Lawrence Public Schools Board of Education Meeting | May 26th, 2026

001like to call to order the May 26th, 2026 uh board of education meeting. Can I get approval of the agenda, please? >> I move we approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Buyers, >> yes. Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Could you Blackwood? >> Yes. >> Franklin, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Kimbell, >> yes. >> Lancaster, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Okay. Move on to item 1.3, report to the superintendent of schools, Dr. Schliff. >> Thank you, Mr. President, members of the board, all of those who are joining us in person and remote. We're so grateful for a strong wrapup to the 2526 school year. Finishing the year strong uh was a team sport. Uh the responsibility for that is shared by all of us. We're really grateful to our students and staff,

002families, and community for the work throughout this school year. And here are a few endofear highlights. wouldn't be appropriate to have this meeting and not issue another congratulations to the class of 2026. We celebrate their accomplishments during uh commencement ceremonies and celebrations held across Lawrence from Community Transition and Project Search to Lawrence Virtual School, Lawrence High School and Free State High School. and we'll be wrapping up this Thursday night over at uh adult education at the college and career center. Uh as we honor the class of 2026, we are so proud of each graduate and grateful to the teachers, support staff, family, and community members who helped support them along the way. Uh we have a place on our website where you can see uh our Lawrence Public Schools graduates. Um and we look forward

003to seeing everybody out on Thursday evening to celebrate adult ed. Here are a few photos from this season of graduation. Heat. Heat. Heat. just want to say thank you for everything you have done for me with the large public school district. And I just want to say thank you for everything. And this is a true goodbye. >> Congratulations. 900 members of the class of 2026. Mallerie Johnson, you may have heard, uh we are celebrating Mallerie Johnson, secondary therapeutic classroom at Community Connections at Pinkney. Here she is. Uh who was recently named the 2026 recipient of the excellence in teaching award. You probably remember this award as the Bob's award. and she received a $10,000 prize through the Lawrence Schools Foundation. The recognition celebrates educators who demonstrate extraordinary instructional skill, deep commitment to students, and a

004profound impact on the lives of children and families. Working in a therapeutic classroom setting, Johnson supports students through individualized traumainformed practices designed to help students grow academically, socially, and emotionally while creating a safe and supportive learning environment. Johnson's recognition reflects the life-changing work happening every day inside our schools and the deep care our educators across Lawrence Public Schools bring for students. Several parents spoke at that ceremony members, I know several of you were unable to get there due to your work schedules. Um, and the stories of parents and families were just overwhelmingly impactful for all of us in the room. Uh, we have several teachers of the year now. Uh, Kansas teacher of the year finalist. We are so proud to celebrate two outstanding educators recently selected as the district's 2026 Kansas Teacher of the

005Year finalist. Each year, districts across Kansas nominate one elementary and one secondary educator to advance for regional and statewide consideration through the Kansas teacher of the year program. You can see here uh Deborah Woodall Rutled, band teacher at Southwest Middle School, was named the district's secondary teacher of the year finalist. colleagues in school families highlighted her ability to create a supportive and motivating classroom environment while maintaining high expectations for students. Her nomination also recognized her leadership and commitment to the broader music and arts community, including mentoring young musicians and supporting music programs across Lawrence Public Schools. And I would add also she's a beautiful mentor to younger uh teachers in the arts. Um so I really appreciate a shout out to Debbie Woodall Rutledge. Secondly, Jaci Yanick, kindergarten teacher at Quail Run. Whoops, we're getting

006ahead of ourselves. There she is. kindergarten teacher at Quillrun Elementary School was named the district's elementary teacher of the year finalist. Her nomination celebrated the joyful and engaging classroom culture she creates for students and the confidence and love of learning she helps foster in our young learners. school families and colleagues praised her ability to make every student feel capable, valued, and proud of their growth. Now, we'll turn to Angelia Perkins, uh Lawrence Public Schools master teacher finalist. Lawrence Public Schools is proud to celebrate and Jalia Perkins, our educator at Lawrence High School, who was recently named as the district's nominee for the prestigious Kansas Master Teacher Award through Emporia State University. Perkins, who has taught at Lawrence High School for more than 30 years, was recognized for extraordinary commitment to students, instructional excellence, and lasting

007impact on arts education within Lawrence Public Schools and the broader community. students, colleagues, and community members highlighted her ability to inspire students of all backgrounds and abilities to create meaningful artwork while encouraging personal expression, creativity, and confidence through art. Uh just the data from Miss Perkins shows that of over 100,000 entries from across the country, uh Miss Perkins students regularly are noted at that national level. That doesn't happen by accident. We know that uh author and illustrator uh Lindseay Kramer uh the teacher um I'm sorry, Lindseay Kramer's classroom at Kennedy Early Childhood Center recently welcomed Arthur and illustrator Lindseay Yankee for a creative and engaging visit centered around storytelling, imagination, and the art of illustration. Yankee shared her book, The Dinosaur Seed, giving preschoolers an upclose look at her own artistic process. Students watched as

008she layered colorful stamp backgrounds and demonstrated how illustrations come to life through print making techniques. One of the highlights for students was hearing the ink talk, a term Yankee uses to describe the sound ink makes when it is ready to print. Students especially enjoyed watching a rocket ship emerge from the artwork, complete with one of the young rocket scientists aboard the illustration. Following the demonstration, students were able to create their own collaborative art collage artwork using drawings, paper scraps, and imaginative designs. Several students even designed their own rocket ships, including one inspired by a butterfly. So, we have wrapped up the or not yet wrapped up but close to wrapping up the 6A spring sports state competition. We have a number of teams and student athletes who completed their sports season with appearances in state

009competition. in boys tennis. Lawrence Public Schools is proud to celebrate the outstanding performances of student athletes from Free State High School and Lawrence High School at the 2026 6A boys tennis state championships held May 15th and 16th in Witchah. In singles competition, Micah Ward captured the 6A state championship with a first place finish while Isan Ral earned fourth place finish in the state tournament. Here in girls swimming and diving this past weekend, the 6A girls state championships for girls swimming and diving was held at Shaunie Mission School District Aquatic Center. Highlights included a fifth place overall finish overall team finish for Free State High School and a state championship for freshman Ella Marsh from Free State High School in the girls 200yard individual medley. Several students this week, also from Lawrence High School and Free

010State High School, will compete at the state track and field meet uh scheduled for May 29th and 30th in Witchah and Free State School High School boys baseball played on Letha Northwest at Blue Valley late this afternoon in the state quarterfinals for the chance to move into semifinals. uh which will be played at Witchaw State University on Thursday evening. Also this week, state boys golf tournament takes place at the Firekeeper Golf Course in Topeka Tuesday and Wednesday with several of our golfers in contention from both Free State High School and Lawrence High School. coming up on Thursday, uh, May 28th from 5 to 6:00 p.m. the Native American Student Services Building, um, over there at NAS headquarters, uh, on Louisiana Street. The public is invited to attend the Miss and Junior Miss Indian Youth of

011Lawrence Coronation. This is an opportunity to thank and celebrate our outgoing royalty Nafana Favre and Riley Alva for their outstanding dedication and impact while welcoming our new incoming royalty as they begin their journey. an important uh announcement about our summer meals for kids. And just a note, funded through USDA's summer food service program, Lawrence Public Schools is once again proud to support students and families through our summer meals for kids programming during June and July of this year. Uh these meals opportunities will help ensure students continue to have access to nutritious meals while school is out of session. We will host a public meal site at Sunset Hill Elementary. Children's a children ages 1 through 18 can receive free meals while adult meals are $5. They are served Monday through Friday, June 1st through July

01224th from 12 to 12:45. Please note that there are two federal holidays in there, so meals will not be served on June 19th or on July 3rd. Families may register to receive weekly summer meal kits containing five days of breakfast and lunches to prepare at home. Meal kits are designed to be easily assembled by upper upper elementary age students and older. And families can pick up meal kits on Tuesday mornings from 7 to 9:00 a.m. at the Douglas County Fairgrounds Open Pavilion located at 2110 Harper Street. Just want to give a shout out to member Kadoo Blackwood who serves and many of you I know have served uh just to ensure that we are supporting summer uh food and nutrition. Remember registration is required for meal kits. They are free for children ages 1 through

01318. But to clarify, adult meals are not available with the kids. And to further clarify, these programs are fully funded through the federal programming. Lawrence Public Schools remains grateful for the many staff members, volunteers, and community partners, many folks from our own staff, from our own board who are out there helping with the summer uh distribution. You can see that right on our website under nutrition and wellness. For the remainder of our superintendent update, I'm going to touch on a few uh of our projects that we're working on as we move into and through the summer. Uh a lot of folks um are shutting down their classrooms now and that means it's time for us to gear up our work to make sure that we are fully prepared, we are focused on a strong opening

014to the 2627 school year. Um so coming up soon uh we will have an internal hosting of a family engagement center professional development. Uh this work will include an opportunity for our frontline staff. So I appreciate that Kristen Ryan and the family engagement team will be hosting uh this Thursday morning for our administrative assistance. Our secretaries, our registars, our parent involvement facilitators, all of those folks are invited to be a part of a working brunch session to talk more and to gain their feedback on how we will identify the needs of our families and learned how the family engagement center will be designed to support students, families, and schools. So, we appreciate just thank you in advance. Uh I know that all of those folks have a lot of work to do to wrap up

015the school year, but we appreciate them making time for us and for our team on Thursday morning. Uh we also you can take that down. We also want to give an update on the transition to Durham and I appreciate member Franklin reminding me when we visited on Saturday uh just to kind of touch on some of the details of our transition. I know we hope from the frontfacing side uh that it'll just be uh a a great driver and a great bus picking up our students but on the back side of the house we have a whole lot of work to do. So Dr. Ingerbreaks uh shares these updates. Um the drum uh team completed employee hiring events over at facilities and operations. Over four weeks, eight groups of interview sessions were held. Over 90

016applications received. Durham Student Services will continue to solicit and accept applications and conduct interviews throughout the summer in order to ensure that we're fully staffed and that we have a full reserve list, something we've wanted for a long time and we uh intend to have this year. We appreciate I just want to give a shout out to our current transportation members. I just appreciate their patience and understanding as they navigate. You know, every time we change to a new company, folks have to uh do the onboarding processes, you know, to be a part of the new company. We haven't done that for a long time and Lawrence and I appreciate the patience of our team. Building B on the facilities and operations campus has been prepared for your use by Durham uh student services. The

017grounds department staff have relocated to another building that would had been used for storage and the Durham team anticipate beginning their movein process in June. The parking area to be used by Durham for bus and staff parking over at the FNL campus has been prepared. Hard to believe that's already uh in in process. Um, planning is also underway uh for the purchase of fuel cards. This will save the district resources. So, it's an very important step in our improvement of our back of the house work. Durham services is to provide the method for assigning the fuel purchase cards and facilities and operations will work with the business office, Miss Frick, in order to uh to order the fuel purchase cards. Finally, facilities and operations staff are working with Drum Student Services to determine the access

018keys. Just all of the details like that so that bus drivers may stop in at school uh if there's a need to as they're out and about. Um uh so we're taking care of that security concern as well. Uh everything appears to be on schedule, but we'll continue to bring regular updates so that you all know members and our community knows that we are preparing for a smooth and strong transition. Secondly, uh as you know members, we've talked about it at length. We are working diligently to continue to align the organization for effectiveness and for efficiencies and to ensure that every dollar of resource is prioritized to opportunities for students and to compensation for staff. So it is our work to continue to align our team. And in this effort, we will be sharing over

019the coming weeks a number of adjustments to better align the organization over these weeks of the summer. This evening, we are sharing two key adjustments. I appreciate the members. Uh I was able to see the members last week and you all have been fully briefed but just to share with the community uh to bring the technology teams both the instructional and the physical property side of that tech team together as one data assessment and information technology team. So this evening uh we will be considering additional responsibilities for two district leaders uh James Pulk as director of data assessment and information technology. We're pleased to share that James has accepted the role of lead I call it in short lead information officer for the district. The responsibility uh for data assessment and information work in the

020district. This role of learning analytics supports district efforts to improve student outcomes through the strategic use and the ease of use for our teachers and and school personnel of data and to inform our evidencebased decisionmaking. This role will lead to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of student learning, instructional, and systems data to help schools monitor progress and to support the board and the superintendent's team as we support progress in identifying student needs, evaluating the impact of instructional practices and programs, and it will drive continuous improvement work across the district. In addition, the position will also encompass the physical equipment technology equipment and network infrastructure and technology systems across the organization. Uh our vision is instruction and information technology in service to teaching and learning and in service and support of student achievement and employee effectiveness.

021We will continue with this priority and we believe that this organ organizational adjustment will help us to focus our work together into one team. I want to give a shout out to the tech team uh who joined me this afternoon and I will share with you that we are uh all together. We don't know all of the answers up front, but I appreciated the team showing this afternoon and we're engaged in conversation already about the nuances of this alignment. Secondly, uh we are pleased to share that Miss Summer Workman has accepted the role as lead communication officer for the district. She will assume leadership responsibilities for all internal and external communications to support the superintendent, the Lawrence Board of Education, schools, and furthering the USD 497 vision. She will o oversee media, government, and community

022relations and work to ensure transparent, timely messaging across platforms, including crisis communication and digital media. I appreciate both of these individuals saying yes when we call them up to additional service uh to the district. Um I look forward to sharing more about our agreements a little bit later in the meeting. I appreciate our employee group leaders who are present this evening to join us for that. Um I want to thank you for this opportunity to share the superintendence report and for the honor of serving the Lawrence public schools. Thank you. >> Okay, we'll move on to report of the president of the board. Uh just a brief report from me this evening. Uh extend uh my congratulations to the class of 2026. I had the the privilege and the honor to attend and and speak

023at the Lawrence Virtual School um Free State and Lawrence High graduations this last week. Uh I also had the opportunity to attend the Gradwalk at Prairie Park on Tuesday the 19th with my daughter. That was a lot of fun. Um uh there was a lot of people there. Um, I can neither confirm nor deny at my own daughter's uh grad party that Lori Greenfield was going around and threatening um those Prairie Park grads to to come or not come. You can check with Lori if that was true or not. Um, on consent this evening, item 2.5, uh, purchase of Dell computers for high school computing labs of, uh, Dell laptops and supporting infrastructure from Dell Technologies in the amount not to exceed $100,000 from capital outlay funds. And then finally, um, on behalf of the

024board, I wanted to echo, uh, comments that Dr. Swift made last week and express our sympathies um, and condolences to the family of Dr. Riy. Um, Dr. Rouse was a friend of mine um and someone who I thoroughly enjoyed uh talking to and uh with about football and school and all sorts of things and I very much will miss our conversations. So I wanted to extend those on behalf of the board. Um so with that we will move on uh to uh education legislative and state board of education updates. Shannon, >> thank you. I do have um a few things to share. So um since our May 11th board meeting, the state board of education met um May 12th and 13th. This was Commissioner Randy Watson's final uh state board meeting as state commissioner. Um

025and during his commissioner's report, he shared some data um emphasizing that there is a persistent and powerful relationship between uh family poverty and academic performance, particularly um when it comes to ELA scores in our state. Um and he brought the data receipts to back that up. um using statewide data, he illustrated very uh very clearly how um higher poverty levels in a school district um strongly correlate with scores on state assessment tests. And the point of this this presentation was twofold. One uh to highlight that there are districts who are beating the odds and helping their kids be successful in spite of uh family poverty and generational poverty. But he also talked about um the fact that while improvement is possible through the outstanding efforts of our educators in our schools um it is incumbent

026upon our legislature to address uh poverty outside of our public school system if they are serious about improving student achievement within our public school systems. Um so I appreciated his comments on that. Um, the other thing I wanted to make the board um aware of is a is what I think is going to be the next um uh mandate debate um uh coming our way um this time potentially from the state board of education. So, there was a board item on their agenda um that was that was put on as a receive item, which usually means they're going to talk about at one meeting and then vote on it at the next meeting. So talk about it in May, vote on it in June. Um and it was presented by um two state board members

027um Melanie Hos and Dan Each who have been um working as a subcommittee on making recommendations to the state board of education about screen time in public schools. Um to uh preface their presentation, they did say that as they dug into this, they realized that this is a much bigger, much longer conversation that needs to happen. They did not intend to recommend a policy at the May meeting. Uh the state board is going to have a work session on this which is kind of unusual. They are meeting in the afternoon on Monday, June 8th from 1 to 4 p.m. to talk just about this issue. Um I encourage you to go and watch the board report um on this item. It's on the May 12th meeting uh in the morning kind of right after um

028not long after Dr. Watson's um commissioner report I believe um that it was uh enlightening and a little bit alarming. Um in turns there are board members on the state board who clearly believe that um we should just get rid of all devices in public schools altogether. No student should have a computer. No student should have a tablet. We should not use them for anything. We should go back to paper textbooks and not teach do anything in our schools on devices. Um there are other board members who pointed out that that's um not in line with how our world works. That will not prepare our students for the workplace. Um that creates even bigger equity issues for our students who come from families who cannot um provide access uh to that kind of learning and

029um exposure at home. Um I there was discussion about banning devices in elementary school altogether, banning them in middle school, only allowing them in high school. I think that it's really important for all of us to be paying attention. The the important thing is that both board members expressed an interest in hearing input from the field. So we got to give it to them. Um, so I just want to make sure that everybody's aware of that so that we can take advantage of the opportunities as they as they ask for input on what we think about what they're considering mandating um that we provide the input um to so that we can continue to meet the learning needs of our students. Um let's see. Uh there is going to be a mandate uh on literacy

030screeners. That is because not for the state board's choice but because state law changed this year and mandated but that by the 2027 school year dis all districts in Kansas will use the same um screener at elementary level for literacy. Uh we use fastbridge I believe. Um there will be an RFP process is my understanding. So it could be fast bridge, it might be something else and then we will all be mandated to use it. Um let's see the other notable item uh that happened on the 13th uh the state board or I guess this was actually on the 12th in their hiring uh the state board has hired uh Dr. Zach Conrad, formerly of Lawrence public schools and currently at K City, Kansas public schools, uh to be the deputy commissioner of accountability for

031the state department of education. Um so they are creating a new deputy commissioner position. Right now there are just two. There's somebody on the finance side, there's somebody on the instructional side. This is a new position within the department um tasked with um accountability. Uh Dr. Conrad has been working on the innovative assessment pilot in Kansas City Kansas public schools. So I I believe that the um the state board's interest in moving toward a model of assessment in the state that looks more like that innovative assessment pilot is part of what this position will be tasked with achieving. Um there were there were further presentations on t on the Wednesday of the board meeting on uh digital safety curriculum and also on the um new social media requirements in state law in the cell phone

032bill around how staff use social media. Uh those were also interesting presentations. Just wanted to note that in case you want to go take a look and see what was said. Um quick update on federal issues. So I one of the board meetings that I missed in um at the end of April, I was in Washington DC on a federal adv advocacy trip. Um, I did want to share uh with my board colleagues that um pretty much across the board from all the offices that we visited, we heard from staff that in spite of the administration's um steep, deep cuts in K12 funding in their budget proposal, most offices of our Congress members believe that it's more likely that the budget will be flat when it comes to K12 funding, which is not an increase,

033but it's not the kind of steep cuts that we're seeing being proposed, at least from the White House. Um, and then a quick state update. The Education Funding Task Force is holding its second meeting of 2026 this week. Um, it it is happening tomorrow from 12:00 to 4:45 p.m. and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in room 112 north of the Cap State Capital building. Um the expected focus based on the agenda that came out late last week is incorporating how to incorporate student achievement into a revised uh into potential revisions to the funding formula. Um this is another conversation I think bears very close monitoring by those of us who support public schools because this could go um a couple different directions um and some of them are not very good. So that's

034uh what I had to share. Thank you very much. Uh, I wanted to note another um issue that's happening at the state level. So, about a week or so ago, four Johnson County School District signed a memorandum of understanding establishing the Kansas Public School Funding Coalition. Uh, that coalition was funded because um they are advocating for Kansas legislators to fully fund special education at the required 92% of excess cost, which they have not done ever. Um, so the chronic underfunding has forced the districts to divert millions of dollars in from our general funds each year to cover shortfalls. Collectively, Kansas diverted overund9 million dollars in local funds to cover the differences. So, one of the objectives of that coalition is to identify strategic opportunities for collaborations with other districts or organizations pursuing similar objectives. Um

035I'm I am publicly sharing as a single board member I'm interested in pursuing what that might look like in the future and would ask board leadership to continue to follow up on that. And then related there's an August 4th um vote on an amendment on how Supreme Court justices are elected. And when you consider the legal implications for special education funding, you can begin to draw dots to why it's important to keep or to consider looking at that particular vote and whether or not you might prefer that the courts be um not part of a partisan conversation around how we elect and appoint uh our Supreme Court justices. It's that um path that could have led to things like the Ganon decision not being uh made in our favor as it once was. So um

036also wanted to make sure that people were watching that August 4th vote on um the amendment to uh consider how Supreme Court justices are elected and then asking that this school district consider joining um if it should become available the four Johnson County school districts who have joined the Kansas Public School Funding Coalition. Thank you to both of you. Um, we'll move on to board committee reports. Matt, we'll start with you and we'll come we'll work our way down the table. >> Yeah, I don't have any committee reports for tonight. I think you covered for me at the one. Okay. >> Uh policy committee met uh late last week and uh we're just getting ourselves organized uh to process all of the policy changes that we will be required to make because of changes to

037state law. That's really going to be the bulk of our work this uh this summer as a committee is um figuring out how to how to um adopt uh adopt changes to our policy that we're mandated to adopt. for for example the cell phone policy and um some social media compliance and some other there's a few other areas um there I think there were something like uh I don't know I saw a number earlier today a couple dozen education related bills that um may or may not have policy implications for school districts across the state. So uh thank you. I'll just add to the policy committee meeting and say that one of the things that's a bit in the weeds but important for the board to be aware of is that there is a possibility

038for a review um in collaboration with um an organization such as KASB to see are there any policies because we've had to be m we've had to keep up with so much of the work and changes that are happening at the state level. We want to make sure that we're not forgetting those regular routine policy reviews. So, um we might uh get some assistance with that to see if there's any recommendations for updates of any policies that haven't been reviewed in too long of a time. >> Carol, >> uh let's see. I attended the Native American Student Services parent committee last week and let's see, we discussed the Miss and Miss and Junior and Miss Indian Youth of Lawrence coronation details and considerations, but we also discussed they also discussed um graduation rates for Native

039American student services and how to improve those next year and also looking at methods or ways and means to improve improve um absentee or improve attendance if you will and also also just a side note as everybody's taking side notes but um tomorrow night the Douglas County commissioners are going to consider a new truency program for elementary and middle school students that meeting is at 5:30 tomorrow and I don't know if we have been included in those discussions but um the Douglas County commissioners will consider a new truency program that will impact act elementary and middle school students who repeatedly miss school. The proposed everyday counts program, which would be administered by Douglas County Criminal Justice Services Youth Prevention Division, is designed to help students improve their attendance before their cases reach the court system.

040County officials began developing the idea for the program after commissioners set aside $150,000 in the 2026 budget to explore alternatives to Trinity services. And again, more information can be found on the county website, but that meeting is tomorrow at 5:30. Thank you. >> Um, actually, none of my committees have met, but I did want to mention that the equity council will be meeting next week. Um, and also as a part of that, we plan on continuing meeting throughout the summer. >> Okay. >> All right. Bob, any board commentary? Um, other than to congratulate the uh 2026, the class of 2026 and all of our high schools. Um, I actually have attended all of them thus far this year. Uh, so I just wanted to bring that up. Um, see I think that is it. >>

041Okay, Carol. Uh, no. But I would like to thank board member, board colleague Yolanda Franklin for planning and coordinating our participation to participate in this year's Pride parade as well as the Junth celebration. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Um, I have just uh just one um uh from the families of uh Kamar J. Shaw and Bana Higgins. They wanted me to express their gratitude for Dr. Swift and her team um for uh the recognition on last week. Uh they were able to record it and send it out to family members who were not able to attend um the uh graduation and they wanted me to let you guys know that thank you, thank you, thank you. We've they have been watching our neighboring school district who who decided not to do it this year. And

042so they um they are talking with some of the family members uh with the other school district and seeing how uh they can assist with um what was done with our school district. So I wanted to I told them I would definitely let you guys know that they really appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, I just I I wanted to add to Carol's comment pertaining to truency and just clarify that there is an organization in the community that's been working on that issue for the last 15 years. So while the the county is looking at a new opportunity um CSC has been doing that for about 15 years and there's a mentorship program uh in which they are also working on um uh trying to reduce uh chronic absenteeism and truency rates in

043uh and respond to truency in Douglas County. um it is a program in which students uh would likely intersect less with the criminal legal system. Um so I do think it's important that the uh conversation uh that's happening on Wednesday is something that we're all tuned into. So thank you for raising it. Um wanted to start off by also sharing my congratulations to all the grad USD497 graduates from this past week. Um it was a particularly um emotional week for those of us on the board who had graduates um at more than one school and um man it is that is the most special feeling um to see your own kid walk across the stage. So, I just wanted to share congratulations to everyone. I'm looking forward to attending the um adult education diploma completion

044uh ceremony this week. That's our very last one. So, um also um wanted to share my appreciation to my colleagues. Um at the last two meetings, I apologize for missing. I had my advocacy trip in DC and then um as the parent of a senior uh there was a senior night scheduled for one of his activities on our last board meeting night. So um I'm very happy to be here this evening. Um uh attended the cran and project search graduation on the 15th. Um, and I continue to be just so impressed and grateful for the strength of the partnerships that our programs at that um at that school have with Laur uh Lawrence Memorial Hospital and the University of Kansas who clearly provide very outstanding job site mentors to our students there. Um, you know,

045it's it's it's a really special program and um so thank you to them and to all the staff at community connections at Pinkney for the excellent work that they do with our current um Painty Panther students. Um I love seeing all the photos of the grad walks over the last couple weeks and also as GR did I attended a gradalk um at my own son's ele um elementary school with him this year. Um, and I just want to say I think that is such a powerful tradition that we are building is it's kind of new for our district. Um, but I think that's a very powerful tradition and to see the excitement of even the the kind the itty bitties the kindergarteners um to see these big kids walking through their halls and they were

046cheering and screaming for them and it was just really cool. So, um I'm really glad that our um elementary schools are are coordinating those events and want to say thank you for that. Um, also thank you to all of the volunteers who made uh project graduation um a safe and fun event for all of our graduating seniors this past week. I know that's a lot of work for the parent volunteers that um gathered the donations and put that event on um by the accounts that I heard. It was um a great deal of fun um and so thank you to them. And then finally uh to my board colleagues um is issuing an invitation. So the Kansas Association of School Boards convention is in Witchaw this year, November 6th through 8th. Um registration opens in

047early July and I would um am inviting all of you to consider attending. It is uh really an excellent value um for outstanding professional learning that takes place over those uh two and a half to three days that you're there. Um and an a fantastic networking opportunity to build um skills and relationships with board members from all over our state. Um and you get to hang out with me for a couple days in Witchaw, which you know may or may not be an attractive uh reason for you to sign up for the convention, but I'll be there. So um anyway, that's all I have. Thank you. >> Yeah, I would echo um the other comments about the graduations uh and the the commencement ceremonies. It's been really cool to get to go to those for

048the first time. Um especially enjoyed the very first one, the Project Search and Catran uh ceremony just because I get to see some of those outstanding young people at work every day and now we kind of had a moment and the facilities guys at work that that all showed up for um you know for for for their folks. Um that was really special to see. So um it's always an awesome season and I've I've really appreciated um getting to see so many families and kids have have that moment. Um I wanted to echo uh Kelly's comments about the um the funding coalition. I wondered whether or not to to bring it up and then Kelly went ahead and and took that. So um same to everything that you said. I also the only other thing

049I wanted to touch on um today is we you know we typically know how our uh district our our delegation is going to go here in lovely Lawrence, Kansas. I mean nothing's for sure but um it's more sure than it is in other areas of the state but as of two days ago um I think 54 of 125 district seats were running unopposed uh in the upcoming elections in Kansas. I would assume um quite a few people um here in Lawrence have family and friends elsewhere in the state like I do. Um I think a part of all of this the funding and the pressures and the policy and all the stuff that we're talking about is is talking to those family and friends and and championing the you know the schools the people that

050work in our schools and the students that attend them. And um the election season coming up is going to be a pretty important one for supporting um our public schools. So, just wanted to say thanks uh to all the educators and folks in the room that made all those graduations possible for 900 kids. Um, and uh tell people that even though it's summer, um I think we have an important few months coming up um to start paying attention and pressuring people, especially outside of our community to um support us. >> Thank you all. Okay, we're going to move on to the consent agenda. Um, consent agenda items are those that are considered routine and are adopted by one motion unless any board member or the superintendent requests that an item be removed. The item or

051items removed are voted on separately. Can I get a motion for 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. >> Could you Blackwood? >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Okay. So, we're going to move on to new business. Item 4.1, ratification of a tenative certified agreement. Dr. Swift. >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. President, I believe we have folks coming forward. We're so proud this evening to have achieved a major a significant milestone with the appro with the consideration this evening by the board of both the certified and educational support professional employee agreements. You can see some

052of the team members assembling here uh in their beautiful red. Um, and um, I'm really grateful for all of the teamwork modeled by our teams. Um, I'm thankful to the leadership of our employee groups and also to our district uh, team leads um, Sam Reed Devin, Kristen Ryan, Megan Eperson among many others who worked uh, hard. very grateful for members of the board uh who were a part directly all the board engaged. Uh some of you served on fringe and on other adjacent groups especially appreciate members Byer Jones and Lancaster who were at the table to represent. Uh we're deeply grateful for the teamwork modeled by our teams over many weeks of long meetings. I'm proud of the work and I mean every word of this. The courageous work to face the organizational challenges inherent

053in our current times. Those of fringe benefits escalating of compensation challenges within limited public organizational limited resources. That's the triple threat that all public organizations face and it's the reason that I hear the advocacy down this board and around our employee groups advocacy to change that reality. Uh but until that reality is changed, we must innovate as a team who works together. So the team effort that has been mobilized by our employee group leaders uh by our administrator team by our members of the board of education all of these folks were fully engaged in the work and it serves as a model of how to navigate, innovate, lead and thrive. We are all beneficiaries of this hard work. It is based in years of developing and deepening relationship that you all have built across the

054team. And this affirmative outcome demonstrates the quality of the work. I just want to take a moment tonight because it's easy uh Memorial Day just passed, summer is beginning. It's easy to just vote and think good job. But the reality is this was hundreds of hours of work over many many months to be smarter than the challenges we face. And I deeply am grateful to all of you for making all the difference. We will only rise as high as our ability to work and collaborate together. I believe that with all my heart. the increases we see this evening as you bring these historic agreements forward. A $51,000 annual beginning teacher salary and a $20 per hour starting wage for educational support professionals, a total compensation increase across the employee groups of $7.9 million. taking these

055steps uh this year at this moment in time alongside our work last year to ensure a second daily professional planning time to respect and honor the time of teachers and educators in classrooms. This will continue to raise the level of play in Morren's public schools. It will support educators for the direct benefit of our students, the enrichment of our Lawrence community today and into the future. So, we achieve a milestone tonight, and I just want to give a shout out to all of you. It's all your fault. That's what I'm trying to say. Achieving this milestone tonight is only one step. As we continue to move forward together, you need to know and I want the community to know I am deeply committed to this as an iterative process. We won't solve it in one

056year. We have many years of work ahead of us. We are committed to continue to innovate to achieve our shared goals of a world-class education for our students delivered by an extraordinary team of education professionals. We will attract and retain talent, experience, and continue the excellence for which Lawrence Public Schools has long been known across Kansas and around the world. I'm just so deeply grateful to all of you this evening and I think it goes to Miss Ryan next. I do want to share that Miss Devon sends her regard. She had a family obligation that prevented her attendance this evening. Miss Ryan. >> All right. Thank you Dr. Swift and thank you board for the opportunity for us to present tonight. I'm going to just highle introduce um 4.1 and 4.2. And before we get

057started, can everybody maybe come up and share name and role and then I'll get started. >> All right. This one, you can pull that down. Okay, cool. Hi, Emerson Honzales. He pronouns, president of Lawrence Education Association. >> Josh Bradlin. Um, I am the co-lead negotiator for Certified Negotiations. >> Sarah Selena, I was the other co-lead. >> Other co-lead Andrea Albbright. I'm the ESP bargaining co-chair lead. >> Megan Eper, director of human resources. >> All right. So, this is um our leaders in ratification for this evening and all of the work that we have done um specifically all year, but really um hit it very hard in the month of May in terms of time and commitment. And I just want to acknowledge um everything that Dr. Swift said, but also the collective commitment of both

058teams um working so hard um to support our staff in compensation and benefits. Um really want to thank everyone for their high level of engagement and feedback and problem solving during a very busy time during the month of May. So thank you to everyone. And as Dr. Swift said these historical raises when we went back and did um looked at the history um thank you for your commitment um board and Dr. Swift in getting us to this point and we all know that we have more work to do and are very grateful for this opportunity tonight. So with that um Megan's going to share uh for our certified staff and our ESP um what the ratification means um specifically All right, at the risk of boring you all with with many details here, um we'll

059first go through the uh certified negotiations um that's before the board tonight. Um so the proposed certified negotiate agreement update for 2627 includes several investments towards compensation, benefits, safety, and working conditions for certified staff. Some of those key provisions that we'll highlight this evening include strengthens uh safety language that authorizes proactive staff intervention when student or staff staff safety is at risk. It also provides reimbursement for damaged personal medical devices that might have happened during that intervention. The agreement also establishes a new special education committee that will work to identify and address issues impacting special education staff. That committee's already been hard at work uh this spring and is looking forward to continuing through the fall. Additional updates for the certified agreement include expanded leave protections for employees that are injured by students or patrons,

060the addition of indigenous people's day is a paid holiday and revised variance language for several schools. uh the specific language for these certain schools including central Langston and LHS um address some of the duty-day schedules, collaboration time, IPS um and seal delivery as well as staffing needs. Moving into the salary and benefit side, um in terms of the salary package for the certified team, uh the salary package that's being recommended raises that staff base salary by $6,217 to a base salary goal of the $51,000. Um the way that this is spread out across the matrix is a range. It guarantees at least $3,000 increase for all full-time certified staff members. Um and there's also the application of both vertical and horizontal movement. That's the experience credit. And as folks are moving across the schedule with

061uh graduate credits through the uh matrix as well. And this total salary pool increase um is approximately 8.332%. So the pool itself is going up by just over 8%. That's a total of approximate four $4.6 million. Um after employer costs, that's just over five million. Um moving on to fringe, and this will be the same for both ESPs and certified. So I won't repeat it on this on the ESP side. Uh the district's proposing the transition from that fully insured medical plan in years past to a self-funded model with stop-loss coverage in order to respond to that projected 32% premium increase while maintaining the same provider network. an overall coverage structure through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas. Um to accomplish this, we'll be introducing a new employer paid core PO plan that will be

062um rolled out for full-time employees. It's a $0 cost plan for our full-time employees and we will have the option of buyup plans available at employee cost and the similar structure that we've had vision and dental plans as buyup options. Uh we will have some additional benefit vendor updates as previously shared in the one of the previous approvals at one of the um uh previous board meetings. The agreement also adds a couple of coaching and extracurricular stipens including e sports girls flag football and some cleanup language regarding unified bowling. Uh unified bowling's been in place. This was a cleanup to the actual agreement um that totals approximately $30,000 in additional assignment costs. >> Okay, that's certified. Okay, >> I didn't want to share the percentages just that's something we've historically done of what those numbers

063look like. And for uh certified, we had 60% of um certified staff voting and 88% were yes and 11% were no. So pretty on par. Um it did actually increase um from last year's voting to this year's voting of how many people participated. So that's really interesting to see. Sorry. Um I just um the LEA members of the certified negotiations team are appreciative of the collaboration that helped us achieve some of our goals this year. Uh the biggest win was raising the salary base to 51,000 to get closer to being competitive with surrounding districts. The uh this priority is one that LEA shared with the board and district. It is it uh it was not the only win though. We improved contract language through both safety and workers compensation uh formalization of the special ed

064committee uh and updated a few positions under additional assignments. While LEA celebrates the wins of this contract, kind of like with what Dr. Swift said, uh the team also recognizes there is still work that needs to be accomplished to continue uh improving educators working conditions. While we make big while we made big gains with making uh our starting salary, uh we also recognize that there are still salary cells that are not competitive throughout the matrix. Um at the table, the full team had conversations about duty-day conferences uh differences between elementary and secondary. Uh while no language changes occurred, there's still uh work to do on improving these topics to support educators. For example, the professional plan time is something to uh calibrate for the upcoming school year. Um the team recognizes that the additional assignments

065matrix can be improved with how it is calculated. Um we talked about this at the table. Um looking at different ways that we can maybe improve that model. Um this along with the uh rates for the supervisory and professional pay will need to be a focus at next year's uh for next year's negotiation. Um lastly, the change in health benefits has been a challenge for some to navigate. Um we'd like to continue to work with the district uh on finding ways to have cost savings to staff for their family and for uh individuals. Um the team would like to encourage the district and the board to find innovative ways to continue a district paid plan and find ways to extend those benefits to staff's families. The certified negotiations team, both admin and LEA members, worked

066many hours over multiple months to develop and ratify an agreement that benefits staff and their families. We want to thank the board. We want to thank the district administration for their collaboration. Lastly, we want to share our appreciation for all of our LEA members and staff that supported us throughout this work. Uh LEA leadership is looking forward to continuing our collaboration with the district during the 26 27th school year. again. >> All right, switching over to the tenative agreement with the ESP, the educational support professionals for 2627. Uh the highlights of the proposed agreement um include operational compensation and employee support changes. Some of those key provisions include the creation of a joint professional development committee to evaluate ESP training and advancement opportunities. Some additions in also include the a strengthening of health and safety

067language that allows staff to intervene proactively in unsafe situations and also provides reimbursement for the damaged personal medical devices. Some additional clarifications have also been provided in contract language regarding the seniority process and involuntary transfer procedures as well as expanded leave protections for employees that are injured by students or patrons. The agreement also adds the indigenous people's day as a paid holiday and establishes eligibility criteria for summer holiday pay for qualifying staff for the 2627 year. Uh the most significant uh changes to the contract as stated before are those financial um and the compensation uh components. So, the uh compensation changes include that new wage matrix that increases that ESP base pay from $1546 an hour to $20 per hour with additional wage increases across classifications and some reclassification of several positions into some higher

068pay levels. This total um increases this ESP salary pool by about 11.87% totaling approximately 2.4 million. After employer costs, that's approximately 2.6 6 million. In addition, a salary matrix committee will convene during the 2627 school year to review education credits and longevity considerations within the matrix. Bring this back down to my height. Um, for ESPs, we als uh we saw 53% um of ESP staff uh voting. um yes was 77% and no was 22% which is a higher for no um than in past years. Um so yeah >> uh LEA members of the ES the education support professionals negotiations team were proud and grateful to have made a huge step forward toward achieving a living wage for all USD497 staff members. We are eager to collaborate with the district to make improvements to the salary

069matrix to recognize education and experience and incentivize continuing education and professional development. Bargaining sessions this spring resulted in an increase of $4.54 to the base wage, bringing an entry- level position to the rate of $20 per hour. While that is still below the current living wage in Lawrence, the jump will reduce financial strain on hundreds of district employees who have been struggling to survive. Negotiations also led to safety and workers compensation changes that parallel the language in the certified contract. No longer will ESPs have to use their earned personal leave if they suffer an injury caused by a student, I'm sorry, caused by an escalated student or patron and damages to medical equipment, including eyeglasses and insulin delivery devices would be covered by the district thanks to our contract changes. Additionally, ESPs with nine-month contracts

070who work extended school year will be eligible for holiday pay starting next summer. While LEA celebrates the wins in this contract, the team also understands there is still work required to improve the wage matrix to recognize the importance of experience and the responsibilities of individual jobs. To achieve the $20 starting base wage raises were not consistent across the board. Improvements need to be made to the wage matrix that will change the focus from a oneline job level to a more dynamic salary schedule that allows for staff to increase their wages with years of service and or educational growth. A committee of LEA members and district representatives will use the next year to have open collaborative conversations sharing innovative ideas to create a matrix that reflects our values and offers more opportunities to increase pay. The

071board, the district, and LEA members of the ESP bargaining team dedicated their time and energy to develop and ratify an agreement that benefits staff and their families. We want to thank the board and the district administration for their collaboration. We especially appreciate all the LEA members and staff who weighed in, showed up, and spoke out. LEA leadership is eager to continue collaborating with the district and school board during the coming year. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much everyone for your thoughtful remarks tonight. And I think um the the one piece that I was not um completely clear on, we would always say we would like to settle before the end of the year so that our staff knew um what the compensation and benefits would be. And so again, thank you for

072making that happen because I know that was a lot of leadership and a lot of time. So with that, we'll take any questions. appreciate everybody's time this evening and everybody that's here. >> Anybody have any questions? >> Yeah, I'll go first. Um, so having been on negotiations and Fringe um and spent a lot of time with a lot of you guys, I really enjoyed it. Um, and and hopefully it was fruitful. I just wanted to point out a couple of things. Um, I share the enthusiasm on the certified side. Um, I also feel like I got to swoop in at the end of several years and months of work on behalf of all of you. And uh, so it's not it's it's not my credit. I I I genuinely was humbled by the conversations in

073the room, but um, when we started uh, this season um, we really wanted to hit 50. Um, and the fact that we were able to do more than that, um, was was really something special and that took a lot of pain and sacrifice on the side of the district and a lot of advocacy and conversation on the side of employees. Um, so that was really special to see the um, I lost my train of thought here. the um the health insurance question. I've seen some conflicting coverage and um you know stuff about that and I and I realize that um there is still you know the the employer paid uh plan but then now there are the buyup options um and I wanted to thank the clear direction of LEA for the conversation of of

074pay first and absolutely recognize the hardship that puts on families or anybody that's not just taking coverage for themselves. So I heard from you all um you know next steps are additional assignments um evaluating spaces on the matrix um where um the competition is is lower um you know the conferences scheduling uh professional plan those questions that were brought up at the table um and then discussing more the impact of the um you know the the the various buyup options and health savings. Um so I absolutely heard that and look forward to hopefully continuing those conversations. I think those are all important. I agree with you on that front uh for for next year. I also wanted to um definitely validate what you said, Andrea, about the the um the matrix for the ESP side.

075I think, you know, we had a ve vested interest and in all of us esta, you know, establishing that $20 an hour base pay um getting to the living wage um is is of paramount importance. I also remember and recognize sitting in that room with a lot of people that have been incredibly dedicated to this district um who were not impacted at the same level as everybody else. Um so absolutely am committed to um whatever work I can do to help on matrix committee the the special education subcommittee that was started this time around. Um, I'm just really proud of everybody that was in that room. Um, heard on the on the benefits and the the fringe pain um and committed to those things that you brought up for next year. So, thank you guys

076for all the time that you all put in. That's a lot of really long nights and and really tough conversations, but um I think everybody could be proud of it. >> Okay. Um, so I just want to say, um, from being in this spot for as long as I have, um, this is a milestone to celebrate in the work that, um, I know I've encouraged as a board member, um, the board has encouraged um, the district for many years to do and, um, you know, that we've been pushing for along with, you know, my colleagues here and colleagues that came before them. And so, you know, it's the kind of transformational change in the way that we do business that is really um that we're just beginning to really achieve and see. It's been years

077in the making to get to being able to do this tonight. Um and it really and it happens because we've reached a space where the board, the administration, and our staff, excuse me, are all aligned in the goals that we are trying to achieve. Um, and that's when this kind of change can really move forward. And it is really exciting to see. Um, and I know that it is the culmination of an incredible amount of hard work um, on the part of all of you, on the part of our district staff, the board members who have served on negotiations, um, the many staff members who attend these meetings um, in support of um, all of that work and and those goals. And um I am just very grateful to all of you uh for your

078leadership and um for taking the charge um the shared charge that we've had in this space and uh collaborating and really reaching some significant milestones. So I'm very excited to vote in favor of these agreements tonight. Um and I'm looking forward to continuing the collaborative approach that has allowed us to reach this milestone. um and to see see the change in the successes that we're seeing with these contracts. So, um thank you very much to everyone. >> Rock, paper, scissors. >> Okay. Um actually, I'm going to take a little different spin as I often do. uh when when I as a member of negotiations and I've done negotiations for most well all my time on the board has been as a part of negotiations and what I would say say is I want to thank

079you all everyone involved for the hard work and the dedication uh to the process. my my little different span is is is I'm is looking at where we got to and how we got there. And I want to thank our superintendent. Uh you know when there is a team when your team functions well it usually is because of leadership. Uh so so my spin on this is is I want to let uh Dr. Swift know that we do appreciate her hard work and dedication to task. I think uh when I look at it, I see uh see her structure and helping us take the dream and move it forward and getting us to a product that actually benefits everyone, all of our staff, our administrators, and the board. I think think that we all feel

080good about the work that's done. you did an excellent job. I've said through negotiations and doing IBB and I've said through through the normal negotiation process, what I enjoyed this year most was the discussion um that ideas came from both groups uh that moved us forward to completion. So, I want to want to let you know how important that is and um have enjoyed my involvement. Um for me, I think that's it. >> I wanted to tag up on what you just said, Bob. Like, I think the the coolest moment was was Josh, when y'all were um you know, working on those on those various matrix options, uh you know, right up until the meeting and I couldn't comprehend any of it. Um, and then Megan, you c you guys came in with with those

081incredible calculations and you were doing stuff on the fly that stressed me out. I didn't even have to do it, right? And then we had the Zach math there at the end to kind of taper like just the the expertise and the and the I don't know the the common commitment to that work that you were talking about. I mean, that was that was incredible. So, >> yeah. And it it was that watching Josh and Sarah like the level of expertise that you bring to the table is like is just out of this world and the the ideas you come up with in terms of like how you develop solutions and ways that are so educator centered and thinking about the whole school communities and it just was really I learned so much from all

082of you Emerson. I think I can see now this leadership that you've developed over the course of the last six years and it's just been um such a good learning exercise for board members um and really appreciate the honest conversation. So the expertise is great, but the other really cool thing that happened is there was a lot of new people at the table that were asking like fired up questions that were hard and in our face and really looking at like what can you do differently and how can you be better, including um my board colleague and Andre, you were amazing and watching some of the uh new members at the LEA table um also ask kind of challenging questions that made me have to step back and ask like, well, why do we always

083do it this way. So, I just really appreciated all the opportunities I had to learn from you all and um just echo Bob's sentiments around when you have a highly um experienced district team. Uh Megan, from your years as a teacher to your years leading the the um uh the department now in in the HR department, it's not just that you can manage a spreadsheet like nobody's business like some magic skills you have. It's you're um we're really lucky to have you in this district because you're creative and intelligent and thinking about people. So I really appreciated that. Um and Kristen and Sam are just grateful to get to work and learn from you all. So, um, some years it's not, we don't get to stand up here and say we did a great job.

084And in other years when we've come to the table with this amount of of money, it's been really painful getting here. And there there was pain um, for sure to certain people lost quite a bit for us to get where we're at today. Um, I'm thinking always about next year and how do we continue down this path? uh that seems like an extraordinary challenge without the assistance from Topeka. So, I look forward to staying with you and um continuing to advocate for more money for public education. It really matters and I appreciate all the work that you all do for our kids. Thank you. Um, before we vote, I'll just add, you know, I've I've I think this was the first year. I think I didn't do negotiations my first year, and I didn't do

085it this year. And uh um I'm not going to say I missed it because that would be a lie. Um, but I I will say I missed being in the room with you all because that was during the six years that I did it, as many of my board colleagues said, that was an incredible experience over those years just to watch and and to and to watch that foundation grow to get to this point, to be able to get to a point where um we can have real honest, difficult, hard, painful conversations in the room and then walk out the door and and and talk about our families and talk about our our kids or talk about where we're going to dinner or talk about the weather and and and we don't we don't carry

086it with us when we leave the room regardless of what happens in the room. And it's taken us seven years to get to that point. And I think that's why that's one of the reasons why we're so successful because we can do that. It's not resentful conversation. It's not personal conversation. It's not um we're not taking shots at each other. As Kelly said, we're asking hard direct convers questions because we want answers and we have conversations about those answers and we move forward. and and some years it's been really difficult and and we haven't all been happy. And this year we're still not all happy, but we are incrementally making progress. And everyone up here, everyone out there understands that this is a step in the right direction. We're not done. We will never be

087done. We are just as committed to continue to work with you as you are committed to work with us. moving in the same direction with the same foundation. And so, thank you for your work. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for asking the questions that you ask. Thank you for pushing the way that you that you push us to move us forward. Um, just thank you for your work. We very much value it and and we're grateful that you're here representing tonight. Um, so we'll start with item. >> Wait, can I say something? Yeah. I thought we were going down the line and we kind of skipped around. That's okay. >> Screwed it up. So, >> no, this is Carol. I just would like to thank everybody who was involved. And one of those

088people that's not in this room tonight is Ross, Allison, Natal, and I know I'm forever grateful for them and their leadership and educating me on the the salary matrix. They like I said they I didn't understand some of these numbers that they were shouting at us and we did listen and I remember the night that it would the um the courtyard was so packed full of people who were so passionate about raising the salaries and um the benefits. But um we did listen and we are still continuing to advocate and we thank you for finding with the gaps in services and my board colleague here tonight Shannon Kimble talked about the the report with for the about the social determinance of health. It depends on you who will see this in the life expectancy of

089our community members. The ones who have access to the jobs and education and you will see a longer life expectancy. And we do see I do I know of it all too well of the the mental health impacts of what it takes on our families when you hear the parents in the other room talking about what where they can and can't go for summer break and what they can and can't do for dinner. So I thank everybody here for working on this. So, um just the hours of commitment and I would like to really thank Dr. Swift when we um hired you on this is one of the main goals that we targeted. This is one of the rooms that we this is one of the one just one of the the um issues that

090we wanted you to work on and Samry Devon and Kristen Ryan and Megan Eper. I mean, there's too many names to name. I feel like we're a Grammy Award, but I just want to thank everybody for their deep passion and commitment to this community. Thank you. Thank you all. >> Okay. >> So, I have a technical question. Um the regarding fringe and the um the uh hardships we've heard from folks in terms of in making sure their families have health coverage. One thing that we've seen other districts do um that I would ask I'm just asking for additional um evaluation either in collaboration with LEA bargaining units or just from HR. When we have um two members, when both members of the household are district employees and they have children, um the the burden of

091that uh circumstance is sometimes even it it it's certainly not the case that we don't want to be thinking about other people that are not in a um you know, in a relationship with with um another employee of US497, but the uniqueness of that does stand out to me and it is a way for recruiting and retaining um staff. Uh the hardship becomes very specifically tied to the district when you are a two uh parent family um from USD497 and what is the how many families does that impact and what would the cost be to cover their children if both members cover or both members are covered under um our insurance. So, that's something I've raised before and I think there are a couple neighboring districts that are able to figure that out. So, um

092yes. No, >> we were just literally talking about that today. So, I need you to get out of our brain. >> I >> thank you. We will follow up. I appreciate that. >> So, for item 4.2, can I get a motion? Kelly, >> do you need 4? >> I think we need 4.1. 4.1. >> 4.1. I scroll too far. >> 4.1. >> Board of Education approved the tenative agreement with the Lawrence Education Association on behalf of certified employees for the 2026 2027 school year. The certified salary pool will receive an 8.32% increase totaling approximately 4,620,000 which includes increasing the base salary to 51,000 as well as horizontal and vertical movements. with employer costs. The total cost of the district is approximately $5,6,000. >> I second. >> Could you Blackwood? >> Yes. >> Buyers, >> yes.

093>> Kimbell, >> yes. >> Lancaster, >> yes. >> Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Franklin, >> I am honored to say yes. >> Stones, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. Now 4.2 uh >> I move the board of education approve the tenative agreement with the Lawrence Education Association on behalf of the education support personnel uh professionals from the 2026 2027 school year. The education support professionals ESP salary pool will receive an 11.87% 87% increase totaling approximately $2,480,000 which includes increasing the starting hourly wage to $20 per hour as well as horizontal movement with employer costs and total costs to the districts is approximately $2,680,000. >> I second. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Franklin, >> yes. >> Could Blackwood? >> Yes. Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Kimble, >> again, yes. >> Yes. >> Lancaster, >> yes. >>

094Motion passes 70. >> Thank you all. We have another one. >> We have another one for item 4.3. We just get a motion. >> Oh, yes. I'll move the board of education approve a 2.91% increase to the administration salary pool for the 2026 2027 school year and a one-year credit for experience totaling approximately $22,000 with employer cost. The total cost for the district is approximately $219,000. >> I second. >> Buyers, >> yes. >> Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> D Blackwood. >> Yes. Franklin, >> yes. >> Lancaster, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Kimble, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Yay. >> Great. >> All right. Move on to item 5.1, 2026 2027 meal prices. Dr. Swift. Thank you, President Gordon Ross and members of the board and all those who are joining us

095both in this room and remote. Uh we appreciate the opportunity to bring uh a set of information forward for your discussion this evening. Members, I appreciated being able to visit with you over these past few days about the nuances of our food and nutrition um division. uh we know that students who are hungry uh cannot learn uh adequately and so we take very seriously our mission to um oversee and to deliver quality nutritious meals for our students. Uh we serve approximately 5,000 meals on every school day. I don't know of many restaurants or businesses that do uh that many meals in a day. And uh my uh kudos to Miss Henry who does that beautifully. I'm so proud of our food and nutrition program. uh none of us who uh visits the grocery store uh

096fails to understand the increase in the cost of food and ingredients that go into our lunches. But we felt like rather than just bringing a 15% increase for lunches and a 10 cent increase for breakfast that we wanted to bring a more robust set of background information so that the board and our community and our team have the opportunity to really understand the nuance and the framework from which we bring forward. uh this recommendation. We take very seriously uh any impact uh to our families and we recognize that a family uh with several children in school uh the impact is real. Um and yet we also have a duty and an obligation to carry out food and nutrition services uh without impact to the general fund uh which is our priority to preserve for missionritical

097instruction um and as you have just noted in our prior items uh for the necessity of employee compensation. Uh so we'd like to share a set of information. And I want to thank the members for all of your questions. We've continued to add to this information over previous days up to and including this afternoon. So if you've not opened your board documents recently, uh you might want to recheck them because there's more information uh even now. Uh Miss Henry and Miss Frick are here uh to walk us through. And again board their purpose this evening is background and discussion and conversation. We'll take careful note of all of your questions. Uh we are not asking for any action until the next board meeting on June the 8th. We feel a decision of this gravity deserves

098all of our full attention and reflection. So with that, Miss Frick, Miss Henry, uh give us all the information. Thank you. >> Right, Dr. Swift, members of the board, thank you for the opportunity to come talk to you and give a program overview of our child nutrition programs um so that we can provide the context um as we're contemplating these meal price increases. So, for this past school year that just ended um our team was 79 staff members. We served 246,000 reimburseable student breakfasts and 791 reimburseable student lunches. So, just north of a million meals during this past school year. We operate on an approximately $6 million budget each year. Some participation trends. Uh we've held pretty steady at that north just north of a million meals per year mark since the 2223 school year.

099You will see a slight increase in the 2223 breakfast to the 2324 breakfast of about 40,000 additional breakfast meals. And that was when we implemented second chance breakfast at the two high schools. So that's why you see a greater than average gain in between those two school years. In addition, at our middle schools and high schools, we have students who are able to buy all a cart. So this could be some of our students want to buy just a hamburger, pizza or breakfast entre beverages. And those additional purchases are not included in these totals that are listed. These are just the reimburseable breakfasts and lunches sold to students. In addition to our school meal program, our breakfast and our lunch, we do offer a summer food service program, which Dr. Swift discussed um earlier today,

100and I appreciate that uh shout out and that publicity for it. This summer, we'll be operating for eight weeks, June 1st to July 24th. We will have 22 staff members providing meals to 11 locations. So, in addition to our public-f facing sites, we are also serving meals at the Boys and Girls Club sites at some summer camps that we collaborate with Parks and Wreck. Um, so 11 sites where we're serving summer meals. Last summer, we served approximately 52,000 breakfasts, 1,700 snacks, and 56,000 lunches over the course of an 8-week period last summer. To note, all of these summer meals are paid for with federal summer food service fund dollars. They are not funded by the district. It's all funnels through USDA. We're reimbursed at um what would be considered a free quote unquote rate for

101all of our summer meals regardless of the students um free reduced paid status. So then I'm going to hand it off to Cindy who's going to give some more detail about the uh food service fund and the financials specifically. >> Thank you. Um, our food service fund is one of our many special revenue funds. Um, which means that we're tracking all of the revenue and the expenditures within that one fund. Um, what's unique about food service is it's one of the few special revenue funds that does have its own revenue. Um, and so districts will often um monitor that that cash balance. Um if it were to go in the negative, uh the district would be expected to transfer general funds into the special into food service. Um the same as any special revenue fund.

102Uh but over the last few years, um as we all know, the the cost of food and milk has increased pretty significantly as well as our labor cost. Um this chart is trying to um represent our fund balance. So this would be June 30th of each year. Over the course of time, you will see that um it is fairly common for expenditures to exceed revenues. And so right before COVID, our fund balance got down to $122,000. Uh during COVID there were two years where uh we were able to serve free meals um because of the COVID situation and we received the federal reimbursement for those meals. We'll talk about that here in a minute because it's a little bit of a convoluted topic. So I we have a chart and we'll talk about it. Um

103but we also so we received some money that covered the cost essentially during that time. We also received some extra COVID relief money as school districts did during that time. So that increased our fund balance up to about 1.8 million and then we have started the decline again. Um and so we have increased meal prices 10 cents I believe the last two years. Um, and at the at the rate we're going right now, all things staying the same, we would be looking at having to transfer from general fund into food service within a year or two um, if we don't make some significant adjustments. Okay. And so what I want to talk about with the meal prices, we have three categories, right? We have free meals, which means the student pays nothing and the we

104get the most federal reimbursement for that. Um, I should put a plug in for the free and reduced lunch meal application that comes out every year in July. Um, the uh income parameters change every year. And so that's why we get the new applications in July. Folks will fill those out for the new year. and then every year you need to reapply for that. Um then on reducedpric lunches in that scenario the family pays 40 per meal and the federal reimbursement rate is a little bit less. So in both of those situations our revenue is $5.35 at least for this year. Our mission is to produce a meal that costs no less than $5.3 and a half. We are not supposed to be making money off of this. And so when we talk about the

105cost per lunch, this is an all-inclusive cost. This is labor, wages, benefits, m uh supplies, as well as food um and milk. Uh included in that would be uh equipment repairs. anything that is part of the food service fund. So the only thing that I can think of anyway that is not included here would be our equipment for food service is often purchased out of capital outlay. So that would not be included here. And so we spend on average this year uh $5.7 per meal. So the question at hand is the paid column. We do receive some federal reimbursement for paid meals as well as a little bit of state revenue, but our average meal price for this this year is $3.25. We say the average because the amount is a little bit different for

106elementary, middle school, and high school. And so you'll see that our shortfall lies in that paid column. We can't just decrease the cost of the meal because our standard is the $5 and three and a half cents that we're expected to um provide to the student. And so that ties our hands if you will a little bit from a cost perspective. And so often um you will hear that the paid meal price is x amount less than our federal reimbursement. That is just because of the way this works out. So currently for our paid lunches, we are a little over 90 cents in the hole on every lunch. With that, we would like to propose a meal increase um of 15 cents for lunch and 10 cents for breakfast. Um you'll see the difference in

107the rates there. Reduce price students that qualify for reduced prices would have no change. And of course, um students that qualify for free meals, it's completely free to them. And so, but this would um would account for that paid column. Now, I don't want um this is not a miracle cure. This is just a in terms of our grand scheme of our financial situation with food service. This is not going to perform any miracles. But we are trying to manage that gap between revenue and expenses and not make it and have it not have it get worse over time. I do want to point out that as with all departments, um we're looking at efficiencies. Um Julie is very good about thinking outside the box. Um earlier tonight on the board enclosures was a reimburseable

108meal vending machine. that is a different way to provide uh reimburseable meals to students um at more hours during the day than just what our food service folks could have worked. Um and so there's all sorts of ideas that we're working on. You know, catering might be uh one of those topics. We while we can't make money on reimburseable meals, we can do other things that help provide revenue to the food service fund if that makes sense. So, more to come on some of those changes. Uh we do have some price comparisons to other districts. Uh some have made their changes for next year and others have not. So these were just the most recent rates that we had available when we pulled this. Um you will see that uh Topeka and KCK are not

109listed. Their free lunch percentage is high enough that they are able to serve um free meals to all students and so they aren't on this list. We were trying to compare um the more significantly sized districts both in this area and across the state. And then we've got a breakfast comparison there as well. Um, we would be happy to take any questions. Um, and again, we're not asking for a decision today, but just let us know how we can help. >> We'll start with Kelly >> as punishment. Um I'm wondering if we're seeing an increase of students uh bringing It looks like the meals are the number of meals you're serving is is pretty steady except for some blips that you can correlate to um the let's see wait till you get to that slide.

110Yeah. So you're not seeing an increase of students bringing their lunches for example? >> Not significantly. Okay. And if parents um if families wanted to contact the board over the next two weeks to share how this is impacting them, they just would email school board at >> USD497. Okay. Thank you. >> You go next. >> Okay. Um, okay. Cindy, I know you said that this uh the the recommendation that you are preparing to bring is not um going to fix our our longer term um trend toward a deficit in this fund. Um how much additional time does it add on to um the point at which we've depleted our reserves? I think you said in the slides it was one to two years if we kept going at where we are now before we have

111to start dipping into general fund. Um does this give us an additional year or two or does it just basically keep us from getting there faster? >> Keeps us from getting there faster. Okay. Unfortunately, it isn't going to um help us significantly. It's we're attempting to control um the increase each year. >> So in other words, if we don't do this, we will probably be dipping into general fund even faster. Is that >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. That's helpful. Thank you. >> You have an idea of what would fix the issue? Um, I just have a thing about kicking the can down the road because sooner or later you got to pick the can up. >> Before you jump in there, um, thank you so much, guys. Um, member buyers, I so appreciate

112you raising that question. I'd like with the board to just put a flag in for a fall update to bring a plan forward. Um, and uh, this is a stop gap. It does not solve the issue. We don't want to pretend that it does but we are working on various ideas to be part of a strategic plan uh so that we can correct this as we move through the next two years. I don't mind at all if you all want to share ideas um but I don't want to pretend that we have a coordinated strategic plan finalized. I have some principal and other conversations to dive into and yeah. >> Okay. >> Well, technically if we were looking at that 90 uh 94 a.5 cents is our gap on paid meals. So, if we had

113no other ideas that we were working on, um, that would bring us whole in terms of covering our cost at this time. >> Okay. >> Do you know what the total is? >> Total >> like 94 and a half cents times how many meals? >> Can I can I speak? >> Sure. >> Is it like 700? So, when we look at the number of paid meals that we served this past year and the difference between our revenue and that um that cost, it was in the $325,000 range that we're losing in revenue because of that meal price. >> That doesn't tell me how many are paid. >> I realized as soon as I said it out loud, >> I just wanted to point it out. >> Thank you. Uh, I don't I don't really have

114a question, but while we are on the subject of school lunches, but I just wanted to do a like a a PSA, if you will, for the school nutrition meal support fund account. Again, it's it's holding steady at $1,900 and the goal is $60,000. So, if anybody's listening, they can donate to the school support fund lunch fund. Do we have an idea and if I can phrase it way I'm thinking uh do we have an idea the number of how to increase well not so much see since federal federal reimbursement for for free lunches is 100%. Um, do you have an idea of the is there a number of students that might qualify for free and reduced lunches that don't apply? >> And do you have an idea of how to reach those? >> Great

115point. >> That's a good question. >> That is a great question. And we do not know the people who don't apply who we think would. Um, but we would love any avenue, all support to get the word out about the free and reduced meal application after at the beginning of July to get families to apply. Even if they're not sure if they qualify or not, it doesn't hurt to fill out the application. And then over throughout the entire school year, anytime a family's income situation changes, they can apply. So, let's say they begin the year and they don't qualify, but there's a change in job status in the family, they can apply at any point during the school year. um to help them with that. >> Well, it sounds like a good connection for our

116new family >> engagement. >> Just going to say that and I know we say that on everything, but member buyers, thank you for raising it. I when during co uh we really um pressed for 100% applications. We said to all families, please apply because it just helps everyone if you apply. And I wonder if we just go back to asking could all parents fill out the form just as a a vote of solidarity solidarity if you will you know and um I don't know yeah >> by so we are um with the change in enrollment for this year that we've been working with the IT team on um the application free application will be a step in walking through that process. Um, federally we cannot require every family to fill it out, but we can

117put it in front of every family and ask them to fill it out. >> You mean during the enrollment enrollment process rolling out in July, I feel like we're going to be much better shape this year because of that step. Uh but the mindset of let's all apply and anytime there's a change in the home uh we think automatically of people somebody losing a job or whatever but just any change in the home it could mean that you qualify >> okay Um, I wrote down six questions. Um, but they're probably all about as intelligent as my previous comment. And I don't know that they all need to be asked because you've answered several of them. So, um, my napkin math to start with was like roughly 180 days or whatever. Um, paying full price breakfast

118and lunch every single day, that would be a $45 increase, right? It was I think it was at this year's prices it was $1,08 again roughly. Um, and it would be $1,053. If somebody bought every single day both meals at full price, >> would that be roughly in the neighborhood of correct? >> Let me do my back in the napkin math really quick. Yes. Uh, >> yeah. Yeah. I just I shot high. >> Um, my second question was, and this is just naivity, um, why the different costs for for the different levels of education? Is it smaller kids eat less or >> Yeah. So, the federal meal pattern um is different for the three different age grade groups. And so, um the meal portion sizes at the elementary level specifically are smaller. And middle school,

119it's a little bit smaller, but not significantly smaller. High school also, we offer significantly more entree choices um and have fuller salad bars and and some more more options at the higher levels. >> Thank you. >> So, >> um let's see. I think it was >> I this might again Cindy this might be naivity but um I just wanted to ask about the confidence in 3% federal reimbursement rate matrix to the to the CPI. Um in my previous job they've been less reliable with the CPI and >> I just this assumes that >> yeah we did talk about that earlier today. Um, historically they have been good about paying for this CPI. Um, unlike you know some of our other experiences I think historically they have come through on that. >> Okay. >> Yep. >>

120Okay. So was that roughly you know $40 to $50? >> So uh yeah. >> Okay. Um the other three questions I had I think you guys mostly answered like I I wanted to know about bottom line anticipated impact but I think the answer to that really is the stop gap uh response and that this keeps us from dipping into the general fund partic potentially this year. Um and I know that there are other ideas and things that are not quite ready to you know see the light of day but there are ideas to to address that going forward kind of to Bob's point. So, I think the other questions I had can can um wait until after we get some feedback from from folks like Kelly mentioned. Um and we don't we're not voting today,

121right? This is just information. Okay, that's it for me then. Thank you. Can you talk about your with the um in in part of the report that I don't think is in the slide deck but in the report that's in the agenda you talk about the increase of prices for food for example uh having an impact increase of of labor prices having an increase impact but specifically to um inflation and food and then just trying to remember um we had an impact related to purchasing local um food. Mhm. >> So, can you talk about that and then um this and your uh capacity as a team to continue to provide good quality food? It's something I think Lawrence has done really well in the last 10 years. Um so, I'm wondering if you could speak

122to those things. >> Sure. So to the local food piece, um, traditionally Lawrence Public Schools has been very supportive of of Farm to School and our local um, suppliers and our local farmers and encouraging us to to purchase locally when we can and we want to continue to do that. Um, that can be challenging especially when when at the end of the day price has to be the only decision, you know, only decision point. And so, um, you know, it'll be a part of our our conversations, but we still also want to, we think there is great value in students eating local food and knowing that their food is local and knowing the farms and and the farmers who their food comes from. Um, and what was the other piece? >> You've been able to

123u maintain with inflation of food costs, you've been able to maintain the quality of food that our our students are getting, >> right? Um, and we will continue to do that. We collaborate really closely with our other other neighboring districts that also have our same suppliers. Um, and we compare, you know, I was I've just been working with the Kansas City, Kansas director and their brand of chicken that they've been getting. And because they're large and they bring it in and using those quantities of scale, not only with our district, but with our neighboring districts who have good products that they love that we can um find the way to to get the best prices possible that way and still maintain quality. Um, it's just a constant battle of looking for products, negotiating the prices

124where we can, changing products when we need to, assuming that they meet our quality standards. Um, >> okay. I appreciate that. I I really appreciate the dedication to the quality of food for for kids and for our staff that utilize um our meals. the and so not to belabor it but back to the local food piece we did not lose any funding that was supporting purchasing local foods or there is less money available to purchase local foods for districts. So, in the last couple years, we did lose um there was some um local food for school funding that we got over last year and the year before, and we used that to purchase local beef. >> Um and in this past year, that funding stream has dried up. So, we are no longer purchasing local

125beef. So, we lost that funding stream. Our other local products that we purchase, um our local fruits and vegetables, we uh we have continued that and that's always just come out of the food service fund. Um, so it wasn't any special funding. And then our grains of course are local that we're using in the bakery as well. But since we've always bought it local, we're always buying it local. And the prices we get on that is are phenomenal because those um those mills delivers directly to us. >> Thank you. >> Um, so um can you just give a high level because it's a very complicated answer. So just a very high level answer Cindy of >> what it means if the fund were to go negative and you had to transfer money in from general

126fund like what does what does that look like and what does that mean? Yeah. And so um our special revenue funds uh actually none of our funds are allowed to go into the negative, right? And so as expenditures exceed our revenues, we'll get to the point where say we come to the end of the year and we have an ending fund balance of $200,000. So that means in the general fund as we're transferring money over to everywhere that it belongs, we would be required um to put at least $200,000 in the food service fund. Does that make sense? >> Great. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Just one more off-topic point. I wanted to personally commend and thank both of you. You also were at all the negotiation stuff and had personal attachment to all of that.

127I mean, everybody back there was, but it was a lot of work. >> Thank you. >> So, at the risk of bringing up something that is uh maybe going to be confusing for some folks, I did want to just ask you the question about community eligibility because you mentioned that Topeka and KCK are not on our comparison list because they provide free meals to everyone. um can you just briefly explain why it is that we do not participate in that program? >> Right. So the community eligibility provision is the provision that Topeka and KCK use um to provide universal their their free meals for all of their students. The way that works is it takes an your identified student percentage, which is your group of students who are directly certified for free meals, not those

128who qualify based on free meal applications, but food assistance, temporary assistance for families, those sorts of Medicaid, um those sorts of foster kids, those sorts of things. And then it applies a percentage and a certain that percentage the multiplier is 1.6 six you get the district would get at the federal free rate and the rest you get at the federal paid rate which you is very a very big gap and then the district has to make up the difference from that federal paid rate to the free rate. Um and so to qualify you have to have either a school or the district has to be 25% identified student percentage. We are right around there. Um but financially if we were to adopt C um it would be a millions um to cost for us. So

129I've heard just to confirm I've heard it described at you have to be as a district as a whole somewhere around 62 and a half% of your students have to qualify direct certified. either 62 and a half% of your students are um getting Medicaid or they are getting SNAP um or TANF benefits in their families before financially that federal reimbursement actually pays for the cost of participating in the program. Is that correct? >> Right. 62.5% is the threshold for which 100% of the meals would be reimbured at the federal free rate. >> Okay. Um do you happen to know off the top of your head you said we're at about 25% direct certified? Yes. And we could look up number if we needed to. >> So we're significantly below the percentage of students that we

130would need to have direct certified in order to be able to >> correct >> feasibly participate in the program. >> Correct. >> Because the money the just like this the money would come out of general fund to backfill the shortfall. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anybody else? Okay. All right. Dr. Swift, any closing remarks? >> I just want to thank the board for all of your work. Uh, several things coming to fruition now during the month of June, and that's because we have a board who's hardworking and cares about the work. Thank you. >> All right. Um, any other announcements, Dr. Swift? >> I believe uh we're good and I apologize. I sent the board clerk on an errand, but we can adjourn without our needs. Anybody else have any announcements? >>

131Okay. All right. Can I get a motion to >> I move we adjourn. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. We'll let Nikki know that >> 804. Thank you.