001All right, we're going to go ahead and get started. Uh, can I get approval of the agenda, please? [snorts] >> I move to approve the agenda for the November 10th, 2025 board meeting. >> This is Carol. I second. >> Buyers, >> yes. Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Kadoo Blackwood, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Kimble, >> yes. >> The motion passes 5-0. >> All right, we'll move on to the report of the superintendent of schools with Dr. Swift. >> Thank you, President Gordon Ross and members of the board and all who are joining us both in person and remote. Uh it is November 10th and across our Lawrence public schools we are all reflecting this month on the importance of gratitude. It is our character strong focus for November. Excuse me. I just realized
002that I'm the clicker. There we go. It is our character strong uh trait uh for the month. And as we begin having conversations with our students, we explore the concept of gratitude. It's defined as choosing to appreciate the people and the things in our lives. We learn firsthand the proven benefits of gratitude and how a regular practice of appreciation supports emotional well-being and serves as an antidote to chronic stress. Our students, staff, our students, staff and staff learn, practice, and celebrate gratitude, a reliable tool of resilience to promote awareness, acceptance, and action. I was out at school uh just recently and they were having a march of gratitude and thanking uh their community supporters. Um, we truly have so much to be grateful for in Lawrence Public Schools. I'm really grateful for the commitment and
003care shown across our classrooms, our schools, and our community. Throughout our district, students are showing up ready to learn. Educators are inspiring creativity and innovation, and support staff are connecting the dots for us to keep our schools running smoothly. I really appreciate the deep engagement of our parents as partners in our work and especially over previous weeks, our many business partners who are leveraging their connections and resources in support of our students in the Lawrence Public Schools community. If you've not had the opportunity to see the announcement yet, our parents as teacher uh program uh it uh was recently re awarded a blue ribbon affiliate status. The or this is the organization's highest recognition of quad quality uh for sites administering parents as teachers. Earning blue ribbon affiliate status recognizes the hard work and dedication
004of our incredible staff and it reflects our Lawrence public schools commitment to support children family engagement and strong community. I want to give a shout out to Stacy Daniels who is the coordinator parent educator of Lawrence parents as teachers. will be over at Kennedy to give them a give them a big congratulations on this honor. Uh members, you have heard quite a lot about Let's Lift Lawrence. So, I hope that this part of the report is not too repetitive. Uh but I wanted to get these things out in front of our community in case they've missed it. We've shared widely about our Let's Live Lawrence, which is a drive to ensure that we are all stepping up to support our children and families who are facing food insecurity just now. We're grateful for so many
005community partners. Uh these are individuals, organizations, businesses who've taken action to help us address real emergent needs among our families. Uh we have students and their families who are directly impacted at every school location in our district and each of our school sites has been mobilized as a collection location for shelf stable items. Uh the list of most needed items can be seen on our website. And if um uh dropping uh items by uh the food pantries that are now open in every school location or if folks are too busy to get by, just make a don donation directly to just food Lawrence. Uh just as an update, we received an update toward the end of the week. Uh last week, the Douglas County Pantry Fund reported that they received nearly $70,000 in donations. And
006Just Food also updated us that they continue to have pallets of food arriving on site and they feel like they have the volunteers to facilitate distribution of that food. I do want to give a foundation update. I got to see uh Dena Johnson today and check in on the progress through the foundation with Let's Lift Lawrence. And as you all know uh the foundation has initiated an adopt a school program where they are focused on keeping the food pantries of our schools stocked. Dena shares that so far more than 20 businesses and organizations and even private donors have signed up to assist with directly with a specific school pantry. They've adopted a school. In addition, they have several generous partners and individuals who are collecting for multiple schools. Uh as you can see if you
007came in the front door tonight, our uh district office collection site is filling up fast uh with nearly three large containers already overflowing with donations for our schools. So we'll be mobilizing that food to the school pantries who need it most. Uh at the same time, Dena shares today that they've seen a significant increase in requests through their ICAN and Seagar funds. The needs in our community, as we all know, are real. They are urgent and they are often heartbreaking. We're deeply grateful for the continued support and compassion of everyone involved. Together, we are working to lift Lawrence and to make sure no student goes without the essentials they need to thrive. So, just a few highlights of this past week since we launched uh this effort. Our schools are bringing their own creativity. share
008the care at Deerfield is that each grade level in the school has taken on a different meal theme to collect and assemble into meal um boxes that are ready to go home at the end of the day. Woodlon has initiated from our from our nest to ours and they have added toilet paper, paper towels, and laundry items to their list of needed items directly partnering with the Sunrise Project, Ballard Center, and Velocity Church. Uh, Principal McCannney at um over at Free State High School. I thought maybe we had some of the photos. They're really great. Um, she shares that while all kinds of clubs and organizations are bringing in food for their friendly competition at Free State, the student council went above and beyond with much of their own uh teen money, not from their
009parents or fundraising. They purchased approximately $1,000 in groceries to restock the school pantry at Free State. It's called the nest um to contribute to lift Lawrence. And likely the coolest thing is that they bought groceries to make chili and cornbread that our social workers are currently making in their Free State kitchen to package and send home for the Free State families who need it. Ironically, the students recently were noticed in Dillan's because they were completely emptying out shelves of product. Uh, so if you hear anything about that, I promise you it was for a good cause. Uh, I also wanted to highlight the work of Julie Henry. Very impressive. You can see our uh food and nutrition team here working in a home kitchen uh at Julie's to develop and test recipes. Uh their focus
010was on creating tasty, hearty, and familyfriendly recipes that took 20 minutes or less to prepare and cook. They told us that on that test of about uh 12 different recipes, they got the cost down for a family of four to $166 per serving. So that's what these recipes were designed for is to be economical and nutritious for our families and to coordinate directly with our most needed items list and also with our pantry cookbook. So each of the recipes is available on our website and uh right under the link that says try our recipes. Lawrence uh I know that we all know we will need to continue this work. Uh there has been a great deal of confusion over this past weekend and what we know for sure is that the need continues. It is
011local. It is immediate. It is in every school in our district. Our building principles report that donations come in throughout the day and that by the end of each day the shelves are emptied. We continue uh we'll continue to highlight these stories of gratitude and dignity and uh we will update those to our website because we really appreciate the folks around Lawrence are being responsive to exactly where the need emerges. Thanks to everyone. I'm so proud to be a member of this community. Uh we uh last week our uh communications team as you all know was working uh directly to support our less lift efforts and uh and that included answering media calls and passing out flyers. We have new traffic oriented vests so that we can pass out flyers and pick up food items
012right in the drop off and pickup lanes. Um and I appreciate the work of the team on the logistics of inner district mobilization of collected items to areas of need. Uh we are tracking the activity on this particular section of our website and I just will note that in only 10 days time we're happy to report that we've had over 3,100 visits to this page. 500 folks checked in on the pantry cookbook recipes and 200 individuals have visited the donation information. We anticipate these numbers will continue to increase and appreciate the outreach uh from everyone. Our last superintendent's message that went out uh the end of last week uh reached 19,500 recipients. I'm delighted to share uh that it received about 15,000 openings and views with 9,500 unique opens and 205 link clicks inside the
013message. So that means they've read enough of the message to click on a link. Based on the analytic data, we see that readers primarily clicked on the direct links to our Let's Lift Lawrence landing page and the food pantry recipe resources. In just three days since publishing the newsletter, um the data on views, opens, and clickthroughs are already meeting or exceeding our industry benchmarks for districts of our size. These results reflect strong community engagement with our updates and especially interesting content related to our Let's Lift Lawrence campaign. We don't just put our messages out there, but we measure and board. I try to bring you at every meeting the metrics behind what when and how our folks are engaging with our messages. Uh coming soon, our ad hoc generative AI and evolving technologies advisory group
014invitations are out now. So we encourage everyone to uh check that out if you have interest in serving. We're excited to launch this advisory in such a critical area of our work in the district which was called for by the board uh last year. Uh the link to the application went out via parent square. So parents should have that right in their digest, easy to find. Um and it is also if you can't locate it, it's also on our website. We are accepting applications through November 14th. So we have a few days uh remaining and uh planning for an addition an initial meeting scheduled for early December. Um, and already there are many applicants already uh submitted, but we invite everyone out there to continue to consider that opportunity. We're looking forward to important conversations
015on the on the topic of AI and the opportunity to bring recommendations to this board for consideration in early 2026. Uh there's the gratitude slide that I was looking for earlier. And that's the gratitude poster there. Very good. Um as we stated earlier, our word for the month of November, our concept is gratitude. I really appreciate that when we review our character strong data, it shows that approximately 91 a half hours of instruction have occurred directly engaged with our character strong um uh tools and that is direct social emotional learning focused on recognizing and expressing gratitude in daily life. Schools implement and embed Character Strong in different ways, typically culminating with an end of the month school assembly and student and staff recognition. This week, as an example, we're looking forward to being out at
016Quill Run where students will be taking part in activities honoring Ruby Bridges and her courageous role in school integration. As a school, they will reflect on her bravery and the importance of standing up for justice, not just kindness. Students will participate in a schoolwide walk and learning activities celebrating the story of Ruby Bridges and her lasting impact. Our avid family nights at both middle and high schools are going really well. I really appreciate this work to strengthen connections and particularly at West Middle School. AVID students welcomed Kansas State Treasurer Steve Johnson for financial literacy and college savings night. While at the event, three scholarships were awarded and students and their parents received valuable insight into the importance of financial planning for post-secary education. Similarly, at Free State, uh there was a strong turnout for annual
017AVID family night. The evening included student demonstrations of the AVID tutorial process, college research project presentations, and a guest presentation on financial aid from the University of Kansas. Events like these contribute to our overall focus of removing barriers, enhancing opportunities, and preparing every student for success beyond graduation. Uh, I wanted to also include Free State and Liberty Memorial Central Middle School AVID classes who collaborated for a kickball event designed to build teamwork, confidence, communication, and relationships. Uh, you may or may not have heard, this was brand new to me today, but school security officer Lindseay Bishop um has been recognized by the National School Resource Officers Association. Um, they have named her as a Nassro practitioner. that stands for National SRO Practitioner Program and it was established as a way for school districts to recognize
018officers who've excelled in the area of school-based policing and certainly Officer Bishop is a prime example of that. To obtain the status, officers must meet certain requirements, including completion of over 220 hours of specialized training, and they must have a minimum three years of service as an SRO. uh their certificate gives credit to those officers who have attended training, shown a commitment to school-based work and have shown leadership in this specialized field of law enforcement. So, congratulations to Officer Bishop [snorts] and we also give a shout out to her partner Rosie. We are grateful to have both of them assigned to schools in our district. Want to just give a shout out uh to and a job well done to Free State Firebirds. They wrapped up their season last Friday evening with a hardfought loss
01938-31 to Shaunie Mission Northwest High School. Um but job well done on a great season. Unified Bowling will complete their season right here uh tomorrow. uh I'm sorry, right here uh in Lawrence at Royal Royal CL Crest Lanes tomorrow afternoon and the state tournament is the following weekend on November 18th. We're excited to begin our um community conversations for 2526. Those conversations will be convened throughout the community and we're looking forward to starting uh at our next engagement. Last Thursday evening, we were out at Taste of Lawrence and next um uh on Saturday morning, November 22nd, we'll be out at uh the um we'll be out I'm sorry, I've lost at the farmers market. I knew it would come back to me at the farmers market on Saturday, November 22nd. We'll be there all day
020in a marked booth. Uh so we'll look forward to seeing everyone and saying hello. Uh I wanted to just mention a final update. We've uh continued our work throughout this past year on compensation. I really value the board's support as we've continued to work to streamline our organization and to dedicate resources to prioritize competitive compensation for our staff. We have significant work ahead of us to achieve this goal. We are just getting started, but I appreciate that this past week we've shared information directly with PAR educators in specialized classrooms that we've been able to reassign their positions to align better with the critical duties that they carry out in these very important programs that require such a unique skill set. So, this change has been notified to those individuals involved and will be paid proactively
021to July 1st. Tonight, I appreciate the board's consideration of the third of our employee groups and those are our administrators following approval of certificated staff back at the end of July, July 28th, and educational support professionals on September 24th. Then tonight we complete the third leg of this stool with the administrator members of our team. Members, as you are already aware, uh the recommendation is for a 3% increase to the administrative salary pool. Um and uh the board support and approval will enable the district to finalize this 2526 compensation for all of our employee groups for the current school year. As I noted, we are just getting started. So we'll be organizing our work and continuing to move forward uh to achieve that livable rate liable livable wage uh for all members of our team.
022As a side note, I was delighted last Sunday to be able to attend the grand opening of the uh ch of the Habad House, a 10,000 square foot student center uh at KU. You can see a beautiful photo here. We celebrate every effort in our city that expands inclusivity and strengthens the sense of community that we share. This was a meaningful milestone. The KU Habad House is truly a beautiful addition to our KU and Lawrence community. I appreciate your patience with the longer uh than usual update this evening. We know that quality public schools are an outcome of an engaged, caring communities who value their children, the quality education, and our collective future. I'm so grateful for the partnership of everyone and thank you for the opportunity to share this report and for the honor
023of serving Lawrence Public Schools. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Swift. Um, now move on to the report of the president of the board. Um, I'd like to start with just um uh briefly touching on the results of the election last week. I'd like to congratulate Mike Courtourtney and Christian Poland for their wins at the at city commission. Uh congratulate Shannon and Kelly for their wins um for the school board. And then as we wait for final results next week um for third place on the board, uh we'll address that then. And I'd also like to take a moment to thank all the candidates who ran. Um, running a campaign uh is not an easy task. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort. Um, and it it's not um it's
024just it's it's very draining. And so I appreciate everyone who was willing to do that. Put your name out there and appreciate your interest in both service to the the school district and the city. Um, uh, for me, I'm looking forward to, uh, the Kansas Association of School Boards Convention this weekend in Witchah. And then, uh, would also like to say I had an opportunity, many opportunities this fall to attend various sporting events. So, I'm sad to see the fall sports season end across our district, but looking forward to winter sports. And then, um, this coming week, there are several, uh, fall performances across our various schools. So, um, look out for those at middle and high school. And, uh, that's all I have for me. So, we'll move on to board committee reports. Following
025that, we'll do board commentary. So, committee reports. Bob, we'll start with you. Um, yes. Uh, the only committee that my committee said have met thus far is the equity advisory council met on November 4th. um and welcome several new uh committee members. Uh our discussion uh doing the the committee was more around bringing the new members on board and talking about uh future items that we would like to discuss. >> Uh let's see. Uh this is Carol. I was not able to attend the Billy Mills Middle School site council committee or the equity advisory council meetings. [cough] Excuse me. [clears throat] Both of those were held on Tuesday, November 4th. But I am pleased to have participated in Tuesday's local elections. And I thank everybody who came out to vote or sent in a ballot.
026I served yet again as an election election judge and saw a lot of familiar faces at my poll at the polling site. And I'd like to thank everyone who stepped up to run for city commission and school board. And I welcome school new school board member elect Matt Lancaster. Thank you. >> Anybody else? Okay. Um >> policy committee meets next Tuesday the 18th. So we haven't met this month yet. >> Right. Perfect. All right. So we'll move on to board commentary. We'll just come back to Bob. Bob, do you have any commentary? >> Uh no. >> Carol, do you have anything? Uh yes. Um let's see. I would like to thank everyone who donated to the Lyft Lawrence efforts to work towards keeping our food pantry stocked. >> Uh just a quick update on the
027Lawrence Nutrition School support fund. It's now at $1,500. Uh it's falling far short goal of the goal of $60,000, but I thank everyone who has donated thus far. And I'd like to thank Ashley Smith from Krill Run and Haley Glover from Sunflower Elementary for allowing me to read Billy Mills's Wings of an Eagle to students in conjunction with Native American Heritage Month. I was honored to present both classes with autographed copies of his book for future classes and discussion. And I'd also like to lend a deep uh deep and profound thank you to former Congresswoman Nancy Bua for reaching out to me and allowing members of me and my family to harvest, collect, and donate nearly 400 pounds of sweet potatoes from her personal garden for local pantries. And I'm also grateful, as Dr. Swift
028said, the word of the month is grateful and gratitude. I'm grateful for this community's let's lift efforts into especially for our current and service members as we are on the eve of Veterans Day. Thank you for your courage and sacrifice. >> Thank you, Carol Kelly. >> Uh, I'll just briefly extend um a gratitude to the folks who ran in the election and also for the opportunity to serve for the next four years. And I look forward to um working with you all on some of our shared goals, particularly those that Dr. Swift mentioned pertaining to wages. um and uh join Carol in celebrating our veterans tomorrow. Thank you. >> I do want to extend my gratitude uh to the community for the chance to continue doing this work. Um it it means a lot and
029I'm really excited about it and thank you to all of the folks who ran with us. Um and I'm uh just I'm really looking forward to serving with with my colleagues for another term. Um, I did want to, um, speaking of gratitude, um, extend gratitude to the facilities and operations staff for including, uh, board members in their chili cookoff on on Halloween. It's always a lot of fun and it's a nice chance to get to celebrate the work that they do to make our district um, run. Uh, often times um, we don't realize all the work that goes that they do that goes into making our classrooms the places that they are for our kids. So much appreciation to them. And then um had a chance last week to attend um several school events um
030uh the Free State High School football game last Friday night that Dr. Swift um mentioned and just what a what a really emotional and amazing season for those kids this year. Um they've been a great um a great group of of of kids on that team and um just have appreciated watching them this year. Um, and then a shout out to our fine arts staff at both Free State and West Middle School. I attended the West uh fall corral concert last week and uh they just blew me away. They were fantastic. Um, additionally equally impressed with the Free State High School Musical Theater students who did a production of the Adams Family um musical. uh they invited the West kids to come to see their dress rehearsal and uh they were just they were wonderful.
031So um a lot of [clears throat] really amazing things that go on in our our school buildings every day and um just wanted to give them some recognition. That's all. Thanks. >> All right. [sighs] All right. With that, [snorts] we'll move on to the consent. Oh, we have a retirement. >> Yeah, we [clears throat] the board of education would like to thank Ronald Anderson Jr. for 16 years of service and Marsha Abbott for her 18 years of service and devotion to Lawrence public schools and and its community. >> Thank you, Bob. So, now we'll move on to consent agenda. Consent agenda items are those that are considered routine and are adopted by one motion unless any board member or the superintendent requests that an item be removed. The item items removed are voted on separately.
032Can I get a motion for the consent agenda? >> I move the board of education adopt the items listed on the consent agenda. >> Can I get a second? >> I second. >> Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Kimble, >> yes. >> Buyers, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> Blackwood, >> yes. >> Motion passes 50. >> Okay. So, now we're going to move on to new business. item 4.1 >> and I um I need to withdraw withdraw from this discussion as the issue may affect me. >> Okay, we shall wait. [snorts] So to preface this um in looking at the vacancy that we have to fill um in our governance manual we have a process that we have followed um in in looking at um the current situation um the proximity of the vacancy to
033the election in looking at the results of the election um the community very clearly spoke in the results of that election in terms of voting. Um and the the the the vote totals for the third and fourth place are even now after election night are very clearly um very close. Um statistically they're they're almost identical. and the the to to honor the will of the people and the will of the voters. I think uh the discussion we wanted to have is do we want to the the motion on the table is to appoint after the final results are released on next Monday. Do we want to just appoint whoever finishes fourth because that's who the community voted in because of the vacancy. So that's that's the discussion on the on the table. When we're done
034discussing, we have one public comment related to this item that we'll that we'll hear and then we'll vote. So if anybody has any comments, we can we can do that. Who do you want to have go? You want to go first, Kelly? >> No. Um, I just want [clears throat] to clarify or discuss my vote. I just want um people to know that I didn't this is one of the tougher decisions that we've had to make, but just for continuity and for actually because we were elected to be fiscally responsible with our dollars. So I for me it makes more fiscal sense to take this action of selecting the fourth board member if appointing whoever wins who comes in fourth place. But this also highlights just how important votes are. Every vote matters and right
035now it's really too close to call. >> Okay. >> Uh I support the motion. >> Okay. Um I just wanted to take a moment to share some additional context, ask a question, but ultimately I am supportive of taking this um this step as well. I think it makes a lot of sense. Um I wanted to make sure that um the community knows because you know not everybody reads the board manual like we do. [laughter] um that um although we do have a process that we have set out in our board manual um for how we do the process of taking applications and doing interviews and voting if that is how we need to proceed. Um it does specifically say in those procedures that we have adopted as a body that um we may choose to
036to appoint someone or if or we may choose to take applications and if we do so here's the process that we have agreed to use. Okay. >> Um so so we are um um we are following our own procedures in making this decision. I think that's really important for people to know um that we've already had a conversation about what we wanted to do in this circumstance and have given ourselves these options. Um in addition uh the the question that I have is and I just want to ask it publicly so that um it's not confusing to people um if this is how it works out. Um, if the election turns out um that that Matt is the person who um is elected and we choose to appoint Bob to this position, um because his
037term doesn't end, his current term doesn't end until January. Um that may mean there's some uh procedural steps we have to take at that January meeting to make all of that effective. Um is my understanding. Is that correct? >> Is that what we understand will have to happen? Okay. >> Yes. >> All right. >> So, so if that is the results of the election, then the actual appointment will happen >> at that first January >> that first January meeting. >> Okay. Yep. >> Okay. Great. Um, with that, I'm supportive of the motion as well. And I appreciate uh board leadership bringing this to the board. Okay. >> So, we have one public commenter. So, Mike, thanks for being here. How's everybody doing? Good. >> Give us one moment. >> Oh, sorry. >> Oh, GR, do
038you do you want us to read the >> We have to read it. >> Um the procedures first. >> Okay. >> I'd be happy to do that. >> Yeah, we'll read our public comment procedure. >> All right. Um give me just one second to get to the correct screen. Thank you. The USD497 Board of Education welcomes public comments and thanks you for taking the time to talk to us about our policies and procedures. We set aside this time during our regular meetings to hear from the public. Patrons who wish to participate in public comment must email public comment at usd497.org by noon on the day of the board meeting to participate in person. Information provided will make it possible for district staff or the board to follow up with you as necessary. This is your
039time to share your opinions. However, public comment is not the appropriate forum for making complaints about specific staff or students. If your comments relate to complaints concerning students or staff, such complaints must be addressed to district staff as provided under board policies KN, general complaints, and GAE, personnel complaints. The board president or presiding officer of the meeting may direct that a public comment request be redirected to staff to comply with board policy, including to protect the privacy of individual staff or students. If you need assistance in sharing a complaint or concern with district staff, please let the board clerk or other district staff know. Topics discussed in public comment shall be gerine to the business of the board. Furthermore, comments must comply with standards laid out in board policy GA AAE, anti-bullying, and board policy
040GACA, hazing of staff and students. Comments or acts that are threatening to staff, the board, or others in attendance, including the use of language or behavior that is disruptive of the board meeting, will not be permitted during public comment. In addition, because students may be in attendance or watching online, members of the public will refrain from using foul or obscene language. The district assumes no responsibility or liability for the information shared during public comment. The views expressed are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Lawrence public schools. >> All right. >> Thank you, sir. >> Yep. Thank you. My name is Mike Courtourtney, Lawrence City Commissioner Elect, former president of the Prairie Park Elementary PTA, dad of two kids, and probably as you know me, Cindy Courtney's husband. I'm
041writing to support appointing the fourth place vote getter in the school board election to fill the opening created by Anne Costello's recent resignation. In 2022, this body selected the runnerup in the 2021 school board race to fill an opening on the board. It was the right move then and it is the right move now. Citizens ask us as elected officials to be transparent and accountable in these important community decisions. And this situation gives you the unique opportunity to reaffirm this positive precedent for the school board, the city, and the county. The voice of the people should be heard when filling vacancies in our elected bodies. With that, I hope that you either select Mr. Buyers or Mr. Lancaster to fill the opening on this board. And as a total side note, I know how my
042stomach felt on Tuesday, so I can't imagine like waiting like an extra week and a half. [laughter] I I am sad to know that Anne will no longer be on this board, especially as I supported her in the last election. I wish her as a dedicated public servant all the best in the future. So, thank you for your time and consideration on this matter. Additionally, I look forward to connecting with you all as we as fellow elected officials in Lawrence and I hope we can work together to create a new level of coordination and cooperation between the school board and the city commission. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. Uh with that, can I have a motion? >> Yes. I move the USD497 board of education appoint the fourth place finisher in the
043November 2025 school board election to fill the current board vacancy. The appointees term shall begin on January 12th, 2026 and continue until the next regular scheduled election for the seat in accordance with the equable Kansas law and board policy. >> Second Kadu Blackwood, >> yes. >> Kimell, >> yes. >> Gordon Ross, >> yes. >> Jones, >> yes. >> The motion passes 4. Okay, >> thank you. So before we move on, Um, I'll take a moment of privilege and turn the mic over to Kelly Jones. >> Thank you for this opportunity. I wanted to extend congratulations to uh Bob Buyers and Matt Lancaster for their um appointment or likely appointment here shortly. Um, and say that I've had the opportunity to run fairly closely with Matt. We've gotten to know each other through campaigning. If you've
044done it, you understand as as Mike now does. and to extend to my friend and colleague um Bob Buyers just a congratulations and um gratitude to you both for this very unusual circumstance we find ourselves in but I feel like this is going to be an exceptionally strong board um and I've learned so much for you that I am extremely glad that I get to keep working with you thank you okay >> anyone else before we move on the ditto Okay, I like it. All right, we'll move on to item 5.1, K KU J-Hawk Blueprint annual update. Dr. Swift, >> thank you, President Gordon Ross and members of the board. Uh we are joined this evening uh by do Dr. Cola Maya. We're also delighted to welcome uh sitting back here in the audience, Dr.
045Melinda Fowls, who uh is our great partner on KU Blueprint. and we are going to invite her to offer remarks a little bit later on or uh is later okay Dr. File okay very good um so uh we are delighted to share this 2025 annual report on our J-Hawk blueprint program I'll give just a little bit of an introduction and then um Dr. Amaya will be working through some of the data and then we'll invite Dr. FA to uh help us uh with her perspective. Um very good. We want to place uh this conversation this evening within the context of the many opportunities that students have to achieve rigorous coursework and post-secary experiences while they're still in high school. So, you're very familiar with these other methods. Um, and uh, KU Blueprint courses, our concurrent
046college enrollment program in partnership with the University of Kansas is really a a crown jewel among these opportunities for students to uh, achieve high school, achieve college credit while still in high school. uh a concurrent enrollment program uh college program, if you're not familiar with that term, concurrent enrollment, simply means that students simultaneously in their classroom right at their local high school earn both college credit and high school credit. Uh these classes are taught by our highly qualified Lawrence Public Schools teachers. I do want to give them a shout out and note uh that they are required to achieve a higher level of education. They're required to have a master's in the content area, not in one of the other areas in education. Um, and I'm very grateful uh that over this past year, Dr.
047Fowls and her team had uh this uh as a goal and I appreciate that we are now able through the university to offer some additional compensation to those teachers who teach uh in the program. Uh the research confirms uh what uh the value of concurrent enrollment programs. It is all about equity, access, and opportunity. So, uh, decades of research, and the links are on the following slide because we don't just say research, we'll show it to you. Um, decades of research establish and prove that students in concurrent enrollment programs are more likely to engage in high school, graduate from high school, enroll, persist, and complete a college degree as well. And uh just like our focus on early childhood education, there are a few points in our system where we use these equity levers that
048are good for all kids. They're great for all kids and they're even more impactful for students who come from lowincome backgrounds, from first generation college students, and from students from historically under reppresented and undererved groups. So, uh, good for all and better for those who need it most. uh two research links that you may want to uh take a look at at some point. I want to give a shout out to our teachers. You can see their names here who teach uh whoops who teach uh our Jay-Hawk blueprint courses uh at both of our comprehensive high schools. And also a shout out to our high school counselors. Really the wind beneath the wings on all of this to get our students organized into their classrooms. What this program is able to do then is to
049leverage the familiarity of a high school classroom where a student is comfortable to embark on a transformational experience of becoming a college student. It's magic. The eight courses that we offer are uh noted here. Um just a note that these eight courses represent approximately one year of college progress. So students uh in the process of taking their coursework, if they take the courses that we offer right in our high school, uh they really have while they're finishing their high school degree, uh become college students and that transformation, that opportunity makes all the difference. There's some additional benefits. I feel like I'm one of those uh late night television folks saying and there's more. Uh but there is more and that is that students have lowcost tuition. It's about $103 per credit hour uh really 23
050off the going rate at KU. They have free textbooks and over many years we've offered need-based scholarship. Thanks to the great work of Trudy Credit Union and our Lawrence Schools Foundation, we've been covering 100% for students who are on free lunch and 50% of tuition for those on reduced price lunch. that has been in place since uh 2020. Uh in addition, benefits uh which are so important for students embarking for the first time on a college level class. Uh students may access academic supports at KU, including one-on-one tutoring, the KU writing center, and the student access center. It is such a profound opportunity for us as a system to offer the opportunity for our students to engage right at their local high school, but to have a college experience prior to high school graduation. Dr.
051Jeremiah is going to walk us through what that means in terms of AVID and in terms of the data that we currently see on our KU blueprint program. Dr. Amaya, >> good evening board president. Before we look at the data, I want to ground us in the lens that is going to guide this analysis. As a proud AVID district, our mission is to close the opportunity gap in college and career success. In teaching and learning, that mission centers on two questions. Are we closing the opportunity gap for all students? And are we providing the most access for the most students? With that lens, the next slides highlight trends from 2019 to 2025 in individual student enrollment, total course enrollment, average number of blueprint courses completed by graduated seniors, and total college credit hours earned. We
052will then also look at data by race and economic status. On this slide, we are looking at the number of individual students enrolled in Jay-Hawk blueprint each year. In 2019 2020, 288 students participated in the program. By 2024 2025, that number had increased to 445 students across both comprehens comprehensive high schools. That represents a 34% increase in student participation since 2019, a positive indicator of growing interest and access. Naturally, as more students participate, it's important to look at how many courses they are actually taking, which brings us to course enrollment by academic year. Student course enrollment represents the total number of enrollments in blueprint courses, including students who take more than one course. In 2019 2020 there was 560 total course enrollments and by 2425 that number had risen to 1,117. Meaning course enrollment has
053doubled since 2019. So not only are more students participating, but they are also taking more concurrent enrollment courses over time at both Free State and Lawrence High School. That same upward trend continues when we dig a little deeper and look at the average number of courses completed by graduated seniors. We began tracking the average number of blueprint courses completed per student in 2020 2021. Early in the program, students averaged just over one course per student enrolled. By 2024 2025, that average had increased nearly 2.5 courses per student enrolled, a 76% increase. So, not only are students enrolling, they are successfully completing more courses before graduation. Lastly, let's take a look at what that means in terms of total college credits earned. Here we see the impact of that growth. Since 2021, the total number of
054college credits earned through Jay-Hawk blueprint has increased by 37%. The jump from 1,854 to 2,633 credits represents real financial savings for families and gives students early academic momentum toward a college degree. So, while total credits earned continue to rise, the next question we have to ask is who is earning the credits? To answer this question, the next slide disagregates blueprint enrollment by race. On this slide, we are looking at access to Jay-Hawk blueprint courses disagregated by race for the 2526 school year. The data shows that 17% of racially diverse students are accessing KU blueprint courses compared to 30% of white students. When we look at all 11th and 12th graders combined, 26% of students overall are enrolled in at least one blueprint course. It's important to note that this reflects only blueprint enrollment, not all
055advanced opportunities such as AP honors courses or other college opportunities. Even with overall program growth, participation is not evenly distributed. while, excuse me, white students are accessing Blueprint at nearly twice the rate of racially diverse students. This same pattern continues when we review access to Jay-Hawk blueprint program by economic status. The data shows that 12% of economically disadvantaged students are enrolled in blueprint courses compared to 33% of students who are non-economically disadvantaged. As with the previous slide, this reflects blueprint participation only. Not all advanced courses such as AP, honors, or other college credit bearing opportunities exists in this data. So again, even with overall program growth, access is not comparably distributed. The data suggests that non-economically disadvantaged students are accessing Blueprint at nearly three times the rate of their economically disadvantaged peers. By examining participation
056through the lens of race and economic status, we can more clearly identify where opportunity gaps persist. This awareness allows us to take intentional steps to ensure every student has equitable access to advanced learning opportunities. This slide highlights the positive impact of tuition assistance and how local partnerships have helped more students take advantage of blueprint opportunities. The bar graph shows the number of students that receive tuition assistance each year and the table indicates the percentage that it represents ranging from 9 to 23% over the last four years. This support from the Lawrence Schools Foundation and TR truity credit union directly lowers out-of- pocket costs for families and continues to expand access to college credit opportunities for students. Since 2018, the Lawrence Schools Foundation has awarded more than $156,000 in scholarships to support Jay-Hawk Blueprint students. Equally
057impressive, Truitity Credit Union has contributed nearly $140,000 of that 156,000 total to help fund these scholarships. These community investments have made a lasting impact on access and affordability. As we look ahead, the next step is to ensure that every student has the skills, confidence, and structures to take advantage of these opportunities. And this begins with a strong AVID elective pipeline. As a key next step, the district will continue to focus on building a strong AVID elective pipeline across grades 6 through 12. This work directly aligns with the goals of the Jay-Hawk blueprint program and our broader commitment to closing the opportunity gap for students by strengthening AVID and preparing more students for concurrent enrollment opportunities in high school. AVID strengthens self-determination, broadens access by intentionally supporting under reppresented students and provides the structured support that
058fosters true collegegoing mindsets. By investing in this pipeline, we are ensuring that the growth we have seen in the Jay-Hawk blueprint program, more students enrolling, completing more courses, earning more college credit, remain sustainable and equitable for all learners. Now, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Swift for other next steps. last spring as we uh completed our community engagement and reported out to the community on on the patterns of enhancement and improvements. One of the areas that we highlighted was KU blueprint. So we wanted to lay out some next steps in terms of ensuring access and opportunity for all students. The first area I got to be with uh Dina Johnston for a little while today to discuss number one which is to move from 100% tuition for all students who are free to
059100% tuition for all economically impacted students. Uh we feel like this is a very reasonable achievable goal and we feel like it will remove some of the barriers that families face. Dena tells the anecdote of a family who recently emailed her to say the 50% tuition scholarship. We're so grateful for it, but it isn't going to we're still not going to be able to enroll. So of course the foundation found a way to ensure that that student was fully covered and moving forward as a next step uh we'd like to ensure 100% for all economically impacted students. Uh secondly, the conversation is already underway. I appreciated Dr. Fowl's uh mentioning this before we started this evening. Um, and the conversation is underway to expand Jay-Hawk blueprint to Lawrence virtual school. This is a very big
060need in order to reach even more students. Um, and thirdly, and members, this is a part of a pivot uh that we're moving to over the coming weeks as we close out 2025, but really to see for students to see themselves as postsecary students and to use that tool of AVID to ensure uh that that happens. And so as we'll be discussing with the board during December preview of coming attractions, uh really zooming out to see the wider context of postsecary success. I really think it's a little bit of a ninja move to have our students have a college experience while they're in their comfortable high school setting and to have them, as Dr. Amaya shared begin to build the momentum toward a college degree. They may complete that degree. They may go in a
061military pathway. They may go in a CTE pathway, but that is a value ad for all students involved. Um, we are also exploring a a more robust approach to individual plans of study. Uh we'll be talking more about that with our team really beginning as early as sixth grade so that students have this path and this plan not anything locked in but they are lifting their vision to a life of postsecary opportunities um and we'll be talking more about it in December but really that idea of diploma pathways and even differentiated opportunities around uh graduation and diplomas, all of it about uh access and opportunities for students. We have uh shared the data and that's always great. We've shared our rationale and our approach to using uh KU blueprint as an equity lever at the
062systems level. Uh what we aren't able to do is to tell the story and the experience ourselves. Uh so I appreciate that Jake and Summer and Andrew, our communications team, uh interviewed and this will be a series of profiles. So you'll see other interviews coming as well, but this is interview uh number one. Uh we're so delighted uh to welcome uh a student um I'm just going to make sure that I say the name properly. Great. A student Evan White and her mom LPS parent Morgan Bennett. Here we go. >> [music] >> I took two K blueprint classes in high school. It's a great way to jumpst [music] start your college experience. >> I'm sure this is why you call it blueprint. It was a blueprint [music] for college. It was awesome. Being able to
063like go into college being like a sophomore uh was really great. Probably ended up being cheaper for you and dad. um me having a whole year of college done before I even went to college. Just a little bit. Yeah, [music] it was several hundred, couple hundred to take a blueprint class versus [music] taking a KU course in high school prepped me [music] for college. While still in high school, I was getting credits for my high school degree and then also my K degree. [music] That's the whole point of this. like we prep and AP are allowing you to be a senior in your third year. She's going to graduate at Bay after 3 years of college. Her dad and I are really [music] excited about that. The fact that she was able to start AKU
064as a sophomore and she's going to have her masters in 4 years is just it's a godsend. [music] Just feel so fortunate because it has never been more expensive to go to college. So, I appreciate that. Evan's younger sister, Drew, is a freshman this year at KU and she had 19 credits when she came in to KU. Drew had all of her high school credits. She could have been done at the end of her junior year of high school [music] and she considered graduating early from high school. She wanted to have a senior year of high school. She didn't want to start college when she was 17, [music] which I think was a good decision. All of her classes senior year were blueprint except one. That was a way that she could stay [music] in
065high school in an environment that's really built for 17-year-olds with her friends and do all the fun senior year things and do [music] prom and the graduation parties and do graduation with her friends [music] um and be engaged and challenged. You can keep going here. We're going to we've made a place for you here. there's an option for you still here in the environment where hopefully you're comfortable and teachers are accustomed to working with you. So, and you're saving those parents [music] up. We appreciate that. When I talked to her about what are you worried about for college, you know, this summer before she went, she's like, "Oh, the classes are going to be fine, Mom. I mean, I've already taken some of those classes. I'm going to be able to do that." I'm thankful
066for her particular educational journey [music] that she got to taste college before she got there. Getting those intro KU core classes out of the way, like I already had those done in high school, so I was able to immediately get started with my [music] business classes, which are like what I was interested in studying. taking that accounting class so early on allowed me to switch my major and then change that career path quicker instead of if I had taken a whole freshman year of all these basic prerequisite classes. I think that's a great thing that high school like can now offer you is that you can try out a little bit of college. Oh, this isn't my thing. Well, there's these other options for you. I didn't realize how closely [music] 497 works with KU.
067So, you know, my advice to other parents is don't miss those opportunities. Don't overlook it. [music] Our public school system is such a gem. It has really saved us a lot of money. It's allowing [music] the money that we did save for college to go further. They knocked out the credits. They saved us some money, but they had a chance to be successful in college before they got there. So, it was really kind of a blueprint for their college [music] success. So, we really appreciate that video. Thanks to the team and special thanks to Melissa Johnson who is the coordinator for Jay-Hawk Blueprint Concurrent Enrollment Program and Dr. Melinda FA. We'd love to have you, Dr. Fals, come on down. Um, and much gratitude to Trudy Credit Union. Uh we did a little bit of
068back of the notebook math today and that number of college um credits that our students took in 2425 is the equivalent of 109 years of college progress. uh that's a significant impact for students and particularly uh for students those students for whom that was their opportunity to open the door to the possibility of college after high school. So with that Dr. Fowls we tried to do honor to the great work that you're doing and to set the table. Thank you. >> Good evening board, Mr. President, Dr. Swift, Dr. Amaya. It is a pleasure to be here tonight. Um, and I don't think I could have said it better, and I'm not certainly not going to say it better than our student Evan, who demonstrated the power of the program. Um, I will say that Jay-Hawk
069blueprint for KU, it aligns with our strategic initiatives to build vibrant communities and assure student success. And so, that is a priority for me professionally. I'm also an LPS parent and I have a child in Mrs. Smith's class at Quail Run. So, thank you so much for going to read to them. She always loves when that happens and hearing the stories. Um, I will say it's a pleasure to work with the USD497 team over the I I started with the Jay-Hawk blueprint program a year and a half ago and we worked very closely over that year and a half and have already had some successes as you mentioned compensating teachers and we are thrilled to continue this partnership and see ways that we can expand um offerings and also how we can get more students
070served. The one other thing I'd like to highlight uh because the the tuition um waiverss are very unique to USD497, but a really exciting thing happened last week is all these students who are on free and reduced lunch filled out the forms to have those waiverss applied. And I believe that that doesn't always happen. So a kudos to the USD497 staff. Pam Freilley works very hard at it. I believe that the the new communication systems that you've implemented have also helped with that. Um, and so that is one thing that we work really hard for is because we want these students to enroll in the classes and we don't want them to have the financial burden that goes with it while we're preparing them for college. So, thank you all so much. Like I said,
071it's a pleasure to represent KU and the blueprint program and we look forward to continued opportunities. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? Kelly? >> Um, [clears throat] >> so I am also a KU employee. Um, so bear with this question. Do these credits transfer to other colleges easily. [snorts] >> Yeah, I can I can see. >> Yes. So all of these C classes are transferable to any Kansas public institution. They're all in systemwide transfer. So that means that the students will get the credit hours as well as the systemwide meet the systemwide goal connected to that course. >> Okay. Excellent. And you mentioned um compensation for the educators in these CA classes. Thank you for working on that. I remember when we approved this some time ago. Now it's been about eight years I
072think or something along those lines. Um, I'm glad to hear that piece of it. And I'm wondering, do the classes ever, um, what's enrollment like? Are are we ever not able to make room for a student? Is there a waiting list? >> We are, Dr. Amaya and I are learning more about that every day, but I do do believe we are serving all students who want the program. Um, but we want to have more students in. So, uh, so that's our continued work. >> Okay. And then can you define economically disadvantaged? >> Yes. The uh the metric that we use is a common one and that is those students who qualify for free or for reduced lunch. >> I have additional questions but I'll pause make space for somebody else. >> Um this is Carol.
073I'm looking at slide number 15. Uh, I'm I'm just looking at the the graph here. 17% of racially diverse students are accessing KU Blueprint courses. Uh, can you would would it be possible to break that down just a little bit more to define what what groups of people these are and or what I'd also like to see is um a graph of those from Free State and those from Lawrence High. >> We can absolutely follow up with that question. We're taking notes on that. Thank you. Good. >> Uh Dr. Meyer, you had mentioned that there were other programs uh that offer college credit. Uh do you know what are those programs and basically would you have the same type of numbers for those programs? >> Yeah, I think we can get the off the top
074of my head I'm thinking primarily AP. That's a pretty prominent program in our uh buildings that offer college credit. >> It is our I'll just jump in there uh member buyers. It is our intention to get to the place where we bring uh the data on all four of these areas here uh that you see listed on the slide. uh we have not had that data collected um necessarily um and we want to uh so both uh member Kaju Blackwood's question and your question are next steps for us. >> Um see I had another one that I wanted to be sure. >> Oh you talked about uh the AVID pipeline. What stage of development is it in and how long has it existed? >> Um, I can't speak to how long it is has existed
075in our system. I don't know that off the top of my head. I do know that the buildings are in various spots, but they're making tremendous progress and I do know that we have an elective at every grade level 6 through 12. So, um, it is established and it is um, making great strides. [snorts] >> I I have a I want to build on that Avid question. So, not every student is enrolled in AVID. Not every future first generation college student is enrolled in AVID. Certainly, um that has something to do with scheduling. Like you you can't not everybody can fit it into their schedule. So, I appreciate that as a way um as a as a tool we might utilize to increase the number of students that are accessing Jay-Hawk blueprint. But I was
076also wondering about hearing a bit more about the plans of study and how guidance counselors might be building on just targeting students specifically if you're I'm I'm a first generation college graduate. My mother is the best mom ever would have not been able to track all of this. So, I'm wondering how are we providing education to families for whom this is just not something that they're accessing through um our extraordinarily successful AVID program. >> Very good. Thank you for that question. There are limitations to students, every student being able to take an AVID class uh particularly at high school. What I have seen as I'm out at our high schools is that approach of having every teacher um implement AVID strategies and that AVID mindset. That is a developmental thing. I'm not going to pretend
077that it's 100%. But our goal is for students to experience that AVID mindset no matter if they're in the class or not. Uh what we do see um that are encouraging signs are the uh FAFSA nights and the activities and events where counselors are saying you come with me. I want to show you this and trying to get students in the door who might not otherwise have that opportunity. So that is the focus and we feel like this transition that's coming and it's a class of 2028. So it's already our sophomores who are the first but that requirement of postsecary assets uh which is a Kansas requirement. Um, but it's going to cause every student to have to make a shift somewhat in thinking what kind of assets would be useful to me after high
078school and to get that experience ahead of graduation. So, um I love your question and it's one we could spend a long time on, but I do see encouraging and promising practice uh from among our high school counselors and our high school teachers uh to make sure that students are getting the message. And is there a way and utilizing some of the new communication staff we have, but also the new communication tools we have to just plain out say to parents, nothing complicated, nothing fancy. Do you know that your kid can go to college for free if you are on >> if you meet these qualifications while they're at LHS or while they're at because I think it has to be that that simple. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yes. I love it. Thank you.
079>> Shannon, do you have anything? No, I don't have any questions. I think really my colleagues have covered the ground I would have asked questions about, but I do want to say a word of appreciation to the university and to our staff for making this happen. I served on the board for several years before we had these opportunities available to students and it was a gap in what we were providing for our um for our students and our families. So um I am really pleased that uh this program has started has persisted that we are expanding it um that it is gaining traction. The data that uh you've shared about increases in our participation among students um tracks with some of the data that uh was recently shared statewide about student um uh concurrent enrollment,
080dual enrollment um post-secary credits. Um I would I expect that when we look at our AP data, we're going to see something similar because that also um statewide as a trajectory stu more students are taking those exams, more students are scoring three or above on those exams. Um so I'm excited to see that um to see that information. Um I guess there is one question I have or just one thing um for future followup. I'm really interested in learning more about how um what what our plans are for pushing that uh individualized plan of study process down into sixth grade. I think that's an area where we have a lot of opportunity for growth. >> Um so I'm uh looking forward to learning more about that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. you had
081uh talked about through the percentage of participation um I think it's for um for of for majority students around 30% and I think uh the other group is around and that disparity there my question is do you know the percentage of the population of that group in in the total population because that better tells to me would tell us better who are not mi who are missing uh I get there is a disparity in that number but the number is only important if if the total population of that group is a lot higher Does that make sense? As >> Yeah, I completely understand what you're saying and and so just for this particular program, we we just we went with a slice of this is blueprint. This is the what we're seeing in blueprint itself.
082But I do understand that the total context of this conversation matters in relation to all college programming in our districts, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, but the but the percent there is the end size of that group is all 11th and 12th graders in the district, >> right? Mhm. >> Uh but my question is if we're if we're comparing groups uh then to me it becomes more important to know that what percentage in the total population is that group group because if it's a lower number then your percentage is higher or lower and it I think it gives us a better idea of what's happening. >> Okay. In my opinion, >> we'll follow up to make sure we understand that have the right data question and work on that. >> I think what he's
083asking is so 30% of white students are accessing so 30% of white students are accessing blueprint. So of 11th and 12th graders, 30% of white students. So but of 11th and 12th graders, what is the percentage of 11th and 12th graders that are white? So, how does that percentage compare to the 30%. >> I don't know that exact number. I do know >> I think I think that's what he's asking. >> Yes, that makes sense. >> Looking for the insize of the 30%. No, >> no, he's so he's so 30% are taking blueprint. He wants to know of the total 11th and 12th graders, what is the percentage that is white? So we can we can compare those two because in to his point if if there are more white students you would mathematically expect
084that percentage to be higher because there are just simply more of them. Yeah. >> And and and so the the the 17% and the 30% there is a disparity and there is a gap there to address but we don't know how big of a gap because we don't know what the percentage of the total population is to know how how they compare to each other. >> Yeah, I think those are all fair statements. I do think at any one point when we pull this type of data as an avid district, what this does tell us is the intentionality in which we're enrolling kids in these types of programs. So, we would expect at any one point when we dipstick this data that these percentage are are are pretty close that they're uh if we're doing
085that with intentionality, if we're paying attention to this to the demographics of the students that were enrolling in co in uh college courses. And so, um yes, I understand what you're saying and that does make sense to me, but I think in just the context of this presentation, we would expect that these two bars are a little bit closer if we're doing that with intentionality. So we will make a note uh that's our third one and follow up with that. Yeah. Thank you. >> Um the only thing that I would add as a as a fourth note when when you come back um and you look at those those four items the that the AP college and career blueprint and then other um dual enrollment opportunities. I would I would love to see as you
086start to run those numbers of of how enrollment in those opportunities over time overlay um postsecondary success. Um I realize that's that's a lot of work to to to overlay all that data together, but um I would I would love to see how that how that how that how that plays. And I'm I'm just owning making the note and owning that I don't think we're perfect as a system at knowing our postsecondary success numbers and that is a very big need. >> Um thank you. >> Does KU know how many of the students from Jay-Hawk blueprint enroll in KU? >> We do. Okay. Um so approximately 40% of Jay-Hawk blueprint students metriculate to KU. Okay. >> Um we can also get and see how those students that metriculate at KU how they're performing academically and
087compared to other students. So we can do that piece. >> That's great. >> Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thanks. >> Anybody else? >> I have a question about the dual enrollment students. Um so I was actually looking at something related to this presentation today. Um and um not really realizing that dual enrollment is like the kids who are doing that outside of they are going to a college class with a college professor versus concurrent enrollment which is what we do in the blueprint. Um but how do we how do we get data about those kids? Where does that come from? It's really hard and we don't have a system for that. >> So we have students that are doing that but we maybe don't um aren't capturing that because it's not >> Yes. >> Uh okay.
088>> Yes. And anecdotally we hear about different students who are taking uh college courses out there in the world. Um but we don't have a perfect system for collecting that just like the postsecary success. So that would be another great piece to >> We have students that are doing that that are not necessarily applying for high school credit. >> Yes. Dual. Yes. That and that's the nature of duel is it's kind of secondary. It's out there. Yeah. >> Sometimes they'll like >> your high school counselors probably have a lot of that information >> because students will work through their current schedule and and and schedule around. on so they have time to do those classes. Sometimes they'll do them just completely outside. >> Okay. >> Whether it's whether it's they're they're taking a Johnson County
089class or they're they're doing it um for example through BYU Idaho has online online virtual college classes that are threehour credits that you can take. Okay, >> that's helpful. Thank you. Anything else? Right. All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. We will move on to public comment. We read our public comment statement earlier, so we do not need to read it again. So, we will start with Carrie Schmidt. Okay, we'll move on to Michael. Okay, we'll go to Justin. >> Can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Okay. So earlier here in this meeting, uh Gordon and some of the other board members, you all talked about the uh city commission election and also some of the the the candidates that ran for city commission as well. And so h
090how does that gerine to your guys' business as a school district? talking about the uh city commission and the election of that seems to fall outside of any kind of control you guys have over that. And so by doing that, you're making this a designated public forum, not a not a limited public forum. You can say till you're blue in the face that this is a limited public forum, but when you open it up to talk about anything and everything like you did right there and matters that don't pertain to you guys as a school district, then you've made it a designated public forum. And so I I for one am happy that uh Bart Little John got voted out of the city commission um cuz he was a he was a terrible mayor when
091when he was mayor. he sat on the uh the library uh board of directors and voted for the uh free speech activities policy that's in place there. And then he also uh well he violated my rights numerous times during the meetings and he also uh >> just Justin I would ask you to keep your comments to be gerine. >> Well that that was my question. you guys all you got to talk about the city commissioner so you now open up the door for for us as well. I mean why do you guys get to to waste everybody's time talking about that but you're going to demand that I what can't do that as well and so he uh he removed a speaker during a a meeting and then had the police issue unbaffled. What what
092did I >> All right. Any announcements? We're good. >> Okay. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> I move we adjourn. >> All those in favor? >> I need a second. I'll >> I'll second it. >> Thank you. [laughter] All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? All right. Thank you.