Members of the public may address the Board during the period set aside by the Board without submitting an item for the agenda. No action shall be taken during this portion of the meeting on issues raised by employees or the public unless deemed an emergency by the Board. Please note: Comments are asked to refrain from personal remarks in which an individual is named. Comments are limited to two minutes unless extended by the board chair. Critical comments or complaints are processed through the District’s complaint procedures. Questions and concerns will be addressed by the Board through various venues, including, but not limited to, the district website and e-mail.

Recommend that the Board of Education accept the proposal from PCA Architecture for the development of a Master Plan for Facilities for Covington Independent Public Schools.

• 2023 0315 CIPS PCA MasterplanProposal

Presentation of 2022-23 ACCESS test scores proficiency districtwide.

• ACCESS scores levels and growth per school comparison 2022.23
• EL Exited students 4 year comparison 2023
• EL population growth 5.1.23

Attached is the district’s STAR CBM Reading data Fall to Spring for grades K-6.  All students districtwide are included for each grade level.  The data in the report is for the past 2 school years in order for the board to see growth.  We have also included 2018-2019 percentages for benchmark and intensive to see movement since pre-Covid. 

• STAR CBM Data (1).pdf

The personnel actions listed on the exhibit have taken place since the board meeting of April 27, 2023.

• Personnel Exhibit 05-22-2023

The Kentucky Education Professional Standards Boards has implemented an online application for processing certifications for Emergency Full-Time Teachers and has suggested creating blanket approval and one Board order number to use on all applications for emergency full-time certification for all emergency certified teachers not holding a regular Kentucky certification.

The Kentucky Education Professional Standards Boards has implemented an online application for processing certifications for emergency substitute teachers and has suggested creating blanket approval and one Board order number to use on all applications for emergency certification for all substitutes not holding regular Kentucky certification.

Board of Education approve the amended salary schedule to reflect a stipend for teachers who choose to participate in the LETERS program (2023-24 only) and elect not to participate in the educational reimbursement for up to $1,000 per year, page 9.  Added hours per day to page 11. Added Occupational Therapist page 3. 

• 2023-2024 SALARY SCHEDULE

Consider/Approve the Memorandum of Agreement between Northern Kentucky University (NKU) and the Covington Independent Public Schools (CIPS) for Instructional Assistants (IAs) throughout CIPS to have the opportunity to enter an Option 9 Alternative Certification Program at NKU to gain Kentucky Elementary Teacher Certification while employed as an IA.

Kentucky recently approved an Option 9 alternative certification pathway for earning Kentucky Teacher Certification. This is an expedited route to certification that results in a bachelor's degree and initial certification within three school years. The route requires a college or university to partner with a district to develop a program that includes a residency component where IAs work in their current role and gain their student teaching/practicum experience with a district mentor. Through this route, CIPS IAs would no longer be forced to take a leave of absence to complete student teaching. Not only will the continued partnership grow the education profession, it will serve as a first-hand recruiting tool for administrators who have IAs they can build and grow into future teachers.

There is no cost to the district

Request approval as cohort is about to begin. 

• 2023 NKU.Option9

The attached Contract for Transportation Services for Covington Independent Public Schools July 31, 2023, through August 1, 2024, is for board review. The contract includes; purpose, contract term, compensation, Holmes High School services, student pass program and schedule.

Dave Hartman, Assistant Principal at Holmes High School and Ken Kippenbrock, Executive Director of Human Resources and Operations both reviewed the contract and approved for signature.

• Covington Independent Schools TANK Contract 2023-2024.pdf

Pursuant to Policy 02.423, School Council Meetings (SBDM), a copy of the minutes of each council meeting shall be forwarded by the Principal to the Superintendent who shall keep the Board informed of the council actions.

• SBDM Min_April 2023.pdf

Covington teachers are being provided a wide array of professional development this summer, fall and throughout the 23-24 school year. Located in your packet is the following: 

·        Covington Independent Public Schools PD Plan 23-24

·        Covington PD Academy Offerings 23-24

·        Direct Instruction Reading Training Dates 23-24

·        District Professional Development Survey 23-24

·        Each school’s PD Plan for 23-24- for review and comment

• 23-24 PD Plan.pdf

This is a Memorandum of Understanding between Covington Independent Public Schools and Read Ready Covington's Early Literacy Program.  Read Ready Covington is supported by the City of Covington.  The purpose of the agreement is to share the Covington Independent School individual student data for literacy and evaluate the success of the students in the Read Ready Program.  A third party will be evaluating the data.

• Read Ready - Covington - Memorandum of Understanding

Leadership will be presenting the ESSER III plan to the board.  Attachments to follow.

• ESSER III documents for the board on 5-22-23.pdf

Each year the district has to take out a fidelity performance bond for the Finance Director since that position deals with the finances/money of the school district.  KDE determines the amount of the bond for each school district.  The amount of the bond for the Finance Director for Covington Independent Public Schools is $400,000. 

This is brought to the board as informational only per the board’s request in June of 2020.

• Annette fidelity bond FY24 for board agenda

Pursuant to CIPS Policy 04.311 District Accounts, the district will follow state and federal laws and regulations regarding accounting practices.  The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) regulation 54 states if a district has an unreserved fund balance (now called unassigned fund balance) at fiscal year-end, the Board can approve committing funds. 

Examples of committed funds are; site-based carry forward funds, committing funds to purchase a bus, committing funds for technology needs or committing funds to balance next year’s budget.

The district needs to commit funds of approximately $30,000 for site based carry forward (carryover) & approximately $9.9 million to be used to balance the FY’24 budget.

Budget Narrative for April FY2023 monthly financial statement:

1. General fund (fund 1) – as of 4/30/23, revenue received of 44.6 million with expenses of 27.3 million.
2. Special revenue (fund 2) – as of 4/30/23, revenue received of 12 million with expenses of 13.1 million. Many grants in fund 2 are on a reimbursement basis. Money is requested after the expenses have occurred. There is a delay on receiving fund 2 revenue.
3. School Activity Fund (fund 25) – as of 4/30/23 revenue received of $263,000 with expenses of $24,000.This fund was set up end of FY20 due to a new GASB standard that went into effect.
4. Capital outlay (fund 310) - as of 4/30/23, revenue received of $172,000 with expenses of $343,336. The state does not provide all the capital outlay funding until the end of the fiscal year. This fund is used to pay the district’s bond payments. Bond payments occur throughout the whole fiscal year under fund 400 (new for FY’13 per KDE).Money will be transferred out of capital outlay into the debt service fund throughout the fiscal year.
5. Building fund (fund 320) - as of 4/30/23, revenue received of 2 million with expenses of 1.6 million. This fund is used to pay the district’s bond payments. Bond payments occur throughout the whole fiscal year under fund 400 (new for FY’13 per KDE).Money will be transferred out of building fund into the debt service fund throughout the fiscal year.
6. Construction fund (fund 360) - as of 4/30/23, revenue received of 4.5 million with expenses of 4.3 million. This fund is used to pay for the district’s construction projects.
7. Debt Service fund (fund 400) – as of 4/30/23, revenue received of 1.6 million with expenses of 1.3 million. See detailed explanation under capital outlay and building fund.
8. Food service fund (fund 51) – as of 4/30/23, revenue received of 3.7 million with expenses of 2.6 million.
9. Daycare fund (originally fund 50 – switched to fund 52 per KDE) – as of 4/30/23, revenue received of $117,000 with expenses of $42,000. Revenue comes in throughout the fiscal year.

Completed 5/1/23 by Annette Burtschy

• April 2023 bank account update
• April 2023 investments update
• balance sheet April 2023
• financial report April 2023
• Info on funds to help with monthly MUNIS report for board 3-12-21

Pursuant to Policy 04.3111, the treasurer shall prepare warrants or “Orders of the Treasurer” to be acted upon at each regular Board meeting. The Board shall give subsequent approval to all budgeted disbursements made between meetings of the Board. Disbursements shall only be made on invoices for purchases made in accordance with District policy and procedures.

• Warrants for May 2023 board meeting

REDBOOK BUDGETS FOR HHS

Budget development for the school activity accounts is similar to the budget cycle for the school district. Information provided in the budget shall include estimated beginning balance; anticipated receipts from all sources, including fundraising; anticipated expenditures by category; and estimated ending balance.

1) Each club, organization and activity account shall prepare a tentative budget for the next    school year on the Individual Activity Account Budget Worksheet (Form F-SA-4A).           

a) The Individual Activity Account Budget Worksheets are due to the principal by April 15.

b) The sponsor shall work with the officers of the club in this process to assure continuity of programs.

c) The principal or designee shall prepare budgets for activity accounts without sponsors for SBDM approval.

2) The principal shall prepare the Principal’s Combining Budget (Form F-SA-3).

a) The Principal’s Combining Budget will list the summary budget information for each activity account in the school activity fund.

b) The Principal’s Combining Budget is due to the district finance officer by May 1.

c) The district finance officer will work with the superintendent to submit all school budgets to the local board for approval by the end of May.

d) Within 30 days of the beginning of the school year, the principal shall adopt the board approved tentative activity fund budget for the current year.

REDBOOK SCHOOL BUDGETS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS & HMS

REDBOOK WAS BROUGHT IN HOUSE STARTING IN FY23 TO THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT MEANING ALL REVENUE, PO’S, INVOICES ARE GENERATED THROUGH THE MUNIS SYSTEM

YTD MUNIS BUDGETS ARE BEING USED FOR THESE SCHOOLS FOR FY24

• FY22 was the last year the REDBOOK funds were out at the schools and in the EPES accounting software.
• The Finance Director took those FY22 ending balances and entered all revenue into MUNIS which becomes the school’s beginning balance for FY23.
• During the FY23 year, every time a school does a deposit into one of their REDBOOK accounts, the revenue is added to MUNIS.
• This allows the school to be able to spend the money in the appropriate budget.Each REDBOOK account has its own separate project in MUNIS so not to co-mingle funds.
• Please see attached reports ran for each school as of the beginning of May 2023.This is a most accurate up-to-date budget that the school can use to spend money in their REDBOOK funds.
• Once FY23 is over those ending balances will be rolled over to FY24 as the starting budget for FY24.

The Finance Director is seeking approval of this agenda item as she was not able to attend the first informational board meeting in May due to being out of town at the KASBO conference.

• school activity budgets FY24 for board

• 051123_MINUTES Reg Mtg

Teach for America is a national leader in recruiting, selecting, training and providing ongoing professional development to individuals committed to closing the achievement gap by serving as effective classroom teachers specifically equipped to enhance student achievement in under-resourced school systems. 

Each cohort of Teachers employed pursuant to this clause is in addition to the Teachers from prior cohorts. 

One to three teachers for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic school years. One to three teachers for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic school years.

School District shall provide to every Teacher employed by School District pursuant to this Agreement the same salary and benefits as are provided to other teachers employed by School District who are similarly situated under factors routinely used by School District in making such decisions.

School District shall pay Teach For America an annual amount of $5,000 for each year in which such Teacher is employed by School District, up to two years from the date such employment is to commence.

• ATTACHMENT B Data Sharing Agreement_ CIPS DRAFT.pdf
• Covington Indepedent PSA DRAFT (23_24 & 24_25).pdf

Covington Board Of Education grants permission for request for Athletic Adverting bid(s) at Holmes High School in accordance with KRS 45A.097.

• Request for Bid for Advertising

That the Board of Education approve a modification to our contract with NovaCare (Kentucky Rehabilitation Services) for the provision of an Athletic Trainer for Holmes Athletics under the terms of the attached contract. 

• NovacareContract

The 31st Annual Model Schools Conference 2023 is dedicated to educators with topics related to innovative learning environments, instructional strategies, organizational structure, leadership strategies, blended/hybrid/remote learning modalities, standards, data-driven decision making and more.

The Model Schools Conference will be held in Orlando, Florida from June 25-28, 2023.

Mr. Alvin Garrison, Superintendent is requesting Board approval to attend the conference outside of his already approved travel itinerary. Title funds will cover all expenses.

In March of 2022 the Covington Board of Education approved the following: 

The Continuing Education Option (CEO) supports teachers in achieving Rank I or Rank II through
individualized, research-based job-embedded professional development plans. A teacher may use the CEO for achieving Rank I or Rank II, but not both. Rank change is recognized only in Kentucky and though it is not a master’s degree, it does meet statutory requirements for continuing education (KRS 161.095).

Teachers benefit from increased knowledge and skills along with increased pay based on improving Rank in the salary schedule. 

The program includes Mentoring, a Capstone, and Job-embedded PD via Microcredentials.

The program takes on average, 2-3 years to complete but can be completed no more quickly than over a one year period of time. 

The cost of this program through BloomBoard is approximately $6,000. The cost of a Master of Art's in teaching in this area is between $14,000 and $18,000 plus. 

In order to improve teacher retention, we are requesting the Board of Education authorize the Superintendent or his Designee to form procedures to reimburse teachers who participate in and successfully complete this program at a rate of $1,000 per year for six years to pay for up to the $6,000 cost of the program. Total cost would be capped at $50,000 per year. This would allow up to 50 teachers to participate in each co-hort. The participating teacher may advance through the program at a faster pace, but would only be eligible for up to $1,000 per year reimbursement for each year of service to the district including the time they participate in the program and any years of service up to a total of six from the date they enter the program.  

Employee participating in the program would be responsible any interest charges.

At the end of year one, 27 of the 50 slots were utilized. Over 96% of the teachers participating in Bloomboard indicate they intend to return to CIPS for the 2023-2024 school year. 

The KY EPSB has authorized a second rank change program option, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS), professional learning opportunity to educators across the commonwealth. To further retention efforts, the district is requesting that the $1000 per year for up to 6 years be permitted for the LETRS Program in addition to Bloomboard. This would require no additional funding allocation, aside from the 50 slots already designated.

Through LETRS, teachers gain essential knowledge to master the fundamentals of literacy instruction required to transform student learning and create a more vibrant experience for each and every young reader.

We are requesting that 23 unused slots be reopened for 2023 and open to not only the Bloomboard program, but a second CEO continuing education program (LETRS) under the same reimbursement program open to Bloomboard participants. 

We are not requesting additional funding at this time. 

Note: The rank change option for LETRS is separate option for teachers who chose to select this reimbursement program rather than the stipend for LETRS participation (Salary schedule page 9). Teachers would need to select one program or the other, but not would not be permitted to select both. 

This Tentative Budget Cycle is required by State Stature KRS 160.470.  The Tentative Budget must be approved by the local school district and submitted to the Kentucky Department of Education by 5/30 of each year. 

The budget committee has met since February 2023 creating the budget for FY2024.  This budget takes into consideration the increases/decreases in retirement fringes that the school district incurs based on information provided by KDE.  This budget incorporated non-personnel expenditures based on actual expenditures. 

The budget committee will be looking into how cost saving measures can be incorporated into the budget.  At this time there are many unknowns related to the adoption of this budget.   Once those unknowns become available, the budget will be amended and will be reflected in the Working Budget that is presented to the Board of Education in September of each year.

• talking points for board meeting on tentative general fund budget 4-27-23
• Tentative budget for May board meeting FY24
• tentative budget FY24

The Model School Conference will be held from June 25-28, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. Attached is a list of number of attendees from each school. Each school attending will share what they learned and what they are using from the conference in their schools.  Schools will present at our district leadership meetings throughout the year.

This conference is being funded with Title II Professional Learning Funds.  These funds we will be using have to be spent by September 2023.   Estimated cost per person for flight, registration and hotel is $3,000.00. 

• Model Schools Conference_05.22.23.pdf

The contract is with the Kenton County Sherriff's Office for three School Resource Officers (SROs) for the 2023-2024 school year. The terms of the agreement are the same as last year, with the addition of a 6% salary increase for the school resource officers. This is in line with the raise nearly every CIPS employee received on the 2023-2024 salary schedule (4% plus 1.9% step). 

• Signed SRO Agreement W Cov Schools 2023 to 2024

May 25 ~ Preschool Graduation Day AM (Rooms: A,C,D, E and F) @ 9:30 a.m.

May 25 ~ Preschool Graduation Day AM (Rooms: G,H,I,J and K)) @ 10:30 a.m.

May 25 ~ Preschool Graduation Day PM (Rooms: A,C,D, E and F) @ 1:30 p.m.

May 25 ~ Preschool Graduation Day PM (Rooms: G,H,I,J and K)) @ 2:30 p.m.

May 25 ~ HMS 8th Grade Awards, 5 p.m., Life Learning Center

May 25 ~ HESPY Red Carpet, 5 p.m., Holmes Campus 

May 25 ~ HESPY Awards, 6 p.m., Jack Moreland Auditorium 

May 26 ~ Latonia Field Day, all day 

May 29 ~ Memorial Day, Schools and Offices Closed

May 30 ~ Glenn O. Swing Field Day, all day

May 30 ~ Holmes Middle School Carnival on Campus, all day 

May 30 ~ Latonia Elementary Carnival, 8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

May 30  ~ HMS All Grades Awards Day (Time TBA), Jack Moreland Auditorium 

May 31 ~ Latonia Elementary 5th Grade Promotion, 9 a.m.

May 31 ~ Sixth District Kindergarten Graduation, 9 a.m.

May 31 ~ Glenn O. Swing Kindergarten Graduation, 10 a.m.

May 31 ~ Glenn O. Swing 5th Grade Graduation, 1 p.m.

May 31 ~ Latonia Kindergarten Promotion, 1 p.m.

May 31 ~ Sixth District Fifth Grade Graduation, 1 p.m.

May 31 ~ Holmes Middle School Field Day, all day
May 31 ~ Holmes Middle School 8th Grade Promotion Parade, time TBA
May 31 ~ Last Day for Students
June 1 ~ Staff Equivalency Day 

June 2 ~ Closing Day for Staff

June 7 ~ Holmes High School Senior Honors Night, 6 p.m., Garden of Park Hills 

June 8 ~ Regular Meeting, 5:30 p.m., Boardroom

June 9 ~ Holmes High School Graduation Practice, 9 a.m.

June 9 ~ 155th Annual Commencement Exercises

June 14 ~ Hall of Honors Celebration, 6 p.m., Drees Pavilion 

Pursuant to KRS 61.810 (1) the Board may go into executive session.