LSR7 Board of Education Meeting - 07/22/21

001okay okay we are going to call our regular monthly meeting here in uh for july to order so if we could have everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance indivisible with liberty and justice for all i'm representing my team for the olympics tonight that's why i'm in a little uh different uh thing so let's start tomorrow um somebody asked me earlier uh first we want to welcome everybody who is here tonight including those of you who are watching online and we also want to extend a welcome to four individuals who are now at their first true official meeting here for the lsr-7 district um so we have dr nathan holder who is here so welcome we have dr brett potts who is here um so welcome ms shelly sanders is here as well and

002dr heather kinney is also here so welcome and uh welcome to the team officially so okay uh 1.04 we do need to adopt tonight's agenda so if a board member would please uh make that motion i moved to approve the amended agenda as president second we have the uh motion and a second for tonight's agenda is there any discussion see none all those in favor please raise your hand and say aye aye all those opposed motion carries unanimously we are moving to item 2.01 this is our first and final reading of board policy bddh this has to do with public comments um and so let's get a motion first then we kind of can explain what this is i move to approve the first and final reading of board policy bddh second okay we have

003a motion and a second um for uh 2.01 just for the public we had been having numerous people who wanted to do public comment the board recognizes we want to hear from the public and so instead of having to continually suspend policy bddh we needed to make sure and put an actual number of how many people we can get done in each public meeting and so we will allow 10 speakers and still allow three minutes at each meeting and that's what bdh will now say so any other discussion about this policy board member sparks thank you president murdoch um i just wanted to also just acknowledge that through our conversation um that one of the things that i um i guess i made it very clear through our communication is that even though we are

004actually expanding where we were through this policy that we as a board have also made the commitment to create other avenues of engagement with the community and so i just thought that that was um great to add on tonight that is accurate yeah so we're going from seven speakers to ten and then we uh are talking about trying to figure out a way to get the planning for um some of the different avenues including town halls and stuff that we discussed that's correct any other discussion okay all those in favor please raise your hand and say aye aye all those opposed motion carries unanimously we go to 3.01 this is our superintendent's report and we'll turn it over to dr buck good evening everyone good evening board some exciting things today to share with you

005so first off on student side on student performance um every year a gatorade picks a number one athlete in the entire state in each sport so the missouri high school usa today gatorade awards we have four of them here and now just give you context that's all classes that's private public charter so you're talking over 700 probably high schools six seven hundred high schools in the state and four of the number one sports uh individuals this last year are from lee's summit and all three high schools are represented so congratulations to tiger high's uh track and field athlete johnny brackens jr who's going to be at usc next year congratulations to ls north uh kenzie fielder who is uh also ranked depending on what's ranking number one or number two in the nation out of

006high school she's going to be playing softball at university of washington hogan stoker at west who played tennis who's going to play tennis for austin peay state university and last but not least lee's summit north swimmer daniel worth who competed in the olympic trials and will be competing at university of virginia next year so kudos to all four of those individuals um i'm also excited to let you know that one of our own lisa mcnorth teacher coach donnie campbell was on the today show this morning uh he is i don't know if everyone knows he is the inspiration behind uh jason sneckes uh ted lasso character so ted lasso series is based uh largely on on coach campbell and and so he was interviewed today on the today show so kudos to donny campbell um

007also congratulations to lee summit west debate teacher matt good we announced him previously as a district teacher of the year he is now a regional finalist for the state for teacher of the year so kudos to him um summit tech academy is receiving national attention for developing the next generation of leaders in the aerospace industry this is a one-of-a-kind the nation program by the way so much so that the federal aviation administrator steve dixon came and visited us and he stayed well over an hour longer than he was supposed to so he was missing his next visit he couldn't get enough of of what we're doing launching in our aerospace academy i can't thank enough the city ucm the lee summit airport least i'm an economic development council and many industry partners including aircraft electronics

008association ultrax aerospace engineering and aviation institution institute of maintenance for making the program literally going to be one of a kind in the nation also i want to say thank you for the middle school boundary team that continues to work hard as we go from three middle schools to four and bring sixth grade up to the middle school level um their second round of engagement events will be held in early september more information forthcoming and one i didn't have written in there there was 13 different board of educations that received a governance team award in the state you do not apply for that it's just something you earn for your commitment and professional development and presence and many different things and i'm happy to say that this outstanding board was one of the 13 out

009of 517 public schools to be recognized with governor's team awards so kudos to all seven of you thank you dr buck appreciate that um we are moving to 4.01 this is actually we kind of rearranged the agenda a little bit so that our presenters don't have to wait till the very end of the meeting so this is going to be our east trails middle school bond project update um i'm not sure who is giving that tonight um do you know who's giving that tonight dr buck i guess i guess kyle guerrell he's giving it looks like kyle's gonna give [Music] it thank you i'm completely unprepared but um a member mcconnell gordon was going to be here tonight to present east trails middle school this project is going really well and we're really excited to

010finally have some dry weather and be able to keep moving forward and we were kind of stuck in a swamp for about a month and you see the the building looking um looking east and on the left the the black area that's the sixth sixth grade area that's the waterproofing on the that goes behind the brick and then the 7th and 8th grade pods are also fully framed up and so just to share a little bit about material delays we do have insulation on the job currently and the the sixth and seventh grade pods are dried in with insulation we've got about six weeks of time where they can keep working inside the building and get drywall up but we need some more insulation fast and so they're working hard to source that and and

011get it coming so they started setting precast this week those are the large concrete panels that would be off to the right just off the edge of the the gym and those are going really well keep moving on this is the the front door of the school so that'll be the front entry the lobby back behind it that big volume is the cafeteria and then the library right behind it with the gym to your right so this is the opposite direction look so we'd be standing in the library and looking back through the the commons area towards the front door lisa high baseball softball complex i'm really excited to see this moving forward they're getting the base rock down i'm just about done with the drainage and we'll have them start laying turf probably here

012just within the next couple of weeks so we'll start to see some some green go down and we um are still on schedule by around the the first of september to get the softball field up and running for the for the team so it'll be a really fun event when we get out there and actually host a game we got a picture in there so there is the precast the crane and just on the south side that's the main gym on the bottom of the picture and they're set in precast panels that are used for the tornado shelter that's a crane road if anybody's interested it's a really exciting photo okay thank you very much i'll be glad to answer any questions do you guys have any well i appreciate you you know jumping up

013on the spot there i mean you were voluntold obviously right there at the last second so you know any time board members do you have any questions for mr guerrell at this particular point i see so just went quick appreciate it thank you very much we are excited obviously to get that uh finished up especially to get ours that softball team on there this fall um okay we're gonna move to 5.01 this is our public comments section uh for tonight and so i will turn it over to our parliamentarian board member hedrick who will go over kind of our policy and guidelines good evening we appreciate your attendance and your willingness to speak to the board please remember that while this is a public meeting this part of the meeting does not contemplate a conversation

014between speakers and board members the board must not respond to public comments during the meeting but make ask clarifying questions your comments will be noted by the board and if appropriate we will direct the subject to the administrators who are responsible for that particular subject matter pursuant now to the revised board policy bddh we are just approved we will be limiting all comments to no more than 10 people with a limit of three minutes each your allotted three minutes will be counted down on the screen please end your comments when the timer expires only those who have signed up prior to the meeting will be allowed to address the board please refrain from using the names of any students or staff in your remarks remain respectful and ensure your comments pertain to district operations we

015also ask all audience members to remain respectful lastly when your name is called please go to the podium and clearly state your name and the organization you represent if any thank you board member hedrick our first speaker will be mackenzie sainz and then our second just so everybody kind of knows who's on deck is chad white i'm sorry sans i messed up your last name i apologize she even she even remind she even reminded me and i still messed it up so thanks hi thanks for the opportunity to speak my name is mackenzie sainz and i'm a resident of lee's summit i have two children in the lee summit school district i want to tell you about what i really hope that my children will gain through their experience in the lee summit schools so

016in the spirit of wanting my children to become informed and engaged citizens i want them to learn real grounded in truth american history not history that purposefully avoids uncomfortable feelings but that asks hard questions spurs conversation and provides greater context by centering the experiences of people that don't necessarily look like them and may live differently from them and i want them to know that these perspectives are inherently valid and worthy of our time attention and respect and yeah this involves learning about racism and bigotry its role in the past and how it shows up right now if our children are not provided this aspect of education we do them a disservice because it's a struggle to talk about these big issues if there is not a shared understanding of facts i want my kids to

017learn critical thinking skills and media literacy so they can identify factual information and avoid intellectually dishonest arguments such as the current one circulating that critical race theory is being taught in k-12 it is not finally i want them to learn courageous leadership with you have the opportunity to model for them leadership that firmly and through clear policy demonstrates that racism and bigotry have no place in least summit schools leadership that continually prioritizes equity and education and pursues the physical and emotional safety of all students particularly those that experience harm through marginalization one thing that really gets lost in these conversations is that what can be just opinion for someone is really a matter of life and death for another so for example transgender children about one in three attempt suicide the number one preventive measure

018you can do is affirm their existence and use their preferred pronouns and like that's the level of impact we're talking about here courageous leadership recognizes when harm has occurred and seeks to understand repair and do better it's not bullied by community members espousing misinformation regardless of how loud those voices are and i know all this can be challenging i asked my eight-year-old last night if these subjects should be taught given that sometimes it's kind of sad to hear about them and can be uncomfortable and she said well yeah so that we can change the future to not be like the past in my house we say that sometimes doing the right thing means doing the hard thing and that it's worth it so i invite you to be courageous thank you thanks our next speaker

019will be chad white and then mr and mrs chris jackson would be next good evening so um i was i was reached out by several people and so i'm going to represent a few here and i'll tell you i'm a business owner uh here in lee summit multiple businesses and i'm also a coach of multiple sports for over 10 years and i can tell you going into 2020 i had two kids that attended lsr7 their their entire school life um however that changed for our family and many others i know with what we all faced the children struggled with virtual learning and the records show many kids did you know after removing my daughter from the lsr7 platform my daughter was really struggling she had always been on the honor roll but she was getting

020failing grades she's back on track now with aselus and getting a 3.84 grade point average and my son made it through sixth grade right so here's the deal um you know this emotional stress and depression uh we know you know it's part of the virtual learning these kids went through it was tough for them some of these things are going to be hard for these kids to get back this damage emotionally and educationally that you know they may never be able to fix and and some of these kids they aren't here with us anymore so it's been tough my first order is just to stress that you know to the board please do what you can with anything coming in in front of us to keep our kids in school the ones who want to

021attend in school learning that need to attend in school learning let's get a program put together so we need to focus on the future of our kids and you know on this global learning field i'm glad to hear the awards that the school's winning and you know i know that kids in the united states are falling behind and we've got to do something to get them back on track you know the first our first focus shouldn't be things that are talked about like the critical race theory and creating diversity not equity a theory that was started almost 50 years ago and by the way was actually designed to fight against injustice in both the political and criminal systems you know it's been hijacked by groups that want something even though the true civil rights leaders

022are the ones who really paved the way you know it it's hard to see that you know some kids that that might be white living in poverty now will take the the blame or or this is going to be put on their shoulders you know i grew up as that kid with a mom stressing out on how she was going to balance the checkbook you know you guys are the board education i depend on you and so do the families to get these things done you know the private schools outside the learning education systems are you know they're growing at an amazing rate and this is going to affect lsr7 down the road in the next several years so i don't want to push political opinions on kids i want to allow open discussion and

023you know when teachers can wear certain shirts but the kids are told they can't wear the shirt of their president i think there's an issue there kids are the future and i'm worried about the damage done teaching kids to hate their country and others that's not right but at the end of the day i'm running out of time so i'm going to wrap it up with this you know i want to see us focus on influencing kids on how they identify you know not just uh you know just on and you know identifying themselves but their identity and have a purpose-driven future so thank you thank you [Applause] mr and mrs chris jackson and then elena cleaver i promise you i'm one person i'm not mr and missus [Laughter] mrs couldn't be here tonight but

024um so my name is christopher jackson i'm a resident of lee's summit i am a member of suburban balance i'm also a radio show host i'm here in a podcaster it's called my show is called street therapy and um the one thing that i've noticed within this last year maybe maybe more than a year is that uh you know talking to my little ones you know therapy is is is needed uh in more than one way uh and me as a father i've have to have had to be the the dad the teacher the therapist the counselor and and everything because they don't understand um just you know going through covet and i think when we we add so much on our children they they pay we pay for it man and and we see

025it in our eyes it's that it's definitely tough and uh it hurts me as a father so i don't know much about critical race theory um i've been kind of reading up on it and listening to different podcasts and listen different things audio books and books and things so i will say that i hope that this critical race theory i hope it works and and i hope it um it it shows everybody that we are equal i think last time i spoke here i talked about the board members you know i said there was no equity in the board members nobody looked like me but everybody that came up and talked looked like you know me and other people and things like that i'm proud to say that there are some my other members that

026look like me and come from my race you know you don't you may not think that that's important but but it really is to go into a place and see somebody that looks like you that means a lot you know i mean it just does you know whether people think it doesn't or does or not but i had some questions i was going to talk about just you know as far as black history and things like that you know just a lot of stuff that we don't hear about in black history a lot of pioneers that we don't hear about you know in black history and i think that they're important to us so much more than than than we should know and i think that this should be taught you know and time's gone

027for me but you know i'll say this in closing that um our children are watching [Music] they hear what we say and they learn of how we live and our choices not by their words and what that means to me is that you know we we say everything but our children are watching us and they're and they're seeing that and um it's affecting them in more ways than one and you know we come up and you know people yelling and screaming and stuff but at the end of the day you know our children should be the one to be honest with you they should be the ones up here talking about how they really feel about it thank you thank you elena cleaver and then rachel aguirre good evening my name is elena cleaver i'm

028an incoming junior at lee simon north high school and i've been a student in the lee summit school district since kindergarten i'm here tonight because i feel that it is crucial for you all to hear from a student's perspective especially a student of color's perspective regarding inequality in the lsr7 school district last year a white teacher at plms used a racial slur and instead of being fired he got little more than a stop on the wrist sadly racial incidents such as that are not uncommon in lee's summit school district and it makes me as a black student feel undervalued unappreciated and unsafe because racist comments and racist actions go unpunished by the school board next i want to touch on the equity and inclusion plan i'm one of the only students of color involved in

029the ib program here at lisa north which is a major issue why does this issue exist is it because students of color are incapable of achieving the same level of success as white students no of course not the lsr7 school district is becoming very diverse many of my peers come from different cultural backgrounds and walks of life so naturally we all learn differently but the way curriculum is taught does not translate across cultural lines which the equity and inclusion plan intends to address by implementing certain protocols and teaching methods there are many misconceptions about the equity and inclusion plan like it's going to divide our student population which is flat out false in actuality it will make our school district stronger by placing all students on an even playing field so that each and every

030student is prepared for success in life lastly i would like to address all the talk about critical race theory throughout elementary middle and a little bit of high school i was taught history from a white perspective and only briefly touch on people of color's roles in this country i learned things like christopher columbus was a hero and thomas jefferson was an amazing person crt aims to combat this practice and teaches american history from a person of color's perspective and analyzes laws and systems put in place since the founding of this country that holds said persons back there has been a lot of criticism saying that this is anti-american it is dividing our country and that it teaches white students that they're automatically racist because they're white how is teaching about the dark history of this

031country anti-american how to teaching the truth cause division why should anyone be afraid of the truth especially when it comes to educating young people crt does not teach white students that they're automatically racist because they're white but they benefit from systems put in place since the founding of this country and i assure you learning this will not cause me to dislike my white friends and vice versa the fact is the classroom is becoming more and more diverse and i hope we can all find it in our hearts to embrace this diversity because it is a strength and not a weakness thank you for your time thank you um our next speaker is rachel aguirre and then faith hodges good evening i'm coming to you tonight from a perspective of just a member of the community

032and i wanted to let you know that i know that it seems like a lot of the white people don't have any idea of what's going on but i want you to know that one of the things that i made sure i did this last year was i participated in a racial equity program actually in our church this year to be able to understand each other because in all reality we need to deal with racism in the churches because that's where those who follow christ are and i just want to let you know that because of our race we don't disregard other people's races and the things that they have gone through what we have realized and i have realized as a christian is that racism is a sin and we have offended one person

033and one per one one person only and that is god in the way we have presented many of our things and so honestly i just want to say i'm just going to pray i want to pray for our community i want to pray for those who are on their own in their own corners because as fellow christians we have a god that we serve and that is who we need to be worried about offending no matter what corner we stand on and so first father i ask that you forgive us for offending you let us love our neighbors as ourselves that we would show mercy and grace to each other knowing we were all sinners we ask for forgiveness for for what we are allowing to happen in our community father even though we are

034in different corners let us come together in your name to do your will forgive us for the history of racism break the generational curse of racism and those whose forefathers experienced racism remind us that there is only one race to human race and we were created in your image and likeness let us forgive and be forgiven just as you have forgiven us we pray against the offenses that how we have allowed as a community and nation protect our families we pray for the fatherless the abused the brokenhearted those who are struggling with mental health sexual morality and identity issues remind us who we are to you that you have promised that if we call on the name of your son jesus we will be saved remind each of us that you sent your one and

035only begotten son to die in our place so that we can have eternal life let us remember that you do not give us a spirit of fear but when of power love and of a sound mind you are the way the truth and the life we pray for our leaders the city council our school board the superintendent and other leaders that will not that they will be blessed by not walking in the council of the ungodly that we renounce people who try to make us believe that we need to seek an eye for an eye vengeance towards others let us fear you lord so that you may have your wisdom we may have your wisdom let all deceitfulness and lies be exposed and expelled i can and right now i command the angels of the

036most high to do battle on behalf of our children our school employees and families and cover them with your veil of protection as they walk through this new school year let us know others by our let others know us by our fruits may all this be done in your son jesus christ amen [Applause] faith hodges and then amy cooke this is faith hodges um this will be my third time speaking to the board in the last three months i do not feel like it is necessarily accomplishing much however i had to redirect my thought process in that ultimately this is about some of us parents coming here to educate other parents who are listening and may not realize what is actually going on in the school district at least that is my hope also i

037realize that as powerless as we may feel at times as parents just trying to keep our kids safe and innocent i also had to remind myself that yes the board may have the power to make decisions that we don't approve of but you are not ultimately in control i am here to remind you guys that you may think you have control but when we have an army who is fighting on their knees to the one who is in ultimate control we don't fear the board so on that note i am redirecting my attention not only to the board but to those listening i have emailed over a dozen churches here in the lee summit area and am asking them to get involved in support to save our children who many of these children attend lsr7

038schools and also attend these churches it is a call to action to mobilize the church and fight for the innocent not just within the walls of the church but on the outside within the community showing physical support for what is right also we keep being told that critical race theory isn't being taught in our schools however we know that this is not the honest full truth we know that whatever curriculum and teacher trainings you are doing have substance inside that look through the lens of crt and it is not necessarily just called plain crt any longer but has all the same ideologies and hidden agenda inside that are just labeled differently to try and fool people well we are not fooled us parents have done enough research to know what to look for and how

039things are hidden inside curriculum and classrooms what i want to know is if you're claiming crt or dei or whatever it is we want to call it now isn't in our schools i would like a guarantee that repercussions will be made for any teacher who dares to bring up any crt type discussions sexual agendas politics or anything else that doesn't belong in the classroom if you are so honest about this not being in or allowed into our schools then i want a written statement telling us parents that if a teacher goes off course and starts to throw in their own agenda that this will be disciplined accordingly and it will be known that this is unacceptable i look forward to this letter that will keep some accountability within this district lastly since the new school

040year is approaching facts show that kids are not harmed by this virus and that it is extremely unhealthy for kids to be wearing masks and breathing in their own air for that many hours each day if masks are required for this coming school year it will clearly be for charades and politics and i will not subject my children to that type of child abuse and will pull my kids from the district in an instant stop saying that kids are fine with wearing masks kids are being obedient like they are taught to do it is not their job to decipher through the risk and benefit of wearing a mask so stop politicizing our kids and let's get back to letting them be just that kids thank you [Applause] amy cook and then katie gobin i hope

041i pronounced that right and if i didn't i apologize good evening this is the story of maya a former student at summit lakes middle school in january of 2020 maya's family discovered their 14 year old daughter was leading a double life when she was attending school maya had been in counseling for over a year due to some traumatic events and the family was aware that maya had expressed interest in being trans the family knew that maya was struggling and they were supporting her through counseling what the family did not know was that during the day maya was being encouraged to embrace being transgender at school at school maya was surrounded by gender affirming educators and counselors who were pushing her to quickly accept her new identity and praised her for her brave new choice maya's

042family discovered her double life accidentally when they were found homework page in her backpack with a different name written on it maya had switched her name to max in addition they found out that maya had checked out a book called transmission my quest to grow a beard by alex birdie from the middle school library this book is about a teenage girl journey to a full transition from female to male the school librarian recommended and encouraged maya to check out this book maya told her parents that every teacher she had asked to call her max did so enthusiastically and without question most egregious maya told her parents how she had recently visited a school counselor about her struggle with transgenderism and that during the interaction the counselor asked maya if she felt safe at home and

043accepted by her family the counselor went on to advise maya that if she did not feel safe at home and that she they had options for the school and she said she i'm sorry and she could always ask the school to help in regards to emancipation from her family the counselor had no idea that maya had been in been the target of an online predator and that she was in counseling with a licensed medical health therapist this counselor nor a single teacher at summit lakes ever reached out to maya's parents at all the counselor tried to usurp the parental rights of this family after making these discoveries maya's parents set up a meeting with the principal and attempted to get a copy of the materials maya had checked out from the school library the school

044librarian told maya's parents that she could not give them a copy of these materials because it would be in violation of the students rights keep in mind maya was a 14 year old child a minor child during the meeting with the principal maya's parents realized how little the district cared about their concerns for their child the principal explained away the misinformed librarian and told them that he would get them a copy of the library materials this was never produced the principal seemed perplexed and did not understand why the parents would be concerned that the school was encouraging her to fully embrace becoming transgender the principal was not alarmed that that a single teacher administrator or counselor had never bothered to contact the family to make matters worse the principal did not believe the counselor had

045tried to give maya options regarding emancipating herself from her family maya's family left without any solutions library content or zero assurances maya did i will be done in a minute maya did not return to lsr7 after seventh grade she is a healthy vibrant girl this district does not own our children and fortunately maya's story is not unique it's cooked have experienced this and are experienced this now shame on you lee summit shame on you thank you [Applause] katie gobin and then cameron clover hi i'm katie gobin obviously not public speaker at all i just want to say i graduated from here many many years ago and i wanted to do the best as i could as a single mom so i made sure i worked very hard to get him into the school district i

046almost at times i work two jobs so i i take time away from my kids so that he can be at the school district i'm not gonna tell you guys how to do your job because obviously i did not train to be a teacher but at times i wonder do you guys remember what it's like to be a parent we're not here to fight you we're not here to argue with you we're worried about our kids our kids are our life they are what gets us up every day am i going to tell you what to teach no but there are times things can be harmful for our kids there are things that the parents are saying give us some information tell us what is being taught to our kids not because we don't agree

047with you it's because we are trying to have an active life in our kids school it's not because we want to argue like i said but we are scared we don't want to be here every night arguing with you we don't want to be here yelling because we have other things we could be doing at times i've noticed because i've watched the board meetings i wonder if you guys are actually listening in body language i've noticed people aren't paying attention there are parents out here their shoulders are hunched because they are tired of fighting but our kids are what is worth fighting for um we feel that we should be able to trust you with our kids and that is the hardest thing to ask for a parent is to trust somebody with our kid

048because again they're our life and there are parents out here that i can tell are starting to not trust you so i ask again do you remember what it's like to be a parent who goes tonight goes to bed at night crying because they don't know if they're doing the right thing i know me i have a special needs kid who's six and there are times i feel like i'm failing him but i work hard i try to make sure my kid gets all the help he needs and sometimes there are things that should be taught in school yes but there are things that you need to remember that parents should be teaching thank you our next speaker is cameron clover and then our final speaker will be melissa baldwin hi my name is cameron

049clover and i'm a teacher at least summit north and i've been there for this is my 18th year now i never thought i'd have to come before the board and unfortunately i've gone through the steps to try and rectify a situation and follow the chain of command and haven't gotten any results back in may i was ecstatic to find out that teamley summit recommended to give everybody that missed the step in 2017-2018 give that step back well that's exactly why i've always loved working at lee summoners because the board and they treat us that way and treat us with respect and appreciate us making those tough decisions like that well about two or three weeks later i was dumbfounded to find out after being here 18 years and missing four steps then i was going

050to be excluded from that process and when i looked into it and did some math i found out that that process this four steps being held back has cost me thirty six thousand dollars twenty eight thousand dollars in salary and eight thousand dollars in retirement and if this isn't corrected i stand to lose thousands of more dollars well i was told that i've been placed on the proper step but how can i be on the proper step if i've been frozen four times and many of the people that are getting that step have only been here seven or eight years and only been frozen once or twice so it clearly can't be fair or equitable if if i ran my classroom like this i'd be in front of the board for a whole nother reason

051here's my example if i gave a test and every kid on the in the class all my classes missed the exact same questions they would be bad questions so say they all missed the same 10. i decide i'm going to fix the situation if you took the test on tuesday you get all your points back if you took the test on thursday you don't get any air points back and we can see that that's not fair or equitable when we were placed on the ems schedule we were all done so solely based on current salary no one was placed on the ems schedule based on how many years they had taught but now that we're trying to correct the situation we're changing that around and that's not fair i've missed out on a lot more

052than many of the people that are getting this step and what i'd i sent you all an email with all this information because three minutes and a lot of time to get it across and i'd like you i trust that you'll dive into this and try and find a solution and the last thing i'd say is try and put yourself in my position and known that knowing that i've been here 18 years and dedicated and now people have been here a lot less time are getting this step so thank you thanks for your time [Applause] thank you our final speaker of this evening for the evening is melissa baldwin hi i'm melissa baldwin tonight i am speaking on behalf of several concerned parents grandparents and taxpayers in this community they have reached out to share

053personal stories about their children and grandchildren being subjected to harmful subliminal messages in our schools we want teachers and school administrators to understand that we are well aware of the material context that is being exposed to our children these are just a fraction of the many incidents that have been reported in the last two years in multiple cases rainbow flags and displays highlighting gay pride have been displayed directly in front of our students as young as early elementary promoting sexuality is inappropriate this subject is one that parents and guardians reserve the right to teach to their families when the time is right when a mother observed and questioned this she specifically asked the staff what was what they were trained to say to young students when they asked what gay pride is she did not

054get an answer in fact the school administrator that addressed the issue ignored the question altogether that's this is unacceptable at multiple schools signs that read safe places for lbgtq students are hung up for the student bodies to see to see how is this appropriate how is this inclusive schools should advertise that they are a safe place for all students period the subject of sexual orientation is a private one that should be discussed in in appropriate situations such as a counselor and with parental consent many lsr-7 teachers at lsn were wearing t-shirts that displayed a fist with the phrase this is how i use my teacher voice our country has sadly seen this infamous iconic fist resurface over the last few years it is a symbolism for socialism and communism deriving from marcus marx's theories it

055is very sad to me that teachers are actively choosing to promote these ideas ideas to our children during the 2021 school year students were distributed a scholastic magazine that featured articles implying that african americans are the only marginalized people in society and that homeownership determines a person's life successes it stated that since a low percentage of black people are homeowners they are less successful it went on to state that in our country today there are two americas each of these statements is not only incorrect but promotes division in our classroom and our community in closing we are telling the lsr7 school district to immediately address these issues with staff and remove all material that contains any subliminal messaging this board needs to adopt policies that prevent teachers and administration from politically indoctrinating our kids and

056from displaying their own political views thank you that does conclude public comments for this evening so we will move on to item 6 which is 6.01 the board reports or meetings attended and we will start actually with board member campbell this evening great thank you i attended the finance committee meeting with board member hedricks and i know she'll share quite a bit more information about that so i won't go into detail i also attended with my fellow board members the msba sessions a couple that i will highlight that i loved a session about health care clinics and health care offerings for our students that was really great and interesting information as well as another one about a school in liberty where they're actually doing unschool kind of things and it's really thinking outside the box

057and working on a project focus and they're doing some awesome awesome things and and shared a great deal of information with us so i really enjoyed that as well thank you board member hedrick i just have a couple to report um one would be the finance and i'll be giving that report in just a little bit we also had a school board policy committee meeting we really that committee had a primary focus on just a few things it was kind of an after-action review from the presentation that group made to the board during the work session in june we also talked about how we replaced two members of that committee because two of our current members have new job assignments for this current school year so that's kind of in the works we did review

058the most recent msba recommended policy changes and then we identified that our work this year will be focused on board policies in the g series which has to do with personnel and um the other was i also attended the msba conference in um springfield and attended some of the same sessions as board camp member campbell but some other ones as well but appreciated that opportunity for professional development thank you very much board member alan yes sir thank you same same missouri state school board association conference it might be nice to drill down on some of those topics that we each attended in a work session i mean a thousand things to do but it certainly would be nice to drill deeply into those um and then the other committee meeting would have been our government

059government relations committee meeting where our district actually had the chance to um bring everybody up to speed with the bond projects building updates thank you very much board member sparks uh board member fritchey i'm sorry yes that was that's totally me okay thank you um my lease summit educational foundation report for this month is that foundation funding helps us in so many wonderful and meaningful areas for students across our district in july is kickoff month for the lee summit educational foundation's annual campaign that's a big e because that brings in a lot of money from our bigger vendors our businesses that we deal with and some folks in here in town and but anybody can be a friend of the foundation we always seek 100 participation from the foundation board members lee summit r7 administrators

060and also from our school board members um and then also um our friends of the foundation participation brochure that looks like this is in front of each of our board members tonight everybody up here at the diaz actually okay and i'd like to thank you in advance for your partnership with the lee summit educational foundation and your support and anyone out there in tv land in our audience you're always welcome to help with lee's summit educational foundation because it raises money to help our students in the classroom and for many worthwhile grants and scholarships and things like we helped have financed the chromebooks in the past and all of that so it goes for a really great cause the biggest event that's upcoming for the foundation will be not until october 9th but the preparations

061are already in place for race for the future which is one of our two big fundraisers for the year it's on our annual 5k and last year we did it virtually and this year we're hoping to have it on site at least summit west once again the registration link for race for the future you can go ahead and register now is on www.lsef or lsedfoundation.org okay very quickly my next item is msba conference my fellow board members have mentioned but you know we did have some really great sessions down there and one of them i attended was the equity policy toolkit and msba is very supportive of equity efforts all over the state of missouri and gave us some really good reasons why we should all be involved in equity also attended two sessions on

062grow your own programs and grow your own programs are to help encourage our students to become teachers in the future to encourage the teaching profession did you know that there was a 40 drop in enrollment in teacher preparation programs this year and one of the sessions that we went to focused on teachers recruiting future teachers and a featured panel which actually featured one of our own r7 administrators ov one of our assistant principals at um lee's summit high school i only call him ovi because his last name starts with no and i can't pronounce it and but obi did a fantastic job um talking about explaining the r7's future teachers and the teacher academy program so i wanted to thank ovi and give them a shout out for that and i also wanted to say

063a big congratulations to our fellow board member judy hedrick for earning and receiving her master board member certification at that conference too she did a great job finally the last thing i wanted to talk about that i attended this month was the parent dyslexia committee meeting and in that meeting we heard about the process of selecting of selecting the wilson reading system which is actually going to we're going to be voting on in our agenda this evening and we learned all about the components of that program and board member sparks and i are both on that committee thank you board member for ritchie board member sparks i have nothing additional okay board member marshall thank you president murdoch i um let's see where do i start um i was on the policy committee with dr

064hedricks and as she already stated this year we are going to be looking at the g series which deals with policies involving our personnel so very excited to get to work on those policies and just continue to make improvements in those areas last night or yesterday afternoon i was on the webinar with msba doing the excuse me the legislative summary and there are about 25 to almost 30 pieces of legislation that are impacting public schools and they are assigned they will go into effect on august 28th unless there's an emergency situation so for all of those you can go to the msba website and they are under a tab you'll see on the home page that says advocate for public education and you can read in detail what they are how they impact your school

065and there's even information in there and how you can contact your specific representative and voice how you feel on those different pieces of legislation another committee that i attended was the lee summit cares committee and we talked about the focus for this coming year is different programs and initiatives that are focusing on being able to reach more students we had a few people that spoke with public comments about mental health and how our children have been impacted this year teachers as well nissan mccarran's is a community organization so we are getting proactive on getting those well finding those who need the resources getting those resources to them and also along with that being proactive on eliminating barriers that may exist systematically or otherwise to get access to those resources so more to come on that

066as the year unfolds lee summit cares is always looking for volunteers so if you would like to volunteer to help in any capacity please let myself know or anyone else on the lease limit cares board would be happy to put you to work thank you board member marshall um just two quick additions from me number one is um board member marshall and i did i did have our leadership meeting with dr buck prior to this particular meeting and then the second one that i'm going to add just because i did a lot of the same things that other board members did is i did listen in on tuesday to the joint hearing that went on in jeff city related to education um it was enlightening um i'm not sure that that's the word i would

067use other than to say my only thing i guess i would it would offer is i wish that there was more balance within the room if we're going to talk about subjects i think it would be fair to have both sides of the topic in the room if we're going to have governmental hearings and that was not the case at this past hearing so um that kind of echoes board member marshall's point to uh that you know to contact legislators and let them know so i think that that's kind of what i took from that so okay we are going to as i turned the mic off i don't know why i did that sorry about that we're going to move on to finance and we are going to turn it over to board member

068hedrick thank you very much our finance committee met yesterday and we've reviewed a number of things on tonight's agenda the first one was all the contracts of fifteen thousand dollars or less we reviewed the produce bid for our nutrition services department it's being recommended to cnc produce who provide provided the lowest and best bid we also reviewed the lengthy uh process that the staff here and the insurance team uh completed for insurance plans for the calendar year 2022. we the district did complete an rfp which was required by state law in terms of health insurance services it is being recommended that we continue coverage of health insurance with blue cross and blue shield of kansas city um it will be a cost plus model and it also includes no plan changes except in the epo

069plan which also results in a reduced premium for employees and retirees who are on that plan it's also being recommended that cigna be the dental insurance carrier unum for life disability and long-term care and that the standard provide long-term and short-term disability claims we also looked at the converge one ratification and ratification was needed on this wireless access points for lee's summit high school renovation the staff and technology talked about the difficulty in really pinning down the the numbers of points needed because of the major renovations on that campus but also because they wanted to make sure we were able to secure that equipment in a timely fashion because we're seeing delays almost you know unilaterally across in multiple areas so we kind of talk through that process the next contract we looked at was

070the recommendation from lee's summit north to buy uniforms exclusively through nike for the next five years and that agreement would provide some one-time time branding upfront dollars to lee's summit north and one of the things we talked about was and purchasing mentioned that they had uh been involved in that process but that also that they would continue to monitor the pricing over the next five years to make sure that the uniforms purchased through this agreement were competitive with what bsn provided through the cooperative that applied to all schools we talked about ingenuity the credit recovery program which we are going to use at all high schools and that that service for this also includes some professional development webinars we also spent time reviewing the wilson reading system which is an intensive intervention intervention resource for

071identified struggling readers and brought to the district through the struggling readers dyslexia team and i might add that there were a number of board questions around this agenda item that we provide ask the the staff to respond to and so we do appreciate it that all of that additional information that helped clarify what this program will look like for not only our students but staff who will need to be trained and how it will be integrated integrated into another intervention for our students to help them to help the struggling readers we also talked about the nagleria hopefully i've said that right naglieri general general mental ability purchase it's a gifted screener and this really is kind of one of the pieces that has been part of the process that's been going on for the last

072three years to enhance our gifted program and this particular assessment will be really the goal is to screen and identify gifted students without bias and to mitigate under representation within the gifted program so i think it's a very positive step in improving of the gifted services that we provide in the district we also talked about the nwea professional development and that was referenced a little bit earlier this evening from dr wright i think the thing that i found very helpful in uh having this discussion in finance was that this work would be some on-site workshops but also virtual professional development and that the really the focus will be on the use of the data and how we can operationalize that within the classrooms and building so again i think very very positive and that it

073was also noted that some of those virtual sessions would be utilized during the friday light starts that are planned for this year we also talked about the memorandum of understanding or the mou between the district and the ymca to provide services in our before and after school program we also then talked about our commercial real estate sales contract for paradise park and i think it's being recommended that we approve that i think there's still some details to be uh ironed out but it is on our agenda this evening and then lastly we did not have the actual bond report um to talk about um yesterday but it i think it has since been added to our agenda but i do want to mention to you that mr guerrell did talk to the finance committee about

074the struggles we're seeing with all the material delays and that all the work that he and all of the all of our contractors are doing to keep the projects moving while waiting for some supplies so that they can continue so they're doing a lot of work extra work i would say to make sure things keep moving while we're dealing with all those material delays so i just wanted him to know how much we appreciate that because i know that's extra work for everyone involved but it's really necessary for us to keep uh our projects on uh the schedule and hopefully as close as possible to being completed on time so with that i just have we did review the finance reports and i have a couple of actions the revenue and expense report was reviewed

075the investment report and the transfer of funds so with that unless you have any questions i will go ahead and make a motion is that all right at this point okay to approve i moved to approve the transfer of 12 million 809 863 dollars and eight cents from the general fund to the special revenue fund and just to note that that number is 12 million dollars because of all of the payrolls that are run in june to cover the july and august and some payrolls which are all expensed in last fiscal year second okay we have a motion and a second for 7.02 for the transfer of funds is there any discussion about the transfer of funds okay all those in favor please raise your hand and say hi hi all those opposed motion carries

076unanimously my other motion would be to approve the treasurer's report and payment of the bills motion in a second to approve the treasurer's reported payment of the bills any discussion on that okay all those in favor please raise your hand and say aye hi all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much dr hedrick we are going to move on here to our consent agenda for tonight uh so from one of the board members if we could have a motion on our consent agenda and then we can have any discussion necessary move to approve the consent agenda items as presented okay we have a motion and a second um to approve items 8.01 through 8.27 um there were quite a few this month are there any discussions and or questions comments related to any

077of these particular items um obviously there are some big ones on here no good everybody good okay uh mrs mert can we get a roll call vote on this one board member alan hi board member campbell board member fridgey hi board member hedrick vice president marshall i remember sparks hi president murdoch hi motion carries unanimously we move to item 9 this is nine point zero one so we are on our items for decision and we moved actually our board priority so we're gonna go to 9.02 um approving our 2021-22 um curriculum uh you guys got a pretty lengthy presentation on that is there any follow-up that we need dr buck on this okay so uh if we could get a motion on this item and then if there's any discussion or questions i move that

078the board approved the attached new curriculum and curriculum revisions second okay we have a motion and a second to approve 9.02 are there any questions or discussion about some of these curriculum revisions new curriculum sorry and curriculum revisions my apologies okay uh mrs smith can we get a roll call vote board member campbell board member fritzy aye board member hedrick aye vice president marshall aye remember sparks board member allen president murdoch hi motion carries unanimously 9.03 this is our insurance plans uh for 2022. so if we could get a motion on that before any questions or discussion i move that the board approved coverage and related contracts for the 2022 plan year with blue cross blue shield of kansas city for medical insurance with the district funding at 808 dollars per month per full-time employee

079cigna for dental with the district funding at 14.50 per month per employee unum for life add and long-term care insurance and the standard for long-term disability and short-term medical claim administrative services okay we have a motion and a second for 9.03 uh questions or comments related to this item board member campbell i'll just um highlight i know we've had a lot of discussion about this and the rfp process and i'll just reiterate thanks to dr miller and all of the insurance team in the approach that's used around all of this all the learning that was put together for the rfp team as well as that insurance committee with that committee being represented by every building in the district and i just appreciate the approach because i think it's great that as we look at insurance

080and as we have looked at costs the hard work that was put into making sure that we were staying flat on those costs was really important to us as board members so i just appreciate the effort and the hard work by all involved thank you board member campbell anybody else one thing that i wanted to offer to board members and to staff obviously as a note of thanks was um everything was investigated here i mean really we started you know almost a year ago right on trying to make sure that with this process of the renewal um that we were looking at every avenue possible um for how to contain um health insurance costs but still offer a robust benefits package which i think we are doing here and so i think that that's something

081that hopefully the public and especially our staff who benefit from it understand is that it was a long process with a lot of investigation on any method possible to try to keep costs um low for for staff members and so i do commend the entire insurance team i think you did a fantastic job board member alan a quick thank you president murdoch just a quick note on that you'd mention one year i i would actually promote the fact that i think we started this discussion over two years ago and certainly brought it to the attention of the broker that we wanted a policy or policies and coverage that was competitive that are competitive and it is an ever-moving target and certainly we've already talked about next year and the next year following that so um

082i recommend you because you were one standing on this pretty heavily and i appreciate that it's been a it's been a long road um long road okay any other questions or comments okay mrs smirk we have a roll call vote on this one please board member fritzy aye board member hedrick aye vice president marshall aye board member sparks aye board member alan aye board member campbell aye president murdoch aye motion carries unanimously uh 9.04 this is the commercial real estate contract for paradise park so if we could get a motion on this item before any questions or discussion please i move that the board approved the commercial real estate contract to purchase paradise park the asset purchase agreement and the resolution resolution to authorize the superintendent or his designee to sign closing documents on behalf

083of the district second okay we have a motion and a second for the commercial real estate contract for paradise park um are there any questions or comments related to this board member hedrick yeah and i think hopefully i'm not mistaken but the information that we received late i think it was it today this afternoon i'm sorry i lose track of time um in regards to the hvac um systems is any of that information problematic or is that have we put any dollar cost to that that would have any significant impact on our planning at this point um so that was a known issue it was originally just left off the contract and we just caught it in the review so that that is currently being planned for thank you i must have misinterpreted that thank

084you i appreciate that clarification any other questions board member hedrick okay any uh other questions or comments related to the paradise park contract i guess i just have one more one question sure since the intent of purchasing uh paradise park have we done any more planning on what that looks like in between that time no i appreciate the question um we have met with early education administration special education administration architects they've been out to walk the site and look at that we've had nutrition services come over and look at the site we have a team scheduled to go out and look at the site next next week to look at the broader campus the bigger campus especially those outdoor attractions so we're narrowing in the conversation that we had with the early education administration and

085special ed dr mathis really helped us to think through more programming questions that teachers will have one of the exciting things that and we really appreciate uh john and julie ellis they're going to open up the building so that when that teachers come back to school and get back on contract they can do a walk through collectively and and brainstorm together about that instructional space so if our hope is that we can do some early design and planning and so maybe um we can open that facility well in advance of the 2023 target date it would be our hope that we could even attempt to do that by 22. can you include me on that walkthrough uh board member alan um thank you and i'm putting you completely on the spot and maybe it's a

086dr buck sort of answer as well the larger areas outside i mean conceptually are we even to that point yet i mean i'm just i'm curious because i've had the question from folks occasionally we have a large team next week i want to say it's a wednesday it'll help me to the day a very large team from buildings secondary buildings and such um and we're doing a walk-through department chairs i think are invited no curriculum instruction folks are invited administrators are invited so a large team's going to go through there and start that process but first we want to get them there put eyes and feet on the site and then start that process and i realized it had not been largely discussed but there are there i mean acreage there is unbelievable there's the

087road to the south that is an access point that's not largely discussed where are we on the um and what does the fire stay old fire station what is that sort of going to maybe evolve into or what is that discussion okay i thought so just thought i'd ask thanks board member fridgey yes um i'm glad uh board member sparks asked you that question because i was wondering how how many eyes we had on that um you know and this is just a side note this is so funny because my grandsons who go to longview elementary had heard about the paradise park project and of course my daughter that was her first job ever was at paradise park so it's in and john and julie ellis are very very um great people and close to

088the family and um my grandsons were so upset that paradise park wasn't going to be there anymore to go play in and i said but think about it this way all of our you know these preschool kids are going to be able to use that space just like you guys got to use that space when you went over there to the edutainment center at paradise park and think of all the kids in the future who are going to get to learn in that space so that's a great you know that's a great motivator and a great asset for our district to be able to use that space not only for early childhood ed but for all the other great purposes that we can foresee that might be able to happen with all of the space

089that that that entails so it's just a it's a wonderful i think a wonderful purchase for us thank you any other comments or questions related to paradise park mrs smirk we have a roll call vote please thank you dr miller appreciate it board member hedrick aye vice president marshall aye board member sparks board member allen board member campbell board member fritchey aye resident murdoch aye motion carries unanimously we move to item 10 10.01 this is going to be our aquatic center um annual program evaluation i believe quasi prior is here and we'll be making his way to the microphone and so i will talk his i'll talk slow as he comes up here to just fill the void fill the void welcome mr pryor thank you for being here is it on here we go

090all right good evening good evening everyone thank you for allowing me to be here this evening uh to share with you the aquatic center experience in a year that has given us less than an ideal situation dropping many lemons on us at the aquatic center we decided to create 750 000 gallons of joyous lemonade so the aquatic center is located at 3498 southwest windermere road windermere drive a hundred a quarter of a mile off of 150 highway behind summit lakes middle school our first class facility offers our students the best learning and enriching environment possible since we're a lighthouse district we love to showcase our lighthouse facility being a beacon of light for our facility's mission changing lives through aquatics since 2009 many of our students have experienced the district before stepping foot in the

091classroom for some this experience starts as early as nine months nevertheless our goal is to make sure we are offering the best experience possible all right here we go plan b let's do it please enjoy a short video was a short video it was it was really short i'm gonna grab it out of the sky real quick [Music] two three turn over good job babe thank you so um at the aquatic center we want to make sure we're providing an educational aquatic experience and this starts um before we even which this started before we even opened the door the young man pictured he was one of our pe swim one students back in 2019 his story would read something like this i was a student in the swim one class before the class i didn't

092know how to swim nor did i understand water safety however after i learned these skills it prepared me to perform the job that i am in now as a lifeguarding and a swimming instructor so this young man now right here is teaching uh the skills of water safety and swimming skills to the next generation the next crop that's going to come through and uh just like i recruited him out of the class i'm gonna recruit these little ones one day too right right it's all about opportunity i'm gonna go to this page this is our mission uh changing lives through aquatics i know you all have seen this mural before we will always have this mural um as soon as you enter the aquatic center this mural is on the wall and it was painted

093by one of our students from lee's summit west and i'm very proud of this mural because it showcases not just what our mission is but the type of talent we have in the district i've always said we have some great raw materials in in our school buildings and i want to make sure that we showcase this this talent in in the district and to parents and to everyone else um our swim lesson program is led by 15 16 17 year olds teaching your children things that you wouldn't even think that you could do we have these young people doing this and everyone that comes in we have to train them it's at least 12 to 20 hours of training it's not easy because the kids are not either tough first of all they're scared our

094pool is gigantic it's 750 000 gallons of water it looks like an ocean to a three-year-old and a four-year-old so we have to make sure that we nurture them and build relationships and we're teaching our young high school students how to do this and they're doing an excellent job we say changing lives through aquatics when you see this slide right here the seven students in this picture um they were one swim instructor i mean they were once swimmers in our swim lessons and they were on our swim teams and then they came back to us uh to be staff members so um it paints that clear picture for me that we're doing the right thing back in 2010 11 12 when i would talk to parents at the end of the year at the end

095of the year swim lesson meeting i would say you know one day your kids are going to come back and work for us and they would be looking at me like what like yeah this is a this is a life cycle deal we don't want to just teach them a life skill of swimming and water safety we want to give them professional working tools also so that they can go out and change the world so if we give enough they're going to give enough and if we're all given this world is really great highlights and achievements we have hosted over 500 swimming events we have taught over 12 000 swim lessons to district students we have established a financial assistance program it's called float for hope and we have established a second grade water safety

096program for our four elementary schools now it's a second grade program it's for our title one schools i truly believe we we have to give kids opportunities even if you can't have you can't afford it your parents can't can't bring you let's create a way for them and we piloted the program we started it back in 2012 and it's been running ever since the pause has been covered so uh the 2019-20 season we didn't get to run it and this last season we did but we're going to get it back so we're really proud of those those highlights and achievements we had some good we had some good things happen in 2020 21 also we hosted our first annual boater safety course again education is huge we want to make sure we're offering as much

097as we can for our students and our community and because it's a shared facility a lot of you all might not know this but we offset the cost of the operation through programming and i think this is one of the best models that we can put out in education is to make sure that we're doing something that's bigger and better and greater than just what we got in the classroom because parents they love what we do in school like i love what my kids do at school like but what enrichment activities are involved other than just what we have to offer in school and then what is the cost of that and if we can continue to cut down on the expense that we pay and offset it with revenue generating programs it makes it

098that much better so this is some department data i could have left this out and you may have asked me about one or two questions but i want to make sure that we're being very transparent and we can kind of map out where we're at right now back in 2011 2010 and 11 that was our second year of operation it was it was a really dark day i used to come to the finance committee meetings and be like man don't ask me any questions please right because you see that 312 000 shortfall and it's like man it's heavy but then over the years we've just uh chopped away and and been you know doing a really good job of generating revenue and really it's all in the programming we just really focus on the quality

099of the programs and when we do that everything else just falls in place uh 2018-19 is the year that we're measuring up against because that was a full fiscal year and we didn't want to put 1920 due to covid and then we're comparing that to 20-21 we're at a shortfall of 131 386.82 but this number isn't taken into consideration our usage so before we had the aquatic center we were paying rent to rent water space all over the city and and uh if we were to add that up like last year we would say we would ended up paying about ninety thousand dollars in in rental and water rentals so there's a lot to be said about owning your own facility and running your own business and i like it under the district because i

100got to answer to you like i can't mess up right so it works out well the the facility is 35 000 square feet like i said 750 000 gallons of water we have 45 employees two full-time staff members myself and nicole who's the program coordinator and 43 part-time staff members um that that's that's pretty big of an operation for us to be running it's just uh two full-time people at one point in time it was me um by myself because i wanted to make sure we were making some money before i brought somebody else on board so uh it's it's a good thing it's been great we're going to get to the hero's journey we have a winter swim league we've been running for the last eight years there are usually some high hanging fruit

101things that i like to touch on especially in enrichment programming i feel like every program needs to touch on the physical side of growth the psychological side of of growth and the sociological piece if you put all three of those together you can grow a young person to be with whatever you want them to be but if you miss out on one of those there's some shortfalls and so um this last year with everything that was going on i realized that we needed to partner with someone and it just happened to be tom merrill he was a retired he's a retired district teacher and he had this program called the hero's journey and um i asked him if he would be willing to come in and just take like 20 minutes of our practice time

102to um take our students through that hero's journey and it was a four-part series we structured it so it was 11 to 17 year olds getting involved in it and we touched on heroes such as elizabeth eckford malala yusuf zai and edward monk um and we talked about the way that they paved how they paved the way for uh some great things to happen within the world not just in their small bubble when you're young you don't see the world for what it really is and how you can really impact and we want to make sure that we are impacting them so again once they're done in the program they can go impact others and then impact the world we see this all the time so that that's a big piece that's a big big

103plug for us is is the hero's journey we're going to keep this going too from here on out and then this is some auxiliary field space um some auxiliary facility space that we would like to see come come to fruition now it originally starts out with some meeting space so we don't have a lot of space at the aquatic center so when i'm having advisory team meetings luckily my advisory team is they're a bunch of retirees are pretending to be retirees and we can meet at 12 30. if we try to meet at the traditional time at 6 30 7 30 we wouldn't have enough space and there's just too much traffic in the building so the 12 30 spot works out good if we were to get some auxiliary space just a meeting space

104i just wouldn't want i don't think it would be good for me to just think about i just need some meeting space what else can we create for the students and some auxiliary facility space would be great for multi-use purposes for band cheer athletics rotc robotics wrestling tournaments anything that we could think of where it's usually affected by weather or lack of infrastructure that we currently have again i have one here district wellness center auxiliary seating space for large events additional meeting space and training space for students civic groups so on so forth the lifespan of our existing which the existing scoreboard is the winner says 520. is about 12 to 15 years we're on our 12th year service with this unit here so we need to start thinking about replacing a replacement strategy and

105when we make that change we would like to do so by purchasing something that we can fund through marketing and advertising dollars so this is going to be a big big ticket item that we need to start looking at right now as early as possible and i'd just like to say thank you to the board for supporting us and allowing us to live out our mission um our facility was a needed outlet for for our students this year you all might not notice but the other side of the state line they weren't able to open up their facilities when we were able to so july 6 we were able to open up and get to not fully functioning but we're functioning and our parents they were willing to sacrifice not being able to come in

106the building not being able to be as present as they usually were in the previous years so i do appreciate you all working working it out and making a way for us and the students so i'll take any questions first thank you very much for the presentation we appreciate it uh board member fritchey yeah it's great presentation thank you quasi um first of all i just wanted to say i i love seeing that you were doing the heroes program uh with the kids i think that's awesome that you give them a little bit extra there and i was really it's really cool to see tom merrill's name on that too he was one of our uh seventh grade social studies teachers at pleasantly middle school and i was there and um that he is a

107dynamic guy and i imagine he really motivates those kids so that's great i'm glad to see that um i i thought it was interesting that you mentioned the need for auxiliary space and parking because um experience that firsthand i think it was year before last when went to summit lakes middle school to see a production and there was a swim meet going on the same night and man you couldn't find a parking spot in the whole parking lot there behind summit lakes so i completely understand your need for more parking and then you know i heard some of the parents then too at the swim meet going well hey you know we don't have any place to hang out at the swim meet there's not enough room in the place in the bleachers for when

108your kid's not swimming there's no place to hang out so i mean i get it that need for that auxiliary space and the and the parking so it's good forward thinking and and um you know i hope there we can do something about that sometime but um thank you very much for the report board member marshall thank you president murdoch thank you mr pryor for that presentation um i know the good work that's going on there my daughter attended swim lessons there at the aquatic center so everything that you presented to us is it probably doesn't do the justice of what you actually do over there so thank you i appreciate it if there's any community members who haven't experienced this facility i would highly encourage them to go do that because i also believe

109that swimming is a life skill no matter what your background is um because when we're all in the water we're all the same so and there's nothing more frightening than being in a situation where you can't help somebody so i appreciate the work that you are doing over there thank you thank you board member alan yep hello thank you for being here and the report is there um speaking of the additional space and that that that headset has there been some conversation with parents about that because i'm kim miss richie board member ms ritchie has um i've heard those comments as well so i was just curious if that's in in in percolation maybe with with with with some of the parents with some of the teammates with some of the um different um teams

110yes um we've had a lot of we've heard we had a lot of feedback in regards to auxiliary space uh from parents from teams from our high school coaches we've hosted the conference championship meet for the last 11 years and uh when you start putting a load on the facility there's not a lot of room for movement and then when you start wanting parents to come in and spectate like they spectate at a football game we have to end up compromising some of the health and safety of those individuals by trying to pack them in in really odd spots um so yes we've had a lot of feedback from parents hey some auxiliary space would help because we could relieve the swimmers off the deck and then have some parents down in that area also

111my advisory team has mentioned that many times you know we used to meet in a lifeguard room where there's a washer and a dryer and it's really loud and they said hey you need a meeting space and i said okay and then they just kept saying and i was trying to ignore it and then they're like no hey we need a meeting space it's like okay i'll make sure we uh mention that in a report or two so board member sparks thank you for this presentation i have two questions the first question that i have is you mentioned access so what type of marketing are we doing so that the community know what the aquatic center does and then also what is that process for students or families that are struggling with paying these fees

112or things like that what does that look like so that they can have that access um we actually do quite a bit of marketing i think we innovate parents with a lot of information and some of this stuff gets overlooked so we we increased our social media campaigns this year and we started kind of putting words into actions because i think uh we're at the point now where we want to see more things instead of reading uh it's just like if you go to yelp and you're going to go look up a restaurant the first thing you do is you look at the stars and then you go look at the food right so we're showing you the program so you see the program you're like oh wow okay i'm gonna go here and then

113if there's a buzz that just starts and um with that buzz is really loud and clear now and then answer your question in regards to the financial assistance program we have a financial assistance program it's called flow for hope we raised a bunch of money uh seven years ago from a ryan lochte event where we had him come in and do a presentation and do some swimming with our kids and we've taken those funds and if you are on the free and reduced lunch program i will allow you to come in and take lessons for free and now i just be honest with you there's some parents that come in and just tell me they just can't afford it and i'll just do it because i'm going to teach them and i have the time

114um so we we make a way for everybody because again um the world is covered in what is it 70 water and you need to know how to swim and you need to understand water safety and everybody thinks they can swim until it's time to really swim and that's when most people get in trouble you know it's like a swim to the wall and then you swim to the wall and it's a cove and then you look back and you're like man that's like a mile away and you slowly go from that horizontal position to that vertical and then then you're done so it's really important for water safety lessons and swimming to be at the forefront of the development of a young person sorry just a follow-up is there an avenue for um individuals

115to sponsor students to be able to take classes and things of nature we don't have that set up right now but i like that okay i like that idea board member hedrick um i just wa wonder in terms of your additional facility space that you've referenced have you been involved in conversations with dr miller and kyle in terms of including that maybe in some potential use of our um bond premium resources that we have in the existing bond issue have you been part of that conversation or i've talked to kyle about it well i i would think you know i don't want to speak for the rest of the board but you know i think in terms of as we plan for those resources that may be something that might want to be included as

116we look at spending that and then the other thing is just to say thank you to you and your staff because i know how many hours you've put into that and that's your baby and your life over the last since 2009 so i really appreciate because i know how much additional time you spend and you are so creative in developing programs uh for our students and families in our community so i really really just want you to know how much i appreciate that thank you board member sparks i'm sorry i'm not gonna let you go man um to piggyback off of um dr hendricks point what conversations are we having and if kyle needs to come up here i would love to hear what conversations are we having of resources that may be available so

117that we can give you the things that you need so so it was just a suggestion to to get this um auxiliary facility space on the agenda for the next bond issue okay so i i think that's where we're at right now i'll send the email yeah don't put don't put kyle back on the spot again y'all scared me too kyle is coming up here hang on just a second board member for ritchie i thought we were all moving up the agenda when y'all caught him up bro yeah quasi and i have had uh conversations about that project and i put just a real rough budget number to it at the board workshop and i know we didn't go through every line item on that list remember dr miller and i presented a long list

118of projects the aquatic center space i mean that is a one of those items in there it could be prioritized with um either additional bond resources or be deferred to a future bond issue so board member fridgey and i just wanted to say to to use uh remember sparks's idea you set up the you set up the scholarship fund or if you want to attach it to your already your existing fund that you have and and i'll write you a check for a donation and i bet you a bunch of other people would too because the my my grandsons did swim team for the first time this summer it was the best thing they've done in a long time it was exciting it was wonderful for them they loved it so we betcha hey kim

119in in church we say how much of a check are you going to write any any any other questions or comments mr pryor thank you so much we really appreciate you being here this evening thank you for having me um we're gonna move to item 11. so our written reports we had our annual destruction of district records and our bond budget update report which got added there so is there any comments or questions related to the written reports i would encourage board members obviously with kind of the budget report getting added there to make sure that you have looked through that so any comments dr buck you want to add anything because this is rare to staff here so those of you who are new it is 8 45 that's and i yeah i i

120just want to say i cannot appreciate the board enough all seven of you went to on your own in june to a board workshop in springfield for a couple days um done by msba um when i say only 13 out of 517 districts earned the governor's team award there's a lot of time a lot of reflection a lot of pd and a lot of presence and and you don't get paid for so thank you board of education i really do appreciate you thanks dr bucht and with that we are adjourned for the evening you