USD 457 Board of Education Meeting 10/13/2025

001One more minute. One more minute, guys. We'll begin with the pledge of >> allegiance. All yours. Go for it. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under Godis [Music] for all. Yeah. Let's please uh can we take a moment for sound reflection? Thank you. Okay, move on to item C. It's approval of the agenda with the following amendments. C1, Adam, item E1C, minutes of October 9th, 2025 special board of education meeting. Item C2, additional classified personal actions for consideration. It's item E3B and item C3 add item E4A other. The board of education is asked to consider and approve out of state travel for the Garden City High School GOTC Raider team to travel from October 30th to November 3rd, 2025 to Molina, Georgia

002for the All Service Raider Challenge Championships. >> Mr. President, I move to approve the meeting agenda as amended. >> Second. >> Move in a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Oppose, same sign. Motion carries. All right. Item D, we'll move on to delegations and public comments. And we do have some. I just will remind you that when you speak, I'll call you. Come up to the podium, please. Um, you have five minutes to speak. And, um, just remember that you cannot ask the board questions. We legally cannot answer questions. This is public comment. It's it's your time to address the issues that you feel are necessary. Okay. Move on. Number one is Kylie Boyd and Amanda Lee. >> Right. Thank you. >> I'm Kylie Boyd. Amanda Lee. And Amanda and

003I, as well as countless other families in the school district, have been faced with a devastating challenge. We each have a child who isn't learning to read in school because they have dyslexia. And currently, our district doesn't have the resources to help them. We come before you today as two passionate parents who are trying to partner with the school district to create change. Research says that one in five people have some level of dyslexia. That count account counts for over a thousand students in our district. Dyslexia is not reading or seeing backwards like many of us think. It's a specific learning disability that has a biological basis in the brain. Causes difficulties with decoding words, encoding them, fluent and accurate word recognition. We'll see this in reading, writing, spelling, speaking, processing oral and written language,

004as well as word retrieval, and sometimes even math. But the good news is with effective intervention, children with dyslexia can learn to read, but they need individual or small groupoup instruction that's direct, explicit, structured, systematic, and multiensory and rooted in the Orton Gillingham approach. Over the past few weeks, we've been working with Mr. Gimman and where's Mr. Gin? Sorry. Mr. Gman and his team to bring more resource resources and support to Southwest Kansas, not just for our teachers, but for our students and families as well. The first step in creating change is awareness. And in September, both Kylie and I had the opportunity to attend a dyslexia simulation in Witchah that was hosted by the Philips Fundamental Learning Center. and it truly opened our eyes. Um, and experiencing firsthand what a child, let alone our

005children, um, with dyslexia, go through every day completely changed our perspective. And through a partnership with the Philips Fundamental Learning Center, who's been a leader in dyslexia education for over 25 years, we're thrilled to share that USD457 has agreed to bring the same hands-on simulation to Garden City. So on November 8th from 8:30 to 11:30, district staff will have a chance to walk in the shoes of students with dyslexia, disgraphia, ADHD, and other neuro diversities during a professional development session. In that same afternoon, from 12:30 to 3:30, we'll open the doors to the broader community, offering families and community members the same opportunity to experience what so many of our students live each day. And then the momentum will continue. On January 6th, the district has committed to having Garfield and district special education staff

006participate in the simulation. And we're just really, really excited about the district's response and support. And we already have 65 educators that have volunteered on their own accord to spend Saturday morning um in this simulation. And over 30 community members signed up to participate on the afternoon of November 8th. So that's almost 100 people that are choosing to step into the shoes of a struggling reader to better understand to empathize empathize and to make a difference. And we would love for each of you to join us for one of those simulations either in the morning or in the afternoon. And your participation would send a powerful message that supporting all learners is important to Garden City. And then after attending this simulation, we urge you to continue collaborating with district staff, parents, and experts in

007the field to create an environment at USD457 where every child truly learns to read. The Philips Fundamental Learning Center also has a teacher training institute where educators can become certified to teach students with dyslexia. And this training counts for the Kansas Seal of Literacy. It goes beyond the letters training that everyone's doing right now and goes beyond the science and then provides a practical application into the classroom. Through their alphabetic phonics curriculum, educators learn how to support struggling readers, even those that are not dyslexic, and they're given the materials to do so. We know that you're considering a new ELA curriculum for tier one instruction, and we ask you to take a step back and really think about what students at tier 2 and tier three need to be successful. Um, the alphabetic phonics curriculum

008has proven to be effective in many schools such as Simmeron, Pratt, Clay Center, and currently it's free for Kansas teachers via a Spark Grant. When students struggle to read, they struggle with so much more than academics. We see self-confidence decline, behavior issues, physical and mental health problems. Just imagine for a moment what it would be like to navigate this world as a child or an adult, or even this meeting if you couldn't read or write. We have a wonderful resource with the Phillips from the fundamental learning center in Witchah and we they would love for us to partner with them to become an example school later tonight. >> All right. >> Thank you for your time and thank you for the district. >> Thank you very much. >> Oh, and flyers to give you as

009a Okay, next to Levi Bern. >> Hi, Levi. I'm Levi Bin. um high school teacher and president of Garden City Education Association. Um I want to talk tonight about the um electronic media policy. Um vast majority of it makes sense. We want to keep professional on professional accounts. Um and making sure our communication professional both with colleagues, students um and that that all attracts to me. There is one specific piece that I think can cause issues and will cause issues if not altered and that piece is employees will be held to the same professional standards in their public use of their personal electronic media accounts as they are for any other public conduct. An employes use of electronic media interferes with employees ability to effectively perform his or her job duties. The employee is subject

010to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment. The district's social media policy and guidelines clearly aim to protect students, maintain professionalism, and promote responsible behavior. Those goals are important. However, as the policy is currently written, there are few areas where could unintentionally create confusion, uneven enforcement, or even per perceptions of bias. The policy says employees must meet professional standards and avoid anything that interferes with their job performance. Problem is, those terms aren't defined. Without examples or clear criteria, one administrator may see a post as harmless, while another could view it as unprofessional. That kind of inconsistency can lead to confusion or even claims of unfair treatment. In a small or close-knit community, people often share similar values, and that can influence how social media posts are interpreted. An employee who shares views that

011don't match the community's majority opinion could face more scrutiny than someone expressing the opposite view. Even if decisions are made in good faith, the outcome can still appear politically biased. One of the growing challenges in today's environment is that terms like political violence or incitement mean different things to different people. For example, some might see strong criticism of government policy as civic engagement, while others might see it as divisive or extreme. If those personal interpretations shape how the policy is enforced, it could lead to unfair or even discipline based on opinion rather than actual behavior. Because the policy tells employees to assume their social media use is public, staff may choose to avoid posting anything remotely controversial, even outside of work. That kind of self-censor censorship can discourage healthy participation in community or civic discussions,

012which isn't good for a profession built on critical thinking and open dialogue. It's reasonable for admin to review professional communications when investigating misconduct, but it's also important that the policy makes clear where these boundaries stop. Employees shouldn't worry that personal accounts or lawful opinions will be subject to review unless they directly relate to district business. Here are some steps that I think could help improve the policy. Define what professional standards and interfering with job duties really mean in this context. Distinguish between professional communication and personal expression as a private citizen. Clarify terms like political violence to avoid interpretation. pro provide administrator training to ensure consistent viewpoint neutral in enforcement and then reassure employees that the district values both professionalism and their rights to free expression as citizens. Thank you. Next, Becca Bern. >> Good evening.

013My name is Becca Bernin and I'm a Garden City teacher and taxpaying citizen. I have the privilege of working every day with students who are on the brink of becoming voting citizens and I collaborate with educators across the nation as 2025 Kansas leader for just schools. Leader for just schools is an appointed person who by the state association to work with national education association to empower educators like myself to build schools grounded in equity, fairness and educator voice. Our work is to ensure that school policies and practices align with democratic values and model the same justice and civic responsibility we teach our students in the classroom. That is why I feel both professionally and ethically responsible to stand up and speak tonight. I am here to reference the first read of the GATA employee electric

014media policy standards of conduct particularly the new addition regarding personal accounts. This topic was previously raised by the Garden City High School staff meeting where Superintendent Gin when asked about related cases in neighboring districts where a staff was let go for making political comment on his personal page replied there is no place for that here. While I respect the intent to uphold professionalism, I believe the creation of this policy excludes the voices of those it directly impacts, which in my opinion violates the board policy GAC, where it states the board shall to the fullest extent practicable involve the employees of the district. Additionally, I believe it is important to remind or inform the board of the current mission of Kansas State Department of Education history, government, and social studies program, which is what we teach

015kids every day in the classroom to the very students who will by statistics become Garden City citizens and potentially hopefully district employees one day. The KST HTSS mission is that students will be informed citizens. One who ask questions, acquire knowledge, organize information, construct their own knowledge. Thoughtful citizens who will recognize bias out of point of view, determine the value of information, use multiple sources, recognize their own values, and respect those of others. And lastly, engaged citizens who vote and attend public meetings, decide on improvements for their community, believe that they can make a difference, share skills and knowledge through action, and participate in civil discourse. This proposed policy, which holds employees to the same standards for their personal social media as for their public conduct, allows for discipline of determination, contradicts the very standard we

016set for students. If we discourage responsible expression of civic engagement, we fail to model the skills and values we ask of our students to develop. I must speak up because I cannot in good conscious ask students to exercise their voice and civic responsibility if educators are prohibited to do the same. In addition to the 362 policies I counted available to review, not one of them uses bolded language, which if you ask students in the seats that occupy the decision-making power, will tell you that it is a sign of disrespect. I urge the board to reconsider this policy, its language and development process to ensure all and all means all employees are included before this moves forward. Thank you. Thank you. Russ Tedwell. Yeah. I wonder what I'm going to talk about. >> Okay. >> Good

017evening. Um before I start, I want to say thank you to all of you for what you do. is hard work and it's not always work that receives lots of thanks. In fact, I know that it receives the opposite a good deal of the time. Specifically, I want to say thanks to the three of you who are coming off the board soon for your time and service. We may not have always agreed with each other, but I've always appreciated your time and your work. Um, I secondly, I want to speak quickly to the AI policy. Um, I just want to say thank you for finally taking that on. Um, I looked the policy over and I think it it seems to me that it does a really nice job of creating some middle ground where

018we can be realistic about a technology that isn't going anywhere, but also create guard rails. And I think that's what we should do in education generally when it comes to changing technology. Now, for the one that I'm less excited about, I'm a speech teacher. I've been a debate and forensics coach and speech teacher for 32 years in this district. I teach kids to find use find and use their voice to advocate for a world that they would like to see better. I believe that the Bill of Rights is numbered the way it's numbered on purpose and that the most important of those rights because it's number one is freedom of expression. I don't feel comfortable being in a world where because I chose to be an educator, I have to give up a good chunk

019of that set of rights. Specifically, I want to say that I believe that I still have the right to advocate for a political candidate. I still have the right to be opposed publicly to a political candidate. Not in my classroom. We have policies for that. I'm not advocating for that. But when it comes to my private life, when it comes to my social media work, when it comes to my advocacy in public, that's not the district's time. I have a right as an American to freedom of expression. Yes, that right carries consequences. Yes, I'm respectful of that. Yes, I believe that comes with responsibilities. But I don't think I should give it all up. Secondly, I would tell you that this is I'm pretty impassionate about this because I personally have seen three of my

020colleagues and two or three other teachers in the last four weeks either put on leave and then put back in their jobs or outright forced to resign or fired because of things that happened in their private social media. I don't defend all of the things any of those people said. I would not have said some of the things some of those people said, but the First Amendment means that I'm going to defend their right to say those things in private or to their sphere of influence outside of their job. I don't believe any of you would give up that right. Finally, I would just tell you that I already know we talk all the time in this district about teacher recruitment and retention. Let me tell you the districts that have put those teachers on

021leave or pushed them to to resign not being well seen by people in the teaching community as a place that's positive to work. It's seeing being seen as hostile to educators. Finally, I I would say I don't know where the lines are. The policy the way it reads, I understand that it's a policy that you're being able you're being asked to reconsider. That policy is incredibly vague and I know that that policy as it's written exists in multiple school districts. So I assume that it came maybe from KSB or some other organization. It's vague on purpose and it's vague to the district's benefit and to the employees detriment. We live in a politically charged moment where terms and catchphrases are used as weapons. We just had two parents speak passionately about a really cool thing.

022They're speaking about inclusion. Inclusion is a dirty word in politics right there. If I speak in favor of that, does that violate this policy the way it's written? I don't know. If I show up at a rally that a parent doesn't agree with or one of you doesn't agree with and that picture goes in the newspaper, not on district time, do I violate this policy. And so I'm not asking you not to have a policy. We need a policy. I'm going to I'm going to quote an American poet. I would like you to slow down. I'd like you to stop, collaborate with us, and listen. Okay, believe that's all. Okay, we'll move on to item D1. Uh, building presentation from Florence Wilson Elementary School. Principal Joe Re. >> I have an easy part tonight. Do

023you want us in front of you or do you >> No, that's fine. That way everybody's going to see. That's >> all right. I am Jill Regal. I'm the principal at Florence Wilson. And like I said, I have the easy part tonight because these guys are going to do the hard work. This is our student lighthouse team. And we do have more than girls at Florence Wilson, but the girls are the ones who signed up to do this tonight. Um, we have Brooke Fire. She is one of our student lighthouse team um, sponsors, and Amy Griffin is the other sponsor. And I'm going to let them introduce themselves. So, go ahead and take it away. Thank you for inviting us to share information about members of student lighthouse. >> My name is Sydney. I'm from

024K's fourth grade class. >> My name is in fourth grade. >> My name is Dawson and fire in third grade. My name is McKenna Cage in third grade. >> My name is Tour in fourth grade. >> My name is Rudy. >> My name is Amy. We had a uh who applied to be part of the student lighthouse team and have pledged to display positivity behavior and leadership. We hope you enjoy hearing about our school. We have two widely informed programs. This year on from 2025 to 2026, 8% of students in kindergarten through 2 grade will meet the phonics and fluency benchmark on early reading or show diple or aggressive growth through implementation or high quality structured instruction with two. In 2025 through 2026, the number of students in third grade through fourth grade achieving level

025three and four and ELA math and science will increase by 10% on the cap a reading and a math assessments by teachers and implementing rigorous rigorous grade level content standards and holding students to high expectations. In order to meet our building goals, we have to set goals in our class rooms to help us get there. Some of our classroom wigs are we will have zero students score at a level one, nine students score at a level two, 14 students scored at a level level three and four students score at level four. We have also set classroom mission statements that help set the tone for learning each day. Shout outs are a big deal at Lawrence Wilson. Shout outs are given when a student goes above and beyond and are announced every Friday. When we get

026a shout out, we get to we get a we get a prize and we get to put our name on the shout out grid. Once the grid is full, 10 names are drawn for lunch with the principles. We also have caught reading drawings and student assembles. If someone is strong or caught reading, they get a coin or a book from our book sheet. One of the cool things we started doing this year is going to the ranch retirement village each week to play bingo with the resist. This has been fun for our classes for the resident there and it has provided us with opportunities to bring. We also have enjoyed our partnership with Garden City High School. We had over 60 students walk in the homecoming parade. This year we also get to attend the

027homecoming facilities each year. It's always a fun time to have a spirit week and March 3075 student through the garden. One of the cool things we've been doing this year is having monthly all school assemblies in the gym led by students. We get time to practice our scripts and get up in front of the all the students and teachers. It's a little nerve-wracking, but it's super fun. It also gives us the opportunity to practice our speaking skills in front of others. Some of the things we have planned this semester. Donuts with grown-ups, farm schools and Friday night. Thanksgiving with our families. After school movie matte, all family night. We always tell a joke or two more during our school assemblies. So, here we go. Why did the math book look so sad? because it had

028me so many problems. >> Board of Education, thank you for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed our Florence listen up. >> We are Eagles leading everyone to success. Have a great evening. >> Wonder where they're going. Hey I have questions for you. >> Sitting down. >> He did their part in there. >> Do you have any questions for our lighthouse team? >> Tell me about the back of your shirts. >> You know what they say. confidence to impact lives. >> You guys come ahead. >> You guys come up with that yourself or is that something collaborated with? >> You were just given the shirts. >> How many students are in the lighthouse? >> Like 25. Yeah. >> 21. Which one >> questions? >> What made you guys decide to join the student lighthouse team?

029Can a couple of you answer that? >> Mine mine was um because I wanted to um be a leader. Um, when I was in second grade, I really wanted to join it because I thought it would make me have a lot of stuff that I could do. So, I'm very busy, but also to have fun. I joined because I like helping people and uh uh that's it. >> Well, I think that's great. Those are all really wonderful reasons to to serve and to be a leader. And I'm we're just I'm excited you guys are all came here tonight. You did a really great job of presenting. Thank you. >> We'd like to get a picture with you, but also if you come up here and there's pins, you feel free to have one. Okay. You

030want one? Come up here and let's get a picture and you get a pen if you'd like. Okay. >> Make sure you spell right. Spell it right. >> Ready. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. Thank you. >> Good job. Okay, move on to item E, the consent agenda. >> Move to approve all consent agenda items this event. >> I'll second move and seconded. Is there any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. Post same. Motion carries. MF the board reports uh F1 KAP assessment data presentation that be Dr. Virginia Duncan who's the director director of secondary educa instruction Heather Stegman director of elementary instruction and Michelle Byer curriculum and assessment coordinator. Right. So, this last year, um, as you've all heard, students across the district last spring took a, uh, new state assessment.

031Uh, the old say assessment was those questions were about 10 years old. And after that amount of time, they kind of revamp, retire the old uh, old questions. They put together a a new assessment. Um, and so it took a while to get our results back from the new assessment. they were setting cut scores, working with teachers from around the state during summer to get all that done. So, to give you kind of the 30,000 foot view of the new assessment and uh the first first look at the results, there's a limited amount of results that we have because we don't know what any other district did or any of that. it it's only been in our hands for maybe a month and so the only results we have is Garden City and Kansas as

032a whole uh for each grade level. But to give you that 30,000 look at uh everything we've got Michelle Byer our uh curriculum and assessment coordinator uh Dr. Duncan who's our secondary ed coordinator and Heather Stegman our director Heather Stegman who's the elementary director. So, we turn it over to the instruction team to give you guys the big big view of state assessments. >> Okay. So, I'm just going to talk a little bit about uh performance level descriptors and cut scores and the process that the state goes through to set those so that you understand why it takes so long because the kids took the test in the spring and we just got the scores in September. Okay. So um to start with they did change a few of the words on the performance level

033descriptors. Level three um changed from um effective to proficient. And then notice that on each one it says that the students um can demonstrate their knowledge and skills of grade level standards. It used to say college and career ready standards or that they're college and career ready. Now it says they can do the grade level standards. Okay, so level three changed wording and then level four went from excellent to advanced. Okay, so just a little bit of change in wording and the reason that um they wanted to look at the cut scores and to have a new exam was because they felt like um the performance of student wasn't um really correlating to what they were doing in college. Um and the state uh divided one level ones into lowlevel ones, high level ones, lowle

034twos, high level twos, and so on and so forth. What they found was that the highle twos were doing just as well as the level threes were in college. And so they wanted to go back and look at the cut scores and look at the exam and make it more relevant to what our students could actually do. Okay. So the process that um we went through because I I was actually part of it is you start by looking at the performance level descriptors at every grade level um and the grade the teachers that teach those grade levels look and they say okay is this truly what a level one student can do and the part that I um was a part of was the high school grade 10. So, we looked at every single standard,

035every single performance level descriptor to see, do we really believe that's a level one? Is that a level two, level three? And then we looked at grades before and then after. Obviously, level or 10th grade, you're not looking after, but you're looking at before. Is that a reasonable progression for kids to make from 8th grade to 10th grade? Once we got these worked out, then you go through and you the kids take the test and then you go through and you um figure out where those cut scores are going to be. And there's a process to that as well. I've done that a couple of different times. I didn't I tried to do it this summer, but I didn't get picked to do it, but I have done it two times before. And so the

036process with that, you can go on to the next one. This tells you what they are, but let me tell you what the process is. Okay. So, everybody that's working on the cut scores gets together in Topeka or Lawrence. Lawrence usually because Kite is um KU. Um the first thing they do is everyone takes the test. So, if I was a 10th grade teacher, then I would just sit down and take the test. And then they tell you what you got and hopefully you got them all right, but you don't always. Sometimes you miss some. Um, and it's because of the way questions are worded or there might not have been a correct answer on the question. Then you decide how you would order the questions from easiest to hardest. Then they tell you what

037actually was the easiest question and the hardest question and how the kids did. So like if a 100% of kids got one of these questions right, that would be the easiest question. And if only 5% got a certain question, then that would be the hardest. Then once they're all in order, you sit down and you have arguments about where you think level one cut is, the level two cut is, the level three cut is. And it takes a it takes three days to work through each grade level. So it takes a long time to do it. Once that's done, um the cut the cut scores are kind of decided on by the professionals and then it has to pass the state board. Um, and then another thing they go through in the summer is they

038look at questions for bias. And I've had the privilege to do that, too, where you read every single question and they um you say, "Well, I don't I don't feel like this question is a fair question because um kids in Southwest Kansas might not know what that means or an English language learner might not understand that word." And I I was doing it for math and they said, "Well, it shouldn't affect the math." and we would have to say it does though because they get stuck on that word and they don't know if it matters to the problem or not. So it's a very long process to go through. This is just a slide that shows you the cut scores. You can see that the lowest score a kid could score was a 400. Um

039all level twos were cut at the same place which which is a 510 and all level threes. But then what changed was the scores to get a a level four those change depending on the grade. And what is really important to keep in mind is that we don't compare kids um go ahead to the next slide. Um that the scale score should only be used to compare K students in a single grade and subject area. So for example, grade three math to other groups of students in the same grade and subject area. The scale scores should not be compared across different grades or across different subject areas. And I gave a couple of examples of that. So if a third grader got a 520 in third grade and then maybe a 540 in fourth grade,

040it doesn't mean that they necessarily got better. We have to be really careful on looking at the scores. And what we can look at is as a school did we do better in that grade level? and the they purposely changed the numbers involved with cut scores to make them vastly different than last year so that we would not compare them to last year's because they did not want people comparing them at all. Okay, so that's the process of establishing them. I'll let these guys talk about how we did. Okay, so these are your data summaries. Um first slide here is our third grade data. First column on the left is Garden City's math performance and the column right beside it is the state's math performance. So we can kind of make some comparisons to where

041we performed compared to the state. Um the next two columns would be Garden City's ELA performance and the last column is the state's performance at that same grade level in ELA. Um, what we found is that, and we I'm going to kind of summarize this a little bit because the yellow and red, those are the levels one and two, which are the lower levels that we want to get kids out of. Um, green and blue are threes and fours. That's where we're trying to move kids to. So, I summarized it by ones and twos and threes and fours just to make it a little bit quicker comparison. um our levels one and two in third grade math 74% of our kids are performing it in that those two bands. Um levels three and four we

042achieve 26% of our kids um in that in that score range. Um the state of Kansas achieved 42% in levels threes and four. So we are below the state average by about 15.52% in third grade math. Um, for ELA, our ones and twos were about 57%, threes and fours about 43% whereas the state's average was um about 48%. So, our gap between the state average and us was about 4.7% for our level threes and fours, which that was we were happy with that. Um, we'll be happier next year if we beat the state average, but um we were we were close um on the fourth grade. Um, levels one and two, 74% of our students were in levels one and two for math and 26% in levels three and four. The state average was 42%

043for levels three and four. So, we were below the state average by 16.1%. Um, for ELA levels one and two, we were 62%. levels three and four 38% whereas the state average was 49% um at level three and four. So we were below the state average by about 11%. In fifth grade, you're going to see some extra bars up there because fifth graders do take the science assessment. Um, for math in levels one and two in Garden City, 75% of our students performed in levels one and two and 25% in levels three and four. The state average was 42% in levels three and four. So, we were below the state average by about 16.8%. For reading, um, levels one and two in Garden City were about 68% of our students. 32% of our students were

044in levels three and four and at the state level 49% were in levels three and four. So we were below the state average by about 17.2%. For science um in levels one and two, 66% of Garden City students were in levels one and two. Um 34% were in levels three and four. And for the state of Kansas, 45% of students were at levels three and four. So we were about 11% below the state average. For sixth grade, um, in Garden City, 75% of our students were at level one and two in math, 25% were in levels three and four. The state average was 40% of students in levels three and four. So we were 14.4% below the state average. And for reading, 73% of students were in levels one and two in Garden City. Um

04527% were levels three and four. The state average was 42%. So we were again about 14% um different from the state's average. I'm sorry I forgot to advance that slide. All right. So kind of going along the same lines that um Mrs. Stegman was sharing our seventh grade math. If you look at those those graphs there, it's the same format. So, our um when you kind of group those together, Garden City uh scores, our ones and twos were 77.93 and the state average was 64.65, but then our threes and fours, 22.05% for Garden City and 35.41 for Kansas. So, we were still below the state average again by 13.36% in seventh grade math. And then for the um English language arts, you can kind of see the ones and twos group together and that gap

046becomes 6.89% which is kind of a that's a closer gap which is good news for us. And then go to eighth grade. Sorry, I keep looking. >> So eighth grade also has science in it. So there's a few more bars there. um our again the same process of grouping the threes and fours and the ones and twos. So comparing it the gap between um Garden City and Kansas, the state of Kansas, we're under by 15.17%. And then for English language arts at 8th grade, we are under the state of Kansas by 10.47%. And then we add in science for eighth grade and we're under by 12.82%. And then for 10th grade, um, again, same process. So when you look at just math, Garden City compared to the state of Kansas, we're below by 16.17%. And

047then for English, we're below by 16.31%. >> So, and I know that that can sound a little dismal when we're always talking about being below, but there's nothing for us to compare it to. This is a brand new test. So, this gives us a baseline and we're kind of excited to see our efforts and where we're going and the growth that we'll see next year. >> Do you have any questions for us? >> Is the format of the testing the same? I mean, the way the kids take it, is it administered the same way and everything or did it change everything? >> No, the format's the same. >> Yeah, the format's the same. the the questions changed because it's a new test, but yeah, >> there were some standards like the state's been really emphasizing

048for us that certain standards would be emphasized a lot more than what they have been previously. Um, for example, compare, contrast, things like that had a lot more emphasis than what they have in the past. But for what the kids see, um, the kite platform, things like that looked the same. You look at the scores, the cut scores here. For instance, grade 10, uh, level two is 510 and level three is 540. So, so a student could have a 539, they're going to be a level two. That's all there is to it. I mean, even though they're right there on the cusp of being at level three. Okay. >> Yes. >> So, I mean, there's within within each range, one, two, three, four. We're talking about a range of >> Yeah. And we is awful

049close to a three, >> which is what I think why the state did that. so that they could show people, look, even your your high twos are doing really well postcary, whether it's in a tech job, the workforce, or college, they're successful, too. And I they were really um quick to point that out in the conference this summer. And Josh and I had this discussion. It's been a while back, but you know, there was criticism thrown at the that hey, we changed the standards that that we've lowered the standards and surely you guys have read this too, right? Okay. So, what is your >> answer to that? >> I mean, you haven't been lowered. >> Yeah, you've kind of told things have just changed completely on it, but I guess I just want to hear

050what you would answer that question if somebody says that. We've been told all year that this new assessment was going to be more rigorous than previous assessments. So, I do not think that it was easier in any way for kids. We didn't lower the bar. It is a rigorous assessment. Um, now the way that we interpreted the results, they've definitely changed that a little bit, but they really try to reflect on how how successful are kids after high school because that's our main goal is to have successful citizens in adulthood. And when they can kind of separate those out and say kids who performed at this level, they were successful as adults. Um they I think they just did a better job of identifying where that cut should be to reflect that. And we've I

051don't know for the last two years I think gotten data sorted for us as administrators as level one low, level one high because they wanted us to really focus on those kids that are ready to move to the next level so we can give them that extra boost to kind of move them. Um you know give them that little extra focus to kind of to get them where they need to be. And so, you know, we've really been from the state level down trying to move kids, not just doing the same things we've done and hoping that we get a different result. >> Yeah, don't get me wrong. I wasn't being proud. I've been asked this question. So, I want to know how to answer, you know, and John, like I said, Josh and I

052have talked about this. >> And and the other thing, too, that I think is important to look at when you look at other other data sets, um the ACT, for example, our kiddos that are that are getting a lot of our kiddos that get twos on the ACT or excuse me, on the state assessment are performing well on the ACT. And so, being able to correlate that I think is important, too. There there's other things to look at. those kiddos that are scoring twos are are being productive post-secary in in a lot of different places. >> Well, the state told us um a kid that scored on last last year's exam uh excuse me on on two years ago's exam, a kid that was was scoring in the upper range of twos was around an

05318 1920 on the ACT. So everybody thought of a two as being a poor score, but correlated to an ACT, when they started correlating ACTs and comparing those with the same students, they were averaging around that 181 1920 on the ACT. So I think there was a big misconception on what a two actually was and that's why the split was made the way it was to elongate and separate the lower two from the upper two because that upper two we have a lot of successful kids get 18 19s and 20s on the ACT and then go on to be successful in college and and and be successful in life. So I I think that that's the big reason for that split was >> was that two >> and and what came along with the idea

054of what a two is. >> We looked at a lot of data from a statewide perspective when when we when we were at some of the some of the conferences we were at, you know, and they talked a lot about while while they may be still scoring at two is we're seeing more kids than ever taking dual credit classes um at the college level. they're scoring, our kids are scoring higher on the ACT than they have historically scored. So the the the there's just not a not a correlation there with with the other things that they're performing outside of the state assess. But one last question, I'll be quiet. >> Repeatedly we're saying that we're below the state with station right now. How do we get, you know, you you express we want to close

055that gap and even overcome that gap? How do we get there? Well, I think our question, right? >> I think we're taking some right steps. I mean, I think part of our issue at the early elementary is we didn't have a structured literacy program. We didn't have a curriculum that was rigorous and and had all the pieces that should. So, when we set them up from the beginning to already not be strong readers, everything after that is built on a shaky foundation. So, I think we've worked really hard bringing you FFly in, you know, trying to fill those gaps that existed in the curriculum. Um, we're working on getting a a more rigorous and inclusive curriculum in place for kids next year. Um, we adopted math curriculum that's more rigorous um three years ago and

056so and it takes three years to start seeing that change. So, we should just now beginning to see those changes. Honestly, we tried not to throw data from the previous test out, but you talked about closing the gap with the state. And if you did look at those gaps, third grade, we closed the gap >> in both reading and math. Seventh grade, we closed the gap that had existed with the rest of the state. While we're while we're behind, we're closer than we were a couple of years ago. Uh, third grade stuck out. Seventh grade stuck out. But I think we made progress in the in the high school scores. So yeah, I mean it's apples and oranges a little bit. So we didn't give you that data, the old data, but talking about it's

057a great question. How do we close the gap? We we did. Uh but it's year one. It's test one. So we'll see how things continue. But those were some positive points. I know especially third grade and seventh grade did really pretty well >> and we do do have places across our district where we are exceeding the state average. There are classrooms where we're exceeding the state average in this district. And so some of the data discussions we're having is what are we doing in those rooms that's making the difference so that we can replicate it in the in our other classrooms. And we've had that discussion with coaches a couple weeks ago. We're having it with principles tomorrow to really focus on our low performing classrooms, why are they lower than everybody else and why

058are our higher performing classrooms higher than everybody else and how do we, you know, get the lower ones up and, you know, model off what we're what's happening in our higher performing classrooms. >> Jenny Wilson fourth grade is a prime example. They had almost 78% of their kids in fourth grade in ELA score in threes and fours compared to the state average being below 50%. So we do have and Jenny Wilson as a whole has always been very successful for us on the state exam but they're an example um Gertard Walker fourth grade I believe >> Richard Walker fourth grade and Miss Johnson absolutely killed it. I mean she absolutely killed it. She was that fourth grade class was near the top of of our district scores at Gertard Walker and predominantly we don't see

059that out of Gard Walker. So we do have some bright spots where things are going well where these guys have done a good job going and identifying what those teachers are doing and now like Heather said implementing that districtwide to to find those patterns, find what works and implement it districtwide so we can be successful everywhere like that. But we do have some some very strong data from the state exam that that is very positive. And you know, we'll be the first to tell you ELA, when you start looking at ELA, that's a very difficult test for ESOL learners. Like we're naturally going to be below state averages because our ESOL population is well above the state average. So >> because they don't get that every single night when they go home, they may go

060home to a dual language house where they're not constantly getting English as their first language. We know that those scores are going to be below, but we're finding those those charter points and and trying to move those kids up as well. >> Now, was at some point will we have the data from like Dodge and Liberal that are closer? >> The state report cards haven't been put out yet, but when they get those published online, we'll be able to see >> a better comparison. >> Yeah. Right now, all all we have, but we wanted you to get the data as soon as we got the data. And so, that's really about the extent of it right now. Yeah, normally we get that in May and we didn't get it till mid September. Got it. >>

061Yeah, >> I'm assuming we don't test the science in the grades. You don't have the data. Correct. Is that correct? >> Except um we missing we're missing the high school 10th grade science right now. It hasn't been released. >> Yeah, 11th grade. Okay. >> They said that there wasn't enough data. >> Yeah. >> Relevant data to set test cut scores for 11th grade science. I don't know what that means. Um, the information we got was the test did not perform as expected. Uh, essentially everybody was just clumped in the middle and it was hard to separate a level one, a two, a three, and a four. Everyone on this on this version of the test was just clumped together. And so they're not going to release those results. They're going to go back to the

062drawing board, try again this next year. But typically science we do every third year basis. >> Consistent will see growth. >> They when they've changed tests and things, it's usually been about 10 years and then they then they retire those items and they build a new a new assessment. So the AYP assessments that we had in the well before 2012 or so, they retired those. We went without a state assessment for a few years and then these came back in the teens. Uh and now after about 10 years it was time to retire them and come up with a new assessment. >> Thanks guys. >> Thank you. Okay. >> Move on to item F two. Uh the ELA curriculum adoption update. Uh director of elementary instruction Heather Stegman. Okay. Um, this is just kind of

063an update to where we are all where we are in the ELA adoption process. Oh, I'm sorry. Can I have one of those for the club, too? Thank you. Didn't keep one for myself. Um, so our KISSA goal this year was based on this ELA textbook adoption process. So this the timeline that we have here was kind of our map of these are the this is what we need to accomplish and this is where when we want to accomplish it by to meet be considered meeting our piece of goal. Um our goal is to bring a selection to you guys in February so that it can be voted on before the end of February. Um but that's our goal. Um I have highlighted in yellow the items that we have completed. So you can kind

064of see we are right on track um at this point. In fact, like our target was to have the publisher presentations by the end of September and we actually did that at the end of May. So we've kind of been pretty well ahead on our timeline. I will tell you our next step is that on October 31st or our goal was to have teachers begin meeting and making a selection by the end of October and we are not going to meet that goal. Um and that is partly because teachers have asked to add additional items to this process and in order to accommodate that we need a little bit more time. So um the three curriculums that we are reviewing are Amplify CKLA um HMH which is into reading and into literature. It's a K12

065curriculum. SAVIS which is a preK12 curriculum and Amplify is a preK8. Sorry I've missed that on the first one. Um I did give you a a virtual link to that same document that's in front of you. So the additional items that the ELA adoption team which is comprised primarily of teachers and principles are first demo lessons. Um they wanted to know what a lesson would look like from start to finish if it was being implemented. So on September 23rd and again on September 30th, HMH was here. Um, and Megan Ford's classroom was used at Jenny Barker for third grade, Katie's classroom at Plymouth for first grade, and um, Sarah Weis's classroom, seventh grade at Kenneth Henderson. Um, so they brought multiple um, presenters out and they demonstrated the lesson. We recorded it and have sent

066those out to that ELA adoption team so they can see what those lessons should look like. Um, on October 15th and 16th, Savis will be here and on I actually have a more updated date. They're going to be here November 3rd and 4th. Um, Amplify and CKLA will be here November 3rd and 4th. So, um, and as we complete those videos, I get them sent out to staff. The publishers are also here for Q&A sessions because they they are here overnight for all of these. So they come in after school. That way if teachers have any questions as they've gotten into these curriculums that they need answered, they're available to do that. So second step is teachers have requested that we send a survey to people that are implementing those curriculums, teachers in other districts

067that can give them feedback. and I have linked the survey that we'll be sending out um if you wanted to look at that, but we're sending that out. Um I talked to Dr. Meyers at Hulcom because they are implementing CKLA. Um I talked to um a presenter that's been in our district multiple times. Um that comes from a district that implements my view and my perspectives. Um, and I need to still get a district that's implementing HMH, the most updated version of HMH. But when that feedback comes back, we'll get that out to the ELA adoption team so that they can consider that as well. And then we also asked teachers to plan a lesson. So, um, they came in shortly after school started, end of August I believe it was, and we asked them

068for each of the curriculums that are remaining on our list to get into the materials and actually plan a lesson. Um, and with the mindset of how easy is it to find the materials that you need, how easy is it to access the materials that you need, and then, you know, evaluating those materials for usability. um the completeness um and ability to make their jobs basically easier in the planning because we know we have pretty high turnover rate in our district. There's always going to be a training um component and the more usable those materials are, the more likely it is that new staff are going to be able to come on board and implement it effectively in a very timely manner. Um, and in general, we want it to be as easy as possible

069for the teachers to use. So, but once those items are complete, I do anticipate us being able to come to a consensus by the end of November to make a recommendation to our leadership team before December, which would get us back on track. We had a pretty wide um range there from the end of October to the middle of December to finalize a decision, but I do think our team will probably come to decision fairly quickly. Do you have any questions for me? >> No questions, but I'm very excited about the just being a part of the process and being in the meetings and whatnot since last spring, seeing all of the different things that are going on. It's exciting to see the how serious the team is taking it and the openness and they're

070processing through everything effectively and looking at all the different curriculums and whatnot. Um very happy that they have come up with some other things that they wanted to do and they're feeling vested in the process as well and we've taken those and you've done a great job of implementing those couple extra steps even though it puts our timeline back a smid you know just a minute or two >> but it's it's taking it very very seriously. So I appreciate that from the whole team. >> Thank you. And you know, we want teachers to feel confident when we select these materials. So, you know, if it's a piece that they feel like they need, then you know that I think that's it's easy enough to accommodate. >> One of the things that I think is really

071unique um that we're doing with this round that we've never done before is having them actually come and model a lesson for us and show us what that looks like. And um a couple weeks ago we had um we had uh some folks from KSD here uh to talk about our KISSA plan and what that looks like is because this is part of it and and as Heather was explaining to them what that looked like. They were just amazed because they've never heard of anybody um having them come in and teach lessons and do it like what they're doing. And so um I think that's definitely a feather in our hat for the extra work and the due diligence that we're doing with that. For sure. When the uh when the other two curriculums, Amplify

072and Savas come, will they model or will they demonstrate the same grade levels one, three, and seven as >> get all three? >> Same classrooms and sir. Okay. >> Yeah. And in fact, um I gave a survey to the seventh grade group um of kids to get their feedback at the end of the HMH lesson of what they thought of the lesson. And I wanted to get the same thing from SAVIS and from CKLA. with the same kids make sense so they can give us feedback as to which one they preferred um and what they liked about it, things like that. Um I think Megan instead of doing a survey, she just had the kids talk about it as soon as the presenter left and so they wrote a paragraph and sent it to me.

073But it's just kind of nice to have some student feedback as to what they liked or didn't like about the lessons that they learned that day. Um I I think I heard you say HMH and Savis are K prek through 12s. Amplify with K8. Is that CKLA the 912 component of that or can you just talk a little about these covered? >> CKLA is prek >> through I think five. Um and then amplify is the next step after CKLA. So CKLA is technically an amplify product. So, it's preK to 5 and then 6 to 8. There is no high school component to it. So, we would have to look at something different for our high school. Um, HMH is actually kindergarten through grade 12. They do not have preschool. >> Okay. >> And, um, if

074we were to choose that one, um, preK is interested in Frog Street. They're also reviewing Frog Street is strictly a a preK curriculum. It's not one that would go on to other grades. And then SAVIS is a preK through 12, so it could be consistent districtwide. What would um if you if if you adopted the amplify being a K program, has there been discussions on what you would do at 9 through 9 through 12 that? >> So, when we started this process, um the curriculum that they're currently using at the high school, they were very interested in keeping, but the publisher is no longer going to publish that. and McGra Hill has picked it up and we were hoping that that was going to be an option that we would be able to to review.

075Um, and so if Amplify was chosen, we could do that preK through 8 and then keep the 912 curriculum that we currently have under a new publisher. Um, I don't think McGra Hill, we met with them just last week, they still do not have that product ready to go out. So I don't think that's going to be an option. So the high school would have to choose out of the other two options of HMH and SAVIS. But our intent was, you know, they really wanted to review that current curriculum that they're using in an updated version. >> Sure. This a question we asked about being adopted but curriculum providers write us a letter that there is no equity inclusion or critical race theories built into their >> Yeah. Um I always tell them that that's

076going to be something that has to be addressed before the board will approve it and they've assured me that's not going to be an issue. So we can get that um with whatever one we choose um before we bring it to you. So, but all three publishers, we've discussed that before we, you know, got very far in the process because I didn't want to waste time if that was going to be a hurdle. Do any of these um because I have talked um to Miss Boyd at some about the dyslexia. Do any of these address that portion of the ELA or would that be something that would need to be a different program? Well, we want to have a strong curriculum that's systematic and explicit in place for our tier one, which is for all

077kids. For students with dyslexia, they're going to need beyond that. And that's where our tier 2 and tier three, depending on the amount of time that they need, but that's where those other components would come into play. Now, all of these curriculums do have some tier 2 and tier three supports um that could provide some additional support for that, but but I would not say that tier one is going to solve those type of students um reading problems. They're going to need more than that. >> Financially, are they um all about the same or do we know that yet? >> Um I have gotten I've asked for quotes from all three. I did get one and it was quite a bit more than we anticipated it being. Um I'm hoping by the end of the

078week to have the other two because I'm I think Savis will bring theirs with them. They usually like to sit down with me and go through it and explain all the different um items line items on it. So I anticipate getting Savis this week and I told CKLA I would really like to have theirs before they come in November. And she was working on it tonight. has been emailing me questions this evening. So, I'm hopeful we'll have numbers to be able to compare soon. >> Well, and I asked that just because I don't I don't want money to be the deciding factor. I want it to be the best. >> So, I just wonder if they were comparable or not. >> Yeah, I'm I'm hoping to see that too pretty soon. I mean, we've put

079it into spreadsheet form because when they give you that curriculum quote, it has lots and lots of things on there. There's bells and whistles and then there's just the basics and you have to decide which of the things you want, which you don't. So, we are going to have to kind of narrow down based on our budget which things are we going to get, which ones are we not, which ones are essential for us. I know for the elementary teachers, several of them were interested in HMH, but they said, "We don't want it unless we can get Amaya, which is a tier 2, tier three sport. Um, but it's also AI." And so unless we have an AI policy, we're we can't pursue that. So, you know, those are all things that over the next

080few months we're going to have to make some decisions on. >> Back to Robin's comment about our question about, you know, the dyslexia component and how well these curriculums are are for students with dyslexia. I mean, I guess it's always been my understanding that a uh tier one instruction curriculum that that is uh rooted in, you know, structured literacy u and has the right components >> um can help a lot of these students because dyslexia is a broad spectrum. Correct. severe dyslexia, mild dyslexia, and we can help uh prevent kids from ever meeting tier two or tier three instruction if we've got a strong tier one instruction. And on that regard, and that's just my understanding. So maybe speak to that a little bit. Um and then my other element is if if that is

081uh the case, have you or could you consult with organizations like fundamental learning center and get their input on the tier one instruction of these and how how well they are catered to students with dyslexia. And >> we've we've met with Tammy and with Jill um either through Zoom or phone conferences multiple times. I think Josh and I, I don't remember who else was there, but we met through Zoom at the beginning of this past summer and discussed, you know, the alphabetic phonics and some different things. Just was not a great timeline for us to get staff into a program like that. Um, and it came down to staffing issues for us to proceed with that during the summer. Well, I'm I'm just more um asking if if if you have or could have seek

082some feedback from them regarding the three that we're currently evaluating now and which ones they feel like have the strongest tier one instruction component when we're thinking about our students with dyslexia. >> Sure. And we've we've looked at a lot of like review sites. I know the reading league, you know, we looked over theirs. Um we've gone through ed reports. We went through Louisiana believes, Louisiana believes and ed reports both being ones that KST highly recommended that we look at. Um uh so I do think yes they are going to be much better than what we currently have for our students with dyslexia. I think some of the other things though are the amount of repetitions and practices that a lot of our dyslexia students need um in the tier one classroom. They don't necessarily

083get as much practice as they need. Um, I mean they and and that's true of any skill. I mean when you talk addition subtraction facts, you got kids that are going to pick it up in a couple attempts and you've got kids that are going to need to do flashcards 12 times, maybe 20 times to remember that fact. It's the same way when we start getting into those phonics skills. Some of them, some kids are going to pick them up quick and some of them are going to need a lot more repetitions. So, I do think yes, a strong curriculum with enough repetitions, small group absolutely could be great. Um, I just don't want to ever close the door and say this is going to solve all our problems. We are always going to have

084a need for a tier two and a three and and and some of our kids are going to need a lot of support to be successful readers. >> Yeah. I mean the thing I the concern I have in uh is the amount of uh the depth at which that tier two and tier three three instruction is necessary. Um and you think about the number of students in our district that have some level of dyslexia. Um I can't even think of how we can staff to be able to provide that level of instruction. Um and and the you know so whatever I I think whatever we can do on a tier one to help prevent the you know the progression of that uh and help meet those kids early on I think is is a critical

085component in us being able to move the ball most significantly for all 7,000. >> Sure. And I think we really have worked at that, you know, with EUFly. For the last three years, we have really tried to address the fact that our kids in order to be successful readers need an explicit phonics program, s a systematic phonics program. And so, you know, we've we've worked really hard at that. Now, K2 or youize a K2 phonics program and phonics doesn't stop at second grade. I mean, so I see this new curriculum that we're purchasing being something that's going to be longer, you know, to help kids go beyond um the skills that they're learning in smaller words or shorter words to be able to be applied to multi-yllable words and more complex words, which for some

086of our kids is really hard. And especially for our dyslexia students, to apply that to more complex words is hard. And so I really hope that this new curriculum is going to be much better at that beyond second grade. Um because where we you know some of our students can fake it, you know, for a while and but where it really hits our data hard is third, fourth grade where they get into those long complex words because those um compensation strategies that they used in the early grades don't work anymore when they get to more complex vocabulary. So, I mean, we need something that's a strong tier one that goes beyond what we're able to do within UFly, but I will tell you our we have buildings that are getting great data out of UFly.

087So, I think having that systematic explicit program has been very beneficial for a lot of our kids. So, it makes me very optimistic that as we implement something that's more all-incclusive and more integrated that those results will get even better. Well, and this is so important because you alluded to it earlier. Um, ELA is not just class. >> It's it affects every subject that you're going to learn. Yes. Your ability to read. So, >> y >> we need to do a good job. Appreciate all the time you put into it. >> Thank you. >> What What's the makeup of the committee? again >> um I don't have that in front of me but I will tell you what we did was we asked for every building to designate a representative. So there is a teacher

088from every building that kind of is their contact person to go back and keep their building informed of this process. Um I can't tell you off the top of my head um how many teachers that is or how which grade levels they represent. I'd have to go find that. But every building has a representative with intent that when we meet then they can go back to their building because I want every teacher to feel like they were part of this instead of just told at the end this is how it turned out. Um, and I know on our recent PD days, um, a lot of our elementary buildings, they kind of dove into those curriculums and took some time to go in and look at those materials and talk about, um, what all they've been

089doing in that process and and, uh, getting some feedback from their peers. So >> one of the questions kind of for the board to that you all can I asked I said because my wife has been very impressed with the UF Hagerty students that have come up and she's in fourth grade now and so she's seen the progression and how well those students are doing and all learning and doing excellent with that and so I presented the question to Heather could we look at keeping you fli he as part of that now at the time it was a kind of a fill and to help out the curriculum. We're trying to get something all uh continued. But do you want to address and I'm looking at the email now you sent me, but do you

090want to mention or kind of go with that since we've invested so much into that and it's working? >> Yeah. And and I think that'll it kind of goes back to the same answer that I gave um to you Andy is that phonics doesn't end at second grade and UFly being a K2 phonics program, we need something that goes beyond that. And so that's a big part of it. um and and again applying those skills to more complex works. So I I when we started this process, there was a curriculum on the table that was only literature and the intent was we would keep Hagerty and EUly and teachers. The people that were on our initial review committee for the six curriculums did not want that because they wanted something that was integrated and that

091incorporated all of the five pillars of literacy into one product instead of us trying to mismatch all these different things together. and we've done a good job with it, but I I do think it could be better if we do have an all-inclusive program where the phonics skills they're learning are the same ones that are in the stories that they're seeing and the lit the um decodables that they're being asked to read instead of it being here's the story I'm reading in literature and then over here's a completely separate lesson and a completely separate decodable that does not have anything to do with what I'm learning about in my lesson. So the more that we can get that kind of integrated assessments as well, the assessments that come out of benchmark, we've had to really

092butcher those because we're not using their the phonics program they had. We're using something completely different. So our assessments don't line up. So it just creates several different problems that would be rectified if we have one product that covers all of the pillars of literacy. you'd mentioned in your email this potential of using that for tier two and tier three. Absolutely. So that's the one thing I wanted to add. >> Thank you. >> That as well. Yeah, >> it wouldn't necessarily go away. It would be there for those other students in tier two and tier three, >> especially with all of our staff being well trained in it. I mean, it becomes a really great candidate for tier two and tier three because, you know, all our elementary staff is familiar with it. And three

093years ago, we had Esser's money and there was a lot of discussion then about do we want foundations which is a very expensive more inclusive program for phonics or do we want you which is very um quick to learn it's scripted it's very use easily usable by teachers and we discussed at the time you fly is the option that will get phonics instruction in front of our kids the soonest, but there will come a time where we outgrow it, where, you know, our kids have got all they can from it and we need the next thing. And I was really worried at the time. I talked to Jason Johnson multiple times about it. I don't want to make a mistake here. I think it's great that we get a program that we can implement and

094implement well within a school year, but I think we're going to outgrow it because foundations would have been something that would have been challenging for kids for more than just K2. So, I guess it's good timing that we're now moving on to a new curriculum. So, it works out. All right. Any other questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Move on to item F3 1.1 technology review. Director of Technology Casey Wise. >> Good evening. >> How's everybody? >> Hi, Casey. I'm not going to take a whole lot of time specifically on this one unless you have lots of questions. But um through my conversations with leadership, it just had been brought up that maybe you want us to take a moment to review the 1:1 program uh in the school district. It's uh I gave

095you a little bit of history in your in your handout of the program. We started 2011 at the high school. Uh 2018 we added uh basically first through 8th grade and then over COVID we we added Garfield and kindergarten as well. So, um, you can kind of see how the program flows as far as the nuts and bolts of of what it looked like on a on a yearly basis and how we purchased the devices and and all those things. But, um, at the heart of it is kind of at the bottom is the passion I have because I I was here at the start of it and have been here through the whole program. And so, uh, you know, just that understanding I I think it came out in, uh, one of Robin's responses,

096I think, on the survey was, uh, you know, we wanted to be a tool and that's what we've always wanted. We didn't want the device to replace uh instructional materials. We didn't want it to replace the teacher. We didn't want all those things that I think get thrown out there. Um we've always really pushed that the device is a tool to help you be better uh in your classroom, whether that's uh changing a little bit of the instruction, how kids respond, um just ease of access to information, those kinds of things. It was that was the intent of the program. Uh and we've really pushed that with teachers through all the years of training we've tried to do. Um, I think there's been some great strides throughout the program. I think there's been some times

097where uh us and instruction didn't mesh really well very well together uh just with different um you know uh directors and those types of things. I think right now we have a great working relationship with Heather and Virginia um just in increasing our instructional impact uh with the device and what we can do and what we can support teachers on. Uh a couple years ago we had three instructional coordinators uh myself, Lane, and and Tyler. Uh over the years, obviously, we've had changes in personnel, and so we were left with Tyler. So this year, we um added an instructional coach, Becky Alexander, who's coming out of the classroom, uh elementary. Tyler and I were both secondary folks, and so it's great to add that uh elementary uh person to the team. Uh and so she's

098been working with instructional coaches with Heather and Virginia and their team. She was a coach as well. She was a teacher for a number of years, then was a coach for a couple and then now now it's with us. So, she's has that background to really build upon the program. I think we're moving in a great direction with it. Um, but there's a great time to review. Uh, it's been a number of years. I think the last time we reviewed it was 2019. Uh, the board asked to look specifically at Chromebooks at that time. That was the only focus really uh was to evaluate whether the Chromebook was the right device. We didn't really look at instructional site as much during that particular review. Um, I think we ought to look at more of this,

099you know, with the whole product as as a whole, the whole program, not product, the whole program. Uh, and so I asked Josh and the team what uh things that they were hearing from you and there was two that came up. Um, one was, uh, is a iPad the right device for 7,12 or the upper grades should we be considering a laptop device? And so, uh, we'll definitely cover that. Uh, we'll look at those aspects, look at what other schools are doing. We I know of quite a few districts that I have contact with that are Apple districts as well. Well, not that we have to stay with Apple, but you know what? That's who we work with because that's the devices we have that do iPads at the lower grades and MacBooks at the

100upper grades or have some kind of tablet device and laptop device for the older grades. So, that's absolutely on the table. We could sure look at it. Um, I'll warn you that those are going to be a different price range to to move to a product like that. Um, but there are lots of options, financing options, all kinds of things like I'm happy to present to you uh when the time comes. uh you know just what we think they can do to help mitigate the cost, kind of keep it on balance with what we're currently doing. Uh but also if that's the best advice, then you know, let's let's look at what that option looks like. And so um that's the first I know. And then the second was um just the amount of screen

101time for K one, maybe even two, uh the amount of time our kids are on the devices. And so just reviewing how much time of of their day is spent on the devices, what they're doing on them, uh how is it, you know, impacting instruction, but also how is it impacting just their overall development, uh spending that much time on a device. We'll we'll definitely look at I'll gather the data for you. I think there's a little misperception there uh just from what we see going into classrooms on a regular basis on what they're actually amount of time they're spending on a device, but we'll definitely cover it. we'll gather that data for you and make sure that we can at least answer those questions for you and have have an honest conversation about whether

102that a maybe that is too much or you know maybe it's um you know just a a misunderstanding of where the time is being allotted and and it's not so much you know we'll I definitely want to bring it to you and make sure that we cover that for you so that you get that that question answered. Um I did send out a survey um a few weeks ago. I think Josh put it in his in his newsletter to you. Um it would help me a lot. I know it's kind of lengthy, but if you take a time just to kind of go in there and quickly answer those questions, it just gives me an idea of what one, you know, about the program. Uh two, what your concerns are so we can make sure

103we address them. Tonight's probably not a great time to just delve into all those concerns or issues. I I'm happy to if you want to, but I know you're also on a limited time for uh all the things on the agenda. So, um, but that gives me all that information so I can then put together a team that will will include teachers, uh, principles, we'll include instructional folks, um, make sure that we get a group together. A couple of you obviously be included as well, and we'll make sure that we get all the things addressed. I'd like to come back in the spring uh, with that information. For us, the buying time is April 1st. Um, so I'd like to do it before then because we'll need to have our nuts and bolts lined out

104for purchasing. if you want to do something next year, then we need to have a decision before then. Um, if you're okay with another year of of what we're doing with at least as far as the device goes, you know, we could push a little bit. Um, but just so you're aware that that would be kind of our time frame with April 1st is kind of when we start buying for the next year to make sure as we have all devices one here on on the grounds uh for day one of school. So that's kind of our time frame. So it' probably be that early springtime if we'd come back and have all that gathered up for you. our team can do that and we'll be happy to. So, I did I want to open

105it up if there's specific things that I didn't mention that you saw. I know some of you probably read through the quiz at least anyway and maybe just sparked some conversation I can make sure we cover things for you. >> I think you you you've addressed my issues that I wanted to to review. So, you can do that. Perfect. >> Yeah. What would be the cost difference between like a MacBook and like a Windowsbased product if you went laptop at the high school? >> Okay. Um, so our current laptop that we buy that's a comp comparable size. Let's keep kind of apples to apples. Um, we pay about 725 740 I think somewhere in that neighborhood. Don't quote me exactly. It's in the mid to mid70s 700s. On the MacBooks we buy, we can get

106devices at that price. Um this year we kind of let it out for principles because they're the ones that have to adjust their budgets for some of that um aotment. Um so we let them pick a newer model that was 8 um 825 850. Let's say 850 just for numbers sake. Um so they're comparable in that world. Um we can get a device that would be the one year older. Had we gone with the one year older, it would have been much closer as far as price as far as a PC versus Mac. And I think we can hit that if if that's the conversation between which one we want. Is one going to be way more expensive than the other? I don't think that's going to be a concern. We'll pick the best device.

107But I think at both price points, we'll be able to get either of those devices. Now, Chromebook would come in much cheaper than that, but there's different conversations to be had with that particular device. So, which we can have as well. >> Is is a resale higher with an Apple product or is it the same? >> It will be um Apple does quite a bit. Since we started with the program, it was kind of like you buy them and and we leased I think our first years to get the program running. Like we bought I think we bought the freshman, we leased the sophomores for three years, the junior. So we kind of just bought into them for a year and got rid of them. Once we got up and running then we do every

108four years um recycle on the products and we get a good buyback price on those and then we obviously sell the staff and students as well. But, um, Apple does, um, have a program now since that's all taken place where they can lock you in with a third party vendor who will guarantee you a price like we'll we're going to buy this MacBook at $800. They're going to guarantee at the end of four years, we'll give you 300 and we don't have to wait for a third party vendor. I'm just giving you some numbers as an example, but you know, we'll lock in a price that we'll give you at the end of your four years. And so, you know, up front, yeah, it's an $800 laptop. We're going to get 300 back at the

109end. So overall cost of ownership was 500 for the device. So there's some things like that that they will do for us as well. We could go out on our own and at the end of four years try to sell them outright, but those are options they offer. And we would have our if we went with Apple, we have a full team that has all that information provided for us. >> My concern with staying with Apple is most of the I know Apple's making a push, but most of the business world doesn't use Apple. >> Sure. So, I think uh introducing maybe something different to our students as they get into high school and even colleges, most colleges don't use Apple. I think it would set us up where our students might assimilate into the

110business world a little easier. >> Yeah. And I I I'm open for those conversations, John. I don't just just to disagree with you. I do think there's some device agnostic that we want our kids to be because they're going to walk into any location. We want to be able to sit down and do whatever they're required to do on that device. I think a lot of businesses use the Microsoft products, but that doesn't necessarily mean they need Windows PC operating system. So like if I go to a business, they have a PC there, I might be doing Word, Excel, PowerPoint, which I can do all on any device at this point. Microsoft products are available pretty much on anything but a Chromebook. Um but so I think there'd be some that conversation that we can

111definitely have. Um whether that that's the focus of you know what our business folks want. When we reviewed this in 2019, we did some surveys with businesses of what they, you know, what they wanted from our kids, what they wanted to see. Um, I'll go back and look at those, but I know one of those was they just want the kids to be able to show up and be able to function on the device and then they'll teach them the skills they need because a lot of it's proprietary software. They're going to a business and they're like, you're going to run, you know, John Deere's got stuff they want them to run, not just sitting down and running, you know, the basic software. So, you know, there's some some of that is more can our

112kids just be flexible enough to sit down at any device and and function uh in the world they're going to run into. But I'm I'm open to having that to look at that. >> Yeah, I would say like at my client base at at our business, 98.5% of the businesses have zero Mac products. >> Sure. So I would say John is I mean most of the generic business world is going to be Windowsbased. >> Sure. >> Oh and you know I my experience my kids going on to college. One of them the degree she's pursuing they had to get a PC. Sure. >> The other one the department she's going to pursue says everything's Apple based. So I think even getting some data from the Kboard schools as to what are their different colleges and

113say >> you know x percent of colleges within our cable schools prefer students come in using these devices. I think that'd be helpful to know too. >> Sure. I can definitely look at that. >> And it's kind of probably degrees specific. >> Sure. >> There are some absolutely >> much more friendly on on an Apple device. >> Yeah. If you're going to go in the media world, you're probably going to use an Apple product because they're just that much more powerful of a device. Um, but again, it's all that's going to depend on how adaptable the software development folks are going to be. It's an engineering degree at one time that was all PC based and now there's some companies that moved over stuff over to >> and it changes every you know all the

114time. So that's why I think it's important for us to have kids that can just sit down at anything and and be productive whether it's an Apple or a PC. If they go to college, they get that choice. If you go to K State, I think there's an Apple on site, at least there used to be. I think there still is, but um you know, so but that's not their only choice. So don't give them that option. Okay. We'll move forward. If you again, if you'll just take I think it should take you five minutes maybe uh to just go in there and just kind quickly answer the questions. If you're not sure, just put up, you know, I'm unsure and that's perfectly fine. We'll we'll take it from there. But that at least gives

115my team a a place to start on that survey and go from there. And then I'll get with leadership with Josh and we'll kind of figure out a time frame that works best to what we can reasonably hit for you, a target to get in front of you again. Thank you. Thanks. Item F4, grade reconfiguration review. Josh Gman, inter superintendent. >> Mr. President, I'm going to miss this. >> Is it up? Okay. Um, as we start to to uh dig into uh grade reconfiguration and and what that looks like, I wanted to take um just a little bit of time tonight to to kind of walk through all of the work that's been done um up to this point. I uh I'm I'm a firm believer in work smarter not harder. I think there's a

116lot of really good work that's been done that we don't need to repeat that work. And so I think we just need to kind of pick up the baton um where it's at and kind of move forward with the project to try to get it across the finish line. And so as we look at grade reconfiguration um the uh the discussions really kind of started uh back in like 2008, we found stuff as as Jennifer and I kind of dug into old board minutes and and things like that. There were conversations and there were committees that were put together back in 2008 2009 to talk about grade reconfiguration and what that would look like. So this is a conversation that's been coming up. We kind of talk about it and then we we we we

117kind of stop. And so uh those conversations started in in 2008. They really picked up in 2018. Um and that's kind of where I'm going to talk about the the work that was done in 2018 and then the followup work that happened in 21 and 22. Um and then of course obviously we had those conversations uh last year as well. So in 23 and 24. >> So um in 2018 this is just kind of a list of what that committee um looked like. And so we had certified staff um we had uh community and parent represent representation um building principles um board representation and then um the Renee Scott was our district facilitator that was kind of in charge of that. The task of that group in 2018, their whole goal, their whole objective um

118was to u evaluate the elementary, middle, and and intermediate configurations to to determine what they felt like was the best um most um most efficient uh program for or or configuration for that. And so they met, they spent quite a bit of time. Um, spent the whole year really looking at that. Uh, began in November. They met twice twice a month for that that whole month. They looked at specifically um, status quo, keeping it just like it is now with the K4 5678 configuration. They looked at a K568 configuration and then they looked at a K678 configuration. And through that process and all those discussions and the research that they did, uh the committee recommended that they um that that the that the board go with a a K568 uh grade configuration um for all

119students moving forward. So that was the work that they did and then that kind of stopped. And if you recall right around that time is also when we had to deal with all the drama that that co brought with us. And so I really think that that there was a lot of work that was going on with that and then it just kind of stopped because we were scrambling to try to make sure that we could keep the keep the lights on in in other ways. And so um in 2021 and 22 um a second committee kind of picked it up. So this is the recommendation. and we're recommending that we're going to go um K568 with with the configuration districtwide. How do we do that? What does that look like? And so this committee

120was this is the committee that was was put together. Very similar um uh committee as far as representation on it. Um the purpose of that committee was to develop alignment options for the district to look at um that that would be um aligned with u prek then K5 68 and a 912 program. Talk about what the pros and the cons would be um for each of those those different scenarios and what the cost for each of those options would be. Um they also talked about um uh having having kind of an I guess an alocart um options for some of the things where you could you could pick up some extra things. And so there was conversation during that com um during that committee work um about updating um secure interest secure entrances at all

121the buildings um and doing some things to make us more more secure um storm shelters things like that. So there was there were some other things in addition to the the grade reconfiguration that was being looked at at that time. So as they did that they basically came up with two different options. The first one was to go with three middle schools. We would convert Charles Stones into the third middle school. Um it would be repurposed to a a middle school. Bernardine sits would then become a K5 elementary building. The other option would be to do the the two middle schools um Horus Good and Kenneth Henderson. Obviously, we're going to have to spend some money to bring horse good up to the to the size to make it um balance out with with horse

122good. Um and then both of the intermediate centers would become elementary buildings which would create some extra capacity um that could be utilized for some other purposes. And then like I said, they also had the um the allocart options that that were on there. So, no decision was really made on what that should look like. Um, another committee got together on the 22nd to present to the board. They kind of went through the history of what the other two committees had done, what that looked like. Um, kind of went through all of those things of of what the the roles of those two committees were, who those members were. Um, what the first committee did, all of the things that they looked at, the research, things like that, and then what their recommendation was, and

123then the second committee and and uh what their role was. and then what their recommendations were. And then that's just kind of where it stopped after that after that last meeting in in uh um a couple years ago. So, here's what I here's what I propose that we do moving forward. These are these are the recommendations. Um as I've kind of sit down with leadership of what what we should do. First thing we need to do is kind of look at a timeline for completion. What do we think that's going to look like? We need to have a clear timeline and communicate that out so that everybody knows. Realistically, I think the soonest that we're looking at anything happening would be the fall of 2028. Um I just don't think um as far as construction

124and all of the other pieces that need to happen falling into place, I think fall of 2028 would be the earliest that we could that we could be look at looking at um grade reconfiguration. Um, we need to develop some steering committees uh and and very similar to what the committees looked like before, we need to have representation from um teachers and and administrators and parents and community members. You all as board members. I I'd like to have you all on there as well. Um, one one committee should be um specifically looking at building and facilities. Um, obviously we've talked about how we we're going to be looking at upgrading KH if we move forward with this and what that's going to look like, but there's more to it than just just adding to KH.

125Um, Bernardine and Sits and Charleston Stones, if they become elementary schools, they're going to have to be um they're going to need more playground equipment. They don't have a they don't have much playground and it's certainly not a age age appropriate for kindergarteners. And so, we're going to have to look at things like that. there there's going to be other other little things that are going to have to happen that that we need to make sure um making sure that our playgrounds are fenced off and a little bit safer than um I mean expectations that you had for fifth and sixth graders are going to look different than the expectations that you're going to have for kindergarteners. And so we need to have have a group that's going to look into that. So that would

126be that committee. Um and I would have Brandon in charge of that committee. He would be the the person in charge of that Siri committee. Everybody um every building in the district with the exception of the high school and Garfield are going to be impacted by this in some way. Um whether that is uh taking in fifth graders at the elementary level, taking in sixth graders at the at the middle schools or completely changing everything for the intermediate centers. Everybody's going to be impacted by that. And I'm sure that's going to cause a lot of stress and a lot of concern for a lot of people. So personnel and how we how we staff those buildings and what that looks like is going to be important. And so um that's going to take some time

127and that's going to take some work. Drew will be in charge of that committee and what that would look like. Um we also need to talk about not only um how to move those folks around, but uh we're going to have to have conversations about how many tracks we want to have at each building. What does that look like? I mean realistically as we as we kind of move down the road um we don't need to have three and four tracks probably in in in any of the buildings. I think it would be realistic to think that we could have smaller um and what that looks like. So, there's going to be some work that's going to have to go go into that. Um instructional programming, I mean, Heather talked a lot today about about

128what the curriculum would look like. Um there's going to be what does those what are the curriculums look like as we kind of move those things around. I think when we look at especially um band, orchestra, choir, things like that, how that's impacted um what those programs look like. So Steve uh being in charge of instruction would be the one that would kind of head up that committee and and and and take on that. And then the last one would be special programs um and operations. And so that's going to be just everything else that we have to um we have to look at. I guess I'm way behind on that. I'm sorry guys. Um but that would be like your transportation, nutrition, custodial services. as we move folks around and and and those things

129change, what are the needs of each building going to be moving forward? And so that's going to require that's going to require some time and work to to look at that as well. And so um Jessica would be in charge of that committee and then all of those committees would obviously um report to me. So that would be my recommendation that we do moving forward. Um questions, thoughts? >> I don't really have a question. um more a statement. Um and I was surprised at the 2008 obviously we spent a lot of time over seven years the community every times come back and said that we need to do this and so I guess we get to be the lucky crew that bites the bullet and and like really moves forward. >> Yeah. Um, so I

130appreciate this presentation and I think we started. >> Yeah, I agree. I don't quite miss the statement. I agree. This can's been kicked down the road for 17 years. I mean, I' I've yet to have anybody in community tell me it's a bad idea. For every 10 people, maybe one says, "Just leave it how it is." They don't say it's a bad idea. They're just like, "It works, just leave it." You know? So, I I think it's a I think it's something that the public wants, the the community wants. I want it. So, I I think it's time to move forward. >> I I agree with those statements, but I do have a question. So, this has been in the works since 2008. It's been looked at by a lot of community members, a lot

131of different committees. Why hasn't it been acted on? I mean, what are the barriers? Is it financial? Is it just >> so too much change? I mean what what what are the barriers that why no board has voted for great reconfiguration? >> So I think and and and honestly I don't know a whole lot about the stuff that happened in the you know like 2008 2009 I I can't speak to that. I will tell you that um as we looked at this if you look at the price tags that were on there that were associated with the two options that that they come up with that would have required a bond. I mean, either one of those would have required a bond because they were a lot more in depth than what we're um the

132scope that I think we're looking at right now. Um I think Drew helped me out. 51 million and 61 million. Is that right? >> Um I think if we would have went with building on KH and the work that we were going to do there, building on another gym, um updating the football field, there was a lot of other work that was going to go into that. Um and it was going to be 51 million. And then to convert Charles Stones into the third um middle school was going to be 61 or 64 million. I I can get those exact numbers for you, John, but both of those would have required us to take this to a bond and I don't think the board had the appetite for that at the time. >> We've got

133a student population that isn't going the same direction because it wasn't at that time, >> right? Um, so I I think that they they were probably overexpanding what would have been needed on top of the gym and the fields and all the extra stuff that that was uh included. It was I mean it was a they were going to get everything out of it if they were going to do it the way that we're planning is more scaled back and and probably appropriate for where we're at. And and that's not to say that we um we won't look at those other things. I think when we when we have the architects drop the work at cage, I think they should draw up an extra gym. I think they should drop all of those things so

134that we can kind of put prices on that. I don't know that we'll be able to bite that all off right now, but I think that's something we could look at and doing a phased approach down the road because I do think I do think there's an appetite for that, too. It's just how do we get there and what does that look like? Plus, you guys do bold things. >> Yeah. I mean, I mean, I think I've shared with the board, maybe the administration team, and I I feel like KH is probably our second nicest or second best property in the district just besides the high school based on its location as Horse Good continues to age. I mean, I I feel like Kenneth Henderson be could become our premier property. So, I think that

135looking into spending the money and making that property um suited for its future, I think is is a good idea. But I do also understand that that could cost a lot of money. And I've spoke with some of you like through re through grade um reconfiguration we could go a different direction where we go K6 and stay with 7 8 9 12 and utilize the facilities that we have as well. >> Yes sir. Yep. Both are possible. Other questions? >> No question. But again I agree with some of the statements have been said here. I think it's time to, you know, I don't know what happened. You know, we've given a little bit of history here and some thought to maybe some of the reasons that things didn't happen, but I think it's time to

136happen. I I don't think we should kick the can down the road any further. It's it's time to move forward. Get on it. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Item G, new business. G1, the board of education is asked to consider and approve the addition of the following new I'll go. >> Oh, sorry. And move on to item G1, new business. The board of education has to consider and approve the addition of the following new courses for dual credit. Dr. Virginia Duncan agend. >> Hi. >> Um I know I've brought this to the board before with the buckets from Kboard, but I wanted to make sure and bring that copy so it was kind of handy. Um the courses that are being brought before you tonight, um they've been through curriculum council

137and uh from the high school. They found out that there were a particular courses that were being offered by the college that meet um the Kansas Board of Regents buckets and they are actually like way down on the bottom two that were not currently being offered for dual credit at the high school. And then business management was on the CTE page that I put on the back um and it's in the bottom right hand corner that business management one. So, uh, information was just included in there, guess questions, but it's for you to kind of review and consider. I think the dual credit classes are an awesome addition. So, especially when they like allow students to use that credit moving forward, too. So, >> and I've had students, high school students, very excited about the

138opportunity for dual credit classes. Just yesterday, I had one tell me her goal was graduate high school with a degree from college. >> Yeah. >> I thought that was Yeah, I thought that was pretty pretty cool. So, Yep. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Item G2, bus bids, uh, for transportation, director of transportation, Shane Burns. >> So, Joseph and I have been working on a a five-year rotation just kind of keep our fleet updated. And this year uh coming up is our conventionals, which is our 56 to 58 passenger buses that we use out on the country roads. So we're I mean we sent out bids, we got one returned back. We're trying to purchase three buses. Originally with the quotes came back as about 48 or 480,000, but when the bids came

139in it was a lot less. It's 414. So I just need you to say yes so I can buy some buses. What did you say the the budget for the three was? Well, it's built into the budget, but right now the what we were originally quoted was 48,000, but the bids came in at 414, sorry, 480,000 um total for all three buses. It's 414. So, >> 480. So, >> we're well under budget. Yeah. These all I assume meet all the bid requirements, all the specifications you were looking for. Okay. >> Reason why the other companies didn't do it. >> We have all bluebirds and um so we got a letter back from Thomas last time we did it said don't send us because you're not going to buy our our bus. So we sent them

140to Bluebirds. The closest ones were Oklahoma, Colorado, and and out of Witchaw. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Item G3, the Honeywell year 1 update and consider action on year 2 measurement and verification services contract. Director of Plant Facilities, Brandon Anders. >> So, first off, I'd like to apologize Heather left, but my phone went off. I guess as Director of Plant Facilities, I thought it was going to show me the weather, the the cloud that was moving through, but instead it wanted me to know that EF5 tornadoes will become more common. So, thus, the dramatic m music and my fat thumb hit the wrong button. So, I apologize for that. I'm here to discuss first of all in this item and I will ask you on all three that I think I'm presenting tonight. Uh we're asking

141for action if that's possible. Um but the first one I wanted to follow up with um a couple of months ago Honeywell came and gave us a presentation and kind of pretty much brought us all up to speed on that um project that we did. Uh it involved the VRFs at the five sister schools, but then also the lighting retrofit nearly uh uh districtwide. Um and so we were all way over kind of pushing them and waiting on that year one report uh which in the agreement in the original paperwork we had to pay for. You've got a copy of that bill uh and what it cost us in your packet as well. Uh and also in your packet there was a poor boxer uh that you've got uh don't have it electronically to put

142up but um what we did six or seven of us set in on this presentation. The report ended up being about a 100 pages long. Um and so just to kind of I asked him to to pair that down and just put it in a four boxer so that we could understand it pretty simply. Um I asked them if they could be here tonight to present. Uh, we didn't fall into that. We didn't give them enough notification. They wanted a 14-day notification. Are you >> Yeah, >> you want to put it up? >> Yeah, there you go. You're up. >> Oh, awesome. >> I can do that. >> I absolutely can't read that. But anyway, you've got it in front of me. I apologize for y'all, but uh what it boiled down to is their

143report came back that the project numbers uh if you look in the top right hand box uh are actual savings uh for from installation and then in year one uh a total of 659,640. They had estimated our guarantee savings at 414127. Uh and so during those two time periods that they measured, they're saying that they've saved us $245,513. Um I don't know and and and the more I've looked at that report, there are some numbers that are skewed a little bit uh that that I I don't necessarily agree with. For instance, uh when they gave the original numbers, they estimated that our maintenance and operation on the LED lighting system would save us $183,000 on an annual basis because we wouldn't be maintaining and working on those lights. There's a 3% escalator clause on that

144for the next 20 years. And I think realistically that should have been about a seven or eight year and then it should have started actually decreasing because in in reality we're going to start working on those lights and have more maintenance in operation as opposed to it escalating. So um not to get totally deep into that. I do know we have so so I wanted to give you that report and I'm certainly open for any questions on that. The other item though that I need some action on is they're pressing us to go through year two of this um measurement and verification project that we would be build uh which fits in your packet as well. Um there we need to pay them $25,563 for them to develop the year 2 report. And actually each

145year of our project, which is a 20-year project, this is built in with an option for us to exercise it so that we can have them do a report for us. I actually had a conversation with Jordan Botti from Honeywell the other day and I was very frank with him because he was pretty frank with me in an email. Um, and I just asked him, I said, "What do we need to do this?" and he said honestly if you're not if you don't have it financed and it's not a requirement of your finance year I wouldn't move forward with and so telling you all that I'm open for questions on the uh actual savings and the report that was given to us um my report is probably very lackluster compared to what they would come

146and talk to you and tell you about uh but I know it's a lot shorter uh than what we sat through the other day to let them know that yes, we save money by putting LED lights on is essentially what we got told. Um, so not to make light of it, I still think it's a good project. Um, I don't see the benefit actually of us continuing to do the measurement and verification. I think as budget funds get tight, one of the things with those five sister schools is the Honeywell controls that we've got on them aren't very useful uh for us to be able to go in and control the systems like we want. We're very limited on our access on those Honeywell controls. Uh our control system with CNC is 13 years old

147at the high school. As a matter of fact, we've got one of those six um boards that is down right now. So we're not we're not even being able to control uh one of themmies. Um so what we're doing right now is kind of doing some leg work on the control side. I would like to look at the options of having an umbrella control system that would control all of our schools, especially those five sister schools, the high school, KH, uh, and quite a few others as well that we use CNC with. So, we're kind of exploring that. My thought process is and my recommendation to you guys to not move forward with year two as we save those dollars and ultimately then roll them around and and find a U control system that might

148be we might be able to upgrade and and shift those dollars to. With that, I'll open for questions either on the report or item two that I need action on, which I'm recommending that we not approve option or year two for the maintenance and verification report or measurement and verification. >> So the 25,000 is just a report. >> Yes. >> But without the report, they you can't hold them accountable to the guaranteed savings. Correct. Yes. Correct. >> So if you change control system in the future, did we lose our guarantee? >> I don't know that the control system is part of that guarantee. I I don't believe it is >> because I >> I can certainly follow up on that. >> The reason I asked that is from my experience with these because this program

149was not only LED lighting conversion but HVAC conversions too. And that control system that's there is setting operations parameters on that. And if you change that, you know, the system kicks on earlier in the day, runs longer, >> the set points, >> all your set points change, then your energy usages associated with it can change and the guarantees can and go out the window is my concern. So that would be one of my questions about your comment about trying to >> on the control. That certainly might I can double check on that and we might be locked into that for this for the >> if we want to be able to maintain the options for guarantees. Um, do they give a full outline of the projected savings? Do we have a document that tells us

150what the projected savings are for every 20 years >> projection? Yes, we do have that. >> From what you've seen the data, do you think you can look at utility bills on those schools and at least based off of >> track it on our own? >> Yeah. Track it on your own and know if anything is really fading, tapering off or anything of that sort. Yes, I feel comfortable. >> Feel comfortable that if we don't buy in on year two, can we buy back in later? Like if you see maybe year three and four seem off, can you get by year five report? >> I don't believe that. It's not >> We're out. We're out. >> On the on the measurement verification report. >> Yeah. I mean, all my questions here are are really related

151to we step out of this, do we lose the guaranteed savings? In talking to Jordan, uh the only red flag that he cautioned me on is if that if we had it financed and if it was a stipulation of that financing that we we should continue to do it. If not, he didn't recommend it. >> Is our contract written if if those guarantees aren't met, do they have to pay us back? >> So Brandon told me that uh Thursday, the gal that I uh need to talk to is out till tomorrow. So not sure yet. So if that that that's my if if and these are all if questions but if if if that shortfall is a guaranteed repayment reimbursement back from money we then we do anything to not continue to be able to

152have that guarantee then and if we're out like if we step out and we can't get back in then I mean it's it's unfortunate. I would have liked to have seen the cost of these reports just baked into the cost of the project instead of having to, you know, >> yeah, rip this band-aid off every single year. Um, but that's my big concern is this one of the these whole energy audit things are based around is guaranteed performance, guaranteed payments, but they come with things like constraints on the controls and set points, all, you know, all this stuff. And I'm just worried about not rolling in next year and not being able to see trends at least three to five years in and really see and then maybe ago um what could have been reimbursements

153in the future if if the system doesn't end up meeting those guarantees. But we don't know. You might get all the way through 20 years and never never is an issue. You never you paid for it all along and you never needed it. >> It's just it's like insurance. This is from from Honeyville, correct? And it says M&V is necessary for continuation of savings guarantee. >> Yep. That's how I interpret that. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And I would interpret that. If we don't do it, then the savings guarantee goes away. >> I That's the way I interpret it. Yes. But I'm I'm I mean, >> so like if our savings this year were 300 instead of 500, I'm assuming they would give us the $100,000. >> Question to verify how the contract is. >> Yes,

154that's my understanding is that whatever we're short, as long as we have the MMB, then they will make up the difference of what they say we'll save. add on how many times they've actually paid that >> on an project. Is that Andy, you've probably worked with these more like is that something that they really ever fulfill or do they just create? >> I don't know the answer to that. I I don't have any firsthand experience with how these things have gone. I just know that I mean I this is just what I've heard and know about these programs and and just like I said I what I don't I wish like I said I wish that fee for these reports was just >> in the upfront cost or had already been paid for for the

155life of it and you don't have to sit here and >> re review this every year. >> Um >> there is a significant difference in report one to report two. Does that do we know will that continue to decline as we go or >> Well, the the installation was kind of the immediate savings that we saw on the LED fixtures. >> You're talking about the cost. >> Yeah, the invoicing >> cost the report. Yeah, the next reports and I don't know why they're random cost, but they're vary anywhere from 25 to 30 grand on annual. >> So, it's not going to continue that decrease. No, no. They'll be between 25 and 30 for the next 18. >> Maybe there's more work on the initial creation of the first report. >> So, what I what I

156think with and Jessica, she and I talked on the finance side and and and probably better run that trap. I know I was I do want action on this by the board, but I do think we could wait and put it on the sec as a second reading uh or consent if we get the answers tomorrow when when the finance side um and and we can run those two traps certainly. Well, when they presented this to the board, if I remember correctly, I mean, you guys would have the data, but the majority, I mean, the HVAC piece of this was the most expensive, but the the big savings was in the LED lighting, and the LED lighting was going to pay for the HVAC stuff. So, I mean, my personal opinion is we're harnessed with

157what we what we signed off on, right, for the next 20 years or 18 years at this point. So, if our finance agreement doesn't require us to continue to get this report, I really don't see the need to continue getting the report because I mean, it is what it is at this point. And finally, >> Jessica, would you you would you be okay if we double check and confirm on the finance side? Y >> and then also I'll double check and make sure that it doesn't affect the savings side. get you guys an answer on that. >> Yeah, I I mean, I know they want to know, but I' I'd like to be able to answer all these questions we've talked about tonight and have have a chance to actually go with table item G3

158G4 van bids. uh random. >> So actually we had discussed a van and a and a truck for um plant facil well plant facilities, one for maintenance and one for grounds. Uh our actual need we've got three vehicles that are kind of three vans in maintenance that are kind of down uh and in need of repair. One of them we've got back up going. Uh but I just we're we're able to start we're almost fully staffed in uh in the maintenance side. Uh and right now I got a had a guy come to work today that that right now I don't have a van for. Um so we did uh put out bids for two cargo vans. Uh we got two biders uh with three options basically. Um the bids that came back, the first

159one was from uh Carl Chevrolet, uh which is the same group that we bought the last two vans from last year. Um their cost is 40,39740. Uh that's for 2025 uh cargo vans with no upfitting. Um, Don Hatton out of Witchah bid the same two new uh very similar models, no upfit uh for 39,885. And then Don Hatton also gave us option two, which was a used version. They have two vans. One has 19,000 and some change. The other one has around 20,000 miles on it that would still have a 5year 100,000 milei warranty. Um, those two vans already have a uh $1,750 upfit that we would have to put on the other new vans that we got. Um, and so in reviewing those bids, um, kind of looking at it, I don't think because

160of of what we use them for, I think we could certainly go the used route. They've already got a petition in them, too. That would be another $1,750 savings that we would keep from from having to pay out for upfitting. I was made aware these are old U-Haul vans um that are tradeins uh but they're both 2023 models uh GMC's very similar to what we bought in the past. One's got 19,786. The other one, I'm sorry, has 21,096. Um, so plus I did go to each dealership locally uh dealing with this type of inventory. Um, it's just changed so dramatically on how they can get inventory. They could order it. Some of them have and none of our locals even put in a bid. I did hand deliver them and ask them even if they

161had a used van or anything to please uh submit it. Uh but we didn't get anything except the the the two bids from Carl and Don Hatton with two options from Don Hatton. Um so that's for for your review. What what my thought is is if if we ask for the approval to expend those funds because they're used vehicles, we would travel down there, test drive them, check them out, make sure that they're sound vehicles uh before we would move forward with them. Uh but I think a substantial savings to go the unique route on these two bits. >> You may what was the price on the used? >> Um 30,000 30,956 per unit. So a total of right at 62,000 a little less. Last last year's two vehicles, two vans were 87,000 before upfitting.

162motion. >> Mr. President, I move we take staff staff's recommendation uh to authorize them the funds to purchase two used vans with the and to travel to WTO test drive before making a final purchase. I'll second move it and seconded. Um I had a question that totally false. >> Oh, is this budgeted these vans? >> Yes. Yep. It's on part of his. Any other questions? All in favor raise your hand. opposed. Same sign. Motion carries. >> Um if I could, I would like to go back to the Honeywell. Um the email that we received on October second states that we have 30 days from the receipt of that email or it they will not um allow us to go to year two of MB. So if you table it, I don't know that we'll be

163cutting it close. And the other thing, >> so it'll just have to be decided. But then the other thing I found is on the M&V agreement the payments yeah fluctuate um and they actually go up to 43,500 by the end um or 20 >> so we we have one more board meeting until that final decision >> have to to make that motion >> at the next meeting the >> October 30th Can you >> can you share with us before then like in update the that schedule of costs for those imagy reports over the next 19 years? I'll um I'll send in the agreement and kind of highlight because there's also a it says that they can terminate if the customer premises is just if the custo if Honeywell's equipment is destroyed or substantially damaged. So

164I I know you're not like we wouldn't destroy it or it wouldn't be damaged, but if we replace it, it kind of reads like that maybe that would terminate the or >> like a major storm takes out somebody. But back to that, what we've also talked about is hopefully a control system that we could integrate all of those into. So possibly not changing anything. Okay. Go to item G5. Design big builds versus construction manager at risk item as well. So in your packet you have a a short hand out on uh the design bid build versus the construction manager at risk. Um these are the two options that I want to discuss and present to you guys as a board uh and kind of what those options entail and the details that we would have

165to go through. uh this starts the process on the remodel and addition to KH that uh we we need to get moving pretty rapidly on to be ready uh for the fall of 2028 uh to be able to meet um the goal for the great conf reconfiguration that has been discussed. Um so real quickly to to talk about each one of them. The design bid build uh would be what we have similarly done on a lot of the smaller projects. The HVAC projects, the roofing projects. We would basically have the project uh designed uh by a local architect uh GMCN. We would be invol involved in the design phase. That would take approximately two to three months. They would bring it to us uh to put out for bids. Um actually they they put together

166the scope of work and their their cost for the design phase. Uh they bring it to us that take two to three months probably. Then we would put it out for bid. At that point uh it'd be open for any any local contractors or statewide contractors to bid on that project. Uh when we get that bid back, we choose a contractor. We choose that one. Uh and then we would move forward with the project on that. Um so the process is listed there. Uh one of the risk uh the owner assumes significant risk especially for budget overruns or delays that arise from gaps in design or un unforeseen site conditions. Uh the control the owner has control over the design and the and the selection of the contractor. uh and then timeline one note between

167design bid and build and construction manager risk is uh longer timeline due to sequential uh nature of the phases. One other thing I would im mention here is the risk. Um, what we did have GMCN do, we met with them last week and asked them if they'd reach out to contractors and see if they would bid design, bid, build or contract or construction manager at risk, which which one they would participate in. Um, so 10 contractors were called throughout the state, some local and then other large ones that would definitely bid on projects like this. Of those 10, we had five that said yes, I would bid on the design, bid, and built. Of those 10 that were asked to, nine of those 10 said that they would definitely bid or participate in the construction

168manager at risk. So, going in, we've got nine out of 10 that that say they would want to get involved. It's become a very popular process uh with the construction of of larger projects like this, especially when you're dealing with phasing uh which we would have to phase the two remodels through the summer and then obviously the large construction uh with that. So, one of my concerns is those five that we've got that committed to bidding. One of them said they're watching two bond elections with other schools and if one of those bonds passes, more than likely they would be committed or bonded out and not be eligible or able to bid. Those are some variables that we don't have any control over. And the reason I bring that up, the fire station that the

169the city put in, they actually did a design bid and build on it and didn't receive any bids the first time that they they put those out. Uh, so they had to turn around and do the construction manager at risk. A little of my concern is there. We'd be three months into the phase if we didn't get any bids. I feel like we'll get at least one. Obviously, I hope we get five, but I don't know that that that that might happen. If we get four, I'll feel very good. If we get three, I'll feel very good. When you get down to just one or two bids, a lot of times, then does that truly tell you what the market's telling you? Um and so that that that's just a couple of notes of caution

170with that. Um now to the construction manager at risk, a much more involved process on our end. uh which is a positive I believe because basically the the way the construction manager at risk process starts you guys as a board uh would make a motion uh and I'll I'll visit about that motion if you want more details on how to say it uh or how it would go later on but essentially because of the phasing and the intricacies in this project you would want to go with a construction manager at risk. Um you have to make that motion. state statute dictates then that we have to publish it in the paper for 14 days and then the public would have an opportunity to come make comment on the construction manager at risk process that we're

171considering. Um so they would would do that at at an upcoming meeting. Uh if that motion were made tonight uh then if and at any time in this process the board can say I don't want to continue. We don't want to continue with the construction manager at risk. So keep that in mind as well. Um but ultimately then what would happen our architect would would work with us. We would put out an RFQ which is a request for qualifications from any company that would like to participate uh and be interviewed. We would also put a committee together. It could be you guys as a board. It could be the construction committee uh that Josh referenced earlier. uh once we get that committee put together um and that RFQ would come in. There are some guidelines

172that the statute tells us. Uh if we get more than five, we could narrow it down to three. If we get eight, we could narrow it down to three to five. If you get four or less, you have to interview everyone. Um that that applies. Um, so you have some some leeway to pick who you actually then want to send an RFP out for, which is a request for proposal. The request for proposal is then sent out. Um, it go and it's a it's a state form. A lot of the request for proposal is an actual state form. when it comes to their fees, they have to fill out their fees which possibly benefits us which you know if you have more participants maybe you get more competitive fees uh in that process and then

173ultimately those RFPs go directly to the state. The fee portion of it goes directly to the state. The state has an onstaff person that ranks all of those fee proposals that are submitted. Our board then would also interview and go through the the RFP process and rank all of those that come in. At the end of our ranking, then the state sends us that fee proposal report. We interject that into our report and help make that help make our decision on who we choose as our construction manager at risk. Then our process truly starts and it goes if we've got a construction manager at risk that we've hired, our architect designs it, our construction manager at risk budgets it right alongside as the design is being made. So we're watching our dollars with the project

174how it goes. Uh we've obviously got a limited amount of funds that we could utilize on this remodel. Um and so then by the end of the design phase there becomes a guaranteed maximum price um that would be established and negotiated and set forth. So we would know should know exactly what our guaranteed maximum price is. Uh 5 years ago when this was just getting started that that process had a little little more teeth in it. I did follow up with our architect firm today though uh and Clark advised me that maybe the last couple of years the state has stop softened that and there's not as much teeth in it uh if the project goes over overpriced so that is something to consider uh but ultimately they're watching our budget throughout they're hiring contractors

175we can set some stipulations forth also GMCN would said they would help us on the front side of this entire process to help us establish our selection criteria u so that moving through the process we would have kind of a a a template to use um through that selection process. So So that's that's and the timeline uh usually is more accelerated anywhere from possibly 2 to 3 months. Um the the risk with the construction manager at risk is the places the risk for cost overruns onto the construction manager as they are committed to delivering the project with the GMP. Again, as I stated, uh Clark said that the state has changed some stipulations there. Uh but still they're they're expected to keep it under budget. And then the control is the owner has more involvement

176in the project through a collaborative partnership with the construction manager. Um so our committee our our group that we put together would work throughout the entire process uh working with that construction manager as items come up. The only real risk of change orders and there's there could be change orders on either side and that would be above and beyond the initial bid or initial uh guaranteed maximum price. Uh and then the only other thing caveat that's entered in on the construction manager risk is if we were to find something like an oil well or a water well or gas well that needed capped that'd be an added cost that' be above and beyond the scope of the work or if we change scope uh that would change it as well. So at this point I

177think I'll stop and ask you guys if you've got any questions. What would be the like the cost difference? I know that's hard to say, but like a design build bid build versus a construction manager on the like on the front side a little. I mean, is there one that's typically cheaper? I mean, I would think that the construction manager at risk would bid the project high enough to kind of cover himself. Is that true or is that >> Well, either either way there's going to be contingencies built in. Um and so on the the bid. Um you know, a lot of companies are going to look at it. You know, one of my concerns is the number of biders that would stay involved and stay hooked. I mean, we thought we had three biders

178that were going to kind of come in at the end on our a Hubert HVAC bid the last time, but we ended up with just one bid. Um, so if they would stay hooked and come all the way through that because there's some other variables that that could affect that. Um, but as far as cost difference, um, you know, your construction manager at risk may wrap the project up quicker. Um, one example is one of the first construction manager at risk projects done in the state was our high school. uh the much larger project when you're talking about scope was that about 50 million I think >> high school 97 million was the total >> okay by by the end of it we had a pretty substantial savings um I think and and we kind

179of talked about that this morning maybe the price of steel went down during the the scope of that project and so that benefited us and we ended up with with quite a bit of overrun uh or contingency uh that was probably built in that ultimately we ended up getting back and able to use in other areas. Um I don't know what it is, but uh the the five and and nine for some reason the construction manager at risk has become more popular for people to get involved in. Um and maybe that's where the competitive nature of the fees come in because they know they've got to be competitive to to be considered. The county's e what health health department emergency is that a construction manager at risk project >> and yet the college does the

180design >> my understanding is the college of their projects up until now have done the design bid building >> I don't know that there's a right or wrong answer here. Quite honestly, I think it's the we've gone round and round circles. Jessica is I'm a lot more conservative than Jessica. She teases me because I have way more insurance than she does on everything that I do because I want to make sure that I'm protected. So, I'm I'm the type of person that would tend to want to lean towards construction manager at risk. Jessica's willing to take a little bit more risk because the risk versus reward there. And it's not significant risk. I mean, we're still going to be okay. will have money for contingency. But I think she she feels that way. And so

181I don't know that we have a recommendation for you all as as staff for this one. I think it's really kind of what you all see as the the best benefit moving forward. >> I I'm I'm okay with the design bid build. I've had some some experience with that and it was a good experience. So I'm not up here to say that it was bad. Um, I feel like these contractors that bid this kind of work, um, this is really the scope of this job is pretty simple. I mean, we're adding on some classrooms for now. I mean, I don't feel like the scope is it's some elaborate design. And I feel like these contractors, they have they know where they're working. They have their electricians. They have their plumbers. I don't see a contractor

182that's gonna bid on a job this big just fly by night hiding hiring an electrician that he doesn't know or that she doesn't know. I I don't um they on a project this big they're gonna work they're going to know who they're working with you know I hope there's always risk I mean you could always be wrong but I think also the uh bid build you know the design build I think that takes out all politics too involved in that because then you just take the lowest bidder there's no more well you chose them because of this or you chose them because of that you know you interviewed yeah everything's subject them and your scores were because I've been a part of these too the the construction manager at risk where you sit down and

183you interview them and then you have a matrix that you go through and you score them and it is it is subjective to what you felt like and where if you do the the design bid build it takes all of that out of it there's no more politics involved in that you just you just take the lowest bid and and that's what you do and I believe I don't know do believe does the district have a policy about if like bids are very comparable? I know the last project I did if they were within 2% and one was local, we had to choose the local one. I don't I don't know if the district has anything like that. >> We've got a I don't think we have to choose local, but I think we have

184the option to choose local. Is it two or 3%? >> It's more so like if like Yeah. If they weren't the low bid, you could take them because they're local. Yeah. >> Yeah. didn't have to, but that option was there. >> Then I and also I I trust the architects if these are local architects. We're not hiring an architect from Kentucky. You know, they they know the markets. They know they're going to get pretty close to what, you know, the architects that risk is is on on us to accept their but that's where I'm at. But I'm also I'm not drawing drawing a line in the sand either. If if everybody thinks that the construction manager risk is the way to go, then I'm I'm not going to dispute that either. But that's my two

185cents. And >> in the design of pit build, what our construction or our engineering firm that we've worked with now, would they have some of that work already done from the past? As far as >> there's probably some design work done, but what we've talked about doing is we we because it's got a little age on it, we probably need to refresh that and start that over and we would do that with cage. But certainly there's going to be some uh the architect firm will already have >> some of the design >> some of that design. Yeah. >> Yep. >> They've done some of that. >> So worst case scenario >> benefit both routes. So >> we go with the design build whatever last time. Yeah. um and we don't get enough bids and we're

186not happy with that, then we could move to the other model. Worst case scenario, >> that's just that's one of the risks you take is if we don't get a bid we like or we get one, then we have to start there. >> In doing that process, how long would we guess timeline would we be out >> when we get that bid those bids back or that we're happy? I'm going to say conservatively 3 to five months. I mean, I think we'll be done with the bid by 3 months, but if you're turning around doing the construction manager at risk if you're only starting the process after that, the other thing to consider, you can start the construction manager at risk and stop it at any time. The other thing I didn't mention through the

187construction manager at risk uh process all of we're not out any money except to the architect. All of the firms who would develop the RFQS and develop the RFPs are all on their D. Um whether that's whether that's common, I don't think that's probably very common. Uh but if we went design bid build, didn't get one bid or only got one bid or didn't get any bids, we could turn right around, start the construction manager at risk, uh and we'd be probably a month and a half into the process before we could get if we expedited things and got it done. >> Say, say we do get three bids or four bids and we just we don't have to accept them, right? if we don't like them or it doesn't fit into our budget or

188>> Yeah, I I would put a little bit of caution to that. We've dealt with that with AP on the HBAC. >> Yeah. >> Doesn't make us real popular. >> No, the contractor. >> They're not going to want to do work for us for very long. We do that a lot. But yeah, we would not have to. >> And I'm not only sold one way or another, but in on the hard bid that we're talking five said yes, we don't know what that be. Five said no. On the construction manager Rich, we have nine that said yes. You would hope that would be very competitive on that side. But you would hope both ways. But you don't know on that. As you just said on I know it's same a different thing. It's HVAC system,

189but got one bid. If we if we do did the hard bid, we're down the road three months or so before we come to a point that we don't like the bid that we got or the bids that we got. we start over such as the city had to do with fire department. Are we going to make our fall 2028? >> It's going to be close. I mean, I I think I think that's going to be a tough sale because you're talking what what did they say? 18 months of construction. >> I thought he said we had we had some wiggle room on time. >> Yeah, he did say 18 months construction. >> But 18 months of construction. So you if we're we're out till you know 3 to 5 months that's at that point

190with plus 18 that puts it almost 24 months. I mean it's I think it's doable but it's going to be getting close. >> The addition work to do after construction's complete. I mean there's still >> the addition part of KH is is very clearcut and dry. I mean what we want and that's pretty easy to design. The remodel portion is the inconvenience. The timing, the phasing, uh, if we were to move offices and have that in there, I think that's going to have to be done in summer. >> Cafeteria, >> that's probably something you don't want to do during this school year. >> Yeah. >> Send them all outside to eat for the next three months. >> And the if we go to construction manager at risk, when do we get the fees? When do

191we find out the fees from the contractor? that's that's doing that. >> So the construction man the fees come during the RFP process. Those are the ones that are submitted to the state. The state ranks those fee proposals that are submitted by each one that we interview. Um and then we would rank rank them on every other criteria and then the state would send us the rankings on the fees uh which we can add to our rankings. >> But how far out would we be if we started this tonight? month and a half to two months. I mean, I think we get to that point within two months and we'd know the fees. >> The fees would be submitted before the actual budget and the guaranteed maximum price would be after the design phase, but

192after you've already hired the construction man, >> but you're also going to work with that construction manager to to determine you know, like this is what I want and he's going to tell you, well, you need to do this instead of this to bring those costs down. And so, you're working with them through that whole process versus if you you have the you have the architecture from draw the design, they're going to push that out and then they're just going to bid on that based on on the specs that you give them. >> That makes sense. >> Simple mind. Simple mind. Basically, we're choosing the contractor before we get a bit. >> Correct. >> Yeah. So, and that's and that's exactly what that is. Robin, you're going to we would we would have we would

193they would all come in and they would give their little spiel and you would have opportunities to ask them questions and and take notes and then and then at the end of that you all would have to make a decision on who you wanted to move forward with. >> And then when we got that bid, we can still say no. >> Well, that's that's for construction management risk. You would do all that. You would interview them. If you if you did like a design bid build, >> the architect's going to design it. They're going to push it out and and >> but we don't have a we don't have a bid. We have a gu we have the construction manager but we don't have a bid and then if the bids came in and we

194were like I mean we could still like step back. Correct. >> Are you talking about on the construction manager at risk? >> Yeah. >> So that bid gets established that guaranteed maximum price gets established as the construction manager and the architect firm are doing the design and the budget at the same time. And so if we get into that scenario and they're like, "Oh gosh, this component is going to really push our budget." Well, then that's that's where we and they would come back to our group and say, "Hey, I don't know that we're going to be able to squeeze this in. What do you want us to do?" >> Get to have conversations this year. I like the construction manager risk process better but hey I I'll go with you know decision board what

195we do I think with nine different firms saying that they would go in on that process. I would hope we'd have a very competitive process that we'd go through that hey I would hope we would on the hard bit too but half of them dropped out out of that one. There were two um just so you'll know that that would possibly part participate in a hard bid if we were only sending it to a select group of biders, but obviously being a taxing entity, we we can't do that. >> I don't know how we would do that. Can't do that. I gave you guys some optional verbage. I think granting they have the more formal verbiage if you guys >> offer. Yeah, >> you have the more formal for the >> So if if you're

196going with a construction manager at risk process, the a similar verbiage we'd need to add. Due the complexity and phasing challenges of a facility improvement project, the board of education of 457 USD 457 has determined that construction manager agrees for alternative project delivery building construction procurement act found in KSA72-1152. [Music] >> We'll make sure it gets to >> provide the best value for the project. >> Direction you choose to go. I'm happy to read that motion again for you at the instead of you memorize it. >> Yeah, I got it. Yeah. >> Um, >> we're going to get the project done either way. I mean, it's I think the timing of it. I think like the I honestly had not heard much of the construction manager risk project idea. I've always ever seen the design

197bid built. Um, I like the timeline of the construction manager risk. I like the option of keeping within budget with construction manager at risk and being able to navigate that as far as a fiscal standpoint. So, I mean, if just looking at the two side by side, I think we're better off as a board to go with that route to keep us within our budget and and and timeline as well. Really, to me, it seems like a win-win both way that way. So, um >> So, you're going to make a motion? Um, if you're ready for >> what Brandon said, >> John, what do you think? >> I don't know. I I would tend to probably lean toward the design bid and build just because I think I don't know, maybe I'm naive in the

198fact, but I think the construction manager one basically they're going to be our general contractor. I think in the design bid and build, we're kind of the general. So I think you take that fee out. It's a matter if you can get in a sense right. I mean as am I thinking about that right B or am I wrong? We're basically asking for >> you're hiring a general contractor one way or the other and ultimately the construction manager at ris risk is your general contractor. >> Once we accept the bid in the design bid build then we pick our contractor instead of picking it up front. Yep. >> Yeah. Your lowest bid's going to be your contractor. I I think I and I don't know and that's the process. You just don't know. I mean

199I think I think the project's cheaper, less expensive if we do the design bid build because I can't believe these contractors are just like doing it for free. You know, they all want to do it that way for a reason. But I don't know what that reason is. you know, is it because it's more cost effective or it's just easier for them? I don't know. It may be. I don't know. But, you know, I was surprised when I was told the high school that bond issue, which was what, $97 million, we came in and budget $8 million. >> Was that a design bid build or was that >> No, that was cut construction. I mean, we we may have used that 8 million for other things, but we came in under budget. Correct. We were

200able to do more than what we started out hoping to do. >> Yeah. They turned around and I believe they that's when they went one to one iPads and use that that budget for that. >> That was allations. >> Jackie I kind of like the design build bit build because it does take the lip part out. I mean, it's just it is what it is. Um, I don't really have a preference one way or the other. I think that's a more cut and dry process, but >> And you said you got language for that motion. >> Yeah, they can just use the simple language that >> reading it. and you fly before it. Great. >> Yes. >> I would agree. Anybody want to make a motion? I'll make a motion. Mr. President, I move to

201authorize district administration to proceed with the design bid build process for Kenderson Middle School addition and related grade configuration project. We have a second move and second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor raise your hand. Same. Motion carries. Thank you, Brandon. Okay. Move on to item G6, student information system purchase. It was. >> Oh, he's in my office. >> It is. >> Yeah. Okay. I gave him a more comfortable chair to sit in. Sorry. >> Oh, you're fine. You want to play like the Jeopardy music? >> All right, you're >> uh So, I'm coming for you. uh just with our information on our student information uh adoption. Uh and I gave you a little bit of history there in in the memo. Uh we've been with Skyward since 2008. Um and so we've

202uh on their product now uh gosh, it's 17. Uh and so um when we did that, we went with both uh the student information piece as well as the financial piece um in that time frame. And so we've been with both of those uh throughout that time. Um last spring we started discussing uh options for uh a new adoption of a a new student information system. Um Skyward is uh end of lifing uh the version we're on which is just it's just called 2.0. Um and so they're bringing into that product and moving towards their uh new product called cumulative. Um so either way we were going to have to look at a new uh product. Um and so we you want me to >> Okay. Um and so >> through that discuss heard it.

203>> Okay. >> So through this discussion we uh we decided well while we're looking we'll go ahead and open the door to look at other products that are out there on the market. Uh consider uh all of our options versus just adopting Skyward and moving forward with that. Uh so last spring we put together a committee uh to look at that. Um Jessica and I had some conversation with leadership as well um about kind of what our expectations were. Uh one thing that we really wanted to make make sure that we tried to do is keep the products the same uh not to have a separate financial system from the student information system just for continuity sake uh and just the transfer of all that information back and forth. It's just much easier when all

204of it uh tied to one system. So, uh, last spring we put together a committee of of, uh, board members, um, staff, admin, teachers, uh, secretaries. Um, we tried to kind of include, um, the departments up here, so everybody kind of had some say. Um, we just kind of outlined what we were going to be doing. Uh, we were going to look at two products, uh, Skyward and then Power School is the other big player in this market. um those two kind of stand out as far as what state of Kansas uses uh for districts our size as well as around us. Um they're just they're the two biggest players. Uh and so that was our initial goal. Um so we started down with uh the that process of working with those two companies to

205kind of set up uh times to come in and work with that committee. Uh through that process though we uh P school in our first initial meetings with them um came out and said that they do not have a product uh for the financial side of school district and they're very upfront about it. They said yeah we we can provide the student information side for your district. Uh but financial wise they have stuff for little tiny districts and they have stuff for much larger districts um two to three times our size but really nothing that fits our model. Our question was, what do school districts then that have your student information system do? And most of them do Skyward uh for their financial side. Well, and so we decided, well, um after conversations and discussion,

206we decided let's stick with what we know. Um we were going to end up with Skyward probably if we went with Power School anyway. Um so we were just really going to change all of the teacher side, the gradebook, the student information, all that um and stay with Skyward Finance. Um, we could also just stay with Skyward student information. Uh, cut down on a lot of the the transition for our staff and our students uh by staying with a a similar product. It is different. Um, it's not just going to be apples uh to apples is there's going to be some transition as well. Uh, that we'll have to do quite a bit of training. When we came on, that was my very first job in the tech department was training all the staff uh

207that summer on how to use the new gradebook and discipline and all those things. Uh and so I I know firsthand what that entails. Uh transitioning entire staff over something new. So um after kind of those initial discussions, then that's when we decided just to stay with uh Skyward Cumulative um moving forward. Um and so I presented to you the couple of the options uh that we have. They are actually three options. One is uh I didn't present to you because it it provides really no support from Skyward as far as managing the system. Um we feel like as a department there are some benefits to doing uh the two that I presented. Uh one is self-hosted where we have the server here on site. It's not a physical box. It'd be virtual but would

208actually be here. It'd be something we maintain and and own. Um with Skyward they call it managed services which mean there would be a part they would have a partner in Skyward that manage some of the back behind the scenes things that nobody else sees the the security and and some of those pieces um at that cost. So that's option one is that self-hosted managed services. That's a three-year locked in rate. So you kind of look at that. Our current budget for Skyward is 157,000 just a little over. Um so we'd have one more year of that before we start rolling into the new fees. Ultimately our three-year fee would be about 160,000 option. Uh the second option I gave you um is cloud hosted which would be uh they partner with a third-party company

209that does Fortune 500 companies. It's not just for Skyward. They do lots of other cloud hosting called is Core. Um they actually host the product for Skyward. Um so they would then the benefits of that product. Um obviously there's a cost. You can see the difference the the main difference in the cost between the two is that hosting service. um it's about 20,000 overall uh in a yearly cost um when you kind of subtract out the managed services and whatnot. So that 20,000 buys um some some important pieces to us. Uh cyber security is one. Um we have things in place to manage that. But you're talking about a lot of student information, a lot of personal information that belongs to all of our employees, banking records, social security, there's a lot of things that

210that are there. Um I think our team could do that and could handle that but we uh this company is is that's their entire purpose uh for hosting with them would be to maintain that security threat. Um the second option would be redundancy. Um having a backup of the database all the time that's offsite that's not part of our network. Um so that if something did go wrong there' be that backup uh immediately be able to flip the lights um and be up and running. Um the third one would would be um I said two. Did I say two? I lost track. Those are the big two. Um we could replicate those things. I in that second half of that memo I kind of just the fiscal note. Um I did kind of we did

211some research into some of those pieces. Uh the the backup and then the uh redundancy of being able to provide you know the system all the time. We would have to add some additional hardware. Our backup system now manages what we currently have, but we would have to do an upgrade. We're talking about a fairly large database. Um, I think right now, uh, I don't I don't want to quote because Anthia will tell me I'm wrong in the morning that I quoted you wrong, but a substantial amount of our backup is tied into Skyward. Um, and so we would have to upgrade that system uh to add another database because what we would do is continue to maintain the current one that we have. uh Skyward rolled 10 years over, we would maintain that other

212database obviously for historical purposes as well as if we needed to go back and and retrieve information that didn't come over. Um those kinds of things, we'd have that access to be able to do that. That server is on site. We do currently host. Um so we could even if we powered it off, we could power it on and get back to it. We'll be able to back up. So um and then the redundancy being uh offsite, um Skyward does offer an option currently. We we haven't ever done it as a district, but uh they do have an option for us to send backups to them so that if something were to go down, this building's hit, the network's down, um they could then fire that back up and we'd be up and running, you

213know, pretty quickly um to be able to pay bills and do all the things that we would need to do. So, for us to replicate all that stuff, um you can kind of see the cost there. It's about 30 $50,000 $30,000 in recurring costs to do the the backups and about 17,000 uh to send the backup to Skyward for that redundancy piece. So overall, you know, yes, it's a $20,000 increase for them to host it, but we would be um adding to our current budget uh about 30 $40,000 47,000 roughly um to be able to do have the same security and same uh redundancy built in. So the proposal would then be that the suggest request is that we would accept the second option to do cloud hosted um and move forward with that particular

214options >> on the uh on their off-site backups. There's two off-site backups. Yes. >> That are completely >> Yep. One's in Wisconsin and one's in Dallas. >> The networks are >> right. We would never even know the difference that where we were at, >> right? But like if you know like one of my Ingram micro Y >> I mean they just got ransomware. So um if they were to get through to one those networks are not connected where the hackers could get to both. >> I believe that's true but I don't know that >> I mean yeah I know it's a scary world out there. Yeah. No, >> I believe the purpose for being offsite two site locations is to prevent those kinds of things, but >> I can find that out. >> The Fortune

215100 company got taken down for three weeks. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah, it happens. >> But it would be the same difference, >> right? I mean, you know, >> the other like the other piece with the protection of the data and stuff, I think they probably not that we don't do a good job, but that's what they do. >> Just like not not the big deal like ransomware, but just maybe small hackers and stuff that they are probably better prepared to prevent against a big catastrophe, right? Yep. Just so you know, just a a quick bit on the timeline. I I forgot to include this piece for you and I and I can get you a hard copy of this. U we wouldn't be doing anything until fall of our teachers impact wouldn't really start until

216spring of 27. Um we're actually 26. Well, if you approve it at the next meeting, we'd sign the contracts, get going. We would pick a rollover date, which would be sometime in the summer of 27 would be like we're switching the lights and going from one to the other. Um, we would start the actual rollover process next fall 26. Um, that would allow uh we I think believe the understanding is with Skyward that they would start rolling the financial side first. Um, get that all that side kind of up and running and and transitioning through their process. Um the student information side would work along along those same lines, but we would really start more towards the later half of the fall, early spring. Um with training probably being taking place for staff sometime late

217spring 27 uh through 27 summer um depending on on how we want to choose to train all those folks. But um re would be first day using the system would be July of 27 somewhere in that neighborhood. Uh teachers would come back to school that that fall and be ready to go in the new system. So, um, Dodge is a year ahead of us, so we're going to have those folks as kind of a collaboration that's kind of seeing how the process goes with them. I have a working relationship with their director. Um, so we'll be kind of checking in with them. Hayes is two years, I believe, ahead of us. Um, so I've already been in contact with their superintendent on their process. Um, Derby, I think, is in the same place as Hayes

218as well. So we have some contacts around the state to kind of track how the progress goes um and and stay on top of things. >> So is that like a conversion since it's all skywards convert the data into the newer software or is it hand planning >> somewhat? They're going to bring all the data 10 years worth. They'll bring back 10 years which I think meets our requirements that we have to have that data. We'll obviously have the backups of the other. Um, but there's a lot of starting over as far as setting up permissions and and administrative things and those kinds of stuff. Um, but the data itself will come over. Um, but there's going to be a lot, it'll be a lot of transition. Our staff will actually probably start much sooner

219than that. As soon as we probably sign a contract, we'll start kind of nailing down what our staff starts working on. >> No, all of our account numbers, the structure has to be different. So, I'll have to set up all new account numbers. No, >> there's just some >> it's like anything you've had for a long time on a computer, the way you name files and the way you do things. I know in the HR side of it, we're gonna have to clean up a lot, but we need to clean up a lot. We have all that. >> Yeah, it's not it's >> permissions are the same way because I mean there, you know, you have 15 years worth of people getting in and getting out and getting in and you do your best to

220keep all that clean and permission set, but you know, there's there's things that'll be good for us to start over on some of that stuff. Yep. For sure. It'll just be on the consent. >> Yeah, it can go. It doesn't need to be decided. I can go to the next meeting. >> We'll keep it on the agenda for the next meeting and unless there's something I hear different >> and then once I once we kind of get to that process, then the contracts have already been read by council. So they're ready to sign and go to start start that process. What you come to this? >> All right. G7 the AI policy. Casey. >> Hey. So I've been here before um with this policy. So this is just an opportunity to come back um with

221the executive order from the president. I've shared a couple things over the last couple weeks I believe with you. Um that order I think Josh shared with you even before I did. Just a summary of what that entails. uh the pieces that are important to us um obviously are more the instructional side of things um I just tried to highlight a few up here um that it's a national educational priority uh cultivate students abilities to understand use and critically evaluate AI systems from elementary through high school uh maintaining US global leadership and AI innovation and preparing students to thrive in a technologydriven workforce that's part one of the purpose and vision uh section four that I I of summary I gave you was to develop AI literacy and critical thinking resources for all K12 students.

222That's something the government's working on, but we would be seeing coming down the pipe. Um and then finally, just another piece for us is educator training and support. Um being able to reduce administrative workload for our staff, uh enhancing their teacher training, uh and evaluation. I think I shared some stuff from Virginia and Heather uh from their point of view as an instruction department. I think it was Heather that mentioned a product that could help evaluate. That's just one example of a product that could help our instructional coaches evaluate teachers and just help take some of that administrative workload off, allow them to build that relationship with uh with the teachers versus uh just, you know, checking the boxes. And so those are some examples of things that would kind of meet those uh loaded

223items. Um I think we're at a point um where I think we need to do something. Um, I know the previous plans we brought, I think one, uh, you felt was a little, um, too vague. I think if I remember right, uh, I may have the order out on one was a little too specific, a little too broad. I think it was four or five pages, which was pretty long. Um, the other one we brought back, I think, was a little less than that, but maybe still went too far the other way. Um, so we tried to look at other policies around the state. Um, I think I sent you five or six examples from schools around the state that have a policy. Um, that's not a common thing, um, just yet. I found lots

224of handbook uh, references to AI just in like student handbooks, but not a not a full official policy like like we're talking about where it just basically added it to their academic honesty policy um, in the student like in a student handbook. I found references to those. Um, but the main the main focus I could find as far as policies written were the ones I shared with you uh from I think five districts um around the state. Our state does not have a state-led policy. Um I gave I shared also with you kind of an outline of all the states that do. So you maybe had a chance to read some of those. Um it's a lot of information. I get that. So if you didn't that's fine, but gives you an idea of what's

225going on around the country as far as as far as adoption goes. So, um, we took all of that data as a group, um, and tried to work on a policy that just met what I hope what I thought you wanted, uh, from us as far as setting some guard rails, uh, for our staff. Uh, but not allowing it to be the wild, wild west either. Um, keeping the instructional focus in mind, I think, was a question John had and I think others shared. um that we don't let teachers just run wild with replacing the approved curriculum and and setting some guide rails there. So, um I think the policy that we presented uh we ran by instruction, they've had input uh from them. Leadership's had a chance to read it over as well, we

226feel like this is a good starting point for us as far as a district goes as far as setting some guard rails and some guidelines for our staff. I think without doing it is doing exactly what you are fearful of is that they're just doing whatever they want. Um and so this at least allows us to start training, start teaching, start having conversations about I think teachers right now feel like nobody said anything. So they're they're too afraid to do it. Um which isn't what we want either. Uh or they're just doing whatever they want because nobody's telling them they can't, right? And so we haven't had any trainings on AI since the last time we met as a board and you tabled it. We kind of stopped having conversations about it. Um but this

227would allow us to kind of get back in there and start sharing, you know, some of those privacy concerns, some of those, you know, instructional concerns that you guys have raised. So this just kind of sets the stage for what we can now build upon uh going forward. And I do think this is this is going to be one of those things that's going to be evolving really quick and it's going to change. I think this will be a policy that Casey will probably have in front of you more often than most of our policies because as we learn more and we gain more experience, he's going to want to make updates and and recommendations to you all. Um, but I think this is I think this is a really good it's grounded in a

228really good place to start to get us at least going in that direction. And and I purposely we purposely didn't set a lot of specific you can use this, you can't use this because it it's it's almost impossible to do. We were going to set ourselves up for failure. So we tried to write guidelines that would say these are things we can apply to any of them that you pick and and we'll help guide you on which ones we want you to use. But you know just being able to say today you can use chat GBT and you can't use cloud. you know, that was going to get unwieldy to try to manage it and and police. And so, this policy allows us some flexibility there, but also some teaching moments as well. And this

229one again, I think I just asked for a first read. I don't know that you have to come to a decision tonight, but the the ask would be that we just accept it as it is um and and be able to start moving forward with some instruction. And I think Heather kind of referenced it. You know, there are most of the products that they're reviewing for the the um you've been a part of them. I think the ELA adoption have AI components built in and they're very hesitant to like you know Heather's like what do we do like can we even consider can we even do we have to cut SAVIS completely out because they have an AI component. You know what you know what direction do they go because we don't have something in

230place. So, it's it's not limiting their ability, but it's starting to become an issue. >> I I like I like this version. I I I this reads well to me. I think it's just like you said, I see this being a very fluid document. >> Sure. >> Changing all the time, but I think this is a real good foundation. I feel you got it right on this one. >> Thank you. >> I interrupted somebody. I don't let somebody say something. So, Okay, as you consider it, if you have questions, please shoot me an email, give me a call. I'm happy to talk about it with you. We just want to make sure it, you know, meets your expectations. But, um, between now and the next meeting, if you have questions, let me know. >> Thank

231you. >> Yeah, >> all right. Item G8, electric media policy or sorry, electronic media policy through tone. Thank you, board. So, uh, tonight I bring to you, uh, a policy that was approved, uh, all the way back in 2012. Uh, we're asking you to consider approval of board policy, GATA, employee electronic electronic media policy standards of conduct. This obviously is a first read uh and will be placed on consent agenda unless asked otherwise at the next board meeting. Um this is a new policy that we've had before. Uh its intent is to provide guidance to staff and administration about the expectations for all electronical uh electronic media. Uh it was first introduced like I said in 2012. Uh but there's no record of where it was implemented. It was actually placed originally in staff handbooks

232and then uh when handbooks were updated it wasn't moved over to board pol. >> We couldn't even find it in the old handbooks. That's where I was told it was but we can't but yes I believe it was. >> Um we're obviously uh presenting this with with hope of adoption. Um you guys have a copy of the uh original policy as it was written in 2012. We've I talked to KSB. It's a pretty common language uh in this policy as well as talked to Jennifer Cunningham uh and she has looked it over and and approves of the policy. So, um it's the policy in front of you. This is a a first read on the policy. Um open for questions. Are there other districts that we can look at or you can provide us with

233their electronic media policy to where we can kind of >> Yeah, we'll provide you with some. >> I might surprise you, Russ, but I kind of agree that the personal use thing is a little vague. Um, and I don't know how you tweak it to make it better, but I don't know. I I think it's going to be really difficult to endorse. >> Well, I I I as I read that, I you know, thinking through the cons and appreciate the public comment on this stuff tonight. To me, it reads um to where it is correlating electronic media accounts to any other public conduct. And so I I don't know that it's to me it doesn't come across as vague. It's more like we also need to be looking at our policy around public com conduct

234because that I think it's tying it back to another policy and it's saying that >> I read this and as conduct done online is interpreted as any public conduct. >> Yeah. Do we have a public conduct policy? >> Uh it's not specifically labeled public public conduct but we do have a policy on ethics. We do have a policy on um behavior, those sorts of things that it I'm with you Andy that it would tie back to. >> Yeah, because I agree. I mean, if you don't support the same candidate that I support, you have every right to on your personal account say whatever you want to say in support of that candidate. Um, I mean obviously there are things that we don't want teachers saying in a I mean, you know, like I some of

235the people that were fired were saying things that were pretty aggressive. Um, I I don't know. I I just Yeah, maybe it's the whole I'm just like this is really I don't know that I love how that part reads. >> Yeah, we can. So, what we can do is I I'll pull our all our policies, send our policies that would apply to uh staff code of conduct for clarification on what it would revert back to. Staff code of conduct. >> Uh and then if it's referring back to already an existent policy, that makes way more sense. Yeah, I I agree. I I don't I don't I I have a hard time swallowing how it exactly that. I don't I I I read it as it's referring back to something else. I just don't know what

236that something else is. And most of it is centered around GBU um ethics and talking about um there there's specific things that it talks about in GBU and there's other places that we can refer back to. >> So I would like it to be more detailed and because I do I I want everybody has a right that's their first amendment right. I want people to have that ability to support who they support. Do that. to me when it gets into the gray areas when we start condoning violence and and things like that. Yes. So, I I would like a more specific, but I know you can't say everything, but I would like more specifics instead of just the blanket kind of >> we can we can get more specific. Um, I know the one hesitation

237is you can't >> Yeah, you can't all you can't >> I just I'm hesitant to include for this policy to include anything specific about employee code of conduct because I think that lives elsewhere and to me I think this electron because this electronic media policy is is actually broader than just social media content. It talks about I mean the other the first part of it is talking about contact between teachers and students and and it gives guidelines there. So to me this is a policy around electronic communication, electronic media use, but it and it's just simply tying anything done via that platform to any other public conduct and then we let our other public conduct policies speak for themselves. I mean that >> and I think if we try to define code of conduct in

238here then we could have conflicting policies. We could have and we maybe try to get too specific in here and I don't think that's the point of this policy. >> So does this part not even belong? >> No, I think it does. I mean, I I think this part this this policy to me, this is just my interpretation, but to me, this policy is is really talking about um use of electronic media in a couple different and it talks about a couple different aspects in which that use is uh governed and and so you know like guidance for acceptable use where it talks about communication between employees and students and and what's allowed and what's not allowed that that's discussed in here and then this second paragraph. So, it's covering a few different topics related

239to electronic media here, but it's not getting into the code of conduct. That's covered in my mind covered in under other policies and you know like like Drew said that that policy come out in 2012 that was that was around the time that we went to the one to one initiative and so all those things and so I think that was the the rationale for that policy coming into place. there was conversation after, you know, things happened that maybe we should have a policy. And I I I agree. I don't think we need to reinvent the wheel. I don't think we need to I felt like we've got enough policies. And so, as we were kind of researching, Jennifer found this policy that we found that had been and and like I said, I don't

240really know the the whole history behind it, but I did call Renee and ask her. Renee and and Renee and uh Roxy Schaefer were the two that that brought that originally. When I talked to Renee and um and she thought that it was that it was supposed to be in inside the um like the teachers handbooks at the at the high school, but we went through and looked at some of the some of the digital copies and we couldn't find it anywhere. That's not to say it's not there. There's a lot for Jennifer to to rumage through, but what we found, we couldn't find it. So that's where we kind of kind of come up with this was it's it's already in existence and it kind of covers some of the things, but we can

241certainly go a different route too. I'm I'm not >> Well, so I guess this is where I'm coming from because I feel like I should be held to the same standard I'm going to hold my futures to as a board member. So if I want to put on my Facebook account, make America great again, then I have to give them that same opportunity. >> Absolutely. I completely agree with that. >> And I think both parties should be able to do exactly that. So, as long as we're all on the same page about that, I just don't there's things up here that they're not allowed to do. And we say we're holding them to the same standard. So, that in the classroom, they probably shouldn't say make America great again, but on their own personal page,

242they should be able to say that. >> Yeah. And I don't think that's a violation of our ethics, >> of our any of our policies. I I just >> I agree with >> I mean like >> I'm I'm >> the same as >> I want I think I should be held to the same standards. So like >> I think the issue the issue is is advocating or condoning violence >> to me. That's where that's where that's where a lot of this >> skate got that the line got crossed for for some individuals. And so >> and yeah, that obviously is not okay, >> right? run with it. Just need some direction. >> This is a policy that's >> that we had for a long time that we haven't really been >> we haven't been aware

243of. So, this would be a good time if we feel like there needs to be changes to it, we can do that. Um, if we want to keep that policy in place and and realize that we want to go somewhere else with that, that's fine, too. I think we just need to get direction from you all on what you want that to look like and we can make that. >> We do need a policy of some sort. >> No, I agree. We do >> because of of communication between staff and students. Communication between staff. >> Yeah, the top part of it I think is great. >> All kinds of issues with that. Um >> yeah, >> it's it's been >> and it continues to be a problem. >> This timing on this one here like

244number four. >> Yeah, this is prior to 6 a.m. because we had to go to the P at the high school and get do the best. >> That's true. >> So, there's some timing things you need to know. >> Any other things we need to look at in this? I appreciated the comment about part of this being every portion of this is I have no idea why it was involved. >> I we just literally cut and pasted the policy. >> No, I just the board intention there >> approved in 2012. We'll make sure to unmold it. >> Is there any guidelines? I mean, because I do agree that a every administrator could have a different opinion of what is crossing the lines. Yeah, I mean ultimately everything has to um if they're to write up

245ultimately everything has to end up down here. So it has to be approved at this level. Now um the the just verbal conversation that administrators may have with um with staff members doesn't necessarily end up down here. But if there's a documented conver uh documented conversation in a conference report, it has to be approved at the central office level. So that that doesn't happen. There's a reason for that. >> I'm just thinking down the road a little bit too. If we go to a possibly stricter phone policy where, you know, students and teachers don't use their phones in the classroom. Does the district have like a I mean I think we do asking but do we have a means of communication to for our teachers to communicate with our students? Um it isn't a cell

246phone or >> iPad. Okay. Or like some my kids have played sports. Some of the teachers have used Snapchat as a group Snapchat as a way to communicate with >> Great. >> Yeah. I'm just saying saying like if we do away with maybe >> Yeah. So we've we've gone down the road. So remind was what everybody used to use. Remind was bought out by oh mother knows was bought out by another company and that platform went away for us because of how it was bought out. So we had to move to something else. Um last year we started the transition to rooms uh because rooms was a part of the platform that we already owned. It was a part of the the optig thrillshare network. Uh so we started that transition to rooms. It hasn't

247been the greatest transition um because of some issues. So trying to navigate that. But in in theory, Rooms would be that that place. If Rooms doesn't work and we have to go to a different product, we'll have a product on the iPad that communicates. Yeah. Clean up the bowl. provide other examples >> and then if it references any other policies to reference, >> we can do it. See you next time. >> Okay, move on to item H, board discussions. Andy, you're up. Um, lot of lot of lot of uh important things covered tonight. I really want to thank everyone who came and spoke during public comment. Public comment is a really important tool for opportunities for us as a board to be able to hear concerns and uh doesn't get exercised as much as I

248think it ought to be. So, I really appreciate uh you got tonight discuss there. Um really like great support presentation for Wilson. Um and in regard to the discussion with the CAP data and then uh the ELA adoption um you know it's it's uh it's always I think good to to use those points of measure uh you know and and just make sure that we're always pushing ourselves to make things uh create the best uh performance outcomes for our students. Uh I know that ELA committee you're you and Mark are on that Nathan and know you and and all a lot of faculty is on that and you guys are working really hard and uh will taking a lot of challenging questions and I just really appreciate all the work that's being put into that.

249>> I agree. I I I I really enjoy the public comments. I do. I like it better than reading an email, you know? It it's more personal. You get more. So, I I do appreciate people that come forward and I and I wish it did happen more. Also, I I agree. Um, we went through a ton of stuff. Lawrence Wilson's always great. I love when the kiddos show up. I I appreciate that. you know, Brandon and everybody, I think, is trying to be frugal with money and we're trying to save money, but also keep the district running and get the best deals that we can and to meet our needs and that and I I think uh a lot of things happening and and moving forward and that's what I like to see. So, >>

250um I agree. Um public is great. One of these days we're gonna get somebody that's up there like doing the cheerleader thing. That'll that'll be really exciting. Um I I think tonight is one of those meetings that there was a lot of information. A lot of it's really heavy and important and it helps remind us of how important our job is. And we have three people that are leaving our board sadly and we have an election next month. So everyone get out there and vote your conscience on that so that we get three more awesome people up here to help us do the hard stuff. >> Yeah, a lot of lot of information covered up tonight. Uh it's always good to hear from the students Wilson tonight. Um the the public input is is always

251great to hear that this uh simulation of dyslexia received this from the live well. I'm looking forward to that and seeing how that works. This is extremely important. One in five students said that right. They said one in five students some form of level of dyslexia. That's that's pretty uh that's 20%. So that that's important that we address that as a school district so that we have those students uh that can succeed in life. And uh it's pretty important to be able to read and uh without that it it's hard to learn. >> Thank you. >> I I as well appreciate Florence Wilson and uh have had some really good conversations at our board of faculty meetings. Seems like we've had what five or six since our last time we met. uh but have had

252really good um just feedback and good um fluid motion within the schools. We see staff working together, things coming together, hearing a lot of good things. So very excited about the schools. I've been to I think five or six so far, but all those things are going on. So very encouraging uh to know that we're going forward and hearing the the data as well. Um I was interested to just just see the data starting out year one like we've said it's just a beginning and so I remember in teaching we always the first year was a baseline so you understand you figure things out and you move forward from there and so uh good to see at least a baseline going forward uh the ELA adoption is a is a process and I've said that

253earlier how exciting it is to have so many people that are giving ideas and we're listening to that and we're we are going to come out with the best product and our what's best for all of our students. So, I'm pretty excited about that. Um, looking forward to the future. I've said in a couple board faculty meetings, our time frame, it's an interesting perspective. Um, most of us, we look at our jobs as one year at a time, getting through that next year, but we've got to look to the five and the 10-year window here and what decisions we make now, how that affects five and 10 years out. And so, looking forward to keeping that moving forward, what's best in those m in those situations. Um definitely appreciate uh plant services and all that

254they're doing and transportation as well to keep us functioning as a school district and even our staff and um definitely just excited about what's what's coming up. So that's it. >> I don't have a whole lot that hasn't been added. Um I think there's some topics that we discussed tonight, you know, from the AI policy to the electric electronic media policy. I think there's some things that we probably need to put in place there. I mean, I think those policies will be a continuation and evolve as technology changes and and different stuff like that, but I think those are important policies. And uh I would like to give a shout out to our transportation as Nathan did. I know Shane's here asking for more bus or some bids for buses. And I would like to

255thank all of our bus drivers that get our students to and from school safely every day, but um our activity bus drivers especially. I mean, they've had some extremely late nights and some extremely early mornings trying to get all of our kids to all the activities that they're involved in. And just appreciate those people because uh not everybody is willing to get up and go to work at 2 o'clock in the morning or get home at 4:00 or 5 in the morning. And I just really appreciate them. >> Um I don't have a whole lot from what's been already said. um just maybe kind of a little personal opinion on some things. Um and kind of with that goes with the media policy and and perspective. Um I think we live in a different world

256now than we did 10 years ago, 5 years ago even. Um, and I think we all have to remember anything that we do that whether you're in a p no matter what public position you're on, whether it's the school district, the police department, the city, whatever. Um, a lot of these people are known more in the public just because they are they are they see how many students a day and how many parents a day. Um and I think we need to remember um when we post something on social media, it is it is words. There's you cannot tell the emotion, you can't tell the intent, you there's many things that could go along with it. We also need to remember that just because a social media platform says you must be 18 to be

257on it, we all know that kids of all ages, they're on it and they see everything. And no matter if your school district, our board, the city commission, whatever, don't ever post something if you don't want to be asked about it. And that's no matter what, whether it's political, not political, always remember that if you post something, you better be be prepared to be asked about it. And that's that's simply it. And um I think everybody needs to be responsible about how they post things. And yes, everybody is entitled to their own opinion, their own views, their own political views. But we have to remember that we're role models. And no matter what you post, your intention may be or adults. There are many kids that see it. And we have to take that consideration.

258Josh. >> Yeah, it's uh it's hard to believe that we're we're knocking on the end of the first nine weeks of school. So, we're almost a quarter of the quarter the way done. Um been a pretty pretty good start to the year. I feel like things have gone really well um for the most part. Uh parent teacher conferences are next week, so um encourage families to make sure they take time for that. Uh this Friday will be our last home football game and the hatchet game. So um I would encourage everybody to get out and support the bus um for our last official home home game. Um there's a lot of conversations about a lot of things today and and some of those things are going to be big ticket items. I know we've talked

259about I think the budget uh now that we've kind of done September 20th there's there's some look at the budget and cause for concern that Jessica and I have had she's going to have an update that she'll share with you guys next month um kind of a a budget update to kind of let you know where we're at so so that you're kind of informed with that as well as we kind of move forward. So that's all I have. All right. Item I, the next board meeting of the board of education will take place on Thursday, October 30th at 5:00 PM here in the meeting room, the educational support center at Gold 5. On item J, executive session, >> 30 minutes starts. This first one was Josh, right? >> Yeah. >> Oh, no. You guys

260are going to do Drew first. >> Oh, okay. >> Josh, >> let's not do that. Mr. I move we go to executive session number 30 minutes to discuss superintendent search under the non-elected personal s exception under beginning at minutes >> 45 meeting at >> his name is 10:15. I'd like to invite Drew Ton to join us in executive session. >> Second 10:15. >> Is pizza coming? >> Motion carries