001e e e and Welcome to our May um regularly scheduled board meeting we have a full house good to see everyone can you call the RO please sure Mr babbit here Mr Boyd here Mrs Johan here Mr cun Mrs Reagan here Mrs steel here Dr jurkovich here all right will you all please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Dr mcmull all right well good evening and thank you for attending tonight's elate the Public Schools Board of Education meeting before we begin we feel is important that we review the importance of conducting a productive and orderly meeting this meeting is designated for the board to work
002with the superintendent and staff to conduct the work as outlined in the agenda please understand that patrons attending the meeting do so solely in an observatory role out of respect for everyone in in attendance we request that the audience memb MERS not speak yell or give Applause during the meeting outside of recognitions this ensures the board staff and other attendees are able to listen and understand the business conducted anyone disrupting the meeting in any capacity will be asked to leave and may lose the opportunity to attend future meetings thank you again for attending and we will now proceed with the agenda thank you sir all right moving on to agenda item 2.01 is there a motion to adopt the agenda I move to adopt the agenda as presented second we have a motion by Dr
003yurkovich and a second by Mrs steel Dr jurovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr babit yes Mr Boyd yes Mrs Reagan yes Mrs Johan yes all right motion carry 60 moving on to recognitions and awards 3 at01 yes well good evening everyone as you can see by our very full house we have a lot to celebrate tonight so we will Dive Right In and to start us off we are proud to recognize syus and mie as an outstanding Community partner so I would like to invite owners Jim and Cindy England to the front along with OA Public Schools director of Community Development Heather skover and OA retired employee Association board member Marsha stoker silus and Maddy's homemade ice cream is a family-owned and operated business that has been a Kansas City favorite since 199 7 and
004as a community partner they have offered strong financial and volunteer resources to enhance excellence in OA public schools in partnership with the OA Public Schools Foundation they provided support to pay off student lunch debt donated to the taste of the Town Event uh and are regular contributors to the women's giving Circle they have been a long-standing adopted School business partner at Forest View Elementary and have donated in-kind ice cream products and financial contributions to the OA public school's retired employees Association fundraising events most recently they fed the entire end of the year volunteer appreciation event by providing a variety of ice cream to packed to a packed House of 320 people yum in addition to these robust programs across the district Silas and Maddie's employ students as they learn customer service and real world small
005business skills it is our honor to express sincere appreciation for their consistent financial and volunteer dedication to our school district thank you guys well next we are excited to honor our Casey Biz best winners so I'd like to invite Isabelle shidel Leah abai graciano Paro Carmen Gara and Mia Estrada to the front along with ala Northwest principal Chris Suk ala North assistant principal Camille Zimmerman student support specialist Jean cantero and OA Northwest Hispanic leadership Club sponsor Elizabeth Jansen these students recently competed in the Casey bisbas competition which offers high school students in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area an opportunity to learn a variety of life skills and business techniques OA had the most students from any Casey Metro District at this year's 21st annual Casey bizfest with a total of 48 students participating the
006final day of the 4-day event consists of students presenting to a judge in a preliminary round to determine six finalists and all six finalists receive an automatic scholarship that can be taken to any University of the students choosing as you can see we cleaned up pretty well with five of the six finalist spots first place went to Isabelle second place to Leah fourth to gratiano fifth place went to Carmen and sixth place went to Mia so congratulations you guys we are sooud and we will take our picture but if there's any family members here tonight please feel free to pop up and take piics I see a couple don't be shy thank you guys congratulations great I'd now like to invite up our math Wings champions for the year along with math coordinator Spencer Brown
007principles Amy Hercules and Greg o borney as well as math Wings sponsors Cindy Madson Stacy Anderson Kelly Seward and Dion Hobson we've got a lot of awesome kiddos who were Champions this year for those of you who may not know math Wings is a districtwide Elementary School competitive Club the meetings consist of intense mental math skills problemsolving competitions vocabulary review and various math scrimmages there were three events held throughout the year and these students UPF front represented the winning teams at the fourth and fifth grade levels in the fourth grade category Sunnyside Elementary took first place in both the fall and spring competitions while Arbor Creek took first place in the February competition in the fifth grade competition Regency Place students were backtack Champs in the fall and winter and I know they wanted that
008third one to round out the grand slam but Forest View Elementary fifth graders took the spring Victory and our friends at Forest View are unable to join us tonight they have a fine arts fair and spring concert but we are happy to recognize them publicly here tonight so please join me in congratulating these very smart mathematicians I think I'm going to do one scho time so we can all get together that's what you want to start with yeah Sun Sun side first yep perfect yeah okay ready right here one two threeesome [Music] arbek Arbor Creek y Mrs blowers be here here two congratulations you guys ready one two three great job awesome than guys well up next we are pleased to recognize our students in the OA West CBR program so please come on up
009students along with your principal Jay novich your teacher Mr Jonathan stall and special services transition coordinator Amanda Haner come on down well as they get settled I will let you know that this team of Rockstar students won second place in the job Olympics competition for those who don't know job Olympics is a competition developed to promote transition and employability skills for a broad spectrum of high school students job Olympics brings together over 500 students from 40 different schools throughout the area competitions representing actual job and employment situations are judged by business professionals from the community and Professionals in education at the award ceremony these OA West students were recognized with ribbons medals and trophies and we are so incredibly proud of you guys congratulations okay everybody look right here one two three one more one
010two three thank you you good parents in addition to our academic Allstars we are also excited to recognize several of our State athletic Champions tonight at this time I'd like to invite our District athletic director Matt Johnson up to the front along with Brett Carroll Jacob Vasquez Nicole Redmond and principals Carrie Lane Shan demy and assistant principal Camille Zimmerman wrestl just wrestling yep okay awesome so we are pleased to recognize three repeat State Wrestling champions tonight and welcome a new champ to the mix as well a l the East Senior Brett Carroll capped off an undefeated season with his second State title in the 285 pound Division and he is now the most decorated male athlete in OA East history wow El the South senior Nicole Redmond won her fourth straight State title and she
011is one of three Kansas girls to make history this season winning four straight state titles for the first time in the history of the Kansas State High School Activities Association so awesome and then are our North friends not here or here not here okay well we will still celebrate them publicly so um we had two Rockstar o OA North uh athletes kayln Hitchcock won her second straight title in the 135 pound Division and we also have Jacob Vasquez Vasquez who is a firsttime champ this year so very proud of them as well congratulations you guys thank you guys okay well one OA North champion who I do believe is here is Joe olette so I will have him come up along with assistant principal Camille Zimmerman so Joe won his first state bowling title in
012the class 6A boys State Bowling Championship after bowling a 737 in a three game series with a very close finish Joe stepped up when it mattered most bowling three straight strikes in the 10th Frame to clench the state tit all please join me in congratulating Joe on this exciting accomplishment and finally we would like to honor several students from our OA Advanced Technical Center who placed at the Health occupation students of America or HOSA competition so could Addie Johnson McKenzie Kelo and kalista alason join us at the front with administrator Amy stes and your instructor in March these students join kids from across Kansas who are interested in pursuing a career in healthcare at the annual HOSA competition Addie and McKenzie both placed first as a team in the EMT competition and kalista earned second
013place in the medical terminology competition I will share that Addie recently added a few more accolades to her resume after competing at the skills USA state championship this past weekend and she earned gold in the first aid CPR competition and silver in extemporaneous speaking so we are so proud of you guys congratulations all right that wraps up our recognitions for tonight thank you Becky all right moving on to agenda item 4 01 board we have three presentations this evening the first one is going to be our school Spotlight and I'd like to welcome principal Sean di to the podium from L South thank you well good evening Dr aer's board president Boyd appreciate you inviting me here tonight you know as a uh OA North graduate I have to tell you that tonight I'm honored
014to represent the best high school and ala Public Schools ala South you know I say that I say that I look across the room I know some of my colleagues are here tonight from the other high schools and I firmly believe there is no better high school education than what you can receive in AA public schools at all five high schools and I am humbled by the other four principles I get to call colleagues but this year L the South we've been in a time of reflection and a time of growth and over the past few years years South has gone through a few moments of Trials and one thing we knew we wanted to do was to bring back a sense of Pride to the south side of ala so whenever I have a
015chance to stand before a group and say we are the best I want you to know from the bottom of my heart I mean it ala South High School is the very best high school in the state of Kansas and there's reasons for that I'm going to point out a few of them tonight that we're rather proud of southside's the best side because our math Act and Kansas assessments continue to be the highest in the district among the high schools our teachers who teach math push our students beyond their limits to perform at levels that exceed College and Career Readiness standards we're really proud of our mouth at South we have been able to place a priority on highly effective professional learning communities at South our teachers meet on a weekly basis many of them
016choosing and volunteering to meet above and beyond what their contract asks them to do and that is absolutely amazing to see teachers and Par Educators and other Educators in our building joining together to meet and push what we're able to do educationally itself and overall I guarantee you if you come to South and stop by any of our 125 classrooms you will see amazing instruction I am confident that ala South has the best teachers that Kansas has to offer so confident anytime even the last four weeks of school you can stop on by and see great teaching I say that but I also think part of being the best side of AA is being able to stand up and say we've got some growth to do and that's part of being the best is to
017be able to reflect and find those areas where we've got to grow and improve in AA South three of those areas that we've recognized this year is our overall culture and climate of our building as I said we're working to get that Pride back at South we made some great strides this year I'm GNA talk about that in a minute but it's a place we want to continue to grow an area for our learning is how we address diversity equity and inclusion inside our building how do we celebrate our diverse population and create a school where every student every single student feels welcoming welcomed walking into our doors and sitting in our classrooms and lastly our English scores our math scores where we want them to be English has some room for growth uh so
018we continue to work on that and we've had some uh teachers come together to make some strides in English including this year alone we had a drop from 26% of our sophomores failing English down to below 5% wow our teachers are committed and that's why we're the best side of AA part of our reflection and growth this year has been getting back to our gold standard we're blue and gold nothing better than gold so we've been talking about how do we get back to that we talked about setting a new vision for our community so this year we start off by telling our staff that this is our priority we are a Lea South High School and we are an inclusive learning environment that prepares students for college and careers celebrates our diverse community and
019creates a culture of belonging and pride and being a falcon for all students that's our Guiding Light every day that we're creating a space that celebrates diversity that is inclusive for every single one of our students and we get our students ready for college or careers whatever path they choose to follow we are there to get them to their dreams we started making some Investments investing in our Partnerships and our relationships there's one group I want to point out tonight that's called 40 again I've got the best teachers and I've got a group of teachers one with me tonight Christopher Adam over here Adam Christopher I'm used to sing your name in reverse on schedule this group of teachers came together to start something unique an opportunity to invest in our St staff around pride
020and around connection they come together and create opportunities to celebrate school pride weeks that are for the teachers only not for the students teachers dressing up and having a good time at a high school in April in May that alone has had the greatest impact on what we are doing at South and creating pride and creating a space where Staff feel welcome our building and that's not me that's not my fellow administrators that is a group of teachers that are doing that as volunteers and that is an amazing thing about South we've been pushing a new focus on instructional leadership itself South I am confident that you will not find another school in our district with a more active Administration team we push ourselves to be in the classrooms every single day if you walk
021by one of our offices and you see a principal in there we'll tell them go you got to go I know you're busy but you're more important to be in the classroom right now they're attending p C's we've shifted our admin meetings to be focused on data and to think about how do we make decisions that based on what's best for our students I'm proud of my fellow administrators and last we've been investing in our student needs socially emotionally and of course academically this year we brought in a therapy dog to AA sou next school year every nth gradea South is going to be trained in Mental Health First Aid in a partnership with Johnson County Mental Health we want our students to be sound and safe so they can focus on their learning and
022not be worried about everything else that goes on in the lives of a high school last thing we did this year is we defined what it actually means to be a falcon there used to be this list at South that was literally 13 to 14 principles long uh long enough that the adults in the building couldn't actually recite them let alone the 1800 students so we said let's simplify that we have three priorities for our students number one treat every one like family take care of one another we sat with all 1800 students at the start of the year and we said we get it we're not all going to get along I've got five siblings myself we don't all get along but we will take care of each other and when one of us
023goes through something troubling or we're hurt or we're celebrating your fellow Falcons be right there with you we said we're going to focus on winning in the classroom we talk to our students about the value of their education it's not just about us being the best high school or being ranked as top in the state of Kansas it's about your diploma giving your diploma more power because you are brilliant students who show up in the classroom we finally talked about winning in the community giving back to our community we started this year off by doing community service with all of our staff going out around the south side of ala and giving back to the community it's given a lot to us and then of course we also want in the community we want a
024four time state champion at wrestling that's pretty impressive we want to win on the field we want to win on the stage we want to win in the classroom and that's what it means to be a falcon so I want to show you just a quick sample of what you can see at AA South amazing learning wonderful athletes beautiful performances a principal who wears gold shoes on a daily basis every photo up here was taken by an ala South student we are proud of who we are at AA s and I'll say it again we are the best side of OA so I want to share with you a few things that we saw this year our improvements we saw an improved system for students feeling supported and welcomed it South we introduce new ways
025for students to reach out for help and we're responding within 24 hours of every single response that students Reach Out academically socially emotionally and harassment as well we've increased our respons time to make sure students know we are 100% here for them that also includes that active principal move my officer is over here tonight too officer jger can we give a round of applause for him over here right right by our side active with us even attending board meetings thank you Dr we had a notable shift in staff morale if you walk in our building you can feel it you can feel the difference when you're at South from last year the Year prior to this year our students even talk about it you can see in the back some of them nodding their heads
026we have come together as a team to support one another and we know as adults that when we're having fun and we're enjoying our jobs as Educators our students are going to enjoy their jobs as students and that's been a priority for us we've had an increased celebration of diversity we've got gr room to grow more things we want to do but we made sure our students knew that who they are matters to us we push our students to litter our hallways with signs that celebrate who they are we have flags up in our common celebrating where our students come from and we pushed our teachers to think about their teaching and how can they increase the perspectives of multiple cultures within their classrooms and they Rose to that challenge and contined to ask what
027do we do next we had a 69% increase in applied algebra students shifting to the college and career-based math track 69% of our applied algebra students will enroll in Algebra 1 next year as sophomores that's an increase from 0% last year only 41 of our nearly 500 freshmen need continued support and fluency we're working on our reading scores we're going to get to where we should be and as I said I have a new number I put 8% in the slide that was a week ago we're now below 5% of our sophomores failing English in the 10th grade that's a decrease from 25% just in the first semester next year we're going to continue to focus on culture and climate that will continue be Priority One for our students we want them to know that
028our school believes in them and wants them to be with us and we will take care of them each and every day we will continue to move towards instructional leadership with priority on supporting our teachers I told my administrators they all to go figure out how to get in classrooms more often if you see me at South I have a walking desk I'm trying to give up my office so I can be in the hallways I'm pushing my assistant principles to do the same we know that when we're in the hallways and in classrooms that is when we're going to be able to take care of our students and support our teachers and finally it says becoming but we're going to continue to be ala's best high school at ala South we have a tradition
029when we win or when we occasionally lose we always join together we put our arms around one another and we join together in the singing of our Alma mat so tonight I'm inviting a group of our singers from South choirs under the direction of Alise Peterson to lead us through that tradition so you could experience what it means to be a falcon and if you are a South alumni or a South teacher currently or a par educator or a custodian anyone else who's here tonight that represents the South Community you are more than welcome to join us up here to sing our album modor with us and with that board I thank you for tonight and letting me be the spotlight school for the board meeting come the we you with pride and loyaly and
030strength of for all the world to see loyal to our us out we hon you today and ever thank thank you thank you Sean you may want one more in I was going to try to sneak out B are there any questions for Mr diory besides his shoes Dr bovich I don't have a question but just comment appreciate you your leadership Your Enthusiasm the energy um The Honest honesty tonight in in where South has been and where it's going and I would just also say good luck the next high school principal meeting you go into thank you board any other questions or comments thank you sir thank you again I'm going to go celebrate with my singers all right B moving on to 4.02 we have a presentation from State Board of Education member and
031Ma and welcome to Ala you can use that Podium right there to my left well thank you so much that's a hard to follow but I have to say my friend Chris Meyer is a uh South Alum and I think since she chickened out she ought have to get up here and sing it all by yourself there you go um just want to thank you guys so much for giving me a few minutes tonight um with the redistricting in 2022 I picked up about 20% of OA so I'm trying to get around and meet some of my new uh school districts and it's been fun getting to know more about OA and what you do I love what you're doing with career and tech ed I came over to visit U OA West right before
032it opened a few years ago um to just see what was going on it was so amazing all that green technology and all that stuff I don't know how they do it without lockers but anyway so there you go and I want to thank you for the work you're doing on those common benchmark assessments because that's just really going to serve the whole state enjoyed hearing about that I just wanted to introduce you to me a little bit tonight my job on the State Board is to do what's best for kids and families all across Kansas I'm the cheerleader and the policy maker my background is a former teacher actually 50 years ago this spring I finished my first year of teaching High School science um and then I got tired of being broke so
033I became an engineer there you go went to work for the phone company but after retiring there I was served in the Kansas house for eight years and uh now I'm finishing up my second term on the State Board education I am so grateful for what you do here because this is where the rubber meets the road and uh I want you to know that my biggest job is to remove roadblocks for you so you can do your job better and that's my main reason for being here tonight is let you know put a face with the name and know how you can get hold of me and call me anytime you need me so what are we up to at the State Board well way more than I can cover in just a few
034minutes I'm also one of the two liaison from the state board to the legislature so you can imagine how much fun that was um we've been uh mostly testifying the last few months and lobbying and plain defense for kids and schools I'm sure you know that's been a battle but on the whole I think this year we came out okay a big piece of legislation as you're probably familiar Senate Bill 387 is headed to the governor for Signature it's a conglomeration of seven other bills that included both policy and funding for K12 education besides approving the Ganon ordered funding plus inflation we got a $73 million uh bonus in new special education funding and it is new the legislature failed to decide how to distribute that funding and left that job to us but I
035think our plan will do well for OA and uh we're going to discuss that at the next board meeting and hopefully have some numbers for you so nothing official um but the biggest thing is that they did not get to use their Voodoo math and start using your local option budget contribution toward special ed as counting toward the state's contribution and that's a good thing there is an atrisk accountability plan in this bill um with some new reporting you may be familiar with the atrisk reporting that you get now it's a little complicated and not always handy um and we're hopeful that this new pilot will produce some results that will help us better manage and U move forward on atrisk uh students I think the best is and part of that is we did
036get rid of the owner's law that had these strict requirements on what you could and could not spend your atrisk funding on so now the board list that we approved the 150 or so uh programs uh that you can spend your money on I think will serve us all very well there was also an agreement on how to count students that will help both growing and shrinking districts for at least the next year they made some adjustments to their foray into helping districts dispose of real property we'll see how that works out um um I'm actually uh quite concerned about what the education funding task force that was created in this bill might come up with some of you may know that in 2027 the current school funding formula expires so they will be rewriting
037that formula we actually right now have one of the best education funding formulas in the nation I mean we it's just really good and sometime maybe we can talk about why that is good because I think in 2027 we might want to just Lobby keep the funding formula that we have because it's fair and Equitable and it and it really tries to cover a lot of bases um you've likely heard that the State Board is reworking our Kisa accreditation model we hope that by focusing on fewer things and doing them better that we will better connect the school Improvement idea and Student Success we expect to vote on some changes to that this summer we're also focused like a laser on literacy back in 2019 the state Board of Ed adopted the recog uh recommendations
038of the dyslexia task force you may be familiar with those that included a move for all school districts towards structured literacy we did everything we could do but the legislature did not fund the training that we needed to really make the thing move forward we were also asked in 2020 with you know Co going on to delay implementation of structured literacy and we said no this is too important we could not put it off even one more year but but uh because of Co the State Board of Ed had some discretionary Federal funding Esser funding and we took 15 million of that and invested in free letters training for all elementary teachers all teachers who have to do um tra uh teach reading special ed teachers and now we've moved that up to 8th grade
039so we're hopeful that um we even offered it to College professors because you know we want teachers uh coming to the field knowing this but we're really hopeful and I know that uh you guys have really been doing a great job you're way ahead of the curve on moving towards structured literacy and school districts that have done that have really seen a boost in their reading scores but we have to move faster and to that end the State Board plans to make some requirements for elementary teachers who teach reading to be qualified in structured literacy in order to renew their license in about 3 years um I'm not totally sure what that will look like but we expect to have some testing options where you could test out if you're already trained in structured literacy
040and some uh again free uh training on letters but also some shorter training opportunities as you know letters is like 180 hours of training for teachers and not everybody has that kind of time but there are other options but it's just so important that every teacher know the best way to teach reading and uh we've just got to get serious about it my last thoughts are that elections have consequences and and five state board seats are up for election this year including mine we have 10 state board members and this election will be critical in how we move forward and what we focus on let me mention a few votes that involve OA and keep in mind that we have to have six votes yes to pass anything just like you have to have four
041I assume to pass anything the mental health initiative I heard you guys talk about it tonight we all know after especially coming through Co how important Health initiatives are in our schools OA had nearly 600,000 in funding on the line and the vote was just 7 to three 655,000 per year homeless kids and their families passed only six to four and the funding for that common Benchmark assessment work you're doing passed with just six votes so I encourage you to ask folks who are running for state board this year what they're running for and make sure you're asking all the questions so that you know that they're going to serve your kiddos the best because it really matters a party doesn't matter but policy does and so we really need to be talking to folks
042who are going to be running for these seats with that I wanted to leave a few minutes if you had any questions I'd be glad to answer any questions for state board of education member Mrs ma m still an i' just like to tell you thank you for your service you've been a great advocate for public education all over the state but especially in Topeka and and that um is headache inducing at times I think you said playing defense and that is how it often feels up there so thank you very much for your service to our kids in Kansas well you're welcome it's been a pleasure I I sometimes think everything I've done from that first year of of teaching to everything uh brought me to this moment and it's been uh been a
043blessing really just to get to serve so um my email address is amama ksde.org Amah ksde.org if you think of questions later feel free to write and I'll write you back and again thank you so much for your time I do have one quick question yes the the $73 million number that you mentioned um is that tied to special education yes that's just for special education our thought is that we would distribute that and I think um Dr joer may have the print out that um I think that Frank Harwood Dr Harwood was handing out we we our thought right now is that we would distribute that proportionately to what you're getting now so this would be a lot of money for OA so thank you Bo any last questions thank you very much thank
044you guys thank you all right moving on going to 4.03 we have a kindergarten planning and program update from Dr Jill Smith good evening board it is a difficult act to follow for from South I am just going to tell you that right now but we get to talk about the opposite end of the spectrum so we get to talk about kindergarten and really turning School Readiness into school Success so I want to introduce the two next to me we have Brandy michis and she's the instructional coach for early childhood and kindergarten and then Dr Kim Hawkins you get to read her reports every month right and she's the director of Early Childhood several others um that aren't with us tonight but I wanted to give them credit for the work of um doing some
045changes with kindergarten we have Dr Scott fluke and he's our PBIS facilitator uh or coordinator we have Angie saliva she's the director of seal and mental health and then we had Sarah dild and Kristen lion SC program facilitators so we really are turning School Readiness into school Success and we made two changes one change already occurred on April 11th and the next change will occur in August so I'm going to turn it over to Kim Hawkins this slide will look familiar to to you these are the State Board of Education goals um probably almost 10 years ago in 2015 when the Kansas Department of Education um identified kindergarten Readiness as a state board goal first of all us all of us in early learning were're so excited to see that as a state board goal
046um but at the time Dr Randy Watson um shared that the largest gap we have academically behaviorally emotionally happens on day one when those kindergarteners walk in to that first day of school uh we continue to see this Gap in OA um and tonight is as Dr Smith um shared um we're here to tell you about a couple of exciting things that um we've put together to make this transition better for our students our families and our Educators so um right now we have a little over 600 students who are part of our late the Early Childhood programs that will start in kindergarten in the fall um we have many more students that will head into kindergarten in August that haven't been part of our L The Early Childhood Program so our goal this spring
047and summer and as we head into August is to get to know as much about those students and their families as we can so that goal there just to create multiple opportunities to allow us to get to know our incoming kindergarten students and their families just so we can make the best decisions possible and get them that best start possible as they start um as they start their Elementary career in their school career um tonight we're going to highlight two important pieces that we have to events that we've had as Dr Smith said the first one being a few weeks ago at kindergarten enrollment so Brandy's going to take it away and talk to you about some um exciting things that happened a few weeks ago I've got cute kid pictures for you to see
048that's that's what we all want to see right um so like Kim mentioned we had um kindergarten enrollment on April 11th and we welcomed 1600 new kindergarteners I and we're so excited to see them in August of course they thought school started August 12th for kindergarten because you know they think once they come to school they're officially there um but we're excited to welcome them in August um we did make changed this year and shifted the name from Kindergarten Roundup to kindergarten enrollment um just trying to make it feel like it's something fancy you do we had kids dressed to the nines as you'll see in the pictures really ready to come to that enrollment day um what a special you know first experience with school we had um Lots we tried to increase our
049advertising with our Community Partners our local daycares um and our families and we did see our attendance increase from last year um so we're just going to keep those efforts going of advertising when the enrollment day is and getting as many of our students in because that gives us that first chance to get to no kids um we had District Personnel go out and visit all 36 sites on April 11th and only reported back all these wonderful pictures um but really happy excited kids and then teachers in schools that really made a welcoming warm environment for our families kind of like first impression as they come to school okay more kid piics cuz one slide's not enough right um in an effort to create some consistency amongst our schools we really ask teachers to kind
050of create some similar experiences school to school so you would find um every school doing some kind of read aloud and just letting kids listen to a story you'll see we had principles um joining in for this part of the fun which is always a great time um we also had students of course wanting to get to play with new peers they need to start making those friendships and then just seeing how kids are interacting with each other during play it's what they do best right um we had opportunities for kids of course some wonderful photo opportunities look at that um and then kids were able to draw their cute little self-portraits and show us how they write their name things like that um I just really want to say thank you to all of
051our kindergarten teachers and our schools because they really did such a nice job of welcoming our students in on this state oh yes you so we also wanted to share some great feedback that we received too since this was kind of our first first time to have some consistency across all 30 six of our elementary buildings we thought it was important to get some feedback so things that we heard first we want to give a huge plug for our early childhood Educators that helped to support our kindergarten teachers they were so critical to what happened during that day and so for those of you that don't know we decided to suspend and not have Early Childhood that day so that they could go and help to support our kindergarten I have to tell you some
052of those friends those 600 friends that were coming from Early Childhood were thrilled to see some of their teachers that they already knew in the room with the kids so that was a great feedback uh the flow was much better with having scheduled one hour appointments it was great to be able to spread out our families all the families got the time that they wanted to come which was great but when you think about Manchester park with having 86 students come through during that 1 to six clock time that was pretty impressive the other thing too is we did have some families that participated previously in our Kindergarten Roundup that came to kindergarten enrollment and they just talked about how impressed they were they thought it was really organized kids went one way we could
053see if they could separate from Mom or Dad or family and parents um or if parents could separate from their kids too that was kind of important too um and so it was just much more organized and then some buildings even had their PTO to be able to answer questions right at the beginning of the year some Community Partners that were part of that too and then principales also had the opportunity to talk to families about the importance of attendance every single day so there go yeah good good feedback all right so we shared our first event which was Kindergarten enrollment and and then the second one we have um that we're looking forward to is in August we'll be welcoming all of those 1,600 plus students um back to school for Camp kindergarten um
054so in the 2425 school year our students will spend their first three and a half days coming to camp in kindergarten um what that means is we will not have assigned teacher class list made but instead students will get to interact with a multitude of teachers support staff and their fellow peers as they really just get to start to know their school environment right start to build those connections and find thank you the people that they are connecting with in their school um of course there's going to be all the normal things that happen during the first few days of kindergarten kids will be spending a lot of time playing right they'll be getting to meet their teachers listening to stories and then oh figuring out the lunch routine and if you have not been
055to kindergarten on the first day in the lunchroom I invite you out it is a fun place to be um many of our schools I think about two-thirds of our schools have been doing Camp kindergarten for years and they really see great benefit from it um I know it's a lot of work in planning an organization but the benefits are um in the fact that they are getting to know all of these incoming students really getting to know a strong foundation for them and then being very intentional we know kids before we are able to make class lists and really give those kids a good strong success successful foundation not only to just kindergarten but like Kim mentioned their whole school career so it's something we're really excited about again bringing that consistency piece to
056not just some of our buildings but all of our buildings um for our youngest Little Learners we did share this information with families at kindergarten enrollment so that they could start to prepare for that um and then official teacher assignments will be created um and shared with families on that first Friday so that families have the weekend to prepare and come in for that more traditional Monday first day drop off experience in kindergarten right one of the nice things about kindergarten camp that I just want to mention too is even though we had over 1600 students come for kindergarten enrollment we know that there's still kindergarteners out there that will still arrive right and so this also gives us another opportunity for three and a half days to really see how do they interact and
057play and and do those kinds of things with other students that we may not have seen before in enrollment so finally we always want to connect it back to our strategic framework and two pillars that we really thought about when we were planning these two changes were the high expectations academic expectations for all and we want to hit the ground running even with our 5-year-olds and then the other part is the behavior and social emotional development of our students which was one of the reasons that we made some of these changes too and um when you think about it we want to hit the ground running for our class of 2037 I know so then any questions that you might have for the three of us any questions Mrs Reagan well I don't have questions
058I just have some comments um and I had the privilege of being at kindergarten enrollment at my children's school and I went through enroll I have a second grader and first grader so enrollment is very fresh in my mind um I just have to say even with parents who didn't have incoming kindergardeners the change in language from Roundup to enrollment put a kind of importance and foral on the event I also think as far as the translation between languages Roundup doesn't translate in the same Clear smooth way that enrollment does and so I think that is just a great way for us to meet our community where we are with our 80 plus languages um enrollment is probably more of a direct translatable word um it was just it was so good to not have
059the rush I remember as a kindergarten parent um it was just kind of a a whirlwind and was pick up this paper pick up that paper fill out this paper talk to the nurse this was so much more relaxed it was so much more um of a of a dialogue conversation between um the principal and the parents so the attention to changing something for the better um I know the organization piece was probably more difficult because it was the first time but it having watched it um two different rounds of it in the same afternoon it was just great and the camp kindergarten thing would be is new for our building and the way that you all are changing it I think I mean I am excited to see how it goes you know buildings
060they know the kids that are going into the other grades because they've been in their building and you're able to figure out those Dynamics better with placements and what a great way to set up our kids and our staff for success I don't have a question I am just amazed and so impressed and if you don't you go to enrollment next year oh [Laughter] great I don't have a question either um and I'm not as quite at the level that CLA but I but I never am so um no but I spent an afternoon at one of the elementary schools also um to just observe and interact and it was so fun to be with kindergarteners um and you know example of the uh this one young man who came with his hair sliick down
061and parted and he had older siblings so he he was very comfortable and then another little guy who didn't want to separate from Mom and the staff at the school went and got older sister to spend some time with him in the kindergarten room um I I'm impressed with how strategic and intentional this process has been both with the enrollment but also with the kindergarten Camp um I I know some schools have have been doing that and I just think it's so good for the for the kids and the staff not just that first year but as they continue through school so kudos to all of you I started to kind of list how many people involved but there are too many so um kudos to the leadership and and to the work that you've
062done with these yeah Mr rabbit um I I'm mostly going to Echo what uh these two said but I I happen to completely randomly be at milbrook during Kindergarten Roundup um enrollment enrollment sorry kindergarten enrollment slip too and I I'd never actually been a part of it before because my son wasn't here in kindergarten but it was a well oiled machine just um they had the table set up parents were going through each one they got an extended time with the principal who was able to interact with them tell them about the next year and the kids were having a great time with the kindergarten teachers it was just it was great to see so that's all board any other questions or comments I do have a quick one um both to Dr Smith and
063Dr Harrison I know this was a a a heavy lift to to get 36 buildings on the same page and I know in some of our meetings we talked about consistency and to to to have those you know predictive outcomes um and the the the experience for our students and the experience for our parents so um I appreciate the the lift and the work that you guys have done to provide that consistency for our kindergarten students and our parents so thank you thank you all right moving on to public comments 5.01 Mrs Steel at each regular meeting of the Board of Education reserves limited time for individuals to address the board we ask that your comments be germine that is related to the business this board effectuates non-compliance may result in the president interrupting to
064redirect we request that individual speakers limit their comments to 3 minutes the clerk will monitor the time and notify the speaker when the 3 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 of the room and state your name city and state and relationship to the district thank
065you all right our first Speaker this evening is Whitney shy good evening my name is Whitney schy I'm the lead counselor at El the East High School I've been a part of the hot Community for 27 years as a chemistry teacher as a counselor and as a parent it's May and that means it's Mental Health Awareness Month in 2019 the high schools in the district were fortunate enough to have a student wellness Advocate a mental health expert added to our staff this was a much needed position as our school counselor loads well exceed recommended limits while school counselors have training in mental health by no means are we therapists we help students deal with personal and social issues that may affect their academic success but we all know that the mental health needs of our
066students run much deeper than that many of our students need tier 2 and tier three services these services are best provided by people our students have a relationship with someone they see on a regular basis someone they have a connection with the s swas in our buildings allowed our students and staff to develop these relationships and allowed our students a level of comfortability that they otherwise would not have had two years ago the decision was made to remove these mental health professionals from our high school buildings OA East was fortunate enough to hang on to ours until now this is not my plea to allow late the East to keep our student wellness Advocate this is my plea for you all to evaluate the impact of removing those s swas from the high school that
067the the effect that they have had on the number of students that they can serve removing s swas now called mental health professionals and placing them in an off-site District building does not allow for these individuals to maintain any kind of ongoing relationship with students the data I've been able to obtain about the mhps indicate that of the five mhps that oversee 52 school buildings they have seen 2.5 students per school over the last school year they are not seeing any more students during the months of April and May because there isn't enough enough time for them to develop a relationship with the student before the end of the school year our MHP at o East has seen an average of over 160 students individually for the last o for each of the last three
068years he's made over 22 classroom presentations per year and he has given professional development for staff each of the last three years he is in the hallways at the front door every morning greeting students and in an all in an effort to build relationships with students and staff to help them feel comfortable talking about and dealing with mental health the reason we were given the district the re the reason that we were given that the district originally provided the mhps to our high school buildings to begin with is the number of suicides while we have been fortunate enough to have a reduction in the number of suicides removing active mental health supports from our buildings is a recipe for disaster I urge you to look at the numbers of students in the district's mhps are
069affecting and I urge you to place them back into the high schools on a daily basis I understand the need to be able to cover additional schools but keeping them from being in a building with the students that they are serving just doesn't make sense our district website States many schools also have mental health therapists on site to provide therapy to students unfortunately your time has expired thank you thank you may I provide these letters to the board these are from another staff member in our building thank you our next speaker is Molly creviston hello I'm Margaret creviston or Miss Molly at OA East where I'm a proud cbr2 level two par professional I'm a lanex resident for 17 years and parent of a Canyon Creek Fifth Grader who incidentally has been won the school
070skell spelling be 3 times in a row I urge you to recognize our Union CWA local 6400 o School Workers United it is imperative that board Meers board members and administrations see us hear us and listen to our voices we hear far too often that we are the backbone of our schools but our pay does not reflect the level of professionalism required of our jobs parents are consistently understaffed and overworked inadequately educated about specific disabilities and how they manifest in students learning or behavior our hours are insufficient to appropriate meet with case managers let alone check email staff exist in heightened survival mode leading to burnout and chronic absenteeism constant staff turnover is detrimental to students who require consistent routines and educator relationships we deserve respect and compensation which underscores the importance and legal right
071to a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities recent Roundtable discussions felt Hast arranged with the first scheduled at 3:00 High School is dismissed at 3: Middle School 3:10 and Elementary at 3:40 I was able to attend only because the med medically fragile student I support was hospitalized due to his disability the 90minut meeting held only 15 minutes of actual discussion we love deeply the students we support we celebrate their victories and squeeze a hand through disappointments we help them Forge meaningful lasting relationships with their teenage peers and advocate for inclusion everywhere we hand feed some students their lunch must remember dietary restrictions allergies and who must be prompted to finish a snack to prevent a diabetic or insulin reaction we remind students the social importance of using a tissue as opposed to
072their shirt or finger we provide dignity and assistance for nervous young women changing their menstrual pads Aid young men with Mobility challenges to direct their Ur urine into the toilet we change soiled garments and clean students after a bowel movement always respectfully professionally and with dignity we are slapped punched spat upon and many times worse because we see our students we hear them and we've got them and more importantly we wash our hands and head to American black history horiculture or whatever class they in General Ed they attend waake no mistake these are not complaints this is our job we are the inclusion Revolution and we love our students exactly as they are and for the job I love my take on pay is less than $122,000 a year accompanied by a $6,400 medical deductible
073you misunderstand my passion and love for the students I serve to be a noble class I'm not an angel or a saint I'm a professional educator for for dignity ma'am your time is expired thank you thank you our next speaker is Don lamaster hello my name is Don the master I am a CBR par at Walnut Grove Elman and I have been a par for about 20 years I live in luberg Kansas with my daughter Hillary and her family because I can't afford to live on my own My Two children went through OA East or through the OA school district and graduated from o I am here tonight representing our Union CWA local 6400 OA School Workers United I am speaking to you tonight to answer some of your questions my cooworker Amber sent responses
074to the questions you had at the last meeting which I believe Dr joerger has or will share with you later I wanted to just quickly share a few things about our Union our local CWA local 6400 was formed by parent Educators custodians Food Service workers grounds and maintenance workers and other hourly staff in Lawrence Public Schools we are joining CWA local 6400 because we are ready to be a part of a movement of class classified school staff in Kansas we want you to know that a union is simply a group of co-workers or multiple group of work groups of workers that come together to fight for better conditions at work like my co-workers have said we just want what the teachers have a seat at work or a seat at the table about the discussions
075that affect us and the opportunity bargain over our wages and working conditions our Union is the classified workers in alic public schools it was said at the end of last month's board meeting that quote classified staff is the backbone of our system end quote this is true even Mrs Reagan said quote to our kids a lot of you are everything to them end quote without classified staff minimal to no learning would get done the building's grounds would be unfit to teach learning in the students would have to bring their own lunches creating more financial burden for a lot of families Etc the best way for us to be shown respect is for you to recognize our Union and bargain with us to get a feasible living weight this would show that what we do really
076matters regarding support we need more workers we are underst staffed the only way to get more people to work for the district is by paying them more help us help you to Lobby the state for better wages as well as well as for special education needs that would make a better learning experience for the students the state government is sitting on a $4 billion Surplus we only need an eighth of that united we stand divided we fall and when we fight we win quando Pelle G thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak candre faler hello my name is Cassandra fauler I am a VI Pera who also helps out in the CBR classroom um I I am at Lea North I have worked in the school district for four years I have three
077kiddos that we have adopted um my youngest one is James he is in fourth grade the next one is Lillian she is in fifth grade and then I have Virginia that is in eighth grade I want to thank the board so much for giving me their time today for listening to me on my speech I am here to speak upon the union of CWA local 64 400 OA School Workers United first I would like to speak about wanting to speak about um wanting a union in order to have the classified staff so we can have the support when we have an issue at work I want all of us to have a seat at the table and helping to determine how the pars are trained and supported I want to make sure that there is
078a clear procedure and evaluation and that we are given effective feedback so that we can improve our jobs I want to recognize the union so that as a classified staff we can have an organization ran by us that can support us at work second thing is that at our health insurance our deductible keeps getting higher and higher but our HSA amount still stays the same from our research superintendent Dr Jer makes over $200,000 per year obviously he has a very important job with his salary he can absorb the cost of his doctor bills I only bring home $716 every paycheck per the spread so it's harder for me to be able to pay my medical bills with a family of five my co-workers and I would like to come together to be able to fight
079with to fight for more funding for the public schools and the state so we can be able to have more money to be able to improve upon our insurance third is pay obviously every everybody's going to be speaking about I know that it's on everybody to say but I feel that I could if I could go a quick trip and get a job making $20 an hour we should be making more we do difficult jobs that require patience and skills that we deserve the pay that reflects thank you for listening thank you [Applause] brisela castanos hello good evening board ucation and co-workers my name is brisela Castellanos in IA and I have worked for the district for 23 years I am here represent and our Union that CWA 64 600 or School workers a little
080background about me I have two kids have been and gone to the school district my oldest been a college graduate and my youngest is still study I am a single mom today I will speak to you with respect and hopes to be here first I would like to talk about salary the cost of life is double and often triple our Wes such ANB unbalance is not right or Fair our salaries does not give us enough support many ORS had to work two jobs because our salaries are enough as I have as I have mentioned I have been in the district for 23 years and I have training several people from that I have seen many people come and go and not stay because we we don't get paid enough we put and lot of work
081to keep our schools clean work that is hard and work that not everyone wants to do or can do our current salary doesn't match the amount of work and effort we put in we know school funding is a Statewide issue and we are ready to work with you to fight for more funding from the state of Kansas second I would like to talk about benefits allow allow me to paint a bigger picture we all receive the same benefits because we all have the same allance to go see the doctor and pay a co-pay however the co-pay is of a universal Sol that we didn't have to match but we all don't make the same many of us as custodians we we we are living day by day day to day we don't have enough for
082such high Cay Cay should be related to the amount we each make T I want to mention how we as custodian get get traded I would like to see more appreciation and gratitude to the award we put in towards the schools in recent years we have to feel excluded remember that not only the people behind the Des make make up the district we are a group each with our own responsibilities and tasks to prepare buildings office and classroom for the children's every day as members of the Union CWA um six th000 local or latest co workers we are waiting for you support our reconnection to our Union I love to work school that's what I'm been 23 years so we just asking for a little support thank you for your time thank you Sierra James
083good evening my name is Sierra James and I'm a CBR perah at ala North High I'm here to ask you to recognize our Union CWA local 6400 ala School Workers United I'm relatively new to this job just under two years now and before I came to nor nor I had worked in a few different fields and many different jobs I've had jobs I've hated and jobs I liked fine this is the first job where I feel so at home and so fulfilled at my work for the first time I can truly say I love my job I love education learning and teaching every day my students bring me so much joy and my co-workers amaze me with their passion and dedication to the work and our students still almost every day when I drive home
084I have the thought in my head maybe it's time to find a new job a job that values me enough to pay a wage that keeps up with the cost of living three weeks ago the district held roundt meetings with classified staff I went because I want to help Administration so we can work together to provide the best possible outcome for our students but in the end it just felt like an attempt to assure us that we don't need a union that they would listen to us without one they gave us an hour and a half but made sure to direct the convers ation so we talked as much about why we love our jobs as we did about our frustrations they let us talk for a bit then send us on our way they
085let us talk but we don't know if they listened this is why we want a union we have a voice and we want to use it those of us here with me today are here because we love this job enough to fight for it one of the main things I heard at the round table besides pay was my fellow Paras talking about the respect for our position when I first took the job the response from most people was asking if I was going to become a teacher partly it's just because my friends and family believe I make a pretty good teacher but it's also a testament to the fact that the job I have the job I love is seen by many as a stepping stone and why shouldn't it our only way to advance
086to make anything near a livable wage is to become a teacher and maybe that's just our problem but that means your concern as the school board is if you pay Paris and AIDS custodians and grounds workers secretaries and kitchen staff less than they can make working in fast food what does that mean for our students to me it sounds like we're short changing them by recognizing our Union you recognize us as full partners with you and making our school district the best get it can be for the staff and our students thank you for your time Patty lanter hi I'm Patty lanter um my topic is understanding from a parent perspective understanding what is intruding on our kids education is of the utmost utmost important and is very complicated it is tough to determine the
087largest overstep outside the boundary of Reading Writing math history and science is the overstep in trauma books that induced trauma on all kids through a signed and choice reading books that don't have educational value unless you see fourth grade level for all beneficial when it induces the adoption of trauma with additional trauma comes additional money it is a destructive self-feeding cycle is the threat and explicit materials in the library again with lower Lexile levels does the threat to education come from the Nea that cheers when the president upholds Marxist Angela Davis as someone to be revered marxists want to break everything down while pointing the finger at others the threat could also most definitely come through NOS through massive additions of Castle from the castle company funded by billionaires and politically Mo motivated is the
088threaten reduced achievement scores on assessments does the bar get dropped again or does the assessment test change to get the changing desired goal which threat is most important depends on the goals of the day and who the schools are trying to plead with the atrisk label comes additional money if you are not aware of the origins of Castle there with the Frankfurt School and Marxist critical theory the UN says we need more Castle to help the children transform and accept any nonsense as Truth at the State Board in March uh the ksde said that they've been working on revamping assessments for four years why are we adding another experimental test why OA why the kids of OA are the guinea pigs for money $250,000 if you don't know it used to be that my teacher
089friends were very opposed to assessments because they measured the effectiveness of the teacher now we hear nothing from the unions regarding this I don't know why that is today I would be opposed to the extra assessments not because it measures the teacher or the proficiency but really they measure the child's perceived potential and they collect data for some purpose I don't understand why this is allowed to continue who are the stakeholders it is not the parents and it is not the teachers since they are already have academic assessments which are also currently being reworked by the same companies reading the little that is to be found on these companies they will be of a psychoanalyzing nature psychometrics is a tried andr science for measuring traits and attitudes that are predictive of future behaviors it is
090widely used by nearly all Fortune 500s for talent assessments um and usually take the form of Behavioral questionnaires or tests which score the individual based on the responses uh our state board member just said that the board only four out of six voted for this they had zero Z information on what it was there was nothing you can't find anything on it um and they're proprietary the previous ones are proprietary parents can't see uh they they did say well yeah we should probably work on that try to figure out how to show parents well maybe that is a really good idea turn them inhouse instead of for these companies that are for-profit and hide them thank you [Applause] melios hello my name is Melissa baros and I live in OA you may recall you may
091recall a brave 13-year-old boy Speaking In This Very spot back in November his name is Emit and he is my son quick refresher he spoke about his experiences with bullying and isolation which is just fraction of his struggles fast forward emt's class attendance dropped to 26% he was in school but unable to transition EMT advocated for what he needed and what made attending classes impossible yet he still felt unheard after school EMT would walk through the door feeling absolutely defeated he couldn't even participate in his outside services for speech OT or mental health therapy we met with emt's I AP team multiple times and asked the district to provide some appropriate placement options that fit emt's needs unfortunately the only options given were not appropriate for EMT we found a school that capable of fitting
092emt's needs but it's not within our district EMT audited the school and it was like night and day we asked our IAP team to consider the school for placement and were denied you see emit is a student who falls in the gray area and unfortunately this evening's timer does not allow me to go into full detail but to sum it up he is a verbal autistic student without intellectual disability he needs a singular small setting class or sorry setting classes with very small teacher student ratios individualized instruction access to small scale social opportunities and more in March we unilaterally enrolled EMT in the school he audited EMT is regularly attending learning making friends joined a club and he is thriving I recently spoke about this at our community conversation meeting and when our superintendent acknowledged
093that schools like this are in business because they catch the students that can't be served it gave me hopes that one day this will change the first step to change is the acknowledgement of a problem or need and I applaud him for that acknowledgement meanwhile we are having to pay for emt's Education out of pocket and had to set up a GoFundMe to help cover legal representation to help ensure EMT can stay in this appropriate and life-saving educational setting no family should have to go through these measures to receive fi and it certainly shouldn't depend on financial privilege emit deserves a chance to be a lifelong learn ER eager to speak or eager to seek out knowledge rather than a lifelong education Survivor who avoids the reminders of the trauma he has experienced in schools
094this far please see him hear him because he feels like you don't have him thanks kin campaign hello when reflecting on what to update you with I looked back at my first speech when I noticed my son shared that he got carried to an empty room with no windows and three adults who wouldn't stop talking 10 IEP meetings later and I experienced his team or I expected his team to understand his high- risk of Mental Health crisis and school avoidance that developed from multiple isolation events last year in the spirit of collaboration they agreed to use the problemsolving model instead of behavior compliance as a team we work together to develop preventative supports on his BP plan it had a visual lanyard with sensory tools to regulate his body when he's over stimulated Regulators were
095walking getting a snack and reading a book one of my biggest concerns is there was a picture of an empty room I actually started to cry in the meeting because it reminded me of what happened last year they assured me it was a mistake in a miscommunication and that now when he's disregulated he goes to a sensory gym last week Aiden asked for a book during music and he was directed to the small calm down room with nothing in it for manifestations of his autism students should not be placed in a closet for needing a sensory tool to remain engaged with peers he watched the footage himself and he said I wish there was a camera in the closet so you could hear me asking for help to get out I will continue to remind
096you the trauma seclusion causes autistic students what we are teaching autistic students is it's not okay to be themselves to use sensory Tools around on their friends teachers have shared with me they're uncomfortable supporting Aiden because they don't fully understand autism why are they uncomfortable because indirect Services don't support staff with the least amount of autism knowledge the most recent neurod Divergent training was not provided to par professionals so we must be training the right teachers all of our teachers even our specials teachers and gened teachers I asked ksde to how many reports of seclusion are at my school this year and they could not share the number because it's lower than 10 my son's team told me he's never been in that small calm down room my son said it wasn't true the data
097shows there's under 10 seclusion incidents at my school my son said that's impossible I reviewed the footage myself and now I believe my son and not my school these incidents will not stop unless we train staff on the meaning of seclusion a school Personnel isolates the student and is not meaning ly engaged with them and the student has no reason to believe they will be prevented from leaving the environment verbally directing a student to a seclusion room is still considered seclusion a seclusion room should be a small or should be a place that's safe and looks like a room that students frequent all the time examples of seclusion is a student in a calm down room with one staff member ignoring them and another with the door open the solution is simple follow State guidelines
098focus on prevention a cown room should not be a part of a behavior plan it's only used for emergencies thank you thank you Julie Bosworth good evening my name is Julie Bosworth I am an OA resident and a second-year parah at OA East High School my two sons graduated from AA East as well I'm here to talk about prayer professionals and all of the things we do to describe our or to um support our students in the district the term par professional while accurate as a School employee classification is completely inadequate and describing everything we do each day we are personal caregivers and hygiene instructors we hand feed students who cannot feed themselves we help those who can navigate this school cafeteria which is a pretty scary place we assist students with diapering toileting and
099menstrual needs and gently remind students that they may need to attend to their hygiene we are Behavior Specialists we get to know our students on a deeply personal level understanding and avoiding their triggers and learning the best strategies for deescalation and redirection we are Advocates we work with Jenna teachers to make sure all of our students are meaningfully included with their peers in class discussions activities and projects we are tutors we break down classroom teacher instruction into more manageable steps repeat instructions to students who have trouble focusing and assist students with completing assignments outside of class we are curriculum modifiers we work together with case managers and gened teachers on ways to help students get the most out of their classes this may include focusing on only the essential parts of of assignments or altering
100how information is presented we are interpreters we help teachers and peers understand students who may have speech challenges we are Tech gurus we help students log into their devices submit assignments to Google classroom and navigate specialized software we are social skills coaches every day brings new opportunities for our students to interact with their peers in classrooms hallways cafeterias and in the community we are there to help them guide them in all these situations we are group facilitators during High School interpersonal skills classes we facilitate group discussions between our students and peers and work with Pro on projects to ensure that all in students are involved and projects are completed on time we are data collectors we report on student achievements and behaviors TOA case managers which may be used in progress monitoring toward student IE
101goals we are administrative assistants we assist case managers in planning and communication related to events that occur throughout the year parents come from many varied backgrounds some are just out of high school working their first real jobs some are parents of children with disabilities who want to give back to their schools and some like me are former Executives who are in second or third careers after decades in the workforce yet many of us are forced to work second jobs just to make ends meet regardless of our backgrounds we all deserve to be respected valued and paid for the many ways we support our students each day I strongly urge you to recognize our Union's CWA 6400 thank you thank you board that concludes our public comments for this evening moving on to action consent 6.01
102through 6.12 are there any questions any items we need to pull out for discussion can um make a brief comment on 6.06 M Reagan okay just make the comment okay um I am on the um Al the head star Council and policy Council and I um am impressed as always with the amount of detail and work that goes into um putting together the grant proposal um for the federal dollars and the investment of time and energy that goes into that um it's extremely uh it's a robust process and and um the individuals who undertake it are extremely detail oriented and I appreciated the chance to sit in the meeting and go through um all of the different items in that uh continuation Grant proposal so um I am looking forward to voting for it Bo
103any other comments or questions on 6.01 through 612 sing I entertain a motion move to approve action consent 6. 01 through 6.12 as presented I'll second we have a motion by m steel and a second by Mrs Johan Mrs Johan yes Mr Boyd yes Mr babit yes Dr yovich yes Mrs steel yes Mrs Reagan yes right motion carry 60 moving to action bids contracts and agreements 701 through 7 18 board any comments anything we need to pull out seeing I'll entertain a motion I would move to approve action item 7.01 to 7.0 7.18 second we have a motion by Dr yurkovich and a second by Mr babit Mrs steel yes m Mrs Reagan yes Mr Boyd yes Mrs Johan yes Mr babit yes Dr yurovich yes motion carries 60 moving on to action other all
104right board let's see if we can get this uh process clean today this evening um a bunch of appointments that we need to make the first one 8.01 the Kansas Association of school so this is for the renewal 8.01 I entertain a motion I move to approve payment to kasb for the 2425 fees as presented second have a motion by Mrs steel and a second by Mrs Reagan Mr Boyd yes Mrs Reagan yes Mr babit yes Dr yovich yes Mrs steel yes Mrs Joan yes motion carries 60 all right 8.02 this is a nomination for the Kansas Association School Board nominating committee board memb is there anyone who would like to volunteer for that nomination I'm she wants to um I would volunteer to serve in that role wonderful I move to cease nominations second
105we have a motion but we have a motion by Mrs steel and a second by Mrs Reagan Mr Babin yes Mr Boyd yes Mrs Reagan yes Mrs steel yes Mrs Johan yes Dr yurkovich yes motion to cease nominations carry 60 I move to appoint Dr jurovich to serve on the KB nominating committee for a one-year term expiring in April of 25 second we have a motion by Mrs steel and a second by Mr babbit Mrs Reagan yes Dr yurovich yes Mrs Johan yes Mrs steel yes Mr babit yes Mr Boyd yes motion carry 60 moving on to 8.01 this is for the Kansas Association School Board legislative committee any volunteers I'm sorry 8.03 thank you any volunteers I would volunteer okay any other nominations I mean if you would like to go for I move
106to ceas nominations second we have a motion by Mr babit and a second by Mrs steel Mrs Reagan yes Dr yurovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr Boyd yes Mr babit yes Mrs Johan yes motion carries 60 I move that we appoint Julie steel to the KB legislative committee second we have a motion by Mrs Reagan and the second by Mrs Johan Mr bit yes Mrs Johan yes Mr Boyd yes Dr jurkovich yes Mrs steel yes Mrs Reagan yes MO carry 60 that was the cleanest we have ever done that good job did it all right moving on to Future action items um board there's a lot there um we do have some information that was presented to us this evening around 9.38 um so take that and read that at your leisure um a couple
107information written reports um I do want to highlight the the bond update for May 2020 2024 um there's a lot in there particularly um I know some of our students are excited to see some completed playgrounds so um Travis isn't here this evening but congrats to him and his team for getting that uh done and there's Furniture in Santa the new Santa fre Trail building so um check that out there's some good stuff in there uh Bard topics for discussion drich I um just want to acknowledge that yesterday was principal Appreciation Day N National principal appreciation in this semester we have recognized um secretaries and counselors and Paris and all of those who report daily um to a school building to support our kids and then next week with teacher appreciation just want to give
108um advaned congratulations and thank you to those who who again are in the buildings every day and um to also acknowledge the end of year is an exciting time and a crazy time with all of the activities and a thank you to all of those that make those things happen including many of the people in this room tonight who serve in the custodial role um because with each activity of course there set up and cleanup and and just an appreciation and an acknowledge M um for the excitement at the end of the school year board any other comments or topics for discussion Mrs ran um I spent a various time um the last month doing various things around our district and I'm just as always walking away very proud um spend about an hour today
109at Mission Trail Touring that beautiful building um and just you know seeing the resource there just as a great space and knowing that we have another building that is like it and Santa Fe Trail will be like it as well I still don't fully understand why swimming pools in OA are in Middle Schools I would love to know more about that I'm kind of kidding but not really um but it was fun to see the pool it's a great space and it was neat seeing the O the West swim team senior pictures up on the wall there um my children and I attended the volunteer appreciation reception last week it was a room filled with people who love OA schools um not everyone was there but it's 617 volunteers whove logged almost I think 18,000
110hours of volunteer work this school year um the rean children really enjoyed handing out those those pins for years of service uh it was a great event put on by people who really appreciate those individuals who take time out of their days to be in our buildings it was a pleasure to be at Merrick um Den dbangs uh celebration assembly at ala East for his naal award for Spirit of sport to see the community of East coming around him and the other kids who are in Unified sports was very powerful my son actually participates in Special Olympics as well so having that through line for me to see what maybe his experience may be like in the future um was really powerful to see and I know I've got a lot I'm sorry I got
111to do some cap Capstone Zooms for our distinguished Scholars um Academy or leadership program uh last week and um McKenna Burns and seaha kanduru did such wonderful jobs on their presentations the fact that they are just seniors in high school blew me away it's a testament to their hard work but also their instructors over the course of their education I also wanted to congratulate Saha for being a National Merit Scholarship winner um she found that was announced I saw on my social media like the same day I saw her presentation it was really neat I was like I met her today so that was so cool um I appreciated um an Ma's uh discussion of the Ed budget Bill 387 there was some really promising compromise that went into that bill um and that's not
112something we see often so it was powerful to see that the way the votes turned out too they were overwhelmingly passed in both sides of the legislature um that being said um the discussion around Equitable and fair funding for schools should not be contentious it should not be a battle so I remind everyone in our community that this year we get to elect the entire legislature across the state of Kansas and making sure we have people there who aren't just vocal about their support of schools but we see that support in their votes when they serve us into TOA um it puts our district and our state in a much better position and finally the power of connection um going to New Orleans for the National School Board Association conference was a wonderful opportunity for
113us to get to know each other better as a board and for us to know some of the staff and to go to some great um sessions but the power of connections you make when you're young teachers you have such an influence my high school English teacher was there as a board member of the district that I grew up in and I got to see her and seen her in years and so the connections you're making today especially on these hard days of May where we are all just you know watching the clock for summer to hit um they are so important and valuable and you don't know when a student is going to pull that discussion or that connection out of their mind and change their career path to become a teacher or volunteer
114in a school when they have a free afternoon so thank you so much it is pleasure to serve and I can't believe that it's May that's crazy Mr Dr yovich yeah I I'll just give a little bit of history about the Middle School pools okay I apprciate thank you Dr yurovich you're welcome you're welcome um I'll serve as a historian I guess here um my understanding is that when Santa Fe Trail the original Santa Fe Trail building was being built there had been a loss of life at a swimming pool in the community so the leadership in the district decided that swimming should be part of the physical education curriculum and with that first school they included a pool and then of course with the additional nine um that has continued so is part of
115PE curriculum and um and that's the why the more you know I appreciate the why board any other topics for discussion Mr babbit is that going to be in the next book next history of OA school I feel like there needs to be a section um this morning I was able to go to the uh academic and Military signing event at oan North uh put on by uh the principal and Mr bsky there and it was pretty amazing to see just hundreds of kids going across the uh stage hearing about the schools they were going to hearing the um areas they're going to be studying and the best part for me was the amount of the quotes they were giving given from different authors or artists they enjoyed as well as going out of their
116way to thank so many of their Educators that worked with them as well as uh their parents that supported them throughout it so it was a really inspiring um thing to attend and it was it was really appreciated for the invitation um I also wanted to give a shout out to Mr bsky who's retiring this year after 22 years for putting on yet another uh incredible event in Alan North so thank you for the invitation M Joan yes um I would just frame my comments tonight under perspective I've gained A New Perspective in the last few months being in this position and really enjoyed it um I had the opportunity and you may call me crazy to run a half marathon earlier this month through the city of OA and as I was running I
117noticed many of our schools on the route I noticed an officer there I waved at him he didn't he didn't remember me but I thought next time next time next time I thought this is just a really neat opportunity for me to see a different perspective of a city that I live in I'm a part of my kids are in this community and really see everybody come together um I also have my son's football practice he's in flag football he's in kindergarten we we did not get kindergarten enrollment but I can definitely appreciate all the work that that you all put into that um but his flag football practi is on Northwest field and just being there just just gives me a whole whole different feeling whole different vibe for the school district and what
118we do for our kids so honestly that's really where I'm at perspective um I'm super excited to be able to attend in a different capacity um next month well this no it's this month my cousin graduates from Northwest and so I'll be able to be there for her graduation and really excited about that so thank you again for allowing me to have this opportunity I'm I'm super happy to be here and continue to work with all of you Mrs steel um I'm glad you brought up graduation because I was going to say to our newer board members it's one of the joys of this role so enjoy every bit that you get to be a part of that it's very special um I got to uh go to a couple of retirement parties but one
119of them was super special um I um certainly um support and understand the uh golden effect that our Paris have in our classroom my career started in special education and I had uh two of the very best um Paris by my side and the three of us taught together and it was really a beautiful thing um so I appreciate the Paras who spoke tonight um one of those Paras decided to get her teaching license so for the perah who talked about that tonight um don't give up on that consider that um and then I went to her retirement party last week and she taught for 25 years after we um taught together and so that was a great joy for me to go over to Sunnyside and be at Kim selman's um retirement party so
120um shout out to Paris and all they can be for our kids um I also wanted to Echo what um Miss Reagan said about the opportunity we have for PD as a board um there's a couple of those and one of them happened um last month when we um went to the National School Board Association conference and we got to sit through several breakout sessions as well as some really unique keynote speakers and I'm just going to mention a couple of them one was uh Dr Timothy Shyer who in 2019 group of people decided to form a group called unite and that's all capital letters and what they did was their goal was to how do we bring people together across divide and they actually developed a scale that's become quite successful and it's called
121the dignity index and he was such a powerful speaker that throughout the rest of our time together as a board we were using some of that language um in calling each other out on maybe how we we were being inclusive or not inclusive and it was a really it was good we learned a lot maybe that dignity in index will become part of our our language as a board um we also got to hear Ruby Bridges and if you don't know that name um when she was 6 years old she was one of the first to desegregate the school in her Mississippi small town and um you know you think about that she was 6 years old and she's now 69 and she speaks at a lot of events and you go gosh that was
12263 years ago that that we were doing this then that not seem right so anyway we've come a long way and we have a long way to go so it was great to get our own um professional development as a board um and that's all I have President well you still my two aor you'll say it better than I did no um I do I do want to share one of the stories that Ruby Bridges shared when she did her her keynote she talked about how um her teachers inside of the building who look like the folks on the outside of the building who were Shing her hatred and you know disdain for being a six-year-old little girl and trying to go to school but it was the teachers on the inside of the building
123who showed her loved and created a safe space for her and she spoke about how I'm looking at these these folks who look similar but um treated her drastically different impacted her life um and then with the the dignity index um Tim Shriver um this is what he said he said our disagreements aren't causing the divisions in our country it's what we do when we disagree do we treat the other side with dignity or do we treat them with contempt the first bring us together the second div drives us apart so it was really really impa listening to those two Keynotes in New Orleans um was really really impactful and um Julie is right we we played with that dignity index for the rest of that trip so um Dr jger I believe the four
124is yours sir thank you very much um so several things I'd like to share tonight um one is an exciting thing as we think about teacher appreciation week next week but also an opportunity to thank all of our staff in our school district um those of you who who are parents and and everyone in the community that has a connection uh to our district through email received in our um uh monthly kind of e newsletter that that that we provide last week um an invitation to to fill out a form to send a note to a staff member to thank them for all that they do and show appreciation a great idea from our Communications team and really a a special way to show our staff appreciation so um they're working hard uh to follow
125up with the 375 that have been completed as of today and making sure that those thank yous get out to the appropriate staff members but it's open until may10th so um anybody that would hear um we would sure appreciate you taking taking the time to who fill out that form from the newsletter um reaching out to staff members in the district who who make a difference every day so just wanted to highlight that as an opportunity today um yesterday as as you heard was principal appreciation day um principles are celebrated every day in our district um I'm just kidding so same way superintendents are celebrated every day perhaps um but you know I I sent our principles a little message last night but but one of the things I talked about is how there are
126so many people in our school system to do what's right for kids but principles are the one every day that puts their schedule the things that they need to get done on the sideburner to take care of whatever is in front of them and that could be a student need a staff need a community need but um you know our principles are are very well trained they do a great job but the reality is is they don't know necessarily what's going to walk in the door of their office from day to day um or in Mr M's case if he's out rolling around the building with his his desk um you just never know what's going to happen from one minute to the next and our principes do such a good good job of navigating
127that every single day so I just wanted to Echo what do Dr yurovich said and just thank our principles for all that they do each and every day today was a really exciting day Mr voyd you kind of mentioned this but there is some uh Furniture going in at sft but also today was the very first student group that visited the new SF so I think maybe Dr Waters put some stuff out on Twi Twitter or somebody maybe has um but it was so fun maybe you just sent me pictures is that what it was okay she sent me highly confidential pictures but um it was really exciting to see young people walking through the halls of the new sft um today and I actually had the opportunity last week to go in and and
128walk around with Mr palang and Dr McMullen and I have to tell you in in full vulnerability that I had tears in my eyes as I walked around the school and the reality is is you know there's so many things I'm proud of every single day in our district but as I walked through there I was really overcome by the fact that there is no stronger sign in our community that we care about every kid we serve and um I'm just so proud of the the board and their foresight for doing that our our staff and uh boy Mr liel too you know our principal there uh he is the first principal in our history to open and close a school all at the same time so I'm just so proud of everything that's that's
129happening there and so exciting so excited about all of that A Couple Of You' mentioned it but graduation is upon us where we will say goodbye to the senior class of 2024 our five Comprehensive High Schools will start on the 17th and then go through Sunday the 19th we're excited to see you all as board members there but we also have some other important graduations that I wanted to mention tonight we'll have students that will graduate from Prairie Learning Center and a ceremony there um we have a couple of students who will graduate from CLA Learning Center which is really exciting and then we also as we do every year have students graduate from our Step Up program and that's our high school degree completion program um where we will have students in a variety
130of Ages and life experiences who will graduate and that's one of the things that makes OA really special so so proud of all of our graduates whether they're 18 or 47 um it's a great accomplishment for all of them and then lastly I would just say that you know as this is our last board member of the school year like every year we've had uh challenges and really positive things happen and we're a large enough system that the odds are in our favor for both of those things to happen each year but as I reflect on the year I'm so proud of the work that our staff has done this year and um you know the the work of of being in education is not easy uh whether you work in business and finance or
131if you're a first grade teacher or a parah in our District but I just want to show my appreciation and thank those who continue to show up every day and do what's best for our students across the system obviously the graduates of 2024 would not be where they are with without uh many staff members doing that and then finally I just want to wish a well wish um to our staff members who are retiring we uh don't have a huge group of retirements this year but um we certainly have a great deal of expertise that's going to be leaving us and and moving on and we wish them very well as they go also Al an ass system our side we have a size we have a number of people who resign and do other
132things uh uh moving forward and want to wish those folks well as as as well I think I just use the word well maybe seven times in about 30 seconds so um we hope whatever is in the future for all those people is extremely uh uh rewarding for them those are my comments tonight well moving on to moving on to 13.01 um 15 minutes for the first executive session Bo I I'm actually if you don't mind I'm going to recommend maybe we do 25 okay okay I move the board going to Executive session for the purpose of discussing matters relating to employer employee negotiations and that the board returned to the regular meeting at 8 what' you say 25 10 810 25 okay 8:10 p.m. that's perfect a second we have a motion by Mrs
133steel and a second by Mrs Johan Dr jurkovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr babit yes Mr Boyd yes Mrs Reagan yes Mrs Johan yes motion carry e e e want to do um 8:30 or how you want to do that yes let's do 8:30 15 minutes 8:30 3 minute warning still Yes or do you need one or not yeah okay move to extend it I hi second thank you very much thank you e e e for the purpose of Consulting with an attorney for the body or agency which would be deemed privileged an attorney client relationship the board return the client to the regular meeting at right yeah 95 if you want but if he gets done in 30 he said 30 we'll make it be done then we can't come back can't come back
134early minutes okay he's do it 9:15 9:15 great three minute warning I'm second oh yeah sorry thank you and you all why does Dr Bowski have a name badge there e e e there camera we are than you