Blue Valley Board of Education Meeting 1-12-2026

001Good evening. Um, to begin our meeting this evening, I would like to invite Olivia Row, a third grade student at Blue River Elementary, to the front to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. [cheering] [applause] Good evening. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [applause] >> And I think Dr. Chapman's going to join you for a picture. [snorts] And Olivia's family is with us tonight, too. Thank you so much. [applause] At this time, I'd like to invite Dr. Sonia Evans, Gina Knapp, and Dr. David Benson to the front as B L board clerk Anna Sweeney administers the board of education oath of office. Please raise your right hand and

002repeat after me. >> I state your name. >> Dr. David Benson, >> Dr. Sonia Evans, Gina Knap. I do solemnly swear >> dolely swear >> to support the Constitution of the United States >> to support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of Kansas >> and the Constitution of the State of Kansas >> and faithfully discharge the duties of >> a member of Blue Valley School District >> board of education. So help me God. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Whose dedication, talent, and impact are inspiring. Um to start the evening off would Paul Bergen please come forward with your supervisor Lawrence Saxton. [applause] We are excited to recognize Paul with the Distinguished Service Award. Paul is a maintenance technician who works on our pools and this is his 24th

003year in the district. Lawrence, do you want to start us off by telling us why Paul is so deserving of this award? >> Okay, just to let you know, uh, next week he'll be his 25th year here. >> Hey, so noted. [laughter] >> Um, Paul is a extraordinary employee. Um, he's been in Blue Valley for going on 25 years. Um, he's the he take care of the pools. So you all guys probably don't even know we had a pool technician, but we do. And he takes care of him. Y'all don't never hear nothing about him. He's always here overtime. He's doing anything that we asked him to do. He's dedicated. He raises a son. I mean, his life is just a good human being. Dedicated to everybody here at Blue Valley. So if you ever

004need anything with the pools, this is the guy you come to no matter what. I mean, he's diving board, anything. I mean, so whatever you want. Um, the number one thing I like about him is he's always there for you no matter what. He don't ask no questions. He just comes and does it no matter what. He's like, "I need you to come work some overtime. I'll be there. I need you to go pick up this. I'll be there." He never questions anything. He just does it. And to be dedicated for 25 years here, I mean, this is a great employee that we got. So, I'm going to give it to Paul because maybe he has something to say. >> No, just a thank just [laughter] just a thank you. Just a thank you. Appreciate

005it. >> Thank you. Congratulations. [applause] >> We're going to get a group picture real quick. Okay. And I think that Paul has uh his son or family in the audience. So you can give a wave. [applause] Next, we'd like to invite Angela Gwyn to please come forward with your principal, Kristen Venibal. [cheering and applause] >> Sounds like there's a fan club in the crowd. Um, we are excited to recognize Angela with the Excellence in Education Award. Angela is a library media specialist at Indian Valley Elementary and this is her 29th year in the district. So Kristen, tell us a little bit about Angela. >> Well, she has a fan club and she's pretty amazing. I have had the um I've just been blessed to work with her for the last 10 years. Don't cry. She's

006going to cry and then I'm going to get teary eyed. She is organized. She is prepared. She is knowledgeable, all the amazing things, but most importantly, she cares deeply and is passionate about students literacy. She is always helping a kid find the right book. She has arrival duty, too. And kids stop every morning and ask her questions about books or tell her, "I brought this one back, so I get to check out today." um they know how important reading is to her and that she will look for a book that will interest them. Um she's just amazing. She's adapted to new resources to different curriculum. She's always learning and partnering with our teachers to make the best experience for students. So, I couldn't ask for anything more from a library media specialist and I have

007loved the 10 years working with her. [applause] Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. I have been lucky to work with so many amazing people and I have not one but two wonderful, motivating, supportive leaders in Kristen and in Christy Bolton and they're always there for me when I need sorry when I need help. Um, luckily for for me, um, being a librarian is a collaborative role. So, I get to work and have worked with so many truly gifted teachers, many of whom are sitting here right now. Uh, we work together to integrate curriculum and create wonderful lessons to teach the standards. And we have a lot of fun doing it. So, thank you so much. Um, thank you family and friends for coming to celebrate with me. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

008Sorry. [applause] >> Congratulations and thanks to her fan club and family for coming out [clears throat] tonight. We have um also have several student recognitions. So to start us off with the Blue Valley Southwest Senior Glitter Girls, please come forward with your coach. [applause] >> [laughter] >> The Blue Valley Southwest Glitter Girls have won four consecutive Kansas 5A state championships. Winning one state title is impressive, but winning four in a row places this program among the best. At this year's state competition, the team competed in the 5A Game Day division, facing 17 teams from across the state of Kansas. Once again, they rose to the occasion and brought home the state championship for Blue Valley Southwest. Um, I think there's maybe the seniors are in the front. So, that means these these senior glitter girls

009um have four state championships under their belts. So, in just a few weeks, the team will be headed to Orlando to compete at nationals from February 12th through the 17th, representing not only Blue Valley Southwest, but the entire Blue Valley School District on a national stage. Um, if we could get the microphone and um pass to them, I'd like to invite the seniors to introduce yourselves. >> My name is Kayn Worly. My name is Abby Fininky. My name's Ava Middleton. My name is Skyler Hutton. I'm Elizabeth Katmier. My name is Kate Chrisman. >> Congratulations to these talented dancers and their coaches. I don't if the coaches want to introduce themselves, too. [laughter] >> Hi, I'm James Dickinson. >> My name is Elise Nil. >> Okay. Well, congratulations on an outstanding season and an incredible run

010of success. We are so proud of you and wish you the very best at nationals. And I think we're going to get a group picture. [laughter] [applause] Okay. Our next student recognition. Um, I'd like to ask that the students who received a perfect ACT score to please come forward. [applause] Tonight, we are excited to recognize this group of students who received a perfect 36 composite score between last spring and this fall. This accomplishment is incredibly rare with less than 0.25% of the 1.3 million students who take the ACT earning a perfect score. Um, I'm going to ask if we could pass the microphone and if each of you want to introduce yourself and share what school you attend. >> My name is William Golden and I go to Blue Valley Northwest. >> Andrew Golden, also

011Blue Valley Northwest. >> I'm Zana Ahmed. I go to Southwest. I'm a nonanyager wall and I go to Blue Valley West. Okay, congratulations. [applause] And I think we'll get a group picture. >> Yes. Congratulations again on that incredible accomplishment. [applause] Um for our final recognition this evening, um January is recognized across the country as school board recognition month. U this is a time to recognize and thank our Blue Valley Board of Education members for their countless hours they serve as volunteers in helping shape the lives of our students through their leadership. Each day, Blue Valley students work towards reaching their full potential in the classroom, on the playing field, on the stage with world-class educators by their side. And your leadership plays a major role in ensuring that our students and staff reach that full

012potential. As a token of our appreciation, our schools have provided some um nice signs of thanks along the front um of the dis. And then I understand that maybe they have also submitted some items that reflect the unique character and pride of their communities that might be under the dis for you. Um these gifts represent the collective thanks of the students, staff, and families for your dedicated service. So now I'm actually going to ask our board if they'd like to come um out into the audience. I can think of no better way to honor your leadership than with a special performance by some talented students. So, please help me in welcoming the Blue Valley Northwest Chamber Singers led by Beth Richie Sullivan. [applause] As they come in, I'll tell you a little bit about them.

013The Blue Valley Northwest Chamber singers have repeatedly performed at the KMEA state music convention, and record-breaking numbers of students have been accepted into the all district choir. Northwest has more students in the 2026 Allstate Choir than any other school in the state of Kansas. Additionally, 16 of these outstanding musicians will travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico in March to perform with the Southwest American Coral Directors Association Honor Choir. The chamber singers were also featured on during this holiday season on KS Kshb41's Sounds of the Holidays. Amidst all these remarkable accomplishments, the students uphold their singular mission. Great people, strong community, powerful music. Tonight, they will be per performing It's You I Like by Fred Rogers, arranged by David Vonampen, featuring trumpet player Julia Sheridan, and Bali Laka by AR Ramen, arranged by Ethan Sperry. >> [music]

014[music] >> It's you. [singing] I like [singing] It's not the things you wear. It's not the way you do [singing] your hair. But it's you [singing] know [music] [singing] deep inside. [music] Not [singing] the things that hide you. Not your [singing] choice. [singing] just beside [singing] you. But [singing] it's I like every [singing] part of you. your skin, your [singing] feelings, whe [singing] [music] [singing] you It's you yourself. [singing] It's you. [music] You [music] [singing] love [music] >> [music] >> that it's [singing] I like it's yourself. It's you. [music] It's all you [singing] ever >> [applause] [applause] >> Even the sol. [singing] [music] America. [singing and music] [singing] >> [singing] >> Motherchech. [singing] >> [singing] >> Good. Get out. Solchech. [singing] [music and singing] [music] >> [singing] [music] >> something [music] Johnny [singing] foreign [singing]

015[music] [singing] [music] [singing] goodbye. Get out of here. I got a gun bit may [music] [singing] come Lucky [singing] [singing] [music] chicken. [singing and music] [singing] [music] >> [cheering] [applause] >> Thank you so much. And I don't have the names of those three soloists, but maybe a hand for those um three individuals. [applause] That was fantastic. Um So, Blue Valley is known for um having some of the best educators and students around, and I think those with us tonight can certainly see that. Um congratulations again. And for those of you who are looking for a natural break before um the rest of our meeting continues, this is your time. If any of you are parents or friends of the uh chorus, make sure to pass along how impressed and how appreciative we are of all

016the effort, all the practice, all the uh rehearsals and the choreography that went into that. We all appreciate it. Showtime. Welcome to those of you who are here for the open forum. Our goal is to allow a time for individuals to address the board in an orderly, efficient, and dignified manner. The board will enforce a threeminute limit per speaker for up to 30 minutes. If you have handouts, they can be shared with our campus officer for distribution. At the conclusion, the board will close the forum and proceed with its agenda items for the evening. We appreciate your presence as we value the opinions and concerns of our patrons. If you're unable to address the board during open form, you may address the board by email when making remarks. Oh, skipped a paragraph. I have a

017few reminders about open forum that will help our speakers have a constructive uh and positive experience when discussing items with the board. When making report remarks, please be civil and use respectful language. Please limit discussion to the relevant business of the board tonight. [snorts] Discussion of matters related to a specific student or employee are not allowed. Instead, comments should be submitted to the superintendent in writing. Please remember to limit your comments to three minutes and avoid repeating the concerns of a previous speaker. Please remain in the designated visitor area and refrain from approaching the dis where the board of education is seated. If you have questions that need a response, someone will follow up with you at a later time. So on behalf of the board, I welcome you and appreciate your interest in Blue

018Valley as we provide the very best education to our students. When your name is called, introduce yourself before beginning your remarks. And as a reminder, we ask that all the remarks are limited to three minutes. Let's get started. We have one tonight, Mr. Steve Roberts. Welcome back. >> Thank you, Mr. President. >> I signed up to talk about diversity because diversity is a beautiful thing, but we hear a lot about DEI and I don't know how this affects your uh agenda tonight. I did not review your agenda tonight and I apologize for that, but it's an ongoing topic. I think it's fair to say. Um, I don't think we can legislate very well on diversity or equity, but we can certainly legislate on inclusion. And that's really my message tonight is um we we still

019hear a lot about DEI and u the relationship that we have between this and and legislation and rulemaking. It's it's pretty difficult and we have some very different uh opinions on how we get there. Um I'm reading a book by Thomas Soul right now uh a conflict of visions and he divides all sorts of ideological differences between the constrained and the unconstrained. It's an interesting approach to things. I I'm going to recommend this book even though I think it's a little over my head. It's pretty deep. I don't know how familiar you are with Thomas Soul, but it's a it's a conflict of visions. And the idea is um it's not really conservative versus liberal or blue team versus red team. We have those divisions to be sure, but it goes it goes very deep.

020Are people basically good? Are people basically bad? Um he quotes more people in this book than I could shake a stick at. Um and it goes pretty deep. If someone's very religious, are they constrained or are they unconstrained? Turns out it's both. So, um, what I want to push for as I I'm running for the state board again, state board of education in Topek again this year. And our bumper sticker slogan, as it has been for years, is better schools, fewer rules. And so I I wish upon you um all good things that come with uh rising above uh the partisan red versus blue and and um uh conservative versus liberal and donkey versus elephant business that we have going on. I wish you nothing but success in that. >> Thank you, Mr. Roberts. What

021was the name of the book again? >> Uh A conflict of visions, Thomas. S O W L. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> And that wraps up our forum for tonight. On behalf of the board of education, I'd like to thank Mr. Roberts, and we appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts with us. Please know that the board and the district administration took notes, and we'll follow up as needed. Uh next up, I'll call the meeting to order. So, welcome to the monthly business meeting of the Blue Valley Board of Education. The time when the board publicly conducts the business of governing the school district. While these meetings are open to all, public interaction is limited to individuals who have signed up for open forum. We kindly ask that all attendees to uh

022we we kindly ask all attendees to contribute to a positive atmosphere by conducting themselves with the quorum. Please engage in civil and polite behavior toward one another. It's crucial that everyone present extends courtesy to both the schoolboard members and those presenting by listening attentively. Please refrain from making comments or sounds and foster an environment of respect. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation and making this a productive meeting for all. So I need uh a motion to approve the board of education meeting agenda. I move that the board of education approve the January 12th, 2026 regular board of education meeting agenda as published. Do >> I have a second? >> Moved by Jody, second by Dave. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor raise your hand. Passes unanimously. Uh now we move to the consent

023agenda and need to approve the consent agenda. Um briefly want to describe what we have on a consent agenda. It's our rules of parliamentary procedure provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of 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. Mr. President, I would request that we um remove four items from the consent agenda. Um specifically the contracts with Apple, with CDW government, with Imagine Learning, and the Macauan Gordon be removed from the consent agenda. Um, these are item C4, bids and contracts, and that we vote on them separately by creating a new action item labeled E, relettering

024the closing items, section 2F. >> Okay, we'll do that. I don't think that needs a motion or approval. Uh, I need a motion then to approve the consent agenda with the minor edits as, uh, Mr. Nori proposed. >> So, moved. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Moved by Gina, second by Jody. All in favor raise our hand. Passes unanimously. Now we go to reports and discussion items. Um Jody, I believe you've got a report. Indeed, I do. Um I would like to um give a report on the uh community board advisory committee meeting for um comm I guess community uh the community board advisory committee met on December 15th. Health service nurses were present to share technologies utilized to support the specific health needs of our students uh specifically students diagnosed

025with diabetes. Additionally, an overview of the scope of the district health services was present. Um, this gave the committee an opportunity to hear about the multiple ways the district supports the overall health and physical development of our students. The committee also had the opportunity to engage in a question and answer format with a panel of district nurses. Finally, the committee members responded to two prompts allowing the district to gather additional committee feedback on two active strategic plan projects, screen time and bullying prevention. This committee participation and the contributions of the group are advantageous to our strategic plan objectives. The committee adjourned at 5:30 p.m. Next meeting will be January 26th. >> Thank you very much. And that takes us to the superintendent report. Dr. Chapman, thank you. Um this evening, it's hard to follow the

026amazing things that we've already celebrated. Um but there's some equally exciting um celebrations for December and January from the time that we've been together. Um we have a new podcast out and in this session uh board members joined um CFO Jeremy McFaden um and me to discuss the uh legislative session coming up. We'll be um posting frequent updates so our community members can stay involved in that. So, check out BV Unmuted. Um, also the winter 2025 issue has been um delivered to families and you might have noticed in there there's a section about legacy passes and that's been a priority for our school district to ensure that members of our community know all the great things that are happening in our school district. So any members of the community in the senior senior citizen range

027can uh use their legacy pass and come and I'm in that range. >> I was going to say that's over 55 people. 55. >> So, um >> what >> those who qualify for a legacy pass um can come in and enjoy some of the outstanding performances like what we saw this evening um along with um uh performing arts such as um Lion King is at Blue Valley North I believe the first week of February. Um any of our basketball games, wrestling events, anything like that. all they need to do is and for the ticketed events to let the school know that they're interested. So, we're excited to invite our um legacy passholders in this community to come into our schools. I think our patrons would be amazed if they haven't been involved in the school

028district. They would be amazed to see exactly what we saw this evening in a short snippet. So, um, en encourage your, um, friends and and those who qualify, uh, to come in. Um, we have some, obviously, as you know, schoolboard recognition month is in January. Um, we also celebrated law enforcement appreciation day. We're especially glad to have you back, Officer Dave. We've missed you. Um, so, welcome back. And, um, coming up, we have Martin Luther King Jr. day on the 19th and then Kansas Day on the 29th. And we have some amazing students as you know um Blue Valley West um Ash Jackson, she was highlighted in Times 2025 person of the year publication and talking about the architects of AI. It's an incredible piece. So we're excited to um see Ash in a national

029publication. We also have 10 Blue Valley elementary schools um that were selected to the Music Educator Association Allstate Elementary level choir. I didn't even know this existed. Um so this is pretty exciting for our elementary students. And continuing with the Kansas Music Educator Awards, 22 Blue Valley High School students were named to the All State Mixed Choir. We also have 18 Blue Valley High School students selected for the Allstate High School treble choir and four students selected as alternates for the All State uh school mixed and treble choirs. Um and then celebrating some more um activity and athletic celebrations, Blue Valley West Payton Kubic uh has been named the Gatorade Girls Kansas Volleyball Player of the Year. Jordan Jacobs was uh named section five coach of the year for girls swim and dive. And section

030five includes Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Um and she's previously earned um the Kansas Coach of the Year honors and now goes on to compete nationally. Blue Valley Northwest Trace Rudd was named the All Simone um team punter. and alumni Omnar Omar Abdo Lloydy uh is graduated from Blue Valley West. He was named a 26 Marshall Scholar and this is a prestigious scholarship um and one of the highest and most selective honors in academia and he attends um St. Louis University. Cooper Fortellini, a graduate of Blue Valley West, was drafted by St. Louis City um sporting club in the second round. So, we're excited to see Cooper on the pitch. And that concludes the um superintendent report and celebrations for this evening. >> Great. Thank you very much. Now, we'll ask

031Jeremy McFaten to give us an outlook on the budget. Uh Dr. Chapman, Board of Education, wanted to do a midyear um [clears throat] enrollment budget review uh with you all. Um uh I think your experience with budget typically has been at the front end of the fiscal year in the months of August and September. uh we go through um revenue neutral rate, setting the mill levy, uh establishing legal maximums. A lot of those things are uh kind of more mechanical in terms of setting our budget for the fiscal year. Uh what we wanted to do tonight though is um look at some enrollment trends in the state of Kansas in Blue Valley. Uh look at some staffing trends and then really set the table for uh looking for uh forward to the 26 27 fiscal

032year. uh we'll spend this spring um doing an assessment of staffing and and compensation and and essentially planning for 2627. So while nothing has been decided, we felt like it was a good opportunity tonight to get everybody on the same page of why we're uh considering what we're considering for the next uh fiscal year. The first slide here uh is really an extension from what Eric Palm uh presented to you on enrollment from a month ago. Uh this is the Kansas so for the entire state of Kansas K12 the send uh 7-year funded enrollment trend and we went back seven years just to get us to the year right before the pandemic. Um so you can see in 2019 2465,000 students in Kansas prior to the pandemic. Um and then obviously the uh pandemic enrollment

033um impact was pretty significant and it held steady for you know about four years but in the last couple years it started to trail off. Um the unodudited number you'll see on the far right from 2526 uh is what KSD just released this past November. Um and so the reason it says unodudited is all school districts will go through an enrollment audit and that number will get fine-tuned. um but is generally where it is for 2526. Um moving on to Blue Valley, uh you can see the impact. Uh same seven-year um graph here, 22,347 students um prior to the pandemic. Uh year one hit down to 2020-21 was, you know, down 594 students if you look on the table on the right. And then we held essentially flat for the next four years. So if

034you look at 2020-21 and you move all the way over to 2425, you can see we simply lost three students. Um so generally pretty flat and we were obviously hoping moving forward that that um would would hold. But our experience this fall with 2526 enrollment uh was a pretty sizable drop 21,580. That number is also on audited. We are currently going through our audit with KSD at the moment and hope to have um a revised number um here in the next couple weeks. Table on the right does show in that 7-year time period 767 student decrease or about a 3.4% drop. uh staffing. Really the takeaway from this is uh where we were at staffing wise and this is all certified and classified staff for 1920 2,991. I think the struggle with classified staffing during

035the pandemic is well documented but you know we have recovered um you know to the point where in 2526 we're now at 3,29 uh employees certified and classified. So over that same time period uh we're up 38 employees or about 1.3%. We just now are bringing the two graphs together and showing and this is obviously not to scale but uh enrollment declines, staffing, you know, small uptick and that's something that we're going to have to you know have the forefront and you know as we uh plan for 2627 keep at that forefront of our minds. uh can we continue the staffing levels with this enrollment trend? Okay, this slide um a lot of numbers on here but I think if we you know take our time get through it you can see uh really the

036signature accomplishment of you know Blue Valley and certainly view the board over the last several years. If you go back on that top line to 1920, that far upper left amount, the base state aid per pupil, which is essentially a part of the school finance formula, was 4,436. If you look at what the base state aid per pupil is now in 2526, one column over, it's 5,615 per student. The far right shows that's a 27% increase during that period of time. So essentially our revenue on the base stated a per pupil from the school finance formula is up 27%. And really the next three four sections here are trying to show the commitment we have made to salaries in terms of the certified salary schedule. It says beginning you can see in 1920 where a

037starting teacher with a bachelor's degree a master's degree and a doctorate those were the entry level salaries in 1920 fiscal year. 42,000 for bachelor's, 46,000 for masters, and 54,000 for doctorate. This year 2526 bachelor's beginning salary 52,000 masters now is at 58,000 and a doctor of 71,000. So again, those percentages off to the right show that as we have received higher base stated pupil uh amounts from the state that has found its way into our certified salary schedule. the maximum section um 201920 77,500 for mast's was the maximum salary uh base salary for master's degree doctor at 78,425 that was the maximum that the certified salary schedule provided. Now you can see in 2526 uh maximum master salary is 104,000 doctor 109,000 off to the far right 34% 39% increases. So again, we are making

038a strong push on compensation that even exceeds the base state aid per people increase. Health insurance subsidy uh 201920 that fiscal year $7,750 was the subsidy for a single health plan. 2526 that is now $10,836. So at 40% increase on healthcare subsidy. And again, someone might say, well, is that coming at the sacrifice of staffing? And it is not. That's what the low uh bottom line is trying to show that our employee count is still up 38 employees, 1% increase. So, again, really good work I think we're doing on compensation. Uh trying our best to keep up with healthcare uh inflation and doing what we can to keep our employee count steady. So, I know I've been going through these [clears throat] slides at a, you know, a clip here, but any questions or comments

039so far on on what we've seen? >> Yes. >> The question that I have uh regarding certified salaries beginning at maximum, is that competitive in the industry? These are competitive salaries. >> Yeah. Um, Dr. Punwick, he makes sure that every year we have a pretty good handle on what our neighbors are doing for salary schedules. Uh, I believe bachelor's and mast's entry level is the best in Johnson County. Is that right, Eric? >> Bachelors. Okay. Bachelors is. And then the maximum, I'm not sure on the maxes >> or the highest. So, >> just to kind of clarify, I know um Eric has been working on this for a number of years, at least since I've been on the [snorts] board, in bringing Blue Valley up to where we are because my understanding is we were

040pretty far behind our friends in the area and it was becoming extremely difficult to recruit and retain. >> This may be more of a Dr. depends what question but when you go back to the slide where the two graphs where the enrollment is flat or dropped but the staff is increasing is there a particular reason the staff was increasing? >> Yeah. So when we've netted out um generally the the big uh increases are in special education certified staff and par educators >> and that was because we're required to provide those services based on the law. >> Yeah. So IEEPs um are [clears throat] just calling for you know for us to have manageable case loads. We needed to increase staffing at the certified and par educator level. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I did. Thank

041you. um kind of uh tagging off Patrick's comments about certainly folks can look at this enrollment's going down, but why is staffing going up? And that was an excellent point about from what I'm understanding and you can confirm this for me. Um while our enrollment's going down, our specialed population, which requires more one-on-one um interactions with our students, that is actually going up. Is that what we're seeing? >> Yeah, that is correct. >> Okay. So, that is one of the contributing factors to the increase in number of employ um staff. Okay. Yes. [snorts] >> Um is there an issue with staffing levels and openings? like are were we not fully staffed before and we're finally getting up to that point. Does that contribute to it? >> I believe so. Uh Eric, do you want to

042speak on the classified staffing? How are we doing on that front? >> We're doing well. Um so to really dive into this, we also look at that we opened up a building during this time and so so additional special education open up the building and the fact that we're filling more of our classified roles that does play a part in Okay. So, um, since you're not miked, you you had talked about, um, because we opened up a building during that time, we required additional folks to >> Absolutely. So, during this time, you open up a building, you have increased need in special education. We have done a better job of filling our vacant classified staffing position. We also received some additional federal dollars that we added staff in which is augmenting what we currently have

043in the g from the general front staffing. So those factors go into why we see more employees that we have than uh back in 19 and 20 >> or 20 >> I would think to some degree the so are the social workers counted in that increase? >> No. Yeah. >> Or increase >> the children mercy uh social worker contract. Those are obviously not included in the 38 increase. So that'd be on top of that. >> At at the same time, are we making class sizes smaller, going from 28 kids in kindergarten to 24 or >> So that also a result >> uh the the PTR that we have has stayed stagnant during this time. So, we haven't changed how we were allocating um staff based on student counts, >> but certainly opening Aspen Grove created

044smaller classrooms in the southwest area. >> Uh those classes are still based off of what the PTR is. We do have a few sections at AGR that have fewer students. Um they still have some room. That's why we opened up transfers to that building because there was some availability within the current staffing that was sitting in that building. >> Um so PTR pupil toteer >> pupil toteer ratios. Correct. >> Okay. Um, and to go off the smaller class sizes, we so we have fixed numbers where if you hit a certain number of children in a classroom, then we can go off we can split them off and get another section. Correct. Essentially. Um, and one of the one of the things we look at um that could po potentially help us do that is if

045we were actually fully funded funded under the special ed um funding that we were supposed to receive. Is that right? >> Correct. We would we would concur with that. >> Okay. So, if we actually get statutoily funded at the required levels, we could actually consider lowering lowering class sizes. >> Absolutely. Um, and Jeremy can speak to this more fully than I can, but we would not be transferring general fund dollars out of the general fund into special ed if the we had the special ed funding that was, like you said, statutoily required, >> right? We wouldn't be using the special ed funding for that. We would actually use special ed funding for special ed programming where now we have to take general ed funding to cover the special and the special ed funding shortfall. >>

046Correct. And can you remind us the exact amount for the the last year we had tabulated? 18 million. Is that correct? >> Uh last year an additional 16 million was required to get us to the 92% target. This year we're estimating about 18 million based off of comp increases. Patrick, >> are you suggesting that there's an $18 million shortfall because we're not receiving the funds that we're are been that have been promised to us under the state for special education and our special education needs and population has been substantially rising over the last four or five years. >> Yeah. And it's actually I think the 92% target. I'm going to be generalizing with the year here, but let's say it was right around 2010 2012. Over the course of time, that 92% it was once

047funded at that level, but over time it just hasn't kept up with, you know, rising costs of, you know, salaries and, you know, the staff that we need to serve IEPs. So that's where we find ourselves kind of in the low 60% range. you know, probably 60 61%. Um, but that 18 million would be the approximate amount to get us back to that 92% target. >> Right? So, while we've been satisfying our legal obligation to educate the increasing population that is coming here with special education requirements, the funding has failed to materialize. Is that correct? >> Yeah. So when the state puts in additional funding into special education um that has been maybe closer to like the 1% amount 1% per year and so if we're giving a comp increase of say 4% you can

048see how that over you know 15 years can really widen that gap. So uh cost of health care doesn't you know actually that's a material you know cost that we have as well for our special education staff. So, uh, all of these cost pressures over 15 years have really what created that $18 million, uh, difference between where we're at and the 92%. So, if you take that particular concept to its logical conclusion, we could get what, $300 million and have to spend it all on special education. Is that true? >> Uh, I'm sorry, say that again. So if [clears throat] you take that particular concept to its logical conclusion, whereas we're not properly receiving the appropriate funding for special education, we have to provide whatever funds we do get to meet those demands. And so

049in theory, we could end up with basically funding for only special education and not for anybody else. Yeah, I think that's taken it to the extreme, but I mean, if it continues to get diluted over a long horizon, um it would take a pretty significant chunk of our budget, >> right? We're we're seeing that result currently and it's having an impact as of today, right? Because now we're basically $18 million short, >> right? So, our special education fund, we spend annually, it's going to be about 80 million this year. >> Yeah. Our overall general fund lob um is going to be close to 240 million. So you can kind of get a sense for um the proportion of sped versus general and lob. >> Okay. >> On the whole. So don't quote me those numbers,

050but it's generally pretty close. So it's like 20% of our budget, 25%. >> I'm assuming you have more slides to present. >> Uh a few more, but not on special education. >> Let me add one thing um on this topic. Um, another way of looking at it, for um, every student that we have enrolled, [snorts] actually in Johnson County, $1,400 of every single student in Johnson County is going to cover the shortfall of special education. So, if the average base age per pupil is around $6,000, 1,400 of it is going to cover that shortfall that we have in special education. And that is um consistent in all of Johnson County. >> Jody, >> um yeah, so a couple things. Um so just to be clear, um you know, the uptick in staffing and the decrease

051in enrollment um the bulk of the staffing are the touch the those that um have direct impact on students. We're not talking about huge administrative increases for our administrative teams, right? we're really talking about those that directly affect our students. So, I really wanted to be clear and make for sure that people listening understood that. Um, the other thing too that I I would like to just kind of throw out there to to what Dr. Chapman had said is, you know, we're not even talking about the at risk um issues that we have. And, you know, those who may struggle a little bit are not on IEPs or 504s, there's no additional funding for, but maybe at risk, not under the poverty level. um but still at risk because of the need for special supports

052um whether it be you know math assistance, reading assistance and all of that. So um that's been another right another issue regarding funding. We we expend funds to help support these kiddos. >> Um but that's not even a player uh in this formula at all. >> Right. [clears throat] Jeremy, I've had several people in the community where I've been I talk about the challenge we have with declining enrollment and the pressure it puts on us from a budget standpoint. Uh one of the questions they come back is why are people leaving Blue Valley? Uh are they going to private schools? What's going on? Uh what have you found? >> Yeah, so um I think KASB has identified two primary um reasons drivers behind the decrease. uh one is lower birth rates. Uh I think it's

053one of the lowest birth rates that you know we've seen in over a hundred years. Um in addition out migration seems to be a a pressure on that as well. Folks moving out of the state. Um so those are the two primary reasons that KASB you know attributes to the overall statewide decrease. >> Do you have any idea how private schools are doing as far as enrollment's concerned? I don't have that information tonight. >> That might be interesting to take a look at too, just to be sure. >> Yep. >> But it does look like if you go back to this slide that we have lost students at about half the clip of the rest of the state, right? They lost about 6 >> 6.7 versus our 3.4. So, is there also a a connection

054between our uh housing costs to live in this community? >> It's a great point. Um, not sure how to quantify that or get my hands around it, but affordability. I I can't see how that couldn't be a variable here. >> Well, I I think Eric has mentioned uh a few times in the past that what 60% Am I correct on these numbers? You can correct me. 60% of our our staff live outside of the district. 4% of our bus drivers live in the district. So, I mean, >> yeah, we're we're seeing that on our certified side that over 60% of our uh certified employees um do not live in district. Now, again, that can be a choice. Uh we don't have a residency requirement. Uh but to Jeremy's point, when we're looking at um new

055builds starting over 700,000 and on the resale market still being very high, um attainability is difficult at that for for a lot of income income bands. >> Okay, Jeremy, on to reserves. >> Yeah. Um coming back to the special education in relation to the general and LOB, I pulled this up. We're going to be approximately 80 million of special education expenditures in 2526. Our general fund is approximately 190 million. Our LOB is approximately 60 million. So 80 million uh out of the 250 for the general and LOB funds. So all right, operating reserves. Um if you give me a a few moments I think this graph will make sense. Um but if you look at 1920 7-year look back uh these are operating reserves and these are the funds that we include in operating reserves.

056That would be uh the contingency fund special education at risk bilingual career and teched. All of those funds that have carryover balances from one fiscal year to the next are included in this operating reserve calculation. So in 1920 um we had 22 million in operating reserves. 2021 uh went up to 23 million and then over the next you know four years you'd see an increase to 30 million held there for a couple years then an increase to 39 million and increase to 43 million. Okay. So, you're thinking what's behind uh the increase in reserves essentially almost doubling. Um two things, ESSER monies from the federal government during that period of time really bolstered our operating budget. Uh we were able to uh find existing staffing u to pay with the er monies and that really

057allowed us to strengthen our reserves and really some uncertain times. So that Esser money was a huge uh benefit to Blue Valley, other school districts as well. And the other thing that happened in here is um with high inflation um the district's interest income on our idle reserves uh for the better part of you know two years exceeded you know four to 5%. For the decade prior to the pandemic our interest income on auto reserves was probably closer to 2%. So on our reserves we had a significant bump on uh interest income. So obviously those things were temporary. Esser being temporary uh high interest rates on federal treasuries u that was what got us to that $43 million peak. Then we over the last two years have be uh begun spending down those reserves. Um,

058and the projected 2627 reserve amount of 27.5 million. That's being a little conservative. I think it's going to be higher than that, but there's a few variables mid year that we're keeping our eye on. Uh, transportation, utilities, and horizontal movement for certified staff in the spring as they, you know, attain college credit and potentially move across the salary schedule. U, those are three things we're keeping our eye on. So, um, point of the story is the 27.5 million is kind of in the neighborhood of where we think that's going to be. So, it's still higher than where we were prior to the pandemic, but this next slide will show you as a percentage of our general fund and lo uh amounts. Two lines here. The top line uh that green line is two months worth

059of reserves or 16.6%. That bottom black line is one month of reserve as a percent or 8.3%. And so our reserves uh we've typically tried to manage reserves to live in between one to two months. Um now the the drop down to 10.4%. You know, it's real easy to see we can't continue with that moving forward. uh if we were to drop below one month of operating reserves uh I I uh wouldn't be able to you know recommend a budget that continues to use reserves at that clip. So what does that mean for 2627? Uh we have to take a long hard look at our staffing going into next year. Uh have some discussions about compensation goals. So a lot of decisions coming uh here soon. Um but you know we did as much as

060we could on salaries u this last fiscal year. So if someone were to say you know we wanted to stay closer to that two-month uh operating reserve target a year ago we would have had to do a smaller raise on our certified staff classified staff or would have had a significant adjustment on our staffing. So, we held on as long as we could, did as much as we could on salaries, but I think we're at the point now going into next year where we need to do some adjustments. Yeah. >> Couple points real quick. So, back up just a little bit. The reason we have two months of reserve in place is because it has to do with this payments we receive from the state are not necessarily timely. We have to have those in

061place to make sure we can meet payroll and other financial obligations under our contracts. Correct. Uh yeah, certainly reserves help if there's any timing issues on our uh state aid payments. Um one of the other things that I've actually lived through which is even more u detrimental to a budget if there was ever a mid-year cut in base aid per pupil. Um that happened uh in my first year. I think it was 2010 where in the middle of the year based aid got cut and if you didn't have reserves as a school district you were in a really rough spot. So uh those two things contribute to you know why we you know recommend at least one month if not somewhere between the 1 to two month range >> and the reason the reserve has

062gone down was back to those three reasons right because of the reason the reserve has been not not taken down as a percent because that's relative to the amount of money we receive right that percentage changes but the point is is the reserve has gone down because we were using it for >> for salaries. >> Okay. >> So, that was intentional. So, >> and that's because of the more people that we [clears throat] are hiring. Correct. >> Well, the negotiation process where we set the salary schedule, uh, if I backed up a few slides, >> um, the investments made in the salary schedule, um, they wouldn't be as as high as they are if we a year ago decided to pull back on compensation. Right. >> One of the challenges that we had at the

063time, we intentionally waited until the summer to kind of get a good handle on what compensation was with our neighboring school districts. We had a really good idea of what they did on their salary schedules. And the one we proposed was essentially keeping us real competitive with our neighbors. If we wanted to uh keep our reserves at a higher level, not that we can go back and change this, but uh we would have had to do probably something in the neighborhood of a one and a half to 2% raise for certified staff. >> Right. Because we were seeing an increased uh rate of uh people leaving the district, right? >> I think our turnover was was it pretty consistent, Eric, with [clears throat] previous years? Hey, >> keep calling you back up. >> Yeah. Uh,

064this last year we saw the best retention rate that we've had in the last five years. And we definitely see that every mic. >> Oh, sorry. Uh, if you look at last year, we had the highest retention rate over the last 5 years. And so we saw a direct correlation between increased salaries and keeping our benefits where they were and seeing people stay with us. Uh it was really though a push because we had neighboring districts that were providing better salary packages than what we were offering at the time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Also, um just imagining going through a negotiation process where um if we're in a position to say, well, we know a neighboring district, for example, did 4%. We're only going to do 2% to hold on to close to two

065months reserves. I I think that um probably doesn't align with our strategic plan. I think the strategic plan, retention of staff, compensation for staff, I think we could afford to do what we did for one year, but I think we're at a point now where we have to get that u percentage to stay close to that 10 to 11% range. >> Right? This is more anecdotal, but we've been seeing a rise in our test scores and performance of kids over the last couple years. >> Did you say are we or >> have we've been seeing a correlation between the staff are retaining an improvement in test scores? Correct. >> I'm going to have to ask maybe Kelly, you want to come up for that one? >> Yes. We're beginning to see scores kind of rebound

066from from COVID. Yes. >> I guess I could have done that. Yes. >> But we believe that's in relationship to what we've done over the last two years, right? In terms of staff and programming and where we're allocating those fund sources resources for, right? >> Yeah. I I believe our staffing compensation creating some stability in our school district. I I think that benefits kids. I don't know what else I could speak to data wise that would suggest that, but it makes sense to me. >> Uh, I appreciate the veteran board members questions a lot. They draw draw a lot of information out. If I'm looking at this as a district patron, what are the takeaways? Uh I'm taking away that we set a goal to improve staff salaries and we have done that at least

067to some extent the reduction in uh overall balance position is due to that uh commitment to our faculty and staff. >> Yes. >> Okay. that as a community [cough] [clears throat] we need to galvanize ourselves during this legislative session to speak to the need of special education funding. Uh this is going to be uh a critical issue and if we had uh adequate special education funding uh we would be in a much more favorable uh position at this time. Uh I'm also taking away that this is an unusual time of year for this kind of major budget presentation. >> So I appreciate the work [clears throat] that went into that. Uh and the purpose of that is to call attention to the special education issue, the decline in reserves issue uh and our future discussions

068around the need to economize in the district uh in whatever ways we can do that make sense to limit the effect on programs uh and students and personnel. Uh so uh we as a board I think have a have a tough job over the next six months uh as we look at all of these issues coming together [snorts] to establish the what would it be 26 27 budget >> yes [clears throat] >> are there other cogent major points that that I'm missing in in what you would like us to understand from this presentation? >> Yeah. Um, you've covered all the major areas. The the only other thing I might add, uh, is if a patron maybe doesn't understand the nuances of K12 finance, they may say, well, why don't we just raise the mill by

0691 mil and reduce the deficit to zero, get break even. We like the staffing we have. We like the salary uh salary investment that we're seeing. And the answer is the formula governs our operating funds and we are maxed out in every single area of the forming uh formula funding that is available. We are maxed out on local option budget. We're maxed out on cost of living fund. We're uh maxed out on our extraordinary growth um temporary waitings. We are maxed out at every turn within the formula. So there's nowhere we can go locally to get us out of this predicament other than relying on uh decisions in Topeka. >> Excellent point. Thank you. >> So let me see if I can add a little bit more to what Dr. Benson was talking about. So,

070based on um our um special education increase in costs, based on our commitment to our community for providing top education, we have a shortfall for this school year or next school year. >> Yeah. So, this school year, I'm going to go in to this slide. You see the 38.6 million from the >> 2526. >> Um we project to have roughly a 9 to10 million deficit in this fiscal year 2526. So once that amount is reduced down we would go into next year with a 27.5 million maybe roughly 28 million reserve balance. >> Right. So we're about 10 or 11 million short for between January and July, right? >> Yeah. So as we com complete this fiscal year, we'll have seen our operating reserves, the the six or seven funds I I mentioned earlier, those will

071have gone down collectively by about $10 million. I think Clay looking at the cash summary report this morning, you know, is starting to see the impacts of drawing down reserves. Um but it's all within this plan. I just I think I want to reiterate going into next year, I don't think we could replicate [clears throat] um our staffing, especially with the declining enrollment that we have in front of us, we have to take a look at that. >> Right. So, so as of June 30th, we'll have 27,500 in the reserves, right? Is that what you're saying? >> Yes, that's exactly right. >> So, we're going to cover the shortfall for this year. Yes. >> [clears throat] >> And it's it's certainly um being impacted by what the legislature is doing or not doing. Correct. >>

072Yeah. So this year the 5,615 if there's no mid-year cut will end this year um utilizing reserves which was uh a part of the plan from this past summer as we were setting compensation. >> Right. So, >> so for the 2627 budget, we start with basically a $10 million challenge that we have to work through, >> right? And that's what we're going to have to work through over the next u several months in preparation for 2627. >> So, we have as an administrative team, Dr. Chapman, we've started to think about what can we do that is, you know, you know, worth considering and what things are certainly off the table. So, having those discussions um but I think there'll be more to come as the spring moves along. >> So, be clay. So, I um

073wanted to just bring up quickly um sometimes we hear out of Topeka um uh it being touted that oh there was an extra 70 million that was found for special ed. Now originally that amount my understanding was a lot larger than that um to supplement special ed funding this last year. Uh anyhow, it was whittleled down to 70 million that and correct me if I'm wrong, but that amount was distributed evenly across the state of Kansas. So it didn't matter matter whether we had a larger population of special ed students or not. Can you can you confirm that? So there was a new distribution model when the $70 million was approved in 2425 rather than use the existing distribution formula which considered 80% reimbursement for transportation catastrophic uh claim reimbursement categorical aid on pairs and

074teachers that was the old formula. Mhm. >> Uh I think the legislature wanted to see the distribution of that 70 million go to districts based off of their excess cost percentages. So if a district had a lower excess cost percentage, they got a little bit higher uh allocation from that extra 70 million than what they would have gotten under the existing distribution model. So right now there's two models. future special education uh revenues from the state go under the they call it the local uh I think it's called the local cost model something to that effect but blue valley out of that $70 million we got a roughly $5.2 million >> okay um so I just want to make for sure that you know we we try to help our our constituents our patrons our

075parents understand when you hear things coming out of maybe Topeka what that really means and you know we hear a lot uh about you know our schools are fully funded um and I you know I think I'd like Dr. Chapman maybe to speak to that and really what what they mean by saying that um just so they understand that you know um it it it's not quite what you think it is. >> Yeah. So the 140 million amount if it was distributed under the new um local cost percentage model, if we got a similar um ratio of an additional 140 million of special education, that would roughly be 10 million to Blue Valley, which would roughly be our deficit. >> But that still would not make up the shortfall. we would still be $8 million

076short from what we should be getting. Correct. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> Um, you know, we have we have legislators come up once a year and they'll do a breakfast with us and many times they'll look right at us and say, "Hey, anything you need, you just tell us. You know, we're here to work with you." And I've invited them to work with us to come up with solutions. Um, so I we extend that invitation again. we extend that invitation to come see our special ed classrooms, come see our schools, come see how we work. I think they'll be impressed with what we can do. Um, but we're also not just sitting here complaining about their lack of following the law. We've come up with solutions. And I think I'd ask Dr. Chapman maybe to

077bring forward the proposal that she had come up with regarding um our declining enrollment and across the state and special ed funding. >> So the Johnson count I'm not going to take full credit for all that. Uh the Johnson County superintendent um have worked closely together through the years and the school districts which I think is a real benefit. Um, so we hear often that because of the enrollment decline in Kansas that the state is saving $250 million this year that they had budgeted for the pupils that they expected to be in seats. Um, next year that savings because they're projecting a continual enrollment decline is another hundred million. So you're looking at $350 million. Um right now the statewide um cost of um funding special education at the statutory required amount of 92% that

078equates to $260 million. So essentially the state could and they have the funds already budgeted that are um required to be used on education. Essentially this is an easy yes. It's a bipartisan. It is um the top priority in Kansas is education. It's called out in the constitution as such. This is a win. Um and um we've heard you know anecdotally well you know we might do a little bit but not all of it. Um you should you should take what you can get. Well what we are required what they are required to do is 92%. So, I think there is a solution. It's a win for everybody and um they still have money left over on that budgeted amount because they have a two-year budget. So, um that's I think what we need to

079continue advocating for. Um because we are required by law to offer the services and we have a maintenance of effort. So, but and maintenance of effort means we can't dip below our current funding in special education. So, even if we said, "Oh gosh, you know, we need to um take a look at special education, what we spend, we're going to decrease it." We can't by law. We have to maintain it. So, at some point, we have to say, "Well, what happens if we don't have the funding, the $1,400, uh, the $18 million to transfer into special education?" We find ourselves in lawsuits because we are required to fund it. So, at some point we need some relief and it's it's right there um available to our legislators um if they can be so inclined. >>

080I might just throw in hats off to at least all the educators out there. They work so hard to take what little they're given from the legislature to turn it into meaningful instruction and help and support for all of our kids. And um you know our communities should demand more that it great. Thank you very much. We're going to take five minute break uh to give our closed caption person a uh little break and then we'll come back and talk about the action items that were pulled off consent. Let's reconvene. >> All right, we've got uh some action items. We pulled off consent. Um first would be to approve the a Apple Inc. contract and the Apple contract is for the annual purchase of Apple MacBook Airs for the 2026 27 9th grade class as

081part of our 1:1 program for an estimated 1,953291. Do I have a motion to approve it? >> I move that the board of education approve the Apple Inc. contract. >> Do I hear a second? >> Moved by Jody, second by Patrick. All in favor raise our hand. >> I think we have Do we have a discussion? >> Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. >> Do we have discussion now that we have the motion? >> Well, I just wanted to shout out to Jim who we missed tonight. This is where he would be discussing. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah, I I just assumed there wasn't any since he wasn't here. >> I'd like to um ask uh Dr. Kent Corser to present on this topic. Um and Brian Daly was unable to be with us tonight.

082So, thank you, Kent, for stepping in at um last minute notification. And if you could just explain what this purchase is and um how it advances our strategic plan goals. >> Absolutely. Thanks for having me again. I'm Kent Corser from uh the director of technology operations. Uh this is part of our um one to learner program that we started back in 2019 2020. So, this will now be year eight um which is hard to believe going into next year. Um, so always around this time of year is when we go and get our devices. We want to beat the uh busy spring time frame when everyone else in the country is also ordering devices and certainly want to get way out in front of the summer time frame when we will actually get all these

083devices ready for our 9th grade class. So um again, it is just our annual uh renewal of that. Um the numbers change slightly each year based off of um our inventory need and of course our size of our class incoming. Um and we do self-insure some of our devices. So, we'll buy a few extra devices on top of what we need, obviously, to have those on hand when devices break. Um, but otherwise, yeah, it's a it's a rinse and repeat from all of our previous um engagements with Apple. >> So, um do you um remind me about when your senior graduates, you turn it back in. Do we get like a refund on that or how does that work? So yeah, they do get all um they go to a provider of ours where they

084are either recycled or resold and then we get proceeds back from um from that company. So um every single year we get a significant amount of funds that come back in that we use towards the purchase of the new devices for both sixth and 9th grade. >> Yes. >> So this this may be a challenging question, but we're in year eight, right? And and so we we approve these contracts each year and they're $2 million a year. And so is it worth the $2 million every year that we're doing to have uniform platform and computers for kids with all the same same things loaded on it. What are we achieving by continuing to spend $2 million a year? Well, that's tough for me to answer from my my seat. But what I can say is

085that with the reliance of so many digital resources now, um assessments also being digital only, some some tests don't even have paper copies anymore. Um the personalization with a device that you can offer, uh are those things worth it? I think absolutely. um in the day and age that we're in um for career readiness to to make sure that our kids are ready to hit whatever career path they have after um uh Blue Valley. I think obviously having those devices with them in this case from a a kindergarten experience all the way through 12th grade um across a variety of operating systems is certainly getting them ready for their career after Blue Valley. So um can I quantify that from a money standpoint? No. Um but uh those are things that I see at least

086from the IT side for sure. But uh but that there's a great question for also academic services to answer from um other things that they see test scores and and all that from before devices to where we're at now. Um and I just don't track that myself. >> Right. So what we're seeing is is instead of every child having a different computer with different applications, we're having the same applications that are all run and known and understood by our own IT staff. So, at the end of the day, we're increasing the number of minutes of instruction time per child because now we don't have an onslaught of of unlimited number of problems that kids have bringing their own computers and devices to school that don't work or might work or now how does it interact

087with our systems, right? >> 100%. >> And so, we're seeing consistency and we're seeing more minutes and we're seeing uh more instruction time on places where it counts the most. Right. >> Yes. And it fixes that equity divide that we had before >> for managing and navigating websites and places the kids should not be at. >> Yep. >> Right. >> Absolutely. >> So, um, you know, this all helps to make sure we have a consistent education program by subject matter for each of the classes that the children are taking. Right. >> 100%. >> Okay. >> Most importantly, like he said, is the equity issue though. >> Yeah. Prior to our one to learner, I mean there were sides of the district that had a lot more technology access than others. Um, which then leads to

088other challenges with well, why is my education different because I have access to these tools. Um, and we fixed that. The one to learner now is is across the board the same. Um, resources are across the board the same. And uh, I think that's transformational from where we were prior to 1920. Not to mention right before a time when a pandemic happened um and we were able to sustain this district um with that program in place. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate your explanations. >> Thanks for your time. >> One one quick question. >> Yeah. >> I think um Jody had asked the question what you do with them after >> can students buy those laptops when they're done in their senior year? >> They cannot. Neither can staff for

089that matter. um we take very seriously all of the licensing that goes on those machines and of course all the data. So when they get turned in there is a very strict process that every device has to go through to make sure all data is taken off, all the licensing is taken off. Um obviously if those are going to be resold, they need to be completely vanilla. Um and we get certificates of destruction. So we make sure that everything is recycled properly, doesn't end up in a landfill and get traced back to Blue Valley. Um so all those um processes have to be in place. Um and uh the only way to do that is to make sure that they go through the proper channels. Um and and obviously those things are then taken care

090of. >> All right. Thanks. And this contract is just for high school, >> correct? The Apple one is just for Yep. nth grade. >> Anyone else? >> Great. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Now we can vote. All in favor of uh approving the Apple contract raise their hand. It's unanimous. The next one we have pulled is a CDW government contract. And the CDW government, Inc. contract is for the annual purchase of Acer Chromebooks for the 2026 276th grade class as part of our 1:1 program. An estimated $961,500. Do I have a motion to approve that? I move that the board of education approve the CDW Government Inc. contract. Second, >> second, >> Dave. Discussion. >> You're back. [laughter] >> Is this any different than the last presentation, just different grade? >> Exactly.

091It's It's the exact same thing. Obviously, a different platform, Chromebooks. Um, it's a three-year device, so we hand them out in sixth grade. They'll use them sixth, seventh, and eighth. And then that's when they get turned in and go through the exact same process we had talked about at their end of life and we get proceeds back from the sell off of Chromebooks as well. So it's the exact same program just a different grade. >> No other discussion hearing none. All in favor say I or raise your hand. It's unanimous. Third one we have is Imagine Learning LLC contract. in the Imagine Learning LLC contract for the purchase of the Imagine Learning Math package as our curricular resource for our high school AGA classes. That's algebra, geometry, algebra 1, algebra 2, geometry, and associated courses

092for an estimated 1,38266. Do I hear a motion to approve it? >> So moved. >> Second. Moved by Clay, second by Jody. Thank you very much. Any discussion on this issue? >> Well, I just want to quick overview of the curriculum and tell us about it and how wonderful it is. >> Awesome. Thank you. Adam Wade, director, academic programs and accountability. Uh, one of my roles I get to work with with high school math, math in general, but high school specifically here. Um, so before you this evening is a proposed seven-year contract for high school math instructional resources for algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, and associated courses. The recommendation to partner with Imagine Learning represents the culmination of a comprehensive 18-month process that began in fall 2024 with the high school math symposium. High school

093mathematics teachers played a central role throughout the instructional resource selection process. Beginning with a district-wide symposium, teachers collected or collaborated with district staff to review student achievement data examined best practices and establish a shared vision for highquality instruction, resulting in the development of a common selection rubric. Teachers continued to provide input through PLC's and professional learning days. Teachers then nominated instructional resources which were vetted for quality and standards alignment. Following multiple rounds of vendor presentations and structured evaluations using the teacher developed rubric, teachers identified Imagine Learning as the recommended instructional resource. Partnering with Imagine Learning allows the district to build upon the instructional successes successes experienced with I Ready at the K8 level and extend those strengths up through algebra 2. The proposed 7-year contract is p will be paid over three years. So 2526,

0942627, 2728. The agreement includes full digital access for teachers and students as well as two years of consumable student workbooks. The proposal to purchase two years of consumable workbooks was developed in collaboration with Jason Gillum, director of business operations. The two-year approach is a new strategy that is intended to allow the district to monitor usage and evaluate cost effectiveness before making longerterm decisions. Because Blue Valley has secured printing rights for the materials, the district will have multiple options available in future years. The purchase also includes a comprehensive professional learning package and it provides which includes training for classroom teachers and leaders. At this time, I'm happy to take any questions. >> Yeah, Patrick. So do we not also have books? This takes in this is in place of books, right? >> So instead of hard

095physical books, the student text is the consumable workbook. So basically the student will it's an interactive book as opposed to a hardcover book. >> Right. This is not a video game. And then we have a whole other >> correct >> contract for hardbound books. >> No, that's correct. >> So what are we using now? And just is the timeline uh lining up so when we sunset that one which I assume is this year >> y >> then the next one's going to be ready to roll. >> Yes. So timeline lines up well and in fact we had to extend the the prior contracts for we had to bridge by a year or two to get to this point. Um we knew that that we wanted teachers to have a good amount of professional learning. Um,

096so that we were thinking of all the things that were out there in in the research about mathematics education before just saying, you know, hey, let's find a resource. Let's let's just go pick something because then that's that's how you end up with something similar to what you already have, right? So that that was part of the the process that we talked about and and how long it was. Um, the proc the resources we have now are pretty traditional. um Pearson/SAVIS is the majority of the resources um in the AGA and associated courses. Um the I think those were valued uh those are valued by teachers because of um just having a lot of of practice problems truthfully. Um and this um goes beyond that. there will still be plenty of practice problems. Um, but

097at the same time, there are are ways to actually um hopefully engage students better in the mathematics teaching and learning process and understand why they they're doing what they're doing. >> So, does this allow like I know a big thing with I Ready was Yeah. is >> the individualized learning component and like the students being able to kind of go along their own strand. >> So, does this have something like that? >> Yes. So that was one thing that excited us a lot about this particular resource. There are not a lot out there at the high school level. Uh and when I say high school, I mean up through algebra 2. Beyond that, all products are really college products for the advanced algebra, pre-calc, cal, that kind of thing. Uh so for algebra 1, geometry,

098algebra 2. There's not a lot out there that actually has a diagnostic assessment and then puts students on a particular path based on, you know, where their skill gaps are. um when when teachers saw this and and granted you know we had to play it kind of like okay like what do you see what's important to us u I think between that and between hearing from middle school especially and that vertical conversation about the value of the diagnostic test and the my path um they were like oh yeah that that's something that we need that's something that would be really good um >> so does this plug in >> to sort sort of like well help with like the math strategies course work >> 100%. And in fact that's one of our next moves is

099to figure out u really step one was to get the resource in place. Step two um is to determine you know what happens in the math strategies courses. What are what is our intervention menu so to speak in high school math. Um, you know, for a long time, I I think to teachers credit, they've they've done a really good job trying to patch things together. This gives the ability to us to systematize. Um, and that includes especially in in things like math strategies where students are in there because they need extra time and frequency with math. >> So, a question that I have, so you said that the diagnostics identify gaps. >> Yeah. So, do the student continuously get problems until they master it or does the teacher have an opportunity to see where those

100gaps are and are able to help the the student along the way? [snorts] >> So, I would say that if all we're doing is putting a kid on the computer, then we're not using the resource to its full advantage. And imagine says the same thing I Ready says in that regard, which is that the teacher still the interventionist. The personalized path is the tool and it's the way to get kids problems and prevent the teacher from having to go okay let's try another one here we go you know let's try another let's do this let's do this um so no I mean it is still the teacher's job to intervene and provide that human interaction um you know could it be is there a possibility for misuse um because of how robust the tech is

101yes but that's one of the things that we will um we're very aware of with the training Yeah, >> Patrick. >> But it's also more efficient, right? >> It's more effective, right? >> Yes. >> Um Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, I'm hearing you say this has been teacher tested and teacher approved here in Blue Valley. >> Yeah. So, um it it you know it's been a a lengthy it's been a lengthy process to get there but um yes teacher feedback has been a huge huge huge part of the process >> and the cost of this particular um program y system is in line with other things in the market. Is that right? >> Yes. Yes, it is. It is indeed. Um just a final thought. Um you know a few years ago the Kansas legislature

102tried to mandate um certain curriculum and I believe it was in math. Yeah. I think this is just a really great example um over the past you know through few years where we've had some really great purchases of curriculum in in all areas. A really great example of how important local control is. >> So I just I guess I wanted to put that out there and I you know we we've got buyin from our teachers. they understand it, they're excited about it. Um, you know, they they've they've had control um or input on this and and I think that's incredibly important. >> Good. Good. I agree. I I will echo that. I think um the ability for teachers to drive the decision-m process um is huge and that's how you actually get you know best

103practice I think is is ensuring that those voices are heard and pour into the teachers and then listen to them and you know keep that wheel going. Yeah. >> Any other discussion? >> Okay. Hearing none. All in all in favor of approving the uh Imagine Learning LLC contract, raise your hand. It's unanimous. Thank you, Adam. And uh the last one which we pulled off uh a big contract from Mcgown Gordon Construction Stillwell Elementary exterior improvement project is going to provide new insulation and bring the building up to today's energy standards for an estimated 7,287 236. Do I hear a motion to approve that? >> I move that the board of education approve the Macau and Gordon construction contract. >> Second. Moved by Gina, second by Dr. Evans. Any discussion? Perhaps you can enlighten us. >>

104If I may. >> Yeah, please. >> Thank you. Jake Labodic, chief operations officer for the district. As you said, Jan, which was great introduction. This is GMP amendment number nine with Macau Gordon Construction. Give you a little background. Um, as part of the 2023 bond referendum, building envelope work was identified as a major asset preservation component. Stillwell Elementary envelope being the largest part of that bond line item. In December of 24, the board approved a contract with Hollison Miller to perform an envelope study, which no surprise to us, identified several areas of concern. If you're not familiar, Stillwell was built in 1959, making it the oldest active school in our district of 67 years old. In its 67year lifespan, the building's had 11 additions. Yet much of the building has no insulation on or air

105barrier on the exterior facade of that building. That that means it's not protected from the elements. Drafts get in, moisture gets into the building. It also has portions of the building with original windows which have no thermal insulating value. In addition to thermal concerns, like I said, water infiltration into the building has been an issue. bricks and brick faces have fallen off the building and Stillwell repeatedly uses significantly more energy than any other of its modern counterparts. To give you an example, Stillwell uses about 22% more energy per square foot to heat and cool its building than one of our more recently built buildings which was done in 2017. Speaking of energy, the current electrical switch gear, which is where all the power comes into the building and you have all of your breakers, that

106switch gear is original to the building well beyond its useful life. A failure of that component would result in power, no power to that building for weeks, if not months. And that replacement is also part of this project. You may recall in November of 25 you approved the purchase of that switch gear so that we could get it ordered in time for a summer replacement project. So this is a really critical project. That's why I mention all this. In September you the you approved the contract with Hollison Miller to design this project after we've identified these issues. And as part of that process, we met with the Stillwell community. We asked questions like what makes Stillwell unique? You know, this is we recognize this is a unique community. What makes it unique? What do you

107want this building to look like? Should a building renovated or modernized in 2026 look like it was built in 1959? The answer was no. But we don't want it to look like IKEA. We don't want it to look like it doesn't fit in the world of Stillwell. And so what you see on the on the panel here is an image of what Stillwell looks like today in the upper right and an image of what it will look like when we are done with this project. We have presented these designs. We hosted an open house at in the library at Stillwell. Met with resounding positive reaction from the community members. I know the principal has shared this in her newsletter. We have not had any negative feedback. Kyle, if you could advance the slide. There's a

108couple other images. That image in the top right shows you the original 1959 building in the center. All the additions. That image in the bottom left, it's probably hard to see from where you're sitting, but has color code of which walls have no insulation, which walls have one inch of insulation, doesn't meet current energy code. And then if you advance one more slide, these are just views as you go around the building. So, this is still a brick replacement building. We peel the brick off. We add a layer of airspace, a layer of insulation, rebuild the brick, install new windows which no longer leak moisture, leak air, and hopefully we have a an equitable building for Stillwell community just like we have for all of our newer communities. And >> this was on the bond.

109>> This was on the 2023 bond. Yep. >> Discussion further. >> Are there any safety security upgrades? >> Yeah. So, as part of this project, um we are replacing doors and the sidelight glass for all the entrances throughout the entire building to be uh forced entry resistant. That it's one of our newer standards. It's something we're doing that the board has approved previously on several other buildings as well. >> Okay. >> Any other question? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Makes me want to put a coat on when you talk about all that lack of installation. >> Yeah. And thank you for addressing all the all the questions that when this first popped up that I had and you you knocked them all out. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> So,

110time for a vote. All in favor of uh approving the McGau Gordon construction contract, raise your hand. It's unanimous. And that takes us to our closing items, which is uh board member comments. Start with you, Jody. >> Um I [clears throat] would just like to say uh big thanks to our Blue Valley community for all the little notes of apprec appreciation uh for board member appreciation month. Um little little treats and all of that. And I can tell you the the treat of having the um Blue Valley Northwest music group come in. Um and and their first song was, you know, from Mr. Rogers, which I grew up with. And so it was incredibly sweet. Um and it means a lot. So um just a big thank you to our community. >> Very quickly, I

111just want to express my appreciation to the board for uh bringing me in and orienting uh to uh the processes of the district. and I look forward to uh serving the community and want to thank the community for their trust. >> Um Dr. Benson, welcome. You are a we are very excited to work with you over the next uh um two years. So that's very exciting. Um want to thank uh Mr. Roberts for coming in and speaking during open forum and for the book recommendation. Thank you very much. Wow, the BV Northwest choir. Holy smoke, they were excellent. So, I'm now have to look up when their next show is so I can put that on my calendar because that was actually that was actually really impressive. So, thank you. None of them are watching

112right now, I'm sure. But I I am expressing really thank you. >> Um very excited about that. And this is our first meeting of the calendar year. It also coincides with the opening of the legislative session in Topeka. Um we've talked a lot about that during the um meeting. A lot of the special the lack of special ed funding. Um local control. I'm so glad you brought that up, Jody. Um that is a huge issue that we did not expect that we were going to have to be um faced with this year. Um, but they've introducing bills that infringe on our community's local control, such as the cell phone policy that we work so hard and so long on and, you know, bills out there that would get rid of it completely and make it

113even more restrictive without any input from our local districts. So, that's a problem. So, we do ask the community to pay attention to those things. And, um, we're going to be there. We're going to go up there and share our legislative priorities. We're gonna visit with the lawmakers and we ask that our community also pay attention and let them know that there are things that we like here where we have ways to do it and the increased competition and taking different approaches helps all of us in the long run. So, we can all see what other districts are doing, what works best. Um, but one-sizefits-all is generally problematic. So, I also want to acknowledge the legislature and tell our patrons to be sure to actively communicate with the legislature um to encourage them to first

114of all vote to fully fund our special education. Um, again reiterating local control with the cell phone policy and perhaps spend time on things that we need help with like keeping our kids safe in their schools. Um, we can't put a policy in place regarding um, safety around guns and that is their job and their job solely and so I urge them to um, work on that. The director of the choir at Northwest is Beth Richie Sullivan. She's amazing and their corral is absolutely amazingly talented and I will go with you to um that concert they so thank you to Mr. Rishi Sullivan for bringing those young people out today. It was really outstanding. >> I'd like to say welcome Dr. Benson. glad to have you on the board. And I also enjoyed the music

115from the young people. I love music and as a matter of fact, I got chills, goosebumps when they were singing. But I would love to know what language they were singing this second song in. Um, and I just feel that um I am invigorated. I am ready to get to work. I am passionate and I am ready to advocate for Blue Valley and I'm glad that we're back in session again. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I want to show my appreciation and thank everybody who has was involved in um, board appreciation today and this week or this month and uh, all the emails that we've received. Um, I do think that it's uh important to welcome Dr. Benson as a new addition. Um, congratulations the other two on their successful reelection campaign. Um, I also

116think it's important that our community pay attention to what's going on here. Um, you know, expect more from your elected officials. Communicate with us. Uh, reach out to the legislators in your areas in your where you live. uh expect that they do the right thing and expect that they represent your values. Um and uh what they do in Topeka will impact you. So pay attention. I echo everything everybody said about um the performance, the appreciation we've been given. It's uh we have lovely parting gifts. We're not parting. Um but I when you see that you say you know what this is worthwhile to know that uh the the staff the teachers the uh students appreciate the work that administration does and board does. uh it means a lot and uh I also want to call

117out Jeremy and thank you so much for all the work you do in providing uh data so that we can be ahead of the game recognizing the challenges we're going to have and we're able to make decisions ahead of the crisis instead of having a crisis and then saying well what are we going to do now? So uh thank you very much. It's it really helps us make informed decisions. Dr. Mr. Chapman, you have anything to add? >> I do not. Thank you very much. >> Okay, then we stand adjourned.