October 28, 2026 — Meeting Transcript

All right, we will start now with our roll call. So Pam, would you lead us in roll call?

Yes, I would. Aaron. Here. Meade. Here. Ben.

Here.

Leo. Here. Pam. Here. Chris. Here. Jason.

Here. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

I move to approve the agenda as posted. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. Public comment. We have one public comment. All right. So, usually I get it like that.

Good evening. Hi, I am Dr. Julia, and thank you for inviting me here tonight. President Groh. No, Groh. Groh. I have to make sure. Vice President Groh. Take it down. Vice President Nguyen, board members and Dr. Patel. So thank you for allowing me a little time to come here today to introduce myself to you. I am a current member of the Special School District Board. I was appointed in April by the Governing Council. I reside in Chesterfield, been there for three years. Special School District has Sub-District 7 which they have combined Rockwood and Clayton together And so I've been really wanting to get in to meet you guys formally, tell you a little bit about my background. I've met Chris back in probably March or February when I was trying to make sure that the partner districts knew who I was. A little bit about my back ground. I actually was a special ed teacher for a special school district, worked for the district for 20 years, actually was a teacher at Glenridge Elementary, self-contained way back In the late 80s, I went on and got my administration degree and worked in Parkway as an area coordinator and then was assigned to be a director for Hazelwood and Riverview Gardens. At that time, they had those two districts combined, so I was a special school district director for those two districts. At that point, I was approached to come over to the partner district side. By then, it was the superintendent, Chris Wright, who went on to become Chris Nicastro, the commissioner of education. And so she knew me from my work in Riverview and asked me if I would come work and help bridge some of the barriers that we were seeing with students with disabilities not necessarily getting the services they needed in Hazelwood School District. And so I worked as the assistant superintendent for student services for, I would say probably about 11 years. That was a position that definitely I felt fit my soul. I was in charge of guidance counselors, alternative ed, health services, school safety, enrollment and residency, all the things that people didn't want to have, the other assistants didn't want to, but I loved it and enjoyed it. And I felt like every day I was making a difference in the lives of children when I left. My last three years, I worked as the associate superintendent for HR. And after that retired and went on to do some consulting work with the University of Missouri Columbia where you, Dr. Patel, you may have seen an email from me a few years back where Mizzou has several research projects where we work on improving classroom management strategies and decreasing discipline referrals in the schools. So I work with them on some of their research projects getting them implemented in our schools in St. Louis County and Kansas City and Columbia. serve on various boards. I am on the special ed foundation board. I serve as the vice chair of that board, was the chair for three years. That is a foundation where we raise money for children with disabilities throughout St. Louis County. All proceeds go to our students in St. Louis County and families for cochlear implants, summer programs, scholarships. You may have heard of the Starfish Awards. I think one of your staff members, one of your student staff may have received that award. It's coming up again, so please nominate someone and come and join us. All the funds from that go back to students and student programming classroom innovation grants. I wanna make sure I don't leave anything off. In my spare time, I do some other community service work that has to do with advocating for children and women's rights. And those two areas are very important to me. And some programs dealing with raising funds for cancer research for men in St. Louis. So I just wanted to make sure that you knew who I was, knew my background, knew that I am here to partner with you in any way possible. If you and when you decide that you have any initiatives or propositions that you are going for, please tap into me. I am willing to come knock on doors with you or pass out pamphlets. I think it's important that you know who I am and you know my passion and that I'm here to work on behalf of the children with disabilities in St. Louis County. And I'm looking forward to getting into the buildings I will love to see some classrooms and see our children and what you guys are doing for our children with special needs. So again, thank you for this time. I appreciate it. Hope I didn't go over three minutes.

You can have all the time you want. Thank you so much for coming by and introducing yourself. And we just really appreciate the relationship with SSD. And it just means even more that a board member comes by to introduce themselves. So thank you.

All right. Take care. Thank you. I'm going to stay for a little bit.

Please. DIRECTOR HERSEY- All right. So before we get to superintendent communication I'll give a quick update. In a minute. There we go. Great. Okay. So on the agenda tonight is a more robust update on the superintendent search, but I do want to put in a plug that we announced last week we hired Ray and Associates as our search consulting firm. We'll get an update from them in a little bit. We did go ahead and launch the superintendent search survey. And so we've sent emails out about this. I've seen it on social media. Here is a QR code if you're watching this at home and you want to take a screenshot of it to get to the site but please take the search the survey it's really going to help the board inform what the community is looking for in its next superintendent and that will be open through november 4th uh there are also tomorrow uh two opportunities for the community to attend uh sort of more um in-depth working sessions so that uh rain associates can hear with a little more depth what the community is There's one tomorrow morning at Clayton High School. There's one tomorrow evening in this room right here at six o'clock. So hopefully people can attend one of those. There are a couple of staff sessions as well. So for any staff members watching we encourage you to attend those sets the board's update on the superintendent search. and also one what we didn't this is a new thing we're talking about the board that saturday november 7th is a community coffee and conversation so uh a few two or three board members will be available to meet on a saturday morning on november 7th at caldi's in the month from 10 to 11 30 hopefully it'll be a nice day and we can sit outside But come, it's an opportunity to come and just sort of talk to the board members, ask questions, hear what the work of the board is at this point in time, and have a nice time on a Saturday morning. So with that said, I will turn it over to Dr. Patel.

Great. Thank you. So I'd like to start off by obviously talking a little bit about homecoming and how successful that was. I'm not gonna go too in depth with it because I know Manu's gonna have a report on that as well, but overall it was a wonderful, wonderful day and I do wanna thank, the reason I'm bringing it up is because I do wanna thank the Clayton Education Foundation They've been working really hard in finding ways to continue to build partnerships with the community, and for the first time they opened up their alumni barbecue to the whole community. And so for the first time, they had a record number of people, over 200 people showed up, and they even had a new process of checking people in, and they had so many compliments on it. And they raised funds for the first time ever, so they were in the positive. So it was a really, really good event and I'm really thankful to the foundation for partnering with us. While we didn't come with a win, everything else went perfect. So we will focus on that. And Manu will go a little bit more in depth with that. One other thing I wanted to highlight was last week I had the opportunity with other superintendents across the state really there were over 200 of us that attended the State Board of Education meeting and I think it's important for Clayton to continue to represent us at these important times when there's conversations happening at the state level that impact not only Clayton, but all the public school districts. They talked about the A through F report card that's gonna be coming out publicly soon. They talked about funding which impacts so many districts in so many ways. So it was really interesting to sit there and listen to them. They also launched their, at least started to have the conversations about the work they're doing around the strategic plan and the strategic vision for the state of Missouri and where they want to be by the year 2035 in terms of proficiency in literacy and math. So it was really interesting to hear that. So they're doing a lot of work with that. and then in addition to that obviously we've had some major leadership changes in desi they had an interim commissioner that was there for about four months she did resign and then the next day the state board did appoint another interim commissioner her name is lisa sereno and she was the deputy commissioner of learning services So she's now the interim commissioner. So again, I just think it's important for us as a school district to continue to pay attention on what's happening at the state level and how that impacts us as well. And public education. And then you guys know I'm so excited about our first ever Learning Together Conference. It's on November 5th. One last plug, if you have not signed up, please do. Thank you, Pam, for reaching out with other community members and personally inviting them. And I hope that everyone does that. Our goal, well, my goal in my head was 100 people, and we have surpassed that goal. So we want to continue. We still have a week left, so please sign up. There's lots of great breakout sessions, as you can see. And then obviously, we have a screening of the Screenagers Generation AI that we will be having as well. And if you sign up for that, we will provide dinner, if you would like that, because I know it's a long night. So please sign up, and I think it's going to be another way to just get together and learn about all the different topics in education and otherwise. And then tonight we have two presentations. One is from our lovely design team, and they are going to be here as well as BSI and just give us an update on all of our projects on Prop O and the capital improvement projects. And then we also have one other presentation from Ray & Associates who's gonna give us an update of the superintendent search. So thank you both in advance for your presentations. With that I will hand it off to you Manu.

Okay, so the past three weeks have been very eventful for the district. Starting off with the profile of Clayton Lerner, our sophomore showcased the creative thinker competency during the sophomore challenge last week. And they were able to work with each other to solve riddles, play fun games, and think practically in Shaw Park. It was a great experience for them and a nice break from the stress of schoolwork. While they were outside having fun though, we juniors were stuck taking the PSAT. We were required to take the test using our iPads, and before, there were concerns about battery life. However, if an iPad was fully charged before the test, the battery would have only fallen to about 80%, as it did with mine. And some students were even able to use their own power banks if their charge was low or just plug into the walls if they were close enough. And iPads were also the main subject at the Principal's Advisory Council meeting a few weeks ago, where Mr. Heidert was able to come and talk to us. And one of the most important points about the iPads from the meeting was keyboards. After students from around the district voiced their concerns with the keyboards in their utility, Mr. Heidern has started to look at some possible replacements. And this week, the tech department has even given external keyboards to EdTech to start testing with different students. And at the principal's advisory council meeting, we also discussed developing the district's AI guidelines for teachers. And there is now an emphasis being placed on these guidelines with a growing sentiment of students wanting teachers' use of AI to be regulated. And currently, the tech study committee is developing the guidelines and they met on Monday to kick off their drafting process. And overall, many of the initial issues with the iPads have been resolved since the beginning of the school year. And students are really getting used to them. Also two weekends ago we had homecoming and the students had a blast at the parade, the football game, and the dance. The seniors also won the Golden Greyhound after some friendly competition between all four classes. And homecoming is always just a great event to bring the community together. School spirit has really increased over the past four years. We now have a full cheerleading squad, and our outlook on sports has really grown. And lastly, for my next steps, I'll be furthering my investigation into the Clayton Center youth membership decline. And I will also be meeting with another cycle of focus groups in the second quarter. And I'm currently coordinating with Widown, Captain, Glenridge, and Merrimack Again, to meet with all four by winter break. That's my goal. And I will also be meeting with the principal supervisor council again on November 12th.

That's a lot. Yeah. Robust update. Thank you. Okay. Our first presentation tonight is the facility planning update. So Matt, you want to come to the board table? And anyone else that's joining Matt?

All right. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak about facilities and finance. Once again, appreciate the opportunity to provide updates on these projects. Joining me this evening is Mr. Steve Turkis with the Perkins and Wells team. We have Stan Hampton with the BLDD team, and we have Ms. Anna Sutton with BSI. Each one of our representatives has a unique set of characteristics bringing it. We're focused on the Glen Ridge project, and our academic wings, as well as our athletic programs. And then the budget team and our bidding team are here with BSI. Just like last time simple schedule of what we're going to be going through discussing where we are in our current projects where our budgets are our capital projects that are outside of Prop O our modular campus update and then also bringing special attention to the district's play surface that we recently signed for last last board meeting. So where our current construction schedule is we have not modified this from what has been provided previously other than you'll see The captain play surface has been identified to be added and installed during spring break. We are talking about this being a two week period so we will begin construction the week before spring break and hopefully we have that completed weather permitting when the student population comes back from spring break. We did this under the advisement and recommendation of the Board of Education during earlier this year. and whether or not we could get the best use out of this for the useful life during its installation. We felt like we had competitive pricing, we'll talk about that later. Fontbonne Bridge Campus, you'll see that there is a schedule here for the design process. We're gonna have several pieces that are actually operating at the same time during this design, so where this is, that's the reason why those two colors kind of blur together a little bit. Where we are with our Prop O projects so we're going to we know that our Prop O projects are Glen Ridge our learning lab our and Gay Field. Where we are with Glen Ridge we're currently doing our final drawings for this project. We're going through refinements and we're also going through the value engineering process. So we are designing for a budget and we are designing for the usability that serves our student population. Clayton high school so for the CTE program of the learning labs we did just recently bid that and part of tonight's agenda will have the The total amount that is our guaranteed price Where we are if they're gay improvements process this project is out for bid right now we are currently going through final refinements as part of our alternatives and addendums to this project and So where we are with our budget process. So we are this budget has not been changed from our last presentation. We're still targeting one hundred fourteen million dollars. We do have an extra contingency that we're working with but we're confident that we're able to work through these processes along with our budget team with BSI. Again same pie chart that we've seen previously none of these amounts have been amended. Looks like some things might have jockeyed around on here. Sorry about that. With GMP, where we are right now with, we have received the GMPs for the CTE program, the learning lab and also the project for athletics and our performing arts center. I'm sorry, we have not received GMP for athletics yet. That will be coming in after our bid opening and we hope to have that as part of our December agenda. Capital improvement projects that we're providing district is providing this through reserves and through district levy that's being directed to our capital projects program. One thing that is new to this is the addition of the captain elementary play surface and you'll see that that's being performed through Vernon Jones we perform this through direction from our architects and our budget team. that this might be in the best interest from a financial perspective to directly engage with Vernon Jones through the TIPS program. So just to draw special attention, this is outside of our architectural consultants. We did include them in the conversations. Everybody did a site walk. They felt this was well within the district's ability to self-perform. While we're doing so, you can see just a little bit of drawings. This slide is the same from what we've seen previously as far as our athletic projects, which portions are I'm sorry, the district capital projects. So the scope of the CTE wing, the Y down play surface adds a field and then the new turf, the new play surface that is being installed on Captain Elementary. So just a quick drawing for reference the existing soccer lines you'll see that this is laid out one of the additions that is that we will be replacing the goals. So the current existing goals will be replaced with something that's more conventional that we see in other spaces. Temporary bridge campus so we are still in process moving toward and we believe that we're very close to a successful agreement for the bridge campus. This is scheduled to be installed on the Fontbonne the previous Fontbonne campus that is currently owned by Washington University. Current layout and traffic flow. So this is our most recent drawings from the Paragon team so you'll see the way that the alignment is for the different pods where the offices are going to be and then also utilizing in red the Dunham Center for our projects for PE, and then also some additional offices and lunch service. The green box at the bottom left-hand corner is where we're gonna be showing our playground. Our intention is to have gaga ball, a soccer play surface, and also a level of a playground. This is so what is our major? What are we working on right now with the bridge campus really? We're talking about dividing the property So this is the current drawing that we've received preliminary discussions and footnotes back from the city We're working directly with Washington University City and our surveyors to come to an agreement as far as conditional use permits and setbacks in order to continue to move this project forward it's a little bit of a We're used to seeing straight lines in Clayton. This one isn't. So we are working very closely with those teams to be able to get this through approval process. Budget planning so. Where we are in our target so we're currently on the bridge campus and our capital projects. We are still within the 17 20 million dollars. We are working to get the value engineering process full steam on the bridge campus. So we're hoping to come somewhere closer to the middle of the 17 20 million dollar amount. Future projects again we have the same future projects so we're talking about the renovation of Merrimack and the future renovation of Captain Elementary. For more information and updates, please visit Gina's website. She does updates on a regular basis. Great pictures, great updates. The newest information is always here.

Any questions? Questions? Pam.

Hi. On page 20, the one with the site plan of the Bridge Campus, Can you just tell us about what those walkways will look like? Sure. So that we can answer those questions from

parents. So these are going to be aluminum walkways that are going to be crosswalks between the different modular units. So there will be over, there'll be canopies that actually are over these spaces. They are ADA accessible, so these are not intended to have stairs that are going to and from any of the connecting spaces.

Great. Thank you.

They will be covered. The modular units will also be locked in, but... These walkways are open air. They're not hallways, just for clarification.

And what about on the way to Dunham?

So Dunham will actually, so if you, I know it's kind of small. You'll see a footnote on the right side that says canopy connection. There's going to be a covered walkway that's going to go to and from Dunham. What our conversations are is there's a drive lane that you can see toward the north. Whether or not we cover that or if we leave that open because we need to be able to drive vehicles to and from the, I believe it's the library to the north. And then also for the purposes of accessing fire trucks. So that could be the only break in the canopy system whether or not how we run our, we're using that canopy for cabling as well. So how do we address making sure that that cable is securely transitioned between the modular campus and the Dunham Center? Sorry, it's probably a little bit

TMI. We're

kind of living in this space on a regular basis, everyday updates. Other questions? Ben.

I saw on the schedule for the cap to play surface to be construction to start in March of 2027. Does that mean during spring break,

perhaps? So our intention is the week before spring break. Okay. So we're going to be ordering the materials. There's about a six-week lead time on the materials. We have the agreement that actually is due for a wet signature right now. And then those materials will be ordered by Bernard Jones, and then they will be ready for install. Wow, so the kids return, everyone returns from spring break. Our intent, weather permitting, and I keep saying that because of the time of year. I mean, obviously, don't overpromise. We need a temperature range. So we're going to be working a really tight schedule there. Okay. We need a specific temperature range for the play surface to adhere to the asphalt. Okay. So if we don't have that temperature range, we won't do it because we'll have a failed installation. Totally. That's terrific. What is that temperature? I can provide information later. I know that there is a minimum temperature range. Yeah, sorry. Flooring's kind of a weird tick. I'll get you

the answer.

one other question I had the modular buildings is there like a lot of Build out or fit out that has to happen to those once they're put in place or do they kind of come pre-wired and so forth or like One of the things that came up and sit in the States and Security Committee was about access control and cameras and all that stuff For this campus, which I know it's like whole design process of its own but I'm just curious if that's like a I mean, how do they handle that? Obviously, build these things. Go ahead.

So they're already built. They're ready to be basically dropped off on the Fonbonne campus when we're ready to receive them. They are currently designed to where they have raw tubing or conduit that's actually chased through the entire system. So what they do is the security systems, if we do security systems, access controls, fire, anything that requires low voltage to be pulled through it, that becomes designed once they're installed. So that is part of the modular unit scope, but they are designed to where all of those components and the wiring and cabling can actually be pulled through the existing design. The uniqueness of each one of the installations makes it to where they don't come with those components installed. Also we use Verkada, we use our Syntegic systems. All of those systems will differ from district to district. Yeah,

let me slide. But I would assume a lot of the mechanicals and all that stuff is kind of already

in play? So they are ready for connection.

Ready for

connection. One of the other things is we are using a wireless system for the data, so it won't be necessary to pull fiber to that campus.

Other questions? Mead.

Hi. Thank you all for coming. Can you tell me a little bit more about, it was just a phrase you used, a level of a playground. What did you mean by that? So

this is going to be a temporary playground. So we're working with a price point and we're working with one of our consultants to have a playground that meets that need. So we're talking about probably a minimum level of playgrounds, so something that includes potentially a swing set, because that seems to be almost demanded from every group and that's an easy win. But also something that has some slides and some things that you're able to climb over. But it may not be as expansive as what we have in other installations. We've been in conversations with the current property owner and they're not interested in that being in existence after we separate. So our intent is to leave the property in a manner that is easily developed, which does not include a playground.

Got it, okay, thank you. And

that playground isn't capable to be donated because once it comes out of the ground, typically avoids the warranties. Got

it. I see.

So other private organizations could potentially take that, but it has no, there's no warranty or insurance when they do the installation.

Okay, got it. Okay, and then what is the plan for kind of the perimeter safety and security?

So there's a couple things that are actually, they're not, they're on this drawing. They're probably a little bit less visible until I point them out, hopefully. So there's concrete barriers that you'll see. They're a dashed line. It looks like a bold dashed line that looks kind of like a teardrop to the bottom left-hand corner. Those are concrete barriers so that it creates a level of security for drive-ups. So if there's an unintentional car that comes onto the campus, that secures, provides a level of security physicality. There's also perimeter fencing that we're discussing around the entire modular campus, including the playgrounds. There's a breaking point between the two which is where the student population can travel to and from the modular campus and the playground. We're also discussing how a perimeter access fence or gate will be able to limit drive-through when we have students walk into and from the playground spaces. So the perimeter fencing, we're also discussing putting on that either a vinyl site break or some kind of other obstructions so that a casual driver or walk-through can't just view the student population unrestricted.

Right.

So a lot of it is visuals, but there are some physical components to it as well.

Okay. So, I mean, entrance into the campus will still go through the front office?

Yes. So the intention of where you see – where the arrow says modular school location, those two smaller units at the top says main office nurse counseling on the blown-up drawing to the right. That is the intention of where the drop-off and the entry points are going to occur, and that's where the break in those barriers occurs.

Got it. Great. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Anything else? Going once, going twice. All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Appreciate it.

And thank you for the team for coming down, too. Steve, I know you from Chicago, so thank you.

All right so next up we will have we'll discuss the superintendent search. So as we as I said earlier and as we announced to the community last week we the board decided to partner with Ray and Associates which is a national well our guest here will give you a little bit of an update but it's a national search firm focusing on school leadership positions. And here we have tonight representing the firm Dr. Greg Batenhorst and for those watching home thinking there used to be a Greg Batenhorse here. It's one in the same. So Dr. Batenhorst, I'll turn it over to you and you can give us an update on the search.

Feels like the same setup and everything here. Thank you again for having us back and especially for choosing us to help lead the superintendent search for the district. So I'm here tonight to give everyone in the community and the board an update as to where we are currently standing with the process, which is off and running. So just a little bit of a background on Rain Associates based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We have been in the business of doing superintendent and executive leader searches for over 50 years. We very much take a partnership approach with the districts, especially trying to involve as many stakeholders as we can in the process. We have a team of associates that literally touch all 50 states. So we feel like we have a large reach when we do searches, especially for districts the high quality of Clayton. So we have the ability to really reach out and have expertise across the United States as we dig deeper into finding the best candidate we can for the district. We are also the oldest firm. We have completed more searches than any other search firm, including many in the St. Louis area over the years. The latest one I do believe we did was a couple of years ago in Brentwood. We have the largest pool of candidates on our website, and if you notice, too, our website, that number is now incorrect. We now have over 32,000 Visits per month to our website. So there are a lot of people that access our website to look for opportunities in school leadership positions across the United States We have long-standing relationships with state and national educational organizations. They know us well, we know them well and I am a ray and associates alum. It was actually rain associates that I was in charge of the search where I got a superintendent job in 2017 and also then my district when I retired used Ray & Associates to find my replacement and that's worked out really well. And that's how I got to really know the search process and got to know the different firms, working with different firms on different searches that I was involved in as a candidate. And Ray & Associates I thought was the most responsive and the most relationship driven of the group. So I reached out to them right when I was about to retire and asked if they needed my help and they said, sure. So the person who's not here tonight is Molly Schwartzoff. Molly is my boss and has been with Ray & Associates for about 20 years. She's phenomenal and regrettably she's working with a district state tonight to finish up their search so she sends her best. One of the things that does set us apart too, if you look under the heading of engagement, we have a comprehensive support not only from our associates but we have a full-time office staff. Not all search firms have that. So we have the capacity to create a large amount of work in a short period of time, and I think you probably have already experienced that as a district. I was here two weeks ago to give you the sales pitch to secure the position, but since then, Jason and Molly and I and Heike and others have been Working a lot on all the details that are part of the process So we are up and running with it and we are here from beginning to end with you We obviously have already started with a variety of activities, but we're going to be with you all the way through the search process We're going to help you establish the contract parameters for your new person. We're going to you in the process of Communicating out to the Clayton community about your new superintendent and then we will be here for at least a year offering our support and our services to your new superintendent as they transition to their new position. I bring 40 years of experience in the educational world, including being a superintendent, so myself and some of the other associates will be available to your new superintendent to provide mentoring and advice and a shoulder to cry on when needed when they make the transition to the new position. So a little bit about the timeline because, as I said, we are off and running already. Obviously we're here tonight to give you an update as to what's going on. We started to work with the district last week to gather materials for a promotional video that's part of the package that a job applicant sees when they go onto our website. It'll be a slideshow video presenting highlights of the district. So we're already working with people internally on that process. then tomorrow as was stated earlier by your esteemed president in the introduction i will be conducting a series of focus groups throughout the course of the day we'll start at seven o'clock tomorrow with uh staff group and then we've got two staff groups two community groups a parent group meeting with the district leadership council just a full day of gathering input from the community and what they're looking for in an ideal candidate for the position this is the funnest part of the job it's a great opportunity to really get in and dig deep on what people are looking for in their next leader so that you can be informed as to what they are looking for. We've already started the online survey. It's out there and has already received quite a bit of traffic and quite a bit of response, so that's great. So you have basically three things going on at the same time that help us gather input. Number one, the survey. Number two, the focus groups. And number three, for community members, we also conduct individual interviews with all seven board members. I did that last week with all seven of you by phone, so thank you very much for your cooperation. We're working on the... uh materials now from those um meetings to basically develop themes as to what you all said you were looking for and looking for areas where you are in tight agreement and other areas where maybe there's a slight bit of disconnect but we'll be sharing that feedback with you and we use that feedback to build again that profile of an ideal candidate for the position Again, we talked about the survey, the focus group. The survey itself will close on November 4th and within 72 hours or so, we will have information from those surveys in the hands of Jason and Nisha to let them see pretty much what the survey says. That survey is a survey that asks... All people taking it to look at 31 qualities of exemplary leaders and the trick is to take that list of 31 and try to narrow it down to 10 the 10 things that a survey Participant things are the most important leadership qualities that a leader a superintendent Clayton should have That helps us build that profile that goes into our marketing materials, goes into our recruitment, and also gives you as the board a snapshot on what everyone is saying the community is looking for in a quality superintendent. There also is a text box that allows any participant to share any type of comments they would like related to the superintendent search, and you will get all that information so that you can see what kind of is the pulse of the community with regard to the school district. We are trying to build a profile of an ideal candidate for Clayton. Clayton is not the do, it's not Brentwood, it's not Francis Howell it's not Rockwood it is Clayton and a lot of the information we receive from the focus groups and from the interviews with you in the surveys really helps us develop the profile for a person who is going to be successful here and that is extremely important so the week of November 9th we will zoom with the board and go over those themes and everything and basically then that kicks off the formal process of the application process. However, we have jump started a little bit because of the timeline that the district would like to stay on with regard to the overall search. So the application for the position is actually live now. We will continue to augment that with the materials, with the different marketing materials over time and that period of time for the application is really now until November 22nd. We will do weekly check-ins with Jason to let him know what's going on and what the traffic looks like in regards to people applying for the position. We are already reaching out to people both on a local and national level, people we think would be good candidates for the position and encouraging them to apply. I've spoken with some of my former colleagues in the area and asked them for recommendations as to people they think might be good to recruit. We will ask that very same question of all focus groups tomorrow. I will tell them, please reach out to me individually if you would like to share a name with me that you think would be good for the district to consider, and then we will reach out to them to see if they're interested in applying and help them through the process. We'll do a reality check on November 22nd, kind of that November 22nd to November 30th range to make sure that as of the time of the formal closing of the application process that you are where you want to be and where we think you should be with regard to the quality and quantity of your candidates. If by chance it's not quite where you would want it to be, schedules can be flexible and we could move some things around and adjust the search if we had to. I think you have a great chance of having a very strong field by November 22nd, that formal deadline. Between November 22nd and November 30th we as consultants will do our best to kind of winnow down the field. So let's say that there are 30 applicants for the position, 30 viable applicants for the position. We're going to try to cut that at least in half if maybe not down to about 10 to 12 of the ones that we think best fit your profile. Now, you as board members are going to have access to all of the application materials of all candidates. That includes something we call a Spark Hire interview, which is a video interview that is unique to our firm over others. It gives you a first kind of putting a face to a name of your candidates and allows you to hear them respond to four questions pertinent questions around education in 2026 and is a very helpful piece of the puzzle. So between the 22nd and the 30th we will have report writers reaching out and doing deep background checks on the candidates. They will be doing phone interviews with the candidates they will be doing reference checks on the candidates, and we go off the grid with reference checks oftentimes. If they give us a list of five people, we'll go out and find other people that aren't necessarily on the list to give us feedback because obviously if you're putting together a list of references, you're putting people down that you think will say great things about you. We'll try to dig a little deeper. We also do a deeper dive into social media and see, I was doing this today for a district in Minnesota and I saw something come up on a possible candidate that definitely would preclude that person from being a good candidate in the district that I'm working with. So we tried to dig in deep to make sure that we have basically the goal of the doctrine of no surprises. We don't want you or anyone to be surprised by anything at the last moment that then precludes somebody who has gotten down the road in the process to be the person for you. So once we meet with you on the 30th and give you our most viable candidates and discuss them, you will pick a group of candidates for what's called the first round or semifinal interview. That might be anywhere from about six to eight people. You can do that virtually. You can do that in person. I think we're doing that virtually. And then you will interview those candidates. We will have helped you develop questions for the candidates, and then you will try to reduce that field to probably about three candidates for a final interview. It is the intention of the district with the final interview, which right now is tentatively scheduled for the week of December 7th, to involve an internal stakeholder group, an external stakeholder group, and a board interview as part of that process. So there will be more community involvement in that piece of the puzzle. Once you get to that point, then you – deliberate with us on who you think might be the person. And when we do both rounds of interviews, we take you through a conflict matrix exercise where basically every one of those candidates that you're interviewing, you put up against one another. So number one versus number two, number one versus, who would you choose? One or two. Who would you choose? That gives you a snapshot, a statistical snapshot of where you're at with your first gut reactions to the candidates. And that's a good conversation starter to then determine who you think are the best people to move forward for the final round and who to bring forward as your final candidate. And when we get to that final candidate or final Let's say you want us to do it for two or three candidates. We do a deeper criminal background check on all those candidates to ensure that there is nothing out there that could come back to bite you or us in the long haul. We do do frequent check-ins with you throughout the process, especially with Jason and Nisha, to make sure that we are staying on track and we are getting what we want. We have spoken with Jason and others about advertising, and this is the package that they have chosen. This gives you a very comprehensive advertising package to go out and recruit the best candidates from sea to shining sea. Your best candidate may be five minutes away, five miles away, 500 miles away. Being a district of quality like Clayton, you owe it to yourself to cast a wide net But your best person may be right here. There definitely is a sense amongst the board that having some type of St. Louis connection and St. Louis knowledge is important to you. So we will look at that in context of the broader field but you we have already reached out to several people on the national level who we know from other searches that we think would be good fits here to see if they have any interest. So that's one of the things that we're doing but you have a commitment to that, to basically use the best resources we have available to you to market this position throughout. So we're going to use our associate group of people who touch all 50 states and aggressively recruit top candidates for you, even those who may not even know they want the job yet. There are people that we've already reached out to that probably didn't have Clayton first and foremost on their mind, but once you plant that seed, you never know where it goes. So we are already doing that with people. So that's where things stand as of October 28th at 7.48 p.m. Questions for me?

Thank you. My pleasure. Appreciate it. Any questions?

Thank you so much for the update I know with the timeline and the need to have multiple Streams in action at the same time and you know gathering the community input and whatnot now, but also needing to have some initial Advertising material job postings out there and with that long list of places where our information is How will that get updated if there are things that come through the focus groups and surveys that we feel are like, oh, we need to make sure we have this in the job description or that people know that this is what we're looking for? Are these postings sent to a more central place that's more easily updatable, or do we have the opportunity? We're not locked into the first place. text we send to a group.

No, I mean, so that's Molly's bailiwick. I mean, she's the one who can produce that work in a matter of seconds. So that's where having a full-time office staff allows us to do that. So we can adjust accordingly. Like, for example, right now, the application is sitting out there, but it doesn't have the robust materials that... are the PR materials that we will get from the district to put in that video. It doesn't have the 10 top qualities that the district's looking for yet, so those will be added over time as we go along so that people can continue to reach out and see what's there as far as district material, because that's what they're used to. So it's not unusual for us to do this with a more aggressive timeline search. So yeah, it's totally flexible and we can change it In a heartbeat.

Can I just jump in on that one? Greg opened up the search application at my specific request because to be clear, and that was really just if they call someone and they say tomorrow, yes, I'm interested. I don't want to lose that candidate because we didn't have it open up until the first week of November. So it's really like if you have a sale, close the sale and get this person to apply type of mentality.

There's a couple people that are already starting to fish around, so people want... No,

that's great. I just wanted to make sure... Yeah, I have nothing against it being out there now. Just wanted to make sure that as we have these additional materials that somebody that maybe saw a less detailed...

We would reach out to some of those that were early in the process and say you may want to go back to the site and check out the latest materials on there. A lot of times we put out blast emails to all candidates that have applied say please go back to you know please access our website to check out the latest details on the Clayton search.

Other questions. Great. All right. Well, we appreciate you being in town. Looking forward to tomorrow. That would be great.

And we'll continue to pound. All of you have my contact information. Just remember two things with that. Number one, obviously we do pretty much funnel things through Jason, but if you have a curiosity or a question, please do not hesitate to text or e-mail me or call me. And also, please, if there are people that aren't able to take part in the meetings tomorrow, You are free to give them my contact information so that they can share what they would like to share with me. They can give them my phone number and give my email address. 10,000 kids in this nation have my phone number. So they might as well have it too. So do not hesitate to make sure that they feel like they can be a part of the process.

Great. Thank you. Okay, moving right along. First action item for the construction contract for the Performing Arts Center. Is there a presentation? Okay, you're welcome to come sit if you'd like, but go ahead and read the motion.

I move to approve the contract addenda with BSI Constructors establishing guaranteed maximum prices of $1,765,000 for the renovation of Clayton High School's Performing Arts Center and $11,905,000 for the construction of Clayton High Schools Learning Lab. Second. Any questions or comments?

Ben.

Gee, I mean, this is obviously a big milestone, right, to get the GMP in place. I'm just curious, were there any surprises? Like what was maybe more challenging or less challenging than maybe we thought going in? Obviously, there's a lot. Construction material costs is like crazy, right, or it has been. I'm just interested if there's any impressions as we look to do more of these GMPs going forward.

So we worked really well with our construction team and our budgeting team in order to address concerns especially my focus is cost and student out the product that serves our students the best. So working through we call it value engineering Unfortunately, value engineering gets a bad reputation of being what we call scope reduction. So our intention in that process and where we had a lot of really positive exchanges was not just taking away. It was what are truly real replacements. So super exciting things like reducing concrete square footage and replacing with asphalt. So it still served the purposes, but it had significant value, especially when we worked on big projects like CTE. So as we did the budget process on the CTE project, when we looked at the historical budget information and those estimates, we saw some volatility because we saw the initial February data. Then we saw that kind of everybody sharpened their pencil in June. And then I got sticker shock. And I said, let's work through this process, working with John Brazile as well at a later time to address opportunities to save money. That process worked really well and that was evident in the pricing differences between the budgets on the learning lab. On the PAC there's a much smaller amount to work with in order to still get the desired outcome of the improvement. So that's where those budgets were much tighter because our priorities on that project are really non-negotiable. So we did go through the value engineering process but a lot of it was reduction of glass surfaces exchanges of handrail types, but there wasn't a lot of low-hanging fruit without actually reducing the project scope. Data centers was obviously a conversation that was hard, and we're still trying to refine what the impact was on that. We were very happy that with our current bid opening that that was still a talking point, still within the GMPs, but it was also something that we came to an agreement that if this does impact our project, we'll discuss it when it does.

One follow-on. I think I heard it said at some point we've had a robust response, right? So I guess generally speaking, that's a good thing, right? We're happy to see a lot of people want the work. Generally, that means we've got good comparables, those kinds of things. Is that a fair...

We had a significant amount of interest in these two projects. I think that they're they're a perfect window for a lot of construction companies or subs. So this isn't summer work we're able to start in a time that opens up gives people an opportunity to start working before their summer schedule starts filling. This also we got a significant amount of interests from the groups that we were the most concerned about so pipe fitters, HVAC, sheet metal workers, electrical, high voltage and low voltage. So all of those subs we had... roughly 70 bids. Now that's on very different topics of construction types. We opened bids for almost two hours. So on smaller projects like seeding, we get five bids. On this one, we had a significant amount of interest and that interest drove a lot of our pricing. We had something very similar with our abatement projects. So we had significant interest and the pricing showed with the amount of interest and when we're doing it. So being able to do these things off of the typical schedule has really worked to our advantage.

Awesome. Oh, and then I was just thinking of, again, back to the Bridge Campus. With, I think, the demo was scheduled for soon, right? November. But again, obviously, I would imagine baked in with a certain amount of buffer for time. But do you think there's no concern around demo schedule at this point?

We are pushing the schedule on the Bridge Campus. So we are doing things in the shortest time frame, but also being conscientious to the budget. So there will be Conversations about separate contractors that may be outside of GMP, such as HVAC. Some of this is to address the labor shortages that are anticipated to data centers. Some of this to make sure that the equipment is available, meaning heating and air conditioning units. So making sure that the equipment will be available whenever we need to open the campus. All of these things are being factored, price being one of them, and also being nimble with the vendors that we're working with.

Other questions? All right. Then all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? It passes. Thank you. And Matt, you can stick around for contracted temporary bus service.

I move to approve the bid from first student in the amount of $599 54 cents per bus trip for the transportation services beginning in the year 27 2027 to 2028 and three additional years with the option to separate with due notice second

Any questions on this one?

I just wanted to point out that I had asked, like, will this be a bus stop near Glenridge? Like, right now there's not a bus service at Glenridge. So will there just be a one-place pickup and everybody's got to walk there? And the answer is that they're actually trying, based on surveys or something, there's likely going to be three separate pickups along Y down on the way. So... It'll

make it? Nice. That is correct. And that's part of this RFP, like the contract of the bus service to really figure out what's the ideal stop, where those would be. And then ideally, we'd love to have that mapped out, including drop-off pickup time, et cetera, and then send a survey out to all the families to say, here's the plan. Would you be interested in riding the bus? So then we can see how many buses we'll really need. Are we going to need four or three? So we have a better accurate estimate Tally on that too.

And including, oh, okay. All

right. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you, Matt. Let's move on to the consent agenda.

I move to approve consent agenda item 7.2 through 7.7. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. All right, board communications. Pam, was there a Teaching and Learning Advisory Council meeting recently?

It's so nice of you to ask because I actually believe you were sitting next to me during that meeting. I was there. Yes. So on October 8th, we had a Teaching and Learning. Committee meeting. Jason and I both serve on that committee, and it was awesome because it's always so cool. There were three topics that Milena led us through. The first was reviewing the SEL curriculum and the rollout of integrating the SEL curriculum into the entire program. year and embedding it within our curriculum i should say rather than something separate um the second one was reviewing our c-sip goal i'm reviewing goals one two and three and the third was discussing title one funding i could go into more detail but in case anyone is watching these are some of the pretty handouts that we got i don't know but maybe people here are excited and It was I could go into so much more detail Does anyone but maybe people don't need it? So I won't But I'm here if anyone wants to talk about it

That was great. Thank you Pam Safety and security Ben and Chris

Okay, I'm I'm gonna cover more a little more than that but Sorry, I know we're trying to get out of here, but pretty important stuff, right, Ben? We had a great meeting last week. At first, we just went over some of the updates that Mike, things that have happened. We've done more of the Burkata camera systems. We're almost completely done with... We're not going to do Glenridge, obviously. So yeah, we haven't done that, but we've done many more. We've done Captain, Family Center, Admin, so we're good with those. He's worked on the building emergency action plans, which is also extremely important, so there's been a lot of work on those. He has also been doing site assessments because of SB 68. He's been having to go to all of our buildings and do assessments according to what is required per state mandate now. And so he's completing all of those which is great. And he's also been working on the standard response protocol and updating that. That is the let me put that in layman's terms. And that is what happens when we have an emergency what the protocol is how do we Teach kids how to respond to those emergency emergencies. He's doing a lot of work in that Updating some things and changing some things which I think will make it a lot clearer and It'll be nice to see what he comes up with with that Okay, he also told us about his next priorities which are working on a reunification plan for when we have emergencies. There has to be a plan, not just for what happens in the emergency, but how we get people back together and reunited after an emergency. So we're doing that. He is doing that. He's also talked to us a decent amount about the Plans that are going on for the bridge campus obviously safety and security is extremely important in that and been asked some questions We're getting questions from obviously from families of Glen Ridge, you know students so He is working on that. It's an ongoing process It's a daily thing as we get you know more information and etc. We will continue to update the facts page of our website on this but Mike is been very thorough about making sure that we have a thorough, you know, well-planned out, you know, safe, secure campus with cameras, with Bercada, all of those things. So I feel really good about that. It's just we don't have all the information right now. It's just because it's in progress, but it's happening. And then he's also working on updating these emergency action guides that we have at all of our doors because those haven't been updated since they were first published. made, so he's doing that in the near future. So those are his priorities. The rest of the time we spent talking about Syntegics, we got an update on the amount of button pushes so far. As we all know, sitting here, we only have had three button pushes, which is what we use for medical and behavioral, et cetera. And there haven't even been a ton of those this year yet. I mean, we are early in the year, but those are still being utilized by all of our staff when needed, and it's a really great function of those badges. But what we spent the bulk of the time talking about was looking at whether or not we want to add verification system to that badge what I mean by that is right now you have to press the badge eight times in order for it to be indicate that there is an intruder right three button push is not for intruder it's for all of the other and so we are looking at those badges and seeing how they can be made sure that we are using them appropriately and um that our kids are able our staff is able to use them in a way that you know carries them properly and there aren't any accidental pushes so that's what we talked about for a long time and talking about ways of accomplishing that so it's great that we've spent so much time looking into that because i know it's extremely important to a lot of our families um and so uh Yeah, that's going to continue to be looked at and a priority for us as we move forward with these badges, which are extremely useful for both of those reasons. But we need to continue to monitor it.

Great. Thank you. Mead, CEF?

Yes, there was a CEF meeting and Dr. Patel was there and you provided such a good update in our weekend update but I will provide a little update for the crowd at home and those of you here. So yeah, the CEF had a great homecoming. They were profitable. They also partnered with local businesses that week. And I don't know if you saw, did like the shop local so that a portion of those proceeds would go back to CEF. And then they partnered also with the city with for the 5k on the day after homecoming and they also will i think that would be a positive net positive for them too um then yeah they are there's also going to be a new website so they're going to have a new website that will launch and that will um they're very excited about that because it's hopefully going to streamline fundraising and organizing like alumni database and all that so they're really getting their ducks in a row uh they're gonna have a new logo And overall, it just seems like there's a lot of good energy in CEF, and they have a great vision that Nisha's helped them with to help partner along with our strategic goals. So, yeah, great meeting.

Thank you. And then Ben and Mead, technology updates.

I can't believe I forgot that one. It was, we had a tech committee meeting last week and it was the beginning of the kind of workshopping, the technology enduring understandings and it was really cool to see how Molina starts that work. And I imagine that's how it went with SEL. And it's like kinda wonky and heady the way you start with these big ideas that are really just about skills and characteristics that we want our students to have and then how that will kind of funnel down to become the enduring understandings that will be integrated into the curriculum. So there were some great conversations going on. That was the bulk of the meeting.

Yeah.

Was there?

So no, I think a lot of work has clearly gone into kind of riding the, I would say like the process that we've been through with SEL development. So this is really bringing technology dimension into that integrated learning, empowered learning through technology. So very cool, very cool. I mean that is like a lot of work to do because it's like a lot of alignment and mapping and just a lot of moving parts. And still it's kind of like a work in progress as well because, as we know, this tech stuff is all – a lot is very new and it keeps coming. So there's a really nice – I would call it like a three-year – kind of a three-year plan, which is going to be like now is like the – the kind of taking it all in, distilling it down. Next year will be a little bit more towards practice and then ultimately towards practice. So it's great.

That's great. I will just share, I ran in the Education Foundation Community Foundation 5K the morning after Homecoming. And it was a great event. And so it was really well attended. I think they capped it this year at 250 runners. And I think they got 250. But it was really well done. It was a lot of fun. dr solberger was there and she ran too it was definitely we were five feet from each other at times and so but i beat her so um but that was a lot of fun and so i'm i'm glad they got it started and i'm sure it'll be even bigger and better next year so um okay unless there's anything else we can adjourn so thank you everyone