April 20, 2022 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

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

Thank you. Sperattutto, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Okay, good evening everybody. Adequate notice has been given.

It's Wednesday, April 20th, and we are going to get this meeting started. So everybody, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, great. So we have Jason Groth with us tonight, and we are going to start by swearing him in.

So he is an official board member, so come on up. Okay, so Sandy, he reads this, right? Okay. Okay, you ready?

Yep. Raise your right hand. That's right. And repeat after me.

I, Jason Grove. I, Jason Grove. Do solemnly affirm that I am at least 24 years of age. Do solemnly affirm that I am at least 24 years of age.

I am a citizen of the United States and a resident taxpayer of the School District of Clayton in St. Louis County and the State of Missouri, and that I will support the constitutions of the United States and the State of Missouri, and that I will abide by and uphold the School District of Clayton, Board Member Code of Ethics That was a long one Okay Let backtrack And that I will abide by and uphold the School District of Clayton Board Member Code of Ethics And will faithfully conduct myself in office And will faithfully conduct myself in office. Good job. All right.

You're a board member. Congratulations. Good job. And we get to do the posed swearing in.

Oh, good, good. Perfect. And we need mom and dad up here, too. Well, we need one more.

Yeah. Hold this. Pretend like you're actually doing it, though. Oh, okay.

The paper. The paper. The paper. This is exactly what we did last week.

All right. Raise your right hand. Raise your right hand. There you go.

Why don't you just take the pictures while we were doing it? Right. So here's how that works. I do that.

You're talking. And then your mouth looks like that in the picture. Do you want to put those with your mask on? Got it.

Okay. You probably don't care. We'll take family photos. We'll take family photos.

Family photos. We'll get some. Awesome. Awesome.

Can we, Jason, will you sign this? Jason's dad wasn't a board member. I've signed two or three already. Oh, you have?

Oh, you've already signed it? Yeah. But it's okay. Okay.

So he's got to get in. Yeah. Hi, I'm Amy. I'm Amy.

I'm Amy. I'll keep my mask on. Sorry. Okay.

So let's all get in and sign ourselves some flags. Okay. So I'm going to sign myself some flags. Okay.

So I'm going to sign myself some flags. Okay. So I'm going to sign myself some flags. Okay.

Please give yourself some flags if you could. Say go Greyhounds. Yes. You can bring yourself to say it.

Go Greyhounds. He choked there. We're trying to do it. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Good luck to you all. Congratulations. Okay, so tonight we, I'm on the information item for tonight, 3.01, and I am going to ask Susie Ward with Learn Lifesavers to come up and give us a presentation on organ tissue donation.

Can everybody hear me okay? That sounds a little louder, doesn't it? Okay, well, good evening, everyone, and thank you all in the audience here also. I'm Susie Ward, and I work for a nonprofit organization called Gift of Life.

And we've been around for about 25 years, and what we do is we do presentations to high school students about the importance of organ, eye, and tissue donation. The reason we do that is, you know, when students go to the driver's barrel to get a state ID, A driver's permit or driver's license, they're asked the question, do you want to be registered as a deceased donor? Most students at that young age have never had a conversation about organ donation, so our organization just provides an unbiased presentation that we're not here to persuade the student to register to say yes, but to give them information so they can make an informed and enlightened decision And to really have a conversation with their family and their loved ones. So there's a group of people that came together of educators, and we have come up with a 30-minute online program for teachers to do.

So the great thing is it can fit into whatever teacher's schedule. We know you have a tight curriculum. You have many important topics that need to be covered. We feel this is another part to add to the student's learning toolbox.

Chris, next please. Okay, so who we are, and it's a group of educators, and it's our organization, Gift of Life. It also, we have people on our advisory board from DESE, from Department of Health and Senior Services, and an organization called the Governor's Organ Donation Advisory Committee. Also two transplant centers one in St Louis and one in Kansas City It Mid Transplant and Midwest Transplant Missouri Kidney Program and Closer to Home GWAL We have individuals from Missouri School Board Association So they all supported this to have a bill that just allows us to get on the school board agenda It's not saying you have to implement our program.

It's just saying you hear the information and then you all discuss it and see if it's right for your community, for your students, for your families. But obviously we feel it is important. The reason why it's so important that nationwide there's over 100,000 people a day that wake up praying for a life-saving organ transplant. So you figure a Bush Stadium holds 45,000 people.

It would take more than two Bush Stadiums filled with individuals waiting for a life-saving organ, eye, or tissue donation. Just in Missouri, there's 1,200 people. And sadly, every 10 minutes, a new person is added to that waiting list. They're added to that waiting list, and people unfortunately pass away.

Twenty-two people a day pass away because there's not enough organs to meet the demand. And Lifesavers is just another lesson plan that just helps educate people. And what you all know, that it's not always the adults that are educating the students, but sometimes it's the students that are actually educating the parents. Because there's a lot of myths out there, and our program just separates the myths from the truths.

Okay, next, Chris. Our program, as I said, it's 30 minutes. It can be done whenever it's convenient for the teacher and tied to the curriculum. We have two videos, and we also have some short quizzes that are true-false.

Some examples of the true-false questions are, Is it legal to sell organs, eye tissue donation in nine states? Obviously the answer is no. Another question is can you have an open casket? Yes, you can.

Is there any cost to the donor's family? And there is no cost to the donor's family. So again, we just kind of separate the truth from the myths. And then there's a very short survey that the teacher will send back to us.

And we do not need the student We don't need the student's name, we don't need the class, the teacher's name. All it really says is that Susie Ward teacher had 20 students that participated in this survey. It just gives us some information, our impact, our reach, and hopefully some success in the program. And it's also teacher guided, so they can add to what their regular curriculum is.

Okay, next please. And we're not going to see the videos, but it does in there, there's two very short videos that are part of the eight-step program. Okay, next. And again, the performance metrics, it's just that short survey the teacher will fill out the very end.

And then next. And this is why it's so important that one person can actually save eight lives, Thank you. One person saved my uncle's life. Sadly, a high school student was in a car accident.

His family had had discussion before about donation. They all agreed that it was right for their family, so they donated their son's heart. My uncle got it, and my uncle's able to live eight and a half years, see my cousin get married, and hold his first grandchild. So I'm a brand new grandma.

I've got a six-week-old granddaughter, and I just can't imagine if I had the health issues that some of these people have, and then some generous family made that difficult decision but said yes, but saved someone else's life or enhanced lives. Just on site alone, there were over 40,000 corneal transplants done last year, so maybe somebody's organ may not be healthy enough, but maybe the cornea can and can give sight to someone else. I think the next slide says thank you. Oh, okay.

This is, you have it on your PowerPoint, but these are ways that our program is aligned with your curriculum. Just last Friday, I was in Timberland High School in Wentzville, and I talked to their ninth grade health classes. I talked to like 163 students in person. We also do Zoom presentations as well as an online program, and we're available to do any of those options for you.

It also obviously fits into health and education, for the molecular organisms structures and processes So there many ways Some schools have been incorporated in their English classes with debates that one person will say Thank you Yes, thank you. All right, so I gave Sandy a letter, and all it is is the next time you have an opportunity to vote on this topic, whether it's yes, whether it's no, just send the response back to us, and we hope that you do say yes, and now I'm open for any questions. Is there any information that you might be able to point us to in terms of if, obviously, we're talking about people making these choices who are not adults, not 18 yet. Is there any information about when kids of that age have this kind of information presented or education about it, an impact on how their choices turn out, or do they choose to do that more often, or is there any information like that at all?

In the Gift of Life, it was started in the Kansas City area, and they have great statistics that I could share, Thank you. A long answer, but we do have some statistics that show it does have an impact. And I also want to add that at any time a student could opt out of it. Maybe they're not, maybe it's religious belief, maybe it's their social and emotional state, that it is never something that would be required for every student to do it.

If your district chose to do it, they have that opt-out program. And the teachers are going to know their students best and who is emotionally able to hand a conversation. Because, yes, we are talking about mortality. We also share with them that we pray they live a long, healthy life, but it may be later on in their middle or elder age that they themselves might need an organ transplant themselves, not necessarily passing away and being a donor to them.

Another key point is that because people are considered a minor until they turn 18, So you can hear my presentation and go, it's right for me. I sign it when I get my driver's license, get the symbol on. But you never had that conversation with your family. Something happens to you, it won't.

Just something happened to you and your parents are presented. How do you pronounce your name? Atana. Signed her card.

She wanted to donate her body. Your parents may go, we have never had that conversation. I don't think she was old enough to know what she was saying. We're traumatized already.

We're just going to say no. So it's really important that minors let their family know what their true wish is, whether it's yes or no is important, but it's also for students' loved ones to know what their wishes are too. So our kind of catchphrase is the conversation matters because it's easier to do in a calm situation. And then if something tragic would happen, again, we pray it never happens to anybody.

Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you very much for your time. And I wish I could stay for your community engagement.

It sounds wonderful. I have a friend in from out of town. But I'm going to look because I would love to participate in it. It sounds what every school district should be doing.

So we really appreciate that. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, so we are on to our action item for the budget revision of the library.

So, Stacey, we need you to read a motion. I move that the Board of Education approve the lowest and best bid The Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Checked for the same. Also, I move that the board approve a budget revision to increase the capital budget for the total estimated project cost of $1,501,540.

Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions or comments? Do you have a question?

Yeah, Mary Jo. I know she's going to come up here. Yep. Mary Jo, I'm just going to ask the normal standard questions that I have.

I see the list of contractors and it's gone through the formal review process internally with the internal committees that have all reviewed it. And I see that you guys have picked the best and lowest and there's no compromise as far as, I mean, we're really talking about kind of a de minimis amount between the best and lowest and the other bids. Any other reasons why they're picked besides being the lowest bid? We did have ICS construction on last year's round, and actually there were some concerns with them.

And so we reached out to them to address it. They did adjust their initial bid submission, which during the bid process we're allowed to do, once we've selected the lowest, is to negotiate any concerns that we have with them. And they increased it. I think it was $13,000.

There was two concerns when we looked at it. One was the electrical We reviewed the information from their subs Actually three concerns On the last year when we had them a couple of their subs did not work out very well They did not submit any of the subs that we had issues with They used different subs. And so once we reviewed everything, we were fine with the new subs. The electrical, after we went through the submission, they had not missed anything.

They were good on all the numbers. And actually two other vendors had the same sub for electrical and had similar quotes on that. And then the second item was your general conditions, which was one of our major concerns last year. General conditions is actually just like miscellaneous items, cleanup, stuff like that, which in reality it can save us money because our staff would just be doing the cleanup.

But with the multiple projects and everything going on, they ended up adding a labor to it, which increased it to the $13,000 and offset some of the general conditions we were concerned of. After that, everything aligned. They didn't go over their contingency the last time or anything. I mean, in reality, other than those couple things they were good to work with, so we did decide to go ahead and move forward.

So we called and had a conversation with them, let them know their concerns, and we basically said, we'll give you one more chance. Okay, great. And then I'm assuming that the request for the increase in the capital budget is just due to the increased cost of materials, just generally because of the macro supply chain environment. Can you remind the board what the original capital budget was for this project?

It was $1.5 million. And so the difference I had in the explanation is the furniture So that coming that actually getting purchased through a cooperative through Ed Plus because really with our history there no difference in bidding the furniture or purchasing through Ed Plus They'll give you the same price regardless. So it's $1,500 plus the $500,000 for the furniture. So it's the $911 plus the $500,000 for the furniture.

Okay, so the increase was in just the furniture costs or the addition of the furniture costs? Spervantage of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Just one quick question. So is the contract we're going to enter into with ICS Construction, is it going to be a lump sum contract?

Yeah. Okay, so it won't be like cost plus the fee or anything? No. Okay, awesome.

Any more questions? Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Okay, motion passes. Thank you. Consent agenda I move that the Board of Education approve consent agenda items 5 through 5 Second It been moved and seconded Questions or comments All in favor Aye Any opposed Motion passes And I think we got to, yeah, our financials. I move that the Board of Education approve the payment of current expenditures and investments from March 2022 as presented.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Questions or comments? No one?

Nothing? Okay. All in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes. And public participation? Nothing?

No one wants to talk to us? Okay, we can adjourn then. I move that the board adjourn to executive session. Following executive session, the board will participate in the community engagement forum to be held in the Clayton High School Commons.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye.

Aye. Great. So we're going to go into executive session now.