001Everybody's just I know. I know. I know. How? Okay, we're going to call the meeting to order about 30 seconds early since it got quiet all of a sudden. And welcome to those of you in the room. We'll do a number of recognitions tonight. And so, congratulations early for that. And welcome to the people watching us um via streaming. At this time, Miss Beam, would you call roll? Mr. Babbot, here. Mr. Boyd, here. Mrs. Johan here, Mr. Keune, Mrs. Reagan here, Mrs. Steel here, Dr. Jükovich here. Thank you. And would you please stand and join us in I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you board item 2.01 adoption of the agenda.
002Is there a motion? I move to adopt the agenda as presented. Second motion by Mr. Babbot, second by Mr. Boyd, Mr. Ke. Mrs. Reagan. Yes, Dr. Jükitz. Yes, Mrs. Steel. Yes, Mr. Babbett. Yes, Mr. Boyd. Yes, Mrs. Johan. Yes, Dr. Joerger. Well, uh, thank you, uh, Dr. Jükovich. Um, I don't usually necessarily speak at this point in the meeting. Ron, these mics don't seem to be working if you want to check that out. That's not why she called me, though. Um, looks like they're popping now. So, all right, we're good. Thank you. Nice job, Ron. We appreciate you very much. Uh, we have a member who is always at our board meetings who you don't see, and that is Tony Wrangle. Tony Wrangle is in our communications PR team. He is in the building right
003now live streaming our board meeting. And today is Tony's birthday. So, Tony, I'm sorry you can't be in the room with us, but I know you're seeing all of us and hearing all of us. So, we are going to sing happy birthday to you, Tony. Here we go. All right. Here we go. On the count of three. His name's Tony. One, two, three. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Tony. Happy birthday to you. [Applause] Okay, Miss Gall, thank you for doing that, Dr. Joerger. Those of you who know Tony knows that he has a thunderous laugh, so I was surprised we couldn't hear it from all the way down here. Well, gosh, I am so excited to see a packed boardroom in June. That is not always the case, but
004we had so many wonderful things happen at the end of the year. We couldn't quite squeeze them all in in May. So, we are happy to have you guys here tonight. And to begin, I would like to invite um representatives from THA Toyota to the front, including general manager Kenny Glasco, along with THA Public Schools Director of Community Development Heather Skunover and THA Advanced Technical Center Administrator Amy Stoles. For more than 20 years, THA Toyota has been a strong business partner with THA Public Schools. Support has been provided to tha advanced technical center, THA South's HBCU program, and the THA public schools foundation school supply drive and autumn breakfast. According to OATC administrator Amy Stoles, THA Toyota is quote simply awesome. As a premier Kansas dealership, the business clearly understands the importance of giving back
005to the local school district. Tha Toyota consistently hosts student interns from OATC and has hired several THA graduates. Supporting student career and technical education learning experiences was a key outcome when THA Toyota funded registration and travel for students competing in Skills USA, a workforce development organization with competitions developing public speaking skills and industry knowledge. Altha Toyota donated a fully working car so students would have the opportunity to have hands-on experience working on an automobile. Dealership staff take time to complete mock interviews with students to enhance employability skills and serve on the district advisory boards for the career and technical education program. The support does not stop with CTE partnership growth. Tha Toyota also supported the south H.B.CU program so students could complete a campus visit. This was encouraging to so many students who had first
006generation exposure to post-secary opportunities. As a sponsor at the THA public schools annual autumn breakfast, THA Toyota provided funding for district-wide classroom grants and need-based funds. We applaud both the leadership and staff of THA Toyota as they consistently support the community and their local school district. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Next, I would like to invite Chism Trail Middle School principal Christa During up to the front. Tonight, we are so proud to celebrate Christa, who was recently announced as the 2025 Area 1 Kansas Secondary Assistant Principal of the Year by the Kansas Principles Association. KPA is an organization of over 750 building level leaders from across Kansas. Candidates were nominated by their school communities and selected by a committee of their peers. They are evaluated on their school leadership, school improvement, dedication, professionalism, and service
007to students. And Christa, we know you do so much behind the scenes. It's such a joy to be able to have you here tonight up front to honor you. And we're proud to share that tha had not one but two administrators represented this year. Central Elementary Principal Brandy Leot was named the area 1 elementary principal of the year, but was unable to join us tonight. We're so proud of both Christa and Brandy and are so grateful to have them here in team. Congratulations. [Applause] Now I would like to invite Tha West high school science teacher Emily Meyers to the front along with West Asant principal Megan Black. So Emily was recently selected as the 2025 science teacher of the year award recipient for biology presented by Kansas State University. This honor recognizes outstanding high school
008science educators in Kansas who inspire, engage, and encourage students in biology. This award celebrates Emily's dedication to excellence in science education and her lasting impact on students and the broader West community. Emily was recognized earlier this spring at a ceremony with the two students who nominated her in attendance. We are so proud of you for this outstanding accomplishment. Please join me in giving her a round of applause. We also have several students here tonight that we are going to celebrate. So, could our state speech and drama champions come up to the front along with Olysa East Coach Stacy Goddard, Altha Northwest assistant principal Kathy Hilliard, and THA East principal Carrie Lane. This spring, we had several tha students represented at the state 6A speech and debate drama speech and drama championship. Out of 12 events
009contested at the tournament, tha students took home four state titles. This is a remarkable achievement that highlights the depth of talent across our schools. Congratulations to our state champions who are Piper Doyle of Tha East High School coached by Stacy Goddard. She won the dramatic interpretation contest. In impromptu speech, Connor Chapen of Tha Northwest High School coached by Eric Scogland. In original oration, Kalista Wanji of Olysa East coached by Stacy Goddard. And in oral interpretation of pros, Bridget Simons of Tha Northwest, coached by Eric Skoglin. Please join me in congratulating these kids. [Applause] [Music] Okay, up next I would like to invite our culinary arts state champions to the front along with their instructors Phil Shaw and Erica McIntyre and OATC administrator Amy Stalls. We are proud to celebrate our culinary arts students for their
010tremendous success at this year's Kansas ProStart Invitational, a premier high school competition focused on restaurant management and culinary arts. The OATC team made up of Bana Keith, Sarah Reynolds, Kaden Swina, Nate Scrogs, and Michael Perez Franco led by Chef Phil Shawn, Chef Erica McIntyre took home first place in overall culinary arts competition. They also took first place in the knife skills competition and received the honor for best pork dish. The management team also came home with some hardware. They took home third place. We are so proud of these students and the dedication of our chefs to prepare these students for success. Congratulations to all of you. Wonderful. And last but certainly certainly not least, Amy, you can stay up because it's your your group. I would like to invite our champions from the Skills USA
011contest up to the front along with adviserss Sam Rue and Leanne Ree. So, we referenced Skills USA a little earlier tonight, but this is um a conference whether regional, local, or state that is just buzzing with talent, energy, and innovation. These events bring together dedicated students and industry professionals who share a passion for excellence in career and technical education. Students compete locally and regionally for the opportunity to advance to their state conference with state winners moving on to the national stage at the Skills USA championships. 44 students competed and we had several students achieve gold honors along with silver and bronze. But tonight we have our gold finishers here with us. So in the first aid in CPR category we had Emily etch etchy and I believe she was also in leadership. Is that right?
012So, she represented the well there. Um, and we're proud of that. In automotive technology, maintenance and light repair was Wyatt Ellsworth. In welding sculpture was Matthew Jonas. And automotive service technology, Charlie Studio, and in electronics, Tucker Wright. Uh, additionally, our students swept first aid, CPR, and electronics at the state level. And these gold level winners have secured a place to compete at the national competition to represent OATC, tha public schools, and the state of Kansas in Atlanta in June. Congratulations and best of luck to you in this next round of competition. [Applause] Again, congratulations students, staff, family members who are here to support them as well and administrators. [Laughter] We have two presentations this evening and the first um will include Dr. Tim Reeves, Dr. Jim McMullen, Dr. Lelle Sig, and Mr. John Hutcherson and
013they're going to give us a little bit of a review of tha public schools 2425. Thank you for being here. Yeah, thank you for having us. This is a treat for us um because the four of us will have the chance to really um give a huge shout out and kudos to an entire team of people that um made all of these things happen in the last year. And as many of you know in our line of work, it's really difficult to look back and see a finished product. um and you are so concentrated on your part of the mural, if you will, that you never get to see the whole picture. Um and so this was a really fun chance for us to be able to take that step back and really um give
014those kudos and appreciation to um the team of people that make all of this happen. And when I talk about that team, that includes um all of our respective departments as well as the educators in the classrooms and our support staff as well as our building leaders, excuse me, and district administrators. So, I get the chance to, um, love on our general administration team and share a little of the, um, highlights of the past year and some of those accomplishments. So, um, for our GA team, we had a few things that were implemented this year that were districtwide. And so, you may recall that we had a cell phone policy that came into effect this year. Um, we highlighted this as a great accomplishment. And it really um was a highly successful implementation and resulted
015in a really great opportunity for our kids to have the chance to be in a classroom and really focused in on that instruction and for our staff to have that same opportunity as well. Another global highlight for our GA team was the focus we had on chronic absenteeism. Um, this again was a true team effort along with parents and our community and our kids along with our communications team who put together the everyday counts campaign. Um, and because of all of the work that these teams did, we did see a decrease in our chronic absenteeism this year. as the we then drill down and talk about our elementary um highlights. We moved to a 4-day specials rotation this year and the results of that provided a chance for our kids to really dive in and
016have a more um depth in experience in m uh library media, PE, music, and art. So, those were some really cool chances for our kids to um dive deep into um mastering that content. our elementary um plan time was also increased this year for our educators. And so that added 30 minutes outside of the school contact day um not only gave that um time for planning but also gave a common time for some of those individuals who are singletons in their building um to have a common plan time with others so that they could do they could have that collaboration time as well. Um and this was a great success for our elementary educators this year. This success is one that we um kind of planted this year, if you will, and will put into
017full effect in 2627. But as you all know, we've begun we've begun work in developing a K- through8 alternative program. Um what I love about this is that this really highlights the nimleness and the response that we've had to some of the feedback we've received through our district dialogues. um and really looking to find ways to support the student um needs that we see in our classrooms, particularly at the elementary level. Um when we talk about some of those heightened behavioral needs that our kids are displaying and finding a way to support our staff and our kids and our families in that. As we then move on to the middle level, we of course um would be remiss if we didn't um highlight the opening of the new Santa Fe Trail Middle School. um that
018state-of-the-art facility really gave a a great opportunity for our kids in that building um to have that real world experience and collaborating and working with one another in flexible spaces. Um, not only is it a beautiful space, but it also provide a nice a nice chance for the cyclone closet to continue and to really um kind of expand the offering, if you will within the community because there's that separate entrance and providing that dignity um but making sure that the the needs of that community continue to be met. Also, at the mental level, um they had a heavy focus on continuing that collaboration with the community. Um whether that was through community service days or the expansion of our father's club to the middle level. Um this really gave a chance for our community to
019come into our schools and for our kids to be out in the community and make those connections. Um you'll also see on there the students care projects and you might remember some of those and some of our board members served on that panel even. Um, but that's such a cool opportunity for our kids to really see a need in the community and identify how that need can be addressed and then have to go and put together a plan and then sell that plan. Um, and then once receiving the support for that plan, make it happen. So, uh, talk about like real world application. Um, just a great example of that at the middle level. Also, in our middle schools, we continue to celebrate win time, which is what I need. Um you'll see that across
020all of our middle level buildings and that really is a chance for those students that have a specific need in a skill or area to get the intervention and support that they need um while also giving an opportunity for our students to have some more kind of centralized excuse me lessons and instruction and social um social skills and then culture and belonging and even digital citizenship. So that's been a success for our middle level as well. Moving on to the high school. Um, of course we're excited and prep prepping for the opening of the THA public schools innovation campus. It's a mouthful. Um, but we're excited um for this to be the home of six career pathways. Um, it also will be the home to our help clinic as well as OTSP, our operations service
021center, and graphic communications. Um, many of those programs will begin moving in in the fall and then continue to do so as those spaces are completed. Um, but yet again, a great example of our community really providing um a state-of-the-art facility that provides that real world learning for our kids and we can't wait to to see them in that. Uh, we highlighted already this evening some of the additional accomplishments of our students. Um, but at the high school level, we continue to ste to ste to see outstanding results. um as we had six different state level team championships, 17 individual champs, and then as you can see there noted is the West girls cross country team earned their fifth consecutive straight state title. And then also our Northwest girls team earned the very first title
022in tennis. So some really cool accomplishments there. Um, and some of these numbers are even just a little outdated because of the state tournaments and, um, state track that was held last week. So, um, there's even more that can be added to these numbers. And then last, but certainly not least, I shared at the beginning of this that rarely do we get to see kind of the completed picture of our work, but that is not the case when it comes to graduation. That is a really cool opportunity to see um, over 2,300 kids cross our stages. um and really move on to the next phase of their lives. I think what's even more impressive when you look at this is that those 2,300 kids have earned o earned over $60 million in scholarships. Um which
023is pretty astounding. Um and what better reflection of the work that was put in by parents and educators and administrators um to make all of that happen. So as I move on from general administration, I'm going to walk into human resources. So, we'll start first with the certified side of things. Um, I mentioned previously when we talked about the K through8 alternative program that that was the result of our district dialogues and this was a highlight for us in our in our HR world. Um, that of course was a team effort with all of you and uh serving as part of those district dialogues along with our colleagues in OA and the chamber. um and really gave us a chance to dive into hearing from our staff firsthand um and really being able to pair
024what we saw in numbers and data with insights and and um information that we could then take action with. We also did a um more work in terms of recruiting for our certified staff and that paid off for us as well. Um you can see here that we had over 34 different events throughout the last school year. Um we hosted two different events here on site. Um and as a result of all of this work, we conducted more than 230 screening interviews, which is pretty impressive. Um we were just meeting today and talking about kind of the fruits of the labor showing up with this and that um in both our elementary and secondary levels, we're now into single digits for vacancies um which for this time of year is is really impressive. So that
025has paid off for us as well. We also are excited um to begin seeing some of our hire our own students coming back to us. So in the coming school year we will have Anna Bum and Julia Whitaker who will be joining our teacher ranks and these are our first students that came out of our hire our own program. So our future educator academy um and are coming back to teach with us. So that's really really exciting. Uh along those same lines, this last year we hosted an apprentice and now next year we're adding two more apprenticeships um as a as a means for growing our staff as well. In the classified world in HR, um similar to those district dialogues we held with our certified staff, we also increased opportunities for our classified staff
026to have their voices heard and for them to receive professional learning. Um that was done through our classified roundts. Um but then also through our classified employee council. Uh we're not stopping there. Next year we're continuing that work. Um and really looking to expand opportunities for our classified staff to be a part of that classified council as well. This is kind of a funny one to highlight, but um we're in HR and so it's always exciting when you can reduce the number of workday calendars. Um so back in 2223 we had over 40 different workday calendars. And when I talk about a workday calendar, that is really the schedule of the days that an individual or an employee group works. So you can imagine managing 40 different calendars can be a bit challenging. Uh and
027sometimes within the same employee group, we were finding there were different workday calendars which is also very confusing. Um so our HR classified team um led by Michelle Morris has done a ton of work in really narrowing down the number of workday calendars. But in doing that, um, we have seen a a positive impact on our classified staff in terms of really clarifying work days and making sure that those employee groups are working on the same calendar. Um, and we they've been able to accomplish all of this without ever negatively impacting our classified staff financially. So, that's been a win-win as well. The last item on our classified HR side of things is the implementation of PTO for our non-vationel eligible classified staff. So you can see here that prior to PTO, these individuals had
028anywhere from 1 to 4 days of personal leave. And with the implementation of PTO, they now have anywhere between 13 and 18 days of PTO. Um, which of course provides them a ton of flexibility. Um, and we were happy to be able to provide this to our classified staff to mirror what we were doing for our certified staff. So, this has been a positive as well. I'm going to move on to our employee services team. And um, very first thing that we have to celebrate for them is the creation of the employee services team that happened this year in January. We launched this group and it was really the merging of um, some of our business and finance as well as HR and employee services. So, this is kind of the one-stop shop for all
029of our staff um when it comes to support in understanding their paycheck or um questions about retirement or their leave. Um but it's been a really successful launch under the direction of um Eric Hansen. Um and so we've really enjoyed um the opportunity to work with human resources and employee services and making sure that our staff are taken care of. Another one of the highlights from our employee services team of course is um facilitating and supporting um the retirement of to over 250 staff members. Um we hosted a number of pre-retirement and retirement readiness seminars. Um we know that as individuals approach that time there's a lot of questions and a bit of anxiety and so the employee services team does an outstanding job of making sure that they have the information that they need.
030Uh Nancy Jerick, I have to give a shout out to her, um does a wonderful job in supporting all of those individuals. She holds over a hundred individual meetings um to walk those retirees through um the retirement um opportunities and supports then that are in place even at from a district level beyond CERS. And of course, the culminating activity is our May 6 um retirement celebration that was held and we had over 258 guests that attended that. I mentioned before um the great um perk of providing PTO to our classified staff and I mentioned that that was also um a change that was implemented for our certified staff and of course anytime you make a change and leave um there's a massive amount of work that has to be done on the back end and
031making sure that our systems are ready for that. Um, and then of course anytime you make a systems change, making sure that our staff and educators and support staff know how to access and utilize that. So that was the work of our employee services team and they did a great job and it was a seamless transition. Um, which is really something to say when you think about that that huge change from our personal illness leave kind of setup to PTO that we have now. And now I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Tim Reeves and who's going to share highlights from our learning services department. Thank you and thank you for the opportunity to share some of the work that's happened out of learning services. Um when we were talking about doing this, it's
032really hard to narrow down to just a handful of things that are celebrations from the year. Uh, so we spent a little bit of time at our learning services department meeting just spending some time in reflection for the year and had everybody kind of share out and um I I I wish I could have brought everything that was mentioned because there was a tremendous amount of work that came out of learning services. Um, and uh we got a lot accomplished this year and sometimes that's hard to um take a second to to recognize and and reflect on. So we're going to start about this time last year. we were um in the throws of kind of um sunsetting some positions in our district that were funded through ESSER funds uh through our MTSS um intervention
033support specialists and changing some of our roles in the district and adding to our coaching roles. And so the instructional coach role transitioned and um we increased that uh that group by about a third. But everybody in that group had something new to learn for this upcoming upcoming year whether it was the MTSS part part ELA or math or whether it happened to be the coaching role in supporting new educators and curriculum and and professional learning. Um the result of that is that um buildings are receive a lot more um direct support from an instructional coach. they're um at the elementary able to serve uh just a couple of buildings versus floating between maybe four to six buildings. Um and so they have collectively supported all of the work um which is a big job
034um but have really done a nice job in that transition and really proud of the way that group has come together um uh as a collaborative group. In addition, probably other really big lift we had this year was the um implementation of Wit and Wisdom, which is our K5 ELA program. Um we rolled that out this year. Uh a new curriculum implementation is always a heavy lift. Um this one in particular uh is different. Resources have come a long way in the last 10 or 15 years in terms of um the the uh the rigor of them and um the variety of instructional um um approaches that they take. And so this was a heavy lift for our staff, not just because it was a new implementation, but because there are some things in it
035that um were were new to them. Um I would say if you follow Twitter, you you'll find some things on there um where teachers really did embrace uh the new resource and some of the content that was in that and really um worked hard to bring that to life uh for their students. The work is not done. Uh unfortunately we uh did not have a lot of professional learning time in the second semester and so some of the support and implementation that we would have been able to provide to our staff for Whiten Wisdom will continue through the next year or two um as we continue to roll that out. But the work will continue this summer as well as we have a team that comes in and uh begins to work on creating some
036additional materials that support some of those modules at each of the at at each of the grade levels. Um the other thing that um I think we feel really good about is that we have kind of finally reached um full implementation of our positive behavior intervention supports. Um that project started um back when Dr. Jerger was in learning services. Um I think I was talking to Dr. Fluke and the original rollout timeline was somewhere like 12 to 18 months, maybe a little less than two years. Um and we are 5 years now into it. um it kind of got derailed a little bit or sidetracked a little bit with the pandemic and some other things. Uh but I think the byproduct of that is that it was done very intentionally um across the system and
037has been done with fidelity and we're pleased to say that we're finally um at that district-wide implementation. Um in addition to that, Dr. uh Dr. Fluke has also worked with some other some of our other departments in the district to bring PBIS to them in order to support that positive behavior and transportation being one of those um special services. Um so you heard um Dr. Sig talk about some roundts and and having opportunities to listen uh to staff and hear about um their experience and things that are um working well and that are challenging. And one of the things that that came out of some of those roundts was uh the opportunity for our pair of professionals to collaborate with their uh their supervising teachers at the building level about student needs um supports that
038um that they need to help implement in the classroom. And so one of the things that came out of that was an opportunity to add additional time to their workday um for the option of being able to collaborate um with their departments and buildings. Um we're proud to say that we had over 400 of our pairs who opted in for that collaborative time. Um but we are also very focused on kind of u meeting the needs of staff when we can. And so it was optional. We have some some of our pair of professionals that have young kids and and liked their work schedule and and opted not to do that. Um which was great. Um but we're but I think that time has been very productive um for everybody across our system. Additionally, um
039we always have nominees for teacher of the year, but um we also had several teachers in our special services department this year who were acknowledged um as well. And so it was fun to be able to recognize the work that happens in every one of our classrooms. And then finally, in special services, um you know, we have been talking in our system for a while about employment opportunities for some of our students um and some of our graduates. And so we added a uh new employee that works out of the education center and then also works down at the IRC named Jack. Um he was a former student and has been a great employee. Um I would say he is probably the person that we all enjoy getting to see the most. Um he brings
040a ray of sunshine to the building every day that he's here. Um and it it's just good to good to see him here um and working and supporting our system. Dr. Reeves, I I noticed maybe the uh summer conference was on the draft. I saw Yes, I I updated the slides. Um I when we when we put this together, um we we had not had yet had summer conference. Um but Jenna Cter, who leads our professional learning department, um spent the entire year working with a committee of people to kind of reinvision our um summer conference for staff. and she found some sponsorships. Um we we rec kind of thought what the in-person um professional learning looked like. We heard from staff that having some form of hybrid um would be appropriate. And so she
041worked really hard with that um group of teachers to kind of revamp what summer conference looked like. Participation was up well over 600. Gave away a lot of prizes um thanks to our sponsorships, had t-shirts, um just tremendous amount of energy. Um, and Jenna left on Friday afternoon for a well-deserved vacation, so she's somewhere soaking up some sun right now. So, thank you. Good evening. I could spend hours uh telling you about all the great work that our business and finance staff uh does each and every day behind the scenes. As you can imagine, it takes a lot to support a half billion dollar budget, facilitate that, make sure everything comes in on as planned. That's why I'm really excited to um report that this year we received yet again two very distinct uh honors
042both from uh the Association of School Business Officials International. First is what we call our MBA. It's a meritorious budget award and we've received that for the 28th year in a row and it just speaks highly of our our budgeting process. In addition, we received for the 18th time the certificate of excellence in financial reporting. And that's even more complicated for a school district like ours because in the state of Kansas, you just have to report on what's called statutory basis. It's basically like a personal checkbook cash basis. We convert all of ours to generally accepted accounting principles and it's a much more rigorous uh test and as I said uh we've received that for the for the last um 18 years. Another way that we judge our financial health is our independent audit and
043our uh KSD audits. Uh again, this year we received an unmodified opinion on our financial statements. Again, complicated by that uh the use of GAAP accounting, but um kudos to our uh business and finance folks that uh continue to do great work so that we can receive that. And it it go it has a great uh payoff. U bond ratings. uh when we sell bonds, uh they don't we don't have to pay as much interest on our bonds because the investing public is used to see uh wants to see this kind of um high level of recognition. And finally, our partnership with THA uh public schools foundation. Uh there there's numerous ways that they support us. Uh but here are just a few with over $400,000 in grants and over $100,000 in uh need-based aid
044and raising over $23,000 for eye exams and the list goes on and on and on. So uh we're very grateful that we have such a strong foundation in our school district. I also have the honor this evening to uh report about some of the major projects and accomplishments in the technology division. Uh the first accomplishment is our multiffactor authentication. a very heavy lift uh that will pay 10 times over uh in securing our network. And there were really two keys to the success of this project. It's those second two bullets. The teacher pilot group that really gave us good feedback about how we can um uh implement this across uh all of our staff and then the support that was provided uh at each site during the deployment including Mr. Humphrey there each and every
045session trying to explain and and uh um uh show the benefits of this and as I said it is already paying uh great benefits in protecting our network. Elementary iPad uh accessories the the standardization of is it sounds very basic but just the charging of our iPads specifically at our lower grade levels uh we now have the ability to charge in each and every classroom. Why that's important that device needs to be ready for instruction. We were finding that um younger students were taking them home to charge and accidents happen or they don't come back charge. Now we can make sure they can hit the ground running each and every day. And finally, our infrastructure upgrades. This is the first year that we are on on our own dark fiber lines, and I had to
046look that up. Being the CPA that I am, I had no clue what that was till Mr. Humphrey explained it to me. much more dedicated secure uh uh um lines that um give us a lot more increased speeds uh bandwidth and the like. In addition, we've done a lot of cable replacing across the district getting ready for that next generation and of uh uh speeds and also um any upgrade we can in switches uh as they as as they start to wear out so that we can once again be delivering to the classroom as quickly as we possibly can. And as you can imagine, just as a half billion dollar budget, we have the largest uh network in the Kansas City metro area. So, it takes a lot of effort. So, kudos to the entire
047tech staff uh in the tech in uh the tech building and at the uh uh school level. And now I'll turn it over to Dr. McMullen. Well, good evening and I'm going to uh wrap us up here this evening uh talking about some of our divisions in the operations area. Uh we'll start off with communications and um as everyone knows, you can see just behind uh Mr. Babbot up there, our new district logo and branding that uh the board approved in June of last year. Um we've now rebranded all of our digital assets and have started now on our print um assets as well. And then what's really nice is we've been able to standardize so many department logos um with our with our new logo. And so, um, we've been able to to really
048promote our brand throughout our system. The LA advantage marketing campaign, uh, strategic effort around increasing enrollment, uh, specifically with the new Kansas open enrollment, uh, law. Um, really trying to get the message out of what sets Altha apart um, from from other districts. Uh, we paid social media advertising, Roku streaming, school news magazines, and the website. Um and the last piece of communications is just the design and marketing support. Um you'll see that uh they were able to support through um digital media um social media etc. Everything from chronic absenteeism to our two-hour delayed start employee services trail grand opening um etc. uh operations team. Um you'll see that uh as mentioned earlier, Santa Fe Trail opening um the new building this year. That is no small feat. Uh Travis Pangi and and his team
049um to knock down a building while you're still holding school 50t away is no easy task. And then to rebuild that building uh is great, but then you got to go knock down the other one after that. And so, um, what what is just awesome and it always struck me when principal Libel always talked about how proud he was that our community supported giving equitable learning access to all kids and and we did that at Santa Fe Trail. We're very, very proud of that. Uh, we had a new belt schedule this year that, uh, you know, was a good 24 months in the making. uh a lot of work with the community, a lot of feedback and and ultimately we feel like we landed in a really good spot. Um it addressed a few issues,
050certainly the driver shortage. Uh this year our transportation department, our buses ran on time. Every student that wanted to ride a bus to school was able to do so. Um it also by changing the bell time and our teacher contract times, we were able to address elementary plan time uh as well. So, it's it's really been a a good thing for our district. Uh, this year, we implemented a two-hour delayed start option, and we were able to utilize that three different mornings. Um, and, uh, by the time we got to the third time using it, it worked very smoothly. Um, certainly an adjustment for both students and parents, uh, and staff. Um, but it did allow us to still have school on those super cold mornings, but when you knew the temperature was going to
051get to a to an adequate spot uh in the afternoon. So, we were thankful to have that. Then the fun part um with operations is when you put new playgrounds in, uh, you really just make everyone happy at the elementary school. And uh and it's it's really neat to see because you know obviously our students enjoy those during the day but our community who supports our bonds is up there on the nights and on weekends and they really are just great community sources resources um for everyone in THAA. Uh also mentioned that all of the um new playgrounds included ADA accessible equipment um to serve our our students with special needs. And finally, food services. Scott Kingrey and his division is is really just a unsung division in our district. You know, they just kind
052of behind the curtain and every day serving um thousands and thousands of meals. You'll see over 500,000 breakfasts were served this year and over 3 million lunch meals were served. Um that's a lot of food. Um Dr. Jagger's favorite stat, every year he wants to know how many chicken nuggets we served. Um, and I'm proud to report tonight that we were over 400,000 uh chicken nuggets served this year, almost 400,000 pizzas and breakfast for lunch, over 2 almost 250,000. So, uh, the other piece that food service really worked on this year was putting in their um, new payment and meal system uh, called school cafe for next year and we're excited to launch that uh, later this summer. That being said, any of the four of us would be happy to stand for questions. Board,
053Miss Reagan, um I don't so much have questions, just a few comments. Um I love when we're able to crow about the things that are going well in our district and I do want to make sure our community knows that we understand that this is always improving. you know, we are very proud of all the great things that are happening and it's not at any sort of detriment to the things we're still working on, you know, but the end of the year is a great time to celebrate all the effort that's gone into making the public schools better. So, I did want to say that. Also, I got to just say every time I see our branding material out in the community, it makes me happy. And I know that saying like our brand makes
054us sound like a business. We're not a business, but we are the economic driver of our community. And attracting people to our community happens in a lot of ways. And having a new modern fresh look that also helped us come to the place where we are now able to say, you know, their future is our future. Our future is their future. I mean, just looking at that, I know that, you know, going through changes isn't always easy, but these little things attract people. So, I know brand can sound more corporate, but we're still our public schools. And now, I think we even have a better reflection in the way that we address ourselves publicly to the community. And finally, the bell schedule thing. I feel like we decided and did this 5 years ago, right?
055Like that's the way school time works. Um, just I, you know, no plan's ever going to make everyone satisfied or happy. And we're a huge system, so that's not going to happen. But I know that without a doubt, the changes that were the positive impact of that massive change um as far as getting kids on buses has been amazing. And I think that just seeing it through the whole year, as always, there are things and tweaks along the way you don't know about until you actually do it. But I just, you know, a family member of mine rub runs a school transportation system in a district that is similar of size to ours and and we are the envy of my brother-in-law because I mean just it it's really neat to see when you have
056a big goal and a big plan and a way to address an issue and we did it. So I thank you to everyone on the team. Um, and I hope we have just as many great things to to celebrate when we do our year wrap-up next year board. Any other comments, questions? I would just tag on to Miss Reagan. Um, the continued improvement in the public schools I think is a direct result of the excellence um that happens in the divisions who you shared tonight. um those of you who are leaders in those areas standing here, but the the colleagues you work alongside in this building and then those in all 58 sites, is that the right number? Um schools and other educational and and sites here in the district. it it you know to
057coin an old phrase it takes a village and um there are lots of villagers in the public schools but thank you tonight for taking the time and sharing the information with us and the community. I just wanted to quickly say I think this is the first year we've actually done like a wrapup like this at the end of the year. um you know, so often we just get going with our continuous cycle of everything that we do in schools and um get done with one year and move right on to the next. And it was kind of fun over the last few weeks just spending time with these guys trying to figure out what it is they were going to share. And I think that's such a good example of the great work that happens
058in every part of our system every day that um you know trying to highlight the right things and not leave some things out. But the reality is we probably left out about 35,000 things tonight. But it is good to look at some of these things that were long-term projects, long-term commitments, some we're still working on. Um, but to to say job well done to our entire system and our community. So, I also just want to thank the four of you. Dr. Jagger, I'm glad you said that because as you stand up here, you think of like 50 people you forgot to mention or whatever. And as I look at the logo, I just didn't mention the communications department by name. and and since it's Tony's birthday, we'll give him a little more love. But Becky
059Grubball, who leads our communications team, uh she and Tony and Aaron, uh the work they did on on the logo was just incredible and I I think they hit a grand slam. Thank you. Our next presentation, Dr. McMullen is staying um and Dr. Liz Harrison will join him. And I I would um for the board just let you know we appreciate the information that we were provided last month regarding Westview Elementary School and some potential changes that could occur and um appreciate having a couple of months before a decision needed to be made or or will be made on the on the topic. Um, so thanks for coming back tonight and giving us kind of an update or review and um available to answer any follow-up questions. Absolutely. So, appreciate the opportunity and and uh
060tonight our presentation is twofold. I'll I'll provide the the board and community an update on on the potential repurposing of Westview and where we stand with that uh tonight and then Dr. Harrison will talk a little bit about our K8 alt ed programming and and where we currently are with that. I think we got to start kind of um in the background. You know, our district has a boundary study group that has been in place for over 20 years. And you know, we work meet on a at a minimum quarterly basis. Um, sometimes that moves to monthly on a seasonal basis, but really just analyzing enrollment, number of buildings, capacity, future development, space concerns, programming, you know, if if all of a sudden one school at the elementary level has to add a fourth, third
061grade section, can we still hold early childhood there? You know, just all those things that are very fluid on a yearly basis. Um, you know, obviously one one of the things we we've kept very close attention on is our enrollment. Um, since the beginning of time for two totally different reasons. You know, for the first 54 years of our district, we were on a very steep incline in growth where we're averaging almost 500 kids a year in growth. And uh since our peak in 2019 at just over 30,000 students, we've started to go the other direction, much like every other school in our region, state, and nationally. And our our our data mirrors the national trend. And and we're losing around 270 students a year on average. So we're obviously being uh very uh spending
062a lot of time analyzing our our current enrollment. And so obviously Westview um has has been a focus uh based on their enrollment that we've been studying for many years. Um and again the you know which ultimately the programming needs in the district um help shape the recommendation to repurpose Westview um for 2627. Terms of the timeline um you know we started April 10th. I just gave a general enrollment update to the board of education on on the district in general and highlighted our lowest enrollment schools, our highest enrollment schools, enrollment trends, projections, etc. Um, on April 30th, we went out and met with the Westview staff the day before the May board meeting uh to give them a a courtesy conversation about a future action item that was going on uh the May one
063board meeting. And so I met with the staff that day. Um on May 1st we had our our board meeting and had the future action item um about West View and and the recommendation to repurpose it for 2627. Sent communication out. Um on May 14th we went out and visited with the Westview staff, Dr. Jerger, Dr. Sig, myself, Dr. Harrison, and Dr. Donovan. Um did a presentation, answered questions, had a very good conversation with with them. um because it's tough. I mean, there's there's no, you know, beating around the bush here. It's a hard topic. Um but it's al ultimately something that that we needed to have the conversation. Um uh and then May 19th, we had a a parent meeting at Westview where um we worked with the parents and and presented them information
064as well. Um, since that time, we've solicited feedback from both the staff and the parents at Westview, and the board has been provided all of uh the final results of that feedback um by Dr. Jagger. Um, we're asking that the board consider taking action on the proposal to repurpose West View at the July 10th meeting. Again, giving that at least two-month time frame for the board to further study, ask questions, get more information, etc. um pending action in in July, we will right after school starts hop into getting out and visiting with communities uh in that area about potential boundary changes. Um and we'll look to bring um recommendations back to the board for their November meeting. Um does that feel a little tight to some people? It may. The reality is there's only so
065many ways without moving kids all around the district um to slice it up. We'll certainly be out, you know, presenting multiple options uh to the communities, but the reality is because of enrollment, because of making sure we get students to their uh new school, transportation, staffing uh in the new buildings. There's just a lot of pieces that that have to get wrapped up that first semester. So, and then we'll be back out to meet with the Westview staff and work with them. Um, Dr. Harrison and and Mrs. Capella, the principal, are already talking about transition activities and ways to support students, help them meet friends in their new schools, etc. Jim, can I interrupt you for just a quick second? You're the superintendent. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, so I I wonder briefly if
066you would just mention there, and I'm sorry I don't recall the date. I didn't pull it back up, but we added a meeting at Westview to to meet with the community. Would you just talk a little bit about that? I'm sorry. Yeah. No, absolutely. So, uh May 19th, um it was a Monday. we that wasn't on our original timeline, frankly, and and after we had the the board meeting, after we met with the Westview staff, you know, we really felt like we've got to we really need to get out to the building, present this information in person, uh to the parents, and then be there to answer questions. And so, uh, we had a 2 and 1 half hour meeting that night, went through lots of data, really tried to explain the what and the
067why, um, and then answered questions, um, from from the parents and some staff who were there as well. And so, it was a long night, but it was a really good night. Lots of good information shared, lots of really good feedback that we were able to take back and again provide to the board as well. But I think it was important uh to meet the community in their building and and share the information we had and then hear their thoughts on it as well. And I would say too, you know, and and Jim, you could talk more about this if you want also. Maybe have a plan later and I'm stepping ahead of you here, but when you looked at the timeline, you know, the the first decision really is obviously the decision we're asking
068the board to make in July. after the board makes that decision, there's a lot of other things then that get set in motion because getting too far down the road with some of those things would be um too early before we have a decision from the board of education in July. And for example, one of the things that you saw in the feedback from the community, which is very valid feedback in a in a change like this is the opportunity to provide input and those sorts of things. I just wonder if you could just briefly talk about when we've adjusted boundaries in the past and you know what that's looked like, what that kind of community input and process looks like. Yeah. So, you know, obviously this is the first time that we've talked about
069repurposing a building. In the past, our boundary um processes have included new new construction in a area where that current uh school was just at capacity or over capacity. And so, um, as as we looked at the timeline on this, um, number one, lessons learned from the Santa Fe Trail experience this last year and just how emotional that was, not only for the staff, but for for that community to just have that building closed after 50 years and they were having a brand new building built 50 ft away. Um, but it was really, really tough for them. So, as we looked at this and the timeline, we really wanted to give at least a year for um all the final activities to be able to happen at Westview. You know, the final fall carnival and
070the final, you know, different activity. I'm going to get way out of my lane here talking elementary uh functions, but um um but it's important uh and even just your theme for the last year and celebrations, etc. So, so a little different timetable, but again, there's a there's a reason for those dates. And again, so much of it is is dependent on as you look at 26 27 making sure a students and families know where their new school will be and b taking care of our staff as well to make sure they are transitioning to a a new place to serve students in a later. And and the one thing I would add a after the the board um makes a decision in July, should you accept our recommendation, you know, what would happen after
071that obviously is conversations about boundaries, meetings in all the schools that could be potentially impacted, lots of community input about that and what that could look like. Um those historically have been very helpful in our community. We've done that a lot just typically because of of new schools, but oftent times our parents, our community members, those that are engaged in that process, staff come up with things we haven't thought about. So that really will be a lot of input from folks that choose to be involved, you know, from the different communities that may be impacted and we'll take those things back and study them and then come back and present them again and say, "How does this look? Does this answer questions?" Things like that. um because of where West View is and the schools
072around it, there's uh probably a limited number of options, but we do feel like there's multiple options that that we can present to the community at at this point for that conversation and that feedback. Once the decision is made for for a boundary, you know, obviously we would recommend that to the board. The board again, we'd ask the board to take take action on that. But as soon as that decision is made, that's really when we have the opportunity to start making sure that we take really kids good care of our kids. We can look at bus routes. We can look at very specific situations to make determinations about how we best, you know, support that movement um for our students and our staff and our community there as well. And sometimes that's a hard
073part about this is it's a multi-layered decision kind of process and some of the questions that people are asking are very fair but we're really not able to answer them until we get past step one and then step two and those kinds of things. So thank you. You know, just again to to review just some general data that that is pretty telling with with with our current enrollment decline. And that is, you know, in 2002 our elementary enrollment was 12,457. That also that number included sixth graders from 02 to 010 because as you recall in 2010, we moved our fifth grade or excuse me, our sixth graders up to middle school and and obviously our our nth graders up to high school. And so currently we're sitting at 12,600. So you're talking essentially the same
074number of students um from then, but since 2002, we've built eight new elementary schools serving the same amount of students. Um and so and obviously I won't read off the the schools that have been built since then. But in addition to that, we've added 42 additional elementary classroom additions along the way everywhere from Arbor Creek, Sunnyside, Regency Place, Manchester Park, etc. And so, um, that that's well over, um, another whole elementary school just in addition. So, you know, we we ultimately, unfortunately, uh, in the future, we're probably going to have to have, you know, conversations on aligning the number of buildings, you know, with our projected student enrollment. And so, um, it's the reality of of the enrollment, um, projections. So, just a a brief recap of of Westview and where it sits in our
075community. Um, it has K7 and Parker to the west, San Fed to the north, and then we have a natural barrier with railroad tracks there that run uh that separate West View from Central. Um, we've got the other schools and what we call the the central core of our district there that you'll see. And then you know in looking at Westview um you know you'll see here's their enrollment the previous five years and projections for the next five years and it's really just flat. It's sitting right around 150 students. Uh Westview's current enrollment's 156. Uh 30 of those students are there on transfer uh as as parent initiated transfers. Um, and so it's just a building in a in a such a tight small pocket um that it just does not have growth um in
076it. It also is our smallest footprint um of any of our elementary schools. And so um even if we were to look at trying to adjust boundaries in another direction, it would be hard to um look at moving another school or part of another school um into West View. And then here's the same data, the previous five and the next five years of this those surrounding schools there in the central core. Um and you'll see where where Westview sits compared to Fair View, Central, and Ridge View. Um our the red line there, the dotted line shows our average size elementary school in Altha. So of our 36 elementary schools, the average size is 350 students. Um and then you know just the goals um and and really just things that we we really want to
077accomplish as as we potentially move forward with this. You know one finding space for the K8 program. you know, we could, you know, in the past years ago, as you saw in that one chart with the number of buildings we were building every decade, you know, we would be in front of the board talking about building a new facility for a new program. Um, but given the the current um funding and given our enrollment, you know, we're looking at how can we better utilize our current resources. And so, uh, by repurposing Westview, we're able to provide a site for, um, the Kaid Alt program. Um our goal is to move as many of Westview's 120 resident students to the same school as possible and and hopefully we'll we'll have some options that includes all those
078students. Um so we'll again have multiple um boundary options to look at creating boundaries that solve enrollment trends and projections for the future. So certainly you know some of our title schools in that central core are some of our smaller schools and as we make boundary changes you just want to make them once. Um, and you want to make sure you solve any potential future enrollment challenges at any of those buildings. Um, on the flip side of that, you don't want to make a building too big and all of a sudden move too many kids to a particular building to where that building is reaching its capacity and uh, which creates a whole another set of challenges. So, we'll be very cognizant of that. And then ongoing communication support for the Westview staff. Um, you
079know, it's certainly a challenging time for them. Uh we fully recognize that and uh the general administration team and and district leadership team is certainly here to support them uh through this next year as as it's just a a year of first uh on many fronts there. And I'll turn over Dr. Harrison to talk a little bit about I wonder if we just may pause there for for just a a quick second if there's other questions. Uh yes. Um so just to be clear there is you know correlation causation the K through8 behavioral um alternative education program Westview is not closing in order to do that the two are just on a parallel timeline that's not there's not causation there I'm just yes yes and then um when you talk about our enrollment dropping it's
080not that parents and I said this at previous meetings but I do think it's important to repeat it's not because we have a mass exodus of people withdrawing kids from our district. There are fewer kids and we still have 90% of the census data enrolled. I just want to make sure that I'm understanding that and our community understands that because people who live here send their kids to school here. That's right. That's absolutely correct. So, there's just fewer kids. Many fewer kids. Right. And also, and as as I pointed out in that April 30th enrollment, um I'm sorry, the April board meeting enrollment presentation, you know, there's quite a few factors. There's the lower birth rate, which again is a national thing. But the data showed here in THA specifically, it has dropped so significantly
081significantly. It's over a thousand students a year difference in live births in THA. And then you also have the the cost of homes now for exactly during that boom of growth in THA. For so many years, Altha was the place to come. You could buy an affordable house. Kids could go to great schools, etc. Um we still have great schools for your kids to attend, but we've got uh you know home values and prices that have just doubled um in the last decade. And so um you add that you know with um birth rate, etc. And uh and then just an aging community as well that so many parents who raise their kids here still live in their houses and they have not moved out and we've got neighborhoods that are not turning over yet
082because people are in their house frankly many sitting on a really nice interest rate and don't want to pay money to go downsize. So there's a lot of factors involved and so I just wanted to make sure you know just to be clear as part of the public record that you know it's the narrative is just this is national trend and um just because one thing and another thing are happening at the same time does not mean one is causing the other and I just wanted to make sure that that was clear. I I would also add that, you know, oftentimes it seems to the community or to staff that decisions were made last week. Um, and so I want to reinforce your your I think it was your first bullet that for over 20
083years, a boundary study group meets quarterly. So, and I think maybe a couple of you have been in that group for 20 years. Um perhaps I won't I won't draw attention to that. Dr. McMullen. Um so so those individuals were here when we were building schools annually and and projecting and looking forward knowing or expecting that that wouldn't go on forever. And so I I personally would also say that any conversation that I've been involved with related to this topic or schools and this is consistent but but I'll draw attention to this one. Taking care of the staff and families of Westview was central to that conversation when when we first were exposed to some information. You look at the timeline, it was strategic and intentional how individuals like the board would be communicated to,
084but then immediately staff and families would have that information. And I'll I'll draw attention again to the additional in-person meeting that was added because it was felt that there hadn't been a lot of feedback um from just the written communication and and so it is painful as you've described um whenever there's a change in a community. It's it's painful when it used to be because we were building new schools and families were being separated. Um, but I would also say that we the excellence that was shared this evening in a lot of areas, we also have an excellence if this in fact does occur um in transitioning kids and families to new schools. And in the past we've done it for different reasons because as I said we open schools so then we had to
085combine families but there's a wealth of information and skills of of our staff um to make that to make that happen. And again it is focused on taking care of our staff and our families in those communities. So thank you for the additional information tonight. Did you miss steel? Thank you. Um, thank you both. Ditto ditto to both of you. I just wanted to add um I often say that as a board we literally have two jobs, but the third is also very important and underlines everything. So I say collectively we have a job to oversee our superintendent and we um have a job to set policy but we are also voted on by members of the community to be good stewards of their taxpayer dollars and that's really important too and that's one thing
086that makes the decision next month really hard for us. If we were in a situation that we could be creating schools with 150 students all over the place, we would do it. What a great wonderful thing that is happening at Westview. They have done right by their families and by their students and you can tell in their academics and in the social um connectedness of that community. And we would do that all day long if we could. And you said one thing briefly, but it's really important to point out if funding was at a place that we wouldn't have to look at this. We wouldn't be. we'd be trying to find another way for the programming need that we have in our district. That was loud and clear to us during our district dialogues with
087our educators. Um, you know, when at during our first presentation, I think one thing that our community um knows, but but it's also important to be reminded we are such a big system with 5,000 employees and 29,000 students. So when you hear that we've created something to be nimble, that's thick magic because for a system our size to be able to change for the sake of students is a really big deal. So this is hard. I appreciate Dr. Joerger pointing out that there are steps to the process and so when we get to the point of having a decision and um looking at the transition we will it will be paramount to take care of students and the families that will be experiencing the change. So thank you. I may make just one other quick
088comment and it's not related necessarily to Westview but um I just thought I'd speak to this briefly because people do pay attention to our board meetings. You know the boundary study group has as Dr. McMullen said has been working for years and years and what I don't want to have happen tonight is people look at the list and go okay the seven smallest schools in the district will be the ones impacted someday. You know, we were very careful on our our PowerPoint tonight to use words like may and study and and those kinds of things because the reality is we have some unknowns in our community too that may impact us over the time. We just know that if funding stays like it is and the uh current enrollment stays like it is, this likely
089won't be our first conversation like this of some kind. Um but what I would caution people against is looking at the numbers and saying, "Okay, here are the three smallest schools. that must be where it happens next. You know, that kind of thing because the reality is is it would be premature for us to say anything like that. You know, one of the things that we look at very closely is room utilization and utilization of the facilities, programs that are housed within a school, all those kinds of things that are impacted um by the way that we deliver education today. So, I just wanted to briefly say that um you know once uh uh once we make a recommendation and we get to the point we're like, okay, we know we have a solid recommendation
090here, we would do the same thing. We would make sure that the people that need to be uh in the know are in the know, they're, you know, having a conversation with us and that kind of thing. Um but I just want to be clear that there's not a list of that we're ticking through in terms of this process. Um, we hope that things change with school finance in Kansas and we can begin to look at some things in a different way, but um, we'll see how that goes with time, obviously. Good evening. Well, thank you for the opportunity to share just a little bit more about our K8 alternative programming. Uh based on the feedback that we've received, I want to take just a few minutes to kind of talk a little bit more
091about the background and reasoning of the exploration of the K8 program. For several years, we've consistently heard from our principles and our staff that we need additional resources and options to meet the behavioral and social emotional needs of some of our general education students. The graph up here of office managed behaviors is the same one that uh Dr. Smith and I shared last month. And um it really reaffirms what Dr. Sig shared about the um information from our district dialogue sessions where mental health and emotional needs emerged as a key area of concern. It's clearly a priority for our community. And so as a result, we're developing or working to develop a K8 alternative program that aims to address these behavioral challenges proactively while easing the pressure felt across our schools by our students, staff,
092and our families. While the program itself is still in the development phase, I do want to share that some of the foundational components we're planning to include. One key point to emphasize is that the supports we're building into the program are not new. These are the same behavior and social emotional supports that are already being used across our schools. The difference is that in this setting, these supports will be moved up one tier, which means that they'll be provided more frequently and with greater intensity to all students in the program rather than to just those who have already been identified for intervention. So that will include things like positive behavior intervention supports PBIS for all students, specific social skill instruction through skill streaming, and then social emotional instruction through things like second step and zones
093of regulation that are already implemented in uh many of our schools. These tools will form the core of the program's approach to behavioral and emotional support. By embedding them more deeply and consistently, we hope to be able to provide students with the strategies that they'll need to succeed both in school and then beyond. To ensure that the program is successful, we're planning for a staffing model that offers comprehensive support going beyond what may currently be available at a student's home school. The program may include things like increased access to mental health professionals and possible partnerships with community mental health supports to offer more advanced services either on-site or via referral, helping students who may need more intensive intervention. and then ongoing training and professional development for all of our staff both within the building and
094then at the district level so that everyone feels equipped with the tools and strategies to support student needs. We recognize that this will be a collaborative effort and we want to make sure we get it right. So, as we continue planning for the program to launch in the 2627 school year, we know that engaging our staff and families and community will be crucial. So, we're committed to building something that truly serves our students needs and we look forward to continuing that conversation with all of you. And I would also be happy to answer any questions. Board. Dr. Harrison, it is my under Oh, sorry. No, no, no. Just you're part of the board. Um, it is my understanding that um although unique, this isn't something that you and Dr. Smith just kind of dreamed up.
095there are programs that you have studied and visited and have seen um other districts have success with this model. Can you just talk about that a bit? Yes, ma'am. Uh we went on um really a tour across um we were in the northeast, we're in the southeast, we went um Raymore Peculiar actually has a program that has some really great things happening. We've been to a couple other schools locally. We've been to Texas, Colorado to really try to go and look at how are people making it work. And we had the opportunity in each of those to do a couple of things. One, to tour what the program looks like, to be able to see the programs with the students there, but then to also sit down with their building administration in each of those
096programs and talk through, you know, what does the day-to-day programming look like? How do you decide um what students would be appropriate to be a part of this program? How do you know when they're ready to make transitions back to their school? Uh what do you feel like was successful? How did you get started? All of those different pieces. We had the opportunity to sit down and talk with each of those different school districts and then we compiled all of that information. And our goal really is to be able to pull the best pieces from each of those. And then also working with our THA teams to make sure that you um making sure that we're really using some of the strategies that we already have in place in our buildings because what we want
097to do is to help our students be able to return to their neighborhood or home school and be able to be successful in those settings. And I just a follow-up question. Um, I'm guessing if you have a classroom, let's just say 25 kids, and you have one who is not um um able to be successful with the building supports. Really, we're talking about 25 students having their education disrupted. Correct. Correct. And and that was a piece that we've had a lot of feedback that that that one student obviously is having their education impacted, but the other 25 students are and the adults that are supporting in that room that there's educators that you a pair anybody that's in there is also having a disruption to what their general day might be like. In addition, if
098there are times where we're having to evacuate a classroom and those students are then moving into another classroom, that's a whole additional set of 25 students that may have their education impacted. And our educators are amazing. They're they're making it work and making sure kids are still learning and they're still doing the great things that they need to be able to do. But that's a, you know, right in that one scenario, that would be possibly up to 50 kids and, you know, three or four adults that are being impacted by that that one event. Yes, Mr. Johan, thank you. Um, I was just thinking, you know, listening to this presentation and obviously we'll have some time to see you build the program and and how we went through the success of the last school year
099and all the things and so I really am just more than anything looking forward to in a couple years when we hear from you to share the successes. So maybe more of what do you think success looks like for you and and for the team? I think number one, first of all, me too. I'm really hoping that in a couple years we're back here sharing exactly that. Um really I what our hope is is that we find a way to be able to support our students because when students are having big behaviors like that, they're telling us that they have a need that we're not able to meet and that we can meet that need and help them have those skills so that then they can return to their home school and they can be
100successful. And I think about it from a mom point of view that if you're the mom of a kiddo that's struggling, the thing you want most is for your kiddo to to be okay, to be able to actively engage with their peers and to learn with their peers and to be able to help support the family so that their student can return and they can feel that success too. And then when I think about, you know, those other 25 kids in that class that they're they're able to be friends with one another and interact with one another and feel, you know, comfortable and safe and happy and ready to come to school. Um, to me, if we can create a program that offers that opportunity when we've got kiddos who are really, really struggling to
101be able to get the support they need and then to get back with their peers, that would be a true success. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate Dr. Jagger. Yeah, Dr. Harrison just said it, but I wanted to just comment on this as well. One of the things that our team who went on the grand tour really um brought back is something that was of significant importance to them is the idea of kids returning returning to their school of residence. Um we see all across the nation where there are alternative programs where kids go and they never come back and for some kids that may be the most appropriate thing you know depending on what their need is. But I think having the ultimate goal being to build skills with kids so they can be successful
102and return to their school of residence is is a thing that has been very clear from them that I think is great. The other thing that I want to mention too is, you know, using the word developing a program is important because one of the things that, you know, we'll begin looking at is uh next year as the program is developed is the um ability for us to get a larger teacher team involved in this with also some special education staff. Um, so we'll have some general education staff, some special education staff, likely some uh grade level teachers, administrators, things like that that can help work with us um in the development of this program because that's one of the things that will be important to us as we try to get it to work.
103So, thanks to both of you for the review tonight. [Applause] Public comments is our next section tonight and we'll be on that in just a moment. Miss Steel, at each regular 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 5 minutes. The clerk will monitor the time and notify the speaker when the 5-minute time limit has expired. Please direct your comments to the board and not the guests or staff. If a response is appropriate, the president will respond or refer to another individual. In an effort to respect privacy, we ask that speakers refrain from discussing personal
104complaints involving individual staff members or students. Audience disruption is also not permitted. Those speakers those speaking are advised that public comments are videotape recorded for broadcast on the district's educational access channel and audio tape recorded as a matter of public record. Individuals addressing the board should come to the podium at the front and state your name, city, and state and your relationship to the district. Thank you. Our first speaker this evening is John Hail. [Music] Hello, my name is John Hail. I'm a math teacher at Ela South. I've been there for 22 years. I'm also the parent of one the South grad and one current South student. As a teacher, I believe in using new technologies for academic purposes anytime the opportunity arises. Um, I've been a part of this for a long time. When
105I first started, I was doing a classroom website that I built myself and then eventually switched to Blackboard and then Google Classroom and now I'm actually on the pilot team for Canvas next school year. Um I was also part of our pilot when we went onetoone with devices. I just got a grant from OPSF for um a set of classroom calculators that are more modern, the ones the kids use now. So I'm really into technology. Um back about 15 years ago, 20 years ago, smartphones became more common and so I started using those in my classroom as well um for various purposes, communication, checks for understanding or even like visual calculators kinds of things. Um but I started to realize quickly that the benefits of the technology of the the cell phone were being overshadowed
106pretty heavily by the distractions that came with them. Um just over a year ago, a colleague and I were having a discussion in the hall and we felt very defeated. It was a realization that we couldn't win the battle. And so we were like, well, it can't just be our opinions and we've got to know based on research what's out there. And so luckily for us is s a research study in in Norway came out just that very week talking about the benefit of not having cell phones in public schools um there. And then it was very shortly after that that you guys added our policy to ban cell phone use in the classroom. I'm very thankful for that. It really has made it a better situation in our classrooms. It's been much easier to
107manage. So, it's much appreciated. Um, but I'm here today to suggest that we go further with the policy. What we've done is a great start, but it's time to extend it so the ban includes the full school day beginning to end. Um, earlier this year, I was looking for examples. I teach AP stats and I was looking for research on this topic because I knew the kids were quite interested in it themselves. And the first study I found was from UNESCO and they said that it takes students 20 minutes to recover from just one notification on their phone before they can fully regain their focus. And then it hit me, well, we let them use it during the passing period. Our classes are 45 minutes long. That's a pretty big hit out of our 45
108minutes. But then also a lot of his kids have their Apple watches. They might get a notification during class or maybe they have their phone in their pocket and they feel the vibration. And it hit me like it only really takes maybe three notifications during the course of a 45minute class for them to realize or for me to realize that they haven't had one minute of full focus during the class period. It's very tough to teach kids that under all circumstances, but when they're not focused obviously it's impossible. Um, and again I want to highlight those are the kids that are following the rules. These are not rulebreaking students. These are the rule followers. Um, now add that to the knowledge that the average teenager receives 237 notifications per day. That's from 2023. And you
109realize we're in an impossible situation. We're asking not yet mature brains um to make a decision they're truly not capable of. We as adults, I can speak for myself, I struggle with it myself, just keeping my phone put away when I'm talking to friends, when I'm at a movie, at a sports event, or just sitting eating at dinner with my family. Um, it's hard to keep that put away. Um, I want to emphasize that my request is not something that's like politically driven. We've seen Florida and New York and France and Hungary and Arkansas and California. Those places are not close politically, but they agree that something needs to change with high school students. and their cell phone usage. Um, it's my opinion that we have a moral obligation to educate our next generation. We
110can't do so effectively when they're not present and fully functioning. Recent studies suggest the average teen spends 4.8 hours per day on social media and that even perhaps the presence of a cell phone in that room is enough to distract them. Um, there's so much research on this. Um, the price they are paying with mental health issues has been documented many places. uh two that come to mind, Jonathan Haye's book, The Anxious Generation, or Netflix Filix documentary, The Social Dilemma, uh go into way more detail than I have time left. Um and I know that we can't keep kids off social media. That's not our job as educators, but the recent studies studies say they spend one and a half hours per day during the school day on their phones. And that we can control.
111So, I'm asking you to please consider a full ban on um cell phones at all levels, K through 12. I know that many states are starting to do this anyway, but I don't think we need to wait till Kansas tells us we have to. I'd love to do it on our own. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hail, Nick Crley. Hi, uh, Nick Kley, teacher of Mil Creek campus. Julie told me to speak more, so I guess that's what I'm doing. Um, I didn't plan on saying this, but I just want to cosign everything that Mr. Hail just said, so that's cool. Um, uh, the reason I'm here tonight is because I really wanted to thank you for wrapping up negotiations and giving us a raise. Um, that was awesome. Um, I know that that was
112a really big commitment on your guys' part, digging into reserves. Um, I know the money from the state, uh, was not what we were hoping it would be. Um, and I would like to continue to thank, um, Dr. Joerger and Miss Reagan for talking about that as often as they both do. Um, and it's, um, really a good way to cap off a year of your guys' commitment to teacher retention, going to all the different Epic meetings. Um, that was phenomenal. Um it really made um talking about how important this board is during what is a really uncertain time for teachers um really easy and I really really appreciated that. Um I also wanted to let you know if you didn't know the Altha Summer Conference is awesome. I've never been before and I went
113this year for the first time and we're really lucky to have Jenna Cudter uh and Ashley Martin working for us here because they're phenomenal and they do a great job. So, in case you didn't know that, which you might not because you're not teachers, um they're doing a great job and I just wanted you guys to know that they are doing a great job. Um and then the last thing I want to say, um is it is Pride Month. Um I am a queer educator that works in this system. There are a lot of other queer educators, um that are being organized by Shelby Muha and Kai Billings, um who lead the affinity group. I don't really go to those very often, but they're doing really great work. Um, and I did just want to
114say that like we're in a really good place relative to some of our neighbors as a system. Um, but I would be lying if I told you that we were in a good place. Like absolutely. Um, I will say that my students and we have a lot of of gender non-conforming transgender and um, uh, gender sexuality uh, minorities at Mil Creek. Um, they have come to myself and the GSA sponsor Laney Gray with a lot of concerns. um and we're kind of fielding that and it is really disruptive to their educational experience. Um that's not necessarily something that we can fix right away, but it isn't something that always gets talked about. So, I did want to bring it to your attention. Um I would encourage you if you haven't um there are a lot
115of different GSAs operating in lots of different secondary buildings um throughout the district. I would encourage you to reach out to some of the different sponsors. You can always come to Mil Creeks, but there are bigger ones at the five high schools, uh, the five traditional high schools. Um, and it would definitely be worth a conversation, um, just to sort of get an idea of what it is like to be a transgender or, uh, LGBTQ um, student um, right now. Um, because I think that there is a lot there. Um, and then the last thing that I wanted to say with regards to that is I do also want to just say because I think it can be easy and I just contributed to it by saying that go to the secondary schools but gender
116uh and orientation uh exploration is something that happens at all levels. Um there's a really wonderful social worker in Witchah named Dallas Bouts that's doing a lot of work right now around gender exploit exploration uh in early childhood. Um, and that could be something that can be overlooked because it is sort of like socially taboo, but it is something that touches on all of our children, even if they're not um themselves uh experiencing um questions around their identity, but also just because we have lots of different types of families. Um that are consu constituted of lots of like in of lots of diverse ways. Um so I did just want to bring that to your attention this Pride Month. Um, uh, I will say that like if I were going to encourage one of my,
117uh, fellow LGBTQ plus people to get a job somewhere, it would be THA because I think you guys are really committed to protecting us and that does mean a lot right now. But we still as a as a as a society and honestly as a world, we've got a long way to go and I just wanted to, you know, help enlist you in that struggle. So for that, I really appreciate it. Um, I hope you guys have a wonderful June. We are here really late tonight, so uh, have a great night. Um, and thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Kley. Megan Brics. I don't think I can speak as fast as he did. So, um, good evening, Board of Education. My name is Megan Brics. I reside in Dodto and I'm the proud elementary
118general music teacher at Forest of View. Um, I truly missed seeing you all last month. That felt like a really long time. LA in May, we had our spring fine arts fair at Forest View, which was a wonderful success, sharing our arts as well as our band strings and choir. So, it's been a while since I've seen your faces. Tonight, I'm just here for something that has truly had a profound impact on me, and that's talking about summer conference. So, I want to continue to uplift the success that this year's summer conference revi revitalized truly was. It was a huge success, but that that success comes directly from Jenna Cter and Ashley Martin. The amount of work they spent all year planning this and bringing this year's summer conference to life. This year they implemented
119the virtual self-paced sessions which were offered for day three of learning which I myself took a lot of those courses especially related to AI which was new learning for me. So I really appreciated that. And we were also able to have a combin combination of national presenters as well as educators educators from our own district presenting. And then another huge thank you goes out to Main Street Credit Union for all of their financial support of summer conference. I have not attended since I think my first year in the district. I've presented a little bit but I haven't attended as a participant. And I have like I'm still feeling the joy and the excitement for my learning, which I know is silly cuz I'm in the summer and I should stop thinking about learning, but it
120was amazing. And Jenna Cter and Ashley Martin cannot get enough praise for all that they did, all the work that was behind the scenes. So, I just want to end today by saying that I'm extremely grateful for all the opportunities that I'm afforded by our THA public schools. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Brics. board. We are at action consent and I would accept a motion for item 6.01 to 6.15. I move to approve action consent 6.01 through 6.15 as presented. Second. Motion by Mr. Boyd second by Miss Reagan. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mrs. Reagan. Yes. Mr. Boyd. Yes. Mrs. Johan. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Dr. Jükovich. Yes. Motion passes. 60. Actions, bids, con contracts, and agreements 7.01 to 7.23. Can I say something quick about one of them or pull? I don't need to pull it.
121I just wanted to say something um on which one? 7.06. Okay. Which before we I It's just a comment. I We don't need to pull it. I just It can still be taken with the group. Okay. Let's go ahead and have a motion for approval. And there are a couple of others I'm actually going to ask a couple of people to comment on. So, we'll do it at that point. Thank you. Is there a motion? I move to approve um action bids. Contracts and agreement 7.01 through 723 as presented. Second motion by Mr. Boyd. Second by Miss Johan. Okay, Miss Reagan. Um I this was 7.06 is the Frog Street curriculum for Head Start and I had the privilege of previewing the curriculum. Um, I went over to H Heartland um with uh because I'm
122on the the policy council um and another a parent from the policy council because most of the council a lot of it is parents who have children in Head Start. um she and I went and um the material is really great and I um just different things I appreciated about it was kind of the diversity of things that um the staff would have access to in order to implement it easily into their classrooms. But I did notice um so many of the children pictured on the materials look like our kids. there's a variety of makeups and just the way that uh and that's that really stood out to me because um I think you know we there there was a time where children in education curriculums all looked the same and they all looked one
123way. Um and our district is so vastly diverse and it was just really heartening to see that. um and the they're they're really excited over there about the new curriculum and I appreciate um their diligence with using all of their funding um and making sure that every last penny is spent um making sure those little ones get everything they need so that they are um beyond ready for kindergarten. So I will emphatically be voting to support the purchase of the curriculum. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to jump back to 7.05 05 and ask Brent Kiger um to come to the podium and share um the request is to update Centix Centix Centiggics. Thank you. Um hardware and software. So if you can kind of give us an update. Absolutely. Good evening. Thanks for giving
124me the opportunity. You know the the Centix Crisis Alert software and hardware has really been a a staple of our safety platform. you know, we have a a multiaceted layer of of different safety components, of course, that that our district utilizes, but uh really none other than the crisis alert platform that really used daily by by so many of our staff. You know, we I haven't run the numbers yet from this year. We'll wait till after summer school, but you know, we're close to over 5,000 alerts uh a year uh on on that on that platform. So, we've had three years of it now and and it's been a really big success. You know, I I I talk a lot of our we have a lot of staff members that that rely upon that when
125needed, but we also have a lot of staff members that haven't needed to press yet, but know that they can. There's a lot of value in that. I I also believe that students can't learn unless they feel safe and and this this platform really helps helps that. You know, with it with this upgrade, there's there's a few things that that it'll do for us from all the old hardware will go away. uh and we'll get the just the the more modern uh newer version of it which is brighter, more visible strobes. It also takes out um we they currently they have hubs. Uh we've got about gosh probably 70 to 80 per high school, about probably 40 per middle school. And those hubs are in uh outlets strategically placed throughout the buildings which also happen
126to be near teachers desks and and things like that that that are you know our staff are are are comfortable with working around it but it'll be a welcome addition to get those back. And uh the reason is the technology is is just stronger. It's better. It's more accurate and doesn't need those anymore. Um additionally the upgrade gives us the ability to look at uh their visitor management program. So, we have an opportunity to potentially capture some additional savings if we go that route. Um, you know, it also gives us the ability to to do what's called tagging assets. So, right now when a when an alert comes through, building leaders and safety teams get a a visual picture of their of the map of their building of where the alert is, which is great.
127With this new software, we have the ability to to tag assets. So we could u tag that there's a AED close or there's a fire extinguisher close or or something to that effect which just just an added component to it. You know it's interesting this week really solidified you know I'm obviously a big believer in in this product and have been but this week really solidified it even more with our tornado warnings. You know we were able to to get that warning come through. um kind of caught a lot of people off guard, frankly. And as soon as that alert came through, I was able to put all of our buildings on a severe weather uh warning from from my phone. And and what that did is our building leaders, not all of them heard
128the sirens. Some of them weren't quite sure what to do, but then when we did that, um all the the strobes flashed, the computer desktop took over, uh as well as an intercom message stated to stay in shelter. So, uh we're able to to push that notification out in seconds district-wide. and uh just got tremendous feedback from our building leaders that man that was really nice that make sure everybody saw that. So, so just by by improving this by by upgrading uh this hardware and software just uh it solidifies uh that this product really is a a key component of our safety features here like that. Thank you, Miss Seal. Um so, Officer Ker, when you said 5,000 occurrences, could you just describe a little bit? I know on the front end before we installed
129Centix, we spent a lot of time talking about it, but I think it's worth repeating. It's not that 5,000 times kids were unsafe because of a security risk, but it's used for many, many other reasons that that safety team at the building can respond to. So, can you just mention a few of those? Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you mentioned that. You know, it's used often times for for medical situations. You know, we've had one of our our first stories was at a high school where uh a student unfortunately had collapsed for a brief moment in in the bathroom and and a teacher was a saw that student. This building particular doesn't have uh very strong cell phone coverage. So, historically, that teacher would have had to leave that student on the ground, go get help
130because she didn't have a radio with her. Uh so, she'd have to leave that student on the ground and go to a phone or go get help. In this particular case, she pressed her button three times to to alert the safety team that there's a medical issue and she was able to stay with that student on the floor. Um just offering some reassurance to the parents say we had a staff member with with her the entire time. So, it's used for medical um it can be used for, you know, if there is a behavior situation. Uh if a teacher sees something that is suspicious that looks out of place, they can use it. So, there's a lot of different issues um like you mentioned beyond just a security uh risk that our staff are trained
131to use it for. Yeah. that Mr. B. Along those same notes, I I remember actually before I was on the board, just watching from out there when this first was introduced, there was some buildings that needed some extra training on when to use it, when it was appropriate, when it wasn't. Do you guys still have that going on an ongoing basis or is how is are those stats still rolled up by building and and how do you guys handle the overuse of it at times? They are. Yeah, we we've seen we've seen that really curtail quite a bit, you know, and every building uses it a little bit differently um for one reason or another. Certainly, our elementary level uses it more um and and and really our buildings use it for the most part
132very appropriately. Now, we do constantly monitor which buildings have um the highest usage and which have the lowest to see what can we do different, what sort of services or opportunities can we provide that staff, you know, and um additionally, several of us here get get every alert. And the reason is just to keep awareness and see what's going on and if we feel like there's certain locations that are overusing it or not using it enough, then that's really good information for us to to work with that admin team and and building team to figure out how can we best support them. So, you've gotten 5,000 notifications. That's right. Okay. So, your 500 emails is nothing. Any other questions, comments, board? Thank you, Mr. Ker, for that clarification. Um, I have one more item, 7.23,
133Mr. Hutchinson, uh, related to the general insurance policy renewal. If you could make some general comments about that. Absolutely. Uh many of you remember a name. Uh Thomas McGee is our third party administrator. Uh they recently changed her name to risk strategies. So you'll see that throughout this document, but uh this is the time of year that we work on our renewals. It's very difficult to do it much earlier because insurance companies are not in uh will basically inflate the rates because they're trying to get the best uh spring storm data they can to figure out the rates they're going to charge. Uh we have a variety of insuranceances but the number one um insurance cost for us is property insurance. Uh we so town uh excuse me risk strategies will go to market. We
134are a large organization with a lot of um uh value uh property values. There aren't many players in the space that can accommodate us. Uh this year we actually only had one true insurance company uh respond and that was Travelers who we're currently with and we're facing a $700,000 increase. Uh they've taken a lot of um loss down in Texas. Um luckily Risk Strategies had been speaking with a um a pool that exists uh through Arthur Gallagher and it's kind of a very specific pool. They've carved out Oklahoma, Texas, states that are going to exper and coasts that are going to experience a lot of loss. They've capped how many participants and the value of that participation. And um by uh looking at GovPro is the name of it. Uh we were able to actually
135reduce our cost by $260,000. So the stars align very well this year that that that pool had uh started up and I believe we're the last district to get in uh because of our size. uh but they welcomed us with open arms. So overall we'll experience about a 6.4% decrease in in that cost which is very helpful. Uh it the property alone is down um like I said 260 that goes straight to the general fund. The other increases are against the special liability fund because we pay our premiums for um liability insurance out of that fund. So this has been a very win-win year for insurance which usually it's not. It's always an everinccreasing um uh cost for a school district. Thank you board. Any comments or questions? Okay, we have a motion on the
136table um to approve item 7.01 to 7.23. Miss Beam, Mrs. Reagan, yes. Dr. Jükovich, yes. Mrs. Steel, yes. Mr. Boyd, yes. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mrs. Johan. Yes. Motion passes 6. Action other. Uh 8.01 is the election of the board president for the 2526 school year. Um this process will take two motions. One to nominate um to cease nominations, I'm sorry, and then a second to elect. So, I would accept any nominations at this time. I nominate Stacy Erkovich to Dr. Stacy Ericovich to be president. I move to cease nominations. Second. A motion to nominate Dr. Stacy Jükovich um to cease nominations by Miss Steel and second was by Mr. Boyd. Mr. Boyd, yes. Mrs. Reagan, yes. Mr. Babbot, yes. Dr. Jükovich, yes. Mrs. Steel, yes. Mrs. Johan, yes. Motion to cease nominations passes 6. So,
137a second motion um to elect Stacy Ukovich to serve as the board president would be accepted. I move to elect Dr. Stacy Ericovich to serve as the 2526 board of education president. Second motion by Miss Reagan. Second by Miss Johan. Mrs. Johan. Yes. Mr. Boyd. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Dr. Jükovich. Yes. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mrs. Reagan. Yes. Motion passes 6. Um before we go to the next item board, thank you for your support. No, no, no. Thank you. Um item 8.02 is the election of a board vice president and again two motions are required. The first following nominations um would be to cease nominations. But first, are there nominations for vice president? I nominate Julie Steel. I move to cease nominations. Second. Miss Julie Steel has been nominated. A motion to cease nominations by Miss
138Reagan and second by Mr. Babbot. Mr. Babbett. Yes. Dr. Jükovich. Yes. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mrs. Johan. Yes. Mr. Boyd. Yes. Mrs. Reagan. Yep. Motion passes 6. And then a motion to elect Julie Steel as vice president. I move to elect Julie Steel to serve as the 2025 2026 board of education vice president. Second. A motion by Miss Johan, a second by Miss Reagan. Dr. Jükovich. Yes. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mr. Babett. Yes. Mr. Boyd. Yes. Mrs. Reagan. Yes. Mrs. Joanne. Yes. Motion passes 6. Thank you. Thank you. No. Thank you. Stacy. Yes. Yes. Mr. Bab, I for those that don't know, probably people that are watching, but the amount of extra work that these two put into being president, vice president is exceptional. So, I'd just like to thank you guys for doing it for the
139past year and have fun for the next year. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you. 8.03 student and staff responsible use policies update. Is there a motion? I move to approve 8.03. Second. Motion by Miss Steel, second by Mr. Boyd. Mrs. Reagan, yes. Dr. Jükovich, yes. Mrs. Steel, yes. Mr. Boyd, yes. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mrs. Johan, yes. Motion passes. 60 8.04, Safety and Security Updates at Northwest High School. Is there a motion? I move to approve. 8.04 is presented. Second motion by Mr. Babbot, second by Miss Reagan or Johan. Sorry, I didn't look up. Um, before we vote on this motion, I'm going to ask Mr. Ker to come back and share some additional information about the need for the safety and security updates. Absolutely. Thank you again. So, the the the updates to Life
140Northwest are really just bringing that building in line with the other schools in our district. You know, if you have any familiarity with the difference between analog and digital, uh we've got over 50 analog cameras uh still limping along in that building and they're doing an okay job, but are are certainly at at end of life um as well as the server. So, you know, our our building administrators and safety teams really rely upon these cameras for a lot of functions, not only uh things that have happened, but remaining proactive. So making sure that that infrastructure is current uh modern and reliable uh is extremely important. So this would be our last high school that that we would need to need to update to bring up bring up to those standards. So with the board's
141approval, we're looking forward to doing that. Board, any other questions, comments before we vote? I I would just mention I would just mention briefly this is a great example the work our staff does in preparing for a bond. Obviously that the budget source for this is bond 2022. One of the things that safety and security as long as operations and collaboration with our building principles and everyone involved as they go through our buildings as they work through our systems. It's really the collection of the things that they see along the way that needs to be improved that really informs our bond issues. So, you know, having a bond like our bond 22 that gives us the ability to do that to make sure uh that we have the finances, if you will, to be able
142to make sure that all of our high schools are, you know, to a to a set point is really important. But this just articulates, I think, the forethought that goes in uh to when we go to our community and ask for a bond referendum, that kind of thing. Just the the planning and and what have you that that takes place. This is a great example of that. I think it's an also an example of another example of the excellence that the leadership in this district provide. Um this along with our earlier conversation on on the alert system um always um thinking ahead and the planning but also an emphasis and a focus on keeping kids safe and our staff safe in the building. So thank you for that Mr. Kiger. So there is currently a
143motion to approve um this as presented by Mr. Bab made by Mr. Babbot. Second by Miss Johan, Miss Beam, Mrs. Steel, yes. Mrs. Reagan, yes. Mr. Boyd, yes. Mrs. Johan, yes. Mr. Babbot, yes. Dr. Yurkovich, yes. Motion passes 60. And the last uh 8.05 05 in this section is a renewal of superintendent contract for 2526. Is there a motion? I move the board extend the contract of Dr. Brent Joerger as superintendent starting July 1st, 2025. Second. A motion by Miss Steele. Second by Miss Johan. Dr. Jükovich. Yes. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mrs. Reagan. Yes. Mr. Boyd. Yes. Mrs. Johan. Yes. Motion passes 60. And Dr. Joerger, since we've had a series of thank yous tonight, a thank you to you for your leadership and your continued willingness to lead and serve. Yeah. Yeah.
144Let's not do that. But it's an honor. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Okay. Board, there are um a number of future action items. And please note that there will be several appointments that we will make at the July meeting for leadership opportunities for bo board members. And then also, this is not a f future action item, but a reminder that on June 25th, we do have another board meeting, um an endofear board meeting, and we're tacking on or combining our special meeting where we will um focus on strategic planning at at that uh June 25th, and you should have received an appointment for that. um written information. Again, thank you to those who provide that and the updates. Personally, the learning services report was exciting to see the number of future educators um
145in tha starting at the middle school having opportunity to interact with kids and teach lessons and and plan for their future as educators. Um so thanks to um to those who provide that uh topics for discussion. Miss Reagan. Well, first I um it was with a lot of just joy and confidence that you know renewing Dr. Jagger's contract. Um, you know, we are a system of many parts, but you know, having someone in the seat who's, you know, joyful in the journey and also willing to have difficult conversations and make hard decisions, um, that is something that we should definitely not take for granted. So, thank you. Um, this week an interesting, um, data point came out for the state of Kansas, a good one. We are $175.9 million ahead in our revenue projections um
146with the state budget. And I bring that up because the legislature chose to only give $10 million toward the excess cost of special education. The governor had asked for $72.6 million and KSDE recommended 87.5 million. Neither of which would put us at the 92% statutory level that the state should be paying back to districts like ours. And now I can't remember off the top of my head, but Dr. Joerger, I'm sure, can tell us how much we've had to transfer from our general fund to support the excess cost of special education. It is beyond me that while we all have to follow statutes here and revise our policies and all of that, that the legislature is able to fund that obligation at 69.3% when the statute says 92%. So, I just wanted to throw that
147out there. Um, the people who are making the decisions about the way that money is divvied up in the state of Kansas are the ones who are the bearsers of responsibility when we make difficult decisions that are related to money. Class size is upsetting you, talk to the legislature. Talk to the legislature because we are doing the best with less than we should be and less than we have been. So, keep that in mind. Next, I did want to say that um it is Pride Month. And in the vein of, you know, thinking about people needing to feel safe in their classrooms to learn and staff to feel safe to work, um I just wanted to say that, you know, feeling that is not just about putting on a t-shirt or whatnot. It's it's an
148everyday recognition that we all matter as individuals. Doesn't matter who we are. doesn't matter, you know, who we will become. And I think that's an important thing to, you know, I'm not a part of that community, but I sure can stand up here and champion um my friends and neighbors. It was so neat to run into the affinity group. Uh my husband and I were out on a date night and uh a group was sitting. I recognized some of the staff and it turned out it was the affinity group that Mr. Kylie had uh mentioned and it was fun to see them out in the world. So, um, and I know we have affinity groups for all kinds of parts of our identities. And, um, we all move forward when we lead with, you know,
149compassion and empathy and thinking outside of our own lived experience. Um, I do want to also mention, you know, a quote that I think about a lot from Dr. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is that a riot is a language of the unheard and pride began with a riot. And so I challenge all of us to think about who is unheard in your community, in your sphere, what is unheard. Um because we as a as a district need to be hearing. And then I'm also wearing orange today because safety um June 6th is um the 11th National Gun Violence Awareness Day. I am very proud of what our district has done to post information about safe gun storage. Um, and just, you know, making the com conversation less taboo. Um, but safety relates to
150all kinds of things. And so just keeping top of mind that, you know, talking about firearm safety, you know, just it's something that makes people feel more comfortable. And I appreciate the work of our safety and security staff to keep our buildings um, secure and safe. and just you know I like to make sure that I'm using my voice so that those who feel unheard don't feel unseen from our dis. So um enjoy the summer and I look forward to seeing everyone back here for our end of the year meeting at the end of the month. Mr. Boyd, good evening. Um, this is just a uh kind of a plug or um a resource announcement for our parents. Um, I realize it's summer school, but I know that um some of our our students and
151um our staff um need resources during the summer. So, our our help clinic is open um for parents. If you go to our website, the the parent tab, um you'll pull up a parent directory. Um there's a help clinic link on there. Spots are limited, so um reach out to our help clinic if that's a resource that you need. school and free for students, staff and families in and free for student staff in tha miss steel. Thanks. Um so on the heels of this theme of um end of year celebration um I think Dr. Jerger, you said like it it is literally impossible to list everything, but when I look at some of these things, it it really is it really is amazing. um from um students to educators and I was just reading over
152the list that um you know state champion of impromptu speech like can you imagine like I have 30 days to prepare for this part of this meeting all the time and it still just kind of comes bumbling out but we have we have thanks to Eric Scogland um coaching we have Connor Chaffen who won that um state um championship in impromptu speech. Um I also might shout out we have lots of success from the state track meet but one of them is uh Tyler Pangi who is state champion of 4 by8 relay right? Yeah. So um go I'm sure you taught him all of that, right? You coached him along from his mom. Okay. So that's exciting. And you know, when you hear Skills USA, I took a minute um this afternoon to look back
153on the history of what we now call career technical education. And when you think about like back in the 1800s, this would have been like um blacksmithing and carpentry and maybe printing. Then um in the early 1900s legislation was passed to kind of protect this as an educational um need for preparing the workforce and um you know that the initially was focused on farming and aggraus and then home home. I I made a really cool pillow at home in 8th grade. Um came along and then hospitality management and healthc care and now we have um state champions in welding and electronics and medical math. Um as an aside when I saw that um my son is a physician so I asked him like what is medical math? It sounds super important and he was like
154it is okay great. I'm going to take your word for it. Um, and then cyber security, green tech, and all kinds of auto tech and mechanics. It's it's super impressive. And all of that to say, I'm so excited about our innovation campus and so excited to be a small part that really supports this um CTE programming and educational opportunities for all of our kids. You know, when it comes to um staff, we've got Dr. Marta Silva who got a national recognition award. Um, you know, tonight we had Rob and Dennis here, um, state state or national biology teacher and, um, and then also, uh, Mrs. Vanderlice, Bev Vanderlice, the nurse at Manchester Park Elementary, got the state, um, school nurse award. And my mom was a school nurse here in THAA for 26 years. So,
155I can tell you for sure that school nurses are superheroes. um you know our very own comm's department um got recognition for their um presence in digital spaces and then of course you might have heard John Hutcherson talk about the awards that our financial uh department has gotten. My point is I don't want us to grow complacent when we hear about all of these awards because it is normal in tha but it is not normal everywhere. And so it's a great reminder that we are, you know, fill in the blank, top-notch, awesome, um, cream of the crop, whatever expression you want to use, that is us here. But I will tell you, every single leader and um educator that has been a part of those awards, the thing they do is turn the page and
156figure out how to be better. And I love that about this district. So to our community, know that you have an amazing district that is doing great things and one and and wonderful things are happening in public education. So thank you. Any other comments, board? I have just a couple tonight. Um the first would be another senior leadership. Um our superintendent's daughter, Grace, also was a state medalist at track um coming with in the discus. And so congrats to you, Dad. And to Grace as well, too. He's out there coaching her. Yeah. Yeah. Um I I want to also tag um I did not wear orange. It's not my color, but um tag Claire because I had um that comment as well that tomorrow if you see people if you see a lot of orange,
157it is because it is National Gun Violence Awareness Day. And um I I want to thank those in our community who continue to advocate for our kids safety. And um within the school community on our web pages, you will find information about um how to keep your kids safe um specific resources. So um so please check that out as well. Also another shout out to our staff, summer school was mentioned, but you know tonight we celebrated CTE kids, culinary kids. um welding kids and the administrators, one of the teachers was here this evening. You you'll see monthly we are approving trips for groups of kids um to continue to compete or excellence and that's in the summer, you know, so so these staff are not only teaching and supporting kids throughout the school year, but
158they're spending their time in the summer. Um, and in addition to that, just opportunities for kids. I'm I I'm going to make it a little personal with my grandkids having opportunities to participate in um athletic camps that are sponsored by our coaches in the district, theater camps that are sponsored again by our theater and and music educators. um engineering. You you go to our website and it is endless the number of opportunities for kids to extend their knowledge and and feel good. And I know in many of those situations students um our students older students are assisting with that kids who are in those programs. So thanks to that group. And then one more thank you to um summer conference has been mentioned a couple of times tonight and we utilized that space to have
159yet another opportunity for further conversation related to our dialogues our um district dialogues and I'll I'll thank Angie and Nick for and um Dr. Sig for being there and Dr. Harrison was there and Dr. Reeves, I keep seeing faces, but um there were a number of us, Miss Reagan, um who were in that session and about 35 staff also attended chose to be in that session during summer conference and it continued the conversation. Miss Powers, as I totally looked over you, um it allowed us to continue that conversation to clarify um things that have occurred, to talk about where we are with some of the plans, but also um to let staff know things that are in the works and in many situations as a result of the information that has been shared with us.
160So would just thank all of you for participating um both those who facilitated but then those who were in attendance and we are going to wrap up here shortly. Dr. Joerger. Thank you. Uh thank you all again for my contract renewal tonight. It really is a a pleasure to work with you all as a board of education and serve our community and and our students and staff. So I I did want to say thanks again uh for that a couple of weeks ago. and I'm glad she's still here. I had the opportunity to attend the end of the year lunch meeting for impact tha. Um that's a group that that Heather Skunover manages. And really what that is is it's community resources getting together to support the families. And I kept the sheet of information
161that they passed out that day just so I could share some information. And like I said, Heather spearhead heads this, but all of the the great groups who care about as a whole are there around the table talking about how to support our students and our families. I just wanted to share a couple of the highlights. This last school year, they served 205 families in our district, 377 students in our district. They served 260 parents or guardians. They refer referred 43 kids to early child care early talk early child care or parents as teachers and they prevented 59 families from losing where they were living. I mean you just think about the power of that group and and the work that that takes that I wanted to just highlight that tonight. So I'm glad Heather's
162here um to hear that because it's really important work. As we've said in many ways over time kids cannot learn if their basic needs are not met. So, so proud of our our system for doing that and the the folks that that work with us in our community. Um, you know, it's funny that the longer I work at the district level, people always say like, "What are you going to do this summer? What's happening this summer?" And actually, I begin to say like, "I'm not sure that there is such a thing." Um, the people that live in my house, I think, are feeling what that's like. Um, but the reality is is there's so much going on in the summer in our school system and you all have articulated a lot of that, but I
163think about Travis and our operations service team. You know, their busiest time of year is the summer when we have this space of time where they're doing massive construction, replacing carpet, furniture, cleaning buildings really deeply so they're ready for next year, all those things. is just a tremendous undertaking by everyone in that staff, you know, our custodians, our grounds and maintenance crew. There's just so much that's being done this summer to keep um keep and take care of the investment in our community and the facilities and grounds that we have across this district. Think about our food services staff. Right now, you if you're between the ages of 1 and 18, you don't have to register. You don't have to show any sort of income verification, nothing. Uh you can have a free lunch right
164now uh between um June 2nd, which is what a couple of days ago, and July 24th at Havencraftoft Elementary, Northview Elementary, Rididge Elementary, or Washington Elementary. You don't even have to be a student or a family enrolled in our school system. You can go and uh have a lovely dining experience in one of our cafeterias because you have to eat on site. But um there's a couple federal regulations with that. But again, just a tremendous amount of work again taking care of our students and families that way. ESY, which is our summer school program for our students with special needs, um is going strong, supporting 538 students, um this year, preK through 21 in our district in terms of uh keeping their learning and their experiences going this summer. So again, staff members showing up
165every day to do what's best for kids and each other. So really a great thing with that. Um, I did want to draw attention to the education task force that continues to meet. Um, that's a group that's meeting that's been, um, I don't know what the appropriate word is. Um, sponsored, supported by the state legislature. Um, that group is meeting the first Tuesday and Wednesday of every month. They're meeting between now and the start of the next legislative session. And that group uh, meets for about two days each of those months. And what they're doing is they're really looking at the current finance model for schools in the state of Kansas. But additionally, they're also looking at what's happening nationally and uh the the the research department and the legislature is doing a lot of
166work for this group right now and pulling information together. But I would just encourage our community, our staff as they're able to tune in and see what that looks like. Um it's a group that uh it comes from different places. There's members of the legislature. Um there's a couple of superintendents. There's people from KSD. There's um somebody from uh the governor's office. There's just a variety of people on that committee. The importance of that committee though is at the end of their time working together, their job is to recommend a school finance formula to the legislature and the governor by January 1st of 2026. So this coming January. um that obviously will be important for us in terms of our future in tha um and important for all school systems of public education in Kansas.
167So as folks are able I would just encourage you to tune in to that. Um there may be some opportunity in the future to provide some input to that committee. I was watching some of it today and heard some conversation about that. We of course as a school system will keep track of that but I just wanted to highlight that that's an important thing happening just right now in Topeka um prior to the legislative se session starting again. So those are my comments. Thank you board uh 13.01 is an adjournment to executive session. Is there a motion? How much time? What did we decide on time? 10. Let's do 15. Not to override you, but then we won't have to. I move that the board go into executive session for the purpose of discussing matters
168relating to employer employee negotiations under COA and that the board return to the regular meeting at 8:20 p.m. in this room. Second motion by Miss Johan, second by Mr. Boyd. Mrs. Reagan, yes. M. Dr. Jükovich. Yes. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mr. Boyd. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mrs. Johan. Yes.