October 2023 Olathe Public Schools Board of Education Meeting

001good evening and Welcome to our October meeting um Barb can you call roll please Mr be here Mr Boyd here Mr Connell here Mr cun here Mrs steel here Mr Wick here Dr yurovich here will you please join me and welcome our Pioneer Middle School students to the front so we can stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all in my correction those are students from Heatherstone and Manchester Park Dr BC well good evening and thank you for attending tonight's elate the Public Schools Board of Education meeting before we begin we feel it is important that we review the importance of conducting productive and orderly meeting this meeting is

002designated for the board to work with the superintendent and staff to conduct the work 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 attendance we request that audience members not speak yell or give Applause during the meeting 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'll now proceed with the agenda thank you um before we get into our agenda um I want to take a m a moment and offer an apology to our community um to our students their families um our Educators

003our education support professionals um our shaff here in the room um last month um I would say there was a lack of decorum um and inappropriate actions from our guests in the room as well as the president of this board and the person that's tasked with presiding over this meeting um I believe that responsibility Falls to me to make sure that um we are conducting this meeting the way it should be so to our staff in the abild in our room I apologize for um last month's actions and hopefully we can get our meeting going on this month um have a better outcome I do want to reiterate what Dr McMullan just stated and he says this you know it's been month after month and I I think often times it's it's missed and again

004as the president of of this board and the one that's task with presiding over this meeting I want to make sure that everyone is clear anyone disrupting the meeting in any capacity will be asked to leave and may lose the opportunity to attend future meetings I take my responsibility very serious to to uh Pride over this meeting and we're going to make sure that today it's efficient and it's in order so moving on to agenda item 2.01 I want to say a motion I'd move to adopt the agenda as presented second we have a motion by Mr wickliff and a second by Mr beverage Mr Boyd yes Mr beverage yes Mr cun yes Mr Connell yes Dr yurkovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr wickliff yes the motion passes 70 all right moving on to recognitions

005and awards Aon good evening as we move into Awards and recognitions I'd like to take a moment to welcome all of our distinguished guests tonight we'd like to invite Heatherstone Elementary School principal Tony Cole along with first grade teacher Nancy Smith up to the front Heatherstone Elementary School was awarded the Civic advocacy network award from the Kansas State Department of Education Nancy Smith can be credited for her work and Leadership with the farmtotable program and advocating for embedding agriculture standards in her extensive integrated unit plans the schools that uh the purpose of the Civic advocacy network is to recognize schools that actively involve students in Civic engagement opportunities and to share exemplary practices with schools across the state Nancy said whether first graders are going to Topeka to Lobby the State Board of Education to

006include agriculture culture in our state Teaching Standards or we're inviting the OA police and fire departments to come to our school to share their programs the Heatherstone staff is committed to helping our students become involved in their Community I am so proud to be part of the Heatherstone team that works hard at providing opportunities for our students to learn about their world congratulations to Tony Nancy and the entire Heatherstone Elementary staff Dr SMI [Applause] congratulations next we'd like to invite Rachel swaringen of Manchester Park Elementary School to the front along with her principal Jenny Steel earlier this semester Rachel was named the Kansas history teacher of the year by the Gilder lman Institute of American History which is an amazing achievement by itself but more recently she was announced as one of 10 finalists for

007the 2023 National history teacher of the year award this award was implemented to highlight The crucial importance of history education by honoring exceptional American history teachers from elementary through High School Rachel said history is a subject that is vital to helping students build a foundation of what it means to be a productive citizen in a Democratic Society I want to continue to spread that message please join me in congratulating Rachel swen on this amazing [Applause] accomplishment and that concludes our recognitions for this evening all right we have two presentations tonight up first is the Fantastic principal at pioner Trail Mr Appel on setting the bar pretty high there Mr Boyd they could be my bias coming out little bias I think a couple of you might be biased on the board up there but I

008I appreciate it um thank you board thank you superintendent leadership team for allowing uh us to come up here and and brag about the things that are going on at Pioneer Trail not only this year but the last couple years as well as what we got going on in the future also want to make sure I recognize uh our two amazing assistant principles Mrs Ashley olr and Mrs Katie Ola in the back of the room they're instrumental the success and everything we do on the day today so first just want to kind of paint a picture of what we look like at Pioneer Trail you can see in the graph on the bottom right our culture and ethnic ethnic breakdown of our student body this is what you would see when you walk through our

009hallways we have a great mixture of diversity and and different backgrounds that we have in our building you can also see on the left we have we already have welcomed 20 new students to our building this school year so that's about two or three new students every week and out of those 20 students eight of those students are from outside the country so their first American public education experience is at Pioneer Trail Middle School which is something that we really love and it's a unique opportunity that we get at Pioneer Trail you can also see that just over 10% of our students were born outside of the United States we have over a 100 students who are English language Learners so their their primary language isn't English and we also have 20 different languages spoken

010in the homes at of of our students which is a really cool uh thing when you think about it you know we have this wealth of experiences backgrounds and cultures is something that we really get to embrace as a staff I also want to take a second to brag on our staff at Pioneer Trail they have a collective efficacy like a building I've never been in before they collaborate to do what is best for kids academically socially emotionally mentally to ensure that our kids are set up for Success every day and our staff has also a really good balance in a perfect mixture of of Staff who are in various stages of their career and so we have a really good camaraderie so we we know when to have a good time we know when

011to have fun but we also know when it's time to roll up our sleeves and get the job done and I know that with with certainty that if we have to make a decision the decision is going to be made with the best interest of our students in mind and not with with the adults in mind so we're going to focus tonight on on our building mission statement which is also the framework of our PBIS which is also our PBIS framework and that is we are accountable we are respectful we are engaged we are PT we felt as a staff a couple years ago when we voted on our mission statement that these were characteristics of not only successful students at pioner Trail or within the Ala Public School System but also of successful postgraduates

012and we're going to take a few minutes on each slide to to kind of show and embody what it looks like every day at Pion TR with our staff and students so that first one's accountability or being accountable we use our data to make the make the decisions that we that we make in our in our building daily so we're using our Kansas assessment data to set those building wide goals and and to celebrate the success that we have in our in our daily instruction so one of our successes this year was We were one of the highest year-over-year had one of the highest year-over-year growths um in our math scores in the district among the 10 middle schools which is something that we celebrated pretty heavily and that goes back to the collective efficacy

013of our staff um what a lot of people don't know is that our staff every single staff member is involved in in developing a math lesson that is then given on math Thursdays we call it during our intervention time and so every single staff member has a hand in that success that we've seen in math and we're hoping to couple that up this year with reading we also use our fastbridge data to look at who what students we need to intervene with so that intervention could be students that need we need to fill some gaps with or some students that we need to extend their learning to make sure they're being appropriately challenged in our building then our staff is using our common common form of Assessments during plc's just to make sure that if

014we're unit and we have students who maybe aren't hitting our targets that were intervening they working with them in small groups or individually to make sure that they are going to be on target when we do have that end of unit assessment we also as a staff chose three high impact strategies you can see up there on on the presentation we chose those because we felt that those would build an excitement for learning because of these strategies and so our students are more excited to come to class they're hearing some common language they're seeing some really fun things and we're we're activating that prior knowledge that we really need need with the with the diversity that we have in our building and the languages that are spoken in our building which also leads to an

015appropriate challenged academic um appropriately challenging academic structure and procedures for our kids and that is increased our academic rigor and so because we're challenging students appropriately we've seen an increase in that work completion which has in turn seen an increase in student scores the next one's respectful so in our building when we have such richness and beliefs perspectives it's imperative that we respect and understand one another and everybody's background our staff and students have gone above and beyond to develop a culture of inclusion and belonging so much so that when you walk into our building and one of our 20 new students is in there you wouldn't know if that student has been in our building for two days two months or two years our students and our staff take everyone in like they're their

016own and they make them feel connected immediately and they're going their own way one thing that we like to talk about when we're at lunch the administrators and our the rest of our staff is we never see a student sitting by themselves um not by not by choice and so the only time we see students sitting by themselves is by their own choice if they just need a break and a relaxation time they can have it they can be away from people for a few minutes one of the big things we also have seen with our PBS program is that increase in consistency and our follow through and buy in and the common language that we're speaking throughout the building and in terms of the expectations that we have with our kids so whenever we

017have something going on it's the same thing they're going to hear in the Commons that they're going to hear in the lunchroom that they're going to hear in the classroom that they're going to hear in the hallway it's consistent and there's follow through and we go with it because we have that consistency in Buy in that common language we've seen an increase in students following those expectations which has also led to a decrease in our disciplinary referrals and lastly is that student engagement probably one of the biggest ones and most important ones for us as a building uh we we have staff who are working tirelessly to develop highly engaging material which creates an academic buzz in our classrooms students are talking the academic language they're on task they're working through projects or work that

018is Meaningful and relevant to them which is in turn increase our work completion and increase student scores when we get together and we talk about the as a as an administrative staff it's so special to to be able to talk and brag about our team and always invite you guys to come see that as well and some of you have had the experience to be able to see what we're talking about we've also seen an increase in increase in the involvement in our extracurricular activities so from our after school clubs from our student diversity advisory Council to our student council to our Green Team which keeps up our guard our garden in the backyard of Pioneer Trail to our athletes to our Fine Arts musicians and our Theater which we have a play Dro in

019tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. if anyone wants to come um you're more than welcome to show up and see that and so with that increase in student Buy in we've seen an increase in that school spirit which just creates this special Buzz within our building one of my biggest goals for myself every year is just that increase the community engagement this is my second year as building principal and I'll be honest last year when I started our parent organization I had two parents so a little bit of a little Humble Pie I got to eat when when we when we had that one show up uh I'm very happy to announce that we have a recent parent meeting on uh just on Wednesday night and we tripled our attendance and so we're making small incremental

020growth but at the end of the day our our parents and families are still supporting our kids even if they're not coming to the meetings they're following through with emails they're bringing things in to support our students and staff and at the end of the day that's what we need to see and then we also part of our community engagement are Mentor students that go to Countryside once a month so we have an aim program which is kind of the precursor to Avid we have students who go over every month they Mentor student at Countryside Elementary and there's a picture there of one of our students who's able to go over there the other week they play UNO they're reading with them they're doing math facts um these two individuals are working on sentence structure

021and it was just so much fun to see not only the Joy on the elementary students faces but also on our eighth graders faces when we walked out the doors and they were talking about how much fun they had teaching and learning so um gives us hope as administrators as we're as we're hiring there's people that do want to be a teachers and so we just got to keep keep feing that buzz we're gonna wrap things up here with a little short video and so we have a special guest who comes and visits our building about two or three times a quarter and her name is Agent R agent R is always on the lookout for students who are being accountable respectful and engaged um what's amazing is when agent R and her camera crew

022show up is that there's just a special buzz in the building where kids are excited to be interviewed and want to be a part of it and they want to see themselves on the video when they when we show it during intervention time the following day what the kids don't know is we're actually tricking them into speaking the language that we want to hear and you guys will get to see that here on here on uh on display and this is our students haven't seen this one yet it's being pushed out here in a in a couple days or here at the end of the week and I am not at Liberty to tell you if the agent R is missing Ola and the camera crew is Mrs orich good morning this is Agent R

023remember R stands for accountable respectful and engaged and I'm back for year or two to see what these awesome PT Panthers are doing and let me tell you you are in for a treat hey could you tell me what are our school expectations accountable respectful engaged we are PT I'm here today to talk with this table about what are some things you do that are accountable at lunch um I get the yellow rag when it's time to clean up we clean up after ourselves love it keep the volume in the lunchroom down ah we don't want it to get too loud in here what are some other things we do to be accountable uh you throw your trash away throw it away when we're done swe when we SPO yeah we've got brooms all over

024the place we clean up our messes don't we all right thank you so much thanks for being accountable agent art here and I'm excited to talk to Lea about how she is respectful in the hallway I keep walking and I keep traffic moving I don't stop love that she keeps traffic moving through our hallways here today let talk to our friend Jake Jake what are some things you do to be respectful in the hallways I use conversations and I get to class and try not hard that is wonderful quiet conversations and he works hard to be time thank you so much Jake hi this is Agent R back at Pioneer Trail and today guys I'm just so inspired by the engagement that I see I have Kate Howard right here Kate Kate interested being interviewed

025about how why engagement is so important yes there you go there's your super important microphone why do you think engagement matters I think it matters cuz it's showing respect to the players on the court and like making sure that you are like paying attention and like showing them that you care wow do you think these players put in a lot of practice outside of this every single day they have practice in games so Wow have you ever been a player in a game yes oh do you appreciate it when the when the crowd is engaged yeah it makes it more fun and it just makes it feel like you guys are all like together hey Panthers what are our school expectations we are accountable respectful we are so again [Applause] again just it creates a

026lot of fun and I think a couple special cameos in there from a few uh members of maybe some family members of the board um and so just as special to see that and see our kids how excited they get to talk about Pioneer Trail and the our mission statement and what it's all about and it just yeah if if you ever want to come be on video you're welcome to reach out to agent r or missa might have a a special connection to agent r as well and so that kind of wraps everything up I'm not playing that again wraps everything up and you guys are always welcome to come join us at Pioneer Trail to catch our kids being accountable respectful and engaged so thank you guys for the [Applause] opportunity board are

027there any questions of Mr Appel see the bar wasn't set too high for you you did good good all right thank you you guys appreciate it moving to 4.02 we have a special education update you know we should have planned that better it would have been fun to have agent R interview us and have some live action for you guys but instead you just get um some amazing folks out of the special education Department here this evening we're excited to share with you this evening with me I am joined by Lori Diaz she is a resource consultative teacher and I know that's kind of a lot of words so I'm going to describe what she actually does for you um she's a former resource teacher in our district and now her role is to go

028out and support resource teachers elementary through high school um and provide them ideas and think about individual ways to meet student needs in the resource setting so she helps support curriculum and different types of plans and strategies that we put in place for teachers and then the other two wonderful ladies that I have standing next to Lori are summer and Tracy Russman and these ladies are going to talk to you about another area of special education um with our gifted program kind of later in the position in the the uh program so in order to get started I think it's important that we all have have a basic foundation and understanding for what special education really is and um when we say special education we mean specially designed instruction and to take that one step

029further specially designed instruction is simply a way of adapting content methodology or delivery of instruction to meet unique needs and the thing that really needs to be pointed out here is that the goal is to ensure access to the general education curriculum in order to meet educational standards that apply to all students who enter our schools we point out that if students needs can be met in a general education setting setting with accommodations and modifications we oftentimes see those students supported by other plans like 504 plan so I think it's important to really kind of know um what it means and that just because you need accommodations or modifications doesn't necessarily mean that you need specially designed instruction and now to talk about eligibility for special education I think you often hear the two-prong factor

030and that is highlighted on this slide for you um there is generally it starts with an evaluation and a team and the team who is part of that child's um Planning Group includes the parents and the professionals that have completed the evaluation um when a student meets the federal and state criteria as having an exceptionality and that second prong is met for needing specially designed instruction that are those are the two um areas where a student then would become eligible for receiving special education so you may remember last fall our District administration team um worked with an external consultant to have a study completed on special services and I wanted to highlight for you kind of the purpose some of the main focuses that we had in that study and then talk about the action

031steps that we will be doing and continue to do as we move forward um the purpose of that study was to just really look across the board at special education and what we found from that study was then going to guide our leadership team in making decisions and that's what we've used that study for so we focused on two areas the first was our Continuum of Service delivery and I'm going to talk specifically about what that entails here later in the presentation um and then Staffing and we focused heavily on classified but then also began looking into certified as well so when you think about Staffing and Continuum we're looking specifically OA school district and we're thinking about the number of students that we serve the types of needs that those students have and are

032we able to appropriately serve them in um our Continuum with the right amount of support and as just a quick reminder I wanted to highlight the amount of personnel involved are uh the the lady who completed the study was able to speak personally with 105 personnel across our district and in those um with those the the Personnel that was representative of 11 schools and so they were from different feeder patterns we made sure that we tried to cast that net as high and wide as possible um and so now is the fun part let's talk about the findings and some of the action steps I love to start with um the fact that she is celebrating us as a healthy entity in special services and that more importantly she found that our Continuum was robust

033and well within the framework um that that is considered to be acceptable to meet student needs who have disabilities some additional findings um that a few of these might have come just as how high they ranked a little bit of a surprise but I don't think that anything that you see up here on the screen was a surprise to us um and and the first one was was vocabulary and unintentional consequences and just really to kind of explain that a little further what she found is that staff were reporting that when she spoke to them on an individual basis there are students that are demonstrating disregulation and the inability to control behaviors control their own words things like that and when teachers are speaking to other teachers they tend to say you know Johnny the

034one that has the behavior or Johnny did this this or Johnny did that and by the way I need to tell you Johnny I don't know who Johnny is but he's a dear friend of mine and I use his name frequently so um anyhow the goal there was just to really bring to attention and highlight that the more often you use um negative language trying to describe a person the more often that becomes real and what her caution was you know if you Contin to continue to say behavi your student or behav your kiddo or behavior challenges that eventually right or wrong that student has a label with behavior attached to him the second area was classified um staff shortage impact I know that's not a surprise to any of you sitting up here nor

035the folks um in the community or our teachers um and so that did come out in the study and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment uh certified sped staff not receiving lunch plan time um this this was pretty evident and something that we began working on last year and I'll talk a little bit more about that here soon too inclusion awareness for all educational teams so just making sure that everybody in the school Community truly understands least restrictive environment and inclusive practices she reassured us that OA has a very strong commitment around mtss and PBIS and she would love to see that continue and I think we would all agree with her um and then finally continue our practices around Recruitment and Retention to help with some of the shortages

036that we're seeing so action steps we have about five of these and I'm going to start with just the first piece of wanting to communicate this although the study really wasn't done for the community our goal was to share what was found and so we received this information in late January and immediately began sharing with you all as board members one of our administrative staff meetings following this um information we took quite a bit of time to talk with our principles around the things that we found in the study um all of our OA employees were provided a copy and throughout the process of the study being completed we update updated them so at the beginning we shared kind of what was going to be taking place with the study who might be involved directly

037with the study and then as the study went on WE continued to communicated that all in our Weekly Newsletter called in the no um and then District site Council fortunate enough to offer a session where Community um could join us in the spring and and learn about the study there and then our special services site Council and finally before our resource teachers went off contract for the summer we have the opportunity to share directly with them action item number two lunch and plan this is um a topic that we had heard and the the study highlighted it further for us and I'm just going to kind of explain what happens when you are a resource teacher or a teacher in a special program oftentimes your students are seeing you for needs that relate to behavior

038or disregulation or social emotional concern and so what happens is as a teacher and I'm I'm sure the ladies right here behind me can can um agree that if you have a student who you support and you case manage and there's disregulation you feel this obligation and immediate need to go and help and support even if there might be other ways to manage that and so I think what we wanted to do was be able to make everyone aware that we knew and we heard that this is what was happening um and and when I I'm not trying to overgeneralize but I think I'm trying to to make it a point where we knew it was happening in a variety of settings primarily in our elementary World um and so one of the first things

039that we did then was work with a professional counsel and the PNA now has um new wording that has been revised that includes special education when plan time is missed and so our goal this this fall has been to um meet with building administrators and communicate out what the process is and how they're in integral part of helping us support and provide Solutions and that if indeed that time is missed then there is compensation available for those individuals if we can't work that out so we're excited about that and hopeful that that provides some some help moving forward to our special Educators um action number three was around the um Staffing portion of the study um as I mentioned early on um this was kind of a heavy Focus based on the number of students

040that we have with disabilities and the types of needs that we see are we allocating staff appropriately when we think about teachers and we also think about par professionals and what we learned is that even though we took took a representation of five years so that we weren't just looking at coid the years postco we took data from before Co was that um we had this increase in students that are eligible for special education and we have become we had become more discrepant in that and so as an action step we um increased our certified Staffing positions um and if you combine those numbers for what we posted and hired for in the spring and than what we posted for and hired this fall we have over 20 certified new FTE positions in special education

041this year and then our classified allocation has also increased as student numbers depending on what the teacher to student ratio is and and how those allocations are the thing that I would highlight and I think most people understand is that even though we've increased our classified allocations we still have a large number of um open ings in that area or po positions that have not actually been filled number four is professional learning and so some of those things that I just talked to you about about vocabulary and understanding inclusion and and least restrictive environment um this is something that is a portion of our professional learning this entire year you'll see that we had summer listening sessions and those were optional sessions for special education staff to join us and share their thoughts and we

042kind of carved our questions to make it where they had Direct feedback on the results of the study and kind of steps moving forward and then in August we were able to spend time with um our 500 plus certified staff and our 750 pair of professionals talking about some of these things and then we have two upcoming dates that we'll be working with staff and one of those the one in January will actually include all certified staff so a lot of times we just get our chance to to have conversations with our special education staff and this is going to be um something that we're excited to be able to carry across the Continuum through our general education colleagues as well and finally the fifth thing that we're doing is trying to share in um

043Community Information sessions where um we talk about inclusion and we talk about what happens when inclusion is working and we have that opportunity at the fall District site Council and then um just recently did a special services site Council where we partnered with an advocacy group and just simply talked about how well it works if we have the opportunity to partner with Advocates and work to support students in in their least restrictive environment and in their schools so with that I've used least restrictive environment a lot and I want to now the focus on kind of what we do with least restrictive environment how we try to maintain least restrictive environment and how to define it so first when we think about least restrictive environment what we're trying to do is um support students in

044a fashion that's most closely aligned with their same age peers um provide them opportunities to engage in the same type of learning experiences as that with peers that do not have a disability and when we think about what that looks like it's it's goes back to that IEP team and it goes back to discussions and data that support and drive the actions of determining where that least restrictive environment is so it's important to remember that least restrictive environment varies for the individual and it's based on those needs that our teams have identified and sitting and are sitting down and having conversations about and then we we often hear inclusion as kind of a related um term with least restrictive environment and I wanted to try and clear that up and how important the two are

045together but inclusion is a belief system and I know when we just heard the pioner trail presentation he talked about inclusion and and what it means to their school and how every individual understands what inclusive in respect looks like and when we say inclusion we talk about um students that are getting services and they're getting those Services brought into their general education environment or with other peers that do not have disabilities that is a general vague description for you about how inclusion works and so we talk about the fact that if you're able to accomplish that you have um it's critical to a school's success as you just saw with with Pioneer Trails Vision so this is probably um my favorite slide in the in the slideshow um and I think what it does is

046it visually allows you to see how extensive the Continuum of services for students with disabilities are what I would highlight is that on the left side of your screen you see our kind of least restrictive environments that all include pieces and portions of the general education setting and then on the right hand of your screen you see is the Arrow moves up how the environment gets more ex more restrictive and essentially where they are students are less are less exposed to um their same age peers without disabilities but what I want to highlight here is that the first five boxes include general education it is so important to us that that's the area where we believe we can meet 98% % of our students right there it is such a small portion of our students

047who require more restrictive environments and um you know we have those and we have very successful programs but it's important to highlight here what it looks like for students and how much we can do in a least restrictive environment to support them so moving along we're going to talk to you about how we accomplish that on that lower end of the Continuum in those first five boxes and to do that I'm going to have Lori Diaz speak with you so one way we support students in their LR is through accommodations and modifications oftentimes we use these words interchangeably and they're actually quite different so an easy way to think about it is on the slide you can see on the left it's an accommodation and on the right it's a modification accommodations level the the

048playing field everybody's doing the same thing just with some uh changes to it uh and then modifications actually change everything about the playing field so they may be working at a different grade level or on different skills that they're not working on in class we may look at back mapping standards so that we're reaching them where they are um and when looking at accommodations and modifications we need to remember that it's for each individual student everyone can look differently in both Jed and in special education setting so there's different types of accommodations and I'm going to highlight a few of those um so we have visual supports and these I'm going to highlight a couple of them but there's a list this is a small list there's many more um but the first one is

049a visual that's on somebody's desk and in the lower right corner you might see the happy face and the kind of the the really happy face and then the straight face and that's for a kiddo just for a reminder of what his goals are for reminding him of what his behavior should look like in the classroom at the top right corner is a picture and it's very tiny so you can't really see it but it's um a visual of somebody breathing and so that's what we teach a lot of our students is when you're starting to feel upset or you're starting to you know you're disregulated to stop and take those breaths so that's really important for us to teach the kids to those things and just having that visual reminder a teacher can just

050walk by and tap it and that's just another way to remind them um excuse me the one in the middle is a visual schedule and this is probably one that's used the most you can use this in different ways um the way that it's up on the board is uh each different subject or different transition is listed and when the kids are done with it they take it off and put it away and they know that that's over um something something else we use is called a first then so it may be as simple as first we work then you get a break first we work then you get a snack first we work then you get to go outside um so that's a really good one to use when our kids when that the

051purple one is too overwhelming and they just need something a little bit simplified the third one is expected Behavior so this can be used with all students in the classroom um it's just a reminder on what our commitments are for our our class so our hands are down our body is safe we have a quiet mouth so that's just something that the teachers can use I was in a building today that um all of the Paras and the teachers had on their they had little icons of the those things and so they could just show it if they're in the hallway they just pull it out and they show it remember we have a quiet mouth in the hallway so those are just simple things that all kids can benefit from then we look at

052sensory supports we have sensory rooms in most of our buildings that all students can have access to there are sensory items that can be in the sensory room they can go to the special education classroom they can be in the gened classroom they can be in the lunchroom they can go anywhere the kids go so in the top picture there's some headphones lots of kids use headphones when they're in the hallways and it's loud and they're getting overstimulated because it is so loud it's overwhelming to them we can also use on the right of that picture is a weighted blanket so sometimes when I had a classroom I had a weighted blanket and kids would just come in and they would throw it on themselves because they needed that deep pressure the bottom picture has

053two baskets and one of the baskets are fidgets so just things I need something right now to keep my hands busy um so they they can go and grab something if they need it if a teacher sees that somebody's needing something they can go and grab if they know what their favorite one is or something that they need they could do that and and then the reddish colored disc looking thing is called a wiggle seat so lots of kids could get that sensory input from sitting on it and just kind of moving back and forth and it doesn't make them stand out anymore lots of kids use them um when I worked at an elementary school I would have kids come in my room that were gened students only and they would come in hey

054can I borrow that thing and I'm like sure so it's beneficial for all kids another piece that's sensory is the picture on the left is of a student who's using what we call a sensory walk so in 2019 I wrote a grant for all 36 elementary schools to receive a sensory walk in their buildings um it was super exciting everybody was on board with it and so excited that they could use this I've been in many buildings where they've extended onto this one where they've gone and bought more and put them in different hallways so kids can access it in different places of the building um the picture in the middle is a visual support and it's just so you can see the pink tape on the table and that's so kids know this is

055my workspace that's Johnny's workspace and maybe this is Susie's workspace so just to know these are my boundaries this is where I'm supposed to be and then the third picture is another visual support and it just has masking tape on the floor so that kids can understand that this is where you're supposed to be working and this is your area we also have environmental supports so another um this could be for preferential seating so maybe you have a student that needs to sit closer to the teacher's desk or closer to the board or away from the door because we have a lot of children that Al so if you can put them away from the door that's going to give them some obstacles to get around before they can get out um also the picture

056shows a little guy that he's still part of the group he just struggles to sit on the floor with all the other kids so they have a special chair that's his if he can sit there or he can try to sit on the carpet if he wants to it's his choice and he knows that but you might notice on the back of his chair is a weighted blanket and he takes that with him and if he needs to use it he throws it on and nobody thinks anything else about it because they all know that that's something that he needs and then teacher proximity is just you know teachers walking by if we see students starting to get unregulated or um just maybe needing that person closer to them so it's just somebody going over

057and maybe just getting close if you know your student well enough like patting their back or just pointing to something on the desk to get them back engaged in what was going on so one of our biggest goals is to have students always in their least restrictive environment and have them be able to have access to the gened um to access to general education as possible I had the opportunity to follow up with a student I've been in this position for 5 years now I had a student that when he was in eth grade I got called in kind of worked with the team worked through some strategies that we could use with him and I got to go to his school he's now a senior and he will be graduating in May which is

058super exciting um with the supports that have been put in place for him he's been very successful in high school the um he's made both huge gains in both academically and socially and the next few slides I'm going to talk about him just a little bit so this is one of the things that he uses um when receiving instruction he likes to use this quiet space so inside of the resource room there's a little office he's claimed it as his own like everybody knows that's where he goes and it's also one of his modifications and accommodations on his IEP is he has an alternate space for his locker he needs something bigger than a locker and he can't carry everything around all day so this is also his locker he takes all of his things

059and puts them in there and gets them when he needs them um this is used when he just needs that quieter space and he likes to go in there because it's big enough that he can do things and get his work done in a quiet area so I talked about visuals a little bit ago and this is one of them that in a high school building they do a Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday and Friday check and I talked to one of the students in this class and he said this really helps me because if I I don't have to worry about it because I know what's coming up and if something changes my teacher changes it and then I know ahead of time and it doesn't get me worked up and I don't get

060anxious um and I think it helps a lot of the kids several of them mentioned that so I thought that was really awesome and then these are for alternate passing and triage so this is something that he uses and for alternate passing he is allowed to leave the CL the Jed classroom two to three minute two to four minutes early to get to the next destination if he needs it um everybody knows if he hands it to them that's what it's used for he doesn't even use it very much anymore because he's much more comfortable walking in the hallways the back of his also says triage and this can be used at any time during the day if he's feeling like he just needs to go check in with his trusted adult which is his

061resource teacher he can go and check in with him if he's feeling tired or if he's feeling hungry he just goes and checks in and the teacher's like here I've got some Goldfish or you know he he helps meet that need the bottom one is because all kids don't need alternate passing so the White Pass is just for um tree op so if a student needs that piece then they have it available and then for transition supports same student he has this at the beginning of the year it says in the First Column it says what the hour is the second column says the hour he's going to and the third column tells him which teacher is helping him to transition from first hour to second hour he used that for the first two weeks

062and then he doesn't need it anymore which is fantastic because a lot of our kids fading those supports is so important so he's preparing for himself for the after graduation so I followed him around one morning and I asked him beforehand I said are you okay with it if you show me how you get to class and he was like yeah that's fine so I followed him to one of his classes to begin with and he um it was a computer class and so he got got in there and he said okay but you can't look at my password turn your head it's like okay so turned my head I assured him I was not peeking at his password um but he's been very successful he used to have to wear headphones in the hallways

063and he no longer does that um he also has a job at his school so he clocks in and out I asked him if it was okay if I took a video um we reached out to his mom to get permission and she said she was totally fine with it I asked him if it was okay and he said it's going to help other teachers yes so here is just a short clip NOP okay but I'll figure out you're well on your way [Music] okay okay so when looking at um seal and social emotional and uh social emotional we have some supports for all buildings that is curriculum based for us our teachers to use so we use the zones of regulation in elementary and secondary superflex is also Elementary and secondary the bottom one

064on the left is we thinkers and it's a new one that we purchased last year and it is for elementary and then the one on the right the five is against the law that is a secondary one that we use with our secondary students and we also have um a subscription to Everyday speech and it's just teaching kids social skills but it's online and it has different um lessons for different things so if you're you're needing something specific you can go in and search for that and it's usually there and it gives like video modeling so that's helpful too this is one of our a different student and we're always working towards student Independence an example of this is always fading back supports when we can so this student when he was in kindergarten in

065first grade at one of our elementary schools he needed a behavior plan he needed whole class and individual visual schedules and they reviewed those every day he needed access to a sensory support in the O from the OT I'm just going to highlight a few of them um he had a daily triage check in check out they used the weith thinkers and planning for changes because change was hard for him and they knew that so now that he's a second grader they've been able to reduce his resource time from 30 minutes by 5 every day to 30 minutes by 4 that was last year this year they're able to reduce it from 30 * 4 to 30 minutes a day have pull out to three times he also had full day support in the classroom

066from different adults in the building they're also able to fade that out now not completely but they're fading back and also the data is showing that the team is also considering um dismissing his behavior plan because he's made so much progress so this slide kind of wraps all of this up by sharing um a direct application that one of our peer models who was leaving 8th grade to apply for our IPS classroom and to be a part of that in high school sent in on his application and the question was um what opportunities have you had to support young adults with disabilities or peers with disabilities and why do you want to do this and I'm going to read what he wrote um and leave you with that when we think about our Continuum and

067least restrictive environment and why it is so important I have attended both elementary and middle schools in over in OA public schools and I have had many direct and indirect interactions with students having disabilities in addition a nurse who works with students who have intellectual abilities and autism because of this I have had opportunities to interact with and go to events and Stu support students in special programs I missed a very important word in there the students mom as a nurse in case you're confused about that one of these events includes a baseball game we went to at Miracle field because of my mom's student I also had the opportunity to participate with another one of my mom's students in the Special Olympics combined draft event where we were able to do football drills with

068him and his friends the same student also enjoys playing catch so we have been able to come to his house and do other events with him in his home it's cool how much students who have little to no verbal communication ability can teach me and impact me they make me so happy I have heard my mom say about many of her students they are everything I never knew I needed she's right and I'm honored to learn and be friends with these individuals I hope to make more connections like this through this program with that we're going to move over to the other side of special services and what we call gifted and I'm going to bring up Tracy and Summer for that portion so um thank you all for having us here today I'm fortunate

069I when I first started teaching I worked on the resource side of things it was a tremendous experience and one that I would never trade for anything conversely now that I'm on the gifted end of things it's it's such an incredible experience to get to work with our students who have so much incredible intelligence gifts talents and like gifted means that these students are performing or demonstrating the potential for performance at significantly higher levels of um accomplishment than their peers um in one or more academic Fields intellectual ability creative and talented area um when compared to others of similar age experience and environment and sometimes giftedness is heavy on one end and not as much on the other and it it tends to be something that is sometimes invisible teachers and peers sometimes think that

070A Gifted kid is the one in in class that's like pick me pick me I know I know and that's really oftentimes not the case sometimes gifted kids are great big pains they will challenge the teacher they'll ask questions they'll say why well that doesn't make any sense at all and um it's it's fabulous it's a great you know teachable moment for teachers for students for peers and and the like and summer and I uh had the incredible opportunity to put together uh what we're going to share with you now which is a gifted Olympiad um and the idea was that we wanted to create um a more mentorship a bigger conversation a better understanding of what gifted identities were at the elementary school at the middle school and at the high school and uh

071this this event has I know we we learned a lot from it as well um I just want to point out the quote though like I struggle being quiet and still and not fighting so I'm just going to apologize right out of the gate but can we just take a moment and observe the the quest is the best gosh D ever um and I'm so glad I'm in it and I hope this continues for many more years that's not even my quote I don't know if who said it but gosh dang it I like it we we like fight over which one of our kids said that I think it's mine so so this this event began a few years ago and our whole objective was to develop these Mentor relationships to enhance our vertical

072alignment in the schools and to provide opportunities for these gifted kiddos to interact with like kiddos you know give them a chance to PR practice social skills and to get to show off a little bit you know um in a safe environment in a supportive environment and provide our whole goal was that we took Howard Garder multiple intelligences and we had our high school students work to create events that met those intelligences so that when the kids came they're practicing their brains they're practicing their body and Aesthetics they're practicing while we're adding music and creativity this year um and it's an opportunity I happen to work with student counsel at my school I may or may not have broke them in to um helping us with some of the events and they love it and

073have adopted it as a project that they want to do every year so this year we are lucky enough that every school is going to participate the first year we only had four schools it was just kind of a last minute thing it was postco we were still masking we didn't know what the heck was going on right so we got the the go-ahead in February if you want to do this go ahead and we were like okay um and we were able to pull it off that first week of April with four schools last year we had eight schools and this year all of our schools are going to participate we literally just had our last one commit today so that mission trail there should be a number 19 there she'll be bringing 19

074kids um to the Olympics so we also have kids that have graduated Ed out of the Middle School situation and now they're in the high schools and they're on a mailing list because they're like uh we will miss school to come help with the Olympics and I said uh maybe we can get e hours here or something um a couple of them are future Educators so that works out well um we have kids who are in the um what's it called Ecom that are creating our registration form so we know which kids are going to compete in which activity where they're going to be when they're going to be so we try to people in our our veterans as well when our eighth graders graduate up into high school they let us know whether or

075not they want to be involved um and I'm I kind of also tell them it's an expectation a little bit um because I miss them when they go to high school so um actually The Olympian who is in that upper right corner is here tonight so if you guys have any questions after this we do have some Olympians in um in attendance I may have bribed them with um extra credit but anyway um so our one of the big things that we really like about our Olympic uh situation is it's very student driven the kids get to pick the games we just finished our first round of voting and we have 46 games lined up um now we're kind of assigning who's going to be where um our gifted coordinator Andy heiki says give me

076a game I said which one you want uh he said one where I can be loud I said I got it so um and if you don't know Andy H's got this big booming voice so we're going to give him the loud one um so that he can just talk over everybody to be fine um so as we go one of the other things that's really big you can see that picture in the lower right um there the medals we didn't know when we were first starting this like what was going to catch what was going to be the greatest thing but every year when we do our feedback um we do pre and postfeedback for our kids you know what did you like what didn't you like what was awesome what wasn't awesome one

077of the things that comes back every year is that they love the medals we spend we write a donut choose um and we spend a good amount of money getting some solid medals these are not the the little ones that they can bend back and forth and break that is not what these are um I always joke and say that the kids sound like reindeer when they're walking down the hall they playing together yeah and and big thanks to O the public school foundation too because they gave us a grant last year that out did make things bigger and better and more fabulous we are working on a way to try to keep make this a situation where it's self-funding um we're thinking about doing like a quest store that kind of thing because we

078provide snacks where we overlap with the CBR program at Santa Fe Trail they bring their CBR kiddos over and they run the snack area for us and then so then they're working on their social skills our kids are working on their social skills of the pleases and the thank yous and the not hey h you know like no body checking no shoulders you know no fighting over the Doritos that kind of thing um so we spend a lot of time really considering how can we make this an event where our kids are truly going to benefit yes it's fun yes we have a blast yes I get 17,000 steps in a day um but we also really want to make sure that there's a purpose for this um another thing that I really like about

079the Olympics is our kids learn to lose gracefully gifted kids tend to be really used to winning they're quick at things you know they pick up stuff pretty quick and some of them really struggle when they're not the best of the best so we spend a lot of time saying okay you realize this is the Olympics like countries send their best people to compete in the Olympics you're competing against other people who have also chosen their strongest games you may not medal and there are some that are like okay and then there are some like yeah that's sure okay and then there are some that lost last year who would say that'll be the last time I lose that and then they just train up train up train up and they they already want to

080know what are the games what are the games we need to know and they legitimately train I mean that's a part of the curriculum in the middle schools now the starting end of first semester maybe second semester Maybe Might already have trained I don't know because I like to win it is what it is okay so a couple of pictures we'll scroll through so we did have a speaker uh you know what I'm going to slow these down oh maybe not okay go with it so this gentleman um he worked for Google+ and Pixar and he came came and spoke to our kids about how you have to learn to lose there's our medals um these are a couple kids Rubik's okay I know these weren't going so fast when I set it up um

081they create flags for their their building that represents them um they they wave their Flags they come in with Uniforms on like my group last year one of my groups did a 1920 style ganga situation they had white shirts and black uh suspenders and pedoras like the whole nine and they just they loved it except for one girl with some sensory issues she's like these sus spiners like yeah and I'm like um so we um the okay so where else was I going to go with that so anyway um they also an economy kind of showed up our first year we did not have any idea that this was coming so another way that this is very organic and student L the kids had baseball cards we had to make baseball cards just to kind

082of you know have something to do when their downtime like they're not competing in every game the whole time right so they have some downtime we have an Olympic Village this year we're going to have um they asked can we have connect for sure um can we have a couple of things so yes we can do that so while they're in Olympic Village they can trade first year what we realized was they started trading parts of their uniforms so there were sweatbands going there were bow ties being shared out there was one kid wanted an item from every school and we said wait a minute this makes sense so the next year we encouraged the teams to bring swag so that was last year CT came on fire what they had everything that everybody wanted

083they brought these little plushy Turtles and they were only like 10 of them so supply and demand right and the blue ones were worth way more I'm sorry Dr jger your your signed baseball card was not not as good as a blue Turtle story of my life I'm sorry I'm sorry it it just wasn't um but I did trade two baseball cards for yours so that I could get flashy blasts so it works out um so the kids are already thinking about Swag for next year one of my groups is going to use their 3D printer to make their swag U but don't tell any of the other that's I shouldn't said that um so if you guys have any questions did you have anything else you want to ask okay I get excited um

084okay fine um so if you guys have any questions feel free to reach out to us if you'd like to uh help us with our donors too email us we'll send you the link um because it does get kind of expensive we we do have the kids bring lunch but we like to give them snacks and we like to make it something pretty awesome and pretty big um so that they have that opportunity to feel pretty great not all my kids are athletes not all my kids get that you know they're not in the orchestra they're not in the band whatever um that gives them an opportunity to shine and be awesome so question is this an Tracy and summer would you like to introduce the students that's here with us tonight absolutely sure uh

085do you want them to come up or you want me to just have absolutely my babies come here oh they didn't know their armpits are St now so we actually have a veteran and two rookies so the veteran is taller just by a smid um okay so this is Isaac and Andrew and Randon this was the one with the hat so I'm just saying I hope the hats make a return something tells me they're still in existence and I kind of feel like that could be a high value bundle of things and I I will just add one final comment so OA West we are blessed to get to host this event and to get to have our high schoolers involved and they are blown away by the talent the creativity and the fun of

086all of our other gifted students in the district and you know best thing ever like we yeah Bard any questions of anginette and the team how did we get this awesome we're born this way I've got a quick question Mr Carell so this can be a general open question for any of y'all right this and it could be ex for the kids because they're the Perfection fairy just showed up it's Thursday night tomorrow you get to write down or offer and say this is what I would need this is what I would love this would make the world perfect and great for us on Monday you showed up at work whether it's administration of office or at West or wherever you are what what would that be what would that feel like what would that

087look like what would that sound like come Monday more teachers I don't even have to think about okay we heard we're working on that one well I mean absolutely I think staff is is the challenge right now particularly our classified employees yes anything else I just think it's a great thing that we are that we're going to interact with um general education teachers because our students obviously you know we talked a lot about inclusion we talked and and it's good um I mean clearly I'm a talker so uh I do lots of talking with our general education teachers and I think our SP staff is amazing they do a great job of that but you know sometimes it communication is just the of it all when we have an opportunity to work together as a

088team both special ed and J Ed I think it can only make for a better classroom experience for students I want to just close by saying thank you and thanking some of our we have our sped instructional coaches a few of them in the room we have some families in the room and we have one of our assistant directors in the room so we were very happy to be here this evening so thank you for the invite thank [Applause] you all right moving on to our public comments 5.01 Mrs steel at each regular meeting the board of educ ation reserves limited time for individuals wishing to address the board 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

089limit has expired please direct your comments to the entire board 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 involv Ving individ individual staff members or students those speaking are advised that public comments are videotape recorded for a 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 and address all right our first Speaker Erica sheets hello I appreciate the opportunity to address the OA Board of Education tonight and the OA Community here my name is Erica sheets and I'm here representing our local chapter of moms for Liberty Johnson

090County Kansas as well as supporting our friends at gaze against groomers who you'll hear from shortly in our joint challenge to three books in the a the school system the books are titled let's talk about it gender queer a memoir and all boys aren't blue I'd like to thank superintendent Dr Brett joerger and chief academic officer Dr Tim Reeves I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly for the responsiveness they've had to our request and for their commitment to an internal review of these books these books should be removed from OA schools as they do not meet the criteria of M multiple OA policies by this board they contain obscene sexual illustrations assault nudity sexual activity with a family member vulgar language and profanity including homophobic and racial slurs as well as alcohol and drug abuse despite

091being placed in high school libraries here in OA the reading complexity levels or Lexile score of these books all three of them are at an elementary level the state of Kansas defines the effective level of ela proficiency as a level three and in 2022 data 60% of OA students are testing below the effective level this represents a 133% decline since 2015 according to Kansas State data and you can find that at Kansas report cards . ksde.org books like these are clearly not adding to the academic rigor of OA students in addition to their obscenity far too many school libraries are relying on the American Library Association recommendations the Ala spreads the myth of book bands when age inappropriate books are removed from schools which is quite disingenuous the fact is these books continue to be

092available in society at Large one of the co-founders of moms for Liberty National says at best write the book print the book sell the book school is for age appropriate material meant to educate children we applaud the OA Administration for their responsiveness to this community on these matters and we fully support removing these books from the oisa school system thank you thank you Chris Barett good evening everyone my name is Chris Barrett and I represent an organization called gays against rumors we're a national group made up of LGB andt people who oppose the sexualization indoctrination and medicalization of children that's being done in our community name it's been brought to our organization's attention that there are some books coming up for review that we truly believe should not continue being in your school district's libraries

093specifically these books are let's talk about it gender queer and not all boys are blue I want to touch on let's talk about it we are told there is an educational value on a book like this let's look at it from a purely academic perspective the writing which seems geared toward Elementary readers yet is made available to high school students is truly subpar it's as if your Librarians are next going to start suggesting Little Golden Books for high school students but the content itself is obviously problematic in a public school library of any type kids are exposed to plenty of explicit sexual content online and on social media parents need to limit access to this content for their children and Educators should not add to the problem by providing a printed version of gratuitous sexual

094information basically bypassing what a parent may want their kids to see now the books that are particularly of interest uh to me are not all boys are blue and gender queer not only are these books an obvious attempt to indoctrinate kids into gender and queer Theory but they specifically relate to my community the LGB andt community and for those who don't know gender and queer Theory are inherently homophobic and absolutely not appropriate topics in any K through 12 school I understand these books are placed in libraries under the guise of inclusion Boards of Education librarians and teachers across the country love to give themselves a big pat on the back about how inclusive they are of my community well thanks but no thanks books pushing gender and queer Theory and are obviously sexually explicit are

095not the way to include us has it ever occurred to anyone who makes decisions about these books they could actually be hurting my community there's a backlash buring against us and some folks here are part of the problem think about it statistically gay people are a very small percentage of our population so most of the people making these decisions on behalf of my community probably are not actually LGB or t so please stop trying to speak on our behalf if you truly listen to my community you'd find quite a spectrum of thought on these issues sure some of us actually promote junk education like this just like there are plenty of straight people who do but I can tell you that there is a large percentage of us that absolutely oppose books like gender queer

096that indoctrinate rather than educate that that's why organizations like gay against groomers are popping up all over the world we are tired of do gooders speaking on our behalf we want our voice back listen to us all of us not just the ones you agree with and for God's sake listen the parents thank you thank you Megan bricks good evening Board of Education pardon my voice tonight um this week I completely lost my voice and I T for a whole day with not talking at all so I apologize my name is Megan bricks and I appreciate that I'm given the time to speak today one of my biggest passions in life is to advocate for students to receive the best possible public education possible as well as advocate for everyone who works within the educational

097system I want to be honest with you all it is difficult to stand up here in front of a large audience both in person and those watching the live stream and use my voice to advocate for what needs to happen in order to meet the expectation that the OA Public Schools will prepare all students for their future standing up here puts myself out there to be judged or critiqued by all but I push past the fear and nervousness because what I do each month is very important to me important to my colleagues important to my students and their families in the community how will we ever make improvements if we don't ask questions or bring up difficult topics tonight I want to focus on substitutes as we are nearing the end of first quarter we

098are already being hit with substitute positions going unfilled which is scary to think as we haven't truly entered the typical Six Sick time of the school year as a district you have done an amazing job getting the word out about how to apply to be a substitute and going to both local and community events to reach more community members but I feel that one very important piece of information is is missing within our educational field we utilize data every day within our classrooms last Board of Education meeting we heard tons of data about our state assessments I would absolutely love to see a monthly report added to the board documents that outlines the number of substitute positions requested either within a week or or within the month as well as the number of those positions

099that went unfilled it doesn't need to be broken bet down by level or even building I feel that sharing this Baseline data about sub positions across the district will be informational for the community we'll be able to see the positions and the numbers and allow our community to be able to know what is actually happening our staff deserve to know that there will be a substitute and they won't have to worry about their colleagues having to teach their class or cover during their plan time our staff shouldn't have to worry that students aren't receiving specific supports throughout a day because there was no substitute to work with a student during their scheduled support time our Focus must always return to how the students are being impacted did in from the conversations I am having it

100seems that the lack of substitutes to fill positions are truly impacting our students educations as well as putting some burden on teachers and staff who already have full plates right now I hope that you as a board will be open to having a conversation about how to share substitute fill rate data with the community as it will greatly impact our current situations I understand that it will require someone to create this work but it will be very valuable for our educational system I look forward to our school board continu to focus the conversations around students and how we are supporting their education again thank you so much for allowing me to speak tonight thank you Matthew dinner Matthew dinner jie Gilmore hello I heard on the radio the other day an analogy of always using

101a hammer when we really need a screwdriver using a hammer simply because it's the one new shiny tool we grab first or have on hand we actually create other problems sometimes as I sat and reflected on this I kept thinking about our lless schools tonight you will loudly proudly celebrate your hamers but when I get a progress report from my daughter that reads Kay's score on early reading is in high risk this means that Kaylee needs additional support to improve foundational early reading kayle's score in early reading is higher than 21% of students in the same grade in kayle's District kayle scores is higher than 11% of students in the same grade across the the nation it's clear that Kaye needs more than a she needs another tool there are thousands more like Kaye in

102our district who are behind and struggling but you will be up here celebrating your hammers the early intervention on literacy in our district is severely lacking and I see it at our mission trail site Council but because we can find data that would say a child who is acist is better than a child in Maine you all still celebrate and you can bang your gavel like a hammer but it's not solving problems someone asked me the other day are you for Equity or equality and I replied I support reality it is reasonable to acknowledge that some students have greater needs than others and some start behind others but that they all have the same opportunity in late the schools to prosper but not every student succeeds with a hammer so we need board members willing

103to do the work to find more tools so that we can all truly celebrate and they can succeed tonight as you vote to uncenter my elected board official for District 3 I would like to request you reassign Mission Trail as Brian Connell site Council appointment considering I have attended site council at Mission Trail for the past three years no one on this board has attended our committee meetings you do not show up so give the spot to someone that wants to show up and will continue to show up and find us something other than a CU your hammers are not working thank you Sarah Sams dear L the board members my name is Sarah Sams I'm a teacher and special educator at the mil Creek Campus before I would begin I would like to model

104how to discuss difficult topics this evening I will be talking about suicide and its surrounding terminology if this topic will be upsetting to you please feel free to leave moreover if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal ideation please seek help immediately call or text 988 help is available you really matter today I stand before you with a heavy heart and a burning passion to address the topic that is often concealed by stigma and fear suicide September was and still is suicide awareness month I'm here to discuss what the correct verbiage is around this issue and why it is crucial to utilize it I come to you as a person uh who has seen many people struggle with suicide my own students included I also became a suicide Advocate 5 years ago when

105my own father chose to take his life El the board you are seen as leaders in this community and when you decide to speak about suicide you must choose your words with care and compassion both for the person who might be struggling and for those who are left by Suicide as a board you need to abandon the outdated phrase committed suicide this terminology implies that a criminal act has been committed in fact no one has committed suicide since 1973 when North Carolina became the last state to abolish the legalization of suicide when you choose the words committed suicide you are casting judgment and shame upon those who are already struggling you might ask then what do we say I'm here to tell you uh the phrases such as died by Suicide or even my personal

106choice they chose suicide these phrases utilize empathy and understanding while also recognizing the pain and despair that is left when someone can make such a tragic decision so why is it important to utilize these words and not the others it's very simple because our words can either perpetrate the stigma and shame or pave the way for empathy and understanding when we choose our words with care we acknowledge the pain of those who have been touched by Suicide encourage open conversations and reduce the barriers that prevent individuals from seeking help let us remember that behind every statistic every news headline and every whispered rumor there is a person a person worthy of empathy and respect in conclusion be the change makers The Advocates and the empathetic listeners who use language as a powerful tool for healing

107let us cast aside the shadows and stigma and fear and choose words that illuminate the path towards a more compassionate and inclusive community where no one feels alone in their battle against suicide thank you thank you kayin campaign my name is kin Campion and I hope that I emailed you guys a picture of what I show to the teachers before an IEP meeting it's something that I learned from the inclusive schooling that I did that has been offered to every teacher and parah in the OA School District one of the main reasons that I provide that page is because there isn't communication between sped and the general education team and I'm really worried that general education teachers may not know that their students have the disability that they do and that's how they get those

108behave those um labels of behavior kid and that can also put us at risk for Mental Health crisis um I wasn't going to talk tonight honestly but then I looked back at what I said in June and I realized that my needs are the the exact same they haven't changed my son is under evaluation and he's still in a mental health crisis he still doesn't want to go to school he still wets himself every day um and he doesn't have this issue at home um the most important thing to know about that is um I'm sorry it's just really hard to hear them talk about sped and act like you can remove a disability my son is going to have autism for the rest of his life he's going to need accommodations and modifications throughout

109elementary school middle school and high school and the school keeps trying to remove his resources um I asked if there were other placement options and I was told that he needs a least restrictive environment and we must exhaust every single resource in the gened program before we consider a different placement and my son's been in evaluation for the past four months and the only resources I've seen exhausted are staff members the principal the resource teacher The Specialist teachers and the gened teacher and that's not fair to those teachers it's not fair to his peers and it's not fair to my son and I really want you guys to consider how you can actually be inclusive by acknowledging disabilities um I heard them talk about a special ed Olympics program that isn't a part of the

110district that someone said that they really found value and wanted to help kids with special needs why don't we have an Olympics for our special ed kids why are we doing that for the gied kids I loved that they said that the gifting kids have a flag to identify themselves with why are we not having your diver Flags where our kids can come in community identify each other together um they talked about tools like sensory rooms do we have a sensory room in every school I don't think we do does every room have fidgets sensory supports um different seating they don't our teachers educated how to use those sensory tools they're not and that's why there needs to be more communication the Jed in this fed program if we really want to co- te and

111if we really want to be inclusive thank you thank you Patty lanter hello there I am Patty um I am talking about understanding understanding when you are being manipulated for another's personal gain is vital evidence by the actions of board members that silence others that are trying to speak on behalf of the children they they are silenced for opposing an agenda and education pointing out Grievous problems in the system I will remind you that all school districts are to be locally managed not through public private Partnerships not through dictates by the Department of Education and Union Partners lying a deception is inherently wrong whether one thinks they have a greater goal or not in this school district it seems like the rules are changed or ignored to make it simpler to silence someone allowing the

112deception to to continue all of us support teachers and also support public education but know that the goal for children has been hijacked for collectivism there are no individuals in the collective except power hungry elitists that have plenty to hide they use ad hominum attacks because they do not want the curtain lifted they do not allow comment on these attacks except from other approved elitists questioning is vital to improving anything and helps remove corruption and waste we need truth and accountability I encourage all to lift the veil and read as much as you can and I implore you to listen to the Kansas education committee this week it brings light to some of the ways that these special budgets have been hijacked all of you should want the same rather than rubber stamping at all

113costs to support the growing budget of public education and taking more in taxes understand that when textbooks and teacher training programs are used to train activists they do create activists that know nothing about reality understand that when people tout their political connectedness um and administrative connectedness and Union connectedness as a good thing for our children this is deceptive holding multiple offices pursuing multiple offices or sitting on a board for any organization um I disagree with this a school board should be similar to an outside forensic auditor or analyst task with rooting out what hurts kids and getting rid of it they should also be locally minded and not accept what is pushed by others to create activists please listen to the um speeches by the department of uh sorry by the Nea it won't take

114more than a few sentences to hear the sound of the cult preacher understand when an unscientific survey is produced with forced results it is not objective it is a lie our opinion is not wanted decisions have been made and the goal is likely nothing that was ever stated as the premise perhaps the goal is really a 4-day week or even online school teachers this does not bold well for your profession understand when you are being lied to when secretary Cardona says that kids can't read Because books are banned he is lying and hiding the real problems of why kids can't read um he doesn't tell you that removing explicit materials for children is not not Banning he doesn't tell you that they are graphic and if read on the street to a child you would

115be arrested this does not have anything to do with literacy understand that when um KS KB Nea Department of Ed and school boards don't like being questioned is because they are hiding a whole lot of agenda darkness that has been in the works for a very long time support public education by choosing differently let's get the bad spending and Global agenda followers out of our local schools parents not politicians thank you Hillary junk hello War my name is Hillary junk um I'm a proud metal Lane Santa Fe Trail andake the north graduate I'm back in the area after being away for a bit and I've been impressed by the amount of growth um programming in your ability to Pivot um it's a bit emotional for me today because of the reflection I did on this

116because I owe so much of my professional and personal success to the Ala Educators who saw me along my journey um today I didn't cleaning out an old box of from high school and they came across with some letters and stuff and it's a bit emotional but why I want to spe today is because I want to pay it forward I had so many amazing teachers and I understand that teacher environments are student learning environment so I hope I can speak it up to for some of the teachers that taught me and have become friend friends that have chosen the profession um I understand that future recruitement and retention obviously is an issue that not just this district is dealing with but everyone else um I applaud your efforts with the future educator Academy love

117that long-term thinking um but I also understand that pool that applicant pools for many of our secondary level positions have sort of evaporated uh especially like math or science teachers I understand we're using long-term subs for some of these roles and I applaud the community members for stepping up to fill those roles but I do worry about the sustainability of it because I understand there are impacts be it the planning the grading and everything else on the peer Department teachers within that I know we ask our teachers a lot and they step up above and beyond but and I know our teachers could put out fires on the 12th story of a building if we ask them to but we're only giving them an eight story ladder it's over time I don't want to lose

118those teachers so I ask you to consider as much as we're considering succession planning with the future Educators program and whatnot we also consider the short-term impacts on our current teachers um who are shouldering the extra burden of planning and Grading especially as we're seven or eight weeks into schooling and um I I know you guys are well in touch with the uh postsecondary institutions in Kansas and I hope there are discussions about their education programs especially math science the ones where we're seeing um a challenge applics so uh yeah I don't know if my teacher would love everything that I just did she might have a few notes for me um I'm sure I will hear from her thank you Carrie van buser good evening Carrie van buerk I'm a proud OA South parent

119of children with disabilities thank you for this opportunity to speak with you all this evening disability is natural and disability impacts each and every individual uniquely that sense of belonging and the environment where they Thrive is also very specific for each and every person and Jen Ed simply isn't always the place that fits I'm constantly reassured by our staff that they are incredibly committed and devoted to meeting the needs of each and every single student as shared by your committed teacher just this evening they always go above and beyond and quite frankly exhaust themselves this is something that they strive to achieve and do each and every day and it appears to be increasingly more difficult in many Jed especially now with the near 200 PA shortage and 24 certified sped vacancies and a vast

120sub shortage providing specially designed instruction in with two students in their least restricted environment with the supplementary AIDS and services needed to access the general education curriculum is simply increasingly difficult and in some instances it's simply not attainable students are all opening classrooms are being cleared students are experiencing trauma due to masking and bullying many are not accessing their learning support sensory breaks while needed are often hard to get in teachers are being injured students are spending far too much time in isolation and not engaged in meaningful instruction so sometimes it is thoughtful for us to sit and examine and ask as a team is this placement appropriate while the least restricted environment is unique to each and every student it is important to note that it isn't always jened the Kansas Department of Education

121process handbook in chapter 7 defines least restricted environment and tells us that the least restricted environment does not require that every child with a disability be placed in the general education classroom regardless of the child's individual abilities and needs the law recognizes that full-time general education classroom placement may not be appropriate for each and every child with a disability it also guides us that parent participation in this placement process is vital parents have the right to be a part of the decision making team for determining their child education placement and have input into that decision thank you Rach PR my name is Rachel Pratt I'm a resident of the city and I'm a single mother to five children my f my five children are currently enrolled and have been enrolled in public school with this

122District since pre we have 12 years invested into the public education system and I wish I could say the same system has 12 years invested into my five children but sadly I cannot in the past 12 years my experience with the public schooling administrators some teachers some support staff has been nothing short of the following pure exhaustion frustration concerning lack of communication hardship disappointment and the list goes on I could stand here today and lay out some of the few unhappy times my children and I have shared but I am not here for that today because I do not want the issues that need to be addressed get lost or dismissed any more than what they have already have done two of my children have F force and two have IEPs two of those children

123are autism only one is identified as such the other is identified as an other health impairment my child's needs and goals have been set above and beyond what they can even attempt to accomplish that was said at their new schools that they have gone to um they can't even attempt to accomplish or access any of the education because the goals are set too high both have been suspended for what quote unquote behavior issues I have pled and begged and argued for nine years to get the much needed supports in place for my children I am still unsuccessful and still pleading to my children's need so that my children's needs get met my children are directly affected and their Med their needs are not being met so just because a child has a disability does not

124mean they qualify for sped Services we get that all of us in purple here today have shared those same uh conversations with a lot of the sped Services I have been told this for the past 9 years with regard to both of my autistic children they had described or defined as being defiant refusing to come inside from Recess refusing to do work hiding under the desk running out of the class blocking themselves in different doors other than a classroom setting although both of my children's behaviors are outlined throughout their IEPs it was documented that a functional Behavior assessment was not needed how exactly can one expect progress for improved behaviors if the district's team of supports do not feel identifying the why to the behavior is not needed so you are correct when statements were

125made regarding teachers being tired Administration being tired I would assume they're exhausted pairs are stretched then parents are exhausted and our hard functioning autistic kids are suffering while failing to self failing to self-regulate at the end of the day the question is and apparently has been what exactly is your action plan moving forward for autistic kids thank you thank you H Bo moving to 6.01 we need 20 minutes for an executive session I entertain a motion I move that the board go into executive session for the purpose of discussing Personnel matters pursuant to non-elected Personnel acception under coma and that the board returned to the regular meeting at 7:5 PM in this room second we have a motion by Mrs steel and a second by Dr yurovich Mr cun yes Mr Connell yes Dr yurkovich

126yes Mrs steel yes Mr wickliff yes Mr Boyd yes Mr beverage yes motion carries moving on to our action consent agenda item 7 .01 through 7.14 board any questions anything we need to pull out move to approve 7.01 as or to 7.14 as presented second we have a motion by Mr beverage and a second by Mr Wickliffe Mr Connell yes Dr yurkovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr wickliff yes Mr voyd yes Mr beverage yes Mr cun yes motion pass is 70 all right moving to action bids contracts and agreements 8.01 through 8.08 anything we need to pull out any questions from the board Mr President I might ask that we just either pull out or have U Mr Umphrey speak to 8.07 since that's a big line item and explain a little bit of that

127okay is that the only question we have okay Josh if you want to come up and address that and then we'll take them all together twice in uh two months so thank you again for that I do I do appreciate it um yeah overall you know we've been uh really excited about the opportunity to just bring new devices to kids uh one of the things that we identified really early was that the devices that were in the hands of our students were aging and part of uh what you guys have approved has helped us um put some really awesome devices in some kids' hands that's can enhance instruction and really kind of help the uh uh day-to-day impact on uh on students just today we were at an Oregan Trail and saw some kids using

128them is exactly as intended um so when we uh went through this original purchase um we had you know we always kind of knew that it might be a secondary purchase needed we wanted to hit them as exact as possible uh making sure that we were able to fulfill the needs both in our middle schools and high schools uh but then um using some of the inventory that we had previously making sure that we uh depleted that and then we're able to then uh readdress what devices may now this is kind of what today's are uh to kind of fill some of our special education programs our um alternative Ed buildings and even some of our elementary schools to kind of uh uh to um John's uh Hutchinson's point you know earlier when we were

129kind of going through this future action item in terms of putting devices on a predictable replacement cycle um so that we can use the devices and pull them into Capital laet very good me ask a quick question so we we spoke about a month ago you had mentioned in p and I do not recall there was something better different for these par this version of the computers that you had mentioned that was going to either security or access or functional great question can you remember what we were talking about yeah we were we were actually talking about durability of the device you know one of the one of the biggest uh impacts that we saw uh a need for with our devices specifically at the middle school but also at the high school level uh

130was a need for durable device uh the device was that was in the hands of our Middle School uh students um we they were breaking you know they were uh not as durable not as robust the these devices are essentially they are they are very very durable and U uh they allow us to put a device in our hands that we can feel confident can sustain the lifestyle the lify lifestyle of a middle school student um I have one can be uh so I can attest that it is doing very well within our household but then also just uh make sure that we're not spending you know money to repair these devices as well that's what it was yeah the day we doing the school tours and you're like there was like we we're waiting

131on some devices to be delivered for some of the new kids so all of our all of our high school students currently have them and the majority of our middle school kids all of our sixth grader kids have them and most of our seventh or eighth grader K kids are are getting them as we speak or currently have them in play so we're really excited to see it thank you Jos appreciate itk all right board I'll take I entertain a motion on 8.0 1 through 8.08 I move to approve 8.01 through 8.08 second we have a motion by Mrs steel and a second by Mr wickliff Mr Connell yes Dr yurovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr wickliff yes Mr Boyd yes Mr beverage yes Mr cun yes all right those motions carry 70 moving on

132to action Other 9.01 Bar do we need to cease is this a cease nomination deal or take volunteers um yes it is you have to see any volunteers to be appointed to the uh to be the assembly person and the alternate Delegate for the ksb um assembly meetings I'm happy to volunteer and nobody else wants that lovely opportunity it is great though seriously we going to pencil Mrs Steel in as the delegate is there anyone going that would like to sign up as the alternate I am traveling for work that week so I will be out of town Dr yurkovich do you want to be the alterate AL sure sure I'll be the alternate all right for 9.01 I entertain a motion to appoint Julie as delegate and Dr jurovich as alternate delegate to represent

133oake the public schools at the 2023 Kansas Association School Board delegates assembly meetings Mr President do we need to have a motion to cease nominations first yes I move to cease nominations second we have a motion by Mr wickler from the second by is that Joe Mr beverage now we need someone okay do you want me to take the vote on great Mr cun yes Mr Connell yes Dr yurovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr wickliff yes Mr Boyd yes Mr beverage yes all right we have officially ceased nominations thank you sir you bet and now was to entertain a motion to appoint Julie Steele as delegate in Dr yurovich as alternative delegate to represent the elected Public Schools as the 2023 KF B delegate assembly meetings so moved second motion by Mr beverage and a

134second by Mr wickliff Mr beverage yes Mr cun yes Mr Connell yes Dr yurkovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr Boyd yes Mr wickliff yes motion carries 70 moving to action other 9.02 I'll entertain a motion we can open the floor for discussion you guys want to handle it Mr President before discussion or a motion I'd like to propose an amendment and make a comment Dr yarish the floor is yours I will Begin by acknowledging the chasm in relationships the censure has caused and your desire and need Mr Connell to have an end date to bring closure in high hindsight perhaps that should have been included when the centure was imposed however I would also draw attention to the fact that except for the limitations regarding committee membership and Leadership positions you have par participated as

135a fully involved member of the Board of Education attending meetings events adding to discussion voting and Etc I also feel strongly that it is important for the board and its members to be fully functioning that being said in good conscience I cannot support the resolution as written and I'm proposing to amend it I will state the proposed amendment and then share my comments as to why I'm making the proposal I would propose that the last sentence read during the December 7th 2023 meeting the board will discuss reinstating one of the conditions currently being withheld associated with the centure and establish a future date for a further review and discussion related to reinstating additional conditions a decision to reinstate will be dependent upon a consist consistent adherence by Mr Connell to all elements of board policy

136BH School Board member ethics the basis for my comments and for the centure enacted on May 16 2023 was a failure to adhere to the expectations for ala school board members in policy BH during the May 4th OA board meeting Mr connell's outburst and comments violated bullet points number two understand that our board meetings are a reflection of the district and directly affect Student Success we will be respectful of all board members and keep all discussions civil number nine we'll respect and listen to opinions of all board members and number 10 will respect the time of board members staff and the community during our board meetings although that was my first meeting as a board member I had watched other board meetings and observed Mr Connell behave in a way that violated this board policy

137to terminate the centure there needs to be a change in Behavior such that policy BH is respected and followed unfortunately during the September 7th meeting despite having been censured another display of Mr Connell consumed nearly 10 minutes of the board meeting during which time he made negative statements about other board members referring to them by name additionally during the meeting he called out by name and was disrespectful to a member of the community present in the audience that evening it is a concern that if Mr Connell fails to adhere to this policy during a board meeting which is public and live streamed what is to prevent him from behaving in the same fashion during a committee meeting with staff or community members for this reason I propose that the resolution be amended as stated this

138will allow an opportunity for Mr Connell to demonstrate adherence to policy BH over a two-month span during tonight's meeting and the November meeting thank you okay for the record Dr do you have an extra copy of that so bar pin I do okay yeah do you just want yeah if you can just send it this way so she you don't have to try to Sure hand write all of that and then so for my understanding you're taking the proposed resolution that we received and you're adding I'm amending um the be it resolve that that portion of it okay do you mind reading it again is i' be happy I'll I'll read it with be it resolved that during the December 7th 2023 meeting the board will discuss re reinstating one of the conditions currently being

139withheld associated with the centure and establish a future date for further review and discussion related to reinstating additional conditions a decision to reinstate will be dependent upon a consistent adherence by Mr Connell to all elements of board policy BH School Board member ethics all right we have a motion by Dr jurkovich yes I'd like to provide comments okay is there a second on the motion I'll second that to get second by Mr vever comments by Mr conell so I'd like to first start with the the fact that the board policy or protocol enforced by this board is that we do not add amendments on the diets they must be supplied three days in advance to the agenda so with that in place your own model to add an amendment to an existing policy would not

140be acceptable at the board at this time it should have been provided three days in advance so that all board members were available and accessible to it per your own assistance it it's my understanding that that relates to adding items to the agenda 9.02 was added to the agenda and Dr jerkovich is making a motion on this agenda item but she also had time to do that the last three days in which she was fully aware of it secondarily I like that just for the for the record the censure in itself is not proper there's no statute no board no policy no protocol called no rules or otherwise that allows the board to have even created a cent to amend this about an centure that should have never existed secondly related to that Miss jerkovich

141said I made comments about board members well I do recall on May 16th that at least one two three four four board members read defamatory and personal attacks at me so she's condemning my comments last month without condemning the board memb comments and attacks also during the censure process there was no due process so the process of the exact censure broke all protocols that anybody could have imagined even our students when they were accused of something are given access to Due Process structures this board lacks any policy for punishment nor enforcement there is so any vote on this whether I vote for it or not so but I will say that the language that's there is benign enough and I have asked for the centure to be removed that I would support it as it

142is because to not do so would be hypocritical because in both when Robbie Mr cun presented in July and then I presented in September the removal of said censure to now have a a model that is benign enough would be wrong for me not to vote for it so I suggested that this not be amended as recommended by Doc jurovich and be accepted and moved forward as it's presented thank you we have a motion in a second on the floor is there any other discussion Mr President just a point of clarification please um or to Dr yurkovich um what what is it that happens at the after um after two more meetings of adherence policy BH by Mr Connell it's my understanding that after two more meetings dueing the December 7th meeting the board will

143discuss ring stating one of the conditions currently being withheld associated with M Mr conell cure thank you Dr is that correct that's correct that's correct so I just wanted to ask for a clarification the agreement about inserting items in the agenda is not in policy I don't think that was just an agreement and just in Dr jovic's defense that was probably about a year and a a year or a year and a half before so I don't know if you were aware that or not but that was something that we discussed as a board when Miss felter had her seat so we did agree that if we were going to make any amendments that's but it was reiterated by our president Mr Boyd um true in in that's true July when Mr cun asked D

144something and he said this would be the last time we won't do that again and so that was that's fresh with Dr yovich if I if I can just clarify um n 02 was added to the agenda in the appropriate time so we add so I allowed it to be added to the agenda once an item is on the agenda any board member can make any motion on that agenda item we are we don't have to bring our um every motion Under the Sun for each agenda item we plan on making the agenda item just has to be there 72 hours before so every board member is aware of it so the Motions don't have to be there before but the agenda item does and that's not a rule nor policy or written in guidelines

145that's an agreement that that the seven of us have y board any other discussion I would just clarify to Mr President that goes for any agenda item on the agenda corre that's just that's no matter what the agenda item is it can be amended yes Mr President now Mr wickler so uh I appreciate um Dr jovic's um thoughts I have many of the same um I'm not sure and it probably doesn't matter because the December 7th meeting will be my last but um because there has been no change in behavior um because the the voice of Mr Connell and his vote have not been taken from him information for committees has not been taken from him um the um um a calling out of a Community member uh who was in the audience uh as

146this is written I like cannot support it so I'd like to add one last comment thank you Mr wickliff Mr con you don't have the floor yet Mr boym yeah before we turn the table back the the floor back to Mr Connell are there any board members have any comments that haven't had a chance to speak on this agenda item yet Mr Conor the floor is yours sir so I appreciate the uh opportunity that she's add once added Dr yovich would like to add an amendment however she references uh BH which is the exact proc problem that that may was all about board members were circumventing board policy breaking board policy to replace the existing ethics policy with four new bullet points that would have erased the actual bullet points that Dr yovich is now

147recomm and in writing we have board members who said that they would not support change you know modifying it the board policy that sits in front of you as BH today BH today is actually the one that I took the prior and the Four Points that Miss steel and Mr bever were working to replace it with and merge the two together to get what's here so this board policy as it exists today did not exist on May 4th so to reference it today would be a mistake because Miss jerkovich would have to reference legally what it was at the time so I just want to make sure I call that out that she can amend that even if she'd like to but I'm just making sure we're really looking at the legal statutory rights of

148what there was and was not at the time and the impetus for the upsetting frustration on my part in that meeting so board any other comments Dr yov just a a clarification did we not approve this policy the evening of May 4th we did Mr President M Ste just one more point of clarification um those uh e the ethics policy was reviewed by Mr cun Mr beverage and Mrs steel and you tend to say it's just Mr beverage and Mrs steel so I'd like to correct that for the record and I'd like like to also mention that the irony is is just deafening that the policy that was so important for you to keep is the policy that is causing a problem for you to be uncensured that's all we're asking is to follow the

149policy I I appreciate that Mrs steel I'd just like everyone to follow all the board policies all the time and not just be selective any other comments on 9.02 Mr President so that I'm clear if this if if comments are done we are going to the amended version I will I will read the resolution as I understand it before we vote I just want to make sure gotcha thank you uh Mr President point of Mr point of order technically you would need to vote on the addition of an amendment to the agenda item first then on the amended full policy then vote a second time I believe what right now her motion was to add an to it we only have one motion on the floor sir that's what I'm saying her motion was to

150add the the addendum Mr Pitman okay just want to make sure we're following I got you I think Chris I like it but I do want to follow the rules thank you Chris yeah I yeah I agree I think we need to vote on the the motion to to to amend and and after if that is passed then you would vote on on the resolution itself okay does that make sense gotcha we have a board any other discussion or you want to call the vote on the motion to amend okay Mr beverage yes Mr cun no Mr Connell no Dr jurkovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr Wickliffe no Mr Boyd yes that motion passes 52 43 the motion to amend passed all right on to the resolution itself whereas on May 16 2023 the board

151centur Mr Connell for his behavior at the board meeting whereas as part of the century the board removed Mr conell from all committee assignments and Leadership positions indefinitely where as a part of the centure the board directed District staff to enforce any security measures it saw fit to help effectuate the centure where as the entire board remains committed to its goal of providing the best educational system possible within the financial limitations of the district and whereas the entire board believes it can achieve its goal only when its members collabor collaborate collaborate thoughtfully cohesively and professionally be it resolved that during the December 7 2023 meeting the board will discuss reinstating one of the conditions currently being withheld associated with the centure and establish a future date for further review and discussion related to reinstating additional

152conditions a decision to reinstate will be dependent upon consistent adherence by Mr Connell to all elements of V policy BH schooled board member ethics is there a motion I move that we adopt the resolution as amended second we have a motion by Dr jurkovich and a second by Mrs steel Mr beverage yes Mr cun no Mr Connell no Dr yurovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr Wickliffe no Mr boy yes the motion passes moving to Future action items 10.01 through 10.13 board if you have questions make sure you get those to Dr jger so he can pass those on to the appropriate staff we have two information written reports our Head Start director's report and the 2022 bond issue update on to board topics for discussion board any topics for discussion I would if you're open

153to it Mr conell the floor is yours [Music] sir very specific thing I want to do so I was reviewing Kansas statutes the law I could not find one not one that starts with the school district or District must should shall is responsible for Etc all of them in Kansas statutes all start with the board or the Board of Education must should shall is responsible for I share this to remind anyone and everyone who is responsible and accountable for everything that goes on in a school district in Kansas that's these seven individuals are directly responsible for every aspect from whether we're at the 30,000 foot level to down in the weeds we are elected to be the voice and advocates for every constituent period and we seven must be held accountable for everything that happens

154in the district thank you board any other comments topics for discussion I do have a few Mr M all right um so just a few on a many different subjects um first of all if if you're not aware OA Northwest has really been through it lately with a tuberculosis outbreak and I just want to take a minute to commend our health department and our Communications department for running points on this it it is really something to have to sort through something like that and as a parent at oan Northwest now and back in um 2016 when we also had an outbreak um I'm just so impressed how our different agencies come together to work um to make sure that we get ahead of that so thank you to our comm's department and um to our

155health department appreciate all of you um I'd also like to just say as a um former sped teacher in OA and a former sped parent I'm just smiling on the inside with um the presentation tonight so thank you for disclosing all of that great information for never being settled for with good enough we are always looking to do better um I'm I'm quite Amazed by the good things that are happening for our sped kids and I know that we're constantly working to make things better in the areas that they need to be um I would also say that um you know specifically to an Janette she is a servant leader she loves sped and she loves sped kids and on top of that she's she is such a supporter for Altha District so I thank

156you for all the work that you're doing to make this a great place for sped kids so thank you um I also wanted to mention just a couple points of um things that I I checked on since the last meeting regarding the special liability fund I think it's important to understand that that fund comes from taxpayers that is taxpayer money and if that fund runs out or runs low we go to the general budget to compensate um I will leave it there but I just want to make sure we're all clear and lastly I did do some checking with Tim deise at our Johnson County uh mental health department and due to some inaccurate information that was shared at the last meeting regarding the number of people who have have um I'm going to get

157this right let me go to my notes because I really appreciated that speaker the number of people who have chosen Su suicide or have died by Suicide um the numbers that were shared at our meeting from this dis um we not accurate according to Tim deise and so I just want to clarify that he has good numbers and if you're interested in knowing what those numbers are he's more than willing to um educate you and lastly on a happy note um I'd like to wish Miss Debbie iers a happy retirement from being the face and warmth for students staff and visitors at aan Northwest thank you for your dedication and service to our district and community and you won't be forgotten as we go out and make those wise choices so thank you Debbie enjoy

158Retirement Board any other comments Mr bever I was just going to add that the first thing that the girls golf team OA Northwest did when they grabbed the trophy was say we don't give get to give this to Miss Debbie anymore they were so sad about that so wish your well as well Bo any other comments all right I just want to highlight um we are in the middle of Hispanic heran much month it runs from September 15th through October 15th um I'm excited to spend some time this weekend um with some of our staff um as they celebrate um that um that month of Celebration and then on a personal note um today is my son's 17th birthday um so BJ if you're watching you know thank you for allowing dad to to serve

159here tonight and postpone your birthday dinner I appreciate it do you really think he's watching watching he's 17 of course he's not watching but um I love you my boy Dr jger thank you several things I want to mention tonight uh the first one and I know you've seen this and and we'll do a very official celebration at our next board meeting but huge congratulations to Taylor businger who was named the Kansas teacher of the year uh the social studies teacher at P or at Prairie Trail um I tell you I've had a chance to be in his classroom a number of times and the guy is an infectious educator he's just amazing and um had the opportunity to watch all of his speeches that he's given in the process um and Witchita and so

160much for us to be proud of um as we celebrate him and and he just represents the best of the best in education so well not just our district so huge shout out and congratulations to him I'd also like to thank Dr McMullen and our assistant superintendant Clint Alber um Dr Smith um Dr Waters and Dr Harrison who have been working on our start and end time committee uh work we have several meetings I think two actually officially under our belt and lots of data analysis and and what have you and as you see in our community even on our own District uh Facebook page Lively conversation about that and you know I think that represents the hard decision this is um for for all of us that live in this community and the substantial

161changes that we're talking about but I I want to say that Dr McMullan and our others who have been working on that Olivia and our transportation department has just been amazing you know and and it's hard work work and you know it's hard because I don't know that there's uh very many people in our district team that don't live in the district that don't look across the people across the street from us or the people next door to us and uh fully recognize that whatever we suggest to you as a board of education is going to impact people that that we know and care about in our community and that and that kind of thing but I do just want to to thank those in our community who've had the ability to really focus as

162as Dr McMullen has said at each meeting on that larger picture um it's really hard when you have kids and and you have a vested interest in a certain level to pull back and really look at at the whole picture but I've so appreciated the conversations that have happened and um the the conversations that have lent themselves to what's best for all kids in our system and at the end of the day that has to be our North Star as a school system so I just say that to say we'll have a lot of uh in-depth data and information for you at our de next board meeting um as it's a future action item in in November it's hard to believe we're already going to be in November but um we'll bring a lot of

163information but I just really want to thank our our community and our staff for the engagement in that process but also make no uh bones about it that we recognize how hard this is going to be and you know when we talked to the board last spring about hitting the pause button and come back coming back to it you know we just didn't feel like we could in good conscious make that recommendation uh that won't be the case this time um thanks to a lot of good input from various stakeholders in our district um but regardless of what we propose uh unfortunately some in our community may see that as winners and losers and you know at the end of the day we have to focus on our students being the winners um the very

164best we can so um just moral come on that but just kind of wanted to give you a brief update of where we are with that um you know as you know um a lot of the conversations that that that we are having that challenge us as a school system challenge school systems all across the nation and actually globally and I was at an event last week and got to sit with some superintendents from around the country all in like size school districts and you know we started sharing what were the the challenges in our district guess what they all lined up exactly the same and you know so I I think that you know we have programs like our future Educators Academy and things we're partnering with our foundation for and and those kinds

165of things that are really important but those are things that are going to take a while to yield some results in our system uh this week Tuesday morning there was a room full of people here and so I I often times when there's meetings just come in and interrupt um and I did that on Tuesday morning and usually I can tell if it's something I should interrupt or not so I could tell it was something I could interrupt and what it was it was a substitute teacher orientation meeting uh there were about 45 new substitutes starting Tuesday morning and I asked three questions I said how many you have kids in the district that was probably half the people uh how many of you have uh worked in the district that that was probably about

166half the people and how many you live in the district and it was almost everyone in the room and so what that tells me is that our community recognizes that that our Educators and our students have a need across our system and and they're they're meeting the challenge for us so uh the numbers aren't always great and as I've said many many times when your job doesn't feel fill in your classroom that's really hard and it's an impact on the whole school but I'm so appreciative of our community members former employees uh folks that are coming together to to serve our schools in that way and so clear so I'm grateful for that and not all communities are stepping up like our community is that that was actually my point in saying I met with

167other superintendents so um parent teacher conferences are coming up uh in the next few weeks that's a really important time of year for us um you know sometimes when your kids are are doing well sometimes it's easy to say I'm not going to go I I don't need to do it but um there's nothing that can really replace the authentic conversation between a parent and the teachers that that work with their students so I would just continue to encourage our community to participate in parent teacher conferences and and uh know that's coming up last two things I just want to thank the Pioneer Trail team tonight for coming and I'm so fun to see the things happening in our schools and I know that's a little bit of a repetitive process but you know I

168I Ed the word Northstar earlier so I use it again you know the intent really there is to remind us and our public that our Northstar really is about what happens in our schools every day and I so appreciate the team from from from Pioneer Trail doing that tonight and then also to um our special services folks who presented tonight um obviously we could spend probably 14 hours talking about special services and all the nuances of it but I'm really proud of our people um not that we get it right 100% of the time but what we do have 100% of the time is people that have heart and passion for kids who want to do the right thing and um I think that's evident in so much of what they shared tonight so I

169just wanted to offer my thanks as well that's it all right moving on to 14901 how much time do you need for the first executive session 15 minutes 10 I'm hearing 10 let's go with 10 10 10 I move that the board go into executive session for the purpose of discussing matters relating to the security of the board the school school buildings or facilities or the information system of the school and that the board return to the regular meeting at 9:00 second we have a motion by Mrs steel and a second by Mr wh Mr voy yes Mr beverage yes Mr cun yes Mr Connell yes Dr yurovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr wickliff yes motion passes absolutely your full ATT it's not 9:00 yet okay accept the recommendation for system Security Services as presented

170second we have a motion by Mr wickliff in a second by Mr C okay Mrs steel yes Mr wickler yes Mr Boyd yes Mr beverage yes Mr C yes Mr Connell yes Dr yurovich yes all right motion passes 70 on to action 15.01 16 no you're right 15 six it's 16 16 16 how we go from 14 oh that's post action you're right 16 it's 15 minutes yes I move that the board go into executive session for the purpose of consultation with an attorney for the body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney client relationship and that the board returned to the regular meeting at 9:15 p.m. in this room second have a motion by Mr beverage and a second by Mr wicklein let you have this one Mr conell yes Mr

171cun yes Mr beverage yes Mr Boyd yes Mr wias yes Mrs steel yes Dr yurovich yes motion passes authorize the district's acceptance of a proposal of settlement by everg related to applications for electrical rate increases filed by everg with the Kansas Corporation Commission and to authorize Dr Brent joer to execute all documents necessary to effectuate the settlement second we have a motion by Mrs steel and a second by Mr Mr wickliff Dr yurovich yes Mrs steel yes Mr wickliff yes Mr Boyd yes Mr beverage yes Mr cun yes Mr Connell yes motion passes 70 moving on to agenda item 18.01 how much time 10 10 minutes I'm move that the board go into executive session for the purpose of matters relating to actions adversely or favorably affecting a person as a student patient or resident

172of a public institution except that any such person shall have the right to a public hearing if requested by that person and that the board return to the regular meeting at 9:25 in this room second we have a second by Mr wickliff and a I'm sorry a motion by Mr wickliff and a second by m Dr yurovich Mrs steel yes doc Mr w cff yes Mr Boyd yes Mr beverage yes Mr cun yes Mr Connell yes Dr yovich yes she was making it no she said Lila was in it too so I didn't know it was going to be here so which was your daughter so my daughter was the one the cafeteria the blonde on the left side that's my move to adopt the recommendation of Dr Jim McMullen appeal hearing officer to affirm

173the decision of the district suspension and expulsion committee concerning the expulsion of student e23 24-1 second second we have a motion by Mr beverage and a second by Mr Mr beverage yes Mr cun yes Mr Connell yes Dr yurkovich yes yes Mrs steel yes Mr wickliff yes Mr Boyd yes motion passes 70 and we are jour