001Okay, good evening and welcome to our board of education regular meeting for October 8th, 2025. Uh we have seven board members present. Uh item 2A, adoption of the agenda. >> I would move for approval of the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> Okay, that brings us to item 3A, public com or program highlight, Walnut Elementary student council. And we have uh principal Jamie Dacon from Walmart Elementary and she's bringing in some special guests for us this evening. Okay, so we already have a problem because I told him there would be a stool to stand on. So just stand up here. Okay, you guys are in for such a treat. I'm so excited. There really isn't a stool. Okay, so last year at
002the end of the year, um, we started talking about how exciting it would be to have student council at Walnut Elementary and these amazing adults that you see behind me made it happen. And um you know I sitting at the cost containment meeting last night. It just thinking about what they do behind the scenes after school hours before school starts. You know there is no compensation for all of the extra things that they do for these kids. And and let me tell you these kids have been working their fingers to the bone to present this to you tonight. So you're in for a big treat. Um, Katie Herie is a fourth grade teacher at Walnut and she is going to get us started. >> Hi everyone. My name is Katie Herie and I have the
003joy of being the student council committee co-chair um at Walnut Elementary and along with these amazing committee members, I get to help guide and support um our student leaders. This is our first year, like Miss Aken said, having a student council. And these students have jumped right in with a lot of excitement and great ideas. Um, they're eager to represent Walnut in really great ways. And we're just really proud of them. Um, and we can't wait for you to hear from them tonight. So, please join me in welcoming our student council. [Applause] We are the patriots. Everywhere we go, people want to know who we are. So we tell them we are the Patriots. The very victorious Patriots. [Applause] >> Hello, my name is Avia Davis. I'm the president of student council. Hello, my name
004is Oh, wait. Hello, my name is Nash Tle and I am the vice president of student council. Hello, my name is Sage Gutierrez and I'm the secretary of student council. >> Hi, my name is Emily Patterson and I'm a fifth grade representative. >> Hello, my name is Piper and I'm a fifth grade representative. Hello, my name is Ben and I'm a fourth grade representative. >> My name is Kate Thuma and I'm a fourth grade representative. >> Hi, my name is Marus and I'm a fourth grade representative. Yeah, >> student council is split into five characteristics. Leadership, diversity, academic achievement, school and community involvement, and school spirit. We are Oh, wait. Oh, wait. We promote the school spirit so we can make the school more fun. To be in student council, we had to write a
005letter on why we wanted to be in student council. And then also, you would also need a recommendation from a teacher to get in. The third graders were selected to do an interview by adults and student council. Fourth graders had to go through an interview process. They said it was fun to be interviewed, but also nerve-wracking. What do we do in student council? In student council, we like to brainstorm ideas for our whole school to do. During meetings, we like to brainstorm service project ideas and fundraising ideas. And we also like to improve school spirit. We have meetings twice a month, once in the morning and once after school. Some goals that we have for student council is uplifting and motivating the walnut community and inspiring others. And another goal is bridging the gap between
006parents, students, and staff. An example is um we invite community members and parents and families to our events to be included. We would also like to be more involved with PTO. We will celebrate Patriot Day on November 7th. Each grade level is working on a different project that they will share with veterans. Our student council creates a monthly newsletter to be sent home with the students. This helps us stay connected to our families. >> During during school events and parent teacher conferences, we will have a booth set up to explain what student council does. We will be doing a penny war fundraiser. Each class will be competing to raise the most pennies. Thank you all for listening and having uh and spending time to listen to us. I hope you have a good day. And
007do you guys have any questions? [Applause] What questions do we have for them? You did a great job speaking and we're really impressed so far with student council. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, let's again bring us to item 3B, public comments. Public comments will be allowed for a duration of three minutes per speaker to be timed by the board clerk. All speakers must sign up in person for public comment by 1 p.m. the day of the board meeting. Do we have any board me or any public comments? >> We do tonight. Shar Slater if you'd like to come forward. Much taller than them. Are you ready for me? Okay. Hello and thank you all for your service to the USD253 school board. Your commitment to Emporia
008in our school district is very much appreciated. I've been a long-term substitute in our district for over three different school years for four different positions and have enjoyed my experience so far. However, there's one part of long-term subbing that I find unnecessarily stressful and I would like to cons the board to consider a minor change to the policy that would immensely improve the long-term substitute teacher experience. Currently, the policy states that a substitute must be in the same position for 20 consecutive days to receive the increase in pay to a full-time firstear teacher salary. I would like the board to consider removing the phrase consecutive from the policy. While the policy of consecutive days may seem inconsequential, it is in fact detrimental to the long-term substitute. 20 consecutive days may not seem like that many
009days, but one needs to consider the work environment the teachers are in. We are around a large number of students constantly as well as many staff members and sickness spreads quickly in that setting. I myself have worked sick in every long-term position that I have ever had in order to keep my 20 consecutive days intact. It should also be considered that substitutes have families they need to attend to. I was once not able to be home with my daughter when she was sick because I needed to keep my 20 consecutive days intact. The most stressful situation was when my husband had an emergency apppendecttomy and I was not able to be there for surgery because I had to keep my 20 consecutive days intact. Had it been life or death, I would have been there.
010I just want to say that as a long-term substitute, I am assuming the full-time work and responsibility of the teacher that I'm subbing for. And with that comes a substantial increase in workload compared to that of being a regular sub. With that substantial increase in workload, it is right and fair to appropriately financially take care of those long-term subs. You may be curious as to why I'm so passionate about this. Well, I'm about to start a long-term position on Friday where I will work approximately 45 days. If I miss even one of those first 20 days for any reason, then I will be paid $5,625 for those 45 days versus $10,935. nearly a $5,000 difference. For my family, that differential is significant. It's disheartening to think that I could be assuming all the work of
011a classroom teacher and only be financially compensated at regular sub pay. I'm not certain as to why the 20 consecutive days policy came into existence. Even if I had to miss a day as a long-term sub, I still have to create plans for another sub and I would not be paid for the day that I am missed. I want to be in school helping students learn. However, sometimes I have to take care of myself and my family. So, please wish me good luck and my family good health for these next 20 days. I really hope that I can earn the amount of money that I deserve for the amount of work I know I'm going to be doing. Thank you. >> Thank you. We will take a look at that policy. Item 4A, consent agenda.
012Items listed on the consent agenda are considered by the board of education to be routine business items. Approval of the items may be made in a single motion and second with the majority vote. Uh, should a member of the board desire to discuss any item at his or her request, it will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. What are the wishes of the board? >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. That brings us to item 6A, structured literacy. >> Dr. Paula H is here to share some information about this item. >> Thank you. Thank you for being here and thank you for having me come on a night where there were students.
013It's always so much better when there are students involved. Um the report that was presented to you is around the seal of literacy that educators are required to get on their license by July 1st of 2028. Dr. Mickelson did a lot of the groundwork with this last year when she was in teaching and learning. So now I just get to bring to fruition the work that she has put into place. So the first one of them is keys to literacy. It's a training that was an option presented to staff and at that time we had about 40 educators respond to it saying that they were interested in pursuing this option. I did not reservey them until I have approval. Um don't want to put the cart before the horse. Um so once we have that
014then we'll move forward with who those educators are that would like to be a part of it. Looking at the funding source you'll notice that the co-op is a part of it as well as at risk funds. So, in collaboration with um Stephanie McNameir in the co-op as well as Mr. Schwarz with the at risk funds, it is on the KSD approved list and we do have a pretty significant number of co-op educators that had originally indicated interest in pursuing this path. So, that is the portion that the co-op would pay for. So, um it meets all of the requirements. These educators would earn this seal. Um, like I said at the beginning, it's one of the options that was brought forth last year. So, continuing to move forward with what was presented and just
015keep finding opportunities for our educators. So, any questions? >> Perfect. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Since I'm always happy to find something that we can use our at risk funds for, I will make a motion to approve the purchase of keys to literacy professional services and materials in the amount of $31,000 as submitted. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. Uh that brings us to item 7A, health insurance renewal for 2026. Mr. Schwarz is back to uh talk about health insurance renewal. Um, just as a reminder for everyone, this is the third meeting in a row that the board has learned and heard and been able to ask questions about health insurance and uh, administratively, we're ready to make a
016recommendation this evening and answer any questions you might still have. >> Sure enough. So, yeah, by the time we started this conversation several meetings ago, knew that October 8th was going to be the um, the day to recommend um, which path to go. And so I might just start with that part. And the recommendation that we have is to go to that partially self-funded plan and to land at an increase at 12%. And we've looked at like the 8% all the way up to 17 and fully funded, partially self-funded, those kind of things. But the the one that we are recommending tonight is the um is that 12% on the partially self-funded. Same with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Um, IMA has sent us a a review document and there were a couple other in the
017file. Um, I think this evening there were two questions that I wanted to address. One was on on privacy and I might even have Lee at some point come up and kind of really clarify when the claims information does reach the like how does that work? Just making sure we keep that information confidential. And the other one that this one was on the slideshow regarding the amount of additional business office time and there's a clarificate I think it's on slide five or six possibly Casey. Yeah, it's this slide five and it's talking about an additional 15 to 24 hours a month. That is under the idea that that would be consid self-funded but it's unbundled. So what we're looking at is a bundled package which means we have most everything goes through Blue Cross Blue
018Shield still unbundled would mean you might have more vendors related to pharmaceuticals and some other additional pieces and billings. So that that number would be a slightly smaller number for our business office and I might even have Lisa and Kate explain a little bit more about that. So I'm going to have we'll start with the privacy issue if you could address that one first. >> Sure. Good evening. So in regard to moving from the fully insured to a self-funded arrangement, the information would continue to be deidentified. So it would be very similar in reporting to what is received now, which does not include any member level information. It's all provided in an aggregate manner. >> Anything else? And the other one would both of you might be able to help answer this question just on
019the that amount of workload and what what was on this presentation slide compared to what we feel is going to be the reality of things. >> So Lisa and I spoke today about the differences between this slide and what we can expect for the next year anyway and moving forward. And it's about four to five wires a month that we would have to process and put through, look through that claims to make sure there's not larger claims that where we would have to involve a stop loss just to verify that. And then at the end of the year, there's a couple of filings that we would do that they would they would help us gather the data and then sit down on a call or a phone call to put it together. So the I
020also double checked with um Melissa votes who does the onboarding and does all the benefits and she felt that because we're keeping the plan change the same and the employee part that the workload for her would be very similar to what it is now and the plan that we have. So it's not a big change in the workflow for the business office and administering it the way we look at it. But this is good information to have. So if you if in future years we decide that we really want to go in and dig in and structure the plan ourselves and make those decisions and unbundle, we know what we're getting ourselves into. >> Would this um be restricted to one staff person, Josh, or would there be multiple staff members who would touch the
021insurance? Just thinking about the the flow of of work. Um, specifically I I mean currently there would be our accountant would look at the billing part of that. I would picture the actual data of the claims really going through IMA. Is that that's or you're thinking more of the financial side? >> Yeah, I was just thinking like when you think about the extra workload which seems manageable um like how would you structure it in the business office? I was just interested in like would it be multiple people? Would it be one person >> who would who would do the administration on our side? It would probably be one or two um that would be the primary >> holders of that in of that process part of like our accounts payable would be in the middle
022of that along with kind of the treasur account side of things. >> Yeah. So Melissa any of those questions that we talked about about is someone still on the insurance are they still with the Melissa would continue to handle that type of thing. She handles that now. There are a couple of wires. um the Blue Cross payment that's processed by a wire. It's reconciled by our district accountant who also reconciles the bank statement, but the actual processing of that wire is a very short span of time and that would be kind of and if there's any kind of questions about other things regarding that claim data, it would be Melissa because she handles all of that at this point. >> Thank you. I just don't want to create so much extra work that it's it's
023hard for you all to do your job. So, that's good to know. >> I had a question from uh someone at the cost containment committee meeting last night. Okay. >> And she had asked um if and I think that with our stop-loss um that we would be fine. Well, I know that we would, but her concern was what if we ran out of money and couldn't afford her very expensive prescription? What what kicks in then? Um, you know, she just wanted to make sure there was no way that if we switched to this partially self-funded that her vital expensive prescription would not be covered. >> Well, I right. >> Yeah. the the insurance plan, the coverage plan that we currently have with Blue Cross would be the same exact plan on on for the employee.
024>> So, that part wouldn't change. And I like our stop loss on our side. >> But if we ran out of money, the stop loss would >> Yes, the stop loss would >> cover that. Yes. >> That's all that's all I wanted to make sure she knew that there's no way we wouldn't be able to pay for her prescription. >> So, absolutely, the claims would all be processed. where it comes in at that 12% number is the difference between the stop loss and that 12% which is potentially up to about 3 million. It depends on where it could be anywhere in between from $10 up to there. That would come out of contingency reserve if we go there, which there's no guarantee we're going to, but that is the plan if we were to go
025over the anticipated at that level is it would go and I think there's a slide in here that shows the prediction of going over that is about just under 5%. I think it's 5% there. When we looked at the actual specific, it's about 4.87. Josh, you referred to bundled versus unbundled. I think I probably know what that is, but could you just refer I mean talk about view that way? >> We've touched on that. I mean, we did not spend a lot of time on the unbundled because of the complexity of that. Um, but really what that t I might have to lean on Lisa a little more with this one as well. I might just do that just to simplify this. So, >> sure. >> But it's Go ahead. Go ahead. >> You want
026to go? Nope. You go ahead. >> So with the bundled, you're really making one decision. The insurance carrier that is going to administer your claims within that the PBM is set up, the stop loss is set up, all of those decisions. If you went unbundled, you would be making more of those decisions. So again, to Josh and Kate's point earlier, the transition from the Blue Cross fully insured to the self-funded is easier because of the simplicity in putting it together and keeping so many things the same. I I would say that I was at the insurance committee meeting that we had after the last board meeting and we had a lot of good questions and the feedback that we did receive from staff members who are currently on the plan. Their preference was the recommendation
027that we move to the self-funded and keep the same Bluec Cross plan design that we currently have. So, just wanted to put that out there. That's our recommendation and that's kind of the the feedback we got from people on the plan. >> You know, I um I'm happy with the recommendation. Um I will be supporting it. I I do have to say that, you know, we also have heard from a lot of um our faculty and staff about the rate increase. We all know it's not great. We know it's 12%'s better than 26%. Um but it's still not okay. And we know that this is just represents a pay cut for our employees when they have to start paying for this insurance. And so I'm begging this forward like we've got to figure this out
028in the next 12 months. Um we we've got to work with ENA to really lessen the amount of the um premium that employees have to pay. Um and we also have to stop thinking that and this is me too. I'm not I'm not not pointing fingers. We also have to stop thinking that oh my gosh the rate increase might only be 5% next year. We have to plan for 20% every year and because it's shortsighted if we don't because we so many years in a row I'm like it's going to be a good year. It's going to be a good year and it never is. So let's let's like think about planning a little bit more um in terms of how the budget could be impacted. I would be really interested to hear prior to
029us even getting started on negotiations next year, how many districts don't include insurance in their negotiations because maybe that's just something that we um as a district need to take out of that and that that's something we as a board and as and through our cost containment committee work that we can work on. Um I I would just be interested to see how many districts are doing that. uh because it doesn't have to be a negotiated item as far as I know. Um but I could be wrong. So I would be I would like to know please sometime soon. Not at the next meeting obviously. >> Yeah. No, I agree with you Leslie and I think Jamie's right. I think when we put the health insurance that the amount of money that we contribute to
030the health insurance as a part of the negotiations, it kind of pits the people who are on the health insurance plan against the staff who aren't on the health insurance plan. because if I do one, it means I'm probably not doing the other. And so there's kind of an inherent conflict, for lack of a better term there, right? If I only want to put money on the health insurance, that's less money you're putting towards everyone's salary and someone who's not on the salary is not going to get that raise. But at a certain point, we're just going to have to make a choice because this is I mean, I've said this a couple times now, every meeting when we get these rate increases, whatever raise we just gave our staff for cost of living just
031got eight and they got less. Right? I gave you a hundred bucks more, but now you're actually getting like less than that dependent upon how the the costs cut down. I had some reservations about the self-funded option and just the financial stability of it. You know, I feel much better about that now that I've gotten all this information. Um, so I really do thank our business office and IMA for all the work that they've put into this. And you know, Arts Wright, the majority of the feedback I think we got was go with the self-funded option. Um, got a lot of emails. I think we all got them maybe three or four from folks who all basically said self-funded. I don't want to switch carriers. I don't want less benefits and fully funded at 20
032something plus percent is just not doable. Um but I think Jamie's absolutely right. We got to assume when it comes to insurance every year is going to be a bad year. Maybe one day it'll prove us wrong, but I mean I think I've been here for what almost six years now. It's not happened yet. And Leslie, I really like what you're saying about whether or not this should be in negotiations because, you know, when we do negotiations, we don't even know our health insurance rates. So, we're asking people to negotiate blind and there's not a lot of things in this world that I would negotiate blind and and we ask them to do it. >> When we're also determining how much we're contributing for every single employee, not just certified. And with the amount of
033classified staff that we have, I think it's really important that we that we just do better. >> Um, go ahead. >> I I would agree. I think that my um my hesitation to move forward well I have a lot of hesitation but particularly with the recommendation about being self-funded is I still have a lot of reservation about the risk that we're taking on as a district and I am not excited about that. I don't think that that's the place that we should be in right now. um uh with regard to the other options and then I was also reviewing the survey from the insurance committee. I think that the survey data is a bit misleading because the if you just looked at the ranked choices that the insurance committee had I yeah I guess they
034all ranked that they that their top choice was self-unded but if you read individually in their responses what when people were given the opportunity to explain their rankings it doesn't seem like people were actually very excited. no one on the committee who seemed like they were really jumping up and down to go into being self-funded. At least from the way that I am interpreting the written responses. As for the other options, it seems like Blue Cross is just getting more and more expensive every year and we can't do that to our staff. Um I say that like every year that we have this conversation. Um and here we are another year, same thing. Um, I know that Blue Cross is providing like the people want to stay with their providers and in in network. Uh,
035and I I agree. I want that for our staff as well, which is why I'm not really interested in the uh option, but Blue Cross is just far too expensive and we have to find a way to work with them that is going to be more affordable for our staff. And I'd like to reiterate one of the questions that Leslie I think asked last time we met which was why does this feel like we are the only ones that this is happening to year after year is incredibly frustrating and it is becoming a deterrent to people that want to come work in our district and people that want to stay here. I agree with I second all of that. Um I am encouraged by a couple of things. One is, and I don't remember who
036from IMA said it at that first meeting, one is the number was so low, again, I I don't remember what it was, uh, when you said we asked how many that go the self-run funded route end up going back and it was a very low number. That's encouraging. Um the second one is one of the emails to us mentioned that the city of Emporia I don't know how long has been self-funded but that it has worked very well and I am taking some comfort and getting some confidence from that. Again I also uh used to work closely with the Detroit Diesel employees. They were self-funded. They really liked it, but they also there was a lot of self-accountability. And again, I'm I'm on the wellness committee for at least a couple more months. And um
037I look forward to talking with HR and with Heather on what can we do? What can we do? Not to force anything on anybody, but by gosh, if they want to focus on living healthier and and doing better with their health, we want them to be able to do that uh for as little to no cost as possible. So, you know, you start talking about paying for a gym membership and paying for this and then all of a sudden it becomes another burden and we don't want that. We want it to be as the healthy way should be the the easiest way, you know, if there's anything we can do to support that. >> I know I know administratively we we understand the challenge that this is is for the board. It's been a challenge
038for us as well. Most districts will look at self-funded or or administrators that are in our positions will look at it several times before pulling the trigger because at at some point the data just kind of pushes you in that direction and you learn more every time you look at it to kind of get yourself a little bit more comfortable with it. You know, I I don't think we're alone in in um in rate increases. And I think that it's very very important as we compare from placetoplace rate increases and rates to look at the benefit. Um that was another big issue with Etna, not just not just the network issue, but if you used that insurance the way the benefit was was laid out, you were going to spend a lot more money using
039the insurance than than you would in probably and even the increased premiums on the other side. So, you know, I think yeah, folks folks are not um as individuals excited about self-funded. I don't think everybody on the insurance committee and and and around even necessarily completely understand self-funded or when we talk about partially self-funded, fully self-funded versus fully funded. Um, but at the end of the day, it's gonna I think it's going to give us more control. And you know, that's what we're trying to do here is take it. You know, we we are putting a little bit of risk out there to to see some control and at least be able to move the pieces of the chessboard around a bit to see what it does to our rates and so on and give
040people more choices that way. The only other comment I wanted to make, and I don't want to hold us up on this item, um, as Leslie was talking a little bit about, um, negotiating insurance and and and salaries, and it's it's not necessarily that you're even having to formally negotiate them, but having all the information on the table at the same time is important. And this board might recall that we did that in 2023 where we looked at this is the amount of money we have to put towards salaries and benefits, folks. Here are all the various I think we gave them probably 20 different options of how to divide the money up and and then let them make, you know, a a conscious decision knowing if I do this on the salary side, this
041is what the district is willing to or able to do financially on the benefit side. And I think we should strive to try to do that again. um you know and and I just ask for some patience to let us get through this cost containment process to see just exactly where we feel like our budget's going to be going into next year. Um there's always going to be unknowns through negotiations with regard to revenues and expenditures, but um we'll we'll at least know kind of where we where we end up coming out of cost containment with recommendations and what that might do as far as providing some resources in in a year where we're not going to see a lot of new revenue. Maybe we can free up some of our existing revenue to to
042utilize for those things. Yeah, I think on on that note, it would be really great if at the the end of the cost containment process, sometime in the spring going into the summer, we could actually have a more realistic look at and more firm numbers on what the upcoming year is going to be like so that we can start this process at a reasonable time frame, not feeling like I mean, I will I do feel like we end up kind of backed into a corner when we have to make a decision right now about what's coming. And to Jaime's prior point, I think that maybe we were led to believe that numbers would look far different than they are now. Um, and on that note, I would like to say that how I intend to
043vote tonight is not representative of my feelings about the work that the committee has done or anyone else that has worked on this project. I know that you all have been working really hard and that the options just weren't weren't great. I you know I have one question kind of thinking about Lillian's point of um you know what is it with our insurance pool that causes this struggle right is it really just the fact that we've got high claims and maybe some people who have some chronic issues um but I'm also curious um you know of the people that are employed through us that don't use our insurance I'm kind of curious like why is it just because they have a spouse I think many of them probably get it through their husband or wife's
044employment I'd be kind of curious to see you know what's that aversion into being on the plan. Is it just because they have different options? Because I feel like part of what we're missing out here is that there are people who aren't on our plan that would not have high claims and want them on our plan because then we have less claims and we have more money coming in and going out. Um, and I don't know if we have any information about that or if we can survey that at some point during the year when it would be appropriate when you have new hires. Um, are you using our insurance? Do you plan on using it? And if not, why not? Where do you get your insurance from and why? And it could just be
045cheaper, better benefits. But I'd be kind of curious to see some of that information because at the end of the day, you want healthy people in your insurance pool that don't use the insurance to make the insurance more affordable for everyone. >> Okay, this is an action item. I move to approve the partially self-funded insurance through the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas at a 12% increase to employees as submitted and as recommended by the insurance committee and administration. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes six to one. >> All right, thank you for all your work. >> Thank you all. >> Okay, that's going to bring us to item 8A, board reports. Uh the employee rec commission is up for board reports and our meeting actually
046isn't until I think the week after next, but we did have a special meeting recently to return some employee retention tax credit funds that we had received which was a co 19 program and that's about all the news I have for you until next meeting. >> All right. Thank you. Um, a few weeks ago I was able to attend the CAS Education Foundation Association conference. It was the first convening of school districts that primarily have education foundations within their districts. And at our board retreat last year and then again this summer, we had talked about potentially having a a foundation. So I went I met with about 25 other representatives. There were a couple of school board members there, but there are foundation directors and superintendent there as well to really share about how they
047go about raising money for their school districts and some of the activities that they do. Um, and it seems to me that some of these districts, some of the like the things that we do like our district tailgate on Friday night, those are things that um like the foundation might take on um in a kind of a separate role. I'm going out to raise money for things and putting them on. Um, one thing that I really like that a couple of schools do, they actually have a um, alumni hall of fame awards. So, every year they'll maybe identify two or three graduates and do, you know, an award ceremony for them, maybe a reception. It's just another way to garner um, support and to be able to boast about like the amazing things their graduates
048do. Um, one school district I really like, their foundation, they um do appreciation events and so they have um every year something for um classified staff where they take them, they buy them, they have um appetizers, prizes and just kind of have like an after hours, you know, party for them from like, you know, 5 to 7. And it just it's a good way to just build goodwill and camaraderie in the school district. So, I collected everything I possibly could um because I really think that this is something we should explore, especially as we think about new revenue streams. We have so many amazing foundations that support other entities within Line County who have to fund in Lion County, and I'd love to see us tap into them a lot more. I think we're leaving
049a lot of money on the table by not having like a cohesive strategy to get um donations into our school district. Thank you. Uh that's going to bring us to item 9A, superintendent report. >> Yeah, a few things u this evening. Some of it might seem a little redundant for some of you, but I think it's always important to uh um get information out to folks that maybe aren't involved in some of the committees and and teamwork that we're doing. And so, just a little bit of an update on the cost containment team uh from last night. Uh that was our first meeting. Um we spent a lot of time providing some uh data. I felt like this this particular chart that uh that Miss Le shared last night with regard to kind of what's
050been happening in our community that has impacted enrollment. Um and it kind of indicated when when several of the businesses have um either reduced production or closed up shop. And you can see that um a a lot of what's happening with enrollment over the course of the history of the school district and the city of Emporia is very closely related to employment. And so, you know, I just utilize that to continue to reiterate, you know, in my previous roles. Um, I've I've always kind of had a a hand in the economic development side as well because I think school districts can promote economic development just like universities and cities and others can. And so I'll continue to uh try to make sure we're doing our part uh there because I think that you know the
051anomaly that we don't have in our projections right now is somebody coming to Emporia with jobs and saying this is the place I want to be. that would fix a lot of our problems because our enrollment would begin to go back up and uh so that's an important piece. U Dr. Mickelson shared a lot about um our staffing last night and kind of how it relates to enrollment. Uh Lindell uh was gracious enough to go over kind of uh how the bond issue uh played out and where the monies were spent. We took some time doing that because there were some some that might not understand exactly how some of those monies were spent and were thinking maybe we were creating a lot of uh extra space for additional capacity at a time when the
052enrollment was declining. First of all, the timing of the bond issue was a little a little tough on us. you know, right before COVID and there were there w you you would see a drop in students after COVID in just about every school district, but much of the, you know, the 68 to 7 to $70 million that was spent touching classrooms was more about um upgrading upgrading spaces, you know, renovating spaces, creating like the science, the science wing at the high school. U um focused on storm shelter areas to u be able to get out of some of our multiple purpose areas that were maybe being used for dual roles like like to feed lunch and uh kickballs and get them in separate places so that so that it helps with scheduling that way as
053well. Um so just um special education spaces all those sorts of things. We just tried to make sure the group understood kind of how, you know, that didn't necessarily mean we built, you know, extra 30 or 40 classrooms across the district. It was it was it was a diff it was different than that. Uh Mr. Schwarz shared um information about revenues compared to expenses and kind of gave the group, you know, an initial target. Um you know, our our easy target that we're our our we hope is lowhanging fruit is to try to find about 1.5 million and that would be kind of priority one. And then we know that we need to not stop there, but continue to dig so that if this trend continues as we think it will over time, uh we'll
054continue to need to implement cost savings over the course of the next two to three years until we get ourselves at a point where we're closing that gap between anticipated revenues and anticipated expenditures. We're by no means um panicking and just taking a good thorough look at ourselves and going through a process that I know will lead to solutions that will uh help us to manage um this particular shortfall. Our next meeting will be October 21st of that group and based on the feedback we got last night which there was a lot of great discussion. Um we are going to have a lot of work to do between now and uh that meeting to be to pull together more data that people want to see. So we'll probably spend about half that meeting with some
055additional just okay you said you wanted this information and then split up into our into our three sub teams and let them dive in a little bit for half of that meeting as well. the discussion is is the most valuable part of it. Wanted to put a little note in there about federal government shutdown. Some people might think, gosh, all of a sudden the the federal government shutdown, what are we doing at schools as far as money goes? Uh there's some information there about the fact that much of the K12 funding is is forward funded and already in place in the state's coffers being distributed over the course of the next several months. um probably wouldn't see an impact um locally or within our state unless that unless that government shutdown extended maybe into about
056a three-month period and then they would start to have to to to do some additional things. Um KSD actually has a on the agenda for our our regular call Friday an update on kind of how the state's managing and what we can expect and so I'll have more information after that. um wanted to end on a couple of positives and so um I heard this on the radio this morning and then Lindell confirmed it but our our Emporia High School girls tennis team captured the conference championship for the first time in over two decades. So that's a that's a huge huge accomplishment. So congratulations to them and our coaches for that. And then this is National Principal Appreciation Month. And so we want to thank all of our school principles for their leadership, all that
057they do to make sure that um our students and teachers are are are experiencing the the very best that they can through their work and their learning experience. So thank thank you to all of our principles. Okay, that's going to bring us to item 11A, executive session, consultant attorney. >> I move to enter into executive session for 20 minutes for the exception for matters which will be deemed privileged in the attorney client relationship under the Kansas Open Meeting Act and that we return to open session in this room at 7:07 p.m. Superintendent Dr. David McGee and Attorney Tammy Smoji are invited to join the board for this session. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Motion passes. 70. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded to return to regular session. Please
058cast your vote. Motion passes 6. >> Okay. And that brings us to 11A future board calendar dates. This Friday we have the district tailgate at the Emporia High football game. Uh and then our next meeting will be Wednesday, October 22nd. I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. >> Motion passes 6. Thank you very