001going to now call our March 11th board meeting to order. Uh we have seven board members present and I would entertain an adoption of the agenda. I would move for approval as presented. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes. 70. Thank you. That brings us to item 3A, public comments. Public comments will be allowed for the 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. Casey, do we have public comments? >> We do. At this time, I would ask JC Joplin to come forward to the podium, please. Okay, thank you. Good. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Jaci Joplin. I am a
002sophomore at Emporia High School and I'm a Logan Lion. I'm the daughter of a longtime teacher at Logan Avenue, Emily Joplin. Um, and although I have bias because of this relation, it's would be a disservice to all the family members and students of Logan to close it. For many families, Logan Avenue is a highly accessible school. It is a vital part of the neighborhood it is located in and has given relief to families that go to this school because of how close it is. Many students walk to school to and from school each day. And in some cases, cars aren't an option. Without Logan Avenue, the same families that already struggle with with transportation would struggle more with a new school. Although initially not seen as a strength, the smaller class sizes of Logan Avenue
003have made the learning environment better. With the smaller CA classes, teachers are able to understand each students strengths, learning styles, and are better able to support their learning. Students who might otherwise struggle in a larger classroom receive the attention attention and encouragement that they need to succeed. Throughout my life, I I've experienced the love given by the Logan staff and students. And although the staff is not the same as the one that I experienced with in elementary school, it's the same love that they give every year. They have um great teachers. And I was able to experience this love on February 18th when I went to job shadow. Um Mrs. Rudzic um kindergarten teacher at this school. She has so much patience. Um life as a Logan Lion is being able to know that there
004are people there that support you unconditionally unconditionally and will be by your side. And always remember, it's a great day to be a Logan Avenue Lion. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, JC. Next up is Trisha Parks. Please come forward. >> Hello, my name is Patricia Parks. I have had three students go through Logan Avenue. I know this is not the public hearing, but I wanted to bring some important things to your attention this evening. Um, Logan Avenue is a title one school. We serve an above average poverty rate and some of the most diverse student populations in our community. If our schools to close, this [snorts] would disproportionately impact students who already face many educational barriers. As [snorts] JC mentioned, I am also speaking to families who [snorts] live in our affordable housing communities
005and have limited transportation and resources already. [snorts] I see them walk to school and sometimes not enough clothing for the weather [snorts] because they have no choice. I know busing is a cost containment strategy and I understand you are looking into that. But how would you ensure that parents can still attend conferences, events, and other activities when they cannot drive across town? [snorts] How will you handle a situation when a parent is called to pick up their sick child, but because they cannot walk down the block, they [snorts] cannot get to their child to bring them home without crossing commercial street, [snorts] South Avenue, railroad tracks, etc. Logan Avenue is a neighborhood hub. It is not just a school. I see [snorts] many families, children, community members using our safe space, our recreational playground for
006many hours outside of school hours. Closing [snorts] the school removes an important community hub that the Southside no longer has access to. [snorts] Excuse me. Um, [clears throat] our school was also part of the bond renovation in 2019 with [snorts] major upgrades to our HVAC, electrical, ADA compliance, as well as additional classroom space. [snorts] We do potentially have more room to accommodate students in our school. We also have the room potentially, if Emporia were to grow, to build on further because of our extra green space. Many of [snorts] the other schools in our community do not have that surrounding space as they are landlocked by residential neighborhoods. Closing [snorts] Logan would leave only one elementary school south of 6th Avenue while four would remain on the north side of town. This would create a geographical
007imbalance, increasing travel time for our southside families, many of which have the fewest resources in our community. [snorts] Questions I ponder to you to consider. Are administrative reductions being considered alongside the loss of amazing teachers and staff that are out here? [snorts] What support is going to be provided to these individuals if they are to lose their position? Will the district prioritize retaining any of our educators who have chosen to serve our community and our neighborhood and have long-standing service in this district? >> [snorts] >> Have you fully evaluated boundary adjustments or other alternatives before closing a Southside neighborhood school? [snorts] Decisions like this are not to be taken lightly, and I know you are not. Thank you, Trisha. Next up is Sarah McGredddy. Please come forward. Okay. Good evening, members of the board and
008Superintendent McGee. My name is Sarah McGrady. I am the vice president of the Logan Avenue PTA. And I want to point out that Patricia is our amazing president of our PTA. I am a parent of two Logan students, one graduate and one currently attending, and someone whose family has been connected to Logan Avenue for many years. Why Logan Avenue School matters to me. My daughter has attended Logan from kindergarten to fifth grade. My son is currently in first grade. My husband and his family has attended Logan for all of their elementary years. And my father even worked there as a parah. Logan Avenue is not just a building to us. It is a part of our family history. [snorts] And I am not the only family that has the same similar connections. It is a
009thriving school community and continues to grow and build every year. It is sorry [snorts] what I want the community to know about our school. Last year, Logan Avenue was named a Capturing Kids Hearts National Showcase School, and we are incredibly proud that Logan has been nominated again for that recognition. It is an honor to be recognized for the school with with exceptional culture, strong relationships, and heart-c centered leadership. That is a picture of a school doing something right, a school that is growing and thriving, and not one that is struggling. It is a Purple Star school recognized for its commitment to military connected families, mine being one, in a town with strong ties to service members and veterans that matters. [snorts] Three years ago, Principal Ayers's school staff and parents rebuilt the Logan Avenue PTA
010from the ground up. And today, it is an active and engaged group of amazing people that consistently show up for the students and staff. and disc golf capital of the world. Logan students take incredible pride of their disc golf club, the course that the community and our school have worked so hard to build on school grounds, and our annual Lion Launch Tournament, which is now entering its ninth year. That has shown momentum, community investment, and provides something unique to our schools and students that others do not. >> [snorts] >> I understand that the district is facing a difficult difficult financial decisions, but before closing a neighborhood school that serves 156 students, their families, and many amazing teachers and staff, the community deserves clear answers. If Logan Avenue Elementary is closed, how does the exact amount
011the district would save financially compare to the total cost of the closure, including student transitions, transportation changes, staffing shifts, and continued maintenance of the building. It was sent out in a message that Logan currently has 36 transfer students. To me, that means that there was a need for those students, and Logan Avenue met that need, and that families are actively choosing this school. Closing Logan would not simply Thank you, Sarah. Next up is Olivia Grover. Good evening. My name is Olivia Grover and I am a teacher aid at Logan Avenue and I am speaking on behalf of Mr. Danielle Wararez, the music teacher at Logan Avenue who cannot be here today as he is translating for parents at parent teacher conferences. I'm speaking tonight to respectfully ask the board to reconsider the proposed closure of
012our school due to budget cuts. Every day I walk through the doors of Logan Avenue and greet students and families from many different backgrounds. Our school reflects a diverse and vibrant community. The Hispanic community in particular is one that is very close to my heart as I am a Hispanic educator myself. One concern I want to raise is how the board can decide to close one of the only two schools on the south side of town, an area that is historically been home to many of our students and families of color. Logan Avenue is only is also one of only two schools on the east side of town where many of our non-affluent students live. Closing a school in this area would place an even greater burden on families who already face challenges accessing resources
013and transportation. Decisions like this have real impacts on communities who already work hard to ensure their children have access to stable, supportive schools. Logan Avenue has empty classrooms waiting to be filled. Instead of closing the school, I asked the board to re-evaluate. For many of our students, Logan Avenue is more than a place to learn reading or math. It is a place where they feel seen, understood, and supported by educators who know their community and their experiences. I understand that budget decisions are not easy. However, I asked the board to pause this decision and re-evaluate the options. I believe there are ways to address financial challenges while still protecting schools that serve as important anchors for their communities. Our students and families deserve stability, opportunity, and a voice in decisions that affect their education. Thank
014you for your time and for considering the impact this decision will have on the children we serve. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Olivia. Next up is Nathan Writing. Sorry, I'm going to speak fast. Uh, good evening, school board members. I spoke a few years ago to encourage you not to pause William Allen White School. I'm grateful you took the time then to consider my position. I hope you can now. I'm a speech language pathologist at several schools in our district, including Logan Avenue Elementary School. In fact, the one constant school I have chosen to be at every year of my 17 years with this district has been Logan Avenue. It is my home school and it is a vibrant school. The new superintendent shared in his welcome back statement that the each student mindset
015ensures that every individual is seen and heard and that their specific needs are at the forefront of our work. Let's strive to create a community where every child feels valued, understood, and inspired to learn. Thank you for your commitment to our schools." End quote. The board of education's goals include support the social emotional development of our educational community and provide, maintain, and evaluate safe and secure learning environments that meet the everanging diverse needs of our students and staff. Closing a school is not attuned to these goals. However, closing the school as part of cost containment was mentioned early in this year as shared at walking towards this last fall. A cost containment committee was put together and they made a difficult decision, albeit mainly guided by leadership. I think more could be done when looking
016at the different pillars for reasons to close a school. One of them is climate culture. Logan Avenue is not a perfect school, but we have the data to show that it has a strong culture and climate as shared already. I'm also not here to say to close one school over another, although I could give you several reasons as to why Logan is not the right choice. I mean, one reason given had to do with potential for growth. There are a couple of other schools that do not have room for growth. In addition, I know firsthand how fullome the other schools are, and I have difficulty seeing the feasibility of adding extra special education classrooms to those buildings on top of increased class sizes. That's not effective. Keeping schools open is essential. Not finding a new
017board office. Logan Avenue was an easy target due to enrollment numbers. stakeholders [snorts] at another school would do all in their power to secure funding to keep their school open. But I'm here to suggest that we revisit things that were pushed to the side early on in cost containment discussions. Certainly, we do have to cut costs. Instead of consolidating a school, though, consolidate administrative positions. Put our students first and our own personal wants second. Before renewing contracts, really look to see if the positions are necessary. If you're dead set on not reducing administrative staff, I can talk to you later about other positions that could be removed besides those that will already be reduced. I don't want to list them now because I don't want more more people being angry at me. But you could
018start with eliminating my job instead of closing the school. I just went on paternity leave and we still had speech therapy using existing tele therapists. That could continue and it would ease the burden um to the district of having my child in child care. I don't really want to lose my job, but keeping Logan open is more important than me. Reduce positions before closing a school. School closure should be the last resort. And it appears that despite what we've been told, it was not. You represent the community, not the school district. TR uh please listen to the community, and [snorts] truly make this the best year ever by keeping Logan Avenue open. It's a great day to be a Logan Avenue Lion. Thank you. [applause] [applause] >> Thank you, Nathan. Next up is Nikki Rice.
019Please come forward. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Nikki Rice. I have worked at Logan Avenue Elementary for seven years. And for the past five years, I've had the privilege of serving as a classroom teacher there. Logan Avenue opened its doors in 1974. For more than 50 years, it has served as one of our most vulnerable neighborhoods in our community. Our school sits in an area of Emporia with the highest concentration of low-income families, including the city's only section 8 housing complex. For many of our students, Logan Avenue is more than a place where they learn reading, math, and science. It is where they feel safe. It is where they are known, and it is where they are loved. Three years ago, our building experienced a major staff transition. What could have
020fractured our culture instead did the opposite. Our staff came together and built something truly special. The environment at Logan Avenue has blossomed into a place where adults genuinely care about one another and deeply care about the students we serve. We laugh together. We support each other. And that sense of joy and belonging is something our students feel every single day when they walk through our doors. Logan Avenue is not a failing school. We are a national showcase school. Multiple members of our staff have received Hopkins awards recognizing excellence in teaching and leadership. Those recognitions represent years of dedication, innovation, and heart poured directly into the lives of our students. But tonight, we are discussing closing this school as a cost containment measure. I understand that financial decisions are difficult. I truly do. However, the current
021proposal asks us to eliminate the jobs of the very people who work directly with children every single day. Teachers, pair professionals, and staff who support students in classrooms. At the same time, administrative con administrative contracts are being renewed and those positions are not being reduced. People standing in classrooms with children every day are being asked to carry the weight of solving this financial problem. Logan Avenue is small, yes, but the smallalness is our strength. Because of it, we know every child. We know every family, and we know when a student is struggling, and we rally around them. I know this personally. Seven years ago, I started working at Logan Avenue while raising my daughter as a single mother. At the same time, I was working to finish my college degree. There were days that felt
022overwhelming and impossible. But the people in that building supported me, and they encouraged me. They believed in me when I was exhausted and unsure of if I could do it. Because of the support at the lo at Logan Avenue, I was able to finish my degree and become the teacher I am today. That kind of community Logan creates is not just for the students, but for the adults who serve them. When we talk about closing Logan Avenue, we are not talking about a building. We are talking about dismantling a community that has taken years to build. We are talking about removing a neighborhood school from the children who may need that stability the most. And when schools close, it is very rarely the most resourced neighbor neighborhoods that lose them first. It is the neighborhoods
023with the fewest resources and the greatest needs. Our students deserve to be seen. They deserve to be known and they deserve a community that fights for them. Logan Avenue has been that place for more than 50 years. Tonight I ask you to consider not just the financial impact of this decision but the human impact. Thank you Nikki. Next up is Jay Vy. Okay. Hello. We are here tonight because Something important is at stake. Not just a building or a line on a district map, but the future of workingclass and lowincome families in our community. Over the past week, nearly 800 people have signed a petition to save Logan Avenue. Sorry, can you pause my time? That would be okay. Sorry. Logan Avenue school. 800 parents, grandparents, neighbors, community members, teachers who believe that children of
024working-class families deserve the same investment, respect, and opportunity as anyone else in town. People are signing because they understand that Logan Avenue, William Mountain White, Riverside, and Walnut Schools what they represent. They are not just schools. They are neighborhood anchors. It is where working parents know their kids are safe. where families with fewer resources from working-class backgrounds still have a community that supports them. The truth is simple. Workingclass families live in neighborhoods around Logan Avenue. Their children walk to that school. They receive a quality education like my niece who has autism and has thrived because of the incredible educators there. So, we have to ask some hard questions about how we ended up in this school crisis. If the district would have never built Timberman, a place which uh a school which is placed in
025one of the wealthiest and least densely populated parts of our community, would we even be having this conversation? Because the reality is that Timberman was built to serve the wealthiest neighborhoods on the northwest side where there are fewer children and far more resources. Meanwhile, neighborhoods where workingclass families actually live uh have been asked to sacrifice again and again. They lost the Peter Pan pool. They lost the neighborhood grocery store, creating a food desert. And there is an attempt to take the rec center out of the neighborhood. And now they're being told they will lose their neighborhood elementary school. This is not right. This is not fair. There are also [clears throat] serious questions about the district maps. Why are neighborhoods like Belmont, Trailer Park, other trailer parks in that area, Homewood, and other southeast neighborhoods
026not zoned for Logan Avenue? Why are those students sent across town to Riverside instead of attending the school connected to their neighborhoods? It doesn't make sense. And when people when something doesn't make sense, people start asking questions whether those lines were drawn in a way that would intentionally reduce enrollment in Logan Avenue. School choice has also played a role in um pulling students away from neighborhood schools. If districts boundaries were drawn differently and if village had been updated instead of timbermen, we likely would not be facing this crisis today. Instead, the burden is being placed on workingclass and lowincome families. And let's not forget just two years ago, the same board attempted to close another workingclass neighborhood school, William Allen White. And the community stood up then like we are doing now. We will uh
027so we have to ask what kind of community do we want to be? Because the future of Emporia will not o be built only in the wealthiest parts of the community. Young families can barely afford housing today. And when we finally do buy homes, those families or those homes are going to be on the south side and the east side where housing is still affordable. >> Thank you, Jay. Your time is up. >> Stephanie Dresser, please come forward. >> Thank you. My name is Stephanie Dresser. I'm a Logan Avenue parent. I'm gonna talk about something a little different tonight. I'm gonna talk about unsafe playground equipment that sat on our playground for two years. I'm going give you a little bit of history about it. It was dumped on our playground the summer of 2024
028from Kansas Avenue with no care. It was not assembled. After several inquiries, uh we were told it took a special company to put together that equipment. Well, after medical issues, another company was brought in. They deemed the playground equipment unsafe. So to our relief for field day, it was moved still on the playground, but it was moved behind a storage shelter so that we could enjoy our playground, have field day, and it was safe. However, to much of our dismay, in the summer of 2025, that playground equipment was assembled and around it is orange safety netting. To me, that tells me it's unsafe. That orange netting continues to stay around that equipment to this day. I live there. It's my neighborhood. It's disgusting. And I hope that there is more care and that you guys
029do care about a Southeast School. Don't forget about us. Don't forget that we live there. I understand there are going to be some hard decisions tonight in the upcoming weeks. This should not be one of them. The safety of our students should come first. I'm asking you to remove this unsafe playground equipment. I'm sure we found the money to erect it over the summer. We can find the money to take it down. Thank you for listening. [applause] All right. Thank you. Uh next we're going to move to item uh 4A, cost containment recommendation. >> All right. Well, that that means I'm up. Um, just just want to reiterate that uh never ever had to recommend to close a school. Um, I've spent most of my career um passing bond issues and building schools and opening
030schools. Um, it's not not been an easy process and u you're going to you're going to hear a lot of uh the same information you heard in your work session the other day. Want to go through that again. There lots lots of new folks in the room that need to hear some of that as well. um so that you know that that we can all be as informed as possible and u so we'll just roll through it. Um first slide is why cost containment. There are a lot of reasons why we are looking at trying to reduce our budgets in the district. But here are just a few. Um this year we're estimated to expend over over we're estimated to deficit spend approximately $2 million. That means $2 million being spent more than we're estimated
031to take in. Um, our enrollments declined 21% over the last 10 years. That's about a thousand students. A thousand students represents about $5 million in in Bay State aid. Um, there are 400 fewer students for Bay State aid funding next year, which represents we're a loss of $2.3 million in state revenue next year compared to this year. So, I look at that as in simple math for me, um, walking into the district and starting to, uh, review finances and that we're spending 2 million more than we have to spend and we're projecting to have another $2.3 million in revenue losses a year from now, which led to the development of the cost containment team and trying to study this issue and try to figure out ways that we could, you know, fiscally sustain the district.
032We have to align our expenses with our revenues over time. Um our current spending rate compared to our projected revenues would deplete our reserves in just four years. Uh the district would be bankrupt. Um you know, you have to do something before you get to that point or or it isn't our district anymore. The state will come in and make it their district. And so we have we have to uh find ways to reduce their budget and and unfortunately um drastically. Our targeted decrease for next year as we started the cost containment process was to try to get at as much of that 4.3 million of of uh deficit that we were projecting as possible. So we set a $4 million target. um cost containment team didn't meet that target exactly, but over a two-year
033period potentially can um meet the targets needed in order to uh create a fiscally sustainable future for the district. >> I think we were respectful respectfully listening to you. [applause] Yeah, I just want I just want to say that I am not here for the money. I'm making less today than I made in as a superintendent. That's not why I'm here. And uh I actually did put I said I'd go part-time. If the district thought that we could do it with a part-time superintendent and that would help us save money, I would go part-time. So, it's not it's not about me or my salary. Um, >> this is a public meeting and the public comment time is over. I'm sorry. I know that's not a popular opinion. Um, but that that time >> this is
034a public meeting and public comment time is over. I'm sorry that's not a popular opinion, but we would ask that the audience remain respectful and quiet during our presentation, please. Thank you. You see uh just a just a snapshot of the team charter that was put together to uh with the goal of providing recommendations that would allow for long-term budget development that's fiscally responsible and feasible. And that included ensuring that staffing appropriately matches student needs. Um it's been over a six-month process to get to this point in time. That team u of people put put in over a thousand hours of just meeting time studying the issues. Um there there's a slide that shows the almost 80 members that served on that team. Um we did our best to try to make it representative of
035all areas of the district. Um I did that by asking principles from each of our of our schools to identify staff members and community members that could serve on That team used uh several evaluation criteria and some guiding principles. Um we asked them to keep in mind the financial value or impact of various ideas that were were uh brought to the table. We asked them to think about implementation effort. Is it could it feasibly be done bas you know how complex is it? Will our systems support it? Um we talked about stakeholder disruption and that's what you know I think that's what we're hearing you know this evening is you know these decisions do have stakeholder disruption. There's there's risk to these decisions. We understand that it's um it's not unavoidable in its entirety. Um
036we we talked about trying to absorb vacated positions as much as possible. So looking at rather than having to tell people they don't have a job, look at opportunities to absorb jobs as they become vacated. And uh I I believe we're of of the approximately 26 jobs that full-time full-time equivalent type jobs that are being because a lot of these jobs you you count more people but they're just there a couple of hours of doing this job, a couple of hours of doing this other role and so it looks like it's more people than it is. There's about 20 26 um full 26 to 28 full-time equivalent uh jobs. uh of those I was working with our human human human resources director today and uh identified that right now just today we already have 16
037um jobs being vacated that mean that mean that's 16 people you don't have to go approach and say your job doesn't exist and we anticipate more and so the goal is to get to the point where no one is told that they don't have a job that's the goal and then we wanted to limit student impact you can't you can't avoid it but we we wanted to limit it and so um we're trying to impact as few students as possible with with the uh with the recommendations. So those were the criteria that we used to evaluate and the guiding principles that were followed. Just a little bit more about um our our budgetary problem or issues. You can see the black line is our is our projected revenues. Uh you can see actual revenues in
038black and then projected on out in the light gray. You can notice that um as of 2425 those revenues started flattening but expenditures the red dotted line continued continued to go up and if you look at that and start to follow out the solid red line it shows where we're going to be spending more money than than we're actually receiving moving forward. Um that green line gives you an idea of where we would be um if we make if we were able to make these budget reductions that we're recommending for this year and next year. Um the revenue line uh where you see it turn gray basically the projection there assumes that we're going to see the CPI annual CPI increases um in our state funding from year to year. There's no guarantee that that
039will occur but that is one of the assumptions that's in that number. So, the goal is to get the green line under the gray line. Um, and that's that's that's what we we're trying to accomplish. The next one, a little bit more about operating cash balances. Um, cash reserves are necessary to avoid borrowing at points during the year when you're waiting for revenue to come in. You you you don't always, you know, we're looking at endofear cash balances. Your cash balances flow up and down throughout the year. Um we try to target cash balances in order to to be able to operate efficiently and have have funds available for um unforeseen circumstances. We try to operate within between that 15 to 25% those two dotted lines on this particular graph. You can see that we
040started deficit spending last year and that black line becomes a red line moving forward. That's that's what's going to happen to our cash balances, our our end ofear cash reserves if we do not correct um the spending um and get it back in line with our revenues. If we are able to make these re, you know, implement these recommendations, then you see the green line begins to flow back upwards a bit. And in fact, it's important for it to flow upward some because we do need to build our general fund cash reserves um you know along the way as well. We don't we won't we don't want to deplete those reserves. In this scenario, there would be no reserves left after the 2829 school year if we continued on the p pace that we are.
041This isn't just a school district issue, although societal issues and community issues often are reflected in uh the school districts in the community. And you can see here the community factors that have impacted our enrollment. And you can look at since 2001 a variety of things that have happened in our community with regard to job loss that have impacted our our enrollment. I noted there that we've had another 112 jobs lost recently with the Hopkins closer. Um I was happy to see on our u uh employment re recommendations later that we we're employing someone that has lost a position at Hopkins. And so um appreciated you know seeing that. um our adult we have we have a total decline from last year to this year of 225 actual students and then we have the adult
042education uh auditing change that takes another 176 students out of our funding formula for next year. So we're down 401 students in funding for next year or that 2.3 million in base state aid. It's likely that it could be more. um we have to look at all of our waitings and how those impact um our total numbers. But um in Bay State aid just bodyto body 401 401 fewer students running through the formula accounts for about $2.3 million. Um here you can see you can almost see there we go Casey's doing multiple things over here. Here you can see uh just a prek prek and adult. Our adult learners are in this too. We we actually don't have adult learners at this point in time because of the way the state came in and and
043started changing the way you can can uh count your adult learner hours. It became uh it became a a lost it lost cost financially. We couldn't keep up with it financially. So we had to do away with our adult program. Uh while it and because even if we continued it um it was going to count for so little funding in the formula compared to the expenditures to keep it going. And so we did do away with the adults. So this is prek to adult enrollment. So sometimes an enrollment list, an enrollment number from one slide might not match an enrollment from the other because it might not have the K the preks or or the adults in it. So here you can see that that decline of a thousand students representing about $5 million. You
044can see that our 10-year decrease in K through five 466 students were about 78 per grade 6 through 8 72 and then 9 through 12 80 83. Our middle schools actually held um you know, we looked at some more specific data the other day in the work session. Our middle schools actually held their enrollment the last three years. Um but we as we move on through here, you'll start to see the problem with regard to our grade level class sizes and how and why we're going to continue to see um additional uh funding losses due to student enrollment and and additional student enrollment decline. Um, the next couple of slides just have all of our buildings listed and it has their current enrollments. It has how much of that enrollment uh lives within the actual
045attendance boundary of of that particular school and uh then it gives you a total uh and it and it even tells you where where uh various students are transferring in and out of schools from. So it's so it's a lot of good information um to be able to see a big picture. You can see here uh Logan Avenue on this particular list 20 in district students, 36 that are transferring in. Those numbers are a little bit lower and right now um I the the total the total school enrollment not counting the 10 kids in connections currently is about is 140 students this week. Um and there are 10 sections 10 grade level sections in the school currently. Um enrollment numbers project out to look like there won't be a need for all 10 sections next
046year. the second page of that those enrollments, you can see uh at the bottom the yellow line, that's where you start to to get a picture of what the future might look like for us because you begin to look at the the kindergarten, first, second grade classes that are coming in compared to the classes that were graduating. And you know, we're potentially losing 60 to 75 students a year just on what who who we have versus who we're graduating, who's coming in versus who we're graduating. So that's a significant decline and we're going to continue to see our revenues decrease as a result of that. The next slide just shows the financial impact of closing an elementary school. Um we used this early on in cost containment as we were asked about it and provided
047this information. It didn't have any one particular school in mind when it was created. U these are these are averages. So these aren't, you know, it isn't necessarily the secretary at a particular school. These are all averages. And these these costs do include uh not just the person's base salary, but all all the aspects of compensation that go into it. And then finally, there's a there's a cost containment uh kind of summary there that you can see uh some of the things that were done the last time uh when KASB came in and talked about right sizing and we did we we made some we made some uh adjustments at that time back in 2223. We actually this year have been able to accomplish about $310,000 in uh cost containment by um not replacing uh
048Miss Leadeds when she came to to the district office to replace Judy Stanley in that assistant superintendent role. We didn't replace her position at the high school. So we you eliminated one one of those positions. Um our director of health services came open this year and we and we've absorbed that into others other people's roles and duties. uh we combined two positions into one in the uh public relations department and then also had some reductions at Flint Hills learning center. So about $310,000. Um we we roll those into the next column over which is called the phase you know phase one of the 26 26. These are the 26 27 reductions and you can see all the all the detailed information uh summarized here by grade level and and by particular items of cost containment.
049Um that $310,000 is pulled over into our total. So it is is counted in what we're projecting as total savings for the the recommendation that we're asking you to approve this evening. The one other item that's pulled over into those recommendations is in the far right column, the reducing the child care to zero months phase two. Um that would be that would be um you know we have hap we have a portion of the year in column three and then and then the rest of the year because we're looking at holding the holding the child care open uh through December next year. That's our recommendation right now because they have they've applied for a grant and that grant u information won't come back in until possibly May. And we've we've listened to our to our
050to our families that are using our child care about uh the time they need in order to find alternative child care if we were to close our program. And uh we committed to keeping it open through December since we wouldn't know until May whether or not that grant were received. And so if the grant's received, that's costneutral for for one more year. But if it's not received, then we're looking at um saving about $270,000 um for if for the second part, the second portion of the year. Uh then the following year, you would pick up the full year, which is another $157,000 in savings. Um we're not recommending tonight anything associated with closing Logan Elementary School. Um, obviously there's another agenda item where you will consider to uh to uh publicly notice a hearing for
051that per for that for the purpose of hearing more information about that. U and we wouldn't anticipate any action at that particular hearing either. You you would take action later after you've been had an opportunity to hear um all of the information. So things like things like getting Flint Hills Learning Center out of the mall, uh moving central office and then and then closing closing the closing the school and the savings that are that are associated with that are not a part of the recommendation this evening. And so there's another document in there that Casey can pull up and that you have access to that has everything that we're recommending this evening pulled off of this chart. So, it's pretty much everything in the two middle columns plus the child care uh second half of
052the child care. That's what's on this list. And it totals 3,430,955. You can note that it does not include savings related to school closure. Um, and that's what we're recommending this evening. >> Questions? I I would just like to continue to say that, you know, we we've lost the the learning center where we had our adult learners. Uh most were minorities. Uh that was due to a change in how the state funds that. A lot of what we're talking about today is decided at Topeka. How are we going to fund public education? And I would urge everybody to reach out to your elected officials to to advocate for public school to advoc advocate for all your schools. The reality is if our enrollment keeps declining, this is just step one. We're going to be back
053here having this discussion next year and the year after. And so we have to, like you said, fight for our schools. Um, this issue isn't going away. Um, not only do we have the declining enrollment, but we have, I think in the next year or two, the state funding formula for public education is up to be renewed or refreshed. And the goal right now of the legislators is to reduce that cost as much as possible which is going to greatly impact our district as one of the poorest districts in Kansas. So you have to be aware of what's going on to PA and how it's going to affect our community. >> Thanks Art for starting with that because one of my many questions that I have for tonight is um regarding our special ed funding.
054So, am I remembering that we have to transfer out $5 million out of our own budget um to fund special ed because the state legislature is underfunding special ed? >> Yes. just for USD 253, we're we're taking a little over $5 million of general funds u to supplement the gap in funding for special education because the state legislature, I think they're in the mid60% uh in funding that gap and there's they have a there's actually a statute on the books that says they should fund 92% of that gap. Um unfortunately, the state legislature hasn't um been very amanable to adding money to uh to that to fund special education. In fact, um they're barely um looking at adding enough across the whole state, which is about $440 million short. They're barely adding enough to that
055would even cover our shortfall in just Emporia. >> Okay. >> And we don't get to have it all. We We don't get all of it. >> Yeah. I think that was my question. Like, has the state legislator legislature indicated any increase to special ed funding for the next fiscal year that might help us with our budget situation? >> They have not. They're they're looking at increasing it six to10 million and it takes at least $24 million just to keep us whole locally. So we'll actually be supplementing the special education gap more next year than this year. >> Yeah, this was something I was um thinking about today just kind of preparing for this meeting because I've heard for so many years now people saying you know the legislature doesn't fully fund special education doesn't fully
056fund it and I wanted to dig into that and the formula is about 92% is what they're supposed to fund it with. Um, and sometimes they argue different um, legislature argues with advocates about how much they're actually funding, but it's between about 60 and 70 something%. But it's an appropriations issue, right? There isn't a law that says legislature has to fund this, so you can't exactly sue them for it. It's a matter of appropriation. It's within the legislaturator's discretion. But um I think in general I feel like our legislature to get a little political um is kind of in this position where they underfund special education for the purpose of kind of knocking us out at the knees, right? Becomes harder to fund it, becomes harder to manage it. Then more people leave special education,
057not special education, but more people end up leaving your public education and it becomes kind of like a death spiral, right? more people leave, it makes education worse and then they go to the private schools or they get vouchers that predominantly favor people who live in really urbanized communities. That's what school vouchers really do in our state. People in Johnson County get to go pay to go to a private school that really doesn't exist in Eureka. So, you don't really have school choice when they talk school choice because your ability to exercise that depends entirely on where you live. And that just robs Peter to pay Paul, right? It robs public education to send people to private education. Um, I realize that the closure of the school isn't exactly what we're voting on tonight, but
058it's obviously hanging over us. So, I wanted to ask uh for some information for myself and for the crowd and the public about um which teachers and which positions would be targeted potentially for layoffs or elimination. As I understand it, there's a master teacher contract. So, it's not as if we close or we intend to close Logan, all the teachers and people working there don't have jobs. How does that process actually work? >> No, I mean, if that happens, It it's the process is defined in the negotiated agreement and um you know for example a 14-year veteran at one school just because it closes isn't necessarily going to be the person who um lo you know were to lose a job if we couldn't absorb it through through u retirements and resignations. It might be
059a first year teacher from another school and then that teacher would take that particular position. So it could be the fact that you know teachers move around. You know, I hesitate to sit here today and and say um we should just guarantee all of our grade level section teachers a job after 2728 that work at Logan. But I'm very close to doing that because I feel like we're going to be able to absorb all those positions anyway. um that there will be a need for those teachers elsewhere in the district uh for one to follow some of those students and then two um we'll have we'll have resignations and retirements that are occurring over the course of the rest of this year and next year. >> So when I look at the enrollment by building
060and I look I'm looking obviously at Logan Avenue but if how many students do you think would will be impacted? Obviously, you know, a fifth grade class moving to sixth grade this year and then we'll see the the same sort of movement at at the end of next year. So, ultimately, how many kids are we will be impacted um by having to transfer to other schools? Naturally, you can just take the total number of students, which I can't project what it will be a year from now, but um >> you know, I think I think what you're asking is that ideally that the number of students that are going to be moved from one elementary school to another elementary school is actually smaller than the total number of students. Let's say you have a class
061of fifth graders that's 27 or 28 students and uh the school's going to close the next year. Well, they they wouldn't be flowing to the school anyway. They're going to go to middle school, right? And so it does it does res reduce the impact of moving students from one elementary school to another by whatever the size of that class. I would I I I wouldn't suggest that we um I if if we were to close a school if we were to close Logan Elementary Avenue I I want to operate that that last year of the school as as close to normal as possible. Right? So, I wouldn't be suggesting that we don't start kindergarteners there. I mean, kindergarteners are a vibrant part of every elementary school. You know, I would I would I wouldn't be
062suggesting that they start somewhere else. So, yeah, they would they would get affected, you know, a year later by having to to go to first grade at another school. But, uh, we're trying to, you know, it's not a normal situation, but we're trying to keep things as normal and routine as possible. >> As we're looking at potential cuts for next year, um, there's about a little over 1.8 million that are staff reductions, changes, and so forth. Um, and I just want to reiterate that those are affecting every single building in the district. uh obviously depending on enrollment reductions, changes in responsibilities and so forth, but it's not just one building that's being affected, but it throughout the district and the cost containment team I know spent much time looking at those things and um trying
063to see where can we be more effective, but everybody's being affected to some extent. Yeah, I appreciate that. Um there there there are positions being reduced, you know, all across the district and in elementary in particular. Uh we won't know exactly where the positions are being reduced until we see what our enrollment we we have to be more we have to become more efficient in assigning our teachers to to classrooms, right? And so it means in order to be as efficient as possible, you might work at Riverside in the second grade one year, but there's a really small second grade at Riverside the next year. And so we need you at Walnut in the fourth grade. you know, we have to we have to have that kind of mindset to where we're we we're as
064efficient and as lean as possible and don't have, you know, extra staff that we're having to pay out of our budget when you I'd much rather I'd much rather spend that money um giving our teachers raises than to be paying for positions that aren't necessarily needed. Um and so yeah, positions all across the district um being looked at and again a lot of those positions being absorbed due to due to retirements and resignations. Um you know when when positions open we look at how can we can we do without it? Can we um absorb another role to to take on those responsibilities or maybe two different two different jobs or take on that person's responsibility. Um, you know, it's like I said this year we we u we didn't replace our director of health services.
065Dr. Mickelson, you know, now has more more more duties uh than she had before. Um, how sustainable is that? I'm not sure, but we'll continue to look at what's the best way to to uh distribute those duties. >> Um, I can go. So, my comment, it's actually very related to what Art was saying previously. Um, so earlier today I had a really positive and productive meeting with Representative Shriber where we primarily talked about this issue and what would be coming up on tonight's agenda. Um, we talked about special education funding. I shared with him some of the numbers that we've been considering in cost containment. I would say that he is um very [clears throat] understanding of the situation that we are in and supportive of special education funding. He knows that we need to
066put more money into public education. Uh, so I would encourage those of you that live in Representative Shriber's district to reach out to him. Although I do fear that if you live south of South Avenue, he might not be your representative. Um, so I would encourage you to reach out to whomever that is and talk to them. Um, like I said, we had a great conversation today. Um, and we did look at specific numbers about things. Um, but I also know I don't want to leave the impression that like, oh, it's the state's fault or it's it's not. It's a compl this is a complicated issue that is affecting all of us. Um, I would also like to say that Emporia is not the only school district with declining enrollment right now. And that's just
067a piece of the decision that we're considering with cost containment, but there is over a hundred districts in Kansas facing declining enrollment. So, it is not just us here. I know that it can feel like that right now. Um there are many other communities that are facing similar tough decisions as we are. Um I have one question right now um pertaining to the child care program. When will the grant be announced that is like on the first item on the sheet? >> We don't have a definitive date. We were told April or May. So could be as late as sometime in May. Could I I I'd like to ask a question about child care also. Um I know that um the a group of parents formed a committee um to think about how they could
068become a costneutral program and I was curious um have they been able to figure out if they don't get the grant if they could ever become costneutral or would it be too cost prohibitive for them? And then my second question um about child care is I see on the consent agenda that our child care director has submitted her resignation and if we were to approve it, she would be leaving in on March 13th. So do you anticipate that we would be rehiring that position or would you fill that position and just thinking about potential cost savings there? We we do actually appreciate the work of the team that was put together to uh they they actually formed a consortium with some of the surrounding uh school districts, the chamber, Little Lions because Little Lions kind
069of runs through the chambers Ignite program and uh so they were all working together on that and as a part of that they were look looking at um ways to potentially reduce costs um increases in in uh rates um lots of ideas like that but getting nowhere near costneutral. Um you know it's still hundreds of thousands of dollars a gap. Um families would have to agree to double you know their weekly rates in order to come close to getting it cost neutral and that's just not that's not uh feasible for for anyone to do. None of us would be able to do that um when we were raising our children. Um and then as far as the child care director uh yes she has put in her resignation and right now uh Mr. Schwarz is
070working on trying to kind of restructure and reorganize to absorb those duties and have multiple other people take on that role to get us through the the the year. Um, if we were to receive the grant, we would certainly look at potentially hiring another director. But I think also um you know we need to be looking at all potential opportunities and even if we get the grant without a director, we may want to approach another provider in town and and see if they might want to oversee our child care classrooms for a year and kind of manage it for us. So we're looking at all those options. I know we've talked a lot about Little Lions, but Grant had mentioned important community child care last week, and for some reason, we just hadn't really put
071them into the mix, but I would be really interested to see because childcare is such a huge deal. Um, >> my mic is on. >> Sure. Thank you. Um, let me try to find my where I was again. >> Oh, yeah. We're looking at all our providers, not just Little Lions. Y >> um also, thank you for addressing the kindergarteners. I did have a grandma ask me that about whether or not we would take kindergarters at Logan if that's the route we went. Um so I'm glad that you um brought that up. Um and then, you know, I believe we start IBB negotiations on the 20th of this month, um which is less than two weeks away already. And um you know with these cost containment measures uh I do want to still be able
072to give raises to people and not have um salary freezes like we've had to do in the past. Um so that's just something I've been trying to keep mindful. You know we do want to keep the teachers that we have if we can and by compensating them appropriately. Um so that's I appreciate you bringing that up too. >> Yeah. and the the expenditure projections have um modest raises incorporated in them similar to the one that was given a year ago. And so those are in our in our projections. Um I'll go on record here saying I don't care to get a raise. I didn't I I don't I've already I saw Jamie the other day. It's like I don't I don't need a raise. Um give it give it to the teachers. Give it to
073to the paras. Give it to the other people. I don't need a raise. Um but yeah, I don't remember the other h other half of what you were. >> Um one parent did and it was mentioned tonight that Connections is housed at Logan. If Logan were to close, what would happen to those students? >> We would relocate the Connections program to another school. That has not been determined at this time. >> We're also we're also looking we have another transportation meeting tomorrow. There are a lot of details, right, that you have to work through. That's why that's why I was very adamant we don't we should not be trying to close this school in August. You know, we need to take our time and uh make sure that we answer questions, we we respond to
074concerns and and get it as right as possible. You know, if if it's what we're going to do. Um but, you know, we're looking at where where are where are the transportation needs? Where are those hazard spots? you know, um potentially somebody's going to live more than 1.5 miles from their school. We, you know, we transport more than 1.5 miles even though the statute says 2.5 miles. So, we'll use all the same parameters that we use across the district to to determine uh what transportation is needed. And and and you know, we'll listen we'll listen to the Logan families and community about that as well to try to to try to be sure that that's addressed. >> Thank you for that. I also wondered um we we got an email today about um from a
075middle school teacher about reducing the positions between the middle school and the high school and they it didn't it felt um they felt like it was a little disparit because it seemed like more when there were more kids at that level. Um, but I I do really appreciate uh it's, you know, it's too bad we don't have the same folks giving their input as last week, but it was so nice to hear from um building principles on what they really felt like was sustainable for them. Um, but I also like to talk about, you know, if we did see an increase in enrollment, and I think Barb had brought that up, you know, if we do bring in industry, um, you know, what's the possibility of reopening? Because I think you said last week if
076if we were to move into a different building, we would not do any like remodeling, like with no structure changes, right? >> We wouldn't be looking at one, selling a a school if we close it, and then two, just making as minimal modifications as possible to to utilize it for whatever it's going to be used for so that it could be converted back to a school at some point. Um, you could literally, no one can predict the future, right? And I probably won't be here when this happens, but you could literally get to a point where your enrollment gets small enough that you might look at two different schools to close and put them in Logan because it's bigger footprint. We don't need the bigger footprint currently, but that's a possibility down the road, too.
077You know, there's to me there's there's nothing off the table, but I can't say that's going to happen in the future. I don't know what that'll look like. It would be great if we had um some manufacturing jobs move into town, some professional jobs move into town, whatever the jobs are, and that families will begin to to repopulate the district. Um and we would make adjustments accordingly. We're we're going to we we were are going to have the school regardless of whether it is closed or not. >> I just want to reiterate something that you started with Dr. McGee and that is that um the community as a whole needs to understand that we absolutely have to balance our budget because we do not under any circumstances want the state to come in and take
078control of our local schools and it's going to hurt us all and I guarantee you none of us at this table want to be here talking about these things right now. But I uh it has happened to districts in the state and we certainly do not want to find ourselves in that position. You know, I'm going to kind of get on the bully pulpit here. I think you guys have probably heard this spiel last week when we had the study session, but I think it's important to to talk about, you know, in my day job as an attorney, when I write um orders as an administrative hearing officer, you know, we always we always start with the findings of fact, right? You've got a situation, you got a case, just like right now, what are
079your neutral facts about what is going on? You list them out, then you analyze, and you apply the facts to the law, you apply the facts to the situation. Um, and there's been a lot of talk here from a lot of folks who are impacted by this about why we're here and why we're here in this point, but I can really sum it up for you very, very, very easily. It's jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. We lost Tyson. We lost 800 jobs. It took about six plus months for us to kind of even out to see who stayed, who went, who found employment in our community. And we lost a lot of kids. Um, we lost a lot of kids. And the way the formula works for that funding, it's by student, it's by head of
080student. And then of course, we lost Holiday Resort. And then we lost Hopkins just recently. And you're probably not actually going to see the effect on Hopkins um and those jobs being lost in terms of your enrollment until a little bit until a couple of months later from now, kind of just like with Tyson. Um, and probably what I have has been on my mind the most this today and last week and the last couple of weeks is how as a school board, we really don't have any real control or impact on that economic development issue. Right? We're we're here to run the school district. We're here to make sure the education is good and balance the books, but we are not the city or county commission in terms of bringing in new industry and
081new businesses, new factories. You know, I don't know how aware all of you all are, but that's good because I'm going to tell you, we have something in our community called the Regional Development Association. It's been without a president and a leader for about two years now. And the reason that has been the case is because there are two basically divided factions there that can't figure out how to get along and pick someone. I think they had a head hunter who actually had two qualified candidates. They couldn't settle on either of them. and then the talent, you know, the job hunting agency basically quit them and said, "We gave you people and we're moving on." Um, I feel like our county and city leaders need to get it together when it comes to the economic
082interests in our community. You know, in early January this year, the county commission voted down a permit for a I think it was a water treatment uh business called A1 Pump. And I have a lot of sympathy for the county commissioners, so I won't knock them too hard because I know what it's like. I was here during co I've been in a meeting just like this where people are telling you don't do what we think you're going to do. But they had a meeting where everyone came and basically complained and said that business is going to stink to high heaven. And they were probably right. It probably would smell bad in a 2-m radius. But that doesn't really sway me because that was about 30 jobs. That was what that was estimated to bring into
083our community. Small midsize business with 30 jobs. And we didn't have them come in because it wasn't the ideal employer. You know, there's a phrase sometimes called being a choosy beggar, you know, and we're kind of acting like choosy beggars. Uh you go to Aches, I think they have a uh an alcohol or a beer distillery there. Every now and then the wind will hit that city, right? And it stinks so bad. I think many of you here probably remember when Tyson and IBP had slaughterous. Stinks to high heaven. Where I live on Berling Game Road, kind of out in the north of the city, I'm actually probably just a street or two away from North Lion County School District. There's a feed lot to the south of me. Every now and then the wind
084hits, boy do I smell that that that feed lot that that cattle. Um sometimes if I'm lucky the wind will hit right and I smell cupcakes from Hostess, you know. But we keep chasing these golden goose employers. And I'm not saying don't do it right. I'm not saying don't gun for the Natrium nuclear power plant. Don't try to get the ne next big manufacturing company in there. But you know, we have this romantization as Americans with factory jobs and industry that has been slowly disappearing now for the last 30, 40 years. All right, we have got to start focusing on small and midsize businesses and expanding our footprint beyond what we're used to here. And yeah, it means maybe making a tough choice in a meeting and letting an employer come in with 30 jobs
085that stink. Quite literally, the jobs don't stink, but it smells, right? Um, we really have got to have our county and city leaders get it together. Um, we cannot keep fighting over these little turf wars. Um, because frankly, when you're an outside employer and you're looking at this and your regional development association hasn't had a president for two years, what does that tell you? Tells you there's drama here, right? No one wants to go to a house full of drama. Um, these aren't things that we can really control. Um, you know, people have griped online. I I read all the comments. You know, I troll through the Lion County Observer, the Gazette, the Area Chat, KVOE, and I review them all. People have complained about how we just renovated Logan, and now we're talking about
086closing it. Well, we passed that as a community years ago. No one would have known Tyson was going to close, right? I don't know how to fix some of those things, but at the end of the day, I've got a checkbook here. I've got to balance the checkbook. Uh, it's money in, it's money out. And I don't have a simple, easy solution that's going to make everyone happy. it's going to hurt someone somewhere, right? So, we're just in a place with no good options. Um, so in as much as you can get engaged with your local city and county leadership, you really need to because I have a greater concern for our community and our community's well-being and what we're going to look like five or 10 years from now. Right? If more businesses leave
087and more businesses go away and we become more and more economically depressed, we'll be right back here with a different school board in five or 10 years talking about a different elementary school. I have no solutions, just some observations I think need to be voiced out there because I think this is probably the big umbrella issue that we're dealing with right now. And that's really why we're all here in this room is because we have had a cascade of job loss in our community. Um that we have got to have our leaders rise to the occasion to meet and hopefully we'll be able to do that. But I think pretty uniformly that's not been happening recently. >> Any further questions? I I just want to say that, you know, I keep looking at this list
088and I'm fully aware of the lives that will be changed when we um take our vote tonight. I I've heard from folks from all of these schools um in many of these positions and I I wish we had a better outcome than the one that we have tonight. And I would be prepared to make a motion. I move to approve the phase one and phase two recommendation of cost containment for the 2627 and 2728 school year as presented. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. Uh that brings us to item 5A, board reports. Uh Flint Hills Technical College Board of Trustees. >> We had our monthly meeting on Monday. Uh sorry, give me just a second here. pull up my agenda. Um, we got
089uh a recap of our um our semi uh what do they call it? Like a schedule um evaluation from the higher learning commission. I can't think of what it's called. Thank you. Um and Denise Gilligan did an amazing job on that. Um worked on our budget also. A lot of shortfalls there. um trying to figure out how they've lost their um so we have RCTE funding but the tech college gets their Excel NCT funding and that's been cut by I think just for the tech college like 1.5 million um so trying to figure out how they're going to make that uh continue working. Um and that was about it. So not not a super fun night but Denise did a really great job. >> Okay, that's going to bring us to item 5B, board policy
090update first reading. Dr. Mixson here to uh go through uh some of the policies and the recommended changes. This is a first read, so it will come back before you actually do a do a vote. Regular updates, uh we wait for KSB's suggestions on the updates for board policy and then we try to bring a chunk of those to you at a time. So, um they're most of them are pretty um kind of average changes. Uh the very first one there for executive session is really stating that we can't record anything in executive session unless it would be um a hearing type of situation. So, um just different language in there for that. Um talking about um things that are required by law pretty much to to be recorded and and what those uh prohibited
091areas would be. um memberships. Uh we really are are staying true to to uh Kansas associate association of school boards there. So it just took out some other educational associations. Uh graduation requirements um making sure there's language in there for the 24 academic credits. Uh but then um the credit requirement shall apply beginning with those students who will enter the nth grade um in the year of the effective date here. So some language changes there. Um the next couple of policies are dealing with controversial issues. So um there is uh have been changes to a few of them just with language there really saying that teachers um have they need to to make sure that they are are sharing what is going to be learning you know the learning is going to be taking place
092uh with families and that families can opt out of some of those pieces. Um, in one of these, I believe it's the next one, uh, we did, um, include a form there that, uh, that was recommended to have as just a, um, across the board form that was right here in the board policy. So then the administrators don't have to go kind of dig that out or find that in a different spot. So that form is a part of the the recommendation. Uh there's also um IKD is the religion in schools. So just making sure that um we have made any updates to that uh for the opt out uh piece um in accordance with IKDA. Um there's a few more. The next one has to do with religious um exemptions as well. And then
093JBCC uh deals with the um enrollment of non-resident students. So this is really that transfer process. So making sure the language is in there um for the updated information. Most of that's based on transportation. So making sure that um that everyone's aware that we as the accepting school do not have to provide transportation for the students that are accepted as transfers into this school into our school district. Um and that recommendation is there. The other piece for the next one is the interrogation and investigations. Um and we kept those there. There are minimal changes to that one. Um just making sure that we um have the administration shall contact a parent or guardian. We also wanted to make sure that um a parent or guardian is there. It aligns with the SRO agreement that we
094had that says that we will have a parent or guardian there in place while we do that investigation that the discussion with the student. And it also um just made us very much aware that we need to ensure that um administration is taking ownership of that and not our security guards or our our security resource officers moving forward. And then the last one is adult students. So, um really making sure that we have information about the credits that they would need to attain a high school um diploma or equivalent. Um so, it's quite a few. Um but if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer any. >> Go ahead. No, go ahead. >> I have a question um up at the top page three of BG memberships. I find it curious actually that
095um KSB is recommending a policy that we have maintain membership with KSB. I feel like we should leave it up to the board andor the superintendent to decide where we should have membership. So that's the one that I would actually have objection to. >> Makes sense. >> I agree. I don't quite see the purpose of it because we don't need permission in a policy to join any particular group. And also just naming it out seems sort of unsemly. >> I do appreciate the extra care you took on the um student inter interrogation or questioning and making sure it aligned with SRO since we did so much work on that. I Yes. So, thank you for making sure that those were really cohesive. Yes, Lillian's our our board member on that committee and we talked about
096that quite a it was a a source of of a little bit of contention just because we wanted to get it right at last year when we brought this up. >> Um I'd also say there was quite a few policies that we talked about and we had a really robust meeting I think the policy committee did. So I'd just like to thank Dr. Mickelson and everyone else who served on the committee and was able to meet two weeks ago when we went over these. >> Lillian, um I guess I should have asked you first before I said I object to policy BG, but was that a source of discussion with the policy committee? >> Not um not particularly. Um and some of these we just present the recommendations to the board in all honesty. Sometimes
097in these committee meetings, I don't want to be like the board's only voice there. And I think that you all should have an opportunity to as well um to shape what the the policies look like. There were a few others that I think we talked about more extensively like the interrogation one controversial issues. We spent more time on those. >> Okay, there's no further questions. Uh we'll see you when you bring this back. And the next one is uh board policy update. >> This will be Dr. Mickelson as well. Um this is uh something we've just we talked with you about in the past and bringing it forward for action this evening. So we have a policy CJAA which is administrator voluntary um early retirement incentive and in the current policy uh it states that
098uh a retired administrator who took this incentive um could only return in a classified position or in a part-time position. And so as we move forward um with our cost containment pieces and and the administration at Logan Avenue, we want to make sure um or wherever that is, we want to make sure that we have somebody that can help us with that transition. And so um we have a a retired administrator who is interested in in supporting us in the district in a in that way. Um, the proposal would be to have a sunset uh clause in here that would allow for an administrator, a retired administrator to come in an interim administrator position for only for next school year, for the 2627 school year. And then that would sunset and we would come back
099and reinstate the current policy after the that next school year for the 2728 school year. Now, didn't we also say that that policy probably needs looked at it more broadly? So, we >> we'll bring it back to the policy committee and and and look at that. Um, this is any any administrator who was hired before the 2012 2013 school year. I believe that that was the year that's when all of this started for the early retirement incentive. So, we want to make sure the language in here um just it stays true to where we are at in a in a as a district right now at the current time. This request is is very closely related to us wanting to ensure that um Logan Avenue has a great year next year whether it be their
100whether it be the last or whether it be the next one of many. U Mr. A heirs is going to be transitioning over uh to replace Emily Baker who resigned as the uh principal at Riverside. And so that's that's a part of one of your action items later this evening. And uh this gives us an opportunity to ensure that we have someone with experience to step in and uh deal with what could be a potential, you know, difficult year and somebody who needs to know the answers to questions and and um so we we and you know, we appreciate the fact that we have someone that is interested in helping us through this situation and and that we think is very qualified, but we just needed to make this policy change. um in basically kind
101of an emergency clause that will sunset so that we can actually uh make that higher and ensure that the school has good good quality leadership through next year. >> Okay. I move to approve board policy CGAA's amendment as submitted. >> I second that amendment. It's been >> been moved and second. Please cast your vote. motion passes 70. >> That's going to bring us to item 5D. Public notice of hearing for closing school building. >> This is a required uh public notice. If you are going to consider closing a school building in the state of Kansas, you have to conduct a hearing. have to public publicly notice that hearing um two consecutive weeks in the local newspaper. And so you can see in the supporting information there that we would notice that hearing uh published in
102the Emporia Gazette on March 24th and March 31st. That will meet our our statutory guidelines on conducting that hearing. And at that time, um, you'll be able to, um, hear more evidence presented and submitted, uh, from the public with regard to, uh, why they feel, um, the school should should remain open. Um, and you'll probably hear some repetitive information from me because I'll serve as the board's representative in the hearing to present the information as to why we're considering closing of the school. We we would not anticipate that you would act at that hearing, but then um the actual closing of the school um decision would end would be on the next board meeting following that date. >> Any questions? Um, I don't have a question necessarily, but just to to clarify both for the
103board and for the public that if we were to to take action tonight, we're saying we're publishing the the notice that we'll have a meeting in the future on the 15th of April and then even then we would not vote to close the the school until after that meeting. >> That's correct. I am um I think the 22nd of April is the is the board meeting where it would actually um be an agenda item to uh determine whether or not uh to move forward with closing the school, but only after hearing more from the public uh in that hearing on the 15th. >> Thanks for that clarification. Go ahead. >> I was going to um say this anyway, but I was kind of disappointed when the Logan parents walked out. I uh Thank you. Thank
104you for staying. I um but I heard from a lot of Logan parents and teachers who were not here tonight as well as teachers and parents from across the district. And we really want our students to attend the best facility um that the district has to offer. And none of us want to close an elementary school. That's not an easy thing to do. The CCT spent hours and hours trying to come up with the very best suggestions that they could. But it appears that we are rushing into closing Logan Avenue based solely on student headc count and convenience. Now, I'm I'm new to this board and when I stepped in here in January, I really didn't expect to see such a deep budget crisis, but we're all here and it's our responsibility to take care
105of it. Um, but I think it's too soon to have a public hearing on any one specific school because as a board, we need to do our digging now and we need to know infrastructure. We need to know the integrity of the building. We need to know the property footprint. Know which building is the most appealing, the most desirable both building wise, classroom wise, facilities wise, and and place playground and green space-wise for our students to be educated in. I mean, the board office, we don't need a lot of glamour and and and bright things, but we want that for our students. And so if this motion is made and seconded, then I um I'll be voting against it tonight. >> Any further comments? >> I move to direct the clerk of the board to
106give notice of hearing on the proposal to close Logan Avenue Elementary is submitted. >> I'll second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. >> Motion passes 52. Okay, that brings us to item 6A, 2026 27, Kansas Educational Systems Accreditation Action Plan. >> Good evening, board. Um, we're here this evening to share our report that outlines the 2627 action plan that we will be submitting uh to KSDE on April or by April of 26. Um after our submission is reviewed, they provide us with feedback and we have the opportunity to revise and strengthen our plan. Um and I will hand this off to Dr. Mcnamar and Dr. Cargula for the next few slides. >> Good evening everyone. So as a district through the work of all of our teams and our internal work
107um we have identified the fundamental of standards alignment. We're going to and we've begun that work of aligning our standards with our materials so that we can have more of a unified um vision for our students. This also includes the interpersonal, intrapersonal and cognitive skills for our prek to 12 learners. And so to support that fundamental, we are looking at the uh indicate the structures of resource allocation being fiscally responsible um in looking at how we are implementing and purchasing our highly qual our highquality instructional materials and partnering that with p uh professional development aligned to the state standards and structured literacy. And this is work we've already begun to do. Um because of the great pro uh professional collaboration that we have amongst our district, we are going to amp that up even more
108um to make this um our our focus for the next year. Um so why is this right for us as a district? Um we've talked before uh it allows for the standards alignment creates that clarity and consistency amongst our grade levels. Um it's the attentional alignment for the curriculum um of instruction as well as assessments um looking at the state standards the performance level descriptors and that gives us those unified targets for students. This also alignment this also this alignment also ensures instruction matches expected knowledge skills to leading more leading to more accurate and meaningful conclusions about student success. And finally, my piece um what does our data tell us? Um we've reported to you previously um the gaps that we've seen in our state assessment scores. Um and so I don't want to believe
109belabor that plan those numbers because we know and that's why those trends all point to that in inconsistent alignment to our state standards why it led us to choose state standard um standards alignment for our work. >> Okay. So the who what and how. So our goal would be to work on our core instruction and all those pieces in that circle are the things that we're going to work on to work to improve and to connect and to make sure they're aligned to what we need to do in terms of our standards. So the WHO is going to be we're going to focus on math preK through 12 on math this year and develop a a good um process to realign our curriculum guides. We're going to align curriculum guides to the PLLDS which is
110performance level descriptors and also to the district approved resources. And we're and how we're going to do that is we're going to start this summer at the end of May and early June with summer curriculum camp which is going then going to extend through PD days next year to complete the work. Um and then we have some targets. So these are our targets. So the first one first standard alignment professional development it really emphasis there is on budget alignment. So, we're putting the budget in place to make sure we can have this have these curriculum days. And then we're going to work on curric quarter one curriculum guides are aligned to the resources and then we're going to do summer curriculum camp in May. And then our collaboration will be done amongst our our our
111grade level teams. And they're going to be looking at the standards documents and performance level descriptors, the work on the work on anal um addressing focus standards and instructional gaps. And we're hoping to we're going to need to at least get quarter one and some of quarter two done this summer. And then we're going to work to use the kind of mini the instructional mini test as data pieces to analyze our progress. So then our year one targets are very similar. The only thing that changes there is to get um to work on making sure we have quarter two done and then start on quarter three so we're prepared for the second semester because this plan ends February the 4th of 27. So that's when we're going to redo another plan moving forward. And then
112the other one is again working on gaps in the horizontal alignment. And then we got some feedback from our last plan. Um, KSD liked our strong backwards planning. They like our the work that we did with feedback. They liked our action steps. And they also like how we use data to monitor our progress. Some things we need to work on is we need to strengthen our transparency about our barriers and sharing successes and how we overcome them. And we also need to make sure that we're showing how our plan is affecting students and making them improve the achievement and success of them. I don't need to tell you um that we have a very diverse population that we meet um their needs and we have um some inconsistencies with our assessment practices. So what we
113will do is use the timely data to make um guided instruction decisions. Um once KSDE determines the action plan meets all the requirements um the district will receive a ready to implement designation. Um what we would like to ask right now is that u for your permission to submit the 2627 KS uh the KSA action plan to KSDE. Do you have any questions for any one of the three of us? I had a question about summer curriculum camp. Is that for all teachers in that area? Is it lead teachers or department heads or >> We're we're doing lead teachers. Um we're going to have a lot of teachers. That's how we're going to be spending the bulk of our professional development money. Um we are going to have prek through 12th grade. uh prek through
114fifth grade will be uh really digging into the math. Um the the middle school and high school, they'll be digging into math. And there will also be some language arts and some science uh to help them align their resources with um the new resources that they got last year to really dig in and now that they have a year under their belt, they can re re align things. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Yeah, it's nice to know we have so many teachers willing to Yes. >> do that kind of work over the summer. >> Thank you. >> And we will pay them. >> Yes, of course. >> Um I have some questions on the strengths and gaps slide. Um I'd love to see more strengths than gaps, but I would like could you elaborate a
115little bit more on what KSD found, you know, in the recommendations of where we could grow in our work and then how do you plan to address those? Well, I think when we look at that first one, um talked about strengthening our transparency. Um we identified barriers in our str like in our calendar and the way we adjusted our calendar and we we do PD a little bit different which caused us to not maybe have feel like we had enough time to do what we wanted to do. So I think what we need to do with our gaps is we really need to identify our processes and what we're doing and really be more transparent about that. And I think as we work through this process, we're going to work to really analyze what we're
116doing and make sure that we can really do what we say we're going to be able to do. And then the second one there is really comes down to our last plan really focused on a lot of teacher actions in terms of SCOP implementation. So really trying to dig in and understand the impact of what SCOP does for our students and as we move to this new plan um understanding the impact of students on curriculum alignment. Are we seeing more student success? what's the data showing and how do we translate that back to the plan that we amended. >> Thank you. That's really helpful. So on the first one um that kind of goes back to the professional development time and so the schedule we have this year with the early release is that a
117pro or a con when it comes to like addressing this and how could our school calendar next year um maybe potentially impact our ability to make you know strengthen in this area. >> I I think and M help me with this too. this year's u early release. We had a lot of early release at the beginning of the year and it there was very inconsistent lengths of time between those early release days. So what we did was we took that amount of time and put it into a day and there is at least one PLT day a month. We have a couple uh I think one month that has two days and we have April that doesn't have any, but that's during state assessment time. So that's where the focus is. Um so right now
118with the schedule being what it is, it is the best way we could find to get some consistent contact. So asking about KSD, do the guidelines they give you or the or when what they want from you is it are they helpful with what they want or or how does that what's your opinion I guess of that? >> I think it's helpful. Um when we talked last time about the work we do with Sl and Hayes and being able to work with them and get ideas. Um, we're modeling a lot of what we do off of what Sina does in their summer curriculum work. They did it last summer. So, they're kind of helping us their ideas. They they shared them and we're kind of modeling our work off of that. Um, I think what
119they do, I think the Keith's action plan is impactful. I think when we get to our strategic planning work um it's going to expand because right now this is really pretty narrow and it really I mean we're doing a lot with math right now and hopefully down the road we're going to do a lot more with ELA and science but for like our um elementaryaries it's just hard to do ELA math and science because you're dealing with the same group of teachers. So that's why when we look when we look at elementary we're focusing on math. It's because we don't have enough groups of teachers to work all those different subject areas. So um just like SCOP is not going to um end because we're no longer have an action plan. This action plan continues.
120Just like this action plan we'll stand here. We'll stand here next February or next year at this time and talk to you about our 2728 plan. Our 2728 plan could be a continuation of this with a focus on ELA. Um, or it could be that we're going to do that anyway and maybe we need to focus on our assessment systems a little bit and dealing with our data and how we're how we're using that to to show our progress. So, those are some decisions as we go through this and we look at our gaps, analyze our successes and our failures and figuring out what does our path look like moving forward. So, yes, it's helpful. It's a process that um KSD helps us and they they expect us to have an action plan that we
121implement. So, yes, it is helpful. They really give us a second set of eyes. Um, and like Dr. Cargillus said, the um, work we did with Salina and Hayes, they were ahead on some things. We were ahead on some things. So, it really gives you a cohort to bounce things off of. >> Thanks. >> This is just an information question. Um, I just wanted to make sure that the KST standards both for grade level and for subject matter are still available online so that any of us or any of the community could go look at that. >> Absolutely. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Good question. My dad asked me about he didn't think that high schoolers learned about the Vietnam War anymore and I was like, let me pull that up for you. [laughter] So
122with that, I will move to approve the submission of the 2026 2027 KISSA action plan to KSDE. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. That brings us to item 7A, reemployment of administrators. >> Yes, we've provided you a list of uh our administrators. Um we're recommending them all for reemployment as as listed. Uh you'll see um in this particular list uh it is it is the board's uh practice to provide an administrator who's been in the district in the same position for three years uh to be offered a two-year contract moving forward that they've proven their their theirelves in that way. And so there are some folks on a two-year contract, there are some folks on a one-year contract. And then the asterisks are
123like people who are um you know their contracts ending at the same time as these one-year contracts, but it notes to you in particular that they're on the second year of their you know they received a two-year contract the previous year. Um this list has um folks from the district office. It has all of our building level uh principles, assistant principles, and and then also has um those administrators that u are part of the special education co-op. >> Thank you. And um one thing that I noticed and I called Art like as soon as I noticed this was I noticed that Dr. McGee isn't on this list and so I did get clarification that he's just on a separate schedule and I think we would take this up in the fall. So, just I needed
124that clarification. So, I thought you all might want that information, too. >> And I do have a question. Um, are any of these one-year contracts that we're looking at? >> I mean, I I know that, you know, some of them are going to go to two-year. Have others already been on the two-year and they're continuing and >> so some of these are some of them are one-year contracts. For example, if you look at Mr. Schwarz, it says start in 26, end in 27. Gotcha. Okay. So, that's a one-year, but if it says start in 25 and end in 27, it has an asterisk by it that notes that was a person that's on the second year of their two-year contract when once you approve this list. >> And so, the rest of these people are
125on their second year. >> Well, some some of them are starting. >> Well, I I understand >> they're just starting their first year of I understand that our new people this year are just starting. So, thank you. >> Yep. >> Um I have a question. Um, do all of the special education coordinators are they like I understand well I understand how the co-op works but they are maybe in different districts and they are appear on here because of the structure of the co-op. >> They they don't all just serve our district. Correct. >> Correct. And could you um explain just like briefly like a couple sentences how the co-op is funded? >> Yes. Um basically you're pooling all the all the resources from all the districts in the co-op. Um as as a revenue source,
126you're projecting your expenditures over year. In fact, I think we you project your expenditures over a year. uh you you are putting those expenditures up against your expected revenues and then there is a formula based on the percent of usage by each school district where they actually have a fee to participate in the co-op which is that gap filler between their funding and their actual expenditure. >> Okay. >> So everyone's covering their own portion of the >> Right. So just because they're on this list they might also be serving students in other districts as well. >> Yes. >> Thank you. I move to approve the list of administrator contract terms as submitted. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. That's going to bring
127us to item eight. Uh the consent agenda. The items listed 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 in 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 after request be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately? >> I move to approve the consent agenda as submitted. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none, please cast your vote. >> Motion passes 70. >> Okay, that's going to bring us to item 10A, executive session negotiations. I move we enter executive session for five minutes to discuss negotiation information pursuant to the exception for employer employee negotiations
128under the Kansas Open Meetings Act and that we return to open session in this room at 7:51 p.m. Superintendent Dr. David McGee, Assistant Superintendent of Business uh Operations Josh Schwarz, and Director of Human Resources Dr. Erica Mickelson are invited to join the board for this session. No action is anticipated. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes. 70. I move to return to regular session. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes. 70. >> Thank you. That brings us to 11A future board calendar dates. Uh our next board meeting is for April 8th at 6 p.m. here. Then we will have our special hearing on April 15th. Uh same time here at 6 p.m. And then April 22nd uh will be our last
129board meeting in April. And I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes. 70.