Lawrence Public Schools Board of Education Meeting | March 23, 2026

001You can ask Kristen's here too. Okay. Okay, I'm going to call to order the March 23rd, 2026 board of education meeting. Can I get a approval of the agenda? >> I move the board of education approved their agenda for its March 23rd, 2026 meeting. >> I second. [clears throat] >> Buyers, >> yes. Gordon Ross. >> Yes. >> Could you Blackwood? >> Yes. [snorts] >> Franklin? >> Yes. Lancaster? >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> All right. We'll move on to the next item, the report of the superintendent of schools. >> Thank you, President Gordon Ross, and all who are gathered here in person and those joining us by remote. Well, welcome to the beginning of fourth quarter. Uh we are so delighted and very grateful to all our students, staff, parents, and community uh as

002we work together to finish strong this 2526 school year. Uh you'll notice here Macy uh parents, there she is. um Southwest Middle School 7th grade student um on an outstanding performance at the Sunflower State Spelling Bee where she tied for fourth place. This marks Macy's fourth year competing at the state level representing Douglas County after winning the county spelling bee. Now Macy is novice. She is a fourtime consecutive Douglas County Spelling Bee Champion. It's an extraordinary accomplishment that reflects sustained excellence over many years. She told our team uh that she continues to carry with her a favorite lucky word and that word is porcelain. This is the word she spelled to win her first county B when she was in fourth grade. She also said that competing has taught her to work hard and definitely

003expanded her vocabulary. So, I guess on the drive home tonight, we'll all practice spelling porcelain and see if we can uh meet Matt uh Macy's expectation. Secondly, uh Prairie Park Elementary brings Olympics to their learning. They recently brought the excitement of the Winter Olympics to students through an engaging crosscurricular experience in PE and art. In PE, students participated in creative Olympic style events, including curling, bobsledding, hockey shootouts, and Prairie Park originals like figure skating relay and airless air hockey. Students demonstrated strong sportsmanship while representing their classrooms in friendly competition. In art, students extended the experience by creating Olympic torches and painting a mural of the Olympic rings, helping bring the spirit of the games to life throughout the school. This innovative approach highlights how engaging hands-on learning can connect creativity, movement, and global awareness. Liberty

004Memorial uh Central Middle School just wanted to highlight their career day uh com uh featured both community professionals and student presenters. So local professionals including an archaeologist, a nurse practitioner, a chemist, criminal investigator, photographer, social worker, and others shared firsthand insights into their careers, providing students with realworld perspective on a wide range of opportunities. In addition, students presented their own research on careers of interest, highlighting fields such as pediatric medicine, interior design, psychology, authorship, and more. This combination of professional insight, and student voice created a meaningful learning experience that helps students begin to envision their own future pathways. Congratulations [clears throat] to Free State High School students for their outstanding performance at the DECA State Conference. And you can see their names here, Neil Allen, Ruth, Carter, Grace, and Dale. Uh we're also extending appreciation

005to business teacher Kimberly Hawks for her leadership in supporting these students. Their success reflects the strength of our CTE programming and student dedication to excellence. Students across Lawrence represent represent at the state chess championship. Lawrence public school students demonstrated strong performances at the Kansas Scholastic Chess Association state championship. That was on March 14th at Emporia State University, led by Dwight Sowder, sixth place finish. Lawrence High School earned second place in 6A. Many students from across the district also earned individual recognition at the state level. We extend our appreciation to coach Phil Wedge and each staff member who supported student participation in chess across our schools, including our very own Lorie Greenfield, who's here with us tonight. Community Connections at Pinkney also participated in career exploration recently. Nearly 20 students participated in hands-on career exploration experience

006at community connections at Pinkney as a part of the district's longstanding partnership with project search. So our students engaged with partners from Lawrence Memorial Hospital, the University of Kansas, completing skill assessments and learning about potential internship pathways. The experience is designed to help students identify strengths to build their confidence and explore meaningful opportunities as they transition into adulthood. Since the district's partnership began in 2010, Project Search has provided more than 140 students in Lawrence Public Schools with the valuable workplace experience and job placement opportunities. This continued partnership reflects our commitment to inclusive realworld learning experiences that prepare all students for success beyond graduation. Project Search is just one of many programs housed at Community Connections at Pinkney, including the district's community transition program, Catran Secondary therapeutic Programs, Suspension Alternative Program, and the Community Connections Bakery,

007as well as the Lawrence Public Schools clothing and shoe closet. Since 2021, Community Connections at Pinkney has supported more than 200 students across these programs. I'm sure that uh member buyers will include it in his report, but we were delighted to be over at community connections with the um equity advisory group uh last month and we got to check in on the updates at this campus. It was really great. the week before break to be out for two important uh input sessions focused on the future construction planning at Langston Hughes Elementary. We had a really great meeting, Dr. Inglebrick and a group of our architects and I had a really great meeting with the staff and then also uh with their site council. We were able to engage with dozens of staff members and parents

008to hear about the most pressing needs at the building and really vision with them what the enhancements need to be at that campus. These conversations brought to light several key themes and priorities around safety, building access, space and flow, student and staff spaces, as well as ensuring that program and learning spaces are large enough to accommodate the students who are enrolled there. We know that students learn best when they feel not only a sense of pride and safety in their space, but they have equitable access to instruction in appropriate learning environments. We're grateful for the thoughtful feedback and partnership with our Langston Hughes community as we continue planning to meet the needs of current and future students at Langston Hughes. board members, you're aware, but I think we should connect the dot to to really

009mention that we're using that expansion which is required based on current enrollment. We're using that really to develop a model, a template for what the future of elementary uh school campuses should look like. And so this is an exciting opportunity. I called the Langston team not only to work with us on their own behalf for their school, but to work with us to set the bar and expand on what the future of elementary campuses should really look like. And they accepted that challenge. Just want to share with you a few of our third quarter analytics. I appreciate the communications team putting these together. Uh since the start of 2026, Lawrence Public Schools has shared more than 100 stories, updates, and celebrations of student and staff success across our website and social media platforms, generating over

010650,000 views. Our direct communications with families remain strong. I'm really proud that that March 12th superintendent message right before spring break, a lot of folks were probably tempted to skip out on it uh because it came right before break, but it was viewed more than 18,700 times with an open rate of 62%. That's a really high rate of open. Uh well above the 32% benchmark in the education sector. Links within the message were clicked on hundreds of times, which means that our readers were reading at a depth of not only opening their messages, but actively engaging with the resources that we provide in the message across social media platforms. Our content drives meaningful engagement. Our top performing post reached 45,890 views and generated 685 interactions including reactions and comments. I want to note um that

01176% of those viewers were nonfollowers of our pages. So we really are expanding our outreach. This demonstrates our ability to extend our district sort storytelling beyond our immediate school community, our parents, students, and staff. These res results reinforce the importance of storytelling and highlighting the experiences of our students and staff members as we work to ensure that families and our community remain informed, connected, and engaged in the work of our schools. I do want to mention right at the close of the superintendent's report um that we have heard from members in the community, the Free State High School community. And I just want to be clear uh with folks that uh Dr. Ingleick and I have been working uh through the day today. Uh we do have uh once the board gets through your work

012uh this evening looking at the track project at Free State High School uh we do have our next steps in mind to work with our administrative team at Free State High School. We do hear the concern uh about the uh timeline and graduation exercises. And so I want to assure the board and our Free State community that we'll be aligning very tightly. Dr. Ingleick and I uh plan to be back in communication uh with with the Free State community before the end of the week. So, uh, just a reminder members, I know you're aware, uh, what you're considering this evening is really the project, but it's impossible to think about the project without the timeline getting in there. So, I wanted to just clarify. Uh, part of what has occurred is we were feeling very

013deeply committed to notify our parents that we might need uh to adjust that graduation date. Um, and we're not making an announcement on that tonight, but really just saying we're getting back to the table with the contractor and ironing out the wrinkles that we see that are there now. So stay tuned for that. I do have uh, Mr. president some words around administrative rep uh appointments and I'll ask if you would to just tag me back uh at the right time when you'd like to hear more about those. Um want to thank everyone for your support of our 10,000 students, your support for the teachers, support staff and leaders who serve them every day. Thank you for the opportunity to share the superintendent's report this evening and for the honor of serving the Lawrence public

014schools. Thank you. >> Anybody have any thoughts or questions before we move on? >> Okay. Um my report this evening will be uh brief. Uh, I did just want to mention when you started with uh Macy parents, I I also just add that she also comes from a long family line of of spelling um greatness. Um, I believe she's the fourth parents um uh sibling to to participate and and rank highly in um both uh district, county, and state spelling bees. if if I'm correct. If I'm not, I'm sure I'll I'll hear about it from my wife when I get home. Um but uh yeah, they've they've all done fantastic. Um just a just a couple things. Last uh uh on the 10th, I was able to attend the Lawrence Schools Foundation board meeting. Um,

015and we tal talked a little bit about um the progression of scholarships and um different plans uh for over over the over the summer and um kind of just an update on the structure of the the the the board and and just how things were set up. So that was that was um interesting experience and continue to to learn as I serve on that on that board and grateful for that opportunity. Um and then uh also tonight a couple items on the consent agenda. Um we have an architectural visioning and planning support services um through ACI Boland um for a uh contract amount of $42,000. And then we also have an asphalt and con contract maintenance improvement um for a total amount of $365,92181. Um and so with that, I'm going to turn it over

016to Shannon for legislative and state updates. Thank you, GR. Um so we have entered the last week of the regular legislative session. Uh uh this Friday is what's called uh first adjournment. Uh which means that uh they were supposed to have all of their floor work done um on bills that needed to go through the chambers by last Friday and then this week they go back and forth in conference committees trying to iron out differences um and uh finish up their work. They'll adjourn on Friday. um they'll have a break until uh April 9th. 9th, 10th, and 11th are the veto session. So that's when they come back to town um and take the opportunity to override any vetos that the governor has made um in the meantime. So that's where we're at. So it's

017get getting down to the end. Um [clears throat] budget conference committee started to meet uh last late last week. Um unfortunately don't really have any good news on that front. Um the at the start of their meetings, the House position on new special ed money was $10 million. The Senate position was $6 million. The House had $16 million for the mental health intervention program. Uh the Senate had zero dollars in their budget for the mental health intervention program. Um as it stands right now, uh the conference committee has agreed to $6 million in new new funding for special education for next year. um which was the lower of the two positions. Um the uh mental health intervention team program uh one house has a position now of somewhere between four and five million and the

018other house has a position of 12 million. Now as I'm saying this, this could have all changed this afternoon because they did have another conference committee meeting after I was leaving the state house. So I don't know if they've agreed to anything on that yet, but when I left today, uh they were still trying to hash that out. It was not zeroed out, but it was not going to be $16 million. Um, they have included zero new money for teacher professional development, mentor teacher, or national board certification programs. Um, I do want to just highlight how disappointing the special ed conversation in particular is. And um you know this this has been a topic that has been litigated um throughout the last uh 25 years at various times and back after the I'm trying to

019find my email. I'm sorry. back after the the there was a case called Montoy in the between 2000 2008 uh that resulted in some Supreme Court decisions. the uh the legislature had passed a statute back then because one of the things that was an issue in that particular legis litigation was that special education was only funded at 80% of excess cost and the Supreme Court said that is uh that violates the constitution. Um so in order to appease the Supreme Court at that time the legislature passed a law and this is what it says. Um this is 72-5192. Um, it says the appropriation of monies necessary to pay general state aid and supplemental general state aid under the Kansas School Equity and Enhancement Act and amendments there too and state aid for the provision of

020special education and related services under the Special Education for Exceptional Children Act shall be given first priority in the legislative budgeting process and shall be paid first from existing state revenues. Um, that is clearly not happening. has not been happening. Um, with six million new dollars in special ed funding, I believe that we will drop to somewhere around 65% of excess cost funded for the upcoming school year in 2627. Um, it's a problem. It's a I think that Dr. Watson, the state education commissioner's comments a couple months ago when he called this a crisis, that's exactly what it is. Um, and that in the budget work that is going on this week is not going to make that any better. Um, the uh, as I'm sure everyone is aware, the governor signed the cell phone

021ban bill into law last Thursday. Um, I have uh, copies of the bill that was signed um, to share with everyone. I didn't have I forgot to bring them tonight, but I will provide those to the board so that we can read it and start working on what what changes we will need to make to our own policy here in the district. Um there are a number of policy bills that are still outstanding, still alive, could still u make their way to the governor's desk. Um I won't go into a lot of detail about them. There's a couple that could be real challenging for districts to implement. One um is a bill that uh was heard last session and then was amended into a bill kind of at the last minute this session that would

022prohibit uh any adult who is on a sex offender registry from being on school district property. So that would mean that um even if you're a parent, uh you would not be permitted to be on school property ever, not even to drop your kid off in the drop off line. Um it's a little unclear how uh how this one would be implemented. It would also impact any students who are still in school but are 18 years of age um and the provision of educational services to those students. Uh there is a bill that um is in conference committee that has to do with how the virtual school proctors state assessments. I think that's one that our virtual school folks will uh need to take a look at. Um there's a bill that's going to possibly

023make changes to how school districts compensate teachers who teach dual enrollment classes. So, our Jay-Hawk blueprint um teachers, uh that one is in uh is potentially in conference committee this week. And then, uh there's uh three bills that have been signed by the or that have been approved by both houses and are on their way to the governor. Um one has to do with uh fost students in foster care and changes in placement. This will place a two-day uh time limit. districts will have two days to send records for a student who's experienced a change in placement in foster care, which is we've not had a hard and fast um time limit in statute before. So, that'll be one um that will have an impact. Uh they the legislature did pass the voucher bill last

024week. Um uh hoping that the governor will choose to veto that one because it opts Kansas into the federal voucher program that has no rules or guidelines and will not be able to be used to benefit public schools despite what some people are trying to say. Um so that is that is kind of the rundown of where we are uh with legislative stuff this week. Uh the state board did meet um right after we had our last board uh schoolboard meeting right before uh spring break. Um they there was a presentation that if you're interested in what is coming our way in terms of uh literacy and mandates around literacy for students. There was a presentation on March 10th at the state board meeting that has turned itself into a bill that was negotiated in

025conference committee today, Senate Bill 517. It's been put into another bill, but basically uh it's going to require school districts in the 2728 school year to start having uh uh individual literacy plans for struggling students and some other things that will impact how we are uh doing some of our work especially at the elementary level. Um the state board also uh has applied to be considered for an innovative assessment pilot project. um they have to get approval from the Department of Education for this. But what it would do is it would allow the state to test out whether they want to move away from a one from a one-time endofear summitive state assessment to a uh an assessment model that has multiple touches throughout the year and incorporates um uh more curriculum embedded type assessments

026that would then be rolled up into a state assessment that would qualify for um that would qualify to meet this the US Department of Education's requirements around state accountability plans. Um I sat through a couple of presentations on that including um some of the folks working on that are some former USD497 people um who uh actually used our district as an example of where this work started um that has kind of become part of this pilot project. So that was really that was really cool to see. And uh then finally, they are the state board is is in the process now of interviewing candidates for the to replace retiring commissioner Watson. Um I have not seen any announcements about how those interviews have gone, but I know that they were interviewing candidates that week. So

027um that's what I had to share this evening. Thank you very much. Happy to answer questions if you have any. >> Any questions for Okay. Um, can you So, the cell phone ban sounds really good on paper because we all we all concurred that we should limit um cell phone use and other device use in in uh classrooms and our um we heard that from our educators and parents as well. But it does include other things. Correct. >> Yes. So, the bill as written is extraordinarily broad and that is going to be one of the challenges. um it doesn't just encompass banning um uh possession and use of cell phones bell-to-bell. So whereas our policy has some nuances in it based on uh your grade level, uh older students have a little more leeway, get

028to have it during lunch periods and passing periods and whatnot. Uh the statute as written uh applies from the time the school day starts to the time the school day ends and it applies to self any basically any personal electronic device that you would bring from home. So a cell phone, AirPods, um a smartwatch, a laptop, a tablet, um any of those things. And there is uh the language is uh at the same time broad and unclear. Um, so there is some disagreement as to the there are people who say it requires us to take all of those things away from students physically and lock them up somewhere else in the building all day long. There are other people who say, "Oh, no, we think it means kids can leave them in their backpacks." Um,

029so that's a pretty big range of potential interpretations of what it means to uh have a phone or other electronic device be uh turned off, stowed away, and inaccessible to a student throughout the school day. Um, it also uh places restrictions on how districts can use social media platforms. They can only be used for one-way communication. You may not communicate with a student on social media under any circumstances. Uh it places some other restrictions on what tools you can use to communicate uh have two two-way communication with students. Um it prohibits uh teachers from requiring students to use social media as part of the curriculum. uh which uh is I think something that not a lot of people paid very much attention to but to the extent that you have classes where you are teaching

030students how to be good digital citizens suddenly we're prohibited from using those tools to teach them how to use the tools. Um, and then there's also an accreditation piece that was thrown in uh to the bill um at the end uh that really did not get vetted. And what it does is it creates a dual it basically removes the state board's authority from accreditation over accreditation for non-public schools and gives it to the legislature. >> U which is a huge shift in how Kansas governs. I know. And the governor signed it. So, um, and that hug, that's hugely disappointing because it really it really steps into the constitutional role of the state board of education on accrediting non public schools in Kansas because they do have a role right now and it basically takes that

031away um and puts limits on uh what they can do in the future. >> It also has a correlation between vouchers. Correct. >> I we believe so. Yes. Because to the extent that um that to the extent that uh non-public schools can now be considered accredited without being accredited by the state board of education, it removes those schools from any responsibility to follow the rules that currently apply to schools that are accredited by the state board of education, including they don't have to take state assessments, so there's no accountability. There's a whole host of things in statute that that are that are rights that come along with being accredited um that in the past has have been interpreted to mean schools that were accredited by the state board of education. And this basically says you

032get all those rights with none of the responsibilities or accountability that comes along with state board accreditation. Um, and that is part of what allows voucher programs to grow and flourish is that states uh largely refuse to impose any sort of academic accountability requirements on schools that receive vouchers by design because in the states where they had it um or have had uh testing um it is very clear that uh school vouchers result in significant harm. arm to student achievement. >> So in some this isn't just a cell phone ban, >> right? >> Thank you. >> I have a question. Uh Shannon, you mentioned something about the LVS and state assessments. >> Yes. So there is a bill um a separate bill that basically just uh uh changes some of the rules around how uh

033the virtual schools proctor students who are taking the the state assessment virtually. Um, and it it's it has the details of which are a little uh are escaping me at the moment, but I can certainly provide you more information if you would like some followup on that. Yep. I can I can get the bill and I'll send I'll send that to you, the explanation for it. You bet. >> I also had a uh a question. I was just wondering if you could say any more about the um two-day deadline for sending records. Um, I'm thinking from like when you the the teacher perspective where you have a student who for several days or even a couple of weeks you're not sure what their capabilities are or where to place them and all those kinds of

034things. But then on the other hand, we often don't know um a student is being removed until the very last second. It's I'm sure there's more than meets the eye here as with everything else you've talked about. So just any clarification? >> Sure. So, that bill um uh sorry, I'm just referring to my list to try to remind me of the um >> there's only a few [laughter] >> uh 20 House bill 2320. Thank you. Um so my understanding of where this started is that uh the federal government had tasked the department of children and families, KSD and other agents, foster care providers um in Kansas with sitting down and getting together and reaching some agreements about how they were going to better support students who experience a change in placement. So basically they are

035they're experiencing a change in where where [snorts] they are living. So therefore that may result in it in it might result in them needing to stay in the school they're in or moving to a new school. So there's a process called a best interest determination uh meeting that is supposed to happen when a student has a change in school placement and that is supposed to involve uh representatives of DCF, the school district and the foster care providers. um making a decision about with this change in residential placement, is it best for the child to stay where they are or should they go to a new school and if so, what new school and how are they going to get transported there, etc., etc. This has all been done by agreement more or less amongst the

036parties and it's my understanding that the working agreement was [clears throat] um three day get the records transferred within three days. Um it seems like there's been maybe some tension around whether that's actually happening or not. Um, this bill actually was introduced last year, was kind of brought back to life this year and um, ended up instead of a three-day time frame with a two-day time frame. So, if you are a school district who receives a records request um, to send records to a new district for a student who is experiencing a change in placement, you have two days to send their enrollment and special education records. Uh, but it's two business days from the date that you received the notice. And then and it those days exclude weekends, um days that the district office

037is closed on your school district calendar, um holidays, that sort of thing. So there's there's um but it's I think it's uh it's a slightly more aggressive um version of what was supposed to be happening anyway, but now it's now it's going to be in statute. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. >> Has there any been any conversations up at the state house on the the irony of them placing more statute burden upon us while they ignore their own statutory requirements for special education? >> I'm kidding. >> It's frequently pointed out but often ignored. >> Okay. [clears throat] All right. Thank you, Shannon. as always. Uh we'll start with uh we'll move on to board committees and Matt, we'll start with you. >> None of my committees have met since the last time. >> Okay. >> All

038right. >> I don't have anything to >> Kelly. You have anything? Uh well, policy committee is scheduling our next meeting where we'll be working on revising our already carefully crafted cell phone policy to be updated to meet what was a nice sound bite for our governor. >> Carol, you have anything from committees? No, I don't have any uh committee reports, but the Native American Student Services Parent Committee will meet tomorrow at 6 PM at uh Broken Arrow Elementary. >> Okay. >> And again, that's tomorrow night at 6 o'clock. >> Awesome. Thank you. Bob, do you have any [clears throat] >> uh none of my committees have met since the last board meeting. >> All right, Bob, do you have any board commentary? >> Uh, no, not at this time. >> Okay, Carol, do you have

039any board commentary? I don't at this time, but I am so glad that Shannon is at the state house and she brought up the Montoy decision again. So, I I am glad to um see that um still being dusted off and held and supported by Shannon and enforced. Thank you. >> All right, >> Kelly. Uh I joined LEA members uh at the KNEA rally at the Capitol celebrating their colleagues work and the um uh really all everything that they do for Kansas students and children. They advocated for fully funding special education, improving wages for ESPs and certified staff. Whilst many policymakers bothered themselves with limiting local control of school districts, including our governor, and devising ways to underfund special education and expand uh the use of public dollars for private schools for vouchers. It was

040nice to be with them and frustrating all at the same time. Um I too had the pleasure of joining um some folks that I see here in the room even um at the uh lucky to have Kansas public schools rally at the state house on March 17th. Frankly, it was a highlight of my week last week and I just want to thank the all of the Lawrence folks who came um and uh >> Hey Shannon, can you speak closer to the mic? >> I'm sorry. Um yes, my bad. Um do I need to repeat any of that? Okay. [laughter] Uh, just wanted to say thank you. >> Start your legislative update over again. >> No, no, I've said enough. Thank you. [laughter] But I will uh repeat my great appreciation to all of the Lawrence

041um staff members and supporters who were at that rally. It was really great to uh to see all of you and to celebrate how lucky truly lucky we are to have Kansas public schools. >> Yeah. Just briefly, I um today got to go over to Peasley for some other business and got to got to tour the facilities and and talk over there. And um just think it's timely that we're going to be talking about some of these enhancements tonight. Um and uh Kevin over there uh expressed a warm invitation for anybody that hasn't gone to see all the different programs and things. Um just really excited to uh provide some opportunities over there. So it was really cool to see. Awesome. Kelly, >> um I should have said and want to mention that our many

042of our locally elected representatives at the state house um did and continue to show up for public education. So, while I'm saying kind of negative things about what's happening at Topeka, I thought I might mention something positive. >> Thank you for that. Okay, we will move on to the consent agenda. Uh, 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 approve the items listed on the consent agenda. >> I second. Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Kimell, >> yes. >> Franklin, >> yes. >> Buyers, >> yes. >> Lancaster, >> yes. >> Jones,

043>> yes. >> Could do Blackwood? >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Before we move on to new business, I'll turn the time over to Dr. Swift briefly. >> Thank you, President Gordon Ross. I just want to thank the board uh for your support. We each met last week to really review some changes uh that we're starting to work through this week. And I just wanted to share a few words with the community. We'll also Mr. Potter and I will be publishing the statement after uh the meeting tonight so everyone will have it. But it really is an exciting time as we enter spring season. We're pleased to share tonight several appointments of key of leaders into key roles uh for the 2627 school year. Fourth quarter is always interesting because we are focused first

044on finishing strong uh but we also all want to get our house in order uh for the next school year so that we will be well prepared. In all the following appointments that I'll share with you this evening, a very clear pattern emerges. Experienced, proven leadership, commitment, talent, and passion are matched to the areas of challenge in our district and to our opportunities for growth and next steps in Lawrence Public Schools. In addition, I want to say right up front, in keeping with our goal to streamline district operations so that we are competitive in compensation this year in 2026. All of the following appointments are achieved without addition to the number of administrative positions in the district. With these strategic appointments, we're able to align our work more efficiently and to work effectively to ensure

045opportunities for students. We are matching leadership roles and we are clustering programming to serve in critical areas of need for students in the Lawrence public schools. So with that, uh, we'll say the good part, the fun part, and that is that we're pleased to share the appointment of Mr. Zach Harwood as the principal of the choice campus at Centennial and the Lawrence Virtual School. Uh, many of you know that Mr. Harwood has served as the principal of Lawrence Virtual School since July of 2023. um these additional leadership responsibilities at Centennial will begin all of these that I'm talking about will begin July 1 of 2026. During the last three years at LVS, Harwood has been known for pairing innovation with a sustained commitment to personalized learning, ensuring every student is known, motivated, and supported. Uh

046Dr. Jeremiah and I had the great opportunity today to sit with the LVS staff and really talk about these next steps. Um, if those who know Mr. Har would know that his proven leadership is around innovating learning in service to students. And for that reason, he will be an excellent match to lead the development of the choice program at Centennial, which we all know will start small, but we believe it will grow over time, while also continuing that meaningful innovation work in progress at Lawrence Virtual School, literally Kansas top K12 virtual school. I shared with them today that last uh board meeting we were talking about the innovation of bringing KU blueprint to virtual school. We're really excited about what's going on there. Bringing innovation to ensure opportunities for students for whom traditional school is

047not the best match. I feel like that's in well in the wheelhouse of Mr. Harwood. I I tell him that I think it's his superpower. Um, and so we're excited for the next chapter at LVS and at Choice Campus at Centennial. Dr. Inglebrick will share that the renovations are currently underway at the Choice Campus at Centennial. Last week, many, many contractors out and about. They're getting the work done so that we will be ready uh to uh get that building open in August. really will roll out that programming based on the needs of students who want to be and choose to be enrolled there. Secondly, uh lead principle, we're calling it the lead principle of student support pathways. I'm so excited to share that Mr. Mark Puit has agreed to take on the responsibility uh

048as lead principal of student support pathways. He's been doing a lot of this work already. Um, but he will have direct leadership responsibilities for the academy program located at college and career campus, adult education, diploma completion, JDC, our incarcerated students education program, credit recovery and attendance truency intervention programs. Puit has served uh many years in our district. Prior to college and career, he served 13 years at Lawrence High School. All of us who know Mark Puit know that he is known for his commitment to students first and his very fiber and reason is around ensuring uh that we are protecting and supporting uh our high school students who are among the most vulnerable in our community. So I am sharing uh that assignment with a great deal of pride. And then coming up, you will

049notice uh for about a week now uh there is a principal position of college and career that is going to feed right in. It will have all CTE career technical ed responsibilities and that'll be our conversation in a few minutes with uh Dr. Cola is that alignment of CTE. So, um I appreciate these leaders accepting uh the assignment and look forward uh to this productive and exciting work. A couple of changes on my own uh on our own executive team. I'm very grateful and honored to share that Miss Kristen Ryan will dedicate her energies moving forward. Um and she's bringing a deep background of ex school experience, school leader experience and excellence and she'll bring that into student support services. It's been a couple of meetings now since you all approved uh the retirement of

050Kevin Herell. I was able to have a conversation with Kevin today. uh he is very supportive and uh making this adjustment uh tonight will allow that team to go ahead and start working together. Uh this team will launch the new Lawrence Public Schools welcome center right here on on this side of our building to partner with families. They will deepen the work in critical areas of student wraparound support uh including title nine, mental health, traumainformed practice, CI3T and all of our general education processes. They will support our school teams to align a robust and responsive system of supports to activate in responsive nature as opposed to a reactive nature. So, we're really excited about building out that system and building on a strong foundation uh that is already there. Secondly, um Miss Samry Devon, I'm

051very grateful, has accepted. She said yes. And that makes me very very happy uh to bring her vast experience and deep knowledge and background in USD 497 uh and member she's a member of our Lawrence community and she will bring that as human resource um and employee relations assistant superintendent human resources and employee relations. Miss Devin uh continues, you've seen her working with us uh since fall. She will continue to renew and align and innovate our recruitment efforts which understandably uh were uh you know impacted by the interruption of COVID. uh she will help to ensure our next steps in ensuring a leadership pipeline, a leadership pathway in the district and she will help lead the effort to continue to be competitive to achieve that competitive compensation um so that we can attract and retain

052talent in our own Lawrence public schools. Finally, uh very exciting. Uh we're so pleased to share that based on her job performance, her observed in public job performance and in response to tremendous feedback from both staff and parents members. I shared a document with you uh over the weekend or a set of uh feedback. We're pleased to name Denise Johnson as the building principal of Prairie Park Elementary. I get emotional when I think about uh the experience and the commitment and the drive that Principal Johnson brings to the Prairie Park community uh in naming a principal for Prairie Park early prior to the beginning of April as well as the addition of a preschool programming coming into the building. We feel that our wonderful Prairie Park School community will have the wind at its back,

053so to speak, in building on the foundation that they've started this year, and they are turning to their next chapter. Prairie Park has long uh been uh just a phenomenal school. Many of that staff is very longer. I appreciate that uh Dr. Robersonson and Miss Stein were out with the Prairie Park staff today. Uh Dr. Amaya and I couldn't be there because we were with LVS staff at the same time. Uh but we understand uh that Prairie Park was uh overwhelmingly positive in receiving this news earlier today. Um those are the uh adjustments that we're making in administrative assignments. And again, a reminder to everyone in the community that we are keeping with our streamlining effort and these moves are made uh by the time we finish without any additional administrative positions. I'm happy to

054take questions and thank you for honoring uh my desire to share that openly with our staffing community. Kelly. >> Um, I I just have one clarifying question for First of all, congratulations to everyone and I'm I'm glad to see the direction that we're taking. I do have a clarifying question for the lead principal role. You mentioned that um, Principal Puit will be looking at um, attendance and truency, but you primarily were um, identifying uh, roles that are secondary. So the attendance and truency work at the elementary and middle school, will that also be principal um Puit's responsibility or will that reside more with um JC or uh Kristen's team? >> You're right on target because that's the next conversation is how to distribute that work. >> Uh Mr. Puit has traditionally been involved at the

055secondary level. Um, and Miss Robersonson has led that work at the elementary level. So, we'll be working with Miss Ryan and the team. And I'll wrap back to you with clarification. >> Okay. And then also given the the um the umbrella that Kevin has led and that um Kristen will be leading pertaining to student support. It does seem to have an intersection with the lead principal role, like quite an intersection. And so I assume there'll be some collaboration between those two entities, correct? Others, but >> yes, and in fact, I had it written in my report and neglected to say it. Dr. Cola Maya will oversee the college and career CTE component and Miss Kristen Ryan will oversee the student supports lead principal. and that term lead principle to imply that yes, they have a

056home and a building they're responsible for, but they also have programming that extends to more than one building. >> Okay. And there'll be an updated chart for everyone soon. Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Anybody else? >> Okay. All right. With that, we'll move on to item 4.1, track replacement and Free State and Lawrence High. You want me to start with you or start with Larry? Um, Miss Dr. Ingleick, would you come on down? While he's coming, I just want to reiterate that we are looking forward to our conversation with Free State uh team uh in the next couple of days. We'll be getting together. Uh I appreciate the board's support uh to determine our contractor. Now that we know that contractor, Dr. Dr. Englebrick's already been in conversation today to see if

057we can more tightly align this timeline. Um, and so with that, Dr. Engle tracks. >> Yes. Thank you very much. What we're requesting tonight is approval to move forward with the project, not a timeline. Uh, been in contact with the architect. Doug's here this evening as the lead architect on that. Uh, going over the timeline. It will be our desire to work collaboratively with the contractor and with the building administrators, families and staff to coordinate the work that needs to take place. Uh we believe there's flexibility there. We believe we can uh make everything work together and that will be our goal and uh we plan to fulfill that goal. >> Okay. Does anybody have any questions, comments, or concerns? Okay. Can I get a motion? I move the board of education accept the bid

058as recommended by ACI Bowling Architects in partnership with BSR Design from McConnell and Associates for replacement of the 400 meter running tracks at Free State and Lawrence High Schools in the amount of $1,572,943. Approve a 10% project contingency of $157,294 and authorize the use of contingency funds for potential Javelin runway and landing area renovations in an amount not to exceed $60,000 for a total project authorization not to exceed $1,730,237 to be paid from facilities and operations capital outlay funds which cannot be used for classroom salaries. >> I second. >> Could you Blackwood? Buyers, >> yes. >> Kimell, >> yes. [snorts] >> Lancaster, >> yes. >> Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Franklin, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> All right, we'll move on to

059item 5.1, enhancements part two. >> Thank you, Mr. President, and members of the board. Uh Dr. Kamaya is joining us. Uh our report this evening is really part two of the enhancements that we are designing for our district moving forward. And just as a reminder, all of our enhancements are based directly in feedback that we hear from staff, from students, and from community. They are also based, as you all know, in addition to the opportunities for students, they are also based in aligning ourselves to be more strategic for funding and reimbursement in the district. And you'll notice that as we move through tonight that there is a p there are two patterns opportunities for students and alignment for uh for funding particularly in the area of CTE alignment where we realize and recognize that we've

060been uh missing an opportunity for state and federal funding that we want to be sure to take full advantage of. Uh, I'm going to state the obvious in opening. Teaching and learning and student achievement is our critical mission. It is the critical mission. And uh forgive me, member Kimble, but sometimes when I take a stroll down the legislative lane, uh it's easy to forget uh that the critical mission is teaching and learning and student achievement and outcomes because we're often not only in with the legislature, but look at any news feed or uh news organization, we're distracted by a thousand different things. And yet tonight we are zeroing in on that critical mission of student achievement. It is the purpose. It is the reason because it is central to our work uh with students. We

061are duty bound to align our work in this area with intention not to leave that work to accident. So what you will hear about this evening in this time go ahead if you would to the next in this time what you'll hear and notice as your pattern throughout this discussion is this idea of is it mine >> there we go idea of coherence of systems and consistent learning experience experiences for students [snorts] in this picture that we're moving into. All of the pieces fit into one critical mission. Student achievement, student opportunities, student outcomes, but I just want to give maybe a little warning ahead of this conversation um that this is a broad uh endeavor. And so I really appreciate the board members spending uh quite a bit of time last week just working through

062these ideas. Tonight's conversation is broad. We will be conversational. We are approaching some complex large buckets of work that all fit together in one picture of aligning teaching and learning to be a coherent system where I can say as superintendent, we can all say as members of the team, this is the promise we make. If you bring your child to Lawrence public schools, this is the clear invisible curricula. These are the career technical education pathways. These are the kinds of diplomas we're looking at that we are able to show the receipts. We never have a doubt about the tremendous work that our teachers are giving every day. our support professionals are building leaders. We don't doubt that work and yet it is our responsibility as leaders to align the work so that the arrows are

063going in one direction and the system helps us with coherence. So I've done the easy part which is to set the table. Now Dr. Amaya is going to dive in uh to the nuts and bolts and um Mr. president, we are happy to take questions as they arise or we are happy to wait till the end. This is probably three really great study sessions. Um, but session number one is just to open the curtain and say here it all is and then over the coming months uh we'll be diving in deeper. Sound good? How do you prefer? >> Dr. Amaya, do you do you want to pause for questions or would you like board members just to ask as they have them? uh it is quite a bit of information. So, as she said, it

064is large buckets of system work. So, it's probably best if we just do it in sections. I'll be happy to stop after each section um and name it and just allow you to cuz it's really is a lot to think through. So, >> okay. >> Oh, sorry. >> This might be my easier Okay. So, as we like to start uh as we often start, this slide outlines the enhancements we will discuss in this presentation. Supporting teachers with high quality instructional materials, improving our balanced assessment framework, ensuring real world learning experiences across programming, developing an individual plan of study scope and sequence for Lawrence public schools, establishing differentiated diplomas, aligning and enhancing CTE pathways across the districts, and reimagining the college and career center. I'll begin with one of the most important drivers of consistent learning

065experiences, particularly preschool through 8th grade. The implementation of highquality instructional materials. Research consistently shows that one of the most effective ways to improve student learning through standard through standards aligned coherent curriculum that intentionally builds knowledge and skills within and across grade levels. Highquality instructional materials are designed to be both rigorous and evidence-based. They incorporate they incorporate proven instructional practice that promote deep thinking, balance conceptual understanding with skill development and provide opportunities for students to apply their learning in meaningful ways. As a result, students are not only exposed to grade level content but are also supported in mastering it. In addition to supporting students, highquality instructional materials play a critical role in supporting teachers. They provide clear lesson structures, embedded assessments, and differentiation strategies to help teachers meet the needs of diverse learners. Without access to

066highquality instructional materials, the burden often shifts to teachers to create their own materials. On average, teachers spend about seven hours per week developing or selecting instructional materials. And studies show that many of those materials do not consistently meet grade level expectations. As a result, students may not be consistently engaged with grade level content. Designing standards aligned curriculum independently is both time consuming and complex. This can lead to variability in instruction across classrooms of buildings. By implementing highquality instructional materials, well, we can reduce this burden, improve teacher work conditions. Looking ahead to next year to the 26 27th school year, teaching and learning will prioritize supporting teachers in implementing high-quality instructional materials. We have several. This will allow teachers to focus on delivering highquality instruction, building strong relationships with students, and responding to individual learning needs

067rather than spending time developing and designing curriculum. To support this work, the district will provide targeted professional learning, coaching, and collaborative structures to ensure materials are implemented with integrity. Again, this approach will reduce the instructional variability and ensure that all students consistently engage in grade level standards aligned learning regardless of the teacher or the building. >> That would be the first section if you want. >> Okay. >> I had a question. Um, so I had a I had this wonderful building principal back in the day and the phrase he used was reducing the educational lottery, right? Doesn't matter which 9th grade English class you take, you know, you're going to you're going to get the same kind of education. And um I think high quality instructional materials are a great great way of addressing that.

068My question um is to the to the art of teaching side and and what gets us into the profession. um not wanting to get into the weeds on what constitutes all of the the materials, but where's the room for teacher input, creativity, design, that kind of stuff. I I don't know if you could speak to that. >> Yeah, I think the phrase you use is exactly correct, the art of teaching. So, um teachers, I think, in general, uh want to live in that world the most. They want to respond to, uh instructional needs of students. They want to execute instruction. They want to think through that. don't want to spend countless hours uh going to websites to find material to make sure that it's aligned to standards to um design lesson structures to ensure those

069lesson structures uh to break down standards to build out learning targets to do all the things that uh kind of the scientific side of curriculum development does. Uh none of this implementation of a high quality instructional materials um gets in the way of that art. Does that make sense? It actually supports it and enhances it. Um, it will give teachers more time to do exactly that. >> So the if I could just add so the HQIM is the what. >> Yeah. >> And that beautiful unique teacher delivery is the how. >> And so what I love is teachers are have they're freed up to really focus on the delivery because they've got high quality materials. if that makes sense. Yeah. Very good. >> Yeah. We'll go Shannon and Kelly. >> Um just a couple clarifying

070questions. So the slide that had the data on it, um is that Kansas specific? Is that national? Um >> uh this is this data particular. >> Yeah, this is from TNTP, the opportunity myth. So this was a land landmark study. Okay. 2018. >> Okay. I thought I recognized TNTP, but I was >> that's been a long day and I couldn't remember what what that was. So, thank you. Um, okay. And then, um, you know, the other question I have in the Spain, um, obviously this is a big pool of things that we're working on. Um, do you have um are there areas where you feel like we're closer to where we need to be than others? Like what are where what what are our what are our positives in this area? Um, and maybe what

071what do you hope to prioritize as the area of highest need first that we're going to work on? Yeah, I think um a lot of our teachers are um starting to understand I think there's a lot of misunderstanding in general about what high quality instructional material materials are and are not. Um I like to think of them as instructional systems. So within them it everything's built out. There's an instructional model in it. There's assessments in it. There's differentiation strategies in it. Um teachers when they realize that all that exists and it's a one-stop shop, uh they tend to I mean a lot of these materials also even do a lot of the grading um it really they really are designed to support teachers so that they can focus on responding to students. We do that

072really well and starting to do it better. I think of uh Open Up for example, they're at the elementary level. Um we've talked a lot about this particular curriculum and teachers are getting on board quickly because uh they see that um just the design and the creation of the daily work it's done. Does that make sense? And so >> yeah open is open up the is that the math curriculum? >> That's the math I'm sorry. Yeah that's K5 math curriculum. >> Um and so it's just a lot of um a lot of people try to equate these to some kind of scripted curriculum. It's just not what it is. It's just an instructional system that teachers have to learn about and they have to uh the the instructional routines that are embedded in a lot

073of these high quality instructional materials are designed um to be done over multiple grade levels. So you bring consistent learning experiences for kids over multiple grade levels. These are evidence-based instructional routines, not just researchbased instructional routines. >> Well, it's um what's the word? I think of it as like sort of like going up the stair step. It's It's >> spiral spiral and vertically aligned. Okay. All right. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Kelly. >> Um so the a couple things came to mind. You mentioned that there would one of actually the main thing that came to mind was academic freedom. >> Um so the I get it sounds quite unformed. So, if a teacher I I mean I'm just wondering like if a teacher's developed something because they've been because we're talking about their craft

074and they've been doing it for 20 years and they know how to do it and they have developed something that works and they have evidence speaking of evidence-based to demonstrate that it is working because their students are performing well and then we scrap all that and we start something new. Um, I'm wondering what the balance is there. And then I'm also wondering about when you say there'll be professional development. We've just had a whole overhaul of how we're doing professional development and it is teacher le and we're getting a lot of positive feedback. um when would you do how can you tell talk a little bit about one address the question around academic freedom and then two um if you could please speak to when um you would be scheduling out the training for someone

075to use these materials and how you'll incorporate that into the new model that we've been using for professional development. >> Yeah, both really great questions. um academic I I like to call really experienced teachers uh actually I call them weavers because they um do what these high quality instructional materials do. Um I I will be the first one to stand up here and tell you if you're a teacher of 30 years and you understand how to move instructional outcomes for kids, I'm not nobody's going to get in the way of that. Um this what this does in general is tightens up um the inefficiencies of teaching across multiple buildings. It it really tightens up the uh you should not go into multiple English classrooms for example and they be dramatically different across the system. Um

076that still happens even if you have a scope and sequence of standards for example. Um there should just be this is the common thread of understanding about what effective instruction looks like across grade levels both horizontally and vertically right so in second grade and then second through sixth grade. >> What if the differences exists because the school the need of the student body is different like the makeup is different the student looks different in [clears throat] this particular building than in that building. How are you accounting for that? because in the past we've had a uniformed curriculum that didn't account for like diversity, equity, and inclusion. >> Yeah, I understand the um the quality of this curriculum is different than a a scripted curriculum. Does that and I think the uniqueness of a high quality

077instructional materials and I'll say this over and over again is they're evidence-based instructional practice, not research based. So they've shown impact in actual classrooms for all varieties of students for all demographics of students. So the more consistently that's uniformally implemented, the higher likelihood gaps in a system will close. So can I also ask or or even just add in that for me having taught a a long time ago the differentiation is built in to the highquality instructional material. Whereas in the old days I had to spend hours going off to find if you're a grade level below or grade level above. And what I love about the system, high quality instructional materials, is those things are built in. Teacher can choose how to go about using them, but they don't have to go find them.

078Okay. >> Great. >> I think um or were you going to say something about Go for it. >> And I I have uh two things. Um my first would be make sure I understand that what you're talking about is a systemic approach uh to in that what we will be doing is is aligning our teaching through each grade level. So if I take math it'll follow to second grade to third grade. So, so I can understand that when my son went through school, it was he got something one year, next year was something different from a different teacher. >> Um, and and that makes sense to me. My other question, my question, however, is since we're talking about highquality instructional materials, u where it comes, do we already have them? if not cost >> is

079my question. >> You you you do um you we do have quite a few um we're lacking in uh ELA in middle school. That's one I could think of. But for the most part in middle school, um I feel pretty strong about math all the way K8. Um I have a lot of hesitation with ELA. Okay. Um, and science has some holes. K8. So, uh, yes, it's spotty. >> Yeah. Do you have any idea of physical financial costs at all? >> We're working on that and we'll be bringing that to the board, but there there are some and we haven't um we have an opportunity to streamline and to use the money that was there for the right purpose. And what I love is as Dr. Amaya works with teams of teachers, [snorts] they they

080are in many cases relieved to be getting quality materials that in some content areas we just haven't had. Yeah. >> So yeah, >> and I would say uh two things and this and this I want to go back and answer your question about professional learning. >> Thank you. Um, so the difference is is actually high- quality instructional materials, the good ones, have what are called educative materials built into them. And so when I say professional learning, what I'm talking about is training teachers to train themselves in the materials. So the materials actually come you you can do less and less vendor PD. You what you can do is you can bring in doing an initial launch and then that becomes your PLC work. So this changes your collaborative structure work in your buildings. uh you

081learn about the materials and I've seen I've watched this uh I'm gonna put my quail run friend over here on on the spot. I've seen teams of teachers uh flourish in this type of development and they are uh they they have actually um they've done professional development in the teacher choice sessions that teachers have come to um they uh have developed their own teachers in their school. That's what when I'm saying professional development in this con it's a different the the reality is we're transitioning away from um the older perception of curriculum of development cadre professional learning development development to implementation and so that's going to change how we do professional learning how we collaborate how we respond to data and student need how we all all the things of related to curriculum instruction >>

082and I can't resist. But that's how the second professional plan fits in to the overall picture is allowing professionals, our teachers time to do that work with each other. And forgive the term, but I always think of the old model as drive by PD that we're hiring somebody from somewhere else to come in and just spray it all out. And over time that was not particularly useful. And we're really excited about our own teachers doing their professional work, but having the highest quality materials where things are built in and they can spend their time on technique and implementation, not on design. >> Yeah, I um I don't mean to belver the point then I don't have as many thoughts on the other things. Um so I would just say I think what might be helpful

083um at least from my understanding um not today but at at some point would be just like um an example say like you know with your ELA speaking and listening or figure sense and middle some you know here's what scripted curriculum looks like here's what high quality instructional here's what's actually happening because I hear and agree everything that we're talking about um but it's hard to divorce that notion of u scripted curriculum as you put it. So just like you know in the future seeing an example of of that delineation I think would be helpful. >> I really appreciate that ask and I would just like to second. >> I love that idea of a board workshop or a board study session however you might think of it and really having those materials in front

084of us. >> All right. Not to get into the weeds on it you know I just I want to have a better understanding. Mhm. >> Um the only question I would have is is as as we move forward um you know we've got some of the the high quality instruction in place. you talked about qual run and and the and the successes that you're seeing as we do this more is teaching and learning have they already done it or are they developing processes to circle back and validate that what what you want to have happen is actually happening [clears throat] yes we are circling back around and thinking about different models so kind of what I've talked about with the job embedded professional learning um we've thrown out ideas of model classroom lift lifting teachers

085up that do this well that we can walk teachers through. We've talked about several different models. The reality is we do need to relaunch some implementation of some of these curriculums that exist in our system currently. um just to reinforce this idea of what I'm talking about and and I think the difference I do want to say two things related to this and and then what you said um member Lancaster um the variability in a classroom is our equity work so variability in a classroom students experiences inconsistent experiences from classroom grade level to grade level will impact your most vulnerable populations. And so the connector between curriculums and the driver is not scripted curriculum. It's instructional models embedded in those curriculums. So one I can think of is open sad for example. It doesn't matter

086if you go into a sixth grade class or an eighth grade class. It follows the same instructional model. So it's a phenomenabased inquiry model. And so essentially what that teaches both teachers and students is students can deepen skills because they know they will walk in and not have to learn a completely new instructional approach um class by class essentially is what happens in those experiences. Does that make sense? And so that's what creates gaps. Teachers I would expect are um veteran teachers to expand out of that and support how they need to support. But the the the kind of fundamental non-negotiable is that teachers learn that model and understand why it exists, why it's evidence-based, why it brings consistency to the classroom. That understanding is not quite clear in our system currently in what we've

087purchased related to high quality instructional materials. >> Thank you. Okay. As we continue to implement high-quality instructional materials effectively, the next step is ensuring we have a coherent way to measure student learning. This brings us to our next area of focus, continuing to build out a balance assessment framework, particularly using unit assessments to track and monitor standards students have mastered. A balance assessment framework is a coordinated system that uses different types of assessments [clears throat] over time to provide clear evidence of student learning. At its core, a balanced assessment framework helps us answer the fundamental question, our students learning on grade level when implemented well. This system provides comparable data across classrooms and grade levels. Aligns directly with curriculum students are learning. Supports MTSS or CI3D decisions and curriculum evaluation. One of the key shifts

088we are emphasizing is the use of curriculum embedded assessments. Rather than adding additional testing days for benchmark or interims, these assessments will be built directly from summit of assessments within the high-quality instructional materials. This will allow instruction and assessment to work together in a more aligned manner. As a result, the collection of standardsbased data becomes a more natural routine part of a teacher's instructional practice. This approach reduces testing fatigue while giving teachers immediate feedback they can use to adjust instruction. As this system becomes more established, the data and assessment team will also be able to provide the board with an academic return on investment. This means measuring the effectiveness of our investments by comparing the cost of programs, curriculum, technology, and professional learning, a variety of professional learning structures with the improvements we see in

089student learning outcomes. Very soon the teaching and learning team will be bringing a platform to the board to support this effort for the 2026 2027 school year. Dr. Jeremiah, this was what I heard member Kimell noting from the state level is that idea of really aligning our assessments embedded in the work and not have it be some external separate endeavor that takes up days of of time. So, um, member Campbell, I'll I said negative things about the legislature. I guess I should take some of that back now. Well, I actually think that that particular um initiative is coming from the state department of education. They've been talking about this work for a while now, and it's kind of it goes along with some of the conversations that we're watching happen at the legislature over legislators

090frustrations about um the perception that our state assessment data is not particularly helpful, right? um and and and and what would be more helpful? >> What would what would a system look like that provides us better information on what is happening? >> And I know the board and members of our team would um welcome the resources that are currently invested in state assessment tools that could be reinvested directly to support classrooms and students. >> [snorts] >> Sorry, I couldn't resist. [laughter] You're not wrong. >> Any questions or comments on that? >> Uh, this is Carol. I don't have so much a question, but more of a comment. So, what I'm hearing is that this tool will just actually be something to help our students be better test takers than critical thinkers. Is that what I'm

091hearing? >> Uh, no. It will track um essentially uh students performance on a set of standards uh both within a grade level and then over multiple grade levels. And so uh we teach to standards in the state of Kansas. So ELA for example, there are state standards for ELA. Districts scope and sequence those out both across the grade level and vertically. um we will test and align those standards to our curriculums in our curriculums. And so as teachers give a summitive assessment or a unit assessment for example uh at the end of a an instructional u cycle that data will just be captured in here for them to use and it'll give it's it's a very intuitive program. We'll use it to do uh common unit assessments across the district four times a year. But

092teachers, the tool is they can use it as many times or it has an AI component to it. It's a pretty uh I I'll share all this with you when we bring it. But um it is something that teachers can use um anytime all the time and collect as much data as they want. Um but at its essence, it'll show us uh and this is a really important question that even the legislator is pushing on it related to at risk funding is how do you know students are on grade level? How do you know that they're on track? Um and so this tool will provide us the ability to um answer that question for every student in the district. So my understanding um we had I mean we had something like this at 501 a

093while back and my understanding kind of to Carol's pointed to what you just said is is um that rather than you know going through a unit of several weeks of instruction and then taking a larger test this might be at the end of one day you know there's like three assessment questions based on what you read that day or there's a task you have to complete a couple of days later and all of that paints an assessment picture that we would otherwise do with a big test day. um where somebody maybe didn't eat breakfast or whatever the case may be. There's other variables of factor. Is that a correct understanding of of this? It's just more you know it's progress monitoring and also more assessment but throughout the >> I appreciate that term. It's progress

094monitoring of standards >> um which is uh a hole we currently have in our system. Um I like what yes teachers can use it to do formative assessments. They can do unit assessments. they can add to the data for their kids as much or as little as they want to. Um, we will have we will designate certain unit assessments as they come up in our curriculums >> that we're just going to collect for the entire system. Does that make sense? And so, um, in that way we can we know where kids are both horizontally in a grade level and then vertically as they uh move through our system. Yeah. So, it's not about making kids better test takers. I It's actually about us collecting information at various times >> on standards >> while they're doing

095while they're being educated. So, it isn't I'm I'm going to have a big test at the end of the year and you can regurgitate whatever you know. It's about really throughout the year taking or getting information from the students about how we're doing. Do I understand this so that by the end of the year you actually have your data and you don't need a test. >> Yeah. Um essentially it is that it is it is I I like that term. I'm going to steal your term. It's the progress monitoring of standards. >> Yeah. >> Constantly. >> Yeah. >> Um and that's the difference. And the difference is and I hear I constantly get this feedback from teachers about just the disjointedness or these how benchmarks or state interims they can't do anything with the data

096because they weren't really teaching the standards that they were assessing on that current benchmark. Right. This takes all of that out. >> Okay. >> Good. Um, so, um, just to clarify since I'm the one that brought up the the, uh, innovative assessment, uh, pilot project, um, this framework works regardless of whether the state assessment framework is a summitative end of year or if they move to a different, more frequent touch with assessment, right? This is kind of underneath that. >> Yeah, this this aligns a lot with that thinking. Um, I know the people working on that very well. Um and what they're essentially saying is if we create since the the state does have um agreed upon standards that we teach, if we collect more data on on grade level assessments um that essentially they

097can they that has a tighter correlation to how kids will perform on the cap than doing a random benchmark or a random um it's a better indicator of kids are doing. And then my other question is does this um underlying framework help support the work that the district will be required to do with the atrisisk cohort tracking? >> Yeah, I mean this will essentially do that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And the timeline for the implementation of the new software, are you thinking that that would be next next school year? >> Yeah, it doesn't it we're currently piloting it. So we've rolled it out to anybody who wants to try it um K8 um actually at the elementary level for teachers just to get into it because one thing um I try not I we

098look uh we are about efficiency and effectiveness right so I don't want to burden teachers with hey this is a tool that doesn't fit into what you do that it's a lot of work and so we're piloting that so that they can see just how intuitive it is how um it can fit into what they do on a daily basis it is not a huge huge lift in terms of integrating it into our system. So, it is something we could start almost immediately uh next year. >> Okay. And the feedback you've been getting from those that are piloting it. >> We just launched it. >> Just launched. Fair enough. Okay. Thank you. >> Um I heard four unit exam four unit assessments a year. Is there uh I I you're in the pilot. Is there

099going to be expectation of of teachers using beyond those four times a year? Is there or how's that going to >> I I truly we haven't thought through all those little logistical pieces yet. I was just throwing out a number of four unit assessments a year. Um we just we haven't thought through all that. We'll do that uh we'll do that in partnership with teacher teams. So in our teacher networks I'll take our math team. I'll bring them together and say hey um here's your scope and sequence of your standards. Where where should we place these assessments? How should we build them out for you? That will all be done in partnership with teachers. putting the card before the horse a little bit. >> Well, I was too, so it's okay. >> Okay. Uh we're

100going to move on to postsecary visioning. While measuring student learning is critical, we want to ensure the students have meaningful opportunities to apply their learning beyond the classroom. This brings us to another important focus area, real world learning. Real world learning connects academic content to authentic problems, careers, and community experiences. In practical terms, this means students are not only learning concepts in the classroom, but applying those concept in meaningful ways beyond the classroom. Examples include internships, workplace experiences, client- connected projects or projects connected to local businesses or organizations, community problem solving projects, and student entrepreneurship opportunities. In 2026 2027, teaching and learning will work to expand these partnerships with local businesses and organizations to increase access to these types of experiences for all secondary students. Okay, questions on that one. Any questions on that one?

101Okay, [clears throat] >> I do. Sorry. >> Yeah, >> the I was going to try not to, but >> um the this is competency based learning too then because this is similar to what we talked about when we were um this is right before Dr. Swift joined us but the internships in the policy committee, right? Um, so that did we determine h how those would be evaluated, how the students would get credit for them, what they would apply to, has that been determined? >> I'm not sure. >> Okay. So, meaning like a student does an internship. >> Yeah. >> Are they getting credit, academic credit for that? >> I understand. >> Yeah. Uh so we real world learning experiences are more in what you're talking about is a work-based learning uh experience and we can

102set them up that way where they get credit, they get paid, they do an internship. Those are work-based learning experiences. Those are a particular set. We often put them in courses to do those things. Um and uh so I don't know about the details of of what happened in the past, but in my understanding that's a workplace workplace learning experience. We have courses designed to do all of those types of things. This is informal. More informal like we'll bring in uh client connected projects are one I like to think about all the time. We'll bring in a business and they'll do they'll uh pose a problem [snorts] to students and then they'll work with the business to solve the problem of the uh >> okay >> business. Does that make sense? So, it does make

103sense, but it's it is running right up against um we we had learned that there was this new opportunity at the state level for internships to count as um state credit different than the workplace that has been consistently done for a many years. that you were going to have these opportunities to demonstrate competency in a particular area through a a experiential learning opportunity and that the had to develop competencies. The teacher had to okay that that learning plan and that they would get credit for it. This is not what we're talking about. Um and what I'm saying is not something you're familiar with. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, what I would like to do is go back and what I'll do I want to go back and check my notes. um and then just

104forward to you what I am clearly conflating um and then ask for some clarity about how those two things run together. So I'll do that as a next step. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you. And I appreciate learning that also. >> Yeah. And I I think everything you just named we can also do. So I don't the concept itself I think we're just calling it two different things. >> That might be okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. How does this >> Sorry. Oh, excuse me. This is Carol. So, is this um just to clarify, you know, I went to Lawrence High School quite a while ago and when I was in DECA, there was something that where it was very similar. I'm not sure if it's still being done today where the students go out

105and go get jobs and they work, they get they earn as a a small pay minimum wage, if you will, and they get graded in the the DECA, the business school. Is that something that's still done? And is that something that would mirror that if that's still done? >> Yeah. And those are work-based learning opportunities. Those are courses that we build out. So in CT, for example, I could think of um I can remember the name of the course, but a health experience one or what or something similar to that. Students will have a CNA. They could go out and work in a hospital for example. And >> Yes. So that's still occurring. >> That is still occurring. Yes. >> Sure. Very good. Thank you. How does how does this or does it align with

106the new graduation requirements? It's part my understanding is >> postsecondary asset >> assets. Yeah. >> Yeah. So these will help produce post-secary assets uh for kids. Definitely. This is also um this term is really just an approach to bring more awareness to students about how their academic skills operate outside of the classroom. Um, and so that's really when I say real world learning, that's really what I'm saying. So, how do how do we help students understand the algebra work they're doing? How does that apply to setting up a studentrun business or something to that effect, right? So, I I rephrase my question in the middle of it. Um, do y'all have asks of the community of board members of connections in helping with this client connected projects? You need people to have projects, you know,

107um, internship, externship, micro internship, you need people to do placements, all that kind of stuff. And this is really exciting. Um, and I know this is kind of preliminary talks, but do y'all have asks of of us or anybody else out there to help source or find or do anything? We will [snorts] >> okay >> in the very uh I've uh in different community settings thrown this term out and what this means uh with businesses and they're very interested in [clears throat] uh being more involved in this type of work. So for strong uh support for doing a lot of this type of work. >> Yeah. We'll we'll use the foundation as well the the community partners that work through the foundation as well. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> an individual plan of study serves as

108a student-driven roadmap that connects their interests and experience to academic coursework and post-secary goals. In 2006 2027, teaching and learning will strengthen IPS by ensuring it is meaningful, aligned, and actively used to guide student decision-making. This work will include a deeper integration of the Zello platform, clearer alignment to CTE pathways, diploma options, and a stronger connection to real world learning experiences. From preschool to 7th grade, staff will prepare students for post-secary success daily through the teaching and practice of employability skills, reading, and math. As they transition to eighth grade, the individual plan of study becomes more focused on career exploration, academic planning, skill development, and goal setting for life after graduation. The teaching and learning team will use KSD's scope and sequence to build a preschool through 12th grade IPS continuum that is consistent and

109developmentally appropriate across all grade levels. As part of this effort, beginning in eighth grade, the district will also utilize Zel's four-year course planner to align student interests and goals with course selection and pathway sequencing. Together, these implementation efforts will move the district toward a more coherent IPS system that supports students in post-secary planning. And I will say we took a step this year with the four-year course planner where we just started it because we're uh frankly behind with the 2028 class um in the expectations of the changes with the 2028 2028 cohort. Um and I'm happy to say we have almost 90 plus% of our students who have some type of four-year course planner from 8th grade to 9th grade or to 12th grade. Now there have been some hiccups. I'll admit that. But it

110is a great step in the right direction. And so yearly students can now uh see their path and their choices um and their grades and all it's all in one place. So they review that they can adjust it. Uh but it's all in Zello for them. So [clears throat] that's a big I think that's a big step in the right direction in terms of the scope and sequence of the individual plan of study. We do pieces of an individual plan of study uh across the district. We do have uh we saw some tonight career awareness opportunities for kids. Uh we take them on um field trips in elementary to um talk about post-secary work or career work. Uh it just is not in a coherent state yet. Does that make sense? We don't name it.

111in third grade, you're going to learn these employability skills or these equip career awareness skills or um that's what this scope and sequence will help us do. >> Is Zello um I can't think of a better way to say it, so I'll say it like I said at work. Is is Zello smart enough that in 8th grade they pick a specific math class, it will then only give them math classes going [snorts] forward that are in line with that math class? or so we're [snorts and clears throat] getting smarter about making those sequences clear for students. So the current work that we're doing is getting all of our course sequencing uh better aligned, more clear, uh frankly more simple for students. And then those are what we're building in those four-year course planners. And kids

112have to go, they'll see pictures of that sequence. And we're also going to create what I'm going to call IPS guides, which will be a comprehensive book of all of our programming for secondary. Um, we just haven't been able to do that yet. But yes, they can see those sequences in Zello, but they have to go grade by grade and pick those. We don't want to like I don't want to force kids into those sequences. I want them to the the the idea of the planner is you go through and you make these informed decisions about why you're going into this level of coursework or this pathway or whatever. >> Okay. Thank you. As students begin to clarify their interests and goals through individual plan of study, the next step is ensuring they have access

113to meaningful opportunities that bring those plans to life. This is where CTE pathways play a critical role by providing structure and real world learning experiences. However, CTE is constantly evolving. In addition to ongoing state level evaluation of pathways, Kansas is aligning its CTE framework with the national career clusters. This shift will result in several changes beginning next year. For example, on this slide, the health science and family and consumer science clusters are being combined into a health and human services cluster. While this alignment strengthens workforce connections and program coherence, it also requires districts to continuously evaluate and refine their offerings. Currently, the district is funded for 19 CTE pathways, which is a significant number for a district our size. While expanding student choice is important, too many pathways can dilute resources, leading to low enrollment,

114staffing challenges, and fewer concentrators and completers. Over time, this can impact program quality, student outcomes, and funding stability. The paused CTE pathways shown on this slide reflect programs that are currently experiencing these challenges. These pathways are not being actively promoted for enrollment until we can ensure that they are viable, relevant, and aligned to strong post-secary opportunities. This year marks the beginning of a multi-year evaluation process for all CTE pathways. This review will incorporate student voice, enrollment, and outcome data, and alignment to regional labor market needs to ensure our pathways remain high quality, relevant, and sustainable. Um I will just say upfront on these pause pathways most of [clears throat] them have been consolidated or abs absorbed into other pathways. So that's where a lot of these p pathways why they occurred. Um the exact pathway

115doesn't exist but courses within those pathways have been absorbed or consolidated into other pathways. For the 2026 2027 school year, teaching and learning has identified 13 pathways as the most viable for students. These pathways are viable because they have strong enrollment, are staffed by qualified instructors, and offer clear course sequences that support students becoming concentrators and completers. In addition, they provide opportunities for students to earn post-secondary assets such as industry recognized credentials and work-based learning experiences. To further strengthen these pathways, teaching and learning will partner with CTE teachers to introduce new courses within the teaching training pathway, the health science pathway, and the diversified agriculture science pathways. These additions are designed to improve course sequencing, enhance program quality and coherence, and expand opportunities for students to earn post-secondary assets. Lastly, teaching and learning aims to

116expand two to expand two introductory level CTE courses into the middle school. Business essentials and introduction to skills trade. Providing middle school students access to these courses strengthens early exposure to career pathways and supports better alignment between student interests, course sequencing, and high school programming. It also increases the likelihood that students will become concentrators or completers while in high school. These two introductory level courses alone will directly feed seven of the 13 pathways. As mentioned in the first enhancement presentation, the CTE refinement work is also directly connected to renewed vision for programming at the Lawrence College of Career Center. As pathways are realigned, we will strengthen and expand capstone or what I like to call marquee courses that represent the highest level of learning within a pathway. These experiences will prove provide students with opportunities

117to apply their learning in a more complex authentic way while also increasing access to advanced coursework, partnerships with outside organizations, and post-secondary opportunities. Any questions? We have CTE questions. >> I have one. >> Okay. Uh the middle school slide. Can we go to 16? Slide 16. The um so this is really exciting and we started to see we talked about it a little bit a couple Mondays ago. Um I'm wondering for the curriculum that's being developed at or that is now happening at Liberty Moral Central Middle School. Um, these will also be offered for their students as well, correct? I mean, it seems like it fits nicely, but I just want to make sure that that's happening. >> Yeah, it will fit. >> Thank you. >> Um, are these are these semester classes or full

118year full year classes? >> I can look for you. I can't remember off the top of my head if they're a half credit or full credit. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> And they're actually doing some of these things, correct? That's the point of CT. They will they're not just learning about construction and design. Do they they >> it's the introductory course for this pathway. So they it will launch them into it'll give them a taste of skills trades and then it'll launch them into their ninth grade year so they could start with a technical or application course of skills trades. So my my middle school kid I would have like maybe made them do this but um what I'm wondering is for parents that might say like oh you are creating a um

119pathway that is directly into construction and design which can also include college and might not but um that you are um can you talk a little bit about the sometimes times misunderstood or um stigma that comes along with trades. Yes. >> Um and and talking about pathways to college or pathways not to college or can you >> Yeah, I think uh the easiest way to address that is that largely is a uh marketing issue in the district. Uh there are manufacturing alone, the job opportunities in manufacturing. It's not a this is not a tracking mechanism. >> Thank you. That's the word. Absolutely. That's not what it is. >> Um, it is, uh, there are highpaying >> jobs right now in every single one of in vehicle maintenance and manufacturing, construction, design, and there's a whole

120multitude of fields that those broadly cover. Does that make sense? So, we have to do a better job >> of explaining that to our community, marketing that for our kids. Um, and they and they need jobs now. uh construction design and uh the multiple fields that that could possibly fit under. Kids could be hired right out of high school making 60 to $100,000 >> while pursuing a college degree. >> While pursuing college so many of my students are able to do these activities because of programs that they experienced in their um high schools across Kansas that allows them to pay for their college. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> And that's why we're careful. and Dr. I'm sorry, >> your name's not >> I'm sorry. I just want to stick in the term

121postsecary. That's why we're really focused on the term postsecary and [snorts] really not using anymore that term college or career. Okay? >> Because we know our students may have a dozen careers um and many many jobs and those may cross over all kinds of paths. >> So, I need to start using the phrase postsecondary. >> Postsecary. Me too. Got it. Thanks. I'm sorry, member Campbell. >> Okay. Um, I just wanted to ask the question if if these are the the introductory level course um for some of these pathways, will the students that take these in 8th grade get high school credit for them? >> Yes, they will. So, we're going to we're working with teachers to get certified in these credentials. Some of them already have these certifications in eighth grade. Um, but to uh

122make it part of our pathway, it has to be offered for high school credit. So it will be >> um and I asked that question because in the past when we've had students taking upper level math at the middle school high school level math at the middle school um that opportunity has not been made available consistently. >> Okay. Thank you. I'll know that >> this is Carol. Um I this is just you know it's so exciting but um I don't know if this has ever been addressed or if this if this is the right not the right time please let me know but has there been any talks or discussions for our students to go tour the Panasonic battery plant? think that would be something that would be, you know, it's it's not that much

123farther down the road in comparison in Topeka. We encourage our students to go to the state house to see how laws are made, but I think it would um be beneficial for the district and the community to see, you know, this um these real world applications at Panasonic. >> Yeah, I agree with you. We'll take that as a note and uh I'll check on that. I don't know if anybody is currently touring it, but it's something we will consider. >> I'd go [laughter] Yeah, >> Dr. I got a question for you. Um I noticed on slide 15 that you said um some of the new CTE courses, a couple of them was the healthcare work experience and then the healthcare essentials. So then when you go to slide 16, are they worked into business essential

124or introduction to SK skill trade or is that just a one semester or one year and then they're done with that? So [clears throat] these are the beginning courses. So these are individual courses that are in a sequence of multiple courses that we call a pathway. And so these are all of our pathways. And all of our pathways have several different courses. They at minimum have what CTE calls an introductory course, a technical course, and an application level course. Um each of these have at least three to four courses embedded into them. Um so the slide 16 would be the first for these pathways. If kids take this either business essential or introduction to skill trade, if they go into any of these other pathways at high school, their introductory course will already be out

125of the way. So they can go into the business finance or the restaurant and event or and that counts as their introductory course. >> Is your question member Franklin? Is there a health introductory for 8th grade? Was that more of what you were asking? >> So once they if so if a student is enrolled in the healthcare work experience >> and healthcare essentials, >> is that just a one semester course? [clears throat] Is that a one-year course? Because then how does it tie into the other courses in business essential and skill trades? >> It doesn't >> different pathways. >> I understand that. But then what's the next pathway? >> What do you mean by next there? >> Next pathway or next course? >> It's a sequence of courses. So you you start in that one

126then there's another course following that one about that same topic. So you're building on as >> So then the next course would be like health sciences, >> right? or something. >> So like healthcare worker experience one and healthcare essentials is probably in the health science pathway. >> That's correct. Yes. >> Whereas >> the business essential and introduction to skills trade, they don't fall into the health science pathway. So those two new courses don't don't impact the two classes that we're offering at 8th grade. So, we don't have an introductory eighth grade course for the health science, but we're offering those two new classes into the health science pathway. >> Yeah. >> The reason we chose these particular introductory courses was purely that it hit the most pathways for high school currently. That doesn't mean in

127the future if we adjust our pathways, we may need to adjust our introductory courses of middle school. >> Okay. you good or you want >> as a cucumber? >> You sure? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I also was uh just for commentary, I was kind of assuming, you know, maybe introduction to skilled trades is the one in middle school and you're learning, you know, the the right type of fasteners to use in different situations, but you're also learning, you know, how to follow a plan, do things, you know, do things with your hands, see it through to completion. I mean skills that you would be using as a as a phabotamist or as a sculptor or whatever the case may be. Um it's it's there's transferable skills and then there's the concepts in the course.

128>> Yeah. And kids often take courses in multiple pathways too. I don't I don't want uh >> right you know they have a lot of elective credits. So they have a lot of opportunity to take multiple pathways. This is just an initial launch into multiple pathways for high school. It gets back to that not having 19 >> low- enrolled >> Yes. >> pathways, not not extrapolating that pro that problem to middle school as you fix it in high school. Right. >> Right. >> Finally, in the near future, teaching and learning will bring forward differentiated diploma options for the Lawrence public school students. Differentiated diplomas will be structured routes students can follow to earn a high school diploma. Each route will include a defined set of courses, credit requirements, and post-secary asset expectations, allowing students to

129pursue rigorous learning aligned to their interests and strengths. Creating differentiated diplomas will offer several key benefits for both students and the system. They will increase relevance and engagement by connecting learning to student goals and future aspirations. They will also provide greater clarity for students and families by outlining a purposeful route from middle school through graduation. In addition, they will strengthen alignment across academic programs and coursework, ensuring students have access to meaningful post-secary assets such as college credit, advanced learning opportunities. Ultimately, this enhancement will promote equitable access by providing multiple clearly defined highquality routes for post-secary success for all students. I just want to share Dr. Amaya with the board how much we appreciated their input and feedback. I have pages of notes from our conversations last week. And so, Dr. Jeremiah will be working with

130our counselors and teachers and uh high school teams and we'll be back to you in April with more specifics on the diplomas. We just felt like that was worthy of a little more focus and we're also mindful um members Kimell and Jones that there's policy work embedded in that move as well. Um, so this is a big elephant and we've looked at uh three big buckets tonight, but um that's one that's coming. >> Okay, thank you. Uh we're at the point where I've summarized all of this information. I'll be happy to take any other questions that you might have. [snorts] >> No questions. You're just going to be really busy. [laughter] I appreciate you being up there for an hour and I'm I'm super excited specifically about the balanced assessment framework, the real world learning

131stuff, the the CTE alignment. Um there's a lot of really exciting things going on. >> It feels like we're centering teaching and learning which see which is what you're here to do. That's your job. But I mean as a district that we can move away from um we have been still in a mode of recovering from the pandemic for the last five years and this is exciting to see this kind of focus and intentionality on teaching and learning and what our true mission is and the systems that you're building is what I really appreciate and your ability to answer some of our more pointed questions. I'm assuming there are much more um knowledgeable in-depth questions coming from teachers and counselors and there were several points in which you mentioned including them in the discussion which

132is really important to this board. So I appreciate that. I'm assuming students are part of that conversation as well. So thank you for including that those voices too. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you >> Carol. Any closing thoughts? >> Thank you. And I I I just want to add in to my discussion with Dr. Swift. Dr. Could you please elaborate on a little bit of our discussion? I inquired about the the consumer economics or the teaching about, you know, with our students when they graduate from school, they're going to have >> right these highpaying jobs, but they may not know how to manage all the their money. So, can you please um address that to the board? >> Yes. Thank you. Member Kaju Blackwood. In our conversation on Friday, uh, member Kaju Black was uh, mentioning

133how important that they find at the college level that personal finance is. And, uh, we were just talking a little bit about how in the new state requirements starting with the class of 2028, correct? Uh, that is a requirement for every student. And of course, it'll be our task to make sure that that's a meaningful uh experience and that it's a learning experience and not just a checkbox. And so, we're excited to hear more about that. But we're really encouraged that students will get that piece >> financial literacy that a lot of people will will probably need. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any announcements? I when I thank you uh President Gordon Ross. When I shared earlier the appointments and the leadership announcements, I wanted to also uh share uh you

134may have noted on the insert JB Manhart as CTE coordinator. I just want to say uh to the board and to the public how fortunate we were to ha add her to our team tonight. She has 30 years of experience and classroom teaching and statewide coordination of CTE programs. This fits perfectly with the work that Dr. Amaya is sharing tonight. She will be driving that work with us. She's a twotime national board certified teacher in CTE, a Kansas teacher of the year finalist, and she is currently a CTE coordinator for Green Bush Education Service, has overseen 80 districts and their CTE programming, and for the past six years, she's served as a lead organizer for Kansas annual CTE conference. So um you know I I'm going to take a victory lap uh after this board

135meeting because Dr. Amaya has shown the immensity of the work ahead of us and I'm just really proud and grateful to the board for supporting it that we have a real professional joining our team. I can't wait for you to meet her and see the work that she's going to do. We have a fabulous CTE team uh but we have not had someone explicitly driving that uh to support our coordination with the state. So thank you. >> All right. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> I move we adjourn. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. So moved.