June 4, 2025 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

Thank you. Any opposed? Okay, sorry. We approve the agenda as posted.

Okay, we have a few public comments tonight. So when I call your name, if you come up to the microphone in the front, please, and you'll each have three minutes to speak. If you have not made public comment before, just so you know, we don't respond here at the public meeting, but we will be in touch at a later time. So the first public comment is Meade Greenberg.

Good evening, and I just have a minute to say I really appreciate, Nisha, your leadership over the last month. I know this has been a difficult month and the whole board in general, so I wanted to also acknowledge that. I have a public comment myself, and then I have a public Comment that I'm reading from someone. This is on behalf of Katie Kovacs and David Levy.

Our son just completed kindergarten at Merrimack and our daughter completed her second year at the Family Center. While we are unable to be here in person tonight, we appreciate the opportunity to share this message with you. We urge the School District of Clayton to prioritize the development of thoughtful, transparent, forward-looking, and research-informed policies around the use of technology in our classrooms. Thank you.

We need policies that address not just what tools are used, but how they are used. Policies that protect student privacy, support teacher training, and ensure equitable access for all learners. We need guidelines that help families understand how technology is shaping their children's education and how they can partner with schools in meaningful ways. Specifically, we're asking for the board to consider the following actions.

Create clear guidelines on the appropriate times and uses of video and screen-based content in classrooms, especially for younger students. Monitor and evaluate which uses of technology are truly beneficial for learning and which may be detrimental to students' academic or social, emotional, or physical development. Provide guidance to families, including parent-facing resources that explain how technology is used in school and how families can support healthy screen habits at home. And establish expectations around the quantity of time students of all ages spend on devices during the school day and for homework, ensuring that screen time is purposeful and developmentally appropriate.

This is not about resisting innovation. It's about being intentional. It's a call to use technology wisely, with care, and with the whole child in mind. It's about ensuring our use of technology aligns with our district's values and educational goals.

And it's about making sure that every student in Clayton benefits from a learning environment that is safe, inclusive, and future ready. Our students deserve an educational experience that is not only innovative but also grounded in what we know about healthy development and effective teaching. Thank you for your time and your commitment to making Clayton a district that leads with both vision and responsibility. We hope you will take this call to action seriously and begin the important work of crafting policies that reflect the realities and the possibilities of technology and education.

So, I'm sorry, I should have done mine first. That's okay. Okay. That's okay.

This is mine. Good evening. My name is Meade Greenberg. I'm a parent of a rising first grader and a four-year-old at the Family Center.

I very pleased to hear that the district will be conducting a new technology self in the coming months and years The last tech study completed in 2017 led to a major initiative expanding ed tech use and ensuring one device access That was appropriate at the time, and I appreciate the effort to stay current. But today we have nearly a decade more of experience, including insights from the pandemic, that should inform a more balanced approach. This upcoming study is an opportunity to evaluate not just the benefits of ed tech, but also its risks and costs. EdTech has essentially been a large-scale experiment.

Many programs still lack independent research proving their effectiveness, and there is growing concern among educators, researchers, and parents about overuse and the impact of screen time, especially for young children. As a kindergarten parent, I was surprised by the amount of screen use in my daughter's classroom, especially videos. I began asking questions in the fall to better understand what EdTech use looked like across grade levels. Some of those questions include, how much time do students spend on devices at school, and how does that change as they age?

What programs and apps are used in each grade, and what research supports them? Are video resources vetted? Why are video read-alouds or phonics lessons sometimes used instead of live instruction? Why do students see ads sometimes before YouTube videos in class?

And why is there so much variation in ed tech use between teachers, grades, and schools? I believe some of these questions could be answered by more transparency, but I also believe that the district may not have a complete picture of what is happening in classrooms. That is why I believe that the first step in this self-study should be a comprehensive inventory of how ed tech is being used across all grade levels. This includes measuring average daily screen time at school and at home, especially in elementary and middle school, and making this information publicly available.

The district also needs a clear picture of the type of content students engage with, instructional apps, videos, and TV shows used as curriculum. And the district should gather parent input on the effects of school-issued devices at home. Many parents are frustrated, having to battle with their elementary-aged kids to shut down devices in the evenings. Students are able to use proxies to bypass restrictions on their Chromebooks.

The bottom line is we are all struggling with balancing screen time at home. We want to know that if these devices come home with elementary age kids, it is an academic necessity and there is a clear pedagogical reason for it. The second step should be forming a representative committee, including teachers, administrators, parents, and ed tech experts, to analyze this data and recommend revisions. Ultimately, the district needs a clear, research-informed vision for education technology, one that is transparent, developmentally appropriate, and consistent across schools.

This vision should include guidelines for both in-school and at-home device use and should align with our values and our profile of the graduate. I very much appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. Thank you.

Evan Greenberg. Good evening. I also have a statement from somebody else to read tonight from Micah and Tanya Rose. Okay.

We are grateful for the Board's hard work on behalf of our students, teachers, parents, and administrators, and we appreciate the district's decision to take a deeper dive into use of education technology. We are parents of three children in our district, a rising senior, one in middle school, and one who's just starting kindergarten. For over a decade, we've watched the evolution of education technology and have watched technology become more of a distraction outside of the classroom. We are concerned.

Tools that are aimed at educating too often seem designed to promote superficial engagement rather than challenge kids to wrestle with complex ideas or build critical thinking skills. As adults looking back on our own experiences, we know that meaningful learning is rarely easy or instantly gratifying. It must be demanding to be truly rewarding. Unfortunately, many quick response and gamified applications often fall short of promoting the kind of deep, reflective thinking our children need to grow and thrive.

We also want to highlight that schools are essential environments for children's developing social-emotional skills, skills that cannot be taught through a screen. Empathy, cooperation, and self-regulation are cultivated through face-to-face interaction, navigating peer conflict, and forming real relationships with teachers and classmates, not by clicking through online lessons. In closing, we urge the board to prioritize policies that recognize the serious risks these technologies offer along with their benefits and to deliberately limit screen time and promote human-centered learning environments. Sincerely, Micah and Tanya Rose.

Thank you And then for my statement I like to say I support the self into the use of technology in the district I think it's extremely important to actually have a firm understanding of what is actually going on in the different schools, in the different classrooms, how each teacher is deciding to use technology and when. I'm also the father of a rising first grader and a four-year-old. I was a three-year-old in the family center, and I had never really given much thought to education technology until the first week of kindergarten. My daughter came home.

How was kindergarten? What did you do in school today? It was great. We got to watch TV.

And I know that's not all they're doing, but it was the first thing she mentioned, and that was reason for concern. And kindergarten on a whole went very well. I'm pleased with her teacher. I'm pleased with everything she learned.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Well-rounded graduates, they need to know how to do that. And I think that, again, absent guidelines from the district down to each school and each classroom, we're maybe not using technology in a way that is accomplishing the goals that the district wants for the students. So, what I would like, or what I recommend, is that the goal for the self-study be to identify some best practices that are actually going to advance the educational goals of the students, the emotional goals, and help teachers and the administrators achieve the best outcomes.

I think we should limit the use of technology to the extent possible and prioritize face-to-face interaction with other students and teachers over technology use. I think the technology use more than anything should really be deliberate and the result of a reasoned decision-making process that's based on information that is reliable. I think deliberate use of technology is important. And, you know, we have these wonderful teachers.

We should prioritize for the students to be learning and engaging more with their teachers than any kind of character they can get on screen or characters in a show or in whatever application they can get. So thank you all for taking this on. Thank you. Okay, before we move to the action items, we don't have a superintendent's update or a student rep update tonight because this last meeting of the year is, we always keep shorter and more modified and the kids are out of school, so there's not much to report on now.

But I did want to first wish everyone a happy Pride Month and just to show the entire community, our students, staff, faculty, board members, community members, that we as a district and as a board recognize and support our LGBTQ plus community and are celebrating Pride Month along with you. And we also usually at our meetings have an agenda item that is called recognizing our own. We more often recognize students, but also sometimes faculty members and staff that do something that deserves public recognition in front of the community. We don't have that on the agenda tonight, but I would like to, on behalf of the board, create a recognizing our own to recognize our administrators, faculty, and staff.

And to explain why, I would like to just read a letter that the board sent to the faculty and staff recently because I think it explains best why we want to recognize everyone and why we appreciate them. It read, Dear Faculty and Staff, The Board of Education extends our deepest appreciation for all that you have done and are doing to support our students since the May 16th tornado. We are extremely grateful to each of you for remaining calm and comforting our students Your efforts helped ensure their physical and emotional safety In that spirit we hope that you are safe and receiving any assistance you may need We have heard remarkable stories about teachers roaming our neighborhoods after the tornado offering help and hugs to our students and their families Thank you We have seen the strength in our community in countless ways, including the teamwork shown by a large group of fifth graders from all three elementary schools who got together to assemble care packages for first responders and utility workers. These stories affirm what we already know, that the School District of Clayton is full of incredibly caring, dedicated, and kind-hearted people.

We are definitely stronger together. We are not only members of the Board of Education, we are also parents of your students and residents of the Clayton community. From our school board perspective, as well as from our parent perspective, we have seen firsthand your incredible flexibility, kindness, and collaboration during this unexpected challenge, and we are extremely thankful for your efforts and contributions. With gratitude, each of us on the board.

So I just thought reading that publicly to the community would be an easy way for us to recognize our administrators, faculty, and staff who have been outstanding in the aftermath of this tornado. So we recognize you and thank you. And now we will move to our action items. The first one is John Brazeal.

Proposed 2025-2026 budget. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Tonight I'm presenting the proposed budget for the upcoming 25-26 fiscal year.

Last meeting, I presented a preliminary budget, and we went through that fairly quickly. Spervantage, and I indicated that there was possibility of some changes, and indeed we have made change both to revenue and expenditures in this budget. But at this point, I do believe it is ready for board approval. It does not vary significantly in strategy from the past year or two.

Spervantage, Proprietary, and Proprietary. The budget is a year round process. It is intended to acknowledge the revenue and project the revenues that we expect to come in and then have a spending plan that meets the district's objectives. I believe that this plan does that.

As I mentioned last month, the process is a year round process and these are some of those steps. The highlights are that it is budgeted. The budget is balanced. The budget is a year round process.

The budget is a year round process. The budget is a year round process. The budget is a year round process. Spervantage of the Education Committee, Spervantage of the Education Committee, Capital purchases and projects that are programmed into Fund 4.

We also connect our spending to a strategic plan, and these are just some examples of some expenditures that will fit into the various goals. In the Goal 1, you can see a variety of expenditures that will help ensure that learners are safe and valued. In our goal two, you see expenditures that are investments in curriculum and technology to support the educational growth of our learners. And in goal three, we have funding to support and enable the well-being of our These are all just examples.

There are many more throughout the document. Revenues are projected at $80.4 million. It's the first time we've topped $80 million. We're seeing some, as this being a reassessment year, we expect to see some nice growth in property tax revenue.

And we'll be dealing with the rate setting process in September. Superroportionate, Proprietary, and Proprietary. We have a total of $38.7 million, so we expect our fund balances to grow from that. In this particular example, we've divided the expenditures by compensation, benefits, services, supplies, debt, service, and capital outlay across the four funds.

And our growth in revenues or expenditures is about 3%. Our fund balances are expected to grow to about 50.7 million. And when I say that, that is a June 30 number. Our cash flow rises and falls throughout the year.

Low point being in November. So November fund balances will be less than half of this number. A high point coming in January or February. This is our fund balance history.

The blue bars representing total fund balance and the orange bars representing funds one and two being the operating fund balance. These are some of highlights from our capital purchase plan. $675,000 for technology improvements, $500,000 in security camera upgrades. You earlier in the past couple months approved that purchase and part of it is occurring in the current year to balance in next year.

We put some money aside Superroportionate, Proprietary, and Proprietary. Spervantage, maintenance and repairs to make, some roofing repairs, some old switch gear at the high school that needs to be switched out, and a refresh of furniture at the middle school. There are smaller, these are the larger of the capital purchases. The full list is in the budget document itself, around pages 37 and 38, I believe.

In closing thoughts, I believe we are meeting the objectives of the district with intentionality. Our financial position remains strong, and that's evidenced by our bond ratings. I'm happy to take any questions that you may have. Anyone can start.

Did you guys switch seats again? No, we haven't switched yet, but we can. I thought one time you said everything. I just go right.

You had some regrets. I do my name and that's about it. Okay. Okay, go ahead, Kim.

Okay, so, John, I have some questions that I have already asked you, but I wanted to ask kind of on behalf of the board so that they could all get the same answers that you and I kind of talked through as we talked through the budget for this year. I just think it's helpful for everybody's financial literacy as well as so the public hears kind of what we're doing So, as everybody here is well aware, budgeting is an ongoing process. It's not something where we just check a box once a year, especially in a school district. As you saw from John's overview here, the claims budget begins with a comprehensive planning process and then there's continued maintenance and monitoring that we go through throughout the year, right?

You see the monthly financial statements, variance to actuals that we review at least It's monthly through our board meetings. Flexibility in the budget process is key, whether you in a school district whether you in a business because there always unforeseen events opportunities unforeseen events like the tornado we just had which require adjustment and fund allocation as you go through the school year So, John, the first question I had for you was, are there any meaningful changes year over year based on last year's budget performance actuals to variance? At the conclusion of each fiscal year, we do analyze our budget to actual results. For the year ended June of 24, which was the last complete year, our spending had a variance of about 1.5% from budget to actual.

Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And consequently, our budget is fairly stable. We're experiencing normal rates of staff turnover, which keep a moderate pace of growth in the personnel costs. We are experiencing some stronger inflationary cost adjustments, especially in our utilities and our insurance premiums that relate to property and casualty coverages.

Those are pushing towards 9% this next year. Yeah, so thanks, John. So what I'd like everybody to kind of take away there are a couple of key things. Like 2002, the budget variance is over 6%.

John's personal goal is to keep it below 3%. We're inside of that this past year. It's a big budget, right? I mean, north of 75, close to $80 million this next year.

To be within 3% of that is an excellent goal. Spervantage, Poverty, and Poverty. Property and casualty insurance, you know, damage claims that we might have. How does that look for the district?

How much damage did the district sustain with the recent tornado? What's our deductible look like? Can you just give the board a little insight into that? So we're insured with a self-insurance pool that insures a lot of school districts in Missouri.

It's called MUSIC for short, or the Missouri United School Insurance Council. They have had a history. They've been in existence since the early 1980s. They've had a great history and track record of success.

The last two or three years, they've taken some pretty hard hits due to tornadoes and other weather-related events across the state. And that's partly what's driving the increases we're seeing today. As far as the recent tornado here in our town, in our district, we were highly fortunate. Our buildings have some damage.

It's fairly minor. We have some roof damage at Captain. There's some window damage at Glen Ridge and some other minor damages at Y-Down and Merrimack. A lot of people wouldn't even see the damage that's there.

So we'll be working through our insurance and submitting those claims and getting those repairs facilitated. Fortunately, as you mentioned, our deductible is very low. It's only $2,500 per incident. It's lower than my personal on the house.

We feel pretty good about that. Per incident, by the way. Yeah. Anyway, we'll be, throughout the summer, we'll be finishing those repairs and getting the buildings ready for the fall.

But our insurance serves us well. That is for sure. And even with the higher incidence of property claims, because kind of these property casualty and insurance increases that we're seeing, it's because we're in this pool where, you know, prior to us even having this incident here, there have been incidents in other school districts where we are part of the pool. The year-over-year increase is 9%, which I feel is still pretty reasonable, but John said it's kind of come as a shock to other school districts.

Obviously, with, you know, the way our fund balances are, we have the ability to absorb those shocks. John just one other thing while we think about self pools The other large self pool that we have is for employee health care expenses Can you just tell the board a little bit about that We been self on our medical care for about seven years And that has turned out to be a good decision by this organization. We've had some good years where people are well and claims are well within premium. Permanent.

We've built up around four months of claim reserves, which is, I'd like to be at least three months or better, and so we're around four months at the moment. The premiums to that program are around a little over $6 million a year, and claims are running very well this year. Last year was slightly in the negative. It's two years that we have had negative.

Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Federal Department of Education on whether those schools are funded equitably since we have multiple schools in that KE5 space. From a capital investment standpoint, you often see some variations.

And last year, Glenridge had a playground installed that was an expense that didn't apply to the other school buildings. This year, there's nothing dramatic like that. I mean, you saw some of the expenses we're having in commercial, I mean, capital improvements, but none of them, I think, are so large that they tip the scales this year. They're all pretty much lower-level things as we develop our plan for major capital investments to the facility improvement plans we're working on.

Great. So nothing beyond maintenance capex in the budget for this year. So this one's kind of for both you and Nisha. So I know as part of the comprehensive budgeting process when you consider our students with the highest amount of needs, does this budget that you put in front of the board specifically address any of the resources that they need to successfully progress through the district?

So I think about things like we think about our, you know, our special ed is kind of provided through a separate resource, but sometimes they don't have all the resources that our students need. Or, John, I think you mentioned that sometimes we get students that come from outside of the county where those special ed resources aren't available, and we have, you know, we have things within the budget so that we can help to supplement those needs. Is that true? That's true.

I mean, student needs come in many forms, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, or other disabilities, and we seek to fund all of those resources for all of those needs. To the best of my knowledge, this budget adequately addresses all of those needs. And as you mentioned, we have the partnership with SSD. The students are ours, but they serve them through their IUPs for their specific disability issues.

Great. And John's been really good about even, you know, whenever we need to pivot or anything during the school year We need resources for specific needs that's student-based. We always work around that. And that's part of the flexibility that we built into the budget.

Great. And then I know you had a list on one of your slides of the things that are directly tied to our strategic plan and to the outcomes of students, but have any recent investments that we've made in the past few budget cycles, either in staffing or new programs, delivered measurable improvements for our students? And can you kind of just name a few? I had to consult with Melaina on this one.

Good, I figured you would have. Hi, Melaina. Dr. G.

That's a good question. Our Educlimber effectively supports our MTSS program. Can you tell everybody what Educlimber kind of an MTSS is Educlimber tracks all of our academic and other data we have on students to help focus need of our teachers and staff and programs MTSS is our multi-tiered system of supports, and they rely on the software data to deliver these MTSS supports. We hired a math specialist this last year at Y-Down, and that has demonstrated some good success.

And another one would be our letters training that we have for elementary that is a literacy program that helps teachers teach phonics and other literacy mechanisms. Thank you. And I know you've already answered this, but I'm going to ask it again because it's probably our most important question as board members as part of our fiduciary responsibility. In your opinion, what's the financial outlook for the district for the next few years?

Do we have sufficient reserves for difficult times? I think we all know the answer, so, but I'm going to ask it anyway. And do any new spending decisions we're making today come with future obligations we might not be able to afford? Based on the information available to me today, anyway, the financial outlook of the district over the next few years should be very stable.

Thank you, Chair Powell. That said, there are potential threats that could adversely impact the district's financial position. Most of that risk relates to potential legislative actions that could reduce or affect revenue streams. For example, during the recent legislative session in Jeff City, various legislation was introduced that would either reduce or limit personal property taxes or assessed valuations.

In regards to spending though, I believe the district has a significant flexibility to control our spending and offset any revenue losses. So, and then kind of related to that, we often get asked the question of, well, what about a rollback then for our residents in future years based on the fact that we have a fund balance that, yes, given a snapshot of time, is in the, let's call it, 62 to 65% So, do you want to comment on kind of your thoughts there? And I know you and I have, we have discussions about this kind of throughout the year, but. So the current calendar year or tax year 2025 is going to be the first year of the senior property owner tax freeze.

Eligible property owners will be granted a credit for any increase in the real estate taxes on their personal residence that occurs over the last year from 2024, which was the base year that was set by the ordinance. In other words, any increase in real estate taxes due to a change in operating levy or a change in assessed valuation will be offset by a credit such that 2025 real estate taxes will be the same as 2024 real estate taxes for those eligible taxpayers. This first year has a minor impact on our budget. As future years go by, the tax credits granted to eligible seniors will grow.

So it's kind of like wading into a pool. It starts out shallow and the farther a person wades, the greater that increase gets. Over time, as properties turn over, that freeze may go to, may fall off the books because a different property owner may not be eligible for it. So at some point, I think it may reach some level of stability.

But over the next decade, where our projections are, that'll cost the district about $6 million in revenue loss. Okay, my last but not least question, I want to say up front that we're very thankful for all of the grants and donations that we receive. But just for order of magnitude, one of the things that you don't see in the budget are the grants and the donations we receive from outside sources that help to supplement some of the activities we have at the district. So that includes, you know, PTO contributions.

It also includes money that the district receives from supplemental funding sources like the Clayton Education Foundation. Can you let me know and let the rest of the board know how much the Clayton Education Foundation typically provides the school district on any given year? And the reason I'm asking that question is as we've engaged more with the community, particularly, you know, the condo association and the board associations, And we've talked about as we develop plans for long-range facilities and that type of thing, well, why don't you go to a foundation or why don't you go to a large benefactor that may be able to give you a giant hug in the form of, you know, a million dollars or more? So can you just let us know what on an annual basis CEF typically contributes to the good of the order?

I'm going to start by saying we greatly appreciate the support of the Clayton Education Foundation and the PTO. Our partners and we appreciate their efforts on our part. Clayton Education Foundation typically provides between $30,000 and $50,000 a year in teacher grants. The PTO supports the district in a variety of ways.

They don't have an exact number for that service. And we pull in a few other miscellaneous grants that are often small, $1,000, $2,000 here or there. And they don't dramatically change our financial status, but we certainly appreciate when we're able to get those extra dollars into the till. Okay.

So that's it for me. I'll let you guys let the rest of your questions fly. But, John, I just want to say again thank you. Thank you for the hard work of you and your staff this past year.

Thank you for managing our budget very tightly in this past year within a – well within a 3% variance. Thank you. The timing of collections on property taxes in St. Louis County when people contest their new assessment evaluation, all that stuff.

Any concerns about that? What's your crystal ball say over the next year or two for that? My crystal ball is cloudy. What we have tracked over time is that the rate of protest has been rising, more so on the commercial properties than the residential properties, but it's rising on both accounts, and that the refund rate has typically been rising.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to ask you to comment on the question that came in. I think it's called the delinquency category of property tax revenue.

And it's to account for some of those refunds that are going to take place as we see them come out of the state tax commission. So, I'm cautiously optimistic that we will not see continued growth in that. Yeah. But just, I mean, just to make this abundantly clear, reflection of the last question I think That's, we have more than enough in our operating reserve right now to cover any sort of collections issues.

Yes, sir. All right. That's it. Anyone?

Go ahead. John, I just had a couple of questions on some of the specific line items just for my education and perhaps others' education as well. So I know we talked a lot about facilities, you know, over the last year. It's a large piece of the budget.

I'm just curious if you give like high level, what are some of the major areas of spending in the facilities upkeep? And I know there's a capital component. I would assume things like HVAC, things that we have planned would be in that part of it. But I'm just curious, what are some of the bigger things we spend on in the facilities realm?

These are the big ones here. These are the big ones, okay. They're sorted by size, top down, large to small. And there's more than these that are less than six figures.

But I wanted to highlight these larger ones. In the technology space, we regularly allocate funds to our technology department for maintaining, both replacing devices, as well as maintaining the network, the Wi-Fi systems, et cetera. That's what that funding is for. In the security camera upgrades, we have an outdated system that needs replacement.

The Board of Education has been working on this for a long time. This is the first time we've had a system like this. We've had a system like this in the last five years, and we're still working on it. A lot of it's still running on coaxial and et cetera.

So in this first round of improvements we upgrading the systems both at the middle school and high school to be much more user Historically those systems were really only available to the SROs and only really in arrears of something happened They didn really have active real observations The new systems will provide authorized administrators and other security personnel to have real-time observations and remotely to their phones, et cetera. Our school buses, the state recommends a 12-year life to those. Ours are reaching that age. We only have three, and we've had some issues with them.

They're all diesel powered vehicles currently. We're evaluating other sources of energy, whether it be gasoline, natural gas, electric, even hydrogen vehicles that are being produced and just trying to understand what would serve this district best. In this community, we understand the interest in sustainable technologies and the interest in electric vehicles. Our buses don't always stay local and we let them typically travel up to two hours away for sporting events or field trips.

And the ability to charge those in a quick manner from it when they're out of town is going to be rather challenging. So we're really being careful about how we analyze those vehicles. This past year we've had a lot of investment in time towards our facilities and our facility plan, our long-range plan, and we're ready to move into the actual development of some projects from that plan and with the anticipating going to the voters in April of 26 for a bond issue. So we've got funding here, and later tonight we're going to be awarding some selections for architectural services.

Over at the high school, the Greyhound entrance has been a weak point in our security over in that building, and we're going to make that vestibule secure, and there's funding in it. It's going to happen this summer. The plans are already done and that project should be started soon. Pavement has a cycle, asphalt and concrete.

We've got to make some replacement there. Merrimack's got some roofing repairs. The high school has some really old switchgear. It's original to the building that's needing upgrading.

So we're going to replace that. And then Main Street furniture, the furniture has been in the building since it was new, And we're finding, the building administrators are finding, that students don't use it the way they would intend, and so we're looking at replacing that furniture. There's many more than these, but these are the big ones. Great.

Thank you so much. That's helpful. I noticed that there's some lease purchase and lease interest items. What kinds of things do we lease?

Those are just straight financings of some improvements that happened a few years back. They were really 20-year improvements that were done, and they're just being paid down like that. In the world of governmental financing stuff, we have general obligation bonds, which we record in Fund 3 and are secured by a vote of the people and a debt rate on the property tax levy. And then we have Fund 4 debt, which is not voter approved and is not secured in that same way.

So we typically have to post real estate to secure or collateralize that debt. And then it's, even though we call it lease purchase, it's strictly a financing arrangement. Okay. Awesome.

Gotcha. Oh, that makes sense. I just have one more question. I noticed that under the state revenues, the classroom trust fund, and I read a little bit up on this, I think it proceeds from the gambling, gambling, that we, that's legalized gambling.

How does that, it's a pretty, I think it's the largest piece of our state funding from what I read on the balance book. How is that how is that trust fund I just curious how that trust fund is allocated and how we utilize it So in the state formula there are districts that are formula supported and it's really the fact that the state has established a state adequacy target or a minimum level of funding that they believe schools can be successful with. And then when that's multiplied out and determined, they subtract a local effort. And if your adequacy target, unless your local effort is such that there's dollars to be remaining, then the state will fund those dollars.

And that's your state support. Then there are hold, and we're not in that group. Then there are hold harmless groups, and we're in the hold harmless group of people or districts. And the dollars that we get are the same dollars basically that we got in 2007.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you. Thank you. That's it for me.

Thank you, John. Go ahead. Hi. Hi.

So you, one of my first questions was, the revenue, your anticipated revenue is going to go up by about 3.1 million. And I was going to ask the question of how this will change with the senior tax freeze. I really appreciate your swimming pool metaphor. I like that one.

So you said in about, over a decade, it would be about a $6 million loss. Did I hear that correctly? That's correct. Okay.

And that's, and that's, and that's, that's a good point. An estimate based on a series of assumptions that we have today. It could be more or less. Okay.

Any idea of what you anticipated being just in this first year? A shallow end of a pool? It's probably less than a quarter of a million. Okay.

Thank you. On this, you talk about the technology improvements. You mentioned a few, A few minutes ago, and I'm wondering if that was general or is that specific to what is being anticipated next year in the 675? This is an allocation that we make annually in dollars, and the exact way it will be spent is largely still to be determined.

Part of it will be a refresh of student devices. I know that there's discussion about expanding the Wi-Fi capability. You probably hear some complaints about that, and we're looking at addressing that and other needs that they have. I know we're also expanding some of our switches in the network.

Okay. Thank you. The architectural services, does this include an estimation for the CMAR that we're going to be talking about later, or should we anticipate that there will be more? Yes, it does.

Okay. Fantastic. Fantastic. Oh, question.

View 5 on your budget, page 19. I'll just explain it so you don't have to go to it. It's the one, the revenue budget with prior year comparisons. The local revenue, which came in as gifts, is that like what you were speaking about earlier from PTO and Clayton Education Foundation?

The budgeted is about 55K? And sometimes from individuals. We've had very generous individuals. Somebody a couple years ago gave us like six figures.

I see that. But I think we have a new policy that says that can't happen. And then visa rebates? Speak to that.

We use visa cards to make a lot of purchases, and we do get rebates for those. Fantastic. Okay. There was a point in time where we could use them to pay our utility bills and they've put it into that.

We used to generate a lot of rebate for that. Okay. I think that's it for now. Thank you.

Thank you. I asked my questions two weeks ago Thanks Okay First of all thank you so much for doing the amazing job that you doing John and your team We appreciate you so much, and the idea that we're sitting here with this balanced budget and feeling so confident going into this year and the years to come is such a gift to our district. And you work very hard, so we really appreciate you being that consistent force for our district. I have two related very simple questions about grants.

What all is grant funded is my general question. I know specifically one thing, and it's all in coalition, if I'm correct. Correct. So can you please give me an update on that particular grant, because obviously it has a lifespan, and so can you tell me where that is and what we intend to do in terms of continuing to have that As part of our work we do around health and wellness, you know, and whether we're going to go out for another grant, etc.

And then, again, back to the, in general, what else is grant funded? The all-in grant, I think, has a five-year cycle. So it got approved once for five years and then a second time for five years. And we just finished the first year of the second five-year allocation.

So we should have that for another four. It generally goes to support the salary of the person filling that role. I'll just say publicly that whether I'm on this board again in four years or not, I would love for this board to continue to support that effort. It's such an incredibly important part of our SEL.

It's related to mental health, et cetera, and we value that so much as a district. Having a very specific program like that, we address substance abuse, all those things in health class, But that's not the same as having a program like this where we have a dedicated person that is going out and doing all this education and outreach and is in the schools so often. So I really value that program, and I hope that our board continues to make sure that something specific like that is available to our students. What else is grant funded?

Some people would think some of our title money from the federal government is grants. I don't. I just consider it federal dollars. But that supports a variety of professional development and other educational initiatives.

Most of our other grants are sporadic and can be very small. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I move that the Board of Education approve the budget for 2025-2026, including expenditures sourced from federal grants as presented. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No.

Okay. Motion passes. The next action item is architectural services for facility projects. I think we should have read the motion first before we ask all those questions.

Isn't that what we used? It's a long motion. No, no, it's my fault. So will you read this motion, and then we'll see if we have any questions.

I think we have to do it all over again. Oh, no, we don't. We don't. I'm positive.

I just looked up the rules, and we don't have to do it over again. Okay, anyway, go ahead and read this. Okay, you guys ready? 3.2.

This is a long one. I move that the Board of Education approve the selection and collaboration of Paragon Architecture and Perkins & Will for Project Package Number 1, relating to the proposed addition of an academic wing at CHS, Spervantage, B, project package number three, and authorize the administration to negotiate a contract for the desired services to include a clear scope of work, reasonable fees, and other acceptable terms. Second. And further approve the selection of BLDD architects for project package number two relating to proposed improvements of athletic facilities at CHS and WMS and authorize the administration to negotiate a contract for the desired services to include a clear scope of work, reasonable fees, and other acceptable terms.

Second. Okay. Now, does anyone have any questions? That might be the longest motion we've I just want to comment in case anybody's watching.

We have three different packages in here. We're keeping different balls in the air through this process. There's some decision-making that still has to happen and some focusing down that still needs to happen. It hasn't happened yet.

That's okay, but that's what's going on here. In other words, it's not we're authorizing going forward on all of this. We're keeping options open for our consideration down the road. That's it.

And that's for the next three agenda items. That's the comment I wanted to make. Correct. Correct.

These contracts that we negotiate will be back in front of you for approval. Great. Any other questions or comments? Okay.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

Okay, motion passes. 3.3, will you read that motion, please? I move that the Board of Education authorize issuance of a request for qualifications, RFQ, for a construction manager at risk CMAR in accordance with policy FED. Second.

Any questions or comments on this? No? Okay, all those in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. 3.4, please read that motion. I move that the Board of Education authorize issuance of a request for proposals, RFP, for a consultant for public engagement services in regards to facility improvements.

Second. Any questions or comments about this? Pam? I'm wondering if you could, this is 3.4, If you could speak about how a public engagement consultant would support us differently and in conjunction with a CMAR.

The CMAR, their participation, they will primarily evaluate the constructability of the buildings and recommend ways to improve upon that, as well as manage the budgets for these projects. That's going to be their role. This team member, I'll call him a team member, their role will be to develop the communications plan for the public in anticipation of a bond issue election in April of 26. So that includes, that'll have to be an informational campaign.

It's a story that we want to drive and get out in front of and keep the public fully informed about what they will be voting on. We're prohibited from having a vote yes campaign. We're not prohibited from informing voters about what our proposals are. But I do think, to your point, Pam, I think a construction management firm also, or most of them, also provide community engagement piece.

Yes, that is the point of my question. Our architects and our CMAR are going to be engaged in public engagements as well towards the development of their designs of the facilities themselves. This person can be part of that and observe it, but their ultimate objective is to inform voters about what they are going to be voting on. Got it.

Okay. Any other questions or comments on this one? Okay, all those in favor? Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes 3.5. I move that the Board of Education approve the resolution adopting the 2025-2030 St.

Louis Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan as presented. Second. Any questions or comments on this? Yes, Chris.

Okay. My question, there was, in this document, there is, this is a tiny little small thing. And when it, there's the word, one of the first lines that is the very, the smaller section, not the ones that have a bunch of words in them, it's about winter storms. Sorry.

I'm not looking at it, so I'm like trying to help you look at it. Yeah, see the one where it says winter storm? That's a good way of saying it. Okay In that one it also says district has procedures in place to access the severity of a severe thunderstorm and take appropriate actions to protect the welfare of the student So this was changed since I last looked at this I hope not No no it wasn No it wasn No it wasn This is what I saw So is a winter storm the same as a thunderstorm No, it would be snow and ice.

So should we change that to winter storm? That was my point. What does it say right now? Severe thunderstorm.

You can laugh. That's okay. What does it say right now? It says thunderstorm instead of winter storm.

You guys, we just had a major disaster, so I'm being very specific about this. It has its own tornado. It has its own tornado. Oh, I know it does, but I'm going to make sure every single one of these is properly assessed.

You see what I'm saying? Why does it say thunderstorm instead of winter storm? Does it not matter? John, tell me it doesn't matter.

I don't know. Because you can have it on the same. Well, it says winter storm. That's the winter storm pattern.

On the line, winter storm, the sentence after it says thunderstorm. See that? It just confused it. Thank you.

It just seems inconsistent. Should we change that tiny little word from thunder to winter to make sure we are covering all of our bases? I want to resist. Or does it not matter?

That's what I kept saying, tiny little line. But that's not on the actual resolution, is it? Okay. I don't know.

It's just inconsistent. That's the plan, but it's not. The actions. Okay.

Okay, but again, this is the tiniest little detail that I am... No, but it's a... I know it's little, but I want to resist a change because this has already been through East West Gateway Council and the State Emergency Management Agency. Oh, it's not ours.

And they've approved... Oh, this happens. Yeah, yeah. So to be clear, it's not a plan that we wrote.

It is a plan that we are required to adopt. I mean, okay. Thank you. I totally agree with that.

Okay, thank you for clarifying. My other questions are actually maybe more important. What, I'll say them one at a time. The first one is, what's meant by structural, what does it say?

Besides elementary school, structural retrofits. Can you tell me, besides that, what does that mean? Well, it means bringing a building up to code or up to, so a few years ago, this district had a bond issue where we retrofitted buildings for earthquake resistance. Yes, okay.

So that would be an example of a retrofit. Right, which going forward, if we have new facilities, we'll be on that and there won't be retrofits needed because we'll do it. Okay, thank you. At the cost of $1,000 per square foot.

Yeah. Yeah. For a tornado shelter. And as we know, well worth it, right?

Well worth it. Yeah, absolutely. You want to be very, like, choiceful. They're very important, but yes, they're very costly.

Costly, yeah. But as this document says, basically it says, benefit of protecting lives outweighs cost of action, which is absolutely the case, but of course we're also going to be fiduciarily responsible. Okay. Okay.

Do we have, this says under extreme temps, we have an emergency water supply. Is that accurate for us? If that means water bottles, yes. Wow.

There you go. See, I mean, nothing was coming to mind, but that is brilliant. It's not, right? Yeah.

No, that's what that typically means. Oh, okay. Beautiful. Perfect.

Okay, I love it. Look, we have a couple right here. Okay, thank you. My last one, no, two more.

Sorry, guys, I'm super into this disaster preparedness. When people are using gay field, which happens all the time, we need to have a place for them to go in an event of tornado, which actually happens, as we know. So can they go to the family center? Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried The members of the the family center separate Think about when the tornado sirens went off two weeks ago almost three weeks ago now They went off and seven minutes later the tornado hit. Right. There's not enough time to get everybody from the field to the family center. You're probably right.

So it's an alternative for when it's not a tornado. I mean, it is an alternative. I guess what I'm just saying is. You're bringing up a good point, and what happened at that track meet, which is why people sheltered in buses, is there were hundreds and hundreds of athletes and families and coaches here.

There wasn't room for them all. Correct. So that's the point I'm making, is we do have that building. Yes, it's not the ideal, but the field house is only so big.

Well, as part of our architectural work that we're going to be doing, we'll be evaluating storm shelters district-wide, including Gayfield. Okay, because that's a weak point. Yeah, it's a safety issue. Exactly.

We really need to think about that. So, okay. That would be a very, you know, useful, you know, yeah, yeah, practical. So, okay, thank you for that.

The last thing I'll say is I'll give you a chance to just tell me as briefly or as long as you want. You know, I'm not looking for anything specific, John, but what we learned from this last, you know, What do we know now about whether or not our planning, this plan that we have in place is solid and are there holes? You see what I'm saying? Well, regarding this resolution that's before you and the plan that's there, that's really being pushed by state legislation and SEMA, and there's an expectation that public schools make modifications to their facilities to be more durable in storm events.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. It has incredible power, and so it pays for us to consider these kind of improvements as we go forward. I remember one of the things that Paragon suggested in the study was, I think, that the elementary gymnasiums be FEMA-ready or FEMA-approved or whatever that meant, which they currently are not.

Right. The right size for that. Right, and so a lot of schools will do a gymnasium and make it a tornado safe room. Other schools will make a whole series of classrooms tornado safe.

Some of that tends to be less costly. Oh, yes. At Spady, you mean? Yeah, yeah.

Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions or comments on 3.5, Pam? I know you nor I were here in 2020, the last time this came before the board.

Do you know if there are any significant changes from five years ago to now? I don't believe so. Okay. I mean, it goes through a protracted review every five years, and this is quite similar to the last time.

Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. No other questions?

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

Motion passes. And one more, 3.6. I move that the Board of Education approves the use of services of the Supplemental Health Care Agency. Second.

Okay. Any questions or comments about this one? Yes. No.

Sorry. It's like we're playing the game. I couldn't quite tell if this agency is like a recruiter or a temp agency or a combo of the two. And so then if so I can read my notes here to myself They have a placement fee and are we required to hire through them If we have an open position for an RN.

No, we're not required, and actually this contract would be non-exclusive. That's in the first part, too. So one of the questions that I had earlier was, you know, why didn't we look at other options that might be a little bit less of a price or something like that? We still have the opportunity to use those other staffing agencies if we wanted to.

This is really just a proactive measure. If we would ever find ourselves in a place where we don't have a nurse, we can't find, we have sub nurses, our own sub nurses too. But if we would end up in a place where we aren't able to staff with one of our nurses or our sub nurses, we wanted, because we were able to reach some favorable terms in this contract, we wanted to go ahead and move forward with it just as a proactive measure. So we would have something, should we ever need that?

Because we did have a little bit of trouble finding a nurse for Summer Academy, which we have now. Thank you so much for doing that work and for creating this contract for us. Absolutely. Any others?

Jason? No, I'm just, you looked like you had a question. Well, now I've pressed the button, so now I've got to ask it. You don't have to.

I don't know if you figured this out yet or not, but at some point I'd just be curious to know, like, at the school level, why an RN versus an LPN? Yeah, so I did do a little bit of research on that, so I can speak to that. So I asked our nurse coordinator that we have is Heather Chrisman. And so she had originally, when I asked her and we were looking at staffing agencies, could we use an LPN versus an RN?

And she said, really, they need to be RNs. So some of the data is like this year our RNs managed nine diabetics, 256 students with asthma, 230 students who have life-threatening food allergies, three students with BP shunts, 26 students that have seizure disorders. And the difference is that the RNs are actually trained to perform those advanced procedures, deliver condition-specific education, and administer a wider variety of medications. So based on our student needs that we have here, she really does believe that that would be our preference would be to staff with an RN.

So in this contract, we could use either if we – it's about a $10 difference an hour from if we were ever to need to use a staffing agency. Well, the reason, if you hire full-time, you know, if you hired a full-time LPN versus an RN, you do that a number of times over a number of years. That's a significant savings of time. It would be a significant.

I just don't know what's being done at the school that is outside the scope of an LPN, right? But I trust Heather on that, and that's fine. Thanks. Okay, any other questions or concerns about the healthcare agency contract?

Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Okay, motion passes. So we are moving on to the consent agenda items. Will you read that motion please, Chris? 4.1 at the top.

I move that the Board of Education approve consent agenda items 4.1 through 4.10. Second. I would like to publicly acknowledge and thank the following individuals for donations. On behalf of the district, the Board of Education would like to thank the Optimist Club of Clayton for their generous donation of $1,000 for the robotics championships.

Any other questions or comments on any consent agenda items? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes. We are moving on to board communications. I'd like to start, actually, and I just want to acknowledge and thank our Chief Technology Officer, Jeff Poles.

Congratulations, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I fully, fully appreciate what a chief technology officer does every day behind the scenes to make sure this district is up and running at all times. And I'm thinking even especially back to COVID. Jeff was, you know, obviously the technology department with his leadership was critical in those times and all other times, too.

So I just want to thank Jeff for his time with us, congratulate him on his retirement. And just on a personal note, many of you know this, but Jeff and I taught high school together. Oh, okay. We taught at Marquette High School together in the Rockwood School District 25, 20 to 30 years ago, probably, about 25 years ago.

So it's been fun for me personally to work with him again and see him and reminisce about our old teaching days together. So I wish him well personally and also on behalf of the board and the district. So thank you, Jeff, for dedicating the past 10 years to the district. Any other board communications?

The teaching and learning was canceled. You had a governing council meeting. Do you want to talk about that? Sure.

Just last night we had the last governing council meeting for SSD and we did what we did tonight with John We went over the fiscal year 2026 budget and approved it You know, we are very lucky to be in this district that has a balanced budget. I think I mentioned at the beginning of the year the struggle that SSD has been trying to get themselves out of. They were in a very big deficit, and just in one year's time, they are making great strides. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

With that already. And then the other thing we did was elect new officers within the council and that was it. Great. Did any other, was there a Parks and Rec meeting again, Ben?

Yeah, that was Parks and Rec Monday night. I'm trying to think. I mean, a lot of it had to do with, you know, the city and resources with regard to the storm. Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Also you know the field use this spring has been among the worst ever There have been more cancellations than games played So, but, you know, but aside from that, I'm trying to think if there's anything else that's, I do think the ice rink, once again, the former ice rink space is on hold for now.

As the city evaluates their fiscal situation relative to the tornado, I mean, I think, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. But, you know, but there's, there'll be some interesting, like there's going to, they're going forward with some lighting projects. So there's this Dark Skies initiative in multiple parks, including Oak Knoll and Shaw Park.

The tennis center is going to get a big, nice improvement in their lighting. Which has been a long time kind of thing. So, I guess you'd say adjacent facilities for our kids. Well, tennis courts.

Tennis courts, especially, yeah. So, that's it. Thank you. Actually, on that note, I'd like to publicly thank the city, when you're talking about the city, the Board of Aldermen, the mayor, and the city manager, David Gibson, for their partnership through this tornado aftermath.

Their partnership and clear and constant communication with us was critical to our order of you know to what we were trying to do with the school district So I would like to publicly thank them as well as you talking about the city So thank you Did you have something else? Any other board communications? Okay, then we can read the motion to adjourn. I move that the Board of Education adjourn on Kim's birthday.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Okay. Meeting is adjourned. .