December 2025 Olathe Public Schools Board of Education Meeting

001Here we go. Good evening and welcome to our December board meeting. Those of you in the room and also those viewing from home tonight. Um, so cool to see so many students in the room from elementary to high school and we're excited to recognize all of you and thank you parents and family members and administrators for being here u with your students as well. Miss Beam, would you take role? Mr. Rabbit >> here. >> Mr. Boyd >> here. >> Mrs. Johan >> here. >> Mr. Keune >> here. >> Mrs. Reagan >> here. >> Mrs. Steel >> here. >> Dr. Jükovich >> here. Thank you. Okay. Tonight, um, we have some Cedar Creek students, I believe, from their CSI club who are going to lead us in the pledge. If you would come forward. Come on

002up, guys. Right up here. There you go. Whenever you're ready to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Okay board. Um item 2.01. I would welcome a motion to accept the agenda to adopt the agenda. >> Move to adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Miss Steel. Second by Mr. Keune. >> Mr. Keune. [snorts] Yes, >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Steel. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes, >> Dr. Jükovich. >> Yes, >> Mr. Babbot. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. 70. >> Miss Group. We have lots of people to recognize. Thank you for >> We're so excited to have a full house

003tonight. And so to begin our recognitions, I would like to welcome to the front the public schools foundation executive director Cindy von Belt, Foundation Board President Aaron Vader and all foundation board members in attendance along with Heather Skunover. Foundation staff members Molly Groby, Alice Snder, Jodie Far, and Moren Herd. [snorts] For 29 years, the tha public schools Foundation has supported our district by celebrating innovation and ensuring students have what they need to learn. Over the past year, the foundation has strengthened student support through programs like the Whmer student care fund, Dr. B's musical instrument fund, the all fund, the student health emergency fund, and the school supply program. helping meet the basic needs so students can focus on learning. The foundation has also expanded its mental health support. The Braden Robertson Student Mental Health Fund

004has provided timely care for more than 800 underinsured students. And the foundation fully funded this summer's help clinic, offering free one-on-one and group sessions for students, families, and staff. It also continues to provide the local match for a state grant supporting the district's mental health first responder. To address staffing needs, the foundation has invested in developing special education teachers. More than $230,000 in scholarships has helped 16 paras earn master's degrees, and a new $80,000 program supports current teachers pursuing special education credentials. Classroom support remains central to their mission as well with more than $521,000 in grants delivered last year, nearly 2,000 donors choose projects funded through matching gifts, and a new $140,000 grant expanding the 3D program to the South. Alongside scholarship and recognition programs, the foundation continues to champion students, educators, and families. And

005tonight, the foundation proudly presents a ceremonial check for an incredible $1,943,000 $664 representing the community's generous support during the 2425 school year. [laughter] [applause] Thank you so much to the THA Public Schools Foundation. >> [applause] >> One, two, >> [applause] >> Great. [laughter] Thank you. Well, next I would like to invite up our youngest honores tonight with our student Math Wings champions from our fall competition along with Clearwater Creek Elementary Principal Shauna Evans, Canyon Creek Math Wings Coach Eli Schuman, and Arbor Creek principal Dr. Melissa Snell. Um, and MathWings coach from Clearwater Creek, Kira Humphrey. Students, you can all come up at the same time. We'll take group pictures as a school. So, come up with your principal. >> And if district math facilitator Kelly is here, please come on up, too. Okay. Well, we

006are so excited to have these kids here tonight. For those of you who don't know, Math Wings is a district-wide elementary school competitive club. And the meetings consist of intense mental math skills, problem solving competitions, vocabulary review, and various math scrimmages. These students up front represent the winning teams at the fourth and fifth grade levels for our fall contest this year. In the fourth grade category, Clearwater Creeks Owen Howard, Prince Wilson, and Landon Winholds, and Canyon Creeks Ryan Howell, Arov Manan, and William Van Nice tied for first place. While in the fifth grade competition, Arbor Creek students Addison Baker, Baniah Brown, and Quinton Smith were our champions. Way to go students. Please join me in a round of applause for them. [applause] take a group picture and then we're going to go by elementary. So,

007if you guys can scooch together really quick and your parents are going to stand behind me and take a picture, too. Okay, awesome. All right, look right here. Ready? Big smile. One, two, three. [cough and clears throat] One more. One, two, three. >> Okay. Do we want to do Clear Water Creek? >> Let's do Clear Water Creek first. Ready? Smile right here. One, two, three. All right, let's do our good job. [applause] Ready? One, two, three. Great smile. >> Okay, good job. [applause] [laughter] >> Right here. One, two, three. Awesome. Congratulations. [applause] Well, from elementary school to high school. Next, we are excited to recognize the Northwest girls tennis team for their outstanding achievement in winning the 6A state championship. Come on up. [applause] Earlier this year, the Ravens captured the 6A girls tennis state

008championship title, scoring an impressive 38 points at the College Boulevard Activity Center. With that performance, they officially secured their second consecutive state championship. An incredible back-to-back victory. Reflecting on the season, Coach Smith shared, "As the year went on, and as the results came in, my confidence really started to grow. We had a goal to repeat and the girls embraced that as a realistic challenge from the very beginning. To see it become a reality is amazing. They all performed so well and beyond his expectations. Please join me in giving a big round of applause to the Raven Girls tennis team. [applause] Awesome. [applause] Congratulations. >> [applause] >> And finally, I'd like to invite Woodland Elementary School Principal Stacy Shipley to join us at the front. Stacy was recently named the Kansas Association for Health, Physical Education,

009Recreation, and Dance Administrator of the Year. This award recognizes leaders who champion the value of physical education and health for all students. It honors those who support colleagues, families, and students by helping implement a wide range of curricular activities and special events and who further strengthen the field by supporting their staff through collaborative scheduling, mentoring, and thoughtful curriculum planning across physical education, health, recreation, and dance. In her nomination, Woodland's PE teacher, Caitlyn Marorrow, highlighted Stacy's work in helping create events such as the reading and fitness challenge, where students read 12 books and complete 12 hours of physical activity over winter break. Her involvement in coaching the running club and dribbling club, and her effort in organizing a Chief's Tailgate family event for the community all contributed to this honor. Caitlyn added, "What truly sets Stacy

010apart is her care for people. She leads with empathy and reminds staff that her motto is family first. Her leadership extends beyond physical activity. She nurtures wellness, connection, and community in everything she does. Congratulations, Stacy. [applause] [applause] >> Mr. Shiffly, close up good. >> Got it. Congratulations to all of those recognized this evening. We will move to our presentations and we have three this evening. We are going to start with our school spotlight which is Cedar Creek Elementary School and I think some students are going to lead the conversation. And at least one of them told me he was running the meeting tonight. So [laughter] all right. Good evening. Uh thank you Dr. Joerger and the school board uh for the opportunity uh for sharing some of the wonderful things that are happening at Cedar

011Creek. This is my third year of leading Cedar Creek. Um, and it is a special building and has truly been an honor. This evening you are going to see a short video that has been created by our very own Cedar Creek students with um the partnership of some West students. Uh when I got the news in August that we were going to be the Cedar Creek spot or we were going to be the spotlight here, um I got to thinking what would be the best way to showcase all the wonderful things happening. And my first thought was our students. Um because they're exceptional, they're capable, um and they are the heart of everything that we do. And I wanted their voices to truly shine tonight. So after I had a vision, I brought it to

012my BLT and watching them run with their ideas, we reached out to Altha West um and we um got in touch with their video production class um and they were eager to get on board with us um and they partnered with our students. So the project you are going to see tonight was entirely created by students. They um I had students create our PowerPoint. They interviewed staff. They took the P pictures. Um they gathered our information and they shaped the spotlight story that you are going to see tonight. So now that you are all on the edge of your seat, here is our Cedar Creek spotlight. Hopefully. Hopefully. >> [music] [music] >> Uh here we have our Cedar Creek history. Um Cedar Creek opened its doors in August of 1996 and we only had 210

013students then and 26 staff members. At one point we had as many as 70 725 students enrolled. An addition was added in 2014 which added a main entrance, a lobby, restrooms, administrator offices, a faculty lounge, and a work room. For grades third, fourth, and fifth, Cedar Creek has the highest academic scores in math and ELA. This shows we outscored the [music] district and stay in math, ELA on the Kansas State Assessments. Here at Cedar Creek, we have a total of 45 and a half staff members and we have 339 total students. And of course, we also have our wonderful principal, Miss Ellip. Here we have our clubs and programs. Uh you can join lots of uh clubs and programs at Cedar Creek like CSI, math wings, running club, fifth grade leaders, choir, band and orchestra,

014Comet families, Quest, CBR, Comet Cafe, Red Bag, Purple Bag, and announcements every morning. A cool thing about Cedar Creek is we have our comet families [music] where um you join uh with a teacher and some other people every Monday morning for about 15 minutes and you talk about what you've done over the weekend and you play fun games and a lot of stuff. We have awesome parent and community involvement such as room parents, parents as volunteers in the classroom, carnival dances, father and daughter, mother and son, mystery readers and grandparent lunch. We also have an awesome PTO that pays for field trips and helps organize lots of other fun events. So, here we have our PBIS, which is basically our star cards. Um, we have these charts all around the school, so our students are

015um are always um stars shining. And since [music] our since we're called the Comets and then um these are our star cards. Um the red one you get two and you earn in the lunchroom. The blue one um you get two from a substitute and then the green one equals one because you can earn that anywhere. So the star and star card here at Cedar Creek means S is safe, T is team player, A accountable, R is respectful. And if you do all of those, you get one star card. Hi and welcome to the star card store. Come on in. So, here we have prizes with the specialist teachers, our principal, and our counselor. And uh here we got like a bunch of prizes. We got fidgets, water bottles, a bunch of like stuffed animals

016and stuff. And also uh right here we got a wheel. Uh you can spin it to for it to choose like your prize for it. And over here we are we have stuff that are special to the classrooms and grades that you can [music] buy in your classroom. And over here the most special part of the star card store is that uh this is like every star card that everybody has turned in. And um when we get it filled to the very top, we're going to have a whole school party um and Miss Ellings will decide what that's all about. And uh yeah, but the Star Card store is kind of just full of like fun things you can buy and like cool and like uh yeah, and we're open on uh Fridays and Tuesdays

017and Wednesdays. Wednesdays. Okay. [laughter] >> This is the start week. >> At Cedar Creek, our teachers never stop learning either. Through professional learning communities or PLC's, our educators collaborate regularly, share innovative teaching strategies, and design engaging lessons [music] that meet the needs of every learner. >> Do you find PLC beneficial and why? >> I do find PLC beneficial because it gives us time to talk about how our kids are doing with specific standards that we're teaching in the classroom and then we can um group kids and help them out on things they need help with. What do you like work on during your PLC? >> Well, like Michelle and Tanya mentioned, we uh discuss data. We discuss results um of things that we give kids. Um we are, you know, really open to talking about

018kids and suggestions as far as, you know, how can we help them better, different learning strategies, things like that. I I think our PLC's [music] at Cedar Creek are effective because we we really take the time to listen to each other and get ideas from one another that we can't get during the week. So, this is a dedicated time for us to work through problems um or celebrations with our kids either with data or tier one instruction in the classroom. These team-based discussions foster creativity, consistency, and continuous improvement, helping ensure that all students benefit from the collective expertise of the entire Cedar Creek staff. >> Hi, I'm Landry. I'm Johnny. >> And I'm Emma. And we're fifth grade students at Cedar Creek Elementary. And today we're going to be interviewing staff and students. >> Let's

019go. >> So, who are we here with right now? >> Mrs. Joerger, the librarian. >> And what's your favorite part of teaching at our school? knowing all the kids. >> Uh, hi. What's your favorite part about our Cedar Creek school? >> Playing at recess. >> Hello, Leo. Um, what makes our Cedar [music] Creek teachers the best here? >> That they be nice to the kids. >> So, who am I here with right now? >> Um, Bre and Gaswin. >> And what makes our school special? >> Um, uh, like my teachers and my friends. >> Uh, who am I here with? >> Uh, Benjamin Gance. And what's something that makes our school special? >> All the teachers are really nice and helpful. So, who am I here with right now? >> My name is Mrs. Ross.

020I teach fifth grade. >> And what's your favorite memory at our school? >> I love that in fifth grade [music] at the end of the year we make ceiling tiles. Everybody always looks forward to them and I can always look up and see all my former students. >> Okay. Who am I here with today? >> Graham. >> And what is your favorite activity to do at the school? I love to be at recess and do football with my other [music] friends. >> Uh, hi. Who am I here with? >> Mrs. Reese. >> And if you could describe our school in one word, what would it be? >> A big family. >> Who am I here with? >> I am Sarah Williams and I am a [music] kindergarten teacher. >> How long have you been working

021at Cedar Creek? >> I have been in kindergarten for 15 years at Cedar Creek. >> So, who are we [music] here with right now? >> Mrs. Garrett. >> And what's your favorite memory so far teaching at Cedar Creek? I love the walk-athon and I also love watching the kids in kindergarten all the way to fifth grade. >> Who am I here with today? >> Taylor Owens. And what is your favorite activity, event, or club at this school? >> I like field day. >> So, what's your name? Satie. And what makes our Cedar Creek teachers the best? They're so nice and kind. >> So, who are we here with right now? >> This is Mrs. Johnson. >> And what's your favorite school tradition here? >> My favorite school tradition is the red bag at Christmas. I

022love having the students donate to the community and helping those in need. >> Who am I here with today? >> Cooper. >> What is your favorite activity, club, or event at the school? >> PE because I like running around playing [music] games. >> What do you love most about teaching at our school and staff? >> I think the one thing that I love the most is working with all the fabulous kids here and their wonderful families. I think creating a classroom family >> and having fun. >> There are so many things that make Leading Cedar Creek such a joy. And first, it starts with the incredible students that we have here. They are hardworking and creative. They truly put forth a substantial amount of effort in their papers and their projects and it is inspiring

023to see what they can accomplish every single day. Um, and what really makes that possible is the incredible staff that we have here at Cedar Creek. They are dedicated and hardworking and they truly are invested in the success of all of their students no matter what. Um, and what also I think really truly makes that possible is the outpouring support from our community. They truly wrap their arms around our students and our staff. Um, and you know, it is just something that I am incredibly grateful and proud of to be part of every single day. >> [applause] >> So, I obviously am not as charismatic on the video as our students are. So, but we'll work on that. Um, I am extremely proud of that video. I think the first time I watched it, I

024might have had a couple tears in my eyes. It was just it was great. Um, but from that video, I think there's a a number of students that need some recognition. Um, and first would be our MC's of that video. Um, and that would be Emma Brooker who is here tonight and also um, Langley Shepard who is also here tonight. Um, you girls did an exceptional job. You should be super proud of yourself. Um, also Johnny Cox who is not here but he did an awesome job as well. Um, and also the students who created our PowerPoint who was uh, Luke Erinson, Lizzy um, Island uh, excuse me, Lizzy Ider who is also here tonight. Awesome job. And Casey Saunders. So, a little thing about um PowerPoints in fifth grade when they were trying to

025figure out how to get the picture to the PowerPoint, I told them to copy and paste and they said, "How did they do that?" So, we had a little lesson. So, it was it was a great experience, let me tell you. Um and then a huge shout out to Altha West. Um Miss Frick, the video production teacher, when we emailed her to be part of this um production, she was just abs she was like, "Absolutely. what can we do? She was exceptional. Um, so the students that helped us at the West were Harrison Newer, Joel Crumb, and Jordan Pasque, and Grady England. They super shout out to them. Um, there is nothing that is more touching and um, special than watching some high schoolers come and interact with kindergarteners and first graders. Um, so special

026moment there. So kudos to all the students that helped with that video. It was definitely um definitely a special moment for sure. Um so now we're going to get on to the student that's supposed to lead the meeting. Um and so [laughter and gasps] at this time we're going to invite our CSI students to come up. Um for those of you who don't know, CSI stands for school science investigation. That is a club that is offered to our fourth and fifth graders. Um that runs after school. Miss Meyer is our teacher that leads that. She has actually led our CSI club for 10 years. So we are greatly uh appreciate her commitment and her passion. So if our students would like to come up at this time, who's first? >> Okay, you're first. So you

027just you just put your paper there and you talk right on in there. My name is Caleb. I am in fifth grade and this is my second year in CSI. My name is Lizzy and I'm in fifth grade and my and this is my first year in CSI. My name is Ezra and this is also my first year of CSI and I'm in fourth grade. In CSI, students learn to solve problems, work with others, and gain a deeper understanding of science. My favorite part of CSI LEGO Robotics has been building with Legos, working with friends, and having a good time overall. I'm looking forward to doing science Olympia this year. I will get to solve problems and participate in science challenges. In my first session of CSI, I enjoyed having the opportunity to build our

028Lego robots with my friend with my friends. I am looking forward to adding our motors and watching our robots move. My favorite part of CSI this year has been working with my friends to build robots. I am looking forward to my next session, Science Olympiad. In this session, I will get to work on a team. In CSI, I get to spend extra time learning with my friends. Oh, >> CSI helps me express my inner creativity through learning. In CSI, I've gotten to the chance to continue working on something I've enjoyed doing. I've been in Lego robotics camps outside of school, and now I'm getting to do it at school as well. Thank you for your time this evening and allowing the opportunity to highlight the amazing work being done at Cedar Creek. I hope you

029have a wonderful evening. >> Before you leave, there may be some questions, but I would ask that the Cedar Creek students who are here this evening, if you would just stand and let us recognize you one more time. [applause] Well done. Well done tonight board. Any questions or comments for Miss Elllet? >> Maybe just a brief comment, Mrs. Ellott. I don't know how nervous you would have been to come tonight to do this, but um having Dr. Reeves who opened this building and then Dr. Harrison who carried that legacy on which was always a very student-led experience in that building and then of course somebody at the end here who's whose wife might be your librarian. So this is a big room for you to step in and do this. [laughter] >> I may have

030a hard time right now to I am very well aware. >> Yes. Yeah. So, thank you for carrying that legacy forward and what a great way to to kind of spin things on their head and have students interviewing the staff in the building. So, anyway, great great video. Thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you for your time this evening. >> Thank you very much. Our next presentation is related to some changes in middle school electives. And we have Dr. Waters and Miss Tines and um just Mr. How? Oh my gosh, I knew your first name. I was drawing a blank with your lens. Thank you for being up here there tonight. That group is a hard act to follow and for sure. Good evening board. Thank you for this opportunity to present to you our middle

031school elective proposal. And I want to first start out by thanking um some departments here that I see. We have our communications department, our learning services and um human resources department because without their partnership and collaboration the past 18 months um would not have been possible um with them without them. Um so why we began this work with electives. Um ultimately their future is our future and we wanted to give our students a modern connected sustainable um set of options to choose from as they um ultimately and then across all the 10 consistent across the 10 uh middle schools because at this time there are some some variances between them. uh it was very important for us that we worked within a set of parameters as we looked into these changes and the first being

032this the student experience. It had been since 2010 really before 2010 where we had the opportunity to do a comprehensive review of our electives. Think about that. That was 15 years ago. A lot has happened in 15 years. our our our world has changed 15 years. PowerPoints as we see um they've changed in 15 years. So a lot has changed. So it was very important that we um give our students um that opportunity to have relevant options that are going to help prepare them for the world that they are going to inherit. So really that's that's our background into our why. We also had to consider um some other things such as staffing and lure, existing space and budget. because when you develop new opportunities, we had to be mindful and good stewards of of

033our um financial situation and you know, we have seen presentations from Mr. Hutcherson and and Dr. McMullen that um show that we have a declining enrollment. So, we did have to to look at not adding staffing when we add these courses. We also knew we could not add additional lensure requirements um by bringing in some of these options. Nor could we go and build a new TV studio for um you know one of the courses that we're going to introduce. uh we had to stay within within that budget and you will continue to see as later in our presentation that continued need to maximize staffing looking at lure looking at class sizes and these efforts really did have us do a deep analysis which um included several of our current offerings and again you'll hear

034a little bit more about that in our next pres in our further in our presentation. Um, these next two slides that I'm going to put up here really uh I illustrate for for you all I hope that there was an extensive multi-phase process for us to do our research and gather feedback over the past 18 months. So um on these next um you can see highlighted I want to highlight some things we did um a lot of research with EAB an organization we work with. We also um for the past few years I've attended 18 months attended uh our benchmark uh schools that are across the Midwest and I visited several other schools within our um in in Kansas here and as well as research the program planning guides for many many many different um

035school districts surrounding us. And um this next slide, so these the excuse me, this next slide does continue to talk about how we shared some of this feedback at site council um with the board of education um presentation tonight as well as um what's going to happen in January. Okay, here on this next slide, I want to get into a little bit more specific of what you saw on that timeline who provided feedback prior to this proposal. The anchor, the foundation was when we sought out a committee. There were about um on the committee and they were teachers, administrators, parents, and students. We went to our building principles because they know our their staffs. They know um um they know them better than we would have and we did ask them for uh volunte or

036who for recommendations for that committee in that committee. Then that laid the groundwork and foundation for the work that we would continue on with those other groups that you see there. middle school principles, assistant principles, middle school counselors, curriculum coordinators, the citizen advisory board. I met with um board of education committee, student uh focus groups, fall district site council is when we went out and presented to um at site council as well as the feedback form to all middle school staff and families. What we learned from the feedback. the first um before the survey when again back to that anchor group that that foundational group committee that we met with, it was evident from the beginning that there was some great things going on in in our buildings, but there was a consensus that we

037needed to modernize, have real world relevant options for our students. It was time for change. That was clear. It was also very clear that um they made it very clear we were not to touch the fine arts. Um and so um that's why you don't you know we did hear the feedback from that committee. And another thing that um they were very strong minded about those anyone in the room that were attended that were um quarter classes. Um, if those of you that are familiar with the middle school model, we offer quarter classes in sixth grade. And to be honest, that was on the table. Do we consider semester classes throughout, you know, just as we would seventh and eighth grade? And um, it was almost unanimous in that room that we would keep quarter

038classes. So, I share those few examples to show you that they did really have um a a voice in in us moving forward with our work. Um they also again that group but along it it continued the theme carried out is we have to have relevant real life prepare our kids for their future and and that's really what kept us grounded and then we did uh give a survey out to our uh we had 38,000 um I believe it was that number emails that went out to staff and families with the survey link. We did after the site council received within 24 hours um we received about 182 replies and then over the next two weeks we received another um 163 I believe I don't can't do the math right away but we received 340

039response 45 responses as well as several emails um after that and I will tell you in summary the the feedback was very positive they all parents and staff also felt that it was time to look at some modern uh things for relevant options for our students including um you know the the feedback with adding physical activities for our students to help with that physical and mental well-being that was pretty evident. Also, in saying that, I do want to say that I I recognize that there was several pieces of feedback that came out um about dance and cheer. And I just I I want to be very very clear. The feedback came across as we were cutting dance and cheer. We absolutely are not cutting dance and cheer. That is it. It is a quesa activity.

040And you know we have quesa sports also which are before or after school. So I want to make that very clear. The three of us standing up here have a deep deep passion and roots for middle school. Um you will see former admin middle school administrators up here as well as a middle school educator. Um I think again those that can speak for experience that you know Mr. how and I both being building principles. Um I got teased every now and then for being at a dance competition crying in the front row filming kids because the lyrical dance was so powerful. So I say that to you because I know you have also received some feedback as well as I that I love and have a passion for our sports and our activities and that

041was never the intent to cut dance and cheer nor will we. Um, I I do think that you'll see later in our presentation the why. We need to get our math teachers, our special ed teachers, our language arts teachers, social studies and science teachers back in the classrooms. Again, going back to that fiscally responsible um decision- making. Um, another thing I I did um want to mention that that was pretty evident is what happens if um my child can't get to school early to practice at 7:30 or whatever ends up um coming out of of um this decision and um the one thing that I will say about the school district and our building principles at the middle school is we are so willing to work with our families and we will do everything in

042our power to help make sure that that that experience and that opportunity is still there for our students and you know I will I will be right there beside each of our building principles helping to make that happen. So, um, with that, I am going to turn that over to, um, Kelly Tines. And Kelly Tines is our, um, director of curriculum and instructional support. Um, and I think she's going to talk to us about the exciting courses and changes that ultimately we um are we have we're going to bring to to you all as a proposal. Good evening, Board of Education, and thank you so much for letting us come tonight and share our proposal. Um, I really have the best part of the presentation because I get to show you all of the fun

043stuff. Um, as we move forward, I want to start off with what our goals were, and these were um, set out from the very beginning. Our first one was to expand opportunities for students. Um, Dr. Waters mentioned to you that the last time that we really took a look at our middle school electives as a whole was in 2010. And do you know what else happened in 2010? The first iPad was released. Do you know what else happened in 2010? Instagram was first put out. So you think of all the things that have changed since 2010. There's been 11 generations of iPads. By the way, our students in our middle schools weren't even born in 2010. If you think about that, the world has changed. And so, we really wanted to look at what we're

044offering now and what that needs to look like for the 21st century learner. And as Dr. Waters said, we found out that um for the most part, our district is offering a lot of great electives that none of our neighbors are. and we are offering opportunities for students um beyond what we normally would see in a middle school setting. So, we have a lot of things that aren't changing with our middle school proposal. And it tonight as we're talking, if you don't hear something mentioned, for example, you won't hear us talk about Spanish, that's because there's no proposed change to Spanish because we want to we know that that's working and um everything is on board with that and we're good to go. So over and over as we um were talking about these opportunities

045for kids, one of the things that came up was the middle school learner. And um as a former middle school teacher, I will tell you, I just said this tonight to um Mrs. Jackson is that I always felt that helping to develop a middle school student into um a strong socially emotionally responsible young adult was just as important as the English that they were learning in my classroom. And that's what we heard again and again was the need to continue developing social emotional skills, life skills, organizational skills, academic skills. And so tonight as we talk through these changes, you'll see a lot of that layered into um the coursework and the the content. We also um wanted to make sure that we had consistency in all of our buildings. One of the things that's happened

046when you don't really look at curriculum for 15 years is that things go a little ary. And so in some of our courses, and I'm going to give leadership as an example, it's a great course and it's really important for kids to develop leadership skills. But the problem is that we never really had a really consistent curriculum or if we did it kind of got lost along the way. So what one student receives in leadership six at Chisum Trail is really different than what a student receives in leadership 6 at Summit Trail. Not necessarily inferior or superior, but just different. And one of the things our learning services department is committed to is providing an equitable, guaranteed, and viable curriculum to every single student no matter where they go to school in our district. And

047so that's one of the things we really looked at too was how can we create those um consistencies in our curriculum. And then finally, we wanted to align our curriculum priorities. So you'll see places where we made some tweaks or adjustments so that we're in alignment more um with our high school courses. So with that, let's get started. We're going to start with our career tech ed courses. And I'm going to move through these pretty quickly. So if you have questions, feel free to jot them down or feel free to yell out and interrupt me. I'm good with that, too, because I taught seventh grade. So [laughter] um so we'll start with family and consumer science. Um, in our focus on facts course, which is our quarter class for sixth graders, we really just need

048to go in and tweak the content for that. And so that won't be a big change, but we want to firm that up so we have that consistency. Culinary 1 and two are currently offered. And you might be thinking to yourself that you would probably take culinary 1 and then the next time take culinary 2, but that doesn't actually happen because of scheduling and staffing and all of those kinds of things. Sometimes students take culinary 2 before they take culinary 1. But with middle schoolers who haven't been introduced to those cooking classes in the past, they don't always have the safety skills and the food handling skills and all of that to be able to go directly into a level two course. So, what we've seen happen is that a lot of our um culinary

049courses have some repetitive um lessons that happen between culinary 1 and two so that no matter what order students take that in, they um receive those skills. Our proposal is to develop two very distinct courses. Intro to baking, which will be a hit, I'm quite sure, and intro to culinary. And that will allow our teachers to really focus on those distinct skills for those two different times types of um of fax classes. We also um and this is really a tweak in alignment with some of the state changes. We're going to be um changing our fashion, apparel, and interior design to simply fashion and interior design with a greater emphasis on sewing and construction and those skills that go in with that. And part of the reason why we want to do that is that

050our intro to apparel production along with our career and life planning courses will both be retired under this proposal. Um these classes historically have low enrollment across the district, not necessarily in every single school, but when we look at them as a whole. And so we decided that instead of continuing to offer low enrollment classes, we would create a new class called Teen Living. And this will be a course specifically for middle schoolers that talks about developing healthy relationships um how to you know work healthily and within your family um personal well-being child development financial responsibility and so on. So I think that will be a really good class for our um 13 and 14 year olds in the business department. We have heard loud and clear that um parents and teachers alike um are

051disappointed that we've done away with computers at the elementary school and want to have more of an emphasis on keyboarding. So our sixth grade um computer course will become computer essentials and we will um include a much greater emphasis on the keyboarding skills in that class. Computer apps one and two will be consolidated into one course. currently um like our other fax classes, computer apps 2 has historically low enrollment and so we will consolidate those and focus on a lot of the um businessy type skills that students will need in high school and beyond. You might recall that sixth grade and seventh grade are the first years that they get their laptop computers. And so those courses will focus on things like word processing, um, Excel [snorts] spreadsheets, uh, graphic, what publishing programs, email, things

052like that that the students will be encountering, um, as they move into middle school. Our communications is probably the area I'm most excited about because quite frankly, this is probably where we were the most out of date. Um, in communications media 6, we'll be changing that to a course called Media Lab. It will be a quarter course and it will focus on modern media techniques but also um really focus on speaking and listening skills which I think we can all agree need to be enhanced no matter what age our students are. At the seventh and eighth grade level, our communications multimedia class will move into media makers. And this will um explore the very important skills of social media responsibility, how to use artificial intelligence, webcasting, podcasting, um video, those kinds of things that our

053students are doing every single day. They love it and it's a great way for us to enhance their communication skills in a really responsible way. So super excited um about those two classes. And finally, in the industrial tech um technology department, we are going to retire the sixth grade flight and space class. And the reason for that is that we've discovered that we have a lot of car um not carryover um a lot of the same content being taught in flight and space that we do in sixth grade science. So that course will be retired and we will create a new class called engineering and industrial technology which um will focus on those foundational skills that kids need as they move into the other um technology courses that we offer. At grades seven and eight,

054all of our courses will stay the same with the same content. The only thing we propose changing there is to add the word engineering to those titles. and that truly is um for alignment with the high school courses that they would be taking in that same pathway. So that sums up all of our career and teched courses. So let's talk now about general electives and the first one we're going to touch on is leadership. Currently we offer leadership six, leadership 7, and leadership 8. We are proposing to continue with a leadership six course, but then to offer um two leadership courses which are different from each other that can be taken in either seventh or eighth grade. We've tried to do that as many times as possible with these new electives because if we can

055offer something to both seventh and eighth graders, it expands students opportunities. If we only offer something to them in seventh grade, then they if they don't get to take it that year, they miss out on that opportunity. So, we're hoping that um some of these changes will help with that. So, our goal in sixth grade leadership is, and you might be seeing a trend here, a foundational um course about leadership and those basic skills that students need. Um as they move into those seventh and eighth grade classes, the first one called lead and succeed will focus on civics types thing type things. Um we'll look at communication skills, goal setting and project planning and then issues that students encounter in school and in their community. Um as they move into the eighth grade C or

056I'm sorry, no there is no eighth grade course. The other seventh and eighth grade course um is called leadership and action and that has a much um greater focus on community service and um talking to our community leaders like all of you in the board of education or on the city council and then working with some of our um community organizations like Mission Southside. The other thing in this area that we're super excited about is to expand our eighth grade AIM class from seven schools to all eight schools. It is the precursor course to AVID at the high school level and it is repeatedly called one of the best courses we offer by the principles and the teachers in those buildings that offer it. Um two years ago we were only offering it in five

057of our middle schools. We moved up to six. This year we're at seven and we're delighted that we're going to be able um to offer it in all eight next year. >> 10. Sorry, I'm living in like 1992. Okay. So PE um actually before I show this slide. So in PE currently our requirements are that sixth graders take a full year of PE so two semesters and seventh and eighth graders take one semester each in seventh and an eighth. So by the end of um a student's middle school career they um have taken four semesters of PE no more no less. We are um proposing that we change the sixth grade requirement to one semester of required PE. And what that does is open up our teachers schedules to be able to offer a PE

058elective to students in grades six, seven, and eight. It might come as a surprise to you, but I hated PE. And I would have loved to only have one semester, but I have two very rambunctious boys that really needed to have um PE all year, six, seven, and eight. And so this will offer that as an opportunity for them. In sixth grade, it will be the elective will be a continuation of many of the skills that they're working on in their required PE course. And then in seventh and eighth grade, our PE teachers um talked about doing team sports, which would cover team sports like football, volleyball, um basketball, and then lifetime activities, which would focus on things like um racket sports, golf, bowling, weightlifting, um and that would be things that kids can learn

059to do in middle school that can carry them through their entire life. So the other um piece on this is what Dr. Waters mentioned earlier that it's our proposal to transition cheer and dance to outside the school day. And I'll talk just a little bit about that in a minute and what our um next steps are um when we get to that particular section of the presentation. Next piece I wanted to talk about is our required semester course. Back in 2010 when we first transitioned, we wanted students to be able to have um an extra semester of literacy course of a literacy course. So we started a course called reading seminar. It then transitioned into disciplinary literacy and now we just flat call it literacy and all of our students are required to teach that

060course. One of the things we did when we created that course was to make sure that the lure was vague enough that any teacher could teach that class. And originally we had primarily English language arts teachers who were teaching that course. But as our staffing situation has got tighter and tighter over the years, we have transitioned to more and more non-English language arts teachers teaching that course. And this semester alone, we have 70 teachers across our district who are teaching that course. And that could change to a whole different 70 teachers next year. We do have about four four or five buildings that have some dedicated literacy teachers. Um but then in the other buildings, we have just all sorts of different teachers teaching it. Only about 30% of the teachers that are currently teaching

061um literacy are actually English language arts teachers. But of those 70 teachers, they are all really, really good teachers. They're just not literacy teachers. But what they are is middle school teachers and they're experts in middle school kids and what middle school kids need and need to be able to do. And so we're proposing that we transition away from the literacy um specific course to courses that focus on personal development um with our middle school students. So, the first one in sixth grade we would call smart start. Um, as our kids move out of the elementary school into the middle school, they go from a self-contained classroom with one teacher to a day where they are moving every 47 minutes and they have seven different teachers and seven different personalities and seven different sets of

062homework. And so we really want to be able to provide academic and executive functioning skills that help our students to be successful in a secondary classroom. In the seventh grade, we're going to focus on their future. Um what we know is that we um want to be able to provide things like Zello lessons, um help students develop their individual plan of study, which is a requirement by the Kansas um state department of education. um we want them to be able to explore the course offerings that we have as they move through school. And so that is what this grade seven course will do. It um we we deliberately put it in seventh grade because if we waited till 8th grade, they enroll in January, February of 8th grade. So any student who was enrolled in

063that second semester would miss out on that opportunity. Um, one of the things that I had not even considered, but I had a parent stop me last week and share is that if we have students who are involved in reading interventions or math interventions during our academic intervention time, they miss out on all of our social emotional lessons and all of our Zello lessons and all of our talk about enrollment in the high school um, courses and career pathways. So, um, this particular parent I was speaking to was super excited about this because she knew that her daughter, if even if she was in reading intervention every single day for three years, she would still be able to get these um these skills in her required elective course. In the eighth grade course, we're going

064to look really specifically at some academic skills and um strategies that kids need to be successful as they move into high school. Um and so that will be the focus of that class. We are um planning to create really standardized and specific content so that even if we have 70 teachers teaching this course, the content looks the same at every single one of our buildings with every single one of those 70 teachers. So that's our goal um moving forward with that. So that kind of takes us to that next step which is how are we going to develop these courses? There's going to be a lot of work that's involved in it. It's a very ambitious timeline to be able to roll these out in the um fall of 2026. It will be spearheaded primarily

065by myself, by Alicia Jackson, who is our um counseling and career readiness assistant director, and by Barb Gonzalez, who is our CTE coordinator. And we'll be working with teams of teachers to develop these courses. So, the first thing that we're going to do, we're actually already in the process of working on this, is to create some very specific descriptions to put into our um middle school PPG that will need to be um published, assuming that the board accepts this approal. Proposal will have to be published pretty quickly in January to accommodate um enrollment for um middle school. So, we'll work on that first and then just like we would any other course, we'll determine what the academic standards are for each one of the courses and then we will create a what we call a

066content guide for each course. And the content guide is really those lessons, activities, pacing guide, um assessments, things like that that will help guide teachers in how to carry out those courses. So, our timeline looks like this. Um over the next two months, um Barb Gonzalez and I will be working to solicit teachers at the middle level who are interested in working on committees to help create these courses. Between February and April, we've already reserved sub days to bring teachers in um to the IRC to work on those things. And then we've also put aside money for summer work if we are still needing to do work in the summer, which I'm guessing that we will. and that will allow us to pay stipens to those teachers. By May of this year, we will have

067um standards to the board of education for approval for every one of the courses that's being modified or created. And then by the end of summer, which end of summer for us is by August 1st, we will have finished all of our content guides so that those are ready to be shared with teachers and to provide teacher training when they come back um that first week in August. As far as our cheer and dance, um we know that there are a lot of logistical um challenges and logistical details that need to be worked out um with that proposed change. And so this spring, we'll be putting together a committee of um middle school principles as well as chair and dance coaches to talk about those logistics. How do we make sure kids get to school

068or stay after school to be involved in those? How do we share gym space? um all of those logistical kinds of things that we know are um concerns. So with that, I just want to share um oh no, I'm not going to share that. Never mind. >> Go for it. >> Okay. No, I am not sharing this. This is not my thing. Okay. With that, I will turn it over to Mr. How who can talk to you about staffing and lure. Proof that my part was the best the most fun. >> Absolutely. >> Well, good evening. My name is Justin Now. I'm the executive director of human resources for the alle public schools and my portion of the presentation is to talk to you about how the middle school proposed course changes affect or could

069affect staffing and lure. To do that, I thought it might be appropriate to take a quick look back at our current offerings and some stats that what that looks like. And all of these courses are the ones described by Kelly that would be affected by these proposed changes. So the first as you can see is that 35% of our literacy teachers currently teach English language arts or literacy as predominant part of their day. In contrast 65% teach a non- language arts subject. So that could be anything from French to technology to facts to science etc. And as Kelly mentioned that's due to the any lure or any valid Kansas middle school license will be applicable to do that. But literacy is a course that is largely connected to ELA. And as you can see, when

07065% currently teach a non- language arts subject, there's a staffing inefficiency there. The next two stats are about courses that are semester courses. So they reset every semester and they are being retired. That is the average semester enrollment. The first one is introduction to apparel, which over the last two years is averaging nine per semester. The average semester enrollment for career and life planning over the last two years is 16 with this current semester's average at 14. And while 16 and 14 are certainly better than 9, keep in mind our goal average is 26 to 28. Now, where there's an efficiency there is when you have a class that seats 9 to 14, which is is great for a low class size. It pushes the other students because those class sizes are supposed to pull

071mid20s. So, what that does is push students out creating uncomfortable class sizes in other parts of the master schedule. Some stats continued. Seven out of our 10 middle school have cheer dance teacher who currently can only offer four hours of their licensed content area that takes up a majority of their day rather than all five hours like their grade level counterpart. At middle school, uh teachers have five assigned hours, one plan hour, personal plan, and one supervisory hour. So, as an example, uh just a simple line there, science is up there, but that could be said for math, language arts, social studies, etc. But you'll see educator A has four hours of science and an hour of cheer. Whereas educator B, the same grade level, different team has five hours of science that facilitate those

072mid20 class sizes. So an efficiency is that when we take that and condense it down to four, again, we raise class sizes up when we could easily also be in the mid20s with the five. Some other line stats for those are out of the 20 cheer and dance assigned hours, 11 out of 20 teach a core content. So the math, language, art, science, or social studies. Again, we're losing an hour, condensing them down and raising class sizes. two of the 20 teacher required elective the literacy class. So when you look at why 65% there are two reasons right there that that goes into the 65% when the literacy teachers can't teach it we farm that out to another core. Two of the 20 teachers uh two of the 20 are special education courses and four

073of the 20 are non-elective or non-PE elective which is facts theater and world language. Transitioning however to some staffing alignment and efficiencies. Uh when we look at the proposed courses, what does that do? Well, the proposed courses can increase staffing flexibility and ensure alignment between staff lure and the concepts they are teaching specifically to foundations of success, the future ready, the smart start, etc. As Kelly mentioned, when we go back to that 35% 65% piece, these classes are aimed at the development of the middle school student and 100% of our staff are licensed in middle school, which means 100% of our staff know how middle school students learn and develop. So the confidence goes up when you look at those courses. In addition, the proposed courses can be all staffed with existing middle school uh

074FTE and aotment and lure, meaning we're neutral on that. We don't need to go out and get more staff. We don't have to go out and create more lure. We can do these proposed changes with what we have and the talent we have on our staff across our 10 middle schools. When you look at opportunity, we've heard a lot for students, which is truly exciting. But there's also staffing opportunity here. So many of the proposed courses allow staff to explore new dimensions of their licensed content area that creates more opportunities to strengthen the program and of course increase enrollment for the future of their program. When you're a secondary educator and you get endorsed, you go after the passion area that you have the most, math, science, cooking, etc. These are new courses that allow

075those educators to explore more parts of their medium with that passion. So hopefully it's not just exciting for the students, it's exciting for the staff as well. There are some examples, baking, teen living, the PE electives, and then engineering and technology. And these course requirements and offerings will increase the flexibility in the building from the master scheduling and offering students current opportunities and additional course offerings. We've had a lot of valuable feedback through this process. Um, one of them, Kelly mentioned, was PE. Changing that. A lot of kiddos get excited for P and from being a middle school principal, I will tell you they would love to have more PE. So that's great. But there's also the other student who P is not their niche and to have a semester back to create more opportunity

076for electives for them is very powerful. We've also heard a lot of literacy is ending, cheer and dance is ending. I don't think end, I think and. Literacy is embedded in across many of our disciplinary areas in middle school heavy in science and social studies with expository text but found in many other places. We also have it in language arts which is required every semester every year all the way through 12th grade. And we have the reading intervention or powerup to continue to support our most at risk readers. When we look at cheer and dance again, I think and providing it before and after or after school allows the students to still be exposed to cheer and dance and pick up another hour in their day of other electives they may not have already had

077the chance to with an hour for a whole year taken away. So I think and instead of end in those opportunities. Finally, you know, I got to sit on this committee and I was really excited because I've done a lot of things in THA, which has been fantastic, but by far and away middle school is where I've had the most experience. I've been a middle school teacher, a coach, assistant principal, principal, and most importantly, a parent. My oldest, he's watching right now. Uh uh I'm the cool dad. Yeah. Uh no. um you know he's only in sixth grade so I've got the better part of a decade for middle school. So when we looked at these courses I didn't just look at it from the HR lens which I can talk about the data all

078night but I looked at it from the teaching lens. Are these courses an opportunity to try something new to have more confidence in what we're doing? I looked at it from a principal's perspective and scheduling. Does this allow more flexibility? Can I give staff more confidence and excitement to do other things? And I looked at it from a parents perspective and thought does this allow my children an opportunity for more opport more more things better alignment and more preparation. And the answer for me was yes, yes and yes. So we definitely have change here and I think change can be difficult but we have change and we have opportunity and we have opportunity maybe for the next 15 years. So with that we'll turn over for questions. First, just let me say thank you. And

079I know I have some questions, comments, but I'm sure others do. So, I'll defer to Miss Reagan. All right. I have a few. Um, you know, I um appreciate that this has been a long process and I um you know, 18 months is a long time. Um which also means there's been a lot of deliberate discussion. I am particularly curious about the voices who were at the table um on that committee and I know that there are a lot of moving parts in this um a lot of academic moving parts, activity moving parts um but I'm just curious about making sure we have a representative sample of the professionals who um have skin in the game here and how they were tapped. I know you asked principles, but like I did you give direction on,

080you know, what kind of titles did we want at the table? What people with experience did we want at the table? Those things. >> Um, yes, I would say that the principles were the people they that submitted their names were heavy in elective teachers because they would be the ones that were most impacted. Um, so we had, you know, the teched at the table, the culinary at the table. we had several of the electives that were there as well as um you know gened core teachers. Um but I I will say that and and I'm not sure if this is in one of the things you're in referencing too but I will say in some of the feedback that we have read um chair and dance has asked you know would love to have been

081at the table in that committee and so I do think that um in any time that you bring you have a change process at hand we should always be reflective and so after reading several of the pieces of feedback and talking to a few teachers. I do think that it would have been beneficial to solicit cheer and dance coaches back 18 months ago. I will be very honest with you though the initial 18 month ago work was to bring elect we it was all about the opportunities and elective offerings. It really wasn't until we started to look at our sticking to um maximizing our staff and looking at class sizes that we uncovered that there were several um class sizes that were below 10. And that really started to get us to dig a little

082bit deeper into what was happening in some of the other areas such as cheer and dance to know that for example dance our class size is the average class size is 13 across. So, how do we go to principles um HR Mr. How has gone to principles and said next year we really need to look at this and not have anything below 15. How do we do that when Pioneer Trail has eight dancers? Um so it really became uncovered later than that 18month um start date. Um but in looking back that could have been a good opportunity to go back. You know, I do reflect having been in the chair of a teacher, counselor, middle school principal that we we do want to have a voice and input and I think it really was a

083matter of us looking at staffing and making decisions that were best as the system. Um my guess is if I went to dance and and cheer teachers and asked you know would you want to not have this as a class the answer the input would have been you know no just based on the feedback. Um, but I think my answer would be to say is that I think a true leader is going to look in the mirror and and not out the window and um put blame and to be able to say is we absolutely um could have asked for their input um a little earlier along the way than than the feedback form. However, the feedback form is very helpful in what they've shared in terms of us moving forward in our work and

084including them. >> Well, I really appreciate that clarification, Dr. waters about um how the original gen the genesis of this project to adjust middle school electives. The intention was to I mean this was not part of the original intent and that I think is a super fair point to make and that was not something I had considered you know. Yes. Go ahead please. Well, I was going to say that very same thing when we met with our um committee of 60 people that was made up of parents, teachers, counselors, administrators, um and students. We really asked them to dream. What would you do if we could add something? What do you think our students need? >> We didn't ask them what courses do you think that we should retire? Right? >> And as Dr. Waters

085said it wasn't really until we started looking at numbers. To be honest with you, Intro to Apparel was nowhere on my radar as something that we would need to retire until we started actually looking at the enrollment for those courses. Um, so we and and as we started preparing for tonight, I went back and looked at our list of who those 60 people were that were involved and we did have teachers from every single content area and every single elective area. And we also did have um one coach from cheer or dance, I can't remember which one, who overlapped with, you know, whatever her content area was. And again, we weren't asking them what should we eliminate. We were asking what should we add and what what dreams do we have as for our students,

086>> right? I I do um you know I think just we always do better when we are more aware and I think that the feedback we've received and the emails we as a board have received you know it it said very much to me like um you know when people maybe feel whether it was not in intended or not um that perhaps their voice was they weren't given an opportunity to have a voice that can feel really hard and heavy and so I appreciate your recognition and I like what you just said about taking responsibility And I don't know, you said something about not looking out the window and so I appreciate that. Um I'm curious, are any of our current cheer and dance coaches certified in physical education? >> We do. We have um

087two of them I believe are certified in PE um and and it is a PE credit. So ultimately in and looking at this um throughout this process that would be something that we would um want um should this proposal not pass the chair and dance um the other 19 coaches would need to be certified in PE. >> And I think that's where kind of the struggle is like getting into the you know minutia of figuring out the staffing. Um because you know I've just thought a lot. I mean full disclosure I'm a dance mom. Um, I'm a former dance coach. I'm a former high school English teacher. Juggling all these things. Um, it's not an easy thing. And so I wear all these hats, but I sit up here as somebody who has to advocate

088for 28,000 students and and 5,000 5,000 staff. And so while I take this this very personally and I know so many people take this so personally and just with anything that deals with creativity, it is a very personal activity. Um you know the cheer and dance is different than for example choir and band because choir and band teachers are licensed in choir and band. And so I mean that's kind of where I'm sticking. You know, I I I think a lot about my colleagues when I was an English teacher having larger class sizes because I spent one period a day coaching drill team and and I hadn't ever really thought about it that way before. Kind of like you all did not uncover this until you started digging into what middle school electives are really

089needing to look like. So, I do want to put that out there. Um, [gasps] so side completely transitioning. I love what I'm hearing about the computer skills stuff. I mean, last last month we had a a district employee talk about copy and pasting being a problem and then the Cedar Creek principal talking about copy and pasting being a problem. Um, but I also, you know, I know there's research out there where keyboarding and those skills are maybe not even developmentally appropriate for elementary school kids. And so I do love that we're being responsive to what we know. Um, so thank you for that. Um, I am curious and I'm sure in the discussions things will go forward about the marriage of fashion and interior design and and leaving behind the apparel. Um, it feels like

090a lot to put in one class. >> I don't know. Miss Bodin always here. I asked her specifically about this class because I wanted to make sure that I could answer that question or a question about it. I just had a feeling. Um this class already exists as a fashion apparel and interior design course. Okay. So actually we will be removing the apparel piece of it and no yes the apparel piece of it. It'll be fashion and interior design. Then um Barb said that we would be increasing the um amount of sewing that students are doing. Okay. and she said that like some of our other courses, we were seeing a lot of overlap between um uh intro to apparel production as well as the fade class. And so um we'll increase that sewing in

091that course so that they um are getting those skills even though we are um retiring the intro to apparel production. Does that answer your question? >> I mean as much as you're able to at this point. Um I just you know I try to keep the educators in mind. I have lots more I could talk about, but I I know there's six other people up here. Um I just really appreciate your deliberateness and um we aren't voting on this tonight. Um there's still chances to have dialogue and I just um you know going into it, you know, this phrase we hear so much is we can't please everyone. Pleasing people is not the mission of a school district. Um it is serving the students to the very best of our ability. And sometimes that is

092really hard to do. Um, and I just I I think about all of the details here and [clears throat] um, all the things that I love and all the things that we need to figure out and I just um, I really hope that the conversations and the people at the table, you know, there is a thought to making sure every single voice that may have not every every single area that may be impacted has a voice there to contribute to the conversation. Thank you. So, one of the things too to kind of piggyback off that, um, we've had a lot of conversation in all of our courses that as we develop new core standards or new content guides that we have a central core, um, group of teachers who work to develop that, but then

093we share those with the the greater whole of the department and get feedback from them. And, um, with our ambitious timeline, we are still hoping that we'll be able to do that um, this school year. There are several people who are um have questions but before we jump to another topic Miss Reagan mentioned the PE lure of our cheer and dance and I wondered Mr. How if you could speak to the challenges of having of awarding PE credit when the teacher is not licensed in physical education. What challenges to the district does that create? Yeah, that is a great question. Uh, it definitely presents a challenge because every year what uh behind the scenes, it's not the most exciting thing, but we turn in what's a licensed personnel report to the state and that's where

094they audit all of our personnel report. And it's important that we have 85% or higher highly qualified staff, which means they're licensed in the area that they're supposed to be. Uh, we always strive for 100%. You know, that is our goal. That being said, we have to audit every year who is doing cheer and dance to double check their license. Of course, license or endorsements can be added and Kansas has done a great job at doing that by just taking a test if you already have a license. So, we always check those to double uh ensure that that but what that happens is we have to work with the state and basically tell them an exemption of what the reason that someone doing this class and we're classifying it as PE and the reason for

095that. So we work with the state pretty closely on on those exact situations which does require behind the scenes our lensure department a little bit more manpower which we've always done because we know it's been worth it but um it does take time to do that and we do and it does sometimes go against our goal of 100%. And and I will say as personnel things have been more challenging in terms of people graduating from college with specific lure hard to fill areas with specific lure. There's some things that are outside of our control in some ways that to use an incorrect word, we have to take a ding on in our licensed personnel report that we have to be very cognizant about those areas where maybe it's within our control not to have to

096do that because there are places now where that's happening where that probably wasn't the case 10 12 years ago. >> Okay, Mr. Boyd. >> Um Justin, sorry, Mr. Wow. Um, slide >> remember your last name either. [laughter] >> Um, a slide 26. Um, there's a the the two science. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. So, and then in a couple slides before that, we talked about adding the team sport elective. Can you help help me understand how if I'm a cheer, dance, dad or whatever, how I don't feel like an opportunity is being taken away from my daughter or son? Um, and and as I think and process this, I imagine that the answer is team sports provide more opportunities for a larger group of students. Um, but can you speak to that and also if

097there's lenture requirements around team sports and what that looks like? >> Yeah, that's a great question, a really good question. So right now currently cheer or dance act uh independently as their own hour outside of any other PE offering. So if a student was to be in PE that would substitute in. So with the proposed changes for the PE electives that would be housed solely in our PE staff. So the lensure piece would be in in that piece instead of what you would see on these screens or those stats. So the students then would be able to take u a PE class in team sports or lifetime activities from their normal PE hour. And in this case, it would be a cheer hour and they wouldn't be having that opportunity to do that. So, um,

098[clears throat] lure- wise, it lines up exactly with the PE department. And then, uh, cheer and dance- wise, again, before and after school, they could do that and they could actually still do the lifetime activity or team sport activity where currently they cannot do that. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Miss Steel. Um, so first, thank you for all the work and I know that I mean it's it it's a lift and it was very important to do especially since we're at a 15-year mark and all the changes, Kelly, that you lined out. My [clears throat] professional background in education, my certification was special ed zero, newborn to 5-year-old. So then I had kids and boy, I knew them till five and then I was like, what's going on? Then they got to middle school

099and I was like, what is this? So, I'm so grateful to people called to our middle school population. And what I hear in everything that you're saying is this isn't just a holding place. This isn't just a bridge from elementary school to high school. We're making it very intentional. I love what I'm hearing about the onboarding from AIM to AVID, especially with the actual courses on boarding to CTE to our um 21st century programs. And if you just want to be a high school student, you're onboarding in that way, preparing you for high school. So I I I hear so much intention. And what I think is remarkable about that, even though I know there's been some hard things along the way, um is we at this DAS are going to continually be asked and

100in turn be asking staff and senior leadership to do more with less. That is the future of public education. And you're not only doing that, your your your part of the presentation, Mr. How, may have been boring, but it was, I'm going to say, one of the most important parts because if I could have asked you to put or asked John Hutchinson to put dollars to the very work that you're doing, it would matter because we are going to keep having this conversation about having to do more with less. And not only are you doing that, but you're making it a very intentional, rich experience for our middle school students. So, thank you for all the information tonight and and I look forward to future conversations with our community and and we'll be back in

101January to wrap it with a vote. >> Miss Johan, >> hi. Thank you for the presentation. Really do appreciate it. It was it was good to have some more information. Um, one thing that stuck with me was the equitable viable curriculum. I think there was one other word in there, >> Guaranteed. And I thought that was really, really nice. Um, and I think, you know, as we talked about some of the options that are currently available in middle school and how it varies based on building, um, knowing that this could be the future for our students is is really a great thing and what we strive for in THA. Um, so then, you know, it makes me think about the future if this has been 15 years um that we've evolved to this point. um

102what does that look like for the coming years and and how do we continue to evaluate this curriculum curriculum? So, it's continues to be that way. So, um with all of the craziness of the last few years with COVID, we've gotten a little off track, but our goal in our learning services department is always to go back and um review and revise curriculum every 7 to 8 years. And so that [snorts] all of these courses will be put into that same um cycle so that we will be continuing to look at those and revise and make adjustments. And I'll say also that in reality we might create some things this spring that we get feedback from from teachers next year that they say we need to make some tweaks and changes to these. And that

103is that's awesome. We need to constantly be improving. Um and so I don't doubt that we'll be doing some of that as well. Mr. Babbot, >> just one piece of clarification. Mr. How is um when you said that right now the cheer and dance it's a PE course. So does that mean if it was changed to before and after school those students would need to take an additional PE course? >> That's a that's a great question. I'm happy to clarify that. Yes, essentially they will need to take a PE course in um their regular day as a semester at some point 78. However, right now cheer and dance is a whole hour all year. So that again locks up that hour for them, which is a P for the whole year, but now I I'm

104excited about the opportunity to possibly get them involved in a little bit more in the school. They're already great ambassadors to the school as the cheer and dance team, but be able to get them into some of those dual things that choir, band, performing arts, theater, and being able to offer that I think is a very exciting opportunity. But yes, they would be >> Thank you. >> Okay. I again want to thank you for the work that you've done for the last 18 months. Um, and for the work you've done to prepare for tonight. I I know and and people in this room know my passion for middle school, the years I spent in middle school and worked with all three of you. Um, I also want to draw attention that in 2010 with the

105the addition of the iPad and the Instagram, we were spending time with electives at that time because we were reconfiguring our school system and we were moving those sixth graders to our current middle school and moving our freshman to the high school. So, so that was a huge deep dive. Um that was as you know and many people in this room know the reason for the creation of of some of the courses that have had tweaks along the way. But our why at that time was very different than the why in 2025. And you you did a beautiful job tonight pointing out um those those pieces changes in graduation requirements. Although student middle school students don't receive graduation credit as as you have have well described tonight, opportunities at the middle level help them make

106some choices and prepare them [clears throat] for those graduation requirements in in high school. So appreciate that. Um I appreciate also the conversation the solutions to access because uh we as board members have received a lot of communication related to the primarily to the cheer and dance although some of the other electives have been a part of that. um access has been a high concern of of many of those pieces of communication and and I also would thank um whoever was responsible communications uh Dr. waters. We as as board members have also received every response that has come through those QR codes um which is a little overwhelming but we received a summary but we also received the individual comments so we had opportunity to read and hear um and and attempt to understand that

107message. So appreciate the the forethought to what's next if a change is made and who needs to be in the room to help make those decisions. I I think you have aptly described that change is opportunity and and again I'm going to go back um those who were around two three years before we reconfigured there was a lot of emotion in this district. A lot of elementary parents, kindergarten, first grade parents who just knew their sixth grader was not going to be ready to be in middle school. and would we even think of of doing it differently? Um, now and and so um I I think that it is important that as other board members have talked as well that we are looking forward and identifying the why for the decisions that we make now

108to best prepare our students. not just our sixth, seventh, 8th, but all of our students and families for opportunities and and to make sure that the decisions we are making although difficult sometimes um are are with that focus. I do have um one question related to the electives. Sixth grade electives will remain quarter electives. The others that you've talked about are all for seventh and eighth grade are all semester electives. Is that correct? Okay. >> The only um sixth grade elective that semester is the PE election. >> Right. Right. Okay. Okay. >> And the required. Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Again, thank you. um and appreciate the conversations that have taken place over over the last few weeks with each of you as well. Dr. Jagger. >> Yeah, I'd like to say a few things

109if that's okay. You know, a couple things I'd like to point out from the presentation and again just thank this team and the the many others who've been involved in this process. You know, one of the things that I was thinking as as you were talking a lot and as we reflect about our district is we're not a system of schools. We're a school system. um you know and as we try to think about supporting all of our staff but all of our students and kids most importantly it's really hard for us to do that if we have things happening very different from one school to another one course to another um you know certainly we can always look at course enrollment and those kinds of things from kind of a district perspective but I

110just really appreciate the conversation and Mrs. Johan pointed this out that how are we guaranteeing those guaranteed and viable experiences for our kid kids kids that that has been something that's been critical to us in tha as long as I've been here almost 20 years and it takes us to a place where we have to sometimes have those hard conversations and and think about it. So I just I want to thank you for that because I think it's really really important to to talk about that. And I also want to commend this team because the conversation around cheer and dance um they knew it was not going to be an easy conversation. They knew that um but they recognized immediately when they sat down and started working on it that we certainly have some budgetary

111inefficiencies here. We also have some inefficiencies in terms of what's happening from school to school and and kid to kid. And it would have been easy for our team that was working on this to say, you know what, we're not going to move this forward because we know this is going to be hard. But I'm proud of this team for their willingness to talk openly about it to our public, talk openly about it to our board of education because the reality is if we ignore hard things, we're not going to get better. And and this team, I think, has really exemplified that and um that that sort of piece. What I don't want to get lost and you all did a great job of talking about this tonight is the excitement that also comes forward

112with with these pieces because I have to tell you the first time and actually the video that comms made where I saw them just go through I thought oh my gosh there is so much possibility here. You know I was just talking to a parent in the district today and now is the time when our students in high school sorry 8th grade are signing up to figure out am I going to go to an academy? Do I want to be in a CT program at OPSIC? all these things and you know the parent I talked to today I think they were like eight text messages deep from all the differentmies and what have you and I just think how powerful for our seventh grade students to have an opportunity to really spend engaged time with

113their individual plans of study but also have a course dedicated to here is the amazing options I have in high school and you'll public schools and I'm going to taste all of them so I can see what it is that I'm passionate about and that's really exciting I I think um so I just wanted to say that because it's it's cool and and the changes that are being adjusted to align with CTE at high school. So our kids are passionate about something, they can just keep right on going into those those areas which which is really powerful. The other thing that I want to mention is about the input and the involvement piece. Um you know I would have to say that you know we don't always get that right and I appreciate uh Dr.

114water is kind of taking that head on tonight. But the reality is a foundational key component to our district for the last 20 years that I've been here and it probably started long before that um is there's always people involved in input and decisionm at various times in that process. So you know you all know because you look closely at everything in our board agendas there's a section called part participants in the process. I would suspect you won't find that in any other district anywhere. Um, that's something that's unique to Altha because it's important to us that we call out who are the people from the field, meaning the people working with our kids every day, the people in learning services, our administrators, who are the people that are sitting around the table making those

115decisions. I also think it's important to note that that happens at different times. So sometimes when the decision is going to be hard as district leaders, as people who are responsible for the certified personnel report, who have to answer the call from the state and say, "Why do you have somebody certified in special education, teaching, PE, um the people that have to answer those questions to be able to say, we know we need to make this hard decision, but we're also going to figure out how to get input as soon as we do." And that's the thing I heard that team say tonight is that, you know, we know this is a hard decision, a hard recommendation to make to the board of education. But as soon as that moves forward and if it moves

116forward, we're going to quickly get the people around the table and we're going to figure out the best path forward. And I just I I think that's something that sometimes we miss because it's a regular part of our process and alth that we're not backing away from and it continues to be important to us. So anyway, I just wanted to summarize a few of those things um as we have this conversation tonight. So >> board, any other comments, questions? >> I'm sorry. As Dr. Joerger was talking, I had a thing that popped in my head. I just to clarify, um there there isn't like a big conspiracy that like cheer and dance, it's going to trickle up to the high school and go away as a class. And so I think sometimes when decisions get

117made and changes are made, there's a fear that there's more rolling down the hill. And I can I can say with certainty that this is a really an isolated thing that we're dealing with. And I mean, not so much a question, but I just I know we, you know, with the internet and comment threads and all of that, people can propose different ideas. And um th this is not some way to find a way to get rid of something. This is an adjustment to make things better. And I also do want to echo that while my focus in a lot of my comments has been cheer and dance like I think the academic um adjustments we are making which were the heart of the beginning of this conversation are so very important. So but I

118just there's nothing conspiratorial going on and I just had that thought while you were talking Dr. Janker and I apologize for my intrusive thought there. Yeah, >> it made me think of one more thing [laughter] and and that actually is just the process that board of education establishes and that is exactly what you're seeing tonight. So, it's a presentation. It's information that's future action and that's designed by board. So there's still opportunities for input and questions and all of those pieces as well, which you know, I gave our staff kudos. But the same is said for for you all as board members because you don't have to utilize that process, but that's something that's always been important to you all is getting information and waiting a little while to act on it. So you can

119continue to receive feedback and information and that's a really important part of the process as well. >> All right, with that I think we are finished. Thank you again and Dr. Vch, we have some data. [clears throat] Thank you. There we go. Good evening and thank you so much for giving me an opportunity tonight to visit with you about our most recent uh learning data that we have. So, one of the things that this should look very familiar to you as we have looked at it over the past two three years and that's really our balanced assessment system that we have here within the district. And so, we categorize those into four main categories. And so [clears throat] as you can see we we have our screeners. We constantly are taking data in through the

120formative data process. Um we have our common formative assessments for reading, our quarterly benchmark assessments for math. And then ultimately we have the summitive data that we look at. And [snorts] this year I help break that out for you. So you can see that when we talk about summitive data mostly here in our district, even though we have like maybe an end of chapter test or something, the most critical piece for us are these three components here. the Kansas assessment program which is our CAP state assessment data looking at the ACT ACT data and then also looking at um this I'm bringing to you the advanced placement or our AP exam data for you to take a look at. Again, ultimately we have a balanced assessment system which means that we are not relying on

121any one component or any one piece of data that make decisions about kids. We constantly look at all of these together to help give us a broad picture of a student and where we are in their education and then also where we are as a system to know if there are changes that we need to go back and reflect on. So this year as I said I really want to lean into this bottom category of our summitives. Um, you know, when we look at this, I think it's important to always remind ourselves who participates in the Kansas assessment program or the CAP data, the CAP testing. It happens in the spring. We start the last week of March and it goes through, it's four weeks solid. We end like the third week of April, but

122you can see these are the categories that our students are assessed in. And I've noted the grade levels. Those have stayed consistent over the past few years. So, none of that has changed. And then as a reminder that social studies assessment that is built into the class and so we don't have a special assessment schedule for that. It's something our teachers are working on throughout the entire year. Um and really with that it's inquiry based that processes which is really fascinating to watch and to see for our students as we ask them to make a claim to provide the evidence to support their claim and then finally provide reasoning as to why they feel their claim is true. And so the thing we love about that is that is a skill that they use across

123many different curriculum areas. So we ask them to use that same skill in science. We ask them, they are assessed on it in social studies and then we even take that into their literacy, their English language arts classes as they start looking at that. And then I know in some depending on the teacher and their passion for what they have, you may see that popping up in other areas as well. Every year I joke, but it's still true that you probably see that happening at home with your own children because we're teaching them how to make their claim, give their evidence, give the reasoning why. And sometimes it looks like arguing with mom and dad, but really they are practicing an important skill that we have out there. It's also important for us to know

124what the ELLL participation looks like. And this is our English language learners are students who English is not the primary language in their home. And so we need to remember that regardless of a student's entry date into the country, ELLL students participate in math and science assessments their first year here. And so the window for assessments opens on March 24th. And March 24th is the cutoff date for a student who's moved in. So if a student moves in March 23rd, they're still taking the math and the science assessment. Like that's just part of the Kansas regulations that we have to follow. After they've been in the country one year, then students also have to participate in the ELA assessment. And so regardless of where their skill is at, they have to take that as well.

125But then no matter what, our students also have to take, excuse [clears throat] me, the Kansas English language proficiency assessment, and we commonly refer to that as Kelpa. Kelpa testing happens in February up until spring break. And so those students are testing through that time. They're tested in speaking, reading, writing, and listening. and then they turn around, they get spring break off and then they turn back around and they come then they participate in the the cap testing that we have to do. So for them that's a lot for us to ask for as they acclimate here to us and what we are. So what is different this year? I know that you probably have heard um throughout the past school year that we had different assessments coming up and things were changing and what

126was there? Probably the biggest two things to know that was different for us is that we now have new performance level descriptors and we have new cut scores for all of our assessments. And so when we look at each of those um I think the most critical piece is knowing that the old system that we had our old assessments that were out prior to this year, prior to 2025, they did not have a vertical alignment. meaning that the old descriptors which was that limited basic effective excellent you probably remember some of that language they didn't carry the same implication from one grade level to the next and so you could be considered gosh I'm trying to think which one I want to go you could be considered effective in fourth grade math and because you

127had a certain score you could hit that exact same score the next school year but you were no longer considered effective maybe now you were just considered basic and so those kind it tended to not be equal across the board and it caused a lot of confusion in the system. [snorts] And so one of the things that was put before us with um the council of assessment the assessment advisory council for the state of Kansas is what we would call it. But one of the the pieces that we had on that of which I'm a member is that we really wanted to come back and be able to talk about how can we have this consistency between all the levels that we're looking at between the four categories where you could score and have it

128mean the same thing from third grade to fourth grade to fifth grade on through and so that we had a good grasp of what it was we were talking about. And then the other thing that we wanted to talk about and really help solidify is they created the new cut scores that determined those categories. We wanted to make sure that there wasn't this big discrepancy between what we were seeing in all the other areas that we were testing in. So when our kids were participating participating in FastBridge or regardless of what it is that they were doing, we wanted to make sure that showed the same way as it did with the Kansas assessment results. And so what we were seeing with that is that and I'm going to use like our um oh like

129when we look at our proficiency data, like our post-secary success data, you know, that showed that our students were doing great when they left us, but yet the Kansas assessment scores are saying your kids aren't doing very well. and all the other scores we had out there was saying, "Man, your kids are rocking it." The Kansas assessments are saying, "No, your kids aren't doing very well." And so we said, "There's really there's something going on there." And so that was part of the charge of the group this summer that worked on setting the these new boundaries and deciding what's a score really mean. And so they brought all of that more into alignment. I was not part of that process, but I got to hear a lot about it in in so many fun ways.

130So many fun ways. So here before you, these are the new cut scores that we have out there or sorry the new descriptors that we have out there for our students when we're looking at state assessment results. So we still stuck with four levels. So you see we have level one, two, three, and four. And what you're going to notice as you look across all those levels, it's really a continuum when you look at those grade level standards. And so it's the continuum of skills. And so whatever they can do at level one, how does that progress as they go to a level two, a three or a four within that category of math or ELA or whatever we want. It's not an absolute measure, but it's something to help guide us to know is

131it limited, basic, proficient, or advanced. The other piece I think that is important for us to always remember when we look at these descriptors, it's always about that grade level standard. And so it is not about gosh how would my kid do on the standard below or the standard and the grade level above. It's about how are they doing on the current grade level where they are as we receive that information from them. And so as you read this I'm going to look at like a level three. Um the way you would read it is just that a student at a level three shows prof a proficient ability to demonstrate their knowledge and skills of whatever the grade level is. So fourth grade in that and then whatever the content area is. And so no

132matter what test they're taking, we're still using the same descriptors across all levels when we're looking at all the standards. Okay? So I'm going to show you our data and how that looks for us as we look at um how we did in spring of 2025. But as we do this, I also want you to make [clears throat] sure that you see I'm providing for you what it looked like in and then I'm going to let you see what it looked like in 2025. So you can see how things adjusted. And when you look at it, I want you to keep two things in mind. Number one, we did better across the board, right? And everything. We outperformed the state. Our scores look great from the 2024 scores. But with the pieces that are out

133there is number one, we don't know how much of that is due to the fact that some of the cut scores changed and they adjusted things. And we don't know how much of that is due to the fact that our students had a year of learning, right? Our teachers have done incredible things last school year as they're continuing to do this school year, but it's hard to tease out which one had the most impact of what we see there. Our hope is that the impact was because we as a system are out there and really making great things happen for our students in the way that they're learning. But so please keep that in mind. It is truly baseline data for 2025. So when you look at the ELA data, the very first thing you'll

134see at the top bar is the district from 2024 and then right below that is the district in 2025. And then I also provided you the information from the state for 2024 to the state for 2025. So again, starting over with in the far left, that orange represents the level one. And then the yellow is level two, green is level three, and the blue is level four. Okay. And then this is how our data looks for math. And again, the district data is on the top first. So 24, then 25, and then the state data is on the bottom. And then it's always important for us as a district to make sure that we go back and we look at all the different student groups that we work with. You know, we are, as you

135know, a large district and we just have lots and lots of different student groups that it's meaningful meaningful for us to track that information, to track that data because we want to know that we're making gains with all of those various student groups as we look at them. So, I'm changing things up just a little bit. When we look at our first student group, which is ELLL, I'm just providing the district data because again, we outperformed the state for both 24 and 25. So, there's really no need to come back and look at that again. But I wanted you to be able to see the ELA compared the English language arts scores compared to the math scores. [clears throat] And again, these are our students that English is not their first language and they are

136working on becoming proficient, but they are required to participate in the state assessments. Our next group is our students who have disabilities. And please let me know if I start going too fast as we look at all these different graphs. But then we also want to look at our students that may um have low SCES, meaning they may um for many different reasons, they their families might need some support in regards to financial or resources. And so we want to continue to look at that as well. >> Dr. V, just to interrupt you just real quickly, when you think about students with ELL, like the tag of ELLL, remember that as soon as they pass the Kalpa, they no longer receive the tag of ELLL. So we could have a student that is in fourth

137grade who the previous year as a third grader qualified in the ELLL group, but when they passed the Kalpa assessment, then they no longer qualify in that group. So that's really important one to think about as you look at students who receive ELLL support. And then the other one I was going to mention too is our students with disabilities. So if we have a student, for example, who's in fifth grade, but their reading level is maybe on third grade because of their their disability or whatever it is that they're focused on. There's also no account for that within the state assessment. even though they may be at a second grade level in reading or math and have an IEP and receive support because of that, they still would take that fifth grade assessment. So, there's

138some things like that that are behind the scenes that you don't necessarily see when you just look at numbers, if that makes sense. >> Absolutely. And I think what you just described, especially about our ELLL students, explain some of our numbers here. Again, once they lose that tag, they're no longer part of this group. So, this really is our students who are truly learning the language as they go. And then taking a look at our students who are Hispanic. And another student group we like to follow is our students who are Asian. We also continue to look at our students who identify as African-American and multi-racial. [clears throat] And finally, we can look at our students that identify as Caucasian. So other summitive data that we look at is we look at the ACT. So

139a simple comparison as you've seen in previous years. Um the first column there shows how we did in 2425 school year the averages that we had. And then the far right column is the 2324 school year. And so you can see for the most part we had some gains, but again, you know, when we're talking small gains because it's it's just tough. It's tough to raise that. But we're absolutely proud of that. This data represents um here in the city or here in the district of tha, we had about 95% of our juniors participate in the ACT. And interestingly enough, well, probably not. I mean, you you you understand our enrollment as we continue to shrink and go down a little bit. We had 350 fewer kids participate in the ACT this last year than

140in previous years. But one piece of that is also they have the opportunity ACT also offers what they call work keys and work keys is just another assessment that students who might might be going into more of the trades participate in that work keys and it's a pretty difficult test but our high school administrators and counselors are working really hard with students for them to know and be able to help them if they know they're going to college. they definitely want to take the ACT. If they already know they want to go to a trade school or do something different, then we might encourage them to take the work keys because the work keys as they do well on that, it helps them with their certifications and things like that as they graduate and be

141able to get some of that lure and certification that they need. So, that's [clears throat] another reason why we would have your participants is that we're getting to a point where we can help students u more readily determine. The nice thing about it though is that as a district students have the opportunity to do both the ACT or the work keys. So they don't have to just pick one and live with that and possibly possibly pay for the other. We are able to help them be able to get both of those um through the state funding that they provide all the school districts in Kansas. So in addition to that, we also like to look to see how we compare across the state and then at the national level. Um, you know, I always like

142to point out that, you know, people like to talk about, oh, the Kansas scores and what's that look like, but I think we always have to put that in context. And one of the things to know is that the participation rate is not the same among states. And I know I shared that with you last year, but just as a reminder, you know, in the state of Kansas, 72% of our students across the state take the ACT where the national average is only 36%. And so we have a lot of our students that really step up and participate. And that's again great to um greatly due to Randy Watson as our commissioner really being um fully behind that and dedicating the fact that he wants money is dedicated to our students being able to do

143that. [snorts] And then um with that, you know, there are only 16 states in the nation that have a 10% or less participation rate. And last year I shared with you Maine was one of those. and Maine continues to be the one with the lowest participation rate. And not to to say anything bad about Maine, but only 2% of their students take the ACT. And so their average composite in Maine is a 25. And so you think about that like those students like they truly know what university they want to get in and they go and they take that and they do and and so it's just always important I think just to keep it all in perspective as to where all that lands. As I promised you, the other piece of data I wanted

144to share tonight was looking at AP exams. And so that's our advanced placement courses. And here you can see in 2024 we had um the number of students that were enrolled in an AP course and the number of AP exams that were administered across the board. And then the percent of our students who scored a three or higher. And the thing about that three or higher is that when that is when they become eligible for college credit, but that varies as to what the school that post-secondary institution kind of picks and chooses if they need a three in order to get college credit or a four or what that can be. And so, but I just think it's pretty great when you look at that. Um, students in grades 10 through 12 enroll in the

145AP courses. They have that opportunity to enroll. And so, this represents students from all across. So then when you compare that to 2025, you can see the uptake that we had there. [clears throat] Um when you look at the 2024 data, I will tell you that we had 411 students that took two or more AP exams. And this past year, we had 499 students, so right at 500 who took more than one AP course. And so that's a pretty rigorous course to take and it's a pretty rigorous exam for them to um have to complete in order to see the stats that you have in front of you. So kudos to all of them and kudos to our high schools who who make that happen. And then finally, this is a piece that is just

146an FYI that's out there and you may have seen this earlier, but I wanted just to remind you about looking at the college credits that have been earned by our students by the time they graduate. um we have three different options that they can do that. They can do that through college now, they can do it through quickstep and quickstep plus or they can do it um through the main campus and online credits. And so the amazing piece there is our students last year earned almost 99,900 college hours while they were still with us and completing their high school work. And so to me, that's just a pretty amazing piece that's out there as well. Um I will rightfully say they were more dedicated than I was in high school. So, and I don't know

147what that means except man, kudos to them, right? And so, once again, I just want to wrap up by reminding folks that we do have this balanced assessment system. They're constantly looking at all the data that comes through all of those components because we really do know that it takes more than just one score at one point in time that to honestly get a true picture of a student and what they can do. And that is something that we will continue to do here in the district um just to make sure that we constantly have that incoming information. So having said that, what questions can I answer, attempt to answer, hunt down answers for and get back to you with? >> Mr. Babot, >> I'm just curious, do we pull this data for SATs? >>

148And if not, why not? >> You know what? We just don't have a lot of students who participate in the SATs. that truly tends to be more of an East Coast piece, but we can absolutely look and see what that is. >> I was just curious. >> I want to say this last year we had less than 40 kids >> in the entire district. >> Yeah. That for the district. >> We had about 40 kids that took it. So the ACT tends to be our predominant one >> that we look at. >> Would you like me to I can certainly >> I'm just That just seems crazy low. Okay. Thank you, >> Mr. Boyd. Dr. Beach, do you have the student group data for the ACT breakdown like you had for the um the state

149the >> I do not and honestly I would have to go in and see if they even report it when you look at the different student groups but I'll certainly look for you and if it is there one way or another I'll get the information back to you. >> Thank you. I appreciate >> you, >> Miss Reagan. um the slide that had the col the gradu the credits um I it's I it's not on the because that's a really great data point. It's not in the one that's No. So I just I would love that information for future reference because it's an impressive number. Maybe mine is flawed. I >> Okay, but that Yeah, it would. >> Yeah, it's the but no like then bravo. That's awesome. I'm confused because they pulled this slide from

150what they gave you where my presentation came from. But I will make sure you have the slide to take with you. >> It's in the future ready course in grade seven. >> Yeah. Yes. Yes. [laughter] >> Um [clears throat] Dr. V, the cost for AP exams is that up to the student or are there funds that support? I'm looking out to Miss Jackson because she's my AP guru. >> There there are funds to support um students who receive um Oh, thank you. There are funds to support students um with financial need as well as we always receive additional support from our wonderful foundation if there are any families in a pickle. Um but the rest of the students do pay the normal college board fee. Thank you, Dr. Jagger. Did you have more board? Any

151other questions? Dr. V. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah, Miss Steel. Public comments. >> At each regular meeting, the board of education reserves limit limited time for individuals to address the board. We ask that your comments be gerine that is related to the business this board effectuates. Non-compliance may result in the president interrupting to redirect. We request that individual speakers limit their comments to 3 minutes. The clerk will monitor the time and notify the speaker when the 3minut time limit has expired. Please direct your comments to the board and not the guests or staff. If a response is appropriate, the president will respond or refer to another individual. In an effort to respect privacy, we ask that speakers refrain from discussing personal complaints involving individual staff members or students. Audience audience disruption is

152also not permitted. Those speaking are advised that public comments are videotape recorded for broadcast on the district's YouTube channel and audio tape recorded as a matter of public record. Individuals addressing the board should come to the podium at the front of the room and state your name, city, and state, and your relationship to the district. Thank you. Our first speaker this evening is Joe Langanger. Thank you for reaching out. My name is Joe Langanger. I've been a uh citizen of since 1983. and I've got five grandkids in the schools and I've had two daughters graduate from the schools. Excuse my voice. I uh am a firm supporter of the schools and I think you guys do a great job as do the admin and the teachers um and even the support and the support staff

153also. Uh, and I've never really thought about looking at a bond uh other than just the last uh few days when I heard that um it's a possibility that uh my soon to be four of my granddaughters will be going to uh [snorts] uh Green Springs and I heard that that's might be on the list to close. So, I kind of delved into the bond thing and it's it's it's it's kind of hard to find it. Uh, Mr. Hutchinson offered, but I didn't get the call until later and I didn't get a chance to call him back. But the the one thing that I thought was somewhat bothersome is that the survey you guys did um the company ETC [laughter] Institute only sent out 3,000 surveys to um [snorts] people that live in THA or

154parents of and I'm going to run out of time real quick. um they only got 411 responses back and um that's 3,000 people is about 2% of the population of tha um the response of 411 is 2% of tha uh citizens so it's not a very good I don't think a very good survey of what the people in THAA really think. Um the other thing is, and I'm not going to get to it, uh is the fact that uh they talk about um taking off four elementary schools and uh combining them, [snorts] which is good, but I don't see how they picked the the the schools. I understand three of them are older, but Green Springs isn't isn't old. It's only 33 years old, I believe, 34. And it does have a small attendance, but

155um they're also a gold standard school. Uh they're fifth in the state as far as uh elementary schools. They're the fifth they're in the top 5% of the Kansas elementary schools. their math proficiency is 70 to 74%. >> Mr. Langanger, your time is up. I I will say that I I would encourage you to talk with Mr. Hutcherson. I also would encourage you on our district website related to the bond. There is a FAQ section and some of the information on that page was placed there because of a visit that I made to the school site council at Green Springs and some of the questions uh that you have referenced. Um there are some responses there. So you might look at that and then again um connect with Mr. Hutcherson for >> Well, I apologize.

156I did think that it was five minutes you got, but I guess I was wrong. >> Well, it depends on the number of speakers. We have a certain number of minutes aotted. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you for being appreciate what you do. >> Thank you, >> Jessica Franklin. [snorts] Good evening. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak this evening. Um I am obviously here as a dance parent um to speak about the middle school electives this evening. Um my name is Jessica Franklin. I am a proud Altha North graduate of 2000. I was on the dance team at Oregon Trail and I have attended Westview who I know is closing. Um my mother graduated in 1979 from Altha High. My brother was on the state championship bowling team at Altha North

157in 2012 as a senior. I joke that I'm so from Altha. My grandfather has a baseball field named after him. I know what this district is like. I have been here. I have lived here my entire life. I have lived in THA. I married a man from Shaune. Made him come here. [laughter] Um as did my mom. My husband and my father both went to Shauny Mission North. Um but a few things I want to speak on. I know that dance and cheer is important. Um [snorts] research shows that arts education, including dance, significantly enhances academic achievement, attendance, and social emotional development. Students who participate in dance electives demonstrate higher GPA, better [snorts] standardized test scores, improved attendance, and lower suspension rates compared to their peers who do not participate in these activities. Dance team

158was one of the places where in middle school I knew I was safe. I had those friends and I knew I could be with someone who was their me. Um, I [snorts] still have friends, lifelong friends from that same team. Um Stacy Foster uh was actually my daughter's dance teacher for hiphop two years ago. Um the equity and access has been discussed this evening. I think that is an extremely concern with our Santa Fe Trail and Oregon Trail students primarily. Um I know that other schools don't have the higher numbers as some others. Um but I think access is definitely a large part of that. My daughter is fortunate enough to be able to dance at a studio. She's third generation at Lee School of Dance, who is celebrating more than 50 years here in

159Altha, but she wants to be a teacher. She knows she wants to go to Letha East. She knows she wants to be in the teaching program. [snorts] She's an assistant teacher currently at our studio and on the competition team. Removing this as a class is going to make her choose, do I take keep learning how to be a teacher at the dance studio or do I go in early and be on the dance team at school? So I just urge you to keep those in consideration that there are students who very much value and learn those social emotional skills from dance and cheer. [snorts] Thank you. >> Thank you >> Courtney Brown. Can I pass out a little hand? Good evening. My name is Courtney Brown and I have been the head cheer coach at

160Oregon Trail Middle School for the last nine years. As a former cheerleader myself, I'm a product of the tha public school system. My mom was on the dance team at Oregon Trail. My sister was a cheerleader at Oregon Trail in Altha North High School. And now my little sister is a current seventh grade cheerleader. Tonight we'll talk about three points regarding the proposal to change cheer and dance to an extracurricular activity and how they could negatively impact our students at the middle school level. First, this change was proposed to create consistency amongst all TED middle schools. In order to create consistency, we should be allowing our cheer and dance classes to continue as an elective class so that we can provide our students with a fair and equal opportunity to participate and be involved. By

161proposing the potential change, we risk creating inconsistencies across schools. For example, being able to provide gym space for practice, transportation for athletes before and after school, and having an equal amount of time for practice to learn new routines. There's also the risk of students losing the opportunity to be involved in multiple sports and activities. Without a set time in buildings, potentially having to create different practice schedules to accommodate different school and student family needs, we risk not providing our middle schools with consistency. The next reason as to why the change was proposed is in hopes to reduce class sizes and create staffing efficiencies. But the new transition of seventh and eighth grade PE courses to lifetime activities in team sports. Cheerleading and dance would make a great classification as a team sport elective as coaches

162are not just teaching cheer or dance. We are teaching how to work as a team and with people you may not always agree with, as well as how to prioritize time, being responsible, and positive role models and ambassadors for the school. As [snorts] a team sport elective, PE teachers and coaches could continue focusing on making cheer and dance a priority while still allowing for more flexibility in the master schedule. Third, it was noted that no other Johnson County district offers cheer dance as a middle school course. We're not like every other district. Tha prides itself on building innovative and bright futures for every student that will foster behavioral, social, and emotional development. If we take away cheer and dance as an elective class, we risk creating a boundary for our students that need a creative

163outlet and place to feel successful and safe at school. As you can see based on the d gathered and provided you and your packet. Yes, other surrounding districts don't have cheer dance as a class, but they also have a lot more restrictions. The Shauny Mission School District implemented cheer as a club this past year, and we are still learning the ins and outs of their programs. Blue Valley School District cheer clubs aren't able to stunt, and they can only cheer at games. Most surrounding districts have limited practices after school during the week where they practice in their commons or cafeteria space due to lack of gyms as well as have different squads for different seasons due to the time and transportation constraints. I believe a coach from Blue Valley said it best. It is very

164clear through my interactions with Altha's cheer dance programs that the level of excellence accomplished is different. The dance cheer success in Altha speaks to their middle school background likely because it is provided within the school day rather than relying on students to study dance on their own. So, while other districts might not have cheer or dance as a class, they do not provide a year-long sport the time and consistency it needs for its students to learn and improve upon. I thank you for your time. >> Thank you, >> Marley Trentham. Hi, my name is Marley Tramham and I'm a current freshman at Altha South High School. I'm coming to you tonight as a former dancer from Indian Trail Middle School who lived the impact of this program in a very real way. When I started

165middle school, I didn't walk in with a strong sense of who I was. I was nervous, unsure, and honestly felt like I didn't quite fit any in in anywhere yet. Dance changed that. changed that for me. And it changed me because it was a co- curricul class built directly in my school day that mattered more than most people realize because it was part of my schedule. It meant I could participate. It meant I didn't need a ride. I didn't have I didn't have to choose between dance and help in helping at home or dance in basketball. I didn't have to worry about fees or whether I'd make it in time or it would fit into my parents schedule. It was available to me in the same way math or English was. And because of that,

166it became a classroom where I could learn and grow. Dance was a co-curricular class. So, it didn't take any elective from my schedule or it did take a elective from my schedule, but I was able to build relationships with my teammates, engage in engage in meaningful health lessons with my coaches, and learned so many real life skills. Dance gave me belonging. It gave me a team before I had the courage to introduce myself to anyone. >> [snorts] >> It gave me a community, people who supported me, pushed me, and believed in me. It gave me confidence, the kind that builds little by little, the kind that builds little by little until one day you realize you're standing taller, speaking louder, and believing in yourself in a way you never did before. And most importantly, it

167gave me leadership. I learned how to work with others, how to show up even on hard days, and how to be how to be someone younger dancers could look up to. I'm not exaggerating when I say dance shaped the person I am today. And it only happened because I I had access to it during the school day every day. That's why when I heard of the change, it worried me. [laughter] It worries me for all students across our district, but especially those like me who knew money and resources resources are important. When programs move outside the school day, those barriers don't disappear, they multiply. If dance would have been outside the school day, I know many of my teammates would not have even tried out. My own teammates and friends would have lost opportunity. I

168could have lost that opportunity. I have been told that the reason for the change in is financial in district is in the district is exa exhausting all options. But I don't think we should change the programs that directly impact kids especially the programs that are proven to support attendance attendance build confidence and help athletes connect. I understand that a lot of hard work has gone into this proposal and that balancing resources is a difficult job. But I also know what it felt like to walk in a dance class and finally feel like I had a place place in my school, a purpose, a team, and a reason to show up as my best self. That feeling mattered, and it still does matter. Please don't take that away from the next group of students who need

169it just as much as I did. Thank you for your time. Megan Briggs. Uh, my name is Megan Brics. I teach elementary music here. I am a dancer since the age of three. Um, have a minor in dance from the University of Kansas. um for like 10 years [snorts] of my life was a dance camp director back home in Illinois. And man, I didn't know that this night and physically seeing these girls here behind me would make me feel these emotions. But tonight, I'm here to talk to you about counselors and how amazing they are in our school district. just through the time that we're in right now, there are so many extra things, extra hats being placed on their heads and they don't blink an eye. They just show up with an extra cup

170of coffee and they are ready to go. I [snorts] do want to point out just some of the changes that have been made just with the evolution of elementary life over the few years. And so they used to have more lessons that they were able to provide in the classrooms. Now it's down to like nine or 10, not six or seven. Couldn't get that number in here today. Um nine or 10 depending on the number of sections in your building. And [snorts] so those lessons um there's a few on personal safety, bullying, career, academics, middle school transition, and self regulation. And so it's just so important for us to understand that the life that our kids are living, they are have less access just to those direct lessons. But do you think the counselors are

171doing less? No, they're doing even more. They are with kids from the start of the day to the end of the day and they don't leave when we all leave. They're one of the last people there [snorts] handling everything. They're getting the phone calls from the families. They're meeting the needs, reaching out to public schools foundations, and I just feel like they deserve all the money in the world and all the recognition in the world because so much of what they do, they can't talk to us about. You know what I mean? Like it's all private information. And so we never truly understand all the things that they are handling and all the things that they are learning and supporting kids and supporting themselves and supporting the staff members in their building. I I just

172really needed to share that and uplift that because especially in these winter months and months with holidays, they are doing so much to support our kids. And as a dancer and someone who thought I would be a music teacher and a dance teacher figured out that'd be really tricky to do with my schedule. I really appreciate you thinking about what dance and cheer will look like because I would not be the person I am today without [snorts] all of the dance that I had in my um background. So thanks. You got just the emotional flow of flot thoughts from Megan Bicks tonight. So, you're welcome, [applause] >> Bill Jones. How are you tonight? I appreciate the opportunity to come and talk to you as a school board. I'm sorry to be here. Not my favorite

173place to be. So, sorry about my stress level, but I came and talked to you guys a little bit more in September when we were talking about the budget, and that's what I'm here to talk about more again. I also came in and talked with Dr. Joerger and Mr. Hutchinson about trying to get the school district to self-limit the amount of spending that we have and not keep asking for more and more money. And that didn't accomplish what I was after. So, I'm back to hassle you guys again. I have two main areas that I was going to talk about. I didn't want to be just a person that came out and complained about spending too much money. I wanted to give two areas where we could spend less. And that's what I was going

174to talk about today. Uh I think you guys all have a copy of my presentation. I'm sorry about the people behind me that don't because a lot of this is going to be tables and and figures. So, it's going to be a little bit hard harder to understand. But if we go to the spending per student, it in a lot of the meetings that I've listened to, it says we don't have enough money to spend for our students. If you look at the Kansas open government website, which tracks the spending per student throughout the state of Kansas, I have a table of the six schools that are in the Johnson County area. And if you look down that list, tha has four of the top spending areas per per pupil. And of course they have

175the highest spending per pupil. This is 2024 numbers, but that's the newest numbers I could get. So we are spending an awful lot per student and per pupil. And I have a tough time with us continuing to spend more and more all the time. Uh the rest of these slides pretty much come from last [snorts] month's presentation to to your school board by by your uh administrative staff. They have a det de declining enrollment for the next 9-year estimate and you can see that will be going down uh quite a bit. My my following slides that you have are really only looking at the next three years. If you look at the slides and you take the boxes of each of the three years, you will see that we are losing quite a few students

176in each of the schools and they aren't being replaced. And we've got more schools than we know what to do with. [snorts] I put in the plots on the middle schools and high schools. We're back to [clears throat] the for the high schools, we're we're at the two 2017 level. For the middle schools, we're back to the 2012 level of enrollment. for the elementary schools. We're back to the 2001 levels and we have eight additional buildings that we didn't have at that time. I don't think we're managing the number of our schools well and we haven't been keeping up over the years with them. So, in in summary, uh as a board, I ask you to please hold the school administration to [snorts] align and reduce our costs. We don't need to be spending this

177much. We've got plenty of opportunity. Uh there's me more many places that we can optimize our facilities and and go down our debt load. >> Mr. Jones, your time is up. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you >> board. We are at item 6.01 01 um an executive session and I would welcome a motion. We will need 30 minutes. >> I move that the board go into executive session for the purpose of discussing individual personnel performance for non-elected personnel under coma and that the board return to the regular meeting at 8:45 p.m. in this room. >> Second. >> Motion by Miss Steele, second by Mr. Boyd. Mrs. Steel. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Joan. >> Yes. >> Mr. King. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rabbit. >> Yes.

178>> Dr. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70 and we will return at 8:45. Okay, we are back to order and we are ready for action consent items 7.01 to 7.17. Miss Steele. >> Yes. Um Dr. Jorgovich, could we please pull um addendum is it A or one of 7.04? Let me look at that real quick. I think it's one addendum number one to vote on separate >> or a separate vote. Okay. So, I then am looking for a motion for item 7.01 01 to 7.17 with the exclusion of addendum one under 7.04. >> So moved. >> Second. [laughter] >> You didn't want to repeat. >> I don't want to repeat that. >> Motion by Miss Reagan, second by Mr. Babett. >> Dr. Yovich. Yes, >> Mrs. Steel. >> Yes, >> Mr. Babbett. >> Yes, >>

179Mr. Boyd. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes, >> Mr. Cune. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. Uh, now I would need a motion for item 7.04, addendum one. To approve, Mr. Babbot. I move to approve item 7.04 addendum one as submitted. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Babbot. Second by Miss Johan. >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cume. >> Yes. >> Mr. Babbot. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jükovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Steel. >> No. >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 61. >> Okay. We are now supposed to point something out on the action bids and contracts about saving money. >> I was Yeah. Um under action bids contracts and agreements items 8.01 to 8.08 08 be

180before we make a motion on this. I would just like to make a comment of appreciation to general staff who submit these items and the amount of work that goes into negotiating to securing lower pricing and the savings to the district. Um, we frequently see that in the reporting and the request to make purchases and I don't know that we always acknowledge that and and recognize the extra work that goes into that. So, thank you to many of you who who do that [clears throat] extra work. Um, >> I did notice you said that when Travis is not here. >> I'm sure he's watching from [laughter] >> from Bold. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. [snorts] Um 8.01 to 8.08. >> I move to approve 8.01 to 8.08. >> Second. >> I'm sorry I didn't get co

181motion by Miss Steel. Second by Mr. Keun. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jerkovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Steel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Mr. Babbett. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cune. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> Motion passes. 70. And Dr. Jagger, did you want to make a comment about now that we've approved it 8.08 the amplify? >> Oh my gosh. So um you know we talk a lot of times and you hear this uh during our meetings uh frequently we talk about textbook and uh technology specifically and you know the the um instructional material fee that our families pay those kinds of things. It's all related to that. But one of the things um that you'll notice on this item is an extension of our middle

182school science curriculum resource that we use. And I think it's just worth noting um that you know in years past before we were dependent on things that were computer-based and what have you, we could have used our textbook for an additional 2 or 3 years um and incurred no extra expense. But um in order to keep our resource in front of our kids for our staff utilizing um you know I think this amount I didn't pull it up right now but I think it's like $275,000. And so it's a good example of the places where the business that we're doing in terms of purchasing curriculum resources for our our students and staff are just different than they once were. So thought it'd be worthy just to point that out is it's a real life example

183of what we share often uh in terms of some of the things we're faced with. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Item 9.01 um other action board policy updates. Is there a motion? I move to approve update to updates to policies E E G A C D GA AO GC AAA GCBL and KI of the board of education as presented second >> motion by Miss Steele by Miss Reagan >> Mrs. Johan >> yes >> Mr. Boyd >> yes >> Mr. Babbot >> yes >> Mr. Keune >> yes >> Dr. Yovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Steel. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. 70. 2526. Other public schools legislative priorities. Uh again, a motion to approve is presented. >> So move. >> Second. >> A motion by Mr. Boyd. Second by Miss Steel.

184>> Mr. C. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jükovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Steel. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Babbett. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. 70. Uh, future action items. The list is short tonight. I anticipate there'll probably be a few more by um the January may well I I know there will be because of presentations this evening. Um written information. uh December head start director's report the bond issue update the current 22 bond and then parent teacher conference totals and I would thank the individuals who put those conference totals together for us to be able to see um how many students actually had parents represent them and then um how schools did topics for discussion >> I really fast I knew it

185was So um we just um adopted our legislative platform for or positions rather for the next and upcoming session. Session starts on January the 12th and based on um one of the speakers this evening. I do want to say that um the public schools of Kansas are not asking for more from our state legislators. We are seeking support for the required work that we are actually doing to support all of our students in our district. Um, and that specifically, um, I'm thinking of the excess investment in special education. um we are not seeking we are not getting the 92% that um the state is obligated to um reimburse us for and we see the fallout of that hole when we make hard decisions and some of those decisions are unavoidable. um they aren't some of

186them are you know we have to do them and they're hard not all of the hard decisions are because of the hole in our general fund from the excess investment and I'm saying investment on on purpose because when we keep saying cost it it has a different feeling the investment in special education um but some of those decisions that we are having to make and that we will be making are because of that whole not all of them are because We're committed to improvement, innovation, and reflection. But I do want everyone to have on email speed dial the legislative delegation who is elected to serve and support the tha public school district. Um I'm grateful to be on this dis um especially when we make the hard choices because uh that's that's how I want

187to give back to our community because our community has given so much to me. So, um, that's all I've got. >> Miss Steel, >> I just want to say thank you to Eric Azo and Jean Cano for bringing a amazing group of students to KASB in Witchah on a Saturday. I think they had to get picked up at 5:00 a.m. in the morning to come. I mean, these are students on a Saturday that are so proud of what they're doing in the low rider club with their bikes. They loaded bikes, kids, the two of them, Eric and Jean, and it was so delightful to show off to the rest of the state what our kids are doing. And if I can just say, our kids were bright and fun to interact with and so excited

188to share about what this club has done for them. And it was really cool to see the rest of the state go, "Wow." And I heard so many comments throughout the rest of the weekend about how neat that was to not only see their projects, but to see the process and to hear from them, how we're tapping into some students that um are really flying away with this thing. And it was great to have them there. So to students who got up on a Saturday and rode to Witchah to to show off their great work, thank you. And thank you, Eric and Jean. It was great. And just as we head into our winter break, um I'm I'm want to just say to students, thank you for all the hard work you did this semester.

189Um I I know that um school is hard and um we're very proud of all the work that you're doing to our parents and families. Um thank you for the support that you're giving our students and our families. And then to our educators and our staff, enjoy the big deep breath of winter break and enjoy your families and and thank you to our community for all you do to support our public schools here in THA. It is it is such a crown jewel that we have here and I wish you all a wonderful winter break. See you in 26, >> Mr. >> All right. Um [clears throat] um Tuesday was a special educa national special education day. Uh kind of reminds me of the moon landing. Um you know, we need to really thank our

190sped teachers. Um they're kind of like the hidden figures. Uh without them, you know, that one special day wouldn't mean anything. So that's how I tied the moonland again. That's all I got. Mr. Bab, >> ju just a few things. I'm gonna pound the dead horse on the culinary arts night. Um, I went to the final culinary arts night at North before they moved to the OIC in the second semester. So, it was a little bittersweet, but it was great to see the kids out there working. Um, we had our first deaf server ever from the Can School of the Deaf and it was a great experience. She was worked incredibly hard and it was it was just really fun. Uh, we saw a student who had been observing as a sophomore the first year

191that came through and was a terrified server his junior year and was the general manager this time and remembered us. And it's just such a fun experience to go through and meet all those students. So, as it goes to the new location, I encourage everyone in the community to um go and check it out. Um I went to the first football game I've been to since I was in high school. Uh the tha West versus Northwest playoff game. It was of What a great game to go to for your first one. It was really, really fun and exciting. Um the second game I went to was uh unfortunately in Emporia and was about 10°. [laughter] Uh but uh congrats to the Altha Northwest team on a hard-fought game. Unfortunate outcome, but I know they tried

192really hard and it was a great game to go watch. Um and last I went to the tha East Feeder Corral concert. It was really exciting. Just it's a it's a concert where they have the high school cor high school corral sing as well as both feeder middle schools and then all of the corral for all of the grade schools go. And it was it was really neat to see the elementary schools see what it becomes as they become as they get older. You know, they see the middle schoolers at where they're going to be in just a couple years being able to um sing as a choir and then obviously the high school where they can go from there. And it was uh a real treat just to see all that go on. So

193big thanks to Mr. Cross and Mr. Sickle from the East, Mr. Lul Nuland from uh Pioneer Trail, and Miss Sutherland from uh California Trail. And that's it for me. >> Okay. I just have a couple. I know. Whoops. >> Sorry. >> Was Becky changed my mind. >> Joanne. >> I know. Becky. [laughter] >> That's what my mom calls me. Um, it's fine. Um, I just had um some a few full circle moments this month and I just I thought it would be nice to share. Um the fall breakfast was at the beginning of the month. Really nice opportunity to engage with our community. Um and earlier this year I changed my career. I was working in Kansas City and now I'm working in THAA and to see the people that we serve to work around

194them. Um, it's been it's been a really good experience and I was able to kind of have both of my worlds collide at the Beam Career Day when some of our high school students came over to see what healthcare looks like and that was really a cool moment and um, I really enjoyed it. Um, I also had a staff member that came up to me and said, "Do you know Dr. Joerger by chance?" And I said, "Oh, I I do. I absolutely do." And come to find out, um, it was his favorite high favorite elementary school principal. And he said something to me that just really resonated that you know educators, teachers, principles see many students and for some students that one person stands out to them and they remember them the rest of their

195lives. And I thought that was just a really a really cool moment and I I just wanted to say thank you for for what you did for that one student but many other students. So I'm sure there are other stories. Um and and that's it. It just was a really a really great month to reflect on my year 2025 and being a part of tha in all the ways possible. And Brad, I hope you're okay, but if you need medical attention, [laughter] >> I'm here for you. >> We have a nurse. [laughter] >> And that's all I have. >> Okay. [laughter] Okay. Just a couple. We recognize the foundation tonight and um the the money that has come to our district. But, uh, I [clears throat] think when you go out into the buildings, you

196see that, um, in in concrete ways, um, you know, in libraries where they've hung the checks that they've received from the grants or or they're so excited to show you new resources um or opportunities for kids. And the list just goes on and on. So we are so blessed um to have the foundation and all of the people the board who was here tonight as as well Math Wings kids those elementary kids who love math and they either attend Math Wings before or after school. It is not a during the school day thing and yet they still participate, they compete um along with the rest of all the other activities they have. But it's always so fun um to see them and they were actually a couple of them working on some mathwing activities while

197they were waiting um tonight. So So that's of course I love math so that's cool too. heavy metal concert um today with all of our middle school tuba players and um baritones and euphoniums and a few high school um players dabbled in there and an SRO um third year that the SRO from Chisum has performed with the kids as well in his uniform but tuba player and the the band the 10 middle school uh band directors as well as Eric Griffin [snorts] was there as an honorary director, having been a middle school um band director for a while and now an assistant principal. And then Chad Coughlin, who is retiring from the South after 31 years, I think at THA South and THA Homegrown Kid. Um, but if you haven't ever been to Tuba Christmas

198or heavy metal, put it on your calendar for next next year because it is truly a room full of tubas playing Christmas carols. And tubas don't usually get to play the melody. And so they're pretty darn excited. Um, and I told Brent because it's they play a song and they play it again for the audience to sing. I have found my key with the tubas. [laughter] So, um, so it really and college church hosts it and so the sanctuary is decorated beautifully with lights and trees and it's it's just a a fun thing. Um, I also wanted to mention because we've talked about our legislative priorities. Um, Miss Steele and Dr. Jagger and I have been and will continue to meet with our legislators and senators that rep who represent tha. Um, we've been taking

199them, having coffee, taking them out into school buildings, and it's obviously a little bit of a a time commitment, but um, I I think a valuable and time well spent for them to actually see what is happening and to have those conversations with them before the session gets started in January. So, um, I appreciate your scheduling of it and Miss Steele's contribution to it as well. And Dr. Jagger, >> thank you so much. So, I was also going to mention the legislative priorities because that's always an important thing for us. So, thank you for your work on that. I may mention that the Johnson County districts are working together right now. Um, Mrs. Steel and Dr. Jükovich participated in a meeting uh about that too on our uh mutual priorities if you will for all

200of Johnson County. So look for those in the next couple of weeks uh just to be shared. I do also want to mention that you may or may not know but we had some weather early this week. Um we did have some weather earlier this week and um some things about that went perfectly and some did not. But I just want to most importantly thank our staff but especially our custodial staff and our maintenance staff. um for what they have the opportunity to do without much choice um in those situations because it is really them that shows up hours and hours before everyone else um to get salt down to shovel snow and um a lot of planning and preparation about that. So just very grateful for those folks. I do want to mention that

201I did receive a gift from a board member tonight and this is the Old Farmers 2026 Almanac weather forecasts. [laughter] So, I do have this uh at my disposal now. And I I have learned that it is the last year they're going to actually produce a paper copy of this. So, this is really an important thing for me to have. And I even like it better now because at the bottom, I'm going to be honest, this is the first one I've ever owned. At the bottom, it says sun, moon, stars, and planets. So, um it seems like it goes pretty well with with what we're working on uh tonight. [laughter] Um, I'm also really really super excited to announce we had a really special thing happen in our district today. Um, Rick Solo was named

202the middle school principal of the year. Um, which is just so cool. There was a number of us that had the opportunity to be at a Are you excited about that? That's great. Yeah. Let it out. Let's go. It's great. Um there there was there was several of us that had the opportunity to be at the secret assembly today and I actually think Rick was a little irritated with the superintendent because the the whole idea of the assembly was get your kids together schoolwide assembly to make a snow video with the superintendent. So they had just had an assembly earlier in the week too. And so Dr. Waters did a great job of uh you know faking that assembly and a couple staff members from Chisum. But it was great because his whole family was

203there, his kids, his wife, and um it was just it was a really neat celebration. And if I know anything about Rick, um just from spending time with him, he's not one to, you know, showcase himself and embrace all the things that he's doing in terms of just sharing them out loud with the world, but um he really does deserve this recognition and it's it's just really terrific for him. So so proud of Rick Sola and obviously we'll make a big deal about that uh in weeks to come. I also uh Mr. Boyd or I'm sorry, not Mr. Boyd, Mr. Keun took this from me, the special education day on Tuesday, but really important to remember the contributions of our our staff who work so hard to accommodate and take care of our students with

204special needs uh each and every day from things that happen in classrooms to our unified sports teams where we have kids with special needs and participating and and those kinds of things. and it's just really really important and and certainly didn't want to let that go without saying anything. And then the last thing is a charge to our community and our staff. We have a couple of weeks left before we go to winter break. Um those two weeks are important for learning and and student academics and um you know kids being plugged into their daily routines at school each and every day and including good rest before they come to school and breakfast and that kind of thing. So uh just a a reminder to finish strong for 2025 in our schools. Um it's been

205a great year. So that's all I have. Thank you. >> Uh okay board, we have an executive session 14.01 15 minutes. M >> I'm going to recuse myself from this one. So I will not be joining. >> All right. Is there a motion? I move to go into executive session for consultation with an attorney or the body or agency pursuant to the exception for matters which would be deemed privileged in the attorney client relationship under coma and that the board return to the regular meeting at 9:50 p.m. in this room. >> Second motion by Miss Joanne, second by Miss Reagan. >> Mrs. Steel. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cume. >> Yes. >> Mr. Babett. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jükovit. >> Yes.

206>> Motion passes 70.