USD253 Board Meeting 2025-12-10

001The first thing to do is our call of order and roll call. We have seven board members present. Uh we are going to make an adjustment to the agenda. We're going to move the human human and physical resources items above the teaching and learning. So just a small adjustment there. That's for the auditor who's coming tonight to let them get back on the road quicker. And I also want to take a second, this is uh Dr. Jen Thomas's last meeting with us. So on behalf of the school board, I would like to thank Jen Thomas for her four years of service on the board of education. While this may be her last board meeting, it's definitely not going to be the last time she impacts our students. So thank you. [applause] Our next item is

0022A adoption of the agenda. >> I would move for approval of the agenda as presented with the revisions you mentioned. >> Second. It's >> been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> Okay, that's going to bring us to item 3A, program highlight. EHS JAG K program >> present on the JAG program and how exciting that we have a nice audience so more people will learn about it. All right, good evening. Um, I would like to start off by thanking the board for allowing us to come here and present about our program to you guys. We're very excited about this opportunity. Uh, my name is Ramsay Sieber. I am one of our career specialists at Emporia High School. Uh, to my left is Julysa Vasquez. She is our, uh, career association president

003for Emporia High School. And next to her is Alfonso Barahas and he is a career association member at uh Emporia High School. So with that uh I just want to talk a little bit about Jack K for those of you uh who may not have heard of our program before. Um but Jack K stands for job for jobs for America's graduates Kansas. We are a nonprofit that partners with public schools uh to provide elective classes that support students academically, uh socially, and professionally. Our mission is pretty simple. Um we're here to help students earn their high school diploma and transition successfully into college, the workforce, or military, whatever they're choosing. So, on to slide two. Um, we often say that uh students that today's students are tomorrow's employees, leaders, and community members. That belief is

004at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is to help students identify career paths that match their interests and strengths while supporting them through whatever challenges might uh impact their success. And we do this with our uh Jack K model. Um to accomplish this, Jack K uses research uh researchbased model. Students are selected through an advisory committee. Um at Emporia High School is made up of our principles and um our school counselors uh to ensure that we are serving uh those who would benefit the most from the program. They participate in student leadership through our career association, receive instruction uh through competencybased curriculum and engage in projectbased learning. We also focus heavily on employer engagement, helping students experience real world uh career exploration. After graduation, we continue supporting them through a uh 12-month follow-up

005period where we ensure that they're remaining on task to achieve their goals. So what are the core competencies that JK does? We have 37 core competencies grouped into areas like career development, job attainment, job survival, leadership, and personal skills. Um these are skills employers consistently identify as necessary uh to workplace success. Things like communication, problem solving, teamwork, uh resume writing, interviewing, and financial literacy. So by the numbers, Jack K currently has about 121 programs across 85 schools in Kansas. Uh we are serving roughly uh 6,500 students each year. Uh we also support transitions programs such as success academy which helps youth in foster care and justice involved individuals. Uh next I'd like to talk about our career association. One of the most powerful parts of Jack K is the career association. students run for officer

006roles such as president, vice president, secretary, parliamentarian, and uh public relations. And this uh and they lead vents uh lead events for our program throughout the year. Uh this gives students real experience playing organization skills and leadership. Um, like I said, Jalissa is our president at Porter High School, but not only that, she ran for a regional pres uh president position and uh came and saying, so she is our regional vice president. Um, that is still an amazing accomplishment. Uh, because of that, she got to go to Washington DC. She actually just got back from Washington DC. So, I'd like to hand the mic over to her so she could talk a little bit about her experience. >> Yeah. Um, I went to Washington DC last week and I just wanted to talk about how

007grateful I am for this experience. I've been in JAG for all four years in high school and this year I was able to be the president and vice president in my region and I got to meet so many people from across the whole United States. I met people from New Jersey, from California, from the New Virgin Islands and I've never even heard about that. But um I just am grateful for all the people that I met and it was basically a national student leadership academy which is like a camp for us leaders. We just got taught like etiquette, we got to network with people and we just got to find out what a true leader is. >> Thank you, Jalissa. So not only do we offer leadership opportunities like that, we like to uh have

008our students have a chance to compete. Um, so we've uh gone to competitions. I've been here, this is my third year. Every year I've gone, we've had students make it to state. I've had a couple make it to nationals. Uh, last year, Alfonso competed uh in our employability category and made it to state. So, I just wanted to hand over the mic to him and let him talk about his experience. It was really fun and it gave me a lot of opportunities that I didn't think I would get and it even helped me like practice an actual interview which helped me land a job at Bronms here on Sixth Street and it was really fun. I got to learn new things, meet new people, network and it was just provided me with a lot of

009opportunities that just really helped me with my life skills. >> Thank you Alfonso. So going along with that um employer engagement, we work closely with local employers uh in the Chamber of Commerce to help students explore different careers. Uh each year programs must complete a minimum of 10 tiered employer engagement activities including job shadows, guest speakers, field trips, uh and work-based learning experiences. These opportunities allow students to connect what they learn in class to real careers. And then I'd like to talk a little bit about our positive outcomes. Um, our ultimate goal is for every student to achieve a full-time positive outcome uh after graduation, whether that's employment, uh, apprenticeships, military service, or enrollment in a post-secary program. So, on to statewide uh outcome data. JK consistently outperforms national standards. Our graduation rate is between

01095 to 98% which is well above the JAG national benchmark of 90%. Full-time employment sits above 80% and our post-secary education uh is nearly nearly double the national criteria. These numbers demonstrate the impact JK has not only had in uh high schools but in long-term student success. Um something new that I uh they wanted us to bring up and talk about uh from the big wigs and Topeka is uh we are rolling out a new micro credentials pilot. So this year Jag K is focusing on job readiness, pathway navigation and financial literacy. We are also piloting uh micro credentials in Witchaw and Augusta uh with plans to extend that statewide the next upcoming school year. Um, I volunteered to already do that for financial literacy this year. And currently, right now, they're not having the

011best time with it, but they are working on getting a uh, work ethic credential through the micro works, um, which they'll be able to put on resumeumés and on LinkedIn, which is pretty cool. So, I don't want to take up too much more of your time. Um, in closing, JK is more than just an elective. Uh, it's a support system, a leadership program, and a career readiness pathway. I'm proud of the w work that our students are doing at Emporia High School and appreciative of your support and making uh programs like this possible. Thank you so much. [applause] >> First time kind of new here. >> Are there any questions the board has? We're all very impressed with the success you're having and I only would hope that we could have more kids in Jack

012K because the success you're having. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you so much for reaching out and wanting to come tonight. That's awesome. I did have a question for Delissa and Alfonso. I just wondered how what made you choose JAG? Did was it a teacher that reached out to you? Did you have a friend that did it or a family member or what made you choose JAG? >> Um I joined JAG my freshman year and it was actually on my schedule and I was there for open house and I met my former teacher um Agiri and he basically told me that I can join the program if I wanted to but if I didn't want to join it then I could always like change it out with my counselor. So I

013decided to just go to the class and see what it was about and I really liked it. I saw like the potential in the program and I was actually an officer that year and I've been an officer all four years and I mean it gained me a free trip to Washington DC. So [laughter] >> um well I heard what it was and what it would help you do and I've always been a little concerned and a little focused with my future. So, I've always been wanting to just grow life skills, learn new things, and just just stuff that would help me in my later life after I'm done with high school. And it sounded like a really good opportunity for me. So, >> sounds like it's really paid off for both of you. So, thank

014you for sharing. Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you. [applause] Uh, that's going to bring us to item 3B, public comments. Public comments are allowed for a duration of three minutes per speaker to be timed by the board clerk. Speakers must sign up in person for public comment by 1 p.m. the day of the board meeting. Uh, Casey, do we have any public speakers? >> We do have one public speaker tonight. Amy Farah, if you'll come to the podium, please. Thank you. >> Good evening board members, Dr. McGee, guests. Tonight I am representing parents of children who attend the USD253 child care program. As the cost containment team discusses a variety of topics with all the consequences and ramifications, we ask when the rankings are presented that you support maintaining the child care

015program. A few years ago through the listening tour, staff consistently talked about the need for the child care in Emporia. The district listened and progressively acted on it. In 2023, the child care program was established. Yes, with ESSER funds that were going to expire eventually. Therefore, financially, it seems a little negligent not to have had a plan when that expiration day hit. There starting a child care program should not be a temporary decision, but a long-term one. If the child care program were to close, we would be without child care. 33 families, 36 children, and eight infants on a wait list. Those soon tobe parents potentially have a false sense of security and thinking they did not need to reach out to other child care providers. Infants are one of the hardest spots to secure.

016All of us families would be searching for child care on short notice. As seen on the provided document, current weight lists are a minimum of 6 months to over a year, mostly toward the latter. These weight lists range from 2 to 25 infants or toddlers. Thus, we are out of time to secure appropriate alternatives if the program were to close. Therefore, the need for the child care program is significant. If there are ways to reduce costs, does it need to be cut? We know the benefits are worth some costs as seen in the documents provided. So, how are parents how can parents help lower the cost? The child care coordinator has been working tirelessly to find these ways. We want to help, too. Parents are willing to help organize fundraisers, contribute and donate supplies, and

017pay a higher weekly rate to keep child care within the district and support costs. The food cost has been said to be a huge chunk. How can we help? How do surrounding districts keep their child care programs open? Could we learn how to model after them? We want to help. We recognize that perspectives on child care can differ, especially for those who may not have children aged 0 to 5. Your decision, though, will affect close to 50 families. It affects our lives, our jobs, and the possibility of our children becoming future Walnut patriots, Logan Lions, and so on. We love our jobs and for us to continue to engage, empower, and inspire our students, we ask you to acknowledge the need, empathize with our children and us, and maintain the child care program. I appreciate

018your time tonight. Please look over the documents and we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] OUR next item is the consent agenda. The That's not where we worded it. >> 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 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, it will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. What are the wishes of the board? >> I move to pass the consent agenda as submitted. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. [crying] Motion passes 70. >>

019Thank you. And that's going to bring us to uh I believe 6A uh FY25 fiscal audit report. Interim Assistant Superintendent Josh Schwarz is coming up to I believe introduce our auditor and then we'll hear from him. >> I'm going to turn this over to Shawn Gordon to present the findings. >> Good evening everyone. Yes, my name is Sean Gordon with Gordon CPA. Um I'll go through the uh preliminary draft of the fiscal year 25 audit report that you're seeing on your screen now. Uh we'll start with pages one through three. This is called the independent auditor's report. Um the most kind of uh significant paragraph here is uh page one, the third paragraph down. You'll see an italicized heading called unmodified opinion on regulatory basis of accounting. Uh that paragraph there says that we've issued

020or will issue the district uh for the fiscal year June 30, 2025, the highest and cleanest auditor's opinion that we can issue. So that reflects very well on the financial and internal control management by district staff during that year ended June 30th, 2025. Uh the next section forward uh page four is called the summary statement of receipts, expenditures, and unencumbered cash. Um here you'll see in the lefthand column there all of the different funds of the district, followed by beginning cash, receipts, expenditures, and then ending cash for each of those funds. At the very bottom of that righth hand column, you'll see that the district is reporting a little um under $39 million on hand as of June 30th, 2025. Uh next uh section forward is called the notes to the financial statements and that

021runs from pages 5 through1 13. Uh for those of you that have been on the board uh for a few years now, this section is mostly the same as what you've seen over the past few years. Uh no major changes required by the state to this section. Here we discuss and disclose um different items such as accounting policies that the district follows, information on deposits and investments of the district, long-term debt information, uh budgeted transfers that were made, um involvement in the capers retirement program, uh many items uh discussed here. Um as I said, the next section forward is um kind of more detailed breakouts of those funds that we saw previously on page four. Um and those start uh run from pages 15 through um 40. And if you go to page 15, which

022is one more page down here, we present the uh general fund. So you can see here we break out the different types of receipts and expenditures that take place within each fund. And then also we uh present a budget column since it was a budgeted fund. So you can see how the budget or the fund operated against the budget that was adopted for fiscal year 2025 as well. And then I'll have you go down a few pages uh towards the end of the PDF starting on page 41. Um anytime an entity receives and spends um $750,000 or more of federal grant money, it's required to undergo um what's called a single audit. If we go forward one more page there, um it's required to undergo what's called a single audit, which is a requirement by

023the federal government. Uh so for fiscal year, uh 25 here, we present on page 41, this page here, um all of the different grant uh revenues and receipts of the district that took place during the year. Uh and we're also required to um audit some of those grant expenditures. So for fiscal year 25, we focused on the child nutrition grant cluster that's recorded in the food service fund and then the special education um idea uh grant that's recorded in the special education fund. Uh we checked in on those two grants uh programs to make sure that the district followed all uh state and federal requirements and guidelines regarding those grants. Uh make sure that money was uh spent accurately um according to the federal government as well. And we've also issued an unmodified opinion regarding

024that federal single audit. So again, it reflects very well uh the financial and internal control management of those grant programs by district staff. Um that's it for the the preliminary draft of the audit report. Um we had a great audit with Kate and and everybody else involved in the audit process. We do appreciate their help and uh getting us um items that we requested and then answering our questions as well. So we do appreciate that. Uh, with that I'll stand for any questions that you have on the audit report or the audit process as a whole. >> What questions if any do we have? >> You led with the most important part, >> but it was clean and great. So, yes, ma'am. >> I don't have much beyond that. >> Just curious, how many districts

025do you audit in Kansas or however you look at it? Um we have over 65 um cities county school districts that we audit but specifically school districts we have about 15 I believe that we audit. >> Okay. This is an action item. So to entertain a motion. >> I move to approve the fiscal year 2025 fiscal audit report as submitted. >> Second. Okay. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you for moving me up on the agenda tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That's going to bring us to item 6B, the district facility rental usage rate approval. first reading. >> Yes, this is Mr. Schwarz again is going to come up. Uh this is work that was

026um started um Mr. Fischer, our high school principal, was working with uh Dr. or Mr. Schwarz predecessor on this particular item. We've uh finally got around to uh getting getting to it and bringing bringing it back to you again. um want to do a first read and just have Josh kind of go through and hear what your questions and your feedback are so that we can um see how to go about coming back again in a month and getting this approved. >> Okay. The um the primary piece of that [clears throat] would be an action item would be the fee structure. That's the part that's connected to board policy that would be approved. We did include the procedure so you could see how there there are five different categories. If a entity was to use

027the facilities, how those groups would be classified and then a certain fee structure based on that entity's identification. Um I overall this was really picked up where Mr. Fiser had left off. uh made a few adjustments to I would say work with community partners, strengthen some of the community partnerships with employer w for example as as I think there's a a clause at the bottom of the document that really just that will be a mutually beneficial agreement. There wouldn't be charges if employer wreck was using facilities and it's it's one of those arrangements where they will use our property, we will use theirs. We would just communicate back and forth to keep that arrangement in a fair equitable manner just through communication. Um the other key piece we do have a custo like there is

028a custodian charge per hour for every group that would use the facility. Um and that could be discussed with that group based on the the goal of ours is if we have to bring in additional people to operate an event. We would want to recoup that cost. If there's already somebody on staff that's working that would not be a charge to the to the group to do that. So, I feel like there could be a way to to work through the um the different there there's more than just a flat $25 an hour. There could be some ways to work through that as we've looked at that procedure. So, I've tried to think of some of the key questions you might have. Um that those are my key points. Anything else that that is on

029your mind about this one before again? First read, no approval tonight. >> I on the the custodians I think I asked this on Friday, but I don't think I asked it very clearly. So, like if your event was from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, um it would be the it wouldn't necessarily be mean that the custodian was there the entire day. It would be like when they came in to open things and make sure things were set up and then cleaning up afterwards. So, it you wouldn't be paying $25 for the >> every hour of the event. It would be whatever time it took the custodian >> to complete their their duties. >> Correct. Right. We could we'd work through that. But for example, if somebody need to open the building,

030that would be some, you know, time for that and then closure for sure. >> And then it probably depends on how big the event is is. If there's going to be quite a few people using the bathroom, we might ask that they pay for more just because you don't want a bathroom to I mean, >> right, >> if facilities aren't taken care of, >> they have to be maintained throughout the day for a big event. >> Yeah. It depends on how much maintenance throughout the day is. >> That makes sense. Okay. And on top of that is that like but if the custodians were already working that would be separate >> correct that would not be if that was already during a day where we had a person on schedule this would not be in

031addition to so there would not be a charge. >> Thank you. >> Y >> I have several questions but since we're on that I do have a question about that. So I noticed that it's across the board no matter what the position is. 25. And I'm just mindful serving on the cost containment committee that I'm a little bit worried about passing just this flat rate because it could vary by person. And so I just don't want us to get into a position where, you know, we're charging 25, but actually it would be $40. And so how how can we just sort of have a one-sizefits-all approach when I think maybe auditorium lighting would be someone who would have to be at the event for a couple of hours. So I I just I don't know

032if that fee structure really I just want to make sure we we recover 100% of you know the hourly rate the taxes you know all of our expenses personal expenses. >> We can look through some examples and see if that how that would work out just that does that work as a a way to come back next time. One one component of that too is that you might end up um in certain circumstances where the person that's on duty is an $18 an hour employee, you know, so you're kind of some sometimes you're sometimes you're you're just trying to take an average. Um, you know, I I I think maybe I originally partly brought this up and and and I know one of the first things we say in this is that the the real

033point of this isn't to create revenue. >> It's to really kind of recoup a little bit of our resources that we're taking. Um, and I just would encourage somehow if we could kind of moderate the fees a little bit like you're talking about that this isn't per hour charges all the time. Um, just in my own experience of being with teams that are using the facilities, you know, most of these kids are our kids. You know, most of the time it's 100% our kids. So, I you know, it just it just gives me a bad feeling to think that we're charging them anything. But I'm also not against charging them a little something. I I think this might be a little much in some cases. And I do realize if there's, for example, a tournament

034or something that would be different or if it was some money making profit type of thing that that I'm okay with that. But most of the time, you know, when it's when it's local students, you know, and parents using this, then I then I would really want to see us kind of try to bring these fees down as much as we could. Um, also we're we're a big district. We have a lot of buildings and I feel like we have students and families in our buildings like every night and it's hard to keep those facilities clean. It's hard to maintain them. And I know teams are wanting in there one right after the other. And so the reality of us being able to clean after this team when the other team's in or waiting to

035get on the court as soon as you get off or waiting to get in that room as soon as you leave, the reality is there's not a custodian is going to be able to do that. So I I think any compromise we can make on trying to hey, we'll leave a broom out and you can sweep that court. Sometimes we'll sweep the court anyways because it's just the right thing to do and it's easy to do and keeps kids safe. So, anything we can do to kind of bring this down. I I know we're also already requiring that they have some sort of insurance. So, that's an additional cost they're already paying to be participating in being in our facilities. So, just being mindful of that with as we consider this. Yeah, I I'm struggling

036a little bit with the fees because I feel like our community there are taxpayers and so they've already paid for these facilities and so it just I'm not sure I'm totally comfortable double charging. Um but I also am appreciative of having having something you know so the one thing that that struck me is that like all of the facilities are being treated pretty equally. So like the library, the learning stairs would be the same cost as like renting our turf field. And we know that the cost of replacing turf is really significant. So I I think that's where I'm having a little pause, especially, you know, we've seen some semi-pro teams wanting to use our turf fields and we know the replacement cost would be huge on those. So I I'm not sure like I

037did look that like in Witchah for their fields, they charge $500 for a day. um GDDARD they charge $800 for their track um field for like per you know >> more commercial use and so I I just think maybe we need to there's a difference between you know the Emporia soccer academy or FC Emporia doing you know the FC Lions is that the youth other youth one like the the kids you know there's a difference between them and I'm all for them using our facilities at the lowest cost possible but then when it becomes to comes to adults or you league, adult leagues or professional or semi-pro leagues. I think we need to think about doing something a little bit more. >> And I would I would agree with that just from reccomission experience. And

038some of our fields actually we will designate just for children and then other fields for adults because when the adults play on them, it tears them up more um in a way that becomes really significant later on. Um so when we start to get more creative about how are people going to use these facilities, I think we need to remember it's going to be very different between groups, right? Um >> I would um as a Jen and I were on this committee and I know you're on your way out lady, but um I would love for us to for that committee to reconvene and look at this at all if at all possible um before we come back um so maybe we can make some recommendations. I know it's the holidays, everybody's busy, but we

039did a lot of those via Zoom and I think we could probably or meet Google Meet. I think we could probably pull it off again. So, I would be in favor of meeting as a group again. Um, especially since we, you know, we got so much input from input from all the folks involved and I'd like to hear from them again. >> Yeah. And I'm really glad that Jamie got did that homework on people on districts outside of ours because I think we do need to be comparable to that. Um and and get our main sources from the people not paying taxes in our community and when they want to use ours get get more of it that way. So thank you for finding that out. [cough] >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. That

040brings us to item 7B 2026 2027 Emporia High School course guide second reading. >> Oh, sorry. >> I stopped I skipped over >> I was like >> yeah the >> the 7HS Navians program overview which everybody is very excited about. that I'm hearing. >> Is it Naviance? >> Navience. Naviance. >> Naviance. >> Sorry, I listened to our support person say it thousand times. >> Potato patata. You know, I Stephanie McCracken, uh, assistant principal at Emporia High School and CTE director, and Roxanna PZA, the department chair, are here to just talk about a program, uh, a resource that was adopted this year to replace two, uh, resources that they had before. So, >> thank you. Okay, I'm lower that. Um, so, as you mentioned, my name is Roxanna Praza. I am one of the high school

041counselors here in Empory High. Um so to begin, we really wanted to start off with the reason for us really looking at another program. Um in May of 2024, uh KSD changed the graduation requirements for the class of 2028 and beyond. In those requirements, many of you heard just the different changes that they're expecting of us to be able to track. Um some of those are going to be adding a STEM elective. uh making sure that they for have four and a half credits towards an IPS their individual plan of study um and then also having post-secary assets and that task itself you can see to the right hand side has a lot of different varieties that they can pick from. Um, but thinking about a school of 1,200 students, four counselors, being able to

042make sure that we are talking about this, um, making sure our students are aware of these requirements early on. Uh, that is a big undertaking and so a program like Navvian became a big big deal to have so that we can track this information so that we can build up their IPS. Um, so that kind of leads us to our presentation of why Nvian. It's okay. You get I'm like Navian. I'm like I can change it. >> So yeah, just just talking about why Navian's here. Um one of the biggest things and one of the biggest um positives to this is that we were able to replace two programs with one. So we were able to get rid of Zello and you science. Both of them were good programs, but Naviance actually does all of

043the things that they do just in one platform that's a lot easier for our students, staff, counselors, administrators to kind of navigate here. The other great part about it is that it is owned by P school. So it is a component of that. So those two actually sync and we are able to get a lot of data that feeds into Naviance already and really help us with that. So we'll talk about how that'll help us kind of streamline enrollment and things like that here later on as well. Um like I said, it has all of our college career and life readiness tools in one place. So with Zello and you science, we had students um doing things like their personality skills survey and their career clusters and um there was a skill assessment. All of

044that is still housed in in Naviance now and it takes it and it will adapt things as we go. Um so like I said, it's integrated with our IPS requirements and it's just really centralized and and nice to work through here. So focusing on that IPS component and that graduation planning. Um a big thing that we're really excited about is getting that four-year course plan available to all of our students so that you know as freshmen when they're starting to look at what they are interested in and choosing courses for leading up to after high school. This will help us to be able to look at it. Not only administrators, counselors, teachers, but parents will have access to this as well. So that we can see, you know, if you're interested in business after high

045school, are you taking the classes that you have available to you? Are they building on each other? And are you going to end up with maybe some certifications at the end that'll that'll help you out? Um, like Miss PZA said, graduation requirements. There's um several different ways to track it on there. There is a portfolio section where students can go through and update um academics. They can put community service on there. Um any kind of accolades that they acquire and then there is a resume portion that pulls from the portfolio. So depending on what they are doing they can select different components of it and kind of fill in and then they can um add to that later as they want. >> And as you can see it also has grade levels for middle school.

046So the goal is obviously start these conversations about pathways, career clusters, those kinds of things early on. Um and so that's one of the things that we as high school counselors, we're getting ready right now to start the enrollment process. Um time is of the essence. You know, there's four of us and we have uh 300 plus students on each of our case loads. We have the highest student to counselor ratio in the district, but we are expected to get them to graduation. uh we have to have a um a a credit check for each student. We have to take the time to make sure we are not missing a graduation requirement. You'd be hardressed to find a counselor who their biggest fear is getting to the last semester of senior year and realizing I

047forgot a science credit. I forgot a math credit. Uh those are we are human beings and the part that we want to emphasize is obviously the students taking control of so much of their future planning. So that we when we meet with them and you know there's students that we have in our alphabets that that enrollment time that we sit one-on-one with them that's the 10 15 minutes of oneon-one time one-on-one time that they get with us. Um, so obviously we have limited time for enrollment and pulling up their profile, pulling up their um their surveys that they've already completed. For example, right now I could pull up my my own son's and I could see that his top cluster is hospitality. And so now thinking about enrollment, okay, let's think about that a little

048bit more. I can also pull that and see that he is an introvert. And so that also helps me to help him in what types of classes he's picking. Um and so that's the that's the biggest piece for us as counselors. Um being able to have those intentional conversations that when they are with us that we can look at this big picture that they themselves have tailored along the way. So the next piece is going to be the college planning and uh the college planning tools. Uh so this is also a really nice feature that really was something that was exciting. It pairs up with CommonApp. CommonApp is a national provider for students to apply for colleges. Just this afternoon, I helped a student apply to Gonzaga. We've had students applying to Harvard, um to

049the University of Chicago. Uh it pairs it with Navian so that we can upload transcripts there. We can upload the counselor profile. Uh so students aren't going to multiple pages. They're able to do this on one on one platform. Um it also helps them select colleges that they're thinking of applying to. So then they can build that and see when deadlines are. Um we have been posting the scholarships that are due um on Naviance as well. And so that's been a big key piece of we want our students to have that buy in so that they know where to look. It's in one platform instead of saying oh well go here for Google Classroom, go here for uh to find this piece. It's all in one place that they can all access. um they can

050log their letters of recommendations. They also can put um their college visits if they've actually visited a place. Uh they can also we as counselors can put when a college is coming to visit. Um so we had John Hopkins come to visit. We put that out there. Students can sign up that they're interested. We make their passes. So it's all just one place for them to access. So that's been really nice. And we can historically track how many students are going to these visits. um like when uh Emporia State comes during the middle of the day, like during CAP time, we can say, "Okay, these students visited with them." Um and so that's been really neat. And we also are able to emphasize our local colleges. We can actually put that at the very top

051of some of our college match part. So we can put our Emporia State University, our Flint Hills Tech College at the top and then put all the instate schools because we know that that's where a large portion of our students are looking at as well. So that part has been really really nice. It has been obviously us as counselors getting used to that program as well. Um but it it has been really nice having it all in one place. So the next one is going to be the career planning tools which I I touched on a little bit just with my own son and his own career clusters and that's very much tailored to the CTE pathways. Um, but also you're able to pick a very specific degree. So, for example, here, um, you picked

052a school counselor. Uh, you're able to see that that job has grown 74 in the state of Kansas. So, it's very relevant to what's happening here in our communities, what kind of education you require to get that, which is also very accurate, and the point of a salally, which very accurate. And so if it's growing, if it's if it's uh declining, um you're also able to see um the different type of classes you should be looking at taking if you're interested in this career. Um so if you look at the next slide, you can actually see that in California, for example, it's growing exponentially. You could see in Kansas, it's growing somewhat and then you could see that there's certain states that it's declining. But then you can scroll down and you can see active

053job openings in that career field that I can use my school counseling degree in. Um, but the plan of study part is really nice because it it breaks down what kind of uh English classes should be you'd be taking, what kind of math you should be taking, and you could see that it actually has a course plan for every single career that it has listed. And it's hundreds of careers that are listed of ninth grade you should start with algebra 1. Then 10th grade you should do geometry. But then also it gives some ideas of types of electives. Now these are generic ones but we can at least say hey this class might be more like human growth and development or something that we offer. But the nice thing is that it also offers years

05413 14 15 16. That's college. So what kind of college classes might they be taking? And so that really helps them really think ahead um as to how to plan. You know, looking at this career, college algebra is probably something I want to challenge myself with my senior year because that's something that I'm going to have to deal with in college. And so those are the good the good pieces that we can pull from student to student. We we can pull that up when we have them in our office looking at their enrollment sheets and really compare and contrast as to um how we're helping them best. There's so much stuff here. I feel like we're just scratching the surface of this really. Um on the next slide, there is also a curriculum aspect of

055Naviance as well. So that college career life readiness um and it actually has different sequences or different scopes for each grade level. So on this, I just included the scope and sequence for freshman versus seniors just so you can kind of see how it does build over time. When we look at our freshmen, um they're going to be focused more on, you know, getting to know themselves more, that social emotional piece. Um whereas as it transitions through high school and you end up as your senior year that's going to be focused more on that career readiness, that college readiness and financial planning as well is a big aspect of that that they cover, which I think is really nice for our students. Um so that financial planning piece covers scholarships, financial aid, but then it

056also covers budgeting if maybe college isn't an option that you're looking at right now. So it it does cover quite a bit there. Um, the last thing that we just kind of wanted to point out today is it also offers a data wall to administrators and counselors that kind of help us to keep track of our students as well. Um, right now since we're barely six months into this even there's not a lot for us to pull from. I'm really excited to see what this looks like next year as our freshman go to sophomore. But you can see right now like with our uh nth grade class, we can select their career clusters and pathways. And that is data that I could pull to give to our pathway leads to see, hey, there's, you know,

057this many people interested in health science. Are these students that are enrolled right now? Are they in the right classes? Are they going the right places? Um, same thing with kind of our student pathways, knowing if they are wanting a four-year degree, a tech college, are you wanting to enter the military? So, I can see that three of them right now are interested in military service. the little envelope out to the side when they're scheduling visits. That would allow Miss Prazza just to click the envelope and email those students and let them know, hey, uh, the Army's coming on Tuesday. That'd be a great time for you to visit with them. The other thing that we've really liked is the usage report. So, this would have been our report from November. Out of our entire

058freshman class during the month of November, there were 14 students that didn't log into Naviance. So, we can click on that and figure out exactly who those students are. um you know if they were absent that month during the lessons um if there's some other con ongoing circumstance and it lets us meet with them kind of individually and figure out what's going on so that we don't have people falling through the cracks on this >> yeah and I would say that for us being able to see what students are participating not participating but even for um you know things to offer I can see that of the the different pieces to this are completed on Thursdays during CAP so having that dedic dedicated time for them to really think about their futures, their goals, and

059plan for themselves. Um, I can see, okay, 28 of the freshman class are looking at a bachelor's degree. That's going to help me when I'm looking at enrollment. Okay, we're going to have to do some more college prep stuff over maybe some of the other types of classes. And so, that's really important for us as counselors to just really think ahead to. Um, but it if you were to go onto the actual version of this, you could drop it down by each individual class. um you can change uh the clust what you're looking at. It's so detailed and really nice to just be able to to see that for our students um and how we can best support them. So that's really exciting. So the buildup of it is going to is the other part

060us changing to Thursdays. This is a designated cap lesson. They're getting 0.25 credit each semester towards this because this can count towards their IPS credits. that's going to be something that they are using towards their graduation requirements. And so that is something that we're really excited about because it puts some depth into what they're doing. Um, and also for their CAP teachers to get to know them better. Um, and really build on those relationships and have those conversations. Um, like I said, like for my own son, he was marked as an INFJ or something like that. So then he can compare with his peers. What are you? And I think for us in the professional world, we know like those are the things that we hear of. Um it's also paired up with Achieve Works

061and so that's a national organization that does those types of assessments and they're very real, very um pertinent things that they can take into the community and be like this is something I can even add on my resume. Um that's exciting for them. So um definitely that's the piece that you know we wanted to also point out that with CAP this year was the first year that we designated Thursdays as the CAP there's no travel they are doing their CAP lessons but it has been really nice and as each lesson is put out um that's been something that uh we could see all all our data growing um and the lessons are so the ones that she showed they're they're made by Navian so that's not something that like we are coming into the summers

062and you know doing our our planning, we are able to assign that and they're not just click click click through. They actually have to type in different prompts and so it's really interactive for our students as well. And then the last part is what's coming. So we're really excited. Um so for those of you who've had children in our district, um you know that counselors present to the classes individually because each individual class has different expectations. So we're excited to do all the presentations on one day on January 16th. It's one of those half days that we will be doing rotations so all the classes get all the information on the same day instead of it's scattered throughout the month or two months. Um and we'll also have a CTE fair that same time. So

063that's going to be another rotation and another rotation is going to be part of their IPS. Um also resume building and then for our seniors they'll be having senior meetings and what do they need to do to prepare for that. Um, so obviously that's going to help us with our community partnerships. That's going to help us um bring in ESU, FHTC, um, Kansas Works, you know, make those connections also with the CTE fair. Um, and that's going to be something that personally as a counselor, I'm really excited to just have to prepare for one day of presentations as opposed to multiple. And that's just going to be something that we're going to emphasize is a really important day for them to be there. >> Last few things to kind of wrap up. Like I mentioned,

064there is parent login access and that's something that we will roll out at conferences this year. So something to look forward to in the spring. Um like I said, we are continuing to work on that enrollment course guide that'll go along with Naviance. That has been a lot of work for Miss Bloomquist and Stephanie Murray have really been helpful for that because I had no idea how much went on on the back side of Power School. That's a lot of stuff. Um and then obviously we still have some continued training to do with our staff and there is a lot of expansion that's possible with community as well with this because they have the opportunity on this platform to be able to post um job openings, community service opportunities, work-based learning, internships, things like that.

065So something that'll be really good for our students here coming up. Thank you for your time tonight. >> Okay, what questions do we have? Thank you so much. [clears throat] >> I feel like clapping because that was an amazing presentation. Like this program is just sounds incredible. So, good job [applause] >> and I just I love that it's going to really just help you. It's going to help students really figure out, you know, their path through high school. So, I'm excited about this. >> I do have questions. Good questions, not hard questions. So, how did how did you hear about the program? Did you learn about it at a conference or did someone reach out to you? >> So we were able to attend the American school counselor conference um two years ago saw a

066table but then I think we got in the loop and once we saw that it was connected with power school I and that was at the same time that the the graduation requirements were changing. We were really starting to have those conversations about how are we going to track things and so then we started having meetings. Um, Miss Leeds put Miss Lee put together some meetings and conversations with our tech team, our um, you know, our principles. And so that's how that kind of started. It just an email came through and that's how it started off. Yeah. >> Good. Uh, do you think that um, by having this program you'll be able to help more students become CTE completers? >> Oh, I think yes. I it's gonna really help track that and be able to

067help them see the process upfront and just be able to plan it out ahead of time. I think I think >> kind of thinking like if they weren't on a pathway then you see what they're taking you be like you know you're halfway to the path. >> Absolutely. And I think that that's a big part of that I think is helping our CAP teachers see that as well. Our teachers do an incredible job helping their students during that IPS time and making it easier for them to see that big picture as well and encourage students I think is really going to help as well. And um we've been tossing well I've been tossing around the idea that I heard that um Gary County Public Schools is starting their pathways in eighth grade so that they

068end up with more completers. So if we were to consider that um would our eighth graders also be able to use this program? >> Yeah. So as uh in the first slide you could kind of see it that it start it could start as early as sixth grade and our middle school actually I believe that our license covers middle school all that. So they also will they have lessons tailored starting at sixth grade. Um and we actually have some of our um middle schoolers when they come they've brought in intro to agriculture. They've brought in those kinds of classes. That's the beginning of a pathway. And so those are really nice things to build upon like I said at the middle school level and really help them understand why this is important. Why them having

069a buy into their courses and it's not what your friends doing. you're your own unique person and you should make choices that work for you. >> And then the last one for me was that um I thought that Cheryl told us that you might come back in the spring and let us >> see what the program is like, which I think would be Oh, next year. Okay. Which would be super cool. >> I tell her that actually being able at at the beginning of this year, we sat down with our staff and actually walked them through and showed them all of the things that that the program does and being able to see it run live really is a big thing. It's really got a lot of things to offer when you can actually see

070it run rather than just seeing the slides. >> Nice. That would make for a a fun night. >> I was just going to ask and you present a very favorable impression of it. Do you find your students find it easy to use or or they get excited about it? Yeah, I mean honestly we've done different lessons during cap time throughout the years that I've been in high school and it's just become such uh almost second nature of them on Thursdays and like I said I mean I've had my own son come home and talk about the type of like the personality traits like I said those are the things that I feel like high school kids are really excited to talk to each other about and that are relevant to them and as it's growing

071I feel like it is it is good you know I've had some of our seniors that's been a change um so even working through the common app side because they have to they have to give permission to common app to have access to Navvian. And so that's been the piece that we are learning that part and we want to make sure they have access to all those pieces. And so I am excited for the future training um training options that we have on it. Um and just kind of dedicating some time. Every time that I log in, I find something new that I really really enjoy. I haven't found a side of it that that glitches. And one of the really cool things uh Yeah. And one of the cool things that happens is um

072so for example I looked up the the career art therapy um but I was able to also look up they have videos for every single career and so they actually have alumni from Emporia State that did the videos for art therapy and so you can actually look up videos from those universities of relevant careers and so I do think it ties in everything and it's a really good way to to use their time during cap time um even if they have just a little downtime on that Thursday since since they don't travel that day. Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Yeah, I think um we have when you approve the schedule for next year, we have a late October work session that's revolving around uh student success success metrics and I think that this would be a

073good activity to work into a session like that. The board could experience it firsthand and then also hear an update on how it's going. >> Yeah. And I would say that one of the biggest pieces of data that you measure as success is our graduation rates, which I know you guys will talk about. And this is helping us as counselors achieve that too. So we do appreciate that support. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Great job. Great job. >> Okay, we're going to try 7B again. 2026 2027 Emporia High School course guide second reading. >> We have Miss Kinder Bloomquist here from Emporia High to go through the course guide. >> Good evening. I don't know if I can follow that. Um I have a second reading. Um, the only thing that

074I think we've changed since we tal since I was here last time was I had a request from one of our e our debate teacher that we allow novice debate and novice forensics to actually count for the speech credit. So that change was made on the co copy that you have right now. Other than that, everything is still the same. Do you have any questions for me? >> Questions do we have? I didn't have any. You lined out all the changes pretty clearly for us. >> Okay. This is the second reading, so I would entertain a motion. >> I move to approve the 2026 2027 EHS course guide as submitted. >> A second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. [clears throat] Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. >> Let the work

075begin. Thank you. >> And 7C 2026 2027 Emporia Middle School course guide first reading. >> We have Mr. Brent Burns, the principal at Emporia Middle School to go through the course guide. Good evening. How are you? Mr. Balmer said to say hello. He's helping with this as well, but wasn't able to be here. Um, we didn't change a whole lot of things on the EMS course guide. I kind of just have a proposed changes kind of like outline to kind of go through. Changed some basic things like the year, change the principal name. Um, one of the bigger things that you may have noticed right away is we took the wording out that said quarter. Um, the reason we did that is so we could have some flexibility with our schedule. Currently, most of our

076electives um are quarter offerings only. Um it's not that we're going to necessarily make them all semesters or year-long, but it does allow some flexibility to allow us to to decide if we want to do quarters for some, semesters for others. Uh I do have some elective teachers, especially my some of my art teachers that really like the idea of having their kids a little bit longer so they can do some more advanced projects with them and things of that nature. So, we do have some flexibility when it comes to kind of what that schedule's going to look like just by taking out that word. So, we're not kind of limited to just that quarter piece. Uh, we also end up taking out, if you looked at last year's course catalog versus this year's, there

077was an entire column that mentioned Zello, kind of goes to what we were talking about with Naviance. We don't have Zello anymore, so that was taken out. I think we're going to end up looking at Naviance um some more and seeing if they have some of those career clusters. So, maybe we could put that back in for future use. right now our eighth graders just even though that wasn't on my agenda to talk about uh they are actually making profiles for Navian so that when they do enrollment they're already ready for the high school. Um and also just to kind of echo what they had said you know you can kind of just get lost in that program in a good way. It kind of just it it has all sorts of really neat things.

078I had a student say oh wow I can look at Cambridge University. So it's not even just universities that are local or in Kansas or nationwide but also international and the students are starting to use those. Uh, another piece that we did were those CTE pathways. Um, we did two small changes to those. One is, uh, we used to have an intro to tech. That was a career pathway. We just changed that name to intro to skilled trades. That was a recommendation, um, that, uh, Miss Leeds had shared with me. I believe that has something to do with how that career pathway or that CTE pathway um, starts out. So, that was just a name change. Didn't change anything else with that. And then another piece was uh it used to say that you could

079do these those CTE pathway courses as an eighth grade student or a seventh grade student with uh administrator approval. We found out that it really needs to be just eighth graders. So you're not going to see seventh graders doing those CTE pathway uh intro courses. It'll be eighth grade only. So again, just took that piece out right there. Uh, I don't know if you remember, there are a ton of electives uh that have been in the EMS course catalog. I think when I was trying to count them all up, I'm not exaggerating. I think I counted almost 80 that were in there. Um, so I asked my admin and some of my counselors, hey, are we offering all of these? Um, and the list that you see that's on there is just a list of

080ones that we aren't offering this year and many that we've not offered in several years. Some of them can't remember the last time. uh they're still coded in P school. So if we ever wanted to bring something back, we could. But since we're not currently offering them, I I felt like there was really no need to keep a whole lot of things that we don't technically offer right now. It's just to make it a little bit easier when someone's looking through the course catalog. I don't want any kind of confusion. You know, like me, I I really like uh the long 60s, you know, what is that? But we don't really have anyone that's teaching that right now. So it was really trying to put things in our course catalog that we are hoping to

081offer uh in the fall instead of just leaving everything in there. All right. Uh, a couple of other very small things. Um, beginning band and orchestra. At the request of my orchestra teacher and band teacher, they would like to see that to be sixth grade only for beginning band. It's not that they won't take students as seventh or eighth graders, but they kind of would like to see them uh kind of audition if they have not taken beginning band. Uh the reason being is it's really hard to teach say an eighth grader who's never, you know, done music or band and try to read music and then when they get to high school trying to do marching band right away when they still don't really understand how to play their instrument makes it really difficult.

082So it's important that they have several years of that. So we just made it that we're beginning band is going to be primarily those sixth graders. there may be some nuances or some circumstances where you could see some of those students that could still join band later, but usually, you know, you're looking at did they have maybe some lessons on the side or, you know, maybe had private lessons or something of that of that nature. Uh, and it does, like I said, really help kind of grow that program. I don't know if you remember from last year, but we made uh all sixth graders this year have to take up performing arts, whether it's orchestra, band, uh, theater, or choir. So, we're actually seeing a lot of our numbers start to grow from those performing

083arts, and we expect them to keep growing. So that allows us to have some extra sections for a bigger seventh or eighth grade band. All right. Uh we uh ended up taking seventh grade health off because we already had advanced health. That was one of those redundant ones. We already were offering it that we didn't need to have both of those in there. It's the same class. It's just advanced health. It's not just for seventh graders. An eighth grader could take advanced health as well. Uh we made sure that there was prerex for two of the classes which was the intro to a you have to have uh animal science. And then for Spartan Media, there's a couple of uh our computer classes that you need to take before like graphic design. One of the

084biggest things that we wanted to remove and I highlighted on here was we are trying to make sure that all of our special education students have the same opportunities for electives. Before a special education student this year, if say they are getting classes for resource math or resource ELA, uh they actually lose electives. They they they're not given the same opportunities. What we're doing now is making sure that all special education students have the same opportunities for electives as all of our general education students. I've been working with my team trying to figure out how we're going to make sure we get in their service minutes as well. Part of that we're kind of waiting on cost and containment and see kind of what numbers may look like for next year. We've looked at several

085different other uh schedules for other districts and how they've done that. They've been able to be very successful with that. But we believe it's really important that we make sure special education students have the same number of opportunities as as all of our gened students. So we that's that that highlighted piece that I have right there. And then the last part was the administrator approval that was specific for advanced math. Our advanced math students have to have so many scores on their fast bridge and it there's really kind of no wiggle room this way. If there are certain circumstances maybe the student didn't score well but they've got all these great teacher recommendations. Maybe the kid really wants to push themsel, maybe the parent wants to help them push. There's some other mechanisms to allow

086students to get into those advanced math classes instead of just looking at some fast scores. So, it gives us again more flexibility. A lot of what we did was just to allow flexibility with just the small changes of some of the wording instead of like completely doing a whole overhaul of the entire uh course catalog. Any questions for me? >> I'm not seeing any. >> You were pretty thorough. Yep. >> All right. Excellent. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That's going to bring us to 7D, graduation rate. >> I think Dr. Carel is going to come up and talk about uh graduation rates. You'll like this one. It's just one one page. >> Yeah, it's just one page, but it's exciting stuff. It really links up right nice to the

087presentation on Navians. kind of the end result and the reason we do all that work is to make sure kids get to the graduation, get to walk across that stage. So, we really I just wanted to share some celebration with you. Um, you can see that our graduation rate, the red bars are n our four-year graduation rate, those are kids that graduate in four years. Um, we maintain a 90.9% which is good. We're still shooting to be at 95% at some point. So, hopefully with the Navian and all the work that we're doing on that side, we'll get there. Um, the really exciting piece that I want to share is the blue, which is our five-year graduation rate. Those are kids who don't graduate in four years or graduate in five years. Some of them

088stay at the high school. Some of them stay go to FL Learning Center and get it done there. But you'll see that that number popped to 94% which is which is I think the highest we've ever been, which is really exciting. Um, we picked up a number of kids who finished up their program in five years. Now, we don't really state doesn't really recognize the five-year graduation rate, but it's important that we're graduating students. And that's why it's a celebration and why I wanted to bring it to you tonight to show you the progress we're making because I believe we are making some progress. I think we have actions in place to continue to grow this. So that's really all I have. I just wanted to share this celebration moment with you. Thank you. Have

089any questions or anything? Any questions? >> No, you're right. That should be celebrated. >> Yeah. >> Five years matters just as much as four. Awesome. >> They're walking across the stage which is important. >> It's still an great accomplishment. Yeah. So I did have a question for when students are graduating five years instead of four. What what do you see as the alternatives? What are they doing to get get completed on that fifth year? >> Well, some of them you we've I think we've talked before we we uh we have freshman and sophomores who tend not to make enough credits to graduate. So they're behind. We're continually moving and pushing them forward. And those kind of kids, it just takes a couple of years for them to get get going. and having a couple of

090having a bad freshman year really sets you behind. It's really hard to get caught up. So, those are the kind of kids that some of these are that just they take it they just need a little bit of extra time to get the credits they didn't get when they were younger. So, but with Naviance and the stuff they're doing with that program, helping kids stay on track, building those relationships, having them linked up to IPOS, IPS and and CTE pathways so there's a reason for them to be there. I think it's important and it'll continue to grow these things. So would you say a lot of them are still attending at the high school or a learning center or some of both? >> It's a combination of both. I don't have numbers in front of

091me but some students finish the Flenders Learning Center and some stay at the high school and finish as well. >> Okay. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you. >> Y and item 70 2026 2027 calendar recommendation. I think that's going to be Dr. Carula. Also, there's been a lot of uh work and conversation across the district about calendars. I don't know that any of us think that we have a perfect calendar, but uh we've worked as hard as we can to uh take the input from staff, parents, and others to uh reach a consensus and tweak tweak this year's calendar a bit to make it um more amanable to the things we're trying to get done. >> So, we've been working on calendars. Uh we started with the group in October, November and we landed on

092two options to pull the community and staff and option A is a more um traditional where we were at two years ago where we have late starts the high school and the middle school and you can see that the PLTs that we do before school um the same jump starts about the same first day of school is about the same then the big difference between these two calendars is when our PLT time is offered one It's the on the option A for the secondary, middle school and high school it's offered during late start and for the uh which is they do PLC during that time which is the PLT activity. Um elementary does it after school but option C you can see that we're doing a lot more of the PLT time on whole days

093once a month and that seems hopefully will be a little bit better to allow us more time to collaborate. Um you'll see the parent teacher conferences are the same. Winter break is about the same. Last day of school is about the same. Um, school contact days is a little bit less, which then leads us to having a little bit longer day because when you reduce school days, it makes your school day a little bit longer. And those start times are just um approximations of what it could be. Um, that's going to be something we're going to work on in January to work on the start times for next year as well. So the main difference between the two calendars is when um PLT time is is offered. So those are the opt those are the

094comparison and we did have an option B in there too. Option B was this year's calendar to do it again and that one didn't make it out of our calendar committee. We surveyed the committee and it didn't get any it got one vote out of the the group. So it didn't it didn't have enough traction to to go to the community staff vote. So if you go to the data, we did a survey and we ended up with 541 respon responses. And I want to give you a little context. Last time we surveyed the community and the staff, we ended up with 246 responses. So we had almost double I guess not. Well, probably one and a half times more likely the response. So we had a really good response rate. You can see the

095first chart there is can make that a little bit bigger. Jones. Thank you. Um you can see the first one would be who you who I am and that's the parent guardian community versus staff. So you can see about 56% of the staff of the respondents were staff and the 44% were community. The next one um kind of um detail what kind of position you are in Emporia. So certified staff was about 67%, support staff was about 31%. And then the next two um were really hard to see and that's something that I had to add that I added to it because we didn't have all the data there. So I that pie chart is kind of hard to see the percentages. So if we go down a little more, I made the data into

096a table because I like I like I like tables because they're a little bit easier for me to follow than a a bar chart. But they're staying the same things and the headers are the same. It's just you can see the number of respondents and the percentages on that table. It's just a little bit easier. Um, some people like tables, some people like charts. Just give them both. It's just gives you a perception of of the breakdown by location in the building in the in the district. Then if you keep going down, um this was the one that broke down the option and we had 62% um chose option C, which is the one where we do full PLT days once a month approximately. And 38% um chose option A, which was more traditional, which

097we would have done not this year, but the year before. And then that table there um breaks out the percentage of respondents. So you can see the hold's 100% and it kind of breaks it down by who responded. It might be easier to go to the numbers. If you go down a little bit more, it gave you the numbers. So you can see as a district, district members, like I would be in that group. Um 21 people responded, seven chose A, 14 chose C. Elementary 194 responded, 60 of them chose A, and 134 chose C. We had a really good response on parents, 239. Um 88 chose A and 151 chose um C. PreK of 17. Um two chose A and 15 chose C. Secondary, which is a middle school, high school finals learning center,

09850 chose A and 20 chose C. And then one thing that we added over there on the far right are total staff counts. I took those off of the cost containment slides. So if you go to the cost containment slides from the first meeting where we had the numbers, those numbers, I added them up. So there's about 205 district people. So we had about 10%. Elementary about 376 people fell into that category. So we had 52% there. PreK, we have about 60 people in that building would be prek and they about 28%. Secondary 262. Um, and we had about 70 of those who were about 27%. So that's kind of how it broke down. What's interesting about this is if you look at the percentages and you think about magnitude and and do a comparison,

099elementary and secondary, elementary wanted C almost as bad as secondary wanted um A because if you mult if you do if you divide them out, the ratios are very similar numbers. So, it's just interesting um how that how that kind of worked out. So, our overall recommendation tonight is for you to accept um calendar C as our um calendar for for 2627. >> Okay, what questions do we have? >> Um I have a couple of questions. Um thanks for giving us the data in a way that was really easy to understand. I really appreciate that. Um do you have any insight? Well, I mean, I was struck by the difference between the elementary wanting option C and the secondary wanting um option A. Do we have any insight on, you know, why that might be

100the case? >> I think the I I know I I believe the secondary like having Wednesday collaboration. >> Um elementaryaries, I don't know. One of the things we heard in the in the from the county committee at least was that elementary teachers don't necessarily like doing their PLC after school after they work then they do PLC. They don't necessarily like that. And that was one of the reasons we're struggling this year as well is they we teach and then we do early release and do do PLC time. It's just hard to teach and then do that. I think that was the probably the two big things that we've seen. Uh, one [clears throat] question I had are >> uh was the start times are the start times going to be the same? I think at

101one point we had staggered start from like the middle school and the high school and I didn't know where that landed. >> Well, um, that might that's something I think as we talk about cost containment that might be something come out of that. We've been talking a little bit with transportation and Michelle Charbano about that and asking her what it would take to go back to something like that and she says it would take about 45 to 50 minutes difference to build a to be able to do a double route. So those are things that we're going to talk with the staff about starting in January as we start to work on the 27 28 calendar options that those two things are going to start in the calendar committee on on the uh in January.

102And one thing we're going to do with the calendar committee this year too is a little bit different is we're going to actually include some committee members in that too. Um typically our calendar committee has been staff members and administrators. So we're going to include some uh community people particularly ones with kids in the f with kids in the schools. Um so we're going to that's going to be something we're going to start talking to our principles about as we move forward. >> Thank you. Okay, I think I have questions. Okay, I know that I do. Um, >> and this makes it sound like I'm not a real teacher. I promise I am. Can you explain the difference in what is happening on like teacher workday versus PLT, like those two different blue squares? What's

103like the differences in those days? And then my followup to that is it seems like some months like don't have any like the difference in like January and April in like what is offered in those months. >> Yeah. So let's kind of break that question down. Let's talk about um work days versus PLT days. That's that's the light blue versus the the darker blue color. So our master agreement requires that our teachers have 40 hours of work time. We have a I think a couple of those at least one is an on-site workday and that's where they would typically do their grades, do work time, but the other ones are off-site. Um there are teachers, we know they work a lot and there are options for teachers to do that work at home or at

104other times, but they can come in on those days and do their work. Um that was something that our board many years ago put in place. So the other ones the darker blue the PLT in our comra agreement that we're required to have 120.5 hours of PLT time in the PLT time you can do activities that for professional growth that could be um trainings we do um right now we're working a lot with our curriculum and assessment instructional alignment anything we're doing to improve our instruction can be things like that um SCOP training things like that that we can do um our activities that we do during PLT time. Another big activity for Emporia though is our PLC time. PLC's are a professional learning communities or PLC's are one are one activity that we can

105do during PLT time. So that's the main difference between the dark blue and the the light blue. So I think that's the first two parts of your questions. I don't remember the last part. >> That's okay. Um so I think let me look back like uh Janu um let me make sure I'm looking at the right option. >> Yeah, April. April does not have a PLT day >> because that is state assessment time. Okay, that is just the only way to be able to get all of our state assessments in. Uh especially with it being right after um spring break. So just being able to hit that assessment window. >> Okay. Yeah, no worries. I that makes sense. I was just looking like at January has more and like December has. So basically what you're

106saying and I'm just trying to understand because I think different places call them different things like on the 18th of December that's like your end of second quarter work day. >> Correct. >> Versus PLT happening on the 11th. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> Typically we align those work days with with parent teacher conferences. So you'll see when we have parent teacher conferences typically there's a work day before it. Well, there there always is a work day before and that's where teachers would do their grade cards and get that stuff prepared for parent teacher conferences. And that's been something if you look back at our calendars, we've always done a work day prior to a parent teacher conference time at least one preferably the the week the Friday before, but it has been a

107little bit depending on the calendar. >> Um, I just have one other question. So to my understanding, it seems like the difference in what elementary and secondary preferred on the survey was about if the PLT time was before or after school. Is there not a way to do late start for the whole district? That would require child care before and I think Dr. McGee he is going to speak to that. >> Yeah, I have some experience with this. [laughter] Um, late start for I mean late start's one thing for secondary students. It's it's kind of a different animal for elementary students. Um, I I was in a my previous district, we had some kind of inequities between secondary and elementary and the way we address their their PLC time, their their work time. Um, whereas

108we were we had a schedule that supported it for our secondary folks. They were doing it during the day every day. Um and then our elementary folks were being pulled out and we were putting subs in from time to time to give them like full days. Um ultimately we went to a late start districtwide, but it took two years to get there primarily because of community feedback. It's uh it's a challenge that I mean you'll definitely you'll definitely get some emotions uh from your community with regard to trying to deal with with a late start. Doesn't mean you can't do it. We did do it. Um, and it's just a matter of having that convers I'm happy to hear we're going to have parents on the calendar committee because that's a good first start. You

109can move from there to surveying your parents to see what the initial feedback is and not just whether you could or couldn't do it, but ask them about well what would need to be in place for you to be to be able to support this and and and just see what see what it would would require require to get it done. But I think I think for the most part if you put a calendar in front of our staff K12 that showed late start for everyone and regular collaboration and and learning time um it probably I would think it would get an overwhelming support and and that's the thing I don't like about our current situation is we're kind of pitting our elementary against our secondary. We're not we're not doing it, but that's what

110that's the way the votes align. And and I mean, who wants to stay after, you know, and do more work, you know, until 4:30 or whatever, um, you know, to get it done versus if you could just have a late start in your schedule and build it in and it's more regular that way. Um, so we haven't given up on doing it. It's just going to it's going to require some some work with our community, surveying our community, and u I'm glad to hear the calendar team's going to start some of that work. I do have a follow-up to one of Lillian's questions. Um, you know, I've sat on IBB now for a couple of years and I know like we talk a lot about the PLC time and the PLT. So it looks like

111there would be like less time for collaboration on an ongoing basis because you know when you're like for the secondary because when you're meeting every week in your communities. So that that was just something that your comments made me aware of like in a big school there's probably less opportunity. So that was just one thing that um I'm mindful of. But my bigger question is I'm looking at the two calendars and the thing that strikes me is on option C. I mean, man, our weeks are just really disrupted. Our months are really disrupted. So for the first I mean I was just counting like how many times is there a full week of school and seven weeks in the in the first half of the year are the only like solid five days a week.

112And that that's a little concerning to me because I know the more we disrupt the harder it is for kids to get back on track. So, just something that gave me real pause. >> Okay, any more questions, comments? >> That was some really good discussion. If you're ready for a motion, um, since that's how the the majority voted, I do move to approve the academic calendar. Option C for the 2026 2027 school year is submitted. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none, please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. >> That brings us to item 8A, board reports. >> We had our tech college monthly meeting on Monday. Um, our program highlight was a presentation from former 253 board member U. Mike Crouch about the FHTC Foundation. um

113was really interesting to hear how all that started. Uh we also voted to um purchase um a building for our precision a program. So that's really exciting and uh yeah just overall you know very similar to our meetings here. >> I think the Emporia Rec Commission uh is next and um you know we made the news this week. uh you can go check out the news because it's litigation related. I won't say much more than that, but I do want to acknowledge that happened um because it's out there. But um our last meeting was um fairly um actually fairly short. Um but probably the big thing that we've been dealing with recently is some uh pool issues which I sometimes I think have talked about here for a while now. Um we've got some structural

114issues with one of the pools. It's involving a lot of work uh and assessment to see what we can do in terms of making that a little bit more functional long term. But it's definitely a it's a very popular part of our rec center building, but it is also the part of it that costs us the most. Like if I could snap my fingers and replace one thing, it would be that that pool. Um, and so it's going to be a challenge going forward. Um, that's all I got. We also have the K KB annual convention recap. So, if anybody would like to share their experience, >> um I'll just share that um I was able to go for um a couple of days and the first day that I was I was able to

115spend the day with our incoming board member, Barbara Fowler. Um she attended her first KSB dayong training on boardsmanship. And so we had a lot of really great conversations and I was able to share with her um some of our own policies and procedures and and um and compared that to the advice we've been we are given from KSB. So she was ready and eager to learn and will be a great board member in a few weeks. >> Um as you all know I'm the delegate from our board to the convention. So that is always exciting to be a part of the like business session. um and looking forward to welcoming Dr. Emily Reiner into her role as CKSB president um for the next year. And on the Friday part of the session, I got

116to attend winter school law, which was very interesting to hear about um upcoming legal and legislative issues affecting our schools. >> There's always a lot of good breakout sessions. Um when I think about the topic titles they probably stay the same but one of those being school finance finance formula and obviously as a board we're always interest or very involved in one of what's legislator will be doing legislature will be doing um and also with the school funding with that um another hot topic of course is teacher retention um we know that's always a challenge and keeping good folks in our system is definitely challenging how we do that. It's always interesting to learn what other districts might be trying or looking at. I attended a few good sessions. I can't remember the name of

117one, but it was basically about like decreasing initiative fatigue and streamlining things in your district. And the quote that I wrote down that I had to dig out of my bag was, "Improvement doesn't come from doing more things. it comes from doing the right things better. And I really uh found that impactful and thought um you know I thought about how we got back to SCOP and some different things that we're doing in our district and I think we're on the right path. Um but definitely you know decreasing the the onslaught of new and getting better at the things we're already good at. >> Yeah, I would echo just some great sessions. Um the one that sticks out to me is the school funding. I went to an advocacy session and right now the state

118of Kansas is in the process of like retooling school funding for the state of Kansas and the last time this happened there was a dramatic impact on school funding. So I would encourage all of you to be aware of what's going on with school funding uh as there could be some changes that could greatly impact our district. We already have changes that are greatly impacting our district as you know um as they continue to tweak how we weight uh students all those additional things that we get extra money for in our district. It it's greatly impacting us in our ability to educate kids. So I would encourage you to stay aware of what's going on at Topeka and reach out to your legislators if you feel so inclined. um not to pile on too much

119uh but I'll just talk about one um related uh workshop breakout session I went to involves school security because that's always been something that's kind of in the back of my head and grew up in that coline generation and so I think about that a lot and unfortunately got into my algorithm now so I get notified about it in the news a lot but um it was really nice this time because last KSB conference I had went to I had gone to a school security breakout session and it was phenomenal but it was top from um school security uh resource officers and personnel from Witchah, but the uh this time around it was a different uh presenter. I think it was from Maize. Um and you know that was really interesting to get a different

120perspective of it and to see how a different school has done it, right? Because I know how we do it. I know how that other school district did it in Witchah and then Maize as well. But also just thinking about what it means to feel safe in a building as opposed to being secure in a building because those are two different things. Um, so just some some broader ways to think and and uh analyze some of those issues going forward. >> Okay. Any further comments? All right. Uh, that brings us to 9A superintendent report. >> Yeah, a few items. Um, one, there's an item there about the National Teachers Hall of Fame. They're going to we, uh, Dr. Mickelson and I met with the leadership was in town two or three weeks ago. Time flies.

121Um and they were sharing some information about an education summit that they're going to be ho hosting uh actually in Disney World in Florida and uh they are they have the resources to fund up to three USD 253 staff members and so Dr. Mickelson is kind of uh taking the charge on identifying um who's going to make it down there and she serves on the National Teacher Hall of Fame board as our representative and so she will get to go as well and so an an opportunity welld deserved but those participants I was interested in hearing you know because you can go to a lot of conferences and they have a ver you know you're always going to get the professional development piece there going to be sessions to go to and so on but

122um a couple of the emphasis that I appreciated that this group is going into with this conference is the opportunity for creating a lot of networking opportunities for the teachers that are there to network with folks from other parts of the country and then even develop not just peer relationships but try to create some formal mentor relationships for teachers and so um I think it'll be I think it'll be a very meaningful event for the ones that get to go. Um, our EHS theater is going to perform at the Kansas Thespian Festival. This is huge news, exciting news. Um, they were they were uh their piece, A Piece of My Heart, their production, A Piece of My Heart, was selected. They actually scored the highest of all of the entries um for this selection to

123uh perform at the Thespian Festival. That will be on January 10th um down in Witchah. Uh, I know more details now than even I put in here because I ran into Amanda at the seasonal celebration today. And uh, I got myself put on the pass list down in Witchaw on January 10th. That that will be at 10:00 a.m. on that Saturday. If anybody's interested, I'm sure we could probably figure out how to uh, get you in there. But it's I I just wanted to be a part of, you know, our students being celebrated and honored and uh, look forward. All of all of the performances have been at moments in time when I'm out of town for something else or or not able to attend. And so I'm looking forward to getting to I'll go

124to Witchah and and see it. But congratulations to them. Um got got my first opportunity to have a peek at what the seasonal celebration looks like because when I was here a couple of years ago, it had already happened and so uh very much enjoyed that. And uh this is the 90th annual season seasonal celebration. I I assured I assured them that it was not on the list for cost containment and that that we were going to make sure it saw its hundth seasonal celebration someday. Um a special highlight this year is that 100 member alumni choir. There were actually some of them even there today for the dress rehearsal, but I can see how it would be powerful tonight and tomorrow night uh you know to have them up there above the high school

125student choir uh joining in. Um unfortunately couldn't go tonight and I'll be in New York City tomorrow night so I won't get to experience that part this year. Uh cost containment real quick. Had our fourth meeting last night. The three subgroups kept do kept uh working on their uh you know rating items. We actually kind of forced their hand a little bit this time. Made them go through every little item and put a yes or a no by it. If it was a yes, what would you do? What would the value of it be? And then they'll start moving all their yeses over. And really it's just a yes. I'm open-minded enough to consider that as a opportunity. It doesn't mean that it's yes, it's going to end up on the final list. So, you

126know, to me, I said, do the hard work now and make a $6 million list so that you can pull a couple million dollars off of it at the end. And that's the positive thing, right? You you you aren't going to cut as much as you put on the list initially. Um, I kind of had I I wanted to make sure I experienced the same thing we were asking them to do. And so yesterday afternoon, I spent some time just kind of going through the list myself and putting my yeses and my nos and kind of figuring out I I and now I need to do what we're going to ask the committee to do is is kind of pull all those yeses over and then start prioritizing them into phases one, phase two, phase

127three. Um you know something might get put in a particular phase by the group that we that we realize is just very difficult to implement. So, we might have to push it out because it'll take longer than that. But, it's just it's getting all of this feedback from these 75 or 80 people. Um, I have the unique opportunity to walk from room to room and table to table and listen to the feedback and the dialogue and and they're working really hard and uh leaning on each other. I'm glad that we've set it up the way we have. We've even gotten to the point where, you know, we might take David Carlson with food service and say, "Hey, can you go over to that other room for a minute? there's a table having a big conversation

128over there about food service. They've got some questions and so it's been really beneficial and at the end of the day for SLT to be able to take all of that and formulate it into um an initial presentation for the board and ultimately then take the board's feedback as a whole and I appreciate the three of you that that are that have been there every time. uh but you know and turn it into um basically a list of ideas that that the board could give us some direction to continue moving forward with. Our goal is to do that by the end of February. Uh it kind of depends on how fast we can you know work it out of the team component. Um I think we're definitely going to need the February 3rd meeting. So

129the last meeting of theirs and then we've got board meeting on the 11th and the 25th. So, it's how fast can the SLT then sort through, pull it together to see if we can get something um done in February, but if not, then it would be the March board meeting where I would anticipate we wouldn't want to go any further than that because um you know, Erica and HR, everybody needs to know kind of, you know, we're holding positions open in some cases. Um you know, unless we just absolutely know that that's a one one of a kind, we got to have it kind of a thing. And so, we'll just get through that as quickly as we can. and and then um get the board's blessing and keep keep rolling. I appreciate the feedback

130we got tonight. I I encourage our staff and and everyone to advocate for what's important to them. How do we how can we make the decisions if we don't hear from people? And so I I appreciate Amy and the others that were here tonight um providing us that input. Um we were talking about school finance earlier in your sessions. Uh Josh and I went down to a uh schools for fair funding meeting last week um in Gddard, Kansas. I think I think it was my second time to go to Goddard because I think I went to Goddard with Dr. Harter when I was here in 2023 for the same the same group. But we got to hear, you know, that group is uh we're one of 40 other districts. So there are 41 districts in

131that group um all providing some funding around keeping keeping track of what's happening with regard to school finance. And then uh the the legal firm that John Rob John Rob's like the guru of all uh litigation surrounding finance whether it be Kansas, Missouri, we we worked with him on the Missouri side when we were rewriting formulas there too. Um so he was there to uh present to this group. I put a bunch of fun facts in there. Um, it's getting getting late, so I won't read through all of them, but uh, you know, I thought it was interesting that from April of 25 to November 1125, uh, somehow the state found about $2 billion that they weren't didn't know they had in April. Um, so great. Um, one of the things that I highlighted there

132was that when they when asked about the smaller gap between revenues and expenditures that exists now, one of the point one of the points they made is that it's it's costing less to fund K12 because of the decline in enrollment. About a $200 million decrease in our obligation uh because of of fewer students running through the formula this year. Um, but I think it's interesting to go through and kind of see how some of the waitings uh play out with regard to uh to the actual money that you receive. Um, but you know that that's there for the public to read. I won't read it to you. Um, appreciate Dr. Jen Thomas and her uh time on the board while I've been here. um you and I dealt with some things and we and I

133I appreciate the way you've handled everything that you and I all all of our interaction and uh you you know from from my perspective this is a great board and you you were a part of that and uh you have Barb has big big shoes to fill as far as you know f filling that role. So thank you. I just want to thank all of you and no I'm not going to cry because yeah um but I have really enjoyed this and I've told especially Jamie and Lily and Leslie I've told you guys multiple times much more so than I thought I would at the beginning. So um and I really really uh want to thank Casey um I've told you repeatedly I'm not crying. So, um, but you just all for all of us,

134and I know they're all staying, um, but you just make our job so much easier, and you have been a bright spot from before my very first day. And uh I'm going to miss you and I thank you and I am so thankful for David and the hands that um everything is in your hand, not your hands, but the Lord's hands, but I like um you being there with us and um I've told many of you had I known how awesome you were, I probably would have run again. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't know how awesome you were. I don't know. Um I think uh Barbara's going to step in with all of her experience in um K through 12 and and do a great job. But um I really really have enjoyed

135um just these last few months and just seeing you take charge. I know there's a lot of things ahead that are not necessarily going to be fun or easy, but most of this isn't. Um and so I admire you guys in an unpaid position doing all you do and all the time that you put put toward it. And I really have enjoyed working with you sincerely. So thank you all so much and I wish you all the best. And yes, this probably is not the last. I'll probably be back in some form or fashion, especially um with the wellness stuff, which I'm excited as we do go through all those uh changes with the health care or health insurance um coverage. I'm excited outside of being a board member um to get to kind of

136help the district um keep working on that and help the employees be as healthy as they want to be and still get to see you guys. So, thank you. And thank you for my awesome flowers and the cake, which I'm going to have tomorrow when I'm not fasting. And um I am I'm going to take a piece home and just thank you for everything. Appreciate you all. Thank you. >> Okay, that brings us to future board calendar dates. Um so this is our last meeting for the year and we will meet again January 14th and then January 28th which is the meeting that we'll be at Emporia High School. So keep those on your calendars. And with that, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please

137cast your vote.