Blue Valley Board of Education Meeting 1-13-2025

001e e e shout out to the new it area over there it looks great more seats yeah y all right we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order and we'll we start with board advisory committee reports um we just have three board advisory committee reports I'll start with the diversity equity and inclusion uh that committee met last Thursday the one day we were in school last week January 9th um and it started with Dr Kelly wessell uh introducing some diversity Club sponsors from our high schools um we had the Muslim student union and diversity Club from Blue Valley High Jewish Student Union from Blue Valley High uh Kelsey bear who's an activities director at blue valley Northwest uh the black student union and diversity Club at Southwest and the Latino Student Union at Blue

002Valley West these sponsors met in small groups with committee members to share about their clubs and their experiences and the committee members had a chance to talk to all of them by rotating through the various tables talked about how their clubs got started uh how their Club meets um kind of their purpose and their goals uh that was the first part of the meeting the last part of the meeting was Scott Roberts shared information about the search for the next Super intendent and provided a link for a survey um that the committee members could take uh the next meeting will be in February uh Kyle Hayden I believe is going to give the other two reports the finance and operations board advisory committee also met on the only day we could January 9th in the

003Board of Education room I welcom the committee reviewed the meeting agenda and then shared the information around the super for attendent search process in the timeline Eric pollen presented the annual enrollment report Jake slobodnik and Jason Gillan presented the bids and contracts and our next meeting is February 6th the next report is Student Activities Student Activities also met on the only day they could January 9th uh Matt Ortman welcomed committee members and then shared the superintendent search survey link the committee reviewed and discussed the 2024 Kansas supplemental salary structure comparison of Statistics Matt also shared results from the Student Activities Committee engagement survey taken by middle school and high school students the meeting concluded with a reports from high school middle school and the bvrc staff the next meeting is February 6th thank you Kyle

004all right on to the superintendent report right so if Kyle if you'll pull that up for me back there so we have lots of celebrations this month uh start off with again just highlighting our grounds and custodial staff who really have continued to work they're even out there today moving um some piles of snow around to provide more parking so thank you to them oops I want to give a shout out to our uh podcast this month Gina and Jan joined me um along with Jeremy mcfaden to discuss our priorities in the upcoming legislative session uh that session started today I believe and so um that will continue to give you uh legislative updates throughout the session but this is a great um podcast for you to listen to to kind of hear about what

005our priorities are in Blue Valley so January recognition dates and months as I told you this is Schoolboard recognition month and and we're so appreciative of these seven volunteers up here last week on the 9th was law enforcement appreciation day and we are so appreciative of our officers we got two of our finest here I guess officer carne's in there too we got three of our finest here um but we're so lucky in Blue Valley to have um amazing officers in our schools and so we appreciate you and I think Dave got some shout out on social media and got a lot of positive comments so uh Martin Luther King Jr Day is on Monday and we will not have school that day and then Kansas day is the 29th of January so our schools

006will be celebrating that um congratulations to Brandy glass who was named the Blue Valley school health Excellence award honory for the fall 2024 semester as she is at Aubrey Bend uh we want to congratulate some of our staff uh who received um Easter or Central Kansas music educators award uh Courtney Dominy received the honor administrator she's at Oxford uh Sher Kane a middle level Orchestra teacher a prairie star Allegra wolf outstanding Young music educator in high school band she's at Southwest uh Julia Janda and Brandon Lando for our high school band teachers and then Michael aruchi for our high school orchestra so congratulations to those staff um some more staff we honored a couple of those this morning these are our national board certified teachers so congratulations again to Nathan Kristen and Kimberly um so

007Stillwell elementaries Melissa Sherwood was named fox4 Kansas City's teacher of the month for December and what's so awesome about this is I just was in Target on um over the weekend and ran into a former student of mine and she had her little daughter with her and I said who's your teacher and she said Mrs Sherwood at Stillwell and she's the absolute best teacher in the whole world so it was so fun to to come in and find that out um so some student recognitions Aubrey Ben Middle School's rafan Shaw um earned first place in the 2024 Congressional app challenge for the Kansas Third District um so we uh congratulate him uh 15 Blue Valley students were selected to the kmea All State elementary orchestra so the list of students there congratulations to them Aubrey

008Ben Middle School's Gabe Lily was honored as the Kansas in infant in infinitech student awards loction for his use of assist of technology that supports his education and his independence so congratulations to Gabe 27 Blue Valley students were selected to the kmea All State High School mixed choir 17 high school students to the Allstate High School treble choir um Blue Valley Southwest Brinn low um recently earned her 100th career win in wrestling and she is the first female wrestler in Blue Valley to reach this Milestone and brinn's uh parents are proud wrestling coaches within the district so we congratulate Bren Blue Valley Southwest crew Alvarez was named the 2024 all Metro Matt beasler a Player of the Year by the high school soccer coaches association um he was also named an All-American high school athlete

009for a second time by the United Soccer Coaches blue valley Northwest Andrew babala was selected to the 2025 Navy All-American bowl and I got to watch him on TV last weekend he was on it was great uh Blue Valley North Logan Parks who we honored I think last month um was selected to the Under Armour All-American volleyball game um we have three students and a coach who will be playing in the Kansas Shrine Bowl this summer blue valley Northwest Brock Heath Blue Valley Southwest will Morgan Blue Valley West Jack Cook and then Blue Valley West Coach Josh Coram is one of the sixa coaches so congratulations to them uh pton cubic uh was recently named to the 2024 Max Prep sophomore All-American team she was a national sophomore of the Year finalist by prep volleyball

010uh Blue Valley highs Dawson Merritt was named the 2024 Kansas Sports Central linebacker of the year uh Blue Valley Southwest coach Eric Jones was named the 2024 all Metro Coach of the Year by the high school soccer coaches of Kansas City uh Colin Welsh a graduate of Blue Valley West was recently drafted by the St Louis city um in the third round of the MLS superdraft so congratulations to Colin and that's it a lot of things happening in a short month so congratulations to all of our students and staff um for all of those accomplishments thank you Tanya all right we are ready to move on to approval of the regular Board of Education meeting agenda do I have a motion I move that the board of education approved the January 13 2025 regular Board

011of Education meeting agenda as published and can we give a shout out to our Scout oh yes absolutely what troop are you here with what troop are you here and what badge are you working on okay well Welcome to our meeting I have a motion by Jody do I have a second second by Patrick any discussion see none all in favor raise your right hand say I motion passes 70 moving on to the consent agenda did I skip something here moving on to the consent agenda do I have a motion I move the Board of Education approve the January 13th regular um I think it just says Board of Education consent agenda M Mis a motion by Clay can I do I have a second second by Patrick any discussion see none all in favor

012raise your right hand say I motion passes 70 all right moving on to new business the first item for the evening is a resolution for uh Blue Valley wreck certificates of participation and so I'm going to introduce Shane dewald who's going to come forward um and talk to you from the Blue Valley Rec commission um about what they are asking of you this evening good good evening good morning good evening everyone um Dr meran fellow school board members guys hear me all right there we go uh thanks for having me again tonight um just wanted we been working with uh Kyle and Jeremy and and Dave arber's here with stifel just to show you um a little bit what we've been doing talking with this certificates participation for quite some time now and we thought

013it would be a good idea to show some pictures of what's actually going on so of the you're right but why he's loading that up just we've had I think we started this project probably six seven months ago so just uh final part of the piece here that we thought might be beneficial I don't have any good jokes to tell right now or I would yeah can I get jokes over there I'll put you on the spot all right here we go so like I said we put some pictures together on everything all the uh the products we have at Bay I'm going to go into more detail on following slides but I really wanted to just break down where the money was going um the 9 million of it goes to the baseball the

014sports complex and the other 14 million we go into the activity center uh just down the street here um I I do think it's important to note our current mil Levy is the 2.85 and things that are funded through the mil Levy are things such as the our employee benefits fund our Capital our maintenance and then our our lease payments I think that's important to know that everything we're we're currently doing is all funded under the current mil Evy um so nothing will be increased because of this moving forward so next slide here just shows a little bit of the projects uh currently across the street from coaches is the Big Green Space area we're going to be cloning another four Fields I put on the bottom there the the main part of this currently

015released two of the fields across um schwitzer and 137th released that from the city of Overland Park and at some point in time we will be losing those fields probably so these these four Fields um basically help with our growth numerous things going on with sports tourism girls fast is growing at a rap rate and then just uh just the final development part of our plan here is just something we want to to make sure down in that right hand corner as so you can see the three um if I can point but down the right hand corner there is where our facility building is and that used to be where our batting cages used to be down that corner and uh this next slide really shows that facility building will fit in that current

016footprint um and that area is going to be something with our expansions something as much needed that'll a logistical hub for maintenance uh along with the new Fields there we also currently uh rent some space for storage and instead of paying outside storage we'll be bringing a lot that stuff in house so we can get rid of of paying those extra rental fees but this just shows a little picture of what's going on there um the other part of this is our Activity Center which is down the road here uh we really want to focus on the safety and ADA Compliant um with this uh we're basically tearing off the north wing and making it a two-story building and it's going to be for growth the main part of uh in that Northeast uh part

017of there will be a storm shelter right now we're just a current uh prefab metal building and we're actually getting real walls and a roof put on everything on there so it's much more safe um talked a little bit this morning at the workshop this is where a lot of things begin for a lot of our um students and class and uh patrons that come through swimming lessons um maybe dance gymnastics Aquatics all that stuff starts here so having a more inviting space and uh a safer is the main thing that we have we've seen extreme growth from several of our gymnastics and dance and our summer programs um threw another slide in here just on our entry currently the safety part of it comes here again with drop off and pickup uh we just

018you can you can see here there's a lot of things there and Ada the parking and things like that stuff that need to be addressed we're going to address with this part here but um as you'll see just the exterior we're kind of matching with the rest of the building that's uh not metal building so it's been about 20 years since we've done any TLC to this this area and then just final uh kind of the just updated calendar of events we've had here we've went through our 30-day protest period which ended um early January um then we had we had uh just the with your with your support and approval tonight uh we'll be going to to the uh commission meeting on Wednesday to authorize the sale of the cops so um that's all

019I really had tonight I wanted to be brief and short and show a few pictures but I am open for any question that anyone has and um I know I think Dave arterbery is here as well if we need to bring him up so so I got a couple questions yes sir so you're asking us to approve the issuance of bonds tonight right correct and how much 23 million 23 million and over what period of time will that be spent has to be spent over in a threeyear period three year period and how long is the is the payback 20 years 20 years okay and how do we feel about the interest rates right now da Phil Bri you guys know this this Shan too so step up I would have felt a lot better

020about four months ago they they've gone up a little bit uh since um the Rec commission first approve proceeding with the lease they're up about 3/10 of a percentage Point since um the early part of November um the cops won't be sold until March so hopefully we'll have a little bit of stability and maybe the rates go down a little bit before then and also just to clarify this is kind of just making a fine point but um what the school board is doing is actually approving the lease that underlies the bonds you're not approving the issuance of certificates approving the the lease that will support the payment of the the certificates so let's go into the lease a little bit more so so we're approving the lease which is so we're guaranteeing the bonds

021no no you you're simply giving Authority for the Recreation Commission to enter into the lease but the Recreation Commission is solely responsible for for making that lease payment and therefore repaying the bonds the school board is not in any way the school district on the hook for repaying these um Securities so what's going to be used to repay the bonds is that going to be membership fees it's um Shane I believe it's the mill levies just we mentioned the 2.85 mil that we currently have part of that is the is the lease payments come out of that so we'll need a 2.5 mil for at least 20 years basically right say that again so we need 2.5 Mills 20 years to repay these BS right yeah right now the the mevy uh with doing this

022this is the tail kind of tail end of us wrapping up our CIP plan and then by doing this this wraps up some of those so this actually helps us level that milley out instead of having the up and down part of it so yeah that's that's the being the more constant level out M Levy so we don't have to see the the up and down of that right so basically we're authorizing essentially 2.5 for 20 years to to repay these bonds right yeah and then so on the lease so so is that just the vehicle that's so so so the lease is giving us giving the recommission access to the $23 million correct um okay the recreation Commissions in can is unlike school districts or cities uh don't have the ability to issue General

023obligation bonds so the mechanism that they use for financing Capital Improvement projects is lease purchase financing um so that's what but that's what we're doing here so in essence it's just the vehicle to purchase the bonds um to to acquire the money to build the facilities yeah it's just it's just the mechanism to get the money to the rec commission so that they can build exactly make the improvements okay I any more questions thank you I have a I have a few yes sir um so Dave what is the interest rates hovering around right now uh right now um we just updated the rates this morning there was right around for 20e issue about 4.3% okay so the debt services like one point six 1.7 million a year right yeah right around I think 1.7

024million right now yeah and what um maybe Shane this is for you what's the annual budget for the recommission uh we're just around that right around 20 million so 20 million of revenue between public sources and private parti and the M right now we're just right around that 5050 uhuh between revenue sources so when we approved a mil Levy increase a few years ago that was to fund cap X kind of some deferred Capital expenditures and pool pack and some other things right and can you update us on where where you are and that and what what was what's the annual nut on that those cap that cap X that we approved and yeah so right now we're currently in year between three and four uh right now we're spending about $6 million a year

025on Capital um with that's with our Capital Improvement plan and then our additional stuff there so so so in three years that $6 million Falls away yeah by doing the cop the tail end of this stuff is stuff on our CIP plan thr a lot of accur nams out here but we're finishing up our CIP with our with the activity center and and things like that so that falls off and that's where the level mevy comes into play does that make sense I understand but you have one source of Revenue to pay both operating and capital expenditures yeah we have a separate Capital uh find we have out of the mevy the fund there is your employee benefits your Capital your maintenance and your lease payments pays for everything right 20 million bucks to pay

026for Capital operating benefits whatever yes so in a couple of years when the CIP plan is done is the outgoing is the cash outlays being reduced by $6 million annually no you always have uh right now we operate around three to three and a half million for just deferred maintenance uh anything normal just to go through by by doing this it just levels that that piece out there so there's always going to be a capital Improvement plan we start and go through that so I don't think it really falls off so so we talk every year in the budget we make sure you know we talk about the mevy um our goal is to always make sure we keep it as minimum as we can but um that answer your question I think so so

027um so the mil wey rais is about 10 million bucks a year that right yeah roughly okay and um the um the mil Levy is brings in Revenue based on property valuations and property valuations the last couple of years have increased quite considerably but in a usually in a higher interest rate environment property values stabilize or go down so what does that do to your budget if what and we have a new County appraiser coming in so what what happens if we have flat to declining property valuations and a flat Mill levy on your budget do you think are you experiencing um inflationary pressure on the operating side still or is it stabilized I definitely think there's been some like full part-time staff there's definitely been some inflation I will save all of our operating

028uh fees such as that for that all those are carried on by our program fees like um we raise prices accordingly so none of that stuff is really um impacted too much we just raise the fees here or there just to make sure we cover and keep that marginalized so do you have a sense for if we have if there is no change in property valuations the mil wey will raise the same amount of money next year as it does this year what does that do to your budget it fluct and and we pass this this cop and you got an extra $1.7 million of Debt Service well I guess it's is it extra it's just replacing I'm not I'm not clear exactly is this is 1.7 million what your debt services today on the

029or the lease payments on the cops that exist today yes 1.4 on the existing ones that fall off this year and then it'll be replaced by s on the new ones okay so what do you what do you think if if there's no additional Revenue coming from the mil Levy because the mil Levy doesn't change I mean you've decreased the mil Levy a little bit each of the last two years but that's been in in the face of rising property valuations if you have flat property valuations and a flat M Levy is is do you think that that stresses out the budget I it be it like I'm I'd be hard pressed to uh vote for a any sort of mil Levy increase yeah no this this they actually by doing the C cop it's

030it's it's like uh we talked earlier it's very similar to what the bond would be something like that answer your question about the we have our general fund we have a certain level that that that dance between what's too much and how and having too high and that and that so we have we have funds built in for that we have our contingency things like that that come along so I don't we don't stress too much over we're not thinking year to year we're we're much like with you guys when you talk when I talk with Jeremy and Kyle we have many years in head and it's just that it's that avoid those Peaks and valleys through the budget process so I'm not concerned um with that I mean there's always things that come up

031but we year to year we're always analyzing and making sure that we we don't see ourselves out there too far so okay so I have no concern at this point so just a different uh thought process or L um like if I were sitting on the commission as opposed to sitting on the school board I would have said why don't we do why don't we at least explore doing a a cop for the field and you know maybe that two of those three and then wait on the 14 million for a year or two um to see how how things go I mostly because we've had such intense pressure on property taxes uh upward upward trajectory on property taxes and inflationary environment and so I'm just I'm just wondering um could you do that on

032with the with the current funding partner on the Lea would that be an option why is that a bad option uh or a less favorable less ideal approach to to doing yeah as it sets right now be less favor favorable we're entering into multi-year projects they going to take between our fiscal Years it'll take multie to do that and and something now that might be 10 million might be 12 or 14 down the way so I mean the timing and the buying power and things right now is what is what we analyze and go through nothing seems to be getting cheaper so um but with the being a multi-year projects with these that makes it really difficult to I'm going to put 10 here 10 here or something similar to what you had mentioned so

033okay any other questions yes sir a couple more so on on the 2.5 mil of Are You Gonna is are you coming back to us later to request an increase to cover those amounts or that's already in place that's already in place okay I don't anticipate this being being with the cops it actually levels it out so we wouldn't have as much volatility with our M levies so it' be constant decreas baked into this request right yes the current M Levy at its current rate right correct okay and so is the are the bonds being secured or the lease being secured by any of the commission assets yeah the um the leases are secured by the two properties themselves okay so so if the r commission should decide not to make the lease payments um

034the trustee will come in and take over those properties and so is is the is the bond interest rates based on the commission's credit rating yeah it's based on their rating which is um we anticipate although we haven't yet gone to the rating agency a double A2 rating uh which is um a couple of notches below the school district's rating but that's due to two facts one is that this it doesn't the rec commission's scope of operations is not as broad as the school districts um as well as um these are not General obligation bonds but leaseback securities so that's also a little rating difference too that means a little higher increase right a little higher rating rates than the school district would get so so based on our credit rating the inherent answer is

035is already probably part of that but for for my benefit the what's the the the U debt ratio that we're that these bonds will put the commission at um the if you look at the debt to assessed valuation um Jeremy I hate to catch you off guard do you know what the school district's latest assess valuation is because it's the same as the rec commissions. billion okay and the amount of outstanding um leases that they would have would be the 23.8 million for for this project plus the outstanding amount for Hilltop which I believe is probably is a total of 17 for Hilltop right now okay so that's 40 million out of a what four billion dollar tax base so that's my question is so it's not like we're at 3.8 billion dollar right in

036terms of the debt we're currently carrying compared to our assessed value right right yeah so it's pretty small but is this higher than it's been in the past or is it always hovering around that um it it was probably at the time the financing was done for Hilltop yeah U which was in 2015 at that time um the debt to assess valuation was probably a little bit higher than it is now um but since that time obviously 10 years have passed or nine years have passed and both the hilltop financing and the existing financing is paid down so I think what you would probably find if we look back is overall debt to assess might now be for the rec commission a little bit lower than it was 10 years ago so the financial position

037of the rec commission is essentially improved over the last 10 years yeah and so these are needed improvements in order to keep the programs going with the current membership and Community demand and so therefore this is not necessarily a risky move you would say um I I think that's an accurate representation yeah okay yeah just on on that point it so if our annual revenue is 20 million bucks and we have $40 million of debt that I don't that seems like a high leverage ratio to me um you know um typically no private company could get that no private company with $20 million of annual revenue could get $40 million of debt because the these type of businesses don't operate with much profitability yeah I you know in Municipal Finance I think the the analysis

038of debt levels is probably done a little bit differently than it is in the corporate world yeah uh typically debt is measured not in terms of annual revenue but in terms of debt relative to the tax bace size because the debts paid back in this case and with the school district from from a mill Levy against property as opposed to from specific Revenue generators isn't the the only security that the that the landlord has is the baseball fields and the activity center correct yeah what is what is that property worth um you know that's that's a good question I I couldn't answer that offand and and is on the baseball fields is it just the the four fields that are being improved or do they own all the baseball fields on either side of 137

039street it's it's all of the baseball fields will Encompass the The Pledge the collateral yeah and um honestly what what investors in these sort of Securities are looked at is um the ability and the willingness of the uh entity of the obligor to to repay the the Securities to make their debt payments and I think that's what leads to the high credit rating is because the size of the tax base and the community support for the project investors believe that that you know they'll be repaid okay okay I'd like to uh just confirm and clarify a couple things that you said so you're the commission currently has some debt obligation some Debt Service obligations every year um those are falling off and you're going to be replacing it with this debt and so you'll have

040a difference about 300 or $400,000 per year an increase St service obligation is that correct that yes okay um you do not we talked a little bit about the M Levy 2.5 2.85 you do not anticipate seeking a mill Levy increase this year because of this cop is that right correct okay um and you spoke a little bit about evening out about keeping things level um from my understanding that this will actually help in the long term maintain this level of Mill Levy that we have um maybe you can just speak to that very briefly I understand there might be some fluctuation needed if this did not get approved yeah so say if we didn't this option did not work and we'd have to go back to we'd probably be coming back next year with

041a we might be going asking for like a two M increase you know which is something we don't want to do you know we want to make sure we're staying close to revenue neutral as as challenging as to be with Revenue neutral major things there but this cop finishes up some final final uh development plans and stuff like that but actually um help sustain that that level if not helping to decrease it in the future I don't want to sit here and guarantee anything but we evaluate that every year and by doing this this is what helps stabilize uh a flat m okay um and Blue Valley wck the commission has its own separate staff accounting Finance correct correct you have your own set of Commissioners seven Commissioners right yes they've all looked at this

042and they've all approved it is that right yeah tonight to to approve this and then we have to go through for the sale of it on Wednesday the official part but yeah they've they've been involved with several discussions and several pictures and discussions so okay and you and um St have been involved with blue valley District staff as well is that correct yeah from the get-go okay um and you feel confident that this has been well vetted this is a you're you're recommending that we go forward for all the various reasons this is what the rec commission needs to do absolutely yes um do all Rec Commissions in Kansas require a wreck commission to go to another body to get such approval we are special with that we the only one in the state of

043Kansas to do that so there's some kind of quirk in the statute that has H requires Blue Valley wreck in particular to come to the school board just to get an additional authorization to go ahead and get these cops is that right correct okay and no others the others don't have to do that um okay I think that's it thanks thank you one quick followup clarification so you said if they're not approved you have to go back and change the middle Levy and get get a 2% two M possibly I'm just throwing out options I haven't but I thought you said we had a this was cost was a 2.5 m l and it's already currently part of the existing R so why would you need increase if we didn't pass the cop resolution so

044you would need another 2% M of another two M increase to these projects to be funded through the mevy and not Bonds if we didn't pass it correct that's the clarification yes okay yeah this is the option that makes the most sense and that's the option we've been working on right out of the gate um raising the mid Levy and stuff that was the piece there but we're just not not that's not going to work so are are some of those projects that are part of this $23 million um do they absorb some of the projects that were part of the CIP plan yeah the the activity center was a tail end of that which will be div into that's that that's addressed on this so how much of that 14 million is from that

045original CIP plan that was I think for the CIP I think we had it was like four or five million built in for the for the uh Activity Center then so we started getting the storm shelters and things like that we we just addressed other needs that we had it hasn't been anything in touch to it in over 20 years so okay can okay I'm I'm sorry to belabor this I'm just trying to a lot of money and in a in an interesting economic time um what um what's the current condition of the hilltop that's owned by some other landlord uh Hilltop is a little bit different financing structure than than the uh activity center and the sport complex uh Hilltop is actually a situation where um since the school district was acquiring the building

046there uh the school district still actually owns that property uh and what the way that financing has worked is the school district entered into a base lease with a a separate trustee Bank where they've allowed this trustee Bank to control that part of the building that blue valley wck is using in exchange for that um cops were issued to fund the improvements on the rec commission side of the building so the long and the short of it is is that the school district still owns that property but Blue Valley W gets to use it as long as they're making their lease payments and what's the Shane what's the condition of the hilltop like and when is that when does that financing wind down I think that um that one goes out to I believe believe

047it was 20 years from 2015 so 2036 2036 and what's the current condition of the hilltop does it need a bunch of work no we're doing we're just doing little little things right now it's in it's in good shape and um all I to say it's good any other questions no all right thank you all right do I have a motion I move that the Board of Education adopt a resolution approving two supplemental lease purchase agreements between the Bank of New York melon Trust Company s trustee and lisore and the Blue Valley Recreation Commission as Le Lei second motion by Jody second by Clay any further discussion just sorry I don't uh why do we have two polias purchase agreements okay just different series bonds yeah there's a lease for the activity center and a

048lease for the sports complex got it all right no further discussion see none all in approval raise your right hand or say I motion passes 7 Z our next agenda item is our annual enrollment and demographic report so Eric palum is coming up this is his annual visit to the board um to give us a enrollment report um for the 2425 school year now that our official count is done turn this on there we go that's better good evening everybody uh every year Blue Valley conducts uh an enrollment report and a five-year forecast uh that we are constantly updating to help us make uh long-term and short-term decisions about facilities and Staffing and tonight I'm going to bring you some of the key features of this year's report some of the the main statistics uh

049so without f further Ado first I'm going to talk about some enrollment observations of our current enrollment um so this year we had 21,746 students fewer than we had in our headcount on Count Day last year uh I'll give you an example of why that is um last year we had a growth of one student uh so we were just down 56 this year but if you look relatively speaking obviously there was the the down tick that everyone experienced in 2020 uh everyone around took about a 3% hit and then has been working to try and recover that enrollment since uh but we've been relatively steady uh so kindergarten enrollment uh that goes way back to 197 but you can see um we've had some pretty high sustained growth numbers uh around 1,400 in recent

050years uh there was a 2020 year where we had an uncharacteristically small number and we learned the next year with our record uh kindergarten class of 1554 uh that we had some folks in the 2020 year that were just able to start their kids a year later and so we had that large number and since then we've been right around 14400 this year we were little bit below that at 1392 uh which is fairly normal for what we've experienced you know between now and say in the last 10 years uh other than that um kind of swing down and up around the 2020 year but it was down just a little bit this year for kindergarten enrollment so cohort change here um that is referring to when you have a grade level say kindergarten last

051year becoming first graders this year that's a cohort and we take a look at each grade level and say did they pick up students from last year to this year did they drop students uh this year we did not have any cohort from last year that we had that is still here this year that lost numbers uh in fact we only had one that didn't grow at all everywhere else we had growth uh and when we look at that cohort growth essentially it was the same this year as it was last year actually a little bit more um so the difference and you can see this year on the far right side the 12th grade uh we have 1847 students in 12th grade now last year we had 1758 um and so when you get

052those larger senior classes the difference between last year's 1758 and this year's incoming 1392 kindergarteners was just too big of a hole to fill even by all the other cohorts adding as they go um so you see that this year we have a large senior class at 1846 that's going to be another big hole to fill uh and I'll talk about why we're not going to probably fill it all the way uh for next year but on our our carrying cohorts this year that we had last year we did have growth or at least stability at every level to get a sense of how other districts in Johnson County have been experiencing enrollment uh this goes back to 201819 I mentioned that roughly 3% hit that most everyone took in 2020 you see that dip

053there this is FTE enrollment not headcount uh this is a lot better indication this is what we get our funding from it accounts for partial enrollments and doesn't count them as a whole and it also um does not include virtual enrollment information so this is our our funding level enrollment and comparing us to the other Johnson County school districts and you can see since that downturn everyone has been essentially stable hovering right around that zero growth level a lot of people wonder well what's blue Valley's share we know there's lots of different uh rates of growth going on around Johnson County and when we look at Blue Valley's share of enrollment in um of public school students it has been essentially the same for the last 20 years it's been within a tenth of a

054percent of being unchanged so uh as Johnson County school districts rise and fall our our share of that population of of public school students has not changed so that's where we stand today uh I want to talk a little bit about where we expect to go for the next five years and this is the kind of information you've got the facility planning committee report that's coming up later uh this is the information that's used in the decision making of that committee as well uh so for our projection obviously we take existing students and then we make adjustments to our known student population based on what we are forecasting for new housing developments or turnover of existing neighborhoods and to give you a sense without getting uh deep into the information about how it's built at

055all um we've got about 520 plus individual uh projections that happen for each neighborhood or a growing area or an area that may grow soon um and so we take those projections at a very granular level and then put those all together to get our districtwide projections so for single family building permits that's been the big statistic that tells us what we should expect with enrollment more than neighborhood turnover more than birth rates more than any of those other statistics um Blue Valley growth is rises in Falls with building permits uh and mostly single family building permits our largest year was 1998 with 1396 single family homes in this District at that time we were reporting our enrollment numbers to District officials every week to keep on top of it uh it was just a

056Breakneck rate of growth uh the worst year for building permits in Blue Valley was in uh the depths of the housing crisis in 2008 and9 where we Di below 100 in the district and then this year we were at 214 which is up a little bit from last year which was in the low 170s uh so there was a slight uptick uh but not as much as we might have hoped for and the main reason for that this is really different from what I was looking at um 30 year fixed mortgage rates uh so this is data from Freddy Mack I'm really not sure what happened with this graphic um from what looks like on my computer but um essentially um what you see is this is year on-year January 1 data and we had

057a point a couple years ago where it dipped below 3% and folks were refinancing and buying new homes at a pretty good clip and then through all the inflationary pressures that we've experienced uh labor costs construction loans uh Lumber costs things of that nature um housing has gotten more expensive and the price to buy a house with these mortgage rates has gotten more expens expensive it uh peaked out last year uh above 7% it was coming back down this year uh and it was headed towards 6% which talking with those who sell homes in the district they'll tell you once it gets below 6% they expect things to really start loosening up um but right as we were about to hit 6% it turned North again uh and I just checked this morning and it

058was Freddy Max says it's at about 6.93 uh and trending back toward that 7% number so this is the permit expectations that are built into the model and for every for our projections we have a high projection which is economic boom a low projection which would be economic Bust or some other conditions that would negatively affect enrollment and then our reality is usually the average of those two so what the projections are expecting in B building permit outlooks for Blue Valley would be at 272 next year which is about what we saw over the last year uh and then with some new subdivisions that are coming online plus the expectation um that there's a chance that interest rates start to come down you can see it gets back up you know around 300 uh for

059the future usually as we update these every year you see that down tick at the at the latter Edge year five usually that number will come up as adjustments are made year on year and we become aware of new subdivisions that may be coming online new sewer districts that open up so the fiveyear out um if it's going down it's just it's aware of some subdivisions that are going to be finishing up and that will add some new subdivisions to it as as we do updates each year okay that's good that there's evidence that I didn't submit him like that well I can tell you while they're bringing that up what you're going to see this is talking about the accuracy that we come to expect of our projections and eventually you'll see a black

060line that is our actual headcount enrollment that runs through here um and the purple line on the far left would be what we were projecting for that year five years before it occurred so there was a much wider range of possibilities and then from blue to green to Orange to Red that's four years out three years out what we were projecting for that year and that red is what we were projecting the range of possibilities were for uh account day the year before it happened and so that's why it gets smaller and smaller the high and low possible outcomes there we go so obviously what you want in an outcome is right down the middle of what you were expecting um and so that's that's what we've what we've observed this year uh the projections

061districtwide enrollment are usually within a 100th of 1% uh of what we were expecting um and so they serve us well in our decision making see will this work for me to yeah okay so this is what districtwide enrollment is expected to look like for the next five years uh I pointed out earlier we have that large senior class and um unless there's a major change in next year's kindergarten class uh we don't expect to be able to fill that hole with our regular cohort growth at at the other levels so you can see the model is projecting that we have a a moderate downturn in enrollment next year but still percentage wise very level enrollment uh and then it slowly begins to to grow uh year on year after that but still not getting

062quite back to 22,000 in year five looking at the different levels uh Elementary projections um obviously we're not going to get into any of the individual numbers here but just to give you an idea of what those look like uh our projected enrollment for all elementary schools but one remains within uh our guidelines uh before we start looking at possible changes in how we use a building or uh attendance areas or things like that and that's just still well because they have some growth area uh and and a a smaller number of classrooms but that's year five that's nothing that anyone with facility planning committee looking says this needs a conversation and we're going to be updating this every year and looking but the utilization of all our buildings is expected to be within comfortable

063ranges for the fiveyear period and uh we'll watch um schools like still well uh and see what the rate of growth looks like for them as uh we get into the next years Aspen Grove is another area where we expect growth but they are not expected to exceed 75% of their capacity within the 5year period uh they would get close in year five middle schools uh there's really no green on the board there's one high projection at Oxford in year five uh So based on our current utilization of our building and space availability right now um the projections are that um we will remain in comfortable ranges the of course obvious point of discussion is Aubrey Bend Aubry Bend's over uh expected to be at 8:14 next year they've been at 800 or above for

064quite some time and that's a very difficult number and if there's not an adjustment made they are projected to be headed toward 900 5 years from now uh so the opening of wolf Springs obviously is built in to provide that relief and you'll have a presentation on that next as to what that will look like and the recommendations of the facility planning committee so with that solution uh before you tonight uh everything else looks good at the middle school level uh all high schools look good too and they all at their mid-range projection are staying within guidelines uh Blue Valley Southwest is is now projected to exceed 75% of their capacity which is a good thing uh and so by year three they're expected to get there I did want to mention two on the

065elementary school part of the reason that that uh looks the way it does is because of the adjustments uh that you all approved a couple of years ago that went into effect this year for the Blue Valley North Elementary feeders we had a lot of green on the board and some some tough decisions were made uh to help balance out those numbers and create that capacity and that has turned out quite well and is is looking like it'll have some sustainable impacts without going back so just in summary um new residential activity is going to be somewhat unpredictable whether it's single family or multif family watching those interest rates and other market conditions it's it's a little unpredictable right now um but we expect overall for districtwide enrollment to be relatively steady uh all of

066our schools are predicted to remain within their current capacity and be at comfortable levels and a question that comes up a lot based on our policy for non-resident enrollment and those School capacities uh when we open our open enrollment uh for next school year coming up the only school that will have that below 75% threshold that they need will be asked and grow of Elementary and a grade level assessment will happen after we've determined Staffing to know what the grade level availability will be so any questions about any of that do I need to go back to any of the graphs that were messed up no right well if you want to have a more detailed conversation about any of it or have questions contact me directly I'm happy to talk about it thank you

067Eric we're ready to move on to the facility planning committee boundary recommendations okay um here just as a piggy back to that report to talk through really one of the the main the main issue why the facility planning committee met this year was to discuss the new boundary uh for wolf Springs Middle School and um as a reminder to everybody that building is set to open in August of 2026 uh unless we have winter until then um then it'd be a problem but uh that's the that's the idea so we want to come now before you to allow people to um understand what movement's going to happen and um uh and make sure that make a necessary plans so first of all there's a slight adjustment that we looked at um that involved Aspen Grove

068Elementary and Timber Creek Elementary so this is not the Well Springs Middle we'll get to that in a second um there's a area that is sits just above 167th Street there in light green um labeled Polo Field South that uh currently goes to Aspen Grove and um that is all developed area at this point in time uh there are housing developments planned and um some are platted some have lots have been sold but no construction has happened and there are currently no families there uh so in advance of that happening uh the committee determined that it would be a logical move now before families and students get there to make a boundary adjustment uh that really uh logically follows 176 167th Street um it also um puts this neighborhood in closer proximity to Timber Creek

069Elementary uh in relatively to where Aspen Grove is so uh there's only a handful of students that we project projected in there within the next five years uh at the same time you can see how Timber Creek um their Elementary School numbers have declined uh considerably over the course of the last several years so it positions them to have some space to accept um these developing neighborhoods which once again are not projected to um bring in that many students I'm to pause there any questions on that boundary that would change for yes correct yeah so this is the proposed boundary uh for uh Au Ben middle school and wolf Springs Middle School uh the uh boundary that you see here is is basically it's a it's a North South Boundary so it it takes Timber

070Creek Elementary and Morse Elementary and leaves them at Aubrey bin Middle School it takes Aspen Grove Elementary and wolf Springs Elementary and moves them to the new wolf Springs uh Middle School uh the other boundary consideration was more of a an East West split and considered Morse and Aspen Grove um continuing at Aubrey Bend and Timber Creek and wolf Springs uh going to the new wolf Springs Middle School uh by and large there are nine boundary criteria that uh the committee looks at um one by one essentially and goes through uh and checks the boxes to see uh what's the the most um logical move that meets these boundary criteria 17 of the 19 uh committee members voted for this option um there was lengthy discussion because there is a little piece that is um

071that I mentioned this morning that is uh a little wonky and that is the piece that is just North of Aubrey Bend there are two neighborhoods there um ultimately probably the the the bulk of the decision came down to the number of students and staff that were initially impacted because when you look at uh the scenario the second scenario if you were to have Timber Creek uh and wolf Springs Middle wolf Springs Elementary go to a a wolf Springs Middle uh you'd be impacting uh over 500 students right off the bat um and it would also leave Aubrey Ben with less than 300 students and that school's never been less than 600 the other thing is even if you did the projections and projected it out five years wolf Springs Middle would be at 556

072and Aubrey bin would still only be at 346 so the you the disparity between the two would be significant um in this scenario it allows Aubrey Bend um to not to have as many students removed from it because Timber Creek would stay um and then it allows also for wolf Springs Middle to grow um because Aspen Grove is our really our primary growth area questions about that question Kyle so that neighborhood that's just north of AUB Bend and south of 167th Street and West of qua yes why wouldn't you just assign that to Aubrey B how many people are in that it's not fully developed yet right all it that's not completely fully developed yeah um yeah the idea is that um those students currently go to Aspen Grove um they're helping prop up the

073enrollment of Aspen Grove which is already very low uh so there could be a time in which uh that would be a future boundary change once Aspen Grove uh develops out but um at the present time it didn't make a lot of sense for those to peel more students out of as because that's essentially what you'd have to do if you stayed with this boundary change because we have a one of the criteria we have for the facility planning committee is the board has always wanted us to have straight feeder patterns so everybody who goes to Aspen Grove goes to the new middle or goes to the same middle school as opposed to you know some of them go to this Middle School some of them go to that one what's the reason behind that

074I'm just curious having grown up in my school district you know we all went to all different places right um so what was the reasoning behind that criteria I just don't know that's been a long-standing criteria since I've been here um and it is uh friendships and they want the board has always told us that they want and the community has told us that when we've gone back out they want consistency so everybody um goes to the same Elementary goes to to the middle middle school goes to the high school so we have straight patterns throughout I I know this morning we talked a little bit about because we did have a lot of questions um about this at least I did maybe um but um so you know so walkability you know you're taking

075you're taking neighborhoods that are walkable to Aubrey Bend and pushing them a little bit farther and I I can't remember how you answered it but yeah yeah um I don't know how we Define walkable but um it's walkable if you go all the way around the south side of Blue Valley Southwest so there's currently no sidewalk that connects that those neighborhoods to Aubrey bin directly so you can't walk up you can walk up to cira in 179th and then you'd have to cross you'd have to go around Blue Valley Southwest um using their sidewalks and loop back around Aubrey bin Middle School I don't know if there's any students who do that would that would probably be a mile and a half there are kiddos who go behind actually behind Southwest and yeah because they

076have siblings so how do you handle the sibling situation that you know of those that are maybe in the affected areas that already their siblings go to Aubrey Bend or there aren't any do you do you grandfather those kiddos in um everybody who is impacted um would move to the new school every time another another criteria facility planning criteria is once a new school is constructed when it opens if they're in the new boundary they move to the new school for at least a semester here's that uh Port per Port policy um is what it currently is so they can apply for a transfer after that semester and um but historically we have not had many people I mentioned that this morning that would apply for a transfer because once they do experience the new

077school and they're they're with their peers um they would be the one that would be you know not doing that uh so and I don't think did we have any at Aspen Grove no so when Aspen Grove opened and those students moved from wolf Springs Elementary uh no single not a single student stayed or wanted to go back so I I know we have this if you could go back to that map I know we have this quite beater system that's perfect in some ways but it we've got students over at Liberty View that then slept all the way past Way West and then they come up and they go to Pleasant Ridge which is at 167th or 165th in Antioch which is really close to Morris and Timber Creek and um um it just

078seems weird to have all these people that are basically closer or as close to Pleasant Ridge um and then you have and all the Liberty View people pass Harmony on their way over to Pleasant Ridge um it is an imperfect science yeah so yeah and then you've got all these these kids that live right across the street from Southwest on the on the west side of sorry the east side of quira that I mean I I I I can see the logic and all this and I understand the difficulties I'm having a little bit hard time as kind of a South representative like I should have gone to these facility planning meetings but I didn't and so I'm I finally studied this this afternoon before we came in here and I'm I'm just struggling with

079this a little bit be because of the weird geography yeah the the scenario is is different because we have two middle schools that are parallel to one another right usually you don't have a circumstance where you have two middle schools that are parall to parallel to each other and also two elementaries that are really really close to to to being parallel to each other also and then you have the Morse situation which is an outlier right so if you create the other scenario just if you saw that on a map right you would have Morse um and Aspen Grove going to Aubrey B well all of Morse would have to pass through all of Timber Creek to get to Aubrey bin right and then some of Timber Creek uh would also be in a situation

080where you'd be looking at it and go well I'm passing by Aubrey Bend on my way to a new will Springs Middle School so you can create clay you were there you when you see the maps and the colors there's no clean way to do it necessarily um those two neighborhoods though I think ultimately it was uh when when you looked at it it was a lot about the fact that if you had the other option um Aubrey Bend would be left in 2026 with 288 students and wolf Springs Middle would open with 555 four years later Aubrey brand Middle School would be at 346 and wolf Springs would be at 556 so you would take all of those Timber Creek kiddos out and you'd move them to a new middle school I guess that's

081assuming that you're you're kind of keeping the feeder system intact yeah yeah you'd have yeah that's it may be a fight for another day but um it's that's ripping a big band Band-Aid off right there yeah okay overall I think one of the key things in the committee were um number one I don't think anyone would be moving elementary schools with these boundaries there's no there's no families being moved we're just moving moving dirt correct right so that was really key because nobody wanted to start moving elementary school kids we didn't have have to um and all the other ones that were put up just like you said if you think this one is a little wonky the other ones were just way out there they just they didn't make a lot of sense this

082is the one that clearly Rose to the top for every just about everyone I thought it was unanimous I it was unanimous yeah there was two people are absent but 17 of the 19 who are present okay yeah land there what was the East West option the East West option would have been Morris and Aspen Grove and Timber Creek and wolf Springs Elementary so Morris and Aspen Grove go to state at Aubrey ban Timber Creek and WF Springs go to the new W spring midle and so qua becomes the East West boundary or not exactly okay Easter Easter and Wester yeah okay JS a little bit so I I know you this wasn't topic of your conversation but it was this idea to have all these Liberty View PE kids still slept all the way

083past Harmony on the way to Pleasant Ridge is that ever has that come up or is that people are happy with that um it didn't come up this year it it has in the past um at least in my five years here it has come up it's never been one though that was just laid out there as a okay what do we do with this and I think it's always been because we've had other bigger issues to deal with than that um you know predominantly over the course of my time here the the elementary piece in the Blue Valley North feeder Northwest was something that was you know just hanging over our heads that we really needed to deal with and so that was tackled two years ago and as Eric mentioned um successfully I

084believe and that that was that was a big one I mean that was that was significant impacted a lot of people over 200 uh students um and um and then it's always been just a new school that we've we've dealt with whether it was Aspen Grove or now wolf Springs Middle School none of these are ever easy I've been doing uh boundary uh changes for gosh 15 years in my career to different districts and and it's it's always difficult because there's people involved right we're talking about students we're talking about families we're talking about staff um I think that's sometimes a forgotten element though is our staff in this in that um those staff members that are at Wolf Springs Miller primarily coming from Aubrey B so we're moving their cheese too Kyle um the

085the size of wolf Springs Middle when it's projected to open with the proposed boundary is similar in size to like what Prairie Star opened with right and Lakewood too Lakewood yeah so it it's it's it's not uncommon just to open a new middle school or a new Elementary small and allow it to grow but we have committed in the past to the same programming um in in all of our middle school so we we have not in the past said we're not going to offer art at this new middle school because it's small we're not going to offer choir um we have I'm looking at Eric over there too um we have we have committed to offering all of the same electives even though it's it's not always cost efficient for us uh but we

086have done that yeah and with the Middle School model we will inflate the staff to make sure we keep with the teamy model um so yeah there's there's commitments there that that we've adhered to in the past that I don't see this being any different right I guess uh just to reiterate again because my mind can't get around this and maybe I'm just tired or eating too much chocolate I don't know um but so if you have an older sibling at Aubrey Bend and you're like a little second grader but you're in the new feeder to go to Wolf Springs Middle you're you don't get a you don't get a you don't get like a an in with Aubrey Bend because you've already got the gear and you know you're already you have an alliance

087you've been going to the the events at Aubrey Bend forever I mean no so and and if your sibling is is still at Aubrey Bend when the new school opens they're going to the new school so the only students you're talking about will be students in high school they'll be a blue by Southwest yeah yeah a couple other key point points here uh Chinese emersion program that's a question that had come up uh that would be relocated to uh the wolf Springs Middle School um on the same campus with wolf Springs Elementary center-based program decisions will come later and um if anybody has any need for information we have a website that has all of the presentations that we're given at prior committee meetings um all the boundary criteria all the facility planning committee um

088uh information so and Kyle I'll give a shout out to the committee they a lot of the questions being asked here were asked during the committee I me they really um they yes they dove in and they asked those hard questions and they looked at all the different Alternatives and well what if we did this what if things that weren't up there you know kind of like yeah what if we routed them this way and you guys did a great job answering them and we explored them and um and ultimately everyone came to this proposal so um I think it's a testament to it working the system working and the community members that were on that committee that took the time to to Really dive in yeah it was a mix of veterans who've been

089on it for a while and then others five new members that had never been on it before all representing all five high schools so um all the feeders are are looking at it the same so thank you Kyle is there any more questions comments otherwise I'll entertain a motion I move that the Board of Education approve the facility planning committee boundary recommendations second motion by Clay second by Sonia any further discussion although I did miss the next slide and I apologize for that Jake but it looks like it's show off some nice pictures that's all give you an update yeah I I'll give you an update okay we're just in discussion here so so as a facilities person I like to believe that any beautiful facility can cure any ailments and and so when we

090went out to the community we wanted to show folks what they would be seeing you you've all seen this right um did also want to give you an update on construction things were going Full Speed Ahead until a blizzard hit and then we slowed down just a little bit but if you drove out there today you would start to see walls going up I've been talking about dirt being mood for a long time just so to see things going vertical we're we're extremely excited and still on course to hit our schedule that's all this was about but thanks Jina thank you absolutely we did solve the pickup and drop off line so yeah this is going to be knock on wood our absolute best middle school to do drop off and pickup where buses have

091a a separate drive from the parent Loop and the parent Loop goes all the way around the building you can see it in this image on the left looks like a little racetrack it's not a racetrack that's our parent Loop and it goes back all the way out the other side of the building so should not have cars backed up on city streets yeah F any further discussion I just I'm I can uh I don't I appreciate everything facility planning committee done and I um am not nearly as well schooled in what has been discussed and the options considered as clay but I have a hard I'm not going to support this because I I feel like it's not a great option I don't like having non walkability when when you've got future um Community

092or future neighborhoods are going to grow up eventually there are going to be sidewalks there and we don't necessarily know where the you know the developers are going to go and build and um I think our perfect feeder system is just imperfect enough that it it requires further examination so that those are my you know reasons for not supporting it but I know I do appreciate that there was unanimous people on the committee so I I can appreciate their um I can appreciate their work and what they examined but I just represented the South I feel like um it's not a awesome option for those communities so so is my colleague over there at the end suggesting they don't represent anybody from the northeast or the Northwest what are you saying so you don't represent

093any of the students in the northeast or the Northwest I do but I'm I'm you know but I do live in the south and I I am a a representative from the south and it it's the I understand these are difficult um decisions but we have a neighborhood right across the street from Aubrey Ben that are going to drive down I I don't I don't like the options I will point out there were representatives from the south on the committee I understand voted to approve as well um i' just like to say you know I I agree with a lot of what Jim said um I'm not thrilled with it but you know I wasn't really thrilled when my oldest was what kindergarten first grade with the whole Liberty View well and Timber Creek you

094know change is always hard let me just let me just say and nothing's great and people who drive past you know from from Liberty View Drive past us you know to go to to West and Pleasant Ridge isn't great but um and I appreciate that you know at least last time we checked with the community that you know they they want fullon you know feeder systems um I I I understand that is that still relevant maybe maybe not I don't know um but um I do appreciate the the work of the committee and I honestly I I uh I will accept their recommendation I think what we're asking those who are I use the term displaced or moved is they can go one semester and apply for transfer back to where they from whence they

095came as is that correct yeah so I guess what we're asking is you know give us a chance for the you know at least there is that fallback and history shows it'll be okay and it does uh affect as few people as possible from what I'm hearing from the committee and I have been on that committee and it turned my hair gray I used to have dark hair uh so thank you yeah I don't I don't love it either but I think that based on the current projections for enrollment that this is the the best solution that that we have um I mean I hate that the middle school that Aubrey bin doesn't have anybody going to it that lives around it at all but based on I think based on the projections right now

096that we have it's it's a no-brainer and I love the the feeder system I think it creates a s of Community because you're constantly going to school with the same families all the way through and that's really important so my kiddos would beg to differ they wanted things to be mixed up a little bit they did not like always being with the same kiddos all the time so just to throw a little bit of perspective on that they they uh but they you know they went from Morse to Aubrey band into Southwest and there was there wasn't a lot of shakeup um in that so they did want new faces so all right so we had a motion in a second by somebody clay thank you clay and Sonia and we have discussion and all

097all in favor raise your right hand or say I and not in favor raise your right hand say I motion passes six to zero or 61 excuse me we're going to take a break for the captioner um for five minutes and we will reconvene at 7:23 e e e remember all right we will call the meeting back to order please Jody and our next agenda item is the 26 27 calendar good evening just as a reminder this is a presentation of the draft of the 2627 calendar it will be brought back to you again next month uh for review and approval after we post this draft calendar to The District web for staff and Patron feedback um and we'll put that on the web tomorrow this calendar is really pretty straightforward um I just want

098to point out a couple things to you the start of the school year on this calendar is August 13th that's a two-day um start week again these are things that we um discussed this morning I just want to make sure again I point out some of the highlights of this calendar October maintains um conferences for our families that week uh staff um prefer those conferences to be moved back um in the first quarter to um add to the depth of conversation we maintain an almost two week Break um for winter recess and that puts uh students coming back January 5th a professional learning day is preferred following winter recess so we can ensure rosters and uh teachers with new courses are ready to roll that first day when we have students we anticipate some feedback

099there again February conferences the placement of February conferences is consistent with what we've done in the past um March 22nd is a professional learning day again that is immediately following Spring Break um spring break uh placement on the calendar is consistent with recommendations of the State uh spring I'm sorry not Spring Break um graduation tentatively is scheduled for the weekend of May 15 we conclude this school calendar May 25th that allows us some additional days if necessary for the purpose of snow days we have four emergency days built into this calendar we have again placed uh professional collaboration days at the elementary level on this calendar uh similar to the way they've been placed um throughout the school year this year I would note regarding uh teacher collaboration we will be making an announcement to

100um teachers and out to parents tomorrow that collaboration for this month given the amount of snow days that we have had immediately following winter recess this year January 31st collaboration day we're going to change that this year to a student attendance day and so our next collaboration day for teachers uh will be in February I'm happy to entertain any questions that you have otherwise again this will go on the web for uh feedback starting tomorrow um I just wanted to say thanks for putting on um class day I know that was something that Gina had suggested last year um and so I think that's been very helpful so thank you sure absolutely okay thank you thank you Katie all right on to our next agenda item which is superintendent search update um so since our

101last board meeting we hired Hazard young and Atia to be our executive Search firm they've Dove right in they are in town this week they we have 15 plus meetings with parents teachers community members students uh administrators um in addition on Thursday evening we have our community connections at 6m here at district office that is for community members to come and talk to us about what they'd like to see in the our next superintendent um so we welcome all to come to that and then we also have a survey open that's pushed out to the public um it's open till the 17th we've been presenting that at all of the um committee meetings this week last week and so um we've been getting some great feedback we have a website have our school website too

102okay um we have a search website that has all of this information on it where people can go for um constant updates also um did anybody El have any com Ms about superintendent search um at the um board advisory committee that um Sonia and I were at um they did ask um they asked for U comments from the board um before they kind of kicked off this information and and you know what we conveyed was that the board um was incred incredibly confident about um the search firm that we're using and we um take our our role incredibly seriously um in the hiring of a new superintendent and one that fits our community well so I guess I just wanted to throw that out because that seemed to be something that um was a question

103um from some of the the people attending that meeting have we put out the timeline for that anywhere website okay it was interesting because the the committee the advisory committee they were interested in how we felt if we felt comfortable that they the search firm would be able to uh translate the things that we are looking for uh to them where they could help us uh find a a preeminent uh superintendent like Dr merrian and so I thought it was very interesting that they really saw uh jod and I's opinion regarding the search firm I just want to point out we have I believe we have Community connections coming up this Thursday evening is that correct and we're devoting that Community connections as an opportunity for the um Community to give feedack back on the

104search so just want to reiterate that and stress that if folks want to give direct feedback they can come up to district office Thursday night at 6 o'clock thank you all right we'll move on then to the next agenda item which is approval of the agreement with account Gordon construction I'm going to have Jake come up here and just I think he's got the next four at least um and he's just going to go through each of them um and stay there yeah appreciate it um the first one is an agreement with Macau Gordon construction as part of our 2023 Bond initiative this is for CTE improvements at three of our high schools Blue Valley North Blue Valley West and Blue Valley High we received good bids good competition the construction Market continues to be

105relatively hungry for projects of this nature and and recommend support and approval of this project so just to reiterate um for anyone who's watching on um at home CTE stands for Career and Technical education thanks yep yeah and in this case it's renovating our fax rooms to provide a more commercial culinary experience not like uh fully immers as if you were doing that as a college course or Beyond but a kind of intro to that if you will I have a motion I move that the board of Education approve the agreement with maau and Gordon construction for Blue Valley North Blue Valley West and Blue Valley high school projects second motion by Jody second by Clay any discussion see none all in favor raise your right hand and say I motion passes 7 Z okay

106the next one I have is the same thing but for blue valley Northwest Blue Valley Southwest in the academy again with Macau Gordon construction recommend support and approval of this project how much sorry say that again Patrick they are renovating all of the family consumer science spaces converting what are frankly significantly outdated kitchen areas and classroom areas and creating a more commercial culinary experience for our students and at each school it's around 1.3 $1.4 million per school do I have a motion I move that the Board of Education approve the agreement with Macau Gordon construction for B Valley North B Valley West and Blue Valley I think we're on the next oh I'm sorry uh for blue valley Northwest Blue Valley Southwest and bl valy Academy project second motion by Jim second by Jody any

107further discussion see none all in favor raise your right hand or say I motion passes 7 Z okay keep on rolling the next one is in agreement with st construction another 2023 Bond project this time a multi-purpose Edition and auxiliary gym for Pleasant Ridge Middle School this is our third that we're bringing forward as part of this Bond initiative and as a reminder this is also a storm shelter for that building um again good competition good numbers recommend support and approval of this project this is a 5.73 million yeah is this the uh where we at with the ox gems so this will be the last one as part of this Bond and then we still have all but the three as part of this bond to go back and do if that were the

108direction we're okay given in community supports in the future great thanks all right do I have a motion I move that the Board of Education approve the agreement with st Construction Company Incorporated for Pleasant Ridge Middle School project second motion by Jody second by Clay any further discussion yeah all of our schools have storm shelters although in some cases most cases they're not designed to the ICC 500 which is the most rigorous 250 M hour storm event type of shelter so this starts to create that at all of our sites requ and we're required to do that by um city of Overland Park code that and building code that's been adopted if you do a building addition of a certain size it is required to be a storm shelter do they financially help support they

109do not that oh any further discussion motion by Jody second I believe is by Clay all in favor raise your right hand or say I motion passes 7 Z okay last but not least of my items is one that may be at a at first glance less exciting but just as important concrete agreement with Dueler Mike Dueler concrete flatwork company this is related to bond work Capital improvement work emergency repair work if we have a water line break they resp respond immediately and help us get that uncovered they've been a fantastic partner for the district we estimate that we might spend $6 million annually but that anticipates emergency responses the fewer of those we have the less we'll spend uh recommend support and approval of this agreement with Mike duelers concrete company do I have

110a motion I move that the Board of Education approve the agreement with Mark Mike do see a concrete flat work company for a districtwide project thank you motion by Jim second by Clay any further discussion see none I'll approve raise your right hand say I motion passes 70 so I'll start with the next one and Dr ker is going to help me if if um I need it but uh Brian Daly could not be here uh this evening but these next two items are devices the first one is Apple MacBook devices U this would be for next year's n9th grade class um we need to order them now uh so that we have them in time to hand out in August um at orientation as a reminder we have a one to learner initiative our

111high school students have a Macbook from n9th grade through the end of high school and that would um that's what this U purchase would be for do I have a motion I move that the Board of Education approve the purchase of Apple MacBook devices motion by Jody second by Patrick any further discussion none go ahead Patrick my comments would just be for this and the next one I just um since four years in a row I've voted against um devices I'm opposed to our one to learner initiative device program um and I'll just make a few points and um you know one kind of our heavy Reliance on device learning in the classroom especially as kids get older I don't think there's any evidence that it improves student learning or achievement I think in fact

112it the evidence is that it decreases student learning and achievement um our this District's reading scores at middle school high school are all considerably down from where they were 10 years ago and they haven't really improved much since um just coming out of Co and I think the principal reasons for that are they're distracting um among that's one one major point the other is is that we don't as a district approach the instruction of advanced reading Advanced writing note taking skills research skills outlining skills writing development with any of the rigor that we really need to not necessarily applicable to let's call it the most advanced classes um but you know up and down the at every level of student in the in the district you know my view is every student from sixth grade

113to 12th grade should be reading you know 4,000 Pages across all the core classes in a in a school year and they don't come anywhere close to that except in the most advanced classes um and then they should be corollary amount of writing and and so my um my thesis which I've had since a Macbook was first given to my now mid-20s son in nth or 10th grade is that is that these are um they that they harm learning um and I think they inhibit some of the natural development required to develop proper syntax proper grammar punctuation and overall um inhibits proper intellectual development so you know I think it's only going to increase my concerns are only going to increase with the with the rapid development of artificial intelligence and the way we respond

114to it none of us grew up in an environment where we even had devices in schools in fact they my daughter didn't have devices in school she graduated from Full Valley Southwest in 2015 so um so I'm just going to close with an email that I got from a parent who I think I've met but but but I'm not for sure but she gave me permission to to share this she just sent me an email because I uh she knows what I you know my position on this um she says thanks for your work on the electronic and I think this ex not only reflects what I have to say but what I think a lot of people that view the world the way way I do um have to say on the topic thanks

115for your work on the electronic learning issues my child is a junior this year first year my kid has actually had a textbook this is for AP History and it has proven very challenging um they do not know how to she does not know how to read the textbook and take notes and study from it it took several weeks in working with me and the teacher for her to figure out how to navigate this information and be able to take tests in class shameful of course I fear this does not prepare my child well for college at all it was particularly difficult in science classes in honors biology my kids my daughter was struggling and I kept asking where is the book The response we don't have a book it's all just reading material scattered

116on canvas diving into a textbook is much more comprehensive than looking through a PowerPoint or some notes that the teacher put on canvas so anyway those are those are all my points if I might uh say I've got a granddaughter in college and she does not have any textbooks it's all online you talk about reading scores in the past 10 years but am I correct that they changed the test 10 years ago and made it tougher so our numbers are going to be down I think so and how is that test taken on the computer it's online they they CH it's the version they it's a new version 10 years ago so you're both correct yeah it was changed about 10 years ago they're making a new version this year um so that's another you

117heard that from Adam Wade earlier um our scores have bounced back up in some grade levels they are um the highest they've been on this version of the test not all but on some um so I would say that you are both correct because we haven't bounced completely back in the last 10 years but it it was a new version um of the test 10 years ago I would just like to also um say that you know we we ask over the year we ask many many times about the usage of of devices in the classroom and um you know it's used as a supplemental tool um it's not the kiddos are not on the devices the whole time and so um you know this is this is preparing them for for the world our

118job is to prepare these wonderful you know K through 12 students to be able to survive uh in the world and to hit their goals and so um well I you know appreciate what what you're saying and I limited my kids usage at home extremely I was very tight with that um you know I I just don't think it's realistic and and honestly I you know not approving this you're telling you know uh future ninth graders nth grade families that um they shouldn't be having a device and so um you know like I said I I do hear what you're saying um there's some things I I agree with but I I just don't think that that's the world we're in right now and it's not realistic and uh so I guess that's I got

119a couple comments you know this is a tool you know I used it with my kids um you know I think it's great reading 4,000 Pages a day um you can read that on the computer or not um but at the end of the day it's it's part of our curriculum uh practice and policy the entire world is utilizing digital machines in one version of the other um I think there may be some opportunities to um you know parents work with kids um to improve the research or the note taking or maybe even some of the schools can work on that through the use of this particular device but we've started this device I don't know Jody were you on the board when we passed this yeah so I mean we we implemented this um

120years ago and it's part of how we do business it provides continuity and consistency kids have the same programs they can get their assignments in one place it creates a number of efficiencies and so it's simply a tool it doesn't replace or supplant uh learning that's still a process process that's between the teacher and the student and the parents and so for us to not pass this through right now would would be a radical drastic change in impact on a whole group of kids and so um you know I think that our responsibility is to uh continue these programs and provide for these kids you know both of my kids had one of these computers um you know it uh seems to me that they're able to navigate it very efficiently it may not be

121something that that I want to navigate um i' be the first person to say I like paper um and I use it a lot but quite honestly the rest of the world really doesn't care um and part of our job is to prepare these kids to go forward and this is a tool that helps get them there if I could just Pigg you back on what Patrick said a little bit too I remember the days before we had the onetoone devices and you know we were at more Elementary which is you know um not as fancy or well off as some other areas and you know we might have had you know one device per kind of grade level that they were sharing and um our wonderful friends you know across the street um were

122had unlimited devices so so in my mind too it's an equity issue because you start pulling you know tools away from kiddos um the halves who can afford it will afford it and those that that can't won't and so this this levels that playing field and I think every kiddo deserves um you know the same opportunities so I I recognize some of these points I just uh I I don't the the underlying argument that I make is one that I'm not expecting to win um I just reiterate it because I think it's it bears um I think there's quite a bit of evidence in our culture and that is there's there's just no way in this in the in the world that we are inhabiting it's not just blue valley that we are preparing students

123and developing them intellectually across the board especially at the lower in the in the in the and in the middle um with you know the amount of Reliance on um in the Reliance on devices in delivery of academic you know content and uh the only way to become a good reader and that's not just reading in English class it's reading in history science and math is to do it and to do it in depth and to do really hard stuff in volume and in in both quantity and in quality and then to also spend a significant amount of time writing so um perhaps if I if I felt that we we also matched um the enthusiasm that we have for our technology and our technology programs um with the level of rigor at from the

124lowest levels to student to the highest level student on on on these core fundamental um building blocks that are necessary for intellectual development I would be i' I'd be I'd have a different perspective but I just don't I just I I don't see um I would just you know my for my own kids sake I'd rather here's your here's your notebook and six books and we're going to read these this semester and you're going to write 40 pages of papers and we're going to work on it and work on it and work on it and um that kid is going to be way ahead of the the the average you know the average class whether it's a history or English or science class and just just my perspective I understand I'm I'm not expecting to

125win people over I just get it on the record I've done it four years in a row and I just you know might not be here next year so I got want one to follow up you know Jim I mean I really think that you know rigor is is an option option it's a choice and so some kids are all in and and want to pursue that I think based on me using this uh computer and looking at it uh with my kids um I think it's a tool I think it allows them to um I think it puts more minutes in the classroom because you have less issues with computers you have less issues with technology get more instruction time you can write more papers if you choose to um I I think it's

126a matter of of the parent and the child and the teacher figuring out the best way to use the device for the child um I'm not against rigor at all and I think those opportunities exist but you know walk up to any 10th grader and say hey would you like to write 40 pages this year they might not come back but riggers riger shouldn't be like an option for for I mean is that's what we're here for well maybe you and I Define rigor differently but I mean the point is is we have all kinds of glasses at all kind of interest and levels and not everybody needs to be writing 40 pages 40 papers a year there may be other interests we got our we got our Career Tech programs that benefit many kids

127that it's very technologically driven and these computers help to advance their understanding and being able to navigate and move around on all these things again it's a tool um and you're right maybe device time is is a bad thing but that's incumbent upon um our culture to decide what works and what doesn't but also it's you it's an opportunity for parents to weigh in on that conversation but the bottom line it's a tool and we're not going to rip it out of the policy and our curriculum at this moment in time we can have that conversation going forward but at the end of the day I think it does a dis big disservice to our kids and our students in this community I I have to agree with um Jim and the riger part I

128think it's very important to really to be pushing our kids to do more and maybe because we're attorneys and we do a lot of writing I agree with the writing and the reading where I differ is where I think these MacBooks and the devices and the tools we bring them can help in that regard and can advance that um and when I go into all the school buildings that I visit and I see kids that are they might be on their MacBooks or their Chrome books same assignment some kids are using pencil and paper some kids are up there on the Whiteboard working out their problem some are on a try erase desk they're they're actually writing on the desk because it can be erased they're all doing it at their in in a way

129that works best for them trying to because the ultimate goal is to get these kids to learn and the more tools we have to get their individual learning learning abilities to to absorb it in their individual ways I think it's all the better so I do think these are valuable especially going forward in today's world and I just like to weigh in real quickly is that I mean we live in a global society and if we want our children to be able to compete globally we're going to have to stay on track uh my grandson when he was in Middle School he took a pre-engineering class and that was all on online a lot of your e uh your architecture type of learning they're doing it on the computer now and even movies film they're

130creating those on a computer and if we take away that option for our children within our district we are definitely doing them a disservice because they won't be able to compete with other uh students from other states and even globally cuz even globally I don't want to talk politics but we heard recently that because of the Americans um they're not um not astute but they kind of said that that that we're kind of behind everyone else and so therefore they want to bring in other people that have that in uh engineering expertise and everything but a lot of that the majority of is done on computers so that that's what I'm saying if we pull them out at this time I'm I'm not opposed to computers in our schools I'm just I was my comments

131were on the one one to learner program like I did computer programming in 1983 with in my sixth grade uh sixth grade computer class in Kansas City Missouri so all right I'm gonna move us along here and I appreciate your annual review of your onetoone learner policy um so I have a motion on the table by jod and a second by Patrick um if there's no further discussion then all in favor raise your right hand or say I um motion did you did you vote for that okay all all opposed raise your right hand okay motion passes 60 and then I'm sorry 61 and then item K is uh the same thing it's just Chromebooks this time and this is the annual refresh for our sixth graders so our sixth graders coming in into middle

132school next year same thing um would get a device at their orientation and so these are ordered now so that they will be here in plenty of time uh to be able to do that I move that the Board of Education approve the purchase of Chromebook devices and so these two purchases are about a little under $3 million and they're using Bond proceeds right uh that is correct motion by Clay second by Jan any further discussion Jim you want to go another round same points for this one Jim as the first one um all right all in favor raise your right hand or say I all opposed raise your hands motion passes 61 our final agenda item tonight are is board member comments so if there's anything further um for discussion or you want to

133just talk about tonight Jody we'll start with you um yeah I would just like to um do a shout out to all of these wonderful wonderful staff students that sent the board um pieces of original artwork um thank you notes um Jim if you'll notice some of the um the thank yous we have on the dis here um they're from fifth graders then they're incursive their their signatures are incursive I knew you would appreciate that so um you know I just uh I I feel so incredibly appreciated um and um it means a lot Jim j i uh want to Echo what Jody said merely to repeat what I told her was we were leaving with a bundle of uh appreciation of Cards and Crafts and really nice things from uh students and teachers uh

134and I turned to her and I said and they said we don't get paid because that really was priceless what they did for us I just want to give a sh shout out to the chorus that sing when they walked out my heart was full I mean I had to hold back tears and uh today my entire being has been full the gifts that we got and then they came in and sang a special number for us and I I just really appreciate that I mean I was shocked and very appreciative yeah I just want to Echo what Jan Jody and Sonia said about the appreciation letters and baskets and performances thank you again reiterate the overwhelming appreciation that I felt and I'm grateful for that grateful for all the wonderful folks we have in

135Blue Valley because those packets were just awesome read through those things today and um just amazing and I'm so glad to be Annie's favorite so I don't know who Annie is but I'm really happy about that that's me too come on give me something here all right um I want to thank uh Jennifer mler for speaking at tonight's open Forum want to thank our scout who's been sitting here for the past two and a half hours the entire time working on his Communications badge so kudos to you nice job here to go buddy um looking forward to uh School visits coming up should hit all the schools this semester and the legislature is also convened for its 2025 um session so I would like to encourage our community members to pay attention to what goes

136on in Topeka I know we're all distracted by what happens in Washington and everything that goes on there but in Topeka our Kansas legislature they are the ones that are going to impact us the most so if your representative or your state senator ran on a pro Public School agenda keep them honest watch what they're doing you can go to our website at Blue Valley um k12.org and see our legislative priorities if they are not voting in alignment with those I would not call them pro-public education so I encourage our community to pay attention hold them accountable accountable and let them know that we need to fully fund our schools including special education thank you clay I don't have anything just if that is it then we are adjourned for