September 1, 2021 — Meeting Transcript

Okay, so we're back in session and we just wrapped up our annual update with the aldermen with respect to the CRSWC. So we are now on to number six, which is superintendent communications and we're going to hear from Dr. Patel.

okay good evening everyone um nice to see you guys again so i thought what we would do um i wanted to take some time first of all to make sure that we congratulate y down middle school this week we had our commissioner came to y down middle school and officially awarded the school a gold star status which is a very big deal because it's only one of eight schools in the state of missouri to achieve that and the standards are aligned with our national blue ribbon school so it's mostly focused on achievement in ela and math and i just wanted to give a big shout out to the staff the students the parents of the middle school to achieve that and i want to thank everybody that did come to the um ceremony to help us get help them be recognized so i thought that was a very nice ceremony and i just want to make sure that we take some time to congratulate them so official congratulations to them and then our first week of school has gone really really well we we were able to go through most of the buildings actually all the buildings and do walk-throughs thank you to the board members who joined me in doing that There was a lot of energy in the classrooms, lots of smiles, lots of excitement, a lot of great lessons happening around academics already within the first seven days. And what was really great to see was a lot of lessons around social emotional learning and well-being. And really making that focus on connecting with one another and building those relationships before you dive into the content, which I think is the foundation of all the work that we do. So it was nice to see that within the first seven days. And that was a big focus. And then on Friday, we had our first half day. which was focused for our staff to have professional learning on that day. So a lot of our teachers worked with their professional learning communities and started talking about what their plan is for the year, started looking at common assessments, how they're going to measure growth and data. So that was a good thing and a good way to start off the year as well. And then one thing that we did talk about is as we start school, We had a few things that we wanted to make sure. We wanted to make sure that we maintain five days of instruction every single day and making sure that it's in person. And also, we wanted to make that we continue to focus on academic success and social emotional well-being. And one of the things that we did in doing that is making sure that we do that in a safe manner. So I thought, you know, a lot of people have been reaching out to me and saying, you know, how did you make the decisions? How did you have the mitigating factors in place? And we look at a lot of different sources. We have recommendations from various, various entities, and we look at science and we look at research. So we looked at, we listened to the CDC recommendations. American Academy of Pediatrics came out with information. DESE, Department of health and senior services. We listen to our St. Louis County Department. We have a St. Louis pandemic task force that gives us information weekly and stats and data. In addition, every week we have a superintendent's meeting. And in that superintendent's meeting, we collaborate and we talk about, well, this is what the data is saying in the county. This is what's happening in our district. And where do we wanna go with that? In addition to all that, I know I'm getting a lot of great input and advice from even our local community members. And they give me phone calls, you know, physicians and health care professionals. And that's all advice that we take in making these types of decisions. And so based on all of that, we made sure that we continued the strong layering of mitigating factors. One of them being the universal mask wearing. Obviously we continued with the frequent hand washing, the disinfecting the surfaces and trying to maintain social distance whenever possible. We feel that these mitigating factors is what's going to allow us to have a safe return to school and continue to keep our kids in school because that's where they need to be. One of the data points now that we are one year into this, we were actually able to quantify this because I said, let's see if we can really measure how many days our kids missed last year because of COVID. and mostly because of the quarantines. So when we looked at that, students that were quarantined from in-school exposure, we had about 474 kids. And when you quantify that, that was over 4,400 days missed, over 26,000 hours of in-person instruction missed. That is why it is important to have our kids in school. And we truly believe our mitigating factors that we had in place helped us. And one of the things is this is the most important number that shows that our mitigating factors helped. With all the quarantines that we did, with all the contact tracing we did, we only had one student-to-student transmission. our school year last year. So again, the importance of wearing masks, the importance of continuing to layer as much as we can are mitigating factors so we can focus on keeping our kids in school and learning and being well. We learned a lot. And one of the most important mitigating factors is the vaccinations that are out. One of the things actually we just found out today is that up till today, we were only able to get state level data on vaccination rates. But now we can get county level in specifically age groups. so now we can measure like 12 to 18 age group range what the vaccination level is by county we're hoping now they can drill it down even more by zip code not quite there yet but today we just found that out so that's again data we can look at to encourage our students to get vaccinated and especially moving forward hopefully we can get even our younger kids as soon as they're eligible for vaccination And so with all that, it was a great week. We're hoping to continue to stay strong, see all the smiles, see all the excitement, continue to focus on learning and teaching and enjoying the experience that we always were proud of for Cleveland. So we're excited for that. And these are just some pictures as we were going through school this week that we saw of some great kids enjoying it. And now I will hand it over to Itana for our student board rep.

Thank you. So yeah, as of last Monday all of our students are back in the building and I think that the start of the school year has gone really smoothly especially it's really good to see some people that we hadn't maybe seen in a year and a half. Some students and even teachers are back in the buildings which is really nice. With regulations such as masks and socially distant seating, students and teachers have all been able to remain safe while in the school environment. Additionally, there are QR codes at the lunch tables where students scan before they sit down to eat. And then it takes them to a Google form where they can sign their name to a table for the purpose of contact tracing. And I know that especially at the middle school for students who maybe don't have phones, they have this link attached to the website. You might have seen that at the high school in the quad, there's two big tents for seating for students and there's also tables all around the quad. So there's a lot of opportunity to sit outside. And at the elementary schools, all the students are eating in their classrooms with plastic dividers between the desks. Both the middle and the high schools have adopted a block schedule in which students attend their one through fourth hour classes on one day and then fifth through eighth hour on the next. And students have had really mixed reactions on this new schedule because a lot of people say that the schedule is better because it gives them two days to do their homework and they don't have to switch subjects in classrooms as much in a day. But others say that the 85 minute classes are too long and that They feel like they're sitting down for a lot of time and it doesn't really help them focus. However, all teachers seem to be understanding this and are offering like a sort of brain break during class. So it can be just like getting up and walking around or like a little game or just letting students talk to their friends for a couple minutes. With everyone back in the building, the amount of online simulations for labs and experiments has decreased. So once again, we have kids playing with fire in the chemistry classrooms. But don't worry, because we're very safe. And also, we had our first fire drill yesterday. So sports are also back and better than ever since preseason for all high school sports started on August 9th. Not only were classes resumed last week, but games and matches were as well. The boys' soccer team just won their first game against Priory just this Saturday, and the girls' varsity volleyball placed second at the Windsor High School Tournament. high school is holding its elections for student government over this week i believe yesterday the videos from all candidates were released to each grade level and today the voting form was sent out so we should know who's in charge of each grade soon um and then as dr patel mentioned we have the middle school which received one of the eight gold star awards and it was really nice to be able to see how students i think it was the white on web leaders were there to welcome the commissioner Yeah, it was great seeing that not only the principals were there to get it, but also the students who helped achieve the award. district advisory council applications have also opened to all the high school students and we started communicating with the middle and elementary schools about opening some sort of district advisory council there and as of today the district advisory council has an official instagram account so follow clayton district advisory if you want to see more updates about that and we're also hoping to use it as a way for students in the district to know more about it and to be more visible So, yeah, I think it's really safe to say that not only are students back in school, but morale is, too, and we are starting to finally feel some sort of normalcy again. And I think everyone's pretty excited about it. Thank you.

Thank you, Itana. Does anybody have any questions?

Okay.

It was. It was great. Okay, great. So we are on to our first study item, which is the first reading of policy DK payment process.

So the proposed revisions to policy DK, the payment process, primarily update an antiquated policy that allows for flexibility in issuing payments and aligns better to our current electronic payment methods beyond issuing a check. So previously, that's pretty much all the policy allowed us to do. We probably only issue half of our payments through check. Now we do ACH wires, lots of purchasing cards payments. We get back close to $40,000 a year through purchasing cards. And those are all authorized in a separate policy, DJF. So DJF actually didn't necessarily align to DK. So Missouri statute section 165021 actually requires disbursements of funds only to be drawn by the treasurer of the district pursuant to orders of the Board of Education. Timing of board meetings often cause issues with payment terms, especially during the summer months when there's no board meetings to authorize the payment of invoices. So as a result, historically, our legal counsel has advised us that every June I request the board to make a resolution that authorizes for the following year me to disburse funds based within the district's budget. So this also requires me to submit a listing of all checks and other disbursements to the board for formal approval. So this policy actually aligns that practice now within the policy. So what we were previously doing is now reflected within the policy. It's not specifically stated that way, but it says it gives the board flexibility to have pre-issuance of payments. They still recommend that we do that authorization because that is the board actually making the motion to do that, but it would align the two. Just cleans up everything that we've actually been doing for a long time. So statute hasn't changed, but at least they're making the policy work. Any questions on that one?

I just have one. There's only one line in there which doesn't make sense to me, which is, in its discretion, board may issue a prospective payment order for transactions where an important district interest would be harmed by delay until a board vote. How does the board issue it without the board vote?

Well, that's what the resolution in June, that is what that does. Okay. So who then of the board issues it? so in june i actually present it and then the board votes on it and that's good for the whole year got it got it yeah okay so that's why i said we don't because the board has to authorize it so it's a blanket authorization for the whole year okay okay so yeah that fuzzy piece actually does what we do so allows us to do what we do so we're not this is our attorneys wrote it it's what most districts do because most districts don't have board meetings in the summer and you have to have somebody to release the checks so

got it it's probably why i didn't understand it because i fight with the attorneys at my corporate office all day long it

doesn't align with the law necessarily so that's probably why it's written a little fuzzy thank you So any other questions on that one?

Okay. Then we will move on to the hazardous material policy. Mary Jo.

All righty. So proposed revisions to policy EBAB, hazardous materials, includes a provision that requires schools to test potable water for lead in buildings constructed prior to 1996 that serves pre-K and kindergarten, which is all of our pre-K to kindergarten buildings. if the state provides appropriations to fund the testing. So if they don't fund it, we're not required to test. So we already test our water for lead every five years. 2016 was the last year we tested and we published those results to the community. That is part of our preventative maintenance plan that we already have. So this would be the fifth year of our five-year cycle. The same company who oversees our asbestos management plan, which is mentioned in there, we also test for radon, just so you know. They would also perform our water testing. So everything that's in there we're already doing, no real changes, just states if the state funds it. So that would be the only difference, which it doesn't sound like they plan to, but it's within law.

The only thing I might suggest, if the board thinks it's necessary, is under lead, it says the board encourages a superintendent or designee to include in the districts. I know that we're already doing it, but board, do you think that it should say requires the superintendent, or do we want to keep it at encourages because then that leaves it open as to whether or not You know, even though we do it now, I don't know, you know, who knows in 10 years what's going to be happening. Do we want to require that? Any thoughts?

It's a good point, and courage is not very strong. Yeah.

Why does it say encourage? Why do we say encourage, not requires before? I think

that's just what the lawyer drafted. Yeah, I didn't change

any of their recommendations.

That's just what they drafted. But I'm sure we could make it stronger. I like requires.

Let's do it.

Everybody okay with that?

Yeah.

So instead of encourages, that will be required, and that would be the only change?

Yeah, I mean maybe we would say we require it at least once every five years. Since that's what we've been doing.

I mean. You're asking the Superintendent designated to identify and develop the plan. So are you specifying that the plan? I think it would be edited in that line that the plan would be every three or five years or. We actually do the, I think the asbestos in here, it says... No, that's not within there. I can't remember if there's a procedure on this to tell you the truth, but I will say the asbestos is actually every three years what our plan is. I'm just talking about under lead. Yeah, we were actually considering shortening our lead to three years to line up with our asbestos. Then let's do it every three years. but i don't know we don't designate anywhere in here the plan so i just would be cautious that right yeah so

that's up to you guys but no i mean let's just change it to requires and um And I think that would be sufficient. Okay. Thank you.

I move, yes. I move that the Board of Education approve the fiscal year 2022 CRSWC budget as submitted. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions or comments? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It passes unanimously. And we

have another motion. Yes. I move that this is 9.02. I move that the Board of Education approve the carrier recommendations and respective rates representing an overall increase of 3.4%. for the 2022 calendar year as presented and authorize administration to negotiate and execute contracts for the same.

Second.

It's

been moved and seconded. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.

Okay. 10.01, I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Motion passes. And we are on to financials. Financials.

11.01, I move that the Board of Education approve payment of current expenditures and investments for June 2021 as detailed below.

Second. My seconders are not doing very well. It's been moved and seconded. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, good. Motion passes. So we are on to the public comment. Milena, do we have any public comments tonight? Good.

Okay, our first public comment is from Stephanie Gross. Summer Quest was a wonderful camp experience for my children. We met so many Clayton families and staff that we may otherwise not have gotten to know. It also familiarized my kids with the CHS building where one is now a student. It was a safe and nurturing environment for my kids to explore new activities. I'm not sure what the reasons are for possibly discontinuing this program, but if possible, I hope you will reconsider. Thank you. The next comment is from Laura and Michael Bond. Summer Quest plans for the future. The last two summers without Summer Quest have been extremely hard for working parents to find openings within proximity to our district. Working families stress a great deal about finding summer camp openings. This camp option was incredible for younger kids to get to mingle, meet kids from all schools, both younger and older. Our kids will likely overlap in middle school and high school, so to establish connections along the way is a big benefit. Plus, the CHS students are often the counselors, another great benefit for introductory job opportunities for our teenagers. That and the meaningful connection for Clayton families as we live and grow together. My kids love the programming, option to swim, grassroots games played and being with their friends. Parents love the proximity of being close to home and not sending our money somewhere outside the district. As a dual working household, we request you consider the working families of Clayton and ensure some requests can continue. Thank you, Laura and Michael Bond. Sam Ableys. I just wanted to say how much I appreciated Summer Quest when I was going into kindergarten. Going to Summer Quest before my first year at Merrimack was not only fun, but I got to meet and make new friends. Every summer after that, I looked forward to going to Summer Quest. I had a lot of fun during all the classes, loved all the counselors, and actually learned a lot. I really hope Summer Quest doesn't go away. It has been a real contributor to Clayton and a great way for kids to have fun and meet new friends. lori house laden i think that's how you say her last name so i'm going to spell it h-a-u-s-l-a-d-e-n summer quest plans for the future as a two-parent working household i think all-day summer programs are invaluable i utilize summerquest as a low stress convenient option that i knew would be socially satisfying for my children as they would inevitably have friends from their current school and would make new friends from other schools if kids can't be at home it is nice that they have a consistent environment with familiar faces I love this aspect about SummerQuest. I think there does need to be a conversation about how to refresh it and restructure the program, not just give up and get rid of it. I know this past summer many parents were happy to see Clayton summer camps but still stressed over how to get them there and back and a new plan every week. Also, I have several friends who work in Clayton and love SummerQuest as a safe convenient offer near their office. Joshua Wilmsmeyer, I think that SummerQuest plays an immeasurable role in our efforts to become a more equitable school district. For some of our students, even starting in elementary school, summer and school only come together as a remedial intervention. After the first week of June, attending anything school-related means you're an underperformer and struggling academically. SummerQuest creates an environment where students can be supported and cared for as people, not specifically as learners. I have a number of African-American students who talk all about their SummerQuest experiences when they think of Clayton. In addition, as those students go to CHS, they then lead activities in SummerQuest. These are students who maybe would not get such leadership opportunities in the broader community, but because they're under the guidance and tutelage of Clayton staff, they're better known. The two-fold role of supporting young African American students and mentoring young African American leaders is what makes SummerQuest an essential piece of our effort toward greater equity. Emily Balestra, I understand that there's talk of getting rid of SummerQuest. I would just like to say how much my kids have enjoyed SummerQuest over the years and the opportunities to connect with Clayton students from all three elementary schools. My oldest son definitely hoped to be a counselor there in a few years as well. It would be a shame to see a program that worked well and was already established within the Clayton community disappear. Caroline Brightman. My name is Caroline Brightman. I was the assistant director of SummerQuest for seven years. Before that, I was a teacher for SummerQuest under the fantastic direction of Sally Lazaroff and Nathan Peck. who have built a great summer program for the youth in this community. Summer Quest far exceeded the simple need of childcare and helped expand children's social, physical, and academic interests when school is not in session. I could talk all night about the great programs Summer Quest offers for students in grades K through eight, but I'm sure that there are other people here tonight who could talk for days about those benefits. I would instead like to talk to you about the great opportunities this summer program provides for our high school students and recently graduated alumni. SummerQuest provides job experience working with kids. It's the reason I decided to go into teaching. 16 years ago when I was a sophomore at CHS, Sally Lazroff and Nathan Peck gave me an opportunity that changed the course of my life. Through working this summer program, and yes, making some money for my year at school, I was able to experience my true love of working with and teaching kids. Working at SummerQuest helped me make up my mind that I wanted to be an elementary teacher. This program has not only changed my life but dozens of other Clayton High School graduates. who were given the opportunity to experience SummerQuest as kids, work for it as counselors and now educators because of their experience with SummerQuest. Some of them are here tonight in your Zoom room as living testimony that this program is good for our students' futures. I am one of those graduates. This program has a legacy and I hope the board will help SummerQuest's legacy continue. Please make the decision to reinstate SummerQuest as the premier summer day camp in St. Louis. Excuse me. Not to provide daycare for our young students, but to provide the experience that our young people need to become their best selves. Thank you. Doug Verby. My name is Doug Verby. I'm a science teacher at Clayton High School, a past and future parent in the district, and the director of SummerQuest. It is the last role that I wish to speak about. For those who don't know, SummerQuest was the premier summer camp in St. Louis for close to 20 years. Started by Nathan Peck and Sally Lazaroff in 2001, SummerQuest, was a collaboration between the school district of Clayton, Clayton Parks and Rec, and the city of Clayton to offer six weeks of summer day camp programming for children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Through this partnership, SummerQuest was able to provide a wide variety of unique enrichment and recreational experiences for students in and out of the district. An average of 400 children per session enrolled in SummerQuest got an introduction to a large variety of activities such as engineering, woodworking, biomedical science, rocketry, robotics, website design, photography, computer programming, film editing, ceramics, stained glass, photography, theater, dance, cooking in addition to recreation activities like swimming, rock climbing, fencing and several team sports. While also offering support of paraprofessional and financial discounts for families, SummerQuest was the most inclusive summer day camp in the St. Louis area. SummerQuest offered jobs for 35 to 45 high school and college age young adults. Several counselors discovered their love of working with young children and actively pursued careers in education because of their time at SummerQuest. Every summer, 25 to 30 teachers made the decision to teach Summer Quest instead of making more money to teach summer school because of the connection to families, the quality of programming, and the culture we developed. In the spring of 2020, the understandable decision was made to cancel Summer Quest for the summer of 2020 due to COVID. Unfortunately, the School District of Clayton decided in the winter of 2020 to again cancel SummerQuest for the summer of 2021. The announcement to cancel SummerQuest took place early in January. The staff of SummerQuest was not made aware of this decision until it appeared in the principal's newsletters of our elementary schools. In early February, I met with the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services to gain information about the future of the SummerQuest program. At that meeting, I was informed that the decision was made for the School District of Clayton to end future involvement in the SummerQuest program, but we would be given the opportunity to transition the program or a similar program to be housed under the Center of Clayton. Despite what I still believe to be good faith efforts and discussions with Mary Jo Gruber and Patty DeForest to explore the possibility of continuing the program, I was told in July 2021 that the Center of Claydon would not pursue the continuation of SummerQuest. I'm left with many questions about the school district of Clayton's decision to end summer quest. Why would the decision to cancel the program for the summer of 2021 made in December? Why was the decision to cancel program for the summer 2021 made in December of 2020? Why was COVID used as an excuse to cancel the program the summer of 2021 when many camps in the area were in session? What are the exact reasons why the district decided to permanently end involvement in the Summer Quest program? Was there any outreach to gauge the community's interest and opinion of Summer Quest before the decision was made to end it? Why wasn't there any effort to adjust, retool, rethink, or reimagine the Summer Quest program to fit within the strategic plan before completely abandoning it? Why did the district suggest transitioning the program to the Center of Clayton before it was confirmed that the Center of Claydon would be willing and able to continue the program? I came to the School District of Clayton when we espoused the kid check statement. The directive was that the best interest of our students was to be placed at the center of every decision. Summer Quest was an added good for our community that provided recreational and educational experiences for thousands of children over the years. The decision to end SummerQuest is not in the best interest of our students and community and is not emblematic of a school district that professes trust, excellence, and inclusiveness as core values. Above all else, I wish to convey my thanks to everyone who has been involved in the SummerQuest over the years. Former Superintendent Don Senti had a vision for best utilizing our facilities and our talented educators to provide amazing summer experiences for children. Thank you to the SummerQuest founders Nathan Peck and Sally Lazaroff for delivering that vision. Thank you to all the dozens of maintenance, human relations, payroll, and technology staff of the district who supported SummerQuest. Thank you to former assistant superintendent of student services, Greg Batenhorst for trusting me to take over the program and to Julie Englehart for her many hours of dedicated work each summer to help coordinate between all Clayton summer programs. Thank you to the Clayton families that supported us for two decades. And finally, thank you to every single teacher and counselor who gave their time and talents each summer to make SummerQuest a special experience for thousands of children. With gratitude and appreciation, Doug Verbee, director of SummerQuest. Amber Kempf, it is my understanding that the district is considering doing away with the Summer Quest camp program. As a parent that is always looking for affordable and fun camps for my son to attend in the summer, I've really missed Summer Quest the past two years. It has been a valuable resource to me as a working parent to have reasonably priced summer childcare within my community. It would be a loss to our community if it goes away. I hope that the board decides to keep Summer Quest going for both the kids that enjoy it and the parents that rely upon it for childcare needs in the summer. Thank you for your consideration. Andrew Boink, Summer Quest was a wonderful program for my children when I was teaching summer school. Because we lived out of district, Summer Quest allowed my kids to continue to meet up with friends from Clayton during the summer. It would be a shame for this program which not only works for the kids, but also great for the counselors who come back from college or in high school to work with the younger students to disappear. Please continue the program to help the students of the district allow current and former students to work with these children. Tyler Polker. Since I was little, Summer Quest has always been a very fun camp, but it was also very educational. If I would not have gone to that camp, I might never have discovered hidden passions. It was also a chance to catch up with friends. I also saw kids go through a whole transformation during camp. In conclusion, it would make me really sad if we didn't have Summer Quest. Rick Horace. I was sad to see the district drop Summer Quest. All three of my children attended it, and I worked it for 18 years. I thought it was an awesome experience for kids who attended, particularly for those with special learning needs. Great work experience for the high school and college students who worked there, and I believe it was one of the best-run summer camps in St. Louis. Sorry to see it go. Frowny face. colin connor hello my name is colin connor i am a senior at clayton high school i attend some i attended summer quest from kindergarten through eighth grade after that i became a counselor in training cit with hopes to be a counselor summer quest has taught me so much i've made friends that i'm still close to today i also remember how big of role models all the counselors and training and counselors were to me i made so many connections through camp first off the teachers that helped when i went mr verby mr suker and mr sankey They are now the ones that are teaching me in high school. It really helped to show up to school as a little freshman and see some familiar faces in something that was so brand new. Also, just the other day at the center of Clayton, two kids came up to me asking if I remembered them from being their CIT. It made me feel really good because it means I did my job well and brought back memories of the fun times we had at camp. I hope SummerQuest does not die out now. As when I came in the Clayton district, SummerQuest was one of the things that helped me become confident and to make new friends and to be less nervous about going to school with new people. I hope to end my school career the same way I started it by being a part of SummerQuest as a counselor in 2022. Thank you for your time, Colin Connor. Caroline Stamp. Good evening. My name is Caroline Stamp and I graduated from Clayton High School in 2010. I started working at SummerQuest in 2009 as a junior. After graduating from college, I became an elementary teacher. Summer Quest was the most formative experience I had as a high schooler that inspired me to go into education, and I'm now in my seventh year of teaching. The success of Summer Quest can be measured in many ways. While you could look at our rising enrollment numbers, number of returning families, or wide array of classes, I encourage you to look at the Summer Quest staff. Year after year, SummerQuest staff members return. Counselors, teachers, paraprofessionals, and office staff continue to dedicate their summers to create the enriching program that is SummerQuest. Staff members continually plan vacations around SummerQuest and turn down higher paying summer jobs to continue to work at SummerQuest. Personally, I started as a counselor and worked my way up as a teacher, secretary, office manager, and finally was hired on as a second assistant director for the summer of 2020 before the pandemic closure. I chose to come back year after year because I knew that Summer Quest was the best way to spend my summer. I was surrounded by other incredible educators who truly wanted to create the best environment for all children. I can honestly say that I enjoyed going to work every single day while working at Summer Quest. The COVID pandemic has created a great struggle for summer camps around the St. Louis area. While I understand that closing SummerQuest may seem like the logical decision, I urge you to look back at the summer of 2011. In 2011, Clayton High School underwent a massive renovation that left SummerQuest without a facility and forced the camp to close for the summer. Many questioned what the fate of the program would be, but we returned stronger than ever in 2012 and continued to create the premier summer experience for children in the St. Louis area. Permanently closing SummerQuest would be a great loss to the families in St. Louis and the incredible staff who have given years and years to make the program what it is. I urge you to consider reinstating the SummerQuest program for the summer of 2022. Patrick Mullen, I wish to voice support for the SummerQuest program. As an employee of the district who worked the program several summers and a father of a young boy whom I hope to send to SummerQuest when he's big enough, I am very sad to see that SummerQuest has been allowed to die. I believe that the program provides a safe, positive, fun, and healthy educational and social outlet for the children of the School District of Clayton and is a valuable component of social-emotional learning during the summer months. While not a Clayton resident myself, I find it hard to imagine that the community does not place great value in SummerQuest. It is a very well-attended summer program, and I wonder if parents of Clayton students realize that SummerQuest is being done away with. I sincerely hope that the decision to kill SummerQuest is not absolute, not set in stone yet. I really feel the children of Clayton are not best served by this decision. Respectfully, Patrick Mullen, Chinese teacher, Wydown Middle School and Clayton High School SummerQuest employee and fan. Keith Baker. Hello, I was one of the first teachers to work that very first SummerQuest summer and have been back time and time again. I've participated in teaching a variety of different grade levels and classes over the year, all of which have filled me with great, with a great sense of pride. Pride in seeing such an amazing program highlighting play and the need to play together in a world where everyone seems disconnected. SummerQuest gave our students the opportunity to experiment, create, explore, and develop throughout the summer in the most real and heartfelt way. I'm asking if you can please reconsider the decision of shutting down SummerQuest and keep this program alive. I'm eager to continue being a part of this wonderful program. Thank you for reading my comment. Lori A. Weissert- Since the norm is that the Clayton School District makes decisions after carefully consulting all stakeholders, I'm wondering what parent input was taken into consideration when deciding to eliminate the SummerQuest program? Mara Murphy Pusateri. I understand SummerQuest is being discontinued for future years. If this is true, I would like to share that SummerQuest has been great for my family. They enjoyed the different skills they learned and the staff was always warm and fun. It is hard to understand why such a solid program is ending. If the opportunities for a similar program arise in the future, I recommend the district pursuit in such quality summer learning opportunities. Tom Walsh, I'm a district resident. My three children all attended the old Clayton Summer Rec and Summer Quest. My grandson attended Summer Quest for three years. I worked for the original summer rec when it was operated out of the athletic office under John Nagy. I have worked for SummerQuest since its inception at CHS, over 30 years serving parents and children. It's been a privilege to serve two generations of students. As a classroom teacher in both social studies and computer science, SummerQuest provided summer opportunities to teach and have fun. It provided summer opportunities for other teachers as well as employment opportunities for young adults. That's been missed for two summers now. SummerQuest fills a niche for students, parents, and teachers. Please consider continuing this valuable resource. It has been missed these last two summers and would be missed in the future. Sincerely, Tom Walsh. Nathan Peck. It has come to my attention that the school district is considering decreasing involvement in the SummerQuest program, and this is disconcerting news. Over the last 20 years, SummerQuest has helped build community in our district. As an educator at CHS, I know that each summer over 40 CHS students from diverse backgrounds are employed working with many hundreds of our elementary age students in a low stress and rich environment. I know from talking to many former counselors that being employed at SummerQuest was a life-changing experience for them. They learned about responsibility of their employers, but more importantly, they learned about becoming a leader in our community. SummerQuest also provides the opportunity for district faculty to teach to their passions over the summer. SummerQuest has science faculty teaching science, art faculty teaching art, PE faculty teaching sports and games, et cetera. The experiences offered by SummerQuest staff to our district's young people are both educational and fun. They keep students interested in learning new things over the summer, which ultimately enriches their lives and attitudes about school. SummerQuest is part of the fabric of our Clayton community. It's arguably the best summer experience for young learners in the St. Louis area and is a bright spot in our overall educational program. I believe that would be an astonishing loss for the Clayton community if the School District of Clayton were to end SummerQuest and its partnership with the CRSWC. Christine Langenbacher, educate, inspire, empower. I am forever grateful to the School District of Clayton and the Center of Clayton have supported the SummerQuest program for several years to educate, inspire, and empower our young learners. Certified teachers that run the SummerQuest Program work for students to become self-actualized, intellectually curious, culturally competent, empathetic, creative thinkers, and collaborators. Teachers are dedicated to the personal growth of our learners and their social, emotional, and physical well-being, which is a necessity in today's world. I feel that we need to support our families with the development of our future generation to help build a solid foundation moving forward in life. I would ask you to please reconsider taking this away from our children. We always put kids first, and I feel their social-emotional health will be affected by the elimination of the Summer Quest program. Sarah Falkoff. Hi, my name is Sarah Falkoff and I'm a Clayton parent as well as a teacher at CHS. My son is in fourth grade at Merrimack and I would like to comment on the Summer Quest program. I have two ways that I can view the program. First, as a teacher, at the high school who worked in the program as a science teacher. I saw high school students who had trouble succeeding academically shine being counselors at SummerQuest. SummerQuest makes sure that they hire ethnically diverse teachers and counselors to represent the community of the school and the Clayton community as a whole. Some counselors have had difficulty with their academic success and, with the help of SummerQuest, have gained a feeling of pride and self-worth and self-esteem. Because of SummerQuest the semesters following, they were able to turn things around. SummerQuest is usually the student's first job and they take lots of pride in it and take it seriously. It also needs to be noted that many of these kids turn out to be teachers due to the fact that they love this job and working with kids. These counselors become pillars and leaders of the community. They're recognized by their campers and restaurants and shops, and it feels good to them to be seen by kids. My son always loves seeing his counselors out and about. The high school students need SummerQuest as much as the younger kids do. SummerQuest really brings a sense of community to Clayton all its own. Second, as a Clayton parent, my son misses summer quest. He is bonded with teachers and counselors in a way very different than at any other camps. He has fun learning, growing, having fun with friends, conducting experiments, playing games and trying new things, exploring new interests in a safe and joyful environment. He knows all of the teachers by name. And as a parent, I love the fact that all the classes are run by a teacher. Not many camps can boast that. My son has learned how to go along with others, deal with losing a game, how to win gracefully, how to make a solar oven and much more. Losing SummerQuest would be a huge loss to the district and to the community. I had to send my child elsewhere two summers in a row. Nowhere else is anything like Summer Quest, and it would be a shame to lose it. In Clayton, we used to boast about being not just good, but great. We always used to be a step above. I feel that we're starting to lose that step-above-ness, and talking about canceling Summer Quest for good, I don't feel that this is the best interest for kids of any age. We need to be focused on what's in the best interest of kids. Why would we stop something that set us apart from everyone else and made us great? Julie Connor. I'm a PE teacher at White Owl Middle School, the Clayton Health and Physical Education Curriculum Coordinator for Clayton, and a SummerQuest teacher for over 15 years. As a new teacher to SummerQuest, I remember thinking how lucky the kids of Clayton were to have such an awesome and robust program. K-3 campers had a creative, rich, and robust curriculum, and that goes for fourth through eighth graders too. It is unheard of in other school districts. SummerQuest also provides amazing connections between campers, CITs, counselors, and teachers. As a SummerQuest teacher, I learned from some of the best teachers in Clayton. Leadership skills from Doug Verbee, collaborative lessons and classroom management skills from Mike Brown, Christine Langenbacher, and Keith Baker taught me new games and sports and activities. Mike Sankey has become a friend and trusted colleague that I connect with and discuss equity and inclusion matters. He's my accountability partner when taking the pledge to learn more after participating in the courageous conversations, professional development. I have to believe that I would not have these connections and valuable resources of friendship and knowledge without being a SummerQuest teacher. My son Colin is a senior at CHS. He was a SummerQuest camper through 8th grades. As a kindergartner, he made friendships with future Glenridge classmates. He went on to be a CIT and enjoyed that as well. He really looked up to some of his older classmates and the college-age counselors. We are hopeful that he'll also be a Summer Quest counselor this upcoming summer. As a Summer Quest teacher, I was able to get to know students at a young age. It's awesome to watch them grow year after year, and when they get to Y-Down on their first day of sixth grade, they already know a friendly face. More specifically, I've also got to connect with SSD support teachers and students. When they get to Y Down, I'm fully aware of their abilities, behaviors, and modifications and can share with other teachers. Clayton has set the standard with the strategic plan goals and the portrait of a graduate to be known as a place for everyone to grow as learners in head and heart. I see this in action on the faces of the kids, CITs, counselors, and teachers at SummerQuest. All of the strategic goals are a regular practice of the SummerQuest community. You can count on kids to experience a safe place to learn with a wide variety of personalized, creative, fun, cultural focused activities, and learning opportunities. It's an inclusive and welcoming place that is unique and distinctive to our community. There's nothing else like it and serves and benefits many populations within our Clayton School District. My love for SummerQuest is immense. When I heard that it might be no more, I cried. I felt like I lost an old friend. It is one of my most favorite roles. My hope is I have conveyed just how great SummerQuest is. It's an outstanding program that the School District of Clayton should fully value, preserve, and give 100% support for an awesome comeback in the summer of 2022.

Okay, thank you, Milena. To everybody that made the comments, the board, as some of you probably know, the board does not respond, but Dr. Patel will circulate probably via e-mail a response to the public comments, and we appreciate everybody taking the time to submit a comment. Thank you. Just turn my mic off here. I think we're going to move on to board communications and. We. I'll start by saying that I know that Dr. Patel and Stacy have done several walkthroughs. I joined them on one at the middle school, and I'll let Stacy talk about those walkthroughs. It's really my understanding is that all of them were wonderful. The middle school was great. There was a lot of social-emotional learning going on that I saw, but I'll let Stacy further comment.

Thank you. Yes, I had the privilege of visiting each of our schools with Dr. Patel last week and this week. And I just thought I took some notes on what I saw at each of the schools because I was really amazed at, first of all, how well. all of our teachers from preschool through 12th grade were connecting with their students and teaching lessons that directly correlate to the strategic plan. include a lot of social emotional learning, equity work, and cross-curricular real life connections. I was really so impressed. So I just thought it would be really beneficial to everyone to kind of hear some of the examples. So first of all, I saw the gender neutral bathrooms going up in each of the schools, except Merrimack, I think. They're all about ready, and the elementary principals have decided at that level to call them everybody bathrooms, which I just thought was great and very age-appropriate. At the high school, in one of the fax rooms, we saw an affirmation station, which is a mirror with affirmations surrounding it, and I just thought what a great way the kids could to walk by that and look at themselves in the mirror and see something nice they could say to themselves which would really help their confidence. They were working on a group project called what makes a family and I thought what a great way to start off the school year collaborating with your classmates and bonding over a shared experience like that. We talked to a graphic design teacher who was having the kids use one-dimensional shapes to describe their feelings so Maybe a triangle would show that they were experiencing fear or a circle that they had empathy or a square that they were feeling jealous of someone. So incorporating all of their emotions into art, I thought was just such a creative way to explain it. And again, I think early in the year is a great way to... get the kids to open up in a different way about their feelings. Let's see. Also at the high school, we were in a FST math class, which is the junior level math class that stands for functions, statistics, and trigonometry. They were looking at data and statistics of the disproportionate number of African Americans in our prison system to analyze data and learn about functions and statistics that way. And I thought, what an incredible example and story to use to study and to learn the math. We also talked to an art teacher who has, for the first time, a visually impaired student in the graphic design course. And she has been so creative finding special software for this student and was so eager to get this to work and especially was so excited to have the student in her class. in wide on we went to an integrated arts class in the theater and they had a banner on the stage amy was there too that said my hope for the year and kids were just writing whatever they wanted to on the banner and some of them were were little things like um you know i hope to um i don't know like yeah be organized but son i hope to make new friends and some of them are these grandiose ideas like i hope for world peace. But it was just so great that it gave the kids, and they were anonymous, an opportunity to share their hopes with their classmates. Let's see. at captain elementary, one of the kindergarten teachers told us for the first time in her memory, she had no students cry with separation anxiety on the first day of school, which I thought was amazing considering these kids have probably spent more time with their parents than ever. And it like, we were amazed and it showed us really like how excited these kids are to be there and be with their friends. And, um, And so that was impressive. We saw another kindergarten teacher teaching her class how to use the dustpan and sweep the floors and explain to the kids that I forgot who the custodian's name is at captain, but that we all need to do our part in caring for our community and helping him out to clean the room also, which was great and a life skill. Yeah, maybe it was Mr. Mike. One of our brand new teachers at Captain has this really cool thing he does to connect with kids where they each have their own special individual handshake and he greets them with that every single day. And he explained that on the first day of school everyone gets the same handshake and then they earn different layers to it for accomplishing different things in the class. And I don't know how he remembers them all but I thought what a great way to connect with your kids and make them feel cool. which was great. One of the classrooms had two guinea pigs, and they are named Ruth and Harriet after Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harriet Tubman, and when I asked the kids about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Harriet Tubman it just opened up such great conversation about each of those women, and you know the kids first started off by saying I don't know anything about them, and then they kind of started there you could see the wheels turning in their head like oh yeah Wasn't Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court? And, oh, yeah, wasn't Harriet Tubman? And it was just cool that, like, just because of the name of the guinea pigs, we start talking about women like that in our history. And let's see, at Merrimack... I don't know if any of you, if all of you have been to Merrimack. This has been there a long time, but every time I'm at Merrimack, I'm always struck by that identity tapestry it has because I always notice new things. That's the... There's yarn connecting different... qualities about a student to show the interconnectedness of our community. So there might be a sign that says, I have a dog, I like tacos, my parents are immigrants and different color yarn connects all of those and it shows the connectedness in the school community. And anytime I've been to Merrimack, I love to look at it because I always find new things on that, which I think is great. We saw another classroom at Merrimack doing math and the teacher had told the kids they could work alone or with a partner or with a group. And it was so interesting to see how kids chose to work. And I just loved the freedom of choice because, you know, kids sometimes do better alone and they might do better with a peer. So I was having the choice to work together was great to see. At the family center, the first classroom we went in, the teacher was reading a book called Be Kind. And even at a young age, these kids were so responsive to what this book said and the examples it gave of ways to be kind. So that was great. And another room we went in, there's one student in a wheelchair. And I was so impressed with the way they have adapted the space and made him feel included in everything, sitting on the floor for story time to moving to a special supportive chair at snack time. Um, I was really touched by that as well. And the last school we went to was Glenridge. Um, we walked in on, um, a group of teachers meeting about how to help the kids they've already noticed are struggling and falling behind. And I really appreciated the team effort. It wasn't just this, these students' homeroom teachers, but they were collaborating and bouncing ideas off each other, how to really get these kids and nip it in the bud early in the school year. Um, we saw a fifth grade classroom that was discussing social justice standards. It's the, on the, on the smart board, it said, how can we build a more just and equitable school community and world? How will that look in our classroom? And the kids were often groups coming up with ideas of how to do that. And I thought like, what a great, I mean, what a, what a great way to show that social justice work can start small in the classroom, but then be more connected to the broader community. And another classroom was talking about how to be a good listener, and they were posting lists of the kids' ideas, things we want to hear and things we don't want to hear when we're working together. And this classroom also had an affirmation station with a mirror and affirmations all around it, which was great. And I think it was maybe a third-grade classroom. There were students taking turns coming up to the SMART Board with pictures of their family or their hobbies, and they were presenting it to the class talking about their family and their hobbies or foods they like, whatever. And I just thought sharing those personal things early in the school year is such a great way to get to know your classmates and find things that you have in common to connect with them. I know that was a lot, but anyway, I just thought we saw so much at each school that again was so impressive, was connected to the strategic plan, especially the social emotional learning. And most of all, the kids were totally attentive and engaged. I mean, we talked Nisha and Dr. Patella and I noticed that at every grade level, the kids were completely engaged in the learning, very attentive. Very respectful, and it was really great to see. Everyone seemed so excited to be there. Thank you for letting me share all that.

Thank you for taking such great notes, and that's some really encouraging things that are happening in our schools. It's very exciting. What else do we have here? Clayton Education Foundation.

So Nisha and I both attended the Clayton Education Foundation meeting, and so did Chris, our communications director. And so Nisha got a chance to introduce herself to all the board members on the foundation. They were very excited to meet her. The meeting mostly talked about establishment of new committees and homecoming. They are planning to establish two new committees, finance and a governance committee. They already have the Hall of Fame committee and the events committee, which do a lot of the things to identify future Hall of Famers and to honor them and then to also coordinate the events that happen throughout the year. So if you know anybody that is interested in volunteering or serving on a committee, Alex Berger is aggressively looking for those people. And as we all know, Alex Berger, we all love him, can be very aggressive and he will be tenacious until he finds those people. So they're recruiting for all the committees but finance and governance are new and then Hall of Fame has always existed. As far as the homecoming, they've got some great things set up for alumni that are coming back and really just for the general community. They will have a fire truck in the parade and then they're hosting an alumni barbecue on Saturday, September 25th from noon to three. So it's $5 a person. Everybody should go. I'm not an alumni but I will also probably still go or Alex will hound me. And then I'm trying to think if there is anything else that before they went into executive session? I don't think so. So yeah, lots of activity and they've got a lot planned for this month.

Sounds great. That's all I have. Does anybody, am I missing anything?

I don't have any reports from any meetings, but I did just want to say that I really appreciated being able to be at Y-Down on Monday and being involved in that. I thought it was really – two things really stuck out to me. One, that the whole experience was very kid-centered and kid-led. The kids – Y-Down kids took us and some of the other guests on – tour of the building and showed some things that they were proud of and were interested in showing off. I thought that was great. I also thought it was really great we had our state senator Brian Williams and representative Ian Mackey joined us in addition to the state education folks and I thought that was a really great show of support for the school and the community and just that everyone's really proud of Y-Down and everyone there so it was great to be involved in that and I really appreciated that chance so thank you.

Great. Wonderful. I think that's all we have for tonight. Stacey, can we get a...

I move that the Board of Education adjourn.

Second.

Okay. And all in favor?

Aye.