St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education - workshop

Dr. Harvey, Mr. Hyde, Ms. Hubbard here, Ms. Jones here, Ms. Foster, Mr. Marston, Dr. Collins-Adams, we have a quorum. we have one item, item for discussion, alternate transportation for all private districts to enter into an MOU with Missouri Charter Public Schools Cooperative and authorize the spending with the Missouri Charter Public Schools Cooperative and OMNIA for the time period of August 11, 2022 to the end of the year 2027 for an amount not just $3,302,000, dollars to support transportation for diverse learners. They comply to the obligations of the McKinney-Vento Act, state schools, and . In addition for the students with IEPs and .

I move to approve item for action, 6.1. Second.

Ms. Grassley. So before, there was some questions about using local vendors. And I wanted to know how it would go to Eugene.

So lastly, the vendors that reported, I think they had a misunderstanding. So with the McKinney-Vento, We have vendors that we use, and there's also alternate transportation that cannot be used under the McKinney-Vento Act to transport students that are homeless. We transport students to IEP, transport our students within other areas. So there are two different types of transportation that we have. By law, we also must have the alternate transportation. The vendors that were there are under the impression that the MOV that has been in the works with legal counsel over the last few months, which included those local vendors, thought this transportation meant they were not going to be included at all. We were simply asking to include just these two vendors because on day one, we needed alternate transportation. Reason being, we have a co-op. With the co-op for alternate transportation, the local vendors were not in the co-op. Our understanding was they were not in the co-op because they did not apply. In this way, finding out they were not in the co-op because the co-op, you have to be a nationally recognized vendor. That's how the Missouri Charters came into play. Last year, we had a lot of vendors we were using, and we were spreading money everywhere. It was not cohesive enough, well, in a place to see everything that was happening. And the budget was over a million dollars between not just McKinney-Vento, but McKinney-Vento and special education. We're now branching all the transportation under the transportation department. That doesn't mean that Dr. Thomas-Murray and her department will still not be over what they're doing with their budget and how they're doing it. But now the invoice within the direct transportation is now aligned with the umbrella of transportation in the operations department. We have a MOU that is in the works that we're going to come back to bring to you to approve. That's why we're asking for JHS to be able to let us enter into an MOU. And that Missouri co-op will take care of a few things. It will allow the local vendors to also be included in that co-op. and making sure that we're streamlined how we're paying and keeping a balance of what the budget looks like. So they will be included in their alternate transportation and the transportation from McKinney-Vento. Yes, ma'am.

So the department heads for the students that are eligible under McKinney-Vento and the department head for special education have all been consulted on this and have discussions with the Department of Transportation and Dr. Berry. And so we now have a set plan. And the additional information will come to us for the MOU that will approve later. But right now, the important thing is to be able to provide transportation for our students for the first-year school by authorizing the use of the individuals that, I mean, those companies that are part of the job. That's what we should do. And we had followed through on all of that information. We should let everyone, because we did, that was a conversation that happened at our open session, at our board meeting on Tuesday. So now everyone has been notified. Everyone has participated and have given input into how they see this rolling out effectively for all of our students. So, and we'll be on that. And we thank the board for monitoring. So if you need to walk somewhere. Mark, you had a question for them?

Yes.

For Mr. Harvey. Dr. Harvey, Mr. Hites, Ms. Hubbard, Ms. Jones, Ms. Foster, Mr. Marston, Dr. Collins-Adams. Motion approved. If you're not going on and that we have not for a profession. We are in no other discussion.

The chair is needed.

We'll call back to Harvey yeah, that's the height. Yeah, that's how we get this job. Yes, this foster is the most in yes, doctor Thomas Adams, yeah. We are adjourned at 1156 AM.

Oh, no.