Blue Valley Board of Education Meeting 4-13-2026

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> I would like to invite Jack Brown, a fifth grade student at Harmony Elementary, to the front to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. >> This is a good spot for you. >> I pledge 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. >> Is this good? >> This is good. And I know Jack has a fan club and a principal here with him tonight. Thank you so much for getting us started off. Tonight we also have the privilege of recognizing several outstanding staff members whose dedication, talent, and impact are inspiring. So, tonight we're going to start off with Kathy Beeman, please come forward with your supervisor Kim Barney. We are

002excited to recognize Kathy with the distinguished service award. Kathy is the instructional materials inventory control specialist for the district, and this is her her 14th year in the district. So, Kim, you want to start us off by sharing what's so special about Kathy? >> Absolutely. It is my pleasure to recognize Kathy tonight. I have had the privilege of working with her for 3 years, almost 3 years now, and during this time I have seen all the great things that she's contributed to our district. Um, 3 years ago the district purchased the Destiny inventory platform to help keep our instructional materials inventory accurate, and they also created the position that Kathy holds now, and she does an excellent job managing our instructional materials. And so, I'm going to share just a few of the great things

003that I've had the opportunity to observe in Kathy over this time. First of all, Kathy's extremely hard working. She approaches every task with a positive attitude. This summer we had a new elementary ELA reading adoption and she processed over a hundred pallets taller than both of each of us. And so when I say process, I mean she is broke broke down those pallets, checked all the boxes for accuracy and made sure all of our materials were in the proper shape we would expect and that we got what we ordered and then she proceeded to barcode them and check them out to the schools so that we could have accurate inventory. So that's just one example of how she's a hard worker. Additionally, she is extremely organized which is very important in this role and she's

004created a lot of supports for our end users in the buildings with trainings and training videos and things to help them navigate because as I say, our inventory is only as good as as how we make maintain it in the schools. So she's a great for them. And then additionally, she is always very positive. I appreciate her passion and commitment for the work and probably the most important thing is her ability to build and maintain positive relationships. She works very closely with the staff at the logistics center and with our co- stakeholders at the building to make sure they have what they need and then she's just been a great resource for me. So thank you Kathy for all that you do on behalf of the academic services team. We appreciate you. >> Thank you.

005>> Kathy, would you like to say anything? >> I am honored to be recognized. I really appreciate it. I do want to give a huge shout out to our logistics team though. Steven Bojers and Bruce Lalonde, I lean on them a lot to help me coordinate getting all these materials out to the schools and they're a huge help. They help me keep organized as well and they're always patient. I lean on them a lot. So, I appreciate them and all the support that they give me. So, thank you. >> And I think Kathy had some fans in the audience. Over here and over here, I heard too. Thank you. Our next recognition tonight is Deanna Elgin. Would you please come forward with your principal Lea Van Ham. So, we are excited to recognize Deanna with

006the Excellence in Education Award. She is an English language arts teacher at Blue Valley Northwest and this is her fifth year in the district. Lea, do you want to start us off and tell us why Deanna is so deserving? >> Sure. So, I crowdsourced this a little bit, but I'm honored to recognize you for this Excellence in Education Award. Um Ms. Elgin's an English teacher at Northwest who stands out for her ability to connect with students and inspire them to high levels of learning. She creates a classroom grounded in strong relationships, clear structures, and consistent routines that support student success. She's deeply committed to all learners. Excuse me, to all learners challenging both on-level and honors students to engage with ELA standards in ways that are thoughtful, creative, and rigorous. She's widely respected by her

007colleagues as both a compassionate teacher and a strong leader within the ELA department. Ms. Elgin brings a depth of knowledge and experience that meaningfully shapes curriculum, strengthens instructional practices, and contributes to to strong student outcomes. She's also an incredibly supportive teammate and mentor, someone others can consistently rely on whether they need professional guidance or personal support. Her presence elevates every team she's part of. Just as importantly, her impact is deeply felt by her students. They genuinely value the relationships she builds with them, which is reflected in the recognition she received last year from her sophomore class. And sophomores are hard to impress. We are proud of Ms. Elgin and grateful for the impact she has on our students and our school. >> You have to give her that. >> Yeah, did you get that? >>

008I Do you want to screen? Yes. >> Would you like to share any words? >> Um Just thank you for doing this and it's because my department is so talented and great that they aspire me to be better. >> They're so good. >> Yes, fan club. >> That's Yeah, that's Yeah, yeah. Husband and Yeah. >> YOU'RE SO NICE. >> YES. >> OKAY. WILL DR. TYLER Alexander please come forward? DR. ALEXANDER IS THE PRINCIPAL of Blue Valley Southwest and was recently named the 2026 Kansas Area 1 High School Principal of the Year by the Kansas Principals Association. This is Dr. Alexander's 16th year in Blue Valley. The Kansas Principals Association is a statewide organization that is committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of students. The organization's mission is to develop and support all principals

009through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service. Dr. Alexander, congratulations on this well-deserved recognition, and thank you for all you do for our students, including my own, and their success. And I know Dr. Alexander has some fans in the audience. Next, we'd like Matt Ortman to please come forward. So, Matt Ortman is the district's athletic director, and he was recently awarded the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association State Award of Merit. That's a mouthful. This award is presented annually by each state to an NIAAA member who demonstrates outstanding leadership and service and achievement in interscholastic athletic administration. Matt has been part of the Blue Valley community for 27 years. Actually, probably more than that. Uh Matt, congratulations on this award, and thank you for all you do to support staff and students each day, um and

010we're grateful for your contributions. You have to take a picture. Thank you. Our final recognition of this evening is Michael Richards, so will you please come forward? Michael Richards is a Blue Valley Northwest assistant principal and athletic director and was recently awarded the Kansas Interscholastic Athletic Administrator Association's Art Newcomer Promising Athletic Director Award. The award recognizes outstanding athletic administrators early in their career who demonstrate strong leadership and service to the school activities programs. Michael's been with Blue Valley for 10 years. Michael, congratulations on receiving this award and we're so proud of you and the work you do every day to support students. And I know he's got several uh members of his fan club over here. Okay. And we'll get a quick picture. Okay. Uh well, it's been an honor. That's it. It's been an

011honor to recognize all these educators this evening and for those of you looking for a natural break or want to find um a better seat, here's your time. >> All right, we'll get started uh with our regular agenda. Um Well, I guess first we have public comments and we had no one sign up for public comments. I'll assume there's no one else walked in for public comments. >> I think these two South West students maybe >> Yeah, I think these South West students right there have public comment. >> Yeah, you are prepared, aren't you? >> Three minutes. >> All right, we need uh We'll call the meeting to order and I need a motion to approve the regular Board of Education meeting agenda. >> I move that the Board of Education approve the April 13th,

0122026 regular Board of Education meeting agenda as published. >> Second. >> Moved by Jody, second by David. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. On the consent agenda, our rules of parliamentary procedure provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval by the board by a single motion. Documentation concerning these items has been provided to all board members and the public in advance to ensure an extensive review. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member. Do I have a motion? >> I move that the Board of Education approve the April 13th, 2026 regular Board of Education meeting consent agenda as published with minor edits deemed necessary by legal counsel. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Moved by Gina, second by Patrick.

013All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? It passes unanimously. Which takes us to reports and discussion items. >> Thank you. Um board with the uh the passing of the consent agenda, you made a number of um changes with personnel. And before we get into that, um I'd like to spend a couple of minutes um explaining a reorganizational chart. Um first, I'd like to congratulate Dr. Katie Collier. Uh she was recently appointed to serve as superintendent of the Auburn-Washburn School District in Topeka. And Dr. Collier started with our uh school district in 2019 and led through some of the most turbulent times um that starts with a C word uh COVID. Um she has distinguished herself as a leader and someone we can all count on. She will certainly be missed and we're grateful for

014her leadership throughout the years. Given some of the fiscal Oh. GIVEN SOME OF THE FISCAL CHALLENGES THAT WE ARE FACING, I've streamlined the district leadership structure, which includes transitioning away from deputy and assistant superintendent roles and moving to a model of chief officers with clearly defined responsibilities and who will all report directly to me. Um So, I'd like to spend just a a minute introducing or reintroducing um in some cases. So, um first of all, Jeremy McFadden, our chief financial officer. He is now going to work closely with our information technology department, which will be led by Kent Corser, the executive director of technology. And Kent joined Blue Valley schools. I'm going to have Kent stand up. Where are you? There he is. Uh in 2015 and he has served as the director of technology

015operations, where he's led our enterprise technology support systems and helped implement the district's technology roadmap and a whole bunch of other things that he explained to me, but I figured best left with him. Um prior to Blue Valley, um he's served in a number of K-12 and higher ed as well as uh private sector. He has a bachelor's degree in financial management from Kansas State and an MBA from Ottawa University. Um as the executive director of technology, he will oversee the enterprise infrastructure, network modernization, cybersecurity, data privacy, and cloud-based platforms. He will lead um information technology services in creating secure, seamless, and future-ready learning environments that empower our educators and support student success. Um in his spare time, he enjoys um spending time with his wife and his three boys, um spoiling his two dogs,

016walking, collecting baseball cards, and cheering on the Kansas City sports team. So, congratulations, Kent, and we thank you for your leadership during um this school year, which has been certainly difficult, um but we appreciate all the incredible work your team has done. So, thank you. >> NEXT, KELLY JUNE WILL SERVE as chief of academic services. And um Kelly is uh not new to um our school district. Um she values the opportunity to continue providing leadership um through uh to Blue Valley's outstanding academic programming and working alongside teachers, principals, district leaders, and families to serve our students. Her 29-career year career in education includes experience as a German and French teacher, instructional coach, principal, and for the last 13 years in multiple district leadership roles in Blue Valley, all in the academic services side. Outside of

017school, she enjoys photography, graphic design, and hiking. As an educational leader, she's focused on getting better each day and is deeply committed to continuously improving how the district supports students, staff, and families. Um Kelly would like the board to know that she's so proud to serve the Blue Valley community and is eager to continue in this role. So, thank you. Congratulations. Shelly Nielsen, it's your turn to stand up. Uh Shelly uh will serve as the um chief of school administration or administrative services. Uh Shelly is joined this evening by her daughter Faith and her son Landon. Where are you? Over here. There we they are. Um her husband Jason is unable to attend as he supports the youngest daughter Ava at her track meet. Shelly is humbled and honored to continue serving the students, staff,

018and the community of Blue Valley in this role. Her 28-year career in education includes positions as a special education teacher, a middle school teacher, assistant principal, principal, and most recently the executive director of school administration. She treasures the relationships she has built during her 25 years in Blue Valley and feels grateful to work alongside such dedicated educators, families, and friends. Outside of school, Shelly enjoys spending time with her family, cheering on her children, and relaxing at the lake. She's passionate about collaboration, thoughtful problem-solving, and supporting all the Blue Valley schools. She's so proud to serve this community and is excited to begin in her role next year. So, congratulations. Rounding out our educational and academic services team is Dr. Jessica Meisenheimer. And she is new to our school district and we are so delighted to

019welcome you as the chief of support services. She is joined this evening by her husband Mark and her son Princeton, her mother Winnie, and stepfather Tim. And it's so great to welcome your whole family to Blue Valley. She's honored and excited to begin her journey in Blue Valley bringing 24 hours of 24 hours of experience. You're remarkable. So sorry. 20 24 years of experience in education including serving as a first grade teacher, an elementary special education teacher, a research project manager with Swift at the University of Kansas, and most recently the director of special programs in Liberty, Missouri. Beyond her professional life, Jessica treasures her time with her family most often found cheering on Princeton at his many sporting events or keeping up with their lively black Labrador puppy Norman. Jessica would like the board

020to know that she's proud and she's grateful for the opportunity to serve the Blue Valley community and she looks forward to beginning this chapter in her professional career. Congratulations. Uh Kelly, Shelley, and Jessica will work close in close partnership to ensure alignment and a strong system of support for students and staff. So, what you'll notice is this triad will really um be forging a strong connection between special education, between uh our general education, and our administrative services. And um to ensure a strong alignment and a strong system of support for all of our students and our staff. Uh we also have this evening uh to a warm welcome to Dr. Ashley Inns. She will serve Stand up. She will serve in a new uh position as executive director of special education. And Dr. Inns is

021a a Blue Valley graduate. Go Mustangs. And she started her career as a school psychologist and then student services consultant before moving into special education administration. She earned a doctorate in educational leadership. She has a master's and an education specialist in school psychology and a bachelor's in social sociology. She serves on multiple uh state and national committees promoting effective practices and advocacy in special education. Um Ashley and her husband Cameron have two children and enjoy family road trips and camping and being outside. Congratulations, Dr. Inns. Oh, sorry. Sorry, go Mustangs. Blue Valley North, right? Sorry. I might have said hi. Sorry. I just saw Blue Valley graduate. Um We also have Dr. Heather Payne. There she is. Um Dr. Payne will be the principal at Wolf Springs Elementary. Dr. Payne is joined this evening by

022her husband Andrew and um their son Henry and her mother Donna. Uh next year will mark her 20th year in the district where she has served as a first and fourth grade teacher, a literacy coach, instructional design coach. She earned her doctorate in educational leadership from Baker and has spent the past 2 years supporting Wolf Springs community as an administrative intern. Her Dr. Payne cares deeply about the students, staff, and families of Wolf Wolf Springs and is known for building strong, trusting relationships while supporting meaningful academic growth. She's passionate about creating a school where every student thrives, every educator feels valued, and the entire community feels proud to to belong. She's excited to continue building on a strong foundation at Wolf Springs through steady leadership, a strong a focus on strong instruction, and a commitment

023to a unified school community. Congratulations, Dr. Payne. I'm almost done, so bear with me. Um Next we have Katie Pearson and is she here? She is not here. Okay. Um Katie will be at um the assistant principal at Blue Valley North and she will oversee activities. She has been the um intern at Blue Valley North, so it'll make a smooth transition into this role having already served with the team. Next year will mark her 20th year in education. She spent several years at Blue Valley West as an ELA teacher and the head cheerleading coach. But most recently, the last 2 years she's been at Blue Valley North as the administrative intern, where she had a chance to learn from truly the best team. She wrote this. She's so excited to accept the role of assistant

024principal and activities director at North. She knows and loves the students in the community already and is looking forward to continuing and expanding on the excellence that that team has worked so hard to provide. She says, "Go Mustangs." Um and lastly, um is Chris Diddian. And we don't have Chris Diddian, do we? Uh Chris will be new to um Blue Valley and he is currently uh joining the Blue Valley West uh team as the assistant principal for athletics. He's replacing uh Kevin Zimmerman, who has taken a new opportunity outside of public education. And one second. Want to make sure I have the most um one second here. Sorry, I don't have it um right in front of me. Um I wanted to share a little bit more information. Uh but, he's the current athletic director

025at Olathe Northwest. So, we'll be excited to welcome Chris um to Blue Valley and joining Blue Valley West next year. And I think I covered everybody. Did I miss anybody? I don't think so. Okay. Um that was uh the conclusion of my reorganization report. Um the other component that I'd like to add is underneath the um the work of Shelley Nielsen as the chief administrative services, we'll be adding um a a feeder pattern system. And that feeder pattern system, every one of our high schools will have a director of or or executive director of administrative services, as well as an assistant director of special education connected with that feeder pattern. So, the goal is to have a really strong uh feeder pattern instruction uh structure with support for every single one of our principals uh

026in a really tight cohesive network. So, we're really really looking forward to that. At this time, I'm not ready to um announce those appointments um as we're still working through some of those details at this time. So, I'll have more information coming up, but it's uh it's been a a lot of change and moving parts, and I appreciate everyone um participating. It's been an an incredible team environment, and I'm looking forward to um seeing how this structure can really move our district forward and providing a lot of support while um while managing some some tight fiscal times, and but also focusing our work on alignment and support for each student. Um so, quickly uh Dr. Chapman, um with this realignment, um if uh cuz I know, you know, why um we've kind of gone this

027route or you've gone this route, um specifically, it it kind of tightens up um kind of our administrative level a little bit. Actually, you know, uh if you look at our administrative teams in comparison with some of our friends locally, we've always been um leaner. Um but, I I believe that this um further moves that um to to make it even more lean than we were before um in order to try to put as many uh resources back in the classroom as possible. Is Is a correct statement? >> It is. Um, very much so. Thank you. Thank you. I I think I I left off a couple of people. Um, so I apologize. I I think I'll cover them at a future time, but I'll just announce cuz I don't have their bio in front

028of me. But Jen Opie will be assigned with Dr. Payne at Wolf Springs Elementary as the administrative dean, um, formerly known as the administrative intern. So, we'll be calling them our deans moving forward. And then Dr. Mindy Wells, um, she is currently a coordinator of, um, support in the district. She'll be taking on an assistant director of student and family resources and coordinating all of our, uh, counselors, social workers, and our crisis, uh, care team. So, Mindy's been a part of our Dr. Wells has been a part of our district for quite a while. So, um, she's not a new face to you, but I apologize that I don't have her bio in front of me because, um, and the same thing with Jen Opie and Chris Diddy and because their bios are impressive, otherwise

029we wouldn't be hiring them. So, I'll make sure I provide a complete update for our board agenda, but, um, congratulations to the team and, um, again, I think it's going to really, um, provide a lot of support for our students and our staff. The next report I have for you is, um, the legislative report. It's not as fun to share the legislative report. Um, huge thanks to, um, Patty Markley with Markley Strategies. Um, she provided a lengthy report, but she spent, um, the last few months, uh, in in Topeka. And, um, the under the our the, uh Kansas Legislature did complete the uh veto session um early in the morning on Saturday, April the 11th. Um as the veto session uh began, Governor Kelly signed 75 bills into law and vetoed 27. Uh the legislature

030attempted to override several of those vetoes, and all of those override attempts related to education were within the governor's line item vetoes of the budget. In addition to her vetoes of specific bills, the governor vetoed 39 line items in the budget. Um and she did a lengthy press release explaining um all of her her vetoes. Uh I just want to quickly summarize um there were several that did fail um that will not be included in the budget, which includes immunization schedules. So, that failed. Um requiring the State Board to use old assessment cut scores from 2024, that failed. Funding for um and requirements of innovative assessment pilot programs also failed. Um cut scores again um similar to previous language failed. And um a funding for contract with KU for state assessment, that failed. Um the

031override attempts that were successful um includes um the school walkout and free speech restrictions, um which would mean that students that did walk out and were not um adequately prevented from doing so, uh the school district would uh not be able to count their minutes during the the time of walkout, as well as um face a fine. Um this obviously has some free speech restrictions to it. Extremely problematic for the First Amendment rights to free speech. Um So, I it is most assuredly will resort result in lawsuits. That would also restrict seniors from skip day. So, want to point that one out as well. There's no fun to be had in school including senior skip day. So, we'll have to uh Yeah, sadly we'll to be talking about that. Glad we have some students here

032that can carry that torch for us because that's the most problematic in my opinion. All kidding aside, there were some education bills signed into law. Um Let's see. The final bill of Senate Bill 382 bundled some education-related activities and that permits non-public schools to permit eligible students to participate in KSHAA-governed activities. It exempts foreign exchange students from public school district open enrollment lotteries. So, if they are staying with the host family, they are authorized to enroll. It amends the definition of special teacher to include persons employed by a third party that has a contract with the school district to provide special education or related services. And it requires any state assessment administered virtually to a virtual school student to be administered by the student's virtual school. Um Of course, there's another one that prohibits the

033use of mobile phone devices in a school zone or in a road construction zone. That was approved and related to the cell phone bill restrictions, Um, is the ban on bell to bell, no cell phones. Uh, we're still working through what that's going to look like, but currently the, um, law requires that, um, the cell phone is, um, uh, powered off and stored inaccessible to the student from bell to bell during the school day. So, we're still working through those provisions. Um, at this time our estimates, it's a three and a half to four million dollar expense to find a location, staff a room, have some sort of organized storage system to collect those devices, and it's it's, um, it's it's frustrating in that we already have a policy that works that was, um, as

034you all know, created by our students and our families and our, um, school community and staff that works really well for us. So, um, we're hoping we get a some clarity that, um, does not require, um, so much supervision on that. Um, there's a number of other things that, um, you know, definitely do impact the school district, but I think I'm not going to spend too much time on it because I'm reading the room. You might be tired of this. Um, but needless to say, there are a number of things that, um, this session did that are extremely problematic to the school district, um, and to all school districts in Kansas, um, that are requiring, um, that we, you know, we we really didn't come out of this session with the funding that we need

035to support our students. Um, as a reminder, we transfer $18 million to cover the cost of special education, and the, um, only funding that came out was $6 million statewide for special education. We also had some sales tax um caps and uh property tax, income tax credits. Again, um none of them are uh helpful to our school district or producing any um revenue that might help us close our budget gap. Um the $6 million that the uh that they did approve uh would realistically mean about $300,000 increase to cover that $18 million gap in special education. So, with the plan that I just presented, um while we anticipate having more um special education students enroll in our school district, which has been the pattern given the exceptional quality that we offer here in Blue Valley,

036as well as um the exceptional medical and specialized medical services in this community, we'd anticipate having more special education students enroll, but we will not be um adding additional special education staff. We're this whole regional organizational effort is about serving the students that we have with the resources that we have. Uh we're hopeful that our enrollment will increase. Uh we have some housing that is um underway and coming close to um the finish line. Um we have exceptional uh work and support through Eric Pollman, and um we're hopeful that we'll gain some additional students, um and we won't see the same 173 student decline in the next school year, again reflective of the national birth rate. So, um folks should continue um having children and uh moving into Blue Valley. That's what we can do.

037Uh but um so, it's not a real favorable um session completion. I I was hopeful that um the legislature would make some changes at toward the end of the session, but it just didn't happen. So, having said that, there board members here, we've all been actively involved, so I'd be happy to answer any questions um or if you all want to have a conversation about it. >> Um quickly, do you have uh an estimated time um when we hope to at least have some answers for our community regarding this cell phone um process? I mean, we don't know what to do with it, honestly, right? >> Right. We don't. Um the the last I heard um leadership in our um administrator organizations were reaching out to um the uh original authors of the bill and

038and basically saying, "Are you aware of what this is what this action has done?" Um and you know, we're hopeful that before it gets signed in and done, um although it's already been a uh signed by the governor, but we're hopeful we can get some things changed. If we can't, um then we'll be working this summer to figure out a storage solution and how we can comply with the with the law. Um in general, we don't have issues in elementary and middle school. Our students are not allowed to bring their cell phones and or or personal devices cuz again, it also includes smartwatches. It includes um earbuds. So, um and there are so many reasons why a family would choose to um you know, provide a device to their child and that's between them and

039their family, but um we typically don't have any issues in elementary and middle school. Um I would like it to stay that way. Um, I think that's a reasonable approach. Um, if we have to provide some storage solution, um, I don't know that we'd have any other choice but to, um, add some sort of a fee to our families. Um, which you'll you'll be talking about fees and so that might be something that we have to do down the road. Um, because simply it's an unfunded mandate by the school district and we simply cannot provide that plus the staffing involved, that just the organizational how do you manage up to 1,600 students coming in multiple entrances and the beginning of the day collecting their devices at the end of the day, redistributing them them, you

040know, when they have an appointment, etc., etc. during the day. It just doesn't make sense. So, um, my my current, um, plan is to wait as long as possible and, um, stall, delay, stall. Uh, and then over the summer, um, you know, there are many many organizations that have reached out, sent us samples, um, are requesting, you know, meetings so they can sell their device. So, it's, um, I think there are plenty of eager, um, companies to to take, um, the state's money that we should be spending on education and the programs that this community values rather than a cell phone ban that the legislature felt like they needed to spend the entire session on. >> Um, got a question just on the on the cell phones. There's been a lot of questions out there

041about, um, why can't Can't they just put them in their backpack? Can't they just stick them in their locker? And I think that's what um some legislature's have actually said they thought they were doing even though the language clearly says making those devices inaccessible and an inaccessible location to students. So, have we gotten any clarification on that or um cuz right now as we understand it and from the advice that we've been giving and all the in been given and all the interpretations is that would not be acceptable. Is that right? >> That is correct. It would not because it says um powered off and inaccessible to the student during the school day. So, um there have been a number of um KSB and the uh school administrator association um have sought out clarity from

042the um general counsel and um they've all advised backpacks or lockers would not suffice. >> I would just like to add um occasionally for fun, you know, uh we'll watch the the video stream of what's going on in Topeka. Um uh regarding this uh subject, um I it was atrocious um that the legislators in the room did not understand what they voted on. Um I was baffled that they didn't read um this legislation and understand the the impact of it. So, please pay attention um to who you're voting for um at every election. Vote for heaven's sakes, but make for sure the people that are voting that you're voting for actually do reflect your values because this is this is where we're at right now. >> Next, the superintendent's report. >> Superintendent. >> Thank you.

043See if I can manage the clicker today. Look at that. Um number of calendar items, it's just unbelievable to me that we're talking about April um and this close of the school year is just it's amazing to me, but um you can see all the uh special recognition uh dates and holidays there. Um we have several Blue Valley students at that were named winners of uh 2026 Art Competition and Kindness Action Support. Um so Molly um Abdinur and Sue Huskey um all were award winners from Blue Valley High, North, and West. We also have a Scarlet at the 2026 National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences um and she won award there from Blue Valley Northwest. Blue Valley North's Jonah and Nathan were the state division of 2026 Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge winners. We already

044recognized Dr. Tyler Alexander as the Principal of the Year from Area 1. And Stanley Elementary's Megan uh Mowell was uh named the 2026 Bonnie Danley Field Work Educator of the Year by KU Medical Center's Department of Occupational Therapy and Education. And then uh last week we had the on Friday we had the opportunity to celebrate Mission Trail's um librarian Abby Jones, and Blue Valley Northwest, Jeremy Moan. They were selected as the 26 2026 recipients of the foundation's innovative educator award. And this award recognizes two educators that really go above and beyond in innovative teaching methods. And it was just a real honor to surprise them on Friday with that award. And it really shows how much it means to them to receive this check, but I think the best part of it was that the

045nominations are made by peers. And just seeing how delighted they were that their peers thought so much about them and the strategies they used to improve student achievement and get kids excited about the things that they're doing in their classroom was really amazing. So, congratulations to those two. And we also honored and celebrated our 2026 retirees. It was a fantastic celebration. Really appreciate our team's work in finding such a lovely venue and way of celebrating and honoring our staff for their years of service in so many different capacities. There's a lot of experience that's walking out the door and a lot of people who you know, it's a difficult decision to retire. So, we wish them well and appreciate their years of service here in Blue Valley. We also have Blue Valley Southwest, Alex Roberts

046was named a Gatorade Kansas Boys Cross Country Player of the Year. Huge honor for him. Will Davis was the 2026 Sports in Kansas Large Class Non-Senior Boys Basketball Player of the Year. He's from Blue Valley North. He's also in my student leadership and advisory committee and he's such a leader and such a nice young man. So, I appreciated seeing this honor because he's not just a leader on the basketball court but also in in the high school in so many ways. Blue Valley West Science Olympiad earned first place in the competition and this is the team's second straight title. And that concludes the superintendent's report. >> Well, let's move on to the Kansas Association School Board Policy FC Memorials, Funerals and Naming of District Facilities. Dr. Chapman, you want to explain that? >> Thank you.

047Last month the board had conversation about this in our policies. I thought that I captured our comments but I believe there might be some additional changes that we need to make. Um So, yeah. >> I would like to pull it off again. Um or you know, make the modifications. My concern is that that um the verbage is standard for kind of KASB and they usually go 5 years out. Um make for sure they don't name something for someone who's um they have to have been dead about 5 years ago um or more in order to name a facility after them. It uses the word facility structure. Um here in Blue Valley we've tried to stay away from facilities um and structures. We've done an occasional field um or maybe a um a small theater or

048something like that. So, I do think that here in Blue Valley we set precedents that we really stay away from naming after individuals and I would like to make for sure that we are continue with that. So. >> Should we need a motion to pull it off? >> Or >> It hasn't been moved. I don't have a red. >> There you go, right there. >> Oh, there it is. All right. Yeah, I would concur with that and I would make a motion that we uh pull this and not approve it this evening and bring it back uh in a in a month. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> Moved by David. Seconded by Jody. Discussion? >> I just wanted to qualify or I make sure I understand we just want the section um

049that says um that we won't name someone. Basically. Okay. Name it after someone. Okay. Thank you. Just want to make sure I Okay. >> Anyone else? Okay, all in favor of the motion to set this aside, say I. I. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Takes us to index G. Oh, before we get there, um I know many of you uh stayed for recognition and honors uh but you are free to leave as we go through these exciting policies. Ah. You're also free to stay. >> Yeah. >> Welcome. >> Yeah. This is what we do at the school board. >> Congratulations. >> Moving on to index G. Dr. Chapman, you want to explain this one? >> Yes. Um section G mainly consists of new policies. There are a number of KSB policies with non-substantive edits, um and

050we've listed those uh for you. There are 27 of them. Um that really don't have a lot of edits to them. There was one that we caught um moments before the board meeting. Um GACC, so I'd like to just pause for 1 second and take a look at that one. Um that one uh we deleted uh the language that said the board approves the hiring of all employees. Which is true, you do on your consent agenda every single month. Um we're going to add back that the approval of contracts are by the board, so that it's really clear because the title of that is recruitment and hiring. Um but I I would also say that this is an edit that um if the board approved could be an edit deemed necessary by legal counsel. So,

051I think um Melissa might want to take a look at that one a little bit more to make sure we've captured what we have to do with the law. >> Yeah, I I think that was my change um because historically I don't think we approve all classified hires. Um and I invite Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Penzwick to chime in if they need to, but sometimes we turn classified and must turn classified hires pretty quickly. There's a greater turnover in that category of employees. And so, my intention in removing that sentence from the policy was to rely on um the negotiated agreement for certified hires because you do approve all certified hires. Those are contracts with the board. It's just the classified that historically have not been approved by the board. >> The second session or

052section um is the the revising of KASB policies and adding language. And so, there are seven of those where we um made enough edits that we wanted to call them out and summarize them. Um and um we've listed all of those uh for the board and also linked the policy. Uh one thing that I I wanted to qualify as well, the policies that begin with GB those are certified um at contracts or policies for certified staff, which would be administrators um and teachers predominantly. The policies that begin with GC are for classified staff. And so, sometimes when you read the the policies, you're kind of like, "Well, you know, is this an administrator or why is it listed twice?" Um that's the reason that some of them are listed twice. So, I we did uh

053make some edits there. Um one thing that I want to highlight in particular, if you look at GBO resignation and um that policy adds liquidated damages Um um that um we could consider um if uh someone uh resigned during the school year. So, um that's an issue that we had um in particular this year where some staff uh decided to resign in the middle of the school year. And um while our policy says we don't have to let them go until we find a suitable replacement, there's really no penalty for someone breaking their contract. And it does put them put us um you know, having to do a lot of work in finding a replacement, interviewing, um boarding someone. And then we did reject four policies due to they were listed in the negotiated agreement.

054Questions? >> That's what you said it is under G. >> Yes, that's it. >> Okay, I need a motion to approve uh the policies in index G. >> I move that the Board of Education approve the Kansas Association of School Board policies in index G to take effect on July 1st, 2026 pending minor edits deemed necessary by legal counsel. >> Second. >> Moved by Gina, second by Dr. Evans. All in favor say I. >> Before we vote on that, do you have a clarification on something that Dr. Chapman just talking about? You um talked about um I was trying to find where this was about some of these policies like the liquid and liquidated damages clause. Are we approving that in the policy or is we're approving it without that right now? Is that something

055for future consideration? I'm not clear on. >> Yeah. We had it in there for approval, um, but I see that the one that's in there has been edited out. So, I want to bring that one back. I'll I'll bring it back unless there's not unless it's minor edits, then I'll let Melissa handle it. But, the intent was to bring a resignate a penalty uh for breach of contract. >> Okay, but it's not in which policy number was that again? >> Um GBL GBO Yeah. We might have the wrong one linked there. So, I'll let me work it GBO. I'll have Melissa take a look at that. >> Yeah, it needs to be uh since some places it's may and some places it's shall. And uh the board in the first paragraph looks like it has

056discretion to release or So, um yeah, I uh concur. We need to see this back if if that's agreeable. >> I'm wondering, um, if the reason we struck the language with the specifics is we need to um add it to the negotiated agreement and work with the association on it. So, uh maybe this that's probably the reason they took that out, um, because it needs to be negotiated with the association. So, um Yeah. >> Thank you, Dr. Chapman. I would like a a little additional time to vet that fully for the board. >> Perfect. >> I withdraw my motion. >> Yes. >> So, um maybe it Thank you. >> I move that the Board of Education approve the Kansas Association of School Board Policies and Index G with the exception of policy GBO to take

057effect on July 1st, 2026 pending minor edits deemed necessary by legal counsel. >> Second. >> Moved by Gina and second by Dr. Evans. Any further discussion? All in favor, say I. >> I. Any opposed? It's unanimous. >> Okay. >> That covers the policies, I think. Is that correct? >> That does. >> So, we'll move on to approving our district fees. And Jeremy? >> Thank you. While Jeremy's coming up, um and the the team, um we wanted to have all the leads on each of these departments available to answer any questions that you might have um as they're getting settled. Uh the district fees are before you. Um proposed changes are in green, as well as the current fee, and what the increase is. Um we are um we've been really careful and kept the fees

058pretty low. In many cases, we haven't made changes in a very long time. Um unfortunately, again, with some of the state legislatures actions, um, we're forced to take a look at fees and find ways that we can, um, increase revenue without, um, being over the top. So, having said that, Oh, thank you. It's off, I think. Um, Jeremy and team will explain each of the fees for your consideration. >> Yeah, thank you, Dr. Chapman and uh Board of Education. First, I'd like to recognize uh the work of the Finance and Operations Advisory Committee in providing their feedback and guidance regarding district fees. Um, second, as a reminder, the collective budget impact of all of the proposed fees in front of you tonight is estimated to exceed approximately $500,000 or 5% of our operating budget adjustments

059for the next fiscal year. Um, since the initial presentation of the fee schedule at the March Board meeting, we've also received uh several questions or edits from the Board, and we have also added a short presentation tonight on the accidental protection device protection fee. Um, the IT Services Department has had to navigate some difficult challenges in the past few months. Um, with Kent Corser's leadership, uh they've done a remarkable job of maintaining great support throughout Blue Valley. Uh that said, the presentation of the ADP fee was not quite ready in March, which is why we're going to address it tonight with you all. Uh Kent will be reviewing more information on the ADP uh here shortly. Uh in addition, as we go through and talk about fees, we're also going to highlight opportunities for uh

060future budget efficiencies. Uh that's really providing you just a quick verbal update uh on what we're doing internally to try to minimize uh the the potential instances in the future of having to increase fees. So, uh you might hear a few uh comments tonight on things that we're trying to do internally to really, you know, not put us in a position every year to be coming back asking for uh fee increases. Um so, as we work our way through the slides and the topics, feel free to ask questions throughout or save them till the end. Uh at the conclusion of the presentation, we will ask the board for a motion to approve the district fee schedule for 2026-2027. All right. Um first up, uh we're going to take a quick review of the proposed meal

061prices for breakfast and lunch, and Charles Rathbun is going to uh walk us through these slides. >> Good evening. I'm Charles Rathbun, the director of food nutrition for the district. Uh tonight I'm coming to you recommending a breakfast a 15-cent breakfast price increase for both students and adults, and uh as well as um a lunch price increase of 25 cents for the 2026-2027 school year. Um as you all know, with the the rising costs of supplies, food, um labor, and benefits, um this is necessary. Um as a self-supporting department, uh it's critical that we maintain that and not rely on the general fund. Um the Excuse me. The The pros The The in The increase proposal will definitely help um with the increasing expenses. Um additional uh avenues that we will be working on, which

062we have been working on this year and will continue next year, is a menu development and how we serve students and how those menus look like as far as lowering cost bidding our products that we we we get from our suppliers labor distribution especially with the opening of Wolf Springs Middle School and just day-to-day operating operating costs. The increase proposal will bring in the additional $330,000 to the fund which would be very helpful. We have successfully lowered food and non-food expensive $150,000 this year alone with the efforts that we've we've done as a team. So with that we just ask your support as we um look at the rest of the fees. Thanks. Yes, sure. Go ahead. Go ahead, Patrick. 330 I think there'll be some other savings with other operational efficiencies that we'll we'll

063be working on as well such such as what we did this year. So >> So what do we think our expenses are going to be going forward next year? >> I don't anticipate labor to go up but very little next year with how even with the addition of Wolf Springs Middle food cost last year and this year we've actually lowered it slightly. We've been really aggressive on the items that we're purchasing and going after getting bigger discounts. As a bigger district we're able to do that more effectively probably than your smaller districts in the area. >> So if So if we're not having increased expenses but we're increasing the price for $330,000 why do we need increase? >> Because we still have a fund balance that's been decreasing with the increased labor and benefit expenses.

064So we're not at a we're not at a break-even at this point. We we've still lost money as a department. >> So how much have we lost? >> This year alone will lose 1. 2 million. Uh, with the efforts that we plan on, uh, moving forward with the price increase, uh, we will probably lose 700,000 next year. Uh, we still have a reserve balance, so, uh, one of the big, um, efforts that's going nationally through, uh, the food nutrition organization, which is school nutrition association, is federal funding has not stayed up. Uh, the increase the CPI for federal funding for our schools uh, are at the pre-COVID rates with a 34% increase in expenses, so we're not keeping up at the federal level as well, as far as the funding we get for federal for

065our both breakfast and lunch. >> Right, so we're running at a deficit about 1.2 million. These increases will go to reduce that down to about 700,000. >> Right. >> What's the long-term plan, though? >> To Jeremy. >> Continue. We'll We'll probably continue to do increases. It will be one of the recommendations next year. >> So, is the plan to get neutral? >> The plan is to not lose money and go into the general fund. That's the plan That's That's the goal. >> Right, but you're still losing 700 a year. So, is there Is that a 5-year plan? >> Yeah, can I step in? Um, the cash balances that Charles was referring to, we reviewed this in the finance committee. Um, at the peak of the federal assistance during COVID, the cash um, >> We broke

066it. >> You want to share this? Um, at the peak, the cash balance was, uh, 5.7 million dollars. So, uh, clearly that needed to be spent down. Uh, KSDE has some not really guidance, it's a requirement that your cash balance in the food service fund doesn't exceed, I think, 3 months. So, we were on a multi-year spend down trajectory. Clearly, if we had compensation increases applicable for all staff, that applied to Charles' team as well. So, over the years we've made significant significant investments in compensation, benefits, inflation on food costs. Um it's, you know, been a multi-year process of spending that cash balance down. Uh moving forward though, the plan is to continue to increase meal prices, and I think in future years we're going to see some um prices that are at a minimum

067this, if not higher. So, um right now I would say the highest lunch price on this schedule, adult, $4.65, that's still pretty reasonable price. Um I just think that there's going to be some pressures on our uh breakfast and lunch pricing moving forward to keep us out of the general fund and really stabilize and get back to a break-even budget. >> Right. I mean, so so what what you're saying is is to break even, we're about 75 cents short on lunch, and we're about 45 cents short on breakfast. >> Yeah, to correct that in 1 year would be, you know, pretty much a shock to families paying for for meals. So, we're trying to, you know, do this at a reasonable pace, but yeah, it's going to require some pretty significant increases here in the

068next year or two. >> So, is the plan to do basically 15 cents and 25 cents respectively for the next 3 years, this next year, the next year, and the year after? >> I think it'll be more than that. >> It'll be more than that. >> Yeah. >> Because costs are growing faster, so so we're just kind of trying to start the process? >> Yeah, so Uh, we're structuring a budget next year that has a deficit spend in it even with these increased prices. Um, so I I think increased lunch prices are just going to be the norm over the next two to three years and they're going to be noticeable, but uh, do it over one fiscal year adjustment, that would be a bit a little too much in our opinion. So. >> Yeah,

069no, I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just trying to understand what the plan is so that everybody who watches this the whole the three people out there that are watching it can understand or they can actually go back and review this meeting and understand that, you know, we're working on this challenge that we're being faced with in a variety of ways. This is one of those things is probably a three-year solution and it could go up, you know, somewhere towards a dollar or more. Switching topics. >> I think that's likely. And I think Charles would speak to during the pandemic days, finding adequate staffing for the kitchens was, you know, a pressure point, but I think now when we've made these increases in compensation, maybe it's less about finding adequate staffing and more about, you

070know, how do we, you know, cover the increased costs for compensation and benefits. So. >> Okay, thank you. >> So, Jeremy, how much is left in the restricted fund for food services? >> How much is right here? >> I'm sorry, say that again. >> How much is left in the food services fund? >> At the end of this year, it's 2.2 million. >> Okay, so we're still paying that down over >> Yeah, and then next year our spending would be be down to 1.5 million. >> Okay. >> And I would say I would like to add also one of the biggest challenges at at the federal level, and there's a lot of advocacy towards it is I've estimated that if federal funding would increase to what it should be with inflation, if we could increase

071funding up to 85 cents at the federal level, this wouldn't be a problem. Uh, I'm not going to I'm not going to say that that will happen, but that would be extremely helpful. >> Let's not count on >> Well, we're not going to count on it, but that's a missing piece that they've not kept up. The federal reimbursement rates have not kept up with with the increase that we've all experienced. And this is This isn't just Blue Valley. This isn't just Olathe. This is a national problem. Um I had I had expressed my concerns with this at the state level. Um This is going to be an extreme challenge for all of us unless there's some some intervention potentially at the federal level. >> Right. And it kind of begs the question. I don't I

072don't know to what extent this would surface, but at what point in time uh do the pricing for the breakfast and the lunch start to leave kids out of being able to >> I I think the I think the challenge becomes you get prices too high and all of a sudden participation will decline. >> Right. But do we know what that price point is before we go out and jump off this bridge? >> I don't. I I I mean, we're going up 25 cents this year. We did an increase last year of 30 cents. And um we didn't see a participation decrease because of that. I think it's somewhat expected with with the way costs are today, unfortunately. Um I think it's a fine balance. If you go too high, then it's counterintuitive and you

073end up not not gaining anything. >> You're not covering your costs. >> I'm not covering your costs. So, it's it's a challenge. So, I will say that we've historically in this district, we've never relied on the general fund in the 21 years plus that I've been here. So, we're doing what we can to try to take care of probably factors that somewhat are out of our control to a certain extent without decreasing services to our families. >> Yeah, and I'm not suggesting we're not doing the right thing and we're not uh trying to address this directly. It's just kind of what's the whole picture? >> Yeah, I wish I had all those answers, Patrick. I really don't. >> I may if you're done. Um I just want to point out so the we're we're we're

074going to be talking about in each of these sections how much money this is going to increase revenue for the district cuz we're trying to close this gap which >> Sure. >> for the year. But I just want to be clear to the three people watching that um the the food service the 330,000 is not going to go towards that gap. This is another gap that due to >> Right. This will not This will not impact the general fund at this point. So >> Right. So it's not part of closing that gap. It's another issue. >> It's another issue that we're trying to avoid. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> If if I could quickly ask um what are our What do we have in arrears right now for those students who can't pay? >>

075We're the lowest in the state. We have $15,000 in negative balances. >> Okay. >> Which is lower than anybody in the whole metro. >> And just to to go over again, um we do not um uh refuse food >> Absolutely not. >> to any student. >> No, no student is denied a meal. >> Thank you. >> We work closely with the families to make sure that if there's challenges at the home or you know, work with them to figure out a payment plan, whatever it might be. Um yeah, that we do not deny students meals. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yes. Any other questions? Good. All right. Athletic pass pricing uh Matt Worms joining us tonight. Um we had some pretty significant changes on um what this athletic pricing plan will actually cover going into

076next year. Uh I think Patrick you had a question uh last month about maybe a home only pass, but I think Matt's going to start talking uh kind of about the considerations we put into those um you know possibilities and and the pricing in front of you. >> All right. So, Matt Ortman, director of school administration. Um since I've been in the district or at and admin, we've raised our ticket prices twice. We raised them We started at 4 to 6, we went to 5 to 7, and now we're at 6 and 8. And we haven't made any adjustment to our activity passes during that time. And so, we kind of started looking at what we could do, what our surrounding neighbors are doing, what other schools in the area are doing. And the idea

077of an all district pass came up as opposed to just a home only. We ran it by building admin, we ran it by a student advisory group, we ran it by the finance committee. And overwhelmingly, the support was to go with a district all district pass. Uh so, I kind of based it off of 10 events a year. So, it's $60. It pays off once you go to 10 events, which is equivalent to what it would have been in the $40 for a student back when we set that fee for 2010-2011. Uh the family pass increase is slightly misleading because the family pass currently does not include your high school student. So, you have to buy a separate high school pass, which is very confusing for a lot of families. They buy a family pass,

078and then their kid doesn't get in because they didn't buy one for the high school kid. And so, this clears all that up. The family pass is good for everybody in the house. So, we don't have to worry about that anymore. The other piece that this does is it kind of it in line more with the Blue Valley Ed Foundation pass, the EKL pass. Basically now, every pass the badges for our staff, it's going to be good at any Blue Valley activity and so or athletic event and so as people show up our ticket workers don't have to be like, well, is this only good for this place or that place? They know if they have the pass they get in and that will really help our ticket workers because a lot of those passes

079look the same and so then you don't really know if they're supposed to get in or not. And as all things we still they don't work towards any KSHSAA post season event. So that still is off limits. >> So this will increase our revenue by approximately $100,000. >> That's my estimate, yes. >> So is that because our costs are increasing or because we're trying to deal with other cost issues? I mean have our costs gone up a hundred? >> Between all the official fees that go up constantly, the um just travel fees, like all those things, um it definitely will help offset those costs. >> So so is this a a neutral increase or is it or there'll be additional revenue that we can use out the elsewhere? >> This would be like additional revenue

080that we would be able to offset like for our athletics and activities therefore not having to pull from the general fund for those. >> Right, so we would expect our costs are going to be $760,000 next year for our activities. >> It does not cover all the activity fees. It just helps with covering them and so we don't won't have to pull as much from the general fund to cover those. >> Do you know how much we're going to cover pull from the general fund to cover that? Roughly? >> Uh I think the estimate is about 400,000 at this point. >> Beyond the 760? >> Correct. So, if we were going to set pricing that would fully cover those costs, it would obviously take something drastically higher than this. >> And that's the point is

081that this still is being managed aggressively for lack of a better word for subsidy, right? >> Yeah, I I think these proposals are rooted in trying to reasonably through fee increases find what is, you know, uh not a shock to our families, understanding that you know, fees are, you know, going to be hard for families when they go through registration, uh enrolling their kids here at Blue Valley. Uh so, we're just trying to be sensitive to that as well, but um I think what you'll see on the fee schedule moving forward is we're going to have a 2-year review of all fees as opposed to maybe going a a decade or 15 years before they get reviewed again. So, I I think we're going to make it a little more mechanical and and and just

082uh get on a schedule of every 2 years, so. >> And I I will say these prices are pretty similar to our surrounding districts. >> Matt, um in a couple of the committees this was brought up in that we looked at it, they asked the question about performing arts and whether or not they could be included in the uh pass pricing. So, what was decided on that? >> That is going to be my next task is to get that included somehow, someway. We just in some preliminary discussions, we couldn't quite come to what that would look like at this point, but we're working towards it. >> Would that I feel like that would reduce the amount of revenue we'd be bringing in overall because then we would eliminate in effect all performing arts. >> Right.

083And that's what I haven't had a chance to really dig into all the numbers to find out exactly how much we're bringing in with all of the performing arts and what an appropriate cost would be and is that part of the family pass or do we do an like an add-on as you can pay another $30 or whatever price we get to to also include performing arts. >> I would say at the board advisory meeting that we were at, the students were really excited about that because um they felt hindered from seeing their friends at other schools um perform. Um so this would kind of allow for a more free flow and really collaboration between all of our schools. At least that's what the students had said. So it seemed really exciting. >> Yeah. Thanks.

084>> All right, activity programming fee, another proposed increase. The last time this fee had been proposed for an increase was 2020-21. Uh projected revenue increase is estimated to be about $100,000. Um as you can see the pricing 6th, 7th, 8th and high school also proposed an increased cap from $250 per family to 300 per family. Um so essentially two high schoolers would be uh 150 * 2 you'd reach your cap and you certainly not owe any more if you had a 6th, 7th or 8th grader. So Um any questions on the activity programming fee? Uh one thing I will add is this fee helps offset the cost of supplemental contracts for providing activities, extra duty um costs as well. And we can come in reverse if you guys want to come back to revisit any

085of these um or go >> Jeremy, just to clarify these fees don't cover the actual cost of those activities. All it's doing is an offset. Is that correct? >> Yeah, it's uh subsidizing some of the cost, but certainly not all of it. Early childhood peer model fees, this one hasn't been uh changed in the last 10 years. Um increasing from $12 today to $15 per day. Uh this is an annual um uh cost increase from about $1,600 to just over 2,000. Projected revenue um increase estimated about 250,000. Um just for reference, there's uh approximately 60 early childhood certified staff and close to 80 um classified staff in that program. So, again, this 250,000 of projected revenue is um just a fraction of the overall cost of early childhood. Any questions on this fee? High school

086parking permit um increased from $35 to $50. Uh we checked the $50 um parking permit pricing with the some surrounding school districts and found it to be uh somewhat in line. Um When I say somewhat, there's another district that had $50, and I think another district was um somewhere in the 40s. So, uh we feel like this is an appropriate recommendation. Uh this fee helps offset the cost of SROs that enforce parking lot rules in Blue Valley. So, uh an additional $40,000. Uh last time this fee was changed was 5 years ago. All right, facility rental fees. This is where I'm going to turn it over to Jason, and he's going to walk you through the next couple slides and and potentially talk about some um things to be aware of in terms of departmental

087uh efficiencies that they're looking at. >> Thank you, Jeremy. Jason Gillam, director of business operations. Talk about facilities rental fees. What we have before you is an increase in fees for those that are outside of the district using our facilities. It'll generate about additional $292,000 in fees to help offset our operating costs of the district. All that money goes to help offset general fund expenses. So, every dollar every dollar helps. I want to highlight the work of our facility scheduling team. In addition to fee increases, we've been working on several things to help generate additional dollars this year and going forward. Really enforcing at our high schools especially um walk-ons onto our fields and onto our properties of organized activities. So, we've been out having casual conversations with folks that we that we encounter on

088our on our fields to educate them on our processes. For us as a district, it's not just lost revenue, it's also a risk because when those groups walk on, if something were to happen, we we do require our renters to carry insurance. So, we want to be covered in that way as well. But, we also know that when we have our facilities rented, we know who's using them. They want to continue using our facilities, so they're more kind to our facilities in terms of wear and tear and damage. So, that's that's been something our team has been actively working on and doing a really really good job in closing some of those gaps. Um we are also expanding facilities. So, in partnership with Blue Valley Rec, we've added some additional baseball and softball fields for

089at our elementary and middle school campuses over this past off-season. So, that helps generate additional revenue for us. It is a partnership with Blue Valley Rec where they actually come in and we help them pick the locations, but they skin the infields. They help build the backstops for us. So, it's not our capital expense to build those facilities. But then they they want to be able to have more access to fields because their programs are growing, so they rent those fields from us. So, uh it's part of our rental agreement with Blue Valley Rec. It helps the district, it also helps helps their programs as well. Um we're also being very aggressive and uh um trying to maximize the use of our high school facilities. So, we're leaning in and working really closely with our

090ADs and and and coaches at the high schools understand when do they really need the field? Don't just block it for 8 hours on Saturday because you might. What might you need on Saturday? Let's hold that back and let's lean into those uh additional few hours here and there that we can pick up and get um renters into those facilities. So, we have been doing all those things uh and and it's it's really paying dividends uh for the school district and being able to maximize revenue that we're bringing in. We're not allowed to charge uh rates that um just generate profits. So, we have to um cost share. So, we have to look at some of our cost of having that facility. How many hours are we making it available for outside use? How many

091hours are for rental use? And make sure we can justify the rates that we charge to be that cost share. So, our rates are still with the proposed increases um very affordable. Um I challenge you to find a basketball gym uh somewhere else in the community for the rates that we charge. Uh you can't. Um but there are some limits to what we can charge based on uh the bond funding of our facilities. So, um we do have uh two rates. We do have a nonprofit rate and a for-profit rate built into our rate schedule. Um 99% of our rentals are at the nonprofit rate. Uh very few are at the for-profit rate. Um we do blend the revenue from both of those um uh fee structures to look at the cost that we have.

092So, if we didn't have the for-profit rate, we would have to increase the nonprofit rate to make up the the lost revenue there. Most of the for-profit rates are one-time events that come into the district, so they're not typically recurring events. Uh they are things like a commercial shoot. Uh you may have seen a few uh commercials that were shot in Blue Valley properties. Um those companies have very uh very strong revenue to be able to afford the for-profit rates. Uh we also have one-time tournaments or events may run by for-profit organizations that want to come and use our facilities. We do charge them the the higher rate. That's the majority of the uh for-profit rate business that we see. Um but uh like I said, majority are are nonprofit. Uh before I move on

093from facility scheduling, I'll pause. Any questions about facility scheduling? Patrick. >> So So, you kind of hint on uh hint hit on this, but are our facility rates that we're charging whomever, are they covering the expected uh wear and tear that's occurring as a result of that accelerated use? >> We look at every possible thing that we can uh justify to put into our recovery costs. They're down to the um utilities, the paper consumables, the um >> Expected life. >> We have to be careful with how the building is funded. So, the if they're funded with bond funds, we we can't necessarily recover that expense. >> Right, but if but if if a if a field lasts 10 years, and we use 30% of the life, are we recovering 70%? >> Uh we are on

094grass Most of our rentals on fields are grass. We do rent some of the turf, but it most of it's grass, and I would say on grass we're down to a grass seed and fertilizer. >> Right. >> And mowing expenses, and all those things. >> Right, you got maintenance, too, but I mean, the point is is we're not giving away our our fields and our sporting arenas. >> Everything that we can legally built into the justifications, we are pushing the envelope. >> Um quick question. So, remind me what kind of signage do you have on the fields to make for sure that people are well aware that it needs to be reserved or rented before they use it. >> We do have signage on on the fields. We do not have locks on all of

095our fields. Um a lot of our fields are open um and they can access them from several different points. So, we're constantly reviewing where do we have Where do we have signs to try to help catch the folks that are that are walking on. Uh we're also looking at the addition of cameras on more of our fields to help from vandalism and damage, but also um most folks that come walk under our fields are pretty easy to identify cuz they usually wear logos or names of their organizations all over their apparel and we follow up with them um >> Don't give away the secret here, Dan won't like that. >> But uh we we do most folks when we have the conversations, they want they they they want to do right because they want to

096come back and use our facilities again. So, >> And you're talking about organized teams that are coming in using our fields. You're not talking about dad and son throwing the football up at the school on a Saturday afternoon. >> That's a great question, Clay. We're we're not not concerned for the father-son, mother-daughter uh one-on-one thing. It's really when it starts getting into coaching, instruction uh teams. We've even had some scrimmages. We've had some conversations with folks that are showing up with 40 and 50 people. Um um that we need to make sure those things are buttoned up. All right. Any questions on facility rental fees? I will move forward with uh transportation. Uh so as you're aware, we have a pay rider program in Blue Valley for student transportation for our uh elementary students um

097that uh are under 2 and 1/2 miles from home to school. Um we have two rates that we we charge families. We have the before July 1st uh discounted rate and then the regular rate for after July 1st. We are proposing that um both of those rates increase by $20 for this upcoming school year. Um that would generate about $25,000 in additional revenue for uh Blue Valley students. Actually for for for the district uh for those students riding the bus. Um and would keep us at the um probably the the top of um in comparison of what others are charging in the county. Um so we are um not below by any means. Uh we're we're up near the top of what we charge for the pay rider program. Questions on transportation fees. Uh additionally,

098I just mentioned uh while while I'm up here, the the business office is working on several different initiatives to help with the general fund. Um we we have um in our logistics center, uh we just recently started a shredding program that we are providing shredding services for our schools, which is going to reduce about $15,000 in expenses a year that we pay for shredding companies to come shred documents for us. Um we bought an industrial machine that meets the HIPAA requirements of destruct destroying documents that are able to have some protocols in place that we can collect those things, keep them secure, keep them locked, keep them behind fences and under cameras, and and get them destroyed, and and and and out of here without uh having to pay another company to do that. Uh

099we're also bringing in um promotional products to our printing services so we can um um through our website for printing services also sell promotional products to all of our schools. We're already buying these items, but it also gives a general fund payback for every one of those products that are sold through the printing services. So, and we have many other examples like that, but we're actively working on ways to help support the general fund at the business office generating revenue, saving costs, being efficient. So, thank you. >> Good evening. Ken Corser, executive director of technology. I'm here to introduce a new fee. And before I get into what it actually is, I think it's important to understand some background. So, our one-to-one learner program where we provide a device for every single student, but specifically

100our secondary students, 6th through 12th grade, started in 2018-2019. Since that time, we have never charged a technology fee for anything to go against break fix. We knew devices were going to break. We didn't know at the time how often. And so, quite frankly, we promised the board at that time that every single year we would reanalyze the need because we needed some historical data off of that. So, we now have that historical data and it's it's gone through multiple revisions. We wanted to have this conversation quite frankly in 2020, 2021, 2022, but that video got all messed up with COVID. So, we kind of started over. But, as you can see here, as it's written in even on the next slide, our average of the last 3 years when we look at our 23

101to 2025 data is $687,000 a year is what we spend out of capital outlay to fix all of our secondary devices. And it actually is is that's an that's a K-12 number. Forgive me. So, that $687,000 accounts for all devices including staff. And and this year to date we're at 176. So, we're trending towards that 700,000 for the calendar year of 2026 as well. So, we feel pretty confident that that is a marker that we have some history off of. We work with two vendors that have been awarded our our services through an RFP. One vendor fixes all of our 6th through 8th grade devices and another vendor fixes all of our 9th through 12th grade devices. So, what goes into 687,000? How do we get there? Well, the highest component cost or the most

102things that break most often are screens, batteries, keyboards, and trackpads. So, if you think about our MacBook Air device that's in our high schools or our Chromebook device that's at middle schools, you can see all of those costs. Those costs are not getting any lower. If I look back at what those costs were in 2018 and 2019 to what they are now, they look dramatically different. And in our world right now where memory and hard drive and all other components are going sky high because of AI and other things, again, I expect these numbers to continue to increase. So, but take a look at those numbers because it's going to come back here when I actually start talking about what kind of ADP fee we're looking at. But you can see the lowest item up

103there is a trackpad for a Chromebook or a keyboard, sorry, at $65 all the way up to $350 for screens. So, with that said, what is ADP? So, we're going to call it the accidental device protection fee. We know devices break by accident, right? They're dropped or somebody puts a pencil in between their two layers of the device. They they slam the lid. That cracks the screen. There's umpteen different ways that of course devices get broken on accident. That is highly impactful to uh secondary instruction. So, our challenge is always making sure that we get a working device into the hands of kids as fast as possible. Um what we uh also need to cover is accessories. So, what we're proposing in the ADP is that we cover a single lost accessory. So, if you

104lose your charger or case um or the carrying case for a Chromebook, um that is also covered if you do that once. What's not covered is multiple infractions of accessories being lost or what we call negligence, intentional um breakage of the device, which happens a lot as well. Um or if it's lost or stolen without a police report. Those are um charges that have been always in our responsible use agreement that are signed off on every single year part of the online registration. These are in front of uh families to sign, part of digital citizenship. It's always been there. Um but in the 24-25 uh school year, cuz I can't produce the the 25-26 yet, the district collected $8,000 towards um non-covered expenses, and that's only 1% of that $687,000 average that we have. So,

105how do we want to attack this? Um the the fee income, if we do $25 per secondary student, uh this is not again for K-5, um uh uh is would roughly bring in $312,000 towards that $687,000 um annual spend. As you can see, it helps cover that gap by about 45%. If we did a $35 charge, it would cover 64% of that um annual spend. Or if we did $50, it would cover almost the whole thing, 91 uh percent. When we look at that fee compared to what others are doing um uh in our area, uh first and foremost, we're the only district not to charge anything. Um so, beyond that, there are a lot of different approaches that um uh our other districts are are making. Some have an upfront fee, some don't. All

106of them though have some sort of tiered repair program or tiered insurance program. Uh so, similar model, um but also drastically different in terms of management. In order to manage that sort of level of effort, um what a lot of peers are doing is is it's frankly best effort. What they're saying is that for every loss, every every time a device is broken, they're going to charge potentially a different percentage of the cost of that. So, your first infraction might be 25% on the cost of the device. The second infraction might be 50% and so on. Um in order to not have that burden of frankly the management on our side and at the school side cuz the schools would have to be the one that's managing that. Um that's why we're going with an

107upfront um uh suggestion of an accidental device protection fee as part of registration. So, to sum up our recommendation for heading into the '26-'27 school year is to institute a fee of $25 per secondary student. Um again, that does not um go towards uh elementary. There's no fee there. Um but it does help offset that cost K-12 of that $687,000 uh of about 45%. And again, we're doing that because we don't want to do the um the tiered insurance or per incident repair program. And quite frankly, it's a great value. If you think about those numbers that I showed you with those repair costs, if a sixth grade um family or or student pays $25 a year until they're a senior, that's $175 worth of ADP fees or about half of cost of one MacBook

108Air screen. Um and uh let me tell you there's a lot of device breakage every single week by the tune of that picture. That's what is that picked up every single week from our logistics center that goes off um to those vendors that I mentioned and then they get fixed over course of a week and they come back to us. So, we're constantly turning these devices and it's a big uh level of effort from a management standpoint. Um Um, and anything that we can do to help offset these continuing increasing costs would be fantastic. Any questions? >> What's the nature of the problems with the breaking? Are they breaking because it's a defective product? Are they breaking because of failure to use them properly or abuse or >> Yeah, it's it's a little bit of

109everything. The stories that we hear, what we see, is everything from clearly dropped. Um, even though a case is on a MacBook Air, depending on what corner it hits, of course it's going to have some sort of damage. The one of the biggest infractions is is putting something in between the layer of the device and then closing that lid, put it into their backpack, and then you have other things on top of that to and from the car. I mean, you name it. >> So, if it's usually some sort of user participation problem. >> Yes. >> Why wouldn't we recover the full amount? Why are you only recommending $25? >> Well, so we've got we're going from zero right now. And so our our goal was to ease into this to help recover a portion

110cuz right now we're recovering nothing. And if it's negligent behavior or lost or stolen without a police report, we're getting 1% back. So, I'd much rather have 45% than zero even if going at the at the $25 one. If we started to go towards the full cost or everything else, again, that's a level of management that now the building has to maintain, has to those fees, has to wait for that payment to come in if it comes in. And all the while, are we withholding a device from a student until that's done? Because if so, that that is goes against, you know, what we're trying to do with making sure that they have that device in their hands for instruction. Right now, we go ahead and replace that device immediately knowing that our inventory is

111going to backfill until a week later when we get these devices back. I don't think we could do that if we charge the full thing. >> I mean, wouldn't that be included in your enrollment fees every year that you have to pay when you start school? Isn't that what this is? I mean, the difference >> Just Just I mean, we're not Are you suggesting that we include the full price of a device? >> Yeah, the difference between $25 and $50 if if we're subsidizing that somewhere and mostly it's air user error, why wouldn't we recover that now? >> I mean, my Our suggestion is is is the $25. If we went up to the higher amount, we would be recovering almost all of our break fix for the entire year, 100% yes. >> And Mike

112>> If you have Yeah, well, if you have the number >> To go along with that, what was the why did you recommend the $25 compared to the other two price points that you >> we we're doing a lot of fee increases this year first and foremost. This is a brand new fee, so to go from zero to 100, we thought it might be a little tough and that we could ease into that over the course of as this fee gets adjusted. So, starting at the the 25, we thought was the best way to ease into a brand new fee on top of the other fees that we're bringing forth tonight. >> When when you have multiple children also fees get as you know fees can become a lot. It can be kind of you

113know, a a sticker shock honestly. You know, I had three in different schools at one time and so I appreciate I mean, the recommendation that you've made because that is my concern of being just overwhelmed with fees you know, when you're trying to get kiddos enrolled and all of that. So, I appreciate this the well thought out process and and appreciate what you're recommending. >> Thank you. >> So, I have a question. Although first I'll say your kids are obviously more well-behaved than mine because we've had broken everything on these technologies. Our apologies. We've taken full advantage. Um and I'm happy to line up some kids to tell you how they break them. But um so do you get it says one accessory a year. So, if you lose a charger, is it per year?

114I guess is the question. >> Yes. Yeah, we view these as an as an annual fee. Um each year during online registration, which would go towards your entire academic school year for those accessories. Yes. >> Okay. And then just to answer the charging up front for the device question, I think that for me that becomes an equity issue. Um and so if our students can't afford to replace or to purchase in the first place the one-to-one device, I think it becomes an equity issue really quickly. So. >> Thank you for your time. Yeah, so that was all we had to present. >> Um if you guys were uh curious about anything else, we're happy to answer the questions. Otherwise, >> Okay. I'm for a motion to approve the schedule. >> I got a question. >>

115Kearns? >> Yeah. >> Go ahead. So, out of all these fees, what is the number we're trying to cover and what's the remaining balance that we're Does this go back to your $1.2 million? >> Um >> So, we're increasing these fees to cover what deficit and what's that number that remains? >> Yeah, so >> going to get there? >> Good question. So, when we're looking at next year's um operating budget adjustment, uh we were trying to factor in, you know, declining enrollment, opening new facility, uh special ed funding what it is. Um it was about a $10 million target. And so the collective impact of these fees uh would be about a 5% um portion of that $10 million. So, uh the other 95% is going to have to be programming um other staffing reductions.

116So, it's just something that we're working through this spring and trying to be patient with uh is there other possibilities with natural attrition where, you know, we can maybe restructure um just trying to avoid someone losing their job that doesn't want to. So, that's why this spring is is, you know, trying to let this play out naturally uh just so we can continue to tighten up the budget when uh staffing opportunities present, whether it's through retirement, uh resignation, etc. So, that's the other part of the equation. This is trying to get 5% and then the other 95% is coming through staffing and programming. >> But, we're going to close that 95% gap by July 1st? >> Yep, that is the target. Yep. >> Sorry. One more question for you, Jeremy. Um the breakage comes out

117of capital >> Yep. >> But, the fees, the ADP fees, will go into operating? >> They're going to capital. And how this fits together is we're also doing an an analysis of uh Kent's BB care technicians uh currently 100% funded out of the general fund, uh but it's clear that uh some of their work schedules each and every week support the district fixed assets, um technology fixed assets. So, we're going to move a portion of those salaries into capital outlay. So, this fee, device protection fee, helps absorb the movement of those salaries from general to capital, thereby freeing up general dollars, which can get back to how we're approaching the $10 million mark. >> Okay. >> So, we won't see that when we're looking at the operating budget. We'll see the move of the people,

118but we won't see this increased revenue. >> You'll see that in capital outlay. >> Yeah, but in operating. >> That's correct. >> Like general. Yeah. Okay. >> You'll see the increased revenues and capital. But you'll see a a shifting of cost from general to capital to keep that >> Yeah. >> Um essentially a budget break even in the capital outlay fund. And it frees up about $400,000 of >> Okay. >> uh general fund money from BB care tax salaries going to capital. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay, I'm going to put a hold on discussion and motion or anything because I am way overdue giving the closed captioner a 5-minute break. And then we'll reconvene here real quick in 5 minutes. And if there's other questions, I know Jeremy, you're more than willing to >>

119Yeah. >> answer them and then we'll get the motion you're looking for. >> Sounds good. >> Okay, we're going to reconvene because there's a storm on the way with big hail. So. >> So, hurry up. >> We're going to move this puppy along. So Katie, you get ready and you be succinct. Jan's not going to be polite anymore. Jeremy, anything else to add? >> Uh no, I think we're good on our end. >> Okay. Uh do we have a motion to accept the fees? >> So moved. >> You have to say what was moved for the record. >> I move the Board of Education approve the 2026-2027 district fee schedule as presented. >> Thank you. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Dr. Evans. Any discussion on the fee schedule? Hearing none.

120Clay, you're You have none? Okay. That's all right. I just want to make sure. I don't See? Want to make sure people are here. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Hearing none, it passes. Next, Katie Collier. >> Which what watch quick. Um Um this says the calendar um you saw the draft last month. Um we made an adjustment minorly based on some feedback we received. We addressed it a day in um August to allow for proper onboarding for new staff and returning staff. There was an adjustment there. And also adjustment on the last day of school from the 26th to the 24th. And um adjusted a collaboration day in February all based on feedback from patrons and staff. That's all I have for you unless you have any questions. >> Any questions

121on the calendar? Hearing none, do we have some motion? >> I move the board approve the 20 27 28 district calendar. >> Second. >> Moved by Dave, second by Jody. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none, it is unanimous. US Foods contract. >> I like it. You're ready. >> I'm here. I'm ready. We got storms coming. Jake Laban is chief operations officer for the district. This is year four of five in agreement with US Foods Inc. Our prime vendor agreement to provide most common food items, things like chicken, pizza, pasta, condiments, trays, utensils, chemicals, funded out of the food nutrition services fund that you guys have already talked about. Um happy to answer any questions. Recommend approval of this contract. 3.9 million. >> How much did they go up from

122last year? >> It estimated numbers, right? So, it'll it'll change depending on how many people are eating. Last year, we estimated 3.8 million. >> Do we have motion? >> I move that the Board of Education approve the contract with US Foods Inc. pending any minor edits deemed necessary by legal counsel. >> Moved by Jody, second and anybody? >> Second. >> And second by Clay. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. >> Okay, the next contract before you is with CertaPro Painting. This is for uh whole building painting, half building at Blue Valley Northwest. We did paint it half of it last summer, but whole building at Blue Valley Middle, Oak Hill, and Indian Valley. We did receive four bids on this. CertaPro

123is a low qualified bidder. We have a lot of experience with them. That total is 503,435 and 2 cents. This is funded out of capital outlet. Recommend moving forward with this. >> And this is part of our continuing painting. >> Absolutely. Yeah, this is part of our 10-year program, right? Where we go in and paint buildings on a life cycle process. Yep. >> I move that the Board of Education approve the contract with CertaPro Painters of Shawnee Mission pending any minor edits deemed necessary by legal counsel. >> Second. >> By Charity, second by Clay. All in favor say Oh, further discussion? >> I'm sorry. I >> Oh, you're saying I Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. Which takes us to non-resident student enrollment. >> Okay, I will just

124briefly kick it off because I want to let Eric Pollum walk through this and give Eric all the credit because he spends a lot of time with our HR department and you'll see some things in here around state requirements. He'll talk a little bit about how timing isn't ideal, so we're going to request something a little different this year, but we're still really hopeful for the opportunities that it's going to provide. So, with that, Eric, jump up and >> Okay, thank you very much. Good evening, everybody. I'll try to be quick and get us all home safely. Eric Pollum, assistant director of planning and operations. As you know, state law requires that the board identify and approve open seats for non-resident students where we determine we have space. This will be our third year of

125doing this. Just a couple quick policy notes. Nothing in the policy should be construed to guarantee placement in a particular school, grade level, or program. And as part of our process every year, we provide you information on our capacities, and then staff makes a recommendation as to what open seats we will publish. So, um when I came to you with the enrollment report in December, that was a report that included some information about capacity of our schools and our enrollment forecast going forward. That plays into this. Um and so the number of open seats potentially available to non-residents is something you would approve tonight after we detail where we recommend those seats should be. Just briefly on schedule, uh state law was updated to require that we accept applications starting January 1st and all the

126way through June 15th. Uh by May 1st we have to put decide on open seats. By June 1st we have to publish those open seats. And then June 15th we start the review and by the end of July we have to notify people one way or another so they can plan for next year. How we determine capacity, uh it's most heavily determined by our people to teacher ratios and space at the individual class level in our schools. Uh we also take into account the capacity of each of our buildings. So if any given building is over 100% capacity say, uh we would not want to add additional students even if we had space at the class level. That would create um issues in common spaces, parent drop-off lines and things like that. Uh that shows

127you our current people to teacher ratios that we take into account. Some quick stats on where we stand today. Um so the first year of this, 24-25, we published open seats at Blue Valley Southwest and Aspen Grove in limited grades. Uh we did not have uh posts for fourth and fifth because we didn't want to add Aubrey Bend before we open Wolf Springs next year. Uh this past year we only had open seats at Aspen Grove Elementary. Uh and as you can see, um what we've discovered in the past each of these columns shows how many we published, how many applications we got, and ultimately how many people were enrolled. The first year we had 86 seats published, 48 applications, and we had 23 kids enroll out of that. This past year, 35 seats published,

12869 applications, and only six kids enrolled. And part of what we saw there was part of is geography. The only school that's open is way out southwest. Sometimes by the time people got the okay and they looked at what it actually meant in their school year, they decided to go ahead and stick with their home school uh district. So, we have tried to open things up with our process this year that allows people to make a request by high school feeder and maybe we get some better feedback and not discourage people from applying just because they see only open seats way down where it seems out of reach. Uh currently we have 28 students K through 12 in the district that are here as part of the open enrollment process. This year, applications for next

129school year to date, so this is through last Thursday, we had a total of 129. You can see it's heavily heavily loaded on the kindergarten as you might imagine, people starting out school for the first time, but we do get a distribution among all grades. I think that number has actually gone up by four since Thursday, so they kind of keep rolling in a little at a time. This is just another slide showing kind of how we came about these recommendations. One thing we're finding is that because of the timing of the state law, it compels some action before we have made staffing decisions and finalize those. And as I said earlier, those pupil-to-teacher ratios are key drivers. And until we know how many sections we've settled on in our schools, it's not easy to

130reliably say how many open enrollment seats we might have in any given spot. What we don't want to do is commit to something with a recommendation today that we publish only to find out that we could have reduced a section, and now we've made an expensive mistake. Uh so, our recommendation to you today includes what we're calling minimum open seats that we would publish by May 1st, with a commitment that as we identify our staffing moves going forward between now and July, that we will seek to seat every applicant that we can. Uh we will know better where we can, and as time progresses, we can more reliably say this is how much space we're going to have. So, this is what the recommendation looks like. Um the recommendations you see for elementary schools, those

131four here and there in uh a few schools and a few grades, that's where we can reliably say today they are just at the very bottom of the pupil-to-teacher ratio in those spots, and we feel comfortable saying that we can publish at least those today, knowing that we're not going to risk making a mistake that's going to cost us to add unnecessary staff and open a classroom. Uh at the middle schools, there is still a lot of um change going on in staffing and allocating teachers to different grades and different um subject matter, so we're not ready to make a recommendation and commit to anything other than we will commit to trying to find seats for all those middle school applicants. And then at the high school, uh we have more open seats, as you

132can see, a total of 230 altogether. Uh Blue Valley Northwest is listed as closed to transfers because they're projected to be above 100% capacity at the building level next year. Uh with the rest of them, we tried to allocate with front-loading it toward 9th grade, that's most of the demand anyway. Um and providing numbers by grade that would not cause us to exceed 100% capacity at any of those buildings. So, So can see the total overall recommended uh minimums that we would publish uh in the beginning uh would total 254 open seats at this time and we would expect to have more openings. We will likely have more openings than we have applications uh but we will see how that goes. We are getting more applications than we have in previous years and I think

133opening it up to more areas has has encouraged people to apply. This is just more process just reminding where we're at. Uh tonight you would uh either agree to this recommendation or recommend a uh a modification and then once you've made a decision then by June 1st we will publish whatever that is. Happy to answer any questions you have. >> So what's driving the 230 in the high schools? Is that the enrollment uh decline that we've seen over the last couple years? >> It's just um the way high schools are staffed is different than like an elementary school at the section level uh and so we can afford to post more openings knowing that we can work with our staffing decisions that have already been made and reliably post those numbers. >> Cuz that that's

134a big number compared to what we've seen in the last several years. >> It definitely is. >> Okay. >> Why no Wolf Springs Wolf Springs Middle placements? >> We expect both Aubrey Bend and Wolf Springs may provide opportunities. Obviously their total enrollment is going to be down. It's really just not wanting to commit once until we know the balance of staffing um and so once we have that solidified then we'll know where we have those open seats. Uh if I go back real quick you can see we don't have a ton of middle school applications to begin with. >> Mhm. >> Uh 6 7 and 8 there it's 20. So um if that doesn't pick up more, we will probably find some seats there we and if not, we will have spaces at other middle

135schools that have plenty of capacity within their building. >> And as I understand it, you're moving in a faster timeline so you can let these families know earlier than we have in the past. Hopefully, they'll make a decision to jump on over. >> As this being a new process and that changes a little every year, we've learned a little every year. Last year, there was a later notification of families and we think that that limited our ability then if somebody told us, "You know what, we don't want it after all." It limited the time that we had to go, you know, offer it to the next family up. Because we ran up against the start of the school year and it was too late to make those kinds of changes. So, this year we're committing

136to try and get the first round of offers to open spaces out in June and, you know, well before the end of the the deadline and have time for those conversations to happen to make sure that it also allows people to to not have decided to go ahead and move on while waiting for an answer. So, that should maximize our ability to bring new students in. Anything else? >> And what exact What is the number that we're approving? So, when we do this motion, what are What was the total? >> Right now, what you would be approving is >> 230. >> Wait, where did it go? It's just the the minimum so you would say we would have at least 254 K through 12. Right now, we have about 134 applications. In theory, we're going

137to and we we tend to add I looked at last year's applications, we did add all the way through up till the deadline. So, that number will continue to grow. It's not something where they just all show up at the beginning of the application period and then it gets quiet. >> I do have a question. I hate to belabor this meeting, but so you said Northwest is over 100% capacity. Like I just don't remember in the enrollment trends that we looked at previously that we were projecting them over 100%, so >> Right. So, the colors that you see on those enrollment forecasts, usually what triggers a change of colors 110% capacity and that is the standard by which we trigger a conversation about boundaries or building additions, things like that. But for the purposes of

138open enrollment, we don't want to exceed 100% capacity. So, that's why you didn't see maybe a bunch of green on Blue Valley Northwest's forecast. Cuz it wouldn't have hit 110. >> I also thought that we had approved 80% I think capacity anything above 80% which is why we had so many less in the past. Correct. And then this year we kind of >> In the past, it's not part of the policy itself says the superintendent will make a recommendation and there's a lot of leeway as to how we want to approach that on any given year. There was an administrative guideline that talked about buildings that are above 75% capacity. But we we always have the ability to look at what our needs are enrollment wise, what we can handle on any given year and

139modify that. So, we're we're above that 75% this year. >> Gina, I would add to that we've maybe taken a cautious approach in the past cuz we thought hey, if we had 500 seats, we're going to have 500 applicants and and it could overwhelm our buildings. I think we have to be real consider the fact that we've continued to have a decline in enrollment and we've actually lost students. This is an opportunity to maybe get some of that back. So we've spent a lot of time like I said Eric and HR in particular you asked about middle schools. We just have to be really careful that we don't add one student that triggers the hiring of one educator because the math doesn't math at that point. So we just want to be really cautious about

140where we're adding them and what that means from a financial standpoint related to hiring and We would have to add 30 but only if there's 30 interested individuals. Yeah. >> And we still have the ability to be flexible to say oh we can't put any more over there is going to bump us over so Okay. So we're still still have a lot of flexibility um in the funding that follows these students over. Will we be receiving that for next year? Will though will that be counted for next year? >> Yes, that would be next year. So they are enrolled as a student in next year on count day we get the funding for that. Looking at Jeremy just a thumbs up but >> Any other considerations we needed to take into it account opening it

141just because that's a huge such a bigger number than we've seen in the past. Any other things that we need to be considering or that you guys considered? >> I'd go back to Eric's comment about the percentage that we actually see fill the seats by all by the time all the dust is settled. I I highly doubt we'll see 254 students there but let's give an opportunity and let's see if we can find people who want to be in Blue Valley a home in Blue Valley. >> Well and and administration are going to make the decisions if if something gets too full. I mean this gives you just the leeway. We're we're just giving them an opportunity to to add those Um, but if it if things are getting too tight in certain areas, you're

142going to make that decision. >> Do we have a motion? >> I I do have a a question about motion before we make it. Um, the way the motion is presented to us, it's talking about approve the number of open seats available um, at each school as presented. Is that what we're doing or is it just an overall number which would give you more flexibility? >> The the statute requires that you approve it at each school as listed. Now, we are sharing it as listed as a minimum. So, even though it says zero, if we can find one seat, we will try to find that seat. Did that answer your question? >> Do we have a motion? >> I move that the Board of Education approve the number of open seats available for non-resident students

143at each school as presented. >> Second. >> Move by Jody, second by Clay. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? It passes unanimously. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> This takes us to any other board matters. Hearing none, board comments. Uh, Patrick? >> Yeah, I think it's unfortunate that the legislature failed to fully fund, um, special education for our schools. And so, therefore, um, you know, that's going to create a great hardship uh, on this school district and many others. And so, I encourage uh, everyone to, uh, pay attention to what's going on. >> Thank you. Dr. Evans? >> Yes, I just like to support what Patrick just said. We need to to pay attention to what's going on with the legislators and also what's going on within our school district. >> Gina? Jody?

144>> Quickly, >> uh a big shout-out to um six wonderful Blue Valley uh students who um received accolades at the Shooting Stars Gala yesterday that Dr. Evans and I attended. Um Daniel Chian, uh um Devika uh Krishna, um Harley Tam, Caroline Marrott, Derek Townsend, and Ethan Steiner. Um we were well represented in Blue Valley at uh and and these students really highlighted the incredible artists that they are, whether it be through music, strings, um 2D, 3D, whatever. It was absolutely fantastic, and I'm very proud. >> Thank you, Jody. Dr. Bigham. >> Clay. Um real quick, again, congratulations, Dr. Collier, on your appointment to be the new superintendent over there in around Topeka, I believe. So, congrats. Um thank you to all the staff tonight. Congrats to everyone on their new positions. And thank you for

145all the information you have provided and poured into us tonight. It's been very helpful. It's been a very stressful time around here, I understand, with closing a $10 million budget gap, and that is a big thing to shoulder. And it doesn't help that we may have another 3 to 3.5 million dollars that we have to cover with the new unfunded mandates from the legislature. So, we really do appreciate all the work that you are doing. So, thank you. Um and just to remind folks that we sat here and we did some We looked at the fee schedule. We increase increasing some fees to try to cover some of that. That's going to get us to about 5 5% of the shortfall. Um we've got a lot of cuts to make. We've got a lot of

146things to consider over the next month or so for next school year, and it's going to be tough. Um so, I appreciate the staff again bringing those forward. And to remind folks, if we had full funding of special education, we would not be in this position. If they would just reimburse us for the expenses that we incur as they're required to do by law, we would not be in this position. >> Thank you, Clay. And I have nothing, Dr. G. We stand adjourned.