USD 457 Board of Education Meeting 6/8/2026

001the order. We'll begin with the pledge of >> allegiance. Algiance 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. >> Okay. Please will take a moment for silent reflection. Thank you. Okay. Item C, approval of the agenda with the following amendments. C1, remove item D1, recognition of the Ronald McDonald House uh pop top challenge. Item C2, additional certified and classified personnel actions for consideration. Uh, consent agenda item E3. C3, remove the Garden City High School athletic activity handbook and the middle school athletic and activity student handbook from item E4A. Board of Education is asked to consider and approve the following 26 27 handbooks on the consent agenda. Mr. >> President, move to approve the meeting agenda

002as amended. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Oppose, same sign. Motion carries. Okay. Item uh E. Sorry, the camera is Yeah, sure. Take a sec. Take a minute. working audience break. You thought you're going to be Mr. Fix it there for a second. Don't get too Oops. We can do audio only as long as audio is streaming. >> Yeah. >> Or we don't do anything. It's one or the other. want to continue. >> Okay, we'll go on to item D. Um, is there any public comments? I believe so. Okay, item D1, building presentation, virtual academy presentation for Diana Elliot for the director of virtual academy. >> Okay. So, is the screen going to be able to share or Oh, you can see it.

003All right. Wonderful. All right. So, um I'm so happy to be here with you today to talk a little bit about the virtual academy. Um so, we wanted where's we wanted to find out why virtual academy students and parents continue to choose the virtual academy. And so we conducted a survey earlier this year. What we found from our students is no matter what led them to the virtual academy, they say that they like the flexible schedule, teachers are supportive, and they have fewer distractions when learning. families. Um they said that the they find the virtual academy supportive and a safe environment for their children, a place where students are encouraged to explore interests and set individual goals. Many of our students work on one class at a time, but we work e with each student

004and family to determine um the schedule and the course choices that work best for them. So, for example, we had a student come in with 75 credits as a sophomore. So, that puts that student at eight classes behind for us because we're a 21 credit program compared to the Garden City High School, which is 24 credits. So for him, completing two classes at a time within five weeks instead of two classes at a time within six weeks was the right schedule for him. So for this year, he finished 16 classes. And normally we ask our students to complete about 11 half credit classes each school year to meet cohort graduation. So with this plan, instead of being a year behind, he will graduate on time or maybe even a couple months early if we continue

005and he continues to meet meet this schedule. So virtual academy is very individualized to what students and families are coming in wanting to accomplish and um where they want to go. So, um, the virtual academy aims to support our students in being flexible, focused, and future ready, um, so that they're prepared to take on whatever comes at them after graduation. This aim was developed with the staff using the survey results that we gathered and supports our Garden City Public Schools mission of rigorous coursework, individualized learning experiences, and opportunities inside and outside of the classroom. So, now we're going to hear from the um students and family about what makes the virtual academy flexible, focus, and future ready. Okay. So, this was a link in my presentation. So, um is that a PDF that we're seeing?

006>> No. >> Power. >> Okay. So, we'll just move over to the board docs in the PDF to get this video to play for you. So, technology. Um, when I played this at my office, it was loud enough people to hear. Um I can send out a link to this afterwards, but there are several students and a family member um a mom who are talking about the different reasons that they like the virtual academy that focuses on the flexibility, the future ready and the um focus timeline. Um, and then some of the opportunities that they have to do um that they um wouldn't be able to do otherwise. This one's a little better. I don't know if it's worth listening for just a minute. >> It was really good and really eye opening for what

007the real world's like. I'm planning on getting my degree from community college and then going working at empiricals. >> Hi, I'm Tammy Shutner and I'm the mom to two children that have gone through Garden City virtual program and I just wanted to take a minute to express our gratitude and how important this program has been to our children. Our family chose the USD457 virtual academy because it offered the flexibility and individualized learning environment that worked best for us. One of the biggest advantages was the opportunity for our son to take classes through Garden City Community College while still in high school, which helped him explore career options and discover the path he wants to pursue. Compared to a traditional brickandmortar setting, the virtual academy gave both of our children the flexibility to get a head

008start on their futures while still receiving strong support and encouragement from the staff and teachers. For students who are motivated and goal oriented, the virtual academy can provide opportunities that may not be possible in a traditional setting. We're very thankful for the opportunities the program has provided for our family. Hi, my name is Catalina Garcia. My name is Misa Lopez. >> And we're 2026 graduates. >> Congratulations. So, why what made the virtual academy the best choice for you? >> Virtual Academy was the best choice for me because it helped me be more into my small business and helped me focus on school and my small business at the same time. For me, I was able to fit in college at the same time for automotive mechanics and I was able to work uh almost full-time

009and help out. >> I plan on doing online culinary school while running my small business and hopefully open up a bakery local in town. I plan on going to college for automotive mechanics and hopefully by time where I have money shop some of the numbers. We had 90 plus students in grades 7 through 12 and adult. We had 33 graduates and we had 69 Garden City Community College credits earned and seven students took those credits. As far as the numbers go, we are majority um sophomores through seniors, so 10th through 12th grade. Seven, we have seven middle school students this year. and um 13 adults currently. We speak with families in person, um on the phone, email a lot. And so without this um support, families and staff and students working together, it would be

010very difficult for our students to be successful because of the high motivation and independence that's required. So, um, parents are usually a little more involved at earlier and then as the students get, um, used to it and further along in their school, just like usual, the the families are a little bit um, less. But they're always involved with our individual plan of study meetings and talking about their um, academic goals and career interests after high school. sophomores who take our math and English language arts assessment. Um you can see the top third of the um chart there shows the last few years. This is from the state website. those 2026 um results are not on here, but um our uh assessment scores can vary quite a bit from year to year because of the small

011number of students that take the assessment. So if there are um 20 students taking the assessment, then sometimes um if five or six have a change compared to the year before, then we're going to see some some changes there. As far as opportunities, these are some of the things that we work on. Um number one and three are things that we want to improve upon. So providing more opportunities for studentto student interaction. We've tried several things with this as far as um study halls and virtual meetups and um that didn't go very well. So we're continually trying to figure out what does. Um sometimes having some of those um virtual career um meetings that can be something that can help with studentto student interactions. So we're constantly trying to figure out ways to um improve

012in that area. And then bringing more awareness to the option for students and families is an area that we want to continue to focus on. number two and four. Um we want to just continue to make that our main goal and to make sure that we're providing that relevant experience for students as they go through school to um work with their interests and their goals after school so that they can maybe get a head start on it while they're here. So in the last slide here, I just wanted to show a picture of my uh the staff that we had 2526. Um there's uh two other teachers and myself this year and then uh Secretary Pah. And so I just wanted to show a picture in recognition of their hard work this year. Do you

013have any questions? Diane, not a question, but I did watch the went through this prior to the meeting a couple days ago and watched the video and one of the boys there talked about the fact he held almost a full-time job and was able to do this and helped out at home. That was great. And Earl talked about the fact that she's able to focus on one class at a time and that was helpful to her. I just want to thank you for what you guys do and it's really helping a 90 plus individuals get this get this education. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Item E, the consent agenda. Mr. President, I move to approve all consent

014agenda items as amended. Second move and seconded. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Opposed the same. Motion carries. Okay. Item F, we'll move the board reports. F1 is the long range facilities plan, uh, director of plant facilities, Brandon Anderson. >> So, you've got the the full packet, uh, from our March or long range planning committee meeting that we had. I did print off an updated 2026 projects, which will be in the middle of the presentation. You've got a paper copy in front of you. everyone should have. If you'd like an extra, I've got one here, but I'll get the electronic format to you uh tomorrow. So, we can go through this as quickly as you'd like. Um basically, we we start off with our group. We have about 25 on

015that committee. Uh give our introductions. We've had some transition and change over uh within our department. Uh but in my department, we've got Brad Stop who's my coordinator. Uh George Ross is took Ken Kerr's spot as the maintenance supervisor. Uh Brad also serves as the custodial supervisor. Brian Knight's our ground supervisor. And then Ken Ken Denhart uh is the young whippers snapper on our crew. He's only been here 45 years. He's our warehouse supervisor. So uh pretty good crew. We kind of talked about each one of our departments um with the group, but but uh pretty happy with with the we're almost fully staffed. Uh we've got one grounds position that we're interviewing for. We've got about five applicants right now. So, um obviously we've we've gotten a lot better from a custodial standpoint being

016fully staffed, but that's kind of a revolving door from month to month. Uh and so we have lost a few. So, we'll get uh powered back up in in that. Uh so, that's page one. The next page is what are district priorities. Uh these are kind of my thoughts. Um what affects the learning environment the most. What gets the taxpayers the best bang for their buck. Maintenance versus replacement, cost effectiveness of of making sure we're just not continuing to sink uh repair cost into something that we should look at replacing. tracking school condition and lifespan. Proactive preventive maintenance, not reactionary. We're working harder to try to get ahead of a lot of that stuff. Long-term viability and proximity of campuses to population growth, giving board and taxpayers unbiased facts to best to make the best

017decisions, hard and honest conversations, and better together through communications. So, those are kind of some of my philosophies that we've we talk about uh with that group. and then also daytoday with with my staff. So long range plan uh obviously we're looking at you know kind of 20 years down the road for the most part. Um this is is the priorities within our long range plan and we'll talk about a few other items that we probably need to be thinking about and adding to that here in a little bit. Uh we engage our experts a lot. GMCN uh is our architected record and and they kind of have a lot of our facts and files and documentation uh for us. A lot of that proprietary information that's ours, but they've helped us compile it over

018the years and are very familiar with with our district. ICE is the engineer firm that we use. the way that it's set up, and we'll talk about this even later when we get to the agenda items. Under GMCN, essentially, if we need any engineering done, they hire ICE and then I they'll either bill it. Usually, it's figured into the cost of of their design fees or whatever we approve on those projects. So, uh, but ICE is kind of the same way. They've been longtime engineers for the district as well. Uh, and we try to work with local contractors. A case in point, we work with local contractors. Um, we obviously can tell how old a roof is, but every roof is different. Every craftsman craftsmanship that got that put that roof on is different as

019well. So, the last two two years we've gotten with all of our local roofing contractors uh on the commercial side and and just basically had a big meet and we would go to like our eight or nine worst roofs and just go get up on top of them, talk about them, prioritize them. Um, and that's something I want to continue to do with those guys, too. So then, you know, when we do put projects out, they're very familiar with with our problems that we've got. Obviously, a big part of the discussion this year and this time and as we talk about long range plan, even as we're talking about the reconfiguration with a lot of the projects that we'll approve later on today, our long range plan, there's a good chance that our current long

020range plan, while it's as good as we've got in terms of replacement and and prioritizing those items, could actually kind of get blown up during this reconfiguration because we've only got a certain amount of dollars set aside to do all of the projects that we want to do to get reconfigured by the fall of 28. Um, so with that, we may have to bump and and reallocate and rep prioritize as we do like the remodel of Jenny Wilson, you know, it needs a new roof, probably needs a new HVAC unit in that main area as well. So, we might look at that. Uh, and you'll see on our 27 projects on here, we had two campuses that were supposed to get new playgrounds. Well, with Charleston Stones and and Bernardine Sits going to an elementary

021school, they're very limited on their playgrounds. So, we're kind of reallocating and rep prioritizing that because those two will need to have that done. So, we'd use long range plan money for that. Same way with the security vestibules at um Charleston and Bernardine sits. While we're doing that, obviously, we're going to be affecting the carpet and and the flooring, and that flooring's uh getting close to replacement time anyway. So, that we'll be looking at that. There's a good chance that that a lot of our long range plan could get reallocated as we're trying to do this project and fit it in uh district budget money unless we get a whole lot more money all of a sudden. Right. Be >> great. blinker. A couple items that we talked about and and this is where I

022was talking about my add to our priorities. Our new high school is coming up to almost 15 years old and you guys are well aware our insurance after 15 years on their on their roof coverage. They're going to start prorating that out after that. So, it won't have as good a coverage. So, we've actually again been talking um DB Douglas is the company that put that roof on. They're the ones that are are kind of working with and aware of the issues that are up there. We're still within warranty, too. So, we're looking at a few things under that. Uh but trying to be proactive and possibly get in there and get ahead of anything. We've got a few leaks uh on some seams there at the high school. Uh and it's from where the

023flashing is pulled away. Um but general wear and tear and if we get ahead of it um I think we can it'll be better served for the district if we do that. So we may be looking at that uh in the next two years as well or or maybe after we get the bulk of these projects done. Um some areas that we look at bathroom stall replacement is getting to be more more costly and more expensive and then also as we do that making ADA compliance adjustments as well. uh exter exterior doors and frames, um parking lots and sidewalks. We are blessed to have a lot of concrete and so it's not as bad as as having u black top that we've got to recote and and recondition a lot of times. But uh even

024with the sidewalks and curb repair, um we've got to stay ahead of that too. We may start adding that into the long range plan also as we upgrade our technology and our and our bells. And we're still trying to figure out exactly what system. When I first got here, we we were looking at we we actually did um do sits and Florence Wilson uh with a product and now we're we're putting um INA alert in um works good this year and where I we kind of talked and and technologies kind of taken the lead on that. It's still long range plan money, but technology kind of so much of that has moved more technology based. Uh so along those lines too, as we're looking at controls and fire panel upgrades and and making sure that

025they're going to be working with the systems that we're putting in so we can kind of integrate as much of that stuff as possible moving forward. um type points exterior and envelope issues just on the outside uh buildings staying ahead of that. Uh and then as as the committee I mean most of the committee is is contractors so I had the question on there. What else? So individual building assessments. Um this is something that we started doing here in the district. Um and Brad and I went through and did it. Uh, I don't know if it's as ideal a situation from an assessment standpoint because we're just going and able to walk. You know, Brad and I probably have a little bit more intimate knowledge than a lot of people on our buildings. Um, but

026that's not always the case. You really don't know what's going on with infrastructure, uh, what's going on behind the walls or up in the ceiling. So um so that that those assessments though are what helps us project when replacements and updates are due. Uh we have been doing those campus tours and walkthroughs. Um I've actually my staff we did about half of our schools this year and broke them down and from week to week we just went and walked them because my staff like like I said we should have a better knowledge of what needs to be done on our campuses. So, we've been talking and and going and and taking a week, even a few of them like Ken Denheart that's been here for years. He enjoyed getting away from plant facilities to go

027and tour those. He's pretty stickler. Um, if you got a squeaky door, it'll get old if Kim's around. So, uh, he's been helpful on that. And then we also have kind of been talking on the admin side. Do we need to invest in an assessment or district uh master plan tool? um an independent assessment come in and rate all of our HVAC units. They would also on the nutrition side, they'd come in and rate all of our equipment that we've got there as well. Um so we're we're always looking at opportunities and and options that are out there. So a couple of meetings ago and it came up on the asbestous well where would that money come from or how would that be paid for? And so I just want to go through the last

028couple of years when I these 24 projects were being done as I got here. Um that year we did all those projects for an estimated cost of 3,76,000 and it actually cost us 3,592,000 uh to do those projects. The next year 25 projects we had an estimated cost of 4.6 million on those projects. Um there was some smaller projects that didn't get done or got deferred, but we ended up spending 2.8 million on those projects. Um but a lot of that was savings. If you look at Bernardine sits in the middle on the left hand side, we had a million of 1.155 million budget to do that roof and we got it done for 537,000 basically. >> Screen. Oh, sorry. Yeah. So, this middle one right here, that was a big savings. So, when we

029do some of these things kind of balance out, then you look two lines down. Uh the new playground at either Sherman looks like it went over budget. 120,000 was long range plan money. There was actually uh money available for sped funds that were used to to cover the balance of that project. uh re-roofing A and B uh heart build that came in under budget by 200,000. So some of those savings I mean we do get some some good deals once in a while as we're doing these projects. The next one is the 26 projects and this is the updated one that you've got in front of you. Um last year we had budgeted 6 million or this this year we had budgeted 6,45564 actual cost on those 2,173 421. A big chunk of that is

030the Auburn HVAC which is still on here. Um that's a substantial project. If if you guys have been on here long enough you knew we bid that out twice and it came in well over budget two different times. uh we've actually worked that and we kind of have that as a as a doable project, but we're also facing the large cost with reconfiguration. So, haven't moved forward with that one uh at this time. There's a few other projects that have been deferred. For instance, the HVAC replacement at Jenny Barker. You know, once in a while we we we're not having that much problems with those units out there. Same thing we did at Fly Mail. We just went we had a company come through and go through all of those units. We ended up replacing

031one, but they're all working fine. And so that we didn't we've decided not to move forward with changing those out. Uh even though from a age standpoint, they're probably ready to be replaced. some of the added projects uh a couple from that were deferred uh that we did Jenny Barker and Ply uh the flooring there on here also added the asbestous removal uh next to the end over here and then the controls of Jenny Barker and Ply. So, all in all, we're doing a lot of the projects that are on our long range plans. We're still getting some that are coming in under budget, a few that are going over budget, but again, like uh here at the ESC, we're talking about carpeting. They've been great to work with. We're about halfway done with that

032project, but it's nice to be able to do it all at one time. So, I appreciate you guys doing that. And we're only unsettling all the staff here uh just for one summer. So, I leave this uh next page in here. I just left it in here. This was the energy savings contact contract project that that we were doing. I I left it in here because this was the one that we as a board or we recommended to the board not to continue with the the yearly contracts where they're going to come in and basically for anywhere from 25,000 to 42,000 over the next 20 years, they would basically do a report that would say yes, it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. when you do those LED lighting upgrades like they did, I

033mean, it's, you know, you're going to get a savings with that, there were almost guaranteed to to be on the right side of of the ball every year with that. And so, we've decided to to not continue to invest in that. Next page is 27 projects. Um on the left hand side towards the bottom you can see we have A Hubert and Florence Wilson down for a new playground but also put a slash in and put Charleston Stones and Bernardine sits in there referencing what we talked about earlier. Um, I'm guessing we need to get with Casey and find out on the intercom bells fire alarm um once we get horse good done how we're liking that company and how that's going and how we'll move forward with the next step on those two. So,

034I'll let Jessica, she wants to come cover the financials in her report uh here in just a little bit. Um, next to the last page is my what I do is is basically I I twice a year go and sit down with the principles on each campus along with the head custodians as well. Talk to them about what their needs are. Kind of make sure that we're staying ahead of the game with routine maintenance um and and working with those campuses and keeping them informed. The new FMX work order software has been one of the first things that I heard when I was talking to those principles is they drop a work order into the black hole and they never hear about it again. With FMX, they can stay connected to that work order all

035the way through the process. So, that's been that's been good. And then I I'll open it up for any questions that y'all might have. Brandon, you talked about uh possibly investing in an assessment or district master plan. That'd be a third party coming in and assessing the buildings. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Any idea what that would cost and are what come are there a lot of companies that would that would >> So, we've been looking at there there's a module with FMX that's kind of a buildout. We we'd buy a module for our long range planning if we went with FMX. There's another company very similar to them called Brightly. We've sat through a presentation with them as well. Um just rough figuring we're actually we'll have a meeting next week is in call with

036FMX. Um it's all based off of square footage. Uh and it's about anywhere from 7 to 11 cents per square foot and we're right below 1.5 million. So we could probably have all that done. I'm worst case scenario I think it'd be about 150,000. So something that you think would be useful, >> something we'll continue to look at. Um, and all the services that they offer. I I believe it would be useful. Um, but we just want to make sure it's >> checks all the boxes. We >> assume they'd have experts in different areas come out and look at different things. Would that be correct or >> Yes. Yeah. And the company, they bring an independent group that comes in, but with FMX and it's pretty impressive to listen to their presentation. the the guy

037that gave the presentation had had been on this side of the table from an admin level. Now he's with FMX. So I think >> they'd be looking at HVAC roofs. Uh earlier mentioned all the like walk-in freezers, all the nutrition uh equipment as well. Um >> flooring, and then adding all those other items that we kind of talked about too, but duck points, fascia, all that good stuff. One other question then this goes on something completely different. I was here both times when Abuber when we got the bids and I don't remember what they were but do you recall >> they were quite a bit above >> 200 they were both about a million over budget. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you Brandon. Thank you. >> Okay. Item F2, finance

038review. CFO Jessica N. >> Just need to get out of it. Okay, just to go over a few things kind of to wrap the year up and a little bit of a of an outlook as we move on to fiscal year 27. Uh, currently our investments, as you can see there, uh, 45 million. I actually just pulled out five million um and put it in our checking account to get through like summer payrolls because we have to do lump sums and so it just hits payroll hits really hard in the month of June. So pulled that out just kind of to see where we are with between summer payrolls and then also um Brandon had some uh projects that he encumbered. So after that, if there's funds, I'll reinvest that um back into the that

039money market. I can add to it at any time. Um along with that, we also have 6 million that sweeps into an account every every night um and earns interest. So as you can see in the green, um working really hard to try to to capitalize as much interest as we can. Um th those usually get that interest usually gets spit split between capital outlay and health reserves. Um, I'll talk about that a little bit later. What what I plan to do uh this next year. Some funding impacts that we saw in fiscal year 26, our weighted enrollment dropped 202 equating to about um a little over a million dollars. So unweed, it's 166.4 actual bodies. Um, but when you add in at risk, CTE, bilingual, all of those waitings, it it dropped it over

040the $200 or the 200 FTE mark. Sped funding, we also saw a loss um per teacher of $1,460. We have roughly 90 teachers, so about $131 loss there. And then paras, we get 40% of whatever that teacher allocation is. And we have about 170 pair sped paras. So, another loss of 99,000. We operate all year long on an estimate for sped funding per teacher and we do not know what it is. I just found out like two weeks ago what what that number was going to be for for fiscal year 26. So, it did drop from what they expected and they're already projecting next year to be like 28,000 something. So, they wait till the end of the year. however many sped teachers were claimed statewide than they divided out. So, that one's kind of

041a different different uh budgeting rationale. Federal funding was down 2.8 million. Most of that is all ESSER funding that we knew we were going to lose. So, that one was projected. Uh we lost the safe and secure schools grant in fiscal year 26. We had received 102,000 of that in fiscal year 25 that we used on the bills and intercoms at a couple buildings. Uh we lost national board certifications. We only have two teachers. They get $1,000 each. We still had to pay them that certification, but the state just didn't fund it. So we were out 2,000 there. Uh we lost professional development state aid of 58,000. And then a couple that I thought of after I submitted this was uh we lost about 30,000 in mentor pay. Um again, the state says you still

042have to pay your mentors, but they're not going to give us any money to pay them. And then CTE, we lost over 50,000 um on waitings in CTE. So a little outlook for next year, our base is going to go up $163. So even though we're projecting an en enrollment decrease of about 80 um unweighted, we still will see an increase because of the base. So around $97,000 there. We are hoping to grow our ESOL funding again. This year we grew um grew that waiting from 430 in fiscal year 25 to 466 in fiscal year 26. and that equated to about 200,000. And we're hoping that that is about the same amount that we grow again because we have that many more teachers getting ESOL endorsed now that the district is paying for 100% of

043those costs. Um, we also have a new CTE uh facilitator that's doing some really good things, working really hard to get more classes qualified to get that CTE funding and rearranging schedules and things like that. So, we actually dropped from 25 to 26. we dropped about 50,000 and so hoping to regain at least that much more um for fiscal year 27. Uh but there's the there's what sped is uh projecting the 28,250. So another about $175,000 loss that we're projecting based on the number of teachers and parents that we have. Uh federal funding, we've already got the allocations for that $18,000 loss there. Most of that's in title one. So, we do have um mainly staff comes out of that, but we do have like parent involvement supplies that come out of that for every

044single building. So, just rearranging some salaries there to eat that. Um so, some of the legislation and new funding that we're going to have, they are working on a new school finance formula. They did not get very far this year, so they're going to be looking at that again. Um, some of the things that we've heard is that waitings could change and that could be really detrimental to our district because we rely so heavily on at risk and bilingual funding. Um, just uh I gave Drew a heart attack today because I told him that our at risk funding was or I said at risk is over 15 million and he thought I meant that like I overspent at risk$ 15 million but that's how much me generating. He came running in my office and he's

045like through a text really and I was like no. So that risk is really important for our waitings. Um special ed funding right now they're supposed to be financing that at or funding that at 92% and it's roughly around 75%. We had to transfer just under 4 million last year just to to keep that fund afloat. um the elimination of prior year versus current year in the finance formula. It's been talked about that they'll they'll do away with that. So currently when I build the budget, I can pick if I'm going to use prior year enrollment or current year enrollment. So when you're declining, it's advantageous because you can use the prior year, which we've been doing for quite a while. If they get rid of that and we have to go to current year

046funding, we're going to see a pretty big hit that first year. Um they are they did reinstate safe and secure schools grant. Um so I submitted an application for secured entrances a couple weeks ago. I submitted $250,000. We have to match that. So, we would have a bucket of 500,000 to allocate to secured entrances and that would not quite get two done at one of the sister schools um to get all of those like our goal is to obviously get all of those eventually updated to the secured entrances. Um MCV funding talked a little bit about that last meeting. uh we are going to request 200,000 for next year and what that can how that saves us is we can potentially decrease our parents as teachers and that carries a 5050 match where MCV has

047no match. So, if we can start offloading some of our parents as teachers to the MCV criteria, it's the same services with like more paperwork, then we can decrease what how much we have to put in. And last year, we put in a little under 150,000 into parents as teachers. Uh, mental health has kind of been all over the place. Last year, the district match was 35% and then they told us that it was going to be 75%. So uh our mental health leazison and I were like do can we reduce extra days like what do we need to do and then they just recently came back and they um they up the state so we are only at 36% match so very minimal change for us um after school program grant at Gertard Walker

048and AP Hubert for 125,000. We haven't got final confirmation if we're approved on that but it's looking like we will. That grant was in place before, but it was only for Gertude Walker. And the way the 21st century grants work is you can only service students at that building. So nobody, no students except for Gertude Walker students could go to that after school program. So when we rewrote the grant, we opened it up to two buildings and now we'll have six buildings that are covered uh districtwide. But that grant is it's kind of unique. It's a five-year grant and the amount stays the same for the first three years and then in years four and five it drops and the district has to pick that up. So last year we had to match about 30,000

049for the Gertude Walker. So essentially we'll be saving 30,000 because we won't have to match that. Um and then CTE grant funding again our facilitators did a great job. She's been looking for different kinds of grants and she got us over $17,000 this year on different funds or different grants. Some big dollar expenses, our kicks renewal, which is our property casualty insurance. I just went to that meeting a couple weeks ago and it actually went down 0.1%. People were laughing that it went down that I was like, "Hey, I'll take it." So, I'll take any decrease I can get. Workers comp increased 8.8%. Um, that was a pretty big hit of 361,000. The increase was like 38,000. Next year will be better because for fiscal year 26, we implemented a $10,000 deductible that we had

050not we had not had a deductible in the past. So, all the claims this year under 10,000 won't hit our mod. So, we won't see that that advantage until next year. Um, but hopefully that will help offset uh any kind of renew renewal increase. Again, the ESCO project, uh, we have payment four of 20 coming up. It's 735,000. Uh, it increases every year and it it's going to hit a little bit more next year because this year, the way it worked out is we had escrow funds available from when that project was done. I came in after the fact, so it's it's a little fuzzy to me, but like year one was played paid with escrow funds, year two was paid out of district funds, and then when I came in, I saw these these

051funds sitting there, asked how we could use them, and they were leftover escrow funds. >> Why did I esco um energy efficient? >> That's where we moved all the LEDs, lighting, and that's the >> and and updated our HVAC and and five sister schools. So, what would the price that hypothetically be on payment 12? >> Um, it goes all the way up to like 1.2 million on year 20. So, it increases about 40,000ish each year. So, and that is one that there's penalty for early payment because I was like, can we get rid of this thing? But we it's really not advantageous for us to do that. Um, Grow Will on the three-year contract we signed with them, we knew that that was going to increase $5,000 a month. Um, and our prescription spend is

052trending at like 9 and a half% increase every year. Our prescriptions are the bulk of what have what comes out of our health reserve. Um, we do have a high uh claimant that will be going off with an orphan drug that costs our plan over $132,000 a year. So that will help offset some of the pharmacy spend we have. Science curriculum is up next year. Anywhere from one and a half to $1.8 million projected to spend on science curriculum. Um as you know our ELA curriculum came in way higher than we thought. So that fund's pretty depleted which you'll see here in a little bit. Um and then my plan to get that built back up. Uh suburban and a pickup for transportation. We've had two motors. um in suburbans blown in the last couple

053weeks. Um and then a delivery ban possibly for our mail courier uh system. And then obviously big dollars for the long range facilities plan you just saw around 7.2 million. The last two years though out of capital outlay we've spent less than 5 million. Um as Brandon showed a lot of that was from savings on projects and then and that includes everything like our buses and everything out. So, expecting capital outlay to be hit harder in these next few years than it did the past two. Um, with all that, we want to be competitive in our wages. And so, last year through negotiations, we gave a 4.4% raise. We basically gave all new money to our teachers and then um kept that same percentage for classified and administrators. This year, uh, through negotiations, we're at

054a 3.7. The teachers have not voted on that yet, but this these are the figures that are projected for to keep that up. Um it was a huge accomplishment to get our base to 50,000. Um and that's where we're at with the proposal that they'll be voting on. Uh some savings and miscellaneous revenue that we saw. So this current year, fiscal year 26, we reduced two uh and a quarter admin positions. We eliminated nine and a half certified positions that were on hold. Um, and we just went ahead and closed those. Long-term subs usually save us around $10,000 over a certified uh teacher on the base salary. So, we had about 45. So, saved a little under half a million. Uh, Casey did a really good job when he came in. He looked at all

055of the contracts that uh tech had and tried to minimize some things and saved about 183,000. So, that was really helpful. And then um just sold iPads and computers for around 77,000. Looking ahead for next year, uh we reduced a couple um supplementals and some stipens. We reduced another admin position. Uh I got Drew to close eight more certified positions and he's about tapped out, so you probably won't see any more of those coming. Long-term subs, uh we're going to see less savings, but that's a good thing because that means we've hired more certified staff. Uh then I worked with Tracy uh Johnson before she left and Jill Regal now and then Casey and we did some restructuring with some sisops and some nutrition workers and it'll save us about 130,000 there. Sold some buses

056or we have buses currently listed on purple wave that I think the auction ends June 26th. So those funds will be in next year's budget but uh probably around 30,000 is what Shane's projecting. Um, and then we'll sell those tech items again. Um, and hopefully see the similar savings there. Um, some notable cash balances, both good and bad. Food service is down 644,000. Um, they got hit pretty hard with equipment repairs and um, replacements of over $200,000 this year and then had quite a few retirements and and payouts on there for this year. But that's kind of what started the restructuring of food service um personnel. And so we have a plan to get that built back up as well. Uh textbooks again hit our balance right now is 459,000. So like I mentioned earlier,

057I usually spent interest between capital outlay and health reserves. You can see that those those are our h healthy cash balances. And so my plan is to put all of the interest of 1.8 8 million into textbooks to to cover that science curriculum. Um, capital outlay, like I said, is up. Uh, we we do the max of eight mills. Each mill generates about $534,000 last year. Uh, with assessed valuation, it should probably go up next year. >> I just want to make sure because there's not like a a heading over it. The first one is current balance and the second one is like the yearly >> difference. Yeah. So, like food service is currently as of the end of May is at 223,000 which is down 644 from May of last year. Yeah, good question.

058It's Yeah. Um and then um of that 434,000 on the mills uh local uh local dollars that generate the whole eight mills brought in 4.227 million. Of that 4.27 27 million local taxpayers um it was under 1.8 million of the like the burden that they had to pay. The state put in 2.4 million um based on our rate and usually every year state aid changes in the last last year our state aid for capital outlay did decrease I think a percentage. Um I go to the budget workshop next week and they'll let us know what our rates are for fiscal year 27. health reserve. Um it's just like it's doing so well from a couple years ago. This was one of the funds our auditors were pretty worried about because of how low it had

059gotten. It was under a million at one point um I think three years ago. Our net claims are down 3.4%. Our prescription rebates are up. Um we're also looking at an international pharmacy program that would increase um savings on prescription plans, too. Um we we implemented it two years ago and uh it's high-cost drugs that we can get internationally and if it's completely optional for the employees but if the employees do agree to it then they pay absolutely nothing for their prescriptions. Um, it's only certain prescriptions though and we implemented it and we got like two two months in and Blue Cross Blue Shield said that we couldn't do it so we had to backtrack. But now um through our pharmacy benefit manager we think we'll be able to do it again um a different

060route. So it could save employees and our plan quite a bit of money. um Growwell right now to break even we're a little under 45,000 which is pretty incredible for our first year and just implementing it less than a year ago. So I I project that that our participation will increase and then our savings will also increase. Um, audits. I just kind of put like for you guys that are new kind of like how we get audited when. So, the school term audit basically they look at our schedules, our class schedules, parent teacher conferences, recesses, things like that, and they just verify that our students went the required 1,116 hours. Um, that audit, like I said, is in process. Lewis Hooper and Dick does our internal audit. They look really deep into things like payroll

061and accounts payable. They look at our accounting, make sure we're following state compliance. Um they look at our grant requirements, make sure we're following that. Um they're in our they're in the business office for a solid 3, four days. Um just digging into different things. Um everything from looking at time sheets to pay stubs to make sure we paid it correctly, make sure grant funds were used appropriately. um they are they'll be on site the fourth week of August. Uh KSDE we get audited annually and that's usually around February and that's where they're looking at our FTE and all of our waitings. So we project it at the beginning of the year and then we don't find out for sure if we're up or down um until February. And then we have a special education

062audit usually in August. and they're looking at um the reports that this that the sped department files and says like this is our personnel and how much time they spend on special education and then they compare that to how we paid them and the funding. So if if the special ed department claimed a teacher at 50% and we we actually paid them at 100% then they dock us that half. So, um, we work really closely with payroll and HR and SPED to to make sure that we're all on the same page as far as how we're funding and paying for our special education employees. >> We always want to be in the hole with sped >> because >> you can't you can't get that money back if you under underclaim it. So, you want to

063overclaim that a little bit. So, we're always going to be >> we always see a negative >> we always want to see a negative number there. That's one time that the negative numbers are good. Um, it's not huge. >> So, what's coming up? You guys will, this is the time of year you'll see a lot of me up here. I go to the budget workshop next Tuesday. Uh, then I begin closing out doing year- end transfers the last week of June, the first week of July, and opening up the new fiscal year. Mid July, I'm working on cost center budgets, which are uh the budgets I put together for all of the buildings and all of the departments on the funds that they have the ability to to use as they see fit. and then

064doing prep work for the KSD forms. Those forms don't come out until like usually late July. Um the RNR, which is the revenue neutral rate, that has to be certified to the county clerk by July 20th. And what most districts do, what we've historically done is that we we put a high amount that we're going to exceed it. So the revenue neutral rate says if you I'll just use easy numbers. If you generated $5 million with 50 mills, then now you can generate that $5 million with 48 mills because your assessed valuation went up. So what this district has historically done is maintain the mill levy and then that increases our cash flow a little bit um as long as our assess valuation's going up. So that is just to certify it does not say

065that we have to do that. So historically, I've just done, yeah, we're going to do 50 mills, but then when you build the budget, then it's always lower, but you have to do it by July 20th to have the authority to do it. So if you only put 45 and then I build the budget and I need 50 mills, I I wouldn't be able to do it. So that's just kind of a an estimate right there that I'll send in on July 20th. And then I'll come back in August at that first meeting and we will do the building needs assessment review which by state law we have to take into account when I build the budget. So, next actually Wednesday, there's a committee of principles and um the instruction office and myself, we get

066together. Every building principal in the district had to fill out a form called the building needs assessment. And what we do is we compile that and we look for similar things like we need more support in this area or we need more counselors. And then when I build the budget, I can come back to you and say based on the building needs assessment, I need to put money here. this is why I need this many mills, that sort of thing. So, we'll do a presentation um that first week or that first meeting in August and I'll also present the RNR that I actually think we need in the budget um and how I've built the budget. And then right after that, we have to publish it in the telegram because then we have to wait

06710 days to have the hearing on August 27th at that meeting. That's when patrons can come and voice concerns and then the budget then I'll bring it back at the September meeting. I didn't put that in there for you guys to actually approve at the September meeting. Um it's all a timing thing because we have to have the budget to KSD by September 20th and then all all the documents to the county clerk by October 1st. And that's what I put together. questions, comments, concerns. >> Summertime slows down for everybody except for Jessica. This is when things speed up for her. >> Very much so. >> Anything keeping you up at night when you think about this budget, putting it together for next year? >> Um, not really. I obviously the declining enrollment is not

068ideal. Um, but I really feel like our cash balances are are in good places, especially um given that I don't think I'm gonna have to put any interest into Health Reserve. Um, our capital allay looks great. I know we have big plans for that, but um I don't know like sped is always a thing because it's so underfunded and like you just know you're going to have to transfer a lot of general fund money out of there. I did a quick look though um not just because she's here but Gina has done a good job of um maintaining our expenditures. It doesn't look like this year is going to be dramatically different from last year. Um we do it um it's called the 6B grant and it's for special education and so we actually have

069that it's kind of a buffer because we operate using the prior year's grant. So like this year I just used up fiscical year 25's grant amount and it's over a million dollars. So like there's that buffer for sped which is a little comforting. Um honestly our facilities um we have a lot of facilities and just that's probably the most worrisome thing is just maintaining all of our facilities because there's so many. >> That capital outlay was I can't find it right now but a little over 25 million right? >> Yes. Yep. We got enough there to take care of KH, what the plans that we're looking for, plus still have money left. >> Yes. Because uh we kind of said like no more than 16 million for KH. And like that's on top of like

070what Brandon will need for the long range facilities. It's on top of buses that we're going to have to keep up with our fleet maintenance. But it also, you know, you have to remember we bring in that almost 5 million from our mills every year, too. So it kind of will balance out. But um nothing that's just making me not want to come to work, that's for sure. >> Good. >> All right. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Start with G1. Uh board of education asked to consider and approve the following curriculum council items. New request high school project search. >> Gina, >> thank you so much. >> Uh we are proposing uh the course project search. Uh project search is our new program at the community college for special education students who have met all

071of their graduation requirements. Um students in special education can stay at the high school until they're 21. And so this allows them to go to the community college, still be enrolled in the high school, so we get funding and they do work internships at the college and they learn additional job skills to help them transition from high school to their career. And so we have to enroll them in classes in order to get funding for them. And we didn't have a course for them. So, we enrolled them in just work-based learning courses that were already uh on the books. And so, we wanted um something specific for Project Search. And so, that's why we came up with the name Project Search. So, any student who is enrolled in that program, uh it's it's our program,

072but it is housed at the community college. um they will just their classes will be called project search and skyward so that we continue to get funding and that description is that they are doing work-based learning that all happens at the community college. They do not um take any classes at the high school. They do visit the high school for recruiting purposes. uh they go there uh to talk to future project search students who might be interested just to share their experiences and try to get students interested in joining that program um in the future. >> You have any questions? >> How many do you currently have in that? >> We have only had two this last year. Uh we didn't get um approval for project search until April of last year and so most

073of our students already had their plans for after graduation. So for this next year we have eight students which is about how many we can handle. We only have one teacher on campus and then a parah and they all go out to different departments to do their internships. They spend an hour uh the first hour of the day in the classroom learning job skills. Project search uh is a it's actually worldwide but they provide us with curriculum uh to teach the students and then the rest of the day from 9 until 2:30 they all go out to different departments all the students and complete their internships unpaid internships. Although Workforce One is one of our partners, uh it's part of our community team that we have and they do help sponsor the kids and they

074ended up paying for the students this year to complete their last internship. So they got competitive wages to complete those, but traditionally Project Search is unpaid. They're still considered high school students doing work-based learning. So both of our students got employed by the community college. There's no expectation for the community college to hire them, but it was very successful and they enjoyed having those two students on campus and there were openings. So, they did get hired. We don't anticipate that happening every year when we have more students. But the the goal is that within nine months of completing Project Search, uh, every student is employed. Um, not necessarily full-time, but at least 20 hours a week, um, and competitively paid. Uh, these are people with disabilities, so they earn a similar wage to somebody without

075a disability doing similar work uh, and in an integrated setting. So, working alongside non-disabled people in in their job site. So they the girls got to weld and work in transportation and do things that they never imagined that they would get to do. And one of the girls is going to work on the grounds crew this summer. So that was not what she intended but through the internship experiences she realized that was something she really enjoyed. So >> Gina on the you know the reverse job fair that's something that still continue correct. >> Yes. Okay. So this is really an addition to that. It's great to see them be able get out in the in the community and find a job where they can really be I mean it makes me happy. >> Yes, >>

076it does. >> So thank you. >> Thank you. This is pretty cool doing this. >> We've actually hired some of our kiddos, too. They've done different shops for us. We've got some in the kitchen. >> Transportation facilities. >> Facilities. They've We've got a couple that have actually been hired at Paris. So, >> it's been good for us, too. >> Good. >> Hey, thank you. >> Thank you, Gina. >> Thanks, Gina. >> G2. The board of education has asked to consider and approve proposed for replacing the control systems for the net and goals in the gym at Garden City High School. So the current control system uh for the Nest and goal, we've been experiencing quite a few issues uh with it. Um they go up and down quite a few multiple times throughout the day.

077Um, and it's currently on a on an older system uh with a keypad and we really don't know who all knows that keypad. Um, but for the most part whether you know as they go up and down we're just experiencing more issues, more concerns. Um, that is not a campus where we want to have that kind of a risk and liability. um and and just the inconvenience of if those don't go up during a volleyball event or wrestling event or something large that goes on. So, we had been looking at uh and and Matt's been talking to us for about a year about this. We finally got a quote from ATCO. Uh we could go through ATCO on the Greens Bush contract. Um they've given us two different options. Uh, one of them is basically

078a system just like we've got right now, obviously upgraded and option two is um covers all of them, but then also has the ability to put them on an iPad or a phone. Um, so we'd be able to track those and know exactly kind of be able to maybe limit who's going up and down with that. I don't know if that is a concern on why we're having some issues with it or not, but uh obviously we just want this system to run well. Uh and I like the elevators up there. We like them to work because most of this is one of the the campuses where a lot of our public goes to and uh we would just trying to be proactive here and trying to avoid some technical difficulties when we come to

079some of these sporting events. So, uh, we present that to you guys for your consideration. Um, cost on that, our recommendation is that we go with option two, uh, total cost of 25,410. Any questions? >> That's one that gives you the ability to do it through an iPad or >> Yes, sir. Keep people kind of control off of it or on it. >> Yes. >> Are these the original moers to the building when we built it? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, we got 15 years out of it. >> Yeah. The the problem that happens is um when you have somebody and oftentimes we do, we'll have a parent come in and have volleyball or they'll have whatever and they'll raise it past the limit setter and then it it won't come down or they'll drop

080it down too far past the limit setter and then right before graduation you can't get the volleyball nets up and that's problematic. or a basketball game, whatever it may be. So, we just need to be able to manage that. And this system doesn't allow it to go past those limit setters like the old system would. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions on that one? >> Says Christ here. >> Yeah, we can. It's It's fine. >> It's fine. Okay. >> Yeah. All our first streets that. So, that's the cheap one. By the way, >> Jessica leave. >> That's why I gave you guys cash balances before Brandon. The next three items uh are service members with GMCN architects um for moving forward with the reconfiguration. The biggest one is the first one uh service order number

08110 uh for the Kenneth Henderson Middle School expansion with a proposed design bid and bid fee of 7.5% of the owner's cost of work. Uh we kind of discussed how we how we wanted to move forward with this. Um, that's in the customary range for architectural work, but you need to also be aware that this covers, again, like I talked about earlier, if he has to hire an engineer, it comes out of his fee. He's paying for it out of his fee. Um, anybody else that would have to come in, uh, specialized talent, uh, that would come out of that fee. Um, so that's that's where that cost is. Um, as a scenario down there on the fiscal note, let's say of the 16 million uh that we've got set aside for these these projects,

082there's three projects, we'll call them. Um, this is obviously the largest one and right now it's kind of tracking budget wise of about 135 total to do phase one. uh which doesn't it may include some locker room and sporting upgrades but it doesn't include um phase two which phase two is the the second gym um at Kenneth Henderson. But if it were to just if our total out-of- pocket expense was 135 at that 7.5% we'd be paying them a fee of a million $12,500 and that's a moving target. Um, I wish tonight that I had you a a drawing and a plan and and you guys can ask the admin team. I mean, in the last 3 months, it's changed six times um and will change more. Um, right now, one of the, you know,

083everything gets to get looked at. Right now, what we're looking at is working with uh kind of asking some questions of Tetro, a local company that does it. And some of those sewer lines are 7 ft deep. How does that affect this project? How do we go through and and make sure that we're dotting our eyes and crossing our tees and doing all that leg work first? So, uh we've already started with that. GMCN's already pretty deep into this project. Um, but we're anxious to bring you a drawing and a mockup. Um, but it's a little premature at this time because it could change with with the more information that's gathered. But we're getting very close. I'm thinking within two months, we'll be able to bring you guys a a plan, probably a plan for

084all all three of these items that were approving tonight. >> So, a small detail, but is there a reason it's seven and a half% fee on one and the rest are 8%. So the 8% uh is more customary or it's higher. It's more of a remodel. Those are more remodels. This is actually a a new addition plus a lot of heavy remodel as well. So that was the reason they gave me that. Any other questions? On page, >> have you ran into any problems? You said you had six different deals like you. >> So, a lot of it, a lot of the problems that he's working through, too, or even long-term phase 2, athletic facility, how does that all get affected fit on that space? And so, I feel like we've walked through nearly every

085scenario. Um, and he's he's been pretty thorough. I mean, I think you guys would agree, but very thorough and and running through all those, keeping that in mind. I mean, cuz from a reputation standpoint, >> we don't want to get five years into this and get ready for phase two and go, "Oh, well, that that track won't fit there anymore." Uh, so that's what we're we're kind of, you know, a lot of that is is causing some of that reconfiguration or instead of putting we're looking at adding a whole another wing back there on the back side, we'll kind of reconfigured and and readjusted some things and now we're just looking at adding six classrooms on the north side of the building out there by the dome. So with with a lot of with some

086more and so then the the the new addition kind of gets balanced out maybe not as big a part of the project but then you get into more heavy remodeling or light remodel of it that's going with that project. So, it's been it's been fun to to be involved in, but it has been a roller coaster because of all the thought processes that they go through and take you on and say, "Oh, hey, yeah." And you know, I think I was gone a couple days and it totally changed. Thanks. >> Big part of it, storm shelters. Right now there's there's not at KH and so figuring out early band and orchestra. How does that look as storm shelters? Um how do classrooms look at storm shelters? What's a more economical way of making sure that

087we have functioning storm shelters at KH? But the other thing that I would say is the uh the sewer lines at cage are a little wonky and so part of the adjustments has been hey we need to moving from here to here allows allows the sewer system to function better those sorts of things. Yeah, it may change, but right now we we we're doing away like when you work in the KH I mean currently right now to the right is the main bathrooms. Well, that's going to be the front office sign and kind of the way it's fitting and the way it's working out. So on the the storm shelter, obviously it's a necessity that we have that we were looking at one large room for a storm shelter for the entire campus. Now, we're

088kind of looking at the the build the the room the six rooms on the north side would be a storm shelter and then the wrestling room on the south side would be a storm shelter. So, you'd be able to split where instead of all of a campus at one time trying to get to one room, be able to divide it and say you're on this side of the you go there and you're here there. There's a lot of >> Yeah, you don't always like to watch the sausage get made, but sometimes it's pretty. Any other questions on KH? Next item is um service order number 11 security vestibule remodels at Bernardine sits and Charles Stones. Uh this is together. Um there was a question on the fiscal note and and the error was on the

089next one. Jenny Wilson I said these two campuses. So I just I did didn't change the fiscal note because they're estimated basically at the same cost right now. Um, so back to SS and Stones, >> looking at that remodel currently floating around that 1.2 million budget to do both of them. Um, but the other day and so finishing that thought at 8% then our cost would be on these this total project to do both of the security vestibles around $96,000. The other day, Nick Nemaek and I went met with the two principles at Stones and and Sits and walked them through some things and we were actually going to take out a block wall and cut in a door, take a window out and cut in a door. And in talking to those principles from

090an efficiency standpoint, we kind of figured out a better way, which is actually going to end up saving us some money. So, I'm hoping that estimate is on the high side for those two projects. But uh um that's two of the five sister schools. Um the other three being uh VO ether Sherman and uh Florence Wilson that ultimately we want to get those security vestibules done. Maybe we'll get some grant dollars to do that. Uh but those don't have to be done for the reconfiguration. With the other changes that we're doing on these two campuses, it it kind of makes sense to make them secure. Questions on sits and stones service order number 11. Next one's service order number number 12. Uh this is for remodel of the front uh proposed design and bid uh

091remodel of the front offices at Jenny Wilson. Uh currently because of the way that security vestibule is set up and where that front office is, we're not able to utilize uh the front two classrooms. So, with making them a two-track school, we would have to use we would have to at least create another classroom, uh, minimum of one classroom. Um, so kind of where we're looking at with this that whole front area of Jenny Wilson would get reconfigured. The office would move down. So, when you come in, the entrance, the left side when you walk in that that front vestibule right now, there'll be a door that goes into that office to the left. And then all the the principal's office, the secretary's principal's nurse will be all on that left side and the back

092side of that would be uh work room. The current library would be relocated to the right side of that when you walk in. Um the older bathrooms that are small and antiquated would go away, give more room for the library on that side. The current library would be broken into two classrooms then and that would allow us to have two tracks there. Uh at Jenny Wilson, this is one that we talked about whether or not we can fit it in this budget or not. That front area is one of of the roofs that we've uh labeled as as bad need uh to fix in the middle area. But ironically, they look bad, the two domes, but the two domes are in really good shape. We don't have any leaks, any issues with those structures. um

093they just look awkward because it's hard for us to keep gravel stuck to the uh tar up there in place or two, but the way they're shaped, the water runs off so quickly, we don't have time to get leaks there. So, uh but the middle of the spaceship is where we're talking about that's what I always think of and Jenny was like spaceship enterprise, but um so roof and then while we're doing before we do the roof, we might do the HVAC with that. That's not included in in the $1.2 $2 million estimate at this time on the reconfiguration to J Wilson. >> So, how much would the roof be? >> That roof area is going to be similar in size to what we just got done doing at Florence Wilson. So, maybe a couple

094hundred thousand. And we're probably looking just that portion if we did the upgrade. Those are some of the oldest VRF systems that we've got in the district. um and they've actually been pretty good units, but they're problematic and and so probably time to to change those out. So before we fix the roof, we would like to make as many roof penetrations as possible. Probably just go back with rooftop dents and ballpark there. I mean 250,000 probably. Any other questions? >> Not about this, but just kind of give an update. I see they're doing the carpet here. We doing that at Melanium. Is that all getting taken care of? >> So, real quick, where we stand, um, we've got two sections of the four sections broke down here at ESC. that group has been working at

095Altter Brown and so they'll move off of here. Uh they they've been going fast. Um two done in two days. Um and so we'll move on Wednesday. We'll move section two folks back in section three. They'll then move out. We've also kind of tried to work around uh payroll and then also work around end of year stuff, but I think we've got it where where we've got them set up in kind of a permanent semi-permanent spot uh for now. So hopefully we'll get Alter Brown and ESC all done on this first by probably the end of June. Um we were waiting on the the individual that's doing the asbesus abatement. He will be here on Monday. Uh we anticipated taking two weeks at Plymouth and two weeks at Jenny Barker and then Star will come

096back and finish those two as soon as the asbestous is done. Um the gym floors, Florence Wilson is done uh refinished and painted. They're in the middle of it at a Huber. Uh we can't finish uh can't redo the gym floor at Alter Brown right now because it's full of all the furniture that goes in the rooms that are moved out. but they'll come back and do all around the end of the summer and the same time they'll come in and do a recode on the high school gym uh as well. Uh I don't have a date yet for the playground at Buffalo Jones, but I know that playground equipment is supposed to come in within the next week or 10 days. Uh it'll come out to plant facilities. Um the high school hot water

097heater project started today. Um they all will be down with hot water for a week. Uh but but trying to work with nutrition um and and so they'll be out of hot water for a week, but that project's only supposed to take a week. Tetro got that contract and then Tetro is also waiting as soon as they get there's two more units that are due to be delivered. They'll get a crane and they'll lift all those up onto to Garfield and get started on that project. What else am I missing? >> Cage. Yep. >> Oh, got it done. He came in Easter weekend. Um, which actually I think more of him after that because he had told me yes, I'll be there on Friday and then he bumped it to Monday and it was because

098his wife was mad at him for making him and his employee go work on the Easter holiday and I said, "Well, I thank more of you for not doing that." But he came in on that Monday right after Easter and got it done that week. So, yeah. And honored everything. So, >> thank you. Okay. Item G six. Uh, the board of education is asked to consider and approve the new board of education policy, JCDC student personal electronic communication devices. Assistant Superintendent Steve We've been talking about uh this policy for quite a while now. Um and what we have for you today is a replacement for the old policy. Um we've been talking about this really through the entire school year. Uh we were told early in the planning for the legislative session that there was

099going to be a law that was going to be passed that was going to deal with this. So we've kind of put it off. Uh, as a matter of fact, one of the bills, one of the first bills that were was submitted back in February dealt with this. So, we thought we were going to have action pretty quick, but we didn't. And so, that it drug out close to the end of the session. And actually what we ended up with was one bill that actually had three different kind of policies and procedural things all just thrown into one mashed up thing at the end. So um that's that is why the delay and why we're bringing it uh to you today. Um we've had board policy JCDBC since 2005. We've had an personal student electronic

100device policy. Um it had different standards at different grade levels. Elementary look different than middle and intermediates which look different than Garden City High School. Um this policy the law that was u enacted which which is House Bill 2299. um actually is an all in one kind of thing. There's no difference in any grade level, no difference in any school, and it's very it's very black and white, but there's also there were some areas that were open to interpretation, which has caused another bit of delay while districts and and uh actually even legislators waited for some clarification on what some of this stuff meant. Uh but the law says, at least this part of the law, that all districts must enact policies and conform or confirm compliance by September 1st. So by September 1st, uh

101I'm I'm assuming that President Rston and Mr. Gin are going to have to file a certification with the state and they haven't given us the methods mechanisms yet to certify that there is a policy in place that conforms to state law. Uh the state law says basically that all personal electronic communication devices are not to be uh accessed during the school day. Belltobell. Now, Belltobell is one of those places that's open to consideration. There's no real definition. Um, and turned off and stored in an inaccessible location. What inaccessible location means is also another one of those points. It's kind of open to each district's definition. Um, we even got in May the governor's office involved with a memo that went out to districts giving their interpretation of what inaccessible location means and what it doesn't

102mean. Um, so school schools must allow also in there reasonable access to a phone or a school provided phone for communication back and forth to parents which will be a new thing especially kind of at the high school. They haven't had many times where students come and ask to use the phone to call mom. They usually have their own, but now they won't because there are no considerations and no situation um short of the ones identified in the law where a student should have their phone. So those areas in the yellow were some points of definition and especially the point the area in blue some conversation about what all that meant. In some districts, that means you store them in your locker and you keep them. That's how they're going to define that. Uh, you

103have a district like Hayes, they built a brand new, I don't know how many hundred million dollar high school with no lockers. Zero. What does that mean? Um, so the law does put in there some definitions of what a personal electronic communication device is and gave some examples. Cell phone, uh, a laptop, computer, watch, wireless headphone, earbuds, text messaging devices, personal digital assistant. I imagine the uh AI glasses would be considered a personal electronic communication device. Um and then what the school day means. What does school day bel time from the start of school until dismissal at the end of the day on school premises including but not limited to the time in any classroom structured or unstructured learning setting, recess, lunch or passing period. Um, and then also excludes the time associated with the

104student traveling to or from a learning experience not on campus. So if a student has a work-based learning assignment or a student has a dual credit class at the college, any of those things when you leave campus that this ban does not apply. So, if they're leaving for some of those extra activities that may not be on site, um these restrictions wouldn't apply. There are some exemptions stated in the law. Um, if a cell phone or personal communication device is needed as an intervention of last resort, something an IEP or a 504 plan. Good example, the most the easiest example is there are several kids in our district that need to have a cell phone on them at all times because they have blood sugar monitors on them and that's how they get their notifications.

105So, uh, doctors are used to writing notes providing that the student needs this device and there's no other resort, no other thing that the kid can use or have at their disposal for the family. They've got to have this blood sugar monitor. And so, a doctor's note, a 504 plan can take care of that. And then also students will be allowed to utilize their phones on extracurricular activities. So students uh playing basketball in the Great Bend and they're traveling home and they need to make sure their parents know when to pick them up, they can have their phones and be able to use that once you leave the campus. You're able to utilize those during extracurricular activities. Um compliance. So along with this policy, part of the policy and the law states that the schools

106will have their disciplinary actions published in handbooks and things like that. So we've talked to the principles, elementary principles, secondary principles. Um they're what they've come up with as far as compliance for that for the students is very much similar to the compliance in our former policy. Our former policy says that you've had the phone in class, you the phone gets taken away from you. Um, and failure to comply with that then leads to other disciplinary actions. Um, in subordination, open defiance, but that's already in our our handbooks. The thing that's changed is our first penalty, first offense used to be the student can come pick up the phone at the end of the day. Uh the principles were all unanimous in that they want the parent to come and pick it up even on

107the first offense now because there is no way, shape or form or situation >> where a kid should have their phone and they're going to take the responsibility of making sure that gets blasted out to every parent, every kid part of enrollment, all of those things. We're going to start advertising as soon as it becomes a policy. Mr. Diamond's already working on a letter to the community >> start even though it's just a first read. I'm going to put information out tomorrow. We'll start pushing things out that this is coming down the road. >> with the old policy, kids could have their phones because they could use them during passing period. They could use them during lunch. They could use them before school. All of those things. But now with this new law, there really

108isn't a reason for a kid to have their phone or have it out. It's supposed to be inaccessible. supposed to be locked away somewhere. Um the all the schools will be issuing lockers for kids who want to have one. The law also specifies uh recommends that if kids have to bring them and they usually have a vehicle, they store them in their vehicle on campus. Um that's part of what's written in HB2299. So what you have in front of you is policy that is was recommended to us by KASB. Uh the only thing that we added in there or changed was in the discipline section towards the end where we put our discipline policy and how it would how it would be applied. So, the rest of it, the rest of that policy complies with

109HB2299 as far as a ban on cell phones all the way through. I think uh each each campus will be defining as far as they'll have individual times that this takes effect. Elementary schools start at a different time than the middle schools and the high school. The high school actually starts their instruction at 6:50 in the morning. So, um I believe that's when they're going to start calling it bell to bell. >> So, just don't don't bring it in zero hour. >> 20% of the high schools already taking a zero hour. That's instruction. We've started. That's bell to bell. You've already got a lot of teachers teaching. You've already got a lot of kids in class. Why would we have a policy that lets you have it during zero hour and around that time and

110not the rest of the day? We're not going to put any extra burden on teachers. We're We're going to make it make it pretty simple. If you have it, store it away. If you have to bring it and you have to bring it in, store it away. We'll give you a locker. No other reason to have it unless you have medical exemption or something like that. >> Like the hallway lockers is considered put away. >> Yeah. Yeah. According uh that was one of the things everybody was waiting on. What does inaccessible mean? Uh so in the governor's uh clarification to folks they kind of mentioned what in her opinion in her office's opinion the word inaccessible would mean and locked in a locker and stored away while the kids in class would in their interpretation

111would be what inaccessible is. I mean just like in in practice. So a kid like between classes like grabbing their cell phone between classes and and answering text messages from whatever like that teacher that sees them passing. >> They would be subject to having the phone confiscated. >> Will that teacher keep the phone or will they send it to the office? >> They'll send it to the office. >> Sent to the office. Okay. >> Yep. We don't want the teacher storing phones. We want it. We want it sent to the office. And uh yeah, in the office. And and it does even mention in the law that schools are not responsible for liable for any damage to phones when they're storing them. >> How many lockers do we have at the Garden City High School?

112>> We have uh they counted last week. We have in the hallway 1,500 just a little more than 1,500 lockers. We also have lockers for all the kids in zero hour activities. Kids in sports, they can put them in there when they get to school and leave them there for the day. uh kids in uh early band, they all have band lockers. They can store their thing, they can just store their phone in there. So between all of that, plus the kids who just choose to leave them in their cars or other st other things like that. If a kid wants a locker, Mr. Magna said they'll be able to get them a locker. >> So we have enough. >> We'll have enough when if we utilize the activities lockers. Uh the orchestra kids all

113have lockers to store their instruments in. The band kids have lockers to store theirs in. So in addition to uh the 1500 that they just have in the hallway, there are all those other options that are available for kids. >> Are they lockers at the elementary schools too? >> They do not have lockers at the elementary schools. So in those home room classrooms also kind of specified in here and recommended from the governor's office stored in a cubby in an elementary classroom or those kind of things. So >> would count as inaccessible. There's not going to be as many of them, but there will be kids that will have it. >> Yes. >> And so those those schools and those classrooms would be responsible for devising a a cubby system or something like that for

114putting your putting your phones in when you get there. >> Yep. >> Um, a couple of things just for clarification. So, and I might this might not be correct, but my understanding is like right now for summer sports, kids are scanning a QR code on their phone to check in. >> Yep. >> So, is that how we normally do things? >> We're going to have some speed bumps, Robin. Um, with this, uh, one of the issues that we have is the kiddos that are taking dual credit classes at the college, they have to do multi multifactor authentication. They need their phone to do that. So, we're trying to we're trying to figure out the logistics of a lot of things. There's a lot of >> And you kind of answered my question like the middle

115school kiddos, like high school kids, they could probably leave it in their car, but what would the middle school >> middle school kids there's plenty of lockers? >> Like how often do lockers get broken into? Because like is all of a sudden now we're going to see phones being stole right and left? >> Unless somebody's got the code, the combination. I mean it's it's not >> No, it's not a normal thing. And your your question about kids coming to summer activities that there's no school going on, >> right? Right. So it doesn't apply, but is that how we do things? >> Do we normally ask kids to use a device? >> Well, in the summer they might have to use their phone. In the school year, you can scan in on your iPad. >> You

116can use the camera on your iPad to scoop to scan in for any of that stuff. That was some of the questions that have already been thrown at me. >> Uh, good questions worthy of clarification. But yeah, in the normal school year, if we had to use a camera for something, all of their school provided devices have cameras on. >> So in in a backpack would probably be accessible, wouldn't it? >> In a backpack, not stored in a locker would be accessible. Yes. We're going to advise and and the principles I've talked to are going to advise families and kids. Don't bring them. And if you have to, we'll give you a locker. Come ask for a locker. Um I'm not sure if Mr. Mang is planning on assigning each kid lockers or or lockers

117upon request because, you know, there there are probably more kids than we we give credit for that that don't have phones. I know from working in the main office at the high school, we we don't have a ton, but we do have some kids that come in and need to use the phone because they don't have a phone. >> What about if uh they grab their phone while they're lockered and go to the restroom? >> Yep. Well, if somebody sees them with the phone, they should follow the policy. They should >> That's a lot. >> I'm sure it I know it has. And being the former principal at the high school, I know. Absolutely. But it's gonna have to be something everybody keeps vigilant with. >> Yep. >> It'll be a it'll be a rough

118few months, but they people will adapt. They'll they'll they'll learn. They'll adapt. >> And that's that's the the the piece in talking with the principles, Mr. Gman and I talked to them last what? Thursday. >> And it's about education. They want to start throwing it out there now. The easy piece is it's not just Garden City. Everybody is under the same house law. HB 2299. I mean, it's it's not where we've decided to, oh, you moved to Garden City. Well, here's our policy. No, it's the same policy for everybody. Everybody cell phones are are bell to bell. The really the biggest wiggle room is when you say your bell to bell starts. Whether does it start at zero hour? Does it start at 7:50? Does it start at 8:30 when in an elementary school? Just

119depending on the location. But I mean that's the same rules, same law here and essentially the same policy because we received this policy from KASB and they sent it out to everybody um with and I I'm assuming most districts are going to have something similar to that policy with just their discipline added to it. Yep. But as I said, it's been something we've talked about for a long time. Uh but we were waiting on waiting on the law and then when we got the law we were waiting on some opinions about what what does that mean? What does bell-to-bell mean or what does an accessible location mean? >> And surprisingly there's a lot of schools in the dis in the state that have already kind of gone that direction like we I mean we've been

120talking about it for quite a while and >> you know talking to some of the talking to some of the other principles that have already gone down this road. you're going to have speed bumps the first couple of months, but once everybody kind of gets into a rhythm, it kind of and I think if you look at the the middle schools, they demonstrate that. I mean, they went they went no cell phones bell to bell two years ago and it's not a big issue now, you know, it's just kind of how they do business, but it's going to be a change for our kids. >> Y >> and it's going to be a process and everybody's going to have to monitor that. >> Yeah. because kids will be kids also and they're going to >>

121push >> they're going to push the limits for sure. >> There's a will there's a way >> but it it is one of those things. It is a good thing in that um everybody is playing basically the same playing field. Um we're fortunate at Guard City High School we've got lockers. Uh talking with the principal of Hayes, he wasn't sure what they were going to do. they built that huge building with no need for lockers and they don't have any. So, theirs is going to have to look just a little bit different. Um, I don't know what this means for other districts. Mr. Tidwell and I have talked for close to a decade about bring your own device policies and schools that allow about half of the schools in five and 6A allow kids just

122to bring their own computers and hook up to the Wi-Fi and use their own device and not one that the school gives them. But according to that, according to that, computers are can't bring your own computer, which is a no-go. So, >> now can they text or anything off their iPads? >> They're not they're not supposed to be able to text with uh with things. Mr. Wise kind of has the that text feature shut off. >> They they figured out a >> it's figured out a door way to get in there, but I think he's shut that down now, too. So, Yep. >> Yeah, it's a chore, too, trying to stay ahead of the kids with some of this stuff. So, but yeah, they have the ability to email, but they don't have the ability

123to text. >> They have the ability to, >> do they? Yeah. >> So, like I said, we've got that you you've got it there for your consideration. Do you have any other questions about things? Please don't hesitate to email. Um, I'll try to get you answers best I can. >> So, just real quick, this isn't going to like cost us anything to get like storage. Okay, >> that's that's that's that's one thing that I I I think is important. when we went to Drew and Steve and I went to the the USA conference a couple weeks ago and they were kind of giving giving us their interpretation of a lot of the things and one of the things that they're encouraging is don't go out and spend a lot of money >> on storage device

124storage for these devices because they think some of the laws are going to change a little bit and >> you know um we were talking to was it Witchah Steve if if they were to buy the buy the devices for that it was going to cost that district like over $4 million for >> now Tha district. >> The tha district. Yeah. I mean it's so they've told us not to do anything and they think that there's going to be some revisions to the to the policy a little or to the law a little bit and so we'll be able to adjust a little bit of that. But so don't go rushing out spending a whole lot of money to to deal with it for now. So >> that was the predominant message was >> and

125I feel I felt good after talking my my biggest concern was do we have enough places for our kids? Because I mean obviously we can't tell every kid you need to leave it in your car cuz if they're not driving to school they can't do that, right? So what does that look like? The high school was the the area. I mean I felt like we were covered in the rest of the buildings. The high school I wanted to get Mr. Ming's thoughts on things and I think obviously I think he's got a little anxiety about it but I think he feels like they'll make it work. So >> Okay. Well, speaking of House Bill 2299, another part of that dealt with uh another topic with uh social media and staff members. So, Mr. Ton's going

126to take that one. >> All right. Second half, um which is complicated as the first half is, maybe more complicated. Um the second half is uh the second half of that of that policy, one part of it mentions uh communication through social media with staff members and students. Um the the purpose of it um and the purpose of the policy that we have in front of you is to make sure that we are actually following House Bill 2299. Again, we didn't write House Bill 2299. we have to implement policies that are effective in making sure we follow House Bill 2299. Um the the section I'm going to talk about uh is in direct correlation to um communication on social media. Uh it is policy number I or letter IIBGC. Um, and what this policy does

127is it outlines how staff members are to communicate uh or aren't to communicate through social media with students. Um, the core objective of this is obviously to protect the health, the well-being, the safety, the emotional well-being of students while m while maintaining professional boundaries between our students and staff in this in this new uh digital environment. What this House Bill 2299 and policy IIIGGC does is it outlines specifically how staff members are supposed to do that as best as possible. Uh under both the law and this policy, we as as a school district had to st uh strictly prohibit communication between uh specifically private communication and direct communication between students and staff members on social media communication. So we're talking X, uh Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, um Facebook, those sorts of social media. um social media

128devices. We had to prohibit communication between our staff and students. Um this um is a prohibition of specifically two-way communications and comment-based conversations. So, um, as the kids say, DMing me or getting in my inbox, staff should not be communicating with students through direct communication on social media. So, uh, inboxing uh, it doesn't say that they can't be friends. It just says that they can't communicate uh, through direct communication that isn't able for us to have oversight of in those communications. Um it is a very narrow definition um on on House Bill 2299. Uh official school purposes is strictly defined as broadcasting post. So the only thing that that we can do on social media is broadcast or post public one-way communication regarding school functions, activities, and events. So, the only way as a district

129we should be using social media from what it says is to broadcast events uh to one-way communication of things going on with the school district and um basically as as us explaining to the public what we're doing with it. We one example of that is we're going to shut off comments on Facebook posts. So Matt Buyer may post something about a basketball game tonight at at Garden City High School. We're going to have to shut off comments. The reason for that is because we can't have one-on-one interactions with students through social media. If a student gets on there and comments and we respond to the comment, then that is one one way communication with students through social media. Okay. Um the other thing that has to happen uh is uh board approved uh communication. So

130um we have to have a communication channel. For us that's going to be class dojo. Uh for us that's going to be Thrillshare. So we have to have a way to communicate with them that isn't through social media. Um we also have to have approved social media channels if we are going to use them. So think of your kids in school or grandkids in school. There may be a Jenny Barker Facebook page. That Jenny Barker Facebook page has to be approved through Mr. Gin or his designate and has to have oversight in the management of those Facebook pages. So we have to have passwords. We have to know who is posting on those. Uh and we have to make sure that we're constantly checking inboxes to make sure that there's not two-way com communication. This

131is going to be somewhat difficult to manage uh because of things like um a football booster club Facebook page that we're still trying to get guidance on. A football booster club is not operated by Garden City High School. The football booster club is operated by the football boosters, but it is tied to Garden City High School. So, is direct messaging allowed on the Garden City High School football booster club Facebook page? Those are things that Steve talked about that we're still trying to get clarification on and how that's going to work. Um, we're going to take over access uh and control of all Facebook page, Twitter pages, all those accounts. We're going to make sure that we have loginins and we have inventories of all those accounts and then those accounts are going to be

132managed by uh generally the principal will set up somebody in the building to manage those accounts. So, the Garden City High School volleyball page, the coach will be put in charge of that, but probably for the first time ever, it there will be the login and the password and those sorts of things will be managed by the building principal. Does that make sense? Um, social media versus educational platforms. This is going to be um where we had to be very good as administrators. Uh so in the classroom setting the question is obviously we're not going to be able to use Twitter, we're not going to be able to use Instagram, Snapchat, those sorts of things in the classroom setting. That was the reason for this delineating the difference between what a social media platform is

133and what other educational platforms are. The big question is going to be things like YouTube. Is YouTube a social media platform or is it something different that we can use as an educational experience because communi that communication piece isn't the primary purpose of YouTube. So that's where as a district we're going to have to be especially uh diligent in defining those uh those breaking points. Um district control tools, we'll continue to have district control tools. The law allows us to continue to have district control tools. Uh, one great thing about those district control tools is if a staff member is communicating with the student, those parents are also getting those messages, which is is good. Class dojo uh is coming out with this here in June. At the end of June, they're supposed to have

134their release to make sure that we can still have that two-way communication between a student and a staff member. you know, a staff member reaching out to that student saying, "Hey, make sure you were gone today. Make sure you get this homework in." Class dojo. The nice thing about Class Dojo is it automatically connects the parent into that communication. And then on the back side of that, we have access to all of those records through Class Dojo or Thrillshare or whatever app that that we have already approved. Uh we have access to those records. Um those are the uh the big parts. the the other part um personal conduct um staff conduct and disciplinary action. That's going to be a big piece of this. Obviously, this is a law. Um it it's passed and and

135been signed by the governor. So, it's a law that we have to follow. Inside that law, we have we have disciplinary measures. Uh it doesn't define what those those disciplinary measures are. But if a staff member is violating this policy and that law, there is disciplinary measures that will be associated with it. We already have a process for that disciplinary uh action to take place in the form of conference reports uh informal uh conversations. We have those processes in place. It's just a matter of making sure we're following our processes if staff members do violate them. um where this law uh I is problematic and there's nothing we can do about it because we don't write laws. It does not define relationships. Um so black and white the law says that staff members should not

136communicate with students through social media communication. Um, Nathan, you have a wife and you have a daughter and by definition of the law, your your wife should not be communicating with your daughter through Instagram or Facebook or Snapchat just based on the definition of the law. So, this law is not a perfect law by any stretch. It is a law that we have to follow and we have to put policy in place to make sure that we're following that law. KSB has strongly advised us uh to follow this policy. It is a completely brand new policy uh that they have written. We have not had this policy uh in place and and it will be something new to us. So the roll out of the policy, the roll out of the education of the teachers

137and how we educate our staff members on on what it looks like going into the into the future in that communication with students is is going to be vitally important. Uh I will preface this by this is a social media policy. It is a communication through social media policy. Uh, and that is what specifically it addresses is communication through social media and saying our staff members should not be contacting our students and communicating with our students one-on-one through social media. Okay. Um, questions on this policy. >> Jennifer looked this over. >> Jennifer has looked this over. Yeah, she has looked it over uh and and said that the policy is complicated but um but the law is complicated >> and good there's >> well yeah it's >> the purpose of the law is good law

138>> the carrying out the laws whether it's the cell phone piece of it or the social media piece of it gets tricky. So the disciplinary actions here listed are just in line with what we have already in place in other places. >> Yeah. Yeah. So we have disciplinary procedures for any policy that is broken. If a policy is broken, uh there's verbal conversations, there's uh documented conversations, conference reports, there's a grievous procedure on the back side of that process. If staff members feel like it wasn't handled correctly, they can grieve any policy that we have that we feel isn't handled correctly. There's a a grievance procedure on the back side of that for that all to happen. So the the discipline piece is in place just like any other policy. >> How will this be

139communicated to staff? When and how, I guess. >> Yeah. So it's there's going to be a long roll out first once it's uh once it's approved by you guys going through and defining that then in back to school ex sending out explainers of what this looks like and then once back to school come once we start to do the back to school stuff not only having it embedded in something like what we call our public school works but then sit down facetoface conversations at the back to school and it's going to have to be constant reminders of of communication through social media you because people have become very accustomed to it and it is going to be hard for for our staff members and and I'm not just talk I'm not talking about the ones

140that shouldn't be communicate you know having friendly conversations with students through things like Snapchat. I'm talking parents and cousins and grandpas and you know um relationships like co-working relationships. We have staff members um that work alongside of high school students as lift students in making sure that they keep a clean separation in yeah this kid is a lift student in here as a parah during this period but that doesn't mean on social media I should be having one-on-one direct conversations. I also plan on at convocation when back I have everybody just kind of not going into detail but letting them know that we need to be aware of that and we'll push some stuff out on on Facebook and things like that so we communicate with our families so that they know what's going on

141and >> great place to push it out. >> Yes. >> We are I mean I I will tell you we're going to have to become less reliant on social media. um the community may not enjoy that because uh a lot of our community members do like to get a lot of the information off of Facebook um or mainly Facebook or Instagram or Twitter following isn't much. Um but the problem with that is they can't have that conversation, that dialogue. So pushing it out through Class Dojo or through our Thrillshare stuff is going to become more prominent and less reliant on things like like social media. And at some point we should probably model model some of that behavior for our students. If if we're expecting our students um to reduce their social media consumption, we

142should probably not put everything on social media some. Again, this is a first read. Um it it'll come back to you. I'm sure you'll you'll hear more about it between now and then. If you have questions, please reach out uh and we'll give you as many answers as as we can give you. Okay. Seems like this is going to be very time consuming. >> Very very timeconuming. Yeah. I mean, I I think just the staff the staff piece, not even including um Steve's piece with the student educational piece, just the staff piece, is going to take up a lot of staff time and in educating them on how and what is appropriate to do through social media. >> There was funding included in the bill, right? >> Little sarcasm there. >> We don't write laws.

143We just try to follow. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> G8 board of education has asked to consider and adopt the 2027 2028 district calendar. Rule, you're up again. >> So the 2027 2028, you guys should have it um in your in your files. Um so we went through the calendar committee process like we do every year. Um and through that process uh we and I believe there are two board members on the committee and through that process um the calendar committee developed three different options for the teachers to vote on as far as which calendar they preferred as a district calendar for the 2027 2028 school year. Um as a reminder those of you that are are fairly new, we used to do the calendar a year in advance. So we would come to you

144guys in March or April and approve a calendar for the next school year. That became pro that always was problematic for a multitude of reasons. But the biggest reason is for us recruiting teachers. We couldn't take a calendar. The biggest problem I had with it is I couldn't take a calendar. Two teachers were trying to recruit and tell them this is what your calendar looks like for the next school year. It didn't allow our staff to plan Christmas. that didn't allow them to plan spring break trips, summer vacations because they didn't have any idea in April when they're coming back in August. So, we went to a two-year adoption. Um, this is the second >> second or third adoption on this two-year adoption. It's worked well so far. I will tell you, it's never going

145to be the end all beall. We're probably always going to come back and have some slight adjustment based off the negotiated agreement uh changes or based off some other restraint that may come up where we slightly adjust the school calendar, but it's it's not been a wholesale change of the school calendar. This calendar is um quite a bit different uh than this year and next year's school calendar. And I'm going to point out uh the two main reasons. Number one, the biggest difference the the big thing we heard from parents when we surveyed parents was a desire to start later in in August. That was one of the biggest things we heard from parents is can we find a way to start later in August. Um, a lot of that is tied to the county

146fair and when the county fair happens. Uh, and so one thing that we took into consideration when developing these calendars was a large a later start in August. So we have bumped the start of of school one week further into August. We have to have um or 187 contract days for new teachers, 181.5 contract days for our teachers and 170 contact day for students. So there's only so many ways you're going to be able to mix up a calendar and get those days embedded into a school calendar. So starting the school year a week later was one of them. The other significant change that teachers were interested in trying was moving parent teacher conferences from a traditional Thursday Friday to a Friday. And the logic behind that was to reduce the number of three-day weeks

147that we had in the school year. Um it it shortened those learning gaps in in the school year with three-day weeks. Teachers will come in teach for three days and then the students are off for four days. And in the conversation with the teachers, we wanted to find a way to reduce that by putting them on a Friday and a Monday, you have four day weeks, which allows for more planning for teachers uh to get those lessons in on those four day weeks compared to a three-day week. It's the same amount of time. It just shortens that gap uh in in the school week. Um spring break or uh Thanksgiving break is identical to this year and next year. Christmas break. One thing that we always hear from our teachers number one uh and parents

148is make sure you keep a week at Thanksgiving break. Um a lot of our parents desire a week at Thanksgiving break, which is wild to me. I I'm a little different. Uh and then two weeks at Christmas break is uh a very big deal both to our parents and to our staff members. And I think a lot of that is just because of our population. A lot of people in Garden City are from outside of Garden Garden City including our teachers and that allow allows them time to travel back home. Um spring break is generally set by uh the recommended Kansas Department of Education spring break. What that traditionally coincides with uh is is state basketball week. Uh it's always the week after state basketball week and the state board is the one that recommends

149that to all school districts. That's their recommendation for spring break week. The other um the other dates that that have been strongly requested by both parents and staff members is Good Friday and the Monday after Easter. we get a a lot of requests for Good Friday and Monday after Easter. So, anytime you go through and you honor the request of as best you can of parents and staff members, um it really does. We really get tied down to a calendar that doesn't have a ton of flexibility. That's why you don't see our calendar shifting one direction or another a great deal from year to year is just because by the time you do the Friday and Monday of Easter and you get the week at spring break and the two weeks at Christmas and the

150week at Thanksgiving, there's only so many other dates and and so many other places that you can put those dates. Um, this was voted on. The voting process was a little bit different, uh, a little bit unique. It's it's new uh this year, new to our negotiated agreement. Uh it was done through rank choice voting. Uh so the lowest total is actually the total that wins. Uh and through rank choice voting, calendar A won in the landslide, uh which is the calendar that I'm bringing forward to you guys. The one thing I'll I'll mention and I always try to mention um we're bringing you for consideration. Setting the calendar is up to you guys. You guys can take the recommendation uh our recommendation as a calendar committee, but ultimately is it is up to you

151guys uh to to decide the calendar and and select the calendar. I always seem to have more questions than I think I would get in a calendar presentation. So, I'm here for questions. calendar A actually has school starting the 18th of August as a half day. Yeah. Then the 18th full day. >> And and the reason we do that is for new students. The 18th of August is a half day for new students. So any new any student that's new to the district or they're going to a new level. So that's fifth grade, that's seventh grade, that's 9th grade at the high school. >> And what in all of elementary? >> In all of elementary. The other is a a half work day for our staff members. Other questions? Okay. It'll be placed uh on

152consent at the next meeting um for your guys' final approval. >> Okay. Item G9 the board of education asked to consider and approve proposed revisions to the discipline policy retail. >> So through negotiations um and I am going to ask I'm ask for action on this tonight. Um at the last well two board meetings ago uh you guys approved uh an addition to the to the discipline policy. inside that addition to the uh to the policy through negotiations, we had conversations with some staff members about some small changes that we could make to that policy. Uh Robin and and Randy were a part of those discussions. So, two uh two changes that we'd like to see to that policy. I've redlined. You should have a a redline version in front of you. Um, in number

153one, uh, it says when reasonable efforts by the certified staff member to deescalate the behavior are not successful, the student in the original, it said may, and we're changing that. We're asking to change that word to shall the student shall be temporarily removed from the classroom. School sha staff will ensure the student is safely escorted to the office. So, that's just a slight change from may to shall. um when there is a level four or five behavior, I will say those are our top tier behaviors. They should be going to the office irregardless. So changing that from from a may to shall made sense to us uh as administrators. And then uh number five, post incident classroom restoration and staff support. Following a level four or five incident involving aggression, injury, or a major disruption

154and before the student uh students are returned to the classroom, the district shall provide the affected certified employee a reasonable opportunity to regain composure, begin documentation, and restore the learning environment. Um where this stems from is oftent times um we will get some behaviors uh where maybe desks are flipped over uh maybe a staff member could be assaulted. Those sorts of things. and just putting it in there that we're going to give our staff members time to sit down, decompress, think about the situation, document anything that they need to gather themselves uh and and compose themselves in a manner that is so they're suitable to go back into the classroom when it's appropriate. So, those are the two uh two changes to that policy that you guys have already approved. Questions on those? >> Yeah.

155Yeah. What is the level four level qualifies? That is level four level. >> Those are major major disruptions. Josh, you did the policy. >> So level four level four is going to be it's going to be fighting. It's going to be um all of those things that that that are um that are not safe that affect the safety of the learning environment. So behavior that that biting, bullying, things like that would be a level four. Level five are similar behaviors, but they're also going to be illegal. So, it could be if it's going to be categorized as a felony or a misdemeanor, things like that. Usually, when you get to level five, that's a that's an automatic expulsion hearing. Um, >> where things get complicated are in and a lot of these things happen are

156in special educations uh in special education rooms and then determining through a manifestation process whether the student >> manifest if the if the behavior is a manifestation of their disability. In other words, was that behavior caused because of their disability? And so, you have to have a have to have a hearing for that. You have to do all those things before you can take it to an expulsion. So, there's a lot of a lot of different steps you have to take for special education. >> It it was discussed that sometimes these incidents would happen and then in high school it's different. They're their own animal because they got them for 50 minutes and then they're gone. the elementary level or that sometimes the kids were back in the classroom before the teacher even had a

157chance to turn the desk back over or whatever. So they it was important that maybe given some time to kind of you know gather everything, get the learning environment back in shape and there >> Yeah. And secondary is significantly more com or more structured because of their day. they have class periods. So sending a student off for the remainder of the class period in a secondary classroom where it's anywhere from 45 to 50 minutes, they're going to miss the rest of that period. It's a lot more difficult for our elementary teachers because they've got that student all day long. So that making sure that those conversations happen with the teacher, between the teacher and the principal, making sure that that that teacher has time to adjust and and get everything ready before that student comes

158back if they do come back before they they come back. And uh especially in special education, that part of the manifestation, you know, a as they work through that process, a student may come back even though it's a level four and you would traditionally think that student is going home for the day. If if it's going to be determined that it's manifestation, they may not be going home for the day. So what happens on the meantime like middle school and elementary school give the teacher enough time to gather their thoughts and >> Yeah. So at the elementary schools most of the time they'll sit them in the office. They'll either set them in the principal's office or set him in the main office if the principal's out. >> What happens with the rest of the

159class? Like is there another teacher comes there or how's that? >> Yeah. And it'll probably end up being the principal or the instructional coach that's going to have to go in >> somebody. what are the other adults before that class while that teacher regains composure. Yeah. Give them their time. >> It's uh and where some of those instances occur, there's sometimes already more than one adult, but making sure other adults are going in there and helping to support. >> And we we really talked about making sure it was just a level four and a level five because we did the teachers have to have their classroom management and be able to control that. We just wanted to make sure that people weren't abusing it and that that it was really serious that you know these

160teachers needed help with the real serious problems. >> Yeah. So, >> all right. If you have any questions on any of these things, feel free to reach out. >> Mr. President, I move to approve the proposed revisions to the discipline policy as presented. >> Second. >> It's been moved and second. Is there any further discussion? There is none. All in favor raise your hand. Opposed same. Motion carries. >> Hey, item H, open board discussion. Jacob, you're up. >> All righty. Hey, that project uh search I think is a great deal. Helping kids with disabilities get them jobs. I I love that. I've got some cousins that have kind of stuff and that's helped them a lot in life. uh it's important to me and more important to the kids. I think that's awesome. And then

161Brandon, I know he spends a lot of money, but I think he uh does a great job of thinking about how to spend best, you know, stretch the dollar. I think he does a good job. I want to thank you for your investments, getting that extra free money. That was impressive. Yeah, I agree with everything. Um, people work really hard to make this place run and you especially do a great job and Brandon does too. I'm I'm I I'm excited that we have a, you know, we have plans in place. We have a future. We have a goal that we're trying to achieve and and I appreciate that with great a lot of information presented, a lot to track. Probably a lot I I mean I looked at it before the meeting. I'll have to

162go back and look through this stuff again. Obviously, there's a lot of numbers and a lot of policies, a lot of big moving parts here. Um, but thank you for presenting tonight and the Long Range um facility plan was good to see. I mean, I wouldn't mind, you know, entertaining the thought of of having that master plan or third party come in um to kind of give them, you know, long-term goals and and a good picture of that. So, I would entertain that idea in the future, too. But Um, and yeah, I echo what they say. Um, it's it's nice to see that we're maybe I don't I hate to say finally because that sounds really not very nice, but we we're getting a good concept and understanding of what we do today to plan

163for tomorrow with our buildings and all of that. I think some of the issues we ran into a while back were from deferred maintenance and it's it's easy to put that off. Oh well, we don't have to do this today. We can do it tomorrow. But then those problems just escalate. So I'm glad to see that. Um, I'm excited to see the KH proposal and to be a part of the board that actually finally moved that forward to solving that 6 through 8 thing for the community. Um, thanks to the state, I guess, for, you know, giving us no choice on some of these things and, uh, yeah, keep up the good work. Um yeah, thank you to um everybody that even presented to us tonight. Um long range facilities. It's always interesting to see

164just how much goes into keeping our schools a good place where students and teachers can go and learn and teach. Um even if it's really expensive and sometimes people might be like, "Oh my god, why would we pay that?" Because our kids deserve it. Um, seeing some of the ways that the money is decreasing a little bit is a little scary, but it's also really nice that we do have Jessica here who is staying on top of that and keeping us apprised of those things, figuring out where can we get stuff. Um, for the um, which one is it? Sorry, the teacher social media thing. Um, I think I would feel better having a few more clarifications in there, like are we allowed to use YouTube and just answering some of those vague questions and

165I know we don't have control over the legislation that got handed down, but just making sure we have as much clarity as possible for our staff so that they know what they can do and they have very clear parameters. being a former teacher sometimes would be like am I allowed to use this you know new tool in the classroom just because like for foreign languages for example there were tools that I was like is any do I have to go get this approved um so just making sure that our staff knows what is expected of them um and whoever I need to talk to um and whatever meetings need to be had I would love to be part of that and just make sure that we have all that clarification >> I appreciate all committees

166and all the work that goes on behind the scenes. I know there's a lot of things that happened like everybody else said, a lot of moving parts. Uh great end of the year and things moving forward with just the virtual stuff. Appreciate their presentation today and seeing a different option which is reaching all the kids in our community and helping all kids succeed. So, I appreciate that. Uh I know we're getting finishing up this last year but gearing up for the next year at the same time. That's exciting as well. Uh, also, um, just hope all the staff is having a great summer, teachers having some time down, uh, hearing good things there. I do appreciate Brandon and the projects that are getting done, uh, things that are happening. So, I appreciate you been an

167update, just letting everybody know that everybody's things are coming along. Good things are happening there. Again, thanks Jessica for all that and Drew and Steve for the presentations as well today and getting pieces in place to make things great for our kids. I know there's a lot of controversy and conversation around these two with social media and the conversation, but um having some personal experience in one of those areas, I I very much appreciate what's coming down and getting a grip on that. So, that's what I'll have to say about that. But thanks. That's all I got to say. Well, I'm not sure what else there else there is to say. I thank you for Diane Elliott, the virtual academy director for the presentation. What they're doing the students there, 90 plus students, that's greatly

168appreciated. And not all students u do well in an environment that uh traditional school I guess setting that that you would say. Uh Brandon for all he's doing. I know that's a lot of work, a lot of different moving parts going on. and Jessica for keeping them under control and spending and for all you're doing with the investments and everything. That's great. Hey, the uh policies, Drew, Josh, Steve coming in with those. I think you're doing a good job there. And just all the work that's being done right now planning for the future next year, the year after, and hey, looking out into 10, 15, 20 years is is really good. I'm really excited about it and really excited to see what happens what KH looks like when you finally are able to come in

169with that and how we can move forward with that. But um I think everybody's doing a pretty good job and like to see it continue. >> Yeah, I think excuse me. One of the things that just talked talked about a little bit was sped funding. That's something that I I want you all as board members to to keep your eye on. I think um there's there's already been a few a few districts on the other side of the state that have that filed a lawsuit against the state. I think as you look at the number of of dollars, I mean, Jessica showed you how we're we're declining with with our reimbursement, but that need is continuing to grow and that that 75% is just going to continue to become much much bigger. It's going to

170become 72%, it's going to become 70. And so, um, I I I am concerned about that and I do think that's something that, um, we're going to have to be very vocal, um, with our legislators moving forward. Um, Katie did a really good job this last year, um, addressing that at at the legislative coffee, and I appreciate that. I think that's going to be something that that I'm going to ask of you all is to to advocate with our legislators um, about that because that is something that's concerning to me moving forward. Um, you know, this time of the year, like I said, it kind of slows down for everybody, but it's the fun part of the year, too, because we start planning for next year. We kind of start getting organized. We we talked

171a little bit uh today um about back to school and and what we're going to do and and so there's a lot of lot of exciting things that are that are going to start happening as we as we kind of put that together and get that all planned for for next year. I'm really looking forward to next year. I think there's going to be a lot of really fun things for the district and a lot of exciting things for the district as we look at grade reconfiguration and and and moving and getting that across the finish line. I think that's going to be big. But we also need to look at our strategic plan. Like I said, next year's year five of a five-year plan. And so, um, I'm going to have a document that

172I'll have in front of you all hopefully soon to look at. Um, I'm gonna ask KSB to come out and and facilitate the update of our strategic plan. I really want and I've talked to you guys I think a lot of you individually but our plan needs to be um I think a lot of the things that we covered were good but it wasn't measurable. I think there needs to be a way for me to report to you the progress that we're making on a lot of those things. And so um I'm excited for that. Um creating some of the board goals around that I think is going to be really really good for the district and help kind of move us forward too. And so there's going to be a lot of exciting things

173that are going to happen I think in the next year as we as we plan for for all these these things and I'm excited to be a part of it. So >> thank you. >> Next regular meeting of board of education will take place on Thursday June 25th at 5:00 pm here in the board meeting room at the educational support J executive session. We need >> 20 minutes, you think? >> Yeah. >> Mr. President, move we go into executive session for 20 minutes to discuss negotiations for the 202627 school year pursuant to the exception for employee employee negotiations over coma beginning at >> we have like three minutes. >> What? >> We're going to have to move chairs in there. It's 8:33. >> At 8:38 meeting will resume board meeting at 8:58 p.m. I'd like

174to invite Josh Grew Ton Steve Jessica to join us in executive session.