Lawrence Public Schools Board of Education Meeting | April 27, 2026

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> If James comes back They'll do cameras. All right, we have returned from open session with no action to follow. So, we will continue on with our agenda and we'll move on to item 1.5, the report of the superintendent of schools. So, Dr. Swift. Thank you, President Gordon Ross and members of the board, all those who are joining us here in person and remote. Uh, it is Monday, April 27th. Um, we are focused on a strong finish to this 25-26 school year and we've been to so many programs. Members, I know you've been out in the community at schools and seeing all the tremendous uh, progress that our students have made and we feel so much gratitude to our students and teachers, support staff and leaders, our families, partners and community for

002the inspiring work that occurs in our classrooms and schools each day. And we'll share just a few highlights this evening of that work in progress. There we go. Friday evening, what a tremendous evening for our community at the um, at the Lawrence Arts Center, uh, we had just hundreds and hundreds of parents and students and community members to celebrate the annual district art show. These are just a few of the many uh, pieces uh, that were there on display and the event highlighted the strength of our arts programs. And I'm always impressed at this art show. Uh, members, you know well that you can see kinder art uh, moving all the way up through high school art that was exhibited and recognized among 100,000 entries nationally. And so, it's a great night to see that

003progression of arts education in Lawrence Public Schools. Uh, last Sunday, what a delight to be in Topeka for the Kansas Teacher of the Year Regional Recognition Ceremony. We were so delighted to recognize Cordley Elementary's Amanda Carlson, who was honored as a district uh, finalist. Uh, Amanda's own principal Reever described her in a beautiful way to me. She said that Amanda is a warm demander. And I loved that phrase, a warm demander. Her nomination highlighted her ability to support both academic growth and the development of confidence, resilience and a lifelong love of learning in her students. So, congratulations to USD 497 Amanda Carlson on this deserved recognition and for the meaningful impact you make each day in the lives of our students. Uh, the Lawrence uh, Schools Foundation team, as you can see here, was out

004and they have recently earned, they were honored with the 2026 Jayhawk Performance Legacy Member Award from the University of Kansas Department Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences. This recognition reflects the strength of the partnership between the foundation and Jayhawk Performance and the shared commitment to expanding opportunities for our Lawrence Public Schools students. We're always grateful for the foundation's continued leadership and investment in student success. Lawrence High School's um, own Mike Jones uh, band director uh, was recently honored with this year's Lead Center Impact Award. Selected by the Lead Center, the Friends of Lead Board members, USD 497 ambassadors and past recipients, the Impact Award recognizes educators who demonstrate leadership in their field artistic integrity and a deep commitment to arts education and innovation in their work with students. Uh, many of you know Mike Jones' work.

005His impact is evident not only in the strength and long-standing excellence of the LHS band program, but in the relationships he builds and the opportunities he creates for students to grow, perform and find their voice. Mike Jones will be formally recognized on stage at an upcoming Lead Center performance. Well, a week ago on Saturday, many of us were out for our inaugural uh, Blooming Zoom. Uh, it brought more than 130 staff members together for a morning focused on wellness, connection and community. Uh, we were out at the Lawrence Sports Pavilion Pavilion. Uh, the event had plenty of space for staff to engage in a fun, non-competitive activity while connecting with colleagues and local partners. We are grateful to so many sponsors. Members, you have those listed in your report. All of our volunteers and participants

006who helped make this inaugural event a success and a celebration of staff well-being. I just want to give a shout-out to our HR team who I believe arrived around 6:00 a.m. to get us up and going uh, for that event and uh, thanks to the members who were able to be out and I just want to share that there were about a half a dozen creative, innovative teams and we could not pick a winner. So, the HR team will be out tomorrow and all of those teams are now hereby declared the winner. Um, and I do have to share that Deerfield's school supply team, I have a photo of them that I'll send you or maybe that's them on the right there. They were each a separate school supply and then another favorite of mine

007was a team that were the four seasons of the school year, fall break, winter break spring break and summer break. They were all dressed appropriately and when you face them, they would reorganize just like at a football game to make sure they were in the proper chronological order. So, uh, it was truly a great day. Kindergarten kickoff, we've decided we're going to lose the word orientation. Kindergarten kickoff was such a success last Wednesday. Each of our elementary schools created an engaging and welcoming experience to help rising kinders begin and you can see them here in classrooms. They were beginning with connections, comfort, and confidence in their future classrooms. We look forward to officially welcoming this outstanding group of learners for their first day of school come August. Prairie Park has been busy engaged recently in

008a meaningful day of learning centered on Native American culture through hands-on experiences and community partnerships. Students connected with guests from Haskell Indian Nations University, participated in culturally grounded activities, and learned directly from student leaders representing native youth in Lawrence. These experiences provided opportunities for our students to deepen their understanding, to build connections, and to engage in culturally authentic and memorable ways. I wanted to give a shout-out to Natfina Farb, Miss Indian Youth Lawrence, and Lawrence High School student, and Riley Alva, Junior Miss Indian Youth of Lawrence and Southwest Middle School student, who both spoke. You can see them here in the photo. They both spoke to kindergarten and first grade classes about their cultural traditions and what it means to them to represent their community. What a great Thursday night out at Lawrence High School

009CTE Innovation Expo. It really highlighted the diversity of programming at Lawrence. You can see the photos there from engineering, health sciences, to the arts and culinary programs. Students demonstrated their real-world skills through hands-on projects and interactive experiences. The event reflected the breadth of our CTE programming and the meaningful ways that students are preparing for future careers and continued learning. Dr. Amaya and I walked through together and one of the highlights was being able to see the student painters actually painting right out in the hallway. We don't often get the opportunity to see them in action. I wanted to just share our communications analytics. Our communications team is busy every day telling the story of Lawrence Public Schools and I just appreciate their valiant efforts, especially in April. It is a wild ride to get everything

010covered and photographed and posted. Over the past 30 days, you can see Lawrence Public Schools Facebook presence has demonstrated sustained growth and an increase in engagement. The district's content generated more than 158,000 views and nearly 15,000 interactions. That is a 59 and 69% increase respectively. Just to look back at the beginning of the school year at that time, we were at approximately 96,000 views and about 5,700 interactions. So, about 1/3 of where we are now. We really do appreciate everyone who is out there following us as we celebrate student and staff success. We're reaching both our core audience, our students and parents and staff, and we're also reaching our broader community. If you've not done so yet, follow us on Facebook at Lawrence Public Schools and visit for news and updates throughout the year. It's

011hard to believe, but we are just 3 weeks away from celebrating the class of 2026 and finishing this 2025-2026 school year strong. Each of these ceremonies coming up represents the culmination of hard work, growth, and perseverance. We look forward to honoring our students from across all our program as they wrap up a strong school year and take their next steps. I really appreciate the opportunity to share the superintendent's superintendent's report and for the honor of serving the Lawrence Public Schools. Members, as you all are aware, we've been exploring how best as a system, as an organization, to address the rising cost of health care. You don't have to look far. That is a pressing challenge in every organization. As a part of that analysis, members, you've been doing the work along with Ms. Frick, who's

012coming now, to look at this idea of self-funding. So, we've asked as a part of the report this evening if Ms. Frick would just give us that basic explanation. As she's coming to the mic, I do want to remind everyone that this part of our work is not something that our staff members or those who get their fringe benefits with us would ever even know about. It really is a kind of a back of the house function that we're looking at in order to be more efficient and more effective with our resources. So, Ms. Frick, you're on for this concept of self-funding. Thank you. As we've been learning about the self-funding process for the last six or eight months now, um we have gotten a few questions and I just wanted to help sort some

013of those out. When there are a couple different types of self-funding and one is which you are 100% at risk for all claims that come in. The other type of self-funding is fund buying insurance to cover certain large items. That is the type of self-funding that we would be talking about. We are looking at buying stop-loss coverage both for an individual who might have high claims and an aggregate. And so, there is a maximum expenditure that we would have. Now, under self-funding, Holmes Murphy has an actuary that goes through and calculates our estimated cost. From that estimate, our claims could be a little less, our claims could be a little more. What we do have to accept with self-funding is there will be an ebb and flow to this and we will have to kind

014of reanalyze every year and look at any modifications that may need to be made. But I just wanted to to kind of provide a summary. So, you know, fully insured is what we have been doing. That is paying a premium to, for example, Blue Cross Blue Shield of a set amount each month regardless of what our claims are. So, this new method is literally hiring a third-party administrator to process the claims. They would give us a summary on a weekly basis and we would reimburse them for payment of those claims. And that is why our costs will ebb and flow. Um And so, we are fully insured for workers' comp insurance right now. It's just a much smaller number, so we don't worry about that too much. Um And so, one of the things that

015puts us in a good position, first of all, you guys know our insurance costs under fully insured have gone up 2.1 million a couple years ago, 1.8 million last year, and we were estimating about 4 and 1/2 million for this year, which is why you know, we took that big step back and said, "Okay, who are we partnering with as a broker? What are the recommendations that are coming to us? Do we have all the ideas that could possibly help with this health insurance situation?" Um and so, since >> [snorts] >> when the district asked us to become more financially stable, one of the funds that were listed in that goal was the health insurance reserve fund. And so, at that time, the goal was to um have a minimum of 1 month's premiums in

016that health insurance reserve fund. And so, that and that has grown a little bit over the last few years. So, that puts us in a good situation, actually, to take on um self-funding at this time. Um The other thing about self-funding, we will when you move from paying premiums every month to paying the claims, there's about a 6-8 week lead time in terms of processing those claims. And so we will for that first 6 or 8 weeks starting September 1, we would have some expenditures that all of a sudden we are not paying out. If that makes sense. Um and so we will use that money to increase the the health insurance reserve fund, which will just help with this process. Anything else I can help with on on that understanding? Can you um Can

017you I I understood the the this is back-end um information that you're explaining to us tonight. So the self-funding piece. There may be some changes to your fringe. We're still negotiating those items. When would the um staff hear about the other changes that might be coming based on the fringe committee's recommendations? When will they get the details on that? I don't know if you can answer that or if Uh I think very soon. We had a fringe benefit committee meeting uh last Tuesday. And it was presented to that crew. I think everyone's on the same page that we can proceed. Um plans are not solidified yet. And so it may be a week or two. Um but I would anticipate this is going to move pretty quickly. Um yeah. Okay. So the um between the

018negotiations committees and the work that um HR department is doing and that you're doing, staff will hear um what changes there might be within the next few weeks and certainly before they leave for the summer. >> Yes, I believe so. Okay. Thank you. And that is correct that the the front-end user will have no they will not feel this change from fully insured to self-funding at all. They will have an ID card, they will have a plan, they will know what the benefits are. So this is strictly a back-end processing change. Yeah. Do we have any other questions? All right. Okay. Thank you. Is that it? Okay. All right. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Moving on to report of the president of the Board of Education. Um Uh mine will be brief this evening. On

019Tuesday, April 21st, there was a Lawrence Schools Foundation board meeting. Uh unfortunately, I was unable to attend. I just wanted to acknowledge that it did take place. I was uh participating in senior night for Lawrence High girls swimming and diving. On uh Thursday, April 23rd, I stopped by the open house for uh Lawrence um Kiwanis at uh Johnny's West. Uh they meet there monthly on Thursday. Um they meet there weekly on Thursdays for lunch and they're a great organization. Um and then later that evening, I went to Lawrence High to participate in Showtime. Um unfortunately, the weather on Thursday night had different plans for Showtime. Um I just wanted to give a shout-out for the the people who came on Thursday night for Showtime and for the Lawrence uh administration and and staff who were

020there. Uh we started late uh because of a uh tornado warning. And so all the participants um and all the the patrons who were there to watch, we spent about 45 minutes in um designated tornado shelters in the building. And we were we had a great time. We we got to know people, had great great conversations and then they started the show um about 45 minutes late. And then about two acts before intermission, um there was another tornado warning and Dr. Honis came and told us that they had to cancel the show because of that. And we most people waited out the tornado warning and then we went home. And so I just wanted to give a shout-out to the fact that while people were disappointed in what happened, we've all lived through Midwest weather.

021And so we understood that it was nobody's fault, nobody was angry, nobody was um belligerent, nobody was upset. Everybody just rolled with it and we all just moved on with our evening and tried to stay dry. So I was I was I was happy to see that and was was great. So I know uh two of my uh children went went back to see the full show. I am unfortunately was not able to make it Friday or or Saturday night. And then lastly for me, the only item on consent uh from facilities is approval of a solar project for Woodlawn. Uh the district selected Brightway Solar and recommends approval of in the amount of $85,947 with a 10% contingency of $8,594.75 for that project. Can I ask a question about that project? Yeah. Um Well,

022I know that Woodlawn expressed an interest in um potentially exploring being a community school. There was discussion about um centering environmentalism in that in that building as well. Will there be opportunity for this to be part of the curriculum or to build something larger? Um Dr. Swift, if that's something that we could find out, I'd really like to hear about that. I would love that. Thank you. Yeah, we can look into that too as well from a facility standpoint. Okay. We'll move on to uh board committee reports. Matt, we'll start with you. Yeah, on um on the 15th, attended ESP negotiations. The 16th, certified negotiations. Uh the 21st, fringe and the 22nd, ESP negotiations. I know um Kelly and Bob uh were were at most of those with me. So um think we're making progress.

023Um Cindy talked about the recommendation uh you know, what to be forthcoming from fringe and all of that. So don't have more to add besides that, but it's nice to make some progress. Kelly. Uh I'll just add that uh negotiations primary focus right now is wages and I look forward to the conversations this week to see if we can get to a joint agreement. Bob. Um Um Okay. Um Do you have any board commentary, Bob? Uh Yes, I'll see uh did did attend the Lawrence High Showtime. I did it on Friday. No tornado, so I was so it was it was good. Actually very enjoyable. And if you have the opportunity, I think they're having another show tomorrow night. So if you have the opportunity in the community, it was very enjoyable. A lot of

024talent. Uh also uh had the opportunity to walk 2 miles for the Blooming Zoom. Uh which was which was fun. I remembered remembered my old math teacher saying the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. So as I turned that corner, >> [laughter] >> thought about, you know, just kind of cutting across the field. But Shalonda was there and she kept me on track. So >> [laughter] >> um see, other than that, I also following um following negotiations, I did attend a CTE expo at Lawrence High. And again, very talented students. Uh And actually uh the culinary was delicious. Uh see. And that would be it. Yolanda. Um yes, I did attend the attend the Blooming Zoom. I I had a great time as well. I think it was the first time I

025did 2 miles in about 2 years. So um I'm glad for the opportunity for that. Uh just to remind the board of our participation in the pride parade, it's on June the 6th. I am still needing uh shirt sizes for you. Uh Matt, we do have our own personal person that makes our shirts for us for for the board. And then um I don't have I don't have a date for the Juneteenth parade, it's June the 20th, but I don't have a time when we're supposed to meet up. So they should be getting in contact with me here pretty soon for that as well. But other than that, uh and then um I uh kind of live vicariously through my granddaughter Saturday for LVS's prom. I had no idea LVS did a prom, but um

026she attended her very first prom and her brother was her escort. And so uh we had a great time with that. So I had a lot of videos and stuff to uh just the live through. And she was so shocked at how many kids that she knew actually that attended LVS. So it was a nice meet and greet with them. They had a masquerade ball theme. So it was pretty cool. And so she was excited to see how many people that she knew in town that actually attended LVS. So I'll just update colleagues that I am subbing on the fringe committee. Uh so I'll be there Thursday after announcing that I was no longer on fringe, I'll be back. >> [snorts] >> Anything, Matt? Uh briefly on Friday, um got to go to the Lawrence

027Arts Center um and and look at the art and see some friendly faces. Um and that was really cool. My son's favorite part were the was the student film uh exhibition that they were showing there in the corner. Um and then the next day, uh got to walk over to Roar Fest, um which was super fun that we got to go this year and his favorite part was the plant. Um, he's he's checking on his plant every morning, um, in the snow cone truck. Nice. All right. Thank you all very much. Um, we have a retirement. Uh, yes. >> [clears throat] >> The Board of Education would like to thank the following people for their years of dedication and service to Lawrence Public Schools. Sherry Horn with 16 years, Mildred Trent for 23 years. Congratulations

028on your retirement. Thank you, Bob. We'll now move on to the consent agenda. Consent agenda items are those that are considered routine and are adopted by one motion unless any board member or the superintendent requested an item be removed. The item or items 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. Byers? Yes. Lancaster? Yes. Gordon-Ross? Yes. Franklin? Yes. Jones? >> Yes. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Um, before we move on to item four, I'll turn the time over to Dr. Swift. Thank you, uh, President Gordon-Ross and members of the board. I just wanted to thank you for your support and, uh, to share that, uh, Mr. Potter will be sending out an

029announcement now momentarily. I placed a little packet by each of your places to just share how tremendously excited we are to name Dr. Amanda Founts as lead principal of College and Career Center, uh, in CTE in Lawrence Public Schools. This is a redesigned position from within our administrative FTE and we're really excited, as you all recall from Dr. Amaya's presentation at last board meeting, we're really excited to realign our CTE pathways across all of our schools. Uh, these were materials that Dr. Founts brought as a part of a robust interview process. I love her three points, every student, every future, every path. So, uh, this is a first step of many to come and I just want to thank all of the folks who participated on several rounds of interviews in a robust selection process.

030Thank you, members. All right. We'll move on to, uh, item four, new business, English Language Arts adoption. Very good. Dr. Amaya is coming, uh, members, as you know, we are, uh, looking, um, uh, at a robust English Language Arts curricula adoption, kindergarten through eighth grade. It was just at our last meeting that I was so inspired, uh, by alongside you as we were listening to our vision of high-quality instructional materials and the support that that will mean for our teachers as well as, uh, high-quality instructional materials as a lever for equity in our achievement work. Tonight, it is our great honor to bring a solid recommendation, uh, for CKLA kinder through fifth and also sixth through eighth. And this will ensure exactly the vision that Dr. Amaya was sharing with us last board meeting. It

031will ensure high-quality instructional materials, a system for this very critical place of early literacy, reading and writing, kinder through eighth grade, really a structured literacy approach, so we're attending to the very foundation of literacy. Members, I always work to be fully transparent >> [snorts] >> and I want to do that with this opening this evening. Um, it is true that our sixth through eighth ELA, uh, materials were on their regular adoption cycle. It is also true that as we've been evaluating our reading scores in the intervening years since the prior adoption in 2022, that we've witnessed, as you well know, members, uh, a flatness in the scores overall and quite frankly, a widening in the disparities that trouble all of us in equity work. So, um, I do want to note that in 2022, February

032of 2022, CKLA was the first choice of our teachers at that time, um, and in fact, you will see in Dr. Amaya's presentation that it is the only curricula that meets expectations, earning all green. You'll see the slide coming up in the EdReports under a rigorous review process. This is the gold standard for early literacy instruction, um, and we are moving, uh, as you all have noted, a little bit ahead of the end of that cycle for K-5. We feel like, uh, when we know better, uh, we need to do better. And so, uh, our early conversations with teachers are that they support this move and I want to give a shout-out. We value our teachers and their feedback and, uh, we want to make this right. So, I appreciate the support of the board,

033uh, as we discuss this this evening and Dr. Amaya is bringing the the hard work. I just had the opening warm-up. Dr. Amaya. Thank you. Good to see you, uh, this evening, board. So, uh, I'm happy to present a possible adoption for K-8 Amplify and so, sorry. Okay. Um, there are several reasons for adopting K-8 ELA curriculum, but tonight I want to highlight three key priorities. To establish coherent and consistent literacy approach K-8, to ensure all students have access to rigorous standards-aligned instruction in grade-level content, and lastly, to enable the district to monitor standards through common curriculum embedded unit assessments. The purpose behind these priorities fit within the enhancements we discussed a few weeks ago. As a reminder for the 2026-2027 school year, teaching and learning aims to create a coherent system, a consistent learning

034experience for all students by maintaining a guaranteed and viable curriculum, implementing high-quality instructional materials, and expanding our balanced assessment framework to monitor grade-level standards. Adopting an aligned K-8 ELA curriculum directly supports each of these priorities. So, let's start with CKLA. In the spring of 2022, the district adopted Benchmark Advance 2.0 after piloting both Benchmark and Amplify CKLA. The pilot teams vetted both curricula and ultimately recommended Amplify CKLA. However, due to additional considerations at the time, the district administration brought Benchmark 2.0 forward to the board for approval. Board members, we now have a window of opportunity to strengthen and better align our K-8 literacy program. I'm bringing Amplify CKLA forward to ensure that our K-5 literacy and ELA curriculums provide a structured literacy approach that systematically develops decoding, fluency, vocabulary, background knowledge, and comprehension, and then

035builds on those foundational skills through complex texts, evidence-based discussion, and analytical writing aligned to grade-level standards. Our elementary teachers also have clearly expressed the need to tighten our approach to literacy instruction. In a document I shared with the board, nearly 90% of grade-level teams indicated support for the adoption of Amplify CKLA. ESSA tiers of evidence established under the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015 defines four levels of research quality for educational programming, ranging from tier one, strong evidence, to tier four, demonstrates a rationale. These tiers help districts select evidence-based programs and ensure curriculum quality. Amplify CKLA CKLA K-5 is rated as an ESSA tier one program. Research and efficacy studies indicate that CKLA meets the highest level of ESSA evidence standards. The program aligns with the science of reading and studies show that students using

036CKLA demonstrate significant gains in reading outcomes. As Dr. Swift noted, EdReports is also a well-respected independent organization that reviews K-12 instructional materials. Districts nationwide use EdReports rigorous evidence-based criteria to evaluate curriculum quality. As shown on this slide, CKLA K5 earns a meets expectation rating across all gateways. Also, at the time of its review, CKLA K2 was among the few programs to receive all green ratings in foundational skills gateways and continues to maintain all green ratings in areas today. Sorry, I'll back up. Uh next, we were also, as Dr. Swift mentioned, in a actual adoption cycle for uh middle school. And uh middle school is uh labeled Amplify ELA 6-8. So, you have CKLA and then Amplify ELA. The overall recommendation process for ELA 6-8 began with the initial vetting through respective third-party sources like EdReports

037and What Works Clearinghouse, that's the same as ESSA. Data collection included classroom observations for implementation insights, collaborative feedback from teachers that uh field test of the materials using the LPS ELA curriculum vetting rubric, and direct student input gathered through interviews. When I stepped into this position last July, the middle school ELA leadership team had already been established and had begun vetting curriculum materials. They were ready to move into piloting by August. By fall of 2025, the team selected My Perspectives and Amplify ELA for piloting, and all middle school English teachers had the opportunity to informally explore both programs as a process got underway. This spring, two middle school sites conducted field tests of both curricula with teachers receiving training, support, and coaching from both My Perspectives and Amplify to ensure clear understanding of implementation and

038accessibility. At the conclusion of the piloting, a neutral district level team analyzed the collected data and recommended Amplify ELA to Teaching and Learning. At the same time, the recommendation team reviewed collected data. The Teaching and Learning Department also evaluated each curriculum for vertical alignment across grade levels and the quality of embedded intervention and supplemental resources. The team examined whether the adoption of either curricula could reduce the district's reliance on current supplementals, creating potential alignment opportunities and cost savings. On this slide, you can see just a quick snapshot of the curriculum elements evaluated on the left. Both programs meet the criteria for high-quality instructional materials and would positively impact student learning. However, when considering additional factors such as vertical alignment, stakeholder accessibility, the parent hub that I'm going to talk about in just a second, and

039the need for supplemental resources, Amplify ELA is more comprehensive and is better suited to address address the district's 6-8 core curriculum needs. Like Amplify CKLA K5, Amplify ELA 6-8 meets expectation in every gateway in EdReports. Here are a few quotes from teachers K8. Teachers consistently noted that CKLA includes built-in scaffolds, structured routines for phonics awareness, decoding, and vocabulary. They also spend less time supplementing with the additional resources and more time focused on core instruction. At the secondary level, teachers reported that implementing Amplify ELA has significantly reduced the time spent on planning, grading, and assessment. They also shared evidence of student growth, particularly in writing, students' ability to identify and use textual evidence, and increased confidence in engaging in academic discussions about complex texts. The uh Amplify also supports the Amplify Caregiver Hub, which is dedicated

040is which is a dedicated online resource portal for parents and caregivers offering guides, tutorials, and tools to support their child's learning with the Amplify programs. The hub provides clear instructions for accessing digital content at home, understanding lessons, and reinforcing key skills such as phonics, reading comprehension, and content knowledge outside of the classroom. The support directly reinforces the district's commission commitment to partnership and engagement with families. Up here, board, you have the total cost for a K8 purchase of $1,162,988 to be paid for out of the textbook revolving fund or curriculum adoption fund. This fund can only be used for the purchase of curriculum-related items. In the next item, you're also going to see a request to purchase uh curriculum-based professional learning or job-embedded professional learning for 1 year for a little over $140,000. Um I

041do think it's really important to bring to the board year to year uh professional development purchases and not purchase multiple years so that we can assess where we are in our implementation of curriculum and so we can redesign our professional learning year to year for what we need to tailor it towards. This is a quick kind of run down of the phases for uh transitioning into next year, how we will start to implement uh both CKLA and Amplify ELA. This is just one example of uh five different supplementals, and some of these are yearly costs, some of these are estimates. The first two are estimates because we do our own printing of these materials, and uh PD is building-based, uh but these are just five examples of supplementals we currently use in our uh elementary

042classrooms to support current curriculums. That would be if we adopt CKLA, would replace all of these supplementals. And I don't have a closing slide, so any questions, I'll be happy to to answer them. Um I have a few and um and we talked about them a little bit uh earlier, but I'll just I'll just go one at a time and um let anybody else chime in. So, uh thank you for for bringing this. Um totally recognize the the need for, you know, literacy instruction that scales. So, um I you know, I'm familiar with this and and it and it seems like a great opportunity. My first question, um just a slide or two ago, you you mentioned um training and building capacity. So, you know, May focusing uh on on building leadership and teacher leaders

043and things like that. Um and then, you know, moving into August, training the the teachers before the start of the school year. Um you know, I just wanted to get a better picture of what that kind of training might look like. I know there was the $140,000 professional development uh request um to go alongside that. Um any kind of summer opportunity to engage um you know, these things can kind of live or die by how well prepared people are to use them. So, I was hoping you could speak to that a little bit. Yeah, um when adopting high-quality instructional materials, they I 100% agree with that statement. They do live and die on implementation. So, they're not uh people have to implement them with some kind of integrity. So, the implementation and the development piece

044is so important, which is why the packages that we're purchasing are primarily what I would call a job-embedded curriculum-based professional development. So, we're going to bring in people to coach coaches to coach teams that can go in and coach teachers year-round in this implementation, not broad vendor professional development where they come for 2 days, 8 hours, and then leave, and then we implement. It's it's ongoing um what I would call cycle training. Uh to to start that work, it's so important to make sure that uh building leaders are on the same page with what we're investing in and how to implement that. So, we always start with building leaders, and um then in the summer, we're going to offer uh and I don't have quite have the details, but we will offer a half day

045for building leaders and probably teachers, early implementers, who want to just learn about, see the curriculum, um understand the structures that are behind that curriculum, those that type of work. There's also an incredible amount of asynchronous professional development uh with this product as well. And so, we're going to work with the company to put together, um, what we feel are the best asynchronous training opportunities for teachers. So, videos that they want to watch, things that they can, uh, essentially dip their toe in the water a little bit, uh, but they don't have to go searching for it. Uh, and then in the in August is when we will do what they call the certification training, and that's your traditional training for all teachers of this is how you get into the curriculum, this is kind

046of how you work your way through it, these are the structural pieces behind it. Um, one thing I want to emphasize with the board, and this is again a shift with high-quality instructional materials, is they're designed for people to, uh, to change how we collaborate with instructional materials. So, they they have a term for it, it's called internalization. And so, a lot of it is about getting in, learning the curriculum, learning why they have instructional routines embedded in it, learning why they deliver why the learning progressions exist, what the pacing looks like, all those types of pieces. Uh, it does not take a lot of traditional development. It takes a lot of internalization. And so, it changes how we collaborate and how we plan, uh, moving forward. So, I call I would call all of

047that job-embedded professional development. Um, I just need I need an explanation on some funding questions, but I prior to that, since we were talking about, um, training for educators, I noticed on one of your that slide all K through, uh, eight sped, um, and title and ESL staff are trained. We did have a, um, communication today where there was questions about the inclusion of special education, um, students and teachers within this curriculum, and you you uh, had a response that I think explained how you thought about that, uh, how that um, what what the incorporation was in the decision-making around this particular curriculum, and I'm wondering if you could share that with the board so that people can hear it as well. Sure. Um, so, for me personally, the adoption of any curriculum, uh, special

048education, ESL students, multilingual multilingual language learners are at the forefront of my mind when we adopt, because uh, what is critical in any of these types of curriculum is that we are getting a strong core. Um, right now, a lot of our issues, as I've talked about when we talk about high-quality instructional materials, is we're supplementing multiple pieces for phonics, phonics awareness, for what we call core. Um, and it creates alignment issues that disproportionately impact our highest-needs kids, right? And so, uh, our special education department understands this, and so they understand that the more consistent we we can become in a classroom, the more that we can tailor instruction to support grade-level content. The more we can do to plan, uh, more appropriate intervention. Uh, this product in and of itself has amazing supplementals that

049we may in the future come to you to purchase. They have boost, they have I can't remember the exact name, but they have a language learners center is what I'll call it, but it's a it's an it's a phenomenal ESL support. On top of all the differentiation, they have like six levels of differentiation already built into the core. So, um, they and uh, I will say I'm pleasantly surprised with the Amplify in and of itself, they are more than willing to come in and tailor to our district, so design with us. So, if we want to if we're having if we notice holes with our high-needs populations, they'll come design with us and think through that process with their curriculum. And that actually relates Thank you for that explanation, it's really helpful. That relates to

050my funding question. So, that you mentioned, um, that the funding the money that we will be using to, if we vote to affirm it, is, um, dollars you can only use for curriculum. You are not allowed to apply that to wages, for example. This is money that is designated for curriculum, must be used and spent on curriculum. So, similarly, when you're talking about how you might augment the curriculum for things like special education or for, um, ESL, are those is that different money? Do you use title money for that? Or, um, if that comes back in front of the board, what might that look like in subsequent >> Yeah, it could be, uh, special education has dollars for things like this. Um, ESL has title funding, we have at-risk funding for that. Um, so, yes,

051a bunch of different, uh, buckets that we can supplement with. >> Okay, so that it would be possible to add on to this in a way you if we are strategic about those funds that would also not have an impact on on what our wage goals, but might, um, address some of the concerns that might emerge for special education. Yeah, and I have I have the I truly want us to we have to get our core right. So, we have to get, um, we have to get that piece right, and then we will come back to the board with, uh, we don't we don't want to purchase intervention like all of our kids need intervention. So, I we'd have to get better at understanding who needs what intervention and how they need it. And so,

052we're going to work on that first, and then once we have a better understanding of that, and we have a better, um, intervention process, we will bring a more appropriate number for a purchase of something like that. Thank you so much. Yep. Any else? Um, I think you covered most of the rest of the questions I have through, um, responding to Kelly. One was about, you know, supplements for, um, the the the teachers have been using successfully, but I heard what you said about core, and then, um, looking at those supplements a little bit later on. Um, the support for struggling students, I know, um, was a thing that we we talked about over the the email response, and and you addressed that as well. Um, the funding, I guess just a just a curiosity

053question, like it on the My Perspectives versus Amplify, um, side by side, since they both, you know, met objectives or whatever, I noticed, uh, that My Perspectives did have vertical alignment 6-12, and Amplify had K-8. Um, I think I know why, but could you explain a little bit why you go one way or the other when you're looking at alignment. Obviously, nothing's K-12, but yeah. Yeah, I uh, it's just, um, I would say in our teaching and learning department, we have conversations about this. We really got to we we have I believe in a K-8 alignment, I'll I'll just say it, I'll own it. Um, that you have to build a tight progression of foundational skills that lead into high school rather than a 6-8. Sometimes, if I had to pick where we want that

054tighter alignment, it would be going from really pre-K to eighth grade, uh, as tight as possible, so that, uh, you have consistent learning progressions, vertically aligned standards, uh, similar instructional routines, all those things that I talk about. I think that's, uh, probably a more, uh, a higher priority of an alignment than a than a 6-12. Um, and yeah, that's probably really the reasoning behind that. And so, Amplify just does that better than My Perspectives. Thank you. Yep. Okay. All right, we have two motions. We have a motion under item 4.1 and a motion under item 4.2. So, we'll do 4.1 first. Can I get that motion, please? Uh, I move the Board of Education to approve the purchase of Amplify CKLA K through 5 and Amplify ELA 6 through K or 6 through 8 in

055the amount of $1,162 and 690 Uh, what did I just say? I said that wrong. Here's $1,162,698 paid by the curriculum adoption fund. And I'll second. Jones? Yes. Franklin? Yes. Gordon-Ross? Yes. Byers? Yes. Lancaster? Yes. Mo- Motion passes 5-0. Okay. Can I get the motion for item 4.2? I move the Board of Education to approve the one-time purchase of Amplify CKLA K through 5 and Amp- Amplify's ELA 6 through 8 professional learning in amount of $140,900 paid from the title two budget. Second. Byers? Yes. Gordon-Ross? Yes. Franklin? Yes. Lancaster? Yes. Jones? Yes. Motion passes 5-0. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Meyer. Okay. We'll move on to item 4.3, transportation update. Invite Dr. Engelbrecht to join us and turn it over to Dr. Swift. Thank you, President Gordon-Ross. I appreciate Dr. Engelbrecht and Ms. Frit coming forward.

056Uh, since the very early days of my time in Lawrence, I've heard from parents, from students, and from staff, uh, the opportunities that we have to continuously improve our work in transportation. Um, so, that has been a theme. Uh, everyone agrees that we want safe transportation. We, uh, really want customer service and prompt communication with our parents and with our staff. And as you've heard in all of our prior discussions tonight, we want to hammer efficiencies that will allow us to do our work without exorbitant increases. So we have heard those opportunities from the earliest days. As you know members, we've been reviewing behind the scenes to see more of our systems opportunities. To align for greater effectiveness and greater efficiencies. And it is with that spirit and that framework that Dr. Engelbrecht and Ms.

057Frick began the work about 8 months ago to really go about this process of seeing what were our opportunities with transportation. I just want to give you and your teams a shout-out for all of the roll up your sleeves kind of work that has gone on to bring forward this recommendation this evening. The recommendation that the team brings forward is a company that I have worked with for almost a decade. I can tell you that I have the highest level of confidence in this recommendation. And yet I will also share that this recommendation tonight is the starting point. We have a lot of work to do to refine our systems with transportation in the district. So we're not declaring anything done. This is the opening point of the next 1 to 3 years of solid

058work to get us where we want to be. So with that Dr. Engelbrecht, you're going to walk us through. Yes? I will begin. Yes. President Gordon Ross, members of the board, Dr. Swift, thank you very much for this time and this opportunity. I'd like to start with the beginning slide there that this is a partnership. And as Dr. Swift said, the beginning of a partnership. A partnership that has a lot of work ahead of it, but a partnership in which all members of that partnership are willing and quite able to work towards developing strength and continue focus on student safety and service to our students, our parents, and our community. You saw this quote and I thought it was a good one to bring forth and I changed a little bit so I didn't put

059the young lady's name on it who made this statement. She's very close to you right now. >> [laughter] >> School bus drivers are the people who transport children, our children, our students to their future. And that's very important for us to think in terms of that. This is the first contact 1800 plus of our students will have each and every day is with their school bus driver. I thought about that last week and I realized elementary school I walked to school. Junior high school I walked to school. And I dated myself there. It was not middle school, it was junior high school. At high school I began riding a school bus. And Vi, our school bus driver, is one of the people I think about quite often. Interesting, she was with us for 3 years

060in high school, again dating myself. But she's one of the people that we started every day with and we ended every day with. And I still think about what a positive impact that was. Even though at the time I did not realize it. I think I am stepping on Ms. Frick's uh slides here, but I did want to bring this one up and say that we focused on safe, reliable, and dependable transportation. Improvement of communications between our district and the bus service and parents and the bus service and the district around student transportation. A third thing that we looked at and it was not the primary thing. I will point this out. But the ability for us to begin to improve the efficiencies to our budget. Not just for this year, but in partnership for

061years to come. And that will be spoken of a little bit this evening. I do need to say thank you to a couple of people. Two who are in this room right now. Uh Paula Moresh and Cindy Frick. And a third who is in the building but assigned to duties this evening behind the scenes helping run our uh communications out, uh Shawn Hanson. Tirelessly and many, many long hours these individuals supported this ongoing process. It was not a short, it was not an easy process. And there was a great deal of work. So I'd like to make sure to say thank you to them. We have two additional parts and our part will be short so that you have the time this evening to meet the individuals representing Durham this evening and to hear from

062them. But our next part is from uh Cindy Frick to give a brief overview of the business case for this recommendation. Cindy. Thank you, Larry. Like Larry said, this has been quite a process. Uh Paula and Shawn started this work uh back at the beginning of the school year to compile all of the current facts as we know them so that we could go out and do some competitive um proposals. Um and that was a It's just a very comprehensive process when you're thinking about something as detailed as transportation. How many buses, what size buses go away or pick up how many kids, etc. Um and so from that process we did receive three proposals. Two of those proposals were fairly competitive price-wise and one was not. And so in December we invited the two

063more competitive proposals. We uh requested those company come back and do a presentation. Uh we had a committee that evaluated these presentations and it included some district employees that represented special education and technology um and some of the elementary schools uh as well as finance and the transportation departments. So we felt like we were trying to get all the perspectives in the room at the same time. Um As we were completing those presentations, it became pretty clear that we were not going to contain our cost with the way things had been done before. So we had to take a huge step backwards and kind of reevaluate. And think about where can we find efficiencies even for 26-27. And we will talk about some of those things here in a second. Um but we were able

064over the next couple months to come to terms and are ready to make a a recommendation to you tonight. Um so at this time we would like to recommend um to partner with Durham. Uh like we talked about some of their main priorities, of course, are student and staff safety. Uh customer satisfaction they are rated pretty highly in. Um and along with some experience of our team, uh we also talked to one of the surrounding districts that has been with them for many years. Um their focus, of course, is uh service to the students and the parents. And during our preliminary work the last few months and a routing study, a couple routing studies that were done, we are ready to reduce um eight routes at this time. And the agreement with Durham that again

065in the fall of 26 there will be a comprehensive route study analysis to um ensure we are doing things as efficiently as possible. If we complete that route study in the fall, we have time to make any potential adjustments for the next school year. So we would bring back any recommendations to Dr. Swift and potentially the board at that time. A few enhancements with this contract. Let me back up for a second. Uh this was the last year of a 5-year contract that we had currently um were wrapping up. And that is why we were looking at, okay, what is the next contract going to look like? Um So as we enter into this new contract, some of the efficiencies that we figured out are if the district provides or pays for the fuel instead

066of the contractor, we save a little bit right now in terms of taxes that the district doesn't have to pay. But in the long run, if we went to purchasing bulk fuel, there would be even more savings there. Um we mentioned the efficiency and the routes, um air conditioning on all buses, and enhanced technology uh through some improved communication systems and real-time tracking for the buses. A few other things are included in this contract. Our Durham is is going to do a uh wage increase for bus drivers of a dollar fifty an hour and up to two thousand dollars per employee for a signing bonus. They do have a uh employee benefits package. Um and another big efficiency is instead of leasing an external facility, we are going to utilize our bus lot our bus

067barn uh sorry, utilize the F&O facility as the bus barn. And we have a lot to figure out there, but we are going to do it to save us a couple hundred thousand dollars. This agreement is a three-year term with two optional one-year extensions. That would be Durham and us agreeing to extend for each of those one-year extensions. They will handle the buses, the drivers, the bus monitors, and the full-time employees that they will have. We will pay this contract. Um it's estimated to be approximately 6.8 million for the first year with an annual increase of 4%. I say estimated because the reality of student transportation is we're going to pay on a per bus basis every day that they run. And so it'll depend on the activities that are happening. It'll depend on exactly

068how many routes we're running, etc. Um this between the 6.8 million and us paying for fuel on our own, that total is very similar to what we're paying now. Um so it took quite a while to get here, but I feel like um in terms of trying to control our cost, we have done the best that we could during the time frame that we have. And we will continue um to try to do better in future years. Uh so here with us tonight are representatives from Durham. Uh Brian Gibson is the VP of operations. Ken Pittman, uh director of business development, and Mike Reynolds is the regional uh manager for this area. And this will do this slide. Go forward. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you,

069Cindy Larry, Dr. Swift, Board of Education. Thank you so much for allowing us to present tonight. Um one of the things I've heard quite a bit that that you'll hear from from all of us here is uh partnership and transparency. Um I'm the region manager over our locations Missouri and Kansas. I actually just uh live 20 minutes from here on the Missouri side. Uh so this is a location that we've really been looking at and we're so excited for this opportunity. Um I'll kind of go over broadly our uh vision and our mission and then towards the end kind of get uh to the bolts of it. I understand we're one of the last presenters here, so I understand my role uh and that's to get you guys out of here fairly quick, so I'll

070I'll try to do so. Um but we uh uh strive to set an industry standard. Um safety is something you'll hear from us quite a bit. All of our decisions are based on safety first, and then once that question's answered, uh we look at at the communication and uh work with you, the parents, drivers to make sure uh that we're making the right decision. Um and something else that you said that we talked to our our managers and our drivers all the time that we are an extension of the school day. So as Larry mentioned, uh our drivers are the first person that kiddos going to see for the day, the first opportunity for a smiling face that kiddo might see for the day, and the very last. So we need to embrace that and

071and make sure we're setting our standards high for employees uh to to make sure we are inviting and giving the kids a good ride home after school as well as safe. Um we uh don't aspire simply to be the largest. Again, safety and uh partnership and transparency is what we aspire to be. We do commit to being the most dependable and the times that we give your district and building leaders, as well as your parents, that is what we strive to do and that's what we'll be accountable to each and every day. Um that last point at the peak, there is no ambiguity, only performance. Um and we will work with your district and your building leadership to show how we perform because not only will uh as I'll talk about later have surveys and

072make sure we're we're soliciting feedback at all points from from district uh and building and your parents, but we measure ourselves multiple times daily. Um as everybody knows we've had about a severe weather, our goal is to make sure all of our buses, regardless of the location, we have a 98% standard minimum standard to make sure our buses are on the get to school in front of those doors on time. And if for some reason, whether it be weather, uh other events outside of our control, we make sure we communicate directly with you, but we also want to let the parents know, hey, if our bus is going to be two, three minutes late, no one's waiting on us without proper communication. And then through our technology that I'll talk about, parents will be able

073to track their kiddos bus uh and understand what's happening uh on any specific day. Um our mission, again, very similar to our vision, we provide safe, reliable student tran- transportation that your community can trust. And families can depend on and plan their day around. Uh whether that be a warm day or if it's been similar to the days we've had in December the last couple years in this area and it's been super cold, we need to make sure parents and kiddos aren't waiting outside for us that we're there on time. And again, if there's an issue that we communicate proactively, so they know how to plan around us. Uh with that, we bring operational uh discipline. Uh we train our people uh very strongly. We have some other local uh locations that are very successful

074in this area that we will leverage them to come here to make sure that uh our local team gets proper uh um leadership and and management, but uh again, as a region manager, uh you're going to see me or your your district leadership and your building leadership will see me uh quite a bit as well. Um we commit to being part of your community. And I I strive and I hope and we will push to make sure that you as board members see us as a part of your community because we we don't take this opportunity lightly. Uh we have a lot to prove and to gain your trust, and we we want to be a part of the Lawrence, Kansas community. Um again, on the benchmark, I I I love this sentence. Um our

075student transportation is one of the most critical services a school district provides, yet it remains one of the most fragmented. And as Larry was talking, um it reminds us of 30, I'll say 20 years ago for Larry when he was riding the bus, um how it hasn't changed over the year when you go to years you go to some schools um or or districts. And and when it's time for us to step forward and provide the necessary tools to our drivers, to our management, and move transportation forward. Um and again, as we go into some of our value add, you'll you'll see that as well. Uh but at the very bottom point here, clear accountability uh and financial stability, and we will look for opportunities to to be efficient uh as we're here. Um that's

076something that we've already looked at quite a bit, but as we after we have a great school uh start next year uh and get your routing information, we will continue to work with your district and see what other ways can we be efficient again to be a good partner with your school district. Um part of our process is all of our employees, specifically our managers, but our drivers, monitors, they will receive customer uh service training uh because that's that's what we call our locations. We don't we don't say the Lawrence, Kansas location. It's the Lawrence, Kansas customer service center because we need to providing excellent customer service not only to your building and your district leadership, but to your parents and your communities as well. So when they when they call the bus barn or

077they need to speak to a manager, that there's a friendly voice there that's going to be helpful and provide uh the information that they need. Uh we also provide and we're going through this as a company right now, uh two formal surveys because we again solicit a lot of feedback because we want to know what we're doing well and what we need to improve upon as well. Um so you will continue to be hearing from us on that. Um we also, depending on the districts and and the one I think was mentioned the other one in Kansas, we we tailor specific surveys to building principals uh so that we get feedback from them, what they're feeling, what they're seeing, what they're hearing from parents, so that we can um we can strive to to be

078better tomorrow than what we were today. And then again, ongoing uh communication with myself and our vice president, um uh you'll see us quite a bit. And that is why we have been able to get a 98% customer retention rate over the last several years because we understand the importance of customer service. Um some of this might be redundant uh just about kind of where we're at, but um I live in the Kansas City area. I've had several new locations to help start up, train new drivers, new employees. Uh our vice president, Brian Gibson, uh same. And as a large company, we have a lot of corporate resources that we will bring in here to make sure that this location doesn't feel left alone, but they they get the necessary support to be the safest

079mode of transportation in the state of Kansas. And that's one thing that I will say, it'll say Lawrence Public Schools on the side of the bus. There'll be a small spot on the a corner where it say in partnership with Durham School Services. And my promise to you is if it when you see Durham on the side of the bus it will be the most safest mode of transportation of any any vendor, any school district in the state of Kansas. And then Traversa, the the routing platform that we will use here, I think that's going to be a springboard to allow us to be able to continue to show efficiencies that your district can take advantage of in the very near future. >> [clears throat] >> Um just a little bit about how we'll how

080we plan to staff location. Obviously, we'll have a general manager that we expect to be an integral part of your buildings and your principals and your district leadership should be able to call that person and get the information they need at any given time. Um they'll be hopefully your transportation director for the district. Operations supervisor will handle the day-to-day operations of buses, the planning, and so on and so forth. We'll have recruiters, a safety supervisor at the location, two dispatchers that we can not only communicate with drivers, but also be there if a parent has a question at any given time as well. Um and then obviously, our maintenance program we we take a lot of pride in so that we can provide consistent buses each and every day. Um the part that I really

081like talking about is the next part of some of our value-added benefits. So, we have GPS on all buses and this helps us multiple ways. One, it allows your parents to track where a bus is at and where and relation to their bus stop or activity. But it allows our dispatchers to see if a parent calls and wants to has a question about where a bus is at, they can immediately look at our routing platform and see where that bus is at compared to schedule to make sure that we're on time. Um obviously, it will help us be more efficient to reduce fuel consumption. And then with the system on board, it's set up that the drivers and do their child checks each and every day. And we put a lot of training behind that

082because we do never want to leave a child behind on a bus. Um the exciting thing that we're diving into now that we've just recently upgraded our fleet is our Samsara in-bus solution. So, not only does this help our drivers manage student behavior because it gives our management team an eye inside the bus at any time. Our managers can pull video from a bus, coach our drivers. It also is looking at their speed. It's looking at their behaviors, whether they don't have two hands on the wheel, or if we have zero tolerance obviously for any mobile devices and distracted driving. And this gives us real-time opportunity to see that in in cab. And so, we don't have to wait for something to happen that we can consistently coach our drivers to better behavior. Um And

083then My Ride K-12 and Traversa is our routing platform that we'll use here. My Ride K-12 is an app that your parents will be able to download, again track their buses. It allows our team to push notifications, whether that's be uh maybe a snowy road and so buses will be running 5 minutes behind. Again, giving that proactive communication to your parents and your community. Um so they can plan on us. And then Bytecurve, our operations system brings all these systems together. And whether it be a dispatcher, a router, our general manager, or operations supervisor, they can literally see where a bus is in in relation to their schedule. On the screen, you can see a map. It maps out exactly where they went on the any given day compared to what was actually planned on

084there. So, if a parent or a building administrator calls and says, "Hey, I heard that the bus didn't make the stop or or missed the road." Well, this gives us an eye in there to be able to communicate again hopefully beforehand and make sure we're correcting that behavior. I went through a lot really quick cuz again, I do understand our spot at the board meeting. But do you have questions for myself or our team here? Sorry. So, I have I have two real quick. And and and you may not know the details. So, I will preface it that in the real world, I'm a software architect. So, I'm an IT guy. So, one which is not related to this software thing is the second question. So, we are by far not the biggest district you've

085probably ever done or even the biggest district in Kansas, but we are diversified enough that we have in-town routes, we have rural routes, and sometimes based on weather or other circumstances, you know, the the road conditions and and the things can vary greatly across the district. So, the first question is is just experience even just local about managing that when when we're trying to start school and you've got some buses that run fine and some that that that that don't. So, again, we'll partner with the district ahead of time. I'm going to give you a generic answer then I'll jump in there. We're going to partner with your team ahead of time to try to work out if if you can go to school, but there might be some roads that we can't go down,

086we can communicate with parents ahead of time. However, one of the I will say one of the lessons learned out of COVID was not knowing if you're going to have a driver here tomorrow, if they were a close contact, what that might be is table top exercises in planning. So, one of the things we do typically in or September after school starts is we start doing some table talk table top exercises at our locations like if we have snow hit at 7:00, we know the Kansas Department of Transportation will maintain these roads, these will be secondary. What is our plan? And so, one of the things I didn't mention too was that part of our proposal, we have tablets on the buses so our drivers have turn-by-turn directions. And and it's not a paper route

087sheet like our dispatchers can say this road's closed, we have to reroute you this way. And they can literally push that to the tablet to try to give the driver a better idea of where they need to go based on the current road conditions. With Samsara and and Zonar, our GPS provider, we can overlay our routes with current weather patterns. Unfortunately, we've had to do that a lot in the last couple weeks and make sure we're avoiding certain areas that are under warnings or watches. So, I'm probably not answering your question directly. >> No, you are. But it it's a lot of planning and communication ahead of time. And then when the actual event happens, that's when we have to go over the top and communicate with your parent with your with your district, your

088buildings, and your parents so they know what to expect. >> Okay. And then my second question is with with your various software platforms, do you integrate directly with student information service or assist to to pull in student data automatically? And then currently within our system, we do we schedule field trips and things like that. Traditionally, until just recently, bus request was a was a three-part triplicate form. And and so, do you do software integration so that like if a building schedules a field trip, is the is the bus request part of the the 21st century? So, [snorts] your first question is on integration, yes, we do. Our programs do integrate with your student information system. Sometimes we have overnight drop-ins on on information coming in. And I I to say that we'll do that because

089that's a district level decision if they protect the data to go in there. So, there's other ways around that to even download from Excel spreadsheet and put in there just to protect your student information. On your second question on for instance, field trips, our same platform your buildings will have access to and we'll put a hierarchy in there so a teacher or a coach can request a trip electronically. That will go to some level of approval within the district. And so, once it's approved, it'll come directly to us. Our team will then be able to pull it down in the software. Put a driver, put a bus on there, approve it, and then that communication goes right back to whomever you want to. And so, we typically don't use any paper and pencil on our

090activity trips because there's just a lot of them. And and and we're having one system that can that can do all that for us, it makes everybody's life easier. Thank you. Um first, thank you guys so much for the presentation on tonight. And don't worry about our time, we were voted in to take as much time as we needed. Um And a lot of my questions you guys did answer. And then GR asked a couple of questions that was floating through my head. So, thank you so much for being in tune with me on that. One of the things I wanted to know is our notification with our current drivers. How do they how are they notified that they will be going up under a new sort of speak administration or moving to a new

091company? Thank you for that question. That's that's one of the main I mean, besides meeting you and being here for this important night, that's one of the main reasons that all three of us are here together is that we have a plan in place. We're working through some of that still, but this is the first initial public notice. Then we're going to be in contact with through Larry and Cindy with all of those drivers and we've got meet and greets set up here using your facility this week. What time are those set up, Mike? >> Uh 10:00 to 10:00 to 2:00. 10:00 to 2:00 on Wednesday, Thursday. >> Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday and Thursday. And then tomorrow, if everything is approved, then we'll start our advertising for our first job fairs. And the incumbent drivers

092will have one-on-one scheduled interviews at 30 minutes at a time where they can come in and do the paperwork. So we'll take high-level priority on those. We We call them VIPs. And then obviously we'll be our national system, our corporate team will help with the recruiting and that's where those job fairs will come into play. Thank you. You're welcome. I really I want to say to Cindy and Larry, I really appreciate that you had a committee together when you were looking at these proposals and that you included people from different disciplines. One of the things you said that stood out to me is the same question I asked about the curriculum, so I'll ask here. Can you tell me a bit about how your drivers are trained? I heard you say it. I just want

093to hear I I need to hear it clearly as a board member. Can you talk to me a little bit about special education and how you are thinking about students getting on and off the bus and the training that you do for your drivers as it relates to those students who we are thinking about in this case even more than we might some of our other students. >> Yeah, no, absolutely. So we We have a multi-phase training program. Well, obviously there there'll be our initial fight training program for all drivers whether you have a license or or whether you do not to go through the state required training. And then we have specialized training for special education students. And it's mainly around the behavioral pieces of that. How to secure the wheelchairs down, what's our

094procedures on who gets off the bus for a wheelchair ramp, who stays on the bus and how that process works. So we do that initially. Then we have monthly safety meetings. All of our employees will attend monthly safety meeting meetings and we'll invite some of the staff from Lawrence to come to those whether it be their special ed education teachers or some of their diagnosticians to help us go through those meetings and assist with additional training. And then our startup process in the summertime, we have it's an event. I mean, I 4 hours to 6 hours meeting and again a lot of those special education topics will be brought up during that time. So some of it's online, some of it's in person, but training is one thing that we are not short of. Okay,

095thank you. Yeah. Um echo thank you guys for being here tonight and for all the work that's gone on to this and I have a couple for Cindy and Larry after, but thank you to you as well. My questions kind of echo what GR was talking about around uh data and the tech side of things. So and they these may be naive questions, but I want to ask them. The tracking buses feature you were talking about the student information systems and the link up and everything. I just want to be clear like How do I ask? Can anybody track any bus? Or does it have to be linked to? It has to be linked to their student. So the way that it signs in will all work together with your IT department to decide if

096that's going to be a student ID or what specific criteria they have to have to be able to get into that system. And then once they're in that system, they're only tracking the bus that their student is on. They can't see any other buses at all. So yes, there'd be 50 parents that have access to that one bus to know where that one bus is at at all times. I appreciate that. I mean, yeah, I think it makes sense, but just Oh, absolutely. >> things I've I've have seen regarding bus I I appreciate that answer. The second question was about the Samsara, the kind of bus monitoring platform. I was curious about the data storage there, you know, the video storage. I was curious about facial recognition software, AI analytics, any of that stuff going

097into it. Could you break down a little bit of what that Sure. No facial recognition for sure without a doubt. The software is I mean, it's AI generated, so it there's no person monitoring that. It's all based off of the software that's put in there and their criteria around it. So for example, if a driver yawns, for example, then that'll send an alert to us saying that that we need to look at that driver for possibly being drowsy. So it gives us those There's cues in there that it's going to look at. If there's only one hand on the steering wheel or they pick up the 7-Eleven cup and they're drinking while they're driving down the road, then that's drinking and eating while driving. So it sees all of that information. It can count students

098on and off the bus for us. So that is something that Samsara is doing only with Durham School Services at this moment. So there are advancements in that technology like that, but right now there there's no face facial ID and there's no plans for there to be. Does that analytics capability does that extend to the students or is it just focused on the driver who's, you know, agreed to it as >> It's just focused on the driver. It It will alert us if there is a So Samsara is immediate alerts. So if a driver's out driving the route, we know they have an issue before they are even pick up the radio usually cuz it's sending an alert immediately. But student behaviors, it's not heavily focused on that while we are moving to a more

099student focused, but it's live video that I can pull up at any point in time for our team, only people that have access to it. And we can observe the bus. We do check rides through it where we can see live what's happening instead of a We do on bus evaluations as well, but being able to get on there and see You hear on the radio a lot of noise. So then you hop on there real quick and say, "That one's out of control. We've got some student management issues that we need to work through." Do we as a district maintain what we can toggle on and off as those develop as as those you know, capabilities become developed? Yeah, if there's something like, you know, facial recognition, anything like that that would be something

100we would definitely want everybody to be involved. >> facing is you know, what what your employees, you know. >> Yeah, yeah. So and it it is a It's a a retention system of 30 days on all the video. And that video is available. We can email it. We could A lot of people don't like email, that's a bad word sometimes when it comes to video, but we can put it on thumb drive. We can do whatever we want to with it. Just the location management staff can do that. Um for the purpose of tracking a student, is that tracking any bus that that student is on? So if they're on a field trip, could a parent track that bus as opposed to >> It is only for their assigned route bus that they're assigned to.

101There are options. And those are things that we offer. It just It wasn't in the initial plan as far as the cost standpoint. Z pass where you have a card and you scan it on and off every time you get off the bus. No. Thank you for the clarification. >> very much. I just want to acknowledge that this is more for Cindy and Larry and Dr. Swift and ELT generally that the work you've done here in transportation and the work you've done in fringe so that we can control costs and better predict what you know, what we might incur from year to year allows us this year when Topeka did not do right by this district or any district in the state to consider wage increases for our staff. So I really want to say

102how much I appreciate this work, how important it is and it's nice to know that we're collaborating with companies and brokers that have are thinking about our students and our staff while we're doing the work to save money to realize some increases in wages for our staff. So thank you for that work. Thank you. Matt, did you have additional questions for Larry and Cindy? Um yes. And I just want to reiterate one more time that tracking feature and all the things um just concerned about that. So not enough to, you know, sway the whole conversation, but those are those are top of mind to me. Everything else sounds great. I echo the appreciation you know, y'all have done next to the impossible in in a in a very hostile climate. I was just curious. Does

103this have any impact on any kind of relation with the city? I know they are with First Transit now Transdev for student was, you know, kind of operating independently after that acquisition, but do we Is there any impact with with the city? We are not aware of any impact with the city and it is not within our contract. Thank you. Oh, and I really like using the FNO building that that that at the beginning that you talked about, you know, not being reliant on an external facility. I really I know it's going to be tough, but that's that's amazing. All right. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for your presentation. Yeah, go ahead. Matt, you mentioned a minute ago you know, sometimes negotiations are hostile. Not once in these eight in this eight-month

104process when I met with Larry or Cindy or we talked to Shawn or Paula, was it ever hostile? I mean, we talked about a lot of ways to become more efficient. And Mike and I sat in the meeting room at the operations department for about four or five hours one day going back and forth. What can we do? What can we do? What can we do? It was very amicable. So, you have four all-stars here that I hope you realize that. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Um can I get a motion? I move the Board of Education to approve the agreement with Durham School Services. The agreement will be a 3-year term with two optional 1-year renewals. Estimated cost for the first year is 6.8 million. The agreement calls for annual increases

105of 4% each of the following years. Funding will come from the general fund, special education fund, and FY 2026 capital outlay bus lease funds which cannot be used for classroom salaries. I second. Jones? Yes. Lancaster? Yes. Franklin? Yes. Gordon Ross? Yes. Byers? Yes. Motion passes 5-0. Any announcements? We're good. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else have any announcements or anything before we adjourn? No. Can I get a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second? Yes. I second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? I. Thank you, everyone. That was a good night. Thank you.