May 15, 2024 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

Over to John to tell us about the preliminary budget. Good evening, everyone. I'm here to discuss and present to you the budget, or the preliminary version of the budget, for the next school year, the 24-25 school year. You can tell how engaging this topic is, as we just mentioned.

The audience took off, so... It was with the best of intentions that I wanted to have this in the agenda this past Friday Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. I want to have numbers that are attainable. And so I've kind of tightened it up on the revenue side.

And it doesn't look as the net effect as generous as it has in recent years. But I want numbers that are attainable. And we're seeing some data with our assessed valuations and tax collections and the protests and challenges of those that we just want to be very cautious about and make sure these numbers are attainable. We've given a lot of money back this year, significantly more than we anticipated, significantly more than has happened in prior years, and I just don't want to have a situation where we're under the presumption that we're going to have a large net growth in our fund balance, and that may not be the case.

So I have really tightened this particular budget up in that way. A budget is a bunch of numbers and that's how we track and keep things, but it's really not about numbers. It's really about achieving our goals in a planned way to make sure that our projects, our initiatives, our programming are all accounted for in that. So this budget is what we seek to achieve this next year.

In that process, it's really a year-round process, and here's some of the steps that we go through throughout the year in planning and preparing for a budget and managing a budget. The budget just doesn't happen. We have to manage it all year long to make sure our spending especially comes in on target. These are some of the highlights of this particular budget.

It is balanced. We have a legal obligation to balance it, and we're meeting that obligation. In addition, we're exceeding that in that our revenues do cover our expenses, and we do not anticipate dipping into fund balance. We have reasonably projected our revenues.

Our property tax revenues will be similar to this current year. When I say similar, I mean they're going to be what we anticipate to collect on a net effect after we have to return some dollars that have been protested and challenged. At least temporarily, our interest earnings continue at an improved level. No telling where the interest rate markets go, but for many years, interest was not a component of our revenue stream, and last year and this coming year, it will be.

We've projected our expenditures, and we believe they're reasonably estimated and programmed in accordance with the goals that we have in our strategic plan. Our debt is scheduled to be paid down and be paid fully off in five years. We've programmed a series of capital purchases and projects in Fund 4, which is our capital improvement fund. And overall, we believe this continues to support the work of the district that this board and the community expects.

We have a series of connections to the strategic plan. And while I think there's many, many examples in the budget, we've only listed a few representative thoughts here as to how we are achieving various goals. First goal being a place for everyone, and we view that as a safe place for everyone. And so there's a number of these investments and plans here provide that safe initiative.

One of those is the long-range facility master plan we just discussed. Another one is a crisis alert system that you heard about and we have it on the agenda tonight for approval Security camera upgrades our presence of SROs and other items here that support a place for everyone Goal two, place of learners. This deals with curriculum and technology and ways that we support the educational growth of our learners. We've acquired EduClimber.

I think you've seen some presentations this year on that, and there's an ongoing effort to systematize that throughout the entire district in a much stronger way. We have curriculum investments. We have technology investments and other programming improvements here for the next year. Bill 3, here we are seeking to help the social-emotional well-being of all of our learners and staff, and our wellness center will be fully operational for the whole year.

Our LCL curriculum is expanding from K-5 to K-8, and they're also evaluating high school programming there. You can see the other items there that I've listed. Again, these are representative. I believe that our entire budget has many, many more examples of the way we're meeting our goals.

This is a conversation here about our building budgets. These allocations are designed to be student-centered, and we put a lot of decision-making authority on the building administrators, Spervantage, Spervantage, Pursuit, and Pursuit. Significant sum of money back to protested taxpayers. But nevertheless, we're not dipping into fund balance in doing so.

We had enough margin this year to make that work. Here on our expenditures, you see some growth. We had a lot of growth this past year. We're keeping that growth restrained for the coming year.

On the budgetary side, in the net effect of those, you see two years of actual on the right, current year projected, and the next year's budget, how those will shake out. As from the net effect on the fund balance. If I shrink this down to just the operating funds, funds one and two, we'll look at those same examples. In this case, operating revenue shows some growth.

Expenditure show growth on the budget side and on a net effect. We're positive across the board, but you can see how we're tightening that net effect up on the budget. Again, that's to be attainable, revenue numbers that are attainable. We expect to exceed these net results as the year progresses as we manage expenditures to be well within target and hopefully see some upside potential on the revenue.

Our next steps are we continue to refine this. Our budget will be presented, our final budget will be presented to you at the June 3rd meeting. Between now and then, we'll continue to refine these numbers. Finalizing our capital projects, which are basically, I think, pretty well set at this point in time.

They're presented in here in nice detail. We'll be installing it into our financial systems, and we'll be working to set the tax rate in September. Ultimately as I said I think this budget plan supports the goals of the district with intentionality And I be happy to take questions and comments Thanks so much I apologize. I should have thought about this earlier.

Mohini, I know you have an AP bio test tomorrow. I don't know if you do. Lucia, too. If you girls need to go, you can.

I'm sorry. I should have remembered that earlier. Feel free whenever you would like to. So just wanted to put that out there.

Okay. Okay, so any time you can just, that you need to go. Chris, I'll start with you. Do you have any questions or comments?

I don't have any questions right now. Thank you. Jason. Yes, I have a couple.

First of all, John, I just want to say, again, publicly, I really appreciate how you put together this budget summary the past couple of years. I think it's a really helpful way for not only the board, but also just the public to understand how this budget comes together, what it means, and all that good stuff in a very digestible way. So that's much appreciated. I'm going to go to my favorite, what you know is my favorite topic, so I'm now three for three on this question in terms of every year.

So I'm big on the operating reserve figure. Can you just talk, maybe you can talk a little bit for us, just in general and for the public, like what that reserve figure is, how it's calculated, and then maybe where you think we're going to be at the end of this fiscal year and then how the budget projects out for the next fiscal year. And we can cover this June 3rd if you're still fine tuned. Yes, fund balance represents the net effect of revenue and expenses.

So revenue grows it, expense takes it down, and we measure it once a year at fiscal year end, and we publish that. It's published in all of our reporting, the reporting to the state, the reporting in our audits. And it's a marker that tells us whether our financial condition is strengthening, flattening out, or declining. In Missouri, it is the plight of Missouri school districts that expenditures tend to trend with inflation, revenues tend to trend below inflation, and invariably there comes a point where revenues fall below expenses, and we start having a declining fund balance.

So while revenue exceeds expenses for growing fund balance, when expenditures begin to exceed revenue, it starts to fall. And there's nothing wrong with that fall. Our goal is to manage through that. Currently, this district is in a very strong financial position.

Spervantage, as a measure of fund balance against expenditures or against revenue, we are in the middle 60%. We have a fund balance policy that says we will maintain at least 25%. We're well above our policy. Spervantage, Boundary, and Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

31% of the billings were the properties associated with that were challenged. If I look at it from a commercial standpoint, assessed value basis, 65% of the parcels that make up 65% of the assessed value of commercial properties challenge their assessments. Now, we're not going to lose all that money, but we're going to lose a piece of that money. Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Dispate Spervantage of the year the Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Greater than needed to be, especially in travel and some things.

But that's relatively minor to the whole pullback process. The measures that I would say that I can say that we're keeping pace, we have a technology improvement plan. It's fully funded, and it grows a little bit each year. We have a capital improvement plan.

It's fully funded. So we're not pulling back on those obligations. Great. Thanks.

Kim, so can you give a couple examples of what was not fully funded then in that pullback? Mostly travel and a few minor things that, like somebody wanted carpet replacement in a small office area where the carpet's really... Okay, so largely kind of discretionary items is how you would, in our world, is how we would... I would call it discretionary items, yes.

Okay. And no deferred capital maintenance or anything like that. That's great. Yes.

Can't wait to see the final budget. Leo, any questions or comments? I think I'm going to have more questions about this protested tax piece, but I don't think I'm going to try and go through it all tonight. Thanks.

Pam. With the House bill, what is it called, 2430, which is the one that Jerry Hockman has advised us on, that is not yet signed, maybe won't be, but is proposed to lower personal property taxes, how do you think about that, or do you just wait and see if it gets signed? You know, I, I, I, there's, until it happens, it hasn't happened in my world, but, but, there's going to have to be a shift in taxes. Now, in the counties that are, most of the counties in this state that set one tax rate for property, for both real property and personal property, what's going to happen as property taxes lower, as personal property taxes lower, it's going to shift over to real property taxes.

Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. But it'll be a little more awkward in a multi-state, a multi-rate community like St. Louis County. But say some of the other counties outstate, it's a little bit of a shell game is what I would call it.

You know, Illinois did it a few years ago, and their real estate taxes are significantly higher. I mean, their taxes on homes are way higher than they are on Missouri because of that. So it ends up being somewhat of a shell game. That's my opinion.

Thanks for saying that. Just to be clear, the shell game was other counties. Yeah, Pam, I mean, I think I share some of John's skepticism. I think it's kind of a wait and see.

But what I will say is typically what happens with tax and tax laws The other thing that I would bet on is the taxman always wins in the end and the mass balance, depending on who's participating in the taxpaying process, which is what John is saying about the multiple participants and the multi-player game that we have here in St. Louis County will probably mean that the mass balance somehow will remain the same. So that is good news for us as a district. I would bet on that before I would bet on anything substantially changing.

Just my opinion. Anything else? Kind of like income taxes. We used to have very high income tax rates and lots of deductions.

They lowered the rates and took away the deductions. You pay more tax. But they fooled us into it, right? There's always a game there.

Okay. Thanks, John. You're welcome. My opinions, right?

Yeah. Not representative of the district. My opinions. Okay, we are moving to action items.

7.01, Chris is going to read a motion. I move that the board authorize an agreement with Syntagix to, thank you, To provide crisis alert equipment, services, and licensing as presented. Second. All those in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Any questions? Oh, sorry.

I skipped ahead. I forgot. Before we close that, are there any questions or comments? I'll just open it up.

Anyone? Okay, motion passes. Right? Thank you.

Okay, that was easy. Okay, Chris. It's late. That's why I hesitated.

Exactly. I apologize. Even though we already approved it. Even though we just approved it.

Yeah, come here, Luke. I'm sorry. It's late. I'm getting a little delirious.

It's okay. Yes, Luke, thank you. Okay, I was like, what? I was just moving.

Sorry. I think so. Sorry, Luke. No, that's okay.

Well, we have talked about this a little bit for the community's sake. We have talked about this a little bit already. And so just so they understand, this was a conversation we have had. With safety and security, it's always important, I think, and it's important for the community to understand that there are certain aspects of it that we don't talk about in open session.

Superroportionate Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried In the process of going through our Tier 1 audit and really it all comes back to that audit We wanted to look at ways to improve and through that audit we have found suggestions and opportunities to be able to close some of the gaps that we would say are in our safety and security So I won't cover most of the gaps tonight, but I will talk about the system itself. And so currently, in our district, we have an intruder alert system, and that intruder alert system is designed basically to just do that. It locks down a building when pressed. This essentially kind of takes what we already have and expands it to a degree that enhances safety and security quite extensively.

And so it is basically a wearable, and when I say wearable, it's typically something that would go on a lanyard and it would exist underneath the staff's ID. And that particular badge that is on there has a button, and that button can be used in two different ways. And so we'll skip ahead here a little bit. It actually takes what we have currently, which is just a singular way of alerting in the case of emergency.

And it's singular in that it only is intended for intruder alerts. And then it takes it and adds another dimension to it. It allows our staff to be able to alert in the case of other emergencies. And when I say other emergencies, I mean like medical emergencies.

If I'm out on a playground and something happens, it is good to let a local responding team know my location exactly, who I am, and so that they can respond directly to me and then come to that location to basically work through it. Other ways those emergencies kind of look are like a fight. If there is a fight in a cafeteria or something like that, we would want somebody to respond to it pretty quickly. So those are kind of going beyond what we currently have, and we're actually looking with Syntegix to give our staff another way to alert us in the case of emergency.

And then there is the lockdown that it still does by doing that. So when I say like a local emergency, that's three clicks. And so three clicks would be like a medical emergency. It'd be like fights.

It'd be like a low-medicate running off. It'd be being uncomfortable in a parking lot. The system, it would expand to fields. It expands to parking lots.

It expands to stairwells, all things that we can't do currently. And so that's a major enhancement that we have. What you're looking at right now is actually the alert that our responding team would see in the case of an alert, a three-button press. So typically your responding teams consist of an SRO.

They consist of your principals. They consist of more often than not somebody who's certified maybe in restraint or certified in CPR. And that way, when they respond, the right personnel are going to those particular emergencies. So it does geolocate.

And so wherever I was to press my badge for those three buttons, that responding team would be able to automatically respond to me in that location. So how does this actually enhance? Well, number one, like I said, it goes beyond what we think of as just intruder alerts and takes that intruder alert system and also gives us another opportunity to alert in other cases of emergencies. Superroportionate, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

I have the ability to set off an alert in a safe place and not have to go somewhere else to alert everybody else of that emergency, which is a major enhancement. I say in here, no panic button location familiarity needed. That means I don if I in another building or if I in the part of the building that I not familiar with currently I may or may not know where how to set off that alarm In this particular case again worn around your neck You don have to be familiar with the school that you in It will alert that particular responding team no matter what we do Responders know who and where. This is very specific and a very large enhancement that we can now, when an alert is set off, pinpoint exactly.

In safety and security, seconds are an eternity, and they mean a lot. And so when we're talking about being able to respond to somebody and somebody specifically and specifically where they're at, it saves a lot of time. And a lot of time because currently if we were to set off alarms, we may or may not be able to know pinpoints right away exactly where they are. So another major enhancement.

And it expands the alerting footprint. And when I put that down, basically I was meaning that this expands it to, like I said, athletic fields and parking lots and stairwells and allows anybody to be alerted in any location based upon the lighting that goes in those particular locations. So what do we do kind of to come to this? And I said that was something that kind of started at the beginning of the year and that we've kind of worked through as the year has gone by.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Safety and Security Committee. And then we also gave the opportunity at individual buildings to come learn a little bit about the process and give a little bit of feedback as well.

So as far as the cost is concerned, what I need to specify here is the cost to upgrade the current system. And when I say upgrade, that would be to basically what we would say is the base acceptable level to be able to get our current system to that. We went to Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Make sure there is never failure, and then that way they will come in and replace batteries on beacons that are across the district to be able to do it.

So that was very quick, but is there anything that I can answer questions that we may or may not have? Thank you, Luke, and I want to apologize and also explain to anyone watching that the reason we voted to approve this is we've already had this presentation. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. What is currently available for district for it is an improvement in many, many ways, not just in the ways that we think about in terms of intruders, but it also in terms of the safety and, you know, the health of all of our people that are in our schools every day.

So I'm really excited about what Luke has brought here. I know that it has the potential to continue to be really helpful and, you know, making our building safe and for people to Spervantage of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried To really educate the community and the families about what this is now going to be able to hello about what we now are going to be able to you know have in place that we didn at all before I just, I'm excited for the community and families to realize all these big differences because we're spending, this is money well spent and I'm excited about the communication going out about what they, what we now have to offer. I agree. Thank you, Luke.

Yep. Okay. Yes, Dr. Garganigo.

The professional learning plan? You're not? Okay. I just wanted to check since I screwed up.

Okay, Chris. Okay. Okay. I move that the board approve the district professional learning plan for the 2024-2025 school year as submitted.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes. And the assessment plan.

I make the motion first and then you. Are we doing this right? Okay. Before you, and then you ask whether there's, okay.

I move that the Board of Education approves the assessment plan as submitted. I didn't do that last time. We're all off tonight. Okay.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Does anyone have any questions about the assessment plan? Is that no? No questions?

Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. And the math curriculum. I move that the Board of Education approve the purchase of Amplify Desmos based on illustrative mathematics.

Any questions or comments about the math curriculum materials? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

No. Okay, that motion passes. Thank you. And we will move now to consent agenda.

Chris. I move that the board approve the consent agenda items 8.02 through 8.10. Second. Okay.

Any questions or comments on the consent agenda? Was that a yes, Pam? Okay, yes. I will take this moment to acknowledge some donations.

On behalf of the district, the Board of Education would like to thank Mr. Fairfax Altimer for the generous donation of $1,200 towards the high school scholarship fund. And also on behalf of the district, the Board of Education would like to thank Worldwide Technology Foundation for their generous donation of $1,000 to support our robotics program. Pam.

No? Okay. Yeah, the only thing I would add is just so that the public knows, there's a draft of the 2025-26 academic calendar as part of the consent agenda. That might be something that people are interested in getting a preview of, so that is within the consent agenda items.

Yes, and on that note, I would like to say I was on, I'm on the calendar committee that met maybe three or four times to create that. I appreciate that and the committee is comprised of parents, teachers, support staff, administrators, and me and Tony led it and did a great job. It's a very complicated puzzle to put together, but I think what we came up with was good, was great actually, so thank you for that. Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, consent agenda items pass.

Okay, so now we are moving to Board Committee Communication and Liaison Reports. I believe, Jason, did you have a CRSWC meeting? Anything to report there? I recently had a CRSWC meeting.

We just approved new rates to bring to the board. Every two years, the center goes through that process, so you'll see that all reflected in September. And I just, you know, I know there's been discussion in the past about their budgeting process, and it's always an ongoing process, but I really appreciate that the focus that they've put on this to satisfy some of our concerns in recent years. And I went to the Clayton Education Foundation meeting last night, and they, you know, they had their Hall of Fame gala, I have an update from Gary about Parks and Rec Commission meeting last week.

He said the primary focus of the meeting was to hear progress regarding the various capital improvement projects that are either underway or are planned for 2024. The projects include various improvements and upgrades at Shaw Park, Okanola Park, the Tennis Center and the pool, as well as a new park in the works on Maryland Avenue called Remembrance Park. Did anyone have any other updates or communication before I give mine? Yep.

I wanted to thank Lauren Compton for inviting the board into her culinary arts classroom this week. I was able to attend one of the Restaurant Wars kind of panels, judging panels, and I was really impressed with how she's operating that classroom and really, really impressed with the students. So if, you know, parents and I think she provides that opportunity a couple times throughout the school year. And if you get a chance to do it, I would encourage everybody to do it.

It was really, it's a nice way to start your day. I actually had that on my list too to talk about Cupcake Wars that I went to a few weeks ago. I know, I think Chris and Jason or some others did as well. And I would echo everything Kim said.

Any opportunity to go into the buildings when we're invited for things like that, it's great to just see everything in action. So I just wanted to Kim touched on this earlier but just mentioned so the public knows and thank the Board of Aldermen for joining us for breakfast this morning We had a strictly casual informal no agenda breakfast with the Board of Aldermen this morning All of the aldermen and the mayor were present, as well as David Gibson, the city manager, and it was really nice to just get together and catch up, you know, as partners in this community. And we look forward to probably and hopefully doing it again next school year. We also had some talks with them about, I had already been thinking about trying to recreate how they do their ward coffees, just to be available for the community to come and sit and chat with us.

And I talked to a couple of them about maybe even partnering together to do some of those, and that way we can do joint things. And because we get questions about the city and they get questions about the school district, And it would be really nice to kind of just show up together for the community like that. So stay tuned. I also, on that note of engaging with the community, I just wanted to let everyone on the board and in the public know that I had emailed the Clayton Condos Building Association, all former school board members, and the Board of Aldermen with a link to the meeting tonight because I wanted them to know that we were having the first presentation from Paragon about our long-range facility.

Facilities plan because I think it is critical that all of them and the entire community are kept up to date on what's going on. And we saw in the presentation tonight that they even have in their plans to do their own things. But I wanted them to realize that they could tune in and hear the updates from the board meetings as well. And I also talked to Brian Kinman at Clayton Connell Buildings Association about attending a couple of their meetings next year just to give an update on the district, answer any questions.

They have a broad reach. And a lot of members that live in condos in our community. And so I think it's important that we stay in touch with them. And I also emailed all former school board members about a get together in the fall.

We're talking about doing something similar that we did this morning that would be part socializing and part an update on the district And I think that group in particular would be great to kind of bounce ideas off of They have such historical knowledge on the district and varying years of experience at different times through the past, you know, few decades, really. So I'm looking forward to that as well. I also wanted to touch on last Friday or maybe a couple Fridays ago, So I believe Leo, Pam, Gary, and I were on the legislative advocacy call that, as always, is really informative from Ed Plus and Jerry Hockman. And a couple, it kind of, I think, naturally came up, but a couple of the board members there talked about how in their districts they have legislative advisory and advocacy committees, which we are now starting here in our district as well.

We thought we needed to vote on creating a new committee, but Heike looked into it and we do not. Because Luke, an administrator here, is going to be running the committee and Leo, as our board member, is going to be the representative on that committee. So if it's administrator-led, we don't need to vote on it. But I'm looking very much forward to having a community committee around legislation.

I think it's long overdue. I'm sure Luke has been and will be working on that. I know he reached out to, I think, Melville already, who's had this committee for years. There's actually several districts that have, but to get ideas, they even have a whole website dedicated, part of their school website dedicated to this, which I think would be great for us as well.

And is another great way to reach community members that maybe don't have kids in the district, but care about those kind of things that affect our schools. So I'm looking forward to getting that started. And thank you, Leo, for being our representative on that committee. I had a teaching and learning advisory meeting recently, and we talked all about math was the topic.

Angie Caracciola did a great job presenting and even had great activities for us to work on. And as always, the students have the best comments about things, truly, because they're the ones using this in the classroom. In addition to kind of what we read about tonight as far as the math materials and things Am I allowed to mention those new classes that you thinking of Okay She mentioned really exciting new classes All of a sudden I thought, should I not be talking? New classes that she is working on creating here in Clayton that exist, I think, I believe I know one of them in Rockwood.

One of them is called Geometry in Construction and it will be a combined two-hour block period That you get both a math credit and a CTE credit for truly using geometry to construct things like building benches, building tables that can be used in our community, which I think is so cool. Another one is called, it's an acronym, AMPED, Algebra in Manufacturing, Entrepreneurship, and Design. And again, a two-block period where you would get a math, your algebra credit and a CTE credit. And her vision for that is designing and running the school store.

Which used to be under one of the business management or entrepreneur classes in Catalyst. So it's staying in CTE halfway, but also adding that algebra math component, which I just think is really exciting and really cool. So one other thing we did in the meeting was we reviewed how families received standardized test scores and what information we need as parents to interpret those and not. And, you know, now the way we get the test scores now is we get math scores and there's a whole letter explaining the scores and what it all means and is that too much information, is it not enough, and we gave some feedback on that too.

So I think Melaina came away with a lot of great ideas about how to communicate math scores with just the right information that parents want to know. I think that's it. Any other district communication from anyone? Okay, now I think you can adjourn.

I move that the Board of Education adjourn. Second. Oh. Okay.

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

I hope not. Okay. Motion passes. Good night.

Thank you.