um we wouldn't be able to apply for the larger one until next year because it's a year-long cycle. Um the one that um the $2 to5,000 one uh she said on April 29th to submit paperwork if it gets approved. So um and she said that those are the types of partnerships that they just love to create. Um it's uh it's going to impact the whole community. It impacts these students. Um, and so it looks obviously very good for them as well too. Well, and it it sounds fantastic. So is u as far as you guys have thought this out, I'm guessing you've thought past the the concerns about funding in five years, 10 years and things like that. So yeah, and um those of us and Isaac might be able to address this as well because um on his property they've um gone back to some native.
Wolf talked about that the kids need to know. We can still focus on our writing and vocabulary while working to expand those other areas in the learning process. And one thing I love about it is that I get to choose the topic or the theme. and the academic vocabulary that they need to know. So, they're using that in all parts of this um this lesson every week. And then finally, we know that um students need uh instruction in multiple ways. Uh anytime you can make it fun, uh it lessens the tension. uh they have they have um invested themselves in these lessons especially when they get to be the teacher and it brings down that effective filter. Uh it allows the learning to take place and so we try to make it as fun uh and engaging as possible and introducing multiple ways of learning.
Any questions regarding Crest View? Okay, thank you for that. Now, we will move on to our um update on the diploma task force recommendations. Mr. Noter and Mr. Knik. Good evening, Madam President, Dr. Smith, members of the board. In December of 2024, the state board of ed ruled in favor of a new high school diploma and new graduation requirements. That was about a two-year long process going through several drafts that we monitored closely and we were able then to hit the ground running in January to prepare for this. In January, we formed a diploma task force and met several times coming to you tonight or to be able to come to you tonight with recommendations. We also discussed those recommendations with our LEA throughout the process. Uh just as of note, implementation of the new high school diploma will be for the class of 2029.
So, I really wanted to share with them my why. Um, so I think being vulnerable in front of your staff and sharing personal information and letting them get to know you as a person is just so beneficial. So, I really kind of shared how my wife really centered on um I come from a big family. There's seven of us, seven siblings um and my oldest brother and you know, he had his struggles in life and really kind of shared about that. he passed away about a year and a half ago and really wanted to kind of talk about his story and how that really changed the trajectory of what I thought my career would be. You know, I started off in engineering. Um, love math, love numbers, you know, wanted to do that. Um, but then I had a lot of wise and a lot of curiosity and, you know, how are we all from the same family and yet this is happening and that is happening.
this Hollywood producer. Yeah. Yeah. And I I I actually ignored it. Um I I didn't even reply to it and he double messaged me and said, "Hey man, just checking in to see if you got my message." And I then rejected him and told them, "Oh, I'm just a a public educator. You know, I don't need any sort of writing representation. I figured he'd be some sort of uh fake agent asking for for money or something." Um, and then he said, "Trust me, you're going to want to get on the phone with me." So, I said to my girlfriend, "Okay, as long as I don't give him my social security number, I guess I can hear him out." And then that night, I got on the Zoom call and as soon as it started and I saw his face, my head exploded. Uh, I think uh Aaron spoke for two No, we were on the phone for two hours.
So uh and this is Byron Wford. Byron telly Wford. I uh I live in Witchah, so I'm local. I have a restaurant background. um spent 10 years with canc before I started with Ela. So I've been with Ela for 12 years. Um it's been a a great opportunity for me. Child nutrition has always been uh near and dear to my heart. So here we are. All right. Um so has been familyowned for really over 44 years now. We specialize in home style cooking and baking and we consider ourselves a premier food service company in the Midwest. And that is why. Okay. So, um those are all OPA school districts. Um we started in Missouri. There our home office is out of Chesterfield. Um but when I was in Iola, I think we were number 16 in Kansas. And that was oh, like I said, uh 2014.
So, we don't get the same amount of time on courts that they do and that puts us at a little tougher situation. Um, we have 12 out in the guide side right now and I think next year if things stay how I'm thinking we'll have 13 or 14. Um, the girls have nine this year and next year they'll have 10 or 11. Um, and right now I have to send three to four kids a day to the park for practice. And I just don't think that's fair to them and giving them a good experience, a true experience be like in basketball. Uh, a lot of times it's some of our lower level kids to head that direction telling your C team kids, "Okay, you got to go somewhere else and you're practicing by yourself basically." And I just don't think that's super fair to them and not giving them the experience that I want to give them.
Any questions that I can answer for you? That's awesome. I agree with you. My teacher isn't having fun in the classroom. The kids aren't having fun. We all have our days, but yes, but you know, I was saying making education fun, that's when the children really learn. Yeah, I would agree. The district are just blessed to have you. Oh, that's gracious of you to say. Thank you. I was going to say that, too. I get so many compliments from friends and people that I know saying, "What a great program that you guys have." You and Matt with one T. Matt with one T. So, thank you guys so much for your dedication. It's a good place to be. And I think I missed a few, but I'm going to say about 12 1904. Man, I more than a few. I lost that. Um, okay. Thank you very much.
Okay. Um, so let's use that. Um, we we can edit that, right, Hilda? You should be able to because when I like did the copy and stuff, it was there. Will you do me Will you do me a favor though? Will you share Will you email me directly? Whichever one you guys are looking at right now. Yeah. And that way I'll I'll know that that's the one I should be looking at. Should we make a copy of it first? We probably should. Um, does what's the title on it? Because I think I already did. I think it says discipline policy review committee. actually says commit her community council presentation. Uh maybe make a copy just in case. I could have sworn I did, but I'd hate to be wrong. Yeah, we the we had we we have two. One from last year that Hilda shared with us that is uh about uh 15 slides and then the other one which I'm pretty sure this is the one that we edited at the last meeting uh that has uh 10 slides.
Um, to be honest with you, this is the first time I've dealt with a tiff in this manner. And uh, so I I ran through our attorney. I talked to Grant High School. They felt good about it. I ran through our attorney and he read it and honestly he said he deals with this a lot. And he goes, "This is a very generous uh, very generous uh, tiff for us." So he doesn't usually see we get the the the full recap of the costs. So we didn't have to do a lot of negotiating. They village of Fox Lake, I have to give a lot of credit. They uh they set it up really well for us and uh we made a couple minor changes to the tiff agreement. But um after talking to our attorney, I feel really good about this uh that we are going to get recouped for any costs that we have for kids in that tiff district.
Yeah, absolutely. We would take all of the information that you have under facilities today. I'm assuming that Danny probably has a very good history and track record of all the facility issues that you have and so we would incorporate all the information he has into that process. Things like demographic studies looking at your enrollment and stuff like that. That's all part of that research phase. We're getting obviously walk that engagement process with teachers, administrators, students at each of the sites. So in a school district of our size, um how long do you think it would take to do a master plan? So way I put that is we can go very fast but it really has to do with what's logical in terms of timing for engagement and stuff. We don't want to make go such that you're asking somebody to show every two weeks kind of thing because people have baseballs and stuff in the winter but we want to go pretty quickly.
Any questions? I have. Nope. No questions. All right. All in favor? I I none oppose. Approval of summer seasonal assistance uh/maintenance that's custodial. Recommend approving summer seasonal assistance for six maintenance custodial positions at 1550 an hour Monday through Thursday 6:00 a.m. to 400 pm June 2nd through June to July 25th. This is not new. We we do this every summer. This is this is pretty much the exact same as last for painting and stuff like that. No help painting and usually a couple guys that do help us with the right. Okay. So, I need a motion and a second to approve the uh summer assistance. I'll make a motion to approve the summer assistance. I'll second. Have a motion in a second.
Ideally once you get to that three or four year mark um it becomes more of a hands-off thing and I know our um our wild flowers at home um I I mow uh every five years and and that that's about it. And so there's that I would venture to say big initial cost obviously. Um and then once once that takes place place it's it's more of a a maintenance at the at the classroom level not really the school corporation level. Um the last thing that we want even on that 20 foot easement the last thing we want is it to be mowed. Um and Mr. Carl with his profession um really enlightened us on um because when we think of EAS we think you know you can't do anything on that it's got to be bare ground. No um he was even talking about certain circumstances in his job where um they they plant things just just like it normally goes and then uh like Mr.
So over the past 14 years, we've been very intentional in strengthening our connections with families, our community partnerships, and our school environment to create a safe and engaging space for all students. We've focus focused heavily on building strong relationships with parents in the community through events like our family literacy nights and our cultural celebrations like our Hispanic Heritage Parade. We've brought families into our school to learn, celebrate, and connect. We've built strong partnerships with organizations like Fort County, the uh Cass County Community Foundation, Lifegate Church, and United Way to expand support for students beyond the classroom walls. Communication has been a key priority through Remind, social media, and translation in multiple languages. We've made it easier than ever for parents to stay connected with our school. and special traditions like our high- five Fridays help our students feel celebrated and supported by the entire Loganport community.
Quick math for you. That's current eighth graders. So, we have to move fast because they just have a couple weeks left of eighth grade before they start high school. And as soon as next year, current high school students can opt into a new diploma if they get an honors seal. And we'll talk about in a second what that is. As I mentioned, we convened a diploma task force that consisted of myself, Mr. Noter, Mr. Harsha, and several who are in attendance tonight, administrators at the high school and middle school level, um, principles, assistant principles, and department chairs. If you were on that diploma task force, if you wouldn't mind standing up real quick to be recognized. Thank you for your hard [Applause] work. We had to move fast. We appreciate their hard work in moving through that process. And now I'm going to turn over to Mr.
So, I really wanted to understand that. So went back to school and you know got my masters in special ed and elementary ed and then wanted to know more and shifted my career um just so I could understand that and how I could apply that to life and really you know be a positive um person in the lives of a lot of children a lot of students. So I I think being vulnerable is just so important and just being, you know, a typical person, going to football games, going to events, going to spelling bees, you know, all of those pieces where they can come see you cheering on Fear the Deer, you know that there you are and wearing your green. And so I think it's important and I do I have kids who come and see me or they'll ask you know their principal if you know they're having a little trouble and you know I want to see Miss Donna.
I think he spoke for like an hour 55 of it and the rest of it was just me going Mhm. Okay. Yep. and we got off the phone and I just it was like I I took my first breath in hours and I was like what the heck just happened? So what I would say is I think in principle the MCCAST is an important thing to have and an important structure to have within our education system. Um I just think that we don't do the right thing with it. I was a late bloomer in learning and um probably not until law school, but um how I think MCCAST should be used and utilized is more on the growth of the student when you take it at an earlier age and see how the individual students grow um and get better at it as opposed to looking at it as a single standard across the line and saying, "Okay, now you are proficient in this and this is this is enough.
Um now we have about 66 school districts. Um, and in Kansas there are only about 745 or so number kind of fluctuates of schools that have food service management companies. That's over 25%. We have 66 of them. So um there are some close to you uh Iowa as I said the South Line County uh Santa Fe Trail um so some of those. So, why would a school district consider a food service management company? Well, we've kind of identified about eight reasons. The number one reason and how this model works to begin with is we can buy food cheaper than you can. Uh, and because of that savings, we make a little money. We are for-profit company, but the school saves some money. So, at Iola, we were losing, and I know this number sounds crazy, probably is. We were losing $255,000 a year in food service.
Um, so that's kind of frustrating for me. Um in addition to this uh we had do a summer tennis camp uh at the or courts. We had 75 second through 11th grader no second through 12th graders last year um in four sessions. So that's 18 and a quarter kids or three/4ers kids per session on three courts. That makes it to where stuff like that is extremely extremely difficult and you see it a lot more in something like that. you have a lot of kids standing around and second graders standing around is not always a whole lot of fun. Uh so that's a challenge. Um, in addition to that, we if you are Yeah, it might be late enough. When we leave here today, when you look at the tennis courts, I almost guarantee they're going to be full with kids. And we struggle to find court space for in the evening, too, because I there's not many tennis people here.
All right. Item B is our superintendence report. Okay. So, fourth quarter is pretty busy and one of the things that we've done, we have a big list of all the brand ambassadors that we're recognizing during fourth quarter. Some have already been recognized and the longer nominations are behind my agenda item so you can see what people wrote about. I'm here. Okay. I'm gonna have to call you back right away. Oh, okay. So, John Le's on the phone this evening. um but apparently not for a minute. The um so anyway, what I did was include what their peers wrote about them and nominated them. The foundation has sponsored this this year. We've encouraged people to nominate um city staff members who they think really represent our brand um really represent that keeping students safe that we are um preparing them for the future. And so those are things that we really and that we're working together.