001We've been in executive session. Please stand for the pledge. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All righty, here we go. All right. Thanks for being Oh, I broke it. >> That's on. >> Oh, it's not on at all. >> I broke it. >> This one's probably my fault, not yours. But I wanted that on the record because normally something goes wrong, it's your fault. >> Okay. Well, all right. All right. Thank you. Uh public comment. Anything radar? >> All righty. Consent agenda. Chair will accept a motion. >> Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda
002as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. I. >> All opposed. Passes. Student rep, you're here. >> What do you got for us? Anything? Oh, what? Hang on. Now, this is on Tony because we used to have microphones for everybody and now we're running low. >> That ain't good. >> I make a motion we give Tony some money to buy a new microphone. >> Yeah. Get Tony to buy some new microphone >> and sound system. We are. >> Yeah, I keep hearing that >> new mics and sound system. >> We do. We need to, you know, direct the money guy to get you the microphones. >> Well, it's great to be here tonight. Great to see everybody. Um, I don't really have anything prepared, but I just want to let you
003know things are going great at the high school. I mean, seniors are ready to graduate, get across that stage, but we have two and a half months left, so we're so excited. But that's it. Gosh, two and a half months. Really? >> I know. >> Wow. >> No, I'm not keeping track though. >> But who's counting, right? >> Right. >> You probably want to know when your last day is. >> May 1st. >> She already knows. >> Crazy. Like 45 school days left. >> For a while. >> Yeah, but who's counting, right? Who's counting? >> All righty. All right. >> And how many snow days are you hoping for since you don't have to make those up? That's all of them. >> Says every senior in the world. They don't care. All righty. All right.
004Well, thank you. We're glad you're here. Dr. Underwood, report of the superintendent. We say I see a lot of shining faces, so I know what we're doing. I believe our presentations for the evening. guys for being. >> So, this is one of my favorite nights at the board meetings is to highlight um all the great things that are happening in our schools. We have all of our elementary uh folks here, fearless leaders working tirelessly to um meet all of our students needs and staff and make a great place to learn and work in Belton. So, I appreciate them immensely. Um, we're going to start it off with Miss Snyder at Gladden. >> Do you want me to sit? Okay. >> Okay. >> Have you got it ready for up? >> Can you hear me? >>
005I love it when you're on track ahead of me. >> You ready? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Hi, Karen Snyder, principal at Gladen. Um before I dive into the data, I just want to say so I'm finishing my second year at Gladen um and in the Belton School District and I was told in the interview process and even when I was doing my research if I wanted to come to Belton what a great place Belton was and a special place. Um and from the perspective of having been in two other districts, I I firmly believe that. So I just appreciate that I've been given the opportunity to be here tonight. um my the innovative thinking, the support I've gotten from day one. Um it's just been immense to me. So, thank you for that. Um I
006am going to dive into the data now because that's why I'm here. Um so I know you have my APR report or Gladen's APR report. Um you'll I'll start with ELA. So you can see Gladen did drop a little bit in our MPI for ELA. And I will say not to make excuses, but we had 23 students on basic reading IEPs at fourth grade. when you have students reading that far below grade level, it's hard to perform on a state test that tests at grade level. Um to counter that, I will say that the district is doing some amazing things with literacy right now, including our implementation of UFly at grades K2 to well to work on that foundational literacy. We have core five at grades three and four to help those students who need
007intervention. Um and right now those things are kind of trickling up to third and fourth grade. So I do think we will reap the benefits. Um we're just we're just kind of going um a little by little right now. And also um kudos to Belton for the letters training that every teacher is getting. Um teaching reading is hard and given that training um it's it's just been amazing the conversations we're having with teachers to get better at their practice. So I think that's huge. Um we are we are having successes at Gladen. We actually 39 students moved off reading success plans from fall of 24 to fall of 25. And that's huge because those students are reading about two grade levels below the grade level they're in. So that's big progress. Um and then we're
008just doing one of the things that's really important to me is that I have about 50% of my staff that are in their first to fifth year of teaching. So giving them that feedback they need that different so that they can just become better at their craft because it's so important for me to grow those teacher leaders um and keep them at Gladen. So um really working on giving those new teachers what they need. Um, I'm going to move on to math. And if you can see in math, we did have a little bit of gain in all students and in our student groups. Um, we put a heavy focus on math, fact, fluency, and problem solving this past year and we continue that into this year. So, really putting that focus on um, and
009that's what our smart goals in our um, collaborative team meetings have been focused on really getting students fact fluent and then working word problems and what that looks like starting in kindergarten and how we get them um, when they're in fourth grade. So we have a common voca co v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v vocabulary and a common approach. Um and then just really strengthening our collaborative team meetings focus on what does the instruction look like in the classroom and how do we collectively get better at what we're doing so that we can move kids to mastery and those essential standards. So
010that has really been our focus. Our data showing growth, it's showing growth in ELA and math when we look at our NWA data um for achievement and growth. And then we have fact fluency goals that we're using the district program reflex to track and we're seeing progress across the board in all of those goals. So making progress and um I look forward to see you know as we continue um with on this path you know our the gains that Greny um student ready the student ready the success ready indicators we got four out of four on the kindergarten entry assessment and then attendance three out of four points and if you look at our trend there for the four years we've had some really good progress at attendance up 14% in the four-year trend and
011then from 24 to 25 we were up about 2%. So moving in the right direction. Our average daily attendance last year was about 94%. This year we're averaging about 93%. So we're kind of in the same ballpark there. Um really focusing on that attendance growth and looking at those students that are sitting at that 90th percentile and what can we do um to get them to school and want to be at school. Um I just want to share at the end here just a couple of celebrations that aren't directly academic but that affect academics greatly. Um, one of them is according to some data that we had, our EIS data, which is our social emotional data. One of the things we found is that our older grade students just did not feel as connected to
012school. And that's huge because we want them there. Um, our counselor created a student ambassador program where every fourth grader in the school has a role. Whether that's mentoring in the autism program, giving tours to new students, being an office lison, they all have some contribution or connected to the connection to the school. and we've gotten huge benefits out of that with our fourth graders and have seen our fourth grade attendance actually go up as a result of that. Um, another thing I just wanted to point out is we just a couple months ago took the staff morale survey. Um, there were about 20 questions that f focused specifically on the building and Glatten and 19 of those 20 questions was 80% favorable across the board. So you and you know staff morale directly relates
013that affects that student morale. And then finally I'm going to quote Jill Brown. She says that um retention is the new recruitment. Well, Gladen, I'm losing two sped paris because they're become teachers in the district and I'm losing one teacher because she's going to teach closer to home. She had an hour commute. So, as I said earlier, retaining that staff is so important to me so I can grow those teacher leaders and help them develop their craft. Um, so I think that's a huge celebration in and of itself. So, I just wanted to end on the positive note with those celebrations. >> Uh, when you go back to work tomorrow, you can tell her I said no. >> I know. I agree with you. I tried. I tried. Not that my vote counts, but you
014know, >> I I I tried to. I know >> this hour commute's not so bad. >> I know. I know. >> My daughter goes an hour and 15, so >> yes, and she'll be at the school her son goes to, so I mean, I get it, but I get it. >> It's a loss. >> Any questions? We're glad. >> I um I met a one of your uh volunteers a couple of days ago who's volunteered in your building about six years, and she said that this past year and a half is the best she's ever seen it there, and she loves going every day. Oh, >> she's 78 years old and she you probably know him talking about. I do. Yeah. >> Yeah. And she just could not stop talking and she has a favorite
015teacher. It's one of Mr. Miller's favorite teachers, too, who she just could not stop talking about. So, that really I was like, "Oh, they're presenting on Wednesday. I can give that feedback almost immediately." So, >> thank you. Appreciate it. >> Perfect. All righty. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Talia. I said no. I'm saying no. I'm I'm not going to sign that document. I'm I've decided. >> All right. Good evening. Uh Mike Cumins, the principal at Glattens. >> Glad Gladen. >> I I don't remember signing that back in. >> Right. Well, you can tell I'm nervous. So, first of all, thank you for um your commitment to kids, uh the board of education, our central administration, um your unwavering commitment to uh allow us to do what we do for kids every day. And
016that is a a life's calling, and we're fortunate to be able to do it every day. So, it's an honor to be here this evening to represent Cambridge's students, their families, and especially the staff. Um the teachers are committed to kids their success socially, emotionally and academically. And tonight I actually get to have the honor to share their successes. So uh I'm proud to be a part of that. So uh the first thing that's very evident when we when this school year started is we our focus had to be on student learning and student uh and teaching. Student achievement is what drives us every single day. And it starts at that core belief that all kids can learn and that is a foundation that we have continued to build upon since since day one. So
017I am excited to share you share with that as we commit to building upon that belief system that every student can learn uh no matter where where they come from. So um to do that we have strengthened our professional development in in our letters training. uh all of our teachers, all of the teachers at Cambridge are in letters training now. Twothirds of them have graduated out of letters too and are now on letters applied. So that that solidar foundation of how the brain learns to read um that teaching and that learning is happening in classrooms. As a matter of fact, I was in a classroom this morning in kindergarten and she was talking about how the mouth works to make certain sounds and that science of of reading and and sound um is evident every
018day in the classrooms. Um as we go through I'm also in letters training with Dr. Underwood and Dr. Sidleman and we actually have our last cohort this Friday. So to build a sustainability model moving forward with our letters the next three to five years. Um, we also continue to build off our social emotional learning through our behavior interventionist supports through our BIS program at Cambridge. This school year, if if you go back to let's go back to the data last school year. So, I I'm happy to report that we went up in all four areas of our academic achievement last year. And matter of fact, this is the highest MSIP or the MPI scores that that we've had at Cambridge since the uh initiation of MSIP 6. Uh, all of our students are growing and
019it's evident because of what we're doing in the classrooms as far as the letters training but also through Lexia core 5. Um we had 120ish kids that are on reading success plans at Cambridge we were able to um get 26 of those kids off from the fall of last year to this year. Uh so it's that dedication and that that laser light focus on the programming that we're using and Lexiore 5 is a big part of that. In math, we continue to focus on math act fluency through a program called reflex math. At the beginning of this school year, we started with 16 and a half% fluency. Now we're at 66 and 12% fluency. And that works on maths through adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. So 66 and a half% of our second, third, and
020fourth graders are now fluent in those math acts. Um, all of the work continues to to be had in PLC's, our professional learning community, as we dive deep into what students should know and putting interventions in place for when kids don't understand things and meet our standards and and those conversations as we pour into teachers and we hear the science of reading, the science of math, how the brain learns to acquire language. Um, that's evident in our practice every single day. So, uh, I know I've stumbled all over myself and I'm a little nervous, but I'm super proud of the teachers and the hard work from the custodians to the cafe to everybody's there for kids. And somebody asked me the other day, how are things going in your second year? And I did say,
021well, I do know where all the light switches are and which where they go, which ones they But I also said, we're doing school, right? And I think that's the biggest compliment that I can give the staff at Cambridge is uh it feels like school every day. and and we're doing school and kids are learning. So, thanks for your time. >> Thank you. >> Any questions? >> Dave, you okay? >> I'm good. Every >> All righty. >> Everything's great so far. >> You're pretty you're pretty tiny, so you're gonna have to wave or something so we know >> over your shoulder the whole time. No, it's just the number everything's great. >> Hello. Good evening. Is it working? Great. Um TJ Winkkelman. I'm the principal at Kentucky Trail. This is my second year in that
022role and I have the privilege of leading the student, staff, and families at KT um on a daily basis. And I wanted to take a moment just to thank the board of education for everything that you guys pour into our community, our schools, um everything that you do for us. I know it's thankless job and just know that it's much appreciated. Central office, thank you for your support. I feel like I can pick up the phone and I can call any of you whenever I find myself in a situation where I just need some extra support. So, thank you for that. I also want to give a shout out to my colleagues behind me because I could not do this without them. There's a lot of times throughout the day where I'm kind of questioning
023myself and I need I don't know exactly where to go and I know that I can call any of them back there and they will talk through any situation. So I think um this is my 11th year in Belton and there's a reason that I'm here and it's because of the people the people um from administration that we see tonight the board um and then also the families and the community the teachers. We have a wonderful staff over at KT that I'm going to take just a couple minutes to talk about this evening. Um I've really enjoyed problem solving this year as part of the job. It's uh seems like no two days are the same. The days fly by and I think that's um part of the challenge for me and um drives me
024to come back every single day. Uh so if we could dive into the numbers just a little bit. If you see up there, um, in three out of the four categories, our MPI went up from 2024 to 2025. Um, in ELA, um, our MPI increased, uh, from 381 to 384 and then slightly decreased in that student group. Um, and we put some things in place this year, which I'll talk about in just a little bit, to help address, um, that decrease. Uh, and then in math, our scores did jump quite a bit. We went from a 377 to a 398, almost 400. And uh and then with the student group from a 350 to a 364. So we saw some significant gains in math. Um going down to attendance, our proportional attendance, we stayed the
025past two years up above that 90% threshold, which is our goal. I spend a lot of time talking about uh that with our specials. Um we have a collaborative team that I meet with and um we t one of their focus as their specials um meeting that I do every other week. their focus is making sure that we want kids to come to school and um the kids really love specials. So I link up our specialist teachers with those kids that miss maybe a little bit of school um more than they should and just have those teachers check in with those kids just to get them excited about coming to school. Um so couple of celebrations like I mentioned three out of the four um areas in the MPI went up. um we stayed above
026that 90% threshold for two years in a row. And then I also want to draw attention to uh we received a promising practice this year from character education uh for one of our initi initiatives called breakfast club. And I just wanted to reiterate that it's really important for the staff at KT to really educate the whole child and we want to make sure that um we're taking care of their social emotional skills as well. Uh couple of things I am going to reiterate some of the things that my colleagues have mentioned. I'm sure you'll hear it again because they're really promising initiatives. We've really leaned into letters training this year uh for the different PD days whenever those come up. Whenever you go and find our elementary teachers, they're working somewhere throughout the district on
027their letters training. Uh our elementary uh teachers pour a lot into teaching reading and learning how to become better teachers. Uh so like um Karen said, it's it's not easy to um teach reading and it comes with just that growth mindset that they need to continue to push forward. Another thing that we've utilized last year was building thinking classrooms. And that's just really rather than the students just sitting and getting the information and memorizing wrote facts. They are able to think critically and we put them in the pilot seat to become problem solvers and they're collaborating with each other working on a bunch of 21st century skills that they need to um be productive. Couple of things that changed this year for us. Uh we've moved to a buildingwide RTI time response to intervention. So
028every day at Kentucky Trail from 8:50 until 9:20, our students are moving throughout the building to work with different teachers based on their needs. If you've got a teacher that's really strong in teaching basic reading, you might have a group of students that need that skill to go work with that teacher. And then uh another teacher might be great at teaching some of our more advanced students and they might be uh working on some type of research project with that certified teacher. So it's um it's fun to see if you ever want to come out and watch that time from 8:50 to 9:20 every day. We do it Monday through Friday and it's uh proved some promising results. And then finally, we've uh added um literacy nights. Every single one of our grade levels has
029one literacy night throughout the year and that's a time where we try to bridge that gap to home so we can allow our families to come in and we give them consumables. Here's what you can work on at home. Here's what you can practice. Here's some different excerpts that you could read from different areas to really give the parents the tools that they need to continue the work, the important work that our teachers do every day. So, I think that's it. Any questions? >> Questions, folks? >> Been in and out of Kentucky Trail for >> parks and wreck events for the past several weeks. And I have to say that and I I had to send him an email once >> because his kids take pride in that building and they will help you clean
030up. They will help you do whatever they need to do. And those are the kind of emails I like to send. So >> yes, >> that's nice to see. >> I passed that along to the family and they were very appreciative. Thank you. >> Thank you for sharing. >> All righty. Thank you. >> Hey, I'm the newest teammate to the team. Uh this is my second year in administration, my first year as Mil Creek's principal. Um I just really appreciate the opportunity. I do have a new teammate with me, um Mr. Chad Ror is my assistant principal. He couldn't be here this evening um as parenting duties. Um but I'm just blessed for the opportunity. I've been in Belton for seven years. We live here. Uh my kids are now going the way through the
031system. My daughter will be in high school next year. And I just I really love the community. I really love the support. I love being here. Um I will say like watching my kids go through it has made me a better leader. So I will say I know a lot of information just through my children. Um and when I don't know something I will ask them and so they are a great resource for us. Um we utilize them as examples and you know guinea pigs for things and we're just really blessed. So um thank you for the opportunity. So we have more academic pieces than the other ones. We start science in fifth grade testing. So we have six subcategories for us and we scored high in we grew in five out of six. Um
032our only decrease was in our subgroups for ELA. Um and we are also seeing um similar to Karen an increase in basic reading needs for our students with special education needs. Um and then we're starting to see some of those reading success plans are starting to make their way up. So they kind of started low and they're starting going through. So, we're learning a lot about um reading needs through Mil Creek as we get better. Um letters training just started for us this year. So, we're starting to in increase in some of the basic understanding as we're training our teachers there. Um our attendance has increased uh the last four years. So, we've seen a lot of growth there. We're averaging kind of like um Gladen at 92% per day. So, we're hoping to see
033another increase this year. We continue to use the 95% club. We're trying to do um partnership within our specials teams um and do class incentives to get kids there. Um we're we said January is a sick month so we're really hoping to have a push back in in February um and hoping for the best for our kids. Um we are seeing a decrease in reading success plans just like the other teams. We test three times a year to like see where the benchmarks are for kids and we do have students exiting off of those. Our NWA is something that we benchmark test and we saw growth in all of those categories um for us and we were really proud to see some of the gains that our fifth grade science made. They had the best
034gains for our NWA data. Um and then we also do reflex and fracks which is our fluency for our math and we have students coming off of those weekly. So, we want to see them foundationally able to do those by the time they leave our building in sixth grade, so they can do a lot of those math facts fluently when they hit that secondary level. Um, things that are contributing to our success, we do have tutoring that's happening before and after school. We have a lot of teachers throughout our building that are working with small group kids before and after school to intervene. Um, we have building thinking classrooms. It's something that I did at the high school. Um, and I'm really proud to say that our sixth grade teachers take that with huge strength.
035We have a whole classroom dedicated um to be using that space for that building thinking classroom processes. Um, Project Lead the Way has gotten started in our fifth grade. Um, and we've seen really good gains in problem solving with those science kids. Um, sixth grade uses Kesler and they are just they're just doing great things. It's really fun. I love science. Um, I'm learning something new in those classrooms every day. Um, programs that we're using and getting better at are Lexia for our reading interventions. We have both. We have core five and powerup. So, we have the elementary version and the secondary version. Um, our teachers are learning those every single day. So, I will say that small groupoup intervention has been so much more purposeful this year. So, I I really look forward to
036seeing what that data looks like for this May. um we utilize EXL in all of our subcategories. Secondary uses it a lot um for that individualized attention and we do the same. So we're really happy to see that that is integrating with our NWA data to really pinpoint where students need to see success. Um and we use it to supplement and like help push our kids that are beyond two. Um we don't just use that as a resource for kids with um that have gaps. Um we are a BIS school which is our behavior intervention. Uh Mrs. Okonnell, huge shout out to her. She is our leader in that and she is just phenomenal. Um we really look and focus on our building wide language when we intervene with kids so they have consistency. Um
037we're coaching passing with kids when they need success and and areas of growth. Um and we just have a really big veteran team in that that are really coaching our new teachers. So, the partnership of our veterans to our new new teachers has just been very helpful and they're very supportive of me. So, I'm just really thankful that I have a a strong team behind me. Um, and that I get to be part of their ship. So, yeah. Do you guys have any questions for me and Mil Creek? >> Looks like we're fine. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello. >> Hello. >> I think I'm the last one. I'm Roxan Pearson, the principal at Steam. This is your >> doctor. >> Thank you. This is year 14 in the district as a principal
038for me, 11th year at Steam. And it's home. It's family. Wouldn't go anywhere else. It's why we live here raising our kids here. It's an amazing family to be a part of. Um part of my family too is Mr. Adams in the back, my right-hand man at Steam came to support as well. Um, so tonight we'll share some of our data, some of the great highlights that we have going on at Steam. Couldn't be more proud of all of the work that our teachers, our students, everyone puts in there. Our families are 100% supporters of all of our students, and we can't thank them enough. Um so looking at our MPI scores from last year um you can see that we had a slight um decrease but pretty consistent with our English language arts scores.
039Um with that we are letters trained for all of our teachers as well and working on different interventions for them. Um, UFly is what we're using for that foundational um, decoding and phmic awareness skills. And we're working on getting that small group targeted instruction for those younger ones so we don't have the gaps as we go forward. Um, whenever we're looking at our reading success plans, we're happy that this year we don't have any in sixth grade currently on them. So, by the time they are aging up through our school, they are getting off of those with the interventions that we have in place. Um, looking at our math scores, we did have a slight decrease in our overall for our grade levels and we're assessing third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. So, we do have
040more grade levels that we are assessing there. We've put some good interventions in place and using that reflex and fracks. We were finding a lot of those missing skills were whenever they didn't know some of their fact fluency and really focusing on building that up so they can solve those harder problems. One of our large highlights that we're very happy about is our science scores had a very large increase. Um as science is a large focus at steam. We were really focused on that this last year and really every year. But seeing that large increase um just shows that programming that we have K through six is focused on science and we're continuing to grow that within our building. Um, so as we know the strength of the school, yes, the data, the numbers show
041so much, but it's really all of the connections that we make within our building. And I think our attendance shows that connection that we have with our students and families that they want to be there every day. Um, last year we were at 95.6% per uh proportional attendance. Our students show up, they want to be there every single day, and we have so many things in place for them that they can be involved in that way, they want to be there even more. Um, so an extra highlight I forgot to mention. I just had to give a shout out to our fourth grade numbers last year because they had over 60% proficient in ELA and math and those are very high numbers. Um, so I have to give a shout out to them for that
042and we're showing that continual growth on our NWA. Um, we've continued to receive the Project Lead the Way distinguished school each year and I look for us to see that it or have that again as we are still implementing all of the programming for Project Lead the Way at all grade levels. And we also received a promising practice um for our tech-free family nights. So in those nights, last year we had four and this year we have four again. We have a game night, a conscious discipline night, math night, and science night where families are coming in, they're playing the games, they're interacting, and it's also building our school community. Honestly, our families like just being together, too, um, and interacting together, but all of them, all of the games are based on curriculum that
043we have at the school as well. So, of course, our biggest focus is really engaging in that project-based learning, having that productive struggle, giving the students a problem, having them solve that, and taking some of our regular curriculum and turning it into projects, making it more engaging. I can tell you, um, we just did the parade of excellence in our school and we had students that parents were coming to pick them up early for things and the kids refused to go. They said they had to stay for that because they wanted to be a part of it. So whenever kids are doing that, that shows a lot of how much they want to be at school with us. Um we've been working since we received our national school of character a couple years ago, we've
044been working to build our service learning um as that was an area that we needed to strengthen. This year we are partnering with Carnegie Village and they are coming four times. So once per quarter we've already done the villageto village project where we met with them. They brought about 15 of their residents in and they made blankets with our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students that we then donated to Wayside Waves. So, it was a very good project. We are still planning the next one. I don't have determined what that is completely yet. Um, we have added in some tutoring opportunities before school that we have a couple teachers doing for second and third grade. We were finding there's some gaps there that we want to get ahead of as they get older and so
045they are receable able to receive tutoring in ELA and math. We are continuing to implement all of the great district resources. We have amazing resources here, a lot of support in those areas. Um the addition of core 5 this year has been nice to really focus on those reading skills and really our instructional coaches have helped us with UFly to make sure that we're doing small groupoup instruction that's targeted to um in addition to our whole group instruction. Um like a couple of the other schools had stated as well, we have building thinking classrooms going for our math instruction. Really working on that collaborative problem solving um is a focus of ours and getting students out of their seats. You don't want them just sitting at their seats doing worksheets. So, you'll see all of
046it plastered, lots of whiteboards throughout the room and kids are getting up and interacting with those problems together. Um, we are constantly looking at the different data that we have through all of our testing, but also just that classwork, that weekly PLC meeting whenever we're looking at each individual student's work and how we can help them. whether it's a kid that might be having a little bit of a problem with it or a kid that we need to push further, it's discussing each one of those kids and how we can push them to their maximum potential. And then we have so many wonderful clubs that we do before school. Um I'm thankful for the district for supporting some of our Lego clubs that we have. We now have Lego club for first, second, third, and
047fourth grades. And that is a big hit with all of our students. We have a steam club, a ukulele club, choir club, a national honor society. And I can tell you that helps our attendance greatly. We even have kids that'll show up for club, have to go to a doctor's appointment, and then come right back, but they don't want to miss it at all. So really, at the heart of Steam, we're a big family there. We're working for everything we can for our kids. You can feel it when you walk in our building. And it's an incredible place and couldn't be that way without the support of each of you. Thank >> so much >> questions. Anyone? >> I I I do have one question, but not just for Dr. Pearson. Everyone talked about letters
048training, and I I can't remember if it's required for all the teachers, but if it is not, how is everyone getting their teachers to get involved in that and be part of that training? >> I see Dr. Mock heading for the microphone. >> I'll take this one. It is required. >> Okay, >> Mr. Daniel. Yes. >> Thank you. >> And we do it every It's been a two-year commitment because there's letters one and then there's letters two and then we've had teachers that um did completed letters one and two prior to the district saying that this is a commitment for all of us. So, they're in what's called applied, which is really just talking about the next step, which is writing. Writing's a big piece of the missing skills that we have kids that now
049that they know how to read, now can they apply it in their writing? >> Great. Thank you. >> I have a question for all of you. It looks like the ELA student group is kind of across the board. Is that something that you guys I mean I know you're tracking it. Don't I got the We got the best staff out there. I know you're tracking it, but it just seems like that that's the common denominator. Is there something you need from us to help you with that? >> Speak for everybody. That's like >> I said everybody. Somebody somebody step up there. I see Dr. B grabbing it again. >> Right. >> You're the senior once big. >> Okay. Well, I don't think we need additional resources. Honestly, I think what we have in place in
050the letters training and strengthening that because as teachers are coming in, it's hard to know how to teach some of those students that are struggling with reading and giving them the skills to be able to do so. Um, I also highlighted like with our UFI, it breaks down all of the phmic awareness, phonics skills that they do need within it, but then our instructional coaches have broken it down further that the group that's having trouble with this, they have small groupoup lessons to go with that. So, our instructional coaches have been instrumental in making sure that we have those resources this year to help build that up, too. >> And I might add that we have this core five and power up through Lexia for all of our kids who are on a reading success
051plan for this first year. We wanted to see how what the results are, how kids are responding, how user friendly is it for teachers. And we possibly will expand that to not just kids that are on reading success plans because there'll be some that might not be identified that are struggling. So that would be the only not an additional resource but just expanding it. >> Okay. I >> I also wonder too uh Jerry, >> do we feel like this is kind of the product, excuse me, of co seeing that those fundamental years and how difficult it was to educate and this is now the product we are now testing those groups that were in the prek, kindergarten, first grade. So we with no additional tools are bridging those gaps. Would you agree with that? >>
052Yeah. Okay. And it's Dr. Wkelman as well. I I know that seems s silly for me to bring that up, but you know, you folks put in a lot of extra time for those of you who desire to do that, and I commend you for that. So, I I I like it when we call you by that actual name in our in our public meetings because it's important for our public to understand the commitment you have. Uh, thank you to all of you. As always, I believe that we have the best staff. I've been saying that for about 10 years. You guys know that. >> Thank you. >> And you guys can go home. >> Tell them twice. >> Night guys. >> Walking on such a nice straight line >> like Adam. Yeah, Roxan's got
053them whipped in the shape. >> All righty. What? Next is parents and teachers, sir. >> Good evening. My name is Tracy Spur. >> My name is Tracy Spur. I am >> Push the button. Push the button. >> Green. >> Third time's a charm. >> My name is Tracy Spur. I am the director for parents as teachers and the early childhood care program at Grace. Tonight, um I have the pleasure and I'm really excited to talk about parents as teachers. It is close to my heart. Um I've been in parents as teachers for over 20 years here in the Belton School District for 15 or I'm in my 15th year. So, um always excited to talk about this program. I'm also lucky enough to be able to be on a Desi consultant team. So I get
054to go out to other school districts and collaborate with them and bring back some amazing ideas um as well to our program and our district. So that's been a great learning process for me as well. Um as you can see, do you want to Yeah. Um our vision for parents as teachers, you know, we believe all children grow and they develop and you know to realize their full potential when families thrive and our communities are stronger for that. Um you know our parent education promotes the optimal early development, learning and health of children by supporting and engaging with their families. We have four main components to parents as teachers when it involves our families. We have the home visit piece which is really the heart of our program. Um parent educators are assigned to their
055families. It's always a consistent parent educator that's seeing them and building those relationships. We try to see them twice a month um depending on scheduling. Sometimes it's once a month and some of our evening families unfortunately it's about every six weeks just due to scheduling um issues mainly with families and work schedules. Uh we also provide the developmental screenings. Um so we have the three to five that uses our dial 4. We work closely with um Grace and our special education program as far as any referrals or early intervention strategies that we need to put in place even in the home visit if they're not quite there to qualify um for an IEP. We also do the um ages and stage ages and stages questionnaire. It's a screening tool that's used for birth to three
056um children and we our referral and early interventions. We work closely with Missouri First Steps with that process. Um one of our favorites is our group connections. We try to provide those once a month to our families. the last one and our big I guess target this year has really we've been trying to hit literacy more um and just really empowering our families the importance of literacy and and bringing that into the home and the books and so during each home visit to go back to that that each family does receive a free book. So, we're trying to build those home libraries as well. But with our group connection, we just had one last month um based off the book, not a box. It's a ch child children's book. And um we filled our NPR
057with just empty cardboard boxes, provided all the supplies and families got to come in for a parent child interaction evening where the child led um the activity for the parents and they got to create anything and everything they wanted out of those boxes. So really use their imaginations and at the end of the night they all got to take home that book, not a box, to add to their library. The other component, the last component of um parents as teachers is our resource connection. So that is providing our families with informal and formal resources throughout our community um for any need that they may have or um assistance that they they may run into. Um our home visiting goals. So parent educators when they are going into a home their main goals are to enhance
058the parent knowledge um of child development they are improving practices and supporting just positive child outcomes increase early detection um of developmental delays and that may be through screenings and that may simply be through observations and reflection with the parents. um pro promote a safe and healthy nurturing parent child relationships and then increase child um or increase the children's school readiness and support them for school. So part of that too is developing goals or creating goals with our families and what that looks like for them. And uh some of those are related to parents um their own growth or it may be for their child's growth or family as a whole. But the whole it's to empower our parents. So we empower them to become advocates for their children as we are advocating for their
059family as a whole. Okay. So here's the data. I know this is what everybody likes to see. So as you could see we're increasing our families number of families served and our children served. Developmental screenings went up. Our home visits are slightly down last year. Um part of that is due to when we had all those snow days backed against that um I think it was winter break back to winter break. >> So this year so during our we have time where our parent educators collaborate together every month and we brainstormed how can we change that? you know, our families are missing out on these visits when there's snow days. And so, we are trying to really push virtual visits, so visits on Zoom with families. Um, parent educators created packets. So, when we know,
060we don't always know what the weather's going to do, but if we know a little ahead of time, we will parent educators are dropping these packets off at the family's homes so then they can do a virtual visit with them. If it's a surprise snow day, parent educators are getting creative and they will just fly with it and um and shoot for that virtual visit. Not all of our families like doing virtual visits and we respect that, but um they're starting to kind of come back around to those. I think during COVID they got really burnt out on the virtual visits and so it took a bit to get them back around come back around. Okay, this is probably one of my favorite pieces of my job is the community partnerships and this year um
061we have Cass County Elks Lodge was a is a new partnership for me this year. I had a member contact me and they were able to help seven of our families who got to participate and shop for shop with an elk. So each child in the family got $125 to about $150. they got to go shopping and pick out their own clothes, um, their own shoes. If they had a child in diapers, they got a big box of diapers and wipes, and that wasn't part of their budget. So, that was a fun new community partnership for us. Grand View Elks Lodge, many of you may know Joanie Nash. She is my contact there, and she um has been in our community for a long time, but we got to help 12 families. They received holiday
062baskets and that was a full meal, turkey, all the sides, gallabel, all the goods. And then Sonia helped me with the Rotary Club this year. They adopted a family for us um off of our Grace parents' teachers, Angel Tree. So, they got to provide new clothing and Christmas gifts for those families. Um Belton High Blue is another big partner for us. They always provide space and staff or volunteers to help with a gross motor activity in those really cold months um for our parents. Belton Education Foundation provided shoes for our children that are enrolled in parents as teachers. And then the Cats County Health Department um they donated brand new car seats for a few of our families that needed um help. and they were installed by two of our very own parent educators who
063are now certified car seat technicians. We had applied for a grant and they went through a grant to um become certified. Um Belton Fire Department, they are always a big support. They always provide um a group connection for us as well. farm school at Loll and Pops. That was a fabulous um opportunity for families that maybe those children don't get to um experience the farm life. And so they got an afternoon to feed the chickens, the goats, the pig, and just really um be involved on hands-on experiences um supported development. And then my last one that um I want to talk about is our um parent educators um working alongside our own families that are enrolled in parents as teachers. We have started um collaborating with them to build a small food pantry and clothing
064and just basic essentials. So our families that are in parents as teachers, they often ask us how can we help other families within our program. And so this year we have with the help of our parents and families created this. And so at any time families within parents as teachers if they need assistance we know and we can take items from them. But it's just it's nice that it's the families are Um, I want to continue to strengthen our existing community partnerships. Um, engage additional stakeholders. Um, also I've been in the process of restructuring our parents advisory committee board and that's really bringing in more of our community stakeholders. So those two kind of go hand inand um, we're just going to continue our community outreach. Um, I know there are a lot of families
065with small children under five in our community that we have not been able to reach yet. And so that's my goal. I've been working with Anita Majors and adding a question into um open enrollment to maybe identify some of those families as well. So, we're going to keep recruiting. We're going to keep building our enrollment um and continue our outreach into the community. So, I appreciate your time always the support um that you all give us. Um being out in the other school districts, I realize how lucky we are as parents, as teachers. It looks different across the state and how they are supported by their board and their cabinet members. And so we I've learned we are very very blessed. >> Questions. >> This is our first year in about six that we are
066not part of parents as teachers. >> We we miss Maryland greatly. >> I know. She is wonderful. We miss your family in the program for sure. We miss the boys. >> Some days I think they would let you have them back. >> We'll take them. >> I may have a contact for you. Um if you could get me your email um that I think might be a good partner for you guys. >> Absolutely. I would love to. Thank you. >> All righty. Well, thank you as always and I'll definitely see you when we're cooking hot dogs. >> Am I on your calendar? >> You are. >> I'm still coming, too. >> Absolutely. invited to the carnival. >> Yes, it's always a good time to go to the carnival. >> That's right. >> Uh there there
067are some people we have to call and complain that they get there. >> Ah, wonder who that is. All righty. You, you know. All right. Polar Plunge. Hope you have some good news. >> Have good news, but not the news you want. >> Oh, no. >> There we go. I had it turned off. Um, we did do the polar plunge this year. We had 14 students um and staff members participate, which is a great number. We had one super plunger. Our total for the district was uh we wait raised $2400, but that did not come in first. The total of that other district um it was $3,400. So, we're about $1,000 less. We did raise over um $1,100 just in the jeans week and our um Super Plunger raised um for his own own Super
068Plunge over $1,600 which is pretty amazing for a middle school kiddo. >> Yeah. >> So, so lots of good information. Um raised a lot of money for um Special Olympics. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Very good. I commend everybody that does that. And you you now you have a challenge for next year cuz >> there you go. >> And I really don't like those people across the highway knowing >> beating us. That's just something wrong with my life when that happens. All righty. Dr. Underwood, bond issue update. >> Yes. Uh we are off to the races, so to speak, in regards to our bond campaign. Uh want to thank uh Dr. Mr. Mock and Mr. Allen, uh they presented our chamber of commerce this last week. Um so we're going to make this a team effort
069uh trying to get out to all of our staff uh throughout uh this month. Uh our goal is by the first part of March. Obviously, April 7th will be here very quickly. Uh we have had some people reach out uh to donate in regarding a vote yes program. Typically that does not three and so uh uh had a good start there as well. And uh uh we uh actually Miss Hes put together a great slideshow. We're going to share that with other board. Um and so you know um in regards to overall we know that there uh is another ballot issue on in regards to Senate Bill 3. Uh but we're focused on our bond. We're focused on what we feel is best for our kids. And I think that's one of the components that
070in this bond issue there is something for all of our students uh that they will see and or receive or benefit from. Uh in some years we've not been able to do that. some uh if you guys recall, we worked on the high school uh to finish uh that promise that started some 20 years ago and we've had to do some things that are not uh visible uh if we think about our last one in regards to a lot of roofs and a lot of uh parking lots. Uh before that, we worked on safety and security when we did our new uh safe secure entrances across the district. And so we've done differing pieces, but this one feels more innovative, more creative. We're going to provide some additional experiences and opportunities. I think one of
071the big OP opportunities that we're going to have for career tech education in regards to Yokum and finishing the renovation of that. You guys have seen the part that we've done, but that's really a small part of that building. Uh we have a lot more uh to go in that regards. And so, uh, I just feel and and appreciate, uh, our team and the willingness to to go out and share it, uh, because they know it, um, uh, in regards to what we want to do, whether it be the the flex seating and the hands-on experential learning that we have for our students, uh, whether it's some of the unseen stuff that Mr. Allen's talked about in regards to uh, deferred maintenance. And so, that may not be, oh, it's plumbing, oh, it's pipes, oh,
072it's electrical. Well, but that's necessary. and we need bathrooms to work. We need things uh in regards to some of our facilities that are dated uh to be updated. And so, uh that work needs to happen. Uh we could go on with the list regarding HVAC and other opportunities, but I see some of those big rocks in the jar that we have. Um but once again, I feel like there is something for all of our students in regards to this. Obviously, we're watching our finances. We're watching what happens legislatively. Um, but we can't necessarily wait on that. Uh, we want to move forward. Does it mean everything will get done in summer of 26 or, you know, the spring of 27? No, it'll it'll take us some time. Uh, but I do feel and believe
073that uh we've got a good solid plan in place. If we go back once again, we've surveyed our community. We got some positive feedback in regards to that. Um, we've also uh worked in regards to our long range facility plan and we had feedback from that as well. Some of you guys were in attendance to that and thank you for that time as well to to get input and we've worked with our new architects ids and so just a lot of input that we've uh feel like we're in a good place. Uh if someone wants exact dollar amount for how much I'm going to put in at Grace Early Childhood or the expansion of No, we don't have exact and we're not down to every pipe and every nut and bolt. Uh but we have
074ideas and we have done Mr. Allen and team is still actually doing some um comparative as far as cost just so we'll know and as you guys understand also inflation is happening so cost are rising and so in some of these areas we want to get out there as soon as we can but uh really feel like we've just got a lot of positives uh in regards to our mo uh momentum in regards to what we're going to do and we've got a laundry list of groups we're going to go see. Uh we really do. And so between now and April 7th, uh we will have been in front of every one of our staff members and hopefully every uh committee and community group that we can think of. I can think about the city
075and the parks and uh Rotary and all the different groups and organizations that we have. Uh Mr. Allen and I shared with our uh actually Mr. more so than me shared with our foundation board uh just Tuesday morning uh in regards to uh what the plan is and that bond issue uh information uh Hey, >> look at her go. All righty. Any questions on the bond issue update? All righty. Legislative update. >> You need a glass of water. >> Speaking of work, so I just received yesterday a fiscal impact in regards to a lot of focus on personal property. Mr. Allen put this together. Uh so kudos Torrance again in regards to there's a lot of different and and we know this. There's a lot of different ballot language out there. A lot of different
076people want to have in essence their way in which they want to reduce taxes. Uh we've heard about income tax reduction. Uh this is more focused on personal property. Uh we know that obviously that's an important piece to our budget as well. And so this could directly affect us. And if we look at some of these, for instance, uh whether it be uh and you can look these up, House Bill 2708 or 2668 or 1766, they're all House bills. Uh most of the finance bills comes out of or should come out of uh the House of Representatives. And so some of these impacts um anywhere from you know 200,000 175 almost a half a million dollars. We've already seen a reduction in our property tax of almost 600,000 in regards to Senate Bill 190. So,
077those are all concerns that we have uh as we've been working on staffing. We've had meetings with uh I guess all of our buildings now except we're missing the one. We had a sick we had a sick day person. So, uh we're working on that looking at for next year as well. But these can affect us and the unfortunate is that we may not know this until May and we're working on budget for next year now. And so that does make it difficult in that regard. So it's almost like you're having to keep one eye in front of your foot but the other eye looking down the road. And there's also the concerns about uh withholds with our formula and what uh Department of Education is projecting that the governor could possibly withhold. What are
078we at? 5% is what they're looking at as a possibility that the governor might withhold uh from our existing funds for this current year as well. So, a lot of balls in the air that we're juggling uh looking at this. Obviously, the finance piece, open enrollment is out there. We know that charter expansion, they're wanting to increase the amount of money that they fund uh toward that, but as we're losing revenues, I don't know how they can justify doing that, but somehow they find a way to want to do that. So, take any questions that you have. I'll also mention that if anyone is wanting to or willing, we have a uh Zoom next Tuesday night in regards to the cooperating school district's uh visit to the cap that we're heading down for on the
07925th, which is next Wednesday. >> Yeah. >> And Miss Stocking has been working on a schedule. So, thanks uh Teresa for doing that that we can try to get in front of our representatives uh to remind them where we are and the needs that we have. on the 24th. >> 24th. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All righty. >> Okay. MSBA policy 2025D. >> Yes. As you can see the items and I believe this um list is pretty comprehensive. We've got a lot of different areas from attendance to um and my there we are for weapons in school. A lot of this there's minor changes to I think you guys have had an opportunity or hope to have read these and we have looked at this in regards to the administration and their areas and so
080we don't have any changes. So we would recommend these policies as presented. Motion to approve the MSBA policy 2025D as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve the MSBA policy 2025D as presented. Discussion. >> It is a second reading. >> Second reading. Yes. >> I do have some Could you just talk me through the AI one real quick? Everything else agreed. It's it's really word smithing a couple of things, but the AI there's the three categories that have been added in um and some additional pieces. Can you just publicly go over that together? So in regards to um the AI policy, if we look at in regards to in some of this is its wording as AI changes uh and they're pointing to what they're now calling generative AI
081and so as AI is becoming more intuitive um so in essence what that means is that instead of it being more like a calculator that you put in information it is starting to read and understand and it's almost like it's intelligence. And so it's that Odyssey 2025 movie that we saw 30 years ago that's really coming to fruition now. And so as they look at u and it talks about the advancements of AI uh MSBA tries to be very broad in regards to um and so they're not going to specifically say here but in essence and we do have in place um our AI committee I don't know what does it have an official name it's our AI committee >> right and so I don't know if Tony or Kim you want to talk speak
082to that a little bit in regards to uh the meld of this policy but >> RBC's done >> we are trying to in essence follow this and be ahead of the game by having a committee to focus research and to be a part of what they are in essence trying to define because honestly three years from now I don't even know if it's going to last three years and that this policy will be changing very drastically because AI is growing exponentially and I'm trying to recall we were just at meetings last week and they were talking about something was said about in like the year 1900 we were gaining like 14 to one in our knowledge in a year. >> In 2025 with AI we're gaining like 114 to one I think in a month.
083>> Wow. So I mean it is just astronomically how quick this is growing and becoming literally intelligent on its own. I say on its own. There are people behind it typing in the stuff but still I'm going to let you guys talk a little bit about where we're at. >> So we did put together a committee for this. Um it's it's one of these areas that's very difficult to pin down at any one point. it's kind of constantly moving and um that's both legally and how it actually works and that's that's the the tough part especially since it takes a long time to get legislation or these different policies in place by the time you get in place it moves again you know so so that's our our goal right now um we officially have
084a goal I wasn't able to attend the last meeting I was sick it was last week we had for our first um meeting for this new committee that we made was to gain insight on the current use of AI in the district. Um, and then we can what's that say? Determine where we need to go with it, which that's our problem once again is it's a constantly moving target is what we have to to deal with. So, when it comes to the state or or the policies we receive um for board policy, they tend to go very general and they let us also add our own policies if we want to as well to kind of decide oursel kind of like we do with other things like that. So, that's kind of where we're at
085right now with it. Um hopefully we get some more insight into how our teachers want to use it. Um how we can limit it and and use it well for students. Um because right now we're we're pretty much not um we're trying not to because we have some issues with it and and students the way they use it. the the biggest concerns that we that students are using. >> And so obviously there are ways in which they can review documents that they can put into a system to look at see but honestly we've been able to do that for some years. Well, I know >> can't speak to exactly how >> right >> thank god I haven't used that although I have used that GPD GP >> right >> uh but my knowledge is not
086but I do know and understand that we have ways to >> so teachers can also shadow through Google a student's work to see if they are just copying and pasting full-on paragraphs and so there's ways to do that but again we're talking about teacher man hours. How many hours are they going to spend policing to catch that versus are we going to lean into this and recognize are they still learning something cuz they have to search for the answer themselves? Because I can also tell you this much. Um my oldest is going to university over in Rome right now. He spends an extensive amount of time writing papers over there and some of them do get flagged AI and he has not used AI on them. It's just not his jam. So it's not necessarily
087a foulproof way to ensure that we are catching and that's very very um frustrating for students who are putting in the work that are getting flagged AI when clearly they're not using those tools. So I think what I would like clarification on is the one two and three AI just for my own understanding. Um and I don't know maybe use AI Tony and just say how do we get ahead? How do we get ahead of this? Um but could you clarify those three categories there? I mean, they're pretty self-explanatory to me, but then again, I just read them and look at them in regards to and the student piece. uh and I mean it's their information and it says you know the key words talking about reasonably could be entered into AI and so okay
088so maybe students are utilizing it as far as the confidentiality piece and talks about the resources uh for non-instructional purposes uh obviously we want to allow kids to utilize resources when they can but obviously we don't want to do it to the detriment of it doing the work for them and as far as the piece as far as staff think they can dump these um documents into AI like that is my understanding. >> And so I think that there is that piece. And then as far as the operational um Tony, I'd probably have to lean on you for that one. But I mean once again it talks about predictions, recommendations, communications. I was sitting through a class. What was that Kim? It was Gemini or >> um learning all these. I mean there are so
089many different ones in essence that you can set and utilize and I mean it's just unbelievable you can do a deep research one and I mean they'll create you know it takes five or 10 minutes heaven forbid that they are able to do this but it's amazing to me of what can be done in such a short period of time but I mean I am not the expert when it comes to AI thank goodness we have a committee I mean as far as this information that we see it's very once again general. It does talk about encouraging us to use best practices, safety. Uh we've even talked about our accessibility on our website and our we've got a deadline there and so we're trying to work that in. Now is AI going to affect that?
090probably uh as far as that goes. But honestly, we'll probably make it easier uh because this I mean it is unbelievable the uses that we can have for the use of AI and what we do. So >> is there a challenge? Do we have some parents that are concerned about their confidentiality of their children >> and the use of Absolutely. Hence why we're have a committee together and we're going to be careful and slow and we have notoriously done that. Uh I think back to co even I mean we put together a committee and we thought about what we were going to do and who and we took input from a multitude of people. I've not been at the meetings. How many people and I'm assuming we're uh represented across the district. >> Yeah, it's
091heavier at the secondary level because they're seeing that more. I would add some one of these bullets is about the safety of teachers using it is great but not putting identifiable information. So protecting students, not putting names, not just cutting pasting and putting all their scores of NWA in and say give me a lesson plan on you know. So we have slow played it. We have uh had a presentation with school AI and that is a program where you can purchase but it gives some good guard rails and boundaries with kids so they can use AI but it's not all of AI. So >> does Raymore use that program? >> I'm sorry. >> School AI. Does Raymore use that? >> I think they might. I think they do, >> but we we've considered that. But
092like I said, we wanted to bring teachers together and um start the process of what are you saying? I will tell you the teachers are saying more pencil paper that's been happening in their classroom and I even had a conversation with um I think Dr. Pearson and she said, you know, they're some of the kids are even requesting it in a few areas. that you can really if you and as an old English teacher I would know if a kid was using because AI or you know back then you know somebody else because I had them writing I I knew my students so um it was pretty >> and I think it it's a really tricky um line that we're walking here between trying to ensure that they're getting the education but also recognizing like
093when they leave our doors this is going to be required of them. Um, and colleges are are leaning into it more, employers are leaning into it more because it is all about we want you more productive, less time, quicker, more results. Um, and we don't want to pay you for them. We just want you to produce. So, um, that is what I will say about that. Good luck. >> And that's the thing about AI. I mean, Teresa just hit it on the end there. Even my company who has 6,500 employees, we are trying to embrace AI in the insurance business. We have committees. So, I think it's just going to get bigger and greater as time goes along. And we're going to have to learn as this committee to how to integrate it or do
094what we need to do to make it safe, private, whatever it is. But it's it's just going to get a bigger and bigger and bigger as the years go on. >> And I would end with this as I talk about this and I have tried Mary and I have been to some different >> that's how we learned J chat GPT the first time. So, we've we've tried to learn some of this stuff, but if we think back to the internet and we think back to digital natives and we talked about students that we transitioned that some were not born or raised around technology, but then we started to migrate in students that from day one have had technology in front of them. And so, as we moved through that, we also had our staff like
095that. >> So, we had staff that did not have technology in the classrooms. as we've moved on. So, here we are again with something new. I didn't grow up with AI. Um, and so maybe our kids now >> in 25 years it'll be amazing because they'll have started with it. And so we're at another one of these type of moments in history where this is the new calculator, the new internet >> which was put in the dictionary in 1992 because they didn't even have it as a word >> and now we're here with AI and this it's unbelievable. And can it help us with efficiencies and operation? Absolutely. Can it help our students learn and to gain more knowledge? Absolutely. But it just has to be harnessed in a way and I think I I
096don't know what MSBA knows. >> Well, and I was going to talk about this when I got to the MSBA part, but they have um me I have I wrote my dates down. Okay. On March 9th, they have a free Zoom for board members on AI. Um and it's uh for school leaders and then they have a live one in April, April 3rd in Jeff City. Uh, and it is um they're going to have all sorts of experts there to talk to you about new things and and it's limited to the first 75 people that register. Uh, but the so MSBA is being very proactive. They've got a toolkit. So, um, and I was going to talk about that later. I'll just do it now. And and so if anybody's I've already registered for the
097the Zoom because it's just free and it's at noon. And I know that's hard for working people, but uh you can just watch it from your office and it's a sit and get, so it's not interactive or anything if unless you have questions. And then the one in April, um I'm not sure, but Mark Henderson, he's the specialist in that for MSBA and he's hosting both of those. So, >> okay. >> I can tell you that MSBA is is looking at this pretty harshly toolkit >> from the board of directors. I might even have something in my backpack when we get done. I'll look from my last BOD meeting, but I would urge you and your committee to reach out to Mr. Henderson. He'll gladly come and and go over what they're doing. But I
098know that MSBA is working on some things to concerning a uh AI that they brought to us. Uh I I I wish I could tell you exactly what it was. I don't remember. I've slept since that meeting, but but I can tell you that it was impressive. Um, and so I'd reach out to Mark. >> Yeah. And >> Henderson and I can get you his number or you can look him up. >> Well, and in their toolkit, it addresses just the basic understanding. It addresses policies and procedures, safety and cyber security with it and ethics, resources, and all sorts of things. They're pushing that there's seven steps to be effective with AI in your district and one of those is having a person as your AI specialist and that's all they do. So, um >>
099something to think about. Yeah. >> Are So, we'll go back to the motion. We have a motion in a second. Are we all good on this? >> Okay. Any other No other discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. All opposed. Passes. New business. New business, horizontal advancements. >> Yes, just a couple this evening. The administration asked the board to approve horizontal advancements as presented. >> Motion to approve the horizontal advancements as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve the the horizontal advancements as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed. That passes. >> Miscellaneous committee updates. We'll start with you, Mary, on MSBA. >> Well, we'll just continue from where I started because AI that was on my my list. Uh
100we have advocacy day on March 10th in Jeff City. Um they do the lunch and learns uh one Friday a month and they'll do that on uh March 9th or no, sorry, not March 9th. Um >> March 6th and they will just talk about what you want to talk about when you go to advocacy day in Jeff City. Uh Mr. Miller and myself are both going that I know for sure and um it's usually a good day. Um we'll have students at the student showcase this year at advocacy days and they only uh showcase 12 uh schools in the state of Missouri that day. So we're lucky that Belton's one of those uh that will be um there that day. We have um Dr. Underwood talked about Senate Bill 3. Uh MSBA has a whole
101toolkit on how to understand the bill and and even it's got some worksheets in there so you can kind of figure out what it's going to do to your area. If any of you would like that, I've I have it downloaded. I can just send you as an attachment uh in your email if you would like. It's it's a lot, but it's a lot to know for that. Um some of our members are going to COSA March 12th through the 15th, and that's our national conference for school boards. Um, and that will be in Kentucky. I just said Kentucky because I always get corrected on how I pronounce the the city. It's gonna Louisville. So, um, I think that's all I've got for for right now. >> Okay. Belton Cares. >> The Biggie is trivia
102night this Friday. >> Next Friday. Scared. I was like, "Oh crap." >> Some Friday coming soon. All right. I had I had plans for this Friday, not next Friday. All right, good. Yeah, that's a good thing. I have my team uh ready. We rounded it out today. So, um I informed the new team members that I don't care if we win. It's about having a good time. >> Exactly. >> Any of you played golf with me or bowling, you know, I don't care if we win. >> Oh, speaking of which, Belton Cares, the Troy Shaw Golf Tournament is August 8th. >> Getting that out there early. >> Okay. Selton Educational Foundation. Other than grabbing my money, what else you got? >> Well, we'll get to that as well. Um, first we'll talk about our celebrations.
103Uh, we awarded $1,161 in many grants. Um, we also gave out $3,361 to five students for tuition assistance. Um, and just so any students know or parents listening, um, the applications are still open for um, the Belton Educational Foundation uh, tuition. So, get on there, fill it out. Um, also, we have a couple of dates coming up. On 2:28 we have the Chili Cookoff at High Blue Wellness. That is from noon to two. Um, and then we have the Pirate Dash, which is a glow run on April 17th at 7:30 p.m. Um, there's still plenty of time to sign up for that. If you want to sponsor that as well, there's still plenty of time to do that as well. And then lastly, Jerry, like what you were talking about, we are in the thick
104of selling major saver cards. They're only $15 and you can contact me if you would like to purchase one or you can go directly to the foundation to buy one. >> Perfect. All righty. Anything for the city? >> No, nothing. >> Okay, good. >> Can we back up real quick, Jerry? >> Sure. What we got? >> Uh, Friday is the live handouts at for uh you matter Belton at the middle school and high school. >> That's what I meant to say. Friday. You knew there was something going on that day, right? >> Two Fridays in a row, we got events. >> I'm scared. I'm scared. All righty. >> I'll be there. >> Um, on the board governance thing, I did get an answer. >> We just need to do the >> Oh, yeah. >> So,
105we we should be fine. >> We are. because you and your foot issue >> my foot issue uh almost cost us the board governance, but I pled the fifth uh and and told them that I was going to be upset if they that cost us because that was on them. All righty, that's good for co. All right, so board meeting day change. This one's coming from me. Um I would like to move our board meeting in April 15th to April 13th, a Monday night. We have to be aware of the election because we have to certify so many days after the election. I think we have till the 21st. >> Yeah. >> So I I propose the 13th because it's closer to the election. Um everybody okay with that? And if so I would like
106to make a motion that we move our board meeting. Now my board mine says ARPLE 15 to April 13th. Uh yeah, I had I just looked at that. So I'd like to make the motion that we uh move that board meeting to April 13th. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to move the 15th bill board meeting to the 13th. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> And any of you would like to know why I'm changing it, see me after the meeting. We'll have to drive fast for Morrenburg. >> So, all right, some miscellaneous dates. Uh, February 19th is the BMS BHS enrollment night, 4:30 to 7:30. The 25th is the Cooperating School District of Greater Kansas City Advocacy Day at the Capitol. February
10727th is the Belton Cares trivia night. Jim, I want to make sure. March 10th is MNB MSBA advocacy day at the Capitol. March 12th through the 15th is Cosba in Louisville. Uh March 27th is the senior citizen lunchon at the Belton High School Fieldhouse at noon. Are there any dates that the chair missed? Being that said, the chair will accept a motion. >> Second. We have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. Any discussion? Seeing none, Jim, >> yes. >> Karen, >> yes. >> Dave, >> yes. >> Mary, >> yes. >> Teresa, >> yes. >> And Nor, >> yes. Thank you very much. We're jerk. >> Thank you.