001the first the pledge of allegiance are up. Hey, it's on you. Flag's right back here. We'll start here, guys. >> We'll start. You start it off. Okay. I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Outstanding. >> Good job, kiddos. Okay. Please, if you will take a moment for silent reflection. Thank you. Okay. Item C, approval agenda with the following amendments. C1, additional certified and classified personnel actions for consideration item E3, removing Andy Farmy from the board of education members listed on the current agenda and adding a transfer of Jill Regal from principal position at Florence Wilson Elementary School District director of nutrition position at the educational support center effective June 1st of 2026. >> Mr.
002Mr. President, I move to approve the meeting agenda as amended. >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and second. Is there any discussion? There's none. All in favor raise your hand. Post. Same sign. Motion carries. Okay. Item D, delegations, public comments. I don't believe we have any. Okay. Okay. Item D1, a recognition of the Garden City High School JOTC program for earning honor unit with distinction. Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Burr. >> Go ahead. >> Good evening. My name is Melissa Wgle. I am the associate principal at Garden City High School. It is an honor to be here tonight to celebrate our JOTC program. Several weeks ago, the Buffalo Brigade underwent their JOTC program accreditation inspection. This is a stressful comprehensive evaluation conducted by Army inspectors. It covers everything from leadership and drill to academic portfolios and
003community service. Tonight, I'm incredibly proud to announce that for the first time in our program's 13-year history, our JOTC has earned the highest possible rating on our unit with distinction. To put this into perspective, this requires a score of 95% or higher on the inspection. This achievement places our cadetses in the top 10% of programs nationwide. It is symbolized by the gold star which will now be permanently displayed at the unit's gon. This recognition signifies that our Buffalo brigade is a model of discipline, leadership and exe exemplary citizenship. Our program has grown to be the second largest in the state and has created a niche for a group of students who previously may have not been able to find one. Um I believe the number is there was around 268 students enrolled in the fall.
004We appreciate the leadership that first sergeant Peterson, Lieutenant Colonel Burr, and Sergeant Firstclass Whitzky continue to provide for our students and the passion they bring to the program. At this time, I would like to invite our JRTC instructors and our cadet leadership team to come forward to be recognized by the board. Sorry. Hello. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. First off, we'd like to thank you for taking the time to recognize us and the work we've done for Jerry TC. We have really done a lot this year and it has been a bit stressful and hard but it has been worth it in the end for what we have done. Now I'd like to be followed by the brigade assistant S5 Ethan Driver. >> Uh I just want to say thank you for inviting us down
005here and recognizing us for this. Uh truly it's just amazing thing to be down here. Uh a lot of work went into this behind thescenes work that a lot of people don't recognize. As always with our program, we put that hard work in and it was showed through our accreditation. Head over to the >> Hi. Um, we're a little late. I'm sorry. Um, but I just want to say thank you. We, as Gabriella said, we did work really, really hard. Um, our staff people um, come together every morning for our zero hour. We talk about it a lot. what we're going to do for our next thing, how we're gonna do it, how is it going to go out, and we're just really appreciated for this recognition. >> Just real quick, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Chris
006Burr. As you can see, some of our finest students at Guard City High School. We have the operations section and the command sergeant major. The young lady command sergeant major. She enforces standards and you don't want to get on her bad side. As the non-commissioned officer Alen Cadet Perez down here holds a standard and embraces a standard. Our operations section which is Cadet uh Hernandez, come on back out here guys. and cadet Sergeant Major Drying. They have taken us to the next level. That's what this program is doing right now. When I started there was 84 and we dropped down to 71 at the end of the year. That was 201819 school year. It's grown every year since I have been here. But since first armed Peterson got here, those growth steps have become 50
007at a time. And it's awesome to have partners that are teaching these young cadets what right looks like and making it happen. I have been flexing on Masharn Bourne. If you don't remember, he taught the program for nine years, and for nine years, he did not get the gold star. These cadetses did it. It is on them. They have set a standard that is going to be held through for Garden City High School for quite a while. We appreciate all the support the board has given us. uh whether it's been traveling to Georgia, whether it's been at the basketball games, love to see y'all at the basketball games and at different sports and we will see you at graduation again. I'm sure what did I leave out? You didn't leave anything out except she your
008your star major was late because she was running mile intervals for trading Friday. >> Yes. And I >> sorry I couldn't come here sweaty. [laughter] >> I did introduce first arm Peterson but I did not introduce SH first class Bill Whiskey. He is short. >> He is local from Hulcom area but he is doing a fantastic job with our sophomores this year. Thank you Sergeant Whiskey. Pending that. Any questions? >> I don't have any questions. just more of a comment, but uh I have watched this program grow for years and years and uh I am so proud of you guys and I do know the work that it takes and the effort that you guys put into that and I think it's a vital program and it's critical in our future. So congratulations. >> Thank
009you. >> We appreciate your hard work. >> Thank you. >> I would echo all that and appreciate all you do and I know it takes work and I know it takes discipline and that's something not everybody has. Thank you. One of the people that we could probably blame a lot of this on is Mr. Nordby instrumental. Thank you, sir. >> Mr. Tone also. >> Hey, perfect. >> We'd like to have get a picture, please. >> Take that thing with you. >> Oh, by the way, Mr. Thank you for getting that. >> Yes. Hold it up. >> Yeah, you're holding it. Hold it. Come on, >> guys. You >> guys got to get in here, too. >> I don't get my picture. >> Ready? One, two, three. One more. One, two. >> Thank you. Good job,
010guys. Y'all were too scared to come in there and say, "Ladies and gentlemen, we'll move on to item D2. uh recognition of education writing students. Be Dr. Bernin who's the sponsor. >> Hey, good afternoon. My name is Alandra Aguilera. I am the president of Edris Rising at Garden City High School. It is a future teachers club. This year we had 30 participants in the club. our advisor Mrs. Burman and Mr. Naya and our pathway teacher Mr. JQ. This year we have made it to national we have gotten granted the opportunity to go to nationals, state and regionals. We started off at regionals with 23 students participating. Out of those 23 students, 11 students made it to state. Out of those 11 students, seven made it to nationals or yeah to nationals. and that's where we
011will be going to Oregon. This is a skill we're presenting mainly because this is a skill that we would like to achieve and learn for teachers. >> [clears throat] >> Um, I competed in Witchah and I did a interview as a pair professional for 10 minutes and the process of that was doing a cover letter, making sure I had a good resume currently for years. That was in my resume and cover letter. And for nationals me I submitted a session for art curriculars up covers math, reading, art, everything that comes within being a teacher that I hope to be successful in with me our president. Um, so I'm going to translate real quick. So, this is our lovely Yalei. She is a senior and she did um she did a com um at the competition
012she did a video. Basically, it was just about she's um an ESL from our school and she it was just a rundown video of trying to get Spanish teachers to come out and also teach just to motivate and trying to get them to step up. >> Thank you. Hello, my name is Amin and I did a noncore observation with Dr. Singh at AP Elementary School and it was about music which it his strategies really taught me how um not only you can pursue your love of music but you can also teach children and not only that me and Mrs. Bin attended a meeting at the community college here and with Valaria Mendoza and it was about humanities within Kansas and education um throughout the years and yeah I'm Gabby I'm a senior and three of
013us including myself decided to explore different professions with education I decided to explore administration I call Joe Regal during school hours at Horses Wilson how she interacted with students in her staff. >> Hi, I'm Amas and for mine I entered my own children's book that I illustrated and wrote about a dragon that couldn't breathe fire. The main idea was that you could be special in your own way even if you can't do stuff that other people are able to do. Hi, my name is Isabelle and I did a public speech about teachers that inspired me to become a teacher in the future and it was just in front of a bunch of people and hi, my name is Ruby and I'm going to start off by saying what is up the board of education garden
014city and what I did um I had a group it was a group of three and we did we discussed and argued about an ethical dilemma issued off AI and how it is used and the policies against it in schools and how we could improve um and not just get it banned within schools but just knowing boundaries on how to use it, when to use it. And um me and Alandre, we got granted the opportunity, we got accepted to go to the KFTA, which is the Kansas Future Teacher Academy on June 1st through the 5th this summer, 2026 in June. And we're very excited for that. We're going to be learning just new skills of teaching in classrooms, the environments, how we can improve on becoming future teachers, and yeah, we're very excited for that
015opportunity. >> Thank you. >> So, I'm back and my name is Angelus. I forgot to introduce myself, but um I wanted to talk about some highlights that we had while meeting with Shane from McFerson and with Todd Roberts. We learned many new skills skills from them that we had the opportunity to talk to them about what questions we had just how it is that they went through this whole process, how it is that how teachers are having skills. Sorry, I worded that wrong. But they just have they gave us many like ideas of how we can be our own teacher and also be good for everyone and just like sorry um for Shane at McFersonson we learned how our brain is. We learned how a lesson can be meaningful and sense. It has to make
016sense and meaningful in order for children to understand. If not, we won't understand anything. We have a curtain that's either opened or closed. Either we're willing to open it up and accept and learn the new lesson or either we're willing to shut it down. And sometimes we've seen that stat statistics have seen that all our teaching has been either if it's longer than two blocks, we're going to get bored of it. We seem to see that there's a graph that goes up and then it's just down and we don't seem to get all the information but then we go back up at the bottom. Why would that be? But then again, we understood why it is. So that's why we have one class periods and that's how our brain works. Thank you. >> Hey, so
017I'm back and we would like to continue our journey as future teachers. So do you guys have any questions for us? >> I have a question. So in this program, do you get to explore like higher ed options um for teaching teaching pathways? >> I mean like have you visited with like two year and four year higher ed programs like >> community college grads is that part of the program? >> Yeah, we have gone with Pearson and we have visited the college and they have showed us and walked us through the program to see how it is to actually be a teacher. They've showed us the environment and the relationship that >> Another opportunity we had was attending Bethany which also showed us how they had the programs there at teaching and how it's also
018different from McFerson and it's more of a private school than a public school. >> Any other questions? I hope that that once you guys go on and you get your certifications and your degrees and all that, you please come back to us and come back to USD. You have uh great mentors and great teachers to learn from and I definitely can tell we will be better with you guys here. So, congratulations. Thank you for that. Guys, let's do a picture. >> Be shy. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. Thank you. >> Congratulations. Okay, we'll move on to item D3, which is the building presentation from Jenny Wilson Elementary schools. >> Adriana Caro, the principal. >> Yes, sir. Those kids are working. >> There's probably good Looks like everyone's here. So, it's you're up.
019It's your turn. >> Good evening. Um, so I'm Audriana Caro. I'm the principal at Jenny Wilson. And you see we are very well represented here by our students, K4. Uh, we do have two students that are members of our student council. And then we have our wonderful staff back there also cheering us on. We are a K4 building uh to track our enrollments about 220. And we actually worked really hard to put together a video for you guys to kind of encompass what our building's about. So, if that's okay with you, we'll go ahead and play it. >> Yeah. At Jenny Wilson, we are a team united in challenging and supporting each other to reach higher standards in a respectful, productive, and a positive learning environment. Our moto is >> at Jenny Wilson Elementary. We
020use captioning kids hearts as social emotional curriculum. We are proud to be a national showcase school winner for two years in a row. A big component of CKH is the Excel model. >> What does it mean to excel? >> It means to do our best by self-directing, being respectful, kind, responsible, and following our social contracts. >> What does Excel stand for? >> Engage, explore, communicate, empower, and launch. >> Engage is how we start our day. Students are greeted at the front door with music, smiles, high fives, hugs, and if student council is helping greet, they do what you rather question. >> Classroom teachers also greet students at the store and they would have choices of how they would like to be greeted. Explore is building connections with students. We do good things. Morning check-ins and
021lunches with teachers. Good things is when we hear good things about our day or weeks or life. We if we can't think of a good thing for the day, the good things are we are here at school. >> What's your good thing? >> Good thing is I want to play something that came mouse. I want I snuggled my puppy last night and it was so comfortable. I could I'm going to go camping one day. I'm so excited. I go to um Disney and I'm I am a mouse. >> Communication is sharing kind words to each others to cheer them up for the day. Some teachers have sunshine note buckets where students write and deliver the notes to their classmates. Other teachers have affirmation books. >> We also have a cougar shout out board where students
022can write these notes to anybody in any grade or any staff member. Another way to celebrate good behavior is Paul CR which is the student of the week. This motivates others to also be good. >> Empowered. Students are empowered in our social contracts. We help create them in the classroom and make sure everyone follows us. >> We are also empowered to practice the word of the month with the cougar challenge. This month for example the word is courage. So we need to bring five different ways we can show courage. And when we do, we add it to our courage badge that will be displayed in the hallway. >> Second grade at Jenny Wilson. This is our social contract. Um, our class voted on some things we should do in our classroom just like around the
023school that would uphold us, make us better at being kind, responsible, respectful. And these are just some of the things we voted on. We voted on respect, voted on kind, responsible, fair, honest, listen, teamwork, and TNK. TNK stands for are my root words truthful, necessary, or kind. >> And if you were able to come into our classroom, we would ask you if you agree with those words. And if you did, you would sign our social contract. Fourth grade students are empowered to take leadership roles in our building. We are able to participate in robotics, student council, food bank, recycling, and morning green. We also have a shout out for class and other applause. Bond is a way to end the day on a positive message. This can look different in every classroom. Some examples are
024jokes, fun facts, riddles, or a simple positive message. Big shout out for our families and their involvement in our activities such as trunk or treat family nights, Thanksgiving lunch, treats with your sweets, Friday nights, and many others. We couldn't do it without them. >> Another big shout out to our community members who also took time out their day to come talk to students show and >> we've been lucky to have the Farm Bureau, Miss Garden City Fiesta, Lee Richardson Zoo, County Historical Museum, Dream First Bank, GCP D, GFD, GC HS, J R O TC, Garden City Rec, Garden City Arts, and many more. A launch for you. >> I am smart. I am kind. >> I'm strong. >> I am safe. >> I for watching. >> Well, thank you for watching. Again, this was a
025collective effort. We really try to represent all grade levels and I really could not have done uh this video without the help of our staff that also um helped us record some of these aspects. Okay. Do you guys have any questions for us? >> Summed it up good. >> You guys are holding each other to a high level >> for the other students, too. Job, guys. >> This brings back memories for me because I was a cougar in the day. Here we go. >> Congratulations, guys. And thank you for coming. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> So glad. >> Hey, picture. Don't leave. Picture. >> [laughter] >> Guys, really tight. Absolutely. >> Get all over again. >> One, two, three. Okay, one more. One, two, three. >> Stop wiggling. >> All right, thank you
026guys. Yes. >> God. Thank you. >> Grab any >> [clears throat] >> Okay, we'll move on to item E of the agenda, the consent agenda. >> I move to approve [clears throat] all consent agenda items as amended. >> It's a move and seconded. Is there any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Oppos same. Motion carries. Okay. Item F, new business. We'll begin with the initiative update recommendation. Casey Wise, director of technology. Thanks for having me in. Uh I know we've had a chance to talk a lot about the one to one. So just wanted to come in uh after being charged with uh in October I think with just reviewing our onetoone and uh putting together a group of folks to kind of look at all things uh our technology program consists of. Um
027and so just you guys have seen the presentation so I won't spend a lot of time in there as far as the opening slides. I do want to say that we try to include a wide range of all stakeholders uh in the committee uh between uh admin folks in this building uh sped director instructional director um Dr. or Mr. Norby. Uh then we had principles, instructional coaches, teachers, um some of our staff, Becky and Tyler are here, my instructional folks as well. Uh and then we had um some parent parents as well that joined our committee uh to work with us as we went through the process. So we started in October. I think I was here in October uh to discuss uh just what you wanted us to look at. And so in October,
028your request or we looked at a few things. So, just through a quick recap, uh, one was just the program strengths and and overall uh, weaknesses, the areas that we needed to be working on to improve. Um, the device review, um, one of the concerns was, is the iPad still the right device at our upper grade levels? And so, that's something the committee looked at as well. And then, uh, time spent on devices, screen time obviously is a is a important topic right now. And so, that was one of the other pieces you asked us to kind of review. Uh so over the last four months we spent time just kind of looking over those aspects um with our committee. Uh we surveyed um all those same stakeholders uh staff admin uh students in 512
029uh parents and we actually did some business leaders as well uh to just get their viewpoints on the program. um those surveys, the committee kind of put those surveys together and worked through those. And so, uh we sent those out, try to get that data as much as possible as we can. You guys have seen those data results. Hopefully, you've had those here for a little bit to look at and I'm happy to answer questions to them as we get to that point. Um we also gathered some screen time data. Uh we'll talk about this a little bit, the details of that here in just a second, but we tried to do our best to get some data for you to just at least have some conversations around. Um and then determining our next steps.
030uh what are we going to do with this program as we continue to look at uh the options that are out there uh what's available and there are some new developments in the last couple weeks that we just want to talk about tonight um just so that you're aware of them. I don't have a lot of details on those today but I I definitely want to make sure you're aware of some things that have changed in the last week as far around devices and opportunities there. So um those are the goals that we kind of set for the committee. Um then we start looking at the survey data. Any questions before we get into this particular part? Just in the overview. I think that covers [clears throat] most of what you asked us to kind
031of look at. Uh we tried to put together this little piece of of what the staff uh for each group of of cohort that we surveyed, what's working, what needs improvement, what's not the problem. And then I just attached a few of the graphs uh just to not make this presentation 100 slide. out some of the highlights that that are of importance to the goals that we looked at. Um, from our staff uh point of view, um, they were pretty competent in their assessment feedback, personalization of of the material. Technical support was actually one that ranked pretty high across the board, which is great for us to know as a staff that the folks that are in our building are helping the device stay up and running uh, and working well. Um, what needs improvement?
032Off task behavior, some distractions. We can talk about those but that that's a theme there under use of the iPads for creation types of activities which are things that we share uh with them quite a bit or ways to do that. So that's an area that work that we're looking at as well classroom management consistency which will go along with that distraction piece. Um and then there's some uncertainty about whether the iPad was the best device. That's that leads to that uh secondary level of folks um is where most of those pieces came from. Uh and so what's not the problem? Uh PD quality, tech support, device reliability, home access for most. Um so for the staff just rating the overall effectiveness of the program uh ranked pretty well about 50% roughly about the device
033uh as far as the overall effectiveness is pretty well. Um is how likely you to recommend the iPad to continue to be used? This is the overall graph. Um I think we're sitting at, if I remember right, 26% 30%. So about 57%. Um felt like the iPad was worth continuing. Um I know I got asked the question about how's that breakdown. I think I just sent you the overalls. Um so how that breaks down. The elementary were about 64%. Felt like the iPad was the right direction. Got to make sure I get my numbers right. Intermediate was 67% or fours and fives. Middle was the lowest about 38%. um at the middle level and then the high school was 60%. Um is how that broke down uh looking at that particular one question. Um and
034so as we looked at that, we'll talk about how that led us to discussion about kind of the direction we're going to go um going forward. But that's that's kind of the breakdown of those charts. Interrupt me at any time, please, as you have questions. I'm trying to stay on my 15 minutes. admin results. Uh they felt like the infrastructure that we have is really is really strong. Great elementary fit. We had a wealth of of positive responses from our admin about the elementary level being the right device there. Um needing improvement, professional development. Again, that's a piece we're going to take uh for us um as far as how to continue to make this project a little better. And you'll see that later in the recommendation. Uh secondary device strategy. Again, that's that piece
035about whether the device is the right device at that level. Um, app management and focus. Um, I don't remember that piece so much. I think it is comes back to that distraction a little bit. Uh, there hard availability and distribution is really great, which is good for us that their devices are getting out to kids uh as we expect them to. Um, our staffing is great and the infrastructure again just um seems to be pretty solid there. professional development. We pulled this chart up just because this is great for us. This shows that we need to do some work um as far as our professional development, the needs of our teachers. We'll have some conversations with admin about that move forward and you'll see that in our in our piece going forward as well. Um
036however you um recommend the device continue to offer students a device for use uh in enhancing instruction. um they still feel like we need to offer the device where the admin felt differently. I didn't I didn't put that graph up there, but the admin leaned more especially at those upper grades at looking at a different device. Elementary was overwhelmed. Keep the iPads at those K4 U five, I think K4 for sure, five and above is where we start to see that data come back from the administrators that they'd like us to look at something different. Um and so again, you'll see that kind of in the recommendation when we get to that point. Uh students, we did survey students. There are some funny things to hear from the students. Um what's working? They're very engaged.
037Uh if you ask them uh creative hub collaboration, uh which is actually a very high point uh with the devices, that collaboration piece. Um and the bridge to home allowing them to have that device at home. Uh the keyboard case and device reliability actually go together. That's the same problem. when you look at that question, um what we find is a lot of keyboards get torn up, especially at our fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh, and eighth grade. Um and so we find a lot of that destruction is on purpose. Um not so much the problem with the case itself, but with the um just how they treat them. Um web filtering balance. Again, kids are going to put what they want to see there as well, but we feel like our filter is pretty good.
038U and technical support access. I think that's true because a lot of their support probably comes from the classroom teacher. Uh when they go to get support, um you know, I think we find that it's a little better there. Um this is the one we we chuckled at. Student distraction is not a problem according to them. They're not a 75% rate. They're 100%. They're they're locked in. Um, so that differs a lot from what our staff thinks. Um, so but you know, they feel really locked into what they're doing. So, um, we'll again, we know where the weak parts are there. Uh, and we'll continue to look at that. Um, students though, my the iPad helps me learn things better than I could without it. Agree is a little bit higher. Unsure, disagree, a little
039lower there. uh if you would choose would you uh like the school to continue to provide a iPad or a traditional laptop and again that's where we see this is 5 through 12th grade remember so that that's where we see that iPad um fall in that third category and the the laptop be a little higher there um and so we'll address that kind of when we get to that point so oops oh sorry parents um parents connectivity which is we ask this question almost on any survey we give for technologist do you have internet access as a home that number continues to rise when I think when I first started the department uh 15 16 years ago that number was probably more like 60% of our parents felt like they had solid internet access at
040home um it's I think it's closer to 85 90% um that felt like they had solid internet access so that's just good for our staff or for our families that they have access to things at home safety and filter filtering what they're feel pretty good on logistics communication um we see the screen time pop up here as well uh from families and so we'll we'll again we'll address that here in a little bit visibility into learning I think this is wanting to see a little bit more about how the device is being used in their classrooms maybe they don't see that so much on on what comes home to them we also see that K4 they don't take their devices home so it's a little hard to see what the kids are doing on them
041so we're going to have to figure out some ways to to help parents kind of see into what's going on there. Balance with traditional skills. Again, that feeds into that screen time big piece a little bit and making sure we're having a fair balance of both. Digital citizenship is a piece that we've already been working on to to improve. Uh it's been a few years since we changed that curriculum. Every school is required to go through some curriculum, but it's a little dated. Um so, it's already a project that's underway. Um and then technical support for students just again making sure that we're we're dealing with the problems as they come up. Um so parents, the iPad's a valuable tool for my students learning. Uh we're in that just under 50% and then the neutral
042are another 20% there. Um overall the iPad program provides a civic value to my child's education. Again, we're in that third, third, and third there. Um I think that question I I don't know what to be asked why we worded the questions the way we did. Um the reason it says iPad in all the questions uh is that came as a recommendation from our parents who are on the committee uh that we we had in there just onetoone technology program. Uh and our parents that were in the committee felt like most of our parents may not know what we mean by onetoone technology. So they suggested we throw the word iPad in there. So it wasn't to kind of sway parents one way or the other. We didn't ask the parents directly, do you want
043an iPad or a laptop or nothing at all. We didn't ask that direct question. Um it wasn't one that came up. Um as we look at further studies, we can sure ask those questions going forward. Um but that's why all the questions for the parents said iPad is that's a recommendation from our parents on the committee was just for clarity uh for those who are answering it. Um are you concerned about the overall amount of time? So, this is that screen time specific question. We asked for at school and at home. About 56% said yes, it's a concern for them. We asked if we made uh some resources available to help with that at home and at school. Um or for them at home. Uh we had about 42% say they would participate in that.
044Um we will we're going to make that a priority for us. Um, I've had an opportunity to visit with three or four parents over the last, I don't know, two weeks. Um, who wanted just some more information about their students iPad use and we were able to kind of show them the resources. They just didn't know they were there. Um, and so I don't think we've done a great job of advertising what they can do on the device to see what their kids are doing. Um, we also can provide some resources on what they can do in their own home. Um, we can make them obviously, but we can provide some resources that I think all of us kind of have different providers. So I could tell them what how to do it on Idea
045Tech, you know, hardware and here's what you can do if you have Cox at home. And so there's some things there we can do to at least give them some input on how they manage their own devices. And then we'll talk about how that manage staff looks. Becky, >> I was just going to ask if you could give examples of the resources, but you kind of started to get >> Yeah, Idea Tech and and Cox. I I've had both here recently. both offer opportunities for, you know, shutting off a device, like picking which devices are on or off. You don't have to turn your internet off at your home altogether. You could say that's my kids device. You don't have internet from 8 8:00 on till 7 o'clock the next morning. Like there are controls
046that people can do. It's just not widely advertised that they can do those things. And so this would be an opportunity for us to just show parents that those resources are out there for them. They can set up their own filtering um at their homes as well uh for per kid if they want to. Um there's a lot of things that they can do that you can do at your own home that I I just don't know that we're I don't I don't know that our parents all know about those opportunities of ways they can do that. There's also resources like our securely filter does follow their devices home. Um so any device that we check out to a kid is filtered the same home as it is at school. Um, and so they track
047those like I can see my daughter's activity throughout the day. Um, and I just don't know that all our parents know that they can do that. I know we've advertised it before, but maybe we haven't done a great job of that over the years. And so that's something we'll be kind of pushing again and say, "Hey, if you're really interested in what your kids doing, here are the things you could do." They can actually set controls on their device in that app um for when the kids are at home um as well. So, we'll we have resources to provide for them and we'll we're going to make sure we get those out there for you. Um, we did ask the business leaders. I I just put a couple of questions. I think we only had
048about nine of them take us up on it. I went to uh the chamber of breakfast and and just kind of handed out QR codes for them to take the survey if they wanted. Um, but we found some common themes that um were not surprises really to us. Um what they really are looking for is folks who have professional digital literacy, meaning, you know, they can run the apps that they need to run and they show up and they're ready to do the work that they need to do. Um multiplatform experience, um which is, you know, something we can talk about at the high school level as they're leaving and getting into those careers, um what that kind of looks like. And then just appropriate use of digital assist. Kids that show up and aren't
049on their phones, um aren't on, you know, doing things that they're not supposed to. they're ready to work and they understand the difference between work time and and being distracted time. So, that's kind of the meat of what came out of um those those conversations with the business. Before we get into screen time, do you have any questions on surveys? I know we had a chance to kind of discuss some. Okay. >> Yeah. So, um the I have to read my own handwriting. So the number of people that say the PD is inefficient, do we have ideas of what needs to be improved or? >> Yeah, I think we have well we have some insight. Um some of it has to do a lot with classroom management, managing the devices in their classrooms. There's tools
050for that. Um what we find is teachers maybe get frustrated the first time they use it. Doesn't work as seamlessly as they want, so they don't use them. But there are tools for teachers to be able to manage what goes on on their devices in their classroom. Lock them into an app and we get a lot of complaints about YouTube, which is a, you know, one of those things we're going to have conversations about um going further going forward. Um but with the tools they have, they can say you're only going to get in Showby while you're on your device. You're only going to get into, you know, Google Classroom only. You know, they have the abilities to do those things. All of our staff take them up on it. We've done lots of trainings
051on them. It's just getting folks to adapt and use them. Um there are bugs in those things and we understand that. So, it's trying to get past those initial setup problems and those kinds of things and make sure teachers are ready. And I think that's the bulk of it. Um I think a lot of it also is just how do I use the devices the way we want them to use them. Uh, and that's a lot of what our like Techco Tuesdays that Beck and Tyler did, uh, working with the instruction department is trying to find ways that we're using them in the appropriate ways that we want them and not just, you know, those things that we I think folks in the community think they're just off doing whatever they want on their devices.
052And so, just trying to provide teachers with resources so they can have the ability to manage the classroom the way we hope they would. Um, just knowing that those are things we got to continue to work on. Okay, so screen time. I'll just briefly, you guys know full well how we kind of collected the screen time. Apple does not make this very easy to collect. The data is there. They just don't make it real easy for us to get in mass. Um I wrote a letter to Apple. You've kind of seen that. I know it's made its way up the ranks and so we're we're excited to kind of see what Apple does with that going forward. Um, so maybe this becomes a little easier and a little more transparent for our parents to be
053able to see what's going on on their students devices or if nothing else that we'll be able to make that more transparent for them and provide that data. But uh what we collected was the amount of time the screen is actually on on the devices. Um we did uh 10 devices at each grade level at every building. So 550 data points. Um we did it twice. Uh so you guys have seen this chart, but this is the chart. Um the blue is is the first time around that we went. Um that's the average number of minutes in a classroom. Um I think from what I hear uh just being a discussion it's they're on them four or five hours a day. I've heard that comment multiple times. This is more like what we expected it
054to see from our point of view when we're out in classrooms. This is actually what we thought it was. And so we were glad to see it kind of come back that way. But we do quite a bit of walkthroughs. Becky and Tyler out classrooms a lot more than I am now. I used to be out there a lot more. Um, and so this is a little more in lines with what we see. The red is the second time we went around and gathered it. Uh, and the green is just the average of the two. Um, and so what we see is it's a little lower obviously in kindergarten, first grade. Uh, which is great. Those those are the grades where we're doing a lot of the other types of activities. We see it go
055up as kids become better have better abilities to log in, remember their usernames, remember their passwords, get in uh to a showy or Google classroom. As they get a little older, they get a little better at those skills. Uh and so we'd expect that to kind of go up um as the grades go up in their use. And so that's kind of how that graph plays out and is is typically what we see uh when we do walkthroughs and we we do visits in classrooms. Uh the way that breaks down that didn't get into my presentation because I added it afterwards. You asked me about the top apps. Um I do have it. Safari was number one across the board which is web traffic of any kind. Um Class Link was second across the board
056with the exception of fourth grade. Shelby was second. Most this is the most used apps. We asked the our staff to collect that as well. Um, class link is our single sign on which we expect to be high um because that's where they go to get to everything else so they don't have to remember the usernames and passwords. So class link is we expected it to be high on the list. Um, Shelby was high was second in fourth grade uh and then everywhere else uh all the others it was a little mixture of um Canva, a little bit of Google Classroom, some EPIC which is a reading program. Um so we started to see some of the instructional pieces fall in that third spot. I'm sorry I didn't make I think this is a this
057isn't my updated presentation so I think this is one I sent you but I I can get those more specific but Safari was the first one on all of them except for fourth grade which was show me and then it's classic was second everywhere else uh and so how this breaks down into classrooms their average day uh in minutes you can see the that's the average time from that previous graph Um, a typical day in school is 440 minutes. Um, so that's the percentage of time that they're on their devices. 10% all the way up to 19%. Again, following that chart. Uh, and then 400 minutes is the actual instructional time taking out uh, recess and lunch um, is what we pull out from there because that's non-instructional time. Uh, and so you see from
05812% to 21%. So it's just a couple percentage points higher when you take out um, recess and and plunge. And so as we talk about screen time and kind of leading into the the kind of the recommendation kind of going forward um in my conversations I think with you guys as well it's that that conversation definitely needs to be had. Um what's the right amount? What's the right type of use? You know what's inappropriate use? Those are all conversations we're going to have with instruction as well. um because some of those things are instructional focused more than their tech focused. So, how are we training teachers, you know, when they should be doing handwriting on paper pencil and when it's okay to use the iPad, when is it not? Um, some of those things I
059think I've shared with some of you like we've never taught, you know, I've done almost all the trainings except for the last year where these two have done them. We've never taught teachers how to do handwriting on the iPad when that to do that at kindergarten or first grade. That's never something we've taught. That's just something they've done because it's available. That's one of those things we work with instruction on to say, you know, if they don't want that done on there and that's a district we want, then that's just a training the teachers that that's not an appropriate use uh for the device and we just work through that. But that becomes again more instructional than iPad focus. They're there available, yes, but it's training the teachers to go, yeah, we're not going to
060practice handwriting on the iPad or whiteboard or you know, whatever it is. want to work in handwriting skills at K12, you know, we want to work in those on paper, pencil and practicing those things there. Um, and so those are some things we'll work through with screen time. Um, we're going to have some conversations here in the recommendation about that. Okay. So, kind of what we're going to look at going forward. There's I I think I told you there's three things I think that are important here is the technology, that's the device itself. Um screen time, just continuing that process, and then professional development. Those are the big three things we took away as a as a team um that came out of that is what do we need to do for the tech? Um
061what can we do to kind of help with the screen time concerns um from our end and from working with instruction to how to approach that? And then what kind of professional development kinds of things do we need to really focus in on? So on techwise up until a week ago, if you wanted to move to a laptop, we were going to spend about twice as much money. Um if we went with a Chromebook, we were still going to pay a little bit more. Maybe not twice as much, but if we're going with a PC or a MacBook, we were going to pay double. Um the PC market is my laptops now are, you know, were $700 last year or $865 this year. and and next month they're going to be 10% higher. Next month
062they're going to be 10% higher. So that's the market. I think Roman's familiar with that. Um all those devices are going up in price. And so when we looked at it from those points of view, I think your presentation looks a little different from actually this is what you have. I had updated again. I didn't get the updated one up there. I our proposal is going to be that because of that big jump uh in price that we make sure we do our due diligence to make sure whatever device we switch to is the right choice whether that's a Chromebook or a PC or MacBook that we do the work to get to that point. Um and so we're going to propose tonight that we go ahead and buy the iPads for fifth grade and
063nth grade. Those are the two grades that I don't have devices to recycle back down to those kids. Those cases are that we could say the senior ones uh that I don't have cases to put back on those for those kids. We can't get those cases anymore. Um and so those devices are better off to be sold to a third party to help offset the cost uh for the new ones. So the proposal will be for fifth and nth grade to just do our normal rotation which is just over a thousand iPads and cases um and then not do the elementary this year as we evaluate you know is the iPad how are we using it? Do we want to look at different options at the elementary levels? So, we can hold off not buying
064that group of iPads, which saves us 550 devices, which is about $200,000, $250,000 um in that expense. Um that money then could be used to fund a pilot of some other devices at the high school if that's where we want to start. Um, I think that's the most logical place to start would be the high school if we want to look at a different device. Um, and move that way. Um, I when we did the iPad, we piloted for a full year to decide if that was the right device before we just jumped in and start spend the money. I think fiscally it's our responsibility to try to make sure that that's the right thing. Um, so the last b I changed the last bullet point. Last week, Apple House announced a new product um
065that we have on order. We've got three on order to make sure it's going to be the right device. That will put us in the market of around 500 bucks for that device. It will replace basically what you have on your on your desk for our teachers, which these are eight something. Um, which also went up in price to match what everybody else in the PC market's doing. Um, we'll be able to get two of these for the price of one of those uh next year. Um, which is about $75 more than our iPad costs. Well, the case be about $75 more than what we're paying for the iPad and the case. There would be no management fee. We already bought those licenses for all those iPads. So, we would just roll that fee over.
066That's probably the most streamlined option. Um, as far as management, time on device, um, quality of the device, resale value on that device in four years um, when we try to turn around resell that device. Those are probably our best options. Would I rush and buy those things? Absolutely. That's a lot of money to spend without having them once in hand. Uh it'll be two weeks before we actually have them in hand. I think they'll be fine. Uh I think they're going to be a great I'm hearing from other districts around the state and around the country. I was in Chicago last week with 12 districts from around the country knowing that this kind of a device was coming. Um it hadn't been announced while I was there, but we all kind of knew it
067was coming. um it will be a top seller in the market um just because of the quality and resale value and just the market that we're already kind of invested in. Um and so that's an option I think we need to at least review. That doesn't mean we have to go that route. We can look at the other choices too. I can tell you my PCs will be more expensive than that. Um just because I know what we're buying now. Even our small ones that most of our staff have the option to buy but don't use them once they buy them. they don't like them but would fit in this same subcategory size also went up. They were $400 last year. They're 610 today. So pricewise are going up. So in our world the technology
068wise, you know, our recommendation is going to be move forward with the iPad for one more cycle. Give us time to pilot that device or any other devices that we want to pilot. Make sure the laptop is the direction we want to go. Our teachers are prepared. they're ready to go and we can do that. Can we escalate that time and speed that up? Probably. I just I'm ly until we actually see the device at hand and know what we're looking at. We haven't really tried anything else. We know what the PCs are going to be. We know that market um because we have PCs in our district. Um but we haven't done anything with Chromebooks other than a few odds and ends here and there. So, um that would be our recommendation on the
069tech side. I was able to lock in our price for our iPads. Um, so if you see that that order was placed for our,50, they were afraid the new device was going to be announced last week and the price was going to go up. So we locked in an order at our current price. So we have the devices already set at that price. I can always cancel that order. We're not locked into it. It's not build for another couple weeks. So we pushed it out far enough that if we change direction after the meeting or or down the road, we could cancel that. So, um, screen time, um, we need to continue to monitor that data. I'm hoping it's going to get easier for us. Um, that's the piece that I can't predict. We're kind
070of at the at the whims of Apple. >> How much time did you all spend on getting screen time, like you said, 550 data points. >> Um, I did some personally. Um, it takes about an hour to go around a school and do that. So, I have staff that can do that, but you have to put hands on every single device um to pull that data. Um we know that that data is I I think I told you guys we're comfortable with where the numbers are because they match what we know is going on in classrooms when we talk to teachers, but I think there's better data we can pull is definitely in the app side of what's being used on the devices. I think we're going to get better data from the other if
071you have an Apple product, you know, they have the screen time options on your phones. That's the data I'm looking to get access to um for our devices in mass so that we can share that data with you. Um but the with what we went through is about an hour per school per you know time >> at this point in time. We know Apple's looking at your letter and it's gone up the ranks but we don't have any >> I haven't got any I've had feedback with our local guys that you know they have conversations in the background. I haven't had conversations direct with anybody above those guys. Thank you. Yep. Sorry, I rushed past the device. I'm trying to get on my time. >> Okay. I actually do have Go ahead. >> several questions,
072several concerns. And I really do appreciate both, you know, you and Josh sitting down individually with us to talk through these. >> I've had I have a lot of heartburn, especially at the elementary level with the amount of time that kids spend on screens. I know it was what you guys expected it to be, but I still think that's too much time, frankly, for elementary school kids to be on screens um for school. So, I mean, it doesn't it does not take a very difficult or long search to figure out that screens are not the best way for little little kids to learn. These are still developing brains. You know, I know it's something that we introduced across the board during COVID. Um, but I think we really need to reevaluate if it's appropriate for
073kids to be learning this way. Um, and I've talked to a lot of parents who feel the same way. It's not just screen time, but really when they're learning in the classroom, is this, you know, eight-year-old kid sitting at their own screen at their own desk the best way for them to develop these social, emotional, communication skills. You know, what is that screen doing to their brain literally developmentally? you know, as we're looking at dopamine levels in the brain, as we're looking at, you know, how that changes behavior, as we're looking at, sorry, um the reduced time that these kids are doing, you know, face to face interaction with the teacher, you know, face to face, um you know, collaboration with their uh classmates. I think that's a real concern. Um also, you know, it
074just handwriting. I mean this is a very basic thing but the way the you know like if you know there are neuroscientists who have studied electrical activity you know between handwriting notes and typing it on screen it's a whole lot higher with handwriting. So the retention and the understanding is a whole lot higher when we're handwriting. So when we're developing these young kids brain I don't think that a screen is the best way to do it. >> Um so I think the quickest way we can do it I know we're kind of rolling forward. This is kind of this is the track we're on the way we're doing it. We have iPads in the classroom K through 12, but I think we really need to reassess what we're doing, especially at the at the elementary
075levels. Um I think 45 to 80 minutes a day every day is too much. Um really really do. I understand that we're going to have technology in classrooms K through 12. I know we have required testing whether it's Kelpa or Fastbridge. That's fine, you know, but those only happen at most once a week. But for some kids once a you know twice a semester that's you know that's that time doesn't add up to anything significant. But when we're on there over an hour every day that has an effect on education and how they're developing and how they're learning. So I mean I've pulled study after study. I'd be happy to share any of this with anybody that wants to see it. I don't know if you want if we want to make I could share
076any of this or anybody could Google it. But I mean now we have data that shows that since 2010 and we have introduced technology into the classrooms, this is the first generation that is underperforming on cognitive tests compared to their parents. First generation where we're underperforming compared to parents since they've started measuring it, you know, back in 1800s. We are doing worse since we've introduced technology. And so can I get behind, you know, giving laptops to high schoolers to prepare them for higher education in the workforce? Absolutely. You know, like these kids need to understand we live in a very technical world. I'm understand we're preparing them for that too. But when we're at the foundational level of elementary school, this is reading, writing, arithmetic. We're preparing them to learn. Um I just don't think
077screens really do that. So that would be I I know this is kind of a discussion where we're kind of giving ourselves a year to figure out how we want to use technology in the classrooms, but as much as we can pull the curriculum off of the iPad, I would be happier. Um I think we really do need to have serious conversations about that. >> I don't I understand your concerns. Obviously, we had a chance to talk about them. I think some things we have to keep in mind it that 40 minutes obviously isn't one time in the classroom. Um as we pulled data and had conversations um with with you guys and with stakeholders that had the same concerns and shared hey that's this is too much that's too much. Again I started at
078four hours then we okay well it's not it's an hour and a half it's an hour and 20 minutes. Okay I'd rather see that that's 18 to 20%. and our first numbers came back, we only had half the schools. That's too much. We'd rather see it around 15%. Well, then we did the second round of data and it's 10 to 15%. So, it's a continuing moving target for us. So, I'm I'm happy to have those conversations and I I think I told you specifically, you know, again, I've been here for the whole thing, right? So, this is this is kind of how I got into the technology department was my role uh to bring this along. Um, I know that we can't continue just to do things the way we're continuing to do them. I
079have conversations with districts all over the country and are having the exact same conversations. Um, and what, you know, this looks like going forward. Um, because I do think some of the the data you shared is valid. I'm not going to, you know, argue that data, right? Um, and so it's hard for us, you know, I've been asked by multiple boards over the years, can you show us data that proves the iPad's working? That's very hard to do because there's so many variables in the school system. Like I I pulled since we've met I pulled all of our state assessment data for 20 years and I pulled all of our all of the data. Unfortunately, NAPE is not one we can pull. They don't report it out by district um level. Um only for the
080major metropolitan areas do you get a data report on the district um side of it. But um you know as we look at that information it it's very hard to say well the iPad made it go this high you know co made it drop changes you know staffing made it drop right we had long-term subs for a long time we have qualified teachers now in every classroom so that makes a difference so you know I'm not opposed to having the conversations at all I I want you guys to know going forward I I understand um that the program probably needs some refresh and definitely needs um um solid look at. And so that's why my recommendation is let's push it so that we can do those things so we can have those conversations that go
081what is appropriate, what's not appropriate, you know, how do we train teachers to know the difference? You know, where are we going to land on how much time is appropriate, how much is not. Um you know, that's there's so much individual opinion about that that I think we have to just kind of get in a room and and have that conversation um around that. Um, so I've had kids go all the way through this. So my kids are all, you know, been through the program as well. And so, um, while we have strict recommendations at our home on their screen time use, I have I have not had any trouble with the two kids I have, right? And so that's my point of view on the on my kids. Um, and so that's what I
082have personally to work with. Um, and then the conversations I have with folks, but I definitely want to make sure you understand. we'll we'll look at it and I'm happy to do it and that's why we're asking for more time. I think the four months that we tried to just gather data um was was valuable. Um but I think if you're wanting to have those conversations about you know do we look at a cart model? Do we look at pulling some out? Do we look at you know what those options are? Right now we have all the devices right so we don't really have to purchase definitely for the K4 we don't have to purchase devices they're all there. Um, so over this time frame, we can then have those conversations of, you know, what's
083working well. We have teachers who do some of our highest test scores in the in the in the district and do great with their tech, right? And we have teachers who don't do great with their tech, right? And we understand that. Um, and so what do we do to, you know, balance that out so that we don't have these pockets of really great things that are going on that have some tech? I'm sure we have excellent teachers who don't use their tech very much at all. I can think of a few off the top of my head that I know use them but not to the same level that I know we have others that use it. Um how do we harness all of that to get our other teachers on board to do what
084you know what we'd expect and whether that's a you know what that magic number of allowable time is is is something we have to work through. I looked at just the American Academy of Pediatricians. They say, you know, three and under it should be zero time. You know, three to five, maybe up to an hour and it's I I think we exceed even what American Academy of Pediatrician says during the school day. And we know that these kids go home and spend more time on screens, which is not our jurisdiction at all. But it it it continues to increase and I it doesn't really reflect in increased scores. I think we need to, you know, allow kids to use creativity and be, you know, for the ones who finish their their coursework early during the
085day, being put on an iPad does not challenge them really or, you know, spark creativity. It's it's just kind of a babysitter for a little bit. And I know that that happens in some classrooms. So, um, and then there are apps I think that would just be really like kind of the lowhanging fruit to reduce screen time. We have music on iPads, like music class. That doesn't make sense to me. So, I think there's some low hanging fruit that we could reduce screen time. Some of that's going to be curriculum and driven. Like that's not going to fall in our ballpark. Like we we sit in on the curriculum means Becky and Tyler and I sit in with ELA adoptions and the math adoptions. I'll sit in on science stuff, you know, next time this
086next year when it's it's going so that we at least know what the products are. I don't I've never really put a lot of input into what we buy. Like we'll say, "Yeah, that'll work. If you buy that, that's going to work." That's kind of what our input's always been on the curriculum side. um when we sat through the last ELA, that's a lot of what we did was we sat through the presentations to make sure it would work on the devices we have. You know, we had the bandwidth to do those things. And so, um you know, that's that's kind of how our input plays into that. But, you know, those are definitely conversations that, you know, everyone would have to have as they adopt new new products going forward. I think a lot
087of our curriculum is already that way. Um we just bought a whole lot of English curriculum that has AI components in it. Um, and so, you know, again, that's a great tool. Like Heather said, that's going to be a great tool if we use it the right way, right? And so, again, that comes down to training teachers to do it the right way. And we're not putting them on it to do all the reading assessment on because that's not what it's for, right? So, you know, it comes back to just make sure all teachers are on pace with what we expect out of them in the classroom. >> And I and I also [clears throat] I agree with Casey that a lot of this is is going to be curriculum driven, you know, and so
088a lot of this stuff, while the device falls under his umbrella, the use of the device and how it's implemented in the classroom is really more of an instruction piece than it is a technology piece. I mean, they're going to have to know how to use it, but if we're talking about how we're using it, what we're using, that's for instruction. And so, I think we need to have instruction at the table to have a lot of those conversations, too, because Casey can only control what Casey can control. I mean, a lot of that stuff is not necessarily in his light. >> You know what I mean? >> Yeah. And I think, you know, the conversations I again, I revert back to these I just had a week ago with these other districts is a
089lot of them are moving to it has to move side by side. Like we have to be able to support what they want to do in instruction, you know, as they move forward. Like what can we do to make sure it works well, it works seamlessly. You know, we're providing input. Um, sometimes like we've our coaching model that that they've been working with instruction department on has been very successful. Like our coaches are starting to feel more comfortable going, hey, this is when you should be doing, but don't do it here. Like they're getting a better feel for what we've kind of always known in our department um as we've driven our side of it. Um, and there's kind of been the instruction side of it. And I think we're starting to see some of
090that collaboration and moving forward so that, you know, our department can say, "Okay, here's the here's the pieces that help make it more creative. here's the pieces that make it more engaging and then here's when you need to put it away and that's you know that's that side of the things and just being able to help walk side by side with instruction through that and not we're doing our thing over here and they're doing their thing over here. >> I think we have at least n in somewhere in this country what a couple decades ago where they really started doing putting the the electronic devices in the school room like we're doing now. How long have we been doing this? >> Since 2011. Okay. So, we probably have a couple decades of experience, not here,
091but >> so so some of the things that that Becca is talking about, there are studies, there are um different things we can look at going forward as we, as Josh said, get curriculum involved in this as we go forward and look and see what's the best way to utilize the resources we have so that we're we're uh doing the best we can with the students we have. And I think that our co our my collaboration with other districts is growing like being able to have those conversations. I again I visit with about 15 or 16 districts across the state that are in my position that run apple districts. That's kind of how my communication's been with them. Um and again everybody's having the same conversations because the model is grown a little stale. >>
092Yeah. >> That's what I I think I shared with you guys. It's we know that there is something better on the other side. Unfortunately, not a lot of districts are taking that initiative on to make make that next step of what can it look like? What can it do better? What can we pull out? What can we, you know, increase here? What's the right device? Um, we're at an opportune time to maybe lead a little bit in that discussion. Um, and I think my team's ready to take a part of that. I think the instruction department's on board as well with, you know, with helping guide that because I think it can't be better >> at least. >> And I think Oh, sorry, Jacob. Go ahead. Can we see what they're looking up on Safari
093that I know? >> Yes, through the parent app. You absolutely can. And we come obviously we can see it in our department, but that's going to be every kid. So, you know, we can we can definitely look at it um and pull a kid's report, see everything they've ever done. That's kind of what we provided for a dad who called the other day. He had some concerns. We pulled the report for his kid uh during the time frame he was concerned about. We sent it to him. Um they can also do that. like I could pull up my daughters and you could see everything she did today if you wanted to see it. So like I can see those triggers um through that app. And so that's just again that's that communication piece for parents
094to be able to go here's here's what your kids doing and being able to help you set that up. I'm guessing it doesn't happen as much at the elementary level because they don't bring them home. So you probably don't have that chance to really set that up. Um and so that may be something we got to work on during like parent teacher conferences so that you can set that up. Like I think we probably advert advertise that a lot more over the kids that bring their devices up. It has some controls and things in it and that's probably what we've targeted. Um but you know you have the same rights as a parent to see your kids device as a as a senior does. I mean that's it's the same app, same information. So it's
095just a matter of providing it for you. I was just curious if you actually looked it up and see what they were looking at um as far as >> I didn't look at that specific before because again it's you know we're looking at just a random day >> yeah that's going to be all web traffic that ever goes out to the device or say one more thing and I don't mean to disparage teachers in any way but I mean in the survey less than 50% rated a four or five for effectiveness of iPads That's on improving student outcomes. I don't know how that breaks out K through 12, but less than half of them said ranked at a four or five on improving student out. So that's something we should look at, but the majority
096still said we should keep them. And I think that's the convenience factor probably. You know, just like parents say, "Oh, I know screen time is probably not a great thing for my kid, but parents let their kids do it, right? Because it's convenient." Uh, so we need to think about whether it's effective versus convenient. I would say um look at what some of the parents said only 38% or so said that iPads provide val value to the child's education. So that's a minority. I think I looked at the ones who said fours or fives. You know that's 60% who are neutral or said it does not add value. So we need to really look at are we adding value to education when we're using these children. >> Yeah. I think I'm I'm I'm glad that
097I mean I guess we're going to vote on this, but I'm glad that we're like pushing this out a little bit because I think the deeper we got into it, it was way more than just is this the right device? And I mean, I've been selling technology to school districts since 1990 when, you know, you had the IBM all-in-one and IBM provided all the software. And so I've directly watched the devices changing. Um, and I I agree with Rebecca. I have a lot of concerns that we're not teaching kids how to learn when they're in those younger there. Everything is dependent on this. And you know, what do you do if you're on the side of the road and your cars broke down and you don't have any internet? You got to be able to
098figure out what you need to do. And that takes logic, reason, and a lot of things that we taught the oldfashioned way. So I would like to like maybe look at some revamping of obviously technology is here. It's here to stay and we need to teach the kids how to use it in an effective valuable manner, but we also need to teach them how to learn how to learn of their own brain power. Last thing and then I probably about screen time. You looked at individual screen time, but I also as we've tried through schools see that teachers are using their iPad and then projecting it on a TV screen or something and does that how do we also factor in that sort of screen time where kids are just looking at a screen because
099you're talking total screen time that still counts. Also, I know kids watch movies in class and that's a fun thing to do too. But I mean screen time is not just just their individual iPad. >> Sure. I think you're you're walking into an area where you're going to have to change and teaching a lot, >> right? >> If you're going to pull projectors and TVs out of classrooms, you're going back to whiteboards and chuck boards. That that's a drastic that's a whole different problem in its own. But I understand what you're saying, but >> yeah, I'm just saying that the screen their individual screen time is not the only screen time they're getting through the day. And I get that that that's this is the way we teach now on a on a TV or
100a projector that and I'm okay with that. I think collective learning on a screen like that where you're still engaging with the teacher like this and you're still collaborating in the classroom but you have the content on a screen like that that's still different than an individual where they're clicking through and selecting. So >> just make sure you guys understand. >> Um so I'm I want to try to wrap up but if you have more questions please uh our current coaching model uh when we hired Becky uh her and Tyler uh worked on this over the summer and prepared for this. This is where we started working with the coaches and instruction department directly. Um I think this program has probably had the most gains recently uh in working with our instruction folks and our
101uh Becky was an instructional coach before she came into this role. So she kind of knew um that role. Um so having her in the tech role and then to be able to relate that information from what the what they're being asked to do as an instructional coach and what we're providing from the technology side. Uh again, it's it's training them up so that they then when they're in classrooms, when they're doing PLC's, when they're doing training with teachers, they're having those conversations, right? They they can say, "Yeah, that's not great. Let's, you know, let's do it this way for now and then, hey, there's this is an opportunity for this thing or this is an opportunity for that." Um and so being able to strengthen those folks has been a real benefit. We've seen
102some real um positive feedback over the last three or four months, especially as that model's kind of evolved. Um, we do have some PLC time in classrooms already or in schools that we can maybe utilize. I'll be quite honest, in in the years that we've been doing this, we've tried to offer PD at about every single possible time of the day. Um, 24 hours even with on demand. Um, and so teachers are busy. Um, they're tired when they go home and we get it right. And so we tried to offer on demand. We've offered tech Tuesdays. We've offered ELC time. We did lunch and learn. So, we've done a lot to try to get training out to teachers. Uh, I think what we found best is that we're working with instructional folks now to embed
103it into the things they're already learning. Um, we're already taking that PLC time to train them on different um, you know, strategies and instructional practices. And so, embedding it in there has been the probably the most valuable gain. Um, there is some other PLC time in the day that we get advantage of going forward, but that would be a a decision, you know, that we make with leadership as well. Um, we do need to work on our management tools and just again coming back to that focus of what's available to a teacher. Make sure it's reliable and works for them so they have the ability to say you're not going to be off task. You're not going to be on YouTube because I want you in this app and I want you doing these things.
104Those those things exist. And so it's just reinvigorating that training to make sure they know how to use them and are use them well. Um, and then last, we've we've started to try to identify uh really good teachers in our district that are doing not just great tech things, but our great instructional folks as well. Um, and so I've tasked Becky and Tyler with trying to kind of identify those folks in August when we do our back to school day. I think we've got 20 teachers signed up to do various sessions that teachers can go and learn. All things from management to, you know, tools that they could try to I think we've got some AI sessions to just kind of make sure people are coming on board with that as they see fit. But
105they'll all be choices. Um but instead of being led just by the three of us, which is kind of how things have gone, we're trying to bring those instructional folks in to really be um working with those staff. We've tried to grab somebody from about every level, every grade. Becky's really great in elementary. Tyler and I were secondary, so we did elementary ones is like, uh, I think I know what you can do, but, you know, having elementary folks has has been really great. Um, but we're really trying to bring those teachers in. I think that's something Jacob kind of alluded to in a meeting we were in. You know, how can we utilize those teachers who are doing great things u and not just great things because they use tech, but great things because
106they they are great teachers uh that also use their tech and and what we could do to to take advantage of that. So, um, so I said a lot. Um, I think probably the the thing to vote on, um, would be, you know, can we go ahead and move forward with the fourth with the fifth and ninth grade purchase for this year? Um, so we can get those devices kind of up and rolling uh, in time for school next year with the caveat that obviously we're going to be looking at, you know, other options throughout the year. Um, I do think we need to spend the year. Hopefully, you know, this time next year, we're able to come back and have some of these decisions made. Whether it's a new committee, different people, we'll do
107whatever we want us to do. We'll we'll put it all together and make it happen. But, um, I think so that we're ready to go for start of school next year in those upper grade levels, we need to to purchase those devices, um, so that, you know, they have something that's that's going to work for them uh, going forward. So, that that would be probably the biggest, I guess, vote piece. Um, and then obviously if you you're okay with us pushing it down the road as we have more conversations >> and we should have a better idea of market like fourth quarter, first quarter of next year is kind of when they're saying we're going to see where things are going to settle. So price-wise, we should have a better idea in a year of
108what that's going to look like. >> Yep. So I like I said I I know our you know the devices we buy for teachers now went up 200 bucks. The MacBooks did. Our PCs have gone up at least that um as well. Uh I know the Chromebook market is feeling the the pain as well. Um Apple just released their own device that's going to kind of undercut all those um which is kind of why that device has kind of become important. Um because it's going to be at that price at the $500 our price. Um so that that's going to kind of undercut just about anything else I can buy. um almost even the iPad at this point. It's real close to the iPad price. So, we're going to aggressively look at that because I
109think there's ways to shift some things around uh to make that work for four year to buy all four years at one time is expensive. If you're going to go to a MacBook at the high school or any device, you're buying them all at once because it's hard to kind of phase in a high school program uh because they move around so much. So, um I think I have some ability to make some of that a little easier to swallow um to move to a MacBook or move to a computer much more than I could have even two weeks ago. Um as far as making it being I know some of you you know see the number that we spend and you know for me to come back and say oh yeah you're going to
110double that to move to computer was going to be hard to swallow. So >> I I think obviously this was important to the board prior to you guys when we started this in October. Um so I I think everybody agrees that it's important and it's definitely needs to be a priority. But I think to just to pull the plug and stop immediately right now would be irresponsible. Um we we have a program and without having something to replace it, without having a new direction and just say no, we can't we're not buying new iPads. for stopping it right now. I don't I don't think that's the right way to do it. I think you're going about it the right way. Um it's we know it's important. It's important to everybody. I agree. I don't want
111the littles on iPads technology, but I think it's very critical at the high school level that they have computers and laptops and that. So, I think we're all on the same page. I just how do we get there and and what does that look like? You know, what's that magic? We don't have the eightball to shake and say, "Okay, third grade, this much time, whatever." I think we can come to a consensus and and it would be good for our district. I just I think we just need to keep moving forward right now until we can gather more data and have more conversations and learn what maybe is right and what's what's wrong with that. So, um I agree. I think it's important and I I don't want kids on devices all day long here.
112I will say I was shocked. I was expecting those numbers to be way higher than they were. So, I I had had in my own mind what I thought where they were going to fall and I was wrong. I was way wrong on the amount. But that's just it. Just what what's enough and what isn't, you know? And it is here. We just spent how many millions of dollars on a curriculum that I'm sure is going to have some kind of technology base to it. So, we just we just got to find that that balance that works for everybody. And and that's my two cents. Yeah, Casey, I'd like to thank you and your staff for the time you guys have put into this. Appreciate because I know it's taking you quite some time to
113do all this. uh going forward, I'm agree that I think we need to stay the road where we're at right now, but I think as we've talked about in in this committee that we also need to start talking with what we've talked about here tonight, looking at what's the best for, you know, getting instructional curriculum involved with this. What's the best way that we can utilize the the re again the resources electronic and hey the old paper pencil, however it works. Um hey with 20 some years worth of uh experience in this country that that there are studies there are u scientists that are a lot smarter than me that are putting out some information on the what we should be doing what we shouldn't be doing and the detrimental things that come with some
114of it. So going forward to me this next year we need to also as we've talked again at this committee look and see what do we need to do to to make sure that we're doing the best we can for the students. And I just at this point again thank you guys for what you've done because I know it's taking a lot of time and this committee of all the committee members that have participated in this thank them for their time too. It was an effort. >> Well that's all. Thank you. >> I do appreciate all the time that you've taken to pull the data and answer our questions and um I know I I came in here fairly passionate about about this topic. Um so thank you for sitting down and talking to me
115about it. I'm not here to flip tables and like pull the rug under what we're doing right now by any means, but I am glad that we're going to have intentional conversations and bring in curriculum, you know, folks to have this conversation. I think I'd be on the other end of the spectrum. I was kind of surprised that 20% of these third and fourth graders instructional time is iPad. I was surprised it was that high. I mean, I kind of expected it to be that high, but I guess I'm frustrated that it's that high. um 20% is still 20% of their instructional time when they're um so yeah, I'm glad that we're going to have intentional conversations about this moving forward. So, >> well, I appreciate your time as well and all you've done as
116an as an educator, an elementary educator, and I I resonate and I appreciate the conversations that have been had and what you've done. Uh I also recognize the significance of it going forward. And so uh the difference it will make to prepare our students to be ready for the next level of what's coming. U when I left the classroom years ago, I thought what am I going to do? How how do I get these kids prepared for jobs that have not even been created yet? And so we know that the world is going towards AI. We're going to have all these things we're going to have to have conversations about. And so I want to make sure we're preparing every student to be ready for what's next. And that gets into the creativity. I understand
117that and all of these things, but I want to make sure that we're where we need to be with our students so that they are successful long term. And so, uh, that's one of those things. There's a lot of there were a lot of challenges out even when I was teaching that talked about how what's next, the creative Toshiba's next generation challenge and some of those things that were out there at that time. and uh you know like the cell phones weren't around when I was coming in high school you know so there's a lot of things that we have to prepare our kids for jobs that have not even come up yet that they're going to have and so we have to make sure we're mindful of that and I appreciate your your coherency
118in that and your your understanding of that and so we have to be I just want to make sure I say that out loud you know and I do appreciate the PD I think that's a big key to this uh is getting our teachers to figure this out and understand how to use it effectively uh I know you've done a great job and you've collected the data as best as you could. And I I keep pushing Apple to come up because a lot of times I even had to look at my phone. I'm like, how much time have I spent on my phone? You know, I look at it and [clears throat] sometimes my phone sits down and I'm not using it, but the lights on, you know, and so there's a few minutes of
119time that are I'm like, I haven't been on it that long. Wait a second. I haven't been using it that long. But so there's I think there's some of that in there as well. And so, uh, when we get better data, I think that will help us to make better decisions. And so keep pushing that way as well. So I appreciate your time and everything and all you've done and you you guys have done the best job you can with what you've had. So I'm in favor of what you're proposing to go forward with for the next year and do that more intentional conversation and data collection uh and getting more input and feedback from our community members. A lot of times those that respond are the only ones who are passionate about it. So
120you're only going to get a skewed data point and so we have to be mindful of that perspective as well. So anyway, appreciate all your work. Yeah, you kind of you kind of always take it about the head and neck and really it's not your you don't decide how long they're on on the TV just because you provide the devices. But we do appreciate you and your and that everything does. Yeah. >> Appreciate that. >> Is there any questions? >> Need a motion to go forward to purchase >> if we can. That'd be great because I I have like I said I have that order. I can cancel it. I would have to have it placed before the next meeting. So, if you want to table it, I can table that order and push it
121down the road. But if you're comfortable to move it, that's fine, too. >> Mr. President, I move that we continue to the one to one instructional technology program in its current state with the recommended action steps outlined by the staff in the presentation. >> I'll second it. >> Move and seconded. Is there any further discussion? And all in favor, raise your hand. Post. Motion carries. Okay. Item F2, the -ate RFPs events for 2026. >> Yeah, I'll make this quick. That's me, too. Um, this one will be much faster, I think. Um, just real quick, -ate is a is a government program that funds um technology for schools. It funds the connectivity of our building, the infrastructure side. Um, so if you're not aware of that, every year, every five years, we get a bundle of
122money that comes based on our student population. Um, and so we send those numbers in. We're at the new cycle this year. It ended, uh, last year was our last year of our last cycle. Um, so this year we're we're starting back over. Um, pays based on our student population, they pay 80% of the cost of these bids that we put out. Um, and so we'll only cover 20% of what this dollar amount comes in. There's two categories. Category one is the actual um internet connectivity. So that' be like our actual line out to the internet. Um but also um covers the WAN, which is our wide area network. That's what connects all our buildings to each other. That's the wire in the ground. Uh so that stuff's all covered um regardless of of anything
123else. So when we get the bid in uh we'll go through the rubric uh apply that bid and and then that that money is guaranteed to us um for cat one things. Idea Tech, we already have that bid from two years ago, so we just recycle that bid. Um, again, we're paying 20% of that cost. The wide area network will be expensive. Um, depending on how the model comes back and and we asked uh just to continue doing what we're doing. Um, and so we'll see what those bids come back. I'll I'll explain where the bids are coming here in just a minute. But that's what that WAN lease is. That's a category one piece that we will be guaranteed that they'll pay 80% of that. We'll pay 20% of that. Um the other two,
124the extreme switches in the licensing are category two. Um that funding is based on approval. Um again, we have a certain amount of money that's sitting out there that's allotted for our district, but you still have to go through the approval process to request that money. Um the switches uh two years ago, um we bought uh 52 of them uh to do sit stones, Buffalo Jones, PlyMo, KH, and Forest Goods. So they're all done. Those schools are done. Um 39 this year will cover five schools. This is the the rack in the closet that all everything plugs into. That's what we're talking about here with the switches. Um we need 39 of those to do those five schools. That will leave 39 for the next cycle from for next year um that we'll put in
125for the rest of the schools. And then the only one that'll be left is the high school which is um I think it's 63 switches at the high school and we'll roll those out over two years. Um so that will kind of be our five years worth of budget will kind of be to upgrade that infrastructure um equipment so it stays up and running uh and working well for for our staff and our faculty. Uh the AP licenses is just that it's a license for every access point in the in the school. Um has a license to it so we can do maintenance contract and uh support and those kinds of things. Um we asked for 450 of them. That's just over half of the total. We have about access points across the district. Um,
126and so we're just the access points are all new. We did that in the last cycle. So all of our access points are up to date. This is just the licensing to continue support on them. Um, we bid out. So those are the three things we bid. Um, requires a 28 day window. So my window missed this meeting or I would have had these opened up last week. Typically we would try to get those out. Um, it took a little while to get the land bid prepared, that RFP prepared and submitted. So all these bids are going to come in Thursday by noon is the deadline for all three of these. I wanted you to be aware of them because I'll send all that data to you those bids so that maybe at the next
127meeting then we could approve those. Um again when I send you all that I'll make sure you understand what 20% we're going to be covering um for those products and what the the federal government is picking up. But um those will all come to Thursday at noon. We'll open up by the rubric um that we that we had to submit to um -ate when we put the RFPs in. Uh and then we'll we'll go from there. Hope that gives you a brief synopsis of the -ate program. >> This this is all budgeted stuff. >> It's all budgeted on our end. Our 20% is already budgeted. Like I know where that money is going to come from. Uh we have plenty of budget to cover our 20% of this project unless the wind just comes back
128outrageous. But I don't anticipate it. I mean, I think the refine within the budget we have, so I'm not I'm not worried about that, but that would be the only caveat. The other two for sure are going to be covered with no problems. >> I wanted Casey to kind of, this is kind of premature, kind of out of order of how we typically do things, but because the bids aren't going to be open until Thursday, I wanted Casey to kind of share with you so that you all could hear specifically what he wants to do, what those bids are for, and ask any questions because the next meeting obviously will just be a consent agenda. So, um, we'll push some information out obviously before that meeting. And so, if you have questions, just let me
129know and I'll I'll follow up with Casey, but that way you kind of know what what that looks like when you see that on the >> You'll get the full bid packets like you're used to getting from all the companies. I mean, you'll get everything. It's just it wasn't ready for this meeting. So, I just wanted to make sure you're aware it's coming. So, so you have that documentation when it comes, you'll know what we're talking about. And I think the last time we did the -ate um >> I had reached out and asked to see the bits because this is where I have a little bit of knowledge and um Colleen was like oh they're 300 pages long whatever and and this is for anything not just like not just for this like sometimes
130for us like for me if I knew how many access points there were >> right >> and and and we didn't have that broke down on the this was like the two year ago one. >> Um, it just helps. It's like same like if we're going to get carpet, like I don't need to know >> what style it is, whatever, but how much space are we carpeting? And it kind of gives you an idea when you're like, does this make sense? >> So, if we could just have like the number, which you've got them on here. So, that's great. >> I'll get you I can even create a little summary so of the bids so you at least have >> kind of that what you're asking for kind of as a cover page, but we'll
131make sure you have. The numbers look atrocious. Like >> it's going to be high bid. Don't be shocked. >> Cuz it was like a quart of a million dollars. >> Yep. >> For each one of those bids. And I'm like, and if somebody says, "Oh, you approved that. What was it?" And I'm like, "I don't know. The technology department recommended it." You know, but if I could say, "Oh, we bought access points for the entire district, right?" >> Then that makes it easier for me to make a decision and easier for me to explain it to someone that questions me on it. I expect that 39 switches will be in that $250 to $300,000 mark. Again, we're only going to pay 20% fee. So, if we don't do e- rate, we pay all of that.
132So, that's the benefit of that's the whole purpose for the for the program is so we just we just pay our 20% of that. That that's what I would estimate just knowing what we bought in the past that 39 switches is going to be in that $250 to $300,000 range. Okay. Thank Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Item F3, the bond refinance with GFO Jessica. >> Okay. Um, just a little backstory on our bonds just for the history of it. In 2009, we started paying is interest on our bond issuance and uh the first principal payment was due in 2011. The original bond amount was 98.685 million. It was on the high school um Abe Hubert and Garfield. So, um that's where we started. The last bond refinance was in fiscal year 16. uh
133we saved around 800,000 at the time and the option that was chosen was to reduce the um interest or the principal payments um year after year. So that's where we get to this point. Our current maturity is 2034 and there's a balance uh remaining of around just a little bit over 65 million. So I was looking at this and reached out to Piper Sandler which is they're just uh public finance investors. they're going to be the underwriters on this, but got to looking and there are several that are callable at this time. Up until this point, all of the ones that they had refinanced were non-calable, so we couldn't do anything about it. Um, but our the rates on them go all the way up to 5% and so right now, um, we can save
134quite a bit of money. So, we have two options that we can do. Um, option one is to do what was done previously and decrease all of the payments a little bit and that saves us around a million dollars um through the through the rest of the bond. Or option two is we can continue at the same payments uh on the amortization schedule and keep the mill levy pretty much where it's at and reduce the final bond payment in 2034 and save around $1.5 million. Um this is all like pending what rates do which things are not looking in my favor right now but um what you'll approve today is the sale resolution and the sale resolution simply allows us to keep moving forward. It does not say that we have to do this if
135rates do increase and we're not able to save money. Um I reached out to Piper Sandler last week and they still believe that we can lock in rates. um it does not sound like very much, but on an average of 6% less, but when you're talking $65 million, it's going to add up. So, all that being said, um again, this like this won't affect the mill levy. Um it's basically just to reduce our overall debt cost to our taxpayers. Um so, in the end, they still save money. It does also preserve our um ability to pay the bonds off early. So there will still not be an early um penalty. So that's good as well. Um the timeline if you guys choose to go forward the sale resolution um we'll do today um just because
136rates are volatile right now. And so now to May, Piper Sandler will work with me and we'll get um information out to different investors. Um, I will have a conference call in early May with the rating agency and we'll get our final bond rating. And then in early May is when we'll actually secure final rates and savings. But with that being said, if the market start to go starts to to get haywire, we can lock them in at any time. And so I'll just be working handinhand with Piper Sandler um to see what the best options are. Um, my recommendation to you guys, I like the option of saving the 1.5 million and just collecting all of those savings down at in the year 2034. Um, we've been like I I'm comfortable with the amortization
137schedule in our payments and uh we actually have a really good balance in our bond and interest where we do actually have some fluctuation if we needed to reduce the mill levy in a in one year or another. We do have a little bit of a balance that we could do that. So that would be my recommendation. Um and again uh would ask for um a decision one way or the other and the motion they would like um you to state which option whether it's to reduce the the payments every year or to save it all at the end for the higher amount. >> Any questions? >> What are the rates right now? So right now they range from 3.12 to 5% up to 5%. Um the last five the last one that's 5% is
138actually the one we will pay off uh or the payment we'll pay September of this year. So we would actually reduce that um as well. Um probably won't be able to touch the 3 to 3.125% ones but several are at the 4% and those are the ones that we're really going to be able to save money on. What are they locked in at now for the rates we have now? >> Um, that's the 3.125 all the way up to 5%. Okay. >> And then yeah, we'll just, like I said, it it seems like a very small amount that we'll be able to reduce them by on by average, but it's going to add up >> if we have the money to make the month the yearly payments. No, I would agree. I would be in
139favor of saving another half million dollars. >> Makes sense. If we feel comfortable with where we're at. >> Yep. And I I do, like I said, we have a a good balance that if we had to um adjust the mil levy, we could a little bit. >> Great. Option two, saves a little bit more money. >> [clears throat] >> Mr. President, I move to approve the present resolution authorizing the offering for sale general obligation refunding bonds of Unified School District number 457, Finny County, Kansas, Garden City with the option of keeping the payment the same and shortening the final maturity amount. >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? It's not. All in favor raise your hand. Opposed the same. Motion carries. Thank you. >> Okay. Item F4 is cell
140tower lease. You're up again. >> Yes. So, um, another thing that I've been looking into is we have a property up around the high school that has a cell tower on it. We currently um get a monthly payment from American Tower that has a 3% escalation on it and it's just it I mean it's something every month but um just wanted to look into other options on what we could do with that. So um I reached out to legal counsel and they actually uh went to American Tower and negotiated a one-time payment. And the onetime payment um like from what I understand is normally the people that they were working with could just approve that onetime payment, but we went back and negotiated a higher amount and so they had to go to their higherups.
141And so I feel like it's a like about the highest that we're going to get, but they agreed to a onetime payment of 225,000. Um that gives them the um the easement on the high school property for their cell tower indefinitely. But with that being said, the agreement also stip doesn't stipulate that we can't ever go back and renegotiate. So in the like in the future if we wanted to, we could go back to another company and renegotiate. They just have to pay out American Tower and work with them. So um we still have the flexibility to to go back out um with the I just feel like the 225,000 onetime payment is just you could do more with it. The purchasing power for that right now is much more than receiving these small amounts
142month after month. And the current agreement we have expires in 2037 and there's no guarantee that we would get anything after that. So then we're very much upside down from what we could get with the 225 onetime payment. Um and it also reduces any kind of risk um that they they default on their payments now um or that they again don't don't continue it a after 2037. So, um, my recommendation would be to to accept the onetime payment, forgo the monthly payments. Uh, that money can go into capital outlay. Pretty sure Brandon is going to come up here and ask you to spend money. Um, or >> positive. So, you're saving it. He's spending. >> Yes. That's why you got me first. [laughter] and um also can invest that money as well if not needed
143if if we don't need it for a onetime pay um purchase. Now, any questions on the cell tower list? >> So, right now it's at it just bumped up in January to $1,7 a month and like I said, it increases 3% every year up until 2037 and then at that time it just goes away. >> Seems like a no-brainer. Well, especially provided in 2037, are we even going to have that technology where they're going to >> kind of continue to pay us? I mean, >> that's my thing. >> Years. >> Yeah. If you add up that thousand even mental math, >> it takes like 20 years, like 19 a little over 19 years to even touch it. And like I said, like the purchasing power now compared to then it seems longer. Thanks. >> You
144You're ready? You want a motion to go ahead and go forward with this? >> Yes. Because the agreement expires March 20th. Forgot that. It's very important. >> Make the motion. Mr. President, I move to move with both the option agreement to purchase communication easement and easement and assignment agreement with ATC Sequoia LLC and accept the onetime payment of $225,000 to be deposited into [snorts] the capital outlay fund. >> Second move Jacob second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Post same sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Brandon. Yeah. >> Now I need all this money to go. Didn't say where that was going. Plug it in somewhere. So, >> right. >> Item five, Buffalo Jones playground equipment. >> Good evening, board. Um, you've got me for the next four items, I believe.
145So, first item, uh, is Buffalo Jones playground equipment. Um, little history on this. We we knew Buffalo Jones was up on the long long range plan to have that $120,000 budgeted. So we went to Ben Luna about this time last year and said, "Hey, be thinking about it. Uh what you guys might want." Ben actually put together a committee. Um that committee worked very hard and was very serious about it. We went last fall and toured the playground facilities with them. Uh you can look on your notes. We've already uh within the background, we've already removed um a couple old tether tether ball poles that were there. Um two slides uh that was a tall old metal slides and then a merrygo as well. So, uh we're already taking out some of the old which
146they recommended that board recommended for safety. We we look at removing those. Uh and then we're really diligent about the the options that they wanted to on their playground. Um, so went back and forth with the proposal. We've got $120,000 budgeted for the playground, uh, as we did last year. Uh, there'll be an inclusive play component with this, um, which is a whirl. And what that means, there'll be a whirl located out of the south side of Buffalo Jones where if an individual is in a wheelchair, they can wheel right out off the sidewalk on directly to this whirl. other kids can get on there and and be with them uh on that particular inclusive unit. Um and so that's the inclusive part. So the sped funds of $50,000 budgeted. So we've got roughly $170,000
147to work with in this particular item. Um the two playgrounds with Shabbulk of of what you guys got shows the playgrounds. What you may not have gotten though is there is going to be two new uh basketball goals uh on the north playground that would be added and installed as well. Uh with this proposal, um we did go through Play World, which is the uh company that we have utilized for our playground equipment for quite some time. Um we can purchase it through Source Wells. So that allows us to to do uh the single source vendor. Um, their quote on the playground is a turnkey cost of $137,69.75. Uh, the all-inclusive play whirl is 29,564.33. Uh, that's both after the source discounts for a total cost of 166,634 and8. Uh, and those funds are budgeted
148in the long range plan and the spit funds. So questions do you have for me? >> So those sped funds don't have like those can go towards other things that are not necessarily as like >> some kiddos that are in the sped program will also be able to utilize and play on the other facilities that we're adding. Um, and so yes, the 29,000 for that is earmarked specifically and and that checks that box, but they we are allowing or asking to allow the rest of those funds to go in and help pay for the rest of it. >> Fair CFO. >> Yep. >> Did Cunningham Recreation I know we used we put it in last year. Did they get a >> I didn't reach out to them to get a quote this year. Um, honestly,
149I after last year's experience, yes, they've got some programs and and kind of getting that history. You can go through and get the grant process. The way that they they play those grants is basically they give you a grant, but that's so they can kind of fill up their dance card for the year uh and have projects available. Uh, but their equipment came in quite a bit higher even last year during that bid. And so, no, I did not take those out. Is this equipment the same as we've done or is this a new setup? >> We've been using Play World equipment. Um, yes. And and >> is that what we put at the uh achieve there? That >> Yes, all of that is. Yeah. And we found them to be a very very good
150partner. um when we have equipment that does fail, they've been good to work with and easy to work with. Uh and then also as we move forward, finding that equipment too, uh we've got a good resource to reach out to and make sure that we can find equipment that fits back in. We've had a lot of those, you know, plastic slides occasionally break and so getting those in and out has been they've been they've been good to work with from that standpoint. I want to bid that metal slide that we all slid on and turned on. >> We actually removed too of us just had PTSD. >> Sorry. Any other questions? >> This is just the first read for this one, correct? >> Correct. Yep. Brandon, >> uh, you got item F6, Alter Elementary School
151flooring. >> So, six and seven, uh, are both bids that we've just [clears throat] received back this past Thursday. You've received the memo. If you received the updated memo, uh, we did receive two bids of So on Al Brown, we we received we sent it out to six uh received two bids back uh one from Star Lumber which we just recently used last year on our project from Witchah and then Vistum which we have used in the past on projects out of Hayes. They both uh sent guys down and and met with us and went through the project and then uh they actually bid on this one and the ESC. Um so this and the long range plan, we bid it as a base bid plus an alternate. Base bid was the higher traffic areas,
152the corridors, the entryways. Um and then the alternate bid was to go ahead and do the classrooms if we could fit it into that budgetary expense. We had $237,000 budgeted. Uh the base bid from start number was 64,48290. Visam's base bid was 73,950. Uh alternate bid which was the classrooms 16592602 from Star 195550 from Vist total plus the al total base plus the alternate um from star lumber of 230,4892. Look at that. saving money and then 19 or 269500 was Visim's total. Um so our recommendation staff's recommendation for Alter Brown uh is to move forward and select star lumber and to go ahead and do the base bid plus the alternate bid for a total of $230,000 $230,48.92. They can do that project in in 29 days. And they'll be doing that this this summer.
153>> And what buildings does this cover? >> This is all of Alter Brown. Sorry. >> All school. >> Yes. Yeah. So the different Sorry. Go ahead. >> And the ESC is >> the ESC is not it's separate. Sorry. That'll be the next agenda item. This agenda item is only all brown. Um, part of what I want to tell you is some of the old VCT areas. We're going to go back with VLT, a newer product, but it it's uh around the water fountain areas and then that school has a lot of sinks. We'll go in and put a 6x6 area uh in front of the sinks, which is easier for us to clean up around. Um, and then in the hallways and corridors, there'll be a higher traffic carpet used. Um and then carpet just
154like this is what will go into the classrooms. >> Are we happy with what started last year when >> Well, I that was my first flooring um contractor to work with and they were quick, they were efficient, they did a great job. Uh except when it came to the music room and they did a bad job. They got they were having troubles getting material and they had to piece some stuff together. And when I went in to inspect it, I told them that that wouldn't work. and they said, "Okay, we apologize. We'll make it look as good as we can." But they make they came back as quick as they could with the new bull. There's the bullnose. They couldn't get it all in one color. Um, so there was two strips that were a
155different like a different shade of gray. They were still gray, but they were a different shade. Um, and then one had a little extra was a little shorter lip than the other one. Uh, but they were good to their word. They came back and did that. And God bless them. I don't want to have to lay floor. They're quick and efficient. They do a good job. >> Our crew will move furniture in and out and take care of that. >> Discussion. I believe for action. >> Yes. Would would prefer that we go ahead and get action so that we can ensure that we get them on our calendar. [clears throat] >> Sorry. There were a couple other schools that were supposed to get four replaced and that they decided No, I mean LA like last
156year and then that flooring got cancelled. Is that we still going in the same? >> Well, actually, and I was going to mention that actually on on at the end of mine. I want to tell you what bids you'll be talking and looking at at the next meeting. Uh we are getting a quote a bid on Ply and Jenny Barker. Those are the two flooring projects that we deferred last year. You're >> correct. as they talk about school agenda and the takeoff agenda. So wonder >> it's in the long range plan and the instruction about a year ago from the board was that we just hold off on those projects but we put it back into the queue. >> Any other questions? Mr. President move to accept the bid in the amount of $230,48.92 from
157Star Commercial and Florida. >> Okay, it's been second. Is there any discussion? All in favor raise your hand. The same motion carries up again. >> Next one is here at the ESC. Um, one of the things, and this is kind of an emergent need, uh, it is on the long range plan for $37,500, uh, which we got the bids back. Uh, we got uh, okay, so again, the same two biders. Um, Star Lumber bid a base bid of 28,04148. Visam's base bid was 31,250. That was for the entryways and corridors. Uh, the alternate bid is 67,69763, which it should have been corrected and put office there instead of classroom. I apologize. And then visms is 76,250. So the total base bid which was is originally what's in the long range plan of budgeted at 37,500
158plus the alternate which was not but I wanted to put it on here just to see what bids would look like. The total bid plus the alternate is 95,73911 uh from Star and Vist is 107,500. So again, uh Star comes in um visited with with uh Brian at Vist and he said they would sharpen their pencil when it came around to bidding next time, but appreciated the opportunity to bid. So with that, um obviously we have the approved funds of 375 um to do the hallways and corridors. One other thing though I'd like for you guys to consider and my recommendation is we go ahead and move forward with all of it. And I'll tell you a couple of reasons why. Number one, there's a pretty large HVAC project that we had budgeted in the
159long range plan that we're not moving forward with uh quite yet. We're still working a few of the details out so it wouldn't make it into this summer's plan. Um and so there's there's some long range plan money that's still there. Uh but also this particular building obviously they work all year round. Uh, and if we're going to inconvenience them at one time for the hallways and corridors, maybe we could all just work together as a team and work through this and get all of it done at one time. So, staff's recommendation is we go ahead and approve um the total bid plus the alternate. My staff's recommendation questions. That's the when you look at this that >> all of it >> that's all the colored area. Yes. Yeah. This area was just recently redone
160so that's why it's not figured in there. >> So the boardroom and the tech office both would be >> what you're saying is it's not we have enough money budget into this but there's budget in something else that we're not using. >> Bigger picture long range plan. We we have those those funds available. Yes. >> So, if we were to just do like the base bid, how long would it be before those other rooms would need to have their flooring redone? >> How long you mean? Like so if we just did um the original what the 37,500 was budgeted for and not Yes. Just the corridors. >> So >> is there do you have an idea of like how long would the flooring hold up in other rooms? Does it is it super necessary that
161we um get new flooring in these other rooms or would it just be more convenient to do all of it now? >> It's definitely a convenience factor. um all of our and and that's the really difficult target for us to hit when we're talking about flooring because all of it's dependent on where the highest traffic areas are. I mean, you can probably walk to a lot of these offices and there's areas where it is in rough shape, but then there's areas where, you know, it's probably a little bit pristine and and fine. And it's same way with a lot of the schools that we deal with. part of my plan. And I know before I got here, they would do a little bit here and a little bit there. And at campuses, I think it's
162a little easier for us to document, keep track of, have on the replacement schedule. Okay. In 2026, we did all of ESC. In 2026, we did all of Alta Brown. Um, and likewise with roofs. And I know roofs are maybe a little bit of a different animal because some areas are worse than others. And there's additions too to schools that sometimes are different. So that's kind of what I'm what I'm trying to do moving forward. Ultimately, if you guys just chose to do the base, we would just work it back into the long range plan um for a future time. >> But we're not replacing three-year-old carpet in those offices. >> Oh, definitely not. No. >> Yeah. How old is that carpet? Any idea? >> When was this remodeled? >> It's been a while. And
163is it the same age as the corridors or >> whenever? Yes, it is. And whenever they came into this building was was put in. So I'm sorry I don't have that date. >> It's been a long time. >> So we're not redoing this room here. >> So we're going to make it all look uniform brown. This color here. >> Yeah. We'll match this color in the offices. Yes. The actual corridor will be a different type and pattern, but And again, I'd like request action tonight if possible. for discussion. So we'll make a motion. Mr. Br, I move to accept the bid in the amount of $95,73911 from Star Commercial Flooring. >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Post. Same. Motion cares. Okay.
164Item F8, the wooden gym floor refinishing. Right. >> We do have quotes back on this. And the reason I bring that up, these are um three of these floors were supposed to be done last summer. Uh we had a vendor that had agreed to come. He was actually supposed to come and redo KH. Just want to be totally transparent with you as a board. Um however, the document we we didn't have him locked into a contracted agreement. Uh we went through the quote process just like this. uh he owes us for that floor, but and he's also actually put a quote in here. Um just full transparency moving forward, but he never could come and get not only that floor redone at KH, but the other two floors that he was supposed to do while
165he was here. So, uh a little bit frustrating with that, but we did reach out and just get quotes from three companies. Um, this is a different area too. This the expertise and the specialist that it takes to redo gym floors is getting tighter and fewer and far farther in between. Uh, last year and honestly, we couldn't just call up another vendor and have them come do those three floors because they schedule their projects like a lot of other ones and and they're locked in for their summer projects. Obviously, a gym floor is one that that gets a very tight window to be able to get utilized and get done. So, um that's why we're we're bringing those three back plus uh the two at alter brown uh are added on um the quote the
166three quotes if you just did the total um I'm not sure how is it cone court system. Does anybody know that right Drew? 94,600. That's the company that came and and painted on the lines on some of the gyms that wanted it. We put did a a flooring project in some gyms, the elementary schools that didn't actually paint the basketball court on them. So, he he's the one that came in and painted the basketball court uh on four of those courts for us. Uh ready flooring uh bid of 128 127 for those. Um it's actually four different quotes, but it's five different gym floors. Um and then creative floors, which is the individual that couldn't make it last year, uh is the highest bid at 136 263. Internally, we've had conversations on what kind of
167clawback we could have uh with that individual, and certainly I'm the biggest advocate of trying to go do that. I mean, we've we've gotten asked quite a few things uh with my department since I've been here. Um but in this particular situation, I don't think that I've got the right footing from a contractual standpoint when I looked at it. Um and moving forward, I can tell you we'll all of these will get locked down with a contract so that we can ensure that we're getting uh and it's not it's not the frustrating part that we had to defer those projects. Obviously, it's a frustrating part that he's admitted that his work wasn't good at KH, but didn't seem to find the time to come and and I think I I don't know the gentleman, but
168I think that speaks pretty pretty highly of why I wouldn't want to hire him again. Just my opinion. >> I I would like to able this and move it to an executive session next meeting with legal counsel. That would be my recommendation. >> Can we approve the quotes all except for KH possibly? >> You're asking that for scheduling purposes. They can get their schedule. Yeah. under under I I don't know how far to go down the rabbit hole right here. Um, under that agreement, was that agreement to do those other schools also? Wasn't that all the same agreement? >> I'm not sure, bud. >> It wasn't. KH was independent. Um, there was an a quote for KH. There was a quote for horse good ox gym and a separate quote for horse good main gym.
169>> I would feel comfortable that if there if it was a separate quote and bid then yes to do that. But if they were all in the same umbrella for the same company I would say no. We're confident that we're sure that it was separate. I would get that. >> That wasn't >> Can I get a point? >> The company that did the KH gym and the horse good gym last summer two summers ago, was it two summers ago? Two summers ago, >> we they did not bid any of these. Correct. >> Yeah. So the the two Alter Brown gyms, the AP Hubert gym and the uh Wilson gym, those none of those were involved with that company at all. >> That clarifies anything. >> Those haven't been redone. I would my recommendation be that
170we then table the KH decision until we can meet legal counsel executive session and then if we choose to move forward with the others okay this was a first read only right >> yes okay any other discussion So clarification though because with it being a first rate it's going to just roll over to consent agenda. Change that. >> So I need direction on what you want the consent agenda. Are are we comfortable putting the four the the four bids minus kh on the consent agenda? >> Yes. >> Pulling. Is that what everybody wants to do? And then and then having Jennifer here. I'll schedule an executive session for Thursday's board meeting. We can talk to Jennifer then. Sound good? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh F9, Jenny Bark Elementary School and Plymouth Elementary School. Uh
171controls upgrades. Okay. Um, the controls for the HVAC at Jenny Wil or excuse me, at Jenny Barker and at Plymale are both on an 06 computer that if Casey was still here, he would tell you that we're he's given us a six-month window to get that out of our system. Um, our new cyber security officer was actually the one that caught came by and was inspecting things at plant facilities. Uh, we actually have three sets of controls that are on that old computer. Uh, Jenny Barker, Plym, and Jenny Wilson is also on there. Uh, we're still trying to figure out what we're going to do with Jenny Wilson. The issue is that those control that system can't be moved that license can't be moved with those two control systems. So um CNC has given us
172quotes to set up new controls um and basically incorporate them with obviously onto a newer computer. Uh but then it would be very consistent with what we just did on the control system at the high school. Uh basically CNC then would have the controls on every school with the exception of Jenny Wilson which we're still trying to work out at our five sister schools. So uh do have the quotes from CNC Group to do that. Uh they're in front of you. One of them is $22,000 for Jenny Barker School uh and $18,000 to do ply and get them um up to consistent with what we've got at the other schools that we're working with CNC Group on. >> If I understand correctly, these two machines put us at risk for someone being able to get
173into our system. >> Yeah. back into the tire system. >> Absolutely. So, >> well, I mean, it's a security concern. I definitely think it's worth moving forward. >> Any discussion anymore for Brandon? >> We have the funds available. They're just not specifically budgeted. Correct. >> Well, >> there's money there. It's just not within within the budget and she can correct me if I'm wrong, but each school we have earmarked expenditure item for arising needs like this. So, and that's uh I don't think it's listed for >> then. So the carpet I understood you right Brendon the carpet for Jenny Barker and Ply and we'll be you're going to have that at the next meeting. >> Yeah. So if we're done with that item I just wanted to give you a quick rundown of what we
174will be doing uh at the next regular schedule meeting. So the first meeting in April you'll be looking at bids for flooring at Plyamel and Jenny Barker. um the hot water heater at the high school. Um we've put that out for bid. So that will be back um for that board meeting. Uh Florence Wilson roof and the Garfield HVAC both went out to bid within the last couple of days or one of them went Friday, one of them went today. Um the Georgia Matthews roof has become a little bit more problematic uh to work out the details for that bid, but we anticipate within the week putting that up for bid. So all those will be back for your consideration uh in April. >> Are those things that would be done over this summer then?
175>> Yes. Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks sir. >> Thank you. Thank >> item F10. Uh 2026 2027 academic calendar update. I'll wait for John to come back. Um so the the 2026 2027 academic calendar first a little background for new board members. Um our academic calendar was switched a few years back. We now uh we now approve the academic calendar. Generally uh this year at the end of the year we will bring you the academic calendar for 2728 school year. So we're working two years in advance. Um it's everyone seems to like uh the process. Instruction likes it because we can plan out professional development a lot better. Uh teachers like it because they know when breaks are going to be a lot sooner. I hope parents like it because they know um next year already.
176They know what the calendar is going to look like. With that being said, um we do know that that there are going to be times that we have to come and ask for small adjustments. Uh when we agreed to do this, we said we would do it um with the caveat that we're going to have to ask for small adjustments from time to time. Uh the adjustment that we are asking for at the end of this year's new teacher and services, we always send out a a survey um to all of our new teachers to ask them what went well with new teacher and service, what did not go well with new teacher in service. um two years in a uh a row now, the the big feedback that we've gotten from new teachers is
177they don't have enough time at the beginning of the year uh in their classrooms working with instruction, working with their principles. Um if we look back, uh currently we have five new teacher inservice days. So these are days when only new teachers are working. uh in the past five or so years, three of those days have been at the beginning of the year and then two of those days were spread out in second semester uh to be able to meet with new teachers in the second semester. Prior to that, we used to have all five days at the beginning of the year. The reason we went to the three-day at the beginning of the year and two days in second semester was because we we were getting feedback that new teachers thought five days were
178too many days at the beginning of the semester. Um so we switched to three. Three doesn't seem like it's enough. Both the office of instruction, my office, the new teachers themselves uh believe that one more day should be added at the beginning and taking taken out from uh second semester. So what we're asking there's a a March there was a March 29th date in there for new teacher inservice. It was scheduled in that calendar. We're asking to move that March 29th new teacher in service date and place that at the beginning of the school year to make four new teacher and service days at the beginning of the year and then one uh later on in the spring and April. Um by doing this, the only people that were going to work on that March
17929th date were new teachers. By doing this, that means that March 29th date is just a day off of work for everybody. Does [snorts] that make sense? Um, the reason the reason I'm bringing it to you now, we're um starting calendar committee meetings. Uh, our process for this in order for me to bring you something on the calendar, we pass it through calendar committee and then it comes in front of the board. Ultimately, you guys are the ultimate deciders of of the school calendar. So, uh, you guys really have three options. Yes, move that March to the beginning of the year. Uh, no. Keep it the way it is or completely change the calendar um, however you want to because that's that's up to you guys. My recommendation is obviously move the March date to
180the beginning of the year. So, questions. >> You talk about moving it to the 3rd, August 3rd, which completes it. >> Yeah. So, they would show up. Yeah. They would show up Monday instead of Tuesday uh, for new teacher and service. And then again that that March date uh March 29th, that's the Monday after Easter. Um so we've we've normally wrapped around that that Easter holiday with Good Friday and Monday after. Now Good Friday off will be off for everybody. Monday after Easter will be off for everybody if you guys approve that. Questions. Okay, >> I need action. >> I was say this one's kind of a time sensitive one. So, >> Mr. President, I move to approve the updated 202627 academic calendar as presented. >> Second move and second [laughter] motion carries. Okay. Item
181G, board discussions. Katie, >> um, well, I want to start off and say it was great to see all of the, uh, upcoming teachers. It was especially exciting to see several of my own former students that now want to be teachers. So, I hope they get to they come and teach um, in our district. That would be really great to see these kids come through the system. Um, I feel like I didn't say a lot tonight. I was kind of just taking in a lot of things. um we met with technology um kind of in a smaller setting and I asked a lot of questions and I think I still have a lot of questions to ask but I think all of us have kind of come to the decision that this is a much
182bigger conversation that needs to be had. We need to talk about curriculum and instruction and making sure that we're doing whatever is best practice um for our students. So um I look forward to maybe taking the district in a new direction. I agree with a lot of your points that you made, Rebecca. Um, so hopefully we can figure out what's going to be best to make as many people happy as possible. So, >> appreciate uh everything that was presented tonight. uh just the JOTC want to say congratulations to them and all that they've done and excited to see future teachers uh coming up and uh what that means and working with our this the structure we put in place to raise those street those teachers up within our own system. I appreciate that and having
183them and getting them more in this the pipeline as well. Uh and the support staff that takes to help them out. So I appreciate them as well. Um, the kids from Jenny Wilson, always fun to see them and and be able to speak to them. I do appreciate the tech team and their hard work. I said it earlier, but I'll say it again. They just it was a lot of time that they've spent working on that. Uh, I am excited about our onetoone program. U, I think it's preparing our kids for what's coming next and I want to make sure we do that. appreciate Brandon and the plant facilities tour we had a couple weeks ago. It was fun to be able to see some behind the scenes and uh the nuts and bolts of
184what goes on. I appreciate all of those folks that work there at plant facilities, all of our custodians and all of our buildings that are year- round employees that are out there taking care of the landscaping, doing all that stuff. So, I want to say thank you to all of your employees uh publicly for doing a great job there. Uh appreciate the way that the admin has addressed issues in our district and keeping up in front of things. So, I appreciate all that. I also wanted to just uh there's a lot of things that have happened as far as the the sports teams, but the the state choir and band did a great job representing our community well at the different events. Uh the KMEA competitions and and things. So, all around really excited about
185what's going forward and how uh we're just seeing great things happening. And that's all I got to say. I appreciate our JR OTC coming in. That's a big honor and I hope they keep going and teaching new things. Um the one to one understand but I do struggle with kids especially in elementary school. I understand we're trying to teach them for later in life and what has come down the line, but kids I feel should be learning that in seventh, eighth grade and on instead of kindergarten and on, you know, fifth grade where they can work on social skills and how to communicate. That's what a big part of everyone's job is is how to communicate. So, I struggle with that part. Um and also just a fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers. I think every
186year whatever the X price is that costs a lot of money in 10 years where we could be spending that money on other roof or whatever it may be. So I do think we need to have deeper conversations about the iPads. >> Yeah, I I agree with what everybody said. I mean, it's a it's a it's a very important topic and and I think it needs to be addressed and I'm glad that we're going to do that because I I think it's important. Um, and yeah, I do know what everybody else said. It's uh there's a lot of great things that go on in this district and we get to see it all times. >> Um, yeah, I would say the junior ROC program presentation that was really um wellreceived. I was glad they came
187in and um presented their gold star award. That's a really big deal. Um I get to work a little bit with the academy nominations through my day job and it's just a neat honor to see these kids get engaged um and want to serve this young and and get exposed to that. Also really cool that the teachers came in, the young teachers I know just growing our own is a big thing and and to get them started early and and get them involved in in that future is is a good thing. Um on the one to one thing, I have to eat crow. I don't know how you actually recorded my vote. I started to raise my hand, but I was trying to ask a clarifying question. So, I don't know if you got a
188a yes, but I don't support necessarily having iPads in the classroom the way we do, especially in the younger levels. Um, but like I said, I'm not trying to pull the rug out from under what we are doing um uh in the classroom. I do want to move forward and and and reduce the time that we spend on those words, you know, uh at the younger levels. So, um I guess I support having to purchase them this year. I don't know how you got recorded there. Um because but we do need to have that discussion. I think we need to involve curriculum and look at at what's good for our kids, especially in the level. So, um there's a clarifying point. I kind of I was trying to get your attention um on a clarifying
189point as we voted, but didn't get your attention. So, figured I'd save it to the end. So, >> well, when you go last, there's not a whole lot left to say. Oh, Mark's after me. Okay. Well, Mark, you get to go after me. >> You skipping. >> Yes. >> I don't have mine up, so >> I make the best for last. >> Who's going? Me or me or Mark? I don't care. Um anyway, so I echo everything that everyone said and I just want to let um admin and staff know. I know it's not always an easy job coming to work every day and doing your job and then being at the mercy of the seven people who set up here and are trying to figure things out. So bear with us and we are
190grateful for you giving us that privilege to do it. And I know it's not always easy. So, thank you. Because sometimes what we want may not be what you want. And maybe sometimes we don't understand. We need to be educated. And sometimes maybe you guys need to be educated because we might be right. >> Anyways, thank you for putting up with the seven of us. >> Sorry. Go ahead. Uh, want to thank the the Garden City High School JR OTC program for earning that honor. That is that is that is impressive. That's awesome. The recognition of the educators, the rising students, that's awesome as well. Hopefully, we can get some of them coming back here. And then the building presentation. Always like to have the kids coming in. Jenny Wilson this tonight. It's always great.
191The pledge of allegiance. I'm just always impressed with how enthusiastic they say that and and how loud they say it. Uh, a lot of things going on in the district that are really good right now between sports, the we got a choir, we got band, we got a lot of things going on that that uh we got people doing good jobs and and that's great. Jessica, thank you for saving us money. Brandon, you're spending money, but you're doing it efficiently. Okay, thank you. Um that I appreciate that. So if I can get my wife to see, >> man, we got to maintain these buildings. So you know, you got to do it, dude. You know, think you're doing it in a good manner. And Jessica is saving us $1.5 million. That's great. So um it's
192just good things going on here. I do look forward to the And you know, again, thank Casey and his his team for what they've they've done. uh I know it's it's taken time and I know going to those committee meetings I go to those uh I know spent a lot of time spent on those I do look forward to the discussions going forward with 20ome years in this country and I don't know what worldwide but in using electronic devices looking and seeing how it's affecting children what's the best way to use them when do we use them do we use them in K2 or K3 or K4 or K5 when do we start using them how much do we use Um, you know, there's some information now that that I think really we can go
193back and look at and see what what the, uh, and really smart people are saying about how that's affecting our kids' brains, uh, and the cognitive ability to go forward and hey, problem solve and just just how they think and how they learn. So, I think that's going to be very important. The social emotional part of it uh, is very important as well. So, with all that said, I think a lot of good things are happening here, and I appreciate y'all what you're doing. >> Thank you. >> Uh, item H, next board meeting. Uh, next, >> Josh. >> Oh my god. >> Someone else want to take over? >> I'm sorry. >> I'll be quick. I'll be [clears throat] quick. Um, >> I don't know where I'm at. I'm still in Arizona. Just just a
194couple things. Um I think tonight was a great um a great demonstration of all the great things we have going on in the district. I mean seeing the kids that we showcased tonight. Uh I I mean last week obviously our girls won state and wrestling that's awesome. Uh but to see the other things that we saw tonight you know ROC getting the awards that they have. Uh they said that we're the second the second largest program in the state only to Levvenworth, which if you talk to to uh First Sergeant Peterson, he'll tell you that that's because Levvenworth cheats because they have two they have two schools that combine to to make their their JTC program. So that's why they're bigger than us. Regardless, I think that's pretty impressive when you figure how far we
195are away from a military base to have a program that's that that large. That's a testament to the leadership of that program. um and just all the all the exciting things that we have going on with our kids. I'm I'm super proud of of our kids and our staff and the things that we have happening. Uh I I completely agree with you all. I think the technology discussion uh and I've said this to I I think most of you individually. This is this is a big discussion that's going to require I think more than just Casey to to have that conversation. we really need to bring in Steve and and and his folks in instruction and we need to have those conversations because I think you know if we start talking about time that we
196want to have on in front of the screens and stuff I mean I think instruction needs to have some input on that as far as what that's going to look like. The other thing that I would say is I think what we know now versus what we knew six, seven, eight years ago related to screen time looks looks completely different. And so when we talk about different classes that are using the iPads, that doesn't make sense that we're using it. A lot of the times that's their textbook. Their textbook is electronic because it was a lot cheaper for us to buy it at that time. And so I mean knowing now what we know then, you know, I mean that's that's going to have an impact on that. I think there's a lot of things
197that we've got to discuss that they're going to be impacted by that. Um, last last couple things I wanted to say. Um, next week is spring break. Um, super excited for our teachers to have a have a break. Uh, we will be uh year- round staff will still be working next week, but we will be close to the to the public because I think there's going to be a lot of people that are probably taking vacations. So, a lot of departments may not have have folks working there. So, we'll have folks working, but uh we'll not will not be open to the public. And the last thing, um, I'm going to be working with you all here in the next month or so to schedule some time, um, to have our next board retreat. I
198really want to kind of start having conversations about, uh, our updating our strategic plan, board goals, kind of direction that you all want from me and and from from leadership as we kind of move forward into the next year and we start planning for the next year. It's getting to be that time of year. So, be on the lookout for that here in the next couple weeks. Everybody. All right. >> All right. The next regular meeting of board education will take place on Thursday, March 26 at 5:00 pm here in the board meeting with the educational support center on item 8 or I I item I executive session. >> How long do we need eight minutes? >> Can we have like a threem minute break? Yeah, >> several times. >> I really should not have
199got a large drink tonight. Mr. President, we go to executive session for 10 minutes to discuss the personnel matter pursuant to non personnel. >> May beginning at 8:50 p.m. and the open meeting will resume in the board meeting at 900 pm. I'd like to invite Josh Gman to join us in executive session. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor raise your hand. Good Okay. That's called abstract. >> Art show set up here like around the building. >> They will. Um I think it's I think this Wednesday they'll have like a >> open to the public the kids. So they they're still decorating. They started last week. Teachers are still coming up and putting stuff up. >> Okay. Call the regular board meeting back to order and look for adjournment. >> Motion to adjourn. >> All
200in favor raise your hand. >> Motion carries. Meeting is a