September 4, 2024 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Spervantage of Education Proposition O levy agenda our business meeting to order Do we need to say the pledge again No Okay Okay Didn think so Chris, will you please read the motion to adopt the agenda? I move that we adopt the agenda as posted. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Okay. Motion passes.

Agenda is adopted. Okay, before we get to public comment, I would just like to make a couple comments. On behalf of the school board, we lost a student this week To cancer. Tate Kest.

And it's hard to find words. But on behalf of the school board, I just would like to extend our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to Tate, his family, his friends, and our entire school community that's had a rough week. And we are all thinking of Tate and his family at this time. In addition, I think everybody's probably aware of a school shooting in Georgia today.

And again, our hearts are heavy as a school community thinking of another school community dealing with such a tragedy. And I know that as a district, as a school board, as individuals, that we are all holding close to our hearts and in our thoughts everyone affected by this tragic situation today. Six years ago, I think it was six years ago, the school board here, which only included some of us, adopted a resolution, which I'm not going to read to you, but basically it was to declare our support for sensible gun safety legislation. And I just wanted to remind the board, those of you who weren't on it then, and the community that we still stand by that, and today is a prime example why.

And again, our thoughts, our prayers, our condolences and sympathies go to Tate and his family, as well as everyone affected by the tragedy today in Georgia at the school there, too. That being said, Luke, do we have any public comment tonight? No? Okay.

Then, let's see. Okay, I will turn it over to Dr. Patel. Great.

Thank you and welcome everyone. First two weeks of school have gone really, really well, very smooth. I would say a lot of staff members and parents and students have said they felt like we didn't even like have a summer break in a good way. Routines were set, you know, everybody just got into the groove of things.

So really good two weeks. I just want to have a couple of things this evening. The first thing is I do want to officially congratulate Ms. Sarah G.

H. who is our P.E. and health teacher at the Thank you. So huge congratulations to Sarah.

Later on this evening, Paragon is here. So it's going to give us an update about the Long Range Facilities Master Plan. And you can just see here high level meetings that are set up for every month. Today they started, we already had our district steering committee meeting, I believe it was last week.

Today they started their subcommittees at each of the buildings and they met with Merrimack, Captain and the high school. And then tomorrow, we're going to have a meeting with the district steering committee. Spervantage, Family Center, and Y-Down. And then as you can see, in October, November, December, January, we're going to continue with all the different meetings.

A lot of engagement opportunities for anyone that wants to know more. They're more than welcome to attend any of the building-level community forums or even our two district-wide community forums that we're going to have. And then we also thank you Paragon for being very accommodating and adjusting to our crazy schedules and our asks but they also added three additional meetings based on input from our last steering committee meeting So on the 17th they going to have a special meeting with our coordinators council which is basically all of our coordinators for programming like academic needs and what kind of facilities we would need for that They also added a special meeting for our athletics and activities. So having the middle school and the high school get together and really look at all of our facilities specifically for the center, like the gymnasiums, the pool, tennis courts, and what we are envisioning for the next few years.

So it is, right, Frank? I think it's a thumbs up for that. So I really appreciate that, and I know that we're going to get into that a little bit later. Quick reminder for the community, if you have not, we send out a specific link directly just to our parents, students, and staff.

So if you have not filled out the cell phone survey, we send out a reminder. It does close tomorrow, tomorrow, right? Yep, tomorrow around midnight. And then we will be doing a formal presentation on October 9th to the board based on all the feedback that we have gotten And giving a formal recommendation for the cell phone usage in our schools.

And then finally, athletics. I did want to give a shout out. Steve Hudson presented this information at freshman night, I believe. I just thought it was really eye-opening.

So if you look at this, for over 80 years, we had two state championships. And since 2023, when we changed our shift and focus on, we always say we want to be excellent in everything we do, especially academics. Our philosophy is we should also be excellent in athletics and activities. And so if you look at this data set, I think that's pretty impressive from 2023 on and the number of state championships we have had.

Our students are doing amazing academics and athletics. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I know you've got quite a bit of information today to share. I do.

Okay, well, first of all, before I get into the student update aspect, I wanted to say that I was one of Ms. GH's students, and it is so wonderful that such, like, all the teachers are amazing, but that she especially got such a great recognition because truly amazing coming from a student. Okay, so I'd like to start off strong sharing with you all the student update about the attendance policy. So after speaking with many classmates and friends, the main idea or main thing that I would like to share with you is that students have a lot of questions and what-if situations that come with attendance policy.

Instead of really being opposed to the policy, it's more questions about their specific circumstances and a little more of like a worry aspect of the situations that may happen. So when I began to look more into the details about the policy, I learned that there was an appeal process. And personally, that made me a lot more comfortable with the idea. And I believe that one of the possible solutions for the concerns with the policy would be to share more information about the little details and increase awareness to the students about the cell phone policy.

For example, sharing about the appealing process that could take place if you were sick for a long period of time, excusing you from saying having to take a detention because of health issues. Another concern, mainly from the upperclassmen, were college visits on top of those eight days, because if you take an excused absence to visit a university, it would still count to one of your eight days that you have. So after speaking with Dr. Patel, she gave me the wonderful idea of giving juniors and seniors two college visit days atop of the eight days so that if you were to get sick and have additional excused absences, you wouldn't have to sacrifice your college visits to, let's say, not reach the maximum of eight days before consequence.

One of the last suggestions about the policy I wanted to give is regarding the make-up process for passing the eight days. Instead of serving an attention, which would erase an absence, the idea would be to check into the attendance room and then go to the teacher that you have the no credit assigned to and then speaking with that teacher coming up with a plan of action to let say make up the work you done Thank you So I've spoken with a large group of students and the School Student Advisory Council, SBSA, and so I would hope to bring the overall grand perspective and voice about this, the current and the future cell phone policy, because I know there are lots of individual perspectives, but I'm here to bring the overall big one. So one key thing that I would like to begin by stating is that the students are not against the research Thank you. We're talking about going outside and maybe getting in a car crash in the highway and then not having your cell phone to be able to report an incident or simply communicate to your parents, let's say, for, again, the specific circumstances, but that still are the things that are what cause students' concerns.

So, yeah, you will find that the seniors are the main advocates for cell phones. And one of the reasons that we pushed so hard is because we have such fond memories of our early high school years exactly as Clayton was before, and we simply wish that same amazing and great experience for all of our underclassmen. So to best find a solution that allows for sort of both sides of the issue to be heard, together we have created a list of possible outcomes with our perspectives on the possible outcome of the possible outcomes. So, the first possible outcome that students have seen is to ban cell phones.

And the students would strongly advise against this solution due to the new cell phone policy already working so well to minimize the cell phone distraction. Implementing a stronger policy when our current one works so well leaves the students with concerns about the little moments in our days when the cell phones were truly an asset. The second outcome is to maintain cell phones, the cell phone policy as it is now. So no cell phones during instructional time, no earbuds, which already works great, and students feel very comfortable with this because they actually have very positive comments as to how it's already been improving in the year, and there have been little to no incidents regarding distractions or disruptions during class time because of cell phones.

So we really do believe that it has eliminated any type of risk or any type of concern that interfere. So the threat of the foreign harsh cell phone policy has made people conform to the distinct cell phone policy? Yes. Well, maybe not exactly, but truly I think that everyone is happy with how it's going now.

And since it's already working so well, I think everyone's like, no, let's not lock phones away. Okay, so yes, and then our third one is to maintain, the third possible outcome would be to maintain the cell phone policy as it is of now, but adding maybe some additional resources. And this is one of the suggestions that the students wanted to add, saying that it would benefit all students to implement resources maybe with the Wellness Center or to simply give a little speech about learning tips and tricks on how to minimize the distractions of cell phones at home as well, apart from school. For example, this might include apps that block distractions or methods that separate your study time from your free time, and then in your free time you can check a couple of messages.

And students would strongly encourage this solution because it maintains the current policy as it is, which is already effective, while adding an extra component that helps manage this distraction outside of school as well. So high school prepares us for the life ahead, and for good or for worse, our cell phones will be with us for the rest of our life. So we hope that by learning how to manage the distraction at a young age, hopefully implementing resources in school that will help us manage it, we'll be better prepared to manage all types of distractions with electronics in the future. So, yeah, that's my little update.

And I also wanted to say thank you to all of you who have been with us today. Thank you. I know that this student update has been mostly focused on the high school, and I wanted to mention that the next SBSA meeting, I will be specifically focusing especially to contact all of our elementary school students and our middle school students. I'm going to be attending sixth grade camp next in a couple of weeks, so I'll be able to really get in touch with the Y-down kids there in sixth grade.

So I'm very excited to bring you all an update with all of the younger kiddos as well. So thank you for all of your attention. Great. Oh, OK.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not random. I'm just, you look at me like, a question?

OK, good. Have you actually witnessed in any of your classes thus far Any, like a teacher asking for a phone to be put away and there being any consequence because, you know, the student did not comply? So being completely truthfully honest, on the first day of school, there was one thing in my math class that a student like took it out. And I think it was more of a reflex, especially after coming out of summer so far, which it just goes to show like how cell phones are such a part of our life.

But the teacher was like, hey, I know it's the first day of school, but remember the cell phone policy. And then they were like, oh, my goodness, you're so right. And then they took it away. And then it hasn't been an issue at all.

And I think part of that, like you did mention, is a little bit fear. But that's also not the worst thing because it really is keeping us from the distraction and letting us focus on studies. Yeah, and I just wanted to say I appreciate you talking with the other students and helping us see that the students do really understand the data and the research and that they aren't refuting that. No.

And I just appreciate the fact that, you know, you made sure that that was the case. Yes. Because, you know, I think as an adult, we're not sure how much the students are, you know, really reading these studies the way we do. You have access to them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

So that was reassuring to me. So thank you. Absolutely. And I think Dr.

Gajewski, correct me if I'm wrong, so far we've had three cell phones. Third one today. Third one today. Oh, wow.

So it had to be taken? And then given back? Yes. Okay.

We don't have any repeat offenders yet. Okay. They're all first offenders. Okay.

Thank you. Lucy at the, oh, sorry, go ahead. I got one. I'm not on the cell phones because we're going to talk about that plenty, but on the attendance policy, I thought that was a really insightful comment about making the consequence for excessive absences remedial rather than punitive.

I think that's really, you know, so that's great input, and thank you for saying that. Absolutely. And I was just going to ask, I didn't even realize Dr. Kaczewski was here, but I was going to ask if you've shared these thoughts with him, with the administration at the high school, on both the attendance policy and the self-help.

Yes, we did. We had a meeting yesterday, actually. Oh, good. Okay.

Tuesday, during lunch. So I plan, of course, on keeping Dr. Kaczewski very updated with all of the student opinions. But, yeah, no, like his insight has also been truly really helpful and really good, and I'm very thankful.

Good. Good. Well, your perspective is valuable. So I appreciate you sharing it with us and also with him.

So thank you so much. I have one more thing to ask. Sorry. Thank you for reminding me that we also talked about the attendance policy.

I noticed that you said the potential for adding two visits for college seniors. And so I would love to know if that feels like enough. I don't know what records have been kept, if any. But it would be great to keep records this year, just see what's the average amount of college visits for each.

I would say that wouldn't have been enough for my kids who did it just last year. So I'm curious, because maybe I'm out of sorts, but they often missed two days of class for just one visit, and they went on two different visits. So that's already four days. So, again, I could be, you know, out of touch, but I'm just curious to know whether or not that seems like a reasonable amount or if there needs to be sort of an individual category for college visits that it's, I have no idea what, but just my thoughts around making sure that that's appropriate for them.

Of course. Just to clarify, you're suggesting, for example, that college visits be completely ruled out as not part of the eight instead of, like, just say implementing a restriction on two? I not suggesting it but I saying that potentially that maybe that a possible idea Absolutely I was hoping I mean during our SBSA meeting last Monday with the students the main topic was the cell phones So we didn't get much to the attendance policy as we had hoped. And I also spoke with a lot of individual students and a group apart from the SBSA about the attendance policy.

But I was definitely hoping to gather more information about that in our next SBSA meeting. So I would love to get back to you on that. Thank you. It's going to be tricky, though, because the seniors who just, they're gone.

So, you know, the current seniors don't know how many visits they're going to take quite yet. You know what I'm saying? So it's kind of a tricky thing if we don't have any current, you know, info from our counseling department about how often that's happening. But just maybe for this year, we could really take a good look at that and keep track.

And some juniors, which I would say is really appropriate. College visits were an excused absence. They were. So, yeah, I would love for us to really look at that just to make sure that it's an informed decision when we look at that number.

Yes, because college visits go in the excused absence category, but it also goes in as a college visit, not just like a general excused absence, let's say, if you were sick. Exactly. So we might have some data. And I can also speak to the seniors this year about how many college visits they took their junior year.

There you go. And we can gather some information that way. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to our presentations. Thank you again, Lucia. The first one, 9.1, is Paragon, who hopefully everyone knows is the consultant for our long-range facilities master plan.

So we will call them up for the presentation and update. Paragon is actually our friendly facilities consultant. And you saw a calendar there that Dr. Patel put up how busy they will be over the next five months.

But they've been busy for the past three or four months as well. And Brad Irwin, their principal architect, is here to give you an update. Good evening. So these are some of the things that we're going to cover tonight.

Just to give you a good recap of what we've done and what we did today and really where we're going moving forward. Show you some examples of some of the work that will be included within the master plan itself. And then, excuse me, some initial findings that are kind of applicable district-wide. So just a reminder again, because it's been a little bit since we've been in front of the board of some of what our scope of work includes.

So we're working right now with a demographer that's looking at not only the current enrollment, but also what the enrollment could look like in the next five to ten years for inside the district boundaries only. That helps really us inform, you know, as we try to look at space utilizations and as we're talking about how the buildings are utilized, what the rules might be, so to speak, for the student capacity and utilization as we look at the next five to ten years as well. So far, we've done a lot of, really a lot of the down and dirty and figuring out what are some of those long-term maintenance needs, what are the facility assessments. So we've focused first on the interiors of the building, so a lot of the ceilings, floors, walls.

We'll be looking more at the exterior of the buildings this fall, which is your masonry, your windows, your roof. We're also looking at the exterior lighting, and we'll show you some examples of that, as well as the playgrounds, the playfields, tracks, parking lots, drives, a lot of those little bit more mundane things, but really impactful and can have that impact on the budget, as well as the usability of each site. We also want to incorporate the long-term replacement plan for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning because those are some large, can be some large replacement costs. And we want to make sure that we identify when those things come out of warranty and when they need to be replaced.

So as we look at a holistic plan that can be included. And then as we go through our subcommittee meetings and our steering committee meetings, there are things that bubble up that really resolve around space utilization, program needs of the district, activities and athletics. And so that's really what we start looking at down there at the bottom is how is the space utilized? And as we're hearing some things, how can it be better utilized within the existing four walls of each of the school?

Or does that mean expanded footprint? And coming up with some sketches, some diagrams to help explain that so that we can also put some cost estimates to that as well. So we do have a high level of engagement really across the Clayton community So we be meeting with the district steering committee at least five times And the steering committee really acts as that initial filter that overarching theme that lens that looks at really the district Because we do rely on our building-level subcommittees to help give us that more boots-on-the-ground facility assessment, facility perspective that they see and live every day, whether it's a student, a teacher, staff member, or a parent. And so getting that perspective from each seat or each lens that they see the facilities at is really important.

So we have our first set of meetings now coming back in four weeks, and you can see each facility that we're meeting with in addition to some of those special areas that we just added to the scope of work last week. So September and October are really building level focused. As we get to November and December, we get to be a little bit more community wide because we need that foundational element that the building level subcommittees provide us before we go out to the community as a whole. And so we're going to be doing community forums at each one of the schools in addition to two district-wise.

And what we feel is that by doing that, we should be able to engage anybody that wants to be engaged with. So even though we're not limiting when we're at Merrimack only to Merrimack families or that Merrimack attendance boundary, but we really will try to have that focus be a little bit more about Merrimack, so to speak, while we're there, but still open to some of the other district-wide needs. But still, having the two different points to be able to interact district-wide and to have a community survey within that window allows us to get a pretty deep level of engagement throughout the community. And obviously, we'll be in front of you a couple of times, keeping you up to speed, and then there at the end.

One of the things that is really the highlight for us is coming to January. So this is just a little bit more. I like your guys' calendar a lot better than ours. But this is just a little bit more detail here for your reference.

But basically, it culminates in January where we bring all of the subcommittees together and the steering committee, and we really try to get out of the silos of each individual building's needs, and we come together to highlight and select what are the highest priorities for the school district of Clayton moving forward. And it's important that we try to bring that voice of each elementary school. So as we hear something pop up at Merrimack today, we might bring it up in Captain and vice versa. But for each of the elementary schools to be able to talk about what their priorities are and why, or for the family center to be able to talk about their needs and the high school to be able to get that perspective is really important to build that community master plan moving forward versus individual buildings.

So it really all culminates there in January, bringing all those committees together. So any questions on that before I go into some of the examples? Okay. So we actually were able to do...

Oh, sorry. What's the timing on the demographic information? Where will we get that information? So just the initial input from our demographers not to expect any wild changes, any swings.

They typically utilize this, they start with the September 30th official attendance numbers and work their projections from there to kind of buy you an extra year versus just using last year's data. So we anticipate being able to have that mid to late October at the earliest. Because of course, everybody else's reports are based on that same time as well. So they've done all the pre-work that they can, but we released them in June or July to be able to do that.

I just, I wanted to add one thing too, before you move on from the schedule quickly, that we discussed at the district committee meeting is that on the schedule when you see, and the schedule that we had up earlier, that there's community forums at each school, that doesn't mean it's only for families that attend that school. So it's basically just spreading them out in different locations around the community so that if you live close to Merrimack Elementary, you could go to one closer to your house than somewhere else. It could be for people with or without kids in our district or at those schools. It was just those locations made sense to host the forums.

But I just wanted to make that clear because we obviously want input from community members that do not have kids in our schools. Definitely. Also, and so they are welcome to attend any of the district-wide or community forums at the schools. And what we like about that too is if somebody more familiar about coming in and out of that facility or drives by it every day hopefully they more likely to come in for that forum versus maybe just if it was just at the high school for example Good point thank you And then Brad you were going to also do a survey Thank you Spervantage, Propriety, and Equality.

Very similar work that we do at each one of the schools. So what you'll see here in a row pretty quickly is our floor. It's a facility assessment of the floors, walls, and ceilings. So right now, it's pretty basic.

The green means it's good. The yellow means it's fair. The red means it's poor. And we kind of set a time frame of how to budget for those types of when to replace those items.

So if it's red, it needs to be replaced sooner than if it was green. So as we put together the facility master plan and put together some budget estimates, we can help project some of these things out based on their current conditions. So this is the flooring, here's the walls, and here's the ceilings. Overall, most of the buildings are in great shape.

Very little red overall and very typical, if not better, than what we see in a lot of other districts. We also use this as a really, it's a really quick reference for areas within the building. So if for some reason, just as an example, we have a lot of conversations about how the art room is utilized, or for some reason somebody says, hey, we need to do an addition off of that wing of the building. It's really quickly, hey, this might be an opportunity to take care of your ceilings in the art room because we've got a bunch of brand new ceiling tile going into this new addition, just as an example.

That hasn't come up, but that's something that has been in the past for other districts that we worked with to be able to utilize this tool in that way. We also start looking at the exteriors usage of the building. So obviously we know that high school students use more than just the south baseball field. But we're looking just as this is an example of just the conditions of the baseball field in the center courtyard.

We start looking at your parking lots and your drives, when those may need to be replaced and to what extent. And then we look at exterior lighting. And the reason we've pulled this into our facility assessments is we've noticed that exterior lighting is typically a high priority item. And so what we started to do is just to analyze it right off the bat.

And sometimes it's as easy as there might be just a fixture that's out, or there just isn't enough fixtures placed, or they were placed right 20 years ago, but landscaping has matured, or the parking lots and drives have been reconfigured, and that light fixture is just no longer performing to the level that it once did. So this helps us to look at some light levels and some foot candles to see what's the appropriate light levels around the building, especially when we're talking about high school. But really, all buildings have usages beyond daylight hours. And whether it's the morning or evening, we want to make sure that there's that safety of people coming in and out of the buildings, but also the security level as well for just that observation.

And then even though, like I mentioned here, even there's a lot of land that the school district utilizes, especially at the high school level that doesn't necessarily own. So we're not doing a facility assessment on Shaw Park, but as we talk about how the students utilize those facilities and what are the needs of, for example, high school or middle school athletics and activities, kind of really doesn't matter who owns the ground. We need to understand what the needs are from the district so we can include that and identify that in the master plan. How that need is solved, there might be a couple of different ways that it's solved.

It might be just improving what's already there. It might be a different approach. So that's why we're not just like totally excluding Shaw Park, for example. It's part of the conversations.

We're just not in there with a fine-tooth comb analyzing if it's green, red, or yellow just as an example. Okay, so any questions on some of those deliverables before I go into some of the initial findings? Yeah, quick question. So earlier Mayor Harris asked if the center was part of the, our scope of work, which it's not for, you know, legitimate reasons, but just how you're talking about Shaw Park, hey, you might want to use Shaw Park for this.

Could those same things be sort of parking lot, for lack of a better term, for the center too? This is a very similar approach. We're not going in and analyzing the flooring wall conditions, but it's part of our conversations as it impacts your students and teachers and staff, especially at the high school. Great, thanks.

And that was actually one of the reasons why we wanted to have a separate subcommittee was to be able to help narrow that focus a little bit better. Okay, so some of these apply to multiple buildings, and it's some very common themes that we see really throughout the district. So a proper acoustic treatment means a couple of different things. So obviously with CAPTN, it's not only just the open classroom, open concept classrooms, but also the transmission of noise from one floor to the other.

It could be the transmission of sound from the cafeteria into the gym and vice versa, or from those spaces into the classrooms. But CAPTN and Merrimack specifically mentioned those types of issues. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, it's pretty common really in a lot of districts we work with. There's a lot of this up here is pretty common themes, not only in Clayton, but other districts we work with, about, you know, is there the proper temperature controls?

Is there rooms or set of rooms that the kids are being frozen out in the summer or overheating in the winter? And so that's something that has come up today as well. Throughout the district, and you can see a couple areas there, Those congregational spaces that are used to have large groups come together just may not be set up well for how they're currently used or may not be sized properly based on the current enrollment. And so some of those spaces are also very hard to expand.

It's kind of hard to expand a gym when especially three or four sides of it are surrounded by classrooms or a cafeteria, for example. So some of those core spaces can be a challenge to expand, but it's a need that's been brought up. Lockers is a good conversation, especially at the high school. One of the conversations we had today was nobody uses the existing lockers, but there's still a need for some lockers because the current lockers are too small.

So it's not clear all the lockers out and get rid of them, But how do we adapt the current space and current usage to the needs of the students? So one of the things we've applied at other schools is not getting rid of all the lockers, but let's not replace them. So if we've got a bank of them that are the originals from 1960s, let's pull those out. They're not being utilized and turning over that floor area for other uses that the students or staff can use on an everyday basis.

Because we know sometimes there's some swings in how spaces and things are utilized within the district and between schools. So we also looked at restrooms are a pretty popular topic right now, both for the large congregational ones. So it could be just a refresh. It's 1960 era.

It needs to be cleaned up and refreshed. Or we need to look at the privacy and security and observation within each one of those. But then do we have the right number? And are they in the right locations?

So we might have the right number of toilets in the facility. But if they're all on the same floor, we might have to look at the privacy and security and observation within each one of those. Spervantage, Propriety, and Equality. So they just pulled out a couple of specific examples like with the softball and cheerleading and field hockey there.

Water infiltration issues, it could be from foundation, it could be slab, or it could be roofing. That kind of falls into that general maintenance. It's something that's pretty typical, but there's definitely some items in specific locations that we've seen and need to call out and address specifically. And then you also see down there the ability to intentionally use and intentionally design the outdoor green spaces.

So a lot of your sites are pretty compact. They're surrounded by streets and homes and there's not much parking and there's not much green space. So really trying to find that balance with the pavement that you have the highest and best use for it that there and the green space that there and the highest and best use So being able to have even though you might have a green space that great for outdoor classroom environments Well if it in the middle of the playground or in the middle of the pavement area that is used by recess and gym on those same nice days, it might not really be able to be utilized as a classroom, even though it's there and set up as an outdoor classroom. So really taking a look at how those sites, how we can get the best use out of those tight sites.

Some conversations just about, again, parking is a challenge and accessibility is a challenge in and out of the site, so making sure that we have the right visitor parking and the ADA parking in the right locations. And then pretty typical as well, as technology continues to evolve and change and become more prevalent, making sure we have the right power to the building and from the panel to the classrooms and that there's the right outlets. But not only that, so that when you plug things into those outlets, that doesn't then blow the circuits and cause that wing of the school to go dark. Again, pretty typical in a lot of the schools that we work with, but it is a challenge in how we deliver that educational environment to our students.

And just, you know, just another, removing those barriers to creating those high-level, high-quality environments. So, again, this is really, really high-level, just some of the examples, wide range of what we're hearing. across the district. I guess I mentioned we had three today.

We'll have three tomorrow. And we reuse that first subcommittee meetings to really help brainstorm ideation, bring those things out so that that second meeting that we come back in October, we try to synthesize the data and get it down to a couple, you know, try to get the list of 100 maybe down to 20 or 30 and bunch some things together because we really need them to help us identify what are those high Spervantage, Propriety, and Priority. We really believe if it's $1, $100, or $1 million, if it's a high priority, it needs to be a high priority. We can figure out the costs later.

That's kind of our collective job of figuring out how to pay for it and where to fit it in within the funding. But really, we need them to focus on what are those high priority needs of the building and what are the high priority needs of the district and not let necessarily the dollars get in the way of making sure that we identify what is truly a high priority. That's where we're at. That's what we've done, and that's where we're going.

It's been fun so far. It's been a lot of work. Sometimes it feels like we're about 10% in, and other times it feels like we're about 70%. I think we're probably maybe closer to 50, somewhere in that range.

But I forgot to introduce our team. So Alyssa, Mike, and Carly have been heavily involved. We've had other people popping in as well. But it's us four you'll see more frequently than the others as we go through this process over the next couple of months.

Thank you so much, Brad. I have a question, which is, obviously, so far what you've done is evaluate our current facilities. Where and when in this process do we, as a school board, as a community, voice our, like, wish list items that... It's coming out now.

So we had some of that pop up during our tours with the building level administration in May. We wanted to make sure that we got in there. We got in there before the seniors left, which was great, but we got in there before the last day of school. And there were some of those things that bubbled up.

But really, it's when we get into those subcommittees that that's where we truly, kind of as we directed today, we said, we do want to hear about some of those maintenance items, especially if they're impacting everyday learning or things that might not be on our radar. But we really need you, the subcommittee, to help us go to that next step. What are some of the needs that aren't being met? What are some of the future programs that we need to consider?

And how do we adapt the space, current space, or how do we have to think new outside of the existing four walls? Spervantage of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Thanks for your attention The academic right about programming Right right right So that hopefully they will focus on that too and know for programming sake academics or athletics what will be needed in the future as well Exactly. So what's great about, even though it was kind of added in late, we strategically fit them in on the 17th because it allows us to get this initial information from the subcommittee meetings, And then they can build on top of that and we can bring that information right back to the subcommittees again as part of that priority identification. Great.

Thank you. So thank you for the update. I listened as part of the steering committee remotely too while you guys were all here. So I got a lot of the questions and I know you've taken the feedback from that.

One of the questions that I have though that I'm not certain was asked in this way, but I'm sure that the community is wondering about when we think of a long-term facility study. As your demographic studies are finalized in the next month or so and what we're expecting to see and what you're expecting to see based on early reports from your demographers that there should be kind of no change in the demographic, short, medium, or long-term. That kind of indicates to me that people that, you know, the population in the district kind of irrespective of what the demographics may say may stay the same because Clayton is a desirable community to move into. And a lot of that desire to move into community is based on the quality and strength of the school district.

So, if you assume that is going to be the case now and into the foreseeable future, at least for the time of the demographics that you're looking at, I would think that as new families, either from outside the district or even outside of the city, county of St. Louis, are looking at, do we move to Clayton? Do we move to Parkview School District? We move to Ladue School District?

At what point, if at any, during the study is there a comparison of our facilities against those other schools which potential new members of the community would consider moving to or even members of our own community might consider moving towards if we are not kind of, I hate to use this term, but keeping up with the Joneses, right? Because that is, I would guess, one of the things that drives, I mean, we know that we're very fortunate from a tax revenue base and from a resource base, but at what point does the steering committee, do the subcommittees, does the whole thing come together and we look at it holistically? Not just from a, you know, these are things that have to be done no matter what it costs, but these are the things that you need to do to remain competitive. Sure.

That's a good question. Some of that actually came up today within our conversations at the high school level. Typically, that's where we see those types of conversations happen. It isn't generally speaking not as much at the elementary school level.

I think it's a great question that we need to kind of push back out there to that, especially to the steering committee that can help us look at this more from a district level. And what are some of those? Because some of the times we're Thank you. Well, I would just add on to that quickly, and I don't have any other comments, but I would just say, you know, both to Paragon and to the administration, I mean, I think more than what are our local peer school districts doing, I mean, I'm sort of curious to know, like, what are other nationally highly touted public school districts, you know, K-12 districts doing in the country, you know, across the country, at least most of them.

And so, you You know, like, where should, where do, if we want to continue to be a nation-leading school district, what does that mean for us over the next 20 years, and what do our facilities need to look like in order to match that? I at least, and I see a lot of head-sounding, so that's good, but I think we have an appetite for that. There's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of sentiment around that that we've heard already. I think if we can on our side make that to be a little bit more top of mind within those conversations I think that would be probably helpful to get a little bit better results maybe at the building level Again I think your direction from Board of Education and that steering committee is going to help us propel to identify which portions of that we need to focus on from that facility standpoint because there definitely opportunities And I know you guys had some of that in your proposals in terms of best practice, best use of space.

Because I remember seeing it before we selected you guys. So we're hoping that your thought partners for us there will push, right, from the board level, from the committee level. But I think that one of the reasons why Paragon was awarded the bid is because you demonstrated through the breadth of your experience and what you guys have already done. And as you've been doing your own research, you know, example of spaces where there were innovative learning opportunities happening kind of throughout elementary school all the way up.

So I'd encourage you as you have all those meetings beyond just the steering committee and to the board that you show your work because some of your work is really good. Thank you. So how much of, it's all around the same idea here, of what you, I don't know if I want a percentage, but just overall, how much are you telling us about what we currently have and the shape of that, and how long it may or may not last, and how much is your philosophy to help us see, Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Does Paragon think about how education is changing and then give advice according to where you see education going?

Yes. That's a really good question. So I'm trying to – if STEAM isn't for some reason a priority for this district, isn't part of your strategic plan, not within your culture, I'm not going to be able to drive that thought. I'm not going to be able to gain that interest around it.

Having the best STEAM facility in St. Louis County isn't going to do it. We have to build on what you are doing. We have to build on the passion, the drive that exists, the things that you're doing well, the things that interest you.

I mean, just look at that sports slide. That's pretty cool, right? So how do you build on the momentum that exists within the school and us to come alongside you and help propel you forward even more? But we're good, but we're not that good to be able to invent something like that.

So I say it's kind of more like 50-50 in that partnership because what I've really enjoyed about one of the things from Paragon Architecture, We strive to be focused in certain market segments because when we do that, we can bring that wealth and breadth of knowledge and experience from things that we've heard in other board meetings, things that we've executed on in other projects, things that we've seen within that. So that's why, like within K through 12, we helped try to bring that whole breadth of knowledge here. And we just had, we had some good conversation again at the high school where things that the high school was talking about, and specifically for, I'll just say, like the nurses, was completely opposite than what we heard six months ago at another district. And bringing that to say, okay, why?

Tell me about that. How does this apply? Okay, great. And so just driving that conversation to a couple levels deeper versus just saying, X needs to be here, or we need X.

It's, okay, how do we push forward within that? We come back, we start to build all these different things together, and we say, all right, well, it's not just A, B, and C individually. We've got to bring A, B, and C together to really achieve what they're asking for. It's not just the space.

It's the results of what those spaces can be. Because it's really about talking to the staff and are you teaching? Like I said at the community forum last, do we need the same types of rooms all stacked together like that? When these schools were built, education looked different.

So I'm just making that general statement that let's really look at this as future thinking as possible So, I think that's a really good example in terms of what our educators are finding they need I'm not sure they need in order to teach the way they are currently teaching and hope to be able to teach. Making that space flexible for that rather than maybe what we're just kind of, you know, schools have been around forever and you've got to build, you know what I'm saying by that? I'm just trying to make sure we are not just locking in what we need now, but obviously long range and thinking about spaces really creatively according to what education really requires as of now. Thank you.

The education is going in 20 years, right? But you don't want to paint yourself into a corner too much. You want to be able to provide your district with that flexibility to grow and to adapt. But sometimes it is having some of those hard conversations that we have to, like, we might have to pull back and deconstruct certain elements in order to truly give our kids and our community what they need moving forward for the next two or three generations.

And not just continue to piecemeal on or just to continue to live in the box because that box served you well for however many years prior to that. And those are some tough conversations, and sometimes we have to be that critical eye to be able to do that. But it's still, again, up to the community on that direction and that moves forward. We just try to provide options and guidance on how to potentially get there.

And I would just add to that, Chris, there's a lot of teachers involved in this. And they are the ones that obviously really know education and what they want to be teaching and what they're hoping to be able to be teaching. They wish they didn't have this space, but they wish they had this space. So they, I'm sure, are the most vocal in this area.

Exactly. And some of it is just really basic. I mean, if you create a good space with good heating, ventilation, good lighting, good daylight, safety and security, this room, if it was just half the size for a classroom, could be adapted in so many different ways over the years. But if it's in the basement, in the corner, and dark, dingy, and all those things, it kind of doesn't matter what you put in there.

It's going to be hard for that building and that space to really feel energized and feel useful. So sometimes it is just as simple as just creating that high-quality space that can be adapted and utilized in the future. So I think this is maybe adding on to what Chris said or was asking. And as much as possible, how can you as an architecture firm focused on K-12 education, or at least for us focused on that, really learn from the thought leaders in K-12 education of where it is going in the future?

So, right, our teachers now are going to be fantastic at telling you what they wish they had now. But what about our teachers in 20 years? What will they want? And so, I mean, maybe the architects like you are the people who are actually determined this more than the K-12 educators.

So I'm just wondering how do you think about that? So our continuing education, our exposure, national level conferences, stuff like that. But we have to also make sure that we don't outpace the teachers and the staff because it's really easy to do that. We actually had a school that we had buy-in from, we had like 20 teachers, the assistant principal and the principal.

And by the time we got through design and construction, it was almost 100% turnover, if not. And the enthusiasm for some of the things that we had put in there kind of died out with that change and not as high of a level of support for some of those things at the board level. And so while the space was intentionally designed and well designed based on the needs that were identified, there wasn't that long-term support and effort behind it to go. And so it wasn't revolutionary by any, it wasn't like we were looking 20 or 40 years out.

I mean, we were looking five to 10 years, but we kind of outpaced them in that regard. So that's one of just the balances that we have to, it kind of goes back to, like, just that STEAM example. It's absurd, right? Everybody wants STEAM.

But if there's not that push, if there's not that drive, if there's not that passion for it, we can get you the best space possible. But we have to match the culture and what you doing and what you want to be doing as a district I agree with the sentiment of everyone here that if there's a great new idea or something that a peer or a national peer is doing, we'd like to hear about it. And I also appreciate the point you're making. I know of examples of schools that have, you know, influxes of money to build a particular space and there's no, you know, it's not utilized in a useful way.

And so it's really important to have the program that's going to go into the space. And so I appreciate your keeping that in mind. But I do think everyone here has said it, and I'll reinforce it, that if there's an idea that, you know, should be thought about, we'd like to hear it. Definitely.

Thanks. Okay. Lucia, any questions? Okay.

Well, thank you so much, Brad and John. Appreciate it. And your team. Thank you all for being here.

That was great. Thank you. Okay, next up, 9.2 is a curriculum update from Dr. Garganego and an update on the Success Ready Students Network.

Hi. Hi. So a couple of things for us to focus on tonight. I'm trying to keep this pretty high level and somewhat quick in focusing on some updates around curriculum and then to give you some information around the Success Ready Students Network with the resolution that we're asking you to sign tonight.

So when we talk about curriculum, our goal is a guaranteed and viable curriculum. So guaranteed meaning that across a similar course, the experience for a student is the same, and then that it's aligned horizontally that way and then vertically throughout the course sequence. And then the viability meaning that we have enough time to teach the content that we have. And so Robert Marzano's work talks about, with high reliability schools, talks about a guaranteed and viable curriculum being an important component.

of a high reliability school, including the other components are that it's a safe environment, that there's collaboration among staff, so a collaborative culture, and an effective teacher in every classroom. But the curriculum piece is a really important piece to that. So as we think about our curriculum within our district, we have a six-year cycle. And so we talked about this last year also.

The first two years of the cycle is a self-study. So each content area engages in that self-study. To determine their long-range goals. During that time, they will report to the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council and solicit feedback from that group.

And then at the end of the second year, give a presentation to the board. And then we have that annual approval of the new and revised curricula. So the groups that are going into self-study this year are all of our humanities groups. And then gifted is parenthetically there because they were supposed to go through before, but we had a change in coordinator.

So they'll be coming through the self-study at the same time. So this group will all present to the Teaching and Learning Advisory Council this year and then to you all next year for approval in the spring of 26. So, policy IF is the policy that really directly talks about the work that we're talking about tonight. And so, it's the fact that you direct our staff to implement a curriculum that's aligned to the Missouri Learning Standards, that's aligned within our system.

So, what I talked about being horizontally and vertically aligned, and then allows each student to succeed. That you'll review and approve the district-developed curriculum, and then the selection and adoption of materials we oftentimes do through that self-study process. Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And then I put these into sort of buckets that I thought might be helpful to you.

So initially, the new courses or a complete rewrite. So those are all middle school or high school courses that we did a complete overhaul to or made such significant, or it's a new course that was approved by the coordinators council. Then we have the alignment within the district So you know that over the through the social studies review the last social studies review we made a pretty significant change to the elementary program Those students are now in sixth grade so we continue to make changes moving forward So sixth grade social studies was a complete overhaul also. The legal changes, this is my opportunity to tell you where we landed with elementary literacy assessments.

So if you remember in the spring, I presented to you through the assessment plan that we still didn't have direction from the state as to what that assessment list was going to look like. We, at that point last year, had made a change. We stuck with FastBridge as our primary assessment and then moved also to NWA as an assessment for the dyslexia screener. We were not happy with that assessment.

The state is no longer in partnership with NWA for that, so most of us, most of the districts that went to that assessment were not particularly happy with it. Our initial plan when I presented this to you in the spring was to stay with FAST for another year, and then we made a decision in the summer to move to STAR, and we're actually very happy with the decision that we made. So the STAR assessment we started using this fall, and it's aligned to Missouri standards versus telling specifically about skills. And so it's giving us what we think is better, deeper information about the students.

So we're using that as a screener and then following up with our diagnostics. Some of those are STAR diagnostics, and then some of them are from other companies. So we're pretty happy with where we are with that decision and glad that the state has finally landed their plane. And then the last category is just adjustments.

So we had 176 writers of curriculum this summer and almost 60 different writing projects this summer with curriculum, and the majority of it fell within adjustments. So things that were slight tweaks, alignment kinds of things, making some changes based on our work and our focus around our strategic plan around empowered learning, etc. So that's where a lot of our changes centered. So then as a part of our goal two and empowered learning, last year we joined the Success Ready Student Network, which is a collaboration between Missouri districts.

It's a group that's working through DESE. And last year we applied to be a part of, really, it was just participating in professional learning with the collaborative. The professional learning focused mainly on competency-based education. And so when you think, I highlighted some things within their definition of competency-based education that felt like they really resonated with our work around empowered learning.

So really this sense of like numbers three through seven in here are about the teaching within the classroom and the ways that we're interacting with students in a teaching and learning environment to provide better feedback to them, different kinds of opportunities. And then eight is really that sense of real world learning experiences. So there's a lot of things within the competency based education piece that parallels what I think sits both with our strategic plan and our profile of the graduate. So this year, what we decided was that it was time for us to apply to be a part of their system design zone.

So we were just accepted to their cohort three of the system design zone. And really what that is, like there's a set of commitments for it, but it's continuing on with the professional learning. And so there's last year, Julie Power, our literacy coach, and I attended those. This year, Robin Hogg, our new director of assessment and professional learning, will join us.

And then we share that information back with the Coordinator's Council and decide how we're going to implement it throughout the district. But as a part of the system design zone, what we're committing to is also participating in research related to interim assessments. And this provides us with an opportunity. We don't have to, but it provides us with an opportunity to join in with the waiver, with the state, to look at a different process for assessments and for accreditation.

And so not being a part of MSIP 6 could be a possibility for us. We haven't decided that part yet. That requires us to have a whole lot of other conversation. But our initial thinking was in order to even get into that place of having those conversations, we needed to be a part of this work.

We had the orientation meeting today with the group, and I'm pretty excited about the work Thank you Mr Chairman And report I often talk about these are like one data point on one day and it 70 of our accreditation So that a lot that hanging on one day for each child in the district And so I think this opens up the possibility for us to look at growth differently to look at it in a more individualized and personalized way which to me really resonates with what I think we as a system are believing in So our commitments you see there is it's really the commitment of time and the being a part of the work across the state to really think differently about how districts are accredited and how we're measuring growth with students. So we're excited about it, but a lot of it is just about a difference of priority of time for us. So what questions do you have? I have a couple.

I'll be quick though to honor your request. So in our cohort, and let's assume we join this, and in my sense we probably will, but who are the other schools in our cohort? In our cohort, they're mainly, the one other St. Louis school district right now in our cohort is Valley Park.

The other school districts are all either Kansas City or like within the sort of outside of the St. Louis region. The other two cohorts have more St. Louis districts within them.

Okay. Do we, is there, how do you feel about that? Like this cohort? I'm sure all of our school districts, we like that.

That's great. But is that how applicable or not applicable is their work to ours, just with different demographic makeup? The way that I anticipate a lot of this looking is a little like parallel play. So, like, we're working within the cohort side by side with one another, and we're interacting with one another, but we're specifically focused on our own work and doing things within our district, but, like, partnering, like having opportunities to partner and learn from one another.

So one of the things in the commitments is that we're willing to be a site, a place for people to come visit. The other districts also are a place for people to come visit. And I think that's an opportunity for us to be able to learn from others that maybe we haven't historically looked at to learn from. Okay.

And like, what's the, is there, is there any downside? Like, is there a reason not to do this? I don't see a reason not to do it. We came to you probably four years ago to ask about this, and at that time, this was before the first cohort started, so it was like, do we want to get into this before the work had even started?

We were very unsure about the work. We were unsure about the commitment of time and those kinds of things, and so hit pause at that point. Nisha and I have talked a lot coming back around of my team looks different at this point. There's cohorts have started to do some of the work.

I feel much more secure with the work that they're doing, that I feel like it's not as much of a question mark anymore as much as it is that it feels like it aligns with what we believe. Okay. And then last question. So this is a first step to thinking about our participation in MSIP 6 and getting a waiver.

What does that conversation look like and how long does that conversation take and what should we expect to hear as far as next steps about that? So what they told us today is that, so there's really two resolutions that come. The first resolution is the one today that's like, are we willing to be a participant in this group? The second resolution is more tied to, are we willing to be a part of the group that is considering, so are we willing to be a part of the group that wants a waiver from MSIP 6?

What they told us today with that is there's a lot of statutory requirements within that. So it's not just like me coming to the table. Right, right. We're going to have to engage the community in some ways.

And so they haven't given us the guardrails for that yet. That's coming at the end of the month. Today we met virtually. They want to do it with us in person, so we're going to Jeff City to have that meeting.

Sounds delightful. Right. If you want to go. All right.

Great. Thank you. Yeah. So participating in this does not necessarily mean we would try to get out of M6.

No. Okay. And to make sure I understand this, we have pre-my getting on the board, so things I've been trying to learn is that we've done a lot of curriculum redesigning in all of our sections. Subjects to align with MSIP 6.

So, and if I got that confused, then fix what I just said. And so, like, how do you see that either duplicating work you've already done, or maybe I should just stop and let you talk? Yeah, so I wouldn't say that our curriculum, the work that we've done with our curriculum has aligned to MSIP 6. MSIP 6 is the accreditation piece, and so our work is aligning to the Missouri standards, and then the way that we're assessed through MSIP 6 is the assessments that test the student's achievement on those standards.

So I don't think it's going to, like being a part of this work, I don't think it's going to undo any of that work. Because the standards won't change. Well, I mean, one would hope that the standards wouldn't change, but the standards always change. I was actually talking to Frank earlier about the fact that things change, like the state changes things with some amount of regularity.

But when we write curriculum in this district, we're pretty specific to looking at Missouri learning standards and beyond that. So an example of that is when several years ago when Smarter Balanced was, if you remember the Smarter Balanced assessments and the rewrite of standards within the states, within different states, A lot of districts put all this energy into aligning to the Smarter Balanced Assessment, and we didn't. We held tight to what we believe in, and those things informed us, but we didn't make a complete overhaul. So then when the state of Missouri moved away from that, everybody else was kind of like, oh, no, and we were in an okay place because our alignment has always been we're going to align until Missouri learning standards and then we're going to look beyond that and make sure that what we're aligning to is both what we value as well as what we're assessed on, if that's a, does that make sense?

So I'm not concerned about that. What I think is a better, so I think the good outweighs the bad in this. Because if we were to go to a place where we apply for the waiver from MSIP, what we're looking at is replacing a one-time assessment each year with a multi-time assessment, which is what our whole district, like when you look at our assessment matrix, There's a very small part that's tied to the state and everything else in that huge assessment matrix is what we've decided as a district. And this aligns to what we've decided is good practice as a district.

So assessing students multiple times throughout the year, using a growth assessment as a measure as opposed to a static one-time assessment that we don't get the results back until after the kids have moved on to the next grade. You mentioned time I think when somebody asked like what would be a drawback of this time Can you give us an idea of what that means in terms of your time or your team time Yeah, so it's looking like we have monthly meetings that are virtual, so those feel fine because that's what we did last year. And then it's quarterly meetings that are in person in Jeff City. And that's the minimum piece, and that's to be a part of the cohort.

And then they have sort of subcommittees that we can choose to be a part of or not choose to be a part of, Which we would have to make that decision sort of based on A, our interest, and B, like can we allocate our time to that work? And do we value, like how much do we value that work to be able to allocate our time to it? So I feel pretty comfortable with what we have committed to at this point. I think we're going to have to continue to review it, especially if we're asked to serve on these subcommittees and those kinds of things.

I think we have to sort of define a line for ourselves, and we haven't defined that yet because we don't know what that potentially could look like. About the waiver, to what extent have you talked to or will you reach out to and to help inform your decision around whether we do the waiver or go for that by talking to other districts who have done it already? Yeah, so the good thing is that the districts in St. Louis County that are a part of Cohort 1 or Cohort 2 are mainly districts that we would talk to about things anyway.

So you've got Lindbergh, Parkway, Pattonville, Ladue, Kirkwood, MRH. So they're all districts that we're already in communication with and talk through. They've all signed on. I think all of them have signed on for the waiver.

And so I think that would be part of our work would be to talk through what that looks like with them before making that decision. Well, thank you. And I think we have a motion to read too. I move that the Board of Education approves the district curriculum as presented And that the Board of Education approves the success-ready students network resolution as submitted.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay, motion passes.

Thank you, Melina. Okay, action items 10.1. We have the second reading of policy BDC, closed meetings, records, and votes. Chris if you would read that motion please I move that we approve the recommended changes to policy BDC closed meetings records and votes Second All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Okay, any opposed? Motion passes.

Okay, consent agenda. Chris, if you'd read that motion, please. I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda items 11.01 through 11.08. Thank you, Jason.

Is there anything we want to highlight? Does anyone have any questions or comments about the consent agenda? No? No?

I mean, the only thing I would say is there's not any new items on here. It's the wellness training and consultation, which we talked about as a board last year. The play benefits programs and rates, that's kind of standard order of operations, and then our financial reports. Yeah, pretty standard.

Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No.

Okay, consent agenda passes. Okay, board communications. Well, Jason and Chris had CRSWC, but I guess we kind of covered that tonight already. But if you would like to add anything to that, speak up.

There was a PTO Council meeting. We had a shift in, Pam was on PTO Council, and it didn't work with their work schedule, so I offered to take on PTO Council because I had been on it previously anyway, but because it wasn't on my calendar, I missed it, so I apologize for that. It kind of all happened within the couple days of the meeting, So I don't have an update on PTO Council, but you were probably there. Was there anything you'd like to share?

No, it was their first meeting of the year, so that's usually, they call it a jumpstart meeting. So basically they go over their roles and responsibilities as PTO officers in each of the buildings. So that was the majority. It was like a workshop meeting.

Good. Okay. And does anyone else have any other board communications? Any other questions?

I'll say that Pam and I went, I guess it was last week, to a training done by EdPlus for about board financials. And I was really glad I went. It was extremely helpful. We were there with you know a number of other board members And the questions that were asked were you know very relevant and helpful and succinct So I just recommend anybody that I know that a couple of you don need any of that but I was really happy to take advantage of it.

Yeah, it was just extremely helpful. And it actually led to, Nisha, that meeting is one of the reasons why that letter that you ended up signing along with so many other superintendents Ended up being something that we all noticed as a group needed to be addressed right away because I don't know if you read, you know, what Nisha said, but yeah, the idea that the county was not going to send out bills to get, you know, taxes paid. All of us in the room as educators were saying that that is a terrible idea. And so luckily because that happened that night, we kind of said, hey, let's make sure that we contact our representatives that they know, the council, that they know where we stand on how important that physical bill is.

I'm not sure if they've reconvened and voted on that yet. I don't think they have. But anyway, I was glad to be a part of making sure that that was something on our city's, our county's radar. Anything else?

I'd just like to say, as a parent, I attended Open House, and I saw some of you. In fact, Leo's daughter and my daughter have a class together, so we saw each other. And I thought it was great. It seemed crowded, which means, like, turnout was great.

I always appreciate the opportunity to, as a parent, sit in on classes and meet new teachers, hear from our teachers, and I'm continually impressed with all of our teachers as well. So I thought it was great. I stopped by the Wellness Center where I also bumped into Leo, and there were plenty of parents coming in and out of there, which was great. So anyway, I'm sure the rest of you probably attended open house as well if you were able to, but I think it's always like an exciting way to kick off the year and kind of have just like a little piece of your student's day, you know, vision, little view into that.

I'd also like to again say that yes, we have a board vacancy on our school board, and as soon as we have any information to communicate to the public about how that will be filled, we will be sure to share it as soon as possible. And with that, we can adjourn. I move that the Board of Education adjourn. All those in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Okay, meeting adjourned.