Blue Valley Board of Education Meeting 3-7-2022

001good evening i think we're going to go ahead and get started we have a very special person who is going to kick off our board meeting i'd like to invite indian valley elementary 5th grade student karen jallid to the front to lead us in the pledge [Applause] and our flag is right here for those of us we moved it a while ago so i want to make sure everyone knows where it's at go ahead when you're ready i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all karen you did such a great job thank you i know your family is here with you tonight so give a wave yeah hello thank you for bringing

002her we're gonna take a picture so you have that for your scrapbook okay yeah go ahead and jump up all right thank you you know i have the pleasure of kicking off our board meetings with a special treat and i'm not talking about um dr merrigan's famous chocolate chip cookies um we're actually going to kick it off with some music so um i don't know if you two want to sit tight for a little bit because we're going to do music first we have a special surprise see they're even surprised blue valley north seniors two blue valley north seniors are here so go ahead and make your way to your seat it is music in our schools month and they're going to be performing an original song live right here before you guys and not

003only um are they singing it live but you know it's something i know they poured their hearts in to as they wrote it um lily cannon and sydney is it kapushman kapoose are going to do that for us a little bit more about music in our schools month it's a time where we celebrate the importance of music education our schools at blue valley our students have the opportunity to participate in general music classes choir band orchestra you know there are multiple avenues for students to express their creativity lily and sydney have both been involved in choir and theater all four years of high school and we are so happy that they are here tonight i'm just going to let you take it away feeling under the weather but that's okay we're together we will get

004through the worst even if it hurts it feels like everything's flying by losing track of this thing called time but with you by my side we can conquer day and night with you singing by my side we can conquer day and night because there there are better days ahead of us the sun doesn't stay behind the clouds for long with you singing by my side we can conquer day and night because we are stronger together school is back in session [Music] learning life is never about the race your hard work will make your success worth it you deserve it you deserve it you deserve it there there are better days ahead of us the sun doesn't stay behind the clouds for long but with you singing by my side we can conquer day and night

005because we we are stronger together wherever we go when we go our separate ways the future is brighter even if there are delays with your beautiful minds you are one of the kind trust me when i say there there are better days ahead of us the sun doesn't stay behind the clouds for long with you singing by my side we can conquer day and night because we we are stronger together because we we are stronger together [Applause] wow who doesn't have gooses thank you too so much for being here and and highlighting for us um the work of our music educators in our schools you know and speaking of music educators we also have a group of people who are representing our teachers tonight janelle brower jason sickle and tila ingle would you please come

006to the front [Applause] [Laughter] so obviously based on what you heard you can it's an example of the opportunities that our students have especially that when they are paired with teachers who have an amazing talents i'm telling you i'm going to let you say a little bit more about music in our schools month and and how important our our teachers are absolutely so we have such phenomenal music programs from our elementary schools to our middle schools to our high schools to our choral programs to our band and orchestra programs it is amazing you know i am blown away by our students every time i get to hear them whether it's just walking through an observation in an elementary classroom or going to a concert or performance at the middle or high schools and so i

007can't thank our music educators enough for instilling that love of music in our students from early ages because it's such an important aspect of what we do within blue valley so thank you for all that you do regarding music in our schools and i know no thank you janelle janelle i know that you are the coordinating teacher and so you see district-wide um throughout the district um anything to say because i you know yes just wanted to thank you so much i kind of knew she might have something to say yes i do i'm so proud to be a part of this team with our amazing colleagues we have such outstanding educators and thank you for the honor of recognizing our teachers today and this amazing support from our board of education and our administrators

008in this district it's just wonderful to be a part of this team thank you all right we're going to take a picture sorry thank you for being here tonight um i'd also like amber wesley julia myers and lacey coaster please come to the front it is school social worker week [Applause] as i mentioned march 7th through the 11th is celebrated nationally as school social worker month well actually week the week celebrate school social workers and highlights their vital role in helping students meet academic social and emotional challenges today we are joined by amber wesley from blue valley west julia myers from prairie star middle and lacey coaster from overland trail elementary these three are here representing our entire group of amazing school social workers throughout our district thank you for being that important link between

009home school and community and for all that you do to support student success i know tanya you you dr martin you've probably this is your area yeah so how long mark how long have we had social workers with from children's mercy year five okay so five years ago we entered into a partnership with children's mercy and we were excited about that partnership but quite honestly i don't think any of us realized how successful it would be the partnership that we have with children's mercy them providing as social workers allows us to have the liaisons within our building to really i believe round out our mental health teams you support school counselors and school psychologists and you know the resources that we have in our community and are able to work with our families so thank

010you so much for all that you do to support the students the staff and the families of blue valley because you are a vital link to the education of our students thank you thank you we're going to get a picture real quick congratulations and thank you so much now this next one is a recognition that i don't think anybody else can top so this evening it's a special honor to recognize a staff member who has dedicated 50 yes 50 years to blue valley schools so would say suzanne strickland please come to the front amazing suzanne has been with the district as i mentioned for 50 years most recently serving as a music librarian at hilltop for blue valley's early learning and uh you know i don't know if you want to share or dr america

011knows a little bit more about your history i know we got about what 20 minutes you can go and talk year by year maybe a little bit of journey back to the beginning but anyway you have had such a positive impact on students for so many so many years and we're just so blessed to be able to honor you tonight dr morgan so suzanne started at blue valley high school blue valley middle and then you also were at stanley stillwell and north oxford elementary so she started as our original band director i believe at those buildings yes yeah opening year i know you were back when blue valley high celebrated their anniversary 50 years you were back there as one of the original faculty members and you've been such an instrumental part of our music

012program i think any of the music educators are here today could could tell you that so once you retired you stayed with us and have been our music librarian and several people might not realize that we even have a music library but we do it is a valuable resource for our music teachers because we have this really great resources and we want to be able to be fiscally responsible so we keep those resources and we're able to reuse them and i have gotten to work with you because we've moved that music library a couple of different times we always are looking for space and you are a trooper you have jumped in and and helped us and been just an instrumental part of ensuring that we have the resources that our teachers need and i'm

013a little sad that we're i'm not going to be able to see you when i go over to hilltop anymore but we just are so appreciative suzanne of everything that you have done for blue valley we want to get a picture as well congratulations [Applause] and now we actually have a first to celebrate um it's an honor to recognize one student athlete who recently made blue valley history with hannah glenn please come forward um with your coach cody parks [Applause] blue valley southwest hannah glenn became the school and district's first ever acacia girls wrestling state champion this year let's give her a round of applause [Applause] i know hannah joins several other individuals throughout the district involved in activities and athletics to win state awards this year here at blue valley we're so proud that

014students are doing absolutely amazing things for activities and athletics this accomplishment however will go down in the blue valley history book so congratulations thanks for all your hard work you know behind every great athlete is also a great coach and teacher so thank you so much um we just appreciate you being here and have an opportunity to recognize you for a great accomplishment picture you're going to be the answer to a trivia question one day that's right you will [Music] dr american would you mind or would hannah mind if maybe some of the female board members also got a picture separately with hannah oh i like that idea okay congratulations so we have two more recognitions and just for those of you that don't come regularly to the board meetings there's an opportunity after recognitions

015for people to sneak out if you're looking for that perfect opportunity you're welcome to stay for the regular board meeting but i know it can sometimes be awkward not knowing when you can leave but we'll give you a chance if you want but before that we have two people we're going to recognize it's an honor to recognize two staff members with a distinguished service and excellence in education award these special people go above and beyond each day in our schools and across the district angie best please come forward with your supervisor charles rappin [Applause] we're excited to recognize angie vest the food service food and nutrition services department coordinator with the distinguished service award angie has been with the district um for many years how many years you've been with us i knew you yeah

016wow 22 years and charles you know tell us about her because i bet there's a lot i'd love to uh this is a pleasure angie's worked here for 22 years starting out as an assistant working as a manager then a supervisor in our office and then recently well not recently since the seven eight years she's been a coordinator for our department and she's excelled at all those and this is no exception tonight and i'm thrilled to do this you know she's highly respected by all of our staff she's been at all their levels so she understands what they're going through um one of the things of her task that's really probably been the most challenging over the last two years is managing staffing every day she comes in on her way into work at 5

01730 she's trying to figure out staffing for all of our schools in the district often we have 20 or so people out on a daily basis but magically she figures it out every day so it's huge i appreciate it it's just it's unbelievable what she's able to accomplish her operational understandings is great being at all levels she really gets it um staff love her and she really just doesn't announce any number so i thank you you're awesome thank you angie did you want to say anything i just i love working here at blue valley it's awesome and it's a privilege to be here so i just thank you guys for this this means a lot and i think do you have some family out here i do my daughter she works at harmony elementary school

018and then my two grandchildren they go to indian valley yeah so sweet of you to be here tonight thank you on behalf of blue valley for all that you do to support our students every single day thank you and get a quick picture congratulations sanji all right and finally we have ali wiles would you please come forward with your principal megan marsh [Applause] we are excited to recognize ali with the excellence in education award this school year is her fifth year in the district you only have 45 more to go to compete with her megan please tell us why ally is just so deserving of this award absolutely ali is just a phenomenal school nurse the way she counsels our kids every single day is just phenomenal she problem solves with teachers she works to

019get kids back in the classroom she works with families we have students sometimes that have life-altering diagnoses that happen and she works with their teams of doctors to have them access education she's a team player she's at a rival and dismissal every day greeting students she works with our community service club she does so much more than just be a nurse and she is just amazing in all that she does um and she does all this every day in addition to the last two years taking phone calls emails texts from staff and parents 24 hours a day seven days a week because we respect her knowledge so very much so she is such an integral part of our school and just a phenomenal school nurse so i'm so happy to recognize her tonight thank you

020megan i really appreciate that i just want to thank you know blue valley i love working here my oak hill family my community um you know our parents have been so understanding the last two years and it really makes a huge difference in my job you know my oak hill staff family especially my front office and megan in particular has just been over the top supportive and it just has really made a difference um all the other nurses you know we all are we're a team and the last two years especially has brought us really closely together so um and lastly my family my husband and my mom are both here my boys are too little they're at home so they didn't get the invite but thank you everyone i appreciate it [Applause] thank you

021that way to be the person who is over all of our school nurses so a shout out to all of our school nurses this year who have been absolutely amazing congratulations all right that wraps up our recognitions for the evening so one final round of applause for our people who are recognized tonight and if you are hoping to head home now would be the time to do that before we um move on with the rest of the meeting and of course we invite you to stay if you'd like okay i think we're going to begin um appreciate everybody else who decided to join us for the rest of the meeting i want to make a a statement before we start um about the events of the last week our neighbors in olathe experience an unthinkable

022event a school shooting on friday in one of their high schools it is important for us to reach out beyond our district borders as a larger community to show support for our neighbors as they recover on wednesday march 9th olathe and the area schools are participating in blue and orange day to show support for the olathe east school family i would encourage our community to join them in wearing your blue and orange and keep those impacted by this event in your thoughts and prayers now we'll move on to the open forum i have a few comments to make first welcome to those who are in attendance to address the board or listen during open forum her open forum provides a time for individuals to address the board in an effort to ensure an orderly efficient

023effective and dignified meeting open forum will be provided for up to 60 minutes in an effort to give as many individuals an opportunity to speak as possible during the 60-minute open forum the board will enforce a three-minute limit per speaker after 60 minutes the board will close open form and will proceed with its agenda items for the evening whether you plan to speak or just listen we're glad you're here and we care about the opinions and concerns of our patrons if you do not have an opportunity to address the board during the meeting you may address the board by email communication i have a few reminders about open forum that will help our speakers to have a constructive and positive experience when discussing items with the board when making remarks please be civil and use

024respectful language please limit discussion to the relevant business of the board discuss matters related to a specific student or employee is not allowed instead comments should be submitted in writing to the superintendent please remember to limit your comments to three minutes and avoid repeating concerns of a previous speaker if you have any questions that require a response someone will follow up with you at a later time on behalf of the board i welcome you and appreciate your interest in blue valley and we strive to provide the very best education possible to our students when your name is called introduce yourself before beginning your remarks as a reminder i ask that all remarks are limited to three minutes let's get started the first speaker is jeff nessl jeff nessel let's was on gosu for valley north

025first off kudos to both dr merrigan and dr ostrowski at north for their emails on friday they were both at the right notes and their messages were appreciated but to be honest i'm all out of thoughts and prayers i would love to see some action by this community and our elected officials after children were killed in their classroom in sandy hook and kids were murdered in a modern day valentine's day massacre in florida the response was crickets i find it very frustrating that the state senator who represents most of this district kelly warren is more concerned with her a plus rating from the nra and her attorney general race than looking for solutions so what can this board do you can speak with one voice and ask no demand that some sort of sensible gun

026legislation be passed now for as many years as i've been talking with board members and i go back to dave benson when he was president of the board um i've always been told that you can't argue with the legislature as they control the purse strings and they've passed laws that hurt public education what has that deference gotten focus current legislation on tap will outlaw ap classes allow no boundaries for districts and push vouchers as acceptable remedy for funding that is what your silence has gotten you and the excuse that doesn't happen in johnson county well olathe is in johnson county and it's no longer equitable you know what else happened here last month two school board members in johnson county were publicly assaulted and resigned that would never happen in blue valley just ask some

027current or former board members if they've ever been received threatening emails for them or their family don't have blinders on see what is happening around us i do want to end though with a positive note i received an email from blue valley which spoke in glowing terms both in print and video about social emotional learning and the incredible positive impact it's had on students in the district and why it is so important for a child's growth and development i really hope all the board members heard the video and said heard what miss lamb ms garcia and miss wessel touted the importance of social emotional learning for all students and more importantly that these members paid attention and then gaze at their navel thank you the next speaker is lisa mcmahon the next speaker is irena

028weaver irena weaver my son graduated last year all right it's time to remove restrictions on the amount of people allowed to this room into this room and let parents to be to participate in ongoing discussions and conversations and maybe it's time to review the template of the school board meetings and then one of my observations is that actually it's after two days also today's ceremony awards ceremony is such that during the um award ceremony i don't remember anybody anyone anyone who spoke had time limit on their speech and people couldn't interact express their thoughts freely yes and by the way as soon as ceremony was over everybody left so is today on the other hand we the parents have only three minutes to express to given three minutes to express output to make our point

029and to me it looks like a bad optics it's like um you put more values on your staff or whoever is dignitary but parents kind of after thought also some thoughts on it's from from the previous board meeting some thoughts on the critical race theory so yes on blue valley school district website there is i quote crt is not part of the district approved curriculum maybe on paper but um in actions i can see that for example this school district last year no maybe 2020 i cannot tell 20 or 22 no 20 into 20 20. the school district expressed its support for blm and also i have warning for other parents who send in their kids to johnson community college uh topics of white privilege and oppression of black people that's the part of curriculum

030of english composition for example and many instructors use that conversations like white privilege that's normal conversation with their students and also i would like to comment on kansas state board of education response to critical race theory claims now more than ever our students and educators need the public's focused uh support as they work to address unfinished learning and rebuild lost social emotional connections but my question to you aren't you the ones who created this problem in the first place let me remind you that and again that's that's the same like i can say it over and over again here we go here's our my point let me remind you that publix uh private schools were open children didn't have to wear masks and they continued thank you for your time yes and that's exactly my

031point the next speaker is william mcmahon the next speaker is rachel wells next speaker is brooke liu guess i'll start hi my name is brooke liu thank you for allowing me to speak this evening first and foremost i'd like to thank the board members that rescinded the mask mandate i haven't heard any negative feedback from parents or teachers and my kids have all told me that their friends and classmates are very happy that they don't have to wear masks so thank you but anyway that leads me to the reason for why i'm standing here tonight over the past couple of years parents haven't been allowed to step foot in the school buildings and why is that pandemic or not i was told it was the individual principles of the schools that made that decision and

032why is that i guess that explains the why discrepancy across the district so what i'm asking blue valley is to come up with a policy that will allow parents to enter the school buildings pandemic or not i mean we as parents should be allowed to step foot in the buildings to see what our children are learning i mean we drop them off at 8 30 in the morning and we don't see them again until 3 45 and we have no idea what is going on so i feel that blue valley needs to come up with a policy that's across the board and not left up to the individuals that parents should be allowed in the buildings we should be able to eat lunch with our children we should be able to attend parties we should

033be able to volunteer during library time attend assemblies attend any type of school function so that is what i'm asking because in the event that there is another pandemic or something down the pipeline i mean we cannot be shut out of these buildings i mean it's just i just don't think it should be allowed anyway so that's it thank you next speaker is erica sheets we have three minutes yeah yes yes okay can i get my full three minutes you have your three minutes okay but it started at 2 59. okay on march 24th this board of ed will hold a hearing reviewing the status of two books in blue valley high school libraries one of those books is called gender queer a memoir by maya kobabi this book is sexually explicit both with words

034and images for example there is an image of two naked males on top of one another kissing and fully embraced with caption this would involve hip thrusting while thinking of my lastest gay ship another image depicts a male in boxers with an erection and caption i then dreamed about having a massive painful boner that lasted all day another image is of a male and female and the male then holds his finger up with something depicted on it and says vagina slime i have mixed feelings about even describing this book here because of its sexually explicit nature i selected examples that were less explicit than others as we're in a public forum i believe most parents have no idea that books like this are sanctioned by our schools and accessible to our children i have a

035couple of screenshots on my phone that i chose not to print out because my high schoolers here and there may be other children in attendance this book remains in the blue valley north and blue valley southwest high school libraries while under review thanks to the current book review policy i urge parents and staff to reach out to the board members before march 24th to share your thoughts about books like this in our schools you can email boe at blue valley k12.org as well as individual members i'm also proposing that the board revised the book review policy 4610 some features of a revised policy should at the very least include front-end proactively transparent book review protocols that include parent representatives and open meetings in order for books to even be approved to go into our schools

036pulling books out of schools while they are under review and safety standards that product protect our children from sexually inappropriate explicit grooming behaviors and any degree of pornography content the current process has gotten us books like this in our school so whatever we're doing now needs to be changed i'm also personally willing to volunteer my time to be part of any committee or group that's undertaking this policy revisal thank you and this is skyler skylar hi my name is skyler sheets our st the issue is of is not the queer stuff but it's the story and the artwork of our books thank you uh this sign right here thank you thank you both we're going to take a brief uh five minute break so our closed captionist canned um to have it have a rest

037we'll be back in five minutes okay are we all ready i think we're fighting okay we're going to reconvene appreciate everybody who has remained we're going to call the meeting to order we're going to start with receiving reports from board members and the superintendent jody i thank you thank you patrick i will start um i i really there were i absolutely loved um the whole music education month that's something near and dear um to me um and i do try to promote as many of our music and theater arts programs as i possibly can in the very few minutes that they give me to talk up here so um but i absolutely love some of the lyrics i heard from these kiddos um when they were playing um we're stronger together wow right we know

038that how awesome and life is never about the race how profound is that that really you know hit me that what a great way to kind of center yourself right because you know i think they're right so it's about you know quality not quantity right so um on to um some of the events i have been to um had the great opportunity to be a part of the dei board advisory committee this last week there was some really great dialogue that occurred i also was surprised to know matt ortman had mentioned that we only have one coed sport which is fascinating i never thought about that i guess and so that was something new that i learned which was really interesting to me so but but truly the dialogue after matt left was uh was

039really great just around you know how how different schools celebrated black history month and and all of that and i really loved the diversity that we had in all the different types of celebrations out there and recognition so that was really exciting um i was able to attend a few theater events over the last couple of weeks songs for new world bvsw absolutely fantastic always blown away by our our students and so much talent and putting themselves out there wow it was it was absolutely amazing um i'm going to mention mama mia because i believe i attended that after at blue valley west absolutely fantastic production like i said talent is amazing i was able to attend the kasb women's conference in wichita last week and able to network with boards administrators superintendents all across

040the state we had an absolutely amazing presentation from the current miss kansas who is a drummer and she will blow you away she was absolutely fantastic um and she i think she'll be looking for a job as a band teacher here she's got one more year of school so let's just keep an eye where's eric let's keep an eye out for that too so maybe an opportunity there um let's see here other than that i was able to attend overland park chamber meeting and really network with a lot of our local businesses we all know that you know we're all parts of a big puzzle piece the the public schools the the uh local businesses all of this we we all you know support each other so that's a it was a really great opportunity

041so i think that's all i've got thank you jody katie yes good evening i was able to attend the health and wellness advisory meeting that was awesome we had our psychologists everybody up here in the panel and it was interesting because every you can see the passion and feel it every time you're in the room so it was very interesting i would actually encourage anyone that's curious on how our mental health um just the pieces of it fit together because they love working together and it was pretty obvious that they bounce well off of each other so um some of the tours i went to blue valley southwest um principal roberts helped us get our steps in and it was awesome but it was neat because the way they utilized their space there is quite

042interesting and their shared space so we had kids out there drawing six foot tall posters with abs all of them had abs so that was awesome morse elementary well-oiled well-loved machine super fun getting to walk through there even though it was brutally cold they were doing they were getting ready for dr seuss week where they were serving up books so that was awesome um let me see wolf springs another well loved well-oiled machine uh dr anderson managed to wrangle some third graders into a and the chinese immersion program for a song for us so that was awesome sunset ridge aptly named very bright and sunny in there everyone was smiling it was the 100th day of school so we saw lots of little people in suspenders in gray hair and pearls one had a purse

043and someone had made a cane out of a like a gift bag roll in a tennis ball that was awesome so and it was pretty prevalent i said that this morning but um the 95 program we have going for literacy is like very evident um it's awesome to see i mean a couple classrooms we even walked into they were working on it so it's it's been very nice to see just how hard everyone is working they took to it with enthusiasm it was very evident i even said this morning i've seen improvements even in my third grader with her comprehension so lucy even though we're navigating reading right now i'm looking forward to math next month looking into that because i know we have really good awesome teachers that will grab hold and we will

044just continue up and out so thank you thank you kitty amy all right um similar to uh jody and katie i had the pleasure of attending a couple school tours at timber creek and aubry bend and i must say that uh gym class at aubrey ben looks much more exciting than i remember gym class as they were jamming out and doing various games one of which they had created themselves so it looked quite fun we also saw the 95 program for literacy at timber creek and i was so intrigued by it and it's catchy and the kids were engaged and it was just really exciting and promising i also saw aladdin at overland trail middle school which is a good one and i also wanted to just touch on i had the opportunity to attend

045blue valley education foundation for jody and talk about success so a record amount for major saver record amount earned and attendance at battle the bands bv wells celebrating its fourth birthday which is great and just such a great group of folks and all the things that they're accomplishing i felt like we were on top of the world when i left so it was a it was a great meeting and i enjoyed going so i think that's what i got thank you amy gina sorry i was looking for the light down here okay so um i attended the student activity committee this month and i feel like since tom is not here it is my job then to shout out all of the state championships we have won since the last meeting correct so we have

046um and if i missed something let me know but we had a wrestler a boys wrestler who won 132 pound 6a state 5a state championship in southwest got second place in um state 58 wrestling which is phenomenal um in addition to hannah which is amazing i think we all watched that video um several times we're kind of fanning fangirling over her over here or i i am um so let's see we crowned i'm going off of matt's email we crowned four sub state champions over the weekend so blue valley high and blue valley north girls basketball uh blue valley southwest and blue valley northwest boys basketball blue valley high was competing in their new gym which is super nice and amazing so it's also good luck right so um they play then wednesday most of

047them do blue valley northwest plays thursday and then we had three dance teams compete at nationals in florida um blue valley north national runner-up in large varsity jazz southwest fifth and medium varsity i mean there's just it goes on and on at these dance competitions our dancers are so talented so uh and then spring sports is starting so by the next time we'll have some updates on spring sports i'm sure tom will have a overview of all of that for us oh did they blue valley west also apologize also blue valley west champion um i know that all of them sent lots of wrestlers to state all of the blue high schools did so very exciting i also attended the dei meeting the black history month overview was fantastic there's so much going on at

048the different schools and then walking through the different schools with tanya this last month i mean you can see it all on the walls every school has something reflecting student activity surrounding black history month which is fantastic and i loved seeing that also in student activities committee we've been doing a lot around this mental health awareness week that we're looking at doing with at with athletes and and folks in other activities um it's going to be amazing and we've been doing a lot of focus groups around that with the students parents administrators and so i know that i'm really looking forward to that in the fall and we've really they've been putting a lot of work into that a lot of staff have as well so yeah that's all i got thank you gina jim

049uh thanks um i had the chance to go down to the state wrestling tournament and that was it was good because it was uh the last time i had been there had been right before kovitz started so so um for my for my son that had been there so it was great to kind of i don't know get back and and see wrestling in person and when brook zlo won the state championship that was a tense match he was winning and like two seconds left in the match a guy scored on him and it went to overtime which is sudden death and um and then he he won and he's a he's a huge big guy his dad is as a coach at uh west who first taught my son to to how to wrestle

050and um i was just a i was you know kind of one of those things that goosebumps on your back um and then seeing the southwest wrestlers too was was neat to uh a couple of them one state um so that was it was great and dr merrigan was there and so we had a great representation down in wichita and that's kind of a um it's kind of a tough place to watch uh wrestling year over year because those um it's all those wichita schools that have to like travel like 15 minutes to get to the before they compete and the blue valley guys go down there and have to sleep in hotels etc so anyway that was it was it was great and then i look forward to seeing what comes out of basketball

051um i participated in the health and wellness meeting with katie and tom's absence and i thought one of the counselors made a really interesting comment which i think is important for our um all of our community to reflect on i think we all know it is he talked about the um the impact of having you know every kid having a phone and every social media we all have experienced it and we know how that impacts um learning um you know just always being turned on always connected and it's it's not everything is sunshine and rainbows and sometimes the constant access to social media is a you know is a real negative so i think we as a community have to be cognizant of it and and figure out ways to meaningfully address it and then

052finally um following up on what we talked about this morning in literacy i i'm i'm um i'm a real enthusiast i mean i'm really pleased and and just want to um give credit like i did um in my statement last month on the efforts on literacy because i think it's really thoughtful and uh the way that the [Music] dr merrigan and your team have are addressing it with rolling this out at the elementary level and then um dr collier said that in the next i don't know sometime in the here in the near future we'll be addressing what goes on at the middle and high school level in terms of writing and advanced reading and all of that sounds like it's like a web that will um be woven together and will help um really

053advance what we accomplish which is you know incredibly important in social media age where even 10 years ago where kids were raised in different i mean just a different environment because they didn't all have uh social media at such a young age so anyway those were those would be my comments thank you jim briefly i went to the finance committee meeting and the staff gave it really good jeremy gave a good presentation on our bonds initiative and where we are on those projects and the upcoming sale so that we can finish our current list of 2020 bond projects so appreciate that update um also went to blue valley rec commission meeting and um you know things are starting to come back um we're seeing more uh kids and community members showing back up at the

054rec centers and taking advantage of everything they have to offer and they've been doing a really great job managing the finances and putting together really great programs for the community so i appreciate shane being here tonight for and for all that he does and his team at blue valley rec and so we appreciate all that hard work and despite all the challenges that we've faced over the last couple years the other thing i want to thank is our communications this team the our communications team this week with all of the challenges that we we experienced with olathe and that was really good good work um and and i wouldn't um i would be remiss if i didn't also let our sros know how much we appreciate everything they do officer rydell here is at each

055one of our meetings and we've got a couple other guys over here on the side and so um you know there's a lot going on every day that they do to make sure that uh we're secure and safe and so we appreciate everything that they do i want to thank our staff and our teachers and again for all parents that are watching and observing and listening i would encourage you to reach out to staff members administrators and teachers and let them know how much you appreciate what they're doing every day to educate our kids and they're doing the very best job that they can under the circumstances and they need and deserve our support and appreciation um i also appreciate uh the two young ladies coming here tonight to play at the board meeting um

056as always uh it's always a treat for the board to interact with any children including pledge of allegiance for our young lady who was here tonight she did an outstanding job and so those are really highlights i think for the board to be able to interact with students and show and appreciate all the good things that they're learning and doing and so so that's a fantastic idea the other thing i wanted to mention is that the board will be getting out into the community on a more regular basis there's going to be more communication to come on what that looks like but we're going to be starting that here in the near future and hope to see parents and staff and interact with what's going on in the district and communicate those things that are

057going on in addition to what happens at the meeting to talk about what's going on in the district and we encourage parents to show up and participate in that process i think that's all that i have dr merrigan i think so i have a couple of things we've been talking about state champions and and we highlighted sports but we also have a couple of other areas blue valley high school was the state business professionals of america did i say that right matt um champions so um they were having donuts when we were there visiting because they had one state champion um and then the music groups have the kansas music educators association kmea that is their state competitions we had two schools you have to audition to perform there and the blue valley high school

058band and the leewood middle school excuse me the blue valley north band and the leewood middle school orchestra auditioned and performed at that conference additionally students from all five of our high schools and some of our middle schools and actually a few elementary students as well they have different choirs and performances um actually auditioned and were a part of a state performance that weekend they go down for the weekend and practice and then do a concert on saturday so that was the same weekend in wichita as state wrestling so i want to make sure we shout out to that group and then i also want to thank the blue valley ed foundation for battle of the bands that was well done well attended event and i know the ed foundation board and joy and cindy

059and lisa worked really hard on that so i just wanted to give a personal thank you to that and then um finally a couple of things one is after what happened on friday in olathe as you heard patrick talk about you know blue valley is really right next door to olathe and i learned really quickly on friday how small of a community kansas city is because immediately we were having connections with people at olathe east and you know our our hearts go out to olathe east and we continue to think about them and want to collaborate with them and support them but i thought it would be beneficial to have dan carney come in and just say a few words dan gave a long presentation um really comprehensive presentation to the board in december and

060that presentation is available in board docs so people could always go back and look at that but i wanted dan just to talk a little bit about um not the olathe incident at all about what we do in our schools to ensure that our our students and our staff are safe each and every day so thanks dan now it is there we go there you go so i'm speaking during your time yep so i'm the interim superintendent for this short period absolutely okay i just want to tell my wife all right okay and tell tom please okay thank you um so i was i was really trying to think about what would be a good thing to say on this whole topic um having uh olathe having just suffered through this traumatic event and um

061what i i guess what i really want to say more than anything is that um blue valley like olathe has a very robust uh emergency and safety management plan in place that we've had for a long time but i want to give a little bit of attribution here to my predecessor who was the first safety and security director here in blue valley his name is dennis mccarthy and he was here for about 11 years i believe i have that right and dennis when he took the job under tom trigg he had he had been he had just retired as the secret service agent in charge here in kansas city he had a long and illustrious career with the secret service he hit a wall of pictures of who's who in international politics amazing with him

062usually standing right by them but he also maybe more specifically to our issues worked on the secret services safe schools initiative that was a that was a study that the secret service did back after columbine to try to look at what is it that you know what does a school shooter look like what's their profile or whatever so he worked on that uh project himself and he brought to blue valley kind of a strategy that came right out of the secret services playbook and i and i like to mention that because it's not just something that was just dreamt up by people by you know we sat around a table and just came up with this it was it was in their playbook and it basically is a a strategy of attempting to identify students

063who are on a path to violence um assessing those uh situations and then managing them and they could they they specifically call it identify assess and manage and of course the secret service is usually not dealing with schools they're dealing with elected officials but that's the idea that that's where that kind of strategy came from so that you know as we've moved along in time i think we have tried to just build on that and we have really infused this uh and and strengthened might be a better word the whole idea of trusted adult relationships with kids as kind of the foundation of all of that okay so that if we can build those relationships with kids and we can nurture those things then students will come to us when something's wrong that's really what

064it what it comes down to it's that simple they'll come to they'll come to somebody in that building when when there's something wrong ahead of time so i put a lot of stock in prevention you'd like to prevent these things from ever happening if you can and to me this is this is the answer to that is to have have someone let us know the study the secret service did showed that almost always in a school shooting situation there's information ahead of time that's been shared with somebody usually other students but the problem was going back 20 years that information was not shared with adults so by emphasizing these relationships relationship building we we strive for a school environment where if a student does see something that's concerning even if they're feeling it themselves that

065that they will go and tell a trusted adult and we'll have a heads up ahead of time so that to me i mean we can talk about physical security you know the three billion dollar industry school physical security um because i know that after an event like that oftentimes people are some looking for something they can put their hands on and look at to say this will stop the problem but that procedural security that stuff is all to me is secondary to people and the relationships they build with kids just so you know here in blue valley we have 23 police officers who work full-time in this district approximately half are contracted through the cities of leewood and overland park and the other half are ours and i think i mentioned before that our officers

066are 11 campus blue valley campus police officers have just over 200 years of law enforcement experience they're very well trained they're they're really the best of the cream of the crop as far as i'm concerned going right down the list one after the other they are they know about this relationship building business they're like experts in it with with kids a lot of them are coaches in our district they have lots of different functions outside of they're involved with clubs and different things so um i think i use the word robust at first because i think that's that's true i think we have a robust system um can we can we 100 guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen here we can't no one can do that and if someone stands up and says they

067can do it they're not they're not telling the truth that just isn't possible but we think that the the best way is to start with prevention put a lot of eggs in that basket be ready to respond if something bad does happen and be able to recover um afterwards so um that's probably about all that i would say tonight and um of course we can always talk more as we go on i would also highlight that dan has a that direct line to our law enforcement our local law enforcement and our officers do as well and so we we continually work with overland park and leawood um on any situation and then the other thing i would highlight is the work that we did with our bond we had a lot of security improvements within

068that bond um that our community passed and most notably is the the key locks in all of our our buildings as we've seen on building tours and it's it's much easier now to lock a door um that that was huge which sounds like a little thing but if you're in a classroom that's a big thing so thank you to our community for uh passing that bond and allowing us to have those security enhancements excellent thanks dan okay thank you and i have one final thing so in march we always announce the last day of school at the march board meeting and we typically that sometimes it's after spring break this meeting happens to be before spring break but i still think we're in plenty of time to do that and so the last day of

069school will be tuesday may 24th it will be a half day for students and then a half day staff will will stay and finish out the year that afternoon so we're first of all i think we need to acknowledge our community and our staff that we didn't end up taking some days that other schools did and so we had a couple of snow days um we didn't have one today which is good and so we're in good shape and so tuesday may 24th barring any unforeseen um things that might happen but um we're feel pretty good about tuesday may 24th and we will communicate that out um probably tomorrow thank you dr american the next item on the agenda is receive reports from board advisory committees i'll start with the diversity equity and inclusion committee

070the diversity equity and inclusion committee met on march 3rd as you referenced by a couple people here in this room it was the first time that committee had met in person we had two parts to that meeting the first was we had matt ortman who came in and talked to us about um our athletics and activities including clubs which within our schools uh janelle brauer our you met her this evening as well also talked to us about how we select music performances and how music is operated within our schools the second part of the meeting was a review of black history month and what each of our schools did throughout the district around black history and the next meeting of this group is on thursday april 7th again in this room so i think curriculum

071and instruction dr collier is here good evening the curriculum and instruction board advisory committee met on february 16th our district liaison to johnson county community college with career ready programs sarah baron provided an update on real world learning a similar update is actually being provided this evening to the board of education and the public she will do so along with adam wessel kelly ott highlighted academic services has launched with the communications department connecting families in our community to teaching and learning and so the learning connection has really gone about a soft launch if you will some of the recent topics i'm being included are a day in the life and i know we were out doing some video shooting to help the community understand the different roles that exist within our schools communication regarding beginning

072band and strings mathematics teaching and learning to your point katie also that's featured in the learning connection and then digital safety so we will have additional topics coming in the future with the learning connection the next meeting of this advisory committee is this week march 9th student activities i think matt wortman is here to do that the committee met in person on february 24th we continued our concentration on mental health awareness for the february student activities committee meeting i welcome those in attendance including caitlyn truey with the university of kansas health systems and the blue valley high athletic trainer caitlin shared a plan regarding the mental health awareness campaign and mental health first aid training for coaches sponsors and students involved in athletics and activities the committee broke into smaller groups to continue to brainstorm

073and plan that mental health awareness campaign and we shared the thoughts and ideas that came from that and then administrators provided an athletic and activity update for the high schools and middle schools and blue valley rec gave an update as well and our next meeting is thursday april 14th thank you mark schmidt with health and wellness good evening on february 23rd we met at four o'clock in this room and uh continued a series of panels to talk about health and well-being within our district our first panel was with building principles our second one which was with students and our third was with our mental health team which would include our school social workers school counselors and school psychologists we had a good we provided quite a bit of information about how those each of those

074professions operates independently within the school but also how they collaborate in order to maintain a healthy environment for our students after introducing themselves they shared what a typical day might look like for each one of them and and i think the committee was surprised with some of the things that they're dealing with and how busy that they that they are throughout the day one of the questions that a committee member asked is what are students struggling with the most this year or at this time of year some topics included anxiety eating disorders suicide ideation and the response to that and they noted that this is often starting quite young you know right now it used to be that it was more of a high school issue but now you know even kids in elementary school

075are feeling some of that anxiety um [Music] also as as jim mentioned uh talked a lot about you know just how that influence of uh technology you know this those pocket computers that everybody has and how always having to be on always having to be social has put quite a bit of strain upon students the the group also talked about some things that were going well they specifically mentioned gimme 20 project happiness which is an elementary program that really helps folks frame frame how things are going for them and how they can think about things sources of strength which is a student-led organization but but guided by adults that really works on mental health and suicide prevention so we concluded this meeting at about 5 roughly 30 minutes after we were supposed to and our

076next meeting is april 6th at 4 o'clock in this room thank you and finally finance and operations i think jeremy mcfadden is going to do that one good evening the finance and operations board advisory committee met on march 3rd via zoom deputy superintendent kyle hayden and board president patrick hurley provided a general district update jake slobodnick director of facilities and operations discussed the 2020 bond schedule jake also highlighted two completed projects the blue valley high gymnasium and the flex theater editions jeremy mcfadden director of finance provided information on the sale of the series 2022 a bonds on the board's consent agenda for approval this evening the presentation also included information on the district's debt levels and a review of the 2020 bond projects financial progress report director of business operations jason gillum presented the bids

077and contracts also on the consent agenda for approval this evening the next finance and operations committee meeting is scheduled for april 7th and that concludes our committee reports thank you dr merrigan the next agenda item is approved the agenda for the march 7th 2022 regular board of education meeting as published do i have emotion i move that the board of education approved the agenda for the march 7 2022 regular board of education meeting as published is there a second motion by amy second by jody any discussion scene none all in favor raise your right hand all opposed motion passes 6-0 the next uh i is the consent agenda and the item is approve the consent agenda for the march 7 2022 regular board of education meeting is published do i have a motion i mean

078that the board of education approved the consent agenda for the march 7 2022 regular board of education meeting as published motion by amy is there a second second by katie any discussion i think one of the aspects of the consensus agenda is approval sorry one of the aspects of the consent agenda is approval of a bond resolution sale resolution and i just wanted to note in case there's anybody actually still watching um that that is a continuation of the bond um the bonds that were approved by the voters in 2020 so two-thirds of the or yeah two-thirds of the bond issuance roughly has already been approved issued sold to the public money raised this is the the last portion of that so the voters have already approved that and so all we're doing is approving

079going to market to sell those bonds and take take the money in so that we can continue to complete the projects that were on the initial uh bond plan right right yeah so no new no new um spending plans are just a continuation of existing the existing plan that was laid out in the 20 election any other comments all in favor raise your right hand all opposed same sign motion carry 6-0 now we're ready to move on to new business and we're going to start with one of our key components literacy and tonight we're going to discuss high school real world learning so as adam and sarah make their way up to the podium there and the presentation gets put up on the screen last month you heard patrick hurley board president talk about the

080five different areas that we were focusing on as a district literacy mathematics the high school experience mental health and then recruiting and retaining the staff the wonderful staff that we have and so you're going to see a presentation over the next several months around those topics so you can see the work that we're doing we have been doing work on these areas and we're really excited to share those with you so with that i'm going to turn it over to adam and sarah thank you dr merrigan good evening board thanks for having us this evening we're excited to be here to share with you about some of the opportunities that dr american referenced and some of the exciting work that's happening in blue valley around real world learning specifically in the area of career ready

081programs i'm joined here this evening by my colleague sarah baron who is the liaison between blue valley and johnson county community college we are going to split up this presentation primarily we're going to talk a little bit about what our current programming looks like we're going to talk a little bit about what is coming online additions to that program what our sort of enrollment and recruitment process looks like what we do to get that information out to the community so that they're aware of these opportunities and and when we do that additionally and and some work we're doing with the kauffman foundation all right it worked there we go first timer here hi mom all right um so currently um at johns county community college we have a partnership with them um they have been

082an unbelievable partner um and so we are in year three uh currently we offer opportunities for our high school students juniors and seniors where these students attend their home high school for roughly half their day and they take coursework there um primarily in the core content areas um and then they may leave and go over to johns county community college in the afternoon or they may start their day there spend the morning there and then go back to their home high school in the afternoon we offer programming in automotive technology so that is more of like the brains of the car this is not um body work but you know brakes diagnostics all the technology that goes along with that when you take your car in to be worked on we offer a construction management

083opportunity again this is a program that focuses more on the management of construction sites and jobs it's not so much teaching how to build but rather the management of those who do that building budgeting reading blueprints things of that nature culinary and hospitality management electrical technology so that is our students who are interested in being an electrician we also offer programming electronics technology which is more based in work on electronics so you'll see a lot of folks who work at garmin they may have something very similar to this that's obviously the largest employer here locally of workforce who have this certification hvac heating ventilation air conditioning plumbing technology and as well as welding and metal fabrication so as i mentioned it's open for juniors and seniors it is at little to no cost to the

084students it's funded through kind of a state-funded college tuition program where high school students can take cte courses at no charge in blue valley we do offer an opportunity for students to be reimbursed for up to 300 dollars for books at the bookstore as well as some of these programs obviously require tools or apparel helmets things of that nature so we work with our families to help them figure out what they need for the program along with working with the college and then they go out and get those items and then we work with them to reimburse those additionally um this year we have started a collaboration with the overland park fire department um as well as one thing i failed to mention in the previous slide and i apologize um students do receive college

085credit obviously for these courses as well as that credit transfers back to their high school so it is a dual credit option so that students are over there they're working towards maybe an associate's degree or a certification in these areas but we also transfer that credit back to their high school transcripts so it works towards those graduation requirements as well same can be said for our fire science program with the overland park fire department this is the first year that we've had this program in implementation it is held over at the fire training center at 123rd and hemlock it's the big tower right off 69 highway when you're driving down there and sometimes there's smoke coming out of it and so we it's a very similar model our students go to their home high school

086in the morning go over there in the afternoon we have 15 students all five high schools are represented and you know one thing of note that i i think really sets us apart with this program opfd has rolled out the red carpet for our kids um both in that you know they have at their disposal all the resources that opfd uses to train folks in their training academy additionally you can see in that picture that's our students the gentleman there on the left that is training officer andy bobka and so we worked in collaboration with opfd to identify an instructor for this program teo babka was placed in that role by opfd he actually has a background in education as well as being in the fire service so he brings a a dynamic to that

087course and that class that really benefits our students and so he leads that but additionally one of the benefits again is that they will bring in instructors from various stations so for instance if they're working on hazardous materials t.o bobcat will call in the truck and some of the personnel from the station that specializes in hazardous materials and they'll work with our students so as i mentioned it's really been successful and opfd has been a tremendous partner in our students really they have a couple of paths some are interested in becoming firefighters so um you know that's pretty self-explanatory to work through that we do have some students who will take the ems cpr hazmat year one courses that are more interested in becoming a paramedic so what those students may do is if they

088enroll in a junior as a junior they can go start at johnson county community college and work on that more specialized certification with them whereas if you start as a junior and interested in becoming a firefighter you can go back over there as a senior we do allow enrollment for juniors as well as seniors so you do not currently have to start as a junior if you're a senior you know we have an opportunity for you as well um and so opfd has um i think it's a benefit for us and them i think they see the benefit of it of kind of raising some homegrown talent and we have some exceptional students in that program that i know that opfd already has their eye on and are interested in bringing into their organization i

089am going to now turn it over to miss sarah baron as i mentioned she serves as the liaison between blue valley and johnson county community college um she is a tremendous resource for our students who are in these programs as well as our families also you know our staff members here we do rely a lot upon our personnel in our home high schools who work directly with our students during enrollment our counselors our administrators our teachers who see a student who might be interested in a certain area and sarah is a great resource for them as well to kind of talk about the things that we do and how students can benefit from those so i will turn it over to sarah thanks hi everybody i'm sarah baron if i haven't met you yet uh

090liaison super fancy but i am a counselor um and a puzzle piece person i try very hard to figure out how all of these kids in these variety of programs are going to earn not only the credit at johnson county community college but also how that credit is gonna or how it's gonna transfer to their blue valley transcript um the ultimate goal obviously is to make sure they graduate and walk across that stage in may of their senior year um but i'm really excited that this district is so forward thinking in making sure that those kids do walk across the stage with that diploma plus they are also getting something really special out of these programs that they couldn't get without the support of this board and the blue valley educational foundation so my goal

091is to recruit and counsel kids for these programs this year we have 31 kids who are earning their earning credit at towards their associate degree while they're still in the high schools their juniors and seniors as adam mentioned blue valley and blue valley educational foundation is paying for their tuition so these are kids that know they want to go to college um they may not know what they want to major in so instead of spending 20 000 a year to find out that they do or don't like law they get to find that out and make their transfer to the four-year university of their choice much more painless we're really excited about teaching them how to be successful in college and there's a lot of evidence that shows that students that do college programs in

092high school are more likely to matriculate and graduate within four years so this is life changing for our kids and our families again they work with me i meet with each kid each semester to make sure that they're taking classes that will transfer as the graduation requirements that they need first time caller got it um adam mentioned all of the programs that we have but we are continuing to look out for new pathways for our students things that will be interesting to our kids things that are high interest uh potentially high earning and things that are going to sustain our kids and our community over the next several decades not just the next several months so i'm very pleased to announce that next year we are starting a certificate in with cyber security at jccc

093as i've told the kids nobody's shrinking their cyber security departments and we're also starting a nail tech which looks a little different from our other programs because it is tiny i think they're only going to take three of our kids but we are and it's selective admissions but we're really excited to dip our toe into that world um i just wanted to say that there's definitely a thirst out in blue valley for these programs we have 13 kids currently in auto tech this is for 21 22. nobody in construction five in culinary four in electrical tech nobody doing electronics nobody doing hvac the two kids who are doing plumbing a couple of you've heard me say they came to me last year and said they wanted to do it no i said you don't want

094to do it it's two two days are flipped classrooms i was wrong they were loving it and then 13 kids doing welding and metal fabrication however for next year and these numbers actually have changed since we submitted this last week but we had 30 kids expressed in expressed interest for automotive tech one for construction management we have nine who want to do one of the various tracks in culinary and hospitality um we have over 50 kids who we expect to do the dual degree program eight kids who are applying for the electrical tech program six who will be doing the electronics tech program uh the fire science program for both years one and two is 24 and possibly growing four for hvac which i was thinking about last night when my house was really cold

095and uh two for plumbing technology 21 for welding and this is remarkable for a first year out we have eight kids signed up for cyber security and seven who've expressed interest in nail technology so as i mentioned it's just a great deal of thirst for kids uh that are looking to do something off the beaten track something that hasn't been offered for very long here in blue valley and as adam mentioned the partnership with jccc has been incredibly fruitful and we're thrilled to be a part of it thank you um i would also mention that all those programs listed not all of those started year one so were at various stages of implementation so you know that as you see the numbers start to grow i think you can also see a correlation with when

096those programs came online and what we've been doing for a while um honestly probably our best sales people of these programs are our kids and they talk to their friends and their friends talk to their friends and so um that continues to grow um i also wanted to take an opportunity to talk a little bit about uh some work we're doing with the kauffman foundation um here in blue valley we are calling that the edge but what it is it's a regional initiative from the kauffman foundation currently it's on the kansas side and the missouri side there are over 31 school districts over 75 high schools participating and the goal is that by the year 2030 100 of our high school graduates will have at least one market value asset and i'll talk a little

097more in depth on what a mba entails here shortly we are in year one of this with uh here in blue valley so um this is more of kind of a planning year um prior to more widespread implementation but um it's essentially the we go to events periodically with the kauffman foundation and almost every school district in the kansas city metro is participating so um it's been great it's very collaborative it's been nice to see what some other districts are doing a couple years out and some successes they're having as well as some challenges and so we're very much involved in that work as well with the again the intention that by 2030 um our our students would be able to have what is called a market value asset and that's verbiage from the kauffman

098foundation but what that entails is there's a couple well four different ways to um get one of those and i apologize for the weird formatting on internship and recognized it was not that way when i sent it it's a pdf error i'll blame it on that pdf the it gets you every time um so college credit that one's pretty straightforward obviously our students who participate whether they take a course through college now or they go over to johnson county community college additionally those students who score well enough on an advanced placement exam to get college credit that's considered a market value asset students who participate in internships client connected projects so that is where students work with a local business partner oftentimes it's the business partner you know presenting a problem or um you know

099something that they're working on and then they they put that back on the students to come up with some solutions and create a pitch on you know how we can help you or things that can be done this is obviously very closely tied with our work in caps and those students and what they do additionally we also have those students who in some of our career ready programs receive what's called an industry recognized credential so our goal along with kaufman foundation is that when all of our students graduate by the year 2030 they'll have their diploma as well as at least one market value asset to be able to put on a resume or a college application to market themselves essentially and be able to speak to the experiences they've had while they're here in

100blue valley that could lead to college admission employment whatever it may be also part of our work is continuing to look for ways that we can grow our partnerships we've talked a little bit about that and that we're continuing to work with johnson county community college on further opportunities that they're offering sarah mentioned cyber security and nail technician we're already starting to have some conversations about some opportunity for 23-24 and so we want to continue to look for the things that they do really well leverage that they're right in our backyard and again they've been a great partner and kind of piggyback on the work that they're doing because they do have if you ever have the opportunity to go over there and look at some of their facilities they are extremely impressive our students

101are working in an environment where they're working with the latest tech in certain industries and so we continue to work with johnson county community college also engaging with the local business community in ways that they can get involved whether that's internship opportunities coming in to speak to students field trips out to with groups of students to see what certain jobs look like you know a day in the life type of stuff and so we sarah myself we engage a lot with local businesses and people that are interested in wanting to get involved we also have a lot of local businesses that are very interested in our students and the work that they're doing and what they're going to do after they leave us and after they leave johnson county community college that earlier slide near

102nearly all of those industries are in need of people to work in those industries they're high demand high paying jobs and so our local businesses here are very interested in keeping kind of our talent here at home and and how they can get involved in that regard i mentioned earlier as well kind of our enrollment uh recruitment process i know some of these dates have already happened but i wanted to just kind of give you a little insight into what that looks like um miss baron here um leaves no rock unturned or you know a bush unbeaten and so she she does a great job of working with our schools and getting out and visiting with students but you know this year we hosted some evenings at johnson county community college ms dietz was hosted

103us in the collab one evening for the dual degree open house but there were a lot of people there yeah and so i think that speaks to that continued interest or even more interest in what we're doing it was we had standing room only honestly it was full so our families are very interested our students are very interested we also hosted an evening over at opfd the fire training center where they spoke and they had all sorts of you know bells and whistles out for students and families to interact with and ask questions and then we hosted a night also where families could go over and see the welding program or the auto tech program and speak with the dean or various professors and you know just to speak a little bit to what johnson

104county offers that evening every single department was represented by johnson county community college faculty member whether it be a professor or the dean of the school and they're so accommodating for our families here relatively soon when we get back from spring break we will go out to all nine of our middle schools sarah and i and we meet with all of our eighth graders during the flex time in their day talk a little bit about some of the things that we do the potential for those opportunities when they get to high school and then we will offer we're going to have a 8th grade family night at hilltop we held it last year via zoom so this will be our first in-person opportunity for 8th grade parents and students to come out we will have

105representatives from johns county community college sarah and i opfd will be there we're going to have some students who are currently enrolled in the program come out and speak to their experience as well and we're hoping for a great turnout that evening to inform our 8th grade families of what is out there when their students get to high school and then we're also going to offer some opportunities on the 21st and the 27th where if you're an 8th grader and you want to go out to johnson county community college and see the programs in action or go to the fire training center we we're going to do that as well this year and so that will be a new event for us so we're excited about that and the communication for that to all our

106families will actually be going out later this week and so look for that and there will be a lot more information on there and how to sign up and when all these events will be held so we are very proud of the work that we're doing um we see a lot of potential and and we look forward to ways to continue to grow the work that we're doing um our students and families um continue to be interested in our work and so i just appreciate your all support in this work and um if you're a student or a family member who's hopefully some people are still watching um they can always reach out to sarah and i and and we're happy to have you know those individual conferences and conversations as well and answer any

107questions that they might have because we want to give students and families all the information they need to make some informed decisions as they they move through high school so i don't know if anyone has any questions i'd be happy to answer any of those or okay so quickly if a parent wanted to just take a look at a list of what a market value asset is is there a spot that you can direct them to on the website yeah um i don't know if i can point you to a place currently on the blue valley website i know that the kaufman foundation website has some pretty in-depth information on what that does entail and all the different opportunities and how they qualify in those certain areas and it might be something that you know

108we could easily link to on our website because you know we we did do a kind of a renewal of the career ready website this year and so we've been trying to push people there as well to there's a lot of information on there for families is it too late for sophomores or juniors to enroll for next year no well so we we are kind of we are right in the middle of enrollment right now we're actually passed right in the middle we're we're coming to the end so what we've done is you know we've gathered all our lists of all the people who are interested and um determined you know spot availability and worked with our buildings to identify the students are going to be in it so now it comes down to having

109the conversation with each individual student and family on whether they really want to do this and so we cut we have our lists i won't say no but at this point in the game it it's you're probably um going to find it difficult to get in just because of the sheer amount of people that are interested right now i would i would just add that if you knew a family that was interested in the dual degree program or fire science they should reach out anytime i'd be so delighted to talk to them about that that's there's a little more flexibility there yeah the dual degree opportunity there's really no limitation on the amount of students that for the capacity of johnson county community college so that would still be an opportunity however you have to

110qualify yeah so i i would i would want to highlight that for all of these programs is that these are high skill high demand as they said and they all have you have to be at a college level entry-level college experience in order to be in those programs for the dual degree students now they do ask that the students take the accuplacer and there are some criteria that they have to meet to show a certain level and you know math and reading skills um it's easy to see why you guys are so excited um you can just see it on their faces but you know for those of the those of you that are watching um that means that our kids can graduate and even if they decide not to do that and continue on

111even at nail tech you can make really good money i mean over thirty dollars an hour starting out at no cost so you were essentially graduating with no college debt and with the potential to work and do something else while you're working as a nail tech making really good money so i think it's really exciting yeah at a moment earlier this year where i considered going back no but you are absolutely right in all of these fields high demand high paying and i'll elaborate on that point a little bit as well you know we have students who will participate in some of these programs and perhaps after a year they realize that this isn't necessarily you know necessarily for me um and and that's okay i mean obviously we love it when they make it

112through and they find that this is their passion and this is what you know i want to devote you know my my work and my career to but also if that's not the case and they go and explore something else you know we've saved that family a lot of time a lot of money and so it gives students an opportunity to really dig in on what certain work looks like at a young age so that they can adjust or say yeah this is for me and then continue on and then get started in that job in an earlier age than many of their peers you know to katie's point just to to kind of reaffirm that my daughter who's in college last year college out on the east coast she has a number of friends

113who are emt certified and work you know during college or during the summers and it works out great and it's kind of a thing um out there and so um you know this is a great you know example of how you use a skill set or some tools that you have in your tool belt um and that you know you may not you know continue with the emt or or you know that field but but it's something that you have that that is always available so thank you adam and sir our next agenda item is the legislative update dr merrigan as we talked about last time each month during the legislative session i'll give a brief update about happenings that affect education in topeka and so i would start first by just reminding everybody of

114the legislative calendar uh we are past february 24th so right now they're working on bills you hear lots of things coming out of topeka and they will go all the way through until april 1st and before they take a break i want to remind everybody of our board of education adopted priorities the first one is that we fund or that they fund special education at the statutory amount we apply at-risk funding to define student measures rather than just free and reduced we enhance student mental health and we eliminate tax credits and vouchers for private schools so the board had other priorities which are listed on our website but those were the the priority ones that we identified so really what i would say is that we haven't presented any testimony since the last board meeting

115we're looking at presenting some testimony later this week on one of the open enrollment bills but education related topics of real interest are really divided into three different areas the first one is around open enrollment where there is some legislation out there potential legislation that would allow you to go anywhere in kansas we would have open enrollment or educational savings accounts and so there's one on the senate so i've linked them there senate bill 455 and the sub for house bill 2615 are the two right now um that they are working through and remember that eventually you would have to have the same one on both the house and the senate side so those are the two bills right now that is obviously against the one of the priorities that we have passed as this

116board has passed the savings accounts the second one is around a parent bill of rights more transparency and again the senate has one in the house has one they're not quite the same but this one has caused some consternation for teachers quite honestly and what i always say about things like this is the devil's in the details on this um there there is concern that if we were to have to put everything ahead of time before the year starts up on on a website or a portal first of all the lift of doing that we could maybe do district resources but each individual teacher has some latitude within their classroom to supplement as their students need them and so there's concern first of all at the lift that it would be for teachers but second

117of all what if um if it's march and i'm in my classroom and i identify that my students need something extra and i haven't already supplied that um can i still do that the other thing is that i would say to any parent that if you want to see what our curriculum is on our website but if you wanted to see something within a classroom reach out to the teacher that's that's they want to have that conversation with a parent reach out to the principal reach out to us here over here around curriculum so that's a a definite topic right now and then finally budget related issues are still kind of going on the bill that i linked to there the senate bill is around a budget worksheet that they're asking schools to do and

118there's some conversations around what that might look like before this board would approve a budget that there's some sort of a needs assessment that we would present to you before you approve that budget again devil's in the details of what that might look like you know when you have a district of 37 attendance centers to have each single principal trying to do something is a little a little challenging but we'll work through that with ksde i know jeremy's been in conversations with them and they're working through that so those would be the three areas that are really focused right now in topeka around those different things those different topics and then again i would just remind everybody that our district website bluevalleyk12.org backslash legislative has our priority positions also has uh links to kansas legislature

119et cetera as well as any testimony if we give it uh in topeka so with that i'm happy to answer questions so um just to reiterate we do have someone in topeka for that watches for us and advocates for our positions um i just can you just talk a little bit about that so so our parents realize that um we have a lobbyist in topeka uh who does uh communicate with us on a regular basis meets with legislators advocates for us around our position especially with the johnson county delegation about what that might look like for blue valley that is correct yeah thank you that open enrollment slash um educational savings account those are two two different issues wrapped up in the same bills yes okay it's in one of the in the i think

120the the sub for house bill 26-15 thank you dr merritt thank you the next item on the agenda is appointing board liaisons for the kansas association of school boards region 11 nominating and legislative committees so so this is kasb which we need to send delegates from the board to participate in that process both the nominated and the legislative and these are one-year terms anybody have any questions do you have any motions i move that the board of education appoints katie bowers to a one-year appointment as a board liaison for the kansas association of school boards region 11 nominating committee motion by amy ii by jody any discussion all in favor raise your right hand motion passes 6-0 the next one is do we have a motion for the legislative committee i move that the board

121of education appoints amy teisling to a one as a board liaison for the kansas association association of school boards region 11 legislative committee for a second second motion by jody second by katie any discussion all in favor raise your right hand all opposed same sign motion passes six zero the next item is policy 1614 review dr american thank you we have one policy kyle can you pull it up for us um that we are not asking for approval tonight we are simply um bringing it to you for consideration and it will then have next month we will ask you for approval it is policy 1614. um last year there was a statutory a date change a when about when our budget annual budget hearing had to be held and so we are just asking to

122change the date from august 15 to september 20th any questions kyle said hold on one second oh i think he's trying to pull it up yeah quick question so does that pose any problems for the administration any concerns does it really matter no yeah so really the only change is that the budget hearing instead of being held prior to august 15th now says it has to be held prior to september 20th and we would still publish that and and do all of the appropriate things it's just a again a different date and this is one of the policies we reviewed earlier today in our workshop and so um i believe all board members are familiar with the proposed change any any other discussion on that otherwise i think we can like kyle okay we're good

123um do i have a motion for adjournment i move that the march 7th regular board of education meeting be adjourned a motion by gina second by jim all in favor raise your right hand all opposed same sign motion passes 6-0 we did it amy and i were like we made it by 11 seconds probably i was going to say i was watching i was like you