001Hey, hey. I pledge algiance flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> This is >> I'll put it. >> What's my first thing to set that up? >> Are we going straight to No, >> we have a motion to approve the agenda. >> U motion. I move the I move the board approve the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Nick, >> yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> AJ, >> yes. >> Dan, >> yes. >> Drew, >> yes. >> Angie, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Approval of the We got the agenda. Honoring excellence, Mr. Arian. >> Good to see everyone tonight. Um I have a big stack of certificates tonight as we are
002so glad to be joined by um several recently crowned state champions. Uh and what's beautiful about it is it's a Liberty North cross country team and right across the street the Liberty High School boys swim team who had a tremendous showing over in St. Louis last month. So a great thing to be able to recognize both of our high schools here tonight. We're going to get started though by uh recognizing three students from Heritage Middle School who are our most recent LPS award recipients again for displaying the traits of love, posit positivity, and strength. And um appreciate Dr. Algri and and Mr. Esle from uh Heritage for being with us tonight and representing those Eagles. And as you can see on your screen, uh I'm going to introduce to the podium Payton Penny. Pton, would
003you join me right here and I'm going to read some nice things that uh someone said about you. She was actually nominated by Kristen Smith. I think you probably know Miss Smith. Um Payton is one of the most thoughtful and considerate students I've ever taught. She is a new student at HMS this year, making a quick impact. Even though she came to us not knowing any of her peers, she has become someone that others look to for leadership. She treats both students and adults with care and kindness. For Payton, academics come first in the classroom. Payton leads by example. She is quiet but strong. You want to flex for me? Her positive her positive attitude, strong work ethic, and compassion toward all make her an excellent candidate for this recognition. So great job Payton. Congratulations.
004Come on up, Kyle. How are you? Good >> doing well. Kyle was nominated by Miss Allison Bailey. You know Miss Bailey? >> Awesome. Well, here's what she had to say. Beyond his academics, Kyle's character shines through in the way he treats others. He has a genuinely kind heart and is always willing to lend a helping hand. He frequently stays after class to help clean up materials, straighten the room, often taking responsibility for messes he didn't create. I can kind of relate to that. His reliability, maturity, and consistent respect for the classroom environment make him a student I can trust wholeheartedly, which is especially meaningful given the wide range of behaviors I support each day. Kyle not only contributes to a positive classroom climate, but also serves as a quiet role model for his peers. His
005work ethic, compassion, and sense of responsibility enrich our learning community, and his presence truly makes a difference. Good job, Kyle. Congratulations. And Mila, our third recipient. Mila, you were nominated by Miss Katie Garrison. You know, Miss Garrison. >> You like Miss Gar? >> She likes you. Mila shows perseverance every single day. When school work is hard, she digs in and shows grit and stamina. When anyone else around her is struggling on an assignment or even just appearing sad, she swoops in and offers assistant assistance in a kind way. Mila helps with community service by bringing in lots of donations for our food drives and helps our team stay motivated by adding positivity to everything we do. It's awesome. She never becomes frustrated when she's stuck and other students tend to look up to her. She's
006a quiet learner, but not so quiet that she doesn't advocate for herself. I felt so lucky to be Ma's teacher this year. That's great, Mila. Congratulations. All right, moving on to page two. Um, I would next ask the members of the boys class 5 state champion Liberty North boys cross country team come join me up here in the front. Let's line you guys up along with uh coaches as they come up. Just want to let you know this collection of incredibly talented athletes led by coaches David Chatlos and Brian Kirk right here chatty. Good to see you went they went to Colombia in early November for the state cross country championships. And when the dust had settled they were crowned the team state championships team state champs uh which becomes the second team title in
007Liberty North history as they also won it in 2022. today included six LNHS runners qualifying for all state honors. And I'm going to introduce each of these athletes at this time. And when I say your name, I'll present you with your um award. We begin with junior Nate Habberlac, who finished in sixth. Congratulations, Nate. Next, senior Anessu Enziraangu. >> Oh, nice. those little added bonuses. Celebrating his birthday is Junior Drew Gray, who finished 19th overall. Next we have sophomore Beckett and Dreson who finished 25th overall. And sophomore uh Joey Douchi who could not be here tonight. He finished 27th. You had them all packed up pretty good there coach. >> Very good. Um, and then I also wanted to make mention the Eagles had tremendous seasons turned in by two other varsity runners, including Ezra
008Douchi, who could not be here tonight out of town. So, I will hand that off to you, coach. And, uh, and then, uh, senior Kevin Lechek. Uh I just want to add that it should be noted that this is the sixth team trophy in boys cross country in the 16 years of a program at Liberty North. So just tremendous. So again, please join me in congratulating the Liberty North boys cross page three. Uh would the members of uh the Liberty North or I'm sorry, Liberty High School boys swim team. We have some state champs in the house. Would you join me up here at the front along with Coach Murphy? So before introducing each of these individuals for what they accomplished, wanted to share a little bit uh regarding the efforts of the collective team
009again led by head coach Chris Murphy. The team from Liberty High School won seven of the 12 events at the meet held last month in St. Peters and their collection of 253 team points was the most in school history. The Jays took home their second straight fourth place team trophy and this program has now been in the top eight at state for 10 straight years. As I shared a moment ago, a total of seven state championships were won which included two relay teams. Uh let's now meet the state championship event winners. First, Cole Tobin, who won individual state championships in both the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Cole, next Nathan Surles, who won an individual state championship in the 100 fly. Uh Graeme Henderson also won uh was a twoe event winner individually in both
010the 50 and 100 back in which he had the fourth fastest time in state history. So Graham, congratulations. I'm going to talk about you. The young men who have already been introduced were also involved in either one or both of the relay teams who captured state titles in the 200 free relay. This team was comprised of Cole Tobin, Nathan Surles, Jace Graham, and Graham Henderson. Uh Jace, I have a need to mention they recorded the second fastest time in state history and missed the record by literally uh the how much? 100th of a second. Yeah, that's that's close. Um and then finally in the 200 medley relay team members included Graham Henderson, Adam Hal, Nathan Surles, and Cole Tobin. They recorded the fourth fastest time in state history. Adam, CONGRATULATIONS. Um and then we have
011a graphic. I believe Denise I mentioned I wanted to mention Graham again. Um, I made a mention when I saw this picture on social media. He's going to have a sore neck for a few days with all those metals weighing him down. Um, but Graham won a total of four gold medals and we wanted to congratulate Graham as he was selected as the 2025 Missouri class 2 swimmer of the year. Congratulations. And he had no idea I was going to do this. We made a graphic here earlier this afternoon. Um, I wanted to share this as we wanted to give a special presentation to the head coach of this squad, Coach Chris Murphy, who coincidentally was named earlier this fall and prior to the state meet as the boys swim and diving coach of the
012year by the Missouri State High School Activities Association for 2425. We thank him for all of his service that he's provided our swim and dive programs and Liberty Public Schools. Congratulations. So, let's give this group another big round. And before you leave, our custom is to give a standing ovation for our state champions. and we'll throw the coach in as well because that's a pretty cool honor. So, if you would give a st stand up and give us round of applause to our state champion. >> And then our other customary thing is I'm sure you want pictures, Dallas. >> I do. And I also want to make one final special presentation if I may. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I just I know this man doesn't want the limelight, but but we're going to
013embarrass him for a moment >> as uh we want to conclude our recognitions with somewhat of a bittersweet presentation. Is at this time I ask Mr. Tom Caps to join me here at the podium. >> I hold no records. I tell you what, I don't get intimidated by many individuals, but when I see that picture makes melt away. No, but we wanted to uh share a few remarks and then we have a a plaque for you. All of us in Liberty Public Schools, we've uh benefited from Mr. Cap's professionalism and wisdom as he's provided us with legal counsel. I said for many decades. Is that accurate? It' be over four decades. >> I didn't want to date you. >> Oh, but as many of you know, Mr. Caps is winding down his time serving us
014and we wanted to take a moment to present him with a small token of appreciation. And this plaque reads, "Liberty Public Schools gratefully recognizes Tom Caps for for providing countless years of dedicated service as legal counsel to Liberty Public Schools. Your guidance, integrity, and commitment has strengthened our district, and we wish you nothing but the best as you enter retirement presented on December 16th, 2025." Congratulations, sir. And with that, that concludes honoring excellence. >> Before you take off, we the board like to come out and do our congratulations. So, we will reconvene at 7:35. And in the meantime, we're coming out to talk to you. >> 25 or 25. >> 35. >> 25. >> 20 30. I don't know. >> You're the boss. >> I'm going to go 7:35. We have a lot of people
015out here. Everybody. Hey, So our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Robert's rules provides for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion. Documentation concerning these items has been provided to all board members and the public in advance to assure an extensive and thorough review. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member. May I have a motion? Move >> the board approve consent agenda items 3.1 through 3.6. >> Second. Nick, >> yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> AJ, >> yes. >> Dan, >> yes. >> Drew, >> yes. >> Angie, >> yes. >> Motion carries. On to I'm still scrolling. Why is that happening? >> Reports from administration. >> Yeah. Section four. Our first uh report this evening is from innovation and learning
016report uh their department. And we'll welcome Dr. Moore. >> Hello. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Happy to be here. I wanted to share that we are finishing up our second round of I Ready testing for students um through 8th grade and seeing a lot of great celebration. So we'll have that they have until the end of this week to finish that up. Um and then we'll be able to share some of that with you in January, but so far seeing some great growth um with our students. So excited to look at that a little bit deeper. Uh tonight uh we will be sharing um some information with you about a program that we have been working on with the fine arts department called um Encore, which is a creative arts academy. We're excited to
017um hopefully bring that to both schools. Um worked with a team of fine arts teachers um administrators and students um to look at how to personalize um the arts a little bit more also with real world learning. um in a little bit more of an intimate setting. So, Mr. Money will be up here in just a little bit and we'll share some information with you on that. Um also, February Professional Development Day planning is underway. Um and so we will be together at North that day in the morning and we will have a real world learning exhibit. So, every school and every department will have an exhibit um that focuses on the real world learning that is taking place in their buildings. So, Eagle Avenue will be packed. Um, in addition, so far we have
01840 sessions um planned for the first session and then 40 um uh classes for the second session and that is probably 98% um led by um our teachers and administrators in the district. So, we truly believe in that model of teaching one another. So, we're excited to have that. Um also wanted to share um part of the strategic plan plan 15 is about secondary programs and so we had the opportunity to meet with middle level teachers counselors I think I uh talked about this briefly the last at the board study session um but just wanted to talk about that meeting and how um great it was to bring people together and ideulate around middle level education. Um, moving forward, we're looking kind of at three different areas. Advisory, um, and student support, that's one group.
019Um, learning schedules, that's a second group. And then the third one is real world learning experiences and, um, student engagement. So, really looking at kind of ideas of um, PBL, interdisciplinary teaching. Um, we've talked about looping within those conversations. A lot of great um, meaningful conversations that have been held so far. Um, also wanted to highlight just a couple of things from the board report. Um, some great things happening. Uh, most of you probably were able to see we had our Spanish heritage students were able to go and do some um, professional development with um, emergency responders and teach them some Spanish um, for in the event of an emergency and just being able to teach them some words that um, they might uh, encounter with someone else. And so that was a great story
020if you were able to catch that. And then the Northland EDC presented Bagna and Liberty Public Schools with the Keystone Award uh for boosting the economy and promoting uh inclusion. Um Colleen Jones does a um tremendous job uh with Magna. So I want to thank her for that. And then Ken Langanger who's also the the teacher that works over there. Um and then finally we have finished our first semester of Cypher which is the uh cyber security program that we're doing with William Juel. and we got a um message from the professor and said all the kids took the finals and uh professor said every kid crushed it. So that first semester was good. We piloted at the end of last year and you know kind of learned a few things and so we I
021felt like we were set up for more success this year and um all of our kids came through. So, we're excited to continue that program into next year um keeping with the same number, probably 10 students and um seeing what we can do for them. And with that, I'll take any questions. >> Any questions of Dr. Moore this evening? >> The the February real learning is could it be observed in any way? Could you come and observe it? >> Oh, sure. Sure. Absolutely. >> Okay. Did you give an exact date and I missed it? >> It's um it's February 13th in the um morning. Yeah, we'll start around 8:00 >> and that's a Friday if I remember correctly. >> It is. It's Friday the 13th. So, last year we had it on Valentine's Day and
022we did like a love theme. This year we're going to do a Friday the 13th without it being too dramatic. We'll still have some We'll still have some love in there, you know. But yeah, >> we'd love to have you. Um >> Kelly put in here he's got 70 applicants for the ECA program. Is that typical hire? That is typical. Um he usually he'll have more. I think we'll have some more come in. So we're hoping still to be around 100 for that because as people start to do their schedules and when students start to plan and see with their counselors that oh maybe I don't need um all of these high school classes, our goal is to encourage them to take some classes at MCC. >> How late can they change their schedule to
023do that? >> Oh, up until school starts. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah, we'll take them. We took some um right up until like a couple of days before. >> Not every program is that flexible. So like conversely, if you look at the Northland Caps program, um because of some of the medical requirements as far as on boarding and training, um they tend to have a shorter window of application >> and so um just to clarify, >> yeah, we'll make it work for a student for sure. And just the sheer number of programs that you have for the high schoolers, >> incredible, >> right? >> Yeah. There is something for everybody, you know, we um sometimes it can be overwhelming, but by having like the nights where people can go and learn about them and having
024counselors um and the career navigators and different people who can talk through those, it helps students kind of, you know, find their find their niche. >> It's nice. >> Dr. more. Thank you for the information you shared a couple of Fridays ago on the math scores uh comparing PLP. It was interesting to me >> that that does so well. >> Um I didn't realize it was just Liberty North. Is there discussion of expanding that then to Liberty? >> Yes, especially as we um you'll kind of hear tonight when we talk about the fine arts piece. um it was it's much easier to maybe look at North when we talk about kind of embedding some of those classes together um than how we might do that over here. We'll still make it work for students, but
025it's a little bit easier. And then looking at some of that data um if you have the right teachers, which they do, working through it with students, um it can it can be successful. You just talked about the way the building's configured of space available or personnel or >> uh well more so I mean there's space so the space that >> we have at Liberty High you'd have to rethink maybe like the blackbox which they use for flex and so we can always be creative with it'll do it in classrooms it doesn't have to be in a big open space you could do it in classrooms and maybe do it at a smaller level >> and is there anything from uh Michael McDow's visit related to math, but can also that you can expand upon
026as far as things that we're looking at that are new, different, pushing the the meter. >> Um, he has been focused on elementary. Okay. Um, and what has been good is I think he has kind of confirmed just what we thought as far as like the um the fluency piece that students who struggle um do don't have don't know their math facts. So, they're going through the um through elementary and then by the time they're getting to middle school and they don't know, they don't have their math facts memorized. Um and so that's been interesting because we uh I think we knew maybe but to have somebody else come in who's not here all the time and visit classrooms. So, at his last visit last month, he came um to he was actually in five
027different buildings, uh four elementary, one middle, and he taught um the students and the teachers were able to come in and observe him with our students because a lot of times at professional development, they come here and they listen to him and he tells them all these great strategies and then he says, "Go back and do them." And we're like, "Let's flip it. you go, you teach their kids. Um, and the teachers were really uh shocked, I think, of what he did, saying like, "Oh my gosh, like that they were engaged. They moved fast." Um, you kind of get comfortable sometimes with your own kids. So, he challenged all of those teachers and then he'll be back in February and be will be be with those same teachers and we'll do it um again. And
028he's kind of he's worked with uh Dr. ment tonight on our math resource on how to use it as a resource um whereas some teachers may use that more as a curriculum um and go step by step by step and it's really meant to be a resource for them. So we're working through that now too. >> What a great idea to hear him teach and then >> he's fabulous. >> Yeah, >> that's amazing. Yeah. >> Other questions of Dr. Moore? >> Thank you. Uh item 4.2 then is a report from our student equity and access department with Dr. Dixon Seahor. >> Good evening everyone. >> Just a few things to share from uh my report. I wanted to start with the family learning modules. As you may recall, we wrote these out last year for
029the first time as part of uh strategic plan number 13. So, this is really about family engagement and allowing families opportunities to just kind of uh tune in at their own pace uh for learning modules that educators here in LPS have developed. And so, we have about 12 modules now on our suite on the district's website. And according to our data analytics, we have five, the top five that families just kind of keep clicking the button on, right? And so, that's really good. So, the first one is special services. Um the next one is AI and education. Uh the next is real world learning and then career and education planning and then fine art. So um we know those will continue to kind of evolve over time. We have new modules that will be released
030going into the second half of the year and so we're just very excited about this opportunity for our families to learn more about what their students are doing um so they can just be more aware uh and then encourage their learners uh where needed. Also wanted to point out that the student equity and access annual report is included uh this month. Very excited to share some of those pieces in there. And also wanted to focus on for special services that the child count verification. So this is something we do every year around de the 1st of December and that's where we report to the state department on what our numbers are for uh those learners that have IEPs. And so I wanted to note that um in the report it it says that there was
031a 3% increase but that number is 2%. When you think about last year this time we were talking about 12.07% of our learners qualifying for special services. This year as of the 1st of December we're looking at 13.97. Um so when you put that in perspective I just kind of pulled some data in 2018 we're we were at about 9.65% 65% of our learners. And so now we're at 13.97. So that is a that is an increase. Um it has um just kind of steadily increased over time. And so now we're at a place where we're really on par with the state percentage. So just wanted to just kind of share that tidbit of information. So um that's all I have that I wanted to highlight out of the report and I'll gladly uh take
032any questions if you have them. So, do you think the increase in numbers for sped has to do with the programs we have here and people coming here for those programs making us a destination? I I think that that is a large part of it. We we do provide high quality special service uh programming. Uh we've made a lot of uh improvements over the past couple of years and I do think families, you know, word of mouth. people just know what's happening here and and and plan to at some point move in and if their child qualifies or if they already have an IEP then obviously they will be plugged into our program. So that could be a large part of it. I mean >> I was actually great ones. >> Go ahead. >> We
033we just have some great programs in place. We >> we really do. We we absolutely do and uh great facilities, a lot of capital improvements and and things of that sort. So it I think that's a large part of it. I can't say exclusively. Mhm. >> Has the standard or the assessment piece changed in those years that those numbers would go up because we've we've done a better job of identifying those students and or because the the um classification has changed or maybe included more students than it had previously. It's not that the classification has changed, but in the past 2 years, we have as a district moved to a centralized referral process. Previously, that was um at the building level process coordinator and those team members were um you know, handling those referrals and
034we have just brought a lot more structure to that uh more streamlined um and again I don't think it's necessarily because of that. I think it's just that we just have more learners that qualify per the criteria that have been established. It's it's yeah, but I think our centralized referral process has allowed us to be more streamlined. >> And if students are getting what they need, then that's all the better for it, right? >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And I'm just going to say your annual report. Love that first page as always. Thank you. >> And I was just going to add on the the report. I mean the partnerships with the different departments, but I also really enjoyed seeing the growth of the um building equity quadrants and you know 150 people involved
035in the 22 23 school year and that we're up to >> over 400 now and we've got students involved which is great. >> Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for that feedback. >> I don't want to have to go back to what we were just talking about. I'm still processing. So the 14% the 1397 that we're up to that's roughly a state average. Is that right? >> Yes, it is. >> Okay. >> As of this year. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. But I mean it is it's like 250 to 300 new students qualified last year to this year. >> Right. >> That seems substantive to me that that we would see that large of a of an increase >> but not see it in enrollment necessarily. I mean that state number is going up too, right?
036>> It I think that state number if I recall it kind of has been hovering around that 12.9 13.5. It's kind of been consistent. We just over time have increased and and finally are at that threshold. I mean I mean in the the the kind of different world the the realm that I work in I mean I think there um you know there probably for outside providers there are better mechanisms for identifying students and so you do have some of those increases and so those those things can impact those numbers. Um so and I you know so I think it's probably a combination of all those things. I think we are uh a destination for a lot of people that see our programs and see that we've got um programs that offer different types of
037services for students that have different needs. >> Different types of needs. Absolutely. >> Real real world learners. We're all special and and need special education. >> That's my observation. U the more specialized we become, the more we'll get done and the greater students we'll have. That's kind of deep, AJ. >> I know, but it's what I'm that's where I'm trying to get to. >> Yes. But >> but I think the other thing that they've done in sped also is they put so many things out in regular ed to help support those students. >> Yes. >> So that you're not I you're not identifying kids falsely, >> right? >> And you're not testing kids at random, >> right? >> Um absolutely. >> That's a lot of work. and all the well all the while endeavoring to
038be even more inclusive um and and having um a better transition between what's happening in general education and also special services. So we are doing a much better job of that >> and your inclusivity ran through your report of all the departments that are working on equity and smarty goals and um it was very interesting to see how all that flows through >> yes >> throughout the district. So thank you. It's a lot of work. Thank you. >> Anything else for Dr. Dixon C1. >> Thank you so much. >> Uh next then from our business services department with Miss Cindy Sullivan and our finance report. >> Good evening. It's good to see you all tonight. We have one donation to recognize tonight and that is a monetary donation of $657 from John and Kim Silkot
039to benefit the students at Louiswis and Clark Elementary. and we thank them for their generosity for those students. Tonight, I wanted to point out a couple of things um in my report and the financial statements. And if you saw um the operating funds graph, you will notice for the first time in a very long time, we have a lesser balance of funds than we did the year before. And I wanted just to let you know that there's a reason for that that we can pinpoint very clearly. Um, as a taxpayer in Klay County, you realize that you received your bills very late this year. And when you receive bills late, you pay later. And that then slows down the collections that we get from the county. So, we're about $5,000 or $5 million behind our
040collection base from the last year. 5,000. Um so that that that causes a pretty big dent in our um operating cash flow funds available in the collection of revenue as compared to the previous year. So you'll you'll note that that we're very aware of that difference and hopefully that will just all be caught up in January and February when people are paying those tax bills. So, nothing to worry or sweat about at this point, but there is a reason. On the um subject of taxes, we wanted to let you know that the senior tax credit for the the ordinance in Klay County has recently been gaining some attention. Again, I attended the Klay County Commission meeting last Thursday where the subject was brought up again and the commission has been talking about the debt levy,
041debt service levy piece. And if you'll recall in that ordinance, the debt service levy was excluded from the freeze and that was thought to be a constitutional privilege that we needed to keep that debt service levy in there. Well, there has been a change of thought about that potentially and the committee the um commissioners are considering taking that to a vote to amend that ordinance to now exclude the debt service piece as well. So, um I know Dr. Tucker has an update on that from the superintendent in the northland that are putting together some information to have a presence perhaps at the commission meeting this Thursday. So at the current um cost of the assessed value involved in that that would be about $35,000 additional dollars that would be a credit against us. So, while
042it's not a lot, it is additional money that does not make is not made available to pay off our bond principal and interest. So, just wanted to make you aware of that piece if you weren't. And um as I said, I think Dr. Tucker will have more to update you on that. >> And on on that note, real quickly, keep in mind from last week's discussion item to this Thursday's action item is what we're anticipating. subject to change, but that is a pretty a relatively quick turnaround. Um we're also watching uh neighboring districts over in Plat County um as it relates to everything that's going on there and that they've made some similar endeavors. In fact, took action last night to include or incorporate the debt service uh side into the senior citizens tax credit.
043Um so we're watching that, but then we're also prepping for what's happening here in Klay County. Um, we've worked jointly with other Northland school districts to co-write, co-author um, a letter that speaks to the facts um, in terms of how each of our districts are impacted in Klay County. Um, and it actually utilizes our county auditors numbers. Victor Herbert helped prepare um, some preliminary projections and how it might impact our districts. So, we appreciate his efforts. He's he's pretty good at that in terms of getting us those projections. But it then also asks for coming to the table and being engaged in the conversation as compared to hearing it second or third hand or on social media for example. Um that's how we were made aware of last week's meeting. And so we'll uh work
044on that, finalize that and then send that to our commissioners um collectively. Um and it's not that we're opposed to common sense tax relief. It's just we'd like to be engaged in that process and so that's really our aim in putting that together. Again, appreciate Cindy uh for attending last week's meeting. We'll have a presence as well this coming Thursday. Um and see how that all unfolds. Keep in mind, we're talking about if it were to pass the county commissioners, it would take effect in FY 2027 >> as compared to what is happening in Plaque County, which is my understanding that they would take that into effect the following year, but it would be al it would also be retroactive to account for the current fiscal year. So, fast forward a year, you would actually
045get two credits as a senior citizen that applies and qualifies for the relief. um the next fiscal year, but then also the current fiscal year in which we sit. So, little different um in Pla County than what we're seeing here in Klay County. We're also watching to see if this progresses uh in other counties that have instituted Senate Bill 190. Um there may be some legislative conversation as well to see if there's some opportunity to to remedy the impact that we're seeing. All that said, sorry to add to your business services report. Um there are a lot of moving parts this year as it relates to school funding. Uh certainly everything happening at the federal level. Um as the relief dollars subside, the state level conversations as it relates to income tax, the school modernization
046task force and certainly the conversations happening at the local level um and at the county conversations. So, >> in addition to that, I'll just wrap that up with also saying that the um implementation of Senate Bill 190 across the counties varied. So, some already exempted that that bond or the debt levy piece um and some didn't. So, it was all a matter of interpretation and what your legal counsel advised you to do. So, it it's just very interesting to me that we have a law the counties enacted differently with no interpretation helped and now it's being revised perhaps. So, um it's just all very interesting. >> Well, the stated rationale when the when the county passed the last ordinance was you Missouri constitution requires you to fund and pay debt service, right? I mean, >>
047as voted on by your voters, >> right? I mean, we've got an agreement with our voters to, you know, we we've got a constitutional requirement, but also an agreement. >> We also have rating services that are rating our bonds, too, and how that impacts those. >> Um, you know, I think I think the thing for me is these all of these things add up and we're seeing that in the collective on a number of fronts. Um, I would like, you know, I think about our community partners meetings and the discussions that we can have and that we do have, you know, good relations with our other taxing jurisdictions um, and organizations and and it I just don't feel like it should be something we should have to go to a meeting to find out, you
048know, that we'd be having those discussions. And I'm not saying um it would be nice to have that heads up from them. Um so we aren't, you know, put in this position. I also don't understand based on the timing what the urgent need to do it it do it this Thursday is to inform us last week and then do it so quickly um because it's not as that expediency just doesn't exist to me. So that was true. >> So we we potentially have a constitutionality issue here is what I'm >> So the rationale for not for exempting it out specifically was that it was violative of the Missouri Constitution. Now people, you know, I will say that people provide legal opinions and change their minds on those all the time. Um, but I I think
049that it's a I mean I would have that concern that we have a constitutional requirement to do those things and that we are now impacting um that source of revenue and there was a rationale and reason for exempting it in the first place. So um I and I'm trying to be extremely diplomatic. Some of this is crossed borders from counties. >> Yep. And so I think part of what we've seen is that there was a quick push in one county and that uh momentum crossed the border. >> Yeah. >> So good. >> All that being said, we do when we calculate that levy, we do not levy at the highest we could, but we do have enough reserve in our debt service to accommodate those changes. So while it's not overtly concerning right now, eventually
050that reserve will go lower if we continue to roll back that debt service levy. So that and there's no cap, no constitutional cap on debt service levy. So that may in the future impact how we set our levy. So that will lead to further conversations. Could this have an impact on how seniors vote on bond issues? >> Potentially. Yeah. >> Because we talked a little bit about that yesterday. >> Because if they're excluded, >> Yeah. >> then they might sit on their hands. If they're included, then they might be more participatory. >> You can look at that from varying ways. Right. And so then if they're not impacted, they also may not show up to vote. Right. Um, so there's that element as well. The other piece in this is keep in mind and again
051this is true whether it's the operating levy or whether it's the debt service side along with other conversations around property tax reform and that shifting of burden. Who's carrying the load right now? it's spread throughout citizenry >> as compared to like if you look at future increases you're going to end up carrying more at the b more more of the burden with younger families younger citizens within a community right so you do end up shifting that just as that state local delineation as to education funding right currently the local effort exceeds what the state is is you know providing as it relates to education funding that's the modernization task force conversation. So, we've got a lot of moving parts to Drew's comments earlier. >> All of that being said as well, it you we are
052required obviously to make the debt principal and interest payments. So, if the debt service levy does not cover that, that means money will be moved from operating funds into the debt service levy to uh pay those bills. So, that that impacts every student. So, >> um, you know that it will get paid. It's just how >> Yeah. >> So, and the last thing I just wanted to share with you is that the audit and finance committee did meet last night. We had a pretty quick meeting because December is a busy month. So, they were anxious to get get in and get out and they did not have anything um to pass on to you this evening. Also, my annual report was intended and um I'd be happy to answer any questions about anything we've talked
053about. It's a very streamlined report. Thank you very much. Lots of information. >> Yeah, it's kind of the same work every year with just a few different numbers. So, >> yeah, >> but but it's nice to have it all in one place because we get that throughout the year and you don't always realize just the enormity of the task at hand. So, >> and of course that first page, my pay. Okay. >> Anything else for Cindy? Okay. Thanks, Miss Sullivan. >> Thank you. >> Uh, next is 4.4 operations report with Mr. Anderson. >> Thank you. Uh, good evening. Um, few items I wanted to highlight out of both reports tonight. Uh, first being the general operations staffing report, a departmental report. Um, as is mentioned in there, uh, nutrition services has been working closely with
054DESIE on an administrative audit. Um I think every 5 years they have this uh come about. Um and so that's been going quite well. Uh they've been proud of the new space to show them the new space and I think thus far I've gotten pretty positive reports on uh how they function and how they report out and comply with uh everything that they need to. I also like to share uh school age care program uh had their annual service learning project. Uh they always kind of involve the kids. They get excited. it gets competitive and uh this year they're collected items all schools donated items to provide to the Ronald McDonald House and then all the managers will serve a meal there here uh in the next week or so. Uh so appreciate that partnership
055and the work of that team. Last just a quick uh running through some construction updates. Um first related to bond I think the one project that uh everybody's most interested in hearing about is is Heritage. Um they are in the process of moving in furniture. Jason Bright and his team are doing that as we speak. Uh which is always a good sign. That means it'll be ready for occupancy here uh come the next start of next semester. So all all indications are we're in really good shape there. I think I may have mentioned before that the front door and out the front way heading towards downtown will not be open immediately. Uh there's some additional work that has to happen there. We did get that all cleared with the fire department from a code standpoint.
056Everything's fine. uh as with respect to that space. Um also want to talk a little bit about this building. Um I believe I've shared before that um work well you've seen the plans but work has begun here on the second floor. They started this week. Um and they're in demolition mode. They'll continue that here over the next week or two. Uh hopefully much of the most u obnoxious work will take place while we're many of us are out of the building. Um and then that actual construction project will take all the way through until June, end of June. Um at the same time they're doing the complete renovation of the second floor. They'll be taking on the bathroom uh public restroom facilities on fourth, 3rd, and one two automatically is going to happen there. They're
057going to kind of stage that carefully uh over the course of the next 6 months or so. And then uh beginning in the summer uh that's when we're doing all the HVAC work to the rest of the building. As you all know, this building has many challenges. Um, I think first and foremost among them is related to heating and cooling system. And so, that is going to be very invasive and intensive project. And so, they're going to have to take floors offline for a month or two uh through the process and are going to stage that carefully. We've communicated that at a high level to the folks in this building to let them know what that'll look like. Uh, and then we'll follow up uh shortly with some more details of how we're going to
058handle that. Um what we want to share and make very clear is there'll be a commitment. There'll be staff in this building throughout. Um and it's really uh going to be important that we maintain uh the human resources functions, the business service functions, and the student service functions because the community is used to that. We simply can't move them out. A lot of other folks like myself will kind of move about a bit. Um and some others. So, um just this will look very different and then um come uh end of summer and then maybe bleeding a little bit into August, uh we'll finally get the building back fully and uh be ready for next school year. Um so that wanted to mention that. And lastly, um we were planning on maybe January, I think
059we're going to push to February the next update on on the finances with respect to all the capital work and the bond work. Uh we've been pretty careful to do that uh every uh quarter. Um, and this one it's starting to get I think as I mentioned last time it's just we're kind of getting it's getting tighter and tighter as we try to spend all those dollars and and consistent with the plan and is as responsibly as we can. But we also uh want to spend all those dollars uh and use them well for the projects. And so we're kind of getting right down to the wire on this. Um and I'll share more more of those details here in February um just to kind of show all this is coming together. So um that's
060all I have and we'd be happy to take any questions. I like the bond project update for the purpose of it really highlights all the stuff we've done, all the stuff that has been done to all the buildings across the district. You just don't we're so involved with heritage right now because they're the big one going on. But then you have all these the LED lighting and the playgrounds and this the turf and the fields and there's an immense amount of work that has happened over the last several years and it's nice to be able to just kind of oh yeah check we did that. Oh yeah, check. It's just it's amazing. >> So I appreciate that still being there to just kind of review. >> Other questions of Mr. Anderson? >> Okay. Thank you.
061Uh next our human resources department with Dr. Sarah Marriott. >> Good evening. A few quick updates for you. Uh the first one is regarding our strategic plan that we have with the district and our HR goal. And this piece that I wanted to share is regarding our HR goal and mental health resources for staff. We're excited to share that Better Help will be an option for staff through our EAP program and I think that's a fairly well-known program. Um it will increase uh access to a network a broader network for our staff members and hopefully if they are needing those resources be able to access a provider more quickly. Additionally, we've worked with Dallas Acriman over the past few months to develop a series of videos with local therapist Sonia Richardson. And those videos will
062be shared over each month um on a regular basis for the remainder of the school year um highlighting a variety of mental health and stress related topics. and we will include a repository. We'll develop a repository of that those resources so that people can access them independently and as needed. So, we're excited to be able to offer that and those were developed from focus group feedback. So, it's nice to be able to implement some of the pieces that we're hearing from our staff members. You may see in here LPS career opportunities being shared in a variety of spaces over the next few months. So, our HR team is launching a targeted radio advertising campaign. You're going to see advertisements at BNB theater. Um, we're attending career and job fairs and enhancing our social media presence
063on professional networking sites like LinkedIn. So, we encourage everyone to follow our LPS careers page on social media and then like and reshare all of those opportunities available with your communities. And then in preparation for the 2627 school year, we're conducting meetings with department and building leaders um to gather information about substitute staffing needs, identify recruitment opportunities, and anticipating staffing changes and we will continue those over the next few months and those will help provide valuable information for our future decisions. Take any questions. >> Questions of Dr. Marriott this evening? I like going last. >> Thanks, Dr. Marriott. Uh, next then, as far as my report uh to the board this evening, item 4.6, just wanted to pull out a couple of items I included. Um the first of which is to thank uh staff
064and our community, parents, students even um as well as most everyone in this room, cabinet members and board members for assisting last week in providing G&D associates feedback um as we continue through our superintendent search process. Uh we also had a significant number of participants in our online survey. Um, so appreciate everyone for taking the time to share uh what's important to you all as it relates to the next leader of Liberty Public Schools. Um, just to speak real briefly about the timeline. The application window remains open uh through the winter holidays. Uh, thinking that many will have a time to catch their breath and perhaps consider applying for this role as the superintendent of schools. Um, we'll gather together on uh January 9th to begin looking at the candidate pool. um and then look
065to schedule interviews sometime mid to late January with the intent being that by the time we get to our February regular monthly board meeting uh we're ready to make a recommendation to the board for the next superintendent of schools for your consideration. As soon as that decision is made certainly then we begin the process of transitioning knowing that that person won't necessarily begin until July 1. Um there is an onboarding window in taking advantage of uh the months in the spring to be able to assist with that transition. Additional information is on our website. So I appreciate uh the communications team working closely with G&D Associates to ensure that the word is out there and that the website is up and running. Uh transition then a little bit to local items within our community. We've
066had the opportunity this spring uh to share in a variety of ways uh as far as the happenings of Liberty Public Schools, whether it's through our coffee with the community series. I appreciate Dallas for spearheading that and several of our cabinet members that have presented already this year um in that venue. Additionally, uh presentations to various civic groups including our local Rotaries as well as the recent chamber of commerce annual meeting, our education foundation breakfast. uh just several opportunities for us to share the good work happening in Liberty Public Schools about our vivid vision, our graduate profile and our strategic plan work at the state level. We continue to work with the success ready students network in collaboration with DESIE uh specifically on our innovative assessment demonstration authority uh grant which is our federal waiver
067tied to reimagining assessment and we're at a point of piloting this coming spring. So several of our schools will be uh participating in piloting a new assessment system and so that will help generate kind of that that feedback that they need for the iterative process as far as what the next level of assessment looks like. Similarly, our professional development work continues with success ready students network. We've hosted several different convenings especially with our teacher cadre um in terms of districts coming to Liberty Public Schools to participate in personalized uh professional development along with kind of the SRS and intent of competency based personalized learning. So we appreciate um several on our team assisting with that. It's been mentioned already this evening the upcoming legislative session. Uh we've been monitoring pre-filing of bills that have already
068uh been identified that may impact uh the district uh both in regard to education items but then also as it relates to funding matters. And so we appreciate the updates that we get from our various education associations as they track and monitor that. As you all receive information uh from the Missouri School Boards Association or other education entities, if you have questions or things that kind of come top of mind, please feel free to reach out as we continue to look to this spring session and all that that has in store. That also comes in January with the governor's state of the state address. And as we know, uh, with that begins the budget development process in Missouri. Of course, it runs through the general assembly, culminates with the approval of that later in the
069spring, early summer. Um, so we'll continue to watch that. The last thing I wanted to mention is as it relates to the school modernization funding task force. Um you'll recall uh where there were a series of meetings held earlier in the year and then they transitioned to the four workg groups as it relates to funding targets uh student counts, local effort and performance incentives. And so those work groups are wrapping up this week. They'll wrap up here in December. the broader task force will reconvene on January 26th where we will come together and hear the recommendations from those four work groups. We've been watching that pretty closely. The next step is trying to get all the pieces to fit together. Uh because the ideas that come out of one particular work group obviously have impact
070on the ideas that come out of another work group and the differing components of the foundation formula. Now it's a matter of trying to make it all fit into some simulation into some sarin scenarios uh to see how districts are u impacted. So there'll be some chiseling away at those recommendations. Uh we'll share that information with you. Fast forward to the fall of 2026. There's a feedback window in which districts and patrons and citizens will be uh provided the opportunity to provide feedback prior to those recommendations being finalized that then will be submitted to the governor uh in December of 2026 with the intent being uh the likelihood being that that will inform legislation then that is presented in the spring of 2027 and some type of a formula bill. And so that's kind of
071the lay of the land as we look into the new year. Um, but we'll certainly share information as we progress. So, with that would entertain any questions that you all may have of me this evening. >> Okay. >> So, that that uh reporting even though it's the finalized not till a year from now. >> Yeah. >> But who sees it in progress? The good thing is >> you said that everybody's wrapping up in January and information is shared. >> Yeah. >> Will it will there be any trickle of information to legislators at that point? >> So there are legislators on the task force which is a good point. Um and all the while as this began back, you know, several months back, everything is um posted on Desi's web page, the meetings are audio streamed,
072so you can listen in. You can't necessarily see the workg groupoup meetings. >> When you fast forward to the convenings of the task force, they've been streaming those as well. So all the powerpoints, presentations, it's all on the on the Adessie website. What we've now seen is um MASA in particular, the Missouri Association of School Administrators has been been doing like an overview of each of those workg groupoup meetings, which has been great. And that gives you another perspective. It's largely attended by superintendents that are chiming in that may have missed, you know, a streamed uh workg group meeting or so forth. Um so all of that information is out there. your point about might legislators like >> tune in or or kind of jump out of the gate a little bit sooner than later?
073More than likely, you may already see some bills being filed that have portions of this, particularly as it relates to local effort. That's probably one of the greatest challenges right now is how you wrap your head around local effort and how it folds into the formula given each county is unique. um all the conversations around property tax but then also the implications of reduced income tax at the state level. So a lot of moving parts there >> and on those committees there's a number of people from the task force that populate each of those committees along with others. Right. >> That's right. So the the original task force um is pretty limited. By the time you add the additional participants in the workg groupoups, you're over 50. Um, of which about half of those are
074educators in some form or fashion, whether it's a central office, you know, business person or finance person or a superintendent or folks from education associations. Uh, some retirees that just have, uh, you know, a finance acumen as far as that's their expertise. Um, so it's a good cross-section, a good representation along with business leaders, community members. Um, so I think it's it's a pretty good representation including uh some of our local legislators. So good point. Okay, >> thank you again for your work on that. >> A lot of moving parts. >> On to unfinished business. Uh the first item 5.1 is our 2627 academic calendars. And you'll recall we shared this information with you. Um as team Liberty was doing the work to identify the 2627 calendars. Um but then more recently last month as
075we provided the two copies that you have uploaded for you this evening. The first of which is the LPS school district calendar for 2627 uh accompanied by um the unique differences with the epic calendar for 2627 as well. Again, want to thank uh Miss Sullivan, Dr. Marriott uh for their work alongside everyone that serves in team Liberty and the conversations that they had uh over the course of their deliberations. Just real quickly to hit on kind of the key pieces to the calendar for next year. New teacher orientation August 12th, teacher inservice the week of August 17th. First day of school commencing on August 25th. Fast forward our Thanksgiving holiday uh beginning on November 25th, end of the first semester um December 18th with winter vacation beginning on December 21st. classes resuming on January 5th
076uh following a teacher work day. You jump to spring break a little bit deeper in the calendar um the week of uh March 29th with the last day of school being an early release day on May 27th. Similarly with a couple of different highlights with Epic calendar um their new new teacher in service is July 29th. uh their teacher inservice is August 3rd with their first day of school commencing on August 11th. Kind of walk through the school year with a lot of uh similarities to the district's calendar and fast forward to their very last day of school is currently set at June 11th uh would be their last day of school. So we pre present those two calendars to you this evening uh for your consideration. I move the board adopt the 2026 2027
077academic calendars. >> Second. >> Nick, >> yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> AJ, >> yes. >> Dan, >> yes. >> Drew, >> yes. >> Angie, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Uh, the next item 5.2 is our legislative priorities and appreciate the board's feedback over the course of this semester and getting us to this evening. Um, you've seen this multiple times. A new piece that we added was the district at a glance information for the current year. Uh which is a lot of our fiscal information, our budget information. So that is new uh and will be shared with our legislators. We also tweaked some of the information in our position statements and legislative considerations that are reflected this evening. Uh we've done that bit by bit over the course of this semester. The last uh
078time we were together, we did some modifying under the funding position uh to ensure that we captured kind of unique language to existing revenue streams. So that is reflected there um in terms of that position statement and then similarly um just some modifying of the staffing position statement and then the governance legislative considerations. Um so all that's been cleaned up with the language uh suggestions that you all provided. There's a third piece to this and Miss Reed and Miss Bartllo assisted with this in the past when they served as board president and helping craft kind of the introductory letter to our legislators. So, I'll be working with Karen Rogers on that. Um, after your consideration this evening, we'll have that ready to go uh with the letter that will accompany uh the additional two pieces
079of the priorities, but then the district at a glance information. So, we present that to you this evening for your consideration as well. I move >> questions, comments motion. >> I move the board adopt the 2025 legislative priorities as revised. >> Second. >> Nick, >> yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> AJ, >> yes. >> Dan, >> yes. >> Drew, >> yes. >> Angie, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Uh, next item 5.3 is a carryover from October. You'll recall in October we had Brian Echo from West Brook and Company with us uh presenting the audit findings for our annual audit that was conducted a little earlier this semester. Um he obviously presented a clean audit but we were in a bit of a holding pattern waiting on the guidance from the federal government regarding uh
080the conducting of the single audit of which this year was nutrition services. >> It was actually I was wrong and misspoke there. It's the ed special education >> special ed was this year. Um and so we were kind of in that holding pattern after his presentation for guidance to be released and then you may recall there was a shutdown amidst all of that. Um as soon as the shutdown was lifted, um the guidance came pretty quickly thereafter. And so this evening we are good to go. Um what should have been released in March of last spring was finally released for us. And so, uh, we have the blessing from Brian and we will then fulfill our obligation to submit, um, to DESIE the final audit, including the single audit submission. Um, and that'll be done
081later this month by our deadline. Anything to add to that, Miss Sullivan? >> Okay. We just present that to you this evening for your action. >> I move the board approve the 2024 2025 annual audit. >> Second, >> Nick. Yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> AJ, >> yes. >> Dan, >> yes. >> Drew, >> yes. >> Angie, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Item 5.4 reflects the roof, track, and turf lease purchase resolutions. You'll recall we had also included these items at a previous agenda uh for the board's consideration. Uh you approved moving forward with the projects with the work. And so then what follows this evening is the lease purchase resolutions. Um we'll turn over to Mr. Anderson to provide some quick highlights on >> just we spoke in depth to this both I
082think in October and November and this is just the culmination of the work with respect to these these agreements and it's really lease purchase agreements for two main projects. One is the roof replacements at Discovery and South Valley uh which are long overdue and then also kind of a created creative financing option to get the track and field and turf improvements at both high schools that were in need of replacement. And then also as part of that doing some work at South Valley uh and their some of their field work as well. So um this just allows us to kind of afford pretty significant cost upfront cost of this work and spread it out over time. >> Questions from Mr. Anderson? None motion. >> Move the board approve the resolutions authorizing the district enter into
083the roof and track and turf lease purchase transaction with Clayton. Second. >> Nick, >> yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> AJ, >> yes. >> Dan, >> yes. >> Drew, >> yes. >> Angie, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> I'm out. Our last item then under unfinished business, uh we talked about at our December study session and an opportunity um in front of Miss Reed as far as the opportunity to be considered u for an MSBA officer role in that officer lineup and the nomination resolution. Um appreciate the discussion, questions, the dialogue from our last meeting at our study session. uh you have the information and the resolution that's presented to you under this item in your board packet along with motion language uh to be considered for the 2026 statewide officer nomination uh for Miss
084Angie Re would present that to you for your consideration as well. >> Do you guys have any other questions? I move the board approve the 2026 statewide officer nomination resolution nominating Andrew Reid for vice president of the Missouri School Boards Association. >> Second. >> Nick, >> yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> AJ, >> yes. >> Dan, >> yes. >> Drew, >> yes. >> Angie, >> Fain. >> Motion carries. That concludes unfinished business. And now we get new business. >> I see somebody already moving. >> Well, I just got told to >> to introduce uh Mr. Money, who is no stranger to any of us. Um I know Dr. Moore hit on that earlier in her board report uh portion as far as the idea that we've been working on for a little while uh with
085our fine arts department. I want to commend um Aaron and Mr. Allison along with the entire um staff that makes up our department and that I would put us up against anybody. >> Um that's not regional, that's not state, but that's the universe. >> Universe, >> that's how that's how >> I'm sitting. >> That's how impressive the work is of not only the adults in our organization, more importantly the talented students that we have. So, all that said, we wanted to provide you uh this evening with an opportunity to hear from Aaron and what's taking shape with the Encore program. Um knowing that it's a brief glimpse to what has been a lot of work to get us to this evening. So, with all that, no pressure, Mr. Money. >> Yeah. Start the timer. All
086right. So, thank you for letting me be here tonight. And I know Friday you got a little bit of a glimpse of the slideshow that we're going to go over. So, we have been working on this. Um, if you recall, we have creative arts academy at the middle school level, which is during the summer. And so, one of the ideas was how can we always move that into the high school. 10 years later, we still have been thinking how can we do that? Well, we got some opportunities to do that. So, we're going to talk about tonight the slide. So, why are we doing this? One of the things that we're looking at doing is how can we get all students involved in the fine arts department and use their creative minds. We feel like
087we have a we as in the staff and Mr. Allison and myself feel like we do have a really strong fine arts program, but what can we do more and what we can how can we personalize that even more for our students and give the extra opportunity for them that they may not have right now with their classes. So the why is giving more and the who is last year um we were tasked to take a team of teachers which we took some high school teachers and middle school teachers to a place in Wisconsin KM performed and then we also went to Lee Summit Tech Academy just to kind of see what they have and what what it looks like. And the great thing about it is we saw really phenomenal things. We felt like
088we were doing great things and they were just doing things a little bit different to make some embedded credits for students and be able to give them more time and the passion that they wanted to look and how they wanted to learn. So we went and explored those things came back and discussed how can we do this while keeping the same elevation that we already have within the department and the things that came out is we wanted to personalize our learning for our students. How can you apply an algebra class to a theater class and see how we can combine those and make it applicable for them to learn? Make their passion that they want to learn through something real which goes into the real world learning aspect. We also wanted to make sure that
089what you are learning you actually can put into the real world that you want to be able to do. And part of it that you'll see a little bit is we are talking about MBAs, micro internships that we're going to supply for our students in this program. Relevance and rigor. We're going to make sure that those are still going strong high. If you're taking geometry in this and you're taking a theater course in the Encore Academy, we're going to keep the rigor just as high as any other class that you're going to do. And if not, one of the things that we talked about with students, which we'll kind of go into this a little bit more, is they said it's making education memorable for them so they feel like they actually be able to
090apply it. And when they said that to us, I was like, you guys get it. You understand what we're trying to do. And they were like, I would thrive in this because I may not like math, but I can now attach it to everything I'm doing with set construction. Perfect. How do we do this? and how do we keep that rigor and relevance going? And the other aspect that we discovered that we really want to dive into is career-like experiences. We want our students to know that fine arts is not just performing. There's so many other things that you can do and often we don't have that opportunity to go and dive deeper into it. So at the end of our journey of looking at all of these things came up the encore a creative
091arts academy. It started off as saying a fine arts academy, but we really felt like the creative piece is the most important piece. It's not just about fine arts. Next slide. So what we're looking at is course offerings and encore. This is just the beginning of it and we are really personalizing it to the students and getting an interest survey. It's not necessarily an application to be part of the program. It is more of what are you interested in the creative realm and how can we connect that with your courses and how can we dive deeper into that. So they choose the encore academy. Right now, some of the classes that we're relating it to are tech theater, advanced theater, stage craft, like an advanced stage craft, and the digital media technology, which is something
092that we started this year, which if you've been to Lee Summit Tech Academy, they have a digital media technology class at Summit Academy, but they also have a a sound and production room and they have a recording studio. And we're looking at expanding into those things, too, for digital media, too. They choose one of those and then they choose one of their other core classes. A lot of the times our art students are in AP and advanced classes and if we can combine them for some other opportunities to get credits that they still need with their arts, it just frees up their schedule. And then we will ensure that they get multiple MVAs. Um the micro internships, it may be five or six different times that we bring people in say we're going to learn
093about costumes today and it's a real world person that is doing costume for Starlight and you're going to work with the kids for a week on all the behind the scenes of what that means and how it relates to you and the workplace. And then we bring in another week we bring in person that's doing makeup and then we talk about that aspect. And after the kids get to experience all those little micro internships, they decide what passion they're about and they work on a capstone project and it relates to all of their work within the arts. Those are some of the classes in the orange right there. Those are the ones that we know we can kind of start with, but as we see the survey and the interest from the students, we hope
094to expand to them, which Dr. more alluded to a little bit with PLP that that works very well because what at the end of the day is these students will have six go to the next slide please they will have sixth and seventh and eighth hour every day to work in the theater world they will have their core class they will have the encore academy and they will have their flex now can flex be used for other things besides just this 100% if they're like wait I'm doing network 53 three, I want to use it for that. Okay, you don't have to attach it to this, but it will give our students a block of time to work on their projects and be able to dive in deeper into what they want to do. These
095are some of the experiences that we're talking about with the client connected projects, entrepreneur's, and the micro internships. Right now, we do a training with professionals on how to do our rigging for the theaters. We're looking at expanding that into our sound and audio engineering so that we can get some certifications for our students before they graduate. Next slide. Staffing and budget. Each high school will have this program overall for the entire aspect. We are looking around $35,000. But we are not looking at it being an ad. We are looking at it how can we work it within the system that we already have. Okay. So working through that process as well as one FTE to add a a staff member to work on some of the various aspects that we're looking at. Next, >>
096that would be one FTE for the district. >> Yes. This is just the facts page which you guys already looked at. Um, it is one FTE for the district because right now some of those teachers we will be able to alter the classes and make it work. >> I know that was a lot. I talked fast. Is there any questions that you have or >> 35,000 sounds awful reasonable to me. >> I appreciate that. >> Hey Cindy, >> what was the second paragraph though? There was another paragraph, wasn't there, about on the finance page about >> it was about the specific um >> space >> teachers and the space. There was another paragraph about the space that we were talking about with capital and that is the sound production area. Yeah, >> what we felt
097like was important with that is you could build one at each building, but resources and the amount of time that you really will be diving into it makes more sense to have one central location and then have people go to it and use it and that it's not just for this program. It can be for all kids and all grade levels. >> Is is there anything that you chose to not pursue to keep the cost basically neutral? >> No, not yet. Okay. >> Okay. >> Not yet. >> I say that because I have to dive in a little bit deeper just to make sure. >> Sure. Sure. >> Um, and that is an estimated cost. Just thinking about really a lot of that will go towards the sound production side >> because you have all
098those apps and things that you're going to have to buy for the studios. >> I think my questions are most with the scale of this or the breadth of it. We're calling it Creative Arts Academy, but it's really theatrical. >> It's kind of this springboard. So would you I guess I'm trying to think of a student who considers them to be a creative arts you know focus graphic design >> but have nothing to do with theater >> would you still be looking to pull them into this >> because you feel that once you got them then there is a place for them even though they might not think of themselves connected to theater >> and and that's one of the things right so like right now there's a student that we know has their own
099business in photography. They're not in a fine art class at all >> and they're just trying to find their way through and we're like this would be perfect for them. Okay, >> we can get a visual arts teacher to work with them, the business department and kind of embed all various credits for them to be able to get that. So yes, it is expanding. It is for more than just the kids that are currently in here in the fine arts program. It actually opens the doors for others after we springboard a little bit and get the marketing out for others to join and see what aspects they can get involved in. >> And you can pull in students from like woodworking, industrial tech, right, to assist with set design. Whereas right now it's those stage
100craft students that are doing the lifting along with the the instructors. Similarly, you can pull in some of those kids in photography or design classes, marketing classes because there's always that arm of a of a production that again currently is being done by theater students who who may not want to pursue that, right? They're just given that task or the assignment because maybe they can work a computer or a spreadsheet. Um, but that's what's unique about this is like initially the thought was you're truly honing in on those theater kids and and music and band and like those those fine arts students when in reality you're actually bigger than that because of all the different components that hit the arts, right? >> Um, initially though we're talking about 15 students at each campus >> getting
101started with that >> capacity. >> That is kind of the capacity. the supply and demand will drive that. But as we've seen with other programs, typically when we start it, we start small and then we start to see the mushroom um as far as additional interest over time. So >> So how will the how I mean is there an application? Is there a process for who these 15 students are when you have a hundred of them? >> So we have the an intra survey. We didn't want to call it an application because that felt like you're either in or you're out. And a lot of times people don't do the creative thing because they're like, well, I don't think I'm good enough anyway. >> Um, so it's an interest survey just to say what kind
102of classes are you already taking and what are you interested in? And it's just a realm of everything that's creative arts. digital media is on there, there's sound production, there is photography, and then they just select those and then we look at them and have like little interviews with the the kids and just kind of make sure it's a good fit for them. >> So then is there a way that if a student has an interest but doesn't quite hit all of the marks that they can still kind of access? >> Yes. Okay, >> that is one of the things the teacher brought up as the teachers have said. They're like, we don't want it to be >> so selective that kids that aren't part of it still don't get to experience some of the
103things that we're doing. >> Well, in particular, since you were talking about those kids who don't necessarily think I can do this or your student who has their own photography business and I mean, good grief, what they can learn and their MVAs that they can get. But I mean, it just ties so well. >> That's the hope. >> Eric, could I say you're on the money and get away with it? >> I have never heard that. >> But not with the >> That's amazing. >> Sweet. >> I think it's a great idea. It's fantastic. >> I really like it. >> Yep. We're planning on launching pending board approval of course in January as far as just talking about it with kids and so far the feedback from the students has been very positive. >> What's
104the feedback from the teachers? >> Um there's always the fear of the unknown. >> Absolutely. >> And it is walking them and saying it's okay we're going to jump. >> Yep. >> And so that's where they are as performers themselves. They understand that concept. >> Yes. They concept. And that that comes with excitement too. Fear of the unknown also comes with the excitement of creating. >> Sorry, I guess I should have gone with that. >> But yes, there is the excitement of what this can be because their philosophy, we sat down and talked about the philosophies of the teachers and what they really think kids could get and it and Dr. Moore kind of guided us through that and it helped guide them to go, oh wait, we're talking about something like this that we
105want for our students, so this is the right work. Let's get going. excited that the possibilities there to even discuss it was part of the conversations too. >> Well, they probably already do. >> I mean that there's so much right that's I mean there's >> so many great things we're doing within the creative arts realm and I mean this is it's just intuitive that why wouldn't you maximize that, right? I mean we're already doing some of those things. We're already um we have the student interest. I mean, I may just be hungry, but I think back to our competency based learning book and the uh salad dressing projects and I mean, it's like why wouldn't we come up with systems that >> um you know, I didn't do the project, but I remember that example
106because it was like well that's creative and those kids had fun. So, >> um >> so that I I don't know. I like it. If if you're down to that it seems like to me the that few of students is it may be hard and is your >> how much is the the grade because I think I I read that you're primarily thinking sophomore through senior >> initially. So, how much is that the factor versus I I guess the other piece of it is trying to corral a group of students so that their their their math and ELA pieces are fairly consistent because you don't want a wide range. I mean, if you got that small a group, if you have a wide range, that seems like it'd be harder. Anyway, I'm just trying to
107and then then of course the the MVA seems like that would be a kind of coalescing piece if you had people who are really after the real world component of it. So, I don't know. It just kind of seems like a lot of different pieces to try to funnel into 15 kids in a a building. >> Your jigsaw puzzle just got a lot bigger. >> Yeah, you're not wrong. But I think one of the amazing things that our teachers and our staff in Liberty Schools as general can look at that and say, "How can we make this puzzle work because it's the right work at the end of the day?" >> And if there's more than 15 students and we have 30, let's see if we can do this. >> Okay? >> You know, I
108I we say 15. I think that's might be conservative at this point. I think we may have more sophomores that would be invi in interested right off the bat than those seniors that already have their four-year plan and they know where they were going to go and and what's happening. >> We intentionally did not add freshmen on there. We right now the teachers and and I have discussed that we feel like it's important for them to understand high school >> before they jump into something that's a little bit different that has some flexibility there. And from a from a scheduling standpoint, there are so many hours to meet the graduation requirements as well or you know the various tiers that we have within our graduation or diploma. The other thing that you asked about Dan
109was in and around that MVA piece. Something that is unique within this conversation is this idea of a micro internship which we've been talking about for a little while. This is the first opportunity to really test that where instead of a singular internship that lasts 120 hours, which is not a huge number, but it is the the the kind of the the baseline for an internship experience rather than one experience. How do you break that 120 hours into multiple experiences? Maybe within the same sector, maybe in differing sectors or different fields. Um this is kind of our first fora into that space of taking a micro internship creating the experiences that then culminates as an MVA. Um, we still have to talk with the Kaufman Foundation and the real world learning folks about that to
110make sure that um, >> we're going to tell them what we're doing in essence, but that's that's the goal in terms of taking what we've been talking about for a while and actually testing it a bit. >> And I can say there are things already happening that are outside the Liberty Walls that are doing that within these >> pillars, but our students, not all students have access. So, it's also about bringing the access to them. >> I like it. >> All right. >> Don't be afraid to win. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We'll see you again in January. >> Um again this evening for first read action in January which then will coincide with kind of when our students at the high school level begin their scheduling processes. So, uh thanks
111Mr. Money and the rest of the team for your work on this. >> Will Mr. Money be back in January to push it? He absolutely will >> answer any questions you may have. >> Encore. Encore. >> Can we get a Can we get a drummer with a symbol for when AJ makes a money joke? >> I may I may know one. >> Yeah, you might. >> 6.2. Then as far as contracts and purchases, we do have a few items to bring to your attention. We'll turn that over to Mr. Anderson to walk us through those. >> Yeah, these are just four items uh under the emergency provision of core policy. uh things that come up uh between last meeting and this meeting that we had to act on quickly all related to services for individual
112students. >> Do we have any I I know we keep getting this interpreter piece. Do we have any like consistency or is it truly just are we seeing more need I should I should ask that are we seeing more need for interpretation? >> I I think it's probably growing need but also I think that uh we've talked about this in the past we might be able to revisit it. It's unusual that we don't have like a contract set with this organization that can we can not have to do this each time. >> Uh we looked at it to it one other time, but they needed it to the specific to the individual within the contract or the agreement. >> Got it. >> Uh maybe that's worth revisiting, but it's just kind of those things that
113pop up and we have to address it quickly. >> Yeah. No, that's right. >> I move the board approve the emergency contracts as presented. >> Second. >> Nick, >> yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> AJ, >> yes. Stan, >> yes. >> Drew, >> yes. >> Angie, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> That concludes our business items. Miss Reed, >> now we're down to board of education. >> Anything coming? All the bills have been filed or are being filed. Correct. >> Mhm. >> So, um Denise had a question regarding lunch and learns for advocacy. If you're interested in doing that, let her know. Um those are on first Friday. There's on a they're on a Friday like at noon. >> I don't remember the >> I don't either. She sent you an email. So if you're
114interested in doing that. Um and then 9th through the 30th is board candidate filing. Um if you're not doing anything else on March the 10th, MSBA advocacy day, which is part of a uh governance activity. Just to keep that in mind. COSBA NSBA annual conferences are coming up and then all the way out until June when it's hot again is a summer summit. I don't know where it is this year though might be back at the lake which >> the Ozarks. Just kidding. I could say something, Jack, but I'm going to leave it alone >> and then all the upcoming meetings. So, any other remarks, comments? >> Yes. I'd like to make a comment. I've seen the number 15,000 around $15,000 per student. Is that right? Did I read that right? I remember doing a
115paper in the 80s u and photo sage was one of the schools three schools I looked at Kansas City photo sage and can't remember what the third one was but in any case I think it was about $3500 first year >> that sound right in the 80s >> for that period perhaps. Yeah >> still a pretty good deal $15,000 for what you get. >> Yeah. >> Be uh interesting to run those numbers through inflation calculator. Yeah, >> very true. >> Holidays are just a few days away. So, for all the teachers and all of those students, um, have a great break. Enjoy yourself. I would love to know what you guys are doing here, but not right now. I'm so impressed that you stayed for the entire meeting. Thank you for your attention and diligence
116and small conversation. Happy holidays to everybody. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> I move the board adjourn. >> Second. >> Nick, >> yes. >> Jen, >> yes. >> AJ, >> yes. >> Dan, >> yes. >> Drew, >> yes. >> Angie, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Goodness.