June 18, 2025 Kearney R-1 Board of Education Meeting

001All right. Call to order of the Carne School District Board of Education regular meeting. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. to the force. I think roll call please. N Baker here. Jason Clint here. Christina Lindsay here. Schwitzer here. Vasquez here. Bailey here. We have a forum. Adopt amend the agenda. Move to adopt the agenda as presented. Second. All in favor? Opposed. Thank you. Recognitions. We have the jazz choir. Oh, did Mr. McKenna not come? Mr. McKini not here. Oh, lovely. So, we have Delane and Emiliana. Did I say that right? Okay. Well, Delane, [Laughter] since you're not here, we're gonna make you talk. [Applause] Oh, wait. Hold on. Here he comes. Oh, I was out there just waiting. I never misses a chance to talk.

002No, I talk a lot. I apologize everybody. Uh I She already got her certificate. Uh I've been standing out there talking to Coach Crawl about state track and all that stuff. They're doing wonderful out there. Um so I just want to talk a little bit about the All State Jazz Choir. The All State Jazz Choir is something that the Missouri Coral Directors Association has been doing for about eight years now. I have never submitted anybody for this because their deadlines have always been the same week as our solo and small ensemble contest and I am only one man and we that's a pretty big deal for our our uh program. And so they moved the deadline to April. And so I was like, "Okay, I'm going to submit kids to this allstate jazz thing." And

003so to audition for all state jazz, uh students from all across the state of Missouri send in recordings and they have to sing uh from two songs they give them. Uh one is a jazz standard. They sing it like a solo and then they have to improvise and scat a solo over the top. And scatting is just taking a melody and making your own off the top of your head. It's like a freestyle singing. Um, and then they have to sing their part in a more complex jazz piece of music. So, we're talking about uh extended range harmonies and and I don't want to get too much in the technicalities for fear of losing everybody's attention, but it's just it's hard. And so these kids practice, they come in, they record, we send it in.

004Across the state of Missouri, they only accept 15 singers into the All State uh vocal jazz ensemble. They perform at the Missouri Coral Directors Convention in Springfield uh in July. And so uh we sent in four auditions this year. We did have two people make it. One of those people is out of town uh today, but it was Delaney Boyd, as you all met already, and uh Emmy Everheart. So we're really, really proud of them. And uh this is a big deal for them, and I'm really excited they get to participate in this event. All right. Sing a solo. [Music] [Applause] Now we're ready for coach. There's plenty of seats of their parents that need to come in. Come on in. There's lots of seats over here. You ready, John? All right. This past May,

005these boys sitting standing uh behind us over here, uh they went and competed at the state track meet and again they had a very successful meet once again. um we are able to come home with the fourth place trophy and uh for these seniors and a lot of them are uh here tonight but there are some that have already reported to college um there are some on vacations u so uh a lot of kids aren't going to be able to uh be here tonight but I just want to say just briefly how how uh much I'm going to miss them and I've already did all my crying before with all of them so I don't have to do it anymore. Um, but I am going to miss these boys tremendously and everything that they've put

006forth, not only on the track, in the field, but in the classroom, uh, and for the community. And they're going to be amazing young men whenever they, uh, grow up. And that's the most important thing is that, you know, uh, when it comes to education and athletics is that we do everything we can to raise them to be good young men and be good people and be good fathers and husbands. So, they are phenomenal uh, men and I'm going to miss them tremendously. Um, so, uh, just real quick about the season. Um, this was one of those seasons where we had a lot of ups and downs. We had injuries and things that would take place and we had weather that we had to deal with was a lot more than we've had to deal

007with in years past. And these kids really did step up when those times came. And uh whenever May hits, we always say, you know, in Carney, when May hits, those are our meets, you know. So they were able to win their ninth consecutive conference championship this year. they're win districts for the seventh time uh in a row and we're also able to bring home a top four finish for the fifth year in a row. So these seniors have known nothing but success throughout their whole careers uh when it comes to track and uh it's just a testament to them and the hard work that they put in. We are blessed uh to have youth you know with our programs also you know not just you know in track but if you look at all the

008coaches that come through throughout the year we are blessed to be able to have an abundance amount of youth and standing back here you see a lot of youth and a lot of kids that got a lot of experience uh through the year and uh they were fantastic and um I can't wait till next year because we're going to have another successful year ahead of us there. So without any further ado, do we want to do certificates that that way and go that route? Yes. Yes. Well, I'll go ahead and just go through and I'll just tell you that if they are absent and we can just set it off to the side and I can get it to them. That' be simple. Okay. Aiden Arano, he is not here this evening. Hudson Best, who

009is also not here this evening. Jacob Burkemper. Jacob is Come on up. Oh, I have a little Jacob was a part of our 4x4 team and was also our open 400 and he is also a part of the school record 4x4 100 meter relay team. Mr. Cole Burnham Cole is here and Cole also he ran for us in the 4x1. He ran the 4x2. He's run the open one. He's run the open two. I think last year I even shoved him in an open 400 just for fun. And um he is also a part of our 4x two school record team and he's a 2year allstator and Jacob is a one-year allstator. Mr. Braxton Byum Braxton is a freshman and he got a lot of experience. Uh he was a part of our 4x4 team.

0104x two, 4x one, open one, open two. He's kind of a jack of all trades also. And and uh I look forward for the next three years with him. Graham Davis is not here this evening. Did Luke make it? There he is. Luke Denston, also a freshman. Luke ran our on our Come on up, Luke. Luke ran on our 4x4 team. He's running our 4x2 team. uh and for and open ones, open twos, uh open fours, you know, he's uh another one, as you can tell, there's two freshman right there that uh we have a lot of uh excitement for. S D Benadetto, S is a part of our 4 by1 new school record this year. Who and um and Cole was a part of that. Okay. Braxton, were you a part of that one?

011Yeah, Braxton was a part of that one. And Grant Nolan was also a part of that one. That has been a record that is that was broken uh from 2007. So, very exciting to be be able to break that one. Mr. Jacob Dylan. Jacob had one heck of a state meet. Jacob finished second in the long jump. He also finished fourth in the triple jump. Um he is a young man that um his first two years, you know, he battled injuries and his last two years he's just really really done a fantastic job. His senior year he went out, lost weight, did everything he could to dedicate himself to track and field and um I was very very proud to watch that that young man over this last month do the things that he did

012and it was really fun to watch what he had did and uh we were definitely going to miss him too. Uh, Mr. Cameron Fowler, another freshman. Cameron was part of our 4 by800 meter relay team that ran at state and they took ninth at state. Um, Cameron can also do a lot of different things for us. Run the open eight 16. Um, I don't think I'll ever push him to a 32, but you never know. Mr. Theo Grace, who is not here today, here today. He's up at up at college already, but you know, Theo, he took second. It was all state in the javelin. And he's also our uh uh school record holder in the javelin. And he also held the state record twice. Uh once for a year and then for about eight

013minutes this past year and then the other kid threw the state record to beat him. So, um he had one heck of a career. Milo Griffith. Milo was a part of our of our 4 by8 team and Milo I you know a conference I made him run the 1600 and thankful that we that uh he did because every little point counts and uh he had a fantastic year himself. Okay, Riley Johnson who is not here to tonight but he was a senior and he spent four years with us and we're going to miss him. Jackson Juvet, who is not here with us tonight, again, a senior who has uh given us four years and was part of our 4x2 team. Degan Nolles. Degan is a part of our 4x2 100 meter school record. Um he

014is also two-year all state in that particular relay. And um along with Milo and the other juniors that are s the other juniors that are up here getting ready to be seniors, we are going to be looking forward to their particular leadership. Jack McCabe. Jack was a part of our 4x two teams. He was a part of our 4x1 teams. Um and then at the end of the year, it was really surprising. ran him in the uh 400 in the 4x4 and did really good and makes me think over the summer. Mr. Grant Nolan. Grant also is not here tonight. He's up with Theo and uh Grant spent four years. Uh he was all state for four years. Um 4x2, 4x4, 300 meter hurdles. Um he had a tough year with a with a surgery,

015but man, he worked his tail off to get himself ready for uh state and uh we really appreciated what he was able to give us and we'll miss him tremendously. Atlas Owen Atlas was a part of our 4x8 team. He had actually led off our 4x8 team and we had to make some pretty big challenges to him whenever it came to the start being able to start fast in that first 200 and he really stepped up in that that category and started getting his times under two minutes. So really have a a a bright future for the next two years with Atlas. Mr. Reed Perkins freshman. Reed was a part of our 4x4 teams. Reed was a triple jumper. He is a sprinter. He is a 400 kid. He can do b just about anything.

016Haven't tried him in pull vault yet. No. No. Thinking out loud as he's going here. But Reed's got a bright future with us. Connor Reid, who is not here tonight, he was a part of our 4x4 and 4x8 teams and he really had a breakout year. Aiden Ci. Um Aiden came out his senior year. Um did a fantastic job. made it to state in the high jump was just um is it I think three centimeters off from being all state in the high jump. Isaac Smith. Isaac was unable for to be here this tonight, but he's also a 4x8 16 and 32 kid that he'll be a senior next year that we are looking forward to his uh leadership. Ty Smith. Ty is is a two-year all state. He was state champion in the discus.

017Uh this year he was all state in both uh the discus and the shot put. And I've said over and over again and I don't you know some of the some kids you know when you go through as long as I have it's like you know I don't know if we'll ever have one as good as he is when it comes to the throws and and I'm hoping so but not yet. ties for the best one that I've been around. And I tell you what, I'm gonna miss the heck out of that young man. Caleb Stevens. Caleb just tore everything in his knee. Caleb will do anything you ask of him. It's 4x4, 4x8, open four, open eight. You know, he's that type of kid that's like, "Okay, Caleb, I need you to do this.

018Can you do it?" And he's like, "I'll do it." And with a smile on his face. So, um, Caleb's, uh, he's got a year of of getting himself back and I'm excited for him, uh, because, you know, he's going to take on that rehab just as hard as he takes on competition. Mr. Kale Tucking. Kale is not here this evening. He's runs our 4x4s, uh, 300 hurdles. Um, got him in a pole vault toward the end of the year and I think he's going to be a pretty good one at that. Mr. Sam Weey. Sam is he is a part of our still our school record 4x4 all state in the 300 meter hurdles this year as a sophomore. Um, Sam kind of had a little iffy uh start with a little knee injury, but

019again, he works so hard. And, you know, I'm looking forward to see what type of of of career he's going to have his junior and senior year when it comes to track and field, everything else that he wants to do, you know. So, um, really proud of every one of these boys and everything that they've put forth. And thank you guys. Thank all of you for uh recognizes recognizing us here tonight. Uh I do want to thank Mr. David Schwarzenbach um and Sheila Dresser. You know, they are retiring as you know and they you know they got some big shoes to fill and I'm sure that we we'll be fine. But uh without their support over the years, we wouldn't be where we are and the support of the community especially and the parents of

020this great town. Um, I thank them and hopefully we can be here again next year. Hopefully with a trophy a little bit bigger than that one. But I'll take that one this year. Great job, fellas. Great job. Two lines, eight in the back, seven in the front. Your head is closer to the ceiling. Stand in the back. Okay. coach, you want to get them straight out. Straightened out. Yeah, back up a little bit. t-shirt. Coach, actually, I think you're okay. Hang on just one second. And don't go anywhere because I know parents like to get their pictures, too. So, give them a shot. All right, photos. Thanks guys. Oh, sorry. She probably should probably We have no public comment tonight. So, we'll move on to the superintendent report. My comments tonight are going to be

021very, very brief. Um, this past Monday I had the opportunity to attend uh MSBA's summer summit and our very own uh Dr. Darlene Bailey received the Dinguish uh distinguish certification award um that requires two other certifications prior to that extensive um trainings to go along with that. So appreciate the dedication and commitment. So just wanted to say thank you very much. [Applause] two other recognitions and I'm sure they're not going to want me to say anything but I'm going to anyways. Um David Schwarzenbach uh coach Crawl mentioned will be retiring at the end of this year and we have two other members of our team that this is their last official board me. So um I just wanted to mention Ginger Elsie. Um she's been with us for 14 years. What's that? 13. Okay. 13

022and a half. Okay. 13 and a half. And so, you know, Ginger uh when she came to the district, she came at a time where um we really needed some financial stability and Ginger really dug in um and really provided that. And we we have been just so fortunate to have such a um consistent, steady fiscal steward over the last 13 and a half years. So, I want to thank you, Ginger. So, our very own Jennifer Cop, assistant superintendent of academic services, 25 years, um, English teacher, assistant principal, director of curriculum, assistant superintendent, has worn many, many hats. So, um, she's left a real significant legacy on this district. when you think about just even the real world learning work and the portrait of a graduate and how that's going to carry forward and how

023many kids it's impacted um and how many future students it will impact. So, just want to say thank you. [Applause] My report your report. Okay, my computer's thinking. So, next we have consent agenda. Move that the consent agenda be approved as presented. Second. All in favor? Poss. Thank you. Moving on to information on project update, Mr. Nolan. So, tonight uh we have with us Elizabeth Grindy from New Kirk Novak. She's been a project manager um on these Carne projects for at least the last several months and she is going to report for us tonight. All right. Thank you guys for having me today. So, our trade partners are in full force across the three schools. So, over here at Dogwood, this is a picture of the interior. Um, so demo is complete and we are

024working on framing and CMU infills. This is actually even a little outdated as of today. Um, so we're working over overhead roughing and inall roughin. And over on the exterior, we've ran our new storm line and we're getting ready for patchback of asphalt and landscaping. And then over in the media center, we have put down our carpet. Um, and we just have specialties to follow. So, that space is coming along really nicely. And over at Hawthorne, this is a picture of the expansion over in the collab space. So, we've dropped ceiling tile over there and we're cleaning it up and getting ready for casework and finishes. So, that is moving right along as well. and then inside and on the exterior. So, we have completed demo over at Hawthorne as well. So, we're working on

025interior roughening um and actually putting up drywall and drywall finishes now. And then over on the exterior, if you drive by, you'll see a lot of demo. So, we're getting ready to put back that circle drive over in the front. And then over at Carney Elementary, this is the two-story expansion. Um, we dropped ceiling tiles. We're cleaning up. We've got our casework and that is getting ready to install with flooring and specialties to follow. And then over in the renovation area, we have completed demo, interior demo, and we are working on putback. So, drywall starting up on the second floor and then we'll keep on following down on the first. This is a picture of the front entry. So, we have our curtain wall system up. Um, and we'll get glass in here in the

026next week or so. And then we're also working on our front demo to put back for asphalt and landscaping. So, it's all coming along very nicely where we're we're all very uh we're all very happy with where it's at right now. Any questions? The dirt pile that is behind Hawthorne, so it' be on the east side of Hawthorne out on the football field. Remind me, is the plan for that to still be there? And if not, when when do we think that that will become less of a pile and and be back to normal? So, in the next couple weeks, um that's part of what our landscape or um midstates will be doing is taking away that dirt pile and all that gravel down that hill. That all goes away. Um and we'll put fencing

027back for the playground and sod goes back. So, it'll look like what it did before. Okay. Youth football practice starts in 28 days. And so I just wanted to make sure we'll be ready. There may be cones around the new sod, but we'll be ready. Okay. And Elizabeth, we've got time on the next board meeting day. We'll be taking you around to actually see the facilities. Yeah. So it'll look completely different even from what we saw today. There is a lot of dirt being moved around. See a lot of that. So that's a lot of trucks in and out. A lot of things going on. So that's that's awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Financials last time. Well, almost. You have to say more word. Oh, well that's true. Not

028almost. Last time on a Wednesday night. How about that? Correct. Um, in your packet is the May financials. Next Thursday morning, I welcome you to to look at our final year end financials. Our team is working very hard to get everything closed up for the fiscal year as well as the budget. Any questions? Thanks for all your work and I know we're coming right down to the wire, but I know that it's very important that we get as much information as we can so that we make sure we get the budget right as close as possible. So, thank you and we'll see you next week. And Jinger, right now your own fund balance is pretty close to 22% and we're still doing some work to really close. Yes. Okay, great. program evaluation, parent, family, and

029community involvement. Thank you for uh giving me some time to share the work of the communications and community relations program, our accomplishments this school year, and our big rocks moving forward. This overview captures not just activities, but uh our commitment to fostering meaningful comm connections across Carney School District. Um, I'll be using the collective our and we throughout the presentation because while I'm the sole staff member assigned to this department, I do believe that every employee is ultimately responsible for successful communications and engagement. Uh, I'm going to move efficiently through the presentation and take questions at the end. Our vision is to equip uh, everyone in KSD to contribute effectively to student success and character development. Our mission emphasizes clarity, quality, and inclusivity. We prioritize open lines of communication, leveraging datadriven tools to support educational

030excellence and ensure everyone is fully informed. My job is to support our stakeholders, employees, students, parents, partners, and community members. Each group has unique communication needs, and our efforts uh aim to address them uh address those needs effectively and efficiently. Our guiding principles are essential in establishing trust and transparency. Being proactive and strategic ensures that our stakeholders receive timely, accurate information. I believe this work ultimately supports better outcomes across our school system. Effective strategic planning is at the heart of our efforts. We use the ARPAI model uh research, planning, implementation and evaluation to maintain a structured measurable approach to achieving our objectives. Financially, our budget uh reflects the strategic choices that uh enhance our communication capabilities. Those investments include the salary and benefits. For my position, there was uh increased spending on postage for our

031our district magazine. uh increased spending for school messenger, Qualrixs, and the Remind app. Uh we were also able to uh thoughtfully use our resources for um high quality experiences like our convocation uh keynote speaker Jiren Meyers and our staff appreciation efforts. Uh I take a very practical and direct approach to measuring success. Uh this department should be having a uh direct and positive impact on the core work of the district. That means evaluating uh key indicators like staff retention, student outcomes, and community engagement. We are committed to providing comprehensive services from emergency communications to celebrating student and staff achievements. Uh this wide-ranging support demonstrates our dedication to positive engagement across KSD and down to the classroom level. Internally, we provide robust support through initiatives like our staff appreciation efforts, enrollment campaign, process, action teams, key

032messaging and materials, student engagement, and strategic executive council. The goal is always to reinforce and amplify the work that's being done by our teammates. We also keep the horizon clearly in view with three long-term goals. We want to be systematic and strategic. We want to ensure that every message and campaign is part of a larger intentional framework rather than one-off responses. We want broader engagement. We want to create more ways for students, staff, families, partners, and residents to roll up their sleeves and work alongside us toward towards achieving educational excellence. And we want to be a top tier district, a top choice district. We want to deliver such highquality communications and community relations that KSD is the natural first pick for families in the Kansas City region. Among our recent accomplishments, we completed uh essential

033actions such as enhancing our annual survey, improving and updating our classroom observation form, identifying and implementing a new comprehensive communications platform, successfully facilitating complex public engagement processes uh like the elementary boundary adjustments. Uh okay. So looking forward, our future goals include the full implementation of parent square, launching new websites, developing a better structure for customer service and support, and initiating a communications internship program to deepen uh student engagement. Additionally, uh I'm very excited to help coordinate the celebrations for Carney School District's 150th anniversary that will be starting next year. Ultimately, our success is divine is defined by genuine community engagement, ensuring that every stakeholder feels heard, supported, and empowered. That requires a team effort. So, I want to say thank you to executive administrative assistant Becky Burke for her extraordinary efforts on behalf of this

034department. She goes above and beyond every day. I want to thank Dr. Miller for her trust and leadership. I want to thank my fellow cabinet members uh for their generous collaboration. And last but not least, I want to thank you all for your your work, your your generosity, your selfless spirit uh and for continuing to to partner and support the critical work we do in this department. Um I think from you you can see the result in these pictures. Uh the work we do is important and it has a lifelong impact. Thank you. Are there any questions? Ray, you do an incredible job. I don't have a question. I just want you to know that what what you've done over the last four five four five years. How long have you been here? Uh I

035am entering my fifth year. Finished fourth and going into five. Yep. You have done a great job. So thank you for your effort and your dedication to this district. Appreciate that. Ray, do you want to give them an update on Parent Square? That was a that was a massive initiative that you undertook. Yeah. Um, yeah, I'm very very happy with uh our buyin with Parent Square. We have our coaches are by and large up and running. We've got a bunch of them that already have groups for their teams that they're utilizing for our fall our fall sports and even in some cases their summer camps. Um, we essentially soft launched the app for our summer school and so we're utilizing that for all of those parents. If you have kids on the summer school program,

036um, you should be receiving messages uh through that method. uh last time I checked. So, one of the things that we're going to be clarifying for folks is we we really want all of our users to get in and and what's called register their accounts with parent square. Uh by doing that, then they get access to the full suite of uh of features that are that are available through that. Right now, we have about 67% of our staff have registered their accounts and uh more or less 50% of our parents have have registered their accounts. I'm not this is you know mid June. We launched this process about a month ago. Uh, you know, we'll start taking a little closer look at those parent numbers in July, but I'm very happy with where things stand.

037Ray, I noted you gave us uh faculty numbers there and you gave us parent numbers there. Are there any members of the school board who have not registered their account, and would you like to take this moment to shame them? I I I I refuse to answer the question for fear of implicating myself. As the only schoolboard member who no longer has a child in the district, I will She outed herself. I knew it. I'm the only one that you you all had to do it or not had to, but to know what's going on, right? I was excited to. So, the long-term process you talked about uh we you've heard before about really connecting with people who don't have a direct connection with the school district, but still keeping them informed. That seems to

038be the sticky wicket. So, what is how do you actually accomplish that? What does that look like? Sure. So, um, one of the things that we're going to be doing that, um, actually we'll be talking about here in a couple minutes, we'll be, uh, bringing in some outside support, um, to help with that process. Um, I think Parent Square is one of the answers to that. I think there's opportunities to encourage folks to get, uh, to become uh, users of that platform. We have we have the ability to have uh, folks that are, as I like to say, outside of our bubble to, you know, come in and be able to get access to that tool. Uh so we're going to continue to push that. Uh I've done some pretty extensive work with a local

039uh vendor to uh uh generate a a very very very accurate list of our residents to the to the point where he actually went out and actually drove our boundaries like literally drove our boundaries to identify uh those households, make sure that that we had everybody on that list in terms of a mailing list. Um, and so we'll be getting more support from that person as we move forward with some mailings that we're going to be doing to reach those folks. Um, so we're also going to be I think with our websites, I think they, you know, there'll be some opportunities there to uh provide a more a more attractive engaging experience for folks to be able to direct them there. So yeah, it's going to be a multi-tered approach. There's no there's no single

040uh solution. Well, you also created a list serve for PE patrons who wanted to sign up for it. It's just hard to get people connected to sign up for it. So, yeah, it's a work in progress. Yeah. And I think with some of the um the the the initiatives that we're going to be moving forward with, like for instance, our 150th anniversary, like that'll be a good opportunity, I think, to really reach everybody in the community and get them involved in that. Even just connecting with community groups, showing up to their meetings here in let's do it right now. Yeah. while you're here. He's been very thoughtful about thinking strategically and and customer service Yeah. is a big deal for Ray. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Budget update. Okay. The budget update is that we

041will basically be uh reviewing year end as as Ginger mentioned on uh June 26th in the morning. We will also be doing our FY26 budget at the same time with uh J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G J G Jinger's position in transition. The goal was really try to try to finalize this year's budget as accurately as uh FY26 would mirror as we start the new fiscal year. And I think that will help um uh Doug Schwin transition into his new position. So I appreciate the grace and patience on that um while we continue to work through that. So more to come next week.

042Next, the approval of the agreement with Klay County Children's Fund. Move to approve the agreement with Klay County Children's Fund as presented. Second. This isn't to say that any of these programs are good, bad, or otherwise, but it was alarming to me when I read that $792,000 is is what we're getting in support from the Children's Fund. And the reason that's alarming to me is they as they note uh in the second paragraph there that this is less than it was that they essentially allude to what I believe is uh the fact that sales tax goes up and down, right? Sometimes you have more sales tax, sometimes you have less sales tax. We're in an environment where we could potentially have the royals coming in and and uh asking for a tax increase which would

043push some stuff out. So I just note it because, you know, we need to think in terms of sustainability. And so I worry that we're going to get ourselves into a Sophie's choice here where we're going to have good programs, but if there is a budget cut of a budget shortfall of some point, we're going to have to figure out either cut that program or we're going to have to cut other programs to pay for it. And so I just was surprised by the amount of money. And so I just as we have other programs, I think just think keeping that in mind. I know that we all sometimes view this as free money. I don't believe it is free money. It's money that's paid for by taxpayers as every time they buy something in

044Klay County. And so I think we need to be smart about how we're spending this money and how we're thinking about it. Sure. Sure. Sure. And it's a it's a two-year grant, Jennifer. Is that correct? This is the second year. the second year of a two-year grant. We we we feel very fortunate that we receive these funds and we try to be very thoughtful about their application. Um and we we do have um the ability to re-evaluate and reassess needs. Um and to your point, a couple of years ago, we were in that situation where we were looking at a reduction and we had to go through and prioritize what we needed to where do we place those resources. So, I think we're always mindful of that and your point's well taken without knowing exactly

045how it all works, too. I I would feel better if the way this worked was more of a the board on the front end understood where we were going with some of these ideas and some of these programs and that we went to the then went to the children's fund to see if that was something that they would be interested in paying for. I think the test here is would you pay for this absent the grant, absent the money coming from them, is this something we want to invest in? And so I don't know how the process works now. I admit that. But I just I feel like it'd be better if the board had better sense of it on the front end and then we went out to to get the uh money on

046the back end because in this instance coming up, I feel like I I feel like I'm almost being handed something and I have to figure out right now is it good, is it bad, or otherwise. So again, I just was surprised by the amount. um didn't realize it was that much. And so I just want to raise that as that there are potential. It's great to your point that it's great to have the support. I don't want to say that, but I am mindful of what that could mean financially in a bad year. Yeah, it it allows us to uh apply our resources to our academic program and then allows us to use this for more support services. Um, and so, uh, what we can do is moving forward, uh, grant application will be next

047year. That'll be year one of the two-year grant, and we'll just keep the board informed. We moved away from the board approving all grants. So, this is this is um the board's approving of the actual agreement, but we can we can definitely let you know where the application will be as as we start year one. Is that what you're asking? just so you have a better idea of better better sense and then and then just for the board's knowledge of of kind of hey you've got a a bogey out there if if things go bad. Okay. And I I will tell you um the majority of the funds right now go to individual and group therapy as well as um behavior intervention. Um it it would be a loss to lose those things, but it

048the money really isn't so much paying for programs that we have as much as it is just for student support. Um we have lots of kids in need in the district and and that is where the majority of those dollars go. And so to apply for the grant, do we have to list out how we're going to spend the money to them to down to the dollar? Yes. And and this year it was a little bit different. This year they actually told us how much money they were looking at. The facilitator of the grant, the grant administrator, she said, "This is what I believe we will be able to give you. So work your budget to fit this." And then it did go to the their board for approval. So, it was a little bit

049different this year and perhaps this could be something in a future workshop that would be an opportunity for board members to have a better understanding of of how this works. Well, and the the other thing we talked about a couple months ago is we've we've talked about doing a tier one behavior protocol, kind of a a research team to kind of look at behavior interventions for tier one. And this ties to tier two and three. and we could probably package all that together when we could bring those recommendations forward. I think as we go into the approval of another grant, hearing how the two the behavior analyst and the behavior implement, I know we heard it from the principles from the elementary side, how is it impacting the students and the principles and the teachers

050to be able to support those kids. Okay, we have a principal here that could probably speak directly to that. Yep. We have both of the principles. That's right. I know we heard a little bit about it from Carne Elementary the last time, but it was great to hear the impact that it's having a positive impact. Would you like to take a moment and Dr. Miller? Dr. Masker, doctor. Um, so just working from two years ago to this year, the major change in my building was a RBT, registered behavior technician that was funded uh through Klay County Children Fund. So that person primarily ran uh a support schedule throughout the course of the day. So what we were able to do is we were able to be more proactive with our student needs over the course

051of our day. um a lot of built schedules with those students and instead of me reacting to the behavior in the classroom, that person was able to know the trigger time for that individual student and then she had a populated schedule over the course of the day, drastically decreased my behavior logs over the course of the year. So that one individual made my life a lot easier. So that's just one example of it. Um individual therapy is another um thing that I see a a big impact of um more so than the group therapies. Even group therapies are great, but we have some kids that have a lot of trauma in life and and need that one-on-one opportunity that we don't have necessarily uh inhouse otherwise. and they have to go through a a list

052of of requirements in order to receive those certifi services. Like they have to seek those therapy opportunities outside of school prior to coming into being on that list of students. So things like that um help us be more proactive so that I'm not reacting to behavior all day. So a lot of similarities for Mitch as well. So we had I got a behavior interventionist through Summit who is housed in our building. um he has his own classroom there. And so to kind of back up a little bit, um historically uh we had had a best teacher or like a behavior type teacher and due to some absorptions, um we no longer had that uh staff member for this school year. um we had some transfers, we had some kids coming in with some well-known uh

053type behaviors. And so we leaned on our behavior interventionist um to to help observe those kids, work through some strategies, push into our team meetings with teachers to give them um kind of that proactive feature like M Mitch is talking about. Um and really he just did a lot of good and and some teachers maybe didn't see it all that well. Um I know that from an administrative and counseling standpoint, we did. Um, and it eventually got to a point where we weren't hearing anything from some of these kids and we're like, is it are we getting punked right now? Like, is everything is everything good? And um, so eventually this spring um, this individual started to visit more elementary schools um because there was an identified need there as well. And um, I think

054that presented some challenges in itself, but I think there was also some successes there. So, um, being just one year, uh, with the behavior interventionist, I've got a short list of things that I'd like to shore up on my end. I know that I've started to talk with, um, Dr. Utek, um, as well with her experience in that realm, but, um, really it was a good benefit for our building and I think a lot of kids benefited from that as well. So, his title is actually a board certified behavior analyst and so his training is really about designing effective student plans. um and he's really mindful of about making them um useful for classroom teachers to adapt and and modify or include in their classrooms. It's a very very valuable resource for us and I

055you know just you might talk to them about your kiddo that came in from another district. Yes. So um we this was like a a success real success story. Um, we had a student come in from a neighboring district who, um, you know, was very challenging. This student, uh, didn't spend any time in the general ed classroom, was very much isolated, um, during the day. And so, we're very proactive in having some conversations with administrators and their behavior interventionists. And it was a little disheartening at first because what they had shared was, "We tried everything and we did not meet any success on any level." And I was like, "Oh man. Um and then we we're like they're coming, you know, so we we've got to do all all we can to prepare and our

056behavior interventionist like I I just I don't know. I can't put into words the impact that he had on this student. Um that that they became very social. They went to class. Um now they they had some hiccups and we had to use some restraint training at times you know but um overall um that was a very very big success story for the year year and I was very proud of the work that we had done. I I say we that kiddo ends up in class getting instruction instead of spending all their time in trouble. So so much so that they you know they had a person with them all day every day. they they may not need a person with them all day every day next year and it's like that's progress right so

057but to your point we we have done it without um I think that what what these things do is they just remove obstacles for teachers um and help us be a little bit more proactive we can do without it's just harder to do so in certain realms and those individuals are they contracted on a one-year basis or a two-year basis one year so do we get are they coming back next year. Both of them. Yes. Good. If you approve the agreement. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other comments? We ready to vote? All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. Next. Uh agreement with Hope Squad. Math to approve the agreement and quote with Hope Squad for grades six through seven as presented. Second. Think we have a presentation for this or some Yeah. Um so just

058wanted to bring this back to you. Um we I believe we had Amanda presented a couple months ago. Um and then we brought it back for uh the board to vote. Um and there were some outstanding questions and and it was as a 33 decision. Um, we're bringing this back. We just do feel there's value. Um, we feel there's value grades four through seven. And just being fully transparent, I understand there's concerns as discussed um with grade implementation for grades four through five. You had some questions and Amanda took some time and effort to really kind of go through and walk through those. Um, turn it over to Amanda. Good evening. Um, it's good to see you all again. Uh, for new members I've not met, my name is Amanda Texter and I'm one of

059the district social workers. I'm joined tonight by uh Sherry Miller from Beacon Mental Health over there. Aaron Thomas who's the Dogwood and Carney Middle School social worker, Erin McMains, the Carne Junior High counselor, Dr. Dan Miller here, Carne Middle School principal, and Dr. Mitch Masker. I was so excited for his doctorate. Um, we know from watching the April board meeting, there were some concerns and hesitations about this program from half the board. Um, diversity and opinion encourages us to consider all points of view before making big decisions. I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know your voices were heard. Um, we did some research to get some answers to your concerns. Despite my feelings on the program, I really tried to listen to where various people were coming from and could understand some

060of the hesitations as I would have the same thoughts if I wasn't doing this work daily. I humbly request you listen to this information tonight with an open heart and mind to hear an alternative perspective. Oh, you know what? This is the wrong presentation. Um Oh, sorry guys. Um, so I can share the right one. Maybe that works. You just keep going. Okay. Um, so the next slide, as you'll see in a little bit, um, is just kind of the nuts and bolts of the program. Um, I won't spend a lot of time on this piece as most of you were present um, at the meeting when Sherry Miller from Beacon and I presented about the program in March. Um, but for new folks here, um, this is a quick recap of the program we

061are talking about called Hope Squad. So once it gets up, you'll see the nuts and bolts. Um, but the graphic that you don't see on the screen, um, gives a clear synopsis of the nuts and bolts of what the program does. The program is a peer-to-peer model that has adult facilitators. Kids will participate in one to two trainings each month for about an hour total. There's also a schoolwide awareness uh program that students lead. For example, assemblies, color runs, a community gathering of some kind to raise awareness. Today, it has developed into a large evidence-based program that is used by thousands of schools in the United States and Canada, including several districts in the Northland. The awesome thing about this program is it'll be paid for by the Klay County Children's Fund. So, no money

062out of the district's pocket, and it's no extra burden on teachers. It's the adult facilitators that will get the incentive compensation that are responsible for all aspects of the program. Children will not be pulled from core instructional time for these lessons. It will be either before or after school, during lunch period, or during seminar time. Um, and that's by default because most of the well, I shouldn't say most, some of the uh facilitators will be teachers, so they can't be pulled out of their lesson times. Um, so when we initially presented this program to you, we just had a vague theme of what would be discussed. So I hope you all had the opportunity to look at the lesson plans for a more in-depth review from the email you were sent from Hope Squad um

063when they allowed temporary access to see greater programming samples. If you didn't have the opportunity to look at that, I did take in-depth notes on the following slides to show you what exactly the nominated tier peers would be learning about in lesson time. Um, just some quick general notes up here from what I noticed when looking at the slides. So, as you can see, each lesson has a clear overview of what the student is learning and why. um lessons have different time aotments which I thought was really nice because if it is like an afterchool program it could be done longer ver versus like if it's at school or lunchtime it would only be like 20 minutes. Um each lesson comes with a PowerPoint presentation for the facilitator to share with students and guidance on

064what material will be needed. Um and it gives age appropriate books as well which I thought was really cool for leaders to look at. Um, it offers a parent manual for squad member parents so they can get an overview of what their child is learning and how to support their child during this leadership opportunity. Um, it also offers post vent uh post vvention resources. So, if our worst nightmare happens, it really gives great guidance on how to respond to a student student suicide. Um, it also offers a portal for ideas and resources. Um, and then Hope Squad informed me because it wasn't on the but I asked and they said, um, they have two more years of programming at elementary, three for the middle and four for high school. So students will never have the

065same lesson twice. That was one of my questions when I was looking at it. So what you saw in the email was just a sample of one of the years that they would offer. Um and as we're going to talk about on the next slides, um the lesson strands are divided into different I'm sorry, the lesson topics are divided into different strands. Um so the first strand uh is the core nuts and bolts of the program. This focuses on the structure and process of being a hope squad member and team building. This is where there's a lesson on identification and warning signs of suicide in an age appropriate manner. Um, as you can see this slide, um, from here, suicide is a greater focus and goes into more detail the older the student gets. This

066is a sample of what middle schoolers would learn. Um, we know more in-depth conversations are occurring at this age among peers, and so this allows students the needed knowledge for how to respond. Um, and I'm sorry, I know there's like a ton of text on these slides. Hopefully, you've received it. Yes. Well, I've I've attached it in the agenda now. So, if you refresh your screen, you should be able to to look at it if you um so what I did is I went through the for those if if you didn't have an opportunity to already go through the um samples that they gave us, I literally went through one by one and kind of like repeated what they put on there. So, um my apologies if you didn't get this prior. Um so this

067section um as you can see discusses strengthening skills on being a good listener uh supporting others, maintaining healthy relationships, qualities such as trustworthiness and setting good boundaries. Students learn to build supportive and respectful relationships with emphasis on speaking with trusted adults when challenges arise. This next strand of lessons is called cultivating empathy. It speaks to the importance of embracing everyone for who they are and treating everyone with respect. Um, lessons focus on understanding and appreciating each person's unique qualities and fostering empathy and kindness. It encourages students to create welcoming and supportive environments for themselves and others. Uh, the next strand of lessons is about developing resilience. So, change is an inevitable part of life. Whether it's transitioning to a new grade, adapting to new routines, or facing a new challenge, change can bring excitement and

068uncertainty. This lesson strand focuses on the importance of being adaptable and open to change and recognizing that it often brings opportunities for resilience, growth, and learning. This next lesson, um, and so each each time the kids meet, like for example, with elementary, like one session might be all about boundaries, and when they meet again, it's using your strength. So it's to create like the whole year of what you would be doing. Um so these lessons foster that you can see up here uh self-awareness and the importance of maintaining physical and emotional well-being through healthy habits, encouraging self-care, managing stress, expressing feelings, and encouraging others to do the same. The last lesson strand focuses on various forms of bullying. its impact and its emphasizes the importance of seeking help from trusted adults and encouraging positive respectful

069behavior for bullying intervention. So my colleagues and I believe the importance um in the importance of this program for a variety of reasons. First I want to draw our attention to some statistics um which I wish were untrue but are not. As you can see from this slide, sec suicide is the second leading cause of death for children ages 10 to 14 and the third leading cause of death in children ages 15 to 24. When we're talking about why this program matters um and is instrumental at the elementary level, it's because the reality is a child is typically 10 years old and either fourth or fifth grade. This is a ripple effect tragedy. we have the opportunity to put an evidence-based program in place to do something about. Our kids are not living in the

070same reality that you and I grew up in. Um, the world is faster and busier and children are exposed to more with technology. I read a statistic recently from Common Sense Media that 42% of kids have a phone by age 10. By age 12, it's 71%. By age 14, it's 91%. So, their exposure level to social media is something happening earlier and thus greater exposure to things that impact their self-esteem and create anxiety and mental health issues. I just read The Anxious Generation. Um, if you haven't read that book, you should. Jason, have you read it? Okay. Um, so it encourages um I just read The Anxious Generation and encourage you to read it too for more info on this area. It's truly eye-opening um as to why we are having a mental health crisis

071among our youth at an unprecedented rate. A few other statistics coming from the center for disease control that were heartbreaking but eyeopening as to why this program is needed that I found. Um one looked at emergency room visits for children ages 10 to 14 for non-fatal self-injury. From 2010 to 2020, there was an 188% increase in ER visits by girls and 48% increase in visits from boys. Um, in looking at suicide rates for adolescents, um, which this specific study named age kids ages 10 to 14, from 2010 to 2020, there was a 91% suicide increase for boys and 1667 increase in rate for girls. Uh, a big piece of this program is building empathy and standing up for bullying and addressing in addition to addressing um, suicide. Red Card is a local movement created by

072Children's Mercy Hospital and Sporting KC to bring awareness and support to bullying. We know bullying can create high level high levels of stress, isolation, and lead to suicidal ideiation. If you are a part of keeping Carney informed or any other kind of social media, I commonly hear our community parents expressing concern about bullying, even prompting them to homeschool when things get so bad. I can tell you from my lived experience as an elementary school social worker, it's very common every year at each school um to spend some time addressing the mean girl drama. And we really see that behavior starting to emerge in these age brackets. I love that this program emphasizes proactively how to curb bullying and create leaders that stand up um to this and shift the culture of bullying to respect and

073inclusion. So these results on the screen are from Klay County. So this is our county. Um I appreciate the board's concern about not putting extra burden on children as that is something no one ever wants. Um I believe this program does just the opposite though. As a social worker, my job is to offer resources and listen to parents, but not make decisions about children on a parent's behalf. Parents should get to decide if they want their children involved in this program. I was speaking to a friend recently who said her child, if they happen to be asked to be a leader in this program, um she knows he wears his heart on his sleeve and she said she'd be too worried about him being a leader and that is okay. That is her choice. Um,

074our job is to offer this program knowing that parents know their children best and knowing what they can handle. Another parent I spoke with felt like she would love to have her child in this program as peers are coming to that kiddo all the time and she loves the village approach of how it's not just her guiding her son on what to do. As you can see on this slide, students are not left out in the wind to handle these situations and Hope Squad annual survey received positive feedback from parents and student leaders. So, what I want to leave you with um is some real life examples of what happened at Carne School District this year. Why I am called to come to you tonight is because suicidal ideiations happen at the elementary level. Cruelty

075and bullying is happening and we have the power to implement a program that is proven to do something about it. This light bulb man in the depiction for the aha moment for me happened this year on why this program is so crucial. So this year I was alerted to and responded to two different situations both at elementary schools um in addition to several others but these two particular stood out to me. In one case a peer found a suicide note a student had written and in another case a peer went home and told their parent about a child talking about suicidal suicidal ideations at school. Both situations involved cases where school counselors, a school social worker or a therapist was already involved in these cases. Um but they none of them had any idea that

076these kids were having these thoughts or feelings. Thanks to the brave peers from whom that um either someone confided in or another who knew what to look for, those thoughts were able to be addressed and lives potentially saved. I am thanking my lucky stars that these brave kids had the courage to talk to adults when something was wrong. However, children do not always report. One middle school counselor wrote to me and said, "Upon reviewing my records, I noted that approximately half the cases I assessed were suicide. I became aware of the students struggles only because a peer came forward after the individuals disclosed suicidal ideation to them. In several instances, I learned that other peers were aware of these concerns but chose not to come forward um often out of fear of betraying their friend's

077trust. The other middle school social worker told a haunting story um where she said that um in one instance, a peer came forward because they were worried about a classmate they hadn't talked to that day after the classmate said they were going to kill themselves. The classmate had said this um after she met with the child, the classmate had said this up to four people and only one had come forward to tell her. So that is why this program matters. It equips students who are already having these conversations know what to do. I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Dan Miller. So first off, I just want to recognize the work that Amanda has done with this. I know she's not alone. I know Jennifer's had a hand in it in addition to some

078counselors and some other social workers. Um, I'll be the first to admit, I know that we've had some conversations about Hope Squad previously. I was I was a little bit disappointed when it didn't pass. I'll just be honest with you guys. Um, I'm wrapping up my second year here as principal at the middle school. Um, and you know, we did some interviews earlier this week and a candidate asked, "What's a typical day look like at the middle school?" And I thought, "How much time do you have?" Um, that that a lot of these things that Amanda spoke to, um, they are happening and they're not happening with every kid, right? Um, but I would say the the the counseling office, the administrative office with some of these challenges, whether they're emotional, social, if you're talking

079about suicide, bullying, meanness, I mean, it's it's almost an everyday thing. Um, and so knowing about this program, knowing that it is reputable, we've even had some neighboring districts that have seen some success with it. Um, I've lived my entire education career with the mantra of we we can always be doing more, right? And so we in my two years as principal thus far we've tried a couple different things some in-house some out of house programs and they've had some some benefits to them uh but they haven't necessarily been the best fit for us just yet and so um I did not go to this training I sent uh my assistant principal in addition to some other staff members um and the stuff that they had brought back like we were jacked about it and

080we already had some stuff working planning we could do this we could do this um so again I'm appreciative of bringing this back and just revisiting this because I do think that it's important. Um, and wholeheartedly I stand here before you today in support of this program as an advocate for it. Just echoing a lot of the same things that Amanda has to say for it. So, um, I didn't write anything down. Was there any I I think I think really just I think this would be a good thing. I think for our sake the the counselors that serve Carne Middle School are rock stars. I have all the confidence in the world that they will implement this program and and do it and do it well. Um I I just think that there's a

081lot of benefit to it. Um I think it's something that we should really employ. Are there any questions or concerns you guys have for us? Talk to me about when a student is picked and how that is then um parents are then asked or told that they're student is it or can it be? I want the parents to know before the student knows. Does that make sense? Because if the parent is not excited or has concerns to then have the student come and be like, well, I was picked like why can't I do this? Like that creates a little bit more of an issue. So are you aware of the details on that? You would be able to choose how you choose how you want to do it as schools do it differently level. So

082at high school typically yes those kids tell the kids are they bringing together celebration but that's Bri, I see. Oh, I'm sorry. I I see your point though of like you don't want to get have a kid get really excited and the parent be like, I'm not actually comfortable with that. So, I think you raised a really good point of how we would probably want to structure that where the parents are made aware first and then they get to decide if they want their child to participate in this or not. The only other thing I'd really like to emphasize is I know suicide is thrown out there a lot. I've worked with this program now for about five years. um elementary and middle suicide is not the primary focus building and their focus on kids

083watch that message in the building how to be resilient. How do we treat others with respect? I see someone sitting by themselves at recess. I want to talk. They're not going to be alone. I see someone. So the focus is also how the buildings and how to Oh my gosh. What kind of questions? I know the the motion before us now is uh six and seven, but Dr. Masker, how did I do? I said it right. Could you talk about your thoughts about it at the elementary level and talk to us a little bit about that since you're here? Yeah, that that's why I'm here. Um, so I look at it as another leadership opportunity. It's an umbrella um of leadership opportunities for kids. So I was very reluctant at the beginning to think of

084of using certain verbiage uh with our with our elementary students. um still would be a little bit regarding certain lessons, but um I look at student sense of belonging and student opportunities as the umbrella um student council, various leadership opportunities that we do within our buildings and then hope squad would fit into that as well. So I would not um have a vision of this being a big thing at all in the elementary building. it would be another area of opportunity to um give kids leadership opportunities to step up when they see things that are not what they should be. So it would be in my eyes different than the a little bit more of a program in in the middle school level. You don't have to is required. Let's do this and this and

085this and this. There's a lot of which they choose up to for me as anything that we implement has to be seamless and it can be baby stepped into um it has to fit what we're already doing. Um so we would ensure that it did that so that it didn't impact anything else we've got in place that works. So what you're already doing it was brought to us about the respect campaign. Where will that go now? Like where or where is that at now? be simultaneous to me with this thing. Um so that has kind of based on the year the the weight of uh staff that jump on board to take things on. Um it kind of fits into our uh responsive discipline um with with teachers, our our building structures, our star, our

086bark, our uh respectful, responsible, safe depending on the building. um the respect campaign and the the aspects of it kind of fit into our systems already. We don't talk at the building level about the respect campaign clearly necessarily as much anymore. I envision Hope Squad um being something similar. It would be another group of leaders that would emphasize the things that we're already doing. Hope Squad actually I mean it's it's that focus on character. Um this puts more structure around that. uh respect campaign. I mean, Jennifer and academic services did a lot of great work putting that message out. This provides structure to it. I have a couple questions. Um I'm 99% certain this is not the case, but if I don't ask it, I can't be 100% certain. So there are elementary schools where

087they are asking students who are the top three people most likely to commit suicide and they write them down and then if it like more than two are on them they bring them in. That's not what you're doing here, right? You're not asking students to point out other things. It's just when they see something kind of say something for lack of a better word. Correct. Yes. Absolutely Jason. So how this works is um like at the beginning of the year, the end of the year depending upon how we structure it, if it's approved, um what would come is like everybody has um well first of all the staff who lead this will get training on how to do this appropriately and and according to all the standards. Um but that they ask the kids who

088do you talk to? Who are like important people in your classroom that you really respect and you feel like you talk to? And then based on whoever the top kids are with that, those are the ones that get nominated. Um, but no, they're they're never they're let they're getting these lessons on like the different social emotional things. Um, and then they're they're just kind of like the eyes and ears, if you will, um, as a part of like all the other layers. So, does that answer your question? It does. I'm 100% sure now. I just wanted to make sure I was 100% sure. Thanks for asking. Well, I have another question. Yes. Um, so I think this is a one-year program. I think if I read that in the write up or at least would

089have to come back to this board. So a year from now or less you'll come back to this board or someone will come back to this board and they'll say hey hope squad and we've got we want to renew it and it's great and everybody loves it. How will I know that it worked? What what are my measurables to say aha this is this is what worked? How will I know that this is different than that? This is maybe this is the greatest uh program since sliced bread, but how will I know that? I I think it boils down to well, it would be a baseline year, right? So, I think in a baseline year, it's students reporting. I mean, then that I think that would be a great place to start. How much information

090did we find out that we would not have known otherwise? That's what you want. Students and surveys in regards to Am I me am I measuring the same kids year-over-year or am I measuring sixth grade the sixth graders every year cohort versus right they're going to get surveys from all those takesally saying kids are going to get measured because the pre how are these surveys different than the panorama that we already do and what are we doing with that data that we're getting we've been getting now for years like how is this panorama so we know we've got a team that's going to explore panorama to make sure is that the right survey for us to continue I don't know the answer to that regarding the two surveys but then you're going to see it

091relases. So then in that respect then we would see hopefully an improvement on Panorama survey or even our district survey. Is there a tracking of the number of referrals that occur? Um so I don't know if that's an official part of hope squad but I would like to do that like I want to I want to see like Jason is saying is this program successful or not at all. Um and so what I would envision um is we already keep data like when a student comes to us who has suicidal ideations we have a safety um assessment that we complete um and we give one copy to our building administrator and one to the counselor so like there's already record of kids that we are seeing um I think we could easily add a thing

092to that was like is was this referred because of a hope squad student brought it to us so we could easily get data for that Jason I just want to add when kids bring issues forward forward. It's not just on suicide. I mean, it's abuse. It's neglect. It's food deprivation. I mean, there are concerns in this district that I just um what can come forward is is important. You know, multiple areas. I mean, I do see the value even in the elementary schools. Um I know one of my children, they had a friend, they didn't have any clothes. She comes home, packs a bag of clothes, and takes it to school. So, I do think those types of areas, it's valuable. I think like Dr. Dr. Masker said, "How do we not just focus on

093suicide, but how do we focus on the character building?" Which is my question, like why is there a focus for the hope squad and not like unified? This is what we're going to do. K5 all buildings, here's a curriculum, here's what we want to focus on and see that go all the way through. If I understand it correctly, I think it's both. I think it's I think it's the hope squad. They get more specific training, but I also think there's communitywide activities like the the color run in Smithville. So I think they they do that as a school to raise awareness. I'm not sure that answered my question. Okay. What was your question? Unified like everybody doing the Senate like if you're talking like a tier one counseling. Yeah. Like if if we're not in

094place for tier one, why are we getting it? I'm not opposed to hope squad. It's like the philosophical I don't understand that which is kind of your talk about like how does it all fit? I don't understand that. I think it's just a separate strategy. I think your counseling units will still target those same lessons similar. We're going to want kids to report, but what we're trying We don't have that now, right? I believe we have counseling units that address that as well. No, that's all focused, formalized, everybody's doing the same thing. If this is if suicide and these things are the focus, I just want to know if it's through the district. um elementary our elementary does not focus on suicide on their counseling lessons. They're more you know character traits in their counseling

095lessons. We do not have a consistent program between buildings. That's that's what I'm asking. We we are and why are we doing that first? We're work we have a a plan in place in the first semester of this year to work towards that but we do not currently. They what they do the um elementary counselors they'll they are all working on the same character traits like they worked on the one trait for the first month another trait for the second they're not giving the same lessons but they are working on the same traits throughout the year. And then what's nice about Hope Squad is like that it's really the peer-to-peer piece um that's currently missing in our district is like giving those natural leaders guidance on how to respond so they don't feel like in

096the wind and really unsure if that helps. I think we just talked about we got panorama respect campaign. We've got we've got a lot of things going on and I just want to make sure we can lay in the plan and make sure we're all moving in the same direction. Sure. and selectively abandon specific to you all the work you've done or hope squad at all. If you guys are doing great work, I'm not saying that. I'm not against students. I'm saying how do we get this all I think I want them all linked like I think I want them all right to across I mean just like we do reading and math that if a student has to move from Dogwood to Southview they're everything matches that they jump right back in where and

097and they are different strategies to catch different kids and you know Panorama our social workers our counselors they look at these um these surveys and they do catch kids that would not otherwise be caught. But this is another strategy to use. Um you know if I liken it to academics, right? So if our character trait is responsibility um those four different counselors are going to focus on responsibility, they're going to execute that differently. Just like reading strategies in a classroom, it might get executed differently. And uh just like teaching reading, you have to have multiple tools in the toolkit. And so that that's all we're bringing. We're bringing um a strategy where kids we know kids are talking. Um and it's how how do we get that information to the right adult fast? It's also

098that's also reinforced in tier one lessons, too. Um, and to your point earlier, as Mitch said, we I'm sure we can tighten up our tier one counseling lessons as well for the budget for it. So, it says it's paid out of the children's fund. Is this coming out of the money that we just approved and we would have to reallocate some of those funds or is this in addition to those funds? It was actually written in to the original because I did this back before we took this to the board the first time. So, we actually did budget for this. So, actually what would happen is um if we don't end up using it for hope squad, that money would either go away or get reallocated. I'm not sure how the children's fund would handle

099that, but it is built into the children's fund budget already. Okay. So that was that's the amount of money is already built into what we just approved and what what we're guaranteed to receive this next year. Yes. Okay. I just want to point out Christina provided me an opening. Um I just want to point out under the cost and budget application it says future years may be adjusted and approved annually. So going back to what we said earlier there's no guarantee that this program would necessarily be funded next year. Which is why it is important that if this is the program that we would fund even absent children's fund, which is where I go back to I need some verification here. I I think I think we this is something we're going to move forward

100on. I could be wrong. I don't want to get ahead of the votes, but if we do move forward on this, I really want to see something to be able to tell me that yes, this worked. I understand referrals. The problem with that is you couldn't fail that test because you have no referrals now. So you would have to have you're gonna have more referrals. So I appreciate that is and I probably caught you. You probably hadn't thought through this one. So that's maybe one. I would love to see what does Smithville or Liberty or the other folks that use this what are they using to show us that yes, this is working exactly the the way we want it to? because for for me the test to this is would I pay for this

101if it weren't for the children's service fund. Jason, I think that makes a lot of sense. Um and if this does pass, I would even love to partner with you and um I could even like look into evidence-based things of how we can get that data because yeah, we're going to talk about the anxious generation, but we're going to wait on that. Oh, we are. So, this is just for sixth and seventh grade, correct? The motion is for sixth and seventh grade. Yes. But do we feel like that then after seventh grade into eighth and ninth is what do we do? Like so I mean I understand that we're a little nervous to to enter into the elementary age, but the eighth and nth graders I mean they're the ones that are like okay I

102can handle this. We won't tell anybody and we can fix this. So where what do we do with them after seventh grade? Jennifer, I don't want to speak out of turn, but my understanding is like if this goes well, um, and we are seeing good results from it, then eventually we would want to entertain it. Um, like is it correct to say like do replacing signs of suicide or even looking into other options? In some schools, they do replace the SOS program with this. Some use both, but some replace it. Um, and that's what we're talking about is if this went well, then we would add on. And so here adding on is that more money is it's just budgeted for these two. What what we saw was it it really didn't end up because

103um you have to pay for the cost of the training and so we would be training more people this year than we would be in future years. So that would be offset by the cost of the building cost of having the program because we wouldn't have as many people that we would be training at that point. So um it might go up a little bit, but it wouldn't go up a whole lot. So next year if we go from sixth to 9th grade, we're not going to be looking at a $40,000 bill. It doesn't necessarily double for every two grades, right? per year is about okay the training of the staff is the curriculum is the training is yeah okay I feel like there are two things here that we're talking about the one is

104hope squad and we you know got the other thing though I want to make sure that I've heard it now around this room is I think the feeling is part of the concern here is I think this board I don't want to I don't speak for it but what I hear is that it sounds like there's some concern over the Frankensteining if you will that there's a program and we're just kind of tacking it on and it lacks at a strategy of what are we doing you know what is our plan for all of this from K through 12 or whatever it is so that we know that this is the Carney school district plan whether go back to Brie whether it was respect or whether it's hope squad or I I and I understand

105what you're saying is it's one tool in the toolbox but I think understanding what our plan is So that something like this when it's brought to us, we understand where it fits within the plan as opposed to it's kind of the next program we're stapling on to the so that if the money is reduced, we know what's super important, what's the core, and what's on the sides and then know you're ahead of that that situation happening. So, and just to be really forthright, we've had in our strategic plan that we would do have a team and we would look at comprehensively at social emotional behavior throughout the system. it was scheduled to happen this year. We just had several other objectives that we just had we couldn't get to it this year. Um we know

106that there is a a definite immediate need. We tried another uh program at the middle school that was not successful. So we know that there's there's a gap there. So um we we our neighbors have had good good experience. So we were trying to backfill what we saw as a need. But to your point, we recognize this as a systems need. Um, and there is a plan to address it. It's been in the strategic plan and it's it's a priority for next year. For the budget, I know the last time it was discussed, I thought the last time it was discussed it was 4 through 7 and now we have it on the table 6 through seven. So, is that amount inclusive of four through seven or is that amount six and seven? It was

107for 4 through 7. It would be much reduced because the elementary would be a that's four buildings of staff members getting trained. So it would be so theoretically we could say keep that same amount of money and we could do six through nine or 6 through 12 hypothetically. I think we could do that but I I think that we need to bring the board back to remember what we do. Y we are not to micromanage programs. A program has been brought to us well researched by our staff and I'm not speaking for the entire board. I'm probably speaking for myself here, but also to try to remind the board. Um we have professionals that have brought us a lot of information. We've asked them to bring us information again. And I think that we probably

108need to come back and focus on at this point not the cost because that's their job is to figure that those things out, but whether we as a board are willing to support the current motion as it is. Certainly all the questions are really good. I'm not trying to say that to supplant that. But I think these are the professionals that implement and so we're just being asked to approve a particular program and some of the questions that are now coming up I think can and should be uh addressed maybe in in a little bit different way in in more of a strategic planning type type situation. Um certainly we can keep asking a lot of questions but um I believe and I don't want to speak for the one who made the motion but

109I believe that the motion was brought as it was because of recent conversations it was felt that this was maybe a good starting point that we could get support from the board to land on and then we would continue to evaluate just like we do everything else evaluate what we do to see what makes the most sense. So I think the question though was just what what is the recommended age from I believe the recommended age it was in the original motion that it starts at fourth grade. Is that right? I mean yeah and the data is telling us like 10 year olds is where we're really starting to see concerns. Um and all of us know that from the daily work that we do. Um so I would say fourth grade on but I

110don't know what's on the table tonight. [Music] Any questions? Okay, great. We ready to vote or any other I guess I would just add um just since you you brought it up. Obviously, I was someone who voted for it the first time around and um I've talked tried to make a point to talk to a lot of folks, Dr. Miller and I did have a chance to talk to some folks directly earlier this week and I talked to a couple people in a couple of other districts that are looking to to expand their programming. Sure, it is fairly new for some of the districts around us from what my understanding is. Um, but the research is there and budgets aside, I think whatever we can do to help our kids is important and it's important

111to look at the long term in terms of funding, but not to do something today because we worry about funding in two or three years. I understand that's important, but I just really think it's important that we start this program at the point that we can all agree with today and then we look to our professionals for continuing evaluation and to bring us good information about it. I'm I'm okay with that. I I would emphasize a different point than what you did, though. I would emphasize that it's an opportunity to see if it does work and to get our own view of it rather than having to talk to others. And so I I think it makes sense to step in and then evaluate where we were. And that's I is if it's a pilot

112project, I'm less concerned about it. Let's see if it works. Okay, ready to vote? All in favor? Post. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. Appreciate it very much. Approve a strategic plan update for 22 to 27. Move to approve the update of strategic plan for 2022 and 2027 as presented. Second. So before you um you have a revised two-page document. We have four goals uh in our strategic plan and I'm going to kind of flip over. Yep. Uh climate and culture, academic success and student support, responsive leadership, community engagement, and exemplary and valued employees. We had four objectives under each um particular goal area. One of the things we did was we streamlined for example um under ob uh the first objectives we had four objectives and it it really felt like we had

113three separate objectives on our survey measuring belonging. So instead of having really just truncate that down to just focus on belonging under objective 1.2. Similarly, um under uh academic success and student support, we uh went from four objectives down to three. And we combined the first two objectives to focus on academic performance um 25% on high stakes assessment and also measuring student achievement. Under objective three, um again, we just paired back one that really kind of measured whether uh patrons felt like engaging with Carney School District about major changes and initiatives. And then objective four, um we reduced that as well down to three objectives. Um what we did was we removed one objective that really looked at um uh uniquely unique training to a classification of employee groups because we felt that that fell

114under uh objective 4.2 whether we offered a supportive work environment. So again not a lot of changes. Um what we try to do is just streamline and a lot of those uh redundant survey questions will also be data points when we report back baseline information to you at next year's meeting. Any questions on that? Questions? All in favor? Post. Thank you. Approval of salary schedules for 2526. Move to approve the administration professional certified classified extra duty and miscellaneous salary schedules at schedules for 2025 2026 as presented. Second. We are pleased to bring you um our recommended uh salary schedules for the 2526 year. Um Dr. McMains does an outstanding job working with the salary and benefits committee. um their team meets throughout the course of the year. Um this recommendation is coming to you late

115because we are continuing to watch kind of financial impact coming out of Jeff City and really understanding getting a more clarity on what that would look like. But I'm going to have Dr. McMains walk you through that recommendation. So as you see uh this gives um our classified staff a overall increase of 4% and that includes such step in the salary schedule. The range for our classified staff staff would be anywhere from 3% to 8.9% of a raise. Um certified is 2.8 to 7.5 for for a overall 4.1. And then our professional administration salary schedule is a uh pretty much a straight 3.25 across for all administrators. I will say that um I I think in our board update earlier this week, excuse me, last week I sent a a chart to you where our

116our neighboring and our market districts are as far as our their beginning salary schedule or their beginning um teacher salary throughout. Uh, and I would say this is the first year that I've seen teachers leave us for money since I've been here. Um, and I and I I really feel like and it's part of our strategic plan to remain competitive. You know, Carney is a wonderful place to teach and work and to work, you know, as a classified or certified. We have a great community. We have amazing students. We have amazing people to work with. But at the end of the day, um, people need to take care of their families. And when they can make, you know, 10,000 8 $10,000 more in another district, they're going to leave us sometimes. Not always and it's

117not always money, but uh um I think this this schedule keeps us very competitive with our market districts and in the metro for the most part, but there are some districts that are making some big moves around us that they're starting starting to uh take a couple teachers from us and and uh we have really good staff and this is going to help us keep them. The other thing I'd like to point out on the classified schedule um the first column uh has been moved so that it it exceeds $15 an hour. That was that was a pretty big step that we wanted to make sure um that we we beat that threshold. Any questions? Right. All in favor? Thank you. Approval of the employee manual. Approval of the 2025 2026 employee manual as presented.

118Second. I had sent you these updates earlier. Um some red line items here. The changes are relatively minor. Um and also the uh discipline handbook changes are located in the employee manual. those will be transferred to the parent and student u are already actually in the parent student manuals as well. Uh most of the updates were names, dates, minor changes, some redundancies were removed. Uh there were a few policies or practices that we weren't employing uh that we had to change um with leaves and things like that, but no major changes. All the policies have been updated for uh from EGS. Um really appreciate um Don Kunrod, Leanne Bradberry, uh Becky Berg Kemper's help um in compiling some of these changes. Uh this is always a team effort and al along with our admin team.

119Um a lot of eyes gets get put on these handbooks because you know these are our policies and these are what guide us and we need to make sure they're accurate and they're they're usable and that they're what we're using dayto-day. Any questions about any of the changes? Dr. McBaines, do you print these? We do not print these any longer. They're digital copies. Now, if a if a parent would request or a staff member requests a printed copy, we absolutely would grant those, but we no longer send these out in used to. You would send print you'd send off to a printers and they had to be done at a certain time to get them by the beginning of school. We no longer do that. They're distributed uh yeah digitally. 118 pages. I was just

120making sure we weren't we're not we're not cutting down trees, Mr. Clint. No. Several. Okay. And for those of you who are new, you may or may not know these were rev overhauled uh two years ago. So that's why we're seeing minor changes because we had your first year that was your life, wasn't it? A lot of it. Th that's a big undertaking to redo a handbook. Yes. But again, we had a big team working on it. So it made the made it light lighter work. Yes. Okay. All in favor opposed. Thank you. All right. Next is the um student parent handbooks. So a lot of the same pro I'm sorry. Move to approve the 2025 2026 student parent handbook as presented. Second. Slow. Sorry. No, I'm just I'm just uh fired up to get

121get you guys to approve these handbooks. Uh student parenting handbook. Very similar. Um, this was an overall building admin team project. A lot goes into this and so we've had new administration come in. Um, some of the some of the procedures have changed, policies have not changed. Again, minor minor changes with board member names, dates, um, lunch prices, that type of good calendars, those have all updated. Uh, but I can't thank the assistant principles and the principles enough for going through this with a fine tooth comb. We always find something. Uh, we have dozens of sets of eyes on this every year and we always find something. And every year they're like, "Wow, we've we've just seen this again." So, uh, and this also gets vetted by our attorneys. Um, Meline Garrett, uh, one of

122our attorneys through Ed Counsel, she hits this with us, uh, helps us with this every year. And it's it's it's good process. It's it, like you said earlier, we revamped these two years ago. A lot of discussion then, but, hopefully moving forward, we're we're just shaping and making minor tweaks to to do the best things for our staff and our students. Questions? All in favor? opposed. Thank you. Next, we have an agreement with Houston Stewart Consulting. Move to approve the agreement with Houston Stewart Consulting as presented. Second. Before it's just a a contracting agreement um really to provide some assistance with strategic communication. Um happy to answer any questions you might have regarding that. Which funding bucket does this come out of? You mean just whether it's just general fund? Is it personnel? Is it

123the teacher? Is it fund one, two, three, four? Fund one. Okay. This is which is what? General fund. The incidental fund. Okay. This would have to come out of this type of service, wouldn't it? Yeah. Questions? Right. All in favor? opposed. Thank you. 202526 lunch prices. Move to approve lunch prices for the 2025 2026 school year as presented. Second questions. I don't see cookies on there. You don't see cookies on there? Lots of cookies on there. Okay. Krispie treats. Just a 10-centent lunch increase. We just wanted to make sure that we we publicly stated that so people were aware. All in favor? Thank you. $50,000 purchase from McConnell. Ratify the $50,000 purchase from McConnell Associates as presented. Second. This information we provided to you um this is a ratification and this is really regarding um

124concrete work that's h and asphalt work that's happening here. Um Mr. Nolan would be happy to answer any questions that you have. This does not appear to be coming out of what I would consider to be the normal funding stream. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, so this is part of our mosaic lease and Eric um so we're we had remaining funds in that lease. Um, so we elected to utilize that and get get the parking lot up to date. Eric, did you want to add to that? It was this parking lot curb system specifically deterioration was identified by McConnell as one of our needs um as as we were identifying what was going to have to whittle off of the original um asphalt project to get down to a reasonable amount

125that we can afford to do. um we were able to pay for this from the um out of the original loan amount from this building. Does that mean though that the we're extending the loan or we're are would it been money that we would not have borrowed then? I'm maybe I'm dense but it's not computing for me. So when the the original loan amount was we were under that when the building was finished and there's still within the agreement. And Jinger, you correct me if I'm jumping any time. When the original building was finished, the amount that we had left over allowed us to take care of things that that came up that we're still dealing with this building, um, HVAC system, malfunction, upgrade, that kind of thing, plumbing, and this falls in that category

126as well. So, was it money that was already borrowed or were now going back and already borrowed? Mhm. Okay. And there's still remaining funds left in that lease. So, we weren't paying interest on the amount on this amount because we hadn't borrowed it yet or hadn't used it yet. That that right? Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? All right. All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. Hartland Business Systems. Sorry, another McConnell. Sorry. McConnell move to approve the over $50,000 purchase for McConnell Associates as presented. Second. Do you have any questions regarding I do. Um, one of the things I heard, so this falls in the hearsay category, which is my favorite category. Um, there's concern that we seem to pave the high school parking lot a lot. And so is that is that something that you would

127agree with or is it something that we need to do because of other reasons that maybe not be immediately uh understandable to the general public or would you push back and say that that they were drinking that day? How about that part? I'm giving options. I don't think you would say that. So the the there is parking lots that probably appear to be paved and they have a seal coat put on them more frequently and that extends the life of any asphalt. Um if you can put that seal coat on and that that may be what they're talking about because it comes across and it's straight black and then you put the paint on for the lines and it becomes nice crisp. Um, so it's actually not being repaved. It's just being resealed. Yes, more

128than likely. Now, parts of the high school has been repaved and it's just as as McConnell um works with with Jeremy and and the maintenance crew each year to identify our areas of need, then they do mill down what's needed in certain areas. But then once they would, you know, if they mill down, you know, 200 square feet, but the whole surface gets seal coated, that may appear what they're talking about. And I assume that parking lot gets used more than any other with the number of events. You are correct. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. Now, H Heartland Business Systems move to approve the agreement over $50,000 for the H Heartland Business System as presented. Second, and you've you've seen this in the past. Um, we contract

129with uh three technology specialists with H Heartland um that do an outstanding job and Ryan's happy to answer any questions if you have have any. They do great work. Couldn't do it without him. Right, Ryan? That's right. Okay. All right. All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. Board representative for the Carney Advanced Enterprise Zone. Move to approve the appointment of Darlene Bailey as board representative to the Carney Advanced Enterprise Zone. Second. Questions? All in favor? Opposed? It's yours. I vot it twice actually. Did I miss one? No. Move to approve the appointment of Nick Vazquez to the position of liaison to the Carney School District Education Foundation for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. All in favor? Post. You're going to vote. Sure. Sure. Yeah. All right. I'm here. MSBA delegate move to approve the appointment

130of Jason Clint as the MSBA delegate for the 2025 2026 school year for the Carne School District. Second. I'd like to make an impassion speech against this, but I feel like D is already cast. All in favor? Too late. Post. Thank you. You're abstaining. Thank I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything. Okay. Appointment of a new board member. Move to appoint Jacob Clinsmith to fill the current board vacancy for the remainder of the term. Second, questions. Um just make a few comments. Um we had, as I think most people know, we had 10 candidates for this position initially. Um and we narrowed that down to three individuals who were at our last meeting to interview um in with the board and they submitted additional information um as a well as a result

131of that I guess they did they brought the same information but anyway um it's been an interesting process as you all know that this is a little this is a little different um because this is all a very public process even though it's a personnel process and so um and usually folks are elected Um, so I want to thank everyone who was part of the process. Jennifer, you're here tonight, so thank you specifically since you're here. Um, we had 10 certainly qualified people, but we had three particularly qualified people to u be our finalists who interviewed with us and uh we really appreciate everyone being part of the process. Um, and I want to uh again thank all of you for for all of that and thank you all for your time as we navigated

132our way through this because this is not something that the board does very often. But we believe it's important uh to have a full board uh for a lot of reasons. But this person will um if this motion is approved, this person will fill um the term and then we'll that position will be up for reelection next year, next April. So, Madam President, I I would just say I congratulate you on a process that was wellrun. I thought that was done well. I want to thank uh Matt Baker who had some things that I think improved upon the process and I would echo your comments that I thought we had 10 folks frankly that any one of them probably would have done a very good job. So, appreciate that. Um and and just kind of

133and hope that we never have to do that again. Okay. All in favor? Opposed? Right. Thank you very much. The um I guess I will just add that the um board member swearing in is at a public meeting. So at the next available public meeting uh where Mr. Cling Smith is available, he will be sworn in at that time. Uh no comments. I would just like to say and uh we knew that um Jennifer was going early but Jinger I would just add my comments to the service that you have given to the district. I know when I came on the board uh eight years ago um I heard the stories about how Ginger came in and did some amazing things in her first few years because the district was in a position when you

134came on board where we really needed you and you were the right person at the right time. and all the years that I sat on the audit committee, yes, they would come in and say, "Ginger's perfect and we don't have anything to talk about." Um, there's some pretty big shoes to fill by the next person. So, I sincerely thank you from my standpoint and um for all that you do. You're very quiet in what you do and you do so much that we sure I'm sure we don't know everything that you do. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Ginger. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Important dates. Uh June 26, which is next Wednesday, Thursday. Thursday, uh 7:30, we will have our budget meeting to close out the fiscal year. Um and to approve

135or to approve items to close out the fiscal year, expense items, and then um we'll be presented with the final at that point 26 2026 budget. That's right. for approval. Um June 26th is the last day of summer school and July 16th, board members, remember to be prepared for a full day as we will have a workshop that day. I believe we're going to start at about 11 o'clock. We're going to tour um the elementary school progress um and a variety of other things before our uh next regularly scheduled meeting that night. Miscellaneous Action for close session to immediately proceed the regular meeting in July, including any record or vote to discuss items and issues allowable under section 610-021 of the Missouri Sunshine Law. Second. Roll call. Matt Baker, yes. Jason Clint, I. Christina Lindsay,

136yes. Breezer, yes. Nick Vasquez, yes. Charlene Bailey, yes. We returned.