001all right we're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order and first up we have the Pledge of Allegiance if you wouldn't mind all standing Al to flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation andice all right welcome everyone in attendance today can I get an adoption of the agenda I move to approve the agenda as presented second motion and second all those in favor raise your hand and say I I motion passes all right next up we have item 2.01 the superintendent's report Dr Buck is not here today as he's recovering from surgery so I would like to invite Dr Shelton to present the superintendent's report for tonight thank you congratulations to Jennifer Jones an Ela teacher at lisam West High School she was
002she has been selected as the department of Elementary and secondary education as one of the 16 semi-finalists for the 2025 Missouri teacher of the year award Kindle phone an incoming sophomore and Chinese 3 student at leit West High School recently returned from a transform transformative cultural exchange trip to China with the youth leadership in China program this past summer Kindle's selection for the program was based on her academic Excellence leadership skills and demonstrated commitment to crosscultural understanding we celebrated Tara Hogan Focus facilitator interventionist at Summit Point Elementary as our August Learning for Life Award winner Miss Hogan was nominated by her colleagues for her outstanding qualities students recognize that she is on their team and regularly work with her to meet with her to meet their goals Mrs Hogan has a wealth of knowledge and
003experience with mental and Behavioral Health she is a key part of re-engaging students in their learning environment and she collaborates with children staff and admin to make Summit Point Elementary the best place to learn and grow and this week was the first week of school and I want to thank each and every one of our staff for the smiles the care the rigor and the community they are creating for the over 177,000 students please join me in expressing gratitude for our RSL 7 staff and let me go back since when mic wasn't on earlier because I want to make sure the public hears this leis at West Ethan wood earned a congressional Award Medal from US Representative Emanuel clever II Ethan was honored for his dedication for community service including more than 400 volunteer hours
004over the last three years for president fly thank [Applause] you thank you Dr Shelton next up we have item 3.01 the leit Education Foundation presentation good evening thank you all for allowing me some time tonight to share the wonderful things that the Educational Foundation is doing to support staffs and students in our district I'd first like to begin with a brief statement regarding something associated with one of our recent events that has been the subject of community conversation our organization is proud of a mission that directly supports students and staff in our schools our goal is always to contribute to that mission in a positive and uplifting way while I cannot speak to every aspect of of this situation on behalf of myself and my team I believe it's important to take responsibility for the
005areas within our influence we acknowledge that table decorations were displayed by attendees at our trivia event have caused hurt frustration and did not reflect the atmosphere of respect that we strive to create at our events for this we are truly sorry we appreciated the support we received by those that attended this new event and we want our community to know that we are committed to improving our processes to ensure that all aspects of our event promote inclusion resp respect and belonging we're working hard to make a positive impact and invest back into our district I'd like to now go ahead and share with you the highlights from last year and what we have in store for 2425 school year my name is Chrissy Sims by the way I'm the director for the Lisa Educational Foundation
006um we are a staff of three people myself Cindy sadak who's our program development specialist and Christa fish who is our Administrative Assistant we are led by our Board of directors who you can see on your screen this evening um one of which is Regina Garrett who is our um appointed uh Board of Education liaison and this is just um a snapshot of some of the impact that we made over the past school year 2324 some of the Investments that we made obviously were known probably primarily for scholarships and grants so you'll see those on here we also invested in environmental science investigative projects and supplies for elementary student students to do at Paradise Park um geometry and construction supplies and the build Zone projects for the birdhouses that the fifth graders did um this
007is uh to reflect our income from last year as you can see a great deal of this centers around our sponsorship campaign and our fundraising events um which allow us to make an investment back into the district um which last year was a little shy of um half a million dollar um and you can see the majority or the highest amount of that was um for scholarships which has increased recently we've opened several new scholarships this past year and um look forward to offering those every year uh this school year um these are our funding priorities we've got one more year of a four-year commitment for um technology enhancements this will help pilot a new program for um Miller Park it'll be an audio enhancement and security um system the lanyard that teachers and staff
008can wear at Miller Park um classroom grants Real World Learning opportunities through a new program that um uh Emily Wagner and her team are working on they're going to create Hands-On history trunks allowing students to have tangible items that they can see touch and feel while they're learning about history um along with some steam technology new teacher grants were awarded it was actually I think closer to $14,000 this year we awarded those during new teacher Academy and um student Le grants which will be awarded in the fall and then again The Birdhouse projects we also have some donor funds that are established for certain things like um tutoring at the schools and Helping Hands for emergency need-based assistance so funds like that will also be provided as needed all of this is made possible through
009our events and fundraisers so I will we'll just quickly go through these so you guys can get an idea for what we have in store um we're starting a new raffle this year unfortunately members of the Board of Education Educational Foundation staff administrators will not be eligible to participate but everyone else in the community will be um will be selling online tickets $100 a ticket up to 300 and they the winner will have the choice of one of maybe five different vacation or experience packages so we're excited about that um race for the future October 12th at Lisa at West this has been going on for nearly 30 years and um so we're looking forward to that event we have our community breakfast this will be our third year for the community breakfast we invite
010of course members of the community oftentimes we have administrators Board of Education um attend this will be at leis some at high school on a um non-attendance day during the fall break parent teacher conference time frame major saver will will be held in November so we hope you will all consider purchasing those cards and then Tas ofely Summit will be March 1st at the pavilian at John Knox Village of course games auction items um great food It's a Wonderful event um we're always looking for um people to engage with the foundation we have multiple ways they can do that obviously we willingly accept donations and sponsorships but we also have committees events and plenty of opportunities to volunteer so we're always looking to grow and that's something we're working on throughout the course of the
011year um that's a really quick run through of kind of highlights for the year and I'm happy to answer any questions that you guys may have okay thank you for your time thank you very much [Applause] all right next up on the agenda we have 4.01 public comments now before the parliamentarian begins uh frequent followers followers of our meetings may have noticed that we have moved public comment to an earlier position in the agenda than it has been for the past year Missouri statute 16258 went into to effect on July 1st 2023 which provided the requirement for boards to have a policy that allows members of the public to add items to our board meeting agenda in preparation for this new policy revision B ddb we had feedback from both committees and the board on
012how this may impact the flow of the meeting and to and to decide how to prepare we reduced the number of public comment spots to seven in order to accommodate the three public agenda items for each meeting and moved it towards the end of the agenda since this change went into effect one year ago we have received feedback from many members of the community that believed these moves were taken in order to reduce transparency by hiding speakers at the end of the meeting after any item for vote had already been decided on given the feedback that we received along with the fact that up until now we had zero until today public agenda items added to our meetings the board leadership team decided to move public comment back towards the beginning of the agenda please
013note that this may change at any time as we evaluate the amounts of public agenda items or additional feedback we receive thank you we appreciate your attendance and your willingness to speak to the board please remember that board 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 in administration and if appropriate we will discuss further action with the superintendent only those who have signed up prior to the meeting will be allowed to address the board pursuant to board policy bdh we will be limiting all comments to no more than seven speakers with a limit of three minutes each you you may not transfer any of your time to other speakers your allotted three minutes will be counted down on
014the 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 directly relate to the business or operations of the the district your comments may not discuss individual employees or students 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 further 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
015also remind all those in the audience that the board policy bdh 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 when your name is called go to the podium and clearly state your name and the organization you represent if any Emily James good evening my name is Emily James and I would like to thank you Chrissy for your um statements that you made regarding the community um I'll go ahead and get started to whom much is given much is expected when you are elected into a role that represents your community no matter where you are or what you're doing you are representative of
016your role in your community it is inappropriate for a stu excuse me for a school board member to say redneck lives matter because that phrase not only diminishes the significance of the black lives matter movement but also misunderstands its context and its purpose the phrase black lives matter is not meant to imply that other lives do not matter but rather to highlight that historically and presently black lives have been undervalued and marginalized in many societies the movement and the phrase seek to address these disparities and advocates for justice and equality for black people a Schoolboard member holds a position of leadership and influence within the community your words carry weight and have the potential to shape the educational environment and values imparted on students by using a phrase like redneck lives matter you sent the
017message that downplays legitimate concerns of racial Injustice inequality and instead you contributed to the culture of misunderstanding and intolerance 5 years years ago we had to explain to lsr7 why children singing the joys of picking cotton is offensive fast forward to today and we're having to explain yet again why we will not tolerate any form of mockery towards black people hear me clearly when I say we are not going backwards this is why we need diversity equity and inclusion training and application Dei equips you to place Common Sense over nonsense it is time to stop hiding behind the veil of ignorance and know that for every action there is a re action if you are tired of having these conversations stop provoking us in your role you are granted the opportunity to see firsthand what
018is going on within our schools do your complete job by having conversations with students of color come to a black student union meeting to gain a better understanding and I dare you to ask our students how your redneck lives sat excuse me how your redneck lives matter sign makes them feel you might take pride in being called a redneck who is defined as an uneducated person who has unsophisticated manners however you did not run your campaign off of being uneducated so we will not allow you to hide behind the veil of ignorance a fool despises wisdom and instruction and displays his foolishness Proverbs 15 states let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the Discerning obtain guidance in closing the role of the school board is to ensure that the educational environment
019is one where all students feel valued respected and supported this requires a deep commitment of equity and a clear understanding of diverse backgrounds and experiences of the students and families they serve shift your focus towards fostering an inclusive and Equitable educational environment that uplifts and supports all students and note you will never influence the World by trying to be like it thank you Beth Corey thank you Emily um my name is Beth Corey I'm a district Al one parent to two students it's the beginning of a new school year and I'm here to Express gratitude support staff Paras bus drivers before and after school staff parents as teachers staff Specialists nurses the men and women who keep our buildings clean and up and running and those who feed our children thank you thank you to
020the teachers the new teachers The Librarians teachers coming out of retirement administrators coaches counselors for everyone who takes on far more than their job description DCT Ates and thank you to all of our lsr7 students caregivers and parents I see a lot of you up here and in this room thank you for choosing lsr7 thank you to the volunteers the PTA the caregivers for getting their children to school to practices to clubs for encouraging and advocating for them for reading all the emails and for showing up when you can thank you to Dr Buck and to you the board thank you for your time for for the administrative decisions that hire great staff and teachers that trust our Librarians and Specialists that keep kids fed and safe and that create programs like prek our children
021and students look up to us what we do and how we interact are all teaching moments I heard this poem new poem recently here's a piece of it we are one family regardless of religion class or color for what defines a patriot is not just our love of Liberty but our love for one another this is loud in our country's call because while we all love freedom it is love that frees us all empathy emancipates making us greater than hate or vanity I'll just end with a blessing for this year some of these words are authored by others God by any name you truly do want us to love one another and empathize for those different than us we bless everyone involved in lsr7 this year you see the adults all those who are givers
022guide us in how to support them we want children to achieve but we know they will also struggle from the strangeness of growing up in this time with worries that they can't even articulate thank you who can take our kids and hold them bless them give them a school experience that works that feeds their growing minds and sustains their wonderful impressionable full of potential spirits in the meantime help us keep learning how to creatively support them their schools and their teachers amen thank you Adriana pz good evening I'm a mother of two lsr7 students and I want to start with the question that I was going to ask the last time which is how is the district living up to the Civic mission of public schools how will you educate prepare and support our youngest
023citizens so that they not only are thriving socially and academically but they also become the kind of knowledgeable and active participants our democracy so desperately needs in the past parents and community members have had to initiate voter registration efforts and have only recently been allowed to do the bare minimum of visiting our high schools over a single Lunch Period to register and inform students about the upcoming election as someone who has registered students myself during that lunch hour I urged the district to do better so many of the students I spoke to were very enthusiastic about registering but had no idea that the next election was a Schoolboard election and by their reactions likely didn't know what a school board does or that it even exists so if hypothetically students did know this school board
024existed and they also knew that a school board is meant to serve them I wonder what they would think of some of our District's Shenanigans the current one being Mr Haley's gross display at a recently Summit Educational Foundation event where he declared he was representing all students when he decorated a table with a redneck lives matter flag shotgun shells and a warning sign about armed citizens now having worked with young people over my entire career and being a parent I know there would likely be some students of similar maturity levels who would just laugh as if it were a funny joke there might also be some who would just be confused not being aware of any victims of red NE discrimination but I'm most concerned about those students who understand very clearly the message being
025sent and the intentional decision Mr Haley made to purchase and display those items I would go further to ask what would happen if a student decided to mimic Mr Haley's Behavior with such a display in our schools would this Behavior fall under one of the district policies that are on tonight's agenda and if students wrote to the board to express their outrage of this display would they be disregarded so quickly the way RVP dismissed and our president completely ignored the repeated concerns and outrage communicated by the lsr7 community in response to such inexcusable behaviors from a so-called leader and District representative and should there be a difference in the kind of behavior we expect from our students and District leaders should we hold District leaders to lower standards than our students the way I see
026it Mr Haley's behavior is either a gross demonstration of his ignorance or a blatant and gross disregard for the duty he swore to uphold which is worse I don't know but neither sound like like qualities that we should accept from any District leader and Sir if you're not interested in serving all lsr7 students you should do them all a favor and step down thank [Applause] you deya Marshall good evening my name is deoya Marshall mother of for students in the district and president of strengthening education together political action committee I'm going to do a little bit of reading for us tonight starting from the lsr7 website on Dignity and belonging it states in lsr7 we believe all students deserve a full experience enriched by a deep sense of dignity and belonging all lsr7 efforts structures
027resources and people aligned around a clear District yde vision of Equitable Learning and Development and a shared understanding of why and how this drives everyone's work would you all agree that Bo board members are a part of the students School experience as they visit all our students directly in their classrooms it goes on to say as part of our efforts to strengthen and build a culture of dignity and belonging lsr7 has collaborated with external facilitators Floyd Cobb and John Crown Crown Crown apple and used their anchor text belonging through a culture of dignity the book was approved and utilized by our district and has been added to the long list of uh books attempts to be banned by some community and board members who I quote have big beefs with the book so let's hear
028some content from this book referred to as the ugly baby dignity and belonging go together they have a cause and effect relationship and that we build belonging by honoring dignity we can foster belonging for our students families and colleagues and even for ourselves then says how do we know for sure that we are teaching leading and generally interacting with dignity and that our intentions match our actions essentially we must have a way of knowing if people knowing if people feel that they belong in our classroom schools and communities to that end we offer a means to gauge assess and Benchmark the effectiveness of our behaviors practices and policies we call this the tool of this we call this tool the indicators of belonging these indicators are four states of being that describe the quality of
029people's present experience feeling validated appreciated accepted and treated fairly are all signs that dignity is being honored and that a person feels like they belong to use these indicators effectively we need to better understand people's experiences with us and within our environment it then lists essential elements of dignity some of which are recognition validating people acknowledgement responding to concerns and accountability apologize for causing harm it seems as if we should spend less time trying to ignore the truth of our American history as identified in this text that our current board vice president quote via disagrees with their philosophy we should continue to embrace the contents of this book that if consistently implemented could have prevented the insensitive and offensive moment that brought many here today thank you Gary Hawker my name is Gary Hawker I've
030lived in this community for over 50 years I've been a married for over 50 years I've had two daughters graduate go on to college each graduate with two degrees from college and quite frankly folks I'm ashamed of myself this morning this afternoon this evening whenever it is I'm not ashamed of myself I'm disappointed I'm aggravated I'm aggravated that what's going on in ours in our school system today is actually going on it scares me to death that we have a First Amendment that allows us to say what we want to say as long as it's not hurting someone else and we come to a school board meeting and we are supposed to sit here and listen to to people tear down other people setting a great example for the one young man that's sitting in
031this room back here we're making these kind of statements and as a parent I'm ashamed of everyone else in this room everyone else in this room I don't care what your color is I'm ashamed of everyone talking like this this is a school board I've got a minute and a half a buck and a half left in this and I can't tell you how frustrated I am I know Bill Haley it's a blessing that bill Haley's in this group he's shown leadership he's shown the guts that he's not afraid to stand up and do what he knows is great what he knows is right and there's not a thing wrong with having him a have a flag on his table and have shot glasses he it was the people that he was running against that
032called him the redneck he didn't call himself the redneck what are you all talking about I want to know speak up I'm sorry you have something I'm sorry it's time for us to grow up I really am I think it's if the school board's not ashamed of this activity I am as a parent I am as a grand parent I am and it bothers me that in America when you can say what you want to say as long as you're not hurting someone else you don't have to worry about being knocked down Bill knows how to get up Bill's the best thing that happened to this school board in the last year and there's not going to be anybody here stand up and say it tonight but I am I don't have to worry about
033that and for us to even have to have have Law Officers here we had a man kicked out of this room about a year about two years ago because he was trying to read out of a book that they wouldn't allow I'm [Music] done Aisha Ali hello my name is Aisha Ali and I'm a parent of a child here in the district I'm a former alumni from Le Summit High School and I'm am also a gun violence Survivor Firearms like the one that board member Haley pedals for profit are the leading cause of death and children in the United States if there's something that should be embarrassed or that we should be ashamed of it should be that the number one killer of children in the United States is firearms more than Mort Vehicles more
034than poisoning more than cancer more than Suffocation combined more than abortion included our children because after all AR they all are children they're part of the 120 deaths a day in America Every Day 26 times any other Nation now our children and gun violence has steadily increased dramatically since 2019 meaning our kids are impacted by violence our kids our least summon elementary kids our Leisa middle school kids our high school kids they have experienced gun violence now Mr Haley's a shooter as he told us you know last spring and boy did he' remind us of the recent private events that we've been talking about this evening you all know that he already Mr Haley mocked the black lives Progressive Movement with his racist display too we know know he's not like us but making fun
035of a movement established to protect members of our community he doesn't want to acknowledge us but we're here he said he was there to promote his business but he had empty shell casings and Holiday Lights each of those empty Shield casings representing perhaps another brown or black life cut short by the hate that he sells for his honest profit he justified that he was promoting his business of killing as a private citizen hypothetically so if I owned an adult novelty shop and I was also elected to the school board and I had an event that I could go to as a private citizen would I be able to dress up with all the little holiday lights of the little dingling and you know all the other goodies that would be sold in an adult novelty
036shop no I wouldn't because it's not appropriate it was stated right at the beginning of this meeting that there's certain things that are just inappropriate for our children and this is one of them Mr Haley and you need to understand that we need no member of at least some R7 school board you represent our community and you you need to apologize for being inappropriate and you need to apologize and if you're not if you're not going to apologize then you need to step down and you need to resign and I'm asking that from the board tonight for Mr Haley's res resignation we need you all to work together and use your brains demand that the you know that he resign thank you Christy Grimes on August 14th I emailed the Board of Education as a
037parent of three lsr7 students a Community member and most importantly a constituent in this email I voed my concerns about the distasteful manner in which board member Haley represented himself and by proxy the Board of Education and the school district at the recent LS Educational Foundation trivia night event on Friday August 9th in my message I outlined numerous concerns regarding the display of a redneck lives matter sign and what in the use of what appeared to be shotgun sorry shotgun shell casings as table Decor I expressed in detail how the decision to use such Decor at an event associated with the school district failed to meet Community expectations expectations that board members will publicly exhibit values aligned with the mission and vision statements of the lsr7 school district as well as adherence with scored School
038Board ethics and Equity policies my email concluded with a few simple requests most notably a formal public apology from board member Haley in accordance with his duty of public trust over the last week I received only one response to my email from vice president Eslick a lackluster canned response which claimed that board member Haley was not acting in an official capacity however as I stated in my email board member Haley's posts on both his personal and official board member face Facebook pages were captioned three school board members representing vice president esc's failure to address this contradiction leads me to only one conclusion she didn't even bother to read my email before copy pasting the same generic and dismissive response that was sent to others additionally in her response vice president esck stated board leadership did
039address Community concerns with him around this decision and what it means to the community nothing in that statement indicates that there is any acknowledgement by President Foley vice president Eslick or other leaders that board member Haley's actions were unacceptable to the board while I understand that board leadership does not have the power to force actions from board members each and every one of you have the power to individually Andor collectively denounce inappropriate actions and behaviors from your fellow board members in this instance silence speaks volumes further vice president esck suggested I speak to directly with board member Haley but I reject that that is my responsibility to initiate any further contact if board member Haley was truly willing to have an open and honest Dialogue on this matter there was no reason he couldn't have
040personally responded to me or anyone else that emailed the board with their concerns instead he gave an exclusive interview to an unnamed person with a Le Sumit Tribune in which the writer alleges that board member Haley sincerely apologized to anyone who offended to be unmistakably clear I'm sorry I offended you is not an apology this response evades any personal accountability for offensive behavior and actions in this interview he also quoted sit he would be willing to sit down and have a cup of coffee to discuss the continuing Improvement of Lee Summit R7 I'm G to finish one thing I also reject this notion as it is not an acceptable Forum to address matters of community concern one-on-one conversations do not provide the public transparency this matter requires [Applause] next up we have 5.01 board committee
041reports G to start with uh board member Johnson I have one committee report I attended um the bond interview committee excuse me I attended a bond committee um meeting it's a part of the finance department where we looked at evaluating companies to issue the bonds that we use in our city um and in our school district to fund projects and to look at putting things on the ballot for the next year so we interviewed those companies and in the process of making the decisions that we'll be hearing more about that is the end of my report thank you Mayers no committees however that will that will change dramatically next month thank you sure okay um I attended the board leadership meeting with you um and I also attended the bond underwriter selection committee meeting uh
042with board member Johnson and just to add a little bit of detail to that for our fellow board members um this was a really difficult decision for the entire committee to choose between Piper and Raymond James um two individuals who came from steel our previous Bond underwriter um have moved over to Piper so we had a strong relationship draw with Piper and we were really uh focused on wanting to maintain that relationship um because they've done a really good job for lsr7 in the past and we have over a decade of experience with those two gentlemen um Raymond James was also very compelling uh in their um argument to try and win the partnership with lsr7 and based on their large network of firm relationships and um their capitalization rates how much money they have
043to be able to honor bonds at the low interest rate that they're promising we also wanted to align with Raymond James so it made a very difficult uh decision which is why we went the path of um use utilizing both providers and being able to leverage both of their strengths so Piper will be the primary and Raymond James uh would be a co- underwriter if the board so approves um so that's just a little bit about some of that conversation and then unfortunately this month I was out of town for the finance committee meeting so that will be uh board member Haley attend that one and that's all I have thanks thank you board member Gary thank you um I just had a couple here um first starting with the Leisa Educational Foundation so I
044attended one of their meetings but I just wanted to highlight um a lot of the good uh that comes from the leit Educational Foundation um we had an eventful week a couple weeks ago where new teachers were awarded $100 gift cards to kind of get their rooms and supplies together um before school started and um then of course we had um convocation so that was welcoming all the all the teachers in the district to kind of kick off the year um my other uh meeting that I attended was H with Lee Summit cares um a couple of things just to make note of that events coming up um so uh youth Wellness day September 28th um so I believe that has a it's kind of a forum thing I believe um and then as far
045as uh looking down the road further we have the Character Breakfast that'll be coming up Thursday January 16th and then one um one event that will be coming up that I found very interesting is September 23rd um there is going to be an open and honest discussion regarding protecting children from Human Trafficking and the effects of pornography and there will be a couple of Representative legislatur that will be attending uh representative John Patterson and Jeff Meyers um human trafficking has become uh a preval it's a a big topic going on right now Nationwide and it's real it affects um our kids and I can't wait to hear this um be attend this event and hear what all the discussion entails so that was it thank you board member Miller um I had the opportunity to
046attend the Lee Summit chamber new teacher breakfast which was wonderful to welcome all of our new teachers that are new to the district some that are coming back to the district um and so just wonderful to see so kudos to all of the um the organizers of that event because I think our new teachers felt very welcome to our district thank you board member Haley uh yes I uh zoomed in on to the finance committee meeting Mr holder didn't have a lot to report this is I guess the slow time of the year for him um there's still some resolution to be uh to be had with Jackson County and the taxation issue but uh kind of that stuff's up in the air right now so there wasn't a whole lot to report from the
047finance committee but I do have a statement here that I'd like to read um as has been pointed out my family and I did attend the Lee Summit Educational Foundation a trivia night the other day and our table decorations were uh quite offensive to a number of members of our community and for that I'm genuinely sorry there was never any intent to be provocative or to make a political statement not a single person mentioned this to me during the trivia night if a single person would have been come up to me and told me they were offended by our table decorations I would have removed them immediately there's been a lot of uh false accusations thrown out there that there's some kind of Nefarious motives behind all this and that somehow I'm a racist anyone
048who accuses me of racism does not know my family um I've apologized in private to my colleagues on the board and I give them a public apology right now I'm genuinely sorry that my that my display offended anyone in this community now let me say this I will not apologize for who I am or the way I conduct myself okay I'm genuinely sorry for what I did but I reach out to members of the community I've tried to reach out to members of this community since I began running for the school board in January not a single person that's made all of these accusations against me has been willing to sit down and talk to me before this time I have tried to reach out across all lines in this community because I believe that's
049the way forward for our school board and for our uh Administration we will never find the best way forward in secret social media chat rooms if we're going to move this school district forward we need social dialogue between all parties all stakeholders and I'm making a renewed call this evening that anyone that wants to make this a better school district I'm making myself available to you reach out to me we'll sit down and we'll figure out the best way forward thank you thank you um for my committees this month I just had the board leadership meeting and uh so was pretty uneventful for me with that we'll move on to item [Music] 6.01 can I get a motion all right 6.02 I I move to approve the treasures report and the payment of Bills second
050all right Motion in second all those in favor raise your hands and say I I motion passes all right next up we have the items for consent 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 approve insurance plans for calendar year 2025 I I'm the one that asked for this to be pulled from consent as I'm a retiree that's still on the insurance so I'll I'll abstain okay noted can I get a motion this is a really long one I move that the board approves coverage and the related contracts for the 2025 plan year with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City for medical insurance with the district premium funding of
051$890 per month per full-time employee Delta Dental for dental with the district funding at $14.90 per month per employee Delta Dental for vision and the standard for Life a accidental death and dismemberment long-term disability and short-term medical leave claim administrative Services can I get a second second all right motion and second all those in favor raise your hand and say I I all those that abstain all right next up we have item 8.02 board policy Ki public solicitations and advertising in District facilities do you want me to talk to this one a little bit I brought it up okay sure but it looks like we already have a question as well okay do you I don't know who asked the question was it yeah do you want me to just give a background a little
052bit or did you want to ask your question first I didn't have a question I was just gonna make a motion oh okay well I'll just give a little background just so we can um just have a little if anybody wants to have any dialogue on this um during the uh primary election uh a couple of weeks ago there were some issues at some of our buildings where um some uh staff were asking whether they were allowed to remove signs and per our policy technically that is the case in our uh policy Ki it does allow for the district to be able to remove any political advertising whatsoever um it's actually not allowed at all but as everybody up here is aware and many people who have been politically active in the community and our
053voters which is probably everybody in this room um we have always in the LA at least in the last couple of years had political signs at our facilities and we've also been able to have electioneering occurring on our property for the buildings that we use as polling places being that we have been intentional in our calendar construction to make sure that our schools are not in session and generally with the exception of August because we did have staff in the building we typically don't have anybody in our buildings for uh the November election and the April election um because it has been our practice I uh consulted with um board president Foley and wanted to see if the rest of the board would be willing to entertain a policy change so that the policy actually
054refle reflects our practice because we have in practice been allowing um our uh candidates to advertise and in my opinion as a board member because we use our district taxpayer facilities as polling places I think it should be part of our process that we also allow that political process to play out in those facilities these are taxpayer funded facilities and I think it it comes down to um how you view uh your first amendment rights be able to um advertise and be able to get information from your candidates so I personally do not want to strip our community from access to candidates to information to signs to the the same day um information gleaning that people sometimes do if they haven't been watching a municipal election or a general election so um that is the
055Genesis behind this and there are two options that are proposed here one that um I suggested some language and then the version two edit um with some critiques um by legal so I hope everybody had a chance to look at them but that's kind of where this came from so um with that I'll be quiet board member Miller I was kind of in the same vain gonna move to amend the policy to allow it so I'm I'm on the same page as you yes second okay so we I don't think we have a motion on the floor for the specific version can I can I get a motion I move to amend board policy Ki to allow political signs on Election Day can you mention the version name version two version two I think yeah
056if everybody agrees with that one version two do you want me to Res the whole can I get a second second all right motion and seconded um before we do go ahead and vote I do have a question I just wanted to know um there was discussion potentially about this going through board policy committee and I've been out of town for a significant amount of time so I just wanted to check and see if if that made that um through board policy committe or if that is something that we need to to do um or if we're just going to go ahead and and modify the verbage so just to give a little bit of information on why that was that was a suggestion um just like a specific example was um maybe the buildings
057have some uh concerns that we're not considering around maybe like there's nothing in here that mentions sign size now nothing says banner and hopefully everybody could distinguish between between what a banner what's a banner and what's a sign but how deep do you want to get into the detail of this I think generally I've never seen a banner at one of our polling places at a school I don't know about anybody else I think they've all been a standard election size sign um so maybe that's not something we need to address until we need to address it but um that's kind of along the lines of what the reason why it was suggested okay with that does anybody have any additional questions before we vote seeing none okay all those in favor raise your hand
058and say I I I motion passes all right next up we have item 9.01 resident requested item standardized process for Library materials under a new Missouri law residents of lsr7 may ask that the board include an item on the agenda of a regular board meeting the board of education has revised policy B ddb2 to accommodate this new law the board has received a request from a resident resident to place an item on the agenda for this evening's meeting under policy B ddb2 the resident is allotted 3 minutes to speak about the agenda item and those comments are subject to the same standards and restrictions that apply to persons who speak during the public comment portion of board meetings under policy B ddb2 the board ordinarily will not discuss or act on a resident initiated agenda
059item at the meeting where it is presented it will be treated as an information only item but may be the subject of discussion or action at a later meeting of the board this is done so that the board has time to reflect on the item and allow the district Administration and other members of the community time to submit their views on the topic the resident who is asked to have an item placed on the agenda of tonight's meeting is Kristen grubs before they speak I'd like to remind everyone that the same rules for speaking apply here as they do during our public comment session good evening my name is Kristen grubs and I thank the board for the opportunity to present on the information of the importance of a standardized process for materials entry in
060the district there are 248 policies in lsr7 and dozens of administrative procedures forms and regulations to support them policy ehb restricts the use of District devices for accessing or disseminating obscene pornographic or other harmful materials for minors why do we have this policy what's the point in filtering content on District devices I mean students can access that stuff on their phones policy IG DBA restrict students from making and distributing unofficial Publications that have obscene pornographic or any other harmful content for minors why was this policy put in place policy inc1 prohibits speakers at District events from using obscene vulgar lwd or indecent speech why do we have this policy after all students hear this language in the hallways all the time regulation jg1 on student discipline says that students displaying sexually explicit vulgar or violent
061material may be disciplined with detention or even as much as expulsion however the same regulation also states that the prohibition on this content this type of content does not apply to C to curricular material that has been approved by District staff for its educational value why does our district have a regulation imposing disciplinary actions on students for accessing such materials yet libraries are libraries allow materials with this content without restriction or repercussions why is it that a person speaking in a school district event is restricted from reading the very material allowed in our schools perhaps it's because there is indeed a generally agreed upon notion that language and content like this is inappropriate for a school setting board members I challenge you to take a deeper look at each of these policies I've mentioned as
062well as policy IIA and regulation I IAC R1 about the objectives for materials and how the district obtains them then I challenge you to read policy I ac1 and consider all it says about the purpose for each material and how it's to contribute to education then go back and reread the first sentence of this policy which says as the governing body of the school district the board is legally responsible for the selection of instructional materials board members are each of you willing to stand legally responsible for every material made available in our schools right now if there are materials that you believe do not fit the curricular needs of our students or possibly violate Missouri law for their sexually explicit content then perhaps a standard practice for evaluating materials before they enter our district is
063indeed necessary if you check your inboxes you will find a file that I created with a bit more information on this proposed topic thank you thank you oh miss grubs looks like we have some questions if you want to stay up here board member Miller thank you I just have a couple clarify questions for you Kristen um okay so your recommendations do you feel like they will increase academic outcomes for our students I believe that we need to put into place a system like we do for our curriculum our instructional material in our classrooms which is evaluated by committees I'm not saying every book or mat material needs to be evaluated by a committee but we have rubrics in place in different areas of our district to evaluate programs and curriculum before it enters the
064district we don't have that in our libraries we don't have you know in our Librarians or whoever is bringing uh materials in they don't sit down I mean they don't have like a formal document with criteria listed a scoring process to be able to assess the material and and essentially score it and say hey this one on this topic or whatever is the best out there we should have it in here we just have a very subjective process which leads to examples like you'll find in the information I emailed each of you that probably I should say 100% should never have been made have made it into the school libraries okay um and have you met with any District staff other than Dr Buck or or any school board members about your presentation I have
065spoke oneon-one with several School Board members over the last couple well couple years about this and I've spoken with community members my in the file that I sent you to kind of lay all of this out and what a process like this could look like I do actually detail my first encounter with the district employee on this issue and I was basically I should just say dismissed I I inquired about a particular title um which I knew to be in the school library at leit North and I I inquired with the libr liian at North and I said um I'm pretty sure this one violates the new law that was put in place in August of 22 and he emailed me back and said oh I don't find that in our collection right now I
066said that's odd because it was there at 2 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday when I emailed you and when he responded was noon on Monday and I checked and indeed it was no longer in the library catalog so between Friday and Monday strangely that book disappeared that book you'll find you'll find pieces of in the file I sent you all right thank you what are the financial implications um of your request if any is that outl I'm not sure that's not up to me to do this is something I'm putting forth the idea for the board to consider and to like any other program or or a curriculum or such is to put a committee in place work it out hash it out what would it look like what would it cost that's not
067on me and do you have do you have any children in our district at any level I pay taxes in this District I have indeed had children in this district for 10 years do you have any children in our district at any level currently does that matter does that lessen my opinion I'm just I wases the value of this thank you Mrs grebs um my next question is actually for board leadership um I know when we were discussing policy um that we wanted to have a summary of of the meeting when anybody requested to speak and so um I was just wondering if we have uh like prior to our um prior to having someone come speak we would be able to see what the summary that was given um to the superintendent or the
068design we talked about doing that um if that would be a made available and I was just wondering if that could be made available if that happened in this situation are you talking about the sheet that's in there that's in the board packet not that sheet but just um I mean I read the sheet I saw the Sheep but just the conversation or any summation of what happened like when they when the person met with Dr Buck I think that would be a question for Dr Buck that was not something that was even provided to us so we received the same information that you did thank you all right any other further questions thank you next up we have 9.02 Aquatic Center annual program evaluation good evening I appreciate the opportunity to be here to
069represent the Aquatic Center my name is quasi Bri I'm the aquatics director for the district this evening I plan on taking you all through a short journey of the Aquatic Center during which I will share information that Maps directly to our mission allows you to see our vision and then takes you and then hopefully you will have a good understanding of our purpose there are a lot of people in this room that have never been to the Aquatic Center so this presentation includes pictures along with a lot of written information to help you to help tell the story to start I want to bring attention to Nicole Diamond standing next to Dr Buck in this picture as she was our learner for Life Award winner back in March on this page you will notice that
070uh we have a mission our vision and our promise the wall mural that you see in this picture was painted by a formerly Summit West graduate Savannah Myers the information I I'm sorry the information I'm presenting this evening will reflect our mission which is guiding us through our entire approach of life-changing opportunities for our students and our community members just a little bit of background information on the Aquatic Center the Aquatic Center opened in 2009 as a educational resource for our students the other goal of the Aquatic Center was to generate Revenue to offset operational cost for the facility here's a little facility data we've Ted over 10,000 swim lesson programs at the Aquatic Center since 10 thou since 2009 since 2009 to 2012 we have we had seven total programs in 2020 to 2024
071we have 18 total programs today the backdrop that the the backdrop in the slide of this paint of this slide is a painting created by another former leis West student that is in the entryway of the Aquatic Center the information on this slide is an examp example of our programs and how everything is interconnected as you will see I am supervised by Kirk hipple our District athletic and activities director then there's me I'm a full-time staff member for the district along with Nicole Diamond who is our Aquatic Center Program Coordinator and then the rest of everybody the rest of the individuals are our um part-time assistants I have an I have an advisory team two advisory teams I have One external and one internal advisory team the external advisory team advises us advises me on
072activities for students and our community the internal advisory team advises on internal programs for our students the slide where you're looking at right now is our annual program participation data this is data that you can review at a later date but one item that I'd like to pull our attention to is our learn to swim program our learn to swim program starts children out in the program at ages 3 to 18 we do have an infant preschool Aquatics program for our younger children ages 6 months to three years of age and then we do have have an adult learn to swim program we are one of five um aquatic centers in the Kansas City metro area that offers an adult learn to swim program to our revenue and expenditures since 2012 from 2011 to 2024
073we have increased Revenue at the Aquatic Center 119% and although the revenue continues to climb so do the expenses here's some water safety data we like to inform our patrons and our community of water safety information along with informing you with the water safety information we also want to provide the service that will help us close that gap for the statistics that you are seeing below over 54% of adults do not know how to swim and if you learn how to swim you reduce the risk of drowning by 88% so again we offer infant swim Pro swim lessons we offer youth swim lessons and then we offer adult swim lessons to the lower right hand corner you will notice you will notice that we do offer an annual boter safety training program in the spring
074we have partnered with with the highway patrol to offer this program every May and then we have our inter Scholastic swimming highlights and achievements this program the students in these pictures are representing their middle school their High School in our general community we're a service Branch training location for the Whitman Air Force Base B2 A10 Pilots for the water survival certification training also for the National Guard C130 air crew we also are a training facility for our Army Corps of Engineers when they test out their underwater drones the information you see right here is our marketing information we do multiple forms of marketing we have online marketing direct marketing we Market programs through our scoreboard initiative direct emailers and in our newsletter this will wrap up the presentation thank you for your support [Applause] thank
075you next up we have 9.03 human resources department annual program evaluation good evening and thank you for the opportunity to talk about the the work we're doing in the human resources department here in Lee Summit R7 and I'm just going to jump right in and start with the team that uh we get to work with together um to to make the work happen for Lee Summit r s um these folks uh make all the functions within our department happen for our school district uh Dr dilus I believe was in the room tonight um as one of those valued team members I do want to mention we did have three of our team members retire uh this spring and summer uh so we were excited that uh they're transitioning into their next chapter of retirement and
076grateful for their service so we have a couple new members that have joined the team have been fantastic as well so um as in the past this is a overview of what the uh Human Resources work has looked like over the the last year um first is a brief summary of the number of employees and what this number shows is the number of comp summary or contract employees that we have in the district um those are so this would not include like our hourly employees our gate workers that sort of thing so there's over 2,900 employees here and then it's grouped up there by a salary schedule for our four different salary schedules for employees if I'm speaking in public you'll often hear me mention that you know we have over 3,000 employees um because
077when you include a Nona coach or an hourly worker folks like that that does bump that number up I do often mention that we are proud as a school district that we are the largest employer in in our community um which has a huge impact on our community so here's the the mission of our human resources department and team um and I I do want to pause and just say thanks it's been a busy uh last uh few years but the last couple years especially uh it's been a hiring season our our leaders our hiring managers our principles directors have done a fantastic job of using a site-based approach in hiring to identify strong candidates to make a a difference for the young people in our schools also want to mention we have a couple
078positions we're still actively hiring for if you know anyone that'd like to be a par professional custodian great uh benefits that were approved by the Board of Education tonight um as well as a a wonderful competitive market competitive salary as well one important part of part of what we do is a team Le Summit uh where it's a collaborative group of folks that come together and uh we we'll be working starting here in September uh we do have two board members we're excited to have uh on that team again this year where we collaborate to identify priorities uh for the school district specifically with quality of work life issues having a comp competitive but affordable benefits package also being competitive in salary uh we we do take a lot of time in that group to
079look at data and it's a representative group as you can see where we have five teachers um five support and professional staff members a mixture there and then five administrators that work with a facilitator that helps our team uh come to a a consensus a collaborative group process to bring recommendations forward uh to the Board of Education through the superintendent doing a brief summary of the work we are proud of and team Le Summit last year to do and present to the board appreciate the unanimous support from the board of education on the team Le Summit recommendation last year um where we were able to fortunately give uh good raises for our people in the school district we also uh if you see there had a a range adjustment for bus aids to try to
080help with the uh make that more competitive to fill positions there and then we also suspended uh the Board of Education accepted the recommendation we had of suspending board policy part of our board policy gcbda and gbda what was commonly referred to as emergency days to SU end that policy and we are collecting data for the board as was discussed last winter on how that suspension serves our students next is uh just some hiring data from the the goal from our CIP and also from what board of education has asked for in the past on our 2,98 employees and and what makes up our employee groups specifically regarding our CIP goal and diversity uh we show the last four years of hiring for class C ified staff which would be primarily your uh support and
081professional staff members and then your certified staff which is your teachers and administrators and as you can see we've made progress um each year on uh adding diversity to our to our program to our schools and to our Workforce that we've not arrived at our goal of U having our staff reflect the students that are in our schools uh with that we always make sure that we want to recruit broad broadly get lots of cand Cates in for a competitive process and then we hire the best candidate for each position also want to mention just the cohort from last year and uh of the hiring cohort what the percentage of diversity was in each cohort for by teacher support professional administrator in each of those salary schedules as well another data point we've shared in
082the past is just our breakdown by gender uh education is still typically a female dominated field uh this this is our classified staff reflection as well as our certified staff with teachers and administrators in that Workforce um some other things we share with the board is just some things about absent data and other things that we manage in the HR office um do want to mention one of the benefits that actually again was approved tonight our short-term medical leave program is a board pay District benefit that our staff uh enjoys um and we used over 27 ,000 hours of short-term medical leave now that's leave where our employees got to enjoy 100% of their pay for that time they were gone for their medical condition um we also uh had over $52,000 in professional development
083hours where we're investing in the growth of our people as well as some other board policy leaves that we uh provide with jury duty and then we do have personal time and vacation time as well that we offer to staff I do want to take a moment to talk about PD BuyBacks uh we do not have sick time we have personal days or personal time off in our school district um so here is just a quick snapshot of the hours uh offered to our staff and then our P buyback program is uh something that we're really proud of it's Unique in the education Niche where our employees can um sell back their pdos for step one for the daily rate of their pay position at step one of the the pay scale um so that's
084uh an option they have it is automatic aut atically bought back once they accumulate in low 20s of of days or hour equivalencies to days um then they also have the option to sell back additional time um for uh an August check that we just sent out um recently the total bought back you can see was uh over 23,000 hours at a value of about $780,000 to uh to our employees another nice added benefit that we provide um this is another snapshot of uh just uh PTO time personal time used uh both in hours used and our hours available to our staff that they still have banked at the end of this last school year also want to take a moment to talk about continuing education for our teachers um we do allow um uh
085teachers to move on our salary schedule based on graduate work so our teachers come to us with a bachelor's degree and their certification uh in their teaching area so this uh reflects a great investment that we as a school district make in the professional growth and learning um of our our teaching professionals so they can one go to classes and learn curriculum instruction get a master's perhaps in their content area to be able to teach dual credit classes and then as they move we recognize that investment they've made in their learning as a learning institution to then uh compensate them on our salary schedule so you can see that the majority of our teaching staff has a master's plus 45 graduate hours beyond their master's degree or a specialist plus 15 um hours beyond their
086specialist degree to reach that fifth second column there that is tallest um our retention again last year was strong uh we saw about 90% of our certified staff we retained and about 80% of our classified staff um you see a kind of quick snapshot of the last three years there at the bottom of the combined staff so we're still proud of the fact that our retention is is strong and uh of the strongest in the metro area when it comes to schools um we do have folks leave each year uh some by resignation some by retirement some uh through promotion to other opportunities um and there's a quick snapshot of the separations that we had on the certified side 137 individuals and then on the classified side about 276 staff members so we do take
087a minute uh and this is a a point of Celebration so for substitute Services we use Kell Education Services and uh this is our sub fill rates for all positions in the district and we were right about 94% now when I go to HR meetings in the metro area um I'm real careful not to say this too loud because folks get a little uh not everyone's in the same spot I'm going to switch to the next slide real quick which shows our teacher fill rates at just over 97% and then you can see the fill rates broken down by a month and then additional data by positions absences need a sub filled unfilled and did not need a sub so uh this has been the best year we've had in being able to fill sub
088positions and being able to cover it which we all remember it wasn't too long ago in Co when we we had we had teachers staff people in this building going in covering rooms and subbing because we just couldn't get folks in the classrooms um so to wrap up just want to refocus on our our goal U with our action plan with the CIP that we just Sunset it with Dr barger's work to recruit hire retain and promote uh diverse staff um we're proud of the progress we've made in that CIP goal but uh we are still going to continue uh striving to achieve better and part of that is uh through everyone's help everyone in this community is a recruiter uh we all need to work together to promote what a great Community we get
089to enjoy the positive things that are happening in our community for our students students uh the focus our community has on kids and um know that uh it's important to talk about and and focus on our brand here in Le Summit and that we have a great thing going for the young people here um so uh feel free to direct people whether it's for custodian per or any other job to uh click on our website and look at the op opportunities we have thank you board member Miller thank you Dr Carlson and thank you for what you and your team do to make sure we have great staff here in lsr7 um I just had a couple of questions for you I was wondering if um we could have we could see us um information
090similar to slide seven um but separated or that includes staff that is separated from the district does that make sense so slide seven that you have in your presentation if we can have the data just like that for staff that's separated from the district quick answer is yes I want to make sure so it's it's the one right before right before this one it's the 2023 24 staff data with the diversity classifications yes that's it got it this one here yep so you want yes yes is the answer we can get that so but I want to make sure I get it right so you want uh data for the separations for the 23 24 school year by uh diversity which has been defined by the Board of Education as ethnicity yeah eth if we
091could have that for even the last three to four years I would love to see that um and I also am curious um are there any trends that you're noticing that are negatively impacting hiring process CES um that that the board should be aware of um so to first I'm going answer the first part of your question I think one thing people leave and there's lots of reasons people leave but most people stay um so that's why we do track the data in this method because it shows in the aggregate that if some people um that are diverse do leave we're hiring back more we're hiring them back and then some so that that's one part but yes we'll get that data for you and I think um we're in a better spot today than
092we have been because um just and I'll just be C about the great work that the public relations team has done and the the Lee Summit brand and the positivity that uh is happening in our community um really makes it uh makes people when they Google search Lee Summit see positive things happening so I I think that's a big part of you know the last few years have been good last couple years have been real good about um our brand being strong and people wanting to be here and do you think there's any anything that's negatively impacting um the hiring practices we have a lot of positive but is there anything that you can see that's negative that that like the board should be aware of yeah I think the biggest challenges are uh the
093hard to fill areas like industrial technology um special education can be challenging um sometimes even some of the math and science positions can be challenging I think one of the big challenges we have right now that Dr Herzog and I collaborate and talk about each week almost it seems and with High School principles is Roc um there's such a a narrow path to recruit Roc teachers it's such a great program but we're just not seeing the candidates of Air Force retirees like we have in the past so if anyone has Air Force retirees commissioned or non-commissioned officers they know that would be interested in making an impact on kids the RC program in our high schools is a fantastic place to do it so but I will say in the last two years though we
094have seen candidate pools grow we're getting more applications um so it is better than it was a few years ago thank you so much you vice president Eslick you just made me think of a question with regard to the RC position so I was just curious um where where we typically try to find people if there's any network like Community networks like I think of the like the uh the VFW as one place I don't know if there's what kind of networking we do um in that respect or if we just put out the job opening and then whoever comes comes yeah good question and and to start I've not I've not done much recruiting at the VFW yet I had thought about that I might look into that but um we do put it
095on job boards through the air force we do uh work through our Network especially with whiten nearby we've also reached out to off at Air Force Base in the past um up at Omaha um to try to recruit there um what we're finding is um the job market at a at a macro level affects things like this and the reality is we are finding even we'll hire an Air Force person to join our program for Roc and they're quickly getting recruited Away by engineering firms or different folks like that so we're just just we're competing with when when unemployment is low it is more challenging for us uh to compete you know when you think about it school districts are a great job and a great career because it off offers stability in a stable
096community education is a stable job when unemployment's low there's a lot more competition and sometimes just frankly people can put throw more money at someone um to recruit them away from education that makes sense thank you I hope you find somebody because I know that program has been really valuable to especially some of our student reps I hear great things from them so hopefully thanks do we have any other questions thank you thank you for the opportunity next up we have 10.1 2022 no 2023 2024 nutrition services program evaluation written report do we have any questions no oh board member Miller um well first I just want to say thank you for um the hard work of our nutrition service staff because um they do an incredible job of supporting our students and I don't
097know if everybody knows this but they're one of the only people in the whole entire school that sees all the students every day so it's pretty cool um so just grateful for them I am curious I recently saw the news we were on the news um and um that our nutrition services team was trying to get funding to fully fund for our Stu all of our students to have free lunch and so I would just be curious to ask our nutrition services folks is there any support that they need from the board or anything that we can do to help help Advocate um you know for those efforts hi there and if you haven't come to the nutrition Council meetings that that she hosts every month then you should join I I encourage the Board
098of Education to join you guys are all invited to come I'll send dates to you um as far as universal feeding Missouri has two bills right now but they've kind of been stagnant for the last year um I serve on the state board and several National committees for the school nutrition Association and um we work really hard at educating our congressmen and everybody in Jeff City and DC because they they don't understand how families are struggling right now um a big point we try to make to them is a family of four if they make over $54,000 a year they do not qualify for free and reduced meals and when you think of that income and if you have you know the children you're looking at rent you're looking at mortgage you're looking at car
099payments you're I mean just everything you can't make it so anybody that can do some advocating for us and just let you know our legislators know that this is very important um I'd love to see it at the federal level um I think that would be more beneficial but we'll take it at the state level thank you and thank you for all the work you guys do we appreciate you any other questions thank you so much all right with that we're adjourned