001Uh, Mr. President, I move that the board approve the January 12th, 2026 agenda. Seconded. >> Motion made and seconded. Motion passes. Next we'll have uh report of board members. More Senator, >> Mr. President, members of Raytown Quality Schools, um, I'd like to report that I attended on December 10th the Urban Community Connection holiday party in which I had the pleasure of playing Mrs. Claus with my esteemed member Mr. Newton and the children at that event, they wrote letters to Santa, right? Saying the things. And the thing about it, the thing that they that that stuck out for me is they asked them to write what they were thankful for. >> And one of them, she actually wrote the letter. She's a an eight-year-old at SV >> Valley, >> Spring Valley. and she wrote the letter
002in Spanish. So, we had one of the um teachers there to translate it for us. And this is what she said that God takes care of us and loves us. I also want to thank you for taking in consideration my family. Thank you. I am looking forward to the gifts you have given me. Thank you and may God bless you. And her name is Rihanna. That little girl when she approached us had had a gleam in her eye that was so unbelievable. Her gratitude exuded just from her presentation of that letter. The way she handed that letter to Santa was just adorable. And when I think about all the other letters that we received and the way the children expressed their gratitude for my family, for the good school year, I'm thankful for Jesus. I'm
003thankful I'm looking forward to sleeping. They were looking forward to the vacation coming up, right? I am this year I am thankful for my teachers and I'm looking forward to turning six. >> Little things, little acts of gratitude that we can see in our little ones and our children is something that we can all embrace and take note of and use as an example for our older selves. Right? When you see the little ones showing so much gratitude for the little things, it does cause us to kind of reflect, introspect, and say of ourselves, I too should be really grateful even for the little things. And I personally am very grateful and thankful for being a part of of the board and for being a part of having a voice to speak for the students
004teachers of Raytown Quality Schools. I also had the opportunity to adopt a student uh for the um what was it? It was the it was a third grader in one of our schools for the Christmas season. And that is my report. >> Dr. Douglas. >> Good evening everybody and happy new year. Happy New Year to everybody. Over the Christmas holidays, one of the major things I did was spend a lot of time with my family and grandchildren and I think that in itself uh was an opportunity for me. Um, on December 12th, uh, we were invited, uh, the board along with others were invited to by Dr. Martin Knox to a Christmas party lunchon that was held, uh, for her administrative staff. And I just like to say that I really enjoyed that. I met
005a group of the administrative staff, got to have lunch at the table, Michael and I, with a group that I had never met before. I've seen them, but I never personally met them. And it was just wonderful to get to hear their heart and for them to kind of hear our hearts as board members. So, thank you Dr. Knox for the invite. And the food was wonderful. It was really was it the green beans? Them green beans was fire. So, and on uh also on december 12th, I got to I know that last time I told you that I had chose to choose a child for the Christmas to, you know, give gifts to. Well, I actually got the gifts for a eight-year-old from Spring Valley uh through Raytown South's uh student council and was
006able to deliver those gifts in good time to the school and that made me feel good. My granddaughter who's a freshman at South also helped in that. That made her feel good as well. So, thank you uh city c um youth coun uh student council. On the 17th, I was able to uh again, my granddaughter and my family and I to give financial assistance to West Ridge uh through the Ridge and One Spirit Church uh for gloves, hats, and whatever else they needed for a winter outer wear. Uh uh West Ridge is kind of in my adoptive location. So, they're not just only one, but I'm glad to have been able to do that. And today we met with the curriculum and professional learning committee, uh, Dr. Grryer and Mr. Grit, and we're updated on
007some great stuff that is coming through our district. I want to thank them. Uh, you'll hear a little bit more about, uh, some of the stuff we talked about, and I'm sure you're going to hear much more to come. That's my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Douglas. >> Mr. Jameson, [clears throat] >> good evening, everyone. Um, happy holidays and happy new year. Um, I think today's like the last day you can say that. Um, so I had a great time um, over the past month. Um, I'll let uh, Mr. Newton talk about our time at three trails. Um, but that was very fun and great to see those kids. Um, I really enjoy seeing the little ones and seeing their smiles. uh you know, you see some of the older kids, they're they're
008happy, but not as happy as as the little ones. Th that really, you know, warmed my heart during during that time. Um really enjoyed that. Um also been to a couple basketball games. Um so it's it is that time. Um I'm going to see the Lady Jay's next week. Uh we can't wait for that. Um and that is mostly it um for my time. Thank you. Hey, hey, happy new year everyone. I just really quickly got a chance to uh drop in on Dr. Knox at Raytown South last month and I was excited to see uh her interaction with the students. Uh whenever your students in the district know their superintendent uh that is something that is is something that should be celebrated. Um and a lot of our students know who she is when
009she walks in the building. She is a celebrity and superstar in her own right. Uh but more importantly than that, just seeing the environment at Raytown South with the students uh and the student groups who were there from uh freshman through seniors. Uh hearing them talk about, you know, their experience so far this year and how uplifting uh and and dedicated they are. I know that's a credit to the teachers and the staff in that building. So I was excited to hear about that. Uh over at REAp, we got a chance to serve over 150 families uh for Christmas this year. And so that was about 420 uh Raytown um students who were able to receive Christmas gifts. Um so I want to thank our wonderful team over there, Holly and Jackie and Whitney and
010our ladies Amber Lyndon um and Janet and Judy and um Ca and Kathy. So um got a chance to do that. And then coming up, I think we've sent some stuff out to the um teachers about our our teacher kind of giveaway we do a couple times a year where our teachers in the district are able to come over to Reap and um kind of shop in like a teacher store so they can you know build their closets up uh you know snacks, clothes, all kind of you know teacher goodies. And so we're always excited to uh to serve our our teachers and our staff uh in the community. So that's my report. >> Thank you. I was everywhere. >> Happy New Year. And I just want to thank new trails and everybody. I I
011I had a tremendous month. I think I was I don't want to say everywhere because I was everywhere. I played Santa. I delivered over 400 toys. I gave away bikes. I went and seen students. I I was everywhere. I loved it. It was tremendous. I had a great time. I'm still tired. Um, but I enjoy I enjoy it every year. I try to get as many places as I can. Um, we deliver like [snorts] 700 homeless meals. Um, and we just had a ball doing it. We continuously do it. We'll do it every year as long as we able to do it. Um, I love seeing students. I I love it. So, I get out. I play sand as many I I had a time with Miss Claus. I had a time with my elf.
012I had time of my life. So, I love it. Uh uh we we we went over we went through hallways. We went through schools. The smiles in the labs was priceless. I enjoy having fun with the teachers. I enjoy having fun with the students. Uh I enjoy dropping off bicycles. I enjoy it. I love it. It's it's the the it's why I'm a board member. So I appreciate you guys having me. Happy New Year. Hope you guys a prosperous, safe, blessed new year to you and your family. And thank you for having me. Um, so that concludes our board member reports, but I just want to say uh what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for the board and how active you all are and uh and partnering with uh everyone um inside the district uh
013parents, the community, business owners, the leaders. I really appreciate uh the work that you guys are doing and I want to congratulate uh Dr. Douglas and Mr. Watson uh for uh getting another three years signing up for that uh because we know that it it takes it takes some time. It takes some dedication, but we know that you care for our students and this community. Also want to thank uh Rick. Uh he has three more months, so we get to we get to bother him as much as we can for the next three months, but I'm sure that he's gonna be a integral part of our community as he always has. And so, uh, just want to thank you guys, uh, and and thank you all for giving us the opportunity to be up here
014to represent you and to look after what's precious to us all. Good evening, President Burton, Vice President Newton, Board of Education, Dr. Martin Knox. This evening for our ray of hope, we are recognizing Sabrine Johnson, and it is in recognition of her selfless act of kindness and generosity toward her classmates at Southwood Elementary. Her actions reflect the values of RQS and serve as a powerful example of what it means to be a friend, peer, and student. Through her thoughtfulness, she made a lasting impact on our classroom and helped strengthen a school community where students feel supported, valued, and inspired to care for one another. And we have a video with exactly what it is Sabrine did for her classroom. >> Sabrina always comes in smiling and happy. She takes school very seriously. Like she reminds
015me when we have a spelling test and is very highly motivated. She's also a really good friend. Science study was kind of something we inherited from our teammate who had been here for a long time. That was just typically their fall field trip. And so we were looking at going, but also we've [music] been really focusing on our new science curriculum and digging deep into that. But it's also the subject they enjoy the most and getting their hands dirty and getting their hands on things. And when we told them they were going, they were ecstatic cuz they had never been. When she came in that day, it was the day after I passed out permission slips. And thankfully, we earned a scholarship to go to science study. So, they didn't have to buy tickets. [music]
016All we had to pay for for was the lunchroom. And it worked out that it was just a dollar [music] per student. But I did have some students visibly stressed. She walks in the [music] next morning, hands me an envelope, and on it it says Sabrine would like to pay for her whole class for the field trip. >> I paid for the whole class because I wanted to be nice. I just wanted um them to have have fun. It made my heart so warm because how many times do we see students, especially students of this age in elementary, that show that they want to do something [music] for their peers and that they want to be respectful and give back to their community. >> Miss Murphy um was um she was unemotional. >> I started
017crying. I cried a lot. My brother tried to pay it forward and was like, "Give her her money back. I'll pay for your kids to go on the field trip." And when I told Sabrine, she's like, "No, I want to do this." And I go, "So, what should we do with what my brother sent us?" She goes, "You should buy things for the store for the kids." Like, she just kept paying it forward. And to see that kind of kindness in [music] an 8-year-old is inspiring and wonderful and just a true act of kindness. The field trip was exciting. I got to pop over there and kids were running wild. They were having so much fun. So, you know, Science City is just such an engaging place where students can learn and just be connected.
018>> It was really fun on the bus to kind of hear their oo and a's. They were really just excited to go to a new place and experience that and learn through play. >> I had so much fun that um that my favorite part was the um little playground. I asked her permission to tell the class like who paid for them. Whenever I told the class like they started cheering and she kind of was like just like this shy little smile like very humble like you could tell she wasn't like feeding off the attention. It was a true act from the heart. >> They're like um why do I have to put my money back in my backpack? I brought it for the field trip. after when we got to the carpet um Miss Murphy
019told everyone and everyone said thank you and then they um pitched me for the hero of the week. >> I think that that's one of our big things that we focus on this year is just how to be a good human, right? So reading comes, [music] math comes. We have so many opportunities, but as we get older, we need to be a good human, a good friend. And so I think that our teachers do a really great job. Miss Murphy's class has such a good community and really [music] working to do that and connect it to a bigger picture throughout Southwood, throughout Raytown and you know throughout the Kansas City area. I'm really excited [music] she's being honored this way because it is such a non8-year-old thing to do. Every day is a day that
020someone needs someone to be their champion. And something so little as a smile or saying hello or checking in can really mean the world of difference. >> I like this school a lot. I love all my friends. [music] Mom and dad here. And Yeah. >> Take a picture. Good morning. Thank you so much. It's very inspiring. Mr. President, really quickly, I just want to just want to thank the parents. Can we give them a round of applause as well? that is such a testament to the way that she's being raised to even have a heart like that. So, we just really appreciate you all as well as Principal Quinn uh and the teacher for your leadership over there. Thank you all. >> No. You ready? >> Uh, next is the report of superintendent. >> So,
021good evening, Chairman Burton, Vice Chairman Newton, members of the Raytown Quality School District Board, and members of our Raytown Quality School District community. Uh, Sabrine, before you leave, where is she? Oh, I didn't even see you. I saw the >> So, what I need to do is schedule lunch with you. So, I need you to tell Miss Quinn what you'd like for lunch, and we'll schedule time for me to come to have lunch so I can do something for you. Uh, so thank you for what you do. >> Can you do me a favor and please don't pick pizza? Sorry, maybe that wasn't appropriate. So, um we're going to move to item 9.7 first. Uh and then I'll come back with superintendent announcements. But 9.7 are our student representatives and their report uh for our
022high schools. Um, hello. My name is Donovan Graves. I am the Raytown High School student council marketing chair. >> Hi. Let me scoot in a little closer. I My name is Cord Howard. Our I am our service committee chair. Uh so today we um so first we're going to talk about um before break we candy cane cars and we basically did that just you know just spread a little holiday each year cheer. It was right before finals week, you know, just um something to, you know, keep spirits up and it was a really successful. People liked it. Students, teachers, like we literally went out to the parking lot, all the cars got a candy cane on the handle and if you know they had a handle that couldn't put a candy cane on, we just
023put it on the the mirror. Um, and we had so many candy canes, like we got so many candy canes donated that the kids that can drive or you know, we just went to the cafeteria during like the freshman lunch and just handed out candy canes. So, everybody got to get some and you know, it was a really nice thing to do. >> Hi, just you guys have never seen me before. I'm so sorry, but would you be okay if I check my phone? What I'm supposed to speak about? This is ever so slightly last minute. Like when I tell you I got the text that our usual students could not come in when I had just gotten home from theater rehearsals. >> It It's I'm sorry. He just he he just told me what
024I'm supposed to talk about. >> Oh, Ben, hold on. >> I got you. Hold on. >> If my phone would load, hold on. >> We got notes. So I'm here to talk about our cookies and cramming. So the idea with cookies and cramming, it is a service event. So it's one of mine. The idea is that we take our library and anyone who is wanting to receive some level of tutoring, just come in there and chill out and just well basically just hang out with us. Um he was one of our tutors. They get to come in. He sat down with a bunch of kids. He got to speak with them about English, math, whole bunch of other subjects. Usually we do we try to get some of the kids who are a little more
025academically inclined to come in and try and help us. But why we call it cookies and cramming is we also offer them cookies free of charge and hot chocolate. >> I personally stood in front of the library and gave out tickets for people to receive cookies and hot chocolate and it was a really good event. >> Oh, I'm also talking about that. My bad again. I just got here. >> We would also like to shout out one of our teachers, Mr. Nelson. He is a math teacher. He came in to help out with cookies and cramming. Um, he was one of two teachers who did that. He was the only teacher. >> Well, see, math is a very sore subject, especially for me. I don't have a math class cuz I'm a senior. However, other
026people needed it and he was a big help and we just wanted to make sure we shouted him out cuz I'm very grateful he came cuz he made it even better. >> All right, so next uh we have adopted family. And adopt a family, I'm pretty sure a lot of people in here know what it is, but um we're able to raise enough money to buy presents for a family of six. So we were really happy. We were really proud of that cuz, you know, everybody did their part. You know, we went around during lunch, you know, trying to collect donations if people didn't have them the first couple of days and made sure to bring them the next week and whatever. We're just really, really proud of our school. You know, people were really
027giving and it really helped out and we were able to, you know, make some families Christmas happen. Just slide it over real quick. I'm going to talk about our Polar Plunge. So, with student council, we partner with SO Olympics. at Special Olympics of Missouri. The idea with the Polar Plunge is you have to raise individually $74. And with you raising those $74, you are meant to jump into a freezing cold lake to show your commitment to SOMO Olympics. See, I don't like the cold personally. However, we ball regardless. I'm going to see if I can do it this year. Um, we're going to tough it out. But yeah, it's a really good it's a really big thing for us, especially with student council. We work with SO Olympics a lot. I personally love it. I've
028done a lot of Special Olympic events and um this is just going to be a new one for me. >> Hey, Mr. New, what's that date? >> Actually, actually, I'm coaching the Special Olympics. So, I will be coaching the Special Olympics. I come up there every Wednesday. I help out on the Special Olympics. So, we'll be coaching basketball. So for all you guys, Special Olympics basketball will be up in Flat County. So I would go to Special Olympics. I do it with Braytown. >> You don't get Are you gonna take off >> basketball? But you could teach swimming though, too. >> Basketball. Thank you. >> Stay in my lane. We're going to talk about one more thing that is our winter energizer. So, a a lot of student council is based off planning events for
029other people. And I've talked to a lot of people a lot about this. What happens when student council kids plan events for themselves? This is one of them. The winter energizer is three days. It's in High Hill, Missouri. I believe it's also out of a summer camp. So, you will be spending all three of those day all three of those days on campus where you'll be meeting a whole bunch of new people, experiencing new things. It's I lost the words. It's it's it's really fun. I recommend it to anybody who's in student council all throughout Missouri. Um you'll learn about um different events you can put on for your school. You'll learn about um different ways you can become a better leader and how to apply that with your own homeschool. Like I know I've
030learned a lot from student council events where I feel like I've grown as a person just going to these events and just meeting these new people and being able to spread my wings because beforehand I'm I'm a very shy person. >> Get out of here. >> Don't give me Don't give me that. >> Well, beforehand it's been a long four years. I'll say it's been a really long four years for me. >> I'm telling you I've grown a lot. You have no idea. Love you love it. Yeah. But uh >> but yeah, that'll be all from us. Put your phone on. >> I got >> You should tell your counterparts that they were not doing you right by telling you you couldn't use your phone because they use their phone every time. So yeah, >>
031this is a personal thing I was always told whenever doing presentation. You should never like have your phone out the entire even with like >> Yeah. Well, you did a good job. So thank Hi everyone, my name is Jenna Dialo and I'm the student council president at South. >> Hi, my name is Riley Hanks and I'm on the senior exec board at South. >> Hello, my name is Casey Hayes and I'm a student representative at South. >> Okay, to start us off, I want to talk about Interact Club, which is our youth Rotary Club. So, we had a home opener can drive, which we had people able to come in. If they bring in two cans, they can get into the basketball game for free. So, we had about 50 to 70 cans brought in.
032It was pretty successful for the first one. And I was able to drop them off at the Mtown. >> Yeah. re and I got help with that. Next, our youth Rotary Club also went to Ronald McDonald House in the city and we were able to cook tacos for the residents there and we had about 10 to 15 people help with that. Next, our debate tournament. We had over 300 kids in our building and it ran pretty successfully. We had a lot of volunteers as well. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Um, next thing we have coming up is the blood drive for National Honor Society on the 29th. So, we're hoping, this is our first drive in about two years, so we're hoping to get a lot of um people to come donate blood. And then
033we're also looking to have a Black History Month program in February. This is something that we do every year in our auditorium where we kind of just do like a showcase. We have our steppers, our jazz band. Um, our choir does like the black national anthem. This is like a cool moment to celebrate black culture and we're hoping to make it even bigger this year with our black student union. And then before break, we had our quarterly celebration to celebrate attendance and academics. So, we had students with 95 plus% attendance and also I think 3.5 and above GPA. They got to enjoy cookies and hot cocoa, movies in the auditorium, open gym or flex space with like board games. So that was like great event. We had so many students that were able to participate
034and it was a great way to end off the semester. And we also had our Christmas party which we want to say thank you to all who sponsored a student. We had over 50 kids sponsored. So, it was a great event and we had so many like large gifts and also a lot of fun cookie decorations and karaoke and all these things for the kids to enjoy. >> Hello guys. Um, so so we'll before our break like yeah a day before we hosted our Raytown South tournament that we didn't have last year. We had it two years ago. Now we have it now for wrestling and we had over 15 high schools there and like around like 150 wrestlers and one of and two of our wrestlers, Santiago Rodriguez and Alex Alexis Love meddled at
035our own. Um, also coming up is our rival basketball game next month at our school, the Southside, not the town. Who cares about that? for >> I was a Blue Jay for like one for like elementary school and it was like the lamest years of my life but it's like but I digress. I digress. I digress. Um and also our wrestling ter our wrestling senior night is tomorrow. So that is it. And also our swimming senior night is the 27th. Thank you. So, we would love it if you guys came to our rival basketball game. It's February 6th. I don't know if he said it. He was busy dissing them. Um, but yeah, if you want us if you want to watch us beat the Jays, you know, >> thank you. Go Cardinals. >> Really
036not. >> It wasn't in your notes for a day. Put it in your notes next time. I'm come prepared next >> just remember we are one >> so under the superintendence report we have 9.1 through 9.7 which was the super the students uh representatives report um I'll give a few highlights but then I'll ask Dr. Briner to come to the front to present 9.5 district report card. So uh I would like to say happy new year. Everything that has already been communicated I would like to reiterate and I would also like to thank our board members as we exited the holiday. Just the presence in our schools bringing joy and cheer across Raytown is absolutely amazing. And so I'm grateful for you to you for what you've done and what you continue to do. uh
037we are well underway in the 2026 part of the 2025 2026 school year and just imagine in a few more months we'll be saying congratulations to our graduates moving forward. So I want our students to take this moment to make sure they are buckling down and focused. This is not the time to let our foot off the gas, but instead it's time for us to continue to stay focused and to accelerate and to be on our absolute best and be engaged so that we can have some academic success heading to the end of the school year. I want to take a moment just to bring your attention to a couple of items. I don't know if you've been able to look at our website, but our communications department is topnotch from what they do on
038social media to the new look of our splash page and on our district website. I just want to commend Marissa Clever Wombo and her team for the work that they have done. Uh if you've not been to our website, now is the time. Uh so please make sure you go. And Melissa, it's absolutely Marissa, it's absolutely amazing. I changed your name. My bad. I apologize, Marissa. Um, it's absolutely amazing. Um, the next item that I will talk about is we are well underway uh in our school year with school visits that have occurred, learning walks that have occurred, and I will say that I'm thoroughly pleased because it's almost like we have not skipped a beat. Uh, so thank you to our leaders for leading this work. Thank you for our teachers for navigating through
039this work, and thank you to our students for receiving the information that's delivered every day. We're also making sure that in the afternoons, our students are engaged in extracurricular activities. While those activities are well underway, I've had the opportunity to attend a great deal of basketball games, uh, middle school and high school, uh, boys and girls, A team and B team, and I'm just thoroughly impressed with what I see on the court. Uh, so let's just be reminded that our students day does not end when the bell ends at the rings at the end of the school day, but instead they still need our support in extracurricular activities. And speaking of extracurricular, um I had the fortunate pleasure of attending the first regional robotics competition at Raytown High School this past weekend. The number of
040schools who were there participating, the number of robots who were there, um yes, I said robots who were there, um because some of them look like people. And so I just wanted to remind you all that what we're doing today is truly indicative of what tomorrow is going to look like. So kudos to our Raytown High School staff for the work that they do. Uh we will continue with our superintendent focus groups. Uh Mr. Watson spoke about those earlier and this is my opportunity to interact with our students to truly hear the voice of our customers. What is it that we're doing for children and how can we better improve our practice to make sure we're meeting their needs. So those will continue. uh our staff executive leadership has also uh begun a practice where
041we've tightened up our engagement in the community where we've been attending the alderman meetings. So, I just want to say to the mayor and the alderman, thank you uh for allowing us to be able to participate in those meetings. They're very insightful and very engaging. And as I wrap up and prepare for Dr. Grryer to come forward, I think all of our board members talked about a sense of joy uh heading into the holidays. And while it is a special time of year, I just want to remind you that joy doesn't simply happen to us, right? We have to choose joy and to keep choosing it every day. Every day is not going to be the best day, but it's what we make of it. And so, as we head into the end of the
042school year, I just want to say thank you for what you do and let's make sure that we end this year on a high note. And at this time, I would like Dr. Griner to come forward to present uh our district report card. Good evening, Dr. Martin Knox, President Burton, Vice President Santa. Good to see you. Happy New Year. >> Thank you. >> Uh excited tonight to share some of the highlights of the district report card that's recently been published by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. as I have the last few years come to you at this time in the year. This is the typical timeline of when the state uh publishes these this information. Uh we have it's it's a bit delayed because the data that I'm sharing with you tonight is
043from last school year. So uh not this school year but last school year. Uh or I have also provided the full report card. We're not going to speak to every data point on the report card. Uh but a three-year uh comparison report is provided in that link. If anybody out there um listening or watching wants to to check it out as well, it is available. I am going to point out just a few of the data points that we have tracked year-over-year, specifically attendance rate, graduation rate, dropout rate, our graduate followup, and the on-grade level performance of our students on high stakes tests. Uh MAP, which is taken grades three through eight, and then of course taken in high school. And then finally, our ACT composite. It's important to to look at this information in
044the context of districts around us. So also what I'll share with you tonight is how does our performance rank according to districts around us that share similar demographic size? These are what we would call our comparison districts in the Casey Metro. We'll start with attendance. The state looks at the percentage of our students that attend 90% of the time. That is the benchmark of what it means to be a regular school attender. In the 2425 school year, we came in at 70 sorry 65.6% of our students attending at least 90% of the time. That was up slightly from 24. Uh the state grew similarly by 610 of a point. But I will share as of the middle of this year uh proud to report that our 990 percentage for this school year is at 73.1%.
045So if we continue on that trend, we will be well above where we've landed in previous years. And that is due directly to the efforts of our schools connecting with our families and our students to make sure that we know they can only be successful if they are with us during the school day. So that's certainly a credit to all of our schools who have seen uh huge increases in their attendance. I will shout out Raytown Raytown High School leading the way with an increase year-to date of over 15% in 9090 attendance. So kudos Blue Jays. South High, you're up there too by 8% but Blue Jays are take Blue Jays are taking care of business. There's still time though to find joy in coming to school every day. All right. Where does that put
046us in context of the rest of our comparison districts? We ranked third out of sixth. Also, you'll notice that uh we've ranked the growth over pre previous year and so uh came in uh third and fourth respectively regarding those ranks. but a lot of intentional work happening around attendance that uh shows up in our strategic plan projects. Next, we'll move to graduation rate. We saw a nice jump in our four-year cohort, almost 6% to 82.3. That's a three-year high for us. Uh definitely outpaced the state's growth from the prior year. uh still has us fifth overall in comparison to our benchmark districts, although we did see the second highest difference from the prior year. Shout out to Hickman Mills. We we need to have a conversation with them. Uh dropout rate saw and this is
047the only rate that we want to see drop. All the other ones we want to see grow. We did see our dropout weight dropout rate decline to 4.6% from the prior year. uh that outpaced the state. And again, while we saw growth, we've still got work to do. Graduate follow-up. This is part of our annual performance report. We get points towards our accreditation score for the ability of the district to follow up with our graduates six months out of graduation to see what they're up to and connect that to uh something meaningful work, something that's a high demand career. We saw 94% of our our students contacted and sharing with us their plans postgraduation. It was a slight uh decrease from the prior year, but it still put us in the target category for accreditation
048points. So, we did not lose any accreditation points for that that score. It's still an excellent uh percentage, very close to the state average. And again, uh puts us at fifth out of sixth comparable districts. Center saw a big jump in their number. Next, we'll talk about ongrade level performance. So, again, our students are taking the MAP test, grades three through eight in ELA, English language arts. Uh they're taking uh as a sophomore the English two end of course exam. This is a combined average of the percentage of our kids that are on grade level at the end of the school year on that those tests collectively. Last year, we saw our ELA performance plateau. Uh not much of a change there, just a a 0.1% decline. The state average did increase. Uh and in
049comparison to our uh benchmark districts, we ranked fourth out of six. In math, we saw just about a half a percent increase from the prior year, 19.6% of our students are at grade level. The state saw a 3% jump and again that puts us at fifth place out of sixth uh in terms of rank and middle of the pack with growth from the prior year. Good news in science almost a 4% growth from the prior year. In science we test fifth grade, eighth grade and in biology. So kids are not taking an assessment every year. It is a grades span assessment that's taken in fifth, eighth, and then again when students take biology, their 10th grade year, we saw again almost a 4% uh jump in ongrade level performance. The state saw almost 5% and
050uh that increase saw us uh move up to third place uh with comparison to benchmark districts and had the second highest growth year-over-year. And finally, in social studies, only one assessment in social studies. It's taken at the high school level. Our government students their junior year. Take this assessment. We saw just over 2% growth from the prior year. The state saw almost 5% and that uh performance put us second uh in comparison to uh benchmark district. So kudos to our high school students, our juniors for their performance. uh and we were the highest growth in that assessment when comparing ourselves to benchmark districts. Before we leave these tests, uh I do I do want to mention that there is a lot of strategic work happening weekly uh to get our students prepared for these uh
051high stakes tests to ensure that they have the ongrade level standards they need. We've been very encouraged this year so far by some of the local assessment data that we're gathering based on the collaboration of our teachers and the good work that they're doing. Uh we're hopeful that those gains we're seeing locally are going to translate to performance on the high stakes tests. Uh but our teachers are working very hard. They're very collaborative and every year we feel like we get a little bit better with strategy, especially as we examine trends of the assessments and really work to see that our students are showing uh themselves, the community, the state that that our that Raytown students can uh meet on on grade level expectations. And so we're confident that we're going to continue to see
052these numbers climb. Last metric is ACT performance. Not all of our students take this test, but last year's graduating seniors, uh the students that did take this assessment, we did see a decline in their composite average moving from uh 17.8 to 17. uh there wasn't any change at the state and we uh rank even with the decline we still rank second among comparison districts specifically to ACT prep. This is the first year we've offered a standalone ACT prep class course at both of our high schools. We are running se a section at each high school. So kids that are collegebound that know they want to see that ACT score improve, they are taking a class that we are teaching them as well as offering some boot camp support for our students that are sitting for
053the ACT so that they those kids that are moving on to college uh they have a score that can help them chase down some scholarships and also get them better prepared for college level coursework. Be happy to try to answer any questions the board might have. Yeah. The progress we're showing, Dr. Douglas, is certainly not by accident. It is as a result of very strategic, intentional collaboration from our our staff and our principles, everybody working together from district office all the way down to every school. >> Thank you so much. Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> Take care. Hey, >> see you back tomorrow. >> Please come back next month. >> Yeah. February 6, we there. >> Good night. >> You too. [laughter] >> Classic. >> You can handle it. >> That's the best
054part. >> All right. Next, we have a board committee reports. Um just for information there any uh reports? No report. All right. Moving on the single audit report. >> Mr. President, I may the board accept audit of the basic financial statements year end of June 30, 2025 as presented. >> Seconded. Motion made second. Motion passes. that the board of education policies EHP artificial intelligence use GCPA production in professional staff workforce and JFCA student dress code second it motion made second >> can I ask a question about different dress There's a Oh, go ahead. >> So, MSBA updated the policy. You can see u when you open up the attachment um the language has changed the red and the green and the goals. Motion pass. >> Next we have the uh career [clears throat] and education
055planning education planning guide. Is there a motion? >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education for the 2026 2027 career education planning guide is presented. What happened? Great. Thank you so much for your hard work, especially you. anything that Tyler touches. >> Tyler is the man about a haircut. >> He's the man. He's been the man years. >> Yeah. >> For years. >> Yeah. Only thing him and Chris do is pretty much automatic >> for years. >> Shoot free throws with their left hand. >> They were very thorough in their explanation what's coming up and how benefits for our students. the hiring process. >> All right. Well, I think that's it. >> We're going to vote now. >> Well, we do have one item, the next item on the agenda that addresses some
056of the a new change that we're excited to report out. So, I'll I'll wait for that. Motion pass that the board of education approve the district's commitment since to the United States Army Junior Reserve Officer program high school 26. >> Second motion made and second it. >> Thanks, Dr. Douglas. Yeah, so we are very excited to offer a JOTC option for students at both high schools starting next year. We've been trying to connect with one of the armed services to offer a JOTC program in Raytown for many years. By the grace of God, we've been offered uh to have the opportunity to establish a chapter at both high schools. So, starting next year, there will be a level one uh JOTC and then we'll be adding subsequent courses for the next four years. So, we'll
057have four levels of a JOTC program. This option for our students uh dubtales nicely into our first responders academy pathway. So, we'll have uh students that again have that interest and skill set that they want to pursue perhaps um the military after high school or even if they want to go to college and maybe want to pursue an ROC scholarship or a program in college, they'll have that option. But we're very excited to offer this opportunity to our students. We'll be working with the JOTC Army JOTC to get uh those positions posted and filled and we look forward to providing this for our kids. >> Mr. President, when you say level one, does that come with the end of the year inspection that they do? That level one, how do we know it? >> Not
058sure. >> Okay. Right now we're uh the curriculum, the materials, all the things that we need to make the class happen are provided by the army. Uh they also provide uh partial uh reimbursement for a salary of a of a certified teacher. But those details will become clearer once we've had additional discussions with the Army JTC. I'll have more details for you soon, >> Mr. President. Yeah, this board actually approved participation in this program probably 10 to 15 years ago and we were always told there was no no room at the end, no vacancy for us. So So this is fantastic. Besides all the stuff you said it'll be great for kids who are interested plus any kids who are interested in trying to go to one of the militarymies. This will give them an
059extra boost in that which which is fantastic. Uh how did this come about exactly that we were being offered this uh slot right now? >> I applied and was accepted. >> Maybe maybe she didn't get lunch on that same day when they're getting pizza with the uh with the subine. >> I may have sent him a picture of of Penelopey and it said we want RQS wants you. [laughter] No, I didn't do that. We just we were fortunate that it they expanded the number of chapters that they were allowing uh and we just happened to be in the right stack at the right time. >> Oh, that's great. Mr. President, >> can you elaborate a little bit? You mentioned the kind of the tiein with the first responders. Can you talk a little bit more
060about that because that that's great to hear. So, part of the first responders pathway inside our health and human services academy um that includes our teaching uh grow your own teaching academy. It also includes our students at H. Hearnden that are pursuing uh careers at and firefighting, EMT. Uh this is one pathway of four pathways in the in the first responders uh part of the health and human services academy. So, as kids are exploring careers their freshman year and freshman seminar, if they are interested in being a part of um law enforcement, firefighter, EMT, now JOTC, or even education, those qualify as first responders. And that's kind of how we're capturing that in one category. So, kids that are interested in a in a career of of public service, um this is one additional opportunity
061that they'll have to pursue while they're in high school for free. uh and also can open up doors for them either to move uh directly into um military service or um they can use it as a stepping stone to perhaps ROC in college or an application to to one of the servicemies. Even if even if they didn't do any of that, I think just the experience of being part of that organization, the discipline, the citizenship, the pride, the attachment to the school, I've seen firsthand uh the power that a a thriving JOTC program can have on a school. Um it's something that kids want to be a part of. Uh it's something that kids stand out differently, even just what they get to wear to school. And even just something as small as that gets
062kids curious about it, but what they receive and experience through that program for many can be life-changing. >> I was in Gerald TC at Lincoln Prep for three years. Never forgot it. It was one of the best experiences. Taught you so much and been an athlete, but that discipline is next level. So, I'm excited to see this coming to our district and just the opportunities that kids don't even understand that they able to have and the things that they take away for the rest of their lives. So, I'm excited. Thank you for applying and then getting accepted. It's rigorous. I appreciate that. >> Put your neck on the line. >> I just put postage on the envelope and sent it in. 32 cents was on the line. >> Thank you. We're excited. I would just
063say one more thing about the ROC scholarships because we don't really talk about them too much or we don't really understand them, but ROC scholarships means a kid can possibly go to schools all over the country and and major in many different things, not just certain things, but many different things. And they'll they're full everything's paid for. Everything's paid for. So, it's a huge scholarship. and then they become commissioned officers in whichever branch. So they're they're set up very well if they get one of these scholarships. And if they get one of the military c the service academy scholarships, those are worth, you know, these days probably at least a half a million dollars in in all the benefits that they they get through those that opportunity. >> Before you go, What's your best Northwood
064School with the purchase price of $10,200 from Spire to the district. >> Second, >> Josh, you got that up there, didn't you? 10,200. I love it. >> I got a question. I have a question. >> Thank you, John. >> We do that rect have a real a real question. >> So, you don't have to come come up. So, I mean, that's great. Usually, the companies just take the easement or just take what they want. How are we able to actually get money on this one? So Spire's been a great uh partner for the last probably two years. Uh we've been in constant communication with a guy named Johnny Strauss who's in charge of the business development. Uh he comes to us um Missouri's non-disclosure state. Uh so they don't have to pay anything. They don't
065have to tell people how they pay things. Uh we put it in there just to be transparent with everybody. Uh but he comes to us, we go through things. Um with that school in particular because of the nature of the students there we have negotiated where if if the board approves it work will not be done until July uh because it's going to come underneath Sterling go from the bank underneath Sterling and turn back north in front of the school just to make sure kids uh and our students staff aren't disrupted >> gentleman Mr. President, I move that the revisions of the 2025 2026 academic calendar be approved as presented. >> Dr. Can you give us a little bit on this one? >> Good evening. >> Questions about the revisions to the 2526? not necessarily
066for us but with the people who will be watching this just kind of an update or explanation how we had to uh kind of change our 6 ami days so that you know we could adjust with the thing that happened at Raytown South. >> Yeah. So to reiterate uh beginning of the year um you know we had that we moved virtual south high uh to a virtual um to virtual instruction those 12 days. Uh so the state said, "Listen, uh we're going to recognize six of those. Um we're going to forgive six of those, if you will. The other six though, we're going to take your AMI days to account for those, which means, you know, at the beginning of the year, we are out of AMI days, which technically means any inclement weather days
067um are going to just be straight out snow days." >> [clears throat] >> Um we did have what we call um built-in snow days and those were the difference of us when we get to 144 hours in the last day of school. We also have to reach 169 student contact days in addition to 144 hours. So we had a little bit of a cushion for what we always call builtin snow days. Um we have recouped a few half days to add to the cushion um that we have. Obviously, we're sitting here in January. Uh the rest of January, knock on wood, looks pretty mild. Uh the extended forecast looks pretty mild. Um with the addition of the April 15th half day, so meaning we're adding instructional minutes to get to that 144 mark. We have
068about three days to burn for any inclement weather, pipe bursts, etc. Um if we um you know if we have a storm in the middle of February and we have you know more than three inclement snow days we're going to have to look at some other alternatives which may include extending the school year past Memorial Day. >> So knock on wood that that any water mane breaks inclement weather snow days doesn't have any more. we're not more than three of those because if we do, we're we're we're running out of options to recoup those instructional minutes or andor uh instructional days. >> Thank you, >> Mr. President. So, they're they're applying those those missed days at one building to the entire district. >> So, yes, our our our AMI days are are district. So even
069um if we have to dismiss a school um you know those are if we if we use an AMI day even though that was dedicated just for one building then then yes that is one of our district's AMI days. >> Has it always been that way or is that a change? >> No, it's always been that way. >> Okay. Very important to see. >> Thank you. Next we have the first read of the 26 27 calendar 27 28 calendar transformation. >> Um Mr. Present. I move that the board approve the January 12th, 2026 consent agenda as presented. >> Second question made second. I'll read the donations. Um, we have donation of 60 single serve custard toppings worth $100 for Andy's festival Northwood school. >> We have donation of $1,000 from Kansas City underground church to
070Northwood School. We have donation of gloves, socks worth $150 from Idaho United Church of Christ, Robert Elementary School. We have a donation of fossils or skull and partial jaw with teeth and miscellaneous fossil primary vital and fossil worth $500 from Norman clean to town school. >> An individual had that. >> Yeah, >> that's awesome. >> So, uh yeah. No, this is a clean individual. Yes. Uh and a donation of $1,250 for 3D printers for the challenge program and materials from STEM for ste but thank you everybody that has donated to us once again. We greatly appreciate it and I'm sure our students will benefit greatly and uh it takes all of us to uh all the people that have donated to make our student success really appreciate. >> Mr. President, I move that the board
071adjourn the regular board meeting um education meeting at 7:47