001superintendent of Clearwater schools with a brief video update it's been a little while since we've done one of those so here it is next week is a short week we only have two days of school Monday and Tuesday we are out Wednesday through the rest of the week for Thanksgiving break I know lots of folks folks excited about that and the soon coming holiday season one of the topics I want to talk about today is if you've watched the news or taken in much media you've probably heard about us the State Board of education's recommendation last week about Indian mascots and branding so last week the Kansas State Board of Education passed a motion that strongly recommends that non-tribal K-12 Kansas schools retire Indian themed mascots and branding as soon as possible but no longer
002than within the next three to five years the State Board of Education could have made this a requirement by tying it to our accreditation they chose not to make it a requirement but only to recommend that schools do this so that will move the conversation to 20 local communities where we can have a conversation about what Clearwater wants to do moving forward I've consulted with our Board of Education and they obviously want Community input that's going to take several forms whether it be surveys Community forums whatever voting however we're not sure or what that looks like yet we're just starting this conversation but what I will say is that's going to take place over the next many months to possibly even years it's it's not a decision the board wants to rush into whether to
003keep things the way they are or to make a possible change so so that's what the conversation will be about here in Clearwater and again it's a local decision your local Board of Education wants to do what's best for our community and once your input so like I said not a huge rush but we will State Board of Education we'll expect that we do have that conversation at some point so I'll keep you informed as we move forward but it will be over many months and possibly years to to have that conversation the other thing we'll be doing in that time is looking at other communities the other 20 other communities that are going to have a similar conversation in our state and I don't know if we come together with them at all or
004if we just kind of observe and learn from their uh conversations and and structure because I'm I'm confident that in some places it may be a very divisive topic I also believe that here in Clearwater we can have a really civil discussion and and come to um a decision about what we need to do moving forward so on a different topic our high school Wonder practices are in full swing we'll soon be having winter sports events there the middle schools already having lots of events I know big basketball going on this Saturday so come out and support our teams we'd love to see you and with that not just our teams but um we're really looking at how we can get more parent and Community engagement get people in our community have events where you
005feel welcome in our schools I I'm I don't think we've ever really gained back to where we were pre-covered where during covert we couldn't have people in our building and we want to get back to where we're having events we are intentionally getting together coming together as a as a community and as a family and doing things we've considered like donuts with dads muffins moms Community ice cream socials uh appreciate a parent giving me lots of good ideas celebration nights and other things speaking of which on Monday we do have Clearwater skate night from nine to six to nine at the Carousel Skate Center so hope you can come out I'm planning on going out probably putting on some skates I think I heard our workman's comp insurer scream in the backgrounds when I said
006that but I planning to go out and maybe skate a few circles with the kiddos at the Carousel Skate Center that's 312 North West Street and that's Monday night six to nine pm so um those are the type of events we can all come together but also we could use Volunteers in the building so we're working on developing a schedule where maybe we can put that out and folks could sign up to come in and just spend an hour reading with kiddos or doing you know working on on some of their homework or whatever that might look like but getting Community into our buildings because honestly schools can't do it alone we're not able to do everything we're being asked to do without your support and involvement so just putting that out there to say
007we're going to try to do some intentional things to live out our vision of vision of one district one team one family so we want to come together and work together uh that's all I have for today uh I'm looking forward to uh the next little bit of winter season here lots of basketball I might even get out my horn and play in a pep band again uh but hope to see folks out at those events as well and uh this Mr Cooper signing off work hard have fun and be your best self