April 2025 Olathe Public Schools Board of Education Meeting

001Hello and welcome to the April 2025 um board meeting. Thanks to all of you in the room um for being here this evening and to all of you at home or wherever um watching us uh on screen. Miss Beam, would you call roll? Mr. Babbot here. Mr. Boyd. Mrs. Johan here, Mr. Keune here, Mrs. Reagan here, Mrs. Steel here, Dr. Jükovich here. Thank you. We have Cub Scout Pack 3087 from Manchester Park who are here this evening and they are going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Applause] Thank you, scouts. This was their first time to lead a group in the pledge of allegiance, so

002I appreciate you. board. Our first item of business is to appoint a 2025 deputy clerk. So I would welcome a motion to that purpose. I move to appoint Carrie Meyer, deputy clerk of the board of education for 2025. Second. Motion by Mr. Babis, second by Mr. Keun. Mrs. Steele, yes. Dr. Jükovich, yes. Mrs. Reagan, yes. Mrs. Johan, yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Mr. Bett, my bad. Yes. I think Becky answered for me. I did. I'm a yes. I'm sorry. We're all good. We're a team. It's And just before we move on real quick, I Carrie's in She's right there. here. I was just going to ask her to stand up so everybody can meet her that hasn't yet. We're very excited she's joining our team in general administration. Thank you. Item 2.01, an adoption of tonight's

003agenda. I move to adopt the agenda as presented. Um, yep. Second. Motion by Miss Reagan, second by Miss Steel. Mrs. Johan, yes. Mr. Cune, yes. Mr. Babbett, yes. Mrs. Steel, yes. Mrs. Reagan, yes. Dr. Jükovich, yes. Motion passes 6. And Miss Gubal, we have some recognitions and awards. And Mrs. Johan is going to help. Oh, Miss Reagan. they're wanting to stay tonight. Sorry. That's okay. Well, good evening everyone. As often happens in the springtime, we have lots of exciting awards and recognition. So, we can jump right in. To begin, I would like to invite representatives from the firefighter outreach, including President Chris Camp, Vice President Jake Silvers and outreach team members Lisa Gable, Nancy Smith, Gordon Docking, and Tyler Raleigh, along with Altha Public Schools director of community development Heather Skunover, and Tha Fentinol Substance

004Abuse Education Specialist Heidi Tamasi. up to the front. The tha firefighter outreach is a nonprofit organization committed to making a difference through their belief of service beyond the flames. They have consistently committed to district projects and to date they have awarded $9,000 in scholarships to high school students pursuing higher education and careers in public safety programs. Additionally, the firefighter outreach provides resources for families in need through the THAA alumni association coat drive. They have donated more than 1,200 coats and they also help hand out coats at the annual McKenna Vento back to school outreach event. We know that when a student has the necessary food, clothing and hygiene essentials, they are more likely to attend school, maintain self-esteem, and focus on learning. The group partners with the community development department to provide annual holiday assistance

005and food to families facing economic challenges at home. To support our families that access our area food pantries, firefighter outreach has provided 20,000 pounds of fresh produce. This year, Firefighter Outreach donated overdose response boxes for all of our secondary schools as well as both sports complexes. Additionally, they donated 300 doses of Narcan to stock these boxes. Most recently, you can see some of the 100th firefighter outreach members in action on non- shift days with the bed resource and delivery program providing a new mattress to students who do not have a bed to sleep on. We applaud both the leadership and staff of the tha firefighter outreach as they consistently support the community and their local school district. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. As they make their way back, I'd like to invite Altha South Jr.

006Gabrielle Evans to the front along with her assistant principal Andrew Miller. This year was the 24th annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Contest, a longtime arts competition for students in partnership with the city of THA, Human Relations Commission, Garmin, and THA public schools. This year's theme was belief in humanity. The contest is full of beautiful artwork and written pieces, and there are several awards given out for different categories. At the end, a best of show winner is selected and this year's best of show went to Gabrielle, who was recognized for her multimedia submission titled Dedicate Your Life. We're lucky tonight to have a copy of her work. So, we're going to go ahead and play that for all of us to watch. And as we get that pulled up, we did learn today that

007she is not only a superstar behind the camera, but also behind the mic. She is featured on the uh Commissioner of Education's podcast, the latest episode about technology and education. So, if you're looking for something to listen to, go check it out and support Gabrielle. [Music] The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood as a towering figure in the quest for justice and equality. A beacon of hope who ignited the hearts of millions with his unwavering belief in the inherent dignity of every human being. King's contributions to the world were not merely political. They were deeply spiritual. Through nonviolent protest and impassioned oratory, he challenged the status quo, urging society to rise above prejudice and injustice. He believed that everyone had the potential for greatness. He challenged us to look beyond our differences. When I

008think of Martin Luther King, I think of not only the civil rights movement uh but more importantly the passion to speak against injustice um and action against injustice within that. He brought like a lot more freedom for black people. I think it was revolutionizing speeches and all like the marches he did. I think about um being nonviolent. Think about the change she tried to instill into the country. An iconic and big figure in today's society. Somebody that was not afraid to like use her voice, especially as someone that was like disadvantaged in America at the time. His teachings urge us to confront our biases, to strive for equality, and to work tirelessly for a world where freedom and justice are accessible. All through athletics, through just education itself, I think that what King talked about,

009you know, integration was that we all come together and learn. our GSA, our uh Muslim group, our Asian student union, our Latino student union, black student union, and our um excellence. I would say that uh goodness helps uh strengthen and make a strong community. For me personally, like the black union mean a lot to like have a safe space with like black people, experiencing like just random acts of kindness, people being nice, like even if you don't know who they are. We have a lot of uh like events for you know the black students that are late to south. I think it's good for us to come together especially since there not a lot of us. The soft football team we do like uh we help a bunch of different organizations with um different things.

010We did a Junth one where we help set up chairs for the library. I haven't personally like gone through anything like racially. So it's been nice to have a BSU though. When kids start to lead the movement it starts to change because they're next generation. the next generation going to lead our country. I think it's so important that student voices be heard and that gives them a platform to express their concerns and also share changes they want to see within the schools. When we honor ourselves, we discover our voices. We learn to speak up for what is right, not just for ourselves, but for those who cannot. This is our journey. This is our promise. [Music] These canons and many more remind us that the struggle for equality continues. [Music] [Applause] Come out. Yep. Awesome.

011Thank you. Thank you, [Applause] Gabrielle. Andrew, don't go too far because we're going to do some sports champions next. So, next, I would like to honor several of our winter sports champs. And to begin, I would like to welcome all of our boys and girls wrestling champions and coaches to the front from THA East, THA South, and THA North, as well as the East principal Carrie Lane, the South Athletic Director Andrew Miller, THA North athletic Director Josh Price, and our district athletic director Matt Johnson. This year we had three girls earn top honors at the state wrestling competition and so we are proud to recognize them tonight. Altha East Audrey Leonard triumphed in the 145 lb division. Tha North's McKenzie Sharp won the state title in the 140 lb division and THA South's Justice Thomas

012earned the state championship in the 170b division. But that's not all. In addition, THA South had a champion in the boys state wrestling championship as well. So, a special congratulations to Javanni Kadil, who clenched the state title in the 165 lb division. Please join me in giving these student athletes a round of applause. [Applause] Thank you and congratulations. Andrew, the honors [Music] continue. Now, I would like to invite up all of our state champion swimmers and coaches from Otha South and Otha East and the West. Sorry. [Laughter] Along with their coaches, assistant principal Pat Butler, Carrie Lane. This year, Altha earned two championships in the boys state swimming contest. Altha East 200yard medley relay team made up of Corbin Bradwell, Skyler Jones, Adam Hagen, and Charlie Ross showcased exceptional teamwork and skill, securing the first

013place title at the state competition. But we also had an individual champion at Oletha West. The Owls Hayden Renault earned the state title in the 500yard freestyle. We are so proud of these students. Please join me in congratulating them. [Applause] Come on up. Take a picture. Okay, [Music] everybody. Great. Smiling. everyone. Good. Okay, thank [Applause] you. And last but certainly not least, I would like to invite uh Andrew Taylor up to the front from the Northwest. Earlier this spring, Andrew was named as a 2025 Kansas Master Teacher. The Kansas Master Teacher Awards, established by Emporia State University, recognize educators who demonstrate exceptional teaching qualities and are selected by a committee of various education representatives. Andrew teaches in the engineering academy at Thaan Northwest, a four-year STEM focused program. He also coaches the first robotics team

0141710 or the raven ravonics uh who regularly excel at the state competition. He is known for promoting student curiosity and empowering students to be problem solvers. And I think this leadership and support is best represented by the anecdote shared by a former student in one of Andrew's nomination letters. Hudson Herig, a 2022 Northwest graduate and former robotics team member, wrote about the profound impact Andrew had on his life, sharing that in every unit of study, there was a real world problem we could point to and apply fundamental concepts to and imagine ourselves toward a better future. This fundamental strategy carried me far beyond high school and at high school robotics. Less than two years later, I was giving my final presentation and was offered a full-time job at Tesla at 18 years old. And that's

015what it's all about. It's teachers like Andrew setting our students up for success in their future. And we are so lucky in Altha to have teachers just like you impacting our kids every day. Please join me in congratulating Andrew on this well-deserved Kansas Master [Applause] Teacher. Thank you. Congratulations to all. Tonight we have three presentations and we will begin with our school spotlight. Miss Steele and Manchester Park Elementary School. Okay. So, I'm going let you kind of get on this a little bit here. All right. Hello. Thank you very much for inviting us to be here. We really do love highlighting our school and um so we're excited for this opportunity. My name is Jenny Steel and I am the principal at Manchester Park Elementary. Um we are located in Lanexa. We are the largest

016elementary school in the district with with an enrollment of about 650 kids. 15, excuse me. 600. I think I talk louder than this anyway, but um frankly okay. Oh, okay. Okay, great. Um anyway, we have an enrollment of about 65 kids. Um which is the largest in the district. Sounds like a lot of young learners in one building. Yes, it is. But I will guarantee you Park was built to accommodate that many students. We are doing very well in meeting all of those young women needs. Now, um I Jenny, I'm so sorry to interrupt you. Would you mind going to the podium just because that one's cutting in and out and that way people viewing at home can hear everything you're saying. Thank you so much. Well, I was going to tap dance, but All

017right. Okay. Um now I feel like I need to have really important things to say. Um so anyway, thank I won't repeat all that so you got it all. I think the gist of it. I do have some folks here with me tonight and that is Jeff Bangs who is a second grade teacher at Manchester Park and he has guided um student leadership and community service in our building for many years. Also Stephanie Burns who is our PTO president. We have an outstanding family support system in our community as well as Jamie Wolf. She is a parent in our building as well. You may or may not Manchester Park has um is one of two elementary buildings with the Spanish immersion dual language program. And it's it's pretty amazing. They're English speakers learning Spanish. They

018get half of their day um of instruction and content in Spanish. Jaime's son is in third grade at Manchester Park and has been part of that program since kindergarten. So, she'll share a little bit about that. Now, our highest priority, of course, is providing the very best education in the safest environment possible. Um, but we do like to have a little fun. And so, this next little video short will show a couple of of um examples of how staff and students do have fun during a day. Should Let's just do it this way. Okay. [Music] Well, thank you. As uh Miss Steel mentioned, I am Jeff Bangs. I'm second grade teacher. I had the pleasure of uh teaching 75% of the Steel Clan. So, um and I think they fully recovered from what I understand.

019So, um I have the pleasure of leading our student council, one of the co-sponsors of our student council. And rather than me telling you about it, I'm going to let our kids tell you about it. Hello, I am Colton, the Manchester Park Student Council President. And I am Owen, the StuCo public relations director. We would like to tell you about our student council. Student council helps create a positive atmosphere in our building. We plan and promote monthly spirit day activities. Each spirit day, Stuker representatives come to school early to welcome and encourage other students. We call this fun Friday. Student council helps with the pennies for shoes fundraiser for the thumb mayor's fund. We coordinate fun daily activities like gum day and stuffy day to encourage participation. In the last 3 years alone, we have

020helped raise and donate over $10,000 for the fund. Student council coordinates with school counselors to promote anti-bullying and kindness week activities. The representatives have monthly class talks to support our school pillars. Kindness, responsibility, safety, and engagement. The Manchester Park Student Council helps build confidence and develop leaders for the classroom and beyond. All right. I am still Jeff Bangs and I also have the pleasure of leading the U community service club, co-sponsoring the community service club. Um, so I would like to let our community service members tell you a little bit about that. This year in our club meetings, we made PL or plastic yarn which is used to create plastic sleeping mats for people who are homeless. We made and placed kindness rocks in our community. People who find them get a little boost of

021encouragement which they hopefully pass along to someone else. Community service club helps support our annual food schoolwide food drive. We have donated food to several area organizations. In the last three food drives alone, we have collected and donated over 7,000 food items and over $2,500. This year's collections are going to the Kansas City Dream Center. [Music] Our biggest service project each year is the red bag project. In the last 20 years, the Manchester Park School community has sponsored nearly 1,000 kids and donated over 10,000 gifts. The Community Service Club is responsible for wrapping all these gifts. This year, over 100 student and adult volunteers wrapped almost 600 gifts in about an hour. In community service club, we are having fun while learning the importance of giving back to our community. Right. And I might just

022mention that was a highly edited list. They do quite a bit more than that. So, they've really been active in our school. So, I'd like to introduce our PTO president, Stephanie Burns. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Stephanie Burns, the Manchester Park PTO president. Thank you for having us, and I'm happy to be here. We have a lot of PTO volunteer events at Manchester Park and we are very fortunate to have parent volunteers who are committed and involved in our PTO. These events allow our families to make a positive impact at Manchester Park and I listed out some of our fun events. Our PTO is committed to giving back to the community. As Mr. Banks previously mentioned, we have the Red Bag, our community service club, and our food drives. But I specifically want to talk

023to you about one of our really fun events, and that's our school carnival. This is not a fundraiser for the school. Every other year, we donate all proceeds to a um charitable organization. Our charitable contributions range anywhere from $8,000 to $17,000. And this goes directly back into our community. And um it makes us really proud and really uh happy to be able to do so. We also work closely with our faith partners to get volunteers for this event and bring the community together. This year we have a thing called Timbi Trinkets. Timbi trinkets are new this year and intended to be positive rewards given to students when they show good behaviors based on our Manchester Park PBIS pillars. These are responsibility, safety, kindness, and engagement. These are physical trinkets that students get to take home

024during a designated week. Our mascot, Timi, goes into each classroom to hand out the trinkets with parent volunteers. Teachers read a pre-written script to get the students excited. Timi trinkets are positive reminders at home and school that these students are loved, important, and that they make a difference. Oh, I should point out our pictures. So, that first picture is Timi. Uh, a third grade class wanted his autograph. So he autographed the whiteboard and they all took pictures with their iPads and and showed their families. And then the second picture on the bottom, that's Tim. That was our first round of Timb trinkets and he was really excited to deliver them to the students. So some examples of what these look like. Um they're all up there, but this is a magnet that we had made

025and it has positive affirmations for the kids. Says, "You are unique, kind, brilliant, brave, creative, supported, and loved." So, this we thought when they come to school every day, they can open their locker and this magnet will be the first thing they see or they can take it home. It's up to them, but something kind of fun for them to have. Uh, this was a combination. It's a positive note. This one says, "Enjoy every moment." It's a notepad and a mechanical pencil with paws for them to take home. We have a wristband with a paw on it for Manchester Park. We have a gold coin that says, "You really shine. a keychain that says you are a pawsome instead of awesome going along with the paw theme. And then this is a water bottle water

026bottle sticker. It says MP students are awesome. So they can put this on their water bottles or wherever they want. And then finally we have a cup that they could take home to store everything in uh or put it on their desk and it says you rock. So um that was something pretty fun for this year. My finally um my last part is we had a special major savings project that we were able to do this year. Our PTO has been saving and budgeting for this major project for over 10 to 15 years. A ballot was sent out to all of our families and there were three options provided where our families voted on their favorite. PTO was very proud to be able to present to the students and families of Manchester Park, new additions

027to the playground equipment and a walking path. The playground equipment and walking path are currently being installed and the kids are loving it. We are so excited about this. And finally, I end with this. We want for our children to leave elementary school with memorable experiences. And when they reflect on their education, these are some of the best years of their lives. Whether that be through the classroom, a fun event, the friendships they made, or how they felt while they were at school, Manchester Park is happy, or excuse me, Manchester Park PTO is happy to be a part of their education journey, and so am I. Thank you for your time. Go Timberwolves. Next up, I would like to introduce Jamie Wolfk. Hello everyone. and my name is Jamie Wolfk and I am going to

028speak to you tonight from the parents perspective of the Spanish immersion program that we have at our school. Um the program has been a part of um the school now for five years and my son currently is in third grade and is in his fourth year of immersion. When we were first considering this opportunity, our biggest question was pretty simple. Um would the benefits outweigh our concerns? And clearly since we enrolled him, we said yes. And over time, that decision has been more than validated. We've seen tremendous benefits, not only academically, but in the overall awareness and growth. Um, from the beginning, we saw this as a meaningful chance to help our child become more culturally aware, more adaptable, and more prepared for a global world. Learning a second language at a young age opens

029doors in ways we cannot fully predict, but we were confident it would shape his future for the better. Okay. Okay. Um, like many parents, one of our biggest concerns was would he fall behind in the English side of his work, especially as the workload increased later in his grades. But if you look at the data, this is it's okay. Is it the next slide? Yeah, it's good. Oh, this is there we go. There's our data. As shown on the chart, you can see that the testing scores in the immersion program closely match the testing scores in the non-emersion program. So, watching his progress has been amazing. In kindergarten, they are singing their ABCs, counting to 100, and singing songs in Spanish. And as fourth graders, they are now reading and solving complex math problems. These

030kids are not just learning another language, they're thinking, problem solving, and communicating in it. Here is a short video of our fourth graders during their math lesson. [Music] Go. Harlo. Okay. [Music] Okay. So, as you can see, well, in my opinion, this is incredible work and growth in the classroom. I mean, they're reading full sentences in Spanish and able to communicate and answer back and write their answers on their tests in full sentences, too, in Spanish. So, good work for them. Um, so some of you might wonder how my son feels about the program and he just he absolutely loves it. He loves having two teachers, switching classrooms, and being with his friends. And most of all, he loves learning something new every day. He's embraced the challenge, and he sees the value in it.

031I'll leave you with something that he told me recently. He said, "Maybe someday a kid or someone will come up to me and talk to me in Spanish, and I will be able to talk back with them." To me, that says everything. He sees this not just as a skill, but a way to connect with others. He's confident. He's excited and proud. And he understands that this program is preparing him for a broader, more connected world. We are so grateful to the tha school district for offering this program and I truly cannot say enough positive things about it. Thank you. So, um, just to point out a couple of things. The data you saw was actually from from math and we were curious as we watched the kids go through um through the grades in

032Spanish immersion because how their math scores were holding up because um their entire math content instruction is in Spanish. So, what you saw wasn't that wasn't a a planned scene for you. that was their that was their math um segment and um the teachers using Spanish the entire time and the kids are are just flourishing and so we were very happy to see that um their math performance is right in line with their peers. So that that's a that's a that's a big win um from from great staff and and and families. Um the PTO I want to mention they do raise some money but the the amount of giving that comes out of our building through the combination between PTO and our community service and student leadership. I mean it literally as you saw

033those aren't fake numbers. They give thousands back um to the community and the dollars they raise. So we're not hoarding cash up there is what I'm saying. And um they're doing a lot of good for our community and and and that's a good thing. And from a gal who honestly most of her years were in middle school and and is in elementary, it is amazing. And it's so surprising to see what young people can do. I thought middle school kids were young, but when I came to elementary to see the impact that they can really have and they can understand, it's it's really powerful. So, um, I'm going to close this up here and just say really thank you so much for having us out here, but I don't have the microphone, but I think

034I hear somebody at the door. I hear something. I don't know. Wow. What? Okay. Timmy made it. What? You kidding me? That's very exciting. You have an an up close You have a Timmy sighting that I have very often outside. But I will tell you when the kids roll up to school and we have Tim out there. I mean, it's a party, man. I mean, it is very exciting. I think T Did you ride your bike up? Did you ride your bike? Okay. So, that's why he's a little late. But we have a few things for you. I think um we have some kids who created some kindness rocks. We like to spread some random acts of kindness whenever we can. So, if you don't mind, we're going to pass these out to a few

035of you. Are you good? All right. And then we'll get out of here. All right. [Applause] Here you go. Miss Steel, before you sit down, board, are there any questions that you might have? Okay, you guys, thank you very much. We've been very excited about this and we love showcasing our school. Thank you. Thank you. and Mr. Banks and Miss Burns and Miss Wolf. Thank you for being here as well. And Timi, wherever. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Our second presentation, um, Dr. Stuart Little will provide a legislative session update. Thank you for making the trip back again this this month. Dr. Little, this room is much bigger when you're walking up from the back. Sorry, I won't sit back there again. Um, let's see. Sorry, I walked out of They're still meeting over there, so there's

036lots of things still up in the air. So, I'll see what I can talk about. Luckily, I sent a PowerPoint yesterday, but I'll have to update a lot because a lot of things happened in the last uh 24 hours. Um, okay, here we are at the end of the session. Uh, this is kind of a wrapup. They showed up uh to begin doing some final work. They should be done tomorrow evening and be done for at least the normal regular session. uh governor vetoed a lot of bills or a lot of things to deal with today. A few straggler things tomorrow, but in part this is a kind of a look at where we are at this point in the session. I think it's pretty there's lots obviously from the federal level and what's happening

037in the state economy. There could be a lot of opportunity to have a uh the legislature back again before the beginning of January next year, but we'll see. So, we are still, as of probably the time I'm speaking now, the legislature has still not passed any significant property tax reduction. There's a tax conference committee going on right now with probably the eighth plan and um they'll put something uh together probably and see if they can run and get it passed, but it's uh going to be uncertain whether that will happen. Um part of the deal, if you recall, last year lots of income tax reductions. This year the idea was come and do some property tax and other than elimination of one and a half mills from the statewide uh mill levy then that's all

038that's that's really happened. We've we've survived essentially the first year of a really super expedited calendar and budget which I'm probably a little too frank at this point in the session to some of my comments here but it's a very significant change in the process and the time and how we have things. The process itself has frankly been detrimental to spending time getting participation in getting folks to testify in reading what you're sending to the floor and voting on and passing. So, uh it's it's it's been a challenge in the budget process as well when only one house essentially reviews a budget and the other house picks and choose what they want to do. we end up with a a budget process that I think had 35 vetos in it and um all of them

039failed to get overridden. So they're still in there today just while I was driving over as a matter of fact. So um that's kind of where we are. Um I will note that uh we're in that kind of last couple days of wrapping up budget big picture. I'll talk about this as it relates to K12 has the base funding of the the CPIU. There is $10 million for special education in this year and in the current year. Uh noting that we are far short where we should be funding. Uh the other cut that was made was from kind of four categories. professional development or teaching uh CTE transportation safe schools that those were all cut out of the budget. I'm not sure why those were singled out at some level um for they only and

040they would wanted to remove both of them for the last for this year and 26 they uh kept um kept them for 25 but in 26 all of those are no longer funded except for the uh which one did I put up there? the CTE transportation. So that that's taken out. Professional development is a big part of the investment in in teachers and administrators and those kind of things. So that will not be funded for next year. And then $10 million was in the education budget for the attorney general's office to implement a hooked into your uh CCTV systems uh firearm detection software from some vendor out of Florida. So that will be uh that's in the budget as well. I would note that after that legislation where we are um anything for the most

041part that has not passed this year is still alive for the second year we go on a B bianium so we'll be back everything will still be alive these are um bills that have advanced and moved forward these have been in the reports there there you guys have probably seen all of them or just a couple that snuck in at the end the end but u the list of those that were sent to the governor and that she'd signed get down to Senate Bill 14 and uh it has to do with the counting for virtual school students. Um that she ended up signing that yesterday. The uh 2033, which is the next one, she vetoed it was a small bill that named one at risk program and added it to the list of the state

042department of education of the atrisisk programs that a school district can use to satisfy the statute. It was already on the list, but we did it. the governor vetoed it and to tell you a bit about what Topeka's life the like the legislature overrode her veto of something that was already happening. So um you're catching me at a low point here folks. So um 2069 these um this was signed the governor's bill. I'll some of these get interesting. 2382, which is a bill that combines a requirement to have a fetal development video in all health courses, no matter the grade, with a prescribed threeinut video presentation. um that was that was sent to the governor as well as a bill. The state board of education was left out of the pay raises that legislators got

043last year. So, it was included in this bill, but um uh they're allowed to set their own salary, whereas the legislature has a statutory uh salaried structure and those kind of things. The state board of education will determine what their um salary will be. Governor vetoed this. It was overridden today. The next one, 2228. Um, if a local unit of government cities or you all participated in any contingency fee legal agreements, think of jewel opioid settlement, those kinds of things. Can't do that anymore unless the attorney general approves of that happening. uh that was vetoed and there was no attempt to override that because the margin you had to pick up too many votes in the house to do that. So that that's gone away. Um and then the the uh the public funds issue

044that came up late last fall that was modified down to something that was so innocuous now it only had five people vote against it. So that's gone through. couple of things that were just tracking of some significance that are still alive here and these are one of the couple of things that might still have some life. This is Senate Bill 2164. The key component of it is the uh the the issue that arose out of Blue Valley with regard to sex offenders on school property and those kinds of things. It's sitting out there. There are the conference committee could get back together and meet in the morning and maybe come up to some with some agreement, but I think this one's probably going to lay over. Uh stuff that's continued on through next into next

045year. These are things that kind of a lot of these things were pushed out very early and got a lot of attention. Uh the uh the the big uh school voucher bill 75, which is a refundable tax credit for $8,000 per child. uh if they went to a a non-public it would be refundable. So you'd get a check if you didn't know tax tax liability. Uh that's been moved carried forward to next year. There is uh another tax scholarship in 2252. Uh the one that that got a lot of attention, Senate Bill 47, there was the one that would have changed board policy. Uh one person could set the agenda and and other issues like that. that was um that was not run. The um the the the pronouns bill about use of pronouns and

046and and parental consent did not advance and when I I noted it as being dead. When it's dead, they struck it from the calendar so it can't be used next year. Next one. Uh 87. This was the expansion the existing uh scholarship program. It passed out of the Senate. it got out of house committee and then uh it was stricken and killed as well. So, it's not available anymore. Um there's still the act required active shooter training. Uh capers bills are out there and nothing's moving on those. So, those are all going to be there next uh session with the exception of those that were stricken. And I will note if you see this and see some of the things that happened, there was a pretty clear and conscious effort not to run some things

047to uh to raise issues in some ways to leave some of these things lying. I don't know if that means when we come back in 26 and it's election year we'll see more of those or whether it won't, but that always factors in. I would note as well the K12 education funding task force continues to meet. they have and I this is just going to be a regular thing that will be on our reports because uh it's what we're watching and it's what the uh the eight people who get to pick what our next school finance formula will look like are working on uh the la the latest meeting which was last week I think um they reviewed formula in other states uh essentially not re they got reports on the formulas in other states

048and they're continuing to move forward the pace they're supposed to meet once once a month, but at the last meeting, the chair said we can meet as many times as we want. So, we'll see how that what that translates um into. We there we're supposed to have a a draft bill for a new at the end of the year to give to the ledger. So, they will be done hopefully by tomorrow rather than going all the way through the 12th and they will not come back until January unless the governor calls a special session or uh twothirds of the legislature asks for one. Couple of things to keep in mind that are what could be significant uh and the possibility of more likely than some years potentially having a special session. April 25th is wrong.

049That's been changed. So the 18th is when the state will do their next round of consensus revenue estimating. That means how much money are we going to have to spend for the next eight next 18 months. So there's a bunch of economists and that are going to get in a room and they're going to try to calculate what the impact of oh say federal policy, tax policy, inflation, tariffs, all those kind of things. What's going to go what what are things going to be like uh for the future? And we cut a lot of taxes last year. We don't have a lot of revenue to cut a lot of taxes this year. what might the margin look like depending on what economic forecasters give back to the legislature. And then of course there is the

050potential for any other kind of broader economic impacts out of out of the control of any of us in this room. And um lastly um I think the some of the national economic issues have have overwhelmed the potential for what might be coming from the uh the state department of education. Frankly, HHS, the all those things are happening in terms of funding what might be passed down to the state to to handle if you think about that in both K12 and things like Medicaid programs and that they'll that that those are the kinds of things that could generate a special session from the legislature as well. So that is I believe the last slide. I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has them. board is steel. Um, sir Little, is SB47 dead then? I

051had heard it was, but it isn't. It might be. It may be an error. Okay. Well, no, no, no. I just it it obviously stricken, but yeah, it's so it it could carry over. We don't know. Okay. It just obviously we would have that would be great. That's of of grave concern specifically to us. So I wondered and then another question about the education task funding task force is that um you know there's some there's some really good people with great information on that. However um some of the um superintendent representation isn't necessarily always going to represent um you know from the biggest districts down to the smallest districts and I tried to z out a little bit. Is that will there be an opportunity for testimony or is is a task force purely for

052observance of those of us that aren't aren't at the table? There's been no discussion of um testimony of public input. Probably an interesting question for some people to raise at the next meeting. Okay. So, okay. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate all your work very much and um I'm sure it is exhausting there and um but thank you for doing what you do in the good name of public education. Thanks Miss Reagan. Hi Dr. Little. Um in the last week or so while the legislature was on break it was announced that the federal department of education although I thought that was whatever it was announced that um $22.6 6 million in COVID 19 aid was being pulled back from the state. I didn't know if you'd had any conversations with anybody under the dome about that

053because um there's a lot of discussion about how the legislature won't fund the you know ex the additional cost of special education because the feds aren't making up their end. You know these funds were promised to our kids. I know that Congressman Schmidt has said that he wants them restored, but I didn't I didn't know if you knew any chatter. I I didn't let you know I was going to ask you this in advance, but yeah. Um, no, no, I I appreciate the question. There have there were there were members of the legislature who were in DC over the break, had conversations with um the Department of Education and there in in conjunction with some communications from the state board of education to our delegation and to that there is the potential that um the

054language that was used to talk about why we were taking back some resources may not have fit how they were being used in Kansas and they may upon review there may be some consideration is that there are um uh that that there's some opportunity potentially for that to be reversed. I think Dr. Joerger has more to add. I'm sorry if I stepped on your No, that's great. Thank you. We're a partnership here in Ala. So, no problem. Um we actually had a call with Commissioner Watson today. He talked a little bit about that. I think what you're referring to is the ES for money that's been clawed back from the state of Kansas. So Esser money was the money that was kind of pandemic relief money that went to states across our nation to accommodate

055for things like learning loss. Um some districts had to use it quality, you know, nursing supplies, a variety of things. Um our district, we used RSR money. Um we had spent it all by the end of last school year, I believe. Um but the state of Kansas still had about $20 million that they were on. So they had filed for KSD had filed for an extension essentially to use that money and and many of you are probably aware across our state we're seeing a real concerted effort for things like letters training with structured literacy. Um there's all sorts of new leadership opportunities that KSD has done in the last a year or so for people in all positions in education. So um you know special conferences for teachers, opportunities for superintendent, principles, you name it.

056some just professional development that's tailored towards those different uh programs across our state to support our educational professionals across the state. And that's the money and and that's not all of it. There's um is in there. There's a lot of things in there to support students directly and that money was pulled back um from from our state department. Um so they've halted most of that work at the moment. Um but as as Dr. a little said they have been reaching out to our representatives in Washington, the White House, the Department of Education, the US Department of Education um to ask that that money come back to Kansas because of the defined uses uh that they've articulated that our school districts and our kids are counting on at this point. So, um you know, they indicated

057today on our call that they hope to hear something in the next week or so. Um but as soon as we know more, we'll certainly share that out. But you are correct. There's money that's gone back to the federal government and uh it's uh frankly holding up a lot of the positive work happening for kids today in the state of Kansas. I take comfort and we're both hearing the same story. That's good. Just one more comment then. Um what is the kind of dynamic with the federal government? It's a unique time we're in. How has that changed kind of your experience watching the legislature do its work this year? I'm not sure that's a question I have. It's I I I can barely handle Kansas. I'm not uh I don't know that the experts have

058other than I mean things have been different clearly here for the last three months. But that's maybe all I would note. Any other questions board? Dr. Little, thank you for your work and your consistent updates for us. Appreciate you. Great. Thank you, Dr. J. Yeah, I was just going to mention a couple things. I I also want to say thank you to Stuart and um LGR for their work this session. You know, he articulated and I just want to emphasize it that this session the piece the the pace at which it's taken place has been very challenging to engage and I want to first say I really appreciate our board allowing me to do that. Um you all when you've engaged in that and also um Dr. Little during that process. I also want to

059publicly say that the members of our Johnson County delegation who are willing to sit down with us, um, who are willing to call us, who are willing to answer emails or respond, um, that's a way that we've been able to do that with some this session. And I just want to publicly say we really appreciate that. You know, certainly we never are able to tell anyone how to vote, but folks that will sit down, at least listen to us, um, hear our perspective, uh, reach out when they're not sure about how something may impact our district. uh we have seen some of that this session more than usual probably uh my opinion is because of the expedited session and the lack of opportunity to provide meaningful input. Just want to call out that I do

060appreciate those uh folks in Topeka who are willing to do that with us here locally. Thank you. All right, Dr. McMullen, you have a presentation for us this evening. Thank you. All right. Well, good evening and thanks for the opportunity to uh provide an update to our community on on the district enrollment. And tonight we're kind of take a look at our past, our present, and and what we think the future may look like. So, currently our district enrollment um sits at 28,454. Um you'll see here on the slide and we've got data there broken out by level from early childhood. Uh kinderg or grades K through 5 elementary school is our largest population at 11,900. Um and you'll see um the rest of the numbers there. In comparison uh to last year uh when

061you put that data next to each other, you'll see a decrease of 333 students across uh the district. uh lost the most students at the elementary school level. Actually gained some middle school students which uh we'll show the the reason for that here in a little bit. Um and high school is down as well. So this shows the once rapid growth of this school district. Uh back from its inception um we had 54 straight years of growth in this district. um from 1965 to 2019. Um and you'll see um since 2019 the district's lost about 1,700 students um which averages around 300 a year. Um when you look at this growth um it was really unprecedented uh from the late 80s uh to the late 2000s. uh we had a period there uh 16 out

062of 20 years we opened at least one school building and there were multiple years we opened two and one year we even opened four uh new facilities in one year. So really um rapid growth in this community that uh you'll see here that we've leveled off a little bit. So our racial and ethnic back uh breakdown here you'll see we're sitting around 62% Caucasian. uh the breakout with Hispanic and African-American are our next two largest subgroups. Asian at 4% um and then others when you look over time uh you see the change in our demographics and the diversity that we have in our school district. You know, in 1990 we were 95% Caucasian. Um and based on our current projections and trends, uh we're looking at by the year 2037, THAA will be a minority

063majority, meaning that we will not have one single ethnic group uh being the majority. So, and then here's another slide with just our uh makeup of um the demographics over time. And again, from 1990 to 2024, the districts uh grew by 13,500 students. Um, of those 10,000 were students who uh fell into one of our minority categories. And the most rapid increase you'll see is our Hispanic population, which has increased by 5,000% since 1990. So the next few slides we'll talk about despite our enrollment um starting a slow decline uh it doesn't reduce the need that we have in our district. Uh the first piece of data I want to share is the national free and reduced lunch program participation. Um and you'll see that uh you know that started off at around 16% back

064in '05. Um you'll see the dip we had in 2020 2021 that was due to the pandemic and the fact that folks didn't have to fill out paperwork to uh receive free school lunch and breakfast. And so um once that ended you'll see the numbers went back up and we're currently sitting um just under 29%. The next slide is um our students receiving special education services. Um you'll see that number continues to um increase uh since 2005. Um and uh on this chart here you'll see speech and language is the the red line. Uh the dark line is our gifted education and then the blue line there which has the the drastic growth is all of our other programs including resource um autism etc. English language learners. Again, we've had an increase there um since

06520 I'm sorry that 2019. Um and we've only seen a 2% growth um since 2019 in ELLL. Um but um the light blue line is the one that I'd like to draw your attention to because those are our students that have been in the United States for three years or less. And uh we've seen a 40% increase in students who fall into that category. Now we'll get into kind of looking at some data from our schools uh by level and we'll look at uh some of our we'll start with elementary schools. Uh ironically we just heard from Manchester Park earlier, great presentation and they are our largest elementary school at 616 followed by Clearwater and Canyon. And obviously all three of those are located in pretty high growth areas. Um in terms of our 36

066elementary schools, the lowest uh enrollment is Green Springs, North View, and then West View uh is sitting there at 158. kind of an interesting piece of data um that Manchester Park um since 2015 has had 550 new homes built in their attendance area um and still have maintained the same enrollment. A lot of that's due to the opening of Canyon Creek um which which pulled students from their attendance area. And then Westville you'll see has had a 40% decline um over the last 10 years. Middle level data here shows that Prairie Trails our largest, middle school at 712, followed by Frontier and Mission, and then you'll see our smallest three, and this is one that maybe most people wouldn't have uh identified in that Chism Trail is our smallest middle school right now sitting at

067571 students. Interesting piece of data here. um one that in 2015 the eighth largest school would currently be our second largest school um from that time and also Chisum Trails enrollment is down 25% uh in the last 10 years dating back to 0910 when when Chisum peaked at 926 students they were full and our high school enrollments you'll see here um we've typically in the past more recent years have hovered just over 2,000. You'll see those those numbers there. We'll look at how they compare to 2015. Of course, West wasn't open um in 2015, but you you can see there on the right the decrease in each of the schools um since that time. That being said, there's been a slight increase in high school enrollment since then uh because of the addition of West

068Now, we're going to look at our class size comparison. And and when we talk about class size, we talk about the entire say kindergarten class or the entire third how many third graders we have in the district or sophomores. Um, and what you'll see in the we'll we'll get to it on the next slide here, but um, in ' 0506, our smallest classes were always our junior and senior classes, and our largest classes were always our kindergarten and first grade classes. So during all those years of growth, every year we would graduate a class and fill it with a kindergarten class that was that was bigger. Um when we got to 1314, you see the numbers by class really kind of even out a little bit and that's when they became, you know, within 200

069students or so of each other. And then now you'll see the opposite direction where our kindergarten class is our smallest class and our outgoing senior and junior classes are our largest. So this graph here just shows via the triangles there that the um script is flipped if you will in terms of we're now graduating our largest classes. So why the decline in enrollment? And that's a question we get and uh I would like to kind of walk through that uh through a few slides here. Uh some of the rationale as mentioned with the smaller kindergarten classes um there's a lower birth rate which we'll talk about here in a minute. Um empty nesters, aging populations. We've got definite pockets in our district where folks came here, they built a home or bought a home, their

070kids went through our system, had a great experience, and the parents are still there and they haven't moved out. They love their home. They probably love their interest rate from six, eight years ago. Um and uh so those are just sitting uh without school age children in them. Obviously home prices we'll talk about a little bit. Building permits uh have slowed and there's more multifamily construction going on. So we'll we'll dive into a few of those here. Um, but again on the the senior class change over the past 13 years, you'll see in 2025 since this year's graduating senior class started school, they've just gained a 100 students. And to show you a comparison of what it looked like back with the 2011 class size, you know, from kindergarten to first grade, they grew by

071170 students. So, we just had that many more students coming in uh during that time to where they grew by 473 students from kindergarten to their senior year. And again, that was due to that um housing boom. Jim, I'm sorry I'm going to interrupt you real quick on that one. So, the the slide where we looked at that where there's a plus 100 for this year's class of 2025, that's really important to note. And just to call it out, that's cohort growth. So, we have heard over the last number of years that families are leaving and going other places. The reality is our cohorts are growing as they go through. I mean, we increased 100 kids, just not at the rate that we once did. Yeah, it's a great point. So, here's some data on

072new dwelling units um in the school district. And you'll see kind of the the color coding there, but the the lower um red color is is single family houses all the way up to duplexes uh three and fourplexes and then multi- five plus units which is essentially your apartment complexes. And you'll see when you um look back to 2000 all the way up to 07 just substantial building permits and growth. 2008 the recession hit. Um, and you'll see the building just dropped off the map there for about five years and still to this day we have not hit the number of new construction permits uh that the city had in 2007 uh to this day but you will see an increase in five plus unit multifamily uh housing um since that time. um average sales

073price of single family homes um has gone up substantially in our district and our attendance area. We're looking at a 75% increase in the last eight years. Um and so that's why many of us in this room have 23y old roommates at home that uh have not gone out and purchased homes yet. So um aging population is another factor. Um, THA used to be again this this young community with lots of young families and just the average age of THA in the last 10 years has grown um by over three years. So we were sitting at uh 33 years old is the average and now we're at 36.6. And so again, we're just becoming a bit of an older population. Younger than our neighbors. That is correct. Yes, that is correct. uh birth rates, you

074know, something I really never thought I'd study. Um, and here we are. But, uh, interesting data and it and it's a real thing and it's not just tha, it's I'm going to give you the tha data, but this is regionally and nationally across the country. Um, but we've had a 50% reduction in bursts in a tha since 2002. I mean, that's literally half of the number of bursts. And what that equates to is almost 1,200 kids annually. That that significant dip in birth rate. And so again, another factor to our slowly declining enrollment. So what's the future look like? We'll start with uh elementary school. Our current data and projections uh show a drop of about 435 students over the next five years. Um, I'll I'll let you know that five-year estimates are our most

075accurate. We can get 10 years. Um, but they kind of, you know, get to be a little more fuzzy the further out you go because it's really really hard. But, um, uh, getting them within five years, we we do a pretty good job. Our middle school 5-year enrollment, um, again, that's a little more steady. uh we look at just losing 147 students over the next five years at the middle level. Then high school does drop um 237 over the next 5 years. When you look at the size of our high schools though um that's about 47 per school. So it comes out to about 10 students a year decline. So it's not like it's going to the high schools are going to feel much of a drop there. And then looking at our overall district

076enrollment, um again currently sitting um at 279 uh we go down to 271. So about 800 student um decline is what we're projecting over the next 5 years. How's this compare to our neighbors? So you'll see um most of the other Johnson County school districts are in the same boat as us. Um, the state of Kansas is down 3%. But you'll see Blue Valley, Dodto, Gardener, Shauny Mission, all are uh declining in enrollment. Uh, Spring Hill certainly is growing and and has some uh more affordable communities. Um, but they also have a virtual school that that has probably accounted for about 50% 40% of their growth, excuse me. And then some benchmark districts that that we utilize and and work with on various things. Um Neapville and Chicago um is seeing a decline. Millard, which

077is a very comparable uh district to us up in Nebraska and is a benchmark district of ours, they're on a decline. Bentonville, Edmund, uh I threw Frisco in there because it's uh they they did what we did but on steroids. they um in the year 2000 they had 4,000 students in their district and then last year they had 68,000 students. So talk about uh on average opening two to four buildings a year every year for many many years. So um pretty interesting data there. Um an update on our open enrollment. Uh obviously with the new uh Kansas law um we had open enrollment open to the uh state of Kansas last year. Last year uh we netted 77 total students. You'll see there on the right hand column. Uh this year so far we have

07866 applications. Um and uh the but we won't know final numbers because the deadline is not until June 15th and then we uh can process all the applications at that time and I think uh maybe at a future board meeting we'll have some more information on that. Then kind of some conclusions and future considerations. Obviously we're just entering a new phase in our district. Um we're going to be a district that is stable and maybe just a a slow decline. um but different than what we've dealt with the last 25 30 years. Um we'll continue monitoring uh you know kind of our school enrollment and projections numbers uh in terms of future evaluation. We'll certainly you know need to consider the number of schools we have versus the number of students we have in certain

079areas of our district and then certain ongoing dialogue and open communication with our with our uh patrons. So, um, before we get into questions, I do just two quick thank yous. Um, Chris Gallup is actually our here tonight. He's our manager of planning and energy, and he is a human Wikipedia. Um, when it comes to our data and information about our district, he's been a tremendous help with this, uh, as has Tony Wrangle. Um, I hand him a PowerPoint that is the quality of a third grader and he makes it look like this. So, um, I don't want to stand up here and take credit for that. either. So, but that being said, I'll stand for any questions from the board. Miss Reagan, it's more a comment just to um recclarify what Dr. Joerger had

080said. So I think when people hear declining right there's a public perception that people are leaving the school district but um I believe we talked about this at a previous meeting the still the percentage of children who live in our attendance area and attend our schools is still quite high right yeah that didn't actually make the PowerPoint but we are stable at right around 90% of the students who and this goes back to 2010 census I think um were stable that about 90% of the kids who could attend our schools do attend our schools. Great. And then I also the decline I mean as you said it's a societal it's not just a tha it's birth rate it's things. So I just I think that when the top line is we're declining enrollment some of

081this we actually knew was coming. Correct. Right. Yes. So that was it. Yeah. Thank you. And and I again just to drill down to detail a little bit and I'll put Chris on the spot, but I think I've heard that our birth rates in our zip codes of 01 and O2 are actually lower than the areas around us. Is that accurate, Chris? I'll have to check. He'll have to check. Okay. I appreciate you not just saying yes. So that's Thank you. Board, any other questions? Dr. McMullen. Thank you. for the work to prepare and present tonight and Mr. Gallup you as well and Tony Wrangle wherever you are appreciate appreciate the work. I may just make a couple of other quick comments and and echo the thanks to everybody. This is a tremendous amount of

082work represented in a 15minute um presentation. You know, I think Jim made an important point, which is really we were so used to continuous growth in our district for a long time that allowed us to just kind of say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, uh to whatever that mean, whether it be student uh programs, staffing, um raises for our staff, all those kinds of things that, you know, it's one of the reasons why I think it was important to get this information out just kind of publicly, if you will, is we're just in a different phase and and we likely will be for quite some time. and and that really is us continuing to be fiscally responsible, doing what's best for our students and our staff every single day, but also with the

083willingness to take a hard and transparent look at are there things that we're continuing to do that maybe we need to adjust and prioritize other ways. Um those kinds of things and I think you know you all know this next year we'll enter into the process for our next strategic plan. Um I think having this information as we go into that is is really helpful and will be beneficial. So, 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

084five-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 complaints involving individual staff members or students. Audience disruption is also not permitted. 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. Thank you. Our first public speaker this evening is Carrie Van Buskerk. Good evening, esteemed board members. Carrie Van Buskerk. I'm an autism mommy and um

085the parent of Ty and Benjamin Van Buskerk, our forever Falcons from the South. I just wanted to come and say happy Autism Acceptance Month, a wonderful time committed and set aside to honoring the unique identities, experiences, and voices of autistic individuals. I'm not an autistic individual, so I'm not going to pretend to speak for them. I'm simply elevating some voices and some unique experience that I have learned along my way of 20 years of being Tai's mother and an advocate. Um, a brief story that I like to share with individuals regarding my own journey with autism as a mother and an advocate happened 15 years ago. My son was only um in second grade at the time and I was um chosen to um work um for an organization called Pennsylvania Ed for All Coalition

086and I went into the city of Philadelphia and I worked with autistic adults trying to teach them effective manner ways to become um good advocates for themselves. And now 15 years later, I think that's absolutely absurd because I'm not an autistic individual and they should have chosen an autistic individual to do that work. But as many of you in education know, we often become the student and not the teacher. And I um became quite a student during that one 8week session. I asked my students to please over those eight weeks to be thinking about how to answer this question. And I asked them, is there something, one thing that we could do as a mainly neurotypical society that would have had a great impact on their lives? And at the end of that 8week session,

087a gentleman, 25 years old, George, autistic male, said without a doubt, confidently, Carrie, I am a square dude, really square. And our world, your world is round. And over countless years during my life, amazing people, meaningful people took hundreds of thousands of dollars and endless energy trying to shape me, my square self, more round to fit into their round world. But not much was spent in an effort to shape their round world more square for me to fit. And that profoundly impacted me as a mom. It changed how I parented. It changed how I advocate every day um to this 15 years later. And so I ask everyone during this month to really focus and listen and think to yourselves, how can I make our round world, my round environment a little more square for

088the georges in our world. I really truly think if we lean in and listen and learn and let them lead and show us the way, we will be so much better off for it if we should do that. So, I wanted to bring that to your attention in celebration in honor of autism um acceptance and awareness month. And I also want to put something brief on your radar for future. Um if I should need you, I don't know. But I'm currently in some discussions regarding how our son Benjamin's life and efforts um towards graduation will be thought of and honored um during commencement next month at South. And we're not really sure what that's going to look like. Um but I might need your leadership in the future. So um I might be reaching out.

089I just want to put that on your um radar for now. And thank you so much for always providing an attentive heart and listening ear. Thank you. Thank you, Megan Brics. If I could work my technology. There we go. Good evening, Board of Education. My name is Megan Brics and I'm a resident of Dotto, Kansas, and I'm an extremely proud elementary music teacher here in Altha. Tonight, I'm here to uplift National Library Week and how we can support and advocate for our school librarians right here in THA. I want to start by providing you a quick background about National Library Week. It is a week that is an annual celebration highlighting the valuable role that libraries, librarians, and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities. Back in the mid 1950s, re research

090showed that Americans were spending less time with their books and more time listening to the radio, television, and playing musical instruments. Concerned that Americans were reading less, the American Library Association and the American Book Publishers formed the National Book Committee in 1954. Then in 1957, the committee developed a plan for National Library Week based on the idea that once people are motivated to read, they would support and continue to use libraries. The first National Library Week was observed in 1958. This year's National Library Week is currently this week, April 6th through April 12th. This year's theme is all about being drawn into the library with what intrigues you. As I think about how we can celebrate National Library Week, I think of the amazing educators and staff members who run our libraries and provide the

091programming that supports our students in our buildings. National Librarian Day is coming up on April 16th, so coming soon. My goal for you as the board and everyone watching this is for you to find a way to celebrate a school library, a school librarian here in our tha public schools and thank them for all that they do to support our students love for reading as well as all that they do to support our building needs. You could write a kind note to your child's librarian or library clerk. You could bring them a special treat to brighten their day. You could ask how you could volunteer in the library, maybe take something off their to-do list. Our librarians in our tha public schools are vital and integral aspects of our staff and they support our students

092and their learning experiences. I hope that the librarians and library clerks here in our tha public schools know how much they are appreciated. I want to thank them all for all of their hard work. Thank you to our board of education for your support and I look forward to celebrating our school librarians here in Altha public schools. My librarian Jessica Mccardi and my library clerk Susan Perky are beyond amazing and I couldn't be the music teacher I I am without them. So I hope you join me in celebrating our librarians. Thank you. Amber Grant. Good evening. First, I want to take a moment to thank the tha board of education for your time and service to our district. The work you do shapes the future of our schools and we appreciate your dedication to education.

093My name is Amber Grant and I have been a pair professional in the OA school district for nearly eight years. My children grew up in this district and I hope my two grandsons will have the same opportunity. I work primarily in the science department of Lake South High School with my main focus being our incredible student naturalist class. While my official title is par profofessional, I have been fortunate to take on a co-eing role in this class. I help modify lesson plans, grade assignments, and guide students on a daily basis. For the past seven years, I have had the privilege of working alongside an amazing teacher, Joan Rakovich, who values my input and treats me as an equal. I know my experience is unique because not all pair of professionals receive the same level of

094respect that I do. That is why I'm here to speak on behalf of the heart of our schools, the classified staff, pair of professionals, custodians, administrative assistants, maintenance workers, tech support, nursing aids, food service personnel, grounds crew, and so many others who work behind the scenes. Each of us play a vital role in keeping our schools running. Without us, buildings wouldn't be clean, students wouldn't be supported, technology wouldn't function, and meals would not get served. We are the foundation of this district and we are still fighting to have a voice within the school district. Every one of us deserves to be heard and supported by a strong union. This fight isn't about wages. It's about dignity, security, and the freedom to speak up without fear of consequences. Our union journey began in October 2023 because

095we believe in fairness, respect, and having a say in our workplace. But Kansas makes forming a union harder than it should be, requiring pre-authorization signatures just to start the process of paperwork. Despite setbacks, miscommunication, and restrictions, we are still here because this fight matters. Every day, more of us sign an authorization card because we deserve the right to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. Every signature brings us one step closer to real change and classified staff needs action this year to preview the formal request that's coming. We ask the board for open dialogue and collaboration. The strength of this district depends on the well-being of its workers and we will continue to stand together until our voices are heard. To my fellow classified staff, I urge you to stand firm, support each other,

096and keep pushing for respect. Change happens when we stand united and refuse to be ignored. When we fight, we win. Thank you. Thank you, board. We are at item 6.01, executive session, and we will need one hour in executive session. I'd welcome a motion. I move that the board go into executive session for the purpose of discussing personal matters personnel matters for non-elected personnel under Koma KMA and let the board return to the regular meeting at 8:15 p.m. in this room. Second motion by Miss Johan, second by Miss Reagan. Mr. Ke, yes. Mrs. Reagan, yes. Dr. Jükovich, yes. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mr. Bab. Yes. Mrs. Johan. Yes. Thank you. Oh my god. Thanks to all of those in the room who stayed kind of because you have to, I guess, huh? Did you hear that?

097Okay, we are ready for action consent items and I would welcome a motion to approve 7.01. 01 to 7.16. I move to approve consent agenda items 7.01 to 7.16 as presented. Second. Motion by Miss Johan, second by Miss Steele. Dr. Jükovich. Yes. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mrs. Reagan. Yes, Mr. Cume. Yes, Mrs. Johan. Yes. Motion passes 60. Actions, bids, contracts, and agreements 8.01 to 8.18. Would welcome a motion. I move to approve items 8.01 01 through 8.16 is presented. Second motion by Mr. Babbot, second by Mr. Keune before we vote on those items. There are a couple, excuse me, that I know our staff are going to add just a little bit of information or updates. And the first one is 8.04 Mr. Palangi and the furniture for the high school social school

098high school media center renovations. Any updates or information you'd like to share? And Travis, it may be helpful if you just kind of share just where we are in that process and certainly touch on the furniture, but just in general where we are with those media center renovations. Yeah, good good evening. Thank you. with our partners from NAB Holtz Construction here at spring break. We uh started our high school media center renovation projects at Altha South and Altha North. Um as approved by the community and the bond issue was upgrades for our uh media center project or media centers at the four high schools um including Northwest and and East that will take place in 2026. So, um renovating these spaces just to create a modern and flexible learning environment and um for uh the

099students and staff and um we started that during spring break by demoing uh the inside of the south and the north and starting that project and getting that complete here before the start of the school year. So, a part of that project is um the the furniture that will go along um for replacement as part of that project and that's what's being presented here this evening. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um 8.10, Mr. Umprey, the Apple device replacement and accessories. I know we talked a little bit about that last month as well. Any additional information you'd like to share? Yeah, I know uh we recently approved the iPad purchase that was um obviously for our elementary students. These Apple accessories and devices are for our secondary iMac labs. Um, so it's a little bit

100different device, more of for our graphic designs, yearbook, newspapers, uh, but they go into all of our high schools and our, um, um, some of our middle schools as well, but mainly our high school students, graphic design labs, any IMAC labs in the high schools. All right, thank you. And then the last one is 8.18, the middle school math resource. Um, Dr. Reeves and I think Miss Smer's also here tonight and I actually had a couple of specific questions on this. In the proposal, um I see a reference to resources for the six plus and 7 plus math programs and intervention components. And I wondered what that might look like. Are those separate resources than the gened classroom or different application or what does that look like? Yeah, we um we were able to through

101this process engage with about twothirds of our um middle school math teachers and some of them came in um as we were narrowing down um our resources between the last two and we looked at how can we use those existing resources to support 6 plus and 7 plus. currently at the six plus level they cover about three what we would consider three semesters of math in six plus and seven plus uh with three semesters of math. So as we navigated that, we looked at um basically using the two um semesters worth of resources for sixth grade for six plus including the first semester um resource um for seventh grade and then at seven plus they would use the second resource for seventh grade and then they would be leaning into the resources for eighth grade

102in the seven plus class. So it would be integrated in that way. And then um through the intervention piece, we're looking at how we we have been using our MTSS processes um in the last few years at middle school and we're looking for more coherence. And this resource will offer us um K through 12 access um or excuse me, I shouldn't say K through 12, K through 8 access to uh math standards, which is really also helpful because our Kansas standards kind of overlap with other grade level standards. So we'll have access to all those resources, but also a diagnostic um and universal screener screener that will help us identify how we can do some whole class retach um as we're beginning units and and small um group interventions. The resources are embedded within um

103we're looking at saving some instructional days with um with with being able to integrate this instead of trying to operate off of out of various tools and components. So, we're looking forward to a cohesive system um within this product. And my understanding from the proposal is that this is for seven years. This covers seven years. Yeah. Our adoption right now is seven years. That includes um all print um and digital resources. The thing we um are really excited about with I Ready is they are a subscription service. So, anytime they update or change any of their materials or add components, we get those um within that seven-year window. We also have um the the online access for seven years as well and and all of that within um also excited for the fact that we're

104going to be able to include our special education teachers um our ELLL teachers in in in our robust training with our um and our administrators and at at various levels and instructional coaches in training on this resource so that we can have cohesion in what they're doing in their resource classes with what's happening in core as well. So the the training the professional development is that delivered in person or online? What does that look like? So we are going to we've we've been working with um special services ELLL looking at using pre-ervice time to have some training where everybody's trained on on just kind of the components and how they interact and then have specialized training specific to the needs of those teachers and how those re how the components within those can support. And

105we're also um investing in two years of training because this is a very robust program and we can't we can't fully conceptualize and and and have it all ready to go in the fall. So we want to have ongoing training and support at the building level. Um so we're going to have um people go out to PLC's and it's um I'm really excited about the opportunities that we're going to have with this company and resources um are included for the sped teachers then. Yes, we were able to um negotiate that we would have um manuals for um all of our ELLL and resource teachers as well as our math teachers and then they will all have online access to all the teacher accounts. Um if they are a co-teer, they'll actually be able to access

106um and we we still think there's going to be ways we can make groups so that they can have access to all of their students records and reports. So, we're really excited about the opportunity. Dr. Reeves, it looks like you want to say something. I was just going to add on the professional learning piece. You know, one of the things that um in the last 10 to 15 years is that um instructional resources have really kind of come a long way. Uh they are much higher quality um rooted in um research in ways that haven't been in the past. And so oftentimes they are either really robust or there is potentially um a new approach that might be a little bit different than um a previous resource. And so the investment in the professional learning

107on the front side looks more than more like a couple of years of implementation uh to get it really kind of up and going versus a beginning of the year or one year thing. Um we have felt that this year we you know we um implemented wit and wisdom at the elementary level for ELA and knowing full well it was going to be more than just a year um of support in terms of rolling it out and then obviously some challenges this second semester with professional learning time. So um we know on the front end that that investment is going to pay off in terms of making sure that that is implemented with fidelity in our system. Um, and really I think kind of um I'll say um based on practice it takes about three

108years to really kind of begin to internalize a resource and using it like effectively and with fidelity. And so um supporting on the front end is is important. And I think the other thing we're seeing with companies is kind of that in that um in district support where they're actually out in PLC's. um we've done walkthroughs and so um I think you'll start to see that more and more with some of these implementations. Thanks. Thanks to both of you for that. Dr. Ericovich, if I may real quick, I was just going to tag on to what Tim said just just briefly a second ago about fidelity. One of the things that is emerging time after time right now in educational research is the idea of implementing resources with fidelity. And so that's something that you're

109going to continue to hear us talk about. And if you think about it, it really makes sense. You know, for a long time through the PLC work and those pieces in schools, we've talked about a guaranteed and viable curriculum that we know all students will have access to. You know, this also is certainly important for that. But what we're discovering and what we've known for a long time that is really coming to light with more of these highquality resources is that to build upon the previous year's knowledge, it's really important that we all are using the resources with fidelity. And you know, there's a lot of benefits for that um to our kids. But I'm excited because you know, the the resource selection tonight um but along with the conversations we're continuing to have about

110teaching all students to a high level and and those sorts of pieces, resources like this just lend uh itself to us being able to do that with fidelity across the system. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion to approve 8.01 01 to 8.18. Miss Beam, Mrs. Steel, yes. Mrs. Reagan, yes. Mrs. Johan, yes. Mr. Cune, yes. Mr. Babbot, yes. Dr. Yovich, yes. Motion passes 6. 9.01. Other action. Um the document has an updated timeline for the superintendent evaluation. You'll recall that we adopted this timeline last year and have discovered that we needed to insert April in the process and um finish up in May. So that um we will have opportunity to conference with um Dr. Jagger superintendent in May and and make a determination on the extension of a contract at that

111time. So, um board, you have a copy of the adjustment and I would welcome a motion. I move to approve 9.01 as presented. Second. Motion by Miss Johan, second by Miss Reagan. Mrs. Reagan, yes. Dr. Mr. Yovich. Yes. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Cune. Yes. Mrs. Johan. Yes. Section 10, future action items. Um, again, there are 31 of them for next month's meeting. Um, so, uh, read and review early so that if you have any questions, those can go to staff and we can get responses before that May 1st meeting because we do have a shortened period of time since we adjusted the April meeting. Written information. Um, again, I I would just like to say some thank yous in this area. the um Head Start director's report is consistently informational and and

112quality. Appreciate um that parent teacher conference totals. Thanks um especially to the secondary for reviewing and and uh adjusting that reporting process. I appreciate um all of you with that. The bond issue updates um always informational and I had a conversation with Mr. Palangi actually before the meeting tonight um just looking at all that's going on and then when you consider all of the different contractors that he is working with the different companies um just keeping track of all of that. So so thank you for those updates and then um learning services as well. And I actually Dr. Reeves had a couple questions about that. Um there's a reference to to the culture setters and their graduation. How many individuals were a part of that cohort? So uh this semester we have 32. I think

113we had 31 in the fall group. There was a fall cohort that started. Um since it started in 2022, oh sorry, since it started in 2022, we've had 230 completed. So um we'll have about 20 or 32 more to add uh this semester. So, it's become a very popular course. Yeah. I also in that report there was a reference to the student teacher boot camp. Yep. Um and was curious how many student teachers we have this semester and if we have any early hires out of that group. So, we've had about 41 student teachers this semester and we have hired about 21 of them so far. I think last semester, last fall, we had about 43 student teachers and and roughly the same amount that or percentage that participated in the boot camp. So, it's

114just an opportunity for us to kind of promote the district, share a little bit about the district with um the the kind of um incoming class of new educators and um have have that opportunity to put our district people in front of them, let them get to know a little bit um about the people in our system that support new educators and then also an opportunity to spend a little time talking about interviewing and uh some of the some of the things that um I know unities sometimes provide to those to those new educators, but we like to get in front of them as well and and help promote our promote our system. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay, we are 12.01 topics for discussion board. Miss Steel. All right. I want to echo um

115Dr. Yovich's thank yous for the written reports. They are robust and very informative. So for all of those that we received this month, Kim Sil, Dr. Reeves, our assistant Zups at each level on the um parent teacher conferences, Mr. Pangi, thank you very much. They're incredibly informative. And I also wanted to um just say to Dr. McMullen, thank you for your presentation. I told you as we were heading up, I don't know very many people who could get a chuckle out of such a dry presentation, but you manage it. So, thank you for that. And I just want to say, you know, what we do here in THAA for um for learners and for our students is really it's amazing. We do really great things. And so when we see the capacity that we can

116grow that and invite more people into the fold, it makes me really proud that we are um opening our doors, that we can share this special thing that we have here on THA with more students. Um I will let someone else speak to Taste of the Town. I'm sure it will be a hot topic, but wow, I I just it's an amazing um experience to be with community doing great things for our THA students. And that is what it's going to take going forward as public education faces many hard things. Um it's going to take more than just us, more than just our superintendent and senior leadership team, more than our educators. We need our entire community wrapping their arms around our students and solving the problems that they face today. And Taste of the

117Town is just a really great example of that. Um, in future action, you'll see that we have um a KASB item. And so, I just want to speak to that just briefly. Um, part of my role on this board is to serve on the KASB board as the tha vice president. And um I really that organization um we lean on them a lot for information. Um our inside council Chris Pitman does as well. Um but one of the things um this might have been like three weeks ago now. Um we had our board meeting in Labette County and um you would think that our district wouldn't have anything in common and honestly we really don't. They are five different um K8 programs that fold into Labette County High School. Um cities I'd never heard of.

118I haven't been to that part of the state. Um the southeast part, Ultimont, Bartlett, Edna, Mount Valley, and Meadow View, they all pour into Lebec County High School and totaling about 1600 students. But here's the thing, that community and that district is doing the most unique things to solve the problems that they are experiencing in their community as well as the problems that public education is facing. Things like their um CTE program is fixing and repairing cars that their educators and support staff are using every day that have a problem. They're doing those oil changes. they're they're they don't have um necessarily the the opportunity there to have those things fixed and so their students are learning how to do it and they're fixing it. They built a home in one of their communities. I'm

119going to say it's Altimont. Um, we toured it and they built that home with a with the goal of recruiting a graduate who a graduate from Lebec County High School who was graduating to be an educator to kind of woo her back to the community to be an educator there and it worked. So, this home that their students built in their program and their CTE program is now going to house um a future educator. So, talk about grow your own. That's kind of next level. They're fully staffing and running a um community coffee shop. I mean, this is not a place that has Starbucks on every corner. And so, it's something that the community has really really appreciated. So, when you see that kind of creativity with problem solving and then you come back home

120to a place where we have a lot of resources, it's kind of a good lesson like we need to look around and look how we can be creative here in our own community. Um, so anyway, KASB does a great job of connecting school districts across the state and we learn from one another and that's that's um really important. Um, lastly, I had well just two more things. Sorry, not lastly. Um, I had um the opportunity I was asked to speak at the Northwest National Honor Society induction and um I kind of joked with Dr. Lenny when she asked me to speak. I really thought it was just to give a welcome message, but luckily she sent me an email maybe two weeks before and said, you know, like a 10 to 12 minute speech that

121should work. And I was I realized I had not asked enough front-end questions on what I was being asked to do. Um, but anyway, it was a real joy to do it. I I pulled something together. I'm sure I was very far down the list of notes. There must have been a lot of you very busy that evening. Um, but it was really enjoyable. And um I just wanted to tell you one of the things that I left the students and the parents with is um you know this generation they're they're really um really amazing and you work with them every day. I'm speaking to the educators. You work with them every day. So, you know, but um a couple of the things that I left them with was um to remember those of us

122need to remember, you know, this generation has never not known technology and so the way they're going to solve problems is going to look different than the way we do and they have already learned how to work smarter using those tools. [Music] Um, you know, the other thing is they are really good about um taking care of their mental health. Things that we have had to learn, they have just grown up talking about and they're miles ahead of us on that. The other thing is they're so they're funny. Like today's teenager, they are so funny. And I think through that they remind us the need to kind of lighten up and do more laughing. And um as I look to the future um you know we're going to be okay. So it was a joy

123to be there. Our next community conversation is April 24th and it's an evening one. So for any of the community that would like to come and can't make it during our daytime ones, I believe Mr. Babbot and Mr. and I are signed up to be there and we look forward to seeing you. And um lastly, I'd like to tell my board member friend Claire happy birthday tomorrow. That's right. All right. Thank you for the birthday shout out. There's a lot of stuff that is wonderful. Lots of things that have happened. Um and I could give a laundry list. Taste the town. Amazing. Thank you for adjusting the conference numbers and the report. Um, but I kind of have a thread of things I was thinking about. Um, I was at a meeting this week where

124there was a couple of elementary school teachers and I have to say they are so excited about the iPad charging stations. Um, having them in every classroom. I mean one of my she was like it was like Christmas morning. She I mean we were it was just a meeting of like PTO friend. She's like, "I'm so excited. It's G." So, iPad charging stations, way to go. Um, and then our Head Start program is in federal compliance, which is great. Um, I know that that process is robust and very detailed and um, just something for us to be so proud of. They are always so good about having all the numbers, you know, and it's really a wraparound program. I mean, the little kiddos, they get dental and physical stuff they have to check off. And,

125you know, we're really getting those kids in a place where they can have that head start. Um, but when I think about Head Start, you know, something they're having to do now that they have not had to do is advocate for the federal support that makes that program possible. When I asked Dr. little about the influence of federal decisions and change over the legislature when he said, you know, we've never, he said this to me after because I was like, didn't mean to put you on the spot. He's like, "We've never had to think about it in this way before because the federal support for education, the federal support for Title One, the federal support for Head Start, for school lunches, for all of those things have been stalward programs. We have not had to

126think about them." And in one breath, that's great, you know, having that consistency. But sometimes consistency can breed complacency. And so while I am angry that we are having to think about these things all the time, it is important for us to keep them at front of mind and to make sure that we and this is for the interwebs because I know everyone in this room thinks about this all the time. We cannot let these things happen to our communities, to our state, to our country without us raising raising hell. I'm sorry for the words because our kids deserve all the things that they've been promised. So with that, I also want to say that the excess cost of special education is a promise unfulfilled by our legislature and the legislative session will be wrapping

127up tomorrow. our representatives and senators in Topeka. They are our representatives and senators all year long. All year long, not just during session. And they need to hear from us. We are so grateful for those who support our district and for those who support Kansas public schools and Lebec County and all of the kids in our state. But here's the deal. There are a lot fewer of those people under the dome in Topeka. And those people who maybe need a little encouragement from the people who put them office, they need to hear from us because our kiddos, they deserve everything. They are the future. And um to bring it all full circle with the um the cost of, you know, excess cost of special ed and whatnot. Um one of our public speakers reminded me

128um because the world is moving so fast that, you know, April is autism acceptance month. And I had posted something a while back about my own child. Um, and inclusion is big things and small things. I so much appreciated what that speaker said about having those who are autistic advocating for themselves. But in order to have the courage to advocate for themselves, they also have to be recognized. So, I did want to share a little story about my kiddo. Um, at church a few weeks ago, our pastor showed a clip of a young man playing the piano. And afterward, the pastor said, "Oh, I meant to say that he is autistic." And our son immediately perked up in church, sat up and proudly pointed and he said, "Like me." That's inclusion. And when our politicians

129don't think about the full spectrum of impact of the decisions that they make, Head Start, special ed, public schools, CTE, transportation, teacher training, um blueprint toward literacy, those small moments are less possible. And so I know I'm preaching to the choir in this room, but um we we have a lot that we need to do and I know that those of us in this room are tired, but it I mean the future is here and they're watching us. Um and for my birthday tomorrow, I would ask that all of you contact the legislator and if they're not doing what they need to do to support our district, urge them to do so. Thank you. Any other board? Miss Johan. Hi. Um, thank you, Claire. The year early birthday. Um, I would like to celebrate a

130little bit for other school districts outside of ours. There was a couple bonds um passed by voters by really big majorities in Kansas City, Missouri, and other areas. And so, um, I think that was the first one passed in 60 years. So just, you know, thinking about that and how fortunate they are. So I just want to raise them up. I'm happy for them. Um Taste of the Town again was amazing. I always like to spend time with my peers here and um other district uh staff and friends um and just see what we can do as a community. We have the women's giving circle coming up later this month. So always a good opportunity if you haven't been involved in that. A good time to get get involved and see what else you can

131do with just a little bit of money. Um, and then I also just wanted to mention that I got the opportunity to spend a little time with Stacy and we went to the honors orchestra concert for the elementary school. Um, actually Brent Ker was there too, I think. Um, and so it was really fun just to see what our kids can do and and appreciate the the um orchestra directors throughout the district that brought these fifth graders together and did something really really cool in one year. and so inspiring them. My daughter's going to continue on to do orchestra in middle school and really excited to see what they will do. Um, and yeah, I think it's just been it's been a phenomenal month. It's been very busy. Lots of fun things really getting to

132know and I just want to say I appreciate everybody up here and down there um for your support and everything that we're doing. Anyone else? I'm just going to add um a couple of brief comments. I I would since we're in April and every month we have a school presentation and I have been so impressed this year with the consistent quality of presentations with the the principal or um and parents and staff and always involving kids. Um and of course tonight with the mascot um a special special treat. Um but it has each each month just a the consistency in the presentation as well as highlighting the quality of our schools. Um spring activities and um there's no shortage of of that. We all know tonight there were 500 middle schoolers at their first track

133meet of the season as we could see from the parking lot at Frontier Trail. Um always exciting with sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. um and that first meet of the of the season, Becky's uh reference to the elementary orchestra um concert and um or prior to that there had also been one for band and for choir and um just amazing the the skill that the teachers the talent the kid the teachers can bring out of kids in fifth grade and then as we see them progress. Um, so so much fun. Um, public school foundation, taste of the town has been mentioned, women's giving circle is April 29th. Um, another opportunity for the foundation and people in tha to support our schools and our kids. And this cycle the grants are based on need. So the

134committee is reviewing the grants that have been submitted and that evening u monies will be awarded but also the public school foundation has scholarships that will be awarded at the high school award ceremonies. Um classroom grants both in the fall and the spring. The committee just met to determine those and um those big checks will be delivered um next week. So the the foundation, the board of the foundation um are constantly doing and and supporting and and you can see it on Instagram with the the teacher excellence educator excellence award and the classified staff excellence award. So um it's a it's a good place to be in THA. It truly is. Dr. Joerger, it is a good place to be. Absolutely. Um, I actually was going to start with Kansas City, Missouri. It's the first

135thing on my list tonight, but but I like you would like to congratulate uh Dr. Jennifer Collier and the entire community in in Kansas City, Missouri uh for their first successful bond in years and years. You know, there may have been a time in education where we were competitive with one another, but the reality is the success of that bond and what that will do for our students in Kansas City, Missouri is a positive thing for our entire Kansas City community. So, I also just want to congratulate them on that and uh just excited for what what they'll be able to do for kids in Kansas City, Missouri, and uh the impact they'll have on our entire community. So, congratulations to them. Uh tonight, you in the consented agenda approved our capacity for open enrollment.

136Um so, information on that will get on our website very quickly. Um you're a little bit behead ahead of the statutory date this year, which is great. Uh we're setting the curve on that maybe, but um our communications teams uh Dr. Waters has taken over the lead on that. Um everyone's done a great job preparing that and having that ready um for families that are interested in checking out. So thank you all for your work on that. Several things I'm going to mention tonight. Um congratulations to Westview and Rididgeview Elementary for being named challenge award winners by KSDE. Um those are awards that go to schools when their academic performance on state assessments uh outperform what they should based on the demographics of the school and Westview has done that a few times I think

137maybe Ridge View a couple times over the years but really exciting for them. We'll of course recognize them at at a board meeting upcoming but we just found that out in the last few days. I'd also like to congratulate Central Elementary'sries Rachel Marlo who is named as a region 3 elementary Kansas teacher of the year finalist. So she is the elementary finalist um for our entire region this year and will go on to compete in the state competition. Uh those of us that have been in her classroom know that she is exceptional. She's had several different opportunities I believe in our district uh special education and general education. Uh certainly no surprise that she was the region finalist for us. But congratulations to her. And then also an honorary shout out to our secondary non-

138nominee, uh, Riley Taylor. Riley Taylor, if you've met him, he is pretty used to wearing a pretty slick Hawaiian shirt and he plays the ukulele in his classroom a lot. So again, no surprise that he was recognized by our district as well. But we're so excited to support Rachel as she continues to go on through that process. Today was a really big day for some four and mostly fiveyear-olds. Um today was kindergarten enrollment across our district. So um our schools um both our school staff, our early childhood staff was out in schools also just welcoming young people and new families to our schools. Um always an exciting time. So we'll be uh thrilled to communicate with those families and students over the coming months before school starts uh soon in August. A lot of times

139our kindergarters when they go to enrollment day, they think the next day they're going to come back and go to school. So sometimes we have to explain like yeah we'll see you again in 5 months that kind of thing. So uh but so appreciate everyone that works to welcome our new students that will be joining us as kindergarteners um this this next year. As you know April is filled with all sorts of recognition days. There's been a lot of awareness tonight about autism awareness month. Certainly we'll continue to promote that this month. This is also national occupational therapy month. Uh on April 3rd, we celebrated our par p parair professionals through paraprofessional appreciation day. Um hopefully every day is paraprofessional appreciation day. Um but it's nice to have a day where we stop and say

140thank you for what you do. But certainly we hope that that goes on all the time. Um national library week is April 6th through April 12th. So that's a big one in our schools and at my house this week actually. Um National Assistance Principal Week was April 7th through uh April 11th. So, we're almost to wrap that up, but we are so blessed in Altha to have some outstanding assistant principles. Um, we had administrative staff meeting Tuesday this week. I think it was actually Dr. Waters that asked all the assistant principles to stand up. Um, unsung heroes of our district. They make do so much every single day uh to help our schools and our students be successful and so much appreciate them. Um, National School Volunteer Appreciation Week is April 21st through April that

141can't be right. maybe April 15th through April 21st. My paper I wrote April 21st through April 15th. I don't think we can go back in time, but um volunteer appreciation week. Obviously, we can't do what we do without the incredible volunteers that we have. Heather Skunover, who leads our efforts with volunteers, just does a tremendous job and we're so appreciative of that. Bus driver appreciation day is April 23rd. So, that's a great day for um anyone that sees a bus to wave and say thank you or uh stick your face in the door and say thank you. We really appreciate you. Um we are so grateful for our bus drivers, especially this year um every year, but they've done an awesome job this year with our schedule changes and what have you. So, a great

142day on April 23rd to thank our bus drivers for all they do. April 23rd is also administrative professionals day. So, uh, we are blessed to have lots of incredible administrative professionals in our district who, uh, keep us floating and working hard each and every day. Um, so that would be a great day to, um, appreciate them as well. That's the last one on my bolted list of things in April. I'm racking my mind to come up with something creative for another one like National Celebrate Dr. Smith's pigs day or something at at home. I don't know. But those are all the official ones that we have. Dr. Dr. Smith has two pigs for pets at home if you didn't know that. has nothing to do with our meeting, but it seems to fit right now.

143Um, and then la lastly, some of you I'm gonna get teased about that one. Love you guys, too. Love you guys, too. Um, one of the cool things that's coming up that I hope our community will engage in again, and our staff is welcome to as well. You may remember last year um our communications team sent a link to all of our patrons, all of our staff members where you could log on very simply and write a thank you note to a staff member in the public schools. Uh we will be doing that again. Um that messaging will go out on April 25th. So all you have to do is get on, write a message, talk about who it's to, and then communications does the rest and uh they send it to our amazing graphics

144print team. They print it and send it to the person that it was directed to. So, we're really uh happy about that as well. And then Becky asked me if I want to mention the parent survey. So, yes, I'd be happy to mention the parent survey. Um our parent survey went out this week. I believe it's been open a week. So, annually we do a parent survey just to gauge how we're doing in terms of um you know, the education that we provide and support services and things like that. And tha that survey went out one week ago and I think is going to be open one more week. Is that right? So I think when we met Monday we had about 1,300 people that had completed the survey. Uh last year we were about

145a thousand higher than that. So we'll send a reminder and those kinds of things. But we certainly appreciate any parents and uh that take the opportunity to fill that out. So I think those are my comments tonight. I would just add when you talk about Riley Taylor, he's an grad. Oh, very good. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. All right. Um, we are going into executive session again following a motion and again we'll need an hour. Am I the one tonight? Okay. I move that the board go into executive session for the purpose of discussing matters relating to employer to employee negotiations under coma and that the board return to the regular meeting at 10 p.m. 10:05 p.m. in this room. Second. Motion by Miss Johan, second by Miss Reagan. Mrs. Johan, yes. Mr. Babett, yes. Mr.

146Cume, yes. Dr. Yovage. Yes. Mrs. Steel. Yes. Mrs. Reagan. Yes. Motion passes 6. Are you joking? Is it really going to be an hour?