November 2025 Olathe Public Schools Board of Education Meeting

001and all kinds of great >> all kind of stuff. >> Good evening and welcome to the November 2025 board meeting. Welcome to those of you in the room and those of you watching uh remotely streaming us tonight. I guess um we were just saying how much fun it is to have a room full of people for a board meeting recognizing that after recognitions it will be it will be a smaller crowd but it's still exciting. Um so Miss Beam, would you call roll? >> Mr. Babbett >> here. >> Mr. Boyd >> here. >> Mrs. Johans >> here, >> Mr. Cume >> here, >> Mrs. Reagan >> here, >> Mrs. Steel >> here, >> Dr. Jükovich >> here. >> A couple of of items before we get to our first item on the agenda. First would

002like to welcome Dr. Tim Reeves to the dis tonight. Um Dr. Joerger couldn't be with us tonight, so um Dr. Reeves is sitting in. So thank you for that. And then um this was an election week and I personally um and I think I can speak for the board are excited that our three incumbent members um were reelected and will continue to work with us, Miss Julie Steel, Miss Becky Johan, and um Mr. Rob Cume. So congrats. And with that, I would welcome a motion to adopt the agenda. >> So move second. >> Motion by Brad Boyd. Second by Mr. Keune. >> Mrs. Steel. [laughter] >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cune. >> Yes. >> Mr. Babett. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jükovich.

003>> Yes. And I'm going to take a step back. so excited with all of this that I forgot the pledge. So, we do have um some students from the and there here they come civic leadership uh pro academy and they're going to lead us in the pledge. Thank you for being here this evening to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. >> Recognitions and awards, Miss Kubo. >> Yeah. Well, good evening everyone and welcome to all of our uh guests and honores. To begin our recognitions tonight, I would like to welcome to the front our director of community development, Heather Skunover, along with her retired employee association board members. Come on to the front. Well,

004we are very excited. Come on up. Come on up. [laughter] We are so excited to recognize this very special group tonight. The tha public schools retired employee association also known as opsa is celebrating 25 years of support to tha public schools. This is the only group of its kind in Johnson County, Kansas with a robust and active membership of 200 plus people. The organization includes classified and certified staff members or retirees and provides an opportunity for retirees to serve district students and the tha community, keep in touch with former colleagues and make new friends through social activities. The opsa hosts fundraising events to generate support for activities and scholarships. The Marshia Stoker Scholarship is eligible for two high school graduates pursuing a degree in education and the Mary Cochran classified staff scholarship is available for

005a classified tha district employee working toward becoming a certified educator through the legislation and Kansas association of retired school personnel committee. members are informed about legislative and state retirement issues that impact retired school district employees and the group collaborates with the school district about benefits available to retirees. Tonight we are especially honored to have founding members of the organization who started the organization with the support of Superintendent Dr. Ron Whmer, Diane Steel, Rea Rhel, and Fran Graham. Could you please wave? [applause] >> [applause] >> This is truly an exceptional organization of some of the very best staff. Please join me in congratulating our tha public schools retired employee association on 25 years of commitment to our district. [applause] Ready? One, two, three. >> Awesome. Thank you so much, you guys. [applause] >> [laughter] >> That

006is just awesome. Well, as they find their way to their seats next, we would like to welcome two student athletes who are gaining national attention. Altha South Junior Eve Long and Tha East Junior Irene Geta along with their principles Dr. Sean Demery and athletic director Andrew Miller and uh principal Carrie Lane. [applause] These superstar athletes, and I do mean superstars, are pretty impressive and we are so excited to celebrate them tonight. Eve Long is a member of the USA under16 national team and this summer she was able to earn a gold medal with the team representing both THA and our country at the highest level for her age. Eva is now ranked the number nine player in the class of 2027 national rankings with offers from schools like Baylor, Miami, Louisville, Kansas, Kansas State, and

007several others. And she will begin her college visits next semester. We are so excited to have her representing us at the national level. [applause] And Irene, I know we've had her here before for some state diving championships, but she is a member of the US Junior Olympic Dive Team and most recently competed at the highest level at the Junior National Diving Competition in California. Her administrators tell us that Irene balances a very full load of AP courses while also maintaining a busy dive schedule. She recently verbally committed to Rice University to continue her athletic and academic journey as a D1 diver. Congratulations [applause] Congratulations. Yes, family. Come take pictures. [applause] >> So cool. >> I don't know about you, but when I was a junior in high school, I was not an Olympic athlete. So,

008[laughter] that's pretty impressive. On that same note of impressive students, I would now like to welcome to the front our high school seniors who have been named national merit semi finalists. And I'm going to have all of you come up at once with your principles. There's a lot of you this year. So come on to the front along with your principal, Altha North, Jason Herman, Altha Northwest, Chris Suk, Altha South, Sean Demery, and THA West principal Jay Nohichek. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced the names of approximately 16,000 semi-finalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. And in the THA public schools, we are proud to have 19 seniors who were named National Merit Semi-finalists. These extraordinary seniors have achieved this distinguished honor through their outstanding performance on the preliminary SAT tests. Becoming

009a National Merit Semi-finalist is a remarkable accomplishment. These students are among the among the top academic performers with less than 1% of high school seniors nationwide achieving this honor. So, as I call your name, please feel free to step forward or wave. But at Tha East High School, we have Elijah Humble and Jack Kennedy. At Otha North High School, we have Katherine Chang, Alexander Hannish, Drake Heimsaw, Aiden Johnson, Arshica Connor, Ariel Lee, Garrett Lee, Dominic Marin, Bennett Morris, Herthic Rean, Reangan, and Gavin Windser. And then at the Northwest High School, we have Brady Uden and Samantha Fuller. And at South, there's Nicholas Hammond and Jack Mutter. Congratulations, you guys. [applause] My goodness, I just flipped the page. I forgot our West friends. I'm sorry. Aiden and Hayden. Goodness, there's just too many of you. Congratulations

010all. [laughter] Any other parents want to get pictures? Come on up. All right, it looks like you're good to go. Congratulations, [applause] All right. Well, I am personally so excited for this final recognition as I get the chance to recognize my team for their recent success both at the state and national level. So, I would like to welcome to the front our assistant director of communications, Aaron Schulty, our senior communications specialist, Jaye Postto, our multimedia specialist, Holden Potter, and our graphic designer, Sarah Wthbone. Uh Marlene Kan, our web master, couldn't attend this evening, and Tony Wrangler, our assistant director of visual media, is currently live streaming upstairs. So, on the count of three, let's all say hi, Tony. One, two, three. Hi, Tony. [laughter] Our team won four national awards from the National School Public

011Relations Association, including one award of excellence, two awards of merit, and one honorable mention for our 2324 annual report, the Discover the THA Advantage School News Magazine, our human resources branding uh campaign, and a photo series from Central Elementary's Pay It Forward Club. But we also had some success recently at the state level. Uh we were able to take home 10 Kansas School Public Relations Associations uh publication contest awards and that included five awards of excellence, three honorable mentions, and two awards of merit for projects such as our rebrand, the welcome to our classroom video series, as well as social media stories like our short video from senior graduation walks that went viral in May with a combined 60,000 likes and 3 million views in counting. Uh, I am so proud of the work that

012my team does every day, but I am even more proud that I get to work with you guys. And I just want to thank you for all you do for Altha Public Schools and the stories that you guys tell. You are often the wizard behind the curtain and the unsung heroes in my eyes. So, thank you for all that you do. Congratulations [applause] communications. Tonight we have several presentations and we are going to begin with our school spotlight which this month is East High School and it's my understanding that we have some student presenters along with Miss Lane tonight. Well, first of all, thank you for allowing us to be here to present some highlights about the East. The biggest highlight of Althia East is our people. And I'm going to introduce you to two

013fabulous people that are going to take this presentation away. Behind the scenes, we have Sydney. Sydney, raise your hand. Sydney's a junior at Altha East and our future educators academy. What you'll see created here is called a bit emoji classroom. And then my presenters for the evening are Miss K. Mcgory and the senior [snorts] Pete. Iso, who I know really well. I just blanked out on his name. Pete Iso [laughter] is a senior and K Cadence is also a senior. So, we're going to let Pete Iso take it away. >> Hope everyone's doing good tonight. Really excited to be here. Miss Lane's always talking about how this is the place to be on Thursday nights. [laughter] >> Pete, I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm going to ask you to move because of the microphone and the

014streaming. We need the presenters to speak from there. >> Speak at the mic. >> Thank you. >> Well, I'm just really really grateful for the opportunity to talk about the school that I love. Uh my name is Petzo and I uh I've been in the school district for 13 years. I think since kindergarten. and I attended Regency Plays, California Trail, and now I'm at U Lake the East. And uh at the school, I'm I participate in football, basketball, and track. Uh I'm a two-year captain for the football team. And uh I'm a part of uh Hawk Nation, which I'll be able to talk about more later. Uh FCA, which is Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and I'm vice president for National Honor Society. And for college, I planned uh to play football somewhere. And I'm not

015sure exactly where I want what I want to study, but probably something in math. >> It's always hard to follow Pete, but I'm Kay. It's nice to meet you. Um, I first attended Rolling Ridge. I I should say I've been in Atlanta for about 12 years. I first attended Rolling Ridge, moved to this side of town where I attended Black Bob Elementary, and then just right next door at Frontier Trail. That means that late the east is not my home school, but I got to attend because I've also been a part of the future educators academy for four years now. I've loved it at East. Um my time there has been spent mostly in speech and debate where I am now the captain. Um in IPS, which is our peer mentoring program, um in be

016the voice, which is our mental advocacy club, mental health advocacy club, and K club, which surprisingly is not a personal fan club for me, though sometimes we get it confused. Um, it's our Kansas Association for Youth. It's a service club. And after high school, I hope to attend UMKC on the secondary education track. First, I uh I'm going to talk a little bit about the uh demographic uh at least and how it's changed over the last 10 years. As you can see, the population has reduced by about 200 over the last uh 10 years, but that was to be expected just because of our uh how the area is landlocked and how as people move away, they choose to sit stay near Lake East, which I cannot blame them. And um but with that, the

017language is spoken has increased by 10. And that just gives the students at a late east a really great opportunity to learn about students uh from different uh areas and just to really just yeah be with other people that are different than them. And um our free and reduced lunch uh is up to 32%. And that just uh really highlights the socioeconomic diversity of Ley East and um also the race and you can see the race and eth ethnicity uh sense and how they've changed and uh it just shows how late the east is changing and uh to be much more diverse and a great uh place for students to be. And then oh [clears throat] my gosh and then I'll touch a little bit on our academics. We're super super proud of everything we

018do academically. Our teachers hold us to a really high standard and kind of expect us to be the best of the best. And as you can see, we are. Um the last year we [laughter] had the highest AP test scores in the district, which is something we're super proud to achieve. Um the last nine years, we've had the highest number of seals of biiteracy. In case you're not familiar with that, it's an award based on the stamp test, which is a language proficiency test. students have to receive an intermediate, mid, or higher level on all four sections. Um, if you have any questions about that, Pete's actually a recipient, so he can tell you a little bit more. [snorts] Um, we're also the first Kansas school to implement the 3D program, which is three-dimensional learning.

019It incorporates real life challenges and businesses uh with our curriculum on a city, state, and national level. We are the host of three four-year programs, Civic Leadership, Future Educators Academy, and our design academy. And lastly, we have 15 debate academic all-Americans, which will hopefully be 16 as I'm currently working on my own. Uh, next I just uh I'm going to talk a little about a little bit about the athletics here at East. We do have the most uh state championships out of all schools, which again, high state peace score at most state championships. Pretty cool place to be. Uh Aydah Schweller, uh she's uh one of my friends here at Least. She was the Sunflower League uh pitcher of the year in all state and um she's just a really great athlete and a great

020student as well. And um Brett Carroll, someone who I had the privilege of playing alongside for one year and being on the same team for two years, is just an amazing leader. He's up at Minnesota now and killing it. Should be starting next year. and uh the first ever uh two-time state wrestling champion for the East and uh just really the leadership that he's uh that he had at Lake East still stands through the program and it really it's just really beneficial to have people like that coming through the program so that way we know how to uphold the standard that just runs through like the East. Uh as you met earlier, Irene, uh she's she's amazing. Um I'm a senior and I feel like I'm in some tough classes. she's in those tough classes

021with me. So, if if that uh if that tells you whatever you need to know about Irene, just uh great athlete and also takes the classroom very seriously. And this past year, we were the first late school to start the girls flag football team. Uh coach started that and uh that should be uh I don't know too much about it, but I believe it's going to become a sanctioned sport soon and um so it's just really I got to go out to one and it was just really cool to see. And then uh Audrey Leonard this past year was East's first girls wrestling state champion who also takes athlet academics very seriously. And Merrick Dismang uh I believe two years ago graduated. He uh was uh recently recognized for uh he was the national winner

022of the spirit of sport award. And uh yeah >> and then we're super proud of our athletics. We're also super proud of our activities. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention our peer mentoring program, which I've been super proud to be a part of. We have over 75 peer mentors in our program, and we work one-on-one with um the students in that classroom. It's super awesome. One of our favorite things to have at East, one of our largest programs. Um, another one of our huge programs is our theater program, which we actually have a show going on tonight as we speak. Um, we have 35 Starlight Blue Star Awards, which is the most out of the whole district. Um, we also have notable alumni Justin Kulie who was nominated for a Tony Award and is

023currently performing on Broadway. Um, and then I have to mention, I'm a little bit biased, but our debate program has been super successful. We have more national debate qualifiers every year than any other, well actually than all of the other high schools combined. Um, and then our former co or our former debater and current coach Easton Logback was the national top speaker in 2021 for Lincoln Doug Lincoln Douglas debate. And then combined that meant that last year we were the Kaca top 6A performing arts school which is something we take a lot of pride in. >> What makes uh a late the east so special really? It's not all the different accomplishments we're listing here. It's the people. It's the community. And uh this past year we won uh or sorry for the past three

024years we have won the mayor's uh pennies for shoe which is now starting up soon. And um la just last week we made the uh ESPN honor role as a part of our national unified uh sports uh team and that's just it's a really cool opportunity. Uh I'm not sure how aware you guys are with the IPS program but it's just it's just such a great program here we have at least and uh last year we raised the most money of any school uh from the Kansas uh polar plunge and uh it was cold let me tell you let me tell you that uh but it was just really cool to see the community gather around. I know Miss Lane's son uh plays football up at Baker and he was able to get a good

025group of his uh teammates to come out and support. It's just really cool to see how the community comes around to the east. And also uh the father's club, I believe it is the best in Altha. Uh they're just they're just always around. I mean finals, they're handing out Chick-fil-A sandwiches. They're at lunch telling us jokes, giving out fruit snacks. The late the South versus late East basketball game, they're doing a competition. just really great really great to have good role models and uh we also we take pride in our Hawk fund which provides uh different things like uh caps, gowns and whatever uh those who cannot afford need in our community are the parents do a really great job of gathering around and pitching in to give whatever uh those in need uh need

026to have. And uh incredible we have great incredible school spirit which is a Hawk Nation which I was talking about uh earlier. Um we just we take a lot of pride in the fact that we do not just uh it's not just athletics that we uh are here to cheer on. We also go out to the theater events and um it's just really cool to see how everybody at Lake the East supports everybody and it's just it's a really great place to be. All right. And finally, if you don't buy it from us, if you're not convinced, we have a video of some of our students and staff talking about how much they love Altha East in their own words. So, here you go. >> My favorite thing about [music] Altha East is how inclusive

027everyone is. You really feel like it's a strong community where um [music] everybody is included together uh and we all work together as one. My favorite thing about Letha East is probably like how involving [music] everyone in sports is important to them and like playing soccer and stuff like that. >> My favorite thing about Altha East is probably track and field or lunch with my friends. >> My favorite thing about East is all the different students that you get in a class. Uh you get a variety of different backgrounds, different um cultures, different experiences. And uh when you get a really good class, all the kids come in and bring those experiences and it just makes the school a really really unique and cool place. My favorite thing about [music] East is the people here.

028>> Um, my favorite thing at Altha East is the people. Students, staff, [music] administrators, custodians, everybody here is uh or are just great people. What I like about Altha is I like about the people. [music] >> My favorite thing about East is my friends. My favorite thing about East is all the people. Everyone's really nice. >> My favorite thing about Altha East is probably my friends and always seeing them and having classes with them. >> My favorite thing about Elite East is probably the theater program. My favorite thing mentorship program in with the IPS class. >> My favorite thing about East is how big it is and how the teachers are really nice. >> So my favorite thing has got to be the vending machines and the awesome drinks I can get. >> My favorite

029things about the East. Um all of it. Uh I love this school. I love these kids. I think that they're really fun and uh I've just I'm just always pleased with all of the kids and how hard they work and how much fun they have and I'm just happy to be here. [music] Again, thank you so much for having us here. I want to give special props to our video production team that put together that last video and then of course to uh Mr. Iso and Miss McGory and then Miss Lenny for putting together this presentation for you this evening. So please give it up. That was delightful. It truly was very entertaining and also delightful. Board, any comments or questions? Um I just want to give your the speakers, the students who put together

030and executed that presentation some mad props. Um coming and speaking at a place like this is can be very intimidating and it says a lot about the the your maturity and the skills you've gained from your academic experience here in the public schools that you were able to come here talk in such a way that you're comfortable funny I mean it you that those are skills that are going to take you I mean communication is so important and I I I leaned over to Mrs. Johan. I was like, I am so impressed by these kids. So, yes. Um, wonderful. And the pride for your school is really heartwarming. >> Thank you. >> Wait, not finished yet. Mr. Babage, >> I I just wanted to say that um my son will be attending East in four

031years, and now I'm super excited about it. I actually knew very little about East because I'm newer to compared to some of these people. But uh now I'm just as excited as as I can be. So, thank you guys very much for the excitement. >> Were there were there little hidden things in the Bit Emoji slides? I was looking from each one to see if there was something different, you know, [laughter] >> like Easter eggs. >> Find it. Was there or or >> Okay, [laughter] >> it's a >> Okay, >> you don't have to answer that if you don't want to. [laughter] >> Okay, >> and go home and watch yourselves on YouTube. You can see how well you did. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you for being here tonight. Our [applause] next presentation

032is in regards to American Education Week and we have Dr. Marta Silva and Sophia Ricano. Dr. Silva could not be here this evening. Okay. I am Jennifer Curry. I'm an elementary music teacher at Washington Elementary School and this is my 20th year in the district. And I'm Sophia Rico and I'm an interpreter for Summit Trail and this is my third year as an interpreter. The National Education Association was one of the creators and and original sponsors of American Education Week. Distressed that 25% of the country's World War I draftes were illiterate and 9% were physically unfit, representatives of the NEA and the American Legion met in 1919 to seek ways to generate public support for education. Fore. The conventions of both organizations subsequently adopted resolutions of support for a national effort to raise public awareness

033of the importance of education. In 1921, the NEA representative assembly in De Moines's Iowa called for the designation of one week each year for the purpose of informing, excuse me, purpose of informing the public of the accomplishment and the needs of public schools and secure the cooperation and support of the public in meeting those needs. Okay. in De Moines, Iowa. The first obser observance of American Education Week occurred December 4th through the 10th in 1921 with the NEA and American Legion as co-sponsors. Today, over 14 organizations co-sponsor of the week to spotlight the important role of our public schools for nearly 90% of children in America who attend them. And you can see some of those shown up on the slide. places. Altha's first public school was held in 1862 at different places in town.

034among them the Masonic Hall and the Methodist Church. It was open to pupils ages 5 to 21. In 1868, 6 years before tha was organized into a school district, the town built its first permanent school building at a cost of $10,000. It was a substantial two-story stone structure known as the Stone or Old Rock School, which reportedly accommodated four teachers and about 175 pupils. It may have been the school that George Washington Carver attended for two years. In 1883, Central Grade School opened. In 1889, two smaller grade schools opened, Washington and Lincoln. Lincoln was for black pupils. And after moving to a new building in 1917, was closed in the 1950s when the tha elementary schools were integrated. As a side note, Washington Elementary is celebrating its 50th year this year and so we've got

035a a big sense of pride there. Okay. Pedra Washington. Now, the THA public schools serve 29,000 students plus who speak 84 and more languages in 58 schools and facilities. We offer 23 career pathways, some of which will move to the district's newest construction project, the THA Innovation Campus. Fore across the country, schools will celebrate excellence in education by hosting kip golf events and activities. We encourage the schools in our very own Allea district to join the celebration. And today we will share examples of what you can do as an educator or community member for each day of American Education Week. So, one idea for Monday for the kickoff on November 17th is that students would share what they would do if they were the principal and education workers and community members could share what their

036favorite thing about their school or their education building is. So, >> [clears throat] >> On this day, on Tuesday, schools across the nation invite parents and caring adults into the classroom to experience what the day is like for their child. Ongoing research shows that parental involvement and family support in schools, improves student achievement, reduces absenteeism, and restores confidence in public education. investig invite families into our schools. so you can see what your child experiences. And we invite you to have conversations at home about your students favorite subjects, the best time of the school day. Hopefully, it's not always recess and lunch. [laughter] Hopefully. And then also, what do they like best about their school or about their teacher or even share what a caring adult favorite school memories? Maybe you sharing with your child about

037some of your memories. Education Support Professionals Day was first celebrated in 1987 after the NEA's Representative Assembly, the association's decision-making body of nearly ly 8,000 member delegates called upon the organization to honor the contributions of all school support staff. National ESP day is observed on Wednesday of American Education Week. Sorry. >> [clears throat] >> Our classified staff does everything from feeding our students to ensuring that they have a clean environment to making sure their devices work. Our schools would simply not run without them. All right. So, some ideas for Wednesday, November 19th, ESP day, is to encourage your educators, students, school leaders, and parents to share personalized messages or thank you cards to the classified staff in their schools and across the district. And to continue expanding opportunities for our classified staff voices to be

038heard. classificator for a day is an opportunity for community members to experience the day as educators and experience the joy. and the challenges of working in public education. We invite community members into our schools to help meet the needs of our students. You can reach out to your student school for opportunities to help or you can contact the community development department at 913-78-8233 for information about districtwide programs like mentoring, classroom support, and watchd dogs. experiments. Watchdog. All right, a few ideas for Thursday. Educators, invite families into your learning spaces. Hourly education workers, invite educators to help or observe part of your job that they don't normally see. Community members, come in and read to our students. Talk about your career or share other educational information. And for the students, definitely dress as your favorite educator.

039Fore speech. Substitute educators day is a result of members advocacy at the 2003 NEA representative assembly which called for an increased appreciation of school substitute employees. These educators provide a critical link in the education of public school students by serving as a bridge to provide continued quality education in the temporary absence of their educators. Time off is crucial for educators to provide the best education for students on days of professional learning, medical and mental health, and responsibilities outside of the school. Great substitutes make this possible. Substituto. that has opportunities to substitute as teachers, a parah or a clerical. help counselors and nurses. To learn more, call the district at 913-7808188 or email subservices atchools.org. All right, a few ideas for Friday um November 21st is to arrange a schoolwide recognition of substitute educators in the

040read aloud um school bulletin or on the intercom announcements or maybe write a note appreciation to a sub who goes above and beyond. One thing that we do at Washington is we don't have substitutes. We have guest teachers because we really feel that they they need that. So there's just a few ideas for Friday. Megaponia. Our district is one of over 13,000 public school districts in the US. We know that their future is our future. We exist for every student every day and invite you all to celebrate American Education Week with us. Thank you for your time. Thank you for that presentation this evening and congratulations to our educators this next week during American Educator Week. All educators staff in the building. Uh item 4.03. Each year the tha public schools board of education develops

041and votes on legislative priorities for the upcoming session. The draft priorities of for this school year are attached for the 2026 legislative session and they're um attached under future action. We will take action on those items at the December meeting. This evening we have Dr. Stuart Little uh with Little Government Relations um to provide a legislative update and he will also respond to any thoughts or questions the board may have regarding those draft legislative positions. >> Dr. A little thanks for being here this evening. It's been a bit since we've seen you. There we go. >> All right. Um, it's good to see you all again. I'm going to give a brief overview of kind of where we are, more likely what's coming than uh what's happened in the past because the education funding task

042force has not met since September 2nd or 3rd. And so we've got a gap in time here before we kind of get going. We're 60 days away from the beginning of the session. And I hate to say that, but uh that's that's where we are. So, I'll briefly just uh note we ended in April. We're start back up the 12th of January. Um there have been ongoing um issues at the state level about all kinds of things. Everyone uh in various agencies around the state, including in public education, have had to deal with the kind of uncertainty and the change and the give and take coming from the federal government. Um now obviously the things that are going on with snack uh SNAP and wick and related to the government shutdown those are having an

043impact on our students lives and those kind of things. So there's a tremendous number of issues kind of out there right now and then we're going to get into the legislative session where some of those are going to play out. I note on here that the effort to have a special legislative session that was supposed to start tomorrow has been cancelled. obviously that uh they didn't have the votes to go through and talk about redistricting. That will be discussed in January when the legislature comes back. They'll be we'll have that same conversation u in January. So, it's not done. Uh 2026 is an election year. That session is going to be very fast. We will be in and out very quickly. The legislature wants to do some property tax cuts, some other things, and try

044to get done and move on into the campaign cycle. We'll be electing a new governor next fall. We will have as well every member of the Kansas House up for election. So, there's there's lots coming in the future. uh and in the midst of things, this is just kind of an accounting of where we've gone with the budget reconciliation bill, the the the money related to a lot of different things. And kind of the latest reiteration of this was the Department of Education and what's been going on with the IDEIDA division and and and those kinds of issues and and I'm frankly the up and down of that. I'm not sure where we stand. There's probably somebody that knows that better than me. This is probably the main thing I want to uh hit for

045you all here tonight as you go into having conversation about the legislative platform the next uh time you get together. So, um, we now have a new budget process and that means that the legislature last year and again this year now is stepping into the leg the budget process, taking agency's budgets, looking at them, removing the things they don't like, draft a budget bill, and then when the legislature comes in, they have this bill and they begin working on the bill. And then when the governor makes recommendations for her her budget, those are suggestions that the legislature will choose to add or not. 50 60 years the governor has always said this is the budget. Let's work from this. So we've kind of turned the tables and that's where, for example, last legislative session when

046it went through that process, the $92 million for special education funding was removed from the budget. And so then we went into the legislative process and as you will recall we went through one committee because there was only one chamber, the House, that actually had hearings on budgets. The Senate didn't even do that. That's part of the speed. That's part of the legislative budget. The point of that is that we had to fight to get $35 million on the table, I believe it was, and then by the time it got to full committee, it was down to $10 million added to special education. And that's on purpose. That's part of why that process works that way. Now, instead of putting people on the record to pull out $92 million, we are going through the struggle

047to get 10 million for special education. So, we're in that same situation again. That will frame everything as we go into this legislative session. The education task force was going to meet one more time. they uh I think wisely have uh decided that they need to have some expertise in terms of modeling a school finance formula do some work. So they're going to get together sometime uh they can meet up until the 11th of January. they can't meet when the legislaturator is in session, but well theoretically because we're going to talk about that in a minute, but um they will um talk about what they want in terms of parameters for an entity to do modeling and that's very very helpful because when they've tried tried this the wrong way when they have looked at

048models through their meetings and made adjustments to the school finance formula missing from every one of those are the the third and fourth tier implications. If you switch, you know, uh, at risk waiting or low enrollment waiting and you recalculate that, it impacts everybody's local option budgets. And so all of those things get shifted around and there's not quite the sophistication, I don't think, to do what needs to be done right now. So they're going to hire a consultant to do that. That's what will uh will happen. Um, so as we get into the 2026 legislative session, um, in general, there's a belief that we're not going to do an education bill during the a funding formula bill during the 2026 legis legislature. Um, some suggest it's because we don't want to have this conversation

049before the election. We don't want to generate a product before the election and then we come back and we or we're not ready to do that. Those kinds of things. But um I wouldn't be surprised since there have been no public hearings at all on the school finance formula other than when they took input from special education directors on a proposed modification to the current formula. Uh I wouldn't be surprised if some of the uh the education committees may have someformational hearings or what would you like to see in at risk or high density at risk those kinds of things that may try to be presented as testimony on a bill and those kind of things. Um the chair of the education task force switches in January and so there'll be a house chair. The

050House chair is also chair of the House Education Committee and she has suggested at one of the last couple meetings that she has some interest in having the task force continue to meet during the legislative session to continue doing work and whether that's on a Friday afternoon when the schedule's light or a Monday morning. But that's part of what is in the mix. I can't tell you exactly how everything's going to play out during that session because this is all up and there are probably people more powerful than me that know exactly what's going to happen. But that's not been part of the conversation. I I do know this that when that session ends and it'll end early in April probably. Yeah. If they're going to do this, they will need to meet throughout the

051fall, summer, fall. A school finance bill according to the statute that created the task force requires submission of a bill on the 11th of January. So that 2027, so it has to be written and school finance bills don't get written quickly. So they they're theoretically supposed to have a bill introduced, which means you're going to we're going to spend a lot of time in the summer and in the fall writing have having them look at a bill and put some things together and then we show up on the 11th of January and see how things go. I don't know if to the extent to where there'll be hearings, those kinds of things, but there will be a lot of things that as I'm meeting with people and talking with people and here again tonight that

052we need to be doing in the spring and in the summer to be keeping uh our the public and our legislative delegation informed on what's going on and what's going to happen because when we get to January of 2027, it will be um a very interesting legislative session. I'm [clears throat] happy to answer questions board. Any questions, comments? >> I'm glad you got all the good news before I >> Miss Steel. >> Thank you, Dr. Little. always appreciate you being here and appreciate the work that you do in Topeka on our behalf and you're very informative of not only what's happening but the process behind what's happening. So, thank you for that. Um, I want to um focus just a little bit and I'm really glad you took your your uh presentation this direction about

053the timing. we are um in the process and have already met with one of our legislators in a in a two or three onone inviting them into our schools and I was really thankful for that. One of the conversations that came from the most recent visit that we had um with the legislator was um her concern over us being overly concerned about a product that hasn't been produced. So in that conversation, Dr. Joerger and I shared the timing which is exactly what you brought up and also the runs that have been um presented through the education task force committee which is how many do you think they've done a lot of >> what if at least 300 >> runs in every single one of those tha does not um prosper and we have less to

054work with so we were explaining to her the timing is a concern because we want to be involved during the process, not just when a product is put forth and produced, but also when they are pushing out these what if runs, which we understand are scenarios that they're trying to exercise and look at in different ways. It is a concern for tha public schools and and we need to be engaged beginning, middle, and end on this whole process. So, thank you for addressing that. And I would say your your um recommendation advice to us would be to continue being engaged throughout the process if the task force meets again um and and when I should say not if when the task force meets again and continue to be engaged. >> Oh, absolutely. Yeah. There this

055is not going to happen quickly. So, it's going to take a long time to get to uh a a final point where then it'll get into that >> pot of the legislature to do things. >> And thank you for pointing out too that the statute states that a recommendation is to be presented to the governor by January and we all know what a year is like. It's like a blink anymore. So, and what has to happen to get there is it's monumental. So, um, it may be July 1 of 2027, which can sound really far away, but January basically first, it's the 11th of 2027, doesn't to me. When I think about the amount of work that has to go into a funding formula that's going to be um the the best it can be

056for a district like um what what could I say Valley Heights where my husband went and and graduating classes are are 20 to public schools. Um that is a monumental task. So thank you for encouraging us to continue to be involved in the entire process because I think that's important. We cannot wait for a product to be produced and then start getting engaged. >> Well, you you've baited me into bringing this up, so I'm going to say this now by your question. Um, I've spent a lot of time looking at the 1992 9192 when they wrote the current school finance formula. Um, very different circumstances financially, politically, all those kinds of things. But that process ended up with the school finance formula we have because the components in it satisfied what what was the little

057district? >> Valley Heights needed which were things like low enrollment waiting and equalization of local option budget and the state took over more funding so there wouldn't be all property taxes in that one little district. And then the things that a district like tha which I think was 7,000 students at that time um were uh lob and what eventually became correlation waiting or high enrollment waiting and was low enrollment waiting for the the rural districts and and those kinds of things. And that the resolution to that process was about size and geography and partisanship at a certain level was a part and it never goes away. It never goes away. But the resolution of that long into the 2020 uh 1992 session was about how does this impact my district? And at a certain point,

058partisan politics was not the guiding force. And frankly, how whatever is going to get generated impacts local school districts is going to be how people vote. because that's a kind of a given because in some ways it it requires a person to make a choice between my community and following somebody else's guidance and that's exactly what happened in '92. Miss Reagan. Well, now that you've said that, um, so what I'm hearing you say is that the delegation that represents the THA public schools needs to hear from the constituency that is served by our district because they may be more likely to make decisions in regard to school finance based on their local needs than perhaps their partisan loyalty based on the 1992 result. I heard you say the community was what they had in mind.

059So, um, what I'm hearing you say is that our community needs to also stay engaged and aware of this process. >> I like it when you did that, but every school district should be doing that same. Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Absolutely. board. Any other comments, questions? Dr. Little, thank you again for being here this evening. Item 4.04, bond 2026. John Hutcherson will present information regarding a potential bond referendum and then board we will be asked to take action regarding this proposed March 20 March 3rd 2026 referendum later tonight in this meeting. So Mr. Ederson thank you for being here and again um I would like to compliment you on the presentation at school site council Monday evening. I've I actually have received feedback from several community members about that presentation in a positive way as well.

060Thank you. >> Well, thank you for saying that because you're going to see a lot of it again this evening. So, [laughter] uh as you mentioned later in the agenda, you'll be asked to uh consider a recommendation that staff's presenting regarding bond uh uh 2026. Uh but I'd like to take just a few minutes kind of review. We've had a lot of conversations over the last several meetings about what um factors are are leading us to our recommendation. So, uh why is it not working? All right, we'll try this. Sorry. Try that. There we go. Uh just quick reminder about the buckets that seems to be resonating with people. as we've uh talked about, they all independently have a a specific purpose, but they're all three very interrelated. So, if if we can free up

061um we are able to free up uh space in our capital outlay bucket by utilizing bond financing, that helps both uh capital outlay and it helps uh operating funds as well. We've discussed that forever. We were known as that f that that uh large growing fast growing district. We all the way um pre2020 sometimes a thousand kids a year. Then 2020 arrives and we see our first de decline slight rebound. But the last four years we're we're steadily declining. And as we look to the future, we see that um that's going to be um uh a continued trend where we're going to uh continue to lose enrollment mainly because of birth rates across the area which just mirror what's happening across the state and across the nation as well as uh the shift in our

062home prices that we do not have possess those starter homes uh that we once did. We went through a lot of myth busting and it really settles into some particular facts uh about our school district and that is that we can't generate the same level of capital outlay that our neighbors can and so that makes us more bond dependent. That's why we continue to um utilize bond financing. Uh we however our neighbors do issue bonds and they do it frequently. They just uh they're just not as dependent on them as we are. And while we no longer need the um bond funds to accommodate our growth, uh we do have an obligation to maintain the buildings that we have, seek efficiencies, you'll see in our recommendation through uh consolidation of school sites, utilizing bond funds,

063and maintain our investment in technology. And also uh once again, if we through the utilization of those bond funds, we're able to free up operating dollars to assist with uh retaining and attracting quality staff. reviewing the ETC survey results. Uh once again, what was resonating in that survey, what our public seemed to support was this idea of maintaining our 6.2 million $6.2 million square foot of existing facilities. So, protect that investment. Uh middle school locker room renovations, additional playground equipment. Now that we've made them ADA compliant with a base amount of equipment, um there's a desire for for additional investing in our high schools and athletic activity uh centers uh and spaces to meet current educational needs and also um the emergence of female female sports. We've always had girls sports. However, there are more

064sports uh now uh girls wrestling. We just heard about a champion. Uh we uh heard about the beginning of a flag football. Quaca is bringing flag football and participation rates are up. So uh that coupled with the addition of a tha west is putting a lot of pressure on both indoor and outdoor spaces in our district. We uh safety and security improvements, technology replacement enhancements resonated as well as did replacement of uh our older buildings such as Metal Lane. Once again highlighting but the biggest um support came in the way of the idea of consolidating sites for efficiency. If uh some of our end of life buildings if we could combine two into one new building that gains us efficiencies and also provides a more equitable uh learning space uh for some of our um

065some of our population in our oldest facilities. Again, we looked at various levels of um bond financing, 200 million, 400 million, 600 million, and we found that very interesting thing that there's only a 5% difference between the support at 200 million and 600 million. So, it doesn't mean we just immediately go to 600 million. It really just means generally people are either supportive or they don't they are not supportive. um once the number is large that they kind of um they kind of lose the exactly um uh uh how how much that that amount really is. So the categories that we're recommending later in the agenda, the first is we want to do some instrument replacement uh and some fine art investment. Uh we need to jump start a replacement cycles for orchestra and band

066equipment. We want to uh allocate a million dollars there. Um uh interesting enough, a very good um high school cello or uh bass saxophone lasts 20 years. So it's not what like we're using um bond financing for a three-year asset. Uh it the the life of that asset matches well with the life of the bond. We're also recommending constructing two elementaryaries in order to replace four of our um end of life uh elementary schools. So we'll gain that operating efficiency al and also bring um uh uh educational spaces up to today's standards. We also are recommending the rebuild of metal lane. Metal lane is our oldest building in the school district and it is still uh an integral part in our programming. So uh we are recommending that we um completely rebuild similar to Santa

067Fe. You could try to tear down the oldest portions and redo this. You end up at roughly the same cost as just uh trying replacing the building all at once. We're recommending $55 million for high school updates. Uh uh the older buildings will obviously get a more significant um investment. Uh we've been doing a lot of work at THAA North. Altha South's 40 years old next year. uh and even Altha West could use um some adjustments. It's it's uh at at the 10-year mark now. Middle schools uh in looking at the survey results uh that locker room renovation in order to bring more privacy and then also uh wait rooms are in need of repair and upgrade. And at the elementary, we've been the last few bond issues, we've done a lot of a lot

068of work at the at the elementary level. At this point, um, we're recommending $4 million in order to add additional equipment at each one of the playgrounds. And also, we've done a fencing audit. I mentioned that the other evening. And so, we would, uh, want to try to bring some equity across the fencing at playgrounds. Does that mean the elementaryaries don't get any anything else? No. Later later on, you'll see within our capital improvement plan, uh, Mr. plan has, you know, hundreds of lines that uh impact elementary uh projects uh at for technology working on those device and infrastructure replacement cycles and also continuing our work with uh the audio enhancement in classrooms. Furniture replacement, calling it phase two of three. We we have anywhere from 30 to $40 million of additional furniture needs across

069the district, much like our CIP plan continues on and on. We've made it, we have um done the replacement of uh students desk and chairs in bond 2022. We continue to work on that moving into the teacher desk and chairs. This would get into the libraries, the common spaces and some of and some of those specialy uh spaces, but at $15 million uh for this particular bond. And then as I mentioned earlier, athletics and activities. One specific thing was Santa Fe Trail Rebuild. Uh Oregon Trail is the only middle school now with only a sixlane track. We'd like to expand that, add two lanes to make it uh bring it equitable at eight lanes. Uh multi-purpose rooms, additional outdoor fields to accommodate, as I mentioned, the expanding uh girls sports. Uh we have um wrestling

070practices in commons and and uh we need to um bring equity into the system. And as I mentioned with the La West, the pressure on decks, we need outdoor uh fields, especially if if girls uh flag football uh comes to be. We're already playing Thursday, Friday, Saturdays at our at our facilities. Safety and security. Um looking at weapon detection at um uh at our for our larger events. Uh there's some uh uh good technology now. Um uh very rapid that uh uh can uh do that detection. Uh radio replacement. Uh much like we keep up with our technology replacement, we need to do the same on our radios. And then security film on windows. We've been uh working on um our most visible buildings uh putting that security film on. We want to continue uh

071doing that across the district. Uh at additional buildings and then finally that capital improvement plan, $70 million uh roughly 5 to seven uh years worth of work HVAC projects. Uh uh Dr. McMullen and Mr. Plans have been uh visiting with every principal and and kudos to the principles. you know, if a list had 30 things on it at one time, sometimes they go, you know, we don't need this anymore. You know, it's working fine. So, we've refined that list. Quite honestly, um uh the list is probably at least uh five times $70 million if we try to do the entire list, but this will get a a five to sevenyear window. So, grand total, that would bring us to a recommendation of $389 million bond issue. Putting that in comparison, our last bond issue was

072$290.3 million. Uh there's been incredible uh construction escalation. In today's dollars, you'd need 352 or $53 million in order to do that same work again. And in just that three-year period, it's gone up 18.2%. So, another reason to try to identify uh in our district what consolidations do we want in the way of new construction of buildings so we don't wait three years and have another 20% increase on on those costs. What's the impact going to be on our levy? Uh I I believe I demonstrated this for uh the board uh last meeting or two meetings ago. Um the red is our uh what our levy has looked like historically. Right now we're we're at about 14.3 mills. If we do no other bond issues ever, the blue shows what the tax rate would uh

073would do. Larrying on 389 million moves that curve over just as I've said every time I stand before you for a bond issue. Historically, we tend to move the curve over. Uh it never totally goes away. Uh conservative estimates put that at about a seven-year mark. Uh we looked um uh we looked very hard at whether or not we could drop the mill uh mill rate by one mil. It works on paper. I'd prefer to do that year one or two and make that that curve only like a five four to five year just in case something went um south in in economic projections. But it it could be done. So, uh, as I said later in the agenda, if you approve, uh, this bond at $389 million, the next step is I quickly do

074a fill out a questionnaire that for the state board of education, get onto their agenda, uh, and uh, seek their approval. At that point, then the county uh, uh, takes over and uh, uh, creates the ballots and we begin the process of a election that culminates on March 3rd. It's a mail-in ballot. Uh there uh my understanding is there will be two questions. That's unique for us. We're usually the only uh thing uh on the ballot, but there the county will be having a question as well. Uh my again our understanding is that the county's question will be first, ours will be second. Uh but by all uh ballots will be due in by March 3rd. >> Questions. >> Board. Mr. Boyd. >> John. Thank you. Um, you mentioned the 2004, 400, 600 th00, $600

075million amounts. Um, did the community give any feedback as it relates to how often they want to see us go out for bonds? >> Thank you for asking. I I meant to mention that. Uh, yes, they did. Uh, we were trying to uh determine, would you rather us go out every 1 to 3 years, kind of our 5year mark that we normally do, or do you want us to go big and we won't come ask again for 10 years? That wasn't the preference. It was more um short to midterm. kind of go with your cadence that you've been uh had done in the past, which is roughly that fiveyear mark, >> Miss Reagan. Um, so since we're sharing a ballot with the county, do we also share the cost of the election? >> Uh, we

076do. >> That's good. I appreciate that. Um, thank you for your hard work. This is a lot of meaty stuff with a lot of um details and numbers and um I appreciate that the focus has been kind of on what the community um showed us in the survey. So, thank you for conducting um all of that work to get us to this point. >> The heavy lift is really Mr. Flangi day in and day out listen uh walking buildings uh receiving emails from principles and just at at the uh touch of a button he can pretty much tell me everything that needs to happen in the district because it's just a fluid document that he keeps. >> Miss Johan, >> thank you. I one of the things that just has always um impressed me about

077our district is the forefront uh for planning to to do the right things for our buildings, for our classrooms, for our teachers. And so I just I I mentioned this when we went over the information probably last week and I I really appreciate just thinking about that and how you had all this information pretty much ready to go. It seemed very quick to me. um but based on probably some of the conversations you have with your peers and just knowing what what's a priority for our district to replace and take care of. So to me, I just really appreciate just the updates and and knowing exactly where the money is going to go and and the priorities for our district. So thank you. >> Anyone else board, >> Mr. Boyd? >> Sorry, just another quick

078question. We did communicate in the survey um these hypothetical bond situations that there will be a no tax increase type of bond. >> No tax rate. Thank you. >> I always tried to go on record, so I'm going to do it again. You control the rate. You do not control assessed valuation or appraisal of people's property. So if if your value goes up, the taxes are going to go up. If the value goes down, the taxes will go down. But you're committing that you won't move that rate above 14.3. >> Thank you for that clarification as well. >> Ward, anyone else? >> Mr. Hutcherson, again, thank you. >> Sure. Thanks. [applause] >> Um, agenda item 4.05, 05 student enrollment and demographic update. Dr. Jim McMullen, deputy superintendent, will present current information about the district's 2526

079student enrollment, enrollment trends, enrollment projections, and related student demographic enrollment. Lots of numbers, >> right? >> And history. >> Exactly. Yep. You bet. So, um I'm a little rattled here. I can't believe John Hutcherson got a round of applause after his presentation. So, [laughter] I'm going to have to compose myself here, but I'll uh I'll try to make it through. So, a lot of data tonight. And frankly, for the the folks both in the audience watching online that have been in THA for quite some time, some of these numbers will be surprising um because we're just entering a new era in THA. So, start with our our current enrollment. You'll see we are sitting at 28,140. Uh that's down 314 students from last year. Here's the breakdown by level. You'll see from early childhood all

080the way up to alternative education. And that alternative education is a little all all-encompassing including JDC, CLA learning center, step up, project hope, etc. And then the difference in enrollment at each level. You'll see early childhood was up on our projections. Um, and then, uh, K through five is down, middle school's up a little bit, high school's down, and then based off our projections, and and a quick kudos and shout out to Chris Gallup, our manager of planning. Um, you know, for a district our size with 28,000 plus students, um, to be able to make a projection a year out and be within 59 students is is just remarkable. And we'll talk about some longitudinal data, um, as well. So going back to what did we think five years ago was going to happen. So

081you'll see the the red line was the estimate back in 21. Uh the blue line uh is the reality. So um we ultimately projected uh going down to 28,800. We're at 28140. So a difference of um almost 700 students. So, in looking at our our schools by level, you'll see our largest and smallest. Um, obviously, our largest is Manchester Park at 601 students. Uh, most people in the room, if I asked them to guess our top two largest elementaryaries, most of our staff could tell you it'd be uh Manchester and Clearwater. Um, I asked a group of principles at at a dinner we were at the other night, what's our third largest, and none of them got it. Uh, it's Mafy um, surprisingly. And so then on the other end of the spectrum, um when

082we get to elementaryaries 33 through 36, you'll see Central, Green Springs, North View, and then Westview. The average size of our elementaryaries currently is 340 students. Um and then looking at uh years that those schools have been open, um Central and Westview both at 61 years old. Um and the newest of that group is Manchester Park and Clearwater at 22. average enrollment. So you'll see um where their current enrollment compares to their average enrollment. So you'll see Manchester and Clearwater are higher than their um average as well as MAFY. And then when you get to our smaller schools, you'll see they are lower than what their average has been at the middle level. Prairie Trail is our largest middle school at 735. Frontier Trail is second. admission is third. On the other end of the

083spectrum, you'll see how tight and how close uh our bottom three uh middle school enrollments are. Um just separated by four students. Um and that gives us 6,320 total middle level students. And then yours open. Um Dr. Jükovich, I believe you opened Prairie Trail 22 years ago if I'm not mistaken. So, uh time goes quick. Um you'll see even Summit Trail, which is um our newest um enrollmentbased uh middle school to be built, is already eight years old. And then again, looking at the average enrollment, you'll see across the board, we're down from what the average enrollment has been in each of those buildings since 2010. And then finally, the high schools. Um you will see their current enrollment. All five high schools are under 2,000 students. Uh that's the first time in a very

084long time that that's happened. Um years open and uh the reason you shouldn't have clapped for Mr. Hutcherson is like the South's been open 45 years, not 40 years. Um so um but uh and you'll see North sitting there at 61. Even Altha East with with their great presentation tonight, 34 years. Um doesn't seem that long ago. And then you look at the average enrollment um since and again you'll see Northwest has really held steady um compared to the other schools and the others certainly have dropped um enrollment over their average. So looking at our grade distribution and again the trend you will see is that our our smallest grade level is kindergarten. Our largest is our seniors and it pretty well flows that way with the exception of our our eighth grade students. Updated

085data on on students participating in free and reduced lunch. Um you'll see pre- pandemic we were around 26% for quite some time. dropped during the pandemic. That was because um you know, free lunch um and breakfast was provided to all students. Um and so the applications went down since then and that's been reinstated. Um we're back up and we're right at 30% um as a district. our ethnic and racial breakdown. You'll see again 61% Caucasian, 20 Hispanic, 7% African-American, 4% Asian um and others. special education services. You'll see um the need uh that we serve in our community with our special services students um going since uh 2003 um from 2200 to 3600. You also see a a positive on here in terms of our gifted numbers uh ticking upwards. That's the bottom line there.

086Um and then speech and language has has been holding steady the last few years. students receiving ELLL services. So again, that number continues to rise and that's certainly a result of of our diverse community. Um what's really been um certainly challenging for not only us as a system, our staff, but for these for students, um you look at the number of students with three years or less um education in the United States sitting around 1,800. So it's a lot of kiddos. This is a a new graph we put together. And so it's the the graph you've seen before that just showed that incredible growth um over 54 years. So 54 straight years of growth in our district from 1965 to 2019. Um during that time we grew by 26,500 students over that uh course of

087time. That averages out to 491 students a year. So again that's why that curve is so tight. um and so steep. Since 2019, we've lost 1,700 students in the district or averaging about 290 a year in decline since our since our peak in 2019. And again, with the color coding there, you'll see um that all those years, the elementary was our largest group um percentage- wise, and then once we got to about 2010, it started to shift and and then went down. And we'll dig into that a little more here. As a reminder, 2010 is when we had our grade realignment in THA. So, our sixth graders moved from the elementary school uh to the middle school and our ninth graders moved from our junior highs um to the high schools. And again, here's a

088here's just breaking down our high school enrollment. So, you'll see our high school high schools back in 2001. Those were our smaller classes. Our kindergarten was our largest. and you'll see those have continued to grow over the years. The big jump again was in 2010 because we moved over 2,000 um ninth graders from the junior highs up to the high school. You'll see the the years there as well. Um additions to the high school when we moved 9th grade up uh and then also when West opened in 2017. The middle school, it's really they're kind of in the middle of that bubble of growth and decline. And so you'll see a fairly steady number, but they grew by 2,200 students from 2001 to 2019. And then you'll see during that period of growth when the

089different buildings open, Prairie Trail, uh then Mission and and then Summit most recently uh in 2017. Then elementary again um you'll see uh was our largest groups there early on and you see the growth early on there when you look at 2001 to 2009 um we grew by an average of 402 students a year during that time period. I mean it's just remarkable. Um and you'll see the growth that accommodated that because you're essentially growing by an elementary school every single year. um even having in ' 04 opening two elementary schools the same year, I couldn't imagine. Um and uh uh eight total during that time frame and then certainly Canyon being our most recent elementary in 2019. Um and then this slide just really kind of illustrates um a number that I think is

090very important as we look to analyze our district, our facilities, and our future. and that is we really have the same number of elementary students today that we did back in 2001. Um the difference is we have built as you saw in the previous slide eight elementary schools since that time. Um and an additional 44 classroom additions, class specific classrooms which frankly comes out to about one and a half elementary schools. So um same number of students, a lot more square footage, a lot more facilities. So what's what's been the the change in in enrollment? What are the factors? And we've spoke to these and I'll I'll I'll cover those here. But that is all those years when had that steep incline in growth. Um every year our seniors were our smallest class and our

091kindergarteners were our largest and it was just rinse and repeat year after year after year. Um and this next slide shows the kindergarten class versus the outgoing senior class. So you'll see to the left um of the diagram, you know, the kindergarten um classes at one point um back in ' 91 were almost 600 students larger than the senior class. Um that number dipped down um in '98, then went back up and you'll see it all um evened out in 2016, and then since then, our seniors have been larger um than our kindergarteners all the way down to being 619 students larger. Again, another key piece is 08 is really when the birth rates started to decline um in THA and then that number caught up. Of course, five years later, you'll see when we

092had that huge drop there um in the kindergarten class and of course we're at our largest difference in school history in terms of seniors being larger than than kindergarteners. The major factors um total birth rate, average number of children per family has declined. Um and then the number of women aged 19 to 45 who live in THA has declined even though our population has gone up. And I'll show more about that in both of these trend with state and national data. But on on um this slide here, you'll see that the birth rate um in 2000 in Kansas was 2.21 and today it's at 1.81. Doesn't sound like a huge difference. It is a drastic difference and I'll share those numbers with you. So in THAA in 2000 we had 110,000 um residents. Today we're

093at 164,000. That's a 49% increase in population. when you break it down by ages, um you'll see uh the differential, but the the biggest number that that I'd like to point out is is at the bottom. Um people in the in the 20 to 44 year age has only increased by 15% when the total population has increased by 49%. What's that equate to? And this is what's really some fascinating data is had we stayed at a 2.21 21 birth rate in our in our school district, that would have produced an additional um 16,000 students. Um if the segment of women from 19 to 44 would have matched the population growth, so if they had continued to grow at the same rate as the city population, that would have produced another 28,500. So again, when you

094really drill down in the data, uh the birth rate is a is a real factor. And again, not just in tha, not just in Kansas City, but in the state of Kansas and across the country. Um, [snorts] I just heard a presentation um earlier this week from uh the school district in in Bend, Oregon, and they're one of the faster growing districts in Oregon, but their district is declining. Um, and so this this is certainly affecting folks all over. The other PE piece is the residential development comparison. Um, and Altha for years during that that steep incline was the place to go build a new home, have a neighborhood elementary school, raise your family, they get a great education. Um, you'll see that the development has gotten extremely expensive and and is is rather built

095out. And so, um, from 01 to 24, you'll see the difference in single family homes, duplexes, five plus unit apartments, etc. So, it's a a 77% change um from 01 to 24. And this uh this graph here shows our our um district map. And and the the number that's interesting here is that we had five elementary school attendance areas that had over a 100 dwellings built. Um and 12 attendance areas was 0 to five. Fast forward to 2024, only one elementary school had over a 100 build. 28 with zero to five. So again, it just shows the builtout um phase of our district. And then when you look at home prices um in our district, uh has really had a huge impact on new families coming in. So here's some data just on what what

096subdivisions looked like during that growth and what they look like now. Um so we used to get in Regency Place for example 71 students per home. That number now is.33 a difference of -77. There's a couple other examples there with the states Ashton and Brookfield. cohort growth is the is the positive piece of this um presentation in terms of people aren't leaving our district once they're here. And I think that's a really important message um for everyone. And that's due to our staff, our climate, our buildings, and frankly the the city of THA and the great place that it is. But you'll see our cohorts while they are smaller, they do grow. It's it's a minimal growth, but you'll see anywhere from, you know, 42 students down to three students. We had a few grade

097levels where we were on the the negative side, but overall that one-year change was a positive 209 um from one year to the next. So again, um really believe our community loves our our schools um and and once they're here, they stay. So the impact on our schools um and this data is interesting. So the these are um elementary schools looking at them in in 2001 versus um this year in 0102 we had 15 elementary schools over 450 students and then today this year we have 24 elementary schools below 350 students [laughter] at the middle level. In 2012, eight middle schools were larger than 650 students. In uh this year, we have seven middle schools smaller than 650 students. So again, you'll see that that decline. Looking at the future 9-year enrollment estimate, um looking

098out, we're looking, we're projecting a decrease of 2,300 um over the next nine years, putting us um 25,700 um students. And then you can see the breakdown there um by grade level. Um, so some conclusions and and the reality is we're just entering a new era in THA where we are experiencing declining enrollment. There's been districts in our area that have have uh addressed this challenge before us and now it's it's upon us. And so, um, what we will do is continue to monitor our enrollment numbers, refine our projections, um, and really the the process has started of of determining what right sizing looks like in our district in terms of making sure we have the right number of educational learning spaces um, by level for uh, the number of students we have and we

099are projected to have moving forward. Um and so we will continue to be very transparent and open about this as we go through it. Um but it's just the uh the reality that we are dealing with now in Altha. So that being said, I think we have time for one question. >> Mr. Boyd, >> thank you. Dr. McMillan, can you speak to and you might need some help from Mr. Hutcherson, but um you mentioned being open and transparent, right? this idea that we have declining enrollment, but we are asking or going to ask for a $389 million bond. Can you speak to the idea of how those two things square with each other? >> Yeah, it's a great question and and the reality is is our community um since the beginning of time has been

100extremely supportive of of bond referendums. um especially as you looked in that those years uh in in the you know 2000s to 2015 about was our really peak growth time. Um and the reality is our community has been very supportive through bond referendums in with growth, but the reality is we have a lot of buildings, a lot of square footage to take care of. And much like owning a home, you know, to continue to keep it um as nice as possible, obviously you got to take care of your roof and your air conditioner and and doors and windows and paint and carpet and all those things. And so for us, it's an obligation. The community has made a great investment in our school district and in our facilities. And we feel it's a as stewards,

101it's our responsibility to make sure we keep these spaces equitable. um and um as as good as possible for the future students. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Hutcherson, would you maybe add the exp? It wasn't in tonight's presentation, but it was in an earlier one just comparing maybe adjacent school districts and why they're not needing to go out for bonds as frequently as we do or >> Sure. >> clarify that. The reason they don't they're not as dependent is because they can generate more capital outlay. Um we're all at a there's a statutory max of eight mills. All the Johnson County districts are at that 8 mills, but um our neighbors can generate 124 million more with their 8 mills because their tax base is um higher and it's higher per pupil than ours is

102as well. And and another thing I had presented earlier that kind of piggybacks on what Dr. McMullen said is had [snorts] we just m if we could have kept those seats filled across those um eight or nine buildings, it's about $22 million of state aid we haven't been getting. That is not had we just kept the same birth rates just at those ex the seats we had filled before in those buildings. Um but we we're not generating it but we're still running the same system. Thank you. Um, Miss Reagan, >> that's a lot of numbers, Dr. McMullen, and um, I appreciate you sharing them with us. It's an interesting overlap. You see, um, the affordable housing issue and the affordability of, you know, providing for a family changing drastically. Um, I I really appreciated you

103pointing out the kindergarten enrollment following the the 2008 financial crisis and I I mean I'm in that age bracket where I'm seeing friends choosing to, you know, stop growing their families and cuz you have kids who are already living breathing who you've got to think forward and think ahead. Um, I do want to reiterate that I love how you talked about the investment. The children who benefited from the rapid growth of THA, having new buildings, having updated all of that because we were growing so fast. The children today also are deserving of the the keeping pace with innovation, keeping pace with, you know, what students are needing to learn and thrive in a world today. So, I just kids are kids and simply because they're existing in a district that isn't on this crazy upward

104trajectory. 25,000 kids in 9 years is still 25,000 kids. And I want us all to make sure we keep that top of mind. But um uh it's I've had people ask, you know, the conversation and the planning going forward of right sizing that's going to be something that we have an ongoing discussion with the community. Right. >> Yeah, that's correct. And and I do want to say that, you know, we we have been analyzing this for quite some time and through our boundary study group and and the one piece of caution I'll throw out there is, you know, while we we know we need to reduce our elementary footprint, it's it's not going to be a process where you look at the bottom five lowest enrollment and those are your schools. That's that's not how

105this will work. It will certainly be different areas of the district to where we can make the most use of our facilities and square footage and and certainly continue to serve students uh to their best ability. So, >> Mr. Bab, >> um I'd like to thank I believe Chris Gup for doing these great uh maps and numbers and just doing these projections for us. It really helps put those together. >> [laughter] >> What what year did the North open? >> 65. >> Okay. [laughter] I knew you would know, so I want to make feel better about yourself. >> Um the only the other question I had was for John. Um I know earlier this year we talked about we lost some state aid because is it because our population got too big or our enrollment

106got too big? Does this potentially affect that in the future of being able to get that aid again? >> Um, no. It has to do with the um our average home price compared to the average home price across the state. We don't on paper because of the escalation of our home price. We used to receive state aid because of that that it was equalized. >> Gotcha. Okay. Thank you, >> Dr. McMillan. I have a question about a number in the presentation at slide 23, the residential development. >> Okay. >> And I'm trying to wrap my head around a decrease in five plus unit apartments when everywhere I drive in I see new apartment buildings. >> Yeah. >> Can you clarify that for? Well, some of that is there there's there has been a lot built

107in the last 5 years, but some of these complexes that we see have been open for 3 years that we think are maybe brand new. Um, so there's there's that piece. The other piece is the growth has definitely slowed down since um 22 and and that's when the interest rates um for these type of projects were hovering around zero and then spiked up to four or 5%. And the reality is if you're building a $50 million large apartment complex like the one on College in Ridge View, um you know, you could be looking at $2 million in interest, you know, as you're as you're constructing it. So So those projects take a long time to build, so you see them. They're always in pretty high-profile um highly traveled areas um whether it's close to the

108interstate or close to to major roads. Um but it certainly has gone down even though we see some newer complexes out there. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> What's interesting there is the number of uh duplexes that have gone up. I don't know if you noticed that but that so many of those are maintenance provided which obviously are not producing students in >> Thank you. Thank you Miss Johan. >> You know I I think we've talked about a little bit. So we, you know, with the decline in students and the changes in our buildings, would we also need to look at the employees that we have and and what does that look like over the years and and we have a plan for for them as well? >> Yeah, you know, the the positive

109is we you know, we're such a large system from an employee standpoint. Um we have always um been able to you know make adjustments with attrition uh natural you know retirements and folks resigning and moving and staying home with kids and all those things. And so um don't anticipate um as we move forward um that there being an issue where we get into a reduction in force involuntary reduction in force. I mean, um, we certainly have policies in place for that, but I don't I think with a with a methodical plan and a a spaced out plan, I think, you know, that can all be handled through attrition. >> Thank you. I didn't say thank you. >> Sorry. >> Any other questions, comments? >> Dr. McMullen. Thank you. >> You bet. Thank you. [applause] Um,

110at this time we will have public comments. Miss Johan, good evening. At each regular board meeting, the board of education reserves 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 five minutes. The clerk will monitor the time and notify the speaker when the five minute time limit has expired. Please direct your comments to the board and not the guest 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 disruption is also not permitted. Those speaking

111are advised that public comments are videotaped 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 relationship to the district. Thank you. Our first speaker tonight is Thomas Greger. So, I'm Thomas Greger. I have one son in the district at Bome Elementary. And before I start, since I have five minutes, I'd say that was some amazing data. Um, very [snorts] interesting to me. Um, so, uh, members of the board, um, a month ago, our district was thrust into the national spotlight because some staff at Arbor Creek wore shirts emlazing with the word freedom. The shirts were worn in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination.

112The principal told those staff members to quote, "Hold off on wearing the shirt again." At the time of the incident, it was unclear what the staff had been told, which allowed social media to run rampant with leaked communications. The district's slow response and lack of transparency prolonged and aggravated the issue. The one-word message, freedom, should [snorts] not have been inflammatory, freedom is core American value. However, some parents considered it so. Although the shirts bore design that Mr. Kirk war when he was assassinated and is sold by his organization Turning Point USA to find his conservative message. The emblem is benign. Honestly, it is relatively easy to find words, logos, or patterns on staff clothing or accessories that support a myriad of positions and causes many arguably controversial and with similar ties to interest groups across

113the political spectrum. It is my current understanding that staff can wear what they wish so long as it's not in direct support of a candidate or ballot proposition. Clearly, that guidance is unwritten or unclear um based on the initial action in this matter and long deliberation of the district to rectify it. In light of the Arbor Creek incident, it is clear that current policy written or on written insufficient. Um in Dr. Joerger's letter um to Arbor Creek parents and shared in local media um it stated, quote, "We recognize our students are impressionable and see our staff as role models. We must recognize that school environment should remain politically neutral with a focus on student learning." End quote. With this, I strongly concur. Wearing slogans or symbols that are associated with particular political issues and social

114movements can inhibit or suppress student expression. What student would write a research position paper that contradicts a position their teacher clearly supports without concern for his or her grade? Who would speak up in a classroom discussion with a viewpoint that contradicts their teachers demonstrated opinion? Students ought not be intimidated by their teachers professed political sentiments. Thus, I propose the following. The district should set a clear staff dress policy. The policy should ban the wear of clothing and other wardrobe paraphernalia that contain words, flags, symbols, or even patterns that convey a message. Basically, business casual. Further, our classroom should not contain banners other than those related to our curriculum. Uh, and schools should only display the US flag and the flags of the state of Kansas, the city of Altha, and of the school. Reasonable exceptions

115should be made of course to this code for spirit days, religious observance and for official district approved clothing for example um school or district logo shirts, band shirts, etc. The district is well within its rights as an employer to set and maintain the dress code during the school day and official district functions. Brief review of case law on public employee speech I believe bears this out. In conclusion, our classrooms are places of learning and not the place for political sloganering [snorts] or staff issue advocacy. Such speech is detrimental to the learning environment and chilling to the students within the classroom uh who differ with teacher opinion. A simple change in dress code will ensure a more politically neutral educational environment, avoid distractions, and improve our classroom learning. Um, thank you for listening to our vote.

116>> Thank you very much. Our second speaker tonight is Nick Crley. Hi. I guess Brad didn't want you. Oh, never mind. I'm just kidding. Um, hi everybody. Uh, congratulations to Mr. Keune, Miss Steel, uh, and, uh, Miss Johan for your, uh, success at the polls this week. Um, that's awesome. Um, I also really want to start this comment off with thanking Heather Skunover. Um, obviously the reduction in SNAP benefits is something that's affecting all of us. I was really happy to see Dr. Jagger sent out um, uh, information um, about that. Um, community [clears throat] development is literally like right beneath my classroom if you come to Mil Creek. and um between Heather and and Cindy, I just I it's like some of the most amazing work that's happening in our district. Um so [snorts]

117I'm just really glad that we have that right now and that they're working very hard, I know, to like meet the needs of our families that are not being met by the institutions that are supposed to be meeting them. So >> [snorts] >> um there's that. And then I also uh want to thank Dr. McMullen because that was a really cool presentation and I love demographic data. Um so uh that was directed to the staff so I apologize for that. So, um, the thing I want to talk about a little bit tonight though is, um, my role has changed a little bit and I'm supporting our teachers using Egeneuity for credit recovery. Um, and it's reinforced some things that I've experienced over the my the last over a decade that I've been teaching. Um, which

118is that like I think there was a window of time where technological literacy among students like was like existing and flourishing and for reasons totally outside of the control of a lot of people in the school district right now. Um, I think that we've really seen that diminish. Um, and I would ask I think most of you have kids um or grandkids. Um, I think that you will observe that a lot of the sort of things that we think of as making our lives easier, quality of life improvements, things like password managers on our phones and um stuff like um being able to like uh like save notes or like having um uh phones saved in phone books and things like that [snorts] are actually um I think creating a frictionless environment that is making

119it more difficult and our students less resilient in the classroom. I don't think that that's something that anybody here [snorts] wants to have happen. And I'm not trying to say this to impute our absolutely phenomenal staff that are working really hard on digital literacy. [snorts] But I will say that as a teacher, it is really difficult for me to um h have a student do activities that are using state-of-the-art technology when sometimes they don't necessarily come with the sort of resiliency that can come with technological issues. we've all had problems where our router doesn't work or our computer won't like like the respond [snorts] or something like that. And I think that what we've seen with the advent of smartphones is that some of this stuff has become so easy um that it is just

120another way in which we can kids are encouraged to sort of give up. Um, I have one anecdote that I think is really telling, which is a student who was working very hard on a resume that she was doing a phenomenal job on, needed to email it to a teacher, realized that the teacher's email was not like autopop populating in her Gmail field. So, she went back out and she we're on a desktop computer, saw an email, and took a picture of it with her phone. Now, kudos to her for figuring out a way to like get the email that she needed onto the screen that she wasn't on, but she should have been able to copy and paste it. And I think that the fact that we're not necessarily always using the devices that

121um you know, like we're using things like smartphones and tablets um and not necessarily always desktop computers and they might be between different operating systems. This is all a lot of really technical stuff to say that like if we're preparing our kids for the 21st century, um I think that there's a lot of structural stuff going on that is like making that really difficult. And I will say that like bringing it back to education, it's making it really difficult for the teachers because [snorts] I would like to teach English and social studies. I would not like to teach how to remember a password that has is alpha numeric numeric and has a symbol and our kids are doing the best. Um, but especially is from an accessibility standpoint that can be really challenging for those

122of them that are neurodeiverse. I'm only bringing this because I think that it's something that could get lost if you're not in the classroom seeing it every single day and if you're not working in particular with some of the most marginalized population like I am. Um, and I'm not saying that like that's anything that anybody here is doing wrong, but we're all problem solvers here. And I just want us to sort of keep it front of mind as we're thinking about legislative priorities. Things like, you know, cell phone use and the availability in the classroom, something to consider. um or alternatively like you know like technological adoption and things like this. I I don't have like a solution and I think everybody here is working really hard to solve it but I did kind of

123want to bring up something that I don't see get talked about a whole lot and it just so happens [laughter] that Dr. Reeves is presiding over this as I'm sure he's probably like well learning service is trying and and I know that but like um I don't know it just been on my mind and so I was like I need a topic because Julie told me I have to talk and so uh I'm uh here and I wanted to share that. So thank you guys tonight. [laughter] >> Mr. Crley, as always, we appreciate your thoughts. Thank you. And that is the last um speaker this evening board. We will move to action consent items. And I would welcome a motion to approve item 6.01 to 6.09. I move to approve action consent item 6.01 to

1246.09. >> Second. >> Motion by Miss Reagan. Second by Miss Johan. >> Mrs. Mrs. Steel. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cume. >> Yes. >> Mr. Babett. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jükovich. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. 70. action bids, contracts, and agreements items 7.01 to 7.06. Is there a motion? >> I move to approve action items 7.01 to 7.06 is presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Mrs. Babbot, second by Mr. Cune. >> Mrs. Johan, >> yes. >> Mr. Boyd, >> yes. >> Mr. Babbot, >> yes. >> Mr. Keune. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jükovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Steel. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. 70. The next two action items are um related to presentations that we have

125had either this evening or or recently. Um item 8.01, the resolution authorizing and calling for of a bond election. Before I take a motion, is there any further discussion related to that? Is that Miss Reagan? Um, I just wanted to re-emphasize. I know some of the phrases we use when we talk about bonds, um, mill levy, capital outlay, those kinds of things. Um, the ordinary individual doesn't think about those words very much, but and I've said this in previous comments, but it is worth repeating. Um, tha is a community dominated by residential property, which is why a lot of us have chosen to live here and purchase a residence here. And residential property generates 11.5% into the tax collection that is happening 11.5%. Commercial and industrial is 25% and agriculture is 30%. So 11.5% of

126your home value is factored into all those things. And that from there gets a little over my pay grade as a person who taught English and not math. But um I just want to emphasize our neighboring communities have a bigger commercial and industrial tax base. And so we as a resident dominated community which again is something a lot of us very much love. That's why we have, you know, the neighborhood schools we've had and and all the parks we have in tha and, you know, centers of commerce and not mini malls everywhere. Um, but those things are important to keep in mind. Um, that it's not I think sometimes when people hear larger tax base, they hear, well, they have bigger homes than we do. We have more homes. And so, that is just something

127I want the people of to realize. And so, um, being bond dependent is actually part of what makes our community a special place because we have a dominance of neighborhoods. And so, um, I am going to be voting to call for a bond. And I believe that the future of our community, the children of the THA public school district, um, deserve to have that considered by the voting public in THA. Any other comments or discussion? I would entertain a motion. I move to approve a resolution authorizing and providing for the calling of a bond election in unified school district number 233 Johnson County, Kansas for the purpose of submitting to the qualified electors of the district the question of issuing general obligation bonds of the district in the amount of $389 million authorizing the application

128to the state board of education and for capital improvement state aid and providing for the giving of notice of said bond election. Second >> motion by Mr. Boyd. Second by Miss Reagan. Miss Beam. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jükovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Steel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Mr. Babett. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cune. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. Before we go to the next one, I again I know we've said a lot of thank yous, but this is a really important decision that we've just made and I appreciate Dr. McMullen and Mr. Hutcherson and Mr. Palangji and all of those individuals who have been a part of providing the board um such such important and clear and accurate communications and details to

129make this decision. and to our community for for responding to the survey to help provide additional guidance in this next step um for Ole public schools. So item 8.02 02 Westview Elementary boundary recommendation. Again, board, this is um a topic we've had a lot of information provided and um discussions both in these meetings and then in our smaller 3 by meetings. Is there any other discussion or comments that anyone would like to make before uh we move to a motion? Miss Steel. >> Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Jükovich. Um, I just wanted to um kind of mention it's a it's it process, but it's also um the part that makes it difficult is um staff can present plans, but they cannot do action until we take action tonight. So, it kind of puts all of us

130in Dr. Seuss calls it the waiting place, right? It Westview is there. Our community is in the waiting place. Staff is in the waiting place. And now we've invited Rolling Ridge into the waiting place with us. And so what happens there without um answers and and concrete details is more questions than answers. And that is also creates more angst. So, um I guess what I want to say about that is, um staff I know has ideas and plans and they can't speak to all of that or act on that until we make this decision tonight. And what I would also um ask of staff is the the um um best plan going forward that has been recommended is moving Westview students to Rolling Ridge next school year. And given that with all the um understanding

131and reasoning behind that, um what I'd like to ask of Dr. Harrison and Dr. McMullen and the transition team and and I know this is going to happen, but I'd like to ask for it, you know, publicly. Um, is that there's a commitment to the pre-work that's going to happen at Rolling Ridge, shoring up that foundation and making sure we really understand what their needs are before, during, and after this big transition. we will have time to take care of Westview and we have said that over and over here. But I think the work that needs to happen starting tonight if we approve this is that we take a look at Rolling Ridge and what that foundation is and what that foundation needs. And again, I know a lot of that you haven't been able

132to do because we haven't made this decision. So, as we all kind of exit the waiting room in this icky place of people not having answers to many, many questions, I think that's one thing I want to make sure is is front of mind um for the transition team and and I know it will be. So, thank you. That's all I have. >> Thank you. Any other comments or discussion? Okay. I would entertain a motion for 8.02. Miss Johan. >> Sure. I move to approve the boundary change which moves Westview Elementary resident students to Rolling Ridge Elementary for the 2026 2027 school year. >> Second >> motion by Miss Johan, second by Miss Reagan. Miss Beam, >> Mr. Cun. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jükovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Steel. Yes,

133>> Mr. Babbot. >> Yes, >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. 70. >> Item 8.03, appointment of Head Start Policy Council. If that looks familiar, it's because we did this once um earlier this year. Miss Joanne was appointed uh to fill that position. She also, and if you don't mind me saying, started a new job and there is [clears throat] a conflict between the meeting times for Head Start Policy Council and a meeting she is required to attend for her employment. Um, Julie Steel and I have agreed to kind of split that position and attend those meetings. So, board, we need a motion to change that appointment to Julie Steel and myself. Thank you. I move to appoint Dr. Stacy Jükovich and Miss Julie Steel to the Head Start

134Policy Council for the remainder of the 2025 2026 school year. >> Second. >> Motion by Miss Johan. Second by Miss Reagan. >> Dr. Jükovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Steel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Babbot. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Reagan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cune. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Johan. >> Yes. Motion passes. 70 uh future action items and as you can see there is a long list um so please take time to read through through those and be prepared for December um written information again we have reports from the November Head Start director's report the bond issue and learning services November report were there any comments related to any of those. >> I just have a couple. Is that okay? Sure. Thank you. >> Um, so just a couple. Um, I

135um would like to ask um for I'm super excited about our um um I don't read OBSC, our innovation campus and the progress there and especially the progress ma being made for our esports arena. So, I would like to ask maybe next month if Mr. Pangi could kind of speak to that because it's super exciting that we will be holding the first ever esports championship in January. So, I think they'll be a little further along and so if we could add that to the agenda in in in December, that would be wonderful. I'd love to hear more about it. And then from the learning services um written report, I am so excited about canvas. Um as a parent who with kid number four is constantly trying to um provide some scaffolding, it is so difficult.

136I am trying to manage. I don't know. I think there's four different places we have to go to figure out and she'll put me in the spin zone. So I need to know because do you have homework is always it's already done and we need to look at it together and that in high school is going to four different places to do that. So I don't know if our parental community understands but this is going to be an amazing thing. I also recognize that educators in the background are doing a lot of work to transfer their information and this mom appreciates it and I know our community will. So I'm super excited about Canvas. And then also wanted to just mention I also am so pleased that um moral courage was something that our district

137participated in um I don't know two yearsish ago about and it's there are still things happening um that that are touch points for our educators within that moral courage um um what do I want to say moral courage program um it's how to have difficult conversations with people and couldn't we all use that. And um so I'm really pleased to see that moral courage wasn't a oneanddone presentation. It's something that's still trickling through our system and educators are able to take advantage of more training in that area. So anyway, that's all I had on written and thank you for that Dr. >> Y. Thank you. >> Okay, topics for discussion board. Oh, sorry. Your light didn't come on. Will go ahead. Oh, okay. Um, oh, shoot. Just lost minutes. Uh, first I'd like to talk

138about the spin zone that I'm It's good to know that that's still going. My fifth grader just started it, so he definitely doesn't have homework any night. >> Any night. Yeah. >> Um, I'd like to give uh congratulations to Becky, Rob, and Julie on their wins on Tuesday night. Very exciting. Really, really excited to keep working with all of you. Um, I went to the district math wings competition on Tuesday night and was as always blown away at the intelligence of these young fourth and fifth graders to be able to compete with one another on these uh really hard math questions and I'm just so excited that Oleth embraces and allows them to uh have this opportunity to compete against each other in such a great topic. Um, two really two things really stood out

139to me. One team had a shirt that had the the front of it said the square root of 4,489 and then on the back it had 67. [laughter] >> It's 67 67 [laughter] 67. And on that same note, they did have one question where the answer to the qu question was 67. [laughter] And uh it they it took them a solid two or three minutes to calm the room down after the answer. So um I wanted to give a shout out to our technology and ecom team and communications team about the new district website. It's beautiful. I really am excited about uh what a change, what an enhancement it's been to the district as a whole. I know it's still a work in progress, but it's it's such a huge step up and I'm really

140excited about it. Um, back to the election real quick. I just wanted to point out uh from every local election how important local elections are and how different they are from federal state and federal elections. Um, every one that I saw had uh win or lo win or lose. the announcements that were coming out were about supporting the community and supporting um the school districts or the cities that they worked for or the Johns Cancer Community College. It was just win or lose, everybody had a let's move forward together uh attitude and it was really exciting. Um, and then I went to the first uh culinary arts dinner at Olean North and he was >> one thing that really really stood out from this other than the incredible food every time [laughter] uh was we

141looked around and we noticed that there was several uh American sign language interpreters walking around and didn't think anything of it. And then uh when the chefs came over to speak to us, they pointed out that they had this year they have five uh students from the Kansas School of the Deaf taking part in the program this year. And it's the mo the first time they've had any since 2012 and the most they've ever had. And it was really interesting to watch the the alle north students interact with the students students from the school of the deaf uh because the students didn't know sign language but they were in speaking to the chefs they said they were quickly learning uh key terms and that the they were just learning to work together and it was

142just really a testament to the diversity of tha and it's just amazing to see these kids work together and not think of a second thing about it and how how quickly they're able to adapt and and work together and I look forward to having four more meals through that rest of the year. So, thanks >> Mr. Boyd. >> Um thank you. um as we talk about right sizing um our district um yesterday I attended the strategic planning long range committee meeting and um while that name doesn't sound very um sex I was hesitating about [laughter] you felt the pause didn't you [laughter] >> um but no I I left that meeting um feeling my my heart was very very full because the level of intention that um our educators showed up with, our our district

143leaders showed up with um it was it was incredible. Um we there was folks in the room advocating for parents, um folks in the room advocating for students, advocating for teachers, advocating for our um classified staff and certified staff. I mean, the the conversation was was really heartwarming and it made me proud that um all four of my kids um get to experience this district and um I am um um blessed to be um sitting up here and just lend my voice to those conversations. >> Thank you, Miss Steel. So, um I just want to say tonight, wow, and thank you uh to the community and and I do feel an inner glow tonight because I am so thankful to continue serving in this role for this district that I love and believe in so

144very much. I'm looking forward to another four years of making a difference for students and for parents and for our educators and there is never a shortage of work to be done here in this space and I I am here for it. Um because I do not thank my family enough. I owe them some thank yous. So, if you'll bear with me, um, when you serve in a role like this, um, and when you run a campaign concurrently, the whole family is touched, and that is not always in the best way, which they occasionally let me know about. Um, but I am so thankful to them for allowing me to do this and for being by my side. um my dad who is a longtime civil servant in this community and my mom who is

145a stronghold um were um so helpful to me during this um these last what April um how many ever months that six seven months it seemed like two years um to my brother-in-law who I often say to him you got me into this so you are going to help with this campaign and to my sister who is my little sister but I look up to her so much. Um to my immediate family, my kids. Um Caroline, um you checked in on me endlessly throughout the campaign, even in all the busyiness of your life. And Bo, you checked in on me at about 900 p.m. on election night. So, I do appreciate that. [laughter] I say that with my tongue and cheek. He is busy doing doctor things and I understand that. Um to Megan Kate

146who lived the daily aspects of this campaign. Um Megie, you are the sweetest encourager I could ever have asked for. And Kate, it can be really hard when of your siblings, you're the one that's in high school, when your mom is on the school board and she passes a cell phone policy. And it's been a hard go lately. But you know, I love you and I am so thankful to be your mom. and never the last. But my husband sent me the most beautiful flowers on election day. And I should have been sending that man flowers. He gets it. He gets the highs, he gets the lows, and he gets the rock bottom. So Tim, thank you. So family, here's to four more years of missing some dinners. and to you waiting in the car

147for me at every school event because I'm the last one to get there, but also to four more years of seeing your mom and your wife be so fulfilled to do this work. So to everyone, thank you. I am very grateful and I don't take one single bit of this for granted. Thanks, >> Miss Reagan. Um so on the note of the election I you know our district is going through change right we keep saying it's the next and new era of the public schools and when going through this level of change I am so grateful for the consistency of leadership on this board and experience and a diversity of opinions and so I was very excited for our community on Tuesday night. I also want to say if you look at the value that

148tha voters and that includes parts of Overland Park and Lanexa who send their children to our schools um there is a very concerted dedication to public education. Um there is a consistency of supporting our schools at the ballot box and I just want people to see the through line from our local elections to our state legislative elections in the coming year. They are connected and the the clear support that your you as a community have given our board to set the vision, adopt the policies, make the hard decisions, that value needs to translate to the people who represent us at the state house. And if you're sick of hearing about it from me in this seat, get ready because I'm gonna keep talking about it. Um, I also want to say that something like American

149Education Week is very centering and it reminds us of how important our public schools are. Um, and it's an interesting coupling with the uncertainty we're just dealing with on the regular that we're still appreciating these um, recognitions that have held us steady. And so, um, as we embark on different changes, conversations that we're going to be having about things coming forward, um, centering ourselves on our commitment to this district is something that, um, I hope we can all do. Um, I've also just in watching different conflicts around our community and whatnot, although we've um, school board is boring again, which is great. Um, I not in a bad way, in a good way. Um, I will say that, um, when I'm trying to have conversations and trying to do my utmost to listen, um, I

150it is my hope that, um, that is a shared experience that we are all trying to listen to each other. And, um, the best way forward is together. And that means that we will make hard choices. and we hope that the trust you've instilled in us and especially in the ones you've just reelected to sit up here [snorts] holds through the hard times. The port in this storm is that public schools is a wonderful place, system, institution, pillar of our community and um we all up here are committed to making sure that it stays the magnet for growth and the beacon for the children of our city. So that's what I've got. I missed the button. >> I did. >> Becky Joanne, >> thank you. Sometimes I just want to give you a little here

151here. >> Good job. [laughter] Um well, I I just would like to go ahead and say thank you again for um voters showing up on Tuesday night. Um I was unopposed, but I was still happy to be on the ballot and still um it was really a neat moment to take my daughter with me Tuesday morning to the polls and have her stand next to me. I said, "That's my name, you know, right there." And so just a really neat experience and and one I'm I'm really grateful to share with her. And she says, "Well, you just have to do it again." I said, "Okay, [laughter] okay. Well, we'll we'll talk about that." But um you know one of the things that made me really excited about it um was you know just some of

152the difficult things that we have to do in the next four years in the next however many years as we go through changes in in our city, our state, our country. Um and I [laughter] feel confident with this group right here that I can talk to you and we can we can discuss it. We can come to a consensus to take care of our community. So thank you for continuing to serve with me. Also, um, a couple things just in the last month that I I attended. I always always always appreciate attending our THA public school Foundation Women's Giving Circle event. Um, what a cup filler. Women come together, just give a little bit of money a couple times a year and um can give grants to really deserving teachers and programs within our district.

153And I think we gave a little over $22,000 out um to three different groups. And so what an what an amazing thing. I believe we were also um given food from the culinary students from OATC also. So that was a neat experience. Um and then I just I really do appreciate all the things that our our schools offer our children in different ways and capacity. Um and my daughter still participates in orchestra and so she got to play in the spectacular orchestra concert right before Halloween and it was just a really neat experience. I I love that um they can express themselves in different ways and she's excited to try out for jazz band now. So anyway, um really just want to say thank you to everybody for allowing me to continue to serve here

154with you all and I hope you have a wonderful night. >> Um I have kind of several things and and connected but a little bit random. The first is a thank you to Becky Johan. Um, as you may recall, last year the board initiated a process where one of our members attends professional counsel as an observer and uh, Robert Cune served in that capacity last year and Becky has volunteered to do that. So Becky Johan will be a part of of those meetings um beginning after the first of the year and and then as we come to agreement and settle before staff go home again this year. Is there pressure to do that? Yeah. [laughter] >> Yeah. Um conversation about voting. I um had the opportunity to serve as an election worker Tuesday at a

155poll here in THA and I observed a situation that um was was extremely heartwarming to me. It was near the time that polls were going to close and a family came in, a mom and a dad with two little boys. um which is I I think as you talked about taking your daughter with you so important that kids are seeing their parents vote but they had gone to um one more step in that Johns County Elections provides a a child's ballot a future voters's ballot where they can you know choose whether they like pizza or chocolate chip cookies or or whatever. And so each of the the boys had that ballot and one was a little bit older and and a better reader. And so he's reading it to his younger brother and um and

156they're marking their ballots at at the same time their parents are are marking their ballots and then there's a special bag that we put the the future voters ballots into. Um but I just again the importance of voting of being engaged of exercising the right that we have as United States citizens and to model that um for students. It had been a very long day in in you know in the event you don't know election workers arrive at the site at 6:00 a.m. The polls close at 7, but then there's a process to shut everything down. So it's it's about 8:00. Um and because of the security, you don't leave the site um during those hours. So um it it really kind of fulfilled a a log day and and so important. Um a couple

157of other things talking about the Altha Public School Foundation and Women's Giving Circle. Um the foundation as you know also hosts sponsors classroom grants and there's a committee that reviews that and awards monies and today was the surprise prize patrol um where a group of people from the foundation and that committee go to it's often times almost every school to deliver the big checks and you can see it on social media and that um event was today And um so you can see the schools in the variety. And I I do want to thank the the educators who take time to apply for those grants because we recognize it's one more thing for you to do. But the funds are there and um they are for you and for your students. And the range of

158types of things that are funded um you know from from early childhood to high school um is is extremely a lot of variety. I see Angie Powers back there. She was part of the the surprise team um today as well. So again, thanks to the foundation for all that they do for the students and staff of THA. um an another presentation that I want to draw attention to from the site council Dr. Sig and um related to long-term long range planning and Brad has already mentioned um the meeting last night and Julie and I had the opportunity to be there as well and Dr. Reeves and it I I would describe it the same. Um Brad and I've I've thought because we um the pres presentation that um was provided to site council and we'd

159seen with the the four um what are they called? >> Vision priorities. Um we are spending time further defining those. And so we spent quite a bit of time talking about academic excellence and what does that look like and and what does that mean and student experience as a part of that. And I think about the 19 semiarit um finalists who were here tonight from THA schools across all five high schools. Um I I think that is a a a great example of academic excellence and the rigor and the opportunities that they've had. I um the THA East presentation tonight, those students and has been mentioned the way that they presented carried themselves being as articulate with humor and knowledge about their school and passion for for a variety of activities and academics. And then

160I have had a couple of opportunities um this last week to spend time on two different occasions with our future educator um academy students, some juniors last week and then um I guess it was just yesterday, senior students who are nearing that time where they are making a decision as to where to go to school and exactly where they want to end up as a teacher in a classroom. And I I really encouraged them um [clears throat] not to limit themselves to to explore um all levels of education and different roles that are required in education because um I I said you never know what opportunities are are going to come your way. And so again, the culinary students and the opportunity and service that they provide, tha public schools um have for decades, as

161was demonstrated tonight, grown and provided more and more for our students. And the third presentation at site council with Dr. Waters and Kelly Tines and Justin How related to some change in middle school uh course offerings. As we know, not all change is welcomed [laughter] in a happy way um from the very beginning. But one of um the benefits of being in tha schools, one of the um examples that we set for other school districts in the region and the state is that we look to the future and what can we best provide for our students and not a small number of students but all 28,180. and the decisions that we make, we are constantly looking through that lens. I would ask just as we have through our time looking at Westview and decisions make

162made um toward repurposing and changing boundaries to allow the systems that we have put into place to work. um provide time to look at the change. Once decisions are made surrounding the change, then we can get into the details as Miss Steel mentioned tonight, whether it's a change that you agree with or not as a community. Um, we the seven people here and our our senior leadership and our teaching staff and support staff, we're looking at your child every day and we're we are doing what we can to provide opportunity for for your ch your children and your student and prepare them for their future because their future is our future. So that is are my comments tonight, Dr. Reeves. >> Well, first of all, thanks for the opportunity to sit up here. Um I

163would say that um I was a little it was a little nerve-wracking. Um I'm glad some of you are probably wondering, does he talk? I do talk. Um I've um Dr. Jagger is big shoes to fill. Um and I know that because I've followed him twice um in his job and so I know how how big a job that is. So, thanks for the opportunity to do it. I think when we think about kind of some of the things that have been mentioned tonight and kind of looking back over the last couple of weeks, um there have been several things, big things that have happened in our system. Um and I thought I would just kind of add a little bit to um some of those things. One of them was my opportunity to greet

164some German exchange students um about a week and a half ago um who spent about two weeks in tha um from a sister city in uh and I'm probably going to butcher this Pensburg, Germany um where they come over and spend about um a little less than two weeks kind of exploring our schools um experiencing life through their host um families that they stay with. um they have the opportunity to kind of get to explore our community um experience the culture not just but the greater Kansas City area. Um we've been doing that with this school for about 12 years and every other year uh they come here and then on the off years we go there. So it's a great opportunity for our students to to uh get to go do that and it

165was it was fun to spend some time with them. So, um, school systems are very different in Germany than they are here. And it was great to kind of hear their insight on, um, what was what was different and what they liked about our school system. Um, mention mentioned site council and we had three great presentations on the bond, strategic plan, and then also our middle school electives. Um, and we'll be sending more information out about those, but I'd like to thank the people that um, put those presentations together. um they gave us gave us great information, but also thank the staff and the community uh for their engagement. Uh it was well attended um and and that's always important um especially when when we're looking at making um big decisions in our system. Also

166um you know, congratulations to our board members who um were reelected. Um grateful to have the opportunity to continue to um have this board intact and work together and collaborate with with everybody. And then the other thing that I would say is we recognized our communications team, but we rolled out our district website, which was a huge lift and a long time in the making, and it looks absolutely fantastic. Um, there are a few of us that are like, "Oh my gosh, where is this now? I got to get So, I'm exploring the website, but it is it really is fantastic. You guys did a great job." So, um, and then we also, um, over the last couple of weeks or several, um, several weeks, um, have had some additional fall state champs. And so

167Altha North won their fifth state title in gymnastics um with multiple gymnasts across the district placing individually. Altha Northwest won their second state title in girls tennis. And then four of our football teams are still left in the running um as we close out the football season uh the high school football season. But not to be um unmatched, our high schools also, all of our high schools were named performing arts schools of excellence by Quesa um which is a great distinction and I think speaks um volumes about the um art program opportunities that we provide our students so that we have something for every student in our district. So, um it it really illustrates the high level for which um our students perform um and really is um a celebration for our school and our

168and our community. Um looking at kind of the next couple of weeks, we've heard about N American Education Week. Um and just like to say that um we're grateful for the opportunity um and the collaboration that we have um not only with our teachers and our support staff and our administrators, but the dedication and the commitment that they bring to um education and the excellence that they bring every day. Um the job is not the same as it was when I started 25 plus years ago. Um but we still have people that show up every day and put their heart and soul into what they do. um for kids and for um families. Additionally, Veterans Day is just around the corner and so we will have lots of schools that will um take an opportunity

169to acknowledge um our veterans um those that are have served or are currently serving um and we thank um those folks for their courage and leadership um to serve our country um and also being a role model uh for the qualities that we hope to see in our own students. Um, thank you for your service and the powerful example you set for the young people in THA. Um, the public Public Schools Foundation is next um, week and um, Dr. Jagger will share his state of the district address. Um, that's always a great event um, to see the community come together and really support our schools. Um, we are we have an incredible foundation that that provides a lot of support to our system um, and makes a lot of things possible. And then I think

170the last thing I would just say is that um lots of thanks tonight, but you know um November is kind of a month of gratitude. Um and um there's always a lot to celebrate in THA. Uh it's a great school district. Um it's the place we raised our kids. Um I'm super proud to work in this district. Um I'm thankful for our students, the families, the staff, the greater community. Um, but I also am extremely grateful for the team um that I work with. Uh, they make coming to work every day um fun. Um, even when sometimes the work isn't always super fun. Um, and it's kind of hard to believe that we're in November cuz it feels like school year just started. in really in just a few short weeks, we'll also be turning

171the corner and heading into December and we'll be trading our turkeys and pumpkins for mistletoe and um [laughter] and we'll be looking at closing out the 2025 school year. So, um that concludes my comments. >> Just a followup to Dr. Reef's reference to Veterans Day. Do we have any veterans or anyone currently serving in the room? >> Andy Falcon. and our board member Will Babbot also a veteran. >> Rob also. >> [applause] >> Okay, we'll just do one at a time. And well deserved, welldeserved recognition. Well, happy Thanksgiving to those of you here and those of you watching from home. And with that, this meeting is adjourned.