001We are going to call this meeting of the 437 Board of Education to order. Um we're at Washurn Rule Middle School. Excited to be here tonight um and to see all the renovations of the school and it's been a really fun night already of some tours and things that we had before. So, we will start tonight with um school highlights. So, Scott, >> that is correct. And so, uh coincidentally, we have the principal of the middle school here, Mr. Hair. So, he's going to take the podium and do the first introduction. And thank you all for being here for this recognition. >> Yeah. Thank you all for coming to Washurn Middle School. As you can see, this is a beautiful new space that we are showing off here tonight. It's a middle school library. It's
002a state-of-the-art and we are super excited to host this and have such a great facility here. Uh I'm just going to introduce Katherine Lauderbback who was an eighth grade science teacher here last year and if you know her, she was also our green sponsor and she would do crazy songs on our intercom about recycling and she could make up songs like crazy and sing them to our whole entire uh building. We made a lot of songs, didn't we, Mr. Wells? >> Correct. Anyway, and she's transitioned from eighth grade science to our e steam program facilitator, which is taking over our outdoor education program, K6. And she's transitioned to that role, which we just took the board through a little tour of almost finished facility. And so, we're going to turn it over to her so
003she can talk about the green club and about why we're here tonight. >> Yes. >> Can we start off with a song? >> Song. Song. I could try. Um, so, um, yeah. So, um, my name is Katherine Ladderback and, um, thank you for this opportunity to be here tonight, um, and share Middle School being recognized as a Kansas Green School. Um, I I want to note, um, even though, uh, I was in charge of Green Club, this is a schoolwide effort. Um and so um we have not just green club but stucco and teachers um and a variety of community members uh taking place which I'll probably highlight in my reading. Um so um wash middle school is receiving the silver globe award through the Kansas Association for conservation and environmental education. The Silverwood Globe
004Award recognizes schools that go beyond educ environmental awareness and take measurable student led action to improve their campus and community through sustainability, conservation, and environmental investigations. Uh this place uh this place is Washington Middle School among the top environmental education schools in the state in this recognition. Um it is a result directly from the students and school community. They led recycling drives, collected over a thousand pounds of plastic, conducted environmental invest in investigations, completed in science uh citizen science projects like monarch tagging, uh achieve positive outcomes in the school learning activity. Um one of my favorites was we did a school initiative of a green hour and we encouraged every class to spend one class period outside um doing something related to their content. Uh we were able to achieve this recognition through the partnership
005and collaboration within the school. Um with the help of StuCo, our cafeteria staff, custodial staff, and classroom teacher participation. This effort not only helped our school become more sustainable, but also empowered our students to become leaders and problem solvers. Uh in fact, it's kind of exciting. Many of the students here um are freshman now who came back today. Um, the program uh we are being recognized tonight is uh from Kansas Green Schools, which is a statewide initiative designed to support schools in turning their campuses into hands-on learning laboratories through student investigations in areas such as waste reduction, water quality, energy use, air quality, and school and school communities. Um, the program helps improve environmental performance while advancing STEM education, leadership, and community engagement. And tonight we are joined by um Rachel Why the director of
006the Kansas Green Schools and she works with schools statewide to provide training resources, grant opportunities and supports so students and educators can take action for a healthier environment. So it is an honor to introduce Rachel uh who will be here to share a little bit more about the program and present us with the green school flag. So, I wrote a speech and it sounded a lot like she just said, so I don't want to say it all again, but it is a huge accomplishment. Uh, I we're a statewide nonprofit. Um, my job is to support teachers um in really getting environmental education out there. Um, it's just amazing to see when schools incorporate environmental education. All the research says their uh academic scores go up. Um, teachers love it because it makes their life a
007lot easier because kids are a lot calmer in the classroom. It gives them real world projects to work on. It's incorporating math. It's incorporating ELA. It's incorporating science. A lot of times people think environmental education is just science, but it's not. I mean, it's the whole world that the kids are experiencing in a very real way. Um I won't my son right now he's in seventh grade and his uh science teacher it's his last year before retirement and there is no hands-on there's no interacting he's just kind of punching the time clock right now and I and he comes home and tells me science is boring and I'm just like no science is amazing you know and like I can't thank Katherine enough um because she has I know it's not just her but sometimes
008it just takes that spark and then when the spark happens all the other sparks start to happen and all the students I mean I'm so excited for your future um because when I was a kid I didn't know jobs existed in environmental education um I I didn't want to be a vet and I didn't want to work at a I didn't want to be a zookeeper and so I went to Kate for architecture which was terrible And then uh I finally and then I switched to elementary education and I finally switched to fisheries and wildlife biology and that's what my degree is in. And I was like I don't know what I'm going to do but I'm going to do what I love and I'll figure it out. And so it's cool because now there's
009so many opportunities out there. There's renewable energy, there's water, there's conservation, there's so it's a growing field and it's just cool that you're a part of it and we'll be like we knew you way back when. And so just congratulations for all the work you all are doing. And it is my honor to give you the flag. And I know it's only the beginning. Um but we basically have this flag and um people tend to like put it indoors um so that people can come in and see it. Um but then there's more investigations to be done. And so then as you complete two more investigations, you get the gold globe. And then when you get all five done, you get the green globe. And that's the highest level of recognition that you can earn.
010And you can also work towards being a green district. And that's where it's not just your middle school. It's like everybody doing it. This is a really long line, guys. I think to like you're going to have to cheerleader like do this cheerleading squats and stuff like that. Okay. >> And I I like to >> I know you know how to do cheerleading. >> We also have people from North who has come here too that was here last year. And so it's it's nice to see recurring faces. >> Perfect. All right. Smile. Yes. >> All right. Okay. >> Hey, Katherine, before the students leave, could I don't care which one, but could uh maybe one of the students just talk about their experience and one of the takeaways from from last year. Are you claim
011[Music] like a takeaway what you learned from last year or the experience of going through this kind of like what you you already pre-in this is your post interview [Music] >> and you got this so maybe you're just taking >> uh what I learned from last year was a lot of environmental factors I even learned more than what I knew from my own research And uh throughout it, I just I loved it. Even though it was hard work, you had to get you had your nails dirty, everything dirty, dirt all the time. >> It was really fun and it got me outside. I was able to breathe more, take breaks, be more focused, >> and overall it was really fun meeting like I got to meet a ton of people just from and I got
012to I got to go out of class, but I was still able to catch up with everything. I was able to keep track. It was all fun. Congratulations to each of you. That's fantastic. Great work. >> I'm gonna brag on Zoom. She also she also received a conservation. She won an essay from the zoo and got a little painting from a zoo animal, too. So, for her work. So, >> congratulations. >> They all We all did. I could talk hours. So, >> thank you all for being here. >> Good job. We are going to move on to uh public comment. Is there anyone signed up signed up for public comment today? >> Okay, we are going to move into our opening items. If you were here just for recognition and want to leave, now is
013a great time to be able to do that. If you want to stay for the whole board meeting, we are more than happy to have you stay. But um if you would guys would like to take off, we're going to um start on the opening stuff. So roll call. Um I everyone here is here except for Joe Fall. Um and then move on to 3.02, O2 which is approval of the agenda. >> Motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> There's been a motion and a second. All in favor? >> Motion passes six to zero. Move on to section four. Disposition of business by consent. >> I move the board of education approve the business by consent including payment of bills in the amount of 6,34,628. Second. >> It's been a motion and a second.
014All in favor? Motion passes six to zero. Um we are going to move on section five. It doesn't look like any administrator reports tonight. Yep. >> Um so we'll move into section six which is items for discussion. 6.01 is the uh one united voice document. >> Yeah. So as a compliment to the elected officials in Shauny County. They give the five um public school districts in Shauny County an opportunity to go to the state house and visit with them in the month of December before the legislative session begins in January. Because we have that opportunity every year. This year it's December 8th. Um we choose to get together and visit as school districts to see what we have in common as it relates to the upcoming legislative session. The reality is the five topics that
015we agreed to a year ago are the same topics uh that I bring forth to you tonight for your consideration for approval. Um each of the boards of education in the county are having the same discussion at some point leading into that December 8th meeting. You may ask the question, what exactly do we do with this? Um, we don't take it too far. We just simply make copies. We go to the capital. We visit with the Shauna County delegation. These are the talking points that we have. And that's about as far as we go with it. One of the most important things though, however, it has our contact information. And we overly stress to our elected officials during the session, if anything pops up that you would just like to visit about or maybe to
016collect some feedback on, never hesitate to send us a text, give us a phone call. Uh we'd love to partner with you throughout the legislative session. So, it's just a nice way to from our perspective kind of help get prepared for the upcoming legislative session without getting too too deep or too involved. >> Any questions or comments on that document? All right. If not we will move on to 6.02 which is HB 23282 video requirement first read. >> Good evening. Thank you. I am coming to you today with the human development video um first read. In April 2025, the Kansas legislature enacted um House Bill 2382, which requires districts to show a video that includes um the high quality computerenerated animation or high definition, a minimum of 3 minutes in length that depicts the brain,
017heart, and other vital organs and early fetal development. And this video will be shown in any course addressing human growth for development in our system. uh to review this process. It uh the process included the learning services administrators and team members. We worked collaboratively to review uh multiple options including recommendations from state curriculum leaders. Uh we prioritized age appropriateness for grades 5 through n and focused on compliance, quality and consistency. And from that we are proposing that we um look at or ultimately bring forth the proposed resource from Witchaw public schools the fetal development video they've published there. Um it was shared with state curriculum leaders as well and they granted permission for these um by other Kansas districts. It meets the legislative requirements for content and quality and provides consistency across our grade levels.
018Um upon board approval we will work on an implementation plan for that as well. included for your review. There is a link to that video. What questions might you have for me? >> What's the first So, what's the first class that a student would take that would meet the criteria of a human develop development or sexuality class? >> That would be the human development program that starts in fifth grade. And was there any kind of video that depicted over challenge or fetal development considered before? Not that I'm aware of. >> Questions or comments? This is to be enacted during this school year or >> Well, I I just wanted to I I know there were some others that were options. I did do a little research today on some of those and I thank you
019for choosing the one that you chose. Um I think that this is sticks to the textbook and sticks to the information that we're sharing with their kids and it's age appropriate. So I appreciate the work that you did on that. >> Are parents out are they able to opt out? Did the legislation allow parent opt out? I don't know. We're just >> there wasn't an option that was clear through the law. Outside of that is definitely something. So, having said that, as a general practice, uh we'll partner with parents uh anytime through curriculum resources, if there's something that a parent says that, you know what, I'm not so sure that that's the right fit for my child. Um the teacher and the administrative team in that building, I will we'll work with that family to
020see what the next appropriate best option could be. So, it might not have been included in the law, but we know what works in our school community at the same time. questions. >> Thank you. >> We will move on to 6.03, which is job description for student transportation driver first street. >> It be better for me to go up with the live stream. Okay. >> Okay. So, I have for your review a position um request. This would be an added position. So job title, job description and setup in our internal systems. Um basically it's it's called a student transport driver. Um it has emerged as a small employee group, but basically these are employees that we already have typically pared educators um through our bus parah um group or our high school parah group. And
021um I've learned about kind of two different groups that are driving as part of their job to serve kids and what they need um through the transportation department and the bus pair as I mentioned. That would be the McKini Vento driving. So it's a nonCDL vehicle um utilized to pick up students who are experiencing homelessness outside of the district in a more discreet way and whatnot. And so we're using our current workforce to just um do a different role than truly what a just a pair educator in the classroom is. even though our our transportation is an extension of the classroom, we just wanted to acknowledge some of the compliance aspects, um the training and physical requirements of maybe operating a lift and some things like that. Um so the Mckin Vento piece as well
022as the um 18 to 21 program out of our high school, those have some driving functions and I think it's a big enough function, a big enough group to go ahead and acknowledge more formally. You have any questions at all from me? Okay, thank you. >> Thanks, Jess. Right, we'll move on to 6.04, request for proposal, superintendent search services. So, Scott, I don't know if you want to start or you want me to start. >> Well, go ahead. >> Okay. So, um, as we continue to to work through, um, a superintendent search process, um, the board has decided to engage, um, and request a proposal from an external firm to help with the sourcing of candidates. Um, to support Chelsea and her internal team as they, um, continue to work towards uh, towards hiring a
023new superintendent. So tonight um up for discussion is uh the RFP um that that we were put out um and it it does come up for action. So um yeah, Scott, I don't know what else. >> Yeah, I was just going to say uh based on conversation following the last board meeting, um we were given the task as a team to put together the RFP. So that's what is included in as an item for discussion for your review tonight. uh you'll see it later in the agenda for an action item. As a general rule, we don't do an item for discussion and action on the same board meeting. And though we think to um save two weeks of time, we thought that it made sense. What I we have learned as a team putting the
024RFP together for the most part RFPs kind of follow the same formatting for the most part and so you all have had an opportunity to look at it and also you know share some feedback so it reads as it's coming from our school community. So I appreciate all the feedback that you have provided. So, if this meets your interest and if you choose to approve it as an action item, then it will be posted on the website as early as of tomorrow morning and then anybody can talk about an RFP. So, if there are problems out there that somebody knows, feel free to spread the word. >> Other comments or questions on the RFP proposal? >> If not, we'll move on to action items. And actually, the first action item is 7.01, the request for
025proposal. Um, so would entertain a motion. Anyone has a motion they'd like to put forward? >> I would uh move that the board of education approve the request for proposal for superintendent search services as pro presented. >> Second. >> It's been a motion and a second. All in favor. Motion passes 6 to zero. Um, and then 7.02 is the board policy updates. I'm not going to try to read all the acronyms because I'll mess them all up. But um, >> Scott, those were covered last time, correct? And that is a thing that just keeps us compliant with current laws in place. >> Any questions or comments on that? Otherwise, we' entertain a motion. The board of education update board policies BBC CN DE D F A C I A J H KN. >> Second. >>
026A motion and a second. All in favor? Motion passes six to zero. Uh we'll move on to section eight, which is communications. um and the Auburn Washurn Foundation update. >> Yes. So, I am here on behalf of the foundation today to provide a quick update on the second annual golf tournament that took place last Friday at Cypress Ridge. So, thanks to a very active and involved and engaged foundation board which includes Jackie and Brad. We had a tremendous event and raised about $18,000. Yes. >> So that's an increase of $1,000 over last year, which was our first tournament. We had dozens of sponsors and numerous volunteers. And probably my favorite part was the students and staff that were able to participate. It's strategically planned on a no school day so that we can get engagement
027from students and staff. Um so we just look forward to making it even greater and even better in the years to come. And um app How did your team do stuff? >> We our team had a really good time. >> Thank you for showing up. >> No, that's thanks for your money. >> So, as you know, the the funds from that event will go to support classrooms, which coincidentally we will be distributing in the next two weeks. >> While Jessica is still there, I want to give publicly a big pat on the back to her. Um, she does a lot of work alongside the foundation, pulling this off as well as Jackie and Brad. So, a ton of behind the scenes work and so thank you for everything that you did to it. >> Yes.
028Especially this time of year. I know it wasn't easy, but >> love the job. >> It's a it's a fun event. >> Thank you. All right. The chair would move that u we go into executive session at 6:53. I discuss students pursuant to the exception relating to the actions adversely or favorably affecting a student under coma. um personnel matters pursuant to the exception of non-elected personnel under KMA uh to discuss the budget pursuant to the exception of the for employer employee negotiations under KOMA for 10 minutes. Uh the open board meeting will resume at 7:03 p.m. Second. There's been a motion and a second. All in favor passes 6 to zero. We are in executive session and we will actually be moving. So if anybody is going to stay We are back in public session
029after being in executive session. Uh before I would entertain any motions, I do want to take a second to thank Jackie Ligh Cap uh for all of her years of service on the board. We are going to miss you. Um I have loved being on the board with you and working with you. So thank you for everything you've done on the board. If there's any motions. >> Yeah. Well, I I move that the board of education adjourn for tonight. >> Second. >> There's been a motion and a second. All in favor? Motion passes. Six to zero. We are journ. [Applause]