001will bring this meeting back to order. We've been at uh one of our favorite things, the uh some student rep recognitions, and those are always fun. Um so, if we can please stand for the pledge. And before we get too far down the road, the chair would like to have a moment of silence for uh RJ O'Keefe, please. Thank you. Our hearts are with the family. So, any public comment tonight, radar? No, sir. Thank you. No student representative. Um, we need to amend the agenda before we approve it. So, uh, let's, uh, amend the agenda. The chair would like to make a motion that we amend the agenda and we remove, um, 8B communications update because, uh, our communications person is, uh, out ill. So, we would like to amend that. The chair will make
002a motion. Second. We have a a motion and a second to amend the agenda to remove 8B. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. All opposed. Passes. Now to the consent agenda. We make a motion we accept the consent agenda as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second to accept the consent agenda as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. All opposed? Passes. report of the superintendent volunteer program update. Yes, I'm glad to give you an update for the 2024 2025 um volunteer update. I mean numbers. We still have a few days left in the year. So I know that we're having some volunteers trickle through through the rest of the days because we have lots of activities that um people would can volunteer for. Um
003volunteer activities in our schools include um going on field trips, classroom volunteers, breeders, uh chaperon dances, class parties, um working concessions, mentoring, and so I'm going to give you the numbers for each school this year because we have had 642 overall approved volunteers. Grace had 27, Cambridge 132, Gladen 75, Kentucky Trail 112, Wilkins Steam Academy 94, Mil Creek 95, Belton Middle School 58, and Belton High School 49. And we want to say thank you to all of our volunteers. They really do help make our school events successful and extra fun for our students. And if anyone would like to volunteer or um attend one of these functions, you can speak to Lynette Goodwin. I want to thank her for managing this as well. Each year, she takes our volunteer requests and once you are approved,
004it's good for three years. Very cool. Thank you. Any questions about the volunteer program? All righty. Special ed. So we have our program evaluation tonight for special ed and I put it on the agenda all the information that we had gathered. Basically the purpose of special Hang on. Sorry. No problem. Not going to work. Connecting to our my Okay. Do I do have paper copies if anybody needs? It's just for the Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah. Every meeting we always have a technology thing. Usually when Tony's here, I think I got it. Okay. Go ahead. Congratulations. You can go now. All right. So the purpose of the special ed program is to provide a specialized direct instruction which is detailed in the students IEP to meet the unique needs of each student who has been identified
005with an educational disability to allow them to make progress on their goals in the general educ education curriculum in order to receive a a free appropriate education. So, um, we work under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. That's our federal law to provide the FAPE to any student with a disability. We work with kids from 3 to 21 years old. And um our littlest learners receive early intervention services to help them grow and develop in their most formative years while our secondary students receive transition services to help them become contributing members in an everchanging society. So between 3 and 21 we have a lot of changes developmentally that they go through and we try to meet them where they are at each point. Um, all students who meet eligibility criteria as a student
006with a disability under IDA um are able to receive services. Currently, there are over 800 students in our district that receive services under an IEP. Each student meets eligibility criteria in at least one of the eligibility categories as defined in IDA. So autism, deaf blindness, hearing impaired, intellectual disability, other health impaired, orthopedically impaired, traumatic brain injury, multiple disabilities, visually impaired, specific learning disability, speech impairment, language impairment, emotionally disabled or young child with a developmental disability. We did send out a a survey and to all the staff in the district, certified and non-certified, and we had 116 staff respond. Um 64.7% of those were certified teachers. The first question was, what is the purpose of special education? And the answers range from to help students with disabilities to leveling the playing field to providing intentional instruction
007and modifications to our students with special needs to allow them to reach their full potential. Almost all the answers related to some type of specialized instruction with students. So I think that's pretty impressive that our our staff do know kind of the basics of what we're doing. on the second page. Um, the program is important and beneficial to BSD's mission of educating students to their fullest fullest potential. Over 94% of the staff said they agree or strongly agree. The program has specific goals and objectives tied to the district's basic educational philosophy. 81% of staff agree or strongly agree. adequate funding is available for this program. 44% of staff agree or strongly agree while over 35% of staff are neutral on this question. Almost 20% disagreed or strongly disagreed. Um the program complies with all district
008policies as well as state and federal regulations. 78% agree or strongly agree. Students benefit from this program and it is worthwhile. 84.5% agree or strongly agree. Program has effective instructors. 80 80% agree or strongly agree with an overall program rating of 84.4. Um staff rated it as good or excellent. Some of the staff comments because there's just an open open suggestion box there. They said to streamline the evaluation pro process and we hear this when a regular education teacher feels they see a deficit in a student and they feel the process should go faster. Um we have it ends up being 90 about 90 days to get a student evaluated from the time they're first referred just because of all the testing and that seems like an awfully long time during the school year. Another
009um comment or recommendation was increase wages especially for pair of professionals. Um decrease case loads, more training for staff and better compliance and communication. And I think all those are probably true. Those are all things that we could always improve on. 48 parents responded um to the same type of questions. It was interesting to read the parents definitions. They were overall very accurate, but some of them were were pretty far off base for thinking they knew what special ed is or does. And that's a little bit concerning when we're talking about their kids have IEPs. They did say that um 93.8% agreed or strongly agreed that the program is important and beneficial to BSD. They also had 89% agree or strongly agree that we have specific goals and objectives tied to our basic educational philosophy.
010The next um couple questions I thought were interesting because we got a lot of neutrals on those and then some of the comments were like we don't know what the board policies are. We don't know what federal funding you get. So they were unsure how to answer that. So, they just gave us a three in the middle saying they don't know if we're meeting these goals or not. 70% believe that the program is well organized and 83.3% of the parents rate the special education program as good or excellent. Parents recommendations, we can always use more staff, more male pair of professionals, less turnover, more teachers, smaller case loads. Um, one said it was a great program, awesome program. um and improving communication. So we provide um every day a wide variety of services to over
011800 students. This includes instructional support, social, emotional, behavioral support, related services, and crisis intervention. We have 53 teachers along with nine SLPs who write over 800 annual IEPs. We complete about a hundred um IEP amendments and conduct conduct almost 300 evaluations every year and those include re-evaluations. Also, this does not include the large number of transfer IEPs that must be completed within 30 days of the student transferring to Belton. This year, we had 103 students with IEPs transfer into our district. So, when we're talking about we had a slight increase in our numbers, I think it was all in special ed. I mean, that's that's a lot of kids transferring into the program. We have two behavior interventionists which have handled over a 100 behavioral referrals this year along with supporting teachers, administrators, and paras.
012They also provide all the CPI or the crisis prevention in the district. Our STA staff members are clearly our biggest strength. We do have some opportunities for growth. Strengthening our program and further differentiating services we provide to students are two areas of growth and both require additional funding and resources and these are needs across the board and everything. There are simply never enough staff to meet the individualized needs of every student and every student we've been getting lately has more and more needs. So, this is just ongoing trying to keep up with what's going on with kids. Another opportunity for growth would be to improve our ability to deescalate students in crisis. As more students are presenting with significant histories of tri tra trauma and emotional dysregulation, it is impermperative that we meet them where
013they are. This requires universal staff training in verbal and physical deescalation techniques, specialized training in crisis management, and a time commitment required to help students work through their times of crisis. So, those are all some big items. It's all things that we're working towards. Um, we've been looking at different programs for emotional regulation and social emotional training, but it's just responding to the kids that are coming into our program and in record numbers this last year. So, just as a breakdown of how many students we have, I listed how many students are in each of the grade levels. Um, which also makes it a little hard to plan because we go anywhere from 38 to 78 students in any one grade level. So, as they shift between the the buildings, we have to be moving
014and shifting staff and trying to keep up with them. That number equals about 18.1% of all the students in the district have some kind of special needs and there are they are identified and on IEPs. We also have about 105 students on 504 plans. So together we're close to 20% of students have either IEPs or 504s. This year we did respond and I think respond very well to some of these students coming in. We started five new classes in the district to respond to all those new kids. And we have hired 15 new paras. Um seven of those were one-on-one paras for our kiddos coming out of Grace that were with significant disabilities. and we added a half-time um SLP at Grace to help meet the numbers there. We already know that for next year
015we are adding two classes at ECSC at Grace um to meet the needs of the students coming in and we're hoping that will get us through. But the numbers that we're getting for referrals, we're just going to have to wait and see on that. So, I love working here. I love working with the special ed department. I think we have amazing people and I think we're really blessed with the folks that we have and that are willing to work so hard to to work with all these kiddos on a daily basis. Any questions? Anything I can answer on your transfers coming in? Can you talk us through um how and why they're coming into our district? Is it because of placement from other districts, things of that nature? They're just moving. They're moving in and
016they have kiddos with disabilities. We are we've looked at the demographics trying to figure out ages and ranges, but they went from um 3 to 12th grade. We got a a senior halfway through her senior year that was nonverbal that had lots of issues for the last semester of school here in Belton. Her dad um had been in Independence, heard Belton had a good school district, so she popped on over for the last semester, but past that we I'm not sure. Okay. and our numbers at, you know, 20%. How is that measurable to say comparable districts of our size? It's a little bit higher than other districts. The states, um, they haven't raised their average in quite a while. They say about 13 to 14%, most districts are about 15 to 16%. Um, and we
017just were higher. But a lot of that I think is accounted for by grace because not many school districts have the kind of early childhood program that we do and that definitely draws kids. Well, and I was going to say I wonder if parents like the senior are seeking us out because of our program that we're able to offer their students. So, um, and I can agree that is kind of the same feedback that I hear out in the community regarding just we need more we need more staff. we need them to stay longer and it's it's a it's a difficult department to facilitate all the needs because there is so many needs. So we appreciate everything you guys are doing. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. A couple of questions for me. Sure. Um
018this is probably for all of the cabinet. What where are we at on par pay comparatively to other districts? You probably don't know that answer, but I would like to have that answer down the road. And what are you going to do about the streamline piece that you were talking about? The 90 days. Streamlining it. The 90 days. Um, oh, expediting it. We're working on um developing a new evaluation flowchart with the transfer IEPs next year at the beginning of the school year. We've always had that go to our evaluation team. Well, looking at at all the job descriptions for the process coordinators, our two people that primarily do testing, our educational diagnostician and our assessment coordinator. both that's their slow time because we haven't identified kids for testing yet. So, they're going to be
019the ones that step in and are going to be the primary the primary funnel for bringing in transfer kids. And like I said, that's about a 100 IEPs. So, then we're looking to if we need to re-evaluate them, we can get that process started sooner because we'll be able to process through them. Okay. So, it sounds like you have a plan going forward. We do. As I as I figured you would. And that would also be for current students that have recently got a new diagnosis or you know. Okay. And I also created a a very large cumbersome spreadsheet that will track all the dates involved because we have like five days from referral to get the procedural safeguards and within 30 days we have to decide if we think they have a disability and
020then within 30 days we have to you know so it lay lies it lays it all out nicely. So, but it'll also be on one place where I can go through and check and make sure we're hitting every deadline. And I think that will help make us um a little more accountable and we all can use a little more accountability. And we all know that we need to expand grace. That's also one of the reasons we were doing the facility plan because we know we've known this and that is part of the strategic plan to come up with a plan. So, yeah. Um we would all look forward to what do you think it would be our number would be without grace? We would never go without Grace. I'm just saying what would we Let's
021see. Grace has, don't worry, I wrote the number down. 91 kids with on IEPs there. So you would take a 100 kids off. We'd be about 705 710. Then they take So we we percentage wise that's not okay. All right. Right. Well, you know, I've said this before, but years ago, people that I know that used to work for the state and you would have like my son is autistic, they would say, "Well, you're in the right school district. We tell people all over the state to move to Belton." Um, and I doubt that has changed. Um, it doesn't appear so from the numbers. Yeah. So, do you need a motion on this? This is justformational. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. We do appreciate your support. Yep. Summer school update. Yes,
022we're still enrolling for summer school and it's coming quickly. It is um it will begin for grades uh prek through 12 on June 2nd and then grades prek through 9 will end on July 10th. The 10th through 12th graders will end on June 26th. Our locations are Kentucky Trail for kindergarten through third grade. Mil Creek will house 4th through 6th. Belton Middle School will have 7th through 9th. BHS has the 10th through 12th graders. Grace Early Childhood will also run a summer school as well as Scott will host the ESY. And then, um, Wilin Steam Academy at Hillrest will have their incoming kindergarteners there for their summer term. Um, if you would like to have your child enroll, the Power School parent portal is where you would enroll. And if you um need help accessing
023the parent portal, contact your child's school and they can definitely help you. Um there will be uh breakfast and lunch provided free to all students. We have some fun activities for 4th through 6 and 7 through 9. We'll have swimming. Um prek K through um 9th will have clubs in the afternoon as well as all subject areas. a chance to catch up on their skills and keep fresh with their skills as well. The high school will have online personal finance, health, they'll have a PE course that students can take for a credit, a physical fitness class that students will be able to enroll in, which is summer weights, known as summer weights, also driver's ed. So, make sure that you um support summer school. And if you need any help with the forms, don't hesitate
024to contact your child's school. Perfect. Thank you. Any questions for summer school? Um just want to clarify because there is a lot of questions in the community regarding the summer weights program um and confusion about what that means for their it's primarily for the athletes that are just signing up for that only. You still have to go in and apply. there's been changes to the application to show that it is just for the weights and for the time allotment that they're supposed to be there. Um, but it does not mean that they will be going to summer school classes all day long, but you still have to go on there and enroll your child so they are registered. Um, and it helps the school district in doing so for the accountability piece. Yes. Yes. And
025I believe coach Sheriffenberg also has um more forms and more information that he sent out to all the parents that have signed up for it and middle school as well as high school so that they can choose the time frame that they would like to attend the summer weights. But we are offering that for a quarter of a credit now. And it is important for students to be enrolled for summer school in order for them to earn that credit if they'd like it. And that also is a gateway to um advanced physical fitness. you have to they require you to do so many classes of that and that's how they keep track of it is through our power school. So that is a change this year. Yep. That is a new change and definitely that's
026where all the confusion started but you can it's still the summer weights but it has been renamed physical fitness. Yep. Um, and then also for clarification on the middle school weights program, um, if they need assistance with that, should they reach out to Miss Pascal or yourself for signing up for it? Quote, Sheriffenberg just sent out a message to the parents today as well. Okay, perfect. Any other questions? Okay, summer maintenance. Yes, it seems like we have a short list, but the summer gets shorter and shorter and the time the buildings are empty. So, they're going to be very busy uh this summer. Obviously, it's our traditional deep cleaning where they empty out the the furniture from all the classrooms um across the district and uh clean clean all the rooms, deep clean the rooms,
027strip floors, new wax down, try to make everything bright and shiny. So, that's that's a a rush just in itself. Um we've got a lot of painting going on inside several of the buildings. Um over the last several years we've staggered it really taking things back to purple and gold um across the CA campuses. This year we're going to focus primarily inside on Hillrest Glad and Cambridge and then there's some sections of BHS that need it. Um, one thing that I'm excited about, think about the front of Cambridge and Gladen. The front of Cambridge and Gladen where they have a lot of that slick green block supposedly have a new paint that will adhere to that and that should be purple by the time the school year starts. So, that's going to look good. Um,
028we'll be closing the varsity baseball field this summer. If you drive by it and after a rain and see that all the water pools in the middle of it um after several years of playing on it, we need to close that field down, take off the grass, take off the mound, recrown it, and have it ready to go then for next school year. So, that will be shut down. Um we're doing some concrete work in front of Grace and the entry to the uh BMS forum. Uh we're continuing adding white rock um and the landscaping across the district. But the biggest project we have going on this summer is cleaning out Yokum Yokum Center of Innovation. Uh we are looking at part of our long range planning to utilizing that entire building, how the needs
029can best serve us of that building and uh it's been a storage facility for a long time. So that'll be a big project. It'll be exciting over the next couple years as that building gets utilized. Um so that that is the summer in a nutshell for our guys. I'm sure there'll be other projects come up, but that's the focus. Great. Um, I did have a question. Anyone else have a question? I had one in a minute. Go ahead. Uh, been talked that we need to refurbish the football field. Is that correct? Um, what are the We h we have we go through a a safety test every year. I'm trying to think now. I testing on the on the field. It's still testing very well. It should be at end of life. I mean, it
030we're we're nearing end of life just on and we knew that from the time we build it. It's still a very safe field to play on. Um there's there is some concrete around that track that is starting to crumble that's going to need to be replaced. Um and it's a big project. Yes. That that is we are nearing in as a district in time to re redo that. Well, my thought was if we're going to redo the football field somewhere down the line, can we possibly look into the possibility of looking at the turf on the baseball field and softball field and how much extra that would cost? Because if we do it all at once, we might get a good deal. Who knows? We have looked at that and we are planning to bring
031that to the board in January of 2026. Oh, yeah. Yes. We can arrange that where you will be. Yes. If we're going to talk football fields, you should go look at the middle school football field. That is an ankle twister. Okay. All righty. Oh, my question was going to be I know the city has put out that temporary fence. We gave them that property at Wilkins. I would like us to push the city to put up some type of permanent fence and for them to take care of their own property rather than us, please. We gave that to them. It's time for them to step up to the plate. I know the mayor is not here, but that is on my list of things that I want to do the word correctly. Let's just say
032I'm going to be bothersome about to people. So, I know it won't be you, but it will be something that that we ag when we gave him that property, we agreed as long as they'd put up a fence. President Miller, I think that's an excellent idea. So, he and I will be having some conversations. Anything else? Budget update. All right. Um, I gave you a a hard copy and you have it um on your board docs again. um go over what I have in the memo. The biggest adjustment, sorry, the biggest adjustment to this is the addition of the local revenue. Um, with that 30 cent levy transfer that voters approved in April, um, with the reassessment letters that we all got from the county this week, we all we all saw those. Those are
033all fun. Um, we got about a 12.8% increase in in our assessed values that we'll be able to take advantage of. So that's going to generate more funds than than we had originally planned. So that's that's very good news. Look like it will will generate approximately $3 million out of that. So that's the biggest changes you're going to see. We're doing some coding stuff right now back and forth. Not a lot of changes in expenses. Um we had our first meet and confer and we're Andy, Jill, and I are working through now. We get some of these revenue numbers in knowing what we can do salary-wise. We're going to have our our second meet and confer meeting there um after the after the Memorial Day break. So that'll be the last big rock to get
034put in the jar before I bring this budget to you in June. And I'll need an approval in June. Um but actually finance-wise pretty good. I did put in the memo um that state approved the budget with the um state adequacy target of 7125 in it. Still a lot of things can happen. Um, I'm not going to count our chickens before they hatch, right? Make fun of me later for that. Um, says the beef guy. Yeah, says it says the beef guy. Yeah, I I don't count the rain until it's on the ground. How about that? I don't listen to forecasts. That's what I look at. But, uh, there's some potential good news there at the state level, too. So, for all the all the worries we've gone through, it seems like we have potentially
035good budget news for us. So, but if you have any questions over the budget, anything you you want to know about prior to that June 18th meeting, please don't hesitate to reach out, give me a call, text, email, um, and and I'll be glad to look into stuff for you. Any questions? Grace, tuition. Yes. Um, we started this I don't know how many years ago. Um, we looked at our our early childhood fees and they were extremely low compared to other options in in the not only the city, the county, but in in the area. And so just to help keep up with expenses, we agreed that we'd raise them by the consumer price index increase each year. Um, so these are the proposed rates for 2526 represent a 2.9% increase over what was currently
036in this year. So the administration ask the board to approve the grace 20 2526 rates as presented. Motion to approve the grace tuition rates for the 2526 school year is presented. Second. We have a motion and a second to uh approve the grace tuition rates increase for the 2526 school year. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. All opposed. Passes. Demographer selection. Yes. Um with the potential of a upcoming bond issue in FY26, the selection of a new architect, um with maybe some changes, some variances of what we expected from our last demographic study, we thought it was in the best interest of the district to go out for bid for a a new demographer to see what was out there. Um, and so we went out in over the course of
037March and April, we got, as you can see, five qualified offers. Um, really ranged in price and in location in the country, which actually affected their price as well. So, as you can imagine, it cost a little more to travel in and do those. Um our architect that we selected at the last meeting has worked with the recommended um bidder RSP and Associates out of Overland Park. Has a lot of good things to say about them. So after reviewing all proposals, uh the administration asked the board to approve RSP Associates out of Overland Park, Kansas as our new demographer. Motion to approve the selected demographer as presented. Take it. We have a motion and a second to accept accept the uh bid for demographer as presented. I do have a question. Since that's such a
038lower number, did did did they miss something? That was my question. Is the scope of work drastically different here? We went through the bids and no I couldn't find anything that they missed. and other school districts that have utilized them also pointed out that it was a significant uh decrease. Uh I would say that even one of the school districts that was a home district to our current demographer went with these uh individuals as well because of it was a significant price for I was just concerned that we'd get a bunch of oh we didn't catch that 100% that's what I'm fearful of. Change orders change orders. Yes. Yeah. I just love those so much in my profession. Yeah. Yeah. We have not gotten any indication that that would be the case from said architects
039other several local references. Okay, that answered my question. Anyone else? Seeing no other discussion, all in favor say I. I. All opposed. Passes. Legislative update. I'll let you start. Yes, we have uh come to a the end of the feverish pitch of our 2025 legislative session and as you well know um there are a few items that are I think have caught people's attention regard education the no cell phone uh policy change uh from the beginning to the end of the school day uh supposedly no use during any time uh during uh the session and so we'll be working on that. uh we have a year in essence to to work toward that and it will come into u uh what what I want to say officially in August but I think there's a start
040date for the 2026 school year in that regard. So, uh, my thought has been that we will work with our staff and, uh, work toward, ironically, we were getting ready to do some surveys through communications with Miss Hayes, uh, looking at our policy. Uh, but this really kind of takes that takes it out of our hands and in essence of what we need to do and what we require. And so, uh, we'll look at options and consequences. Some districts uh have utilized these locking individual cases and other ways to and which to uh keep the you use down. I don't know that we're going to go to that extreme, but nonetheless, we'll look at it. Uh maybe we implement in January. We may wait till August. Obviously, we're not coming out in August of 2025
041with any change, but we'll work toward making that change and meet the expectation of our new legislation uh that has been passed. uh fixed for the 169 school day if there's any kind of extenduating circumstances that the commissioner has the authority to forgive uh because that is a uh potential cost of 1% of our uh foundation formula money that we could uh in essence lose if we do not meet that requirement. So there is that fix. It's not for this year. It's starting for next, but nonetheless, uh it will be there in play as we've had some significant weather um across the state in different places. Um our liability insurance had informed us uh some of the I can't remember now some of the costs that some of our districts down kind of um Rala
042area. Is that right? and the millions of dollars and of course when we're in a consortium like that does affect our rates but we have had some more extreme weather issues than we've had in in decades I think the way they explained it last few years and so uh those are some of the fixes uh that they are calling fixes but nonetheless um we do have um in regards to education probably the biggest talking point that did not pass was open enrollment And so that's still out there. Obviously, our federal government is now talking about uh in essence a voucher program for across the country. And uh so I know there's conversation about that. How that would affect us directly. I'm not sure. We'll just have to let that play out uh in regards to
043legislation. And then uh just some other minor changes that I saw throughout the the session because ironically the biggest piece came back to the minimum wage and it came back to abortion. uh that once that happened um the Senate shut down. Uh there was a big um bill that in essence they wanted to put $50 million towards some hospitals and other uh state infrastructure that did not move forward. And then also they wanted to have a fix for the Chiefs and the Royals. And we're hearing that they are planning the governor I shouldn't say they it's the governor has to call a special session. and what those items are. They can only address what he specifically states that he's calling that session for. And so it'll be interesting to see because we do know that
044our neighbors to the west uh have made some offers uh for our teams uh to move across the state line. So it'll be interesting to see what Jeff City in essence does in that relation. And so any other um items in relation to education? President Miller, if there's anything else you'd like to add? No, I you you I the Sen was the one that has he hadn't signed anything yet, but I I look for him to sign everything. So, yeah. And after talking to Miss Alec the other day, I'm pretty sure they're only going to talk about the the Chiefs and maybe that that 500 million, but that's about it. You know, the one other thing I would point out is that the governor has po appointed a task force for school funding. I think
045he's given them uh approximately two years to come up with a potential change to our funding formula. It's not been um changed and or adjusted since uh the early 2000s. And so they are looking to possibly as we move from attendance as our funding um resource to enrollment. Uh we're obviously making that change now. Uh but it'll be interesting to see how they uh want to fund schools in the future and if you haven't seen there is a list of individuals that have been appointed uh to that task force and uh I would say it is stacked against public education the individuals that are on that task force. Yeah, there's only a couple I know of Melissa I think is on that task force. um Miss Alysa Rando of MSBA and that we almost had
046to force that one. So, yeah. Any other questions about legislation on the cell phone policy that they're discussing? Is the um motivating factor behind it the interruptions that the cell phone creates or is it just they don't want that ability to have, you know, non-monitored technology in front of the student during the school day. Yeah. who who knows what the Well, one of the individuals that presented the legislation is a former educator and she felt like students were distracted by the technology and she felt like she had more engagement and um their studies out in regards we've talked about in regards to reading uh the comprehension piece um utilizing a technological device actually versus having uh paper print uh they feel is uh more powerful for students and so to try to move away from
047some of that we still want technology and resources for our students because it is what they will work with in the workforce. Um so there is a balance uh we want the resource but then again we do not want that to replace teaching and learning in the classroom either and so there is a balance there in that regard but nonetheless I think that the individual or one of that presented the legislation was about the distraction piece for students and they wanted to take that away. We know we have trouble with students that want to video. Miss Kremley could talk about that to admire the number of students that want to video uh differing incidents or events that occur. Um whether it's the sharing of that obviously that can cause distraction what happens in bathrooms and
048other aspects where students can share that or the texting or other things that can be distraction in the classroom as well. All righty. Thank you. Some unfinished business. MSBA policy second reading. Chair will accept a motion. Motion to approve the second reading of the 2024D policies as presented. Second. We have a motion and accept and a second to accept the MSBA policy 2024Ds as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. All opposed. Passes. Horizontal advancement. Yes, we have a few of those for you this evening. The administration asked the board to approve the horizontal advancement as presented. To approve the horizontal advancements as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the hor horizontal advancements as presented. Are these for next year? This year. This year. Okay. All
049righty. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. Passes. Job description. Yes. You'll see here a job description for an athletic trainer. And um we received word just a few months ago that uh Belton Regional Medical Center was discontinuing their athletic trainer program. And so here you'll see a job description as we move to try to find someone to fill that position. We know it's a really important position for our student athletes. So we are working diligently to find someone. Okay. So go ahead. Any questions? Well, not until after we make the motion. Okay. The administration asked the board to approve the job description for the athletic trainer as presented. Motion to approve the job description for athletic trainer is presented. Second. We have a motion and a second
050to approve the athletic trainer job description. Any discussion? I know that we have discussed the district's need for more than one trainer previously um just due to the amount of injuries that we're having take place. Um what does that look like for us budgetwise, staffwise, is that something that we can entertain? I mean budget-wise, it's an additional position. If you remember that that Belton Regional cut that out of the contract last year and then cut the varsity trainer this year. So it's something that has been in the budget in previous years in some degree because when they cut the position they did cut the cost of the contract. So So are we hiring for just one trainer at this time? Yes. We need to Okay. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I.
051I. I. I. All opposed. Passes. Committee updates. MSBA. I don't think we have much, but uh Mary summer summit's just around the corner. Uh June 16th and 17th. Um in Branson, we have a school board meeting the day after, so we'll be able to bring back fresh ideas and thoughts. Um during the lunchon on the um during the conference, Belton will be one of 31 school districts who will win will receive their governance team award for the work they do as a board. Um we also have the fall conference in Kansas City that's coming up October 23rd through the 25th just to save the date idea. And uh they did a webinar u a month or two ago on AI 101 and that's now a webinar. It's an about a little over an hour and
052you can go on to the MSBA website and you can watch that at your leisure. A lot of it is the information we got at the conference last year, but there are a few new things here and there throughout the the webinar. That's all I got. Perfect. Um, excuse me. From the board of director's point of view, we we discussed um staying in Branson. Another working on whether they want to continue the next path uh of that with them. Um and uh we're still going to be in Kansas City for uh two more years. It looks like maybe three for the annual conference. That's uh that's all I have on on that one. Bel and Cares as a newbie to the Belt and Cares. I sat there for five minutes going, "Wow, they're talking about
053a lot of stuff. I need to start writing stuff down." Anyway, uh and Mary was there and so she can help back me up a little bit. But talked about the Troy Shaw Golf Tournament and I guess uh we're going to have a golf cannon to start the uh event. So, uh, and they will have a hole-in-one $10,000 prize. And they checked to see if that was if maybe two people would do that and they would pay for the second one also. And then, um, we're going to have a Belt and Cares web page. Is that correct, Mary? It is up and running. I've got the QR code if anybody would like it to, uh, see what our our web page looks like. And uh the CAS Connect on June 20th, what was that all
054about? Do you remember? That is when we serve uh we uh are at Belton High School and it's to help our underserved population. Uh people will come there, they get vision checks. Uh there's a dentist there that does dental work. Uh we provide all sorts of resources. I think the whole back wall is just the VA to help a lot of our veterans. Uh the first year we had it, we had a little less than 100 people. Last year we had well over 100. We're planning for 300 this year. So, uh, Wayside Waste will be there to help with dog bathing and shots and different things, too. So, I don't know what else we're adding. We meet next week again to to get that finalized, but it's uh um the the group that is actually
055that's over that is Compass Health. So, a lot there for poverty and mental health, all of those kinds of things. So, well, as the rookie in this operation, I always refer back to the veteran. Uh, and there's also a a beat Bob volleyball thing tomorrow night at 6:00. Uh, if I understand this correctly, Bob is a one-man show and you have to have a team against him. Is that correct? Okay. He's beat lots of teams. I think he's undefeated. Yeah. I don't know how to uh enroll or just go up and say, "Let's go. Let's do it." Yeah. Uh, anything else that I missed? Possibly. I I can't think of anything because you were there. So, I I Is this a This is a fundraiser for Bel Cares, right? What's that? Is this Beat Bob?
056Beat Bob. No, that's through one of the local churches. Oh, one Okay. One of the local And it's to help with bullying and and motivation for self-esteem and things like that. Okay. Well, unless Mary has any more. I I wrote down a lot. I think we're fast. I think we're good for right now. Okay. All righty. Belton Educational Foundation. How'd your I had my first meeting. Um and Dennis is actually here from the board. Um wanted to pop in and see how we do things over here. Um we had grant day followed by my first meeting where we awarded $12,500 to um a couple of different very um special teachers that wrote them for those. Those will be coming out this week. So keep an eye on their social media for those announcements. Um we
057also got to do a couple of tours of past award recipients and we got to see the kids in action with some of their um grant items that they purchased. There was anything from seating to um I was really intrigued of course um by the bird watching that they've been doing in um a couple of classrooms. They have the video um bird house and the kids are like watching these birds and taking on a middle-aged uh activity at a very young age. Um they also had a couple of dubs fall out of a tree so they felt fully prepared to foster these dubs and the teachers telling them no, we got to put them back outside. Um and so in addition to that um let's see here they are also going to be growing their
058program as well. they will be making that announcement soon as well. Um, what else? We've got opportunities for uh, Gayla sponsorships. You can always sign up to sponsor just the foundation in general. They are also looking for donations for their baskets um, for the Gayla. So, if anybody wants to put one of those together, they are always happy to receive those. Um, and that date is set for September 6. So, get your tickets now. All righty. City of Belton. Not a whole lot going on there. Well, nothing that we're nothing that we're going to be concerned about. There might be a lot going on. We'll let the city fight their own battle. The last meeting was pretty generic. It wasn't anything. Okay. I' I'd like to uh tell you that for the people that are
059on the city of Belton committee, I really don't expect you to go to all these meetings, we're really on there in case they ever decide to do a tiff again because we have two voting spots. So, we don't have to have that on every time. If if you want to do it, watch go to the meeting. If I go I go to the first one of the month and Dave goes to the second. Most of the time I just watch it online. Okay. That's that's usually what I do is just watch it online. But so I just want to clarify that we don't need a lot with of of that with the city. So some miscellaneous dates. No school on the 26th of May for Memorial Day. Excuse me. May 29th, last day of school
060early release except for Wilkins. Uh May 29th is the staff appreciation lunch at Southwick Stadium 11 to2. May 29th is also the uh ste welcome steam academy talent show at 5:30. The first day of summer school is June 3rd and June 19th is no school for summer school for Junth. Are there any dates that the chair missed? Summer school and Wilkins. No school for June 19th. Okay. Anybody? All righty. Any other miscellaneous dates? Seeing none, the chair will accept a motion. I make a motion we adjourn. We have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. Any discussion? Seeing none, Jim? Yes. Aaron? Yes. Mary. Teresa? Yes. And we're out of here. Thanks.