001okay hi melissa hi patrick how are you there we go i was gonna say maybe i had a volume problem again no me and a mute problem okay so we made new friends today did you make new friends today it is right at six o'clock so we'll go ahead and get started um good evening everyone we're gonna start tonight with the pledge of allegiance um and we don't have anyone to lead it so we will just leave it ourselves [Music] so 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 [Music] all right before we get started tonight we have public comments but before we do that i just want to share a couple
002of words we wanted to just speak briefly to the adjustment that we made to hold the meeting virtually tonight the meeting was moved due to safety concerns the concerns relate to communication that we have seen or received that were threatening in nature it's unfortunate that we cannot meet in person however this format continues to allow patrons who signed up for open forum to speak and be heard all the normal business of the board including open forum will take place and be streamed for any patron to watch and thank you again for joining us regarding open forum thank you to those who are in attendance to address the board or also those that are listening tonight during open forum open forum provides a time for individuals to address the board in an effort to ensure an
003orderly efficient effective and dignified meeting open forum will be provided for up to 60 minutes it's an effort to give as many people as possible the opportunity to speak during the 60-minute period the board will enforce a three-minute limit per speaker and after 60 minutes the board will close open forum and will proceed with its agenda items for the evening whether you plan to speak or just listen we appreciate you joining because we care about the the concerns and opinions of our patrons and if you don't have an opportunity to address the board during the meeting you may always email us as well a few reminders about open forum that will help our speakers to have a constructive and positive experience when discussing items with a board when making remarks please be civil and use
004respective language please limit discussion to the relevant business of the board tonight discussion of 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 the concerns of a previous speaker if you have any questions that require response someone will follow up with you at a later time as on behalf of the board i want to welcome you and appreciate your interest in blue valley as we strive to provide the best education possible for all of our students when your name is called uh please introduce yourself and just a reminder that we'll have to limit remarks to three minutes tonight first up is owen frederick there we go so first i'd like to
005thank the board for complying with coma and accommodating individuals who choose oxygen and smiles or masks uh i'm speaking today because i noticed that according to the navigating change criteria passed on august 18th 2020 blue valley is now in the green unfortunately i've seen no email communication celebrating this or informing parents masks are no longer going to be required if you review the navigating change document from the last official action taken according to the board august 18 2020 you'll clearly see the masks are required in the yellow but not in the green additionally i would like to ask the board to take affirmative action and formally vote that mass will not be required for the 2021 2022 school year and then finally i'd like to encourage every board member to read about the success easter
006independent school district in parker county texas has had with no restrictions all year thank you thank you owen and next up is patrick oswald hey first my name is patrick oswalt i want to thank the board for letting us come out and meet with you even though it's not in person for whatever unknown reason uh nonetheless i'd like to argue the or have a conversation with you about the legalities of sb40 um sort of like my hearing um the legalities of sb40 are that they don't trump ksa 38-141 which is parents have the right to make a decision on their kids health and well-being not the board sb 40 was specifically put in place to prevent tyranny from the governor and all we've done is give it over to more tyrannical people and our board
007which is disappointing because you're supposed to represent us not the state um i'd also like to talk about the mass mandate in general how fda has classified the mass man the all mass cloth medical as medical devices class 2 which means in an eua authorization you're not allowed to require us to mask our children it's a class 2 medical device you have no rights over that and it's all posted on the fda site i've sent it to you already we've had this conversation before and you're opening yourself up to a lawsuit that you don't want i mean the one that you already got is for 16 people um the one-off files for everybody and all we're asking is for choice not to put anybody down that wants to wear a mask i don't care uh
008but it's insane that you're pushing a mass that's not fda uh that that's under fda medical device classification that's not okay um it'd be like coming in and saying i have no choice but to put my kids on oxygen that's not acceptable you don't tell me what to do with my kids medical health so i'm very disappointed that we've gotten to this point where we can't make our own kid our decisions for own children and you feel like you're above a parent whenever we elected you not the other way around um so i believe we've we've all unofficially met through email and uh and facebook so i'd like to congratulate you on on really upsetting a parent who only has the best interest in their kid for their kid in the community unlike some other
009people that want to force my kids to wear masks that's not acceptable never will be never has been so to in my deal i'd just like to say that we really urge you to change your mind re-vote and do what's best for our kids as a whole not just the people that want our kids to be forced to wear masks all right next up is michelle henry amy i don't have michelle henry in the attendee list she has not joined the meeting okay i think patrick's indicating that he is she is present where he is with oh very good we'll bring him back in thank you michelle you're on mew can you hear me now yes thank you thank you hi my name is michelle henry and this is my daughter eliana ellie is five
010years old and should be attending her final year of preschool in the blue valley peer medal program she has a very rare syndrome ddx-3x which presents itself as global apraxia and cognitive delays she has the developmental ability of a two-year-old with speech being her biggest struggle her medical needs exempt her from wearing a mask but her particular learning needs require for her to be able to see a person's face in order to progress in her social emotional and language skills when covent hit last spring and i learned a possible mass requirements i immediately thought of my daughter and how that would hinder her development i knew her individual educational needs would not be able to be met if she could not see her teachers and therapists mounts i immediately messaged a teacher at her school
011asking for an amendment to her iep to add wording that would require ellie to be able to see her teachers therapists and paris faces i was told it wouldn't be a problem however later in the summer i was told there would be not there would not be a possibility for my request to be honored my husband and i requested a meeting with this with a school principal but we were denied accommodations for ellie we were told massive clear portions would be made available to the teachers and were asked if we had seen these before to which i responded yeah we've seen them fog up making them unable to see the maps and that principal replied oh you've noticed that needless to say we were shocked by the response the meeting ended when we were told
012there's lots of educational options out there let us know what you decide several weeks later a teacher at l.a school reached out to check in on us when asked about the mass with the clear portions the teacher stated they fog and they muffle sound i would like to ask all of you how can you meet the social emotional and speech needs of my daughter if she is unable to see any of her peers paras therapists or teachers faces through a foggy muscle mask that prohibits her from seeing facial expressions and lip movement and alter sounds during speech according to idea blue valley is required to provide eliana a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment and meet her academic and functional needs resulting from her disability to enable her to make progress in
013the general education program blue valley has been unable to provide that for for this year blue valley has failed my daughter and many others like her in addition to failing my daughter due to the stringent requirements blue violin also failed my son you see he's extremely bright and was in the chinese immersion kindergarten program last year at spring conferences the teacher told us he was doing very well and needed to be in the program for the challenge at the start of this school year when blue valley couldn't provide the needed accommodations for my daughter we were forced to seek education and therapeutic services outside of school and our schedule became hectic to say the least it was impossible for my son to be able to attend the virtual education option during the times required i
014spoke with someone in the district office regarding allowing him jury enter the program the following year i offered to continue private chinese tutoring we had already secured for him submit invoices that match the time the virtual students were receiving mandarin education and even offered to have him test at the end of this year prior to next year to prove he was on par with his peers however district office denied my son reentry to the program stating he would never be allowed back in essentially you punish my son for having a sister with special needs after you drop the ball with her education how much longer are you going to discriminate against the children right thank you michelle next up is jessica everline we don't have jessica in the attendee list is she joining from patrick's
015channel by chance yep hi my name is jess i'm a blue valley west graduate and the proud mom of three beautiful children the oldest of which is a virtual kindergartner in the district i was again looking forward to sending her to school in person this fall i started looking at blue valley strategic plan and district policies which were implemented in may as critical race theory under the guise of equity is finding its way into so many companies institutions uh through equity consultants and training programs i was extremely concerned to find that using taxpayer funds blue valley has hired the cambrian group to design their strategic plan and an equity consultant firm lively paradox to implement unconscious bias training for all the staff members and establish the board of equity diver diversity equity and inclusion committee
016critical race theory according to cornell law school professor william jacobson is a radical ideology that focuses on race is the key to understanding society and objectifies people based on race this neo-marxist ideology is being infused into our everyday lives under the guise of equity social justice diversity and inclusion culturally responsive teaching anti-racism and unconscious bias training programs and is in direct opposition to the fundamental american principle of equality the equality written into the declaration of independence fought for in the civil war and adopted into legislation with the civil rights act of and the voting rights act of 1965 is rejected by critical race theorists essentially it is taking a theory that was once a topic for debate at the collegiate level and weaving it into the everyday fabric of our children's lives teaching them what
017to think not how to think and it isn't just hot as theory in a high school level social studies class it has become a style of teaching in all grade levels and incorporated into all school subjects k-12 classrooms are now the battleground for the culture war raging in our nation critical race theory and his partner the 1916 project takes the heavy burden of mistakes made in history and places it on our children's small shoulders instead of learning from our past understanding where mistakes were made and celebrating where achievements and advancements were made and treating each new generation as a blank slate for which a better life in a more unified country as possible we are manipulating historical facts and teaching children to examine all aspects of life through the lens of racial inequities if children
018are taught that america is inherently bad and racist why would they enlist in the military to defend something they've been led to believe is evil when they enter the workforce what will become of american companies if they believe the best hiring practices are based on demographics instead of the most qualified candidates at a time in development when insecurity is at its worst why are we asking our children to define and divide themselves into the oppressors versus the oppressed equity is the opposite of equality opposite of what i was taught while attending blue valley schools when i was a student we learned that we are all equals that we would all be given equal access and equal opportunities equity under its various names at the expense of our tax dollars teachers administrators teachers staff and students
019to discern who deserves what based on demographic factors ceos are now coming out after having hired equity or diversity inclusion um consultants and saying how it destroyed their company culture and i believe introducing equity practices and procedures into staff training and in turn the classroom will create a hostile learning environment and foster culture of bullying how are children and teens supposed to respond to and engage with each other when they are forced to view who deserves what based on demographics how does this not contribute to massive insecurities and bullying when we tell them to judge one another based on things that happened in history think that this generation of children was never meant to carry the guilds of they do it all devices remember i'm almost done that while we are required to educate our
020children we as parents have the right to decide where and how public school is not a requirement but merely an option and we absolutely refuse to waste a single moment of our children's precious childhood worrying about the things we cannot control such as the color of our children's skin but we will tirelessly and sacrificially work to develop the content of their character and we will not be entitled to a taxpayer funded institution that rejects and undermines okay we gotta cut jessica off all right up next is jenny bidder vinnie bidder sorry hi i'm jenny betar and i have a daughter in the district good evening good evening my name is paxton burr thank you for allowing me to speak at this meeting the purpose for sharing my insights is to ask to help my friends
021have the most robust learning experience possible by in-person learning and optional math query i live in the blue valley school district and attended harmony elementary in kindergarten i was diagnosed with dyslexia it was imperative for me to be an advocate for myself if i didn't request accommodations for my learning disorder i would fall behind by peers my disorder has been a blessing in disguise because i'm not afraid to get out of my comfort zone and try new things for example i was a member of the student council at harmony middle in sixth grade sixth seventh and eighth grades competed to collect the most food items for harvester as part of my student council role i negotiated a donation from hyvee for the running grade to have a cookie party and the sixth grade one my
022grade then the lockdowns happened my entire world changed stuck at home with my siblings and parents was a nightmare i'm a social butterfly being told to stay firm and not being able to associate with my friends made me anxious and depressed learning was challenging especially with dyslexia when the shawnee mission in olathe school districts decided to continue with virtual learning i knew i had to do something because blue valley would probably do the same quickly i researched the private schools close to our home heritage christian academy had an outstanding reputation and i immediately applied for a spot in the seventh grade due to my determination i began in-person learning august 25th 2020 at hea's upper campus i played sports performed in two major theater productions and concerts the school has had zero positive cases of
023covid since december i think this that is because we students parents teachers and staff have all worked together tonight my ass is that blue valley work together too number one continue in person learning number two make masquerading optional and number three not require students to get a vaccine that is only approved for emergency use i ask my friends and classmates thank you for your consideration all right next up is jill strom hi jill go ahead when you're ready um okay i i would like to have uh katie bowers speak on my behalf hey my name is katie bowers and i'm here to speak on logistics and rationale my son's eighth grade promotion was determined that it should be virtual this year um i was told we didn't have a loudspeaker which would make the football
024feel an option for a socially distanced event when i took a picture of our at the loudspeaker meet held next door to the school that was being actively used i was still informed that an outdoor event was still not possible overland trail middle school has about 210 eighth graders plus two parents meaning about 630 people in attendance which brings me to blue valley north which is our feeder high school senior class day taking place this year has about 390 seniors and two tickets per student which is about 1170 people in attendance in person not including principals administrators teachers etc the max occupancy is 900 1906 people which i verified with blue valley north today and i was also told on the phone that we couldn't hold it in person at otms because that we had
025to abide by a occupancy rule for the gym so i'm curious why blue valley north can hold one and my son cannot here's a few more examples the shields soccer complex has 12 fields you take average 10 players per team times two parents that's 720 people per hour unmasked playing which they should be blue valley recreation numbers k-8 4 700 baseball and softball players all playing unmasked together frolicking hugging on each other just the way it should be there's 2200 volleyball players unmasked playing together blue valley hilltop has eight quarts of volleyball 500 players and people in attendance an hour that's an hour double that when games end and new ones begin masks are optional thousands upon thousands of our kids are playing sports daily unmasked playing with friends daily unmasked daily wearing their dirty
026reused incorrectly worn masks they're still licking each other on the playground they are still doing this per your request our numbers aren't going up though which leads me to this garden city kansas 6a school just like us mask optional 0.08 positive case rate 0.08 thank you all right next up is laura couch we have matt couch in the list i do not show laura individually in the attendee list okay laura is with patrick stanby hi i'm laura couch thank you for this opportunity to speak for mask choice i'm a mother of a student and i am a speech pathologist wearing a mask is a medical intervention with this prescription being applied to our children we need to know the long-term effects it will have on them so today i would like to share with you
027my personal observations as a speech pathologist and how these masks are hindering our children's academic growth and social emotional well-being speech-language development is paramount for a child's academic success speech and language acquisition begins at an early age children look at our faces to receive messages and to learn how to express themselves through verbal and non-verbal communication the first sounds that are required are p b and m the commonality of these sounds are that they could be seen on our mouths children are watching and absorbing our speech production so they in turn can imitate when children teachers therapists or masks these sounds are unseen and a child has nothing to imitate but a muffled sound imitation and repetition is needed to master these sounds and to be able to communicate effectively with mask used there is
028no visual feedback no visual repetition of these sounds the auditory feedback is muffled masking is an ineffective way of instructing and educating our children masks impair our senses an audiologist said to me now that we're all mass everyone will know what it is like to be hearing impaired our vision hearing inside are all impacted by the mask learning is multi-sensory we need all of our senses to learn in early childhood we help children understand the meaning of facial expressions what it looks like to be sad or happy surprised or mad children are having a difficult time understanding emotions and what they look like on a person's face and in turn generalizing this information to show empathy towards their peers and to have meaningful connections with peers students approach me daily and look at my picture
029on my badge to know what i look like they want to see my face as i want to see theirs doing the faces is essential for brain development for both older and younger students and in learning to speak and use phonics much of what is based on phonemic awareness skills which must be taught to learn to read this is important for all children particularly for children from less language-rich environments children who are bilingual children from english is a second language background wearing a mask negatively impacts the deaf and hearing impaired children children with sensory needs children who are struggling with emotional recognition and emotional regulation mass negatively impact children's ability to play and interact no one is getting a clear signal kids are confused we know that they don't learn as well in an emotional
030state children's attention is lost with headaches increased heart rate dehydration low oxygen saturation masking creates restrictions mass with middle middle school and high school students impact interpersonal communication and student social skills less communicative initiations are attempted faces are unrecognizable and therefore fewer connections are made fewer friends are made increased feelings of isolation accumulate despite the fact that they are back in school it's clear to me there is much social and emotional well-being development of speech and language skills are necessary to form a positive sense of self and to achieve academic success each child is different mass or not one size fits all to meet the needs of each student in the way that it is we're going to have to cut you off i'm sorry can you also share you're giving us an entire year
031of doing your best trying to keep everything okay next up we have uh jacqueline stanley hi my name is jacqueline stanley and i'm here with dave trebert thanks jacqueline uh my name is dave trevord i'm a blue valley resident but i'm here speaking in my professional capacity with kansas policy institute representing the many supporters we have in the district i think i'm going to stop you you weren't on the list tonight um i'm here start the time over the board has made it quite clear this year that acting in the best educational and emotional interests of students is not your top priority we say this based on multiple actions including but not limited to the following number one over 200 kansas public districts allowed full-time in-person learning all year but not blue valley parents were
032falsely led to believe that stay-at-home recommendations were mandatory quarantine orders your handling of sb40 grievance hearings have been ill-mannered and an appalling abuse of parents do right due process rights the local law says locals the law says local school boards shall hold hearings instead you wasted taxpayers money hiring hearing officers and stricter responsibility moving this board meeting to zoom also shows disdain for facing patrons you refused parents requests for specific accommodations for their children and you even scared parents into thinking an entire mass policy would go away if one of those parents prevailed knowing that not to be true the open meetings act clearly allows for close hearings to discuss confidential medical matters of a child but you refused hiding behind alleged loopholes in sb40 and telling parents they are wasting your time are also
033examples you've provided no medical or scientific documentation to justify these actions the emotional and educational damage you have inflicted on students and parents is incalculable but you did accomplish one thing that will benefit students in the years ahead not putting students educational and emotional interest first caused parents to look for alternatives and now they're much more aware of achievement shortcomings for example 21 of blue valley high school students are below grade level in reading and math and less than half are on track for college and career those 2019 results are probably a lot worse now your covet actions reflect systemic educational issues in the district and that's a real shame thank you [Applause] next up is ann shuster good evening i'm ann shuster and was employed as a blue valley librarian for years first opening
034blue river elementary and completing my career at valley park while in blue valley i served as president of the kansas association of school librarians and most recently on the board of the american association of school librarians part of the american library association i was also board certified in library media in 2003 and 2013. i have proudly identified myself as part of this district and its library program which has been the recipient of numerous awards including twice the national school library program of the year as a librarian in the 90s in the miller district in omaha nebraska our group visited blue valley and designed our program to mirror this one miller 2 was later awarded the same national designation as was liberty missouri's both modeled after blue valley this district's exemplary libraries were also the reason
035i came to blue valley because i have an intimate knowledge of what outstanding library programs should look like it's very troubling that a critical program component that is the number of certified and classified personnel allotted to staff libraries is continually being diminished death by a thousand budget cuts in 2006 paratime at elementary libraries was cut by half and hours reduced again in 2018 leading much less time for elementary librarians to instruct and collaborate library technical service positions have also been decreased rendering libraries unable to place needed materials in students hands in a timely manner now paris have been eliminated at both middle and high schools where they are also desperately needed to say it is an unfortunate development a result of budget issues is an affront to all students and staff who rely on blue
036valley libraries and library staff board approved library curricula and library and appraisal documents reflect expectations such as collaboration or co-teaching with classroom instructors which cannot be accomplished without a fully staffed library if no pair is in the library to perform checkouts or assist individual students or staff is the library to close its doors during those times libraries continue to have an effect on students throughout their lives the blue valley library program has consistently provided critical learning experiences for students and is an invaluable support for staff and the blue valley community the program cannot continue this excellent tradition without your support we are confident that financial help can be found the american association of school librarians has just released information helpful in obtaining funding for libraries through the american rescue plan act and esser allotments we
037ask that you consider these resources to help maintain the high quality library services that blue valley students deserve and reinstate the middle and high school pair of positions thank you for your time thank you ann all right next up is christine white christine are you there she's been invited in oh christine is with patrick standby there we go okay my name is christine white i have two children in the levi northwest school i'm a pediatrician and the views i express tonight are my own when the pandemic hit the world health organization advised that face masks were not recommended as benefits were limited and there was a risk of self-contamination if used improperly yet in april 2020 the cdc recommended the wearing of non-medical face masks to lessen transmission of cover 19. never mind the decades
038of studies on influenza and common cold viruses including coronaviruses that never showed surgical or cloth masks prevent viral transmission never mind the fact that states with with mass mandates had higher case numbers than those without mandates never mind that there's not one good study meaning double blind prospective that mass proponents can point to that soundly and solidly proves mass stopped the spread of covid i have evaluated hundreds of articles and the data is not there now if we all wore in 95 respirators continuously in public and did so perfectly we might see some benefit but that's not going to happen many people argue if there's even a chance they may work shouldn't we just continue to wear them no two studies with 20 to 25 000 children have shown significant negative effects of prolonged mask
039wearing including 60 with irritability 55 with headache 50 trouble concentrating impaired learning 40 fatigue and 25 with anxiety this for a virus with a 99.997 survival rate for those under 18 years old this is not acceptable we have created a cure that's worse than the disease we are in a completely different place now than in march of 2020 we have treatments and vaccines we know who is high risk never before have we locked down and masked the low risk populations we have always identified and protected those at high risk covet is here to stay and will be one of our usual winter viruses along with the flu and rsv it's not going away we're not getting to zero we must learn to live with it and living does not involve wearing a mask as a
040physician i took an oath to quote do no harm i would say that oath applies to parents school boards and superintendents we have done enough harm to our children in the last year please truly look at the data or lack thereof and give children and families the choice to wear or not wear a mask come fall 2021. thank you who's up next amy you're muted julie marek should i go ahead and go yeah go ahead thank you okay thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening my name is julie myrick and i had a grievance hearing on april 7th at that time i was advocating for accommodations for my two children who were having difficulty learning due to the current mass policy tonight i advocate for all blue valley children whose physical
041emotional and educational opportunities have been adversely affected by the current mass policy you asked if there was any sound medical data to support modification of the current mass policy my children have been evaluated by a medical provider who assessed their vitals without a mask and with a mask after one minute of masking my seven-year-old experienced hypoxia with his o2 stats dropping from 92 to 9 from 99 to 92 percent the brain depends on oxygen to perform even the most basic functions additionally his respirations increased from 21 respirations per minute to a pathological state of 36 breasts per minute lastly his blood pressure increased from 82 over 50 without a mask to a hypertensive state 127 over 95 with a mask in my 10 year old his respirations increased from 18 breaths per minute to 41
042breasts per minute his heart also entered a hypertensive state with a blood pressure of 118 over 82. finally and most alarming as a mother his heart rate dropped from 65 beats per minute without a mask to 41 beats per minute with a mask this is the body's response to increased intracranial pressure typically only seen in patients with head trauma a mask after one minute causing cardiac and neurological responses in a child similar to one with head trauma this should alarm all of us my boys have been masquerading school for five days and have had zero complaints of headache fatigue or irritability prior to that my son had headaches every single school day for the past seven months this just absolutely breaks my heart not just for my kids but for all other kids who have
043had difficulty this past year my medical provider has assessed vitals in 231 individuals without a mask and with a mask after one minute of the 231 212 qualified for medical exemption based on parameters outside normal ranges for oxygen saturation blood pressure respirations and heart rate 91.7 percent experienced adverse effects to mask use have you tested your vitals with them without a mask have you tested your kids they may not be complaining but what is happening inside their bodies are they in a pathological state and you aren't aware of it what are the short and long term consequences of masking you are elected by the people of the district to implement policy that benefits and protects students we have gone along with the policy that has been harmful to students i was compliant with masking in
044the beginning along with most blue valley parents which makes us all complicit i had to forgive myself and i forgive you too it's okay to admit we made a mistake in august we complied with a policy that we believed might keep students safe now we know differently if you truly believe there is a scientific justification for masking show me the cost benefit analysis that shows that the benefit i'm asking our children outweighs the health emotional and educational cost the science doesn't support it there is no data that mass work there is data that mass can be harmful i implore you to modify the navigating change policy we must eliminate a mass requirement that has the potential to cause harm to 20 000 of our 22 plus thousand blue valley students we must move from mass
045required to mass choice or mask with parental consent only all right we all know this isn't about the remaining 14 days of schools please pass a resolution now stating there will not be a mass requirement next year next up we have carrie rafael let me get this figured out am i we're on here yep you're good carrie go ahead thanks guys and you got my name right thank you so much for saying it correctly [Music] um let's say say wearing a face mask while exercising has a significant impact on the body that was the result of a six-month study on the physiological effects of wearing a mask while working out during the covena 19 pandemic if you've ever wondered where they're wearing a mask while exercising or during videos activities such as running during recess
046playing sports extra child the answer according to this baylor research is yes in a study researchers recorded vital signs and other data while participants ran on treadmills with and without cloth face coverings the study found less oxygen in the blood and an increased heart rate among those wearing masks there are lots of opinions out there on masking however i'd like to propose a compromise i believe a compromise would go a long way to settle some of the tensions surrounding the masking issue what if blue valley allowed the children to take the mass off during recess pe and any other physical activity for the rest of the year maybe just pe and outdoor activities just make it optional those who still want to wear masks can the who states that children who are in sports or
047doing physical activities should not wear a mask forcing our kids to cover their noses and mouths while while exercising really seems like an overreaction at this point the minuscule risk of them catching covet while playing with their peers does not outweigh the benefit of them breathing in deep cleansing breaths tony she said i think it's pretty common sensible with the facts that children under the age of 18 have a 99.999 percent survival rate from coved and all of our adult teachers and staff have now had the opportunity to be vaccinated if they wish isn't it time to start easing up a bit on these restrictions for our kids what damage are we doing to our children by forcing them to breathe in their exhaled carbon dioxide is there data demonstrating that it's actually safe for
048kids to wear masks while exercising now i know you're thinking we're just trying to keep kids in school and we want to avoid quarantines due to potential exposures and i absolutely agree but aren't the quarantines just guidance from the health department they're a recommendation they're not set in stone let families determine that risk benefit ratio for themselves i had held off getting exemptions for my because of my boys learning disabilities for them all year because i didn't want them to be punished for it today was the first day for them to have those exemptions here's what happened they were told they had to stay six feet away from everyone else we're told they couldn't play with their friends and if anyone got too close to him they were told to back up now my kids
049will put the masks on back on during recess so they don't have to be socially ostracized but i'll be honest this feels like retaliation this is how they are being punished they're required to stay six feet away from everyone else simply because they're not wearing a mask because that's the district's policy this is cruel you're taking a child who already has learning disabilities anxieties and lacks confidence because he's behind his peers socially and academically and you're forcing him to segregate from everyone else and exacerbate his problems even more hey carrie you've used up your time i can i just i have like two more sentences can i just finish up please from one parent to another can we stop this if not this year for next year thank you all right thank you next up
050is ashley rice looks like ashley's with the group uh ashley there you go hi i attended blue valley schools my entire childhood us did my husband we have three kids who i thought would be following those same splits footsteps until recently mass mandates in schools have exponentially decreased the learning ability in children while at the same time increasing mental health concerns bullying shaming and creating a toxic environment for children kids are resilient we hear this phrase regurgitated by adults so often without hearing giving it a second thought this phrase is a cop-out and to justify trauma that is inflicted on children i spent years as a licensed social worker in kansas specializing in the welfare of children and i can tell you that mental health is just as important as physical health kids can be
051resilient because they are innocent and they are trusting but we are abusing that trust that they have in us you are making them carry a burden that is not theirs to carry children are not responsible for your health nor are they responsible for your comfort stories coming from students parents and teachers alike are not only heartbreaking but they seem to go against everything you claim to stand for your own no tolerance bully policy clearly states that leaving others out on purpose telling others not to be friends with someone embarrassing shaming and using social media to post embarrassing photos of people is all forms of bullying every one of these instances has been reported by students teachers and parents children with medical mask exemptions being taunted teased left out and shamed by children and adults alike
052children's with exemptions are too afraid to follow their doctor's recommendations for fear the backlash the bullying and the discrimination that has happened after coming to school masculists a child just today was made to play alone at recess for a mass exemption children becoming desensitized to emotions from not being able to see their peers faces leading to increased bullying as reported by teachers parents and students a child falls on the playground and is no longer offered a hand up or compassion by their peers children wearing soaking wet masks reporting breathing issues increased irritability and fatigue but still being forced to wear them teachers granting mass breaks as rewards teaching them that breathing without their face covered is something they must earn children labeled as poor masters feeling anxiety and stress about attending school consequences such as
053having to run a lap around the track for leaving their mask off losing recess time if they take their mask down to breathe students posting photos of medically exempt children and making fun of them on social media a student having to do his work in the hallway for hours because he took his mask down one too many times while his peers point and laugh at him through the door children drawing tears on their own photos and posting them to seesaw kids crying the whole way to school begging to stay home adults dismissing the concerns and cries of help for help from our children under the guise that kids are resilient do any of you know the threshold of resiliency in children we know the consequences of prolonged trauma is there any way to know how
054much trauma one can just be fine with people preach that the mask is a sign of compassion and caring for one another but the stories coming out of your halls prove otherwise i will not be sending my children to your schools under these conditions i will not comply these are toxic environments you are fostering god help us if we succumb to the belief that parents are too ill-equipped to make health decisions for our own children and must rely on a school board to do so for us and god help us if we allow a school board to tell us that our healthy kids are unethical without covering their faces and soon without a vaccine because you have a real actually your heart it's not the virus all right next up is uh rhonda hasig awesome
055okay can you hear me rhonda we can hear you awesome my name is rhonda hasig and i know a couple of people this evening on that i see on the computer i'm the former library teacher at harmony middle school i was there for 27 years twice national board certified and 2008 kansas master teacher i was the winner of numerous national awards and close to 45 000 in blue valley ed foundation grants i'm telling you this because the loss of paraprofessionals in our libraries has so many unintended consequences and i am aware of what's going on the situation in blue valley uh i keep up with everything since my retirement i've kept abreast of the goings on but i'm a proud librarian from a program that's known throughout the state and the nation as the role
056model for library programs all over the gold standard olathe shawnee mission lawrence you name it they all look to blue valley for what a true library program looks like not just the facility which are amazing but the professionals that work in them without pera's in our libraries blue valley loses its uniqueness and i keep hearing this all night but i'm going to say it anyway it's breaking my heart the library teacher is forced to perform duties that fall outside of and will impact teaching teaching will be impossible in buildings our size who will teach lessons on reliable sources or using the internet responsibly or finding and triangulating your sources the librarian does of course but only if they have a para to run the library teaching lessons promoting literacy diversifying our collections collaborating with teachers
057working with students and project-based learning these things don't happen without paraprofessionals gone will be the days of university librarians telling blue valley librarians that our students unlike any other students they deal with at ku k state pitt wherever are not afraid of their libraries and they know how to use one why because their librarians had time to prepare them for college or whatever career they chose you can go to any blue valley school and hopefully you all have done this elementary middle or high and you won't have any trouble finding the library why because they're centrally located why because all learning in the building centers around that room why because the library is the largest classroom in the entire school why would the district i just don't understand this and school would ever consider changing
058a program that's one of the finest in the country if you remove perez you're destroying what makes blue valley such an amazing place to educate your children oh and i forgot to talk about the children you know the real reason that we're all in this profession ultimately and always as always when the librarian is unable to teach promote literacy prepare our kids for college or help students find the truth or keep the library safe before and after school or help students of any color find a book in the collection that matches that child's perspective ultimately it's the student that suffers students have always counted first in blue valley you all have the ability to make this right and reinstate paris in all blue valleys school libraries i wasn't bragging at the beginning when i spoke
059of my work and my awards none of those would have been possible if i hadn't been able to teach to teach the school board administration and my paraprofessionals made thank you rhonda you've used up your time for tonight but we we really appreciate you presenting to the board please listen my words and reconsider what you're doing thank you thank you next up is laura kilgore hi there thank you for allowing me this time to speak at the beginning of the school year we were told our elementary students would have mass breaks at recess and different mass breaks outdoors throughout the day our elementary age son opted for in person because of this the rule was quickly changed to mask recesses and according to my fifth grade son it is required they go outside to eat
060their snack during the day he has opted to not bring a snack to school as he does not want to do that um to take that time outside he has told us he would have chosen virtual had he known it would be like this these children are all together after school and on the weekends unmasked our teachers have been vaccinated if they've had the choice i'm just asking if you can please allow our children to have the option to wear a mask i'm not judging anyone for their choice but please allow everyone alike to choose to to or to not wear a mask also a three questions or two questions that i would like answered can you please tell us if masks will be required next year when that will be decided as parents if
061they are required we need to be informed as soon as possible as we plan to make alternative plans thank you so much i appreciate your time thank you very much uh next up is brook lou don't show brooke in the attendee list i wonder if she's with the group do you want me to bring patrick oswald back on oh there we go yep can you see me now hear me okay am i ready to go yep go ahead you broke lou and i want to thank the blue valley board for letting me speak today i've been a physician assistant for the past 14 years and grew up in the blue valley school district being in the health field i have medical and legal concerns in regards to the current mass policy that's currently in place
062that will hopefully be eradicated in the fall of 2021 or have given us the choice standard mass that our children have been wearing every day for the past nine months offer no to protection against virus sized particles the size of a virus particles much too small to be stopped by surgical masks let alone the makeshift cloth masks bandanas that we've been giving our children every day in school a single viral sars cova2 particle is 60 to 140 nanometers or 0.1 micron which is the same size as an influence influenza virus the poor size of these surgical masks is 200 to 1000 times the size which means surgical masks don't fully protect you these statistics cannot be argued so saying that mass protects you and our children against the sars kobe 2 virus that causes covet
063is a myth and a lie children have been repeatedly shown not to be drivers of this contagion it is well known that children have statistically zero chance of dying from this virus the cdc shows k-12 rate from cove at this point zero zero zero zero three since children are the lowest death rate the cost benefit of requiring children to wear experimental face covering with emergency safety issues is difficult to justify anthony fauci was clear about the asymptomatic transmission that was not a threat so just add one thing that seems to get lost in that question is that as bob said and i agree we would really like to see the data because if there is a symptomatic transmission it impacts certain policies that you do regarding screening etc but the one thing historically people need
064to realize that even if there is some asymptomatic transmission in all the history of respiratory borne viruses of any type asymptomatic transmission has never been the driver of outbreaks the driver of outbreaks is always a symptomatic person even if there's a rare asymptomatic person that might transmit it an epidemic is not driven by asymptomatic carriers the eua as patrick had mentioned earlier is by the fda means that products the products are insta investigational experimental on me the statue granting the fda the power to authorize a medical product like a mask i'm going to show you how you can get clients using youtube video apps sorry the statute writing the fda the power to authorize a medical product like a mask provides that the person wearing the mask has his or her right to refuse administration
065of the product it further states that the medical experiments or clinical research may not be formed unless there's informed consent by the individual receiving the treatment on the case the parents consenting to wearing a mask therefore forcing our children to wear a mask certainly forcing the use of non-fda approved medical products without a child's consent or the parent child's parental consent is illegal and morally wrong i took a hippocratic oath do no harm to my patients and to my children thank you all right next up is amy thomas who's next sorry amy thomas amy thomas here we go she's here first i'd like to make it clear i am firmly opposed to the blue valley school district's continued mass mandate when no state or local mandate exists according to the cdc 266 children ages 0
066to 17 have died of covert in the u.s during the same time frame in 2019 477 kids died of the flu we did not cancel school we did not wear masks secondly i'd like to express my great concern for the critical race theory that is crept into our blue valley schools under the guise of diversity equity and inclusion as the head of talent acquisition and diversity and equity and inclusion for a large nationwide firm i believe there is tremendous value in diverse culture and the importance of ensuring equity and inclusion both in the workplace and in school in a diversity video assembly on april 30th teachers vilified christians and republicans insinuating they do not believe in diversity equity and inclusion another teacher read a poem which classified all white students as racist because of the
067color of their skin these comments are critical race theory and would not be allowed to be said in a corporate environment because it would be considered harassment i am deeply saddened that this administration believes these teachers actions are acceptable i was told critical race theory was not being taught in blue valley but it is here at all grade levels this is simply one example of many the parents of blue valley want to make it clear we do not agree with critical race theory being taught in our schools lastly aubrey ben middle school 8th graders were assigned an argument of essay last week with the following topic options torture child sex abuse abortion prostitution teenage sexual behavior suicide assisted suicide death penalty sexual harassment gender identity police brutality gay and lesbians in the military teen pregnancy
068doping in sports transgender children genocide human trafficking child labor birth control human euthanasia these controversial topics do not belong in the classrooms and certainly are not topics to be presented to 8th graders some of which have not even hit puberty three sources are required for this essay let's take for instance the topic of prostitution and whether it should be legal or not you ask the 14 year old to research this topic online did the teacher or the principal stop to think what would happen when a student googles prostitution it leads to pornography i tried it i would i tested it and i would imagine several of the other topics would lead to the same this cannot be unseen the school should not provide topics that would lead to such content this is an unintended consequence
069of this type of assignment i am deeply disgusted that our school would allow this content as options for 8th graders and even more disappointed to hear is supported by the principal none of this content belongs in school these are very sensitive topics with moral and ethical consequences that should be addressed within the family unit when parents believe their child is ready for them i am asking this content to be removed from the school library website and that critical race theory be removed from all levels of blue valley [Applause] classrooms hey kyle i accidentally skipped a matte couch if you could pull him up no problem standby he's with the kids where he belongs matt are you there i'm here can you hear me yeah sorry about that no worries go ahead when you're ready okay
070um nice to meet some of you kind of somewhat in person or face to face at least uh i just wanted to ask thank you for your time this evening also thank you for the time of my last hearing but what i'm here to ask you for tonight is to ask the school board directly to drop the lawsuit the federal lawsuit that they've filed against that we're a party to we filed a lawsuit because during our hearing i was told three to four times if i don't like the outcome of our hearing that we should sue well we sued and our attorney linus baker was also told probably 20 to 30 times if you don't like the outcome of these hearings please sue well now we're here and after hearing some of the very heart
071wrenching and heartwarming stories especially from some of the librarians that have spoken up tonight i can think of a great use for the hundred thousand dollars the school district is going to spend fighting this lawsuit get a couple pairs into our libraries they can use them and it'd be great for our kids and and finally i don't know who wins in this lawsuit situation we certainly don't win the parents don't win if we get the opportunity to actually prevail in court what have we won the opportunity for our kids to to be unmasked at school what does the school board stand to gain by taking this to federal court i mean the opportunity to spend a hundred thousand dollars on a law firm nobody gains from this and it's it's a pyrrhic victory if the
072school board wins against a bunch of a group a bunch of ragtag parents with a with no budget and a volunteer lawyer what where's the victory in that for anybody i'm asking you please just set aside the lawsuit we will set aside the lawsuit on our half and let the students and the parents of these wonderful blue valley schools simply make a choice not to wear a mask in school it's easy and most importantly it's free thank you matt and next up is karate lavender hello thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be here today i just really want to share my heart i don't have a script but here's what i want you to do it's kind of hard to communicate my heart since you guys moved it to zoom and
073so i really love for you to pay attention i've served not only our community but our country i served in the military and now i am a pastor in this community now three of my kids went to school today for the very first time without masks and if i could tell you just the joy on their face when they came to my car and even my daughter who has an iep that has struggled through brain cancer and trying to learn the fact that she said dad just today i could tell the difference in what i was able to learn and how i was able to write now it's not just about masks because my kids don't have them what it is it's about fighting for people that don't have a voice now in my experience
074in serving both our country and our community here's what i've learned about servanthood servanthood is what we do for others not what we do for ourselves now i looked a lot of you guys up your profiles and did my homework and i see a lot of education schools great schools great degrees but here's what i want to communicate to you in my experience in serving is people don't really care how much you know until they know how much you care and i heard matt and laura speak a couple weeks ago and they talked about how nobody has asked the parents nobody has asked the teachers and here's what i know i understand where you have to being a pastor hearing all the noise from both sides but here's what i want you to communicate to
075others is that you get the opportunity to build your equity with us parents to serve us with the decisions that you make going henceforth not just masks but critical race issues other issues listen to the parents do what you've been called to do which is serve our community serve our students serve our parents now here's one thing that i do know is i fought for our country i went to iraq and i lost some of my best friends and what i lost them for was for a democracy not a dictatorship and what i've been seeing is somebody many people who are very smart carrying out their agenda their values and not asking anybody else so here's your opportunity to gain equity with us parents with this community is stop being dictators start collaborating with those
076that you are called to serve and let's together bring this community together instead of splitting it apart thank you so much [Applause] all right andrea duffy who's next andrea duffy duffy she's coming oh okay um hi i'm andrea duffy i live in overland park and i have two kids within the district a kindergartner and a high schooler and i'm here because kids are not always given the opportunity to express the impact of the board's decisions and i'd like to share with you what my children have told me and what i've observed firsthand over the last year there have been many policy changes that have been to the detriment of my children their education and their social well-being it is time to reverse these changes with covid cases on the decline and back vaccines now readily
077available for who want them we are now at a point that the mass mandate should be a choice of the parents and they a choice they are allowed to make for their children my kindergartner struggles daily with the use of math these are years that are critical for speech development he has struggled with the announcement and not being able to freely move his mouth he cannot see the mouths of his teacher and his peers masking has limited his interactions with his classmates and his teachers as well while normally he's outgoing he's struggling to be understood he is frustrated he is uncomfortable he cannot breathe freely he does not want to go to school every day this mask comes home soaking wet dirty and he has extras in his bag but no one cares to check
078the mask and make sure that these stay clean this is impacting his learning very negatively also i'd like to mention despite being properly masked recently my high schooler just over the last two weeks was quarantined for 10 days after being exposed at high school from a coverage 19 positive other students so why are we i'd like to ask why are we masking if we're asking students why are we quarantining students on top of the masking this is if mass work this is not something we should be doing obviously it proves that the mass provides no benefit at all if we're still going to be quarantining we are in a completely different place than we were a year ago we have a better understanding of covid the cases are on decline vaccines again are now available
079for anyone who wants them including the low risk which we've been asking for to protect all this time we know the children are at low risk we know the survival rate of kids under the age of 18 are 99.997 which we heard again and again the original reasons for the sports masking no longer hold the perceived value it once did this mass mandate is one that my family and i are no longer willing to comply with for much longer thank you [Applause] all right that wraps up open forum for tonight um and on behalf of the board of education thank you to our participants and we appreciate that each of you took time to share your thoughts with us tonight and please know that we all took notes throughout the conversations and that we will
080follow up with participants as needed um i also wanted to add a couple other notes just as a reminder to folks that the focus right now regarding most of the presentations obviously were in regards to masks and other items related to that as we've talked about we are following the navigating change policy that we adopted back in august and it does go through the end of this school year which is may 28 2021. that's that's the end of that navigating change policy um we have 14 days to go in this current school year and are focused on getting through the school year strong and so like we've talked about that's our focus right now the board and administration are in discussions about what the fall will look like and we will make a decision as
081quickly as possible and lastly i know many of you have commented just on this current school year versus next school year and regarding this school year we are doing the same approach or taking the same approach as every other public school in our community and just in conversations that we've had other communities as well in the kansas city metro area so just wanted to offer that up um and then now we will move on to our regular agenda i'm gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order and uh first up we will receive reports from board advisory committees uh the first report tonight will be for curriculum and instruction can you bring dr collier up yeah she's coming in the curriculum instruction board advisory committee met via zoom on april 14th kelly ott executive
082director of curriculum instruction and innovation along with jennifer lozinski director of curriculum and instruction presented on blue valley's curriculum writing process and with the revision process jennifer and kelly review this with the committee to share the district's perspective on curriculum and the committee's role in that process this year has not been a typical year in terms of the review of curriculum so this summer the committee was informed that this summer there will be teacher teams working to complete the writing process the board of education cni committee will review and provide feedback this summer and the board will be presented in august um curriculum for consideration uh additionally kellya and i presented to the committee about the kauffman foundation partnership that was regarding bv edge and the board received a presentation in detail on that three-year
083strategic plan to expand career-ready programming during the april board meeting the next meeting of the committee is scheduled for this week actually may 12th at 4 pm via zoom thank you thank you dr carter next up is student activities the purpose for the april 2021 student activities committee was to honor our senior class members from each high school and also to listen to a guest presentation regarding um a new and local character and leadership development program the committee heard that presentation and determined in a larger conversation that there were merits to that program but they're going to continue to explore options to see what preferences that can be considered high school administrator school middle school and high school administrators provided activity and athletic updates as did blue valley recreation that's all i have for that
084this evening all right thank you very much and last up is finance and operations good evening the finance and operations board advisory committee met on thursday may 6th via zoom i along with board representatives provide a general district update on several items including at the end of school school year activities such as high school graduation ceremonies the continuation of district mitigation strategies through the remainder of the school year and then gearing up for all of our summer facility improvements closing the current fiscal year gearing up for the near new budget preparation for the next next year and then also an update on summer food nutrition service feeding program for this summer jenny daniel director of finance presented a report related to a new bill signed into law by the governor around tax rates the bill
085tightens the timeline for completing the budget software and increases the publishing and hearing requirements the law states that no tax rate in excess of the revenue neutral rate shall be levied by the board of education unless a resolution ordinance has been approved following some detailed procedures jake slobodnick director of facilities and operations provided a brief update on design and construction reinforcing the large degree of upcoming work with construction set to begin at the end of may the monthly bids and contracts on the agenda for board approval were presented by the director of business operations jason gillum and director of facilities and operations jake slobodnick the next committee meeting is scheduled for thursday june 10th thank you kyle um our next agenda item is to receive reports from board members and the superintendent on items not
086included in the agenda and i will start with jodie dietz um i don't have a lot to add i just really wanted to give a big shout out to all the students that participate in our board advisory committees i am so impressed and proud um of these individuals who commit their time and and energy um into um these board advisory committees and you know we'll hate to see some of our seniors go um we always get a new batch you know in in the fall and i just i really want to make for sure we recognize um how how committed our students are thank you jody that's great michelle benjamin i don't have anything to add at this time okay thank you very much stacy o'brien or barhal thank you amy um i do have
087just a couple other uh committee updates that weren't previously covered uh blue valley rec had a chance to sit in on their monthly meeting and they are still uh trying to get back to normal trying to build up memberships for the rec center they are hoping to be able to resume uh daily passes at some point uh this summer as well and finally if anybody's looking for a part-time job they still have openings in custodial and food services so i thought i'd put in a plug for them there um let's see pta pto had another a great session this month they talked about blended learning and our facility and operations updates for all the projects going on around the district that's always fascinating to see how much work is done that a lot of people
088don't realize is happening somewhat behind the scenes but some of it's very visible and then finally had our final acacia meeting of the year there was a lot of language cleanup things about middle school high school eligibility invitational track events notifications they created unified bowling uh rules um a lot of just you know um work that needed to be cleaned up and taken care of they did mention that they are going to continue to focus on sportsmanship for the next school year they did uh say that there were five incidents this past postseason in the winter season where students were intimidating officials through their language or physical actions and so they want to continue to focus on sportsmanship for a lot of our participants in the activities and then i guess my final would just
089be uh once again a a huge thank you to all of the staff for all of their hard work this trying year as we get to the end of the school year i am um super proud of everything that they've done and the kids for just being um so resilient and giving that they're all trying to do the best they can with what has been a trying year for everyone and so as always just a big thank you to everyone thank you stacy mike sites you're up next just a very quick one excuse me michelle and i had an opportunity to go to lakewood middle school to participate in their social studies class shark tank and and i just want to tell you it was fascinating to listen to the kids uh explain exactly um
090what a dishwasher would look like at the turn of the century why a ferris wheel makes sense um it was just more fun than i could hope for um you know to me things like that are what make this this job extremely extremely uh fulfilling and i just want to say thanks to steve heiner and his team for inviting us i'm kind of surprised michelle didn't bring it up but i assume she had as much fun as i did you got a thumbs up so i think so uh patrick hurley you're up next and i'm hanging dad thank you all right and just for myself quickly i wanted to just thank the two speakers that we had tonight that were speaking on behalf of the librarians um please know that any decisions that have to
091be made regarding budget are not ones that are easy and so we truly appreciate you coming and expressing your opinion on that uh dr merrigan um thanks amy i have a couple of things last week was educator appreciation week and i believe every single person who works in our schools is considered an educator so i know we celebrated last week but i want to thank everyone uh in our in our buildings who's working again last tuesday was national teacher day and our teachers have we've asked a lot of them this year so shout out to them this wednesday may 12th is national school nurses day and i am always appreciative of our nurses as a when i was a building principal or a teacher or counselor they added so much to the buildings that i
092was a part of but this year more than ever i think we could all agree that that our nurses really went above and beyond i think back to last march when we started this lockdown many of them volunteered with the johnson county department of health and environment they came back to us this summer helped us develop protocols to keep kids safe and so we want to celebrate with all of our school nurses this wednesday during national school nurses day our schools are busy planning the end of the year festivities as i think i heard somebody say earlier we have 14 days of school left our seniors have nine days left so those traditional end of the year activities are being planned by our buildings that's not something that the board or the district really plans
093but what i will say is that i know our buildings are working really hard to provide safe opportunities where all students whether they were virtual this year and we have some students who have been full-time virtual or they have been full-time they want to provide opportunities where all of those students would be a part of it because those are important rituals for our students to end fifth grade or eighth grade or class day or whatever that event happens to be awards assemblies etc we also have students who continue to shine we have 60 seniors who have already achieved the seal of bi-literacy with the kansas state department of education that's a new thing that's happened in the last couple of years and the seal of by literacy means that they have basically shown that they
094are literate in two languages and they do that through a test that they can do they also could do that through ap testing so that number will only grow because that's the next shout out i would say many of our high school students are in the midst of ap testing this weekend next week and so those students who are in spanish or french or chinese i believe can take the ap test to get that seal of bi-literacy i also had the opportunity a couple of saturdays ago to go to blue valley northwest and to go to a feminist um showcase and so this is a group of girls across the district not just from blue valley northwest who are it's a club they work outside of school time and they build robots and um it
095was pretty impressive to see the different things that they had done so i would appreciate being asked i agree with mike being asked to those types of things and being able to go to those or what make um this job what it what it is for me as well um and then finally may is mental health awareness month and you know we've spoke about mental health many times in these board meetings throughout this year but this is just a special shout out to all of our mental health providers once again our school counselors our school social workers our school psychologists but i also want to highlight zero reasons why if you follow zero reasons why on social media remember that's our that's our students that is our students who are working to take the stigma
096out of mental health and those high school students have put together middle school presentations and you can see them now working with some middle school students as well so i just want to thank those students and the johnson county department or johnson county mental health department who helps to coordinate that group so lots lots going on again 14 days until the end of this year and um we're going to end the year strong thank you dr merrigan that was also good upstairs uh next up we are ready to approve the agenda for this meeting do i have a motion amy this is stacey i'd be happy to make a motion i move that the board of education approved the agenda for the may 10 2021 regular board of education meeting as published thank you stacy
097second thank you michelle for the second um all those in favor please raise your right hand motion passes six zero the next step uh is the consent agenda do i have a motion to approve that amy this is stacy again i'd be happy to jump in i move that the board of education approved the consent agenda for the may 10th 2021 regular board of education meeting as published i'll thank you for a second then jody thank you very much um any further conversation or items to be pulled from the consent agenda all right hearing nothing let's raise our right hands if you're in favor motion passes 6-0 we are on to our regular agenda now or to new business just a second here uh first up is a literacy update so i believe jennifer luzinski
098will be joining us uh jennifer is the director of curriculum instruction who's going to give us a literacy update specifically around the work that we have done with dyslexia so jennifer i think you can should be able to share your screen thank you i will do so thank you board of education members for allowing me to be with you here this evening i think this will work are you able to see the presentation thank you so good evening and thank you again for having me the purpose of this time with you this evening is to highlight some of the work we've done in the area of literacy over the course of this year and specifically to speak to the alignment of that work in relation to our kansas policies which stem from the state task
099force on dyslexia in this presentation you will note slides much like this one that are largely gray and these slides contain the policies of our state i will share them with you for review but also provide updates on our efforts toward them there are three policies that speak um very much the area of professional learning i will review the three and then share an overwork of our work in blue valley this year in addition to providing a detailed definition of structured literacy so this first policy does speak to the adoption of structured literacy as the explicit and evidence-based approach to the teaching of literacy the next policy speaks to professional learning and this in the initial year of implementing this policy there are six hours of professional learning for educators in certain areas of licensure
100and this is content that was determined and shared with us by the state and then the third policy in the area of professional learning speaks to the creation of a dyslexia handbook for use by schools so let's take a look at that definition of structured literacy and then we'll talk in more detail about work we've done in blue valley over the course of this year as you will note from this definition it is challenging to give a really concise definition of structured literacy and that is because it encompasses details about what is taught as well as how this the literacy is taught you can see that there are statements about it being explicit sequential systematic and multi-sensory and each of these is a really important part of how we teach students using the structured literacy
101approach but you will also notice that it goes into great detail about what is taught so the phonological awareness the sound component of language and reading as well as word recognition phonics decoding spelling morphology semantics and syntax all at the word sentence and paragraph levels the important thing to know about structured literacy is its focus on the structure of our language in the past we've dismissed it as very irregular or we've looked at ways to learn to read without relying on knowledge of the structure of our oral and written language and structured literacy takes very much an opposite approach knowing and being able to use knowledge of the structure of our language is a really critical skill for students with dyslexia but it is a beneficial approach to teaching of reading for all in the
102area of professional learning this year all of our blue valley certified staff members participated in professional learning on april 23rd our entire staff will gather again in august shortly before the start of school next year while our state policies specify that teachers certain teachers in areas of certain licensure needed to participate in this training our blue valley principals collectively decided that all blue valley educators would participate not only not just those who were required for licensure when we think about implementing structured literacy and the lift of professional learning it requires for our teachers it is important to recognize that it is a lot of content and much of it is not familiar or in fact different from the way these educators were taught in their undergraduate preparation how to teach reading structured literacy is informed
103by the science of reading and that is a broad base of research that is significant because it spans research from several fields psychology neurology linguistics speech pathology and of course the field of education the way we put that body of research into practice is structured literacy and this is a far greater shift for educators than when we adopt a new resource or teach them to use a new instructional method this may require in some cases for teachers unlearning prior practices in order that they can deeply process the science of reading and shift to the structured literacy approach we will get them there and our teachers are excited and actively engaged in this work one opportunity we have before we close the door on the school year later this summer is some summer professional learning that
104will be available for teachers in k-5 on a new resource that's adopted for the teaching of many of the components of structured literacy especially phonics and it will help enhance their understanding and implementation of structured literacy while these sessions will take place after school is out and they will be recorded and made accessible to teachers we will hold six sessions one unique to each grade level so that we can be very specific and supportive of teachers as they implement structured literacy using this new resource for teaching phonics or more specifically sound symbol relationships syllable types morphology and coding and spelling in addition to these sessions we continue consistent with our district definition of professional learning to strive to offer this professional learning for teachers to meet the needs of all educators so anytime anywhere some
105highlights this year include the publishing of our dyslexia staff handbook which was done on time in order to meet the target of the state this resource first for our staff was shared through our k-12 kansas literacy course that is open and available to all of our staff members it is updated frequently with new professional learning opportunities including some recordings of professional learning from our own teachers outside of professional learning we were able to offer some specific training for staff members these trainings are intended to continue to build the capacity of educators to support students with challenges in literacy including dyslexia these trainings also deepen learning of the science of reading and structured literacy we were able to offer an orton gillingham refresher course to educators we had previously trained and in addition to that approximately
10650 teachers completed new gillingham training with observation and feedback cycles this year all of our district reading specialists have been trained and we nearly doubled the number of resource teachers k through 12 who learned about the orton gillingham approach this year our plan is to have all of our k-12 resource teachers trained by january of 2022 in training around our wilson reading resource by the start of school in august of this year we will have more than doubled the number of k-12 resource teachers who are trained to use the wilson reading resource 60 additional educators will have been trained from august of 2020 to august of 2021. in the area of curriculum and instruction the state continues to release more guidance for us on implementing structured literacy we are on track to meet these targets
107and some of the work in this area includes evaluating current resources to make sure that they align with structured literacy considering and ultimately purchasing additional resources for the teaching of structured literacy and training teachers to use the resources we are committed to this work and will continue to engage in it to meet the expectations of the state in this area to benefit all readers not only those with dyslexia specifically at elementary we were able to purchase a new instructional resource for the teaching of phonics and similar skills within structured literacy those resources arrived in the last few weeks and they are on track to be implemented in at the start of next school year in addition to purchasing resources for our classroom teachers we were also able to provide resources for our district reading specialists
108this is important for students who need a double dip or another boost of instruction that they're able to get that very aligned and comparable instruction through their reading specialist but also we purchased resources for our special education teachers and this allows us to have a very seamless intervention experience for students using similar vocabulary using similar approaches of auditory and visual drills and routines so we are really looking forward to implementing that new resource next year in our middle schools this year we were able to learn a great deal from having a middle school reading specialist who we were able to hire using title 1 funds through the embedding of this reading specialist at middle school we were able to learn firsthand what it is like for someone to offer professional learning on demand with teachers
109at the middle school level working within their schedule and their planning and professional learning schedule this staff member was able to provide direct instruction for students who need more support than our reading strategies course can give but are not in need of the specially designed instruction from special education a huge lesson we learned at middle school this year in this pilot was we were able to learn a great deal about the implementation that will take place in the fall on the universal screener at middle school we were able to pilot the acadians assessment for sixth grade and then the seventh and eighth grade version use it and review data to determine that it is an effective and appropriate measure for our blue valley students in the area of data and assessment we continue to receive
110guidance from kansas state department of ed in regard to the screening of students beyond fifth grade we closely monitor the communication in this area and look forward to implementing their guidance as we expand the universal screener through 12th grade next year the state also continues to share with us resources rubrics for vetting and tools for screening and instruction and we have benefited greatly from the use of these resources both in looking at universal screeners as well as resources for adoption in the area of assessment at elementary we were able to fully implement the acadians universal screener you may recall that last year it was in place for kindergarten and first grade students and this year it was expanded all the way through fifth grade students are screened three times per year we're in the final
111window of the year currently when data indicates that a student may be at risk of not reaching the grade level benchmarks we have diagnostic assessments that our teachers can use to take a closer look or a deeper dive at how a student is developing in the particular areas of literacy our universal screener acadians also allows us and provides progress monitoring tools that teachers can use to keep a close eye on the progress of students it's important for us to remember that a universal screener is intended to identify if a student is at risk of not reaching reading benchmarks it does not in and of itself diagnose reading difficulties in an effort to enhance our a universal screener we have added the test of rapid automatized naming to the assessment suite in acadiance that we give
112because this little assessment can reveal a potential red flag in literacy development in the area of the universal screener next year at middle school we will implement the acadian's sixth grade that that screener we use in elementary actually goes through sixth grade and then we will implement its partner version the seventh and eighth grade assessment in our middle schools next year like the elementary students will be screened three times a year and students who have not yet demonstrated grade level comprehension on map will be the students that we will be taking a close look at using the universal screener at our high schools students who do not demonstrate grade level comprehension will also be screened and for guidance from the state they too could be screened up to three times per year so in summary
113next year we will be screening students k through 12 to check for potential concerns in reading development the state speaks to the need for timely and early reading intervention for students the work we have done and will continue to do in blue valley in professional learning the implementation of the universal screeners and resource selection is all done in service of reaching this goal of providing timely and effective in interventions excuse me for students who are not yet reaching reading targets before i close i do want to share with you updates on three policies that while not within our control will ultimately affect k-12 education the first speaks to the identification of a dyslexia coordinator within the state department of education as of last week this department is unfilled as it is awaiting funding the second
114will require candidates for k-6 teaching licenses ela teaching endorsements reading specialists and special education teachers to pass an examination of their knowledge in order to achieve licensure i checked with the state just last week and this policy is on target all kansas graduates of higher education and elementary education are taking this exam for licensure graduates from other programs now have the program standards embedded and will be taking these exams as well it's important for us to note that we will see the impact of this in candidates in 2024 that is the earliest that they will likely have gone through the full program of study and passed those exams the final policy at the state level encourages our kansas colleges of education to develop coursework or a field of study with a specialization in dyslexia and
115while i have not yet seen a fully developed specialization there are courses additional courses that have been added and are being offered at the state level for those who want to know more about the science of reading structured literacy and dyslexia that concludes my update and i thank you thank you jennifer it's fun and exciting to see all the progress that's been made so we we really appreciate your work on this topic it looks like mike seitz has a question jennifer thank you um probably that's probably the most complete and thorough review of what we're going to do the question i have is how will we know that we're successful in implementing not implementing the the professional development but helping our kids what's the is there a metric you're looking at is there a how
116will we know patrick that's a excuse me mike that's a great question i think the the beauty of having the universal screener is we get robust reports and data that will give us a very close look within the individual strands of literacy development to see how our students are progressing i think certainly there are other metrics that we can look at as well we also have assessments that are a part of this new resource that teachers will be using for teaching many of the components of structured literacy that will allow us again to have that very quick and timely feedback so we can make instructional revisions to support students as needed thank you thank you jody you're up next great um just a couple of questions so is there any concerns because it appears as
117though there's a bit of a gap in what we expect new hires to have maybe you know the colleges maybe not quite being there what do you think we're going to have a gap in getting some great qualified teachers or or is this going to work out really well that we're not going to have to worry about that that that's a great question jody and so we've already made plans as we onboard our new hires next year in august that we're going to give them that same three hours of professional learning that all of our staff members went through in april and then they'll be with us in time to to pick up part two in august and that'll be our plan moving forward is everyone we on board who has not yet participated in
118that learning will will get that basic learning and then continue in the learning journey with the rest of their colleagues so like um hires from outside of or you know kansas or or whatever is that the game plan going forward or at some point you just call it and say you have to be certified in this before you even considered i i'm just curious sure so they would have to have the correct licensure to fill a position but unless we would have evidence and because we will be reporting who is trained unless we have evidence that a teacher has completed that level of training then we would have the time and space as a part of onboarding to get those teachers up to speed in the policies of our state of kansas um also and
119i i i mean i'm going to assume i know the answer to this but i'm not 100 sure how many reading specialists do we have in each school is it one per how does that work yes at elementary we have one reading specialist per elementary building in our title one buildings we have two we have the one middle school reading specialist we were able to hire with title funds this year and we will expand that to two next year two to two within the title one school the other middle schools and high schools we don't currently have this this level of expertise is that how that works i at this time we do not have licensed reading specialists at middle school outside of those title one buildings nor at high school so when we get
120to um um you know implementing this this this great um program um that we can diagnose kids at middle and high there's probably a plan then to offer support for those who qualify for some assistance or who who are uh recognized as maybe having some some some needs to kind of close some gaps is that how that works so for so for now uh the foreseeable future the plan would be that if a student shows that they are in need of some support and and it does not look like the reading strategies course that's offered for a student through general education is a good fit then at that point myself or the the team of people who work out of district office here supporting literacy would consult with the the building administrator with the teachers
121to come up with the best plan for that student okay okay thank you jennifer i um want to do say a couple of things first of all the professional learning that we had on april 23rd as jennifer mentioned that was required by the state for some some certification areas and we did that for everybody and i mean everybody from a group of us here at district office who who are certified um educators all the way down to every single classroom teacher principal in the buildings and we didn't just and i say we liberally because it's really jennifer and her team but they didn't just take the canned presentation from the state and say here everybody go do it on your own they really personalized that to blue valley and they got feedback from some parents
122and students and we had a blue valley perspective that was very powerful we also got to hear from our experts within our own school district who are doing that work so i want to thank you for all the work that's been done with that i also want to highlight the dyslexia specialists that we have within the district you know this board saw fit gosh early on last year before the pandemic set in to approve the hiring of a dyslexia coordinator and i'm proud to say that we have that we also have a consultant that we've been that jennifer and her team have been working with and although sometimes it doesn't feel like we're going fast enough and and i can absolutely um feel for those parents who have a fifth grade or sixth grade or
123seventh grade or eighth grade at any age honestly and they don't feel like we're going fast enough we we are moving this ship uh with you know 22 000 plus students 2000 plus teachers um we are moving in it just maybe sometimes doesn't feel fast enough for some folks so thank you jennifer for all that you're doing thank you any other comments or questions from other board members all right jennifer thank you so much thanks i appreciate your time our next topic is uh sr funding so i believe uh jenny daniel and dr colyer and kyle hayden are going to go through we've we've heard a lot about these esser funds and we want to make sure that we share with you what we are doing around or what we are using those sr funds
124for and kind of a timeline of when we will get those so danny i don't know if you're going to start it looks like she's sharing her screen so you can take it away it helped to unmute myself so um good evening and so i'm going to walk through with you this evening um the federal funds that we have really uh received for covid relief and um and also how we're using those and then i'm going to turn it over to katie and she's going to talk about some planning we're doing with the um last set of funds we should be receiving so um the federal government passed three acts that were provided a covid relief for um for us and the first um the first act was the coronavirus aid relief and economic security
125act or the cares act and through that act we received two different sources of funding the first one was sparks funds so the state received monies that they gave to johnson county and johnson county allocated these funds to the school districts and so in johnson county the k-12 school districts received from the county 4.8 million dollars and then the state of kansas allocated dollars to k-12 school districts through the elementary and secondary emergency education relief or esser and this was the first esser one fund the second act was the coronavirus response and relief and supplemental appropriations acts or the ccrsa and that was allocated to us through sr2 funds and then the last act was the american rescue plan act or arp and this was sr-3 funds so with the johnson county allocation we received
1261.2 million dollars these funds had to be used between march and december 30th so really these dollars were put to quick relief of um the beginning of the school year when we had to um hire staff to support the kind of covid19 response and it was also helped with staff who set up all the remote learning for the district it went to staff training and course design and also helped purchase ppe and mitigation tools the next esser funds were allocated based on the title one um free and reduced lunch allocation and so these sr1 funds came there's about 13 billion dollars was allocated from the federal government the state of kansas received 85 million dollars and so you can see the district comparisons of some of our neighbors so blue valley actually received 327 000
127um we had to allocate 16 000 to private schools within our boundaries and so that left us with three hundred and eleven thousand dollars or about fourteen dollars per student um you can see that olathe received an allocation of one point seven million or sixty one dollars per student a shiny mission 2.6 million or 103 dollars per student and kck 8.4 million or 400 per student with that 311 000 we are working to basically shift costs that we um took on because of covid so um we're looking at uh two tutoring stipends that are we're paying our teachers and then um also the rest of the costs for the covered response staff and the staff to support remote learning and then also all the coveted supplies things like ppe and things like that that we
128had to spend at the beginning part of the school year the second allocation was sr2 funds and um based on the very low per student uh allocation um blue valley worked very closely with the state and really worked to help shore up those dollars and so at this point the state is now giving at least three hundred dollars per student and so this resulted in six and a half million dollars for blue valley um olathe receives eight eight and a half million dollars or three hundred dollars per student and then shiny mission received 10 and a half million or 411 per student in kck received 36.7 million or 1 743 per student so this allowed a lot more resources um for us to work with as a reminder sr2 funds are to be expended by
129march of 2024 as with previous federal funds that jenny just spoke to you about the state has provided us guidance on how school districts may spend these funds there are actually i believe 16 different categories and so some of those categories are meeting unique needs of learners at low-income children english language learners children with disabilities districts are allowed to provide mental health services and supports these funds may assist with administration of assessments to determine student needs so those are just a couple examples of the categories that are allowable the district has submitted its application for its intention of spending these funds you've had a previous board presentation explaining how we were going to expend these uh 6.5 million dollars and we are currently awaiting approval from the kansas board of education which actually meets this
130week next we would like to point out that our sr2 funds as i mentioned have to be spent over a period of years by the end of 2024 in march and this screen just shows um a breakdown of that over multiple years more specifically we would like to help you understand that the plans for the 6.5 million dollars while they're defined here really these are intended to impact students student learning so we're planning um for school needs assessments and we just met last week with our building principals beginning the work on conducting needs assessments and buildings we're planning for regular utilization of formative assessments so you can see on the screen assessment and school connectedness um we're also reviewing um our summative assessments and we'll be utilizing that data with our students as well we
131will be providing professional learning to ensure trauma-sensitive learning environments to support our students when they return full-time to school next year again we will be working with buildings again on expanding school connectedness as we've spoken to you about in the past and then we would like you to be aware that actually in a future meeting you'll be hearing more in depth um our plans to uh for what we refer to as kind of the core four to support our students next year these are in the area of climate culture formative assessments data professional learning communities and the interventionists what we're calling interventionist mindset so esther ii has helped us start to plan forward s are three dollars we anticipate an allocation of about six hundred dollars per student or about 13 million dollars so currently
132what we are doing we're engaging in some focus groups to gather input from our building principles and teachers and we anticipate that the areas of expenditure will be in these four particular categories um meaning those larger cap those other categories i spoke to previously we're anticipating the categories will be the same but we're looking at student learning academic delivery support social emotional delivery support and then fiscal or operational management and again we will come back to the board when we have a more well-defined plan for the s or three dollars and we receive more guidance from the state regarding sr3 and we are happy jenny kyle hayden or i to answer any questions you might have around these plans or these funds thank you dr collier are there any questions from board members you guys
133provided a lot of good detail looking i think i think everyone's in good shape thank you guys for the presentation all right our next agenda item is a legislative update um thank you amy i'm going to share my screen now and give you a legislative update as you are aware i believe the legislature has adjourned again this was their calendar just as a reminder on may 3rd the veto session started they adjourned i think in the wee hours of the morning on may 8th and then they go back on may 26th for signed eye which is largely ceremonial but they can do some business if they need to so that they do have that one day left as a reminder blue valley's adopted priority positions have not changed the fund special education at the statutory
134amounts and expand at risk enhance student mental health and eliminate tax credits and vouchers for private schools so all year those are the things that we have really advocated for those are the ones that we have testified on either in support or against different things and to give our feedback so i want to start by the school funding bill i want to first of all thank our legislators because this was a truly bipartisan effort that went into this house bill 2134 which i'm going to go through some of the specifics in just a minute but just to give you some feedback it really was a bipartisan effort it passed the senate uh 35 to four it passed the house 107 to 9. so that alone gives you a perspective of the bipartisan effort and that
135was sent to the governor uh for her action and so that is really sitting on the governor's desk right now um included in house bill 2134 first and foremost um the governor's governor's recommended and constitutional funding uh for 21 22 and 23. this is uh would set this would give us be in compliance with the gannon case and we would be totally funded there it also included several other bills the first one was around dual enrollment senate bill 32 the second one house bill 2068 is the tax credit scholarship now i will say this is something that blue valley was not in support of we actually testified against it at some point um it it but it they did altered a little bit uh it includes free and reduced lunch eligible students and currently the
136tax credit scholarship is available just for students on free lunch um the other thing that changed is that now all students on free and reduced lunch are eligible k through eight and before that it was just those in the 100 lowest performing elementary schools so that that is a part of this bill senate bill 93 house bill 2067 talks about budget certification making sure that our budgets provide for those students to educate those students with the most needs those at-risk students senate bill 173 high density at risk that is something that doesn't affect blue valley per se but it certainly does our neighbors they were very excited to see that but it did add dyslexia and dyslexia characteristics so we will see how that affects blue valley i think that's a a wise move on
137their part um senate bill 51 is included in here which is the foster care education report card and senate bill 63 uh the act and the the workkeys assessment for currently it's being provided for public schools it would be provided for accredited private and home schools so this is all some legislative stuff that was added into it also included in house bill 2134 is remote learning language so it does allow remote learning for 40 hours by as determined by the local board so our interpretation of that is for example next year if we decided to do remote learning on snow days if the board and and we talked about that that would be allowable for up to 40 hours don't know if we're going to do that or not by the way but that would
138just be an example in a state of disaster a district could apply to ksde for a waiver and get up to 240 hours but if you go over 240 hours then the the funding for the student would shift and it would just be at the flat rate of a virtual student at 5 000. and my understanding is that would shift in the middle of the year there would be a mechanism to to change that funding so that's the remote learning language that that was changed a little bit it's it's um more palatable here honestly with the way this one's written and then the last part of this is that ksde so we all get esser funding you just heard jenny and katie and kyle talk about the sr funding that schools get well ksde has
139a set aside that they get and there are certain and part of what they were able to do is to shore up um each like blue valley so we each got 300 a district as opposed to just using the free and reduced but there are some other funding things that they do some special programs they do statewide and so they are asking in this bill that the ksde discretionary part of that that they would include five million dollars in school safety grants 3.9 million for the mental health pilot that's something that both of those are programs that they've done in the past a hundred thousand dollars for communities in school eighty thousand dollars to support a reading uh program at pittsburg state um again that would support the work around dyslexia and then this last
140one so this is not necessarily with the ksde discretionary ester this would be with rsr money they recommended this is not a requirement not mandatory that a that school employees get compensation of up to five hundred dollars for teachers or other classified staff they were very clear that this was not administrators it was pretty much everybody but an administrator of compensation of up to 500 for those working in 20 21 and 21 22 school years we are still waiting on some guidance um everything we have heard to this point is that you cannot just give a stipend uh it has to be associated with um the work that you're doing around learning so again that's not mandated but it is a a recommendation in is in this house bill 2134 another school funding bill was
141around the 20 mil property tax levy um so house bill 23 2313 uh is a statewide school finance tax levy it reauthorizes the 20 mill property tax levy there were some other tax items not necessarily related to schools that passed the senate passed the house and that has been sent on to the governor and you can see again very much bipartisan um almost universal support there and this is something that that we in school systems needed to happen as well so we're appreciative to our senators and representatives for taking care of that um a couple of other bills that we talked about last time i just want to be clear on so house bill 2039 the civics test or the financial literacy remember this is the one that would require students to pass a civics
142test comprised of 60 questions beginning in it also required students beginning in to pass a financial literacy course as a condition of graduation that originally did pass the house in the senate it was sent to the governor the governor vetoed that during this last veto session the senate did override that veto the house did not act on that so the veto was sustained so at this point house bill 2039 is not law what i would tell you is that uh the financial literacy course we're well on our way to doing some work on that and that is going to be a part of our high school study around graduation requirements and we may be bringing something to the board around that in the future but we wanted to take our time rather than just throw
143that in right now and make sure that we put it all in with the work that we're doing um and then this last one doesn't necessarily pertain to schools but i've gotten several email questions and so i thought i would just share this house bill 2058 uh lowered the concealed carry license uh to 18 i think from 21 to 18 and the gate also gave reciprocity with out-of-state concealed carry licenses it passed the house in the senate during the original session the governor did veto it but the senate had an override and the house over had an override of the veto so that was sustained and it became law so i've had a couple of questions is how does that affect blue valley since we have 18 year old students um well anybody who's concerned
144that doesn't affect k-12 campuses because guns are not allowed uh per kansas state statute we also have board policy around students and staff that would not allow that but i just wanted to share that in case people again several people have raised questions and then again we always have our legislative information on our district website um the legislative session uh again is winding down they just have that one day left but uh very appreciative to our senators and representatives for delivering a finance bill that will support our schools fully fund them and i'm happy to answer questions if you have them this is mike yeah go ahead i'm sorry did i go out of order nope you're good go ahead um i may have missed it the um inclusion of dyslexic some level of dyslexia
145in the at-risk category has that been finalized in terms of how it will be um included in the at-risk funding and and uh data collection uh honestly mike i saw like literally as i was signing on to this meeting something come okay asde so um we have not had time to analyze that but that is something that we will be working on over the course of the next week or so because i know we enough said thank you yeah that was a positive addition um we believe no i i agree i just uh i'm a bit surprised thank you mike anybody else have uh questions or comments for tonya oh yes miss jody sorry um if you could remind us again um so i saw that the funding per student if we do have to
146go to a virtual format or a virtual format i guess there's a funding per student funding of five thousand can you remind me again what we're looking at this next year for a standard student per student figure well there's a couple of things here with that jody and we might need to bring kyle back up to to help me with some of this but uh remember there are different weightings so it's not just the um amount per per student it's the weightings that we get it's the career technical or special education or all of those different things but kyle can you help me what is the amount per student next year 40 47.06 i'm going to say 48 so 47.06 so when you look at it it looks like virtual is actually better because it's
1475 000 but it's the weightings that we don't get thank you any other comments or questions yes michelle i was just gonna relay to tanya that dr american that um the feedback that i've gotten from community members about this legislative update has been very positive it's helped people understand you know at kind of a more top level what's going on and how it will impact schools uh specifically our schools so thank you for making that a part of these meetings and taking the time to do that because it's i think it's very important for our community to to know what's going on and and understand how it impacts us so thank you you bet very digestible okay all right um and now we're on to our last agenda item which is policy review and possible
148action so um i'm bringing this to you at the request of the high school administrators uh before you is policy and policy 3430 uh talks about the participation in graduation ceremonies and i've been in the district 22 years now and i can say that we have followed this policy we joke sometimes not not joke so much but we indicate that um we are not black and white on a lot of things but this is one that we are and this policy indicates that you are not allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies unless you have passed all of your credits for graduation and so we have some students this year with covid who will finish in the summer so they're going to be one credit short one one class or one credit uh short and so
149they they have plans to complete that in the summer and yet we would have to say to them i'm really sorry but you you can't participate in uh the graduation ceremony so high school administrators and i met and they would like to ask that we waived that policy for this year and then we want to do some due diligence and do some research um we have some colleagues in other districts who actually have a policy with some definite conditions around who can participate but there is um a little bit of wiggle room that if for example if you have a a plan in place to complete it in the summer you would be allowed to walk with your classmates who you've gone to school with in some cases for 13 years so really before you
150tonight though is just um we are asking to waive the policy uh for the class of uh 2021. yes jody um so quick question um there is a difference between blue valley requirements and state of kansas requirements or do i have that wrong no there are a blue valley has 24 credits for graduation and the state of kansas has 21. okay so most of these would all meet state requirements yep graduation just not the blue valley okay all right are there any other questions or comments for dr american mike sites um i don't know if we plan to to try to approve this tonight or not i'm hoping we do but i just want to thank the high school administrators for the compassion that they're showing for the students um this hasn't been an easy
151year for anyone at least of all our students and i think the compassion that they're showing by showing a little bit of grace uh when it comes to that student who maybe needs a little bit of extra time is admirable and to those five principles thank you all right um to kind of segue from mike's comment then is there a board member that would be interested in making a motion uh to support this uh policy suspension for this year's graduation i'll do it um i move that the board of education suspend policy 3430 for the may 2021 graduation ceremonies i'll second it okay stacy can have it all right stacy we'll give you that one i'm going to do a quick roll call jodie dietz yes thank you michelle benjamin yes thank you stacy yes
152mike sites yes patrick hurley yes and i amy teissling vote yes as well so that motion passes 6-0 and that is it for tonight we do need a motion to adjourn though stacy uh i move that the may 10th regular board of education meeting be adjourned thank you stacey is there a second second oh i think mike won on that one um and all those in favor please raise your right hand all right motion passes 6-0 um happy birthday to patrick yesterday and happy birthday to dr collier on june 4th thanks to everyone for your participation tonight and we'll talk to everyone soon thank you thanks guys bye you