USD253 Board Meeting 2026-05-13

001Okay, I'd like to call the May 13th Board of Education meeting to order. Uh, we have six board members present and I would entertain an adoption of the agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Barb, is yours popping up for you? Okay. You want to just raise a hand? Yeah. Motion passes 6. >> Thank you. That brings us to item 3A, public comments. Public comments will be allowed for a duration of three minutes per speaker to be timed by the board clerk. And speakers must sign up in person for public comment by 1 p.m. the day of the board meeting. Public comment by email or remote may not be accepted. Those giving public comment may not approach the board or move past the podium. No handouts

002will be allowed, but such materials may be emailed in advance to the board clerk for distribution to the board. Do we have any public comments? >> We do. Nathan writing, please come forward. >> All right. Thanks. Well, good evening school board members and superintendent. Um, at the last schoolboard meeting, a school room member said he likes public comment, so I thought I would oblige. Um, this school year, as cost containment discussions showed a likelihood that the school's child care program, school district's childare program would end, um, a childare sustainability team was put together hoping to find ways to maintain the childare program um, in the schools. Included the childcare director, providers, assistant superintendent, business operations, and parents. I was not a part of this team, but I would receive updates on their work. Um, they

003hoped to procure an early childhood block grant that would help with funding with the child care through the end of the 2026 2027 school year. Um, the superintendent recommended that if the grant was not received, the childcare program would uh go through December. Um, so that would allow families to find some ways to get some daycare elsewhere. So, we appreciate that. Um, some ideas that were also shared for program sustainability included adjustments to infant, toddler, preschool age, um, weekly rates, and limiting supply costs by utilizing shared resources, donations, and fundraising. Uh, on April 7th, I was notified that rates would go up for the 2026 2027 school year. I was asked to verify if I would still like my child in child care for the next uh, school year um, with those changes. That's fine.

004Yes, I would. I'd already been informed that these changes were in the recommendations for trying to keep daycare open. So, yeah, no problem. Then on April 9th, I was notified that the application for the block grant was not funded for this cycle. Thus, the childcare program would officially close in December. Um, and that it was denied before April 7th. I just hadn't heard yet. When I talked with other parents about this uh sad news, um those that were on the sustainability team, they said that in their discussions, the rates would have been increased only if the grant was awarded and we had childare for the full year. So, I'm willing to pay the increased rate for childare, but I I I just was curious why, if we're closing in a few months, why are we

005raising the rate and going against um the team recommendations? And on a related note, um we parents were invited in January to participate in a fundraising opportunity with Crispy Cream to buy crafting supplies for our four child care locations. Um I'm not sure how much we raised, but it was it was a good amount. Um before Mother's Day, our uh providers um reached out and asked if we had certain supplies to make uh craft, and I said, "Well, why don't you reach into those funds from the fundraiser to help out with those costs?" So, childcare providers share that um when they reached out to their leadership, they didn't know what had happened to those funds. So, I was just wondering what had happened to the money that my friends and family helped raise for those

006crafts for my child. Um the providers spent their own money to make those crafts. Am I about out of time? Um well, the next time um that the district u I'm out of time. Okay. All right. Well, And and just to clarify, I want everybody to know that, you know, this is stressful, I think, to get up and do public speaking. So, we do appreciate you coming and that you can always email the board and it gives you the the ability just to lay everything out and there's no time limit and that we we'll we'll read it, but I just want to >> we'll listen to you. >> Yeah. So, just just that you don't have to come up here and but if you want to, great. But if you're not a fan of that,

007then you can do that and you're not going to be cut off. So, thank you. >> Okay, that's going to bring us to item four, the consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are those for which the board has received information in advance and have been thoroughly reviewed. Approval of the items may be made by a single motion, second and majority vote with no separate discussion of any item listed. Should a member of the board desire to discuss any item at the request, it will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> Second that. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 6. >> Thank you. Uh that's going to bring us to item 6A 2025 2026 building needs assessment. >>

008Dr. Carel is going to come up and share some information from our latest building needs assessment. We've actually were uh scheduled to bring this to to you a little earlier in the year, but with all the other big decisions that were going on uh late winter and early spring, um this one kind of got pushed back. So, but it's still still very important information for you to hear. >> Um thank you for letting me present this tonight. I'm excited about doing that. Um, I just want to share a brief overview of the results of the needs assessment and some themes. I did a little bit different this year, but just as a reminder, each year the board of education looked at the needs assessment. That needs assessments compiled by the building principles with help of

009their site councils and their building leadership team. Then the teaching learning team in the past has taken those assessments and we've put them onto a presentation by school and shared that out with you. And that's on there if you want to see. I think it's the last one there, the presentation. We're not going to go over that tonight because we took it a step further this year. We actually went in and we themed them based on some themes. So hopefully that'll help us as we move forward with both our fiscal planning for 2627 and also our strategic planning moving forward. So I just took made I made um some tables and I went through um the work that the teaching learning team had done and also the needs assessment and I categorized things. some summary

010pieces in there and um then I went through that and I kind of started to color code. My initial intent was to color code a lot and then I started running out of colors and it got really busy. So I I did a lot and I identified some of the bigger areas of themes and then based on that I went down to page four and I kind of gave you an overall theme of some needs. So when you think about what the what the principles told us, what the schools told us. Um we need to work on our core and we also need to work on our tiers. Um there's a clear need for a social studies adoption. I think every school said that and there's also a little bit of music in there too.

011The music teachers would like to have some new things as well. Um there's also a need for support for our ESL kids, our ELLL learners, our NAS kids, children's instruction, things like that and bilingual needs. So we have a lot of needs for students or ELS. Um we also have staffing needs like we we're short on pair of professionals, principles mentioned, instructional strategists, ESL strategists and and support for students with disabilities. Um we also they also talk a lot about behavior and trauma, social emotional needs. Um behavior came up, student mental health, things like that, need for the counselors and programs across the district. Um student attendance and chronic acids was mentioned a lot across the board. Family engagement was mentioned as a theme almost in every school. Um there was some talk about extended

012learning time. You know when we remember back to COVID days we had that extended learning that touring time we had and then they even mentioned some summer school. Wanted to go back to that a little bit. Um then there was some needs with with HVAC um and humidity issues. I know for one of those was at Walnut with our library there had a lot of humidity issues there and then some general safety concerns mentioned like sidewalks, playgrounds need repair, they're old, water temperature, things like that and then just general maintenance like doors not working, needing to be maintained and roofs and carpet replacement. So those are some of the general just themes of needs that came that came across. Um before we go to the next part, were there any questions about those that I

013can maybe try to answer a little bit? There's not. Okay. Well, if there is, we can stop and and and talk about those a little bit. The next table started talking about barriers and then some solutions to remove the barriers. And if you look down that first column of barriers as I try to take some of the needs and color code toad them down to this that are identified as barriers of things that are keeping us from being proficient on the state assessment. So, you'll see there there's some things like chronic asism there. Um, I said extend the learning time is there, food insecurity is there, the social emotional needs are there, things like that. So, you keep going on down there, you'll see I kind of theme that first column again matching up to

014the needs a little bit. And if you go to slide eight, you'll kind of see some overall themes. So, when you think about the barriers, some things they're keeping that the principal said are keeping our kids from being proficient would be attendance and chronicism. They're not in school to learn. Um, support for ELS and student and students with disabilities is increasing. seeing a lot seeing more of those. The social emotional behavior needs is a barrier. Um kindergarten readiness is a barrier. Um we're seeing a skill gap in reading and math. Um staffing shortages. Um family involvement and again you'll see um limited extended learning times. You'll see a lot of those needs that were in the first table also showing up as barriers. Then the last part there, the last part of that table dealt

015with some uh themes or things we need to do or some solutions to remove the barriers. And the first one there deals with increasing staff capacity to meet the growing needs of our of our learners. We have a lot of diverse needs in our build in our schools with behavior and student special needs, attendance, seal, sele non-English speakers, things like that. Um we need to work on our coherence and our alignment of our curriculum. That goes back to that um core and tier support items. Um targeted support that would be our tiers again. Um we need we have got to work on our family engagement, get families into our schools and more engaged. Um there's been a lot of talk about the expanding learning time, more opportunities like after school tutoring, summer school, things like

016that, more professional development on data and meeting diverse needs of our students. and then making sure that we have the funding in place to make these things sustainable. Overall, the theme for the amount of time like last year in the past has been more than it's five or more years is kind of what they say it's going to take. So, that's kind of where we landed on the needs assessment. Um, if you spend some time with it, you may come up with some other things, but this is kind of what we came up with as as a team on some of our needs. That's really what I have. Um, I just wanted to theme some things out for you, give you idea of what we're going to work on planning in terms of our fiscal

017and our strategic planning moving forward. >> This will be good information for us as we, you know, we're going to start um looking at who we might want to work with to help facilitate strengthening our strategic planning and develop our next fiveyear strategic plan. And this will be this is good data that will be a part of that process because there are a lot of good goals and action items that can come out of this information. Ryan, I have a question on so one barrier mentioned there is staffing shortages. Would you is that tend to be more support staff that you're >> Yeah. identifying or >> That's going to be something that's be interesting to kind of hammer out as we come out of cost containment. Um a lot of that dealt with um para

018support teachers aids um making sure that we have enough staffing to cover our classes. There were just instructional strategists making sure we have enough support for our eels, things like that. making sure we hire enough special education teachers. So, I think it's specific to those areas. >> Um, when I was looking at this, I was really concerned about student attendance and the absenteeism because obviously if they aren't in school, anything else we do is not going to help. So, and I I guess I was really shocked that it was at the elementary schools as well as at the middle and high school because I know middle and high schoolers can get kind of strong willed, but um man, finding a way to get those kids to school is going to be real important. >> Yeah.

019And and part of that at the elementaryaries is it's a it's an adult problem because they depend on their parents getting them to school. The high school it becomes a student problem getting to school. I know something we have planned for teaching learning would be to have Patricia Reyes make a presentation on what she does to help with attendance. Um when school gets out I'll run the podcastism data for you again and share that out at some point so you kind of see how we did. I think we're do a little better this year. We've been gradually getting better but you're right on that is definitely something I think we need to focus on is getting kids to school and a lot of that goes also go back to family engagement as well. They kind

020of go hand in hand. >> Yeah. And on that subject, I would just, you know, enforce that um it's really important for our staff to do, and I'm sure that they are, but to make sure that when children are missing school, we're counting that attendance and we're forwarding it on to the Lion County Attorney's Office. Um so that they can do a truency case, which for small children wouldn't mean you go on probation. They basically do the equivalent, it's not exactly precise, but the equivalent of a diversion. They call it family preservation services because there's no point in putting a 10-year-old on probation if mom is not taking him to school or dad isn't right. Um, but I will say the one thing the county has always harped on um, for as long as I've

021been in the bar here is getting that information from the schools late. Um, and then, you know, having it not in time to intervene when school is in session, right? Because it doesn't really help you if we, you know, file a truency case in summer. Um, and I know our staff are doing that, but I would just speak to it that that's important to make sure we pass along because sometimes the issue is not something our staff can intervene and fix. It has to go up the chain. They need that additional support. Somebody else going to that house and checking in with that family. Be good. >> It'd probably be good for us to at some point um over the next couple of months to u maybe have Patricia share a little bit about some

022of the work that she's done. She's doing a great job there. And uh I think it'd be it'd be good for the board and I'd love to hear it too, you know, to see what all is going on and all the things because because I know she's she's involved in some of those truency cases and so on through that process. >> We had a lot of a real concerted effort. Um I believe it was last school year and the year before when we had that DCF grant. >> Yes. >> Um and I know we don't have that anymore. Uh correct. We don't have that position, right? because we had someone who was really making some strides in that. >> I think Patricia's making strides and one of our presentations for teaching >> on top of

023everything else she's doing. >> She she's doing a lot, but we have her on our list to come and talk to you about attendance. >> Um and Jeremy might know more about this, but I know Judge Jones is doing a family court kind of thing. We're one of three or four counties that has that um program um trial program to see how it works. And it sounds like a pretty um pretty good program if if we could get our schools connected with him. >> What you would probably refer to as sort of a specialized, for lack of a better term, like the drug court program is an intensive service that meets regularly. And so it's kind of the same concept with family um courts because sometimes when you get everyone together, they actually have something

024similar now they call home court in the fifth judicial district, but that's really for kids who are typically going to be in foster care um which may not be where you need someone who's just got truency issues. Um, so yeah, that's actually I'm happy you mentioned that because I'd forgotten about that recently. That's going to be big for our community. The only thing else I'll add is um I know we still always have um capital outlay improvements and things that need to happen in our buildings, but back in the day, you're probably the only one that remembers um and maybe art was our performance-based budgeting that we used to do. And I remember when I was on for Walnut, when you looked at a building needs assessment, it was almost exclusively related to the building

025itself because our buildings were in such bad shape. And now that we've come so far since our bond project, it's nice to see that it's not it's not where it was. >> So at least, you know, at least we're making strides there. And I know our team is working really hard to keep everything great. I think what I was going to mention about those last three um there was I think if we talk to Corey and talk about his big old book his Bob I would think a lot of those things are in his Bob. They're on his list. They they know they're happening. They know they're work orders and they're just getting to them. So I think there's a lot there's a lot of stuff up there that we can do as a district

026to focus on to help us plan for the future. Okay, thank you very much. That's gonna bring us to I'm trying to get back to my >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Yeah, I appreciate it. >> Oh, it's you again. >> No, I'm again. I got the next one, too. >> Okay, so 6B connect memorandum of understanding for virtual programming. Okay. So, been talking about this quite a bit. Um, trying to get it going, working through several different avenues. And tonight, I want to kind of our next step to continue to work on this is to get an agreement approved so we can start working um with the team to help us put this into place. So, tonight I'm requesting that board approval of our withd connect program. as that connect would provide USD253 with

027an additional op additional pathway for students who are unable to be successful in traditional inerson setting. The uh Flint Hills virtual program would operate similar to Flint Hills learning center. Um we're couching it as a program. Um the state when we get approved it's going to be a school but we want to run it like we do Flynn Hills learning center where it's an opportunity where we can place kids in there based on need. So um it'll be similar to that. um it'll run out of high school, but um I just want you to understand that this is not intended to be a broad choice school option for students who simply just want to be virtual. Our goal is to keep kids um in the brick and mortar schools and provide them that education. But

028we do have a need for students um who we're losing. When I say losing, I mean kids that have left us to go virtual, kids who have left us to go um homeschool, things like that. We've lost those students. They still live in our community and we're not helping them. So, I think we can use some of this program to maybe track some of those kids back to our schools. But we're also losing kids in a different way, too. We're losing kids um because they've made mistakes like brought drugs to school. They've been suspended. Then they make another mistake and they get suspended again, which means after they're suspended, they typically go to the school within the school program at the middle school, we call it Swiss, or they go to Flender's Learning Center and

029they work there. They mess up again. The only next the next step is we suspend them. and they have no longer they can no longer go to our schools. They have to stay home. So the really the intent of this is to provide an opportunity for those kind of kids who make the mistake the second time and we have we have no choice right now other than to say you know what you have to stay home. This gives us another option of providing that education. So to put some context to that this year I had two students who I had that happen to where I had to suspend them twice and they could no longer come to our school. So then we had so then we had a burden of still trying to provide them

030education. Um, and those were students that were younger. And then we also had some kids at the at older kids who made the mistake as well and they had to be suspended with Fiddle Learning Center. So, they couldn't finish that program either. At that point, they there was no option for them. This would give them an option to say, "Okay, this didn't work. Now, we're going to enroll you in this program so you can continue your education and work towards being a graduate." So, those are kind of some context pieces for this. I just want you to understand that. Um and under this part under this partnership um ESDAC would provide the online curriculum. They'd provide staff. Uh we would enroll we would maintain the enrollment and and student records, special education services, counseling support

031and some funding responsibilities. Um EZDAC would do a lot of communication with the families and also the school, but they would be taking the primary load of the staffing pieces. So there's not a lot of risk for us. That's one reason why this is attractive to us because it allows us to do this and feel like we're not taking a lot of risk. Um we provide this but um we're not going to be providing staffing. If we were to do this in house, meaning we would run it like Final Learning Center, but we would be virtual. We would have to provide we have to provide certified teachers for all the subjects that are taught. And as you know how much a teacher costs on average, that gets kind of expensive to be able to do.

032So, um I just want you to understand that we're going to maintain ownership of the students and we'll get some district funding out of this. Um but there'll also be a chance that we'll gain some kids like I mentioned a little bit ago who are virtual who are homeschooled that may come back to us as they hear about what we're doing. And one thing about that is if we're going to do that and we want to take funding for those students, they're going to have to understand that they're going to have to meet an enrollment date. I can't tell you right now what that enormment date is because we're still working through the h handbook and the processes document. But in order to be counted for Emporia on September 20th, they have to attend one

033day prior and it's one day after before October the 4th. So our date for their enrollment in order for us to take funding has to be sometime prior to September 20th to allow them to attend one full day. And then um at that point um if we have a student who's full-time virtual, they would employee would get 35% of the funding and nestag 55% because they're providing the coursework and the staffing for it. Now, if we have a student who comes to us and they're with us face to face, virtual or uh brick and mortar on September 20th, we take funding, then the student gets in trouble and has to go and be part of this program later on in the year, say November, December. Then, if we do that, we transition one of our

034students who we've received funding for to this program, it's going to cost us about $912 of our funds to educate that student through the ESDAC program. But we've already been funded towards transferring that funding to ESDAC as a way to provide that services and that so that's a quarter so about $912 per quarter. Um so I want you to understand that. Um overall this agreement allows the district to expand virtual learning opportunities while taking advantage of full staffing and operational demands of creating and managing a separate in-house virtual program. We won't have to create this. It would be created by ESDAC. We would use it and we would um work with our kids. We would provide bed services to them. We would maintain enrollment. We would communicate with the families too as well as ESDAC.

035I just think this is a good opportunity for us and allows us to do some things without a lot of risk. Um it also allows us a way to maybe attract some of the students who have left us for other programs like home school or or other virtual programs. So I'm just asking for approval of thisou so we can get move so we can move forward with a handbook and process documents and try to get this ready to go for the start of school. the the key is you're going to you're going to be recommended by school officials to attend this school. You're not just going to go and enroll in this virtual program. So, you know, we we need to we want to ensure that it's serving students that need this particular type of

036of education and not, you know, I mean, there's there's always the risk, right? If you just open up open enrollment to virtual school and all of a sudden you lose 500 of your bricks and mortar kids to a virtual program, you're losing a lot of your funding when you do that. And we're not in a position to to go that route. So, this is really started out as being designed another resource for students that just, you know, have run into roadblocks in the regular path to education that maybe all of us or maybe some of us didn't go all those regular paths. Um, you know, it's another place for them to land. It's a it's it's not a good feeling, you know, when when Ryan and I have to be involved in telling a student

037there are no more options for you here. And then once you lose them to a virtual program somewhere else, when you get to that point, they're not coming. They're probably not coming back because they've got a bad feeling about the way they've been treated at that point, even though they have some ownership in it. Um, so this is this will this will just we can at the end of the day say that we never abandoned a student. There was always an option for them. Now, if they get into this ESDAC program and they completely are not doing it and not participating and doing what they should, then they're making a decision, right, to not participate, but um it's not it's not a decision that we've made to kind of turn our back on. >> I

038just have a I I I like this idea. I really do. Um I just have a clarif I need a clarification. So, we're going to try and run this program in our buildings, but I guess I'm also wondering if students who u maybe have chosen homeschool will be able to do most of this program from their home. >> Yeah, it's virtual, so it won't be on site. We won't have a room for it. It'll be right now when we think about who's going to operate it, like for example, I'm listed as the virtual director. Been talking to Mr. Fiser and Mr. Burns about this quite a bit. And it may be that we need one of the assistant principles are going to take on that take on that responsibility of working with these students and

039these families. There has to be a counselor involved. But yeah, these students will work on this at home. Okay. >> Now, there are some benefits of that. If if they are in a if they're an employee student and they live in our community and they they join this, they do have some access to us. I mean, they can come take the state assessments with us. We can probably we can we we can try to get them into some school some on-site classes as well because we know with homeschooling on-site being on site with other students is important as well. So we can maybe do some of that if they live here they can become part of us and we can do kind of a hybrid model. That's one thing that when Mr. Schwarz and I

040met with EZDAC and some KSD people we talked about hybrid model um doing maybe some of that down the road. Um, so there there there's a lot of benefits that we could that we could use to help students and again it goes back to like Mr. McGee, Dr. McGee said, it's about providing them providing us with additional opportunities to support kids because our teachers are currently doing that, but they're having to make special lessons and do a lot of extra work to support kids who aren't in their classroom. >> Yeah, that that that explains I mean you already said that you said it in a different way which also helped clarify. So, thank you so much. >> I think it's good. U my my biggest concern with with this is like what Dr. McGee said

041is our our brick and mortar kids wanting to try to do this and we need to understand that it's going to be run similar to Flynn Hills learning center. We're going to recommend that you go there if you're one of our brick and mortar students. >> I had a question about so will will there be I feel like some classes need a book where will they provide books for >> um you know that that'd be a good question. Um a lot of the things that they're going to do through um ESDAC. They use Edenum. >> I actually looked at Edenum as one of as a standalone for us. Um they also use Egeneuity. We already use Egeneuity. So a lot of them they the books that they're going to get are going to be ebooks

042and things like that. They do need if there is a more physical book, they're going to be ebooks and videos through a the online platform. >> I noticed another requirement here is that we provide like transportation to two community engagement events. Can you tell me what >> So if we want to do a field trip, if our students in want to do a field trip, we would provide transportation to that. Um we I don't have a those are some things that I think as we go through this, we have to clarify as they come up, but we would transport them like we would any other student of ours. >> Is there a tutoring component to the online piece? >> So they have EZDAC has staff members who plan this teachers of record for this. So

043that student like if I'm in the virtual program and I need help, I reach out to that teacher. So there is that teacher there for extra help. So there wouldn't be there'll probably be tutoring, but there'd also be a certified staff member who can help you. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Ryan. Um I know as you mentioned the September 20th date, so if they were categorized as a virtual student, that would be part of it. But is the state reimbursement for virtual at a lesser rate than inperson type students? >> So, so the big difference is that when you're virtual, you don't get waitings. So, you just get the flat base paper pupil. >> Is it the same rate though as >> Yeah, I believe >> without the ratings. >> The rate's not the same.

044>> The rates the rate's less. >> I know we also don't get waiting so >> Okay. But it is >> Mr. Schwarz said the rate's less. I don't have it in front of me. >> Yeah, but I was just thinking that there was some lesser amount. >> I can I can get you those numbers or or Mr. Schwarz get you the numbers, but I I know for a fact you don't get waitings on top, so it would be less funding. >> Okay. >> And along those same lines, I'm so glad you brought it up. was so if they are a um an actual FTE not a virtual um regular I don't know what you want to call them um till like January and then things go ary do we have to pay anything back do

045we take a deduction do we how does it affect like the our obligation I guess regarding the funding >> so what would happen um if that student that you're talking about was with on September 20th. So we recept we receive funding for that student as a brick and mortar student. That student in January gets in trouble and needs to go virtual. What we would do is we would pay ESDAC $912 or we would just transfer the funding that we received for that student to ESDAC and the rate is a n right now it's $912 of what it would be. So you see that'd be H2 up there. H little T. >> Sure. But we wouldn't have to pay back >> No. No. >> Anything. Okay. Okay. Not not to the state. We would just have

046to pay ESDAC to education >> to Right. And rightly so. >> Yeah. Yeah. We would just transfer funds that we received to ESDAC to pay for that student. And that's why it's also important. And there is another one up there too like if you read 2I talks about if if an incoming student was not funded and we and they have capacity, they'll take it. So that's another piece too that we can that ESDAC will help us with as well. But if the student was funded, then we just we we would transfer funds to educate that student for appro at appropriated rate. >> Well, I like this idea. I think it's going to help students who um need it and could benefit from it. Um I do think that it's important that we keep them in

047the school if we can keep them in the school um so we don't create a permanent virtual school in part because you know I'll even tell you working from home is fun but at a certain point you need to be around people especially when you're growing and developing building relationships. Um but um one question I had was I know that the the rate is going to be less for a virtual student that we get from the state. Um it doesn't count the waitings but how is the waiting how are waitings affected if let's say that student is 50% high remote 50% in person. Does that change at all for waitings? >> We would get we would they would be half their FTE would be their inperson brick and mortar and the half would be um

048the virtual piece they would do it would be a combination of the two waitings highways I guess or structures or roads the state would that would be a hybrid approach is what that would be and I think we're going to like across the state I think you're going to see more and more of that where kids are doing some of each like right now we have students at the high school who are brick and mortar for us and they go to virtual school as well so we have that going on right now where we where we funded we receive funding part and another district received funding, the virtual funding part and there the communication is back and forth between that district and us on how much we we uh collect. Um I have two questions.

049I guess I'll stick with the financial side of things since that's what we're on first. So, if there was an instance, I guess from my understanding, where we did not use this program, say for like the fall semester, we did not have any students that went that route, what would we owe as that? >> We owe nothing. >> Okay. Um, and then I guess I was wondering if we see this as an opportunity to recapture some students that may have left our district previously. How would we go about doing that without it being like an open enrollment or kind of I was a bit confused when Dr. McGee, he was talking about how this would be like an administrative recommendation for students like based on suspensions and their circumstances. That I understand, but I am

050confused about how these work together. >> So, I think talking about it tonight is opening the door to that now a little bit because I know Mr. Burns had some of his teachers come to him and say, "Hey, you're starting a virtual school." So that's why it's important for us to clearly articulate the purpose of the virtual school and what it's going to be like. And that's why we've worked to make it to brand it or instruct it similarly to Flint's Learning Center and how that works. We have kids that request to Mr. Fisher to go to Fence Learning Center and he denies them because they aren't a good fit or they need to be a brick and mortar school. So, we would follow that same process. That's why I'm saying as we go through

051this um running this will will most likely fall back to the high school um in terms of how it's run because it's again we worked with KSAB and asked some questions about how to structure this and that's why we've structured it underneath FL Learning Center so we can practice the same kind of things we do there with this program as well. Does that help? intent would be to keep our kids at brick and mortar and have this as a way to help them if they get to a point where they cannot attend brick and mortar any longer. >> It's kind of treated like our tiered interventions, right? At some point, this becomes that intervention that keeps that student involved and connected. >> Um I'm I'm wondering, and I know this goes back to more of

052the hybrid model, but would these students then be eligible to participate in extracurricular activities? >> Yes, they would. So that's So when we get to the point where we talk about the handbook, >> some of that will be in that handbook that we're working through. And just so you know, we're working on that now with KSC trying to work through that and get that handbook in place and also working on our processes. We got to bring that with us along with us, but we really don't want to get the horse before the cart on this and plus I'm just been reviewing it and we're still working through that. So that's going to come. And so would the plan be that these students would do the state assessments? >> Yeah. as like a typical brick and

053mortar student would. >> Yeah. So they have options. Students can take the assessment remotely if they want to or they can do it brick and mortar wise. So or they can come on site and that's ESDAC typically does theirs on site. They go to the places. So if we have our kids and we know who are employee kids want to take a state assessment, we can bring them into Merbert and give them an assessment in one of our classrooms on site. >> You use the word want. So is it >> well I think >> elective >> I think I think EZDAC and again I haven't we haven't really got to that processes pieces yet but yes EZDAC primarily does theirs on site the ESDAC staff comes here and they bring the kids in and they

054do it here in or they do it at the district where the kids are at so that would be our preference is that they do it on site because it's easier it there there is another window like if you think about state assessments they do have a separate window for remote but I I believe our preference would be to bring them on site and if they're in a poor too we can bring them on site for other things too because if you look through that we also need to work on the individual plans of study which brings up Naviance and the work we do there bringing families in on family nights to do that and get that done. And so there's some I think there's a lot of on-site opportunities for some of these kids

055too to help them because on-site I think is important too to have that mixture and it's hard if you live in Emporia and your virtual schools in Lawrence. It's hard to be on site. >> Okay, this is an action item if there's no further questions. >> I move to approve the ESDAC connect for virtual programming as submitted. >> Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. >> Motion passes 6. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> That's going to bring us to item 7A, recommendation of audit services agreement. Who's coming up? Kate. All right, we're going to move now. Now we're moving to the operations part of our meeting. We've been on the teaching and learning portion. Now we're making a shift to select a new auditor. And there

056was a committee that made the re recommendation for um Gordon CPA to be our fiscal auditor. They have audited the financials and reported back to for the last three years. Part of that agreement was that they could be the auditor as long as the board agreed for nine years with a renewal every three years. So the information you have are there fees for the next three years and the agreement for auditing the 2526 financials. Do you have any questions? So, this would be the end of our first three years. >> Yes, that is correct. >> I'm glad you clarified that, Kate, because you had asked if we should consider um you know, RFP or anything um anytime soon, but it sounds like maybe in six years or a little sooner. >> Yeah, potent. I I

057mean I I would suggest that I mean we'll have been with this firm for six years at the end of what you're approving this evening. That might be a good time to open it back up, have the committee review what's been going on, see what else comes to the table and revisit it at that time. It's always good to kind of create an open market and see I mean it may be that you stay right where you are but I would move to approve Gordon CPA LLC to provide annual fiscal auditing services as submitted. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. >> Motion passes 6. >> Thank you very much. That's going to bring us to item 7B, facility use agreement between US 253 and ESU. >> Mr. Schwarz has

058been working with ESU on this agreement. We've been giving you some information as far as how negotiations were going and uh so we have a recommendation for you this evening. >> Um quick reminder, this is a 10 this was a 10-year agreement. Last time the the district would have agreed to go into partnership with Emporio State was 2016. At that point there was a significant use of funds for a turf project at Emporia State and the district hasn't that was the first three years I believe of that agreement in the last seven there hasn't been any funds um paid to employ state for the use of that facility. So what we did to help look at the overall cost was if that money was spread out over 10 years was roughly 22,000 a year and

059as you look at inflation that kind of grew to where that it's kind of it's close to what the recommendation is what we've worked out with Emporia State. So the the agreement is for 37,500 for five years um per year per year. So a grand total of 37,5 times the five. Um we did some options to uh host games at Emporia at Emporia High School. Um that is a that is on a potential capital project list and we even priced bleachers and what that would cost and as we looked at at that option compared to going with the agreement that's why the recommendation is for this five-year agreement to give us some time to get that planned out a little more appropriately. So it is only five and not 10 those kind of things. So

060questions. >> This was initially a $50,000 per year um offer for us to utilize the facility. So a little bit more than twice what we were paying per year for our previous um so and I mean even if we wanted to and could and had the funds to do this project, we couldn't do it in the time frame that's needed. And so I think it's prudent for us to to buy some time so that we can explore that avenue more. Um, the community is going to have thoughts about whether we play at ESU or whether we play at EHS. I mean, there's going to be a lot of people who want to weigh in on that, but I think it's important for us to do our due diligence over the next, say, 12 to 24

061months to to look at, okay, what all would be needed. And then the longer we would wait to actually start the project, the more it's going to cost. But we we at least at least at least need to have a plan in place at the end of this five years um to potentially have have the ability to go a different direction. >> So we would use it we use it whatever four or five home games for football and then >> how many track meet >> one track meet >> is there anything else that we normally would be using it for? >> Not that I'm aware of. Okay, >> those are the two primary uses. >> Yeah, I think those are the primary uses listed in the agreement that that you know and you I mean

062you get use of all their all their facilities and so on. They're doing all the cleanup and things like that, but at the same time, you know, they're they're running concessions and keeping concessions and so on. So, um, it's not it's it's not as bad a deal for ESU as sometimes sometimes the AD might make it feel to us when we're meeting with them and talking to them about it. But, uh, they kind of have us between a rock and a hard place right now. Um, we don't have a we really don't have, you know, our facil we have we have great facilities, but they're not they're not set up and developed to the point to host these football games, which I hope continue. I'm I'm amazed at the crowds we get, you know, and

063we we our football team had a little comeback this year and hopefully they continue to do that and so u we really don't have a lot of options right now but I want to make sure that you understand that we are we want to make sure you do have options the next time this comes around I know that since I've been on the board this has come up before whether we're kind of giving up a home field advantage if we don't get to play at the high Um, and it kind of seems like it's a cycle. So, I think it's good that we're giving ourselves this time to consider all the options and then make a decision after we've thought about it and um kind of tossed around some ideas that potential what it could

064cost. You know, is there additional locker rooms in addition to bleachers and what other improvements we might need to make? >> Yeah. Okay. This is an action item. I move to approve the 5-year facility agreement between USDC 253 and ESU. >> I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 6. >> Thank you very much. Item 7C, technology purchase for the summer 2026 replacement. >> Yep. director of information technology. Uh Paul is going to come up here and uh you know we we said all along that even though we're in cost containment you there's still going to be times when we have to spend money in order to continue to offer the the quality education and this is one of those times. >> Thank you. All right. Um, looking at purchases,

065these are following some already established system life cycles for equipment in the school district. One of the reasons I'm fond of using a system life cycle, we find the financial predictability. So, we can take a large volume, large fleet of equipment, spread that over years and keep those expenditures level. Um, things that I think really help mainly because I think it keeps Josh's blood pressure in check and I don't come in and ask to spend four million. just like, hey, same year. We try to keep it nice and steady. Um, when we establish those system life cycles, we look to replace equipment hopefully before it fails. Primarily because we want instruction to continue in the classroom without waiting for our technology department. I want um our classified staff, business department, all those other people to

066be able to do their jobs without, you know, waiting because something broke and there and we need to get there. Um, looking at kind of where we've been the last three years, I definitely am starting to see some pieces of these life cycles come together and we're starting to see that. Um, and we talked about that a little bit when we talked about staffing and not refilling some open positions in our department. And primarily this was from operating with system life cycles where we're not having to constantly run around and try to fix stuff. We can be more proactive. We can make plans about how we want to approach replacing equipment in facilities. Um, and that's that's just that big labor shift. And you start about what does technology do if we're not constantly panicked

067and looking for we're going to put out. Um I think a great example of that would be work that I've seen Stephanie Murray and Nick Sheek do on our P school. They've been working with nurses to reduce a platform consolidating what they can do in their jobs inside of P school with some customization. So we've got a lot of tools um and the technology team can help people use them and get more out of them but we have to have that availability right. So, I'm just really excited to see some of the things the team's been doing because I feel like we haven't been trying to run around. Um, it's really just looking to continue the system life cycles. We did make some modifications. I'll go through those. Um, some changes based on what we've

068seen with data. Um, some barriers we're seeing to acquiring equipment and some some cost changes. So, in general, um, across the board, I'm seeing about a 20% increase in hardware costs, which is pretty significant. um compared to what we've seen in the past and primarily being driven by shortage in raw materials. So AI and data centers are basically booked out silicone which is needed to make a lot of the computer parts. Um there's probably some other global pressures occurring. I'm not going to get into those, but there's been some supply constraints. Um and that's kind of driving either large increase in price for equipment or um delaying when equipment might show up that we're purchasing today. So, um, some of the significant changes we made, typically with 600 staff laptops in use in the school

069district, we'd look to replace those every four years. Um, that'd be 150, but tonight we're asking to purchase 75. We sort of evaluated um that cost increase at 20%, knowing I feel that this is probably a short-term increase. I don't think this is going to be a forever 20% increase. We looked at where are we at with security updates because like I said, we're getting in these life cycles. we haven't necessarily always been doing them. So, a lot of our devices will still continue to receive security updates. We got kind of a large group that was purchased here during COVID. So, by doing 75 today, we would take the the other 75 I would have normally asked to purchase and we'll spread that over some additional years. So, again, trying to keep expenses level um

070and just keeping in mind I was just kind of had a little sticker shock when I started opening up quotes from vendors. Um so, sat down and and made that reduction. We did the same thing. not as um much when we thought about desktops. So, we have about a thousand desktops in the school district. Um so, instead of 145, I'm looking to purchase 125. We tend to run those on a seven-year life cycle. Student devices didn't change too much when we look at our 14inch student devices we use at the high school. Probably the biggest change there to help offset some of that increase um was working with Nathan Fischer and teaching learning is a touchscreen necessary for what our students are doing. And we felt that at this time that's a functionality we could

071reduce which got us about a $12,000 savings if we were to go that route. And that's that equipment I've listed here as a non-touch for our students at the high school. um did have kind of a later delivery date than I like. We look seen those in August, but again, we're kind of seeing that across the board where people simply don't have them in their warehouses and those parts are kind of laid out there for a while. Um probably the most significant change I've as I worked through this, how can we do things based on what we've seen and how can we save money? Um K through five, we've run on a six-year life cycle. Felt very comfortable. um didn't have to do tons of repairs on a six-y year life cycle with them. Um

072I would not like to take them out to seven years. I do those those that that are getting there, you're starting to see the the failures creep in on them. Um but what we could do is look at doing K through four in a six-year life cycle. So I wouldn't be coming in and buying a whole grade level. It's changes the math a little bit and then take our fifth grade devices and transition those up to sixth, seventh, and eth part of the middle school. So instead of running three years at the middle school, they're a little harder on them. We would take ones that were used as fifth grade, still in great shape, and transition those up into the middle school. So we wouldn't buy sixth grade brand new. We'd really be buying fifth

073grade. We'd have to do a little juggling this year because this would be aimed at going into fifth grade, and then we would take the new devices we bought a, you know, a year ago and shift those up into sixth grade. And we'd have to shift around. But that did save about $17,575 a year. And we felt like that's a change we can make that not have an impact on instruction should be fairly seamless and we did purchase a lot of tablets previously in last year. So again, evaluating what we were doing there, looking at how JCDC was using them with their software and their applications, and we felt that we could stop, I don't want to say defer. We're just not going to buy tablets. Um, and we're going to use some of those

074newer ones if we were to need them for various things throughout the district would be the idea. And then coming back next year, we'd look at trying to start that life cycle. They just have a whole lot, right, new that are brand new. So to start buying those chunks would really we just end up having brand new one you know one year old devices we're trying to surplus that just didn't make sense. So still looking to get those in a cleaner system life cycle. Um looking for four to five years out of them. Again we have about 400 tablets in the district for various things. Looking to keep those in that rotation but not on this list this year. What did show up that hasn't been there before would be security cameras. So our security

075camera system has about 470 components between um the servers that store the camera footage, the actual cameras themselves. Maybe they're viewers that are in the offices where you see like the TV and they got the cameras. That's a viewer that runs those. So, we're looking to start stepping into that as a life cycle. A lot of that equipment either came in through bond or different projects or wherever it came from. So, we're looking to start doing that. There are some pieces there that might be something we could run through a grant and I will still pursue that. But in this case, we didn't have that in place here, but we would like to and it's not a very big number because of that. We're doing 30. We're looking for somewhere between seven to 10 year

076life cycle depending on the type of equipment. So, it's a smaller number than you would do in that life cycle, but it's a great way to start getting those in rotation. We're starting to see some of the cameras that were purchased in 2018 and 2019 will fail. like we'll run an update and for whatever reason that camera doesn't come back up. Um never fun to have to go get a lift to drive it somewhere to replace one camera. So things we're looking at um that brings that in. That was the only piece that didn't come off state contract when I reached out to vendors. Um because we're buying the specific camera we buy is considered kind of like a consumer grade. This is not really something they would carry. we would need to do the

077AI integrated if you're looking for something state contract, but that took the price from 214 to $495. So, I was like, you know, we have some G3 domes that are like HD. These are 4K 5K cameras. They they look so much clearer. I'm okay if we continue to run on those. So, I think the goal is just try to keep things simple, no surprises. Do you have any questions about what we have here today? Oh, apologize. There's one item I missed. I had it in my note. I would like to buy cases again. I did not have um quotes back from vendors in time to get them to you last week, but that cost should be so many notes. I believe it was around $15,000 for cases. We would put them on the 500 student

078devices and they were just it was just under $30 a device or $30 a case. Okay. Sorry. Questions? I'll just say, wow, this was a very wellthoughtout, put together presentation, Paul. Like, you really made your case. Um, because it is amazing what can happen and what progress you can make when everything's working like it's supposed to, right, when you're not constantly putting out fires for think. So, thank you for making us aware of how much progress your team is making in that regard. I think that's really awesome. Um if we do move forward with a um approval this evening, do we need to modify the to include the 15 or just as presented >> to add the 15 for the cases? >> I I mean when you're saying it's $15,000, I feel like you could

079you could literally >> not wrap it in >> and you have the authority to expend up to $20,000 for those cases anyway. I just wanted to be transparent on Sure. I appreciate that. >> I Yeah, I think you you approached it the right way, but I I don't think you have to. >> My my recommendation is you don't have to change what you're doing tonight and he could he could still move forward and and purchase the cases. >> Okay. And there's not a dollar amount in the motion. I just since it's listed, I wanted to make sure I asked. >> It's just I want to be clear. We're not we're not doing that to get around anything. It's just it wasn't prepared and ready to go for tonight. So, it'll just end up being a

080separate transaction under $20,000. >> I was going to have a question, but you addressed it. I was wondering how much increase we were seeing with the technology, but I appreciate you already addressing that, but >> unfortunately, it's the times we live in. So, thank you. Thank you. Again, I move to approve the purchase of the technology equipment for replacement over the summer of 2026 as submitted. >> I'll second it. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 6. >> Thank you very much. And that's going to bring us to item AA, board reports. >> Okay, I think I'm up first. I don't have mine pulled up. I have my tech college agenda. Um, we met on Monday. We got another really great report on um our two plus two programs and

081all the different universities in Kansas that we're working with as well as programs that are on the horizon uh to increase that and get more students there. Approved a whole bunch of policies just like we do here. Um and what was I going to tell you? Oh, they had that brown out. I don't know if anybody heard about that at the tech college. Um I think it was just last Thursday and so they did not have or maybe Tuesday they did not have um power and they had to turn everything off so it didn't get fried and they had to do emergency purchase of a generator. Um but the big kicker was I believe they had 16 dental students taking their clinical or their state board exam that day as well with um their testers

082having flown in from out of state and uh they powered through and everybody still passed. So, pretty impressive. Um, still working on our budget, of course. And that was about it. >> Thank you. And the Emporia Rec Commission. >> Yes, the Emporia Rec Commission actually didn't meet before this meeting. We met before the last one. Uh, that said though, I will tell you we did have an issue recently with our pool. I think you guys may have read about it or seen it on the news locally. uh there was a system failure and it caused the pool to close for a couple of days. And it's a really good example of some of the very aging infrastructure that that building and commission has to operate with. Um and why I would encourage people to be

083open-minded about voting for the uh rec center sales tax increase so that we can have um facilities that will last the next 50 years or 100 years, right? And invest for our future. Um and then we are meeting this Monday at 5:30. So the next meeting I'll have a real update and insurance committee. >> Do you want to go? Yep. Yeah. I don't I couldn't recall if you were there. Oh, that's right. Okay. We've been together for so long. Yeah. Um no, insurance committee met. I was able to join remotely on a day. I think I was in Topeka. Um and IMA did a really good presentation. There was a PowerPoint um that they presented and walk through during the meeting. I don't think it's present on our board docs, but email um Josh for

084it and he can send that to you. Um, so that's really just worth sitting down and reading and looking through. You know, it's kind of what you would normally expect. The cost of insurance is projected to go up. We do think we're probably going to have a lower increase though comparative to if we weren't full funded uh self-funded. Um, and then I think some of um the costs that we've had to really be able to evaluate, you know, the money in, money out, and financial stability of the plan. I think there's going to be a certain point in the year where some of the rebates, I believe, for the pharmaceutical stuff go through. So some of your pharmacy expenses don't exactly settle right until later in those rebates process. Um there was discussion and this

085really happens at most insurance committee meetings um depending on the topic about moving to the state employee state of Kansas um state employee health insurance plan which I'm on to my work. Um but I think the reality is it would be expensive and it also um it would be more expensive. It also requires I believe us to do like a three-year commitment, right? you can't just join in and then after a year or two say, "Okay, we're out." There is actually a a fixed commitment that you have to be in it. Um so, um I'd encourage you to review that PowerPoint. It's going to tell you more information than I can condense here. Um but that is what I have for insurance committee unless Josh wants to add anything. >> Okay. Thank you very much.

086Uh that's going to move us to 8B board policy update first reading. Miss Leeds is going to actually uh take this one. U Dr. Mickelson um graciously asked if she could attend her daughter's first softball game tonight and I said of course you can. I think Cheryl can handle this one. uh one is the first one is IBGC staff online activities and what this is the new addition is that it prohibits um regarding has prohibitions regarding social media platforms. No employee of the district shall privately or directly communicate with any students through a social media platform except as expressly permitted under this policy. It applies uh this applies regardless of whether the communication occurs occurs during or outside of school hours. Um you cannot as an employee cannot require students to use social media platforms

087for an assignment or extracurricular activity. uh they have to as a an employee you would need to um register for lack of a better term um the platform with uh Lindell here at the at central office so that he could oversee it. Uh that's for all of the Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Toks X or Twitter, any of those um platforms. Um what it's trying to do is to limit the connectivity of people being able to get in and communicate with our kids. Um what it would be is uh one of the examples that one of the uh people on the uh policy committee talked about was having she has a child who is in u band and the band has people who follow but they don't follow anybody except for another school entity. So it's

088just school entity communicating with each other. No one outside can communicate with our kids and post things that they can't reach our kids. Uh but in in developing of this policy, we became aware of some some accounts that we need to tighten up. So uh Lindell will be working with building administration on that. Casey, did I miss anything on that? Okay. Any questions on this policy? >> So, I notice at the bottom of it, it says KSB recommendation. So, I assume it's also passed through through their legal department or whatever. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I just I want to I guess I have a question. And so this would mean like a certain teacher could not set up a Facebook group for the parents of her students. Instead, they would go through platforms that

089we already have in place. Yes, they can if they register, if they let know that they've got that and he becomes kind of a what's manager, account monitor, um they could allow people to join and follow, but the Facebook or account can't follow them so that it doesn't up what they're posting onto ours because inadvertently things pop up that other people believe or are interested in that we don't want our children to be. So >> at least we shouldn't be the avenue for it. >> Yeah. Any other questions about this policy? Okay, the next policy is JCDC. Um, and this is the um cell phone the the law that uh Governor Kelly uh voted in. Um, this is for the use and storage of personal electronic devices by students in the in classrooms in the

090school day. It limits um them having access to their devices within the school day. Um they would need to have a way to lock it and we're looking into getting some pouches where they would put it in at the beginning of the day when the bell rings and they would not have access to it until the end of the day when the bell rings and then they could access it. Um, and this would be for um all students. Uh, some sort of locking device. If a student has a medical need, such as a student who has diabetes that has their their blood sugar monitor that goes through their phone, they would have a different type of bag, but it would have they would have access to it u to monitor their blood sugar. But it

091would be very noticeable if someone opened it up and you could hear it. Um, in this you would be uh limiting or recommending to limit um on the uh second page of this it says use during school sponsored activities but for or after school. And this would be things like um going to a basketball game, football game, track meet, things like that. We could give the coaches or the building administration, you would be giving them the latitude to say yes, you may use it as long as it is not abused. If there became a problem, the administration could say, you know, no, you can't have access during that time. Um, if a high school student is taking a class at the tech college and they're leaving the building, they would go through the office to

092check out like they normally do. They sign out. They would have a unlocking device. They would unlock it and they would go on out and have access to their cell phones. If the student leaves for lunch during open lunch, they would not be able to unlock and take it because that is considered between the bells. So, our suggestion is they would leave it in their car. Um, let's see. Could not have it out in the hall. Could not have it out in the restroom. Can't have it out during the lunchtime. I mean it really it's not that we're prohibiting the use or just the access to it's to create that non non-distraction environment that we need our students to be in. we would have some discipline um type um policies in place so that if

093a student had their cell phone out during an un an a regulated time that there would be a consequence. So I think those are the only other recommendation is that um the committee recommended that we we um date this May instead of April. You have any questions? >> I'm trying to get my head around what this looks like. I mean it says it says bag And so does that mean there's actually like a little bag the kids carry around with them through the day? >> It's it's a little pouch about so big. >> Okay. >> Um I have been working with two different vendors and I've narrowed it down I think to one. Um it has the the little pin in it like um your anti- theft at stores and it has a pin that

094goes in and locks and you touch it and It unlocks and opens and it's about so big and you can drop your cell phone in. It also has you have to put your smartwatches. You have to put your earbuds in. It locks. You put it into your bag and it stays in there. U administration would do some spot checks. Teachers could spot check and say, "Hey, where are your where are your pouches? Do you have them? Is your cell phone in it? You don't have your bag? Where is your bag? It's in my car. Where's your cell phone? It's in my car. And that's what where we would go. >> So, I guess my follow-up question is, can the students unlock at any time or is there like a master lock in the building or

095something that causes it to unlock at the end of the school day? She's She's getting into next. >> I was envisioning a wall of phones. >> No. >> Like I thought they had to I was told them on Friday. I thought that meant like everyone would you know like when you like a pegboard like everybody's phone would be hung up on the pegboard at the end of the day. Like I don't know what I thought but it wasn't this. >> Yeah. I mean I was thinking surely there's an app and the whole school can just be unlocked at the same time and locked at the same time. >> Nope. What did And >> it's a physical device. >> Yeah. They'll be they'll be they'll be up and accessible as kids as kids leave the building

096where they you know and and the companies that we work with will help us determine you know how many of those should is is typical for our school site. Where should they be located? you might have some portable um stations that you decide, well, here's a hot spot because there are a lot of kids going out toward the football field tonight for some reason or the soccer field tonight for some reason. So you could put it there so that they could just get So but we do plan we'll we'll continue to answer all your questions tonight but we do plan to have an extensive um presentation next month on all the procedural things have the bag so that you can see it all of that um before you're actually and that would occur along with

097an action item to actually purchase the supplies and materials that are going to have are going to be required to meet the state the state law. Um and then And then and then after you are comfortable with the procedures and you you've got it all figured out, you'll have your second read on this on the policy and get get to vote on that. >> Well, thank you so much just to help me start getting my head around this. >> Well, and and I took um Mr. Bombwart and Mr. Sergeant from the middle school and high school down to Ark City High School and we observed um their use of the bags dismissal and it was slick. Um they said, you know, the first day it took maybe four minutes to get the kids out of

098the building. It didn't take four minutes for them to leave the building. I granted it was a Friday, but it didn't take I mean, you know how long it takes for the kids to leave. It didn't slow them down a bit leaving the building. Um I am going to I I reached out um to the sales rep, the account rep. This company provides professional development. It provides communication um logistics type things that I'll be hooking them up with Lindell. Um, I reached out to her and asked her, could we please have one of their uh implementation coaches come out before the next meeting to act hopefully get in next week um to kind of see where the kids go so that they can get eyes on how many magnets or devices you would need in

099each spot. What they do is you put it in a it's in like the key lock boxes on the side of the buildings for the emergency responders and it's locked. Security would go around and unlock it and open it up at the very end of the day. Kids would unlock. It would lock back up. Anytime they leave the the through the office, there would be a device there that they would click out. So um the m the the numbers that Ark City was showing it it is showing good things. I mean they said their graduation rate is up, their grades are up, their attendance has gotten better because the social emotional type things that were going on before aren't. Um, I mean, it's just we hate that it came down to this to to make

100it happen, but >> So, I have a question because I want to make sure I understand um like Barb was saying, how this would functionally work. What I'm hearing is I'm envisioning that there's going to be these little baggies. They put their cell phone in the bag, it locks, but they carry it with them throughout the day between classes. >> And here's kind of my concern with that. I agree that that should be enough. That is reasonable. But when you look at the bill text, House Bill 2299, and when you look at our policy, I mean, even our policy kind of uses the same language. Um, let me see it here. All student personal electronic communication devices shall be powered off and securely stored away from the students person inaccessible location during the day. So,

101you know, put my lawyer mind to it. Away from the person means away from your body and it means inaccessible. And if it's next to your chair in a bag, I don't think it's actually inaccessible and it's not away from your body. And I agree that that should be enough, but I am cognizant that you may have a political actor at some point in the future try to make an example out of a school. >> Um, so that kind of makes me a little nervous. And I get that our legislators, I've kind of heard some commentary on this that a lot of them, you know, when they've been approached about this after passing it were like, "Oh, well, we didn't think of that." Uh, but I've also seen the legislature have a committee about making

102a certain type of administrative appeal required in every case, have a bill title with that intention, and then not include that process in the language of what they pass. So, it doesn't surprise me that they're not thinking ahead. Um, but I don't think what we're describing actually is what the law says should be enough. I don't think that's what it says. >> The device locks it down. You can't get it open unless you just tear it apart and then there would be disciplinary actions for destruction of property. Um that kind of thing. Um it would be in their bag away from them. >> I mean they the bag is accessible but the phone is not. And we talked to the vendors about this and they are they are in other states where the law is

103even more restrictive langage than than there is here in Kansas and have not had, you know, it's passed the muster. I I agree. I agree with I had the similar similar concerns, but I I also know leadership in the state, USA Kansas leadership's been working with the legislators to uh look at even coming back and revising the language a year from now. So that there is no question that this would suffice. But I mean this this is really the only feasible approach that we see to addressing a problem that was forced upon us. Honestly, you didn't need a law to do this. >> We could have I mean they could have they could have passed a law bell to bell no cell phones. We could have accommodated that without all these bags and everything else.

104But because of that word inaccessible we're we're but I do understand your concerns. Yeah, and I'm mostly just saying that to put a marker in the sand later so I can say, you know, hey, we pointed this out, guys. This was an issue, but we're doing the best we can with what we have. I'm not going to vote against it, but I just question if that >> Yeah. Well, when we get to it, but um I'd be remiss not to point that out. >> And the and the pouches are going to be for the middle school, high school. The elementary were going to go a little different approach because they go into a classroom and stay in that classroom. it would be much harder to manage the middle school, high school where they're moving room

105to room. So, we're going to have a little different um practice for the elementary than a pouch. So, but we do have a lot of elementary kids who have cell phones. >> Yeah. In an elementary classroom, it could be as simple, I mean, they make them for cell phones, but you envision a shoe bag, right, that is hung on the wall. all the kids are going to drop it in there. Then the teacher is going to in order so it's locked away and inaccessible, put it in a locked cabinet and then get it back out at the end of the day. That's that's what we're thinking right now. But again, we got we got two or three weeks to massage it a little bit and then you'll hear all this again as we as we

106gear toward trying to nail down exactly what do we need to purchase to be able to implement this. Um, I have a question, but also a thought about for the next presentation about this. Um, I know that some there's been some reports about like you can buy the thingy to unlock them like they sell those on Amazon. Um, and how the company that we're um considering purchasing from would suggest that we address that. Uh I think that there's any one of us probably has already thought of this especially if you are working with teenagers. They're going to put other things in the pouch that are phone shaped but are not a phone. And I wonder if the like discipline procedure in this policy is suitable to address such circumstances. And I I think also in

107this point is like and I know I went to the the KSB like day in Topeka where we talked extensively about this um is that like this isn't really up to us. The legislature has taken this out of our hands and I think that's important for the community to understand too that like we can talk about the the procedure and and how we want to do things in Emporia but like ultimately we have to come up with something. We weren't given a choice. Um >> Exactly. >> Yeah. and and um the company does have some suggestions. Um and you know it it all boils down to you know the adults enforcing and having those those consequences listed. So and and Arc City kind of gave us some some ideas of how they handle okay power

108your phone off you put it in your pouch. That's just how they start their first block. It's just everybody puts it in. they show that it's locked, they they turn it upside down, shake it, put it in their bag, and it's it's there. So, >> yeah, we I mean, we need to we need to have the board, you know, do the governance side of things and get the policy in place so that then we can implement the procedures and those procedures would be a part of that student code of code code of conduct. There are going to be, you know, there's going to be a cell phone section and kind of consequences and what occur. Um, and yeah, if someone puts a a rock in their pouch and then later on their their phone is

109out or whatever, you know, they're good that you just have to treat it like every other violation, you know, as a consequence. And I thought the the information from Ark City was good and that they had >> quite a few violations initially, but they were down to, you know, less than one a day kind of a situation in their whole school district by the time Cheryl had gone down to meet with them. >> Yeah, they started out with like 3.5 uh referrals per day. Uh the bulk of them being one-time violators and then they didn't repeat. There were a few that that repeated, but not many um that the they were below one referral a day until the day before I got there and then it went up to 1.1. So, they're very happy with

110they said, you know, and we walked the halls and the kids they didn't have that you didn't see this and they weren't they were engaged in in conversation in classes. The other component that's going to be important is for us to, you know, communicate expectations with our staff and all of us, right? Like I I now try to make sure when I'm walking classrooms and schools that that kids don't see my cell phone, you know, and as to the extent possible unless it's absolutely necessary for the work you're doing or the job you you have in front of you. You know, our staff shouldn't be getting their cell phones out in front of the in front of students either. We're not going to lock their cell phones away. Um they're adults and they may need

111them for a work purpose at some point, but uh that's going to be a part of it too. It was just that communication of expectation for all of us as adults. >> So, I'm pretty naive when it comes to this whole thing. But one question I have is how how are the bags unlocked? I mean, what what's it? >> It's magnetic magnet. It's like the >> And who has the magnet? >> They'll be on the the wall by the opening by the doors >> by the exits type thing. >> Or there will be one in the office that they can >> And that's what it takes to get it. Okay. >> But they won't be accessible through the day. >> No. And I'll have >> those magnets will only be accessible when it's time to

112leave. >> All right. So, I'm just I'm getting nip. But what if a child leaves has to leave early, but they'll want Is there a way >> they can roll through the office and >> and there'll be a magnet there? Yep. >> Yep. There will be one of those at the at the front desk. You have to check out anyway. You have to sign out. So, it'll just be right next to it. I'm sorry, one more question. Um, are they do they take the bags home at night? >> The high school middle school will take them home. >> So then if they forget to bring their bag back, >> if they have to check one out in the office. >> Okay. So there'll be extras in case. >> Yep. >> And then they will have

113to turn it back in at the end of the day. >> And at some point it would become an issue of of you just need to turn your phone in. Yeah. to the office. You know, if you if you're going to use that as your excuse every day, I didn't bring the bag. I didn't bring the bag. Well, and we're not going to keep giving you another bag every day. >> Yeah. >> You've done this before, haven't you, Miss Fowler? >> Okay. Thank you for that first read. >> First read. Thank you. >> And that's going to bring us to 9A superintendent report. I think we thoroughly covered cell phones. I can probably buzz right over that one other than to uh continue to stipulate the fact that it is an unfunded mandate that has

114been handed down from the state. I think that this could have been implemented by school districts without any additional expenditures um with the right language in the law. Um but here we are and we will do our best to accommodate it. But, you know, we're we're in the middle of cost containment. And yet, we're going to spend upwards of more than a than it costs to pay an educator over the course of a year to buy the supplies and equipment that is required to to make this work. Um, wanted to give a quick little cost containment update. U, everybody's tired of hearing the word. I know uh lots of months of cost containment, but one of those goals was that empathy goal. You know, um, we weren't using the word attrition. We were using that

115word empathy. Barb doesn't like that word attrition. It has it has some bad meaning for her in the past and I appreciate that and empathy is much better anyway. But we were trying to uh make sure that you know the our folks that that want to work in Emporia public schools could work in Emporia public schools and I'm happy to say that we've been we've been able to meet that goal and we actually even have openings where we have job postings at this current time. So, we've had more more retirements and resignations than we um more than enough to uh reduce the staffing in the areas that we needed to and not have to uh do any kind of reduction in force. So, that is that is very good news. Um I also wanted there's

116there's been some questions about class sizes and sections at particular schools across the district. I just want to reiterate that we haven't made any final decisions about how many sections of third grade there will be at a certain school or fourth grade at another school. Um I listed the guidelines that the cost containment team um utilized in in being able to become a little bit more efficient. Um if you I didn't put the old guidelines there but prek three-year-old prek foury old were the same. K2 was 18 so now it's 18 to 20. 3 through 5 was 22. Now it's 22 to 25 to get a little bit of leadway. 6 through 8 was 25. It's 23 to 27. 9 through 12 was actually for some reason 22. Um and we bumped that to the

11724 to 30. The goal isn't to have 30 kids in every class. The goal is to have you know 24 kids in the class. But that gives us some flexibility to be as efficient as we can and stay within our financial means as possible. But um you know we've been communicating the whole time particularly with elementary sections that you know it might it might come to a point over the course of the summer where we identify based on enrollment we need a teacher in one school where we don't need them in another school. We'll work with staff uh to make those kinds of things happen. The goal is not to go into the school year overstaffed but to try to be staffed just right. And uh you know, I think ideally we would have those

118decisions made at the latest by August 1st on those sections, but you could have something occur late to where all of a sudden you got 30 kids in in all these third grade classes in the school and you don't have anywhere to pull pull pull someone from and you and you uh you have to hire a teacher. But fortunately, because you have more kids, you'll have a little bit more funding as well. Um so that's going to be it's going to be a kind of a revolving target there. And then finally, just a reminder, our 2026 graduation coming up this Sunday, May 17th at 3 PM, William Lindseay White Civic Auditorium. And uh can't we can't remind ourselves what time to be there enough, right? So I put it in there again. Board members are

119asked to uh be there uh by 2:30. For some reason, they want me there by 2:15. They think they I'm a slow learner or something. I get dressed slower. I'm not sure. Um, and then the last day of school, which snuck on me, snuck up on me. I don't know if it snuck up on you. Probably the teachers are thinking, "When in the world is the last day of school going to be, but snuck up on me." Uh, Thursday, May 21st, and that'll be a half day. It'll run, you know, we we did have the missed day of inclement weather. And so, we move from the 20th to the 21st. So, the 21st just looks exactly like the 20th would have looked prior to that. >> Okay. Thank you very much. And future board calendar

120dates, item 10A. Uh we just talked about graduation this Sunday. Uh our first meeting in June will be Wednesday, June 10th here at Mary Herbert. And then we will have a retreat on June 15th and June 16th, which will be held at the technical college. And now I would enter entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 6.