those students who are interested in those things. At the high school, CHS band has transitioned to an audition based placement for the top band which kind of mirrors how we do our orchestra. The CHS musical theater class used to be tied to our spring musical and now it's been moved into the school day so that students who are not involved in that musical can still take the class. And our chamber choir has restructured to be a 10th through 12th grade ensemble. Visual arts, we replaced our general art one through four with specific pathways. So drawing and painting and ceramics and sculpture. So if a student has a specific interest, they can lean that direction and have a specific adventure. And finally, we refined our digital media, sorry, digital photography and media curriculum as we move forward in technology changes we're adapting to to kind of come up to modern technology and uses. So those are our changes in the last few years. For our goals we knew that for our first goal that we wanted to affirm our belief in equity and belonging and this goal is really more than just representation, but we're trying to create a culturally responsive community. By intentionally removing barriers to access and honoring diverse artistic voices, we ensure that every student finds a home in our arts program where they feel seen, heard, and valued. For our second goal, we knew that we wanted to be in the in the area of empowered learning. Because we feel like the arts are the perfect place for empowered learning. In fact, when empowered learning surfaced, we were like, yeah, that's us. That's what we're doing. We're there. But we want to lean in even more. And by fostering an environment where students take the lead in their own artistic growth, we give them the tools to express themselves with purpose and humility. Our aim is for students to leave our schools with the confidence to navigate the complex world through their own unique and creative lens. And finally, on our third goal, we wanted to embrace the idea of process over product. In a world that demands immediate perfection and social media kind of image that's perfect all the time we're asking our students to lean into the process and to get messy and to realize that the work is what it's about and not just the end result. So with these goals we are ensuring that the fine arts department isn't just teaching our students skills but they were also helping shape character and the future of our students. As we look at how we will be better as we ensure belonging for our students and we empower our learners to lean into the work. We also think about the we on this slide because I think the initial thought is we as in the fine arts staff but I really feel that the we includes our students and our schools and our communities as these skills create better human beings, which radiates everywhere. So as we move forward into our next steps, as we look at our next steps, this is how we are going to take our philosophy and our goals and our lofty ideas and bring them into reality. As we look at our new processes that we want to put into place, as we audit old processes and materials, we want to ensure that we're able to follow through with these goals. And these are some of the ways that we intend to do that. As I wrap up here, I just want to take a moment of privilege just to say that I'm really honored to represent this staff. that is excited to do this work and not content to stay where we are but determined to move forward in our practices and in our structures to better serve our students in our fine arts classrooms. Thank you.

Great. Sorry. Thank you. Any questions.

I move to approve the fine arts review goals.

All right. The district written fine

arts curriculum and the financials as outlined in the report.

Great. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. Okay, whatever it is. Who has questions? Yeah.

So thank you. It was great to see all the work and really the intentionality and thought that has gone into the curriculum planning so Well done, and I think you know The fine arts have always been a strong suit of the district. So I think I have complete faith that that will continue Hey just one well The movement of some of the performing groups into the school day, like the chamber orchestra, right? That used to be an after-school program and then moving into that. I think that's great for making it more accessible to people in the school day. I guess, have you seen any challenges with then the scheduling, right? Like competing with other classes or like students not being able to work some of those things? I know that's one example.

With that example, I'd say no, because... Before it was in the school day, a student would be in eighth grade orchestra and then participate in chamber after school. When chamber moved into the school day, they were no longer in eighth grade orchestra. They were just in

chamber. Okay. So it actually worked

out. Right. So their schedule didn't have an impact because all students who were in that group were already enrolled in an in-the-day orchestra class. Okay. Great. Awesome.

Yeah. I think it's a great job.

Thank you for the presentation. I think I've been to about three, four of your events collectively in the last week, and I'm missing one. I'm missing one here tonight to be here. But I know you guys do a great job, and I really appreciate the work you do. I have a question that's somewhat related to Aaron's, actually. It's just about how we manage the time, the people who want really get devoted to one of these things put in. So you've moved some of these after hours activities into the day. If somebody, if you have a student who's very interested in putting in extra time or really becoming devoted to an instrument or something, have you thought about ways to facilitate that or find that extra time during the school day for that student?

So I think there are some structures that are in place, like our greyhound time at the high school. And we're about to move to wind time at the middle school. And I know that our teachers are excited about having that opportunity to work with students. you know while they're already in the building and there um we also have teachers who come before and stay after school of course to help with that but the commitment is real and we understand that you know i'm asking a student as an orchestra teacher to commit to orchestra for seventh eighth ninth 10th 11th 12th grade in in an environment where there are a lot of options And so we face that I think every year, both at the middle school and the high school. We have students who want to do a lot of things. And I keep asking them to do the same thing over and over again. So this is a reality that we encounter. And I say to students all of the time, Sometimes you have to make a choice and some choices are difficult and when we're in a place like Clayton that has so many Really cool options for them. Sometimes the choices are really hard And I acknowledge that

Thank you so much for being here it's pleasure to see all of you here, too Aren't

they great?

They're fantastic.

They're fantastic. It's great. I mean, this part of what we do for our students, this part of fine arts is an absolute joy for me to have witnessed. But it's not just a joy for me. What I've enjoyed is that I watch students enjoying it so much, their faces. I mean, even after coming out of one of your classes, I can tell their mood is better. I just can't. What it does for our students' mind and body is bigger than we are really aware of, but it's real. And I couldn't be more proud of being part of a district that sees it that way and that has such a strong leader and Mr. Henderson and all of you guys. So I'm just thrilled with what you all do. And I'm going to be here supporting you 100% for as long as I can. Let me see what my thoughts and questions were. I wanted to point out something that I hadn't heard you say ever before that I think is brilliant, where you're saying... I'm sure you've said other

brilliant things.

But in particular tonight, I heard you say you prioritize process over product. And the first thing that I thought of when you said that was that's a really good thing for every single one of our teachers in every discipline to do. And it's probably not as, as like innate or like socialized for some of our other disciplines to do that maybe because it's about a certain grade and a certain percentage and a But, man, isn't that a way to really, in my eyes, be ready for the future, which is going to really prioritize for our students as they get out into the world, being able to adapt and continue to process and change over time. Because the product, in a lot of ways, is going to keep changing. And their role in their work is going to keep So I really appreciate that. And I think that's something that I think could be a really powerful thing for you to continue to speak about, not just be doing it in practice, but to really say to them, this is what we're doing, guys. This process is the learning. It's not about whether you get it perfect on whatever competition you go to or not. It's really in the journey. And I think, that's a beautiful thing. Big time excited about that for our students. So thank you for that. And then the one question I'll ask is at the high school level, What are the numbers on the folks that students that if they're going to go into some post-secondary college or that go into the arts of any kind, do we have numbers on that? And I just wonder how much they've changed if we are tracking that over time. And then secondarily, do we know how our college counselors are doing at really supporting that effort, especially because I'm assuming it's a pretty smallish number compared to other you know, liberal types colleges, you know. So I just, you know, how are we making sure that those students that do end up wanting to go into fine arts after high school are really supported to the best of our ability?

Yeah, that's, I don't know that information. I'd be interested in it. Okay. But certainly I think that our students who are intending to go into the arts end up leaning on their fine arts teachers for guidance because it is quite specialized. If you have a student who's auditioning for Juilliard, it's a very different situation than if they're applying to a traditional university. Yes,

very.

Very. I mean, for

those parents to support them, it's just very different.

And so I think typically that advice, that guidance, a lot of it comes from our classroom teachers because most of us have... Traveled down that path or at least are aware of what's required Because the process is just entirely different. You know, the joke is Juilliard doesn't care about your essay

Yeah,

or if you can tie your shoes,

right?

They just want to hear you play the

piano. That's

right So, you know and and that's not a typical sort of journey for our students But in my time here And I'll just speak to orchestra, you know, I've had kids who from our program have gone to Juilliard, have gone to Colbert, have gone to the best conservatories and it is a different process. In those cases, I was talking to those students a lot about their auditions, about their preparation, about what the future looked like. So I think that those students tend to gravitate towards us for those questions because We have some knowledge.

Those are the areas of expertise that you have, whereas the college counselors may not have as much. Yeah,

and we love having those conversations. I bet, yeah. Okay,

yeah. Yeah, just in the area for us to make sure that we are continuing to do what we can in those college advisor roles to really support these kids. Because a lot of this work for them, I know technically it starts as a freshman no matter what college or after into community work or whatever you're going to do starts. you know, your portfolio starts really young. So for these kids knowing that, yeah, what you're doing as a freshman and as a sophomore can then be put into a portfolio, which is what you'll need if you want to go to, you know, just understanding that from the very beginning of their high school career is probably a good advantage for them, you know, because if they don't realize that until junior year, then they might, you know, that's a little bit of an opportunity loss potentially. That's just my thought on it. Because, again, it is so different in terms of what you need going in and saying, here's what I have. It's not about your basic grades in your other classes. Does that make all sense? Okay,

great.

Thanks, guys.

I just want to say it says so much about each of you as teachers and leaders in our district that you are here. There's so many of you here. It says so much about you, Mr. Henderson, what kind of leader you are to them. And I just want to thank you so much to all of you. You mentioned that at the high school we have a required two semesters of fine arts. What is the state requirement?

I think it's the same.

It's the same. Okay, thank you. So you spoke a lot in your presentation about goal one, a place for everyone. And I wonder if you could just be clear here about some of the things you're doing to encourage a diverse group of students to enroll in the fine arts or to take an interest in this? Sure. Because there's so much you're doing and I want everyone to hear.

The most exciting things about being a music teacher here, one of the most cost prohibitive things about the arts is just getting an instrument. And the rental fee, I mean if you rent a bass it's like a car payment essentially. But here in the district we have, yeah you know that's right. And so here in the district, we have a scholarship instrument fund for any student or family that has need. We offer that to them free of charge. And I think one of the things that we need to do better is just to make sure that our messaging and our publicizing that is everywhere. Because I do fear that we have people who, families who say, we can't do that without even looking into it. So, you know, we're committed to having a statement on all of our program information that says, you know, there's gonna be, you know, you don't need to incur a cost for this. So we're doing that. We're also, sorry.

Do we have it in the course descriptions in the middle school and high school course booklets? That would be a great

place. That is a great idea. No, I would say like when we send home join strings or join band to make sure that the message is on there that students can do this without incurring a cost.

I think we should put it in our course description. Yeah, I think that's a great

idea, yeah. So we're doing that. We're also trying to encourage more students to join, for example, kind of late start points. We run into this with fourth grade strings, starts at 7.30 in the morning, which is... heavy lift for a lot of families for various reasons but encouraging students to join in fifth grade and you know and we have a process in fifth grade strings where we get those kids caught up and then fold them in to the fifth grade class but you know as late as sixth grade you know we're trying to encourage as many students as possible to enjoy these opportunities um you know i know that at the high school our choir program is uh has been exploding and That's because Brian Parrish is out there grabbing any kid who walks by in the hall and saying, I think you can sing. So I think we're kind of embracing a go find the kids model and more than just let them come to us. Because we love to see a reflection of our whole student body and our groups for sure.

Thank you. The last one up here, you talk about the leadership structures. And in your you know, 20-page document to us. You talked about that. If you could just share that here about some of the things you're intentionally creating.

Sure. That came out of discussion mainly of high school music teachers because we see our colleagues at the middle school, like Carolyn has mentioned, uses student leadership all through her classes. And so we wanted to put down a desire for our high school music classes to lean into those roles as well. Some of the things we've identified, jobs such as equipment managers, music librarians, social media manager, which could be really exciting, and concert event promotion from students, just to help let them take some ownership over not just The product but also the procedure of how we put it all together and how we present it.

So you wrote in an email to. to me, to one of my questions. Or maybe Melaina did, but I think it came from you. And I just wanted to read it because it's really beautiful. When I asked about leadership, you said, by scaling these leadership experiences from the middle school to the high school, we ensure that our students are consistently challenged to develop communication skills, initiative, and humility. I just want to say thank you so much.

Well, sure. I mean, happy to do

it.

Happy to write it. One of the things that we talked a lot about in this process was how do we teach humility to students? Because I think traditionally what we find, and not all the time certainly, is you have students who are very skilled and who rise to the top. And how do we, instead of feed an ego, instill a sense of humility and leadership in those students And because I think we all have those people in our life that we can think of who are really good at something and knew it. And we've also had people who are really good something and use that skill to lift other people up. And that is one of our goals, really. Thank you.

All right, I'll add my thanks as well. I thought it was a great presentation and I really appreciate the direction where this group is headed. A lot of my, just a couple comments that really stem off of what Chris was saying. You know, this is an area, fine arts is an area where we increase our connection between students and the school, right? And I've seen this in lots of different school settings, elementary through high school, where you have a lost kid who has that one thing that that kid does well or has confidence in and it can just, Change the educational pathway of that kid. And so, um, I appreciate the go find a kid and get that kid connected. I appreciate all that. I will also say, and I agree that the process is more important than the product. I will say the product matters, you know, and that's where a lot of that confidence comes from. And I've just seen over the course of time. Um. why I'm even caring doesn't really matter, but I've seen over the course of time like an increase in kids. I personally just tend to look at more like what we're doing in the music program, more kids making their all-state band or competing at an all-state level, or the orchestra going and performing at MMEA. These things matter. They matter for our district. They instill pride in our community. And so thank you for not only caring about the process but putting a product out there, theater, art, whatever it is that really matters to these kids. So I thank you for that. I do have one question. What is electronic music?

So electronic music. Essentially, it's a music composition course where we use digital tools, computers, MIDI keyboards to allow students to create. We have a great music lab in the high school underneath. It's on the drama wing area. And we have three different levels, electronic music one, two, and advanced. But it's a great class for students who don't think they're musicians, who want to create music. Because there are tools beyond typical composition with staff paper and your main instruments. And with their digital tools, I mean, it's amazing what you can do with a phone these days, create music. And so when they're given the time and the space to do it, I mean, a lot of what they create is very interesting. Okay. The name might be a little outdated at this point, electronic music, because when I hear that, I think of my dad switched on Bach records from when I was a kid. You know, that's what I think of. But essentially, it's music composition with digital tools. Okay. Yeah.

Sure.

No,

but that's

okay. Go

for

it.

Let it

rip. Sorry, Jason. What I'm going to say right now is that electronic music has been offered in colleges for years and years, 25 years, 30 years. And now the idea that we have it in this high school, I didn't know. And I'm just thrilled that, I mean, I do see that our district takes classes that you maybe sometimes you only see in those higher education we are offering like gender stuff exactly and stuff like that so I'm really excited to see that you have that and it's even at three different it's not just one class that's beyond yeah yeah and have those students go to Washington watch some of those electronic music um presentations that they have to do for those classes they are fantastic So we have WashU right here that has a million resources around what you guys are doing that you can go and have them see college students doing this kind of stuff. It's just, they're right down the road.

Great. And then just last thing, just a comment, because this is just sort of a thing I think a lot about. But we're just in a community that's so philanthropic, particularly around arts and culture organizations. And when I think about really what we're doing for our kids in this area, a lot of times it's just teaching them to love the arts in general, right? For those kids that just may not go to Juilliard. And you talk about this a little bit in the report, and I appreciate and acknowledge it. I would just say as much as we can find connections, even like the social media manager and stuff like that, connect them to the SLAMS and the Jazz U and Jazz St. Louis, those programs throughout the community all day long, that's great stuff.

Well, thank you. Yeah, I think the students who go into the arts, that's wonderful. But students who love the arts, that the goal, I really think. Last year, I went to a symphony concert. I ran into three former students at the same concert who had all graduated from here and happened to be at the same symphony concert. That's cool. And I thought, that's it. That's amazing. Because they fueled their love of music here primarily. And now they're consumers of art and supporters. So that is a wonderful goal that I think we're working very hard on. Great.

OK. Nina, do you have any questions?

I just had one really quick question. So I thought it was super interesting how you guys talked about the rotating curriculum for a few of the middle school classes so kids could continue to take them. Does that also happen at the high school with any of the fine art electives?

So a number of our electives are sequenced. Ceramics, sculpture yield one, then two. But like orchestra, band, and choir, every year we're doing different things in the same class. So the repertoire changes every year. So you're having a new experience even though you're in the same class, yeah.

Amazing. Thank you.

Sure.

Great. Okay I think now we're ready to vote. Yes. All right. So all those in favor of approving the fine arts curriculum self study. Any opposed. All right. Thank you. I'm just trying to figure out how to run a meeting just to start. I'll get to that next time.

Are we ready?

Yeah, we're ready. Library.

So I'd like to introduce Lauren Derigny to you. She is our library coordinator. She is retiring at the end of this year. Two weeks. She's not excited. This is her last hurrah coming to the table. Tom Bober will be taking over as library coordinator. And I just want to publicly thank Lauren. We have sort of always... moved in the same circles, but the past two years as she's been coordinator we've really gotten to know each other well, working together side by side with the self study and everything. And I just really admire her steady leadership, her commitment to the professional learning for her team, and really the seriousness with which she takes library curriculum and like the thinking of the presence of the library within the school. So I just want to say that publicly. I'm going to let her introduce her team who's here, and then I'll just get us regrounded and then just hand it over. So regrounding us in the profile of the graduate and our CSIP to make sure that those are the things. And again, you're going to see a lot of breadcrumbs of that in the work that Lauren and her team have done. Okay, I'll let you introduce yourself. All

right. Well, I think I have Celeste Gillette here from Merrimack, our Merrimack librarian, so thank you. for representing us. We are a small group, so there's not very many of us to start with. And then I also wanted to thank Melaina, of course. She kind of gave me the confidence as a very introverted, surprise, surprise book nerd that I could do this leadership role and I have really enjoyed it. And then, of course, over the many years, the board, I just feel like it's not always a given that the board is going to support libraries. So that's something that we've always had and that I very much appreciate. And I think all of us that you make sure we have the funding for books and the spaces that we need for our kids to get good library help and books and all kinds of good things. So I've never doubted that the board would support us. Yeah. OK, so when we were thinking about our enduring understandings and you think about school libraries, we always want them to be places where students can get access, of course, to fantastic books, to the tools they need for expanding their academics, finding good reliable information, and supporting that drive to always seek out good information wherever they are. And one of my favorite kind of sayings is if you can't travel, read a good book. So I hope that our kids take that with them going forward, that you can always think about the world through a book and experience people and yourself and learn a lot from books. So hopefully going out into the world with that knowledge and to always seek that. through books and through good sources and Hopefully that they learn that a lot from being in school libraries So when we were thinking about our standards which we adopted from the Missouri Association of School Libraries Of course reading engagement is always at the core of who we are and that we hope that our students in their seeking of new information and in pursuing good books, we engage them in that. And of course, that should always be something that we're looking at and considering how we can build on that. Again, with information literacy, like when I started here, we still had the card catalog. So like thinking about the things that they have had to experience in all these years of moving into the vast world of Online, you know things something tangible think how they can access information still that feels You know like they can trust it and that they have the sources they need So that of course is always something we want to look at and how we can build on that And so we chose that as well and then media literacy when you think about all the things that have You know come into the world and AI I don't even want to talk about it so thinking about media literacy and how that kind of They can create and respond to media and to engage into in it where they're critically thinking is always important to us So our goals We really from our teaching and learning advisory committee we felt like there was a lot of families who wanted more information about how they can you know get their students engaged and their kids at home And also, we realized they didn't maybe know all of the library resources that were available to them. And so we thought that we could help families in that engagement and how maybe we could better communicate at home with the programs that are happening at school and in the library and ways that they could engage with their students beyond the classroom and school community. Kind of what I was talking about when I was saying tangible information I just when I think about how many community Resources are available out there that are you know staffed by professional experts so all of our museums and our nonprofits and our agencies just when you think about around St. Louis, like Wash U is near us, the Botanical Gardens, the History Museum, the Art Museum, all of those places have resources and sources that are reliable and they're eager to help and to give that resource to us also have people staff that are helping k-12 so kind of looking back at how we might better engage with them and bring them into our schools and we've always used them but like going back and kind of really seeking out the new information and ways that they're reaching k-12 and then We really, you know, this is kind of media literacy is expanding right before our eyes and it is also something that DESE and Missouri Association of School Librarians is working on. Having more concrete ways that that's K-12, what are our ways of teaching that? So we really need to kind of strengthen that as well. So how will we be better? We are hoping that families become more engaged, that they know more about what we're doing. And we realized that we often would post things in the principal newsletter and that gets buried. So how would we better serve them by having maybe our own newsletters? Or we really thought about how we haven't used the opening night and and like parent-teacher conference meetings to maybe have some of those times where we could meet with or do some programming. And then really starting to reach out to the organizations and gather their resources and how we can use them in our schools, and then how to partner with and collaborate with all of our teachers in teaching media literacy. So I'm hoping that that expands. So our next steps we have partnered with the family center and that has really been going ongoing for the last two years of Creating these kits which are now ready, and they're fantastic. I think and so one of the things that came out of the learning Some of those meetings we had is that how could we maybe engage with Family Center at a very young age and get those kids reading and partnering with school libraries. And then just really participating more in PD regarding media literacy so that we are learning and are able to have those meetings with our teachers and expand that teaching around media literacy. And then we would like to create some kind of database of the community organization resources so that staff always knows that those are available and also using them more in our classes and in our programming.

Great. All right, so can I get a motion to bring this to the floor?

I move to approve the library review goals and the financials as outlined in the report. Second.

Okay. Who has questions?

I guess I can

start.

Thanks so much for the presentation and the reports. I especially appreciated the partnership with the Family Center. That seems like such a great idea, and I'm glad to hear that that's going well and ongoing as well. And I know that the author visits at the elementary school, I saw those continuing as well. It's at, I think, all schools? Yeah. So I know those were always a highlight. So I guess my questions are just thinking more about how we can support goal one, objectives two and three at the middle and high school levels. The really encouraging, I don't have the exact terminology right now, but the engagement with the families and students as readers. And just because it seems like those might be times when library usage tails off in the traditional sense with those students. And just, you know, I know there's a lot of competition for student time and attention, right? And books don't. as much as maybe we would like. So I was just curious if you had any other specific ideas or programs or things that might help reach those reluctant readers or overextended readers to kind of pull them back in.

Yeah, I think it gets harder when they're teenagers because they have so much going on and they have so many activities and sports and things like that. I think that any time that 6 through 12 that you can make something fun around reading, it still draws them in. They're still kids at heart. So those book battles, we do book relays at school where you read a book and hand it on to someone else. I've tried that. So any kind of fun activity. I also really feel like with... reluctant readers, making sure that they know all the books, any book that they want to read is a good book to read. Like graphic novels, comics, all those things are still reading and they're still a great choice. So some of that is advertisement, how you kind of get that across to everyone, that that is still very much reading. And then some things that we've tried is always having a free little library or giving books away when we weed. And kids love that. That means they're not held accountable for bringing it back, that they can have that book. And we still also do that. We've made sure over the past few years that we take away, like if you have lost a book, of course we're going to try to get them back, but we're not going to hold that to you in the end. And then as far as engaging parents at that level, I think even with the newsletter idea, giving just simple ideas like, and we've talked to our staff about this too, like sharing what you're reading with your kids. Or saying, hey, I'm going to the library today. Come with me. Or what do you read? I need a new book. What do you suggest I read? So all those little tiny things. And then also tying curriculum. Like, hey, the sophomores are doing a whole project on... on turning points in American history and tying that into, did you know this is going on at the History Museum? Maybe you could go with them there. So it doesn't have to be complicated. I think that simple things like curriculum tie-in, like juniors who are doing an author project, read that author with a book of that author. So some of those just ideas in our newsletter, like hey, here's some tie-ins for freshmen or sophomores or juniors, same thing that could happen at the middle school level.

Thank you, and I know it gets rather amorphous once they hit middle school and high school.

What is happening?

And I've

thought about book kits too, but you have to have the teenage buy-in. Maybe the parent might want to get the book kit and make some food on a meal on the weekend, but yeah.

Leah? Yeah. Thank you so much for the presentation and for the work you guys do all the time. I'll introduce my question with a story from two hours ago. I'm a lawyer. I was writing a legal brief, and I needed a citation for a dictionary definition of a term. I was like, on the way to the meeting, I'll just drop by the library and look in there. And then I walked in, and they said, we don't have dictionaries anymore. It's all online. So that introduces my question, which is how do you think about this change that's happening in the world? How do you guys think about that and the role of libraries? I think it differs by level. And how do you think the value of the traditional paper book?

Well, I think we get to see firsthand that kids still really value a book. Especially when I'm working with classes in research and they're trying to weed through all the... Even the databases that have reliable sources. But then when you hand them a book, it's kind of like a relief. Like, oh, there's a whole chapter on what I'm wanting to present as part of my thesis and argument. So I do think that they are very... aware of the dangers of, not necessarily dangers, but in being sure that they're critically thinking about their sources. And I hear them talk about it all the time. And I know that they're doing a good job at the elementary level too, like about what's fake news, what's real news. So just introducing some of those things and making them aware that everything that they're going to see isn't real. So, yeah, very cautious about it all, but also hopeful. And I think some of the things that we're seeing about removing phones from classrooms, it's a great way to start. And that gives them an idea, like, oh, yeah, I guess there are things that are basic that were good to start with and to just go back to those.

Thank you so much. The question I want to ask here is about media literacy misinformation and these AI large language models. What are they called? Large language models. Modules. I asked this question, and you said that you all get PD each year, you go to annual conferences and you get PD on especially these large language models. How can we as a board or a district continue to support those efforts? I mean this is something that is changing every day and so I imagine there's new learning to be done every day. So how can we support you in getting more of that? And then do you currently If you're the ones getting this training or this PD, teach this to our other teachers, to our content teachers so that they can learn this information. I know they also get some PD on this, but that's my question.

yeah i think it's been so overwhelming that we're all kind of like trying to grasp it and so um yeah i mean funding for pd which has always been you know amazing at clayton um helps us to go to those types of uh sessions that are really geared towards like how do we do this k-12 and um you know having those committees at each school looking at it is important too um

I think also the like Luke has a subcommittee of the Technology Committee that's studying this and really thinking through like what is the professional learning plan for us moving forward because they don't think the librarians need to be the people responsible for the lift I think it's a much broader lift and so I think as that group continues to work We'll lay out sort of a better plan for us. That's a more ongoing plan Because it's not going away

Sorry, Pam. Well, I mean, I guess if you run out of water.

And then is your hope then that this plan from the tech committee will be formalized next year at the presentation? Yeah.

Mine is about media literacy, too. And like you just said, it's not just the librarians because that's what I was – when you say we need to do this district-wide, that doesn't just mean every building going family-centered through high school. It also means department, all the individual departments. So what – I mean, again, you and I have talked about this, Melina. How do you envision us getting our kids – If we're saying we're providing media literacy, is it in each individual class? Or is it a pullout that is specific about what are you envisioning for the next five years? Because like you said, this is going to have to be ongoing. And it's going to have to a new major push, given where we are with technology and AI.

Right. So the sort of the middle part of your question of like a pullout versus an embedded, I think we have a collective philosophy right now that in order for things to work for us, so technology, SEL, media literacy, it has to be embedded. So the idea of having a standalone media literacy thing is not going to get us where we need to go. It's like the kids need to practice the skill in the learning process that they're engaged in. So as we're researching, what are the things that we introduce? Yeah. So really it comes down to this idea of partnerships between departments. And part of this is sort of our philosophy of like when we went to a model of humanities going through review at the same time, STEM going through review at same time, it was like where are the places where we can share some of the load and some of the work? So coming out of you all approving the goals then becomes the conversation between Mark and Julie and now Tom, to really think through what does that look like in humanities classes? Like that's an easy place for it to fit because that's where a lot of research and those types of things happen. So where it could look like a scope and sequence that's around media literacy embedded in like what's the research project that's happening in a particular class or something like that. So it could be idiosyncratic at times to the course, but I think overall it has to be sort of a collective package of what's the experience for children K through 12. Pre-K is not really doing research. But kindergartners are. And so how do we help even kindergartners to understand what's a reliable source or something like that?

Okay, and so how do you envision this being rolled out over time? I mean, like we said, it's such a big lift.

Right. I think some of it is we have to build it first. Some of it is, like, what are sort of the small pockets that we can put together? in place where we know something's going to happen. So research project is happening, let's just embed it right there to begin with and then expand over time. So it feels a little less like a linear approach to things and more about where are these experiences that are assured experiences within the curriculum already and how can we partner the departments within that and then build off of that. So it feels like concentric circles to me as opposed to parallel lines.

But being able to then say, like we do with all of our curriculum, here's where these assured things come in. Here's where in our media literacy, this is what we're getting in these particular, maybe it's not even great, but key stage one, whatever it is. I think that's really powerful for parents to know that you're being real explicit about what they're learning in these

areas. And I think one of the places that we need to be better, and the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council kind of reminds us of this all the time, is what our communication out to, like the parent-facing communication around the work that we're doing. So I think we do a very good job on the teacher-facing stuff, and the community generally trusts us with what we're doing, but I don't think we're doing a very good job So they as a group continue to remind us of what this could look like for parents. If we understand why you're doing this, then we know how to support it and we know what the conversation at home can look like. So since that's been a theme, all of the coordinators are thinking about. So then what does that look like? So Lauren's team thinking about just like, what does the communication from library look like? And what are the ways that the communication from library doesn't just become a communication from library? Like it could be Julie and Laurie, Lauren, you know, tagging together to talk about like an experience to together or something.

Great. Yeah. Thank you.

Okay, that's great. So let's, all right, so then all those in favor of approving the library goals and the financials outlined in the report say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great, thank you, yeah. Thank you,

congratulations.

Yes. All right, next up our preliminary 26-27 budget from Mr. Breazeale.

Good evening, everyone. It's my privilege and duty to present a budget to you. Before I do that, as you know, I'm ending my career here soon, and I'll be passing the Clayton baton to Matt Norwood. And Matt's in the audience here tonight. To hear this he has been Kept apprised of the budget to date and is offered in some commentary back to me. So we've Included that those considerations in our presentation We budget because required to by law and But more than just filling out numbers on a piece of paper, we do it so we can know where our money or tell where our money is supposed to go rather than later wonder where it went. So that's what we're here to do tonight is talk about a proposed budget for next year and I've got a little few slide decks to show you and we'll talk through this. I'll start out with a bit of a heads up about this because this budget intentionally looks a little different than budgets you've seen in recent years. There's a couple major differences. One, results from Prop O will be issuing new debt and we'll have some major spending on our facilities as a result. And secondly, we're shifting about $5 million of property tax revenue from Fund 1 to Fund 4 to enable some of those budget-funded capital improvement projects. And as a result, you'll see fund balances in Fund 1 decline. That's intentional. After growing it a number of years, we're able to purposefully spend it as planned. Role, you know the budget is important thing and it's really for the board It's really establishing a policy for the district to how money will be spent in the next fiscal year. I Say this every year but that budgets are have a lot of numbers, but they're really not about numbers. I mean, it's really about the programming that we want the plans we want the goals we want to achieve this next year and hopefully Beyond the numbers, we're able to see those objectives fulfilled. The cycle of our budget is year round. Our fiscal year starts in July 1, but we prepare a budget before that date and adopt it. But beyond just the preparation of the budget, we manage that budget all year long for the budget that's been adopted as well as prepare for the next budget that will be prepared. These are some of the Components of that effort and again, it's a year-round activity for the business office This budget is balanced as its presented to you and and you know by law Balanced means that we're not spending more than the revenues win reasonably anticipate to receive plus any fund balances We have so it's not that just about the revenue piece, it also includes fund balances. So even if fund balances are going down, the budget is technically still balanced under the law. We have reasonably adjusted our revenues. We expect some growth in property tax revenue. This is not a reassessment year. But nevertheless, there is new construction and we do expect some small growth. We think we've reasonably estimated our expenditures. We have some debt, existing general obligation debt that will pay down to almost $7 million, and that will fully be paid off in March of 2029. Same with our fund for lease purchase debt, which is not that significant, but it'll also pay off in March of 2020. Later this year we expect to issue the first tranche of bonds. Voters approved $135 million. We'll be issuing bonds to match both the cash flow and cost needs of the projects. And that will probably happen over three tranches, one later this year, one the following fiscal year, and one the third fiscal year. We've begun conversations about that, and I would anticipate it most likely being this fall. And again, the budget continues to support the programmings and operations of the district at the levels that we've become accustomed to and expect. We like to tie our budget to our strategic goals. And while this is not a comprehensive list of how we connect to those goals, these are some of the more current or planned activities connections that we see with the budget. These are for goal one where we seek to ensure that all learners feel safe and valued. Then we have some for goal two where we help learners grow. And finally in goal three grow in head and heart. Again this is not a comprehensive list these are just some examples that we pulled out of the budget. Because we have multiple elementary schools we're required by law to distribute and support them equitably. And so we have sought to do that with these budgets and we reflect on that every year when we complete a year and review the spending that took place and seek to make adjustments to make sure we're remaining equitable. I'm going to show you some snapshots both without with and without proper so the without purpose is so that it's comparative to prior years and you can see how that may be changing then with proper we can see the some bigger numbers come into play. We're expecting about just over $83 million of revenue to come in. The vast majority of that comes from local sources. The beauty of that is that it's raised locally and spent locally, and that we're not reliant on the state or other entities for our funding. When I look at all funds and how that has changed over time These are the numbers you can see the change in percentage there and cost you though that when it changes from actual to budget that's a bit of a change from apples to oranges and the we typically, you know set our budgets in a way that we're they're achievable or attainable and so we hope to our revenue budgets come in slightly better than they show and and we hope our expenditures come in slightly lower than they show. But I've also included one for our operating funds, and you can see here that the operating funds, particularly Fund 1, we're moving revenue, we're taking revenue that normally would be put into Fund 1 and we're moving it over to our capital improvement fund, Fund 4, and it shows a decline here. It's not that the Overall revenue is declining, but that fund is being reduced When I add in the prop oh you can see the numbers jump and you'll see it right there and fund for That other revenue line there just before the total 47 million so I said an earlier slide 45 million dollars of bond so Bonds will be sold with a, or we anticipate, with a 5% coupon, which is slightly better than market. It's what investors expect when they buy. What that'll do is it'll generate a premium. And so we'll sell $45 million of bonds. We'll receive more than $45 million into our bank account. Right now we're programming that as $47 million. The value of that is that We need to reimburse ourselves for some of the costs we've been incurring, and we're able to reach back all the way into December of last year and reimburse ourselves. Being that these bonds will not be sold until fall, from last January through September, we'll want to reimburse ourselves, and those funds will then be used for some of those budget-funded capital projects. So we'll recover mostly those consulting fees that we've incurred. That still will leave $45 million for spending on the projects. Here's an expenditure snapshot without Prop O, and it's at $91 million. It's greater than the revenue that we just talked about because you can see under our capital outlay, we've got a number of budget funded projects that we're planning. The Bridge Campus, the My down middle school field the adzec field improvements The Performing Arts Center improvements at the high school all of those will be budget funded and we've included funding here for those History of that Now what I did pull out of here as I pulled out those I those capital improvements just to make it more comparable year-to-year. So you don't see quite the increase. But there, as I go back to that last slide, you'll see that we're actually 91 million in spending and about 10 million, almost 10 million of that I pulled out of here just to make a comparative graph here. Throw in oh just if we look at just strictly the operating funds. You can see the kind of adjustment We're seeing here some growth around four point eight percent anticipated When I put proper in there that capital outlay jumps up to forty fifty six million dollars and 45 million of that are those proper debt funded projects Here's what happens with our fund balances. We'll still be strong overall at 45 million next June 30 of 27. But you can see that by moving that revenue out of Fund 1 we're lowering the fund balances and seeing it decline. We're currently been around in the mid-60s as far as an operating funds percentage, the fund balance. We have policy at 25%. Myself, my personal preference is 35%, but we'll still be in the high 50s next year, even with this reduction. So we'll be still in a very safe and strong position. Here's a graph that shows fund balance history in dollars, the blue bar being total funds and the orange bar being our operating funds. And you can see that we're having that decrease due to purposeful spending on these capital projects. Also put in a slide to show the percentage of fund balance and this is just strictly operating fund balance We don't do all the funds in this chair because Because the state has us on a cash basis reporting model when we spend money in fund for To build something and then we pay the debt back and fund three it would be double counted so for that reason and just For comparison purposes across school districts in Missouri, we really only look at funds one and two. And if you look at the state reporting model and ASPRs that we submit, there's a percentage there, and it's only referring to funds one and two, and it's comparable across all districts. We do have general obligation debt currently at 22 million. Again, we'll extinguish that debt in March of 29. We will be issuing new debt over the next three years and in two or more tranches, probably three tranches. Whether we issue all 135 million will depend on the bids that come in on the projects we currently have programmed. Any unspent Prop O funds can be used in the future, presumably for Merrimack when that project comes online. We do expect to keep the debt levy unchanged at 51 cents per hundred dollars assessed valuation. And all of our projections now which are conservative certainly support our ability to do that and keep that unchanged. These are our total cost for PROPO projects, the three that we have planned, Glen Ridge, the high school CT addition and Gay Field Complex. There's a cost of construction there and soft costs at the top plus three types of contingency ESI developed these numbers, and they were shared with us in February It'll be this fall before will be August really when we develop the next set of numbers And we'll see to what extent they change Hopefully not much Hopefully we'll start to have more clarity around the contingency numbers that are here and eventually these projects will be bid and and we'll be establishing a guaranteed not to exceed price or maximum price with BSI as they are serving in a construction manager at risk role for us. These are those budget funded projects. These will not all be funded in one year. The high school performing arts center has like field improvements and wide down field improvements. These are total costs and only part of these costs are programmed into the current or the proposed budget. Some highlights in the budget, and I've just grabbed those ones that have a value greater than half a million dollars, but I've programmed $28 million for Glenridge. uh... eight million for the high school cd wing nine million for the gayfield project bridge campus at three-and-a-half million uh... one-and-a half million for why down again i'm putting partial behind these because i expect them to span more than one fiscal year some other generalized uh... capital improvement programs to the facilities department Technology devices I should have put partial behind that that is installment one of three installments on the Apple device purchases that you approved recently That'll come in July of this year and the two subsequent July's And then our technology improvement plan which is managed by the tech department and our expansion of securities camera systems and Last year, this past year, we installed them in the high school and the middle school. This will expand it into the family center and Captain Elementary. We're going to hold off on the other two elementaries because they're going to be in the construction. There should have been a budget document with your agenda. It's this 30 or 40 page document here. And these are the components in that document. There's a couple of budget summaries different views expanded detail of expenditures and revenues and comparisons to prior years along with greater detail on our capital improvement plan. This is a preliminary version. There will be some minor changes to it. We continue to examine some of the requests and refine them. We know that there's some numbers that have been left out, but at this point I think they're in the five figure range. I don't think they'll extend into six figures. So we'll be making those adjustments and corrections here before we present the final proposal to you. It is my belief this supports the goals of the district, that our financial health remains strong, and that we will again achieve a AAA bond rating from S&P when we seek it this fall on the Prop O bonds. Year after year, we continue to have excellent financial audit results that demonstrate the work that we do is up to public expectations. I'm happy to take any questions. I know I've had some email questions. I hope I've answered those questions adequately if I haven't please press me harder and But I'll be happy to answer any questions you have

Great thank you Who has questions? I don't know because it's not an action item

I got a couple things. You may have explained this in a meeting already once, but I thought it might be good to say it here too because you showed the $45 million in Fund 4 on a previous slide. Would you just talk about the arrangement I know you've described to me to maintain the integrity of the commitments we've made on that money to make sure that it goes to the things we promised it would go to?

Mr. Norton and I recently met with our representative from Piper Sandler, who's the investment bank that will be issuing these bonds. His name is Todd Goffoy, and we talked through it with him. We'll be having conversations with others. Obviously there's interest in working with Clayton, the team over at MoCat, who has some of our investments now, is wanting to schedule those meetings as well. Our intention is to keep those dollars segregated from our other funds We commingled generally our funds and keep them separate in our accounting records, but these will be physically separated for a couple reasons one to preserve the integrity of where those funds go so that we can report them that those results out to the public and secondly the potential for arbitrage that occurs and And the reporting that goes with that so just easier to have a third party help us with all those Arbitrage issues, so we'll not be commingling these dollars with our general funds

And then one more and maybe we do this every year But I don't think it hurts to do it when we look at that reserve number in the reserve percentage That's a snapshot on June

30

right and so how do you how would you suggest that someone looking at that number think about that? At the low point of the year, so how should you think about our real money in the bank?

Our cash flow model is that we reach a peak of cash in generally February right after property taxes have been paid and they've been transferred from the county to us in December, January, February. And we'll hit a peak of cash. We don't get any other large cash inflows the rest of the year. And so our cash spins down all the way to November 30. Around Thanksgiving, we hit a low point There has to be enough money in the bank on June 30 for us to get past November 30 so You're right. It's a snapshot in time at June 30 If that number is below 35% We're going to be running out of cash in November so while that That number may seem high to some people. Other districts have very different cash flow models. If you have heavy state support, you're getting a check every month and you can probably be closer to, you can be below 20% in June and still have no trouble getting past November. This district has a model that has to have greater reserves in June to clear November.

So if 35% is going to be running pretty low by the end of the year, then the 50%, 55%, whatever you're showing here at the low point of the year is something more like a 15, 20% reserve.

Okay, thank you. Still a safe point and things happen that you don't expect. This past year's a good example. The city, I mean, St. Louis County installed new software systems and everything they've been doing has been running 30 days late this year. So they collect the taxes and transmit them to us and those have all been running on a delayed basis. a good reason to have plenty of fund balance to be able to clear that change or that risk.

I just want to say thank you for answering some of my questions via email and in the slides too. My main one, just for anybody who was looking at the budget, the 40 pages at home, was around the decrease in the operating revenue in Fund 1. So thank you for making that clear that that is that fund transfer over to Fund 4 for those capital expenditures and why we're doing that.

There's two ways that we can move money. One is by reallocating revenue. The other was through a direct transfer. Transfers from Fund 1 to Fund 4 have limits on them, and the amount that we need to transfer is greater than that limit. So we're transferring it by reallocated revenue. Differently, transfers from Fund 1 to fund 2 don't have limits. So we often use transfers that way. I was

learning that simultaneously in my board training webinar and looking at the budget last night. Yeah, this is like how I was trying to do my homework. So thank you. I appreciate making that clear. And then also the points about the fund balance and where that good number is to not just end the fiscal year but get us through until that next bolus comes in. So thanks.

Hi. This chart that's on your PowerPoint, I think it's page 19 of the fund balance in June, June 30th. I would love it if we could see that, like the November 30th version of that. That would be nice for my brain. Thank you. One of the slides, you talked about the technology improvement plan for $675,000 as one of the expenditures. Can you tell us more about what that is that was separate from the devices and separate from security cameras?

The technology improvement plan? For many years now, this district has had two plans. One is they call it CIP or Capital Improvement Plan. And you see that number at 1,053,000 there. And those are plans, cycle plans, that the Facilities Department uses to replace roofs, HVAC, Asphalt parking lots paint, you know paint stripes on parking lots all those different needs That they've programmed in a secular way Similarly, we have a transfer technology improvement plan or often called a tip for our technology program and that department has its programmed expenditures We actually allocated out by building, but it deals with upgrading our Wi-Fi system or replacing servers or switches or whatever's needed in their regular cyclical replacement cycle. So it's been that same number for several years now. They also make other requests on top of that that we don't consider part of the TIP, but... We can get you more detail on that if you need it. We can certainly supply that.

You know me.

We'll get it for you.

Thank you. Okay, so I just want to clarify what you said to make sure I get it. The transfer of funds from one to four, there's a maximum limit on that. And so we did a little, or you're planning a little over five million and that's the maximum. And so in order to get the rest that we need for the budget funded projects, that's going to come from a reallocation of revenue? The

five million was a reallocation. We're not making a transfer A fund balance, we're making a reallocation of revenue. It's just a

reallocation. So that was $5 million, $5.0 whatever million. Sorry, let me try to find it on here so I can use numbers. On page 24, it's called Budget Funded Facility Improvements. You have a total of the 10.43. Right.

It's

a couple after that. And then plus the bridge campus? Yes.

Correct. But those we're going to put part of the bridge campus will be funded in this budget. Part of those other projects will be funded and they'll all extend it into subsequent years.

Okay. So it's not the full amount of the budget funded projects we anticipated is only let's say a half to a third.

Correct.

Okay. Thank you.

We're the reallocation of revenue is around five million dollars from fund one to fund four Fund four already had other revenue to support capital projects. And so we're able to in addition to the prop o money we're able to Have about eleven million dollars of projects there some of those are Technology some of those are furniture some of those are. Camera systems all those things that are listed there but partials on was bought budget funded things we advertise in propo as are included in that number.

Thank

you. Any other questions.

No motion needed. This will be back in front of you next meeting.

All right. And we will sing your accolades at that last meeting. So we look forward to that. Yeah. Okay. Moving on to policies now. Melina. Halftime is over. All right, yep. Yep, we got a motion.

I move to approve policy 2A, instructional material, or maybe IIA, sorry, instructional materials with the recommended changes.

Second.

All those both awake and in favor, say aye.

Aye, kind of, a little bit aye.

Was there any, I waited, that's why I waited a minute. Any comments? Pam?

Are you kidding?

Should I go around and ask everyone else if they have a comment or you wanna just go ahead and do what I was gonna do? All those in favor? Any opposed? All right, it passes.

I move to approve policy IIAC, Instructional Media Center's school libraries with the recommended changes. Second.

All right, any comments? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That passes, 7.3.

I move to approve Regulation IIAC-R1, Instructional Media Center School Libraries Selection and Reconsideration of Materials to be rescinded. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. Okay, now the assessment plan.

I move to approve the assessment plan as submitted. Second.

Any comments?

Okay. I had a few, but I can't believe no one else has questions. Okay, so my main question to you, Melina, was how do we continue to seek the balance of mandatory statewide testing in addition to our optional district testing with, or balance that with time teaching? And... So as I said this, as a board member, I love the data to show us how we're doing. As like a person and a parent, I don't love all of the testing. And so I just wanted you to speak a little bit to that. Like one example I gave was the PSAT. I really just don't understand why we need to spend time doing that, the 8-9 PSAT.

Yeah. So when we made the... The PSAT example, when like the history of that is we used to give the ACT sequence and we gave the Explorer the plan and the ACT and it provided data and information for us. When we shifted to SAT being the district chosen test because for accreditation purposes we really need to either give the ACT or the SAT. um they when act changed their sequence we weren't particularly happy with the assessment so we changed to the sat sequence when we did that we wanted an experience at the high school because we have very few data points for children at the high school we have many more data points at the time when we made the decision we had many more data points for children across like k-8 At this point, because of the addition of STAR across the high school and everything as part of the reading success plans and that Senate bill and everything like that, I think we could reconsider what that looks like. The other reason we gave PSAT 8-9 was The PSAT 10 factors into like national merit and those kinds of things. And so we wanted to give children an experience of being able to take that test once before it counted towards national merit and that kind of stuff. So it's a different kind of test than what they're used to taking. And so we want to give them that experience to sort of maximize the opportunity for children. to learn that. I feel like we could have that conversation again with Dan to really think through now that some other things have changed, is that still where we want to go?

I would like for you to have that conversation. Thank you. Okay, the final page of that document of financials, if you could please just summarize how much we spend on state mandated testing versus the district optional testing.

Yeah, so the way that I worked this out, so I replied to Pam's request about that. and it's 60% state and 40% district. And the 60% state, the way that I worked that out is what I counted is the things that factor into accreditation. So I factored SAT in there but not the rest of the PSAT sequence. I factored in all the MAP GLA, so the MAP grade level assessments and the EOCs. STAR because of the tie to the Senate bill. And I think those are all the things that we factored in as state required because they factor in that way. So that's about 60% of the budget. And then the 40% of the budget is like NWEA and those other things that we've decided that we want those data points for us. Panorama also factors into that.

So just to go off of what Pam was saying about the 8-9 PSAT, how will you assess? I mean, you said you'll talk to Dan about that. I can see it being very valuable for the reason that you shared. But I also understand why Pam wants us to consider whether or not it is valuable. But who will you get involved in terms of deciding that? Will you ask students, teachers? You know, parents, how will you what goes on when you're trying to make those kinds of decisions? Because I'm sure there's probably a wide range of opinion around parents, you know, thinking that, hey, that's a good idea to practice or some that think we have too many. So how do you

go about that? In the past, we have not involved students and parents in that decision. We've made an educational decision. So we've involved generally its coordinators and administrators making that decision based off of what they need the data for and that type of stuff. If the board wants us to think more broadly than that, I think we could consider that. I think it's going to be exactly what you said. We're going to come with a mishmash of information that probably isn't going to inform us. And so ultimately, we've made decisions about assessments, district chosen assessments. We've made those decisions at an educator level. Okay.

If that's the way you've done it, I'm not trying to say we should do it differently. I just wondered.

Yeah.

I had the same

question. Because I just wonder how many parents, if you changed it suddenly, would say, wait a minute, that kind of thing. So I don't, again, when we know we might get some pushback from parents, sometimes we think, should we have involved them in that? But I understand why you're saying you don't. So yeah, tough one.

One thing they will say about the the PSAT is it's one day exactly It's not it's not taking a tremendous amount of instructional time and the high school has scheduled like we call it testapalooza But it's like the height the high school has schedule did in a way that we're sort of doing Multiple things all on one day. Yeah, and and so I That to me, like if I was making like a recommendation on that, I don't think I would make a recommendation to say that I feel like that's creating so much of a distraction to instructional time that we take it away because I do think, like we believe really strongly in everyone having access to an assessment that could qualify them for national merit as opposed to making a decision about who we think should take that assessment. That was an equity decision that we made a while ago. And so setting kids up for Potentially more success for that by exposing them to that in ninth grade felt to us like a really solid decision from an equity

lens I was just curious if our student representatives had any perspective but also it just seems like a opportunity for student, you know It's a test that is potentially for their benefit, right? In terms of getting that practice and whatnot. So that's, yeah. I don't know, can they?

Yes.

Okay.

Do you have anything to add? I don't

want to put you

on the spot, but if you had thoughts. Just to clarify, like the question is, you take the PSAT 10, which can qualify for national merit, and then obviously in 11th grade. The one in 9th grade is for practice for the 10, so...

And I think this is probably the general consensus. I'm sure Manu can give a little bit of word, too. But I think the issue would be less of distraction from instructional time. Because I agree, it's only like a day. It's not taking up that much time. And more just like distraction in general. Because I remember the only thing I remember about taking the PSAT in ninth grade was that the day that the scores came out, it was like, I don't think I learned anything. Because everyone was like, what'd you get? What'd you get? how do you get your score? My password's not working. It was a whole big thing. And I remember at the time being like, oh my gosh, I just turned 15. Or I was like, I'm 14 years old. I'm not taking the SAT for another three years. What am I doing freaking out about my score here? And so I definitely think that there like the SAT 10 is very valuable because it also gives people an idea of whether they'd like to take the SAT or ACT. But I just don't think in ninth grade, it's as big of a, it's too big of a deal and it doesn't need to be that big of a deal, especially for how much like distraction and kind of disruption it caused. And even anxiety, like my sister's asking about it and she's graduating eighth grade in two weeks. I'm like, Suzette, you don't need to worry about this yet, but she's already like heard about it and stuff. So I don't think it's necessary, but yeah.

Yeah, I do see the value in taking the PSAT 8-9 because it is good practice for the PSAT 10 and the national merit. I just really thought that because it's seen as something important when it's really not, it's really just practice. We should have more, it should be promoted as something that's just practice and there shouldn't have to be students really worrying about it as much.

That's great. Thank you both. Yeah, thank you and thanks Aaron for asking. All right, any other questions? All right, so then assessment plan. All those in favor of adopting the assessment plan as presented say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, moving on to professional learning.

I move to approve the district professional learning plan for the 2026 to 27 school year as submitted. Second.

Does anyone have any questions and or comments?

Okay. Okay, so you, we have this mentorship program and I had asked is it a PTTE? Do the veteran teachers who mentor our new teachers get paid and you said yes. Could you just talk a little bit about the program and what the changes that you envision because you said there's some changes upcoming. about that mentorship program. Yeah, so I'm

going to have Robin come up because Robin runs the program currently. So I'll have her come up to talk about what currently is happening with the program.

Is this your last board meeting, Robin?

It is. Yay, many more in the future though. So currently we have a really strong belief that training of our mentors is just as important as what they do for our new teachers because whenever a mentor works with a new staff member, they get just as much out of that interaction. So we have an entire mentor training program. We start at the beginning of the year so while new teachers are a new teacher orientation, we give them the mentor checklist so they're looking at the things that they might do with their mentor And then whenever, then I take the mentors and we do some training around how to work with new teachers. And a lot of that training involves things like how do you coach in the classroom? How do you observe? We did scenarios and problem solving conversations. We had mentors support each other with like pass a problem. They would tell each other like, Hey, here's something, obviously keeping it confidential. Here's something that I'm working with with my new teacher. Can you all help me problem solve around that? So we would spend our mentor meetings throughout the year problem solving around that. Mentors keep all of their data in kick up. So they have to meet monthly with their mentee and then they monitor all of that. I give that data to building leaders so that they know what the mentor and mentee pairs are talking about. We also talk about that data in our meetings. And then I would sit with them at times throughout the year in their meetings just to talk with them about some things that they were experiencing as mentor and mentee pairs. So we tried to make it side by side with the coaching that we do of our new teachers, helping our mentors see how they can also coach the new teachers. We also go through a text together, lots of things that are part of that training.

And how many years can a new teacher be a mentee?

So all new teachers, anyone new to the district has a mentor for the first year. Anyone who's new to teaching has a mentor for two years.

Can they continue in that if they want? Is there an optional for

a

second year in the district or

something? So it shifts a little bit to who is providing support to them. So like at the elementary level, the instructional coordinators are providing support. We're also, with Cameron, providing support depending on what year somebody is in their, like if you're in year three, you come back to us. Like there's a lot of different opportunities. It looks different than a peer mentor opportunity.

Anyone else?

Say that I'm just really impressed with everything we do in this area. I think those awards that Nisha pointed out, the fact that professional learning is part of that, I just think it's so important and I just want to shout out to you guys for all the work that you do. It's obviously being recognized and obviously our teachers are Really benefiting from because you know, we've got this all these great things happening in our schools So I really appreciate what you guys do. It's incredibly important

Well, that's a lot for Robin because Robin carries the heavy lift of all professional learning within the district Well, you've done a fantastic job. We'll miss you very much.

Yes

my favorite thing ever

Okay

All right. And we'll send her off on a good note. Hopefully this vote goes well. So all

those

in favor of approving the district professional learning plan for next school year as submitted, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Then we wish you well, Robin. Thank you. Yes. All right. Last from Elena this evening, the AMI plan.

A move to approve the School District of Clayton AMI Alternative Methods of Instruction Plan for the 2026-27 school year as submitted.

Second. Sorry. All

right, does anyone else have any comments about or questions about the AMI? Well, you're good. I do

have some things to say, but I need a minute.

Well, this is your shot.

Oh, I'll go.

Mine's just sitting there waiting.

Sorry, guys. Sorry. I apologize. This seems like really tricky to do with... I love that you... Of course, we're making sure that we are trying to rely more on paper and pencil. But it's tricky because... then how do you make sure it gets all turned in? Because we can't say every student has reliable access to internet, et cetera. So we're trying to have them do paper and pencil. And if those things aren't collected, then it doesn't even count as you did it. So what's the, you know what I'm saying? In order for that attendance to actually count, those things have to be collected. I'm just asking what the process is for students Is that a, you know, seems like a heavy lift maybe? I don't know. You tell me.

Yeah, so there's a lag time, so the attendance isn't counted for like up to a week afterwards. So if we were to put this in place, the assignments that would be deployed to the students, they would have time to get that back. So if they didn't come, it's not like they come back in the building and they have to hand to the teacher something. There's a little bit of lag time for them to be able to do it. The way that we wrote this plan is really intended to be an assumption that families, that a student may not have access to internet, to wifi, et cetera. And we know that like at the elementary level they likely wouldn't have access to their district device. And so nothing would happen sort of reliant on a device that we would be focusing more on continuation. So basically no new learning taking place during that time, but continuation and practice of skills during that time. So the way that it would be communicated would be through the families of sort of here's what's expected. At the secondary level, that would include communication to the student. Also, right and then some expectation of like you could expect at the elementary level That's gonna be about reading because the like we continue to say that we want children to read every day It could be about math games But it's all about stuff that they would generally have access to in a typical household Okay to be able to do it that we would very sparingly use this Exactly because I think we can all agree that our best teaching and learning happens in our spaces. But there are instances, like I think it's always a good idea for us to have this on file with DESE. So if we have a tornado or something like that, we have a plan. The plan, this is sort of loosely defined so that we could more clearly define at the time what would be the expectation. So if you look at that tornado a year ago, you can see evidence of this within that, but more of it is like the thinking of like, what do we need to do now in response to something? So like that YDAL model is not exactly this. It has some components of this. Okay. But I think it's always a good idea for us to have one on file with DESE, yeah. Okay, thanks.

Anyone else? Then all those in favor of approving the school district's AMI plan for next school year as submitted say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great. Thank you, I think you're done. Okay,

I move to approve consent agenda items 9.2 through 9.4. Aye, second.

All

right, any comments? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, thank you for that. Moving on to board communications. Does anyone have any meetings in the past couple weeks? Chris, go

ahead. Thank you very much. This has been a lovely meeting. I promise you I've been very present and enjoyed all of it. We've been doing some great work, even though you can't tell by my responses to when I'm supposed to say a second. My report out is about the safety committee meeting that we had on Monday the 4th. Ben was supposed to have been there. He could not be there. He couldn't be here tonight either, so I will cover it for both of us. At that meeting, Mike Parkinson went over many of the new updates that have happened this entire school year because technically we hadn't met with him since September. So we got to hear about a number of things that have been happening. So many fantastic things. I won't go into every single one of them, but, um, one of the great ones was that the Clayton, um, the center of Clayton now has cameras all set up. Um, and that's a huge improvement and glad that we got that, um, figured out. Now our SRL there has a much better, you know, um, to see what's going on there in the same system that we have in CHS, so it's much better. What else? Mike said that they've been working on building emergency action plans, so each building has a specific emergency action plan. He's been working that since he came in and started in this role, and those were now completed and will be rolled out in the fall, which is great. A number of other things. One of the things that Luke first did was those flip charts that we have at every single doorway of the building. Mike is going to be looking at those this summer and making sure that those are completely updated and renewed, et cetera, and make sure we have those available. The other two major things we talked about, one was an update on Syntegics. Not only did we look at the numbers for this year on every building, how many three-button pushes we had plus how many eight-button pushes zero until the day after this meeting. So I'll get to that in one second. But our three button push numbers, we went through those and looked at. Could

you maybe just define or explain the difference between a three and an eight? Oh

thanks,

that's very helpful. Thank you

for that. With Syntegics, our three button push is for any emergency where a teacher needs some sort of assistance from the other resources in the building who also get notified when those three buttons on the Syntegics bags are pushed. That could be a medical emergency, a behavior, What are all the other ones? Something that's not an intruder, but anything that needs assistance from other people besides that one teacher that is not an intruder alert. Pushing that button eight times is the only reason we ever push it is for an intruder. That's the only difference. One of us for many other types of things that need response, a variety. Eight is just for the intruders. So Up until this point this year up until this meeting this day of this meeting We hadn't had anyone in that have an eight button push But yes that very next day on the 5th of May there was an accidental eight button push at CHS and so I'll talk about that after I finished my report out about that meeting that was on the fourth and So, yeah, we've talked a lot about the numbers of Syntegics. We also talked about some updates that Syntegics has now, which is that those people that are responding to – if you're one of the people in that building, let's say Captain, that gets the alert that there's been three-button push, there are five people that respond to that, an SRO, a counselor, there's the principal, you know, and – Now, Syntegix has added to their software the ability for those folks to respond on there in a way that allows the people outside of that building, such as Dr. Patel and Mike Parkinson, to know a little bit more about what's happening. Right now, Dr. Patel, and Mike really only know that it's been pushed, but now because of this upgrade they'll be able to look on there and see that you know, Patrick or whatever principal has actually arrived at that seat. I'm here or we, you know, or it's a behavior issue or it's a medical issue. There's just that little bit of information now that they can type into their phone so that there isn't such a lag time between what the people on the ground know and what Mike Parkinson and Dr. Patel know. So that's a great new thing that we have, that he'll be making sure to train and show all the responders how to use that on their device. The other thing we talked about is Very important work that we're gonna be doing ongoing next year in the committee, which is working on our standard response protocol. So there's all these terms and safety, but really that just means what we do in any sort of major emergency. Right now we use what's called the four E's, which is what we train our kids in at the very beginning of every year. And we're going to just be looking at ways that we can assess whether or not those procedures are what we want to continue to use. If so, why? If not, why? We're going to have a subcommittee within the safety committee that will really evaluate that critically and make sure that we're using what we think is best for our specific district and each one of our districts. grade levels you know so yeah I'm excited for them to do that work and to make sure that when we start rolling out whatever we decide to go with whatever the committee decides when we roll it out we're gonna have some better communication around it I think because of this work which I think is all very important so that's exciting and again that'll be going on into next year So I'll get now to saying, you know, as Ben and I are the representatives of the board on that safety committee, we just wanted to make sure to say that, yeah, we want to acknowledge that this accidental push of eight pushes, which is an intruder push, did happen, although we did not have an intruder. And in saying that, we want to talk about both safety The fact that we, you know, it's a really tough thing for our students to go through. It's a tough thing for our parents to go through. and certainly Mike, Dr. Patel, we've had many conversations about making sure that these accidental pushes don't happen. And I was really, as a committee, we were very proud to see that that hadn't happened up until that point because Mike has done an incredible job of training our teachers on how to properly wear the badges where you can and can't put them so that you don't accidentally press them more than three times when you're not trying to. In this particular case, it was a teacher that did press it but didn't really realize they were trying to press it just three times, but it was really being clicked more than that. So there are many ways that these things can be activated accidentally. But every time that happens, you know, obviously we are we have done a good job of avoiding it happening It's only happened this one time and when it does happen You know We do a debrief and we sit down and we talk about how that happened and how we can improve so that next time it that you Know we can mitigate that, you know from happening again. So we did that Ben and I and Mike and John's sat down with dr. Patel and we talked about this incident and And what was great about us talking about it is we got to point out, I got to hear and I was very happy that Mike was able to say that what happened at CHS that day, and I'd be happy to hear from you guys too, was that the teachers and the students really followed protocol just exactly how we trained them to do from what we saw and what we heard. And that's a really good thing to see. Of course we didn't want an accidental push to happen, but the fact that it did and at least allowed us to see that our students and our staff are really capable of handling those situations and they did the proper protocol is a really good thing to know. So that felt really good, and that was a positive out of something like this that again is something we want to avoid. The other thing I will say, I wrote down another, hold on. Oh, the other, I think, really good positive that came out of us meeting to talk about this is that we realized that now that there has been three accidental pushes in the course of our Centegics lifespan that we've had this badge, we are really thinking about how these accidental pushes impact our kids. And what we decided as a group is that we really want to make sure that, you know, in this particular instance, students had to come back into the school and continue their learning. And for those students that found out very quickly that it was false, You know that's that's already a tough thing to do, but it's some of the students who were outside of the building didn't get to find out that quickly. You know they were in the thinking that this was a real intruder for a while so we've got a range of experiences happening with every one of our students and with everyone of our teachers and so. We decided that really makes much more sense to instead of just sort of getting back into learning and acting as though that didn't happen. Instead, taking some time to really acknowledge what happened in every single classroom. And we're going to have Jen McEwen, McEwen, right, McEwen, work on that, the social worker in the wellness center to really help devise something that teachers could then say, like have at their disposal to be able to sort of lead a bit of just a debrief and a minute to just sort of reflect and let students have a short amount of time to get back into a place of feeling okay and making... that teacher then can make sure that everyone's in an okay place. I just think that that's a nice thing that came out of this is that we recognize that we don't just want to act like it didn't happen. Instead, we do the opposite. We say this did happen and we sort of check in with our students and make sure that everything's going okay If they need further support, we know that there's lots of further support. But I'm glad that we are being so proactive and thinking about the support that students need because of our times in general, the fact that we even need these badges. But yes, certainly, of course, when an accidental push goes So yeah, I think those are really positive things that I'm happy to see us do and I think that'll they'll help the students and we you know if you guys want to give any feedback about this right now you can and if you don't you don't have to I don't want to put any on the spot but yeah, I mean I just I want to It's really important for us as a board to be really respectful of the way this is impacting you as students. We didn't have this when we went to school, you do. We haven't been there, you are. So yeah, we wanna be as supportive and really understand what to do for you as we can.

I was sick, unfortunately, the day. I mean, maybe fortunately because I didn't have to experience it, but I know Manu was here and he talked a lot about it with the Principal's Advisory Club last Thursday.

Great. Yeah, so really this should be a main point of focus because not only because... It's a potential traumatizing experience for the students, but because it creates a sort of desensitization.

Exactly.

In kind of like a boy who cried wolf situation. That's

exactly.

We talk about this a lot in the principal's advisory council meeting. Great. Like, we've had this problem many times in past years. And students are starting to think that every time it happens, it's just not real. Exactly. That happened in this past week. Half the kids in my class didn't believe it. Even I, in the back of my head, didn't even fully register that it was happening. And even though I helped barricade and everything, it didn't really click. And so in the principal's advisory council meeting, we discussed some solutions. So really the most prominent one was including maybe an audio cue on the button clicks. Like maybe... Maybe when you click it three times, it will say you have called emergency services or something like that just to help the teachers know when they're panicking.

I hear what you're saying.

Yeah. That was really the most important thing.

Looking for ways to help the user use it in a proper way.

Yeah. If that's, if that's possible.

Yeah. That's yeah. I think strategics, the actual company also is looking for that. I mean, this is an evolving company. It's newer and yeah, they're constantly looking for ways to make sure that this doesn't happen. Um, so yeah, I love that thinking. Yeah. Thank you.

Great.

Thanks guys.

Thanks Chris. Anyone else? Okay. Well then we are adjourned. Thanks everyone. Bye.