February 7, 2024 — Meeting Transcript

Okay, good evening, everybody. Adequate notice has been given. It's February 7th, and we are going to go ahead and get started with the board meeting. First, let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

Okay, let's go ahead and adopt the agenda.

I move that the Board of Education adopt the agenda as posted.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, good. Motion passes. And we are now on to recognizing our own. Hi, Robin.

All right, good evening everybody. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present this evening's Recognizing Our Own. So the month of February is Love the Bus Month, which raises awareness and appreciation for safe transport of students to and from school and school activities. And so tonight we're going to recognize our school bus drivers for their efforts to go above and beyond in order to transport Clayton students to school and home, and to all of the various district activities. So we're going to start with our Voluntary Inter-District Choice Corporation, or VIC bus drivers. And before I introduce them, I wanted to share a couple fun facts. First, we have five VIC drivers. In between the five of them, they have 85 years of driving experience, which is pretty incredible. And our VIC transportation coordinator, Tammy Webb, has been with VIC for 39 years. She started with VIC in 1985. I'm not going to tell people how old I was in 1985. But I would like to invite each of the drivers up to receive a special token of our recognition and appreciation for everything you do for our Clayton students. If you talk to any building principal, they will tell you that bus routes are their own tiny mobile ecosystem and special community and can really set the tone for the rest of the day for so many of our students. And they get to see such a special slice of the day that a lot of us don't get to see. So we thank you for all the ways you take care of our kids, you see them, you value them, you make them feel loved and cared for and help us have them have a great start to their day. So the first driver I'd like to recognize who is in charge of the Glenridge route, Ms. Valerie Barnes, please come up to be recognized. Thank you, Ms. Barnes. The next driver I'd like to recognize is Felicia Jacobs who runs one of our secondary routes. Also, our secondary routes cover both middle school and high school. Our next driver is Janina Martin who covers Merrimack and Captain. We also want to recognize where who runs one of our secondary routes Thank You Alma And then we also want to invite Christina Wooten up she runs some of our secondary routes and And then also I just want to thank Tammy Webb because she, wow, she just really keeps all the trains going and the planes landing all at the right time. And she is a great partner every day in helping us problem solve and keeping kids safe. So thank you, Tammy. And in addition to our VIC drivers, we also have a series of drivers that are employed by the School District of Clayton. Some of them might be here with us. And if they are, please come up. Others, I'd like to recognize Timo Avala, Charlie Carroll, Carl Gass, Zach Fortner, Wendell Melvin, Trevor Nolte, Ben Ranz, Craig Symington, and Donald Stevenson. And they all help with our morning runs, our evening runs, our during the day runs because we take a lot of field trips. And some of them have multiple stops. And, of course, all... So thank you so much to all of our school district of Clayton as well during love the bus month.

Okay, Dr. Patel,

I'll turn it over to you. Okay, good evening everyone. Thank you for being here on this special evening and thank you to all the bus drivers as well. First thing, a lot of fun and exciting things happening in the school district of Clayton. First off is last week I had a chance to go watch Clayton High School's drama department's annual Broadway musical, Sweeney Todd. Not sure if anyone got a chance to see it, but it was amazing, remarkable. Our students, once again, just blew me away with all of the work that's leading up to that, including all the students in the orchestra pit. It's remarkable what they put together. And I had a chance to see, actually, Dr. Gochewski was there with his mom, which is a tradition, which I think is wonderful that he goes every year with his mom to support the students in the department. So that was wonderful. And another unique thing about that was that was Kelly Weber, who's our drama theater teacher's last directorial performance because she was retiring this year. So I want to congratulate her. She's been with us for over 20 some years I would say but very supportive of the students and the program and I just want to thank her and I know we will be missing her tremendously. So that was her last one. Next, the first week in February I'm not sure if a lot of people know this, but today actually happens to be National Girls and Women in Sports Day. And so I wanted to congratulate, recognize, and acknowledge all of our female athletes that give their 101% on the field, on the courts, and everywhere. They come to school every day, and then they go to practice, and they work hard. just want to recognize them and they always are, you know, 100% dedicated to it. So a lot of sports, we try to get as many pictures on there. So if we missed a team, sure we did. Whatever we had was the ones we put on there. So I just want to congratulate them as well and recognize them. And then this is actually school counselors appreciation week. And I'm actually glad that we have one of our school counselors who's going to be presenting later on today, but Again, when you think about the number of years of experience that all of our counselors have when you put together, it's over 153 years of caring for our students. That is remarkable. The impact that they have on our kids, social-emotional learning, but also just helping them with career choices and after graduation. It's remarkable, and they work really, really hard. So I just want to acknowledge them. And actually, one of the counselors on there, Anthony Henderson, is going to be retiring as well this year. And he is at Merrimack, and he has spent almost over 24 years in this role for us as well. And then next up, I just want to quickly highlight, I know we've advertised it in our e-news and social media and emails, etc. But later on this month, on February 26th, I hope and I would love to invite the entire community, staff, students, parents, to a celebration of Black Achievement Night. This is the second year that we're going to do this. I want to thank Dr. Poole for putting it all together. And we're going to be recognizing some of our black alumni that are going to come in and just the impact that they're having in the world and in our society and community. So that'll be a great event. I do hope you get to come to that. And I believe some of the board members were there last year as well and got to see that. And then finally, we have started our work towards our long range facilities master plan. We are getting bids as we speak on this work and the last one we had was in 2008. It's been 15 to 20 years is usually the span for a facilities plan. And we will begin to work on that. We'll be engaging with architects, engineers and different consultants to make sure that we have a great plan in terms of looking at our facilities, looking at enrollment, looking at just the aging conditions as well of all of our buildings. And that'll be our next step. And we will definitely engage the community in this work. at appropriate intervals so that we can get input from the community as well on that. And so be looking for more information on that as we move forward with that. And now at this point, I would like to turn it over to Mohini because I know she's very eager to share some information.

Hi, everyone. Today I wanted to talk a little bit about the Wellness Center because it's going to be opening soon and the students are really excited about it. And so the last time we discussed the Wellness Center was in December when with the All In Coalition they created Wellness Week where every day they offered resources to students and really advertised itself. And at the time, I talked about how all the students were really excited by everything they offered and that if the Wellness Center continues to take in student input, it's going to be really successful. And from looking at it right now, I can see that they are continuing to do so. And I think it's going to really great. And so this week, I got the opportunity to see the Wellness Center and talk to Mrs. M, the coordinator, about what the plans are, what it looks like. And the space looks really great. We discussed some of the resources, like the art, the music, journaling, and everything it was going to offer. And it seemed like it was made for high schoolers to really enjoy, not just a way to say we're caring about mental health, but rather they were really specific and gave students a lot of options on how they would like to have that emotional outlet, which they would need throughout the school day. Because, you know, similarly in the library, which was recently renovated, they added a lot of space, which gave opportunities to add puzzles and coloring and, you know, all sorts of activities within the library. And because students tend to use it and tend to really enjoy it, I see that in the wellness center it would be like similarly used. And so the Wellness Center, what I think is going to distinguish itself from the library and other spaces within the school is because it's allowing you to have feelings in a place when you're not expected to have feelings. Because at school, you're expected to go every day and walk around 100% OK. But with the Wellness Center, because it's giving students a space to really allow for there to be emotional outlet, I think it will just help with the well-being of all its students very well. And so it's really special, and I'm really excited. And they're planning on working with the BSU, the SBSA, a bunch of student groups in order to continue to get that student input, which is really exciting. And one concern I heard from students a lot is if the district wants to make itself accountable for everyone's feelings, it has to be genuine. And after talking to Mrs. M and looking at the resources, I can say that it looks very genuine, and it looks like the district is truly going to care about all its students. And so because this space is going to be for all students, not the ones you necessarily always see at a resource place, like any student can access it, I think it's going to open really great next week. There's a lot planned, and it's going to be really successful.

Thank you. That was great. I'm excited for it to open too. And now we're going to hear about the Wellness Center. So ladies and gentlemen, gentleman, come on up.

All right. Good evening, everyone. I'm Robyn Wiens. I'm the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services. And thank you, Mohini, for such a lovely ramp up. I'm looking at my notes and I'm like, I'm not sure I need to make a presentation anymore because she covered everything. But thank you for sharing your perspective. It's very much treasured and valued. So about 12 months ago, almost to the day, I came to this board table asking for the board to approve the and continue with support of our idea to explore a wellness center and working with a wellness consultant in order to meet our students' evolving mental health and mental wellness needs, especially at the high school level. And here we are now, a year later and about three-ish weeks away from opening up this brand new space and program and resource to our students that has been greatly influenced by student voice, by staff voice, and obviously with the folks here right next to me. So Tonight, Dan Gachewski, principal of CHS, as well as Toby Smith, one of the counselors at the high school counseling department, and Jen McEwen, our wellness coordinator, are going to give you an update on all the things that have been happening over the last 12 weeks, or I'm sorry, last 12 months related to the wellness center. So... luke i apologize oh here we go tonight our presentation is going to give you an overview of wellness centers and the purpose of the wellness center space they're also going to give you a update on what student and staff engagement has looked like over the past year jen will talk a little bit more about what we're learning through our community partnerships and speak to the training collaboration with swell the organization we're partnering with in terms of consultation and training, and then we're going to talk a little bit about our next steps and communication plan. So I'm going to hand it over to Jen.

All right. Good evening, everyone. I'm Robin Wiens. I'm the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services. And thank you, Mohini, for such a lovely ramp up. I'm looking at my notes and I'm like, I'm not sure I need to make a presentation anymore because she covered everything. But thank you for sharing your perspective. It's very much treasured and valued. So about 12 months ago, almost to the day, I came to this board table asking for the board to approve the and continue with support of our idea to explore a wellness center and working with a wellness consultant in order to meet our students' evolving mental health and mental wellness needs, especially at the high school level. And here we are now, a year later and about three-ish weeks away from opening up this brand new space and program and resource to our students that has been greatly influenced by student voice, by staff voice, and obviously with the folks here right next to me. So Tonight, Dan Gachewski, principal of CHS, as well as Toby Smith, one of the counselors at the high school counseling department, and Jen McEwen, our wellness coordinator, are going to give you an update on all the things that have been happening over the last 12 weeks, or I'm sorry, last 12 months related to the wellness center. So... luke i apologize oh here we go tonight our presentation is going to give you an overview of wellness centers and the purpose of the wellness center space they're also going to give you a update on what student and staff engagement has looked like over the past year jen will talk a little bit more about what we're learning through our community partnerships and speak to the training collaboration with swell the organization we're partnering with in terms of consultation and training, and then we're going to talk a little bit about our next steps and communication plan. So I'm going to hand it over to Jen.

Thank you. So to kind of ground us in what the Wellness Center is, I want to give just a brief overview of the Wellness Center and what Wellness Centers are. So a Wellness Center is a welcoming... Oh, sorry. A wellness center is a welcoming and safe space on campus created for and with youth to provide access to teen health and wellness services and support. The wellness center offers prevention and intervention including one-time crisis and ongoing support and it uses a model to create access for all students using that multi-tiered system of support. So to go over where we've gone and where we're going, highlighting some key points and key points in our timeline. So really want to highlight here that we did a lot of relationship building, particularly with our student services team at the high school. And that helped us create two groups, our working wellness group, which is our staff group, and then also our Wellness Youth Council, which you'll hear a lot about. Both are really crucial in helping develop the Wellness Center. And then also highlighting towards the end in this timeline, our site visit out to California where we were able to tour some wellness centers. And then having our Swell collaborator, Jessica Colbin, come to CHS for a wellness site visit to kind of help, again, kind of vision, develop, and plan here at CHS. And then going on through December and on to where we are now, Mohini highlighted our wellness week. So that was a really big piece with our wellness youth council partnering with All In and having that for students. And then we were able to hire our wellness outreach specialists and go through that process, which is really awesome to have her here and then be able to have her here to open. And then also our continued collaboration with our working wellness group and our wellness youth council that you'll hear about um we're continuing working together to develop those policies and procedures for our wellness center and then um we're here in february about ready to launch the wellness center

furniture came yesterday yeah

i'm gonna toss it over to dan to talk about the space

Yeah, these pictures don't really do it justice, but I do want to say that it turned out beautifully. And one of the things when we were trying to decide where we were going to locate the wellness center, we were looking at a variety of sites and I had this idea that For those of you, many of you probably don't even know this place existed, but this is almost directly across from our art classrooms. And it was our basically book repository for like retired textbooks. And so we literally and so what we did is I, I, I, met with our maintenance folks and said, what do you think? Well, first off, can we clear out this space and put everything else somewhere else? And they were fantastic about finding a new place for them. And then when I talked with Nisha and John and Jen and a variety of folks, I'm like, this is a really unused space actually and an untapped resource in a great location on the campus. So we got the architects in and we designed this place to do several things. So we have a space that is a welcoming open space. We also have a Jen's office there. We have kind of a consultation space where there's privacy for a couple of folks. And then we also have a small conference room. And just the... the feel of the place is amazing. I can't believe it's the same space actually after, uh, after the construction. And I'm, I also have to give kudos to the everyone that was involved with this because when I was having conversations with John and Nisha about this in like, like September, October, I didn't think there was any chance that this was actually going to be on schedule. And, and, uh, for an opening in second semester, and it was. So we're very, very excited about the space. And then seeing it with the furniture in it yesterday is pretty amazing. So I'm very, very excited.

So I know I mentioned the Wellness Youth Council, so I want to take a minute to really highlight that and talk about what I've done as far as student engagement. So our Wellness Youth Council is the youth arm to the Wellness Center, and it really is an important piece. We started recruiting for the Wellness Youth Council in early October and really wanted to get a diverse population of students who are really passionate about teen health and wellness involved. Um, we used our student staff student services team to recruit. There was an application process and we have about 24 active members on the team Um in the group we've had about nine meetings And really our focus is focus was that wellness week and then now our launch of the wellness center So we have two subcommittees one that's focused on outreach and publicity and one on space design so really getting their input um and their um involvement in um you know, reaching other students and having them teach them and learn about the wellness center and where it is. With that outreach and education, I've also been going into our 10th grade classrooms doing a Wellness 101 presentation to talk about the Wellness Center and why wellness is so important. I'm going to be continuing that this semester, just did that in 10th grade this week, and then also going into 9th grade PE health classes as well. So we'll continue to do that in 9th and 10th grade throughout years to talk about wellness and get continued education about why wellness is so And then we've been collaborating, as you know, with our all-in coalition and other student groups to kind of continue to spread the word and get a collaborative effort on making the Wellness Center a place and space for everyone. Oh, I want to highlight our Wellness Youth Council in a video, so enjoy.

I am very excited about the Wellness Center because I feel like a lot of people sometimes need an in-between space between the counselor and they usually use the nurse as that kind of space where they just sort of hang out to decompress. We needed places to be able to go when to

emotionally regulate when... Things are getting really hard and you just need to escape from class for a bit. I'm excited for this place because that gives people like me who have anxiety and have anxiety attacks a safe place to go to calm down and really work through their emotions and really just process what they're going through so that they can go back to class and feel safe and feel okay and ready to learn again.

it could be a good space for them just to get a higher level of help if they need it, or just have those other methods of being able to sit and relax. I am very excited about the welcome.

All right, Toby's going to share a little bit about our staff engagement.

So staff-wise, we have had multiple opportunities to kind of be in front of the staff during I think it was seven opportunities both throughout the school year to be able to do just presentations. And Jen's been really great about at every faculty meeting, kind of giving an update to that wellness moment and being able to present to them. We have worked as a collaboration with student services, which is nurses and the social workers and counselors of really creating the systems and protocols and things like that for helping students Students access how we want it to look how we can make it form and become a really thriving part of the Clayton community We have a wellness working group, which is with staff right now. It's up to like 25 members We have a meeting coming up on Friday and again they are the voice of the staff and how the staff can interact with that and help guide that along with the youth group and then Ongoing we are going to continue to have a moment at the beginning of all of our kind of Counseling meetings to kind of double-check to see how things are going how we can continue collaboration What's kind of emerging how we can work together as a team and that'll continue on throughout the year And we're our PLC s and things like that. So Definitely have staff involved

So mentioned community partnerships as a big piece of the Wellness Center. So right now we have about three community partners. We're currently working with Safe Connections, Duo Dogs, and Prevent End. So the Wellness Center is kind of taking on that engagement and coordination of those community partners that are in the school and then hoping in the future to continue to build that partnership and grow out and expand and improve have new partnerships part of that Wellness Center. And then also we currently have an MSW intern with our social worker, but we also are trying to get that MSW intern into the Wellness Center space next semester and then continue on for next school years creating a practicum site for ongoing internships to build out that support for our students. And then you've heard our relationship with Swell and our ongoing training and collaboration. So I currently attend weekly trainings for wellness coordinators and wellness outreach specialists, two positions. And I'm in a cohort where I can connect with other wellness coordinators and other wellness outreach specialists that are working in wellness centers out in California, which is really cool to consult and also interact. kind of hear about their experiences opening and developing wellness centers and then i also have weekly individual consultation that really tailors to kind of our needs here at chs and our focus has been on developing those wellness policies and procedures and really right now with the wellness launch plan and then of course we did um have our site visit toby and i out to california which is really helpful in kind of visioning and creating the Wellness Center, and then our site visit here at Clayton where Jessica was able to really see the space and also meet kind of the key stakeholders here at Clayton. And then our next steps, a lot of these things are happening as we speak. We have hired and we're currently training the, I'm currently training the wellness outreach specialist. We've continued to have our staff meetings and student meetings, our working wellness group and our wellness youth council have had continued meetings to plan for the wellness center launch. The space is developing and the furniture has been delivered and we're making the space feel like it is a piece of, again, has that youth voice and will continue to grow and will continue to get feedback from students so that we can make that space a place where they want to be and they can see themselves in. We'll continue and I will continue to continue to make those connections with outside community partners to expand and have our services kind of grow in the Wellness Center. And then we are set to open for students on February 20th, which is really exciting. Staff will also have an open house next week on the 16th during their professional development day where they will get a chance to see the space. They'll get a chance to kind of some of the tools that students will experience when they go into the Wellness Center.

And then we're also going to have – actually, I guess you have it up here. Sorry. An open house for parents. Actually, during parent-teacher conferences on March 13th, we will have the Wellness Center open for parents so they can visit and interact with the folks in the Wellness Center as well.

Yeah, so part of our communication plan, I've highlighted a little bit already, but another piece is we want to make sure all students are aware because this is a space for all. So next week we'll be going into all math classes, 9th through 12th, to give an introduction about the Wellness Center, where it is, and a brief overview of it so everybody knows about it and everybody knows where it is and when it's opening. We will also, our Wellness Youth Council is creating a launch week which will happen the second week of the Wellness Center opening and have some events similar to Wellness Week that will get students excited and engaged and in the space the staff Toby and I have been going into department meetings and really hearing from staff answering questions they have about the Wellness Center and its policies and procedures and really hearing their feedback and then you know that helps us then create those policies and procedures to make sure it's working in both ends both from the student end and also on the staff end I talked about the open house, and then we'll have all forms of communication, email. The student group will have a get video, so students will get to see that. So all different modes of communication will be had from students and staff.

And then at the district level, we've already been working pretty closely with Luke and the communications team to schedule out information about the wellness center that's both family facing and community facing through our district e-newsletters as well as our building level newsletters. utilizing our PTOs to also help get the word out, and then obviously weaving this information into all of our social media channels and other electronic communication. I do want to just set the expectations early on to everyone to manage how we're going to go through this next phase because We want to be really protective about the space when it first opens, because if we have a lot of visitors coming through, students aren't going to be super pumped about coming to visit the Wellness Center. So I say that now that we may not be entertaining visitors right away. Please don't take it personally, but we do need to let the space develop, let the tone of the space, let the routine settle in before we entertain a lot of visitors. So just want to help manage everybody's expectations around all of that. And I want to add on to some of the things that Dan said earlier. You know, we couldn't have gotten this far this quickly without the support of a lot of people. Obviously, Dr. Patel, the board. But I also want to thank Jim Brunel in facilities, John Brazeal in the business office, Carolyn Blair, the counseling chair over at the high school as well. It was Toby and the other counselors also. Happy National School Counselor Week. And then also to Regina Moore who helped play a role in getting a lot of this ramped up last school year. We wouldn't be here without any of them. And also, this is a really exciting step for meeting our students' evolving mental health and mental wellness needs and social-emotional learning needs. And it has really opened up a lot of good conversations in other parts of our district with social workers and counselors and teachers and administrators about how to support the social-emotional mental health needs of our younger students, our elementary and middle school students. So in the future, I hope to come back to this table and ask for your support In additional ways, we can support our younger students as we learn how this current model can support our secondary students at the high school. But thank you again for all of your support and thank you to the team at this table. We couldn't do this and we couldn't put this together to support our students and help them thrive without you. So thank you.

Thank you. That was great. Who wants to start? Questions? Chris, you want to start? You want to do that? Yeah, let's just go around. Let's do it.

It's exciting to see your excitement and Mohini thank you for speaking about you know the students perspective. It feels like you know we're going at this really student centered which I know we do really well in Clayton but I just want to remark that you know that's that's the key to success I think in something like this so great work. I have two little questions. Can you tell me clarify for me. what the specialist does compared to what your role is? And how big of a position? Is that full-time, what does that look like?

So the wellness outreach specialist is the first person that students see when they enter the space. Okay. Helps run the drop-in space, so if students are coming from class for a brain break or if they're dropping in to want to access, you know, education materials, or really just want to check out what the space is, they are managing that. And then if they're needing a higher level of support or connecting to more resources, connecting with our counselors, social worker, then that's kind of where I step in. So if they're in crisis, that wellness outreach is not meant to handle those crises, emergencies, but they're kind of then either sent to me to assess or kind of other our counselor social worker to access that level

so

it's full-time

person that's there every day that's awesome yeah cool and um the practicum student is my other question i love the idea of having this practicum student so that would be in addition to you and the specialist correct um so do we i i know we do but can you just talk a little bit about our connections with the schools of social work and how that is going to play out

yeah So I've already contacted and already been involved with helping oversee our current MSW intern. So I'm connected in those systems, and there's a collaborative that helps kind of funnel in social workers, but there's also counseling, graduate students, as well as psychology. So really open to building those relationships so that we can have and create opportunities more opportunities because i do believe that once we open the doors there is going to be a need for referrals and support for students and so we want to meet that need when it does come and have available access to resources you know within the wellness center so creating that space and developing relationships i think that's not this year but i think that's kind of setting the stage for years you know for years to come

okay so that's what i was going to ask so this year there won't be a practicum student

This year we will be kind of sharing that with our social worker

and building that into the wellness center.

In addition, that practicum will also learn the wellness outreach specialist role too, and they'll be able to step into that space and learn kind of that role as well as doing the one-to-one support.

Okay, great. And will there be any availability for you to interview to determine which practicum student we take? Yeah, I will be. It's not just that SLU says, we have these three people and we want to give you this, right? You get to actually sit down with them, make sure that they're the right fit for our.

And I would be supervising them. So we would have weekly supervision and I'd be a part of that process, yes, to hire. Right.

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

I'll step up for the Jasons. Well, thanks, everyone. First of all, just a comment. You guys have come so far in just, to your point, Robin, a year. That part is really impressive. Not many organizations can sort of move that fast. And so, you know, hats off to you guys. I do have a few questions. One, I'm sort of curious, Mrs. M., uh, how, you know, this sort of this nebulous idea, how did you go about making it like making it real for students, staff, any other stakeholders to sort of get by and across the board?

Yeah, I think that's been kind of my main focus is really, really focusing on students and staff engagement. I think you heard about building those two groups as kind of one. The wellness center is as good as the staff that's in them, but also the students that participate in them. And students are not going to participate if they don't see and feel that it is a space for them. So really, it's really, really important to have that wellness youth council and that youth voice in creating a space that kids want to be in and feel safe in. really put effort into that and then again, staff needs to be able to trust and buy into it too so they can allow students to access it as well. And so I think making sure that I'm making time to you know, be in department meetings, to be in front of staff as much as I can and to hear their feedback. It's a lot of work, but I think it's paid off with the amount of time put into that.

Okay, great. And then just a couple other questions, I guess more for the table. Over the long term, do we have a way of measuring the success of this program? And if the answer is no, I think that's fine at this point. How do we think about, as a board member, how do we think about measuring how well this is going as a program? Or is there a plan for that?

Yeah. I would say in terms of the data pieces, as we start to track it, because I mean obviously we'll track our interactions and actually the nature of our interactions. So we already do some of that in counseling right now in terms of the students that are presenting with various situations, like suicidal ideation, stress, anxiety, anxiety attacks. And I think that as we look at that and that data in terms of frequency or... And intensity, I would say too that we're making a positive impact. Hopefully we would see some of those things go down actually over time. So I think there's that. I also think that a lot of the data contained within the panorama survey, that would be a good piece of longitudinal data to track because that's a lot of students self-reporting around related issues. But I think that there's some really concrete measures that we can use.

I also know that we have some systems in place to track and monitor what we're doing and the services that we're providing. So we will have a system that tracks, um, um, the services, uh, that the wellness outreach specialist is providing. So that is a service. And even in that drop-in space, um, the amount of providers that are going to be there and who they're providing services to. And then also our events, not just like the actual services that we're you know, the presentations, um, the campaigns, like who we're reaching, not just, you know, so we have the amount of students we reach in the physical space through those, you know, kind of tier two, tier three services, but also we're tracking the presentations and, um, other events to kind of show, you know, how our reach is getting beyond, um, just the center.

All right. And then last question that I can, we'll move on, but Is there anything, I know longer term talking about bringing this down to the middle school and elementary schools, which is great. Is there anything near term that this board can do to further support this work? That comes to mind right now.

I, you know, again, I think that this group, when we talk about the Wellness Center, think about students, we think about staff, but there's also outreaching, you know, parents. And then we also think about the community. So I think the Wellness Center does multiple levels and that it, and I think the creativity and expansion in my eyes is like ever evolving and changing. And that's what's really awesome about it. So, you know, I see that kind of impact, you know, you know, starting here at Clayton High School, but expanding on into the district and to the community.

I would also add continued engagement and caring about all the different aspects of our students. Obviously, we care a lot about making sure they're having a really rigorous and excellent academic experience, but I have always appreciated the engagement in taking care of all of our students' other needs and how our they're doing on the social-emotional side. And I think continuing to be interested in learning about our students' needs and how their needs are changing, I think would be a huge piece of our work together.

Great. Thanks.

That was a good tee up for me. So congratulations, first of all, on the opening of the center. I saw it maybe three months ago with Chris and with Stacy when Nisha took us through on a board visit. And it looked like a dungeon. The books were gone, but it was a concrete floor with cinder block walls and just an empty room. So it's very impressive what you guys have been able to do really in less than four months. I think the measurement aspect that Jason just talked about is important. I think that, I think the whole board believes that health and wellness of students is obviously important which is why we made the investment but somehow being able to measure that and it sounds like you're trying to determine what those measurements could be is gonna be important especially when you think about coming back to the board for additional resources to potentially expand this program in high school or extend the program to younger kids in the district. So it sounds like there might be a visitor type of log that you'll keep track of, as well as what types of students. I think that the student-centered approach is important since you have a combination of a pull versus a push system. And that means that you already have an idea of which students should be using the center, but it doesn't mean they'll necessarily come to the center. So I'm hoping that you pull those students in that you have some evidence to reflect that that's happening. And then you'll probably reach students that maybe are not answering the panoramic surveys, that will feel comfortable coming to the space because of the way that you're intentionally creating the space and keeping all of us adults out until it's appropriate for us to come visit. I heard that too, Robin. So that's good. What is the actual capacity of like how many students can you have in there at a time? And how will you manage that if the demand is too high? How many kids can you really have in there at one time?

I would probably say between 8 to 15, depending on the event. If we're doing a small group in... the small conference room, and there's potentially somebody doing a one-on-one in the middle room. And there was absolutely space for four-ish more students to be in the actual drop-in space. So I think it would depend on like the programming. But I mean, I think once we get over seven or eight, then kind of we start having a diminishing return in terms of everybody's needs being met.

Okay, so that's like 1% to 2% of the high school student body at any given time, which is a very small percentage. I don't know how that compares to the, again, percentage of students that you believe have a need for this type of center. But that would be the other type of measurement that you might consider tracking, again, before you come to the board for additional information. resources in the future.

Well, and I think part of that too is actually it's the it works the other way around in the sense of a lot of these students we're seeing right now are presenting at the nurse or the counselor. And so we would expect to see a corresponding decrease in some of those visits actually at the nurse and the counselor for some of the current issues that we're seeing.

Yeah, great. And then I'll just speak now kind of as a combination board member parent, not for my own kids, but when I hear things like brain break, I wonder, I have a child who definitely might need a brain break for anxiety, but I also have another child that would just be skimming off class and call it a brain break. How are you going to actually determine, is that part of the kind of screening system that initially comes in? Because if you can only have between 8 and 15 kids at a time, how do I make sure that you're addressing the need of the child that needs that break because they're going into a big test or they're about to do something versus the kid that didn't study for the test that just wants an excuse to be out of class?

Absolutely. Yeah, and this is a question that we've heard a lot from staff. I've been going into department meetings to kind of talk about, and really the brain break, it's really meant for students that really can truly not be in class. So we're communicating, and teachers have discretion whether or not to send students. So we're wanting to make sure that Teachers know that. If you're having a test, you don't need to send kids to have a brain break. So just knowing that they have the first right to do that, obviously if they're in crisis, that is different. But for those brain breaks, when students come there, they will need to have pass and permission from their teacher, and there will be a set time limit. So that would be 10 to 15 minutes that they will be able to be in that space. Our wellness outreach specialists will be trained in a way to check students in and that will be engaging, is this a need for a brain break? And we'll go through a system where it can determine if that student is there for that purpose. If they're not there for that purpose, going through their check-in system, they will say, I'm so glad you came in here. Can you come back in another, your free time, Greyhound time to engage in some of these strategies? there's going to be that high structure and then also that high support. And that's what we know, you know, that staff can trust and also students. They want to be in a space where, you know, students are not hanging out and kind of abusing those policies and procedures because they're not going to want to come there and regulate if students are hanging out and chilling out and not there for classes are actually regulating. Yeah, and you

also then won't get the students that really need that space versus the students that want to take advantage of that space. Students

have been asking that too, like what are the rules here? I think they know and they need some of that too for students that really need support. They want to know that there's that structure in place.

And I think it's important to note, too, so that the students are going to be, as Jen said, expected to be actively engaged in self-regulation strategies. And it's a phone-free zone, so it's not like they're going to come down there and sit on their phone. And so I think that very quickly that we can set a tone where that you don't have kids that are abusing it.

Okay. Great. I'll let my one kid who might abuse it know ahead of time. Thank you.

Thank you all for being here and for the presentation. You all know that I like to make comments before questions are described as questions, but in this case, I think everybody already asked my best question, so I have to make them all comments, I guess. With respect to kind of measuring success, I mean, that was the main thing that I was thinking about. I guess like what we're talking about in terms of those various metrics and things like that, but I guess from my perspective, I think it's important for us to think about the Having made this space available and gone through this process and then telling our kids that it's available and making it a part of what they're aware of as a resource to them, I think of that as a measurement that's important also. So not just how many actually come, but... What do we do to make sure that kids and teachers and parents and everyone else know about it and know what it is and know why it's there and why we care that it's there? I think that sets... It sends an important message about why we're doing this that I don't think we want to lose, regardless of how many people are in the space or what we measure on panorama data or anything else. I think that's important. So I guess the comment is can you think of ways to make sure that we're telling people about it in a way that's meaningful, not just that there's a wellness center there. We probably would have... Some people in various communities say, what's a wellness center? Why do they need that? But I think that would be important to communicate to that. But otherwise, I appreciate the efforts to track what's happening and what the impact on it might be. So thanks for that.

Awesome. All right. I'm so excited that this is opening. And I have two questions about it. Well, I have a question and a comment, suggestion. So the first, I remember a year ago I asked about whether it would be available during the summer. And I wonder if we've talked more about that because I worry that whatever issues are going on, they don't just disappear when the kids aren't in school over the summer. If there's been further conversation about having its staff during the summer open, available to the students.

We have not explored that further at this time. I think one of the things that we would need to get more information on and collect some data on is what would be the demand over the summer and what would that look like? I mean, we do have summer programs that happen during the month of June. We do have a counseling role associated to support those programs held at the high school. So I think we would have to get a better understanding for what our vision would look like for services over the summer and then do some data collection to see if it would merit extending or changing contracts to staff during those months.

I will speak to that. We do prepare students for closures because Sewell's not open all the time. So we do a lot of promoting through the Wellness Center of students accessing mental health support 24-7. Because again, crises support mental health happens outside of school hours. So that's a part of our programming is really letting students know and parents know and the community know that help is always there even when the Wellness Center is closed. So we do prepare for like during winter break or right before school. summer break, we will have events and materials out to students so they can know that help is always available whether school is open or closed.

That's great, I love that. Okay, my second question is sort of related to this. So have we had conversation about what we can do as a district to support social-emotional well-being of teachers and staff too, in addition to the students. I love that we've connected the dots to happy, you know, kids that feel good. Hopefully that translates into successful students, but also how do we support our teachers and our staff in our endeavors with social-emotional wellbeing?

Yeah, that's a great question. So we've been incorporating a lot of the staff wellness through our professional learning days and through PLCs and staff meetings. So just in this past professional learning day that took place in January, we had a variety of walking groups. We had ones that were related to like taking care of oneself and rest and a lot of other aspects. And then Jen has also been a part of a lot of the staff meetings at the high school.

So I've been a part of the wellness piece of our professional development for staff. And then addition also for wellness, when we do events, you know, for students, there's also that staff piece too. So it's educating staff to take and help support students, but it also, the importance of taking care of themselves. So during Wellness Week, there is some messaging to staff about not only take care of students, but also take care of yourself. So I see that continuing with when we do something for students, we're also kind of messaging, educating not only students, but we're educating staff to help themselves. And then again, also educating parents so that they can help support their students and understand the importance of wellness for themselves.

And then also, I mean, just like beyond the school building, if someone needs professional assistance, as part of our benefits package for employees in the district, we do have the employee assistance program so that they can seek outside resources through that program as well.

We've been doing that wellness for probably about five years with staff, with the idea that if we help staff feel good, then they'll help students feel good. So transition... connected yeah thank you so um so that has been happening so now it gets to be more concentrated around wellness and on a regular basis compared to just occasionally when we can get in front of staff yeah yes

And we continue to partner with the Center of Clayton to provide not just the fitness memberships, but other group personal training and other fitness classes like cycling and such that folks can sign up for in different sessions.

Hi. I just want to start by saying although, like Robin said, it's been a year only since she came to the table and we kind of started the process. I feel like as a board and a district, we've been talking about addressing students' mental health needs for many, many years. And so I am so proud that we're here. Like we really have something to, it's not just talk anymore. Like we really took action to do something that really will truly help our students. And I hope that we can be a model for schools all around. I mean, I think we're probably the only high school in the region that has something like this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I mean, I'm happy to hear that the communication piece is going district-wide. Like, we should be shouting from the rooftops that we're doing this. I'm so proud of this. And I hope one day we have schools from California coming here, you know, to look at us as a model. I really do think we will. I really believe that. So I'm very proud of all of you for making this happen and just all of us as a district for making it a priority. My... Questions have pretty much already been asked, except I had a couple. One is how has it gone with coordinating with the counseling department to kind of figure out, you don't have to tell me what this is, but I assume you have figured out your designated, like delineated roles here, and is that being communicated to students? Like if you have this need, you go to the counseling department. If you have this need go to wellness center. And I assume if a kid shows up to your office, Toby, but could use the Wellness Center, you'll refer them and vice versa. I guess I'm just asking not for specifics, but has that all been flushed out and communicated?

I think that the wellness center is tier one, right? So for students, it is tier one. Anybody and everybody can access. But then it also has the capability of doing tier two and three. And between the two departments, no matter where you land, if it is a brain break, then yes, we'll get you to the wellness center as counselors. But then as the wellness center, if it's like, you know what, this needs to be a behind closed door kind of conversation, more intense, then it would come to the counseling. So we would anticipate pretty seamlessly that's what we anticipate, to be able to kind of help kids get to where they need to be no matter where they land the first time.

And I assume there's some students that have relationships with you all that maybe you're still their trusted adult for this and some might need a fresh anonymous, not that you're anonymous, but you know, new face who doesn't know them, can't judge them, has no preconceived notions about what they're doing. So That's good.

And it gives them an option. So let's say they didn't like an interaction with one of us and like, okay, well, let me try this person or this space and see if that fits me better because we all know it's all about personality. Yeah, yeah,

good. And then my only other question, which is maybe too micro, but is part of the wellness center, part of kids that you'll see in the wellness center coming from referrals from peers, like are students allowed to anonymously, I hope, refer a friend that's in need that then you could reach out to to come down?

Yeah, the Wellness Center really kind of flips the system. You know, the students have more access and are able to, you know, refer a friend or refer themselves to need support. Typically, we think about accessing support, we're waiting for an adult to kind of notice a kid to then refer to somebody. So this creates spaces and opportunity to let them know about mental health and also feel like they can go somewhere to get that support, both anonymously or if they want that support themselves, they can access that.

That's great. And I assume that's been communicated to the kids too, that you can refer a friend and they'll never know who gave the name. I think that feels very safe. There's going to be

continued more and more once the wellness center is open on ways to access support. And there's going to be posters and qr codes in ways that gets the message out so that students can do it in a variety of ways at the wellness center or you know you know you know accessing it um in the halls you know on the qr code

great well thank you so much and again i'm just like i'm so proud of of this and um i'm so excited to have the doors open and there's clearly a big need for this and i'm really happy for our students that they have it so thanks

Thank you all for presenting this information tonight. It is exciting to see that we have this opening up, and we talked about it. It's coming to fruition, so that's kind of cool. So my question hits on what Kim was talking about, but more operations-based. So my question is, will there be... a management of expectations with the teachers and students? Because there's not a lot of autonomy right now where kids can just up and leave the classroom if they have anxiety or whatever the situation may be. So will there be some kind of training and some kind of formal management of expectations, SOP, delivered to the students and staff so that we understand who's able to go and how we're able to utilize it?

Yeah, just next week I'm going to be communicating to all students about the wellness center and letting them know about the options about the brain breaks so that students know about it. And then also at the same point, been communicating those things to staff because staff has to be able to trust and be able to allow students to access that so again communicating that for those brain breaks it's really meant for students who truly cannot be in class so knowing that there are policies and procedures with a pass and they're going to be it's going to be documented in the wellness center and then also there's going to be space and availability for students to drop in on their free time lunch and greyhound time so that they can access and they can See the space they can access that health and education Medically accurate health energy, you know teen health and education materials and just connect and have a space that Where they can feel support and feel they can go to somebody if they need to

And right now in the way it seems it's not bureaucratic in any way. It's like minimal someone overseeing this process, but if we were to begin trying to see the return on investment tracking, who's been benefiting from this wellness center. How do we plan on not making it that way, where the kids are not discouraged and want to come because someone's overseeing them all the time? How do we prevent that from happening?

So for with the brain breaks, again, they'll have a check-in. But when they do come in the Wellness Center on their free time lunchtime, they don't have to sign in. They don't have to have a pass. They can really come and explore and have that space. If they, you know, being a part of those, that wellness youth group. is another piece and space that they have voice and they give feedback. So if we're hearing and saying that this system or this thing is not working for them, then we have that voice. We can also then see some of the needs that are coming up and then respond to those needs. So if there's a group or if there's a certain group of students that we're seeing in the Wellness Center and we're seeing from the wellness outreach specials certain concern that's happening we can create groups and spaces kind of in the Wellness Center for those students so I think that again we are going to be tracking and responding but we're also then attending to the really being student centered and attending to the needs that are coming to us

and like privacy wise So thinking about privacy, I'm sure kids don't want to go and be tracked and not get going to their job in the future or to their college that they might go to. Can you confirm that that won't be a problem in the future if they're being tracked because they had to go in there for a mental health break, which could come back to hurt them?

Yeah. So I would say that the tracking is really to be able to see the flow and who's coming in, tracking maybe if they're coming from math class every time or that type of thing. Not so much. It wouldn't even be a piece that we would use unless a student was surfacing with an issue someplace else. We might see, hey, how much are they visiting the wellness center? How much is that might be playing into other issues that are happening in the building? I do also think, you know, protecting a student's autonomy to be able to go. So we're creating a pass that is for all student services so a student can grab that pass or get that pass from a teacher, but nobody knows. Are they going to the nurse, the counselor, the social worker, where they're headed? So that allows them some safety. And as much as we are looking for staff to trust that we'll get them back after 10 minutes, we're going to be looking for students to trust how we use this space and this information. Counseling has been dealing with kids with all these issues forever, and we have never released that information to anything So I mean it's it's a pretty common thing That's what's said in here stays in here unless it's harm to self or others And that's the same message that would be kind of delivered to the to the students who dropping in the Wellness Center And I think they're also being able, what it is and what it isn't. So being able to help students understand it is not a place where we track that information. When Jen goes into the math classes, it's helping them, like, here's all the things it can do, and here's what it's not going to be. And so that's just as important as what it is.

Gotcha. Yeah, I'm not trying to project. I'm just trying to make sure that we all know that this is not going to be an issue for the kids or the students, so. But thank you all. I appreciate it, and I'm excited to see what happens.

I thought of a couple more. Is this a good time?

Yeah, go ahead. Oh. No, okay.

Okay. A couple more things. Is it possible for us, maybe this would be mostly for Robin, to have... to create questions that we put on our panorama. Could we create a question on panorama specifically about the Wellness Center? Yes.

Oh,

that's awesome.

So is that our

plan?

Yeah, I think that's something I would want to talk to Jen and the Wellness Youth Council to see what they think would be the most valuable because I want to be really thoughtful about their influence around the space. And kind of to Jason's point, like how much are we tracking? Because I certainly want to be mindful of creating a climate where they feel safe to utilize it and not feel like... it's gonna impact other aspects of their experience.

It would just be a great way for us to know, another data point for us to know how many students even are aware that it exists. That's a huge one. That's exactly what I was thinking. The question would be, are you aware that we have it? Are you aware that we haven't? Do you know where it is? Have you ever stepped foot in there? Do you know anybody that has? All that kind of stuff would just be a good indicator of awareness without having to go into why do you use it. You know what I'm saying? That's a different piece. The other question I had was... It's so amazing that our students are going to have access to this educational, factual, medically solid information from going and getting pamphlets or whatever it is that you give. How are we going to make sure that parents are aware of what is available there and or making it available to them in some way. I'm just thinking in general how we want our outreach to students, but like you said, it's a bigger outreach too. So I, as a parent, would love to know what is available to my kids and sort of have an idea of what they could potentially be having access to because, you know, it supports my role as a parent, right? So how do we plan on communicating to parents?

And I'll start and finish if I miss anything. We've had conversations about how we do that, and so we're going to start a regular segment of the monthly principal's newsletter from the Wellness Center, which is actually going to start next week. And so that will be a regular feature in the principal's newsletter. We're also going to ramp up our presence on the CHS website. So the Wellness Center will have its own space on the CHS Web site. We've also talked about some social media opportunities to promote it through social media. But we those are all things that we currently have in the works.

Awesome. Cause you could even do, I just came up with this idea. So you guys would have to shape this or maybe this is crazy, but in terms of social media, I mean, you could even say, did you know the wellness center has blah, blah, blah. I mean, just, you know, like look at this, you know, that kind of thing. I don't, there's not a ton of people, parents that are going to be constantly looking, but again, we can use that social media, not just to promote the space, but to actually prompt some thought about various different topics that are essential to that kind of a space so that parents know, oh, wow, that's amazing. That's being addressed.

I think with any event that we're doing in the Wellness Center, there's going to be a parent component and education communication piece so that they can encourage conversations at home and encourage students to go to the events at the wellness center and i know toby and i have talked about collaborating together with counseling um when things you know you know start ramping up as a an effort to kind of do some more parent engagement so i do think like again um once we open once we get things settled for students and staff like that is a future um you know goal for us to really engage with parents awesome

Thank you.

And

during parent-teacher conferences in the spring, so an open house allowing parents to come in on the night that we have in-house and to be able to see the space and meet Jen face-to-face where students aren't going to be there and we can protect them too.

Sorry, I didn't have this on. Thank you guys so much for being here. I know that the whole board is super excited about it. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Do you want a bathroom break?

Can you wait for...

Okay. Okay. It's a good trick. Okay, so before we do consent, I just want to acknowledge a couple donations on behalf of the district that the Board of Education would like to thank the Wohl family for their generous donation. to the high school robo hounds teams thank you very much and also we would like to thank an anonymous donor for their generous donation of a hundred thousand dollars for the wellness center and initiatives that support inclusion and sense of well-being so thank you very much uh... too uh... for both of those donations uh... and gary will you read the uh... consent please

I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda for agenda items 7.02 through 7.17.

Second. I have some questions.

Okay, so do we need to then pull those off?

No. Okay, we don't? I just need to answer them before we vote.

Oh, okay, go ahead.

So, John, they're mostly for you. By the way, that's a huge consent agenda this week. So... On the disbursement reports for December, John, there's a big amount for insurance liability and it says music there. What is that?

Um, music stands for Missouri United School Insurance Council. It's a self insurance pool.

Okay.

It provides all of our coverages, property. It just

confused me because the liability increase in the insurance made sense. And I was like, okay, yep, we need insurance. But when I saw music, I was like, uh, But now that the acronym has been explained,

that answers that. It's a long word and I just shortened it out. Okay,

and then I just wanted like the public to know in case they're paying attention that the flexible benefit plan document there, it's an existing plan so we're just amending the language, our board language to comply to that. We've had that, it's not a new benefit for staff. And then on the, there are a couple kind of bigger items. One is the stuber gym floor finish, which is gonna happen this summer and also the replacement of the bleachers, which by the way don't work. So they can't be opened or closed because the electronics are out. So that's the 200,000 for that. I just wanted to confirm, and I already confirmed this with you I know prior to the meeting, but I thought it'd be important for the rest of the board to hear that these were capital expenditure items that had been planned in our budget for

this year. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. And then on early childhood tuition, this might not be for you. It might be for you and Robin. The 3% increase year-over-year in tuition seems reasonable. I just want to make sure we've in the past talked about making sure that our tuition rates are in line with tuition rates elsewhere. Can you just confirm that that's the case with the early childhood center tuition that's being proposed for the 24-25 school year?

When you say in line, we do compare them and analyze them against other surrounding programs. Yeah. But we are a little bit different, but it's designed to progress in our cost structure. Now, there is a couple changes this year. They're dropping out a couple programs and adding different ones. There's more full-day programming. We haven't had three- and four-day full-day programming that's being added.

So what do you expect that does then for the budget for the Early Childhood Center for 24-25 with the change in programming combined with the increased tuition

rate? It's positive to the bottom line.

Good. And then the last one is on personnel, which, Tony, these questions will probably be for you. So on the attendance award, I just want to say out loud, it's 13 employees. They're the unsung heroes of the school district. It's maintenance, plant workers, plumbing, HVAC technicians. So good for them. I wish we could give them more than $50 each, but that's great. The certified staff employment, the list of the staff that's in there, can you confirm those are We're replacing staff that's leaving. They're not new positions. They're open positions

Sure for the certified staff, yeah The Robin hog of the assessment and professional learning director is a new position

She's separate from the certified staff left she's admin staff

Okay, so All of these, I'm looking at the first page. Those are all replacing. That's what I thought. Individuals. Second page is all replacing individuals. Yep, none of those are new positions. Okay, so only

Robin, who's the admin staff employment, is a new position.

Correct.

Okay. And then Tiffany Harkins, she's coming back. Yes. Where is she coming back to? I don't think that was in there.

Why now?

Okay, and as a teacher, admin role? Yeah,

teacher. Yes, she was on a leave of absence.

All right. And the new position for Robin, the admin staff. Wait, hold on.

I'm not sure we're supposed to be using specific names when we're talking about. They're in the public materials. Okay. Okay. All right. Keep going. Keep going. I just, if we're not, then I can stop. No, I don't know. I don't know why I thought, Gary, that we weren't.

Maybe because they're posted. I guess if it's

posted, yeah. I guess if

Well, I know we typically talk about personal matters behind closed doors, but in this case they're listed in the consent agenda. Okay. Items? Yeah. Okay. That's it. Okay.

Yep. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Awesome. Okay. committee and liaison reports parks and rec

yes we there was I think there may have been two parks and rec meetings since we last met or at least since I last met but we'll only go over the most recent one we did meet this week there was a pretty comprehensive report on the tennis center and both the Changes in the growth in the programming and the facilities that's happened there and what their plans are for the future I will say there was also an interesting discussion around The world's most popular sport pickleball and and the where where and whether the facility there or in the kind of temporary pickleball court would be expanded and specifically some questions about what the appeal or the need for those facilities are for school aged kids and school aged residents.

You mean where the city was supposed to build us an ice rink.

Yeah, that would be the space where the temporary pickleball courts are which I think Could be moved with great protest if they were moved at this point because they're very popular I don't know if you know, but it's a very fast-growing sport So that was just an interesting conversation and the dynamics between the city parks and rec needs and what our kids and other kids in the city of Clayton might be using. So there's definitely some encouragement about ways to measure that and find that out. But that was kind of the bulk of the update this week.

Thanks for the update.

You're welcome. It's a very popular sport, I don't know if you know. It is.

Ice skating.

And there's a lack of rings. Okay, Clayton Education Foundation. I'll

report on that. Ice skating? I think the big focus for the foundation is they are starting already for the April Hall of Fame annual dinner so that they think they recently announced the names of the of this year's honorees so that's good and so it's in april uh second saturday night in april something like that so

um safety committee

That's me. We had our first safety and security committee meeting. It was great. Luke did a wonderful job of letting everyone there know what happened with the audit that was done. He kind of went over that whole thing. went over what steps they've already taken in terms of all the recommendations that we had from that audit, which is a lot. Luke's done such a good job of making sure that some of those things that could be done right away have been done right away. So I'm excited to see how this committee continues to support what Luke does. I think one of the good things too is that there's teachers There's parents. There's a mix of people in that committee. One of the things that happens in those is that you do end up getting a lot of questions that are really helpful for Luke. I did hear that. One of the big questions that came up was, well, have we done anything about our communication system? You know, when the event happened at White Island, people weren't able to use their cell phones. And just within that group, Luke was able to explain sort of what we went through as a board, what he and his team looked at in terms of trying to solve that problem and be able to say to that committee, here's what we have determined and here's why because that question will continue to come up. So the more that we can communicate what we're trying, what we've tried to do, what's possible, what's not possible. So yeah, that's all I have about that meeting. Great. Teaching and learning That when I went to it was awesome Milena was there She's always there, but she actually pulled in Julie who is our literacy coordinator for the district she the the This committee meeting was was focused on Literacy and all the updates that are have gone on with literacy which has been a lot in the last year and a half because of various Senate bills that have mandated that schools change curriculum in certain ways and change assessment in certain ways. And so Milena and Julie have done a great job of making sure all those things are you know being taken care of the way they should be according to you know the new mandates. And then the other half of the meeting was actually about report cards and the changes that have gone on in report cards in the elementary level. And that was a great conversation too. They are really trying, you know, to be deliberate about assessing whether or not our, like how do we tell parents whether or not their student is meeting up with the, you know, profile of a graduate type of, you know, sort of thing. We're trying to line up our strategic plan and, you know, so how can we tell them whether or not they're, you know, collaborating, et cetera. So complicated process to get a report card to try and answer those questions that we want our students to be able to be learning, so it's gonna take you know continued look at the report card because you know we're changing we changed it for the first time pretty in a pretty big way recently so we'll want to get feedback and see what made sense and what doesn't one of the big um things that i noticed too is that for international students the report card might need to look you know for those families um they really want to think you know about how they look at those report cards and what they can get from them and how that might be different from um other families so yeah If you have any questions, let me know but great conversation in that committee to

Terrific. Thank you and equity committee

Thank You equity walkthroughs will begin next month Cameron the guys have been training and preparing in our December and January January meetings, so they're almost prepared ready to roll I With

brevity. I just want to report, I just want to say that I went to the family center with Nisha last week as just as a walkthrough like we do. And I just am so proud of what the Family Center has accomplished. I think we could just tell from the energy over there that, you know, a year ago things looked different. It felt and looked different. Now I just think there's energy. There were all of the tours that go on over there every week are packed. There are tons of families coming and wanting to learn more about our programming. And that is huge because our programming is excellent. So I'm so happy that we're seeing some traction there and that you know, more and more families are interested both inside the district and outside in coming in and being part of such a great service that we have here. And I'll also say I cannot get over how amazing we have in terms of teacher retention at the family center because, I mean, we have it across the board in our district. It's amazing. But Every classroom I went into, I knew one of the teachers because they were there when my 18-year-olds were there. So I couldn't get over it. I hugged every single one of them. Like, oh, you're still here. Yep. So I just want to speak to the fact that the district does such a nice job of supporting staff. And I'm assuming that, which is why they stay. So I just wanted to give a shout out to those amazing teachers who have dedicated so much time to our family center and, again, to the administration who supports them. And, you know, they have stayed and have done amazing things. Is that good?

That was very

good. All right.

Are we at capacity? Mm-hmm.

I think there's a wait list.

Yeah.

it's yeah, it's, but it's, it's a, it's a good point though. I mean, it is, I mean, it's, we weren't, it's, it really sought after. Um, yeah, it's great. Go

ahead. Um, I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to the, um, globe we have here. Um, I mean, every issue of the GLOBE is great, but this particular one, I know that the staff has worked really hard on for months. And we have a new GLOBE teacher, you know, journalism teacher you know this year, that she and the students did an excellent job with this issue. And I think it highlights, like, just first of all, the quality of... competence of our kids that are on the globe and our students at the high school, but also I give kudos to Deborah Clevens, who's the new journalism teacher, who really liked this was her idea. And she went through a very, very thoughtful process to get this issued to print. And so I just want to congratulate her and all the kids that were involved in this. It's a really important article. And I actually got a call from someone outside the Clayton community that had seen it. and was so proud of and impressed that Clayton would even want to touch this controversial topic and thought it was so well done. So I just wanted to publicly say it's gotten a great response, and I'm proud of the way the teachers and students and administrators handled it. That's all.

Awesome. All right. You guys want to go home? Okay. Well, he's like, I've got homework. Okay. So, Gary, can we get a motion to adjourn?

Move that the Board of Education adjourn.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye.