001why can't I get on all right got the thumbs up board thank you for uh tonight's meeting I wanted to talk to a little bit about our first video tonight as you know uh we have had a winter camp at the lead Center over the past several weeks and tonight's video is all about the fun that goes on there so I want to show you a little clip about the winter camp and then talk a little bit about the Showcase coming up next week [Music] hey everybody one of our new programs this year is using the lead Center for elementary school exploration camps let's go inside and watch our students in robotics drones art and theater let's go [Music] what are you doing tonight what what kind of fun is this we are programming robots
002and how does this robot work I mean what can it do for me well you can make it do lots of things like it can dance so what have you learned so far from this um mostly that's not going to work every time and just keep trying I love that good for you see how fun is it to come on a Tuesday night to program robots are you having a good time yeah it's so fun it was so fun I came really early tell me what's fun in here what you guys been doing um we've been doing games and we're about to start a dance for the theater a dance for the theater and we're going to be singing to a song honestly it's just been really enjoyable getting to teach something different seeing the
003kids have a fun time and just seeing them open up to their bions yeah what do you hope to that they get out of this what do you want um well I think the biggest thing is them with growing self-confidence but being part of the play and that all these kids are from different schools but yet they're getting to become friends and family so tell me about what you are doing tonight here what is all this about drones drones tell me about drones what do you do what do you learn how to do um fly them tell me what is all all about for kids tonight what what are you doing here uh this is absolutely amazing getting kids involved in things that are academically challenging but absolutely totally fun they don't even know that
004they're learning a thing while they're here but they're measuring they're checking and guessing they are using problem solving C iCal thinking skills out the [Music] wo so thank you for indulging us with that video I want to point out Dr vulker Dr bar ad the academic service soci of the house put their winter camps together for our kids five six weeks of of just fun for our students to Hands-On learning I will invite the board to the Winter Camp showcase which is next Tuesday from 6:00 to 7 it is a time when parents of the students not it's not an open invitation for the entire but just our parents of our students and our Board of Education to come by uh from 6:00 to 7 on next Tuesday to see uh kind of like their
005presentation of what they have learned so far and the fun that they've been having so just a first step into uh doing some uh activities at the lead Center over the uh over the winter months and we know that more heaven of that is ahead of us so thank you for the team putting that together and for the video if I have any questions I'll be happy to answer any of those Le at at the lead Center next Tuesday night thank you all right thank you moving on to the bridal Ridge update thank you so much for it does work all right thank you so much for letting us present and share a little bit about what is happening at Bridal Ridge I have with me um Peggy Jones a third grade teacher Alex Tomkins
006one of our instructional coaches in the district who happens to be at J at um Bridal Ridge and we are so excited for that and Grace Summerford who is I think she's going to be a a newscaster or something because she really helped us put on some daily videos every day for this project so what we're going to Showcase today is um I know you've heard a lot about our resource Source my view and our week six projects that allow for voice and choice and inquiry and then you will see how we took this and made a service project that impacted our entire Community good okay oh unleash kindness during positive impact week where School Spirits meets heartfelt giving to support Wayside waves Animal Shelter and our furry friends in need we will show our
007support through Spirit Week optional daily donations and homemade classroom contributions good evening so um for our my view unit three the theme was the humanity so we really thought about how can we tie K5 project into one also incorporating some science and just different writing activities so this is what we did first of all we started with the spirit week because every Elementary School loves a spirit week so we had different um themes each day kids got to wear their pajamas bring their favorite stuffed animal and then each day we had a themed item that they could donate if they were able so they brought in dog toys cat toys and we just got a lot of things to donate to Wayside in addition to the Spirit Week each grade level had a special project
008that they did so our kindergarten students were working on living things in their needs in science so they were researching different animals and part of their projectly the way unit is to build a shelter for an animal so they were able to do that and then Wayside waves actually came and read to each class so they were able to interact with animals um there's a student a couple students with their shelters that they made our first graders were focusing on opinion writing and something that kids like to write about is what's the best pet so they did that in the unit and they actually made some homemade dog treats which you can see here um and Wayside came to visit them as well our second grade project is actually where the whole idea came from
009so their project in this unit is to be able to talk about what is a good school tradition and to convince the principle of what should the school tradition be so we really thought about that and we were thinking well what's better than a service project so we're hoping that this will be an annual project not necessarily for a Wayside but just giving back to the community so second grade is where it came from um they also were working on opinion writing and they actually wrote about what's the best toy for your pet and then invited families in to make those toys so you can see some families in the corner there Wayside came and visited them as well and that's some of their writing that was really special all right I'm going to go
010a little off script here um with third grade uh you can kind of see some of the things that we did were same as some of the other grade levels for me this whole experience has just been wonderful for the kids I think about kids being connected making sure that they're learning and we felt as a class connected to each other we brought pictures of our pets we kind of guessed who was who um we felt very connected to the things that we're learning like in my view stories were all about heroes so it worked perfectly um poor Mrs Tomkins had to do all the shopping for all of our our supplies to make our homemade dog treats so we were studying patterns in math so it was well we need a quarter cup but
011we've got five groups how much are we going to have to buy um times the three classrooms and then dividing it all out um so just a lot of connections throughout the whole week we um felt very connected to each other as a grade level there was a competition that one of the other grades put on we won um so we felt really good with our other third grade classes um in the building and it was nice to just have a feel of community inside our four walls beyond our classroom because a lot of times the kids aren't really seeing what's going on in other classes and to know that we may not be able to see inside your room but we know we're all kind of in this together we're doing something for the
012greater good and it all kind of tied together going outside of our school walls we connected to our community through our service events we did make some homemade treats I'm not going to call them dog treats because they're human edible and I might have licked a spoon they were pretty good definitely kind of along the you know no bake cookie range so that was all right um yeah so we wrote thank you letters to people in the community um animal shelter animal control um we wrote to our own secretary who came in to do a little bit about animal control for us and how to take care pets what happens when we lose them um so it was just a great feel of community in our room in our building and in R more peculiar
013all around the fourth graders made a daily update video about how many donations we got each day and we also made posters about what Wayside waves needs and we helped with a coin drive and there's just a picture of the fourth graders each morning they were able to do a little video about what we had collected so that was very exciting oh and then our fifth graders were working on um narrative writing and learning about natural disasters in their my view unit and they tied that in well what happened to animals in a natural disaster so they were able to go on a virtual tour with Wayside and they learned about what do animal shelters contribute Animal Control what happens when hurricanes happen and then for their narrative writing they actually created survival Diaries um
014that you can see here and they're all digital and they just did a great job tying it all together also at Bridle Ridge we have a special program um called communication behavior and social skills and even these students were able to participate and be included in this and they even took a community- based um field trip to Wayside waves and were able to um experience that and they make homemade toys as well and our specials team also contributed you'll see a quick little um video of some um rhythmic body percussion um to dog names in music um they made some flyers um for those pets that are not getting adopted and of course our amazing Miss G in the library had just an abundance of books on shelters got a little [Music] excited everyone was
015involved so into oh no oh man I missed it okay there we go in total this is everything that we collected at the end of the week we had 67 17 items to donate to Wayside waves including all the things the kids brought in and the homemade treats and toys that they made so it was a really successful week you making you are making a positive impact see you tomorrow thank you so much for letting us share a little bit and just having an instructional coach here almost full-time is just amazing the things that she can help us connect with and do so thank you for that well thank you for all being here and I love your comment about creating that connection and Community within the building not just your grade like you said
016but from K to five I mean that's a big span and to find that Community is awesome than besides the spirit week what better thing can we have besides a big wrap-up assembly at the end too that so I just I just have one question so the spray cheese was that for the dogs yeah it's actually very hard to find I learned easy cheese thank thank you thank you thank you all right I will move on to is there a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved is there a second second any discussion all in favor motion passes unanimously thank you on to the school calendar Dr sler yes Dr vuler is going to come to the podium to present the school calendar board as you know you've seen the school draft school calendar
017for the better part of a week now as it was included in your update last week and so Dr vulker is going to talk you to the process and the recommendation for this evening Dr buker yes thank you and good evening everyone I want to start with a thank you to the calendar committee so the calendar committee is made up of certified and classified staff and they really give countless hours it is a lot of time and we do a lot of research and we have lots of discussion and then we get lots of feedback and then we talk a lot more and we keep going and going until we get to where we are tonight a recommendation for you so it was definitely a unique year the 2526 student attendance calendar development presented unique
018challenges to us due to the passage of Missouri Senate Bill 727 this new legislation redefined a school term and mandated the district and cities with least 30,000 inhabitants have a minimum of 169 attendance days so since the Raymore Peculiar School District does contain a portion of Lee Summit which meets that pop population threshold the district must add six student contact days to our current 163 day model so with that goal in mind and meeting those requirements the calendar development process began we started with Gathering feedback from staff and the community we created a c calendar that we believe align to um align with District priorities two draft calendars were then finally agreed on after lots of conversation and development and then that those two were shared with the entire staff of the Raymore procu school
019district leading to a final recommendation by team reek staff and team reek overwhelmingly selected the calendar you're viewing tonight the recommended calendar includes 169 student attendance days has eight early release days and nine collaboration or work days as you kind of combine those thoughts together really some highlights include the addition of early release days to ensure we meet our 169 student contact day threshold as those do count towards of 169 uh you'll notice a week off for students around Thanksgiving um and that week actually includes time for staff to collaborate on that Monday and then uh a work day on that Tuesday uh so that is collaboration and work time built in and then a late a little later return which the staff always and students usually like that as well when you come back
020after winter break you'll see on this calendar and a last day of school on Wednesday this was a a Dr slagel request um as we were talking through it and it makes complete sense as the calendar committee considered this as well um we have had quite a bit of snow it's been quite a winter I know you guys have noticed um if you finish on on a Wednesday that gives you a little flexibility in case you need to use that Thursday and that Friday before you roll in and have that Memorial Day uh so we still have some collaboration days we can use we're still able to use Ami days but having those two days on the end if you just needed to slide one or two over is actually really really helpful and beneficial
021so we were able to do this in this calendar as well we think this proposed calendar thoroughly meets our new state requirements while strongly focusing on instructional quality and staff collaboration um and I believe oh I do want to address this to address the requirement kind of while balancing the needs of students and staff the calendar committee has also reviewed the length of the school day the committee does recommend a shorter school day for students to provide additional time for planning and collaboration for our staff they Revis School day length more closely line with peers in the metro area as we tended to have a longer school day than most so when looking and I pulled a peer group um we were on at the secondary level 13 14 minutes longer than most and at
022the elementary level 19 minutes we averaged longer than most so that was some time that we could actually bring back in knowing that we're losing some of those full collaboration days we could actually use some of that time before and after school that has not been set or determined on the length the number I mean the number of minutes or where to use that in the school day I think academic services with their team and their leaders and staff are going to need to take a a a long look at exactly what makes sense on that and what will be most impactful for our staff but we are recommending that there be a shorter uh day as we go that's not exactly a part of the calendar approval process but I wanted to be transparent
023with the board that was definitely a part of the of the discussion and how we could have some additional collaboration while losing some full collaboration days because we absolutely are doing that and I think it's important to State you know we we construct our calendar yearly uh and we listen for and ask for a lot of feedback there are some places that do two years at a time and while that would be nice because that would be a lot less work you're not able to adjust and make changes so anytime we have a big change and I'll consider this a fairly good siiz calendar change probably not as big as the one we did four or five years ago when we added the collaboration days but still significant in that and we know was based
024on the requirements of the law anytime you make a change like that we are going to be asking our community and our staff how this calendar is impacting them what they like what they don't like because we're going to come back and we'll take that feedback and if next year there are things that our community says well this was tough um we would like rather you do this is there another way you can accomplish this well will absolutely listen and do our best to adjust to our needs of our our staff our community and first and foremost our students because in the end I know that's the most important piece are we meeting their needs whether with the shortening of the day or the adjustment of the calendar we'll continue to try and meet their
025needs first okay I have a few questions okay couple of new ones um first of all I know that there are times that they're called blackout dates that teachers and staff can or cannot request those days off will that Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week be blackout day good question question they're here to utilize them we're having to adjust so much or do you know yet that's a great question we have talked about this it really um and even in the committee talked about the Tuesday not being a blackout day it is a true work day if you wanted to take PTO and not use that workday that would be we we talked that's fine um it is a work day the Monday is still in discussion because it is a true collaboration day all
026right so Tuesday yes Monday in discussion okay and yes I told several legislators yesterday to stay out of our calendar that would be I appreciate you thank you second question next year with the Way Memorial Day falls we can start fairly decently in August what happens when it's that 7th of September Labor Day oh you were talking about Labor Day Labor Day yes I'm sorry yes and you can't start so early in August how will something like that that will be significantly impactful that's why I really appreciate you continuing to talk okay to our legislators that that requirement that we only have that 14 days before Labor Day that really needs to be a local Board of Education decision in my opinion and we as a group and the calendar committee can make see what's
027best for our community we currently don't have that freedom to do that as that's written in State Statute so yes that will be impactful when that occurs and then my last question for now I know we always hear from teachers that um they don't have enough time especially with Elementary they don't have enough time to get done in their day what they need to and now we're considering adjusting the amount of time they have in a day how will that play out especially in elementary yeah I think that's the one area that I'm looking at that curricularly I think they're going to have to and that's why I said turning it over to the academic Services team is the most appropriate um that group is going to have to sit down at the elementary level
028with those leaders and those teachers and say where can we find whether it's 12 minutes or 15 minutes is it in some of our home room time or advisory time or is it or there ways we can transition differently and I've seen that done to save a couple minutes I know that we have great Partners around us that are already running a schedule that would be the same length a length of the day and and we could reach out how are you accomplishing those tasks in those minutes but I I do think it's important that we in the calendar committee leave that up to academic services to say okay how can we um make sure we get everything accomplished we need to and I specifically think of those kiddos who have um extra help that
029they need in different things and getting that time during the day or they've got therapies during the day that takes them out of the classroom for a time yeah making sure that our our teachers still have enough time Dr Hoffman did remind me just that we um added these 15 minutes when we went to k5s you know when we had the intermediates so uh we lengthen our day when we went to K5 usually often it's to get the extra special class in and to get transitions that's most likely what when those things I I I think they can revisit that and refine that appropriately I really do so are you looking you haven't decided yet if we will start l or end yes we it has not been decided and it really might change by
030level I mean it makes a lot more sense at the secondary often to end sooner kids are often leaving for activities coaches are leaving uh if you end sooner they don't have to miss as much school they often we don't have even have to get out earlier some of our colleagues to the north that get out earlier already at the secondary level um don't have the the dis missile issues that we do uh so I think it at the elementary it may might make more sense on the front side but I really do want to leave that to the academic Services team to go through all of those scenarios and say where does this make the most sense this a um you know a pretty big change and we had a really big change when
031we went to collab days on Mondays and that was a large outcry um and then everybody got used to it everybody said wasn't it on Friday and it was Monday so can you explain talk a little bit about the the shift from Mondays to Fridays yeah um well our full days we had a lot of Monday thoughts in the beginning because we wanted a lot full day holidays uh as soon as you transition to partial days Monday really doesn't make as much sense anymore you can't really do an early release on a Monday well you could uh but that really doesn't feel as familyfriendly and we wanted to make this as familyfriendly as possible for our patrons and our community while still getting the academic needs that we need to get done so that was
032was the cost of the shift of Friday if people wanted to take an early weekend or if they wanted to get their kids at one and then head on off to wherever they were going to the lake or grandma's or that made more sense than using a Monday or a Wednesday you can't do anything with that amount of time um you're probably not going anywhere or using that any other way than just just picking your child up so that was the thought that is exactly one of the things that we will ask for feedback specifically on say okay we went from more Mondays to Fridays which did you prefer we already have a lot of parent feedback that we get that asked us to try and move off of Mondays so I don't think this
033is going to be um it's changed so we're going to hear about it and I understand that but we'll just take that feedback and and we'll ask them did you prefer the Mondays if there was a different day for an early release which day would it be I think some years past we used to do them on Wednesdays we had like Wednesday early releases which I thought was interesting I mean really can't do anything with that but we'll see and then if we'll make adjustments if our community thinks there's something that might be better thanks so yep going back to the um shift and um either shortening the days um is that something that we're looking to do this upcoming school year it is okay yes absolutely will that depend on busing um actually we
034probably help busing okay it'll give them a little more time in between the tears will actually help when that decision is made or at least headed down a road as to what time the the new bell schedule would look like we'll communicate that with the board in an update you should have a week ahead of time before we start talking about it more publicly I know that the academic services will do absolutely brilliant um I just want to make sure that we're not cutting recess that's we need lots of activity time for them so I'll make a note okay all right anything else for us no would love to make a motion on our new calendar I just want to to thank Dr vulker in the calendar committee uh we got into a pretty good
035Groove with the calendar that you blessed us with three years ago board responsive to staff concerns and staff need uh a little bit of a curveball this year and I think we've made you know lemonade out of lemons on this quite honestly we'll keep pushing at the legislative level for the right of the school board to have sole control over its own calendar until then we will play by the rules and I appreciate the effort that brought forward tonight all right I will entertain a motion to approve the 2526 school calendar as presented is there a second second any other discussion all in favor motion passes unanimously thank you thank you very much thank you Dr vuler very creative all right on to committee reports you all hibernated did anybody do anything Team rack mat
036I guess not very many turn your mic on about in our closed meeting and just some of the adjustments to uh the health care issues but there was a lot of input and I thought you know that they came to a decision that would benefit everybody all right um met with student um support the what's that um committee called um Support Services student support team student support yes I I did that instead of Team rack this week and um they said that um waiting for the next strategic plan um what in 2027 would be when they um take recommendations to um improve on the Strategic plan of what they need in their department and um I was very impressed with the ideas that everybody has come up with the in the areas that we feel
037like we need to improve upon to help our students who are struggling in the school um lots of good ideas so I'm be anxious to see what we you know what funding we can come up with and planning we can do to help this committee and their ideas for these kids uh I W was at the foundation meeting this month and I just wanted to remind everyone that April 5th is the gala so mark that on your calendars that's always fun and they're changing locations this year and it will be at the rack Center so that will be fun all right moving on to superintendent update thank you madam president do you have my updates that are posted on board docs for you I know you've seen those past several weeks I just wanted to
038let you know uh confirm with you that March 10th is a makeup date is a way to C at least get the some of the days that we've missed back U March 10th was originally a staff collaboration day we are now using that as a student contact day so I thank everyone involved for the co operation around making that day a student contact day because that's not as easy as it sounds just to Pivot within a couple weeks of having a staff collaboration day for uh student contact day so that's going to go on as well as March the 19th I just want to bring that to your attention make sure it's on your calendars that is the teacher of the year staff support staff employee of the year uh dessert banquet at the brand
039new Pac at 6:30 uh six o'clock this year uh so hope to see you all there thank you all right moving on to Board of Education comments as I said earlier Dr slagel and I went to uh Jeff City yesterday with the cooperating school districts uh group and um I did try to mention to each one of our legislators and even some that aren't ours about how our calendar you know what them mandating up there affects back home for them um really just worked on connecting with them yesterday there's not a whole lot of legis ation getting that close to passing right now but just we've got some new ones so working on those relationships and connecting with our legislators um and so just kind of giving them some information and getting feedback from them
040Dr slagel left with some homework for some information to get back to them so that they understand a little bit how some of the stuff that's coming through the pipeline will impact us so just uh working on those connections yeah March 11th is msba oh yeah March 11th is the msba advocacy in Jeff City so whoever wants to go up then let Pam know so that you she can get you registered to go what day is that on Tuesday Tuesday we also have several students yes we were able to get some students to go so that'll be fun and we did connect with a rayet grad Kobe sturg caught us in the hallway as we were talking and uh got to connect up with him yesterday so it was fun to see he's working for
041the uh Attorney General's office office now so he has graduated from mu and uh is having a whole new view of life now so yeah fun to see our graduates succeeding out there in what they are passionate about any other comments I just want to say that tonight's Through The Eyes was probably my favorite I might be a little biased but for Brantley to have little words is not like him so whatever you did please give me your tips and secrets so I can try it at home well since you brought it up I want to shout out to Lexi gross who's our new digital media coordinator this is one of her first uh primary projects that she put together I thought she did an outstanding job of making it a quick hitting informative fun
042video so I'll let her know that all right on to the calendar of events March 13th will be our next work session and that'll be having our first look at the budget and then March 20th is our next regular meeting uh 7 o'clock open and we are adjourned thanks for being here guys