January 27, 2021 — Meeting Transcript

Machine-generated transcript — may contain errors.

Thank you. Okay, we're good. Okay. Welcome, everybody.

It is 7 o'clock and adequate notice has been given. And so we are going to start our meeting, as we always do, with the pledge to the famous flag in Sean's office. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All righty.

So we are going to start with recognizing our own, as we often do. And today, we have a very special recognizing our own. It's recognizing our soon-to-be own. Dr.

Nisha Patel, our new superintendent, but soon to take that role on. I'm going to hand it over to you, Sean, and then I will welcome Nisha. Welcome, Dr. Patel.

Thank you. Awesome to have you here. Sean, do you want to go first or do you want me to go first? No, I was just going to welcome Dr.

Patel and just, you know, like you said, this is an opportunity for recognizing individuals within our community. And this is the newest member of our community. And we're excited to welcome Dr. Nisha Patel to our board meeting.

And we're excited about her being the new superintendent starting July 1st. And I am just thrilled that I get the opportunity to work with her this spring to help with this transition. And to support her along the way. Awesome.

And I know Dr. Patel would like to share just a few things too. So I'll pass it over to you, Joe. Well, you know what?

I will, I'll let Dr. Patel share something first if you want. And then I can, then I can go after you. Perfect.

I will do that. Well, I just wanted to first and foremost, thank you, President Miller and the rest of the board Thank you, Board, for having the confidence and belief in me and giving me the absolute honor of being the incoming superintendent for the school district of Clayton. I can't express to you how humbling this is to me, and I simply want to thank all of you. And then also I want to take this opportunity, Sean, to thank you as well.

You're one of the kindest people I know, and you're an outstanding leader, and you have a passion for what you do and a love for learning. And those are qualities I absolutely admire. And I thank you for all your support already that you have given me, and I look forward to working with you in the near future as well. And then to the community, I cannot wait to get to know our students, our wonderful staff, our parents, and start building those relationships in the upcoming months.

And I also hope, you know, during that time that you get to know me a little bit better and my journey, you know, throughout my lifetime. I'm a big quotes person. So one of my favorite quotes is by a gentleman that I admire a lot and all the work that he's done. And it's Nelson Mandela's work.

And we've all heard the quote, right, that education is the most powerful weapon that we can choose to help change the world. Superroportionate, education is the most powerful weapon we can use to help change the world. And the reason that quote is near and dear to me, and I've shared this a little bit with you already, but because it has a direct correlation to the life of a young girl, a young girl who was born 8,000, over 8,000 miles away from here, across the Atlantic Ocean, in a country of Kenya, and who then came to the great United States of America at the age of nine, and her world changed. And it changed because of the power of education.

It changed because people believed in her, embraced her, and gave her a sense of belonging. And not because or not despite her identity. It was because of her identity. And so for me, as your incoming superintendent, I am on a mission and I am on a mission to help change the world.

And I know that we can do it together. And I believe that in my heart of hearts, and we can do that together because of having specific focus areas. Superroportionate Proposition O levy agenda motion carried And one of those focus areas a huge part of it is our work around equity and inclusion It is part of the strategic plan that I believe in And not only that it about personalized learning. It's about meeting the social emotional needs of all of our students.

And we can do it. And I believe we will do it. So I am so excited to do this. I am excited to continue the norm Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Really awesome about you is that not only have I gotten overwhelmingly positive response from our community, but as many of you know, I work in education, right? So I work with other superintendents. I work with other principals, with other administrators, and I've gotten overwhelming support for you from them. You know, today it was a central office administrator in another district.

Yesterday, it was a person who was a former superintendent who works for DESE, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. They all keep saying, man, Clayton's so lucky to have Nisha. So, or Dr. Patel, excuse me.

But so I just want to share that with you and with the community, too. It's really cool. Right. I didn't it's not like I'm out there advertising it.

Right. I mean, these are people reaching out to me saying, gosh, Joe, I just want you to know, you know, I know Nisha from this and she's great. So I just wanted to share that with you, too. So thank you.

Thank you. I'm the lucky one. I think. I think that's that that that is kind of our recognizing our own.

So we can't wait. Thank you. Thank you. Look forward to seeing you guys soon.

Take care. Thanks. So we are then going to move on to the superintendent communication. Sean.

Okay, I'm going to share my screen. Okay, so well, good evening again, everyone, and Happy New Year to all of you. This is actually This is actually our first public meeting of 2021. And although it's our first public meeting, the Board of Education has had many, many meetings over this month.

And I just want to say thank you to all of you for the time and energy you dedicated to the superintendent search. Not a lot of people know all the work that you have been doing. And so I just wanted to publicly say thank you to the board for all the time and energy you put into this really important process. And just by that presentation and just what you saw, I know that you're going to be able to It shows that the fruit of your labor has really paid off.

And so I just want to say thank you for all that you did. And a new year offers new beginnings, but it's still a very difficult time. And we're still dealing with a lot of difficult things within the district. And one of those is our current learning model.

Our learning model is different than our typical time. And we have learned how to be adaptable over this last year. Spervantage, learning model, pre-K through 5, hybrid schedule. We started out in the same model we had at the beginning for the first semester.

We were intentional about that so we could have a smooth start into the third quarter. It really did pay off. We saw we had a good start to the third quarter. We continue to implement effective risk mitigation measures.

We continue to implement effective risk mitigation measures that have allowed us to keep our staff safe, our students safe, and making sure that we're doing everything possible to mitigate transmission within our schools. And so, again, this is, again, not the most ideal situation, but again, our district has constantly been not just staying status quo. Once we make a decision, we're thinking about what's the next decision and what is next. And we know that the instructional model is currently different at our secondary level and still really different at our elementary and preschool model as well, just because of the structures we've had to put in place.

And I think it important to just share that at the secondary level we have really prioritized the standards and those skills that are absolutely necessary for our students to progress through our coursework Superintendent Board of not trying to fit everything that we normally do into a shorter period of time But what we doing is making sure that we prioritizing standards and skills to make sure that with the time that we have they're still learning what is absolutely necessary for them to progress. And we're also being cognizant of looking at the number, the amount of time that we're using for assessment, Thank you. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you.

We are looking at what we can do this semester to extend that time. First starting to look at Y down first. And we don't have a timeline or anything like that yet. But we are going to start those conversations.

And not that we haven't had those started those conversations, but starting at the administrative level and then getting the input from teachers about what are some next steps. The other thing I think it's important is that when we start making these changes, we are going to have to make sure that we're communicating with our community about why we're making these changes. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. You know what we're doing just to get by.

We're looking at by look at what did we learn from this experience and what what can we think about how we can evolve for the future and in terms of way schedules are look in the way that students, you know, different opportunities for students have choice and different approaches. So we're using this as an opportunity as well to think differently. The other thing I know that people have on their minds are the vaccines. And when are we going to get vaccinations for our staff?

Because I think, you know, the thought is that once we get that, we can start planning differently. And I just want to remind everyone that staff, our educational staff falls in what we call category 1B. And I share with the Board of Education, and in that category, there are three different tiers. And staff members from schools are in that tier three.

Tier one and tier two have been activated and those individuals have been able to get vaccinated. We are not clear yet when that activation for tier three is going to happen. But what I will say is that we have a very incredible leadership with our nursing program. And our nurses are working diligently to make sure they're not only taking care of our students and staff, but also making sure that they're advocating for getting the vaccinations for our staff and looking at systems for doing that effectively.

And so we don't have all the answers yet. And I also think it important that people don think that once vaccinations happen everything goes back to normal That not going to happen We are still going to be putting risk mitigation measures in place and that there are still going to be some things that are different than what that different than was when we were before the pandemic hit So I just don want people thinking that this is the end all be all change to everything But it really it going to be an important step I also want to just also make sure that I share with you again that we believe in the risk mitigation measures that we've put in place and we're seeing that there's effectiveness with it. Our transmission, you know, we're keeping the percentage of number of students who quarantined and who the cases, they're very low. And we get this data showing us that what we're doing is helping and is working within our schools.

And so I just think it's important for you and the community to see that. I believe it's also important that as a community and as a learning community, we can't only focus on COVID. We can't just focus on the pandemic. We need to continue our work that we started before this all happened.

It's important for us to put energy into our strategic plan, making sure that we are taking steps to align, looking at our goals, making sure that we have common language around those goals. One of the things we recently did as a district was created a video that I shared with the board and hopefully we share with the public too. It's an opportunity for us to have a, it's about the strategic plan and what our strategic plan is about. And we use that video as a teaching tool and a common conversation tool with our staff so that way we can develop some common ground about what we mean in our strategic plan.

We're also looking at our curriculum coordinators are doing work around deep learning. And then we also have a group of people who are doing some work around really truly defining what it means to have a personalized, individualized, and differentiated experience because they are different. And then the other thing is that we're looking at those systemic changes that are going to impact the way we do things and ultimately impact our students and making sure they're provided an equitable experience and making sure that we're looking at the social, emotional well-being of our students as well. And so the strategic plan is integral to our work, as Dr.

Patel said, and it's going to be something that is, I believe it's very aspirational. It's very visionary, but it's also making sure that we're taking into consideration excellence and making sure we're holding ourselves accountable to that. As part of that strategic plan, we are continuing to be a fiscally responsible district. And tonight, you're going to hear a little bit more about the budget planning process.

But now that we have a new strategic plan, this is an opportunity for us to also think differently about what we're doing as a district in terms of planning with our budget. We have been using a zero-based budgeting model, which we will continue, but now we're looking at ways to build on that. We've been very fiscally responsible and able to, and after Prop E, we were able to start building up our fund balance again. We're not deficit spending.

But we also are going to have to think differently about if we're putting in goals, putting goals in place, how are we aligning our resources to those goals? And then how are we measuring whether or not that investment is having a return? Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Next week, we are going to be starting our community board fiscal advisory.

And this is an opportunity for us to have community members to take an outside view of our budget planning process and our budget as a district. Spertant of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. If she's successful, our district is successful and our students are successful. And I am committed to making sure that I'm doing everything possible for the next five months to support the work of the district and to support Dr.

Patel. And so I'm gonna be collaborating with her and we already got some meetings set up that we're going to be looking at a transition plan. And making sure we're investing time over this semester to help her In terms of developing relationships and then learning about systems within our district, but also being respectful that she's still running a school district and another part of St. Louis.

So we're really excited about doing that work together. And then the other thing is I have shared with the board that there are some there, you know, on top of everything else, we also have legislation out there that is important for us to be aware of. All of you are elected officials and as the superintendent of a district, I need to be aware of legislation that could potentially have impact not only on the way that we do school, but also our funding. And so there is Senate Bill 55 that's out there that we have been looking at.

And we really need to make sure that we're staying educated on what legislation's out there and where we need to advocate and maybe talk to our senators and our representatives to tell them how we're feeling about some of this legislation. This Friday, we're going to have our first legislative advocacy meeting in collaboration with other districts within the region, and we'll learn more about what that legislation is and what are those things we can do as board, as administrators, and as elected officials to address some of those. And then finally, tonight, we're going to have an opportunity to learn more about our equity work. And our equity work is very, very prevalent in our strategic plan, and it needs to be.

It's part of our culture, and it's a way that we make sure that every student, no matter who they are, walks through our doors or who is on our screens, is getting an equitable experience and is treated with dignity and has a sense of belonging. Thank you. It's all of our collective responsibility and appreciate the board's dedication to that as well. So that is just an update about some of the things that we're currently working on in terms of our learning models, some other things associated with strategic plan and legislation and fiscal responsibility.

And I'm going to stop there and see if there's any questions or And then turn it over to Caitlin for her student report. Thanks so much, Sean. So we'll just go around the horn and Stacey, you're first. So do you have any questions?

No. OK. Amy, any questions? No.

OK, thank you. Kim, any questions? No, thanks, Sean, for the comprehensive update. It's maybe a follow-up for a future board meeting, but it's not something I think that's pressing to the district, or and certainly all districts are facing the same thing, but at any point, does our district in particular do any type of gap analysis on the impact of the pandemic on learning compared to previous years?

So as we start, as you start thinking about planning for third quarter and beyond and integrating Nisha into responsibilities for the next school year, maybe during the next boarding meeting, you can let us know what the thoughts are from the administration and the teachers as far as, you know, how we're looking at reflectively as we start to plan for the future this year versus previous years. Thank you, Kim. We are going to have part of a board meeting to talk about our assessment report. It's going to be about where are we, where are we now.

We're continuing to do benchmark assessments. We still need to be responsible for seeing how our students are doing. Great. Thanks, Kim.

Gary, any questions? I don't think I have anything that it would be properly called a question, but like just two comments. Sean, number one, I really appreciate the effort that you're making to help us with the transition and the time with Nisha. So thank you for that.

I don't want to miss the chance to say that publicly. Number two, those legislative advocacy group meetings that are coming up, the first one on Friday, I just would really encourage everyone to, if you can, to tune into that. It a little more accessible since it all online and we can all do it from home or office or wherever I will say that when I my first year on the board when I first started going to those meetings I probably thought I knew and understood a lot more than I did And it was a really good educational process that I think we can all benefit from. So to the extent you can tune into any part of that, I just would really encourage that.

We are now open to anyone. Thank you. Thank you. Gary, that was part of the decision that the board subcommittee made.

We used to assign people to go to those legislative advocacy meetings and now it's open to everyone. All of you should have gotten the link to that. Really appreciate that. Great.

Thank you. Caitlin, any questions or comments? No. Great.

Thank you. Jason, any questions or comments? No. No, thanks.

All right. Thanks. So, again, Sean, I just want to also just say thanks for thanks for your update and all the work that you continue to do now and with transition and everything else. You're welcome.

We're moving to Caitlin. See if you have a update for us. Yeah. So good evening, everyone.

And today I'll be talking a little bit about this upcoming semester. So as we enter a new semester, something that I'm going to be doing in my student updates is talking about one thing that COVID-19 has taught us about what we what changes we can make to in-person school. So last meeting, I touched on the idea of rethinking finals. In this meeting, I'm going to talk a little bit about this new level of interactiveness that students have gotten, even when they're not able to be in in-person school, And how maybe we can apply that in future years when students have to take an extended leave of absence or are homesick.

So some things that students have really been enjoying are the weekly schedules that teachers are putting together in class agendas and just that overall greater level of organization. Also, all the assignments and materials being posted on Google Classroom for the online students given in person for the in-person students and just having all of that material. And then also alternatives like recording classes so that students can still be in the class environment even when they're not in in-person school. And then my next topic that I'll talk about is conversations in classrooms.

So in response to the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, then a lot of teachers held discussions in their classrooms to hear about student thoughts on the events. So I asked a couple of students about their opinions on this and if they thought that these kind of conversations were helpful for them. And students really liked that. They enjoyed that they were able to put aside the material for a part of class in order to help process a lot of major events that were going on in our world and heavily weighing on some students.

And these conversations also tie into the profile of what a Clayton graduate is supposed to be like self-actualization, collaboration, intellectual curiosity beyond just the academic and AP material. So something going forward might be having greater dialogue throughout all classrooms, including in some STEM classrooms, as like most of these conversations do happen in humanities classes. As for some school updates, third quarter is competition season for a lot of different clubs. Here are some highlights.

Clayton High School's Quiz Bowl A team won first place at an invitational last weekend. The Linguistics Club is competing in the North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition tomorrow. Also, the Clayton High School Science Olympiad team is hosting a CHS tournament for the very first time next Saturday. Thank you.

Thank you, Caitlin. We appreciate it. So we are going to move to information items. And so our first information item is our equity update.

All right. Welcome, Cameron. So I'll be leading that. Can everybody hear me?

OK. Okay, perfect. I am going to share my screen. All right.

So pretty much for the update, a lot of the things that, you know, we normally were going to talk about during this point in time, we kind of covered in December at our last board meeting. So I going to kind of gloss over that and put it in the report just so just as a reminder of some of the things that we already talked about So a lot of the things that we going to touch on as a collective group is going to have to do with kind of what we currently working on and what we looking at within the next month or so in terms of things we looking to accomplish So, you know, I'm going to kind of lead through it and then each member of the central office cabinet is going to look at and talk about kind of, you know, what equity looks like in their own sphere of what they're working on. So I kind of wanted to kick it off with a small portion from our A-Bar presuppositions that were developed by our teachers in the summer. And what we want to do and where we want to achieve as a district is having equity literacy, which is the definition that we use for it on the website.

And it talked about equity literacy is to find us having the knowledge and skills to disrupt and dismantle inequities. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And then spilling over to the staff and community as well. And we're committed to becoming an anti-racist district where race and socioeconomic status are not predictive of learning outcomes.

So kind of in that foundation, that foundational phase of really building capacity in order to really do the work. So, you know, as we were, you know, really analyzing, you know, our strategic plan and what a profile of a graduate is, you know, I started thinking and looking at the traits of being self-actualized, intellectually curious, empathetic, culturally competent, a creative thinker and a collaborator. If this is what we want our graduates to look like, then we need to be able to model these behaviors on a daily basis. So, you know, my challenge to all of us as a collective is let's be that profile of a graduate, you know, in order to model the behaviors, you know, that we want our students to have.

We need to be able to kind of be an embodiment of that in an example of that profile on a daily basis. So as we really look at, you know, the work that we're doing in order to, you know, grow in cultural competence, it really surrounding being mirrored around what that profile is looking. So as we go through what we're looking at today and taking a page out of Sean's book when he went through, I'm sorry, Dr. Doherty's book when he went through the strategic plan update last time.

I kind of want to mirror anything that we do around our A-BAR presuppositions. So we have kind of three tiers and categories that we look at in terms of personal, institutional, curricular, and instructional. So everything that we're doing is going to fit under one of these categories and kind of making sure that we're fulfilling the presuppositions ourselves with the work that we're doing, instruction. So this is just kind of a small recap of our A-bar presuppositions.

There's a QR code and a link in order to have access to those more in depth. But just kind of looking at each category having at least two presuppositions in it and how we're using those categories and those individual presuppositions to kind of look at our work. So as we start to really tackle a lot of the inequities, OK, what are we doing from an institutional standpoint? You know, and how are we, you know, affirming a student's culture or from a personal standpoint, how are we recognizing and eliminating inequities?

And from a curricular standpoint, how are we cultivating classroom practices that are culturally responsive? So really looking at what we're doing and seeing if what we're doing is matching up with a certain presupposition that we have. So, kind of those action steps again, you know, what is the work that we're doing and how are they falling under different categories within our presuppositions? So, I'm going to kind of scroll really quickly through some of these and then at the end of each category, each person within their department is going to kind of go into detail exactly what they've been doing and working on.

So kind of that personal piece, I kind of like linked the profile of the graduate to, you know, a different tier within the presupposition. So when I think about the personal aspects of the presuppositions automatically thought of, you know, being empathetic and self-actualized. And how are we being empathetic and self-actualized to fulfill those presuppositions and how does our work mirror that? So these again, these are kind of a long kind of laundry list of, you know, a lot of the things that we talked about back in December when we gave an update on our strategic plan.

And this is what we going to focus on socially under that personal category So you know each member is going to just share kind of their bullet point and expand on that and how that working into what we want to accomplish within our strategic plan So Dr. Doherty is up first. So one of the things we wanted to share is that we as a district are constantly looking at this as, you know, examining ourselves. We know that we are one district in a region of many districts.

And we have been working with the planning group, and actually Dr. Patel is in this planning group as well, around how could we potentially build the capacity of leaders, our superintendents throughout the entire region, in order to make sure that they have a deep understanding about what it means when we talk about equity. Spervantage, what does it mean when we talk about race? What does it mean when we say a sense of belonging?

And so we're going through a nine-week learning experience where our superintendents are getting a common learning experience. And the goal is that we all have a common context, and we're getting this as being facilitated by outside consultants through EdPlus. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Dr.

Winks. Yes, so the Office of Student Services is excited to be hosting our first practicum student. We have selected a student from the Brown School of Social Work who just started this week, and she'll be supporting my work and Mr. Poole's work in the area of equity and inclusion.

She'll have a primary focus on helping us collect more data from our students through focus groups and helping us prepare resources for teachers to use during professional development and in other spaces where we are participating in adult learning. Also, in the last few weeks, we launched an affinity group for our Asian and Hispanic district educators. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you.

Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superroportionate, 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.

Growing within the profession and leading the district, you know, in that direction. And then I really love the humanizing aspect from, you know, the development of the affinity groups and the state interviews. You know, one thing that we reference in our presuppositions is that those experiencing set inequities, you know, need to be listened to. And their stories need to be heard in order for everyone to humanize what people are going through on a daily basis.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. So the next level we'll look at is kind of our institutional work that we're kind of going through. You know, we believe each student has a right to an equitable educational opportunity. You know, so how are we exactly from an institutional level giving students that opportunity to have exactly what equitable education is?

And again, just kind of another bird's eye view of some things that we talked about at the last board meeting back in December. So now these are going to be the important points that we all talk about. So, you know, I'll kind of start. You know, one thing that, you know, is very important, you know, and probably one of the bigger priorities, you know, for us to establish as a district is, you know, to really, you know, intertwine our equity work within our professional development framework and make it a staple within what we do, you know, on a semester by semester, year by year basis.

So one thing that we're kicking off, you know, along with, you know, our equity committee within the district, and I'm going to put out a, you know, kind of a nudge and a request that our board takes part in this as well. In February, in the next couple of weeks, we're going to launch a 14-day equity challenge district-wide. And pretty much what that entails is we're going to kick it off with one of our professional development days to introduce the challenge. Then we're going to end it with a professional kind of development day to kind of unpack the challenge.

And pretty much what it is, is we'll have an array of resources, you know, that have to do with either, you know, reading an article, watching a video, diving into a book, watching a series. Tons of educational tools that revolve around equity and kind of that personal journey with equity. And you're going to do one thing each day for 14 days. So something may take about, you know, a couple of minutes to watch, or maybe it's about a 30 minute article or it's a podcast.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superroportionate, Proprietary, and Proprietary. We're going to have a board of education to get together and embark on this journey together and chart our path and choose our teams to see the things that we learn and start the conversation of what equity looks like institutionally within our district from this year moving forward. So I'm really looking forward to that.

One thing that we're working with as well is kind of relaunching the courageous conversations that took place last year. That was extremely powerful, you know, within our faculty that were able to attend in terms of really just humanizing and hearing the stories of, you know, teachers of color, primarily our black teachers within the district and kind of what that experience is on a day to day. Not only just in America, but just, you know, within our school system as well. So looking to kind of make that a staple.

We've got a professional development day in April that we have open that we want to make sure that everyone within the district you know has an opportunity to encounter courageous conversations and then kind of creating kind of a sample menu style of you know different courageous conversations to embarking So that could be including, you know, different different racial groups, you know, maybe students and parents within the district as well. Possibly some outside speaking in education or, you know, some kind of some video clip, you know, breakdowns and discussions as well. So kind of creating an entire day that's dedicated to equity and kind of growing equity and trying to make these days and these events, you know, something that we do. That's a big event that we can rally around, that we can celebrate and that we can come together as a district and bond together.

So those are kind of what we're looking at now. Of course, really looking at our professional development structure and what does equity look like in that, especially for the 21-22 school year. So looking at, you know, as our teachers come in year one, you know, what is the development year one, year two, year three, and as they progress on to tenure status and things like that. So having a set equity curriculum for each cohort year that you're in within the district, as well as developing that common equity focus within our equity committee that each building is focusing on and tailoring toward their own building.

So really working on that structure to kind of embed equity with everything we do professionally from a professional development standpoint. And then the implementation of parent affinity groups. We've kind of got that off the ground, you know, from an employee aspect. But what does that look like with our parents?

You know, one of the things that we, you know, that I heard a lot in the equity audit from our parents in terms of their experiences are, you know, kind of a, you know, again, The disconnect between the perceived experience and the actual experience, communication breakdowns, and changing the expectations for our students. And one of those main things too was that parent communication piece as well. So how can we, you know, empower our parents and rebuild that trust, you know, that has been lost. So, you know, the first step would be rebuilding trust, building an affinity group and camaraderie amongst the parents so they can use each other as a resource.

And creating avenues, you know, that, you know, that they have the confidence to advocate, you know, for what's going on and that they know that they have the confidence that their voices will be heard too. So from an institutional standpoint, that's what we're kind of working on. Mainly that professional development piece and what, you know, annual equity events look like in the district year in and year out. And they're really building our capacity with our parents to regain some trust that we might have lost in the past and to empower and build confidence, you know, for them to have in us, you know, as a system.

So that's what I'm on from an institutional standpoint. I'm going to pass it back to Dr. Weems and she's going to talk about some of the work that she's doing with our summer academies. Thank you.

So I'm really excited about the work that we are doing right now to plan our academic summer programs. Really, the theme of some of the changes that we're making going into this summer are to help bring our summer programs more into alignment with our profile of a graduate and to our strategic plan. So after the strategic plan was approved, it gave me an opportunity to really reflect on what our students' needs are and how can we take advantage of the opportunities that kind of this new COVID environment has created in order to really reimagine how our students experience and grow during the summer. So I've been working closely with our elementary school summer program directors and with Dr.

Helcher over at the high school to really think about how we might make some adjustments to those programs to better serve our students. More specifically, at the elementary school level, we are going to continue to focus on developing those fundamental skills that our students need to have mastered in order to have a successful start to the following grade level. But really approaching it with a more potential-based and strength-based approach. So we're going to be integrating a lot more project-based learning where students are going to have the opportunity to develop their collaboration skills, develop some of their cultural competency through the incorporation of some of the teaching tolerance, social justice standards, and just creating a more culturally responsive learning environment for our younger learners.

Thank you Madam goals of the strategic plan thinking about the goals of the profile of the graduate and really helping our students you know start to use their voice to end injustices for others through project based learning experiences And so we are really looking forward to reimagining this program. Again, still rooted in student data and academic standards that we know are very critical to our students' academic success. But again, paying attention to the other parts of our students' identities that can be developed so that way they can grow to be intellectually curious and culturally competent citizens in our community. I feel like this approach is a lot more student-centered than maybe some of the previous practices we've put in place.

And even with my work with Dr. Helsher, reimagining what CSA can look like, really trying to make some choices with the course offerings and then the format and the scheduling to make the program even more student-centered, particularly for our students who are looking at credit recovery situations. So we continue to innovate in this program. You know, while COVID last summer created a lot of challenges for us, I feel like it really opened a lot of doors going into this summer for us to reimagine and create some really memorable and meaningful learning experiences for our students.

Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

Dr. Arnold. So this year we were very intentional in posting our positions early, our openings that we had, and we wanted to have those to be in alignment to our advertisement efforts of the District Diversity Recruitment and Networking Fair. So we posted the openings early in December, and then they closed last week, which was after the Diversity Recruitment and Networking Fair.

The timeline that we chose has provided us with an earlier recruitment period and also helped attract top talent to the January diversity recruitment event. Many of our diverse applicants that we interviewed at the fair have already been invited back to interview at the building level. This year, while it was virtual in a bit of a different format than we had last year, we got creative, kind of thought outside the box, and we had a very successful event. So we couldn't be happier with how things went with our virtual fair this year.

The feedback from administrators on the quality of our candidates and attendance has been very, very positive. So we're really excited about the possibilities that this recruitment event has provided for us. Along with that, with the diversity recruitment fair, one of the things that we did this year, too, is along working with the communications department, we created recruitment materials that focus on the district's equity focus. So we had a major recruitment social media campaign promoting our equity work.

We had different pictographs and charts and visuals and indicating our work and growth in this area for our hiring over the last few years, showing that growth. Our teachers of color and administrators of color were highly involved in helping with developing videos, being featured there, sharing their stories, and then also participating in the networking component of the fair as well. We were on the radio promoting the event. And then also another area that I'm proud of, too, is where you have developed a Clayton recruitment video featuring the equity work and the diversity work.

And we're going to utilize that at the upcoming Black Educators Symposium. And then we'll also be able to utilize those videos for future recruitment events as well. Another thing that we've done this year is develop a diversity hiring statement regarding our district's commitment to attracting a diverse teaching force and find the best candidates for our positions in service of our students. So that's something that we can, you know, put on our website and put it out there in our materials and show what our commitment is to these efforts.

Another area that we're working on, we recently, last week, at our January District Leadership Council meeting with our administrators, Cameron and I facilitated learning around implicit bias. We spent some time in an exercise that really helped all of us as administrators identify and explore some of our own biases and have some conversations around that that was really good. Our administrators were really thoughtful as part of that process. And one of the steps that we did throughout our time in that meeting was to develop some new interview questions that aligned to our ABAAR presuppositions.

And I think these questions will be really helpful. And the administrators agreed that we would be using these district-wide moving forward. Additionally we were purposeful in our analysis of our current interviewing and hiring practices So really what we wanted to do is determine what might be some potential modifications to our processes to help us move forward And some of those that we identified, we are implementing immediately for the interviewing and hiring process that's going on right now throughout the spring. So due to some of that new thinking at this meeting, we created a resource folder for administrators that can assist them with streamlining the interview process.

Some of the new resources include updated interview protocols, implicit bias review that they'll do with all the participants prior to the interview. The A-bar interview, a question bank that the principals developed. Superroportionate, how we review the various components of the interview process and not relying on a single data point to make a decision with the candidate. So we really walked away from the meeting last week with some great new ideas.

Our administrators have been very appreciative of the time to have some meaningful conversations around this topic. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you, Dr.

Arnold and Dr. Poults for our technology update. Thanks. Thank you very much.

So when we think about our A-bar work, especially within the institutional category, one area that technology can really impact is a focus on breaking down barriers that students may encounter when accessing their learning. So prior to the pandemic, the district had moved to a one-to-one technology plan at the high school as a step toward removing some of those access barriers, both at school and at home for students. An offshoot of that plan included the distribution of Internet hotspots to families that were in need of reliable access for students using their school-issued devices when they're away from campus. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. What are some different things that we can put in place within our present systems, you know, to combat against, you know, decades of inequities that we've seen? This is the part I really get excited about because these are the things that are really going to stand the test of time. So when we look at things, you know, when we're on the other side of our strategic plan, we'll be able to look back and say, these are some systemic things that we've built, you know, that are solely, you know, directed towards combating inequities.

And then we're going to look at things from a curricular and instructional standpoint, you know, where we really look at, you know, the creative thinker and that intellectual curiosity lens as well. So again, kind of just scrolling through, you know, a lot of the things that we already kind of talked about. And then, you know, that brings us to our curricular component. So I'll step back and give it away.

All right. Thank you. So from the curricular and instructional standpoint, some of our departments that have honors courses are currently refining the processes for identification of students to be used this spring. So our overall goal being to reduce barriers and disrupt inequities in these processes.

When we gave the strategic plan update, I shared the work at the high school around grading for equity. We continue to grow in this area and provide professional learning experiences to teachers to allow for their grades to meet three goals, accuracy, bias resistance, and motivation. Our humanities departments, so social studies, library, literacy, each have an equity goal embedded in their long-range goals that the board approved last spring. Professional learning in the form of some book studies have broadened teachers' pedagogical views of culturally responsive classrooms.

Based on feedback from students and consultants, social studies has begun rewrites of the curriculum to include non-Western history and perspectives of historical events, starting with the high school curriculum. This includes bringing into the curriculum perspectives from other nations and cultures when studying particular aspects or timeframes of history. We continue to look at the materials in our library's collections to ensure that the stories and perspectives are diverse. We're working to involve student and family voice in this work.

Those voices will guide our work through diversity audits for our collections, as well as collection development and title promotion. We've identified equity audit tools and begun to critically examine the materials that we're using in classrooms to eliminate things that don't support our A-bar work. And then professional learning around the teaching tolerance standards has started in pockets and will be universal for all elementary classroom teachers at the February Professional Development Day. So these teaching tolerance standards that we talked about with the summer programs, our teaching tolerance standards for social justice fall into four domains, identity, diversity, justice, and action.

In choosing these standards to help guide our work, we can commit to universal shared language, and these standards align with our profile of the graduate. Awesome. Thank you, Dr. Garganigo.

So I'll stop sharing my screen. That's kind of where we're at. I think we got a lot of things in place. I feel like we're building a foundation of a lot of great things that could launch us in the right direction and kind of set the tone for what equity work looks like within our educational system.

Awesome. Thank you so much for that very comprehensive presentation. So I'm just going to go around and see if various board members have questions. So, David, I am going to start with you.

Thanks, Joe. Cameron and team, I really appreciate the update. I think one thing that I'm growing to appreciate here with the work that you're doing is every time you sit down with us, it gets better and better. It's always at a high level.

Here's what I'm learning. Here's what we're going for. And it's getting more comprehensive, which is kind of a pleasure to sit through and watch. One thing that I, and I don't need an answer maybe in here, but one thing that I was trying to understand, and I can't find it on our district webpage, do we have a core set of KPIs or key performance indicators that are driving the work and definition of success?

You know, if we were to go back and say, okay, you know, we've been working on this full steam for 12 months. Let's look at the metrics and have we, you know, are we hitting our definition of success? And I know a lot of the work that you're doing, it's really difficult to define KPIs, but I think it's important that we're able to identify and quantify success in some regard, just from a metrics perspective, you know, aside from social and emotional concerns and academic performance. That's a good question.

And that's probably something I need to be more explicit on. Like, for example, you know, as Dr. Wings was talking about the changes to, you know, our summer academies. You know, we have some kind of baseline data that shows, you know, the level of success or lack of success that kids are trying and, you know, that kids are achieving and, you know, how often are they back at the summer academy the next summer.

So I think kind of what we're doing now is kind of building the systems and then probably having a lot of more comprehensive data with that after a summer or two to kind of compare what those numbers look like in terms of are we decreasing the number of kids that are coming or a number of kids that are qualifying to come in? And then even with the, you know, I know, you know, with the recruitment and the retention efforts, you know, and keeping track of, you know, what does our retention look like for the past few years and what will it look like for the next few years? And how are we continually increasing, you know, the teachers of color that we're recruiting that are coming into the district? And then in terms of professional development systems that are being built, a lot of that comes to, you know, building capacities with teachers.

Superroportionate behavior numbers. So how can we work from an educational standpoint with our entire staff to humanize each kid experience And by humanizing each kid experience we able to you know I feel like most people in our teachers and our staff have you know great empathy but empathy comes with knowing So it's kind of building that capacity with how can our teachers know, you know, what that individual experience is, because a lot of them just don't know. It's hard to combat against what you just don't know. And looking forward at what is our discipline data, achievement data.

And I know one thing, you know, me and Dr. Garganigo looked at implementing is, you know, possibly with our students, especially as they're matriculating from fifth grade into middle school or eighth grade in high school, 12th grade into, you know, their post-secondary educational experiences, you know, kind of extending that state interview process with our kids and developing, you know, a level of qualitative data to say, you know, this was the experience of, you know, Our kids that we looked at in 2020. Now we're looking at the experiences from 2023. How have they changed either for the positive or for the negative?

So part of, I think, building these new systems that we're building are building those metrics to be able to really look at that. And I think as time as time continues, you know, we'll be able to have some baseline numbers to really say this is how we're growing as a district. So, yeah, definitely. Benchmarks on that.

Thanks, David. Jason, any questions or comments? Yeah, first I want to say you all did an excellent job. Cameron, good job for putting this together.

All you all did a great job, the whole entire administration team that is. I can't help but ask myself, like David, I want to just understand what is the long-term goal kind of look like for us to be this district that we're talking about, anti-bias, anti-racist district? And then I have a follow-up question after that. So just, you don't have to necessarily know the answer, but if you have some kind of idea, like what does it look like?

Like, what does this look like? Awesome. So that's a really good question. I think the big thing is, you know, how we see what's working and what's not working based off of, again, putting together those metrics And, you know, I think, you know, the most valuable thing that I've gotten are really just the testimonies, you know, and the experiences from parents and students and teachers themselves in terms of their experiences.

And, you know, the lack of positive experiences that are there. That's why, you know, especially I think the best data we can get is kind of looking at things from kind of a stay interview model, you know, that Dr. Arnold talked about with our, you know, with our staff and that retention and kind of building a super component around that. So we can have some metrics and some bars in there to where, you know, maybe there's a survey component in terms of rating what your experience is.

And we're able to look and say, hey, where an experience was a 2.8 in 2020 and 2022, that experience is a 4.8. And I think, you know, with we want to make sure that, you know, as we're going along and doing the work that we have metrics that are representing exactly, you know, what we're trying to, you know, what we're trying to accomplish. So I think, you know, the great thing about what we're doing is that, you know, we're trying to establish and actually do some things that, you know, quite frankly, most districts around the country have not been able to do. So, you know, the process of trying to figure that out is what's the best way to quantify it.

And I think, you know, even looking at a lot of the weights in which we've quantified student success in the past has a cultural bias and cultural tint to it. So how can we create metrics that you know don have that cultural barrier but that also kind of rate the experience and you know the achievements of our students more so of meeting them you know where they are So I think that metric part is important because again we want to pull data that you know and create ways to pull data that is really reflective of each student experience to where maybe in the past our data is reflected maybe once there was experience So, you know, that's going to be the tough part. That's going to be something that, you know, as a collective, we're going to continue to, you know, not only look at our baseline metrics with, you know, things like discipline, which has been sort of weird this year just with COVID and not being in school in a traditional sense and test scores as well. Because I think once we get on the other side of COVID, we're unearthing more and more inequities that, you know, weren't there, you know, to begin with that or that were there that we just didn't see.

So it's going to be a constant, you know, maneuver, you know, to see exactly what that looks like. And that's something that we have to find, especially, you know, moving into the next school year after we got a year under our belt, you know, we're implementing. Gotcha. So it was this evening.

Caitlin brought up the insurrection that took place at our Capitol. And, you know, it shows us there is support for this type of belief system out there. And I guess my question is, is how do we know that sentiment isn't within our district, within our teachers? And then if it is, how do we ensure that we have our approach to making sure that A-bar becomes the theme, our goal?

How do we deal with that situation? How is that going to be dealt with? Has anyone thought about that? Has that discourse happened at all amongst the folks in the administrative office?

Yeah, definitely, at great lengths. Melaina, did you want to kind of share what, you know, some of the materials and the talks that we had, you know, with the different coordinators in terms of having those conversations? Right. So with the insurrection and then with the inauguration, our social studies coordinator, Dr.

Helsher, worked really closely with his department to produce some, so to curate some materials to put out to teachers to use and to think really carefully about how they have those conversations with students. And some of the things that we looked at were presenting teachers with materials to think about like media bias and how different media approach those things. So to think about like how you choose the information that you that you use within the classroom to to talk about that. I think also we've, like from a bigger perspective, we've talked a lot about our A-bar presuppositions and what's the role that those play then within our standards of professional practice for our teachers.

And I don't know if Tony wants to talk about this, but like thinking about how do we integrate those within our standards of professional practice so that we're also looking to provide feedback to teachers about that work as they're growing and as we're growing as a system. Okay. All right. All right.

And then my last question, you know, we talked about what I mentioned early on about policy, A-BAR becoming some type of policy. And looking at our current administration, they're trying to push for an executive order on diversity and inclusion, the whole nine yards. So is that something we should be looking into at all right now? Has anyone thought about policy, ABAR being coming out of policy and trying to find, so that we can hold folks accountable if, you know, if they violate these rules or these things that we're putting in place right now that could harm children's ability to learn.

We haven't had the conversation about what policy would look like. I think Milena would speak to, Milena was speaking to is when we're talking about those standards of professional practice, that's what we hold people accountable in terms of evaluation. And so part of that evaluation model is that one to give feedback, but also if it's not, if people aren't adhering to those standards, we have to have some serious conversations about that. But I will say that We have not had that conversation yet about what policy would look like yet.

Gotcha. All right, so just to make this, just to have a dialogue with you, Sean, I love what you just said, because I understand that. And so my thought also is, like I think about like why someone who would feel the way they feel wanting to storm the Capitol and the beliefs that they have right I thought about it I like well there was once policy written There was once an amendment written a rule written and then we voted it out But however, people still believe, based on it being a written law, a written rule, that we want to go back to something like that. And I'm just thinking to really substantiate our position on being equitable, being inclusive and fair and balanced in our processes, that there might need to be some kind of policy written.

Because I think people go off what was written. There's a history of, you know, restrictive practices, restrictive deeds, people moving in neighborhoods, you know, you name it. Being three-fifths of a man, for example, I mean, a whole host of inequitable practices that were written into law. So just something I'm just thinking about as we have this discourse.

Thank you. Jason, Caitlin, any questions or comments? Yeah, thank you for all of your work, firstly. And my question is, I know a lot of this presentation was intentionally directed towards staff.

I'm just tying that back into students. How can we make sure that the students are also benefiting from these types of practices? So, like, for example, the affinity groups, anti-bias, anti-racist trainings. How can students directly get involved with that?

You know, that's an awesome question that, you know, I will admit, you know, due to, you know, COVID being a factor, you know, as well as just really, you know, getting our feet wet, you know, systemically is that, you know, really picking up that student component, you know, and what that looks like in terms of empowering students to take part in this work as well. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Probably would have been more prevalent had we been in person, you know, but with COVID, it kind of, you know, made it more, I guess, made more sense to kind of concentrate on the others. And then once we get in, like, what do those systems look like from school to school?

So as we're meeting and we're having sessions, it's all of us taking part with the students during the regular school day, you know, immersing them in the work as well. So that's definitely, you know, on the radar on the next steps. And I'll be the first to admit and say that, you know, that hasn't been at the forefront right now. But it's definitely something that, you know, as we continue to expand and do this work, you know, really encompassing that factor, you know, K through 12.

And making sure that, you know, from the students to the staff to the community to all stakeholders that, you know, we're a part of it. Yeah, and I just wanted to add on to his response, Caitlin. That's actually one of the major things that our new practicum students are going to be working on is I think that our students have a vast amount of knowledge around a lot of these issues that can help us better situate some learning experiences in this area. And so we plan on conducting quite a few focus groups with various types of students in our school district to help us shape what this work can look like and how student feedback can really shape some changes that we can make in our instructional programs in a variety of places and just in the school environment.

How do we truly make school a place where everyone can learn? And so that's a piece that we're hoping to gather more information on is really utilizing our students' voices and our students' perspectives to improve the teaching and learning environment. So that's going to be one of the major projects that our practicum students are going to be supporting Cameron and Diane. And yeah, thank you.

I think I also think that's definitely like some intersection with the work that the practicum student will be doing. And also Nealey Hopper, who's our student leader of diversity, equity and inclusion, can work on together. Thanks, Caitlin. Gary, any comments or questions?

Gary, we can't hear you. We still can't. No, we still can't hear you. I'm going to come back to you.

I'm going to come back to you. So Kim, any comments or questions? Yeah, so just a few. So thank you for the report to start with.

And then I know there's already been some discussion about KPIs. I just want to point out that I think you guys are thinking about it in the right way as far as setting a baseline. And what I would encourage you to do is not be shy in setting the baseline, even if you only start with a couple KPIs. And I think you may have them without realizing that you already have them.

When you talk about some of the discipline data, when you talk about some of the employment retention and recruitment data and the stay interviews that you already have, it's pretty easy to start collecting, you know, information now to set that baseline for 20. Superroportion O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Sperroportion O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Superexpensive, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

And I just want to make sure, I want to be clear to the community, everybody else that, you know, there's no intention of trying to, everybody's entitled to their own beliefs, right? That works in the school district, attends the school district, and there's no intention of trying to get people to disclose what those beliefs are. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Any intentions of doing or any intentions of that we don't do that now.

We have no intention of doing that in the future. So that's it. Thanks, Kim. Gary, you want to try again?

Oh, you're still not. I tell you what, Gary, I'm going to go on to Amy and Stacey. If you have a question or comment, type it in the chat, maybe. And then we could, because we can't hear you.

Amy, comments or questions? Can you guys hear me? Yes. I was having the same problem, Gary, earlier today.

I don't know what's going on with Zoom today. So anyway, this was a really great presentation. I loved how comprehensive it was. And, you know, it ran from curriculum to HR to technology to student services.

So it's great that we're thinking about this so broadly and not just, you know, picking one small area and trying to put a bandaid on it. So I love that it you know we really thinking about this globally And I thank you for that As far as my questions are concerned well Caitlin you hit the nail on the head for me with what are we doing for the students That was a big question for me Are we having affinity these courageous conversations and affinity groups with the kids And so thank you for bringing that up. And I have that question answered. Cameron, I wanted to ask you, as I was going through the report, you mentioned developing shared definitions of personalized learning.

So I was wondering what that meant. I didn't know if that was a... I wanted just a little bit of clarification on that. Blaine, I do want to talk a little bit about that because that's really...

Sure. So when we use the terms personalized and individualized learning and then we added differentiation into that also, There's a lot of body of work around those terms and there are sort of subtle nuances that sort of put people in directions of what their mental model of those terms mean. And so when we use them in the strategic plan, one of the things that we thought was really important was that we come to like a Clayton definition of what those mean to us. So our curriculum coordinators and our professional development committee are working together to develop those tools so that then every time we use that term within the district, we all know what we're talking about and what's included in that and what we're not including in it.

Okay. That's great. That makes sense. And then I also wanted to ask about the, so back in the report that we got in September of 2020, we talked about perspective and disconnect and then the discipline, the perception versus reality.

I know that we're in COVID, so it's been a little bit different, especially as kids haven't been in the buildings. But I was wondering, I guess the affinity groups that we've created are kind of the answer to that perspective and disconnect. That was the way that I was reading it. And then the discipline, the perception versus reality.

Do we know where, I guess, where we're going with that? Or I guess that, I mean, I was just kind of curious as to an update with where things are with that. Yeah, I can speak to that. So earlier in the year, when we started looking at the equity audit data and then the discipline data, one thing that stood out to us was that, and Mr.

Poole, jump in here if I don't explain this correctly, was basically there was this idea that based on the equity audit and the survey results that came back was that educators felt that they had created an equitable teaching and learning environment. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Overall, people felt like at the classroom level, students were being treated equitably when it came to discipline, but the types of discipline referrals that we were receiving really didn't reflect that. They were already reflecting a disproportionality across racial subgroups.

So after doing a little bit more work around all of that, you know, I think some of the work that can be done is one related to documentation and improving documentation, just in terms of its, in terms of its consistency and not necessarily consistently that in like what's getting reported, but it's more just like the methods and how things are getting captured and making sure that data is being reported. is a little bit more user-friendly, so that way buildings can have even more meaningful conversations about how people are navigating classroom management and community building. I think the piece that attaches to that is restorative practices. And in my audit of restorative practices, what I found was that the good news is that, you know, our building administrators have a really strong understanding of what restorative justice and restorative practices are.

But I think their application is a bit uneven across the district And I think that one of our good next steps starting this summer would be to really build capacity across more of the system in terms of building not just building leaders capacity but also teacher leaders capacity to be able to facilitate restorative conversations when they are needed The caveat to that is, it's really hard to restore something if there's no community to be restored. And so I think system wide, we need to Just have an even more intentional and cohesive effort around how we build community and relationships in our classroom so that all students feel welcome. So that way, then restorative practices can actually be effective because, again, it's hard to restore something that doesn't exist. And then I think lastly, similar to what I told Caitlin earlier, I think our students can be tapped for a lot of information that can help us improve in this area.

You know, for example, one thing I noticed in the data at the secondary level is students who are repeat offenders when it comes to vaping at school. So really working with our students to find out, especially our repeat offenders, and really thinking through more innovatively and in a more student-centered way, what are the things that we can do as a system that aren't always punitive, but to really change student behavior? So that way our number of incidences related to this actually decreases and we have fewer students who are repeating the same mistake. And so I think our students can be great resources for us and how we can come up with better strategies to change behavior and come up with more individualized and personalized support plans for students who we know who are struggling and continuing to struggle with certain behaviors over a duration of time.

Not even just one school year, but even from middle school to high school, how do we help them be more successful and not repeat the same types of behaviors that are disruptive to their learning and to the learning of the students around them? And I think to add on to that, you know, from a professional learning standpoint, you know, as we analyze data, numbers and things like that, especially in our session to where we're doing professional learning, professional development, that mirroring the story behind the data. So, you know, trying to get our staff as a whole to see data points actually taking place, you know, and a lot of that comes down to that learning piece of understanding and humanize each person's experience. You know, if you've never been the only black male in the classroom, you don't know what it feels like to be the only black male in the classroom.

So how a teacher communicates with me is going to hit a little different than everyone else. So it's, you know, a lot of the learning that we're doing within our sessions really mirrors around kind of the case study model. Like, here's a situation. This is how this kid responded.

This is how they were feeling. This is how the teacher responded in this situation. How can we work and problem solve through that? So when we're doing our professional learning, it's creating a kind of a framework to really view things and pretty much looking at the case study and, you know, fitting it within the framework.

And what did we do wrong? And how could we, you know, improve? And then if this is the normal, you know, interaction between this teacher and this student, what does that data look like? And how is that data manifesting itself in those numbers?

It's getting the teachers to see it and the staff to see how they're contributing to the numbers. Because everyone looks like, well, we got disproportionate data. Well, we're suspending more kids. Well, okay.

One, you know, a principal does suspending. Two, a teacher sends a kid to the office. Three, there's a situation where there's a disconnect where it's not being handled in the classroom when a kid is being sent to the office. So how are we looking at the situation from, you know, the initial impact to, hey, you're suspended.

You've got detention. You've got this. So really breaking down unique situations. An interesting thing is a lot of the case studies that we've looked at in our professional learning are stories from students and parents of things that have actually happened.

And I remix them a little bit, you know, of course, for the sake of, you know, confidentiality and things like that. But these are actual things that are happening in people's classrooms. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. So, trying to get to the root of this is a kid's experience, let's humanize it.

Let's learn the proper problem solving communication skills that we haven't been using because we don't know exactly what that kid's experience is. Thank you It sounds like you guys have that under control and I assume that we start to see some positive movement and change in that area So I appreciate that Thank you Thanks, Amy. Stacey, any comments or questions? Yes, thank you.

Thank you, Cameron, for putting this together. I mean, that was a really impressive presentation and all of you did such a great job contributing to it. So thank you. I did want to touch on a couple points I thought were particularly impressive and important.

And Caitlin and Amy slightly did mention this too. Thank you. I love the affinity groups that you're forming because, you know, we so often talk about our students having a sense of belonging, but I think that's equally as important for our teachers and our parents in the community. And so I was really happy to see that you launched those for the Asian and Hispanic parents and teachers.

But I did wonder, have you thought about doing that, those affinity groups for students as well? Caitlin, I know brought that up. And then I wonder if there are other, you know, markets Marginalized groups you've thought doing that with, like LGBTQ teachers and parents or Jewish and Muslim teachers, parents, students. So I think that the idea is great, again, because it all ties back to that sense of belonging for everyone.

So thank you for getting that started. And I also wanted to ask, or I guess just comment that I know Robin has done such a good job revamping the gifted identification process. So thank you for that, so that we are identifying more students of color that deserve to be a part of that program. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

They also can be as successful as possible. You know, I'm glad that you brought that up. That is something that Megan Margario, the gifted coordinator, and I have been looking at very closely and have identified it as an area where we do want to continue to monitor that because we do know there are twice exceptional students in our school district. And I can't remember all of the numbers off the top of my head, but even when we are going through the screening process and then those initial individual evaluation steps after the initial screening, we work closely with the building level counselors to ensure that we are applying all of the accommodations that are needed, not just for our students with IEPs, but also our students who have 504s or might even be in the process of being considered for a 504.

Spervantage, and the review process. And really making sure that we're implementing those accommodations with fidelity. And then also we have two other kind of stop gaps in the identification process. One is the data team meetings where a building team meets with me and with Megan to look at all the data.

And we make our initial set of, you know, recommendations around students who, you know, have met the criteria. So ensuring that, you know, the scores that they are seeing, do they feel like they're reflective of, you know, a student's talent? And is there, are there any other learning needs that we feel like may have gotten in the way of it being an accurate snapshot of that student's skill and potential? And so we have that in place.

And then the other piece that we have in place is teacher advocacy. So before we make the final decisions, we give teachers in the buildings and the grade levels an opportunity to advocate for students who they have observed to have traits that we often associate with giftedness. So just in case, you know, we did not get it onto our radar that there's another opportunity for other educators and practitioners who service the child to advocate for them to make sure that they are getting another look. So those are some other things we've put into the process to ensure that we're really looking at every student in a lot of different ways.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Stacey. All right, Gary, want to try again?

Uh-oh. So you went on mute. You went on mute again, Gary. We started talking and then all of a sudden you went to mute.

I can see that you're muted. Try it. I'm not really sure why. Yes, I can hear you.

Okay. I've, like, tweaked every setting that I can think of here. Sorry about that. I won't belabor it.

Great presentation. Cameron, I just would say if you would let us know how that 14 day challenge we can participate in and tie into that. I would love that. So thank you all for everything.

Thanks, Gary. And thank you to the team. You guys did a great job. I don't know if I have any questions because I think we've had a great conversation and probably my questions have been answered.

But I think I have three comments. The first comment is, it goes back to Jason's comment on equity policy. So U City just passed an equity policy as did Maplewood-Richmond Heights. So if we're looking at an overall equity policy, there are other districts.

Kirkwood's looking at it right now. So just something to think about, right? I mean, just not that we don't want to infuse equity in everything that we do, but they did just, there are two neighboring or close to neighboring districts that have done that. Second, I will wonder out loud, you know, you know, Panorama has some great diversity, equity and inclusion questions, modules for students, you know, in a kind of a new module.

I'm one. I mean, I guess I wonder if we might want to use those some for staff, some for community. I've looked at the questions. I think they're really good.

They could give us some great information on diversity, equity, inclusion. And then finally, I hope as we move forward. That we focus both on kind of what's not working, but what's also working. And we think about the bright spots and what we can scale up, right?

Because there are always going to be some things that are working. And I think just as human beings, sometimes it's easier if you have a mix of both. You know, the things that are working and how you scale them and do better are more of it as well as what we change to improve. So those are just three comments I would have.

Hey, Joe, do you have any background information on those policies, like from UCDM, maybe one? I can send them to you if you want, Jason, or send you the one. I mean, what do you mean background information? Like the origin, like, you know, how they were, what was the discussion around it?

Like, what was the discussion around it? We know that what happened last summer helped expedite this process to get the policy, right? But like, what was the discourse around it to put one together? I think the discourse was really around just an extra commitment around kind of equity and Maplewood Richmond Heights.

Theirs was probably six months or a year ago. So, I mean, theirs is not. U-Cities was like last month. So, I mean, there's a little, you know, just noting that there's a little, but they're pretty similar.

I've seen them both. As a matter of fact, I was at the UC board meeting when they passed it last month. So I think it's just a commitment, an overall commitment. Again, it's not to say that it's all in one place, but it's really to reemphasize the commitment of the district to all things equity.

Cameron, what do you think about that, Cameron? Yeah, I was just going to ask if those are available on the website. I'd like to take a look, you know, and just kind of, you know, see, you know, how it matches up. You know, with what we're doing, you know, if we're already doing something, it's already aligned, you know, what the next step for that would be.

So is that on our website? The use? Yes. For the city one.

I'm not sure about the Maplewood one, but I could also send you the city one if you want. But but it should be. Yep. OK.

Awesome. All right. Awesome discussion. Awesome presentation.

Thank you all. We really appreciate it. So we are going to move to, we have four policies, a first reading of four policies. I think Robin gets the first three, and then Mary Jo gets the fourth.

So the first one is the first reading of policy JCB, which is transfers within the district. Robin, you're up. Great. Thank you.

So yes, policy JCB has to do with transfers within the district. MSBA released an updated version of this policy to reflect changes that were brought about by House Bill 604. And so this updated policy focuses on transfers within the school district if the school district were to ever become unaccredited. So basically what the new law states is that if a student is going to a school in an unaccredited school district and the school that the child is in has an APR that would be consistent with being unaccredited that that child could request to the school district to be transferred to a school within the district with an APR that would be consistent with an accredited school.

And if that is not an option, then the student's family can apply to DESE to have DESE reassign the student to a different school district. So again, this would only come into play if this new part would only come into play if the whole entire school district of Clayton were to become unaccredited. All right. I'm sorry.

Anything else, Robin? Not on JCB. I'm sorry, Caitlin, do you have any questions or comments? No.

Okay, sorry. And David, any questions or comments? Okay. Okay.

And I don't think I do either. So thank you. You can move on to the next one. Policy JCC, transfer outside the district.

All right, so policy JCC talks about transfers outside the district. MSBA updated this policy also to reflect the changes brought about due to House Bill 604, and this bill addresses students' abilities to transfer out of an unaccredited school district. So if there is not a school within an unaccredited district that a student can transfer to, then as I said a few seconds ago, the student can apply to DESE to transfer to a school in an accredited district with an APR that score that's consistent with the classification of accreditation. And that one, that school district would have to be located in the same or an adjoining county or an approved charter school located in the same or, excuse me, adjoining county.

Gotcha. Thank you. David, any questions or comments? Okay.

Caitlin, any questions or comments? No. Thank you. Jason, any questions or comments?

Yeah, I got a comment. So on page, what is it? Page three of this paragraph, the introduction paragraph. So I was reading it.

It reads, so I'll read it out loud. The school district of Clayton provides an excellent education to students within the boundaries of the district, near the students' homes and families, and therefore does not encourage or support transfers outside the district except in the following situations. Now, I was reading that. I think it, you know, I read it a couple times, but I think it hit me a different way.

So I understand what we're trying to say here. You know, we're trying to say we have a great district, we provide a great education, but it's kind of toned up in a way. And it's tone deaf because I think about kids who are transferring from their district, a different district, and where, you know, they're coming because the school district isn't great. And it's in their neighborhood.

Right. And so they're traveling from that community to this community. And it doesn't take into consideration on how Clayton was built, what the restrictions were on people who are of color to be involved by buying houses, living in this community. So it just kind of hit me a little bit differently, and maybe because I'm just highly cognizant right now when it comes to, you know, being treated unequally.

But that kind of hit me a little differently. Does anyone have any feedback about my interpretation of that paragraph? Where is it, Jason? Again, tell me which.

So, yeah. It's referring to the first sentence of the policy. Is that right, Jason? Yeah, exactly.

Oh, okay. What if we just struck the middle part of that sentence and said, Provides an excellent education to students and doesn encourage or support transfers outside the district Yeah yeah exactly Does that make sense I think that might capture what you articulating I think so but I want to make sure everyone else is on board I mean you know this is just kind of how my opinion but it just you know we trying to be you know It does take into more, by striking the middle part, it does kind of take into more account all the different types of enrollment programs we currently run. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Awesome. And this talked about homeless students also, right? Homeless and foster care, right? Didn't it say?

Yeah. All right. So one last, another question I had was, you know, it talks about homeless students and foster care students. And it talks about their school of origin, sending them back there essentially.

Who determines their school of origin if you are a foster care child? Or a homeless student. Like, what determines? So, yeah, so there's a process in place.

It's called a bid meeting. It's best interest determination. And so if a student is in the custody of Children's Division, we have a joint meeting between their caseworker, any of the other kind of third party providers that might be supporting that child, including sometimes their foster parent is also involved, or pre-adoptive parents might also be involved. And then there's representation from both school districts.

And so there's actually a protocol that the team goes through for a student who is in the foster care system that talks about kind of what the student's goals, personal goals are, what the programs look like in the two different school districts. They take into consideration how long a student has been going to a particular school. They also look at what the student's learning needs are, like if they have an IEP or some other social emotional needs and looking at the two programs to see which one they think will be a better fit. And then the team decides which one will be the best placement.

And if the placement ends up being the not the school or sorry, depending on which direction it goes, ultimately what often happens is that the cost for transportation is usually split across the entities that are involved. It's a similar process for students who are qualified for McKinney-Vento. And this is one of our Clayton policies, right? This is a Clayton policy, correct?

The whole thing or just this one paragraph? This one paragraph. This one paragraph actually is in alignment with McKinney-Vento. Okay, okay.

Which is the Federal Protection Act for students who qualify for homelessness. Gotcha. Okay, so because the way I read this also, it kind of, it's almost like we don't want to deal with you. You know, so we're going to send you back to somewhere where, based on how many years you've spent in school there, like we're going to let them deal with you.

Yeah, so there's a very formalized process in place. Actually, I have a bid meeting tomorrow to help determine with the team the best placement for a child. So in my experience prior to coming to Clayton, I've seen it go in both directions. There's not really a hard and fast kind of pattern.

It really just depends on what the individual students need is. And they take into a lot of consideration, you know, how long they've been in the current placement, how, you know, how long they've been in the current placement. Spervantage of the year. The next question is, how long they've been at that current school.

What are the imminent needs of that student and what their hopes and dreams and goals are for their K-12 experience and then figuring out which building or which district is going to best serve those needs? This has been a part of our audit process to see if there is a disparity in a certain ethnic group that gets the displacement or is the one involved in this most often. For McKinney-Vento or for foster care? I think both.

Just both in general. Well, in the time that I've been in the school district, I believe we've only had, I think, one student in care each school year. Yes. And one of the students ultimately was placed in the district that the foster family was living in.

And then tomorrow is another determination that I not sure what the outcome will be I have not run the racial demographics on our families who are McKinney but I will say that the transitional housing piece certainly makes their situations very volatile in the sense of our social workers are in constant communication with them to make sure that transportation and other services are as seamless as possible Gotcha. They often get shipped out and, you know, bounced around. So I want to make sure that they're being handled properly. Yeah, no, I hear what you're saying.

And that's exactly why we have the bid process in place is to make sure that they are getting a very equitable consideration in terms of what is going to be in the best interest of their students. All right. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Jason. Gary, any comments or questions? Thank you. Kim, any comments or questions?

Thank you. Amy, any comments or questions? Thank you. Stacey, any comments or questions?

I don't have any comments or questions, but I do want to say, Jason, I appreciate your comment about the first sentence. I think that was good to strike that middle part. I saw that too. So I think that's good.

Okay, so then Robin, you get one more. 6.03, policy JECA, eligibility to enroll. All right, so JECA, there were two major changes to this. The first change that MSCA made was to update it so that it was in compliance with Senate Bill 306.

And that basically allowed for remote registration for families who are moving to Missouri due to military orders. So it makes the enrollment process for those students a little bit easier. And then the second part that was updated was basically it took out the piece that was about setting tuition and has put that piece into a different policy, a new one that Mary Jo is going to talk about, Policy BFI. Awesome, thank you.

All right, Stacy, any comments or questions? Yes, I actually have two. On the bottom of page nine, what's highlighted about when it's, we're talking about the removal, and it says, The district may exclude students from programs for failure to pay tuition after they're notified and given a reasonable amount of time to pay the district. When it says reasonable amount of time, is that something that you know is a fixed amount of time?

Like, do we have something like within 30 days or is that subjective? That just seemed very vague to me. So families who pay tuition have options on how they pay. And so oftentimes families can opt for a month-to-month piece.

And then Mary Jo, do you want to speak to some of the historical things that have been put into place when families were not on pace to be meeting their tuition payments on time? Yeah, typically we work with them if they get behind in their payments. And then we'll try to come up with a new payment structure. So we've had a few instances where it's gone into the next school year.

But typically we can figure out a plan to make it work throughout the current school year. Okay, thanks. And then also, at the top of that same page, at the top of page nine, number eight, referring to the students in the VIC program, that whole section was about the district's options for enrollment. And a couple of them, like employees, children, it said, which I think was number two, that those students are considered resident students.

And another one, I think number three, are Vic students not considered resident students as well? I thought they were. Any other questions? No.

Students are considered resident for collection of state aid. That's the reason they're called resident. So if you're a Vick student, we're receiving funding from Vick. If you're a resident student, we're receiving funding from the state.

So, OK, so in terms of state aid, they're not. OK, right. Thank you. Thanks, Stacey.

Amy, you can come up. Questions? Thank you. Kim, any comments or questions?

Thank you. Gary, any comments or questions? I mean, just to follow up on that, Mary Jo, is there, there's no other distinction in terms of resident or other, other than that state aid purpose, right? Is that what you're saying?

Right. It's just to classify so that we're not, in a sense, you would be double dipping. We would Thank you. Thanks, Gary.

Jason, any comments or questions? I think you're on mute, Jason. I don't have any. Okay, thank you.

Caitlin, any comments or questions? Thank you. David, any comments or questions? Thank you.

I don't have any comments or questions. No, I actually have one. Sorry. Oh, go ahead, Kim.

Yeah, so I just, and excuse my ignorance, but I know it says that if there are military, students of military transfers, we give them 10 days to prove residency. I just want to make sure that's an adequate enough time and they might be in temporary housing for 30 days unless they're, I mean, is 10 days really enough time for somebody to show proof of residency that's getting transferred from out of state by the U.S. government? I didn't think they moved that quickly.

That is an excellent question. I am not sure. We don't have a ton of military families transferring in, or we haven't had any recently. Okay.

But my guess is that given how small we are and how close the proximity we have to the enrollment process that, you know, if a family, you know, we're in constant contact with our families as they enroll, that if they were running into any issues that we could probably work out a plan if it needed to extend beyond 10 days. Okay, great. Thank you. So thanks, Robin.

So I think we're moving, Mary Jo, on to you. 6.04, policy DFI setting the tuition rate. As Robin said, this is a policy that was added because we removed the setting of the tuition from JECA. So this policy covers how we set the tuition on an annual basis for non-resident and resident students who are not otherwise entitled to free education to attend the district or our district programs.

And so there are some sections of this policy that were added that were not in JECA before. And so those sections that I have read, you know, changes to where it's in red, those are actually my recommended changes that we did have our attorney review because we do not set tuition rates based on what the MSBA assumed we would do, which is cost of educating the student. So we typically set tuition in those areas at a market rate. So we look at other districts in the area, private schools, or other competing markets that we have for that specific student, and then we set our rate based on that.

And so the attorney approved the changes and said they were fine. So those were actually, the reason there's no other changes in here is because this is a new policy, so the red changes are actually our changes. Great. Thanks, Mary Jo.

David, any comments or questions on this one? Just a question, Mary Jo. When I read this, it looks to be that I don't see that it would produce a material difference from what we've done in the past. Is that a fair assessment?

Yep. It's aligning exactly to what we're currently doing. Okay. Yeah.

No, I'm good. Thank you. Thanks, David. Caitlin, any comments or questions?

No. Thank you. Jason, any comments or questions? No.

Thank you. Gary, any comments or questions? Thank you. Kim, any comments or questions?

Thank you. Amy, any comments or questions? So my only comment, and I'm sure some people don't agree with me, but I've said this before, Superexpensive Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried Tuition the I guess the tuition kids that come And a lot of times it doesn So in a private school a lot of times they will give out scholarships for kids that can afford to come into the private school There's scholarship opportunities, but we don't, I guess, the amount that we charge, and I know that it is what it is, but it's prohibitive for families that might want to come to Clayton, but they just can't afford it. And I guess what bothers me about it is that we have no mechanism in place right now for a type of scholarship, possibly.

And I know it wouldn't be through us that we can't do it, but I don't know if that's something that we could maybe talk to. The Clayton Education Foundation? Yeah, the Clayton Education Foundation or, you know, or there's other opportunity, I guess, for us to discuss that to see if we could somehow sponsor, you know, sponsor or facilitate that at some level. Help coordinate it.

Yeah, I mean, we can definitely see what are potential options around there. We have actually explored some other outside entities looking at doing scholarship programs. And so, yeah, that's definitely something we can explore. Thanks, Amy.

Stacey, any comments or questions? Yeah, I have a couple. I'm just curious why of all the tuitions here, summer school was the only one that specified the price. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Thank you. But basically, we just wanted to set a minimal rate to encourage the students who really needed to be in the program to come. And so we've just kept it at that flat rate the entire time. So it's not there really isn't any intent to change it.

These families are already paying a significant tuition amount during the school year. And we just want to encourage them to come. But there needed to be a tuition charge for the summer. And so we set it minimal.

Let me ask you a question around the summer school. Summer school at one time was about, there's been an evolution in summer school, if I'm not mistaken. Kids used to go to summer school because they were not doing as well during the school year in a particular class for whatever reason. So before when kids used to go to summer school and there were kids that were paying tuition, did they have to pay that high amount, $5,000?

And it was recommended for them to graduate or move on to the next level or get their GPA up. Did they have to pay that at one time? I vaguely remember when we found, I don't know if we've always had tuition students attending summer school, but I do know it was about 12 years ago or so that this topic came up. And when we presented what the cost was going to be, the student declined enrollment and they really wanted the student to enroll.

And so we decided to set a flat rate. I don't think we've ever charged anyone when we needed to. It was cost prohibitive. So are the rules the same, though, if you're failing in class, if you didn't go into class and you want to go to summer school and take that class?

That's still that's still a thing. Son, the kids do that still. Thank you I aware of that situation 12 years ago but we will do anything possible to make sure any students in our classrooms are getting what they need Got it. All right.

Cool. Thanks. Did you have other questions? I did, and I'm going to apologize in advance if I'm opening up a can of worms here.

But when we started the tuition program for non-resident students, I know there was a financial reason to do so. Was the intent to continue this program for as long as we have? And do we still see the benefit of continuing it? I mean, we are the only public school that does this, and I know there are pros and cons, but I'm just wondering if it's still fulfilling the need that it was originally intended for.

I would say no. The original intent, it was started when the VEST program was starting to phase out. Right. So we were going to be losing money.

We were going to be in this so that it was intended to grow the number of students to offset the loss in big revenue. And so we have I mean, at one point we did have around 70 tuition students. That was probably the highest that we ever enrolled. We're down.

You know, I don't have it in my notes. I think it's like 30, you know, under 30 students now. So the revenue is not as substantial as it was in the past. But I mean, it was done for purely revenue generating purpose.

And so I don't, you know, at this point, we had to stop it back in 2008, 2009. We had to stop enrollment because of the statutory tuition students and then our resident students started growing. So that's how we gradually started to decline in the tuition students. We have space now.

We're starting to try to accept more. We haven't been advertising like we used to do when we had that many, but it's kind of at the board's discretion as to how they want to operate that program. Okay. I guess, I mean, not right now, but I guess at some point we should maybe discuss the future of the program and why we're still doing it and if we need to be and if we want to be.

Yeah, we need to set the rate as well. So, I mean, that's typically when that question will come up. Okay. I'll take note of that, Stacey, and I think that that would be another conversation beyond this policy, and then we can facilitate a conversation with the board around that.

Thank you. And just so everybody knows, because it's in Mary Jo's thing, tuition revenue is projected at $456,900. So it's down, but it's still $457,000 in the budget. It used to be over a million when we had that.

It used to be a lot. Yeah, it used to be over a million. I think the thing we have to be cognizant of is there's a certain fixed cost for operating the classroom, right? And so, you know, let's say it's 15 kids and you're sitting at 13.

There's no cost. There's no real cost to Clayton for filling those two seats. We have it's purely upside to our budget. I think, you know, letting those seats go empty would be I think I think would be a missed opportunity.

So, you know, I agree this probably isn't the place to debate it. But, you know, I'll be suited up because I chase the dollars and I like the revenue for the district. All righty. Stacey, any other comments or questions?

And I don't have any comments or questions. So thanks, Mary Jo. But you're still up because now we're moving to the budget planning. I'll have one comment on David's comment.

There is obviously a demand for the tuition seats. So, all righty, I'm going to share my screen. Okay, so the adoption of the annual budget is part of the board's fiduciary responsibility. The conservative and prudent approach to planning by Clayton's Boards of Education has a historic trademark of the district.

These decisions have made the district fiscally stable and has placed the district in a strong financial position that allows us to be responsive to The past year is a great example of how strong the financial stability of the district has allowed us to pivot during this COVID pandemic and support the technology needs for virtual learning, ensure safe learning environments for our students and staff, and support our partnership we've had with the Center of Clayton. So the formal budget development process for the next school year begins tonight with the framework This framework maps out the district overall strategy for the creation of the budget Tonight I will present the budget framework as a hypothesis and the variables that are used to create the hypothesis These variables are based on an overall macro fiscal strategy regarding revenue projections and proposed expenditure plans within specific departments, such as school buildings, facility maintenance and categories such as salaries and benefits. Tonight is also an opportunity for the board to ask questions, gain understanding, and provide input that will be used to finalize a more micro-budget document that is presented to the board in a draft form and final form in the spring. So I apologize, I did update my presentation because I left off the most important thing, which is the actual graph that represents the hypothesis, the projections.

So the five-year projection model is used to test the variables within the hypothesis. So the variables are continually updated as information is received. So the hypothesis or the graph is projecting a $3.4 million surplus and a 52% fund balance for the 2021 school year. This is due to revenue variables that increase 2% and expense variables that project the district or increase approximately 2.75%.

Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We will present the enrollment projections to the board at the March 10th meeting. Statistical calculations in that document take into consideration significant increases in resident enrollment through the 2017-2018 school year, resulting in projections that show enrollment growth. Speranbul, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried.

Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. We review the normal projected grade level progression because growth often results in later grade levels that can then exceed class sizes at those levels. Revenues from students enrolled in the district as statutory tuition students is actually projected to end due to the terms outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding. The students are still enrolled in the district.

However, there is no more revenue that will be billed to the sending districts. So this represents a reduction of $95,000 in revenue. We are not anticipating any significant changes in state funding at this time since the district is old harmless. However, federal funding does have some unknowns.

For the 2021 school year, the district received substantial federal funding for COVID relief through the CARES Act, which is the federal act. Currently, this funding totals $382,000, and that has been used towards technology, PPE supplies, staffing, and a portion of our bipolar ionization system. We are anticipating another $156,000, but we have not received final details on that yet, and we do not anticipate any other future payments beyond this, but we don't know what will happen over the next six months or so. Further, school districts across the St.

Louis region are working to lobby the Missouri Commissioner of Education to work with the federal government to ensure a hold harmless model of funding to title funds. That is one of our most significant portions of federal funding. The title funds support some of our most struggling students. Due to the pandemic, the ability for all families to receive free meals was automatic.

And that has resulted in fewer families completing their free and reduced meal applications. So this application is a data source to collect census poverty data. And this challenge of reduced census poverty data is a stark contrast to the reality some of our families currently face as a pandemic has reduced many families' incomes. So if a hold harmless funding model is not adopted, the district could lose a significant portion of our title funds for next year.

The first half of this fiscal year saw interest rates above 2%. It was really nice. However, due to the pandemic and the Federal Reserve reducing the Fed fund rates back down to levels from 2008, we are earning about 0.04% on our long-term investments. So we just received around $30 million in the past month.

So we continue to research investment options to maximize these earnings, you know, for payments throughout the year as best we can. So new developments are continuously monitored because they are our primary increase in tax revenue. The Clarendale of Clayton, which is on the corner of Hanley and Clayton Road, although not completed, should be included in the tax rolls as being under roof. Superroportionate, 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. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. It might be something to speak to the mayor about.

Protested assessed values continue to remain a challenge for all of St. Louis County, resulting in fluctuations in assessed value data and tax payments that cause significant fluctuations in our revenue trends. So 2019, the district was able to recoup $1.2 million in protested taxes. And if you go back to that graph, we had a nice spike that year beyond the tax levy.

However, trends normally have us paying back a million dollars in tax settlements throughout the year. Oddly enough, in that year, we did not pay back anything. So there was no recoupment collected in the current school year. So this resulted in a reduction for this year.

Unlike last year, though, this year we are also paying back taxes. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Senate Education Committee did hold a hearing last week on Tuesday on Senate bills 23, 25, and 55 regarding voucher tax credits, charter school expansions, virtual instruction, school board recall elections, and homeschool participation in sports. These bills were voted out of committee and combined into Senate Bill 55 which basically is an omnibus bill and basically can be brought to the Senate floor at any time for debate So all of this new bill will impact you know can definitely impact revenue for the district And we will continue to monitor and work with our legislators and our lobbyists.

So that is the revenue variables. I don't know, Joe, if you want me to stop and ask questions at this time or just go ahead through the whole thing. It's up to you. Just go ahead through the whole thing, please.

OK, thank you. So we'll look at the expenditure. Spenditure variables are pretty straightforward. So the salary increases that represent 60 percent of the operating budget or thirty five point six million.

Twenty twenty one is the final year of a two year salary agreement. So administration will begin salary discussions with teacher representatives in February. The 2% salary increase is estimated for the budget purposes, but the actual budget when we present it will be determined through salary discussions with teacher representatives. And the final budget is expected to include salaries based on the final approved salary schedule changes and savings from attrition, which I'm expecting to be similar to the last two years of probably 1 to 1.5% somewhere in there.

Classified staff are projected separately since they don't have significant savings from attrition, and so they are budgeted at a 2% increase. Retirement and benefits represent 19% of the operating budget, or $11.2 million. And 2020 did end the year with growth in the medical self-insurance fund, but because of COVID and uncertainties and bills, Thank you. Thank you.

And then, you know, we can make determinations if there's any changes in that. The CIP funds will be increased 2% for CPI for a budget of $905,000, along with an additional $35,000 budget for classroom furniture and a $50,000 contingency. Other expenses, which I provide some detail on the slide, represent 10% of the operating budget, or $6 million. And they're fairly fixed, and so we do just increase those at 2% for CPI moving forward.

So to recap the variables, revenue is projected to increase at about 2%, primarily due to the new construction of the Clarendell. Expenses are projected to increase approximately 2.75, mainly due to increase in CPI and salaries and benefits. And because of the successful passing of Proposition E and administration being intentional to align our finances with our strategic goals, these variables support the hypotheses that the district is projected to have approximately 3.4 million surplus and a 52% fund balance in the 21-22 school year. So the next steps will include a budget check in April, where, as I mentioned, I provide more information on the revenue streams, and then we'll present the draft in May and the final budget in June.

So after hearing the hypotheses and the revenue and expense variables that were used to create the hypotheses, what are your reactions, questions and input that you may have? Thank you, Mary Jo. Appreciate it. So, Stacey, any comments or questions?

No, just thank you. That was very thorough and really pretty easy to follow and understand. So I appreciate all the work you put into it. Thank you, Mary Jo.

Stacey, my screen has changed order. So I'm calling people in different orders now. David, any comments or questions? No, no worries, Joe.

Mary Jo, on taxes, how do we, I know we track and trend, you know, protesting of tax values and such, but how do we handle people that don't pay their taxes? You know if you know there we going to have people that you know we have businesses that don pay taxes despite you know their obligation to but then we also have a challenge with you know there a lot of families you know Clayton not immune to the financial impacts of COVID I know there's a lot of families that have taken pay cuts or furloughs, and I'm just anticipating that we could see a difference of income as a result of that. Is that something that we've kind of built in there that you're building into the budget, or is it a wait and see what happens kind of thing? I'm just not sure how you look at it.

Our collection rate is actually anywhere between 97 and 98 percent. And so we do have that built into the budget. Right now, we are projecting about $13.5 million of protested taxes. So what happens with the protested taxes is they put them in an escrow account and then they release them to us in May after we file a friendly lawsuit.

Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. When I get the protested tax report, I will know more. So I'll be able to update the board at that April meeting. But to answer specifically your question, we do project about 3% uncollected.

That's just residential property tax, though, that you do the projections on, right? Not business taxes? It's residential and commercial. It is commercial.

It's just the real estate. Not commercial real estate. I'm talking about like commercial sales tax. And is it all taxes?

It's just real estate. Just real estate. We don't receive any sales taxes from the city. Thank you.

Jason, any comments or questions? Yeah, good job. That was an excellent presentation. My concerns are always right now how the impacts of COVID, the cost to us, you know, Do we have an actual cost and do we have even like, you know, kind of a more alarming projected cost expense that we're kind of afraid of and how we factor that in?

Also, my concern is the fitness center, you know, that's going to continue to be down for a while. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. And it just seems like it's going to take more boots on the ground to get this done. That's just kind of my, based on my read here, that's what I gather.

Regarding the COVID, so I am not projecting any COVID, and I mentioned about the federal revenue. I feel like the COVID is a current school year, not next school year, with the exception of one thing, and I'll mention that in a second. So we have looked at COVID revenue and expenditures. And with the exception of the two items we brought forward for budget revisions already, which is the bipolar ionization system and the expenditures for the Center of Clayton, which was about a million dollars, I think between the savings and expenditures and the offsets of revenues and stuff, it's kind of netting right now.

And the federal revenue that we've received, which is around a half a million dollars. So I think we should be pretty even on the COVID expenses for this school year. So moving forward, you know, depending if we need any additional staffing in the fall, that could be something potentially that might come into play in the fall. Superintendent Board of Education Proposition O levy agenda motion carried It's not an end of the world kind of thing, but it could just cause some concern when we get there.

And Cameron, did you enroll? Yeah. So related to that, and Sean can talk about that, we do have an extra, I think, $140,000 in the budget for strategic planning needs. And then you also had one other question.

I think it was the center. Oh, the Center of Clayton. So the Center of Clayton, I actually have projecting out five years with it kind of doing about $100,000 a year going down. So $500,000, $400,000, $300,000 in net operating losses in addition to our contribution that we already have projected moving forward.

Gotcha. All right. Cool. Thank you very much.

Appreciate it. Jason, Amy, any comments or questions? Thank you, Amy. Caitlin, any comments or questions?

No. Thank you, Caitlin. Kim, any comments or questions? Yeah, just a couple.

So since we're still on the subject of assessed values, what about for new construction properties? Despite, you know, COVID and the pandemic, a lot of new construction was under-assessed that upon reassessment, they go back and they increase the assessment. So, you know, after they publish, for example, in the St. Louis Business Journal that X property, you know, is valued at X and then the assessment comes out at 10% of that value.

Is the county assessor's office now a little bit better organized to go back and chase those reassessed values? What's your take on that? Because I know it was kind of a mess up until, I mean, maybe now still. I know on Clayton new construction, they've been pretty aggressive at assessing at high.

So I don't know if that's more isolated outside of Clayton. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. They're coming right in line with what we were projecting. So I don't think they're getting assessed as new construction low, not in Clayton at least.

Well, I know they were a few years ago because there's a host of professionals that work on the side protesting the increases after they catch the mistakes. But maybe I'll find out. I'll see if that still exists and send you the addresses and examples of the properties. No, that situation definitely still exists.

However, it was kind of a glitch in the law that the county actually the last couple years have finally succeeded in winning the lawsuits. And they're kind of brought through in batches. And since they finally were successful, they hired outside counsel a few years ago, which they have never done. And they've been inside council.

And so that's what we're starting to see a turn on that because what was happening, it was just blanket assessed values getting changed. And they finally have been denying that. And that has definitely changed. There has been positive progress made there because it was starting to look like a bad political movie of black slush funds in that area.

Okay, so then you talked at the very beginning of your presentation about an enrollment bubble. So when I hear from a financial or economic term bubble, does that mean we expect the bubble to pop at some point? And if so, are we expecting a decrease in enrollment versus the increase that was projected in the plan? And then right after that, you said that you'll be doing an internal assessment, likely with Sean and the other administrators, about what that means for staffing.

So can you give us a little more color of what that means? Does that mean hiring freezes or contraction in staffing? Or what do you do in that case? Mary Jo, you want to talk about the bubble part and I can talk about staffing?

Yeah, I wasn't sure where you, who was going first. So the bubble, actually when we had the demographer come in and they looked at it, they called it a bubble. So I kind of used the same terminology and I kind of see it more just like a hill. So.

Yeah, not that something's going to pop. So it's, we rose to a high enrollment and now we're on the way back down. And so we just, we were having kindergarten classes in the 60s and we're back down to about 45. So the last few years, you know, it's just been, and so if you're, you know, if, if you're looking at all three buildings, it's about 45 less students a year, every year.

And so it's just giving us some space. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We need to add an additional teacher here, so that way that's more than maybe three sections. We might have to do four sections, but it's not something that just continues to carry on. We reevaluate it every single year. And there are going to be times when we might want to have connected to our strategic plan, an innovation or something that we want to try in terms of staffing.

And one of the things we're putting in place is that if we're going to add additional staffing, then we're going to then add the evaluation of like, how are we knowing, how do we know that we're getting the dividends out of this position? How do we know that this is something that we want to continue investing in in the future? So it's a natural process every single year when we go through to see what are the enrollments at all of our schools? What are the class sizes in all of our classes?

We look at the number of enrollments at the high school at different classes. And sometimes we have to add staffing and sometimes we have to take away. But it's just it's a natural process. But there are times we might want to think of doing something different.

But we are going to put a measure in place to make sure that it's paying dividends for us. Thanks, Kim. Gary, any comments or questions? Any other questions?

No, thanks. Appreciate the report and all the questions. I won't belabor anything from here. Thank you.

Thanks, Carrie. And Mary Jo, good job. I don't have any comments or questions. So we are going to move on to our action items.

So the first one is 8.01, which is the district academic calendar for the 2021-22 school year. Will you read the motion, Gary, please? Hopefully you guys can hear me. I move that the Board of Education approve the 2021-2022 district academic calendar as recommended.

Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Chris, did you want any comments before I ask the board if they have any comments or questions?

I don't really have a whole lot to say beyond what we've kind of included there in the proposal, A calendar that we're moving forward to mirror the current calendar since... Don't collect that. Don't let that number enter, Sandy. I don't recognize that number.

I'm just saying that. So the calendar for this year, the 2020-2021 school year was a, you know, reflected some changes. However, we felt like since we've had such an extraordinary school year, I guess would be a great way to put it that we really haven't had a chance to experience and evaluate the impact of some of these changes. So we felt like it made sense just to move those forward, keep our fingers crossed, and hope that we get a chance to evaluate what this calendar feels like in what we would consider more ordinary times.

Thank you. So any comments or questions from the board? Yeah, Chris, I know it says that we exceed the minimum number of instructional hours. By how much Do we have IS thickness of an exemption that up or provide that information But I mean we exceeding it in terms of equivalent days as opposed to just hours And it's the same amount of days we always kind of exceed it?

Correct. So this calendar has the exact number of hours that the calendar that the board approved for the 2020-2021 school year, correct? Got it. Okay, thanks.

Any other comments or questions? All right. All in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, pass the 7-0. Thank you. Okay, 8.02, safety and security items, solicitation of bids.

Gary, will you read the motion, please? 8.02, I move that the Board of Education authorize the solicitation of bids for the first phase safety and building improvements that will take place during the summer of 2021 and authorize the release of committed funds for payment. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Mary Jo, did you want to add anything here before I ask the Board if they have any comments or questions? Yeah, this was kind of hard to write in the document, but I just want kind of everyone to understand the finances associated with this. So this is a phase one, and then there's a phase two. The majority of the funding is coming from the sale of the Maryland building, which on our monthly financial shows around $3.2 million.

However, the total of both phases with the gender neutral restrooms is over that amount. Superintendent, Board of Education, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. Thank you, Mary Jo. Okay, so any comments or questions on this one?

Just one. Mary Jo, whenever you get that data, can you also kind of do a burndown schedule over that to your window so we can see what the cash flow looks like? Yeah, because we're only going to get bids on the first phase right now, and then we'll just project out on the second phase, so we can do that. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions? Okay. All in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. It's past the 7-0. Thank you.

So we're moving on actually to a couple second readings of policies. So this is 8.03, the second reading and approval of policy DC, taxing and borrowing. Gary, will you read this one, please? 8.03, I move that the Board of Education approve the second reading of policy DC, taxing and borrowing as presented.

Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? All right, all in favor?

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, it passes 7-0.

So we're moving on to 8.04, which is the second reading and approval of Policy EF, which is food service management. 8.04, I move that the Board of Education approve the second reading of Policy EF, food service management, as presented. Is there a second? Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? All right, y'all in favor? Aye.

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, thank you.

It also passes 7-0. So we are moving on to the consent agenda. Agenda. 9.01, I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda for agenda items 9.02 through 9.04.

Second Okay It has been moved and seconded Any comments or questions about the consent agenda All righty, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, it passes unanimously, 7-0.

Thank you. Okay, we're moving on to the financials, 10.01. 10.01. 10.01, I move that the Board of Education approve the payment of current expenditures and investments for December 2020 as presented and attached.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions? I have to recuse myself from this vote.

Okay. So I'll leave and you'll probably want to come back? Yes. Okay.

Well, okay. It's fine. I'll just abstain. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, just don't vote. All right.

Any comments or questions? All right. All in favor? Aye.

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, and I'm noting that Stacey's not voting.

She's recusing herself, so this passes 6-0. Thank you. Okay, we're moving on to public comment, and Sean and Chris, do we have any public comment? Yes, we have three public comments this evening.

The first public comment is from Betsy Meeland-Smith, and she writes, Welcome, Dr. Patel. I very much look forward to getting to know you better and offer my support to you as you begin to navigate our district. As a parent and community member deeply invested in the work of equity and anti-racism in our district and community, I'm interested in learning more about Dr.

Patel's background and experience in anti-racism and equity work. Second comment. My screen is not refreshing here. One second.

You guys will have to bear with me. I just lost the comments here. Sorry, I apologize. All my Google Suites just not logged me out.

Coming back up now. Chris, do you want me to see if I can pull it up? No, I've got it right now. I'm back.

I apologize for that. The second comment we have this evening is from Adrian Piston. She writes, our family moved to St. Louis from Nashville, Tennessee, five years ago.

We moved to a city rocked by the horror of Michael Brown, a horror that reverberated throughout the nation. It has taken me years to learn about and wrap my head around systemic racism and the travesty it has wrought on this nation. Within the district, my children have told me about several instances where they witnessed undue punishment of their black and brown peers, something they found confusing and sad. A report of these instances and the principals, to my knowledge, have done a fine job dealing with it.

The death of George Floyd this summer was a turning point for me to become more active as a white parent to start the long journey to end systemic racism. I am thrilled that the district has hired Cameron Poole I find his work to be both inspirational and motivational The district move toward equity has inspired me to get more involved with the school system and get to work Thank you And our last comment is from Suzanne Whitman She writes, I first want to thank Sean, Cameron, Robin, and the administrative team for continuing to move forward on issues of equity. I was really happy to see that the latest equity report included not only programs that occurred once, but also systemic changes like how we grade and alignment of job postings with the diversity hiring event. Great job.

And my gratitude, because this work makes my children's world more healthy and whole. I also have a question that arose from my reading of the Forward Through Ferguson report, still separate, still unequal. The report states that in 2017-18, Clayton took advantage of a Missouri Foundation formula loophole, a backdoor provision to the formula that is supposed to make funding more equal across districts that benefits majority white communities. The loophole, called a hold harmless provision, allowed us to use property values from 2004 instead of 1718 in order to artificially inflate the amount of state funding we received per ADA student.

Superroportionate, Proposition O, levy, agenda, motion carried. The systems of white supremacy and terrible race-based disparities in our region. Thank you for your attention and consideration. And that's all the public comments for this evening.

Great. Thank you for reading those, Chris. So we are moving on to board communications. Does anybody have a board communication?

Go ahead, Stacey. Yeah, I attended the PAC-Ed Executive Committee meeting on Friday. Robin and Cameron were there as well. And I continue to be impressed with this, how they've kind of reorganized and reimagined this group.

It's very well organized. They have, they function, you know, like, very efficiently with different executive positions. And it just kind of reminded me tonight as we talked about those affinity groups that this is a great example of a parent affinity group that ties into all of our, you know, the work that Cameron was talking to earlier. A couple of things that we discussed at the meeting were that they're working on ways to recognize teachers that work with students with disabilities and recognize students.

They also are continually looking for ways to educate the community about kids with learning differences. And they loved that Robin's idea at the last meeting when it was Inclusive Schools Week that we engage their students to talk and explain it. So I think they're looking into other ways that their students can be involved in our schools, involved in decision making and included as leaders, as some thinking groups in our schools. So, you know, one of the ideas was even about our board advisory group that we don't have a student or I don't know.

They didn't think that we have a student included in that group that has learning differences. So they're continually looking for and advocating for their kids to be, you know, leaders in schools and part of decisions and parts of groups that can talk about how to better their experience at school too. So that was it. Thank you, Stacey.

Anybody else have any other board communications? I just have one real quick, which is just as much for the public. So congratulations to Amy and Jason. You will serve another term because you are the only two people who signed up.

So we will not have an election that that it basically means that Amy and Jason will be elected. So just a note. Anybody have anything else? All righty.

Can I have a motion to adjourn? I move that the Board of Education adjourn. Second. All in favor?

Aye.