001I would like to call this meeting to order. Um, Mr. Kathy, can you lead us in the pledge? >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> All righty. I need a motion to approve the special meeting agenda as presented. >> All those in favor, raise your right hand and say, "I." >> I. Motion passes. I need a motion to approve the strategic planning contract as presented. >> Discussion. >> So board, um I'm excited tonight on behalf of the entire cabinet to recommend G&D Associates as the firm to help us develop and execute our 2026 to 2031 strategic plan. Uh the request for proposal was issued following the August, excuse me, 25th
002board meeting um where you approved the RFP and it was posted on the district's website and emailed out to several of the firms that had applied to work with us five years ago. The scope of services we we requested is highlighted in board docs, but it included not only support with the planning process, the content development, but also we talked about developing the capacity of the team doing the strategic planning work as well as support during that initial year of implementation. On the due date of September 16th, we had received 10 full proposals. District cabinet members reviewed all 10 of those and participated in an evaluation and recommendation process using the evaluation criteria that were included in the RFP. From that review, five firms were selected to participate in Zoom interviews on Friday, September 26th.
003Uh we met here, the district cabinet, as well as three board members participated in the interview process. And based on those interviews, ultimately we chose three firms to do follow-up reference calls with. Um, I was able to talk to either the current superintendent that worked specifically with the firm during the process or with another assistant superintendent or administrator that had engaged with them. G&D is being recommended based on their overall response to the RFP, their quality of the interview, and looking at the strategic plan products that they developed with multiple districts u both in Missouri and across the country. Um some of those highlights include that um they were one of the few firms who had experience with Missouri districts and while not um a complete requirement we did say that that was a preference
004um and they had worked with two districts on the Kansas City side both Liberty Public Schools and Raytown um Liberty is a high performing high achieving district doing a lot of innovative things um and then Raytown um described themselves as a very different district compared to um Liberty and yet they both um highlighted how impressed they were working with this specific firm and how the great of a job the firm did in meeting their local needs um in moving them forward with new strategic plans. So when we think about they have a strong understanding of both DESIE of MP6 requirements as well as um the success ready student network that we're a participant of as well and so the firm has experience working with all those different initiatives. um their scope of the proposal included
005implementation and progress monitoring through the first year of implementation, which is something that stood out to us. not just getting us over the finish line of having the plan approved by the board um but having follow-up meetings included in that first year working both with cabinet with leaders of different components of the strategic plan coming back to the board of education and then actually coming on site to lead um a try the year a session I think was the language they used to wrap up the end of that first year of implementation and move forward in year two. Something that stood out to us is they developed a monitoring and accountability system. And so when we think of dashboard, we just think of what are the four goal areas and what's that number? But they've
006actually created a system where it breaks down into individual projects of the strategic plan. Um all of the action steps within that and ways that we as a leadership team andor the goal champions they called them could monitor the work throughout. Um so in all of that in addition to the positive reviews um every district we talked to locally and um others in the country were thrilled with the work said that they are incredibly responsive um that they will be here on site multiple times to do work with the board with our community. I'm getting a lot of community input and then they're also willing to hop on a zoom a phone call engage via email anytime any leader that's working on the strategic plan needs support of the firm. Um, so I'm excited to
007recommend G&D and pending your approval tonight, we have a call at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning to begin talking about um an outline of dates and what we need to do for next steps. Be happy to answer any questions you might have or every many others in the room participate in the process and can speak to them as well. they are not. And so what I will say is that um theirs is not a flashy dash dashboard. I think our CRD team could probably make it look much more appealing. Um it it looks like a lot of um Google Sheets, spreadsheets that are all linked though, but um several districts use those actual sheets themselves for the communication of it. But that work is included and that's something several of the other firms did not include.
008We don't believe so. >> Thanks for sharing this with us, Dr. Rumpus. Um, just wanted to call out some of the phases that I think are really important in the presentation. Um, which is really focused on getting that community engagement and community feedback and really understanding the community needs. um that to me feels like a very important step in the process. So really appreciate that call out here. No specific question, just wanted to mention that. Thank you. >> I'll also add something unique um that they brought was they talked about engaging recent graduates as a focus group in particular um and then a lot of student voice of our current students making sure that they were a part of the process as well. >> Yeah. And that that focus group and community engagement not you
009know the students as well as the families and across the entirety of the community. I think that that emphasis is important beyond students too. Thanks. Yeah, I would I'd say give us a week to work out some of those details. Obviously, you can always send them to our office to me or Laura. Um, but to Miss Neman's point that they will be engaging not only parents in the community, um, residents who may not have ever been a parent, but are a taxpayer patron in the community as well as business leaders. And so, we'll be identifying multiple opportunities to engage all different groups. And so yeah, I would imagine there will be a place to on the website we'll be able to direct them as well as some links for them to sign up whether it's
010providing information in focus group meetings or via survey. >> This is great. Um and Miss Heburn and Miss Andrews and I were there all day for all the interviews and um this this group really stood out to me and I'm very excited about this and eager to get started. So all those in favor raise your right hand and say I. I. Motion passes. And now we are going to adjourn the board special meeting and have a short break before we begin the board cabinet retreat.