001challenges managing the shared campuses where we have two buildings. We'll have two arrival times, two dismissal times. Who where's that kid going? How who they're crossing a car line that's already in action? Things like that. that go there? Are they visiting campuses? Different things like that. This is just simply these items are just inexpensive and everybody wants one or is this have anything to do with our bus transportation shortening our um the the reach that the buses uh go out and what are they a mile now or a mile 1.2 2 miles or something where they were two miles. I don't know that we have an including stopping at lights and using crosswalks. Motorized vehicles must be locked up in designated areas and may not be used during the school day. Buildings may assign consequences
002as appropriate for continued non-compliance. As with any personal transportation, the district is not responsible for lost or damaged devices. >> Safety is always our top priority. We appreciate our partnership with families to make sure that our students are safe on their ebikes and scooters. >> These guidelines are designed to keep our students safe and ensure our campuses remain respectful and welcoming. So we've had this but I think I can't Quick question. for sure. That's why it was so important to me. which speaks to something small. went out this year. And they have very specific number. moment here that somebody's going to be responsible. Is that us? Is that the kid? >> Yeah. Yeah. I if I'm not mistaken, it was a work comp claim on the elbow. I believe >> understand that. But if it's
003not a teacher and it's just a matter of the public, what then what happens? But it's on school property. If it is on school property, it's not. >> It is. >> If it is, yeah. Um, well, I think that it's it's any injury that we any injury a parent sustains or a student sustains on a property. We don't we don't provide insurance for those situations. >> I know, but your form needs to say intentionally or accidentally. >> I think it should say that, too. >> Yeah. I mean, because they're going to look to us if it's an accident. Um, yeah, that's we did put may be held financially liable for any damage. And >> say student who intentionally damages Blue Valley school property may be >> may be held. >> What about any any damage
004to anybody else while on while they're driving around school property, whether a teacher or a guest, >> that they may be held responsible for that as well? >> I mean, I think you got to put something on there that >> about personal injury. >> Yeah. I mean, these are This is a new technology and whether it's based on need or whether it's based on it's the greatest thing to have because it's cheap and inexpensive >> and um I want my kid to not have to drive them to and from school. >> I don't know. But the point is is the roads are kind of designed to accommodate them and they're kind of not. >> And so, you know, we're going to have kids that are going to get run over >> and we have kids
005that are going to hurt people. >> Um and I hope neither one of those two things happen. Um, but but this story or this book, this chapter is not closed yet. I mean, eventually they'll go out of they'll probably go out of favor and and they'll find something else. But at least for the near term, like mopeds, we've got to deal with it. And and I think I think everybody needs to know if you're going to ride those things around 35 miles an hour on our and we're allowing them on our sidewalks that they have to understand that they're going to be held responsible. >> Yeah. you you and realizing that we have put a um we have put a mandate in here that once you hit our property, you're not riding them anymore. >>
006Okay. >> You're walking them. >> But the middle school >> turn them off, disbound them up to bike racks. >> I'm sorry, >> but the middle school video or the elementary school video had them pulling up to bike racks and they were parking. >> Yeah. >> Bike racks. Are the bike racks not on our property? >> No, they would be. >> Yeah. >> But you know they're going to ride them. Uh, I'm hearing good things. Okay. >> So, I'm optimistic. I've tried to be optimistic about all this. You know that I'm hearing good things from people at schools. Um, Officer G's out there at a middle school. Um, and hopefully you're seeing good things of kids getting off of them. The very first question was, "What about the sidewalk that runs along the street in
007front of the school?" You know? >> Yeah. I mean, is that not our property? >> Right. Then and that that came up. >> Is that an easement? >> Right. Yeah, that's easement. So >> I think it's an ement. So technically it's our property. >> Yeah. So no once they turn on to our property is when we >> Okay. >> want them to walk them. So >> I'm just saying I think I think that's going to come that's going to surface at some point in time. >> Yeah. >> Accidents and they're going to happen. >> Yeah. I I Well, that's what my training and experience tells me. I think they're I think they're dangerous. >> Yeah, they are. >> Do Okay. Do we need um is there a board policy on this or is this a
008safety and security policy that's separate? Is there anything that we need to be doing um to update a policy? I I don't think so. I think this is uh this is our first uh attempt at it and I think we could take this this semester this these two semesters and look and see how did it work? You know, did we feel like we really made inroads and and making things safer um with this? And then if we feel like we got to step it up a little bit, maybe at a later time, do something more. But right now, I I I like the idea of trying this. And again, I'm hearing some good things. So, of course, you know, I want to control the whole city when it comes to these things, but I we
009it's just our little areas. >> So, quick question. If this is your pilot year, um have you made for sure that staff understand that they need to report all incidents to you? I can't I mean if you're if you're trying to make judgments off of kind of what they're seeing, >> you should know like >> weekly what they're seeing or every incident that somebody hits because otherwise you're not going off of relevant information. You're only hearing about the the the tough stuff. Yeah, it's yeah, it's anecdotal more. So, um what we could do is maybe ask for them to just track >> um >> I don't know if >> our principles are already reporting it to SRO officers and calling us when it happens. So, I think we could easily >> Are you talking about
010accidents or >> in incident >> where where they're violating this >> or just anything you decide what you want, but it should be procedure, >> right? Yeah. Sounds good. I like that. That's good. Yeah, we track and see how we're doing and and have something to say about it at the end of the year. >> Okay, good. Thanks, >> Dan. Thank you very much. Appreciate everybody's uh input on that. And Dan, before you get on to school safety, otherwise we need a fivem minute break for closed capture video. So, >> okay, >> we'll reconvene in five minutes. Okay. Okay, Mike, you have the PowerPoint. Okay, one more. Okay, so this is a pretty fast PowerPoint. It's like four slides. Okay. Um I think um after the situation that occurred um over at Blue River Elementary
011that was mentioned earlier, sorry, Blue Valley Middle, um it it did prompt some response from people asking about what we do as far as um safety goes, keep our kids safe, keep the staff safe. Um so this is sort of just a quick synopsis uh to take a take a look back at that. Okay. So, the strategic approach to safety security that we've been following for probably well, I'd look I'd say about 25 years minimum here is um putting a lot of stock in building relationships and having a culture of trusted adult relationships in our district with students so that those students will talk to us when something is wrong. um um the uh Secret Service reports that have been done um one after Coline, then one more recently, I think it was 2018, both
012point up the problem um when it came to school violence of students, other peers of students who committed those acts of violence, were aware that those things were going to happen, but did not communicate them to an adult. And um so we have tried to bridge that gap every way we we know. Um whether it be first and foremost the culture in the school building a culture I always I kind of jokingly talk about uh we don't want Shaw shank high school where it's the prisoners versus the guards right it's it's a it's a culture of where students feel comfortable having identified adults in the building that they can go to and talk about a friend maybe who um who's exhibiting signs of uh wanting to hurt themselves or um maybe they've seen something on
013social media that's very concerning about some future violent action. So um that's first and foremost that underlies everything that we do. Um the question um that I always like to ask is can we eliminate all risk? Is that possible to push the risk down of students or staff ever getting hurt by any kind of violent action or any other action, whether it be something that can't be controlled, can we tornado, fire, can we push that risk down to zero and say we're good now? And the obvious answer is no, we can't. So what we do instead is we take kind of a layered approach. We say um we we ask that question about um what can we layer in in safety and security that will push that risk down and we will strive for zero
014for as long as we are here right that's what we try to do so that's that layered approach and I'll get I'll just get a little more into that as we go along here but um I promise this will be short uh partnerships obviously are very important to us and um I I always like to point out the police departments that we work with, which obviously Overland Park has the majority of our of our operation here, but Leewood, tha, Johnson County Sheriff's Office, and frankly, they're all uh they've all been wonderful when it comes to partnering with us. Um I think, um it's just a great it's a great situation that we have here. I don't think everybody uh gets to enjoy that. Not all districts get to enjoy that. Children's Mercy Hospital with their
015social workers and Johnson County Mental Health and uh and I even would take Johnson County Mental Health and pair them up with police departments because they have co-responders now which you're probably all aware of and sometimes they come in and help us uh which is great because um in many cases um violent plans, violent threats and so on are the product of a mental health problem. Okay, next. So, um, we talk about, um, then this layered approach of, and and this is what I guess I'm one of the things I always brag about about Blue Valley is we don't just grab at something that's shiny, a shiny object or something, and say, "Hey, let's do that. Everybody seems to like that. Let's try that for making the school safer. Let's try this thing over here."
016We always try to take this very rational approach to um when when we're looking at a cultural change, a procedural change, a physical change, um u maybe a personnel adjustment, you know, when it comes to our police officers or event security, things like that. We try to take a very rational approach and ask these questions among others. But I always like that first question. Does what we're talking about solve a current problem? Does it is it does it solve a problem? Because I found that um sometimes people will pose a hypothetical problem and then offer the solution which costs a million dollars, right? And you don't really ever have the problem to begin with, but it can still get people pretty ramped up to talk about this hypothetical problem. So, does it really solve a
017current problem or a problem likely to surface? Okay. And we do that oftentimes by looking at historical data. And uh when we when we drill down into the whole business of school shootings, mass shootings, those kinds of things. Then we um we look at historical data, real true facts about situations that have occurred and try to be guided by that to say, okay, that's something we can shore up. that problem that allowed that shooter in a building um that allowed this bad thing to happen. We can shore some of that up and that's what we've done over the years and I think it's a it's a really solid reasonable approach um to this whole matter of safety and security. So we also ask questions like how will it impact the culture whenever the topic of
018um of um u metal detectors comes up that question becomes big or what are some of the unintended consequences of um if we implement this what might happen over here what might what might other problems might be created by uh implementing something. Okay, next slide. The results of that kind of um thinking, that kind of approach, that kind of strategy. That's just some of them, some of the things that have happened over the years. And I thought I I'm not going to try to run through each one with you, but just just point out a couple of them. Taking the last one first. Um the turf playgrounds with the motion lighting. When I first came to work here in 2011, we'd had three three playground fires around the 4th of July over the Fourth of
019July weekend. And I came to work right after that and the question was on the table. What do we do about this? And if you remember, we had that rubberized mulch that was nonflammable. At least it was when it went in. But over the years, I think the weather changed all that. and we had three playgrounds burned to the ground. It was hugely expensive and it was disconcerting um you know to kids who saw it and so on. So and uh so again taking a very reasonable approach that said what could we do um you know uh no pearavevel can't put a wheelchair on pegravel right so there lots of things like that were talked about and we came up with this turf we tested it ourselves and we said we want to put motion
020lighting on the playground so when people come on the playground at night those lights will light up that playground and neighbors around the area will know at 2 in the morning hey someone's on the playground, the lights just went on, which is a real good uh crime prevention through environmental design step to take. So, that's uh that's not violence, but it's it's important playgrounds um and the safety of playgrounds and trying to keep bad behavior off the playgrounds. Uh principles would tell you that they used to find all kinds of things on our playgrounds in the morning um that are dangerous. Uh just and again, I'll wrap this up pretty quick. So we we also implemented the threat assessment um training. We've trained now over 200 um employees in the district, administrators, social workers, counselors,
021police officers in this comprehensive school threat assessments guidelines. And uh this I the best thing about this we started I think it's been two years now is that this is a system that's not only recommended by the Department of Homeland Security and has shown uh marked mark results um but it addresses the cause versus the symptom. Again it's a rational approach. It's it's not just um a threat assessment system that says did the person make a threat? Yes or no? check the box and we'll have consequences if they did. Well, consequences won't fix the problem, right? Sending suspending a child who's made a threat doesn't remove the threat. Doesn't take away the threat. We know that from the Omaha shooting up at Millard I think it was Millard High School. Um, so this this actually
022this system, what's so cool about it, I could take a long long time to talk about it. so great about it is that it it digs into what is it that caused that student to make that threat? Where where are they in their growth? What what um what's going on in their life? What caused them make threat? Let's get to that and fix that so that it doesn't happen again. Okay? And that's a beautiful thing about the threat assessment program. But I could again go on and on. Uh the when I first came to Blue Valley, the the number one complaint from teachers was that when they went into a lockdown, they had to step outside their room and put a key in the door and lock the door and pull it shut to secure
023themselves in their classrooms. never really positive they'd lock the door, you know. And so we installed those I say we Jake's um Jake masterminded this whole thing of getting these thumb turn locks with visual indicators so that from across the room you can see the door is locked, it's red, I can see it from here, I know my door's locked and feel secure in that and they can do it very quickly without stepping out in the hallway. another sort of reasonable approach um to the problem of a classroom being um an intruder getting into a classroom, right? Which is something we don't want to happen. And then finally, crisis alert, I think, is another good one to point out. Um in every school shooting, the Secret Service says there are communication problems. And this is
024what really moved us forward with this crisis alert program. It's here somewhere. It's in my pocket, I think. >> Yeah, it's here. I Thank you, Tim. You've got it. Um, so to solve that to solve that communication gap, um, we we um got on board with this crisis alert program, and you guys know about that. And I probably don't have to go into the nuts and bolts of it, but you know that every staff member in Blue Valley can put their building into a lockdown into a lock where there is flashing beacons, there is an announcements that go out over the over the system to let everybody know what to do and computer screens are taken over with a message that tells them that it's time to lock down. And any staff member in the
025district can do that. So it's it's it's like instantaneous within seconds which is when the bad stuff tends to happen right there at the beginning. So that's that has been in my mind a gamecher not to mention the ability of the system to provide staff alerts um which is used four to 500 times a year Brian probably somewhere in between four and 500 times a year in our schools. people push that button three times because they have an emergency and they need help and it tells the the designated responders exactly where to go in that building to help them. Um, okay. Lastly on the crisis alert thing, you know, we had that tornado warning earlier this year, right? Earlier in the spring and we put quite a number of people down in our tornado shelter
026here. Um, but interestingly enough, the sirens weren't going off. um which was disconcerting. Um and I've contacted Johnson County Emergency Management about that. Um it was the first time in in in that I can remember and I'm from Kansas that I can remember that ever happening where the sirens weren't going off but we were under a tornado warning from the National Weather Service. And so the this new feature that we're going to begin we are beginning using with our crisis alert program. Those beacons, you know how they flash red during a lockdown, they'll flash blue. Now, if we want to put out a tornado warning uh for buildings and there will be an announcement that'll come over the speakers to have everyone move to the tornado shelters. So, that's another feature of the same system.
027We're going to start using that. It'll probably never happen again that the sirens won't go off, but we're going to be ready if they don't. Okay, I think that's all I had for you. >> Any questions? >> Great, Dan. Appreciate it. Any questions for Dan? Go ahead, >> Dan. You know, you've been working on this for a long time, and I I think you've got a really good program, and I think it's successful in terms of what it's been implemented, and and I think it's doing a great uh service for our community and our kids. You know, you're right there, you can eliminate all risk, but you know, the issue is I think with with Minnesota, if I'm correct, that wasn't a kid at the student at the school, right? >> Uh which was Take
028me back to which one you're talking about now? >> Two weeks ago, the Minnesota shooter. >> Yeah, the C the Annunciation Church. >> Yeah, the church. >> Yeah. I don't even know if it was a former student. Not sure. >> I don't think it was a former student. I I think just somebody decided to shoot up a church kids in it. >> Yeah. >> Um, you know, but the and and I think our program is working for the most likely risks that we see. The question becomes uh you know and I don't know how accurate the facts are that being reported but if that shooter got off a 100 round four in four minutes and we've got 25 officers and it doesn't line up with the number of buildings we have. So it seems to
029me that if you just do the back of the napkin math and I haven't done it but if you if you increase class size by one kid you have enough money to put in an officer in every building. um because it seems that the threat is shifting not only to what you've already addressed, but those that aren't um students, those that are out in the community trying to find a spot to to cause damage. Um, and so that would be my question is, um, I I know there's a cost. Um, and you know, put an officer in every building, but that would be something I think we should seriously consider doing >> because I I think the risk continues to shift. Uh, you know, we address one and then another one pops up. And and
030quite honestly, this is not necessarily something that we or anybody's created, but but gun violence has not been resolved or solved in this country, and it continues to be an issue uh that we have to face and deal with. And so the question is is, you know, what's our next step? And and I I I don't know other than just having somebody in every building, right? And and whether that's in the shopping mall or in the schools, uh I think we're headed there. Um And and and the question is is how do we get there? >> Yeah, that's it's it's it's difficult. And I try not to look at money first, right? >> It's first of all, it's not my it's Jeremy's problem. So, I don't think about the money. I always try to think
031about is this something that will really make a difference and truly make us safer. Um and then what are the um what are the practical applications of that? What are we looking at? Okay. So in this case, we'd be looking at um probably an addition of 19 police officers full-time. Okay. And there's couple of a couple of problems, but the one that really stands out is that most most people, I would say the vast majority of people who become police officers do not want to sit in an elementary school all day, you know, because their their the need for police service there is minute. Um um today we had two situations in elementary schools. We have three officers right now who um take care of our elementaryaries and they were close, two of them were
032close enough to get to both of them pretty quickly. It wasn't a a violent emergency, just a situation that could use a little police intervention sometimes, especially a softer touch. Okay. But finding police officers who would be willing to spend their days at elementary schools with virtually nothing to do um is very difficult. I mean I and I I don't mean to sound I I I don't I don't want to sound flippant about that. It's just not what they want to do. And I and then finding police officers, not only that, but that are have this balance that can work in the educational environment and still be police officers. That's kind of a nichy thing, too. And I have spent sometimes three and four and five months trying to get one here. So, so that's
033a that's a difficult problem. The second problem is if we're talking about contracting with a city for example um all police departments at least in this area where most of my knowledge comes from this area Johnson County and so on and we do county so on they're historically struggle to stay up to staffing um and Overland Park Leewood tha I meet with their chiefs uh once a month historically they struggle I think they're doing a little bit better right now. But to find a police chief in Johns County, you'd say, "Yep, we're there." It just it just doesn't happen. So to turn to them and say, "Could you provide us with 19 police officers?" It would be pretty pretty tall task. officers that want to do this job. >> Well, and I think you make
034some good practical points, but you know, if it's, let's just say it's $2 million and we got a $300 million budget, you know, if, god forbid, there ever were a situation where we did have somebody try to shoot up a school or one of our buildings and try and harm our teachers or our staff or kids. Uh, the question is is everybody's going to say, "Yeah, it was worth the $2 million and it might be we might need 19, might need 20. Why not start working on it?" Right? Um maybe we find two this year and two next year and maybe it takes us 10 years to get there. Um and so um I mean I I I get the practical side of well gee they're not there to watch uh you know third graders
035um you know learn how to how to do writing or cursive writing or do do math right? I mean I get that. >> Um but I but I think we need to try I guess is is the main point because um you know so far we've been very successful. we want to keep that success uh with the zero statistics, right? Um or at least where they currently are. Um and you make, like I said, really good points, but like I said, the cost is is pretty insignificant to compared to losing one uh person in our school, whether it's a staff or teacher or child. Um and so the question is is is you know, what can we do going forward um to to to work on this? Well, I think it's going to happen. >>
036Yeah. And there are things we're doing. Um, you know, historically, again, we talk about historical data. Historically, um, if there's going to be a problem with an elementary school, the the threat is going to come from outside versus middle and high school where threat's going to come from inside. So, we're doing we're doing some things right now, but I don't always open them up to public consumption to protect elementary schools and and make them a priority when it comes to maybe exterior uh the ability to protect them from the exterior. >> And I would ask you to disclose those kinds of security measures for everybody's production production. Obviously, >> I'm just saying four minutes, 100 rounds, four minutes. you know, if you got somebody on the ground in the building, you're going to be far
037more effective than you're waiting for one of the local police departments to show up. And and like I said, maybe it's a process. Maybe it's increasing the contract with the local police uh departments throughout the community, one every year, for the next 10 years, and maybe it's trying to hire 10 over the next 10 years, one every year. Um, but I just think you're far more effective in that situation. You got some on the ground. >> Can I Can I jump in here? So, um, Dan, and this might be a not off the top of your head question, so I apologize for that, but how much do we spend every year trying to mitigate uh gun violence at our schools? >> Wow. How much money do we spend on that? >> Yeah. I mean, I
038would say building building enhancements for doors, window, you know, whatever it is, right? officers, security officers, all these crisis alert things. If we're talking about adding additional funds, this is all in an effort to protect against gun violence, right? I mean, for the most part. >> And so I wonder like if instead of going the opposite way where we put more police officers in there or which eventually leads to right u metal detectors or whatever other things people do to prevent gun violence at their schools, right? Instead, if we go the other way and we start trying to maybe we spend more money advocating for gun control or safe storage or the gun locks and start spending more money on doing that instead of imagine the amount of money we would have for our as
039you harp not harp on but you talk about special ed special ed funding and how much we could increase the salaries of our teachers. Think about if we weren't preventing gun violence in our schools every day and how much money we would have in order to to increase pay for our teachers, decrease class sizes, add additional curriculum instead of continuing to add the expenses and adding officers. >> Well, elementary schools. >> I agree. All those things would be great if we could do them. The practical reality is is if if if there's one shooting in one of our schools and one one person dies, everybody's going to say, "Well, it was worth the $2 million that we should could have done it." And the question is, do you want that to be your kid or
040your spouse or your um friend or whoever? The issue here, >> but where does it end? Like, do we advocate then for >> Well, I don't think >> metal detectors and do we I mean, it could it goes on and on. >> I'm not necessarily a fan of metal detectors, but I think if you got somebody in the building, you're going to be far more effective than if you're not. Now, you're right. You can add more toys. Um, and and maybe and maybe maybe they help, maybe they don't. But again, four RA 100 rounds, four minutes. You got nobody in the building. What's going to happen? Let's just divide it by four. That's 25 rounds. What if those hits one of your kids or one of your friends? You said, "Well, gee, I wish we
041would had somebody there, I guess, is my point." >> I've got um two things if I could just uh add to the dialogue. Um, so I think I kind of we we talked about this this morning um at at workshop a little bit. Um, but um do our municipal officers, city of Overland Park, city of Leewood, do they have or could they have um gun locks with them? Um is that not something that they could just provide? Um you know, we they're free all over, but you know, people have to seek them out. So how can we make things just a little bit easier if we want to kind of promote gun safety, right? So that's just just one idea, right? The other thing is I mean I think we all learned a little bit
042too. Um I think we need to to look towards legislative relief on this. Um you know we the the the laws are a little wonky. Um and so I think that um you know I I had uh spoken with a couple patrons and you know my thing in when I go to Topeka and and ask you know to to fund special ed and and all of that is to you know add okay I'm going to add this because it's incredibly important to our mission here in educating our kids and keeping our kids safe so they can learn. So that's um I think that our legis I've put a call out to our legislators. Um I I would love if they could shore this up for us. Um and this is not you know eliminating this
043is just safety. Um this is just being responsible. Um you know what happened over at Blue Valley Middle could have turned out so horribly for this family uh specifically and and the greater community. And you know, I I I I I hate to think about what could have happened um with that accidental discharge. >> So, um that's that's I think that's our next next step. >> I I agree with you and I wish Senator Warren was still here because I I wish she would go as quickly to the legislature with a law surrounding um guns on school campuses as quickly as she went to the legislature about a patron um a sex the sex offender law. So, I just I'm hopeful that she will go as quickly to our legislature about guns on campus, period,
044after the discharge. But I agree with you, Jody. >> If I could wrap this up with a high note, the chances of a child being >> killed in a in a mass shooting in a school uh that the odds of that are much lower are much lower than being struck by lightning. And um so they say I think the one of one statistic had chance of being uh shot and killed in a K12 K12 school is one in 7 million. So, um, I get I don't I don't take away the one and pretend like the one isn't important, but I but I would say that the vast majority of school shootings take place in middle and high school where we do have full-time police presence in both of those vast not not it's the vast
045in the strongest sense of the word vast majority and then the the elementary school is a much is minute compared to that. Um, the one that really changed those odds was Sandy Hook. If you take Sandy Hook out of it, it's it's very tiny. Um, so again, not to neglect elementary schools because we don't. And I'm actually in the middle of a project right now with Jake where we're doing something. And it's not it's not candy. It's not it's not shiny object stuff. This is stuff that is meaningful because I don't want anything else. It's meaningful stuff that can keep outside problems from coming in. So hopefully that's reassuring. >> Well, Dan, if I might jump in here. I do think that uh you and the staff are doing what you can, doing everything you
046can to keep our kids safe. I feel like we are building fortresses, building our schools into fortresses. And to um comment on Gina's comment, um we're spending tens of millions of dollars. We've gone out to bond to get a bond to protect our kids and our school from violent intrusions to create pinch points and door locks and impact resistant glass. And it goes on and on and on. and we're already spending all this money uh and we we have SRO's and you know the suggestion that we get more and we can put policies here in place but as we're learning there are laws out there that it's wonky just like you said it's a wonky mess of laws where there are loopholes that somebody with a concealed carry can come into a school zone and
047there's nothing we can do about it until they start shooting nothing. They can just walk up into a school zone, even on the property, as I understand, and we can't do anything about it. I I I don't think we should be allowing guns, just like we just had the discharge at Blue Valley Middle School. That was horrific. Thank god nothing happened. But um just like in Minneapolis outside shooting from outside and we here we couldn't do anything if the guy had a concealed carry permit until he started shooting. That's absolutely ridiculous. And I do agree that I hope we have a legislator that will step up and say, "Wow, we got to change this." And I think there are some other things that I'm not talking about banning any guns here. I think everyone my
048family, they're they are responsible gun owners. And I think if you own a gun, you should be a responsible gun owners because irresponsible gun owners give everybody else a bad name. So, I am all for um creating putting laws in place that require people to be responsible if they're going to own a gun. >> So, and I think there's a lot of very minimally intrusive things that can be done that I would like to see our legislature tackle. It's disconcerting to say the least >> as the legislaturator is looking into a new funding formula for schools and we're constantly getting the question on why are expenses increasing? Why have expenses gone up over time? And we rarely discuss the fact that we are continually having to increase our safety and security budget in order to
049prevent school shootings >> and in order to help our kids with their mental health. as a result of the threat of school shootings and all of this stuff is increasing our overall budget and decreasing the amount of money we have for reading, writing, and arithmetic, right? I mean, our core values are we're unable to achieve them at the level we want to because we are spending all this money on safety and security. And we don't remind the legislature enough that we are spending such a huge chunk of our budget that they allocate to us for education on safety. And it's absurd. It's absurd. >> Um some of the private elementary schools across Johnson County have in the last couple years stepped up like security. Do they do you know are they using police officers or
050are they using like armed guard companies or >> I know >> they using volunteers or >> I I know of one uh down south Holy Rosary and WEA uh I've got a Miami county deputy and they're K through eight um and they have an officer there that and they're they're one of the few of the uh arch das arch das schools that have that. I think curio of ours might have done something similar. I think St. Michael's did But they yeah cur I'm trying to remember if it was St. Michaels or Curio of ours brought in retired retired officers. So they're not operating kind of under the color of law. They're they're more like a security guard. Um >> yeah. >> Anybody >> and I had some questions about that. >> Anybody doing I'm not
051suggesting this. I'm just wondering. >> Okay. whether volunteer like my church every Sunday I pull up and there's like three guys and I'm pretty sure they're carrying and they're >> uh >> they're protecting the parking lot and all the rest. >> Yeah. I don't I don't know. >> I'm just wondering if people are doing it. I'm not I'm not advocating for it. Gina, Jody, >> so >> yeah, I'm not sure. Um, I I I my wife was the associate superintendent for the Arch Dustin schools, so I was more kind of plugged into what they were doing and they were not promoting that idea of having an officer in every elementary school, but a few of them kind of went their own way with it anyway. Right. >> And usually they were the Yeah, I would
052say well the WEIA school is interesting because they really felt isolated out there in the felt like they're in the middle of nowhere and so they felt more vulnerable and they had a very robust uh group of parents who said you know what let's let's make it happen somehow. So they did >> to your point. >> Yeah. I don't disagree that there are a lot of issues. we're spending a lot of money, but um like I said, I think it's a trend and and um obviously not everybody agrees with me and that's fine. Um but our first and foremost is to keep kids safe so we can educate them. Um and you know to me at two more million dollars I think improves those options particularly when I think this is going to be a
053trend that continues. >> I have just one question. I know there's a number of folks that um were looking at this school safety update, especially through the lens of the of the discharge um at Blue Valley Middle recently. Is there anything else that you can share regarding that at this time or um or not? Um well, I I guess everyone is probably aware that it was a um um a juvenile who was responsible for the actual discharging of the of the weapon and the weapon was never pointed at anyone, which was all good news, right? Um but it was an extremely dangerous situation and I would say that it was um um I think huge amount of negligence involved and um in in allowing a gun in the passenger compartment of a vehicle to be
054available to juveniles um is hugely negligent on any of our parts if we ever would do such a and make that available to them. Um, I think that that case is at the district attorney's office and is pending right now. I haven't heard that any I haven't heard the charges have been filed on it, but I think um there's a possibility that there there will be. So, we'll have to wait and see. Beyond that, I don't know what else I could say. >> All right, Dan, thank you very much. Appreciate it. appreciate the job you do in keeping our kids and our staff. >> I have something I want to say. Um, I'm sitting here listening to everyone, but I'm from the school of thought that I would rather for us to be extremely proactive
055versus reactive because then it's too late. Mhm. >> So, whatever we can do more than what we are doing to make our kids feel safe and be safe, I'm all for it because I am watching the trends myself. And it seems like more and more because you had that vod felvi in Texas that was an elementary school and that was horrific. That was I mean and so that's the trend in the future and I think whatever we can do to make our children safer than what they are today I'm all for it. >> Thank you. Thank you Sonia. Anyone else? As I was saying Dan thanks which gets us to where I was earlier. two hours ago. >> Two hours ago, we're looking at to for approval of the 202526 legal maximum budget and estimated
056tax rate. Um, and I will need a motion for that. >> I move the board of education approve the 2526 legal maximum budget and estimated tax rate including the approval of local option budget resolution. >> Yeah, I didn't read everything. I'm sorry. Uh, the building needs assessment and state assessments review was provided to and evaluated by the USDA board of education in determining the authority of the local option budget, cost of living, extraordinary growth, special liability and capital outlay mill levies. Now, do I have a motion to approve the uh 2025 legal maximum budget and estimated tax rate? I move the board of education approve the 20 2526 legal maximum budget an estimated tax rate including the approval of the local option budget resolution 33%. Second >> discussion. Jim, >> just I'm not going to
057belabor the points I made earlier. I just would state that um to the extent that our budget um on operating expenses and revenue associated with that. Um those aspects of the budget I'm fully supportive of. What I'm not supportive of is the um the revenue side. I feel like it's a I frankly think it's a revenue grab and a it's inconsiderate to voters who have um and and and residents of Johnson County, Blue Valley um including renters, people who don't own their homes to um take more in a mill levy and take more in property taxes than we need for our capital budget. And it's it's I've done as much, you know, slicing and dicing and understanding of our capital budget as possible. And I think it's a money grab and I I think it's
058unfortunate. >> Jeremy, you want to talk about it? >> Um, certainly know my role here not to debate Jim. I'm just >> No, that was Oh, please Jeremy, please start the debate. Um I I just I want to speak why we proposed the mill of nine mills on the bond and interest fund on the amortization schedule. Um in fact today we just set up our October 1st uh payment state treasur's office. So the 412 million it will be reduced by close to 40 million principal here on October 1st. Then we're going to um sell bonds 101 million later this fall. So it will add amounts to this amortization schedule and as we mentioned earlier this morning with the assistance of Dave Arterberry we're going to try to smooth out the maturities of that 101 million
059uh to achieve what we believe is a relatively flat mill rate on the bond and interest side. So um do we have reserves in the bond and interest fund? We certainly do. Um, and we try to use those every year to to help quote unquote pay for some of the comp increases that we see in the LOV and the COLA. So, um, I would say if the board as a whole has a um an appetite for discussion around the next bond referendum, um, I think there'll be opportunity here in the near future to have that discussion and what that looks like. So, >> I have a question. Maybe I just don't understand this worksheet, but so budgeted expenditures may this is maybe this is for Jim. Okay, so budget expenditures are 57 million for bond
060and interest, right? But we're levying 42 million. So what do you mean when you say that we're grabbing >> if you if you look if if you combine what we have in reserve and you look at the amortization schedule beyond this first one. This next one, this next one's a big one because there's a there's effectively either it's a balloon payment or it's just a a large, you know, a large retirement of debt. And so, but if you look beyond that, the it it drops off considerably. If you take the $und00 million of bonds, if we're going to do it a a flat amortization schedule on a 20-year bond at 4.25% 25% interest. It's $7 million a year. So it I I just I'm not seeing a ongoing need for a $44 million or $43
061million bond and interest, you know, pull of tax dollars. I see a $35 million or so, you know, given that we have a fair amount of reserves and it's we we are in effect protecting our ability to do a $200 million bond offering in two years without having to make a painful political decision to raise the mill levy at that point if if if u at at that point in time we decide you know we don't have enough in reserve to do something but that $200 million bond offering which that's not a number I came up with it's a number that has been discussed at the board as as kind of the next bond bond offering will include a fair amount of of expansion type projects. So in in my view that that's not, you
062know, we I would approve it if if if I felt like the $200 million was effectively to keep us at par, but it's not. It's about $und00 million or maybe $110 million if you take into consideration some inflation to keep us at par at the next bond offering. So that's that's just my perspective on it. And and the other thing is we have had considerable tax increases in Blue Valley, greater than the rest of Blue uh of Johnson County. Um for at least three years, probably five years running. Um, and it's an it's a it's an attack on unrealized gains on the vast majority of our of our um of our taxpayers. I mean, I sat here two years ago and voted no on the budget um for the exact same reason. I thought that
063we could drop some of our capital expenditure revenue sources um you know, and one of the other board members said, you know, it's a $100 a year on the average taxpayer. Well, I mean, it's not your $100. It's their $100 and everybody else's $100 and it adds up. It's an expensive place to live. We priced our, you know, the the market itself has already priced our teachers out of living here. So, I'm I'm concerned about it and I don't think it in, you know, that what is so important about our schools is what goes on inside the buildings. And I absolutely support um these these compensation increases and and I absolutely, you know, support maxing out the COLA fund and maxing out the LOV fund. You know, I'd go to 50% if the state legislature
064allowed us, but I'm not in favor of uh you know, preserving the right to build more and sh big and shiny objects in the future. Um, so I I've been trying to wrap my head around this the the comments that Jim has made. So we're we've got a finance committee and there are 20 to 25 people that sit on it. Jim and I both sit on the finance committee. Um, what's that? And yes, and Sonia sits on the on the finance committee as well. Um and I mean we talked about the bonds, we talked about the um upcoming bond issues, we talked about the budget um in those committees. I don't remember the specific issue coming up about reducing the mill levy by two points or something like that regarding this bond and interest. And
065I don't remember anybody else um raising this issue among those 25 people including 15 patrons um on this issue. But what I do understand from what staff Jeremy is telling us and what Dave Ar David Arterberry did um regarding the bonds is this smoothing out of the tax burden on taxpayers. So, sure, we could drop it a little bit this year, and then next year, likely, we're going to have to spike it back up, and we're going to have this up and down spikes in um uh the mill levy, which is going to affect the tax um implications on a homeowner even more in a single year when we have to go from, you know, we lowered it by two, then we got to raise it by four just to make our payments. And I
066don't think that's fair to the taxpayer. I would rather have a smoothed out expectation so we don't have these huge increases. And that's why I have applauded you for doing the magic and doing all the cutbacks that you've done to take, you know, all the increased costs that we're seeing and only bring us down to bring us down to 3.9%. Which is is just amazing. Um because I would love to have a tax decrease. I would love to see my taxes go down in my property. I I agree with Jim on the tax on the non-realized gain. That's a totally separate issue and that's just the way we're taxed. We can't do anything about that. Um so I I I guess I'm just addressing the point and you can confirm that this smoothing out it's
067an effort to make sure that taxpayers that we have an expectation over the years and not seeing a huge fluctuation up and down every year in the mill rate and the tax revenue coming in. >> Yep. And I like I said before in the coming months um as Jake works on estimates and projects for consideration uh that will be certainly an opportunity for governing body to decide where do we want to go from the capital perspective moving forward. Um, and if the overriding opinion is, well, we'd like to see maybe less investment, then that option is front of the board. Um, also think that this nine mil rate does help us with the $101 million bond sale this fall to not have to defer more principle than we want just to, you know, if we
068did drop it to 7.5 mills. I have a feeling that we'd have to kick some principal down the road that maybe otherwise we'd like to pay off sooner rather than later just to keep interest down. So, um I think the nine puts us in a position to have a reasonable uh debt service schedule on the new debt that we're going to add. Um but there obviously is an opportunity moving forward to if you want to see further relief in that in that fund, there'd be an opportunity. >> The the other fund that's always available but but is capital outlay. But, you know, I I do understand that half of that fund effectively covers operating expenses for maintenance staff and other things. So, um you know, my belief is is that you can really notwithstanding Kansas
069law, you can really kind of pick and choose on a fair amount of capital expenditures which fund you pull it out of. So I mean I'd be I'd be I find also cutting you know doing a blend of cut from capital outlay and or bonded interest to the extent that you can um you know pick or choose your fund but uh you know it's just it's I talking about six mill a mill and a half is six basically six million bucks or six half million dollars. It's not like an earthshattering amount but it it would be truly revenue neutral from what we can control. So, so Jeremy on so, so is what Jim is saying is that in order for us to be able to borrow more bond funds in the future, we need to
070have a little extra cash in the bank. And so we're we're I'm trying to understand the point that the $200 million potential bonds that we're going to issue or talking about issuing in a couple years, we need more money in the bank to give us a better credit rating or to pay down some of our existing bonds. Um yeah. So the the 200 million is when we took the existing debt service schedule that we have and we make some assess uh estimates on assessed valuation uh interest rates for example on the bonds that we sell this fall. We we make estimates in that projection. But if we never issued another bond in Blue Valley, the nine mills would in 20 years go to zero. Um, we also know that we have uh technology that is
071an important part of, you know, what we do from a budget perspective and and without a bond, that would that would be a pretty serious problem that we'd have. So, bond referendums in the future are going to help us on the safety and security front. It's going to help us on the technology front. um when it comes to renovations, repairs, kind of the major work of the existing facilities, I think there's got to be a component of that in the next bond referendum and then the board uh to Jim's point is going to have to, you know, make a decision on these quote unquote growth projects. So, that's your decision to make. And hopefully, we'll have some good information for you in the coming months to to get your hands around. What do we think
072um would be a good project list for the 2027 slash perhaps 2028 bond issue um bond referendum. 27's probably the more likely year we'd recommend, but it also is in the same year that a new school finance formula is coming out. So, want to tread lightly with maybe any promises we're going to make on mill rates going into a new school finance formula. Um, could a new formula push more of the school funding responsibility to local tax levies? It could. And if we're going to allocate a larger share to capital projects that hate to, you know, have a situation where maybe we can't go out for a max lob to support higher teacher salaries because we promised a no tax rate increase and that's been devoted to capital. So, there's a lot of moving parts
073here, and I don't want to overwhelm you with your decision tonight, but I think the nine mills in the bond and interest gives us the ability to maintain what we think is a a relatively stable bond and interest mill rate, taking on an additional bond referendum here in 2027ish. And then, uh, if you know there's discussion on do you want a larger bond issue, do you want a smaller bond issue, that's clearly your decision as a board. >> Okay. I got three follow-up questions. >> Three. Okay. >> So, one is you're not saying we're borrowing money to pay off other money that we had, or are you or are you saying that because we're going to pay it off at a lower interest rate? >> So, we do bond refundings, >> right? >> So, if
074we sold bonds this fall, uh we would be refunding the 2015A outstanding bonds, which is a part of our existing debt service schedule. There's nothing but upside with the refunding. So I see really no scenario where we don't do a refunding this fall if we're already selling bonds already going through the credit rating incurring costs with steel Nicholas Gilmore Bell. Let's refinance. And that is a true savings off of this debt service schedule that you know could potentially provide just a little bit of relief on our bond and interest projections moving forward. So the theory is is that we would borrow new money at a lower rate to pay off old money that was that was um >> At a higher rate. Yeah. >> So that makes sense, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, number
075two on your growth, when you refer to growth items, are you talking about building five more stadiums or are you talking about in terms of your growth reference to a particular uh category of items that the district may consider as as using bond funds to buy. You're not talking about maintaining what we have. You're talking about, for example, we redid the softball softball fields. Was that considered a growth project or was that considered a something that was needed to maintain what we have or slightly improve? Obviously, >> that was more of a maintenance issue. >> I think growth projects is adding square footage, >> right? And so, back to Jim's point, if we're not growing, what are the kind of things that we would be considering adding as a growth part? I mean, is this
076a another football field or is this a bunch more classrooms? Can I invite Jake and Brian up to maybe make a few comments? >> Yeah, >> I will say um there was a great worksheet this morning at workshop that was handed out that showed growth um items that were in the last two bonds. >> Maybe if Patrick could get a copy of that, that would help with this answer. >> U do you happen to have a copy of it? I don't have one on >> Actually, it' help me look at it too if you don't mind. So Patrick, I think of growth, you heard Jeremy say earlier kind of quote unquote because I think you hear the term growth and you think, okay, growth as a district, but I also think of it as like
077extracurricular growth. And a colleague of mine used to say instruction before construction. So I would call anything growth. How are we reacting to the educational environment? Like our FLLE projects, like those weren't necessarily maintenance projects, but in this worksheet, they would have been growth projects in the 2020 bond. Our additions to our middle school multi-purpose spaces, our high school gymnasium additions, weight room renovations additions, those are all what we've labeled as growth projects. maintenance is more of major mechanical replacements, roofing replacements, building envelope type work. And I I think that's where this worksheet helps define some of those for you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. So Jeremy on the third question. So so essentially Jim's reducing at 1.5 or two mill levies really is is created a disadvantage for us because as long as
078we take that money and pay down those bonds that were issued at a higher interest rate. It's a net benefit, right? >> I don't think the refinancing the estimate on the refinancing was maybe $800,000 of savings. So that wouldn't certainly cover the the $6 million reduction of uh resources into the bond and interest fund. >> What's the other $5 million being used for? So really the way I'll respond to this is if you were to reduce it to 7 and a half when you sold um the 2025 bonds later this fall if that needs to become your new mill rate prospectively and you're not going to be in a position to have to raise it the following year. The $101 million on the maturity schedule we would defer a lot of the principle to maybe
07910 15 20 years out. certainly could do that. Um, >> but we cost more >> the cost is additional interest which um I mean it's it's possible. >> So what we're trying to do though is if that becomes our if 7 and a half becomes our new u range then not only are we deferring a lot of the principle on the 2025 bond sale. um we're essentially making a preemptive move on the next bond referendum being a lot lower than you know the the 200 million that um Jim's referencing. >> Okay. So, let's go back to the $5 million. >> Yeah. >> That essentially that's being used to um reduce long-term interest if we if we keep it at nine versus seven and a half. I think what it's allowing us to do is when
080we go out for a competitive competitive bond sale this fall, we're able to have some maturities that aren't as far out in the future. We're able to have a maturity, you know, come due in year 1, year two, year three, which really reduces the the interest component. So that's where if we keep it at nine, we're not in a position to have to to p a lot of principle, you know, 15 years out. We can do that. It just adds financing cost to it. >> Thank you. >> Sorry if that was a little back and forth, but I I think I understand what you're asking. Hopefully answered your question. >> Okay, good. Yeah, that's that's correct. >> I I would say it's not really you're not really spending it now. It's got a multiplier effect,
081right? So, if you if you anticipate that you're going to go out with a $200 million bond offering, then it makes sense to keep your mill levy at nine because otherwise if you if we drop it down to seven and a half mills, um this board or a you know a subset of this board, whoever's on the board at that time, you you wouldn't be able to go to the public with a $200 million bond election and a 7 and a half mil rate on your bond and interest fund. you would it wouldn't the math wouldn't work because but you're basically building in an annual I mean let's just say you were to slice $50 million off of that future bond issuance $150 million would be a pretty pretty good bond issuance for a school
082district that's not going to be adding a new school like we just did a $250 million one and we built a new school out of it but that is still you know $3.5 million annually of principal and interest payments at 4.25% interest. So, um I'm just trying to be realistic about what really makes sense a couple years down the road and what what mill levy um you know makes sense. I' I'd be fine with 8.25 as a matter of compromise, but I'm not negotiating with anybody. I'm just negotiating with an idea because I'm going to lose this vote six to one. So, I'm just, you know, out there advocating for my, you know, you know, fiscal prudence. Any other questions, Sonia? Okay. I do just have a point of order. I want to make sure
083that um the motion that we are going to vote on that that 33% um got was made part of the motion. It was in there. >> Why do I have it? >> Because that's the script. >> Give this to Patrick to make So Clay, by approving this budget, it incorporates a 33% LOB. In board book, you would also see a resolution attached which um just formalizes the intent for a 33% LOB. >> Right. I just want to be sure because I didn't hear Patrick say it and it was written on the one I have and I want to make sure that we don't have any issues going forward that the motion wasn't read properly. So that's >> why are you offering an amendment? >> No, because JM amended you. >> I have to accept it.
084>> Yeah, I accept it. >> Excellent. Second. All in favor say I or raise your hand. All oppose. Same sign. Six to one. It passes. Closing items. Board comments. We'll start with Jody. >> Have absolutely nothing. a wonderful foundation breakfast last week. Um the student entertainers were wonderful and really excited about uh theater season and marching band uh coming up. Jim Clay, >> just want to thank um Robin Crescent, Marty Gdin, uh John Gaml for speaking at the RNR hearing today, as well as Amy Thomas, Colleen Cunningham, and Senator Kelly Warren for speaking during uh open forum. Appreciate all their comp their um comments to us. They're well taken. Um, again, it's good to be back in school and visiting schools again and uh football games and other events. So, it's been great. >> Patrick,
085thank you. I want to thank Dan for answering all my hard questions and you're doing a great job. I I do think we need to continue to have that conversation and look at new officers for one for every school. Um, I I know it's a complicated issue and we're spending lots of money. Um, but again, you want that to be your kit. Um, Jeremy, I want to thank you for the hard questions that you had to answer today and you did a great job um, responding and and going back and forth between U Jim and I about this. It's hard work. It's hard to understand. Um, I'm sure it's even harder to explain. Um, but there's a lot moving parts there. And um you know, I think tonight the vote was right for for the
086right reasons to put us in a position to be able to do whatever we think we're going to be doing in two years. And maybe we only issue $100 million. Um and we can adjust accordingly and and and reduce uh um the uh the milly rate. Um and you know, I agree with uh Clay that we need to be able to try and level it out as much as possible so that there's slight variation from one year to the next. Um and and we do have a big challenge coming up with school funding. Um and we're going to have to adjust to that and and hopefully we can start preparing scenarios for what that looks like, whatever it may look like. Uh so that we can make sure that the impact is uh reasonable on
087our uh citizens and the impact is negated uh on our kids. uh because they're the ones who potentially gonna uh receive their biggest burden here no matter what. Thank you. >> Thank you, Patrick. Sonia, >> I just want to say that we I am so proud of our school district. I mean, we care about our children. We care about the parents, the patrons, our administrators. We have awesome administrators. And I just I mean I can't say um anymore that I really appreciate the fact that uh we live in an outstanding excellent school district and the fact that everyone that works in this district truly cares about children whether they're in school or whether they're out of school. They truly care. and um that's very important and I'm just looking forward to an excellent rest of
088the school year. >> Thank you, Dr. Evans. Gina, >> I just coming back to the gun safety thing. I just want to reiterate the I think we need to look at um additional advocacy this fall and make it a priority of ours to advocate more in Topeka for um gun safety. Um and highlighting how much of our budget we're spending every year as they're redoing the formula. And they're talking about that in the education committee about spending on our public schools. We need to be advocating for relief for all these expenditures. I'm happy I'm happy to approve the budget to pay for them because we I I know we need it, but they need to know how much it's costing us and it's taken away from our kids. So, I think we need to be
089advocating from that. angle. >> Great. I'd like to apologize for my confusion earlier today as I recovered from knee replacement surgery a little less than a week or a little more than a week ago. I'm not very happy with me. Um but uh >> notice anything? >> Yeah. No change, huh? Okay. Uh and and Gina says it's time to adjurnn. So we'll stand adjourned. Stay here.