Lawrence Public Schools Board of Education Meeting | June 8th, 2026

001I'd >> like to welcome everybody out to the June 8th, 2026 board meeting. Can I get approval of the agenda, please? >> I move we approve the agenda for Pardon me. I move we approve the agenda for the June 8th, 2026 board meeting. >> Second. >> Buyers, >> yes. >> Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Could Blackwood? >> Yes. >> Jones? >> Yes. >> Kimble? >> Yes. >> Lancaster? >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Okay. move on to item 1.3, report of the superintendent of schools. >> Thank you, President Gordon Ross and members of the board, everyone who is joining us in person and those who are joining remote. Uh it is June 8th and we are laser focused on having our teams assembled in place and our schools well prepared for the launch of

002the school year do uh 2026 27. Uh Dr. Jeremiah and Miss Ryan alongside members of our district leadership team. Uh we will be engaging with our school leaders across three days this week. Uh we are working closely on exciting instructional student supports and systems planning and preparation work. Um, as we look ahead, school leaders, teachers, and students will arrive back uh to begin a new year at milestones between six and nine weeks from now. Uh, so when I think about that, we get very urgent in our preparations because we know that these days and weeks are important. Every single task matters. so that we are well prepared for a new year. Uh our days and weeks recently have been packed with interviews and the many details of robust performance attached hiring processes and it really

003is an exciting time. Members, I appreciate being able to connect with each of you on some key hires uh that we will continue with this evening. We're delighted to share the following uh June highlights from Lawrence Public Schools. Uh we are welcoming the Algerian national team. Lawrence has the opportunity to welcome the Algerian national team as they make our community their home away from home during the FIFA World Cup. Lawrence High School students recently partnered with Explore Lawrence to create a special welcome message for team Algeria. Here it is. Hi, I'm Oman Amed >> and I'm Clark Barber and we're the student body co-president and we welcome you to Lawrence. And that's our official welcome on behalf of Lawrence uh public schools from Lawrence High School. Uh we are so proud of our adult education

004graduates. I appreciate the members who were able to join us and certainly all the members were there in spirit uh during the commencement ceremony just a few days ago since our last board meeting. A total of 54 graduates were recognized, including 25 students who earned high school diplomas through the Lawrence Diploma Completion Program and 29 students who completed a GED through the Lawrence Adult Education Center. The ceremony this year, as always, highlights the determination and perseverance demonstrated by the graduates as they balance getting their education with work and family and other responsibilities. This year, our graduates were joined by a large crowd of family and friends, staff, district leaders, and board of education members as they celebrated this important life milestone. Well, uh, the rain was pouring down and yet we didn't let a Kansas

005downpour stop us. We were up under uh the roof out at FNO to congratulate Ashley Vance as the 2026 class act award recipient. She is the office manager for deputy superintendent and she is also now the spring 2026 recipient of the district's class act award. We congratulate Ashley. Her commitment to service, professionalism, and collaboration has positively impacted departments and schools across the district. Her ability to coordinate complex projects, support staff, and foster positive working relationships helps ensure district operations run smoothly and efficiently. Another great highlight are the 160 fifth and sixth graders who recently participated in Lawrence Public Schools 2026 summer novice music camp at Lawrence High School. This camp serves as an important introduction to instrumental music. Um, and it helps many students and gives them an opportunity to explore. You can see all

006of the the uh instrumental groups here to explore brass, woodwin, percussion, and stringed instruments while learning foundational skills from our music educators. Here's a brief video so you can see the novice music camp in action. >> Here we go. Love it. >> Very good. Recently, multiple teams uh and individual athletes uh wrapped up and qualified for state events, earning medals, tough finishes, and statewide recognition for their accomplishments. Free State High School has continued its tradition as an outstanding baseball program, reaching the state tournament for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons. The Firebirds entered state with a 254 record and finished as state runnerup after a 43 painful loss to Washurn Rule in the title game. The season also marked the final year for longtime head coach Mike Hill, who announced his retirement after

007leading the program since the school's opening in 1997. Track and field also uh wrapped up. Lawrence Public Schools was well represented at the 2026 Quaca State Track and Field Championships with athletes from both Lawrence High and Free State High competing against the state's top performers. Among the highlights, Free State girls team tied for fifth place at 6A state track and field championships and was led by Satie Reynolds who earned a state championship in the girls discus with a throw of get it 145 ft. So congratulations to Satie. was so proud uh of uh to be well represented on Saturday morning at the annual Lawrence Pride Parade. Uh uh there are our members right along Mass Street uh getting ready to march. Uh this event takes place the first Saturday in June and is aligned with

008the celebration of Pride Month. The parade and celebration created a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for all and served as a wonderful reminder of the beautiful diversity we're so proud of across our Lawrence community. I regret that I wasn't able due to a family commitment to make that one, but I felt so excited when I saw this photo of the members representing. We are busy, busy, busy. as I said earlier, getting ready for August opening of schools. And nowhere is that more true than it is in our facilities and operations team. So, you can see that our summer projects include, these are just some of the highlights. The list is much longer. uh new preschool classrooms at Deerfield and Prairie Park, the reconstruction of the Free State Press box, track resurfacing projects at both comprehensive

009high schools, the middle school theater upgrades are occurring at all middle schools, a solar installation at Woodlon, and the continued development of the district's family engagement center located right here at our educational support center. Students returning in August will also benefit from beautiful new playgrounds installed at Deerfield and Prairie Park elementaryaries. Tonight, uh, the board will have the opportunity to consider the renewal of our subscription to Parent Square is our primary schooltoome communication platform in Lawrence public schools. Uh, I'm sure members that you recall that this enhancement was a direct response to families who provided critical feedback to the district about how very challenging and frustrating it was to stay informed while tracking multiple applications and platforms being used by our classrooms, teams, clubs, and schools. I think parents reported and members of the board

010reported who were who are parents uh having 13 or 14 apps on their phone just to keep track and never mind if you have more than one child. It got even more complicated at that point. So we are proud of a robust implementation of parent square. The full report will be included in the year in report coming on the 22nd of June. But just a few highlights here. I appreciate how robust the implementation has been since last July and this has us in a very strong position for compliance. Uh we were discussing this at policy committee recently. We are in strong position for compliance with recent legislative action by the state um uh to uh to determine and to safeguard educator and school district communications with families and students. A shout out once again to

011James Pulk, Jake Potter, and all the members of our IT and communications teams who executed and shephered this important implementation through this past year. We are proud to report that 99.2% of LPS families are contactable and active through the platform. Our team continues to work to increase that percentage during this next school year. Uh, also, and I appreciated the members um asking uh for this, we've included it in your written report, 3.5% of our families have adjusted their user settings to receive district communications in their home language, spanning 12 languages. The requests have spanned 12 languages. Arabic, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Burmese, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Turkish, and Vietnamese. As you can see on your list, Spanish is the most common. So, we're really proud of that implementation and happy that it sets us up

012for our next steps in uh what would be forthcoming not only as state law but also importantly as our own board policy around uh staff members and their communications with children and families. Uh we have been busy. I appreciate uh Mr. Potter and the communications team putting together some basic numbers for for us on our continued effort to inform our continued effort at advocacy around full funding for special education costs. So throughout these last several legislative sessions, the topic of the state's obligation to fund special education services at a constitutionally obligated level has been the subject of frequent discussion. We know that uh IDA was passed some 55 years ago and throughout that time we have not achieved the ideal of IDA which is a fully funded and robust support system. Uh we certainly have

013a great support system uh that we offer for students but the idea of full funding is the focus of this information. You can see the percentage of our students currently qualifying is just above 20%. Uh we have 455 total uh educ special education staff that's split almost equally between certifi certificated educators and classified support educational support professionals. The total number of special education categories is 15 which includes 14 disability categories as identified in IDA in addition to gifted education. Our specialized programs we uh we offer 28 programs in the district. 10 at elementary, 10 at middle, and eight at high school. Our special education costs are right at 33 and a half million. Um, and our current revenues and reimbursements from federal, state, and local are at 19.8 million. And therein lies the gap of

014the difference between the resource and uh the responsibility and requirement that we have. And that gap is 13.7 million. This slide is based on uh last year's numbers. We will very soon as we get to the end of the year be able to update. Miss Frick reports that these numbers for next year will be very similar to the numbers you see here on the screen. We are uh proud to be offering summer meals for kids. Now uh we are providing free summer opportunities for children. Those efforts are fully funded through the USDA summer food service program. So during the first week of meal service, district staff and community partners, get this, served approximately 12,000 meals during the first week of summer service. Those are compelling numbers and they illustrate the importance of this program to

015ensure food security when our schools are not in session. The meal kit distribution site at the Douglas County Fairgrounds accounted for more than 9,000 of those 12,000 meals. Remember, it's not too late to register. So, if you know a family who could benefit, please reach out and support them in getting registered. Uh, beginning this week, families visiting the Sunset Hill Elementary meal site on Tuesdays will also have the opportunity to participate in a weekly summer arts series hosted by a local arts organization during lunch service. It doesn't get any better than that. Arts and summer lunch all in one spot. So, we are so excited for these summer weeks. We'll be uh discussing as we move through this meeting some of the exciting projects and programs coming. Uh we promise that we will stay the

016course diligently every day this summer to work to be ready for a brand new 2627 school year. Thank you for the opportunity to share this report and for the honor of serving the Lawrence public schools. Okay. Move on to president of the report of president of the board of education. Um was able to attend the adult education graduation. Uh which is always uh one of my favorite uh just because I enjoy the um the stories from a lot of the graduates and and the things that they overcame to to be able to graduate. um attended a facilities uh meeting with Shannon on the 3rd of June and then participated in uh representing the district at uh the Pride Parade on the 6th. Um several things up uh on consent um to go over. Um the

017annual renewal of the FMX software uh FNO management software for $33,256.80 80. Um Microsoft licenses across the district for $66,215.86. Um the annual uh uh item for our rental fee structure and guide and then disposal and sale of obsolete athletic and activity equipment and uniforms and disposal of excess items um are all on consent this evening. And then the last item that I had that I have is specifically for my board colleagues. On July 13th is our annual organizational meeting. Um, one of the items that we will do at that meeting is we will elect uh new board officers. So, elect a new board president and a new board vice president. So, just as a reminder, between now and then, um if you have anyone that you would like to nominate for either one of

018those positions, please get send those nominations to Nikki and then we will do that election on the evening of the 13th. Um the board manual has a fairly uh comprehensive section on um the responsibilities and things to consider um for those positions. Um, just as a reminder, uh, if there's more than two, um, nominees for either one of those positions, we we will do a rank choice vote, um, which is outlined in the manual. Uh, the results of the vote will be read out loud. Um and then um how that will play out is as the current board president will start the meeting, I will run both elections for both president and vice president and then we'll take a small recess and shuffle the um the dis with the outcome of those elections. So if

019you have any questions, feel free to ask um and then send your nominations to Nikki. Does anybody have any questions right now? Okay, perfect. Um, that was all I had. Um, Shannon, do you have a legislative update? >> Thank you, GR. I do have a few things to share. Um uh for starters uh this week is state board of education meeting week and today the state board held a work session from 1 to 4:30 on student screen time and district issued devices. Um I was uh I had a conflict so I was not able to watch that meeting yet but I will. Um but I but I do know that the state board uh really wants to hear feedback from the field. I don't think that they are creating any sort of special way to

020collect that. Um I've been it's it's my understanding that we just need to communicate directly with our state board members and the commissioner um on that. And um this was the first meeting today uh for the new um the new commissioner, Dr. Jake Steel. Um the uh the other thing that I heard at the end of the afternoon is that the state board did announce that they plan to do another one of these work sessions on this topic before their August state board meeting which would be August 13th and that's a Monday. Um some things that are of note that are on the state board agenda this week. Um Dr. Frank Harwood is going to do a presentation on the authority for accreditation of public and non-public schools in Kansas. That stems from some language

021that was inserted into uh the cell phone bill um on the Senate side in order to pass. Yes. So there it seems to indicate that there's some question as to whether the state board retains its uh authority over accreditation. So it'll be that'll be a very interest for those of us who are policy nerds. It'll be a very interesting presentation to watch tomorrow. Um, and they are also going to be doing an update on the cell phone policy certification process that is required. So once we adopt our process, our policy locally, there is a certification process to the state board that is required by statute. They will be talking about what that's going to look like as well as um procedures that the state board was directed to adopt as part of the state budget

022in a budget proviso one-year budget proviso on student walkouts. The the state board was directed to to create a complaint process related to student walkouts. So that'll be on the agenda. Um also the state board is going to be acting on an RFP. Um and I honestly can't remember if that is acting on issuing the RFP. I think that's the case for a single statewide universal screener that was required by recent updates to statutes um that uh relate to the blueprint for literacy. So I know in our district we use FastBridge. Um whatever screener the state board chooses through this process we will be required to use um starting next school year I believe. Um and then there's also going to be a presentation by Deputy Commissioner Renee Nent on school improvement and future plans.

023It's kind of nebulous, but that might be of interest. And then finally, the state board is acting on adopting a proposed code of ethics for educators and having a discussion on KSD's um on budget options for their budget request for the 2027 2028 school year. Um couple of legislative adjacent things to mention and then I want to talk real briefly about the education funding task force meeting that happened at the end of May, right after our last board meeting. Um, many of you might have seen that there was a debate for, uh, amongst the Republican candidates for governor this week. Um, I think the most notable thing that came out of that is, um, candidate Charlotte O'Hara called for dissolving the Kansas State Department of Education this past week, saying it's nothing but a a

024state agency full of pencil pushers that don't actually do anything. um that is um >> offensive offensive to all the professional educators who work in that agency and who support all of the professional educators all over the state. Um it's also uh state board of education is in our state constitution. So not really sure how that works. Um, in addition, there was an op-ed ed published in the Topeka Capital Journal this week, authored by former Speaker of the House and lobbyist for Kansas Policy Institute and the Kansas School Board Resource Center, Mike O'Neal. Um, I do want to note for board members, remember that um, Kansas School Board Resource Center, I've started getting emails from them advertising events and services. Um, please understand they are fully funded by dark money donations that are um provided

025through donors to the Kansas Policy Institute and to that schoolboard resource source center including um donations from the Koch brothers uh network of state policy uh folks. So that they are not um they are they are a an arm that has been created by KPI um to work with schoolboard members. Um uh Mr. O'Neal came out this week with a statement claiming that legally the legislature has ultimate decision-making authority over local public school curriculum. Um, and I just I just had to take a moment from the dis to say uh no, it's just wrong on the law on that one. um his op-ed completely leaves out that uh the courts in Kansas um and it's pretty well settled law it seems um have said that the state board is an independent constitutional body because it

026is created by our state constitution and it's not merely an agency that is subordinate to the legislature. So to claim that the words general supervision in in the state constitution as it relates to the state board of education don't include general supervision over the very core function of setting learning standards for public schools which are what drive curriculum is um really contrary to settled law in our state. So, I I just I felt like that was um he's collapsing distinctions um between standard setting and then what we do, which is we as local board members actually adopt curriculum for our district that meets the needs of the learning standards that have been set for us by the state board of education. That is how it works. That is how the constitution has structured our system.

027There's uh three different bodies that are involved in running public schools. local boards of education which are called out in our constitution, the state board of education which is also called out in our state constitution and then the legislature which is supposed to provide suitable funding. So, um, you know, uh, I felt like that was important enough to call out, um, in terms of, um, you know, making a statement like that is designed to give the legislature permission to to overstep even further into local curriculum decisions as we have seen them do in certain areas in the last couple of years. Um, and I suspect it's laying the groundwork for whatever is planned for the next legislative session, but I think it's important for us to all know that that is the dynamic that is

028happening. Um, and then finally, uh, the education funding task force, uh, met for the first time in 2026 on May 27th and 28th. Um, that meeting centered almost entirely on the question of how and whether student outcomes should factor into Kansas school funding and what accountability measures should be applied through the funding formula. Side step for just a sec back to this conversation about the state board of education. Accountability for learning outcomes is the state board's responsibility um through our accreditation of public school districts process and they have a very uh robust process that has been created um and rolled out over the last I think last year two years the KISSA process um that replaces the previous version of accreditation so it's not as if the state board is not doing their job in

029this area um but that that was the topic of most of the meet this the education funding task force meeting on the 27th and 28th. Um they brought in an outside expert who did um a return on investment analysis of school spending in Kansas. And I just have to say about that that um even though this expert has been advised that this is problematic um the expert used data um that's comes from a national database that includes all of the court-ordered funding restoration in the Ganon case as new spending as well as including all of the catchup payments that the legislature had to do um in the like 2010 to now uh because of their 25 years of not fully paying the state's share of CA of the employer contributions to capers. So there's been

030an u an increase from you know 6% contribution to capers up to like 11 or 12%. It's it's basically doubled over the last decade plus. So, if you're going to look at whether spending in Kansas has gone up more than inflation, you really have to remove those two pieces out of the out of the spending data before you run that analysis because those are not um those are not that's not spending that was ongoing and increasing uh throughout that time. was court ordered and it was um the capers was was done to make sure that our pension fund did not have to be dissolved because it was so the unfunded liability in capers in about two 2010 111 was 54%. Like it was under completely underwater. So, um, it's really concerning when when you have

031people come in from outside of Kansas who don't understand our finance formula and then try to claim that public schools haven't been doing a good job of educating students using data that is taken out of context. So, um, that was really the kind of discussion that we had for a day and a half. Um the what's really notable coming out of that meeting is that the day they were meeting they had also had a meeting of the LCC which is the legislative coordinating council. Um the chair of the committee which this year in 2026 is uh Susan Estus who chairs the house education committee had asked for the equivalent of five more months of meeting dates and she was given one. Um so she said at the end of the meeting um on the 28th

032that they don't intend to meet again until after the November elections and they will have one more round of meetings before making recommendations to the legislature on on what the legislature should pass as the new school finance formula in 2027. So, um I think that has a lot of people very worried that um they haven't they had did they have not completed their their prep work and they certainly have not reached a place where there there was anything even remotely approaching a resemblance of consensus on what the recommendations from this group ought to be based on the conversation that happened. So, um really big important stuff for all of us to be keeping an eye on and talking with our uh friends and neighbors about because it it really could um significantly impact what we

033do in our community. So, thank you for letting me give a little bit longer report today. Appreciate it. >> Of course. Anybody have any questions for Shannon before we move on? Okay, Bob, we'll start with you for uh board committee reports. Oh, >> since the last board meeting uh did attend last Tuesday would be the equity council. Uh during the meeting, what we discussed was planning for issues that we will be discussing during next school year. Uh I forgot to grab the list of issues so I don't have those with me. Uh but there are such issues as uh family engagement was truency >> children truency. Yeah. >> And there were several others but I didn't grab them to bring with me. Um other than that that was the only meeting I had since the

034last board meeting. >> Thank you Carol. Um yeah, I attended the equity advisory council meeting with Bob Bay by my board colleague here and I also attended the pride parade along with our board members. I was very honored and proud to take part of that and stand in solidarity with our two US LGBTQ students and population. Uh and also notably in the equity advisory council committee, we discussed moving forward with um coming together with a resolution to support House Resolution 7325 or otherwise known as the Truth and Healing Commission Act to establish a commission to formally investigate, document, and report on the history and policies of Indian boarding schools as well as the long-term effects that these institutions have on Native American peoples today and so that's um some meaningful work that we are going

035to do this year in the equity advisory council meeting committee. >> Thank you. >> Uh Shannon and I had a um a working meeting regarding policy and are continuing to um collaborate with Dr. Swift and administrators uh and educators in the district to um bring forward a policy pertaining to the cell phone um bill that was passed in addition to and it that within that context and within that work just just a heads up and Dr. Swift um alluded to as well. There will be um some shifts related to uh social media and um staff use and communication with students to be in compliance with that law. Is that an accurate representation? Yeah. So, we were doing that work and look forward to bringing that all back to you along with some other um cleanup

036that we have to do in policy. Uh just briefly um uh facilities committee met GR and I attended on the third um as he mentioned and one of the things I wanted to comment on from that meeting um we we continue to see significant use of our facilities um by outside groups and um our ability to track that well and understand um what that looks like for our district is is really um related closely to a couple of things that's on that are on our consent agenda tonight. One is the FMX software renewal. Um from my perspective that that um and from my work on the facilities committee that software has really been a gamecher for allowing the district to track work orders and facilities usage. Um the information that GR and I share with

037the board um um on occasion regarding our facilities usage comes comes from those systems. Um it allows tracking of our work order requests and completion status. And so that's a really important uh renewal item for our facilities um for the quality of work that we're doing in our facility system. In addition, I noted I note that there's an update to our uh facilities rental and usage guide and fees on the agenda this evening. That is another really big project that um Dr. Inglebrook staff including I believe Ashley Vance and others in FNO worked very very hard on over quite a number of months. Um, and it has really allowed us to um to provide consistency um and predictability in how um the community and and other user groups are are able to be invited in

038and use our facilities. So um I the committee is um appreciate the information we get as part of that committee. Our FNO staff is doing great work and I just wanted to um note those things from our meeting earlier this month. Thank you. None of my uh committees have met. Uh most of mine are tied up with negotiations which is wrapped up for now. So looking forward to the uh first summer meeting of the uh special education group on Wednesday. >> I forgot one policy update. Um I do want to let board members know this is very cursory. just the beginning, but we wanted to share with you that we were looking at um developing a dignity policy that would um build on the work that Dr. Swift and administrators in the district did last

039year um and that will go uh in um collaboration with collaboration is not the right word but will will >> work nicely with our equity policy as well. So that is just very beginning. It's like high level ideas that we have. Um, but I wanted to put that on everybody's radar that we'll be bringing that forward hopefully soon. >> Matt, you want to start with board commentary? >> Um, yeah, I don't really have any for today. Um, I apologize for having missed the event on on Saturday. I also had a family commitment, but it was really heartening to see most of y'all in the district representing um our community. Uh briefly, uh congratulations to the adult education um and diploma completion graduates. I apologize that I missed that ceremony. I was um stuck in Topeka

040at the task force education task force meeting that went quite um the work went quite long that day. Um also uh thank you Yolanda and Nikki and Dr. Swift uh for organizing and supporting us um for the board to participate in Saturday's Pride parade. Um I am reminded as um uh I participate in an event like that how joyful, accepting and community oriented Lawrence is and I um it that is very uplifting. So um appreciated that opportunity. Thank you. I'll just say um seeing the thinking about our um negotiations committee work and the amount of money that we were able to bring to the table which is among or perhaps the highest amount we've brought in some time and certainly since I've been on the board. Uh that number uh it falls far short of

041$13.7 million that you shared with us that that the state underfunded us. and I appreciated um your full superintendent report, but I will say of that point specifically that personally I am not voting for any candidate at the state or local level who doesn't understand the impact of underfunding special education. And we have important elections coming up, including um the the truth that when you underfund special education, it has an impact on the county commission's work uh as they are um statutoily required to fund our social services. It is not a stretch for me as a social worker or someone that's worked in the nonprofit community for the last 30 years to understand that when you do not fully fund public education, you impact our social service entities. So, in addition to looking at state

042level candidates that support special education, the kids that special education serves, the teachers who serve within special education, and all of our educators in general, I'm not voting for anyone that doesn't get that, and that includes our county commissioners. >> Um, ditto, but congratulations to the uh adult education. Um again thank my board members for um uh standing with me last year and again this year for pride. Uh we uh are looking forward to the 20th for the Junth parade. As soon as I get more details I'll let you guys know. I have received several emails about our t-shirts and so um they have uh said we outdid ourselves this year on the t-shirt. So I told him that I will let our designer definitely know and so um and I I told him this

043morning and he know was grinning, you know, but um I told him we have a special designer for our t-shirts. So um if they wanted them, they would have to contact him to get but they also wanted Dr. Smith uh Swiss permission to utilize the t-shirts for the community. >> Okay. So, um, he he wanted to get your permission first before he made the t-shirts available to the public. So, yes, ma'am. Thank you. Um, I will just echo everything what uh my board colleague Kelly Jones has said here about I amum so I was so proud and proud to participate in the pride parade and the and I the I plan on coming to the Junth parade and our wonderful blend of cultures here in this abolitionist state that we are that we are so

044proud of and I'm reminded that we are going to be approaching this this nation's what we Native Americans call Turtle Island. It's going to be 250 years old. But um I'm also reminded of um a lot of um some non-welcoming beliefs that we've been hearing and seeing in some of our emails and comments. And I would just like to remind people that um I as an American Indian person, we've always been welcoming and um and I I don't I don't know I I'm so proud of my family's um involvement in the armed forces dating back to before this country was even a country. Um but I and again I encourage anyone to look at our lawmaker or anybody running for office who is pro- education. And I just again I'm going to beat a dead

045horse here, but I everybody celebrated back in 2024 when the star bonds passed for the Chiefs. Um the vote passed in the House 84 to 38 and the Senate voted 27 to8 to approve legislation that expanded a state incentive program in a in an attempt to lure the Chiefs. And they and they did. And um I'm reminded that the Kansas uh taxpayers are paying 60% for that stadium and at the cost of is near it's approaching $4 billion and we could have used that money to feed our kids and our right now our Kansas lawmakers prioritized funding a multi-billion dollar private company over feeding our children. They chose to spend tomorrow's revenue today to subsidize a private stadium. that may have felt like a win in 2024, but we will feel the effects of paying

046the bill for the Chiefs and that bill will arrive quietly over the next three decades. That's something to ponder as the the next NFL season starts. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um I attended the pride parade parade. I enjoyed the shirt specifically. Uh looking forward to Junth and however rather than walking a ride in a gator would be good. I thought I'd just throw that out. >> Um I also attended the adult ed and diploma completion graduation. Always enjoy that one because of the uh different different age groups and makeup of the graduating class. It's always an interesting group of people people to support. Uh the other issue that I I think would be appropriate to mention I have uh in the last two or three weeks have been attending the county commission

047commission's meeting uh around an issue involving changes in our truency programs uh in the community. I won't get into any detail because there are some things that may that I don't want to get ahead of that I know that's coming. Uh but uh I today met with uh two of the county commissioners um CSC and uh DCF uh to uh try to make sure that all the parties that need to be involved in the discussion is actually being involved. So I think I do think we have made some headway. So, so I did want to want to mention that. Like I said, I won't go into detail because DCF has some issues that they need to deal with uh on that issue. Um, other than that, as election season comes, I am not usually a

048big person that gets that talks a lot about elections. But, uh, when I meet with my family this time of year, what we're usually talking about is if you really want to have an impact, the time to have a good impact is at the time you step in the ballot box. if you wait. And there's nothing wrong with talking with legislators, but the time they're elected, they're already locked into their politics. So, this is really the time to start talking with friends, uh, family, relatives all over the state of Kansas to try to get them to understand the importance of education and voting for people that will support it. So, uh, I just wanted to echo e echo the voices of my colleagues and that will be it. >> Okay. Um, >> I think we're

049waiting for you. >> No, I want No, I was going to say thank you to Bob, but after the meeting for attending >> I was trying to I was trying to read where you but yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. Um Bob, do you have some retirements? >> I do have some retirements. Okay. The board of the board would like to thank the following people for their years of dedication and services to Lawrence Public Schools. Annette uh Dabney with 24 years of service. Mike Hill with 32 years of service. Congratulations to your on your retirement. With that, we're going to move on to the consent agenda. Consent agenda items are those that are considered routine and are adopted by one motion unless any board member or the superintendent request that an item be removed. The item or

050items removed or voted on separately. Can I get a a motion on the consent agenda, please? >> I move the board of education adopt the items listed on the consent agenda. >> I second. >> Gordon Ross. >> Yes. Kimble, >> yes. >> Franklin, >> yes. >> Buyers, >> yes. >> Lancaster, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Kad Blackwood, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you. Turn the time over to Dr. Smith. >> Thank you, President Gordon Ross. I appreciate members our conversations over this past week and want to uh give a shout out to two uh principles that uh you've just approved with that vote. Uh really is a great step as we add uh Laura Lee Hubert to team LPS. She will be uh the lead principal at Kennedy Early Childhood

051Center. and for all uh district early childhood programming. Um we are delighted to have uh taken this stunning candidate from another district and uh we know that her experience, expertise and demonstrated commitment over time to our youngest children and their families will only support and strengthen the district's initiative. We know from 50 years of research the transformational impact of preschool learning and I'm just really excited that the Kennedy team and all of our preschool classrooms will have the great support of Miss Hubert starting very soon on July 1st. Secondly, uh it is our honor this evening to um share uh Mr. Mike Gilman as the interim principal at Lawrence High School. Uh folks may not know it, but Mr. Gilman's entire career, he has served uh beginning as a pareducator um in Lawrence public schools.

052He is a high school graduate and a proud uh Lorenzian. Uh most importantly, in selecting Mr. Gilman is interim principal. We gain a school leader who is familiar with and has a demonstrated commitment to the students, staff, and the community of Lawrence High School. He will partner with our exemplary LHS team in continuing their work in service to students first to ensure as they say when I'm over there a chesty lion culture of belonging and to strengthen community con connections in support of students and overall to extend the long tradition that is Lawrence High School. Um, I want to also note for everyone in the community that as is our practice, a full selection process will be commenced late fall, November or so. Um, and that selection process will, as is our habit, feature the

053engagement of LHS students and staff and family and community members in a multi-step process for selecting the permanent principal of Lawrence High School uh, early spring 2027. So, thank you. Um, with that, we'll let you keep the floor for item 3.1, meal prices. >> Meal prices. I appreciate that Miss Frick and Miss Henry are here. If you should have questions, in fact, why don't you guys just hang out this direction. I have appreciated our tough conversations members over the last couple of weeks as we contemplate uh the increase of meal prices. Um in reality, I really appreciated a conversation with member uh Lancaster on Saturday. In reality, there are no easy answers when it comes to uh food and nutrition and the increasing uh cost of providing a nutritious meal, which Miss Henry and her

054team do a beautiful job of that. And I appreciate uh the work uh member Kadu Blackwood on uh working on meal balances in the district. I appreciate that you and other members as well have championed that cause. Um, similar to our special ed references this evening, uh, nine states in the country currently offer permanent statewide universal meals, providing free breakfast and lunch to all public school students regardless of their household income and without verification required. That is a vision where we could be in Kansas. Our neighbors to the west in Colorado are already there. When universal meals are provided, children win and families grow. And so I I guess I just want to point out that I understand the difficulty of this topic. We understand our fiscal realities and I would put my flag in

055to continue to advocate and as the members have noted this evening beginning with uh member Kelly um to put our vote behind folks who understand that children who are hungry cannot learn and that our first priority is to take care of their physical uh well-being. so that they can learn and grow in our schools. With that being said, members, I feel like our questions as they could be have been answered, but we have our expert team here who will be happy to attend to any questions or points of discussion that you wanted to offer. >> We have Matt. >> Is it just me? >> Yeah, I think so. >> Okay. Um, yeah, I app I appreciate in your intro the call out for providing universal meals for kids. Um, when we talked on Saturday, you

056know, it's crazy to me. Uh it's ridiculous to me that in as agricultural of a state of Kansas and I know a lot of that is tied up in in soy and you know corn for bofuels and all the subsidies therein but um in this state that that 4 cents per per meal reimbursement I mean even the fed's doing more than that. So, >> um, >> yeah, >> I I do think that advocacy, that that push, um, is super important because the answer can't always come from inside the house. Um, I don't know when when when we talked, um, my question was, again, this this can't be easily answered, but my question was really about bottom line uh, impact of the proposed increases. Um, so I don't mean to I don't I don't presume to

057have done the math better than than the two of you can. You you're experts in the field. Um, but from what I worked out roughly, this would be a $40 to $50 increase if a student bought breakfast and lunch every single school day of the year, not counting half days and all that kind of stuff, right? Okay. Um, and then I was just comparing from the the figure of 791,000 lunches prov uh reimburseable lunches provided this year um with that increase that came out to roughly 120,000. So is the anticipated impact of the the increased meal prices I mean is that in the neighborhood of of 200 250 If you had to ballpark it, >> um, do you off the top of my head? I do not. >> It would be under 200, I'm pretty

058sure, because breakfast is much less, um, participated in than lunch. So, >> okay. Um and I understand the the rationale um and that something needs needs to happen looking at the um trend over time of the balance in that fund and that we can't let it go negative and the and the you know the very real possibility of then having to transfer out of the general fund which you've expertly said is we're already doing to cover other areas we shouldn't have to cover. Um I I just I don't know I don't know that I that given that there are other um longer term solutions and and ideas in the works to to get a better fix on this in the future, right? Which I won't go into all of those, but um I I don't

059know that with that bottom line impact the I don't I don't want to say necessity. I don't know how to finish this question. Um, but if if we're if we're looking at in the next one to two years having to dip into the general fund with that um with that amount, you know, I just I I I don't I don't know that I see it. I don't know what I'm really asking here, but like is the bottom line impact is this kind of stop gap solution, you know, truly truly necessary with the things to come in the future? >> That's a good question. It really wasn't. >> I think what we're trying to do is this is one step that would get us a little bit farther ahead, you know, to helping with the gap.

060We've got a lot of work to do over the next year to find other solutions that would help. I don't anticipate that we're gonna find a a big magic cure that we haven't already found that's going to negate the need for this request. I think it's going to take a lot of things combined together. Um, and hopefully next year at this time we can um have solutions to narrow the gap. But I really don't anticipate we're going to find things that would that would um make this increase not necessary if that makes sense. And the um narrowing of the gap that in terms of the work you might be doing to innovate in a future year is really about offsetting what could be additional costs incurred through inflation that we do not have any control

061over or gas prices that we do not have any control over. that that innovating that you might be doing next year would not for example um potentially mean that you know we we're not expecting that um there's going to be a dip in the cost right >> and if there was we could reduce prices correct in a future year >> yeah thank you yeah >> I do think I mean we've raised every year for the last five or six haven't we Yes, I believe uh COVID was a pause there for a couple years. Um I believe when we came back we had a very came back from COVID that is we had a very small increase and then the last three years have been 10 cents each. my when I'm thinking about as I'm sitting

062here my question always when I'm looking at funding issues I get back to the initial issue which is why >> uh if if it's just us trying to to save money that's one issue if it's because there there are increases to for cost of food and staffing thing and if that's the why then that's that to me then puts that it's a different discussion. Well, they >> sorry. Go ahead. >> They do outline that. I mean, labor went up um just in the last couple of years, 13 and a half percent, the food prices went up, you know, 8 and a half%. And I imagine with everything that's gone on over the past couple of years that those increases are exponentially increasing. >> You can even say within the last three, four, five months. Yeah.

063>> Uh with some of the stuff that's going on nationally. Um because when I look at it, it's really about we're not trying to make a profit. What we're simply trying to do is break even even. Uh so so um and I think think as most of us sitting here would say or all of us would say we 100% would be in agreement with with uh no cost meals throughout the district. We would love to be able to do that. Um however when I start looking at it then I look at what things aren't we what groups aren't we affecting with this and the groups that we're not affecting is free and reduced lunches lunch people um that their cost remains the same same and so so I I feel for parents and I understand

064but I also understand the bottom line And to me, this really comes down to a bottom line issue. >> Yeah. >> It's kind of kind of we we don't really have a choice other than not do it and take it out of general fund. >> Yeah. I um I agree on the you know the focus that free and reduced populations are unaffected. Yeah. And we're we're really talking at the end of the day here like you know highest case scenario 40 to 50 bucks over the course of a year. Um >> and I get some families can't afford that. I think of that diminishing middle class situation, right? I mean, how many how many folks don't qualify? But >> it's just another thing, you know, >> but for me, I think the other part of

065that is are we doing the recruitment? Are we doing the things so those people who are actually or may actually be eligible or getting applications in and and stuff. If we're doing that, that then we're doing our due diligence. And so, and I'm just, you know, from my from my point of view, it does to me come down to bottom line issue is there's not really much choice, >> right? That and that's that's the crux of what the that bottom line and how much of an impact does it really make was was the crux of my question. I uh I also want to call out what what Cindy said about not being a magic cure. I mean, I think they they found most of those to find the money that we did for compensation and

066and benefits this year. And >> I mean, like I said at negotiations that one time, there's a lot of empty chairs around here. There's a lot of people doing more with less. Um I mean, there's not a whole lot of areas to go find the answer >> more. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Matt, it looks like um the total impact of the increases would be a little less than 150,000. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Um, if I could just for a brief minute kind of speak to the policy conversation that's going on in this space and it might it gets at some of what you're talking about. Um, you know, our board has supported universal free meals in our legislative priorities for several years. um our state level representatives um at the schoolboard association,

067the legislative committee has included universal free mills in the federal policy request platform for several years. But the reality is that um you know right now there's kind of widely divergent camps in Washington over the school meals program. There's people who are trying to expand it and then there are people who are looking to cut somewhere like 12 billion dollars over the next 10 years. Um, significantly reducing participation in the community eligibility program, which we we can't really take advantage of because we don't have enough students in our district who are directly certified for free meals through Medicaid and SNAP. All of the Medicaid and SNAP cuts are going to impact people who were directly certified and are now going to have to go through the income verification project process. There is a very real

068push going on to for legislation that would um potentially impose 100% income verification to qualify for any of for any free any free or reduced lunch. So even for the applications like right now we only have to administratively audit 3% of the applications we we receive each year the administrative burden and expense of having to manage a 100% verification process at the district level we're talking you know uh half million dollars or more in cost just to the district just to do what we're doing right now. Um, at the state level, um, you know, there have been bills filed every year to expand, um, universal free meals. The governor proposed, um, I think it would have been only a $2 million expenditure in the state budget just to cover the co-pays for the $35,000 or

069so kids in Kansas that get reduced price meals. Couldn't even get that across the finish line. Um there are plenty of people that I hear when we talk about this um issue who say it is not the school's responsibility to feed those kids. It's the parents responsibility and they should have to pay for it. Um I believe that school nutrition is an essential component of um students being ready and able to learn and if we really care about academic achievement we have to care about the nutrition of the kids that are in our care during the day. So, um I don't understand that thinking, but I can tell you that it is it is very widespread. So, I as much as I do not like having to ask our families to pay more for school

070meals, um I also don't like the idea of taking money out of the general fund um and away from instructional services um to support the program. Um, and I don't see from a policy perspective, I do not see significant movement unless something drastically changes that in the in the the people having the conversation right now. I don't see a lot of movement in the next year or two that's really going to help us. Um, so, you know, I'm I'm gonna vote to support this increase even though, um, I don't like what it does for our families who are on the margins of they don't they don't quite qualify for the support that they need. Um, and we're asking them to to pay even more money for something that is essential for their kids. Um I

071when you're looking at having to make a decision of how are we going to steward the resources for the district as a whole um I'm going to support the proposal but it it is a difficult vote to have to make but I just wanted to share that because I I hear I hear you. I it's the but the conversation that's happening around this from a policy perspective is so people are so far apart in how they think about this issue. Um >> yeah I want to >> it's a struggle. >> I'll I'll the rest of the questions I have are really just for my curiosity and I won't take all of our time with those but um the community eligibility program I've seen a lot of discourse in the last couple of weeks about we

072you know that was very well explained. Everybody talked about, we talked about that last time, but I still see the discourse about, well, you know, Topeka, KCK, they they can feed all of their kids, why can't we? And it is, we don't have the population at that socioeconomic level. You can't break it down by individual, school, or neighborhood. It is a district threshold that you have to meet in order for that to be a viable solution. And that is that's just not our population. Correct. >> Right. Topeka um their total school district population is over 60% directly certified. Um that means they get fully reimbursed at the federal rate. Um actually I don't know why I'm answering this question. Um >> would be for Julie Henry is an expert in this. Um and she should

073be answering this question. So >> and it's just repeating because I've seen it around a lot and I I I'm just asking for it to be restated why we can't just magically say, "Hey, they're going to pay for all of our kids." >> Yeah. Our identified student percentage is not high enough. As Shannon indicated, Topeka 501 and KCK both have that identified student percentage up in the high 50s. 62.5 is the magic threshold at which all the meals are reimbursed at the federal free rate. Um but realistically, um when I was at the state working with districts on electing C or not, the recommendation financially really works out at about 55%. Once you have a 55% ISP is when you can really financially um see it be a good option for districts financially. >> And

074can you remind all of us uh what percentage we are at as a district? We're somewhere I think in the 20s >> right around 25ish which means we barely even >> qualify as a district. I do want to clarify you can select elect C as a school or as a group of schools. It's not all or nothing districtwide. Um and we previously were running C at the um academy for the last few years, but this upcoming year is when our eligibility for C there runs out because our ISP at that district. So for the past four years, we've been running C at the academy, but that's a small subset of our population. >> No, thank you for that. I was that was a misunderstanding on my part >> and that and we've dropped below the

075threshold for eligibility to run that at the academy is what you were just saying, correct? Yeah, our our ISP there has gone down significantly. >> Can we clarify C and ISP for those who may be listening? >> C is the community eligibility provision. So it's a national provision to fund universal meals and ISP is identified student percentage. So those are students who are identified for free meals based on food assistance, temporary assistance for families, foster status, homeless runaway migrant um and head start status. Thank you, >> Kelly. >> Do we have any individual buildings who are nearing that threshold that are eligible? >> Not not close enough at all. If it was if it was close, we would >> Okay. >> bring it up and discuss it. >> None of our buildings are near eligibility

076at this point. >> So So eligibility technically is 25% ISP. Um but nowhere near that um 55%. >> Okay. Threshold. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And that's and that's the percentage of free meals, not free and reduced. It is percentage not it's percentage of I just identified students the ones who are directly certified. So not even free percentage but a subset of the free student population. >> Right. Thank you. >> And that the 55 to 25 that difference is that's what makes it financially viable to pursue >> right because otherwise it costs more. >> Yeah. So you take the identified student percentage and multiply it by 1.6 and that's the percentage of meals that you get at the federal free rate. Thank you. Anybody else? >> No, I um I mean I I have a

077lot of faith in in the ideas and solutions that your teams are are working on as we go forward to to not kick this can down the road and have to keep continuing the the way that we're going. it it my my question is really just about what you know if I'm being polyiana I apologize but with those on the horizon and the total estimated bottom line impact being that 150ish um I don't know it's a dice roll so >> okay can you get a motion >> I move the board of education to approve the following me prices for the 2026 2027 school year which will result in a 15 cent increase to paid student lunch prices and a 10% increase to paid student breakfast prices for the 2026 2027. >> Hey, Kelly. >> 10

078cent increase, not 10%. >> Oh, 10 cent. Um, you want me to start my motion over for >> Yeah. Okay. I move the board of education approve the following meal prices for the 2026 2027 school year, which will result in a 15 cent increase to paid student lunch prices and a 10 cent increase to paid student breakfast prices for the 2026 2027 school year. Reduced price meals will remain at 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. and students who qualify for free meals will continue to receive meals at no cost. Adult meal prices for the 2026 2027 school year will be $5.25 for lunch and $3.20 for breakfast. >> I have a second. >> Could Blackwood? >> Yes. >> Buyers, >> yes. >> Kimble, >> yes. >> Lancaster, >> no. Gordon Ross, >>

079yes. >> Franklin, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Motion passes 6 to1. >> All right. Thank you. Now, reports item 5.1, update on the Centennial Campus Program. Dr. Swift. >> Thank you, President Gordon Ross and members of the board and everyone who's joining us. uh Mr. Zach Harwood and Dr. Kolamaya and members of our team have been working together to bring forward as you h as you have known to bring forward an update on the uh centennial programming. Uh Dr. Ingleberg uh has shared highlights about the physical property and we'll talk about that more as we move through the summer. I think he has some key and critical updates coming this week um as a part of that physical process. What we're here to uh chat about tonight and convene a conversation is really

080about the programming, the mission and the vision that we set out uh several months ago uh for these gentlemen and all the members of our team to come together and work on is uh for the programming at Centennial to serve to replace a traditional comprehensive high school model for those students who would benefit from a smaller personalized plan designed to meet the needs of students to connect and spark their interest and to ensure post-secondary success. So we had said from the beginning we don't want this to be an older traditional model of forgive the word alternative education. We really wanted it to be a step up and a lean in to the innovation that probably is coming toward comprehensives as well at some point. Uh at Centennial Choice, we know it won't just be about

081acrewing credits. It'll be about supporting students right where they are, charting their course for the future. And I love this uh phrase and I use it to graduation and beyond. So, um, you know, it's easy for the superintendent to just lay out the challenge and then good leaders have to come in and do the real work. So, I'm really proud of, um, Zach and of Dr. Maya for their work and many members of our team have been alongside them. Um, so with that, uh, we have some basic concepts to share this evening. will be conducting uh student enrollment beginning at the student enrollment window which falls uh in that week following July 4th. We'll do uh community engagement. You know, come and learn more sessions as we move through the summer and uh it's going

082to be so exciting. So, with that, uh Mr. Harwood, it's all yours. >> All right. Thank you. Uh members of the board, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate the opportunity to come forward and talk a little bit about what we've been working on. I'm very very excited about it. Uh I also want to take a second to thank Dr. Swift and Dr. Amaya. It is a rare thing that a principal gets to open a building. Rare still that a principal gets to open a new building and try to reinvent what we're doing at the same time. So I'm very very excited about that opportunity. So this is what I would call kind of our mission statement uh at Centennial. Uh I won't read the whole thing to you because it's a

083lot of words. Uh but the thing that I think will stand out the most is the word personalized. I promise I'm going to try not to say that a million times during this presentation. Uh but really everything we are doing is built around the idea that students know what they need and is our job to provide that to them. Uh it's not about in most traditional models where we ask students fit into our mold. We're actually asking students to build the mold with us. Um, a couple of the big things that we're looking at here, uh, absolutely that, uh, post-secondary success measures, and something I'm really excited about is that every student who leaves Centennial will have a portfolio that they can take to whatever comes next, be that college, uh, into the workplace, a

084trade school that shows whoever is deciding, uh, if they get to be a part of that opportunity, that they have learned the things they need to do to be successful. So this I would say is kind of our vision and again it all comes down to those personalized plans where students are able to work with us and within some of the things that we have in Lawrence public schools to develop their own pathway through high school. Uh the other three things strong relationships clear expectations and real world application are all things that are in service to that personalized plan. We know as far as strong relationships go that a student that is well supported that feels connected to their school they are successful. Um another part of this is the clear expectations so that students

085know this is exactly what I need to do to achieve my goals. Uh if if my goal is just graduating high school here are the steps that we take there. If it is college entrance here are the steps I take to get there. And then the last part is making sure that everything we do is tied directly to a real world application. I know when I was teaching the question that I always dreaded the most was when a student told me or asked me why am why why are we learning this? What is the purpose? How is this going to serve me in the future? Uh not because it's not a good question. It's a great question. Uh but because it meant that I had not done a good enough job explaining that ahead of

086time. So every step that we take with students, we will explain exactly why we are asking them to do the things that we do um and how it is going to benefit them moving forward. So when we start talking about and this is probably the question I get the most is what is Centennial? What is it going to be? And so I started pretty early on describing it as a central hub but the programming is going to come in kind of two distinct lanes. The first is connecting existing programs that we have in Lawrence public schools. Uh I would say that I think that we have programming that is second to none. Uh but an area where I think we sometimes struggle is it's often working in silos. So we don't always do a great

087job of connecting what's going on at our comprehensive high schools to Lawrence virtual school in the college and career center. So part of what we will do at Centennial is help students kind of take an allocart approach to everything we offer in the district and then build them a plan and a schedule that helps them get there. The second part and this is the part that I am most excited about is the C or the Centennial specific programming. Um and the next slide will talk about this in a little bit more detail but the idea being that we will work with students to design interdisciplinary projects where they are able to acrue credit in multiple class areas at the same time. Um obviously that does not mean that they will have like a lesser load

088that they have to learn in order to do that. Uh but it does then meet the goal of tying everything they are doing directly to their interests and their goals. So, here is kind of a a real quick idea of what that might look like. Uh, these are just ideas that we kind of came up with as um scenarios where this interdisciplinary project might work. Uh, a good example is we have students in Lawrence public schools right now that are running small businesses. So let's give them some of the coursework associated with those credits and then let their business be the project because then we can give them credit for that uh while allowing them to again pursue their interests. Uh, another one that I think would be pretty cool is the idea that you

089want to be an elementary teacher, but you also need a world history credit. And maybe that's not the thing that you're most interested in, but let's marry those two things together so that you get some of the course, you get the coursework for the world history. And then the way that you show us that you have mastered that is through going designing a week-long lesson and going into one of our classrooms in the district and teaching that lesson to real students. I think that there's a lot of power in getting uh students the experiences that will hopefully impact them for the rest of their lives. U there's also one about uh civic action. If we have a student who is particularly passionate about a specific policy that either needs to be changed or that is

090maybe doesn't exist yet, uh giving them the tools to create a new policy and then advocate for that with real stakeholders, tying everything they're doing specifically to that goal. Uh probably the question that I get second most often is who is this for? uh and I would make the argument that there is no student that wouldn't benefit from a lot of the things that we are going to be doing at Centennial. Uh however, I think there are students who will benefit more and for whom the program will be more attractive. Um it is for those students who yeah they don't want the to be at LHS or Free State all day. They don't want to be at LVS at home. Uh maybe they are really interested in some of the more innovative things that we're

091doing. Um, as far as these C or these things that I think are characteristics of a successful student, the two that I think are probably most important is that flexibility and adaptability because we're going to be asking students to do things that are a little outside the box. Uh, and they are collaborative. Uh, it's the partnerships that we're going to have to create with students and families are going to be beyond what I think typically happen. Uh, and so we need families that are willing to work with us to make those things a reality. And so part another I guess kind of common question is what is it actually going to look like for a student? So a student will be receiving credit in kind of one of three ways though I will say that

092all of these bleed together a little bit. Um some of it is coursework that will be things that are kind of traditional. Um perhaps they're working through an online self-paced curriculum for a credit that they need but aren't necessarily the most interested in. or maybe it is that they are going to uh Lawrence Higher Free State or LVS. Uh those will be kind of more traditional models. Uh we'll also be looking at mastery based assessment where students are able to show us that they have already mastered the concepts and then instead of making them sit all the way through a class, if you've shown us that you know it, let's move you on to the next thing. Uh and then all of that will play into those interdisciplinary projects that I talked about. uh where

093they are able to engage their interests as well as earn credits again across multiple subjects. So here are a couple of schedules. These are just kind of ideas for what it could look like. Um the first one is a student who comes to Centennial in the morning, does kind of the core classes that they're taking with us there and then transitions to either LHS or Free State uh for the afternoon. The second is one who uh a student who maybe just comes to Centennial that is the only building that they attend and so they come a little bit later in the day. They work further into the evening. Um a thing that I would point out here is that not every student's schedule will be the same every day. Uh so for our student on

094the left, it is very possible that on Monday they come in and they uh come to Centennial in the morning and then go to LHS or Free State in the afternoon. It is just as likely that on a different day they start their day at LHS or Free State at that 12:50 time and then come to Centennial afterwards and work into the evening. So that flexibility is kind of built in depending on what the student needs. Uh so all of that kind of leads to what are teachers doing at Centennial? What does that look like? Um, and so one of the things that I've really thought about as we were kind of developing this is, uh, when I was first getting education, we always talked about the need to transition teachers from being the sage

095on the stage into being more of a mentor, a facilitator. This makes that shift. Uh, so instead of providing lecture and whole group instruction, it will really be targeted instruction specifically for what students need. Whether that is designing those interdisciplinary projects, uh providing one-on-one or small group support if per chance we have students that are sorry uh all working at the same thing at the same time and then helping to coordinate across different programs because there will be some logistical uh finagling that needs to be done if a student is traveling to multiple buildings across the course of the day. Uh so they will help with that. We will also we also kind of started calling them pathway facilitators. Uh the idea here is that on top of just the traditional teaching, uh they will

096also be someone who is there to advocate and support for that student. I'll be honest, this is stolen pretty heavily from what we do at LVS with our home room teacher model. Uh so that every student has one person that is their primary contact for all of the nonacademic stuff. uh whether that is monitoring progress across the board, setting goals with the student, coordinating across multiple buildings, and most importantly when things change in students lives because we we may set some goals that we think this project is going to take eight or nine weeks. Sometimes it'll take longer so we need to adjust those timelines. Sometimes the opposite will be true and it will go faster than we expect and so it'll help move students on to the next thing so they can continue uh

097to acrew credits at an accelerated rate. Uh but really the big thing is that everyone will have a student in their corner. Uh especially I think at the beginning with probably looking at a smaller number just to begin. Um I would actually think that every teacher should know every plan for every student. So this is a little bit of what things might look like from a building perspective as opposed to just the student perspective. So what's going on during the building at different times during the day, especially as we look at having some of those open evening hours that extend past the stop of the traditional school day. So the morning will be very much students who are coming to us at a traditional start time. They might be using district transportation uh but they

098will check in with their uh pathway facilitator. They'll work on Centennial coursework and then go about their day to whatever happens to come next. There's also that afternoon session where students will come in whatever number of hours later they need to uh whether that is because they are working in the morning, maybe they are going to uh one of our comprehensive high schools in the morning for for whatever reason they're not coming to us till a little bit later in the day. They do their centennial course work while they're there. uh those independent small groups and then one of the nice things because we'll be open longer uh when the day end when the traditional day ends at 3:30 or 4, if they're in the groove and they're feeling good about things, they can just

099keep moving. Uh they don't have that natural break that students at the traditional high schools have. And then in the evening, we've really started looking at ways that this uh that Centennial can serve not just the Centennial students, but the district at large. Um so some of the things that we've talked about is uh the adult diploma completion living at Centennial. Uh we've talked about uh opportunities to get have community gatherings uh where say uh there is a business partner in the uh community that wants to come in and talk to students. We can have that at Centennial. Uh we could have students who are working on some credit recovery from one of who traditionally go to LHS or Free State have a safe place to work in the evening. Um, and to expand on

100that a little bit, just some other programs that I foresee us maybe integrating into uh, Centennial. The first is again acceleration for students who maybe they do uh, the traditional day at a brickandmortar and then they come to us because they're trying to get a couple extra classes in because they want to graduate. Either perhaps they either want to graduate a little bit early or they have some credit recovery that they need to do. Um, we've talked about partnering with Free State and LHS for their night school part partnership or programs. Uh, these are times when right after the end of the semester, students who were close to passing but didn't quite get there have an opportunity to uh make up some work to get that grade over the passing line. Uh, the benefit here

101is that say you're a student at Free State and you're playing basketball, the times that Free State is open to do that may not work with your sport schedule. Centennial will provide extra opportunity to come in and get that work done. Uh we're also looking to partner to increase work-based learning opportunities for students. That'll be done in uh conjunction with our CTE programs. Again, that adult diploma completion perhaps moving to Centennial. And then I'm a little biased on this, but something that I am excited about is uh LVS inperson support. uh for any student really any student in the district but particularly for LVS students who need a physical place to come to stay focused to get some work done. This will be an area where they can come and get support either from LVS

102staff that have uh come in to meet them or with Centennial staff if that should be the case. So that brings us to our next steps which in this case is building a team. Um, we're going to be looking at core teaching staff to hit each of the four core areas so that there is support there. Mental health supports that are on site to help students uh with social and emotional needs. Obviously, a front office staff so that there is someone there to greet students at any time that they happen to arrive. We've talked a little bit about uh physical health needs. Uh we'll probably share staff with LHS for that. Um, and then instructional assistance because when you're running a building from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., uh, that we can't ask the teachers

103to be there that whole time because, well, for all sorts of reasons. Um, so to help cover some of those gaps so that there is always someone well-versed in what students are doing there to be supportive, whether they're coming in right at 8 am or coming in at hopefully not coming in right at 8 p.m. because we're trying to close then, but if they're coming in at 6 and still just need a little bit of extra support. So, this is just a little breakdown of what the different programs that we will have in Lawrence public schools. Um because a question that we're going to get I think is which one is the right fit for my student and the honest answer is that's probably something that your student has to answer. What is the thing

104that they are looking for? Um if they are looking to never come on site anywhere LBS is probably your fit. Uh if you are looking for to work during the traditional school day and you want to primarily be working on that self-based or that self-paced curriculum, the academy might be what you're after. uh if you are looking to spend 80% of your day doing kind of the traditional school model maybe uh dual enrollment with LHS and or Free State and LVS and then Centennial is really about that kind of allocart approach for the student who needs a little bit of everything um as well as interest in those interdisciplinary projects. So the next question is how do we you know for anyone that I haven't scared off there what is the enrollment process? Um applications

105are going to open on July 8th. what that's going to look like is actually very similar to the application process for the academy. Um, we are still working on exactly what the application credit questions are because I really want to get it a little shorter. It's a little lengthy at this point. Um, but uh all of those questions are not designed around why didn't the traditional environment work for you. It's all about what is it that you need so that we can figure out how we can best provide that. Um from there we will meet with families once we have a team in place and start building draft personalized learning plans. Uh and then hopefully in uh August we'll have a good number of students ready to go and we can launch. Very good. Before

106we wrap I've asked Dr. Jeremiah to just um put the icing on in terms of innovative programming and kind of that bigger picture and what you feel maybe hasn't been covered. >> Uh good evening board. Uh I think you did a great job. Uh what I would add is uh or maybe just um overview again is just two two really walk away points we want to make here. uh is there are a lot of models that are shifting across the country into innovative ways of educating kids and um this is our first attempt of of getting that right. Um there's lots of um uh design thinking. There's lots of different kind of learning journeys. There's lots of different uh I think a project based learning gold standard cross interdisciplinary type work. There's lots of um

107this is a very structured program and it will be a very structured program. I think what's exciting about it that will be based in real world learning opportunities for kids heavy heavy heavy a lot more than they would get in a traditional setting in a comprehensive high school. Um there's lots of opportunity for AI integration. There's a lot of that work happening across the country as we speak. Um so just uh a flexible campus for innovation. On top of that, it's also a campus that goes 8 to8. And uh that in and of itself and the dynamic uh that we will have something staffed for different programming needs based on what kids need across um all of our campuses, I think is an innovative uh just in and of itself. So, um really those are

108just two the two uh high level points that I just want to make sure that we're driving home. And this will take uh we're looking for innovative staff. We're looking for people who want to think outside of the box to support kids. and um getting him through this type of innovative programming. >> Very good. Thank you both. >> Shannon, then Kelly can go first. >> No, Shannon. >> All right. >> Kelly never goes first. >> Okay. Um uh thank you. Really excited about this work. um love the kind of broadening the thinking and bringing together things that we're already doing with components that we feel like are filling um filling needs that we're we have identified. Um curious just uh because it has been a part of our district for a number of years now.

109Um can you expand just a little bit more on um what will remain at the college and career center through this process versus what we will be seeing at the Centennial campus and how um how our families should understand that those may be um coexist or work together. >> Very good. I appreciate that question. Member Kimell uh Dr. Jeremiah and I had the great opportunity to be with the academy team uh just a few weeks back and had great conversation with them and exploring how what they do is different from what Centennial will do. Following that meeting, the team got together and worked on a profile of an of the kind of student that academy is a good match for. And they've also begun a process of uh conversations with their current students because they

110did feel that they offer a very distinct program at the academy but that just like any school there might be a few of their students who would be better served in the centennial model. So we are developing and it might end up being a three column chart because it's really LVS, the academy and the centennial program that folks may be thinking about if they're not thinking about the comprehensive high school. So stay tuned and you'll see more of those FAQs and student profiles developed from the team so that it's helpful to parents and students when they're thinking about which one is best for for my child or for me. Thank you. And then will there continue to be application level CTE coursework that is also I mean like for example our advanced culinary kitchen is

111that um and we've had some other kinds of application level classes that have taken place the CNA classes and that sort of thing. We anticipate that that all remains. >> That all remains and our hope is to enhance that uh because we have uh we've got some work to do in alignment to ensure that our enrollment is increasing into those programs. So, uh Dr. Jeremiah and members of our team and the purpose of the lead principle of CTE who is Amanda F is this idea of enhancing that career technical education pathway both at college and career and across our comprehensive high school campuses. We have a that is its own horizon. We have a tremendous and mighty work to do there. >> Thank you. Um I have one more. Um so this is something that

112I you know really didn't strike me until I was reading a news article about our meeting tonight. Um and so I just I wanted to just say it out loud so that my board colleagues could kind of hear it um and think about it. Um, we've all been talking about this since the inception as kind of a choice campus in the way that we think about choice being we're providing choices to students to choose an individualized pathway that gets them to a high school diploma in Lawrence public schools. Like that is and absolutely committed to that work. I read news coverage of this meeting tonight and I think maybe it's because I've been spending so much time in my professional life on um vouchers and school choice um that it kind of struck me the

113use of the word choice may be something that people will misunderstand about what we are doing at this program and what it means for our district. I don't want people to think that we are jumping into the school choice and voucher um in kind of the way that you would think about districts that are expanding charter schools and that sort of thing. So um I just wanted to name that and offer that and think about if there's you use the word pathways several times tonight and pathway facilitators. Maybe there are other ways that we when we officially launched this and we open it and name it. I don't know if um that kind of reaction I had to the news article this weekend is is something worthy of considering as we as we continue to

114to develop this program. So, I just wanted to share that. Um and that's all. Thank you, >> Billy. >> Um I'm trying to decide what question to start with and I'll start with uh this um there seem like there are a number of contract issues in this um plan. So can you talk to me about how we're working with the LEA um in ensuring that we are either going through a variance process or um that we are not sidstepping the contractual obligations we have to educators within the district. >> Thank you. As we get out of concept stage into the reality of building personalized plans for students, we will be very closely working with our partners at LEA to make sure that we're good. >> I'm going to push back just a little bit and

115say that if we're hiring teachers on July 8th and we're implementing this program in August, we'll be need to be working closely with them in the next couple weeks. >> Understood? >> Yeah. Okay. >> We will build the program around the students who enroll. So um that will be a process that unfolds as our students enroll and we know what hours we will need to be available okay for them and and absolutely received. Thank you. >> And I will and to that end I'll also say and this is just gentle feedback in that we have been innovating in this district. We've done several um project- based initiatives. Uh certainly we're working still yet to build um programming at Liberty Memorial as an example, but we've several of our high schools have undergone, you know, different

116types of innovation. And um what you're talking about here in terms of first time is that kind of 8 to 8 the options that's going to be non-traditional in that sense just to kind of make sure that our educators that were involved in those other projects um don't feel short changed. Uh the the other question I have here around partnerships with families um and and families needing to be highly engaged. My question to you would be for families for whom being highly engaged is challenging or might look different than what highly engaged could look like for me. How will we support the students that come from families in which it's really challenging for a parent or a guardian to show up at a at at a level that requires like engagement in a project for

117example? Can you talk a little bit more about what you mean by family engagement? >> Yeah, and I guess what I what I really mean when we're talking about that is that they are supportive of the student being engaged in the program. Uh and yes, we'll need them to communicate with us a little bit, but we won't ask parents to necessarily be I would say, you know, showing up at certain times or anything like that. It it's really that we need them to be supportive of what we're doing with their student. Um and that, you know, that they when they see something that they maybe want to do a little differently or they see something that's not working on their end that they let us know that. so that we can adjust. Um, just that

118it's a little bit more of a partnership, I think, than in a more traditional model. >> So that if you're a kid for whom showing up looks different than other families, we I wouldn't want them to be discouraged from applying, that's not something that would we want we would want them to apply. And additionally, if you're a guidance counselor recommending or encouraging a student to apply, um, they also would be looking holistically and know that you all would support. So that's what I figured. I just wanted to clarify that. Um, and then I have uh two other questions, but I will defer to my um board members and maybe they'll get covered by them. U this is Carol. I was going to ask about the the the afterhour situation, but is there a plan to

119provide daycare or evening care for the students who are there until 8:00? Because um I will date myself. If I went to Lawrence High School and I had caught by my classmates would drop their kids off at the daycare while they were in school >> and then they would go to the alternative high school. Is that is there something like that in the works to for >> that idea? We would embrace if we have students who need that will continue to problem solve as we see students who enroll in what their needs are. >> Yeah. Right. >> Thank you. Uh, first, Mr. Harwood, you have great hair tonight. >> Jeremiah, you had me until you said AI integration, but I'll let that one slide. Um, I'm super excited about this. This was like when I

120came in, this was um one of the one of the big things that that y'all were starting to talk about, and I come from a couple of districts that have really, you know, in my opinion, robust programming, but not anything um approaching this. So, I had a couple of questions. Um, but they they seem pretty preliminary at this stage. Um, and what you guys are showing is super exciting. Um, I just I the the point that I want to make um, and you alluded to this, Dr. Amaya, was um, as this gets up and running, you know, it's going to be iterative. You're you're going to be changing on the fly. It's gonna, you know, it's it's probably going to be messy. Um, and I think that that's something that we can um agree to

121handle for as long as it takes because the the alternative is not, you know, trying anything uh for those kids that need it. So, I just uh wanted to say good work so far. Any any any way that I can help um you know, making connections or doing anything to support, I'm I'm I'm super stoked about this. I noticed GR kept looking at me. Anyway, thank you guys for all the hard work you have done. Um, I've been interested in this program since the the inception of it. Um um my granddaughter has transitioned from uh the comprehensive the school to hybrid to fully LVS and now she's looking forward to getting back into the regular school, but she's also apprehensive about the overwhelming of going back to regular school. So, when I showed her this

122here uh earlier today, she read it and she was like, "Grandma, I really think that may be a fit for me because it'll help me get back into regular school, but also help me graduate." So, I thank you guys because we pushed with our kids on Youth Sunday yesterday at church the importance of education. And I'm so glad to be a part of a district that looks at our students and see the need that our students are needing and is willing to be innovative in our education and give whatever it is we need to give our students to for them to learn. So, I appreciate being part of a district that does that. and I'm just looking forward to um to see this, you know, open and go forth. >> Yeah. One comment I'm so

123from the adult ed um graduation ceremony last week, you know, we had the student speaker um who talked about the instructors lighting a fire and reigniting that kind of passion towards education. And we had the the staff speaker who talked about going through a similar thing, all the trials and tribulations that went with and then, you know, the the the career dreams that that accompanied, right? Um, and I feel like so often we we lump folks into one or the other. Um, but what if those are the same person, right? What if that what if there's a person that has challenges with the traditional structure, has aspirations and dreams and has that fire, but also needs, you know, a different setting. So, that's really what I see here. Um, and I just wanted to call

124attention to that because that was, you know, I I think there are a lot of a lot of folks out there that would benefit. Um, and I guess my question at this point is is what kids fit is what I'm struggling with. Um, I'm a and just question. I'm a a junior freshman um and um have attendance problems, have have issues uh with regular uh school, high school. Um how would I know if I could fit? >> I mean, honestly, I think the the first thing to do is let's have a conversation. um because until we get to know the student and you know we talk about attendance issues trying to figure out what is kind of the root cause of that and then how do we best solve that whatever is causing that issue

125is it overwhelm in a larger environment is it a transportation issue so I would say that if if there's a student who is even questioning whether or not this is a fit for them I would say the best thing to do is uh you know let's start having conversations about it >> yeah so you see this program being able to serve any student if they wish wish to. You see it as uh just sitting here listening putting it together uh that it is um that it is more uh designed to fulfill the needs of students rather than saying here's a program you fit it. uh which I I do I I think that is an excellent approach. Um, and as I've been doving into truency lately, um, I um, and actually I was at uh,

126in a meeting today talking about uh, truency and one of the issues came up was the new choice program and how exciting u actually DCF was that the district was starting something sim something something like that. So, uh, I am excited that we are headed in down this road and and I'm very interested and as Matt said would welcome the opportunity to help in any way I can. >> I would just add stacks because I think you made a great point and and this kind of goes back to some of the conversation. I I think um and agree we have done a lot of innovative programming in our district up to this point with interdisciplinary and PBL and those types of that work. I think what's going to be kind of the next step with

127Choice Campus is it is personalized, right? So, we're going to leverage all of our modalities for learning in our district, all of our programming, all of our and we're going to fit it to students and um that's really what makes it innovative in terms of being flexible, in terms of being um it's not students aren't on a traditional schedule. They're not in six periods a day. they're um they're engaging in uh learning in multiple ways in every way in which we can offer them and then we'll manage that learning as we design it with them essentially. >> So a number of our students that um often we think about or we've considered for the academy for example might have an intersection with um different social services in the community. Bob mentioned DCF, others might be

128inter intersecting with um criminal legal services. And so I was just wondering about um the districts. this is part of what you're doing in terms of sharing this opportunity with the community, but also the um ensuring that our community partners know about how a student would apply because it's not unusual, for example, for a student to get a um recommendation or an order, for example, to JDC or, you know, to help with the truency issue or in some cases it's not something that they have a choice about, but um do want to make sure that our community partners know about this. And along those lines, um would say that we're doing this great work, uh to ensure that students with um different needs have different choices and we still have this this space where we're

129providing high school education at the JDC where we're not quite getting what we want for those kids, I would say. And that's not to suggest that the educators aren't doing good work. It's just a more challenging environment. So the I so what we're learning learning from the innovation here um the intersection with LBS the way that you're collaborating with the academy how you're making decisions about what student goes where that the successes we might see with project-based learning are we providing those opportunities wherever possible to students who are at JDC because they're just not mentioned in this space and wanting to make sure we don't forget about about the the students there who might um go back and forth between those spaces. And then um to that end uh weight lists. So if you if

130you are unable to accept every student that applies um you I presume will come back to the board and talk to us about you have to you'll have a number of teachers a number of kids that you can serve this year. As Matt mentioned it's going to be a little bit uh could be messy in the first year. Um so just would like to hear a report back about is there a wait list? How are you dealing with that? We did have that issue come up with the academy at one point. Um and then this is my final ask. Uh so in terms of real world applications and skill-based learning, oftentimes that translate, you know, that that that when you ask that question about having to tell a student why what they're learning is important

131in the real world. And sometimes that's this skill that you're learning like how to develop a small business. And sometimes um there are cognitive and knowledgebased um inquiries that come through things like the humanities that we would not want to lose within this space. So if I am an English teacher or a social science teacher, how do you you you're not this wouldn't be something where we're seeing a lessening of that. Students still have to meet those particular standards to to graduate. So your curriculum will still include the same standards as they would in any school just for a parent. um who's uh nerdy like I am. That that would be the case. Correct. >> Yeah, absolutely. I mean there will be no lessening of standards. Um I would say that the big thing is

132when we talk about like alternative in this case, it does not mean less than. It does not mean easier. It doesn't necessarily mean harder. It just means different. >> Means different. Okay. And it doesn't mean um foregoing um certain types of education to just work on uh core skills essentially. Right. >> Correct. >> Yeah. They're nodding no in case anybody's wondering. All right. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Okay. >> Um I really appreciated those comments. We've taken close notes. I wanted to just tag on. I really received the comment uh member Jones about innovation and I just wanted to point out I think what I was focusing on and not very articulately is uh that Mr. Harwood's been able to the the state is working with us to innovate around seat

133time requirements. And as innovative as we've been, I'm proud of all of our programming, that particular corner really helps meet the needs of students if they can go off and do something rather than have to sit in the seat. So, um, I just wanted to shine the light on that corner of your work, Zach. I really appreciate you navigating the state requirements and and finding the ways that we can meet students needs. And like we say, it's not a lessening of standards, but it may be different uh that they don't have to fulfill a 100 hours in the chair to to get there. >> Yeah, it's really exciting work. I'm glad that we're doing it. Hi, this is Carol and I just really really want to thank you for your work and we just we

134just raised our our meal our school lunch prices >> and we are looking at issues such as the unhoused um our our community members that are unhoused and I firmly believe that this it's um we're innovative and I'm so proud to be a part of this um this school board and I can't wait to see when this um begins and we We would like a tour. Is that agreeable? >> Yes. >> So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for your work. And I, you know, just going back to, you know, when I was in at Lawrence High School, I was always envious of the kids that got to go to the alternative high school. So, I would look forward to seeing this started again. >> That's great. >> Thank you. >> Um I'm really glad, Dr.

135Swift, that you shared that piece about um the work that um Dr. Harwood is doing with um the state department because one of the things I've heard people say in that sphere is that there are very few things that school districts can't figure out a way to do in partnership with KSD in terms of the kind of this conversation about um you know regulations keep us hold us back and keep us from doing things and I often hear people at KSD say well we we have processes for nearly every kind of thing that a school district would want to try or do where we can figure out how to make it happen and but I have very rarely seen that taken advantage of um explicitly. So that is really encouraging. Um and I think that

136we should highlight that because uh as a public school district we can do things well to serve our students without blowing up the system of public education uh to to make it happen. like that. That's really an important um component of what we're doing here. So, thank you. >> Thank you, doctors Harwood and Amaya, >> Dr. Swift. Any announcements? >> I believe we're good. Thank you. >> Any announcements, anyone? All right. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> I move we adjourn. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? And if you are forever. Over.