001meeting of the 437 Board of Education to order. Um we are going to start with staff and school highlights. Scott, >> you bet. And before I ask the Auburn Elementary principal, Melissa Wells Martin, to come up, I just want to make a quick uh um make a couple of comments. January is board of education month and so on behalf of all of us, not just sitting at the table or in the boardroom, but across the district, I just want to say thank you very much to each board member for choosing to serve on the board. For those of you that are watching online or in the audience, uh you can see that we're a little bit of a different board right now. So, we have some new faces sitting at the table. So, I'd like
002to formally say congratulations to Jamie Stafford for uh moving into the board of education. Casey Johnson came on about a month ago, but this is the first board meeting in this room. Our last board meeting was at Indian Hills Elementary so we could showcase some of the work that one of the builders that's in the audience actually did for us not too long ago. So anyway, Casey Jamie, you're going to enjoy the role. Thank you so much for choosing to run for the board and we're looking forward to working alongside you for the next four years with this term. So, um I think it's always nice for the board to have an opportunity to wear some uh of the Auburn Washurn colors if you choose to. So, we always partner this time of the year
003with our high school students at the Shack. Uh so, they have put together a menu of opportunity uh for you to consider. So, take a look at that. Uh feel free to circle anything that you see on that that you would proudly wear in the community as you're going out and about events. And then I give that to Jessica before the end of the night. And then that'll come in probably just before spring break or so. So, all right. Wanted to mention that up front again. Thank you so much. And at this time, Melissa, yeah, please come on up. Thank you for being here. >> Hello. I'm Melissa Wells Martin, principal of Auburn Elementary, and I have the honor of honoring one of our students and two of our staff members tonight. So, I'll start
004with Miss Maddie Hosey, a fourth grader at Auburn Elementary. Let's give her a round of applause. All right. >> So, Mattie Hosey, a fourth grade student at Auburn Elementary, is our shining star award recipient. Maddie is an active learner who consistently participates in class, listens attentively, and stays focused on her work. She approaches each day with a positive attitude and a quiet determination that truly stands out. Maddie was nominated by by her fourth grade teacher, Miss Finley, who is in attendance, who shared that Maddie is not only helpful and compassionate towards others, but also incredibly perseverant. She tackles challenges head-on, never gives up when learning feels hard, and because of that perseverance, she has made tremendous academic gains this year. Maddie never complains, never gives up, and always does her best. We are so proud
005of you, Maddie, and thrilled to recognize you as Auburn's shining star. Congratulations. this morning. This is when you hopefully block us. I do right in the background. >> Yeah, >> we got to look on admiringly. >> Nice to have grand nearby. >> That's right. >> Photoshop. Great. >> Okay. Our next award is an all-star appreciation award and that goes um for the classified staff to Cindy Underh Hill. Cindy Underh Hill, a PAR educator at Auburn Elementary for the past 10 years, is our classified staff all-star award recipient. Cindy shared that of all the jobs she's ever had, this is her favorite. The love shines through her work with students every single day. Cindy believes in giving students independence while also knowing exactly when to step in with guidance, insight, and support. She has a special
006gift for recognizing when students are overwhelmed and helping them find a way forward instead of shutting down. Cindy describes helping students overcome challenges as her greatest joy. And we see that joy reflected in the confidence and perseverance of the students she supports. Auburn Elementary is better because of Cydney's Cindy's kindness, patience, and steady presence. Congratulations, Cindy, and thank you for the heart you bring to our school. This is a better seat. Okay, our last award is for our certified staff member, Heather Appenfeller. Heather Appenfeller, our incredible preschool teacher, is our certified staff all-star award recipient. Heather has been teaching preschool for 28 years and shared with me that she graduated from Washburn many moons ago. She believes deeply in early intervention and takes great pride in being a child's very first teacher. Heather shared that
007she loves watching children explore the world and grow throughout the year and that for her knowing she has played a part in growth in that growth gives her life purpose. Heather works with our littlest learners day after day, meeting a wide range of needs with care, kindness, and patience. That is nothing short of extraordinary. So much patience. So much. Auburn Elementary is so fortunate to have Heather guiding our youngest students and laying the foundation for their future success. Congratulations, Heather, and thank you for all that you do. Is your petition perfect? All right. Thank you, Melissa. Um, is there anyone signed up for public comment tonight? >> Not tonight. >> We are going to move on to opening items. For those of you that are were here for the recognition, this would be great time
008if you guys wanted to go, but if you want to stay for the meeting, we would love to have you. Um, but if you guys are are going to go, be a great time. >> So, we'll move on to roll call. Um all members present. Um and then we move on to 3.02 approval of the agenda. >> Move to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> There's been a motion and a second. All those in favor? >> I motion passes seven to zero. >> Move on to section four disposition of business by consent. >> I move the board of education to approve business by consenting payment of bills in the amount of 14,28,476.3. >> Second. It's been a motion and a second. All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. We'll move on to section
009five, uh, which is administrator reports. Um, so superintendent search updates. Frank, thank you. Well, good evening. >> Good evening. >> How's everybody? >> Good. >> Great. >> Right. Very good. Commend you for recognizing the student and the staff tonight. And uh after spending a week in the district, I'm like that's typical Auburn Washurn recognizing the community that makes it great. Well, I am Frank Henderson. I'm the associate with Hazard Young AIA who you've contracted with to provide the superintendent search and uh last week was a busy week. We were holding the focus groups throughout the district and uh I can say it was truly a pleasure to be in the district. Now being a Seaman school board member for 16 years, I look at the district from the outside, but this was a chance to
010actually see it from the inside and dialogue with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and uh I want to say you guys are doing a fabulous job. You really have a great district. want to say a special thanks to Chelsea and Jessica for keeping us in line and putting all things together for us for our schedule and setting getting us setting the focus groups up. And also a special thanks to uh Mr. Reigns. >> He uh hosted us for seems like hours over at the high school and we had a number of groups over there and uh it went really well. also really appreciative of all the help that was provided to us. So anyway, uh you like I said, you do have an outstanding district and we're going to go through the leadership profile report and
011u you have it board members and so I'm not going to read it all to you. You'll be able to do that on your own time. But I do want to hit some of the highlights and uh some of the things that um are pretty remarkable about what we found in the leadership profile report. This will be posted on our HYA website tomorrow and also on your district website. We understand that you'll post it as well. So the community as well as anyone who's interested will be able to see what this is. And of course, the purpose of the leadership profile assessment is to provide a snapshot, a picture of your district so candidates can read this. In fact, I was talking with the potential candidate today and he said, "So, is that report done?"
012Because he was looking forward and anxious to read that to see what the strengths of the district were, what the challenges were, and basically how does the community view the district. So, we're just going to kind of scoot right through this and hit some of the highlights. Uh, description of the district, of course, second paragraph, Auburn Washman is an amazing place to learn and work due to our engaged patron and business community, which is absolutely correct. We felt that all throughout the entire time that we were in the district. Everybody felt like this is where we belong. This is our district. We're a stakeholder. So going on to the next page, you at the bottom there you see the mission core values. We believe in the value and uniqueness of each student. We believe that
013excellence in education is a multiaceted process. And we believe that respect and responsibility are essential components of an excellent education. And uh every district that you go in, even every building, there's a culture. And throughout this district, we went from building to building, talked to different folk, we could sense that culture and that was a culture of caring and community throughout the entire district. Okay, with this first document is the survey that your district did back in October. So, I'm not going to go through all of that, but you can see the data from that survey. recruiting and retaining high quality staff of course with top ranked among the priorities and then also leadership qualities, integrity, transparency, strong communication skills parallel to some of the things that we found as well. Going moving on to
014the hya community engagement, we asked four questions each group that we met with. What are the strengths of the district that the new superintendent can build upon? What are the challenges facing the Auburn Washurn School District that the next superintendent should be aware of that you would like to see addressed? And what characteristics or traits are you looking for in that new superintendent? And uh often times we heard Scott and so I was like, well, unfortunately we can't just clone Scott, so we need to bring somebody new on. And then we asked if there was anything else that they wanted to tell us. But we gathered the information and put it in four groups. the school board, the staff, students and then the parents, community, business leaders and foundation was all in one group by
015itself. So starting with the first group and we had gathered 19 stakeholder groups all together is what we had hosted plus we had individual sessions with each board member. So starting with the board, the five most frequently mentioned strengths, stable, respected leadership, strong facilities and physical assets, financial stability and sound management, academic excellence and diverse programming, and community and stakeholder support. And of course, when you read that, I know you recognize that those are all things that are very critical to this community. Then the five most frequently mentioned challenges. And as some have said, I view these challenges as opportunities. And of course, with every district, there's not a perfect district. There's always room for growth and opportunities. And so these are staffing and recruitment difficulties which uh we see that across the nation especially
016when it comes to support personnel. It it's challenging. The pay isn't great again across the nation. It's not like this district is different any others but that's always a challenge. Enrollment decline in housing availability uh was mentioned how we have fewer incoming kindergarteners than what we're graduating. and looking down the road, it's like, okay, we're going to see a decreased enrollment. And of course, housing costs have risen all across the country, and that's always a challenge. Diversity and inclusion, and it was mentioned that we're not a a district that's very diverse, but also we're not diverse in thought because sometimes it's easy to get in one train of thought and you don't think outside the box. Communication with parents and community. In a district this size, communication is always a challenge because you want to
017be able to communicate enough but not too much where people feel like, okay, there's another email or something coming from the district and they just disregard. But that's always a challenge being able to communicate with the right mode and the right frequency. And student mental health and expanded school roles, that's a challenge across the country, too. Students mental health and well-being. Okay. Characteristics that they'd like to see in the next school board superintendent. And this is by you folks by the board. Uh number one, excellent communication skills, trustworthy, steady leadership, strong community engagement, operational and HR competence. I want someone that has some knowledge of HR. an adaptive collaborative mindset. They say it's important to have somebody that is able to recognize where we are as a district and then be able to build upon
018that. Not come in say, "Okay, I'm just going to wipe everything out and this is my agenda. This is my plan." But being able to recognize where the district is and then build up on that. The next group, parent, community, business leaders, foundation board, and of course, you have uh very strong community support, very strong business partners. The top five most frequently mentioned strengths, academic excellence with high expectations, comprehensive student opportunities and enrichment, exceptional career and college readiness. People are still amazed by the innovation center. They're like, "This is just off the charts." strong leadership, staff and organizational stability, community trust, investment and transparency. And again, the very strong element of being a community-minded and family-minded district. Then the challenges from this group again staffing, workforce sustainability, human capital challenges, financial limitations, state funding uncertainty
019and resource prioritization. Of course, there's going to be a new funding formula coming down the pike within the next year and a half or year anyway. Um, equity, access, and consistency across schools and student populations. It was expressed how it's a challenge to ensure that everybody has equal access to all of the programs, to all of the resource available to them, regardless of their economics, safety, student well-being, and responsible technology integration. And that's always a big one. Leadership, communication, and community engagement in a high expectation district. Your community wants to be involved. They want to be engaged. They want to know what's going on and they want to partner. Top characteristics from this group. Visible, approachable, and authentic presence. They wanted somebody that is going to be seen in the community, someone that is genuine,
020someone that they feel like they can approach if they have a concern. uh someone that is student centered and people focused and want someone that values the staff and understands that our focus, the reason why we're here is for the students. Strong communication, transparency, and trust. I mean, that says everything right there. They want you to be able to communicate well, be transparent, and that's what's going to develop the trust. Strategic, experienced, and forwardinking leadership. again, someone that's able to have a vision and help the district continue to move forward and a long-term commitment and community integration. This district has a very very long history of longevity with superintendence and they wanted to make it clear. We want somebody that's going to be around and we want somebody that does not view this just as
021a job to come in do a job but to be a part of the community to where you're going to be part of us. Then the staff, it's always interesting to hear from the staff. I consider staff to be what we call grassroots level. Those that are working with the kids every day. Top five strengths, high academic performance and achieving school district. Deeply embedded student first and inclusive culture. Pretty much that same uh feeling, that same sense, stability, trust, and a strong professional culture. provides many resources and opportunities both to students and staff and a deep sense of community. It's still resonating as a strong community related district, relational strength and family centered values. Then the most frequently mentioned challenges of course staffing, retention and compensation, equity and consistency across the district, communication and decision
022making processes. They want to be able to understand the why. When a decision is made, we want to know why this is happening, how it's going to impact us, and meeting the diverse and growing needs of students. Your staff love your students. They love being here and they want to be able to see that all the kids needs are met. And then of course financial and operational constraints and the top priorities, top characteristics for district school staff. steady leadership, relationship building, people first, inclusive and a supportive culture and visionary yet a balanced leadership. Deep understanding of the district and community that's absolutely critical. And then the students, it's always interesting to speak with students. I was amazed at how forthright the students were and uh they were very appreciative that we were willing to hear
023their voice. They're like, "Well, thank you for listening to us, you know." And I said, "Well, you're the reason why the school exists, >> you know, that's you're the reason why." One of the things that the students said which I really really appreciated they said our teachers are passionate about us. They are passionate about us learning and uh that speaks very very highly of the staff. Okay. broad and equitable student opportunities. Felt that was something that they had a lot of choices and some students felt like that every student could find their niche someplace. Strong academic rigor with personalized support and uh students like the rigor. Some even said that there should be more rigor in the middle school to prepare them for high school. Career readiness and future focused learning. They absolutely love that.
024They love the innovation center. Positive inclusive culture and student engagement. Your students like being able to have a voice. They like the clubs. Uh high quality staff facilities and community investment. And some of the students expressed the fact that they've gone to other school districts for different trips and realized that other districts don't have what they have. And we're really appreciative of the facilities and the opportunities here at Auburn Washurn. Challenges. Normally with challenges, we hear everything from bad lunches to whatever, you know, but we didn't hear that. uh consistency, fairness, and equity across the district. They feel it's important that everybody has access to the same resources, the same programs, student support, well-being, and belonging. In a district this size, it's easy for a student to get lost and they want to feel like
025that there's support for them and there's a sense of belonging. Safety, behavior, and school climate. Uh safety is a big one. Even when it comes to technology, some students express that they know they have fellow students that are misusing the technology and that was a concern for them. Access, logistics, and barriers to participation. They realize that everybody can't participate in everything, but they would like to be able to participate in as much as they can. Academic rigor, readiness, and emerging technology. You know, we even had discussion about cell phones and cell phone rules and a number of students like it wouldn't bother me if cell phones were banned. They said, I I I think their problem and others like, well, I think we can manage to get by with them or without them. But, uh,
026your students were very mature and, uh, did a really good job of speaking with us. characteristics that they wanted to see in a superintendent. Visibility and student connections, trust, integrity and follow through, communications and transparency, decision making and leadership style, financial responsibility and equity and funding. And the students like structure and they're like, you know, tell us what the rules are and then everybody abide by them. and they said we don't mind that just as long as it's clear. Then in looking at all of these groups and all of these stakeholders, we were able to see some emerging themes. And the strengths basically that we came up with were five strengths. And I think that you will see that these describe your district really well. One, academic excellence with high expectations and personalized support. We
027heard that throughout is that the community expects the kids to succeed. Two, broad, equitable student opportunities and enrichment. That was very strong college or career college and future focus readiness. People felt that the district does a good job at getting kids ready for after high school. Strong leadership, high quality staff, and organizational stability. Stakeholders have confidence in the leadership. They have confidence in the board. They have confidence in the current superintendent and administration. They feel like they're going to do the right thing. and then community trust, investment and inclusive and a student first culture. I think those five things really sum up the district in in a very very concise way and I know candidates will read that and it gives them a good picture of what Auburn Washurn School District is about. Then on
028the other side you have the challenges. Staffing, workforce sustainability and human capital, like I said, is nothing new. Financial constraints, enrollment shifts, and resource prioritization. Yeah, if we had all the money we needed, we could we could all do so much more. Equity, consistency, and access across the district, trying to make sure that every child receives what they need. student well-being, safety and school climate and school and student safety will always be a factor of a priority. Leadership, community communication and community engagement in a high expectation district. So, the bar is set high. The board has always set the bar high. The community has set the bar high. So that's going to be a challenge for the next superintendent coming in realizing that he or she is going to have to be able to continue
029to perform at this high level to meet the expectations of the community. Then the characteristics we have 10 exceptional communication and transparency trustworthy steady and ethical leadership student centered people first leadership visible approachable and authentic presence strong communication engagement and integration strategic experienced and forwardinking leadership operational financial and HR competence collab collaborative and adaptive leadership style, commitment to stability and long-term investment and integrity, follow through and student voice. And then at the end of all this are the bulleted notes. You'll have board also from all the groups. But that's kind of your nutshell version of the leadership profile report and happy to answer any questions you may have. Any questions or comments for Frank? >> No, appreciate >> it's a heck of a week for you guys to get through all that in a week.
030>> It was >> I can imagine. So, thank you, Frank, for all the work on this and we're excited for the next steps. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Continue to keep up the good work. >> All right. Thanks, Mar. >> All right. And then next up on administrator reports is Dr. D. year update. All right, Brett, if I could convince you to pass one, pass one around. All right. Well, good evening. So, um, we are about halfway through the school year. And so, I wanted to share where we were on KISSA and our ongoing needs assessment, share some good information with you in progress that we've made, and give you just kind of a pulse check of the efforts that have been taken thus far and where we will move forward from here.
031So, um, because we have some newer members, um, to the board team, I thought I would take a couple moments to outline kind of how we go about this work. So, we have a district guiding coalition. That guiding coalition was implemented last year. It consists mostly of teachers, um, teachers from a variety of subject areas, grade levels, um, types of classroom situations. We also have building leaders and district leaders who are involved in there. um it's a group of about I think 25 folks and we meet periodically throughout the year to engage in the process um of accreditation but also how we can leverage our PLC to move our system forward. So we have a very diverse group of folks um who are passionate about supporting all of our students and if you recall last
032year um in the spring we went through a process where we identified priorities. So these are fundamentals on the left and structures kind of in the second column that the state of Kansas through their accreditation process asks us to identify based on where we are through a collaborative discussion with the guiding coalition with building principles um with stakeholders um and buildings and feedback. We landed on standards alignment for our fundamental professional learning and professional collaboration for the particular structures we used and we were in very good company. By the way, um they've been showing this on KSD presentations. I thought I would add this. The overwhelming majority of school districts picked the exact same things that we did. Um because you can't really do a whole lot of the really powerful deep work without having
033a solid foundation in place. And so we wanted to examine our foundation, make some adjustments, which we've done over time um to really allow us to excel. And I'm excited to show you some of the results of that work here in a moment. But um again, we are in good company. Every building has a blueprint. These blueprints outline how buildings will engage with the Auburn Washurn focus areas. I'm not going to read this to you as we've talked about this numerous times, but um as a reminder, our first goal was thinking about how we use standards to support assessment through professional learning. Our goal with the state was to have um 60% of the PD completed. We have done 80% of it by this point. We have one more PD day um where teachers will
034have an opportunity to showcase what's going on in their classrooms through professional learning communities um while also reaffirming the four um to four questions. So uh we've made very good progress there. So the second two goals are both around professional collaboration again aligned with standards. So goal two is focusing on common assessments. So we know what it is we teach. So now we're focusing also on how do we know that that is effective. And so the first goal was to develop district expectations for common assessments. We've done that. We've engaged in discussion about that. Um we've shared that information out and now we begin the work of implementation and the goal is for 90% um of common assessments to be reviewed by PLC's through different structures. Elementary will will look at ELA assessments. They will
035do that through dcc work. um secondary will be doing that in their PLC's because they build them in their PLC's. And so we will review with those teams what that looks like and and learning services has been partnering with buildings on that. Um goal three is standards alignment um through data analysis and collaboration. So you have the information about student learning and you know where they're at. Okay, what does this mean for us? How do we move it forward? So again, um we developed district expectations. That was our goal for our sixth month. We've done that. Um we decided collectively as the guiding coalition um that it should be ongoing as part of the teaching and learning cycle. So not something you just stop and do, but something that is embedded in who you are.
036Um that we prepare our data and we're we're prepared to have quality conversations about it and that either we do things as a building or PLC's have agency to use some tools that the guiding coalition has vetted. So either approach works as long as there is a level of consistency. Moving forward then PLC's will work with our instructional facilitators, all of our schools have them to engage in data analysis cycles um either using building protocols or one of the district selected tools as a modeling opportunity um for our folks. So um IS have been having discussions about that and we'll reaffirm all of this with principles as we go through. So, that's where we've been thus far on our um needs assessment and accreditation journey. So, I want to share some data with you. Um
037we'll do this from time to time um over the course of the year. I'll eventually share some CAP data with you um as we move a little bit farther, but tonight we'll focus on MAP. So, MAP is the measure of academic progress. Um the measure of academic progress is our interim assessment. All of our students take it two through 10 and we take it three times a year. The purpose of this is to measure student growth. We want to know how much students are learning in reading, language usage, and math over time. Not just over one year, but over multiple years. And we use this to guide instructional planning, to monitor progress, to look at the effectiveness of our programs and know how we can support um and identify individual student needs. And this is
038one of the things that our team uses when we think about accreditation. So we do it three times a year. And this is kind of an important piece because you will see on the slides they're titled a little bit strangely. So fall is taken in August. Winter is taken in December. So when you see the years, you'll see 2025 and you'll think, why is it not 2026? We did it in December, not in January. And then we'll take it again in May. And so there are three data points we'll talk about. One's a scaled score, one's observed growth, and one's growth percentiles. So let's dig in. And at any time you want to ask questions, just stop me. All right? I could just talk about this forever because I like geeking out about data. >>
039So the first piece I want to share with you, and I'll and I'll tell you also what I think you should take away from it, but engage critically if you wish. Um the scaled scores. So what you see are winter scaled scores um for all the student groups who have taken these assessments. So second through 10 in reading, language usage and math. The second chart though I think from a board perspective is probably what um will give you the most impact. Anywhere you see green shows where we perform above the national norm. So you will notice every single grade level on every single test our district performs at or above all the other students who are taking this test. Highle overview. A little oversimplified but still significant. And you'll notice that the farther to the
040right you go um those numbers start to increase pretty significantly. Um let me share that at the secondary level when you're talking about growth on the rich scaled scores you are working really hard to get one and two points a year the fact that we are performing at 7.8 8 5.3 5 I mean those are significant numbers and so um you heard in the HYA presentation about high expectations and high student achievement and what we do to attain that that is data point number one um that we perform very well when compared to our um students. All right, second chart I would like to point your attention to. It's on the back side of the page that I provided. So this is growth fall of 2025 to winter of 2025. So this is students who
041took the test in August and students who took the tests again in December. On the first chart, the only bad color is red. There isn't any. Um the the colors are all green and yellow. And what that means is that in every single level 2 through 10 on all three assessments, we performed at or above expectations all across the board. So everywhere and that is incredible. That is not something that you see all of the time in a system. And so again that is a lot of hard work from a lot of classroom teachers for a lot of students for a lot of PLC's to see that kind of growth it's very significant the growth percentile. So what's important when you look at observed growth is you dig in a little bit deeper. So when
042you dig in a little bit deeper and you can actually see the percentiles here's how you interpret that. 50 is average growth. So zero to 100. You've got your percentiles 50 dead in the middle. Okay. A map provides some ranges and I have colorcoded those for you. So what you will notice is that our growth percentiles are average, high average, and high across the board. This is why I say don't worry about the yellow because you'll notice, yeah, there's yellow in 10th grade, but that's still positive. that's still right where we want to be because when you look on the growth percentiles, they're right where we need to be in terms of average growth. And so it's a similar way um of looking at it with a slightly different um lens in how the data
043is calculated, but again very strong performance across the board. >> Oh, Dr. Detta, >> please interrupt. >> Um when it says difference from expected growth, how are we defining expectations for growth? Excellent question. So, so on the MAP assessment through their psychometric analysis, um, through the number of weeks in a school year, through all of the national norms, what they do is they project and they say you should make X amount of growth over the course of a year. What I have reported to you here is not the actual number of the actual amount of growth because without context, it's not very helpful. What I have shown here is how much of a difference there was between where we should have been versus where we were expected to be. So, it's important to have higher
044levels of growth for a couple of reasons. One, if there are ever situations where you are trying to catch up, so you're trying to close gaps. You want to be able to have higher faster growth because it allows you to bring everyone along with you. Um, it also allows us to maintain these higher levels of performance by always staying ahead of the curve. And so that's why it's reported as a difference um rather than the actual growth number. Did I answer your question? >> Yeah. Mhm. >> Okay. All right. So, you read this the same way. So, winter 2024 to winter 2025. You might ask yourself, why is second grade blanked out? They don't take this assessment in first grade. So there's no way that you can calculate growth from previous year to current year.
045So we can't report second grade. Um but that's okay. You'll notice again green and yellow are both positive. Um what that means is that we are at or above where we need to be. And so there's some yellow checkered through there. But again, when you look at the growth percentiles below, you will notice it is all average and high average. So you have to dig a little bit deeper and that's what the second chart allows you to do. So when I look at the growth percentiles across the district, very strong growth um all the way across and again um kudos to our teachers and our our leadership for making this happen and our students >> and so sorry Dr. Yeah, to provide some context just to make sure I'm understanding correctly. So when we say
046a 0.0 on on fifth reading, we're essentially saying that there was expected growth between >> say fourth winter fifth winter and we would expect a you know a growth percentage of 5%. I'm just making things up. And so this is saying yes it's 0.0 but we hit that 5%. We just didn't hit over the 5%. >> Correct. >> Okay. So still indicating growth over time just not >> Yes. Okay. And when like for example and and I'm I'm probably not giving you the exact numbers, so please don't quote me on this. I'm trying to memorize the chart in my head and that's a little hard. But like 10th grade reading for example, like I said, when you get to like ninth and tth grade, it becomes much harder to move the scale score. So growth
047might be one point. And so in 10th grade reading, if we hit one point, that would show zero on here because it's exactly where we need to be. You might ask yourself, well, why would I even present it like this or why do we look at it this way? Because what it allows our team to do is quickly zero in on, okay, like is there a curriculum design issue here? Is there a pattern that we can see? It allows us to look at it from a different perspective rather than just the solid numbers, but actually think about system changes that could happen as a result. So, it's kind of a weird way of looking at it, but it's actually helpful for us. Great questions. Other questions about this? >> So, when you when you're looking
048at this, you know, this year obviously it it's really exciting with where we're at with MAP testing. If you were to look historically in the district, let's say you go back to 202021 and we look historically, have we looked this way every year or has this changed over the last few years with implementation of new new things? >> Um, this data is significantly improving over time. So, the more that we continue to have these discussions about what it is we want to teach and how we organize our teaching and we have high quality instructional resources that align with that and we empower our professional learning communities to really have quality conversations and and have common things that they're discussing that are clear and actionable um responses. Um that is one of many factors that would
049lead to improvement in data. This is really exciting. I think it's super fun to see the success, especially after being on the board for, you know, a few years, several years now, where we've made and it feels like we've made significant changes to curriculum and just with the reorganization of how we're how we're teaching and how we're, you know, um the accreditation pro, all those things that have gone in and all the time that's been spent. Um really kudos to your staff to for all the work that they've put in to make this happen and all the teachers that make it happen every day. >> Kudos to the teachers and PLC's. And now I do want to say one thing just in fairness, right? So this is really good data right now. There will be
050times when you have an implementation where occasionally there will be dips. That is normal. So there will be times when I will come to you and I will share data with you and you might see a red blip here and there. Um, the important thing to remember is that we're tracking the data. We know what it is we're looking for. And because we are having these conversations as a professional learning community, we know how to move forward. And so, we're making good progress now. We are, you know, for this year's data, we are two data points in. We still have another data point to go. So, we're going to continue our hard work and our we know where we're going and we know what we're looking at and we know the conversations to have. And
051I think that's a very positive step in the right direction. So um so the final things um I'll kind of wrap up with unless you have other questions. So that guiding coalition I mentioned earlier um has a lot of good work ahead of them. They attended a PLC conference in December. Um we'll be debriefing that next week. Um I think we had I don't know 60 to 80 people total throughout. It was a lot of people who went um to that conference. It was great work. Um our um guiding coalition members will be um developing training that we will roll out in April and also be able to use in buildings. So that's exciting. And then uh we'll continue to gather our data and be able to package it up for our action planning that
052comes in April through our KISA school improvement day. So as we prepare more data, I'll come back in front of you and share more insights with you to keep you in the loop as we move through this process. That's all I've got. >> I told uh Jeff that u when we do the third data point, if it turns out all green and yellow, let's present that in June. But if there happens to be a little bit of red, he can hold off until like August. >> Report with the new superintendent is >> timing is everything. >> Well, thank you, Jeff. >> Thank you guys. We appreciate your support. All right, we'll move on to section six. Um 6.01 is guaranteed maximum price for Pauline South. So Tucker Josh come up here. Um congratulations. This is
053the last GMP approval for the bond passed in 2020. Right. >> Correct. Yes. >> Right. >> Lot of work. Yeah. >> Um it's on budget. So it's kind of a celebration here tonight. Obviously, there's going to be some more discussions, I think, with the capital outlay committee moving forward this spring on some different improvements that might be possible to add into it. Um, but right now, we're here to approve the base bid. Um, so I'm going to turn it over to Josh, but I just want to thank you all and I know that there's a lot of new faces on this board over the last four years that I've been here. Um, and I I really appreciate all of you being so um accepting as you've come onto the board. Um, because I know that
054the leadership change over four years. Um, and I just I appreciate Scott, you stick you sticking around and I know we still have to build this thing. Um, but there's typically a lot of turnover over four years when you have a big bond like this and and you guys have had that. Um, but you've handled it with grace and class and we've been able to stay on target and on mission the whole time. So, I appreciate that greatly. >> Well, I'd echo Tucker's comments as well. I don't think there's anything I can very well put. um appreciate the partnership that we've had and and um Scott's leadership certainly and working with Tucker and excited to move into this last phase of improvements for the district. So, what you have in front of you tonight is
055our our final amendment uh for the work associated with Pauline South. Um uh certainly can answer any questions you might have um with that document. I was just going to give you a brief um rundown of kind of how the bid went. Uh again, very successful bid. a lot of participation. We averaged three bids uh per bid package. Um and we had a lot of uh success within the Topeka uh area as well with biders. So um uh according to the base bid, we've got about 88% of the work that could go to local biders uh will be um that'll be almost $1.2 million. Um and some of that could increase uh depending on some of the alternates that get taken as well. So um keeping it short on the last one. So certainly answer
056any questions you might have. >> Any questions or comments? >> Since I'm the last one standing, I guess uh with Michael and Jackie, I appreciate all the work with you guys and been very transparent and uh good communication and been just real real good to work with and working with each of the buildings. So appreciate the work there. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. And this will come back up for um consideration here in just a little bit. >> That is correct. >> Uh 6.02 uh staffing request for two parap positions. Chelsea. >> Yeah. So two parap positions um I have the details in a communication to the personnel subcommittee. Um so they have seen that but for the purposes of the group um it's midyear. We partner with our principles and the directors
057of sped make sure that this is truly truly needed. Um, there's one that'll be at the secondary level, one at the elementary, and it matches a student needs. So, if you have any questions, let me know. >> Questions or concerns for Chelsea? >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Move on to 6.03, acceptance of charitable gifts. Jessica. >> Yes. So, there is an existing board policy regarding bequest and charitable gifts. That policy states that gifts are to be reviewed and approved by the board of education. In practice, we have typically done that when it's been a larger, more sizable gift. I have received guidance from KSD that we should be doing that for all charitable contributions. So, we happen to have two large gifts that came in in December that are going to be um
058later on in the agenda for action items to approve, but in the future, I will be putting any charitable contributions that come in to the district on the consent agenda for you all to review and accept. So, the two tonight are a $10,000 contribution from Federal Home Loan Bank in Topeka. And I think you saw probably that goes to architecture and construction pathways at the innovation center. And then a $6,000 contribution from an individual donor for unrestricted support at the Tall Grass Student Learning Center. So both of those will show up later under action items. >> Any questions or comments for Jessica? >> If not, we'll move on to 6.04 4 uh K12 Mastery 10 standards for science. Jenny and Morgan. >> Hello and good evening. And good evening to our newer board members. Also,
059we wanted to take a minute to put a face to a name. Um so we've received some documents from Jenny and I. I'm Morgan Brown, the director of elementary. >> Uh Jenny Leonard, assistant director of secondary education. All right. So, we're going to talk you through K12 science mastery 10 standards. So, if you have been a member of the board previously, um we have gone through this with with a couple of other uh subject areas, but we're going to walk through science. So, not to sound like a broken record, but we're going to go through a little bit for our newer board members just to kind of go through this process with you. So, for science mastery 10, um we chose 10 mastery standards at each grade level, K12, um that are based on Kansas
060State standards. Um the mastery 10 standards highlight what must be mastered at a course or a grade level. So mastery means all students will master uh with 100% proficiency of meaning all students is all students. Um all standards are still taught. They're just utilized as supporting standards. Um and then all of these standards are implemented and supported by either our current board approved instructional materials or future board approved instructional materials. So why mastery 10? So, just to recap, our end goal here is to really provide a guaranteed and viable curriculum for all students. Um, it's a promise to our students, to our parents, to our colleagues, and our community for what our students will know as well as be able to do um here in Auburn Washurn. And it also provides that clarity and support
061for our teachers um in our curriculum alignment. So, there's no more guessing game as to what students will master. They will master this. we will make it our uh priority to make sure that this is done so that they're not only proficient at that grade level but also ready for the next. >> There are a lot of benefits to having the mastery 10 in place um including equal opportunity for all of our learners. So regardless of their class or their grade level, their building um we know that they will leave with the same standards mastered the st same learning experiences and be ready and prepared for their next grade level. um consistency of learning, improvement in student achievement, efficient and effective use of instructional time, and increased teacher flexibility. And those PLC's you've heard about,
062um the time can really be spent on getting into the depth of what our students know and how do we know they know it? What are those next steps? Because we know what we're teaching. Um and we also increase that time where we get to talk about the magical part, which is the how. how are we getting to teach these um standards to our students in a way that's engaging, in a way that's fun, in a way that's memorable for our students. So that process in selecting which standards are our master 1810 standards in each subject area is highly collaborative. So in the fall of 2024 when we started this work, we included all staff members um in that process. So talking through what does this look like? Why are we doing this? and how
063do we start that process of selecting which standards um need to be identified as those mastery 10. We then keep that work um collaboratively uh focused and ongoing through our PLC's and our district comm uh curriculum committees both at elementary and secondary. We were able to then circle back with all staff in the fall of 2025 during our professional learning days. Um and we collect feedback and continuous improvement loops um as we go. Those are all in place to ensure accuracy and relevancy over time. So as we collect student data, we can pull those up and we can review and look for gaps or opportunities for growth and improvement there too. So included for your review today are the K12 mastery 10 standards overview. This includes the standards that were selected and the rationale for
064their selection. And then you'll also see both the K5 vertical alignment and the 612 vertical alignment of where those standards line align. Uh, with that, um, that's pretty much all we have for science. So, if you have questions, we're willing to take those. Um, for our next read, we will bring forth our social studies standards. Um, and then we will also have our specialty areas as well. So, with that, what questions do you have for us this evening? >> Questions or comments? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. >> Right. That is the last of our items for discussion. Um we are going to move on to section seven action items. So we'll start with 7.01 uh GMP for Pauline South. It's been so long since we've seen them. Any questions or comments
065that have come up? Otherwise would entertain a motion. >> I would go ahead move the board of education approve the guaranteed maximum price for Pauline South bond construction project in the amount of 1,852,993. >> Second. It's been a motion and a second. All those in favor? Motion passes 7 to zero. Thank you guys. >> All right. Move on to 7.02, which is acceptance of charitable gifts. >> I'd move the board of education approve the charitable gifts totaling 16,000 from the foundation as required by Kansas law to be administered in accordance with donor intent and deposited into the district's gifts and grants fund. >> Second. >> It's been a motion and a second. All those in favor? Motion passes. 7 to zero. Um, now we're going to move on to 7.03, which is the Washurn Ral
066High School site council recommendation. Um, and there was some discussion last time about advisory period um, around cell phone use and advisory period. So, we thought it would be good to maybe have discussion and I think is Ed he's here, right? I just can't see your mind. There he is. Okay. Sorry, I couldn't see you back there. But, um, Ed would be able to answer any questions or we can have any more discussion around that. And I know we started that conversation last time and um wanted to make sure we had time for that. So Ed, maybe for me since I don't have high school kids, I haven't been, you know, through the high school yet and advisory is kind of a a a different term for me that Scott kind of laid out. Can
067you just walk through for everybody maybe just what advisory looks like at the high school? >> Sure. So um we implemented advisory periods approximately 15 years ago, 16 years ago in an effort to personalize the learning environment. Um, initially it was about relationships. We didn't want a kid walking across the stage at graduation who wasn't known well to at least one person in the building. Uh, and so we implemented advisory. Through the years, there have been additional mandates that have come down from the state related to college and career readiness, individual plans of study, those types of things. And we've tried to leverage that time um for those purposes. And so on Tuesdays um we have prescribed curriculum activities uh that the kids engage in related to college and career readiness developing their individual plans
068of studies there. There are social emotional pieces uh there as well. Um we do trusted adult pieces suicide prevention awareness pieces during advisory as well. Wednesdays we do not have advisory because we have early release uh either district or um building level early release. Uh so the kids only have advisory on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday because um we're so far removed from uh a lot of where our kids live. We hold clubs during the school day. Uh what you will find in a lot of high schools is that clubs occur after school um because a lot of our kids can't make it. Again, going back to the equity issues that you heard uh Frank talk about and accessing those kinds of opportunities for kids who don't have transportation after school. We have clubs during
069the day and so we do that on Thursdays. Uh and so various clubs uh meet on Thursdays um every other week. Uh, and then Mondays and Fridays we left um open for kids to get extra help, assistance uh uh from any teacher they have on their schedule um in any of their classes. And so they just uh go wherever they need to go to get that help or assistance or they stay in their advisory period on Mondays and Fridays and do homework um whatever they need to do to use that time wisely in pursuit of academics. Um and some of them honestly will use it for downtime. Um especially those uh uh those kids who are taking AP classes, a full load of AP classes or IB classes. So it's it's a very multiaceted approach
070to how that time is used. But to sum it up, Tuesdays are curriculum days. I consider those instructional that instructional time and I um as it relates to cell phones, I would not want to see cell phones during that time. Um Mondays and Fridays um kids can use the time as they will uh for support in their schedule. Uh Thursdays are club days and we don't have advisory on Wednesdays. >> So Ed and you are comfortable with the site council's recommendation. >> Um I am comfortable with getting people to consensus about what they want to do. Um, and if I thought it was an unwise decision, I would have voiced that opinion during site council. Um, I think actually what what the site council wanted to do um, the direction they were headed was to
071have cell phones um, available during advisory period. Um and uh it's my opinion um as the leader of the building that that Tuesday time is instructional time and I wouldn't want to see cell phones uh taking away from anything that we had planned on that day uh instructionally. Um but other than that um I'm I support the site council repres or the site council recommendation. Yes. And so is that if it's worded that the that it that you can't use them during instructional time then you can handle that at the building level of hey Tuesdays our instructional time >> right >> okay >> because I I from my standpoint I want to give you some latit whoever's the principal some latitude at the high school because >> these students are getting very close to being
072out in the real world starting to adult where they'll have to manage some of this stuff as they move into their careers or on into college. So, >> right, and to their credit and to the credit of the parents and the staff that were on uh that are on the site council, um they were there very thoughtful about what the recommendations were and it's always I think best practice um to trust first and to make adjustments after that if we have to. And so out of the gate, um, you know, this is this is what the recommendation was with the exception of the Tuesdays, um, that I think we need to restrict. Um, and if it if it doesn't work, then we we always have the flexibility, you have the flexibility to to come back
073and say, let's tighten it up. >> Perfect. Any other comments or questions for Ed? >> Yeah, Ed. Um to follow up on Haya's sessions, Haya sess that Frank did sessions with the high school students. Um some of the feedback that we saw in the um survey was that students felt disciplinary actions for cell phone use were was inconsistent. Do we have procedures for what happens if they violate this policy? >> Um I think we address that in the language. Um I think the inconsistency that was being referenced was happening in classrooms and how individual teachers handled it um now and in the past. Some teachers didn't allow them. Um there was and that was at teacher discretion. other teachers did and so kids were getting fused because there was inconsistent enforcement across classrooms based on
074teacher discretion which is completely within the purview of the policy under this um under under the language we have here I think we actually say that um we don't want teachers dealing with cell phone violations and so if a cell phone is out um it comes to the office and we take care of it >> and I think that was one of the biggest changes from the polic policy then to the policy now is that it went from kind of teacher discretion to during instructional time there are no it's and it's more than just cell phones it's cell phones wearable watch technology and airpods all of those sorts of things so >> yeah it's pretty broad language that we used and instru it's not just when teachers are instructing instructional time is the class period
075it's the 47 48 class period >> um is that I was actually just going to ask that is that clarified in the policy I I know I already read the policy, but specifically to say the whole period, not just when the teacher's talking. >> I I I think so. I don't have a photographic memory, >> but I I think we referenced that. >> I also I also believe uh whatever action the board takes. Um we have the rest of the semester to get prepped and ready for the 2026 2027 school year. to make it crystal clear for students. I think it was brought up earlier that as long as from a student's point of view, as long as I know exactly what the guidelines are, most times most kids will hit the guidelines. And so
076we'll just need to be really clear on okay, effective day one, this is the way it's going to be. >> Other questions or comments? >> Good feedback. >> Well, Ed, thank you again for coming here and and Shano, I know you sit on the site council and thank you for all their work on that. Um, this is they they did a really great job on this. So, um, if there's no more questions or comments, I would entertain a motion. >> I'll move that the board of education approved the Washurn Rural High School site council's recommendation as presented which prohibits student use of cell phones during instructional time effective at the start of the 2026 2027 school year. >> Second. >> There's been a motion and a second. All those in favor? Motion passes seven to
077zero. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Ed. >> Um, no communication items tonight. Um, so at this time, the chair would move uh to go into executive session at 7:40 p.m. to discuss students pursuant to the uh relating to the actions adversely or favorably affecting a student under coma. um to discuss personnel's p matters pursuant to the exception of non-elected personnel under KOMA and to discuss budget pursuant to the exception for employer employee negotiations under KMA for 40 minutes. Uh the open meeting will resume in the boardroom at 8:20 p.m. >> Second. >> There's been a motion and second. All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. We are in executive session. We are back in open session after being in executive session. At this time, the chair would move to go into executive session
078for an additional 15 minutes. Um, there's been a motion and a second. All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. We're back in executive session. All right, we are back in ex in open session in executive session. >> Motion to adjourn. Second motion in a second. All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. We are