St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education - workshop

Testing, testing, one, two, three, testing, one, two, three.

and the future our kids deserve is right in front of us. Every student, every day, together like never before. in every spark of discovery every note sung every challenge met you can see what makes our students shine some people say kids have potential but at st louis public schools we see their brilliance right now the scientists building her first robot the artists mixing colors until they feel just right the veterinarian caring for man's best friend they're not waiting for the future they're creating it in real time and every step they take every skill they build every dream they speak out loud they do it with teachers coaches and families who believe in them just as much as they do this is what success looks like here effort joy curiosity and growth, all shining through our students in everything they do. Every student, every day, together like never before. When our community faces a storm, we don't wait to help. We show up. That's who we are. From staff delivering meals and supplies, to teachers checking in on students' well-being, to counselors helping kids talk through hard days. Support is what we do. And even when the emergency passes, we don't stop. Every day, in every school, you'll see adults making sure students feel safe. In every spark of discovery, every note sung, every challenge met, you can see what makes our students shine. Some people say kids have potential, but at St. Louis Public Schools, we see their brilliance right now. The scientist building her first robot, the artist mixing colors until they feel just right, the veterinarian caring for man's best friend. They're not waiting for the future, they're creating it in real time. And every step they take, every skill they build, every dream they speak out loud, they do it with teachers, coaches, and families who believe in them just as much as they do. This is what success looks like here. Effort, joy, curiosity, and growth all shining through our students in everything they do. Every student, every day, together like never before. When our community faces a storm, we don't wait to help. We show up. That's who we are. From staff delivering meals and supplies, to teachers checking in on students' well-being, to counselors helping kids talk through hard days. Support is what we do. And even when the emergency passes, we don't stop. Every day, in every school, you'll see adults making sure students feel safe. encouraged and ready to learn. Families feel it too. Through programs like Parent University, workshops that give parents tools and confidence to help their children grow and succeed. This is what community looks like in SLPS. People lifting each other up, standing together and making sure no one faces challenges alone. Because when one of us rises, all of us rise. Every student, every day, together like never before. They said, pause. And yes, we paused, but only long enough to gather ourselves. They said, rebuild. But what we're doing is more than fixing buildings. We're restoring energy, restoring pride, bringing our schools and our spirits back to life. from the halls that carry our history to the hearts that carry our hope. This is us rising again together. This is what leadership looks like here. Teachers preparing rooms with care, principals greeting families at the door, staff making sure every detail is right because our students deserve our very best. The lights are on, the doors are open, and the future our kids deserve is right in front of us every student every day together like never before With every spark of discovery, every note sung, every challenge met, you can see what makes our students shine. Some people say kids have potential. But at St. Louis Public Schools, we see their brilliance right now. The scientist building her first robot. The artist mixing colors until they feel just right. The veterinarian caring for man's best friend. They're not waiting for the future. They're creating it in real time. And every step they take, every skill they build, every dream they speak out loud, they do it with teachers, coaches, and families who believe in them just as much as they do. This is what success looks like here. Effort, joy, curiosity, and growth all shining through our students in everything they do. Every student, every day, together like never before. When our community faces a storm, we don't wait to help. We show up. That's who we are. From staff delivering meals and supplies, to teachers checking in on students' well-being, to counselors helping kids talk through hard days, support is what we do. And even when the emergency passes, we don't stop. Every day in every school, you'll see adults making sure students feel safe, encouraged, and ready to learn. families feel it too through programs like parent university workshops that give parents tools and confidence to help their children grow and succeed this is what community looks like in slps people lifting each other up standing together and making sure no one faces challenges alone because when one of us rises all of us rise every student every day together like never before They said pause. And yes, we paused, but only long enough to gather ourselves. They said rebuild. But what we're doing is more than fixing buildings. We're restoring energy, restoring pride, bringing our schools and our spirits back to life. From the halls that carry our history to the hearts that carry our hope. This is us rising again together. This is what leadership looks like here. Teachers preparing rooms with care, principals greeting families at the door, staff making sure every detail is right because our students deserve our very best. The lights are on, the doors are open, and the future our kids deserve is right in front of us. Every student, every day, together like never before. In every spark of discovery, every note sung, every challenge met, you can see what makes our students shine. Some people say kids have potential, but at St. Louis Public Schools, we see their brilliance right now. The scientists building her first robot, the artists mixing colors until they feel just right. to veterinarian caring for man's best friend they're not waiting for the future they're creating it in real time and every step they take every skill they build every dream they speak out loud they do it with teachers coaches and families who believe in them just as much as they do This is what success looks like here. Effort, joy, curiosity, and growth all shining through our students in everything they do. Every student, every day, together like never before. When our community faces a storm, we don't wait to help. We show up. That's who we are. From staff delivering meals and supplies, to teachers checking in on students' well-being, to counselors helping kids talk through hard days. Support is what we do. And even when the emergency passes, we don't stop. Every day in every school, you'll see adults making sure students feel safe. encouraged, and ready to learn. Families feel it too, through programs like Parent University, workshops that give parents tools and confidence to help their children grow and succeed. This is what community looks like in SLPS. People lifting each other up, standing together, and making sure no one faces challenges alone. Because when one of us rises, all of us rise. Every student, every day, together like never before. They said, pause. And yes, we paused, but only long enough to gather ourselves. They said, rebuild. But what we're doing is more than fixing buildings. We're restoring energy, restoring pride, bringing our schools and our spirit back to life. From the halls that carry our history to the hearts that carry our hope, this is us rising again together. This is what leadership looks like here. Teachers preparing rooms with care, principals greeting families at the door, staff making sure every detail is right because our students deserve our very best. The lights are on, the doors are open, and the future our kids deserve is right in front of us. Every student, every day, together like never before. In every spark of discovery, every note sung, every challenge met, you can see what makes our students shine. Some people say kids have potential, but at St. Louis Public Schools, we see their brilliance right now. The scientist building her first robot, the artist mixing colors until they feel just right, the veterinarian caring for man's best friend. They're not waiting for the future, They're creating it in real time. And every step they take, every skill they build, every dream they speak out loud, they do it with teachers, coaches, and families who believe in them just as much as they do. This is what success looks like here. Effort, joy, curiosity, and growth all shining through our students in everything they do. Every student, every day, together like never before.

Our regular business meeting is now called to order September 8, 2026 at 6.46 PM. Ms. Foster, roll call.

Dr. Harvey. Present. Mr. Hikes. Present. Ms. Hubbard. Here. Ms. Jones. Here. Ms. Foster is present. Mr. Marston. Present. Dr. Collins-Adams.

Present. We have a quorum. A motion to approve the agenda? Oh, excuse me. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation,

I always want to say cheers, cheers to go to that school.

Board of Education norms. St. Louis Board of Education norms adopted April 9, 2019. Decision making. We believe our first priority and greatest concern is the educational welfare of all students in St. Louis public schools. We align decisions, discussions, superintendent evaluations, district partnerships, budget allocations, et cetera, to the current transformation plan. We demonstrate respect for diversity of thoughts, backgrounds, and experiences, roles, and decisions once they have been made. We embrace healthy debate. We acknowledge board members with differing opinions during discourse in both open and closed sessions to gain clarity and engage in meaningful dialogues. Professionalism. We demonstrate engagement by thoroughly reviewing the board packet and other documents arriving on time to meetings and work sessions, remaining on topic during discussions and respectfully interacting with each other, the superintendent, staff, and all stakeholders. We demonstrate respect for diversity of thoughts, backgrounds, and experiences and roles. Communication. We demonstrate professionalism and respect for other board members, the superintendent, and district staff by adhering to timelines and deadlines outlined in the workflow calendar and any other tasks at the time. We conduct all official board-related email communications using our at slps.org email accounts. We read and reply to all board emails within 72 hours. We conduct all official board-related phone and text communications using district-issued phones. We check voicemail and return phone calls and texts within 72 hours. We are ambassadors in the community, and as individual concerns or questions arise, we will seek to understand the information and gather pertinent facts in order to direct stakeholders and staff to contact appropriate district personnel. We channel concerns or requests for information through the board president who will direct those requests to the superintendent in an organized and concise manner. We recognize the importance of proactive communication and agree there will be no surprises. The board president shall be the official spokesperson for the board. The superintendent shall be the spokesperson for the district. Board members who receive requests for board issue positions shall direct the request to the board president or superintendent. CONFIDENTIALITY. WE RESPECT AND MAINTAIN THE CONFIDENTIALITY OF CLOSED SESSION ITEMS AND THE BOARD'S DISCUSSION ON THOSE ITEMS. WE REFER FROM DISCUSSING CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS IN PUBLIC WITH MEMBERS OF THE PRESS OR WITH ANYONE ELSE NOT PRIVY TO SUCH INFORMATION. IF IT IS NECESSARY TO PROVIDE A STATEMENT TO THE PUBLIC FOLLOWING A CLOSED SESSION, THE BOARD PRESIDENT AND SUPERINTENDENT WILL AGREE ON A UNIFIED RESPONSE PRIOR TO MAKING THE STATEMENT.

THANK YOU, BOARD MEMBER FOSTER. Motion to approve the agenda.

I move to amend the agenda to move item for information 8.2 concerning future ready to item for action 9.3.

Second.

Call for a vote.

Dr Harvey. Yes. Mr Hikes. Yes. Miss Hubbard. Yeah. Miss Jones. Yes. Miss Foster is a yes. Mr Marston.

Yes.

Dr Collins Adams. Yes.

Motion approved.

I move to approve the agenda as amended. Second.

Any discussion? Call for vote. Dr. Harvey? Yes. Mr. Hikes? Yes. Ms. Hubbard? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Ms. Foster is a yes. Mr. Marston? Yes. Dr. Collins-Adams? Yes. Motion approved.

I move to approve the minutes from our August 25th work session. Second.

Call for a vote. Any discussion? Dr. Harvey?

Yes.

Mr. Hikes? Yes. Ms. Hubbard? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Ms. Foster? Yes. Mr. Marston? Yes. Dr. Collins-Adams? Yes.

Motion approved. Our reports, the superintendent report.

Good evening, members of the board, community members, and listening audience. A FEW UPDATES AND THINGS HAPPENING AROUND OUR DISTRICT THIS WEEK. THE NEW DISTRICT WEBSITE, IT ROLLED OUT TODAY. SO PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AND PROVIDE YOUR FEEDBACK DIRECTLY TO THE WEBSITE. THERE IS A POP UP BUTTON. SO PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE VIEWING THE WEBSITE AND PROVIDE YOUR FEEDBACK. DESE is visiting several of our comprehensive schools this week, and I am pleased to share that their feedback thus far have been extremely positive. They have shared that the work that we are doing is progressing well and that we are in a good position. I want to thank our principals, teachers, staff, and department teams for the work that they are doing each and every day. We know there is much work ahead, but it is important that we acknowledge the process when we see it. Second, as we continue conversations around Future Ready, I want to encourage all of us to continue to engage in respectful dialogue with one another. There will be strong opinions, questions, concerns, and disagreements. This is part of the opportunity and what's important about our community process. We can disagree and still treat each other with respect. Our students are watching us now, and they are looking at how we behave in a time of difficult conversations. And we have an opportunity to model what productive engagement looks like. And finally, I want to clarify the purpose of Thursday's Future Ready session. Thursday is a forum comprised of stakeholders representing different perspectives and experiences. It is an opportunity to hear directly from stakeholders and continue the dialogue around Future Ready. It is not a meeting to announce new decisions or changes that have been made. As we move forward, we will continue listening, engaging, and working to ensure This process remains centered on what is best for our students and families. And without any further ado, we'll call up Dr. Dino and team for charter school sponsorship.

Good evening, President Collins-Adams, Vice President Marston, Secretary Foster, members of the board, Dr. Berry, and our listening audience. Our Office of Charter School Sponsorship is here to provide our annual update. This evening, you'll be hearing from Dr. Sheila Sherman, who's our network superintendent overseeing that work, and Ms. Jenny Otto, who is our new charter school specialist.

Good evening, board. Tonight, we will provide the required annual update and renewal recommendation on SLPS's sponsorship of Confluence Academies. This presentation summarizes Confluence's performance, completion of its remedial plan, the renewal review process, and the next steps requiring board action. SLPS's charter school sponsorship is grounded in our strategic values and our commitment to the portrait of a graduate. Here, this presentation supports authentic family and community partnerships.

First, we will begin by reviewing the definition of a charter school and sponsorship, sponsorship of confluence, Next, the confluence background and enrollment what the accountability and feedback of our sponsorship looks like the accountability measures and 2023 to 2026 results and update on their medial plan the Charter renewal process renewal recommendation and next steps. The desi definition of a charter school is a charter school is a free independent public school that operates outside of a school district. charter schools are granted greater flexibility and return for greater accountability Missouri charter schools are governed by independent boards and or nonprofit organizations. There are three kinds of sponsors in Missouri, school boards of accredited districts, qualifying universities, and the Missouri Charter Public School Commission. Each sponsor sets their own policies and procedures for sponsorship. Sponsored charter schools must be approved by the Missouri State Board of Education and must meet all applicable state statutes and Department of Elementary and Secondary regulations. A charter sponsor receives 1.5% of state and local funding allocated to a charter school in order to fulfill statutory responsibilities.

Confluence is currently in the fifth year of his five year approval period commencing 2022 to 2023 and through 2026 to 2027 school years. The SLPS board approved the sponsorship in December of 2022 and the formal agreement began in July of 2023. In April 2026, the performance agreement was updated to reflect accountability expectations. Confluence entered the charter renewal process in August of 2026. This timeline brings us to tonight's renewal recommendation and the board schedule action. Confluence Academy operates five schools across four campuses and serves students from pre-K through grade 12. Enrollment increased from 2,417 students in October of 2025 to 2,531 students in August of 2026. That's an increase of 114 students. Overall, Confluence is operating at approximately 82% of its total capacity. Enrollment and building utilization vary across campuses, with South City operating near 88% capacity and Confluence Preparatory Academy at near 44% capacity. These data are essential components of the ongoing review of organizational stability, enrollment trends, and long-term viability. SLPS performs two related but distinct functions. Okay, I'm sorry, that's the wrong slide. There we go. SLPS performs two related but distinct functions, formal accountability and feedback. Accountability is governed by the Charter Contract and Performance Agreement and directly informs the renewal decision. As you may recall, our review addresses academic outcomes, governance and operations, financial performance, and compliance. Feedback is guided by the SLPS Charter Sponsorship Handbook and evaluates performance across 13 domains. Although feedback itself is not high stakes, It helps Confluence identify opportunities for continued improvement. Confluence participates in DESE's Success Ready Students Network, commonly referred to as SRSN. Their students take the required Missouri Assessment Program assessments, It receives an MSIP Sixth Annual Performance Report, APR, for federal accountability purposes. An alternate APR based on local assessments, including NWEA, is expected to be developed collaboratively with DESE and other SRSN districts. Until that alternate system is finalized, the performance agreement allows SLPS to evaluate confluences academic growth using local assessment results. The established performance expectation is for at least 50% of tested students to meet or exceed their annual NWEA projected growth goals. In 2023, and in 2023-24 school year, Confluence met the standard in both mathematics and reading, with 51% of students meeting their growth goals in each subject. In 2024-25 school year, reading met the standard at 52%, while math fell below the standard at 48%. That mathematics score resulted in the development of the 2025-26 year remedial plan. The most recent results show substantial improvement, which is 62% of the students met their growth goals in mathematics and 67% did so in reading. Confluence therefore exceeded the established growth standard in both assessed areas entering the renewal year because they exceeded the 50% minimum threshold that we require. SLPS and Confluence jointly developed a remedial plan after Confluence did not meet the mathematics performance standard in 2024-2025. Throughout the 2025-26 school year, SLPS monitored the required strategies, evidence, and performance outcomes. Confluence successfully completed all requirements of the remedial plan, and the final results exceeded 50% growth target, reaching 62% in math and 67% in reading. Based on these results and completion of the required actions, Confluence has formally been removed from the remedial status. Confluence submitted its renewal application on August 24th, 2026. The SLPS Office of Charter Partnerships reviewed and verified the completion of the application package. We examined academic performance, organizational and fiscal viability, compliance with the charter contract and performance agreement, and compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. On September 4th, SLPS provided confluence with this cumulative performance report. That report summarizes confluence's performance throughout this current charter term and serves as a key component of the renewal review. Tonight, September 8th, we are here as the Office of Charter Partnerships is presenting its formal renewal recommendation to you, the Board of Education of the City of St. Louis. On September 22nd, the Board is scheduled to vote on the renewal recommendation. If renewal is approved on September 22nd, SOPS and Confluence will finalize a new charter contract and performance agreement for the next term. Those documents will be presented for all required approvals. The complete renewal package will then be submitted to DESE for review and action by the Missouri State Board of Education. The SLPS Office of Partner Partnerships recommends renewal of the Confluence Academy's sponsor agreement. Confluence has met the applicable academic performance criterion with its APR results exceeding SLPS results in mathematics and English language arts during each of the last four school years. The renewal application demonstrates organizational and fiscal viability, including adequate fund balances and expenditures that do not exceed receipts. Confluence successfully completed the 2025-26 remedial plan and is currently in compliance with the April 2026 performance agreement. Our review did not identify any unresolved academic, organizational, governance, fiscal, contractual, or compliance concern that would provide basis for non-renewal. For these reasons, the office recommends that the board approves renewal. The first major next step is the board's renewal vote scheduled for September 22 of 2,026, regardless of the renewal process. Slps will continue carrying out its regular sponsorship and oversight responsibilities. Quarter one. We're scheduled for classroom visits on September 29th and October 1st. If the Board approves renewal on September 22nd, SLPS and Confluence will proceed with finalizing a new charter contract and performance agreement and submitting the required materials to DESE. In closing, this concludes our Confluence Academy Sponsorship and Renewal Update. The Office of Charter Partnerships is available to answer questions about Confluence's performance, completion of the remedial plan, and renewal review or the recommendation presented this evening. Thank you. Are there any questions?

Board Member Harvey and Board Member Jones, Board Member Morrison after.

I have a few, and so I'll break them up to share space. I guess my first would be, let's just start with the academic data. I think most of us know that growth Growth while celebratory can be real and students still remain far under proficiency. And that growth is not an accurate or helpful data point in general for measuring the success of a school. And so I'm just curious, what's the actual proficiency rates living beneath the data that we did not get? and um that's rates of math and reading and then like how has the proficiency data actually moved across the four years completely excluding growth when you answer please

Board Member Harvey, say that last sentence. I didn't understand the last one.

Yeah, I want to know how the proficiency data has moved across the four years, but not to loop growth into that. Just what are the actual rates of proficiency moving?

Thank you.

so we do have the performance report and you want tonight we can share with you their mpi scores specifically because we have that and we can get for you the their their percent proficient and advanced but we have actual numbers on their mpi for the last five years and how that's compared to slps's

All right. So we can send that to you. We have a report that's ready.

No, can you read it out? Because it'll be helpful for, I think, the public to also hear how that growth has happened or not.

Thank you. Okay. In 2022, for ELA, the MPI for all students for CA, Confluence Academy, I'm using CA, is 338.5 and SLPS was 329.9. The ELA MPI for student group was 335.7 and SLPS was 317.6. Math MPI for all students was 309.1 and SLPS 285.4. Math MPI for student group was 306.2 and for SLPS 271.1. So they did meet the standard for that year.

And for the audience, can you explain the distinction between student group and the MPI number you're reading?

So for students, it's all students and student groups are usually identified by a demographic group.

And define MPI for the audience.

I'm sorry? MPI. Oh, it's the It's the performance index, yes.

Missouri Performance Index.

Yes, thank you. And then 2023, CA was 346.6, and for SLPS, 333.1. That was for ELA. For ELA, the MPI for the student group was 343.1. SLPS was 319.9. For math, MPI. All students was 315.5 and SLPS for all students was 296.2. For math, MPI student group was 312.1 and for SLPS, 280.1. So they met the standard for that year. For 2024, CA was 340.8. For SLPS, 333.8. For ELA for student groups, 337.6 and for SLPS, 320.5. Math for all students was 314.8 for CA and for SLPS, 300.8. The MPI for student group CA was 311.2, SLPS was 284.8 and they met the standard for that year. For 2025, CA's performance was 337.8 for ELA all students and SLPS was 336.2. ELA MPI for student group for CA was 331.5, the one, excuse me, SLPS was 320.7. For math, CA's performance was 313.9, SLPS 304.2. For math, MPI student group, CA was 310.1 and SLPS was 285.9 and they met the standard for that year.

So while their MPI was higher than SLPS's in all years, you'll note that from 2022 to 2025, Confluence Academies had a lower ELA MPI in 25 than they had in 2022, and SLPS's was higher in 2025 than they were in 2022. So while their overall score was higher than SLPS's, the SLPS MPI was continuing to increase over that time.

okay good evening um i guess uh my concern is that we just to me we just wasted 15 20 minutes talking about confluence charter schools and sponsorship of a publicly paid for school system that people have no voice in You can't say anything. They have their own privately sponsored board. And as a person that's elected, It's kind of insulting to even have to sponsor and have people, your employees of SLPS, and to have to sponsor and get up and talk about their numbers and what have you. I really don't care. I don't. All I care, if you were talking about St. Louis Public Schools, then wonderful, because we have schools that are doing wonderfully. why waste time talking about confluence we spend enough money on them and right now the push from jefferson city is to dismantle st louis public school for a charter school system so why are we wasting all this time i don't understand that and i'm really hoping that we will not sponsor confluence because people deserve to have a voice in the way that their tax dollars are spent. For almost 14 or 15 years, while we were in a hiatus, not being able to, even though I was elected on the school board, I received a letter saying that we could not come to 801, we did not have a voice, we couldn't say anything about what was going on. I remember Mayor Slay putting out millions of dollars to open up charter schools. And so what's happening here, this gentrification and this charter school movement, I really hope that it fails. And I hope that Confluence doesn't make it. And I really hope that they'll come to St. Louis Public Schools. That's just my opinion.

It's a follow up partly to Dr. Harvey's question and partly to Ms. Jones. If we don't renew our agreement, can Confluence Academy solicit another sponsor?

Yes, they can.

Okay. And if that happened, then we wouldn't have oversight anymore of Confluence?

That's correct.

And just to summarize the MPI data, so that's the Confluence Academy's Missouri Performance Index scores, which measure academic performance were higher than SLPSs for every year between 2022 and 2025. Is it an accurate summary? And I guess I'll leave it there.

I know there's a benefit to Confluence being sponsored by SLPS, but what's the benefit for SLPS?

Thank you for all your questions. By law, we must present this each year to the board. So thank you for actively engaging. And by law, if they meet all the requirements, we have to at least make the recommendation to the board for renewal. But the benefit to us when we originally became a sponsor was that we can at least understand and know what Confluence is doing and have a say in it. Now, that may change any ideas, but at the time, the rationale behind it was we can at least have our pulse on what Confluence was doing.

Can I go again? Thank you. I'm curious in the data, there is a very important footnote to me around tested students. The tested students are the students who took both the fall and the spring. And so I just want to get a little granular for the next two questions. The first is like what percentage of their enrolled 25, 31 were excluded? in tested students just want to know like what that who is not in that um and then what are their enrollment mobility rates compared to sops around subgroups young people who are unhoused students who are in foster system will be helpful to just see much more specific data around enrollment my third is breaking out these results by campus and by subgroup I think we do a major disservice in this style of presentation if we're going to be in partnership with a network, and that's the theory. then we should see much more granular data by campus, by race, or else it almost feels like there is a lesser standard or bar outside of one data point that this whole thing hinges on, which is growth, which I have a big problem with, that the entire presentation hinges on a single academic data point, which is crazy work. And it's just not broken out by the number of campuses and the subgroups they have I'm really curious on like the board being asked to vote on a renewal for things September 22nd to then go see the thing seven days later It feels like the exact opposite like we don't tour before having to vote on renewal So

Great questions, we can get you all the specific data that you asked for. Each year as part of the sponsorship, the charter sponsor office does visits in quarters one, two, three, and four of what's happening and collects data for those feedback in the 13 domains. That visit always happens sometime during quarter one so that we can provide them with like a quarter one feedback report. It's separate from this renewal. The reason the renewal needs to happen, excuse me, your renewal recommendation or your vote needs to happen and our notification of them has to happen before October 15th because that's what's in our contract. And so we're required to note, or you all are required to notify them if you're choosing to renew or not by that October 15th deadline. We've already done one visit of Confluence this year as a charter partnership office and we'll continue to do them throughout the year. But this particular visit is separate from the renewal. The renewal includes the information that was reviewed in all of the previous quarter one, two, three, four reports for all of the rest of it and the whole application that they submitted.

I appreciate that, Dr. Dean. I think my question is a little different in that the board is being asked to vote on a recommendation. And so I'm curious around the board's touring and visiting of said thing we've been asked to make a recommendation on or not. And so if there is a district tour happening seven days after the board is being asked to vote on a thing it has not seen meaningfully, it feels like that's something that can be fixed if we have until October 15th. That's what I'm trying to say, is we're being asked to vote on a thing that we have not seen, engaged with, seen instruction, talked to leadership. Which is one of the reasons why I was wondering if Confluence was going to actually be here to engage in conversation. But I'm assuming that's not a part of the process. We don't invite them to engage?

It crosses that line of being operational. And so it's a very thin line when it comes to that. This board has been presented on several times, multiple times. items of information about confluence and I can get I really think you need to look at some of the things that they did discover when they did do their walkthroughs so yeah so this team like I said visits four times every year by team I mean the charter partnership office if this board would like to engage in conversation with confluence's board

then you can make that recommendation directly of them just like last year they made a recommendation they made a request of you all and we held a small like check-in with their board president at that time about their request about the performance agreement what we do and what we present to you all is fully based on what's in that contract and what's in the performance agreement because like um Dr. Berry and Dr. Collins Adams are saying their response the staff of Confluence is responsible to their board, just like we're responsible to you all.

Fully get that. I think my, I'm just talking like a good faith invite. Not a formal contract, not a performance agreement, not bare standard, just a good faith, do you all want to come and chat with the SOPS board before they make a five-year vote? It just feels like a really basic good faith request. That's all I'm trying to put on the table.

And... We'll be happy to make that request if that's what the board wishes.

Or I can stop by, I don't really care how I talk to them, but I would like to talk to them. I'll say that as an individual. And then the last friend for me is the 48 to 62% is a meaningful jump. Same as the 52% to 67%. And I'm curious, if you all believe that that is durable i guess a sustainable growth rate or is it the artifact of something that happened in the like the remedial year i'm just curious to learn more about those substantial jumps and what our role was in supporting them so one of the things that will be interesting to look at for this year is the nwa itself underwent some renorming in the

Prior to the last school year, and so the change in growth, what what I don't know is if other school districts that use it also saw the same types of changes, because they made some. Like I said, they made changes within the assessment themselves, we did work with them on their remedial plan where they got really granular. on things about their assessments that they hadn't necessarily been doing in the same way before. We did visits where we looked at their teachers talking about their assessment data in ways. Part of our process for monitoring them includes interviews with staff. And every year, one of the interviews has always included the question like, how do you, you, you teacher use the NWEA data? And every year that was something that we found as being like what we call partially met. because the teachers couldn't speak to it so much. Last year, by the end of the year, that was a met objective for them, because we were seeing evidence that their teachers were able to discuss their use of the data. So there were pieces that we had connected within the remedial plan that we had also surfaced, not just because of their assessment scores, but through our different monitoring and observations over the years.

Thank you. My last question, doctor, maybe to you and then to your to the team is like, has the district had a conversation about its long term vision of what it means to be in partnership with confluence the role, the point, the purpose, given how far the charter school world has come from when this was first initiated. Does that thesis still hold true that it's about at this point we don't need to learn anything about them and so i'm curious what's the next thing that informs five years since there's nothing left for us to learn about being in partnership with the charter school uh no we have not had that type of robust conversation we have talked about what the data looks like and the tools that they are actually using to be

So I guess scored upon and what does the NWA look at and all of the various, what their goals were before and what they are now. So we've done that type of work, but not around what's the district partnership look like now three years, five years down the line.

then that will be my last request is, and it doesn't have to be final, never for me, but I would love to hear some version of a vision of the so what for the next five years. Because I can make a lot of grace for the first part being that we wanted to learn, et cetera, fine. That doesn't hold anymore. And so without a clear vision of what the next five years is about, it seems to vote without a vision, and that never will fly the way I think about the future. Particularly when we're talking about a future-ready district, I want to understand how these five schools, four campuses, and 2,500 kids fit in that vision. Thank you. Whenever you want to get to.

No, I guess in my mind I was thinking, So we say the district, right, but we also talk about the district and the board. And so being very transparent, it was not a district leadership decision. So I think, so I just want to be very clear and to ask, is it of me to tell you how they fit in?

yeah it's i think yes i'm asking you to give us the district's point of view okay about how they fit in or not understood so that the board can have a more sophisticated point of view about our vote understood thank you thank you

Dr. Berry, is that the end of the presentation? Yes, ma'am. That's everything. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Dino and your team. Thank you, Dr. Berry. We now move to our public comment segment of our board meeting.

Good evening, good evening to our president, Dr. Collins-Adams, to our vice president, Mr. Marston, to our board and to our superintendent, Dr. Berry. We will have a packed public comment this evening. So we will reemphasize the rules of order. Public comments will occur at the time designated by the board in the agenda published ahead of each board meeting. Information can be submitted to the board in writing. If you're interested in providing documents, do not hand them directly to board members. Give them to the secretary, who will be at the far left, who is Mrs. Foster. Each commenter will have up to three minutes to address the board. No speaker shall engage in any illegal or criminal activity. No speaker shall use obscene language. No speaker shall engage in conduct which poses a true threat or disruption. There will be time allotted for all comments in accordance with board policy B9358-3. If you were not called to speak, you might submit your information in writing or return to the next scheduled meeting with a priority number. If the allotted comment period is inadequate for the number of registered commenters, the Board may, in its discretion, extend the commenting period or may require that an organization or group with multiple individuals desiring to speak on the same topic identify an individual to present the comments on behalf of the group or organization. The board may also, in its discretion, limit the number of individuals speaking on the same topic on a first-come, first-served basis. First, we will have Mr. Bill Monroe.

Good evening. I listened with with great intent. I'm Bill Monroe and I brought the St. Louis to first black charter school in the city with Thurgood Marshall. And I got beat up pretty bad for that project. But in the meantime, let's get to why we're here today. Our children are in a crisis. Our children are being locked up. Our children are being killed. Our children are being, put in institutions and they need a lot of help and much of which has to do with being unhoused in our community. And each time I go to every meeting, I don't miss a meeting, but I decided to break loose for a minute and I'm gonna say something to you. We have an urgent need, an urgent need to put together this project with the Beaumont High School, a site that's available right now where we can service the unhoused children of our community. We can save lives, but we need to do it with an urgency. We just, I don't wanna use any foul language, but the pace that we're moving at, and the things that are happening to our children doesn't show a sense of urgency. And for those of you that understand the need of housing, I think we have over 6,000 kids on any given night or day unhoused that their mothers don't have a place to go or their parents don't have a place to go and they don't have a place to go and we have something that we can make happen for our kids we can service the unhoused we can educate them we can feed them beaumont has a great kitchen over there we can do these things for our children but we got to act with a sense of urgency The police are bringing the federal government in here. The feds are coming in here to stop our children and check them out with the pistol problem, the gun, and the craziness that's in these streets. They need immediate help. They need it now. And we can do it now. Thank you.

Next, we'll have John Reganbogan.

Good evening, Dr. Collins-Adams, members of the board and superintendents. Dr. Berry, back there. My name is John Reganbogan, and I am the Parent Action Council's housing and incentives committee co-chair. And I spoke to you back in March when the state legislature was in session about some bills that were proposed that would impact SLPS revenues with regards Thank you. Can you hear me now? Okay, great, thanks. I guess I'm a little taller than what the mic was. So back in March, I made some comments about proposed state legislation that would impact SLPS revenues related to downtown development. And that legislation has since passed and it went into effect on August 28th. So I'm back here this evening just to provide a quick update on that. legislation and in the big picture i think it's important for the general public and elected officials in missouri to really understand how little the state of missouri funds slps it is abysmally low and in fact i think in terms of government funds it represents about five percent of all government funds uh compared to peers uh districts in other states this is again, abysmally low. It's absurd, really. And unfortunately, this legislation threatens to divert or abate even more millions of dollars of SLPS property tax revenues. And then compounding this problem is that the city has passed various tax abatement agreements and TIFs that have reduced SLPS revenues by $45 million. And that amount is about double what the state provides. So it is a big issue impacting our budgets. And unfortunately, again, the indigenous legislation, I think it's gonna spur more developers to seek abatements and TIFs. And unfortunately, it's gonna be likely that under the state scores card system, is going to be more disadvantageous to slps than the existing city structure which is difficult to do but i think it's in the works also it's deeply troubling that 50 of increased property taxes generated by non-incentivized properties in what will be designated downtown innovation zone will be diverted from SLPS over to a public safety fund. A public safety fund funding infrastructure and policing instead of funding our schools. That's outrageous. Is the amount that of the impact is going to depend on how many proposals come up also how the mayor, how large the mayor designates the downtown zone. But I think the prospect is for a lot of diversion and abatement then also, I just want to. close by just mentioned that it's crucial that the mayor's office and sl DC reach out to you, I hope there's serious engagement about how we can minimize. the impact on SLPS our children deserve to benefit from downtown development. Thank you very much.

We now have Justin Ithaburg.

Good evening, members of the board. My name is Justin Ithaburg. I run a STEM-focused community development corporation. I'd like to talk to you all about something very similar to this gentleman, but a little more practical. How can we co-create an updated AI policy? You all have drafted a policy. I appreciate that you are trying to protect the children, but the guardrails that have been identified by the Department of Education, UNESCO, the Vatican, there are a lot of guardrails that you all are missing. And as education and workforce in the fourth industrial age is evolving, I would like to know how can we take the fear away and let this be AI and advanced manufacturing and robotics be a bridge to the future that our workforce agencies are talking about, such as Greater St. Louis Inc., the State of Missouri, Boeing, building a three, four, five billion dollar new wing out there in their Berkeley campus. And I want to know, how can we sit down and co-create a new policy, not just purely me, you all, as well as the regional educational experts, as well as some AI experts. Because when I looked at you all's AI policy, it talks about the children not using chat GPT and other, I'm going to say very primitive, low-end AI things for like cheating in school. We'll call it that, brainstorming, as you all have listed. And there's much more far advanced technology that's available at their fingertips that even some of the adults in this room don't even know about, right? So how do we do what Whitney Houston said, let the children be the future and put the protective guardrail so they won't be preyed on by sexual predators and online marketers using algorithms to lure them in and be on their timeline. And I just really would like to know how can I go about creating this process because Just like the great high school I came from, Lee Charles Southern High School. How do we be innovative in a place that's been devastated by a tornado? So I don't know if I get an answer today or tomorrow. I don't know how this process goes, but it's my content. All right. Thank you. Appreciate you all.

Next, we'll have CJ Johnson.

Good evening, board members. Dr. Berry, I'm CJ, president of the American Federation of Teachers for the State of Missouri and support staff.

Let me not forget that.

You need some water, Monroe? I'm here because I believe our families deserve to stay in their neighborhoods and our students deserve to have their voices heard. First, I want to be clear. I do support the resources and investments the district wants to put into our schools. What I don't understand is why those investments have to come at the expense of moving families out of their communities to attend different schools. To me, it just doesn't make sense to move children away from the neighborhoods where we have the space that we can educate them right there. So we're advocating for simple things like smaller class sizes, 15 to one, 18 to one. Our students don't have to be crammed up on top of each other. We have space, more trade programs, wellness, and more. We also need to be listening to the people who actually believe in supporting public education. We cannot allow privatizers and organizations looking to turn our public schools into charter districts to drive this conversation. Some of these organizations do not even own the buildings they operate in. We have to ask ourselves, what is the long term plan? Who will still be here when the money or the interest runs out? Not them. We know what happens when communities are treated as business opportunities instead of communities. I want to thank SLPS leadership for something that matters to us as SLPS employees. we appreciate that you all do not hold it against us can become angry or retaliatory simply because us employees some of us employees do not agree with how some things are being implemented working for slps does not mean we have to agree with every decision but we should be able to disagree speak honestly and still work together One thing that we all agree on is we do not want privatizers like Opportunity Trust taking over our public schools or being sponsored to do so. They are well resourced. Let them continue using their money and supporting who they want to support, but do not sell our public schools out like our former leaders did. This week, we are attending, we're standing outside of those schools that are allocated and proposed to be transitioned, and we speaking to parents. We visited seven schools on the north side today and one on the west side, and we learned that 2% of our parents knew about the proposed school closures. Families deserve to lead the conversation, not involved after the vote. Now, we hear a lot of voices, but we don't hear enough from them. So we're going to speak up on the 16th. We have parents come to Julia Davis and students to come speak at 530 next Wednesday. And we're going to stop listening to people that don't like our kids, that don't like us to thrive. They can't stand our communities and don't want to even live in our communities. We are going to teach our students every day that there is no limit to what you can accomplish. And we're going to leave that by example. We're going to be different. We're going to be bold and we're going to change and tell the children we're going to be the change to tell our children what they can be. At the end of the day, it's not about winning or arguing. It's about our children and our neighborhoods. And let's keep us all together.

Next, we have Gwen Cox.

Good evening. My name is Gwendolyn Cox. I'm the community outreach person for African UAPO. And I'm torn about what I want to talk about because I wanted to talk about retention. But I think I got time to talk about that because I'm alumni of SODAN. I'm so upset right now because I did go to Walbridge. We adopted Walbridge five years ago. And I was upset that out of the 23 parents that we talked to, only 14 of them did not know that the schools were closing. So you need to do a better job of outreach. But I want to comment on what he said about, because I'm tired of people acting like, I drove over to Shenandoah for a meeting and I drove blocks and blocks and blocks and blocks. I did not see one empty lot on the south side while I was driving on the north side is 2200. I'm tired of people treating like black people are not taking care of the community. We know it's from disinvestment and we know it's intentional. I drew this while you all were talking and this are three three Children on the courthouse steps with signs up for sale. Because that's what it's about. Charter schools want to buy them. Opportunity trusts want to buy them. And they want to take them away from St. Louis public schools. And that's just the bottom line. It's about the dollar. And you was talking about what we have to deal with. We have to deal with children that are disabled. We have to deal with children that's mentally ill. We have to deal with children that's schizophrenic that the charter schools don't have to take. It's a law. It's a law. Look it up. And so I'm upset about these people sitting up here acting like it's a problem that we created and telling people that you have to teach your children how to read. No, we migrated from the South. My grandfather didn't know how to read. I didn't ask my mother to teach me how to do algebra. She didn't know how to do it. And you got them for seven to eight hours. You teach them how to read. That's your job. Don't sit up here and try to put everything on the blame of the parents. I'm tired of it and I'm sick of it. Thank you.

Next, we have Mr. and Mrs. Alexander.

Hello, good evening. All right, so now we just have to make sure that we understand about the Opportunity Trust. We have to make sure that we understand that the CEO and founder, he literally said he wanted to burn the St. Louis Public Schools down. All right? We can't take that lightly. And you're going to hear a lot of people in here who represent that, who are being paid by them. And then they try to, you know, just shove things under the rug. We have to be really careful. So we're going to use common sense right now. And we want to know why is SLPS partnering with the charter schools, but we're about to close 14 of our own. We're supposed to take care of our own family first, then branch out, then partner. We have to use common sense. It's a dangerous time right now. We know people are infiltrating our communities. pretending that they have the best interests at hand with our own residents and our businesses, but they don't. We know it's all about the dollar. It doesn't matter. We don't matter. We continue to see our neighborhoods declining. Now take away more schools, more vacant buildings. What are we doing? But I will say this, there is an alternative to what we can do. And we want the board to really think this out. Travel with us to Chicago. Travel with us to Cincinnati. And let's look at the alternatives that we have to keep the St. Louis public schools open and thriving. All the energy that we're spending on, let's close this because the data says this, the matrix lines up with this. That's old. We have to step out of the box and we have to do something different. We can put St. Louis on the map by doing something different. Thank you.

Next we have Mr. Jay Ozier.

Yes, my name is Jay Ozier. and I'm the vice president of St. Louis chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. I'm a 50-year member, a retired member of the Corpus Local 92 here in St. Louis and a resident of the city of St. Louis for over 70 years. In making your determinations, did you consider the fact that most of the affected schools are in North St. Louis? As a former student of St. Louis Public Schools, the teachers taught us that we should analyze the information before making a decision. Any decision should be based on concrete data, information, and the social benefits. Because if it don't benefit the people, All the dollars is wasted. All the effort is wasted. And as board members, we elect you to lead and represent the interests of us to provide us with the needed information we as citizens, as taxpayers, and community members have the opportunity to review it too. We got sense. We ain't no dummies. We ain't got to have no degree. We here. And many that did improve they self, they left. We here. And we gonna stay here. And as taxpayers, we should be contacted, as mentioned before. The parents and the students, because it's gonna affect them. You're gonna make a decision, the people that's gonna be affected don't even know what the hell's going on. That ain't sense. That's working backwards. And with this plan, will we still have community schools? Community means something, it's two words. What we have in common and unity. We must understand the words that we use. We did not elect you to weaken our community and I hope you did not hire the staff to do so either. These are challenging times for everybody, no exception. but we must remain committed to representing and protecting our community, and we should never, ever give up our birthright, our human rights, our civil rights to anyone. I don't care who they is and what promise they make, because they're getting ready to rip you off if you do. Thank you.

Next, we have Dr. Zachariah Davis.

good evening everyone a lot has been said tonight um i rose with three observations but since you uh gave a presentation about the charter school renewal i'll have a fourth one first observation i want to make is on behalf of my granddaughter who is 10 years old and a st louis public school student who is extremely happy at her st louis public school I ask her quite regularly about how happy she is, and I visit her school quite regularly. Her principal is seen regularly, her teachers are quite effective, and because Averly is quite outspoken as her mother, she's gonna always tell me exactly how she feels. So because she is the main stakeholder in my family at this particular moment, I want you to know she's happy with her school. The second observation I wanna make tonight is thank you for being quite bold to have these conversations around school closure. I know it is quite difficult and I appreciate you being willing to hear the public. because at the end of the day, it is the public's voice that matters. And so I ask you to continue to remain vigilant and continue to hear the public because we are who matters. And I think that's what every voice in this room is saying tonight. We're the persons who matter. The third observation I want to make is to admonish you, not only our superintendent, but our board as a whole, to admonish you to continue to stand on behalf of our school district. We see an all-out onslaught against our school district, especially from this for the lack of better words, highly partisan Missouri State Board who seeks to just attack and attack and attack our school district, particularly because none of them, except for maybe one, has any connection to our school district and really doesn't know anything about St. Louis Public Schools. And so I'm asking that you please continue to stand and be more vocal and push back against it because there is no reason why our school district should be unaccredited moving forward. And so I want to admonish you to do that. Finally, again, as I stated, I didn't rise to speak to this, but since you brought it to the table with your conversation tonight, I do not believe that we ought to renew that contract with Confluence Academies. I don't think it serves our school district very well. I've had multiple conversations about that school enterprise. And let me just say this. Perhaps, and I'm just an individual looking from the outside, but I am a 16-year educator. Perhaps those numbers are a little lopsided. Because if the school district that we have has 16,000 students versus their 2,500, maybe we ought to reconsider those numbers. But I admonish you to vote no on that contract. Thank you.

Last, we have Mr. Chester Asher.

Good evening, everybody. A lot has been said about charter schools, about opportunity to trust. I just want to make sure that we are all conscious of division and people who would like to divide us so that we don't focus on the real issues. to Dr. Harvey's point earlier, what is the proficiency rate we're talking about? Like how many kids are reading? How many kids are doing basic math? And here's a point I've harped upon quite a lot, but for Confluence, 16%, their proficiency rate is 15% for math and 19% for ELA. For SLPS, it's a little better, 19% for math and 21% for ELA. But that still means the overwhelming majority of our children, 80%, are not reading, writing, and doing basic math on grade level. I had a conversation with Dr. Berry earlier where she had talked about like 50 percent like proficiency rates like I don't know where that comes from. I'm using the map like the state assessment that scores and that says this is how districts are doing for every school in the state and that says only 20 percent of our kids are proficient. And the rest of them are below. And just so people understand, there's basic and below basic. And the state defines below basic as partial knowledge, need for support. The student requires extra academic help to do well in the next grade or course. Readiness, the student is not yet fully on track for college and career readiness without additional help. They're not ready for the next grade. Right, so only 20% of our kids are. And if we are serious about this not becoming a charter school district, about us not having to do more school closures, because the reason we have to do school closures is because we're losing students. You cannot fund a school that is only 20% full. If we don't want to lose more schools, if we don't want this to become a charter school district, we have to improve our literacy and math rates. It's that base and there's no, let me blame a charter school, let me blame parents, let me blame Opportunity Trust. What are we doing for our math and literacy in each and every classroom? I commend this board because you all took on and adopted a ELA curriculum based in the science of reading. Great, great first step. And great second step, you set a goal, 5% improvement in ELA every year. Where are we with that? It's not on the agenda. It hasn't been on the agenda. I don't see any data about it. How how consistent are teachers in schools in implementing that curriculum that we spent millions of dollars on? What has been the result? Monthly we should the the Superintendent should present our progress and so we can present that and so hopefully we're improving so we're not closing more schools so we're not turning to charge district. Thank you.

This concludes public comment.

OK. Let's see. We move on now to the consent agenda. And we have 18 items that we discussed at our last work session. Can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items 6.1 through 6.18?

I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda in its entirety.

Second. Ms. Foster, call for a vote.

Dr. Harvey?

Yes.

Mr. Hikes? Yes. Ms. Hubbard? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Ms. Foster is a yes. Mr. Marston? Yes. Dr. Collins-Adams? Motion approved.

Okay, we don't have any items for discussion on the agenda for tonight. We do have two items or actually one item for information because we amended the agenda earlier. So the first item for information is the audit findings update.

We don't need a motion for that. No. Okay. All right.

Yes, I didn't know there were any questions that need to be had or asked. Thank you. I know board members did attend the session where the state auditor came and basically read the audit. I'm sure you have read it by now to seeing most of these, if not all, have been taken care of. I know there are a few questions that are out there lingering. One of which, if you are familiar with the audit, talks about the transportation bond. That is one that we are certainly looking on to get a response to the public to see if we are obligated to go after the transportation bond. Other than that, all of the additional items have been addressed and were previously addressed prior to the audit being reported. The one thing that was not mentioned by the state auditor He did add on some additional areas to review. Those areas came out and you will read, there was a reason why he presented those items and did some more investigations into them. It was number four, evaluate certain protocols, policies, and procedures over enrollment, graduation rates, comprehensive schools, qualifications, timekeeping, and federal grant oversight. That was in the area outside the original scope, and that does include the time span for this board and under my toolage. I am proud to say that that is one of the areas where he stated there are no significant deficiencies in internal controls, policies, procedures as they relate to enrollment, graduation rates, comprehensive schools, qualifications, timekeeping, and federal grant oversight. But I am welcoming any questions you may have.

I'll just note that the state audit has been shared publicly, and if you read it, you'll see that there's an auditees, that's us, response to each finding. Does anybody have any other comments or questions?

I'll make a comment. It's not a question. I think the comment for me that's important to orient is that the state auditor, the state auditor packaged an audit with the perception of a recommendation that was mostly for his own political gain, and that the state auditor doesn't have the expertise, knowledge, or lived experience to have a sophisticated recommendation about the governance of a public school district. And I don't want it to get lost on listeners that it was a backwards looking audit primarily. And we have an obligation to maintain something that I think Mayor Spencer said, which is that the local voice and the democratic control of a school district is the people's right. And so we are in a very hot moment where it is clear as a red-leaning state that Every tool is being used to try to ensure that primarily black, brown, and economically disenfranchised children are not able to live mobile lives. And this is just another performance of a red-leaning government attempting to control a district it has very limited experience with. And so I am speaking as an individual in all of this that I appreciate the audit and I believe it's a valid process that districts should go through as a public tool. And this one is not without a bend and is not without a particular coloring in order to try to resume control over a district in support of a larger state level version of Project 2025. Thank you.

Just to the timeline, I'll mention that the second part of the audit came out recently. covered of course in the media, but I think maybe it came across as new news, but it's actually the scope of the audit included, but was not necessarily limited to July 1st, 2023 through July 31st, 2024. And since then, on October 14th, 2024, Keisha Scarlett, the superintendent was terminated On April 22, 2025, Dr. Karen Collins-Adams, AJ Foster, and I were sworn in as new board members. On October 17, 2025, Superintendent Millicent Borchade was terminated. And on February 10, 2026, Dr. Harvey was sworn in. So that's new leadership both in the superintendent's role and on the board that was all subsequent to the time period covered by the audit. Any other discussion about the audit? Ms. Hubbard, no? All right, we'll move on to items for action. The first one is 9.1 SLPS, Whole Child Community Schools Model Resolution.

I would like to make a motion. to accept the St. Louis Public School Whole Child Community School Model Resolution?

Second.

Discussion? Yeah, I guess I would love to just have a better understanding of its function, like its role, what's the role of the resolution and kind of who participated in the drafting of the resolution and how are we seeing it in relationship to Future Ready. I just want to understand it more.

So I do know that Local 420 had mentioned and sent an email earlier this year about working with the district and working with the board regarding having something put in place that acknowledges and says that we are going to take care of the whole child and still provide wraparound services. Now the last conversation we had, we talked about what does those wraparound services look like? And in all transparency, Local 420 has recently reached out and said, hey, what is your promise to families? And so we share that we have a promise, but we were working with our teams, when I say teams, like the schools and waiting to receive what's approved to talk to our families about a promise. We see now that that is a question, that is an ask, and so we are going to look to all of our schools, not just impacted schools, to see what does a steering committee possibly look like where our students and families can help us create what our promise to our students and our families would be. And to my understanding, the resolution is a start of what the board is saying that we are going to ensure that the district is making a promise and what that promise looks like that we will create together. But this is something we're putting in place to say that we understand that we must take care of the whole child and this resolution was a starting process to that. I don't know if there was anyone that wanted to kind of jump in to make sure that I am saying that correctly, but that is my understanding of the ask around the resolution.

Ms. Jones? Are there any other comments? I have some if no one else has any. Ms. Hubbard.

This seems superfluous to me. Superfluous? Extra. I think we already have this commitment. It's in our policies. It's in the slides we see for every presentation. I know that the teachers that I've seen certainly are doing this. And I'm reluctant to vote on something that did not come from the members of the board to have a resolution that is being pushed by another entity, however much we love and appreciate them, that makes me uncomfortable. So a steering committee does sound great and for that, but I'm uncomfortable with the resolution.

And this resolution, it's not to reinvent the wheel. And it's just a model from Chicago, what they're doing there. And to the resolution point, it's just to help the whole child. I mean, it doesn't bring on more work for the teachers or anything. It's just to show the public that we are doing what is necessary to help the whole child and not just we teach them at school and send them home. We're worried about the child once they leave school also, what they might need, what other support they might need. So thank you for allowing me to comment. Miss Jones.

I would like to say that I did make that journey with Project 1 to Chicago to witness a community school in action. And it was really, really nice. The children were well-behaved. They had a lot of positive programs. They had a clinic inside. They had a band room. They just had a multitude of programs that were really positive. And I like the idea of they dealt with the students' mental health. They were able to speak with staff every day if they were having issues. They had a space that they could come and talk to someone. I think there's nothing wrong with having a resolution. Regardless to where it might come from, we need to continue to put forth positive resolutions or policies. any way we can so i'm all for the whole child community schools because that's what we need right now when we start talking about repurposing schools and what have you then let's keep this in mind a lot of our schools need a clinic inside of them or they need extra counseling or what have you so kudos miss foster

um i'll say i don't uh disagree with the idea of the resolution um or the concept of community schools whole child community schools what i'm concerned about is order of operations here if we as a board are going to approve any new policies resolutions Logistically, it should go to governance first. So we have specific community input on actual language that's being drafted, and we give the board an opportunity to add any additional strike see clarity on different terms. So I think I just have a concern of just how it's being presented to the board, not necessarily what the resolution itself stands for, because I personally agree. But that's really just my only comment. And then the second part is in here, there is a requirement of the board to develop a model, the board or its designee, I think that should be a little more clear to develop the model that should include a list of things that I just don't feel like the board realistically has reviewed in depth. And we could add more. We can make this clearer for community members. And so again, I want to put on record, I don't disagree with the idea. I think that it does need to go the proper channels of going to governance first, getting feedback, having a vote, actually being sent back to the board for full review and approval. Yeah.

It's supposed to be a board resolution, but no one on the board wrote it. Whoever wrote it, it's so broad and vague, it's meaningless. Because on the one hand, you could say we already have memoranda of understanding with 188 organizations that provide services for our students. So you could say we already have a community schools model. Or depending on how you interpret it, you could say this is a major new initiative that's going to require a lot of new funding and staffing. And it's rare that the board issues resolutions. So I support the idea of community schools, but I'm voting against the resolution because this isn't how the board operates and because I don't wanna give the superintendent any more to do right now, especially an unfunded mandate. Ms. Drex? Any?

And I think as a sign of good faith though and effort, I think it could be worth whether the board leadership, district leadership, superintendent, her designee, like map what actual services are being met based on what is, you know, being requested because yes, it's coming from an entity, an outside entity, but this outside entity are like still taxpayers and still employed by St. Louis public schools, still supports SLPS in different ways. And so I think it is worth having a conversation at least, or at least again, putting the onus on the governance committee whose role this would be to track where those services are actually going. Because we might find out, hey, we aren't providing those full wraparound services and we can find vendors to do that. So again, I just push that we at least review it at a governance level.

I'm happy to move it to the governance agenda.

That'd be great. And I just add to Dr. Berry's credit that at the Standing Committee on Budget Equity and Transparency, she already committed to doing that, Board Member Foster, to developing that. So that's already in the works. And given that resolutions are not legally binding, and it feels like that the spirit of this is do board members agree in community schools framework? You got a unanimous yes. So a non-legally binding, non-fiscally additive resolution feel like it was trying to get at the spirit of something that we just don't need as a resolution we all agree with community schools and a whole child approach to education mr hikes well would it be in our best interest to uh

remove this and send it to the governor's committee? If I'm saying that right.

It's been motioned and seconded, so we could vote on it, although we could then make a subsequent motion perhaps. As Dr. Harvey mentioned earlier, it's also unclear to me how the whole child community schools model resolution is supposed to relate to future ready. So one way this could proceed is to make it part of the future ready proposal instead of having a separate resolution for community schools. We could define what we mean by that in the future ready proposal when it comes to the board for a vote.

So I'm just trying to make sure we do this right. Will it be in our best interest to just you are going to vote it down and just send it to the government? I'm just

Yeah, I guess, again, we could take a vote. Maybe it passes. Maybe it doesn't. If it doesn't, there could be another motion to either send it to the Governance Committee or to request that it be part of the Future Ready proposal.

OK. Yeah, I reckon, if I may, point of order, I recommend we just make a friendly amendment to send this resolution back to the Governance Committee rather than having the entire board vote it down just to be reconsidered again.

And Mr. Hikes, you made the motion. And so if you accept that.

I need somebody to make a friendly amendment.

Did you? Yep. Yep.

Well, I'll second her friendly amendment.

We're a team. That was a lot of discussion, but.

Yep. Any further discussion?

Any additional discussion?

Sorry, I missed that. Are we ready for a vote? Okay. Miss Foster call for vote.

Dr Harvey. Yes. Mr. Hikes. Yes. Miss Hubbard. Yes. Miss Jones. Yes. Miss Foster. Yes. Mr. Marston.

Yes.

Dr Collins Adams. Motion approved.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Let's see. Next is item for action, 9.2, Mix O'Toole, Temporary General Counsel Services.

I make a motion to accept Mix O'Toole, LLC, for Temporary General Counsel Services.

Second.

Discussion?

Let's see. I think I have a, I'm just catching up a little bit here. I think an earlier version of the agenda had actually two separate contracts. But right now, it's just the one for general counsel services, not the overall legal services. Is that correct?

Yes, sir, because that one has been approved. But yes, this is for the additional services for general counsel.

And just for the audience. So this is for temporary general counsel services for $15,000 a month. In addition to the $125,000 a month we pay for legal services. And that that contract was arrived at after an RFP process. And if you do the math, $125,000 a month is $1.5 million a year, which is equivalent to 7 and 1 half attorneys making $200,000 a year. That's for the main contract. And then this is additional on top of that. So I guess my question I have is whether Mixotool attorneys submit timesheets for their billable hours, because I'm trying to get a sense of what the effective hourly rate is. In other words, how much work are they doing for that each month?

So, yes, we do get invoices. So I can tell you with the Microsoft tool, it is a flat rate, which I know in the bid they were well under any of the other law firms that had applied for the RFP. So they do put everything that they are doing for us and it varies month to month, but it's a flat rate. So no matter what they are doing, unlike other services, when we're utilizing other services, other legal services we get bill per what they're doing so one month maybe make us a little tool will prepare and give us up to 100 hours another month they can give us 50 hours the following month they can give us 700 hours no matter what the hours are it's the same it's the same rate and this would be in lieu of right now of having a general counsel until we can determine our next steps any other discussion questions

Yes, I'm in agreement with you. But what I find different, it would be giving the board members an analysis of the amount that they receive. Because I don't recall any time that I could just look and see how much it cost every month. Because I know we spend a lot of money on legal every month. People are suing, and people are doing this and that. And so I would like to see that.

i want to see an analysis of the budget for the board members before we vote on anything any other discussion all right i can't remember has a motion been made and seconded a motion has been made so i'm recommending we table this item until

Yeah, it was motioned and seconded.

Is this something that needs to be done today?

So, yes, I say that because right now there are a lot of pending items that will require unless, you know, I would hate to move forward with those pending items to come back and ask for ratification. But there are pending items that will require make a sole tool to serve in the capacity of a general counsel to move forward with those items.

Can we make sure miss Donna gets the analysis, whether or not we pass it I sure will just want to say for the public, those are.

Those are legal items but miss Donna yes, I can work with our legal counsel to get whatever is required and needed for you, yes, ma'am.

No, I was hoping that all the board members can see. I'm just playing for myself.

Yeah, I can certainly get those for the board members. I just wanted to make sure that I cannot get those for the general public. But yes, of course, I can get those to you without any reservations.

All right. Ms. Foster, call for a vote.

Well, I actually think there's discrepancy if there was a motion and a second. So does anybody want to make the motion and second it?

I made the motion.

I feel like I seconded it.

You got to throw a second into the mic.

Did I?

No. It's been motioned and seconded. It's been motioned and seconded, sir.

I'll second it. Call for a vote.

Dr. Harvey? Abstain. Mr. Hikes? Yes. Ms. Hubbard? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Ms. Foster is a no. Mr. Marston?

Yes.

Motion approved.

Next is item fraction 9.3, future ready.

Yes. gonna give some context first if that's okay vice president marston great thank you so as the public knows the board has been operating on a schedule for future ready that would have brought a final recommendation to the board on september the 29th in preparation for a vote to happen on october the 13th A good number of us have been in conversation. We have met with families all across the city. We've been talking with Dr. Berry and her team around making sure that we have more representative voices of impacted families before a final recommendation comes to the board, thinking like thoughtfully and carefully around the academic strategy that's connected to it and how we engage families before we finalize that recommendation. And so I'll be putting forth a motion to move our timeline for a final recommendation to come to the board on October the 27th. with a board votes on November the 10th.

Second.

Is there any discussion or Dr. Berry definitely invite you to join into the conversation?

No, thank you. We too have been talking to community members and while we have been sending out multiple emails, having conversation, visiting, we too are hearing that a few of our families are not receiving the information. And while we have plenty of community meetings, and yes, he's gone already, Mr. Monroe, and many people come to every session, This will give us an opportunity. We are starting this week having engagement sessions at the schools with the actual staff. We're calling them Lunch and Learns. This will give us an opportunity to then go to the schools and tell our families that we are coming to the schools to meet with them to hear their voices. I appreciate the recommendation to extend the time and thank you because we do realize by doing this, I don't think going any longer than that would help us to get to where we need to go. But I do think this extended time would allow us to engage more thoughtfully with our families. So we can certainly accommodate that. And thank you for thinking of the families.

Do you forecast any implementation and operational planning with the delay?

So ideally, every moment is counting, but what we can move forward with, even if we don't have the time and the delay, we can move forward with the steering committee and asking a community, I mean, a family member or staff and parent to serve on our committee. We can start having those conversations around what does well-resourced schools look like? What does the transition look like? And even if the vote is different from what the proposal is, we will still be able to go ahead and start that process. the real operational of moving in the transitioning, those will have to take place once the vote is actually here and redrawing the boundary lines. I know many people are asking, what are the boundaries? We can't do the boundaries until we know the schools, but there's other things that we can move up to start that process until we do reach that November 10th date.

Any further discussion?

I do have a question because a lot of things I remember the first time we talked about redoing schools and closing schools and a lot of things were promised and they never happened. And so what I would really like to see as a board member is A detailed listing of what we currently are offering to our students, because I mean sometimes you just can't readily look at the school website or what have you and figure out what we have going on, just like gateway, for instance, they have a multitude of CTE programs and. things that will help our students get ready classy Miller of a shine, so I want to see what we are offering right now, and then because we're saying we're going to make it better than what can we offer to make it better. I want to see what we currently have right now what's the status of every school, especially the ones that are proposed to be close.

SUPERINTENDENT BURRITT?

YES, MA'AM AND SONNA. SO WE DID SHARE AT THE LAST FUTURE READY MEETING WE DO HAVE SCHOOL DATA SHEETS FOR EVERY SCHOOL THAT ALSO HAS WHAT EACH SCHOOL IS OFFERING AND THAT IS AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE FOR ANY PUBLIC COMMUNITY MEMBER THAT WANTS TO SEE THAT. WE CAN ALSO GET YOU THE ENTIRETY OF WHAT WE'RE USING. IT MAY BE A LITTLE BIT CONVOLUTED AND NOT EASY TO READ, BUT MOST OF IT COULDN'T BE FOUND IN THE FUTURE READY IN THE SHEETS THAT WE DID FOR EACH SCHOOL.

So just to reiterate, make sure I heard that correctly, the school data sheet for each school is on the website now? And that's new today? Is that, yes?

Yes, it is new today.

Good job, communications team.

Any further discussion?

Okay, call for a vote, Ms. Foster.

Yes, just to recap, the motion on the floor is to move the future-ready timeline for final recommendation on October 27th with a board vote on November 10th. That motion was made by Dr. Harvey and seconded by Ms. Hubbard. Dr. Harvey?

Yes. Mr. Hikes? Yes.

Ms. Hubbard? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Ms. Foster is a yes. Mr. Markson?

Yes.

Motion approved.

So next is board reports. Does anyone have a board report? Looks like no. And then I think, okay, yes. All right, so next I just need a motion to adjourn back to closed session. I make a motion to adjourn back to closed session.

Second.

Ms. Foster, call for a vote.

Dr. Harvey?

Yes.

Mr. Hikes?

Yes.

Ms. Hubbard? Yes. Ms. Jones? Ms. Foster is a yes. Mr. Marston?

Yes.

Motion approved. We are adjourned back to closed session at 829 p.m.