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School Board Meeting - 11/24/2025

Added Nov 25, 2025 •

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okay call a meeting order thank you if you need roll call Lori jungling yes Greg ankle yes Kelsey barrentine Rosie had you in St Peter yes Ryan made a camp yes Steve mear yes all attention to correspondence there is none okay oh s*** any motion to approve the agenda sorry we'll move down to Good News all right we have multiple items in here so I just had a few items to share publicly uh just congratulations to PCM high school student Jocelyn Berg who has been accepted into the honor performance series and international program recognizing talented young performers from around the world in February she will travel to New York City to join other performers for rehearsals in the performance at Carnegie Hall cool um also thank you to everyone that attended PCM High School uh performance of you're a good man Charlie Brown uh we're incredibly proud of our talented students who performed on stage and work behind the scenes really great performance by by all the kids uh putting it on um was able to see it in person the other day and I was just as always I I think I appreciated even more knowing that I don't have that skill or talent to do those things so um just really cool um Prairie City and Monroe Elementary Schools hosted academic and steam nights giving families a chance to see how their children are learning through Hands-On activities and science math and art so thank you to our staff members who planned and organized those events so great job that's all I have there other ones are listed in the good news I just have any good news I want to share that's all the donations in there for the the food pantry that was kind of neat yeah thank you nice okay 1 down the committee updates okay the 10th agenda anybody any questions or entertain a motion to approve through second we have a motion second to approve the consent agenda all those in favor say I I all right anybody post motion carries director update is there any questions there how did the um is this type before um the the the elementary is that literally epidemic night have them do the activities by Jason so it's all stemming right with academic night and then Knight goes over here they were 2 separate events it would be electrical so I will get all resolved oh yes yes we had a squirrel created a whole lot of um I'd say a little bit of panic um wondering if we were going be able to put on the performance in the afternoon but uh yeah we we had a few things that it that it impacted as far as the electrical work and um basically 1 1 phase went down in America and worked on it and let us know that that was the case that a squirrel got into a Transformer about 5 blocks away then it impacted our our building so um Rusty's been working on on those those items that it impacted and obviously working with Tanya to if anything can go to Remy or anything so it's just crazy how 1 Thing can impact all of that anything else items District approval of abstract and election results the abstract the votes all those in favor say I anybody post motion carries recognition of I was wondering board members I had to oh Dr Greg Engel thank you for your years and years of your knowledge will truly be missed and have been great having you as a mentor on the PCM school board as a PCM school or Community we thank you for the many years of service and serving on the PCM and the Prairie City School Board in our shop cool okay that's great for a picture oh no not a good idea I believe in the Indian to take a year off in life yeah hold it up yeah there we go thank you nobody else to hit you inside the head I know all right okay um down to finance facility we had nothing for policy nothing I'm a superintendent nothing yeah I'm I'm gonna probably a few yeah my take commands so okay um give me a couple minutes or a minute okay um I'm just gonna I'm gonna go through a few slides we've we've seen a few of these but I I'm gonna read just a couple things just for the people that are here um that maybe haven't that haven't um seeing any of this information but just kind of a reminder of what we're what we're working on so where we're at with things so um on November 10th I met with our PCM staff about our our general fund budget we talked about the various paint buckets of funding sources in our enrollment trends uh sharing our enrollment trends of the past years and enrollment projections for the next 5 years to let them know that uh we need to uh reduce our general on budget by about 1.5 million before we overspend our budget Authority uh in FY 28 um tell you that was not a fun conversation with them and not 1 I ever wanted to do in first year here um but uh I think that this is a hurdle that we have to have to get over and um get through and we'll continue to be a great school here at PCM um as the as the board retires uh the information I shared goes along with what I'm going to share with people here and in our community and why we're looking at potentially closing Monroe Elementary and consider a pre-k through 8 building in Prairie City and then based on a future decision that the board may make uh visioning possibly a 712 building in Monroe this is all discussion but I think it's something trying to get out in in public so they're aware but I just want to share just a a couple a couple things I know that this doesn't go up there so I'm gonna have to kind of walk up here so what I'm going to go I'm going to go through about 3 or 4 slides much shorter than the other the other day people that have seen this before um just the reminder that what what will be talking about is this general fund right here in the middle of this paint bucket and that's dealing with salaries salaries benefits curriculum Fuel and so on so that's kind of the main area that we're going to be talking about here just for a brief moment these other buckets deal with uh physical plant equipment Levy the save or the sales tax 1 cent sales tax and then a a general obligation bonds of property tax but the main thing we're just going to talk about here briefly is just the general fund Maybe okay um just real quick just want to draw your attention as a reminder why we're looking at those those things looking at our October 25th enrollment that uh we had to that we had to certify by certified this year this deals with our our resident students wherever wherever they may attend okay served is the amount of students that we we educate in our physical buildings each year so 1 major thing is that as a reminder we had a loss of 106 students served that's this number here 996 and in 2022 we had uh 1072 um and then also when you think about a student it's about 8,000 per per student so um as far as certified is concerned resident students just how the budget is developed we eventually get the money sent to us if we have kids open enrolled in those districts eventually uh send that 8000 to us and then vice versa we'd be sending it out out to them so as you can see last 4 years uh 106 students that we have um that we have declined in the last 4 years okay this is our current serve students and as we're as we as we build a budget um we really look at um our current student enrollment and we try to project what our enrollment will do in the years to come so how how we how we do that is we look at the graduating students and what we project for students that come into the kindergarten into the next kindergarten class so this current school year we will graduate 88 students again this fluctuates a little bit during the year uh but this is what we have to report on October 1st this is our number so graduate and what we are projecting for 2026 for kindergarten coming in we're projecting 65 students right at the moment this this has TK in it so what that's 70 but um what we look at we have roughly 56 students in in preschool right at the moment so we take this graduating number of 88 minus a projection of 65 kindergarten and that's going to tell us we've got um a projection of minus 23 students uh the next year for next year times the 8000 which would be a decline of 184,000 in our general fund now what's a little concerning um I would say I'm being optimistic with this 65 when you look at third grade and first grade we're at 59 60 and 59 and we have 56 in preschool so that's 65 might be a little optimistic so it could be a few more same thing for the following year for another projection we take this 84 kids would would graduate and then we go back to an estimate of 65 students coming in we're at a 19 student decline right there for for roughly 152,000 decline to the general fund same thing next year 89 you get the you get it okay so that's that's a reason to be concerned with trying to rightsize our general fund but then also right-size our buildings of where our physical buildings of what do we need to physically educate our students So currently obviously we have Monroe Elementary pce Middle School and the high school way to look at this um just a it's just another view in my mind as I'm looking at uh enrollment projections is looking at our our current High School numbers so our current K12 enrollment that's the this is this year's enrollment and as it would be for schoolers in the future right now 4 years from now 8 years from now so currently we have 343 students in the high school 4 years from now when you take that fifth grade through eighth grade chump it's going to be 318 students in that High School you take the first grade through fourth grade chunk once they get to high school it's 245 students so that's roughly a students less than right now when we just had a 100 student decline also over the last 4 years served so that's those are projections that we have to look at when we're building a budget and how the how the board is looking at what building like uh physical buildings do we need to educate our students but also how how do we make sense with the the dollars that we have to spend so um what I would say here uh which as the new guy sure it's it sounds oh sure you're new to the building you're new to the district we all love we all love Prairie City we all love Monroe we love the small towns we love the community but sometimes we have to in these situ situations we have to think with our with our mind and not just our heart of that we love that we love this building um or we love where the kids go to the physical uh space to get there to get their education so these are some of the some of the reasons um we're looking at and I and I was talking to a I was talking to a community member kind of about this been having Community conversations I think they said it better better than I did um talking about sometimes sentimental value doesn't always make business sense and so those are that's the hardest part of this whole thing and um of where this conversation comes from in a decision that we may have to make for for the district so again um I just want to uh I just wanted to give that update of why we're thinking about that this this space or this building looking at operating costs we actually Tanya did a drill down um a little bit more more specifics of what we're looking at um when you look at at general fund we're actually spending about 378,000 just in the general fund for this building for operating costs management funds about 28,000 and nutrition which is it was about 73,000 for about a total of 480,000 for operating costs here so when it's when it's open when everybody's here um going from there so um we are we are working with we are working with ahlers uh our legal counsel and looking at options for if the board would decide to there can always be a decision that keep it open there be another decision to close it only close it maybe lease close it maybe sell those are all things that we're looking at I'm trying to get all that information um so that you have those um have that information to make a decision in the future but um also looking at public open uh open forums in December I know I have 1 and just uh December 9th with Kuan also looking at um looking at trying to find some open nights where we don't have activities in December good luck with that yeah um I I've looked at a couple Wednesday nights I don't know if that's anything that we want to do to bring people bring people in here off of a activity night and looking at December 10th and 17th as as possibilities uh just to get people in here to be able to see some more information ask some questions and so on so um but we can also have uh board work session to any questions thoughts on what I shared or anything but the operating costs maybe walk your way you can say that 1 more time nutrition was 73,000 yeah is that it's just the 378 I was a general fund is that include any staff members or yep yep so it's not all just utilities and correct correct yeah we just looked at every chunk everything and put everything together on you did and um service staff those are decisions that we still have to we still have so that that number I mean yeah from there here or there you got kids so yeah some of those numbers are going to transfer over that number that's the behind the scenes work so we're just giving you here's what it here's what it is right at the moment so it's not necessarily the savings that it's going to be alright so um so we we're working through working through that um savings to if it was just closed only um and trying to figure figure that piece out basically some of the costs with the Building closed um the amount thinking that 76,000 window closed that we still we still have to have um some insurance is some insurance is going but also still have some utilities running all of those all of those zones that you spell with the to make sure even um electricity or in Internet or if we have cameras going that sort of thing if you were just just to close it down is that 76k all general fund expenses your know that's that would be about 47 for General 28 for management for 12 of about 76 I can share that out more and that document to you all the way that something that you've been working on and talked about it talked about it today so first time really looking at it but you can share that out so you can see it more specifically but just wanted to take a little bit of time to um share where we're at how we talked to staff and some of these other items that were looking at as we as the board tries to make a decision with this building and right sizing right sizing our budget right sizing our physical buildings what's the latest date I would say early early January and we're trying to um as we're 1 way or the other again an option is still to keep it open that's that's your guys' call so I would to help us as we're going through that budget reduction process um it would really helpful for us to know early in January 1 way or the other uh if if any savings might be reduced from this building in that um that budget reduction number so that's all I have okay take a motion to adjourn like all of those things return to that right you want to get those 3 yeah I'm gonna try to be present all right Ryan and Lori and Cole do you want to come and I'll give you your oh yeah I think some the constitution of the state of Iowa thanks for calling an internationally the best of your ability just trying to do these more director in the PCM I mean you still deserve as now and here after by required by law thanks are we missing yes we'll let her know what this is supposed to be yes oh I ended up being okay no 1's ever pronounced right welcome call all right okay for this uh next part for the start of the organizational meeting yeah that's what I'm exactly what I'm gonna do I'm gonna try not to mess this up so I got my helps too so okay uh we'll try to call to order so good evening I call this organizational meeting of the PCM school board order at 6:28 p.m. on November board uh the current board president is unable to provide so I will serve as the temporary chair and build a new president is elected in accordance with board policy and parliamentary procedure roll call will you do call Laura gently yes Kelsey parenting yeah we're at behind Jeremy St Peter yes Brian Vander Camp yes Steve near yes Coleman rice all right thank you let the record reflect the form is is present okay uh the next item of business is the approval of the agenda for this organizational meeting May I have a motion to approve the agenda a motion it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda any discussion hearing none all in favor say I post same sign the agenda is approved okay okay we will now proceed to the election of the board president nominations are now open for the office of president I make a motion same district prior and then yeah okay we have a nomination for Ryan vanderpan have any other nominations I'll nominate sharing sharing all right any others okay hearing none nominations are closed okay we will now vote on the nominees Voice vote roll call yeah okay do a roll call vote Lauren jungling are you saying yeah yeah Brian Kelsey 13 hi here Ryan Vander Kam Ryan Steve m Wright and Jeremy St Peter Ryan all right congratulations Brian Vander Camp who is elected president of the PCM school board president vandercamp please come forward and take chair and you can stay right there all right then I'll let you take it from take it from there yep I'll swear you in you saw them I swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Iowa and that you will be fully and in personally to the best of your ability discharge the duties of president of the PCM school board has now and Hereafter required by law I will okay now we need a nomination for vice president if you do me and Peter anybody else we do roll call again we can do voice if there's a 1 calls in favor is Jeremy has vice president say I yeah yeah Jeremy can you spell the next word that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Iowa and that you will faithfully and impartially are the best of your ability discharge the duties of office of Vice President of the PCM school district at Maryland Hereafter as required by law okay I need to approve the date time location of the Board of Education meetings typically hold them on the third Monday of the month at 6:00 at Monroe Elementary library any motion for that oh hey man we could close this place next year as I'm going to work didn't want to change yeah yep yep I guess mostly the same if it works if it has this they have a need to change it at all I have a motion we need a second motion and second to approve the time and date and location of the board meeting all in the Savior say I I opposed motion carries annual resolutions Financial depositories you have wrote motion to approve Financial tories interest we've been getting and that's been pretty good so yeah I'll make a motion to approve second a motion and second to approve the financial depositories as presented all those in favor say I I anybody post motion carries special Publications now have the PCM experience Fuller managed by a new Daily News and we also use social media sites Facebook and District web page Republic motion B have motion and second to approve additional Publications as presented all those in favor say I appointment of legal counsel with Cooney I'll make a medical browsing okay the motion second to approve legal counsel by Ballers and uni all those in favor say I any opposed motion carries appointment board secretary PCM board secretary no approval we have a motion and second to approve second right close you know take 1 for the team they post Becky do you solely swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Iowa and that you will faithfully and impartially do the best of your ability to discharge the duties of the office of secret board secretary and the PCM school district as now and Hereafter request by law and point man or treasure swan so is PCM board Treasurer all those in favor say I any opposed motion carries Tanya do you solemnly swear that you will to Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Iowa and that you will faithfully and impartially to the best of your ability discharge duties of the office of or treasure in the pmic code district as now and after required by law are you in committees you got that figured out no yeah so these as they're listed here this is what it currently is this year you can go through and stay as is if somebody has a desire to not be on a committee but would like to be in a different 1 let us know and talk that year got the um CTE advisory committee Sia committee Representatives Jasper County Assessor committees Marion County Assessor committee facility committee executive committee that will be that's President and Vice President and the New York finance committee and our policy Review Committee I think the first 4 were pretty well oh no Jasper County and you can see 1 um I think the first 4 we should be the same okay definitely cool to be on finance for yeah that's why I was getting dumped on that that finances a good long story out yeah so 1 thing that also consider to Cole having some background to and Facilities has to be the 1 I think if we want to make some I don't know how it went last year or anything I wonder how busy it was but vocabulary we hope we hope to be fairly busy with facility committee work yeah coming up going like I don't know mean it's wrong or anything but whatever affect your job if you work for 1 of the building companies we could be hiring if that ever make a difference I appreciate I know I you know more about it because we all do but only question there yeah would somebody we can all have 3 in there 1 with facilities I mean I enjoy it but go where you need me to I'm not I am pretty easy on me so we can facility with told Jeremy and Rod yeah for that facility facility and then coal would take the finance committee the only thing that's kind of a heavy load for you to finance you learn pretty fast the first year yeah this thing is nice to have now at least facility Finance would be good for ya okay will that work well sure I just want to but this is the time is voluntary policy we're very close this is just a suggestion of whitening how he's got 2 committees I can I can do Sak on on my own to lighten up on that because I just need to representative yeah we don't really need 2 so if you want to I can do that 1 on my own minis yeah yeah it's up to you I can do it by myself you don't want to lighten 1 up great thank you here and I'm like wow yeah okay so we have the first 4 standing sing I'm sorry yeah is 3 and then facilities will be run Jeremy and Cole and finance will be fraud Kelsey and Cole I'll see if we Steve Lori and Kelsey we have to OD on that just standing um I don't know if you have at all keep it well as updated and get it out to everybody okay thank you going to have to determine the dates we're going to need I did last time yeah we did last time just for facilities and finance and policy right yeah so so what kind of executive trying to change that to 4:30 C we can 4:30 on I think so okay um binance if we have been doing 5 oclock right before this board meeting on Mondays does that work or not does that work for at least 5 o'clock period when we to change that okay can I think we can still operate if we have to I think that's why you put sometime put 3 in these ones on facilities so Rod Jeremy Cole when was we haven't but it was the Wednesday at 7 for the week before the war meeting okay once in the morning it's Wednesday it's 7 a.m. good 1 um policy we haven't had 1 of those yet I moved to Wednesday to work from day a week the facility 1 the 7 oclock yeah it'll probably have to be moved from 18 how about I just get some time yeah what works better push them out yeah I think that's probably the yeah yeah we've got this can I just push out some dates times do you guys and we can work it out with the 3 individuals or 2 individuals that are part of the back and forth with you yeah yep that's right and not reply all right yeah okay all right all right we'll move down to constituents correspondents mine business items history Diamond Trail FFA presentation all right now we have some good a good stuff coming kids hey hi everyone I'm Carter Dudley and I'm a senior in FSA and I'm also a senior I'm Emma I'm a sophomore I'm Wade I'm a sophomore the internal software so Monday was our first day 8 of us went to National Convention convention this year but 3 of us couldn't make it tonight so it's just us but we left Brian early at the bus barn and this are these are Selfies from our 2 Suburban and on the way down we stopped at a ria farm and breeder and so we got to feed them cabbages is we're going to get super close so it's more like throwing the cabbages to them but that was pretty cool and we learned more about um Rios and their breeding process and we got to even see like eggs and things like that and then the kind of the fun activity of the night was we went to Sky Zone and had to the like trampolines so that was fun Okay so then on Tuesday um we visited the driving Wind Farm which was an urban farm in Indianapolis and we learned about the different things that went into that um of like growing different kinds of plants that need different kinds of soil and like how do the acidity in that pin stuff and how to transfer it from the pots to the ground and then we visited Lincoln Tech which is a trade school college and we learned about the different trades that they offer for students that were interested in that it was welding Out of Body Electric use a mechanic HVAC and they also had a nursing program that you could go into then we went to beezas Orchard which was like a pumpkin patch thing and they had this like apple cannon that we like apples and then they had apple trees that we could pick from um and just different games and stuff so we had fun then and then we had a group supper that was supported by our alumni we went to an Italian restaurant downtown called he knows and it was really good uh Wednesday uh we went to the statement oh there's a bunch of different brands there that were set up booths a lot of people bought stuff from different booths uh the stuff wasn't any more expensive than any other store in Iowa uh first General Session so we went there and the introduced all the officers and we listened to 2 different speakers K1 Speedway uh place for race go cards and stuff we raced each other twice and we all had different we all had to I don't know Mikey had his foot on the brake and got yelled at and then he said he didn't Thursday um we went to the career in college fair uh we visited all the different colleges and agric cultural Fields there are there there's pretty cool actually like when I was there I got area I had to stand there and they're giving away free hats and if you got to go and take it you got a free pair of slippers and I got a free pair of slippers pretty cool uh we did workshops 1 of the workshops we did there was a mental health Workshop we also did an entrepreneur Workshop all of us attended uh we went to Top Golf uh we uh there's some pretty cool games that you could play there there's a screen and could see how many points you're getting or how far how close to the hole you can get and then there's some pretty good food there I'm pretty sure you can see in the photo they had some like pretzel bites and a cheese stick you can get in and then there's also mac and cheese cheese curds they're pretty good Friday um we went to Perkins um this is the drive home this is the yeah we don't have much going on on Friday since it is our drive home this is our main stop so some funny stories um mine was while we were driving downtown it was funny to see chickens downtown and people's yards and stuff that's not something you expected um mine was when Mike when we were racing to go karts Mikey had his foot on the pedal and didn't know why it wouldn't move my favorite memory is when we went to Beasley's Orchard and shot the Apple cannons uh my favorite part was when we went go-karting oh I like soft belt bark like that it was pretty fun the Food Bag there um my favorite memory I just had fun like spending time with the FFA chapter away from school and like being able to bond with people that don't talk to every day in class yeah and mine was um doing a community service project that you could do at the convention which is making dog leashes for shelter pets and then also collecting all the convention pins and then what I learned was after sitting on the entrepreneurship Workshop I learned that a lot about the reasons for entrepreneurship like um like you look at a problem and find out and think of ways to solve that problem I learned that there's a lot more agricultural businesses and we think I want to just a lot of a lot of people I learned that when we were in Lincoln Tech they talked about the 7 main programs they had and they also heard some housing there if you needed to if you live far away you could stay up someplace that they offered the hotel or something so that's I learned that you can incorporate a even when you're like in a big City downtown so that was really cool to see do you guys have any questions for us about our we go on every year about 4 years um I've gone sophomore year I've also gone South you how do you choose who goes that is more up to them that is more you have to apply and there are certain criteria they look at this 1 right um I would say this 1 it wasn't my very favorite but it was my second favorite I would yeah it was it was so really fun yeah I so I'm glad that we went it's a very group from the last 2 groups at 11 so we really enjoyed the diversity thank you guys thank you for tuning in move to Elementary writing on paper okay this here they're a little bit about working that they're doing thank you yeah and TD get turned off my name which is yeah Library I don't want to trust you okay um so I was asked by our billing principles and Mr Becker to come to share a little bit of what we've been doing with our uh partial delts development and with our writing progression in the elementary um and so on I I don't have any stories of restaurants I didn't get a pair of slippers in this at any point uh so this is more of the nitty-gritty of of uh looking at our instructions in particular writing instruction at the elementary level and then um some carry over this that we have kind of planned to progress in the Middle School so last year um Aaliyah and I uh were spent a year developing uh a PCM K through 8 writing progression and what we did is we went through every single standard from kindergarten through 8th grade uh with the understanding that uh we're really lacking in writing instruction not just with PCM but Nationwide uh most recent research and studies show that like 27% of eighth graders in the united states are considered proficient in writing and so I'm trying to look at a a very systematic way that we can increase uh the writing that we're doing in Elementary Middle School level and then also systematically to teach the skills for students to be able to uh better those skills and improve them so we started off looking at the standards uh this document this kind of goes through and looks at all of our stuff craft and structure which is going to be like your um uh figurative language your sentence structure your paragraph writing um analyzing where standards kind of show up anything you see in red is where we expect explicit certain structure at those grade levels so we haven't listed K through 8 anything in yellow is where we have uh just review and practice so basically skill refinement and anywhere we see blue is where we expect students to have mastered skills and now they're just in that uh Advanced and and use of stage of it um it could take a while to go through kind of everything that we have in that but um but essentially just trying to map out where we've explicitly teaching things and Garden all the way through eighth grade with that um and then from that point uh what we decided uh as we started to get going we are are never going to find a curriculum that's going to hit all this for us um so it's just really tough to do that so we use our our ctla or uh content knowledge language arts um in the elementary and that's kind of our tool to go through it it has a writing portion to it but it doesn't do enough the the daily stuff we need to do every day so the last couple of years we've had teachers going through something called the writing Revolution training um I've been through it twice myself I went through it uh just as a learner and then last year it led a group of teachers and some train uh the the writing Revolution is based off the Hoffman method was developed in New York um and it's widely accepted throughout the United States now and it's basically a framework it's not a curriculum itself it's just a framework to be able to teach kids systematically uh write sentences up to single paragraph outlines in multiple paragraph outline so that's kind of like the basis for framework we developed everything around as we kind of keep going through uh for us this year kind of became the the implementation of that this year and so I kind of think of the most basic way of of looking at uh skilled written expression or writing as you break it down into 2 components to your foundational writing skills which are going to be your letter formation your handwriting uh typing fluency spelling punctuation word sentence spatial organizations that's all kind of physical parts of actual writing and then the composition part is the topic knowledge the vocabulary word choice sentence formula uh formulation grammar usage there are different literary forms how do you organize those ideas and then knowing your audience and when you take those 2 components together uh and develop both of them you get that skill written expression which is where we want the that highest outcome of kids they use it as kind of a multiplication sense because if your foundational skills are out of 1 and your composition skills are to 2 that 1 times 2 is only 2 but the more you magnify them up the better children expression will get so if you can get a 3 in foundational and a 3 in competition now your your room is still running there's fresh and kind of goes up that's 4 of a 9 kind of that analogy for it for us what we've uh spent time this earlier this year is we have some PD Focus for K through 2 and 55 uh that's kind of difficult for us right now because the last 2 years we've been taking part in the letters program um which was funded by the state uh we got grants for that and so on uh but that took a time teachers were involved in that had to go through uh 8 units of online studying uh uh outside of school hours uh most of those units like 1 unit would would that consists of about 10 hours of actual online training uh you have to take tests and asked them um to go through it and then we also have to have uh full 6 hour um essentially online Zoom trainings as well that you have each unit so it's been a long 2 year process we just started to finish that up earlier this year uh and now we just have the the last month of it um to be finished by January 30th versus all the online trainings but that's made it difficult for us to to get our Ela department so that K2 and the 3 to 5 Building Together uh so what we did is we did some School sessions uh earlier this year to kind of compensate for that uh K2 we're focusing on these 3 aspects with their training um they'll be sentenced knowledge and understanding uh developing sentence and syntactic awareness and then that introduction to running with a what we call an SPO a single paragraph outline which I'll kind of show you what that is in a little bit and then our 35 building was working on that building sentence knowledge understanding at their grade levels uh developing that sentence sense of syntax again and then a real big focus on expository and opinion writing utilizing SPO and mo we still do narrative writing this framework can still work with narrative writing but the fact is as kids are going to are not going to be that narrative writing as much as they are going to be in to the expository opinion and when you think of the isap test which is kind of a big indicator for our uh School profile uh it's always an expository or an opinion piece that they have to uh the time when we have this for is uh me came in on Tuesday September 2nd to work on that building sends not understanding him and back came back again Thursday September 18th developing sentence instead of Tactical awareness and then again on Monday September 29th and introduction to paragraph writing uh spos we spaced these out of every 2 weeks so it gave a chance for teachers to go back in the classroom gave me a chance to go back in to model for them or to watch ask them or to plan with them and so on uh pce fall to kind of the same thing with the same weeks we came back in Wednesday September 3rd with the building census knowledge and understanding uh Monday September 15th developing 7 sentence adaptive awareness and then Wednesday over first expository and opinion writing using utilizing the SPO and mpo so just to kind of give you a little bit of what that entails is that developing syntactic awareness like in the K2 building we focusing on uh for activities that we want to see teachers uh using in a weekly basis uh 1 is sentence completion uh we call that because that's so in the writing Revolution um essentially because in so our our cause and effective relationship works or some of the first uh core uh uh conjunctions that kids are going to start to learn and use effectively and it's a kind of a gateway to other transitional words and then but as a as a conjunction that changes Direction and so we or having kids come back in their content and be able to complete the sentence with those phrases and I'll give you an example that here in a little bit um sentence combining so teaching kids how to combine sentences that are too simple sentences or dependent clause and an independent clause uh to create a more complex sentence uh sentence scrambles are where we take a sentence and we scramble all the words up and the kids have to put it back together and it helps develop that again that syntactic awareness doing that and then extension is a a format to be able to expand on the sentence and take a very simple what we call kernel sentence and make it into a a more complex sentence uh not that they're going to write every sentence in a complex format uh but it's 1 of those techniques for us to be able to improve our writing and so on and then we talked about how to develop a routine with these so sentence completion each time we have a ckla unit we want to make sure that we're doing that a few times at least and then sentence uh combining scrambles expansion we want those to be done 1 to 2 times a week along with their writing of spos and npos and things like that expansion is a big 1 we we work on constantly uh it's what you're going to systematically expand a kernel sentence create a more detailed and complex version of the original sentence uh the colonel sentences have to have a subject predicate and object for example and then we're going to use it with our text we want to make sure we're using our actual learning and classroom we're not just running about random subjects and so those that text and content students are familiar with or have available to reread uh we use 2 to 4 question words to do that and we kind of vary the use of a subordinate conjunctions the positive phrases with that uh so my champions actually I think I have somewhere here I have a lot of tablets and I apologize there we go so here's an example of 76 expansion this 1's with fourth grade uh in their American Revolution cqa content uh so they'll have like the kernel sentence of they raise taxes uh and then we kind of systematically come in there's actually 6 question words that we can use to do that with uh so we'll come in um we'll ask them in the sentence okay who is the the they referring to kids right now uh their notes the dotted lines are always notes uh this system is really big on having kids take notes and then transform those into sent uh when uh again when this when this would have happened uh and the why so why did they raise taxes and then they would put that back into an expanded sentence uh so if they put in colonists for who or uh or so another response we see that the wind might be uh during the American Revolution or during the year 1776 and then the why they raise taxes is because of the of the French and Indian War and then systematically we teach them to write it as a complex sentence so if we see when for example that they always start with that so they're starting with the subordinate conjunction and not just writing a very simple sentence so it's a way to kind of build a complex sentence and teach kids how to do that um the kind of fun fact of that is when kids get into reading articles and papers magazines 1 of every 4 sentences is written in a complex sentence structure and so we have to teach them how to write that way and we need to teach them how to read way as well um there's another example um Sons expansion uh we can't do it with photographs so we in that same American Revolution we show them a picture of Washington Crossing the Delaware and we break that down into notes and then we've transformed that into some expansion the example on the right is an example from first grade uh this is in an animal units they have they adapt to Darkness and they go through what they've learned in class to be able to do that sentence expansion uh in the 3 5 building more of our time they're still doing all of those types of activities but we spend more time working with what we call an SPO and an mpo a single paragraph outline in a multiple paragraph outline uh the reason why we use these and teach these the kids is they're very linear and simple that provides a road map for them uh to be able to do with any type of writing that they want to do uh it gives us consistent paragraph writing instruction um from K through hope 28 is we kind of progressed this uh instead of having 1 teacher do a hamburger method and another teacher to do this we're systematically kind of building each year on to that system that we're creating um it's easy for students to duplicate so when they go take the I Baptist uh We've started to do some this for the last couple years we see fourth graders and fifth graders create their own uh single paragraph outline or multiple paragraph outline to prepare for her isap test too uh and then it's flexible for various text structures they use it for expository they can use it for opinion they can even use it for near exhibit as well uh for example this is some of the learning that our teachers went through and then we're doing this with students in a multiple paragraph outline uh where teaching them in an introduction of main idea or a topic sentence or paragraph uh a way to write an introduction from a very general to uh specific format um writing Revolution actually goes what they call G to to S to so General specific thesis statement however in the elementary uh we don't use thesis statements that's not in our in our standards quite yet that starts to get introduced in the Middle School um and then like in a closing paragraph We flip that screen script and we threw some to take that same introduction and flip it backwards and go from the specific statement they had to the general statement that they had um we use uh utilize paragraph boxes for student planning of what they're going to write out uh the dotted whenever we see an SP or mpo or students notes that they're going to turn into sentences so we teach them how to take notes we teach them how to use code and uh and abbreviations for things that they want to say so they don't have to feel like they're writing more and more and more to just recopy it uh and then the length of the spos and npos especially is determined by the topic and content so we don't want to teach them oh here's how we're going to write a free paragraph outline here's a 4 we need to teach them when is an appropriate to use a paragraph outline what is the appropriate use of 4 paragraph outline in a in a 5 paragraph and then what we've instructed with our teachers is we need to model model model writing is very challenging um it is way behind seal level wise in the spoken language of our of our of our kiddos and so we're always having to look at ways that we can model it and then scaffold that development for those kids as they kind of go through uh well and I'll show you examples of these so this is the single paragraph outline uh so we do have to put right revolutions thing on there because it is trademarked um so if we use that we come through so students each time they would do this they would fill this out before they write their paragraph systematic and teach them how to do components we actually can flip it around and give them a full written paragraph from having break it down into this so they can practice the different skills of it uh they determine their topic their task Their audience um the main idea and the topic sentence stay active they write out in a full complete sentence because that solid line is there and then they're supporting details and examples those dotted lines are where they take their notes and then they come in and they write their conclusion at the uh to produce that and then I have a 4 paragraph 1 out here somewhere and then there's a 4 paragraph multiple paragraph outline so the top is very similar we fill in all the same information we teach them how write that introduction uh we have 2 boxes there for different paragraphs for the body uh for paragraph 1 we might use to write a compare and contrasting expository piece uh we might write uh an opinion piece where we have to get the pros and the or something uh so on and so forth um and then I had 1 more example here uh this is where we'd see uh like because but so being used and this is actually a fifth grade classroom and so this is after they are doing 1 of their units with Central and South America so talking about Spanish Conquest doors so they came to Central and South America the sentence them stays the same because they give that reason why they came and cause and effect relationship then they go in and spend Spanish conquistadors came to San Antonio in South America but so we have a change of Direction so they have to get into a different thought period uh process of that that's actually the most challenging 1 for students in the elementary to do and then uh space time crystals came to Central South America so we get this again we see another cause and effect relationship uh but overall uh we are really trying to systematically approach our our writing and and teach our kiddos uh uh a way to not only like for us to to teach us systematically but to give them the school the skills when they're writing on their own or they're taking the isap test or anything like that that they have a toolbox of things they can kind of fall back um uh what's really kind of exciting with the elementary levels with with the fact that we've been able to departmentalize a little bit in the 3 through 5 are K2 teachers are doing an awesome job building this basic skills uh in third fourth and fifth grade this year we actually now have a dedicated writing teacher and writing time versus trying to fit it into an Ela block uh so for example in third grade all of our teachers teach their content literacy uh but then they break apart for science math and the new foundational and writing and 1 full blocks they get an hour of foundational time and writing each day uh in fourth grade our our blocks are about 110 minutes long and so our science teacher in fourth grade is also our our writing teacher and so he's been 30 to 40 minutes stay in science and then 30 to 40 of them is um writing your painting on their their activities for that day and then in fifth grade we had the same kind of split where we have a 4 section right now so we have a foundational lid and writing teacher at the same time so they uh an hour block that's dedicated just to that writing uh so we're seeing some some good early results with that and we're excited to see how this going to uh progress the students as they go through this year and as we kind of systematically go and then the whole idea of this was this was going to carry over in Middle School uh we have Middle School staff that was part of our training last year and we did this and so we're hoping to see that carry all the way to K through 8 and we can hopefully pass them off to the high school in a better State uh systematically for how to produce good quality writing so no slippers no food but thank you thank you good work everybody watching right they really get into it yeah Daily News yeah I'm just going to uh talk a little bit about our first meeting that we had um on about a month ago October 27th so you can see all the notes that are attached in there that's pretty much all I'm going to go over so there's 3 main goals of our first Sak meeting um and it was what is Sak going over the annual academic report getting some feedback on that from parents it was a small but diverse group was there so it wasn't very big but we did have parent board member Community member that would that's not a parent teacher you know so we did have a mixture and a couple high school students um so we did have a mixture of a lot of people there um so we just 3 main things that we went over during that side meeting October 27th the first 1 was what is Sak just explaining to them what Sak is and how by Iowa Code have to have so many things that we go over throughout the year um second thing we did was went over the annual academic report we did had them come up with what they see what they notice what they Wonder any questions they had um so that out and then we also got all that feedback turned back in um and kind of synthesized through that and Cathy will be if you want to find on that feedback it'll be posted on the table under the school board probably with the uh Sak table on the school website so you want to see the feedback from community members with that too Mr Becker also has especially with the board goals because that was the third part talked about board goals in what facilities finance and don't academics so we had them go through a couple statements with that and talk about what they liked uh if they wanted what 1 they like better if they wanted some changes in the wordage with certain things their verbage of those um but that's pretty much me it was a nice quick flow to it an hour long our next 1 is going to be on um February 9th February 9th so it's a little ways away but on February 9th then that'll be going more over desire performances uh short-term and long-term goals so we'll provide provide some feedback on those 2 things mainly um and then we have another 1 our last 1 will be May 11th um and we'll talk about those as they come about as for maybe well may from that 1 will be going over recent test results to the current year um as well as bullying and harassment all things that are required by Iowa Code for the SC meetings so in general all the notes are provided to you in here and then also on the school website the feedback will also be there um if you have any questions about any of those feel free to ask Mr Becker myself we'll be happy to uh help you out and answer those for you come on tell me the dates again February 9th 6 to 7 oclock here in Monroe and then May 11th thank you yep thank you call probably to District go okay uh this this item stems from our work where we had a board work session early on in September with uh Iowa School Board Association where we had a a lot of really good discussions as as board members together to try to figure out where priorities we're going to be for this upcoming school year and into the future so um took a lot of the feedback uh the administrators kind of worked on some possible or goals uh some options and then um we kind of um looked at those I think we had like 3 or 4 under each each 1 facilities finances academics and then we got it down to 2 2 different options and we then presented it to the scan committee like Colin was talking about and got some feedback in what they felt really uh would be a good recommendation to the board as a representation of our future work so um as you can see there um facilities uh the board will provide all PCM students with infrastructure for activities and learning in all buildings that is safe meeting industry standards supports instructional delivery and Maxim as a student learning opportunities and then under finances we have the PCM board will manage District Financial Resources while providing the best possible education and opportunities for all students and then academics the PCM will strive to provide high quality Innovative and Vocational programs for all abilities um we really wanted these to be goal statements so they were they're they're brought from the board they're broad goals and then these broad goals or goal statements uh will help guide our work back in the buildings so we can then drill down to really start to create some measurable measurable goals that we can monitor on a monthly basis a yearly basis those sort of things but they can all funnel back to the board's main goal statements so we can find ways within our Within all of our buildings to address uh some of your main priorities and eventually report back out in some ways that we um accomplished those those type of things within the buildings at all elementary middle school high school so I'm excited for the board to have some board goal statements that gives us Direction it gives us something to hold ourselves accountable to as a as a board in in superintendent also I hope guide a lot of my work too that I report back to you on also so I'm I'm excited for our early conversations that we had but now turning into something that we can look back on all the time when we need questions slides and we just need to make a motion to approve second motion a second to whom our district goals facilities finances does I I would I would say we revisit them to make priorities stay the same if we if we change something if we need to change something yeah we can absolutely adjust each year I think it makes sense to revisit though lot of stuff to talk about this year is basically yeah yep and we'll get into we'll get into facilities but then you know finances are impacts our academics do what what we are investing in to provide learning opportunities for kids so they kind of they they intertwine some but um continue to focus in on those other areas I guess my point was I didn't I don't budget I would say Ford will manage District Financial Resources that's what we're that's what we're attempting to do right enrollment um make sure that for right sizing our budget but then at the same time still being able to invest in kids uh that we don't want to live that opportunity either so but that was just kind of keeping them as a general statement yeah yeah any other discussion on that the motion in second for approval all the favor say I I post or some carries currently graduation so um are you guys able to see the list of students there okay um there's 1 missing um I think that 1 that I had sent to yeah so we actually have 8 students graduating um or applying to um graduate in December that you will have that 81 um and so I just need approval for them they have all um reached their graduation credits um means and check to double check um to work it to go motion get on there okay program motion to look for a second are we approving 8 or just 7 yeah yeah is that okay to add the 8 1 got a motion okay okay of that we have motion second for early graduation of the 8 people I don't upload I upload the other ones you guys come on back okay all in favor say I anybody post motion kids Daniel Headstart mou yeah I was contacted by the great Start program uh they've sent a memorandum of understanding just basically if we have anybody within our uh Within our region any students that make qualify for a head start services that um it would be able to to service those students so it's something that they send to all districts within that building in the region so it's just an mou a contractor or anything as far as the cost that sort of thing but it allows them to start those early services with kids that qualify for this are we this at all we we don't have any at the moment that I'm aware of but it just a just an mou that allows them to do that any motion for that second motion and second to approve the annual Head Start mou calls in favor say I post motion carries moving down to plan facility school budget Review Committee application yep so this is an annual application um that we can submit that is um determined after certified enrollment and it looks back at the prior year um attached to the application um there are 2 items that were able to qualify for to ask for the sending Authority um to get that back um for money that was spent in the prior year so um this would pertain to open enrollment um that we would have paid out um last year we were in love with students um and then also um English language Learners Beyond 5 years so the application has a dollar amount as well as the students impacted any questions ready take a motion to approve second we have motion and second to approve school budget Review Committee application all those in favor say I I opposed motion carries early resignation statement okay just seeking an approval of 1000 early resignation statement for certified staff who's me resignations prior to January 9th of 2027 6 uh this is something that the board have done in the past also um just as a as a way for anybody that might know already that they would be resigning um at the end of the year uh by knowing files administrators to um get into the the hiring process early get ahead of that hiring cycle um so they're always always the heating for always competing for teachers across the across the board across the region so it's just a um and instead of if anybody knows early that they could reply for that move approval we have a motion and second to approve approve the early Nation statement all in favor say I I post motion carries fundraisers no it's there to approve I'll make a motion to approve we have motion and second to approve the fundraising list all in favor say I post motion carries for policy review First Street Jeremy do you want to touch base on this just a little bit yeah this is our facilities um policy where we have uh School groups and outside groups coming to utilize our our space and so uh I worked with Mr Becker Tanya Cameron we sat down and referenced some other policies and tried to catch ours up to speed on what were our current tracking as well so are we extending an hour to 9051 from 12 to 8 it wasn't it from 1 to 6 it was our normal and our other policy yeah there was 1 that was 126 when we we didn't see I don't know if we have any other utilizing it now but if somebody wanted to use the school up until 8:00 on a Sunday and I don't know if I have a major issue with it we don't want kids in there at 10:00 midnight but 8:00 at the time we just found a little bit we have the cross country bank with it last night and Christian Life Center we started at 7 oclock and we have thanks for comments people saying um there within our policy that said we couldn't have anything after 2:00 did you say anything like that in there at 2:00 now but never heard of that 1 I want to verify anyway this is good especially with other districts around it it's pretty consistent that's part of the reason for the change too is we we stole that from another District that makes sense yeah yeah that's not bad everyone had to drive over there well they could have it here yeah I I don't know if they looked into it yes nobody contacted me about that and then I missed mission knock on this policy Excel like anyway on your 9051 we go down you if schools canceled dismissed or any piece of M camp on all rentals and usage of that dare canceled the problem is that that we had caucuses here 1 Night On they they got canceled and we was having a big rally about that you can't really cancel the pocket through if it's scheduled so that would fall into that yeah we should probably put the word May in there there you go I think that's probably a good recommendation and there could be a I mean at the end of the day we want to make sure our facilities are safe so for us you can't run when it's typically get there and remove snow and do a different things and we're we're going to have to you know well they'd have to make their own provisions on something like that I think probably a good addition to that okay now there's some events like the macro tournament that starts before new I'm assuming that just be the exception of the rule we haven't talked about that I I need to Circle back with them a couple years ago we had them come to a school board meeting and seek approval the outside of that time we probably need to do that again so that's where it says its approval by superintendent oh is right yeah do we want to leave it at that or do we want to yeah that's what we kind of talked about that I didn't feel like we needed to have them all come all the way back if we kind of have an understanding that it's a kind of a 1-time situation that we feel like we it's a legit reason that we can approve that kind of a 1 time that happens every single year yeah right yeah I just I would think 1 time yeah is this for the the um hours of this this is for outside groups or PCM affiliate which 1 are you looking at 90501 the I'm pulling this up Lori too that the outside groups I know we kind of made an exception previously too with especially the Wednesday nights uh for some of those youth teams should come in we say they can't be in here 6:00 on a Wednesday night they're they're just going to lose that on time so we had an agreement previously that uh the youth groups and and non-school section activities could go outside of those times is that what you were referencing know I just the the rules of the noon through 8 this policy is for everybody that the 9:05 or 1 so yeah so it's it's for PCM Affiliated or outside groups or outside and if they want to do something different they've got to get approval we're not looking at the lending I apologize no this is just the build the building sites and then the Beast the Beast structure yeah but we can we'll eventually we kind of talked about getting a policy regular policy there like area of 200 series let me get those to come through how does that policy I know we're not talking about right now but that's something to Wednesday pretty consistent uh with our gym situation and our activities that makes it a real challenging uh but it is pretty consistent with other schools there now the exact time could fluctuate but most schools have a policy that they don't cut things off at some point on Wednesday evenings anything else on that policy at some point yeah what kind of changes move down to superintendent also Aaron thank you for working on those 2 appreciate it anything else to add there no take for Winger okay we want to be open it's over by car I know it doesn't happen

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