001Blue Valley Board of Education the time when the board publicly conducts its business of governing the school district although these monthly meetings are open to everyone it's important to note that they are not interactive sessions with the public comments from the audience are reserved for individuals who have signed up to speak during during open Forum we kindly ask all attendees to contribute to a positive Atmosphere by conducting themselves with the quum please engage in civil and polite Behavior towards one another it is crucial that everyone pres present extends courtesy to both the school board members and the speakers by listening attentively please refrain from making comments or sounds While others are sharing their thoughts fostering an environment of respect thank you for your understanding and cooperation and making this a productive meeting for all and
002uh as I mentioned before but I'm not sure we were streaming at that time Dr merrian is um out of town um with doing some uh tying up some professional learning so we have um our Deputy superintendent here uh we appreciate him being here for us I would like to draw attention we've got some students in the crowd and uh I see at least one Scout um so would you mind just introducing yourself and telling me like if you go to school somewhere around here and maybe what troop you're from if you're part of a scout yes great my name is Andrew my name is Andrew I go to Oxford Middle School and I'm here to listen for a merit department and I from 218 perfect thank you for being here we appreciate that any
003other students in the crowd would like to I see people looking around nobody wants to stand up okay well thank you there's a whole row back there and you guys somebody somebody you guys somebody stand up we got we got a couple here all of us are from excellent excellent well thank you for being here we appreciate it all right so we're going to go ahead and call the meeting to order uh we will start with reports from board advisory committees okay um we do have a number of reports to give um just to publicly introduce myself I am Kyle Hayden I'm Deputy superintendent I'm filling in for Dr meran as as she is out of town and but she is with us um remotely and uh Dr meran if you're tuned in we can
004go ahead and start with you with diversity equity and inclusion thank you Kyle I appreciate you all all OPP andity and inclusion actually has tce since the last meeting we met on January 11 January 11 Matt director School administ director for the district came in and presented On Athletics and and kind of the policies around about how you cans Middle School sports student participation in athletics of atics acoss the district Kelly W also this January meeting presented the community ctions and observations to be included in school news and end that meeting bylting students to be honed at the 20 Lu King J C the federal law schools she began Civil Rights Act 1964 she went expained implications around title title and title that protect individual a little bit about our board policies and how board
005policy 3625 talked about discrimination harassment and retaliation for students and board policy 6525 that was the same topic around employees we had a great um discussion with the committee and then the second part of that meeting was Dr from high school and Dr Valley Rest um talking about experiences that they've had in their schools and some of the with their communities our final meeting of this year which I can't believe is on April 4th okay thank you Dr merrian um next I'm going to go to curriculum and instruction with our other Deputy superintendent Dr Katie Coler good even meting the curriculum and instruction board advisory committee met on January 24th uh during this meeting there were two particular topics that were discussed first um District data Adam Wade again returned to the committee to further
006discuss District data from Spring 2023 and District growth measures at that time he talked about the importance of staff and families understanding multiple data points to fully tell a story about the student's learning and progress over the course of a year he then walked the committee Through Math data from Spring 2023 and the district growth measures for the 2324 school year we also got to talk about as you heard this morning middle school 11 so Jake slobotnik executive director of operations introduced this particular segment to the committee the purpose purp of the session was to update committee members on the design process for middle school 11 we had a representative from DLR group present similar to your time with that individual this morning who went over the process of visioning and collecting stakeholder feedback which
007ultimately led to the Draft plans which you and others have now reviewed the committee was asked to provide feedback on those Draft plans but the committee was also advised that the project is not yet complete we will provide the cni um committee future updates on the progress of this project the next meeting of the committee is February 21st thank you Dr Collier uh next up uh for communications our chief Communications officer christe mcnarland good evening again um the communications board advisory committee um met and we highlighted on February 6th and we highlighted various communication initiatives underway and or coming up in the coming weeks such as the non-resident transfer policy graduation requirements Chinese immersion enrollment um our champions of learning campaign that continues middle school 11 and we also noted Community connections with the board
008scheduled for February 24th 2024 at Oxford Middle School from 6:00 to 7:00 we are currently um advertising that um event on social as well and sharing with our parents the committee also discussed blue Valley's priority legislative positions that's what we spent the most of the time most of the time talking about um the communications plan and resources available on the district's legislative website page the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 a.m. and the next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March 5th at 7:30 in the Board of Education room thank you thank you Christie I do have um several different committee reports uh Student Activities Committee met two times um so I'll start with that and then I'll go to finance and operations the student and Activities Committee met on January 11th the meeting began with introductions
009of Blue Valley staff members who were invited to this meeting to share information committee members worked in small groups on the six goals associated with the efforts to create a 5-year strategic plan Jake sodnik provided an update dat on current facility improvements that are underway and then high school and middle school staff provided activity and athletic updates Student Activities Committee met again on February 1st Matt Ortman shared statistics regarding the number of students involved in clubs Athletics and activities for both middle and high school levels committee members discuss current student interests along with considerations to the possibility of adding or removing programs high school and middle school staff provided activity and athletic updates on to uh finance and operations so the finance and operations committee met on February 8th I welcomed I welcomed committee members
010provided a General District update and then reviewed the meeting agenda items Jake sodnik presented on the 2023 Bond construction implementation schedule and DLR group presented the programming and schematic design of middle school 11 Jake also presented the bids and contracts the next committee meeting is scheduled for February 29th and I think that concludes our board advisory committee reports great thanks Kyle uh so now we move on to reports from board members and the superintendent on items not included on the agenda would uh Dr mer is Dr Maran can go first or um well typically she goes last but go ahead go first either one you yeah Dr Maran are you uh ready to give your report you you pull that up for there we go yep got it go ahead there we go so first
011thing I want to highlight is the next step program was highlighted by channel 41 and this is a program for our families who second language is English and these are our youngest Learners who are just entering the system uh parents's Teachers program so we want to congratulate that program they've gotten a lot of really great media coverage as they are so deserving right now go ahead also want to make sure the community knows that the valley Education Foundation is sponsoring once again the Innovative educator award but this time we're opening it up to the entire community so anybody in our community can nominate one of our amazing Educators for the Innovative educator award there's a l we put a lot out on social media so please make sure that you nominate a very deserving St
012M will the winners will receive some money to use in their classrooms go ahead um our next Community Connection point that chy just talked about is actually I think she said February 24th but I'm pretty sure it's on February 29th which is a thur at oxol this is Black History Month um everybody knows that our schools are really all hosting activities to honor and celebrate Black History Month um and we are proud to sponsor those activities within our schools um you just saw Paul Aubrey a little bit ago and I was privileged to be able to be at that assembly when he was surprised he was surprised in front of his entire student student body at curar with that recog in his family got to be there so and I look forward to celebrating with
013him at the conference a little bit later this month we since our last board meeting we have two new state champions L Val Southwest for speaker debate um one for the I can't even remember how many years in AOW now but they have a dynasty going on up there in Blue Valley nor 62 speaker of debate so congratulations to both of those teams um we have a couple of podcast out there right now this is Scott Roberts and Scott and an from Val Southwest joins me when he talks about graduation requirements and so for those grade families especially who are looking at be a great thing to listen to and to learn a little bit more about those graduation requirements um this adorable little girl here K the uh was the third grade stud is
014the 2024 so citn now advances to the state competition and so we want to congratulate and forward to her moving forward willing Elementary grader lake at Hall took first place in the Kansas City Chinese speech contest so we want to congratul congratulate as well talk about Chinese here Valley North is one of only 16 schools to receive the Chinese language Teachers Association distinguish K through2 Chinese program um it's a reflection of a lot of things going on but we want to congratulate our teachers and all of our students our curriculum leaders who have work in Chinese last week was national school council Comm make a few of the great school counselors BL Valley so us because we have a liced school coun in every single building um but not every school in in the state
015or in the country has that so thank you to our counselors for all the work that they do and then later this week on February 15th it is school resource officer appreciation day and there's just a few three of our bests who are pictured here and we're so appreciative of all our officers including the two that are in the board tonight and who are always there to support we're so lucky because our officers um really go above and beyond to make relationships with students and with um the adult in system and so they're s member of our team we really couldn't do our work without them it's President Day on February 19th so next Monday we will not have school we will be celebrating that holiday and then finally last week we hon and the
016privil of surprising Alex Alex is a social studies teacher at Blue Valley West High School he's also Blue Valley West Alumni with the 2024 educator award that recognition comes with a $25,000 cash prize that goes to Alex um you know that people ask have asked me since that event well how did how did he get nominated who nominated him I don't know because that's a process we're not a part of but what I do know because I asked is that they would not consider him or any of our teachers for that recognition at first the district was an exceptional district and number two the school was not an exceptional school so this is a testament to Alex of course but also is a testament to every single teacher and educator within our system but we
017were very proud a fun day to really truly 100% surprise and I believe that is it Dr Maran I know you're not here but I do believe we may have one of The Debaters from North in the audience is that not correct so excellent [Applause] congratulations all right let's go ahead and start with um Jan thank you you know when I first started making a list of what I've done I saidwell we had so many snow days I probably didn't do very much and then I said oh my work I was busy um every Friday I participate in the Kansas advocacy network uh through the Kansas Association of school boards where we talk about legislation and uh you know what we can do to help support um all the school districts in in the legislature
018uh jod and I went to to and lobbied we met with most of the Johnson County delegation Dan Osman Linda featherson Mary Lynn posin Heather Meyer Shan tarwater Molly bomgardner Kelly Warren and Cindy holer we were busy that day um I also had the privilege to be able to talk to a Cub Scout Pack about public service and government uh then couple weeks ago I went to Washington DC as part of the National Association of school board's advocacy conference uh met with uh Congressman Jake L Turner's Legislative Assistant for education and also uh representative Sharice David's education Legislative Assistant and we had a great meeting with Jerry Moran Senator Jerry Moran uh I also uh was able to catch Senator Chris Van Holland of Maryland out in the hall after he had spoken uh to
019the conference about uh id idea uh special ed funding uh and he was looking for a co-sponsor so I approached uh Senator Moran about being a republican co-sponsor for that too where that's still up in the air um Blue Valley recck committee met um got a lot of updates on that uh then I also participated in a telephone interview with them regarding strategic planning for uh the coming years uh PTO presidents just gave them an update on School District activities I'm almost done um the Blue Valley Ed Foundation board meeting attended and uh primary focus was the battle of the bands coming on February 24th at RC's uh restaurant the back door there may be a few tickets left not a whole lot uh we also received a presentation from the blue valley Northwest Navigator
020program that uh works on socializing autistic students and to me that was just fascinating because these students will go and read to elementary students uh they're pretty much taught how to act in public they went to Worlds of Fun uh how to act in public and U also they participated in an escape room and then they teach them how to order at a restaurant it's it's a tremendous program um then on was it last Saturday we went to boardsmy way clay and uh Sonia and Dr margan and I participated in K Association of school boards uh boardsmy training and then uh as Dr mergan said most of us were there to see Alex La hasy be blown away by his $25,000 price it was real funny when uh as they were announcing how much it
021was you know we were not really sure what the heck is going on and they have people coming out with a dollar sign in 2500 and I'm thinking we're doing all this for $2500 and then somebody late runs up with the extra zero it was hysterical and what a honor it was and that's it for me thanks thanks Jan Jim I'm going to talk about um a alumni that we that the that the community lost um last week um we as a board would like to take a moment to say a few words about 2020 Blue Valley Southwest graduate Lance corporal Donovan Davis who was serving in the Marines when the helicopter he was in along with four other Marines crashed during a storm near San Diego last Tuesday February 6th all five marines died
022lance corporal Davis enlisted in the Marine Corps in September 2019 during his senior year at Blue Valley Southwest he was promoted to the rank of Lance corporal in recent months his decorations included the global war on terrorism service medal National Defense service medal and a sea service deployment ribbon Lance corporal served our country with honor we are grateful for his service his death is a blow to his family and our Blue Valley Community a stanza from Robert Ban's poem for the Fallen speaks to this moment of profound lost they shall not grow old as we are left to grow old age shall not weary them nor the years condemn at the going down of the Sun and in the morning we will remember them the Blue Valley School Board extends our condolences to Lance corporal
023Davis's family thanks thank you Jim I appreciate that Gina so first of all I want to welcome clay this is his first board meeting in person so welcome to the board clay we're happy to have you um and Shout out and congrats to the Chiefs I know everybody's been getting lots of communications today about and yesterday about school there is not school Wednesday okay guys so um just finalize that for you um and then I had the honor of going to Topeka with some of my cboard members um on January 29th which is Kansas day which made it extra fun to be in Topeka um to talk to to our Johnson County delegation and um a lot of the superintendents were there and other board members were there from other school districts but what we
024do basically is we all come together to advocate for um what our school districts all commonly support um to be passed so there's questions surrounding open enrollment which all of us have um that we're working on fully funding sped is something that everybody agrees on um all the superintendents in Johnson County and the board um school boards so um just going up there and being able to talk to our representatives and senators and Topeka was um a really interesting and I really enjoyed it a lot the other thing is is that we had a special ed resource Fair last week um this is fully planned and put on by our um our special ed advisory Council which is composed of uh parents from all of the different schools around the district uh they put so
025much time into to it and it is really the premier um special ed resource fair in the region people come from outside of Blue Valley to it I know Clay came um and said that he talked to several uh vendors who said this is by far their favorite fair to come to um very well attended jod was also there um it's just really a tribute to our special ed um leadership um who he's he's not Dr Schmid's not here tonight but um he does a great job leading this and really feeling like our parents have a voice parents of special ed par um students have a voice so that it was really great to see so thanks Gina Sonia as Gina had indicated um we took a drive up to Topeka and uh we sat
026with the legislative delegation and talked about issues that was really important to Educators and and as far as the board and regarding the children uh as far as students and open enrollment and things it's very eye openening because we have some very very passionate people that are really advocates for us uh in our state capital and um as uh Jan had indicated that we attended a seminar on the foundations of board and ship and it was awesome I mean I wish I had known some of those things before I attended my first board meeting and uh so it was great and also I just like to indicate when we did go and Alex was awarded the $225,000 check what really resonated with me was I had an opportunity to hear um the commissioner of Education
027Dr Watson and I found that very invigorating very eye openening and as well well as seeing how passionate he was for education so and that's all I have right now thank you Sonia Patrick excellent all right clay you're up first time all right well thank you for the welcome now that I have recovered from covid and I can be here in person it's a thrill to be here so thank you for the welcome um over the last month I did attend the um curriculum and instruction meeting which we've already gone over today the KB training with uh my fellow colleagues up here in Dr Maran which was very good also went up to the state capital with um uh Gina and Sonia and some others which is always um very good and our own Dr
028Maran made us all proud giving her remarks to the legislator so um that was good thank you Dr merrian um hopefully they were listening hopefully they listened to all the other superintendents and board board members that were there um there's a lot of things that we'd like to have uh moving through TOA um I also continue um at Blue Valley West over there as a father's club shair and we held our very first mental health wellbeing and suicide prevention training for dads at Blue Valley West so that was very exciting also worked the sweetheart dance last this past weekend which is always a good time love seeing you guys out there on the Dance Floor um also went to the special ed resource Fair again that was fantastic and they were all so many people
029said that was the best resource fair in the state and they just love coming out to it last meeting you appointed me as to one of the Blue Valley seats on the board of directors for the Caps Network so I attended my first board meeting over there drank from a fire hose lots of stuff to die digest because that's a whole another organization of information to learn so um thank you for that appointment I think it's very exciting and caps is doing some wonderful things so thank you um I also took a position on the leadership board of the Johnson County Suicide Prevention Coalition so we're doing a lot of things over there in the area of Suicide Prevention and I do have to say that milkin award for Alex L hasy was phenomenal and
030I don't think it was mentioned but Alex was also a 2009 graduate I think a Blue Valley High was it West from Blue Valley that's right Blue Valley West because he came home because he had um he's now working with a lot of the teachers that he went to school with that were his teachers so that I thought that was pretty cool um and he was extremely surprised that was really cool so that uh that kind of wraps up great thanks Clay um I'll just round this out um in addition to being interwoven into a lot of the things that people have mentioned um I would like to say I did attend spam a lot at North oh my gosh it was absolutely fantastic loved it absolutely loved it it was as I've said many
031many times you know for a couple bucks uh it's a great date night uh event um you know we we've got amazing talent especially in our high schools but even in our middle schools um that um is just you know you really can't get better but spam aot was absolutely fantastic and loved it so um let's see here other than that I think that's the only thing that was maybe a little different than from all my cohorts and you know being a a blue valley Southwest parent you know Jim and I both kind of um had shared that you know our kiddos um had known um um the the individual who passed um Donovan um and um it's just uh it's it's hard when that happens to our community so I appreciate uh Jim taking
032the time and kind of writing out a statement from the board on that so all right so uh next we get to appr approve the agenda for the February 12th 2024 regular Board of Education meeting as published do I have a motion I move that the Board of Education approve the agenda for the February 12th 2024 regular Board of Education meeting as published do we have a second okay motion by Gina second by Jan any discussion all in favor raise your hand or say I any opposed motion passes 70 okay so next we will move on to approve the consent agenda for the February feary 12th 2024 regular Board of Education meeting as published do I have a motion okay I move that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda for the February 12th
0332024 regular Board of Education meeting as published right do I have a second okay motion by Jim second by Sonia any discussion I I would just point out that in the consent agenda there are some sizable expenditures most of which uh pertain to the um uh the bond the 2023 Bond and that uh we discussed Kyle had gave a quick update on the finance committee so anyway those are interesting for those in the public to to go and review um and field qu you know send questions along if you have them great all right so if there's no more discussion uh all in favor raise your hand or say I any oppos same sign motion passes 70 excuse me I got to fli my paper here all right on to new business okay um first
034up uh new business uh this evening we have our annual enrollment report and um Mr Eric palum our assistant director of planning and operations is here once again resident expert to uh share his knowledge about enrollment we do you guys just think it yeah or not okay thank you very much uh Eric palum I'm the assistant director of planning and operations um I just wanted to start by saying that I'm really happy to see all these students here uh seeking an educational opportunity that's just very different from what they might experience in one of our classrooms um and so I hope they uh enjoy this presentation full of graphs numbers and charts uh and get something out of it um and learn a little bit about some of the information we use to that affects
035the schools that they go to which schools they go to um so welcome and I'm glad you're here uh this is the 2324 enrollment report uh it's an annual report we do uh the report itself is um not a terribly small document that serves as a way to Chronicle our history of enrollment uh talk about area Trends and um effects that um change our enrollment and look at other area school districts and trends that are going on there but most importantly to most people also includes a five-year projection of what we expect for our enrollment going forward uh so today I'm going to give you just some highlights from that report uh any of you who want to dig deeper into some of the information feel free to contact me later uh as some of
036you I've talked to about this before know I'm happy to talk at length about uh any questions you have so first just some observations about our enrollment in the 23 24 school year this chart shows our enrollment since 1990 uh when we've done most of our growing uh and you can see there has been a steady increase for the most part in our District's enrollment uh you can also see by the different colors in the bands kind of the proportion of elementary middle and high school um and you can kind of see as it it gets into later years we get um a lower percentage of Elementary and and it grows some in the in the higher grades um the rate of our enrollment increase has gone down uh since essentially the Great Recession when
037the amount of new housing that's being built in the district has slowed down and then of course we had uh the 2020 year that impacted our enrollment as well as uh our uh neighboring school districts and school districts across the country uh this year we came in at a headcount of 21,7 60 on our September 20 official count day uh that headcount came in one student above the previous year and when I looked at it I thought they're not going to believe me when I say it's just one they're thinking I have last year's numbers um so essentially we had a similar enrollment this year to last this shows our kindergarten enrollment uh all the way back to 1970 at the beginnings of the school district uh back then when we were looking at 60
038kids in a class um our biggest year uh was was 2021-22 uh which was kind of our 2020 rebound year uh where we had 1554 uh and compared to that 1970 class um at any given School in our district now Elementary School they may have that many kindergarteners in that one school or um more than that even uh this year we came at 1464 which is about normal for what we've seen um since the the uh enrollment changes and the development change after the recessionary period we had one thing about blue valley that it helps to understand is what we call cohort growth uh and because we are largely a move up Community a lot of people buying their second houses and things um we get a lot of growth that happens within our classes
039as they go from their kindergarten class all the way through their senior year and the true growth of the district isn't really something that's shown by that net change one student this year over last year uh and what we learn is when you factor in that we have a large senior class going out and a smaller kindergarten class filling in that space behind it um that hasn't had a chance to grow we always have kind of a hole to fill uh with those large outgoing senior classes and that happens all along the way at every grade level so um just kind of looking at the cohort growth um last year to what we noted this year um you can see on the the left side the 2122 to 2223 uh at the bottom there on
040the left side you see that 1947 seniors outgoing with 1469 kindergarteners incoming that's what I'm talking about that hole that we have to fill and you can see where it gets filled at all the grade levels along the way um so on the right side is this years uh and you can see that we actually added 307 students if you look look at last year's kindergarten to this year's rising to this year's first grade that they added 54 students to that cohort and so that's what we refer to when we talk about cohort growth this is a look at some Johnson County area school districts and change in enrollment uh by year and this is the head count enrollment it's a little bit different than the enrollment the FTE enrollment that determines our funding and
041I'll show that in a second um but this includes virtual students and counts partial enrollments as a whole uh so if you're not spending all of your school day in one of our classrooms it's still counting you as as a a full uh headcount and you can see obviously there was a a big uh change in the 2020 year you can see that Spring Hill had a big year with their virtual school that uh resulted in that Spike for them while everyone body else was dipping but if you look at the FTE enrollment which removes the virtual effect and takes into account partial enrollment then you start to see a more normal picture of what you would expect and what you understand to be going on in the area um and so you can see
042everybody had that dip to varying degrees in the 2020 year and then has kind of stabilized over the last couple of years since but it's been very very modest growth or slight decline in some cases of these Area School District um but everything has has seemingly come back to just a very slow growth type scenario and that's what we've experienced here at BL Valley just to put it in numbers uh last year our FTE enrollment was 21843 and this year 2,879 so you see there's a bigger effect uh on the FTE enrollment that determines funding than just that one headcount that I noted earlier so as far as our piece of the pie in Johnson County if you will the share of of uh students that we have compared to the other school districts it's
043really uh we've had a similar share every year uh going back for 20 years uh so there hasn't been a drastic change in recent years of how many students uh in Johnson County that are here versus at other school districts so that's just some observations about where our enrollment stands today um what people are most interested in are the enrollment ejections uh and that's where we saw some really kind of interesting data jump out of the report this year um while in other things about enrollment Trends might have been seemingly kind of business as usual um so I'm going to talk a little bit bit about what goes into those enrollment projections we build our projections off of a really sophisticated model that was developed in Blue Valley for Blue Valley and it served us
044well for for many years and every year we're making improvements to it um we close clly closely monitor new development and any other factors that affect our enrollment um we get new building permit statistics on a weekly basis and so um we're constantly monitoring these things to help update our data to make help us make the best decisions so the projection model takes existing students and then it takes them out for five years and makes adjustments to those classes in those attendance areas it's built up of over 520 individual projections for individual neighborhoods um that get put together to the larger number uh so we take the the students that we have and we make adjustments based on what we know about new development and the effects of that new development on our on our
045enrollment and then in areas that have already finished developing out we take into account neighborhood turnover statistics to adjust enrollment expectations in those areas so this was the most interesting thing about this year's report and you can see at Blue Valley's peak development we had a couple of years where we were building a thousand new single family homes um and even within this very graph you can still see numbers like 800 uh there was the Great Recession that brought us back down below 100 for a short time and then recovered and we've settled in to you know between three and 400 300 and 450 uh single family homes um kind of just ebbing and flowing with economic conditions uh but this year we had 171 and this is from last September 20 well this year's
046September 20 to the previous one that Academic Year um 171 and so uh I spent some time asking around uh to make sure that my eyes weren't deceiving me um and calling around to different sales offices and talking to Realtors and uh yeah it the data was correct and so this this is what we saw two years ago in the district you can see that the uh neighborhoods that were producing the most homes were the Willows Terry Brook Farm Sundance Ridge they were all hovering around 40 homes uh that they had built that school year and then you go to the year that led up to this September 20 and it looks like this and the biggest ones were in the teens um so just a very big swing and so talking to everybody about
047why that may be I had I had some expectations and and everybody said this is the reason the interest rates or the mortgage rates um had been very very low um as we were trying to help the economy recover from a recession and during that time a lot of people were refinancing buying uh and that's why we had a very good year um one of our best years of new single family homes right after the 2020 year um everybody was taking advantage and so then in the time since uh trying to combat inflation and other things they've been raising interest rates and that's not just for your mortgage rates it's construction loans it's all the things that go into what makes the engine work for new Housing Development and so seeing this as probably a
048short-term and temporary condition where we're looking at you know six to 8% um Everybody kind of hits the pause button and says okay we're going to wait until things come back down um and the demand changes too because when everybody's just finished refinancing at 265 or buying a new house um they don't have an incentive to go anywhere so that had a big impact on this year's enrollment um and you know I noted the cohort change it was a little lower this year than it was the previous year that's um largely because of the effects of the slowdown in in Housing Development over the past year um as I get into the actual projections themselves I just kind of wanted to show you this is a a graph that shows the black line has been
049our head count enrollment year on-ear and the colored bands represent what was projected and since it's a 5-year projection you'll see that the red one closest to the black dot is what we were projecting for that year one year before and the it's the purple one on the far left is what we were projecting five years before uh so you see the range gets wider range of possibilities gets wider and you'll see when I show you the project ctions next how we do those it'll it'll make a lot more sense um but as we get closer and closer with the hindsight of intervening years then we have a much more specific expectation for what the following year will hold and you can see that that black line goes through the bars um and and hasn't
050deviated from that so the projections are serving us well the closest we got to getting outside the bars was the 2020 year um and the high projection that we give is meant to be just economic boom um like you you know the best we've seen before and the low projection is an economic bust um you know just the worst conditions for enrollment that you could expect which I feel like we kind of observed I mean I think we we went through that and as it turns out the projection for the 2020 school year was within about 10 kids of the low projection so uh it was close but but still Within projection and um the the worst case scenario that we experienced it was uh right about what we should expect for that scenario so
051these are the five-year projections districtwide uh that are in the model today um you can see it remains relatively flat for the next couple of years um the red is that high projection the economic boom possibility uh if all of the subdivision that we know that are up and running or are coming are you know building houses uh full steam then that's what we would expect uh the blue on the bottom would uh be if none of that materialized and there were conditions in the economy or society that were leading to people uh to do other things and so the mid-range projection is the average of those two and that's what we have been able to rely upon has been what we expect for those years um but it's always helpful to just view it
052as that range of possibilities um so for next year uh we're expecting to be just slightly higher than this year uh than probably with a uh large current J junior class uh leaving after next year slight dip um and then it starts to grow uh modestly and a lot of that is based on our expectation that what's going on with interest rates is not going to be you know a multi-year problem it's going to be something they're already talking about easing that uh back down and taking steps to do that so we don't think the bounce back will be quick and immediate but that the uh new housing engine will will be um slowly back up and running and that's why you see that growth in those last three years so ele observations this is
053um what the numbers look like uh in the report and what we use for facility planning committee when we're trying to make decisions about schools boundaries and building new schools um the colors uh have meaning they are uh green is 110% capacity or higher in that projection number the gray would be below 75% capacity projection for that school and the yellow is everything in between what we would call within guidelines essentially um and so what you see with these element projections uh obviously everybody's not meant to be able to really dig into this for this particular presentation this is kind of an add of glance look um the projected enrollment for uh all elementary schools but one remains below the 110% guidelines uh that's largely in part to the uh boundary adjustments that we made
054last year uh those are showing that they're expected to be very successful in creating some relief where we needed to create some relief and in enrollment uh next year the mid-range projection for Indian Valley does show up green as being potentially above 110% um it's just barely above and within that building we have the ability to make some adjustments uh with program spaces to address that if need be uh and that's just the one year that they show being in the green um you see Aspen Grove at the very top our newest Elementary School um and they've started out pretty all uh largely because they are the ones expected to get all the new growth and that's happening kind of slowly uh and so you see they remain below 75% of their capacity uh expected
055at the mid-range projection for the five-year period uh middle schools also look to be in very good shape uh the most notable uh bit of data about the middle schools is Aubrey Bend which is expected to remain above 800 kids and then uh in the last three years of the projection start picking up growth again um they have capacity in classroom spaces but it's important to note that 800 students is a problematic number for just running a middle school um and so there is a solution thanks to our uh last Bond being successful we have a solution in place and I know in earlier reports tonight you heard about middle school 11 that will be uh designed to give enrollment relief to Aubrey Bend when it opens and it will come at a very good
056time uh Overland Trail in Oxford show a possible uh 110% capacity point in the latter years of the projection and that's just something we'll be monitoring over the next couple years uh getting the benefit of that hindsight and see how things play out there high schools are also in in really good shape a lot of yellow uh which is what we want uh they're all projected to remain below 110% of their capacity uh Blue Valley Southwest is still um and will continue to be for the 5year projection period our smallest High School um that enrollment has just been uh fairly flat or slow growth it is expected to pick up again um but it's going to be a slow climb but we've got good capacity there which is uh going to be very useful uh
057as as the district begins to grow again so just some general summary points um I noted the new residential construction is expected to begin making a recovery and we we do expect that to start growing over the next year um and then continuing through the 5-year period um our projections show that our schools are expected uh to remain within capacity guidelines and uh wanted to note uh for the board that the facility planning committee is not meeting this year year uh they will reconvene during the next school year and a big topic of discussion with them will be to look at an attendance boundary for middle school 11 um also worth noting um there's lots of ways that these projections are are useful to us uh not only do they help us see far enough
058into the future that we can make Capital Investments and and new facilities decisions with time to build them um they also give us short range data to help us make smart hiring practices and know exactly many teachers we're going to need for each grade for each school next year and uh a new way that they're influential on District Operations is with the new non-resident transfer guidelines uh the the new policy that you recently approved um which for those who aren't aware part of that is that uh schools accepting non-resident transfers must be projected to be below the 75% for the 5year projection period uh so those that stay in the gray and So based upon that what we learn about this upcoming school year is that uh there will be only two schools that would
059be accepting non-resident transfers that would be Aspen Grove Elementary and Blue Valley Southwest uh the total number of those students will be determined after we assess grade level Staffing and know what capacity we have within each grade level um so that's the summary of the enrollment report for this school year I'd be happy to answer any questions you have uh two questions for you um what have you observed the overall population of Blue Valley the whole Blue Valley District not school population but just the general population uh I don't have any statistics on that for you right now um but yeah we we do um keep track of of growth in the area we want monitor new businesses also moving in or near the area as well that might generate new housing demand for us
060do you um I'm just interested to know that like for the mid Li range projection 10 years out has the overall like FTE number still below where it would have been in like 19 M but it would I me I have this working assumption that blue valley is growing Blue Valley generally not the school district the the the total population within the boundary lines of the school district but you know maybe it's maybe it's getting older or maybe I don't know maybe there's more people homeschooling um because I don't think we really have many more private school population I'm just interested to know if we have any conclusions around that uh well the factors you mentioned are are definitely influential um we we are growing uh you're right it the the um age of the
061population in Blue Valley is going up um a lot of our housing the the timing in which it was built um we've got a lot of families that have had their students move through and we see this materialize in our our schools as to which ones are growing or not in kind of Horizons of development um as you know empty miners hold on to their houses for a little while and then move out and new families move in um some of the development that that uh gets a lot of attention that we perceive as growth and it is growth doesn't produce as many students as as you might think you we hear a lot from people when new apartment complexes come in and the apartments that we're building in Blue Valley uh are of a
062type and a price point that aren't really uh the type that produce a lot of students they're geared toward you know single individuals their um the the rent on them is such that you know you might be if you have a family you might be seeking larger accommodations and things like that so some of the development we have is just uh not the kind that produces a lot of students and then yes there are other options uh available right now virtual options uh homeschooling I don't have any statistics to tell you what has happened exactly with the homeschooling uh or you know virtual numbers to compare right now um but those things uh have led into conversations or or been brought up when we talk about with all the new houses in Blue Valley southwest's
063attendance area and their enrollment has remained uh fairly fairly level uh so they other forces at play there um other options maybe people are so that's my my other question is just around um like new new Housing Development you mean I the my working assumption would be we got f like 215th Street to develop so there's a lot of just open land there that people are probably holding for development mostly but but what are you hearing from the developers um there is some demand uh the price point limits the pool of potential residents quite frankly uh the new housing in in Blue Valley uh most of it you're looking the new ones you know 650 plus um so if you're talking about you know potential families moving from the Metro or from outside the Metro
064um there's just a smaller um demographic that can can afford that housing uh that has has an influence on on the demand and I guess this this be part of the facility planning committee if you just took Aubrey Ben and split it in half and half those kids went over to middle school 11 both those schools would be like 400 kids or 450 kids which would be would that would be not in the yellow band it would be in the gray band right and ideally those if you did it that way those attendance areas would both have a share of where we expect New Growth to occur and so that both of them would be working their way toward toward being in the El yeah okay if I can just add Dr Maran and I
065both set on a framework op which is the kind of a refresh for um uh planning for development and um actually there's an open comment I think I think you can look at the the work that's been done over the last what I don't know 18 months um that we've been meeting because there is um a a a desire to try to attract our young people back right and and do we have appropriate places or affordable places where they can live you know my position things that I bring to the table are you know making for sure we we have you know staff that what is it 40% uh of our teachers live in the district um the rest are outside of the district and a lot of it is just affordability so 4% if
066I recall correctly of our bus drivers uh live in live in the five sorry Kyle I messing five uh so um but um but that is something that you know we're taking a look at so but I do believe there is a public comment section they want some feedback on what what the proposal is right now so it'd be a good time to go on to the Overland Park website and look for framework op because um you're right I mean even in my neighborhood with you know there has been some regreening because I live in a little bit older neighborhood but I also there is also um um people who've moved in that that their kids have grown too so they're they're not you know they they want to live in Blue Valley but they
067don't have students at this point in time so do you have any um stats on occupancy in those apartment complexes because it feels like we're overbuilt and um I think there's down I think over the last quarter there's down it seems like there's downward pressure on rents but I mean to go back to like 2019 levels of rent is there's got to be a lot more downward pressure like not not the good type of downward pressure typically yeah I I've gathered um some similar Impressions from talking with the developers of new apartments um so without getting into the other business of those individuals conversations is giving us information to help make these projections there are some apartment complexes that might have been expected to be up and going next year and they're telling me we're
068pushing it back a couple of years um and so they're they're approved projects in a lot of cases and they're just like we're we're going to wait um some of it's the cost of construction some of it's the demand uh a lot of forces at play there um but yeah there's I don't have specific data on the the occupany of the ones that have been built but um what they'll always tell you when you talk to somebody who's building a new one is well if we didn't have good data that there was demand we wouldn't wouldn't be building and we do have several projects that are pending in our area yeah I think that U one of the issues obviously is the rising interest rates but I'm pretty sure that wages are not Rising as
069fast as home values are and that creates an issue I think for enrollment purposes over the near term imp possib the long term which is you said housing was about $650,000 for the new houses people are keeping their houses longer they're not moving nearly as frequently and where they are moving um depends on the affordability of the housing and it's not like uh the housing here is um extremely affordable so I think that's also one of the driving issues is Wages simply aren't Rising as fast as property are it it does look like at least say north of 159th Street that most of the school's enrollment over the next 5 years projects to be kind of in a healthy spot so I think that's a positive but yeah and that's in the area where we've
070seen some of that generational turnover of homes into new families bring um bring in some younger students um there was a while where it seemed kind of localized around the lewood elementary area and we had some really big kindergarten classes and then it's kind of spread East and West to where we've had kind of a um less pinpoint and um more manageable growth not big spikes but just kind of a a regreening as we call it across that Northern Tier of the district I figure that the developers who are so addicted to cheap debt are having to try to having their come to Jesus moment I guess I don't know going to be it might take him a few years it might any other questions anything else thank you very much appreciate it thank you
071next up calendar Dr CER leave it here it's that time of year again when I come before you to present to you a proposal for a district calendar a couple reminders about this topic we do have a district calendar committee which uh gathers annually and those are representatives of our staff across the district um who assist us in uh putting this document together couple other reminders the calendar that we bring before you each year does meet State expectations and expectations set forth in board policy 2200 more specifically attendance hours um are required to be 1,6 and then for seniors 1,086 additionally our calendar uh Works to meet our contractual obligations with our staff and that is up to 186 working days for our staff and 100 up to 191 for our new staff last September
072we um surveyed our community and received feedback on priorities um that they would like to see in the calendar and that survey also went to staff as a reminder about some of those items um historically we seek to in Blue Valley end the first semester prior to winter break the calendar before you does that Thanksgiving break that week of Thanksgiving has been wildly popular with both our staff and Families were're able to maintain that I would remind you that our staff engages in training required training um that they begin um at the beginning really in summer at the beginning of the year and then they complete that uh that training which then transfers to that week of Thanksgiving L held value in Blue Valley is to end the school year prior to Memorial Day um
073that can be challenging by the time we try to fit and all of our professional learning days Etc but we do achieve that in this calendar it's more challenging when Memorial Day is earlier in May that's the case in the 2526 calendar this calendar does allow for five emergency days that is noted uh for public and staff awareness and we also have continued to um identify tenative graduation dates on the calendar I will tell tell you when this product comes to you in final format um there will be an adjustment to testing day we are working with our High School principles on that so the final product will have a bit of adjustment on testing days this morning we spent quite a bit of time talking about um our desire to find an improved approach
074to Elementry uh teacher plan time and collaboration time when you view a final product of this calendar for approval the details of that time will actually be noted on the 2526 calendar as well as a review potentially of a revision request for the 2425 calendar tied to this topic so each year we present a draft calendar to you and then we post this publicly we'll do that on our district website tomorrow we'll begin to gather feedback from staff and public the calendar committee comes back together we review all of that feedback and make um any necessary adjustments based on that feedback we of course put the calendar through um additional review to make sure we have correct minutes calendars placement of professional learning days Etc I'm happy to answer any questions that you have otherwise
075I'll be back in front of you likely next month with this exact topic otherwise um it'll be April so one in the next two months you'll see me again I have a question about February 11th uh 2025 um we've got parent conferences scheduled then there might be a parade that day and I just wondered if maybe moving the conferences one way or the other or are we tempting Fate by uh saying that but I'm serious yes yes so thank you for that question um we experienced conferences and a Chiefs parade last year and we did make some accommodations from that so we would take that plan and apply it we were still able to achieve conferences but it was suggested today that we perhaps list on the calendar tentative Chief's activity so you never you
076never know so okay I believe Dr Maran has a comment go ahead Dr Maran uh first of all I want to thank Dr we need students to be in school and we cannot meet everybody's needs um you know we we've continued to try and meet the needs of what everybody wants and sometimes you just can't do it this is an example of this year for examp year we might not be able to make that before Memorial Day push because at the end of the day we owe it to our kids to be in school teaching them uh when we at all can um so that's one thing I wanted to say the thing I appreciate Jan's question I do think that might be something that we look at and just plan for in the future
077um and that um we just know that we have gotten lots of on and there are lots of opinions on the calendar and I don't know if there's a perfect calendar out there or not I don't think we found it yet um but I appreciate the work that is done by both Dr and the entire committee and anybody who complains about it I always be the I have Nam to give you that anyone else well at risk at being on the committee um i j you can't okay all right good um I think I asked this question last year too but the senior's last day um never seems to be on here and it just seems like a gap to me and so I was wondering I know we sh shout out kindergarten orientation and
078Kindergarten Roundup which can be flux you know days that get moved or whatever um and so I was just I guess sort of reiterating that question I'm happy to take that back to the committee one of the reasons we haven't put that on there is because when we look at minutes um we're always really close with those with those seniors and so should the end of the school year have to be adjusted in some way too so that gets moved as well and so um we just tie that really to end of the year what if we can't f fulfill that for our seniors have just chosen not to but I'm happy to take that back again to to the committee and just mentioned that was brought up kind of to piggyback on genus too
079because I've had a few parents comment and even me as a parent I had no idea that the seniors like would be done early and so trying to plan for that I you know it kind of shocked me so um even just something that says tentative sure I don't think would' be a deal breaker yeah I think we could put class day on there well even because we do call out a last day for everybody else even though that might Flex sure sure it's kind of the same argument for the last day and sure yep both I don't I don't disagree at all so we can take that back and look at senior last day and then class day I just have a couple quick observations so there's if I can count correctly um there's
080about 11 or 12 professional development days throughout the year right that's correct and and that's consistent with the last seven years Patrick sure and then that obviously corresponds to the number of days off per semester and if you take out December both the fall and the spring semester both have either 10 or 11 days off for kids right so our goal in the calendar committee is really to try to balance learning days across quarters and semester you can take one simple glance and not study hard to see that second semester is heaviest with student attendance days and there's more Interruption first semester but we do make a an attempt to balance uh semesters with with total days um each year and then we actually will be coming before you Patrick here this spring and talking
081further about professional learning days and the design of those days and actually um how we might want to reflect those in the future um on the on the calendar right but but those the days the kids are gone are are interconnected with the professional learning days correct yes M and when you take out the break between the two semesters it's roughly equal both semesters right um there's still going to be balance first first semester we still have less it ends up being less total student G days first semester second semester but it's close Patrick it I don't have the exact count right here in front of me I didn't bring my count number but maybe it's off by about five days or so but we get we get as balanced as we can as much
082as we can between the first two semester first semester and second semester yeah like I said if you take out December in the first part of January I think you end up about 10 or 11 in each semester yeah you get close to those total days out so one more item because I know with all the snow days this semester and then the red snow day that um we get a lot of questions about how many days are really built in and it says on here five and that's five five it's not like they can forgive four more days or whatever because I hear people saying that all the time so I just want to confirm that with you and then also um also I I can't remember what the second the second part of
083that was what I can tell you is that every March typically it's around spring break but typically in March we um we get through the winter months and then we're able to publicly stay and commit to what will be the actual last day of school based on the number of days that um we experience for inclement weather clearly um we've utilized ized our days um this year and we winter's not over so we'll have to wait to see what else winter brings us this year I remember the second half okay um the second half is is that a lot of people have asked why don't we do virtual um on these days that maybe are um questionable weather days and I believe the answer is that the legislature passed something that we could not do
084virtual learning days is that correct so we ultimately have an option to do them quite frankly it's it's quite involved to exercise that um if individuals look at snow day notifications if you will on the news some might notice on the other side of the state line District's notice virtual learning day um it is a bit different we haven't had to go down that option and I don't know of any uh local Metro Kansas districts that are currently opt exercising that cart blanch um given the details really honestly associated with that and what we know and learned is that our parents prefer for our students to be in school that's what iuc and honestly it would be a a check off for us to get a few minutes in and that would not for our
085students our special education students would struggle with that so we have opted not to engage that Dr said we could do it the state has said we can do it for up to I think 30 hours um but the amount of heavy lifting to get everybody up to car be ready for that as well as the reporting mechanisms for that are really not feasible for us I don't think it's a good use of our time the other question I wanted to address that a good one is how many days are built in so I want to be clear that our teachers have 186 day contract there there are 186 days in the schedule so we we go above and beyond what the state requires but we owe it to our students to be in school
086as many days as we can so we have um typically 3 to five or we'll forgive if we have those days you like already because we're not going to have school on Wednesday we going to make that up on April 1 and so you can I'll foreshadow for the rest of this year if we're out we're going to have to make it out because again we owe it to our kids to be in school great any other questions all right uh next legislative update so I think this is just a brief legislative update and then next month you will have a more formal update from patley but I just wanted tolight a few things going on and honestly since I put this together for the toward the end of last week a lot of things
087happened in but I'll do my best tol few so first you can go ahead and advance that so this is just legisla calendar were january9 than all able toally work's a lot ahe these are just our legislative priority positions again um these are the things that we were really working on and working towards our legislators um so this next um slide here talks about a few just a few bills where excuse me where are that are tied to our priority positions the first couple and they are linked so if anybody were to go into this presentation they'd be able to link right to those bills um the first one bill 386 and House Bill though but it is where the enrollment for school financing would be determined on our current year or one preceding year
088count currently it's the two preceding years so whichever one is larger and we are actually in favor of this because with open enrollment it would be very beneficial for us to be able to do that on current year um House Bill 2514 talks about revising the Open Enrollment um process prioritize Kansas residents that is in our policy but we told you before when we put that in our policy we would appreciate that they explicitly call that out and so we appreciate the legislator work on this and then finally house bill 2594 um establishing a school funding task force and eliminating the St task force so I put this on here because um funding special education is of course one of our priority positions and that is something that they are contemplating doing is establishing that
089new funding school funding task force the current Finance formula is set to expire in 27 um and so that is going to have to have some work done on there and then finally the the next slide talks about a couple of things that we have testified for and again if you click on it you'll link to our testimony a special education task force met in j provide testimony there and then there was House Bill 2612 which talked about risk funding and the accreditation compliance um we spoke into the app risk funding um and the the abundance of kind OFA that we would have to go with that and how we needed more clarity around that and then finally the very last slide is a QR code to our legislative positions on our District page any
090questions thank you Dr Morgan I do have a question um just to reiterate on the special education funding with Dr mergan um that special education funding is a priority for the district and I want to make sure that is um reiterated several times times that we're currently uh the legislature is required to fund us at 92% of our costs and they're currently funding us at 63% of our cost so it's about a $15 million shortfall that we've been seeing um that's been going on for years so one of the higher priorities that we do have is to increase that funding for special ed and Clay where does that funding come out of Kyle yeah where where does that where does that Delta come where do we get that extra money from that has we still
091have to pay for those special education services so that has to come out of the general fund so that affects everybody else's classroom comes right out of everybody else's classroom yeah absolutely we weend anywhere million year in excess cost ucation um you know I know debate about the 92% but that's it's 92% of the entire C across the state um so for us I think the bottom line is that 9 15 million comes from our general fund every year to fund access special education cost so that is absolutely still a priority all right fantastic I think we're about done guys all right so um I think we're ready to adjourn unless someone has something else okay uh let's see here uh whoop the February 12th 2024 Board of Education meeting is adjourned