001good evening G to go ahead and call this meeting to order we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance today it's going to be led by Hazel Grove Elementary students thank you and welcome everyone to tonight's board meeting can I get an adoption of the agenda I move to I moved to amend the agenda and create 8.02 titled publicly disclosing a vote from our closed session on February 6th and February 20th this motion is to give the transparency that our community is asking for and would allow us to have some limited discussion to clear the air if item 8.02 is approved there's really no reason um at this point that we don't have transparency second [Music] discussion I'm unclear on exactly what the motion is can can it be repeated and explained I was moving to
002amend the agenda to create 8.02 which would be titled publicly disclosing a vote from our Clos session on February 6th and 20th um the motion is to give transparency which is what the community has been asking for and um what allow us to have limited discussion to clear the air about um about those those votes do you mind if I ask our friendly lawyer there I don't know if that can be done as an open topic um right correct and that's what Joe Joe had informed us already it' only be the action correct and I people can Sunshine that as well that they want to so I just letting you know um that we're getting in some touchy water there if we start doing closed session and an open session setting it would just be
003the votes it's not the um there's no other discussion or no other information that's being shared it was just the the way the vote was taken and that's what um has been continuously asked so is that even necessary if there's been a subsequent vote I asked um well in my motion I I said February 6th and February 20th and again it's just for transparency because that's what was that's what's been asked over and over we've gotten over 80 emails from constituents teachers so I feel like it's it's our due diligence to offer that transparency and that it's a simple vote I think ultimately the final vote should be what is important for people to move forward my personal opinion I would suggest that if we're going to do this we need to talk about it
004before we do the votes if we're going to if we're going to start bringing close session material down here and talking about it in front of all these people we need to be knowing about that before we we discuss these issues this seems to be very highly irregular to me so we're not discussing anything we're just sharing what the votes are there are no discussions we're just sharing the votes whether it's on the 6th or the 20th this is what people have asked for we talk about transparency on this board all the time so we can vote on this motion and then we can continue to go but that's what we're asking for it has been first and second I will note that there are two other board members that are not present at this
005time that cannot speak up for themselves but we do have a qu there is a motion and there is a second is there any further discussion all those in favor raise your hand and say I I all those opposed raise your hand I I motion does not pass can I have a motion to adopt the agenda I make a motion to approve the agenda as presented can I get a second second motion and second all those in favor raise your hand and say I hi motion passes next up is item 2.01 superintendent report well good evening thank you uh president and board members thank you for the Full House and we have two cameras here to talk onefc 8.01 later on so thank you for being here as well media um just let you know
006that we will have school tomorrow and no one's more happy about that than me um I been up at 3:00 way too many mornings to check roads or you stressing about what they call it ahead of time um 11 days is way too much we were averaging about four and a half there for a long time U but this has been quite the winter we had a lot of Records um both in January and February so safety is important and uh it's a tough call and it's the one thing when I finally do retire I will not miss um the stress of that so but I do want to thank our team um whether it's Dr Shelton and and other folks who drive the roads with me um not in the same car we're in
007different areas um or the giant crew we have with our seven salt trucks and everyone doing sidewalks with shovels and salt um it is a is a big job um and we only have 99 Acres of parking lot and I really want to thank the cities um we have multiple cities or districts in as well as Jackson County for doing the best they can in really tough situations um January is record snowfall this week is record low temperatures and wind chills um these aren't the easiest things to do and I know that's um a tough job and it's not one without some personal risk so um kudos to everyone who does that and our hearts off to or hats off and hearts out for um our Jackson County um snowplow person who lost their life
008in January so um I appreciate them for trying to help us be safe all right moving on from that good news um Lee Sumit North students Liam s and Adrien plac in the top three at the Missouri music educators electronic music competition contest that's a long title Adrien also won the University of Missouri's orchestral composition contest three honorable mentioned composers were also recognized at the mmea contest with two being our seven students ocean s and Jack M both from Lee Sumit West and sta congratulations to all if you ever get a chance to go to the mmea conference it's in January I've gone every year for over a decade now we usually have uh kids perform this year we had um uh our kids at West perform and they're just fantastic to watch um so
009parents usually come down there as well um to watch their children perform in front of every band and choir person throughout the entire state so um please please if you ever get a chance go down to um what used to be called Tanta um where they H set conference it's a very large conference parking is very difficult to get there early um we're excited to celebrate Miss Katie turnbo and her first year as a Summit Ridge Academy uh employee she's been part of the district for a long time as as our January Learning for Life Award winner Miss turnbo was nominated by our colleague colleagues for her dedication to students support for peers and her ability to bring joy and humor to the workplace every month it's one of my favorite things to do to
010get present this there's a giant plaque that has the 12 months on it so that plaque stays in the office they got their picture on it next month it travels to the new winter and the name stays on so it's kind of like the Stanley Cup in that respect um they also get to keep something themselves we have a glass apple that's got their name engraved it's cooler than it sounds um so we're very excited to give those out um congratulations to Miss Ashley grumpy science teacher at East Trails middle school she's our December well-being Award winner Miss grumpy is celebrated for her unwavering support and positivity leadership and dedication to etms and we got to give that award in front of all of seventh grade so that was kind of fun most of seventh
011grade in the Pod seventh grade pod um congratulations Lee Summit High Schools Addison dmore Addison is also part of the environmental science classes at Summit Technology Academy at Paradise Park and therefore a member of FFA Addison was named as a state finalist in the Missouri Quarter Horse Association public speaking competition which she competed in as part of FFA so congratulations to Addison one other one good news for I go into updates that I didn't have in the written report I won't share the name because I didn't get permission but one of the teachers you're going to hire tonight in uh cassin agenda is our first grow your own hire this person graduated year early after just three years of college interviewed for a position and as being offered a position tonight so how exciting we
012created that um and I know there's some Expo members in the in the room that help to also create that um grow your own program um so kudos to uh Ashley Turner and all the work that everyone's done um one of those great things that see come fruition it was just an idea I had and some other people did a lot of work to make that idea work updates um the opportunity to serve as a student rep to the lsr7 board of education is now open uh if you are will be a junior or senior next fall this is your chance to make a difference so sign up by March 1st March 1st um kinder kindergarten kickoff will be March 6th at every single Elementary 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. so if you have a a
013child who will turn five by July 31st 2025 and are going to be in kindergarten here next year come to one of our kindergarten kickoffs um we're looking for 100 people who care so uh I have a flyer here there's some out there in the hallway you can grab if you want um we started this um it was my idea and I had Carl chener join me and Carl and I have hosted the previous few years we want to uplift nonprofits so we know that we're a district of means but we also know we have kids with needs and while the district has expanded obviously just like all districts Nationwide to wrap their arms around kids because they're not going to be able to learn one plus two and other things and and if they
014got other bigger issues going on we can't do it all we rely on nonprofits and we have hundreds in our community so very excited to uplift them so we have an event uh they're there they have things to hand out you I I've learned about nonprofits I didn't know about the last two years we draw four out of hat those four get to give a pitch uh they say what we do and if you give me if you if I won $10,000 a night this is what I would do with it then everybody has a $100 check we vote and whoever gets the most votes gets all the $100 checks recently we call 100 people car if you had exactly 100 people with $100 checks the math there is $10,000 um it's a very Feelgood
015event it's at East Trails Middle School um on March 19th so if you're interested please let us know we're also hosting our next uh realtor developer breakfast this has been a huge huge event in the past few years it's March 14th in the morning 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. at mic uh so if you're involved in selling property or developing property or or anything else related to that please come there we know that you are the first faces people see when they move into Community um and we also know that you are uh oftentimes asked a lot of question about well what's a school offer do they have soccer do they have orchestra do they have so we want to help arm you with information and and help you uh do your job well um bookshelf
016buddy another uh program coming up this is a be year two a fantastic program we are going to have 30 students age three to five they're going to be identified it would benefit from having a two-shelf bookshelf um we have our three high schools including Wes whiskers who's in the crowd um uh helping their kids build um bookshelves for us um at West they do it two different ways one I'm not going to say it right one by the oldfashioned way and one by what do you call it CNC machine thank you Wes um and so what happens is then those kids will come to the event they'll find their bookshelf and they'll have their name on it you know Johnny Smith and then uh there'll be a set of 18 to 19 books they
017can go pick uh they go shopping for reason we do that we have all these books out because if you already have chicken chicken boom boom you don't we need another chick chicken boom boom so the kid wouldn't pick that book they'd pick a different book right so we give them that we have them information how to sign up for um Dolly pardon destination Library where you get a book for free every month till you turn five on the back side of it if you're one of the donors and that's what we're looking for $250 to be donor you can sign the back and do something inspirational hey you know you know read your way to whatever you know you can put whatever you want on the back so you have a little piece also
018left there so um very exciting event um if you want to be part of that please let us know it's called bookshelf buddy program um and again there's Flyers out in the hallway if you would like you can also find both of those on our website just type in 100 people care our bookshelf buddy there's an entire page on our website about those last let you know there is an April election we do have a board election in that and we also have a bond election to that and it's also spring break so with that um we know that some people might be out of town so first day of absentee voting is February 25th deadline to register to vote especially for maybe some of you seniors over here if you're 18 it's March 12th
019is the last day you can register to vote March 25th is the first day for no excuse absentee voting in person and deadline to request absentee mail and ballots is March 26th and the elections April 8th now all that information I said is for for Jackson County we do have some patrons that live in Cass County or Kansas City Missouri you'll have slightly different pieces there and how you interact so we have three different election boards that Miss Linda has to turn everything into it's a lot of fun for her when we decide to have an election right um but please look into those as well um and I lied there's two more things um lsr7 prek program we're taking applications we already have well over 100 folks uh signed up we have 180 spots
020so if you're interested in doing that you're child's going to turn 4 by July 31st please uh reach out to lsr7.org prek to learn more information um we're hoping that people apply by March 7th to be considered for enrollment Lottery if we have more applications than spots uh and last we do have something new this year this is our Librarians have decided to do this some of you've been around for a while may remember MCC Long View used to do a community reads they did it for several years but it's been many years since they did it so we are doing one and I meant to bring the book in it's on my desk um called Hugo and the impossible thing it's about a character who's trying to do something and he asked for help
021from lots of folks and people seem to think it's going to be too difficult and then on the day that he's going to do it they all show up and they all help um Hugo um overcome these barriers that he couldn't have done on his own uh he did need their help so we're it's a children's book um we're going to have an event on March 25th from 6:30 to 7:30 at least some in high school hosted by a library service team but we've also have 500 I think of these books you can grab some you can have your own different uh reading or book clubs with it um we're just trying to encourage kids to read and community members read and have a conversation around a book um and you know in the future
022we may do something Beyond a a children's book we thought we would be wise to start with a children's book could be very accessible so thank you to our Librarians um who came forward with that idea and for leading that um remember if you need to vote and you're going to be out of town absentee vote ballots you you can apply for that if you can't go do it for the no excuse early voting and that's the end of my report Miss president thank you Dr Buck next up we have item 3.01 School Spotlight Hazel Grove Elementary and Miss westcot can you introduce yourself and who you have with you okay absolutely all right I'm Amy wott I'm the principal at Hazel Grove and I brought some Jed Jed pricket is our assistant principal and
023then tonight promoting truly what our Spotlight is had to do with our library program and our librarian jod fiser came to me with an idea that she wanted to to do with our building and so I will let her speak to that thank you um I'm here to share about um a new library program that we started this year a Hazel Grove Elementary called our one school one read and um a one school one read is basically a schoolwide reading program to involve the entire School Community reading a shared story together um we had uh one book Malcolm at midnight for all of our students all of our staff and all of our teachers and families to read together over a three-week period in January um the goal of this was just to promote um
024a reading Community within our building promote literacy involve families get them engaged and just have kind of a schoolwide connection fostering belonging type activity um before we went on winter break we kind of started teasing our program because we were going to kick it off when we came back um after break so we um had these posters around the building obviously not the book um cover but the other things there um in a prominent place in the building to just promote and get kids talking and excited and curious about what was coming when we got back from break um our reading plan involved um the family's reading and and obviously staff everybody reading two chapters per night over the three weeks on Monday through Friday we left weekends off so that they could catch up
025if that was necessary um from the busy week um and then I did record myself reading aloud um each chapter and posted those in schooo in case they uh needed an audio version for various reasons lots of reasons why somebody might want that but um each night or each day the chapters for that day were posted for them to use as an audio if they would like and then throughout the three weeks we had basically each day of the week we had an activity to be engaged within the building within our morning announcements or our afternoon announcements so on Mondays we had mystery reader Monday so one of our staff members was wearing a mask of some kind related to the book and read a chapter and the kids could guess who they thought the
026mystery reader was on Mondays Tuesdays had trivia and Thursday so there was a trivia question asked about related to the reading for um the most recent time and they could submit guesses of what the trivia answers were um and then on Wednesdays we had a joke related to the story and on Fridays we did fun fact Friday so we just I came up with some kind of fact related to one of the characters in the book they were all animals um so animal facts and stuff to just kind of learned some things as we went along uh we also had a poster contest so we invited family students to create a poster related to the story and we had 27 of them submitted they were on display in the library and at our family event
027um all of the families and students got to vote to um award some winners for the best posters and then we did have a family Night Celebration um towards the very end of our event we had families come to Hazel Grove we had an obstacle course in the gym related to different things that the animals went through throughout the book we had a mask making station where they could make an animal mask related to their favorite character we had a photo booth with props from the story we had a reading room where they could snuggle up and read a picture book um that we curated based on characters from the book um we had directed drawing station where they could learn to draw the rat which was the main character or the cat which was
028the antagonist of the story and then we also had the district book mobile there that the families could come on and choose a free book to take home and and we were supposed to have a final event of the zoo mobile visiting um and showcasing some animals but that was um hindered by a snow day so we are tbling that and hopefully going to be able to work out a new schedule with the zoo to do that in our school and so just kind of as a final our next steps we're just kind of um reflecting and evaluating we've had a survey for families to fill out to give us their feedback on how they thought the event went and the things they liked engaging in and we hope to eventually do this again at
029Hazel Grove sometime so thank you and now I get to introduce my volunteer is that right okay thank you um so when we were chosen as being the spotlight tonight we also got the honor to be able to choose a volunteer that comes into our building to help support our staff and our students um really just volunteering their time and helping us to be better so um we s you know sat and thought about goodness we have we have lots of great people but one kind of stuck out in in in our mind and so we would like to recognize Elizabeth Roland tonight she has been um this is my second year at Hazel Gro this is my second year at Hazel Grove and and Liz has been there to um she comes in and
030works with students in the hallways one-on-one um she singlehandedly has put put on our readathon the last two years completely by herself which I know is a tremendous amount of work and time and so we are we are very grateful for that so thank [Applause] you e next we have item 3.02 School Spotlight leit High School all right good evening uh my name is Nathan mcky and I serve serve as the principal at leis High School uh this evening uh we get the honor to talk about uh something that is extremely iconic to not only leisan high school but this community so approximately a year ago I was brought on officially as the principal of leisan high school and the number one question I received was not about are you excited or hey are you
031excited about the curriculum or the staff or this team or that team it was where's the tiger head and so I quickly started asking around of where is the tiger head and it was quickly uh brought to my attention that a group of students um along with our fantastic educator Miss Hayes um had beg refurbishing the tiger head and so tonight we get the opportunity to share with you the story of the refurbishing the restoring of the tiger head um which is is an incredible tradition here uh not only for leis high school but for our city so without further Ado I'm going to turn it over to uh Miss Angela Hayes who has been uh truly the uh individual behind this entire uh process thank you um and like Mr mcky had said my
032name is Angela Hayes and I am the current 6 through2 art department chair for the school district and last spring I was the lead teacher for the art department at Le Sumit high school and nine very special Arts students went on a secret mission to restore the tiger head and um I was coincidentally in a construction architecture meeting about four years ago and in that meeting they were discussing the results of students and staff surveys asking what needed to be improved at Lee Summit High School what needed to remain the same what traditions needed to be kept and unanimously the students and staff said that the tiger head needed to remain on campus um it probably needed some restoration but it needed to remain on campus and one of the architects in the meeting knew
033some history of the tiger head and mentioned that art students originally had worked on it so wouldn't that be cool if the art Department art students worked on it again and I said yeah that sounds great and we had a quick conversation about wouldn't it be nice if it was on campus the art students could work on it and then we all went on our merry way and approximately three years later construction is in full swing at the High School the front of the building came down the tiger head is removed and everyone is asking where is it when is it coming back and I thought oh my goodness where is it it is not on campus so the more that I inquired and asked questions I learned that Kyle gell and his team and
034the administrators had been very safe with the tiger head and had tucked it away over at facilities and transportation behind a nice big locked gate um and it was hidden over there and I thought oh my goodness how are my art students and I going to get get over to uh get over to the facility and work on it this is a this is not a small project and I also learned that the reason it was safely placed there was because it was too big to keep at least some in high school there was not a door nor space large enough for it to be kept inside so um so I I got to work and um had an application process for the Arts students and I went straight to the National Art Honor Society
035because I knew that our most dedicated art students were there and I knew that they would put in the time outside of school because they already put in the time outside of school and so I have four of the special team of nine with me this evening and so Nataly newerk and cayb blman Jimmy Shipman and Kia Dy were part of that team um four members have recently graduated last year and then one of our members was unable to be with us this evening um but the nine students um C that came through the application process we're a perfect team and we're going to show you some pictures here so so here is the final final production up on the up on the building um my uh coworker and friend breake little did some research
036and learned that in 1981 it was a class gift and in 1982 was really when the when it was made and hung and then in ' 89 and 1990 there was another group of art students that got to work on it so we are technically really the third group of Arts students that have worked on this um you can see that the students worked very hard they had just do a lot of sanding a lot of cleaning this was not a clean and easy job and so I'm going to turn this over to Kia now she's gonna tell you a little bit about it from the student side all right as Miss Hayes has just said my name is Kalia D I am a senior at Lisa at high school and I've been on and
037off involved in the art Department for all four years of my high school career um something that Mrs Hayes referenced earlier is that there was a lot of secrecy and that's something that I want to emphasize in my time speaking because there was a lot of it when I filled out my application I really didn't even know what I was filling out um I just I just saw a painting and I'm like you know what that sounds fun let me go do that so after my application was accepted I was given a field trip permission form him I'm like oh location secret that's interesting and I think that's the moment when it really cemented in my mind that oh this is serious I did not realize this before um and that kind of started my
038descent into this entire process of this restoration so after filling out my form we went on our first day and it was a beautiful spring day our entire group went out we bought our lunch and we just got to work um we spent the entire first day just sanding down um as you saw extreme dirtiness uh sanding it down I learned very quickly on that first day that if I was going to continue doing this I would not wear clothes that I cared about because I have some I I have some stains on things that I am not happy that are there to this day um but after learning that um we just immediately delved into the process um over the course of several months we went on several trips to several the bus station
039um we all sat and we talked and we worked extremely hard to sand down um repain and then varnish the tiger head itself um and it was just a process that was a labor of love and throughout the duration of time I spent working on it I realized the sheer importance of this to our community like with what Mr Monkey said in the beginning um the first question he got asked is where is the tiger head and although I was sworn to secrecy during my process the amount of people that came up to me afterwards oh my God you worked on the tiger head and left me for shock because I I never realized how important it was um so throughout my time working on this as a student um and specifically as a student
040who did not grow up in this community but moved here shortly before I moved to high school I was truly introduced to community um in history and how things like this can play such a large role in making a community and and just cementing our space in our school um so I just like to say how happy I am with Mrs Hayes because um I don't know how much it was emphasized um but without her none of that process would have started there were conversations about getting rid of the tiger head before she had taken the time to restore it with us she is the one who organized the field trip she is the one who made sure everything was safe she provided materials and she and us but especially her um sacrificed so much
041time and love and effort to make this a reality so I just like to thank her and so with that I'll pass it back to Mr Mikey to ensure that we never forget the individuals that work so hard to bring this back to not only leis high school but to our community um during our court warming game of this previous Friday our last day of school um we presented we presented our students um and Miss Hayes with this this will hang under the tiger head we will have this officially put up and it'll be there forever so um we're really really really excited about this and we know that it'll be in our community forever now so yeah if you guys come up we'll take a picture and while you guys are coming up we'll
042take a picture with these guys I want you to know it's 10t X 10t and 900 lb it's big so it went on a flat bed and stayed on a flatbed uh till we got over there it had to use a special crane to put it back up um and if you recognize um Kalia she was also at the uh grand opening of leit high school she was doing live art of the event so you might recognize her there she also is great she's on my superintendent council at leis in high so I appreciate you Dr Buck what is it made out of it is what chikar rebar fiberg fiberglass it's a great big boat you look on the inside it reminds you the floats back in the day it's chicken wire and then like
043the whiskers are rebar coming out e all right now for our volunteer of the year at leis at high school um it's a great honor tonight to uh represent this individual every High School uh needs individuals like this person uh an individual that has dedicated time has dedicated uh monetary value um who continues to come in day in and day out to ensure that our community has the needs that they meet and so um it's a great honor tonight to give the volunteer of the Year award to Jason prior Jason come on [Applause] up so Jason uh about a decade ago began his journey on our athletic Boosters club and anyone in here that has been a part of an athletic Boosters club knows that it is a times a thankless job and he continues
044to be on the athletic booster club not only on it but he is now the president he's been the president for numerous years um every time I'm doing a supervision Jason's there running the concession stand um and so can't thank him enough for the time and effort that he continues to put in uh for our students at leis some in high school so thank you so much [Applause] thank you all next next up we have item 4.01 public comments good evening everyone we appreciate your attendance and your willingness to speak to the board please remember that the board does not respond to public comments during the meeting but may ask clarifying questions your comments will be noted by the board and administration and if appropriate we will discuss further action with the superintendent only those
045who have signed up prior to the meeting will be allowed to address the board pursuant to board policy BD DH we will be limiting all comments to no more than seven people with a limit of three minutes each you may not transfer any of your time to other speakers your allotted three minutes will be counted down on the screen please conclude your comments when the timer expires your comments must align with the subject described in your written request to speak and must and must directly relate to the business or operations of the district your comments may not discuss individuals employees or students on the in the district regardless of whether your comments speak of them in a positive or negative light any such comments should be directed to the superintendent who will then determine if
046further action is needed because the board does not and cannot impose Age based restrictions on who attends or views board meetings and because children of all ages frequently do attend board meetings comments may not include obscenities or sexually explicit content furthermore comments may not include threats of physical or emotional harm or threaten in any way the safety of others we also remind all those in the audience that board policy BD DH prohibits the use of signs or audible responses this includes Applause cheers or jeers if you are in the audience and wish to respond in some way to a public comment you may contact the board or superintendent after the meeting your comments must be directed only to the board because the purpose of public comment is to bring something to the attention of the
047board you may not speak to or interact in any way with any person in the audience when your name is called go to the podium and clearly state your name and the organization you represent if any okay first up we have Beth Corey hi Beth Corey I'm an Alum and current District Parent the mission of the school district is to prepare each student for success in life and data shows we're doing a good job some quotes public education underwent a transformation shifting from a rigid politicized system focused on basic skills to an inclusive structure aimed at equipping students with diverse specialized abilities those who were physically handicapped non-native English speakers does it sound like Dei no actually this was a overview of school reform at the turn of the century the Civil Rights Movement helped
048publicize the inequity of the SE of segregation by the 1970s Southern districts were integrated sound like Dei whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers and sisters you did for me sound like Dei individuals here openly mock Dei maybe to Pander to their base or just parot rhetoric of the current Administration but can you imagine if you were a student who was neurodiverse a student who represented a different culture a student who was homeless from a family of immigrants or a student with a disability and hear School leaders mocking the idea that they belong and deserve an environment that accepted difference the mission is to prepare each student for success for Life committed professional staff are seldom here for immediate praise they are here to ensure excellent 50 years from now
049the bond issue nutrition services going to Jeff City belonging and inclusion work for whomever comes into the school just like the reforms at the turn of the century Advanced education that you and I vastly benefited from I must ask every board member and board member candidate are you ready to build on a successful District Foundation instead of dismantling it because it's the rhetoric of the time are you ready to plant seeds of distrust hate and blame or are you ready to do what we ask our children to do understand listen and model respect I would implore you not to be drawn in by the whims of the current divisive politically charged angry culture we live in because that is not what we are building a strong lsr7 on great gains in evolution of public education
050if taken out of conduct sound just like Dei even if you want to put that term in a box and kick it around at the end of the day people won't remember what you said or what they did they will remember how you made them feel how would students and Staff feel after hearing what you say to voters thank you thank you Miss Corey next is Michelle Dawson hi my name is Michelle Dawson and I'm a parent of two lsr7 students see if I can get this St I'm here to comment on last month's four to3 vote against an April election measure to roll back or wave Proposition C both the District administration and the citizens advisory committee recommended that the board asked the voters for a full waiver in order to improve staff salaries
051after studying Proposition C and the financial needs of the district voting no discounted the research and data upon which this proposal was based and the voices of the community represented in the CAC board members also deprived voters of their voice in the decision by voting no board members who voted no stated that voters may get confused us if the bond issue and the prop C waiver are on the same ballot and may vote no on the bond issue first this assumes that the majority of Voters will vote no for prop C secondly this underestimates both the district's communication team who will be educating the public on these measures and the ability of Voters to learn the difference although board members discuss the possibility of moving the election to August they decided not to do so
052one board member suggested that future elected board members could undo what the sitting board decides a majority of this board will still be board members after the election so if the board votes unanimously to put the to put prop C waiver on the August ballot one or two new board members could not undo it there is no reason not to act and eliminate uncertainty for to The District board members also argue that it is that there is insufficient evidence that the district needs additional tax funding to pay its staff it was stated at last month's meeting that this has been researched reviewed proposed and Revisited more than once over the past several years because ongoing funding will be needed to address salary disparities for a number of Staff roles in the district including assistant principal
053par of professionals substitute teachers and several others a board member suggested that a board work session is needed to get deeper into the salary issue and how it will be solved I'm not clear on how this work session would differ from the work already being done by team Lee Summit if there is additional data that the Board needs to understand the recommendation they should request it rather than stop or delay the election as a voter I am disappointed that I will will not have the opportunity to cast my votee for the waiver roll back in April and that this roll back now has no possibility of being in place before the 2025 thank you Miss Dawson next is Ryan Murdoch good evening board um first The Cutting of the mic right is at three minutes
054that's exciting how about that um first I just wanted to say thank you for giving me some time to speak to you tonight um I'm a little bit old school without a phone I actually typed something out and those of you who know me know that took a lot for me to actually take some time to type something out um I wanted to let you know tonight that I do love our district I spent two terms serving on this board and we went through some incredibly tough times superintendent changes boundary changes twice we ended up of course with the pandemic it wasn't easy and at times we received a lot of negative feedback but never in my six years on the school board did I see or have I seen the staff and so many
055community members as disappointed frustrated confused and angry as I have over the last month and a half and I've gotten plenty of messages to that effect there's multiple reasons why but I'm here to ask you as board members because it is your role after overseeing the superintendent putting together the budget and putting goals for our district to advocate for our district to defend public education no matter what and to defend our schools no matter what to defend our staff no matter what so I would ask you how do you do that how do you show everyone that you are for our district When someone tells you that our distri district is failing you correct them you do not let that stand you have plenty of data points to be able to point to to show
056that our district is a success plenty and if you need examples feel free to ask because I've got a long list of them that we don't have time to get to tonight when someone starts misleading rumors about a building you defend the building you shut it down you have the pulpit to do that and you should when legislation is brought forward in Jefferson City that's detrimental to lsr7 or public education in Missouri you write your legislators you C excuse me you call them you ask the constituents to call them to write them because it's not beneficial for us when students who require accommodations are attacked in a lawsuit you don't try to tell us what the intent of the lawsuit is you read it and then you go and you call our attorney general and
057you tell them that that is inappropriate and wrong when someone says the teachers just need to teach you tell them they're doing it every single day through some of the worst environment that they've ever had to try to accomplish it in it's amazing that we can't get people to back the staff it's time it's your job and I'm asking you to do it thanks [Applause] thank you and next is Audriana payz good evening my name is Adriana pz I'm a mother of two students in the district public education is under attack and I just want to remind us all everyone in this room that we the wonderfully diverse people of the lsr7 community are the ones responsible for holding this board of education accountable for meeting the needs of the district and serving first and
058foremost every single one of our students and we must remember that we the beautiful and talented people of the lsr7 community have the power of the vote I'm sure there are some who have yet to fully recover from the last one but another election is just around the corner so we all better double check our voter registration or register for the first time before March 12th and make sure all of our lsr7 friends and family members do the the same because on April 8th or several weeks before if we're voting absentee because as Dr Buck stated our election day is happening during the week of spring break again and we might want to vote before that but April 8th is the last opportunity and in doing so we can put the power back in the
059hands of human decency and elect two new board members whose names are Michelle Dawson and Nicki nickens who I believe will actually uphold their commitment to serving all all students and staff members of this great District because I want a board that understands the importance of policies and practices that make it possible for all students to succeed and to feel safe and to feel like they belong in their schools so we cannot stay silent when a majority of the members of the school board continue to make it clear that they do not care about all students because if they did they wouldn't be celebrating the racist and cowardly roll back of diversity equity and inclusion policies and programs and trainings that make success for all possible they wouldn't be members of hate-filled bigoted groups making
060bigoted and racist statements to and about members of our community you can't hold hate filled racist and bigoted views and still serve all students well which is why we The Fabulous people of the lsr7 community must choose what's best for all students on a April 8th thank you and next we have rodri Sparks good evening president Foley uh vice president Eslick and her absent and to the rest of the board tonight I want to acknowledge the progress that we've made in the district because there has been a lot of it and I'm very proud of it matter of fact I love Public Schools we've expanded Early Childhood ensuring more of our youngest Learners get the strongest start that they truly deserve we've approved new academic smart goals to drive student achievement we've created student Representatives
061so that the very people that's impacted by the decisions that are made have a voice at the table dinner with the board open doors to the community to Foster conversations that truly matter in our district was ranked number one APR across Jackson and Cass County has not happened that hasn't even happened in the last 30 years proof that our Educators and our students continue to to excel we've even completed communication and accessibility audits taking real steps towards making information clearer and spaces more inclusive but with all of that progress this past year has been heartbreaking instead a focusing on education we have seen conversations about book Banning undermining expertise of our media specialists in liberians we've watched as prop C A Helping solution to increase staff salaries has been kicked down the road or even
062matter of fact ignored we've talked about student voice but instead of expanding opportunities for our students we are even stalled or maybe even a setback you probably should talk to the students listen instead of transparency that we've all that all of us all of us ran on instead of that and now we even have attacks on the superintendent despite all of the progress that has been made and that the board has championed I stand before you not in Conflict but to correct we must do better the same transparency and accountability that many of you campaigned on to uphold the responsibilities to advocate for students teachers and staff does not end when the election is over you are elected to support students teachers and staff let me say that again you are elected to support every
063single student every staff person and also this community you are elected to oppose the means of leading with integrity and not politics I still believe in what this District can be but belief alone isn't enough it is time for Action let's refocus on what truly matters our student our staff and our future thank you thank you and next is Jana Swanson good evening good evening members of Le Su School Board my name is Jana Swanson I am here as a concerned parent Community member and advocate for equity and education diversity equity and inclusion are more than just words they are principles that shape the learning experiences and outcomes of every student in our district diversity ensures that all backgrounds identities and perspectives are recognized equity guarantees that each student receives the resources they need to
064succeed inclusion Fosters a sense of belonging where all students feel valued and respected in today's political climate Dei efforts are under attack but let's be clear equity and education is not a political issue it's a moral and educational imperative we are looking to this board to uphold its commit Ms to equity by ensuring that policies curriculum and resources reflect the diverse needs of our students this means addressing disparities and academic opportunities hiring and retaining diverse Educators fostering culturally responsive teaching and ensuring that every student regardless of race ability gender or social economic status has access to a supportive and affirming School environment we cannot allow Equity to become a buzzword with no action behind it this district has made commitments to diversity okay Equity is not about giving some students more than others it's about
065ensuring that every student gets what they need to thrive we urge you to stand firm in your commitment to Dei not just in words but in action our students are watching and they deserve a district that values and prioritizes their success thank you thank you and then Patrick nurse was our last um speaker to sign up and as of February 20th he is unable to attend and that will be all then thank you that takes us to item 5.01 board committee reports I'll start with the board M Johnson okay so I attended one committee this past session and I'm glad it was only one because I get to highlight the great work of this one committee so I went to the Early Education Advisory board meeting and this was awesome if anyone knows me I'm
066not a crier but this advisory committee brought tears in my eyes because we're talking about our most vulnerable but also our Littles which are really um important to me sorry team Lee Summit you have some competition in terms of my favorite committee now I do apologize but just to let you know some of the um things that were brought up there they talk about you know Great Beginnings our prek programs and our parents as teachers they gave us updates about the work that they're doing in these programs about some of their needs and they also talked about some of the great programs that they have so it was really it was a really good time and just to let you know um one of the things we're getting ready to start doing some more enrollment
067we have kindergarten coming up but we also have our four our four year-olds that are going to possibly be coming into our district and one of the things that we need to keep in mind when we're thinking about public education uh funding is needed for this and we have some funding that we received last year that really helped with some of these programs and some of that stuff is unknown right now because of all that is happening so just know that when we are thinking about how we proceed with um our votes and what we consider just know that programs that impact again our most vulnerable and our littlest children are impacted when we don't support public education it is really vital these Littles need this we're talking about families who may not have all
068the resources es that everyone else has that gets these things so it's not a specific race it's not a specific gender this goes across all colors this goes across all genders so just keep that in mind but our Early Education Program is really um is really great they have some vacancies that they're looking at filling they have the parents's teachers program which gets overwhelming support and it gets a lot of people who are interested in it and sometimes they have weight list but thankfully we have the resources to get those parents off those weight list pretty quickly so again I can't say um enough about this program they've had some stem nights they have opportunities for people to come in they do music movement and play That's supposed to be February 21st not sure how
069cold it's going to be but that'll be pretty cool they have a steam night coming up that they do at Legacy Park and they try to do as many activities as possible so that they don't have to close the doors to anyone and they can invite all families who can potentially participate in these programs so again when you're thinking in your hearts and minds think about the fact that we do need funding and we do need education for these Littles because this sets the foundation Early Childhood sets the foundation for their success as they get older and it's not just play that they're doing their opportunities where some of these children are literally learning how to sit down for six hours a day because it's so new for them and these teachers and the people
070who support these programs are pivotal to it and so when our community of lsr7 staff and teachers are asking us for something we should listen thank you thank you board member Haley yeah in the last several weeks um I attended the finance committee that was earlier uh last week um with Dr Shelton Mr holder and the rest of the committee uh we had a policy committee uh meeting with uh Dr Carlson to review some additional msba recommendations to some changes to some policies and then we had our first meeting of our dress code Pratt this past month thank you board member Miller I also attended policy committee meeting with board member Haley and we went over the msba 24d series edits really exciting stuff if anybody wants to come and join us and sit in
071it's an open meeting um also dress code Pratt led by Dr Kenny and Dr heroff and um just had some really great dialogue with teachers um everywhere from primary to secondary about the dress code and I think it got me thinking um actually Katie mentioned this in our work session today our CIP goal number four meaningful engagement um I think that these opportunities allow us to have meaningful engagement I also believe this par particular Pratt I think it would be helpful to have um we're kind of lacking student voice and also parent voice in that Pratt so I I would love to see us have conversations about bringing that that portion in um I dropped in on the Early Education Advisory Board and as Dr Johnson mentioned they are doing incredible work for our littlest
072Learners so it's it's beautiful and then lastly I attended the msba spring conference and so um msba is the Missouri Schoolboard Association it's just an opportunity to come together with other school board members from across the state of Missouri and an opportunity for professional development really um and so this particular one I found very um it was it was great they had a speaker that they brought in and um the focus was on building trust within the board and also trust um amongst the with the superintendent and some other key takeaways that I found I think relevant um are that having a superintendent the stability of the superintendent in any District it's directly correlated with um student achievement and we see that within our district because um with Dr Buck's leadership we we have um
073incredible student achievement and we are number one in the APR scores so that's amazing and then the last thing that I took away from that meeting was um they mentioned the book The Four agreement so if you're not a familiar I'd encourage you to go check it out um it's one of my favorite books and their focus um with that conversation was be impeccable with your word and that just means to have Integrity honesty and truthfulness when you're speaking and so I think that is a value those are values that I as a board member hold very dear to my heart um so that is my board report thank you board member Garrett thank you um I also attended the spring msba conference and um once again yes talking about trust which was really kind
074of um something unusual and given in today's Times um and then also I also attended the Pratt dress code um once again that was interesting we are just getting started and getting to uh meet the other members so um not a lot to report there other than um just kind of discussing what we see happening in within our schools with the dress code um and then also I attended the Sumit Educational Foundation committee and um just just a an update is that we're getting the taste of lease Summits coming up in March 1st um it'll be from 6:00 to 10 at the Pavilion and so that is always something that is great for our school district and the community um you know to see everyone there supporting our school district so that is coming up
075here soon get your tickets and then I also attended the Lee Summit cares meeting um kind of reviewing the agenda 2025 as well as being uh introduced to our newest board member uh Malika Harris and that's about all I have thank you all right this month I attended the board leadership meeting uh government Relations Committee the msba spring meeting and then also the CAC steering committee um of with that I wanted to highlight that our CAC meeting that we were supposed to have this week was cancelled U due to the weather um but one of the things that we were going to discuss um is the propy waiver so next month the board will discuss the waiver and about putting it on the ballot for August so the committee would need to collaborate on what
076the funds from this first year would go towards um as the subsequent years would already be dedicated for staff salaries um so this is an opportunity for the CAC to reflect and get creative on what what the funding could go for for that first year and that's my report next up we have item 6.01 can I get a motion I move to approve the transfer of $527 5925 from the general fund to the special Revenue fund if I can 5 million not 5,000 5, 27,5 n25 second second all right motion and second all those in favor raise your hand and say I I I motion passes item 6.02 approving the treasurer's report and payment of bills can I get a motion I move to approve the treasur report and the payment of the Bills second
077motion and second all those in favor raise your hand and say I I I motion passes next we have section seven the consent agenda items 7.1 01 through 7 .13 I move to approve the consent agenda items as presented second motion and second all those in favor raise your hand and say I I motion passes next up we have item 8.01 school calendar 20242 Revisited Hot Topic right so uh we've had 11 days of no in person when we had a plan to be in person um desie threw us a curveball in December and um told us that hey you can use six Ami days it doesn't have to match your hours of a regular day so our quickest day when you look at the structural times high school at 6.5 hours a day because
078they have passing periods you can't count those um where we get Elementary have 6.7 hours usually at the elementary level of instruction every day because they don't have a passing period every 50 minutes um with that we 6.5 then would be what we use we could only do 5 Ami so that's you've been approving on calendars for years as a board of education um so December desie put out some vague talk about you could have six really wasn't very clear um some districts interpret it like man I think you're saying six so they went ahead and did the six um then January I contacted desie and sure enough they said yeah we decided to give you some more flexibility you could do six days at six hours a day on Ami even though your regular
079day might be longer so that's why this Wednesday we had our sixth Ami so that's the first part of this um uh motion you see that Dr Carlson put together for me thank you Dr Carlson uh he also put together the background information you see here the second part of that and that by the way is a change in board policy um gcbda and G dbda and uh we're requesting it just for this year but then work through the normal policy process to allow us to have six in future years um if we do that change permanently and and that's not for this meeting then we'd also have to reopt next year's calendar to make it six because you've adopted a calendar at five with that we uh also have uh for the first time
080since last decade a chance to forgive some hours um with AMI it's been really hard to get to the point where you there's a formula that you get some hours forgiv so we have built in uh I'll pick the high school again um 25.82 hours in addition to the required 1044 that can be used for makeup and then we can tack on days at the end um you have to make up the first 36 hours I know I'm kind of getting Nerdy with stats here um and then you have to make up 24 of the next 48 hours one for two and then after that you don't have to make anything up um however Senate Bill 727 put a 1699 day um carrot for everybody saying we want everyone to have $169 a day and
081if you do that you're going to get a 1% bonus next year and in the future you're going to get 2% bonus for us 1% that's $650,000 I'm rounding that off but $650,000 Nathan am I saying that right right um so with the governor already wanting to withhold 6.5 million from us in the fun Foundation formula which I hope the legislators don't do we we can't go below 169 now we could do things we could extend the days and get more hours but again that would be we go below 169 um so with our board uh approved calendar and we'll change us in the future um it used to be we'd always put in there that we could forgive days based on des's calculation we didn't our calendars haven't had that this decade because we
082really it hasn't been in play until this year it's been a really bad winner um so we're asking you to forgive a student day uh so that way the last day of school can remain May 30th as of now uh and then uh June 2nd would be this a a district work day for all all the people who have 170 day or 182 day contract um for the most part there are few uh special folks uh that work only on student days um so that might change there that way we're keeping everybody whole salary-wise and and so that's what the quest the the request is is to allow ratification which I got multiple board members saying before I said it was Ami you're going to be okay with that piece so hopefully you are and
083then the second part would be um to forgive one day to go down to 169 and have the last day currently at May 30th let you know and let everybody else know if somehow we had bad weather in March or April let's knock them wood let's hope that doesn't happen we would be going to June I will also say if we didn't have Ami our last day of school right now be June 10th so I I know that we all prefer in person to Ami Ami is not perfect but June 10th is definitely not perfect either so um you know so I think our staff is probably very excited about it at this rate our summer school will start on June 4th I think it is we'll advertise that later we're going to wait until
084um we get into March and we see there's no weather um and make that determination and it will'll finish July 3rd is what we're we're want to try to finish before July 4th so July 3rd would be the last day um with the only day off in between those two is for juneth um but we'd go every other day of the week um between those two dates so that's uh information if you have technical questions Dr Carlson's my calendar expert um but he did a nice job putting things together for you um and we request you uh approve not only the 6th Ami day which we've already done and also um to forgive the last day 170th day we'd move it to be a half day on day 169 early release on 169 instead of
085early release on 170 which is currently June 2nd thank you Dr Buck can I get a motion I move to approve the amendment the 2024 2025 academic calendar to lower the student attendance days from 170 days to 169 days and for the 2024 25 school year modify board policy GC BDA uh G dbda uh number four inclement weather from 5 days to if up to six days the determined alternative methods of instruction Ami due to weather second all right motion and second do we have any questions okay all those in favor raise your hand and say I I I motion passes next up we have items 10.01 through 10.04 written reports do we have any questions okay with that this meeting is adjourned thank you very much everyone